[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-marrying-a-white-snake-wife-is-super-cool":3,"chapter-marrying-a-white-snake-wife-is-super-cool-marrying-a-white-snake-wife-is-super-cool-chapter-190":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Marrying a White Snake Wife is Super Cool",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":20,"prevChapterSlug":21,"totalChapters":22,"novelImage":23},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":16,"volume":17,"translator":18,"content_hash":19},540315,791,"Chapter 190 - 122: How Can They Be Called Refugees If They Have Homes!","marrying-a-white-snake-wife-is-super-cool-chapter-190",190,"\u003Cp>\"Just showing up is enough. You didn’t have to bring anything!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>「At noon.」\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the back room of the Government Office.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Yuan and Gu Gaoxu were sitting and talking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Meanwhile, the three women from his household were holding hands, curiously exploring the Government Office.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Speaking of which, the three women had been to just about everywhere in Taiping City, with the exception of the brothels.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Government Office was the one novel sight they hadn’t seen yet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now they could look around as much as they wanted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"That fast?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Yuan looked at Gu Gaoxu with surprise, his legs crossed and a cigarette dangling from his mouth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’The factory in Yandu is already built?’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’That’s way too fast. It hasn’t even been two months, back and forth.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Yuan had figured the factory in Yandu would take at least half a year, maybe four or five months.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But he never expected it to be finished already.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gu Gaoxu, however, raised an eyebrow smugly and said:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Of course! You should see how many people we got to work on it!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Yuan was taken aback for a moment, then raised an eyebrow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"How many?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gu Gaoxu announced:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"A full eleven thousand!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing Gu Gaoxu’s words, Lu Yuan was bewildered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Huh?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’Where did he get so many people?’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’Don’t tell me this kid even pulled soldiers from the barracks?’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing Lu Yuan’s expression, Gu Gaoxu thought he was worried about having too many people, which would mean paying out a lot in wages.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gu Gaoxu immediately rushed to explain:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Don’t you worry. All eleven thousand of them are refugees.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Once we get them into the factory, we won’t need to pay them wages. Just providing meals every day will be enough.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’Refugees?’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Yuan paused, then understood what he meant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although Lu Yuan had never been to Yandu, he knew the general situation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He could guess what was going on.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’No need to pay them?’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’Just providing daily meals is enough?’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As Lu Yuan was pondering this, Gu Gaoxu watched him and blinked repeatedly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’What?’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’Is just providing meals not good enough either?’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gu Gaoxu thought about it. ’Maybe he has a point.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had never run a household before, so he never knew the cost of living.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But after managing things for over a month, he realized that the cost of feeding over ten thousand people every day was like opening the floodgates of a reservoir—the money just poured out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gu Gaoxu considered this for a moment, then said:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Is it still too many?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"How about we kick some of them out?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"We could keep eight thousand, or... six...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before Gu Gaoxu could finish, Lu Yuan cut him off with a raised eyebrow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Kick them out?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Kick them out, my ass!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"We don’t have enough! How many refugees are there in Yandu in total right now?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gu Gaoxu blinked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Huh?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Coming to his senses, Gu Gaoxu mused aloud:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The refugees are hard to count. Anyway, we’ve got a little over eleven thousand.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"As for the rest, there might be another eight hundred or a thousand outside?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I’m not really sure. After all, they’re refugees. If they can’t get food in Yandu today, they’ll just run off somewhere else.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Yuan’s eyes widened as he said:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Then go round them up!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"There must be more coming to Yandu from outside the pass, some who haven’t arrived yet.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Send men on horseback to go get them!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gu Gaoxu:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"????\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Wait... do we really need that many people??\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing Gu Gaoxu’s dumbfounded look, Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow and said:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Thinking too small, aren’t you?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I’m telling you to round them up, so just do it. Don’t ask questions.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Yuan couldn’t be bothered to explain to Gu Gaoxu.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Putting other things aside, just the three-thousand-person factory here in Taiping City was already due for another expansion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There was no helping it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The things they were making sold themselves.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’Just go take a look at the shops in Taiping City.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’The lines are still incredibly long.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’Back in the dead of winter, even when it was snowing heavily, people wouldn’t leave at night.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’They’d bring small stools, wrap themselves in thick quilts, and wait for days on end.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’They wouldn’t give up until they bought a vehicle.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was especially true now that people from the Southeast Coast had heard about Lu Yuan’s vehicles, which were originally only sold in the western part of the province.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now, people from the Southeast Coast were all coming over to buy them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The factory in Taiping City needed to at least double in size.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And that was to say nothing of a place as big as Yandu.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Did Lu Yuan really suggest building a factory in Yandu just because he had a good relationship with Gu Gaoxu?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>NONONONO~\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’How much is a relationship worth?’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’It was the location of Yandu that mattered.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It wasn’t just about Yandu’s large population. Building a large factory in Yandu meant it could directly supply the entire Northern and central regions of the Empire.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And also the Empire’s most fertile area, the Jianghuai region.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, it would be fertile in the future. Right now, the Jianghuai region was in a rather miserable state.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Due to years of consecutive warfare, at the founding of the dynasty, Yangzhou was left with only a dozen or so people.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the Empire had long since issued an Imperial Decree.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was now a priority for support, especially since it was already the 15th year of Hongwu.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Jianghuai region had already had a major chance to recover.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In a few more years, the Jianghuai region would once again become one of the most prosperous places in the Empire.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiangnan, after all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It has been that way since ancient times.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And what did Yandu have?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Grand Canal!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Let’s put it this way: in ancient times, no form of transport could compare to shipping by water.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And not just in ancient times.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It’s the same even in the modern era.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The lion’s share will always be water transport.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Back then, why was Han Xin able to fight his way out of the Shu Region, while Zhuge Liang couldn’t no matter how hard he tried?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Was it because Zhuge Liang was inferior to Han Xin?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No, it was because the river that Han Xin used to transport supplies when he left the Shu Region had run dry several hundred years later.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That river was like the dragon vein of the Han Dynasty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The value of this Grand Canal was immense.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In fact, Lu Yuan could also have built a large factory on the Southeast Coast of the province.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then he could have used sea transport to go south.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, with the current level of seafaring technology, it was too difficult.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The winds and waves at sea were treacherous.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And don’t say you’re not afraid of rough seas—this was for hauling cargo, damn it, not fishing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One ship could carry goods worth over one hundred thousand taels. It wasn’t the same as a boat full of fish.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So, the factory in Yandu...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>...the bigger, the better. This was a factory that would one day supply the entire Northern part of the Empire, as well as its most prosperous regions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Originally, Lu Yuan had thought he would have to take it slow and expand gradually.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, if he expanded too quickly, where would he get the money?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No matter how rich the Zhao Family was, a factory wasn’t something that would see a return on investment overnight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But now, things were looking up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Heh!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’How did I not think of the refugee situation?’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’No need to pay wages... just think about it.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Then... then how many people do we need?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gu Gaoxu asked, blinking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow and replied:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Thirty to fifty thousand, at least.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gu Gaoxu was dumbfounded.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Thirty to fifty thousand???\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Where am I supposed to get that many people??\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"That’s not my problem. Just hurry up and get them.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Starting tomorrow, I’ll have people start shipping equipment to Yandu.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"If we delay the start of operations, you’ll have to compensate me for the lost profits.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gu Gaoxu:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"????\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing the furious look on Gu Gaoxu’s face, Lu Yuan couldn’t help but burst out laughing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Just kidding.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"But you really do need to find more people.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"When the time comes, I’ll give you a twenty-percent cut of the factory’s profits.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’After all, I can’t just have him do all the work and not give him any money.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing this, Gu Gaoxu gave him a strange look and asked:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"A twenty-percent cut... how much is that?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although Gu Gaoxu was helping with the factory to solve the refugee problem...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>...it wasn’t like he, Gu Gaoxu, was particularly short on money.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Yuan crossed his legs, took a drag from his cigarette, and said:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Well, last month, my three-thousand-person factory here...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"...brought in, roughly speaking, close to two hundred thousand taels.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now, a brief explanation is in order here, so please bear with the digression.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Everyone knows that the Ming Dynasty had heavy taxes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Ming Dynasty did not levy heavy commercial taxes!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The commercial tax was practically nonexistent!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This is also why in the later Ming Dynasty, the ministers were rich while the Emperor was poor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because all those ministers had their names attached to the major merchant guilds and so on.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It wasn’t that the Emperor didn’t want to increase the commercial tax.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But doing so would harm the interests of his ministers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The immense resistance Emperor Wanli faced when trying to levy a mining tax is a case in point.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Therefore, Lu Yuan’s two hundred thousand taels each month was basically pure profit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He barely had to pay any taxes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing Lu Yuan’s words, Gu Gaoxu blinked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then he started counting on his fingers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Three thousand people make two hundred thousand a month...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"So thirty thousand people would make two million a month...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"And a twenty-percent cut... means four hundred thousand for me a month...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"And a year...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In a flash, Gu Gaoxu shot up from his seat and headed for the door.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Yuan was stunned, completely baffled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Where are you going??\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Without looking back, Gu Gaoxu yelled:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Back to Yandu!!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I’m going to the refugees’ homes to round up refugees!!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Yuan: \"...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Hey, it’s the middle of the day! At least stay and eat before you go!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’Eh?’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’Wait a minute.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’What kind of damn refugees have homes to go to!!’\u003C\u002Fp>",1759,"2026-05-30T14:11:52.988Z","2026-06-01T04:31:25.829Z",1,"novelbin.me","6f5526bf144ab767c51f34da1ae3938c8336253a599f77f971a3e0931cfbfcc2","marrying-a-white-snake-wife-is-super-cool-chapter-146","marrying-a-white-snake-wife-is-super-cool-chapter-145",258,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fmarrying-a-white-snake-wife-is-super-cool-cover.jpg"]