After saving the Empress, I became the top scholar in the imperial examination.

After Chen San made this suggestion, he raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised, seeing that the cult leader remained expressionless.

Gritting his teeth, he forced a smile and said, "Master, the Left Protector said, if the Master is afraid of death..."

Ning Nan raised his hand and said, "Brother Chen, there's no need for that goading tactic."

Chen San immediately shut up.

"Qian Xiaoqi," Master Ning called out as the leader of the northern altar finished speaking.

Qian Sijin, with his thick eyebrows and large eyes, immediately came in carrying a crossbow.

"Send someone to invite this Brother Chen to rescue Steward Wang. Then, invite Brother Chen to the imperial prison as a guest. Treat him well; there's no need to torture him."

Qian Sijin immediately nodded.

Chen San smiled slightly. Even when he heard the words "Imperial Prison" that others feared like tigers, he showed no fear at all and calmly surrendered.

After Qian Sijin left with his men.

The study was quiet.

Mr. Ning sat at his desk and silently took a breath.

After a while, he spread out a piece of paper.

He ground the ink while muttering incantations to himself.

It got dark outside the window.

The pure moonlight hung over the windowsill, and the pen holder shaped like the Chinese character "山" (mountain) cast an inverted shadow on the table.

Ning Nan looked serious, took a pen from the pen holder, and wrote a few words.

"The Code of Confidentiality..."

He frowned, then arranged the characters vertically and wrote a few lines.

"The manufacture of high-strength steel flintlock rifles, pilot projects for composting, and the promotion of these technologies in primary schools..."

The brush paused on the Xuan paper.

After a moment of contemplation, he picked up his pen and deleted the words "promotion in primary schools".

"Too early... We can't afford to raise them..." Old Master Ning, who owns about two hundred acres of land in Lijia Village, sighed.

As the top scholar, after reading many political strategies of the dynasty in the Gongsun family, he learned that, in fact, as early as the reign of Emperor Taizu, Emperor Taizu had promoted the "community school," which was a system similar to primary school.

For every fifty households, a community school was established, with funds allocated by the government and the village head to hire private tutors so that young children in the Great Liang Dynasty could learn to read and write.

But now the community schools have vanished without a trace, naturally because they were completely abandoned in the last two or three hundred years.

The reasons were varied: encroachment on official land, embezzlement by those who brought the schools into the open, officials drawing salaries without working, and so on. In short, it was unsuccessful.

After sighing for a while, he picked up his pen again and wrote down a few more topics:

"Water Conservancy Construction," "Hygiene Regulations for Wounded Soldiers' Camps," "Commercial Tax Reform," "Emphasis on Commerce and Agriculture," "Suggestions for the Promotion of Craftsmen," "Evaluation of Accountants," "On the Advantages and Disadvantages of Newspapers to the Nation"...

I wrote down about thirty topics, then stopped writing.

After pondering for a long time, I started to delete some topics that were not yet appropriate. "Shh, shh, shh," I kept deleting until only ten remained.

Of the ten topics, the most prominent are naturally "Secrecy Rules" and "Manufacturing of Steel Flintlock Guns".

Half a year ago, the new method for grinding gunpowder was, unsurprisingly, stolen by the Northern Dynasty a month after he developed it.

The reason was simply that the manager of the gunpowder workshop loved to frequent brothels.

The war hasn't started on a large scale yet, so it's too early to tell. But if the war does break out and the Northern Dynasty brings its gunpowder... Master Ning's heart sank... He didn't know what the outcome would be.

Without a strong, blood-and-blood-protected code of secrecy, it would be better to leave some technologies at a certain level.

Otherwise, becoming the Verdun meat grinder would be secondary; the main issue was… He sighed inwardly… Apart from the most elite Yongwei Battalion, the other armies of the Great Liang were no match for the Eight Banners soldiers.

Weapons, equipment, food supplies... these things are all important, but none of them are as important as people.

"Discipline, discipline, discipline..." he muttered to himself for a while.

What kind of high-quality steel flintlock muskets or gunpowder? Without discipline as a guarantee, as soon as they are made, they will be sold to the Northern Dynasty by the army that very night.

This kind of thing happens all the time.

During the Former Liang Dynasty, the "big merchants" who traded military equipment to Shanhaiguan made a fortune and returned to their hometowns to build large houses and gardens.

After the Tartars entered the pass, they took them in as slaves and seized their houses to live in.

"He was shot and killed by the gun he created..."

As Master Ning put pen to paper, he gave a self-deprecating smile.

"That's a fucking joke."

Therefore, he prioritized writing the "Secrecy Code".

This needs to be determined by a combination of reward and punishment rules, not just by killing people.

If killing people could make them behave, the world should still belong to the Qin Dynasty.

He paused, realizing that not to mention figures like Liu Bang and Xiang Yu, even he, Ning, was not someone who could be intimidated by the mere mention of "beheading."

He placed weaponry based on steel flintlock muskets as his second priority.

Agriculture, on the contrary, was placed third in his priorities.

After all, the Southern Liang Dynasty still possessed the Jiangnan region, Huguang region, and Sichuan region, so in terms of grain production, it was naturally superior to the Northern Dynasties...

As Ning Nan wrote, she silently took a breath.

These ideas were already brewing in my mind, but they weren't quite mature yet.

"but……"

Master Ning's eyes darkened slightly.

"I can only write for now..."

It will certainly need to be modified and improved step by step in practice, and for now, I can only leave these things to... my wife.

"Shh...shh..."

The ink-stained pen tip glides continuously across the paper.

My right hand was much better, but after trying to write a few words, it was still in terrible pain, so I switched to my left hand.

When Chunyu came to add oil to his lamp again with light, quick steps.

He had just finished writing the first draft of the "Secrecy Code" and was drying the ink on the pages one by one.

It was around 9 PM.

Her Majesty the Empress, dressed in a bright red round-necked dragon robe, strode into the study of the Ning residence.

Zhu Cuiwei stepped into the study, her gaze focusing on Master Ning, who was silently writing. Her eyes grew slightly serious, and her pink lips parted as if she was about to speak.

Ning Nan then turned his head and said with a smile, "Don't say anything like 'I won't let you go'."

Her Majesty the Empress, who had rushed back, was taken aback.

Ning Nan rubbed his slightly sore neck and smiled at her, "If Hong Feng dares to come to our Nanjing city so brazenly, why wouldn't I dare to go to Beijing?"

Zhu Cuiwei retorted, "It's different!" Her tone was urgent. "Are you crazy?! You beat them up like this? You actually dare to go to Beijing?!"

The Empress walked in wearing a pair of embroidered gold shoes.

Ning Nan put down his brush, as if he knew what she was going to say, and interrupted her, looking at her:

"Whether it's Hongfeng, Hongjiao, or that Northern Dynasty commander Lu Jing... if I only dare to fight and kill them in Nanjing, they will inevitably be dissatisfied."

"What?" Zhu Cuiwei asked anxiously, her voice tinged with anger, "You're planning to do the same thing in Beijing...?"

Master Ning smiled and tugged at her hand, saying, "Don't worry, they're just a few good-for-nothings, not as dangerous as you think."

"No!" Tears welled in the woman's eyes as she said urgently, "The people from the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Revenue, and the Ministry of War heard that you're joining the mission... even they said that if you go, you must... you must..."

"Otherwise, how could he become the Prince Consort of Liang!"

Master Ning said,

"What am I afraid of? I'm not one of them!"

The dim yellow light flickered in the study.

He stood up and pressed his wife, whose face was pale with anxiety and whose lips were even trembling, into another chair.

He looked into her eyes and said:

"When you had that nightmare and bit me that day, didn't you ask me what I should do if the Empress sent you to the Second Northern City?"

He had initially believed it to be true, but after reading the letter, he realized that the foolish woman had made the worst-case scenario plan all by herself.

Ning Nan reached out and wiped away her tears, then squatted down and pressed his ear against her lower abdomen.

"My answer is the same as that day..."

He said softly,

"Um……

"...Then let's destroy the Northern Dynasty."

……

……

Golden light pierced through the thick clouds and shone down upon the world.

After days of wind and snow,

The Jiangnan region welcomed a long-awaited sunny day, making the entire capital city feel lazy and languid.

The fourth day of the first lunar month.

The sky was clear and the air was fresh.

The imperial court posted a notice with a message.

The Nancheng Daily, which had been printed for over an hour, also published this shocking news.

Everyone who saw this news, from the streets and alleys to teahouses and taverns, and even the civil and military officials in the imperial court, was dumbfounded.