"Come here, that man!"

Not far away, there is a blue brick walled courtyard, someone pushed open the door and saw Liang Shifa, grinned, and pointed a little to let Liang Shifa in.

As soon as the door is opened, the brick and tile houses inside will reveal their true faces, this is obviously the ancestral hall of this village, the main hall and the side compartments on both sides can see the tablets of the gods scattered on the ground, there are many men in the courtyard with knives and guns chatting, there are also seven or eight people sitting on the table of the eight immortals, are sitting on the ground to eat wine, the courtyard door is opened, the aroma of wine and meat are wafting out.

"Don't be afraid, uncle." The child who brought Liang Shifa in was fiddling with the bamboo horse, and when he looked up, he said, "They don't do anything evil here, and if there is anything wrong, I won't bring you in." ”

Liang Shifa knew that this kid was telling the truth, maybe half of these bandits were originally from the village, and they ran to the grass without any hardship, and most of them were not near the village, and it was convenient to be stationed here, and some people reported the news, although the officers and soldiers didn't bother to pay attention to these small bandits.

Liang Shifa made a frightened situation on his face, and was about to kneel down when he entered the courtyard gate, and a bandit leader in the middle waved his hand and said: "Don't be afraid, merchant, we don't look down on your needles and threads, the bad reputation spreads, and it is very difficult for the women in the village to buy something, and we can't go to the market, right?" ”

The bandits around are all fierce, they are originally unwilling to be rebellious, or lazy, or born with backbones, or cruel and tyrannical, since the Ming Dynasty everywhere there are rogues, heaven and earth do not know how many bandits and robbers, in Shanxi Shaanxi to Henan, and then out of the sound of Shandong, Xuzhou to Yancheng there are many pirates and bandits, these people can no longer be regarded as normal people, robbery and murder is already commonplace, desperate to kill or be caught and beheaded is also a common end.

"I've seen a good man." Liang Shifa still crossed his hands deeply, and he didn't dare to raise his face.

"Where are you from?"

"Go down Yongcang from the north gate and come all the way along the Lixia River."

"That's been a lot of travel, too." The bandit leader looked at Liang Shifa, Liang Shifa's face was calm, and he looked a little panicked.

The bandit leader did not see anything unusual, and there was no suspicion in his heart, if the officers and soldiers wanted to do it, the county would have spread it a long time ago, Yancheng County did not have a garrison, the nearest was the Huaiyang coastal defense army in Taizhou, but there was less than a thousand soldiers and horses, and the Shandong guest soldiers had not yet arrived in Yancheng, and now they were busy stationing in the area of Andong and Baoying, and these guests were also busy grabbing money and food, and they would not bother to clean up local law and order at all.

The bandit leader didn't have any suspicions in his heart at all, and he summoned Liang Shi to ask something else.

"What did you see moving along the way?"

Liang Shifa was taken aback and replied: "We don't dare to ask about the affairs of the good men. ”

The bandit leader smiled and said, "If you don't answer, you will have to suffer some hardships, and if you answer honestly, there will be nothing." ”

"The villain has seen all the way, and many good men seem to be walking to the beach, that's it, the villain doesn't dare to ask around."

"A swarm of bees, a golden beam, a sweeper king, all went to the beach?"

"The villain was confused, and the name of the good man didn't dare to inquire blindly."

Liang Shifa actually knew that these bandits with bandit numbers were around two or three hundred people, and bandits of this scale were already well-known figures in the Lianghuai area, and they were not comparable to those large bandits who had tens of thousands of people at every turn, but they could already walk sideways in this area of Yancheng.

With dozens of elites as the core, it is not difficult to coerce hundreds of people to control a large area, these bandits are also unwilling to pull the flag to rebel, provoke the officers and soldiers to come to suppress, otherwise put up a big flag, burn, kill, loot and coerce the women and children of the strong men, and it will be able to gather more than 10,000 people in ten days, and it is not difficult to conquer Yancheng and other counties, but here in Jiangbei, there will be Nanjing Jingying and Yangzhou garrisons, and there are also Fengyang garrisons are quite elite, and these officers and soldiers will be afraid that they will be burned. These bandits are all big bowls of wine, big pieces of meat, big scales, but they don't want to be this bird, they are the same as Yang Shili, control the market towns and villages and the channels for selling smuggled salt, and the salt production of the stove households is also under control, life is quite leisurely, these people have no big ambitions, they will not be as indomitable as Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong rebelled one after another, maintain the current pattern, and wait for the overall situation to change, this should be the thoughts and plans of most people in the Ming Dynasty.

"That's it." The bandit leader grinned and said to the many evil-looking men around him: "Since so many people have moved, it's not good for us to have a relationship with Yang Shili, so let's go for a while." ”

"There's always a good thing to take, right? I heard that the military households are poor and want to die, and I am afraid that they will not be able to grab very good things. ”

"Not really." The bandit leader said with a smile: "I heard that the salt is changed to dried salt over there, and how many boats of salt are transported to Huai'an Mansion every day, and it is the Huai'an Zhu family who does it for them." This matter has long spread all over Yancheng, and many people are tempted to change from frying to drying, but they can't do anything yet. Into the damn, let's kill the past, grab things in the second, before killing people first learn the method of drying salt, there is nothing to do with the silver in the hand, and we have to work for the saddle before and after the horse, let's earn our own silver, wouldn't it be faster to live? ”

Many bandits are suddenly promised, if you change to bandits elsewhere, don't say that you may not know about frying salt and drying salt, even if you know, you are at a loss, you don't know the trick, and these bandits in front of you may be the stove households who fry salt for a living before the grass falls, and they know too much about this matter.

Liang Shifa didn't dare to make a sound, holding his hands to hide his excitement, he went all the way south, and many bandits gathered at the beach, this thing was not right in the first place, and finally knew the truth in the bandit group in front of him. Yang Shili was really angry at the killing of his brother, and refused to give up, and now gathered bandits and pirates in the Yancheng area, it is estimated that he can go north to do it if he has enough manpower, and most of the places to do it are from the sea, and the place on the Yunti Pass is near the sea, and the place is too far away from the land, and the movement is too big, more than a thousand bandits are gathering together, enough for the local officials to report to the Nanjing Military Department, and Shi Ke will send the guest soldiers to suppress it, and the gains may outweigh the losses at that time.

As for going from the sea, no one will care at all, that is, they really attacked hundreds of households along the border, killing many people, and the magistrate reported the Haikou as a trouble at most, and the military department in Nanjing was helpless when they knew about it.

There is no power on the Daming Sea, and during the Chongzhen period, he first destroyed the Fujian Navy Division who had combat effectiveness and was loyal to the imperial court, but instead fattened Zheng Zhilong, a pirate, and the group of thieves under his command became the Daming Naval Division, of course, they would not obey the dispatch of the imperial court.

The Northern Naval Division had many twists and turns, and was finally destroyed in the hands of the general soldier Huang Long.

The northern and southern sailors are gone, even if there are pirates raging, the imperial court is helpless.

"Merchant, go." The bandit leader focused on the simmering and fragrant dog meat in front of him, munched and drank at the same time, waved his hand and said to Liang Shifa: "Do your business and business, don't coax and deceive people, otherwise we won't spare you." ”

Liang Shifa hurriedly agreed, but he resigned, and withdrew with his forked hands, his form was extremely respectful.

Many bandits don't care, in people's cognition, espionage and detailed things are only out of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and other words in this commentary, I have never seen the government send any details, the government really wants to do anything, those ready-made helpers raised by the three classes of officials, let out to inquire about the news, the news also reached the ears of the bandits.

In the eyes of these bandits, Liang Shifa is a cautious merchant, going to the countryside and villages, earning a few hard-earned small money, there is no shortage of such people in the place, this is a small profit, if the bandits rob the merchant, I am afraid that they will be laughed to death by other bandits, so these bandits do not care about Liang Shifa, neither suspicion, nor persecution and looting.

Liang Shifa was already sweating and heavy after going out, not only had the happiness of the rest of his life after the catastrophe, but also had excitement and joy in his heart.

This kind of thing was done easily, and it was naturally a great success to return to the hundred households after this matter.

However, Liang Shifa also has hidden worries, but he doesn't dare to show it on his face, this time Yang Shili summoned many bandits and pirates, it is estimated that there are at least a few hundred or even more than a thousand people, with the current ability of the three hundred households, I don't know if it can be carried down?

……

"Thank you Brother Zhu, and ask Brother Zhu to run in person, it's really heartfelt."

Hearing that Zhu Wanchun personally escorted the boat to come, Min Yuanqi inevitably went to the dock to greet him in person.

This time Zhu Wanchun brought a lot of things, Min Yuanqi ordered Min Yuanzhong to transfer a hundred total flag army to help carry it, such an errand is equivalent to a holiday for the trained flag army, and everyone is very excited.

A few sand boats were parked at the Baihu Wharf, and other boats were also docked side by side, and some flag soldiers were maintaining these boats, repairing the damage, shoveling some algae, and repairing some places with lacquer, these tasks were to be done on a daily basis, and if the ships were damaged to the point that they could not be repaired, it would be too late.

Zhu Wanchun bowed and returned the salute while looking around.

The wharf is the same as the small wharf of the ordinary hundred households, the big river guard is guarded by its name, it is in the north and south banks of the Huaihe River, the core is in Shanyang Huai'an, and Shuyang Guannan has been reaching the Yunti Pass where the Huai River enters the sea, it is arranged along the Huai Shou Yu and Hai Phong at the beginning of the country, more than 200 years down, the guard army has become the transport army, Huai'an Wei and the big river guard have the most important task of shipbuilding and transportation, the thousands of households and each guard under the guard have a large number of ships, and there are wharves along the river, Because at the beginning of February every year, 100 households and 1,000 households gather in the boats and transport troops, arrive at the water gates one by one, load grain on the ships, and then go north in batches.

The situation here is not very different, the villages outside the village are also the same as the ordinary hundred households in the guardhouse, there are winding ditches on the periphery, most of them are irrigated by the tributaries of large rivers, and the large acres of fields are blue-green, mixed with some light yellow, which is that many acres of wheat are about to ripen.

The outskirts of the village are no different, with rows of thatched huts deep in the greenery, which is not much different from the hundreds of households elsewhere.

It may be that the land is relatively vast and sparsely populated, or it may be because of the need for a large amount of firewood to fry salt, Dahewei arrives in Yancheng County, which is a radius of thousands of miles, most of the places are planted with trees, and there are many paddocks along the river, and a large number of reeds are harvested and stored by people when they wither and yellow in autumn for the purpose of frying salt.

The village is not much different from the fields, but the flag army in front of you is quite strong and outstanding.

After such a long time, Min Yuanqi has always insisted on distributing food every day, and in the last ten days, six liters of food have been distributed to the trained flag army every day, and each flag army can be fed.