Chapter 946: Great Development

He Lingchuan accepted it without hesitation, just as a hard-earned fee for himself.

Busy from dawn to dusk, He Lingchuan returned to Blade Harbor with Zhu Xiuer, Dong Rui, and others.

It was another evening breeze, and He Lingchuan sat at the bow, feeling refreshed.

The troubles were all solved one by one, and his first territory, the chicken rib in the eyes of the Lu family, was about to become a sweet pastry and could soon be put into hot construction.

He could start recruiting troops and buying horses, accumulating strength, and the future was promising.

The mirror in his bosom asked him: "There are three pirate leaders in Yangshan; why did you recruit Min Tianxi and Huang Zhao, but didn't even give Yue Pinghe a chance to negotiate? Don't say it's because his character is bad; I don't think it's that simple."

Huang and Min were not around, so He Lingchuan half-closed his eyes: "Congratulations, you guessed it right."

The mirror was a bit smug, and immediately asked: "You killed him so decisively, why?"

Yue Pinghe was willing to offer life-buying money; thirty or fifty thousand taels of silver was thirty or fifty million current big money, and many people couldn't earn so much in a lifetime! He Lingchuan bought the Yangshan Archipelago from the Lu family, but it only cost 80,000.

However, this huge sum of money did not move He Lingchuan.

The mirror knew that the tone of its master was fundamentally not that money was like dung. So, how exactly did that Yue fellow offend him?

He Lingchuan put his feet on the low stool and changed to a more comfortable sitting posture:

"Facing this group of pirates, killing is the only way to establish prestige."

You have to sing whatever song you are on.

He used too many methods without bloodshed, and others would mistakenly think he was soft-hearted. "Look, didn't Yue Pinghe always think that I would negotiate with him and allow him to bargain with me."

"Of the three pirate leaders, none are good people, and Yue Pinghe happens to be the one with the worst character; if I don't kill him, who do I kill?" He Lingchuan laughed lightly. "So, who says character and credit are not important?"

When the right of choice is in the hands of others, those with too poor credit and character are easily "eliminated" at the critical moment of survival of the fittest.

"Besides, I don't need three pirate leaders under my command, and the Yangshan Archipelago needs more labor."

There were more than a hundred Third Island pirates captured.

They couldn't enter He Lingchuan's guard yet, but would be sent to the islands to mine, reclaim land, or extract palm oil.

As prisoners, their status was below that of hired workers and residents, and they were the labor force most needed by the Yangshan Archipelago at present. But He Lingchuan didn't forget to give them hope: after half a year of forced labor, they could choose to leave or join paid production.

In this way, the supervisors watching the prisoners would also be kinder and wouldn't really treat them as cattle and horses.

￥￥￥￥￥

Two days later, He Lingchuan took his confidants and sailed to the depths of the Yangshan Archipelago again.

The time agreed with the Yin Serpent King had arrived. From today on, he would extract the baleful energy of the whole archipelago and turn this place into a place suitable for human habitation.

From the previous conversation with the Yin Serpent King, it was known that the Yangshan Archipelago had a total of seven Earthly Yin Qi outlets, distributed on five islands. Among them, the main island, Mount Qilin, occupied three alone.

Every rainy day and night, the baleful energy scattered and drifted, turning the depths of the archipelago into a no-man's land.

That is to say, as long as He Lingchuan controlled the concentration of Earthly Yin Qi in these seven places, he could control the livability of the entire archipelago.

He had an agreement with the Yin Serpent clan, and the southwest end of Mount Qilin had been allocated to them for habitation, so there was no need to worry about the Earthly Yin Pulse outlet of the White Abyss sinkhole; the actual Earthly Yin Pulse outlets to be controlled were only six.

He Lingchuan's strategy was to place the Punishment Dragon Pillar in the depths of these six earth cracks, so that the Earthly Yin Qi would be sucked away as soon as it emerged, without a chance to spread to the surface.

The eruption volume of the Earthly Yin Qi in the six earth cracks was large and small, but in general, each eruption could inject half a percent of the capacity of the Punishment Dragon Pillar.

Combined with the frequency of the Earthly Yin Qi eruption, it took an average of more than four months to fill a Punishment Dragon Pillar. If He Lingchuan threw two Punishment Dragon Pillars into one earth crack, they could last for more than half a year.

He had made dozens of them at once.

After the Punishment Dragon Pillar was full, just throw it to the Divine Bone Necklace. It would empty the Earthly Yin Qi inside and return the Punishment Dragon Pillar to He Lingchuan.

So theoretically, of the forty-two islands in the Yangshan Archipelago, at most thirty-eight and a half could be safe and free of baleful energy.

Of course, the secret of the Punishment Dragon Pillar was only known to He Lingchuan's confidants, that is, Zhu Xiuer, Dong Rui, and more than a dozen Rongshan disciples.

Everyone took the Punishment Dragon Pillar and acted separately.

In less than two days, the baleful energy of fourteen islands from the center to the north and northeast of the Yangshan Archipelago was cleared, and they could be opened to all living beings.

This was also intentionally designed by He Lingchuan.

The fourteen islands on the periphery were close to the normal shipping route, forming a ring line by themselves. Apart from this, more than twenty other islands were still immersed in Earthly Yin Qi.

There were three reasons for this:

First, the Yangshan Archipelago was overly vast, and He Lingchuan admitted that with his current financial and material resources, he had no ability to take care of everything.

If the step is too big, it is easy to pull that, right?

Secondly, there were not many islands that were truly vast, fertile, and suitable for farming; others were only suitable for gathering, or had mines, or were too small and scattered, making them difficult to use.

In short, he had to concentrate his strength to do things.

Finally, the outer seas south of the Yangshan waters not only had frequent storms and waves, but also sea monsters, some of which were particularly fond of attacking ships and eating people. Originally, the archipelago was shrouded in Earthly Yin Qi, and they were deeply afraid of it, so they didn't dare to approach. Once the baleful energy disappeared, who knew what big guys would swim into the archipelago waters?

With the stumbling blocks like baleful energy, pirates, and Yin Serpents solved one by one, the great development of the Yangshan Archipelago began impatiently.

He Lingchuan asked Ding Zuodong: "What do we lack most now?"

Ding Zuodong didn't think: "People!"

"Reclaiming land and farming needs people, extracting palm oil needs people, building houses and warehouses needs people, logging and mining needs people." He said seriously, "Casting weapons and building ships also need people, but these two can be delayed."

"Recruiting troops and buying horses is imperative, but it is not the top priority; as for shipbuilding..." He Lingchuan pressed his forehead. "If there is not enough manpower, we can only rent ships from Blade Harbor first."

The three pirate groups were all incorporated by him, and dozens of pirate ships belonged to him, but it was far from enough.

Now the Yangshan Archipelago was developing more than a dozen islands, and the movement of materials and personnel all relied on ships; there was no second means of transportation.

"Lei Ni has urged several times, the palm fruit on the island is ripening in large quantities, but the extraction tools, labor, warehouses, and ships have not kept up." Ding Zuodong pointed out the severe situation. "If we miss this autumn harvest, the next palm oil harvest will have to wait until next spring and summer."

That was all white silver; it was a pity not to pick it.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 947 =====