The Nineteen Paths Riverside was originally a barren land with hardly any signs of human habitation for dozens of miles. However, two months ago, it had become popular.
All kinds of wood and carts of cement were piled together. Before ordinary people knew it, Dayao's first batch of factories were built here.
Countless oxcarts and carts came and went every day.
In addition to the fish fished from the Nineteen Rivers, which were cooked at high temperatures and sent to the new barracks, there were also quartz sand, borax, boric acid, barite, barium carbonate, limestone, feldspar, and all kinds of other stones sent from afar.
It was a lively scene.
Correspondingly, there were also two new barracks dozens of miles away, where 40,000 new soldiers were receiving training.
When Ren Baqian arrived at these two new barracks with the empress, the attention he received was second only to the empress.
"It's that guy, right?"
"Just strangle him to death with one hand. It should be him."
"This bastard …"
"Hit him with a stone?"
"He's courting death. Her Majesty is here … Although I also want to hit him with a stone."
Countless people were cursing in secret.
They joined the army to eat meat, but they ended up eating fish every day. There were some bones in the fish that weren't stewed well, and their throats were often pricked. Furthermore, the taste wasn't good.
This was all because of this lad's rotten idea. It was simply too wicked.
Ever since he arrived at the entrance of this barracks, Ren Baqian felt hostility from all directions. It came from those muscular, bronze-skinned, and ferocious-looking new soldiers.
Although the empress had already warned him, they were all hostile. Their gazes were like steel needles stabbing into his body, and it didn't feel good.
"I'm quite innocent …" Ren Baqian whispered to the empress, feeling very wronged.
Now, so many people don't even have enough to eat. I came up with a way to ensure their food and nutrition. It's fine if you don't thank me, but you actually treat me with hostility.
This was really a case of a dog biting the hand that feeds Lu Dongbin.
"I'm not really innocent. After all, this idea was yours," the empress casually replied.
"But under the circumstances at that time, it was already very difficult to provide rations for 20,000 new soldiers, let alone 40,000 new soldiers," Ren Baqian complained. "If I didn't do this, I wouldn't be able to provide rations for 40,000 new soldiers, let alone other things." Ren Baqian felt even more wronged.
"That's why you came up with this idea …" The empress changed the way she put it.
"Your Majesty, I'm doing this for the sake of the nation." Ren Baqian was completely depressed. He felt that he had been wronged.
"Then he came up with this idea, so they didn't hate the wrong person."
Ren Baqian, "…"
Can we still chat?
But no matter what, he was the one who came up with this idea.
These new soldiers joined the army to eat meat, but in the end, they ended up eating fish every day. Regardless of the reason, the idea was Ren Baqian's, and they naturally hated him.
In a certain aspect, it was not wrong.
Ren Baqian was helpless. "I'm doing this for the sake of the nation."
The empress seemed to have inadvertently grabbed his hand and squeezed it as a form of consolation. Then, they parted ways.
The empress said softly. "You can't expect everyone to understand that much."
The empress moved very quickly, but this small movement was seen by many people. All of them looked up at the sky and pretended that they didn't see anything.
Ren Baqian knew that the empress was right.
Even in modern society, not everyone could understand reason, let alone in such a backward world. The targets of education were those who had never studied before, and it was the first time in their lives that they left the mountains.
Ren Baqian understood this, but it didn't stop him from feeling wronged.
These were two different matters.
The empress took a tour around the two barracks and looked at the situation of the barracks as well as their drills.
The first barracks were obviously better than the second barracks. At least, it wasn't as messy. Furthermore, they looked more imposing during the drills.
The first barracks were the first batch of new soldiers that had been training for more than five months. After the empress's inspection, they were going to break camp and head to the Protectorate of the Northeast.
The new soldiers in the second barracks still had to go through another four months of training.
After a total of twelve days, the empress's imperial carriage set off again and headed for a ferry upstream. There were already three big ships waiting there.
It was indeed very big. It was about forty to fifty meters long. There were three floors on the deck of the ship, and it was about twenty meters tall.
The ship itself should be very luxurious. There were carvings in many places. However, it was unknown how long this ship had been in use. The hull was already very old, and some places could even see "patches."
At the lower half of the ship, there were many long oars that protruded out to propel the ship forward.
"Be careful, Your Majesty." When Ren Baqian saw that the empress was about to go up the gangway, he eagerly went up to support her. The people around him rolled their eyes.
Even if this ship was twice as tall, it would only take an instant for Her Majesty to go up. Why would you need to be so attentive?
The empress's face showed that it was superfluous, but she actually enjoyed it in her heart.
Ren Baqian touched the empress's arm through a thin veil. He didn't have any messy thoughts, but instead carefully looked at the gangway below his feet. Every time he stepped on it, it would tremble, making him wonder if the gangway would suddenly break.
When he reached the deck, he saw the entire view of the ship. It was indeed magnificent. With the productivity of this world, such a big ship was considered a colossus.
However, the ship was the same as what he saw below. Although it was clean, it was very old.
"Du Laoliu, be careful."
"Eh? Why is this ladder trembling so much? I feel like I'm going to fall. Help, Tie Xun, quickly come and help me! "Two soft voices came from behind him.
Ren Baqian turned his head and looked over the side of the ship. Du Laoliu was standing on the gangway and winking at a young man below.
He took out his gun.
Bang!
"Ah!"
"Teacher, I was wrong!" Du Laoliu put his hands on both sides of his legs, stood there with his head lowered, and said honestly, "A man should never say anything no matter how dangerous it is."
"You know too much!" Ren Baqian said faintly.
Bang!
"Ah!"
Many people below watched as Ren Baqian's figure disappeared from the side of the ship. They silently repeated his words a few times in their hearts. These words must be remembered and mustn't be forgotten. These words were imposing.
Ren Baqian stuffed the gun into his waist, walked back to the empress, and asked, "Where did this ship come from?"
He didn't think that the style of this ship was different just because it was built by Dayao. The carvings were exquisite, and the paint that had fallen off hadn't been repaired.
Ren Baqian had an idea. Could this ship have been left behind by the Hao Nation? That was at least 70 years old. One had to know that this ship was in the water, and it would have rotted after being soaked for 70 years.
"Zhuo Yue sent it here. It's quite old," the empress said.
Ren Baqian thought about it. Zhuo Yue was the Protector General of the Protectorate of the Southeast.
He heard that there were many rivers in the Chen Nation, so there was no need to explain where this ship came from.
"It's time to change. This ship isn't very safe on the river, right?" Ren Baqian stepped on the deck, which made a creaking sound.
"Zhuo Yue is already looking for a suitable ship. Once he finds one, he will send it back."
Ren Baqian was speechless.
There was no need to ask anything else. He simply didn't consider where to order it or whether it would be sold.
He reckoned that Zhuo Yue would place a knife on the other party's neck, throw a tael of silver, and ask the other party if they wanted the ship or money.
Those who could board this kind of ship probably weren't ordinary people. From the looks of it, they were definitely asking for money.
The speed of the ship wasn't fast. It took about an hour to cross the river that was more than 10 kilometers long.
However, it was very smooth, and there wasn't much turbulence.
Ren Baqian and the empress stood at the bow of the ship and heard singing coming from afar.
"The waves of the long river rise from beneath your feet, and the waves go to the ends of the world …"
When the voice reached Ren Baqian's ears, he could only hear these two sentences.
What was strange was that the singing didn't come from the other side of the river, but from a place parallel to the ship.
Ren Baqian turned his head and looked around. Finally, he saw a small dot in the distant river.
Or rather, on the river surface, there was a person who was gliding toward the other side of the river. He was heading in the same direction as Ren Baqian and the others, but was only a few kilometers away.
If it wasn't for the singing, Ren Baqian might not have discovered the other party.
Yes, gliding, just like ice skating. Although he couldn't see clearly, the other party was extremely fast and obviously wasn't swimming.
"Gliding on water?" Ren Baqian was shocked. He didn't expect to see such a person in Dayao.
"Give me the binoculars," Ren Baqian called out to the guard.
Soon, Ren Baqian saw the other party's full appearance through the binoculars.
It was a man wearing a purple robe. His age and appearance couldn't be seen clearly, but he could clearly see that the other party was indeed gliding on the river.
Furthermore, his hands were behind his back, and he was looking up at the sky. The wind was blowing at his clothes, and his posture made it seem as if he was about to ascend to heaven.
Just this posture alone wasn't that of an ordinary person.
After taking a closer look, Ren Baqian had a strange expression on his face.
He saw a piece of wood floating in the water under the other party's feet. There was a rope tied to the front end of the wood, and in front of the rope was a flying sword. It was more than a meter above the water surface, and it looked like a cow or a horse pulling the wood and the man on it forward.
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