Early July.

Qing Dance returned to Longmen County and told Ning Wan about the investigation.

When the first Fu Ze Hot Pot Restaurant opened, the earnings on the first day were five thousand three hundred and twenty taels.

Therefore, Luo Qin's embezzlement of three hundred taels seemed like a small amount at first glance.

But don't forget, an ordinary person earns one tael a month, that's considered a high income.

Three hundred taels would take an ordinary person nearly thirty years to earn, roughly a lifetime.

And Luo Qin, in just two months as shopkeeper, embezzled three hundred taels. What if it were over two years?

If it were thirty taels, Ning Wan might be able to endure it, but such a large sum must be reported.

...

Chen Mo was not in Longmen County at this moment. After spending a few days there, he went to Jiapin County to investigate. The weapon workshops, including the Divine Arm Crossbow workshop being constructed in Jiapin County, were where his main focus lay.

Because these things could enhance the strength of his troops overall, leaving no room for error.

If anyone dared to mess around and embezzle money for military equipment, his Tang Blade would show no mercy.

After investigating Jiapin County, Chen Mo also went to Jun County along the way.

Previously, after being instructed by Chen Mo, Ling Li successfully established the County School in Jun County following Chen Mo's methods, making it a success.

Ling Li had the makings of an Advanced Scholar; he had some stuff in his head.

During this period, several counties in Yu State were cutting down trees in a frenzy to transport them to Linzhou.

Jun County was one of them.

He organized the commoners to go up the mountain to cut down trees and transport them downhill, letting them earn the logging funds Chen Mo allocated to various counties. By using the need to widen roads for transporting trees to Linzhou, he improved roads and the livelihood of Jun County's residents.

And because of the deforestation, a clearing was left on the mountain, which Ling Li personally led officials and commoners to transform into over two hundred hectares of farmland.

But farmland obtained through deforestation is not really called farmland; many tree roots remained underground, and such "farmland" wouldn't produce yields without years of transformation.

However, since ancient times, much farmland has been obtained this way.

Ling Li evidently knew this because it was a point he used to attract commoners to migrate to Jun County.

The transformed farmland would be given free to the commoners involved in the transformation.

After examining Jun County, Chen Mo was actually a bit tired, but having come to Jun County, he simply went to the neighboring county for a look.

There's no other way; he really lacked capable civil servants by his side. Typically, those from aristocratic lineage could do this, but despite having recruited talents for so long, there were still so few joining him.

He wanted to transfer Geng Songfu to Yu State for office. Having him manage Ping Court and Qingtian was highly underutilizing his talent.

Regarding the new army, Chen Mo initially planned to recruit twenty thousand soldiers, and combining them with existing troops, he would have a total of fifty thousand troops.

Initially, few came to enlist, but by the Ninth Year of Xuanhe, their numbers began to multiply.

The initial estimate of twenty thousand troops was already exceeded, now even surpassing by an additional ten thousand.

Although exceeded, Chen Mo did not disband the excess. With commerce between Huai State and steady sales of honeycomb briquettes and hotpot, along with tax revenues from the Three States, the finances still held up.

According to Chen Mo's previous regulations, new recruits were assigned to Xianzhen Guard, and only those who passed training were eligible to join the Divine Brave Guard or Divine Martial Guard.

The outstanding ones could enter Chen Mo's Personal Guard Battalion.

After all, new blood is always needed in the Personal Guard Battalion.

As Chen Mo was thinking of visiting a few more counties, Sun Meng came over and whispered a few words in his ear.

Chen Mo's expression changed slightly, and he halted his inspection, urgently returning to Longmen County.

The Longmen County Government Office had already relocated to the west side of the city; the move was swift.

There's trouble in the Celestial Master Army.

At the beginning of June, the Celestial Master Army launched a full-scale attack on Huai State, not realizing that the previous consecutive retreats of the Huai Army were just part of Prince Huai's deceptive tactics.

Once they penetrated deep into Huai State, they were ambushed by the Huai Army, and two Grand Commanders within the Celestial Master Army were bribed by Prince Huai, openly rebelling during battle, leading to chaos in the army ranks and the first-ranking Grand General Wan Zhen under Luo Guang's command was killed.

Besides Wan Zhen's death, this ambush also led to the deaths of three Grand and four Small Commanders within the Celestial Master Army and the capture of one Grand and two Small Commanders.

As they retreated to Jing County, they were ambushed by the Navy sent by Prince Huai, which had advanced through the waterways to Jing County, causing severe damage to the Celestial Master Army.

Subsequently, Prince Huai dispatched his Navy to sail past Qingzhou along the Huai River, blocking the north bank of Fengzhou. If the Celestial Master Army wished to cross the river back to Qingzhou, they would have to pass through this point.

In other words, the Celestial Master Army was now completely encircled in Fengzhou by the Huai Army, like turtles in a jar.

It was at this moment that Chen Mo received two urgent letters.

One was sent by the Celestial Master Army, written by Luo Guang himself, pleading for him to send troops for assistance.

The Huai Army's Navy was anchored on the river between Fengzhou and Qingzhou.

The other was naturally from Prince Huai.

The letter firstly clarified that the Navy in the river was not aimed at Qingzhou, mentioning the non-aggression treaty, stating that the Navy's warships wouldn't even touch Qingzhou's shores.

Additionally, advised Chen Mo not to meddle in the Celestial Master Army's affairs, promising substantial rewards afterward.

Through these two urgent letters and the information received from the front lines, Chen Mo knew that the Celestial Master Army, which once swept through the Northern Land, had reached the end of the road.

Chen Mo sent word to Geng Songfu and Zuo Lianglun, asking for their opinions.

After all, regarding such a major issue, Chen Mo definitely needed to seek others' opinions.

Apparently, it seemed unlikely to transfer Geng Songfu to Yu State at this moment.

However, in his heart, he decided not to rescue the Celestial Master Army.

Because helping them would be equivalent to assisting the Celestial Master Army in retreating to Qingzhou.

The Celestial Master Army's only retreat is to Qingzhou.

And Qingzhou is his territory; with most of his troops currently stationed in Linzhou and Yu State, letting the Celestial Master Army retreat to Qingzhou would be akin to inviting a wolf into his house.

The reputation of the Celestial Master Army is not good.

Nevertheless, before making the final decision, just to be cautious, Chen Mo ordered Li Yunzhang and Wen Heng to lead five thousand Divine Brave Guard, five thousand Divine Martial Guard, and three thousand Xianzhen Guard, totaling thirteen thousand troops, to return to Qingzhou to garrison duty.

Just after handling these affairs, a letter from Linzhou arrived; it was a letter from Zuo Lianglun, whom Chen Mo had just been thinking about.

In the letter, it mentioned that the Jiangdong Wu Family's eldest son wanted to meet with him for an important discussion.

After reading it, as Chen Mo was concentrating, Ning Wan came over.

The lady seemed to have recently bathed, wearing a pale yellow gown, her hair styled in a luxurious cloud bun, adorned with sparkling pearl hairpins.

Though she hadn't borne children, her figure was voluptuous and graceful, her skin like snowflakes, fair yet rosy, her beautiful jade visage resembling a large peony bloom, with ripples of depth in her eyes beneath her curved Liu brows.

She approached Chen Mo and bowed slightly: "Marquis, I have an important matter to discuss with you."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.