The emperor's half-month holidays seemed to be quite a lot, but in fact they passed quickly.

In addition to the first few days, Li Ling was able to spend more time with his wife and daughter at home. After the next few days, he was still busy.

First, he greeted his colleagues and friends at home, then went to the bookstore to check the transaction situation, and then sold the accounts. Not to mention, although Li Ling was not in the capital during this period, the bookstore's business has improved every quarter. Now, whether it is newspapers or books, they are selling very well, especially the latter, which makes other bookstores in Beijing jealous.

Of course, this relied on Li Ling's series of fresh marketing strategies, such as hardcover books, large-character versions, and new books and bibliography specially customized for VIPs, which immediately opened up more than one level of Zongheng Bookstore and other bookstores.

Nowadays, as long as there are some scholars in Luoyang City, who have never collected a few good books published by Zongheng Bookstore, and even if their family conditions are not so good, they have to spend money to buy one or two books to prepare the storefront. After all, when books are no longer just books, but become a symbol of identity and knowledge, their price and the objects they face are completely different.

So in the past few months, Zongheng Bookstore can be said to be a daily profit. When Li Ling came to the store to look through the accounts, he was shocked and said that there were many rich people in the capital. However, this time he was a little wrong, because the shopkeeper then reported that there were still many such high-covered books sold to many prefectures outside Luoyang, and even two dealers appeared, which made Li Ling laugh and cry.

Since he was willing to buy it, he was of course happy to sell it, so he simply went to Lianghuai, Jiangnan and other places to ask the bookstores there to follow up and print similar books to sell them.

The bookstore has gained such great gains, and with the efforts of Wanlang, Li Ling only calculated it quickly and found that his net worth had at least doubled in the past six months. Now, even if he does not count the real estate of those stores, his net worth has reached more than three million taels of 3 million taels alone.

This is really not a problem, I was shocked when I calculated it. After calculating this number, Li Ling stayed for a long time. If he wanted to let the future generations, he would have devoted himself to making money. Who would have to worry about risking his life and fight with others in the officialdom at the risk of losing his life?

But there is no way. Nowadays, this era is different from later generations. Without this layer of official skin, even if you have money, you may lose everything at any time. Therefore, you have to be a official and continue to climb. Of course, Li Ling also admitted that he chose this more difficult path, mostly for the Great Yue court and the people of the world. After all, scholars pay attention to being poor and being able to help the world.

So after being sure about the matter in the bookstore and setting up future policies for them, Li Ling focused on the officialdom again. So in the next few days, he visited King Huai, Lu Zhen, and Yuan Yunjie of the Transportation Department and other boss officials with good relationships. They contacted them and briefly mentioned his previous experiences in northern Xinjiang.

In this way, the half-month holiday was quickly consumed, and it was time to officially return to the yamen to take a shift.

However, Li Ling was not too resistant to this. After all, the errands in the Transportation Department are actually very easy to deal with. Compared with the tedious errands in northern Xinjiang before, the work at hand is almost nothing.

After he returned to the yamen and sat for three days, the palace finally issued an order to let Li Ling enter the palace to report all the things that he had not yet explained in detail. In addition, there is no conclusion about Li Ling's reward until today.

...

It was October, and the weather in Luoyang was a bit cold. There were many trees and leaves falling in the palace, which made many eunuchs busy sweeping the palace all day long. Li Ling walked on the fallen leaves all over the floor to the warm pavilion of Jinshen Hall to meet the emperor.

Although the real cold winter has not yet arrived, charcoal fire has already grown in the pavilion, which makes him feel a little hot when he first entered it. Obviously, as he grows older, the emperor becomes more and more afraid of the cold. As soon as winter enters, he has to make a fire to keep warm.

After worshiping the emperor according to etiquette, and then flattening his body, Li Ling realized that the emperor was older than before, and the wrinkles on his face were deeper on it, like gullies. Although his hair and beard were meticulously combed there, they almost turned pure white.

This reminded him of the situation when he first met the emperor. At that time, the emperor's hair and beard were still gray, giving people the feeling of a middle-aged man, but he didn't expect that after a few years, he was really old. I have to say that time is not forgiving others, and time is fair to everyone.

"Li Ling, how are you doing well in the past half month?" The emperor's question finally made Li Ling come back to his senses. He quickly put away his strange thoughts and saluted and replied: "By the grace of Your Majesty, these days ministers have indeed rested well, and finally have rested all the previous fatigue and hardships."

"That's good. You are still young and you will still work for my Dayue court in the future. You can't really exhaust yourself." The emperor smiled with satisfaction, "By the way, I have seen all the memorials you submitted before. This trip to the northern border is indeed hard for you. If you hadn't been to work hard on the front line, the military ration dispatch would not have been so smooth. My battle to the northern border might not have ended so smoothly. It can be said that you have really made great contributions to this great victory."

"Your Majesty is wronged, I am ashamed of you. This is all my duty as the governor of the fortune, and I dare not claim any credit."

"Haha, merit is merit, no one can cover it up. Don't worry, the court will have a reward at that time." The emperor praised and encouraged him.

After saying these clichés, the emperor changed the subject and fell on something that both sides were more concerned about: "I have read the report you mentioned before about building grain stations in various parts of the northern border and opening up roads for grain transportation. I also asked several prime ministers of the Political Affairs Hall to help plan, but in the end there is still some things. This is the most important thing to announce you to the palace today."

"I understand that it is of great importance. Your Majesty and several prime ministers should investigate carefully to ensure that everything is safe." Li Ling nodded, "If Your Majesty allows you, I hope to explain my views carefully to you on the map, so that you can have a more intuitive view."

The emperor nodded: "Yes. Wei Tang——"

The old eunuch who had been by the emperor agreed immediately, walked to the door, and whispered a few instructions to the person. After a while, several small yellow doors carried a huge map in and quickly hung it to the wall next to it. Obviously, they had already prepared and just waited for Li Ling to explain it in detail.

Li Ling bowed and invited the emperor to the huge military map that had been unveiled, and then pointed to the official roads in the northern border, and began his explanation: "Your Majesty, there is really no problem with this official road on the map. It seems that the road to the northern border is full of flat roads, but in fact it is not the case. Here, here, here, here, here, there, it is necessary to transport grain teams through the rugged and steep mountains. It is not easy to transport these chariots and horses safely, not to mention that there are hundreds of kilograms of grain on it. As long as any carriage and horses are overturned, it will cause the entire road to be blocked, and it will take a long time to delay.

"Your Majesty is wise. You should know the truth that the military situation is as hot as fire. Sometimes it may lead to the defeat of a battle, which is related to the life and death of hundreds or thousands of soldiers. Therefore, I think that the development of these food transportation paths is inevitable. After all, I, Dayue, and Guirong in the north, will eventually have a battle within a few years."

The emperor narrowed his eyes and listened to Li Ling's words, with a serious expression, and nodded gently from time to time to express his approval: "Well, what about the military post and the grain station?"

"This is also the thing I care about the most. Your Majesty, the difficulty of traveling the northern border is only a part of the troubles of transporting grain. What is really difficult to deal with is the complex mountain roads in this area and the mixed forces of various parties.

"Maybe in normal times, the official army is shocked, and the bandits on the green forest road or the small soldiers and horses of Guirong who stole into our territory, they cannot do anything bad. But once the army really confronts Guirong, we throw more troops to the front line, the situation is completely different. This does not include when our army penetrates into the northern grasslands of the desert.

"Your Majesty, please see, here, here, and here... These places are easy to attack and difficult to defend, and are most likely to be attacked by people. If our army transports grain to these places, tired and unprepared, it would be a gambling for thousands of troops on the front line. But if we set up a military post near these dangerous places and send troops to guard it, the situation would be completely different.

"Of course, I also know that the court has difficulties, and the money, grain and people needed to be invested in opening various grain stations and military posts. However, for the smooth progress of the Northern Expedition in the future and for the final victory, I think these early investments are still necessary.

"When the two countries fight, in the end, they are no longer the elite soldiers and brave generals, but who is more prepared and who invests more. And I, Dayue, owned the Central Plains and was rich in the world, and was absolutely stronger than the northern Guirong tribes. The more investment here means that I can win the final victory at a smaller price when I come to the battlefield!"
Chapter completed!