The Lord's Empire

Chapter 224: The Emperor Guards the Nation; The King Dies for His State

Translator: MrVoltaire Editor: Modlawls123

After taking care of the Vietnamese Guard, Zhao Fu returned to the Great Qin Town. Just as he was about to start discussing the next steps with Bai Qi and the others, Zhang Baishu came to find him to tell him that the Hundred Origin Pills were ready.

The Hundred Origin Grasses had been planted en masse, and with the Flower Spirits’ help, they were finally ready to be harvested.

The Hundred Origin Pill was a Stage 2 medicinal pill that could increase cultivation speed by 400%. With this medicinal pill, Zhao Fu’s soldiers’ cultivation speeds would become even faster – at the very least, their cultivation speed wouldn’t be inferior to those of the city guards of main cities. This made Zhao Fu feel quite happy, and he took the first bottle of Hundred Origin Pills from Zhang Baishu.

The Hundred Origin Pills were as big as soybeans and a dense green color. They didn’t smell like medicinal pills but like grass, and they gave off a slight fragrance.

Zhao Fu swallowed one of them and felt a ball of spirit energy disperse throughout his body – the effects were quite good. Zhao Fu smiled and said amiably, “Baishu, continue refining these pills; try to make enough for everyone in the army.”

Zhang Baishu was delighted that Zhao Fu was satisfied with the medicinal pills he had refined, and he immediately accepted his order and began to refine a large amount of Hundred Origin Pills.

Afterward, Zhao Fu, Bai Qi, and the others discussed their future plans and some other matters. After making some decisions on these matters, Zhao Fu went to talk to Ba Qing.

This was because they were in dire need of money to fund their conquest, and using equipment to trade for population required even more money. Furthermore, after the Ghost Festival, Great Qin was in great need of money.

“Ba Qing, do you have any ideas for the business side of things?” Zhao Fu sat on a chair as he looked at Ba Qing, who gave off a wise and kind aura.

Ba Qing slightly smiled as she lightly nodded and replied, “Your Majesty, I indeed have some ideas.”

When he heard this, Zhao Fu motioned for Ba Qing to continue.

“Your Majesty, with chaotic battles happening everywhere, selling equipment and medicinal pills will undoubtedly result in the greatest profits. However, that will strengthen our enemies. Since we can’t do such a thing, we have to look at traditional business methods.

“Most nations’ economies focus on something, such as agriculture, livestock, or industrialism.

“First, each faction is able to sufficiently supply itself with crops, but very rarely are Outlander tribes self-sustaining. Each region is incredibly big, and our business partners don’t necessarily have to be with main cities. There is value in trading with others as well.

“Second, there’s livestock. The business potential of specializing in livestock isn’t very high, as no faction lacks meat. However, we can still somewhat develop it as there are still profits to be gained.

“Given that Great Qin controls everything within 500 kilometers, I recommend that we draw out some land to raise and breed livestock – not only will it be enough for Great Qin’s subjects, but we can also sell the excess.

“As for industrialism, it’s best not to focus on that for now. Instead, we should focus on actual businesses. Right now, Great Qin’s main sources of revenue are from restaurants and selling all sorts of items unique to the different regions.

“Now that a lot of time has passed, many people have become Barons, and they’ve started setting up shops in the main cities. Despite my management, the restaurants have been earning less and less, and now, most of them only earn half as much as before.

“However, this is already the best that we can do. The competition between restaurants is incredibly intense, and it’s only because of our fame from the beginning and some unique dishes that we’re still able to earn half of what we earned at the beginning. Right now, the profits of the restaurants have stabilized, so they won’t be decreasing anymore.

“As such, it will be incredibly difficult to increase the profitability of any of the existing restaurants, so the best thing for us to do is to open up more regions and set up more restaurants there.

“At the same time, the profits from the items unique to each of the regions have stabilized as well. They’re not as massively popular as they were in the beginning, but we can change this through how we operate.

“It’s best for us to sell these things in bulk and allow other people to retail them. That will save us effort while still earning us a lot of money through the massive number of sales. At the same time, we can also sell some ordinary items in bulk.

“Moreover, these unique items, such as East Green’s freshwater fish, Red Plum Plains’ Red Plums, and Hundred Bamboo’s Bamboo Rats, are all things that we can grow or breed ourselves, so we don’t have to buy them like before. We can establish our own cultivating grounds in each of the regions, which will greatly decrease our costs.

“It’s a pity that everyone can obtain normal vegetables, rice, oil, and salt, so we won’t be able to generate profits from such things.”

After listening to Ba Qing, Zhao Fu felt that there were many things that he had taken care of poorly before. To be able to identify so many areas in which they could improve, Ba Qing truly deserved her fame in this area.

The profitability of the restaurants caused Zhao Fu to sigh. After all, the restaurants were how Great Qin became rich before, but as other people’s statuses also increased, he had gradually lost his advantage.

Some of the things that Ba Qing had mentioned were feasible, while others weren’t. Something that was key was that the source of their profits wasn’t limited to just main cities, as there were hundreds of times more people living in the wilderness. They could generate massive profits from those people.

However, how could they trade with those people? The wilderness was incredibly large, and the various villages, towns, and cities were scattered all over the place. How could they trade with all of them? That was almost impossible.

Moreover, if the Great Qin Town’s position was exposed, Zhao Fu’s relationship with them would no longer just be that of a business relationship.

This world was one in which both good and evil existed. Some villages were led by friendly and easygoing people, and Zhao Fu would use softer approaches towards such people.

Right now, what Zhao Fu needed the most was population. No matter what he needed to do, he just needed to increase his population as much as possible. However, he wouldn’t sacrifice his soldiers to do such a thing – after all, might was supreme in this world.

Indeed, Zhao Fu could only be someone who was neutral and leaned towards evil – after all, those who were completely good wouldn’t last for very long in this world.

Apart from this, there were other areas in which they could develop. They could develop agriculture and livestock, establishing cultivation grounds in various regions and using them as a foundation to expand to.

However, this would require many people to carry out, and it required at least a few hundred soldiers in each region to guarantee the safety of each cultivation ground. He would be able to carry out this plan after exchanging equipment for people.

“I understand; I’ll put these ideas into action.” Zhao Fu was quite satisfied with Ba Qing’s suggestions – these suggestions would be very useful to Great Qin’s business area.

Ba Qing delightfully smiled and was happy that Zhao Fu had accepted her suggestions and would act upon them.

After this, Zhao Fu took out a map of the region that Great Qin controlled. This map had been drawn as Great Qin had conquered more and more places, and it was incredibly detailed and precise. Even though some areas looked quite big, it was only because the scale of the map was quite small. Zhao Fu wondered when he would be able to bring Great Qin back to its peak as the Great Qin Empire and control all of China.

Zhao Fu looked for a relatively flat area of land on the map and decided to go there to see if he wanted to develop livestock there.

At that moment, a soldier came to report that they had discovered a Town 700 kilometers away from Great Qin!