Chapter 628 - 455: Running a Small Business (2)

Rather than going through such trouble, it’s better to trade directly with people like Zhao Qing and them.

Although what we get is a bit less, by giving them a fair share of profits, they turn a blind eye to many matters.

However, a few years ago, many strong laborers from their village were conscripted by the Zhao Family to go to war.

Originally, they thought they were dealing with ordinary people, but it turned out the enemy suddenly had cultivators.

After a bitter battle, although they defeated the enemy, the strong laborers of Flint Village suffered heavy losses.

Yet despite such a huge loss, the Zhao Family not only showed no gratitude but also blamed the villagers of Flint Village for their lack of strength.

Since then, Flint Village has not only been in decline but the situation has gotten worse and worse.

"Indeed, it can be said that we have a deep-seated hatred towards the Zhao Family," Zheng Yi said, quite content with the village.

Their decline is a matter of recent years, meaning the younger generation in the village all share a blood feud with the Zhao Family.

The next is Luma Village, where the male population is scarce, and there are more grown women.

Relying solely on their own strong laborers, it’s almost impossible to complete the mining work. However, the fact that Luma Village has continued to exist up to now is naturally due to its unique methods.

The women of Luma Village are extremely skilled in spinning. While all women of this era can spin and make linen, Luma Village has its own secret formula, creating linen that is both fine and durable.

Though this linen cannot be directly exchanged for Fire Rock Ore, due to the mine’s size and the surrounding towns and villages, there is always a demand for linen, which can, in various ways, be exchanged for ore.

But, compared to precious Fire Rock Ore, the value of the linen is too low. Thus, they can only barely exchange it for a portion of the allocation, struggling to make ends meet.

The last one is Xiyuan Village, which Zheng Yi values the most.

Xiyuan Village is quite far from the mine and has a lot of land. It’s the only village around the mine known for producing a considerable amount of grain.

Villages like Riverbend Village and Flint Village earn mainly from mining. In good years, they can extract a fair amount of extra ore each month.

But since their own output is low, most of the ore is exchanged for resources like grain and cloth.

As harsh as it may seem, these villages maintain a strange state of peace in this way.

The choice of these villages is entirely according to Zheng Yi’s intentions by Zhou Kunshan.

Villages that can cooperate must hold resentment against the Zhao Family.

More importantly, their situations shouldn’t be too favorable, and there should be mutual interests between both sides.

Promises mean nothing compared to intertwined interests.

Only by working in tandem can they best avoid cozying up or being ambiguous with the Zhao Family.

"Everyone, this is my Lord," Zhou Kunshan introduced Zheng Yi to Lin Dadao and the other two.

Then he introduced the village chiefs of the three villages to Zheng Yi.

"This is Village Chief Lin Dadao from Flint Village."

"This is Village Chief Feng Lai from Luma Village."

"This is Village Chief Zhang Gu from Xiyuan Village."

All three village chiefs curiously sized up Zheng Yi. Upon seeing him, they immediately sensed something different.

It was a sense of superiority ingrained in his bones, much like they felt when facing the Zhao Family.

Yet this feeling was somewhat different; Zheng Yi didn’t have the brutality of the Zhao Family, maintaining authority without invoking fear.

While they observed Zheng Yi, Zheng Yi was also examining them.

The village chief of Flint Village, likely in his fifties or sixties, had hair and beard all white, yet his muscles were still like those of a bodybuilding champion, as if carved by knife and axe.

The village chief from Luma Village surprised everyone by being a woman. A woman who had worked for years on the mining site couldn’t be exceptionally attractive, with a somewhat plump figure. Other than being short, her features faintly bore feminine traits.

The village chief from Xiyuan Village was the youngest, likely in his thirties, with a thin frame and dark skin, typical of a regular farmer.

"I assume the village leaders were briefed on why I’ve invited you all here?"

Lin Dadao laughed heartily, "Zhou the kid told me you seem to want to do business with us, am I right?"

Zheng Yi nodded slightly, "Village Chief Lin, you’re right. I do want to do some business with you all, as each of your villages has goods that we lack."

"Coincidentally, due to certain reasons, our village recently acquired a lot of meat. Such items can’t be stored for long, so the best solution is naturally to exchange them for things that can be stored for much longer."

"That’s not a problem," Feng Lai eagerly replied before Zheng Yi finished, "It’s perfect that we have some surplus linen in our village. How about I send it over to Riverbend Village tonight?"

To fulfill the Zhao family’s quota, Luma Village often engaged in such trade.

Due to various reasons, the recent batch of linen sales had been unsatisfactory, and Feng Lai was worried about meeting this month’s obligations.

Unexpectedly, just when she was anxious, Zheng Yi wanted to trade with them, as if delivering coal during a snowfall.

Zhang Gu furrowed his brow, contemplating for a while before smiling wryly, "Though our village has some grain in storage, its value isn’t particularly high. Of course, if you’re willing to buy, we’d be happy to sell."

Only Lin Dadao from Flint Village frowned and said, "Both other villages have goods to sell, but we at Flint Village don’t have any such items. You must have the wrong people."

Zheng Yi laughed heartily, "Village Chief Lin, don’t be anxious. If I’m not mistaken, you should have access to salt, right? This is a critical resource for us, and if possible, I hope to purchase it from you regularly."

Lin Dadao’s eyes lit up. Even for Flint Village, meat was still very much valued.

If there weren’t appropriate channels to get enough salt, the people of Flint Village couldn’t possibly be as robust as young oxen.

These individuals were all tacitly avoiding asking about the origin of the meat.

After all, regardless of how Zheng Yi obtained the meat, as long as it could be eaten and fill their villagers’ bellies, that was enough, right?

"My lord, are you really not going to tell them our plan?" Zhou Kunshan asked quizzically after sending off the village chiefs.

"It’s too early now... Although these villages’ situations are dire, they haven’t reached the point of collapse."

Thus, both sides still need to establish a degree of contact.

Most importantly, Zheng Yi needs them to personally experience the benefits derived from trading with Riverbend Village.

That night, the linens from Luma Village had already been delivered.

For the salt from Flint Village, they needed to contact the seller to order it. As for the grain from Xiyuan Village, the distance was quite far, so it would only arrive the next day.

Even without seeing the goods, Zheng Yi instructed his people to secretly deliver the meat to them.

With powerhouses Zhou Kunshan and Fengg Haitao on hand, sneaking past the nominal guards wasn’t too challenging.

In fact, around the mine, there’s hardly any real guarding force.

At most, they just set up some symbolic checkpoints along major routes.

This increase in security was because more rebellions have occurred in recent years.

If this were decades back, there wouldn’t even be that level of guards.

The ones doing such thankless tasks naturally wouldn’t care much about the job.

Many of the checkpoint guards would do a round for about an hour at most, spending the rest of the time hiding away to slack off or sleep.

Many times, Zhou Kunshan and the others didn’t need to bypass the checkpoints.

They just waited for the guards to slack off, then swaggered through.