The rise of the prince

Chapter 342 Shadow
The red-painted wheels were turning with a grunt, moving forward along the blue stone slabs. After a few steps, they turned into a small alley surrounded by tall courtyards and bluestone canals by the side of the road. The sound of water.

There are not many people in these courtyards and hutongs, and they are connected together. From time to time, two families come out from the opposite door, and they say something, which is all the words of the neighbors, and there is nothing polite.

The people who live here are considered to be big families, more than enough than the top, and many small and medium-sized officials in Beijing, or wealthy families, all live here.

The carriage stopped at the entrance of the alley, and the poetic language was a little tired. He dismounted and took out a dozen copper coins and handed them to the driver, then turned around and walked towards the depths of the compound. When he met a woman and aunt who was picking vegetables and washing rice by the roadside, she greeted them politely .

Everyone nodded in response, but as soon as she left, the disdain in her eyes leaked out, and she began to whisper.

"Hmph, unclean woman."

"People like this can live in the hutong, which ruins the atmosphere of our eight-family hutong."

"Someone has a lot of bad money, so what can you do, in this world, you can do whatever you want with money"

"Keep your voice down, he hasn't gone far yet."

"So what if you didn't go far, I also said there was something wrong"

"."

These aunts spoke louder and louder, and it was only a dozen steps away, how could they not hear the poems, and they stopped, and finally they could only pretend that they had no conditions, and continued to move forward.

Their family was just an ordinary family in Beijing. Their father helped the wealthy family do hard work to make ends meet, and their mother worked at home for a few years, and then they had a younger brother. One year, the younger brother was seriously ill and had no money to seek medical treatment. She sold it to Jiaofang.

She still remembers that later that day, her father wrapped her in a cup, hugged her in his arms, and wept softly as she walked. She didn't understand what her father was crying until she was handed over to the master of the teaching workshop. Houjue burst into tears, tugging at his father's collar and refusing to let go, but it was too late.

Nine out of ten women who come to Jiaofang will be forced to become prostitutes and become official prostitutes. None of them will end well, but she is good-looking, intelligent and talented, and she can learn everything quickly.

Master Jiaofang also saw that if she was trained well and sold to a brothel, she might get a lot of money.

As it turned out, she also worked hard to learn and work hard, and finally came to the fore. Although she is an oiran entertainer, as long as she enters a brothel, her reputation will be ruined. With my own money, I bought a better place for my family, and then I seldom go back, and I only go home once in about ten and a half months.

Her parents were also very guilty of her, and they were obedient. It can be seen that they look like this, but they feel that they are born.

But she doesn't blame her parents anymore, so what can they do.

Thinking about it, I have already arrived at a gate, the prematurely aging mother is choosing vegetables, and scolding the younger brother in the yard, suddenly looked up and saw her, she was stunned, and then reacted, her face was full of smiles .

"Xiaoyan, you are back!" Then he stood up and shouted: "Father, Xiaoyan is back!"

Shiyu also smiled, Xiaoyan was her nickname, and then followed her mother into the door, and within a few steps, her younger brother Yufan rushed up and grabbed her hand and said, "Sister! You're back! Did you buy anything for me. "

Shiyu smiled brightly, nodded and said: "Of course I bought it." As he spoke, he handed him the candied yellow peaches in the other hand. These were actually taken from the palace by her. That guy is very rich and likes stuffing things Give it to her, she is not a pig, she will take it back to feed her little brother if she can't finish eating.

Her younger brother is the only one in the family who makes her feel no distance. She is much younger than her, only fourteen this year.

After a while, my father also came out. My father had darker skin and bowed his waist. He must have gotten used to it because he worked in a rich family for many years.

Seeing her come back, his father smiled and said: "Xiaoyan is back, come in quickly, it's just in time for the meal, next time I come back, tell your mother to prepare something delicious, there is only simple food at home."

My father spoke cautiously and felt alienated.

At this time, the younger brother Yu Fan felt aggrieved and said, "I don't cook delicious food when I'm with you, so I have to wait for my sister to come back."

Shiyu burst out laughing, and her father scolded angrily, "What nonsense!"

For a while, the barrier melted away again.

The whole family lit up the lights and had a not-so-rich dinner. At the dinner table, Father Yu hesitated and said again and again: "Yan'er, I have something to tell you. Your younger brother is also fourteen years old. You know a lot of people, can you find him a place to go?"

Shiyu listened and nodded: "Okay, I'll find it for him." Shiyu said and glanced at his younger brother.

The father breathed a sigh of relief, and quickly said, "Okay, that's good, that's good, that's good"

The mother also smiled happily, "Come, come, eat some dishes, eat more vegetables"

After the imperial court, Li Xingzhou hurried home and went straight to the back mountain. The back mountain was already busy with work, and the palace needed to supply [-] grenades to the Ministry of War every month. Naturally, the work could not be slowed down.

Moreover, the Privy Council, led by Zhong Daoyu, had placed "thunderbolt soldiers" in the forbidden army in the capital, each with five men, each carrying a grenade, and they were in the second row of the capital during the battle, and were responsible for throwing grenades.

This tactic is said to have been developed by Zhao Guanghua, but Li Xingzhou didn't laugh at all. After all, no one knows much about him, and the forbidden army is different from his new army. Although there are bows and crossbows, hand-to-hand combat is also indispensable. If there is no special allocation of manpower, there may be no chance to use grenades.

The battlefield is not as romantic as imagined. For example, what are the eighteen types of weapons? When the Song Dynasty official wrote the weapon manual, it did write that there were eighteen types of weapons, but it was written that the bow was the first. In the Ming Dynasty, the bow was the first, and the crossbow was the second. Why do you have to work hard when you can kill from a distance?

The emperor only allocated 10 taels, which was not a lucrative business, but Li Xingzhou didn’t want to hand it over to the Arms Supervision Office, but kept it in his own hands, because the palace can produce more than two thousand grenades per month, and the surplus can be used by the palace. Store it privately, and then equip it to the new army.

This is reasonable at first, because he is the young supervisor of military weapons and has the right to produce, and he can justifiably report to the Yantie Division, and because he is the commander of the new army, he has the right to decide to buy new army equipment. It is the army directly under the Privy Council, and he is also a member of the Privy Council, so he also has the right to make decisions about it.

In short, the king of Pingnan County, the champion general, the commander of the new army, the young supervisor of military equipment, the commander of the Privy Council, the official of the Kaiyuan mansion, some of these identities that he acquired inadvertently, even he himself did not care about them, but now Slowly forming a perfect cycle, constantly amplifying his power.

This is by no means as simple as 4+4 equals 8, but 4*4 equals 16. When he has few powers, 2+2 and 2*2 seem to have no change, but once he has both, there will be more and more, many The power will be connected in series, shared, and continuously strengthened and enlarged.

Li Xingzhou now understands why a person like He Shen can see the sky with his hands and eyes, because he held many important positions in his heyday.

But his point is in the area of ​​military power. Because of his leadership and unique status, the new army has become a unique army in Jingguo. Equipment, recruitment and other issues.

At present, the only thing that controls his power is the other half of the soldiers in the hands of the emperor.

Thinking about it, Li Xingzhou couldn't help but felt much more relaxed. With an army of [-] in hand, he didn't have to worry about the prince in a short time.

In the back mountain, Li Xingzhou took Zhu Rong to burn another batch of cement they fired yesterday. It was still wet-calcined. The raw material was crushed and wet and then calcined at high temperature. The clinker was still as white as bone ashes.

This made Li Xingzhou very puzzled. It shouldn't be the right color. Although it was still adhesive, he still didn't understand what went wrong.The calcined clinker needs to be mixed with some slaked lime for better effect, but it is still wrong to mix slaked lime powder.

Zhu Rong squatted aside, wondering what the prince was busy for a while, and muttered to himself for a while.

Li Xingzhou thought about it and still didn't have any thoughts. In the afternoon, when the sun was setting and he was sweating profusely, he still didn't have any thoughts.

During this period, Qiu'er happily saw him all the time, and told him that the third and fourth Dingnan-class ships of the Wangfu will be launched in the future and will be put into use soon. Li Xingzhou was happy for a while, but then he was devastated.

Although the calcined cement is indeed adhesive, but the color is wrong, but he does not dare to hastily mass-produce it and put it into use. This is not a joke. What if it has hidden dangers?For example, the adhesion becomes poor after a period of time.

This is no better than gunpowder. The power of gunpowder is not enough, at most the kinetic energy of guns is not enough, and if the cement is defective, it will be a waste of life.

Just as Li Xingzhou was walking around, unable to figure out what to do for a long time, Shiyu came to the back mountain to look for him, and brought him a pot of tea with a food box.

"The matter of the new army's uniforms has been decided." The two found a grassy area, and Li Xingzhou sat down, but the poetry was dirty, so he stood.

"Oh, let's hear it." Li Xingzhou said.

Shiyu glanced at him, and then said: "Finally, 6 sets of military uniforms for the new army have been ordered, including belts, hats, leather boots, coats, linings, and trousers. It is estimated that it will cost about [-] taels. For merchants in Guazhou, Suzhou, and Luzhou to do it, the first payment has already been put down."

Li Xingzhou nodded, this was the only thing he could do for the war-torn three places.

Although 6 taels cannot completely solve the problem, at least the people in the three places can survive until autumn, because of his original order, Guazhou and Luzhou have resumed spring plowing, and as soon as autumn comes, the biggest crisis will pass.

Li Xingzhou gave her a hand: "If you are afraid of getting dirty, sit on my lap."

Shiyu resisted, and sat down. In the distance, a few little ghosts from the Zhu family were hiding behind the kiln and peeking at this side. Li Xingzhou raised his head and ran away desperately. Shiyu's face turned even redder.

"Can you stop doing this?" Shi Yin slapped him angrily, and then suddenly whispered: "I have something to discuss with you."

"What's the matter?" Li Xingzhou asked, because it was rare for Shiyu to speak to him in this tone.

Shiyu whispered: "It's the outsourcing of the palace's work. I... I have a younger brother. I want him to do some work. Although he doesn't have much talent, he has read books and can read and write"

Li Xingzhou was surprised: "You still have a younger brother! What about your parents?"

"Of course, otherwise where did I come from." Shiyu said with a smile.

Li Xingzhou slapped his head. He was careless. She knew that Shiyu was a woman from the teaching workshop, so she wished to think that she had no father or mother, because most of the women in the teaching workshop were family members of officials who ransacked their homes. If no one buys, most of them will be used as official prostitutes. Only a very few with extraordinary talent like Shiyu have the chance to come out.

"You didn't tell me earlier, so I haven't visited my father-in-law and mother-in-law yet."

"Who are your father-in-law and mother-in-law, don't talk nonsense." Shiyu was shy, and then said: "I'm telling you about my brother."

"Okay, then let him come, how old is he?" Li Xingzhou asked.

"fourteen."

"Fourteen!" Li Xingzhou was stunned.

Seeing that he reacted so strongly, Shiyu asked in puzzlement, "What's the matter?"

"It's nothing." Li Xingzhou realized that this was ancient times, and it was normal for him to earn a living at the age of 14.As he spoke, he patted her plump buttocks again.

"What are you doing!" Shiyu was ashamed.

"You have family members, you didn't tell me earlier."

"Tell you why."

"Heh, don't think I don't know. You must be called a wild woman and gossip like this." Li Xingzhou shook his head: "Why are you so stupid, thinking that you can take care of everything, and be your own strong woman."

As she spoke, she turned her poetic face away: "I said that I want to marry you. I'm not joking. There are obstacles in reality that force people to compromise, but they can't completely compromise. It's better to keep fighting, right? Someday I will marry you." You go back, when the time comes, no one will dare to gossip about you, dare to say that labor and capital cut his tongue." Li Xingzhou showed his fierceness.

Shiyu stopped talking and bowed her head silently.

"OK?"

"Um"

"Can't hear you, please speak louder."

"Ok!"

"What are you talking about, speak louder."

"Okay!" Shiyu pinched him: "You're just a little bastard, you're still young, how can you learn how to deal with women like a hooligan?"

"You can learn without a teacher." Li Xingzhou proudly said, and then stood up: "Let's go, let's go back and talk all night long."

Shiyu's face was completely red, just like the beautiful sunset in the sky.

They did have a long talk that night.

The result of the long talk all night was that Li Xingzhou was almost late for the court the next day and was listless, but there was nothing serious in the court, and the emperor was still concerned about the situation in the north.

There has been no news from the north for almost ten days, and the Meteor Horse sent by the Privy Council has not returned. The emperor was furious, and scolded Wen Daoli in court, saying that he was not good at doing things. He could only kneel down and admit his mistakes, and let himself be scolded .

There is no news from the north, not only the emperor is anxious, but also the ministers are anxious. Hundreds of thousands of Liao people went south to stare at Guanbei. No one is worried because there is no news at once. in the heavy shadows
(End of this chapter)