The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Chapter 393 A Resounding Name

Windbreaks don't grow in a year.

In early autumn this year, the four garrisons near the desert, including Guazhouwei and Hamiwei, planted tens of millions of fruit tree seedlings. In the following spring, they sowed alfalfa seeds and doggrass seeds in the surviving fruit tree groves.

The arrival of a rare spring rain has brought visibly green to the edges of these gloomy deserts.

When General Xiong and his entourage inspected the growth of the pasture and the survival rate of the saplings after winter, they were extremely satisfied with the results they saw.

He asked the local natives of Hamiwei, "Does the old yellow wind blow in early spring in previous years?"

The native nodded:

"Old Huangfeng loves to come in spring and winter, and there is no specific pattern to when it comes. Three years ago, a strong wind came before the first month of the lunar calendar, and the sandstorm was mixed with snowflakes, burying countless livestock. The year before last, spring was almost over before it came. The winter sandstorm came earlier than usual."

Who understands the whims of God?

Anyway, the few typhoons last winter weren't too severe.

Seeing that the fruit tree seedlings have all sprouted green leaves, everyone hopes that the old yellow wind will come later this spring.

We always give these fruit trees a longer growing season.

Perhaps it was the powerful collective will of hundreds of thousands of people that made this spring and summer in Kansai particularly blessed with favorable weather.

Specifically, the high-yield wheat seeds obtained from Ganluchuan were planted last autumn, and by early summer, the Guanxi Nine Guards collective had achieved a bumper harvest.

Although it couldn't compare to the incredible yield of six shi per mu in Ganluchuan, the wasteland in the first year still yielded an average of three shi per mu.

Everyone wished they could worship General Gan.

If such yields can be achieved on barren land in the first year, what about cultivated land?

If there's a chance, we can even try to achieve a yield of six shi per mu.

The winter wheat harvest thoroughly spread the reputation of Ganluchuan's high-yield and high-quality varieties throughout the Hexi Corridor, and even reached Huaiqing Prefecture and the border town.

Of course, Gan Luchuan's calling card is far more than just wheat seeds.

First of all, Ganluchuan is most famous for its urban development.

A winding inner city moat, about ten meters wide and four meters deep, connects to an underground culvert of the outer moat.

Water is alive and flowing.

To make life more convenient for the city's residents, a shallow irrigation ditch, three feet wide and two feet deep, was even built in the backyard of each household.

It couldn't be more convenient to fetch water to wash and irrigate the vegetables in the backyard!

There's no need for drinking water, we have a well!

The scene at the courtyard gate was quite different.

Every few meters apart, there is a fruit tree that is more than three years old. Some are jujube trees, some are apple trees, and there are even pomegranate trees.

The main feature is that the trees will bear fruit in the same year they are planted.

The rule in the city was that the fruit trees in front of a house belonged to that house.

Unlike the ordinary houses in Kansai, this place features large courtyard houses with blue bricks and gray tiles.

Spacious and bright, with a fire wall and fireplace.

The whole house stays warm and cozy without needing to be grilled.

Many people in Northwest China have never seen such a mansion in their entire lives!
On the day of the move.

Not to mention how much the children loved their new home, even the grown men were so excited they cried for a long time.

Besides the tranquility of the residential area and the bustle of the commercial area, the earliest schools and clinics that were established there also had impressive reputations.

The generals and centurions of the Nine Guards of Kansai were all trying to curry favor with General Gan.

They have only one request: to send their elderly relatives and children to settle in Ganluchuan New City.

A medical clinic run by a family of imperial physicians in the capital city would try every means to send any son who was filial and promising to the clinic for treatment.

The school in Ganluchuan is also the best.

It's not that the scholars and officials from our own garrison are incompetent at teaching, but rather that what they learn in this school is different!
The skills taught in girls' schools, in particular, are incredibly useful.

Gan Minglan truly couldn't refuse these requests from her colleagues, and she did her best to arrange them all. As a result, the second and third courtyards that her own garrison commanders had left over were completely snapped up in less than half a month after the move.

Courtyards on the main street and side streets were so expensive that even an offer of five thousand taels of silver couldn't buy them.

There is another reason why everyone flocked to Ganluchuan.

That is the medicinal wine for beauty and fertility enhancement prepared by Huang Yuyi, a renowned gynecologist. After more than half a year of market fermentation, its reputation has exploded.

Women with considerable wealth are all loved by him.

Not only does it have amazing beauty benefits, but what's even more surprising is that drinking one or two ounces every night for six months increases the chances of getting pregnant to 50%!

Don't underestimate this 50%.

For women over thirty, it was nothing short of a miracle.

Ordinary medicinal wine is sold in the wineries of Ganluchuan, and the price at the winery is thirty taels of silver per catty.

Drinking it for half a year will cost approximately 540 taels.

The money spent brought these ladies abundant energy, a radiant and rosy complexion, and perhaps even a child.

Tell me, who would complain about the price?
Merchants who had gathered in Guazhouwei and Hamiwei also flocked to Ganluchuan to purchase goods.

Don't be fooled by the fierce fighting inside the pass.

From Guanzhong to the Hexi Corridor, and then to Huaiqing Prefecture and the border town, the trade was booming.

Especially those related to food and drink sell the best!

When these merchants arrived at Ganluchuan, they saw that the city was full of small bridges, flowing water, and lush green trees, and they all wished they could live in the city.

However, in Ganluchuan New City, which took a year and a half to build, it was extremely difficult for them to rent even a single shop in the main street and side streets where buying and selling was permitted, despite using every possible means.

The military dependents here don't look down on merchants; they even run their own shops and do business.

They sell all kinds of things.

These are all local specialties of Ganluchuan.

For example, the most luxurious item in Ganluchuan—Yunjin—is naturally formed, and a finished product costs no less than five thousand taels of silver per bolt.

However, the annual production does not exceed one hundred horses.

There is also cotton cloth from Ganluchuan.

Because of the continuous spinning machine designed by Zuo Wenkang, the efficiency of cotton spinning was greatly improved.

Whether light and soft or strong and durable, and with an exceptionally rich variety of colors, the cotton fabric, priced at only 100 coins per bolt, almost monopolized the fabric market in the Kansai region as soon as it was launched.

Of course, the Ganluchuan livestock market is also very popular.

We purchase year-round, in large quantities at high prices.

The herders who used to graze their livestock near Ganluchuan are used to coming to Ganluchuan to sell their cattle and sheep.

The livestock market was located on the grassland outside the city.

What these herders didn't know was that Gan Minglan had bought more than half of their cattle and sheep.

Apart from those left for the garrison, the rest were gradually sent to the western foothills pasture.

Ganweixian, a mutton soup restaurant renowned throughout Northwest China for its delicious mutton soup, launched braised beef and beef offal soup last winter, following its signature mutton soup.

The money they earned was truly enormous.

He is now the richest man in the border town.

The issue of their eldest son's marriage, which had been a major concern for his parents, also saw a breakthrough after the summer harvest this year.

Looking at Gan Mingfu's awkward and embarrassed appearance.

Gan Minglan couldn't believe her ears.

"What did you say? Zhao Ran asked you to find a matchmaker to propose marriage? Does the Prince agree to this marriage? What does the Princess Consort think?"

(End of this chapter)