Faced with her family's attitude, Shi Huizhen didn't think there was anything wrong with herself, but felt that her family was too narrow-minded and had no room to show off. It happened that her uncle Shi Mingyuan was going to Dadu for a meeting, and she insisted on going with him. In order to stop her from causing trouble, Shi Mingyuan had no choice but to agree.
Shi Mingyuan probably thought that since there were mostly reliable people, she wouldn't be able to cause trouble anyway. Unexpectedly, Shi Huizhen went with that group of Greek women.
Later, Shi Mingyuan was ordered to serve as an envoy to several small Persian and Turkmen dynasties in the east. He specially brought Stan with him, wanting him to see the world. Once the two left, Shi Huizhen was completely left alone.
The biggest weakness of those Greek women is actually their inability to fight. Queen Helena was in trouble because she felt she controlled the Forbidden Army, but after the palace conspiracy was exposed, most of the middle- and lower-class soldiers refused to obey her at all.
Although the Queen Mother was wily and resourceful, she had no military experience. The legionnaires just looked at her as the mother of the Roman Khan and gave her the obedience and respect she deserved according to the existing system.
After the incident of murdering the Great Khan, this system and tacit understanding were destroyed by herself. And the supreme power of the old queen mother actually comes from this. When the new Khan Basil III showed qualified ability and courage, the legion immediately abandoned the Queen Mother, and even upper-level officials and military families also turned against him. The final palace change was actually just smooth sailing.
But if they really join the army, it's hard to say.
Therefore, there is indeed much room for cooperation between the two parties.
This spring, Shi Huizhen had another big job. At that time, according to tradition, each military government would recommend outstanding young officers to the Khan's court for training and assessment. The adoptive father organized a confrontation drill as usual.
Tuo Huan is responsible for playing the imaginary enemy this time - the Turkmen tribe. In order to set the mood, he also specially made a big turban and bought a cart of wine. At first glance, he looked like the chief of an emerging tribe.
The location of the exercise is in northern Greece, a desolate hilly land, which is relatively close to the environment of Asia Minor. Tuo Huan hid in advance. According to the rules, the one who discovered him first and had more soldiers in his hand when they met would win.
In response, they each have several flocks of sheep, distributed in different pastures, and need to be guarded by their subordinates. If more than half of the sheep are stolen by Tuo Huan, it is considered a failure.
Among the few people, Shi Ke lost the fastest. He tried to gather all the sheep together, thinking it would be more convenient. As a result, there was insufficient pasture on the road, and both the sheep and the shepherd were in chaos.
Tuo Huan took advantage of the chaos to steal the sheep. Shi Ke was caught off guard and lost at least two-thirds of the sheep, and was eliminated on the spot.
Guo Kang heard at the time that Shi Ke had lost so quickly and was quite surprised. Two days later, even more surprising news came that Tu Huan also lost.
It turned out that the queen secretly cheated and replaced the son of a Greek general with Shi Huizhen. Tuohuan had just won a battle and sent all his men out to keep an eye on them, so there was no defense in the camp. Shi Huizhen took the opportunity to bypass other people's routes and found the old camp where she was having fun.
Although Tuohuan himself ran fast and escaped from the camp in time, all the luggage, including the headscarf and wine, were robbed by Shi Huizhen. The referees ruled that the decoy was a failure and the game was over. When I looked back, I found that she was the one leading the team.
This incident once again caused an uproar. The development of the matter was beyond everyone's understanding, and even seemed like a story from Greek mythology. Everyone in the Khan's court said whatever they wanted, and they didn't know how to reward or promote them.
There were no similar regulations in the Tang and Liao systems of the Purple Horde Khanate - no one had thought that this would happen, so there were no prohibitive regulations.
The Greek system does have provisions for this. According to Eastern Roman tradition, the titles of officials and nobles were divided into three genders: male, female, and eunuch. For example, some positions within the palace were only open to eunuchs and female officials; some positions outside the court were only allowed to be held by male officials. As long as you look at the documents, you can know the corresponding positions for each gender. Otherwise, everything is illegal.
In the history of Eastern Rome, there were actually many male generals who were good at fighting, and there were also famous eunuch generals, but there was really no place for female officers.
Therefore, the leader of the military bureaucracy, the military minister Skazali, finally ruled that she could receive a reward, but not be awarded an officer. This report, along with dozens of accompanying thick ancient documents, were submitted to the Warmaster, awaiting approval.
Although everyone felt that by not pursuing the rule-breakers, they were favoring the queen for her sake. But Shi Huizhen still complained about this. But he may have taken advantage and did not continue to cause trouble.
Of course, despite being in the limelight, she may still be at a disadvantage in terms of connections. Tuohuan has always been worried about this incident. He really bought that cart of wine with his own money, but Shi Huizhen snatched it away and refused to give it back. For this reason, Tuohuan has complained to Guo Kang several times.
Guo Kang didn't have any prejudice against her. After all, among the senior officials of the Purple Horde Khanate, he was probably the only one with a much smaller psychological shadow than others. However, Shi Huizhen often stood up for those Greek women and interfered with Guo Kang's daily activities many times.
Guo Kang actually has a good temper, and he can tolerate other small things. But if it interferes with his development of Steam Brother, he cannot give in.
Therefore, when he saw Shi Huizhen, he felt inexplicably confident.
Shi Huizhen has been playing with weapons all year round and is very familiar with these firearms. Looking at her like this, I guess she won't leave until she is satisfied with a few shots.
While Guo Kang was thinking of countermeasures, she also began to wander around, knocking and looking around, commenting on various firearms and even the proficiency of the soldiers. Even Nurhachi's hair was pulled by her.
Guo Kang still couldn't figure out how the brothers Shi Ke and Stan could have relatives with such personalities.
Finally, Shi Huizhen turned back again, rubbing a handful of charcoal powder in her hand.
"It's a bit damp. Let's change the bucket next time." She said to Guo Kang: "I think it's a problem with the wood treatment. You have to see if the craftsmen cut corners and didn't do a good job of waterproofing."
"Oh..." Guo Kang nodded.
"Did you choose all these materials yourself?" she asked again.
"I really didn't pay attention to the charcoal. I thought it would be fine to just buy it." Guo Kang said, pointing to several other places: "I picked those myself."
"Saltpeter is pretty good. It comes from the mine?"
"No, it's from the Nitrate Field." Guo Kang said, "I think if the scale of firearms expands in the future, the mines in Crimea may not be enough. We have to find a way to make the output of the Nitrate Field more stable and of higher quality. Only in this way can we stabilize our own supply before acquiring new mines.”
"What is that?" asked Theodora.
"It's a place where saltpeter is piled." Guo Kang turned around and said, "At the earliest, people discovered that saltpeter would appear in toilets. Therefore, some people deliberately piled up dung and concentrated it to process it, consciously promoting the formation of saltpeter. This is the saltpeter field. .”
"The French have been playing this for decades, and the technology is relatively mature. Let's take a look at it and there is no problem."
"Ah, it looks very white, but the source is so dirty?" Theodora frowned and sighed.
"That's it after processing." Shi Huizhen said with a smile: "Don't be too dirty, gunpowder is very easy to use."
"Yes. This is not just ordinary dung." Guo Kang also said with a smile: "I heard from French engineers that they have to carefully identify the types of nitrate soil before extracting it. Some soils are salty, and some soils are spicy. Only Only spicy soil can extract the purest snow."
"It's really exquisite." Shi Huizhen sighed with emotion and asked smoothly: "By the way, you are the technical supervisor, have you tasted this snow? What do you think of the taste?"
"..."
Guo Kang finally knew why everyone couldn't stand her.
(End of chapter)
