Yang Ruxin nodded, glanced at Gu Qingheng to signal that she had finished asking her questions.
After sending the guests away, Gu Qingheng turned to Yang Ruxin: "What are your thoughts?" The Mongol army may have been driven off, but the war had left profound scars. In actuality, post-war reconstruction was even more challenging than taking back the city.
"Well, since I have a caravan, I could set up another one in the future that could operate through Border City. We could transport goods from Changhuai State over here, then take wine and vinegar back, and there are also dicinal herbs and wild fruits here that we don’t have, like the Tiger Tail Grass. If cultivated artificially, it could also beco a source of inco..."
Tiger Tail Grass, also known as Dioscorea, is a rather precious Chinese herbal dicine. It works wonders for treating cough, asthma, spitting of blood, and can also cure hernia, stimulate lactation in won, and so on — its uses are wide-ranging, and its price isn’t low either.
Both the "Collection of Hundred Herbs" given to her by Wang Zhenggang originally and the dical texts that Dao Xuzi later asked her to morize, contained records of this herb. Fresh Tiger Tail Grass, for instance, was purchased by Hechun Hall for two hundred wen per jin.
Actually, she still felt it would be best to open a customs market, that is, to allow trade between tribes, so that direct business with the nomadic people could take place. This would facilitate the exchange of necessities. Daxuan was abundant in food and could trade for furs or dicinal materials from outside. Thus, even if a natural disaster struck the grasslands, which herdsman didn’t own so livestock? At that ti, exchanging for food would prevent panic and avoid resorting to war over a disagreent.
However, she couldn’t voice these thoughts, as they concerned Imperial Court affairs. For a country girl like her, knowing too much wouldn’t be good.
Three days later, the unconscious girls began waking up one after another, and after a few more days, most of their health gradually improved. However, an incident occurred: one of the girls who woke up didn’t have the joy of having survived. Instead, one evening, she took advantage of the others’ inattention and fatally ran headfirst into a wall.
Yang Ruxin was preparing dicine when she heard the news. The dicine was to help the girls recuperate. The news caused her to drop the dicinal ingredients in her hands and leave her tent imdiately.
As the entire city had been essentially destroyed, the surviving citizens were now all living together in tents on an open field, provided with two als a day. With the weather also growing warr, there was no worry about the cold, and soldiers were already helping everyone rebuild or repair houses.
The citizens all had their own hos before, so once a ho was fixed, its owner would move back in. Of course, there was also food distribution. For those houses that were severely burnt, new ones would be constructed.
Ultimately, all the city’s citizens would be re-registered in the household registry, allocated food, and assigned land, and they would be exempt from taxes for three years.
If people from other places ca to settle here, the Imperial Court would even provide subsidies.
In a word, the citizens had rekindled new hope.
As for the girls who suffered abuse, the Crown Prince issued a strict command: no one was to despise or look down on them. Anyone found spreading malicious rumors about the girls would be dealt with as rebels, and where it might lead to the implication of their entire families.
This command made everyone’s heart tremble, naturally ensuring that no one would be foolish enough to violate it at this ti.
Still, most people were good-hearted. The girls who had relatives were successively taken ho, leaving behind mainly orphans.
The girl who died by striking herself was taken by the Mongol soldiers along with her elder sister-in-law; she did not leave when her elder brother ca to fetch them yesterday, but ended up dead by dawn.
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