Chapter 1 Chang Huaiyin and Sun Jin

Chang Huaiyin and Sun Jin didn't harbor any ill feelings towards Ye Tao for making them wait at Thunder Cliff for almost ten days, but the old steward who had once visited the Ye family workshop to urge him to return had quite a few complaints. In the eyes of this old steward, named Chang Zeng, family background was everything. Although Ye Tao was the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner, his family background was humble, not to mention comparable to the noble lineage of the Chang family. And daring to leave Princess Chang Huaiyin waiting while he himself went to do the work of those lowly artisans was simply incomprehensible.

Chang Huaiyin couldn't say she liked her old steward, but he had served the Chang family loyally for his entire life, and his status among the servants was quite high. So, even if she found some of his words unreasonable, she would just listen and say nothing. As for Sun Jin, he himself was one of those with a humble family background despised by Chang Zeng, and he usually had nothing to say to him.

Although Ye Tao had no choice but to make Chang Huaiyin and Sun Jin's party wait, he certainly didn't neglect them. Thunder Cliff had now become the most important transportation hub in central Yunzhou, and conditions in all aspects were quite good. The Pacification Commissioner's office and the Dai family had also arranged various sightseeing and excursion programs for Chang Huaiyin, Sun Jin, and even their two children. In particular, the pair of newborn lambs gifted to their daughter, Sun Yuer, and the pair of small hunting dogs gifted to their son, Sun Tingxuan, who was still in swaddling clothes, were greatly loved by Chang Huaiyin, who was already a wife but still retained some childlike innocence.

While Ye Tao finally arrived at Thunder Cliff, almost all of Yunzhou's senior officials and mid-to-high-ranking military officers also arrived. On the one hand, they were there to discuss the Northern Liao's movements and countermeasures, and on the other hand, to arrange work for the time that Ye Tao would be away.

Since Dai Yun and Tan Weixin were not leaving Yunzhou with Ye Tao this time, with them two in charge, most things could actually be left to them without worry. This meeting was just to clarify some issues, determine the guiding principles for various tasks, and avoid possible disagreements in future affairs.

First and foremost, regarding the Northern Liao's movements, after reviewing the reports that had been sent in one after another, Dai Yun stated that the Northern Liao should have no intention of launching an attack in the short term. She suggested adopting a policy of active defense and restraint towards the Northern Liao, and trying to avoid large-scale engagements, which was approved. There were indeed many young officers in the Yunzhou army. They had vigor, courage, and ambition, but they also had enough ability and reason to judge when it was appropriate to fight and when it was not. Everyone also expressed their support for Dai Yun's statement.

Secondly, there was the work of economic and livelihood construction and development in Yunzhou. Ye Tao was even less worried about this aspect. Without him interfering with Tan Weixin's ideas, without him taking up a lot of her time chatting, and mainly without him being there, always cautiously looking ahead and behind, Tan Weixin would probably be able to exert her abilities even more. Perhaps sometimes her measures would be more radical and intense, but with Tan Weixin's intelligence, she would naturally keep these things within a relatively normal range. And any measures that Tan Weixin took with a free hand while Ye Tao was away should not be attacked by anyone in the court. No one was foolish enough to do that.

Compared to the economy, matters of people's livelihood were more complex. Tan Weixin would naturally set aside sufficient resources for this part of the work, but how to make full use of these resources and maximize their effect was a difficult and complicated project. After some discussion, everyone decided to establish two new departments directly under the Pacification Commissioner's office, namely the Civil Affairs Office One and Civil Affairs Office Two.

Civil Affairs Office One was mainly responsible for the renovation of houses, the construction of roads, the maintenance of cities, the construction of villages and towns, the repair of farmland water conservancy, etc., in various parts of Yunzhou. Its business overlapped with the Manufacturing Bureau, the Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau, and the Trade Bureau to a small extent, but it was more comprehensive. It was a platform for communicating the strength of both sides and even multiple parties to carry out construction work. It was a department closely related to the daily life of ordinary people in Yunzhou. On the contrary, Civil Affairs Office Two was concerned with disaster preparedness and emergency response. If Yunzhou had good weather, they would have little contact with the lives of ordinary people. Their job was to silently hoard grain, medicines, and other basic necessities, prepare various contingency plans to deal with insect plagues, epidemics, snow disasters, and other climatic disasters, and prepare related tools to keep relevant personnel ready at all times. And the only way Civil Affairs Office Two might frequently appear in front of ordinary people was probably through the fire brigades they were about to establish in various towns throughout Yunzhou. In the future, the common people would be very happy to see the people from Civil Affairs Office One, but they would be very unhappy to see the people from Civil Affairs Office Two. Seeing the people from Civil Affairs Office Two often meant that bad things had already happened.

However, perhaps the people from Civil Affairs Office Two could be less depressed, because there was also Civil Affairs Office Three, which was even less popular. Civil Affairs Office Three was Yunzhou's internal affairs organization. They were Yunzhou's "Independent Commission Against Corruption," responsible for supervising and reviewing officials and all running projects in Yunzhou. They were only responsible to the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner. If you saw the people from Civil Affairs Office Three, it meant that whether good or bad things had happened around you or to you, something had gone wrong.

Governing Yunzhou was a difficult and not at all interesting task, but something extremely interesting to Ye Tao was about to begin in his absence. That was the construction of the new city in Yunzhou.

The final location selected for the new city was east of Snow Wolf Lake, forming a fairly standard equilateral triangle on the map with the current location of the Ye family workshop and the Dai family's Tianling Fortress. Choosing this location was primarily because this location could satisfy all the functional positioning of the new city. Whether from the perspective of transportation, geological and hydrological conditions, this location was very ideal. Once the new city was built and began to gather a certain amount of popularity, then Yunzhou would basically form a circle around Snow Wolf Lake, with Thunder Cliff, Ningyuan, Suiyuan, and the new city as the fulcrum, becoming the center of gravity of the entire Yunzhou, which would be quite convenient whether in terms of military mobilization or material transportation. But what ultimately made Ye Tao determined to build the new city in this place was primarily because this location had extremely unique landform characteristics, which reminded him of a magnificent and gorgeous city in his memory that made people's blood boil whenever they thought of it.

The design sketches had already been made. The lines that Ye Tao sketched on the paper with a pencil depicted an unprecedented city. And the characteristics that Ye Tao listed in the design proposal that the new city needed to have made the first batch of people who could see the sketches often have the urge to pinch themselves to see if it was real.

After the site selection was completed, a large number of personnel from the Pacification Commissioner's office and the Ye family workshop had begun to conduct detailed exploration of this location and its surroundings. Since this land originally had no owner, even the matter of negotiating the purchase of land was waived. Those farmers or herdsmen who spontaneously cultivated or grazed through this area from time to time would receive some compensation. And those farmers became the first batch to be recruited by the new city project team and began to carry out preliminary preparations as workers. Two roads, one to the south and one to the north, had already begun to extend from Tianling Fortress and the Ye family workshop to the site of the new city. All the quarries and logging yards inside and outside Yunzhou had received large orders.

In addition to this, another thing that would make Ye Tao feel very happy, and that he could probably only see the results of now, was the Ye family Research Institute, which the Ye family workshop was investing two million taels in to expand on the side of the Ye family workshop, with Ye Tao's current studio as the core. This was the first professional institution of this era with the goal of developing science and technology and transforming technology into concrete products. And the initial task of this institution was to settle those glass craftsmen and alchemists sent by the Samir family, comprehensively consider Ye Tao's ideas for developing technology and the original work habits of the alchemists and glass craftsmen, and fully utilize the existing technology of the Ye family workshop to build two departments with considerable research and development capabilities in as short a time as possible.

The general structure of those laboratory buildings and factory buildings was not much different, only the internal space was more spacious, and various equipment was arranged according to the needs of research rather than the needs of production efficiency... If Ye Tao could stay in Yunzhou to personally handle the various affairs of this research institute, which was basically set up for him alone, and launch related project research as soon as possible, then he would be very happy. However, it seemed that by the time he returned to Yunzhou, the first batch of glass products from the Ye family workshop would probably already be off the assembly line. And without Ye Tao's active involvement, during these times of his absence, Ye Tao was completely unsure of what this chemistry laboratory, which was based on alchemists and joined by elite soldiers and strong generals drawn from the already quite developed dyeing workshop of the Ye family workshop, could come up with, or what kind of trouble they could cause. To be honest, he was now more annoyed than ever by this feeling of not being able to control everything. Especially since these tasks seemed to be able to be done only by him.

After implementing this series of arrangements in Yunzhou, Ye Tao, along with Dai Qiuyan and Sophie, embarked on a journey to Danyang first, and then from Danyang to Chunnan.

Apart from his first time in Danyang, every time Ye Tao returned to Danyang, he would encounter an even more powerful welcoming lineup. This was indeed due to the continuous growth of Ye Tao's status, but Ye Tao himself was more willing to understand it as the friendship and eagerness of those friends. Perhaps it was just self-deception, but for Ye Tao, who longed for indifference, it was quite effective. This time, Ye Tao wasn't too worried that the status of the people who came to welcome him would be too high. After all, Tan Weiran had been left by him in Yunzhou to act as the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner in his absence with the status of a prince. Although Tan Weiran's agency would probably inevitably be emptied by Tan Weixin and Dai Yun in terms of military and political affairs, both the Pacification Commissioner's office and Tan Weiran himself were clear that this kind of agency was originally a matter of borrowing his status far more than borrowing his political strategy. It was perfectly normal for him to be emptied, and in the world, Tan Weiran had to rack his brains to manage the Jingyun Cavalry, so he didn't have time to worry about the complicated local affairs of Yunzhou.

Since Tan Weiran was unlikely to appear in the team welcoming Ye Tao, Ye Tao was very calm. If it were normal times, Tan Weiming might have rushed out excitedly, but now that the Chunnan delegation and the Chunnan forbidden army who came to welcome Concubine Lian were stationed in Danyang, as the crown prince, he must maintain his dignity. As for the other friends in Danyang coming to welcome him, no matter who it was, it would not make Ye Tao feel too embarrassed or too grand.

Ye Tao's prediction was indeed correct. The person who came to welcome him was none other than the current Blood Kirin Army Inspector, Zou Shuangwen. The hunting military flags were spread out on both sides of the road, and the respect and admiration of the soldiers of the Blood Kirin Army, especially those veterans and senior officers, for Ye Tao was more than clearly expressed on their faces.

"Brother Zou, long time no see. You've been training the new recruits well this year." Ye Tao and Zou Shuangwen patted each other on the shoulders while straddling their horses. Looking at the epaulettes of the surrounding soldiers, Ye Tao sincerely congratulated him.

"It really has been a long time. You don't even let Suo Zheng come back and get together with everyone. Everyone has arranged some interesting programs this time." Zou Shuangwen winked at Chang Huaiyin's convoy following behind, hinting that there would probably be some events emerging between the Blood Kirin Army and those Chunnan forbidden troops, just waiting for Ye Tao to come back and join in the fun.

Ye Tao smiled knowingly and said, "It's my fault. I was late because of too many things. I'm only staying in Danyang for a few days before leaving again." He lowered his voice and asked, "Is it not a problem?"

Zou Shuangwen shrugged and said with a smile, "Anyway, you just wait and see. We... are still very aware of the big picture. We will definitely not delay Concubine Lian's trip."

Ye Tao pursed his lips, and just when he was very interested, Zou Shuangwen suddenly said, "But... Pacification Commissioner Ye, there are some things I have to remind you of. There are some people in Danyang who are very dissatisfied with you now. You must be careful not to be tricked."

Ye Tao was stunned and asked, "Who is it? I haven't heard anyone say anything. Could it be..."

Zou Shuangwen had also heard a little about the fact that the Tan family and Ye Tao had always maintained a high frequency of contact, constantly exchanging various situations. Although Ye Tao was in Yunzhou, he knew the various personnel changes in Danyang, the topics of various court discussions, and the various open struggles and hidden undercurrents very clearly, even more clearly than many people in Danyang. Zou Shuangwen smiled very strangely and said, "His Majesty will definitely not tell you these things either."

Tan Xiaopei had ultimately guarded against him?