The Liangshan Manor once again expanded its army, bringing the total number of its escorts to more than 14,000 people, and the strength of all branches of the army was effectively enriched.

Of course, the greatest benefit was the cavalry, which suddenly increased by four battalions of 1,500 men.

The most special is the officer training camp, just from the personnel arrangement, it is different, the battalion commander is the senior brother of the junior officer, and he sat in the first position of the leaders as soon as he came up; The equipment of the two assistants is also extraordinary, Aliqi is an expert in training cavalry, and Han Shizhong is said to be a master of land warfare in the Western Army; And the selection of soldiers is also strictly abnormal, 200 team members, all of whom have to go through actual combat and have seen blood veterans, many of whom are candidates for captain and captain, but they can only be demoted and used in this battalion.

In just a few days, except for the recruits who were still training, the personnel of the rest of the battalions were all in place, and the people in the Qianshan barracks shouted and neighed lively.

Since except for the five battalions of sailors stationed in Shuizhai and Crouching Tiger Village, the other battalions were stationed in the barracks in the front mountain, although the space was sufficient, it would always be more crowded, and several barracks on the surrounding hills had been built, Gu Haotian decided to separate the garrisons of the infantry army to make room for the cavalry. As soon as he discussed with Wen Huanzhang and several others, he made a plan, and then the General Staff Office issued the first order since its establishment.

The 1st Infantry Battalion was stationed in the Qianshan Fortress, the 2nd Infantry Battalion was stationed in the Houshan Fortress, the 5th Infantry Battalion was stationed in the west Fortress, and the 6th Infantry Battalion was stationed in the East Fortress. The fifth battalion of sailors was stationed in the west of the water village, and the third battalion of Ruan Xiaoqi's sailors was divided into half of the camps led by Ni Yun to guard the Lijia Road crossing, and the rest were stationed in the Jinsha water village.

As soon as the order was issued, the battalions moved to their new locations when they heard the news, and the first large-scale expansion of the Liangshan Manor finally came to an end. Then Gu Hao Tiancai freed his hands and built a team for the Education Department with Wen Huanzhang, and disposed of the home for logistics.

However, a family member only knew that although the family in the manor is still considerable, because since this year, in addition to earning a sum of money from the Jin State Mission, there is no big income, and the expenditure is a lot, Tokyo City and his party spent a lot, and it also took a lot of money to buy horses in the north, plus various expenses such as recruitment, infrastructure, and food and drink for more than 20,000 people in the manor, the inventory in the manor has dropped significantly. At present, there are still more than 100,000 taels of silver, but there are only 120,000 stone of grain.

But after Zhang Jiucheng checked his family background, he was shocked, he originally had a certain psychological preparation for the wealth of Liangshan Manor, but he didn't expect to be rich to such an extent, there is a clear amount of silver taels and grain, but the full warehouse of jewelry, hand ornaments, calligraphy and paintings, and ancient books are more valuable than silver taels in his eyes. Du Qian and Song Wan didn't understand the purpose of these things, and they piled them up all over the ground. Zhang Jiucheng was heartbroken at that time, and immediately asked people to sort it out and register and place them one by one.

"These things of the little officials are all good things, it's a pity that they rot here, I suggest cleaning up some treasures to collect, and the rest are sent to the capital to be bought, and then take advantage of the summer harvest to go south to the two lakes in the south of the Yangtze River to buy all the grain, and the future will still be used for food."

After Zhang Jiucheng and Zhao Ding entered the management team of the manor, they called Gu Haotian a petty official like everyone else, and this change of collection into food was also his first suggestion after taking office as the finance department.

Of course, Gu Haotian supports such an idea, and now that Zhu Gui and others are there in the capital, it is not difficult for him to find it himself or contact a few stores through Cai Wulang, so he asked Zhang Jiucheng to immediately clean up a batch of items and let the Commerce Department send someone to Beijing.

"People eat and chew, and this money and food are consumed quite quickly, so it is good to have a stable financial route."

Wen Huanzhang has been in charge of the manor for half a year, and he can't help but be a little worried when he sees the money and food consumed so quickly.

"The manor is a lonely island in the water, and it is not very convenient to plant grain at present, but he also has an advantage, which is located on the golden waterway of Jianghuai and Jiangnan into Beijing.

After Zhao Ding took over the Civil Affairs Office, he also began to think about some affairs of the manor these days, and he also thought about the income of the manor these days, so he followed Wen Huanzhang's words and put forward his own opinions.

After listening to the conversation between the two, Xiao Jiasui suddenly had a flash of inspiration in his heart, and when he thought of a location, he blurted out:

"Li Jia Daokou! This is located on the official road of Jingdong two roads into Beijing, and is at the throat of Jishui, and in the vicinity of our Liangshan, if we build a material distribution point here, one manor can collect a lot of taxes, and the other can trade some special products in the manor, such as liquor, coke, and even horses, weapons, and the jewelry that the ninety percent brothers just said are traded here, that is, if the price of grain is fair, someone will send it to the door. ”

After listening to Xiao Jiasui's words, everyone felt that their eyes lit up, and even Gu Haotian felt good.

At this time, Xu Guanzhong suddenly hesitated and said: "Brother Xiao's idea is good, but I am afraid that the official government will make a hindrance from it, and it will ...... in the future."

Xiao Jiasui didn't take these things seriously, his eyes were cold, and he said something cruel:

"Brother Guanzhong, I don't think I need to worry about these, at the beginning of the moment, I just need to dredge Yuncheng County, there are times when Zhixian and Zhu Dutou are there, there should be no big problem, as for the future, hum! Are the more than 10,000 people in our Liangshan Manor all decorations? ”

"There is no conflict between Guan Zhong and Jiasui, I think this matter is feasible, the city was established in the name of outsiders before, and then it was defended with strength, even if the war came, it was difficult to defend for a while, I think Liangshan and Lijia Daokou are separated by a water, we still have several battalions of sailors, and it is always time to withdraw to the mountain! If there are really some losses, we will compensate for them, and we have built up credibility for so long, and no one in the world will come. ”

Wen Huanzhang admired this method of accumulating wealth very much, and thought carefully about the possible consequences.

Gu Haotian also agreed with this method in his heart, he knew that there would inevitably be a confrontation with the imperial court in the future, but he was confident that he could protect this close springboard, even if there was a certain loss, he thought it was acceptable, so he clapped his hand and said:

"This matter is feasible, so Director Zhao Ding will take the lead, with the cooperation of the Finance Department, the Infrastructure Department, the Commerce Department, and the Military Administration Department, and draw up a plan in the near future, and everyone will discuss it then."

Lijia Daokou is actually the territory of Liangshan now, this matter is the first fire of Zhao Dingxinguan's office, he gathered people from all over the world in the afternoon of the same day, and took a boat to inspect the field. Gu Haotian happened to be fine, so he pulled Wen Huanzhang over with him.

Han Jiangping learned that the little official came with the people in the manor, and hurriedly ran over, and after learning the reason, he took everyone to the official road at the edge of the village, pointed to the open land on both sides of the road, and said:

"Although the village of Lijia Daokou is small, the land on both sides of the official road is in the village, and there is no problem in building the market land, and there is also a convenience, everyone follow me to that small hill to have a look."

Everyone followed his eyes, but it was a small mound more than 20 meters high, and they followed.

Standing on the top of the hill, Han Jiangping pointed to a river channel outside and continued: "This river is a tributary of Shuibo, and from here it turns southwest and Lixu, if you want to use it properly, there will be a great benefit. ”

"Brother Han is talking about connecting that side with Shuibo?"

Tao Zongwang has been engaged in infrastructure construction and defense planning for a long time, and he is very sensitive to this, so he first saw Han Jiangping's intentions and immediately blurted out.

However, when he said this, everyone understood. That's right! If the passage with Shuibo is opened in the south, then the Lijia crossing will become an island, and it will be very convenient in terms of defense.

At this time, Han Jiangping spoke again: "What Director Tao just said is exactly what I thought, but there is another advantage, if the soil obtained from digging the river is piled up into a hill on the south side of the official road, and the north and south confrontation under our feet guard the head of the village, and there is water behind it to retreat, then it will be a big bazaar, and foreign enemies will not be able to attack it for a while." ”

Everyone said that they had examined the surrounding terrain, but as they said, if they dug the river and built the mountain, the Lijia Daokou would not be said to be as solid as gold, but with the strength of Liangshan, it would be difficult for foreign enemies to attack.

Gu Haotian glanced at Han Jiangping, thinking that this person is worthy of being a descendant of the old Han family, and he does have some level, and after being the "village chief" for more than half a year, it seems that he has also spent a lot of thought here, and he can't help but look at him differently.

And after listening to Han Jiangping's idea, some people who were originally skeptical also actively supported it at this moment. Zhao Ding and Xiao Jiasui, the two "activists", were eager to start work on the spot.

A few days later, Zhao Ding took a group of people to live at the Lijia crossing, and worked hard for several days, and on the evening of the fifth day, the preliminary planning drawings were finally taken out.

In the conference room of the China Hall that night, the relevant personnel surrounded the drawings and started a heated debate. It wasn't until midnight that the defense settings and the layout of the market were decided, and all that remained was to connect with the local government.

Koo Haotian was appointed at that time, led by the Infrastructure Construction Department, with the cooperation of the Civil Affairs Office, to start digging the river first, and the rest to be carried out step by step.

The next day, Gu Haotian took Han Jiangping and others to Yuncheng County, at noon Gu Haotian's fleet docked Gujiazhuang, Gu Zhen just returned home two days ago, after the father and son met, Gu Haotian went to visit Liu Yuan and the guards left behind.

In the afternoon, the group entered Yuncheng County, and after a short rest in Shilixiang Restaurant, Gu Haotian went to visit Shi Wenbin. The two formed a deep friendship when they were in Jeju, and when Shi Wenbin heard the news, he hurriedly invited him in.

"I heard that Haotian Jinke has no reference, and when I first heard it a few days ago, I was very surprised, I was waiting for someone to ask, it just so happened that you came today, hurry up and tell me the reason."

Shi Wenbin was taken aback when he heard that Gu Haotian had abandoned the exam that day, he originally thought that Gu Haotian would go to the capital to get nine out of ten, as a local parent official and friend, he also had a light on his face, who expected that it would be such a result in the end, so he couldn't wait to ask questions as soon as they met.

"This fact is helpless, in fact, who wants to miss the opportunity."

Gu Haotian smiled bitterly, and then said that Li Bangyan and Bai Shizhong were framed by missing questions in the examination room.

"If I had entered the examination site at that time, I am afraid that I would have entered the Kaifeng Mansion Prison without knowing anything."

After hearing this, Shi Wenbin was silent for a long time before sighing: "Alas! The atmosphere of the court is so corrupt! How can Haotian have time to go around today?"

"I have nothing to do at home these days, and I miss it very much when I think I haven't seen an adult for half a year, and I happen to be entrusted by a friend, and I want to ask an adult about a small matter."

"But what?"

"I have a friend who is a member of the Li family crossing, and now he has set up a market in the village to do some business, and he wants to seek the support of the county government and find me here."

"If there is no violation of the law in the bazaar, the county government will generally not intervene, as for the tax, how much can the small country market get, then forget it, if you are worried about the extortion of lawless officials, tomorrow let the household issue a document with him, just say that it is exempt from taxation."

Shi Wenbin couldn't think of how big a market could be opened in a small village, so they just wanted to have peace of mind, and they didn't want to exempt the tax without thinking about it.

Gu Haotian took the hot iron and immediately asked people to inform Han Jiangping to go to the yamen to complete the formalities.

In the evening of the same day, Gu Haotian invited Shi Wenbin to Shilixiang for a small gathering, and by the way, he said that Yan Junqing was going to Jingdong to take up a job, and the two made an appointment to get together again when they arrived next time, so they broke up and went their separate ways.

At this time, it was getting late, and Gu Haotian was about to go back to Gujiazhuang with Bian Xiang and others, but saw Gu Tao whispering on the side:

"A few days ago, when I heard Zhang Wenyuan drinking in the store, he talked about a thing, and I felt very strange in the next place, and the little official could only listen to it?"

Gu Haotian saw that he couldn't help but stop again.