The Empress Kneels in Her Palace to Admit Her Mistakes After Slaying Her Ways in the Female-Oriented

Source City!

City Lord's Mansion.

Unlike when Hu Shaoyou was in charge, Yuancheng is now a completely new Yuancheng. In addition, the money that Hu Shaoyou had squandered did not flow out, and Yuancheng did not suffer any losses. Now, its spirit has been renewed, and it can become a solid rear base for Ren Tianye's southern expedition.

Moreover, the scale of this rear area has now expanded.

"General Zhang Shi..." Gu Qing, who also looked brand new, happily reported on the achievements of the past period: "Under your leadership, the harvesting of sweet potatoes, ah, no, yams, is basically over."

"Including my family's estate, all sweet potato producing areas have been taken over and are now under the unified jurisdiction of the Duke."

"The yield of these sweet potatoes is astonishing, and there are so many production areas. I believe that even if the Duke were to wage a protracted war, it would be no problem at all."

Zhang Shi nodded.

Everything has been going very smoothly lately.

Everything going smoothly made him feel dazed.

Is his bad luck about to end?

Because Wu Xingzhou stole his chance to attack Pukou City and also took away his bad luck, things are now going smoothly for him.

When Zhang Shi was in the northern frontier, he was just a minor guerrilla general who loved fortune telling. But after he entered the grasslands, he realized that believing in fate was useless and that only real fighting could cause real damage, so he gradually forgot about fortune telling.

But after this southern expedition, he was "humiliated" by Wang Ming in various ways, which made him start to believe in "fate" again.

Of course, this was just Zhang Shi's thought in his spare time. In reality, Zhang Shi was extremely calm and clear-headed, saying, "The sweet potato producing areas that currently belong to the imperial court have been taken over at the fastest speed."

"Then, next, we should take action against Yunjing and other places."

As he said this, Zhang Shi gazed into the distance.

The Duke set a goal for him: to cut off Pukou City's water and food supplies. Therefore, he would have to penetrate deep into the vicinity of Pukou, seize its sweet potato production area, and leave Pukou City without any external support.

Without delay, Zhang Shi gave the order directly.

"We will set off today, heading straight for the area around Pukou, determined to cut off the sweet potato supply to Pukou City."

"yes!"

Gu Qing accepted the order and immediately went to make preparations.

That day, Gu Qing and Zhang Shi set off in a grand procession, heading straight towards the area around Pukou. When they were almost there, Gu Qing introduced the surrounding area of ​​Pukou to Zhang Shi.

"General Zhang Shi, there are many sweet potato producing areas around Pukou City that belong to Yunjing. The main reason is that sweet potatoes originated from Yunjing."

"We first covered and affected them, and after they tasted the benefits, we expanded on a large scale. Our Yuancheng also benefited from this."

"However, although there are many production areas, there are only two core places: one is called Qingchou Plain and the other is called Luoxia Slope. Right now, we are closest to Qingchou Plain."

"If we can take these two places, I believe that people from other places will definitely follow suit."

Zhang Shi nodded, agreeing with Gu Qing's words. After all, the same approach was used to gather sweet potato production areas near Yuancheng.

Take the biggest one, and the rest will be easy to take.

"Then let's head to Qingchou Plain first. By the way, who governs Qingchou Plain?"

"General Zhang Shi..." Gu Qing said, "The person in charge is called Liu Xingyuan, who was elected by the Liu clan to manage affairs."

"Although this person is only in his thirties, he is exceptionally capable and enjoys extremely high prestige."

"You should know that Qingchouyuan was originally a place where farmers lived for generations. The Liu clan was a large family in the area, owning thousands of acres of fertile land, accounting for more than half of the cultivated land. They monopolized grain, and later monopolized the sweet potato industry, as well as mulberry, hemp, handicrafts, etc."

"They also controlled many tenant farmers, farm laborers, slaves, and artisans, probably numbering in the hundreds or thousands, all of whom depended on them for their livelihood."

"Moreover, the Liu clan has woven a vast network of relationships through marriage, teacher-student relationships, hometown connections, and connections between their disciples and former officials, making them a powerful force in the area!"

"It is remarkable that Liu Xingyuan can manage such a large-scale industry so well."

Zhang Shi nodded again.

Imperial power has never extended to the countryside, so it's not surprising that there are such people in rural areas.

However, in his eyes, they were all pretty much the same, just clay chickens and earthenware dogs!

With the army pressing forward, all must bow down and submit before the iron cavalry.

—And this has always been Zhang Shi's playing style.

However, after experiencing many things, Zhang Shi's playing style has changed somewhat, consciously or unconsciously.

He asked, "So, if we resolve this Liu Xingyuan by force, there's a high probability that some problems will arise?"

"Yes, General Zhang Shi!"

This was exactly what Gu Qing wanted to remind him of, and he quickly said, "If they use force to overwhelm us and seize our property by trickery, given the influence of the Liu clan, it's almost certain that there will be widespread refugees and a collapse of public order."

"Furthermore, offending them is equivalent to offending the entire interest group, and any policies implemented here in the future will not be effective."

These words were different from Zhang Shi's usual self; otherwise, given his personality, he would have simply snorted and marched into the village.

What kind of refugees?

What resistance?

Let's see if his knife is sharp.

Anyway, this place still belongs to Yunjing, so he can target Yunjing directly without even needing to ask the Duke for permission.

However, Zhang Shi had personally witnessed Wang Ming's various operations, which made things that were originally extremely difficult become exceptionally easy.

If Wang Ming could do that, he…

Why not give it a try?

So, almost for the first time, Zhang Shi asked a question that he shouldn't have said.

"What love stories does Liu Xingyuan have?"

"Huh?" Gu Qing was taken aback. "General Zhang Shi, what do you mean by that?"

"So you're saying..." Zhang Shidao continued, "Is this Liu Xingyuan a simp? Or rather, is there a woman he loves but can't have? Would he commit suicide for a woman or something?"

Gu Qing was even more bewildered.

He thought to himself, "What nonsense is General Zhang Shi talking about? Who would commit suicide for a woman? Isn't this a joke?"

But since Zhang Shi had asked this question, even though she didn't understand what he meant, she could only honestly answer, "I don't know the specifics, but..."

"I do know that Liu Xingyuan's wife is very beautiful; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say she's as beautiful as a fairy."

"Moreover, although she came from a humble background, she had an exceptionally good temperament. Back then, she had countless suitors, but it was Liu Xingyuan who eventually won her over."

"However, his wife always felt that Liu Xingyuan was not a good match for him, that was... marrying down, so the two would often have some minor conflicts."

"However, I heard that Liu Xingyuan always takes the initiative to humble himself and try to reconcile with his wife."

"This has kept their relationship relatively stable."

Zhang Shi tried his best to accept these words and discern their usefulness one by one.

The relationship between Liu Xingyuan and his wife is relatively stable.

This is not good news.

However, this message didn't seem to matter much. After all, he had seen and heard of many couples whose relationships were stable but could explode at the slightest provocation, causing catastrophic consequences.

There were some conflicts between the two, and Liu Xingyuan's wife always felt that Liu Xingyuan was not good enough for her.

This seems to be useful.

Liu Xingyuan's wife had many suitors before.

This one seems to be the most useful.

Zhang Shi analyzed everything in his mind, just like he had analyzed the situation on the grassland back then. Unfortunately, after analyzing for a long time, his mind was still a complete mess.

He couldn't help but miss Lu Shuang.

If Lu Shuang hadn't left the army early to gather intelligence, she would have had an excellent advisor.

finally……

Zhang Shi could only sigh.

"Forget it, let's not analyze it for now, let's just try anything."

He said, "In that case, I will write a letter to Liu Xingyuan and give him one day... no, three days, to consider and surrender voluntarily."

"And he was told that under the Duke's command, love is free and equal, and any excessive behavior will be punished by the Demon Suppression Division."

"Once he surrenders, he will know what a true love relationship is."

Zhang Shi racked his brains and came up with these words.

This left Gu Qing somewhat puzzled, but Gu Qing knew how formidable Zhang Shi was; his achievements in sweeping across the northern frontier were not something an ordinary person could accomplish.

He immediately agreed and then went to do it.

……