The more and more visitors came to Heren Castle, most of them did not leave, not because it was the black shop that killed them, but because Hu Gao recruited some scholars and craftsmen who were depressed in the Central Plains, as well as small merchants who were bullied.

Among them, Fan Zhi and Hongcheng were proficient in the art of war, and Hu Gao installed them next to Pajaqili to supervise the three thousand elites selected by Pajaqili from various departments every day, and these three thousand elites were different from other soldiers and horses, and each person had a white feather on his helmet, which was called the "Thousand Feather Army". Pajaqili originally trained the Thousand Feathers Army according to the grassland hunting method, but after Fan Zhihongcheng and the others arrived, they each brought 1,000 people to practice digging holes, drilling holes, climbing rocks and climbing walls.

Seeing that the one-and-a-half-year appointment had passed, Hu Gao and Ju Wuzhi went to the Green Flag Khanate to give gifts, informing the Green Flag Khanate that the time had not yet come, and that he would have to wait for a few more years.

Liu Jian, the king of Han, stayed in Luoyang for a year and a half, and spent most of his days drinking and hunting with Li Xiaofei and others. Xiao Qian and Liu Jian did not sleep together for many years, and they had no children after a few years of marriage. Xiao Qian couldn't help it, so she said while drinking with everyone: "Do you want your King Han to be the emperor in the future?" ”

Liu Jian was the first to wave his hand: "You can't talk nonsense about this kind of thing, Concubine Ai must have drunk too much!" ”

Xiao Qian smiled: "If you drink too much, tell the truth, the emperor is forty-eight years old today, and there are no heirs yet, and this throne will not fall into the hands of King Han and other princes in the future." Whoever is the emperor is not the emperor, I don't think it is as good as the king of Han to do it, and in the future, the king of Han will not have children, and it will be passed on to other princes."

After all, Xiang Xiaoyu was a person with several children, and he immediately knew what Xiao Qian meant, so he raised his glass and signaled: "His Royal Highness King Han, if it is peaceful today, you have to work hard to add joy to the royal family, and from now on, you must not mess with us anymore."

Li Xiaofei and Murong Ling also reacted: "I think the prince has to do business, I quietly returned to Shou County several times, and now Hongrui is also pregnant, I will pick her up when it is warmer."

Xiao Qian asked Li Xiaofei: "Why did you go back to Shou County secretly?" ”

Murong Ling hurriedly said: "He owes hundreds of lives to the people of Shou County, and he is afraid of seeing people."

Li Xiaofei lowered his head embarrassedly, and Liu Jian took the opportunity to talk: "Xiaofei, those brothers who died in battle, we have already compensated them, and we have also given them a lot of money in the family, you can go back generously, and they will not embarrass you."

Li Xiaofei sighed: "After all, I didn't do what I promised, I'm sorry for those dead brothers." Actually, I also want to go and drink with Meng Crow Huang Banxian every day with Hongrui, but I still feel a little uncomfortable in my heart."

Murong Ling looked at Li Xiaofei: "Tomorrow we will go back to Shou County together openly, I will take you, and I will also have to accompany Xuehua."

Li Xiaofei wanted to say something, and winked at Xiaoyu at him, and Li Xiaofei agreed.

The next day, Li Xiaofei and Murong Ling said goodbye to Liu Jian, Xiao Qian and Xiang Xiaoyu, packed up, went to buy some jewelry, rouge and spices, and went to Shou County.

The further Li Xiaofei and Murong Ling walked south, they found that there were more and more flying insects along the way, especially small grasshoppers, which were densely popping on the side of the road. Murong Ling looked at the leaves on the side of the road, which were full of black caterpillars spitting silk, falling down from time to time. Li Xiaofei looked up at the sky, and it was strange that he couldn't see a few birds.

When I arrived in Shou County, I returned to the house in Zhangjia Village, and the bamboo forests in the village were all bare bamboo poles and pestles in place, and the leaves were all gone. After asking, I learned that there were too many insects this year, and the bamboo leaves were gnawed up, and the people of Shou County were now busy killing insects and catching insects, and half of the seedlings in the rice fields were also gnawed off.

Li Xiaofei asked everyone: "Isn't there a bird to eat insects?" If there are no birds, even chickens and ducks."

The villagers smiled bitterly: "In these years, as long as they have feathers, they have been caught and sold, where are the birds, chickens, ducks and geese."

Under questioning, I learned that now Jinling is buying birds at a high price, and later poultry will not let go. Without birds, insects became unscrupulous, more and more, until there was an insect plague in Huainan, Jiangnan.

Li Xiaofei asked the villagers: "Then since you know that you rely on birds to eat insects, why do you still want to hunt birds to sell?" ”

A child took out a few large strings of money: "Silly, a bird can be exchanged for three times, and you can buy food and clothing if you have money, what are you afraid of?"

Li Xiaofei was also polite: "Then they all went to catch birds like you, no one farmed, where did the food come from, and where did the clothes come from?" ”

Everyone was stunned, but they felt that now that they had money in their hands, they could always buy food and clothing, and there would always be people in the world who went to farm.

Murong Ling went along the river to find Zhu Xuehua who was fishing, and went all the way to find that the ditches and canals they had built a few years ago had all collapsed and blocked, and when Zhu Xuehua was found, Zhu Xuehua was catching a carp. When the hook was lifted, the fish saw that the left and right swings were about to be unhooked, Murong Ling flew over and grabbed the fish and then turned over and landed in front of Zhu Xuehua.

Zhu Xuehua was so frightened by this sudden movement that she threw away the fishing rod, and was about to get up and run, but found that it was Murong Ling, so she punched Murong Ling in the chest: "I'm scared to death, can you tell me first when you appear?"

Murong Ling replied: "Go home!" ”

Zhu Xuehua picked up the fishing rod again and followed Murong Ling to Zhangjia Village, where Li Xiaofei was waiting for them at the entrance of the village with the big-bellied Hongrui.

Zhu Xuehua looked at Hongrui, and then at Murong Ling: "Look at Sister Hongrui, they are all about to have a baby, and I also want to have a baby of my own."

Murong Ling pointed at Li Xiaofei: "He's doing this"

Hongrui almost fainted with laughter, Zhu Xuehua punched Murong Ling, Li Xiaofei took a few steps back and pointed at Murong Ling: "Is there a person like you?" Your wife wants to have a child, and you let her find someone else to give birth. It's time to fight! ”

Murong Ling laughed evilly: "I can't beat it"

Zhu Xuehua jumped up and patted Murong Ling's cheek, but she didn't use any force, Murong Ling hugged Zhu Xuehua: "Okay, let's go back to Luoyang, let's do this."

The four of them talked and laughed together and returned to the village house and frolicked until late at night.

Li Xiaofei stayed up all night, preparing a lot of words to meet the families of those brothers who did not come back alive back then. The next day, they finally followed Murong Ling nervously, and they went to Meng Crow and Huang Banxian first, only to find that these two were busy selling bird cages and fishing nets.

Meng Crow and Huang Banxian put down the things in their hands, and immediately took Li Xiaofei and Murong Ling to their mansion, the four of them talked about their brotherhood, Li Xiaofei said what he meant, Meng Crow and Huang Banxian laughed at him for being pedantic.

Li Xiaofei was a little annoyed: "I met here, I don't know how sad their family is, I admit to beating me and punishing me."

Meng Crow patted him on the shoulder: "Alas, brother, do you see that I have this house, it was earned last year, and now everyone is busy making money, except for our brother, who will listen to you wipe your tears and talk about those things about defending the city and fighting." Didn't you see it on the way here? The teacher in this city teaches all kinds of birds every day, some of them are specially for bird catchers to keep birds, some of them provide food, clothing, shelter and transportation for bird catchers, of course, I and the half-fairy are to sell them tools, one, one."

Li Xiaofei immediately remembered something: "No, aren't you the commander and deputy commander of the city?" You've all come out to do business, who will do the business of this ruler? Oh, I see, you must have been dismissed for dereliction of duty, and then forced to make a living, and alas, you didn't tell me earlier. It's still too late, let's go to Luoyang Hanwang's Mansion and be a chef."

Huang Banxian laughed: "It seems that you stay in the palace all day long, and you don't know anything about this world, haven't you heard of "substitute soldiers" and "substitute officials"? “

Li Xiaofei and Murong Ling were both taken aback: "Substitution? How can this be replaced, isn't it just dismissal? “

Meng Crow said directly: "This half-fairy always sells off when he speaks, I'll just say it directly, our deputy commander hires someone to do it, we pay the wages, and our money is taken and then we can do business with peace of mind, and the person we hire is called a "substitute officer", of course, the person hired by the soldier is a "substitute soldier"."

Li Xiaofei and Murong Ling's eyes were about to fall, they never thought that they could hire people to do it as soldiers and officials, and do business by themselves.

Seeing that Li Xiaofei and Murong Ling were dumbfounded, Meng Crow smiled: "Don't be surprised, this is not our invention, this is an alternative method in the imperial court, it seems that except for the fact that I have never heard of a substitute husband, everything else has been replaced." The two of you still make more money in the city, go and see the prosperity of this prosperous world now, I won't tell you, I and the half-fairy have to do business."

Li Xiaofei and Murong Ling stayed where they were, watching Meng Crow and Banxian Er hurry to do business. Murong Ling suddenly laughed: "Alas, if you don't look at it, some people in the province are upset."

Li Xiaofei punched him: "It's really a hell of a life, I think this prosperous world is going to be in chaos"

The two got up and prepared to return to Zhangjia Village, when the sky was full of dark clouds and a strong wind, which swept the birdcage fishing nets of Meng Crow and Banxian Er into the air, and some emaciated people were clinging to the trees that were blown from side to side, so that they were not swept away by the wind.

Murong Ling relied on his good skills, pulled up Li Xiaofei and was about to ride out of the city, but the horses were startled, broke free from the reins and fled. Murong Ling had no choice but to pull Li Xiaofei to walk out of the city against the strong wind, and their hair and clothes were squeezed backwards by the wind.

The two of them went out of the city with difficulty, and then raised their eyes to the sky, and rushed over a burst of dark clouds, and after a closer look, it was not a dark cloud, but a flying locust in the sky, Li Xiaofei shouted: "It's not good, it's a locust plague, it will bite and eat people!" “

Murong Ling had enough strength and pulled Li Xiaofei to the moat, and as soon as the two jumped into the water, they could hear the sound of rustling overhead, fortunately, the two of them had good water nature, and they held their breath in the water for a while before they escaped.