Snow is falling in winter, which is the most difficult time of the year.
But the faces of the people in Lanling County are filled with happy smiles.
Hundreds of particularly poor households among them were all assigned a set of winter clothes.
The people of the whole county, together with hundreds of surrounding households, received the winter money promised by Liang Xiao.
The people were grateful and took advantage of their winter leisure to actively participate in the various industrial and official construction arranged by Liang Xiao, especially the construction of bridges and roads.
Long before Liang Xiao left, Lanling had accepted the central government's emergency mining notice. When Liang Xiao arrived, the government had indeed discovered several small iron mines.
But this little iron ore alone cannot meet Liang Xiao's needs.
Thousands of workers responded to Liang Xiao's call, took the tools provided by the government, and followed the officials to prospect for mines.
After Liang Xiao observed the terrain of Lanling, he decided to open two paper mills to the west of Lanling near the official road to facilitate the transportation of ink and paper to Yanzhou.
The capital has surrounding states and counties transporting printing materials, so it is barely self-sufficient.
Gongsun Yue returned to the inn after a busy day. She was so tired that she frowned and said nothing.
She has always been pampered, but this is the first time she has personally set up an industry and helped people.
In the past, in Bashu, her family had asked her to come forward to help the people, but in fact it was just a political show to gain her some fame.
Originally, she just wanted to sit in the inn and let her subordinates go out to make arrangements, but when she saw Mu Qinxue on the second floor leading the convoy of Dingguo Hou Mansion, running around Lanling, she became excited.
No one can lose to this man!
Because of her anger with Mu Qinxue, her investment in Lanling more than doubled, and she had no hope of recovering the capital.
In the carriage, Liang Xiao hugged Mu Qinxue and said, "Qinxue, you can actually tell her directly that we are committed to each other."
Mu Qinxue shook her head and said: "No! I just had the home field advantage, and Sister Yunxiu helped me. She will definitely be dissatisfied! Don't tell her yet, I want to compete fairly with her! She is the third lady of the Gongsun family. How can I lose to her if I can run around here?"
Feeling Mu Qinxue's overwhelming desire to win, Liang Xiao laughed dumbly and could only let it go.
Mu Qinxue snuggled into Liang Xiao's arms with a confident smile on her face.
She didn't tell Liang Xiao that she and Jiang Fuxue had conspired: to kidnap this little vixen and give her to Liang Xiao as his concubine, train her, tame her, and make her a good little girl!
The innocent third lady was unaware that she had been targeted by two demons, big and small, while she was still writing in her room.
In the capital, after Pu Yuan received Bai Qin's notice, he handed over fifteen sets of iron armor that he had made temporarily and turned to the forging of weapons.
Making weapons is his main business.
After learning about the feats of Yanyun's Eighteen Cavalry, Pu Yuan became even more determined to build good enough long and short weapons for Liang Xiao and Yanyun's Eighteen Cavalry.
The Tuoba family members in the capital have been dismissed one after another, are under constant supervision, and are not allowed to leave the capital.
The Ministry of Punishment issued the verdict against Tuobajie as quickly as possible and launched the Meridian Gate to behead him in public.
Tuoba Lie endured the pain of losing his son and sold his property in tears, feeling disheartened.
Eager to raise money, Tuoba's properties and properties were put up for sale on the market.
Buyers have taken advantage of Tuoba's eagerness, and almost no one is interested in the once-hot real estate.
Tuoba Lie could only apply to Duan Yunyi, and those fields and houses were mortgaged to the treasury at the lowest price.
Duan Yunyi asked the ministers to discuss and agreed to Tuoba Lie's request.
Especially some of the land and houses in Yanzhou, according to Zhuge Hui's proposal, can be transferred to Liang Xiao at an appropriate price reduction in the future to facilitate him to open a factory.
As for those fields, Liang Xiao also had great use.
At this time, the Tuoba family seemed to have become a lost dog in the capital. Even the Duanmu family, the Gongyang family, and the Dugu family could no longer sit still and purchased part of their properties at a low price.
After Zhuge Hui understood the situation, he couldn't help but sneer.
These aristocratic families stick together for warmth, but in the end, their own interests come first.
It is precisely because of this that he, Gaozu, and Shizu were able to check and balance all parties and prevent one family from becoming dominant.
After the death of the ancestor, these aristocratic families became more and more united. Zhuge Hui vaguely felt that they seemed to have reached some kind of consensus, and perhaps they would introduce a representative to seek to usurp the throne and share the world.
The Tuoba clan is from Beihu. If they can replace Da Zhou, it will be in the best interest of them and Beihu.
Due to the lack of irrefutable evidence, Zhuge Hui did not reveal the matter and was secretly on guard.
"Everything in the world is unpredictable, Yanyun Eighteen Cavalry is really an unexpected surprise."
Zhuge Hui sat in the courtyard, stroking his beard and sighing.
Originally, when he heard that Liang Xiao had taken Lei Hong and others under his command, he only admired Liang Xiao for his sharp eyesight and charming personality, which could convince a strong and brave warrior like Lei Hong.
But Yan Yun's Eighteen Cavalry's performance this time surprised even him, an old prime minister who was used to seeing big winds and waves.
Without Liang Xiao, they might still be sitting at home drinking to drown their sorrows and end up depressed...
In front of Zhuge Hui, there were two repeating crossbows with special structures.
One was originally designed by him, and the other was improved by Liang Xiao in detail.
The structure of the two repeating crossbows seems to be almost the same, but the one improved by Liang Xiao is slightly more powerful.
"Who did this child learn from? How can he understand such detailed mechanical principles? Or is it a self-taught thing?"
Zhuge Hui looked at the repeating crossbow and muttered to himself.
In any case, Lian Nu could be officially put into production and take the lead in arming the northern border area. Zhuge Hui immediately asked the Ordnance Supervisor to arrange this matter.
The treasury suddenly received millions of taels of silver, and Duan Yunyi was relieved to recruit craftsmen from various places and send them to the Ordnance Supervision.
Craftsmen from the northern border area temporarily gathered in Yanzhou, where they could usually make some ordinary weapons.
"Grandpa, actually he doesn't have to personally inspect the fiefdom. You can just let Mr. Bai and the others do it..." Zhuge Cheng said helplessly.
"The Lanling fiefdom is of great significance to his Liang family, and he also wants to personally explore the iron mines and expand his harvest." After Zhuge Hui explained, he looked at the sad-looking Zhuge Cheng and smiled, "Are you also worried about his premature death? Pass away?"
Zhuge Cheng nodded, with a serious look on his face: "There are so many geniuses, but the sky never stops. It's not easy for us in the Zhou Dynasty to have such a one, alas..."
Zhuge Hui fell into deep thought.
This is what he is most worried about right now.
Liang Xiao's survival is more important than anything else.
According to his understanding of Duan Yunyi and Duan Yunxiu, if Liang Xiao really died young...
It's time for me to learn from the shamelessness of Ding Guohou.
As materials from surrounding counties were shipped to the capital in large quantities, Liang Xiao's bookstore and newspaper office continued to work.
Past issues of the newspaper are being sold across the country, and several other custom-made newspapers are being completed.
Representatives of the Gongsun family and the Dachu family were very excited when they saw the newspapers one after another.
Especially the various families in Da Chu sent people back to their country one after another, proposing to express their gratitude to Xing Feng.
In Lanling, at Liang Xiao's house, a Xuanwei came back excitedly to report the news.
"As the Marquis expected, the miners discovered an iron mine in the northwest mountains. It is large in scale and has high-quality minerals!"
