Wei Ni

Indeed, Xia Houhui is not worried about the calculations from Qin Lang and others.

It's not that he is conceited about his talent and learning, and he disdains Qin Lang and others, despising them as short-sighted and short-sighted people.

Bees and flies are poisonous, not to mention they are all close ministers of the emperor.

Rather, they felt that under the eyes of Cao Rui, an emperor known for his intelligence, even if they played any tricks, it would be nothing more than a harmless little fight.

And if this is the case, wouldn't it be in line with the strategy he had set long ago - not to fight for his own power, so as to "surprise" the emperor Cao Rui that the other party is greedy and despicable.

As for why he was suspicious of Cao Zhaosheng~
Defenses can not do without.

Cao Zhao, Cao Shuang and Xia Houxian were roughly the same age and entered the palace at almost the same time.

Although he has a normal relationship with Cao Shuang, he has an irreversible friendship with Xiahou Xian. Now that Xiahou Xian is a friend of Qin Lang, how can people believe that he is staying out of it?
At least, Xia Houhui felt that the matter was too big to be careless.

He even had a sinister mentality for a while: considering the years of friendship between Cao Zhao and Xia Houxian, he couldn't be fooling himself in the name of not helping each other, right?

Or maybe the plan is bigger and you want to reap the benefits?

Of course, doubt is doubtful.

Of course, he would not try to test or win over him, lest Cao Zhao, who was really trying to help each other, would feel resentful and integrate into Cao Shuang and Qin Lang.

Well, since it's confusing, let's just wait and see what happens.

Xia Houhui put the matter aside for the time being, and then picked up the family letter from King Xijun Wang Yuanji.

Although the envelope was well sealed, before he opened it, he felt that the envelope contained paper produced by his own family, and it was quite thick for some reason.

It must be that the paper made at home is more exquisite, so Xijun selected some for me to take a look at.

With anticipation, I gently cut the edge with a small dagger and took out all the papers in the envelope. As soon as I saw it, although the paper was considered white and had few impurities, it seemed to be no different from before.

But after it was spread out, his breath suddenly suffocated.

Immediately, his face was filled with joy.

I saw that the white paper was neatly covered with words the size of two fingers.

Needless to say, these words are printed!

Unexpectedly, he had only been away from home for more than a month, and engraving and printing had begun to bear fruit!
Yes, it's just initial results.

The characters are about the size of two fingers, and the ink varies from light to dark. It is still far from being able to print allusions in scriptures to the level that requires annotations in tiny characters. There is still a lot of room for improvement.

But it was enough to make Xia Houhui overjoyed.

After all, going from zero to one is the most difficult, and going from one to one hundred is just a process of accumulation of time.

After reading it with admiration for a while, and even rubbing his fingers on the writing to see if there was any sign of deinking, Xia Houhui found Xijun's letter and read it.

The content of the letter first informed the parents of the current situation of Yangquwubao, and told Xia Houhui to work hard to eat more meals when he was away. Finally, it explained the reason for the sudden progress in woodblock printing.

It turns out that pine smoke ink was used.

When Xia Houhui was in Luoyang earlier, he told the papermakers that if they could not make paper with ink that would not smear, they should try to make a breakthrough in ink. There was no need to worry about spending money. .

After hearing this, the papermakers really let go and used pine smoke ink directly.

Songyanmo was developed in the previous dynasty.

It has many characteristics such as thick black matt, fine quality and easy to melt, and the ink does not blur.

However, due to the complex production cycle and cumbersome processes, the price has remained high.

It is especially precious today, after decades of war, when the population has dropped sharply and people's livelihood is in decline.

Therefore, nowadays people still use natural graphite which is cheap and contains many impurities.

For example, there is a sentence in "Long Song Xing" written by Chen Si Wang Cao Zhi, "Ink comes out of green pine smoke, and pen comes out of cunning rabbit Han". From this, we can see the status of pine smoke and ink.

The papermaker was not stingy and chose the most expensive type of pine smoke ink during the first selection.

This level of pine smoke ink is made from soot fired from pine trees that are over fifty years old and glue made from deer that are over ten years old. Even wealthy dignitaries only use it on important occasions. use.

He really treated Xia Houhui's money like dirt and squandered it.

However, you really get what you pay for.

With the blessing of money, woodblock printing finally ushered in its dawn.

After reading the letter, most of Xia Houhui's joy had dissipated, and he still felt a faint pain in his body - he finally found a way to sell horses, and asked his elder brother Xia Houheng to make a living and get 20% of the profits to improve his family's finances. Now that not a single five baht has been credited to the account, all of it must be paid in advance?
Why do the words "making ends meet" stick to me?

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and repeated this several times. After he felt slightly relieved, Xia Houhui continued to read the letter.

As he watched, a smile appeared on his lips again.

Wang Yuanji asked Uncle Sun to use a lot of money that Emperor Cao Rui rewarded during the expedition against Xianbei to purchase Shiquan Pine Forest as he asked.

And because there were sparsely populated areas and almost no fertile farmland, the price was very low, and even a large area of ​​mountain forest around Shiquan Pine Forest was purchased.

As the name suggests, there are many ancient pines in the area called Shiquan Pine Forest. Uncle Sun also asked his eldest brother Xia Houheng for instructions to buy some Laolu tape when the horse caravan went to and from Yanmen Pass in Dai County in the future.

In other words, you only need to recruit a few skilled craftsmen, and your own Yangquwu Fort can make pine smoke and ink.

It also reduces the cost of engraving and printing.

Although it is inevitable that we will have to make ends meet again for some time, we can look forward to the future~
Thinking happily, Xia Houhui threw the first edition printing paper into the brazier and wrote a reply to Xijun Wang Yuanji.

First, he talked about some family affairs and praised a few words such as "a good wife at home, what more can a husband ask for", and then told Wang Yuanji to ask Uncle Sun to continue to pay attention to the improvement of engraving and printing.

At the end, he changed the topic and claimed that "things are accomplished through secrets, and failure is revealed through words."

Let her ask Uncle Sun to warn his seventh brother Xia Houhe not to show off his initial achievements in woodblock printing.

After finishing the book, put down the pen and blow dry the ink.

Xia Houhui thought for a while and wrote another letter to Xia Houhe.

Let him ask his eldest brother Xia Houheng if he can find a staff member who is thoughtful and trustworthy, just like in the previous search, it is better to have less than too much.

As soon as the envelopes were received, Xia Houhui rushed to Shouchun City without stopping and asked the military postal courier to deliver them to him.

It was at this time that the petty official sent by Li Changshi found him and informed Li Changshi of the responsibilities he had fought for.

Xia Houhui thanked him sternly.

After the clerk left, he felt a little melancholy in his heart.

Li Changshi's kindness disrupted his plans.

Originally, he was retreating in order to advance, so that he could satisfy Man Chong by being respectful and asking for nothing, so as to pave the way for him to be the vanguard when encountering war in the future. Now that Li Changshi had intervened like this, Man Chong felt that he had already compensated him and would no longer be lenient to his requests in the future.

And after a night of buffering, he no longer cared about the five hundred cavalry.

Yes, he didn't hate Man Chong because of it.

Everything happens for a reason.

If you want to blame it, blame yourself for being too obsessed with success.

The emperor Cao Rui, who was far away in Luoyang, copied the words of Wei Wu Cao Cao to his late father Xia Houyuan to warn him, not to mention the full favor of the governor of Huainan?
Of course, there is no use thinking about this now.

Then I thought about it, I had served as the chief of the scout battalion and the deputy of the cavalry; and the cavalry commander Leliang was his subordinate, and his deputy Jiang Ban was his confidant. Now Man Chong actually let him perform martial arts with the cavalry on a daily basis. No matter what, he can't live up to this "good intention"!

Even if Huainan Cavalry Qu can't be named Xiahou from now on, Man Chong and Li Changshi should be surprised to find that since Cavalry Qu has him, he has higher cohesion and stronger cavalry combat power, which will be of great benefit to the war!

With this thought, Xia Houhui almost regarded himself as a cavalry pawn. Except for returning to Shijiabiwu for a day on the tenth day, he spent the rest of his time soaking in cavalry songs.

Anyway, Shijiabiwu will be fine with or without him, so there’s no need to worry.

This had been proven during his absence for more than half a year.

The deceased is like a husband who does not want to leave day or night.

Time flies by, and it is already late winter and December before I know it.

Xia Houhui, who follows military regulations and performs martial arts every three days, has recently acquired another hobby. When night falls, he will always stop on the sentry tower and look towards Chaohu Lake.

There are various expressions in the eyes such as expectation, melancholy, worry, doubt and anger.

Both Leliang and Jiang Ban were puzzled and asked with concern, but they were put off by the sentence "It's late winter and the wind is cold. I have nothing to do. I just want to face the wind to clear my mind."

Leliang and others didn't believe it.

But I couldn't think of any reason, so I just let it go.

What if this stalwart general, who is not even a year old after getting married, misses his bride who is far away in Luoyang?
If you insist on asking for the answer, it will not only increase the embarrassment for each other.

However, they only half-guessed it.

Xia Houhui was indeed worried and thinking about her during these days, but it was not that her children were longing for the king Yuanji.

But Jiangdong Sun Quan.

He is looking forward to the arrival of military achievements.

However, it was already late winter in December, and a thin layer of ice had formed along the Dongfeishui River connecting Shouchun and Hefei New City. However, the scouts still had no information about the thief Wu Sunquan joining the bandits in the future.

Could it be that he doesn't plan to come this year?
However, according to the nature of Jiangdong's monarchs and ministers, how could they not come?
Even Man Chong and Li Changshi concluded that he would commit crimes in the future, and urged the guards everywhere not to relax and to take strict precautions for more than a month.
Amazing!

Xia Houhui, who had been stiffened by the cold wind for several days, began to suspect that Man Chong and his own judgment were wrong.

But fortunately, Huangtian paid off.

In the middle of late winter, Man Chong suddenly summoned all the generals to discuss matters.

Because the scouts found out that Sun Quan, who Xia Houhui was looking forward to and longing for, was finally willing to come. (End of chapter)