northernbook Chapter 222: Lurking into the Silent Period
Chapter 222: Lurking into the Silent Period
After Shi Lidie found out about the Fourth Prince, she went back.
As long as she was sure that the Fourth Prince's application for the carpenter position would not affect her plan, she no longer paid special attention to the Fourth Prince. She just had someone keep an eye on him and report any special circumstances.
But the Fourth Prince was normal from beginning to end.
He seemed to have no airs at all. He ate and lived with the other carpenters, and there was no sign that he was a prince.
After the wheelchair was completed and the carpenters left, the Fourth Prince, like everyone else, received his commission and reward, and calmly left the Princess's Mansion and went back.
Shi Lidie took the wheelchair to the prince's mansion and let the prince try it out.
Since this wheelchair was tailor-made according to Ye Zhaonan's height and body shape, he felt very comfortable sitting on it. Shi Lidie also explained to him the locations of several mechanisms, all of which were within his reach.
Ye Zhaonan controlled the wheelchair by himself and tried the mechanism several times. He found it very ingenious and praised it immediately:
"The princess is clever and skillful. I really admire her."
"As long as Your Highness likes it." Shi Lidie said with a smile, "Until Your Highness's legs are fully recovered, this wheelchair will always accompany Your Highness."
From that day on, Shi Lidie began to live a life of hiding in Ye State.
She still went to the palace to treat the emperor every three days, and every time she did so, a large group of people would watch her every move, fearing that she would do anything harmful to the emperor. But she didn't care, even if "the enemy surrounded me with thousands of troops, I would remain unmoved."
When she was not in the palace, she would run back and forth between the princess's residence, the tavern, and the prince's residence.
Sometimes he went to the Prince's Mansion to recuperate the Prince, sometimes he went to the tavern to brew wine, and sometimes he completed his elegant tasks in the Princess's Mansion. Anyway, he was busy and very fulfilled.
But in the eyes of others, there was nothing wrong with what she did.
No one knew that she had secretly planned everything.
As a middleman, Chen Shuting would receive letters from her brother Chen Zhao every once in a while. The letters detailed the situation of the Dayin Dynasty, as well as the construction and production status of the several factories on Princess Yun'an's fiefdom.
She would find an opportunity to tell Shi Lidie about this.
With the help of the state, the construction of the factory went smoothly.
Shi Lidie copied the management systems of many modern factories, recruiting male and female workers. The work that required strength and was slightly heavier was assigned to men, while the work that required careful and meticulous work was assigned to women.
She provided food and lodging, built dormitories for men and women in the factory, and set up access control to implement procedural management. As long as the wages were high enough, she was not afraid that the workers would not comply with the requirements.
After all, if she left her factory, where could she find another job with such a high salary?
What's more, there are bonuses for doing a good job. Outstanding employees are selected every month and every quarter, and those with the most outstanding performance also receive high bonuses.
With such good benefits and driven by money, those factories quickly recruited enough workers and began to operate in full swing.
This means that Shi Lidie's economic warfare plan is progressing smoothly.
Both countries are undergoing great changes.
In addition to being sold to merchants in the market, the wine produced by the brewery also flowed to the army of the Dayin Dynasty. Soldiers guarding the northern border could drink the wine to keep warm, and the wine could also be used for disinfection, so it was very useful in the army.
In addition to producing cloth and clothes needed by private custom shops, places like textile factories, printing and dyeing factories, and garment factories also produce military uniforms and cotton-padded clothes for soldiers.
These military uniforms and cotton coats were transported to various armies of the Dayin Dynasty. The Pei family in the north, the Tiger Wing Army in the south, and so on, all received brand new and high-quality clothes.
Depending on the geographical environment, the clothes received will be different.
The main focus in the south is comfort and breathability, while the main focus in the north is thickness and warmth protection, striving to meet the needs of the soldiers as much as possible.
The army of the Dayin Dynasty was better fed and better clothed, and trained more vigorously. Under the leadership of the generals, the army showed a thriving appearance.
If such an army were released, it would definitely be a brave team.
Of course, when soldiers go to war, it is not enough to just have enough food and clothing. The most important things are weapons and horses. Shi Lidie has no way to deal with horses for the time being, but she does have a way.
She used her points to exchange for famous war weapons in history through the system.
For example, the Zhuge Crossbow invented by Zhuge Liang, the catapult used for siege, etc., are all refined and improved versions.
However, due to the limitations of the times, many things could not be made in this era, so she re-drew the sketch of the weapons in accordance with the characteristics of this era, saving costs while ensuring the lethality of the weapons as much as possible.
Finally, she exchanged the formula for black powder.
There were firecrackers in this era, and since there were firecrackers, it was very easy to make gunpowder. What she gave was the original version of gunpowder, not the large-scale weapons of mass destruction that later appeared in modern society.
But she thought that in this era, the original version of gunpowder was enough. After all, no one had ever used gunpowder on the battlefield before.
Shi Lidie gave the weapon drawings and gunpowder formula to Chen Shuting, asking her to send them to Chen Zhao and then pass them on to the Emperor of Dayin Dynasty.
When the emperor saw these things, he was astonished, but he still didn't understand the effects of these weapons. After all, he was not good at military affairs, so he found people who knew the business, namely Pei Qin and Qi Jingze.
Pei Qin and Qi Jingze were overjoyed after reading the drawings and said:
"If we have such weapons, not to mention Ye State, even the Dongyi, Xirong, Nanman, and Beidi will be no problem!"
Only those who have actually fought in a war know how sophisticated the weapons provided by Shi Lidie are.
Therefore, the Emperor of Dayin Dynasty immediately established a special weapons manufacturing department, and studied and tested these new weapons according to the drawings given by Shi Lidie. He was determined to produce results within three years and carry out mass production in preparation for war.
The Dayin Dynasty was making preparations in full swing for the upcoming war.
But the capital of Ye State knew nothing——
The Emperor of Ye State thought that he could live for a long time and was immersed in consolidating his imperial power. He wanted to take back into his own hands all the power that had been lost during the year he had been bedridden.
Apart from taking care of his health, Crown Prince Ye Zhaonan attended court as usual, but the emperor had obviously given up on him and no longer assigned him more important tasks. What's more, his body was weak and he could not withstand excessive fatigue.
The emperor planned study tasks for the young princes. In addition to group study, they were also assigned individual tasks to test their wisdom, character, brains, skills and understanding.
So, the little princes started the involutionary mode, and their mothers also started to get involved.
After several rounds of house searches and exiles in the previous dynasty, a new group of officials were replaced, and the remaining ones did not dare to continue making trouble. As a result, the court was stagnant and most of the power was concentrated in the hands of the emperor.
But some people also saw the emperor's purpose in training the little prince and began to think about it secretly.