The official post of the county government of Ye County has only four rooms.

In most counties of the Ming Empire, the public mansions and pavilions of the yamen were only a few layers more tiles than the thatched huts, which was a common sight.

Compared with the deep mansions and courtyards of the gentlemen, it is as cold as a stable.

The county lord was caught off guard by the convoy of Zhu Yipai, who came with a big car, and in a panic, he wanted to go down and inform the top two gentlemen in the county, clean the house and receive the general Zhenguo and his party, but Zhu Yipai refused.

Zheng Haizhu reminded Zhu Yipai in advance that he was on the stone street, so he found an opportunity to ask the scholar who patrolled the imperial history Wang Yaliang.

Wang Yushi was a simple car, and after changing his official clothes today, he took the small survey of the Metropolitan Inspection Institute and lived in the humble post house.

Zhu Yipai did not show the posture of condescension and dignity, but sincerely said to the magistrate: "When General Ben and his wife hunt in the mountains, don't they also set up a felt tent to rest overnight? Leave tomorrow, don't disturb the people. Give me and my wife a room, Miss Zheng a room, and the guards and servants in the antechamber, the stove, and the firewood room."

When Zhu Yipai led people into the post station, Wang Yushi took the initiative to let out his big house and moved to the east chamber.

When Zheng Haizhu knocked on the door and sent out an invitation to dinner on behalf of Zhu Yipai, Wang Yaliang also agreed.

In this seat, there are only three people: Zhu, Wang, and Zheng. Unlike when facing Zhu Yipai, in the face of an imperial history official, Zheng Haizhu deliberately asked Wu Bangde to avoid it.

At this moment, after Wu Bangde covered the goods with linoleum, he asked Xu San to follow the guards sent by Zhu Yi to the front yard to get a few buns.

He himself, through the night-filled patio, walked outside the West Wing, which was lit with candles.

Mu Zaohua was standing under the porch, facing the window, with a ball of heat in her hand that was clearly illuminated by the bright light, and the birds were rising.

"Jujube flowers." Wu Bangde called her in a deep voice.

"Ah......" Mu Zaohua's shoulders shook and turned around, the heat turned out to be from the two white-flour steamed buns in her hands.

Seeing Wu Bangde looking at him expressionlessly, Mu Zaohua's eyes were even more frightened.

She held up the steamed bun and muttered, "Yes, Miss Zheng brought it out to me, and she said it was okay to eat."

Wu Bangde said, "I came over there, didn't you hear the footsteps?"

Mu Zaohua recognized the reproach in her words and nodded honestly.

Wu Bangde made a gesture, and the two walked away from the West Chamber, and Wu Bangde spoke again: "There are the scholars of the royal history of the king, and the chief of the guard of His Royal Highness, who is safe. Miss Zheng sent you out to guard, you should have stared around you, not to listen to what they were talking about, so that a big living person like me appeared behind you without even noticing."

Mu Zao looked at his nose and his heart, and listened with his head down.

Wu Bangde's tone added a bit of sternness: "You are just pretending to be a maid today, what if you follow me to spy on the enemy in the future? Also so absent-minded and deserted? What were you listening to? Do you understand what they say?"

Mu Zaohua's heart fluttered when she heard the words "As I spy on the enemy", and then when she heard the words "Do you understand", her heart turned into a stinging pain again.

Yes, she and Miss Zheng are people from two worlds.

Somehow, Mu Zaohua had the courage to answer.

"Wu Gongzi, I think Miss Zheng is very remarkable, I want to follow her example, and deal with nobles, maybe it will be useful in the future. Didn't Miss Zheng also say that we intelligence officers and all kinds of people should learn to be like each other?"

This sentence sounded like a back-mouthed sentence, but it did not attract Wu Bangde's reprimand,

He paused and pointed to the steamed bun in Mu Zaohua's hand: "Eat it while it's hot, it's really cold."

Mu Zaohua handed over one: "Wu Gongzi also eats?"

"I'm not hungry."

Mu Zaohua took a bite of the steamed bun, and saw that Wu Bangde's eyes also fell on the bright window in the west wing, and suddenly said: "Childe, when I accompanied Miss Zheng in just now, I saw that the room was quite decent, and as soon as the tables and stools were removed and some straw was laid, you could sleep comfortably. When they're done eating, I'll clean up, and Childe will be able to live up to the firewood......

"Jujube Flower," Wu Bangde interrupted the attentive girl,

"Miss Zheng hired you with money, not for you to serve me. If you are full of thoughts about how to serve me more comfortably, then you don't have to go to Dengzhou and Liaodong, go back to the south now, and exchange Chen Sanni."

Mu Zaohua's expression changed from cautious to calm.

Wu Bangde was unmoved, and still said coldly: "What about Li Daniu?"

Mu Zaohua beat her spirit: "He gave Miss Zheng a gift when he applied and went to the cemetery outside the city to pay tribute to his family."

"Family? Isn't he just like you, a farmer from Yanzhou, how did he become a native of Ye County again?"

"Back to the son's words, Da Niu's lady fled from Ye County, this time Da Niu came to burn some paper money for his wife, and said to the second elder underground that he had added a grandson."

Wu Bangde let out a low "hmm" and stopped asking.

Mu Zaohua continued to nibble on steamed buns in silence, and when she finally finished nibbling, Li Daniu, a male intelligence officer, stepped into the patio.

Wu Bond walked over: "Have you found a grave?"

Li Daniu secretly said: "I found the place my daughter-in-law said, but the grave has been dug by wild dogs, and I don't know which bones belong to my father-in-law and mother-in-law.

I had no choice but to pick up the remaining bones together, dig a pit and bury them again, and burn the paper money.

Come to think of it, the other bones in the pit are also my daughter-in-law's villagers, I didn't eat her during the famine, and I thank others, burning some paper is right.

When I had finished digging the pit, I went to find some large stones to cover it tightly, so as not to dig out the wild dogs again. That's why I'm coming back late, so I'll ask my son to punish me."

Wu Bond listened quietly in the shadow of the eaves.

He is no stranger to the scene of wild dogs cutting their corpses.

Li Daniu's voice seemed to have become farther away.

Wu Bangde's ears were only crying from his throat, which was on the bank of a river beach in Liaodong, and he was clutching a green skirt, crying, worse than the whimper of the wild dogs who were beaten away by him like madness not far away.

Wu Bond felt a chill run down his cheeks.

Thanks to the night, even if it is too late, it will not let people see tears.

"It's snowing." Mu Zaohua suddenly shouted.

Li Daniu also touched his nose and stretched out his palm towards the night sky.

"Ah, it's really snowing," Xu San, who was holding a bun, came back from the front yard, handed the food to Wu Bangde and Li Daniu, and said, "Wu Gongzi, we have to leave the port from Dengzhou in five or six days, otherwise, the ship will freeze in the Liaohai."

……

"Sir, it's snowing outside."

In the west wing, the scholar turned around and respectfully reported to Wang Yaliang.

Wang Yaliang took a sip of the freshly scalded hot wine, looked at Kan Zhu Yipai, and then looked at Zheng Haizhu, and said with a surging teasing: "Miss Zheng, if you had come up with the idea of digging coal for Yanzhou Lu Fan half a year ago, and let General Zhenguo dig out the coal earlier, you would really make a lot of money in this icy and snowy season."

Zheng Haizhu bowed his body, smiled respectfully, and then said sincerely: "If it had been dug up earlier, the grass people's furnace in Songjiang would have already burned coal, and the fire power should be much stronger than the hearth for filling firewood."

Zheng Haizhu seized every conversation and lobbied Wang Yushi about her plan to build firearms.

After dealing with each other during the day, a meal of coarse dishes and thin wine at night, and during the exchange of words, Zheng Haizhu initially felt that this Wang Yaliang Wang Yushi, in addition to Hai Rui'er's scrupulous etiquette, pondered the current situation of the empire, but was not rigid and empty, but quite down-to-earth.

His Royal Highness Zhu Yipai, apparently listened to Zheng Haizhu's temporary admonitions, and attached great importance to the officials of the Metropolitan Procuratorate system, and lowered his posture even more for the imperial history in front of him, who happened to be patrolling Shandong.

As soon as the banquet began, Zhu Yipai looked upright and explained to Wang Yushi and Pan the plan to open a coal mine in Yanzhou Lu Domain, such as the implementation plan for recruiting Liao people as miners and paying taxes, and also explained that a part of the coal would be sold to the blast furnace of the Songjiang Firearms Workshop as fuel.

According to Zheng Haizhu, these things are already eight characters or waiting for the nod of the imperial court, and they are openly and openly distributed to Wang Yaliang, who governs the province

History, more useful than to anyone.

The history of science and technology and the group of officials are the roadblocks and stumbling blocks for those who do great things in this era.

However, roadblocks can also become stone lions guarding the door, and stumbling blocks can also become stepping stones to help, depending on how to win them.

Civilian, official and military generals, follow their definition of the pinnacle of their lives to smooth the hair, it is possible to win them.

Weifu private interviews, refusal of Yijin and the like, may be a show for Bo Qingming, but the whereabouts of an official who visited a certain place in person while in office can see the clues.

During the day, from the mouth of the little scholar, Zheng Haizhu found out that Wang Yaliang, who was the governor of Shandong, had just been to Liaodong.

After Nurhachi established himself as Khan, Wang Yaliang was the first to be sent to Liaodong to patrol the imperial history, and he saw the prefect Tao Lang in Dengzhou, and went to Dengliao Sea Road, and when he came back, he landed in Laizhou, so he would go to Ye County.

What does this mean?

Illustrate three points.

First, the Ming court didn't care so much about the situation in Liaodong, and he didn't know it when he lay down in the crater.

Second, Wang Yaliang was on the rise in his career, so he was entrusted by the imperial court with the responsibility of inspecting the Liaodong Peninsula.

Third, this person is also very capable personally, and he is not one of those Ming officials who visit the north and south of the motherland just to get a circle of gifts in various states and counties. Because according to Xu San's statement, Dengliao Haidao is easier to go in the direction of Laizhou, but Wang Yaliang walked to Laizhou Haidao on the return trip, obviously exploring the way dutifully.

Based on this, Zheng Haizhu deduced that Wang Yaliang was concerned about border affairs, and courtiers who cared about border affairs would definitely care about military expenses and salaries, and then about state finances.

Therefore, since Zhu Yipai, a nobleman of the Lu domain, has sacrificed his face during the day to raise the official authority of Wang Yushi, Zheng Haizhu, who is tied to Zhu Yipai, must talk about finance, taxation and arms in further friendship at the dinner table, so that he can win the support of this civil official for his family while voting for the favor of Yushi.

When Wang Yaliang returned to Beijing to play the situation in Liaodong, if he could mention something like "the cannon made by the Songjiang Firearms Workshop may be able to effectively control the enemy", it should be much more powerful than Xu Guangqi, who had never been to Liaodong and only expounded from the perspective of the power of the Hongyi people's naval artillery.

And Wang Yaliang obviously likes to listen to Zheng Haizhu talk about firearms.

On the paper brought by the scholar, Wang Yaliang drew three types of terrain.

"Miss Zheng, this official visited Liaodong this time, and made many inquiries, and learned that the Jiannu attacked, mostly on horseback, or beat the horse to kill, or dismounted and shot with a bow and heavy arrows, the girl said, how do you defeat the enemy with the firearms you respect?"

Zheng Haizhu leaned over and took a closer look at the three terrains, all of which had been discussed by Xu Guangqi and Lu Xiangsheng before, which showed that the civil officials in the court with a sense of distress did similar "due diligence".

She then took the pen, first drew some marks on the terrain in various places, and then explained one by one: "Xianzun, please see, if there is an unobstructed place on all sides, and the slave chieftain charges on horseback, the fire gun soldiers are behind the spearmen, the spears are blocked, and the fire guns are fired in turn. If the range of our firearms is extended, Jiannu will not dare to dismount and use their bows from a distance, because we can use a shield wall to block their arrows in front of our formation, but they will not be able to withstand our long-range fire."

Wang Yaliang squinted, nodded, and pointed to another place: "What about the hills and slopes?"

"In the hilly and sloping areas, regardless of the enemy or the enemy, the cavalry advantage is not prominent, and the warriors sent by Jiannu, even if they are called Bayala, should be infantry who dismount and fight in close combat, and after a few rounds of suppression, they can make a slight weapon improvement to Qi Shaobao's mandarin duck formation, encircle and annihilate it, and the so-called firearms team alternates with the killer team."

"As for artillery," Zheng Haizhu thought for a moment and muttered, "Actually, the Tiger Squat Cannon, the Big and Small Frankie, and the Hongyi Cannon, each of them also has its own disadvantages, suitable for different battles and terrains, and even defending or attacking the city, the usage is different. For example, the Hongyi cannon, our people asked foreigners in Haojing, when firing the cannon, someone needs to use tools to measure, cooperate with the telescope, and wait for the enemy to enter the range of the cannonball before it can be fired. But this kind of artillery is very powerful in attacking the city."

What Zheng Haizhu said, to refine it, is mainly the issue of the range of artillery shells and ballistics

, she naturally does not have specific knowledge, but these two points are at least the key points to consider in combination with actual combat.

Although Zhu Yipai, a nobleman of the clan, had never been on the battlefield, his habit of hunting on weekdays made him listen to the process of how firearms encircled and suppressed the enemy's "prey" with relish.

And Wang Yaliang, as a veteran of Xiantai who has read countless people on the supervision front, after listening to what she said, she admired the little businesswoman in front of her quite much because she did not boast of the foolproof nature of firearms, but whether they were good or bad.

Not to mention, the principle of the telescope was explained to the two men.

"If you can defeat the enemy, why not master the long skills, Xianzun thinks?" Zheng Haizhu asked Wang Yaliang in a gentle tone.

Wang Yaliang nodded thoughtfully.

Zhu Yipai rolled his eyes, and suddenly said, "You just have to be careful, don't be stolen by the slave chief."

Zheng Haizhu secretly praised "excellent". Historically, after Nurhachi, Huang Taiji did imitate the artillery of the Ming army.

She then said seriously, "It is inevitable that the two armies will fight and capture each other's blades and firearms. I played against the Frankians for the first time decades ago at the mouth of the Pearl River, and I secretly learned their alphabet. The point is that we will compete with the Jiannu and subdue them before they have the money and craftsmen to make a large number of our firearms."

When Wang Yaliang heard this, he couldn't help but sigh lightly and said, "Miss Zheng, if you are a man who has been promoted to the Jinshi, this official should really recommend to the imperial court, let you go to the Taifu Temple to take care of the money bag, and buy some good horses, cannons, and decent military uniforms for the imperial court."

Taifu Temple?

Zheng Haizhu's heart moved, and she remembered the filthy Shaoqing Xu Dahua of Taifu Temple.

Well, the old lady is not a virgin, she will definitely repay her grievances with personal enmity, and she can't see that a drunken and wealthy bastard like you occupies such an important position in the Ming officialdom.

If you turn back, you must find an opportunity, maybe it is the hand of the fake king Yushi to pull you down.