Han Xiufeng trained the township warrior when he was in Taizhou, rebuilt the salt fishing camp in the deputy post of Lianghuaiyun, and later said that it was the rectification of the river battalion in the Tongzhi on the south bank of the Yongding River, but in fact, he recruited and trained more than 1,500 soldiers from scratch, but whether it was in Taizhou or Hai'an, including the later training in Zhili, it was not easy this time.

Jiang Zonghai, a guest from Huguang who helped to run the grain station, personally escorted a batch of freshly built waist knives and spears to the sheep's horn camp, and did not plan to go back. Together with the dozen local businessmen summoned by Wu Junxiang and Wu Kuixiang and the twenty gentry convened by the Chen family in Qijiang, there were nearly 40 people in the Sheephorn camp helping to handle military rations.

What do you really want, Han Xiufeng doesn't have to worry about military rations at all.

Five or six thousand people worked together, and the camp soon had a little appearance, four arrow towers as high as five or six zhang rose from the ground, although the trench was not deep enough, but it was dug out around the camp, and a high gatehouse was built at the gate of the camp, and a drawbridge was even nailed with strong timber outside the gatehouse. Looking at the brave men who came from various counties to help prevent the blockade and the young men in the vicinity were in full swing, Han Xiufeng believed that the brave men would be able to live in the barracks tomorrow at the latest, and they would no longer have to sleep in the open like a few days ago, and they could only squeeze each other to warm themselves at night when it was too cold.

went to the camp and went around the camp, and when I returned to Yongling Temple, I saw the Wu family brothers whispering to Jiang Zonghai. And the gentry in Qijiang were discussing something around the Chen family on the school grounds.

Thinking that the bayonet hadn't gone yet, Han Xiufeng pretended not to see it, and led Pan Er and Chen Bu to turn around and go to the checkpoint where the merchants were interrogated.

Chen Bu couldn't help but ask: "Fourth master, what's the matter with them, they are talking and laughing in front of you, and they are kind." When you're away, you form cliques and don't talk to your enemies. ”

"Not really, right?" Han Xiufeng asked with a smile.

"Why not, they don't even eat together! Especially that Young Master Chen, he really seems to have a grudge against the two Master Wu! ”

Without waiting for Han Xiufeng to speak, Pan Er couldn't help but say: "Although Young Master Chen is just a showman, his father Chen Hongyou is amazing, Daoguang twenty-one years Xin Chou Enke Jinshi, after the title of the gold list, the pavilion was selected as the Jishi of the Hanlin Academy, and after the museum was disbanded, he was awarded the magistrate of Lingchuan County, Guangxi, and the magistrate of Maping County and the general judge of Liuzhou. ”

"And now?" Chen asked curiously.

"Now I am an official in Shandong, I heard that I am a fellow in Dengzhou Mansion in Shandong, when the fourth master renovated the guild hall, he once sent a letter to Master Chen, and Master Chen not only replied to the letter, but also asked someone to bring a hundred taels of silver."

"So Young Master Chen is his own person?"

"It's all my own people here." Pan Er smiled and continued: "Master Chen is a local, so the gentry of Qijiang all look to the Chen family. Although the two Wu masters are the same Jinshi, they are Hakka people, and they are close to the Yashen merchants who do business in Qijiang, so the relationship between them is not very good. But now that the enemy is at present, there can no longer be a distinction between the local and the guest. ”

"This is the reason, but they ......"

Before Chen Bupanic finished speaking, Han Xiufeng smiled and said: "They are not a dispute between local customers now, Jiang Zonghai is not only here to help with food and ordnance, but also to those natural firebird guns." ”

"They want guns?"

"What do you think they're here for?" Han Xiufeng stopped, looked back at Yongling Temple and said with a smile: "Most of the silver that bought the gun was grown by the two masters of Wu and the eight provinces of Qijiang, and the merchants of the eight provinces of Ba County also seemed to have paid 10,000 taels. So the two merchants of Master Wu and Qijiang felt that they should distribute the guns to their people, Jiang Zonghai hoped to distribute dozens of shots to those tea warriors sent by the Baojia Bureau to prevent blockage, and the local gentry such as Young Master Chen also wanted it. ”

"Fourth brother, what are you going to do?" Pan Er couldn't help but ask.

"Be honest in doing business, and you can't let people spend money in vain, but you can't give anyone how much money you want."

Han Xiufeng weighed it for a while, and then said: "Qijiang is the gateway to the east of Sichuan, and Ba County is the Jinghua of the east of Sichuan, so those guns can only be divided between the brave and strong of the two counties. Then we can't just think about the money, we have to think about the people who contribute. Therefore, I plan to select 100 honest and reliable brave men from those street regiments and township regiments in Qijiang to train two firearms regiments with all foreign guns. One was elected by the businessmen of the eight provinces of Qijiang to be the supervisor and the regimental leader, and the other was elected by the local gentry of Qijiang.

Sixty honest and reliable young men were then selected from the Ba County Baojia Bureau and the various street regiments, fang regiments, and box regiments in Ba County, and a firearms regiment was formed, and the supervisor was elected by Jiang Zonghai and other guest chiefs of the eight provinces of Ba County, and the regiment was elected by the gentry of Ba County. ”

"Give them all the 160 foreign guns, what are we going to do?" Chen Bupanic was a little reluctant.

"Although the guns were distributed to them, they still have to listen to me until the bandits in Guizhou are exterminated," Han Xiufeng touched the corners of his mouth and said, "Besides, don't we still have ninety shots?" ”

Thinking of the ninety foreign guns and more than 2,000 catties of gunpowder and lead that he helped transport later, Pan Er couldn't help but say: "Fourth brother, if you don't give those ninety foreign guns to the Walking Horse Group and the Ciyun Group, we have to think farther, if you don't command these brave men in the future, at least there are still people with guns who can help us keep our hometown safe." ”

"Give those guns to the Walking Horse Regiment and the Tzu Yun Regiment?"

"Can't you?"

"No way!"

"Why not?"

Looking at Pan Er's puzzled look, Han Xiufeng patiently explained: "That's ninety foreign guns, not ninety spears, if it is given to the Walking Horse Regiment and the Ciyun Regiment, can the county master sleep?" What's more, because you and I have mixed up with the first official and half positions, and those stinky boys on the post and Ciyun are more publicized than one another, if you really give them those foreign guns, it will only bring disaster to your hometown. ”

"No, I'm okay with them."

"In front of you and me, they are naturally more honest than the other, but in front of others, they are different." Han Xiufeng sighed lightly, and continued: "Besides, if the bandits really kill the horses, just those dozens of people and those dozens of foreign guns will not be of much use. Therefore, it is better to use good steel on the blade, as long as Qijiang and Ba County are safe, our hometown will naturally be safe. ”

Pan Er reacted suddenly, and said with embarrassment: "It's true, it seems that I'm still a little childish." ”

"It's good to know, no matter how you are a person or do things in the future, you will be magnificent."

"But according to what you say, we don't need to hide and hide at that time, we should generously sell the remaining ninety foreign guns to Lord Cao!"

"I can't just think about selling, I have to think about whether people can afford it, and I have to use the remaining 90 guns."

"What's the use?"

Han Xiufeng raised his arm and pointed to the opposite side of the boundary monument, and said meaningfully: "Sell it to the officials and gentry over there." ”

Pan Er was about to speak, when a civil supervisor trotted up from the direction of the bayonet, and as soon as he saw him, he arched his hand and said: "Master Han, there is a man surnamed Gao who asks to see him, and he just came from Guizhou, and he brought several people." He said that he knew you, and said that he came with you from Zhili to our Chongqing Mansion first, and then to Guizhou. ”

"It must be Master Gao and Yang Dacheng, I didn't expect him to come back so quickly!" Chen blurted out without panic.

Wen Jian Sheng felt that it was not such a coincidence, and said cautiously: "Master Han, the late students have not only carefully interrogated, but also searched their salutes, only one young man surnamed Zhang has the official document issued by the Guizhou Xuetai Yamen to take the examination, and the others not only have no official documents or even household registration cards, let alone official seals. ”

Han Xiufeng looked at the direction of the checkpoint and said with a smile: "That's because I'm worried that the thieves will reveal their identities and don't bring them, so please invite them over, there will be no mistake." ”

"Yes."

"Fourth master, do you want to humble yourself and go to greet you?"

"Go ahead."

……

Standing outside the camp and waiting for a while, Gao Yunfeng and Yang Dacheng ran over with four or five scholars following Chen Bupanic, and they didn't know if it was because they had just been interrogated and searched, or if they had encountered bandits on the way, looking disgraced and disheveled, each one more embarrassed than the other.

Han Xiufeng was about to say hello to Gao Yunfeng, when a scholar in his thirties asked excitedly, "Dare to ask which one is Han Xiufeng Master Han?" ”

"I am, may I ask who you are?"

"In Xia Ding Baozhen, Brother Zhixing, Brother Ao Xixian Ao has mentioned you to Baozhen, and I also went to Chongqing Hall when I was in the capital. It's just that I didn't expect to meet it in the capital, but I met it here! ”

Han Xiufeng suddenly remembered the people and things that Ao Tongchen and Brother Ao Xixian had said, and hurriedly said: "It turns out that Brother Ding is the same year as Zhuxian, and when he was in the capital, he didn't mention you to Xiufeng!" Brother Ding, aren't you watching politics in the Hanlin Academy like Zhuxian, how did you come here, and how did you meet Brother Ji Yue? ”

"The mother of the two former families passed away, and Baozhen returned to his hometown as soon as he received the bad news, so he didn't have the opportunity to meet his brother in the capital, as for how he met Brother Ji Yue, it's really hard to say."

Thinking that the Jishi of the Hanlin Academy in front of him was a fake Guizhou person, Han Xiufeng realized that there were ** thieves in his hometown, and he didn't know how to pick it up, Gao Yunfeng arched his hand and said: "Fourth master, Rong Yunfeng will introduce it first, this little brother is Zhang Zhidong, the son of the old man Zhang Ying of Xingyi Prefect. Next year is the year of the examination, Zhang Futai was worried that the old brother of Zhidong would not be able to catch up, so he asked him to set off early with a family member, and we happened to meet him when passing through Loushan Pass. ”

The young man standing beside Gao Yunfeng dressed up and respectfully stepped forward to salute: "Meet Master Han in the cave!" ”

Han Xiufeng was taken aback and couldn't help asking, "Brother Zhidong, how old are you this year?" ”

"Master Han, the cave is nineteen this year."

"Nineteen is already a lifter, and sure enough, a hero is a teenager!"

Zhang Zhidong was a little embarrassed to be praised, and he didn't know how to pick it up for a while, Han Xiufeng also realized that this was not the place to speak, and immediately turned sideways and said: "A few people must be very tired and hungry all the way around, let's go, go to eat first, and we'll talk when we're full of food and drink." ”