Qin Shi Ambitious

Page 25

The Luqiu Pavilion originally had one Pavilion Master, one Deputy Pavilion Master, two Supervisors, four Managers, and eight Landlords.

The title of Pavilion Master Xu Qiu has not been removed, but he has not returned for more than a year, so this position can only be avoided for the time being.

The deputy cabinet chief's malicious resistance to righteous law enforcement at the beginning of the week made him a natural target for establishing his authority.

On the day the caravan returned, Lu Wei publicly announced the removal of Zhou Chu from all his posts and his imprisonment, stating that he would personally report the matter to Master Zhou He when he went to Dazeshan to attend the autumn harvest conference.

The position of deputy cabinet chief was temporarily taken over by a senior elder from the caravan.

This old man was Lu Shan's financial teacher, and he often taught Lu Shan how to do accounts personally when they were in Shouchun.

He understood perfectly why he had risen to such a high position in one step. After becoming the deputy pavilion master, he hurriedly bowed to Lu Wei, bowing his head and bending his waist, behaving very obediently.

Lu Wei did not refuse in front of everyone, patted the other party on the shoulder, and encouraged him to serve the farmers well.

Of the two original supervisors, he dismissed one and kept the other, and promoted obedient people from among the original managers to appease the people of Jicheng.

Of the four stewards, the one who was promoted to supervisor was demoted to landowner. Lu Yu and Lu Ye, on the other hand, were promoted from ordinary disciples of one-star pearl grass to stewards of three-star pearl grass.

The other two vacancies will be arranged after Lu Shan and Lu Mu return; they will remain vacant for now.

Finally, all eight former landowners were demoted to lower-level disciples, and three more were promoted from among the district administrators of Jicheng and two more from among the caravan disciples, ensuring that the power of the senior members was basically evenly distributed.

As for Lu Wei himself, although he was nominally under Luqiu Pavilion, he was authorized by the Hall Order to serve as the head of the Gonggong Hall headquarters.

It possesses a transcendent status independent of Luqiu Pavilion.

As a result, all the former high-ranking members of Luqiu Pavilion, except for Zhou Chu, were released after being slightly punished by Lu Wei.

The next phase involved a more extensive purge of middle management, but that obviously no longer required Lu Wei's personal involvement.

The matter was handed over entirely to the new deputy pavilion master, and Lu Yu and Lu Ye, being young and capable men, volunteered to assist him.

The returning caravan members quickly integrated back into the Luqiu Pavilion family.

The special products from Chu brought back by the caravan could be sold for quite some time. During the period after all the goods were sold, the farmers' base in Yan State was able to stabilize.

Those remote towns far from Jicheng were almost completely unaffected by the changes in the Luqiu Pavilion's management.

But one person keenly observed this great purge and was astonished by it.

That's Tian Guang, the current leader of the Farmer's Knights!

As the leader of the chivalrous sect, Tian Guang's true identity was only known to the higher-ups at the Dazeshan headquarters.

Since the year before last, he has been active in the territory of the Yan state for some reason.

As for the purpose, it was to establish a reputation as a "hero of integrity" to gain an advantage in that plan.

At the end of the year before last, Tian Guang also secretly went to Luqiu Pavilion, met with Xu Qiu, and personally arranged the trip to Chu for the merchant caravan.

But since then, in order to avoid being discovered by those with ulterior motives, he has never had any contact with the peasant disciples of Yan.

But now, with changes involving the entire Yan State's agricultural branch, Tian Guang felt he couldn't afford to ignore it!

He wanted to go to Jicheng in person to see what had happened.

------

"You were attacked while passing through the Taihang Mountains?"

In the secret room on the third floor of Luqiu Pavilion, Lu Wei was teaching Lu Yu and Lu Ye a deeper level of the Rejuvenation Technique.

As his right-hand men, Yamayu Konoha definitely needs to improve his strength, but if he relies solely on his own efforts, who knows when he'll be able to achieve that.

The pills in the system that can quickly improve martial arts skills are too expensive.

If Lu Wei doesn't embezzle public funds from Luqiu Pavilion, the purchase will be very difficult.

He had just used financial issues to persecute Zhou Chu, and he couldn't afford to give the enemy any leverage at this time.

How to quickly earn his own gold remains a problem. He had some ideas about it a long time ago, and now that he has integrated Luqiu Pavilion, he can try to do it, but it will take time to accumulate.

For the time being, we can only rely on the quality of our own internal energy to improve the internal strength of Yu Ye and her companion.

After the transmission of skills was completed, Lu Ye talked about the unexpected incident that the caravan encountered on the road: when they reached the Taihang Mountains, a lone bandit robbed a carriage of its goods.

"That man's technique was particularly strange. He could twist his entire body at will, making it impossible to defend against. Three of our disciples were killed by him."

"If we hadn't activated the Twenty-Four Earthly Destinies in time to force them to leave, the losses would have been even greater..."

Lu Ye said indignantly.

"Feminine and boneless, with a heart breaking... she is a bone demon."

After listening to the detailed description, Lu Wei guessed the other party's identity.

“Bone Demon…” Lu Ye gritted his teeth and memorized the name.

Seeing this, Lu Wei guessed that A Ye hadn't told him the whole story, and that the Bone Demon had probably humiliated him.

Lu Yu, familiar with his brothers, naturally noticed this as well. He shook his head and teased Lu Ye, "Want me to go with you to explore the Taihang Mountains?"

"No need!" Lu Ye lowered his eyes: "I will remember this grudge, and I will definitely cut off this bone demon's head with one sword in the future!"

...

After nearly half a year, we finally brought Luqiu Pavilion under our control. Next, we need to make preparations for the Autumn Harvest Festival at Daze Mountain.

On the edge of a farmhouse, Gao Jianli was playing the horn on the spot, while Lu Wei, wearing a straw hat, was working hard in the vegetable garden below.

This is the basic job of a farmer's disciple. Who knows, it might come in handy at the autumn harvest festival. As the person in charge of this area, it would be too embarrassing if I didn't even know how to use a hoe.

Practice beforehand, just in case.

The farming tools of this era were rather primitive, and could only be described as functional.

The system shop has a complete guide to crafting agricultural tools, and the prices aren't high. Lu Wei plans to hand it over to Lu Mu, the 'master of machinery,' after he returns, so that Lu Mu can design some versatile agricultural tools that can be used in practice.

Now that we have the entire Luqiu Pavilion as our backing, it will be much easier whether we want to make money or conduct research on mechanical arts.

After Gao Jianli finished playing a piece, feeling the scent of the rural soil, he closed his eyes and tried to create a new piece based on the direction of the wind in the fields.

In recent days, Lu Wei's actions of saving his life at the Shuzhen tavern, gifting him a guqin, capturing the insects in the farmhouse, and personally working in the fields have deeply moved Gao Jianli. With the help of the horn in his hand, he hopes to express these emotions through music.

Wiping the sweat from his forehead with his arm, Lu Wei looked at Gao Jianli, who was playing a new piece he had never heard before. He put down his hoe, sat down beside him, and listened attentively.

The sound of the bell is like a horn, and such an instrument is not suitable for playing gentle music. Farming and farming have never been associated with gentleness.

This new piece, unlike the stirring military music, expresses the growth of a seed in different seasons of spring, summer and autumn.

The changing rhythms of spring breezes, summer sun, and autumn harvest bring joy to farmers.

This is music that belongs to the farmers!

Lu Wei's eyes lit up. Gao Jianli had so quickly revealed the side of him that he could be used.

Chapter 35 Tian Guang's Scheme

Time flies, and August arrives.

In the height of summer, even the Yan Kingdom, known for its cold and snowy climate, became hot.

A few days ago, news came from the south that Lu Shan and Lu Mu had led the remaining half of the Chu caravan across the Wei border and into the Zhao state. They should be able to return in a while.

In his letter, Lu Mu stated that he had made initial progress in the art of mechanical engineering. Although he could not create mechanical beasts that could be used for farming, he could still try to modify farm tools.

Lu Wei could not wait for their return; he had to set off immediately for the meeting at Daze Mountain.

The affairs of Luqiu Pavilion are entrusted to Yu Ye and the other person, so there shouldn't be any major problems.

In Ji City, the Prince of Yan spends his days indulging in pleasure within the palace, while Lord Yanchun spends his days indulging in pleasure outside the palace... perhaps occasionally he also goes to the palace to enjoy himself...

After Prince Dan entered Qin, it was unknown when he would be able to return. In fact, many powerful figures believed that he might not be able to return at all.

Originally, in order to gain popular support and because he genuinely desired that the Yan state could become stronger, Prince Dan still maintained some restraint over these nobles.

Now that this constraint is gone, rampant acts of plundering the people's wealth occur almost every day.

Although Luqiu Pavilion, as a sphere of influence of the peasants, was ridiculed by the powerful and wealthy as a bunch of "peasants," the fact that "peasants" banded together still gave them a certain degree of deterrence.

Therefore, since the beginning of the year, the number of commoners who had their wealth plundered has increased significantly, with many choosing to join farming families.

Most notably, Luqiu Pavilion, representing the peasant families of Jicheng, has recently been moving closer to the Yanchun Jun Mansion, causing trouble for these powerful figures.

To be precise, under Lu Wei's instructions, Luqiu Pavilion did make contact with Yan Chunjun's residence, but not with Yan Chunjun himself, but with the steward who had been invited to the banquet earlier!

After the last banquet, a thorough investigation revealed that, as Lu Wei had predicted, there was indeed a power struggle within the Yan Chun Jun household!

As the steward who had served Lord Yanchun for more than ten years, he was ousted from his position as the second-in-command in the mansion by a Jianghu assassin named Jueying in just one year, which filled the steward with resentment.

This resentment could not be directed at Yan Chunjun, so Jueying became the target of that hatred.

However, he couldn't do the things that Jueying could do, but Jueying was adept at handling the trivial matters of dealing with those powerful people.

As a result, the butler's position became increasingly awkward, and recently he has even been relegated to being Jueying's second-in-command...

In the household, matters large and small were always first instructed by Lord Yanchun to Jueying, and then Jueying would instruct him...

As time went on, the steward, his eyes red with rage, desperately needed to perform meritorious service to regain Yan Chunjun's favor.

But what can an old man like him do?

Lu Wei accurately grasped this point and proposed a collaboration with the steward during the second banquet: the disciples under Luqiu Pavilion could be used by the steward to a certain extent.

The anxious butler readily agreed.

Jueying was able to gain Yanchun Jun's favor because he was highly skilled in martial arts and had a group of desperados under his command who dared to do any evil.

These people of the martial world should be dealt with by people of the martial world themselves!

Although Lu Wei would not sacrifice his reputation to rob and plunder, the advantage of having farm families all over the city and even the whole country was something Jueying Wan could not match.

Accurate intelligence is sometimes more important than a perfect operation.

On the farm side, the steward also needed to safeguard their development in Yan Chunjun's name. The two sides hit it off immediately, and the cooperation was officially established!

In order to deal with Jueying, the steward believed he was really willing to sacrifice: he not only voluntarily 'lowered his status' and treated those peasants as equals, but also secretly sacrificed a portion of the Yanchun Jun Mansion's interests to help Luqiu Pavilion expand its power.

For example, during the recent recruitment of guards for his residence, he readily accepted a group of farmers' disciples to join the household...

Before Jueying fell out of favor, with the steward around, Yuye loyally carrying out his instructions, and Gao Jianli offering his enthusiastic help, Lu Wei felt at ease riding out of the city and heading straight for the border between Yan and Qi.

But he hadn't ridden his horse for long when a shout from behind stopped him:

"Young man, young man!"