Li Fugui was surprised and delighted, he thought it would take a lot of words, but he didn't expect Li Yu to make up his mind so quickly, and to do it so thoroughly, not only Du Wenhuan was dismissed from the post of participating in politics, but also Zhao Ji lost his position as a servant, and the senators in other armies were also swept away, and the military and political power was firmly in the hands of the Grand Commander's Office from then on.

"Hermes-Epitek doesn't love authority, it's really a great fortune for Toyoshu!" Li Fugui said with sincere admiration.

"Authority can kill, I don't want it, I don't dare to ask for it! This official letter forwarded by Zhang Shi'an, you can take a closer look. Li Yu put an official document on the table.

The content of the official document is the news that Fan Erxi found in Shenyang, mainly on three points: first, there is a serious shortage of grain in Jinguo, and the price of grain in Shenyang remains high, and there is often no market, including the people of the Eight Banners, and the people starve to death from time to time; Second, the two battalions of the left and right battalions of Mongolia suffered huge losses in the first battle of Weining Haizi, and after returning to China, the establishment was revoked, and Yu Ding was added to the Eight Banners. The third is that Jin Guosan Beile Mang Gurtai died violently at the end of last year, and Derge took over as the ZLQ banner owner - Fan Erxi's people are mainly at the level of the Eighth Banner, and they can't get access to the core secrets, except for Liu Xingzuo, who is more interested in the news reported, others don't care too much, Li Fugui and Batu looked at Li Yu suspiciously.

"You haven't experienced it, when Lao Khan died, I was by his side, so dangerous, fortunately I ran away, otherwise there might be a river of blood, but the eldest concubine is dead, Amin Belle is imprisoned, and Mang Gultai Belle is also dead now," Li Yu slumped in his chair and muttered to himself, "I don't believe that San Belle will die violently, who is next?" How many more people will die? I can't let this happen to my children, absolutely not! ”

Li Yu closed his eyes and was silent for a while, then suddenly lowered his voice and said: "I'll tell you one more thing, Ying Erdai asked March to tell me that Yilang Gege of the Bel Abatai family of the Jin Kingdom gave birth to a boy last year, and this child should also be my son, you know how scared I am now." Why did I insist on not letting the Lama take Li Jin away? For I know that the greater the power, the more blood will be shed. ”

Li Fugui's face was pale, his hands trembled and he pointed at Li Yu speechless, Batu cried out: "Yuzi, you are not a person who messes with flowers and grass, but the matter is even bigger, Chahar's Ada Sea is enough to give people a headache, and now there is another son born to Jin Guoge, the future of Fengzhou is completely messed up, why don't you want to understand when you do that!" ”

", if I figured it out, there would be this kind of thing!" Li Yu slapped the table angrily, and then lowered his head again, "Forget it, I'll talk about it later, since Fengzhou pursues a policy of checks and balances, then simply divide the authority more, didn't the businessman build a council, give them the title to continue to work, the sky can't fall yet." ”

On the second day of the first lunar month, Shenshuitan held a big pot rice banquet attended by nearly 10,000 people, and other government guards in Fengzhou must be doing similar things on this day. Shenshuitan has more content this year, the Flying Tiger Cavalry Youth Sentinel who has reached the age of eighteen is officially awarded the title to join the battalion, and from then on can fight the world with the Fengzhou Army, Ma Guangyuan announced the award order to everyone with a red face.

"Hadari, the rank of cavalry, retained in the Flying Tiger Battalion, Brother Richard, the cavalry thousand general rank, retained in the Flying Tiger Battalion, Li Xuan, the cavalry thousand general rank, retained in the Flying Tiger Battalion,......" Hearing the young men who retained the Flying Tiger Battalion cheered, Hadari was even more happy, he had beheaded before, and this time he was directly awarded the title of the capital, one level higher than others, and today he is still the groom official, and the bride Wu Ya not far away is waving to him - Batu's wife and Wu Langha have negotiated, and Wu Langha is buying real estate for the little couple in naturalization, Batu's family sent a new car, and Hadari is also a person with a house, a car and a wife from now on.

"Ma Shizhong, the commander of the infantry, the former battalion of the infantry army, Liu Shuangxi, the commander of the artillery thousand, the commander of the artillery battalion, the ,...... of the artillery battalion" The people who were read the name were dejected, there was no way, who told them that they could not be excellent in cavalry and archery.

After reading the list, Ma Guangyuan waved his fist and shouted: "Wuxuan Battalion!" ”

"Brave, loyal, worthy of the mission, protect the weak!" The young officers shouted in unison - Father Gao Yizhi was invited by Ma Guangyuan to give a lecture at the Wuxuan Camp, and told the young people about the brave style of the noble knights of Taixi, the speaker may not have intentional, but the listener has a heart, this generation is different from the predecessors who were born in the army, horse thieves, and poor people, they have their own dreams, so the Wuxuan Camp Oath was born.

"The red flag is raised under the barbarian mountain, and my soldiers are mighty and strong; The general is gracious to the people, and his comrades are in good spirits; The desert smoke rises from the side wall, and the Jin Ge Iron Horse is in a hurry; The blood is heroic, the country is dead, and the captives have been extinguished. The loud military song sounded, and the poem written by Hong Chengchou was composed by the Propaganda Department and officially became the military song of the Fengzhou Army. Li Dingguo, Cha Gui, Liu Wenxiu, and Ma Bao, ......, stepped forward one after another and received the red tasseled felt hats and green cloth military uniforms from the two Flying Tiger Battalion officers, Meng Ke and Jeddah.

Li Fugui and Wang Zheng are still sighing - the young generation in Fengzhou has grown up, they are full of vitality and lofty ambitions, maybe it will not take ten years for them to mature and lead the army to conquer the world, Du Hongtai ran to pull the two to speak, and there are more than 200 pairs of newcomers waiting.

What else is there to talk about, here are some big girls and little widows who have been abducted, shame! Li Fugui and Wang Zheng picked up a few nice words and finished speaking. When it was Li Yu's turn to speak, he digressed in a few words, scolding and saying that someone was eating in the bowl and looking at the pot, and that there was a wife at home who was not living well, and he took advantage of the famine in the customs to marry a concubine at home, which was so shameless! Du Hongtai and Zhang Ding's faces were red and purple, and they quickly dragged Li Yu down. Then it was simple, as soon as the trumpet blew, the happy event should be done, the meal should be eaten, and the chaos was lively, Li Yu also took Hadari and Wuya to the side, kowtowed a few heads to the east, and reported a good news to Uncle Kuru and Hadari's parents.

After the second day of the first lunar month, Li Fugui is going to return, and before leaving, he talked with Li Yu again, and after the two exchanged ideas for the future development of Fengzhou, Li Yu asked Li Fugui to take care of Liu Zhilun, he is a master who reads a lot, and he is a little embarrassed, but he is indeed a good person, without any bad intentions.

"I have already seen that we have different political views, but we have always respected him very much, and let him take over the matter of prosecuting unjudicial officials, this person is honest and upright, and he should be competent." Li Fugui nodded with a smile, and suddenly remembered one more thing, "Han Min, you know the Jin Kingdom best, will they call this year?" ”

"It's hard to say, Sibeile is arrogant, not easy to convince people, the last time the western invasion suffered, he will never swallow this breath, let's prepare to fight!" Li Yu replied.

In the middle of March of the seventh year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, the severed head SD foothills, the eastern Xingtai and Xinghewei command envoy station, the snow melted not long after, the trees sprouted, and some small grass was squeezed out of the ground, bringing a late spring to the earth, and there were more people working in the fields, and a pair of mirrors ploughed down the ground, and were pulled by cattle to turn over the hard land - this year there was a spring cold, and it was time to rush for spring ploughing.

The sound of horses' hooves came from far and near, and a troop of horsemen galloped over the dirt road, and in the middle of the procession was a horse-drawn saloon with closed curtains, and the common people noticed that their banner was embroidered with a snake, which should be the men and horses of the Titang Division, and someone shouted at the procession a few times, and the knight on the horse just waved his hand, as if he had something to do, and hurried forward without stopping.

"Go see how the people in the car are, give them a drink and don't let him die." Zhang Shi'an frowned and shouted to his subordinates, a Titang official got into the car, and after a while, he poked his head out and said that it was okay - in the car was tied to a Jin State spy caught in Weining Haizi, this guy can write and draw, which is very different from the Jin State spy caught before, it is obviously a big fish, and it is almost impossible to get to the platform.

In the spring of this year, Zhang Shi'an sat in Weining Haizi, on the one hand, to guard against Jin Guo's spies from mixing into Fengzhou, and on the other hand, to do his smuggling business - Titang Division was ordered to monitor the border trade, and by the way, the most profitable sulfur nitrate, fine iron and other military utensils business was in his hands, Jin Guo was willing to pay the capital, and Titangsi's business was extremely hot. Zhang Shi'an is addicted to making money, but he has not forgotten his own work, and told the Titang officials of thousands of households and hundreds of households to strictly guard against spies, but Fengzhou is tightly organized, and it is not easy for outsiders to mix in, occasionally a few Jinguo businessmen want to enter the hinterland of Fengzhou, and they are also required to sign life and death documents, Fengzhou does not guarantee that the Ming court will not arrest them, and often scares people back, in fact, these guys are indeed either traitors or thieves - Fengzhou businessmen are too diligent, and before the snow melts, they swarm to Ulan Hada, and directly traffic the goods to the gate of the Jin country, Even to Shenyang and Liaoyang, even the freight is not intended to be earned by Jinguo, and serious Jinguo businessmen can do business at their doorstep, and they don't have to come to Weining Haizi at all.

Zhang Shi'an is very confident in the security system of Fengzhou, but there are still outlaws who are not long-sighted, three days ago, the Titang official of the 19th thousand households reported that there were three Jin State spies disguised as Chahar people looking for work to sneak into the fortress by Weining Haizi, and were recognized by the highly vigilant Zhushen people, and killed two people on the spot, and captured the leading Liaodong Han people, and also searched from him for the fortress map marked with Chinese characters. Zhang Shi'an was in high spirits when he heard the news, and hurriedly ran to interrogate the spy, this guy is also a hard bone, he didn't confess after two days of punishment, and insisted that he knew Liu Xingzuo, he must meet him, otherwise he would rather die than confess, Zhang Shi'an couldn't pry open the other party's mouth, so he had to take someone to see Liu Xingzuo, fortunately, the road was not far, and he arrived in one day.

Xinghewei commanded the envoy, Liu Xingzuo sat behind the desk in the study, while looking at the official documents, while talking to Xue Xianguang, the servant - Wu Jinshi Xue Xianguang unknowingly worked in Xinghewei for almost two years, his face was thinner but his body was stronger, and his two eyes also showed unprecedented light, this place was much harder than his hometown in Qingzhou, and the work was more and more dry, and he was often so tired that people couldn't breathe, he wondered that he could actually survive, and he was more and more energetic, compared with now, the more than 20 years he lived before was like a mess.

"The Great Commander's Mansion can't come up with more money, and only agrees to give us one percent of the commercial tax from the Xinghe Branch of the Taxation Division this year and next year, you and the Xinghe Iron Manufacturer will measure it, and first install the guns of the two fortresses in the Butong River and Weining Haizi, and the rest will be talked about later, time waits for no one!" After reading the official document, Liu Xingzuo pushed it in front of Xue Xianguang.

Xue Xianguang picked up the official document, looked at it a few times and said: "The king has looked for me again, our little money to rectify the armament is definitely not enough, you want us to pawn the fortress to him as a warehouse, a storehouse, and repeatedly sell his kind of cheap artillery, what do you think?" ”

Liu Xingzuo smiled, this Wang always thought that repairing the fortress was too expensive, if there was no battle to fight, it was a waste, it was better to give him a sale, the kind of cannon he sold was also very different, the barrel was cast with fine iron, the outer layer was wrapped in bark and then tied tightly with several layers of leather, at first glance it was shoddy, and it was nicknamed "leather cannon". Wang again boasted that this cannon was light and practical, powerful and had a range greater than that of the Franc machine, and could beat two catties of iron three miles away, and it was particularly cheap, selling only one hundred and fifty taels each. After Liu Xingzuo saw it, he immediately pointed out the defects - the cannon wall was too thin to withstand wear and tear, and the heat dissipation was slow to be wrapped in bark and leather, which could easily lead to explosions, but Wang Chong obviously did not give up, and entangled Xue Xianguang again.

"I took someone to test shoot the leather cannon, it will not explode within thirty shots, it is enough to fight a battle, Wang re-promised to replace the barrel for free within a year, if you order his goods, you can provide a hundred in a month" Xue Xianguang also smiled.

"We don't have the money, I'm afraid we have to buy this kind of cannon that the poor can afford, just rely on him, the fortress, we use it when we fight, and he uses it when we don't fight." Liu Xingzuo smiled bitterly, and then said softly to Xue Xianguang, "Junshan, Xinghewei's spring training this year is good, there is your credit for this, the nineteen or twenty thousand households stationed in Weining Haizi have a great responsibility, and the ability of the two captains is weaker, I want to send you there to supervise military affairs temporarily, and at the same time assist Hui Dengxiang in handling government affairs, what do you think?" ”

"Adults are entrusted with heavy responsibilities, and their humble duties are not dishonored." Xue Xianguang got up and replied, seeing Liu Xingzuo nodding, he asked cautiously, "My lord, since Jiannu may invade the west, why does the Great Commander's Mansion still violate the imperial court's ban and allow the sale of grain, cloth, and sulfur to them, so isn't it an enemy?" ”

Liu Xingzuo was stunned for a moment, and hesitated for a while before replying: "Junshan doesn't need to be suspicious, the imperial court doesn't know the Jin Kingdom, but we know it well, Zhu Shen is not afraid of poverty, the tighter he presses, the bigger the rebound, and giving them food can disintegrate them even more." As long as the Jin country is willing to pay money, there will always be border merchants who take risks, it is better to allow them to trade and impose heavy taxes, and the border merchants have to leave us a stone of grain for every stone of grain sold to the Jin country, and every time they sell a piece of cloth to the Jin country, they have to leave us a piece of cloth, we do not suffer a loss, and the border merchants do not suffer a loss, only the Jin country is paying a lot of silver, how long can they last? The Great Commander's Office thinks farther than us, Fengzhou implements agriculture, animal husbandry, industry and commerce at the same time, and continuous trade will only make the gap between us and the Jin country closer and closer, maybe Fengzhou can catch up with the Jin country in about ten years, and then we can really suppress the Jin country, and we used this method to trample Chahar under our feet. Don't underestimate these merchants, they are more ruthless than us, but the people of Jin Guo can't leave them if they want to be fed and clothed, so they can only be slaughtered, so not only will the trade not stop, but will continue to expand, and when Jin Guo understands, it will be too late. ”

Xue Xianguang lowered his head and pondered, businessmen have always been despised by him, these guys not only gain an inch in Fengzhou, but also do business is very dishonest, he has seen with his own eyes, Fan Yongdou's subordinates mixed potato flour in wheat flour and sold it, and Zhang Shi'an was even worse, he even added sand and gravel to sulfur nitro, but in Liu Xingzuo's words, this group of profiteers seems to have merit.

The soldiers quietly came in and whispered a few words in Liu Xingzuo's ear, Xue Xianguang got up and was about to retire, Liu Xingzuo said, "Zhang Shi'an caught a Jin State spy, let's go and have a look", pulled Xue Xianguang out of the study together, and walked into a side room, Zhang Shi'an was waiting inside.

"Deputy Commander, he was incompetent, he didn't pry open this guy's mouth, so he had to bring it to see you, he said he knew you, and he didn't open his mouth until he saw you." Zhang Shi'an said with a red face and pointed to the person lying on the ground.

Liu Xingzuo stared at the person in front of him, who seemed to be a little familiar, and the person also looked at Liu Xingzuo, and suddenly cried after a while: "Lord Liu, it's really you, I'm Li Shijiu, do you remember me?" That year, my eldest son went to Fuzhou with you, and I followed him. ”

Liu Xingzuo remembered that when he and Yingge organized the people of Fuzhou to flee, the personal guard sent by Li Yongfang to Yingge was the family of the Li family, and he squatted down to support Li Shijiu - Zhang Shi'an was ruthless enough to beat people to the ground.

"I remember you, Li Shijiu, why are you so troubled!" Liu Xingzuo stroked Li Shijiu's wound and sighed.

"Liaodong people are used to it, I don't care about this, I just want Minggou to see, Liaodong people are not a bad breed." Li Shijiu spat at Zhang Shi'an fiercely, Zhang Shi'an was furious, picked up the whip to beat, Xue Xianguang pulled him aside, Li Shijiu smiled contemptuously, turned his face to Liu Xingzuo and asked: "Lord Liu, I want to hear what you say with my own ears, are you Fengzhou and Mingguo together?" ”

"Fengzhou and Mingguo are not the same thing, Fengzhou is taking its own road, a road that my eldest son and your eldest son wanted to take in Jinguo but didn't get through." Liu Xingzuo replied affirmatively.

"Then are you willing to avenge my eldest son?"

"Inge is my brother, and I will definitely make his killer pay."

A smile appeared on Li Shijiu's pale face: "Lord Liu, I believe what you say, and I will tell you everything I know." ”