Nowadays, in Wuyang City, the sound of "ding-ding-ding-ding" of forging iron can be heard everywhere, and it does not stop from morning to night. It is simply more monotonous and annoying than the cry of the summer cicada.
Another change in the city is the unprecedented unity of the "Three Evils". The relationship between the three sects, the "Iron Sword Sect", the "Monkey God Gang" and the "Evil Dog Sect", is stronger than at any time in the past few decades.
They are all more harmonious, and the old fights over one or two streets will no longer happen. At this time, if there are external forces like Zhu Zhenyan trying to win over any of the three divided factions,
, and it will never succeed.
This is because the interests of the "three evils" are now connected together and difficult to separate.
This is due to Hua Bushi's "three joint ventures" strategy.
In the current Wuyang City, the most valuable thing is of course the refined iron ore vein in the west of the city. After Hua Bushi's survey, it was found that this vein could be mined at the current speed without being exhausted for at least a hundred years.
There is no need to worry about the ore veins being mined out, so one must try to speed up the ore mining in order to obtain greater profits in the short term.
The "Evil Dog Gate" is the smallest force among the "Three Evils" and has few manpower. Instead of mining and smelting alone, it is better to join forces with the other two factions to gain greater benefits. After all, the larger the scale, the more efficient it is.
This is true for mining, and so is the smelting of refined iron ore.
Therefore, Hua Bushi, Qu Huze, Shen Ying'er and other leaders of each family agreed that the "Evil Dog Sect" would not participate in the mining of mineral veins, but would specialize in ore smelting and leave the mining to the "Iron Sword Sect"
and the two factions of the "Monkey God Gang". The mined ore is transported to the smelting workshop of the "Evil Dog Gate". After it is smelted into refined iron ingots, the three families then divide the refined iron ingots equally and take them to their respective blacksmith workshops.
to forge weapons.
Such a division of labor is also of great benefit to the "Iron Sword Sect" and the "Monkey God Gang". The cooperation of the three companies is definitely much more efficient than mining and smelting alone. Although mining is more expensive than smelting.
of manpower, but among the three companies, only "Evil Dog Gate" has mastered the smelting technology of refined iron ore, so this division of labor can be considered reasonable.
The three major forces worked together, and naturally they would not encounter any obstacles in Wuyang City, and everything went very smoothly. But soon, each family faced another problem, which was the large number of weapons cast from the blacksmith workshops.
promotion of.
At the current rate, dozens of weapons can be forged in the three blacksmith workshops every day. If they cannot be sold in time, they will soon pile up in the warehouse.
According to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, privately forging and selling weapons is an illegal activity. However, as long as the "Three Evils" and other martial arts sects are profitable, they will not care about whether it is illegal or not.
However, even so, it is not easy to find a way to sell weapons in large quantities.
The situation of the "Iron Sword Sect" is better. They are a branch of the "Wudang Sect", and the "Wudang Sect", as the "No. 1 Taoist Sect in the World" granted by the Emperor of Ming Dynasty, has the support of the imperial court and has very close ties with local governments.
, it will not be difficult to sell some weapons. Trucks of swords, axes and axes are constantly transported from Wuyang City to Wudang Mountain. Although it has to pay some price, the "Iron Sword Sect" can still make a lot of profits.
The "Monkey Shen Family" and the "Evil Dog Family" are not so lucky.
The "Evil Dog Gate" took advantage of Hua Bushi's wedding banquet to establish a relationship with Mr. Qian, the magistrate of Wuyang County and the General Military Office, and sold the first batch of hundreds of swords and weapons to the locals.
However, there are only more than a thousand officers and soldiers in Wuyang City, and there is no war. The loss of weapons is very limited. After this transaction is completed, there will be no need to purchase anymore in the short term.
The Shen family had other ideas. They only used a small amount of fine iron to make weapons in the blacksmith workshop, and most of the materials were used to cast some iron products used in daily life and sold them to ordinary people. Fine iron is a relatively valuable metal material.
The texture is tough, so it is most suitable for making weapons. It is a bit wasteful to use it on daily iron tools. However, the demand for daily iron tools is greater. Although the money earned is less than half that of making weapons, there is no need to worry about selling it.
After finishing the Wuyang City government business, the weapons produced by the "Evil Dog Gate Divine Arms Hall" had no place to go. They were all piled into the warehouse of the Hua family mansion. Several large rooms were soon filled with thousands of weapons in total.
.Hua Bushi was not very anxious about this, he had already made a plan in his mind.
Wuyang City is too small, so of course it cannot digest these many weapons. It is inevitable to transport them to other cities for sale. In Hua Bushi's view, whether it is smelting refined iron or selling weapons to make money, they are only means, not the purpose.
His real purpose was to develop the "Evil Dog Sect" and expand the sect's power to other cities in Hunan. Selling weapons became a good opportunity.
Hua Bushi's first goal is "Changsha Mansion".
Changsha Prefecture, a "famous city of Chu and Han", is one of the most prosperous metropolises in Huguang Province. Its geographical location is also very important. It is known as "the lips and teeth of Jingyu and the throat of Guizhou and Guangdong". Compared with Changsha Prefecture, Wuyang City is simply like
It's sesame and watermelon.
As long as Changsha Prefecture is captured, other towns in Hunan will be within easy reach.
In terms of selling weapons alone, the Ming Dynasty had tens of thousands of troops stationed in Changsha. If the government business could be done, it would be enough to absorb the output of the "Evil Dog Gate Shenbing Hall" for several years. In addition to the government, many Jianghu forces
They also have their own territories in Changsha City, and their demand for weapons is not small.
Speaking of the Jianghu forces in Changsha City, the most famous one is naturally the "Dongting Gang". The first martial arts sect in Hunan is the "Hengshan Sect", but that is only in terms of martial arts inheritance and reputation in the Jianghu. If
In terms of scope of influence and number of members, the "Dongting Clan" is much stronger than the "Hengshan Clan".
The "Dongting Gang" is strong in the Dongting Lake area, and its headquarters is located in Changsha Prefecture. It is said that there are tens of thousands of gang members, and about half of the territory in Changsha City belongs to the "Dongting Gang".
In addition to the giant "Dongting Gang", there are also many martial arts sects in Changsha such as the "Yuelu Sect", the "Nine Immortals Society" and the "Liuhe Sect". They all have considerable power and each occupy some territory. It can be said that
It's a mixed bag.
As for "Gejiabao", it is only somewhat famous in the western suburbs outside Changsha, but it is still far behind compared with the major gangs in the city.
The "Evil Dog Sect" is also a martial arts sect. It comes to Changsha to set up a branch and develop its power. Even if it crosses the border and steps on other sect's territory, it is a taboo in the martial arts.
It is not easy to be a dragon crossing the river, Hua Bushi knows this very well.
Therefore, Hua Bushi decided to set up his branch on the outskirts of the city first, trying not to provoke the big forces in the city. He did not want to risk a head-on fight with a strong enemy before he could establish a firm foothold.
The house that the Sun sisters put up for sale naturally became Hua Bushi's best choice. He only spent four hundred and sixty taels of silver to buy the thirteen-in house and five acres of medicinal fields. He made a huge fortune.
It's cheap, but Hua Bushi doesn't care about offending the unpopular Jianghu family like "Gejiabao".
This time when he came to Changsha Mansion, Hua Bushi only brought the "Five Evil Dogs" and more than thirty members of the "Longhutang" gang, while the two daughters Yang Jiangyi and Hai Hongzhu stayed in Wuyang City.
In recent months, Yang Jiangyi has been practicing the "Vigorously Conquering Demon Sword Technique" in seclusion, and her sword skills have improved greatly. This is the critical moment when her martial arts is improving by leaps and bounds. Hua Bushi doesn't want to interrupt her practice. Anyway, she is new here.
In Changsha, as long as you act cautiously, there shouldn't be any big battles to fight. It's enough to have the "five little ones" by your side.
As for Hua Bushi's nominal wife Hai Hongzhu, she has been quarreling with him ever since their wedding. Apart from superficial socializing, she privately ignored him and didn't look good at all.
There was not much gossip. Apart from occasionally going to accompany her for a while, Hua Bushi usually enjoyed peace and quiet. This time with the Changsha Mansion and his party, Hai Hongzhu insisted that he would stay in Wuyang City to keep vigil for his father and could not leave. Hua Bushi naturally did not want to leave.
Will be reluctant.
After buying the Shisanjin mansion, Hua Bushi immediately began to renovate the house. Although the original Sun family's old house was considered sturdy, it was still far from being used as a branch of the sect. In addition to heightening the courtyard wall,
In addition to building defense towers and setting up agencies to ambush, Hua Bushi also opened more than ten martial arts training grounds in the backyard for the "Fifth Primary School" and his disciples to practice martial arts on weekdays.
The facilities and conditions of these martial arts training grounds are far inferior to the "Evil Dog Courtyard" built by Hua Bushi in Wuyang City, but they are still better than nothing.
Changsha Prefecture is an important town in the Hunan border. Of course, the "Evil Dog Gate" branch in this city cannot be so shabby. The use of the Sun family's old house is just a temporary expedient. Once the power grows, it can be expanded or moved to the city.
Find another better place to build a bigger gang base.
There is no need to worry about these, you can wait until later.
At this time, Hua Bushi had to face an imminent problem, and he couldn't help but think about it in a hurry. That was the shortage of silver coins.
The "Evil Dog Gate" has spent a lot of money in the past six months. In addition to the construction of the refined iron smelting workshop and the "Shenbingtang Blacksmith Workshop", there are also the costs of recruiting and training a large number of gang members, all of which are not small expenses.
In terms of income, apart from the hundreds of weapons sold to the Wuyang General Military Mansion Yamen, there is no other additional income.
From Master Mo Wentian's account book, more than 200,000 taels of silver have disappeared in the past few months. After this big move, the original wealth of the "Evil Dog Sect" has not been much left.
This time when Hua Bushi came to Changsha Mansion, he only brought 20,000 taels of silver notes with him. Although he didn't use much money to buy the Sun family house, he spent very little money on various renovations afterwards. Now,
It's already a bit stretched.
Hua Bushi had just arrived in Changsha City and was unfamiliar with the place. Unlike in Wuyang City, he could not find as many creditors willing to lend money on credit. Therefore, his original plan to expand the Sun family's old house had to be stopped.
Come down.
The most urgent task is to find a way to make money as soon as possible.
Just when Hua Bushi started to worry about money, fifty thousand taels of silver were delivered to him on his own initiative.
It was Shen Ying'er from the "Monkey Shen Family" who sent the silver coins.
The day after the Changsha branch of the "Evil Dog Gate" had just been repaired, the third lady of the Shen family came all the way from Wuyang City with two attendants to visit Hua Bushi, and also sent fifty thousand taels of silver.