Starting as a centurion, he fought his way through the chaos of the world.

Chapter 51 Method
"My points have increased to 450,000, which is great. It should be enough for this winter."

Lu Ming smiled faintly and muttered to himself.

After turning a corner, we arrived at a leather shop.

The storefront is quite large, making it the largest in the entire Fenglei County. It not only buys all kinds of leather but also processes them into exquisite decorations.

When Lu Ming arrived.

Outside the shop, the shopkeeper, who had just received a cartload of hides, was first surprised, then put on a smiling face and said, "Greetings, sir. May I ask what brings you to my humble shop?"

Lu Ming is now a figure of great prestige.

The busiest place in the entire Fenglei County, a third of the shops belong to the other party.

Even his shop was rented from the general's mansion.

He also held military power, and the killings made it so that no one in the nearby villages dared to approach him.

It inspired great awe in the city's residents.

It's fair to say that the people of Fenglei County trust Lu Ming more than the imperial court.

"It's nothing. How long would it take to make a shawl out of this leather?"

As Lu Ming spoke, he brought the leather over.

The shopkeeper opened it with a smile.

He immediately said, "What a wonderful thing! I'll make it today, since it was sent by you, sir. It will probably take about half a month."

The shopkeeper quickly replied.

If it were anyone else, they would naturally have to wait in line, but since Lu Ming brought it over, we had to start working on it immediately.

"Okay, then just send it to my residence once it's ready."

"Alright, I'll listen to you, sir," the shopkeeper said with a smile.

Lu Ming nodded, and then walked towards his residence.

There are more things to do now.

However, he never neglected his cultivation.

Meanwhile, on the other side, inside the Li residence, Li Ren was happily sipping tea.

Recently, all the family issues have been resolved.

His business was getting better and better, which made him very happy.

Looking down at Zhang Ming, he said, "You've worked hard these past few days. Your uncle has seen your efforts. In a while, I'll discuss with your brother about putting you in charge of another caravan."

Li Ren's words immediately perked Zhang Ming up. "Thank you, Uncle."

Then, as if he had thought of something, he cautiously said, "Uncle, there's something else. Recently, for some reason, people in various places have been secretly buying up large amounts of grain. Do you think we should buy some too?"

"Is the information accurate?" Li Ren asked, putting down his teacup and frowning.

He spent his whole life in business.

Of course I know what this means.

I had a vague sense of unease.

Throughout his life, he encountered similar situations several times. Each time, there was a place where disaster victims were everywhere, and scenes of people exchanging children to eat were commonplace.

Where do these situations occur?

“Throughout the entire Dayu territory, in each prefecture and county, there are forces secretly making moves. Some people even go directly to the homes of ordinary people to buy things, and they offer prices that are 10% higher than the market price.”

After Zhang Ming finished speaking, he took out the purchase order from the grain shops that the caravan was responsible for supplying.

After reviewing this data...

Li Ren was stunned.

After a moment, he came to his senses and said, "Don't we have several large warehouses in our mansion? You don't need to do anything this winter. Apart from maintaining some regular customers, use all the money to buy grain."

Make sure no one else finds out, and fill all the warehouses in the manor to the brim.

If there are any left over, fill in the remaining land at the several estates in the suburbs as well.

Li Ren's words made Zhang Ming gasp.

He knew how big the mansion's warehouses were.

If this were filled to the brim, it would take our family decades to finish eating it all.

If it's for sale, who knows what the market will be like next year?

Isn't doing this too risky?

Originally, he only intended to purchase tens of thousands of taels of grain, hoping to make a small profit, and even if things changed, he wouldn't lose much.

Who would have thought it would cost so much?

"Uncle, if that's the case..."

"Stop nagging. Just do what I tell you to do. If you dare to shirk your responsibilities, you won't be doing anything in the future."

Li Ren's words were serious.

After Zhang Ming left, beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

His face turned pale; what if the world really did descend into chaos one day?

His merchant family, in a way, truly became like a floating duckweed.

A sense of powerlessness tightly bound him, yet he had no way to overcome it.

After pondering for a moment, he stood up, had a carriage prepared, and hurriedly headed towards the residence of the Blood Feather Captain.

At the same time, he was glad that his daughter had married Wang Yue. No matter what, the Blood Feather Captain had troops under his command.

With my own support, protecting the safety of my entire family should not be a problem.

Just as Li Ren was extremely nervous.

Lu Ming resumed his cultivation in his residence. With the blood of the ferocious beast smeared on his body, he could feel the energy emanating from it.

It is transforming every piece of skin.

The exposed skin even had a metallic sheen.

You can even feel an increase in the vitality of your own cells.

When he regained consciousness, he didn't know how much time had passed.

"Boom!"

When the arms struck together with force, it produced a sound like metal clashing.

It gives people a very powerful feeling.

"I should be breaking through to the seventh level of the Golden Bell Shield soon. At that time, my strength will reach about 80,000 to 90,000 jin, and my body will be able to withstand the attacks of the early stage of Bone Forging."

Feel the increase in power within my body.

Lu Ming muttered to himself.

Then, a feeling of hunger came over me.

Touching his almost deflated belly, he stood up and walked outside.

"Squeak!"

When the door opened.

A ray of sunlight shone in, causing him to squint.

"Husband, you're finally out!" Li Xirou's voice rang out in surprise.

Then Lu Ming felt someone hug him.

How long did I spend in seclusion this time?

"It's from yesterday morning to this afternoon," Li Xirou said with some concern.

"That's how it is for martial artists. Some strong ones go into seclusion for days or even months, which is normal. Don't worry. Is there any food at home?" Lu Ming gently comforted his wife.

"Yes, I've reheated it for you so many times," Li Xirou said, wiping away her tears.

Then, the maidservants were instructed to bring the food up.

Lu Ming, who was already starving, immediately went back inside to eat.

The meat tasted especially delicious today.

He felt a little better after finishing the whole bowl of meat.

Then he looked at his wife and asked, "Is everything alright outside?"

"Yes, the new magistrate is leading people to dig canals to divert water, saying it's to combat the drought!"

Lu Ming nodded.

"I'll go check it out in a bit!"

He remembered a drought-fighting marvel: the stream well.

It is used to store water during normal times, and water is brought to the fields by waterwheels during droughts.

In this way, Fenglei County can be guaranteed to have enough water for irrigation.

If more wells were dug in Fenglei County, even in the event of a severe drought, while water would be scarce, the crops would not die from drought.

The Great Yu Dynasty revered martial arts, which led to a severe decline in civil administration. Those in power only cared about their own cultivation and had no regard for the lives of the common people.

The top-down approach has led to agriculture remaining in a relatively primitive state, far inferior to that of ancient times.

The most abundant items were martial arts manuals; as for other classic texts, they were few and far between.

When disasters strike, chaos ensues, followed by large-scale military suppression; the problem has never been fundamentally solved.

After eating several more steamed buns, Lu Ming walked outside.

Meanwhile, outside Fenglei County, Bai Yan's eyes revealed worry.

He originally planned to bring the mountain spring water into Fenglei County, and this method was indeed feasible, as the mountain had not yet completely frozen over.

In recent days, he has mobilized a lot of people and achieved great results.

However, he discovered that while the water was brought down, water storage became a problem. There were fields on both sides, and he couldn't just put all the water into the fields. Therefore, he could only watch helplessly as the stream flowed away.

He knew in his heart that this water might be able to save lives next year.

He has been flipping through many ancient books these past two days, but still has found nothing. The only solution he has is to build a reservoir.

But if this happens, who knows how much farmland will be destroyed.

“Sir, Fenglei County is suffering from a severe drought, and it’s not just your problem. Why don’t you talk to that captain? If there really is no food left here and the people starve to death, he won’t be able to have an easy time as captain.”

The attendant said cautiously.

Seeing that Bai Yan hasn't been eating or sleeping well these days, I'm really worried.

"What can he do? If I can't think of a suitable solution, then I'm afraid no one in the world can." Bai Yan sighed. Even though he was a genius, without the experience accumulated by his predecessors, it was very difficult for him to come up with a solution immediately.

Then, he went down into the ditch himself, dug up a piece of mud, and examined it.

Ignoring the tiny ice crystals in the river, I moved them across my palm.

He stared at the canal water, lost in thought.

However, just then, a series of sounds came from afar.

"The general is here!"

"Greetings, General!" came one voice after another.

Bai Yan looked up and saw Lu Ming walking towards him, waving to the surrounding people from time to time.

(End of this chapter)