Chapter 131: A Business That Topples Nations

"Master, a kiln was ruined yesterday, but we found something strange inside."

Early in the morning, the kiln manager hurried to find Zhao Hengyi, pulling a small object from his robes as if he were hiding contraband.

It was a piece of glass, the size of a chicken egg, shapeless and murky in color!

"Master, this is the legendary 'liuli' (glass)! If we can figure out the formula..." The manager’s lips trembled with excitement. "This is a fortune from the heavens! Master, we are about to become wealthy and prosperous!"

Zhao Hengyi was stunned. *Glass? I know more about glass than you do, my friend!*

Previously, Zhao had considered manufacturing glass. After all, the production process was not overly complex, and the costs were negligible—merely a handful of worthless sand. However, in the eyes of the ancients, glass was a rare and precious treasure. Uneven, multicolored glass beads could fetch exorbitant prices of dozens of taels of silver in the antique shops of Jiangling City!

Don’t be put off by the price; even at a sky-high cost, there was never any stock!

Zhao had seen this with his own eyes. A glass bead, which he wouldn't even have bothered to pick up if it fell on the ground, was displayed as a sample in an antique shop. Had it not been for the influence of Manager Liu of the Hengtong Trading House, the shopkeeper wouldn't have even deigned to let Zhao look at it.

That glass bead—what others called a "liuli" bead—was said to be an extraordinary wonder from overseas!

At the time, Zhao had remained composed, though his mind was full of cynical thoughts. Perhaps his unintentional look of disdain had stung the shopkeeper’s pride, for the man had whispered mysteriously that even overseas, only the royal family of the Tianfang Kingdom knew how to manufacture it—and for that very reason, the Tianfang Kingdom had been conquered and destroyed.

*Damn it.* He had already been worried about attracting the covetous eyes of powerful figures by producing glass. After hearing the shopkeeper’s story, Zhao had even less interest in involving himself in a trade that could lead to the downfall of a nation.

But now, his own kiln had produced... let’s call it glass. And with the manager so excited, the master craftsmen at the kiln must also have recognized it. Even if he didn't want to enter the glass industry, word was bound to leak out.

Was heaven forcing him to use glass to deceive the ancients and make a killing?

Having weathered many complexities of life, Zhao’s state of mind was no longer what it once was. His perspective and the height from which he viewed problems had long since shifted. Most importantly, he had seen through the facade of the Great Yan Kingdom to the weakness of its entire system.

*This glass business—it’s doable!*

Countless thoughts raced through his mind, and Zhao arrived at a conclusion that surprised even himself.

So what if glass-making technology led to the destruction of the Tianfang Kingdom abroad? At the very least, here in the Great Yan Kingdom, in Jiangling Prefecture, in Dangyang County, no one could destroy Zhao Hengyi! Furthermore, even if they produced the glass, the ones responsible for the sales would be Song San or perhaps the Marquis of Weiwu. What did that have to do with him?

As long as he maintained strict secrecy, Zhao could absolutely produce and sell glass while ensuring his own safety. He didn’t need to worry about the market for high-priced glassware; the Great Yan Kingdom was full of wealthy landowners. The "Nine-Flower Jade Dew" was proof of that.

It was only the common people who were poor; only the masses who suffered. Even in the relatively modest city of Jiangling, it was not uncommon for a wealthy man to spend three or four hundred taels of silver on a single banquet. It was rumored that in the Jiangnan region, in the truly prosperous heartlands, wealthy merchants would spend nearly ten thousand taels on a single feast!

This was an era full of magical contradictions, an utterly absurd age. As long as Zhao Hengyi maintained his military advantage, he could ignore the greed and covetousness of most people. Even so, he still dared not touch the salt mines in the Great Green Mountains; that was the difference between luxury goods and essential civilian supplies.

"How many people at the kiln know that we produced glass?" Zhao Hengyi asked, looking at the manager who was waiting expectantly for his response.

"Including myself, only three!"

Seeing that his master was interested, the manager grew even more excited. The kiln had been opened yesterday evening, and because something had gone wrong during the firing, the entire batch of porcelain vases was ruined. It was because the batch was ruined that the master craftsman had ordered the kiln to be opened early, hoping to clear out the waste and start the next batch as quickly as possible. Under normal circumstances, the kiln would have been opened in the morning, which would have meant better light and more workers present.

Because of the failure, only the master craftsman and a manual laborer were there to inspect the kiln. Apart from them, only the manager who had come to report the news knew about the glass.

"That makes it simple. Tell the master craftsman and the laborer that they don’t need to work at the main kiln anymore. Organize a crew; we will build another kiln in the mountains, and those two will work there." Zhao sighed, looking at the glowing eyes of the manager. "From now on, you are only responsible for the new kiln. Start secretly selecting reliable men."

Since heaven wanted him to make glass, he might as well do it wholeheartedly. He would prioritize secrecy and hide it for as long as he could.

Beyond his growing boldness and strength, another reason Zhao decided to take the risk was that he was short on silver.

It would be hard to believe, even in Yushu Bay or Dangyang County—let alone Jiangling City—that the famous "Wealthy Master Zhao" was short on cash. But he truly was.

While Yushu Bay was thriving and half of Dangyang County was benefiting from its momentum, the reality was different. To outsiders, it looked like he was raking in mountains of gold and silver. But among all his workshops, only the Nine-Flower Jade Dew was exceptionally profitable; it was his greatest source of net income. The next most profitable was the humble chicken farm, but those accounts were mostly linked to the staff cafeteria—internal bookkeeping that only looked profitable on paper.

The textile workshop, which employed the most people and kept countless hands busy, wasn't actually making money; it had even begun to operate at a loss over the last two months. This seemed absurd to many, and the manager, Miao Xiaoyu, had been losing sleep over it, looking quite haggard.

Even so, Zhao could have made a fortune from the profits of the Nine-Flower Jade Dew alone, but he was supporting a money-guzzling beast: the smelting workshop.

The smelting workshop was a bottomless pit. Countless silver flowed into it, but it produced nothing that could be converted into profitable commodities. That was the real reason Zhao was short on money.