Chapter 438: Bandits
The meeting soon became an eyebrow, although the Zhang family contributed the most money this time, but as Wei Youqing thought, Zhang Ronghua refused to serve as the leader of the Tea Merchant Guild on the grounds that he was the leader of the Tea Garden Lords' Guild. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
In the end, according to the amount of money, the tea plantation owner surnamed Sun, who contributed the second most money, became the leader of the tea merchant guild. The owner of the tea plantation surnamed Sun is named Sun Jingtong, and he is not an outsider, but Sun Boning's uncle. The Sun family's wealth is big and powerful, similar to the Zhang family, and they have industries and forces in various places.
Of the remaining five, four are tea plantation owners, and Wei Youqing also occupies the last place in it. Zhang Ronghua refused to put his name in it, and remembered Zhang Ruoshui's name. There are two more, one is from Lianzhou and the other is from Binzhou.
The last one was not a tea plantation owner, but a large cotton plantation owner and a large silk cloth merchant named Hu Siyuan. Because the Tea Merchants Guild had said in advance that as long as you pay money, you can join the guild, and this silk merchant is rich and powerful, and there is nothing wrong with wanting to get a piece of the pie.
There are three deacons in the Tea Merchants Association, Zhang Ruoshui is in charge of Wen, Wei Youqing is in charge of Wu, and Rui Yiming is the chief deacon. Yang Xingzhi's youngest son, Yang Rongxi, was also transferred to help because he was good at managing accounts. All money scheduling is distributed, and Yang Rongxi is the general ledger. The three of them recruited a few more handymen, and the Tea Merchants' Guild began to operate normally.
With money and someone in charge, Wei Youqing's caravan was once again on the agenda. As long as there is money, it is not difficult to handle the matter of weapons, and the ordnance of Li Chengyu's army was originally provided by Lingnan, but now that he wants to be self-sufficient, the establishment of his own ordnance station is on the agenda.
Making ordnance is not a difficult thing for Wei Youqing, Shi Wen'er is an expert in weapons, Wei Youqing has Shi Wen'er's true biography, coupled with his own understanding, and likes to study, he has a tendency to surpass Shi Wen'er in making weapons.
It's just that Wei Youqing understands that his special background does not allow him to do this. And the weapons used by ordinary soldiers do not need to be as ingenious as the cold iron sword.
Therefore, Wei Youqing planned to select a skilled craftsman from the Lingnan Ordnance Institute to be the craftsman of the Chudi Ordnance Institute. Li Chengyu agreed to Wei Youqing's suggestion and selected a skilled craftsman surnamed Zhou named Zhou Tongjiang from the Lingnan Ordnance Institute to be the craftsman of the Chudi Ordnance Institute.
Then there is the recruitment of soldiers, this matter Wei Youqing has already succeeded, the caravan on Pearl Island, since the "piracy incident" on the island, is no longer limited to the number of two hundred. Nowadays, due to the abundance of food on the island, its own population has surged, coupled with the southward migration of northerners, not to mention the wasteland of Pearl Island now, even in the former Grand Canyon, it has been cleared and built into a village.
The loyalty and courage of the people of Pearl Island also left a very good impression on Lee Seung-woo. What's more, this caravan is in Wei Youqing's hands, and he feels very relieved.
Compared with the example of the Daozhou General Association, branches of the Tea Merchants Association were organized in various places, and the local branches collected the tea from all over the country and handed it over to Daozhou. In this vacancy, Wei Youqing ordered Wei Rong to return to Pearl Island, select strong men on the whole island, and after being trained by the original caravan on Pearl Island, part of the caravan continued to stay in Fanfang on Pearl Island as a market, and the other part set up a caravan on Pearl Island, leaving Pearl Island with tea, pearls, corals and other things on Pearl Island, and going to Daozhou to become the backbone of the Chudi caravan.
Wei Youqing was not involved in the affairs of the Tea Merchants Association. The three of them have a division of labor, in addition to forming a caravan, Wei Youqing is suspected of meddling in other people's affairs in everything he does now. Especially Rui Yiming is suspicious and sensitive, and he is the person next to Li Chengyu, Wei Youqing doesn't want to have any disputes with him no matter what.
And Wei Youqing now just wants to bring the Pearl Island people out of the Pearl Island, trying to develop in the future, and now the Pearl Island people in Li Chengyu's army, especially the southerners, as long as they survive, they have some official positions, whether big or small, which is a great touch to the young people of Pearl Island, and many people want to go out of the island to make a living.
Seeing that there was nothing to do in Daozhou, Wei Youqing resigned to Li Chengyu and went to Wupeng Villa to see how Li Jingbao and Yue Ningyuan were doing. Wei Youqing still wanted to see if Ah Tao was gone, and if she had found the person she was looking for. Wei Youqing felt that there had never been a woman who would touch her heart like this mysterious female doll now.
Taking the waterway to Wupeng Villa is undoubtedly the fastest, and according to the ship's shipwright, the boat will be able to reach Taihu Lake in a few days as it goes down the upper reaches of the Chu River. It's just that the river is not very flat, but this boat is the boat of Wupeng Villa, and the people on the rivers and lakes know it at a glance, and they will generally give Wupeng Villa a few thin noodles.
At night, looking from afar, I saw a long dragon of lights emerging in the north of the river, like a ghost fire, winding and walking.
"What's that?" Sister Kuan asked curiously.
Wei Youqing replied: "That's the cavalry of Liu An, the envoy of Huainan Jiedu, who is patrolling along the river. ”
Wan Yu asked strangely: "Patrolling the river on the shore?" What's there to patrol? Even if they see the bandits, how can they catch them? ”
"Water bandits?" Wei Youqing glanced at Wan Yu with some amusement, "Since ancient times, how can officers and soldiers catch water bandits?" When we go to Tanzhou, except for the people from Wupeng Villa, who else can enter? Wupeng Villa is the biggest bandit here. ”
Wan Yu Bingxue was smart, and then said, "Oh, I see. They are not defending against bandits, they are defending against the other side. With that, she gestured to the south bank.
Wei Youqing didn't answer, thinking in his heart that if he was Liu An, he would not pass on such a deep hostility to Li Chengyu on the other side.
Don't say that a Tanzhou has already given Li Chengyu a headache, and now he can't fight Huainan at all. Even if there is this power, Huainan is different from Chu State, it is the same Li Xuanfan Town, what name does Li Chengyu have to fight Huainan? Doesn't that put the word "rebellion" on the top of your head?
Not to mention that Liu An's son Liu Huazhi is Zhang Shuyuan's godson, and Zhang Shuyuan is Li Chengyu's father-in-law. Seeing that Li Chengyu and Zhang Shuyuan joined forces with one another, this Liu An was like a frightened bird, guarding a place of four battles, his own strength was not enough, and he couldn't tell who was an enemy and who was a friend...... Wei Youqing was really tired of him.
The long dragon in the distance kept keeping pace with their boats, there were no boats on the river, and the occasional dot passed quickly.
Wei Youqing asked the lights on the boat to go out and walk slowly on the dark river. There are several large and small bandits on this river, and it is better not to cause trouble than to get into trouble.
But trouble always seemed to come, and the distant river was dotted with small boats like fireflies, blocking the way of the big boats. The captain didn't break in, and blew a stack of frogs and insects in the dark, as if to convey some news.