The next day, Li Yao got up early in the morning and went to the school to watch the training of the city guards. As soon as I entered the school field, I found that the city guards were all sluggish, and I asked a city guard, only to know that everyone was woken up by the trumpet, and it seemed that Li Feng still did not reject the trumpet.

What Li Yao is most afraid of is Li Feng's rejection of the trumpet, originally Li Yao, as the Hou Ye, should not be pointing fingers at the city guards, let alone adding a trumpeter to the army, it may be that Li Feng should have figured out the importance of the trumpet, maybe he didn't dare to offend the Hou Ye, both of which are also estimated to be both.

Li Yao found Li Feng and said, do you have any training in the morning?

Li Feng shook his head: "In the morning, I usually wait for breakfast and don't have any training. ”

Because in ancient times, only two meals a day were eaten, so breakfast was not particularly early, and it was necessary to start eating about an hour after dawn, if you didn't train, it would delay the morning time, but this also had a problem, only two meals a day, if you train the whole body, the nutrition will not be able to keep up, if you want the army to be strong, it seems that three meals a day must be implemented, and the city guard is Li Yao's first experimental subject.

Li Yao said to the trumpeter: "Urgent assembly"

A short, loud trumpet sounded, and the city guards quickly assembled. Li Yao said: "I now announce the training plan, every morning after hearing the wake-up call, to a stick of incense within the time, wash up, gather in the playground, if there is a late, fine 20 military sticks, after the assembly, each team led the team of 100 people to run around the school field 10 laps, whether it is infantry or cavalry, the training is the same, and then rest a stick of incense time, start breakfast, after breakfast, start your formation training, wait until noon, I will also give you a meal, noon too, After eating, take a break for an hour, continue to run 10 laps around the school field, and then start the afternoon training, wait for dinner at dusk, after dinner, continue to run 10 laps around the school field, and then start training until dark. ”

As soon as everyone heard that they could eat three meals a day, they all talked to each other, Hou Ye's training plan, except for running around the school field for 30 more laps every day, did not add anything, but added one more meal every day, which really made the city guards very happy.

When Li Feng heard this training plan, he was also very surprised, adding one more meal every day, so that the team's expenses increased a lot, and then persuaded: "Master Hou, will this increase in one meal a day be a bit much!" ”

Li Yao said: "Three meals a day, this is also what I have been thinking about for a long time, it can be implemented completely, there is no need to worry about military expenses at all, you see, in less than half a month, the city guards will be strong." ”

Li Yao was also afraid that the drastic reform would cause adverse reactions from the city guards, not to mention that he had not discussed these decisions with Li Feng, so he could only reform slowly and imperceptibly change, which would also make the city guards more acceptable. Running was the first practice of Li Yao, because running is the easiest and most effective way to exercise physical strength.

After watching the city guards run for a while in the school field, Li Yao returned to the post station, called the fat man, and asked, "Fat man, how did you do with the sulfur you collected?" ”

The fat man said: "After I told the county order about this, the county order organized laborers to help us collect sulfur, and now we should have collected 10,000 catties, I am ready to load the car, this team has 100 vehicles, each can carry 200 catties of sulfur, this time you can bring 20,000 catties of sulfur back to Yi County." ”

20,000 catties of sulfur, according to the ratio of 10 percent of sulfur, can make 200,000 catties of black powder, and when the army expands, 200,000 catties of black powder is barely enough for a large-scale battle, it seems that the fat man still has to come here often to pull sulfur.

"By the way, how do you calculate the price of this sulfur?" Li Yao asked.

The fat man said: "The county order said that these don't need money, and if you want to pull it in the future, we just have to pay for it!" ”

Li Yao said: "Fatty, you said that if I open a sulfur factory here, hire some laborers to collect sulfur, and then send sulfur to Yixian once a month, can I save a lot of things!" ”

The fat man was surprised: "Yes, so I don't have to run back and forth." ”

"Well, then I'll leave this matter to you!" Li Yao said: "It is better to open the sulfur plant by the end of this year. ”

"Well, don't worry, boss, I'll leave this matter to me!" The fat man patted his chest and reassured.

Five days passed quickly, and there were still five bandit leaders who had not been ransomed, it seemed that these bandit leaders had been abandoned, and Li Yao handed over these five bandit leaders to the county order of Luxian County, which could be regarded as a gift to him. After all, his sulfur factory is still located here, and there are many places where he can be used in the future.

The goal of his trip is already obvious, and the next thing is to head to his fiefdom, Yi County. Of course, this road has also been swept in the past, and these days I can be regarded as making a lot of money, and after a rough calculation, there are 300,000 taels of silver.

Finally came to Yi County, looking from a distance, Yi County is like a city on the grassland, without the desolation of the Gobi Desert that Lian'er said. Looking at the city guards in Yi County, Li Yao couldn't help but shake his head, although there were three thousand of them, but the three thousand city guards stood together without momentum at all, and they felt that there was a group of rabble standing in front of them. Li Yao even felt that the five hundred royal city guards behind him could crush these city guards with a single charge. Li Yao shouted to Li Feng and said, "If you lead these five hundred city guards, how long will it take you to destroy these armies in front of you!" ”

Li Feng thought for a moment and said softly: "It only takes a stick of incense to lead the army to destroy them." ”

Li Yao smiled: "As I thought, it seems that these city guards will have to practice well in the future!" ”

The county commander and county magistrate of Yixian County took a group of squires and tyrants to look at the gate of the city for a long time, and finally looked forward to Li Yao, and when they saw Ning Hou's banner, they hurriedly ran over. happily welcomed Li Yao into the city.

Because Li Yao's housekeeper Wang Changzhu came early, the mansion was also cleaned up early, Li Yao and they went directly to the Hou Ye's Mansion, the fat man, the thin monkey They were not in a hurry to stand on their own because they were not married, so they also followed Li Yao to live in the Hou Ye's Mansion.

As soon as he cleaned up, Li Yao was invited by the county order to come out to pick up the wind and wash the dust, and it was still the same as before, but this time Li Yao didn't cry poor with the local tyrants here, because this is his own fiefdom, if he just came over, he would cry poor, and the future work would not be easy to carry out. Li Yao and the brothers and the county order and the county were at the same table. Li Yao asked, "I heard that there is a large area of Gobi Desert in our Yi County?" Why did I see the plump water and grass here when I came over, it was completely different from what others said. ”

The county magistrate of Yixian County hurriedly replied: "Master Hou, do you know something, our place is connected to Yiguo in the south, you also know that Yiguo is mountainous and has many water sources, and the terrain here is just half of the east side that can receive irrigation from the water source of the Yiguo Mountain Range, so the water and grass are abundant." The western one is completely intolerable, so it has always been on the verge of water shortage, so the other half is the Gobi Desert. ”

Li Yao nodded, then you haven't tried to bring the water from the east over.

The county commander shook his head with a wry smile: "Master Hou, I also had such an idea when I first took office, but the general terrain of our China is high in the west and low in the east, and it is too difficult to bring water from the east!" ”

The fat man asked: "County order, you say it is difficult, how difficult is it." I don't think you want to do things for the people of this county."

The county commander hurriedly waved his hand: "Guo Gongzi, you are really wronged!" According to my original statistics, if you want the Gobi in the west to be irrigated by water sources, the main canal plus the branch canal needs at least 300 miles of canals, and we only dug half a mile of land a day with 5,000 people last time, and every other mile we need to divert water canals. Bringing water from the east is beyond the reach of man! Moreover, the tax revenue of our Yi County has not been particularly good, and except for those handed over to Wangcheng, it is impossible for the rest to support this huge project! ”

After listening to the explanation of the county order, the fat man was also silent, everything can not be done to work the people and lose money, too much, although the land in the west is wide enough, but if it is beyond the people's capacity, this is not worth the loss.

Li Yao asked again: "Since our water resources flow down from the Yiguo Mountain Range, can we directly bring the water down from the mountain?" ”

The county commander shook his head: "The county lieutenant once told me about this idea, but after surveying, it can't be implemented, you also know that the Yiguo Mountain Range is a natural barrier between Yiguo and Qiguo, where the terrain is steep and dangerous, it is impossible to allow a large number of people to excavate, and the stones there are also very hard, and ordinary hammers have no effect at all." In the absence of manpower and sharp tools, we can only abandon this idea. ”

It is impossible for the land in the west to develop without water, and if the land in the west has no use value, Li Yao's fief will be less than half, and Li Yao will not allow such a thing to happen.

After listening to the county order, Li Yao believes that the only solution is to bring water directly from the mountain, first, the distance is close, the canal is not long, and there is no need to build a water truck to divert water, and second, it can save a lot of manpower.

Li Yao nodded and asked, "This method of taking water from the mountain range, you go back today and write a detailed information and hand it in, I will study it carefully!" ”

Li Yao secretly thought: "Since you can't smash the rock with a hammer, I will blow it up with gunpowder, I don't believe it, gunpowder can't blow it up." ”

After this meal, Li Yao didn't go back to his home, and second, he didn't go to eat and drink, so he took the blind man and Li Feng and went to the street for a private visit.

Walking on the street for a while, Li Yao found that Yi County is a relatively wealthy county, first of all, because there is a natural danger here, so there are not many troops stationed, and it is obvious that it has not been affected by the war for a long time, and secondly, it is located at the junction of Yiguo, Qiguo, and Uighurs, although the transportation is not developed, but it is obvious that people who can see Yiguo accents buy and sell here, although this is the junction with the Uighurs, but the vast Gobi in the west, even if the Uighurs want to come, they dare not come from this Gobi, Otherwise, this Gobi will be able to drag an army to death.

It seems that his cheap dad is really taking care of himself, giving himself a carefree fief, neither worrying about the impact of the war, nor afraid that he will sit on the mountain, after all, there are more caravans here, and the tax alone is enough. The county was not very hostile to the Uighur merchants, and although relations between the two countries had always been tense, the caravans could bring them furs, jewels, and many other valuable things, and there was no such thing as hatred driven by interests.

Li Yao walked past a rice shop, he was quite concerned about how much purchasing power his money had, so several people walked to the rice shop and asked about the price of rice here. Although the owner of the rice shop had seen Li Yao from afar, it was impossible to see it clearly, and besides, who would believe that a Hou Ye would personally go to the rice shop to ask the price of rice.

Although he didn't see Li Yao's identity, looking at the clothes and the guards behind him, he could be sure that this must be the son of a rich and noble family.

So as soon as Li Yao walked into the rice shop, he was warmly welcomed by the owner of the rice shop.

"Childe, what do you need?" The owner of the rice shop asked enthusiastically, and then asked the guy to bring two cups of tea.

Li Yao said: "I need to buy some rice! ”

The boss's smile became even more flattering: "I don't know how many meters my son needs?" Childe, it's not me blowing with you, the rice here in Yi County is the most affordable, although my rice line is not the largest in Yi County, but it can definitely be ranked in the top three. And all the rice I bought from all over the country is from me, and the reputation is naturally needless to say! ”

Li Yao didn't bother to listen to the shopkeeper's nonsense, and asked directly: "How much is the rice here!" ”

The shopkeeper said: "The rice in Quanyi County is 300 wen a load, this is a certificate, and we can't change it casually, right?" ”

"I mean, if I can buy a lot of it, how much cheaper can you be." Li Yao naturally knew what the rice shop owner was thinking.

The shopkeeper was even happier at this time, "Don't hide it from you, even if it's cheaper, I'm not cheaper, at most it's twenty wen cheaper per load."

Unless you buy enough grain, I can organize a special trip to Dongdu to collect grain, which can be as cheap as 250 wen per quintal, but in this case, you need to pay a deposit first.

"Eastern Capital? That's the Liang Dynasty! Li Yao couldn't help but be shocked when he heard this.

The shopkeeper said: "The eastern capital is not very far from us, but it is more than a thousand miles, and there are official roads everywhere, as well as water transportation, and the Liang Dynasty does not prohibit trade with our Qi country, so it is more profitable to make a trip!" ”

"Then how many loads of food do you have to make a solo trip?" Li Yao asked.

The boss raised his index finger: "At least 10,000 quintals, you can run alone"

10,000 quintals, Li Yao thought about it, one person eats one pound of rice a day, that one quintal of rice is enough for one person to eat for 100 days, and that 10,000 quintals of rice is enough for 10,000 people to eat for 100 days, so the amount is not particularly large!

It seems that this one rice line still can't meet my needs, and Li Yao revealed his identity at this time. When the owner of the rice shop heard that Hou Ye was in front of him, his legs were weak with fright, and he lay on the ground and said tremblingly: "I don't know that Hou Ye is coming, the villain should die!" ”

Shinong Industry and Commerce, although the merchant is the lowest level, but seeing that Li Yao can be scared like this, Li Yao is still a little surprised!

Picking up the rice shop owner, Li Yao said: "Tomorrow you come to the Hou Mansion, I will invite all the rice shop owners in Yi County to discuss some things together." ”

The owner of the rice shop said tremblingly: "Yes, Master Hou, the little one will go over early tomorrow morning!" ”

Out of the rice shop, the blind man said: "Big brother, there is no shortage of rice at home, why do you want to call all the rice shop owners in Yi County to buy rice!" ”

Li Yao smiled: "I don't need it now, I will need it after a while, I also want to prevent it from happening, otherwise everything will be piled up at that time, but it will be difficult to solve!" ”

You go and arrange it, find the county order to come forward, gather all the bosses of the rice shop, and wait at the Hou Mansion tomorrow morning.

The blind man nodded, turned and left.

Seeing that the blind man went to the county office, Li Yao and Li Feng walked in the direction of the city gate, ready to see what the city guards in Yi County were like!