Great Zhou Empress

On the river outside Jiankang City, some training ships suddenly appeared.

These are some old boats bought by Xue Zhijing, some of them cost almost no money, because they are too broken, and many merchants gave them to her based on the principle of building a good relationship with Xue Zhijing.

This is the place Xue Zhijing used to train the students of the Military Academy and the Shenji Battalion.

The first step is to let them adapt to the activities on the boat, and then learn to swim and dive. The second step is to send them to the sea off Mingzhou, and let Zhao Wutong use the sea boat to train them to become sailors. The third step is to let them become the navy. You can use long-range weapons, such as bed crossbows, on the stormy sea.

Xue Zhijing wanted to form the Shenji Battalion into a Marine Corps.

This is her weapon against Liao.

Liao Kingdom~

In the field of economy and culture, the Dacheng Dynasty is the most leading country in the entire Eastern world, not one of them. Although the Liao Kingdom created its own characters, it has no cultural advantages.

Economy and culture are like water, which always flows from a high place to a low place. Even if a dam is built, the trend of the water flow remains unchanged. What's more, the Liao Kingdom has never built a cultural dam, especially economically. Try to catch up.

But in the military field, the Liao Kingdom is obviously stronger than Dacheng.

This is the advantage of most nomadic peoples. The wolves running on the grassland are far superior to the stable animals in terms of combat effectiveness and aggressiveness.

Dacheng relied on its strong city walls, large number of people, continuous logistics and high-tech weapons far surpassing those of the Liao Kingdom to stabilize its position.

So Xue Zhijing really didn't want to have too much conflict with the Liao country, and he didn't want to fight the Liao country in hand-to-hand combat.

What's more, when she decided to leave Xiao Liege, she already knew that maybe the next time they met would be on the battlefield, but there must be other ways to avoid it, right?

If there is any possibility, she is not willing to fight against Xiao Liege, no matter who wins or loses, it is fine.

That's just another strategy.

Here, while the navy was training, the queen's child was "born" smoothly.

With a [-]% chance, it came out, it was a boy, he looked good, he was healthy.

Yuan Hanzhang is happy. Of course, he must not be as happy as before. After all, this child is not a child connected by her blood. To be precise, it is just a pawn of hers.

She asked the nannies to take good care of the children, and arranged for the peasant woman's future life, ensuring that this matter would not be leaked, so she went to busy with her affairs.

There are still many things to do. Notify the entire dynasty that the "heir" has been born, and prepare to amnesty the world. We must maximize the advantages of the birth of this "heir".

It's just Xue Zhijing, who increasingly disagrees with this.

What's the matter? Are they going to use this fake child to stabilize the court for the rest of their lives?

Will the whole dynasty continue on a lie?

From about this time, Xue Zhijing's thinking has slowly begun to change.

Xue Zhijing thought it was a good thing that the navy's training ship broke down quickly. She invited Ayila to bring her engineering school students to repair it, and let the students from Shenji Battalion and Military Academy follow suit.

The students of Shenji Camp and Military Academy are already used to it. In the hands of Xue Zhijing and Aunt Xue, you are not alone, you have to be a god. It would be even better if you can fly.

Xue Zhijing believes that people are flexible, and moderate oppression can enhance people's potential.

No, I also learned how to repair the boat.

Ayla recently took her students to improve some weapons that can be used on sea ships. Poor her students, just after entering school, a group of craftsmen, old and young, began to be encouraged to study the most advanced weapon technology of this era.

But there is no way, things push them forward, if they can’t get it out, don’t learn, go back to your hometown and continue to be your own carpenter.

Who can be reconciled to it.

In this era, craftsmen have no opportunities, and most of them are low-class people. Although they may be so skilled that later generations call them works of art, they have no possibility of being reused by the country and becoming famous in history.

So they all work hard.

After all, the power of Ayla alone is not enough, the power of all is powerful.

Xue Zhijing also hasn't seen Ayila for a long time.

She is too busy, she has arranged too many tasks for herself at once, and each task is a long-term priority task, which takes up all her energy, and it has been a long time since meeting Ayla.

Letting her take charge of the Engineering College, Xue Zhijing completely handed it over to her, and he didn't care about anything except spending money.

Ayila took her students to transport the prepared weapons to Mingzhou through the training ship of the military academy, and prepared to install them on sea ships.

Those ships belonged to Zhao Wutong, some small sea merchants and pirates contacted by Zhao Wutong, some belonged to Ayla’s father Suleiman, and some were borrowed by Xue Zhijing.

Just make do with dozens of ships.

Sea-going ships are super-large items in this era, and each one is priced sky-high. If Xue Zhijing wants to buy it custom-made from the shipyard, not to mention the time or the lack of time, it is a bit stretched for the funds.

So borrowing is the most convenient.

Ayila took her students and the sergeants of the Shenji Battalion installed those weapons on these ships.

Being on a ship at sea is different from being on a boat on an inland river. The sea is very windy and rough, which is a great challenge for the soldiers of the Shenji Battalion.

It took them a long time to get used to the bumping and shaking of the sea ship, and it took a long time to learn how to stably operate heavy weapons like bed crossbows on such a sea ship.

Many people vomit frequently.

Xue Zhijing added meat, vegetables and milk to their diet, so luxurious that these sergeants, who had been frightened of hunger since childhood, encouraged themselves one by one, and they had to hold on for this bite.

In this way, Xue Zhijing didn't know whether it was his lectures to them every morning or the three nutritious meals that motivated them.

But what made Xue Zhijing the most headache was that even though he had made a deal with Zhao Wutong before, but this time, Zhao Wutong always squeezed her to give her good food.

It felt like Zhao Wutong couldn't catch Yan Yi, so he used Xue Zhijing as a substitute.

Xue Zhijing grilled fish for her every day, and said, "When you go to the coastline of the Liao Kingdom, you have to support me and bring back my three thousand soldiers without landing."

Zhao Wutong's eyes were fixed on the grilled fish, and he waved his hands, "It's easy to say, easy to say."

Finally, after training for a period of time, the Shenji Battalion gradually began to take the shape of a navy.

The so-called rudimentary form is that they don't vomit on sea ships, can skillfully control the movements of sea ships, and can control weapons on sea ships with a high probability of hitting targets.

The military thing is a long-term effort, and the current prototype is already good.

Xue Zhijing reckoned that it would be soon, and he would need to be taken out for a walk.

During the entire training process, Ayla and her students were constantly repairing possible ship damage, adjusting the status of weapons, and so on.

When Ayila arranged for her students to repair, Xue Zhijing had a little time to chat with her.

But it was obvious to her that Ayla was not in a good mood.

It's not that she doesn't take things seriously, but she is very serious, like a cold master, directing the disciples under her command in circles.

"The Empress Dowager is avoiding me." After talking for a long time, Ayila finally said this to Xue Zhijing.

"Hiding you?" Ayila didn't say anything, Xue Zhijing almost forgot, she was still talking about the two of them, Xipi, what's going on, Xipi was not together yet, so they started to hide.

"It has been a long time."

Xue Zhijing suddenly felt a little guilty, how could Ayila be considered his friend, why did it take him so long to ask about her, and it took so long to find out.

There should always be more care and concern.

"Why is your empress avoiding you, is it?" Xue Zhijing asked.

Ayila looked at her, and there was a slight worry in her eyes exposed outside the veil, "I think the empress may know my intentions."

"You told your empress?" Xue Zhijing was a little surprised.

Ayla shook her head, "It's nothing, I don't know, I just speculate based on my mother's deliberate distance from me for a long time recently. You know, she used to be very good to me , Even if she is dealing with government affairs, she will find time to see me, but now, she always hides from me because there are too many government affairs, and she won't let me see her unless it is something very important."

Xue Zhijing believes in Ayila's analysis, and she also knows how Yuan Hanzhang treated Ayila before.

For Ayila and Yuan Hanzhang, she is happy to see the results. One is the empress dowager who is as important as a relative in her heart, and the other is her good friend. They are both in their prime, although there is a little age difference, but In Xue Zhijing's eyes, the age difference is nothing.

Inexplicably, she actually said, "Would you like me to help you ask your mother what she means?"

A trace of panic flashed in Ayla's eyes, "No, I don't want it anymore."

Xue Zhijing is not a character who likes to match others, but seeing Ayila's depression, he just wants to help her. Xue Zhijing has always advocated directness when it comes to emotional matters.

Ayila took a long breath and said, "I'll go test my mother again. If she really avoids me, then I will give up the idea."

Now that Ayila said so, Xue Zhijing couldn't say anything more.

After a while, Xue Zhijing asked Zhao Wutong to help her continue to train the soldiers of the Shenji Battalion, while she and Ayila returned to Jiankang City.

Ayila was really going to test Yuan Hanzhang, and she prepared a gift for Yuan Hanzhang, which was an invention of hers.

This time Ayila's request to see him had a valid reason, Yuan Hanzhang let her in after thinking about it for a while.

Ayila, wearing a veil, came in, and the moment she saw Yuan Hanzhang, she took off her veil.

Yuan Hanzhang tried his best to look away from her face, looked at the big guy moved by the little eunuchs behind her, and asked softly, "What is this?"

Ayila is so smart, how could she not see the dodge of Yuan Hanzhang's gaze towards her, she felt a pain in her heart, but she still smiled lightly, and said to Yuan Hanzhang, "This is a new timer that I have recently researched. .”

"Timer?"

The earliest chronograph should have been recorded in the Shang Dynasty when it was invented. It was the most convenient sundial to make. It used the movement of the sun's shadow to determine the time.

In order to facilitate timing at night and on cloudy days, later generations invented hourglasses and water leaks.

Later, there was an armillary sphere that used hydraulic and mechanical power to combine the movement of celestial bodies and timekeeping, but the skill was soon lost.

The status of ancient craftsmen was low, there was no patent protection, no inheritance, and it was easy to lose their skills.

The timer that Ayla made this time was inspired by the armillary sphere and made a mechanical timer driven by water power.

If a timer like hers is iteratively improved from generation to generation, it is estimated that it will become a clock in the modern sense.

For this timer, Ayla installed all the complicated mechanical gears inside the machine, and the outside is in the shape of a palace lantern, just a little bigger, which looks very beautiful.

Just as the time was at Shen Shi, a small puppet creaked out of a small door, clicked, and knocked on the gong in its hand.

There is a circle of scales on the upper layer of the puppet, and a rotating pointer clicks, moves, and points to the scale of Shenshi Moji.

Hearing this voice, Yuan Hanzhang was slightly taken aback, got down from the desk, and took a closer look.

Yuan Hanzhang's approach made Ayla's heart overflow with joy, she was even a little nervous, and hurriedly introduced the working principle of this mechanical timer to Yuan Hanzhang.

I don't know if it's because Yuan Hanzhang is very interested in this timer, she forgot for a moment that she was deliberately avoiding Ayila, and asked this and that with a smile.

Looking at Yuan Hanzhang's smile, Ayila's whole body seemed to be soaked in the warm water of summer, and her voice was a little excited.

When Yuan Hanzhang turned his head, he happened to meet her gaze.

Yuan Hanzhang had to admit that he was touched by Ayila, especially when Ayila looked at her with that kind of affectionate eyes, her heart fluctuated very much.

After all, she is also 40 years old, how can she not understand what such mood swings represent.

It's just that for so many years, she has always devoted her emotions to this country and her son, and she has forgotten that she can still have such strong personal emotions towards people.

But reason still made her avoid it again.

I am the empress dowager, the pillar of the country, and the pillar of my frail son. How can I put everything in a dangerous situation for a little son and daughter's affair.

That's right, her first consideration was not the gender of each other, but what kind of troubles, even crises, her emotions would bring to Chaotang and her son.

With such a small possibility, she couldn't let herself go.

After Ayila finished speaking, Yuan Hanzhang had adjusted his emotions, and said to Ayila in a business-like manner, "The timer that Ayila is improving and making is very good, so I put it in my Study room, it can also be used for timekeeping, and a reward of one hundred coins will be rewarded."

Ayila frowned, seeing that Yuan Hanzhang had left her side and walked back to her desk, the joyful mood just now slowly sank.

What kind of reward is no longer important.