There was still an hour before dark, and if the foot was a little faster, he could rush to the county seat to stay in the hotel, but Xiao Yanping still ordered the porters of the caravan to camp and camp on this small ferry. After entering the interior of the Great Song Dynasty, Han Shizhong did not interfere with how he arranged the itinerary, but after the sky was dark, the soldiers came to report, Xiao Da shopkeeper took a guy on the ferry, Han Shizhong smiled at Zhao Xingde: "Sure enough, there is no business and no treachery, I told you during the day that this guano business can't make a lot of money, and at night I will go to the boat to find a way." Anyway, you and I don't have the capital to do this big deal of taking a boat to sea. He said it lightly, and Zhao Xingde also smiled.

At the Fengqiao ferry, the riverboat loaded with guano is moored on the trestle, and a yellow paper lantern is hung on the back mast, reflecting the sparkling water, different from the usual noisy riverboat sailors playing money and eating and drinking at night, this boat is quiet, only a dozen pairs of eyes are hidden in the dark, vigilantly monitoring the surrounding situation.

A follower carried a lantern to lead the way, Xiao Yanping stopped beside the hull of the boat along the trestle, and before he could say hello, a springboard was put down on the boat, Xiao Yanping didn't say much, so he got on the ferry with his follower, and the gangplank was quietly taken back. In the cabin, Deng Yuanjue sat in the rattan chair, and when Xiao Yanping saw that it was him, he immediately leaned down and bowed, saying: "Holy Sect disciple Xiao Yanping, see King Baoguang." Deng Yuanjue waved his hand and said, "Brother Xiao, please get up." He motioned to follow the Ming Sect disciples behind him to go out, and after the door was closed, he smiled and said: "Old Xiao, the friendship between you and me is unusual, how can you be confined to these vulgar etiquette and sit quickly." As he spoke, he also made tea for Xiao Yanping.

Xiao Yanping smiled bitterly: "Sect Master Fang is about to get into trouble, and he has repeatedly instructed us to respect the rules, and I will also act according to orders. Deng Yuanjue pushed the teacup in front of him and said with a smile: "The rules are all for the people below, there is no one else at this time, you and I are still brothers like before." ”

"Follow His Holiness's instructions." Xiao Yanping said that Fang Jue was wrong, picked up the teacup with his left hand, patted his cheek with his right hand, and said with a smile: "It's smooth." ”

Deng Yuanjue smiled, he looked at the dark water outside, and said in a low voice: "The affairs of the Liao Kingdom are still going well, right?" The 5,000-handled waist knives, 300 pairs of iron armor, 1,000-handled fire guns, and 10,000 catties of medicinal powder, have they all been done? ”

"Everything is fine!" Xiao Yanping replied, "The important things are hidden in the trunks of big trees, and they go to sea in Liaodong and are sent directly to Yangzhou by sea ships. As he spoke, he took Jiaozi out of his arms and handed it to Deng Yuanjue. Deng Yuanjue took it, put it in his arms without looking at it, and praised: "Well done!" The sect leader is about to start an incident, everything is ready, only the east wind is owed, there is no shortage of people at the moment, only the lack of blades and armor, this batch of things is really a charcoal in the snow. He paused for a moment, and then said, "Sure enough, the world is as black as a crow, and this official of the Liao State dares to sell anything for the sake of money." ”

Xiao Yan usually manages finances for Mingjiao, running between the ministers and giants, and only smiles wryly when he hears the words. Deng Yuanjue had a sentence in the middle of the old story, and introduced to Xiao Yanping the situation of Fang La, the leader of the Ming Sect, preparing to rise up in Jiangnan, saying that once this batch of weapons arrived in Jiangnan, hundreds of thousands of sectarians would rise up at the same time in more than a dozen states and dozens of counties, sweeping the southeast, taking Jinling as the capital, the country name Daming, and then dividing the river with the Song State to rule, and the head of the Fang sect ascended the throne and called the Holy Emperor, and the year name Yongle. Xiao Yanping listened, his face showed hesitation, and he thought for a long time before he interrupted Deng Yuanjue and said: "Brother Deng, according to what my brother saw in Hebei, the imperial court will have a war with the Liao State within a few years, and at that time, most of the elite of the forbidden army of the government will be trapped in Hebei and Youyan, and they will not be able to look south, why don't the sect leader wait until then to make trouble?" ”

Deng Yuanjue was stunned for a moment, looked at Xiao Yanping for a few moments, and then coughed, and said seriously: "Old Xiao, it's good for you to say this in front of me, if you meet brothers in other sects, don't be reckless." He paused for a moment and said in a deep voice, "Sect Master Fang feels the heart of heaven and the fortune of the earth, and the period of the incident calculated by the gods is not something you and I can question." Not long ago, there was a person surnamed Jin in the sect who was arrogantly talking about it, and he was tied up in the river by the elders of the Law Enforcement Hall in the middle of the night to feed the fish. Seeing that Xiao Yanping's face was still a little puzzled, Deng Yuanjue sighed secretly in his heart, this old Xiao has also been a strong brother for the Mingjiao sect for decades, but he has always been just an archdeacon, there is no promotion to the protector or the king, and even one party's sacrificial wine is not, "This year's drought in the southeast, the harvest in the fields has been halved, and the tea is not good, but the imperial court taxes have increased, and the people are complaining. The people of Shengdou, as long as they have food for their stomachs, will never follow the disciples of the Holy Sect to start an incident. Thinking about the relationship with Xiao Yanping for many years, Deng Yuanjue still explained it again in words he could understand.

"I see," Xiao Yanping muttered, still feeling a little sorry for the great opportunity for Song Liao to start a war, Deng Yuanjue patted him on the shoulder and said: "If the big thing is done, with Brother Xiao, your hard work in the Holy Sect is high, the six Shangshu are not easy to say, and the shepherd of a state will not be able to run." "Then I need Brother Deng to carry it more, the state pastor doesn't dare to think about it, brother, I can raise the city ship." "It's easy to say, you and I have been brothers for decades, one is prosperous, and the other is lost, so why be polite."

The two reunited after a long absence, and after talking and laughing happily, they said goodbye. After Xiao Yanping left the ferry, he immediately returned to the caravan's camp and there was no other movement. Han Shizhong became more and more sure that this old guy did not want to mix his guano business by himself, and in the next few days, he was quite unkind to him, but Xiao Yanping only promised and dealt with him carefully, until he arrived in Hejian Mansion City, and then gave Han Shizhong a reward of 4,000 yuan. Han Shizhong used all of it as a pension for the fallen soldiers to support his family, and after he was free, he inquired around about the traces of horse thieves marked with wolf heads on the border of Liao and Song Dynasty, but he never found anything.

After Zhao Xingde returned to Hejian Mansion, he invested all the 500 yuan of the honorarium into Yixue and built a small printing workshop to print calligraphy books for military literacy. During this period, he visited Wang Yan several times. Wang Yan served as the commander of Hebei in Jinein Mansion for more than ten years, and knew everything about the group of thieves in the Taihang Mountains and the horse thieves in Hebei Zhulu, and listened to Zhao Xingde talk about the style of the horse thieves and left marks, but it was not clear which bandit it was, only that the horse thieves on the border of Hebei were divided and combined, but these three or four hundred horses were also considered a large share.

In the past few months, the camp has deployed Tong Guan to raise the salary of the Zhenbei Army, which has reached three times that of the ordinary forbidden army, promoted three deputy generals, and dismissed two generals, so that the generals of the Hebei camp are a little afraid of Huaide. Immediately afterwards, Tong Guan began to select elite troops in the original Hebei army to enrich the Zhenbei Army, not tall and mighty, not to carry the weight of the far, not to lift the 200 catties of stone locks, but the reward in front, the camp of the army is still rushing, in just ten days, the Zhenbei Army from 5,000 people to 12,000 people, Tong Guan will these Hebei soldiers all scattered and placed in the original ranks of the Zhenbei Army, reset the military number, respectively, the first army to the fourth army in Zhenbei.

Han Shizhong once got the official family to take care of him, some time ago he won dozens of horse thieves, after the point of inspection is a real prime thief, this is the first battle since the Zhenbei Army garrisoned the border, so Tong Shuai has a lot of face, so he is not eclectic, he is promoted to the commander of the second army in Zhenbei, and often mentions his life, as if he has become Tong Shuai's confidant and favorite general, so that the rest of the generals of the Zhenbei Army are particularly envious. Seeing this, Zhou Dingchen, the secretary in charge of the Hebei women's camp, did not need Han Shizhong to mention more, so he canceled Li Hongyu from prostitution, and found a friend to fabricate the identity of a woman from a good family for her, and sent it to Han Shizhong's mansion at night. On the day of the happy event in the camp, Zhao Xingde blocked a few glasses of wine for Han Shizhong, but he was so drunk that he almost entered the cave room for the groom, and was taken out to sleep next to the cave room for one night.

Wang Yan did not interfere with Zhao Xingde's behavior of opening a righteous school to teach military soldiers and communicate with military generals, but only reminded him not to miss the study of the sage scriptures.

Chao Buzhi sent a letter to inquire about Zhao Xingde's recent academic situation, and encouraged him to study hard, so that he could seize this rare opportunity, "In the world of Dangsi, if you want to compete with the world's heroes, you should use your heart to the southeast." If you want to compete with ancient and modern heroes, you should observe Hebei. ”

In the correspondence with Zhao Xingde, Chen Dong, Zhang Bing and other Tai scholars also mentioned that their classmates in Taixue also began to nervously prepare for the autumn festival, and also informed Xingde in time that Qin Hui, a doctor in Taixue, might serve as the chief examiner of Lifu, and now many Tai scholars are rushing to his disciples, and Deng Su in the Science Society is quite low-key, because Qin Hui is his teacher, he has been working hard to study books recently, and he wants this Jinshi to be convincing.

Li Ruoxu also wrote a letter to Zhao Xingde, but the letter asked Zhao Xingde about his recent situation, the clothes were warm and cold, etc., obviously written for Sister Nai, Xingde replied to this letter most carefully, and wrote nearly 5,000 words in detail to report back, so ashamed that Li Ruoxue never asked his younger brother to write to him again.

The first heavy snow this winter, finally one after another, the heaven and earth are piled up into a plain white, this afternoon, the marching Sima Wang Yan brought the Hebei camp to deploy Tong Guan a good news: "The Kelie Department has arrived at the border of Liao, Lord Shen explained, the ministry attached to our dynasty, by Tong Shuai full power, the Jinguan Mansion will fully cooperate." ”

Tong Guan squinted his eyes and looked at Wang Yan, this person is the most disciplined general in the Hebei camp, neither arrogant nor greedy for ink, but unfortunately, not only the people of the Imperial City Division, but also the people of the Jinguan Mansion, they can't stay. He touched the beard under his chin, pondered for a moment, and said: "The Kereb Department came from afar to attach our dynasty, and it should be rewarded to cherish the people of Yuanyuan." It is the middle of winter, so first reward 2,000 horses of brocade and 5,000 stone of grain, and let Kereh move to the river to spend the winter as soon as possible. He paused, and then said: "The commander of the King of Annoyance told the patriarch of Kelie that these three thousand warriors of the grassland are the Fifth Army of the north of my Daying Town, Hebei, as long as he sincerely serves the court and is loyal to the emperor, this commander will ensure his glory and wealth throughout his life." ”