In three months, under Gu Qingcheng's strategizing, Huo Wuniang led the troops and eliminated all horse and mountain bandits within a hundred miles.
Gu Qingcheng's men also expanded from the initial five hundred to one thousand.
The city in Beicheng was completely renovated.
The city walls were raised, the moat trenches were deepened, and the surrounding wasteland was reclaimed.
With a relatively stable rear area, generals such as Huo Wuniang and Li Silang began to lead troops to attack.
According to the strategy formulated by Care Qingcheng, they specifically besieged a small group of Xirong cavalry.
If you can beat them, fight them. If you can't beat them, run to Xizhou or the border town.
The Ninth Prince's "guerrilla cavalry" is like a sparrow or a kite. It is not very powerful, but it is developing little by little on the border.
In Beijing, Concubine Dong Guifei has been bedridden.
Empress Yuan didn't want to seek bad luck before, but then she couldn't care less.
Under the "persuasion" of Empress Dowager Yuan, Emperor Qing finally relented and agreed to let Empress Yuan adopt a young prince.
Emperor Qing had a total of about twenty princes, who could be divided into two echelons according to their age:
The Ninth Prince and the princes before him have all grown up and are considered the elder princes;
The tenth prince and those after him are still very young and belong to the little prince category.
Emperor Qing suggested that Queen Yuan could take the youngest Nineteenth Prince and raise him. The Nineteenth Prince was three years old this year and had just met someone.
However, they are young and can be matured after a few years of raising them.
Empress Dowager Yuan thought it was good.
Empress Yuan was a little reluctant: "Although Shijiu Lang's biological mother is a concubine and has a low status, her surname is Yang and she was born in the Yang family of Hongnong."
She is a daughter of a noble family, not a humble palace servant or ordinary citizen.
It is impossible for Empress Yuan to "remove the mother and leave the son".
But if Yang Concubine had stayed in the palace, even if she raised Nineteenth Lang, Nineteenth Lang would still know who his biological mother was!
Queen Yuan didn’t want to make wedding clothes for others.
If you want to raise a son, you must raise one without any hidden dangers.
By chance, Emperor Qing had a drink and met a palace maid.
The palace maid was lucky because she got pregnant just once.
Queen Yuan suddenly had an idea: If this palace maid gave birth to a son, she would take him over to raise him. .
As for the palace maid, well, these days, giving birth is like going to hell.
Dystocia, postpartum hemorrhage, etc. are all normal.
Without the so-called biological mother, Empress Yuan is the only mother, and this son is really mature.
If a daughter is born——
Queen Yuan glanced at the maids in her palace. In fact, it was not impossible to get them pregnant.
On the first and fifteenth day of the lunar month, Emperor Qing would go to the queen.
Empress Yuan endured her jealousy and chose one or two outstanding-looking people to serve Emperor Qing.
Three months later, suddenly three or four maids in the palace were pregnant.
Concubine Dong:...
She sighed secretly while following the procedure of coughing and vomiting blood.
She didn't know whether to be disgusted by someone's behavior, or to pity the maids or children!
"Alas, I don't know what's going on with Dongrou!"
Concubine Dong Gui thought of her son who was far away in Xizhou, and a light finally flashed in her eyes.
She thought about her son leaving the capital a few months ago.
On the night of parting, her son held her hand and said goodbye to her.
Although Donglang has lost his memory and cannot remember the past.
But blood is a wonderful thing.
Donglang was instinctively close to him, and looked at him with admiration.
Every time Concubine Dong Gui saw her son's trusting and dependent eyes, she couldn't help but think: I am willing to do anything for my son!
Even if you die!
Yes, there was a time when Concubine Dong Guifei was thinking, should I die?
As long as she is alive, she will be a target for Emperor Qing.
Emperor Qing mostly used her and Donglang.
But if she dies, no matter how cruel Emperor Qing is, he still has some sincerity.
Emperor Qing always had a little bit of love for his son.
In addition, it is human nature to pity the weak.
Emperor Qing particularly cared for the princes and princesses in the palace who had lost their mothers.
"After I die, whether it's due to past friendship or to continue acting, the emperor will love Kuro even more!"
With such thoughts, Concubine Dong Guifei became determined to die.
It was Gu Qingcheng who was keenly aware of Dong Guifei's abnormality. He knelt in front of her and said word by word, "Auntie, when I was living among the people, I heard a country slang——"
"A child with a mother is like a treasure; a child without a mother is like a grass!"
"You are the only one who has me, please don't abandon me!"
Gu Qingcheng's words completely awakened Concubine Dong Gui.
It is too passive to rely solely on the "pity" of others.
If people are willing to pity, they can give some charity.
But what if she doesn't want to do it anymore, and her Donglang has lost his mother, what should she do?
no!
She has to live!
Although she has no prominent status and no helpers.
But, as long as she is still a noble concubine, as long as she stands in the palace, she can help Dong Lang!
Just her body——
Gu Qingcheng did not hesitate and exchanged his blessing for a marrow-cleansing pill in the mall.
Although Concubine Dong Guifei didn't know where her son got the elixir, out of her trust in her son, she took the medicine without any hesitation.
This marrow cleansing pill may be just a simple version.
There is no cutting off the hair and cleansing the marrow as in the fairy tales. It just eradicates Dong Guifei's chronic illness.
Even though the efficacy of the medicine was compromised, Concubine Dong Guifei was still frightened.
However, she still didn't ask any more questions and just accepted it silently.
Even if you are well or sick, you still have to pretend.
Since Concubine Dong Gui does not want to die and wants to live to help her son, she must always be good.
Moreover, after Dong Lang fell off the cliff, Concubine Dong Gui finally understood one thing——
She and Dong Lang are just pawns of Emperor Qing.
"I don't want to be a chess piece! I am your beloved concubine!"
Since she is a beloved concubine, she must be treated as a beloved concubine should be.
Rather than just bear a reputation.
Of course, for now, Concubine Dong does not dare to be too public.
She could only pretend to be ill to avoid Empress Yuan's attack and cause Emperor Qing's heartache.
Alas, a seriously ill person never knows when he will die, so why bother with her?
Concubine Dong Guifei has been ill for only half a year.
The form in the palace changed.
Concubine Dong Gui was still favored, but Emperor Qing always got drunk or admitted the wrong person.
The number of pregnancies among lower-ranking palace maids increased.
Queen Yuan and Queen Mother Yuan shifted their attention, no longer staring at Concubine Dong Gui and the other three concubines, but looking at the pregnant palace maids every day.
Concubine Dong:...
Donglang, grow up quickly.
Auntie is waiting for you to lead your troops back to the capital!
Ding! when!
In the blacksmith shop in Beicheng, Gu Qingcheng stood on the outside, watching several blacksmiths shirtless and hammering hard.
"Your Highness, look, is this piece of iron okay?"
After beating it for a while, an older blacksmith came to Gu Qingcheng holding the iron piece with iron pliers.
If it had been a few months ago, this blacksmith would not have dared to be so presumptuous in front of this noble man.
In ancient times, the status of craftsmen was very low.
Some trades that require secrecy, such as iron smelting, casting, etc., will even make craftsmen disabled.
The most tragic example is the craftsmen who built the imperial tombs.
Many people were directly deceived.
Killed or buried.
Gu Qingcheng is an ancient aborigine with a strict class concept in his heart.
However, after being bound to the system, he entered a different world.
She herself once worked as a "craftsman".
She had a completely new understanding of this class.
Perhaps she was not yet able to treat craftsmen as equals, but she recognized the importance of craftsmen.
Great craftsman!
Craftsmen are existences that can promote social development!
But for a superior, valuable people should be taken seriously!
This time as the Ninth Prince, Gu Qingcheng needed all kinds of talents to win the highest position.
Among many talents, craftsmen are indispensable and very important.
Not to mention anything else, just the armor and ordnance needed by the army require craftsmen to forge or even "invent" better and more sophisticated things.
"not bad!"
Gu Qingcheng looked at it carefully and nodded with satisfaction, "Let's study the formula again and see if we can increase the strength."
It's not that Gu Qingcheng doesn't know how to pretend to understand. As a person with level nine skills, she may not be able to make nuclear bombs with her hands, but there is still no problem if she improves the formula of fine iron, improves crossbows, etc.
However, Gu Qingcheng couldn't act too evil.
After all, here, she is the noble Ninth Prince, not a craftsman.
She is smart enough to be able to come up with an idea.
Specific research and development and experiments require repeated attempts by craftsmen.
For example, for black powder, Gu Qingcheng also used the warlock's notes as an excuse to come up with a rough formula.
The specific ratio needs to be studied by the craftsman himself...
PS: It’s the last two days, please vote┗|「O′|┛嗷~~
