Zhou Lang Zhou Lang

Li Mu handed him a handkerchief, withdrew his thoughts from Huang Yueying, and hurriedly returned the gift with a smile: "This is not the way I came up with, how dare I take credit for it? I can only thank Mr. Zhang for his hard work."

The act of opening the salt is her "retreat" for her future. Anyway, the aura of her "Sun Quan" is enough to gain a foothold in Jiangdong, and any extra actions will be just icing on the cake.

Without waiting for Zhang Zhao to be modest, she bowed to him again, "It's just how to keep the method of making salt from being leaked out, and I need to trouble Mr. Zhang a lot."

Zhang Zhao wiped the sweat off his face, breathed a sigh of relief, and immediately changed back to the dignified and dunsu elder: "It's only natural, Zhao has asked General Ziyi to send troops to station here. The salt fields of the Law of Salt are also strictly guarded by soldiers, and the residents of the salt are not allowed to enter without permission.”

Li Mu nodded, glanced around, lowered his voice and said, "The cost of making salt has decreased, but the output has increased a lot. If it is sold directly to the public, the price will definitely fall accordingly. Therefore, I want to buy salt from the world every year. Pick out two or three salt merchants, each send a salt quote, and come by letter. I will sell all the salt directly at a low price, and the salt merchants will resell it to the people. As long as the price is not higher than the current price The price, if you think about it, will not cause dissatisfaction among the people.”

Zhang Zhao's eyes froze, and he raised his head to look at her suddenly: "Mr. Quan wants to do monopoly business?"

The cost is reduced. Even though the pricing is limited, the profit between the purchase and sale is enough for all salt merchants to envy, not to mention two or three companies are selected every year. a sum.Afterwards, the tax when the salt merchants sell it is another sum. In addition, they have a large amount of salt in their hands, and they are not afraid that these salt merchants will drive up the price of salt. As long as the salt in the salt field flows out a little, it is enough to balance the control The price of supply and demand can't be regarded as competing for profits with businessmen, but it is not worrying with the people.

The method of taking salt is her fault, but this plan is only worth mentioning as Sun Quan.

But what Zhang Zhao thought was that Jiangdong was close to the sea, no matter how inefficient it is to cook the sea to get salt, none of the aristocratic families in Jiangdong would stop taking a bite out of it.Even though the amount of salt has increased, if Li Mu wanted to monopolize it, wouldn't it still infringe on the interests of these aristocratic families?

Of course Li Mu understood his concerns, Zhang Zhao was not from a local family, and Sun Ce had always used him to control the Wu family, but in the face of such huge interests, Zhang Zhao alone was not enough to balance these families.

After waving his hands, Li Mu smiled slightly at him: "The aristocratic clan in Wudi, Gu Lu Zhuzhang, is there any family that doesn't have a line of business?"

"Master Quan wants to sell them the salt?" Zhang Zhao frowned disapprovingly.Since he arrived in Wu County, he has been plotting with these four families about their attempts to set foot in the saltworks almost every day. Although these four families have benefited from the saltworks, they dare not be too arrogant after all.Once the salt is sold to them, isn't that tantamount to publicly acknowledging their status in the saltworks?

As soon as he said this, he himself suddenly realized that he was unwilling to let them get involved in the salt business in the past because he was afraid that they would take the opportunity to accumulate salt and cause chaos among the people, thus shaking Sun's prestige.But now, with the output of the saltworks, if they want to collect...

Then let them go!

Seeing that Zhang Zhao had figured out the key point, and nodded slowly, Li Mu finally heaved a long sigh of relief, and used the back of his hand to put a cooling sticker on his hot cheek——the matter of the salt field was settled, even if it was peeled off. With Sun Quan's skin, her prestige in Jiangdong was truly settled.

When Zhou Yu finally returned to the army and saw Li Mu again, he was so startled by her wheat-like complexion that he almost fell off his horse.

Since midsummer this year, there has been little rain.At the beginning, Li Mu was fortunate that the output of the salt field was rising steadily under the scorching sun, so when Gu Yong proposed to select a group of strong and capable salt farmers from the original salt cookers and transfer them to the shipyard, and pay them with salt. She readily agreed to build warships on a large scale.Zhou Yu strongly opposed it when he didn't want to.

Zhou Yu advocated that the remaining strong labor force be used to dredge the river in the six counties of Jiangdong, to draw water to open fields, to guard a season of rice, and even to store food for military supplies for a year.

Gu Yong was resolute in nature, although he didn't say much, he must do what he said. After arguing with Zhou Yu for a few words, he stuck his neck at the entrance of the salt field, his face darkened and his mouth tightly shut, as if he had turned into a wall. Don't let Zhou Yu take half a step.

Due to the influence of Gu's family in Wu and Gu Yong's reputation of being upright and upright, the famous general who was invincible throughout the ages could only use a roundabout tactic, ordering a light cavalry and copying the group to the shipyard. The line of Yanmin retreated.

In terms of tactics, how could Gu Yong, who had never fought before, be Zhou Yu's opponent?When he finally found out that the salt people had never reached the shipyard, he was too late to catch up.In a rage, he sued Li Mu.

At this time Li Mu was in Mrs. Wu's room, kneeling upright on the soft mat, with his head slightly lowered, his cheeks flushed, staring at a cup of tea on the table in front of him, pursing his lips in silence.

"Brother has already agreed to this matter, but I know that you are not an ordinary girl who only knows how to obey the orders of your father and brother, so I must first ask you what you mean."

As soon as Zhou Yu came back, he came to visit her before taking off his armor. He told Tai Shici that he asked Tai Shici to marry Li Mu that night, and asked her to come forward as a matchmaker.

The elders of his clan now live in Jiangbei, and it is not easy to travel together in troubled times, and they don't know how long it will take to rush over.The marriage contract is determined by the orders of the parents.Tai Shici's eldest brother is like a father, and he and Sun Ce are brothers and sisters. It is most appropriate to invite Mrs. Wu Tai to come forward.

Li Mu's experiment of drying salt is so successful, Zhang Zhao must expand the scale of salt extraction, and then ask Tai Shici from Sun Quan's mouth to build a salt field in her name. Strange stories will be known all over the world.At that time, when Zhou Yu expressed his intention to marry again, he really "begged" to marry him.

Taking salt drying as a step forward, although Li Mu had planned for a long time ago, he never thought about how to implement it. At most, he only denied it when others attributed the salt drying to "Sun Quan".Zhou Yu used her own prestige as a ranking and the marriage contract as a reason to promote her prestige in the fastest and most effective way, which is not thoughtful.

The last time Zhou Yu mentioned asking Mrs. Wu to be the matchmaker to conclude a marriage contract, she just thought it was his wishful thinking and blocked her back. This level is intended.

The hot air above the teacup seemed to be ironing all the way to his heart. Li Mu blushed, picked up the teacup and took a sip, then looked up at Mrs. Wu and smiled slightly: "Thank you Mrs. Tai for making it happen."

As soon as the voice fell, there was a rush of footsteps outside, to report that Gu Yong and Zhou Yu were arguing endlessly, and asked her to go quickly.

"Go quickly. Seeing Gong Jin saves him the quarrel and hunts twelve pairs of live geese quickly." Mrs. Wu joked. Li Mu couldn't help but think of Zhou Yu when he talked about "hunting wild geese". Suddenly laughed out loud.

Li Mu took his leave with Sun Shao who was practicing calligraphy in the inner room.Walking to the front hall, I saw two rows of civil servants and military generals, as if they were discussing matters in the morning and evening.Gu Yong's black face seemed to be brought to the city by soldiers, but Zhou Yu lowered his eyebrows and lowered his eyes without saying a word. If it weren't for the obvious look on the faces of the rest of the people, she would have thought that she was really brought to the city by soldiers and beat him to the door.

"So... that's why Gong Jin robbed the Yan people?" After hearing Gu Yong's plagiarized accusation, Li Mu concluded with one sentence, and frowned at Zhou Yu.

"It's not a robbery, Yu is just leading the salt people to open the waterway." Zhou Yu smiled softly, corrected a sentence softly, then looked up at her with clear eyes.

From the corner of Li Mu's eyes, he caught sight of Gu Yong raising his hand, giving a false salute, and was about to speak, so he hurriedly suppressed Zhou Yu's lingering voice and asked, "Who do you need permission to mobilize the laborers?"

Probably asking his heart out, Gu Yong bowed to Li Mu, and continued to remain silent with satisfaction.

At this moment, Li Mu felt that someone had pulled his sleeves, and when he turned around, he saw Sun Shao beside her blinking at her fiercely, his eyelashes trembling slightly, his fingers hooked around her cuffs and dangling, like a fluttering bird. The kitten who poured over a porcelain vase and was caught on the spot.

Sun Shao flattened his mouth—when he promised Zhou Yu to use the salt people to open water conservancy projects, he didn't know that Li Mu had other arrangements for these people.

Before Li Mu could react, Zhou Yu's clear and warm voice sounded again: "Yu dare not be self-reliant, so I asked the lord for permission before doing anything."

"You!" Gu Yong suddenly turned his head, seeing Zhou Yu's handsome and extraordinary smile, his heart trembled, and he suddenly realized that he had forgotten a very important thing.

Li Mu presided over the drying of salt in the salt field, and the astonishing output and surplus manpower and material resources are also real.But how to deploy and arrange these manpower, no matter how reasonable their plan is, must be approved by Sun Shao!

Gu Yong has always been a person who respects etiquette and rules, but Li Mu's change of the system of the saltworks was discussed in front of Sun Shao, and the result was so exciting that he didn't notice it for a while, and actually neglected it!

But why didn't Zhou Yu say anything during the confrontation in the salt field?Waiting for him to bring it up in front of everyone, wouldn't that wipe out Li Mu's face in one fell swoop?

Gu Yong's complexion was originally dark, and it has been sunburned several times under the scorching sun these days. No one else could tell when he frowned. He could only see him pointing at Zhou Yu's fingertips and trembling: "Your intentions are not good!"

Zhou Yu raised his eyebrows, but didn't respond, and only met Li Mu's eyes, his eyes were as bright as stars: "Yu's observation of the sky is different recently, summer is long without rain, autumn is early without coolness, there seems to be a severe drought, The agricultural movement of the six counties in the east of the Yangtze River depends entirely on water conservancy. If there is no water storage during drought, even if the fields in the north are barren and agricultural waste, it will not be able to support the army. Because of this, Yu specially asked the Yan people to open and store water sources. Accepted by the lord."

Is there a difference in the celestial phenomena?Li Mu touched the bridge of his nose, and out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of Zhang Zhao's lowered eyes meditating, while the veteran Cheng Pu looked anxious and puzzled. Comparing the two, he vaguely understood the meaning of his words.

Jiangdong is a land of fish and rice. In addition to the agricultural crops in the Northland, there are rice paddy fields. The development of water conservancy is a long-term benefit to the people.Building ships to benefit the army and opening water to benefit the people are both beneficial. Zhou Yu, as a general, took advantage of the celestial phenomena to benefit the people. In the eyes of these people, it should be tantamount to declaring that there will be no war in the near future.

And deliberately designed Gu Yong to make a fuss in front of Li Mu in front of everyone, just to take this opportunity to officially let everyone know about the "open dispute" between them!

That being the case...

"Gongjin's words are right. My lord should put people's livelihood first." Li Mu smiled slightly, and patted the back of Sun Shao's hand holding her sleeve.

Seeing that she was not worried, Sun Shao bent his lips and nodded emphatically.

"It's just that your navy has plenty of ships, but our craftsmen outside the city are in short supply. I wonder if Gongjin can borrow an elite soldier to help?"

The etiquette of the Han Dynasty is very important, so the status of craftsmen is extremely low, and the world despises them.If it weren't for Li Mu's ability to surprise four people with a range of [-] steps, and his record of defeating Jiangxia with a catapult, and then establish a craftsman's office in the name of the Jiangdong official, it would be impossible for people to notice that Craftsman can do such a thing. .

But it is one thing to be aware of it, but the prejudice and contempt deeply rooted in the concept cannot be changed overnight.Therefore, as soon as Li Mu asked Zhou Yu to ask for elite soldiers to fill the craftsman's place, everyone present took a deep breath, either explicitly or secretly.

Not long after returning from Xuzhou, the imperial edict of Emperor Han came as promised on that day.It's just that in addition to the title of Marquis Wu, Sun Ce's original post as prefect of the two places was separated.

Sun Shao led Wujun as the Marquis, Li Mu was the Prefect of Kuaiji, and succeeded Wucheng Marquis, and the post of Jiangxia Prefect fell on Zhou Yu.

Li Mu was well aware of Cao Cao's intention to sow discord. Apart from explaining to Sun Shao about the sinister educational subject matter, he ignored it. The two also continued to stay in Wu County.It's just that unlike Zhou Yu who leads the army and doesn't get involved in government affairs, Li Mu will more or less intervene in Wu County's taxes, salt, food and iron.

As time passed, rumors of her rivalry with Zhou Yu gradually spread.But after all, it was all people's gossip, after countless word of mouth, brainstorming, and no one really saw the two people's quarrel with their own eyes.

Until now!

One intercepted the salt people that the other had set, and the other immediately asked for his elite soldiers to be craftsmen.Still in front of Sun Shao, what is this if it's not a feud?

Therefore, when Zhou Yu smiled and bowed to answer, various speculations emerged in everyone's minds.And behind these speculations, no one knows that when Zhou Yu returned to the barracks and released the news that he wanted a team to go to the craftsman, in order to squeeze into this "team", from swords, guns, swords and halberds to equestrian military orders, the military There are dozens of martial arts competitions almost every day, from morning till night.

These military men have all seen the mountains of corpses and seas of blood under the catapults. No matter what the world thinks, they know best that it is the labor of these craftsmen that brings them military achievements and a greater chance of surviving on the battlefield.

And Li Mu and Zhou Yu were also aware of this point, so they calmly staged such a drama in front of everyone.Those who know that they are fighting openly and secretly are naturally aware of it, and those who don't know will spread the scene of today's confrontation as they wish.

It's just that Gu Yong was cautious by nature, so he still didn't feel at ease, and asked further: "This is only one place in Wu County. If the salt farms in the six counties are all restructured according to the law of Mr. Quan, does Gongjin still need to conscript all of them to open waterways?"

This sentence, before Zhou Yu could answer, Li Mu spoke first: "Mr. Gu's words are wrong. The method of drying salt is not from me. How can we change the salt system of the six counties? Although they are all located in the south of the Yangtze River, But the terrain varies from place to place, so how to change it and whether it can be changed, I have to trouble General Taishi to go back and ask Lingmei for advice.”

As soon as this remark came out, it was as if a stone had been thrown into the center of the lake. Everyone was startled or stunned, with different expressions, and immediately whispered to each other.

Some people, like Zhang Zhao, had heard Li Mu mention that the method of drying salt was not thought up by her. They thought she was humble, and even if they believed it, they never knew that the method of drying salt was actually from a Woman's hand!

Whether surprised or suspicious, only Tai Shici saw Zhou Yu's eyebrows suddenly raised when Li Mu said "Trouble General Tai Shi", and his eyes were full of surprise and joy, and his joy was like a smile like sunshine. The excitement made Li Mu's face turn red.He knew that Li Mu was with Mrs. Wu before, and knew better what Mrs. Wu would talk to Li Mu, so what Gu Yong said and what he accused, to be honest, he didn't listen to much, and didn't say much. care.Ever since Li Mu came out with Sun Shao, his heart was hanging in the air.He wanted to see something from the expression on her face, but he didn't dare to raise his head.With his hands covered in his sleeves and hanging down his sides, a thin layer of sweat broke out on his palms. In his memory, except for the first time he went to the battlefield, he seemed to have never been so nervous.

Tai Shici sighed lightly.

Although he had already seen that his sister had a deep affection for Zhou Yu, but as the eldest brother, it was inconvenient for him to ask many things.What's more, in his eyes, his sister was just a girl who hadn't grown up. Even though he knew that Zhou Yu was sincerely seeking marriage, he was always hesitant about how to tell Li Mu about it.

Now Li Mu's words obviously not only showed that she already knew Zhou Yu's intention of marrying him, but also undoubtedly agreed with him—allowed his marriage proposal.

His heart suddenly relaxed for no reason, before Gu Yong could ask any questions, he cupped his fists at Sun Shao and said, "Since Sister She dedicates this method to the lord, I will naturally let the lord decide."

One word confirmed Li Mu's reputation, and it also set off a huge wave among Jiangdong's aristocratic families.The news that Zhou Yu turned around and proposed to marry him caused even more excitement in the six counties of Jiangdong.

At this time, Li Mu never imagined that this year really encountered a severe drought.It was Zhou Yu who watched the sky with a sentence, and Jiangdong cut the road to open water, dredging the rivers that were mostly blocked by silt in the territory.The waterways are thin and thin, but they extend in all directions. The amount of precipitation has decreased, but the water storage capacity has increased. The growth and harvest of rice have not been greatly affected, so there is a shortage of food here. In the past year, the people in Jiangdong lived fairly smoothly.