DLWAV CH89

After leaving all the supplies behind and keeping two people there, the middle-aged man headed straight back to Earth with the other two.

The assembled national leaders and expert academicians, who had never expected them to return so quickly: “……”

Once it was confirmed that the middle-aged man and the others showed no significant physical issues, they all settled back into the meeting room at the National Academy of Sciences.

And the middle-aged man’s very first words were: “I saw Mr. Xia Ruize.”

The assembled leaders and expert academicians: “……”

Someone said reflexively: “Did you lot end up in the underworld?”

The middle-aged man and the others: “……”

Everyone else: “……”

The middle-aged man: “No. It was Mr. Xia, alive……”

He then gave a thorough account of everything he had witnessed and experienced after arriving in that ancient world.

Mr. Xia was still alive?

Just as the middle-aged man and the others had reacted before them, everyone was stunned for a moment.

Only the expert academicians from the Academy of Sciences, once they came back to their senses, felt the world go dark before their eyes.

Because they had just recalled the days of being under Ao Ruize’s thumb.

It seemed that until their dying day, they would never truly know a life free of Ao Ruize.

Why must heaven produce both Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang!

So much so that someone actually couldn’t hold back a choked sob.

The assembled leaders, meanwhile, were overjoyed: “Wonderful.”

“If Mr. Xia is right there on that side, our exploration of the new world should be considerably simpler.”

But the middle-aged man cut him off directly: “On that point, I’m afraid Mr. Xia currently has no way to offer us much assistance.”

Everyone present: “What?”

The middle-aged man said: “Because Mr. Xia himself is in a rather precarious position right now.”

“He is currently being hunted by the imperial court.”

The brows of everyone present furrowed instantly: “What happened?”

The middle-aged man immediately gave a detailed account of Ao Ruize’s situation.

The room erupted in a mixture of outrage and incredulous laughter.

“This is the Tumu Crisis and the Restoration of Tianshun transposed to another world entirely.”

“They’re even more shameless than Zhu Qizhen.”

And most critically of all, the one being wronged was Mr. Xia himself.

“It’s just an ancient dynasty. We’ll simply topple it.”

After all, China had built its foundations on overthrowing feudal dynasties, so in matters like this, they were merely following in their forebears’ footsteps.

And to put it bluntly, armed with modern firearms, bringing down a feudal dynasty would be an almost trivially simple affair.

The middle-aged man: “My thoughts exactly.”

“Which is why I came back, to ask for reinforcements.”

The highest-ranking leader immediately slapped the table: “Mr. Xia has made immeasurable contributions to China. Now, it is China’s turn to repay him.”

“So this time, we will support him with everything we have.”

Everyone rose to their feet at once and said in unison: “Yes.”

And so, two days later, the middle-aged man returned to the ancient world, bringing with him two weapons specialists, one expert in chemical engineering, and one specialist in geography.

But whether it was manufacturing firearms or raising troops, both required money.

After all, the only shuttle they could currently build was of a fixed size, and with five people aboard, the remaining storage space was minimal. On top of that, each round trip burned through seven or eight hundred million yuan, which made shipping a supply of weapons and ammunition from China to Da Qian clearly impractical.

Otherwise, they could have simply transported a few thousand tonnes of silver over and thrown the entire dynasty into turmoil.

Because silver, in an ancient era with primitive mining technology, was a primary currency and a precious commodity. But in the modern era, silver was no longer considered particularly valuable, given that China’s annual production alone reached forty thousand tonnes.

So their first order of business was still making money.

The middle-aged man said at once: “That’s simple enough. Glass, soap, refined sugar, sea salt processing, artificial jade. Any one of these, brought out on its own, would be more than enough to fill our coffers.”

Even if these were all tropes worn out from overuse in transmigration novels.

But all things considered, the reason transmigration novels kept using them was precisely because they were highly practical.

Lu Dang: “……”

They even had the formulas for glass and soap, things that could earn a merchant a fortune every single day?

But Lu Dang immediately spotted a problem.

“Mr. Gao, what you’ve described would indeed help us raise large sums of money in the shortest possible time. But for precisely that reason, the moment we release any of these things, we will inevitably draw the covetous attention of powerful officials and nobility.”

And their first move would certainly be to investigate the origins of whoever was behind it.

Once those powerful figures dug up anything suspicious, only one fate would await them: death without so much as a burial.

“Especially Yangzhou Prefect Song Jiyang and the Prince of Huai’an. They would be the first to come after us.”

“Because glass and soap are currently the golden goose for both of their households.”

So how could they possibly tolerate anyone else laying hands on it?

The middle-aged man no longer had the bandwidth to dwell on why he had caught what seemed like a distinct undercurrent of hostility in Lu Dang’s words. His full attention had locked onto the last thing Lu Dang said: “What did you just say?”

“The Yangzhou Prefect Song Jiyang’s household knows how to produce glass and soap?”

“Is the glass they produce clear, white glass?”

Lu Dang nodded.

The expressions of the middle-aged man and the others shifted in an instant.

Because in their own world, it wasn’t until the modern era that China had truly mastered the production of clear, transparent glass.

Yet in this Da Qian Dynasty, whose historical trajectory was nearly identical to China’s and whose timeline corresponded to roughly the Yuan Dynasty period, someone had already managed to produce transparent white glass.

That was clearly not normal by any measure.

The middle-aged man: “Investigate.”

Before long, a detailed investigative report was laid out before the middle-aged man and the others.

“Song Qingying. Second legitimate daughter of Yangzhou Prefect Song Jiyang. By nature arrogant and domineering…… Half a year ago, she suffered an unfortunate fall into the water at a spring banquet hosted by the Princess of Huai’an…… After regaining consciousness, her temperament changed entirely…… Two months later, she leased two shops in the prime location of Yangzhou city, one selling glassware, the other selling soap. Then, in barely four months, she amassed close to one million taels for the Song family and the Prince of Huai’an’s household……”

At that point, the middle-aged man raised his head directly.

Because there was no need to read any further.

“This Song Qingying has in all likelihood also transmigrated from modern society.”

After all, this background was practically the standard template for the female lead of an old-fashioned romantic transmigration novel.

The middle-aged man’s first thought was that perhaps they could recruit Song Qingying to their side.

But he quickly dismissed the idea.

Because this Miss Song was clearly not a decent person.

That much was evident simply from the ruthless methods she had used against her stepsister.

And it was plain to see that she thoroughly enjoyed her current status and position.

Which meant she would certainly have no desire to overturn the existing order.

If they couldn’t be allies, then they could only be enemies.

Though that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing either.

Because it meant they would have no need for any qualms whatsoever about dealing with Song Qingying.

The middle-aged man said at once: “In that case, it really would be inconvenient for us to sell glassware and soap ourselves.”

Then he smiled: “But we can sell the formulas directly.”

“I imagine every noble and merchant in Jiangnan Circuit by now knows exactly how profitable glass and soap are.”

“So if we tell them we have the formulas for glass and soap in hand, they should be more than willing to pay a handsome price for them.”

All they needed to do was go in disguise when selling the formulas, and change back to their original appearances afterward.

That way, there would be no need to worry about anyone tracing anything back to them.

Hearing this, the others all laughed as well.

They decided on the spot and moved immediately.

The following day, the middle-aged man and the others split into five groups and set off for the other prefectures of Jiangnan Circuit.

Just as the middle-aged man had said, thanks to Song Qingying’s tireless promotion, there was not a person of means across all of Jiangnan Circuit who wasn’t green with envy over the glass and soap formulas in her possession.

The only reason no one had dared to move against the Song family was that Song Qingying had once saved the Prince of Huai’an’s eldest son, and had later voluntarily offered the Prince thirty percent of the profits from the glass and soap operations.

So the moment word spread that someone was openly selling glass and soap formulas, and that the glassware produced from this seller’s formula was even clearer and purer than the Song family’s, and that the varieties of soap on offer were even more numerous than Song Qingying’s, they could no longer sit still.

They were wary of the Prince of Huai’an standing behind the Song family, yes. But that wariness only extended to not daring to take the Song family’s formulas by force.

The situation was different now. These formulas were being brought openly to their doorstep. What did they have to fear?

So they immediately came rushing to the middle-aged man and the others, waving banknotes.

The result was that five days later, staring at the two million taels of silver and banknotes piled on the table, Lu Dang, excited as he was, found only one thought left in his mind: it seemed he had barely gotten started before already falling behind the middle-aged man.

Especially once the middle-aged man began laying out his plans with considerable enthusiasm shortly afterward.

The middle-aged man said: “Now that we have the funds, we can put our plan into motion.”

“Professor Chen, the task of mass-producing firearms falls to you.”

“Professor Zhao, the task of stockpiling medicine falls to you.”

……

“Xiao Li, take five thousand taels of silver to the Jiangnan Circuit Military Command tomorrow and purchase a hundred-household officer post. Work toward taking command of that ten-thousand-strong army within six months.”

“Understood.”

With that settled, the middle-aged man turned to look at Ao Ruize: “Mr. Xia…… Mr. Zhou, please rest assured. Within one year, we will twist that Emperor Zhangwu’s head off and bring it to you to use as a football.”

Ao Ruize smiled and nodded: “You have all worked hard.”

Lu Dang was completely unable to sit still any longer.

He thought: bringing the Li family and Third Master Liu over to their side had to be moved up the agenda immediately.

Otherwise the middle-aged man truly would end up replacing him.

And while Lu Dang and the middle-aged man were both throwing themselves into their respective tasks with tremendous energy, Jiangnan Circuit suddenly saw over a hundred new shops appear, all selling glass and soap.

Most critically, these shops were pricing their goods at only half of what the Song family charged.

The Song family’s business collapsed overnight.

But that was not even the most critical thing.

The most critical thing was that a rumor had suddenly begun circulating in the streets.

It was said that the production cost of each piece of glass was actually less than one qian of silver, including the full-length dressing mirrors selling for a thousand taels at the Song family’s glassware shop.

And before this, not wanting to let the Prince of Huai’an take too large a share of the profits, the Song family had consistently told the Prince that their production costs for glass and soap amounted to seventy percent of the selling price.

Crash.

The teacup in Yangzhou Prefect Song Jiyang’s hand dropped straight to the floor and shattered.

And right at that moment, a servant came running in with a look of panic: “My lord, someone has come from the Prince of Huai’an’s residence. They say the Prince invites my lord and the young miss to come for tea.”

It didn’t take much imagining to work out that the Prince of Huai’an’s household had clearly heard the rumor. The invitation to tea was nothing but a pretext. Being called to account was the real purpose.

Song Jiyang felt the world go dark before him.

“Where is the second miss? Get her back here. Get her back here now!”

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