In order to make up for the shortage of cannons, Li Xijue suggested at the meeting that in addition to instructing Foshan and other places to "rush to work day and night", other nearby blacksmith shops could also be allowed to start casting together. ** And with the help of artillery to the Portuguese. In terms of soldiers, you can recruit cháo state warriors and take them fierce and daring to fight. It is estimated that at least 10,000 people can be recruited in half a month.

But Li Fengjie was not interested in his proposal. Although it is cheaper to hire warriors than to recruit soldiers, it is not a small fee to recruit 10,000 people at once. Moreover, hiring Yong from Cháo Prefecture, and then driving to Guangzhou after the recruitment is complete, will cost a lot of money. Li Fengjie didn't plan to take out this money - Wang Zunde crusaded against Lingao and took out a lot of the silver in the treasury.

Li Fengjie is not against hiring Yong - on the contrary, he is very enthusiastic about hiring Yong. Hiring courage is a big deal. The brave men were all hired on a temporary basis, and they were disbanded when they were done. Therefore, there are many loopholes in how many people actually come to the camp, and how much money each person actually pays, such as silver and vegetable salt. I don't know how many people who hired Yong at one time and made a windfall.

He insisted on hiring Yong locally, or more precisely, the Tanjia boat people along the Pearl River. They are all water dwellers, dependent on the water for draft, either boatmen or fishermen -- they are very familiar with the Pearl River system. Li Fengjie believes that hiring them to serve as water warriors has the advantage of being a good time and place.

Another of his high-sounding reasons is: "When the defense is tight, I am afraid that they will be hooked up by them as Han jiān, or for the sake of transporting goods, where the benefits are, it is inevitable to fight." still only collect and use it, and if there is more water courage in the official, that is, there will be one less bandit in the ocean. ”

"This is the plan of the chōu salary at the bottom of the kettle!" Li Fengjie was triumphant, "Jiān people and thieves kill each other, use jiān to control jiān, and fight poison with poison"

Li Fengjie's words have both a sī heart and a public heart. It's not all profiteering. Because a few days ago, there was already news in the Tang newspaper that thieves were "recruiting water jiān people" on the islands outside the mouth of the Pearl River. The Tan family, who has no fixed residence, is familiar with water, and knows the Pearl River system very well, has become his confidant.

The government has never had an exact number of the boat-based households and boat people on the Pearl River, probably no less than tens of thousands, and if these people are seduced by thieves to "act as Han jiān", the consequences will be very serious. **

Li Xijue couldn't refute his reasoning. Saving money is the most effective reason for any dynasty and generation. But he still muttered: "The thieves are extremely powerful, and the rabble is difficult to match." ”

He Chengzong came out at this time and asked: Could it be that the temporary recruitment of Cháo Zhou Yong is not a rabble?

Li Xijue was speechless. Don't say that such a temporary hired warrior is the economic division of the official army, what is the use of it in front of the thief? Thinking of this, he secretly sighed and said no more.

Li Fengjie decided to hire 5,000 Yong first. Hire another 5,000 depending on the situation. In this way, there will be 10,000 water warriors to listen to it at any time. Shui Yong is long in the boat, and jīng is in the water xìng. It's not necessarily okay to fight the thieves in the water, but it's okay to do something like arson and scuttling boats. Anyway, Shui Yong belonged to the unstaffed temporary workers, and the cost was very small, and a few more casualties would not cause great financial pressure on the Guangdong Domain.

According to the current market: each Shui Yong's monthly salary includes two taels of salt and vegetable money, and another time xìng pays two taels of Anjia silver. See before the battle and give another reward.

According to the traditional thinking of the government, at this time, the common people were required to "have the money to contribute and make a strong contribution." When the poor came to be the water warriors, the money had to fall on the powerless and powerless ordinary rich people -- to be precise, the heads of the merchants.

According to the idea of the staff, the expenses of the hired braves included three months' military salary, salt and vegetable money, settling-in allowance, and miscellaneous expenses of various public expenses, totaling 120,000 taels, which were shared among the three major merchant groups in Guangzhou: foreign merchants, salt merchants, and merchants of Cháo Prefecture. The cost of casting artillery made the smelters in Foshan "repay", with a total of 10,000 taels.

As for the ships needed by the sailors and the warships that the sailors urgently needed to replenish, Li Fengjie also followed this thinking and ordered the ships on the Pearl River to be sealed for use. **

In this way, in accordance with the principle of "doing more with less money", various policies for Guangzhou's defense were laid out and implemented. Everyone has no objection and goes their own way.

After everyone dispersed, Li Fengjie left He Chengzong behind and asked him to handle the "recruitment" matter.

Of course, the target of the solicitation was not the "three merchants" -- since they had to pay a large sum of money to hire Yong, the matter had to be stopped in moderation. The targets of the new recruitment were other industries, as well as landlords and old wealthy people near Guangzhou. According to Li Fengjie's meaning, we must also come up with some meaning, defending Guangzhou is to protect everyone's lives and property, otherwise as soon as the thieves come, everyone will have nothing left.

"Your Excellency!" He Chengzong was puzzled, "Although there is not much silver in the treasury, the current cost of hiring Yong to cast cannons has been raised by various merchants, and it is ...... to persuade you to raise it" The implication is that the owner, don't be too greedy.

"Old man, this money is for Zuihou." Li Fengjie said softly, "Now we are preparing for battle, but what if we are defeated......

The words are very light, but the meaning is already understood. He Chengzong suddenly woke up. If defeated, the thieves will come to the city of Guangzhou. When the time comes, the only way to ask them to retreat quickly is to pay for them - how can they make it without a large sum of money?

He Chengzong made a gesture: "The student understands. ”

Li Fengjie nodded slightly: "You go and do it." The reason for this is not enough for outsiders. ”

"Yes, yes."

A sloop, with patched sails, slowly sailed into a bay. On the bow of the sailboat stood a middle-aged man who looked like a gentleman, and although he pretended to be calm on his face, his eyebrows and eyes were full of anxiety from time to time.

The bay is full of reeds, but along the shore there are many orange trees, and many green oranges hang on the shore. Between the orange trees, however, there is a dense bamboo fence, which is more than a man tall and sharpened.

The boat continued inward, turning into a narrow channel where a tall watchtower emerged from the top of a tree among the lush orange groves. The watchtowers are made of bricks, three stories high, and topped with peculiar decorations – suspended balconies that are not found in traditional Chinese architecture.

On the balcony, there are several Xiang Yong who are holding wooden guns and hanging horns, and there are also gongs hanging on them.

The middle-aged man did not look at this rare sight, but paid attention to the landform on both sides of the river. The coast here is full of orange trees. As the boat reached the end of the river, a stone bridge spanned both banks. Under the bridge, a wooden sluice gate is now open, but a thick iron chain hangs from the river, blocking boats from crossing the bridge.

The bridge is stone and sturdy. There is a bridge crossing on the deck, which was originally open on all sides, but now the side facing the river has been blocked with masonry and wooden planks, and there are xiǎo windows for observation and shè strikes.

The sailboat lowered its sails, and several boatmen joined forces to bring down the mast. Ready to cross the bridge dòng.

Several villagers stood or squatted at the bridge. Seeing the arrival of the sailboat, someone stood up and slapped the dust and blades of grass on his clothes.

When they saw the two white gauze lanterns hanging on the bow of the ship with the words "Wanli Jiwei Guangdong Township Trying to Lift People" and "Luo Zhai" written in Song script, everyone left and stood up respectfully. This is the return of Master Luo from this town.

A township leader looked around and wanted to ask. Seeing that Master Luo himself was standing at the bow of the boat, he hurriedly shouted loudly to the person on the other side to loosen the cable and sink the chain to let the boat pass.

After a few strokes of the boatman, the boat quietly crossed the bridge and entered a pond on a stone revetment. The banks are lined with houses and streets, with only the north already a dense orange grove. The bamboo fence can be faintly seen. A river flows through the street into a pond, and at the mouth of the river there is a rice making workshop, which is making a rumbling sound of rice cooking.

This is Sanliang City, an ordinary town in Dongguan County in the Pearl River Delta, with more than 600 households, most of which grow rice, but like most villages and towns in the Pearl River Delta, it is also covered by the new commodity economy, which is not only growing rice, but also dedicating more and more land to growing indigo and tobacco. The large orange groves that surround the town also bring in a good income for the villagers. During the harvest season, ships to the county seat and the market are loaded with agricultural products and brought back rice, salt, and various daily necessities.

Although the water surface has not been very peaceful recently, it is not far from the provincial capital, and pirates rarely go so far into the Pearl River to loot, and some are just some water bandits. Under the organization of the gentry in the town, the people of Sanliang City held regimental exercises, built artillery, and built bamboo fences. Although I have been infested by water bandits a few times, there has been no damage.

The pond was full of boats with a big xiǎoxiǎo. Like most villages and towns, there are almost no land routes, and most of the pedestrian freight relies on the Jiāo Pass by water. Surrounded by water, there are rivers, harbors and paddy fields everywhere, like an isolated island. The houses in the market town are irregularly adjacent, and the streets are a bit winding. There are three east-west streets and four north-south streets, and there are many xiǎonòng connections between the streets. To the south of the street is a threshing floor, which doubles as a market. Right next to the threshing floor is a large pond. It is equivalent to the port of Mira City.

There are two rice shops, three banquets, a pawnshop, a fishing pen, a wine shop and a tooth shop on the street, in addition to a tavern, a rice shop, a xiǎo inn, a tea house, a ròu shop, a tofu shop, a yào shop, a grocery shop, a blacksmith shop, a silk village, a tailor shop, a washing and dyeing shop, and a timber shop and a ship repair workshop on the side of the threshing floor...... There are drummers, singers, operas, and jugglers. Although there are no brothels, there are more than a dozen "sīmén heads,...... Every market day, the sound of selling and singing songs. The noise is like a big beehive, converging into a buzzing noise.

To be continued)