There was drizzling rain from the sky, and the river surface became hazy, reducing visibility a lot. The passenger ship that departed from Qinghe County Wharf couldn't help but slow down after entering Xijiang River from Liuhe River.
A woman was sitting in the cabin near the window with a swaddled baby. The window latch was damaged and the window could not be closed completely. When it started to rain, the slanting wind and drizzle on the river mixed with a hint of cold air flew in through the gap in the window, and the baby who was sleeping in the swaddled baby started to cry loudly.
The woman with the child wrapped the baby tightly in a swaddling cloth to block out the wind, rain and cold outside, while coaxing the child. The wind and rain outside made the window that couldn't be closed creak. The woman wanted to reach out and open the window, but she had to hold the child and coax him. She was in a dilemma for a while, and the child's crying became louder and louder...
"Sister, if you don't mind, why don't we change seats..." At this moment, a voice suddenly sounded from behind the woman. The woman holding the child turned around and saw a handsome boy about fourteen or fifteen years old, wearing royal blue clothes, with red lips, white teeth, and a clear temperament, standing up from the seat behind her and looking at her with a smile.
The young man was sitting on the chair behind the woman. There was no window nearby, which just blocked the slanting wind and drizzle coming in through the window.
“Thank you so much, thank you so much…” The woman quickly stood up holding the child, and while expressing her gratitude, she changed seats with the boy.
The young man sat in the front and placed a leather bag on his knees. The wind and rain that blew in through the window were mostly blocked by his leather bag and did not fall on him. Then the young man took his time, tilted his head, and admired the scenery of the river outside with great interest.
This young man is Yan Liqiang. Today is August 27th of the twelfth year of Yuanping. Yan Liqiang left Liuhe Town and Qinghe County one day in advance and reported to the National Martial Arts Museum in Pingxi County.
Boys aged fourteen or fifteen are in the period of growth. During the past two months, Yan Liqiang has been practicing the Yi Jin Jing every day, and has been practicing diligently. In just two months, his height has increased by more than an inch. His body has become more upright and full of strength. Even his temperament is different from what it was two months ago. His eyes are particularly clear and lively. Anyone who sees them will praise him in their hearts, saying what a handsome boy he is.
During these two months, apart from being busy with cultivation, Yan Liqiang no longer had to worry about matters at home.
Yan Dechang's health has gradually recovered. Except for some heavy work like blacksmithing, his movements have basically been unaffected. A few days ago, Yan Dechang began to slowly pass on his secrets of adjusting the temperature and refining steel to Zhou Tiezhu in the blacksmith workshop.
These skills were originally the unique skills that Yan Dechang kept as a master and would not easily pass on to his apprentices. But when the Yan family encountered a crisis this time, Zhou Tiezhu showed his responsibility and character, and did his best to overcome the crisis with the Yan family. Yan Dechang saw all of this and was moved. As soon as the crisis was over, he officially passed on his real blacksmith skills to Zhou Tiezhu.
In the two months when Yan Liqiang won the top three in the county martial arts examination, the reputation of Yan's blacksmith workshop in Liuhe Town spread like wildfire. Not only in Liuhe Town, but also in the surrounding villages and even in many county towns, people would come to visit. The business of Yan's blacksmith workshop increased by more than ten times, and there was an endless stream of customers coming to the shop every day.
Under such circumstances, Yan Dechang followed Yan Liqiang's suggestion and renovated and expanded the blacksmith workshop in the past two months. He also recruited six disciples from honest families in the town who had always wanted to be apprentices in the blacksmith workshop. He also gave Zhou Tiezhu 30% of the shares of the Yan family blacksmith workshop, allowing Zhou Tiezhu, the eldest brother, to start training his younger brothers and become a master.
In this way, after teaching Zhou Tiezhu his best skills, Yan Dechang became the owner and director of the Yan family blacksmith workshop, while Zhou Tiezhu became the master hammerer and person in charge of specific work in the blacksmith workshop.
Not only that, with Yan Liqiang's insistence, the management idea of the Yan family's blacksmith workshop was also completely changed.
Before, Yan's blacksmith workshop was no different from other blacksmith workshops. They took on all kinds of blacksmith work, from daily farm tools, hoes, horseshoes, horse nails, locks, kitchen knives, sickles, axles, swords, breastplates, flints... and so on. As long as the customers had needs, Yan's blacksmith shop could help make them. But now, Yan's blacksmith workshop only made one kind of thing - swords, that is, weapons.
Yan Dechang was a little hesitant at first about making such a major change in the operation of the blacksmith workshop, but Yan Liqiang easily convinced Yan Dechang - there are so many customers coming to the door now, and the things they forge are varied. According to the current scale of the Yan family's blacksmith workshop, even if you recruit ten more apprentices, you can't handle it. If you push the customers away and don't take the customers' work, you will offend the customers, and the Yan family will be scolded and destroyed. If you take all the work, you will offend all the blacksmith colleagues in the surrounding area, and you will still be envied by your colleagues, because the business of other blacksmith workshops and blacksmith shops is to forge the most common farm tools, hoes, horseshoes, horse nails, door buckles, kitchen knives, flints and other things. If you take all these jobs from the surrounding areas, what will you let other blacksmith shops and colleagues eat? In this case, the Yan family's blacksmith workshop can only focus on products such as swords and declare to the outside world that it specializes in one kind, so as to completely avoid this problem...
Weapons like swords and knives have high profits and are in wide demand. There is no direct competition with the blacksmith workshops in the surrounding area. Yan's Blacksmith Shop will specialize in making swords and knives, which will not have much impact on other blacksmith shops. It will not destroy the jobs of its peers, nor offend customers, and it will also have a good reputation. As long as the swords and knives made by Yan's Blacksmith Shop are of high quality, there will be no worries about sales.
As for the quality of the swords, although Yan the blacksmith cannot forge the best swords, he will have no problem forging high-quality swords.
Just a week ago, a brand new wrought iron sign was hung above the Yan family's blacksmith workshop, which had completed its renovation and expansion. The sign had four words on it - Yan's Swords.
Yan Liqiang used his painting skills to design a unique and artistic trademark for his own sword products - a tiger and a flying dragon formed an abstract and concise swirling circle, and in this circle was the word "Yan". Yan Liqiang told Yan Dechang that all swords produced by the Yan family would be stamped with this mark to indicate that the product was made by the Yan family.
The craftsmen of this era are still somewhat unfamiliar with the concept of trademarks, let alone intangible assets. However, Yan Liqiang, who has lived two lifetimes, is very clear about its significance.
Yan Dechang had been somewhat skeptical before, but when he saw the word "Yan" in the mark that Yan Liqiang took out, a solemn sense of honor surged in his heart. He said to Yan Liqiang that since the word "Yan" was inscribed on the sword, then in the future, no sword could be sold without his inspection, so as not to ruin the reputation of the Yan family.
Yan Liqiang was naturally happy to see this happen.
In addition to the major changes in the blacksmith workshop in the past two months, Yan Liqiang also found a way for Lu Wenbin to buy land and a shop.
Coincidentally, the land and shop that Lu Wenbin bought for the Yan family were the former properties of the Hong family.
After the death of Mr. Hong, the news that the Hong family hired thugs to deal with the father and son of the Yan family spread like wildfire in Qinghe County and almost everyone knew about it. Qinghe County simply took back the Hong family's 200 acres of land for cultivating scholars ahead of time on the grounds that the descendants of the Hong family were immoral and lawless.
The Hong family was torn apart, attracting the covetousness of outsiders. The more than 400 acres of land and two noodle workshops that the Hong family had previously owned in Yuntao County were eventually occupied by some local tyrants in Yuntao County with the IOU written by Hong An. The remaining people in the Hong family were all good-for-nothings. Several of the Hong family's children went to Yuntao County to file a complaint, but they lost the case and had no way of getting the land and workshops back. They were completely helpless.
Without the property in Yuntao County, the people of the Hong family fought more fiercely for the remaining land and houses in Liuhe Town. In the end, the remaining people of the Hong family simply divided the family's land and houses equally. After dividing these properties, the people of the Hong family were worried that someone would come with some IOUs to scramble and seize them in a few days. In addition, the Hong family's reputation in Qinghe County and Liuhe Town was ruined, and Yan Liqiang took the first place in the county martial arts examination. The status of the Yan family in Liuhe Town was no longer what it used to be. In order to avoid revenge from the Yan family, the people of the Hong family were anxious to turn those land and houses into money, put them in their pockets, and then leave Liuhe Town with the money.
Under such circumstances, after Manager Lu discussed with Yan Liqiang, he came forward and, in the name of the Lu family, directly bought the more than 460 acres of fine farmland of the Hong family in Liuhe Town, as well as the six two-story shops and two oil noodle workshops of the Hong family in the town from the descendants of the Hong family at a very reasonable price, and then transferred them to the Yan family in the name of the Lu family.
During the whole process, Manager Lu did not make any mistakes, leaving no room for anyone to find fault. When dealing with the Hong family, Manager Lu also invited witnesses and deed agents. After receiving the land and house deeds of the Hong family's land, he also went to the Qinghe County government office to file and record them. Later, when the Lu family transferred these things to the Yan family, they went through the formalities again.
The Hong family's old house in Liuhe Town and other scattered land properties were bought by several other wealthy families in Liuhe Town.
After selling all their property, the members of the Hong family moved away from Liuhe Town one by one. The entire Hong family disappeared in Liuhe Town in the blink of an eye. Except for Hong Tao, who had gone mad and talked nonsense everywhere in the town every day and was ridiculed by the children, nothing was left.
The Yan family also became a wealthy family and landlord in Liuhe Town, owning hundreds of acres of fertile land. All the former hired farmhands of the Hong family switched to the Yan family, signed contracts with them, and became hired farmhands of the Yan family.
The family business suddenly grew, and it needed manpower to manage and take care of it. Under such circumstances, Zhou Hongda and his wife stayed in the Yan family. Both of them were diligent and conscientious. Zhou Hongda's wife and Wu Ma were responsible for household affairs, such as cooking and cleaning every day, while Zhou Hongda became the first manager of the Yan family.
With more people eating at home, Zhou Hongda's wife and Wu Ma could no longer cope with it. They had to find a few maids and servants. As the manager, Zhou Hongda was often responsible for collecting rent and dealing with the hired farmers. Sometimes talking alone was useless, and he could not take care of the money and grain by himself, so the Yan family hired two security guards.
So many people had to eat and live in the Yan family on weekdays, and the small house the Yan family had before was simply not enough to accommodate them. When Yan Liqiang left Liuhe Town, the new large mansion of the Yan family, located by the Liuhe River, was under construction in full swing...
After the name of Yan's sword was made known, Yan Dechang was a little uneasy these days, wondering if his own blacksmith workshop could support so many apprentices. So before leaving, Yan Liqiang drew a new weapon pattern for Yan Dechang and asked the Yan family's blacksmith workshop to specialize in making and producing this thing in the future...
The weapon pattern left by Yan Liqiang was the Nepalese machete commonly known as the dog leg.
In my previous life on Earth, although the Nepalese machete had a strange shape, it was hailed as the most mechanically sound weapon in the world.
With this weapon that has overturned the impression of many practitioners and warriors of this era on scimitars, Yan Liqiang is absolutely confident that he can promote the brand of Yan's swords...
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ps; I recommend "The Master of Cultivation in the City", written by a great writer under a pseudonym, which has nearly one million words, so cool!
(End of this chapter)