Finally arrived at the Thousand Households, Wu Shigong felt relaxed, and the feeling of exhaustion came up all of a sudden. So, go to bed quickly. In a daze, a warm body burrowed into Wu Shigong's bed.

In the dark, as soon as Wu Shigong touched his body and smelled the smell, he knew that it was Zhao Ruya.

Wu Shigong asked in surprise, "How did you get in?" There are also embroidered bamboo and bamboo rhyme falling asleep outside. ”

Zhao Ruya replied proudly: "They can't stop me." ”

The two of them stayed warm overnight. But before dawn, Zhao Ruya secretly went back to accompany her daughter. Wu Shigong thought to himself: "How can it be like cheating." Tomorrow when I arrive at the fortress of Qianhusuo, I can finally live a normal life. ”

However, Wu Shigong was soon disappointed.

The next morning, Wu Shigong asked the shopkeeper of his inn to find a person who was familiar with the local situation, and took Wu Shigong and them to the fortress of Qianhusuo to have a look. The shopkeeper called his nephew, Chang Yee, over.

When Chang Meng knew that Wu Shigong was going to the fortress of Qianhusuo, he immediately shouted: "Lord Qianhu, the fortress of Qianhusuo has long been abandoned. Then, Chang Meng gave Wu Shigong a detailed introduction to the situation of the fortress of the thousand households.

It turned out that when the fortress of Qianhusuo was first built in the early Ming Dynasty, there was no town where Wu Shigong is staying now. Because the construction of the Senhesho Fortress needed to take into account the military function, therefore, the Senhosho Fortress was built next to the town, halfway up a small hill. It's about half an hour's walk from the town.

But over time, many families gradually moved to the town. Because the terrain here is gentle, the geographical conditions are relatively superior. Moreover, the town is the confluence of two rivers, and it has gradually become a commodity distribution center in the nearby area.

As the place became lively, the local gentry built houses and set up merchant houses here. As the population became denser, it gradually became a small town. Even the thousands of households in the house have moved their offices and residences to the town.

Chang Meng also said to Wu Shigong: The land of this town was actually owned by Qianhusuo, and it was in the center of Qianhusuo. However, with the encroachment of the local area, the town has become completely owned by the local government.

Moreover, with this town as the boundary, all the land to the east was encroached upon by the local gentry. At present, only the land in the west is retained.

And the fortress of a thousand households, which has been uninhabited for hundreds of years, has long been in ruins.

Wu Shigong frowned and listened to Chang Meng's words, Zuihou, still decided to let Chang Meng lead the way and take a look at the ruins of the fortress of the Thousand Households.

After arriving at the Qianhusuo Fortress, Wu Shigong first asked Xue Yongli and them, who had military experience, to observe the geographical location of the Qianhusuo Fortress.

After carefully observing the fortress of the Thousand Households, Xue Yongli said to Wu Shigong: "Uncle, the location of the fortress of the Thousand Households is quite good. Behind are hills, and the attacking army cannot be used at all. On either side are two rivers that act as natural moats. ”

"If someone attacks the fortress of Sennosho, they can only attack from this direction of the town. However, because the Sennohe fortress was built on the mountainside, the attackers could only attack from the bottom up, and the attack was quite difficult. ”

"Moreover, judging from the structure of the Senhesho Fortress, the layout of the entire Senhosho Fortress is very reasonable. It was also easy to get water. It's a great place to build a fortress. It's just a little too broken, though. ”

Wu Shigong: They don't know. At the beginning, the construction of the fortress of Qianhusuo was determined by those generals with rich battlefield experience in the early Ming Dynasty, and of course it was built very reasonably. It was well thought out on the military side.

Wu Shigong and Xue Yongli took a turn in this Thousand Households Fortress and found that this Thousand Households Fortress was indeed too dilapidated. All the buildings in the fortress of Sennoso have only the foundations left, and even the outer city wall has collapsed, leaving a foundation more than half a person high, and the stones on it have long been picked up.

Wu Shigong immediately decided to rebuild the fortress immediately. Use this fortress as your main base to save your life.

Xue Yongli reminded Wu Shigong and said, "Uncle, it takes a lot of labor and time to build this fortress completely. ”

Wu Shigong said to Xue Yongli: "First increase the outer city wall to the height of one and a half people, and then build a half-person high breastwork on the outside of the top of the city wall, so that the defense will barely be enough." Later, when I had free time, I would raise and strengthen the city walls. ”

"And around the core of the fortress there was a wall and houses were built in it. Uncle, I think that those of us should move in earlier and live with peace of mind. Besides, staying in the inn in the town all the time, the cost is not small. ”

After listening to Wu Shigong's words, Xue Yongli nodded and said, "In this way, before the Chinese New Year, this fortress can be preliminarily built." ”

On the way back, Wu Shigong gave Chang Meng a hardship fee of 200 wen. After hearing that Chang Meng was very familiar with the local situation, he decided to continue to hire him tomorrow, and let him go to the hundreds of households below the thousand households to deliver the message, and let these hundred households gather in the town tomorrow afternoon to talk about some things casually.

Chang Meng happily agreed.

Wu Shigong decided: let these hundred households arrange labor and build a fortress of a thousand households as soon as possible, and Wu Shigong also wanted to recruit 200 soldiers from these labor services.

Of course, Wu Shigong will also pay some remuneration for these laborers. These soldiers will also be paid.

In the evening, Wu Shigong, Xue Yongli and Zheng Zhen carefully calculated the cost of building the fortress. After the sound of "crackling" abacus ended, Zheng Zhen told Wu Shigong that even according to Wu Shigong's simplest construction method, the cost of building the fortress would also be 2,600 taels of silver.

After Wu Shigong listened to the numbers, he gasped. But think about it carefully: the matter of building a fortress is now urgent, so this silver cannot be saved. And Wu Shigong is preparing to recruit 200 soldiers from 1,000 households this time. Nor can the salaries be saved.

This time, the guards brought from the capital to Guide were prepared to give them a military salary of three taels of silver per month. Of course, those Xue Mansion guards are more cost-effective, because Xue Lian also gave them a monthly allowance, so they received a double salary.

As for the soldiers that Wu Shigong was going to recruit in Qianhu this time, Wu Shigong decided to pay them in accordance with the military salary of the Ming Dynasty. It is one or two and a half pieces of silver per person per month, and one and a half stones of rice.

Therefore, if Wu Shigong starts to distribute military salaries, he will spend nearly 1,000 taels of silver every month. Combined with the food for the soldiers and the feeding of the horses, the monthly expenses were more than 1,200 taels of silver.

Moreover, the cost of building weapons, the necessary routine expenses, and Wu Shigong's own living expenses have not been taken into account. If all of them are included, it will cost at least 1,500 taels of silver per month. And now, Wu Shigong is just preparing to have 400 soldiers. Wu Shigong thought to himself: The cost of this army is really amazing!

Wu Shigong now has more than 40,000 taels of silver around him, although these silver are a huge wealth in ordinary people's homes. But for Wu Shigong, who is now going to raise soldiers, it is just to last for thirty months.

Seeing that Wu Shigong was in trouble, Xue Yongli and Zheng Zhen on the side came up with ideas.

Xue Yongli said to Wu Shigong: There is no need to pay military salaries to the soldiers recruited by thousands of households. In the entire Ming Dynasty, no soldiers were recruited from military households, and none of them were paid military salaries. Even if Wu Shigong is kind-hearted and wants to pay military salaries, it is enough to send three or five achievements. This will also save a lot of silver.

Wu Shigong categorically denied Xue Yongli's statement. If those soldiers are not paid, who among them will work hard in training? Who will die for Wu Shigong?

However, Xue Yongli's statement reminded Wu Shigong. Wu Shigong decided: In the process of training soldiers, an assessment standard should be formulated. Soldiers who meet the standard will be paid the full amount of military salary; If it is not reached, it will be issued fifty percent. In this way, those soldiers will be motivated to train.

And Zheng Zhen said to Wu Shigong: It doesn't cost money to recruit labor in military households.

Wu Shigong also categorically denied Zheng Zhen's statement. If Wu Shigong used these labors for free, although these laborers would not say anything on the surface, there would definitely be resentment in their stomachs.

Wu Shigong wanted to build this fortress of a thousand households into a fortress. Location is certainly important, and people are certainly important. Wu Shigong didn't want these servants to hate him.

Seeing that Wu Shigong's attitude was very resolute, Zheng Zhen came up with another idea: Zheng Zhen asked Wu Shigong not to directly give money to these laborers. Rather, it is minus the amount of money they should pay next year. In this way, even if the role of payment is achieved, Wu Shigong's economic pressure will be less now.

That's a good idea! Wu Shigong immediately followed the good flow. In this way, Wu Shigong can also save a few hundred taels of silver at present.

After Xue Yongli and Zheng Zhen left, Wu Shigong thought to himself: "It's time to develop some new sources of wealth." Otherwise, you'll have to sit and eat. ”