Double penetration: This Three Kingdoms has dragon energy

Chapter 95: Taking Stock of the Harvest, Cai Zhenji was Sent to the Bed
Zhang Zhongjing began to treat Zhuge Gui.

As Zhang Zhongjing began to treat Zhuge Gui, it also meant that Zhuge became Ji Qiu's subordinate.

Although there are only three people in the Zhuge family at present.

Among them was a fourteen-year-old boy and a seven-year-old child.

But Ji Qiu felt very satisfied.

Because this young man is Zhuge Jin, and this child is Zhuge Liang.

Compared with these two people, Zhuge Gui, the magistrate of Taishan County, actually seems like a superfluous thing.

After subduing the Zhuge brothers, the first thing to do is naturally to check their secret techniques.

Zhuge Jin's innate secret technique is called Xielong.

This is an auxiliary secret technique, whose main function is to coordinate the fluctuations of dragon energy of various different attributes, so that they tend to be synchronized.

Simply put, it is a secret technique mainly used in diplomacy.

It can make the other party more recognizable to you and make it easier to reach an alliance agreement with you.

Considering Zhuge Jin's major contributions in history, it is reasonable that he awakened such a secret technique.

After all, Zhuge Jin's main historical achievements were in diplomacy.

One is to promote the demarcation of the Xiang River:
In the 20th year of Jian'an, Zhuge Jin was ordered by Sun Quan to go on a diplomatic mission to Shu Han and met with Zhuge Liang. Eventually, the two sides reached an agreement to divide Jingzhou with the Xiang River as the boundary, which temporarily eased the tense situation between Sun and Liu and won certain rights and strategic space for Dongwu on the issue of Jingzhou.

The other is to maintain the relationship between Wu and Shu: Zhuge Jin devoted his life to maintaining the alliance between Sun Wu and Shu Han.

When Liu Bei was about to launch an attack on Wu due to Guan Yu's death, Zhuge Jin wrote to Liu Bei, stating that both sides should take the overall situation into consideration and advising Liu Bei to prioritize the world and the former emperor of the Han Dynasty. Although Zhuge Jin failed to stop Liu Bei from attacking Wu, it laid the foundation for the reconciliation between Wu and Shu to a certain extent.
After the Battle of Yiling, Wu and Shu were able to reconcile, and Zhuge Jin played an indispensable role.

Ji Qiu was quite satisfied with Zhuge Jin's innate secret technique.

As he finally owns his own territory, all the work and affairs related to developing the territory will be put on the agenda.

Among them, diplomatic work is also a very important task.

As for Zhuge Jin's innate secret skills, we can completely hand over the diplomatic work to him in the future.

Next came Zhuge Liang, but Zhuge Liang was too young and had not yet awakened his innate secret skills.

He only practiced one acquired secret technique, which was Crouching Dragon Strategy of the Sky.

The effects of Wolong Cetian have been mentioned before, so I will not repeat them here.

Ji Qiu was extremely satisfied with the effect of Wolong Cetian.

On the one hand, this secret technique that can predict good and bad luck is really useful.

From now on, before every action I take, I will ask Zhuge Liang about the good or bad fortune. Then who can stop me?
On the other hand, this secret technique is a perfect match with the method that Ji Qiu had already thought of for Zhuge Liang to use!
Ji Qiu had considered how to use Zhuge Liang long ago.

This time was even earlier than when he just learned that he was appointed as the Taishan County Magistrate.

After all, one of the important reasons why he accepted this appointment was for Zhuge Liang.

How can we use Zhuge Liang to maximize his value?

Zhuge Liang was clearly a versatile person.

Apart from being weak in fighting generals, he is a top talent in military strategy, internal affairs, diplomacy, intelligence and other aspects.

But Ji Qiu thought that using Zhuge Liang in these areas was a waste of his talents.

Because in these aspects, there are people who can replace Zhuge Liang.

In terms of military strategy, the talent of Xi Zhong, the military advisor under Ji Qiu, is not much worse than that of Zhuge Liang.

As for domestic affairs, Zao Zhi and Yuan Huan's abilities may not be as good as Zhuge Liang's, but for now, they are completely sufficient.

In the future, you can also recruit more powerful internal affairs talents.

In terms of diplomacy, there is Zhuge Jin, and in terms of intelligence, there are Guo Jia and Jia Xu.

These are all top talents who can compete with Zhuge Liang in their corresponding fields.

So Zhuge Liang should go to a place that is irreplaceable, crucial, and very suitable for him.

But where is this place?

Ji Qiu thought about it for a long time and finally figured it out.

That is the field of scientific research!
There is no doubt that Zhuge Liang possessed a very high talent for scientific research. He is a recognized great inventor in history, and he invented a lot of black technologies such as the wooden ox and horse, Zhuge crossbow, and Kongming lantern.

And he did this in his spare time while focusing his main energy on military and political affairs.

If he had focused his main energy on scientific research, it would be hard to imagine what great achievements he would have made.

For Zhuge Liang, there are limits in other areas.

It's not that he can only do that, but the limitations of that field limit him to that level.

Only in the field of scientific research is there no upper limit.

Zhuge Liang can fully unleash his wisdom here and let the world see what the pinnacle of human wisdom is!

At the same time, great men once taught us that science and technology are the primary productive forces!
For a force, all its brilliant plans, policies and laws are actually just at the level of techniques.

The only way is to develop productivity!
When productivity develops to a certain stage, we can completely ignore the effects of clever strategies and policies and laws and defeat all enemies!

Therefore, the best way to use Zhuge Liang is to place him in the field of scientific research, allowing him to develop scientific research results and improve productivity.

To be frank, the field of scientific research is sometimes quite metaphysical.

Scientists often have to look for the only correct path among tens of thousands of possibilities.

If you are unlucky, it is hard to say whether you can find it.

But if you have the secret technique of Wolong Cetian, it will undoubtedly be much simpler.

A simple test can eliminate wrong answers and select the correct answer.

What an incredible ability this is!

Ji Qiu couldn't imagine what a terrifying effect would be produced when Zhuge Liang's wisdom was combined with the secret technique of Wolong Cetian.

I'm afraid this will create a world bug!

But what about BUGs?
These are our bugs, and I hope there are as many as possible!

After determining the future development direction of the Zhuge brothers, Ji Qiu began to deal with the relevant affairs of Taishan County.

Another side effect of Zhuge's surrender was that it greatly accelerated Ji Qiu's takeover of Taishan County.

After all, Zhuge Gui was the magistrate of Taishan County and had been acting as the prefect of Taishan for a long time. He had a high prestige in Taishan County.

Especially the civil officials in Taishan County, almost all of them were his subordinates.

Although he has bowed to Ji Qiu, as long as he does not leave Taishan County, Ji Qiu will not be able to completely control Taishan County.

After all, Ji Qiu's official position at that time was still the Taishan County Magistrate. In name, he was only in charge of the military affairs of Taishan County and could not interfere in the political affairs of Taishan County.

But when the Zhuge family defected to Ji Qiu, the civil officials of Taishan County naturally also defected to Ji Qiu.

This allowed Ji Qiu to successfully obtain an important part of Taishan County's power map, the government affairs map!

Only after gaining the military and political power of Taishan County could Ji Qiu say that Taishan County had become his territory from then on!
After truly becoming the master of Taishan County, Ji Qiu began to take stock of his losses and gains in this battle.

At this time, the soldiers of the three battalions had successively conquered the Wu castles of the three major families, confiscated all the property, and returned to Fenggao City.

Ji Qiu first took stock of the losses.

The biggest loss was obviously the casualties among the soldiers of the Third Battalion.

The two battles resulted in a total of 1,100 soldiers from three battalions killed and 1,500 seriously injured.

A total of 2,600 soldiers were lost!

(The standard for serious injuries is that even if the injury is recovered, the soldier cannot return to the battlefield and can only be discharged and transferred to the rear camp.)
The total number of soldiers in Ji Qiu's Third Battalion is only 8,000, which is nearly one-third of the total!

It can be said that it suffered a heavy blow.

The second is the consumable weapons and equipment.

The bullets and melon grenades brought from modern times to arm the Yellow Turban New Army have basically been used up.

The guns were still usable, but without bullets, they were no more useful than fire sticks.

However, in terms of military equipment, the most abundant thing in modern Annan is probably bullets.

This thing can be replenished at any time, so it’s not a big deal.

Look at the harvest.

The first was the gain in terms of military strength, with the incorporation of 70,000 new Yellow Turban troops and 30,000 Taishan County soldiers.

Although the current combat effectiveness of the Yellow Turban New Army is basically zero after removing modern weapons.

But they have a good foundation, they are all young and strong, and have certain battlefield experience.

As long as we invest resources, we can quickly train strong soldiers.

Among the 30,000 soldiers of Taishan County, 10,000 are strong soldiers who have practiced the secret arts of Taishan soldiers.

The other 20,000 were ordinary soldiers who were eliminated when the strong military forces were selected.

However, Taishan County is a place that produces strong soldiers. Even the ordinary soldiers who were eliminated have considerable quality.

At least their quality is better than that of the Yellow Turban New Army.

The second is the harvest of secret techniques.

This mainly comes from the three major families. From the Wu Castle of the three major families, there are a total of more than five acquired secret techniques.

First, the secret art of Mount Tai soldiers.

This secret technique is quite popular in Taishan County, and most aristocratic families have this secret technique.

The resource for cultivation is deer meat.

To improve the cultivation level, the beginner of the ninth rank eats one pound of deer meat every day, and to maintain the cultivation level, eat half a pound of deer meat every day.

As the level increases, each small level increase will increase one or half a pound of deer meat.

The muntjac is a typical animal of tropical and subtropical forests or forest edge shrubs.

It mainly inhabits tropical rainforests, monsoon forests, subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests, mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forests and alpine moist dark coniferous forests.

The rich forest resources in Taishan County provide a suitable living environment for muntjacs.

So there are a large number of muntjacs here.

This animal is small in size, agile, and good at running and jumping in the mountains and forests.

They are fast runners, able to swiftly navigate dense forests, using terrain and vegetation to shield themselves and evade enemies. Taishan soldiers excel at mountain warfare, so this secret technique primarily enhances their explosive power and endurance.

The explosive power enables it to sprint up hills, cross obstacles (such as streams and rocks) in a short period of time, or quickly seize the commanding heights in sudden encounters.

During the endurance period, they can march with heavy loads for long periods of time (backpacks, weapons, and equipment usually weigh 20-30 kilograms) to adapt to the oxygen-deficient environment caused by altitude changes.

The second is the secret technique of refining cold iron materials.

This one is great, from Bowers & Wilbur.

In Ji Qiu's mind, the value of the material secret technique is higher than the dragon weapon secret technique.

Because materials are the basis for refining dragon weapons, without relevant materials, the dragon weapon secret technique is almost equivalent to a piece of waste paper.

But the dragon energy material itself can create value.

For example, the Dragon Steel Secret Technique that Ji Qiu first obtained brought great help to Ji Qiu.

Ji Qiu is still not very clear about the specific properties of the cold iron material.

But it can be expected that he will once again obtain a super-strong material that can bring significant benefits in the modern world!
In addition to this, there is another huge benefit to obtaining the secret art of cold iron.

The secret technique of the Hanpo Sword Dragon Weapon that he had obtained in Chenliu County before was finally able to come in handy.

This dragon weapon has the ability to release cold air.

The top-grade Hanpo Sword is said to be able to freeze thousands of enemies with one strike, and its power is extremely strong.

Ji Qiu had long been eager to refine it.

However, the refining of the Hanpo Sword requires dragon steel as the main material and cold iron as the auxiliary material.

Ji Qiu had no shortage of dragon steel before, but he had no cold iron.

A good cook cannot cook without rice. She can only stare at the secret technique of the Hanpo Sword helplessly without any other options.

But things are different now.

With the secret technique of cold iron, I can finally refine the cold soul sword.

The resource needed to practice the secret art of cold iron is green vitriol, which is ferrous sulfate heptahydrate.

This thing was relatively rare in ancient times and could only be produced slowly through the oxidation of pyrite. It was of low purity and difficult to collect.

However, it is very common in modern times. It can be produced on a large scale through chemical synthesis and is commonly used in fertilizers, sewage treatment and other fields.

The practice method is to first grind ferrous sulfate heptahydrate into powder, dissolve it in distilled water at a ratio of 1:10, and heat it to 60°C to form a saturated solution.

Then soak your hands in it, and under the guidance of the dragon energy, absorb the saturated solution into your body, and a cold iron rune that can release the cold iron secret technique will be formed in your body.

As for the resources and methods of refining cold iron.

What is needed is iron and cold water.

The so-called cold water is water with a temperature below zero degrees.

As we all know, water will freeze once the temperature drops below zero degrees.

Therefore, water with a temperature below zero but not frozen was extremely rare in ancient times and would only appear under extremely rare circumstances.

In modern times, although it is not easy to achieve, there are always many ways to do it.

The commonly used methods are as follows:

1. Adding solutes: Adding solutes such as salt and sugar to water can lower its freezing point. For example, saltwater, when dissolved in water, forms ions that disrupt the orderly arrangement of water molecules, causing the water to remain liquid even at temperatures below 0°C. For example, in cold winters, people sprinkle salt on roads to prevent stagnant water from freezing.

2. Applying pressure: According to the phase diagram, the freezing point of water changes with pressure; increasing pressure lowers the freezing point. However, this method is difficult to implement in practice and requires specialized equipment to generate and maintain a high-pressure environment.

3. Maintain purity: Pure water, free of impurities and condensation nuclei, may not freeze even at temperatures below 0°C, forming supercooled water. However, supercooled water is unstable and can freeze rapidly with a slight disturbance or the addition of impurities.

4. Control the cooling rate: Slow and even cooling helps prevent water from freezing. Rapid cooling causes water molecules to quickly lose energy and form ice crystals, while slow cooling gives water molecules more time to adjust their arrangement, potentially allowing water to remain liquid even below 0°C. However, this typically requires precise temperature control equipment.

The third is the secret technique of Ningxin Hall.

Wow, this is amazing! This is a kind of architectural secret technique that Ji Qiu has never encountered before!
The so-called architectural secrets, when divided into broad categories, actually also belong to the dragon weapon secrets.

It was just a regular Dragon Weapon Secret Technique, which was a weapon or some kind of item, but the Building Secret Technique was to build a Dragon Weapon Building!
Dragon weapon buildings also contain the secret art of dragon energy and can produce incredible effects.

For example, after the Ningxin Hall was built, the secret technique of dragon energy contained within it was Ningxin.

This secret technique of dragon energy can enhance one's concentration and is very suitable for learning.

Ningxin Hall is actually a school.

This secret technique comes from the Yang family's Wubao.

The Yang family is different from the Bao family. The Yang family is a Confucian family that has produced civil servants for generations and Confucian talents.

Historically, from the end of the Han Dynasty to the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, many talents emerged from the Taishan Yang family.

For example, Yang Xu, Yang Hu, Yang Xiu, Yang Kan, Yang Fu, Yang Xin, Yang Shen, Yang Gu... These people were able to reach high positions not entirely because of their birth and family background, their own talents were also a very important component.

Their outstanding talents are probably closely related to the fact that the Yang family owns Ningxin Hall.

For Ji Qiu, the emergence of Ningxintang's secret technique is also a major benefit.

Because as he completed his control over Taishan County, the next thing to do was to start building Taishan County.

What is the most important thing in building Taishan County?

Of course it’s talent!
Not only high-end talents and top talents are needed, but also a large number of intermediate talents and basic talents!

If a large number of Ningxin Halls can be built, a large number of basic talents can be quickly cultivated, which will enable Ji Qiu's strength to grow by leaps and bounds.

At the same time, it takes ten years to grow a tree and a hundred years to cultivate a person.

From a long-term perspective, continuously investing in education and cultivating talents is also the only way to enhance the overall strength of a force.

However, in direct proportion to the effectiveness of the Ningxin Hall's architectural secrets, its construction difficulty and requirements are also very high.

The Yang family is one of the three major families in Mount Tai, but even with the combined strength of the entire clan, they could only build a Ningxin Hall of the lowest level.

The difficulty and requirements can be imagined.

Ji Qiu just took a casual glance at the list of construction resources for Ningxin Hall, and he knew that wanting to build a large number of Ningxin Halls in a short period of time was basically a fantasy.

This is a piece of fat that you can see but cannot touch for the time being, and it is still hanging in the sky!
Fourth, the secret art of forming an array.

It comes from the Zang family's Wubao, and like the square formation secret technique, it is one of the eight military formations.

The so-called Eight Formations of Military Science are the eight most widely used and most basic military formation secrets.

Including square formation, circular formation, arrow formation, goose formation, black formation, hook formation, etc.

The function of the hook formation is to improve the flexibility and movement speed of the infantry.

It is just right for the Taishan soldiers who are good at mountain warfare.

Among the three major families in Mount Tai, the Yang family is a Confucian family, the Bao family is a military family, and the Zang family is also a military family, but it is not as good as the Bao family.

It is lower than the Bao family.

But from the perspective of historical achievements, the historical status and military talents of Zang Ba, the head of the Zang family, are far higher than those of Bao Xin, the head of the Bao family.

Therefore, it is not surprising that the secret technique of hook formation was copied from Zang's Wu Castle.

Again, it’s resource harvesting.

This includes the resources confiscated from the three major families, as well as the resources in the government treasuries, granaries, and arsenals in the counties of Taishan County.

All conventional resources converted into modern currency total 1 billion.

It’s also a considerable profit.

In the end, the people benefited.

Well, that’s right. For the first time, Ji Qiu has the category of common people under his command.

At the same time, he included the rear camp in the ranks of the people.

Then this large category of people was divided into two categories: controlled people and uncontrolled people.

The so-called controlled people are those who are controlled by him both physically and mentally and who directly provide him with dragon energy.

The non-controlled people are those who are not under his control and do not want him to provide them with dragon energy.

The total registered population of Taishan County in the fifth year of Yonghe was 8929 households and 437317 people.

There were slight fluctuations thereafter, but before the outbreak of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the overall population remained at around 400,000.

The Yellow Turban Rebellion caused serious damage to the population of Taishan County, causing the county to lose more than a quarter of its total population.

Therefore, the current registered population of Taishan County is less than 300,000.

Among the 300,000 registered population, there are probably 100,000 people under control.

The number of uncontrolled people is more than 200,000.

The average proportion of dragon energy provided by 100,000 people to Ji Qiu is 0.3%, or 3000 points.

This made the total amount of dragon energy in Ji Qiu's body exceed 4000 points.

Adding the 1400 points of dragon energy in the seal of the Taishan prefect, the total amount of dragon energy that can be mobilized has reached more than 5400 points!
After taking stock of the losses and gains, the Battle of Mount Tai officially came to an end.

It was already dark at this time, and Ji Qiu got up and walked towards the dormitory.

In the dormitory, the dim candlelight reflected the twilight, dyeing the pearl hairpins on the girl's temples into a honey color.

She knelt beside the bed made of carved golden nanmu wood, her hanging sleeves brushing against the ice-cracked porcelain pillow, her fingertips twisting the hem of her Shu brocade skirt, even the twin lotus flowers embroidered on the skirt were deformed by the wrinkles.

The girl was extremely beautiful, with eyebrows as dark as distant ink, which looked smokey and watery even without any application of indigo.

Her eyes were like autumn water, and her eyelashes cast tiny shadows under her eyes, like butterfly wings retracting in a spring pond.

Her skin was so white that it was almost transparent, and in the moonlight filtering through from the porch, it shone with the soft glow of mother-of-pearl.

But her cheeks were burning red, spreading from her earlobes to her neck, and even the cinnabar mole on her collarbone was blurred.

She bit her lower lip, revealing a little bit of her teeth, but the nail polish on her lips had long been bitten into spots, revealing the pale pink nail bed underneath.

The silk gown she wore was made of newly made organdy, with grape branches embroidered with gold thread on the moon-white base. The cuffs and neckline were trimmed with three-inch-wide gold brocade edges, and each pattern was embedded with tiny pearls, which trembled slightly with her breathing.

She wore a nine-phoenix gold belt around her waist, and the buckle was a mandarin duck carved from a whole piece of mutton-fat jade. Around her neck, she wore a necklace of oriental pearls. The smallest beads were as big as knuckles, weighing heavily on her collarbone, making her look even thinner.

The only thing she had was the green jade bracelet on her wrist, an old item. Its dark patterns contained a hint of green, like the moonlight scooped up from a deep pool, appearing exceptionally quiet and tranquil amidst the gold and silver.

Ji Qiu walked up to the girl, looked at her calmly, and asked calmly, "Who are you and why are you here?"

"Cai, Cai, Cai Zhenji, yes, yes, it was General Wei who arranged for me to serve the envoy in bed..." Cai Zhenji said stutteringly.

A glimmer of understanding flashed in Ji Qiu's eyes. It turned out to be her!

(End of this chapter)