Chapter 502

The stagnant air suddenly flowed, and a burst of laughter suddenly sounded in the main hall.

The daimyo exchanged glances, fully agreeing with Yamada Nobunaga’s words. From the map, their territory was too small to satisfy their desire for land.

And the internal conflicts over the years were nothing more than for arable land. Now, with Yamada Nobunaga’s ambition, they set their sights on the vast land across the sea.

Having reached a consensus, the other daimyo left one after another. At this point, Yamada Nobunaga left behind a seemingly refined young man.

He said, “Although the daimyo have all agreed with me, convincing the soldiers will probably require a reason.”

The young man said casually, “Great General, it’s actually very simple. I can fabricate a reason. Because according to ancient records, we were sent here by Qin Shi Huang, which means we are the legitimate inhabitants of that land, while the people on the land of the Great Yu Empire have been ruled by foreign tribes multiple times, and their bloodline is no longer pure. Therefore, we are the true masters of this land, and they are not worthy of sympathy even if they are all killed.”

“Hahahaha… excellent, excellent. Tell this to the daimyo and the soldiers.” Yamada Nobunaga was very pleased. Now he had sufficient reasons to wage war on the Great Yu Empire.

But before that, he needed to occupy a piece of Goryeo’s territory to facilitate their foothold.

…

Qingzhou, Prince Qi’s Mansion.

Xiao Ming and the four women were eating candied sweet potatoes prepared by the chef. The sticky sugar wrapped around the peach flesh made everyone eat very sweetly.

Lu Luo’s mouth was full, and her eyes were fixed on the candied sweet potatoes on the plate, wishing she had two mouths.

Fei Yuer and Ziyuan ate elegantly, but they also had no resistance to such delicious dishes and kept eating without stopping.

Xiaohuan, on the other hand, had a troubled expression. Her teeth had been swollen for the past two days, so she could only taste this delicious food with both pain and joy.

“Your Highness, I never expected white sugar to have so many ways of eating. This has truly opened my eyes,” Fei Yuer said softly with a smile.

Xiao Ming was also content. The candied sweet potatoes reminded him of the taste of modern times.

Patting his full belly, Xiao Ming stood up and said to Fei Yuer, “This is just the tip of the iceberg. When I am free, I will prepare more delicious food for you.”

The four women smiled upon hearing this.

Fei Yuer, however, was a little worried. She asked, “Your Highness, are you planning to go out again?”

“That’s not it. I’m talking about the steam engine,” Xiao Ming said.

Upon mentioning this, Lu Luo, whose mouth was stuffed with candied sweet potatoes, suddenly widened her eyes. She swallowed the food in her mouth with effort, then said to Xiao Ming, “Your Highness, I forgot to tell Your Highness about this. Lin Wentao has been trying to make the steam engine drive the spinning machine in the weaving workshop these past two days, but in this servant’s opinion, this new type of spinning machine is already quite good.”

Xiao Ming nodded. It also took a process from the steam engine to practical application in factories. Now Lin Wentao was realizing this process.

He said to Lu Luo, “You cooperate with Lin Wentao. If their steam engine is truly combined with the spinning machine, your weaving efficiency will greatly increase.”

Lu Luo nodded obediently. Although she didn’t understand these things, from the previous weaving machines to the current ones, the output of their weaving workshop had increased several times.

If, as Xiao Ming said, the efficiency of the weaving workshop continued to improve, then the cloth they produced might be able to meet the needs of the people of Qingzhou city.

Ziyuan looked at Lu Luo with some envy and said, “Lu Luo can earn a lot of money for His Highness now, but I just sing and dance all day, and can’t earn much silver at all.”

At this, Ziyuan pouted.

Xiaohuan said, “You two are already doing well. The Princess Consort and I have nothing to do all day, it’s very boring.”

Ziyuan said, “The Princess Consort has a noble status, how can she be busy in the market like us? As long as the Princess Consort can continue to draw new underwear, that’s enough.”

After some time together, Fei Yuer became familiar with Lu Luo and Ziyuan. She knew they were people close to Consort Zhen, and her personality was gentle, and she was very good to her servants.

The four of them often played and joked together when they were free.

Fei Yuer smiled gently. She then looked at Xiao Ming and said, “Your Highness, look, Xiaohuan is even complaining for me. Why don’t Your Highness let me share some more responsibilities for Your Highness?”

Xiao Ming shook his head. It’s said that three women make a drama, and he had witnessed it. However, he indeed had something that he needed these women to accomplish for him, which was the issue of the Qingzhou Army’s uniforms.

Ever since he created the German-style uniforms for the Qingzhou Army, the more he looked at the Qingzhou Army’s shoes, the more displeased he became, because just the shoes greatly diminished the army’s image.

As the saying goes, military uniform is also a fighting force. He felt that this could not continue. This time, he not only wanted to add leather boots to the army but also steel helmets for the Qingzhou Army.

He came from modern times and naturally understood that helmets were very helpful in reducing casualties among soldiers. In the current era, very few national armies were equipped with steel helmets; even in Europe, they only wore ordinary cloth caps.

And once the Qingzhou Army was equipped with steel helmets, the death rate in musket exchanges would definitely be greatly reduced, as the protective effect of helmets had been proven on the battlefield.

However, steel helmets were a matter for the military machinery department, but leather boots were Lu Luo’s business. Moreover, with the establishment of the Supervisory Yuan and the Guard Office, he also wanted to design a set of uniforms for these two independent institutions.

At the same time, Bowen Academy and the public schools in various prefectures and counties also needed a batch of student uniforms. This was not redundant, but the beginning of standardization and specialization.

Thinking of this, he told these matters to Fei Yuer and asked her to be responsible for the design of the uniforms.

During this period, Fei Yuer was quite addicted to clothing design, and upon hearing this, she immediately became excited. She said, “Leave the clothing to me.”

“The leather boots are this servant’s,” Lu Luo said with a giggle.

Xiao Ming nodded with satisfaction. For him, it was time to mobilize all the labor force of the enfeoffed state. They say women hold up half the sky, and he naturally wanted to utilize female labor.

Moreover, since he was on the path of reform, he naturally couldn’t continue with the idea that “a woman without talent is virtuous.” So he said to Fei Yuer, “Princess, I have an idea. Now that public schools have been established, can women also be admitted to them?”

“Women admitted to school!” Fei Yuer was greatly surprised. After all, this matter was too shocking. Although Qingzhou was different from other places, the idea of male superiority and female inferiority had not fundamentally changed, and the custom of women not stepping out of the house was also firmly ingrained in the minds of the common people.

Fei Yuer’s expression was observed by Xiao Ming, who smiled and said, “Princess, don’t worry. I do not intend for women to enter public schools, but rather hopes that the Princess can recruit some intelligent women and teach them.”