Chapter Seventy-Four: Night Talk in the Grass Hall

After a simple dinner, Zhou Bian instructed Qiao'er to light an oil lamp and offer a pot of fragrant tea, and the two sat opposite each other and discussed. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Appreciated by the king, Bai Gui was also a little fluttering, only to hear Doctor Bai wave his hand and say, "In Fang Jin's life, I thought that Wei was strong and did not hide from the king, and I wanted to defect to Wei, but I didn't want Wei Hou to be happy, and he was not in the right position, and he was much worse than the king, so he turned to serve the king." ”

Zhou Bian knew about this, and when the two began to intersect, they discussed the topic of what country the Bai family wanted to vote for, but at that time Zhou Bian was not confident enough and a little suspicious of this Bai Gui, so he did not mention the words of serving the royal family, but now it seems that Bai Gui has not seen it thoroughly, Bai Gui has made it very clear that he will watch the sky to cut off the harvest year and the disaster year, and only bet his hope on things with potential, so he came to serve the royal family. Of course, if there was no Zhou Bian who crossed over in history, Bai Gui still served Wei Hou, built water conservancy for Wei Hou, and obtained the position of Bai Xiang, and he was also a famous person in history.

Seeing that Zhou Bian smiled and said nothing, Bai Gui continued, "The State of Qi and Chu are traditional powerhouses with profound heritage, does the king know what it means to have profound heritage?" ”

Zhou Bian realized this, and immediately replied, "Those who have a profound background must have deep financial, material and human resources, even if they encounter a disaster year, they are not afraid of the emptiness of the national treasury, even if they have been fighting for many years, and they are not afraid of insufficient military equipment, even if there are national thieves in charge, they are not afraid that they will not have the strength of important ministers to turn things around." ”

This is also Zhou Bian ascended the throne as the queen has a deep understanding, now the royal family can be said to be nothing, has been on the verge of bankruptcy, in fact, a hundred years ago the royal family was really bankrupt, Jin helped to build the Zhou Palace, the palace depends on the filial piety of the Lu State, otherwise the dignified son of heaven really does not even have food and clothing, so Zhou Bian is very envious of the Qi State, no matter how ridiculous the monarch is, no matter how many chaotic ministers, since the Duke of Qi Huan for hundreds of years, can always stand proudly in the East, so that the princes of the world dare not underestimate.

Bai Gui also praised when he heard this, "What the king said is extremely true, and Bai Mou has also gained a lot. It's just that what Bai said meant something else, Bai just wanted to remind the king that everything can't be done overnight, it's not that I have a lot of money this year, and I can do a lot of things next year, and many things need to be accumulated, just like the strength of today's Wei State, which was also obtained after decades of hard work by Wenhou. Besides, after all, the royal family has been in decline for hundreds of years, and it will take even longer to revive it, and your subordinates hope that our king will be mentally prepared. ”

"This king has been taught." This was only said by loyal ministers, so Zhou Bian accepted it with a sincere nod. "I just don't know what I need to prepare for the revival of the royal family now?"

I only heard Bai Shi's boastful words, "All those who are in a big country, as the king said, need to have abundant treasury, and good people need to be sufficient, so for the sake of the king, it must also be so." Now that the royal family is doing well, presumably a lot of copper coins have been accumulated, but they should also leave what they need to save more grain and grass, otherwise once the war between Heluo and Luo, when the grain and grass are not enough, it will be inappropriate to borrow from other countries. For the coming war, weapons need to be prepared so that they are available when needed. In addition, we should also pay more attention to the intelligence of the world, Bai has been in business for many years, and knows the importance of intelligence, so he has a stronghold in many places, and hires a guy to pay attention to the market in various places and report it quickly. ”

This is to the point, people in this era have such insight, it is really amazing, Zhou Bian couldn't help but say again.

However, after thinking about it, Zhou Bian still asked, "But I don't know how to prepare weapons?" "It's just that the number of the Imperial Forest Army at that time is not much, and the equipment in the royal arsenal is used, although the spears and short swords are not very sharp, but they also have a copy of each person, but when the number is more, it will not be enough, Zhou Bian also asked the Taishi and the young master and others, but they didn't know the essentials, but they just let people cut some tree trunks and flatten them to prepare, which can be used as a spear shaft.

"The storage of weapons needs to be prepared in advance, just because the more powerful the weapon, the better the quality of the weapon, the longer it takes to manufacture, so Bai suggested that the king can allocate a sum of money to purchase a large number of raw materials."

"My royal family has stockpiled some bronze weapons and iron ingots, and some tree trunks were cut down some time ago." remembered the royal mystery that the Taishi led to see when he first ascended the throne, and Zhou Bian did not hide it from Bai Gui.

Unexpectedly, Bai Gui laughed, "King, although the hardware and tree trunks are easy to obtain, the production method is very particular. For example, the rod of a spear must be made of tall hardwood, otherwise it is not straight, and it is not tough, and it is easy to break, so pear wood is the best. After picking pear wood, it can not be used immediately, and it has to be soaked in water for a year to appear capable, and there are perennial running wood in the arsenal of the vassal states, which is the essence of a strong country. After soaking for a year, it can not be used immediately, but also has to be dried in the shade for a year, not exposed to the sun, and then painted after drying, or wrapped in bamboo pieces, equipped with bronze spear tips, this makes a good spear. Of course, a normal spear doesn't take that long. ”

These are all things that have never been said by the Taishi and the young master, and they must not know it, it turns out that a simple spear has so many processes, which is really eye-opening.

I only heard Bai Gui say again, "This is just a simple spear, if it is a bow and crossbow, it is even more complicated to make." The bow and crossbow is a long-range weapon, although Wei Wushu is strong alone, but he is still equipped with a crossbow, and ten thousand crossbows are fired at the same time, and the power is endless. The production of this bow alone requires six kinds of materials: dry, horn, tendon, glue, silk and lacquer, each of which requires laborious collection, such as glue and lacquer, which are not produced locally in Luoyang, and need to be purchased from Chu. Each material has a distinction between the top and the bottom, such as the best dry to rub wood, the second second, the horn to the horn of the green cow is the best, the horn of the sick cow is the second, each material selection should be exquisite. After the material is selected, it needs to be soaked for a year and dried in the shade for a year, and the tendons and glue also need to be made from time to time, so it takes two years to form an ordinary bow, and three to four years if you want a good bow. ”

After hearing this, Zhou Bian couldn't help but gasp, fortunately he listened to what Bai Gui said today, otherwise he would find that the weapons were not enough or not good when he developed the military in the future, and he would really have to delay a lot of time, and he would really take many detours with talents. The power of the bow and crossbow, Zhou Bian from later generations naturally knew, but he didn't know its production process, and when he was worried about how to mass produce, the Bai family came, and someone handed him a pillow when he was really sleepy.

Zhou Bian couldn't help but arch his hand and said, "Thank you Doctor Bai for reminding me, if it weren't for Doctor Bai, this king wouldn't know this, but since Doctor Bai said so much, please help my royal family again." ”

"The king is too worried, since Bai has already served the king, he naturally has to do his best to serve the king. In the early years, Bai recognized a craftsman in the city of Chu who could make bows and crossbows, and what Bai knew was from him. At that time, he had something to ask Bai to help, so he was very grateful to Bai, and if the king needed it, Bai could ask him to be brought from Chu to serve the royal family. In addition, Bai also knew some merchants in Chu State, and the horn glue and lacquer needed to make bows and crossbows could be purchased by Bai, what did the king think? ”

Zhou Bian naturally nodded incessantly, and immediately said that Bai Gui would be responsible for the procurement and production of weapons for the royal family.

In the blink of an eye, it was getting late, and the Queen Mother couldn't help but send someone to urge, in the eyes of the Queen Mother, the king's body was more important than anything else. So although there was still a trace of reluctance, Zhou Bian had to talk to Bai Gui about this. At that time, there was not so much attention in the palace, and there was no attention to leaving foreign ministers, and there were palace maids who arranged guest rooms for Bai Gui to rest. Thinking of Liu Bei in later generations after seeking Zhuge Liang, he and Zhuge Liang slept together, so Zhou Bian also had the idea of seeking talent, but sleeping in the same bed with a big man, he always felt very awkward, so Zhou Bian sent Bai Gui away or returned to his own courtyard, this is his warmest home, Liu Qing has already made the bed, the maids boiled hot water, washed away the sweat of the day, Zhou Bian couldn't help but feel good, and fell asleep soundly in hope.

I slept very sweetly this night, and I seemed to have dreamed that I was standing on the tower of the tall Luoyang City, with a forest of soldiers and armor behind me, and I looked at my own world. When I woke up, it was already dark, and the dawn of summer was early, and I couldn't help but be interested after washing my face, and I used breakfast after dancing the sword.

After breakfast, I saw Taishi and others accompanying Bai Gui to come, remembering what I talked about yesterday, Zhou Bian naturally attached much more importance to this Bai Gui, and hurriedly greeted him. It turned out that Bai Gui wanted to say goodbye, and it was easy to get a virtuous talent, Zhou Bian was naturally reluctant to leave Bai Gui again, but he had to give up again and again, only to hear Bai Gui smile and say, "There are people who dislike their unfilial parents, and they didn't return yesterday night, but they made my father worried, so I ask the king to forgive me." ”

If you don't enter Luoyang for a day, Bai Gui's status as an important minister of the royal family will not be exposed for a day, and staying in Chengzhou for a long time will naturally attract the attention of people who are interested, even though Zhou Bian, who knows this well, is unhappy in his heart, but he still nodded and agreed, just thinking that Bai Gui's family is all in Luoyang, Zhou Bian can't help but be a little worried.

"Bai Qing returned to Luoyang to be full of filial piety, and this king is naturally inconvenient to stop him, but if Zhou Gong learns that Bai Qing and this king are getting closer, I am afraid that he will be suspicious, and Bai Qing has to be careful!"

Deeply moved by the king's friendship, Bai Gui arched his hand and smiled, "The king doesn't have to worry, he has his own ideas." ”

Looking at Bai Gui's confident appearance, he knew that Bai Gui didn't speak, let alone his own safety, so Zhou Bian couldn't help but feel relieved. Of course, the result of the discussion with Bai Gui last night was naturally to inform the Taishi and others, in fact, there are three things that Bai Gui is currently responsible for at present, one is responsible for secretly contacting the people in Luoyang City who are willing to take refuge in the king, in order to help the royal family take Luoyang at the lowest cost, the second is to secretly recruit troops for the royal family in Korea, and the third is to purchase weapons for the royal family and the summoning of craftsmen, as for the management of the royal family's industry, it can only wait until Luoyang is recovered. Although they were puzzled that Bai Gui was entrusted with a heavy task when he first came, they heard that the property was still in the hands of the prison guard, and Bai Gui had to come to collect it when it was time, so Taishi and the others naturally had no objection, so they nodded their heads in agreement.

The group sent Bai Gui to the palace gate and stopped. Looking at the back of Bai Gui sitting in the carriage and leaving, thinking of Bai Gui's talent, Zhou Bian couldn't help but flash a sentence in his mind that he had heard in later generations, and couldn't help but sigh, "I have Bai's family, just like a fish in water!" ”