Chapter 99: The Great Work Begins

By the time Lin Miaomiao and Li Yanhe returned to Da'an Pass, autumn had already arrived. When Lin Miaomiao stepped down from the carriage, she felt as though every bone in her body might come apart.

After resting for a day, Lin Miaomiao began touring the factories the next morning. She was highly satisfied with how Lin Qi, Ruoyu, and Lanzhi were managing them.

After walking a full circuit and reviewing the account books, Lin Miaomiao discovered that there were many factories in the surrounding area.

There were brick kilns, porcelain workshops, and even paper mills. Seeing this, Lin Miaomiao could not help asking Lin Qi in surprise, “What is all this?”

Lin Qi glanced at her and said, “These are factories people built on their own after spotting an opportunity. Some of them have even worked with our factory before.”

Lin Miaomiao nodded when she heard this. She was very fond of this kind of healthy development. She also noticed that large tracts of land nearby were being used to raise cattle and sheep.

As always, Lin Miaomiao arranged for the clothing factory to prepare padded winter garments for the soldiers at the frontier. After she finished speaking, Lin Qi said to her, “This year more people planted watermelons, so following your recipe, we turned them into watermelon juice.”

“We didn’t make much money from it, but the harvest was still pretty good.”

Lin Miaomiao nodded and said, “Very good. Agricultural products have thin profit margins to begin with.”

“This is already fine. You have actually done very well.”

Lin Qi nodded after hearing this. Lin Miaomiao rode in the carriage, making rounds again and again through her own factories, and saw that the other workshops were gradually opening as well.

Thus the sixteenth year of Yongchang passed. Watching Da'an Pass grow better and better, Lin Miaomiao saw Li Yanhe bring the slaves captured on the battlefield here.

When Lin Miaomiao saw those slaves, she froze for a moment. Then Li Yanhe said to her, “These are the slaves taken this time.”

At once Lin Miaomiao understood. When Li Yanhe and the others encountered those Manchu soldiers, they either killed them or took them as slaves.

Lin Miaomiao did not know that in this dynasty, people were the least valuable thing of all. Looking at those slaves, she said to Li Yanhe, “Let me pay to buy them.”

Li Yanhe was startled by her words and quickly waved his hand. “No need.”

Lin Miaomiao shook her head. “I understand. But if I pay to buy these slaves, you will not be put in an awkward position later.”

Li Yanhe smiled when he heard that. “All right.”

Lin Miaomiao gave him the silver notes, and Li Yanhe even specially sent soldiers to guard the place. Lin Miaomiao herself also had a pasture.

She also had a large watermelon field, so she dismissed some of the people she had originally hired and turned the rest over to these laborers for farming.

She also had them graze the livestock there. These nomadic people were familiar with herding, and she told them to keep the wool.

Lin Miaomiao had them process the wool and turn it into yarn. Among the people there were both women and men.

She separated them. The houses that had originally been prepared for the soldiers’ wives were emptied out as well, since those women now had homes of their own and had all moved out.

Later, Lin Miaomiao cleared this place out to house the soldiers who had come down from the battlefield.

Those soldiers often lived alone, so Lin Miaomiao did not collect rent from them; she let them stay for free.

When Lin Miaomiao separated these southern tribespeople, they initially quarreled and refused to work. But after she had them work for a day, they realized that the men and women were not doing much of the same kind of labor, and only then did they understand that the work assigned to them was different.

Gradually, the southern women began mixing with the military wives of Da'an Pass. Seeing this, Lin Miaomiao nodded.

Of course, Li Yanhe also kept an eye on the situation with those Manchu soldiers. Lin Miaomiao and Lin Langluan developed a habit: whenever they had a free moment, they would come back and check on those more than a hundred slaves.

Whenever Lin Miaomiao and Li Yanhe appeared together, the people of Da'an Pass would say, “That is Princess Anping, and the one beside her is Prince Shengxuan.”

Hearing the townspeople speak like that, Lin Miaomiao found it strange and said to Li Yanhe, “Why are they all so enthusiastic? It is not as though we are some famous figures.”

A pleasing curve appeared at the corner of Li Yanhe’s mouth. He said to Lin Miaomiao, “You are not famous?”

“You are quite well known in Da'an Pass.”

Lin Miaomiao blushed at his words and did not know what to say.

Li Yanhe said to her, “Would you like to go see the house you had built back then?”

When Lin Miaomiao heard this, she nodded eagerly. “Go on, take me there quickly.”

Li Yanhe smiled, turned his horse around, and rode with Lin Miaomiao to the place where she had once built the little European-style villa. Lin Miaomiao was surprised to discover that her villa was nearly finished.

The house blended the local features of Da'an Pass with the original blueprints Lin Miaomiao had drawn. She had a feeling it would sell extremely well.

Looking at the house there, Lin Miaomiao also felt a hopeful sense of victory. Not seeing any sales office outside, she immediately had people work day and night to build one.

After the sales office was completed, Lin Miaomiao put up a sign there. Her assistant was named Yang Zhi.

Yang Zhi was one of the children who had come out of Lin Miaomiao’s school. His family was poor, and he had taken on the burden of the household very early in life.

He understood that only by relying on himself could he ever hope to marry a wife, so he had always performed very well.

After learning about Yang Zhi’s situation and looking at the fourteen-year-old boy, Lin Miaomiao sighed.

She knew she had no right to criticize others, nor any right to say anything about their parents. So she brought Yang Zhi along to begin the pre-sale of the houses.

The situation in Da'an Pass continued to improve. Merchants pursue profit, and many wealthy people were still watching cautiously from the sidelines, but once Lin Miaomiao put the houses up for pre-sale, it quickly gave them their own plans.

Before long, all of Lin Miaomiao’s pre-sold houses were snapped up. And after the houses were completed, people moved in immediately.

Seeing this, Lin Miaomiao opened a commercial street in Da'an Pass. Where there are people, there is consumption, and the shops she had opened began to make money as well.

Her business was thriving. Lin Miaomiao felt that earning money was no longer interesting, and so she began thinking about the obsession she had carried from modern times.

In ancient times, everything was constrained. Lin Miaomiao naturally understood that if she wanted to open a dessert shop, it would be somewhat difficult.

So she began making tools. Back in modern times, what she loved most was making desserts like tiramisu.