The Queen Mother was startled for a moment, then her expression cooled down, and her gentle tone was a bit harsh: "The Emperor has already awarded her gold and jewels, isn't that enough?"
Li Jingnan replied: "General Fu, please give her a title so that she can have enough status to supervise the weapons manufacturing of the Ordnance Supervisor!"
When Fu Tingye was mentioned, the Queen Mother's expression became even colder, "Isn't it ridiculous for a woman to supervise important military places? Fortunately, Prime Minister Zuo tried his best to dissuade the emperor from causing a catastrophe! If the emperor really ignored the dissuasion of the courtiers and made the decree , will only make the world laugh at you! It will also give Prince Ning an opportunity to take advantage of!"
"But Hua Qingxue has made great achievements in improving weapons this time, how can he spend it with a mere taels of silver?!" Li Jingnan was very indignant in his heart, "Once that sword is forged, it will no longer be afraid of any sharp weapon of the Liao soldiers! And that bow! Did the mother know that? If such bows and arrows are used on the battlefield, our Qi soldiers will be invincible! The recovery of the six states is just around the corner!"
This is what makes Li Jingnan the most aggrieved, "Hua Qingxue has made such great achievements, but she is accused and questioned by those mediocre people because she is a woman! These people... all only care about enjoying peace and happiness for themselves, I would like to ask them , Have you ever done anything for me, Da Qi?!"
"Your Majesty, be careful what you say!" the Queen Mother suddenly shouted, not asking Li Jingnan to continue speaking, "Your Majesty...how can you criticize your own ministers like this?"
Her face was cold and she was obviously not worried anymore. She looked at her young and impulsive son, took a deep breath to calm down, "... Your Majesty, are you deceived by Fu Tingye? In fact, those are just his one-sided words. The control of this woman named Hua The ability of the soldiers has yet to be verified. Maybe there are some talented people among them? After all, it is unheard of for women to make soldiers, and the emperor must not forget... "
Li Jingnan looked at the Queen Mother.
The Queen Mother sighed, and then said: "Your Majesty, please don't forget how Fu Tingye forced you and my son to agree to make him king."
Li Jingnan frowned when he heard this, of course he knew about this.
When he was about to arrive in Shengjing City, Fu Tingye told him very carefully that his father had passed away and that his uncle King Ning was planning to usurp the throne. There were only two ways in front of him -
Either flee for your life immediately and give up the throne to your uncle, King Ning.
Either go to Beijing and give it a try, Fu Tingye can protect his life.
But this would be equivalent to Fu Tingye being an enemy of King Ning. Therefore, Fu Tingye asked Li Jingnan to make him king immediately after he ascended the throne.
A king has a fief, and the fief has the right to support troops.
Fu Tingye originally held a high position and held nearly half of the military power of Da Qi. Now that he had a fiefdom that allowed him to recruit his own private soldiers, he immediately had the strength to compete with King Ning.
It can be said that if King Ning does not get rid of Fu Tingye, it will be useless even if he becomes emperor. Fu Tingye may kill him at any time. He can only get rid of Fu Tingye first before he can ascend the throne without any worries.
Although Li Jingnan was young, he was born in the royal family and was raised as an heir. He was naturally aware of these twists and turns, and agreed to Fu Tingye's request without hesitation.
But for the Queen Mother... Fu Tingye was somewhat suspected of repaying a favor.
Fu Tingye also brought the same news to the then queen.
He knew that the prince was young and it was useless to just convince him. What was more important was to get the queen and relatives behind the prince to agree.
The queen was immersed in the grief of the emperor's death. Her only youngest son was in the hands of Fu Tingye. She had no other choice. Although she agreed to Fu Tingye, she also hated Fu Tingye!
Li Jingnan has always admired soldiers like Fu Tingye who were stationed at the border. In addition, he had heard a lot of Fu Tingye's deeds from the late emperor since he was a child. Therefore, although he was coerced into granting the title of king to the other party, he was not as strong as the Queen Mother. resistance.
"General Fu has been guarding our Daqi border for many years and has achieved countless achievements. He deserves the title of marquis and king. Moreover, the forces of the government and the opposition are complicated nowadays. With General Fu as a check, those people installed by King Ning in the court can be restrained. .”
Li Jingnan said, paused, frowned and said: "Moreover, Hua Qingxue is Hua Qingxue, and General Fu is General Fu. Why does the queen mother talk about those things? Hua Qingxue has made great contributions, and logically deserves a heavy reward. "
The Queen Mother's face darkened, "Isn't ten thousand taels of silver enough to reward you?"
"Queen Mother!" Li Jingnan replied helplessly, "Those silver coins are military pay! They are money allocated to the camp to make new weapons! Hua Qingxue's reward is just some jewels and jade..."
The Queen Mother said coldly: "How are you sure it's not Fu Tingye's trick? Maybe he deceived us just to take advantage of the national treasury and enrich himself for personal gain!"
"Then why use such an excuse? Whether the weapons have been improved or not, you will know once you try it! And General Fu is not that kind of person..."
"Your Majesty, does he know what kind of person he is? Fu Tingye is very ambitious. Your Majesty must not be deceived by him. Now that Prince Ning is checking and balancing with him, we can have some peace. If Prince Ning is gone, I'm afraid Fu Tingye will Force into the capital immediately!"
"My son knows that the emperor's uncle's rebellion has deeply affected his mother, but Fu Tingye and the emperor's uncle are definitely not the same kind of people."
"No one can resist the temptation of power." The Queen Mother was unmoved and said gloomily, "Even if you are a former compatriot, even if you are a heroic general who leads the army, people will change."
Li Jingnan felt helpless in his heart.
He wanted to say that Fu Tingye was not that kind of person, but as his mother said... people will change.
Wasn't the emperor's uncle gentle and gentle back then? A tiger escaped from the beast garden in the palace. In order to save him, the emperor's uncle almost died from the tiger's mouth. His back was injured and his blood was dripping. Afterwards, he comforted him who was frightened and cried, saying: A man will not shed tears easily. Jing Nan will do it if nothing happens. good.
The imperial uncle who treated him so well was now willing to put him to death just for that position...
Li Jingnan lowered his eyes and looked at the porridge on the table, having lost his appetite.
He stood up and whispered: "Mother, my son and I have returned first."
The Queen Mother frowned and wanted to say something to save her, but she remembered Li Jingnan's unreasonable words just now. She felt that he was still young and needed more polishing, so she changed her words and said: "Don't slack off in your studies on weekdays. You must keep the economics of governing the country in your heart. You Go ahead."
Li Jingnan's heart felt astringent, and he couldn't tell what it felt like.
He didn't even smile, turned around and walked away with a sullen expression.
After leaving the palace, he stood on the simple and flat floor tiles and vaguely realized that since when, every time he came here, it seemed that he ended up breaking up on bad terms...
…
Hua Qingxue is leaving the military camp.
Although Supervisor Liang repeatedly emphasized that Hua Qingxue would come back in the future, he still attracted many craftsmen to send him off.
The outside of the Qingzhou camp was crowded with people, and some soldiers who were not practicing came to join in the fun.
"Miss Hua, don't forget our crossbow..."
"I still want the arrows from our camp! Can they be improved as well?"
"Miss Hua! And our Royal Armor Camp, can the toughness of the chain armor be improved?"
"Don't forget our shield! How to increase resistance while reducing weight..."
Liang Wensheng roared—
"You guys! Are you addicted to reform?! All of you, get back to work!"
Hua Qingxue covered her mouth to hold back laughter.
"Let's go." Fu Tingye opened the carriage door curtain.
There was sudden silence all around...
None of these people knew that the general was still sitting in the carriage.
Liang Wensheng glanced at them with disdain and thought to himself: Are you stupid now? ! Tell you to make a fuss!
Hua Qingxue waved to everyone gently, "I remember it all, but weapon improvement does not happen overnight. This period of time has made everyone tired. I will see you next time."
The atmosphere finally came alive!
The group of people started chatting and laughing again, but because the general was watching eagerly from the side, they naturally did not dare to be as arrogant as before, and all of them said very calmly: "Miss Hua, have a good trip."
Hua Qingxue got into the carriage.
Fu Tingye said in a deep voice: "It's time for the Ordnance Supervisor to rectify their situation. Improving weapons should be their duty. Now it's better. They are all counting on you."
"Everyone is very diligent." Hua Qingxue opened her eyes wide and spoke for the craftsmen, "And at most I can only teach them from the ideas. In the end, the specific material collection and production still rely on them."
Fu Tingye glanced at her silently.
I don't know if it's an illusion, but why does Hua Qingxue feel that... he seems to be having a taste? Like a child!
"What are you going to do when you go back?" Fu Tingye looked away and asked lightly.
"Oh..." Hua Qingxue tilted her head and thought for a while, stretched out her fingers and said slowly, "I'll probably clean up first. I haven't lived at home for so long, so there must have been a layer of dirt, and then I'm going to buy clothes. , now that the weather is getting warmer, I don’t know how to make clothes, so I can only buy ready-made clothes on the street... I haven’t visited Aunt He for a long time, I want to go and see her, and buy rice and oil... "
He talked a lot, all about the trivial matters of daily life.
Fu Tingye actually listened very carefully.
"I asked Zhao Sheng to arrange a few maids to work for you." He couldn't help but frown as he said, "Isn't it enough to just live in the General's Mansion? There won't be all these troubles!"
Hua Qingxue blushed and shook her head slightly, "I'm really not used to it."
Fu Tingye was still sullen and dissatisfied.
In his current state, he wanted to put his mark on Hua Qingxue from head to toe.
Hua Qingxue thought for a while and said softly: "And... after I go back this time, I will make some soap. I have ordered a batch of molds that should be ready. If the soap making goes well this time, it is very likely that the soap will be made as well." With new weapons, I don’t like people around me when I’m doing things, as they can easily distract me and affect my success or failure rate.”
When Fu Tingye heard this, his eyes suddenly lit up, "New weapons?"
Seeing his expression change, Hua Qingxue secretly cursed: As expected of a general, chatting about food and drink could not attract his attention as much as talking about weapons.
"I just have some ideas now that need to be verified." Hua Qingxue looked at his expression and gently tugged on the corner of Fu Tingye's clothes, "So, general, please don't push people into my residence, in case the new weapons are used Did the experiment go wrong?"
Fu Tingye pondered for a moment and made a decisive decision, "I asked Zhao Sheng to assign two strong servants to guard the door for you to prevent others from disturbing you while you are doing your work."
Hua Qingxue: "..."
Is this considered... self-defeating on her part