Spring comes to the desperate place

Chapter 460 Preparation before the war

The court of Dajing was carrying out drastic reforms. The trading market at the border was once stagnant due to the conflict between residents of the two places. Fortunately, Gu Fengyue led troops to suppress the riot in time, otherwise, not to mention the trading market, the newly built rows of houses would have been destroyed.

"Da Sima, those people have been arrested. What should we do with them?"

Gu Fengyue casually glanced at those people and found nothing unusual.

"Let's keep it as usual. Keep a close eye on them and don't let them get away."

Those dozen people were the fuse that triggered the riot. They were a few restless herdsmen who were dissatisfied with the Han people setting foot in their territory. They believed that their actions of building roads and houses were desecrating their land.

Although the reason is outrageous, it does not seem impossible for these herdsmen to do so.

After escorting the men away, the deputy general couldn't help but complain to Gu Fengyue, "These fools are so foolish and soft-hearted. They're ready to attack at the mere provocation of others. Grand Marshal, we've already dealt with several minor conflicts this month, and this one's escalated to such a large scale. Do we need to report this to the capital?"

"Will these conflicts not occur if we submit a memorial? Or should we first find the person behind the scenes and then submit a memorial together?"

The capital is far away from here, with mountains high and roads far away. Gu Fengyue didn't think that submitting a memorial would change anything. There have been constant conflicts on the border recently, and they must be instigated by someone with ulterior motives. As for who it is, it is actually easy to guess, but they have no evidence at hand. Arresting people rashly will only make those uninformed herdsmen hate the Han people more, which will be counterproductive.

After all, they still have to continue expanding their territory. If the land behind the Quemeng Mountains is incorporated into the territory of Dajing, then a defense line can be established along the mountains, with this trading market as the center line, connecting the northwest and other places, and directly separating the territory of Dajing from the grassland. At that time, these people in front of them will no longer be a threat.

However, ideals are beautiful, but the reality is that they have not yet completely taken control of the north. As summer is about to pass, Gu Fengyue feels that the time is almost up. Perhaps, Song Chunlin will come by the autumn harvest.

After resolving the riot, Gu Fengyue immediately recalled Cai Sheng, who was still blasting rocks, and asked him to take the time to make more explosives.

Cai Sheng had been here for a long time, his skin had become much darker, and his cheeks had developed highland redness. After hearing Gu Fengyue's request, he thought about it for a moment and understood what the other party wanted to do.

"Is the Grand Marshal planning to kill those Jin people in the north?"

Gu Fengyue glared at him, and Cai Sheng tactfully slapped his mouth lightly, then covered it tightly to show that he would keep his mouth shut.

Gu Fengyue got a headache seeing him like this. Why did this guy look like the same kind of person as General Lin?

He asked Cai Sheng to stop playing tricks and first tell him about their current inventory.

Cai Sheng immediately adjusted to work mode. He had a good memory and remembered the inventory levels of all the raw materials, so he quickly went over it in his mind and told Gu Fengyue.

Gu Fengyue was not very satisfied with the quantity he was told, so he asked him to write down the materials that were urgently needed. He would send someone to deliver a letter to the capital, asking the court to think of a way to get more.

After delivering the letter, Gu Fengyue no longer cared about the matter. The letter was finally delivered to the emperor. When the emperor saw the list of materials written on it, he couldn't help laughing in anger.

"You little brat, you haven't sent me any news all year, and when you do, it's to ask me for something. Tsk, how come the Gu family is so shameless? Even the husbands they marry are the same."

The husband the emperor was talking about was not the marquis' wife Su Fuqing, but the little bastard Song Chunlin. In the emperor's eyes, if Song Chunlin was not being used by him, he would have sent someone to kill him long ago. With his troublesome temper, it was fortunate that Gu Fengyue could control him.

At this moment, the busybody in his eyes, Song Chunlin, was staying at home with his younger brothers and sisters and nephews, eagerly waiting for Song A-mo to make small cakes for them.

It was another Chinese Valentine's Day, and also Song Chunlin's birthday. This year, Song Chunlin didn't want to eat a big cake, but was obsessed with small cupcakes. He kept asking Song Amao to bake cupcakes for him. Song Amao had no choice but to personally command a group of idiots to help him.

Cupcakes can be eaten alone, or they can be topped with cream and fruits. Song Amuo thought it would be a good idea to make a few more and distribute them to the villagers and soldiers in the workshop.

The small cakes to be distributed to others naturally did not need to be made too complicated. Amao Song sprinkled some dried cranberries in the batter. After they were baked and cooled, they could be put into baskets and distributed to the villagers and soldiers who came to work.

Song Chunlin had a lifelike longevity peach squeezed out of cream on his small cake. He held the cake happily and was surrounded by his family. Dabao took a photo of them and put it into the space before the photo was developed.

In the evening, Song Chunlin took out the photos from the space and carefully put them into an album. He had several of the same albums. He didn't know whether his space would have the chance to be inherited by his descendants in the future, but he always wanted to leave something behind to prove that his family once existed.

Dabao poked his head out from behind him, making a clicking sound.

"Hey, if you're so worried about not having a successor, why don't you just give birth to one yourself?"

Song Chunlin was tempted, but in the end he couldn't get over the hurdle in his heart.

"Forget it, let nature take its course. Besides, it's not easy for me to get pregnant. Gu Fengyue and I are already apart from each other. I can't bear to have another person split up our time together."

"Love-brained!" Dabao couldn't stand it anymore and returned to the space, deciding to ignore this stupid human for three days.

Song Chunlin was in a good mood. He hummed a song while looking through the photo album again, and finally put the things into the space.

Not long after the Mid-Autumn Festival, the emperor summoned Song Chunlin to the palace again. Song Chunlin was a little confused at first, but the emperor directly threw a stack of letters to him. Looking at the familiar font in the first half, Song Chunlin knew that it was Gu Fengyue's handwriting.

But, isn’t the content of this letter written to the emperor? Why show it to him?

Song Chunlin pretended to be confused and looked up at the emperor.

The emperor secretly spat in his heart: You are really good at pretending, you are not illiterate.

In the end, the emperor had to say this himself.

"Chunlin, look, your man is going to the war, don't you have anything to say?"

Song Chunlin continued to play innocent, blinked his eyes, and replied innocently: "I don't know, what does your majesty want me to do?"

Oh my, that’s so hard to guess.

emperor:"……"

"Come on, we're all acquaintances. Look, it says he'll be leaving from the grasslands at the end of September. You can pick your own route and figure out how to meet him."

Well, they still want him to go to fight. They do this thankless job, while the emperor just sits back and reaps the benefits. His life is really miserable.

However, expanding territory has always been the ultimate dream of every man, regardless of whether he is an emperor or not. Of course, the emperor's obsession is definitely deeper. Song Chunlin also wants it, but not much. What he wants more is the large fertile land in the north.

The Jin people made a living by fishing and hunting, but that didn't mean their land couldn't be cultivated. On the contrary, the plain to their north was not only suitable for growing rice. If Song Chunlin remembered correctly, there were even more precious natural resources underneath - oil.

However, they have no use for oil at the moment. They just hope that the people of Dajing can work harder and develop ways to use oil as soon as possible. There is not much gasoline left in his space.

After returning to the Marquis' Mansion, Gu Fengyun was there for the rare occasion. He knew that Song Chunlin had come out of the palace, and guessed that there must be news from Gu Fengyue. Song Chunlin told him about the things in the palace, and Gu Fengyun nodded. This was almost what he guessed.

"It's the end of September, so there are only two months left. Have you decided what to bring? Wouldn't it be too rushed to ask the academy to make it now?"

In addition to Cai Sheng, there is another class in the college that specializes in studying gunpowder, but their research direction is opposite to Cai Sheng's. They take the path of entertaining the public, which is completely different from the powerful explosives made by Cai Sheng.

Having said that, they are from the same school after all, so it should be okay to ask them to help make some small explosives.

Song Chunlin calculated with his fingers: "It's not bad, I can get some out. I'll bring them some materials when I go there tomorrow."

"Well, you just need to know what's going on. For the rest, like dry food, ask your sister-in-law to help you. Madam, don't worry that he can't carry it. This guy has a way. Just make as much as you can, and he will definitely be able to take it away."

The latter sentence was said to Su Fuqing. Su Fuqing looked at her husband with some suspicion, not understanding what he meant by "do as much as you can". After asking again and again, she got a positive answer. Su Fuqing pondered for a while before slowly saying "OK".

So the next day, Song Chunlin ran back and forth between three places. In the morning, he first delivered the materials to the college, then went back to the Song family, went to the military camp after leaving the Song family, and went back to the Marquis' Mansion to sleep at night. He spent the whole day spinning like a top, and was so tired that he collapsed on the bed and couldn't move at night.

Starting from the next day, Su Fuqing asked the chefs in the mansion and the chefs of Shengji to work overtime to prepare some dry food that could be stored for a long time. After it was ready, it would be sent directly back to the mansion. It would be placed in Song Chunlin's yard during the day and collected by Song Chunlin when he came back in the evening.

Su Fuqing didn't understand how Song Chunlin managed to transport so many things overnight, but since Gu Fengyun didn't say anything about it, he just thought that Song Chunlin had another force to use for his own benefit, so he didn't ask any more questions.

According to Song Chunlin's request, the Song family's kitchen also prepares many delicious foods every day. Compared with the long-lasting grains made by Su Fuqing, the Song family's kitchen has a variety of dishes, and most of them are the ones that Song Chunlin and Gu Fengyue like to eat. Song Qin knew that Gu Fengyue was going to lead troops to fight this time, so she racked her brains and made delicious food in different ways every day.

All the steamed buns, flower rolls, steamed buns and dumplings are appetizers, but the main dishes are all kinds of fresh, spicy and hot dishes, boiled fish, spicy hot pot, braised pork, meatballs, spare ribs, and dishes of all flavors. We are afraid that the two children don’t eat well outside and become thin when they come back.

So the Song family's yard was filled with the aroma of food every day. Yesterday it was roasted chicken, today it was fried spare ribs, and tomorrow a large pot of pig's feet was prepared to make braised pork feet. Of course, vegetarian dishes were not forgotten either, such as potatoes, radishes, cucumbers, and cabbages. All kinds of food were used, and Song Chunlin's space was bound to be filled up.

Song Chunlin also asked Song Qinshi to boil eggs for him, fry duck feet, chicken feet and pig's trotters. These side dishes were prepared in advance and placed in the space. When he wanted to eat, he could just put them into the snail noodles that had been cooked in advance, and it would immediately turn into a deluxe version of snail noodles.

There was no such thing as junk food in ancient times, and the Song Qin family had no such concept at all. On the contrary, they only ate fried foods a few times a year. Their stomachs didn't have enough oil and water, so why would they be afraid of fried food?

Song Qinshi always granted Song Chunlin's requests, and even the group of little ones in the family benefited from it. They ate delicious food and drank spicy drinks every day, and gained weight in just one month.

Zhou Ning looked at his chubby sons and his sister who was becoming plump day by day, and felt that after Song Chunlin left, he would have to let these kids eat vegetarian food for a few days, otherwise they would grow up to be fat and strong, which would not look good.

Song Chunlin went to the academy every few days, brought them materials, and took away the prepared small explosives.

The people left behind by the academy were not very good at making large explosives, but they could easily make small ones. The power of these explosives was relatively limited, and they would not pose any threat to the enemy unless they were very close to people.

In other words, Song Chunlin has a special ability to cheat, which makes it easier for him to aim. Otherwise, if this thing were used by other people, it would probably not be able to exert half of its power.

The things were good things, so Song Chunlin put them all in his pocket. After putting them away, he went to the dormitory building to check on Song Chunming and Altan. Unfortunately, both of them were not in the dormitory. Song Chunlin did not wait for them, so he could only put the things he brought from home in Song Chunming's room, and wrote a note so that Song Chunming would see it when he came back.

After doing all this, he leisurely went down the mountain.

After running around like this for nearly two months, Song Chunlin's space was already filled with a mountain of dry food, all of which were prepared by Su Fuqing. On the other side of the shelf were various bowls and plates, which were filled with various dishes prepared by Song Qin and others.

Now there was a large amount of dry food and vegetables stored, as well as two large baskets of explosives. Song Chunlin said that he had never fought a battle with such abundant supplies, and he was sure that he could make the Jin people cry out in pain.

Looking at the pile of food in the space, Song Chunlin felt that something seemed to be missing. After thinking about it, it seemed that something was missing, so he quickly asked Song Qin to stop cooking and asked her to make more sour plum soup and boil a few large pots of water. Then Song Chunlin could pour the boiling water directly from the space.