Kaiyuan General Military Mansion.
People kept coming in and out of the general's living room. Liu Zhaosun, wearing his second-grade official uniform of crane patchwork, was busy receiving the chief officials of civil affairs and workshops.
After recovering from his injuries, Liu Zhaosun began to be busy and never had a moment to spare.
As the new year approaches, everything becomes complicated and many things need to be decided by Marquis Pingliao himself.
Yang Qing'er felt sorry for her husband's health and was afraid that he would not have enough food and accommodation outside, so she would not allow her husband to return to the barracks.
When Liu Zhaosun was still a counselor, he practiced frugality and only hired three maids at home to cook and cook.
On weekdays, Yang Qing'er does many housework by herself. After two years of training, the daughter of the Jinglue Mansion has already acquired a variety of skills, and her cooking skills are even more impressive. Mrs. Gaoming cooked in person every day and carefully prepared Liu Zhaosun's favorite meals according to the food supplement prescriptions prescribed by Lao Songtou.
In this way, there will be more fireworks in the home, and Liu Zhaosun will feel that he belongs.
There has been great unrest in the city recently, and the murderer of the foreign businessman has not yet been found.
The night before yesterday, at midnight, under a dark light, a civil affairs official was killed on his way home. The murderer left a handwriting to the effect that he wanted to avenge the dead Mongolian businessman.
Early the next morning, the patrolling Zhenfu soldiers discovered the body and hurried to General Zhangdong to report to the General Military Mansion.
This kind of attack by Sora Bu, similar to that of a lone wolf in later generations, gave Marquis Ping Liao a headache.
At this sensitive moment of the rectification movement, in order to avoid causing panic, Marquis Pingliao ordered that the news be blocked to prevent people with ulterior motives from taking advantage of it and causing a large-scale vendetta between Han people and foreigners.
He was now certain that the man behind the scenes was someone from the imperial court, either a Dongchang fanzi or a dead soldier sent by the Ministry of War.
It seems that Emperor Taichang has decided to start an all-out war with Ping Liaohou.
The seemingly harmonious relationship between the two parties can no longer be maintained.
War is inevitable.
Liu Zhaosun soon realized that whether he wanted to or not, according to the current development, Kaiyuan would soon have a complete break with the imperial court, and he himself would most likely be elected emperor by his subordinates.
After going through all kinds of things, Liu Zhaosun no longer had any aversion to proclaiming himself emperor, but now he was slightly looking forward to it.
He didn't go out for a few days to patrol, so he started to think wildly.
This may be the life of a superior person.
What should the new country name be called?
Which Chinese character can replace Ming.
The first thing that came to Liu Zhaosun's mind was "Han".
Since Liu Zhaosun's surname was Liu, which was the same as Liu Bang, Liu Xiu, Liu Bei and other emperors, the new country he established, called Han, could not only inherit the great achievements of the Han and Tang Dynasties, but also potentially boost the morale of the Han people. It could be said that it killed two birds with one stone.
Ma Shiying can make up a story that is twists and turns, bizarre and touching at the same time, so that Marquis Pingliao and Liu Bang, Liu Xiu or Liu Xuande become relatives, and he can fool them.
There are all kinds of capable people around him now. For example, pimps like Kang Yingqian are very good at creating public opinion.
Liu Zhaosun believed that as long as he opened his mouth and expressed his willingness to proclaim himself emperor, various miracles would appear in various parts of Liaodong in a short time.
The auspiciousness of the saint's arrival will also be endless.
The soldiers, civilians, and gentry returned holding ears of wheat the size of sorghum, or holding a few sacred deer with white hair, and swore that Liu Zongbing was the real dragon emperor, and those named Zhu in the Ming Dynasty were all false emperors.
The Han Dynasty is where destiny belongs.
Liu Zhaosun thought for a long time, and then began to struggle with whether the name of the country was Han. Would it conflict with his policy of converting Xia to barbarians, and would it give other ethnic groups in Liaodong the impression that he was exclusive of foreigners?
After all, his base is the Liao people, not only the Han people in Liaodong, but also the people of all ethnic groups in Liaodong.
Then he thought of his own surname - Qi.
If the country's name is Qi, it is not a problem if it is the same as his last name in his previous life.
According to the current expansion trend, the Kaiyuan Army is within the pass, and the next step is to occupy the canal city and control the entire Shandong.
By then, the capital will be Jinan or Linzi, and with the land of Qilu as its foundation, it will sweep the world. Therefore, there is nothing wrong with calling the country Qi.
Marquis Ping Liao was still thinking about it when the guards came in to report that Director Xie was here.
"Have they already completed the inventory of civil affairs? So soon?"
As the Chinese New Year is approaching, all departments are entering into year-end inventory. The chief officials of civil affairs and workshops are so tired that they vomit blood every day. Even Qiao Yiqi has given up his duties as supervisor and went to help the trading company to reconcile their accounts.
Liu Zhaosun's previous life grew up in a state-owned enterprise. When he was a child, every year at the end of the twelfth lunar month, his parents were busy taking inventory at the work unit. They had food and accommodation at the work unit. Sometimes they didn't go home for two days in a row, so they had to let their grandparents take care of the children.
Liu Zhaosun was quite sympathetic to these chief officials who forgot about food and sleep. Sympathy is sympathy, and someone has to do the work.
Xie Yang came to the General Military Mansion with a large stack of ledgers to report on the profits of Liaodong Trading Company this year.
Marquis Ping Liao met with this conscientious civil affairs officer in the living room.
There is a thick stack of account books stacked on the desk, which records the details of this year's trade between Kaiyuan and Ming provinces, as well as North Korea and Mongolia.
According to civil affairs regulations, all incoming and outgoing money exceeding one hundred taels will be recorded and summarized in the accounts.
Liu Zhaosun opened the top account book and looked at it carefully.
Recorded in the account book are the details of trade between Liaodong Trading Company and Shandong.
Shandong is currently the largest trading province. Liu Zhaosun stared at the dense accounts for a while and found that the most traded items were ores and marine goods.
There are many types of ores in Shandong. The gold mines in Zhaoyuan, the sulfur mines in Linzi, and the silver mines in Zhifu have all poured into Liaodong and Liaoning this year.
The Ming court did not interfere with this kind of private reselling of mineral deposits and was only responsible for collecting taxes. After the mid-Ming Dynasty, there were many large-scale private mines in Jiangnan, Fujian and other places. The owners behind these mines were local dignitaries, and the court collected taxes Naturally, the mining tax cannot be collected.
Liu Zhaosun nodded while watching, and encouraged Xie Yang: "Okay, the iron ore alone cost more than 10,000 taels of silver. We can make more flintlock guns next year!"
After Liu Zhaosun finished speaking, he looked at the account of the sea goods. He roughly estimated that the cost was more than 10,000 taels. He couldn't help but be surprised: "Why does it cost so much to buy sea goods? Can't North Korea give Kaiyuan preferential prices?"
After Xie Yang heard this, he quickly explained to Marquis Ping Liao:
"Mr. Liu doesn't know something. Kaiyuan is dominated by merchants, and the people are fond of seafood. Every year, seafood consumption is huge. In previous years, they bought from southern Liaoning and western Liaoning. Fortunately, it is not far away and the price is cheap. This year, Pingliao Hou said that Liaozhen and Houjin were blocked, and they did not buy goods for us, so we did not return the seafood, and the price also increased a lot, so the trading company could only get goods from North Korea and Shandong."
Liu Zhaosun nodded repeatedly, not realizing that there was still a custom of eating fish. He was busy with military affairs on weekdays and knew very little about the details of these civil affairs. It seemed that he would have to make up for it in the future.
"It's okay, we can annex southern Liaoning and western Liaoning next year. From now on, Kaiyuan will also have its own port and its own fishing ground...that's right,"
Liu Zhaosun suddenly thought of something and solemnly said to Xie Yang:
"I am thinking that we need to set up a marine fishing team within Kaiyuan in the future."
"Fishing team?"
Xie Yang stared blankly at Marquis Ping Liao with a stunned expression.
"Yes, specifically going out to sea to hunt whales."
"whaling?"
Director Xie, who had never seen the sea in his life, felt a little at a loss when he touched the top of his head, which was gradually approaching the sea.
The first thing Liu Zhaosun thought of was lighting.
With the continuous development of commerce and trade, urbanization in Liaodong will continue to accelerate.
In these cities with short days and long nights in winter, the demand for high-quality lighting fuel will inevitably be extremely strong.
More adequate lighting is one of the important criteria for urbanization.
Liu Zhaosun thought of the civil affairs official who was killed and imagined that he was surrounded by Dongchang Fanzi people.
Hit the nose and eyes, stabbed repeatedly with a dagger, until finally lying in a pool of blood...
Unknowingly, Kaiyuan City under the night has become dark, eerie and full of dangers.
After these assassins are eliminated, Liu Zhaosun plans to increase the number of street lamps in Kaiyuan, replace tung oil with whale oil, increase the burning time and brightness, and then promote it throughout Liaodong.
According to Liu Zhaosun's knowledge, whale oil has high brightness, no odor and higher lighting efficiency than other fuels. In addition to lighting, whale oil is also a good lubricant.
In addition, baleen and bones can be used to make a variety of useful products, such as candlesticks and corsets.
In fact, in the seventeenth century, both Europeans and Japanese had a fanatical pursuit of whaling.
In 1614, the British explorer John Smith discovered that whales were plentiful and accessible near Cape Cod and Long Island. He actually put his exploration aside and instead hunted whales.
Not to mention Japan. In 1606, Wada Yorimoto, known as the father of Japanese whaling, advocated "war whaling", using whales as "enemy chiefs" on the battlefield and hunting whales through tactical cooperation.
Liu Zhaosun was about to explain the significance of whaling to Director Xie.
The guard knocked on the door and came in saying that Captain Zhang and Supervisor Qiao were here. Captain Zhang said he had something urgent to see the Lord.
Xie Yang immediately stood up and said goodbye. Liu Zhaosun saw him off and turned back to the guard:
"Let them come in together."
After a while, deputy captain Zhang Chao walked into the living room with an excited face, followed by an exhausted Qiao Yiqi.
Zhang Chao ignored Qiao Yiqi's presence and shouted loudly before he even got close:
"Sir! The murderer has been caught!"
Liu Zhaosun was overjoyed and said:
"I was talking about hunting whales just now, but now I've caught a big fish, tell me!"
Only then did Zhang Chao realize the abruptness and quickly asked Qiao Yiqi to sit down before continuing:
"Sir! Nasha knew that the workshop was on holiday, so he disguised himself as a policeman and sneaked into the warehouse. When he was about to set fire to it, he was discovered by a female worker who was working overtime to drill gun barrels..."
Liu Zhaosun personally served tea to Qiao Yiqi, clapped his hands at Zhang Chao and laughed:
"Okay! Women can hold up half the sky even if they are not inferior to men. So is the killer still alive?"
Zhang Chao took a breath and quickly said to Marquis Ping Liao.
"He's still alive! In order to prevent him from alerting others, the general will lock him in the workshop and send people to closely guard him."
Liu Zhaosun clenched his fists and waved them twice in the air.
"Okay! Send my order to Zhang Mazi to go to the workshop for interrogation immediately and find out his accomplices as soon as possible. I want to catch a big fish today."
Lewen
