I Can See Your Combat Power

Chapter 497: Chapter Four Hundred and Ninety-Three: The Stone Collector

The main peak of Red Cloud Mountain

Early on the morning of the third day in October, the Xiao family moved all the promised supplies to the Du clan’s lands, and Xiao Zheng handed them over to Sun Jinfang.

The moment she received the spiritual grass, Sun Jinfang began to suppress the epidemic with her disciples. She entrusted the responsibility of distributing grain to the group of scholars who had been tirelessly working for the people. These well-prepared men set up hundreds of soup kitchens around Red Cloud Mountain, ensuring that every civilian could receive food.

After Tang Luo proposed the method of dust band recruitment, Gong Zheng found that even the illiterate members of the Righteous Gang could finally be put to good use. He left a small group of people to guard the mountain and sent a large number of the gang members to collect the refugees wearing cloth bands on their foreheads, greatly increasing the efficiency of the operation.

Upon inheriting the design of the entire Unparalleled City, Ou Yu and his men began to hew the mountain.

Looking at the main peak made entirely of Red Crystal stones, the craftsman had a sudden inspiration. If he retained the outline of the City Lord’s Mansion during the excavation and carefully carved it, perhaps he could create a miraculous piece of architecture.

With this heart-pounding idea, Master Ou moved all the unskilled laborers to the outskirts, while he and his clan members began to quarry the stone from the mountain.

The Ou Family is arguably the most famous craftsman family under the Xiling nobility. It has a full array of craftsmen (blacksmiths, armorers, carpenters, stonemasons, tilers, agricultural workers, other craftsmen, and beastmasters), all of whom have been mobilized by Ou Yu to become stone miners at Red Cloud Mountain. It’s impossible to say that they bore no grudges.

Once highly sought-after craftsmen were reduced to stone miners, and discontent was widespread, despite the example set by the clan leader. Because they used to supervise the heavy physical labor entrusted to laborers or apprentices, but now found themselves carrying stone baskets and burdened with strenuous mining and transportation tasks.

“Leader, we could have left this work to the laborers! Why must we do it ourselves?” a confused young craftsman asked Ou Yu during their lunch break.

Ou Yu looked at this excellent young craftsman in his clan and calmly said, “We stone miners should bear in mind the vision of the holy land. Every microcosm has room to showcase its individuality and craftsmanship within the grand structure of a magnificent project. Maybe our techniques will seem as old-fashioned as the ancient buildings we observe today, but our craftsmanship will always be respected.”

Under the shocked gaze of the young craftsman, Ou Yu swallowed his bread, hoisted the huge stone basket on his back, and climbed towards the summit. His mined crystals were neatly stacked beside them. The young craftsman looked down at these crystal ores. Although they looked similar to what he had mined, upon closer inspection, each crystal stone was polished as finely as a diamond, and the seemingly straight lines consisted of tens of thousands of subtle facets.

If his own mined crystals were used to build the outer wall with Ou Yu’s, the sun would illuminate Ou Yu’s piece with a remarkably dazzling light, while his own…

At that moment, the young craftsman finally understood Ou Yu’s earlier words. His dissatisfaction and resentment vanished. He gulped down his dry food, picked up his stone basket, and rushed towards the silhouette working at the quarry.

Mining stone? No! I am creating a wonder!

There was a glint in the young craftsman’s eyes, and the other Ou Family craftsmen, sitting together, began to eat faster. After all, how could they leave the construction of a wonder to those rough men who lack craftsmanship, right?

Outside Da Lin city, Ye Family grain store

As one of the notable families in Da Lin city, their grain store is probably one of the largest.

It should be called a town rather than a store, for just one grain store of the Da Lin Ye Family is comparable to the scope of the Tang Family in Xiling. The huge storage capacity, the constant traffic of large merchant caravans, and the strong laborers with at least Mortal Realm cultivation, all filled Tang Luo with confidence in the procurement plan.

Even though to this day he cannot understand what Cui Dayou and the skewed-eyed shopkeeper are chatting about, it doesn’t hinder his judgment on the possibility of task completion.

In a commercial giant like Da Lin, there would always be moneylenders. Merchants coming to Da Lin would deposit some gold and silver in exchange for “cash notes,” and the thickness and appearance of the “cash notes” basically represented the purchasing power of a businessman.

Even many powerful shopkeepers will only be willing to start dealing after seeing the “cash note” of the person. In Da Lin, looking at the money, looking at the thickness has become a surefire way to do business.

So, the first thing they did upon entering the city was that Cui Dayou led everyone to exchange the gold bars Tang Luo had produced for a thick gold “cash note”, and had Du Ting hold it.

Merchants cherish power. Even when facing a friend with whom they’ve not been in touch for a long time, they would be cautious about whether their friend’s visit is due to some need, making it difficult to show affection initially.

But when they see old friends in fine clothes with a few attendants crowding around them, and one of them carries a thick golden “cash note,” they look as if they’ve just met close relatives that they’ve been separated from for many years.

Even if Tang Luo didn’t understand a word of Da Lin, he could still feel the strong emotion between the two. As for how much genuine affection there is, only the two of them would know.

In short, Cui Dayou used a combination of tricks, lies, and hype, managing to stumble the shopkeeper and lead them straight to the grain store.

Having toured around the grain store and observed its size, Cui Dayou, with a frown on his face, said to the Ye Shopkeeper, “Brother Ye, the flood in Longjiang is severe this time, causing the death of hundreds of millions of good fields in the West. This is a great opportunity for us to showcase our talents. My master, who occupies the Southwest and dominates the eight directions, wants to make a big profit from this flood, so he has sent me to Da Lin to place an order to buy sixty million bags of grain for the Mi Clan. I thought I could let Ye handle this order alone because of our deep personal relationship, but seeing that there are only ten million bags at most in this warehouse, how am I supposed to hand over the order to you?”

Ye Shopkeeper could discern discontent in Cui Dayou’s tone, but was more filled with anticipation.

An order for sixty million bags was a huge opportunity he had never imagined. If he could secure Cui Dayou’s order, he would become one of the influential chief shopkeepers of the Ye Family, so he could not miss the Mi Clan’s order.

“Brother Cui is keen-eyed, indeed, there are only one hundred thousand tons of new grain in this warehouse, but we have no less than ten such warehouses in the Ye Family. Although we are still short of meeting Brother Cui’s order, please believe that the Ye Family has the ability to fulfill the order! I hope Brother Cui, for the sake of our friendship, will hand this order over to the Ye Family.” Seeing Cui Dayou’s indifferent attitude, Ye Shopkeeper steeled his heart and added, “As long as Brother Cui is willing to give the order to the Ye Family, I will definitely fight for Brother Cui!”

“Oh?” Cui Dayou raised an eyebrow: “How much can Brother Ye fight for me?”

“One silver corner per bag of new grain!” Ye Shopkeeper stated his bottom line, hoping to secure Cui Dayou’s business at once..