The ten permanent attendant's deployment of troops and generals really worked. First, Dong Zhuo repeatedly made military exploits in Xiliang, and put down the Bian Zhang and Han Sui rebellion, and then Sun Jian beheaded Ou Xing and recovered Lujiang. Zhang Rang and others were overjoyed when they heard the news and quickly reported the good news to Liu Hong. Liu Hong formally issued an edict, appointing Dong Zhuo as Liangzhou Mu and Fengyun Xianghou, Sun Jian as Lujiang Prefect, and Wu Chenghou.
When the news reached Xiangyang, Liu Xin looked up to the sky and sighed. Although he had not thought of preventing Dong Zhuo from occupying Xiliang, he had an instinctive resistance to Sun Jian coming to Jiangdong. So when he heard that Ou Xing had fled to Lujiang, Liu Xin couldn't wait to cross the border and use troops. It is a pity that Liu Xin tried his best and failed to completely wipe out Ou Xing, so he still gave Sun Jian a chance.
Back in the backyard, Liu Xin was still depressed, but when she looked up, she saw Ma Yun happily walking out of the room and said, "My husband, I have done a great deal today."
Liu Xin said strangely: "It has become a major event? What is it?"
Ma Yun mysteriously took out a piece of white silk, handed it to him, and said, "A Chou came to see her aunt again today. I quietly dipped the white silk with clean water and wiped it on her arm. You see, this It turned gray."
Liu Xin didn't expect Ma Yun to still be entangled in A Chou's face. He couldn't help but laugh, and said, "Maybe the little girl has not taken a bath for many days and soiled your handkerchief."
Ma Yun said unconvincedly: "Who said that, I think her arms are really white. Someday I must find a chance to take a look at the birthmark on her face."
"Don't be fooling around, how can you make it like a child?" Liu Xin knew that Ma Yun could do it. Since Huang Chengyan made his daughter so ugly, there must be his purpose, why should he go to expose it? What about others.
Thinking of Huang Chengyan, Liu Xin's mind suddenly flashed, and asked: "Does Ah Chou come often? The New Year is coming soon. If she comes again, remember to prepare some gifts for her."
"Yes, I have to come almost once a month." Ma Yun suddenly smirked, "Why do you think of asking A Chou today, did you figure it out and want her to be a daughter-in-law? If you figure it out, You can ask Cai Wei to come out and talk about it."
Liu Xin said angrily: "Am I as boring as you? I was thinking that her father Huang Chengyan should also be a talented person, and this kind of person still has to be wooed."
Speaking of business affairs, Ma Yun put away a smile and asked: "Do you want to recruit Huang Chengyan?"
Liu Xin shook his head and said, "People like Huang Chengyan are passionate about landscapes and will not be willing to go out to be officials. However, according to legend, he and Sima Hui and others have made friends. Pang Tong, Xu Shu, Zhuge Liang should also be familiar with them. My idea is to recruit those people through him."
Ma Yun said: "My husband, your idea is good, but it's not realistic at the moment. Who knows how old these people are now."
The two talked and walked into the room. Ma Yun waved his hand to make the maids retreat. She had already seen that Liu Xin seemed to be in a bad mood just now. Seeing no one was around, she asked with concern: "Husband, what's upsetting you?"
Liu Xin sighed and said: "Just got the news that Sun Jian has taken Lujiang and he has now been appointed Lujiang Prefect. Sun Jian is a fierce tiger. How can I feel at ease when I am now in Jingzhou. If it hadn't been for Jug them to persuade them, maybe Lujiang is now. Already in my hands, alas, if you are not careful, you lose all the games."
Ma Yun thought for a while and said, "Husband, your men are this bad thing. You always eat from the bowl and look at the pot. It's nothing more than treating women like this. You have to keep a clear mind when dealing with expansion. , It’s not yet time to fight the world. Now that all parts of the world are gradually in chaos again, it is not easy for Jingzhou to have such a peaceful situation. It is the right way to manage Jingzhou well."
Liu Xin was awakened by Ma Yun's words, and nodded again and again: "My wife, you make sense, I am indeed a little eager for quick success and quick gain."
Under Ma Yun's persuasion, Liu Xin's mood gradually calmed down. No one could become fat with one bite, and everything must be done slowly.
Throughout the four years of Zhongping, the Han Dynasty was turbulent, and rebellions in various places were one after another. Only Jingzhou was calm.
Now Jingzhou is not what it used to be, and the ditches all over the prefecture ensure that agricultural production is no longer completely dependent on God's gift. Although the whole area of Jingzhou suffered a severe drought this year, the harvest in summer and autumn has not been greatly affected, and the newly-built water conservancy facilities can be said to have contributed a lot. The roads extending in all directions and the stable social environment have brought great convenience to the development of commerce. In Jingzhou's taxation, commercial tax has accounted for 30%, which was unimaginable in the past.
Due to the implementation of lower land rents, the income of farmers has also increased year by year, and the contradiction between farmers and powerful landlords has been eased to a great extent. The gentry family also transferred a large amount of funds to handicrafts and commerce, and the huge profits they made could make up for the losses caused by the reduction in the rent rate. They also turned their support for Liu Xin's new taxation policy from resistance.
Liu Xin has more time to be with his family. In the east of the city, you can often see Liu Xin and Ma Yun in pairs. They always go in and out at the same time in academies and research institutes. While outsiders envied the love of their husband and wife, they also expressed feeling that the people in Jingzhou are now rich and the society is stable. Liu Xin, a state shepherd, is really at ease.
In fact, all of this is just appearance, Liu Xin has not relaxed for a moment, the whole Jingzhou is loose outside and tight inside.
Liu Xin attaches great importance to army building, and he always remembers the saying "Government comes from the barrel of a gun". In the past two years, the five major legions in Jingzhou have been expanded to 20,000 people, and the various trainings have not been relaxed for a moment.
With the horses of Su Shuang and Zhang Shiping, there are already 10,000 cavalry in the Jingzhou Army. Not only that, Liu Xin also encircled a large area of land in Yunmengze in Changsha, established a horse farm of his own, and began to breed horses by himself. The stirrups that Liu Xin placed high hopes on have been mass-produced, but they have not been equipped with troops. This is a secret weapon. Liu Xin will not use it unless it is a last resort. Although the research institute has spent a lot of time and energy on the research and development of the stirrups, but to put it bluntly, there is not much technical content. Once it is made public, it will soon be imitated. Therefore, the stirrups are still in a strictly confidential stage.
Another important achievement of the Institute in weapons is the successful research and development of the catapult. After two years of research, the first catapult was finally produced. This catapult is very different from the first catapult in history. Although it is also based on the principle of leverage, the catapult developed by Liu Xin added some triggers and insurance similar to modern firearms. This can save manpower, make it easier to calibrate the attack direction, and have a longer range.
The academy is where Liu Xin and Ma Yun have devoted the most effort. This is not only a place to develop weapons, but also many civilian equipment and production technologies. This aspect is more embodied in agriculture.
The fine seed field is an outstanding work of the Institute. Through investigation, Liu Xin found large tracts of wild rice in Yunmengze area. Liu Xin knows that Yuan Longping’s hybrid rice feeds one billion people. So many dynasties in Chinese history are all related to the peasant uprisings, and the main reason why peasants can’t eat and survive is the main reason. The total amount of land remains unchanged, and excessive reclamation will bring ecological disasters, so the best way is to increase production. At present, the grain seeds used by the people in Jingzhou are provided free of charge by the government. In the case of drought this year, the harvest is still nearly 20% higher than other places. In addition to water conservancy facilities, grain seeds also played a big role.
One thing Liu Xin feels most proud of is that he introduced the concept of standardization in the research institute. Whether it is produced stirrups, trebuchets or various civilian appliances, all accessories are uniform in size, and their errors are strictly regulated. In this way, during use, no matter which component is damaged, it can be replaced in time, especially for some weapons that are easily damaged in war. This is very important. On the battlefield, two or more damaged weapons can be used. Dismantling and reorganization is a perfect weapon.
Ma Yun is obviously more interested in the four great inventions of ancient China. Now, the papermaking technology in Xiangyang has been very developed, and there is no difficulty in developing printing technology on this basis. Although she is very familiar with movable type printing, Ma Yun started with engraving printing. The first thing she printed was the household registration register.
Household registration management is her old line of business, and Ma Yun can be said to be familiar with these things. The population of Jingzhou is growing rapidly. The stable environment, wealthy life, and medical progress have brought about an increase in the birth rate and a decline in the death rate. At the same time, the development of Jingzhou has attracted a large number of migrants. Today, in Jingzhou, not only the population lost due to the war has been replenished, but it has also grown to nearly 7 million people. Strengthening household registration management is imminent.
Compass clubs are not only very important for navigation, but also play a great role in marching battles. It took Liu Xin a lot of effort to find a few natural magnets. According to Ma Yun's impression, China's oldest compass is like a spoon, but no matter how hard they work, they can't process natural magnets into that shape. Instead, they break several magnets one after another. In the end, there was no way. I spent a lot of labor honestly and finally grind the magnet into a needle shape.
As for the invention of gunpowder, it is much simpler. The formula ratio of "monosulfur, dinitrogen and three charcoal" was often mentioned by chemistry teachers when Ma Yun was in middle school. Together, these things became black gunpowder. However, there is still a long way to go in how to use this kind of gunpowder in real places. Liu Xin doesn't want to see that the Chinese invented gunpowder can only be used to make firecrackers, while the history of Westerners introducing gunpowder and producing guns to fight the Chinese is repeating here.
Liu Hong simply turned a blind eye to the chaos in the land of China, and continued to live his life of spending time and wine. Liu Hong summoned dozens of court ladies to bathe in front of him almost every day, but Liu Xin sent only a small amount of fragrant incense. How could he sustain him so squandering? By the end of the year, the fragrant incense was finally exhausted. .
After finally feeling a little bit of "sexual blessing", Liu Hong suddenly scratched his head and was helpless. However, Zhang Rang came up with a good idea. He proposed to build a naked swimming pavilion in the West Garden, and let people gather green moss to cover it on the steps, drawing canal water around the thresholds and circulating through the whole naked swimming pavilion. . Liu Hong chose the jade-skinned and light-bodied singer-songwriter to row a boat and sway in the canal water. In the scorching heat of summer, he ordered people to sink the boat in the water and watch the jade-like gorgeous skin of the palaces falling in the water, which finally aroused him a little more interest.
Liu Hong and the court ladies drank alcohol and had fun in the Liangdian of the Naked Pavilion. They often drank all night. He even sighed: "If this is the case for ten thousand years, he would be a god in the sky." Liu Hong often drank all night until he was so drunk that he was unconscious, and sometimes he didn't even know the dawn. The court attendant must throw a big candle at His Royal Highness to wake him from his dream. It even requires the attendants to rush to learn how to scream and wake him up with falsehoods.
As the world became more and more chaotic, the heroes gradually emerged. Like Gongsun Zan, he was originally just a small school in Youzhou. He had made several military exploits before sitting in the post of Beiping prefect. Liu Bei had gone through many twists and turns, and he was also relieved by peace. Xi County Lieutenant became the county magistrate of Pingyuan, and Sun Jian took advantage of the local rebellion to further occupy Yuzhang County. Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu and others were also ready to move, each raising private soldiers.
After receiving the news from Phantom, Liu Xin suddenly felt that the curtain was about to begin. It’s not that Liu Xin has never thought of assisting Liu Hong, but, let’s not say that "the emperor is like a tiger", the emperor’s power is too great, and one sentence can kill you. Just looking at Liu Hong himself will definitely not be able to help. of. Instead of letting Liu Hong drag down the entire country or even the entire nation, it is better to let yourself take its place.
In February of the sixth year of Zhongping, the officials from Jingzhou who had taken a one-month holiday returned to their yamen one after another. Liu Xin was also sitting in the lobby, looking through various reports, he understood that the days of Liu Hong's return to heaven were getting closer and that it was time for this leisurely day to end.