After finishing the formalities of becoming a disciple, Ji Wan waved his hand and asked the young eunuchs to bring up the exquisite dishes.
"Your Highness, all the Beirong soldiers who were with us in the spiritual energy have surrendered. Including the Beirong soldiers who surrendered later, the number of people is about 20,000."
Zuo Yue is very careful in his work, and he has always been in charge of counting the number of troops.
"Okay." Ji Wan nodded, thinking that now that he had the mineral vein map in hand, mining could finally be put on the agenda.
Thinking of this, Ji Wan called out to Jiang Jian, "Zifeng, I'll give you a map later. Go dig with the captives according to the map."
"Yes." That's great! His Highness didn't get angry at that foul-mouthed Chief Secretary, and even let him go mining! Jiang Jian happily poured a glass of wine for Gong Xu beside him.
Gong Xu was completely bewildered. He couldn't understand what was going on with these literati.
"I'll also leave the spring plowing matters to you, Jiang Jian, please pay attention." Ji Wan picked up the wheat rice and tasted it.
Mmm, it tastes weird.
"Yes."
Ji Wan picked up a piece of freshly cooked meat from the kitchen and put it into his mouth, his eyes narrowed in satisfaction. "My lords, I plan to rest for a year."
"It really needs to be repaired." Yan Peinan nodded in agreement as he looked at the piles of financial reports on the military's expenses.
War is so expensive!
If a war breaks out, all the people in Qingshizhou will have worked for nothing for a year. Fortunately, Ji Wan didn't do something stupid like increasing taxes and angering the people.
Lou Shao and Xiang Yang also nodded in agreement. After this battle, they completely understood the difference in strength between Ji Wan's soldiers and theirs.
It is the gap that makes people want to catch up.
"Your Highness, what is your goal after your rest?" Pan Zhuo said slowly.
Ji Wan looked at Pan Zhuo with appreciation, then put down his chopsticks, stood up and clicked on a corner of the map covered with water ripples - it was the islands floating near the Thousand Islands State.
"This..." The advisors looked at each other.
"Your Highness, this is an island. We don't have the navy to fight..." Finally, Gong Xu scratched his head and spoke with gritted teeth.
Qiandao Prefecture is a coastal island prefecture under the jurisdiction of Donglin State. It is located in the northeast of Fanzhou and adjacent to Chuzhou.
Except for a few major cities, other cities are on islands, and most of the islands are scattered and difficult to manage.
There, bandits were rampant, and the people suffered greatly, but most of them dared not speak out.
"Your Highness, this Thousand Islands State is the most notorious place in the East Lin Kingdom. There are countless local tyrants and bandits are rampant.
We have just defeated the Northern Rong Kingdom. Why don't we take advantage of the situation and attack the Northern Rong instead of turning our guns on the tougher ones?"
Cui Min put down the jade in his hand and bowed to Ji Wan.
"Alas... Rucheng, you don't know how expensive food and daily necessities are until you take charge of the household. Let Xiaonan explain my financial situation to you in detail." Ji Wan raised his chin and gestured to Yan Peinan.
Yan Peinan spoke slowly: "Mr. Rucheng, the food and fodder we collected from the battle we just fought would have consumed enough food for the people of Tongcheng for a year.
We have fought five consecutive battles in just six months. Although General Gu made a lot of gold and silver by selling ice in Beirong Country, that is enough for us to fight a battle next year.
If you don't find some revenue to spend, Your Highness will be in debt fighting the war."
"I see. Min knows. Then the revenue that Your Highness is thinking of is..."
"I have the technology to purify salt grains. As long as I conquer a coastal prefecture or city to provide raw materials for crude salt purification, I can continue to make profits."
Today, the salt wells are controlled by the government and the aristocratic families. If Ji Wan wants to intervene, it is not an exaggeration to say that he is going against the government and the aristocratic families.
"Your Highness, I would like to know to what extent we can purify the salt grains?" Yang Guan asked from below.
"It's the size of fine sand, and tastes only salty, not bitter." Ji Wan thought of the state of salt crystals in his previous life, and then answered Yang Guan without hesitation.
The subordinate regiment drew a sharp breath.
Like fine sand?! And not bitter? Is that still salt? Shouldn't salt be clumpy and astringent?
Cui Min and Pan Zhuo beside him exchanged glances for a moment, and finally their eyes fell on Zhengyang City in Qiandao Prefecture at the same time.
"Then why don't you take a look at Zhengyang City in Qiandao Province?"
Cui Min couldn't imagine the state of the salt in Ji Wan's mouth.
But he knew that if Ji Wan took over the lucrative salt and iron business and blocked the government and the aristocratic families who were originally doing this business, who knows what kind of trouble would arise.
Therefore, he and Pan Zhuo conservatively chose a city with little land, located on the coast, and adjacent to Fanzhou.
This perfectly meets Ji Wan's needs.
"Zhengyang City only faces the sea on one side..." Well, never mind, it should be possible... Ji Wan tactfully swallowed his rebuttal.
It’s better to let the advisers rest their guard. Ji Wan was conservative and didn’t have the heart to mark all the Thousand Islands on the map.
If you take too big a step, you might get hurt easily. You have to take it step by step slowly.
He nodded and agreed with the Zhengyang City proposed by Cui Min and Pan Zhuo.
Yan Peinan subconsciously said, "But Your Highness, we don't have any soldiers who are good at fighting in the water. Do we have to recruit new soldiers?!"
Yan Peinan has the most say in the matter of spending money, but her tone now clearly shows that Qingshizhou is broke and cannot afford to recruit navy troops.
Ji Wan gave a wry smile and met Yan Peinan's gaze. After a moment's thought, he perfunctorily said, "Ahem, Xiaonan, don't get excited. We can recruit some skilled water soldiers from among the existing ones."
"Your Highness, what you said had better be true!" Yan Peinan looked at Ji Wan resentfully.
"Of course it's true!" Ji Wan rolled his eyes and wisely changed the subject. "My Lords, I know you're short-handed, so I want to take advantage of this year of recuperation to recruit some help!"
The topic was changed, and Yan Peinan could only shake his head helplessly and stopped talking.
Anyway, His Highness knows his limits.
Ji Wan also knew that it was a bit of a late comer to tell the advisory group about recruiting people. They had survived the busiest time, and now that it was not busy anymore, she started recruiting people!
The advisors looked at each other and thought to themselves that they really wanted to kill their master!
Ji Wan cleverly changed the subject again: "Lou Shao! Well, pick out some of the soldiers you lead who can swim and train them individually. The rest will train with the soldiers under my command."
Lou Shao nodded: "Yes!"
"There's also Moxiang Academy. The space is a bit small and not enough for our use. After the spring plowing in a few days, the new batch of students will start to enroll. We have to move Moxiang Academy out of Tongcheng."
Ji Wan turned around and studied the map of Dancheng hanging behind him.
"Fu Guang wants to move the academy to Dancheng?" Lin Chanhua followed Ji Wan's gaze and saw that Dancheng was the largest city in the entire Fanzhou and Qingshizhou.
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