When the old man Bisheng saw that so many people suddenly came to the big courtyard, all of them were extraordinary, he immediately stood up, greeted him out of the hall, and shouted: "Everyone, you have been tired all the way, sit in the house quickly, please, please-"

Feng Jiao'er saw that it was an old man who came out to greet them, with a childish face, she had already guessed that this person must be the old man of the Zhu family compound, so she sent the Hongjun sword back to the scabbard, and hurriedly stepped forward to bow to the old man and saluted: "May I ask the senior, but the old man of the Zhu family compound, the little woman Feng Jiaoer is so polite." ”

"It's the old man." The old man also replied with a smile and said, "Girl, you are Gong Changyu's daughter-in-law?" ”

"Old man, Changyu and I are just friends, we have never been married, and we dare not make a mistake." Feng Jiao'er replied.

"Girl, you have come from afar, you must be hungry, come and come, all sit in the house, sit in the house." The old man smiled and welcomed everyone into the hall.

"Serve these distinguished guests tea." The old man said to a few servants.

"Yes, sir." The servants replied in unison.

Soon, eight large cups of fragrant honeysuckle tea were added to each table. After everyone sat down, they drank the tea in the teacups one by one, and immediately felt relaxed and happy, and the fatigue of the past few days was relieved a lot.

"Ladies and gentlemen, when you come to the cold house, the old man didn't make any preparations, he prepared a little coarse tea and light rice, and the hospitality was not good, so please Haihan." The old man was polite.

"Old man, I, Liu Dawei, am also from this county, I have heard that the old man is kind and respectful, and the younger generation will give you a cup first." Liu Dawei on the opposite side got up, held the big bowl with both hands, and drank it all.

"Good amount of wine." The old man was happy, he held the wine glass and took a sip, "The old man is old, just drink a little, talk about your heart, please take a seat." ”

"Thank you, old man." Liu Dawei said. Gong Changyu was in charge of the pot, so naturally he couldn't drink more, so he hurriedly filled Liu Dawei with a little more wine.

After three rounds of drinking, the old man's words increased, and he read "For Learning": "Is it difficult to do things in the world? If you do it, it will be easy for those who are difficult; If you don't, it's easy and it's hard. Is it easy to learn? If you learn it, it will be easy for those who are difficult; If you don't learn, it's hard to learn......"

"Old man, I understand all these words. But I'm really not the material for reading......" Gong Changyu knew that these words were meant for him, and interrupted the old man's words.

"Old learner, you came back this time to recruit troops and horses, form a regiment and train your arms, do you know how difficult it is?" The old man asked with a smile.

"I don't know what I learned, and I ask the old man for guidance." Gong Changyu said.

"Recruiting the army is actually similar to learning the truth. If you have the heart to do it, no matter how big the difficulty is, it will be solved. The old man's face was slightly red, and he took Gong Changyu's hand and said, "Is there any silver?" ”

"Not much. Just 3000 taels. Gong Changyu said.

"How many people are you going to hire?" The old man asked.

"Not much, just a hundred."

"100 people, you're just a small team, it's too few."

"Old man, I also want to recruit more people, but I don't have any money."

"Money is not a problem, how much do you need?"

"As far as I know, there has been a shortage of war in the past few years, and the money business doesn't seem to be very easy to do, right?"

"That's right, the profit of this money bank is yes, it has declined, after all, we have decades of savings in the compound, and it should be no problem for you to invest a million taels of silver."

"I don't need so much, 100,000 taels is enough."

"The soldiers and horses have not moved, and the grain and grass go first. How much does it cost to build a 100-man army? Have you counted? ”

"I conceived it this way, the regular army of the imperial court will be paid one or two or five cents a month, and we are mercenaries, and each person will be paid three taels or four pieces of silver. And Zeng Fan did the same. ”

"Changyu, are you crazy? Pay such a high commission? You don't want to think about it, the annual income of the Zhujia compound is now about 300,000 taels, is it enough for you to toss? . Feng Jiao'er picked up the conversation, "Why can't you think of other ways?" ”

"Do you want me to go door-to-door?" Gong Changyu drooped his head.

"That's not what I meant. General Xi Qitian has recently returned to Dong'an, and we can take the recruited regiment to train and throw it into his account, and we will not have to worry about the difficulty of silver and grain and grass. Feng Jiao'er suggested.

"Taking refuge in General Xi Qitian, I always feel like I am under the fence." Gong Changyu said.

"At the moment, you can only wear as big boots as you have feet." The old man said, "The real rich merchants and landlords in our Rulin County are all very picky, and those officials in our county have no advantage in Jingnan County, even if they want to help you, they are also more than willing to do it." ”

"What the old man said is extremely true, the normal operation of the regimental training and armament depends on the relationship between teachers and students, friends, and neighbors. If a mercenary's economic source is unstable and not recognized by the imperial court, it will face the fate of disbanding anytime and anywhere. Feng Jiaoer said.

"Yes, Miss Feng's words hit the nail on the head. If you want to occupy a place in the Jingnan army, in addition to silver, there is more important than silver, that is, connections, popularity, and favors. The old man took a sip of the soup, "Although our Zhujia compound has branches in Jingnan, western Guangdong, eastern Guangdong and other counties, we don't have much contact with the government, just a private industry. ”

"Old man, I still have 10,000 taels of silver tickets here, can I go to the money bank to exchange for silver?" Gong Changyu took out a thick stack of silver tickets from his arms and placed them on the table.

The old man took a silver ticket, glanced at it quickly, and was dumbfounded, but asked Gong Changyu: "Rabbit cub, where did you get so many silver tickets from the lush auspicious money village?" ”

"Master, don't ask where this silver ticket came from, or in a word, can it be exchanged for silver?" Gong Changyu said with a smile.

"As long as it is the silver ticket of Mao Sheng Xiang Zhuang, you can take the silver ticket to the various ticket numbers of Mao Sheng Xiang and exchange it for silver taels, which is convenient and safe." The old man did not forget to promote the money village in the Zhujia compound, "The difference in the price of silver between the two places and the difference in the color of silver is the profit we earn from Mao Shengxiang, and the credibility we pay attention to ......"

"Old man, what if someone else forges the silver ticket of Maosheng Xiang Bank?" Feng Jiao'er suddenly burst out.

"Miss Feng, you don't have to worry about this. Our silver bills have exchange certificates, secret seals, and anti-counterfeiting seals. In order to prevent counterfeiting, the miniature carving chapter was also designed, and the content of the miniature carving is Zhang Ruoxu's "Spring River Flower Moon Night", a complete one, a total of 252 words, the carving is very fine, and it is engraved in Miao script, which requires a high level of engraving to carve out...... "The old man said seriously, "In addition, handwriting anti-counterfeiting is also an important measure, and the person who writes the bill is always the same person." When the bill is written, folded in half, stamped with a seal, and cut in half, half is carried by the remitter, and the other half is remitted through the government's postal system. At the time of withdrawal, the money order will be reunited and must be exactly divided before the withdrawal can be made. ”

"Old man, according to what you say, our silver tickets are useless?" Feng Jiao'er asked.

"So to speak. Because we changed to a new version in the second year of Xiantong, these silver tickets are like a pile of waste paper. The old man smiled.

"Oh, I see." Feng Jiao'er nodded.

"Old man, why should the silver ticket of Maosheng Xiang Qian Zhuang be revised?" Huang Qinggong, the black handsome, was surprised.

"In the year when the Blue Wolf Army just made trouble, we suffered heavy losses in Yuexi County, losing millions of taels of silver tickets and four or five hundred thousand taels of silver, if we don't replace the silver tickets in time, we are not going to go bankrupt......" The old man tore the silver ticket in his hand in half, "It took two years for Mao Sheng Xiang Qian Zhuang to recover. Therefore, Gong Laoxue came back to recruit troops this time, and I was the first to agree, ready to inject 100,000 taels of silver to support him in quelling the chaos. ”

Gong Changyu poured wine into his big bowl, held the big bowl in both hands, and stood up, "I first thank the old man on behalf of the brothers of the new battalion in Lenghu Mountain......

"Stop, what is the new camp of Lenghu Mountain? The name of this team is not good, and the old man will give you an auspicious name. The old man pinched the wine glass and pondered for a while, "It's called 'Jingjie Camp'......"

"Old man, it's better to be loyal to the camp." Gong Changyu said with a smile.

"No, Yue Fei, who is loyal to the country, has no good end, this name is unlucky and unlucky." Feng Jiaoer denied Gong Changyu's suggestion.

"I think the old man has more profound meaning and new meaning, elite camp, elite, elite; Success, good news, only the elite division, can be frequent. Huang Qinggong explained.

"Hei Dashuai, you are so right, it is exactly what the old man wants." The old man was happy, his face was full of redness, "It's so decided, tomorrow the old man is free, and I will accompany you to the first and second capitals to recruit sergeants." Here, cheers—"

"!" Gong Changyu said loudly. Everyone in the hall got up, each holding a wine glass (bowl) and drank it all. The whole meal lasted for half an hour before it came to an end......

Gong Changyu, who was staggering from side to side, accompanied by his cousins Zhu Rongchu and Feng Jiaoer, walked and climbed Jinpenling with incense candles, paper money, birthdays, fruits and other sacrificial offerings, and found the tomb of the eldest young grandmother.

As soon as he arrived at the cemetery, after Feng Jiao'er put the items on the table, Gong Changyu bowed deeply three times in front of the grave, and then knelt down: "Aunt Yinyue, Gong Laoxue has come to see you." Your favorite azalea is also blooming, open your eyes and see, I'm back, can you hear me enough? ……”

On the hillside in the distance, a group of shepherd boys sang happily, and Gong Changyu was too familiar. That was when Gong Changyu was a child, Aunt Yinyue taught him and his cousin Rongsen to sing "No Clothes", and it was also Yinyue's favorite song to sing-

"Do you say you have no clothes? with the Son. Wang Yuxingshi, repair my spear. Enmity with the Son. How can you say that you have no clothes? With the Son. Wang Yuxingshi, repair my spear halberd......"

The shepherd boy's singing flickered far and near, and Gong Chang couldn't help but hum when he touched the scene: "How can you say that there is no ......?"