Chapter 190 Long Planned

The mountains and rivers were hazy with light smoke, and in the sunshine, hundreds of soldiers walked through the long winding road under the terraces, heading towards the mountain village ahead.

The harvest season has arrived, and farmers can be seen working in the fields. On the side of the lake, fishermen can also be seen pulling in their fishing nets.

We are in the middle of mountains and fields, but there is no hustle and bustle of war. Along the way, villages have been built in more than a dozen relatively flat places between fields and swamps.

The houses are in a row, and people come and go, ranging from hundreds to thousands.

Zhaojiacun is right ahead, and it is also the largest village nearby.

What Wei Zhuang saw was not so much a village as a city without walls.

The people who established the village here are obviously well versed in the art of war and can watch from a distance. With the dangerous terrain, they can stop an enemy five times as strong as just guarding a few key roads.

If you get closer, you can see that the city wall built at the gap has reached a certain scale. Because the autumn harvest was approaching, there were few civilians near the city wall.

A huge figure was standing under the city wall. He was directing the construction when he saw the convoy approaching, so he led the crowd to greet it.

"See you, Your Majesty!"

"No need to be polite! How is the ceremony?"

"The west city wall has been completed 80%, and the east wall has been completed 50%. With the current manpower, it is expected to be completed next spring."

"very good!"

Zhao Shuang waved his hand, and the convoy passed through the city gate and entered the city, while Dianqing directed the men to continue construction.

From any angle, this is a small town. However, this small town adopted the mechanisms of Mohism and Gongshu.

The huge water wheel is driven by the water flow, and through the water power, the bricks and stones are transported to the city wall, where they are then loaded and unloaded by the civilian workers.

"How many people can live in this city?"

Along the way to Wei Zhuang, you can see various buildings in the city.

This is a city with a military character.

Along the way, we could see training grounds, arsenals, stables, and several larger granaries that were half filled.

Outside the city, there is a port with a dock built on it. Many craftsmen are building ships among them.

Most of them were fishing boats, and a few were warships.

"In normal times, it can accommodate about 5,000 households. In wartime, it can accommodate 50,000 people."

Fifty thousand people, compared with Xianyang, Daliang, Xinzheng, Handan, Linzi and other cities in the world, is really not enough.

Even Xiangping, the city of Yan State in Liaodong, was larger than this city.

However, this was enough to surprise Wei Zhuang when it came to Zhao Shuang.

"How many people are there in your territory?"

"About two hundred thousand people, if you don't count the surrounding barbarians." Zhao Shuang raised the car window and explained, "Ten years of gathering, ten years of lessons. It has been twenty years, and there has been no smoke of war here. He has never been called into corvee service."

Two hundred thousand people?

Wei Zhuang was shocked. This was much higher than the number that he and the aides of the Prime Minister's Mansion had estimated when he was in Lu Buwei's Mansion.

In other words, if Zhao Shuang is willing and uses all his strength, he can recruit an army of 10,000 to 20,000 people.

Zhao Shuang turned around, seemed to see the surprise on Wei Zhuang's face, and smiled softly.

"Soldiers are more valuable than more elite soldiers. With the terrain here, three thousand elite soldiers are enough to resist the defence."

However, what Wei Zhuang didn't expect was that Zhao Shuang's private soldiers were trained in a similar way to how Wu Qi trained Wei's soldiers. However, compared to the selection method of Wei soldiers, many changes have been made.

Living in the mountains and wilderness, although the identity of these soldiers is passed down from father to son, and almost everyone has two or three pairs of good longbows at home, they are not yet ready to be out of work.

The soldiers in Zhaojiacun are bound by blood, but as the entire territory is relatively short of supplies, even though they have the food, grass and supplies given by the lord, they still need to hunt in summer and winter to find meat, and even make weapons, armor and the like. handcraft work.

Wei Zhuang got off the carriage and followed Zhao Shuang to the high pavilion built in the mountains. Standing on the observation deck above the high pavilion, you can overlook the entire city.

"The Chu State established its capital in Chen and still has plans to recapture its hometown of Nanyang. The purpose of training such a strong army is to deal with this possible threat."

Zhao Shuang smiled, turned around, and missed Wei Zhuang.

"But things went counterproductive. The threat from the Chu people had not yet arrived, but the internal disputes in the Qin State had already arrived."

"It seems like a small matter, but it caused a huge quarrel in the Qin court."

Wei Zhuang knew very well that this little matter was what Zhao Shuang mentioned. But the reference behind it is particularly interesting.

"Yongcheng seems to be hiding a huge secret, and both Lu Buwei and Lao Ai are afraid that people will touch this secret."

"What this secret is has nothing to do with us now. The intelligence system established by Liusha with Zilanxuan as its core is still in its initial stage, but the female assassins trained in Zilanxuan alone are not enough to support Liusha."

"you mean?"

Zhao Shuang looked at Wei Zhuang with deep affection.

"Azhuang!"

Wei Zhuang felt inexplicably that this guy was going to trick him.

"In the quicksand, establish another assassin group called Counter Quicksand, with you as the leader, including strange people from the northern border, the western border, the east sea, and the southern land."

Wei Zhuang touched his chin and nodded.

"The idea is good, but how do we find or even win over these people?"

A smile appeared on Zhao Shuang's face, which made Wei Zhuang panic.

On this day, traveling thousands of miles from the south to the north, he still had to break his legs. How hard was it? How dangerous is it to overwhelm a group of strong men? Who would dare to do it without great perseverance and monstrous ability?

Thinking of this, Wei Zhuang showed a smile on his face.

"I agreed to this."

Zhao Shuang clapped his hands, and Yan Lingji and Bai Lu held up two jewelry boxes.

"This is the fund for your activities. The jewelry inside is worth five thousand gold. If it is not enough, come to me again."

Zhao Shuang took out the silk cloth from his sleeve, which was covered with densely packed names.

"These are masters of martial arts who are independent of other schools of thought. You should be particularly thoughtful about the names I have circled."

Wei Zhuang looked at Zhao Shuang, and it seemed that he had planned this for a long time.

At this time, Wei Zhuang suddenly felt like he was on a pirate ship.

"Aren't you afraid that I'll take the money and run away?"

"What is our relationship?"

Zhao Shuang suddenly smiled, patted his chest, and said the following words in the most humble tone as if he was full of energy.

"You shouldn't be able to, right?"

After saying that, Zhao Shuang glanced at the two jewelry boxes with some worry.

Wei Zhuang snorted lightly and took the silk cloth from Zhao Shuang's hand.

Just after Wei Zhuang left, Mo Ya's voice and shadow appeared in front of Zhao Shuang.

"Two pieces of news. Xianyang has decided to send an envoy to Yueshi."

Has the outcome been decided in the court?

This matter will divert more of Luo Wang's energy, making Luo Wang unable to take care of him for the time being.

"Where's the other one?"

"There is news from Bai Feng that the Mo family's strongholds in Qin and Chu have been deployed."

Zhao Shuang nodded and said in a deep voice.

"Luo Wang has no time to look eastward. This is a great opportunity to expand the Mohist power in the land of Qin and Chu."