Li Yan was very happy to get Ma Yan's approval. He turned around and asked someone to bring another official letter and handed it to Ma Yan.

"Youchang, this is Sun Quan's national letter, and he asked us for stone bullets to make jishu, you can help me come up with an idea and see how we can deal with it."

Ma Jian took it, looked at it again, and flicked his fingers: "Ming Gong, this is the bamboo paper from Linyuan, Wei Ba's business is quite big, and even Wu Guoguo's book uses his paper?" ”

"No, we have to find a way to get some autumn breeze from him." Li Yan laughed twice and stroked his beard, quite proud of his humor.

"Since Sun Quan is willing to seek the near and far, and asks Ming Gong for this jishu, he must have hit a wall with Wei Ba." Ma Tan put away his smile and said in a deep voice: "Ming Gong, at the beginning, Wei Ba left a hand, and only gave them a thunderbolt car, but did not give this jishu, and later he would rather support them for nearly a thousand carts of stone bullets in vain, rather than make jishu, just because I was afraid that they would turn against us." Now that the battle is over, what are you doing with him? ”

"Having said that, but I promised him with red mouth and white teeth at the beginning, but now I don't give it, and this face is not good-looking." Li Yan smacked his lips in embarrassment, narrowed his eyes slightly, and stared at Ma Yan's eyes: "To be honest, I'd rather smash those stone bullets on top of his head than transfer this jishu to him." It's just that Sun Quan was really anxious this time, he said that without stone bullets to make jishu, he would not be able to go on the Northern Expedition, and he would not be able to respond to the prime minister. When the prime minister blames him, I can't afford it. Young Chang, do you think that's the truth? ”

Ma Tan smiled slightly: "Ming Gong is a promise, and his faith is unparalleled." But. I'm worried that Sun Quan may not be willing to go on a northern expedition with these stone bombs, but he may be deployed at the head of Wuchang City. ”

"What can I do?"

"Ming Gong, this matter can be delayed, sooner rather than later. Whether the prime minister is going to go on a northern expedition, and when will he go on a northern expedition, does Ming Gong know? ”

Li Yan snorted: "What kind of person is the prime minister, how can I know his thoughts." ”

"Since I don't know, it's better to leave this problem to the prime minister to deal with." Ma Tan smiled weirdly: "If the prime minister needs Sun Quan's response, he will give him this jishu, if he doesn't need Sun Quan's response." Then think of another way to deal with Sun Quan. Anyway, Sun Quan is now a toothless tiger. Don't take him too seriously. Sooner or later, Ming Gong will go east to destroy this Jiangdong tiger and dominate the world. ”

Li Yan nodded in agreement: "It's still thoughtful." Then ask for a letter from the young man. Let someone give it to the prime minister. ”

Ma Jian scolded in his heart. But he responded without changing his face, and beckoned someone to bring a pen and paper. Li Yan arranged the pen and paper and said, "Youchang." There is one more thing I would like to discuss with my child. ”

"Ming Gong, please say, as long as you can serve, you will not hesitate."

Li Yan deliberately pondered for a while, and then Zuihou said worriedly: "Bixia is already twenty-six this year, and it has been more than ten years since Zhang Wu established Empress Zhang in the first year, but no sister-in-law has been born, but her maidservant gave birth to a son." Not to mention that this child's identity is not noble enough to convince the public, only this one child, it is inevitable that there are too few, in case something happens, who will this Han world pass on? ”

When Li Yan said this, he deliberately stopped talking and didn't go any further, just looked at Ma Yan with burning eyes. Ma Yan secretly complained in his heart, knowing that Li Yan wanted to use him as a sword envoy again, and asked him to appear and confront Zhuge Cheng, but he couldn't refuse. He pondered for a long time and said: "Although Empress Zhang has no children, she has no loss in virtue, and Zhang Cheqi is also a national honorless, and it is afraid that it will be inappropriate to suddenly abolish it." It's not as good as this, proposed by the Ming Gong, I will wait for Xiangzan, and petition Prime Minister Zhuge to discuss, and select another good woman of the right age for Bixia to enter the palace, if you can give birth to a man and half a woman, then give the honorable position, and the heir of the broad bixia, and the cause of the Han Dynasty, isn't it wonderful? ”

Li Yan was a little displeased, he originally hoped that Ma Jian would come forward to suggest that he send his daughter directly to the palace, and then abolish Empress Zhang in the name of having no children, but he didn't expect Ma Jian to put forward such a half-cut idea.

Ma Yan looked at Li Yan's expression in his eyes, but he was not nervous, and then said: "Duke Ming, Empress Zhang was favored by the first emperor back then, and she has adhered to women's etiquette over the years, led the harem, and has no complaints. Bixia and the queen are also a couple who love the house and Wu, and let the queen's sister be a little agent. After this sudden abolition, I am afraid that there is a lot of resistance, or it is better to slowly try it. ”

Li Yan's eyes flashed, and he understood what Ma Yan meant. The front is all nonsense, what the queen mother likes, and the officials praise it, it's useless. The queen's family and Wei Ba have a lot of origins, and this is the point. The queen's mother, Mrs. Xiahou, is the aunt of Wei Ba's concubine Xiahou Hui, and Empress Zhang's sister is also with Wei Ba now, and she gets along very well with Wei Ba's wife and concubine.

"Youchang is reasonable, this matter is not in a hurry, you should first ask the prime minister for what he means."

"Whoa." Ma Yan spread the paper and pen in front of Li Yan, kept waving his hand, wrote a letter to Zhuge Liang, used his own private seal, and handed it to Li Yan to read. Li Yan was very satisfied, and immediately let people seal it up and send it to Chang'an quickly.

……

Chang'an, Weishui, stone bomb workshop.

Zhuge Liang watched the waterwheel run again, the stone balls rubbing back and forth on the huge roulette wheel, making a rattling sound, and a smile finally appeared on his tired face.

Since Wei Ba created these workshops in the sixth year of Jianxing, it has been running for more than four years, and many parts have been replaced several times, but the jishu is still the jishu left by Wei Ba, and there is no improvement. Zhuge Liang spent several months this time to redesign and design these hydrowheelers. After the transformation is completed, the process is smoother and the efficiency has increased by nearly 10%.

The price is Zhuge Liang's two big black circles. He is not one of those people who can pounce on jishu transformation all day long, he can only work overtime after dealing with official duties. For this, he paid a lot of price, and of course, the harvest was not small - he thus fully mastered these jishu left by Wei Ba, and made further improvements.

Looking at these roaring wooden wheels, Zhuge Liang felt that although he was tired and tired, it was worth the money.

"Prime Minister, you are such a genius." Yang Wei was amazed: "Now it seems that the prime minister is still the only one in the world in terms of mechanical skills, and Wei Ba is still slightly inferior after all." ”

"You can't say that." Zhuge Liang waved his hand and said modestly: "This was his design five years ago, and if he does it again now, he will definitely improve." ”

Yang Wei shook his head: "Prime Minister, I don't think so." At that time, he had not yet undertaken military affairs, and he could do these things wholeheartedly. Now that he is the general of Zhennan who guards one side, he controls the military and politics of ten counties, he is a high-ranking and powerful person, and he is busy with affairs, how much time can he spend on these things? I guess it's good if he doesn't regress in his mechanical skills, but it's very difficult to improve. ”

Zhuge Liang smiled and didn't answer his words. Yang Wei was saying another when a scribe walked in quickly and handed him a letter. Yang Wei glanced at it, and his brows suddenly frowned. He walked aside, read the letter, couldn't help sneering, took the letter, and walked back to Zhuge Liang's side quickly.

"What's the matter?" Zhuge Liang asked without looking back at the operation of the water wheel.

Yang Wei let out a heavy sullen breath, leaned over to Zhuge Liang's side, and whispered a few words, Zhuge Liang was still silent at first, and when he heard Zuihou's words, his face sank, his eyes suddenly tightened, and the hand behind his back suddenly clenched.

The lively atmosphere around suddenly became cold, and no one dared to make a sound except for the rumbling water wheels.

Zhuge Liang turned around and left, left the workshop, got into the car, and returned to the study in Jianzhang Palace without saying a word. He went to the hall and waved his sleeves, Yang Wei understood, immediately retreated, and took the door with him.

The moment the door closed, Zhuge Liang threw the letter in his hand on the ground, stomped his feet hard, cursed breathlessly, and then turned back and forth in the room. He walked in a hurry, and almost hit the desk when he turned.

"How can this be justified, it is too much to deceive others." Zhuge Liang muttered to himself and scolded a few times one after another, and his accent was no longer Luoyang official dialect, but Langya native dialect that had not been spoken for a long time. His voice was not high, but the hatred contained in it was self-evident.

Ma Yan's letter stung him deeply.

Although Ma Yan's tone was as tactful as possible, the provocative meaning revealed in it could not be hidden. Where did Li Yan say that the queen had no children, and the queen was established by him, accusing the queen of having no children and not enough to dominate the harem, that is, accusing him of being unfair, and maybe even having bad intentions and deliberately letting Bixia have no queen. This is a slander that can be infinitely amplified, a slander that is made out of nothing. Ten years ago, Empress Zhang was young, who would have thought that Empress Zhang would have no children?

This accusation is too vicious.

What made Zhuge Liang sad even more than Li Yan's viciousness was how could Ma Yan be so stupid, couldn't he see that Li Yan was using him? It is impossible for Li Yan to transfer the power to him, Li Yan is stepping on the two boats of the Jingxiang system and the Dongzhou system, and he will at least use Meng Da to balance Ma Yan. Ma Yan couldn't hold his breath, unwilling to endure by his side for a while, accept more tests and training, but was willing to be used by Li Yan, which was a manifestation of stupidity, and it was also the biggest insult to his original importance.

How could he regard such a person as a confidant and still want to train him as a successor?

Zhuge Liang couldn't figure it out. Can people be so stupid in the face of interests? What a smart person Ma Tan was in the first place, and how did he become such a person?

The first emperor was right, this person is indeed not of great use. Let him help Li Yan go, and see what good results he can have.

Zhuge Liang stopped and glanced at the letter on the ground, his eyes full of disdain. After a while, his eyes gradually became solemn. He bent down, picked up the letter, dusted it off, and re-read it with a little more doubt in his eyes.

"What does Wei Ba want to do, learn the Taoist Huang Lao's way of inaction, or do you want to invite a false name?"

(To be continued......)