Hou Yao hurriedly hid his body behind the chair, and then looked around in horror, but where could he find half a human figure?
"Who? Who's talking?"
The voice sounded again:
"The Master said: Panic. Don't worry, if I want to kill you, you have already died a hundred times."
Hou Yao shouted:
"Who are you, and what do you want to do by breaking into my official residence?"
Suddenly he felt a strange movement on his head, and he fired an arm crossbow without hesitation.
"ah--."
There was a scream, and a middle-aged man with stubble fell from the beam.
The man covered his chest and pointed at Hou Yao with one finger and shouted in pain:
"You - you... are so cruel. This injury... I'm afraid it won't heal without a hundred taels of silver."
As he spoke, he turned his fingers into palms and spread them out in front of Hou Yao:
"Give me money quickly. If you don't have money today, I won't be done with you even if you are my junior sister."
When Hou Yao saw the man say this, he immediately understood who he was:
"Are you the number one killer of Biluo Huangquan, 'Silent Sound'?"
The man laughed:
"That's all for others to hear. You are one of our own and you can know my real name. Chen Junnan, you can just call me Brother Junnan.
Come on, come on, give me money, give me money, I ran for three days and three nights, and you shot another arrow.
If I don't have a hundred taels of silver to cover my shock, I will definitely go crazy. If I go crazy, I will deny my relatives, so you can decide what to do yourself."
Hou Yao, dumbfounded, took out two sixty-tael silver notes and handed them over:
"You can find your little brother so easily. You must have just arrived, right?"
Chen Junnan put away the banknotes with bright eyes:
"Oh, Master said: I don't have any change. If you have more change, you can treat me to dinner."
When I received the summons from my junior sister, I happened to take over a business in Guangzhou.
Then I rushed over and it only took two days."
"So it's been three days since you arrived? Why did you come to see me now? You heard everything we just said?
Chen Junnan laughed:
"As a killer, you naturally have to spend some time studying the local environment wherever you go. Otherwise, how will you deal with emergencies?
My brother-in-law is generous, and my senior brother will also give you a gift. This Li Jingshan has a very violent spirit.
I have only seen this kind of hostility among colleagues. Your uneasiness is actually being frightened by the hostility.
So, Senior Brother, I’d like to remind you, stay away from this person, and it’s best not to meet him alone, otherwise you won’t know how he died.”
Hou Yao thanked him:
"Thank you Jun...man."
Ah, this name is really disgusting. Holding back the discomfort, Hou Yao squeezed out a smile and said:
"Has Brother Handsome Man gone to see Xiu'er?"
Chen Junnan waved his hand:
"Confucius said: Don't do this. Yu Xiu'er and I are in the same school, but I was already out of school when she started.
We only have the name of being from the same school, but not the reality of being from the same school, so don't think about using her relationship to get me to give you a discount.
Confucius said: Love is love, money is money, don't even think about talking to me about feelings that hurt money."
Hou Yao didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so he could only say:
"Well, since this is the case, handsome man, let me give you a price. How much money does it cost to protect me for a year?"
Chen Junnan circled Hou Yao and looked up and down:
"You're a seventh-grade county magistrate, so you're not too arrogant. If you ask me to give you a price, aren't you afraid that you won't be able to get it?"
Hou Yao smiled contemptuously:
"I don't have any other abilities, but my ability to make money is as good as anyone's."
Chen Junnan clapped his hands:
"Master said: If I want one hundred thousand taels, can you give it to me?"
Hou Yao was very straightforward:
"make a deal."
Chen Junnan stamped his feet angrily:
"Damn it, scream too low."
Hou Yao smiled slightly:
"You will have a trial period of one year. If you perform well, I can give you an additional 20,000 taels as a bonus.
The premise is that you must have sufficient strength and contribution. In business, no one’s money comes by strong winds.”
Chen Junnan couldn't believe his ears. He was stunned for a long time and said suddenly:
"Is what you just said to Li Jingshan true? In addition to glass, do you really have other industries that make money?"
"No need to guess, just take your time and watch in the future. Let's go find Xiu'er to pick you up first."
…
With Li Jingshan's cooperation, Hou Yao can finally unleash his full firepower.
First, a large winery was built outside Nantou City to brew high-quality wine.
High-strength wine is also one of the commodities with huge profits.
Ordinary fruit wine and rice wine only cost more than ten cents per catty, while high-quality wine can be sold for dozens, hundreds or even two cents.
Take Sihaiban’s good wine ‘Ganlixiang’ as an example.
Ganlixiang is a kind of high-quality sorghum wine. A pot is about eight taels, and it requires eight hundred taels of silver.
However, such wine is not easy to obtain. The origin of dry fragrant wine is in the north, and only a few can be shipped by sea every year.
Therefore, this wine can only be supplied in limited quantities in Sihaiban, so that it can be sold at a sky-high price of two qian and eight hundred taels.
However, even in the northern production areas, the selling price is more than 200 liang per catty.
The price of high-altitude wine is directly proportional to the alcohol content. ‘Ganlixiang’ has about 42 degrees of alcohol, which is already the top high-altitude wine that traditional craftsmanship can produce.
The output of distilled liquor in Daxia cannot be increased, and there are very few people who master this technology. Basically, they are all in the north, and almost none in the south.
So Hou Yao decided to build a large distillery first, so that he could make some quick money by making wine;
Secondly, the ethanol produced has a wide range of uses, laying the foundation for producing a large number of ethanol products in the future.
Xiong Yushi's glass factory is ready for small-scale trial production. The first task is to manufacture a glass still according to Hou Yao's drawings.
This is another challenge to his skills, and it is also used to train newcomers.
According to Hou Yao's request, if a new person with good potential is discovered, every possible means should be used to bring him back to Starfish Island.
In addition to building these industries, another job Hou Yao did was to check the land cultivation situation in the county.
The south of Bao'an County is mountainous and farming is relatively difficult, while the north is almost all plain and hilly land with fertile land, which should be a good place for agricultural development.
However, because a large number of young and strong laborers are controlled by salt fields, the agricultural situation in the county is very bad, and the price of rice is much higher than that in surrounding counties.
There is obviously a lot of land suitable for farming, but it is all abandoned there.
Therefore, Hou Yao decided to unite several villages in the name of the county government to create a pilot area for large-scale planting.
The environment in Baoan County is also very suitable for growing corn. As long as it is planted for two seasons, there will be almost inexhaustible food.
At that time, we can do large-scale breeding of chickens, ducks, pigs and other livestock.
As long as it takes less than three years, Bao'an County will not be short of food.
Hou Yao is planning the future of Bao'an County step by step, and he has decided to use it as a base for advancement.
Let this become a production and manufacturing center, set up all the money-making industries here, and make a lot of money by selling it to Daxia.
Due to its small area, Starfish Island can only become a technology research and development center and weapons production center.
In mid-December, Zhou Tiesheng came back, and with him came Guo Ming.
Zhou Tiesheng asked him to wait in an uninhabited deserted house outside the city while he went into the city to report to Hou Yao.
In the evening, Hou Yao and his men took advantage of the darkness to go out of the city to see Guo Ming.
Guo Ming seems very honest, and Hou Yao is quite satisfied with his attitude:
"Did Gouzi's injury heal quickly?"
Guo Ming nodded honestly:
"Go back to me, sir, everything is fine."
"Do you know what I want you to do?"
"Back to the young master, Tiesheng briefly told me that I don't know if my subordinate can take on such an important task with his limited skills."
"It's okay. If you really encounter a master that you can't deal with, someone will help you. But before that, I planned to form a new underworld force.
But now I have changed my mind. I hope you can break into a gang in the shortest time and gain a certain status."
"Go back to my lord, I will do my best, but this kind of thing may not be that easy."
"It's okay, someone will cooperate with you. Starting from tomorrow, Zhou Tiesheng will become the head catcher of the yamen.
You, one white and one black, work together to bring down the loose gangster forces in the county.
The focus is on opium dens, which must be eliminated. Within half a year, I hope that opium dens will disappear in the county.
In half a year, I will announce a ban on the establishment of opium dens in the county. I hope that the resistance will be as small as possible.
In addition, try not to have a head-on conflict with the salt gang forces first."
Guo Ming and Zhou Tiesheng looked at each other, and then both said to Hou Yao:
"Yes, sir."
Hou Yao nodded:
"Okay, I remember you had a secret before. What is it?"
Guo Ming couldn't help but reveal a wry smile:
"This secret is of great importance and is not something that little people like us should know.
I am planning to carry this secret into the coffin, but I would like to ask, Master, are you really sure you want to know?"
Hou Yao thought for a while, then nodded and said:
"It's okay, just tell me."
Guo Ming sighed deeply, and then said slowly:
"The 'Kunpeng Treasure' was originally a trap set up by His Majesty the current emperor to trick the four sea kings into fighting.
I just didn't expect that the Poseidon actually left a mysterious treasure. To open the treasure, you have to find six jade flutes.
Eight years ago, the Hailong Gang got a jade flute, which led to the annihilation of the gang.
When the Hailong Gang was wiped out, almost all the major forces in the sea participated. I escaped desperately, alas..."
Hou Yao didn't speak, Chen Junnan said anxiously:
"Hey buddy, what a shitty secret you have? There must be a lot of people who know about this, right?"
Guo Ming glanced at Chen Junnan and said nothing.
Hou Yao patted Guo Ming on the shoulder and said:
"Are you trying to say that the jade flute is in your hand?"
Guo Ming nodded hesitantly, and everyone immediately let out an exclamation of surprise.
Hou Yao smiled, you can't possibly carry such an important thing with you, you must have hidden it, right?
Are you afraid that if I get the jade flute, I will kill you and silence you?
Guo Ming glanced at Hou Yao warily, but finally said nothing.
Hou Yao shook his head helplessly and took out the jade flute he got from Bai Tao from his arms:
"Is this what you're talking about?"
Guo Ming suddenly exclaimed:
"Sir, how could you have..."
Hou Yao shook his head regretfully:
"Honestly, I have no interest in the Poseidon's treasures, they are just some treasures.
It doesn't make any sense to me, I can easily earn ten times more wealth than the treasure.
Why waste so much effort to find some treasure?"
Chen Junnan hurriedly shouted:
"Master said: If you don't want it, I want it. Why don't you give it to me, brother-in-law?"
Hou Yao stretched out a finger:
"I'll sell it to you for one hundred thousand taels of silver."
Chen Junnan suddenly became confused and said:
"It's so expensive that I can't even afford it, so you should keep it for yourself."