Continue to post two consecutive posts. I beg for genuine subscription support.

The renovation of the yard where the boat is rented these days has been life-threatening. Especially the boat is particularly afraid of chaos. I beg for genuine subscription and comfort.

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Early in the morning on the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, Li Yuanqing's fleet began to return to Changsheng Island.

Originally, life on the ship was full of loneliness. Apart from making people and staring at the sea, there were almost no other entertainment activities.

But at this time, Li Yuanqing's big ship was very busy.

After the script was finalized last night, Yang Jiao~ mother worked non-stop, without even taking a break, and immediately started selecting actors and rehearsing.

After comprehensive discussions between Li Yuanqing, Zhang Yuniang, Qu Minqiu and Yang Jiao~niang, it was finally decided that Li Liuli, the top oiran of Wuyu Pavilion, would play the female lead Xi'er.

Li Liuli deserves to be from a professional background.

After only one or two familiarizations, "the north wind blows, the snowflakes float..." These simple lyrics, sung from her alluring little mouth, are already gentle and pitiful, making people unable to say anything.

's moving expression.

And these supporting characters, Turtle Slave, all have a deep foundation in acting. After getting familiar with them once or twice, the whole play has begun to flow smoothly.

If you were just telling a story, this might not be detailed enough, but if you present it completely in a dramatic situation, especially for a super beauty like Li Liuli, its impact can naturally be imagined.

On the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month alone, the crew of "The White-Haired Girl" no longer had to rehearse on Li Yuanqing's ship.

Because there is no need for Li Yuanqing to supervise...

What Li Yuanqing needs to do is to think of ways to make the stage effect, especially the amplification effect, better!

…………

On the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the fleet successfully returned to Changsheng Island.

Without enough time to rest, Li Yuanqing directly summoned Shang Laoliu and Ma Guanjia.

They were ordered to build a stage as quickly as possible in the most prosperous square in the city. It must be completed before noon on New Year's Eve in preparation for the performance that will be held on the evening of New Year's Eve.

No wonder Li Yuanqing is so anxious.

Since ancient times, the best way for the ruling class to control the people is to induce public opinion. To put it more bluntly, it is with the pen.

In the past few days, Li Yuanqing has also thought about starting a newspaper to serve as his mouthpiece.

However, the foundation of Changsheng Island is too weak, and there are very few educated people. The most important part of it is the group of wealthy businessmen from Zhenjiang.

But the foundation of Changsheng Island is still the common people at the bottom, especially the old Liao people who followed Li Yuanqing in the first and second years of Tianqi.

At this time, most of these old Liao people were the backbone of the Changsheng Battalion's fighting force. They were Li Yuanqing's real people and the most solid supporters. Of course, they were also the largest group of vested interests on Changsheng Island at this time.

With the overall quality of this group of people, even if they run a newspaper, they are just playing the piano to an ox.

But by presenting "The White-Haired Girl" in an easy-to-understand dramatic way, the effect is naturally predictable.

The most critical thing is that due to poor communication conditions, it is impossible for Beijing's attitude towards Li Yuanqing to reach the island so quickly at this time. Li Yuanqing must use the most direct method to take the lead in controlling the direction of public opinion on the island.

Since it is the Chinese New Year, the play "White-Haired Girl" is obviously at the right time.

As for the newspaper, Li Yuanqing wanted to start it now, but he couldn't eat it in one bite. Although the wealthy businessmen of Zhenjiang origin vassalized him at this time, they still ruled the court after all. They wanted these young men who had no worries about food and clothing to come.

It is still a bit difficult to write soft articles for Li Yuanqing.

The key is that Li Yuanqing must not make mistakes at this time, so he can only be patient. Later, when he becomes more powerful and has more low-level literati vassaling him, he will select some pens and use them as "cannons".

During these days, although Li Yuanqing, Zhang Yuniang, Qu Minqiu and others went to the capital, Zhang Baozhu was in charge of the back house of the Changsheng Island official office. Everything was normal and on track.

Jiang Gong once had a famous saying, "Before fighting against the outside world, you must first make peace at home!"

At this time of year, Li Yuanqing has a deeper understanding of this sentence.

Only with the stability of the back house can Li Yuanqing have more energy to devote to various positive affairs.

Soon, Shang Laoliu returned and whispered to Li Yuanqing: "Yuanqing, did something happen during this trip to Beijing?"

Shang Laoliu was Li Yuanqing's first assistant, and he was even closer than Chen Zhong. Over the years, he had already deeply understood Li Yuanqing's temperament. Just now, just by looking at Li Yuanqing's expression, he had already realized that there might be something wrong with him.

problem.

Li Yuanqing smiled and threw a cigar to Shang Laoliu. He did not hide anything and directly recounted what happened in Beijing to Shang Laoliu.

Shang Laoliu couldn't help but frown when he heard this. He didn't expect that this time, Li Yuanqing went to Beijing to run a good relationship, but there would be such a big change!

"These bitches, sons of dandies! How hateful!"

Shang Laoliu spat hard and looked into Li Yuanqing's eyes, "Yuan Qing, what are you going to do?"

Li Yuanqing took a deep breath of his cigar and looked into Shang Laoliu's eyes: "Brother Shang, no one else! Stabilize Changsheng Island and Liaonan! Brother Shang, I need your help!"

Shang Laoliu nodded heavily and exhaled a deep breath: "Yuan Qing, our brothers have finally laid down the current foundation of Changsheng Island. No matter who wants to take her away from us, they will

It’s not that easy! Don’t worry, Yuan Qing! I will handle the affairs on the island properly!”

Li Yuanqing nodded slowly, with a relaxed expression on his face, and said with a smile: "Brother Shang, have you counted the gains from this trip to Nanyang?"

Shang Laoliu said: "Yuanqing, the basics have been sorted out. But the dozens of Spanish warships and the fleet are within the scope of the military, and the Political Affairs Administration has not yet taken over."

Li Yuanqing smiled, stood up, strode to Shang Laoliu, and whispered a few words in a low voice.

"What?"

"Two, twenty million taels of silver?"

Shang Laoliu almost swallowed the football in his mouth and was stunned.

Li Yuanqing smiled: "Brother Shang, this money cannot be taken out directly yet. I am going to seal it and store it in warehouse No. 3 first. This is our war preparation and military supplies!"

Only then did Shang Laoliu come back to his senses and couldn't help laughing: "Yuan Qing, with so much money, we are still afraid of his idiot! Even if the imperial court really sends troops to attack us, they will still be needed

There’s no coming back!”

Shang Laoliu said the last sentence extremely harshly, and his expression was indescribably ferocious!

This is Li Yuanqing’s Changsheng Island!

It is also the longevity island for old brothers!

It is the inheritance that the brothers have sacrificed their lives and paid countless blood and sweat with great difficulty. How can others get involved in it?

Even the imperial court would never do it!

Li Yuanqing patted Shang Laoliu heavily on the shoulder, "Brother Shang, the stage performance is our top priority this year!"

Why didn't Shang Laoliu understand what Li Yuanqing meant? He nodded quickly and said, "Yuan Qing, don't worry, I'll go and watch it myself now!"

…………

After Shang Laoliu left, Li Yuanqing slowly exhaled a breath of filthy air, pressed his cigar into the ashtray of the disk, and was about to go to the inner study to rest for a while and collect his thoughts. At this time, a soldier came to report hurriedly.

: "General, Xu Liang, and Manager Xu are here!"

"Um?"

Li Yuanqing frowned slightly, and for a moment, he couldn't help but smile: "Xu Liang is quite fast. Tell him to come in!"

"yes!"

After a moment, Xu Liang quickly came to Li Yuanqing, kowtowed respectfully and saluted: "Xu Liang, a humble official, has seen the general!"

Li Yuanqing stepped forward with a smile, personally helped Xu Liang up, and patted his shoulder hard: "I haven't seen you for a long time, and you have become a lot richer. How are you? Are you comfortable these days?"

Xu Liang chuckled: "General, I'm not very comfortable now! Especially after those white-haired ghosts came, I had to quarrel with them almost every day. However, General, in terms of iron smelting, in the past few days,

The weapons workshop has made a major breakthrough!"

"oh?"

Seeing Xu Liang's confident look, Li Yuanqing smiled and said: "What kind of breakthrough? Isn't it because we can directly build a 6-pound cannon?"

Li Yuanqing knew Xu Liang's temperament very well. This guy was very stern on weekdays, and he probably didn't know what fun was. But this guy also had an advantage. He never lied, he was very reliable in his work, and he won Li Yuanqing's trust.

He is Li Yuanqing's most trusted confidant.

Seeing Li Yuanqing's teasing expression, Xu Liang stopped trying to be too pretentious and hurriedly explained: "General, it is still very difficult for our arms shop to build a 6-pound cannon. But~, since these white-haired foreign devils have come

After that, our blast furnace iron smelting technology has made a breakthrough. Just three days ago, the blunderbuss made by the subordinates using the fine steel produced in the new blast furnace has a stable range of about ninety steps.

, can fire twenty rounds in a row without exploding the barrel!"

"Furthermore, according to my discussion with these white-haired ghosts, the strength of the fine steel at this time is still a bit weak. If the fine steel that meets the 6-pound gun standard is used to make the blunderbuss tube, the range and power will be very large.

The improvement is possible! General, the range of the cannon can exceed a hundred steps. It is really not a dream!"

Xu Liang said, he was so excited that he danced like a child.

As a front-line general who has experienced hundreds of battles, Li Yuanqing certainly understands the concept of increasing the range of a bird gun by ten steps.

In a normal battle formation, the archers with Houjin's boar-skinned bows and arrows can only shoot at fifty or sixty paces. The more elite ones can reach sixty or seventy paces.

In the wild boar skin array, there are indeed a very small number of elites, the so-called Batulu, who can fire a hard bow and increase the range of the bow and arrow to eighty to ninety steps, or even beyond a hundred steps, but they are just rare.

Out of thousands of people, you may not be able to pick one out.

In this way, if the power of the Changsheng camp's gun can be stabilized at ninety steps, they will have a complete and overwhelming advantage against the boar skin in future battles.
To be continued...