At this time, I heard a maid coming from outside to report that Chiang Kai-shek had something important to report to the army.
Zhuge Liang glanced at Huang Yueying with some embarrassment.
Although Huang Yueying can lose her temper in private, she still makes a clear distinction between public and private matters.
She sighed and said helplessly, "National affairs are important, Alang should go take a look first."
Zhuge Liang nodded, "I will come over to accompany Mr. Xi after I finish handling the government affairs."
Although she knew that Zhuge Liang would probably never come back after leaving, Huang Yueying still nodded, "It doesn't matter, I'm not a weak woman, I know how to take care of myself."
After watching Zhuge Liang go out, Huang Yueying asked the maid beside her, "Prime Minister, are you eating normally these days? How long do you sleep in a day?"
The maid replied, "Back to Madam, the Prime Minister eats less than before these days. He only eats five liters of rice a day. He only goes to bed after midnight at night and gets up at the end of Yinshi."
Huang Yueying was shocked, "I haven't looked at the Prime Minister for a month, and now he's like this?"
Her expression changed for a while, and then she ordered, "Go and call all the unmarried women in the house who are under twenty years old."
Zhuge Liang returned to the study in the front courtyard where he was handling government affairs, and saw Jiang Wan, who had been waiting there for a long time, handing over a letter, "Prime Minister, there is a letter from the Governor of Jiangzhou Li Zhong."
Li Yan is now the governor of Jiangzhou, commanding the territory of Bajun. Chen Dao, who guards Yong'an in Badong County, still belongs to Li Yan.
One of these two counties is the choke point between Dahan and Jingzhou.
One is that the place is rich and it can be regarded as one of the logistics bases of the Han Dynasty. Li Yan moved to Jiangzhou to facilitate the collection of materials for the Northern Expedition and the recruitment of soldiers.
Now that he holds two important counties in the Han Dynasty, a letter that can be specially delivered to the Prime Minister of the Han Dynasty cannot be taken lightly.
Unexpectedly, after Zhuge Liang opened the letter and read it carefully, the expression on his face suddenly darkened.
When Jiang Wan saw the Prime Minister's appearance, he guessed: This Li Zhengfang is probably selfish again!
After a long time, Zhuge Liang finally looked up at Jiang Wan, let out a long sigh, and said, "Gong Yan, the Northern Expedition is about to begin, but what Li Zhengfang has done is becoming more and more excessive. What should we do?"
"I wonder what the Protector Li Zhong did?"
Jiang Wan asked carefully.
"He built a forty-six-mile city in Jiangzhou (today's Chongqing), saying it would be used to store grain. Then he planned to recruit civilians again to cut off the mountains around Jiangzhou and separate the Han River from the Jiang River.
(The Yangtze River) is connected together.”
"Cut mountains and rivers?"
Jiang Wan was surprised and asked, "How much people's energy will this cost?"
Such consumption of people's power before the Northern Expedition is equivalent to consuming the power of the Northern Expedition in advance. What does Li Zhengfang want to do?
"Now Jiangzhou is surrounded by the Han River and the Yangtze River. If the mountains are cut through the two rivers, Jiangzhou will become a place surrounded by water. As long as enough food is stored in the city, whoever wants to enter will have to do it.
It’s up to you.”
Zhuge Liang's face was so gloomy that it was almost dripping with water. For him who had previously planned to fight for the country with Li Yan, he could say these words. One can imagine how angry the Han Prime Minister was in his heart.
"Li Zhongdu protects Daxi Gong. There is a precedent when he was in Qianwei County. Isn't he necessarily thinking this way?"
Jiang Wan said tentatively.
"If that's really the case, then it's for the best."
Zhuge Liang sneered, "He also proposed to carve out the land of Sanba, Fuling County, and Jiangyang County, and combine these five counties into one state, and he wanted to appoint himself as the governor of the state. What's the explanation?"
Jiang Wan took a deep breath and said, "Isn't this just a desire to support the army and create a place of its own?"
"That's right, he really wants to have his own army. He also said that the Baijie soldiers guarding Yong'an are not elite, and their number is too small, so he wants to replace them with Jiangzhou soldiers."
When Zhuge Liang said this, his teeth chattered, "The Baijie soldiers were the late emperor's personal guards. They accompanied the late emperor in all directions. In the battle of Yiling, the late emperor was able to return to Yong'an safely. It was precisely because of the Baijie soldiers. Now in Li Zhengfang's eyes, they are not
Considered an elite soldier?"
"He wants Jiangzhou soldiers to guard Yong'an instead of Baijie soldiers. What does he want to do? What does he want to do!"
When the Han Prime Minister said this, he couldn't bear it anymore. He crumpled the letter paper in his hand and threw it directly to the ground. He cursed in a low voice with anger on his face, which was a rare gaffe.
Connecting the Han River and the Yangtze River, Jiangzhou City became a place surrounded by water. He then cut off five counties to form a state and appointed himself as the governor. Finally, he wanted to withdraw the Baijie soldiers...
To say that all these actions are about fighting for power and profit is an understatement. If you want to support your troops and stand on your own feet, I'm afraid it's justifiable...
Jiang Wan broke into a cold sweat when he thought of this.
"Prime Minister, if Li Zhengfang acts like this, he may cause trouble in the long run!"
After thinking again and again, Jiang Wan couldn't help but whisper.
Zhuge Liang nodded, "Why don't I know this? It's just that he is the late emperor's supporter after all. He has a high position and is indeed talented..."
Having said this, Zhuge Liang let out a long sigh and felt a little constrained, "And the first priority now is the Northern Expedition. He has an old relationship with Na Mengda. Although Na Mengda has the intention to return to the Han Dynasty, he has not yet made up his mind.
.”
"If we suddenly seize his power, not only will the hearts of the Han people be unstable, but Meng Da will also be suspicious..." At this point, Zhuge Liang frowned tightly, "I'm afraid that Li Yan will also
It is by thinking of these things that I feel confident.”
When Jiang Wan heard this, he immediately felt troubled, "What should we do?"
"Li Yan can't move lightly. Fortunately, Hanzhong has already produced grain since last year. Young Chang is very talented. He started collecting grain in Hanzhong as early as last year, so he doesn't have to rely too much on Li Yan's grain collection in Jiangzhou.
"
When Zhuge Liang mentioned this, he felt a little lucky, thanks to the fact that the Han Dynasty had produced a lot more food in the past two years.
There are also troops for the Northern Expedition. The Dingkou discovered this year is enough to make up for the gap in Jiangzhou troops.
"But even though we can't touch him easily, we can't agree to his conditions and just leave him alone, and then slowly cut off his foundation."
Zhuge Liang pondered for a long time, and finally a light flashed in his eyes.
"Didn't he say that Bai Jie's soldiers are few? He will first send some Jiangzhou soldiers to supplement Bai Jie's soldiers."
"Using the disadvantage of marching as an excuse, he was not allowed to connect the two rivers. As for the matter of taking five counties to form a state on his own, it is not a trivial matter. We will talk about it later."
Zhuge Liang said so much in one breath, but only the matter of Meng Da made him hesitate.
His eyes flickered for a long time, and then he said with determination, "Gong Yan, help me polish the ink. I want to write a letter to Sun Quan."
Jiang Wan quickly walked to the desk, poured some water into the inkstone, and asked at the same time, "Prime Minister wants to write a letter to Sun Quan about Meng Da?"
Ma Su and Jiang Wan were originally Zhuge Liang's right-hand men and possible successors trained in the plan.
Now Jiang Wan took the initiative to ask, and Zhuge Liang explained patiently, "Yes, Meng Da is favored by Cao Cao's thieves. First, he is friendly with Xia Houshang, the important minister of Wei and Jingzhou governor, and second, he has Cao Pi's trust."
"Both Xiahou Shang and Cao Pi died this year. Now that he has no support, I am afraid that he is feeling uneasy, and there is a rift between Shen Yi, the prefect of Weixing County next to Xincheng County, and Meng Da."
"The Shen family is a wealthy family in the Weixing area of Xincheng. Mengda is there, but he is considered an outsider. So Shen Yi will definitely not miss this opportunity, so Mengda's life in Xincheng may not be easy."
"I wrote a letter to Sun Quan, deliberately mentioning Meng Da's willingness to accept the offer. Soochow will definitely try to recruit him after hearing this news. After all, the new city where Meng Da is located is condescending to the land of Jingzhou."
"If Xincheng and Nanjun attack from north to south, Jingzhou in the hands of the Cao thieves may easily fall into the hands of Soochow, so Sun Quan, Lu Xun and others will definitely try their best to recruit Meng Da."
Jiang Wan still didn't understand, "If Meng Da defected to Soochow because of Li Yan's incident, wouldn't we have lost all our achievements?"
Zhuge Liang sneered, "Meng Dada is very greedy, but rarely grateful. He was bullied by Liu Feng and rebelled against the Han Dynasty. Now he is bullied by Shen Yi, so how can he rebel against Cao Cao?"
"If he doesn't want to return to the Han Dynasty because of Li Yan, then I will give him one more option and let him defect to Soochow! As long as he can cause chaos during my Northern Expedition and contain the Cao thieves."
"Anyway, this person is also capricious, so even if the big man uses him again in the end, he must be careful."
After Jiang Wan heard this, he finally understood and looked at Zhuge Liang with awe.
Among the big men, there is only one person who can repeatedly disobey the Prime Minister's wishes, live well in the end, and be promoted to a noble rank... After thinking about it, it seems that there is only one person?
"Haha, haha!"
Feng Yong, who was far away in Yuexi, sneezed twice in succession, rubbed his nose, and tightened his tight clothes.
It doesn’t make sense!
Although it has entered the coldest time of the year, here in Yuexun, based on the experience of wintering in the northwest, the lowest temperature is around zero degrees.
What's more, I have always paid attention to exercising. Whenever I go out, I will wear a down jacket. How could I catch the wind and cold?
Guan Ji glanced at Feng Yong, her face a little hesitant, but finally told Amei, "Go and get the down jacket sent from Hanzhong."
"No, no, no!" When Feng Yong heard this, he trembled in fright and quickly refused, "No, I'll just add another piece of clothing when I go out later. I don't need that down jacket!"
Because of the promotion of chicken and duck raising technology, Xinghan Association finally saved a lot of down. This winter, down jackets were not only sold in Jincheng, but even Liangzhou sent people over to urge them to buy second ones.
batch goods.
Just as high-end clothing, how can down jackets be available?
What's more, they need to supply a batch to the middle and senior generals in the army.
Seeing that there is no money to be made, the brothers of Xinghan Club are almost furious. According to Feng Yong's estimation, the breeding industry is likely to explode next year - and at the same time, the probability of chicken and duck plague outbreaks will also increase accordingly.
improve.
Feng Yong has no way to stop all this. The drive for profit is likely to make people take risks. There will definitely be people who ignore his warnings and increase the breeding density in private.
But who cares, Feng Yong doesn’t care about these details at all.
Even if there are ten farms and seven or eight of them die, the remaining two or three will still make money on the whole.
Anyway, the down needs to be disinfected. The down is plucked from the chickens and ducks that died of the plague, sterilized, and sewn into the clothes. As long as you don't tell, who knows where it comes from?
Wouldn’t it be enough to sell it to Cao Wei or Soochow when the time comes?
As for any family that encounters the plague, just treat it as bad luck and learn a lesson - who told you not to call me?
Logically speaking, this down jacket should be exclusively supplied by Xinghan Hui, but just when the supply of Xinghan Hui was tight, someone had the audacity to interfere with it.
Outside the control of Xinghanhui, a down jacket made of goose feathers appeared in the backyards of Jincheng. The thermal quality seems to be better than the down jackets produced by Xinghanhui.
So Feng Yong's brothers got angry on the spot. Aren't they ruining everyone's jobs?
While tracing the origin of the goods, some people were sharpening their knives, preparing to let the other party know what the angry iron fist of a powerful child means.
Then this investigation led to Hanzhong, Nanxiang, and the head of a young lady named Zhang.
So all the little brothers were scared, they couldn't afford to offend him, they couldn't afford to offend him!
Not only was the young lady surnamed Zhang not afraid of the younger brothers, she even provoked their leader and sent Feng Yong a fine goose feather down jacket.
I would like to ask Brother Feng to see if there is anything that needs to be changed?
Feng Yong was more cowardly than his younger brothers. He didn't dare to accept the call, let alone tell the truth, so he asked Amei to hide it.
So now when he heard that Guan Ji wanted to take it out, he quickly refused.
Unexpectedly, when he was about to go out, Guan Ji came over with a down jacket and insisted on changing it for Feng Yong. At the same time, she said, "It's so cold. I heard that this goose feather down jacket is warmer. A Lang threw it in the warehouse.
It’s also a waste.”
Feng Yong felt a little uncomfortable, twisted his body and glanced at Guan Ji.
"What are you thinking about, Alang? It's just a piece of clothing. I'm not an unreasonable person. I'm not stingy to that extent."
Guan Ji seemed to know what Feng Yong was thinking, and smiled tolerantly, "Alang's health is the most important thing. But speaking of which, Siniang seems to be successful in raising geese?"
"According to the news from Hanzhong, it should be done."
"It's just that by doing this, isn't she afraid of causing dissatisfaction among the gentlemen in the Xinghan Club?"
Guan Ji asked casually.
Siniang's departure from Hanzhong was partly due to the Xinghan Hui, or the various families behind them, and it also involved her marriage to Alang, of which she had some knowledge.
"What are you afraid of? Even the Xinghan Association can't get enough supply for down jackets. Even if Siniang can take charge of the Zhang family's property in Hanzhong, what can she and her family accomplish?"
Feng Yonghun said nonchalantly, "There are only a few sets of these goose down jackets out now. They are given to a few familiar families as gifts. How can it be so easy to sell them like Xinghanhui?"
"Otherwise, why would the people in the Xinghan Association stop so easily after knowing that it was Siniang who was behind it? Is it because they knew that there was no threat at all?"
Guan Ji listened, nodded, twirled her fingers, and sniffed Feng Yong, "But I saw that the down jackets made by this fourth lady are indeed better than those made by you. Not only are they thick, but they are also
It has no taste either.”
"Isn't Alang afraid that Si Niang will raise too many geese in the future and outshine your down jackets?"
Feng Yong clicked his tongue, "The stuff is good, but the cost is too high, so only a small number of people can afford it. How much is raising geese worth compared to raising chickens and ducks? Goose eggs look big,
But it doesn’t even taste oily or watery.”
Goose is a vegetarian and not only does it lay fewer eggs, but its eggs don't have much oil or water.
Ducks are omnivorous and don't tolerate meat or vegetables. Although the eggs have a fishy smell, they can't stand up to the oil and water.
These days, even pork with a fishy smell is delicious, not to mention duck eggs with only a little fishy smell?
Not to mention eggs, they are delicious and nutritious, and the yield is high.
Therefore, in this era of poor food, and with the breeding technology supported by Feng Yong, raising chickens and ducks is destined to have a brighter future than raising geese.
Then goose feathers are naturally not as abundant as chicken and duck feathers.
Goose down jackets can only be produced in small quantities at best and will not have much impact on the Xinghan Society.
However, if the advantages of the product can be used to make it into a high-end luxury product, it will be an industry for Zhang Xingyi.
After listening to Feng Yong's analysis, Guan Ji nodded and said meaningfully, "It seems that Alang still cares about Siniang very much. He even thought about the way to get this goose down jacket for her."