The Ming Dynasty took an unconventional approach

Pan Yun looked around the room and told Tao Yanbai to light the fireplace: "It's still too cold to just cover yourself with a blanket."

She took out two gold ingots and handed them to Zhao Shizhu: "Take Miaozhen and the others to the market tomorrow and buy what they need: beds, tables, chairs, and food. Also, stock up on firewood and charcoal."

Pan Yun looked at Hu Ning and handed him a bag of gold ingots: "These are for you to screen and recruit people. I'll give you three days to bring back trustworthy people. I have something to show you tomorrow."

Zhao Shizhu and Hu Ning respectfully agreed.

The two men left, and Pan Yun waved to Miao Zhen and the other two, who then went to sleep.

Pan Xiaohei squatted down beside her, glanced at her, then turned and followed Miaohe, muttering to herself, "It's too cold. This doesn't fit a cat's routine. I need to sleep too."

Pan Yun did not stop her. She walked into the courtyard, glanced around, and then leaped onto the top of the courtyard wall, where she sat down cross-legged to meditate.

As the temperature dropped, Pan Yun used his internal energy to block the cold air from entering, while simultaneously circulating his cultivation technique to sense the spiritual energy of this world.

Not long after the first snowflake fell, soft footsteps could be heard on the street.

Pan Yun opened her eyes and looked down. She saw three petty thieves tiptoeing past her. After listening to the door, they fiddled with it and started to open it.

Sure enough, the three of them actually got started. They carefully pushed open the gate and entered the courtyard. Just as they were about to go into the building, Pan Yun waved her hand, and with a whoosh, she swept the three of them up and threw them out. They crashed into the wall with a thud and rolled to the ground, their eyes rolled back, and they passed out.

Pan Yun waved her hand, and the door slammed shut.

She compassionately closed her eyes and murmured, "May the Heavenly Venerable grant me boundless blessings, my apologies, my apologies..."

Then she continued practicing with her eyes closed, letting the snowflakes falling from the sky land on those people.

An hour later, the heavy snow covered Pan Yun, who was sitting on the wall, into a snowman, and also covered the several people who had fainted on the road.

Including the ones Miaozhen and the others had knocked unconscious and thrown out earlier, there were a total of eleven people.

The heavy snow illuminated the entire area, but the sky above remained gloomy and devoid of any light. Pan Jun quickly estimated the time and realized that dawn was approaching. Just as she was about to shake the snow off her shoulders, a crunching sound came from the street.

Pan Yun paused, turned her head to look, and saw a group of men holding large knives, walking towards the house with their heads bowed and on guard.

Under the blanket of snow, Pan Yun raised an eyebrow.

After they had turned halfway around and found an easy spot to grab onto, they stepped on the person that Miaozhen and the others had thrown out earlier.

The eight men were startled and brushed the snow away. Unsure of what was happening, they discussed the matter heatedly in Oirat language: "Is this a drunkard, a vagrant, or a thief?"

One of them leaned in and sniffed him, then said definitively, "He's not a drunkard, nor does he look like a homeless person. He looks like he's been knocked unconscious; he's almost dead!"

"Could it have been done by someone inside?"

"Impossible. Two old men and three young Han Chinese. This man is strong and they can't knock him out. Never mind him, hurry up and climb inside. They were ransacked by the soldiers and they still managed to take out so much beautiful silk to buy a house. They must have a lot of valuable things on them."

"We can't wait until tomorrow. Those people in the royal tent and the military tent are very domineering. If we don't make a move tonight, they'll come and swindle our money tomorrow."

Without further hesitation, the eight men climbed over the wall and jumped in. But before they had taken more than a few steps, a powerful force suddenly struck, lifting the men who had already jumped into the courtyard into the air and throwing them out, where they crashed into the opposite wall with a bang before landing on the ground.

The others screamed and scrambled to their feet in fright. When they looked up, they saw a white figure standing on the wall, just like the snowman they had built at home.

They screamed in agony, fell to the ground, rolled twice, and then got up to continue running, shouting, "Snow Demon! It's the Snow Demon—"

Pan Yun snorted, grabbed a handful of snow from his body, squeezed it in his hand, and then casually threw it. The five people who were about to run away fell to the ground with a few thuds, moved a couple of times, and then stopped moving.

Seeing that everyone had fainted, Pan Yun glanced at the eleven people who had been knocked unconscious the first, thought for a moment, and then waved her hand, summoning a large patch of snow. With a whoosh, she piled it all over them, and then the snow seemed to come alive and began to wriggle, forming a very sturdy snow house. All eleven people were thrown inside and piled up close together.

Pan Yun rubbed her slightly numb calves, stood up on the wall, and shook off the thick snow from her body.

Whether you live or die depends on your luck.

She saved them, but not all of them; she had some kindness, but not much.

Pan Yun turned and went back into the house.

Sure enough, the rest of the time was quiet. Pan Jun slept soundly until dawn, only waking up when the noise outside started.

I wonder if any thieves will come again in the middle of the night. If they do, they'll probably be scared by the line of people lying on the street.
Let alone thieves, the residents of this street were terrified.

I woke up early in the morning, opened the door, and saw many people lying on the street.

I intended to save one, but after saving one, there was another.

So they followed the direction of the rescue and eventually dug out nineteen people from the snow.

After watching the commotion, Zhao Shizhu returned and bowed to Pan Yun, reporting, "Three people died, all from freezing. The others were also taken away. Two of them woke up and immediately said they had encountered a snow demon."

Pan Yun: "Is there a monster here?"

Zhao Shizhu paused for a moment and then said, "There are legends about it, but we have been here for more than 20 years and have never seen it. Moreover, Confucius said, 'Do not speak of strange phenomena, physical prowess, disorder, or spirits.' Whether it was a monster last night, the Imperial Preceptor should know better than us."

Pan Yun nodded and readily admitted, "We did what happened last night. I was just curious if there were any monsters here."

Zhao Shizhu remained silent.

Hu Ning said, "After this incident, the thieves should not dare to approach our house again in the short term."

Pan Yun's lips curled up, and she said softly, "How can the short term be enough? They wouldn't dare to ask me for the long term either."

Zhao Shizhu and Hu Ning did not think Pan Yun had done anything wrong. Whether for public or private reasons, this place should minimize visits from outsiders.

Whether it's legal or illegal.

The shops here stay open very late. After breakfast, Pan Yun first took out the telegraph machine to show them.

She chose a room with the best view on the top floor, then took out the telegraph machine and said, "This is a low-power telegraph machine, it's hand-cranked. I'll set up a generator for you when I leave, and I'll leave you a higher-power telegraph machine."

The two looked on in bewilderment and asked, "What is this?"

"This is a machine used to transmit information. It only needs to be sent according to the code pattern to send the information you want to transmit. Thousands of miles away, another telegraph machine can receive this wavelength and translate it into text."

The scouts had all learned secret codes, that is, to hide coded messages within plain language.

Information science and cryptography have something in common, and Pan Yun explained it in a simple and easy-to-understand way. Although the two veterans did not know how to use the telegraph machine, they already knew that this thing could transmit information instantly.

However, there are many conditions, and there is also the possibility of information loss.

But it happened in the blink of an eye.
No more people need to travel thousands of miles to send messages back; no more waiting for two, eight, or even longer periods as before; and no more risking their lives to travel thousands of miles away...

Zhao Shizhu murmured, "Divine skill, divine skill, this is divine skill~~" Hu Ning looked incredulous: "Is this real or fake? We've only been away from home for twenty years, has the Ming Dynasty changed that much?"

Miao Zhen, standing to the side, proudly said, "It's only changed in the last two years, all thanks to my junior uncle."

"Two years?" Zhao Shizhu suddenly looked up at Pan Yun: "It's because of the late emperor..."

Pan Jun said, "The technology of our Great Ming has already reached a certain level. With just a little guidance from someone, it can be further improved. Even if I don't point it out, these things will appear one day."

However, by then, the advantage will no longer be with the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, the handicrafts of the Ming Dynasty, especially the folk artisans, are only a thin membrane away from the technology of the steam age. Even now, some people in the folk are already using tools based on the principle of steam, but they have not formed a theory or industrialized it, so they have not been able to develop further.

Pan Yun's intervention merely cleared away the fog before their eyes and showed them which path to take.

Alongside this road, she also simultaneously developed another road.

Even now, she still hopes that they can pursue both paths simultaneously, applying elemental power and formations to people's livelihoods, directly following the model of her previous life in the 26th century.

However, only a very small number of people can currently cultivate Yuan Power, and she is not sure whether the new cultivation method can be promoted to the general public, so she dares not give up the path of technology, and even has to focus on it.

Of course, there's no need to tell Zhao Shizhu and the others about this.

All they need to know is that even if the Ming Dynasty suffered a defeat, it has not declined; in fact, it has advanced further. In the near future, the balance of power will shift, and as long as the Oirat dares to make a move, the Ming Dynasty will seize the opportunity and directly take over this land and govern it.

Zhao Shizhu didn't oppose fighting, but he wanted direct control of this land...

He said in a low voice, "This land is barren, the freezing season is long, and it is vast but sparsely populated. The management cost is too high. Do we really have to take direct control of it?"

Pan Yun said, "There is no land in the world that is difficult to cultivate. If there is, it must be because the soil has not been properly cultivated and needs to be repaired."

For the Chinese people, even the moon, which is "unsuitable for planting," can be filled with vegetables and grow the big tree that Wang Gang is talking about, let alone the earth.

It just says "not suitable", not "cannot".

This land has been frozen for a long time, but it is not frozen all the time.

Moreover, for the vast land of the Oirat Mongols, agricultural resources were not the most important thing; the most important thing was the various mineral resources buried underground.

Underground coal mines and oil, especially oil, will be indispensable resources as the Ming Dynasty's technology develops to a certain level in the future.

The Central Plains region is rich in agricultural resources, but lacks oil.

Pan Yun looked out the window, gazing down at the boundless wilderness, her eyes sharp: "In the future, all of this will be the wealth of future generations."

"Huh?" Zhao Shizhu and Hu Ning exchanged a glance, not understanding, but indicating that they would obey.

Pan Yun withdrew her gaze and chuckled, "Didn't you hear what Ao Deng said? He is proud to be a subject of my Great Ming, and the Emperor of my Great Ming loves his people like his own children. Everyone under heaven is a subject of the king."

Zhao Shizhu and Hu Ning exchanged a glance, then clasped their hands in a respectful gesture and replied, "Yes!"

As the sun rose and the streets began to fill with voices, the two of them took Miaozhen and the other two out to go shopping or to look for people.

The news had already spread by morning, and everyone's gaze towards Zhao Shizhu and Hu Ning had changed.

Those nineteen people were clearly not homeless. Considering the guests at Zhao Shizhu's house and his lavish spending these past two days, it wasn't hard to imagine what those people did.

So the city's residents were both relieved for them and felt that Zhao Shizhu and his companion had changed, and they began to feel a sense of awe towards them.

This applies not only to ordinary residents but also to officers and soldiers.

Therefore, no one has come to cause trouble for Zhao Shizhu and his group for the time being.

Zhao Shizhu took Miaozhen and the other two to buy things, while subtly leaking some information to the outside world, so that the local residents would trust them more and dare not bully them.

Hu Ning then went directly to the children she had previously adopted.

Those children also lived a very hard life. Most of them were destitute after being injured. The few who were able-bodied also had to bear the burden of supporting their families and occasionally had to help Zhao Shizhu and the others, so their lives were very difficult.

Hu Ning's arrival made them as happy as if it were a festival. In the evening, he brought back three families, a total of eight people.

There were young people and children.

Two of them look very much like Han Chinese.

Hu Ning explained in a low voice, "They are descendants of Han Chinese. Their fathers were merchants who came here to do business. They lived here for several years, married, and had children."

"And what about their father?"

Hu Ning said somewhat awkwardly, "They left when they were young, saying they were going back to the Ming Dynasty to do business, but they never came back and there was no news of them. We don't know if they are dead or alive. Their mother raised them alone, and life was hard and very difficult."

Hu Ning paused for a moment and then said, "Most of the children we adopt are in this situation. There are also a few who were abandoned by their mothers when they were young, and we took them in and raised them."

That's why the children they raise are so loyal.

Pan Yun nodded and said in a low voice, "We can trust them, but we can't tell them about the telegraph machine for now."

"Yes."

So only two veterans could learn how to operate the telegraph machine, which was a pity considering they were both so old.

But they didn't feel sorry for themselves; on the contrary, they became more and more enthusiastic as they learned, and were incredibly curious about this thing.

There are no stupid soldiers who can serve as scouts, especially since these people were carefully selected back then, making them even smarter. Even at their age, they learn very quickly.

At least their teachers, Pan Yun and Miao Zhen, felt that they were better than the students in the Imperial Academy.

He's quick to learn, his translations are accurate, and what's amazing is that he's also very fast; you wouldn't guess he's in his sixties or seventies.

Zhao Shizhu: "Grand Preceptor, I am forty-four years old this year."

Hu Ning: "Forty in total."

Pan Yun looked at their gray hair and wrinkled faces, her mouth agape, speechless.

Zhao Shizhu touched his face and laughed, "You look a bit old, don't you? I was only twenty-one when I came here."

He pointed at Hu Ning and laughed, "He's the youngest, only seventeen years old."

His entire life was wasted here. (End of Chapter)