Chapter 1 Ninghe Town

Ninghe Town was the town furthest from Suifeng Town within the jurisdiction of the Grand Canal Governor-General's office. The importance of this town would gradually become prominent with the construction of the Grand Canal. Perhaps Ninghe Town would never have the same important position for the entire region, or even the entire country, as Suifeng Town, or the future Suifeng City, but as an important node on the Grand Canal, there was no doubt that Ninghe Town would become more prosperous and wealthier.

Ye Tao wasn't there to inspect official conduct or supervise any projects. There was indeed a sizable lock on the section of the Grand Canal near Ninghe Town, but the project wasn't particularly difficult. What really caught Ye Tao's attention about Ninghe Town were some anecdotes that had been circulating recently, which made him a bit interested in the several aristocratic families near Ninghe Town.

Near Ninghe Town was a place called Fangcun Mountain, which was famous for a specialty called purple pears. In terms of function, it was a kind of spice and also a kind of medicinal material. Given the still underdeveloped botany and chaotic, unsystematic medicine of this time and space, these two functions were actually the same in most people's eyes.

For hundreds of years, the purple pear business had been controlled by the Le family in Ninghe Town. The Le family had split into three branches several decades ago due to certain internal family changes, and the purple pear business had also been divided into three lines. But what was strange was that these three lines shared the same fixed portion of the purple pear resources. No matter how they struggled, it seemed that the purple pears couldn't survive away from the unique soil and water of Fangcun Mountain. However, the three branches of the Le family didn't each divide up a piece of land, but instead took turns using the purple pear resources on a yearly basis, each family for one year, then switching...

The three branches of the Le family were respectively known as the Le Family Tongmen, the Le Family Baoshantang, and the Le Family Dongmen. Among them, the Tongmen mainly dealt in the spice business. Because they had connected with several large sea merchants in Chunnan, the superficial influence of this unique spice was definitely greater than the actual income for the Tongmen branch. In terms of financial resources, the Tongmen currently held an absolute advantage. The Le Family Dongmen was the most declining of the three. The Dongmen had good relationships with many medicinal herb merchants in Dongping, and because of its unique properties, purple pear was also a rare medicinal material that many famous doctors liked to use when treating some difficult and complicated diseases. However, with only one year's worth of production every three years, this kind of business was quite difficult to manage. Baoshantang took a different approach. They endured for about ten years while the three families compromised and took turns allocating resources, using three cycles of production to try out many kinds of formulas, and finally they successfully developed a famous medicine that shook the world—"Shengji San."

Shengji San, according to some rumors, had the effect of reviving the dead and regrowing bones, and those most enthusiastic about Shengji San were martial artists. Entering the field of prepared medicines allowed the Le Family Baoshantang to increase their strength and gradually break away from their sole reliance on purple pears. In recent years, although Shengji San was still the signature product of Baoshantang, they had also expanded into many other areas of prepared medicines.

However, when Shengji San had just been released, the Baoshantang branch was almost wiped out. The saying that having talent is a sin truly rang true. The various stories that had happened in the short span of a few years among the three branches of the Le family, who had originally disliked each other, could simply be written into an extremely wonderful continuous drama of more than forty episodes. There was wooing and division, moles, seduction and framing, violent raids, serial murders, and complex economic and interpersonal struggles. In the end, the three branches of the Le family almost became a small microcosm of the struggle between the three countries of Dongping, Chunnan, and Xiling. The Tongmen, relying on the strong financial resources of the Chunnan sea merchants, pressed forward step by step. The Dongmen unexpectedly received support from some highly skilled martial artists from the Xiling Kingdom. The Baoshantang, forced into a desperate situation, abandoned their consistently detached and independent stance, and won a chance to breathe by offering elixirs to the Dongping royal family, and then, with the intentional or unintentional help of Zeng Man and others, gradually gained a firm foothold. The Baoshantang also became a unique merchant loyal to the Dongping royal family as a result.

The reason why Ye Tao had come to Ninghe Town was because some documents sent by Zeng Man a while ago mentioned the Le family of Ninghe Town, and mentioned that an old pharmacist of Baoshantang was said to have an enhanced formula for Shengji San, which had a very good effect on regulating chronic internal injuries, especially those of the heart, lungs, and blood vessels. The old pharmacist had heard of Tan Weixin's illness and believed that this medicine should have a good effect on improving Her Highness the Princess's body. The Imperial Hospital did accept the medicine offered by Baoshantang, but they didn't dare to give it to the princess rashly. After all, judging from Shengji San and the consistent pharmacological effects of purple pear, it was really too overbearing, and Baoshantang was unwilling to provide the detailed formula of this enhanced Shengji San, which made the imperial physicians, who valued stability over change, unable to make up their minds to give the medicine to Tan Weixin.

If it were only these things, Ye Tao might not have been interested in coming to Ninghe Town. Recently, many strange people had appeared in Ninghe Town. Some of these people were obviously martial artists, and the interest these people showed in the construction of the Grand Canal and in the various affairs under the Grand Canal Governor-General's office made people feel a little uneasy. The most suspicious thing was that two people actually disguised themselves as migrant workers from other places and mingled in the ranks of the migrant workers building the river channel. If it hadn't been for a landslide on a slope transporting earth and rocks one time, and the two martial artists had revealed a bit of their skills in the nick of time, which was seen through by the family servant beside an aristocratic official in charge of the construction site, these two people might still be lurking there now. What was even more incredible after that incident was that the two people's whereabouts completely disappeared in a few short hours, leaving the scouts under the Governor-General's office, who were now mainly responsible for intelligence gathering and sorting rather than battlefield reconnaissance, with nothing to gain.

Ever since the decision to build the Grand Canal was announced, insightful people from various countries had been very accurate in seeing the significance of the Grand Canal. The Grand Canal could not only revitalize the various products on the Qingluo Plain, form a strong guarantee for Danyang, the capital of Dongping, and improve the level of economic development and the living standards of the people in the surrounding areas, but simply the fact that the Dongping navy could directly reach Chunnan through the Grand Canal in the future was enough to alarm all parties. During the honeymoon period of relations between Dongping and Chunnan, if Xiling invaded Chunnan, the Dongping army could provide rapid support. Then, what if the relationship between Dongping and Chunnan was not so good in the future? Then the Grand Canal would become a sword hanging over the head of Chunnan.

Xiling, Beiliao, and other countries, based on the idea of weakening Dongping, would certainly try their best to obstruct the smooth construction of the Grand Canal, but it seemed to have little to do with Ninghe Town, a marginal area of the Grand Canal with only one section of dredging work, a lock, and a small section of newly excavated river channel. Then, could there be some more interesting things happening quietly here? Perhaps, this was the most reasonable explanation.

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