Fine rain drizzled endlessly from the sky, causing the surface of the river to turn misty. The visibility of it had reduced significantly. The passenger ship which just moved out from the Qinghe County wharf also couldn’t help but decrease the speed at which they were traveling after they entered the Xi River from the Willow River.
A woman carrying a tightly swaddled infant was sitting on the hold of the ship by the window. The window’s bolt was already a little damaged so the window couldn’t be shut completely. The moment the rain poured, the wind and the drizzle on the river’s surface got tangled up with the wave of cold air that flew in through the small crack of the window. Coming into contact with it, the swaddled baby who was sleeping soundly began to cry loudly as a result.
The woman with the infant swaddled the baby securely to shelter the infant from the storm and cold, while attempting to amuse the wailing baby. The storm outside rattled the window which couldn't be shut tight. The woman wanted to reach out to close the window but since she needed to carry and amuse her baby, she was momentarily at a loss on what to do. The baby’s cries also began to get louder and louder...
"Big Sister, if you don’t mind, why don’t we exchange seats…" At this moment, a voice suddenly emerged from behind the woman. The woman carrying the infant turned to look and took in the sight of red lips and white teeth — a pure-spirited handsome and bright young man around fourteen to fifteen years old. He stood up from his seat at the back and smiled at her.
The young man’s seat was directly behind the woman’s. There weren’t any windows at the side which happened to shelter the place from the wind and the drizzling rain outside.
"Thank you very much! Thank you so much…" The woman hurriedly stood up while she carried her child, thanking him as she exchanged seats with him.
The youngster moved to the front seat, placing the leather bag he carried on his back on his knees. His leather bag managed to shelter the majority of his body from the rain that was blowing in from the window; the rain was unable to touch his body. Then, the young man, calm and unruffled, tilted his head to enjoy the scenery outside on the river with interest.
This young man was Yan Liqiang. Today, it was already the 27th of the eighth lunar month in the 12th year of the Yuanping reign. Yan Liqiang had left both Liuhe Town and Qinghe County a day earlier to report himself at Pingxi Prefectural City’s martial arts academy.
The young man at fourteen to fifteen years of age was currently experiencing adolescent development. During these two months, Yan Liqiang had been practicing the Muscle Tendon Changing every day without fail. In a short span of two months, his body height had grown another inch more and his figure was stronger with increased strength potential. Even the aura he emitted appeared to be different compared to two months ago. His eyes were particularly clear and alert. Regardless of who saw the state he was in now, they would praise him in their hearts for such a graceful and handsome young man he had become.
Within these two months, apart from being immersed in cultivating, Yan Liqiang didn’t need to worry about the situation back at home.
Yan Dechang’s body was already gradually healing. Apart from some heavy tasks in forging ironware, he was able to move about at ease. A few days ago in the blacksmith workshop, Yan Dechang began to gradually impart his well-kept secret techniques of controlling the temperature as well as creating high-grade well-tempered steel to Zhou Tiezhu.
These techniques were originally unique skills that Yan Dechang had held back from divulging as a master so he wouldn’t easily impart the knowledge to his disciple. But Zhou Tiezhu had shown his character and he shouldered responsibility when the Yan Clan was faced with a crisis. He spared no effort to bear the hardships together with the Yan Clan. Yan Dechang had noticed everything in the tail of his eye. He was incredibly touched. Once they got through the crisis, he officially imparted his genuine techniques in smithing to Zhou Tiezhu.
Within the two months after Yan Liqiang received first place in the Martial Arts County Trial Examination, the reputation of the Yan Clan’s blacksmith workshop in Liuhe Town suddenly spread like wildfire. Not just in Liuhe Town, even the surrounding towns as the many residents in the county seat would flock over due to the name. The Yan Clan’s blacksmith workshop business instantly improved more than tenfold. There was an endless stream of customers who dropped in every day.
Under this circumstance, Yan Dechang went according to Yan Liqiang’s suggestion and extended the blacksmith workshop over the past two months. He then recruited six disciples who had always wanted to be his disciples in the workshop from the town and gave Zhou Tiezhu a thirty percent share in the Yan Clan’s blacksmith workshop. He allowed Zhou Tiezhu to begin training his junior brothers as a senior brother and become a master in his own right.
Thus, after imparting his well-guarded techniques to Zhou Tiezhu, Yan Dechang from then on became the Yan Clan’s blacksmith workshop’s shopkeeper and head while Zhou Tiezhu in turn became the master as well as the person in charge of specific tasks in the blacksmith workshop.
On top of that, under Yan Liqiang’s persistence, the business operations of the Yan Clan’s blacksmith workshop was revamped.
Prior to this, the Yan Clan’s blacksmith workshop was no different than other workshops and would accept almost any request, ranging from farming tools used daily to hoes, horseshoes, horse nails, locks, cleavers, sickles, axes, swords, breastplates to fire steels....and more. So long as the customers needed it, the Yan Clan’s blacksmith workshop would assist to forge it; but now they would only make one thing: blades, which were weapons.
Yan Dechang was also skeptical at first about making such a significant change in their business model. However, Yan Liqiang easily convinced him that since there were so many customers dropping in and requesting for a myriad of items, Yan Dechang wouldn’t be able to cope with it even if he recruited ten more disciples based on the scale of the blacksmith workshop now. When that happened, he would be pushing all his customers away and if he didn’t accept them, they would be offended. As a result, the Yan Clan would be insulted, and this would cause endless slander that would ultimately destroy their reputation. If he accepted everyone’s requests, then he would be offending the neighboring towns’ blacksmiths and would be resented by them because the other blacksmith workshops’ businesses were also involved in forging ordinary farming tools, hoes, horseshoes, horse nails, locks, cleavers, fire steels and the like. If he accepted requests from the neighboring towns, how would the other blacksmith shops and those of the same trade earn their keep? Under this circumstance, the Yan Clan’s blacksmith workshop would only focus the scope of their goods on weapons such as swords, they’d spread word that they specialized in this area to completely avert this issue...
When it came to weapons such as blades, they garnered high profits and had a wide range of demands. Furthermore, there was no direct competition with the blacksmith workshops in the neighboring towns. Thus, the decision for the Yan Clan’s blacksmith store to specialize in weapon crafting did not have any effect on the other blacksmith stores, wouldn’t destroy the livelihood of the surrounding workers of the same trade, and they would not be offending the customers that stopped by. It could even result in a good reputation. So long as the swords and blades crafted by the Yan Clan’s blacksmith workshop were up to par, they wouldn’t need to worry about the lack of sales.
As for the quality of the weapons produced, although Blacksmith Yan couldn’t forge a sword of the highest quality, he wouldn’t face any issues in forging a solid sword.
Exactly one week ago, a brand new shop sign was suspended in the expanded blacksmith workshop of the Yan Clan. The shop sign read two words, ‘Yan Blades’.
Yan Liqiang exhibited his painting skill and designed an artistic and unrivaled logo for their own blade products — a vicious tiger and a soaring dragon spiraling into an abstract and succinct circle. Within the circle was the character for Yan. Yan Liqiang told Yan Dechang that every blade forged by the Yan Clan would need to be sealed with this steel engraving, marked with this symbol to signify that this item was created by the Yan Clan.
The artisans in this era were still unfamiliar with the idea of a logo, let alone the concept of intangible assets. However, to Yan Liqiang who had lived two lives clearly understood the significance.
Prior to this, Yan Dechang wasn’t really impressed either. However, after he saw the Yan logo Yan Liqiang revealed, a sense of dignified glory rippled throughout his heart. He said to Yan Liqiang that since every blade would be sealed with Yan, the blades that did not pass his inspection would never be sold to anyone, so as to avoid tarnishing the reputation of the Yan Clan.
Regarding this, Yan Liqiang was naturally more than happy to oblige.
Besides the huge change that took place at the blacksmith workshop in the two months, the matter in which Yan Liqiang requested Lu Wenbin to purchase both a land and a store also returned with results.
Speaking of which, it was really a coincidence. The land and store that Lu Wenbin bought for the Yan Clan were assets belonged to the Hong Clan before.
After Old Master Hong passed away, the news of the Hong Clan hiring an assassin to deal with the Yan Clan was abuzz in Qinghe County. Almost everyone knew about it. Qinghe County immediately used the fact that the descendants of the Hong Clan were wicked and had brought chaos to the law as a reason to confiscate the Hong Clan’s two hundred mu of conferred fields.
Hong Clan had fallen apart, leading the outsiders to covet their assets. The more than four hundred mu of land that the Hong Clan had in Yuntao County, as well as the yellow noodles factory, was unexpectedly occupied by a couple of local tyrants using the IOU previously issued by Hong An in the end. The remaining members of the Hong Clan were useless. A couple of the younger folks in the Hong Clan went to the file a lawsuit at Yuntao County but they didn’t win it. It wasn’t possible for the land and the factory to be taken back so they were completely helpless in the face of crisis.
Without the assets in Yuntao County, the people of the Hong Clan was even more aggressive in fighting over the remaining farmlands and housing in Liuhe Town. The remaining people in the Hong Clan simply divided up the lands and distributed them equally. After the assets were distributed, the people were worried that there might be some others who would come to wrangle and occupy their properties by force with another IOU slip in hand. In addition to that, the Hong Clan’s reputation in Qinghe County and Liuhe Town was tarnished. And since Yan Liqiang won first place in the Martial Arts County Trial Examination, the status of the Yan Clan in Liuhe Town was different from before. Fearing that the Yan Clan would seek revenge against them, the people left in the Hong Clan were in a hurry to exchange the lands into money so they could reap the profits before taking the wealth with them to flee from Liuhe Town.
Under such conditions, after Steward Lu discussed this with Yan Liqiang, he would step in under the name of Lu Clan to directly purchase the 460 plus mu of lands, inclusive of the connecting first-rate fertile lands as well as six two-story loft storefronts and two yellow noodles factory from the descendants of Hong Clan at an extremely profitable price. He bought everything and transferred everything to the Yan Clan in the name of the Lu Clan.
Throughout the entire ordeal, Steward Lu did an impeccable job. Nobody was able to find even the slightest fault in it. When he was trading with the Hong Clan, Steward Lu had even called for a witness and a lawyer. Once he had obtained the deeds for the lands and the residence from the Hong Clan during the delivery, he went to the government office in Qinghe County to file it and have it recorded. After that, when the Lu Clan passed these items to the Yan Clan, they performed the procedures again.
In Liuhe Town, the Hong Clan’s old manor and the other scattered fields and properties had been bought out by other rich families.
After the assets were sold off, the people of the Hong Clan moved away one after another from Liuhe Town. The entire Hong Clan practically vanished like smoke in thin air in the blink of an eye from the town. They didn’t leave anything behind, except for Hong Tao who had gone insane, going about to babble nonsense every single day as the children ridiculed him.
As for the Yan Clan, they had also become a great family and landowner possessing numerous mu of good agricultural lands in Liuhe Town in one single leap. Those employed farmers who used to work for the Hong Clan had to now rely on the Yan Clan one after another. They signed a contract with the Yan Clan and became their employed farmers.
With the sudden growth in their family property, it would require manpower to help them manage and administer it. Under such circumstances, Zhou Hongda and his wife permanently stayed at the Yan Clan. Both husband and wife did their duty and were diligent in their tasks. Zhou Hongda’s wife and Mother Wu were responsible for the affairs at the residence and would perform chores such as cooking meals and cleaning every day. As for Zhou Hongda, he instantly became the Yan Clan’s first steward.
Now that there were more mouths to feed at home, both Zhou Hongda’s wife and Mother Wu were beginning to find it difficult to cope with. With no other choice, they fired a couple of maids and servants. As a steward, Zhou Hongda would occasionally need to claim rent and deal with the employed farmers. Sometimes, relying on glib talk was pointless as he wasn’t able to attend to the land tax dealings on his own. Thus, the Yan Clan hired another two guards.
With so many people to feed that were living in the Yan Residence, the small residence that the Yan Clan had before wasn’t enough at all. When Yan Liqiang left Liuhe Town, the new large manor of the Yan Clan located at the edge of the Willow River was undergoing construction like wildfire...
After the name ‘Yan Blades’ was widespread, Yan Dechang still felt anxious during that time because he was worried whether his blacksmith workshop could support so many disciples. Thus, before Yan Liqiang left, Yan Liqiang once again drew a new weapon diagram for Yan Dechang with ease and requested the Yan Clan’s blacksmith workshop to specialize in forging this item...
The weapon diagram that Yan Liqiang left behind was a Nepalese curved knife, commonly referred to as a ‘kukri knife’.
In his past life on Earth, although the Nepalese curved knife design was odd, it was a revered weapon that greatly conformed to the physics of the world.
Relying on this weapon would topple every practitioner and martial artist’s impression towards curved knives in this era. Yan Liqiang was absolutely confident that he could make a name for Yan Blades brand...
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