Although the Jiangdong soldiers retreated, the effects of this incident began to show over time.

Cao Cao, who was in Xiliang to conquer Ma Chao, finally realized the way to deal with Ma Chao after suffering repeated losses, that is, to hang him and leave him alone, and let him and Han Sui pinch each other. When they're done within, go clean them up.

Gongsun Kang and his children, with the assistance of large quantities of grain, grass and ordnance in Jingzhou, began to secretly fight again. Cao Zhang, who was originally stationed in Youzhou to guard against ethnic minorities, went to Xiliang for a period of time, and the pressure of the Gongsun clan plummeted, giving him more space for underground activities. He also hopes that the situation in Xiliang will become more and more chaotic.

Cao Cao was worried that there was no suitable excuse to withdraw from the army, and as soon as he received Xun Yu's official document, he was in the middle of it, and he did enough to make Ma Chao and Han Sui believe that he would not conquer Xiliang again within ten years.

It was several months after the news reached Jingzhou, and Liu Yan looked at the document and frowned: "Why did you retire so quickly? It's different from what I expected!"

At this time, the regular meeting of the princess's mansion was underway, and everyone attending the meeting heard her say this, almost all of them smiled helplessly, and said that of course it was faster than you expected, you expected that the other two families would be entangled until the world was old, and when you developed, when you cleaned up Xichuan, when you finished expanding the territory, and then the two stopped fighting, waiting to be cleaned up by you one by one.

What a beautiful vision this is, and what an unrealistic thing it is.

It's just that everyone won't say this, the princess doesn't know how to fight, but her teacher understands, criticizing students, and mentioning students is the teacher's right, if outsiders stand up and say that the apprentice is not good, not only will he rob other teachers' business, but he may also provoke the teacher's anger, don't look at Xu Shu's usual harmony and anger seems to have no temper, but he is a ranger, how do you know that people don't protect their shortcomings?

Liu Yan sighed and found that there was no response from the following, and she suddenly blushed. Therefore, he immediately looked at him left and right: "The results of this county school unified test are very good, and several articles have been recommended by Mr. Shui Jing and several other gentlemen, and I plan to find a suitable opportunity to meet them." When the time comes, please come with me......"

Yin Guan knew that the princess was looking for a topic, so he stood up and responded: "My subordinates are willing to go together." ”

"Hey, I don't know how Senior Brother Ji Chang is doing in Cangwu now, every time there is an exchange of official documents, it is all about the business, Mr. Affairs, do you have any other news about him?"

Ma Jing is rarely named, and he usually sits there and listens to others until the meeting ends. Today, in order to change the topic, Liu Yan named him for the first time and asked about something that had nothing to do with government affairs.

Ma Jing got up and said respectfully: "Thanks to Her Royal Highness the Princess, Ji Chang didn't adapt to Cangwu at first, but now he has also adapted. The letters he wrote to his brother also mentioned trivial matters in life. ”

"Oh, he doesn't say it, I want to talk about him, he hasn't married a daughter-in-law yet, right?

"Uh-huh, Your Royal Highness Princess, my subordinates have something to report. A voice appeared at the right time, interrupting Liu Yan's excited tirade.

"Hmm, Mr. Mi?" Liu Yan turned around when she heard this: "What do you have to say?" ”

Mi Zhu said in his heart that if I don't say something serious, your trolleybus will soon drive out of the surface of the earth, okay! I don't care, if I don't say it today, I can report the matter tomorrow by writing an official document, but do you see it, your teacher Xu Shu's face has turned black into carbon!

Liu Yan, who was interrupted, realized that she had done something too much, so she waited for Mi Zhu's next words very seriously.

"In the past, in order to intensify the supervision of the construction of new repeaters, a large amount of pig iron was withdrawn from the government treasury, but now the pig iron reserves in the government treasury are strictly insufficient and can no longer support production. ”

"It's really a very serious question. Liu Yan frowned: "I don't know what countermeasures you have?"

"This ......," the planes looked at each other. Pig iron and table salt are strategic resources that every force attaches great importance to and strictly protects. Where there is iron, there are countless weapons, and there are countless armies. Conversely, if there is no iron, then there is really no iron.

The key is that pig iron is a material that can't be bought with money, so Mi Zhu felt that the situation was strict, and he had to persuade Liu Yan to give up the research and manufacture of repeaters.

However, Liu Yan has always believed that the repeater is the basis for her belief that Xichuan can be subdued here, but she can't equip the repeater as many troops as possible, and she may suffer a big loss in the future. So she never considered giving up.

Mi Zhu's question was very sharp and timely, allowing Liu Yan to see where the bottleneck of the inventory was, before which she thought that Jingzhou's treasury was a bottomless pit with inexhaustible supplies.

Liu Yan never thought that the supplies would run out, and Mi Zhu's words pushed her into a dilemma?

Liu Yan couldn't make up her mind after thinking about it, and the people below were not unified, which made her lose her mind for a while.

She habitually went to see Xu Shu, but found that Xu Shu was not looking at her at all. Liu Yan suddenly felt disappointed, and secretly sighed to herself and announced that the meeting would be dismissed, leaving Mi Zhu, Xu Shu and Pang Tong.

The three of them sat down in the study of the princess's mansion, and Liu Yan immediately admitted her mistake: "I'm sorry everyone, I didn't have a case today, which made you uncomfortable." ”

Xu Shu's eyes didn't drift to Liu Yan, her own apprentice knew that she had always been such an afterthought, she never thought about the consequences when she spoke and acted, she just wanted to be happy. Such a character is actually not suitable for being a father-in-law, and it is not so easy to apologize afterwards every time.

Liu Yan was ignored by the teacher, but she didn't mind, her idea was that I was wrong, and if I knew that I was wrong, I should immediately admit my mistake and bear the consequences.

So she took it for granted that since she had admitted her mistake, the matter was over.

"Teacher, do you still mind?" Liu Yan looked at Xu Shu, who was still bowing his head: "I just thought that Ma Chao could hold off Cao Thief for a little more time, can't you even think about it?"

"Yes, of course! The princess can have any good vision, but you can't be so explicit on such an important occasion as a regular meeting. Xu Shu finally stopped being silent.

The other two people in the room were relieved when they heard this. The teacher finally stood up and spoke, every time she entered the mode of master and apprentice admonishment, the princess's thinking would be extremely clear, and her work efficiency was especially higher than usual. A few of them can finally sit back and enjoy it!

If Liu Yan knew that her genus thought so, she would definitely find a place to vomit three liters of blood.

The teacher reprimanded, of course, she became a good baby, not only very quiet, but inevitably thought a lot in her heart: the teacher is now like this kind of Cheng Dù's reprimand, which comes as soon as she opens her mouth, and there is no need to prepare in advance, has she really become a hopeless habitual offender in his mind? Will the teacher hate iron and steel because of this?

The more she said that the teacher could come to find her mistakes anytime and anywhere, the more Liu Yan was afraid of being caught by the teacher, so she was very well-behaved every time she mentioned it, hoping to leave a different impression on the teacher.

This time was no exception, after apologizing, he waited for Xu Shu's reply. Xu Shu didn't give Liu Yan any hints, which made her feel bottomless.

"I came to you to ask if Mr. Mi had a way to get the pig iron we needed without going through the official channels. Liu Yan asked with hope.

"Other doorways?" Mi Zhu was stunned for a moment: "Pig iron is the ultimate material that is more important than salt, how can it be bought through other channels?"

So in other words, there is only one way to stop making this Huashan?" Liu Yan said disappointedly.

"There are two normal channels, the first is mining. But this requires having mining areas, having security measures, and having a lot of workforce. Mi Zhu Cheng Zhu is in his chest, and his answer is also concise and to the point.

"So how many iron mines are there in my Jingzhou, and are they all running at full capacity?" Liu Yan asked these two questions with several gestures.

"Except for the Wuxi iron ore mine, which is being explored recently, the other iron ore mines are already operating at full capacity. Mi Zhu bowed and replied.

Liu Yan frowned again: "In this way, we still have to stop production." ”

Asking so many questions just to find a good way not to stop production?

"No, what does the princess want to do when she makes so many repeaters?" Pang Tong couldn't bear Liu Yan's loss, and asked aloud.

"Senior brother, why did you even ask me such a question? Of course, I built the crossbow to deal with Cao Thief's cavalry, I said it a long time ago!" Liu Yan looked at Pang Tong speechlessly.

Xu Shu on the side shook his head helplessly, not wanting to speak at all. It's really sad to get into the horns of the bull in vain!

But Liu Yan thought about something else, when the crossbow had just come out of the official version, she had invited Xu Shu Pang Tong and Zhao Yun Huang Zhong and others to try this new weapon, and the result was a lot of praise. Everyone said that this thing was really the nemesis of the cavalry, and with it, Cao Cao's dragoons had to be avoided, not to mention the other cavalry.

It is precisely because of the approval of all of you that I have the confidence to supervise a large number of productions, and now there is only a small shortage of raw materials, which has stumped you? Why did your attitude change so quickly? She was very unhappy and even felt very lost.

But Pang Tong's next words made her suddenly realize that the battle should be fought like this.

"Since the crossbow arrows are used to defend against cavalry, then the question arises, do we really need so many repeaters to deal with cavalry? From the first finished product to the present, we have made nearly 1,200 repeating crossbows, which is more than enough to form a force of 1,000 men. Pang Tong analyzed.

"This ...... Not enough, right?" Liu Yan hesitated.

"That's enough!" Pang Tong gave Liu Yan an affirmative reply: "Although the cavalry of the Cao thief is large, the number of people actually sent out for each expedition will not exceed three thousand. A thousand crossbowmen against three thousand cavalry, enough, the role of the crossbowmen is to surprise, to give the other party a strong deterrent, the effect is to achieve the effect, if the princess is really not at ease, you can make more wooden crossbow arrows, mixed with iron, can not only reduce the cost, but also will not reduce the effect of deterrence. ”

Liu Yan was suspicious when she heard this: "Is this really possible?"

"Yes! Of course you can! Good idea!" Mi Zhu, who wished he could save some money, immediately lit up when he heard Pang Tong's explanation, and he who didn't know how to fight could still understand the statement that the virtual and the real matched. So I couldn't help but respond loudly.

"......" Liu Yan looked at Xu Shu, and seeing that he was still silent, she could only nod her head and agree to do so: "Okay, since you said so, senior brother, then do it! ”

"The subordinates obey the order and will live up to the princess's trust. Pang Tong bowed down and received the order.

As soon as the matter was over, Liu Yan announced the dismissal of the meeting, and the three of them got up to leave. Compared with Liu Yan's grievances, Xu Shu's helplessness, and Pang Tong's innocence. Mi Zhu is the happiest person. The manufacture of crossbows has stopped, and even if they do, they have to make wooden crossbow arrows, and the cost has dropped a little! Finally, there is no need to worry about the problem of resource depletion.

Originally, how big a hat to wear, how big a temple to build on a large territory. Do you think that if you empty Liu Biao's warehouse, you will have a huge amount of resources? If you use it without control and planning, the gold and silver mountains will also be used up. At that time, it was really unsustainable, did you really want to smash the pot?

Mi Zhu wanted to say these words, but he had no position. Although Liu Yan called him Mr. Mi, she kept saying that Mr. had a great favor to me. But she is the boss after all, and it is impossible for Mi Zhu to say this to her boss as a subordinate.

Especially after experiencing a failure and accumulating failed workplace experience, Mi Zhu is more cautious in speaking and doing things. Even if Liu Yan's original intention remains unchanged, as in the past, Mi Zhu will not forget his duty.

Mi Zhu didn't know how to say it, but Xu Shu didn't want to say it. He can't remember how many times he said not to be impulsive, to be rational, not to go his own way, and to listen to other people's opinions. Now, he doesn't want to be a repeater anymore.

The apprentice said very seriously and sincerely every time: "I remember, I will not make the same mistake again, thank you teacher for reminding me." This has been repeated too many times, and Xu Shu can recite it backwards.

But did she really listen to it? I'm afraid she only listened to it for two or three days, and after three days she forgot about it. At least when she encounters specific problems, she always forgets her promises, and always thinks that it's okay to get into trouble, anyway, as long as she apologizes and plays a trick, someone will help her solve the problem. Of course, this "someone" also includes Xu Shu himself.

If this goes on like this for a long time, what progress will there be in vain?

Xu Shu felt that it was necessary for Liu Yan to recognize her shortcomings, face up to her shortcomings, and correct them, if not completely for the better. This is the responsibility of a teacher. It's what he should do for his apprentices, and it's definitely not an all-purpose glue after the fact. (To be continued.) )