You have truly caused me great suffering!

Taiyuan Prefecture, inside the government office.

Chen Shaozheng is inspecting agricultural harvest reports from various regions.

Upon returning from Bianliang, Cui Lin handed Chen Shao a document detailing the prevailing winds in Bianliang during that period.

Seeing the court's dissatisfaction with Qu Duan, Chen Shao frowned slightly.

For several consecutive months, Commander Qu has held the title of having the most officials impeached.

The number of impeachments against Qu Duan was greater than the number of impeachments against all the others combined.

Qu Duan's impeachment was expected.

What he did in Daming Prefecture was indeed somewhat radical, but Chen Shao couldn't say anything about it.

Because he was simply copying what he had done in Hedong.

Qu Duan lacks his own status and prestige, and his work is even more rudimentary than mine, so he is bound to be criticized.

For example, when Chen Shao was in Taiyuan, he constantly sent troops into the city, using various pretexts to enter and leave.

Once Taiyuan City was desensitized, he went directly in. Seeing that he couldn't resist, the local officials simply gave up.

Therefore, local gentry members Li Tangchen and Liu Jizu immediately contacted Chen Shao to pledge their loyalty.

I hope to work with him to achieve something big and restore Hedong to its rightful place.

Even so, it took more than a year before Hedong finally came under Chen Shao's control.

And what about Qu Duan?

After entering Daming Prefecture, his first act was to kill Du Chong.

Then he would take the initiative to contact local gentry, and those who wanted to join him would be treated as one family, while those who did not join would be suppressed by him in conjunction with those who had already joined.

If anyone objected, he would secretly send troops to kill them.

Then, centered on Daming Prefecture, it radiated to Hebei, Shandong, and the Huai River region.

This canal project gave him an opportunity to purge many people and replace key positions with his own people.

"Your Majesty, Mr. Wenxi's idea is whether we should move the main melody of the song to the front lines and have someone else take over."

Chen Shao sat on a carved mahogany chair, his fingers gently twirling the beads in the mouth of the beast-head carving on the chair.

After a moment of silence, Chen Shao shook his head and said, "Qu Duan cannot be replaced. I will write a letter and tell him to restrain himself."

Qu Duan was indeed ruthless, but the Dingnan Army did need a few people like him.

They went too far, and then the imperial court came to me, and I, as the Prince of Dai, stepped in to resolve the matter.

In this way, I can appear to be reasonable and easy to talk to.

Otherwise, Chen Shao is someone who seeks to have a legitimate reason for everything, which is a good thing, but it also makes him vulnerable to being hindered.

The saying goes, "A gentleman deceives others with reason." If you insist on having a legitimate reason for your actions, then someone might use morality to hold you back.

With someone like Qu Duan around, they understand that it's best to proactively maintain the good reputation of the Prince of Dai and not do anything that would disgust people.

When they are easy to talk to, they can come to them to complain and find solutions.

If they push Chen Shao too far, how will they face the "Qu Duan" group?

Qu Duan is quick-tempered, ruthless, decisive, and highly capable.

Such a person is not easy to find; if he is replaced, a suitable replacement cannot be found.

Fortunately, Chen Shao was able to keep him in check. If a subordinate like that doesn't submit to you, it can be really difficult to deal with.

Thinking of this, Chen Shao asked someone to grind the ink and wrote a sentence for Qu Duan.

Think things through before acting, and make sure things look good on the surface.

In a few days, these words will be delivered to Daming Prefecture by the spies who travel to and from Guangyuan Hall.

Today, Daming Prefecture has truly fulfilled its role, becoming a transportation hub in the east.

Grain from Jiangnan could be transported to the front lines without passing through Bianliang.

Its importance is gradually becoming apparent.

Qu Duan actually conquered this territory on his own; Chen Shao basically didn't give him any orders.

Replacing him at this time would not be in line with the Dingnan Army's tradition of rewarding merit and punishing demerit.

He told Cui Lin to go out into the city and meet up with his old friends, while Chen Shao got up and went back to his residence.

Since the birth of his son, Chen Shao has been returning home on time.

The arrival of this son was indeed perfectly timed.

Just as they stepped outside, they saw Zhang Xiaochun and Liu Jizu arriving with several people, saying they had come to seek refuge.

Chen Shao glanced at them; their attire was rather peculiar.

Wearing a turban and a long robe with a turned-down collar, even his accessories are in the style of the Central Plains, although they are quite different from the attire of the Song Dynasty.

However, they looked like foreigners.

What Chen Shao didn't know was that this kind of attire was a genuine Tang Dynasty style.

After exchanging pleasantries, I learned that they came from Yinshan and were a branch of the Tuyuhun people.

After the Tuyuhun regime was destroyed by the Tibetan Empire in the third year of the Longshuo era of the Tang Dynasty, its tribes did not completely disappear, but instead underwent a long period of dispersal and integration.

Some of them fled to the east bank of the river.

After Zhao Guangyi destroyed the Northern Han, he relocated the Tuyuhun and other Dangxiang tribes to Hedong and established a tributary state to govern them.

The man in the lead was named Mu Huan, who is now their leader. He came here today to pay his respects to Chen Shao, which can be considered as a change of allegiance.

Chen Shao now remembered that Liu Yanqing's first wife seemed to be related to them by blood; she was also from a non-Han family with the surname Mu.

After the group sat down, they talked for a while. Some of them even spoke with a slight Guanzhong accent, indicating that although the area was located on the eastern edge of the Yellow River, it was closer to the various regions of Shaanxi.

From the conversation, Chen Shao gleaned some information: this group was skilled in animal husbandry and smelting techniques, but their numbers were small, and they were far from united.

A group that is fragmented and not united is a good lackey.

Mu's visit today is not without reason. Their tribe, though called a tribe, is actually similar to the chieftains of the south.

They survived by trading horses and ironware.

Although these people were nominally under the jurisdiction of the Song Dynasty, they actually had a high degree of autonomy.

Previously, the Khitan even strictly prohibited them from selling horses to the Song Dynasty, but these people would still smuggle and sell them secretly, as long as they could make money.

The caravans that are now coming to find Chen Shao are mainly from Guangyuantang, which is a devastating blow to all the tribes in the Northwest that do business.

Salt, iron, and horses were also important industries for Guangyuantang, and they were nearly starved to death due to the suppression.

To compete, they are not on the same scale. They only need to put pressure on the surrounding markets, saying that if you take their goods, you can forget about doing business with Guangyuantang, and then they will starve to death.

After much deliberation, in order to preserve the tribe's survival, they decided to simply merge it into the Dingnan Army.

Anyway, I don't have any big ambitions.

Chen Shao welcomed them and instructed someone to arrange accommodations for them, saying that the details would be discussed the next day, and the formal conversion of the native chieftain system to a centrally administered one would take place.

After they left, Zhang Xiaochun and Liu Jizu looked at each other and whispered, "These barbarians are always greedy and never satisfied. They suddenly came to seek refuge today, and the conditions are so generous. We need to be careful."

Liu Jizu nodded and said, "That's right, they must be plotting something. In the past, even if we used weapons, they would resist to the end. Why would they suddenly come to us on their own initiative?"

Chen Shao, however, had a different opinion. He took a large gulp of tea, put the cup down, and said, "You are prejudiced against these barbarians and haven't listened carefully to what they have to say, which is why you have such a view." Zhang Xiaochun asked, "Does Your Majesty believe they are genuinely surrendering?"

In his view, this was unlikely, as the barbarians valued their power to rule their tribe above all else.

Chen Shao laughed and said, "They have no other choice. They are in such dire straits that if they don't surrender, their entire clan will be wiped out."

Without firing a single arrow or sending a single soldier, the caravan was able to cut off their lifeline.

This is a dimensional reduction attack on another level, and its power is no less than that of military might.

Since the tribe can no longer be saved, we might as well sell it for a good price while it still exists.

If we simply relinquish the power of control, they can peacefully seek a way out within the Dingnan Army; their future prospects might not be any less than here.

The Guangyuantang caravan, despite having the powerful military background of the Dingnan Army, was still frequently attacked in the Western Regions for this very reason.

They drove many of the original powers in the Western Regions to the point of having nowhere to go.

Backed by the power of a massive regime, the large caravans formed were the most terrifying force for the smaller regimes and families in the Western Regions that relied primarily on trade.

The Guangyuantang caravan will squeeze their living space.

Changes in production relations are more likely to destroy a region's ecology than armies and wars.

While Chen Shao's troops were conquering cities and territories in the Central Plains, his caravans were also conquering cities and territories in the Western Regions, only in different ways.

The caravan's unchecked growth even frightened Wang Yin, the nominal highest-ranking official of Guangyuantang, who was forced to ask Chen Shao to voluntarily reduce the caravan's power.

The authority to mobilize the merchant caravans was removed, but this trend had already taken hold.

Chen Shao himself found it very novel and wondered what kind of changes this force would ultimately bring to the Western Regions.
-
On his way back to the mansion, Chen Shao couldn't help but think of Lady Xiao again.

Chen Shao had many women, but this Xiao Shi was the only one he felt was not his woman, but a business partner.
Even when they went to bed, it felt more like they needed each other. In a way, she was a wonderful bed partner.

He stripped her of her authority to mobilize the caravan and gave her only five hundred men to curb her ambition.

She still managed to make a name for herself in Northwest China by using her talent.

I heard that during the last siege, she personally beat the drum while wearing a veil.
The Northwest is where I rose to power, and it's been a long time since I've been back.

Chen Shao also felt that perhaps the officials of Xiping Prefecture should be frequently exchanged with those of Bianliang and Hedong.

To prevent a group from ruling for too long and forming its own interest group, things may be fine for the past few years, but if it goes on for too long, things may change.

Prevention is always the best approach.

During this period that I cannot return to, at the latest by this year, a change of personnel will be implemented.

Chen Shao didn't know how the Northwest would develop, or whether a different kind of prosperity would emerge in the Western Regions, but he had to keep this territory under his control.

Wu Jie, who is now guarding the Northwest, is not only an excellent commander, but also a strong administrator.

During his time in Shu (Sichuan), he eliminated redundant officials, implemented land reclamation, constructed water conservancy projects, developed agricultural production, and reduced the burden on the people.

There are many similarities between his actions and those of Chen Shao.

When Wu Jie was defending Shu, he recruited refugees from Guanzhong and Henan who had been displaced by the war, allocated wasteland for cultivation, and distributed seeds and farming tools.

The county and prefectural schools were repaired, Confucian scholars were invited to give lectures, the imperial examinations were reinstated, and social order was stabilized.
Stop war with force, and support war with agriculture!
Promoting him would also be a good option.

With these thoughts in mind, Chen Shao traveled exceptionally fast, and before he knew it, he was at the gate of the mansion.

Da Hu led his horse to the stable, while Chen Shao strolled back to the house.

His mind was racing with thoughts, all of which were things he hadn't considered lately, and he couldn't quite put his finger on them.

He simply finished his dinner early and went to bed, not even bothering to find someone to serve him in bed.

I tossed and turned in bed, thinking about gathering everyone tomorrow to brainstorm ideas.

Although his mind was racing, Chen Shao slept quite well overnight.

After getting up, Chen Shaogang was full of energy again. He wanted to go to the yamen to discuss matters, but when he got to the gate of the Wangfu, he saw Brother Pang standing there.

Upon seeing Chen Shao emerge, he stepped forward with a smile, as if presenting a treasure, and said, "Your Majesty, news has come from the Institute of Engineering that a cannon has been successfully built, and Your Majesty is invited to come and take a look."

Chen Shao became genuinely interested and led his guards to the engineering institute, where a large group of people were already waiting at the entrance.

Today, the Institute of Technology boasts a wealth of talent, having gathered artisans from the Song, Xia, and Liao dynasties.

Moreover, despite the fact that the Three Kingdoms period placed great emphasis on the development of weapons and the research of gunpowder, the treatment of the craftsmen was not high.

Perhaps people at that time would consider the treatment acceptable, but Chen Shao felt it was nothing special.

What Chen Shao didn't know was that the artisans of the Song Dynasty actually lived better lives than those of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties.

In the later Ming Dynasty, there were many artisan households in various places, which were under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Works, and the system was inherited from the Yuan Dynasty.

By the end of the Hongwu reign, the number of artisan households had reached 150,000. Like military households, they could not be removed from the register and were treated like slaves. They served the court for free, and the government only provided them with rations and salt, without exempting them from corvée labor and land taxes.

Even with new inventions or improvements, the rewards are very meager.

Upon arriving at the engineering college and seeing the large machine in the middle, Chen Shao was somewhat disappointed.

Too thin and long
Before the craftsmen could even introduce it, Chen Shao walked around it himself and examined it carefully.

The dark gold color of the cannon has a very appealing feel to it, giving it a noble air.

This thing uses a wooden gun mount and is secured with ropes; it looks exactly like a catapult.

The barrel is about two meters long, but its inner diameter is only about 10 centimeters.

A transparent substance, presumably resin, was applied to the connection between the gun barrel and the gun mount to prevent air leakage; this was a very good idea.

As Chen Shao raised his head, the craftsmen watched him nervously.

Chen Shao then realized that they were now in the creation stage and could not use his previous life's perspective to judge the cannons at this time.

Every bit of progress made during the creative phase deserves encouragement and recognition.

"Not bad, not bad, looks pretty good. Let's test its power."

A group of people retreated to a distance, and a craftsman from the engineering institute stepped forward and lit the fuse.

After waiting for a long time, a plume of white smoke rose up, accompanied by a loud bang.

Chen Shao was the first to applaud and asked, "Is the cannon barrel made of cast iron?"

"Your Majesty, it is bronze."

Chen Shao frowned slightly. No wonder he was so good-looking; it turned out he was a luxury brand.

Bronze was expensive and difficult to produce on a large scale.

"We should start by testing with bronze, and then gradually study how to use iron. That's the right way," Chen Shao said. "Otherwise, who can afford this thing?"

Cannons are not meant to be played with as a fancy trick; their true purpose is to be used on the battlefield amidst thousands of troops.

Having one or two courses isn't very useful.

The staff of the Engineering Institute nodded repeatedly, taking it to heart.

Chen Shaolai was very excited on this trip, but actually quite disappointed, though he didn't show it at all.

Instead, he smiled broadly, encouraged the staff of the engineering college, and offered them a generous reward.

A craftsman in the crowd called out, "Your Majesty, please name this cannon!"

Pang Ge was quite clever; although he hadn't done anything special, he couldn't stand being left out and loudly proclaimed, "How about calling it 'Dai Wang Pao'?"

Chen Shao smiled and waved his hand, saying, "Keep up the good work. Whoever makes a good cannon barrel first, and whose power is decent enough, will name the cannon after themselves!" (End of Chapter)