On April 3, the first batch of hundreds of catties of pig iron finally arrived in Xining, and the pig iron personally escorted by Mu Qingshan was handed over to Li Zicheng and immediately sent to the Xining craftsman's workshop.

At the same time, Li Zicheng received a message from Wang Anping: the imperial court sent Cao Wenzhao to collect thieves from Shaanxi, and it was rumored that Gao Yingxiang's old village was breached, and even his second son Silly Er was killed.

Li Zicheng's first feeling was that the imperial court was going to make a move against Shaanxi, Gao Yingxiang was hit very badly, and the other bandit leaders were afraid that they would not be much better.

But he was suddenly shocked in his heart, Gao Yingxiang's old village was broken, so what should his subordinates do? Li Zicheng is not worried about Gao Yingxiang, the imperial court is fighting with thieves, who wins and who loses has no direct relationship with him, to a certain extent, if the imperial court fights with thieves and focuses on Shaanxi, Xining happens to make a lot of money on the border, in fact, the development of the Xining army has entered the most critical period, and what he needs most is time.

What made Li Zicheng feel at ease was naturally Gao Guiying, as well as Gao Ligong's brothers.

On the battlefield, the sword and the gun are blind, especially the losing side, often being chased and killed by the other side, and the life of the individual is completely determined by God, and it is really a good thing to be able to save a life.

He has long had the idea of Shaanxi taking over Gao Guiying, but unfortunately, with his current strength, once he leaves the wings of the imperial court, even if there is such a natural danger as the Yellow River, I am afraid that he will be eaten by the guards near Ganzhou and the military towns of Shaanxi, and there is not even scum left, what else can we talk about protecting Gao Guiying?

Li Zicheng paced a few steps in the study, his face was so gloomy that he was almost dripping, although he had already asked Wang Anping to explore Gao Yingxiang's whereabouts, but the target of the ranger was mainly in the nearby guards such as Nian Bo and Zhuang Langwei, and the manpower in Shaanxi was obviously insufficient, and his own attitude had not been very resolute and contradictory, which determined that Wang Anping had not paid attention to this matter.

If only I could find Gao Yingxiang and Gui Ying earlier......

Since the matter has happened, it is useless to regret it, Li Zicheng fell on the seat a little dejectedly, pondered for a while, and finally picked up the brush, first wrote a brief letter to Wang Anping and Wu Ermao, asking them to find Gao Guiying's whereabouts at any cost.

Then he sent a letter to Ma Youshui, who was stationed on the west bank of the Yellow River, asking him to pay close attention to the various Yellow River crossings and strictly prevent thieves from entering the country.

There were too many crossings of the Yellow River in this section, and in order to strengthen the defense, Li Zicheng asked the Song Wenbu, which had been completed, to immediately rush to the area of Sanchuan Mansion to assist Ma Youshui in garrisoning the Yellow River.

If the people of Shaanxi Province, who are proficient in farming technology, can settle down in Xining, they will not be able to improve the level of cultivation in Xining, but they will also help develop more land and produce more food for Xining.

Moreover, with the increase of these pure Han people, the proportion of Han people in Xining can also be increased, and the management of various prefectures and counties will be relatively easy.

These fleeing people, as long as they can give them a chance to live, should be willing to do anything, and even a good source of soldiers.

The imperial court's military operations in Shaanxi also made Li Zicheng vigilant, such a thing would happen in Xining sooner or later, and for the sake of today's plan, it was necessary to increase Xining's military strength.

In addition to intensifying the training of the existing soldiers, it is necessary to expand the army as soon as possible, and although the two pieces of land in Nian Bosuo and Zhuang Langwei are not abundant, they can be self-sufficient, and objectively they have also created conditions for the expansion of the army.

Liu Yunshui and Ma Youshui, the two hundred households, each expanded to 500 soldiers, but these 1,000 soldiers could be supported by a mill, not to mention that the imperial court still distributed military salaries to Xining according to the standard of 3,000 soldiers every month.

These two hundred households have reached five hundred soldiers, and the next step is to expand the remaining hundred households, Li Zicheng's first thought is the one hundred households that Li Guo has, so far there are only two hundred soldiers, which is the least.

He immediately sent his own soldiers to inform Li Guo and asked him to expand the number of soldiers by 300, and if the soldiers in Beichuan County were insufficient, he could come to Xining to recruit troops.

In addition, Li Jibu of Nanchuan County temporarily recruited 100 soldiers, reaching 300 people, while Zhou Binbu, who also only had 200 soldiers, because it was stationed in the Triangle City, had gone deep into the grassland, and it was inconvenient to transport grain and grass.

Thinking of the waterway, Li Zicheng's heart moved, he has been developing the army, if he builds a naval army in the West Sea, whether it is for the Mongols east of the West Sea or the Tibetans west of the West Sea, it will be a kind of containment.

To form a navy, you naturally need a lot of silver, Li Zicheng does not have such wealth for the time being, but it takes time for the navy to mature, and it will take time to temporarily build a few large ships to train soldiers, even if it is used for fishing and transportation, the key is to train enough sailors.

There are many rivers and lakes in Xining, and there are not a few people who know water, but who should be responsible for forming a water army? He definitely can't do it, he wants to control the whole army, for specific affairs, he absolutely has no time, a Xining girls' school has occupied a lot of time, so that he has to "three days of fishing, two days of drying nets", if you want to stay near the West Sea for a long time, there is absolutely no time, and it is not conducive to controlling the overall situation.

He suddenly remembered that the last time he inspected the West Sea, Zhou Kun, the chief flag officer in charge of fishing, faintly mentioned to himself that he wanted to return to the army, with the expansion of each hundred households, more and more soldiers were eliminated to join the fishing team, and Zhou Kun could be transferred out.

Thinking like this, Li Zicheng stayed alone in the study for a long time, and when he returned to the back office, it was already noon, and Song Yulian immediately served a hot meal.

Seeing that Sun Mengjie's lower abdomen was already slightly bulging, Li Zicheng remembered what he said last time, to buy a few girls to serve, it is best to buy a mother-in-law, an older woman, more experienced in life, he put this idea on the dining table, Sun Mengjie was immediately overjoyed, she knew that these slaves were mainly bought for her, but she was a little distressed about the silver, "Sir, it costs a lot of silver, or buy it later, the students are still fine!" After speaking, he subconsciously looked at his lower abdomen, which was covered by cotton clothes, but the pregnancy was still not obvious.

"What is silver? Don't be tired of my Jie'er! Li Zicheng laughed, and his gaze quickly swept over Sun Mengjie's lower abdomen.

"No, the affairs of the family are all done by Aunt Song, and the students just take care of themselves!" Sun Mengjie also glanced at Song Yulian and smiled gratefully.

It seems that she has given up her prejudices, Li Zicheng is happy to see them getting along with each other, and he also smiled slightly, "Jie'er, otherwise, during this time, you won't go to the school, and I will make up for the missing courses!" ”

"No, no, now that I am learning the key to multiplication in mathematics, the student doesn't want to fall behind," Sun Mengjie shook her head, because she was worried about hurting the fetus in her womb, and she didn't dare to make it too big, "Get ...... I got it and felt it...... The students will rest at home and ...... with peace of mind" Before he finished speaking, his face was already slightly red.

Chen Qiudie quietly put down the bowl and touched her lower abdomen with her hand, "Take a look, do you feel it...... Hey...... It's going to kick people......"

"To die!" Sun Mengjie scolded, she didn't dare to twist her body, so she had to let Chen Qiudie touch her lower abdomen.

Taking advantage of the moment when the two of them laughed and scolded, Song Yulian whispered to Li Zicheng: "My lord, the maid can still take care of family affairs for the time being, or ...... Just buy two girls......"

Li Zicheng knows that she is worried about her identity, once there are more maids-in-law, her identity will become more and more embarrassing, between the mother-in-law and the concubine, and there is an embarrassing Chen Qiudie in the middle, if she is allowed to sit on the identity of the housekeeper's mother-in-law, maybe her heart will be more reassuring, however, in Li Zicheng's mind, she can be the identity of the housekeeper during the day, and in the dead of night, the identity of the concubine is still indispensable.

Looking at Song Yulian's anxious look, she smiled and said, "Just Yilian'er, I will send two personal soldiers to protect me in the afternoon, and you will go to the market to sell two girls." ”

"Yes, sir!" Song Yulian lowered her head and laughed silently.

After lunch, after a little rest, Li Zicheng took Sun Mengjie and Chen Qiudie to the school, while Song Yulian, escorted by two personal soldiers, went to the market to select two handsome girls of thirteen or fourteen, one named Xiaomei and the other called Xiaolan.

That night, Li Zicheng stayed at Song Yulian's, and after some warmth, Song Yulian took a breath, lay on Li Zicheng's chest, and said carefully: "Son...... The servant wants to talk to the adults about something! ”

"Lian'er can say anything on her mind!" Li Zicheng stroked his back, from top to bottom, and finally stopped at the soft buttocks, "Isn't Lian'er also pregnant?" ”

"It's not a servant," Song Yulian's voice lowered, "My lord, Die'er seems to have it!" ”

"Butterfly?" Li Zicheng was ecstatic, "Can you confirm it?" Why haven't you heard Die'er say it? ”

"I only found out in the past two days, and I should be pregnant with ......"

Song Yulian is from the past, she said that she is pregnant, it should be very likely, in the past few months, there have been two children between them, whether they are male or female, as long as they have their own flesh and blood, Li Zicheng calmed down and pinched her cheeks with one hand, "Jie'er and Die'er are pregnant, and Lian'er can be pregnant in an instant?" ”

"Big ...... People ......" Song Yulian twisted her head and barely squeezed out the words, "The maid is about to tell the adult that Die'er is already pregnant, and if the maid is pregnant again in the future, ......"

It was not real in the dark, but Li Zicheng clearly felt that the temperature on his hand was rising eagerly.

What makes Song Yulian most entangled is that if she gives birth to a child in the future, how to solve this title problem, Die'er's child can be called Aunt Song, because of her housekeeper's mother-in-law, but how her child will be called Die'er in the future is a big trouble.

Calling my sister is obviously not good, he and Die'er's child are brothers, how can you call my brother's mother my sister? It's not right to call Erniang or Niang, after all, he and Die'er were born to the same mother......

Li Zicheng also felt a little headache, he only cared about Shu Shuang before, but he didn't think too much, but now that Song Yulian brought it up, he was a little embarrassed, could it be that Lian'er's child and Die'er's child would never see each other?

Song Yulian saw that Li Zicheng didn't speak, obviously thinking, so she cautiously tested: "Adult, otherwise, the maid still doesn't want children...... The maid doesn't want an identity, I'd rather be a housekeeper, as long as the adult lets the maid and Die'er be together......"

"Butler's wife?" Li Zicheng thought about it, in fact, it didn't matter what it was called, it was nothing more than an identity issue, the key was the substance, so he smiled and said: "The housekeeper can also do it, but it's daytime, and at night, you have to serve Lord Ben like Die'er!" ”

Song Yulian nodded obediently, lest Li Zicheng regret it, he has long been Li Zicheng's woman, and she can't escape in this life, she has already accepted her fate, the key is that she is really not suitable for having children, for the sake of Die'er, maintaining the current situation is already the best ending for her.