xymnovel Chapter 105 A Master of Spending Money, A Little Expert at Making Money
Chapter 105 A Master of Spending Money, A Little Expert at Making Money
Chapter 105 A Master of Spending Money, A Little Expert at Making Money
When Guo Jia returned to Wanling, it was afternoon.
Instead of reporting directly to the governor's mansion, he first went to Lu Yong's residence.
After passing through the front yard, Guo Jia found the wine cellar in the back yard with practiced ease.
He walked to the shelf by the wall and picked up a small jar from it.
Upon breaking the mud seal, a fragrant aroma of wine immediately filled the entire cellar.
Guo Jia's eyes lit up immediately, and he tilted his head back and took a big gulp.
"Ah!!" He put down the jar, wiped his mouth, and let out a long breath. "Finally, I'm alive again!!"
However, he remembered that he had important business to attend to today, so after only taking two sips, he reluctantly sealed the bottle back and put it back in its original place.
After straightening his clothes, Guo Jia turned and went out.
In the main hall of the governor's mansion, Liu Bei and Lu Yong sat facing each other, with a small booklet bound with new paper on the table.
Liu Bei had already read the contents of the booklet, so he was now in a real predicament.
"Ordinary soldiers are still wearing leather armor, which is not enough for protection."
I want to gradually replace all the armor with steel armor; this will effectively improve the soldiers' survival rate.
Liu Bei and Lu Yong sat facing each other, with a booklet bound with new paper spread out on the table.
Lu Yong was turning the pages while pointing to the armor patterns drawn on them and explaining them to Liu Bei.
"Ordinary two-piece armor offers limited protection, especially for the shoulders, arms, and waist. Therefore, I redesigned a new type of armor."
"My lord, please take a look. This armor has been modified with large iron plates at the chest, abdomen, and back, secured with leather straps. Arrows can only slide off, but cannot penetrate."
Liu Bei bent down to examine it closely.
The armor plates on the drawing are of two sizes: the larger ones protect the chest and back, while the smaller ones are woven together at the waist and ribs.
"Knee, elbow, ankle," Lu Yong continued, "replace with three thin iron rings linked together, densely woven like a net, and then lined with silk floss. It cannot be cut by a knife, and can be bent freely."
After examining it, Liu Bei asked, "How heavy is this full suit of iron armor?"
"The armor weighs about 24 jin, the helmet about 4 jin, and the arm and leg guards about 7 jin, for a total of about 35 jin."
Liu Bei clicked his tongue in astonishment, pondered for a moment, and then asked, "Thirty-five catties? Add weapons to that, and ordinary soldiers, even if they were armed, could they still fight?"
"Therefore, the soldiers of this team must be selected from the strongest and most capable men in the entire army, so the number of them is destined to be small," Lu Yong replied. "But as a sharp blade used to break through enemy lines and destroy strongholds, it is enough."
A glint of light flashed in Liu Bei's eyes, and he replied, "The commander of this army is none other than Youping!"
"My lord is wise. I also believe that Zhou Youping is the most suitable to command this army," Lu Yong said with a smile. "However, I'm afraid we will have to choose someone else to be your personal guard commander."
"Youping is brave and capable; it would be a waste of his talents to keep him by my side as the commander of my personal guards." Liu Bei waved his hand dismissively and said, "Anyway, I don't need to charge into battle anymore, so let Youping do what he likes."
Just then, Zhou Tai announced loudly from outside the door, "My lord, Military Advisor Guo requests an audience!"
"Bong-hyo is back!"
Liu Bei's face lit up with joy, and he was about to speak when he heard footsteps outside the courtyard, along with Guo Jia's complaints.
"Youping, what are you doing blocking the doorway? Move aside, move aside."
Zhou Tai said in a deep voice, "Military Advisor Guo, this humble general has not yet finished reporting."
Fortunately, Liu Bei opened the door in time, thus relieving Guo Jia's embarrassment.
Guo Jia bowed to Liu Bei and then raised an eyebrow at Lu Yong to show his gratitude for Lu Yong's rescue.
At this moment, Liu Bei suddenly twitched his nose, then looked at him with a half-smile and asked, "Fengxiao, where did you get this smell of alcohol from?"
Guo Jia remained unfazed: "My lord, I caught a chill on the way here and drank a couple of sips to warm myself up."
Lu Yong casually added in the study, "So, after traveling all the way back from Yuzhang, the first thing you did wasn't to see the lord, but to go to my residence to have a drink?"
"You—you're spouting nonsense!"
"Then I won't drink the welcome wine I prepared for you."
"We were just joking around."
Liu Bei suppressed a laugh and waved his hand, saying, "Alright, alright, sit down and let's talk."
Guo Jia sat down next to Lu Yong, his gaze immediately drawn to the illustrations in the booklet, and asked, "What are you discussing?"
Lu Yong replied, "We are discussing with the lord the upgrading of military equipment and the formation of an elite battalion."
At this point, Lu Yong looked at Liu Bei and asked, "Where were we?"
'
"Speaking of Youping being appointed as the commander of that heavy infantry unit," Liu Bei replied.
"Oh, next, we need to add auxiliary troops to this heavy infantry force." Lu Yong then turned to the next page and said, "I want to bring Zilong here to command this elite cavalry."
Guo Jia asked with some surprise, "Does your army really need so many fierce generals like Zhao Zilong and Zhou Youping?"
"Stop interrupting." Lu Yong glared at Guo Jia and continued, "The workshop is developing a repeating crossbow, which I plan to use in this team as well."
One thousand heavy infantry, one thousand cavalry, plus one thousand crossbowmen and archers, for a total of three thousand men.
"How much money do we need to invest?" Liu Bei asked, his voice trembling slightly.
"Hmm—" Lu Yong paused for a moment before saying a number: "About—just over one hundred million."
"!?!" Liu Bei almost slapped himself.
Guo Jia was also taken aback and asked, "How much did you say???"
"One hundred million coins!" Lu Yong repeated calmly, then added, "It will probably cost another thirty million coins every year for wear and tear and maintenance."
"Gah!"
Guo Jia was dumbfounded.
Old Liu clutched his chest, his face pale, and his breathing became heavy and rapid.
One hundred million coins is enough to support 50,000 ordinary soldiers for a whole year!
You're no longer a money-devouring beast, you're a sky-devouring beast!
Seeing this, Lu Yong quickly waved his hand to reassure him: "My lord need not worry about money. The workshop is already starting to make money."
"What's making money?" Liu Bei finally calmed down a little after hearing this.
"Firstly, wooden furniture."
The high-legged tables and chairs with backs that we've already started using are already booked until next year.
New items like cabinets, dressing tables, and beds kept being introduced.
"Secondly, there is white sugar made from sucrose that is currently under development."
Large-scale sugarcane planting has begun in southern Danyang. Once the sugar-making process is mature and sugar can be sold in large quantities, the profits will definitely be higher than selling alcohol.
"Even more profitable products will be continuously launched from the workshop later," Lu Yong said confidently. "We won't be worried about running out of products to sell; our only concern will be running out of manpower!"
The more Liu Bei listened, the brighter his eyes became.
This workshop is practically a bottomless gold mine!
Guo Jia also came over and asked, "Huai'an, how many more good things do you have left to take out?"
"Why don't we start a workshop together? That way we can save up some money to get married."
Lu Yong ignored Guo Jia; he didn't take those words to heart.
After all, Liu Bei would give rewards from time to time, so even if he was short of money, he could just ask Mi Zhu for it, and he didn't need to run his own factory.
But Liu Bei took Guo Jia's words to heart, after all, not everyone under him had the ability and power of Lu Yong.
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