Chapter 23: Exchange

"My son, this matter must be handled with caution, great caution!"

Although Liu Dahao did not know what Liu Zheng was planning, seeing his fierce expression made him worry that he was harboring anger, and he wanted to offer a few words of dissuasion. Liu Zheng, however, no longer paid him any mind; he stood in the courtyard, watching Qin Zhangfeng drill the three hundred new recruits. According to the County Marquis Mansion's recruitment plan, they would recruit one thousand men in succession within one month. Now that they had the ten thousand taels from the liquor sales, recruitment was naturally not a difficult task.

What was difficult was the attitude of the Four Great Noble Families!

The situation thus became subtle once again. Because of the sudden emergence of "Drunken Yinzhou," the Four Great Noble Families were surely eyeing this fine brew like tigers watching their prey. Their attitude toward the County Marquis had changed as well. If, before the existence of "Drunken Yinzhou," Liu Zheng had wanted to recruit one thousand soldiers, the Four Great Noble Families likely would not have felt it was a threat.

But now, all four families were staring at the Sales Right for "Drunken Yinzhou," and as time went on, their tolerance for the County Marquis Mansion, given their absolute control over Yinzhou, would naturally diminish significantly.

Therefore...

Liu Zheng was furious today, but he had not lost his reason.

Right now, what he should do is, on one hand, continue recruiting and have Qin Zhangfeng lead these men to form a combat force as quickly as possible. On the other hand, he needed to temporarily eliminate the pressure brought upon him by the Four Great Noble Families.

This matter would be decided in three days' time.

Right now, he felt the most urgent thing was that he must have a unit with real combat capability in his hands!

Combat capability, combat capability...

Watching the group of young men on the training ground, shouting and cheering under Qin Zhangfeng's drill, even Liu Zheng had to admire these Liangzhou men; their physiques were indeed robust. From the start of recruitment, Liu Zheng had given Qin Zhangfeng a set of modern training methods. At first, Qin Zhangfeng had been skeptical, but after training for so long, he realized that the Young Master's training methods had miraculous effects. It could not be said that the three hundred soldiers had fully formed a combat force, but at least they could put up a fight against the private soldiers of the noble families.

However, what Liu Zheng wanted was not just to be able to "put up a fight."

It was to be able to defeat the many with the few!

To defeat the many with the few, one must utilize technology that did not exist in this era! Liangzhou had many war horses, and its cavalry was famous throughout the world, so even in the homes of the poorest commoners, there was basically a horse. Here, horses were more numerous than oxen; when there was no war, horses were equivalent to donkeys, used to help with farming.

Cavalry!

Suddenly, Liu Zheng's eyes lit up, and his whole body trembled.

Sure enough, as he looked closely, the war horses of this era only had a saddle, and there were not even stirrups, let alone horseshoes! He slapped his forehead hard; how could he have forgotten this?

Horseshoes, stirrups—these were the essential "golden fingers" for anyone who had traveled through history!

But...

He would manufacture these things as soon as possible, but he did not intend to use them against the Four Great Noble Families. Such things were extremely easy to imitate and must be well hidden so that they could be used as a Surprise Unit to achieve victory in the future!

Liu Zheng suddenly returned to his room and ordered a maid to bring him paper and a brush.

*Swish, swish, swish. *

In his mind, he already had some methods.

To improve combat capability, besides the strength of the soldiers themselves, the other aspect was Weaponry and Equipment!

Heavy Cavalry!

This was the first thing that popped into Liu Zheng's mind.

Heavy Cavalry was the term used in ancient Europe; in the history of our country, this type of cavalry was called "Armored Cavalry"! This type of cavalry, "fine armor shining like the sun, iron cavalry leading the charge," was the portrayal of the iron cavalry of that time. This type of heavy armored iron cavalry reached its peak during the Northern and Southern Dynasties but began to decline in the early Tang Dynasty.

The biggest reason for the decline was that although this armored iron cavalry had strong impact power, the attributes of cavalry later shifted more toward speed, timing, and efficiency, rather than just striking power.

Although the heavy armor equipped by the armored iron cavalry strengthened defensive power, it greatly weakened the mobility of the cavalry. According to archaeological findings, a complete set of iron armor at that time weighed 45 to 50 jin, and the total weight borne by the war horse could reach 130 kilograms. This brought great inconvenience to the long-distance marches of that time.

Afterward, this type of armored iron cavalry gradually withdrew from the stage of history.

But now, this type of cavalry was extremely useful to Liu Zheng!

Because in this place of Liangzhou, he did not need long-distance marches for the time being! He only needed close-quarters combat, and besides, he was a modern person; he could completely modify this type of armor!

That was the legendary Plate Armor!

This was a type of armor that had not even appeared in Huaxia history. It was once the mainstream for heavy cavalry in medieval Europe. Known as the "King of Armor," Plate Armor once dominated most of the battlefields in Europe. The advantage of Plate Armor was that it not only had strong defensive capabilities, but most importantly, it was lightweight! Thanks to excellent design concepts, Plate Armor distributed the weight reasonably across the human body when worn, allowing the wearer not only to make agile movements but also to have more enduring combat capability!

Of course.

To realize Plate Armor, one needed very mature steel technology, which was also a problem that gave Liu Zheng a headache.

But...

As long as there was a direction, these were not problems.

Just after returning home, he summoned Wei Tiezhu.

"Tiezhu, does our Yinzhou have an Iron Smelting Workshop?"

Liu Zheng asked excitedly.

Yinzhou had many iron mines. Wei Tiezhu nodded without hesitation, saying that the largest Iron Smelting Workshop in Yinzhou should have belonged to the County Marquis Mansion, but a few years ago, it was sold to the Zheng Family by the previous County Marquis.

"Prodigal son!"

Liu Zheng cursed out loud upon hearing this.

In ancient times, the government kept a tight grip on the craft of cast iron—salt, iron, gold, and silver were absolutely not allowed to be controlled by private individuals. He had not expected that the Iron Smelting Workshop in Yinzhou had actually been taken by the Zheng Family.

Liu Zheng suddenly felt a bit melancholy.

It felt like nothing he did was going smoothly.

At his wit's end?

No way!

The Iron Smelting Workshop must be taken back!

Thinking this, it was already afternoon, so Liu Zheng rode his horse slowly toward Fengming Tower. After the explosive popularity of yesterday, Fengming Tower had thoroughly made a name for itself. Although it was impossible to have another day with an income of ten thousand taels, stabilizing the profits would certainly not be a problem.

"What? You want the Iron Smelting Workshop?"

Liu Zheng went straight to find Zheng Yue Ru and stated his request without a second word.

Now, Zheng Yue Ru looked at the County Marquis's young master before her with a smile. She felt incredibly refreshed. Yesterday, she had tried every way to please Liu Zheng, but this fellow had not loosened his grip on "Drunken Yinzhou" at all, making Zheng Yue Ru so angry that she had wanted to go to the County Marquis Mansion to make threats, just like the other three families.

Now, it was good.

He had delivered himself to her door.

"Haha, Brother Liu, this matter is certainly not impossible..."

She looked at Liu Zheng with a smile, a sense of vengeful satisfaction growing in her heart: "It's just that my Zheng Family spent a large sum of silver to acquire this Iron Smelting Workshop back then, and you also know that cast iron is a business that makes a steady profit without risk."

Liu Zheng sneered: "What does Miss Zheng mean?"

Zheng Yue Ru lightly poured a cup of wine for Liu Zheng and chuckled, "Brother Liu is a straightforward person. The Clan Head of my Zheng Family asked me to convey a message on his behalf: if Brother Liu is willing to hand over the Sales Right for Drunken Yinzhou to my Zheng Family, the Zheng Family will not only ensure Brother Liu does not suffer a loss, but will also lend you one thousand soldiers for self-protection!"

As expected.

Liu Zheng smiled inwardly: "Borrowing soldiers for self-protection is not my style, Liu Zheng. Miss Zheng, you and I are already in a cooperative relationship, so it is naturally not impossible to hand Drunken Yinzhou over to you. However..."

Zheng Yue Ru raised her delicate eyebrows: "However, what?"

Liu Zheng laughed: "However, Miss Zheng, could it be that you only want Drunken Yinzhou, and not something even better?"

"What?"

Zheng Yue Ru's delicate body trembled, and some of the wine in her hand spilled out due to the tremor.

Drunken Yinzhou was already astonishingly good; could there be something even better?

"Brother Liu, is this true?"

Zheng Yue Ru looked solemn.

Liu Zheng chuckled: "I came here today to make this deal with you. Miss Zheng, please follow me!"

More than half a month had passed since he made the wine starter. Returning today to take a look, several types of wine starter had finished fermenting, which made Liu Zheng overjoyed. These were the true fine wines he had brewed, and compared to these, what did Drunken Yinzhou even count for?

Along the way, Zheng Yue Ru felt very uneasy, constantly asking, "Brother Liu, you aren't tricking me, are you? Is there really wine better than Drunken Yinzhou?" She asked until Liu Zheng felt a bit annoyed.

The two rode horses to the County Marquis Mansion; one man and one woman, yet both were in men's attire, causing people to cast sidelong glances.

But the eldest Miss Zheng never cared about the eyes of others, and she followed Liu Zheng into the mansion.

Wei Tiezhu and several craftsmen from the winery had long been prepared there.

"How is it, has it been brewed?"

Liu Zheng also looked eager to try.

Wei Tiezhu smiled: "Young Master, the Qingxiang Type, Jiangxiang Type, and Nongxiang Type you ordered have all been brewed."

Zheng Yue Ru listened, completely confused; what was this about fragrance types? But the closer she got to the winery, the more solemn her expression became. As someone who frequented taverns, how could she not smell the distinct wine aroma here? The fragrance was intoxicating; before even drinking it, one was already mesmerized.

Liu Zheng smiled slightly and opened the winery; several wine vats were already at the entrance with their lids removed.

These were the true fine wines Liu Zheng had made using the various high-grade wine starters he had produced!

"This..."

Zheng Yue Ru looked pleasantly surprised and practically lunged forward.

Such a young lady of a noble family actually threw herself onto these three wine vats, sniffing them intensely with an intoxicated expression. After a moment, her face was flushed, and then she could wait no longer, having Wei Tiezhu draw these three types of wine separately for her to try.

Liu Zheng stood to the side, smiling slightly.

He had absolute confidence in these three types of wine.

As expected.

Zheng Yue Ru suddenly turned her head, her eyes gleaming: "Brother Liu, this is, this is..."

She was so excited that she couldn't even speak.

"Immortal Brew, White Jade Capital, Drunken Eight Immortals!"

Liu Zheng chuckled: "How about using the Sales Right for these three types of wine to exchange for an Iron Smelting Workshop and five hundred elite soldiers, Miss Zheng?"

"Good, Brother Liu must not go back on your word; let us draw up a written agreement immediately!"

Zheng Yue Ru did not hesitate in the slightest and nodded happily at once.

"However, I can only supply this wine to your Zheng Family after three days."

Liu Zheng chuckled.

Zheng Yue Ru was stunned, then immediately understood what was going on, and laughed heartily: "In the future, whoever dares to call the Liu Family young master a playboy, I, Zheng Yue Ru, will be the first to disagree!"

In fact, Liu Zheng hadn't really considered anyone else for these types of wine; he had intended to hand them over to the Zheng Family for sale all along. He hadn't expected that the Bitter Remonstrance and scrambling of the other three Powerful Clans would allow him to get the Iron Smelting Workshop back as well, which was an unexpected joy.

I wonder if, three days later, after those Powerful Clans have fought until they were battered and bloody, they will be so angry they vomit blood when they discover that Drunken Yinzhou was not even the true fine wine Liu Zheng had in his possession?