Madam, don't do this!

Chapter 152 The Japanese Pirates Have No Horses (1)

One hundred thousand heavily armored soldiers, one hundred thousand flintlock muskets, three thousand tiger crouching cannons... Song Yan felt that he was not actually greedy, after all, he had not even thought about wanting ten heavy combined arms brigades!

Song Yan thought this must be a hereditary phobia of insufficient firepower. He held the teacup between his fingers and took a small sip; the spicy tea still made him feel quite uncomfortable. The Princess's residence had also started selling its roasted tea, but on a very small scale... in fact, it wasn't even a sale, but rather a gift. The Fang and Cui families were using their own channels to let more top nobles know about the existence of roasted tea.

Stir-frying tea is not like making white sugar; in some ways, it can even be considered a change in lifestyle.

Such changes often take a long time.

Before the changes were completed, it was almost entirely about throwing money into the project. But once the changes were complete, all that was left was a mountain of cash. The Fang and Cui families were focused on future profits, which is why they were willing to keep investing.

Song Yan shook his head, suppressing the distracting thoughts in his mind. This was one of his bad habits; when he was seriously pondering a problem, all sorts of random thoughts unrelated to it would always pop into his head.

He was to leave Ningping for Liaodong at the end of October. Emperor Ninghe had not given a specific time limit, but in any case, he would have to take office within this year. The refugee issue had been resolved, and the various workshops were gradually getting back on track. He believed that Luo Yuheng would handle the rest perfectly.

The only thing I'm worried about is those Japanese pirates.

It was indeed quite satisfying to burn thousands of Japanese pirates to death.

But inevitably, he and Luo Yuheng will become thorns in the side of all the Japanese pirates.

Based on his understanding of the Japanese pirates, he figured those guys would probably retaliate against Ningping and the Princess's residence at all costs.

Therefore, Song Yan hoped to completely eliminate the threat of the Japanese pirates before leaving Ningping. However, this was impossible. On the one hand, Ningping lacked ships and could not engage in naval warfare with the Japanese pirates.

On the other hand, even if there are enough ships, the soldiers have not undergone long-term sea training and cannot exert much combat power on the sea. Even if they face Japanese pirates, they will only be slaughtered.

Therefore, even though he was unwilling, Song Yan had no choice but to temporarily abandon the plan to wipe out the Japanese pirates.

The appearance of Horikawa Sousuke gave Song Yan an opportunity.

The Japanese pirates of today do not wear armor.

He was only wearing a ronin's robe, which provided only a little cover. As for protection... it was better than nothing, but completely useless.

This aligns with the Japanese pirates' modus operandi: utilizing high mobility and sharp weapons, they would seize loot and flee, appearing and disappearing like the wind.

If the Japanese pirates could be lured from the sea to the land, the fully armed heavy infantry would undoubtedly face an unarmored Japanese pirates in a one-sided massacre, with one soldier easily taking on ten.

In other words, if there were a thousand heavily armored soldiers, even if there were tens of thousands of Japanese pirates, they could be wiped out.

But the problem is... what if there were more than 10,000 Japanese pirates?

Can you even afford to eat 20,000 or 30,000?

If the Japanese pirates realized the situation was not good and chose to retreat, could the heavily armored soldiers catch up?
Even if he could repel the Japanese pirates, he couldn't annihilate them all and could only watch the remaining pirates retreat in front of him. Song Yan thought he might be so frustrated that he would vomit blood.

Ah... what we lack most right now is time.

Even if we don't mention 100,000 heavily armored soldiers, if Song Yan had 10,000 heavily armored soldiers right now, he would dare to set up an encirclement. Even if there were 30,000 or 50,000 Japanese pirates, he could still surround them like dumplings.

“If we double the daily wages for the craftsmen during this period, and then add two extra hours of work each day…” Song Yan didn’t actually want to become the kind of capitalist who relentlessly exploited his employees, but he had no choice in the current situation: “How many infantry armors can we ultimately produce?”

Yang Siyao did a quick mental calculation, her brows furrowing: "At most, we can manufacture an additional hundred."

"Is that all?" Song Yan asked incredulously. "But the wages have doubled."

Yang Siyao shrugged: "Double the wages, but it's hard to double the workload. After all, people's physical strength and energy are limited. Even if we extend the working hours, the work efficiency will inevitably decrease significantly during this period."

Song Yan understood this principle, but time was of the essence. So he changed his approach: "If the wages remain the same, the current production efficiency remains the same, and the quality of the infantry armor remains the same, what if we reward each additional infantry armor produced with a certain amount of silver?" "Then we can produce at least three hundred more," Yang Siyao immediately replied.

Song Yan grinned; this was a bit too realistic.

“Recruit another batch of craftsmen and assign some simple, basic tasks to the newcomers. The previous craftsmen were responsible for the difficult and tedious steps. Could we speed up production again? We can also pause production of the horse-slaying swords, since the Japanese pirates have no horses.”

Song Yan then proposed several more improvement plans. Yang Siyao clearly understood how tense the situation was. She carefully considered and planned in her mind: "Two thousand at most, I can't guarantee anything more than that."

Song Yan also slowly exhaled: "Two thousand it is. Every little bit helps. Also, I will try my best to delay the Japanese pirates."

Yang Siyao nodded and stood up. Now that they had agreed, she needed to act quickly. The fact that the Japanese pirates had come to their doorstep was both a crisis and an opportunity. If they could take advantage of this opportunity to eliminate a large number of the pirates' forces, the threat of Japanese pirates in Songzhou Prefecture, and even the entire coastal city of Ningguo, would be greatly reduced for a long time to come. If they failed to make good use of this opportunity, the situation in Ningping would become extremely troublesome once Song Yan went to Xinhou County.

Song Yan also drank the tea in one gulp. The spicy tea stimulated Song Yan's consciousness, and the strange taste made Song Yan feel as if there was a fire burning deep in his throat and lower abdomen.

Knowing that her son-in-law was about to leave, Gu Banxia took out a few copper coins from her small purse and placed them on the table.

"Young master, where are we going now?"

"Go back first and prepare a carriage," Song Yan said after a moment's thought. "Then, go to Songzhou Prefecture."

He was going to the Fang family's house.

Of course, it wasn't to go find Princess Gaoyang.

Song Yan was not Cao Cao; he didn't love other men's wives that much.

He was looking for Fang Hai, the father-in-law of Princess Gaoyang.

"Brother-in-law is back." Upon returning to the Luo residence, the first people he encountered were not Luo Yuheng, but Luo Qingyi and Luo Caiyi.

Upon seeing Song Yan, the two girls' eyes sparkled like little stars. Recently, their brother-in-law had been busy outside and hadn't been home much, so the two girls found it quite boring.

Like two lively larks, they chattered about recent events in the Luo family, such as how Luo Tianyang was punished by the Master for not being able to recite a passage from the Analects and was slapped on the palm... A woman appeared at the Luo family's gate with a child, insisting that the child was Luo Tianshu's...

Song Yan thought about it and found it interesting. It was a pity that she couldn't see Luo Tianshu's expression at that time; it must have been quite a sight.

Then the two little girls pestered Song Yan, wanting their brother-in-law to continue telling the story of a monkey and seven fairies. They were very curious to know what the monkey did after it froze the seven fairies.

Also, the last A Chinese Ghost Story was only half-finished...

Although I often get so scared at night that I can't sleep, I still want to keep listening.

Looking at the two clever and adorable little girls, Song Yan couldn't help but gently pat their heads. Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly caught sight of a figure out of the corner of his eye.

The words that were about to come out changed: "Sweetie, you guys go back first. Your brother-in-law still has some things to do today. I'll tell you when I'm done, okay?"

The two little girls pouted, looking a little unhappy.

However, the little girls were very sensible. They knew that the adults had important things to do and that they couldn't waste their time. So they nodded their little heads vigorously, and after Song Yan promised to tell them two stories when he came back, they skipped away.

Watching the two small figures disappear behind the courtyard with a smile, Song Yan's expression gradually turned serious: "Come out..."

A faint, lingering smell of blood seemed to waft through the air!

(End of this chapter)