Time flies, and in a blink of an eye, three months have slipped away, and it has been three months since the establishment of the "homeland".

In the past three months, with the advent of spring in the southern part of the continent, it seems that the fighting has calmed down everywhere, will it be a year of peace?

On January 23, 174 in the imperial calendar, Feng Xiang stopped the continuous siege of Fallen Leaf City for nearly two months. To everyone's surprise, the Fengxiang Ironclad Infantry Regiment, which was known for attacking and defending the city, returned under the walls of Fallen Leaf City without success.

On February 7, 174 years of the imperial calendar, when the two northern powers of the southern part of the continent, Dzungar and Tiermu, clashed on the border, just when everyone thought that war between the two countries was inevitable, the two countries went so far as to declare that this incident was just an ordinary border friction and would not affect the relations between the two countries, which made all peace-loving people breathe a sigh of relief.

The sun of early spring is shining on the streets of Suger, and Li Yuxuan and Bai Ruolan, who are dressed in civilian clothes, are walking hand in hand on the streets at the moment, like a little couple that everyone envies. The peddlers and pawns who walked the streets would never have imagined that their rulers would be shopping in plain clothes before their eyes.

"Yuxuan, look there!" Bai Ruolan shook off Li Yuxuan's hand and rushed to a small stall next to the street, what caught her eye was a pair of warm jade rings.

Li Yuxuan, who was left aside, shook his head helplessly, when he was with him, Bai Ruolan was 100% a little girl's character, if it weren't for the fact that she had seen her on behalf of the government and the salt merchant representatives in Bahrain last month, he wouldn't have believed that the negotiator who made many profiteers shake their heads and smile bitterly would have such a side.

Originally, the negotiation was with Xu Ruoyu as the chief representative and Bai Ruolan as the staff, but in the end, it turned out to be her singing a one-man show, and even Xu Ruoyu shouted after the negotiation, saying that her business strategy and tactics were more brilliant than Li Yuxuan's use of troops.

Bai Ruolan, who was on the side of the stall, was bargaining with the stall owner, and waved to Li Yuxuan, who was standing in the middle of the street. Seeing Bai Ruolan beckoning, Li Yuxuan smiled and walked towards his fiancée.

After once again stunned her fiancé, Bai Ruolan "bought" the two warm jade rings for four gold coins. In fact, when Li Yuxuan saw this pair of warm jade rings for the first time, he noticed the two blood-like jade patterns on the two rings. I didn't expect to see such a superb gem as blood-patterned warm jade in such a place.

Warm jade is originally rare, and blood-patterned warm jade is even more difficult to find. Obviously, the shopkeeper in front of him didn't know the value of these two blood-patterned warm jade rings at all. It's no wonder that even if the Li family is as rich as the Li family, they have never had such a superb blood-patterned warm jade. It is only because this jade is produced at the summit of Blacklock Peak in the Bryn Mountains in the eastern part of the continent that such a superb warm jade can be found in extremely cold places.

The altitude there is about six thousand meters, and there is no way for ordinary people to reach the peak. And even if you get there, to find this kind of jade among hundreds of millions of stones is undoubtedly looking for a needle in a haystack, and to find a piece of blood-veined warm jade, it is not only necessary to rely on patience and meticulousness, but luck also accounts for nine layers of nine. Therefore, many wealthy families poured their property to buy a blood-patterned warm jade.

The merchant happily took the four golden coins from Li Yuxuan's hand, obviously thinking that he had earned them. Looking at the peddler with a happy face, Li Yuxuan could only shake his head and smile bitterly. Those two rings alone were enough for him to live a luxurious life like a king, but looking at his appearance, it seemed that he could sell for four gold coins and already make a fortune.

"Blood-streaked warm jade!" staring at the two blood-streaked warm jade rings in her hands, Bai Ruolan walked on the street like a lively little rabbit.

"Oh. Li Yuxuan just replied lightly.

"What's the matter, you're not happy?" Bai Ruolan turned her head to look at Li Yuxuan's handsome face with a suspicious expression.

"No, how could it be? I just think you're so cute when you're happy!"

"Really?" Bai Ruolan jumped in front of Li Yuxuan and grimaced at him with her neck tilted. Then he grabbed one of Li Yuxuan's hands and spread it out in front of him. Li Yuxuan didn't know what the little cutie in front of him was thinking, and he was at his mercy, with a happy and bright smile on his face.

I saw Ruolan spread out her little hand, picked up two rings and compared them for a long time, and put one of the larger ones in Li Yuxuan's spread palm, and the other one remained in her hand.

"The big one is for you, the small one is for me, and we will each have one, okay?" Bai Ruolan said to herself with her head down.

Li Yuxuan leaned over and asked, "This is a priceless treasure, is Miss Shu willing to endure the pain of cutting her love?"

"Hmph!" Bai Ruolan's nose tip lifted slightly, "Don't pull it down!" As she spoke, she reached out to take the ring from Li Yuxuan's hand.

Unexpectedly, Ruolan's hand hadn't touched the ring yet, and the one in her hand was also snatched away by Li Yuxuan with lightning speed. Ruolan suddenly stomped her feet in anger, turned around and ignored Li Yuxuan, and her little face was even more angry.

Li Yuxuan smiled slightly, turned to Ruolan, reached out to hold Ruolan's right wrist, and put the smaller blood-patterned warm jade ring on her ring finger, Ruolan suddenly turned to joy. Because according to Carol's custom, only the husband has the right to put the ring on the girl's ring finger, and vice versa. Li Yuxuan did this undoubtedly to show that she and Bai Ruolan was Li Yuxuan's wife.

Li Yuxuan stared at Ruolan's lower and lower head, smiled and stretched out his right hand in front of Ruolan, and in the palm of his hand was another blood-patterned warm jade ring.

After hesitating for a while, Ruolan still blushed and put another warm jade ring on Li Yuxuan's right ring finger.

Immediately, Ruolan raised her head and Li Yuxuan looked at each other and smiled, and the love between them was passed to each other through their eyes at this moment.

After a while, Ruolan regained her happy appearance and pulled Li Yuxuan from this stall to that stall.

At noon, when the two of them appeared in front of the head of the family's mansion, the guards on both sides saw Bai Ruolan with a smile on her face and Li Yuxuan, who was carrying a large bag and a small bag.

"Family master!" the guards saluted Li Yuxuan in unison.

Looking at the few soldiers in front of the head of the family's mansion, and then looking at his current appearance, Li Yuxuan could only sigh secretly that he was unlucky.

Just when Li Yuxuan was embarrassed to pass through the gate of the main mansion, Ruolan, who had already rushed into the main mansion, shouted: "I'm back." ”

The first to appear was another nemesis that gave Li Yuxuan a headache, his sister Su Bingbing. After hearing Ruolan's shout, Su Bingbing rushed all the way from the hall. Before the person arrived, the voice was already so shocking that Li Yuxuan couldn't stand it.

"Sister-in-law, you and your eldest brother sneaked out early in the morning to fall in love and leave me alone at home!" After saying a word, Su Bingbing had already rushed to Ruolan's side. Then, the two little girls squeaked and chatted there, leaving Li Yuxuan, who was carrying the bag, aside.

After a while, the two walked hand in hand in front of Li Yuxuan, but their target was obviously not Li Yuxuan, but the big bag of things in his hand.

When Xu Ruoyu and Li Qiu and the others appeared from all corners of the family's mansion, they saw Bai Ruolan and Su Bingbing constantly rummaging through the large bags of things in Li Yuxuan's hands, while their family master was carrying the wolf left and right with a look of despair and helplessness.

Now let's talk about the house just mentioned, which was actually expanded and rebuilt on the basis of the original Su Mansion, and its area is twice the original size. The entire family mansion is divided into three parts, one part is the administrative area used by Xu Ruoyu and other three governors, one part is the military area where Li Yuxuan and the generals held military meetings to study military strategies, and the other part is the residence of Li Yuxuan and his subordinates. The layout of the entire main house is reasonable and compact, which was designed and planned by Li Yuxuan and Xu Ruoyu.

Among them, the most special structure is the military conference hall. The military conference hall itself is only a white building about six meters high, except for the three characters "military conference hall" carved in bluestone above its main entrance, it is not much different from the general hall building. However, the entire area of the military chamber is nearly 20,000 square meters, and this large area of bluestone paved open space has only a lonely white building in the center, but the twelve eight-meter-high stone towers fifty meters away around it are very good to control this large open space.

Anyone who wanted to approach the chamber without permission would have to avoid the surveillance of the ten marksmen on each tower, but in such an open area, it would be almost impossible to do so. The nearly 20,000 square meters of land is surrounded by a four-meter-high wall, but the entrance and exit are only facing the gate of the military conference hall. Whether it is the guards there, the sharpshooters on the towers, or the guards outside the walls, they all rotate day and night.

Therefore, this place can be said to be the safest place in the entire Luoping Plain.

But it was this safest place that was now in danger for those who were there.

"What's going on!"

What Li Yuxuan is holding in his hand is the report on the tax revenue of salt merchants in Bahrain in recent months, which has just been received by Bai Ruolan, and the report shows that the taxes collected in the past three months are less than one month after another, which makes Li Yuxuan extremely annoyed. (Li Xia had rushed to the western part of the mainland at the beginning of the year for an incident, and Bai Ruolan temporarily replaced him as the chief tax officer)

"It's a pirate!" replied Xu Ruoyu on the side.

"Pirates?"

"Yes, in the past, due to the strength of the Carol Kingdom, pirates generally did not dare to plunder the cargo ships of the Old Kingdom, but because we are now weak and have no regular navy, there have been frequent pirates along the coast lately, plundering the cargo ships of our salt merchants. In particular, one of the pirates, nicknamed the 'Eagle', has been rampant, plundering as many as 23 of our cargo ships in the last month alone, threatening Bahrain's salt industry and other economies. Xu Ruoyu explained more delicately.

"Didn't I make a special allocation three months ago for the construction of new warships for the creation of a new navy?

"We now have two capital ships, two auxiliary ships, and one main ship and three auxiliary ships under construction. Although we were stronger than the pirates in terms of strength, due to the lack of experienced naval command, Rear Admiral Li did not dare to go to sea to fight. Moreover, in naval warfare, experienced sailors are very important, and in this respect we are significantly weaker than pirates. ”

After listening to Xu Ruoyu's explanation, Li Yuxuan had no choice but to sit back in his place.

The biggest purpose of building a navy by himself at the moment is to prevent Fengxiang's army from crossing Luoshui. Fengxiang is located at the top of the southern part of the continent, with developed shipping, and has a powerful navy in itself. At that time, the entire Luo Pingyuan will probably be handed over. But now, the first naval force that he spent a lot of money to build can't even be cleaned up by pirates, let alone face off against Feng Xiang's regular navy at sea.

After a long time, Li Yuxuan came back to his senses from his contemplation, and regained his composure and said, "Is there anything else?"

It's still Xu Ruoyu.

"According to the report of the iron smelting officer, a kind of armor has recently been developed, which is assembled from small pieces of iron, and its defense against bows and arrows and ordinary swords is several times stronger than ordinary armor, but because the process is too complicated, they asked me whether to build it in batches. ”

"Very well, tell them to build in batches, and equip the infantry regiment first!By the way, have the farm tools I mentioned last time for the distribution of freed slaves been built?"

"It has been distributed to the administrative regions in the past few days, and it has been distributed by the regional administrators. ”

Li Yuxuan bowed slightly, expressing satisfaction.

"What's going on with Feng Xiang?" This time, Li Yuxuan set his eyes on Li Qiu, who was in charge of intelligence.

"Feng Xiang arranged an infantry regiment of more than 5,000 people in the direction of Fallen Leaf City, and the rest seemed to have retreated to the southeast, with unknown intentions. As for the Drake cavalry that had broken Basr at Kefield, the whereabouts of it are still unknown, but after careful reconnaissance on the other side of the Luoshui River, we found no sign of the movement of the large cavalry. ”

"It seems that the remnants of the entire southern Carol Kingdom will be swept away, perhaps, this way, there are not many forces entrenched, and it will be convenient to clean up in the future. Li Yuxuan muttered to himself.

"Okay, everyone, we still have a period of free time, estimated to be one to two months, during which I will go to Bahrain, during my absence, the guest secretary agrees to be responsible, I hope that everyone here can unite and handle military affairs well!"

After speaking, Li Yuxuan got up and was the first to step out of the military hall.