Chapter 62: Refugees
Why would we go to the seaside while the weather is still hot? Naturally, it’s because the sun is strong, which is good for drying salt.
Winter arrives early in Yandi; it’s normal for it to snow in September. We need to dry a batch of sea salt before winter sets in.
Whether it’s for our own consumption or for trading for supplies, it’s very important.
I’m currently supporting over three thousand people, plus a bunch of enemies. Prince Yu and the Empress in Chang’an are far away, so they don’t count. As for the Zheng family, I’ve truly offended them to the core.
When will Grandpa Ling and Gu Changxiao arrive? I haven’t heard anything from Hao Duojin.
With only over six thousand taels of silver in savings, I can’t feel at ease. I need to make money quickly!
When it comes to making money, we should pursue both big and small earnings.
Before the potatoes and tomatoes are cultivated, Jinsui is pinning her hopes for making big money on sea salt.
Additionally, the eatery needs to be set up quickly, and trade in the borderlands needs to flourish.
As for the small earnings, she looked at the Thirty-Six Stratagems in her hand.
Yan Jiulang read it and said it was good!
We won’t charge ten thousand taels of silver per copy. One thousand… no, one hundred taels per copy. With Li King’s personal seal, we’ll sell as many as we can.
Miss Yan will be here tomorrow. I’ll ask her to promote it in Yanzhou.
To welcome Miss Yan, Jinsui personally cooked some dim sum that girls would like.
Steamed sponge cake, steamed milk and eggs drizzled with caramel to pass off as pudding, and ice jelly made with ice seeds and sugar water.
She invited Chen Yunniang to try them and taught her the recipes for these three dim sum items, also calling Cheng Yu to observe.
The main reason was to avoid suspicion, as rumors were circulating that Chen Yunniang was a beauty captured by Li King.
I’m not afraid of others spreading rumors, but I need to guard against Cheng Yu having any reservations!
After all, our Li King is a spirited young man, and Chen Yunniang is beautiful. There aren’t many women in the border city.
If the two of them are alone, it’s easy for people to imagine lewd scenes.
Chen Yunniang praised the three dim sum items highly. She intentionally didn’t mention her time at the Zheng family, only saying she had never eaten such things in Yanzhou.
If a shop were opened in the city to sell them, the business would surely be booming.
Without Jinsui needing to say anything, Cheng Yu rejected the idea of opening a shop.
He laughed, saying that although these three dim sum items seemed ordinary, they used a great deal of eggs, milk, and sugar.
Eggs and milk were fine, but the amount of sugar alone made it unsuitable for a shop.
According to Cheng Yu, sugar is cheap in the south, but it gets more expensive the further north you go. Especially white sugar crystals, which have always been worth their weight in gold.
In Yandi, sugar, salt, and tea are hard currency. Trade is restricted at the border, and the most commonly confiscated items during smuggling operations are these three.
Smugglers risk their heads because these three items can be exchanged for higher-priced warhorses from foreign races.
Horses in this era are equivalent to cars in later generations, and warhorses are like luxury sports cars.
It’s truly hard to believe that sugar and salt could be exchanged for sports cars.
Jinsui smiled upon hearing this. Making white sugar is indeed a high-end technology for others.
But I have a laboratory. As long as I’m given raw materials and time, how much sugar can’t I produce!
Once the sea salt is dried, we’ll have these two items. We can then trade with foreign races for warhorses, with the Yandi gentry for pig iron, and with merchants for grain…
Just thinking about it makes me happy.
The best raw material for sugar is sugarcane, but unfortunately, the border city isn’t suitable for growing it. Corn is also good, but there are no seeds.
That leaves beets.
She called Liu Xiaowei from the Tuntian Camp, gave him five hundred taels of silver as startup capital, and instructed him to collect beet seeds, reclaim a hundred mu of land, and build greenhouses to grow beets.
Liu Xiaowei busily replied that it wouldn’t cost that much silver.
Jinsui smiled and said the extra silver would be for the soldiers’ food expenses. Reclaiming land is hard work, so they need to eat well and be full.
Oh, right. Besides beets, plant peanuts too, for oil extraction.
Liu Xiaowei was deeply moved. Who in all of Yandi treated the soldiers of the Tuntian Camp like people!
The higher-ups would just issue orders, when had they ever provided money?
It’s truly a blessing to be under Li King’s command!
Chen Yunniang, with her keen intellect, discovered that ice jelly was the cheapest among the three dim sum items. She led the female family members of the Tuntian Camp in collecting ice seeds to make ice jelly.
Even without syrup, a drizzle of fruit juice would be enough to quench thirst and relieve heat.
Cheng Yu supported whatever Yunniang wanted to do. He never thought of locking Yunniang up at home and forbidding her from appearing in public.
He helped Yunniang set up a stall next to the Forceful Restaurant to sell ice jelly.
The female family members of the Tuntian Camp were motivated and set up a food street along the eateries, although it consisted of simple snacks.
Tea eggs, braised tofu, and braised soybeans were considered high-end items, while lamb offal noodle soup and rustic coarse wine were even more luxurious delicacies.
However, the food street in the border city had at least gotten off the ground. Wei Assistant Secretary said there were many refugees and herdsmen.
After autumn, they would venture out to stock up on winter supplies. Our street is the only one in the border city, so business will surely pick up.
Jinsui quickly asked upon hearing this, “Refugees? Who are refugees?”
She had always thought that refugees were people who fled their homes due to natural disasters in their local area.
Cheng Yu looked incredulous, as if to say, “You’ve been Crown Prince for so long, and you don’t even know what refugees are?”
However, due to the incident of saving Yunniang, Cheng Yu no longer argued with Li King; at most, he would turn his head away in silence.
Wei Assistant Secretary was the opposite. He enjoyed explaining things to Li King the most, as it made him feel valued.
He said with a smile, “When government taxes are heavy, or when people are squeezed out by the gentry and lose their land and property, they often abandon their household registration and flee to the deep mountains. These are refugees.”
Jinsui quickly asked, “What about people fleeing due to natural disasters?”
Cheng Yu stated with his neck stiffened, “Those are displaced persons!”
Jinsui finally understood the difference and asked again:
“Why would refugees risk coming out to buy supplies? Can’t they come out openly?”
Cheng Yu was speechless again, his eyes almost rolling to the heavens. Then Jinsui saw him wave to the soldiers digging river mud in the distance:
“What is it? I’m coming right over.”
“Your Highness, I’ll go take a look.”
Jinsui: …
They weren’t speaking to you at all. If you want to ignore me, you don’t have to be so stiff!
The flesh on Wei Assistant Secretary’s face twitched, and he stared, stunned, at Cheng Yu as he quickly left.
That guy, Li King shouldn’t have saved him; he deserved to be beaten to death by the Zheng family!
He respectfully replied to Jinsui:
“The government views refugees as bandits. If they dare to show themselves during bandit or rebel activity, they will be captured.”
Jinsui pondered for a moment and then asked, “If I were to gather refugees, give them land, and register them with the border city’s household registration, would the government interfere?”
After asking, she chuckled, “Hmph, so what if they interfere? The border city is my fiefdom. If I take in some refugees, who dares to say anything?”
Wei Assistant Secretary cautiously reminded, “Refugees are often bandits. If Your Highness intends to recruit them, you must investigate thoroughly.”
Jinsui nodded, “Don’t worry, I’m not going to use just anyone. I will absolutely not employ those who commit murder and arson, no matter how capable they are.”
Wei Assistant Secretary was then relieved. He was truly afraid that His Highness would indiscriminately recruit people to deal with the Zheng family.
Jinsui became even more eager to dry the sea salt. Now, having salt would not only bring in silver but also attract refugees.
The next morning, she tidied up the reception hall and had people clean the city streets, at the very least, clearing away animal dung.
Chen Yunniang made new dim sum, and Jinsui even rode her horse to the riverbank, picked a large bunch of wildflowers, and put them in a vase.
