Chapter 786: Four Months
Chapter 786: Four Months
September 25, 2017
In the blink of an eye, four months passed in an instant, and the hands of time reached July of the 186th year.
During these four months, the Bingzhou region under Lu HaiKong's command remained relatively stable and continued to develop.
In this period, Lu HaiKong focused on the Four Prefectures, which had been cleared of aristocratic families, cultivating potatoes and sweet potatoes while reclaiming vast areas of wasteland, rebuilding official roads, and constructing various hydraulic engineering projects.
Although these projects were not small, Lu HaiKong could afford the expenses thanks to the contributions of the grassland wars and the Four Prefecture aristocratic families.
In addition to construction, Lu HaiKong's Beifeng City also experienced rapid economic growth.
Especially after Lu HaiKong started developing tailoring and improving the welfare of tailors, another highly favored product was added to his forces.
Although Lu HaiKong's tailoring team started late, by the time he began developing, countless lords across the realm were already engaged in tailoring.
However, Lu HaiKong's family was large and influential, and despite their previous lack of development, when he truly wanted to expand, he could easily gather a large number of tailors, and their skills were not inferior.
Furthermore, Lu HaiKong had the grassland as a resource, providing an endless supply of leather materials.
Initially, Lu HaiKong planned to use these materials to create leather armor, following a military equipment route. However, he discovered that compared to leather armor, leather clothing and boots, as luxury items, were more popular.
Over these few months, Lu HaiKong's tailoring team had already formed a considerable scale, and their products, under the management of Wang Jun and Luoluo, were integrated into Lu HaiKong's commercial system. Although they had not yet exerted much effort, the prospects were already promising, and it wouldn't be long before this became one of Lu HaiKong's major industries.
Aside from various leather products, Lu HaiKong's forces were also brewing a new product.
In fact, this product was not entirely new; it was wine, which Lu HaiKong had been working on long ago. During Li Xiong's trade in the grassland, wine was one of the primary commodities, bringing significant profits to Lu HaiKong.
However, the quality of wine produced by Lu HaiKong's forces was previously low, which was unavoidable. The brewmaster in charge was highly skilled, but he lacked sufficient assistants, and Lu HaiKong required a large quantity of wine. As a result, the quality had to be significantly compromised.
For a long time, the wine produced by Lu HaiKong could only barely satisfy the grassland tribes, and even Lu HaiKong himself couldn't bring himself to drink it.
Although the situation had improved recently, and the quality of the wine had started to rise, it was still only of average quality. Lu HaiKong's forces never considered promoting this quality of wine in the Central Plains, as they were well aware that it would only bring humiliation.
The Central Plains was filled with countless Mystic Households, and those engaged in the wine industry were not few.
The market was already dominated by these forces, and Lu HaiKong's average-quality wine had no competitiveness, not only in the Central Plains but even within his own Bingzhou region.
Therefore, Lu HaiKong initially had no intention of developing the wine industry. With several lucrative ventures already in his grasp and the issues of food and minerals resolved, he enjoyed considerable financial flexibility, as evidenced by his initiation of large-scale military training. Thus, Lu HaiKong had little interest in developing the wine industry.
However, this matter was not entirely up to him, as one of his Little Ancestors was an alcoholic.
While Lu HaiKong was evading this Little Ancestor, Niu Niu somehow smelled the wine and arrived at one of Lu HaiKong's grain and wine workshops in Beifeng City.
Upon entering, it was as if a little girl had fallen into a rice barrel. She refused to leave and soaked in the wine for over half a month.
Although this Little Ancestor's strength was sealed to some extent, she remained extremely powerful. With the Wild Wolf Guards, who had always followed Lu HaiKong, constantly by her side, everyone knew she was Lu HaiKong's sister, and no one dared to drive her away.
It wasn't until Lu HaiKong himself realized something was amiss that he came to retrieve this little girl.
However, Lu HaiKong couldn't watch over this Little Ancestor all the time, so for these four months, she would come to the workshop whenever she had free time.
As she kept coming, this little girl unexpectedly learned the art of winemaking.
She displayed terrifying talent in winemaking, and within a few short months, her skill soared to an advanced level.
After reaching the advanced level, the wine she brewed not only had extremely high quality but also possessed various temporary bonus attributes.
If Lu HaiKong could convince Niu Niu to sell the wine she brewed, he would undoubtedly be able to make a substantial profit from the Wandering Practitioners.
However, Lu HaiKong's efforts in this regard were not very fruitful.
Given her stingy nature, trying to extract anything from her was almost as difficult as ascending to heaven, let alone persuading her to willingly sell the wine she loved the most.
As expected, Lu HaiKong's efforts over the past ten days yielded no results. The only consolation for Lu HaiKong was that this Little Ancestor was slightly better than before. Fearing that Lu HaiKong would run off with Nan Nan, the bad woman, she shared the wine she brewed with him.
With no breakthrough on Niu Niu's side, Lu HaiKong decided to take a different approach. He directly ordered all his high-level brewers to watch Niu Niu around the clock, blatantly stealing her brewing techniques.
In this regard, Niu Niu lacked copyright protection awareness, easily allowing Lu HaiKong to succeed. He obtained several recipes capable of brewing attribute-infused wines.
Although the wine brewed without Niu Niu's personal touch lacked attributes and had a noticeable difference in taste, it still possessed attributes. Lu HaiKong displayed some at the Loose Individual Marketplace and found that the response was still quite good.
It was evident that in the near future, Lu HaiKong would have another lucrative tool for making money.
Apart from the birth of these two money-making tools, another significant event occurred within Lu HaiKong's ranks during April.
This event was, of course, the bountiful harvest of potatoes and sweet potatoes in the two regions of Yunzhong and Wuyuan, which Lu HaiKong had designated for cultivation.
The yield of potatoes and sweet potatoes was astonishing, and with the special cultivation methods from the Divine Farmer Department and Wang Jun's innate talent for abundant harvests, the production was even more impressive.
In the 1691st chapter, the version is indisputably correct!
Potato yield per acre reached an astonishing 4,000 jin, while sweet potatoes exceeded 7,000 jin. The harvest from these two regions alone was sufficient to match the previous total output of Bingzhou.
During the harvest, Lu HaiKong promoted these two crops, and the initially reluctant commoners couldn't help but praise him, their mouths agape with admiration. They encountered Lu HaiKong and couldn't stop singing his praises, instantly boosting his prestige in the two regions.
However, Lu HaiKong didn't pay much attention to this. After the harvest, he swiftly issued instructions for the Divine Farmer Department to ensure the seedling supply for the second half of the year and purchased a large quantity of potatoes and sweet potatoes from the commoners through grain tax.
Lu HaiKong's intention was not to use them as military rations. Although potatoes and sweet potatoes had high yields, they were not easy to preserve. He didn't want them to spoil while stockpiling; instead, he bought them to make a substantial profit.
In fact, when Lu HaiKong started cultivating these two crops, he had already attracted the attention of many Immortal Lords.
The NPCs didn't know what these crops were, but the Immortal Lords were well aware. Over the past few months, many Immortal Lords had either taken action themselves or sent their trusted aides to express their desire to purchase.
Among them was Lu HaiKong's old friend Ye Junru, as well as another significant client—Yuan Hong from the Yuan family of Jizhou. They had met once before, and in recent years, there had been frequent business dealings. All of them expressed their interest in buying potatoes and sweet potatoes.
Lu HaiKong, of course, knew that they wanted to cultivate and grow these crops themselves. He generously agreed to their request, but the price was slightly higher—10 gold per jin for potatoes and 8 gold per jin for sweet potatoes!
The price was a bit steep, but Lu HaiKong was the only seller for now. It was up to them to decide whether or not to buy.
It's worth noting that in this world, aristocratic families are much larger than in reality. Although Wuyuan and Yunzhong's lands were not fully developed, this year's cultivated fields still numbered over ten million acres.
This meant that Lu HaiKong harvested over ten million tons of grain this time. After deducting the portion reserved for the commoners and other factors, Lu HaiKong still had nearly ten million tons to sell. If he could sell it all, the profit would be enormous.
Lu HaiKong couldn't do anything about the Immortal Lords' black-heartedness. Previously, they had purchased a large amount of grain from him, and many had taken advantage of him. Now, it was only fair for Lu HaiKong to turn the tables and profit from them.
However, what they didn't know was that the first batch of cultivation from the Divine Farmer Department was not yet mature. The potatoes and sweet potatoes they bought now would still yield a certain harvest in September, but the production would undoubtedly decrease. If they continued with the second generation, the yield would drop significantly.
Lu HaiKong himself had no issues. The second-generation varieties from the Divine Farmer Department were about to be released, and although they couldn't make it for the September planting, they would be ready by March next year.
Those who purchased potatoes and sweet potatoes from Lu HaiKong would likely have to rely on him again in March, allowing him to profit further.
Of course, Lu HaiKong couldn't keep making money forever, but a few years would be enough. Even just a few years would bring him an astonishing amount of wealth.
Just as Lu HaiKong was waiting to be overwhelmed by the influx of money, a message arrived from Luoyang...
(End of Chapter)
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