After the fairy disappeared

This is a deserted village, no one lives in it.

As they approached, there was a rustling sound in the grass, and several weasels twisted their buttocks and fled quickly.

Dong Rui randomly walked around to look at several houses, and then came back and said, "Most of the doors and windows are broken, broken inward, and some wooden latches were cut off. Well, this village has been attacked."

In the Golden Plains, this kind of thing doesn't seem to be unusual. Especially Gaopu Country was still at war a few months ago. Even if the whole village unites, there will still be a catastrophe that cannot be resisted.

"Let's go, luckily this is not Jishi Village."

They continued walking along the mountain road and approached Rolling Stone Valley after only a few miles.

Dong Rui looked at the mountains ahead and murmured: "This place name is so appropriate."

The mountains ahead are continuous and winding like a crouching dragon. Among them, there is only one large mountain with sparse vegetation, and the rocks all over the mountain are basically spherical.

Big balls, small balls, flat balls and round balls. While the two of them were looking and admiring, two more stone balls rolled down and rumbled to the bottom of the valley.

"...No wonder it's called Rolling Stone Valley." If a person accidentally walks at the bottom of the valley, he will be disabled even if he is not dead.

The uncanny workmanship of nature has carved this mountain into a conspicuous package among its kind.

It was not difficult to cross the Rolling Stone Valley, but on the way they met a group of patrols. When they saw He Lingchuan and the two of them, they shouted "stop".

Fortunately, there was indeed business cooperation between the Yangshan Islands and the local area, and the two of them were able to prove it, so the patrol team assigned three people to "escort" them to Jishi Village.

The two of them talked with the patrol on the road and learned that Bixia had failed to attack twice a month ago, and then changed his strategy and sent people to sneak into General Situ's territory and harass them everywhere.

"The Jishi Village you are going to is also within the range of Bixia's attack and harassment."

He Lingchuan asked them another question: "Are there any civilians killed inexplicably near Jishi Village?"

"Yes." The patrolman gave a completely different answer than Jucheng Baozi Pu. "In the past month, more than 120 civilians have died in the surrounding villages and towns. Even General Situ was alarmed. The methods of death were similar. , no trauma.”

He Lingchuan asked a few more questions casually.

Soon, they arrived at their destination:

Jishi Village.

This is a small village on the mountainside with more than 40 houses, mostly made of local materials, mainly stone houses.

On the surface, this is an ordinary village, with smoke rising from the cooking pots and the smell of rice blowing in the wind.

However, the people walking around in the village were all middle-aged men, not children.

As soon as the two approached, someone immediately came up to stop them at the entrance of the village and asked, "Who are you?"

He Lingchuan took out a token and waved it at him twice: "Is Jiang Lishui here?"

The man reached out to take the sign and looked at it over and over again.

Dong Rui seriously suspected that he was illiterate, otherwise he would have understood it when he saw the word "Yangshan" above.

But this brand is black with green in it, and is edged with stones unique to Black Leaf Island. The overall texture is exquisite. This man was not sure, so he had to say: "Follow me."

They walked into the grain drying field at the edge of the village.

In the stone courtyard on the side of the court, there were four or five people discussing something. One of them raised his head and said displeased: "I told you not to..."

Halfway through his words, he saw He Lingchuan and was startled, swallowing the rest of his words.

He Lingchuan smiled: "Old Jiang, long time no see."

Lao Jiang thought he had seen it wrong and was identifying it. As soon as He Lingchuan opened his mouth, he was startled: "Ah, Dao, Dao..."

Others had never seen him so excited that he stuttered, and they all turned to look at He Lingchuan. The latter raised a finger in front of his lips: "Calm down, I have something to ask you."

He didn't want to make any noise.

"Yes!" Jiang Lishui understood immediately, calmed down and started chasing people away, "We'll be here today, you go out. Hurry up, don't be stunned."

The men were confused, but they obeyed the order and stood up and left.

The patrolman who followed He Lingchuan asked: "Are these two really your people?"

Jiang Lishui nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes, he is really from our Chamber of Commerce! Thank you, two soldiers."

After that, he put a little bit of broken silver into the hands of the two patrolmen. The two of them turned around and left without talking nonsense.

Jiang Lishui quickly gave up his seat to He Lingchuan, moved everything on the table, and poured a glass of warm water for the two of them himself.

"This is a remote and remote area. There is no good tea, only clean water..." He felt embarrassed. He Lingchuan didn't care: "It doesn't matter, as long as there is water."

When no one was left around, Jiang Lishui lowered his voice and said, "Island Master, why are you here in person?"

He is a steward under Ding Zuodong and is stationed in the Golden Flash Plains. He had seen He Lingchuan four times in the Yangshan Islands from a distance, but he had never had the opportunity to talk to the big boss.

Although his immediate boss is young, his eyes are sharp. Jiang Lishui looked at him twice, and his heart pounded.

The pressure from above to below is really not that strong.

He Lingchuan recognized him at a glance, which surprised him.

"I heard that something happened here, so I stopped by to take a look." He Lingchuan raised his glass and drank water. "I happened to see the news you sent to Julu Port."

Jiang Lishui was stunned.

Since Yaguo cut off the supply of ore to the Yangshan Islands, the Yangshan Islands have switched to importing it from the Golden Gold Plains. This ghost place is a mixed bag of fish and dragons. The Yangshan Islands must station capable people to deal with such troubles as local negotiations and extortion, bandits and plunder, logistics transfers and so on. Because He Lingchuan has reached an agreement with Peng State, the Yangshan Islands escort team can enter the plains from Peng State, which greatly increases the self-defense and negotiation capabilities of the Yangshan Chamber of Commerce.

Therefore, the Chamber of Commerce continued to penetrate into the central and eastern parts of the plains and sent more men.

Jiang Lishui was sent here by Ding Zuodong and was responsible for collecting materials locally and transporting them to Julu Port.

In the chaos-ridden Golden Plains, it's hard work and life-threatening. Therefore, Yangshan Chamber of Commerce also paid very high rewards. In the past, people were involved in beheading transactions, but no one was involved in money-free transactions, so Jiang Lishui volunteered.

He has a clear mind and knows that he lacks background and connections in the archipelago. He also knows that a senior manager like Ding Zuodong has many talented people, and he knows how long it will take to rank him in terms of seniority. Then it would be better to find another way and go to the Golden Plains to do the most scarce job. As long as he doesn't cause any trouble in the plains, he will probably rise to the top with his gold-plated qualifications when he returns.

Speaking of risks, what are you doing that is not risky? It is easy to get stuck by the spines when eating fish.

So when He Lingchuan and Yan Yuese said to him, "It's not easy to work here, thank you for your hard work," Jiang Lishui immediately said: "It's my job, my job! I took this job, and I should have done the job well. But here..."

"Don't be too busy blaming yourself. Let's explain the situation clearly first. What kind of ore is produced here?" The business in Yangshan Islands is getting bigger and bigger. Usually, all matters, big and small, will be screened by several general managers before the important ones are reported to He Lingchuan. Take care of the little things yourself.

Information about what kind of ore is produced in a rolling stone valley is usually not sent to He Lingchuan's desk.

The Yangshan Chamber of Commerce has set up a stronghold in Julu Port, where the intelligence from the Shining Gold Plains will be gathered and then sent to the Yangshan Islands by the bird demon.

However, before He Lingchuan left Pengguo, he went there for a walk, and a new line of information happened to arrive.

When he saw it, he thought he was on his way, so he might as well go there himself.

"Siderite, the associated mineral is scale stone."

"They are all good things." Diamond iron is one of the auxiliary materials for making armors. It can effectively improve toughness and is usually used in weak areas such as ankles and waists. Scale stone can quickly absorb water after being refined into powder and is usually used in hemostatic powder and Among bandages, they are cheap and beautiful, and more cost-effective than elixirs.

These two things are not produced in the Yangshan Islands and are purely imported.

Dong Rui interjected: "What's going on in this village? There are no residents?"

He had already noticed that the people coming and going in the village did not look like local residents.

"When the war came, people's livelihood was ruined. Even Jishi Village, which was hiding in the mountains, was not spared. This area was originally the territory of Gaopu Kingdom. Gaopu Kingdom was destroyed by Bixia a few months ago——"

Dong Rui interrupted: "The Situ family has taken it back again, right?"

"Yes, that's right, the island owner knew it when he came here. He really has extraordinary skills." Jiang Lishui slapped the horse P first, and then continued, "I heard that those battles were fought in darkness, and people's heads were beaten into dog's heads. All the villagers have fled. Including this Jishi Village, there are only a few old, weak, sick and disabled people left."

"We just happened to come here to look for mineral sources and wanted to buy minerals from the Situ family. They were short of money during the war, and they really wanted to sell but there was no one to mine, so they just told me that as long as we can find people to mine, we will give them the mining rights Lease it to us for seven years at a favorable price." Jiang Lishui quoted a number, and He Lingchuan nodded and said, "It's a very favorable price."

Yangshan Chamber of Commerce came here to buy mines, but they didn't expect that they would take over mining after they came. This business is doing great. Starting from the source and removing the intermediate links, profits will be significantly increased.

There are risks, of course.

"I reported it to General Manager Ding, and he replied directly to me. No matter what, we can win it! As far as I know, this is also the first mine that our Yangshan Chamber of Commerce has built in the Golden Gold Plains, and it is still a rich mine!" Jiang Lishui was excited! "The biggest risk is that we don't know how many years this group of people will be in power. If they are overthrown within two years, we will be in trouble when it comes to mining and transporting mines here."

This is the biggest risk when doing business in the Golden Plains. "I don't know who owned this mining right in the past. Anyway, the Situ family took it back and gave it to us. I, my subordinates, don't want to follow in the footsteps of those unlucky ones!"

He Lingchuan nodded, knowing what he was worried about.

Before the dust of the war settled, Jiang Lishui went to fight for the mining rights. He was worried that the island owner would be dissatisfied. If the Situ family is defeated by Bixia, the mining rights of Rolling Stone Valley will most likely be taken away by Bixia, and Yangshan's business here will be nothing.

However, at this time, the price of mining rights was the lowest, the profits were the highest, and it was easiest to make good deals with local governments. As a businessman who dared to take risks, Jiang Lishui was really excited.

If we wait until the outcome is decided before taking action, is there still a place for the Yangshan Chamber of Commerce here?

He Lingchuan saw through his thoughts in a second: "According to your observation, can the Situ family still persist?"