The Comeback of the Cannon-Fodder Supporting Actress

Chapter 999: Chapter 976: Prestige Amidst Chaos 44

With Xiao Yuan back, there were fewer matters for Anning to handle, allowing her more time to prepare for the New Year’s goods.

In the evening, Xiao Yuan and Anning took Xiao Hui and Xiao Yin to the study.

In the study, Xiao Rong and Xiao Yun were also waiting.

Xiao Yuan went over and instructed Xiao Rong to add a few pieces of coal to the stove to make the fire burn more vigorously. He pointed to a few chairs: ”Everyone, take a seat.”

Once everyone was seated, Xiao Yuan spoke softly, ”This time I went to the seaside to transport salt.”

Huh?

The children all looked surprised.

Xiao Yuan’s expression was calm: ”Our family can barely make enough money just from farming to feed the family. It’s impossible to live well. Besides, we need to train village soldiers and recruit many people in the future. This all requires money. Although our family has some savings, we can’t just rely on them. When we arrived at Southern Yi, I went to the seaside and secured a few salt fields. The location is very remote, and I trained a team to guard it. Over the past six months, we’ve produced a good amount of salt, and now I plan to transport it out to make a profit.”

”Ah?”

Xiao Yin looked shocked: ”Dad, you’re talking about sea salt? The sun-drying method?”

Xiao Yuan nodded: ”The sun-drying method has been around since ancient times, but the old methods were too clumsy. The yield was low, and the salt produced wasn’t great. Back when our family was in the Capital, I had been pondering over this. Now I’ve improved the method, and the yield is much higher. The salt we’re drying now is even better than well salt.”

Anning nodded, reaching out to stroke Xiao Yin’s head: ”Next year, I’m afraid the earth dragon might turn over, and the place is just where the most well salt is produced. If there’s really an earthquake, there will be innumerable casualties, if not more. I fear the people will lack salt. The price of salt, I’m afraid...”

Saying this, a look of worry appeared on Anning’s face as she gently shook her head: ”It’s about to become chaotic.”

Xiao Yin looked up at Anning, deeply admiring her parents.

What extraordinary parents are these, quietly preparing everything in advance.

Damn, if the family secured a lot of salt, wouldn’t that mean they need not fear? When the world runs out of salt, our family can recruit refugees with salt, make money, and exchange for many supplies. Once chaos erupts, our family can quickly occupy Lai County. After controlling Lai County, it won’t take long to control the entire Southern Yi.

The more Xiao Yin thought about it, the more excited she became.

Not only her, Xiao Rong and Xiao Yun were equally enthusiastic.

Xiao Yuan smiled: ”Once your brothers return, we can use this salt to attract refugees hiding in the mountains to come and join us. Soon, our family will control all of Lai County.”

Xiao Yuan looked at Xiao Rong: ”Rong’er, since you are good at accounting, you should follow your mother in doing the accounts, in addition to your studies and martial arts practice.”

Xiao Rong immediately stood up: ”Dad, I will be sure to learn well from Mom.”

Xiao Yuan then pointed to Xiao Yun: ”Yun’er, follow me to practice martial arts.”

He looked again at Xiao Hui and Xiao Yin: ”Huihui loves handling herbs. In the future, follow me to learn medicine. As for Yin’er... see how you can attract more refugees down from the mountain.”

”Huh?”

Xiao Yin pointed to herself: ”Dad, you’re not serious. I’m still so young, and you want me to do this? I can’t do it.”

Xiao Yuan laughed: ”Why can’t you? Our Yin’er is so smart, there’s nothing you can’t do. Don’t worry, if anything goes wrong, your dad has got you covered. Just go ahead boldly.”

Xiao Yin slumped her shoulders. Knowing her parents were so capable, she actually wanted to be a salted fish, to achieve victory by lying down. But in the end, she was recruited for labor.

Abducted into forced labor, Xiao Yin accepted that she could no longer be a salted fish.

She thought that if her dad really succeeded in rebelling, she would be a princess and could keep many beautiful men. Thinking this, she immediately felt balanced and wished she could roll up her sleeves and get to work.

After assigning tasks to the children, Xiao Yuan and Anning returned to their room.

In bed, Anning looked at Xiao Yuan with a half-smile.

Xiao Yuan also smiled: ”Since Yin’er has those experiences, we can’t let them go to waste, right? This child carries memories of her past life. She’s a new era youth raised under the red flag; if we talk about winning public opinion battles, she’s definitely better than the ancients. I’m just leveraging her strengths. Not just now, in the future, the work of propaganda and education will still have to be done by Yin’er.”

”Alright, you go ahead and squeeze every bit out of your daughter.”

Anning snuggled up to Xiao Yuan, laughing, and Xiao Yuan extended his arm to embrace her: ”From next year on, we’ll be busy.”

Before the year ended, Xiao Jin and his group hadn’t returned yet.

Anning helped the Hui Family prepare some New Year’s goods and invited them to bring the children over for the New Year on New Year’s Eve.

The family spent a lively New Year’s Eve together, and at the end of the month, Xiao Jin returned with people from Marquis Guangning’s Mansion.

Marquis Guangning first went to the county government to exchange documents and obtain household registration papers. Then he went to Houshan Village, not far from Jingtian Village, divided the land, and started building houses and other necessities.

After Xiao Ling returned, he frequently went to Houshan Village to help. As a result, he grew familiar with Miss Yuan and developed some feelings for her.

After the end of the New Year celebration, by the end of February, it was already hot in Southern Yi, and the wheat in the fields was ripe.

With a group of people under him now, Xiao Yuan no longer had to personally go to the fields to harvest the wheat.

He had Xiao Ying lead the children and the village soldiers under him to harvest the wheat from dozens of acres of fields, then thrash it, and dry it when good weather came.

After the wheat was harvested, Anning planted a season of beans in the field.

After finishing the fieldwork, Xiao Yuan and Xiao Jin began weighing the harvest.

Once the weight of the wheat was measured, Xiao Yuan was indifferent, but Xiao Jin was truly shocked.

The yield from the wheat was really high, beyond what Xiao Jin remembered from the Duke Ping Mansion, where even in the best field, a mu of land only produced a little over three hundred pounds of wheat.

But now, without much trouble from Xiao Yuan and Anning, a mu of land produced over a thousand pounds of wheat.

Xiao Jin was truly taken aback.

Xiao Yuan patted his shoulder and said, ”I told you, your Third Sister-in-law excels at farming. Now do you believe it?”

Xiao Jin nodded vigorously: ”I believe it, I believe it. My Third Sister-in-law is amazing, like Shennong reincarnated.”

Xiao Yuan chuckled, ”Your Third Sister-in-law plans to save some good wheat seeds and has also obtained some good rice seeds. Our family’s paddy fields need to be planted too. Also, go talk to the village chief and ask him to find out if anyone in the village wants to plant our family’s rice. They can exchange some of their rice with ours, pound for pound. We won’t shortchange our neighbors.”

Xiao Jin agreed and indeed spoke to the village chief about it.

The village chief quickly spread the word among the villagers.

Everyone knew the Xiao Family’s third branch did particularly well with wheat. Upon hearing that Anning had good rice seeds, they all wanted to exchange some to plant.

Soon, villagers lined up at Xiao Yuan’s house to exchange for rice seeds.

After exchanging for rice seeds, Xiao Yuan also planted seedlings in the family’s paddy fields. After completing all this work, summer was nearly upon them.

Meanwhile, a good quantity of salt had been produced from the salt fields he managed. Xiao Yuan had some of the salt transported out to be sold for money, while a good portion was stored.

Apart from the household affairs, there was also the matter of Xiao Ling’s marriage.

Anning approached a matchmaker to propose a marriage between Xiao Ling and someone from Marquis Guangning’s Mansion.

Marquis Guangning agreed very readily.

Just as Xiao Yuan had said, under the current circumstances, Marquis Guangning’s Mansion couldn’t possibly choose anyone else over Xiao Ling.

In the Capital, Marquis Guangning’s Mansion would never agree to such a marriage; even if Xiao Ling was exceptional, he was only a bastard, and couldn’t possibly match the legitimate daughter of a Marquis.

But now the situation was different. Marquis Guangning’s Mansion was newly arrived and relied heavily on the Xiao Family for many things.

Their family consisted of scholarly and physically weak individuals, with low combat power, and required Xiao Yuan’s protection. Moreover, in the Southern Yi territory, other than Xiao Ling, Marquis Guangning couldn’t find a better son-in-law for his daughter.

At this point, even if Marquis Guangning didn’t want to agree, he couldn’t do otherwise.