Transmigration: A Farm Girl’s Brocade
Chapter 418 - 233 Borrowing Money_1

Chapter 418: Chapter 233 Borrowing Money_1

Uncle Liang’s letter and gifts were delivered directly to Qian Yixiu.

The gifts were some pastries and candies made by the Royal Kitchen, ten palace flowers, along with several ink sticks and an inkstone washer. Although the allocation of the gifts was not explicitly stated, the first two were obviously meant for Qian Yixiu while the latter were for Qian Yeejin.

She then carefully read Uncle Liang’s letter. After finishing the letter, Qian Yixiu was full of criticisms. That bear child was simply a unity of contradictions.

By sending her snacks and palace flowers, he surely saw her as an inexperienced ten-year-old girl. Even if he regarded her as a young girl of not so many years, he wouldn’t send those two items. Even though this era was rather progressive, one would not boldly give a woman hair flowers. Wasn’t this courting unnecessary speculation and inviting idle thoughts?

Yet, the letter he wrote treated her as an adult, inviting her to share in his success and joy.

Uncle Liang told her he was very happy to have become good friends with her father, General Qian (in fact, he wanted to write "good brothers" but reluctantly wrote "friends" because he did not want to be seen as an uncle). He also mentioned how Prince Ning was interested in his grand plans, petitioned His Majesty the Emperor, and broke protocol to appoint him as a guerrilla general, giving him five thousand soldiers and five hundred warhorses, and allowing him to form an army unit specialized in the use of firearms. At the same time, he instructed the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Trades and Crafts to gather craftsmen immediately to mass-produce Three-Eyed Fire Muskets and Fire Cannons. He even gave his army unit a very imposing name, Pili Camp...

Qian Yixiu hadn’t expected that the precursor to the Divine Machine Camp or the Firearm Camp of this era would be founded by Uncle Liang. She seemed to remember that the Ming army defeated Mongolian cavalry using firearms. If Pili Camp were established, it could be said to be epoch-making.

Uncle Liang might truly be ennobled and appointed as a general because of this. And what about Jiao Fa, would he be considered the father of firearms?

Qian Yixiu was also happy for Uncle Liang.

After dinner, upon hearing that Qin Xiaochuan had rested well, Qian Yixiu went to the guest room in the front courtyard and asked him to elaborate on Pili Camp.

Qin Xiaochuan said, don’t think Young Master Liang was all impressive having been promoted to guerrilla general so suddenly. In fact, a sword was hanging over his head at any time.

Because the Emperor and the court officials were not optimistic about him and his suggestions. They felt that a seventeen-year-old whelp, even if he was a direct disciple of Master Beikong, was not capable enough to take on such a great responsibility. Another thing was the skepticism about firearms, deemed cumbersome and not practical, greatly inferior to crossbows and bows. At a time when every man was needed, giving him so many soldiers and horses was a complete waste.

However, Prince Ning pushed back against all dissenting opinions, and Liang Jinzhao made a military pledge, stating that if Pili Camp could not defeat the enemy forces, he would present his own head.

Qin Xiaochuan gossiped further, "I heard that General Liang’s mother also didn’t want him to take risks and has hanged herself in protest several times."

If he did not succeed, he would be resigned to his fate, Uncle Liang was really playing big this time.

Qin Xiaochuan would leave tomorrow; he was not going to the capital but instead would directly head north to the border. Thus, she should prepare the items for Little Dad first and wait until Shopkeeper Cui came to the capital at the beginning of the twelfth lunar month to take Uncle Liang’s letter and gifts with him.

Lady Wu had some people make several pairs of cotton shoes and cotton gloves for Manjiang, and Cheng Yue personally made several sets of undergarments and a "Mandarin Ducks Playing in the Water" handkerchief symbolizing love; all these should be brought along. The other cotton clothes could be left behind, as they were too many to carry.

The dried deer meat and wild boar meat that Qian Yixiu made a few days ago came in very handy. These meats did not need to be cooked and were tasty and durable without fear of going bad.

Most of the dried meat was taken with them, leaving only two pounds of each for Uncle Liang.

They also brought two pounds of the tea leaves Manjiang liked to drink, five pounds of lotus root powder. Additionally, dictated by Qian Yeejin and spoken by everyone, they wrote a lengthy letter of ten pages or so, filled with the family’s longing and thoughts.

After sending Qin Xiaochuan off, the whole family became sorrowful again.

The next day, an important event happened in the village, which distracted the forlorn Qian family members, with the exception of Cheng Yue.

In the afternoon, Wang Lizheng, who returned from the County Government Office, convened a meeting with representatives of each household at the northern end of the village. Qian Sangui was unwell, so Old man Cai went in his place.

When Old man Cai came back, he said that the Imperial Court was conscripting soldiers again. This time there was no drafting quota for Qian’s third wife, but the first and second wives both had one. The men of these two families were definitely not going; they would just pay the ten taels of silver.

In the evening, Qian Liang’s father and mother came by; their family also had a draft quota and wanted to borrow five taels of silver. Qian Liang was Second Grandpa’s grandson and also had close ties with Qian’s third wife. Although they had made some money following them, it was not as much as the first and second wives of the Qian family had earned.