The king behind the empress

Chapter 405
The test of the steam train went smoothly, and the train ran for several days without any problems. This relieved Mo Zizai and others, and immediately started to make more steam trains.

However, the two existing trains transport coal and other commodities most of the time, but not much when they actually transport food.

After all, it was time to fight the southern counties, and the farther south they got, the richer they became. Like Yuanling County, there was no shortage of food and grass at all, so there was no need to transport food and grass there.

However, there was a food crisis in the counties to the north, and the steam train ran over there to pull the food.

The appearance of the steam train, an epoch-making means of transportation, shocked the southern counties who heard the news, but when they learned that the operation of this thing needs to be carried out on the rails, they were a little relieved.

After all, the rails are easy to destroy, and without the rails, this big guy is basically a waste.

So you only need to destroy their rails before the war, and then you don't have to worry about them using this thing to transport soldiers and food, and there is no big problem.

Therefore, although the aristocratic families in the southern counties took the steam train to heart, they were not in a hurry to send people to destroy the rails immediately.

After all, the two sides are still in the period of confrontation, and the southern counties are trying their best to recruit troops. They don't want to stimulate Mo Zizai at this time and let Mo Zizai send troops in advance, so although they know that this thing will bring a lot of convenience to the court, they still It's better to endure this matter and let Mo Zizai use the steam train to do whatever he wants.

And after the steam train was finished, Mo Zizai also had a lot of leisure. Anyway, Tang Weiyi took care of the affairs of the court, so he didn't have to worry about it. He handed over the affairs of the southern counties to Yang Yanzhang, who had full authority to deal with them. He goes again.

Therefore, he, the lord, was completely idle, and took Tang Weilu and him to wander around the capital all day long, like a street stalker, there was no place he hadn't been to, even the brothels in the capital were visited by the two of them several times.

And while the two of them were hanging out like this, the weather was gradually entering winter.

This year's weather is similar to what Mo Zizai expected, and the temperature is exceptionally low. According to reports from southern spies, even the canals in the states and counties that were not too cold in winter in previous years have been frozen this year.

The people in the south who were not well prepared for this were caught off guard and many were frozen to death. As for the livestock that were frozen to death, there were countless.

It's just the weather, it's hard to say which year it will be a little colder, so although this disaster came suddenly, no one took it to heart at all, let alone think of the millennium because of the cold previous cold disaster.

……

In Hubu, Mo Zizai, who was wandering around all day, was finally caught by Shen Qisheng, who half begged and half forced Mo Zizai to Hubu.

"Master Shen, what's the matter with you?"

Mo Zizai felt a little helpless in his heart. The person he was most afraid of seeing now was Shen Qisheng, because all the burdens of the household department were on Shen Qisheng's shoulders, such as opening an official bank, coal trading, distribution of disaster relief supplies, and frontline needs. Shen Qisheng was responsible for the amount of military rations.

But there is no one in the household department now, except for Shen Qisheng and Song Hui, the rest are some fresh people who have been promoted.

Even the two principals, Shen Qisheng and Song Hui, were officials who became monks halfway through, and they were not proficient in their business. If it weren't for Yang Weishang's help, they would have died of exhaustion in the household department.

Therefore, Shen Qisheng, who was tricked into boarding a pirate ship, every time he met Mo Zizai or wrote a memorial to Mo Zizai, there were endless things that Mo Zizai had to figure out how to deal with, which made Mo Zizai's head bigger.

"Returning to the lord, it is the cold disaster this year, and the production of coal is not enough."

Shen Qisheng's expression was even more helpless than Mo Zizai's. He really couldn't figure out why he wanted to be the secretary of the household department in the first place, and he seemed to be very happy at the time, he was really obsessed.

Not to mention anything else, since he became the Minister of the Household Department, he has not slept well for more than three months, and even when he is particularly busy, he will stay up all night for several nights. Time to sleep.

If it wasn't for his cultivation base and being able to hold on a little bit, he would have fallen ill from exhaustion.

But Shen Qisheng doesn't bother to talk to Mo Zizai about these things now, because he knows that Mo Zizai has nothing to do now. After all, Mo Zizai also knows that their household department is busy with affairs and there are few people. He has already told Yang Weishang to give Yang Weishang priority. Their household department replenishes manpower.

Now, in terms of establishment alone, the Ministry of Households is already fully staffed. The problem is that these people have never been officials, and unlike him and Song Hui, they crawled out of the market, so when doing many things, Some are inexperienced and need to be adjusted slowly.

So it's useless to complain to Mo Zizai now, after all, they have already made up for them, so what else can Mo Zizai do.

"Not enough coal?"

Mo Zizai was a little surprised. He had already greeted Shen Qisheng in advance about the cold disaster. With the train, coal was also being transported to various states and counties non-stop. In order to increase the production of coal, Mo Zizai even specially asked Shen Qisheng to copy it. Some aristocratic families who were making small moves in the dark, threw all the warriors in their families into the mine after turning on the accelerator.

It stands to reason that with these people, the output of coal should be enough.

"Didn't you plan it before? How could it not be enough?"

Mo Zizai frowned for a moment, then asked, "Where exactly is the coal consumption exceeding the standard? Find out if there are family members who are hoarding in secret?"

"The imperial court has a decree expressly prohibiting the hoarding of coal in large quantities. If they are found out, they will be copied directly."

Speaking of this, Mo Zizai said in a somewhat cold tone: "This king is worried about lack of money, so I just cut them off and used their property to fill the treasury."

"No, my lord, listen to me..."

Hearing that Mo Zizai wanted to kill people and ransack his house if he disagreed with him, Shen Qisheng couldn't help being speechless. He quickly explained: "Under our rule, there are not many people hoarding coal. The problem mainly lies in the southern counties and the northern border."

"The temperature in the southern counties dropped sharply this time, and countless people and animals were frozen to death. Therefore, many merchants from the south came to our side to buy coal."

"Although there is a limited purchase order, they can't buy too much by themselves, but they can't stand the large number of them. In addition, they even buy from the people at a premium. In this way, coal is not enough."

After saying this, Shen Qisheng continued: "In addition to these, there are also many people from the northern border to buy coal."

"After all, the northern border is very cold every winter, especially this year's colder than previous years, so there is a greater demand for these things in the northern border."

"That's true."

Hearing what Shen Qisheng said, Mo Zizai couldn't help but nodded. Their previous budget did not include the southern counties. Now that they suddenly encountered a cold disaster, they would run out of coal in one go.

However, Mo Zizai thought for a while, and then asked, "Don't the northern and southern counties also have coal mines? Why don't they mine coal themselves, why do they have to come to us to buy?"

"Especially in the northern region. If I remember correctly, General Han Qu once said that there are even open-pit coal mines there. As for buying from my side?"

"It's too late to mine."

Shen Qisheng shook his head and said: "Before, few people used coal for heating, so except for those with special needs, few people would mine coal, and today's winter is coming so fast, they are now mining , it’s just too late.”

"And this is not the most important thing. The most important thing is that what they lack is not only coal, but also furnaces and the technology to turn coal into briquettes."

"Then teach them the technology."

Mo Zizai thought about it for a while, and then said: "They can make the stove themselves if they want to, or they can buy it here if they don't want to."

"As for coal, the imperial government will no longer sell finished honeycomb coal products, but only coal and tools. If you can't afford tools, you can rent them."

In order to promote the briquettes, Mo Zizai hired the Habayashi Army to get them out of the briquettes and pay them one by one, and then sell the finished products they made directly to the counties.

Although it is easy to promote in this way, it has brought huge pressure on transportation, and the fee paid to the Habayashi Army is also an additional expense, which is not necessary at all.

Now, since briquettes have been promoted, this method can be changed.

Promote the production technology of briquettes in an all-round way. After all, this thing is not difficult. As long as it is said clearly, everyone can make it when the common people buy coal.

As for Jiangnan and the northern border, there is no need to hide it at all, just take the initiative to let them learn from it.

After all, Mo Zizai waited until the end of the new year to wipe out both the northern and southern forces. At that time, the people in the north and the south will still be his people. Now let them popularize this method, although The imperial court will earn a lot less money, but it will save countless people, and when Mo Zizai recovers these places, it will save him to send people to promote it himself next year, which is also a good thing.

What's more, although the imperial court will earn less money now, since they rebelled, Mo Zizai has no intention of letting them go. When the time comes, they will all ransack their homes. The money will still be his, it's just a little bit sooner or later. Need to hurry.

"Prince Gao Yi, I admire you!"

Hearing that Mo Zizai said that he would disclose the method of making coal briquettes, Shen Qisheng couldn't help but salute Mo Zizai. Having been in business for generations, he knew very well how many people could be saved by Mo Zizai's simple order.

"Forget it, stop bragging, these things are what this king should do."

Mo Zizai shook his head, he didn't take Shen Qisheng's words to heart, he thought for a while, and then said: "As for the lack of coal production, it's easy."

"Give me half a month. During this time, there must be dishonest families and sects. I will ask Yu Zhisi to check and copy them."

"There must be a lot of warriors under them. With those people, I will be able to increase the coal production for you in half a month at most. If the production capacity is over at that time, you can also dump coal to the southern counties. Suppress the price of coal over there, so that people who have no money over there can also use coal for heating.”

"..."

Shen Qisheng was a little helpless, after all, he still had to use the method of ransacking the house to solve the problem of coal shortage.

However, Shen Qisheng thought for a while, other than this method, he didn't seem to have any good solution, so after thinking for a while, Shen Qisheng simply went with Mo Zizai.

He still has a lot of things to do, so he has no time to think of solutions for those aristocratic families. Although he thinks it is inappropriate to kill people to solve the problem of coal shortage, but anyway, he is not a good person, so Mo Zizai can let him kill if he wants to. .

As long as he can settle his own affairs, Mo Zizai will kill whoever he likes.

……

With all parties intending to exercise restraint, the situation has always seemed peaceful, and in this way, the time has gradually come to the New Year.

This is the first time Mo Zizai has celebrated the New Year in this world since he awakened his past life memories.

It's just that this year doesn't mean much to Mo Zizai.

After all, his parents are gone, and Wei Yi's parents are gone too. As for Mei Shuying, she is an orphan at all.

Therefore, the four members of their family can't even make up one immediate family member. For them, the difference in this year's life is not very big.

But fortunately, Mo Zizai's sixth uncle did not forget his nephew, he brought his family to the palace to meet Mo Zizai, which made Mo Zizai have a lively year.

……

After the Chinese New Year, and two months later, the weather gradually warmed up, and the southern counties, which had been resting for half a year, were finally ready to move.

"Leader Situ, I wonder when you plan to do it?"

In Jiangling County, the patriarchs of the aristocratic families from the southern counties gathered again, and one of them looked at Situ Yao and asked: "Our people are almost assembled now, I don't think we need to wait any longer now, right? "

"It's not impossible."

Situ Yao has been thinking about this issue for the past few days. After hearing the words of the Patriarch, he said, "But before we start, there are still two things to be resolved."

"There are two more things to settle?"

Hearing what Situ Yao said, the patriarchs of these aristocratic families couldn't help being a little surprised. Yin Zhu's father, Patriarch Yin, asked, "I don't know what two things the leader said?"

"First, before sending troops, that thing called the rails must be destroyed."

Situ Yao looked at the crowd with a serious expression, and then said: "Otherwise, if he is allowed to transport troops from the rear, then we don't need to continue this battle."

"It makes sense."

Everyone nodded, and then said: "It's not difficult at this time, we just let those sect masters do it."

"After all, they can't march and fight, and destroying these things is still a piece of cake for them."

"It is."

Situ Yao also nodded in agreement. Although he had planned this before, his words were too offensive, so he deliberately did not bring them up.

After all, it is not difficult for those sect members to destroy the railway tracks, but it is difficult to come back alive, so if he proposes this method, he will definitely be hostile by those sects, and it would be best for others to propose it at this time.

After talking about the first thing, Situ Yao started to talk about the second thing, "This second thing is also very important."

"That is, we can't be the only ones to send troops in this battle, the King of Bei'an must also take action, otherwise when we fight with the court and lose both sides, he will come out to reap the benefits of the fisherman, then we will not be making wedding dresses for others in vain?"

　Thank you for the 100 starting point coins rewarded by Ming, a gentleman. I haven’t seen the reward for a long time, so I would like to thank you specially for your support.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)