Chapter 69 Medicine

  Medicine

  "Bodhisattva, please save my son Bai Kang. I, Bai Xiaoqi, am willing to die in exchange for his safety..." Tears welled up in Bai Xiaoqi's eyes, and two shiny lines of tears streamed down her cheeks as she prayed devoutly.

  Every day, after her son fell asleep, she began to pray helplessly. The intermittent coughs from her son were like sharp knives tearing at her heart. She couldn't sleep every night and became emaciated, her silvery face turned waxen yellow, and her eyes, which shone like shooting stars, grew larger and deeper in their sockets.

  There isn't a mother in this world who can bear watching her child slowly dying in agony, it's the greatest torture for any mother.

  "Eldest Sister!" A low cry came from outside the simple wooden hut, the voice was low, but it was clearly filled with excitement.

  Before Bai Xiaoqi could respond, the owner of the voice rushed in and saw Bai Xiaoqi kneeling. The little guy immediately knelt down beside him, clasped his fists and reported urgently: "Big sister! Big sister! That... that..."

  Bai Xiaoqi didn't have time to wipe away her tears and scolded: "Jia Xiang, why are you always so careless..."

  Jiaxiang's little guy panted heavily and said urgently: "...ten miles... outside the fortress... medicine... pagoda tree..."

  "Medicine?... Medicine?... You're talking about medicine! Jiaxiang! You're actually talking about medicine!" Bai Xiaoqi pounced on him like a ferocious beast, her thin hands trembling with excitement, tightly grasping Jiaxiang's shoulders.

  "Yes! Yes! Elder sister! The bark of that locust tree has been peeled off and there is a medicine character carved on it!" Jiaxiang said.

  "Medicine! Medicine! ...... medicine...... I want to go to Qingdao Port to get medicine, get medicine! Go now, go now!" Bai Xiaoqi spoke incoherently, hastily got up, ignoring the pain in his knees from kneeling for a long time, and stumbled out, apparently possessed by some kind of evil spirit.

  At this time, Bai Xiaoqi's man, Xi Datou, had also rushed over and grasped Bai Xiaoqi's hand, saying: "Xiaoqi, did you hear what Jiaxiang said?"

  Bai Xiaoqi calmed down and nodded anxiously: "Alright! Big Tiger! Let's go get the medicine!"

  Xie Datou's mouth twitched, his face momentarily unable to conceal the expression, awkwardly twisted: "Xiao Qi, but we've already spent 3,500 taels of silver on grain from that Yao Fang, and now there are only over 50 taels of silver left in the village. If we go to Qingdao Port, how can he be willing to save us if we can't give him any silver?

  "What if... what if this is a trap, and that Yao Feng has colluded with the authorities to set up an ambush for the White Horse Society? If we go, won't we be walking right into their net?"

  Bai Xiaoqi's mind was in a mess, and he hastily asked: "How much did we rob him of?"

  "Three thousand six hundred and ninety taels."

  "Three thousand......" Bai Xiaoqi's face was deathly pale and terrifying, her hands were also trembling, she stood there foolishly, as if she would fall over at any moment.

  "I... I'll go beg him, I'll kowtow to him, as long as he's willing to save my son, I'll give my life to repay him." Bai Xiaoqi said with a trembling voice.

  Jiaxiang heard this and tears fell, choking with sobs: "Elder sister! Big sister! Xiao Qi sister! Let's go and fight for it! Bring all the brothers, let's all go!"

  "Absolutely not! I won't let you all throw yourselves into the jaws of the government troops for my son's sake! That Qingdao port, I know there's a whole battalion of Qing soldiers stationed there, with at least 50 or 60 guns and cannons! And if we add the militia and local defense forces from Jiaoxi and Jimmo counties, that's at least 2,000 men! Right now our band only has around 60 horses, if we go, we'll never come back! If we don't have any horses, it's even more hopeless, going there would be suicidal!"

  "Ugh!!!" Jiaxiang let out a low growl of frustration and squatted on the ground with his head in his hands.

  Bai Xiaoqi shook her head rapidly: "No, no, no, I'll go myself, I'll bring Kang'er with me. If he doesn't save my son, I'll kneel to death in his shop." With that, she rushed out of the house.

  "Little Banner, don't run! If he's heartless, you'll be useless even if you kneel to death! If it's a trap, you won't be able to come back!" Xi Dahu shouted urgently from behind.

  Bai Xiaoqi had already made up her mind, she bit her lower lip so hard that it was almost bleeding. At the same time, she ran quickly towards a small hut in the distance, and the farther she ran, the more determined she became.

  ……

  Yao Fang arranged the work for the Jinan branch, and a group of thirty bicycles only brought dry food to eat on the road, as well as self-defense sticks and folding crossbows. They rode quickly, and it only took seven days to hurry back to Yaojiazhuang.

  At this moment, Yaojiazhuang is already very different from when Yao Fang left. The whole atmosphere has emerged, and the vast warehouse area is arranged according to Yao Fang's plan, magnificent but somewhat rigid.

  Back home, Yao Fan asked He Shi Cheng to take out the silver bills secretly hidden in a box to count. The 400,000 taels brought had spent over 140,000 taels, but they had also obtained 50,000 taels from the Machine Bureau and brought back 65,000 taels of funds from the Jinan branch. Adding it up, they surprisingly had more than 10,000 taels left over compared to when they set out.

  Yao Fan also bumped into He Wan and exchanged some information, especially telling him about what He Wan had done in Jinan.

  He Wan Nian was furious and cursed, vowing to capture He Wan You and lock him up in the He family village. He also apologized to Yao Fang, offering to double the amount of silver to compensate the business. Yao Fang naturally wouldn't agree, and tried to comfort He Wan Nian for half a day, but He Wan Nian was still extremely angry, wishing he could fly to Jinan Prefecture to give his brother a good scolding to vent his anger.

  He Hengyuan calmed down and told Yao Fang that except for matches, all other goods in the store were out of stock.

  It wasn't until Yao Fengyi asked that he found out that Jimo Huang's family had already bought all the goods.

  "That Huang family originally had many shops in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Tianjin, Xiamen and other places. He was willing to take the goods, of course it's good. The remaining 40,000 plus bars of soap were only worth over 8,000 taels, he settled with a single payment."

  "Matches, we bought them at 10 cents a box, with 2000 boxes in each case. We purchased 10,000 cases. Then Huang's family ordered 2,000 cases all at once, so I gave them a discount, only 20 cents per box, which is 10 cents cheaper than our retail price of 30 cents. That's another 80,000 taels." He Jieyuan immediately calmed down as soon as he started talking about the accounts.

  Yao Fangzhuo also thought it was time to let He Wannian be happy, so he said: "Since the sale is almost done, let's divide the profits."

  He Wan Nian saw Yao Fan and said, "Brother Yao, aren't you short of silver? Our company's account has money, just take it as needed."

  "It's not that we're short of money, it's just for fun. You and I have been busy for so long, almost two months now, and it's time to have some fun. We'll get all our capital back, and it'll be a relief. Except for the matches and umbrellas that came later, since everything else has been sold out, let's settle up on all of it."

  He Wan Nian burst out laughing: "Anyway, we're the only two... why not just split it?"

  He Wan Nian picked up an abacus and began to calculate based on the account book. After finishing, he said: "If we consider the soap inventory in Jinan and Shanghai as already sold, deducting our expenses, the total profit is 443,116 taels."

  "Give the zero-head hair to the partners and accountants as red envelopes." said Yao Fangdao.

  "All right, let's say it's 440,000 taels. We'll split it seven to three. Brother Yao, you get 308,000 taels and I get 132,000 taels thanks to your good fortune."

  He Wan Nian's face lit up with joy after he finished speaking. During this time, he had also calculated the accounts countless times, each time feeling extremely happy, but he never thought that happiness would so quickly and solidly fall into his pocket.

  At first, He Wan Nian invested 60,000 taels of silver, and in just over two months, it had more than doubled. How could he not be delighted? The gloomy mood that had been pent up in his heart after being scolded by He Wan earlier suddenly dissipated.

  "Brother Yao, I'll go to the accounting room to withdraw some silver right away. Tonight, let's have a good drink." He Wan Nian couldn't help but smile more and more, eager to experience the thrill of success.

  That night, after drinking and eating enough, Yao Fan lit up the silver ingots and found that he already had 720,000 taels of silver!

  Yao Fan ran to Hengli Gold Shop without hesitation and demanded to exchange gold. In the face of Yao Fan's request to exchange 500,000 taels of silver for gold, Zhang Baichuan, the owner of Hengli Qianzhuang, promised Yao Fan that he would transport the gold from Shanghai, Tianjin and other places within ten days to make up for it, without any delay!

  Due to Yao Wenyue's large amount of gold, the exchange rate between silver and gold in Hengli rose again this time, 16.95, an increase of 0.2 from the previous 16.75. Although Yao Wenyue didn't care, he also felt that he was influencing this space-time.

  "I remember it was only in 1876 that the Qing dynasty had this exchange rate, how did it rise so quickly."

  500,000 taels of silver, at this exchange rate, plus a 20% discount on the three parts of fire expenses, can only be exchanged for 935.693 kilograms of gold.

  Yao Fan paid the deposit and devoted himself to the construction of Yaojiazhuang. With the help of Ding Baozhen, who sold him the position of Lianzong, Yao Fan pushed He Shicheng to the front line.

  He Shicheng didn't understand military training at all, he was just a figurehead for Yao Fang, but trouble came again. Wei Guofu enthusiastically sent two personal soldiers to help Yao Fang with military training, who were exactly Bai Dagui and Li Shitou, both of whom Yao Fang was familiar with.

  Yao Fan couldn't refuse these two people, he didn't know if they were sent by Wei Guofu as spies. If they were, refusing them would undoubtedly arouse Wei Guofu's vigilance.

  Moreover, Yao Fan was worried that these two people were sent by Ding Baozhen to infiltrate Wei Guofu's team. As the provincial military commander of Shandong, if Ding Baozhen asked Wei Guofu, a border defense corps commander, to plant two men in his unit, Wei Guofu would definitely keep it secret from Yao Fan, even if their relationship was very good.

  So Yao Fan had no choice but to accept. When the two arrived, he was even a little relieved that it was Bai Dagui and Li Shitou who came.

  Because Yao Fan thought he had a good relationship with the two men, and often passed by the city gate to Yaojiazhuang, he had rewarded them with about 70 or 80 taels of silver. However, Yao Fan did not want to rush to buy off the two men now.

  "Haste makes waste." Yao Fenge thought.

  That morning, Yao Fang stood on the newly repaired cement playground of Yaojiazhuang Village. Yao Fang was in high spirits. The playground was 200 meters long and 100 meters wide, all made of cement, with an extraordinary momentum.

  Bai Dagui praised beside Yao Fang: "Yao Dongjia's school field is really impressive! Even the imperial guard's school field is not as clean as this! However, the ground is all paved with foreign cement, which is a waste of money and too hard."

  "My family has a factory overseas, it's cheaper to make cement ourselves. Besides, what else can we use if not cement?" said Yao Fangdao.

  "What's wrong with yellow earth? Yellow earth is soft and cheap, isn't our school's playground just a yellow earth field?" Li Shitou said as he took over.

  "With yellow soil, it's impossible to practice when it rains, and it's also inconvenient to pile up goods," said Yao Fangdao.

  "Yao Dongjia is indeed brilliant!" Li Shitou said against his will.

  "Yao Dongjia is really thorough!" Bai Dagui flattered him from behind.

  "You two also line up with the others. Today's training session will be taught by me, and I'll have everyone practice standing at attention." said Yao Fangdao.

  Bai Dagui and Li Shitou hastily stood in a row of people's heads, no longer speaking.

  Yao Fan had already discussed the list with Li Haoniu last night, and now that all the personnel were present, he ordered the 100 partners to line up in five rows of 20 people each. The partners chattered and arranged themselves for half a day, finally finding their desired positions.

  Yao Fan also instructed Li Haoniu and He Shicheng to help, adjusting the order of each row from tall to short, from left to right, with the left side being high and the right side being low.

  "From now on, you must remember your position in the row, remember who is on your left and who is on your right."

  Next, Yao Fan began to appoint the platoon leaders: First Platoon Leader Li Haoniu, Second Platoon Leader Li Jun, Third Platoon Leader Liu Jinbao, Fourth Platoon Leader Zhou Di, Fifth Platoon Leader He Shicheng.

  Yao Fan had already told He Shi Cheng that he was just a nominal head, and he himself was the real chief instructor. He Shi Cheng naturally didn't have any objections, thinking that being able to be a nominal head was an honor.

  "Turn left now, everyone!" Yao Fang ordered with a nervous heart.

  "...... As expected ...... " Yao Fan had long guessed the situation that appeared, the playground was chaotic, with people turning left and right, and some not turning at all, probably because they didn't understand how to turn. And even more bizarrely, a fellow kept spinning in circles, apparently due to a misunderstanding.

  "Who's that! Stop it, don't turn anymore!" Yao Feng was extremely annoyed.

  Li Haoniu ran up and said to Yao Fangan: "Boss, shall I take over?"

  Yao Fang's eyes lit up, thinking to himself that he had only been indulging in his addiction as a battalion commander and had neglected this former Taiping Army vanguard general.

  "Sea cow, is there a way for you to call them and with one command they'll know which direction to turn?"

  "Master, this is the simplest way, just ask them to wear shoes on one foot and not on the other."

  Yao Fan absolutely cannot tolerate such a suggestion...... "Bare one foot! What the hell is this military bearing and demeanor!"

  Then Yao Fan Nai calmed down and demonstrated in front, relying on the foundation left by his high school military training, college military training, and company militia military training, his movements were still quite standard.

  "Look! This is at ease! At ease means stand in this position without moving!"

  Yao Fan decided not to make things difficult for himself. Before teaching them how to turn left and right, he would first teach these rookies how to take a short rest. After learning how to take a short rest, at least this group of rookies should remember which foot was the right one.

  Yao Feng first corrected the actions of the five squad leaders, using verbal commands and hand gestures to get the five platoon leaders' postures correct, then had them go and correct their subordinates.

  Yao Weng wiped away his sweat and looked at the five people busily arranging the remaining partners.

  "It's said that officials lead soldiers, soldiers teach officials, and soldiers teach each other in mass exercises. What they say is indeed correct, relying on just me will surely exhaust me to death."

  "Everyone must practice the formation seriously! If you can't even form a neat line, you'll be looked down upon wherever you go! Bandits and robbers won't even fear you! But if you can master the formation, bandits and robbers will run away at the sight of you! That's what we call deterrent power!" Yao Fangsha said matter-of-factly.

  Today is absurdly passed birthday, sincerely wish everyone like me happy.