But after dinner, everyone realized that this matter was not so simple, and Shen Mu still didn't come back. Duan Chao hurriedly asked Ma Linzi to go to the store to take a look, and when Ma Linzi came back, he said that Shen Mu did not go to the store that day. Duan Chao hurriedly asked Ma Linzi to take the two of them to ride a fast horse and look everywhere. He also asked Lu Laosan to take people to the inner city to look for it.

Everyone didn't dare to slack off, and they rushed out of the door with a bang. As soon as he went out, he saw Shen Mu carrying a carriage and arrived at the gate of the courtyard leisurely.

Ma Linzi rushed over first, grabbed the horse, and said, "Mr. Shen, where have you been this day?"

Shen Mu saw that everyone had gathered at the door, and he was quite puzzled: "Hey, what are you all doing here?"

Ma Linzi said: "Everyone hasn't seen Mr. Shen for a day. I'm worried that something has happened to you, and I'm about to go out to find you together. ”

Lu Laosan also stepped forward and said, "That's it, Mr. Shen, you don't just make a sound when you go out, so that we are in a hurry." ”

Shen Mu smiled and said, "It's okay, everyone come over to help." ”

Lu Laosan pointed to the two wooden boxes on the horse and asked, "Mr. Shen, what is this?"

Shen Mu said: "Clothes." ”

When Lu Laosan heard that it was clothes, he said happily: "I bought it for us?"

Shen Mu said: "Yes, two sets per person." Ma Linzi, come here, I have something to ask you to do. ”

After speaking, Lu Laosan and the others were left to carry the two wooden boxes back to the courtyard, and they took Ma Linzi into the inner compartment.

Ma Linzi saw Shen Mushen's mystery and asked, "Mr. Shen, is there anything you want us to do?"

Shen Mu said: "Tomorrow, you go to Duan Dang's family to spend five hundred taels of silver, please go back to Zhenjiang Mansion, find our original lost brothers in Wulong Mountain, and tell them that now we have a place to stay, if you want to continue to follow Duan Dang's family, send him some silver and bring it to Dingzhou Mansion." ”

Ma Linzi said: "This ...... They didn't want to come before, but this time I'm afraid it's in vain!"

Shen Mu said: "Because of the uncertain future, it is understandable that they did not come. And now that we have basically gained a foothold, it is natural that we will not be the same. Of course, if they don't want to come, they don't have to force it. We want to confront Qixingzhai, just these ten or so people are not enough, and if we want to recruit troops in Dingzhou again, Qixingzhai will definitely get in the way. After all, Zhenjiang Mansion is a place we are familiar with, so let's try to see if we can recruit some people of insight with those five hundred taels of silver. ”

Ma Linzi said: "I understand what Mr. Shen means. Early tomorrow morning, I'll hurry back to Zhenjiang Mansion!"

Shen Mu said: "Okay, you can go...... Rest early, you need to be very careful along the way. ”

As soon as Ma Linzi came out of Shen Mu's room, Duan Chao had already rushed in, and when he saw that Shen Mu was safe and sound, he scolded loudly: "Your grandmother, where did you run all day, but you scared my brother." ”

Shen Mu said: "Big boss, I'm sorry about this. I went to the fabric shop early this morning to buy some clothes, and who knew that the day had passed. ”

Duan Chao said: "What kind of clothes to choose, didn't we just buy things for the winter before?"

Shen Mu said: "Uniforms, uniforms of uniform colors, will be made with a logo in the future." ”

Duan Chao said: "What? What is a dog?"

Shen Mu said: "Uh...... It is a sign of unity, just like the uniform of the college. ”

Duan Chao said: "Hey, this can be had, cuddling the dog is necessary, majestic and magnificent!"

Shen Mu said: "But this is a matter for the future, there is no need to be so troublesome now." By the way, big boss, you came just in time, I have something I want to discuss with you. ”

Duan Chao said: "It can't be some kind of ghost idea, right?" Duan Chao thought to himself: Brother Shen, Brother Shen. But don't always dig a hole and tell us to jump into it.

Shen Mu said: "I want Ma Lin Ziming'er to bring five hundred taels of silver back to Zhenjiang Mansion to recruit troops, and then ask Lu Laosan and the other four people to return to the cottage where we settled before tomorrow and clean it up." When there are more of us, there will be a place to settle down. ”

When Duan Chao heard this, he immediately clapped his hands and said, "No problem, Mr. Shen finally remembered to be strong in my Wulong Mountain." ”

Shen Mu smiled awkwardly and said, "The big wave is coming, the more helmsmen, the better." There is one more thing, I will take Zhang Yang out tomorrow, at least seven days, and at most half a month to return. ”

Duan Chao said, "Where is Brother Shen going?"

Shen Mu said: "Right now, we need to think of throwing out the silver of Qixingzhai as soon as possible, and Zhang Yang and I will go to Dingzhou Mansion to look around and see if there is any way to make money as soon as possible." ”

Duan Chao said: "I'm afraid this matter can only be handled by Brother Shen." I don't know anything about business. Brother Shen just do it, I am here to do it, and there will be no chaos, so don't worry. ”

Shen Mu said: "The big boss is unparalleled in the world, so I naturally won't worry." When Shen Mu said this, he actually clicked on Duan Chao's death hole. A man who is unparalleled in the world can't just mess around when his own military advisor is not there.

Early the next morning, Shen Mu and Duan Chao resigned and greeted Ning Han again. Ning Han didn't care where Shen Mu was going, he just told him not to forget to practice.

Zhang Yang was Shen Mu when he was divided into four teams, and he belonged to the four members of the hidden team. Lao Luo, Hou Cheng and Wang Dongnan were all arranged out, and Zhang Yang, since the beginning of Shen Mu's detachment, has been paying attention to this person. Zhang Yang is a man of few words, often hiding behind people to listen to Lu Lao San and others talking crazy with hippie smiles, and he will not say a few words from beginning to end. Such a person, compared with Hou Cheng's cleverness, Lao Luo's persistence, and Wang Dongnan's Lao Cheng, is more suitable for the "hidden" team.

Shen Mu and Zhang Yang took one person and one horse, brought more than a dozen taels of silver, and set off.

In addition to being famous for its tea, Dingzhou is also one of the production areas of sea salt. The salt farms are basically located near the old beach, and the process from taking salt brine to drying salt is very particular. The imperial court set up a special salt road in the coastal areas to unify the jurisdiction over the production and sale of sea salt. Salt and iron are an important source of taxation in Yunzhao and have always been in the hands of the government. But the people take food as the sky, and salt is an indispensable thing in the lives of the people. Once there is a huge profit, it is inevitable that some people will try their best to get lucky and smuggle salt. The salt and iron state management brought a way to make money by officials in various places to enrich their own pockets, and the gangsters in various places saw the interests of this road, and the officials and bandits colluded and used each other to form an eternal interest relationship.

The beginning of Qixingzhai was to do the private salt business, and later through money transactions, climbed to the dignitaries in the court, and became the first cottage in Dingzhou Mansion.

Shen Mu originally wanted to get a piece of the pie, but when he walked around the Laogang Town, the largest salt farm in Dingzhou Prefecture, he found that the wine shops and inns here were all the industries of Qixingzhai, and it was difficult to get involved. I had to stay overnight and continue to swim along the official coastal road. In Shen Mu's opinion, the official's salt farm must have been divided up by various forces, and if he wants to do salt business, he needs to find a private mine.

On this day, it was raining in the afternoon, and the autumn rain was cold, Shen Mu and Zhang Yang galloped quickly, thinking about finding a village to settle down as soon as possible, so as not to be eroded by the wet cold, and it would be troublesome if the wind and cold caught it.

The autumn rain is dripping, although it is not as soft as the spring rain, but it has a different flavor! The rain and fog are so thick that they seem to have solidified, and they do not move at all.

In a trance, a small village appeared in the rain and fog, the village was not large, and it almost disappeared in the rain, and disappeared into the thick fog.

Shen Mu and the others rode into the village. Perhaps because of the rain, there was no one on the road in the village, and every house was closed. Shen Mu tried to knock on the doors of the two houses, but no one answered. Shen Mu saw a dilapidated mud house in front of the road, the door was wide open, and it seemed to have been abandoned for a long time. Then he greeted Zhang Yang and went to hide from the rain first.

This mud house is not large, and it has long been devoid of furniture, but it is full of dry firewood, as if someone has made a firewood house out of it.

Shen Mu and his clothes were soaked, so they tied up their horses, made a fire, and set their clothes on the fire.

The autumn wind blew in through the cracks in the wall, and it was cold. How nice would it be to be able to drink a bowl of hot ginger soup?

Zhang Yang took two baked cakes, which were sold in the old port town, light yellow and crispy, and were most suitable for the most emergency dry food. Zhang Yang handed one to Shen Mu, and the other took a bite himself: "Mr. Shen, how do I feel weird here." ”

Shen Mu said: "Is there anything strange?"

Zhang Yang said: "It is said that this is the busy season of autumn, and it is raining lightly, so farmers should take the opportunity to harvest straw at this time." But on the way we came, we saw only bundles of rice in the fields, but we did not see anyone collecting them home. If you are drenched in the rain like this, you will definitely spoil the grain, which is a bit unreasonable. ”

When Shen Mu heard him say this, he suddenly remembered that he had also worked in the fields with his parents when he was a child, and at that time there was no mechanization, and most of the rice had to be harvested manually. Generally, after the Mid-Autumn Festival, it takes half a month to be busy, harvesting, plowing the land, sowing and so on. But in this village, no one is rushing to harvest grain, and there is not even a person in the field, which is indeed a bit strange.

Shen Mu said: "Xu was that when they were busy, it suddenly rained, and they just wanted to hide from the rain, and they didn't have time to take back the rice. ”

Zhang Yang replied and said, "Then the people in this village are really strange. ”

The two of them ate the biscuits, and when they saw that the rain outside was more urgent, they couldn't go out for a while, so they sat cross-legged on the ground to rest. Zhang Yang sat for a while and was a little sleepy, made some hay according to the fire and spread it on the ground, made a clean straw mat for Shen Mu, and lay down to sleep for a while.

Shen Mu had nothing to do, so he sat cross-legged according to the method that Ning Han received, with a weak collar and a heavy dantian. It seems that every practice method is like this at first, it looks silly, and I don't know if it has any effect. The fifth uncle said: Those who cultivate the Tao work hard for a long time and concentrate on refining and cultivating the essence qi, and the fetal breath in the body will naturally form, and the more the dao qi will be more and more, and the more they are raised, the purer they will become. At that time, if you practice Taoism again, you will be able to get twice the result with half the effort.

I don't know if the fifth uncle is lying to me......