Chapter 2193

"Wow, what kind of price would that require?"

"Just watch." He Lingchuan sighed, "This war won't end easily."

Du Shan's eyebrows danced with delight upon receiving these two pieces of news, not only because he had seen through You Huan's calculations:

"Your Majesty, what a great opportunity! Since the war won't end in the short term, Mu State's military budget must be astronomically huge. I think other affairs on the Flash Gold Plains can be put on hold for now, prioritizing overtime mining of special minerals with increased manpower—spirit herbs, pills, chewing tobacco, armor, and fire oil can all have production ramped up. With such a voracious neighbor, are we still worried about our goods piling up unsold?"

Having raw materials, having manpower, and most importantly, having orders!

And there are customers who don't dare to haggle much.

If they don't make money, who can?

As for grain and food, never mind—they're bulky, low unit price, high transport loss, so profits are low. Besides, Mu State itself is a major grain producer.

With Mei Wuniang's inside information, Cangyan must prioritize producing military supplies.

With those two countries fighting until their heads are bloody and broken, Cangyan just needs to elegantly hand over knives and guns from the sidelines.

"By the way, the public and private orders Mu State has sent over are so numerous we can't possibly keep up. Right now, Flash Gold's western urban and rural areas still have many idle people—best to put them all to use! The land reclamation there can be postponed; first assign them to public fields. With abundant heavenly and earthly spirit qi, the medicinal herbs for wound salves and the cotton-hemp for armor will mature two months early, and manpower is what's most lacking."

"Two." He Lingchuan held up two fingers, "We have two voracious neighbors—how could we possibly miss Ya State?"

Mu State, such a vast nation, has even run short of weapons—let alone Ya State?

How could Ya State's reserves compare to Mu State's abundance?

Du Shan tapped his own head: "Yes, how could I forget it! Ya State's Ge Ya tribe came to us to buy heart-protection mirrors, shields, and hemostatic bandages, but they had no money or furs, so they took out all the treasures from their family treasury over the years to pay, and I see seven or eight of them are weapons of famous ancient generals."

Ah, this kind of war profiteering—making it feels the best.

Cangyan has been vigorously developing people's livelihood these past one or two years, finances barely managed to gather some money, then immediately handed it out again as subsidies, issuing "State Funds Guides"—that is, IOUs—to the rich, which keep increasing with the war, really a bit of income not covering expenditure.

According to his knowledge, Cangyan's IOUs have also been bought by merchants from Mu State and Bekajia.

Mu State and Ya State really are a pair of good neighbors—they know Cangyan is short on money, so they come to give money.

"You know what to do now." He Lingchuan casually pulled out a sheet of paper, preparing to write a letter, "Go ahead."

This letter he wrote to Mei Wuniang in Mu Du, so everything was in code.

Mei Wuniang this time obtained a major secret, very helpful for Cangyan's subsequent policy adjustments and planning. But He Lingchuan warned her in the letter not to discuss politics with You Huan again, even if the other party brings it up first.

Once You Huan becomes suspicious, Mei Wuniang will not only be unable to gain his trust again, but she herself will also be unsafe.

Her subsequent tasks are only two: one is to monitor You Huan's daily routine, habits, and trifles, paying attention to this new Grand Tutor's behavioral traits and who he associates with; the other is to collect information, both open and secret, from other officials and nobles in Mu Du, as well as market gossip.

As long as the intelligence is sent over, naturally someone will analyze and organize it.

This letter was tucked among a large stack of reports, transported with the goods through Yangshan Islands, then delivered to Mei Wuniang's hands.

After Mei Wuniang received it, she read it carefully twice, thought it over well, then burned the letter paper.

Thereafter, whenever You Huan casually asked her about politics, she would either pretend not to know or deliberately give wrong answers.

Mei Wuniang's method—when she acts coquettishly, she can casually bluff her way through.

After three or four times like this, You Huan indeed no longer brought it up, instead becoming even more intimate with her.

￥￥￥￥￥

The sky was blue and clear.

Xin Yi walked through streets and alleys, not yet reaching He Lingchuan's residence, when he first heard the melodious flute sound.

Outside the Tiger Wing General's gate stood a paulownia tree, now already three or four stories high; Xin Yi slightly raised his head, seeing sunlight kiss the golden leaves, filtering down as thousands of threads.

Though the flute sound was light and agile, it actually carried a vast and mighty aura; just then a breeze came, and the paulownia rustled. Xin Yi listened to the flute, always feeling as if a phoenix rode the wind on the paulownia tree, wanting to soar straight up to ninety thousand li.

Upright and soaring, calm and unhurried.

Xin Yi unconsciously stopped, listening for half a cup of tea.

When the piece ended, two small silver sparrows flew off the tree, and from inside the gate came He Lingchuan's voice:

"Mr. Xin, please come in."

Xin Yi happily pushed the door open, first looked left and right, then went to see He Lingchuan's flute: "Wow, Tiger Wing General actually has this skill."

This flute also has some uniqueness, like a bone flute.

"Just rough music theory."

"Who did you study under, Master?" Savoring this flute sound, it has the ambition to soar to the clouds, the vigor of a tiger descending the mountain—indeed fitting the Tiger Wing General's identity.

He Lingchuan pointed to the neighboring house.

"Ah, of course it's Master Sun." Xin Yi then laughed, "Isn't she at home?"

"Some special plants have appeared on the Chi Pa Plateau; she took people to collect specimens." The reason for saying "capture" rather than "gather" is because—"According to eyewitness descriptions, there might be a lingzhi horse."

"Oh, great news!" Xin Yi clapped his hands, "Lingzhi horses running all over the ground, rare flowers and strange grasses abound. The appearance of lingzhi horses is a good omen, indicating abundant spirit qi and excellent soil—after that, other rare flowers and strange grasses will surely appear."

That's why the Shu Min Academy places great importance on it, with Sun Fuling personally leading the team to investigate. The lingzhi horse is a signature event; if the local area truly shows a lingzhi horse's shadow, it means the spirit qi concentration on the Chi Pa Plateau has risen to a new level, allowing us to begin trying to cultivate more spirit herbs.

In the courtyard stood a square table, with several jars on the ground and several clay pots on the table.

He Lingchuan rarely takes a three-day holiday, and Master Sun also has to go out on official business, so he and Xin Yi arranged a drinking gathering at home.

Xin Yi casually placed the oil paper bundle on the table, hadn't even untied the grass rope when He Lingchuan already smelled a strong ginger aroma.

"So fragrant, so fragrant—could this not be from the newly opened shop on South Great Street?" He smashed the mud seal on the wine jar, but even the finest wine pales before this fragrance.

"Your nose is sharp." Xin Yi laughed as he opened the oil paper bundle, and sure enough, inside was wrapped a whole large fat duck, golden-brown fat fragrance, oil shining brightly.

"Shu Gan's ginger mother duck is most famous now; this shop makes and sells fresh, with a whole row of twelve shallow-bottomed clay pots at the door all working simultaneously. Just like that, I still queued for half an hour before buying it!" He drew out a small silver knife, swiftly chopping the duck into pieces.

"Master Sun had long wanted to try it, alas she had no blessing." This ginger mother duck's aroma is incomparably domineering, truly fragrant for ten li, no one can sneak a bite of this delicacy.

Almost no other duck cooking method's aroma can match this domineering fragrance.

He Lingchuan picked up a piece to taste—fatty fragrance, roasted fragrance, ginger fragrance, instantly exploding in the mouth.