On the first day of winter, the Ghost Motherland ushered in the first snow of the year, and the world became much colder for a while. Although Shuoyue Island is an island in the Xuanyan Continent thousands of miles away from the red land in the south of the underworld, it is far away from Xuanyan Continent.
Yanzhou is still some distance away, so the climate is distinct throughout the year, and it also snows in winter.
Before dawn today, black snowflakes with characteristics of the underworld fell from the sky one after another, covering Shuoyue Island. It was not beautiful, but it had an indescribable weirdness.
In the Tiande Hall, hundreds of officials wrapped in winter clothes gathered together to prepare for the morning court. The Ghost Mother also put on a thick purple long coat and long skirt this morning, so that the concave and convex figure she was proud of was temporarily invisible.
; In addition, she also wore a velvet hooded cape with a white background and blue silk thread embroidered with flowers on it.
Today, most of the officials in Baiguan will read a copy of Xiao Shizhu in the early morning. Just because the cream that became popular in the ghost motherland, the manufacturer and boss behind the scenes is Xiao Shizhu. It is even rumored that the soldiers in the army no longer call him general.
, they all changed their names and called him Shopkeeper Xiao.
According to the national laws of the Ghost Mother Country, civil and military officials are not allowed to do business privately. This is one of the reasons; the other reason is that these officials want to buy a box of cream, but Xiao Shizhu still charges the original price without any discount.
This made them harbor a grudge against Xiao Shizhu, and their resentment was hard to get rid of.
After the officials had just kowtowed three times and bowed nine times to the Ghost Mother as usual, Qiu Yun took the lead in holding a jade wat, bowed to the Ghost Mother and said loudly: "My lord, Xiao Shizhu has become more and more lawless recently.
As the commander-in-chief of the Dongcheng Guard, he set up a private workshop outside the military camp, and asked the sergeants to make abalone and sell it on the street! The dignified general actually did such an unbecoming thing. He should be demoted to a commoner as a sign of justice.
discipline!".
"Yes, yes, according to our national law, officials are not allowed to engage in business." After she finished speaking, another official yelled angrily: "This Xiao Shizhu is too brave and bold, and dares to treat the law as child's play. Really?
Is the law just a piece of paper in the temple?".
"I often don't come to court, or I'm late for court." One of the officials said, looked around, and said angrily: "I didn't come today again."
For a time, all the officials were excited, and they were all talking about Xiao Shizhu; even Chun Yun, who usually seldom talked, said: "In the past, I didn't report to the Ministry of War on time. How can I behave like that?"
As soon as this statement came out, the officials became even more excited and cursed one after another: "Yes, you also lied that the cream was a special thing of the ancient gods, in order to fool the people and steal the people's wealth."
"Profiteers, absolute profiteers!".
"What he did was just because of money. Doesn't he still look like a general?"
Among the crowd, only Xia Xing and another woman in her early twenties, who also wore a seven-beam crown with phoenix eyes, remained silent and did not participate in the ministers' denunciation of Xiao Shizhu.
"Everyone, please be patient." After letting them argue for a while, the ghost mother, who had been silent all the time, slowly opened her mouth and said loudly: "You said that Xiao Shizhu was not, but you know that Xiao Shizhu had already expected what happened today.
situation." After speaking, she smiled lightly, but this smile was a mockery, mocking the ignorance of her ministers.
Then, she took out a memorial from her sleeve, handed it to Chen Ruohou beside her, and said, "Read it."
"Yes." Chen Ruo took the memorial with both hands, unfolded it and read it loudly to all the officials: "Your Majesty, Xiao Shizhu, kowtows: First of all, I want to explain that the reason I made the cream a few days ago was all to raise military expenses, and it was definitely not
What others think is that they want to line their own pockets. Secondly, nowadays, the cream is so popular that no one in the ghost country knows about it, and it is well received. We specially apply to make the "Xiao Yi Ge" brand of cream a special product of the ghost country.
, sold overseas, and earned money from other vassal states, which was used to strengthen the national treasury. From now on, all the profits from the cream will go to the Dongcheng Guard for military expenses, mainly to develop military firearms; it is best to do
Until every soldier has a musket. The Eastern Expedition to Wuzhiqi has fully proved that the era of cold weapons has passed. In future wars against the enemy, full use of firearms is the way to go. The remaining three to four out of ten benefits
Put it into the national treasury, take it from the people, and use it for the construction and development of the ghost mother country. Please accept it. In addition, I predict that other courtiers will be dissatisfied with this kind of profiteer behavior of mine. By then, ghost mother sister
There is no need to quarrel with them, just use this memorial to stop their mouths. Please review it and approve it, and I, Xiao Shizhu, will pay my respects again." More than 300 words are eloquent, still full of Xiao Shizhu's characteristics, speaking in plain language from beginning to end.
throughout it.
"Have you been slapped in the face? I wonder if your face hurts?" Chen Ruo just finished speaking, and the ghost mother raised her eyebrows, looked at the courtiers who were already silent below with a half-smile, and said lightly
He said: "It's not that I have the intention to protect Xiao Shizhu, but you keep saying that you are thinking about our country, why don't you see that this is a model of loyal ministers. You are a profiteer, and how many ghosts know that Xiao Shizhu originally wanted to ensure that he conquered the witchcraft in the East
Zhi Qi's victory in the war, improving the Crouching Tiger Cannon, making Molotov cocktails, forging crystal prisms, etc. were all paid out of his own pocket. He spent all his private property of 500,000 taels, but he never mentioned it to me.
You haven’t asked for anything in return from me.” After hanging out with Xiao Shizhu for a long time, she can even speak a few modern human words.
"You, Qiu Yun." The ghost mother, who became more and more excited as she spoke, suddenly stood up, pointed at Qiu Yun and scolded fiercely: "Where do you think you got the 10,000 taels of silver reward after you conquered Wu Zhiqi in the East?
To tell you the truth, it was given to you by Xiao Shizhu. He told me personally that all his rewards were given to you. You actually took the lead in impeaching him today. You are really an ungrateful thing."
What he said left those officials speechless. They all lowered their heads and stopped talking. Indeed, as the ghost mother said, they clamored about loyalty to the emperor and patriotism all day long, but few of them were doing big things for the ghost mother country with their salaries.
, to do practical things.
And most of the ministers present just had the same idea as Xiao Shizhu did at the beginning, and they were reincarnated into the human world when they reached reincarnation.
Otherwise, how could it be possible that in the underworld, an era of disputes between princes and kingdoms, the Ghost Mother Kingdom has only had a palm-sized land for thousands of years? In these years, the four female officials and the Ghost Mother have struggled to support this small country, otherwise in this world where gunfire is everywhere,
In the era of divided nations, the little devil’s motherland had long been destroyed!
"I also have a memorial here, which Xiao Shizhu presented last night." Sitting on the throne, the ghost mother took out another memorial from her sleeve and handed it to Chen Ruo, saying sarcastically: "Read, read these to them."
Listen to the loyal and patriotic souls."
"No." Chen Ruo took the memorial again, unfolded it and read: "I, Xiao Shizhu, kowtowed: I was granted the post of commanding general of the Dongcheng Guard by the grace of our lord, but I discovered that there was a big problem in the army. The sergeants generally
The cultural level of the people is too low. It doesn’t matter if they don’t understand the tactics and theory. Some of them can’t even write their own names. The reason is ultimately that the cultural quality of the people is too low. Therefore, the above table is written to ask my lord to use the cream to gain income.
, set up private schools to educate the people. And because of the shortcomings of the current reincarnation system, all human souls are white men, and it is difficult to hire human souls with true knowledge to be teachers. Therefore, I have a plan. Ancient demon souls are mostly taught by ancient gods.
Divine knowledge can be enriched by hiring demon souls with real knowledge for large sums of money to serve in private schools and educate the people. There are also scientific examinations every year and no other examinations. Civil servants will be tested on national policy and theory, and generals will be tested on military strategy. This can be enriched.
Talents in the court, lest some officials sit on their laurels and rest on their laurels without doing anything. Sitting in the toilet and doing nothing makes it difficult for our country to develop. Because of the above, I, Xiao Shizhu, bow to me again."
Chen Ruo just finished speaking, and the ministers were shocked. Xiao Shizhu's move was equivalent to destroying their iron rice bowls. Moreover, they were also Bai Ding before. After coming to the Ghost Mother Kingdom, they were chosen by the Ghost Mother and entered the Imperial Academy of the Ghost Mother Kingdom.
Only later did I learn the knowledge, otherwise I would still not be able to become an official.
But after they became officials, they began to become lazy; they stopped reading books and newspapers, and stuck to their own standards. All day long they just thought about how to get by with high-ranking officials and generous salaries.
Now Xiao Shizhu has come to vigorously develop schools and private schools, and implement a competitive employment system. Those who are incompetent will get out, and those who are capable will be promoted and make a fortune. This made almost all the officials present startled and became nervous.
"Tell me, is Xiao Shizhu's advice to me accurate? Or not?" As the ghost mother said this, her eyes swept over their faces one by one, making their hearts rise in their throats.
At the same time, Xiao Shizhu changed into plain clothes and told Lu Wu and Yu Rong to train their troops well. After Yingzhao and Qinyuan went to sell cream, he took King Kong and Wu Zhiqi out of the gate and headed to the southwest of Xiaoyushan City.
According to Lu Wu, there is a dry forest three miles away from the foot of the mountain, covering an area of only a dozen acres; because demon souls and beast souls are products of the underworld, they will leave corpses when they die in the underworld, so this place
It is a place where citizens of the Ghost Mother Kingdom bury their ghostly relatives and friends. Countless tombs can be seen around and on the edge of the forest.
Although everyone is a ghost, they are somewhat jealous of the dead. Not to mention that not many ghosts come back to wander around at night or during the day, but there is the largest black market in the country of ghosts in the forest.
The cannonballs Xiao Shizhu asked him to buy before came from this black market.
At this time, Xiao Shizhu was going to find firearms smugglers on the black market. During the previous expedition to Wu Zhiqi, Xiao Shizhu discovered that there was a problem with the quality of the firearms in the Ghost Mother Country. Several of them were blown up, which made him have a strong interest in the weapons of the Ministry of War.
The inspector (the official department responsible for manufacturing and controlling weapons) completely lost confidence. That's why he came to look for smugglers.
Wu Zhiqi was a pirate in the past and often dealt with black market merchants. Taking him with him would help him avoid being cheated by these black-hearted merchants.
They walked slowly to the outside of the forest and stood there. They saw that it was exactly as Lu Wu said. Cold stone tablets could be seen crookedly inserted around the forest and on the edges. Old crows sat under the tombstones to avoid the wind and snow.
From time to time, he made a few strange hoarse screams.
Xiao Shizhu took King Kong and Lu Wu and strode into the forest, but almost lost their way. The dead trees here all looked the same, even if they were bare, they all grew into a "Y" shape.
After walking for a long time, Xiao Shizhu and the others reached the depths of the forest with great effort. They saw that the trees in the center had been cut down, revealing a circular open space of one or two acres.
There are only a few pedestrians in the open space, and there are many crooked small wooden buildings arranged one on top of another. There is no sign or cover in front of each building, just a lantern hanging. The streets are dirty and garbage can be seen everywhere.
There was a stench everywhere. On both sides of the street, there were many wooden cargo boxes piled up in different sizes and in a messy state. I don't know if I thought this place was just a demolition zone. Who would have thought that this place was a black market.
Before they even walked into it, they saw a human soul with a sinister look walking towards them. This human soul was wearing a black cotton-padded jacket, cotton trousers, and a cotton hat. His hands were placed across his abdomen, and his palms were inserted into his sleeves.
After he stood in front of Xiao Shizhu, he said with a smile: "Sir, I'm unfamiliar with you. It must be your first time here. Do you want to lead the way? There is nothing in this black market that I, Deadwood Forest Asan, don't know about. What do you want to buy?"
Tell me and I will take you to meet the best seller." After saying that, he grinned again, showing his yellow teeth.
Upon hearing this, Xiao Shizhu knew that the human soul who called himself Ah San was a broker. He was not familiar with this place anyway, so he simply asked: "How much can you lead the way?".
"'A slap'." Ah San said with a smile.
What he was talking about was the jargon of the black market, which is no different from the human world. In the human world, a "slap" costs five thousand yuan, so in the underworld it should be five taels of silver.
"Take me to the best firearms dealer's store." The price was quite reasonable on the black market, so Xiao Shizhu took out a dozen taels without thinking, handed them to him and said, "No need to look for them."
"Okay." Ah San weighed the silver and turned around to guide them.
"Isn't this too expensive?" King Kong, who was following Xiao Shizhu, lowered his voice and shouted in his ear: "Ten taels of silver, ten taels of silver is a lot of money."
"This is cheap, Brother Jingang." Before Xiao Shizhu could speak, Wu Zhiqi said to him: "If it were the black market in Fengdu, no broker would be willing to guide you if you were short of thirty taels."