Chapter 211: Wei Assistant Secretary is Dead
That night, Jin Sui set up an incredibly warm little nest in her tent, using a floral blanket and silk quilt from her space, allowing Yingniang to have a good night’s sleep.
Before sleeping, she also gave the little girl a sleeping pill because she was too excited and had been crying. Jin Sui somewhat understood how Gu Changxiao felt when he drugged her that day.
After the little girl fell asleep, she looked at the tattered Thirty-Six Stratagems for a long time without moving, until she saw figures moving outside the tent, and then she went out.
As expected, it was Gu Changxiao; he also couldn’t sleep.
“Gu Changxiao, I’m thinking about something.”
Gu Changxiao looked at her quietly, waiting for her to continue.
“Do you know? Before today, the most important thing I had set for myself was to build a navy and pacify Japan.
But just now, looking at Yingniang sleeping, and thinking of Wei Assistant Secretary, I suddenly felt that more than pacifying Japan, I want to kill my way back to Chang’an and avenge Wei Assistant Secretary!
Completely eliminate all those who scheme behind our backs! Otherwise, no matter how hard we try in the border city, we won’t have peace of mind.”
Gu Changxiao nodded heavily: “Then we will return to Chang’an first. To pacify the outside, we must first pacify the inside! When Great Xia is at peace, then we can consider external wars.”
Jin Sui pointed at the refugees: “Aren’t we worried about not having enough soldiers? Prince Yu personally delivered soldiers into our hands.”
Yan Jiu silently appeared behind the two and said softly, “For food, Yan will provide.”
Jin Sui and Gu Changxiao turned to look at him simultaneously, and the three smiled at each other, a tacit understanding reached.
Cheng Yu returned to the border city ahead of time. The refugee camp was prepared, files were established for all refugees, and they were managed militarily. The old, weak, women, and children were housed in the Military Farms, while the young and strong men were allocated farmland and underwent military training for all.
Gu Changxiao was responsible for training the soldiers, while Jin Sui earned military provisions and pay. The matter of building the Academy was handed over to Grandpa Ling for supervision.
The refugees didn’t understand why they were all trained like new recruits, why they didn’t have to do hard labor or corvée labor.
But with two meals of dry rice a day, and all the young and strong in the border city training, they naturally had no objections.
They ate well, their elderly and children were cared for, the women joined workshops to earn money, and there were no constables forcing them into hard labor, only training. Who would be unwilling?
Their tune changed from when they were on the road; they all said coming to the border city was the right choice, and it was fortunate they didn’t stay with the gentry as tenant farmers halfway.
Being tenant farmers meant generations of servitude to the gentry, how could that compare to dividing farmland and becoming commoners!
The refugees lamented for their fellow villagers who died on the road and couldn’t reach the border city, never having a full meal.
Of course, there were those who did hard labor, the troublemakers, the instigators who wanted to incite peasant revolts. Cheng Yu picked them out and sent them all to do hard labor.
There was no need to be soft-hearted with these people; if they dared to run, their legs would be broken, literally broken. If they ran again, they would be killed as a warning.
During their training, the refugees were taken by their captains to visit the scenic spots of the border city. However, the scenic spots of our border city were different from elsewhere.
Approaching a place where the land was black and red, as if one could step on blood, the captain excitedly introduced:
“This is where our Lord Li burned down the old city and killed three thousand Tartars!”
Some civilians exclaimed: “Didn’t they say ten thousand were burned?”
Captain: …Rumors indeed become more outrageous with each telling! I said three thousand was an exaggeration, but I didn’t expect it to become ten thousand by the time it reached the Central Plains.
“A total of ten thousand were killed, and three thousand were burned to death!”
“Oh!” Thinking of the scene, everyone looked at this land as if it were a ghost realm.
They then went to admire the scenery of the border fortress. The corpse forest that had scared Miss Yan to fainting was now stripped of flesh by vultures, the bodies turned to white bones, but they still hung on the trees.
Before the spring buds emerged, these white bones were like decorations on the trees. This forest was like a ghost’s shadow; apart from the army, no other civilians dared to walk this area during the day.
The captain proudly pointed and said: “This is where the bandits and mountain bandits were killed! It is also because of this corpse forest that no bandits dare to approach our borderlands again!”
Some fainted, some had their legs go weak, some vomited. The captain was speechless: “What are you afraid of? You fear the living, but what is there to fear from dead, rotten bones?”
Someone tremblingly asked: “Do enemies who are strong and invincible, even after death, not get buried?”
One area was burned, another was hung with bodies; Lord Li’s methods were truly forceful!
The captain sneered: “Burial is for peace. Those who dare to provoke our Li Da Wu Qiong City, do they think they can rest in peace after death? Impossible!”
“Therefore, all under Lord Li, all citizens of the border city, straighten your backs! Here, don’t let outsiders fear us; we do not fear anyone!”
“Don’t say you are not locals of the border city. To tell you the truth, we have no locals here!
Among us are refugees, displaced people, herdsmen, tenant farmers who redeemed themselves from the gentry, and those who fled from other places. There are no locals, not even our Prince, who was exiled here.
But what does it matter? As long as we treat this place as our home, as our hometown, we can build the border city into the greatest city in the world! Everyone will have food to eat, clothes to wear, and a house to live in.
No need to be slaves to the gentry, no need to fear raids by Tartars or mountain bandits. As long as you are loyal to the Prince, the Prince will lead you to a good life!”
After experiencing fear and panic, the refugees were left with only courage and hope in their hearts. The border city was truly a city of hope, where anyone who came could find a way to live.
When the border customs laws were officially promulgated, the gentry of Yandi, in a grand procession, crossed the passes to trade in the Northern Frontier. Caravans came and went incessantly. The refugees felt increasingly proud.
When the imperial court said they would send us to the border city, everyone felt despair.
The Northern Border was a harsh and cold land with extremely long winters, low crop yields, powerful gentry, and Lord Li, who was exiled to the borderlands, was often raided by Tartars.
Coming to such a place, what hope was there for life? But if they didn’t come, they would only starve or die of illness, with no way out either.
Only after arriving did they realize that hearing a thousand words was not as good as seeing it for oneself. This border fortress was completely different from what the world described!
When the willow branches sprouted tender buds and the land thawed, Grandpa Ling’s Taoist temple and Jin Sui’s Academy officially began construction, while the Military Farms led the people in reclaiming land.
After a month of training, Gu Changxiao formally asked tens of thousands of refugees if they were willing to enlist in the army. Enlistment would still come with allocated farmland and housing plots, and their families could enter the Military Family Camp and be assigned jobs.
The elderly and children would also be settled. Of course, enlistment was not forced; they could also become peasant households.
Jin Sui estimated that half the people would be willing to enlist, while Han Xing said at least sixty percent. Just as they were about to make a bet, the answer came out quickly: a full eighty percent of the people were willing to join the army!
The number reached over thirty thousand.
Even Li Heng, who was observing, was stunned: “In other fiefdoms, when recruiting soldiers, the people complain bitterly, with one conscript from every five households, and there are often runaway households. I never expected the people of our border city to voluntarily join the army.
The Prince is truly a wise prince who has the hearts of the people!”
Hei Hu directly asked: “Lord Li, when did you become one of us from the border city?”
Li Heng stroked his beard… he had no beard, so he touched his chin: “This official has long been loyal to the Prince, so naturally I am considered a citizen of the border city.”
Jin Sui chuckled softly beside him, “Shameless!”
However, now that the Commercial Law was officially issued, and Li Heng was responsible for its supervision, which was a task that greatly offended the gentry, Jin Sui planned to make him a scapegoat to push for land reform. Therefore, she was much more polite to Li Heng.
Soldiers are available, but weapons and equipment must keep up! Logistics must be guaranteed.
This was another point that left the refugees dumbfounded: the border city had such high-yield new grains! Potatoes and sweet potatoes showed them what truly high-yield crops looked like!
Many people were moved to tears when they saw the bountiful harvest from the Military Farms, thinking how many people wouldn’t have starved to death if their hometowns had such crops.
Upon hearing that they would be allocated farmland and could plant these crops, and that newly reclaimed land would be tax-exempt for three years, they became even more motivated.
In just over a month, the refugees’ spirits had completely changed; the eyes of the women and children were no longer vacant and numb.
The children had grown plump, their little faces rosy. The Refugee Office distributed clothes per person, but the enlisted soldiers received two sets from the army in addition to the one from the Refugee Office.
The female workers also had work clothes when they entered the workshops. The adults were reluctant to wear them and altered them for their children. All the little children had shoes and no longer walked barefoot with frostbite.
Li Linfeng was very angry because he was not yet old enough to enlist, and he wished he could join the army!
However, he was noticed by Grandpa Ling, who said he had a connection with him and the beggar children, and took them all as disciples, housing them in the Ji Residence.
Some went to work as general laborers at the Central Plains Hodgepodge. The children loved this job because they could eat meat until their bellies were round every day, it was like a dream.
A few of the more intelligent ones, along with Jin Sui, studied martial arts and academics, including Li Linfeng.
Amusingly, this child seriously told Grandpa Ling: “I don’t want to be a Taoist priest, I want to be a soldier!”
Grandpa Ling rubbed his head and said: “You need to study to be a soldier too! Don’t worry, you’re not cut out to be a Taoist priest!”
Wei Yingzhi was brought up by Chen Yunniang. She initially lived in the Ji Residence with Jin Sui, but Jin Sui was too busy, and everyone in the Ji family was busy.
The little girl often daydreamed during the day, either crying for her family or feeling lost.
So Jin Sui took her to Chen Yunniang’s place, where there were many girls of the same age. They could learn textile work, embroidery, making dim sum, and reading. Whether adults or children, being busy made one feel more fulfilled.
Jin Sui promised her that she would definitely take her home, and the little girl gradually began to smile.
Cheng Yu started drinking again. Chen Yunniang said he often drank in the middle of the night, but he would first offer three cups.
They were for Wei Assistant Secretary. The two of them had lived together in the border city for so many years, disliking each other yet supporting each other, their feelings were naturally deep. With Wei Assistant Secretary dying so mysteriously in Chang’an, Cheng Yu’s mood was understandable.
No one explicitly stated they would return to Chang’an to avenge Wei Assistant Secretary.
However, everyone felt the pressure, including the soldiers of the Black Feather Camp, who trained even harder and were more diligent with the new recruits.
Time passed quickly. As spring plowing began, trade with the Northern Frontier became more frequent, and the first batch of Northern Frontier goods returned to the border city.
These were then sold by Yandi merchants throughout the Sixteen Prefectures of Yandi. The gentry of the Sixteen Prefectures, who had been observing, united. The large gentry formed their own merchant teams, and the Yan Clan’s doors were crowded with people seeking to join Yan Jiu in Northern Frontier trade.
The commercial tax collected by the border city in the past month was higher than that of the previous three years! The more prosperous the businesses of the Yandi gentry became, the more they realized a major problem: a shortage of people! A severe shortage of people!
It was the season of spring plowing, and no one dared to let the peasants abandon agriculture for industry. However, workshops couldn’t open, and orders from the Northern Frontier were repeatedly delayed. Every missed order meant money lost!
The heads of the families were so anxious they developed sores on their lips. Jin Sui felt it was time for land reform. If Lord Li issued a decree to reclaim land from the gentry and turn peasant households into industrial households, many people would surely be willing.
Cheng Yu said it wasn’t time yet. The meat was cooked, but not yet tender. If we proactively initiated land reform, it would arouse suspicion from the gentry, and many people hadn’t reached a point where they would give up their land for money.
Let’s wait a bit longer, until businesses in the Northern Frontier, with the Hu People, and even overseas, become prosperous.
When the general trend is unstoppable, and the wheels of progress are rolling forward, without us proposing it, some gentry will be the first to want to turn peasant households into industrial households. At that time, we can carry out land reform effortlessly.
During this period, the Northwest Army returned to the Northwest and brought back over thirty thousand more people. These were people who had lost their livelihoods due to the exploitation by the new officials appointed by Prince Yu.
In just a few months, the border city’s population increased by a staggering one hundred thousand. The imperial court’s personnel inquired in Yanzhou City, and if they discovered any instances of Lord Li selling people into slavery or exploiting the populace,
countless official documents would immediately be issued to condemn him. Prince Yu’s plan was to either severely damage Lord Li’s reputation, thereby diverting attention from the Northern Frontier envoy’s damage to his reputation in Chang’an,
or to deplete the border city’s granaries, forcing the border city to request grain from the imperial court, giving him new leverage to control the border city.
However, they waited and waited, but never received news of the border city suffering from disaster. Instead, someone reported to Prince Yu that the border city had high-yield new crops and was not lacking in grain at all.
But Prince Yu didn’t believe it! If you told him about crops with a yield of eight hundred jin per mu, originating from the Western Regions, Prince Yu might have been somewhat convinced.
But if you told him about crops with a yield of two thousand jin per mu, Prince Yu would only think you were fooling him like a fool! How could that be possible?
If such high-yield crops existed in the world, would the royal family not know? Why would only the border city cultivate them? Wouldn’t the Yandi gentry also cultivate them?
Besides bringing back people, the Northwest Army also brought back the petroleum that Jin Sui had been longing for.
She told Grandpa Ling that she would be away on a business trip for half a month, taking petroleum and raw materials for gunpowder, and built a military base by the mountainside.
Gu Changxiao was forbidden to enter. Upon hearing that it was extremely risky and unsafe, she disallowed too many people from entering.
Gu Changxiao grabbed Jin Sui and said, “Then Sui Sui, don’t research it. We have fish oil, we don’t need these new weapons!”
Jin Sui smiled and said, “I’ll be fine. This was refined in our Taoist alchemy furnace; I have experience.”
She had no experience at all; she was just relying on the laboratory for survival.
In those days, even fireworks factories often exploded and killed people, let alone researching gunpowder.
Besides gunpowder, she also found the relevant data for trebuchets. In fact, our ancient research into gunpowder was very deep. Fire lances were already very powerful, but unfortunately, the research stopped in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
She gave the trebuchet data to the Ministry of Works to start making them, so they could be tested as soon as the gunpowder was ready.
She herself would first adjust the formula in her space, and at the same time, the petroleum was being refined in her space. The simplest kerosene was produced first, and asphalt was used for road construction.
In the blink of an eye, it was March, and spring had arrived with blooming flowers, but who dared to be in the mood to admire the scenery and flowers.
Even Yan Shiyi became busy. He even felt a sense of guilt, thinking that he had wasted the past dozen years.
