Wu Shigong secretly received guests who came to Toucheng in the fortress of Qianhusuo. This guest is Lei Ying, one of the two biggest bandit leaders in Shili in the mountainous area of Runing Province.

It should be said that Thunder Eagle is the smaller of the two largest bandit leaders in Shili. Because the Holy Spirit would rebel against the people, the number of caravans passing through the mountains was getting smaller and smaller, and the drought made life difficult for these bandits.

It is also because of the winter, and the days are also difficult, after hearing the news of Wu Shigong's recruitment, Lei Ying sent a messenger to Wu Shigong to probe the wind and express his willingness to recruit An.

Wu Shigong learned from the messenger that in addition to his own stockade, Lei Ying also controlled five or six small villages nearby, and the population of these villages combined was 2,000. At this moment, Wu Shigong was a little difficult.

If Wu Shigong agreed to Lei Ying's recruitment, his financial affordability would definitely be unbearable. But if you don't agree, don't say that if you offend Lei Ying, Wu Shigong's most important trade route to escort salt goods will pass through Lei Ying's territory.

So, Wu Shigong said to the messenger: "This official is the military attache of Guide Mansion, and it is always a little inconvenient to come to Runing Mansion to recruit An. Do you want your big boss to come and consult with your official face to face and find a better solution? Feel relieved! Regardless of the outcome, the official guarantees the safety of the Lei Da family. ”

Wu Shigong thought: If Lei Ying is suspicious, he doesn't dare to meet with him. Then I don't have such a troublesome thing to do.

Unexpectedly, that Lei Ying was very bold, and immediately sent someone to make an appointment to meet. At this moment, Wu Shigong had no way to shirk it, so he had to secretly integrate Lei Ying into the fortress of the Thousand Households.

As soon as he saw Wu Shigong, Lei Ying hurriedly kowtowed. Wu Shigong hurriedly helped Lei Yingxu up. These eight characters haven't been skimmed yet, so don't rush to stage this drama of meeting the lord.

After the two of them sat down, Thunder Eagle was very happy and told him all the problems he was facing now: due to the decrease in the caravan, the bandits of Thunder Eagle were getting fewer and fewer to rob. Moreover, what these bandits lack most now is food.

Even if they robbed the goods, they didn't grab the food. In addition, it is difficult to sell these goods now, and basically they cannot be exchanged for food. In addition, the route taken by the Holy Spirit to revolt with the people passed near the Thunder Eagle stockades, so there were no farmers to cultivate the nearby farmland. This caused Thunder Eagle to go down the mountain to grab food, and there was no food to grab.

Therefore, this time Lei Ying wanted to come to Wu Shigong. To plan for the worst, even if Wu Shigong can't accept Lei Ying's recruitment, it is best to receive some food from Lei Ying, so that Lei Ying, the people in the village, can survive this winter.

Since Lei Ying is so honest, Wu Shigong will also be honest. Wu Shigong also told Lei Ying about his difficulties. But Wu Shigong didn't say anything to death, he said to Lei Ying: "In the future, as long as the official finds a source of money, he will definitely organize the people who are in charge of Lei Da into an official army." Now the official will first save the rivers and lakes, how about giving Lei Da the 200 stone of food first? ”

After listening to Wu Shigong's words, Lei Ying was a little anxious. Although the amount of grain of 200 stone sounds like a lot, the people who are 2,000 young people have no penny. Besides, I don't know what next year's year will be. In case of another drought, then Lei Ying may not come back to Wu Shigong to beg for food!

In addition, Lei Ying is the big boss of the bandits, and he and some of the leaders of the bandits have actually eaten enough over the years. This fearful bandit work, they don't really want to do it much. Now that there is such an opportunity to recruit An, Lei Ying is reluctant to let go easily.

So, Lei Ying begged Wu Shigong bitterly, hoping that Wu Shigong could change his mind. This made Wu Shigong even more embarrassed. But it's not good to refuse directly, and the scene at this time is a little embarrassing.

Wu Shigong suddenly had a flash of inspiration, and he thought of the empty check that Lu Jianchen had written to him. So he asked, "Master Lei, where did you get the salt in this place?" ”

That Lei Ying was stunned by Wu Shigong's question, but he still replied: "My lord, the salt goods in our village are usually found to deliver goods to the village, and let them find a way to deliver them to the village." ”

"And what is the price of your salt?"

"About five taels of silver per stone."

"And how much salt do you need each month?"

"The people in our village, plus the mountain people on the mountain, probably cost forty or fifty stone a month."

Wu Shigong listened to Lei Ying's words, and immediately had an idea, and he said to Lei Ying: "The difficulties of this official, Lei Da also knows. But now there is a way to go. ”

"If the official has a way to get cheap salt goods, he will send them to the stockade of Lei Da's family, and they will pay four taels of silver per stone. What price Lei Da sells, the official doesn't care. ”

"As long as the big boss Lei agrees to this business of the official, the official will promise you to accept your recruitment first. However, because the officer's share of soldiers is full. At the beginning, he could only let Lei Da be wronged, and he still stayed in his own village for the time being. When the conditions are ripe in the future, Lei Da will be turned into a formal official army. ”

Then, after some bargaining, Wu Shigong and Lei Ying finally reached such an agreement:

Wu Shigong received the recruitment of Lei Ying, the bandits of the stockade. In addition, Wu Shigong will select two hundred young and strong bandits from among the bandits in these stockades of Lei Ying and organize them into two squadrons. And Thunder Eagle will be the general leader of the soldiers of these two squadrons. The other small and medium-sized leaders will also be arranged by Thunderhawk himself.

The soldiers of these two squadrons will still be arranged in the original stockade for the time being, and Wu Shigong will also send some officers to give these soldiers basic training. If Wu Shigong has any military action, the soldiers of these two squadrons of Lei Ying will have to cooperate with the operation. In normal times, Wu Shigong will not interfere with the actions of these soldiers themselves.

As for the salaries of these soldiers, Wu Shigong will give them food stamps of one stone of grain per month, and these soldiers can use these food stamps to buy preferential grain of five coins and one stone of silver in Wu Shigong's fortress of a thousand households.

And Lei Ying guaranteed that in the territory under his control, only Wu Shigong's family would be supplied with salt.

In this agreement, Wu Shigong basically did not add any burden. And they had two hundred more soldiers. Although these soldiers Wu Shigong only controlled in name, to mobilize and command them, they still needed the cooperation of Lei Ying and other bandit leaders. But at least for now, Lei Ying and these bandits have become Wu Shigong's nominal subordinates, at least they will not openly oppose Wu Shigong.

In addition to solving the most needed food in the village, Lei Ying actually received Wu Shigong's recruitment in name. As long as Wu Shigong flies to Huang Tengda, then Lei Ying and they will sooner or later blend into the official army and get a half-official position to glorify their ancestors.

Moreover, the independence of Lei Ying is quite large, and the actual command of these soldiers is actually in the hands of these bandit leaders.

For Lei Ying himself, there is also such an advantage: the salt goods that Wu Shigong gave to Lei Ying were four taels of silver per stone. And Lei Ying can sell these salt goods to a price of five taels of silver per stone. For such a windfall, of course, Thunder Eagle will not refuse.

When the agreement was reached, Lei Ying escorted the two hundred stone grain given to him by Wu Shigong and went back happily. And Wu Shigong also discovered with great interest: the food stamps issued by him on a whim, I didn't expect it to have such a wonderful use.

But not long after sending Lei Ying away, Wu Shigong suddenly got the news: his escort of the caravan suffered a setback for the first time.

This time, it was Lu Yunhuan's salt goods that were escorted, and he was intercepted by Li Harizi, the largest bandit leader in Shili, in the mountainous area of Runing Province, on the way. As a last resort, the soldiers escorted by Wu Shigong and the salt caravan of Lu Yunhuan returned to the fortress of Qianhusuo.

In the face of such a provocation, Wu Shigong immediately issued a mobilization order and decided to completely exterminate Li Harizi's gang of bandits. In order to deter all bandits who dare to challenge Wu Shigong's authority, and kill chickens to show monkeys, so that other bandits can recognize the situation and stop doing this stupid thing of eggs hitting stones.