At dusk.

At the foot of the Qinling Mountains, by the Lanxi River.

The flat open space left behind by the demolition of the Lijiazhuang compound was lively. The evening breeze was blowing, and more than 500 men from the township hall were resting and chatting, squatting or sitting, holding red tassel guns.

"That gang of thieves is really bold, they dare to come and rob the Li family's compound." A dark-skinned Zhuang Han said to his fellow villagers.

"I heard, they didn't come for money, I heard that no, our San Lang is amazing, he just became an official of the imperial court, a six-rank official."

The news of Li Xiao's appointment as an official has not yet spread, and many people are surprised. Why, Li Sanlang suddenly became a big official.

"I heard that it was because Saburo gave a precious grain to the imperial court, which seems to be called corn. When planted in the ground, it can grow grains like jade grains, as big as beans, but the yield is extremely high. An acre of land can produce two or three stones at will, even dry land can produce so much, so there will be thieves who come to steal the treasure, they are not here to rob money, but to rob corn. ”

One person said to his partners with some excitement that this was also what he heard from the people in Li Jiazhuang when he was in the thatched house just now, in fact, this was also the news that Li Xiao intended to let his family release.

"I also heard that there are very few corn seeds now, so the imperial court has set up a corn supervisor and asked Li Sanlang to be the six-grade corn supervisor to plant corn. I heard that the imperial court has set aside three plots of land to grow corn, and we have one piece of land in Lanxi. After the corn harvest in these fields, there will be seeds next year, and then we will also have corn seeds to plant, and the yield per mu in the fields will increase greatly, and we will not worry about famine. ”

Oh my God, farmers are always naturally sensitive to grain crops, and when they hear this, everyone is looking forward to this corn very much.

It is particularly drought-tolerant, and is it the same as millet and millet, but the yield of millet is extremely low, and even far inferior to the yield of wheat, let alone rice. However, wheat and rice have a higher water demand and are not as drought tolerant as millet. There is also sorghum, which is neither as productive as wheat nor as good as corn.

Isn't it amazing that there is a new crop that is drought tolerant and has high yields, and is said to be delicious.

If every family grows this corn, then there will be no need to worry about lack of food in the future. Think about adding one stone to one acre, and the family's dozens of acres of land can at least add dozens of stones. A year with a few dozen more stones of grain, at least the family can eat enough every day in the future.

"thief, he actually wants to come and rob such a precious corn seed." One scolded hatefully.

They believe in Li Xiao's character, the Li family has such good corn, and now it is dedicated to the imperial court and is responsible for trial planting. When the harvest is over, everyone will be able to plant it too.

If it is robbed by thieves, who knows if it will be planted or not.

Not far away.

In the front hall of the Li family's compound, Li Xiao was accompanying the county officials who had just arrived in the county, and the county officials such as the county commander had just arrived.

At this time, when I arrived at Lijiazhuang, there were already nearly 1,000 people.

For such a large team, of course, Li Xiao is still very grateful in his heart, no matter what, if that group of people shoots back, they will have at least the ability to resist.

"Don't be three days, you should be impressed."

Li Xiao drank tea and looked at Li Xiao with a smile. This young man was just a villager under his own rule before, although he had a bit of an industry, but it was all because he had a few moves with Cheng Xue's family, so he took special care of it.

But who would have thought that in the blink of an eye, people had already flown up the branches to make phoenixes, and they were actually on an equal footing with themselves.

As the county magistrate of Qi County, he is only on the sixth grade, and Li Xiao has done it from the white body to the corn supervision under the sixth grade in a blink of an eye. Although he is still three levels higher, he was born in the Liu clan in Hedong, a famous family, and he is still a scholar in the imperial examination, and he has been in the officialdom for more than ten years before he was promoted to the sixth grade, and Li Xiao, who is only twenty-one years old, is white and walks from the sixth grade in a blink of an eye.

Especially this corn supervisor, it is not a casual official position, and the yamen that has the attention of the Son of Heaven, if he does a good job, it is not difficult to be promoted again.

"Supervisor Li Zheng has corn, why didn't he tell our county, we should prepare in advance, so as not to be caught off guard by a raid like today." Lieutenant Wang's words were a little sour, he was just a nine-grade official, he still retired from the army, and he fought hard for half a lifetime to get a nine-grade, Li Xiao, in a blink of an eye, he was promoted to the sixth grade.

He thought to himself that Li Xiao was not righteous enough, if Li Xiao had corn and reported to the county government first, maybe they would be able to get a little light. Now that it's good, Li Xiao bypassed them and reported directly to Yongzhou Mansion, and this official has become a full-fledged official, and they still know about it.

didn't get the benefits, but he wanted to wipe Li Xiao's buttocks, and it was normal for him to be a little angry.

"I won't hide it from you, in fact, this matter was not reported by me Li Xiao, and no one will believe it if I say it without evidence, for example, if I told a few people before that I have corn, how good is corn, you are afraid and you will not believe it. I wanted to try it out in Blue Creek first, and then everyone could see it for themselves. Unexpectedly, last time Di Facao from Yongzhou Yamen came to pay an unannounced visit, so that he accidentally discovered that he reported the matter. ”

Liu Qi smiled and said, "I understand, in fact, County Lieutenant Wang has no other intentions. In any case, this corn seed is very important now, although the thieves are temporarily gone, we don't know if they will come back, so it is also the responsibility of our county government to protect the seeds. San Lang rest assured, we must work with you to protect this corn seed. ”

More than 1,000 officials and strong men, plus 500 men of the Lanxi Township People's League, although they have no weapons, they are only some wooden guns, big sticks, hunting bows and the like, but after all, Lijiazhuang has just been planned and repaired, with village walls and ditches around the village.

Everyone guards according to the village wall, and it is not that there is no combat effectiveness, after all, there are only a hundred horses that came before.

"Thank you Liu County Ling and all of you for your help, if there is no accident, it is estimated that the thief will not dare to come again. Afterwards, a certain person should truthfully perform the court and ask for credit for you. Li Xiao thanked him.

"San Lang, there are soldiers and horses coming." Da Biao carried two butcher knives and ran into the hall shouting.

Hearing this, everyone in the hall was a little surprised.

"Do these people who killed a thousand knives dare to come back?" Li Xiao was surprised, it stands to reason that Yu Chengji wanted to rob it, how could he come back after leaving?

"I'll take a look."

"Let's go." Liu County's order was not ambiguous, and he followed out with a horizontal knife in his hand.

In the village, when they heard that there were soldiers appearing, the people were a little flustered, but they still emboldened each other. Someone has already begun to direct everyone to defend the village wall in sections.

"San Lang, look over there, there's a big team."

The door of the village has been closed, there are several wooden ladders on the wall of the village, Li Xiao climbed a ladder, climbed on the wall and looked into the distance, and saw that on the field road in the distance, there was a group of people and horses, riding horses and walking, but with spears and knives, and still playing flags, there were at least two or three hundred people.