In the inner city of Guangzhou, the General's Mansion, more than two months have passed in a flash.

Growing luxuriantly, densely and viing to poke out of the wall, the branches of Qionghua and Magnolia and Kapok trees are already full of buds. In the sound of cicadas, the hot breath from summer can't wait to expel the warm spring breeze that makes people sleepy; Race to the ground in the midst of this ancient city.

And not far from the street diagonally opposite the General's Mansion, in the side courtyard where the sign was newly hung, Zhou Huaian also raised his head in a pile of bookcases and rubbed his stiff face that had been looking at it for too long; Calling behind him, "Here comes tea."

Then, in the subtle sound of objects swaying and rubbing, a pair of small hands struggling to hold things suddenly imprinted into his eyes; But it was the small pendant "Calamus" that was holding a tea tray larger than her head with some difficulty, and carefully used her head to help support the steps and walked over and put it aside; He also took the lid of the yellow-glazed celadon and blew it before sending it to Zhou Huai'an's hands; And after doing all this, there were already fine beads of sweat on her somewhat struggling face and nose.

However, Zhou Huai'an will not feel pity and sympathy or anything, at least he has provided the other party with the opportunity to support himself, in this troubled world, many people want to support themselves or can't ask for it.

After this period of recuperation and rest, the scabies and other skin problems on the little thing are cured, and the hair has become fine and soft, although the face is still thin and there is not much flesh, but the skin has gradually become more delicate, and it looks much more pleasing to the eye.

"Well, it's still a little hot, and the boiling heat is a little bit worse."

Zhou Huai'an took a sip of the teacup

"But the ingredients are basically complete. It's kind of progress.。。 ”

If you want to live more comfortably in the hot and humid Lingnan land, you can boil the corresponding tea soup, which is the most basic kung fu; From the princes and nobles to the peddlers and pawns, there are corresponding recipes and materials; Zhou Huai'an's daily life now also includes some of these experiments with different tea recipes.

"Wait, Bai Jingjing."

Zhou Huai'an suddenly remembered something and couldn't help asking.

"Why are you doing such a thing?"

"Sister. Sister, she took the bear wolf dog to take a bath. ”

"Okay,。。"

Zhou Huai'an couldn't help patting his forehead and rejoicing, and then waved his hand to signal her to sit down.

"You take a break. Then come and write something for me. ”

Since the beginning of spring, this little pet "bear wolf dog" has a new problem, like to take toys and take people to jump into mudflats, puddles to roll or something, and then with a body of mud and sewage everywhere to scratch and mark something.

"Yes...

It was hard to imagine the tragic scene when she and the skeleton spirit first started to do housework, constantly knocking over utensils to the ground, or knocking down a pile of furnishings by mistake;

Therefore, the price of being a maid is the doubling loss and destruction of all kinds of miscellaneous things, so that Zhou Huai'an can't help but have some kind of psychological shadow, and for a period of time, except for the wooden utensils that are resistant to falling, other objects dare not let them use them.

During this period, because of these two clumsy hands, she would often scream when her hands and bodies were burned, or after scratching and scratching and scarring, she would secretly hide in the corner and hold her head and shed tears; still have to let Zhou Huai'an deal with the aftermath and forcibly give them medicine and cleaning; Otherwise, just with the consistent style of these two stupid people who don't know how to take care of others and don't know how to take care of themselves, I'm afraid that they will soon get infected and fester.

However, in these days, it is better to arrange for other skilled men who have been slaves to take turns to teach by word and deed; The performance of the two of them has finally evolved from the miserable at the beginning, and has barely evolved to the point where they can still pinch their noses and accept it now. Of course, in addition to this aspect of life, they also have other attributes to develop.

For example, the reading and memory ability of this small pendant is not bad, and it can also write a hand-made fly-headed letter, so sometimes you can start and do something to write and copy. Then, Zhou Huai'an found that she did still have a foundation in ink painting, so he simply taught her simple black-and-white sketches and three-dimensional sketches.

As for the skeleton spirit, in addition to barely learning to make beds and quilts and make tea and soup, he also seems to have some experience in tending to flowers and plants. Therefore, in order to make the best use of the use value as much as possible, I simply took care of and fed the daily work of the pet "bear, wolf and dog"; So for a while, both humans and dogs fell into bad luck; In those days, it was common to hear her screaming as she was forgotten to feed her, and she was so hungry that she was bitten by bears, wolves, and dogs.

And as a punishment for the corresponding dereliction of duty, it is forced to be locked up with bears, wolves and dogs, and deepen feelings and connections at close range. Then in the tearing day and night of tearing, she slowly became submissive and honest and obedient.

Zhou Huai'an's new title is the grain judge of the Cupola General's Mansion, which is the original official position and identity of Pang Xun during the uprising. Therefore, he can be called a "false judge" and "a false judge", although he is not as noble as the traditional "Sima, Don't Drive, and Long History" of the three subordinate officials, but it can be regarded as an important middle-level rank in the general's mansion, and his status is still above the six Cao counselors and the scattered military and record the army.

However, he still served as the deputy commander of the Sanjiang Patrol Army, and through the constant exchange of messengers and documents, he continued to lead and preside over the daily affairs of the Chaoxun local and military affairs; This can be regarded as one of the results of the struggle and compromise with the General's Mansion after the fact; There was another result, that is, he was able to bring a regiment of troops into the city for permanent residence; Although the current residence is only a corner of the outer Guo City, it also represents a certain kind of intimacy and important seniority.

Of course, more importantly, this regiment will continue to practice and operate some of his ideas and initiatives through regular rotation; During the period of staying in Guangfu, Zhou Huaian also did what he could.

It was on the basis of the mature experience of the original several special brigades that the logistics system and material distribution sequence of the rebel army were reorganized; It also unified the daily supply of bulk civilian materials in Guangzhou, and established a set of primitive battlefield medical and sanitation and epidemic prevention systems, which finally controlled and weakened the epidemics that had occurred one after another in the past few days.

Then, the organization of manpower to renovate the road between Guangzhou and Meizhou and Shaozhou, and restored the post station system of "one pavilion in ten miles", "one post in thirty miles" and "one pavilion in eighty miles" on these two routes, so as to facilitate the delivery of news and the dispatch of people and horses.

It also dredged several sections of silted canals in Guangzhou, and set up special water officers; The embankments of the main stream of the Pearl River have been strengthened to enhance the irrigation effect and the use of the river network for water transport.

In addition, in the suburbs of Guangzhou, a mobile market within the rebel army was established, so that the people and horses of various departments could communicate with each other.

In addition, he set up a special training center in the city of Guangzhou to teach some simple methods of measurement and arithmetic, and at present he has quickly formed two groups of envoys and officials to clear the fields and start preparations for clearing the acres of fields and enclosing the fields in the valley of the Pearl River Delta.

Then, in order to support this training center, which had been maintained at a scale of several hundred people for a long time, all the paper mills, bookstores, engraving and printing craftsmen in Guangzhou were gathered to create a book bureau exclusive to the rebels.

At least from engraving printing to movable type printing, in fact, there is not much technical difficulty, the difference is that the idea of a little flash of inspiration; Wait until the movable type of pottery fan and copperplate is produced, and then use the ink made of castor oil with low volatility to replace the traditional ink with greater diffusion; It is possible to print other selected books such as simple textbooks and storybooks in batches with low material and labor costs.

Even more than a dozen primitive printing presses, which were specially used to rotate an array of iron shafts to roll slate slates, were even produced to replace the relatively cumbersome and laborious manual brushing and pressing of this era; Although it is still unattainable to achieve a copy per person, it is still not a problem to have a copy to read and use in rotation for each team or even every fire.

He announced the redevelopment of the sea ban and encouraged trade with him, and then presided over a large-scale auction to dispose of the various materials that had been accumulated in his hands and the many large and small ships captured by the rebel army, and disposed of them to the remaining maritime merchants in the city in different categories, and then encouraged them to attract more merchants from outside the territory at the cost of sharing and reducing the ship tax, and continued to come to Guangzhou for trade and trade.

Therefore, a few ships of the merchants had just arrived, although they were only merchants from the nearby southern tip of the Indochina Peninsula, and the ships were not carrying any valuable goods, but rice and kapok, but they also represented a certain good beginning and starting point; As the saying goes, "No one does the business that loses money, and someone robs the business that kills the head"; Under the profit-seeking instinct of the merchants, even if they were killed before, they still could not stop their determination to take risks and seek profits.

In particular, Guangzhou's unique geographical location since ancient times makes any overseas business force that wants to trade with China an important transit and distribution center that cannot be avoided and bypassed.

Then Nanhai County (in present-day Foshan, Guangdong) collected and integrated the local large and small iron yards and mining and metallurgy; According to the scale and fineness, it is divided into several categories and uses, and is unified for the righteous army to make weapons (public) and provide various agricultural tools (private). Because the local area has a long history of coal mining, and there is charcoal provided by rich forest resources, and the pig iron mined from all over Lingnan is mostly gathered here down the river, so the local iron production has begun to see a scale.

All of them are projects that are quite deep and good in their own right, and can be achieved with a little guidance, and are the easiest to see results in the short term. And because he is basically a new creation from nothing, and has not encroached on and touched much of the existing power structure, the backlash and dissent caused by it are also very small results.

"If I meet the master, maybe many people will survive."

It was when Huang Chao came to visit a few days ago, and he seemed to be deeply immersed in memories and felt something.

"Why should the Yellow King act like this?"

Zhou Huai'an said in his heart, I don't carry this pot.

"Since the banner of asking for the lives of the people in the world has been raised,"

"How can the sacrifice of going forward for the sake of the great cause be completely avoided."

Therefore, his main duty at present has shifted to the title of the messenger of the plague; Don't underestimate such an inconsequential title, in fact, the scope and authority are not small at all.

In most cases, under the banner of epidemic prevention and control, people can be sent deep into the rebel army to carry out (sanitary) inspections and search (source) work; And it has the convenience of mobilizing manpower and materials nearby, and even requisitioning a certain proportion of the army. Then, he also made two requests to Huang Chao who came to inspect:

"Please take the lead from the Yellow King's headquarters."

"Please ask the Yellow King to lend me a team of guards as a support and deterrent, and give a few more expedient killing places."

Starting from the headquarters of Huangchao's relatively resolute and decisive execution, and then implementing and spreading to most of the rebel army, it can undoubtedly have a large degree of exemplary role, and can also avoid the pretext that the average is equal.

With the help of a team of guards, it is to show the attitude and position of pulling the tiger skin as a banner, and by the way, it is also a disguised surveillance close to the side to show the selfless attitude. As for the quota for killing, it is entirely for the purpose of deterring and resolving some people who may be stupid and arrogant, and to avoid troublemaking that goes beyond the grain. After all, there is such a thing as an infectious disease that cannot be delayed.

At least in this era of fear of epidemics, not many people will deliberately embarrass or set up obstacles to obstruct the corresponding various measures that may involve their own lives; This is also convenient for Zhou Huai'an to carry some of his own private work and potential purposes in it.

A small step to further obtain power and resources from the rebel army must start with this inconspicuous small detail and details that ordinary people avoid; For example, the current intermittent outbreak of plague and summer disease. According to the history in his vague memory, most of Huangchao's troops were northerners, and it was because of the outbreak of the miasma in this place outside the ridge after going south to Guangzhou, and the dead did not survive and returned to the north, so they had to re-raise the army and return to the north.

If you can cut into this node and reduce the losses of the corresponding epidemic, what kind of results and gains can you get? Another example is to make Huangchao's rebel army have more time to prepare and gain a foothold in Lingnan, and the preserved forces will be more complete and strong, and what kind of chemical changes and chain reactions will be produced on the original historical track.

On the other hand, the unexpected gains are those who have been centrally managed and treated back by the volunteer soldiers, at least they are truly grateful to Zhou Huai'an who has always been compassionate for them regardless of their own safety and all kinds of thoughts that cannot be reciprocated.

(End of chapter)