Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 98 It turns out to be him!

A month had passed since the last grain theft, and nothing had happened during this month. After all, this matter was too small, and it was such a small matter that caused Prime Minister Gao to fall into trouble. It was really embarrassing, so everyone naturally tacitly agreed not to mention it.

But not mentioning it doesn't mean that no one is thinking about it. Ye Liangchen, the magistrate of Dantu County, Runzhou, Gyeonggi Province, has been thinking about it these days. He felt it was strange when he first heard about it. It didn't make sense that a high-ranking official and the prime minister of that dynasty would fight to the death over a few warehouses of rice.

This was an unusual situation and there must be something wrong, so he sent people to inquire about the news. He then learned that the entire Jiangnan Road was frantically hoarding food. When he inquired further, he found out that it was the newly established Fuliang County.

There is nothing wrong with this, but the key is who is the magistrate of Fuliang County? Xia Lin, Xia Daosheng.

This person's name seemed to trigger Ye Liangchen's sensitive nerves. Isn't this the world's most talented person, Xia Daosheng, whom he had always wanted to find?

But I didn’t expect that this guy who had been silent all this time was not dead but went to Jiangnan Road to serve as a county magistrate.

But strangely, his name was not included in the new imperial examinations, let alone the Jinshi examinations and the palace examinations. Even the special examinations that were held later did not include his name.

Ye Liangchen thought there must be something fishy going on here, so he sent people to investigate. He found that both the porcelain and the stored grain had traces of Xia Lin. Although he wanted to know more, he would inevitably be exposed if he investigated further, so he was more cautious.

Because he belonged to Gyeonggi Province, which was under the feet of the emperor, he took advantage of his position to come to the capital, spent some money as a pawn, and then went to the Ministry of Personnel to find the files belonging to Xia Lin.

However, the records in this file are not comprehensive, and many places are blank. The only record is that Xia Lin "bought the office" of village chief and then became the county magistrate by abolishing the village and establishing a county.

This made Ye Liangchen very puzzled. Generally speaking, the position of township magistrate ends there. From then on, the position of county magistrate would be filled by the alternate candidate for the imperial examination, while the township magistrate would still be the township magistrate. For example, the Xinping Township was abolished and the county was changed to Fuliang. In fact, Xinping Township still existed, but the jurisdiction of this area was expanded, while the township was still the same township, and the township magistrate should still be the same township magistrate.

But now the original township is still there, but Xia Lin was promoted to county magistrate.

Moreover, based on Ye Liangchen's understanding of Xia Lin, if this person had taken the exam, even if he didn't get the top scorer he would definitely be on the list of successful candidates. Why would he take such an unorthodox path to become an official?
Considering this, Ye Liangchen could basically determine one thing, that is, Xia Lin had a close relationship with the big shots in Jiangnan Road. The first person he thought of was Prince Teng, but that was not right. Prince Teng did not govern government affairs, so the only person who could make him so successful was Guo Minghuai.

And it just so happened that Xia Lin's hometown was Luoyang, and he had some unclear relationship with the Jinshui Guo family...

Hmm...it seems I underestimated this guy before.

Ye Liangchen came to the yard and walked around. As he walked around, a very clear message suddenly popped up in his mind, which was "learning".

He admitted that he was indeed not as good as Xia Lin, but in the officialdom, ability was not that important. What was important was political achievements. And since he was in Gyeonggi Province and had the support of Gao Shilian, didn't he have more advantages than Xia Lin?
Now he didn't know how to start, but Xia Lin's appearance made him more clear-headed. Wasn't he at a loss? Why not learn from him?
He was able to turn a remote small county into something like that. Our place has been a prosperous place since ancient times, and our resources are far richer than his. Isn't it enough to learn from him?
He built a lot of buildings to open up wasteland and cultivate land, and he also built a lot of buildings to open up wasteland and cultivate land. His first pot of gold was porcelain, so he was much richer here than he was there, and as for the means of attracting merchants, Fuliang could not compare with it. After all, he was only separated from the capital by a river.

Then didn't he hoard food? Although Ye Liangchen didn't know why Xia Lin hoarded food, since he did, it would be right for him to do the same.

After realizing this, he immediately stopped wasting his energy and decided to just do it! It's just about building a workshop and attracting investment. If Xia Daosheng can do it, why can't I, Ye Liangchen, do it?
But we can't just copy them completely. For example, the craftsmanship of their porcelain is really amazing, and the best thing is that the clay there is better than here, but it doesn't matter, they regard white as beautiful. The mountains next to here are full of purple clay, which is a very noble color. When the time comes, we will follow suit with whatever shape they produce, and it's nothing more than one white and one purple.

Also, don’t they have some kind of stomach-nourishing black tea? There are plenty of jasmine flowers here, so we can add them to the tea and bake them together. Things are dead, but people are alive. Is it true that tea cannot be grown in the South?

As for storing grain, it is even simpler. Gyeonggi Province has vast plains, and no one is afraid of farming here. Besides, this place is the granary of the world, and the resources are much richer than over there.

But after actually doing it, Ye Liangchen found that following other people's model was much simpler than figuring it out on his own, and the effect was very quick. In just a month, porcelain, bricks, and jasmine tea were all produced. It's just that other people's porcelain is called porcelain, and he was embarrassed to call it that. In addition, the texture, temperature, and color of his own porcelain were different, but they looked equally high-end and beautiful. So after asking Gao Xiang, he found out that he was an old thief after all, and his mind was more insightful than that of young people. He said that changing "purple porcelain" to "purple clay" would make them two different things, which would avoid suspicion and have its own gimmick.

The same is true for bricks. Xia Daosheng's side has red soil, and he burns red bricks, while his side has pond mud, and he burns blue bricks. If you ask which is better, of course blue bricks are better, but the cost is slightly higher, but it's enough, and you can save a lot of money when building a house. And tea is completely different from theirs. The jasmine tea here is fragrant and refreshing, and it is completely different from black tea, and it is also very popular. Now the products of both sides have begun to hedge in Beijing, competing for market share, and they are actually quite evenly matched.

And then Ye Liangchen completely imitated Xia Daosheng's model and started to make up stories for his things. Once an ordinary thing has a story, it will naturally be sought after by more people. In the end, he also gave money to the eunuch Tian En, and then asked Tian En to promote the purple clay here in front of His Majesty.

In fact, this time Tian En really told the emperor all the money he had collected. Although His Majesty liked porcelain more, after hearing that Gao Xiang had a stake in the purple clay, he finally decided to make the purple clay a tribute as well.

As for the ways of the world, the suppression of Gao has been too harsh during this period, and there is even some turmoil in the court. After a group of people were punished, more than 30 people in the court have retired and returned to their hometowns. This is not a good thing. It is obvious that people are concentrating their firepower to put pressure on the emperor.

So give him a red date after being beaten.

But the struggle between these big guys, if a little bit of it leaked out from between their fingernails, would be enough to make the small county well-fed and well-dressed. Ye Liangchen could be described as becoming rich overnight. However, he did not lie down and count money like those other county magistrates whom he looked down upon, but instead concentrated all his efforts on following Xia Lin's footsteps.

Although he didn't know how much Xia Daosheng actually earned, he could estimate it, because he had looked at the tax returns. Judging from the tax situation last year, his side was not as big as his current scale, so Ye Liangchen immediately burst into confidence and gathered a team to start infrastructure construction, enclosing water, cultivating farmland, widening rivers, building houses, planting land, raising pigs, as long as Xia Lin did it, he would do it, and he would do it according to local conditions.

It is said that some people are born protagonists. Ye Liangchen's success is no less than Xia Lin's. In fact, due to the regional advantage, his overall development trend is even better than that of the other side.

The only problem is that the mineral resources in this place seem to be average, and Ye Liangchen is in Gyeonggi Province. It is impossible for him to have the same military power as Xia Lin. Without military power, there is no autonomy over salt and iron. This makes Xiao Ye unable to sleep at night.

In order to solve this problem, he gave the maidservant given to him by the young prince, Narcissus, as a gift to Gao Shilian, hoping that Prime Minister Gao could help him. He did not want much military power, just fifty or one hundred would be enough, because what he wanted was not soldiers but the same salt and iron autonomy as Xia Lin had.

But at this moment, Xia Lin's attention was not on him at all, because Xia Lin was already preparing to set off for the prairie.

"You hate it so much, kid? Are you really going to the grassland?"

As Lao Guo stamped his customs clearance document, he said worriedly, "Tell your father what you are going to do this time."

"Father Guo, let me tell you the truth. This time I am going there mainly to exchange some animals and animal products." Xia Lin scratched his head, not knowing how to explain that he wanted to go there to get animal fats and potash mines. "Anyway, if everything goes well, I will tell you this, I will let your Po Lu army fight against ten thousand with one man."

“Hahahaha…you’re kidding me again.” Old Guo certainly didn’t believe it: “Forget it, you’re not a child anymore. This road is tough and you’d better be careful.”

"Don't worry. It may take me three months to come back. When I come back, I will have to start planning for His Majesty's southern tour." Xia Lin sighed as he sat there. "Father Guo, you have to do me a favor while I'm away."

"Say!"

Xia Lin took out a map from his arms and said, "These are the minerals that I have led people to explore these days. One is phosphate and the other is green vitriol. These two mines are very important. I really don't have time to dig them recently. Dad Guo, can you help me find someone to start mining? A lot, a lot."

"What are these two doing?"

"Hmm... fertilizer. How should I explain it? It's the art of alchemy, but the pills made are not for people to eat, but for crops to eat. After the crops eat them, according to our climate conditions, there will be at least two seasons a year."

Xia Lin didn’t dare to say that he could also make nitrate gunpowder... This information would be too shocking, and Lao Guo would go crazy.

(End of this chapter)