Cowardly Stepmother Dressed As the Hero

In the residential area near the inner city, dozens of buildings are rising. On the spacious streets, there are people everywhere taking advantage of the sunny weather to come out to breathe.

When they saw Cao Mi and his party, they approached excitedly to salute.

The accompanying guards maintained the order at the scene. Qi You and Cao Mi sat in the carriage and nodded to them across the carriage.

“This is a place specially used for living.” Cao Mi turned his head and introduced to Qi You, “Have you seen the plan on Qi San’s side before?”

“Yeah.” Qi You nodded, “You did a good job, even if I came to host it myself, it wouldn’t necessarily have this effect.”

Qi Rui also praised: “My mother is thoughtful, and she has skilled craftsmen. Many of the plans I have never seen and thought about before are very ingenious.”

He is the eldest of the three children, and Cao Mi usually does not avoid him when making decisions, and even intentionally allows him to participate. So Qi Rui was present, the only one who knew how much energy Cao Mi had put into planning.

Cao Mi puffed out his chest a little proudly.

The farther the carriage went, the more desolate the scenery became. After all, there were undeveloped places outside.

Wang Shu is leading the people, doing the finishing touches for the buildings outside.

After the snowfall, most of the engineering team has stopped work. Many processes need to be exposed to enough sunlight and completely dry before they can continue to work, but as soon as the snow falls, the ground is covered with snow water when the sun comes out, and it is completely impossible to continue.

Wang Shu can only do some steps that are not afraid of moisture in the house that has been built before.

When they came to the place where the remnants were resettled, the conditions were even more rudimentary.

“I have no choice but to wait for the spring to continue construction.” Cao Mi introduced again.

She paused: “But next year, I will focus on the three markets, and let Jirong City replace Changling and become a new trading point outside the customs.”

When Qi You set out on the expedition, places such as Changling and Fengping were under martial law, and the market in Changling was closed down accordingly.

If the market can be reopened in Jirong City at this time, the nearby money and goods can be circulated again.

Although Jirong was further north than Changling, the road between the two cities had already been repaired earlier, and it was not a big problem for those traders to take this extra road.

Qi You heard the words and nodded.

Qi Liuhe’s housekeeper still stayed in Kangcheng, guarding the Bei’an Palace, and by the way, it served as a transfer station for the information flow between the capital and outside the Great Wall, Qi You thought about it and said, “I still keep Qi San in the city, what do you want? , you can go to him directly.”

Cao Mi nodded: “Well, I know.”

The family of five strolled around the outer city, and then went up to the city wall to enjoy a bit of snow before returning to the inner city at sunset.

At night, when Cao Mi was sitting on the bed in a daze, Qi You came over and said, “What are you thinking about?”

Cao Mi was stunned for a moment and replied, “I’m thinking about Lizhou.”

“Lizhou?” Qi You recalled: “I have seen the letter sent by the eldest grandson Ling, and everything is fine in Lizhou.”

“Yeah.” Cao Mi nodded blankly.

“What?” Qi You hooked the corner of his mouth: “What progress has been made in the development of ‘gun-powder’ on Liu Ge’s side?”

Regarding gunpowder, Cao Mi once turned to the simplest formula in the book – sulfur, two nitrate and three charcoal.

Sulphur, saltpeter, and charcoal are not hard to find, but crude gunpowder is not very effective.

She wrote down the recipe and gave one to Qi You and Liu Ge respectively.

As far as Cao Mi knew, Qi You should have sent things to Huaitong for research. Before Qi You’s iron smelting workshop was also opened in Huaitong, Cao Mi suspected that Huaitong might be hiding the technical strength of Qi You’s command.

But perhaps because he had not seen the power of gunpowder with his own eyes, Qi You never paid much attention to this kind of thing. Cao Mi rarely listened to him take the initiative to mention these things.

“No, he is new to shipbuilding now, and the sails alone are enough to give him a headache.” Cao Mi hooked the corners of his mouth.

“Where are you?” she asked again.

Qi You glanced at her: “Huaitong wrote to say that there has been some progress, and maybe the bomb you mentioned can be built next year.”

Cao Mi nodded.

Qi You thought for a while and asked, “Where did you know all these things?”

“Ah?” Cao Mi blinked and replied innocently: “Didn’t you tell the prince? It’s in the Taoist book “Alchemy”.

“I was also looking at the novelty, and it was only on a whim that I wanted people to try it.”

The relationship between the two became much closer, and Cao Mi became more and more proficient at speaking nonsense.

Qi You made a noncommittal “Hmm” sound.

“Does the lord suspect me?” Cao Mi suddenly rubbed towards him.

Qi You was lying on the side with his eyes closed, and when he noticed her approaching, he opened his eyes and looked at her.

He said, “Does this still need to be doubted?”

Cao Mi was taken aback.

The meaning of Qi You’s sentence is actually very informative.

“No need to doubt” means that he has confirmed that his pillow has changed the core.

Cao Mi had vaguely guessed this for a long time. After all, Qi You’s attitude towards himself had no similarities with his previous memory of the original body.

But the first time he heard him “confess himself”, Cao Mi still couldn’t react.

She slowly lay down beside Qi You, huddled into a ball and asked, “Then why didn’t the prince arrest me?”

Qi You turned to look at her: “Isn’t this already caught?”

Cao Mi blushed slightly and buried his head in the quilt.

——

Compared with the quiet winter in Liaozhou, the production work in Lizhou has not been delayed at all because of the winter.

Days are short and nights are long, and the time for drying salt is forced to be reduced, and the work of the salt factory has entered a period of stagnation. But the mulberry eucalyptus that was lost in the east corner, the sugar production project in the village is taking its first step vigorously.

In the Sheng Dynasty, the most common sugars were generally two.

One is maltose with a long history, and the other is sucrose extracted from sugar cane.

However, malt is made of grain, which ordinary people cannot afford. The sugar yield of sucrose is not high, and the quality is also uneven. As a result, the sugars on the market today are very expensive.

The sugar-making method that Cao Mi handed to Beisi is a reference to the sugar-making method after the Tang Dynasty. Compared with the current method, not only the sugar yield has been greatly improved, but the quality of sucrose has also improved a lot.

Moreover, she also proposed that beets, which are now used as medicines, can also be used as raw materials for sugar extraction.

Beisi has ordered people to plant a large number of beets in Zhuangzi, waiting for the harvest next year.

After several months of hard work, Shonai finally made sugar crystals as white as snow.

But this kind of extraction method, which is all manual, is still too slow. Bei Si was troubled for a while, and asked Liu Ge to go there.

“We really don’t have a clue about the tools, so please trouble Liu Jiang to run away.” Bei Si looked at Liu Ge who was adjusting the machine and said apologetically.

He knew that the ploughs, threshers and other machines first used at Rongguang Villa were all invented by Liu Ge, so he had no doubts about Liu Ge’s talent.

Liu Ge waved his hand: “Where do I need to say this. We all serve the princess, and these are what I should do.”

Beisi asked again: “Will it delay your affairs at the shipyard?”

“Well…” Liu Ge pondered for a while: “I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t delay. But things are not going well there now. I’ll come over to develop a sugar machine, let’s just relax.”

The tools needed to make sugar are much simpler than that of a big boat. Liu Ge said that he was “relaxing” and it was actually quite appropriate.

Hearing the words, Bei Si let go of his heart and said, “It’s your job.”

Liu Ge shook his head and said, “It’s okay.”

Seeing that he had nothing else to do, Bei Si simply said goodbye to Liu Ge and quit the workshop without disturbing his work.

Half a month ago, the harvest work in Lizhou also ended.

However, unlike Liaozhou, after harvesting the crops in the field, Beisi immediately arranged for winter ploughing, planting the original fields with crops such as cold-resistant wheat.

Today, the fields are still green.

He walked to his courtyard and met the eldest Sun Ling, who was returning from the sea with wet hair.

Bei Si was taken aback: “Lord Changsun… Have you gone swimming again?”

Changsun Ling nodded: “Skill is something that requires more practice.”

Beisi looked at the sky and persuaded: “Although Lizhou is different from Liaozhou, it won’t snow in winter, but the weather is getting colder. You should… pay more attention to your body.”

Changsun Ling nodded.

He walked to Beisi, suddenly remembered something, and asked, “Did you take Liu Ge over?”

Beisi nodded embarrassedly, and said truthfully, “Yes.”

Just as he was about to explain that taking Liu Ge over would not delay the work at the shipyard, he saw the elder Sun Ling nodded with a look of indifference.

Beisi didn’t know the situation at the shipyard. Seeing this, he thought about it and asked carefully, “How’s the progress at the shipyard…?”

“There’s no progress.” The eldest grandson Ling Dala responded.

Beisi was stunned for a moment, and did not dare to mention it again.

Changsun Ling knew what he meant, smiled and said: “It’s okay.

“How can such a big guy say improvement? I know it, so I won’t worry about it.”

“That’s good.” Beisi nodded in agreement.

“It’s not all fruitless.” The eldest Sun Ling added: “There was an unbuilt large merchant ship in the shipyard before.

“The original owner of the shipyard was dragged down by this big guy.

“After I took down the shipyard, I asked them to build the ship first according to the original plan.

“Probably next summer, Zhuangzili will be able to own a large merchant ship that is entirely our own.”

Beiji nodded.

He hadn’t figured out the stakes yet, and the eldest Sun Ling said again: “I will take a boat and transport a batch of supplies north to Liaozhou.”

Beisi finally reacted.

He thought for a while: “Is that what the lord means?”

He has not received any news about this matter, so he guessed that the princess may not know about it either.

Changsun Ling nodded: “In the past few years, there has been a war in Liaozhou, and everything is precious.

“Send a boatload of things over, which can solve the urgent needs of the prince.”

“Yeah.” Beisi nodded.

The eldest Sun Ling looked at him and said, “By next year, Zhuangzi will basically be able to stabilize and make a profit, right?”

The cement workshop brought by Beisi from Cao Mi and other workshops that can generate money ended the self-production and self-sale model last month, and has already tried to open the market in Lizhou.

Changsun Ling set the time for next year, but in fact, he still left a lot of leeway.

“Yes, it has already started to make a profit.” Beisi nodded affirmatively.

“Then… I need you to help me at that time.” Zhangsun Ling hooked the corner of his mouth and asked bluntly: “Let’s get a boat of important things to send over.”

“Yes, sir, don’t worry.” Beisi replied warmly.

After walking this way, the destination of Beisi has arrived.

He and Zhang Sun Ling looked at each other and smiled, then bowed their hands and approached the yard on the left.

Changsun Ling waved his hand and continued to move forward.

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