30

"It's been more than half a month since Zhang Ergou and them went down the mountain, and it's time to come back." On this day, Li Zirui sat in the cottage hall, thinking in his heart.

"Big boss, Brother Zhou, they are back, it seems that something happened, and many people were injured."

Just when Li Zixiao was thinking about the people who went down the mountain to come back, someone hurriedly ran in to report.

"What?" Hearing the report of the visitor, Li Zixiao suddenly became anxious.

The people Zhou Dazhu brought out were injured, which means that they must be in trouble, and a battle broke out.

This time to go down the mountain to purchase materials is related to Li Zixiao's next development and deployment of the cottage, once there is an accident, it will disrupt his chances, and when he heard the news, of course he was anxious.

"Go, get out."

Li Zixiao couldn't get more accurate information from the people in the report, said with a gloomy face, and then rushed straight to the gate of the cottage.

As soon as he rushed out of the cave hall, Li Zixiao saw that Zhou Dazhu and more than a dozen brothers were taken into the gate of the cottage by Wei Hong and others.

And the dozen or so people who followed behind Zhou Dazhu, many of them were injured, and everyone's expressions were very low, and they walked into the cottage one by one dejectedly.

Seeing this scene, Li Zixiao knew that his guess had come true, and something had happened.

Zhou Dazhu saw Li Zixiao coming towards him, directly pushed a young man next to him who was bandaging the wound on his left arm, walked quickly to Li Zixiao, knelt on one knee, lowered his head and said: "The big boss, the subordinates are not doing well, this errand is broken, please punish the big boss." ”

"What the hell is going on? What about Dong Zhuang? What about the supplies I asked you to procure? How could such a simple task not be done, and what happened? Stand up and speak to me carefully. ”

Li Zixiao's face was gloomy like dripping water, he didn't expect that this time there would be such a big change in the task that he didn't think was too difficult, something must have happened halfway, he still believed in the ability of Zhou Dazhu and Dong Zhuang.

"Yes, big boss, here's the thing, originally we were dressed up as the names of the village fort from the north and went into the city to buy supplies.

After more than half a month of busy work, the Dong Zhuang brothers negotiated with several shops and purchased most of the daily necessities to be purchased.

As for the last purchase of coal and iron, most of the coal and iron mines in Yongcheng County are monopolized by the Cai family and the Liu family, so if you want to purchase coal and iron, you can only go to them.

In the end, the Dong brothers contacted the two merchants, negotiated the price, and finally decided to purchase the coal of the Liu family and the iron material of the Cai family, so that both of them had gains. ”

Hearing this, Li Zixiao nodded, feeling that this Dong Zhuang was still quite good at doing things, and he didn't completely hand over this transaction to one family, so it was easy to offend the other family.

When bandits like them purchase supplies, they are most worried not about the price, but about safety.

"Later, Dong Zhuang and the two businesses were negotiated, and when they were about to trade, an accident happened, and the Cai family learned the news that the Dong Zhuang brothers had joined our cottage from somewhere.

And the news that our cottage robbed the Li family's caravan some time ago has already reached the county seat, and it is said that the Li family was furious and asked the county government to encircle and suppress us.

However, there are not many officers and soldiers in the county now, and they can barely make do with the defense of the city, and they still have the energy to take care of us, so in the end, it will be over.

But this Cai family has close business contacts with the Li family, and belongs to the dog legs attached to the Li family.

In their opinion, the little iron we purchased didn't make much money at all, so it was better to arrest Dong Zhuang, a bandit, and give it to his master to invite merit.

In the end, they even found the hiding place where we picked up the Dong brothers outside the city, and led the officers and soldiers and the Cai family to arrest us.

Fortunately, the brothers in the city sent us the news in time, and I immediately escaped with my brothers, but even so, one of our brothers died, and many of the other brothers were injured.

As a result, the Dong Zhuang brothers were arrested, and all the materials purchased before were also copied by the Cai family, and we had no choice but to return to the cottage first to listen to your orders. ”

After listening to Zhou Dazhu's story, Li Zixiao generally understood that if the Cai family discovered Dong's identity, they would not pay attention to the purchase and sale of iron materials for more than 100 taels of silver.

Far less valuable than the person who caught Dong Que to curry favor with the Li family, Li Zixiao did not plan to purchase much coal and iron this time, this time it was just a test of the water.

If Li Zixiao's purchase of iron materials this time is thousands of taels or even more, maybe the people of the Cai family will keep the identity of Dong Zhuang, and these families are all for the benefit of their own families.

"Hmph, what a Cai family, dare to arrest my people, detain my materials, and harm my good deeds, this is an iron heart to be the enemy of our cottage."

Li Zixiao's eyes flashed with anger at this time, a cruel smile appeared on his face, and he continued: "It just so happens that in the past few days, I plan to take people down the mountain to make a few more transactions, and I haven't chosen a target for a while.

Since the Cai family, who is not long-eyed, took the initiative to bump into him, then choose him. If you dare to do good things for Lao Tzu, Lao Tzu will set foot on your Cai family. ”

Li Zixiao had murderous intentions towards this Cai family in his heart.

"The big boss, if you want to deal with this Cai family, count me as one, you must bring me." Zhou Dazhu heard that Li Zixiao was going to make a move on the Cai family, and hurriedly said.

"You're injured, but it's better to stay in the cottage to recuperate." Li Zixiao looked at the half of the arrow inserted in Zhou Dazhu's left arm, and said in a deep voice.

"It's okay, this little injury is nothing, I'll pull out the arrow later, put on some Li Langzhong's unique gold creative medicine, it will be fine soon, and please bring me with the big boss, I will personally save Brother Dong Zhuang out."

Li Zixiao thought about it, Zhou Dazhu had been to Yongcheng County once, and he knew a little more about the situation in the county than him, so it was better to let him follow, so he agreed.

However, it will soon be Li Zixiao's turn to be worried.

Although Li Zixiao was really angry and even murderous about this Cai family's arrest of Dong Xiang and sabotage his plan to purchase materials, when Li Zixiao calmed down and thought about it, he found that if he wanted to destroy the Cai family, it seemed that he couldn't do it with his current strength!

Let's not mention, the Cai family is in Yongcheng County, he doesn't have the strength to capture the county seat now, even if he can, he won't do it, in the field of vision of exposing himself to the government so early, isn't it stupid!

Besides, the Cai family is also one of the two major families in Yongcheng County, the family is big, and there are hundreds of people under his command alone, dozens of times more than his subordinates, what do you do to destroy people.

In the end, Li Zixiao was embarrassed to find that he had blown a big cow just now, and he hadn't destroyed other people's strength at all.

"Ah, it's a big deal, it seems that I really can't do it now." After Li Zixiao came back to his senses, he smiled awkwardly and whispered to himself.

But won't this revenge be avenged? Won't Dong Zhuang be saved? Won't the detained supplies be taken back? No, this is not his Li Zixiao's style of doing things.

Lao Tzu doesn't mess with you landlords, it's better for you to bully Lao Tzu first.

If you don't rescue Dong Xiang, wouldn't it make your subordinates feel cold, and if they don't grab back the purchased materials, dozens of people in Lao Tzu Cottage will eat and drink.

This time, no matter what, we must rescue Dong Zhuang and recapture the materials, as for the matter I said before to destroy the Cai family, let's discuss it again.

Ah, that one has to think in the long run, it's not too late for a gentleman to take revenge for ten years, isn't it! Hehe.

Soon, Li Zixiao had a preliminary idea in his heart, this time their first task was to sneak into the county seat, rescue Dong Zhuang, and try to recapture the materials detained by the Cai family.

As for the idea of destroying the Cai family, let's put it aside for the time being, and the coming days will be long, let's play slowly!

It didn't take long for someone to report that Zhang Ergouzi came back, and brought a lot of people, Li Zixiao was worried that there were not enough people in his hands, if he took people away to the county seat to save people, who would guard the cottage!

You must know that the cottage is Li Zixiao's base camp, and it can't be served by anyone, but it is a place where they have stored their food and cotton clothes for the entire winter, and there must be no problems.

Fortunately, now that Zhang Ergouzi has rushed back in time, he should be able to bring back a lot of people, with this batch of newcomers joining, the defensive strength of the cottage will be greatly increased.

When Li Zixiao walked out of the cottage, he saw a long line in the mountain stream not far away, walking towards their cottage.

"The big boss and the little one are back, and this time they went out to live up to their mission, and recruited a total of two hundred and forty-eight people, including two hundred and twenty strong men between the ages of sixteen and thirty.

There were also ten carpenters and blacksmiths, three langzhong, and fifteen women, all of whom were family members of the carpenters and blacksmiths, and a few children.

After these two hundred pairs of strong men are trained, they can all become soldiers, and there are more than 20 veterans among them, all because of this, they were forced to leave the government and army for some reason, and they lost their livelihoods, and I recruited them. ”

"It's good to recruit more than 200 people at once." Seeing the crowded crowd standing in line at the cottages, Li Zixiao said with satisfaction.

Hearing Li Zixiao's unstingy praise for himself, Zhang Ergouzi also felt very happy, and continued: "Big boss, don't you know, now there is a famine everywhere in the west of Henan, and there are homeless people begging along the road everywhere. 、

As soon as these people heard me say, as long as they were willing to go with me, they would be full of three meals a day, and they would be given a cotton coat, and they all came over one by one, and finally I picked and chose more than 200 strong men who did not drag their families with their families, as well as a group of carpenters, blacksmiths, and langzhong. ”

"Well, this year, at the time of the autumn harvest, it was a time when a large number of rebels were raging in Henan and fighting fiercely with the official army, and a large amount of grain was forcibly recruited by the official army or looted by the rebels.

Of course, Li Zixiao knew why there were so many homeless people, and he couldn't help but sigh, he would rather be a peaceful dog than a troubled world!

In this chaotic era at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the most bitter people were the grassroots group of farmers, but unfortunately Li Zixiao's strength was too weak at this time, and he couldn't do anything at all, so he could only sigh empty.