Zhao Hu and Zhao Li's fleet hurried to the entrance of the Huangou River, and after inquiring with passing ships and dock personnel, they learned that not long ago, there was indeed a fleet of boats heading south under a black canopy.

However, not long after the Zhao family's fleet went south, some boats came out of the river behind them, and after entering the Huangou River, they were mixed with all kinds of merchant ships, and went north to Liangshanbo.

The action plan of the Zhao family manor, Gu Haotian and Wen Huanzhang had already made a decision. Ruan Xiaowu went to the wharf of Shankou Town to pick up the horses to the pre-found river fork to hide, Ruan Xiaoer took a few boats to wait downstream, and at the appointed time, he put on a black canopy and went south to confuse the Zhao family, and then the small five boats dispersed out to the north, although there were some risks, but there were Sun An, Zhou Yunqing, Ruan Xiaowu, Geng Gong and other good hands and a group of guards on the ship, even if they fought head-on, they were not afraid.

In fact, after Ruan Xiaoer's boat delayed the Zhao family for a certain period of time, they removed the canopy one by one along the way and scattered into the large and small rivers, and the Zhao family found traces there.

At the moment when Gu Haotian and his entourage entered Liangshanbo, Zhao Hu and Zhao Li returned to the manor with the fleet dejected, but they faced a bigger blow. Looking at his son's corpse and the empty warehouse, Zhao Huden fainted.

Zhao Bowen received the report at dawn, and he was also shocked and heartbroken. In the first half of the night, when he received the news that one hundred and fifty horses had been defrauded, he didn't react too much, nothing more than a thousand taels of silver, so he only sent Zhao Li over to take a look. Now that the manor has been ransacked, it is like cutting off his heart, which is more than 100,000 taels of silver! For a moment, he was furious.

The Zhao family used the relationship between black and white to investigate the area around Jeju Prefecture, and in the end, the information gathered was focused on Zhao Jie's uncle and nephew. It was Zhao Jie's proposal to exchange horses for the winemaker, which led to a series of incidents, but Zhao Jie's uncle and nephew mysteriously disappeared. Since Zhao Jie single-handedly operated the whole thing, all the clues were broken on Zhao Jie.

Poor Zhao Bowen knew from beginning to end that the person who made the wine was called Gu Lin, and nothing else. However, according to the return of the people he sent, there was no such person as Gu Lin in Gujiazhuang, so far he also believed what Zhao Hu and others said, Zhao Jie's uncle and nephew were greedy for money, and they colluded with bandits to do this big case, so he had no choice but to wait until the whereabouts of Zhao Jie's uncle and nephew were found out before reasoning. I only sighed that if Zhao Jie's uncle and nephew were aware of the spring, I didn't know how he felt.

On the morning of this day, Ruan Xiaowu and Gu Haotian's fleet returned to Liangshan one after another. Liangshan suddenly was jubilant, the more than ten boxes of property were not very eye-catching, but more than 150 tall horses led up the mountain to attract everyone to watch excitedly, especially Zhou Yunqing is even more precious, his horse army of more than 30 people was only five horses, and they were often teased by Sun An, Yu Sheng, and Ruan Xiaowu, and this time they raised their eyebrows.

This time in the operation of the Zhao family's manor, all the leaders of the escort team on the mountain almost poured out, and the escort team also sent nearly 100 people, and the whole process was thrilling and dangerous, which was perfect. In particular, all the participants strictly abided by the orders and did not make any mistakes, which can be regarded as the results of the military discipline rectification of the escort team for a period of time, and Gu Haotian was greatly satisfied.

At noon, a banquet was held on Liangshan, which was very lively. Duan Jingzhu sat among the leaders, but he was a little restrained when he first arrived.

"Brother Jingzhu, there is no need to be restrained, this mountain is full of hot-blooded men, and when I first went up the mountain, I was like you, but I was laughed at by my brothers."

Shi Qian saw his state of mind, but before the words fell, he saw Ji Sheng coming over with a wine bowl.

"Brother Duan, I'll come over and make a compensatory deal with you, last night at the corner gate of the manor, I saw that your brother was going to slip away, I was afraid that he would cut down on bad things, I really can't help it." It turned out that he came to apologize for last night's incident.

"Brother Yusheng said, that guy and I also have money to deal with, if it weren't for a lot of money, he would be a bird, if you didn't do it last night, I would also do it."

Duan Jingzhu was also telling the truth, that person staying would be a life-urging ghost for him sooner or later.

"Brother Duan is really refreshing, I'll give you a drink."

The two of them drank a full glass together, but Duan Jingzhu had a better amount of wine, and after only a while of coming and going at the table, he ended up in the same situation as the day of Shi Qian, and he was unconscious.

Jeju made an unexpected gain by buying horses, in addition to horses, the harvest of gold and silver amounted to 100,000 taels, and Gu Haotian made another windfall. Although he often walks by the river, he may get his shoes wet, but he is not afraid now, even if the East Window incident happens one day, the worst thing is nothing more than to retreat to Liangshan, the key now is to enrich Liangshan's strength as soon as possible, which is the capital to save his life in the future.

However, during this trip to Jeju, Gu Haotian saw many deficiencies in Yangsan, the first is that there are not enough manpower, there are nearly 600 guards on Yangshan, and the young people on the mountain have been basically recruited, and then they are in the prime of life over 30 years old, which is not beneficial to the construction of Yangsan and the construction of the escort team. The second is the boat, yesterday used nearly 20 ships of all kinds, Wen Huanzhang and the Ruan family brothers took a lot of effort to put together, and they are all civilian ships, if one day to face the imperial court's warships will have no chance of winning, and the first line of defense in Liangshan is this vast water. How to make up for the two shortcomings of population and ships, Gu Haotian went to Wen Huanzhang with a lawsuit full of heads.

"Population and ships are indeed the two most important issues in Liangshan at the moment, and I have been thinking about these two things recently, and it is safe to deal with ordinary conflicts with the strength of the mountains now, but if you turn against the imperial court but have no chance of winning, this also involves the hidden worries of food and weapons. There is no grain on the mountain, so you have to cut off the grain route up the mountain, and then you will be self-defeating. Most of the weapons are spears, and armor, bows and arrows are even more blank. ”

Gu Haotian's robbery of the Zhao family made Wen Huanzhang think more long-term, Liangshan would one day come to the opposite side of the imperial court, and he needed to plan very early.

"What the master said is extremely true, there is no shortage of silver on the mountain at present, and proper people must be sent to purchase grain, grass and weapons, but there are always people who return them to use them."

At present, grain and grass weapons can be solved with money, and Gu Haotian attaches the most importance to the problem of people.

"Years ago, Master Zhou and I discussed two sources of population, the displaced people have recruited a group on the mountain, two months later, every year from March to May is the spring famine, Jeju is a little rich, but there will be a large number of hungry people in the mountainous areas of Yizhou and Qingzhou, the mountain people are hard-working, obedient, and also a good source of soldiers, and then people go to recruit should be rewarded."

"As for the ships, the Zhou Dynasty built warships, the official workshops of the Cao ships were mainly located in Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Mingzhou, Wenzhou, Hangzhou and Tanzhou, and Dengzhou on Jingdong Road was also prosperous by sea, but in the past ten years, the northern barbarians have invaded the south for many years, and the sea is restless, and the imperial court has forbidden the southern sea ships to enter the port of Dengzhou, so it has gradually declined, and now it is replaced by Banqiao Town in Mizhou, so there should be ships to buy in Dengzhou and Mi.

Wen Huanzhang's words made Gu Haotian's heart settle down a little, Master Wen had already prescribed him a prescription, so he only needed to take the medicine according to the prescription.

"Master, I thought to the disciple of the population, can you ask the people on the mountain and Gujiazhuang to recruit quietly, just say that Liangshan Manor recruits people, and whoever recruits young and strong people will be rewarded with one or two silver, and women and children will be rewarded with five hundred pieces of silver, so as not to be distracted by us, and increase their income, but it is a double win."

Regarding the solicitation of the population, Gu Haotian thought of an idea again at that time. Therefore, he only let people from two places quietly recruit, he was afraid that the fanfare would cause too much repercussions in the society, and it would not be beautiful to attract the attention of the government at that time.

"This method can also be used, but the construction of housing in the back mountain should be accelerated, and people will have to live in it when the time comes, and the people who live in the front mountain will also have to move back, and it is difficult to manage the mixed military and civilian housing when the population increases."

Liangshan is really not bad for money now, even if he recruits 10,000 people, it will cost seven or eight thousand taels of silver at most, but it can save Gu Haotian and Wen Huanzhang and others a lot of energy, and Wen Huanzhang secretly praised the disciple's inspiration.

There is already a way to repair the two shortcomings, Gu Haotian is a little relieved, as for the ship, he can only take time to go to the field to see it, the south is relatively far away, I am afraid that I will not be able to spare time, Dengzhou and Mizhou are nearby, but it is also convenient.

The master and apprentice talked for a long time, because of the hard work in recent days, Gu Haotian did not have fun with Zhou Yunqing and Ji Sheng this night, and slept in the dark at night, but let Pan Jinlian make fun of those guys, saying that if she didn't see them for a few days, she pestered the little officials and couldn't get out of the room, so she was ashamed and didn't dare to go out.

In the morning, Gu Haotian woke up naturally from a sleep, and it was rare that he did not go to participate in the morning exercise. But when she saw Pan Jinlian who came in to wait, her expression was twisted, and when she went out, she saw Bian Xiang's expression strangely, and asked Bian Xiang to know the whole story, and she didn't feel funny. But he also felt that the brothers under him were becoming more and more harmonious, which was also what he liked to hear.

Let's say that since the war horse went uphill, it has become the focus of contention among all parties. Zhou Yunqing wished to occupy all of them, and he also said eloquently that the horse army had recruited more than 30 people only because of the shortage of horses, but now it has at least 200 horses. Sun An, Yuren and others naturally refused, after all, who doesn't want to have a good mount.

In this regard, Gu Haotian and Wen Huanzhang had already made arrangements, and all the horses were handed over to the horse army except for one horse selected by the leader of the escort team, and the horse army was expanded to 80 people, according to the configuration of one person and two horses. Geng Gong was proficient in horse kung fu and assigned Zhou Yunqing as his deputy to strengthen the strength of the horse army. In the long run, the Ma army will be a very important branch of the army, and now due to the conditions on the mountain, it can only train the backbone first, so as to expand the army in the future.

Zhou Yunqing was naturally happy about Gu Haotian's arrangement, and said that he must choose a good horse for Gu Haotian, but he was disgusted by Duan Jingzhu who was present. said that these horses were only middle-class, not worthy of petty officials, and he had a few good horses in the north that could be used as mounts for petty officials.

"Brother Duan has helped Liang Shan a lot this time, and he will definitely thank him, but now the Zhao family must search for the whereabouts of the horses in Jeju, so in order to avoid mistakes, it is better to rest on the mountain for a while, and wait for the limelight to pass before reasoning."

Gu Haotian concluded that Duan Jingzhu must have the Zhao family's horses on hand, and if he was discovered, there would be trouble, and Liangshan would also be involved.

"Recently, I have been messing around with a group of brothers on the mountain, and I am extremely happy, the little ones have no skills, and they only know some ways to sell horses, and now I am begging the little officials to enjoy a bowl of rice to eat, and I have a resting place on the mountain."

Duan Jingzhu actually thought about it a long time ago, but he didn't dare to speak because of his humble identity, and it was only at the instigation of the times that he plucked up his courage.

"If Brother Duan can afford Yangsan, I will naturally be very happy, and I will set up wine to catch you tonight, but the horses in Jeju must be cleaned to avoid future troubles."

Horses in the north must be the main source of Liangshan in the future, Duan Jingzhu has been stealing horses in the north for a long time, and there are channels for selling horses in Liaodi, and understanding the situation in the north will be of great help to Liangshan's future schemes, and his joining Gu Haotian is naturally welcome.

"Petty officials, just rest assured, more than ten of my horses are hidden outside the city, and I will go down the mountain tomorrow and get them quietly." Duan Jingzhu was also very happy to see that Gu Haotian agreed.

After solving the urgent problem of horse distribution and horse army expansion, and getting the effectiveness of Duan Jingzhu, he handed over the matter of mobilizing the people on the mountain to recruit hungry people to Wen Huanzhang, and there was nothing important at hand. As for the purchase of food, ordnance, and ships, he was not in a hurry for a while, and there were no talents proficient in trading on Liangshan, so Gu Haotian decided to return to Gujiazhuang for the time being and discuss with his father, after all, Gu Zhen has been a businessman for many years, and he should have a sound proposal.

Since going up the mountain on the fifth day of the first lunar month, he didn't realize that it had been more than a month, and Gu Haotian's energy had gradually shifted to the operation of Liangshan recently, but he also understood that Gujiazhuang was still relatively important at present, and the two were indispensable. The next step is to carry out the recruitment of hungry people, and Master Zhou Tong and his family have not seen each other for a long time, Gu Haotian sorted out the matter at hand, entrusted it to Master Wen, and returned to Gujiazhuang after a long absence with the first batch of new wine from Liangshan.