Volume 2: The King's Way Chapter 152: The Tiger of Kuaiji
Gan Ning had been in Kuaiji for more than half a year. Nominally, he was "demoted" to be the prefect of Kuaiji because of his warmongering.
After all, according to the universal concept of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the governor of Danyang was much more glorious than the governor of Kuaiji. Some officials who were not very knowledgeable even imagined that Kuaiji was full of wild people and miasma...
However, the big families such as the Yu family, the Gu family, the Lu family, etc. all knew that Gan Ning was in Kuaiji for other important tasks. They followed Bai Tu's order and sent a group of boatmen to Gan Ning, all of whom came with their indentures and their families.
At the same time, as soon as Gan Ning took office, he wrote a letter back to his hometown. Three months later, a group of boatmen, textile workers, and dyers from the Gan family in Shu also took a detour through the four counties of southern Jing and came to Jiangdong...
Although the Gan family of Shu County would not migrate with their entire clan just for a "prefect", but... the degree of importance Gan Ning holds under Bai Tu, as well as Bai Tu's own potential and power, are enough to make them decide to split off a part of their power to assist Gan Ning.
From now on, this branch of Gan Ning is the Kuaiji Gan family!
Needless to say, as a family that is not noble but old, they still have this courage. No matter what happens in the future, even if Bai Tu and Yizhou go to war, the two Gan families will be their masters.
With the support of technology and talents, the two tasks of Shu brocade and shipbuilding became busy.
When Gan Ning first wanted to get involved in the brocade industry, some of the wealthy and powerful people behind the local Jiangdong brocade industry were somewhat dissatisfied.
In addition, they thought Gan Ning had "fallen out of favor" and came to Kuaiji, so they secretly put obstacles in his way...
However, Jiangdong brocade at that time was not as famous as Shu brocade. The wealthy and powerful who relied on it for their livelihood could only be considered "noble families" . The real aristocratic families did not have interests here - most of them were in salt, iron, timber, and shipbuilding!
Gan Ning, however, didn't buy it. He said that if they wanted to compete normally, they could sit down and talk slowly. But who dared to play dirty... Gan Ning had just learned that a craftsman had been threatened. Without saying a word or making any attempts, he disguised himself as a bandit that night and frequently went to the homes of those suspected targets!
Moreover, he was wearing a bright red robe and had his face covered with a red cloth. You could tell at first glance that it was Gan Ning himself in disguise - this was Gan Ning giving face to Bai Tu's military law.
At the same time, although Gan Ning had a dog-faced person, he had a plan in mind. The places he robbed were all "illegal" or businesses that should not have any business in name, such as private mines, private salt, and hidden fields for growing mulberry trees... He was sure that no one would dare to complain!
Otherwise, before investigating whether the bandits were disguised as the prefect, we would have to explain why these unregistered and even privately-owned businesses were here.
The local tyrants in Kuaiji were also frightened by Gan Ning's arrogance at first - this was completely out of the ordinary!
They knew that they could not go to Bai Tu to complain to any place where Gan Ning attacked... and they did not even think of going to Bai Tu to complain at the beginning, otherwise wouldn't it be the same as surrendering to Bai Tu?
The families that invited thieves turned to the Yu, Wei, and Gu families, the "landlords" of Kuaiji.
Yu took the lead and set up a banquet at a farm not far from Shanyin City, the seat of Kuaiji, to "mediate" the dispute between the two parties.
However, what those local tyrants did not expect was that the three families treated the "disfavored" Gan Ning with great courtesy from the very beginning and did not seem to stand up for them at all.
Even during the meal, the matter of sending away the boatmen and crew members was mentioned, and finally the "small disputes" between Gan Ning and several other families were briefly mentioned.
Several local tyrants who started out as textile merchants could not see the situation clearly and quickly begged Gan Ning for mercy. Gan Ning, who always responded to soft words but not hard ones, reluctantly agreed to "take care of the safety of Kuaiji in the future and prevent bandits from running rampant."
After returning to the scope of "fair competition", how can other Jiangdong brocades compete with Gan Ning?
At this time, Jiangdong Brocade had not even reached its first development period, and the overall development level of Jiangdong was not high. The so-called Jiangdong Brocade was completely incomparable with the Shu Brocade that was famous throughout the country.
The skills brought by the hundreds of craftsmen sent by the Gan family of Shu County alone were enough to crush them, and... Gan Ning also had access to technological information that went straight to Shu County during its second major development in the Tang Dynasty.
After the information was handed over to trusted brocade weavers for research, the brocade weaving skills of Kuaiji improved rapidly.
When the new technology, new dyes, and new weaving methods gradually matured, Gan Ning used the first batch of finished products as an experiment to tailor a classic "Red Lion and Phoenix Pattern Robe" for himself!
The robe was still Gan Ning's favorite bright red color, with a wide opening on the front, giving a somewhat bare-chested feeling, but one could see that there were gorgeous phoenix patterns on the two lapels on the chest, like a pair of wings in reverse.
If you look at the back, you will understand what this is...
On the back of his shoulders and elbows, there were clusters of flowers, on the vest, there was a pair of dark red lions facing each other, and on the waist and hips, there was a golden phoenix with its head held high and its wings spread out, with its outstretched wings extending all the way back to the lapels.
The moment Gan Ning put on the "Red Lion and Phoenix Pattern Robe" which was woven with a new method, he showed a look of satisfaction and the military talisman burst into an enchanting red light. Then... in full view of everyone, Gan Ning was upgraded to the "Golden Jade Battle Armor"!
The strongest man in Jiangdong at this time is undoubtedly Lu Bu, who has surpassed the armor and military tokens.
The second is Sun Ce - after integrating the Overlord's Relic Armor, Sun Ce's military token also disappeared. Bai Tu thought it was lost at the time, but after listening to Lu Bu's explanation, he realized that Sun Ce was now half a step away from transcendence.
At this time, Sun Ce could summon his armor directly without the military talisman, but he could not enter the celestial state like Lu Bu.
Moreover, Sun Ce was being "forced to grow too fast" by the Overlord's remaining armor, and he would face a huge bottleneck if he wants to make a breakthrough in the future!
The next are Taishi Ci and Zhang Liao. The former was promoted to the Gold and Jade Armor during the battle with Sun Ce at Wujiang, while the latter was promoted to the Gold and Jade Armor after his insights accumulated during the battle with Ji Ling at Tongshan.
Next in Kuaiji, Gan Ning, who was promoted because of his red lion and phoenix pattern robe, followed closely in strength.
The other is Gao Shun - he was also promoted to the gold and jade armor after the battle of Tongshan, but Gao Shun's armor is rather special, and it does not improve his martial arts power much, but only increases his command limit again.
In terms of absolute force, Gao Shun may not be Zhou Tai's opponent, but Zhou Tai is still wearing gilded armor...
The first batch of improved Shu brocade was named "Ning Brocade" by Gan Ning with great shame. As soon as it came out, it was the most beautiful brocade among all other brocades.
Moreover, no matter whether it is the high-end market or the low-end market, there are corresponding technologies that can adapt to them. Wherever Ning Brocade goes, Shu Brocade or Jiangdong Brocade are defeated due to the gap in quality and cost-effectiveness, and their market share is directly snatched away!
If Gan Ning had not shown his "brutal" side before, and had not been clearly supported by the governor's office, the other real prominent families in Kuaiji would not want to be his enemy. I'm afraid that the families whose financial resources were cut off would have been ready to fight to the death...
However, Gan Ning didn't care about that. Whoever dared to offend him would be retaliated against doubly, and... the target of the revenge was still the free will - this was also the reason why Bai Tu didn't give him the ditch beach salt drying business!
That thing is more profitable, but... the salt and iron business directly targets the lifeline of those big families, and Bai Tu doesn't want to deal with it too radically.
After Ning Jin started to attract money, Gan Ning no longer needed to provide blood transfusions to the governor's mansion. Instead, he directly began to recruit boatmen and carpenters and purchase wood on the spot. The shipyard that had completed the preliminary preparations also began to operate gradually with the blood transfusions from Ning Jin...
