Chapter 475

"……I, the king, have read a lot, oh~" It was utterly feeble and pallid.

Bai Ze didn't need to say anything; he just stared at him, and everything was understood in silence. The king mumbled, "Well, even idle books count as books."

He promptly received the Daoist architecture set, and also solved the employment positions!

【Daoist architecture set x1 received; please select a suitable mountaintop for construction.】

【Side Quest Two: Construct Daoist Architecture Set – Haizhen Palace】

The king saw this, and the child was shocked, "You even came up with the name directly? Surely it can't be placed in other provinces!"

Haizhen Palace, of course, must be built on a seaside mountaintop. Liaodong Commandery has terrain where mountains meet the sea, but now it's all farmland and salt fields with hardly any inhabitants, only the slaves of the originally rejected cavalry live there. The only viable option is therefore Youzhou.

The king first opened the coastal map of Youzhou and searched around; after some effort he found a seaside mountain range as the construction site. Youzhou doesn't have the kind of mountain range that extends deep into the sea like Liaodong does; the one he found is probably less than two hundred meters high, its sea-facing side is a stone cliff, which can be praised as rugged, but it really can't be called a famous mountain or great river, and it might somewhat obscure his Haizhen Palace.

But this mountain at least faces the sea; it's roughly a half-day's horse ride from Youzhou City, so the distance is suitable. Mengmeng wouldn't mind raising it a bit for the king.

Bai Ze watched helplessly as the king placed the hard-won poverty-alleviation Daoist hall onto a small hill...

The king spoke confidently, "It's not the height of the mountain that matters; if there is an immortal, it becomes spiritual. With Haizhen Palace, this mountain will become spiritual, and sooner or later it will be renowned both at home and abroad."

Bai Ze: "... This is just a little dirt mound."

The king:...

If it weren't called Haizhen Palace, the options would be much broader...

【……

Official subsidy: all raw materials; all tools and equipment;

On-site technical supervisor NPC x1 (to be reclaimed after task completion); professional technical personnel x3000 (to be reclaimed after task completion);

Logistics chain supplement: recruit x3000 local labor from the northern border;

Estimated construction period: five months* (150 days)

Task supplies: work uniforms x3000; work meals x3000 x150 (days); labor costs x3000 x150; winter construction subsidy: cold-resistant tents x300 (units)}

The king finished looking, satisfied, and now three thousand households can safely survive this winter. He only closed it after viewing it twice; the wealthy king could even forgive the useless elder for two minutes.

Wei Shen saw that in the morning he still had a black line on his face telling him that a large army had taken the opportunity to attack Youzhou from the south, but by noon his expression had changed to one of smug satisfaction; his cousin said it was hard to understand.

"Your Highness, you seem happy? Could the morning news have been wrong?"

The king could barely keep a straight face, "That's right, but the event has already happened; we must maintain an optimistic attitude."

Wei Shen:...

The cousin gazed up at the sky with a sorrowful look, "Is this the legendary heartless and fearless?"

The heartless king secretly opened the map for remote monitoring, discovering that the enemy forces had not yet left the wasteland, while the Youzhou cavalry had already crossed the Tongshui.

The king quietly observed Zhang Tu, who had thrown several thousand men to defend the city at Tongshui; he nodded, thinking it was necessary to stabilize the populace, and judging the enemy forces as merely five, a rabble, the troops Zhang Tu brought were sufficient.

The king shifted his view to the wasteland, hoping this battle could be finished there. But as he watched, he began to get angry—he couldn't tell which faction these troops belonged to; despite their numbers, not a single banner distinguishing identity was raised!

"Shrunken-head turtle!"

Wei Shen turned back, "What did you say?"

The king: "... I'm cursing the villains who sneakily attacked Youzhou! They surely thought we'd make moves against both the Xiongnu and the Xianbei simultaneously, thus pinning down their main forces; who knew the Xianbei would kneel and surrender so quickly, withdrawing from Shanggu Pass, and I also returned, yet they haven't even reached Youzhou—hmph!"

Wei Shen also became interested, "You guess who? Chang'an or Guangling? By now they've already entered the territory; Jiangsu and Hanshou are a bit far, so they can't act this quickly; Jingzhou… your fourth brother is still a little brat—does the Cui family really have such urgency?"

"Whether the fourth brother is urgent or not I don't know, but looking at all the signs, those five hundred assassins we had when we returned to the capital back then weren't the work of Bai Li Jin; the previous two assassination attempts were far inferior to today's. In the matter of producing assassins, the Wang clan is far inferior to the Cui clan!"

Not to mention that they aren't even sure who the enemy is; even the vanguard battalion in their ranks doesn't know for whom they are fighting.

Peng Erlang had no great ambitions; when the harvests were good earlier, his family could still eat their fill, and his dream was simply to be like his family's most successful third uncle, making a living by butchering pigs and selling meat, just to have a taste of meat for the rest of his life.

His aspiration was originally not difficult; he neither desired fine clothes and food nor sought titles and nobility, but the times did not allow him to live out his life in such peace.

The village where his family lived had barely gathered any grain last year, and this year it was a total failure. People couldn't even think of buying meat; the price of millet had risen to three hundred wen, and soon even those with money couldn't buy it, so his dream of butchering pigs also shattered.

After enduring a period they could no longer bear, the starving villagers were preparing to band together and go to Chang'an to beg for a mouthful of rice; this group passed through his hometown.

This group called themselves the rebel army, recruiting people to attack the wealthy northern border. They claimed the northern border had a bumper harvest this year, and they produced old newspapers from the northern border to read, saying the northern border was no longer what it used to be, describing Youzhou as a land of wealth and prosperity, and that as long as they could take Youzhou, everyone's good days would come.

Peng Er, on the other hand, hadn't thought about the good days after capturing Youzhou; he didn't think that far ahead, but this rebel army provided him with meals.

Countless pancakes were drawn, but Peng Er only heard about the meals.

A hungry person can sell his life for a pancake, for example Peng Er.

Thus he joined the so-called 'righteous army', was issued an iron broadsword, and received two meals a day, temporarily staving off hunger.

Peng Er grew fond of the iron sword and couldn't put it down; his third uncle's pig-killing blade was never allowed for him to touch.

They marched by day, and at night during rest someone taught them killing techniques; Peng Er studied earnestly, thinking that if he could survive, he would switch to butchering pigs and selling meat in Youzhou.

Thanks to his diligence and enthusiasm, he was quickly promoted to squad leader, commanding ten men. Peng Er discovered that this makeshift rebel army wasn't actually that wild; its discipline was quite strict, and the armored troops behind them resembled regular army officers, much like the attendants he had once seen beside the commandant.

At noon during rest, Peng Er's fellow villagers from his hometown gathered around and quietly gave him a look, "Today's meal has one more pancake than yesterday's; maybe we'll get that soon—we're just cannon fodder, so stay sharp!"

Peng Er had originally kept a pancake in his pocket to eat at night, since nights weren't provided with meals, but upon hearing that he pulled it out and started gnawing on it.

The saved pancake—who knows if he'll even have the life to eat it tonight.

He gazed ahead at the seemingly boundless wasteland and muttered softly, "Could it be that we've already entered Youzhou?"

As soon as the words left his mouth, he saw a gust of wind blow two horses back ahead; he didn't even know they were scouts, still craning his neck to look, when he heard the steward's fierce shout: "Form ranks! Form ranks!"