Volume 4 is in the ascendant Chapter 400: Visit
"No need to send him off. Go back and look after Elder Pang... If you have any problems later, you can go to the county to find the Xinye County Magistrate. Elder Pang is a treasure of the Chu State. You have a heavy responsibility here, hahahaha."
Bai Tu chatted and laughed with the young man who came to greet him.
That's right, he had just come out of Pang Degong's seclusion and came here specially to visit Pang Degong. Although he did not return empty-handed, at least he met Pang Degong and Sima Hui who was indeed there, but the two of them had no intention of taking up official positions.
Bai Tu also proposed to confer the titles of Taifu and Taibao on the two men - anyway, under the system of six ministries and one academy, these so-called Three Tais and Three Gongs were all honorary titles with great fame and high status...
Including the titles of general and general of chariots and cavalry, as long as they do not hold a position in the Privy Council and do not actually command the army, they can be regarded as honorary titles.
There are a large number of nominal titles that can be used to win people's hearts, which can be regarded as a hidden benefit of the six-department and one-court system.
Sima Hui and Pang Degong still refused to accept the offer, but they recommended to Bai Tu several talented young people who were students or acquaintances in Nanyang at the time.
So Bai Tu proposed to hire two people as honorary priests of Nanyang County School, and they would have the same right to recommend the county school and the palace examination as the officials of the 2,000-stone rank...
Because this was not a formal official position, but theoretically an honorary position in an official school, and Bai Tu came personally to invite them, Sima Hui and Pang Degong agreed.
Bai Tu was in a good mood when he left, as he had fulfilled his psychological expectations - hermits like Sima Hui and Pang Degong might not be of much help even if they really took up official positions, as their knowledge might not be suitable for practical work, the times, or the State of Chu.
However, as long as they accept the enthronement of Chu, it will be a help to Chu. It is equivalent to giving Chu a buff of "Favorability of scholars in Southern Province +20%, Favorability of scholars in the world +10%". The effect is still outstanding.
Not to mention, the two of them also recommended a lot of young talents to Bai Tu...
But... there is no Zhuge Liang in it.
Normally if this were in history without the white map effect, it should have been the second year since Liu Bei defected to Liu Biao and stationed in Xinye, and six years before Zhuge Liang officially came out of seclusion. However, Zhuge Liang had already lived in seclusion in Longzhong at this time, and had come of age last year.
Before Zhuge Liang came out of seclusion, although he was not well-known in the world, he was well-known in Longzhong because he often compared himself to Yue Yi and Guan Zhong. So... no matter whether others laughed at him or admired him, he at least had some fame in the local area. Sima Hui and Pang Degong should not have been unaware of this.
Bai Tu even specifically mentioned that he heard that "someone in Longzhong compared himself to Yue Yi and Guan Zhong". However, Sima Hui and Pang Degong smiled bitterly when they heard this. In the end, although they mentioned Zhuge Liang's name to Bai Tu so that Bai Tu could recruit Zhuge Liang with a "legitimate reason", their words implied that they were not optimistic about Bai Tu's success in recruiting Zhuge Liang.
After leaving Pang Degong's residence, Bai Tu returned all the way to Xinye.
Considering that Pang Degong and Sima Hui certainly did not want to be disturbed by too heavy worldly atmosphere, Bai Tu came in plain clothes. On the surface, he looked no different from a wealthy businessman with a dozen guards, and the horses he used were all civilian ones.
Lu Bu originally wanted to protect Bai Tu personally, but was rejected by Bai Tu. After all, as a privy envoy, it would be a waste of Lu Bu's talent to be a "bodyguard".
As the Privy Councilor, Lu Bu also had his own things to do along the way - inspecting the reorganization of Jingzhou and the training of the new army!
Because Xinye was the gateway to the north of Jingzhou Prefecture, there were many military camps around it. Although they have been transferred away now, when the new army was trained, Xinye also had a new army in training because of its complete facilities, and... Huang Zhong was still in charge.
There were at least eighty generals with miscellaneous titles such as "guerrilla generals" in the State of Chu, if not a hundred. Huang Zhong was not even among the top fifty in the military.
However, everyone knows that as a transcendent general, Huang Zhong is fundamentally different from other generals of miscellaneous titles.
When Nanyang was recruiting soldiers and training new troops, he was also entrusted with an important task, ordering him to select soldiers with long arms and train 5,000 Ji-made soldiers who were good at archery, and then focus on training...
Therefore, Bai Tu directly selected Huang Zhong to guard, and Lu Bu went to test the new army trained by Huang Zhong.
Bai Tu was in the carriage at this time and noticed that Huang Zhong, who was riding a horse next to him, was a little distracted, so he spoke to comfort him: "Han Sheng, don't be nervous. Since your adoptive father promised before, he won't make things difficult for you intentionally."
"Your Majesty has misunderstood. I am not doubting the Privy Councilor, nor am I worried about the new army I have trained. I am just... thinking about the muskets and Qi crossbows that my lord gave me last night." Huang Zhong was very confident in the initial training results of the new army, and instead mentioned what Bai Tu gave him last night.
Because there are no stamping machines and no mass-produced fixed bullets, it is impossible to mass-produce breech-loading rifles. Now there are only some muzzle-loading rifles that are of "research significance".
"Oh? What does General Han Sheng think?" Bai Tu asked immediately.
The musket cannot be mass-produced for the time being due to technological reasons, and the Qi crossbow cannot be mass-produced for the time being due to cost reasons. In the short term, bows and crossbows will definitely still be the main weapons, so Bai Tu asked Huang Zhong to train people who are good at archery.
The reason why he showed him the musket and the Qi crossbow was because Bai Tu wanted him to help with some advice...
Recently, there have been some frictions within the Ministry of Industry. Yu Ji, who was in charge of muskets, had a huge disagreement with Huang Yueying, the chief academic officer of the agency, on the development of single-person long-range weapons.
Yu Ji's specialty is element separation and synthesis, that is to say... gunpowder formula and alloy ratio are his strengths. And if the musket is to go a step further and become a breech-loading gun, the required mechanics are not complicated. It mainly involves gunpowder and barrel materials, as well as the process of loading bullets!
However, Huang Yueying still disliked Yu Ji's constantly improved musket, thinking that gunpowder power was not suitable for use in single-person weapons. Instead of developing muskets, it would be better to allocate more funds to her Qi crossbow series!
However, when it comes to the development of artillery, Huang Yueying has had to admit that the cost-effectiveness of large-scale Qi cannons and mechanical stone cannons is obviously not as good as that of artillery.
Bai Tu was also very hesitant. The previous lesson of Lu Bu's "leading the charge" told Bai Tu that the world of Cheng Ji was different from his previous world. Should he grit his teeth and support the muskets to get through the weak period, or continue to increase the Qi crossbow... Which one is more cost-effective and has more development potential?
With a new source of large amounts of Qi now in sight, the Qi crossbow's flaws do not seem to be irreparable...
In the end, Bai Tu felt that it might not be reliable to rely solely on his own subjective judgment on this matter. On the one hand, he continued to support both and observe the development situation in the next one or two stages. On the other hand... Bai Tu also consulted more experienced generals such as Lu Bu and Huang Zhong.
Huang Zhong was very touched - after all, this was related to the important future development direction of Chu's military. Asking for his opinion on such a matter showed that the King of Chu trusted him, but...
Huang Zhong was a little unsure about this idea!
