So Ji Qingwen, Chen Wenzhao and others, led the newly recruited 200 sergeants, left Yiwu and went all the way north to Suzhou.

Chen Wenzhao led the troops with the military method of "Qi's army" and asked the newly recruited sergeants to march to Suzhou at a rapid pace every day, covering 150 miles a day.

Although these newly recruited sergeants were also from a hard background and were not pampered, they could not withstand such a toss, and they complained bitterly after walking for two days.

Chen Wenzhao said: "Now that you are moving forward lightly, you can't support it, and you will come to the battlefield, wearing steel knives, carrying spears, carrying shields, hanging muskets, and several people carrying artillery together, and you will still have to walk 150 miles every day." Complaining now? It's still early! ”

The army was shocked when they heard this, and of course they were dissatisfied in their hearts, but for the sake of a hundred taels of silver a year, they could only grit their teeth and persevere.

In this way, everyone hurried all the way, and at noon on the fourth day of leaving Yiwu City, they had come to Suzhou City.

In ancient times, there were no airplanes, railways, automobiles, and no telegraphs, telephones, and networks, so the life circle of the ancients was extremely small, and many people spent their lives around a small county town all their lives.

Take the group of people brought out by Ji Qingwen from Yiwu as an example, most of them are in their twenties, most of them have never left Yiwu County, and none of them have ever been to Suzhou.

Therefore, the prosperity and magnificence of Suzhou City, which is known as "heaven above and Suzhou and Hangzhou below", suddenly frightened this group of dirt buns into dizziness, if it were not for the queue that was much neater than when they left Yiwu, they would have to get lost.

Ji Qingwen saw that the soldiers had worked hard all the way, but he was not stingy with money, so he immediately sent Huang Degong to inform Duo Jiugong and asked Duo Jiugong to set up twenty tables in Deyue Tower, which should be specially used to entertain his newly recruited soldiers.

Chen Wenzhao, who led the team, had seen the world, and he knew that the "Deyue Tower" was one of the best restaurants in Suzhou, and that Ji Qingwen had taken the soldiers to such a good place to eat when he first arrived, and he might have to raise the mouths of this group of recruits -- so he was quite a bit slanderous about Ji Qingwen's behavior.

However, he Chen Wenzhao was also a newcomer, so he immediately dismissed Ji Qingwen's kindness, so before the meal, he deliberately said to the army: "Lord Ji loves soldiers like sons, let you taste the best food in the world." In the future, if you have made war achievements, Lord Ji will naturally invite you. If you lose the battle, even if you come back alive, it will only be a nest of fresh vegetables to satisfy your hunger! ”

After speaking, Chen Wenzhao asked the store to serve the food.

"Deyue Building" really deserves its name, the eight treasure steamed buns Ganoderma lucidum cake, pine nut osmanthus fish Dongpo meat, jade silk stewed liver roasted swan, agate sweet soup beef soup, all of them are delicacies, eat this group of soldiers from Yiwu one by one with oily faces, clear ears and eyes, tears in the eyes, endless aftertaste.

After eating and drinking, Ji Qingwen discussed with Chen Wenzhao: Although the military discipline of the team of 200 people is strict, it is very eye-catching after all, and Ji Qingwen himself has many enemies in Suzhou City, so it is difficult to guarantee that someone will deliberately come to stir up trouble; Therefore, it is not good for the sergeants to live in the city, so it is better to go outside the city and find a place to rent a house and use it as a barracks.

Chen Wenzhao disagreed, thinking that being a soldier was meant to endure hardship, and there was no need to live in a very good house, so he just asked Ji Qingwen to rent or buy a vacant land, and let these sergeants build barracks by themselves, so that they could take this opportunity to practice their skills in building barracks. It's just that the barracks can't be built overnight, and I hope that Ji Qingwen will buy some sturdy linen cloth to set up tents, and these tents can also be used for wild camping in the future.

These two things are a gesture for Ji Qingwen.

Although Suzhou is prosperous, there is still vacant land, and there are more than a dozen acres of dry land next to the welfare workshop opened by the weaving yamen outside the Panmen in the south of the city. Ji Qingwen didn't think about it, so he spent more than 300 taels of silver to buy these more than ten acres of land for the construction of a military camp.

As for linen, it is also very easy, although Ji Qingwen is not treated by the Suzhou Chamber of Commerce and the weaving workshop, but after all, he is also one of the bigwigs in the textile industry, and he did not waste any effort, so he purchased hundreds of linen cloth and handed it to Chen Wenzhao, and it cost a total of more than 200 taels of silver.

Ji Qingwen has soldiers and horses in his hands and is on the rise, so these things are done very neatly, and when everything is settled, it is just the beginning of the lanterns.

So Ji Qingwen sent more than nine dukes to the city to purchase some pots and pans, rice, noodles, meat and vegetables according to Chen Wenzhao's intentions, and watched Chen Wenzhao command his soldiers to bury pots and cook, and ate with everyone before returning to Suzhou City.

Unexpectedly, Ji Qingwen had just walked into the Xiangmen in the south of the city, and was stopped by Song Yingxing.

I only heard Song Yingxing say: "Lord Ji has been busy for a day, and he doesn't dare to disturb the adult's business." Since the adults are free now, then Zheng Zhi ......"

Before he finished finishing the word "dragon" of "Zheng Zhilong" in his mouth, he was interrupted by Li Yan and said: "Song Xiaolian, Lord Ji has been on the road for a few days, and today he is very busy, I am afraid that I don't have the strength to see people to do things again, if there is anything, wait for tomorrow......"

Ji Qingwen said: "Why did Brother Li say that? Song Xiaolian is known for 'not asking for help', since he came to me, there must be something important......"

He was halfway through his words, but he saw Li Yan squeezing his eyebrows at him, and suddenly his mouth suddenly opened, and he said in a very abrupt tone: "I'm tired, no matter how important it is, I'll talk about it tomorrow!" ”

After that, Ji Qingwen pretended to yawn, suddenly turned his head, looked at Li Yuanyin with surprised eyes, and said, "Commander Li, why are you still here?" ”

Observing words and emotions is Li Yuanyin's housekeeping ability, Ji Qingwen's acting skills are really not clever, whether it is the tone or expression, there are obvious traces of performance.

However, with his current status and position, Li Yuanyin can't expose Ji Qingwen, so he can only pretend to be stupid and say: "Lord Ji, I'm not here, where else can I be?" ”

After that, he used acting skills a hundred times higher than Ji Qingwen to put a somewhat innocent smile on his face.

Ji Qingwen didn't have time to think about whether he was pretending to be stupid or really stupid, so he said bluntly: "I remember that Commander Li assisted me in recruiting and training the Township Warrior Regiment, right?" These people are unruly, and no one can watch them, so I will live with them and watch them for me, so as not to cause any trouble. ”

When Li Yuanyin heard this, he knew Ji Qingwen's intentions.

But he is not a stupid person, he thinks that he is a brocade guard, and it is normal for Ji Qingwen to keep himself far away, rather than bargaining with him on this matter, it is better to simply agree.

So Li Yuanyin said without hesitation: "It's still Lord Ji who is thoughtful, I will live in the same tent with Chen Wenzhao and them in the past few days, and I will stare at them for a while." ”

Ji Qingwen nodded, said a few words of encouragement, and then turned around and went back.

Song Yingxing didn't know that there was a-for-tat confrontation between Ji Qingwen and Li Yuanyin just now, and he only felt that he had eaten a hard nail, and he was angry with the book, so he turned his head and walked towards Suzhou City.

Ji Qingwen saw that Li Yuanyin had indeed been sent away, so he stopped Song Yingxing and said, "Song Xiaolian, what are you doing so fast?" ”

Song Yingxing turned his head and said, "Didn't the adults say that no matter how important things are, we will talk about them tomorrow." Zheng Zhilong is there for John Tang now, and the students go to inform them to go back to sleep and come back tomorrow to ask for an adult. He spoke in a rather stiff tone.

Ji Qingwen hurriedly apologized: "That's my rudeness just now." But Song Xiaolian thought about it, that Jinyi Wei was with me, what if he insisted on meeting Zheng Zhilong and meeting Tang Ruowang? ”

Song Xiaolian suddenly realized: "It turns out that adults still have such a layer of consideration, and students are far from being able to admire and admire." Jin Yiwei is a villain who digs the roots of the wall and listens to the corner, and he really can't take him with him. ”

Ji Qingwen smiled and said, "Then let's go to Tang Ruowang now." However, Song Xiaolian also has a wide range of contacts, I remember that you don't seem to know Tang Ruowang and Zheng Zhilong, why did you hook up with them after I left for a few days? ”

Song Yingxing said as he walked: "I also met John Tang by chance, and when I saw that Western machinery technology was quite impressive, I befriended him. I also met Zheng Zhilong......"

This was just Ji Qingwen casually asking, and he also nodded casually and talked.

But what he didn't realize was that the science and technology of the East and the West were beginning to have fierce integration and exchanges with him Ji Qingwen as the fulcrum and Tang Ruowang and Song Yingxing as levers......