It seems that the villain is targeting me.

This person was the Red Moon Knight who had been guarding Xiaoniao that night.

The Red Moon Knight's real name is Luna, which means moon in Latin. Because of her poppy-like hair color, she has the elegant title of Red Moon.

The Grand Secretary was stunned.

He knew that the Red Moon Knight was a woman, but he had never seen her without her helmet, and he had no idea that the ferocious god who killed people as easily as cutting melons and vegetables could be so beautiful that it was abominable to both humans and gods.

No wonder Prime Minister Butcher was completely indifferent to the olive branches extended by those noble ladies outside - with beauties of this level hanging around him all day long, his aesthetic standards would definitely be raised to a rather terrifying level!

The university scholar's clever brain was in a mess. He didn't know how to move his feet or hands. He only regretted that his eyes didn't have the function of recording and storing video so that he couldn't take 500 pictures of this beautiful scene.

What a great face, the university scholar sighed in his heart, what a pity, he is a fool.

But before the Grand Secretary could finish his sigh, Xiao Niao's voice exploded in his ears like a bolt from the blue: "When you teach the Red Moon Knight, your work will be done."

The Red Moon Knight’s pretty face immediately fell: She doesn’t like reading.

The Grand Secretary burst into tears on the spot: he felt that his academic career was over.

Xiao Niao flapped his wings and drove the two people out of his study: "Don't stand there stupidly! There are still a lot of

There are things to be dealt with, so get to work!"

.

.

Xiao Niao put aside the countless processed documents in his hands, and the adjutant who was busy doing calculations next to him also looked up.

The adjutant noticed the tired purple tint under the Prime Minister's eyes.

She quickly stood up and refilled Kotori's empty glass with light beer.

Unlike modern beer, this light beer has a very low alcohol content and is basically the same as water. It is a cheap drink loved by ordinary people, and even children aged three or four drink it as water.

Xiao Niao traveled into this world twenty years ago and was gradually influenced by the lifestyle here. He fell in love with this light beer produced locally in the capital.

Without taking her eyes off the paperwork, she took the cup with her hand and gulped down half of it.

Xiaoniao has been extremely busy at work recently. After all, she is the boss of officials at all levels in this country.

In the Middle Ages, being the boss was not an easy job. It meant that you were the Minister of Finance, Director of Education, Head of Public Security, Organizer of Food Production, Commander-in-Chief of Epidemic Prevention and Health, and Captain of the Engineering and Construction Team at the same time.

Xiao Niao didn't know what the situation was like for other senior time travelers who were doing correction tasks, but she had a strong confidence: there were definitely not many people who were more unlucky than herself.

In short, the above heavy work is not enough to handle even if you split the bird into eight pieces.

She could only find a way to find help for herself.

But the bird soon discovered that things were not that simple.

She found that many officials were lip service to her and unwilling to obey the orders from the Prime Minister.

In other words, the noble lords who originally governed the country collectively quit their jobs and used this as a threat to force Xiaoniao to step down.

Xiaoniao's response to this was very simple and very effective. Judging from what happened afterwards, this decision can be said to have solved many problems once and for all.

Little Bird: If you don’t want to do this, get out.

The noble gentlemen were a little dumbfounded.

But at the beginning, they were still quite united and tough.

These noble lords drank and socialized in private, and agreed that none of them would be traitors. Then they returned to their homes in high spirits, waiting for Xiao Niao to be unable to bear the heavy workload and then come back in disgrace to ask them to come out.

The nobles had the confidence to do this: the upper class and the monastic class had been rampantly ruling the lower classes for nearly a hundred years because they had completely monopolized the inheritance of culture and education.

They are very clear that it is impossible for the grassroots to produce management talents who meet the standards.

Don't think that there will be some poor kid who is talented but not appreciated and oppressed who will come to promote the emperor - in ancient times, the poor were actually the aristocrats who had fallen on hard times, and the throne was still on their side.

If the children of poor self-cultivating farmers want to study and get a government job through studying, they must have access to the ancestral tomb.

So even when Xiao Niao was nominated as prime minister by Lawrence against all odds, the nobles were not really panicked.

They knew that no matter whether the person sitting in that position was a half-human with wings or a tentacle monster with eight arms, if they did not want the whole country to fall into chaos, they had to use the children of the aristocratic class.

As the de facto ruling force of the country, the nobles always get the biggest piece of the pie.

If that half-human creature were sensible enough, they might be able to reluctantly treat the bird as an exception and regard it as one of their own people - of course, the prerequisite is that the half-human creature must recognize its own position.

These noble lords were calculating with great speed.

Then the bird overturned the table and the abacus beads fell all over his face.

Coincidentally, Xiao Niao studied at an agricultural university before she traveled through time. When her parents were still alive, her family ran a farm that specialized in producing organic eggs and high-quality green agricultural products.

It can be said that Xiao Niao grew up running in the fields. If you talk about farming, she is very familiar with it.

In addition to being able to exchange high-yield crop seeds from the system, and the relevant information that Brother Tongzi got for Xiaoniao through the back door, she spent several years changing the starving and zombie-like state of ordinary people at the bottom of society.

If people don’t have enough to eat, they won’t have the extra energy to do something as luxurious as studying. The high-yield crops and advanced farming methods brought by Xiaoniao changed this situation, and the originally dead lower class society burst into great vitality.

Afterwards, Xiao Niao used the capital as a pilot to carry out comprehensive literacy and re-education work.

In order to encourage these people to take the initiative to learn, Xiaoniao offered extremely generous conditions: classes were free, and she was willing to pay fifteen copper coins a day's wages to a person who had learned to read and write, while an illiterate person could only get eight coins for the same work.

No matter if they are semi-human or ordinary people, as long as there is someone in the family who is willing to study actively, they can get the high-quality seeds cultivated by the Prime Minister first.

If you can pass a more difficult exam, you can get more benefits and subsidies, and even have the opportunity to work under Prime Minister Butcher and become an official.

Not to mention the local religious forces.

The ravages of war had already weakened the power of the monks - and whether

Whether it was Lawrence, the owner of the imperial power, or Xiao Niao, the evil-minded Prime Minister of the empire, they all disliked these bald donkeys.

After repeated cleanings, they had apparently learned how to behave themselves.

Most of the obstacles were cleared, and the lower-class people soon broke out with an amazing enthusiasm for learning. Xiaoniao just conducted a poll two months ago, and now the literacy rate in the downtown area is about 60%.

Before that, the figure was five percent.

Before this, when Xiao Niao was still following Lawrence in battles, he used similar methods to train a group of his own people from among the refugees.

After she came to power, she began to carry out drastic reforms on all levels of the empire's structure, streamlining the staff, sorting out files, placing confidants in positions of power, and cultivating lackeys, bringing all powers, big and small, into her own arms, earning her the reputation of the butcher bird who could stop children from crying at night.

It is worth mentioning that the group of nobles who failed to steal the chicken still played a big role in this process.

If they had not been so selfless and unremitting in giving money to the bird, it would have taken the Prime Minister of the Empire a long time to accomplish this feat.

But the bird felt that it was not his fault for being too cruel.

If we want to blame someone, we can only blame these nobles for not having any hair on their heads, but only having small braids, and we can always catch them.

In the end, it turned out that what she did was meaningful. Now that the power of the nobles had been gradually weakened, they had to compromise with the emerging middle class.

Xiao Niao knew very well that if a person was illiterate and did not receive education, it would be impossible to manage him.

If she wanted to change the deeply rooted feudal ruling structure, she had to pull ordinary people out of ignorance and chaos.

In feudal dynasties, the scope of imperial power was limited and it only took care of a very small group of people.

But the light of knowledge can shine on even a child of a low-level serf.

Knowledge is power, knowledge changes destiny.

This sentence is truly a wise saying, applicable throughout history and today.

I don’t know why, but the little bird always feels a little sad.

Look at what she has been doing every day since she traveled through time: teaching people how to farm, promoting literacy in rural areas, improving urban sanitation, and training local indigenous people to help her with work.

Xiao Niao was extremely sad and angry.

“I came here to be a college student village official!!!!”

Chapter 23 Kitten: There are bad people among the crowd!

When Gwyneth walked into the room, she saw Xiao Niao sitting at the conference table, discussing financial affairs with the financial officer and several subordinates.

She noticed that most of Butcher's subordinates were half-human with animal features, and there were also many women among them.

These people all had serious expressions and were discussing very quickly. There was a special recorder sitting in a corner of the conference table, writing down the suggestions put forward by everyone.

It is rumored that the Prime Minister of the Empire particularly likes to employ half-humans and women. Gwyneth secretly glanced at those female officials, and it seems to be true.

Her eyes turned around and fell on the little bird that happened to have its back to her.

Butcher was wearing a light linen shirt with ruffled hems and straight trousers that fastened at the instep with a belt. The tailor had made a special cut in the fabric on the left side so that she could extend her wings out of her sleeves.

The bones of birds' wings are hollow, so the bird's 'left hand' is particularly fragile. She wears an extra arm guard when she goes out.

"Lord Butcher," a steward walked up to Xiao Niao and reported in a low voice, "The people from the Duke of Tudor's Mansion have arrived."

The bird turned its head.

The moment their eyes met, Gwyneth saw the young Prime Minister of the Empire smiling gently at her. The common secret flowed in the two people's gazes, as if the scene under the moonlight had just happened last night.

"You've come at the perfect time. The work here is about to come to an end."

Xiao Niao showed a friendly expression, which was completely different from his aggressive attitude that day at the dinner party.

"Please take your people to the reception room and wait for a while, Your Highness," she said to Gwyneth. "My aide-de-camp will receive you."

Gwyneth pinched her palms and nodded calmly: "Okay, thank you for your trouble."

Lucas, standing next to his sister, keenly felt that the atmosphere was a little strange.

He turned his head to look at his sister and asked with his mouth: Your Highness?

Gwyneth threatened her brother to shut up with a gesture.

The people from the Duke's Mansion followed instructions and walked out of the conference room and came to the room prepared for the guests.

Just when they were about to see the bird, Qia was reluctant to move forward and insisted on waiting outside the door. Gwen had no choice but to agree to her.

Now when they were about to go to the reception room, the kitten happily followed them and asked them to sit on the sofa in a very familiar manner. It also took out some snacks from the cabinet, acting like the host.

"Sister Bi'er might come over later," Qiya seemed very familiar with the staff composition of the Prime Minister's Office. "She is Lord Butcher's best adjutant, and she is always sent to handle important matters."

Gwyneth began to believe that Qia worked in the Prime Minister's Office - before that, she thought it was just a lie made up by the little girl.

Several people waited quietly in the reception room.

During this period, several maids working in the Prime Minister's Palace delivered a lot of information and things like feather pens and ink bottles to the people in the Duke's Palace for advance inspection.

These maids behaved modestly, and did their jobs of organizing documents and arranging tables very smoothly. They didn't talk much to the guests, and seemed extremely thoughtful yet with a weak presence. After observing for a while, Gwyneth realized that there must be a well-organized order here.

Whether the family rules are good or bad, and what kind of person the owner is, can be seen from the attitude of the people doing the work below.

Gwen saw that the maid was focused and meticulous in her work, and did not seem timid in front of the noble guests, so she understood that Xiaoniao was probably very tolerant towards these people in her daily life.

The older official opposite had already picked up a scroll and started reading it. Gwyneth calmed herself down and reached out for the scroll made of papyrus in front of her.

It was a statistical report on grain reserves, which recorded the amount of grain stored after the granary was counted: two million bushels of wheat, one and a half million bushels each of soybeans and oats, about three times the amount of potatoes (Gwyneth had never seen this plant), and 60,000 head of livestock of various types.

She hadn't expected the capital's food reserves to be so abundant. Gwyneth usually assisted her father in handling the financial affairs of the territory. She calculated based on the approximate population of the capital that such food reserves were extremely rare even in a year of bumper harvest.

According to this calculation, they will make a lot of money from this battle with King Jialan. As long as the war is not dragged on to next year, even if all the people in the capital quit their work and go home to sleep, they will be able to spend this winter comfortably.

No wonder the capital can afford such a large army.

Otherwise, if we follow the previous grain production efficiency, even if we scrape out every bone marrow from every farmer in the entire city and the surrounding rural areas, we will not be able to maintain such terrible consumption.

Gwyneth became so engrossed in watching that she didn't even notice Xiao Niao had walked into the room with his adjutant.

Lucas reminded her quietly: "Sister, people are coming!"

Gwyneth finally reacted.

She looked up and saw a pair of amber eyes, quite rare here, looking at her with interest - her eyes reminded Gwen of the birds flying keenly among the branches.

"Let me help you," Xiao Niao said as he walked to the table and accurately picked out two documents from the pile. "If you want to estimate wartime expenses, it's best to start with this part."

Gwen took the scrolls from her.

"I didn't know you were coming, Your Highness," the bird continued, looking at the others present, "Would you like to introduce yourself to me?"

Lucas looked at his sister, then at the Prime Minister of the Empire who looked calm, and his little head was filled with great doubts.

What's going on? What's going on?

When did your sister get to know the Prime Minister?

They probably haven't met each other much, right? How come they're so familiar with each other?

"Of course," Gwyneth put her hand on her brother's shoulder and said to the bird, "This is my brother Lucas. Father assigned him to handle the military logistics affairs."