Chapter 118.2 – Ali Xiang
Ali Xiang was far away from An Yuan County. Riding a horse at full speed would take a maximum of ten days to get there. It would take longer to get there on a horse carriage. At the fastest, it would take half a month, and at the slowest, it would take twenty days.
In order to rush back before the New Year, they didn’t make many stops along the way. Fortunately, the people they brought along were all soldiers under Fu Wu Tian. They have all went through rough terrain on foot before. Traveling for one or two months was a common thing for them. So this bit of arduous travel was as easy as a hand’s turn* for them.
[*T/N: as easy as a hand’s turn = as easy as flipping one’s hand over; very easy; no effort at all]
The reason why Ali Xiang was remote was not only because of its distance.
Ali Xiang was located on the southwestern border of Da Ya. It bordered Gao Ze. But there was a huge mountain range between the two pieces of land. And Ali Xiang was a province surrounded by mountain ranges. When snow from the mountains melted, it formed numerous rivers. In addition, it had two geographical depressions embraced by mountain ranges. It possessed comparatively model ecological characteristics, giving it great developmental prospects.
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However, because it was so far away and because it was Fu Xiao’s land, the Chong Ming Emperor never cared much about Ali Xiang.
Ali Xiang’s transportation was lagging, and its location was remote. Plus, it’s master, Fu Xiao, died in battle, so the entire place has been in a state of autonomy all along.
At the beginning, Fu Xiao accepted the previous emperor’s bestowment and obtained this piece of land, which was not a small area, but he was not interested in governance.
Later, he appointed the head of the township to help him manage Ali Xiang, who was the father of the current township leader. Before leaving office, he had passed on the position of village head to his son.
The current village chief, Xu Wei Ye, was an ambitious person.
He knew that Ali Xiang belonged to a wang ye from the Imperial Capital, named Fu Xiao, but he had already died on the battlefield, and his only son has inherited his father’s career, and became the god of war in Da Ya. If there were no unforeseen circumstances, then Ali Xiang would always be under his management.
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In order to completely control Ali Xiang in the palm of his hands, the young township leader used ten years to continually gather money and cultivate his own people.
Ten years was not a short time.
There were not that many decades in a person’s life.
But Xu Wei Ye did indeed succeed.
However, Xu Wei Ye might be an ambitious person, but his ability was ultimately limited. He only turned Ali Xiang into his own land, but he did not drive the people of Ali Xiang to make a fortune together. There were still some people who passed their days with not enough food to eat and no warm clothes to wear.
Xu Wei Ye did not anticipate the sudden arrival of Guan Su, but it was still within his planning. He had arranged things for ten years, not just for this moment.
The problem that Guan Su mentioned was precisely this Xu Wei Ye.
After learning that Guan Su was Fu Wu Tian’s subordinate, Xu Wei Ye did not show the slightest bit of flattery or fawning, nor did he reveal an attitude of fear and trepidation. Instead, he acted like he was the real owner of Ali Xiang. When Guan Su raised the issue of needing a wide expanse of land for planting crops, Xu Wei Ye only produced a small area of land. The reason he gave was that Ali Xiang did not have excess land for them to plant crops, and to be able to squeeze out a small piece of land was already very good.
Xu Wei Ye was secure in the knowledge that he has backing. In the final analysis, ten years of life as the mayor of Ali Xiang has made him forget his origins.
Ali Xiang has been under the management of father and son for approximately thirty years. The time was too long, almost making them forget who the real master was.
However, for the people of Ali Xiang, apart from the older generation, most of the young people now did not know about the existence of the Imperial Fu Palace. This was one of the things that Xu Wei Ye relied on.
Because when he took over the position as head of Ali Xiang, he ordered the older generation not to mention the words Imperial Fu Palace anymore, which reveled that he was already scheming for this when he took over as the village head.
No matter how capable Guan Su was, in the end there was a limit to all things.
Xu Wei Ye sent people around to spread rumors all over the place, saying that some people wanted to grab their land and plant something strange on it, which cause the people of Ali Xiang ot be very resistant to their arrival.
It was really difficult to grow cotton. If they couldn’t settle these affairs, then they would not be able to harvest cotton until next year over.
Translations by Vanilla Muse.
The sound of horse hooves thudded on the narrow path. Dozens of strong men riding on horses surrounded a black carriage as they headed straight for the tall mountain in front of them. This was the only gateway into Ali Xiang.
This huge team of people belonged to An Zi Ran and Fu Wu Tian.
After half a month of traveling, they finally came to Ali Xiang, a piece of land known as an oasis.
There were very few people along the road, and the closer they got ot Ali Xiang, the numbers dwindled even more.
Passing through the two tall mountains, the convoy finally came to the real entrance of Ali Xiang.
It was a hexagonal pavilion, and there were a few figures hidden in the pavilion. It was Guan Su and Shao Fei, who had come to pick them up. When they learned that the traveling party was arriving on this day, the two had come here early in the morning to await their arrival.