Chapter 62 Hui Shu

As mentioned last time, Guan Gong returned to Jingzhou and brought Liu Bei's edict to summon Liu Hou back to Chengdu. Even if there are tens of thousands of people who are unwilling, Liu Hou can't help but go back.

After all, this is still an era of monarchs and ministers, Liu Bei is both a monarch and a father, and Liu Hou has no capital to fight against the orders he issued. Go back, go back, it's a big deal to go back and spend a lot of money to expand your army and prepare for the future hegemony of the world. However, Liu Hou can't just leave, there are still many things in Jingzhou that need to be arranged before leaving.

These days, Liu Hou is very busy, he called Guan Gong, Guo Youzhi and Fei Yi and others, and traveled to all corners of Jingzhou, pointing out to Guan Gong a number of projects he carried out in Jingzhou, and asked him to guarantee the completion of these projects.

First of all, the construction of the moat and the urn city, which was originally completed three-quarters of the work, because the war stopped, and these days Pan Jun drove the captives to work day and night. Liu Hou was eager to see the completion of the project before he left, so Guan Gong asked the people to speed up the progress of the project.

Because he was worried that Wei and Wu would attack again, Liu Hou had no choice but to acquiesce in this matter, and demanded that these migrant workers must be guaranteed to eat and drink enough, as for wanting to pay them wages, they were unanimously opposed by the former Jingzhou generals including Guan Gong and Pan Jun, who thought that Liu Hou's idea was very naïve, and Liu Hou had to sigh and give up.

It took a day to inspect the city's defenses, and the next day, they went to the temporary dock. The shipbuilding problem must also be grasped, and the last time Liu Hou captured two sunken ships in Soochow, they are now being dragged up and lying in the temporary dock, waiting to be repaired.

This time, the Eastern Wu sent troops and the Wei army to besiege Jingzhou City, fortunately, these two temporary docks were not found, otherwise they would have destroyed the two shipwrecks and would have been miserable.

Liu Hou sent a lot of craftsmen from the shipyard in Soochow to dig up a lot of craftsmen and asked them to speed up the repair and transformation of the two shipwrecks, but now it seems that the construction period will take one or two years, so Liu Hou had to entrust the matter to Guan Gong and ask him to support the repair and transformation of the two ships. Guan Gong also knew the value of these two ships, so he happily agreed.

On the third day, Liu Hou took Guan Gong to visit the Jingzhou branch of the secret firearms factory. Although these things are all at the top secret level, Guan Gong is one of the core figures of the Liu Group, and he has the highest level of secret authority, so these secret factories can still let him know.

After watching the demonstration of a series of firearms such as muskets, artillery, and thunderbolts, Guan Gong was full of praise and made bold statements, claiming that he had this artifact, and when he could dominate the world, he would no longer be afraid of any conspiracy and tricks played by Cao and Sun.

Liu Hou sweated profusely after hearing this, that arrogant Guan Gong is back again, it seems that the lesson he received last time was not deep enough. It seems that we need to find time to talk to him and correct some of his misconceptions.

Liu Hou also asked Guan Gong to protect these secret factories and ensure their production, the key is to do a good job of secrecy, and never let Wei and Wu find out the secrets of the secret factories. Guan Gong patted his heart and promised that he would fully support these factories and would not let them go wrong.

Liu Hou also asked him to secretly buy sulfur and saltpeter, and at the same time not let Wei and Wu find out, otherwise it would be a big trouble to leak the secret of gunpowder.

It's easier said than done. Although Jingzhou City is an important trading town, and the import and export trade of the three countries is very active, however, sulfur and saltpeter are uncommon and infrequently used things, and small transactions are no problem.

What's more, facts have proved that the spies of Wei and Wu are pervasive, and the wise men of the two countries, such as Sima Yi and Lu Xun, are even smarter than demons. For example, Sima Yi, he had almost guessed where the secret key point of the firearms of the Shu Kingdom was.

These people, as long as they give them a little clue, they are likely to be able to guess the truth of the matter, but they dare not be careless.

Guan Gong also agreed to this matter, and said that he would let the Mi family caravan do this secretly. The Mi family caravan is all over the world, although since Mi Zhu followed Liu Bei, Wei and Wu have been committed to fighting the Mi family caravan, but this kind of rich family with many years of accumulation will naturally not be so easy to be sunk, they have long changed their faces and continue to be active in these two hostile countries with another face.

Therefore, only the Mijia caravan is suitable for this kind of thing. Liu Hou did not object to Guan Gong's arrangement, in fact, most of the new things produced by his Ministry of Industry were now sold to various countries by the Mijia caravans, and grain and salt were secretly purchased.

After solving the matter of the secret firearms factory, Liu Hou took Guan Gong to "Feihongju" and invited Liu Guicai to accompany him. The first is to let Guan Gong contact the intelligence department, so that he can have multiple sources of information, so that he will not be unaware of the tricks he will play in the future; The second is to ask Guan Gongguan to take care of his business here.

Almost all of the good things produced by Liu Hou's Ministry of Industry were concentrated in Jingzhou City and exported to Wei and Wu, and he also set up a trading house here, and there will be a world of difference between these businesses with official care and without official care.

Although Guan Gong also knew about the existence of these businesses before, and also opened the door to these businesses, he did not realize the importance of these businesses, and always thought that this was the way of a copper-smelling businessman, and he disdained to be with them. Therefore, it is not possible to actively support or even participate in these businesses.

Liu Hou talked to Guan Gong about the importance of business, and in order to facilitate his understanding, he did not talk about anything else, but only from a military point of view. He gave Guan Gong an example, for example, he sold inconsequential things such as soju and soap to Wei and Wu, and at the same time exchanged for grain, salt, copper and iron.

In this way, there are military rations, raw materials for making weapons and armor, and soldiers are also paid, although in this era, many generals are not used to paying soldiers silver, but of course there is more conducive to improving the morale and combat effectiveness of the troops than nothing.

Guan Gong listened with relish, and sighed that the way of businessmen he looked down on before still had such a big effect, Liu Hou rolled his eyes, this is admired, he just picked it up simply, there are many deeper truths that I haven't told you, if I tell you all, I don't know if you will worship, it is estimated that it will not, over the years, except for Liu Bei, who has Guan Gong admired?

Liu Hou also asked Guan Gong to standardize commercial taxes, create a good business environment, and promote the commercial prosperity of Jingzhou, and Guan Gong also said that he would do it one by one. Although Liu Hou listened to his promise happily, he knew that Guan Gong, who had only watched "Spring and Autumn" for a few days, still couldn't get out of the category of martial artists, and expected him to make any achievements in these cultural affairs, which was similar to hoping that the sow would climb the tree.

He had the intention of keeping a scribe to help him deal with these things, but he didn't have any superfluous talents in his hands. Fei Yi and Guo Youzhi forget it, the two of them are almost their right-hand men, and they rely on them to handle many things. It is also because they are well organized that they can live so easily, and they can often be idle, or enjoy life, or don't want to mess up.

Without these two super housekeepers, you can imagine how busy and miserable life you will face.

Thinking about it again, forget it, even if you send someone to him, with Guan Gong's arrogant character, he may not be willing to listen to others' persuasion, don't waste your valuable human resources in vain.

As soon as the explanation was completed, Liu Hou had no excuse to stay, so he packed up and set off to return to Chengdu with the remnants of the Hong army and the remaining more than 20,000 Eastern Wu prisoners. These more than 20,000 Dongwu prisoners are their own spoils, and they are not willing to leave them to Guan Gong for waste, but they are better to use them for themselves. Anyway, most of the city defense project has been completed, Guan Gong has recruited people, and the rest of the project will be left to him to play slowly.

Guan Gong sent Liu Hou to the dock, watched Liu Hou get on the boat, and waved goodbye to him. Although he is arrogant, there are few people in the world who can afford it, but he is still very satisfied with this nephew. Not to mention anything else, just watching him in his absence, with weak troops, sabotage the sneak attack of Eastern Wu, repel the Eastern Wu naval army, and resist the siege of Cao Wei's 100,000 troops and 30,000 soldiers and horses is enough to satisfy him.

Not to mention, during the time he left, Liu Hou dug a moat, repaired an urn city, got two super large warships, and built a secret arsenal, all of which are indelible achievements.

Although he didn't want to admit it, he knew in his heart that he couldn't do this, so he was proud to have such a nephew. The officials see clearly, they are proud, not admired, except for their brother Liu Bei, Guan Gong never admires people, in this world, he can only see his two brothers, Cao Cao is not good, Sun Quan is even worse, Zhuge Liang is forgotten, just talk about scholars.

Now, there is another kid, that is his brother's son, since he is the son of his brother, he must follow his brother's temperament, and it must be good. The so-called dragon gives birth to a dragon, a phoenix gives birth to a phoenix, and the son of a mouse will make a hole is this truth. Therefore, I can also look at this kid slightly, slightly, and a little bit.

From Yizhou to Jingzhou, down the river, the speed is very fast, and Liu Hou has already experienced the wonderful feeling of "a thousand miles of Jiangling in one day". Now it is painful to go up from Jingzhou to Yizhou. How can you fight against the forces of nature without mechanical power?

Liu Hou's boats all have advanced sail systems, and the sharply steered spinnaker allows his boat to sail against the wind, but it has to take a zigzag route and wind upstream. But although it can walk, the speed is so slow that it can only be described as turtle speed.

Well, if you think that the author is exaggerating, how can the speed of the ship be compared with the speed of the crawling of the turtle? Then, if you need a slender man to pull the boat, you will know that they really can't be faster than a turtle.

These slender men are all one step at a time, one step at a time, one step at a time, if you put an adult turtle next to them and compete with them to walk at a speed, I guarantee in the name of Maxi that it is definitely that turtle that runs fast, and will come out a lot.

Fortunately, Liu Hou had more than 20,000 Dongwu prisoners, all of whom were driven out by Liu Hou to be slender men at this time, otherwise, with Liu Hou's huge fleet and such a huge ship, it would be difficult to find enough slender men to pull the boat for them.

At the beginning, Liu Hou was still in the mood to enjoy the scenery along the river, but when he came, he was worried about the situation in Jingzhou and was not in the mood to take a good look at the scenery on both sides of the Yangtze River, which was really a pity. Now that I have nothing to worry about, it's a time to enjoy the scenery.

However, after watching it for a few days, Liu Hou lost interest in seeing the scenery. This damn ship is just too slow. The Yangtze River is really long, no matter how you go, you can't go to the end, it's really anxious, and anyone who looks at the monotonous scenery for a few days in a row will feel bored. Liu Hou felt that he was about to have an anxiety attack.

Especially to the Three Gorges, the water here is panting, there are countless dangerous shoals and reefs, many sections you can not use a slender man to pull the fiber, if you dare to open the sails, unscrupulously rampage here, then needless to say, it must be the end of broken bones.