In the early stage, Wu Shigong sent people to the front station of Runing Mansion to report to Wu Shigong that Wu Shigong's garrison yamen had been arranged in Runing Mansion City.

However, because in the past, there was no garrison in Runing Mansion, so this garrison yamen was built by requisitioning some properties in the city. Of course, the imperial court would not spend much money for this yamen, so it was simply to build a façade, break through a few walls, and make the yamen look like a rough one. Therefore, if Wu Shigong wants to live in the garrison yamen, he still needs to spend his own money to decorate it.

Anyway, it was stipulated that he would take office before the end of the year, and Wu Shigong was not in a hurry, so he arranged for someone to take the money to Runing Mansion to decorate this yamen, especially to decorate the inner house behind the yamen, because this time, Wu Shigong's family had to move over.

It was not until after the autumn harvest that Wu Shigong's grain was collected in the warehouse of the fortress of Qianhusuo, and Wu Shigong decided to leave and go to Runing Mansion to take office.

At this time, Tang Liu had already transported all of Wu Shigong's grain to Wu Shigong. However, when it was delivered, Tang Liu complained to Wu Shigong: Because of the drought in Henan, the local grain in Henan has risen to about one tael to two taels of silver per stone.

Although Tang Liu's purchase price of grain in Huguang, a grain-producing area, was still four or five cents per stone, the customs along the way knew that grain merchants wanted to transport grain to Henan to sell, so they raised taxes and practice by a large margin. Even if Tang Liu was familiar with these customs officials, the grain delivered to Wu Shigong this time had reached about eight coins of silver per stone. According to the agreement with Wu Shigong, Tang Liu's business this time was basically not profitable.

Tang Liu didn't want to raise the price to Wu Shigong, although the businessmen at that time, although they also had the nature of profit-seeking, they were basically very reputable about the business that had been promised. Unless the status of the two parties doing business is very unequal, just like Wang Mi of the Qi family treats Wu Shigong's identity. In that case, those with low status will inevitably be pitted. Of course, this is also very rare. That's why Wu Shigong was so angry about the Qi family's approach.

The main purpose of Tang Liu's telling Wu Shigong was to make Wu Shigong understand that if Wu Shigong bought grain through Tang Liu in the future, he would appropriately increase the price of some grain.

Tang Liu's approach made Wu Shigong a little unhappy. Taking advantage of himself and Tang Liu suffering, this is not the way to be a friend. Therefore, Wu Shigong wanted to make up some silver for Tang Liu from the beginning, but Tang Liu naturally declined. So Wu Shigong simply took out 20,000 taels of silver, and at the price of nine coins per stone, Tang Liu still bought grain for him.

However, this time, the grain will not need to be sent to the Thousand Households Fortress, and the grain will be sent directly to Runing Mansion. For Wu Shigong, there is not much difference between having food in his hands and having silver. And in this era of frequent disasters, the value of food may be higher.

For Tang Liu, the waterway distance from Huguang to Runing Mansion is actually much shorter, and there are many fewer taxes along the way. Tang Liu's business this time can also make a small fortune.

Seeing this, we may have a question in our minds, the price of grain in Henan and Huguang, that is, the two adjacent regions, the price difference between this grain is more than doubled, and there are no merchants in Weishenme to traffic a large amount of grain to Henan, to earn high profits, and to bring down the price of this grain?

This is mainly due to three reasons:

The first reason is that because the transportation of the Ming Dynasty was very underdeveloped at that time, the price of goods between the two regions was very different. And the difference is often much more than double, so the price difference of this grain is not the most disparity. Moreover, as a heavy item, grain is not easy to transport, so merchants are not interested in doing grain business.

Let's take salt as an example. In the salt farms of those Yangzhou salt merchants, the cost price of salt produced is only more than two coins of silver per stone, and some larger salt farms can even reduce the cost price of salt to less than two coins of silver per stone. But as long as these Yangzhou salt merchants shipped salt to Henan, even the lowest wholesale price would be one or two silver per stone, and the profit would be more than five times.

The second reason is that during the transportation of grain, knowing that the grain can be profitable, those victims and bandits want to rob it, and the government can also find some reasons to confiscate it, and the transportation risk is very high. Only a Cao gang like Tang Liu, who also has a certain amount of force on the water and a fleet that has a lot of connections with the government, dare to transport grain.

The reason for zuihou is that although the price of grain in Henan is very high, in fact, there is no shortage of grain in Henan. All that grain is in the hands of the big landlords and big grain merchants. And the people who need food the most, they don't have much purchasing power. Therefore, if there are businessmen from other places who transport grain to Henan, if they do not cooperate with the local grain merchants in Henan, those merchants will not even be able to sell the grain.

After putting the grain delivered by Tang Liu into the warehouse, Wu Shigong also had some confidence in his heart. Because with the severe drought in Henan, the food stamp system was stopped for a period and began to be implemented again. And vaguely, these food stamps have become valuable tickets, converted into silver taels, and have been semi-circulated among the common people and shops in the vicinity.

Before leaving Guide Mansion, Wu Shigong confessed to He Fei, who had been promoted to general general, and asked him to bring some military attachés to Yu Ji to help with training. Of course, to train Yu Ji's military households, Wu Shigong also greeted Zhao Ming, the military attache who returned to Dewei, and gave a generous gift.

Originally, Wu Shigong thought that Zhao Ming would definitely be dissatisfied with his behavior of digging up the wall, and he would also make some stumbling blocks. Unexpectedly, after Zhao Ming received the gift, he immediately agreed with a smile.

In the eyes of Zhao Ming, the military attachés who returned to Dewei, there are benefits to be taken if someone helps them train military households, and those military households who train haode are nominally under their own command, so why not do that kind of good thing?

Of course, Zhao Ming's military attachés are not stupid, and they also know that after those military households take Wu Shigong's military salary, they will definitely only obey Wu Shigong's orders in the future. However, Zhao Ming's military attaches are hereditary, and no one can deprive them of their official positions, of course, they have no chance of promotion, and they have no ambition at all.

And Zhao Ming, these military attachés, also enjoyed a peaceful and wealthy life for a long time, with the sole purpose of providing for the elderly, and marrying a concubine a year if they had time. As long as Wu Shigong does not rebel, as long as the income of Zhao Ming's military attachés does not decrease, even if Wu Shigong digs up all the military households under them, so what?

In mid-October, Wu Shigong took his family and all the slaves in the inner house, escorted by 800 soldiers, to Runing Mansion to take up his post. the rest of those recruited by Wu Shigong in Beizhili and their families; Yang Goudan's blacksmith workshop, as well as Wu Shigong's staff and other soldiers, will gradually move to Runing Mansion after Wu Shigong determines the location of the Runing Camp in the future.

The people in the fortress of Qianhusuo, Wu Shigong only brought Deng Qifan, Zhizhi, Zhang Xuebin and apprentice Tao Xin. Regarding intelligence, Wu Shigong talked with him in detail after he came back, and asked Zhizhi to bring more soldiers so that they could learn some basic rescue knowledge on the battlefield. Of course, regarding the requirements of intelligence, Wu Shigong also agreed to the request of bringing more than a dozen apprentices to learn Buddhism and medicine from him. So, around the current intelligence, there are more than a dozen little bald heads.

And Deng Qifan has now become Wu Shigong's chief staff, and Wu Shigong must of course take it with him. However, Deng Qifan has also written to his family that he will relocate his family to Runing Mansion.

Zhang Xuebin's role is, of course, that after Wu Shigong took office, he asked Zhang Xuebin to deal with some officialdom affairs. As for the apprentice Tao Xin, although Tao Xin and Wu Shigong have a very close relationship. But Tao Xin is underage after all, and Tao Xin should be the thousand households of this thousand households in name after Wu Shigong left the fortress of the Thousand Households.

Wu Shigong was afraid that Tao Xin would fall into the hands of people with ulterior motives, and use Tao Xin's identity to snatch the foundation of his fortress of a thousand households. Although the possibility of this happening is relatively small, Wu Shigong still has to be on guard.

In addition, Wu Shigong also invited a Jiang foreman from the county town with a high salary. Wu Shigong and Foreman Jiang had a pleasant cooperation in the construction of the fortress of Qianhusuo. Therefore, to build the large camp of the Runing Battalion this time, Wu Shigong also needs the experience and ability of Foreman Jiang.

Under the guidance of several old bandits sent by Lei Ying, Wu Shigong's men and horses smoothly passed through Li Harizi's activity area, left the northern mountainous area of Runing Mansion, and entered the hinterland of Runing Mansion.

But as the team walked, the atmosphere became dull, and the farmland on both sides of the road was dry and cracked, and it seemed that there was no harvest for the year. And there were constantly fleeing people in twos and threes in front of Wu Shigong.

These fleeing people saw Wu Shigong and them, and they were not afraid because Wu Shigong was in the army. These fleeing people followed Wu Shigong and them from afar. I hope Wu Shigong will give them something to eat.

Seeing this, Wu Shigong also gave food a few times, but his approach made those refugees gather more and more. In desperation, Wu Shigong could only let it go, and let the soldiers disperse the refugees who dared to approach Wu Shigong's convoy. Seeing that there was no longer any benefit from Wu Shigong, after a long time, those refugees gradually dispersed.

And by the time they arrived at Runing Mansion City, the refugees outside the city had already gathered. Even the gates of Runing Mansion were half-open and half-closed for fear of the influx of refugees.

After knowing that Wu Shigong was the new garrison of Runing Mansion, a group of soldiers rushed out from the city gate of Runing Mansion, dispersed the refugees near the city gate, and let Wu Shigong and his party enter.

Wu Shigong left most of the guards outside the city and camped on the spot, while the rest of the guards escorted himself and his family, and went directly to the Yamen of the Runing Mansion to prepare for it.