When the news that Emperor Huai of Jin was captured, the people of Gongqing were slaughtered, and the capital of Luoyang was burned down reached Xuzhou one after another, it immediately caused panic in Xuzhou.

In order to stay away from the threat of the Hu people, more and more families are preparing to cross the river south to Jiangdong. All of a sudden, the business of carriage and horse dealers in Xuzhou actually flourished. Unfortunately, due to the urgency of time, there is not much time left for the families to transfer their property.

Only Pei Shi, the wife of Lord Thorn Shi, was reminded by Wei Shuo in advance that she did not suffer any losses in this property transfer turmoil.

At the same time, the whole of Xuzhou felt the threat from the Hu people, especially the assassin Shi Pei Dun felt the deepest. Now Pei Dun no longer mentioned the proposal of going north to King Qin, but ordered all parts of Xuzhou to strengthen their vigilance to prevent the Hu people from raiding.

Sensing that war was coming, the atmosphere in the barracks was much more tense than before, and the soldiers took their training a lot more seriously. In the midst of the disturbances, Zhang Erlang returned to Pengcheng from Laoshan.

"Brother Wei, I'm so glad to see you! This is a letter written to you by Mr. Zhu, and he asked me to hand it over to you. Oh, Brother Wei, it's a pity that you didn't go back with me, don't you know, now our Laoshan has changed a lot. More than 20,000 people have gathered on the mountain, and our escort has expanded to 1,500 people. ”

As soon as he entered the door, Zhang Erlang happily reported to Wei Shuo what he had seen and heard about his return to Laoshan this time. Wei Shuo took Zhu Wen's letter, patted Zhang Erlang's shoulder and said with a smile: "Did you go back to Laoshan to see Uncle Zhang and them this time?" Uncle Zhang and Second Uncle Yang, how are their bodies? ”

"Well, my dad and they are all fine, but I always ask Brother Wei why he hasn't returned to Laoshan yet, everyone misses you very much. Oh, by the way, my father and sister-in-law asked me to bring you a lot of gifts, all of which are in the car, and I will let them move to your residence. Zhang Erlang patted his head and almost forgot the gift, and ran out to find someone as soon as he turned around.

Cao Hong looked at everything in front of him thoughtfully, Cao Hong was no stranger to the name Laoshan, he had heard of this place many times from the mouths of some low-level officers from Laoshan in the new army. Knowing that this is the foundation of Wei Shuo, Lord Wei started from hundreds of fugitives on Laoshan Mountain.

Although Cao Hong had heard of Laoshan many times, he did not know much about it. Those former members of the guard team were always silent about everything on Laoshan Mountain, and this was the first time he had heard information about Laoshan with his own ears.

While Cao Hong was thinking about his own thoughts, Wei Shuo was intently reading the letter that Zhu Wen wrote to him. In the letter, Zhu Wen gave a detailed account of what had happened up and down Laoshan in the recent period, including once again foiling the Wang family's conspiracy against Laoshan, and temporarily cutting off the Wang family's hand to Laoshan.

However, in the letter, Zhu Wen mentioned the new threat that Laoshan was about to face, the Qingzhou Thorn Shi Cao Wei. Now that the foreign enemy Gou Xi is no longer worried, Cao Wei has initially cleared the external troubles and mastered the situation in Qingzhou, and his eyes have begun to turn from the outside world to the interior of Qingzhou.

If Laoshan can deal with a small partial branch of the Langya Wang clan by sprinkling and rolling, then when Cao Wei, the overlord of Qingzhou, discovers the fat of Laoshan, can Laoshan easily tide over the difficulties? It was precisely because of the increasing pressure on Laoshan that Zhu Wen had to constantly urge Wei Shuo and others to return to Laoshan as soon as possible in his letter.

"The wind is rising, this peaceful day is finally over!" Wei Shuo muttered to himself.

"Master Wei, is something wrong?" Seeing Wei Shuo's sad face, Cao Hong couldn't help but ask.

Wei Shuo turned around and smiled comfortingly: "It's not a big deal, it's just that some people and things have to be faced after all, and avoiding is never a good way to solve the problem." ”

Although he was about to face off against Cao Wei, the overlord of Qingzhou, Wei Shuo was pleased that Laoshan's strength was far from comparable to that day, not only with thousands of elite escorts, but also with hundreds of naval troops and more than a dozen warships.

What makes Wei Shuo even more confident is that the humble Qingdao Port has begun to be put into use, and there is an endless stream of cargo ships from Xuzhou every day, which not only brings huge wealth to Laoshan, but also provides Laoshan with a large number of urgently needed food and other materials. With Qingdao Port as a foreign trade window, Wei Shuo's dependence on Qingzhou will be minimized, even if Cao Wei wants to blockade Laoshan in the future, he is not afraid.

"Brother Wei, Brother Wei, you see that this is the sea salt just produced by our Laoshan salt field, there is no need to cook the sea salt at all, the five hundred acres of salt field produced a total of about 1,500 stone of green salt, all of which were sold to salt merchants and grain merchants in Xuzhou, in exchange for more than 3,000 stone of grain and a large number of living materials, but Mr. Zhu and the eldest brother are very happy."

Zhang Erlang hurriedly broke in from the outside, but what he was holding in his hand was a piece of snow-white refined salt. Wei Shuo learned that the salt pan was producing salt, and he couldn't bear it anymore, so he quickly stepped forward and picked up a small pinch of salt and put it in his mouth to taste it.

"Huh~ Yantian has finally come out of salt, and our pressure will be much less in the future." Now Wei Shuo is relieved, as long as the salt field can be smoothly produced, no one can stop the development and growth of Laoshan in the future.

"Yes, yes, Brother Wei, didn't you see it, when the salt came out, it was like a festival up and down Laoshan Mountain, everyone was so excited that they almost couldn't sleep, my eldest brother and Mr. Zhu also broke and bought some wine from Shang Jia to celebrate the second uncle Yang and others."

Wei Shuo should have echoed casually: "Well, it should be, Yantian can produce salt so quickly, presumably Second Uncle Yang and they have spent a lot of effort on weekdays. ”

"That is, Second Uncle Yang almost regarded Yantian as his own home! There were a few days when the weather was bad, and Second Uncle Yang led people to stay on the salt pan all day long, for fear that Brother Wei's hard work would be ruined. ”

The more Wei Shuo and Zhang Erlang chatted, the happier they became, completely forgetting that there was another person in the room. At this time, Cao Hong looked at the green salt in Zhang Erlang's hand with a shocked face, he had long heard that Wei Shuo was the salt field envoy of Qingzhou, in charge of the Laoshan salt industry, but he didn't expect that the salt in Laoshan was actually produced by the 'salt field'.

Although Cao Hong didn't know what a salt pan was, he could see from the excited expressions of Wei Shuo and Zhang Erlang that this salt field must be a more convenient way to produce salt than boiling salt. What's more, Wei Shuo seems to have mastered a method of turning coarse salt into green salt, so wouldn't it be easy for him to amass a huge fortune through table salt!

No wonder Wei Shuo never pretends to the family, it turns out that he is full of confidence!

"Brother Wei, Mr. Zhu, Big Brother They are worried that you are in danger in Xuzhou, so they specially sent another hundred guards on the mountain to help you."

Wei Shuo frowned when he heard this, and asked: "You transferred all the elite of the escort team to Xuzhou, what should we do about the safety of Laoshan?" Have you forgotten that there is a threat of pirates next to you? ”

"Hehe, Brother Wei, you don't know yet, now the pirates on Xufu Island have long lost their previous arrogance. If we don't go to Laoshan to trouble them, those pirates will be thankful, how dare they provoke us easily? Zhang Erlang looked proud, as Laoshan became stronger and stronger, the Youda master had long given up the courage and determination to fight by force.

"Even if the pirates don't dare to come, they have to guard against the others, right?"

"This matter is decided by the eldest brother, if you have other opinions, when you return to Laoshan in the future, you can talk to the eldest brother in person. Hey? Who is this man? Why haven't I seen him? Brother Wei, who is this? Why stay in your room? After working for a long time, Zhang Erlang turned around and found that there was a young man in the house at some point.

Wei Shuo looked up and introduced with a smile: "This is Cao Hong, Cao Jifu, a new soldier who has just joined the camp, currently serving as my personal soldier, temporarily helping me deal with some written official duties." Jifu, let me introduce you here, this is Zhang Erlang, who is also a shareholder of Laoshan Trading Company, and is also the Dubo of the Laoshan Guard. ”

"In Xia Cao Hong Cao Jifu, a native of Pengcheng, Xuzhou."

"My name is Zhang Erlang, a native of Laoshan, Qingzhou."

Zhang Erlang looked at Cao Hong with a faint hostility, and always felt that this person was different from him, especially the pride exuded from Cao Hong from the inside out made him feel disgusted. Zhang Erlang has always had no good impression of the children of the family, and when he first saw Wei Shuo, he was also full of disdain.

Although Cao Hong felt that Zhang Erlang didn't want to see him, he was no longer as arrogant as before, so he didn't care, anyway, he was following Wei Shuo and not Zhang Erlang, no matter what the other party thought of him, it didn't matter.