Chapter 25: The Skill of Turning Stone into Gold

Chapter 25: The Skill of Turning Stone into Gold

Xiao Ce was just about to return to the carriage when his stomach rumbled.

He thought about having Da Lei get him something to eat.

It had to be said, as a modern person, the food here really had little flavor.

Moreover, the taste of the food here truly was quite bland.

Also, the coarse salt here had a kind of astringent taste.

It seemed the first thing to do after arriving in the Northern Desert would be to produce fine salt, white sugar, and other such seasonings.

For Xiao Ce, every meal was simply for filling the stomach.

Just as Xiao Ce was eating as if chewing wax,

the sound of hoofbeats came from outside. He went out to take a look.

It was indeed Lin Zhong returning with Han Da and Yan Jia.

Xiao Ce estimated there were about a hundred horses.

Now his problem of troops was settled.

But to deal with the Turkic, forming a cavalry would require many horses.

Actually, the garrison troops in the Four Northern Desert Prefectures had horse ranches.

However, those were under the control of his cousin Xiao Yang’s uncle, Bao An, and he definitely couldn’t get his hands on them.

Moreover, Xiao Ce had also asked Lin Zhong if they could purchase horses in large quantities.

Lin Zhong said that in recent years, the Turkic had been frequently invading. Therefore, the court had ordered that horses could not be bought or sold in large batches.

Any large quantity of horses was directly purchased by the court.

However, there were still horse dealers with ten or twenty horses!

Since he was thinking of buying some necessary things along the way anyway, after discussing with Lin Zhong, they planned to go to cities along the route to purchase the supplies Xiao Ce needed.

They could also buy some horses, maybe a hundred per city; along the journey, they could gather several thousand horses.

This way, with a cavalry force of several thousand, they would be enough to protect themselves.

As the old saying went, having parents with things is not as good as having things yourself.

“Uncle Zhong, did it go smoothly?” Xiao Ce asked Lin Zhong.

Lin Zhong nodded and said, “Very smoothly. But what’s the use of you buying so much brown sugar and coarse salt? Although the Northern Desert lacks supplies, prices there are much lower than here.”

“I’ve only heard of people bringing things from the Northern Desert to sell in the Capital. I’ve never heard of buying things in the Capital to sell in the Northern Desert.”

Although Lin Zhong helped Xiao Ce buy these things, he really racked his brains and couldn’t figure out how to make a profit from them!

Xiao Ce looked at the sky for a moment; although it had grown dark.

He had slept all day and wasn’t sleepy at all now.

He thought it was time to show off his skill.

“Uncle Zhong, are you sleepy?” Xiao Ce asked Lin Zhong.

Lin Zhong was confused by Xiao Ce’s sudden question and shook his head, saying, “Does the Prince have some orders?”

Xiao Ce said to Lin Zhong, “Didn’t you ask? What are those things for? I’ll show you how This Prince can turn stone into gold!”

Seeing Xiao Ce say this, Lin Zhong quickly smiled and said, “Prince, I’m not sleepy.”

Xiao Ce asked, “Alright, Uncle Zhong, how many servants did you bring from the Capital? Are they trustworthy?”

Lin Zhong said to Xiao Ce, “Reporting to Your Majesty, there are thirty in total. They are all bondservants from the Prince of Zhenguo’s Mansion. Their families are at the Prince of Zhenguo’s Mansion, and I trained them myself. They are absolutely trustworthy.”

Xiao Ce nodded and then said, “Do we have that brown sugar and coarse salt here?”

Lin Zhong nodded and said, “Reporting to the Prince, what we purchased, according to your request, is being sent directly to the Northern Desert by the merchant group. But, we have some here for our own consumption.”

“Bring over a hundred catties of coarse salt and a hundred catties of brown sugar.”

“Also get a few large pots, charcoal, gauze, burlap. And go get some yellow mud water.”

Lin Zhong kept nodding at first, but when he heard ‘yellow mud water,’ he asked in surprise, “Yellow mud water?”

Xiao Ce nodded and said, “Yes, hurry up and go. Also have all those servants come over. This Prince will teach you this skill of turning stone into gold!”

Although he didn’t really think there was any such skill as turning stone into gold in this world.

Even though he didn’t know what Xiao Ce was going to do, seeing Xiao Ce’s serious expression, Lin Zhong didn’t dare delay.

He hurried off!

What Xiao Ce wanted to make was simple: white sugar and refined salt.

The simplest method was making white sugar using the yellow mud water decolorization method.

Then refining the coarse salt to produce refined salt.

Actually, as a modern person, he didn’t think this was difficult, but in this era, it was truly hard to achieve.

Also, based on the current speed of spending, Xiao Ce had to make changes.

He originally planned to make these things after arriving at the Four Northern Desert Prefectures.

However, now that he had Lin Zhong’s trustworthy people, he could do the production at night and sell during the day.

Not to mention anything else, just this white sugar alone.

Ordinary people naturally couldn’t afford it. But those high officials and nobles would flock to it.

Scarcity increases value!

His refined salt and white sugar would also be sold to those high officials and nobles.

After a short while, Lin Zhong came over with thirty-two people.

There were twenty men and twelve women, all looking about thirty years old.

This age in ancient times was precisely the time when one had elders above and children below!

And the families of these people all worked at the Prince of Zhenguo’s Mansion; they were essentially hostages.

These people were naturally much more reliable than ordinary hired help.

Lin Zhong walked to Xiao Ce’s side, slightly bowed, and said, “Prince, everyone is here.”

Xiao Ce nodded and said to Da Lei, “Within a hundred meters of me, don’t let anyone approach.”

He also said to Han Da and Yan Jia, “You two go with Da Lei and assist him.”

The two men clasped their hands in agreement and called people to post guards around the perimeter.

Han Da and Yan Jia called some registered young men from the grain transport team to form the first line of defense outside.

Da Lei led the death warriors to patrol the area about fifty meters away.

Seeing this kind of setup, these bondservants all became very nervous.

Xiao Ce gave them a slight smile and said, “Uncle Zhong told me, you are all people This Prince can absolutely trust!”

“So, this time, This Prince needs to teach you a skill, a skill of turning stone into gold!”

When he said this, everyone’s eyes lit up.

“However, since it’s a skill of turning stone into gold! This Prince needs you to keep it absolutely secret. Once you learn it, each of you present will receive an income of one hundred taels of silver per month! Of course, the money isn’t given for free! You can only work for This Prince doing this job for the rest of your lives, and you need absolute secrecy. Once this technique leaks! Not only will you not get the money, I will also take the lives of your entire families.”

When Xiao Ce said this, his voice couldn’t help but turn cold.

“So, any of you who want to back out now can still do so!”

Everyone said excitedly, ‘Prince, from the moment we followed you and left the Capital, we gave our lives to you! We’ll work for the Prince!’

“That’s right, being able to earn one hundred taels of silver a month is like picking up money. Prince, this is a gift from you!”

…

Indeed, only someone with a hole in their head wouldn’t do it! One hundred taels of silver per month was a high income across the entire Great Xiao Kingdom.

Xiao Ce’s thinking was simple; this thing actually didn’t have much technical content.

After knowing the method, anyone could do it.

But in the early stage, he still needed to amass wealth through this white sugar and refined salt.

He also knew there were no impenetrable walls in the world; with enough profit, someone would always take the risk.

So, he thought of making his first pot of gold first, then directly expanding production capacity to win by volume, but that was all for later.

Seeing everyone agree one after another.

“Alright, next, divide yourselves into two groups automatically. One group will follow This Prince to make refined salt, the other will follow This Prince to learn how to make Snowflake Frost Sugar!”

Snowflake Frost Sugar was something Xiao Ce thought of on the spot; after all, calling it white sugar didn’t sound high-class enough.

To trick those rich people, you needed a gimmick.

These people didn’t take the initiative to form groups; instead, they all looked at Lin Zhong.

Seeing this, Xiao Ce said to Lin Zhong, “Uncle Zhong, you arrange it. Have men and women mixed. Some tasks test strength, and some stages require women’s carefulness.”

Lin Zhong quickly divided them into groups.

Xiao Ce certainly wouldn’t do the work himself. He first explained the process of refining salt. After finishing, he let them do it.

The same method for white sugar.

Xiao Ce instructed from the side.

Lin Zhong, curious, said from one side, “Prince, putting this yellow mud water and sugar water together, isn’t that just wasting all this sugar?”

“And how do you put charcoal in salt water… doesn’t that ruin the salt too?”

Xiao Ce looked at Lin Zhong’s worried face and patted his shoulder, “Uncle Zhong, don’t worry… in a moment, I’ll show you what’s called science!”

“You must stir it more to prevent it from sticking to the bottom, and the fire can be a bit smaller.”

“You working on the refined salt, the heat can be higher. Right now, we need to evaporate the water…”

…

Inside Yin Pan’er’s carriage on the other side, Nie Bing’s mood had calmed down a lot by now.

Apart from hiding the dealings between her and Xiao Xiangqing,

Nie Bing had pretty much told everything else. Including wanting to assassinate Xiao Ce, though the reason given was wanting to help Yin Pan’er get revenge.

She actually wasn’t lying about that; part of her reason for wanting to kill Xiao Ce was indeed to help Nie Bing get revenge.

After listening to Nie Bing’s words, Yin Pan’er said with a heartbroken expression, “Sister, I never imagined he would humiliate you like that! Can that thing even be eaten? And he used that stuff on your face! This is humiliation!”

She said somewhat indignantly, “Sister, if you want to kill him. I won’t stop you…”

Nie Bing, with a pale face, said, “Pan’er, actually, it’s all my fault. I underestimated him. You reminded me several times. I didn’t take it seriously! Even if I wanted to kill him now. I’m afraid it wouldn’t be that easy!”

“He has many strong people around him. Just the ones I know, there are already four or five death warriors. Against just one of those death warriors, I am completely outmatched. And Xiao Ce himself is much more cautious than I imagined, not only deep and scheming but also ruthless and cruel…”

“Also, this time he had those death warriors escort me back. That shows he isn’t afraid of me assassinating him at all!”

Yin Pan’er listened and nodded, saying, “Then sister, what do you plan to do?”