Chapter 138

The Great King assigned the work of transferring various cattle and Black Wind Horses to Zhu Ti; within a few days, the chief steward claimed to have purchased a batch of warhorses and draft oxen from a mysterious small state among the Western Regions.

After she had people come and all rushed into the pasture, the Great King went to see what was already there.

This time he brought several senior officers of the Personal Guard Battalion; previously, hindered by the exorbitant price of system horses, Zhang Tu and Zhao Chuan had not switched to mounts, only giving Ling Yin a supplementary platinum wild horse.

Now that they had Black Wind Horses, the Great King took the senior officers to the site to pick.

"A batch of excellent-quality horses has arrived at the pasture; you pick first, the rest will be allowed to breed here, and once the stock is stable we will equip the Personal Guard Battalion."

Upon hearing there was still this surprise, several senior officers showed delighted expressions.

When the Great King acted, there were no duds. But upon seeing the Black Wind Horses grazing on the pasture, several people were still shocked.

This horse's appearance is no worse than the system-provided initial chestnut horse; it has short, black, shiny hair, a large frame with high shoulders and long legs, and the Great King said its trait is good endurance. If trained well for long-distance raids, who could stand against it?!

Zhao Chuan, who was most familiar with the Great King, was the first to ask: "Really, we can pick any?"

"Of course."

The few of them were overjoyed; compared to this horse, their old comrades could be relegated to second line.

The Great King found Zhu Ti and saw she was busy branding the cattle with 'patterns'. Those were the numbers the Great King often saw in Mengmeng's place; Zhu Ti had made ten-number branding irons and was arranging combinations to number that herd of cattle, saying this would make management easier.

With the number branding iron applied to the cattle, before they felt pain it was lifted; the hair would be burned off, leaving a clear black number.

Wonderful!

The Great King rubbed his somewhat thin chin from recent teeth loss and called for Zhang Tu.

"Look, she numbered the cattle by branding them; from now on, any head lost will be easy to find, and you can tell at a glance whether it's our pasture's cattle. Shouldn't our soldiers learn this too?"

Zhang Tu glanced in terror at the huge number-branding iron head Zhu Ti held, and inevitably imagined the miserable fate of soldiers after having four-digit numbers branded; where could this be branded? On the back? Only the back, and it would have to be filled completely……

"Is… this… not good, Your Highness? This is too big, branding people…"

The Great King was even more startled: "What are you saying? I mean assigning a number, embroidering it on clothing; strangers seeing the number can later check the roster and know who it is. Last year, when enemy attack killed soldiers, didn't we register a number plate and give it to their families? From now on we will assign each soldier a number, one per person, which will not change until they retire and leave the camp."

Zhang Tu blushed: "All right, Your Highness, this way duplicates won't cause mistakes. Actually, many common surnames have duplicates; Your Highness thought this through thoroughly."

The Great King imagined branding a row of numbers on a person; if they died, they'd still have to strip clothes to confirm identity. Not to say his president is really talented.

The Great King kept looking at Zhang Tu with the eyes of one observing a miraculous species; Commander Zhang couldn't take it, made an excuse and slipped away.

The Personal Guard Battalion's officers, big and small, numbered eight or nine; each personally went out to pick a horse and then went to cultivate feelings; the rest, the Great King took Ling Yin to wander around the pasture.

Seeing the lush, just-sprouted tender alfalfa, the Great King always sighed, "... if it were near Chang'an, this winter vegetable would surely fetch a good price." What a great money-making scheme! In Youzhou there's basically no market; the folk eat stored radishes and cabbage, truly a waste!

Ling Yin glanced north, "In Chang'an it's rare, on the grasslands it's equally rare. They're farther north than us, so it should have started snowing; going to tribes that chronically lack vegetables should also make money. Even if there's no money, the lord can trade for other supplies."

The king, having just cleared his Ren and Du meridians, said, "You mean, send people to sell to the grasslands? Oh oh, we can also gather some intelligence on the side, monitor the movements of the Eastern Xianbei?"

"... The lord is wise."

The king put his hands on his hips, "No! Zhao Bao said I've already started to shoot up; from now on please call me handsome king!"

Ling Yin: ……

Can't we get someone else to say that?!

………………New chapter………………

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The You King's mansion overnight set up an anti-enemy business team; Zhu Ti trained them in business affairs, leading them to contact the caravans coming from the south; then the king personally taught them intelligence reconnaissance. Not a single person in the entire guard corps had ever done intelligence work, but Wei Shen volunteered—unfortunately the king passed on him, as he doesn't trust this military theorist lacking practical experience.

You say, how could the king?

Isn't this proper study?

His elder brother Bai found him some reference books: 《Cold Weapon Era Warfare》, 《Strategic Locations Contended by Military Strategists》, 《Analysis of Ten Famous Battles in the Cold Weapon Era》, 《King of War》, 《Hundred Schools of Military Methods》, 《How Famous Generals Are Forged》; the cheap king bought them, Meng Meng took too many intermediary fees, and when the king set up a stall he noted the key points.

The grand tutor heard that his studies-averse king, who even dozed off during morning classes, actually held an afternoon lecture for the soldiers himself; the grand tutor was shocked.

After finding out the location and when the time arrived, the grand tutor also went over; the place was a hall inside the western gate tower of the king's mansion. He discovered a room packed with forty or fifty people, even the squad leaders from the camp had come, and behind them was a black board covered in mysterious scribbles, as if drawn by ghosts, no one knowing what was drawn.

Everyone in the room was enthusiastic, listening to the king lecture verbatim from the book…… they even held the book up to block their heads, whereupon the grand tutor recalled that the king's front teeth had not yet grown in……

This is a well-known reference work that later analysis found to be spot-on; the king, lacking experience, merely converted a few terms, and everyone could still understand.

The king also occasionally raised his head to check classroom discipline, emphasizing that what was being taught were life-saving techniques and battlefield tactics; whether you could become famous generals in the future depended on how much you learned.

He did not know how pioneering such sharp, profound analysis was in the contemporary Jin; he did not know that half the people in the room would broaden their horizons and become famous generals recorded in history; he also did not know that a understanding of war far ahead of its time would be what kind of transformation.

The grand tutor listened outside for a while, found it interesting, and saw that the battles were analyzed thoroughly and sharply.

Then the question arose: where did these books come from? He considered himself well-read, but he had truly never seen such books.

Nowadays, various technical schools, including commanders, value their own secret skills highly and only pass them to their disciples; this kind of military strategist who relies on external broad and specific analysis is quite rare!

Where did the king get these? Could it be that Marquis Wei Ting prepared them for him?

When they were resting, the grand tutor walked in and confiscated the king's textbook that he hadn't had time to hide.

This book seemed extremely miraculous in the eyes of Grand Tutor Xu.

This book entitled 《Analysis of Ten Famous Battles in the Cold Weapon Era》 had its colorful, finely made cover torn off by the king, and even the few pages with the publisher's name on the flyleaf, including the preface, were torn away; the book starts from the table of contents.

On the spine, the king scraped off the colorful title with a knife, leaving a layer of white adhesive chewed by cats and dogs.

The grand tutor flipped through this crude, battered book and found the characters very small, still arranged horizontally; most importantly, these characters were missing strokes, and compared to those problems, the fact that this book was printed is really nothing, after all they in Youzhou also know printing.

"Your Highness…… is that how you recognize these characters?" When listening to the king read, it seemed normal; he recognized most of the characters, could guess some from context, but also didn't recognize some at all.

The king silently pulled out another book from his desk; the grand tutor saw it was titled 《Traditional and Simplified Character Correspondence Dictionary》.

Exactly, it also has the shabby appearance of having skin but no fur.

The grand tutor furrowed his brows and said heartbrokenly: "Your Highness should cherish books, for books are the most precious blah blah……"

The king kept quiet while listening to the nagging, "I'm afraid that bringing out a complete, unabridged book would scare you. If you saw the publication date was over two thousand years later and got frightened, what would we do? Oh! I'm doing this all for your own good!"

However, the grand tutor's discovery was also good; the king rolled his eyes and produced another book of the same shabby appearance, 《Hundred Schools of Military Methods》, and pushed it together with the correspondence dictionary to the grand tutor.

"Take these two books back, Grand Tutor, study them and then lecture them to them later; compared to you, I really am not good at giving lectures."

"I don't know where Your Highness found this book."

The king's only all-purpose excuse resurfaced again: "What Zhu Ti gave to the king, her older brother sought overseas for the king."

Mr. Zhao is…… after all, he's a person of the Great Jin; no matter where he is, his heart is tied to the Great Jin!

The king nodded like a pecking chicken, "Yes, yes, the king still had to go out to sea once last year, so I asked the Grand Tutor to take over my teaching them. This is a major matter concerning the safety of our Youzhou; they have no combat experience, and if the Xianbei come south again, Youzhou will be in peril."

The matter was settled just like that; the king successfully foisted the military theory lessons onto the Grand Tutor—who could blame him for being interested in his books?

The newly formed caravan of the You Prince's Manor had the identity of Bingzhou merchants.

They carried the king's prepared snow‑white salt, pulling tightly covered boxes of straw mats, and went north together with the Bai family's horse‑trading caravan. Their goal was to sell refined salt, the white porcelain ware fired in their own workshop, and green‑leaf alfalfa to the Xianbei nobility—these items might be precious on the steppe, but for the king they are low‑cost, so he doesn't mind the hassle.

Seeing off the north‑bound caravan, the king packed his little satchel, as usual went to Baiyang to stock up on a pile of fruit—he was going out to sea!

If he didn't go out to sea, the chance to take the fish haul into the warehouse and exchange it for ingots at Baiyang would only dwindle, because the NPC who had been covering for him would be recalled after his one‑year term.

The king bade farewell to the three NPCs, almost tearing up again—everyone that Mengmeng gave him was reliable and capable, and he hated to part with them.

Chen Cang roughly guessed what the king was thinking and told him that after a year they had trained enough crew to take over their posts, with two qualified substitutes for each position. If he still felt uneasy, the king could also go to the market and hire another treasure‑ship captain to continue commanding the treasure ship.

Oh right, after the You Prince's Manor was completed, the mall refreshed to show all the materials in the You Prince's Manor… except for the Zhao Zhu Pavilion.

Can we still hire new NPCs after the term expires?

The king, overjoyed, opened the mall; after refreshing a while, sure enough, besides the treasure ship's original consumables like fishing nets and gear, an 【Employable NPC】 option appeared, followed by a long list of people—captains, chief mates, helmsmen, and even ordinary sailors, all kinds.

And these captains' prices are not cheap at all—300 ingots per month.

The king only wanted to find an NPC from the myriad worlds to take full charge of the treasure ship; other positions such as chief mate and helmsman would still be filled by Youzhou locals, mainly because they are cheap.

The king spotted Chen Cang among the captains, turned to him, and first asked for his opinion, in case he wanted to go home.

"Chen Cang, are you willing to continue being employed and work on the treasure ship for a while?"

"Sure. When an NPC returns, they just take on other jobs; the difference is that previously the bill was paid by the myriad worlds, but after the king hires me separately, my salary will be deducted from the king's account."

The king was delighted; the new is not as good as the old, and he really likes Chen Cang.

He thought that if one day the Zhao Zhu Pavilion could be hired, he would certainly keep Mr. Zhao as well.

The king thought so and said so. As a result, Chen Cang reminded him, "……Mr. Zhao is a major NPC; his monthly salary could start at ten times mine."

The king multiplied three hundred by ten…… that would be three thousand ingots a month, or thirty thousand taels of silver?

Farewell.

Waa waa, the vile little money is what's blocking the king from getting Mr. Zhao.

Thus, the other NPCs were recalled, and the king continued to employ Chen Cang as the treasure ship's manager for three hundred ingots a month; the previously selected substitute captain became the vice‑captain, and everything else remained unchanged.

That day the king's account balance was deducted by three hundred, bringing his savings to a four‑digit figure starting with one.

The impoverished king began to reckon his accounts; since he had no ingots left to count, he exchanged them for grain, which soon ran out, so he needed to go out to sea to catch some seafood to replenish his balance. He started checking the outside accounts—this one he actually had silver on the books, with Zhao managing the fief's income and official stipend, and Zhu Ti managing all business‑earned portions.

"The wealthy merchants of Wanxiang City make a single purchase of three hundred thousand or five hundred thousand taels, so why does the account only have one hundred thirty thousand taels left? What about the income from the Aquatic World? And the treasure ship?"

The king flipped the ledger, making a clatter—how could the silver be spent so quickly!

"Not counting the manor's expenses, in the second half of the year we successively bought three thousand horses from the Bai family, plus horse tack, and purchased livestock—cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens—exceeding three thousand in number; we invested in four workshops that haven't broken even yet; the unified housing construction of the military garrisons, the coal‑mine surrounding facilities investment—none have turned a profit; because of the great drought in Youzhou, He Guang led a team to the south to purchase twenty thousand taels of grain, which we just brought back by treasure ship, we dug four underground granaries, and the residential zone planned behind Zhuque Avenue has no myriad‑worlds subsidy, so all materials must be purchased; these investments are huge, the materials are basically all bought, and construction will begin in the spring."

"Don't the merchants of Chang'an say liquor sells very well? Haven't they made a profit?"

"They did profit, and the proceeds were sent straight to Jiangxia Commandery to buy grain, still en route. This is a rough figure."

Upon hearing that they had amassed so much grain, the king didn't feel that one hundred thirty thousand taels of silver was lacking; he then checked the storehouse's grain again—a figure that made him unable to keep his mouth shut.

"Expand the army next year!"