Preparations

Li Xian as Liu Zhang has made his persona undergone a curious transformation over the months, with dissenting voices within Yi Province that had claimed him too passive had been silenced, with some even hesitantly saying that he has gone too far.

Meanwhile, the military that had passively opposed the reforms has gradually fallen in line as well, with morale across the branches of the military clearly getting better as soldiers gradually stopped worrying about feeding their families and parts of their military training substituted with times in the fields or crafting.

Li Hui had conscripted prisoners for road construction as well as hiring more citizens for work. Meanwhile, he has requested that Taoist alchemists demonstrate that particular formula on a rock near the Min River. Reports showed that someone had caught fire and that there were loud explosions though thankfully no one got hurt.

Fa Zheng had rolled out the new developments in the cities of Hanzhong and Chengdu and began establishing workshops to manufacture them in components that can be disassembled and shipped throughout Yi Province. Through this, more artisan craftsmen were needed and lumbermills received more orders instead of relying on just communities for orders of repairs and other items.

Zhang Song, which had led the dissenting voices on expenditure has quietly silenced the opposition to aggressive spending, having just within a few months, seen business owners under the business grant scheme return loans after their business took off after a few months. Of course, there were failures or poor business decisions but the environment in Yi was now extremely conducive for business.

Even from taxes alone, Zhang Song had calculated that they were going to rake in more money tales of coins than ever and Li Xian had accordingly allowed Zhang Song to stockpile more and more money as long as he allocated equivalent volumes for grants and other agricultural as well as developmental uses.

And soon, the first harvest season will come. Li Xian was rightfully anxious to see the results which Fa Zheng had promised would be received three days from now. The core data to be interested in was that of Hanzhong and Chengdu, which Li Xian had first rolled out the reforms through Fa Zheng.

Meng Da, on the other hand, had petitioned Li Xian.

"My lord, as much as I myself have seen the changes in the city, we need to at least bolster our forces if we have the means to. Your analysis on Dong Zhuo may be reasonable but what if you are wrong?"

Li Xian could not admit what he knew. He knew that Dong Zhuo's adopted son, Lu Bu, was going to kill Dong Zhuo over Diao Chan, Wang Yun's daughter. Not only this, Li Jue and Guo Si will soon after that be embroiled in a bitter fight that would see the Emperor fleeing back to the ruined city of Luo Yang.

"Do you have any proposals, Meng Da?"

"My lord, please fortify Mianzhu Gate and Hanzhong. If the first blows come from the direction of Chang An, these two will be the first to come under threat."

"Before that, can I ask if we have sufficient equipment for all our soldiers in the event of a siege? And please have all the major military officers join me for diner tonight," Li Xian replied as he lazily sat back in his chair, his eyes scanning over reports that were pouring in.

The court which in Liu Zhang's memories were quiet had become a place where it was full of life from people running in and out. For example, instead of servants getting the tea now, when officials went out to get more reports, they will simply get what they need on the way back as well, be it a cup of tea or refreshments.

The military officers, however, had yet to see the true yield of any consequence from the reforms.