Chapter 400 Forced to counterattack
Ganquan Mountain, valley on the east side.

Zhen Mi was holding a large, fine wooden slip that was two feet and four inches long. Each slip contained the information of a female official.

She examined them carefully, and each time she chose someone, she asked the female official beside her to copy down their name and write it down.

The propaganda about the Battle of Yuzhong said that 200,000 people were captured and killed. This data is true, but among them, there were less than 50,000 young and strong men and women.

There are only more than 30,000 people who can be barely reorganized into the army. According to the current standards in Guanzhong, in the end only more than 10,000 people can meet the requirements and stay in the army.

A large number of Qiang children gathered in Yuzhong, and the boys were naturally separated and handed over to the military officers to raise.

Nowadays, military officers and soldiers are generally wealthy, and they can afford to support them whether as adopted sons, sons-in-law or slaves.

The children who could be given to them for raising were at least six or seven years old.

For the Qiang people or other nomadic tribes, children of this age can already help with herding and collecting wild vegetables.

If we squeeze out a little from our teeth, we can raise this group of boys who are over six years old and under fourteen years old.

Among the captured population, there were almost no boys or girls over the age of thirteen, as most of them had followed the Qiang tribes to migrate westward.

Now, the pressure of raising girls between the ages of six and fourteen has been assigned to Zhen Mi.

She knew without any details what a valuable group of human resources this was.

All industries in Guanzhong have recovered and all sectors need manpower.

This group of girls will be sent to her for training and will be able to engage in textile, clothing and leather processing as early as next year.

As they grow older, these women who have mastered production techniques naturally cannot easily leave their homes.

As they get married, Zhen Mi will indirectly gain control or influence a group of soldiers.

She was very concerned about this matter and carefully selected suitable female officials from her surroundings to cooperate in receiving the task.

These girls will be transported to Guanzhong one after another. Sending trusted and reliable people there to assist in management as early as possible can avoid the accidental loss of girls.

After finishing this work, Zhen Mi was preparing to write a letter to the front line.

The female official held out a tray of business cards and gifts and said, "Madam, the niece of Shangdang Cui Gong is here to visit."

Zhen Mi picked up the business card expressionlessly. Seeing that it was from Cui Yan's two nieces, she could not hold back her emotions and said, "Reject."

"Here."

The female official took five or six steps back before turning around and leaving with the wooden tray in her hand. She straightened her neck only after she had walked far away.

Seeing the female official walking away, Zhen Mi raised her hand and leaned against the wooden pillar, swaying her body. The temptation from Hebei was becoming more and more obvious.

The more you refuse, the more motivated the other party will be.

I just regret that I don’t have any guard troops directly under my command, otherwise I would really like to find a few assassins to assassinate Cui Zhouping.

Cui Zhouping and Cui Yan are two Cuis, but they complement each other and there is nothing wrong with saying they are two sides of the same coin.

After calming down a bit, she returned to the inner hall and sat down. She said to the female military officer accompanying her, "The Hebei people have repeatedly tried to test me. I am very angry. Do you have any solution?"

The female military attaché was also from Hebei. She was aware of the troubles faced by the person in front of her, but she didn't know the details.

After thinking about it, the female military officer changed her angle and said, "Madam, I don't think it's worth worrying about at the moment. If the people of Hebei arrange for their female relatives to serve the monarch and get along with you indirectly, that would be difficult to deal with."

After hearing this, Zhen Mi nodded slowly, fearing that Cui Zhouping would mobilize his connections in Hebei to find a group of girls from wealthy and decent families with clean backgrounds to come to Guanzhong.

The last time, the number of women that Yuan brought as dowry was very considerable, but most of them were wives and daughters of convicted officials.

After screening, she only kept those girls under 13 years old and of relatively average appearance, and arranged for the rest to be made into military uniforms and flags. The female military officer said, "Madam, you may as well close the door and pavilion, so that outsiders will not disturb you."

Then she said, "The Grand Marshal once issued an order to prohibit and reduce the movement of irrelevant personnel in prefectures and counties. The fact that the nieces of Shangdang Cui Gong were able to come to Ganquan Mountain may have something to check."

"No, there are things that can be investigated, but it's not my place to investigate."

Zhen Mi thought about it and sat up straight. She turned her chin and looked at the female military officer: "Kong Rong has been lazy recently. Find him something to do and send someone to ask about this matter."

The female military officer was startled, then out of caution, she asked, "But go and ask Shangdang Cui Gong's niece why she came to Ganquan Mountain?"

"Yes, just ask about this, and don't ask about the rest."

Zhen Mi stood up and said, "There are always risks in asking questions face to face. You can ask in person later with the handshake letter in hand."

"Here."

This matter was too urgent, so Zhen Mi immediately went to the desk and started writing. She did not write in the official script or regular script that she was familiar with, but in the Jin Jian script that she had been concentrating on studying during this period.

There were only a dozen or so words written on the silk book, and then she took out the private seal that Black Bear gave her and stamped it. It was a seal in golden calligraphy, with four words "Qingchun Jushi".

In contrast to her, Ma Yun also has a private seal, which reads "Mr. Zhu Xia".

At this moment, outside the Grand Marshal's Mansion, more than 30 scholars were partying and feasting in Kong Rong's hastily built mansion.

This mansion was built in a rather strange way, with a very spacious and huge hall that occupied a quarter of the total area of ​​the courtyard.

Not to mention more than thirty people, even nearly a hundred people can squeeze into the hall for a banquet.

At that time, the liquor in Guanzhong was monopolized and private brewing was prohibited. Only five-zhu coins were allowed to purchase official liquor.

Even so, considering the salaries and income of Kong Rong and his gang, it was not realistic for them to drink heavily every day. However, it was still okay to have small gatherings for seven days to drink slowly, and large gatherings for half a month to drink heavily.

Compared with the time in Xudu and Beihai, Kong Rong's wine reserves were not as sufficient.

There is a new rule when you come to his place for a banquet, which is to bring your own drinks.

Those who can come to Kong Rong and are valued by Kong Rong are not those who lack money to buy drinks.

So when Kong Rong left the shogunate office and walked less than 150 steps to his own house, he immediately smelled a mixture of alcohol and vomit.

Before Kong Rong had time to take off his hat and belt, he saw Liu Cong, who came to Guanzhong as a hostage, staggering out of the toilet. It took him seven or eight steps to recognize Kong Rong.

He raised his hand and pointed at Kong Rong to say hello, but his steps were unsteady and he mumbled something unclear.

He managed to take a few more steps, but his legs went limp and he fell to the ground, lying on his side on the wooden floor without moving.

Seeing him like this, Kong Rong didn't even blink.

I have seen many scenes of people drinking and getting drunk, some died from being drunk, some died from drinking and taking drugs in a manic state, and some died from drowning or choking themselves while lying on their backs and vomiting like fountains.

There were even people freezing to death in front of the toilet in winter, or dying in fights after drinking... Kong Rong had seen all these scenes so many times that he was used to them and was no longer surprised.

He knew that Liu Cong was feeling sad, but that was all he knew.

Compared with other people in the world, Liu Jingsheng's son is already much happier. In any case, he is happier and luckier than him.

Just as Kong Rong was about to go inside, the guard on duty outside the door came over quickly and said, "Lord Sizhi, please stay!"

The gatekeeper was also confused and didn't know how to introduce Zhen Mi's female officials.

After all, this was the first time that this type of female official came to see an important official of the shogunate.

(End of this chapter)