Keqing, it’s just cultivating immortality, is it that difficult?

As he was about to lead his men away, the others could not help but curse when they saw that Vice Admiral Qiao had betrayed them:

"You are a spy! A spineless man!"

"Damn it! Have you forgotten how the general died?"

"Are you going to mine here for the rest of your life!?"

Listening to the voice beside him, Qiao Zhang had a blank expression on his face. He knew that the voice not only wanted him to show his loyalty, but also wanted him to completely separate himself from this group of people. Only in this way could he be one with the group and people would feel more at ease.

So when he learned that someone wanted to escape, he decisively used this as a token of his surrender, because he saw that the general named Ji who was in charge of them did not look surprised at all.

Sure enough, they already knew everything.

Seeing that Ji Mian was satisfied, Qiao Zhang said quickly:

"I wonder if I can ask to see the princess and serve her!"

Chapter 588 Speculation (4000)

The first thing Keqing asked about Qiao Zhang, who Ji Mian brought with him, was:

"You abandoned your brothers, don't you feel regretful?"

Qiao Zhang raised his head with a deep gaze.

"They are all evil people, how can you say you regret it? Judging from the attitude of the princess, you should be a kind and benevolent nobleman. Since Qiao wants to work for you, he naturally has to stay away from these people."

"Yes, I do hate these evil people. They turn the pain of others into their own source of happiness for their own selfishness. Such people really do not need pity. They should either die or atone for their sins."

Keqing looked towards Qiao Zhang.

"But you, very

Ambitious, but also very smart, he is someone who can endure humiliation and know how to change his position. "

"So I gave you a chance to see whether you wanted to follow those people and leave, or use them as a token of your loyalty as fuel for your ambitions. Now it seems that you chose the latter."

Qiao Zhang's heart moved slightly. So, their conspiracy, or the patrol loopholes they deliberately left before, were all under the nose of this little princess from beginning to end?

Is this cutting off your own retreat?

"You're right."

A firm voice came from above his head. The other party seemed to have seen through his thoughts and did not hide it at all.

"Aren't you afraid that I will betray you in the future? You also said that I am very ambitious, and perhaps I will..."

I don't know what he was thinking. He clearly wanted to escape and didn't want to stay in the dark mine to mine. Qiao Zhang suddenly said these words to the princess above.

He regretted it as soon as he said it.

What are you doing there? Do you still want to leave?

But even though he felt regretful, he didn't show any expression on his face.

Keqing looked at him and blinked. If your loyalty hadn't increased, I would have really believed your lies.

As soon as this sentence came out, the loyalty soared from 10 to 13 in an instant. Although it was only three points, it was much better than those people with negative numbers.

Ending with betrayal?

Keqing didn't feel much. Qiao Zhang probably hadn't imagined that she could see the loyalty of others and a person's general past. That was why she was not worried about Qiao Zhang's betrayal, because she would kill the betrayer before he did.

Keqing did not answer Qiao Zhang's stupid question. She said slowly:

"Who will deliver the weapons each time, and how many will be delivered at a time?"

"We basically deliver once every three months. There will be special people to contact us. The weapons include swords, spears and knives, and most of them are tempered pig iron..."

Qiao Zhang said subconsciously. He looked up and saw Keqing motioning for him to continue, so he continued:

"Those special people seem to be private soldiers like us. I can feel that their situation and force are similar to ours."

"I have also asked around, and they seem to be using the pig iron to make bows and arrows..."

After all, there were no craftsmen in Qu County who could make bows and arrows, and the ones sent were all craftsmen who could forge swords and guns, and there were not enough people. The people who were captured were good at tempering impurities, but if they really wanted to make weapons, they still needed professional blacksmiths to do it.

As he spoke, Qiao Zhang informed Keqing of several transportation locations. The transportation direction changes in real time, and only after receiving a letter from above to inform the direction can the next transaction location be known, so the transaction points mentioned by Qiao Zhang are no longer useful.

But even so, it can provide some information, such as the approximate location of the people they are trading with, the number of people, etc.

Keqing nodded.

"If I let you take my people to trade, will they find out?"

Qiao Zhangdon:

"No... Even we often suffer casualties. I remember that they had many new faces last time. It seems that they suffered a lot of casualties because they encountered a large number of ogres. We can also find similar reasons."

"How does Song Zhi usually communicate with you? Does he send letters directly?"

"Usually, two letters will be sent directly, one to the county magistrate and one to Li Qiang..."

Keqing seemed to be thinking:

"In other words, those county magistrates have all turned against us? They all know about the existence of private soldiers?"

Keqing murmured, and then changed her mind. Yes, the one who didn't defect would probably be dead, and a new county magistrate would have been replaced long ago.

"Song Zhi has been planning for a long time, and I'm afraid he has already controlled this area in his hands."

Ji Mian on the side frowned. He didn't expect that Song Zhi was really so ambitious and powerful.

Such a big move but not showing it clearly is not short-sighted like the Goddess Cult.

It is obvious that this person has the qualifications to be a hero. If he really succeeds, it will be a danger to the Great Zhou!

"Well, if he hadn't touched my fiefdom, and if I hadn't come to Tongzhou Prefecture by chance, I probably wouldn't have known about this person, and I wouldn't have known that Tongzhou Prefecture was turned upside down by him."

"In this case, this natural disaster is both good and bad for him."

The good thing is that they can quickly expand themselves. With food, they will have manpower and no longer have to be sneaky like before. The bad thing is that they can no longer hide. Everything that happened before will be exposed soon. And seeing that Song Zhi ordered the county magistrates to move the granaries, he is probably going for broke and doesn't want to hide anymore.

Not only that, he also instigated the Goddess Cult to attack the surrounding counties to provide himself with a buffer, create chaos, and hide his own situation.

"I don't know how many private soldiers Song Zhi has. If there are tens of thousands, it will be troublesome."

Keqing pondered for a moment.

"About three thousand."

"How does the princess know? Is there any definite news?"

Ji Mian was surprised, but saw Keqing blink.

"We can make a rough estimate based on the account book. I looked at the account book. From the beginning of mining to a year ago, the amount of pig iron mined has been maintained at one shipment per month, and blacksmiths are sent from time to time. This shows that there is an urgent need for weapons over there."

"But until a year ago, the amount of iron ore mined increased, but the trading volume continued to decline and became once every three months. The blacksmiths were also called away. But at that time, there were no natural disasters, and there were no invasions by refugees and bandits. This shows that iron has met the demand for weapons."

"So, based on the previous weapons transactions, plus the losses and the like, Song Zhi should only have about 3,000 private soldiers, and the weapons he obtained later should have been used for trading."

At this point, Keqing looked at Qiao Zhang in front of her.

"And I found that there is a difference in quality between weapons one year old and weapons one year later. The latter are much worse than the former. I don't think Song Zhi will give his soldiers inferior weapons."

Qiao Zhang on the side looked at Keqing in surprise. How could she see this?

It seems that my loss was not unfair.

"Yes, we were told not to make the weapons so good... The first half of the year was all about trading weapons, and the second half was about weapons, including pig iron."

Keqing nodded slightly, that was right.

"Three thousand... No wonder the commander didn't dare to act rashly..."

"The commander is also in cahoots with Song Zhi!?"

"It's not like they were in cahoots with each other, but they should have some idea in their minds, similar to the apparent division between Chu and Han. They may not have realized it at first, but even if they realized it later, it would be too late."

"I remember that the people who escaped said that the city seemed to be recruiting soldiers. I'm afraid that the commander also guessed that Song Zhi had private soldiers and discovered something, so he was anxious..."

Keqing shook her head slowly.

Seeing Ji Mian frowning in deep thought, with a look of deep hatred and resentment on his face, she didn't think there was anything wrong.

As the saying goes, the enemy is in the open while we are in the dark. Although we are not as many as them, we have room for development and can develop secretly...

This group of people are just arresting people indiscriminately without knowing how to rest and recuperate. Their food supplies will eventually run out, and are the soldiers they forcefully recruited really that reliable?

Keqing doesn't think that soldiers trained under such intimidation and life-and-death pressure will be obedient. As for Song Zhi, the private soldiers he raised in this way may not be so easy to control.

Especially in this chaotic time with natural disasters.

“When is the next transaction?”

"About a month from now..."

Qiao Zhang reacted quickly and asked himself what the person was asking.

"The princess wants me to go?"

"Well, don't you have ambitions? This princess will give you a chance. When the next letter arrives, you and Ji Mian will take people to trade. Don't let them find out about the changes in Qu County. Is it possible?"

Keqing raised her eyes to look at him.

Qiao Zhang immediately realized that his opportunity had come and responded quickly.

Keqing nodded, and saw that his loyalty had slightly increased, but she didn't say anything.

He just told Ji Mian that if possible, he should find out where they were, the more the better.

Of course, Keqing is not thinking about annihilating this group of private soldiers at the moment. If there is too much noise, they will inevitably be noticed, and it is impossible for her to use the same method.

After all, they are too far away. It is impossible for me to do it one by one. That is impossible and not very realistic.

However, as long as we know their location, it will be easy to deal with them in the future. When the people in Hengxian grow up, we can let General Geng disguise himself as a robber and plunder them, which would be a good idea to cause them serious damage.

In this way, they can weaken their military strength without exposing themselves, and buy as much time as possible to hide. When the military strength is reduced, not only will they have to retrain, but the demand for food will also increase...

Then, maybe...

Soon Keqing had other ideas in her mind.

Her eyes lit up, but when she thought about the current situation, she knew that she could not remember these ideas. She had to find the location of those private soldiers before she could carry them out. For now, the focus was still on maintaining stability and development.

……

……

After incorporating Qiao Zhang into the team and following Ji Mian out of the mine and back to Qu County, Keqing discovered that Qu County had already had a foundation for stable development in just ten days, and no major chaos had occurred.

Just like Hengshan County, they still adopted the approach of work-for-relief, whether it was repairing roads or houses, they would not be left idle, and there were also soldiers patrolling the roads to maintain stability.

In particular, we had to guard against gangsters and the like. Perhaps because of the experience in Hengshan County, the arrangements in Qu County were much more rigorous and organized, and they got things done quickly.

Of course, this is also due to the wisdom and assistance of those gentry, and Qing is very satisfied with this moment.

After seeing that there was no problem in Cao County, he led his men back to Hengshan.

As soon as they returned to Hengshan, they immediately packed up Li Yu and others and sent them to the barracks for some training.

"Princess, you are finally back!"

"Are you okay going out?"

"Why have you lost weight? If the master and mistress saw it, they would be very worried..."

As soon as he returned to the government office, he was faced with Yunling's nanny-like concern. One moment he felt that she was too thin, and the next moment he felt that she looked tired and listless. He was simply lying with his eyes open.

Keqing looked at herself and made sure that she had not lost weight. Not only that, she had gained weight, and even her height had increased a little. She had obviously grown taller.

But even so, Yunling still firmly believed that she had lost weight, and Keqing was helpless.

"Okay, I've lost weight, and I don't have enough to eat or wear warm clothes outside. I miss the braised pork you made, Yunling..."

As he said this, he looked at Yunling pitifully.

Being looked at by her own princess like this, Yun Ling blushed:

"I'll make braised pork for you right now. What else would you like to eat?"

"Well, let's have something lighter..."

Seeing them leave in a hurry, Keqing finally breathed a sigh of relief. Then she asked someone for some water and washed up. Only then did she feel refreshed.

Cool.

After eating and returning to the familiar environment, Keqing calmed down.