When he was young, Wang Jiu took Baili Yan (Wei Xian) to the inner house, and Jiang Min had already put away the official documents and came to the main hall to sit on the throne.

"Wei Xian greets the lord."

"Excuse me, it's for the sake of the thief."

Jiang Min looked at it with deep eyes, but he couldn't guess what it was for, but he faintly felt that Jiang Min's gaze had a deep meaning.

"My lord, the deserted village was attacked by horse thieves more than ten days ago, causing nearly 100 casualties. Now the defenders of Lincheng are seriously underwhelmed, and they cannot deter the wandering mountain bandits. In the next thought, when the formation of strong guards to defend the deserted village, it can also protect the safety of the trade route. ”

"Guards? Recruiting guards is a no-brainer, and there are only more than 130 households in the deserted village, and even if they recruit guards, ten or eight will not have much effect.

As for the trade route, Lincheng is located in a remote area, there are only more than 40,000 people, and most of the commercial goods are exported from Guangxin City, and the Guangxin County soldiers and the public government guards can ensure that the trade road is unimpeded, and no one has dared to rob the commercial goods exported to Lincheng by Guangxin City over the years. ”

Lincheng is located in the middle of nowhere, although the land is very large, but the regulation of the main city of Lincheng is only a county seat, and the scale of the county seat under the jurisdiction of the underground is one level lower, larger than the village, equivalent to a small town, the population under the rule is only thirty or forty thousand, and it is not an important city on the coast of the North Sea, and there is no trade value at all.

Wei Xian's organization of ten people and eight Zhuang Ding guards was not of much use, but it was the time and node that Wei Xian grasped, which was intriguing.

With Zhao Xun and Wei Xian's current financial resources, it is not a big problem to raise ten or eight guards, but thirty or fifty people are very difficult, too little will not work, and too many financial resources will not work. Even if there are 30 or 50 people, it is difficult to have a deterrent effect on the dozens or hundreds of mountain bandits.

Hearing that Jiang Min didn't seem to want to agree to the matter of protecting the soldiers, Bai Liyan continued:

"Lord, the porcelain kiln is about to open in the autumn in the deserted village, and I have contacted Lord Zhao, intending to sell porcelain into the Xian country and the Jin Kingdom first, and the road to the Lingling along the way must be protected by guards. Therefore, I plan to recruit 50 Zhuang Ding as guards in advance, and recruit 50 more guards next year, and 100 guards to deal with the safety of the trade route, which should be enough in the next year. ”

"One hundred!"

Jiang Min was taken aback, the annual cost of 100 people is not a small amount.

Raising soldiers is different from raising ordinary people, those who serve as soldiers rely on food, the amount of food is 1.5 times or even twice that of ordinary people, the annual ration for 100 people is as little as 5 or 600 stone, as much as 700 stone, pickles and meat are a quarter, if you are raising elite soldiers and heavy infantry, you can't stop 9 stone of grain a year, 3 stone of pickles, and meat.

In addition, not counting equipment and loss, even if Wei Xian has two inches of silver to sell ice money every day, the deserted village can barely support more than a hundred people.

At this time, Wang Jiu sneered and said:

"Mr. Wei, don't you trust it. There are only more than 130 households in a deserted village, and how can they raise a hundred guards. ”

Baili Yan Road:

"The kiln in the deserted village is opened after autumn, and the income from the kiln is enough to support the team of 100 people."

The kiln is actually a semi-monopoly industry, and due to the limitations of prospecting technology, not everyone can excavate clay and kaolin, which leads to a de facto monopoly.

As the largest exporter of pottery and porcelain, Xianguo has huge reserves of clay and kaolin, and many mineral deposits are open-pit mines, which can be excavated with care. Compared with Zhiguo, Weiguo and other countries, copper and iron ore are abundant, but clay and kaolin are extremely rare, so there is a great demand for pottery and porcelain.

In the porcelain, the glazed ceramics produced in the Xian country are the top quality, which is favored by the wealthy class of the world. The glazed ceramics of the Xianguo Shangpin official kiln can even be sold at a high price of two or three inches of silver. Once the new porcelain from the deserted village is put into the market, it will completely stir up the porcelain industry on which the entire Xianguo depends.

Hearing the news that Wei Xian opened a kiln, Jiang Min didn't think so, there is a kiln in Guangxin City, and Qin Han also opened a kiln, to make money, it is indeed a large piece of income, and it is in short supply. But raising a hundred guards in one go, it is inevitable that the appetite is too great, and calculating the expenses required to open a kiln, Jiang Min is very skeptical that Zhao Xun can come up with so much money in one go?

He asked:

"Mr. Wei, it takes a lot of money to open a kiln, and where do you raise the cost of training the guards?"

"Please rest assured that the opening of the kiln and the training of the guards are all paid for by the deserted village, and there is no need for the government to pay a penny."

"What a big breath." Wang Jiu said in a rough voice: "A kiln costs thousands of yuan, and the guards spend thousands of dollars every year, and where does this cost come from, it can't fall from the sky." ”

"What the Wang Jiu brothers said is that it does require a lot of expenditure to open a kiln, but there is no need to open a whole kiln, only half of it is enough."

"Hmph, Mr. Wei can't help but talk about it." Wang Jiu scoffed.

Indeed, Bailiyan does not plan to open an entire kiln at all, first, the money is not available. In April, all the gold, silver and copper coins in his hands were purchased with fixed assets, as well as settling-in allowances. The previous time was attacked by horse thieves, and each of the injured farmers compensated ten copper coins, so that the savings that could not make ends meet could only eat the old capital, and it was certainly unrealistic to open a whole kiln.

Second, the advent of new varieties of bone china, which is bound to be in short supply, the main high-end route in the early stage, even if the output is not large, the demand will be very high, and the market is naturally very tight. It is guaranteed that it can be sold out every month, and the money can be quickly returned to their own hands, and it is not a problem to expand the scale of the kiln.

Jiang Min was skeptical at this time, he didn't believe that Bailiyan could set up a kiln within half a year, let alone support a team of 100 people. So he said:

"Since Mr. Wei wants to open a kiln, let's do it. As for the matter of protecting the soldiers, the deserted village is located in a remote area, and it is indeed necessary to deal with the safety of the trade routes, but there is no balance in the use of soldiers, and I believe that Lord Zhao will solve it for Mr. Wei at his discretion. If you have any difficulties, you can open your mouth and do your best to help. ”

"Thank you, Lord."

Jiang Min said that it sounded good, and he wanted to help, but in the past four months, except for hanging himself in a deserted village, he had not been entrusted with any reuse. The new thing that he planned with Zhao Xun at the beginning now seems to be really the right step.

Not long after Bai Liyan left, Wang Jiu asked without confusion:

"Lord, this son is too arrogant, and setting up a kiln within two months is not a fool's dream. Not to mention that the money and grain cost a lot, and most of the current sales channels are monopolized by the government, what virtue does he have, does it depend on Zhao Xun's martial arts? ”

Jiang Min twisted his long hair, and he was also puzzled in his heart:

"This man behaves in a way, and it depends on how he does it. If you lose, it's also a good thing to break the bloodstream. ”

If it weren't for the attack on the deserted village, Baili Yan expected that Jiang Min would not let go easily, and now he recruited a hundred guards in one go, at least Jiang Min seemed to be an impossible task.

If Jiang Min was asked to approve 100 posts according to normal procedures, Jiang Min would never agree, but on the contrary, he would be suspicious, so he could only use unconventional means to do the opposite, exaggerating things to the point that it was difficult to reach the sky.

With Jiang Min's character, he will never easily lower the military power, let alone not be controlled by it, but the team of 100 people is harmless, although Jiang Min is willing to let go, but most of them think that Bailiyan can't make it, so he wants to push the boat down the river, and when Bailiyan messes things up, he can end up with a good person.

In the next few days, dozens of royal guests were added to the deserted village, and ten batches of fifty people were sent out to inquire about the whereabouts of the horse thief, just like the evaporation of the world, the horse thief disappeared without a trace, and at this time I had to start thinking about whether Guo Peng had transferred the horse thief in advance in order to avoid the limelight temporarily.

Horse thieves are not mountain bandits, most of the horse thieves' nests will be far away from the crime location, and there are many, because they are often erratic, the real nest is only known to a few cronies.

The two cities of Guangxin and Dingyang are rich and important towns in Beihai, leaving here to the south or east, there is no rich place to raise troops, and to the west is the border between Xianxi County and Changsun and Sun Guo, and it is also impossible to raise troops.

If you go too far south, you will enter the garrison town, which is quite close to the Lingling, and the horse thieves of several hundred people will appear in the defense area of the army, which is tantamount to seeking death.

If you move to another place, you will enter the territory of other mountain bandits and horse thieves, one mountain does not tolerate two tigers, it is not easy to come out and mix, no one is happy to have someone on their own territory to share food, two nests of mountain bandits and horse thieves are bound to fight.

Either way, the "profit" range of this horse thief does not have the necessary conditions to jump out of the triangle of Guangxin, Dingyang and Lincheng.

So, where is this group of horse thieves with hundreds of people, Guo Peng can raise horse thieves, does he still have the courage to hide horse thieves in Dingyang City? But even if Guo Peng is courageous, Ding Yanghou's private soldiers and cronies are not fools, and paper can't keep the fire.

The relationship between the Guo and Zhang families is close, and it is possible to know that Guo Peng definitely did not have the courage to hide people in Dingyang City.

"It's weird, Guangxin, Dingyang, and Lincheng are all about to turn over in the wild, how can there be no trace?" Looking at the hand-drawn simple topographic map on the table, Bailiyan muttered to herself.

Twenty-two days have passed, and seeing that the January deadline is approaching, if no one can be found, the royal guest will have no purpose, and it will finally be disbanded, and all the efforts and sacrifices will be in vain.

At this time, Tang Zhao came into the house, gave a slight salute and said:

"Wei Langzhong is still worried about the horse thief."

"If the horse thieves are not removed, the deserted village is restless, so it's better to keep an eye on it."

Tang Zhao's eyes fell on the case, his gaze suddenly froze, and he said in surprise:

"This picture is so detailed, I don't know where Wei Langzhong came from."

Bai Liyan looked down at the sketch on the case, and didn't expect Tang Zhao to be so surprised, he said:

"This picture is drawn below, just a little carving insect skills."

Tang Zhao was surprised when he heard the news, and hurriedly said:

"This picture is exquisite, and it will never lose to the master technique of the Ligong School, and I never thought that Wei Langzhong was also good at painting the terrain."

In Tang Zhao's eyes, the sketch on the table was already a map comparable to a peerless treasure. But how did he know that this point was just a sketch drawn by Bailiyan in a month to travel all over Guangxin, Lincheng, and Dingyang Beidi, and the contour lines and scales had not yet been standardized.

In his previous life, his mother was engaged in geological research, and his father was a mechanical engineer. Tang Zhao was naturally surprised when he saw the level of maps thousands of years later.

At this time, Bailiyan said:

"Brother Tang, today is the twenty-third day since the convening order was issued, and there is no news of this horse thief, I don't know what Brother Song, Brother Fang and others think."

Tang Zhao clenched his fists and said:

"Horse thieves have always had no fixed home, but one thing is undeniable, since horse thieves live by raiding, where will their nests be. People can escape, but the huge nest and the looted gold, silver and copper coins can take away some of them, but they can't take them all, Wei Langzhong has ever thought about it. ”

"I also thought that if the horse thieves fled, the den would be hidden. However, given the situation in various parts of the North Sea, if the horse thieves fled to other places, they would inevitably be discovered by the officers and soldiers, or they would compete with other mountain bandits and horse thieves for territory, and it would not be easy to gain a foothold. However, since the lair cannot be moved, the horse thief will inevitably have to return to his old business, and I can take advantage of this. ”