Chapter 40 Fire At The City Gate

After receiving a large number of precious herbs from Hao Jiyong, Song Ankang was no longer so worried. Next, he could focus on cultivating and improving.

Song Ankang’s strength began to increase rapidly again, and the medicinal herb processing business in Chaoyun Manor also became better and better. The profits he could earn every day also became higher and higher.

The second batch of apprentices had already finished their apprenticeship and were able to process more medicinal herbs. The collection of medicinal herbs was also going smoothly.

Because the purchase price offered by Song Ankang was slightly higher than the market price, he quickly bought a large number of medicinal herbs. Moreover, it was not only the few basic medicinal herbs used for processing, but also many medicinal herbs prepared for processing in Chaoyun Manor. Even with Huachun Hall’s size, there was a limit to the number of basic medicinal herbs he could absorb. He should be full in about two months. Before that, he had to open up a new source of income for Chaoyun Manor.

In addition, Song Ankang also arranged for people to contact other medicine shops. He couldn’t entrust his business to Huachun Hall.

With so many people in Chaoyun Manor, as more and more people mastered the in-depth processing of medicinal herbs, the number of medicinal herbs that could be processed would also increase. Sooner or later, there would be more supply than demand.

After all, Hua Chuntang had a limited number of alchemists and did not need so many basic herbs. Moreover, they still had to spend a lot of time refining other pills.

Song Ankang handed these matters over to Wang Yuliang. He was mainly responsible for teaching the apprentices in the workshop. He was not good at management, so it was better to leave it to someone who was good at it.

Of course, this did not eliminate the possibility of laziness. Fortunately, Wang Yuliang’s performance was outstanding, and with Hao Jiyong’s help, the workshop’s business was getting better and better.

More than 100 people had already joined the processing workshop to work for it. They handled the processing of medicinal herbs, the acquisition of medicinal herbs, the transportation of medicinal herbs, the opening of the market, and other different businesses, allowing these people to have an additional income.

In order to let all the tenants of Chaoyun Manor survive this year’s difficulties, Song Ankang specially asked Wang Yuliang to recruit a member from every family to the workshop so that everyone would have a chance.

As the scale of the workshop expanded, the subsequent workshops would also recruit more tenants into the workshop. If it reached a certain level in the future, they might even recruit people from outside Chaoyun Manor.

Of course, there were already enough people in Chaoyun Manor at the moment. There were even a large number of idle tenants who hoped to enter the processing workshop. For the time being, there was no need to recruit apprentices and workers from outside.

Song Ankang also paid the tenants who entered the workshop handsomely. At least, in the eyes of these tenants, it was very generous. In fact, more than 70% of the profits still went into Song Ankang’s pocket.

In order to mobilize everyone’s enthusiasm, Song Ankang specially asked Wang Yuliang to set a corresponding reward level. He would give more rewards to those who performed well and worked more seriously.

As soon as this system appeared, it immediately caused a huge uproar in Chaoyun Manor. All the tenants who entered the workshop began to work harder and earn more remuneration.

In just half a month or so, almost all the families in Chaoyun Manor had a better life. Everyone had hope again, and the atmosphere in the farm became better day by day.

Even so, everyone still took some time to go out and pick wild vegetables, weeds, and leaves. They accumulated them bit by bit and waited for winter to arrive.

Almost none of the hardworking and down-to-earth farmers of Chaoyun Manor wasted any time. In order to welcome the winter months later, everyone tried their best to accumulate as many resources as possible.

“The Manor Lord’s workshop really gave us too much. My son can earn dozens of copper coins every day. It’s enough for our family to use for a few days and save up a lot.”

“That’s right, that’s right. I’ve never seen such a generous manor master. Our youngest daughter is an apprentice at the processing workshop. She can get nearly a hundred copper coins a day. We’ve used it to buy food.”

“The price of food is rising day by day. We should stock up on more food. Otherwise, we’ll have to spend several times the money on noodles.”

“I think so too. This food can still be stored. If the Manor Lord can’t afford to pay taxes this year, we can take some out for the villa owner’s emergency. The Manor Lord is so good to us, we should help him solve his problems.”

“That’s right. During this period of time, both the apprentice workers and the transportation workers have lost a lot of medicinal herbs. There are even some that were processed. In the end, the Manor Lord didn’t ask them to compensate him and even gave them a full salary. He’s simply a living Buddha.”

Thanks to the rise of the workshop, Song Ankang’s prestige, status, and reputation in Chaoyun Manor had skyrocketed. He had vaguely become the savior of Chaoyun Manor.

As the days passed, many tenants became more grateful and respectful to Song Ankang.

Everything was going well, but this was only in Chaoyun Village. Outside Chaoyun Manor, more and more villages were in an unprecedented panic.

So many days had passed, but there was still no rain. There would not be much harvest this year, and it was almost hopeless. Many villagers probably could not even afford to pay taxes.

Moreover, there was news from the upper echelons of the Imperial Court that not only would they not reduce taxes this year, they might even increase them.

At first, many villagers were dissatisfied, but as the reason spread, all the villagers gave up.

There was no other reason. Not only had the human race suffered an unprecedented drought this year, but the angels and merfolk, the greatest enemies of the human race, had suffered even worse. Their harvest was less than half of last year’s.

Under such circumstances, the food of the angels and mermaids could not feed their people at all. In order to survive the crisis, the angels and mermaids would definitely wage war on the humans and plunder their resources and wealth.

A large number of China’s troops had already set up the Heavenly Human Warline and the Merfolk Warline. They could start a war with the angels and merfolk at any time. There were external and internal troubles. All the citizens had to tighten their belts and pay more taxes in order to support the war at the front line.

Therefore, it was necessary to pay more taxes. They could not let the soldiers at the front fight for them while they were hungry. It did not matter if they were hungry. The soldiers at the front could not be hungry.

It was precisely because he understood that he became even more terrified and uneasy.

Many villages outside Chaoyun Manor desperately searched for wild vegetables, weeds, and leaves. They even took the risk to enter places where demons and ghosts wreaked havoc, such as the Red Leaves Forest.

Even so, the gains were still getting lesser and lesser, and it even caused an even greater disaster that affected Chaoyun Manor.