Chapter 45: Territorial Struggle (Part 3) Update
After the governor and his entourage had left, Liu Ziye turned around and was met with the irrepressible excitement of the private guards she brought with her.
Xiying stared at him eagerly. Although he suppressed his composure and refrained from asking questions, anyone could see that he had a lot of things to say that he wanted to pour out. The other dozen or so private guards were all like this.
The only one who was still relatively stable was Jin Jie, who had a calm and stagnant expression for thousands of years.
She turned her gaze back to Xiying: "Speak."
"Ai!"
Xi Yingxiang was like a dam that had finally been opened to release floodwaters. Without a single stutter, he unloaded the most important question: "Young Marquis! Should our mansion open a salt lake to sell salt?"
Liu Ziye did not comment after hearing this.
She walked over again, observing her personal guards one by one, then pointed at two of them and asked, "What do you think?"
Zhang Shan, the private guard Liu Ziye had called upon, quickly replied, "I think the same as Xiying!"
Another man named Xia Wu followed up, "I'm the same! With such a large salt lake, if our mansion could just take a tiny bit and sell it, it would be enough to support the entire mansion for two years!"
Liu Ziye nodded slightly: "You have a clear plan."
Xia Wu chuckled when he heard this.
She then asked the others, "Do you all think so?"
Most of the private bathroom staff nodded repeatedly.
This white salt mine is right in front of us, just like gold and silver lying in front of us.
Moreover, in their opinion, the young marquis was going to such great lengths to fight back and forth probably just to get a piece of the pie.
After all, the Marquis' Mansion had its title and salary confiscated by the Emperor. Ever since the young Marquis woke up last year, he has been leading them to do one shocking thing after another in order to get more money and food for the Marquis' Mansion.
Isn't it just smuggling some salt?!
I'm afraid that people like their young marquis are capable of anything, whether it's heaven or hell! If one day he leads them to raise the banner of rebellion, it wouldn't be surprising at all!
"If this Lord Marquis mentioned selling salt today, would you really dare to do it? That's against the imperial law. Aren't you afraid of being caught and thrown into prison?"
The appearance of the young marquis in front gave Xiying some courage again.
He immediately stepped forward and said, "If the Crown Prince dares to do it, why can't you, young marquis?"
As expected, he had just finished speaking when he was hit on the head with a hammer.
Liu Ziye put away the rolled-up atlas in his hand and said, "Because he's the crown prince!"
She glanced at the guards who had been eager to try. "You're all getting bolder and bolder. I think if I told you to become bandits, you'd do it without hesitation!"
Zhang Shanxiawu, who had just shown up, saw that something was wrong and quickly returned to the team, shrinking his head and feet to reduce his presence.
Liu Ziye stared at them and said, "If one day, this Marquis asked you to rebel, would you dare to do it?"
The two of them had no choice but to say, "We are all from the Xiguan Marquisate. If you, young marquis, say so, how can we not do it... Damn it, we won't tolerate that bully from Yanjing!"
Zhang Shan was afraid of being criticized by the young marquis, so he didn't dare to say much and just nodded in agreement.
Unexpectedly, Liu Ziye sighed after hearing this: "What a pity! This Marquis cherishes his life the most! If you follow me, I'm afraid you'll have to continue to suffer this humiliation!"
Xia Wu choked and changed the subject awkwardly: "That...that's nothing. We've been used to eating it for a long time, just like eating. If we don't eat it for a day, we might feel uncomfortable all over. Haha, hahaha..."
He laughed dryly and shifted his gaze, winking at Jin Jie, who had been watching with a cold face, for help.
However, Jin Jie just looked at him coldly, with no intention of helping him.
Xia Wu: ...
How could he, a man of seven feet tall, be frightened and cry? Just ignore us!
Fortunately, after hearing what he said, Liu Ziye simply looked around at the people standing in a line. Without saying anything else, he turned around and said to everyone, "Leave two people to guard the stall, and the rest of you, follow me back home!"
This means that there is no intention to mix in the salt lake profits.
"yes!"
More than a dozen people immediately straightened their appearance, straightened their backs, and responded in unison!
Jin Jie asked two people to stay, and the rest followed Liu Ziye and mounted their horses to return to the city.
·
Wang Yanpeng and Gu Liangzhi were extremely busy contacting their superiors in order to remove the obstacle of the young Marquis of Xiguan as soon as possible.
However, after Liu Ziye had stirred things up like this, he seemed to have completely forgotten about the salt lake.
After returning home, she personally made a list and handed it to Jin Ji, asking him to organize and prepare the supplies for the upcoming long journey.
The two professors who were invited earlier have also entered the mansion.
Liu Ziye took the time to visit the academy twice. At the beginning, there were basically only people from his own family there. Under the pressure of Liu Biao, they went to class reluctantly.
When other people in Yucheng saw the Xiguanhou Mansion Study with its fences and gates open, most of them just looked at it curiously.
Even though there is no fence around the study, few people actually stay here for too long.
But when Liu Ziye went to see it for the second time, the attitude of the people in the mansion was obviously much more serious, whether it was the children's daytime lessons or the adults' night lessons.
The number of children and adults who gathered around the teacher's classroom to listen to his lessons gradually increased. After several days, when everyone saw that no one was stopping them and they could listen to his lessons as they pleased, these people began to bring small stools, branches and stones to learn reading and arithmetic from the teacher in the guest hall.
On the first day that the school opened, Ah Huan and Ah Bi went to tutoring classes on time as required by their young master.
However, the young marquis's private lessons and the rules of the study room still arrived on time as always.
Every sunset, the trembling and sorrowful voices of the two maids, Ahuan and Abi, could be heard from the small study room.
"What is the mechanical structure of a lawn mower's blade?" Liu Ziye asked Asi.
Ah Pi: "Yes, it's a single closed, closed-loop mechanism..."
"What about the grain harvester's blade? What's its structure?"
"It's a multi-closed-loop mechanism..."
"What is the difference between the two mechanical structures?"
Ah Pi trembled as she recited the passage from the book "Basic Principles of Mechanics" that Liu Ziye had given her.
Liu Ziye listened to her reciting more and more fluently and nodded in encouragement. However, he immediately turned to Ah Huan and asked, "What is the wheel technique in the wood attack technique?"
Ah Huan tried his best to tense himself and review the knowledge he had learned from the examination record book.
Liu Ziye seemed quite satisfied after hearing this. Finally, she glanced at the two maids who breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Ah Huan, draw a diagram of the vehicle structure and write out the basic mechanical calculation formulas. Ah Bi, draw a schematic diagram of the two cutter plane degrees of freedom and calculate and compare the difference in the degrees of freedom of the two cutters."
Ah Bi finally couldn't help crying out in grief: "Little, little marquis..."
Ah Huan also shuddered.
It’s not that they didn’t understand what Liu Ziye was talking about. All these contents were included in the book Liu Ziye gave them. Liu Ziye even gave them a special explanation.
However, in the process of accepting these contents, they felt extremely shocked by how their young marquis had come to understand these things.
Moreover, the contents themselves are too far removed from the experiences and lessons the two have learned over the past decade.
They could still understand the craftsmen and some fairly common mechanical tools in the book...
But once they disassembled the structure, the design principles of each single structure and the so-called "basic mechanical principles" seemed like a demonic book to the two of them.
However, this magical book did not contain any magical or strange things. Instead, it asked them to analyze the most ordinary things they saw in daily life and to figure out the invisible "force" hidden behind things.
The other people in the Marquis' Mansion were confused. Whether it was Xiying, Liu Biao, Liu Bing and others, they only knew that the young Marquis was currently "disciplining" the two maids.
Apart from handling the necessary affairs in the young marquis' courtyard, the sisters Ahuan and Abi were almost locked up in the courtyard all the time, and they were even more reluctant to go out than real ladies from noble families.
Of course, the young marquis did whatever he wanted. Although he had dark circles under his eyes and looked depressed every day because of the two girls in charge, the key to the most important thing in the marquis's mansion now, the key to the experimental site that turned all the blueprints into physical samples, was given to these two little girls for safekeeping. They could even come in and out freely and touch every blueprint and mechanical component.
This unprecedented preferential treatment and trust can be seen by anyone with a discerning eye.
Liu Biao, who wanted to persuade the young marquis to treat the two maids well, said:
The young marquis's thoughts are becoming more and more like a needle in the sea. No matter who comes, no one can see through them.
Many of the results were laid out before Liu Ming's eyes. He knew that the young marquis now had his own bottom line and rules.
The night is dark.
Liu Biao, followed by Liu Bing, stood on the corridor outside the courtyard and looked at the light in the window of the young marquis' bedroom in the courtyard.
He now knew that the young marquis had been locking himself in his room almost every night since he regained consciousness, and seemed to be always thinking and planning countless things alone.
He also knew that she went to bed at 11:00 PM every night and got up at 12:00 AM without any delay.
Thinking of this, Liu Biao, who had been trying to persuade him, turned to Liu Bing and said, "Let's go to the kitchen and see how long it has been since the milk that the young marquis drinks every morning has been delivered. This stuff can't be stale."
"Okay." Liu Bing followed Liu Biao.
Liu Biao: "And tomorrow's meat dish is steamed cod, right? It must be killed in the morning so that it is fresh."
"They're freshly killed, Dad. There's a pond dug near the kitchen, which is used to store fresh live fish."
Liu Biao nodded: "Yes. But if there is any new food delivered today, it is best for the young marquis to eat the latest one."
"I understand, Dad." Liu Bing continued to assure.
The two of them discussed and disappeared into the night.
A black shadow leaped down from the courtyard wall, looked in the direction where Liu Biao disappeared, then turned lightly and flashed into the courtyard.
Ever since Liu Ziye began to check on the two little girls' homework, Jin Jie had been hiding himself in the corridor, paying close attention to every movement in the courtyard. At this moment, the leaves of the cherry trees in the courtyard swayed in the wind, and cherry blossom petals fell to the ground, carrying wafts of subtle fragrance.
But Jin Jie was only focused on the lighted window and the candlelight silhouette above the window that he was already very familiar with.
During the hour of Hai.
The figure in front of the window moved, and with the movement that seemed to be folding and tidying up the papers, he left the desk.
However, as the person inside moved a little further away from the window and their silhouette gradually began to distort, Jin Jie once again clearly saw the person's long ponytail suddenly unravel, filling the entire window with light and shadow...
Yes.
He had sensed it as early as the first time the young Marquis of Xiguan sat on his horse, nestled between his arms, seemingly useless and weak, but meticulously calculating every move.
The young marquis's body and muscles are more flexible than those of an ordinary man.
Only then did he understand that this was not because the young Marquis of Xiguan was a playboy, weak in body, with soft skin and brittle bones.
The shadow cast by the candlelight inside the cherry tree completely disappeared, and both the inside and outside of the window fell into darkness.
Jin Jie turned around and left the courtyard silently.
After returning from the salt lake in northern Xise Lake that day, Liu Ziye used her points to exchange two books, "Encyclopedia of Mining and Metallurgy" and "Elementary Geological Exploration", from the list of material rewards provided by the system that night, and added them to her daily evening homework plan.
In addition, she tried her best to recall and write down the contents of physics, biology, chemistry, mathematics, geography and other subjects that she had studied in school in her previous life based on her memory.
Especially mathematics, physics and chemistry.
After all, if you master math, physics and chemistry, you won’t be afraid to travel around the world!
Such basic theoretical weapons must be equipped little by little for her future echelons!
·
At the turn of spring and summer in the ninth year of Tianxi, green millet and wheat seedlings had already sprouted in all the sown fields in Xiguan County.
Before Liu Ziye led his team to leave Yucheng, Du Hui had a long talk with Liu Ziye and solemnly took over the task of "recruiting soldiers and buying horses" for Liu Ziye.
The reason why Du Hui used the word "recruiting troops and buying horses" to describe his next action this time was because he used his mind, which had stirred up the situation in the original world line, to analyze some hidden true intentions behind their young marquis's series of actions and plans.
Du Hui thought that since the young marquis did not make it clear, it meant that the time was not right to be frank.
In the Marquis' Mansion, Du Hui, Hao Wenchang and several other current members of the Marquis' Mansion's working group sat opposite each other.
Du Hui looked at the few people with a resolute and serious expression. After some thought, he made up his mind.
Isn’t it just rebellion?
He thought about the humiliation he had suffered over the past decade, and the increasingly blatant squandering of national and people's power by the current emperor, as well as his suppression of loyal ministers and good generals. In Du Hui's view, the glorious Zhou Dynasty, the foundation laid with great effort by the Holy Ancestor, was already rotting.
In no more than ten years, it will inevitably fall apart and become a chaotic country.
Even if the prince is still relatively clear-headed, there is no possibility of turning things around in a short period of time.
By the time the prince was able to take over completely, the hole would have been impossible to plug.
We should have rebelled against him long ago.
Since the young marquis had made up his mind to do it, Du Hui was truly willing to follow him to the end! At worst, they could simply give up Xiguan and the Great Zhou, which had no fairness or justice for them.
The grasslands and permafrost behind the Yansai Mountains and the coastal areas in the southeast are also places for them to stay.
Hao Wenchang and his companions have known Du Hui for many years, but over the years, they have rarely seen Du Hui show such a resolute and ruthless expression.
Hao Wenchang couldn't help but exclaim in surprise: "Yijun, you...what on earth are you thinking about?"
After a long winter and the hot spring plowing season that just passed, the Marquis' Mansion service team, which originally consisted of only Du Hui and Hao Wenchang, has now absorbed three more people, and the Marquis' Mansion service team now has five people.
But these people are not like Hao Wenchang. They are old people from the Marquis' Mansion and have been acquaintances of Du Hui for many years. They are worthy of his deep trust.
Du Hui relaxed himself and said to everyone, "Nothing."
He explained, "I, Du, was simply thinking that the affairs of our Xiguan Marquisate are increasing, and the five of us might not be enough. Wen Chang, please draft a recruitment notice today. Whether you are an outstanding craftsman from any trade, a scholar who can read and write, an accountant skilled in accounting, or a Buddhist or Taoist priest, or any other talented person, as long as they arrive at the gate of our Xiguan Marquisate, I, Du, will personally meet them and host a banquet for them. The young marquis has many affairs to attend to, and I will also personally meet them when the opportunity is right."
Upon hearing this, Hao Wenchang said, "I agree with Yijun's idea of recruiting more people. Our mansion currently has dozens of collaborations with the various clans in the two cities and thirteen towns. Every link in the process truly requires manpower. You've already considered all the useful stewards and servants in the mansion who can be brought over to learn the job."
"It's just that you want to recruit a large number of craftsmen, accountants, or scholars, but what's the point of having monks, Taoist priests, and other talented people?"
Du Hui didn't explain too much, only saying, "There are so few people in Xiguan County, so we must cast a wide net. Just do as I say, write the notice and have someone post it at several important roads in Xiguan. Even if you're from outside Xiguan County, as long as you have a skill, you can come to my mansion to work."
Hao Wenchang thought about it and felt that what Du Hui said made sense.
This is the desolate West Gate. Once you leave Yucheng Street, you may walk for half a day and still hardly see anyone traveling the same way as you.
If they have too many requirements for recruiting, it would be a real question whether they could actually find people!
Next, Du Hui and several others reviewed the specific progress of the various tool and utensil workshops that were planned to be built after the Marquis' Mansion cooperated with various cities.
The focus was on the core engineer training class arranged by the young marquis. He summoned the candidates for the class one by one and met with them, assessing their training results according to the established regulations and forms.
In the end, he and Hao Wenchang had to sort out all the information and performance of these people, and deliver a separate file for each person to Liu Ziye.
Liu Ziye will then decide the level of each engineer and the more specific and in-depth training direction in the future.
After doing all this, Du Hui returned to his residence and began to think about the next question.
The posts he had Hao Wenchang post today were all about recruiting craftsmen and talented people, but if he wanted to "recruit soldiers and horses"...
"Recruiting soldiers and buying horses", the key here is "soldiers" and "horses".
The only soldiers they could call their mansion a force of at most fifty were its private guards, even after the current expansion. Beyond that, the only legitimate soldiers in the entire Western Border Commandery were the one thousand soldiers of the Western Border Governor's Mansion.
However, Du Hui was also very clear that this number of troops was just a drop in the bucket compared to the millions of imperial guards and central troops stationed everywhere in the Zhou Dynasty.
Just based on this?
There is no chance to even show off muscles.
The two garrisons in the southeast and northwest of Xiguan County in the Great Zhou Dynasty could easily destroy the Xiguan Marquisate with just a flick of the finger.
He and the young marquis were both well aware that there were secret spies from Yanjing in Xiguan County.
If they only dealt with craftsmen and border residents, it could be said that the Marquis's Mansion wanted to make a living.
But if one day, he were to come forward in an issue concerning military power, how could it be justified?
The young marquis is still young and is fully committed to pioneering work.
Du Hui had to plan all these things for the young marquis.
·
Liu Ziye, who was leading her team out of the city again, had no idea what Mr. Du in her house was planning.
A few days before leaving, she just discussed the next plan with Du Hui again, and asked Du Hui to issue a "recruitment order" throughout Xiguan County.
We are recruiting workers, engineers and craftsmen!
She even gave her own record of the "List of Engineers in Xiguan in the Eighth Year of Tianxi" to Du Hui for reference.
How would I know?
She was such a great strategist, Du Hui, and she just went straight to the point of "recruiting soldiers and buying horses"? !
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