Chapter 3 Rumors (Overhaul) "General, why are you so anxious?"
"Sure." Xie Zechuan asked the manager, "Is there anyone in the cubicle next to the forging room right now?"
"General, there is no one in the compartment at this time."
Xie Zechuan signaled to the manager that he knew the situation, and he took Zhou Tinglan towards the compartment.
The manager looked at the two men's departing backs, and an inexplicable thought arose in his mind.
The general was preoccupied with the war and was cold all day long. Little girls would avoid him whenever they saw him. But now when he saw Miss Zhou, he behaved politely.
Could it be that their general has fallen in love with the girl from last week?
The general was nearly twenty-three years old. Although he was a bit old, he was still unmarried and kept himself clean. Moreover, he was a lord.
In his opinion, Miss Zhou and their general were a match made in heaven. Miss Zhou was proficient in the art of sword forging, and the general was good at wielding swords.
It was so nice. He wanted to hold high the banner of a happy marriage between General Xie and Miss Zhou. Well, he would have to talk about this matter with the soldiers after get off work.
The compartment was not big, and the two sat down at the table.
"I wonder what kind of cooperation Miss Zhou wants to discuss with me?"
When the steward introduced Xie Zechuan's identity to Zhou Tinglan just now, Zhou Tinglan did not show the slightest surprise, and Xie Zechuan was not surprised by this either.
The population of Beijiang City is simple, and as the commander of the Beijiang barracks, no one is unfamiliar with his name. Zhou Tinglan can find out with a little inquiry.
Zhou Tinglan's eyes moved slightly. So direct?
She did not hide it either. If a fish is to be hooked, it is necessary to put some bait first so that it will bite the hook more tightly.
"The war in the northern border is tense, and the Northern Di have provoked many times. I'm sure General Xie is very anxious now."
Xie Zechuan's expression was gloomy and unclear: "Continue."
"Thank you, General, don't be anxious. From what I've learned over the past two days, you don't have many weapons left, right?"
Xie Zechuan hummed in a muffled voice: "Miss Zhou, if you have anything to say, just say it."
"General Xie is still so anxious." Zhou Tinglan picked up the knife she had just brought with her on the table and gestured in front of her eyes.
What an impatient person! He couldn't stand it after just a little bit of bait was put in. What will he do later?
Looking at Xie Zechuan's appearance, Zhou Tinglan guessed that the shortage of weapons in Beijiang City must have reached a very serious level.
Zhou Tinglan's relaxed demeanor only made Xie Zechuan even more anxious: "Miss Zhou mentioned weapons. What exactly do you want to say to this general?"
"The swords I forge use much less forging material than yours, and are sharper and more durable. Don't you need them, General Xie?"
After saying that, Zhou Tinglan signaled Xie Zechuan with her eyes to look at the long sword in her hand.
Xie Zechuan raised his eyebrows slightly, then burst into laughter.
"Miss Zhou is absolutely right. Xie really needs it."
"Since Miss Zhou has taken the initiative to propose cooperation, she must have something to ask for. Why not tell me? As long as it doesn't endanger the Great Zhao Kingdom and its people, I, Xie, will do my best to help Miss Zhou."
Zhou Tinglan smiled softly, "General, I'm relieved by what you said. I wonder if you know about my father's affairs."
Xie Zechuan became interested when he heard Zhou Tinglan's words: "I haven't asked about it yet."
"My father once held the position of Prime Minister and assisted Your Majesty wholeheartedly for many years. However, he was falsely accused by treacherous officials and ended up with his entire family exiled." Zhou Tinglan became more and more angry as he spoke.
Throughout history, there have been countless cases of honest officials being harmed by corrupt officials, leading to political instability and the loss of central power to others.
Xie Zechuan raised his eyebrows: "So, Miss Zhou, what does this general want me to do for you?"
His admiration for Zhou Tinglan grew stronger and stronger. The courage and ability of the girl before him were something he had never seen before.
Zhou Tinglan stood up and walked to Xie Zechuan, whispering, "That depends on how sincere General Xie is."
"This general will wholeheartedly assist you with your father's affairs."
"Alright! Remember what you said today. I hope General Xie can help me return to the capital, redress my father's injustice, and eliminate the treacherous officials in the court."
“It’s a pleasure to work with you!”
The two smiled at each other and finally reached a cooperation.
After walking out of the cubicle, Xie Zechuan promoted Zhou Tinglan to acting manager of the weapons factory on the spot, with power second only to the manager.
The appointment was immediately announced to the entire arsenal. If there were any objections, they could ask Xie Zechuan. However, due to Xie Zechuan's reputation, no one dared to discuss it.
After noon that day, the manager handed the weapons factory's recent forging material account book to Zhou Tinglan.
"If Miss Zhou has any problems, please send someone to find me."
The shortage of forging materials is even more serious than Zhou Tinglan expected, but the basis for forging weapons is to have sufficient forging materials.
She suddenly had an idea and thought that worn weapons could be recycled to extract forging materials, so she went to find the manager and asked for the key to the warehouse where the broken weapons were kept.
The manager was shocked when he learned that Zhou Tinglan wanted to recycle the broken weapons to extract forging materials.
"Miss Zhou, remelting and extracting is extremely difficult, and no one has successfully done it yet!"
The manager was worried. If Miss Zhou failed, it would be a huge blow. Should he find General Xie in advance?
"Nothing, I'll give it a try first."
After taking the key, Zhou Tinglan hurriedly said goodbye to the manager. She went to the warehouse, picked up two knives with badly worn blades, and returned to the forging table.
When the steward saw Zhou Tinglan again, she was standing in front of the forging table, hammering with a hammer, and the forging table next to her was piled with forging materials.
God bless the northern border, with such a swordsmith, there is no need to worry about the lack of forging materials to forge weapons.
**
Zhou Tinglan looked at the students in the forging class below the stage. She was very satisfied with their eagerness to learn.
A few days ago, she spent a few days recycling all the damaged weapons in the weapons factory and barracks warehouse, and the shortage of forging materials was temporarily alleviated.
But she alone could not forge enough weapons to supply the entire Northern Frontier Barracks, so she went to the barracks to find Xie Zechuan to explain her plan.
"Are you planning to open a blacksmithing class in the weapons factory?"
"That's right. Opening a forging class will allow me to pass on my swordsmithing skills to more people. Even if I'm not in Northern Frontier, I can still provide the Northern Frontier barracks with high-quality weapons."
I don’t know if there is a similar class system in Dazhao Kingdom. Her approach is similar to running a cram school in primary and secondary schools.
Xie Zechuan thought her plan was feasible, and he ordered the manager of the arsenal to immediately select a suitable blacksmith from the arsenal.
Many blacksmiths in the arsenal signed up for the job. They were really curious about the sword-forging skills that even General Xie admired so much, not to mention that they heard that the sword-forger was a young girl.
The next day, after seeing her sword-forging skills, the blacksmiths were full of praise and took the initiative to imitate her.
However, soon Zhou Tinglan received calls from the manager telling her that some students in the forging class had asked for leave.
Once may be an occasional occurrence, but if it happens many times, there will definitely be something wrong. Moreover, students' frequent leave will seriously hinder the progress of teaching skills.
She asked the steward, "Do you know why you are asking for leave?"
The manager replied, "I don't know. The blacksmiths who requested leave all said that there were recent emergencies at home and they needed to return home to deal with them."
Zhou Tinglan became even more suspicious, so she went to the barracks to look for Xie Zechuan that day.
Xie Zechuan was sitting behind his desk handling military affairs. Seeing her coming, he asked, "Miss Zhou, is there something urgent?"
Zhou Tinglan told Xie Zechuan about the unusual behavior of students in the forging class who had been asking for leave frequently recently. He sighed in his heart, not knowing what had happened.
Xie Zechuan thought for a moment and said, "I'll ask Qin Sinian to take people to search the city."
In the afternoon, Zhou Tinglan asked the steward to manage the forging class for her, and stayed in Xie Zechuan's tent waiting for Qin Sinian's search results.
"I found out. Someone left a threatening letter on their door in the middle of the night, saying that if they dared to go to the forging workshop again, their entire family would be burned to death." Qin Sinian informed Xie Zechuan of the results of his search.
Threatening letter?
Zhou Tinglan asked, "If they were so scared, why did they tell you directly about the threatening letter?"
Qin Sinian shook his head. "No, they were reluctant to tell me at first, but maybe they later saw how brave and reliable I was, so they decided to tell me."
“…”
Xie Zechuan poured cold water on him and said, "You might as well beg others to tell you instead of you. Let's think about how to catch the person who sent the letter."
Qin Sinian snorted, "That's not that difficult. I'll take some men to the other blacksmiths' doors tonight and secretly wait in shifts. We'll definitely catch the messenger."
The next morning, Zhou Tinglan was summoned to the barracks by Xie Zechuan.
"I heard that the person was caught?" Zhou Tinglan asked as he walked into the tent.
Xie Zechuan: "I caught him, but..."
Seeing Xie Zechuan pause, Zhou Tinglan's eyes darkened slightly: "Who is it?"
Qin Sinian interrupted, "He's a homeless beggar in the city. I caught him red-handed at the blacksmith's door last night. There's no doubt about it. We also intercepted a threatening letter."
Zhou Tinglan checked the content of the threatening letter. As he knew before, the content was that he was not allowed to go to the forging class, otherwise he would set fire to his whole family.
"Will the beggar tell me who ordered this?"
"The beggar thought a man in black had given him some money and told him to deliver a letter every day to the home of a blacksmith who was studying in a forging class."
Seeing Zhou Tinglan's frown, Xie Zechuan asked, "Are you suspicious of someone?"
"There is indeed one person, but he is far away in Shangjing City. I dare not make a conclusion easily."
Xie Zechuan understood and said no more. He asked the manager to go to the home of the blacksmith who had asked for leave to comfort him, saying that he already knew the person who sent the threatening letter and that the person had been arrested, so he could go back to the forging class and learn the sword-forging skills without worry.
Just two days after the blacksmith returned home on leave, rumors started spreading again in Beijiang City.
The whole city was told that General Xie was bewitched by a witch and helped her to open a forging class.
The rumors grew more and more intense, and gradually spread to the point that Zhou Tinglan used the forging team to collude with the Beidi, and that his father was a serious criminal of the court.
The blacksmith in the forging class thought of the previous threatening letter and dared not go to the forging class again.
The people in the city gathered in front of the barracks and asked Xie Zechuan to arrest Zhou Tinglan immediately and hand him over to the government for punishment.
As soon as the rumor started to spread, Xie Zechuan sent people to take Zhou Tinglan's family to the barracks. As he expected, Zhou Tinglan's dilapidated house was smashed and looted by people in the city, and the hole in the roof reappeared.
Zhou Yiming was brought to the barracks inexplicably, and he didn't know what had happened. He looked at Zhou Tinglan who was packing his things.
"Lan'er, where are we?"
Zhou Tinglan explained, "Some bad rumors have been circulating in the city recently. Father, please stay in the barracks."
She recalled what happened when she returned home to pack her things, and became more determined to let her parents live in the barracks.
There are all kinds of people in Beijiang City!
Not long ago, when Zhou Tinglan returned home to pack her things, a thief from the city wanted to steal the remaining silver and money in the broken house while no one was at home. When she entered the house, she saw the thief rummaging through the house.
She smiled and said, "Excuse me, are you looking for something?"
The thief didn't notice who the visitor was. "I want to find some money, but this family is so poor that they don't even have anything valuable."
etc--
The thief reacted and turned his head mechanically, directly into Zhou Tinglan's eyes.
"Who are you?"
Zhou Tinglan approached the thief step by step and said in a deep voice: "I am the poor guy you are talking about."
She picked up the broom next to her and hit him straight at me: "I told you to come to my house to steal things, you must be tired of living!"
"No, don't hit me, I was wrong!" The thief begged for mercy repeatedly and tried to escape but was caught by Zhou Tinglan again.
Zhou Tinglan tied up the bruised thief inside the house, with his head right where the hole in the roof was.
She packed up her things and turned to leave. Before she left, she said, "You will bear the warm hospitality of the people in the city for our family."
When Zhou Yiming heard that the dilapidated house was smashed by the people in the city and robbed by thieves, he didn't care about the money and cried in regret.
"I'm useless and failed to take good care of you and your daughter."
Mrs. Qiao also started crying along with her husband.
Zhou Tinglan suppressed his anger and settled his parents, then returned to Xie Zechuan's tent to discuss strategy with him.
As more and more people gathered outside the barracks, Zhou Tinglan put down the curtain in his hand and looked away: "We must first calm down the people in the city who have gathered outside the barracks."
Qin Sinian said: "Most of the soldiers in the barracks are young and strong people in the city. We cannot use force to drive them out."
The tent fell silent for a long time. Zhou Tinglan then suggested, "Why don't we take advantage of your tactics and announce to the public that I've been detained by you and handed over to the authorities for your majesty's decision."
"No." Xie Zechuan disagreed.
"He's not really being held captive. Besides, have you forgotten that the chief clerk in the government office was once a retainer of my father's?"
The more Zhou Tinglan thought about it, the more feasible it seemed, and he immediately began to persuade Xie Zechuan to agree.
Xie Zechuan couldn't persuade Zhou Tinglan, so he looked at Qin Sinian for help, hoping that he would come and help persuade him, but he found that Qin Sinian was staring at the distance between them as if he was having a good time.
He rolled his eyes and glared at him. Seeing this, Qin Sinian spread his hands towards Xie Zechuan to indicate that he also thought Zhou Tinglan's proposal was feasible.
"Zechuan, I think Miss Zhou's suggestion is good."
Xie Zechuan said angrily: "What's good about it?"
You are really a hindrance to my brother. It’s better not to have him. He can see the good things with his eyes.
Zhou Tinglan's eyes were full of determination: "Thank you, General, just let me try."
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