Zhao Yuanzhen held Song Ting's hand, looked at him with concern, saw that he had lost a little weight, felt distressed, and said a few words to him gently, and saw Bai Qiuyan who followed him in, and felt a little unhappy.

"Zhen'er, this is Bai Qiuyan and Bai Girl, about business, it is inconvenient for you and me to show up, Bai Girl, she is a credible person, it is better to let her come forward to be the shopkeeper, what do you think?" Song Ting introduced Bai Qiuyan to Zhao Yuanzhen and said.

Seeing Bai Qiuyan's red-lip and white-toothed appearance, Zhao Yuanzhen understood in her heart that although her husband did not show her intention of taking this woman as a concubine, seeing her husband's attitude towards her, she already knew that her husband still liked her.

Although she said that she would not interfere with her husband's concubine, she still hoped that her husband would marry Xiaoman first, after all, Xiaoman had followed her for many years and was her most trusted maid.

When he saw the look on the princess's wife's face, Song Ting understood her suspicions at that time, and hurriedly explained: "Zhen'er, this white girl, for you, has the grace to save your life......

Zhao Yuanzhen's face was surprised, and she hurriedly asked her husband why he said this, and Song Ting told her about Bai Qiuyan instructing him to go to Suzhou to ask for medicine when she was suffering from cold poison in her body.

"Huh? White girl, Yuan Zhen has saluted you! Thank you for saving your life! In addition to being shocked, Zhao Yuanzhen made a big gift to Bai Qiuyan.

"I can't do it, I can't do it! The ninth princess, the concubine is lowly, how can she receive a princess gift? Bai Qiuyan hurriedly returned the gift.

After the two of them were polite, Zhao Yuanzhen took Bai Qiuyan's hands, helped her sit down together, asked Xue Yan to serve tea, and looked at her carefully.

The voice of her husband came from her ears again, "The white girl was originally in Yangzhou Yunxiang Courtyard, but later she redeemed herself and set up a stall to sell tofu...... Bai Qiuyan knows poetry and painting, is very talented, and can do business. Zhen'er, I've introduced her to you now, about business, you two talk about it first, I'm going to go to the Ministry of Works......"

In Song Ting's heart, although it was a big deal to decide to do business, there was nothing bigger than the development of arquebus, and going to the Ministry of Industry to get some black powder out was a problem that needed to be solved urgently.

"Xianggong, what are you going to do in the Ministry of Works?" As soon as the husband came back, he was about to leave without drinking the tea, and Zhao Yuanzhen wanted to talk to him for a while.

I haven't seen my husband for a month, and as soon as I came back this time, Xue Yan came to complain, saying that he came back with a fox spirit, and hugged him on the street, although she believed in Song Ting, but Xue Yan and Yinzhu both said that they had witnessed it with their own eyes, and she had to believe it, "Xianggong has changed his mind, he made a new love so quickly, and he forgot the old man......", she was very unwilling.

But when her husband saw her, his eyes showed a gentle and delicate eye, and he knew cold and heat for her, and brought back the tonic to ward off the cold, she immediately knew that he was to blame, he still loved her as much as before, it turned out that he just brought this white girl to his home to discuss business, and Bai Qiuyan still had a life-saving grace for herself, she knew that she had misunderstood her husband, and she felt so guilty.

Although Song Ting knew that she was reluctant, but the troubled times were coming, and he didn't have much time to delay, so after just briefly telling her about the development of the musket, he came out of the Horse Mansion despite her reluctance.

Song Ting called Lu Junyi and Yang Zhao to go to the house of Chen Yi, the right attendant of the Ministry of Works.

The Gunpowder Division is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry, and if you want to get black powder, you need to open the certificate through the officials of the Ministry of Industry, that is, to ask what you are doing to do it, whether it will pose a threat to social security, and so on. Of course, it is impossible for ordinary people to get black powder, except for the army and the government, no other unit or individual can get gunpowder from the Ministry of Industry under any name.

Song Ting came with a list opened by the magistrate's old rules, and the list listed various items, and the total amount of gunpowder required was 90 catties.

Ninety catties is not a small amount, Chen Yi, the right attendant of the Ministry of Rites, was entangled for a while, and finally nodded: "Okay, I'll let the people from the Gunpowder Division send it to Yangzhou!"

After taking the palindrome, the waiter of the Ministry of Rites took the gunpowder to Yangzhou Mansion together with the two officials of the Gunpowder Division.

Song Ting went back to the Horse Mansion and asked Yan Qing to call Song Jiang to discuss the matter, and he asked Song Jiang to set up the detective headquarters "Ximen Inn", Shi Xiu, Yang Xiong and others recently inquired about a lot of news about the Prime Minister's Mansion, the Taishi Mansion, and the Privy Council.

First of all, the most important news is, of course, the rebellion of Fang La, the prime minister Wang Huang concealed the rebellion, trying to put out the fire, who knew that the fire was burned, Fang La's army successively captured 25 counties in eight states, these eight states are Shezhou, Muzhou, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Changzhou, Huzhou, Runzhou, although the territory is not large, but it is all rich land in the south of the Yangtze River, with many people and wealth.

Fang La ascended the throne in Hangzhou a few days ago, and he became the lord of the country, called the Holy Father, and set up three provinces and six departments.

When the Song court heard the news from Fang Jinzhi a few days ago, he had already asked Yan Qing to send the news to Song Jiang, and Song Jiang told the crown prince Zhao Yuanhuan the news of Fang La's rebellion three days before Fang La's accession to the throne.

Zhao Yuanhuan didn't believe it, and it wasn't until the day Fang La ascended the throne that he finally got accurate news and knew that Fang La was indeed reversed!

Zhao Yuanhuan panicked, went to see Zhao Jinji, and told him about the rebellion in Jiangnan, and Zhao Jinji only talked nonsense as his son!

When all the governors of the Jiangnan generation sent the letters of urgency to Bianjing City like snowflakes, when the large and small court officials came out to report on this matter in the early dynasty, Zhao Jinji, who was called the "Emperor of Daojun" by later generations, finally realized that Jiangnan was really the opposite!

At this time, more than eighty days have passed since Fang La raised troops in Qingxi County!

The Son of Heaven was furious, and first reprimanded Wang Huang for concealing the news, and then ordered Tong Guan to mobilize troops to suppress the rebellion.

The crown prince Zhao Yuanhuan asked to demote Wang Hao to a commoner and exile, but Zhao Jinji did not agree, but only demoted Wang Hao by two levels, and still held an important position in the court. And Wang Huang's position was replaced by Li Bangyan.

The crown prince Zhao Yuanhuan also asked for the Song Jiangbu to be the vanguard, and then Tong Guan mobilized the elite from the north to the south to quell the rebellion, and the Son of Heaven allowed it, with Tong Guan as the counterinsurgency marshal in the middle of the road, Wang Kang as the left road, and the seed master road as the right road, plus the Song Jiang Department, a total of 230,000 soldiers and horses, rushed to the south of the Yangtze River.

This is a matter of Jiangnan.

And in the north, the Liao army saw that the northern army was drawn to defend the void, and also brazenly launched a large-scale siege war, and directly fought with the Liang army in the north!

And whether the battle of the northern frontier can be won depends on whether the Jurchens keep their promise and attack the Liao army from behind......

"The north and the south are going to fight, not good!" Song Ting sighed. Once the Jin defeated the Liao State, it was inevitable to launch a war of aggression against the Great Liang.

Song Jiang has reorganized the army, and he will go to Yangzhou tomorrow, and Song Ting just happened to go to Yangzhou, so on the second day, he took Lu Junyi, Yan Qing, Hu Sanniang, and Yang Zhao to Yangzhou with the Liangshan army.

After arriving in Yangzhou, the Liangshan army was stationed in Huai'an County, and the Song court went to Yangzhou Mansion to wait for the arrival of black powder.

As for the matter of craftsmen, Song Ting had already thought that it was better for musket technology to be known by too many people, so when the time came, the production centers of various accessories such as barrels, lead bullets, butts, and fire ropes must be dispersed to various states, and the core technology must not be stolen by any outsider.

Now that the situation is urgent, he didn't even have time to say a few more words to Zhen'er, so he went directly to Yangzhou.

Three days after arriving in Yangzhou, the gunpowder finally arrived in Yangzhou slowly, with gunpowder, everything was ready, and the fine iron barrel was missing.

In the compound of the county government workshop, Ah Ping, Ah Chang and more than a dozen craftsmen, under the command of Chen Dabeard, worked day and night to polish the fine iron barrel.

A fine iron barrel, under normal circumstances, takes a month to sharpen, and Chen Dabeard is also very smart, arranging two shifts, day and night to rush to work.

Of course, at this time, the salary should be generous, otherwise who would want to give you night shifts in this era?

Song Ting also took 10,000 taels from Zhao Yuanzhen, and initially estimated that the cost of an arquebus would need 200~300 taels, and when the time came to mass production, 10,000 taels could only get a 500 expenditure.

Of course, the first one has not yet been made, and it will take more than ten days for the fine iron barrel to grind out.

On the one hand, the Song court sent additional men to work day and night, and on the other hand, it also paid close attention to the war. What she whispered to Fang Jinzhi last time, I don't know if she listened to it, when Fang La's army was defeated and retreated to Qingyuan Cave in Qingxi County, she must not be stupid to follow up, and she was also captured alive by the imperial court!

(End of chapter)