Killing this woman who had been with him for a year, Huyan Zhuozhuo stood up, turned his head to look in the direction of the south, and couldn't help but show a hesitant look on his face: "Weiwu, are you really betraying me like this slut said?" (Grassland)"

···

The establishment of the Echo Valley has been initially improved, the city wall has been repaired and beaten, many arrow towers have been erected, and the 3,000 royal city guards sent from Daxing City have also been placed in the Echo Valley.

This was an agreement with the empress that after choosing a place to study hot air balloons and gunpowder, the empress would send troops to guard the place.

It's just that this army has also tripled from the agreed thousand people at the beginning.

Wang Xiaolai didn't understand what was going on, which caused the empress to send more people, but only Hou Selei pointed out the problem with a sharp point, saying that Wang Xiaolai's various actions had already caused the empress to be uneasy.

Looking back on what he has done these days, Wang Xiaolai found that this was indeed the case, and he only cared about the development of farming, but forgot the feelings of the empress.

So, Wang Xiaolai made up his mind and decided to give the empress an invitation letter, inviting the empress to come to Echo Valley to see the hot air balloon that had made progress in her research.

At the same time as receiving the letter, the empress agreed without thinking about it, and took a dragon chariot and a 500-feather forest army, and swaggered out of Daxing City.

When they arrived at Echo Valley, Wang Xiaolai and his backbones traveled ten miles to greet him.

"Little Laizi."

Seeing Wang Xiaolai for the first time, the empress smiled.

Wang Xiaolai also smiled, and it was still the kind of flattering and cheap laugh.

"Your Majesty, you can be regarded as coming."

As soon as they met, Wang Xiaolai howled first.

The empress came up happily, and did not take the car, but walked on the official road with Wang Xiaolai, looking at the scene in Longshou County, the empress smiled and said: "The scenery of Longshou County is good, much better than Daxing City." ”

"Come on, Your Majesty, this place is far inferior to Daxing City, this is lacking, it is too poor."

"Then you're still forging a city in Echo Valley."

"Hehe, isn't that used to make hot air balloons and gunpowder?"

The empress stopped when she heard this, Wang Xiaolai walked in front without paying attention, and after feeling that something was wrong, she stopped again, and looked back at the empress: "What's wrong, Your Majesty." ”

"Little Laizi, I was just about to ask you, how is the progress of the hot air balloon and gunpowder? Don't tell me that these days you're busy building Paradise. The empress said.

Wang Xiaolai waved his hand: "No, no, how can it be." ”

As he spoke, he leaned over to the empress and said, "Your Majesty, it's not me blowing with you, I've been studying the control method of the hot air balloon for the past dozens of days." ”

The empress looked at Wang Xiaolai: "Yes, what happened to the result?" ”

Wang Xiaolai smiled mysteriously: "Want to see?" ”

The Empress nodded.

"Then your Majesty, come with me."

As soon as the two of them combined, they stopped walking, and directly got into the car and went to Echo Valley.

The ten-mile road is not long, but it is not short, and when it reaches the ground, the city gate is wide open, and many vendors selling snacks set up stalls at the city gate, shouting and drinking their own things.

The empress was shocked when she saw it: "Yes, Xiao Laizi, this barren place can make you lively." ”

"No, and don't look at how much silver I've thrown at this Echo Valley."

"How much?"

"Well, more than 500,000 taels."

As he spoke, he glanced at Hou Selei with a weak heart, and Hou Selei snorted next to him.

Wang Xiaolai hurriedly changed his words: "No, 600,000, 600,000." ”

This time, the empress was unhappy: "I gave you the million?" ”

"Your Majesty, don't worry, I haven't touched any of the silver, these are all from my own pocket."

Hussere's face was full of black question marks, and his heart was even more surprised: "??? What, and a million pieces of silver? Where is it, how do I not know? ”

Entering Echo Valley, this place is far from the barren appearance when I first came earlier, and the development of these days, coupled with the people who continue to move from the refugee settlement, has made Echo Valley have a lot of life.

Everyone is busy with their own affairs, and when they see Wang Xiaolai, they will stop and say hello.

The only thing is that in the Valley of Echoes, there are no people who grow grain and cultivate it.

The empress asked what was in her heart, and Wang Xiaolai said: "There are too many stubborn stones under the ground in this valley, which is not conducive to farming, I plan to buy the plain in front of the valley mouth and give it to the people below for farming. ”

The empress smiled: "You are really rich, how much silver do you get." ”

"It doesn't take much, just the few acres of land outside need to spend some silver, and the rest are some wasteland, not valuable, come to Your Majesty, let's go from here, build a house in front, it's dangerous."

Leaving everyone behind, Wang Xiaolai led the two empresses, Narcissus, and went straight to a separate boundary in the valley that was listed as a forbidden land.

This land is surrounded by high walls and arrow towers, and Xian Jingyu patrols day and night with a team of guards.

The protection is so tight that the empress is a little smacked.

"You have a feeling that there are no three hundred taels of silver here." The empress criticized.

Wang Xiaolai spread his hands: "Your Majesty, you are too worried, this place, I claim to the outside world that it is a paper mill, and no one is allowed to enter, and the people I recruited are all selected from the batch of soldiers that Your Majesty sent over at the beginning, and there is no possibility of leakage." ”

"And where is your paper mill?" The Empress asked.

Wang Xiaolai pointed to another open space under construction in the distance: "It's right there." ”

"The distance between the two is so close, what if someone finds out?"

Wang Xiaolai thought for a while: "It makes sense, then I'll get farther away." ”

As he was talking, Lily, a member of the dark guard, suddenly came out and shouted His Majesty with his fists in his fists.

Wang Xiaolai was taken aback.

Turning around, he said speechlessly: "Lily, they are also waiting here day and night, Your Majesty, now you think that it is safe enough." ”

The empress couldn't help nodding: "Safe, safe, little Laizi, let's go, let's see how your hot air balloon is." ”

I said yes, and I went in.

When they got inside, it was really heavily guarded, and there were signs everywhere that strictly prohibited open fire, and many soldiers of the Royal City Guards were divided into small groups and patrolled back and forth inside.

Wang Xiaolai led the empress through the place where the gunpowder was made, went directly to the hot air balloon, pointed to the hot air balloon on the ground and said, "Your Majesty, this is my transformed hot air balloon." ”

When the empress heard the sound, she stepped forward to look at it, kicked it twice, and found that there was only a round wooden plate in the basket, and the place where the stove was placed was only improved: "This is what you have transformed?" I don't look any different. ”

Wang Xiaolai smiled: "Yes, Your Majesty, do you want to come in and experience the experience?" ”

When Narcissus heard this, he came up to stop him, but was stopped by the empress in advance.

"Okay, but you can do it, little Laizi."

"That's necessary, no one but me can't do it now."

Narcissus also interjected: "Your Majesty, I'm here too, in case something goes wrong, the minister can save the driver in time." ”

Empress: "···"

Wang Xiaolai: "Go, go, you don't trust my technology." ”

"You can't be trusted." Narcissus didn't let it go.

When Wang Xiaolai heard this, the corners of his mouth twitched constantly.

"Alright, you two settle down a bit." The empress couldn't stand it anymore and said directly.

The two of them stopped.

"Then Your Majesty, please go first."

The empress hissed: "That's it? Will it be seen? There are so many people in the valley. ”

Wang Xiaolai patted his head: "Look at me, forget this, it's not easy to take off in the valley, so let's go to a special test flight point." ”

With a shout, some people were called, and from a hole that Xian Jingyu had found earlier in the mountain range behind the valley, they carried the hot air balloon and went out quietly.

Out of this valley, it is a wasteland, looking forward and walking more than ten miles, no one around, on the ground, many large and small deep pits, pitch black.

The empress still wondered how those pits were left, so Wang Xiaolai sighed and told the empress the truth.

It turned out that those pits were left behind when the gunpowder was detonated.

After all, the research of hot air balloons and gunpowder cannot be carried out with great fanfare, so whenever the gunpowder is studied, Wang Xiaolai will take people here to conduct experiments.

"Your Majesty, are you ready? I'm going to take off. Wang Xiaolai commanded several soldiers who came with him to pull the airbag of the hot air balloon open, and asked the empress.

The empress entered the hot air balloon, and she didn't stand anymore, she squatted down directly, holding the basket with both hands, only revealing one head, and nodded obediently: "Hmm." ”