Li Yanqing walked into the greenhouse again and sat down, Liu Fang smiled and said, "Do you want to see the list?" ”

Li Yanqing took over the list, "How many people have been admitted?" ”

"There are already 30 people in one morning, and it is estimated that there will be more than 20 people when this batch of swims back."

"It's not bad, plus Zhang Hu missed more than a dozen people, there will be almost seventy people in one morning, and people from other states and counties will come to sign up in the afternoon, and in a few days, four hundred people should be able to recruit."

"I don't think there's a problem either."

Li Yanqing looked at the list, most of them were children of Jiayu County, he pondered for a moment and said, "Be a little stricter when registering, I suspect that there will be black-hearted Dragon King's subordinates mixed in." ”

"Will it?"

Li Yanqing nodded, "It's very likely, with such a big fanfare, I don't believe that the black-hearted Dragon King can deal with it indifferently." ”

At this moment, a big boat came on the river in the distance, with a pale yellow pennant on the bow, and someone shouted: "It seems that an official ship is coming!" ”

Li Yanqing also saw that a 500-stone official ship was speeding towards him from a distance, and he felt a little strange in his heart, so he got up and walked towards the dock.

Not long after, the official ship docked on the dock, and a thin official walked down the boat, Li Yanqing was immediately overjoyed, it was Zhou Ping, the county lieutenant who went to the capital, who came back.

"Who did I say, it turned out that the county lieutenant had gone home, and he had worked hard all the way!"

Zhou Ping didn't expect to meet the county order on the dock, he looked around and asked puzzledly: "County Jun, is this in ......?"

"We are recruiting a sailor to suppress bandits."

"Ahh Zhou Ping was taken aback, "Are you going to suppress the bandits?" ”

"This is a long story, it was initiated by the state, and we led it, and I will tell you slowly when I go back, what is the result of going to the capital?"

Zhou Ping said with a smile: "I saw Lingzun Li Yuanwai, very enthusiastic, he thinks that the rent of one mu of land is too little, he said that in Tangyin County, it is to give two money, and it is the same here." ”

"Of course it's better to give two pieces of money, I can't ask for it!"

Li Yanqing greeted Zhou Ping warmly, "Let's go to the greenhouse, sit down and have a cup of tea and talk." ”

"Wait a minute, I have done another thing that the county gentleman ordered."

Another important task for Zhou Ping to enter Beijing was to make a batch of high-quality gunpowder raw materials, saltpeter particles, sulfur powder and toner, especially saltpeter particles, although they can also be obtained in Ezhou, but they are far inferior to the quality of saltpeter used by the Beijing Gunpowder Bureau. ”

"All on the ship, 1,000 catties of nitrate, 300 catties of sulfur and toner each, and two more people were brought."

"Who is it?"

"They said they knew you, and Ling Zun specially went to find you."

Li Yanqing looked at the boat, and saw two old men walking down from the boat, both in their fifties, wearing green cloth shirts and headscarves, Li Yanqing felt that the two were very familiar, and one of them smiled and said: "Doesn't Li Joinjun know us?" ”

Li Yanqing suddenly remembered that it was two gunpowder craftsmen in the Northwest Army who made the earth-shaking thunder for him, and because he was afraid that the formula would leak out, he sent them out of the barracks, but he was ..... How could they be where the father was?

Li Yanqing seems to remember that he said that if he has difficulties in life, he can go to the capital Baoyanzhai to ask his father for help, which should be the case.

"You are Hao Da and Hao Er!"

The two laughed: "It turns out that Li joins the army and still remembers our brothers. ”

"Of course I won't forget, but how could you be where my father is?"

"We stayed in Shu for two years, it is estimated that the limelight will come, so we went home to see, and found that we have been 'killed' in the Western Xia Campaign, the identity is gone, the craftsman is also in addition to the craftsman, and it is not convenient to find something to do, so we went to Baoyanzhai to inquire about Li to join the army, and happened to meet Lingzun, he said that you will get married soon, so we will first arrange for us to match rouge in Baoyanzhai, a few days ago Zhou County Lieutenant came to the capital to buy gunpowder raw materials, or we took him to the black market to buy, and then came with him."

"I see, the two of you came too coincidentally, I just need a gunpowder craftsman, stay down first, and I'll talk to you in detail when I get back, don't worry about identity or anything, it's not bad to be a native of Jiayu County."

Hao Da and Hao Er were overjoyed, and bowed down together and said, "Thank you county!" ”

Li Yanqing recruited a scribe and asked him to take the two of them to the post house to rest first, and the scribe agreed, so he hurried into the city with the two.

Li Yanqing invited Zhou Ping to sit down in the greenhouse, and an entourage came to serve a cup of tea, Zhou Ping took a sip of tea, and continued: "I also saw Deng Zhongcheng of Yushitai in the capital, and gave him the letter of the county monarch, and he was very concerned about the situation of the county monarch in Jiayu County. ”

Li Yanqing nodded silently, Deng Yong really treats himself well, and this kind of love has nothing to do with Liang Shicheng, it is the support of an elder to a junior.

"He asked the county magistrate to take good care of himself, and he asked me to tell you that the former privy envoy Zheng Juzhong died."

Li Yanqing was taken aback, "Why?" ”

Zheng Juzhong was demoted to Jianzhou Tongju, he was only sixty years old, and his body has always been strong, how could he die suddenly?

"Deng Zhongcheng said very implicitly, saying that he went to Jianzhou halfway to die, the reason is unknown, and the lowly position is estimated to be killed by the enemy, otherwise Deng Zhongcheng would not remind the county monarch to pay attention to safety."

Li Yanqing was silent for a while and asked: "What did Deng Zhongcheng say about us renting land to plant flowers?" ”

"Deng Zhongcheng went to the household department to inquire about this matter for us, and the household department said that as long as the official land is not sold, what to plant is up to the government itself, but the household department does not want all the official fields to be planted with flowers, or to keep a part of the food, Deng Zhongcheng also thinks that this is more secure."

Speaking of this, Zhou Ping said again: "Since Baoyan Zhai is willing to give two yuan for rent, then simply take half of it for rent and continue to farm half of it, what does the county gentleman think?" ”

"That's fine, but what about the lease contract?"

Zhou Ping took out three contracts and said with a wry smile: "Li Yuanwai has already signed the contract and drawn a pledge, and the intermediary Yaren has also drawn a pledge, we can fill in the acres and rent by ourselves, and the county monarch can hand over two copies to Jiangxia Manor after stamping the official seal, they will send it back, and then how to plant flowers, Jiangxia Manor will arrange it soon, as for the rent, you can give it to us at any time." ”

Li Yanqing looked at the contract, then got up and smiled: "Okay! Let's unload the goods first and move more than 1,000 catties of raw materials back to the county! ”

．．．．．．．

The black-hearted dragon king was originally a butcher in Baling County, Yuezhou, often used sick and dead pigs to fill meat and sell it to the restaurant, so he got a nickname of Du Heixin, over time, everyone has forgotten his original name, and called him Du Heixin behind his back, fifteen years ago he escaped into Dongting Lake because of a dispute over selling meat to kill the shopkeeper of the restaurant, joined a small river thief, and soon he took the leadership of this group of river thieves.

After more than ten years of development, this small river thief has gradually become the largest river thief in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, with hundreds of people and nearly 300 boats.

Especially ten years ago, he led the army to defeat the joint bandit army of five states and a government on Jinghu North Road, which made him even more notorious, and the people along the Yangtze River mentioned the black-hearted dragon king, no one was afraid, and the children cried at night, and the adults were scared to cry again, the black-hearted dragon king is coming! The child was so frightened that he didn't dare to cry at night.

Du Heixin did not allow other river thieves to appear, and the river thieves in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River either surrendered to him or were annihilated by him, so that his bandits had 800 people and nearly 500 large and small ships, becoming a major disaster on the Yangtze River.

But since last spring, Du Heixin met an opponent, there was a wave in the Ezhou area of Zhang Shun, only a dozen subordinates, seven or eight clippers, but elusive, combat effectiveness is extremely strong, Du Heixin has led more than 100 ships to the Ezhou River to clean up, but twice defeated in the hands of Zhang Shun, since then, Du Heixin no longer dares to enter the Ezhou River, acquiesced to Zhang Shun's monopoly on the Ezhou River.

Dongting Lake West Mountain, here is the location of Du Heixin's old nest, West Mountain is a part of Junshan Island in Dongting Lake, originally a scenic spot, but now it has become a place where river bandits are rampant, the island's residents have fled, and the government does not dare to take care of it, Du Heixin changed the name of Junshan Island to Xiaoyao Island, in addition to the military camp, bandit families, there are many young women and a lot of wealth they looted.

Du Heixin's military camp is located on a hill in the West Mountain, covering an area of about 100 acres, the barracks are all made of wood and stone, Du Heixin and 800 river thieves are stationed here, in addition, about two miles away from the military camp to build a Xiaoyao Town, the residents of the town are almost all the family members of the river thieves, there are also businesses in the town, there are only a few kinds of shops, taverns, gambling houses, green buildings and grocery stores, there are as many as seven or eight, all are the places where the river bandits are looking for fun.

At this time, in the Juyi Hall of the military camp, Du Heixin's face was full of anger, during this time, Wang Boyan, the governor of Ezhou, launched an appeal to suppress bandits, and there was a lot of uproar in the states along the Yangtze River, Du Heixin of course also heard the news, this news made him angry in his heart, and the killing machine suddenly started.

'Bang! A big fist slammed on the table, Du Hei was furious and said: "Lao Tzu gave them face, never robbed the official boat, they responded to me like this, they want to come to destroy my black-hearted dragon king, very good, Lao Tzu hopes that they will come tonight, let them all sink to the bottom of the lake to feed Wang Ba." ”

Du Heixin was about fifty years old, very majestic, with dark skin, thick and dense black hair on his arms and chest, an inch long, and his hair and beard were unkempt, not like a black dragon king, but like a black boar king.

Next to him sat his military advisor, called Yang Zhaoru, a native of Baling County, Yuezhou, is a person who has repeatedly failed to pass the state test, he is actually not a lifter, but he claims to be a lifter, everyone calls him Yang Juren, he looks polite, but the same ruthless, he and Du Heixin have a bit of a twisted kinship, Du Heixin needs a military advisor, so he invited Yang Zhaoru to be his military advisor at a high price, not touching the official ship is Yang Zhaoru's suggestion, do not harm the interests of officials, and officials naturally have no motivation to suppress bandits.

"Why should the owner of the village be angry, it is one thing for them to encircle and suppress us, and it is another thing whether they can succeed or not, ten years ago we were able to defeat them when we were still weak, and now we are strong and strong, and the soldiers are serving, will we still be afraid of them?"

"That being said, when I heard the news, I was angry, and the arrival of the officers and soldiers will definitely affect the life of Xiaoyao Island."

"If the owner of the village is worried about this, I have a plan, so that they can only look at the river and sigh in the end."

He approached Du Heixin and whispered a few words, Du Heixin nodded again and again, "Speaking of which, you need to send someone to Jiayu County to understand the situation at any time." ”

"This is exactly what they mean, when they recruit troops, arrange for a henchman from Jiayu County to enter the army, so that our opportunity will come."

"I think of a person, who was originally a boatman from Jiayu County, and he is the most suitable, and at the same time arranges a spies to operate near Jiayu County, and can deliver news at any time."