Chapter 76: The Vassals Unleash Their Power

  Li Chong expanded his power, and other vassals did not sit idly by. The first to take action was Cao Cao. In the third year of the initial peace, the Yellow Turbans in Yanzhou grew powerful and successively captured counties such as Dongping and Dong'a. Liu Dai, the governor of Yanzhou, went to battle against the Yellow Turbans and died on the battlefield.

  Ji Bei Xiang Bao Xin and others welcomed Cao Cao into Juancheng, and fought against the Yellow Turbans.

  Two armies joined forces to fight against the Yellow Turbans. As a result, Bao Xin also died in battle. At this time, Cao Cao already had more than 10,000 soldiers and was single-handedly resisting the Yellow Turbans.

  The Yellow Turbans in Yuzhou were said to have a million troops, with 300,000 wearing armor, but among them, only about 100,000 were robust and strong. Moreover, they had no unified command, their military strength was scattered, how could they be Cao Cao's opponent?

  Cao Cao fully demonstrated his military talent, using tactics such as luring the enemy into surrender, launching surprise attacks with fire, and setting up ambushes... Various cunning schemes emerged one after another, causing the Yellow Turbans to be defeated and dispersed. Finally, in the ninth month of the third year of the Initial Peace period, Cao Cao routed the main force of the Yellow Turbans, incorporating their robust soldiers into his army, and his power surged.

  Cao Cao occupied Yan Province, and other lords were also developing. Yuan Shu in Huainan was also constantly recruiting soldiers and expanding his forces. Although the Romance of the Three Kingdoms portrays Yuan Shu as incompetent and being defeated by Cao Cao, he actually had some abilities, able to occupy the two largest counties of Eastern Han, Nanyang County and Runan County, which couldn't be achieved solely by relying on family background.

  Ma Teng of Xiliang also took action and, taking advantage of Dong Zhuo's death, became the General Who Pacifies the West and occupied Jincheng (Lanzhou), eyeing Guanzhong.

  Yuan Shao of Jizhou also didn't fall behind, on one hand suppressing Zhang Yan, and on the other hand competing with Gongsun Zan, fighting on two fronts, yet surprisingly without any defeats, it can be seen that this Hebei strongman is not a name in vain.

  The most miserable one to be mixed up is Liu Bei, the big ear thief. Liu Bei recruited soldiers and bought horses in Pingyuan County, and from time to time harassed Yuan Shao. If Yuan Shao hadn't put his main energy on Gongsun Zan, he would have killed Liu Bei early on.

  Apart from Da Er Zei, Sun Ce is also quite miserable now. However, there are no heroes in Jiangdong, and Li Chong's small wings cannot reach Jiangdong. Sun Ce will eventually dominate Jiangdong.

  Liu Biao of Jingzhou and Liu Yan of Yizhou were still struggling to survive in those places, without any apparent ambition.

  Li Zhong also didn't idle, sending documents to the subordinate counties of Wang Tao, Ju Yang, Ping Cheng and others to collect taxes. The result can be imagined, except for the nearby Wang Tao and Fan Shu counties, all other counties had a perfunctory attitude, citing drought and poor harvests within their borders, only symbolically submitting some taxes.

  However, Li Zhong's foundation is now unstable and he cannot act rashly. He can only swallow his anger and wait until next year to settle accounts with these officials. Moreover, Li Zhong also knows the moral character of these officials. As long as Li Zhong's army approaches the city, these officials will immediately show obedience.

  But in winter there are also things to be done: besides training soldiers, we must accumulate military supplies.

  First of all, it's a matter of guns and knives. If the gun barrel is damaged, it needs to be updated, otherwise what if it breaks during battle?

  Steel knives are no exception and need to be re-sharpened. Those that are severely damaged must be returned to the furnace for re-forging.

  The most important thing is the arrow, which is a consumable item. Making one arrow takes time and effort, including making the arrow shaft, applying tung oil, straightening it, etc., taking ten days to make a qualified arrow. However, when shooting an arrow, it's gone with just a "whoosh" sound, and it's also very likely that nothing will be hit.

  Last time they attacked the city, Li Chong had encountered the problem of insufficient feathered arrows, and could not suppress the defenders on the city wall. Otherwise, casualties would have been reduced by at least 20%.

  When it snowed, Zhang Cai brought back two pieces of crystal from Ye City for Li Chong, an old jade craftsman.

  These are two crystal blocks the size of fists, which seem to have undergone some processing. When exposed to sunlight, they appear crystal clear and radiant with a flowing halo.

  Li Chong couldn't help but crack a smile, these two crystal blocks cost Li Chong 100,000 yuan, but at this moment Li Chong felt that 100,000 yuan was too cheap, even 1 million would be worth it. However, Li Chong didn't know that crystals aren't necessarily more valuable the clearer they are, and 100,000 yuan was already a considerable amount.

  He called out to Jade Craftsman and Li Chong asked: "Sir, can you polish this crystal into a semi-spherical shape?"

  Lao Yujiang was flattered and hastily patted his chest, saying: "Don't worry, sir. I may not be good at anything else, but I'm skilled in crafting jade. Whatever shape you want, I can polish it into that shape."

  "Very good!" Li Chong nodded in satisfaction and said, "Follow me, you can refer to the drawings for specific details." The old jade craftsman hastily followed Li Chong into the house, where Li Chong took out a white paper and handed it over.

  Lao Yu Jiang finally handed over the drawings, and after carefully looking at them, he found that there was nothing special about them. Li Zhong's physics level wasn't high, he only knew the principle of convex lenses, what kind of fancy things could he draw?

  Watching the old craftsman fiddling with the drawings back and forth, Li Chong felt a pang of regret in his heart. Why didn't he study hard when he was in school? He couldn't refine steel, make soap, or manufacture explosives, not even paper-making skills, it's simply embarrassing for a time-traveler like him.

  The old craftsman's level was indeed good, and in less than half a month, he handed over more than ten large and small crystal lenses to Li Da.

  Li Chong hastily hid in his bedroom. This thing was a top-secret, and the telescope was made with it. Li Chong didn't want others to know about it.

  Li took out the bamboo tube he had prepared long ago and tested it one by one.

  Making a telescope isn't difficult, just put lenses of suitable size into bamboo tubes, stick them together with glue, and then put two bamboo tubes together. If Li Chong could calculate focal length and all that, he would have succeeded one hundred percent, unfortunately, Li Chong can't do such advanced math, so it's just a matter of luck.

  After countless permutations and combinations, a hearty laugh echoed from the bedroom: "Hahaha..."

  Standing at the door, Li Chong held a monocular telescope and looked around randomly. After a while, Li Chong murmured to himself: "This is at least a six-fold telescope, I'm really a genius."

  After indulging in self-admiration for a while, Li Chong hastily returned to the house. There were still over ten mirror pieces left on the table. These mirror pieces weren't unusable; it's just that Li Chong had bad luck and didn't get the right combination. He must pick them up; otherwise, if he breaks one, Li Chong would be heartbroken for half a day.

  But as the saying goes, "a thief in one's own household is hard to prevent." Li Zhong had just picked up the crystal lens and hadn't even had time to put it back in its wooden box when Cai Yan pushed open the door and walked in.

  Women are naturally interested in shiny things, and as soon as Cai Yan saw the crystal clear lens in Li Chong's hand, she immediately abandoned her reserve, stepped forward quickly to Li Chong's side, and smiled brightly: "Li Lang, were these jade pendants bought for me? They're really beautiful..."

  Isn't that the case? Li Chong could only nod his head stiffly, secretly hiding the telescope in his sleeve, afraid of being discovered by Cai Yan. Generally speaking, a talented woman's curiosity is very strong, and if the telescope falls into Cai Yan's hands, it will immediately be a disastrous outcome.