Going to the Countryside to Purchase Silkworms

The news from the capital reached Yuezhou several days later.

Over the past few days, undercurrents had been surging in the capital, and Yuezhou was naturally no exception.

Although Lin You had taken poison and committed suicide, pulling up the radish brought out the mud attached to its roots.

For the single crime of colluding with water bandits, quite a few individuals and families in Yuezhou were implicated.

Because of poor supervision, the commander of the Shadow Guard in Yuezhou was granted death by Liu Heng. The rest of the Shadow Guards were barred from promotion for five years, and the remaining operatives in Yuezhou were all eager to redeem themselves through meritorious service by hunting down all of Lin's accomplices in Yuezhou and wiping them out in one fell swoop.

Taking the brunt of this was none other than the Tang family of Yuezhou!

Lin You had colluded with the water bandit Wang Long, and the vast majority of the loot that Wang Long plundered had been handed over to the Tang family for disposal.

As Lin You's accomplice, the Tang family naturally had to bear the fury of the Shadow Guard, and their ultimate fate was easy to imagine.

In addition, most of the other families in Yuezhou were on tenterhooks; after all, not long ago, they had been in cahoots with Lin You.

Within a mere few days, several large and small families in Yuezhou had their properties confiscated, and heads rolled for a time.

As for the Qin family, they were clearly the biggest winners of this incident.

Although the quantity of Xiangyun Brocade that the Qin family was required to tribute to the emperor for the next three years had increased by ten percent without any payment, this was a practically negligible loss for the Qin family.

As for Qin Song, upon learning of the final outcome—especially after discovering that those water bandits had all been executed without even being interrogated—the lingering reluctance in his heart ultimately transformed into a profound desolation...

On the very second day after the news from the capital reached Yuezhou, the reborn Qin family began a new wave of bustling activity.

The former head of the Qin family had died a tragic death, but the family's business had to go on. Although Qin Song had become the nominal new head of the family, his age and experience left much to be desired.

In the end, Qin Song's mother, Lady Wu, took the initiative to bear the responsibility. She was busy day in and day out rebuilding new workshops, procuring various materials, and ensuring that the Xiangyun Brocade could be manufactured as soon as possible and sent to the capital at the earliest opportunity.

Just as had been said before, the reborn Qin family regained its former position as the overlord of Yuezhou. Those merchant bosses and cooperative partners who had previously shut the Qin family out now all came crawling back, currying favor and knocking on their doors.

However, Lady Wu swept all these people out without the slightest bit of courtesy, especially those who had kicked the Qin family when they were down.

As for Qin Song, his former fair-weather friends all swarmed around him again, actively inviting him to visit brothels and drink flower wine, but Qin Song rejected them all outright.

In Qin Song's heart, he only had two good brothers in Yuezhou: one had fled to the Northwest with his fate unknown, and the other was busy wiping out water bandits during this period.

As for the rest of them, Qin Song simply had no time to spare for them.

Therefore, after staying at home for a few days and successfully building a loom that wove faster than any other loom in this world, Qin Song directly handed the technology over to his personal attendant, instructing Little Dengzi to cooperate with his mother in producing more of the new-style looms.

As for Qin Song himself, having not rested for a single moment since his transmigration, he obtained Lady Wu's permission and set out of the city with his maid, Green Bamboo, under the protection of a retinue of guards, to purchase silkworm silk.

Each year at this time was precisely the best period for raising silkworms and producing silk, as well as the busiest time for the Qin family.

Farmers in various villages outside the city raised the silkworms until they grew into cocoons, from which silk was extracted. Afterward, various families within the city would go outside the city to purchase this silk and haul it back to their urban workshops for further processing.

In this era, regardless of the commodity, productivity was limited by technology and other factors, and the resulting output fell far short of the world's demand.

To put it in the simplest terms, many goods were in a state where demand far exceeded supply!

With the disappearance of the Tang family and several other minor families in Yuezhou, the silkworm silk outside the city that had originally been supplied to these families instantly became the object of contention among the remaining families.

Qin Song's destination this time was a relatively large village located outside the city. It had originally supplied silk to the Tang family, and the silk produced there was renowned far and wide.

Before their entourage even reached the entrance of the village, they crossed paths midway with another caravan that also intended to purchase silk from this place.

"Whose caravan is this? Don't you know that the silk here has already been claimed by the Fang family!"

Before Qin Song could even speak, the opposing caravan announced its affiliation, and their attitude was utterly arrogant.

"Young Master!"

One of the guards walked over to the side of the carriage. "It's the Fang family's caravan. It seems to be led by the young master of the Fang family!"

The guard was named Hu Buwei, the maternal nephew of Hu Shangdong. Although he was only in his early twenties, his martial arts skills were quite decent.

The Qin family had lost quite a few guards over the past few days. After obtaining the consent of Lady Wu and Qin Song, Hu Buwei had come to the Qin family specifically to take charge of Qin Song's safety.

Inside the carriage, Qin Song was reclining on a soft blanket, nibbling on various pastries and fruits prepared in the carriage while being tended to by Green Bamboo.

"Are the people on the other side deaf? If you know what's good for you, get out of my young master's way right now!"

Seeing that the caravan led by Qin Song remained motionless, the young master of the Fang family became even more arrogant.

"Young Master, what should we do?"

Hu Buwei, on duty for the very first time, clearly did not yet know how to handle such situations.

"What should we do?"

Hearing this, Qin Song replied from inside the carriage, "There are over a hundred thousand taels of weaving orders waiting to be fulfilled at home. If we cede this to them, where is this young master going to buy silk?"

With monks many and porridge scarce, Qin Song was not about to stand on ceremony with them.

Qin Song had some impression of the young master of the Fang family; he could be considered a fair-weather friend of the original Qin Song, but since the Qin family's misfortune, all contact had been severed.

Having said that, Qin Song directly poked his head out of the carriage, stood upon it, and quietly watched the Fang family's caravan.

Speak, go ahead and speak if you've got the guts!

Sure enough, upon seeing Qin Song, the previously arrogant young master of the Fang family felt a subconscious flash of panic in his eyes, which instantly transformed into extreme flattery.

"So it's the young master of the Qin family. Little brother just now..."

"What did you just say?"

Before the other man could finish, Qin Song asked with a cold face, glancing toward the distant village in the distance.

"Little brother will take his men and leave right now!"

With his expression growing rather stiff, the young master of the Fang family had no choice but to suppress his temper and scurry away with his caravan.

"Buwei!"

With an expression of utter indifference, Qin Song turned his head to look at the unmarked carriage and called out.

"Young Master!"

Hu Buwei responded with a composed expression.

"Send a few brothers back home and have the family workshop urgently manufacture a batch of Qin family flags!"

"Then send men outside the city to plant our large Qin family banners in every single village that formerly belonged to the Tang family!"

Qin Song's utterly calm tone nevertheless revealed the overbearing dominance belonging to the Qin family.

Was Qin Song's move overbearing? He was merely being overbearing toward the other families in Yuezhou.

Although the price at which various families acquired silk in Yuezhou each year was roughly the same, looking across all of Yuezhou, the villages outside the city were all more than willing to sell their silk to the Qin family.

Though the prices differed very little, the Qin family never engaged in short-changing weights or passing off inferior goods as quality ones.

"Understood!"

Upon hearing Qin Song's instructions, Hu Buwei turned around and assigned two guards to head back into the city to attend to the matter.