Overlord's Road to Ancient Emperors

Kou Xiao knocked on Xiyuan's door again, and asked Li Xu with a shy face, "My lord, did you agree with what I told you last time?"

Li Xu glanced at his luggage and asked indifferently, "What's the matter?"

"It's just a matter of borrowing."

Li Xu pointed to the Kou Mansion next door, "Are there not enough rooms in the Kou Mansion? Or is General Kou trying to force me to return the courtyard?"

"No, no, it's just that the general's yard has been a little uneasy lately. There are always unusual sounds when sleeping at night, and the servants in the mansion will always see black shadows drifting by for no reason. Therefore, at night, no one dares to come in If I stay in that yard, I will be lonely in the end."

"General Kou is still afraid of ghosts?" Li Xu didn't believe it. He killed so many people that he could pile up a city wall. If he was afraid of ghosts, he could still live to this day. As for being lonely, it would be even more ridiculous. There are so many people in the mansion of Kou Mansion, really If you want someone to accompany you, you can pull out a train.

Kou Xiao also knew that this excuse was untenable, and sighed: "I'm not afraid, but I just feel disturbed, and the servants dare not enter my yard. You didn't see that my yard is so deserted. There is not even a cup of hot water, and it is uncomfortable to sleep in the room."

Li Xu has also heard of this. Kou Xiao’s courtyard is empty all the year round, and even the cleaners don’t go there on weekdays. He only goes there when Kou Xiao is at home. He probably doesn’t care too much about it, but it doesn’t matter. It's an excuse for him to move.

"If the Kou family has no useful servants, this king can lend you one or two people to help you clean up the yard. General Kou is not a scourge, and my servants are not too afraid of you to get close."

Kou Xiao waved his hands again and again, "My lord is surrounded by available people, so I won't bother them with such a trivial matter, and this general is only staying for a few days, besides, this Xiyuan is originally Kou's mansion, and I just moved to live in another yard." That's all, the prince refuses to agree, is it because he is afraid that I will cheat on you?"

Li Xu paused, he really didn't think about it, he stared at Kou Xiao and asked, "Would you do it?"

Kou Xiao thought for a long time, and replied insincerely: "No."

Li Xu rolled his eyes and asked again: "Do you dare?"

The corners of Kou Xiao's lips turned up, and he laughed wantonly, "Don't dare, unless you don't want this life. Don't worry, my lord, the general will definitely follow the rules."

He said so, Li Xu really couldn't refuse, but he didn't let him live in Liu Shu's room, but in the courtyard where Ji Hanyu lived before. The new little master didn't live in Xiyuan, but in In the dormitory building of the old palace, after Kou Xiao settled down, Li Xu belatedly thought that he should be driven to live in the old palace.

But as soon as this person entered Xiyuan, he seemed to have taken root in the ground, and it would be very difficult to drive him out again.

Li Xu sighed in a rare way, feeling that he was still too soft-hearted, how could he compromise so easily, this was obviously leading the wolf into the house.

Kou Xiao is a benign wolf, he didn't show his minions at the beginning, he huddled in the yard peacefully, didn't hang around in front of Li Xu, and didn't take the opportunity to make friends, which made Li Xu quite satisfied.

On the second day, Kou Xiao rode his new favorite to the barracks refreshed and refreshed. As soon as he entered the barracks, he bumped into Junshi Jiang and greeted him in a good mood.

Jiang Qiuming's eyes were a bit dark, and he looked like he was not awake. Kou Xiao caught someone and asked, "Did the military master go last night? Look at your darkened face, why do you look a little bit exhausted?"

Looking at his beaming expression, Jiang Qiuming almost thought that he was going to be a groom today, so he almost tied a big red flower on his chest.

"Is the general making good progress?" Could it be that the prince is so easy to coax?

Kou Xiao jumped off the horse, let the soldiers lead the horse to the stables, and said triumphantly: "It's not bad, it's so-so, at least it's a big step forward, and the distance from the prince has been shortened by more than three yards."

Jiang Qiuming only thought that he had changed his yard to live at home, and thought to himself, what is there to be proud of, what does living close to mean?

He is about to become a neighbor with Mr. Ji, that kid is not lukewarm to him, heh, he started to talk in an official tone as soon as he turned into Mr. Juncheng, and asked him how many pieces of glass he wanted, but he asked the prince first.

Although these words are good, but Jiang Qiuming is a fine person, he can tell from his expression that there will be no follow-up to this matter, he is afraid that he will take advantage of the prince.

Kou Xiao asked him in a low voice: "Are there any good things near our barracks?"

Jiang Qiuming came back to his senses, Kou Xiao knew about the wild fruit picking yesterday, and Jiang Qiuming knew about it, and it seemed that the effect was good, so he suggested: "It's getting hotter and hotter, why don't you go to Wushan, ten miles away, and get a bucket of spiritual spring for the prince. Make tea with that spring water The taste must be very good, Wang Ye is a person who loves tea, he must like it."

Kou Xiao doesn't think the prince loves tea, he rarely sees Li Xu making tea at home, and occasionally drinks tea as water, but Lingquan is also good, you can brew fruit to eat in summer, it's very cool.

The two walked into the barracks together, and the officers and soldiers on the school grounds had already started their drills. Kou Xiao put away his private affairs and stood aside watching for a long time. When the drills were over, he called Zhao Gang over and asked, "Our barracks are full of veterans. The drills are too simple, you and the other lieutenants will work together to find some new gadgets for them to play with."

Zhao Gang's face tightened, and he had a bad feeling, "General, there hasn't been much fighting recently, is the daily practice enough?"

Kou Xiao drew a number, "You know our barracks will soon recruit recruits, right? Now these veterans have served for a long time. If new recruits enter the camp, this general intends to train the [-] Kou family troops into a group of elite soldiers."

When Kou Xiao came back from Zhangyi, he was thinking about this matter. The expansion of the military camp was approved by the prince, so it is imperative, but people’s feelings are always close. The Eight Thousand Kou generals accompanied him all the way through life and death. , even if the prince wants to buy it, it is not so easy, but it is different when recruits enter the camp. When the time comes, they will eat the prince's and use the prince's. Naturally, everyone will remember the prince well.

He had to train these 8000 men into elite soldiers who could not be replaced by anyone, and be loyal to him, so as not to be beaten to death on the beach by the back waves.

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Li Xu also went out to the factory early in the morning. After a routine inspection, he took a look at the glass inventory. At first, this thing could not be molded, and what was burned was all slag. Later, it gradually succeeded in a few cups and jars. Such a small thing, but flat glass has only recently been successfully produced.

The inventory of glass is not much, but it is definitely enough to build a large manor. Since Li Xu is planning to build a large one, then this new palace must have enough attractive capital.

This era is not like modern times. Officials who live in a big villa have to be audited and inspected. Back in Yuhang, a small county magistrate had an exquisite courtyard. It is also possible, of course, the consequences of laboring people and wasting money may be military riots and civil uprisings.

Li Xu will definitely not ruin his future. During this period of time, the government is distributing new farm tools. The newly made farm tools are distributed to counties and then distributed to villages and towns. The households are transformed into a village, and one person is elected as the head of the village. The head of the village keeps a set of farm tools. The ten households take turns to use them. As for who comes first, it is up to the head of the village.

Although such an approach will cause many problems, the government can't find a better way, and according to King Yishun's intention, these agricultural tools are temporarily lent to farmers, and when the grain tax is paid at the end of the year, all ten households can pay in full The farmers who pay the grain tax can get the ownership of the farm tools. If a family fails to pay the grain, the farm tools will be confiscated. In this way, even if one or two farmers are not active in farming, there will be neighbors to supervise them.

Although the ancient continuous sitting system has many disadvantages, it is the best supervision method in the period when information transmission is underdeveloped.

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In Kou's mansion, the chief manager of the farm came to the old man, wiped his eyes and cried: "Grandpa, do you think that King Shun is too biased? We are eagerly waiting for the new farm tools, and hundreds of acres of barren land have been reclaimed. As a result, the government actually said that we are not farmers, that we cannot get farm tools, and even grain seeds. Isn’t this a lie? Then we have been wasting our efforts on land reclamation?”

There are many farms under the name of the Kou family. The chief manager is a short and thin middle-aged man with a slightly hunched back, a weathered face, and plain clothes. He looks like a farmer when he walks out. Get the old man's trust.

Before the old man opened his mouth to speak, the old lady beside him said impatiently: "Isn't this farm tool made by the prince's mansion? Just ask Xiao'er to ask the prince for some? Our Kou mansion doesn't even have a few broken farm tools. come?"

The steward looked helpless, "I don't know, the old lady, this farm tool belongs to the palace, but the government issued a notice saying that only farmers can use it for free. People like us can buy it if they have to pay, and they can only buy it outside."

"What's the reason for this?" As a privileged class, the old lady never thought that they would be ranked behind the farmers when there was something to share.

"The government said that this farm tool is used to subsidize poor peasants. We are considered rich households and cannot compete with the people for profit."

"What do you mean by competing for profit with the people? Those inferior untouchables!"

"Shut up." The old man stopped the old lady's resentment, and said in a low voice: "You are too old to be confused. Don't you know that the prince lives in Xiyuan just across the wall? The prince attaches great importance to agriculture and spends his own money to subsidize the poor peasants. It's a good thing, although the new farm tools were issued by the government, everyone knows that they belong to the prince, so he can give it to whoever he likes, who do you want to judge?"

"What's the wall? Doesn't Xiyuan belong to the Kou Mansion? The prince still lives in the Kou Mansion's mansion, so he's not willing to give such a small thing. I think he is also ungrateful."

The old man asked the steward to find Kou Xiao. He would definitely not be able to face such a thing. He couldn't let go of that face.

Guan ran to the barracks to find Kou Xiao in advance, and when he learned that he was returning to the city, he hurried to Kou's mansion, but he was dumbfounded when he heard from the concierge that the general had not returned to the mansion. Where could he find someone in this huge Minzhou city? ?In the end, before he could look for it, the concierge told him in a low voice, "The general has been living in Xiyuan recently, so steward Chen can go and ask."

"The general and the lord live in Xiyuan together?" Chen Guanshi was taken aback, and he couldn't understand the relationship here.

"Don't say that this word was passed on to you by a villain. The old master and old lady will not let the servants pass it on."

Chen Guanshi thought to himself, maybe General Kou had conflicts with the old man and the others again.This kind of thing is not new, but in the past, General Kou lived in the barracks. It seems that the relationship between the general and the prince is very close.

Chen Guanshi walked to the gate of the Wangfu in Xiyuan, summoned up his courage and asked the concierge: "I am the steward of Kou's mansion, if I have something to see General Kou, please pass it on." After speaking, he stuffed his wallet and went.

The concierge stuffed his purse into his sleeve, and said coldly: "General Kou said that he is not here, if you want to find him, please come to the barracks tomorrow."

This is too obvious, Kou Xiao is someone who doesn't want to see the Kou Mansion, Chen Guanshi thought to himself, the conflict this time is a bit big.