Chapter 564

There was one more thing in front of Wei Yuan: the Xu family had hoarded troops at Hanyang Pass, cutting off traffic and communication with the Jin State; only a few merchant caravans could pass through the pass, and the goods they carried had to be heavily scrutinized.

Many merchant caravans had no choice but to change their route to the Zhao State; this way, the journey was several times longer, and many goods that could have made big money became loss-making. Not to mention that the supplies sent to Qingming were reduced by more than half, and the prices were several times higher than before.

The Zhao State was also imposing a disguised blockade, not allowing steel, medicine, arrows, weapons, and other items to leave the pass. Later, seeing Wei Yuan using refugees to fill the lines, the Zhao State also banned refugees from leaving the pass.

Fortunately, later on, the Marquis of Ping'an of the Great Zhao, in order to redeem his brother-in-law, gave Wei Yuan 290,000 refugees. Otherwise, Wei Yuan's military strength would really have been lacking.

So, for a period of time, even though they knew Qingming was at war, many merchant caravans couldn't come over to make a war fortune, and could only be anxious, complaining endlessly.

At this moment, the war had subsided, and seeing that there was no gap to exploit, the Zhao State stopped blockading the border and allowed refugees to move freely.

As soon as the Zhao State lifted the ban, the Pacification Commissioner Cui Shutong immediately contacted Wei Yuan; he had already hoarded 200,000 refugees and was prepared to sell them all to Wei Yuan. Just the food for these refugees every day was not a small amount, making every piece of meat on Cui Shutong's body ache.

The war had ended, and the Zhao State had opened the pass, but the Xu family on the Jin State side was still stubbornly blocking the border, naturally causing complaints. But the Xu family remained unmoved, without the slightest sign of loosening.

Wei Yuan was also considering this matter; if there was no internal or external trade, then the significance of the Jin State as a hinterland would be gone. So naturally, he couldn't tolerate the Xu family's act of closing the pass. After thinking, Wei Yuan decided to first exert some internal pressure on the Xu family.

Wei Yuan ordered people to pass a message to the Zhao State merchant caravans, preparing to use a large amount of Shaman tribe war spoils to purchase raw silk, as much as there was, and to sell ice mulberry seedlings to the Zhao State at a preferential price.

Once this news was released, all the major merchant caravans of the Zhao State were like wolves smelling blood, immediately transmitting the news back at the fastest speed, purchasing and hoarding raw silk on a large scale, fearing that they would be beaten to it by their opponents.

Zhao State silk brocade was not as famous as Ning brocade, but they also had some raw silk products. Now it was the season for planting mulberry, and the Zhao people had also heard about Wei Yuan's large-scale silk collection in Ningzhou; it was just that Ningzhou silk was abundant and of high quality, so they had made all the money, and the Zhao State silk farmers could only envy them.

They didn't expect the Jin State to actually close its own border; this was simply a god of wealth falling from the sky. The Zhao people couldn't figure out why the Jin State was so unable to think straight, insisting on going against money, but since Wei Yuan, this god of wealth, had come, the Zhao people didn't intend to let him leave again.

Just three days later, the Zhao State merchant caravans received news from their country. The major clans in several local silk-producing areas all came forward, stating that as long as Wei Yuan continued to collect silk, they would guarantee that Zhao silk would be 20% cheaper than Jin silk, and this year they would double the area for planting mulberry, and next year they would expand it even more.

Since the Zhao merchants came with sincerity, Wei Yuan was naturally very happy, so not only did he agree, but he also gave them several pieces of good land to use for building merchant firms.

Many Jin State merchant caravans were both angry and anxious, but when Wei Yuan announced that the first batch would collect two million catties of silk, all the Jin merchants couldn't sit still! Such a big order should have been earned by them!

In the silk brocade industry of the eight western counties of Ningzhou, a considerable part was the Xu family's industry. Wei Yuan wanted to see if those who blocked the border could withstand the pressure from within the family.

At the same time, Wei Yuan finally lifted the ban on looms and began to manufacture new types of looms in small batches, and tried to produce a few batches of brocade. After the samples were made, Wei Yuan inspected them carefully and found that the quality of the machine-made brocade was no worse than ordinary Ning brocade, and even better in terms of stability.

The only thing that could suppress machine brocade was brocade hand-woven by high-level craftsmen. These brocades had different changes in patterns, and whether they were good or bad depended on the craftsman's own aesthetic level, making them unique.

Ningzhou still had a few great craftsmen, and the brocade they wove was a painting in itself, each with its own atmosphere. Even brocade woven by peerless great craftsmen carried its own destiny, which machine brocade could never compare to.

It was just that there were too few high-level craftsmen; only those above the level of a Prefect could afford one or two of their works, and even a County Magistrate could only sigh at the brocade.

When Wei Yuan was testing the loom, Feng Tingyu heard the news and came, and then stayed by Wei Yuan's side and wouldn't leave.

It could be seen that she was very fond of beautiful things and couldn't put down the newly produced machine brocade. And the piece of brocade by a great craftsman that Wei Yuan used for comparison made her eyes go straight.

Seeing that she liked it, Wei Yuan said, "Do you like it? If you like it, I'll give it to you after I finish testing here."

Feng Tingyu jumped with excitement, her huge mountains just swaying slightly: "Then I'll try it now!"

Wei Yuan didn't understand how to try a whole piece of brocade, so he said, "Go ahead and try."

Feng Tingyu pulled Wei Yuan and flashed to a hidden corner; it was clear that she had already picked out this place.

She unfolded this piece of Ning brocade, and then the muscles all over her body rippled like water, and her clothes actually fell off by themselves, revealing her entire body in front of Wei Yuan!

She looked petite, but her figure was actually quite explosive, and the proportions of several key parts were quite contrary to common sense; what should be big was especially big, and what should be thin was especially thin; one could only say that body cultivators could do what ordinary people couldn't.

Wei Yuan was stunned for a moment, then couldn't help but laugh or cry, took the piece of cloud brocade to wrap Feng Tingyu up, then looked at it seriously and said, "Not bad, it suits you quite well."

Feng Tingyu curled her lips; it was clear that things were progressing differently than she had imagined. She struggled out of the cloud brocade, and then was wrapped up by Wei Yuan again.

After trying a few times like this, Feng Tingyu had only shown off her figure a few more times, but each time she would be wrapped up by Wei Yuan again.

Wei Yuan was now in the Dharma Form Realm, crushing her in terms of major realms, and his own Dharma body was no worse than Feng Tingyu's, so Feng Tingyu actually didn't have much room to struggle under his hands.

After a few times, Feng Tingyu gave up struggling and asked suspiciously, "Why don't you want me?" "Wait until you like me before talking; not now." Wei Yuan said.

"Ah? Is this something that requires liking? I see the senior brothers and sisters in the palace getting together casually, and then breaking up in the blink of an eye. And then getting together again, and breaking up again. Is that liking?"

Wei Yuan had also heard rumors about the disciples of the Mingwang Palace; body cultivators were not bound by trifles, were not restricted, and extreme body cultivators were even more unrestrained.

But the disciples of the Mingwang Palace were not promiscuous, but simply direct, loving vigorously and breaking up cleanly. With many such love-hate separations added together, in the eyes of outsiders, it was about the same as promiscuity, and in reality, it was about the same.

So to Feng Tingyu's question, Wei Yuan couldn't answer either, and could only say, "When you like someone, you will naturally know. Now put on your clothes."

Feng Tingyu threw the cloud brocade aside, stood naked on the clothes, and then saw the clothes as if they had their own life, climbing onto her body one by one. It was just that compared to the clean and neat way they were taken off, the process of putting them on was much more peaceful, showing off herself again.

Feng Tingyu suddenly said, "Does liking with the body count as liking?"

Wei Yuan was startled: "What is liking with the body?"

"It means I can feel that my body likes you very much, every part likes you very much, oh, there are a few places that like you especially, do you want to feel it..."

Wei Yuan sighed, knocked Feng Tingyu on the head hard, and said, "Only liking with this counts!"

Feng Tingyu pondered for a while and said, "If I like you here, you will agree, right? Then it's a deal."

No errors, first release, internal content, take a look!

"Okay." Wei Yuan didn't believe she would really like him; the two of them didn't have the slightest similarity. Moreover, liking was something that couldn't be controlled at all.

According to Wei Yuan's own experience, liking was just liking; liking was pure without any additional conditions. As long as one still had to think about it, it meant one didn't like it that much yet. As for being reserved or slow to warm up, those were all excuses; in fact, it was just not liking.

So love at first sight was liking, and love growing over time was just settling.

Based on this, Feng Tingyu's body liking him was truly liking Wei Yuan. It was just that Wei Yuan really didn't dare to get involved in any more karma, so he tricked her. It had to be said that the Mingwang Palace was really easy to trick; Wei Yuan felt that even a good person like himself couldn't help but trick her a little.

Wei Yuan was just about to leave this dark corner when he was pulled back by Feng Tingyu. She asked seriously, "Aren't you a lecherous monk? Why do you still want people to like you? Are you tricking me?"

"I'm not!" Wei Yuan denied it flatly, his attitude so serious that even he almost believed it, and then he left this dangerous place.

Arriving at a brightly lit place, Wei Yuan's heart settled down, and then he activated the Dao power to drive the loom, watching a piece of machine-woven brocade slowly grow out of the machine. At this speed, it would take about half an hour to produce a piece of brocade.

And a skilled craftsman would take several days to produce a piece of brocade. A rough calculation showed that the efficiency of the loom was dozens of times that of the weaver.

At this time, there were ten looms placed in the hall, and Wei Yuan drove ten looms at the same time, watching ten pieces of brocade being spat out just like that.

Although Feng Tingyu didn't understand these industrial matters, she was shocked by the speed of the loom at this moment and asked, "Can the Shaman tribe use up so much brocade?"

"I'm not very clear either." Wei Yuan said.

Wei Yuan didn't tell her the truth; in the future, he intended to use machine brocade to sweep through not the Shaman tribe, but the eight counties of Ningzhou, and even the entire brocade market in the human domain.

After testing the new loom, Wei Yuan walked out of this heavily guarded workshop and ordered a cultivator, "Inform all merchant caravans that we are now placing a new order for one million pieces of brocade, first come, first served, until the order is filled."

The cultivator took the order and left, and then the merchant street was in an uproar, with countless merchant caravans trying every possible way to transmit the news to the rear.

The Zhao merchants were all beaming with joy, while the Jin merchants were all gloomy. One million pieces of brocade; the Zhao State could scrape together its inventory, and the weavers could work overtime, almost being able to eat up most of the order. And this piece of fat meat originally belonged to the Jin merchants, and had nothing to do with the Zhao people. How could Zhao brocade compare to cloud brocade?

Wei Yuan didn't care about the internal affairs of the merchant caravans; he now had a large amount of Shaman tribe war spoils in his hands, enough to pay for more orders.

Wei Yuan was prepared to sell all the newly ordered cloud brocade to Tianyu. Selling so much brocade in a short period of time, the purchase price on the Shaman tribe side hadn't changed for the time being, but the price of brocade in both Jin and Zhao had risen by 50%, and the price of silk had soared several times over.

Wei Yuan used "Human Realm Fireworks" to calculate it again, and feeling that it was foolproof, he found Master Chuhe and asked him to go around the eight counties again to see the promotion of ice mulberry there, and by the way, sell another batch of mulberry seedlings.

Now the trade routes were blocked, and large merchant caravans couldn't get through, but individual cultivators could come and go freely. Wei Yuan now wanted to exert more pressure on the Xu family; after all, pressure was something that was more fatal when it came from within.

In the secret land of the Xu family, a female cultivator stood on a high platform, looking down.

Below the high platform, tens of thousands of private soldiers were lined up in neat rows, holding muskets level, motionless, with sweat rolling down many soldiers' faces, yet no one dared to move in the slightest. From time to time, someone would faint and be dragged away immediately.

(End of chapter)