Wang Zewan never thought that the descendants of the Mi brothers and clansmen on Yuzhou Island would have such a low evaluation of Liu Bei, and they simply criticized Liu Xuande as a villain with a red fruit.

Fortunately, there were no scribes among Wang Ze, Du Qian and others this time, and Xiao Jing didn't come with him because of something.

From the beginning of the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the present, the literati and Confucian scholars of the Southern Dynasty have a big 'problem', that is, they worship and respect Zhuge Liang exactly, so Liu Bei, who reuses Zhuge Liang, is of course also a Ming Jun.

At this time, the literati believed that Liu Bei had all the major military and political affairs of the Maolu, which showed that this was the mutual trust between the monarch and the ministers, and when Liu Bei failed in his crusade against Eastern Wu, and when the White Emperor City entrusted Gugu, he entrusted Zhuge Liang with all the affairs of the whole country.

In the following decades, Zhuge Liang did not usurp the power of Cao Wei like Sima Yi, and was always a conscientious assistant to Liu Chan until he died of illness in Wuzhangyuan, so Zhuge Liang was a great loyal minister in the eyes of many literati.

In this way, in the ancient society that paid attention to mutual knowledge between monarchs and ministers, and paid attention to loyalty and filial piety, Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei simply became a perfect model of monarchs and ministers in all dynasties, and a typical example of getting along with monarchs and ministers.

In the mouths of generations of literati in the Southern Dynasties, Zhuge Liang gradually became the embodiment of perfection, and Liu Bei, who reused Zhuge Liang, also became a wise monarch through the ages and was respected by scholars.

If those literati in the Southern Dynasty heard the old man surnamed Mi comment on Liu Bei, it is estimated that even if he has a small body like a hemp rod, he will rush up to defend the honor of his idol.

Wang Ze, Zhu Qingqing and the others looked at each other and smiled, but they did not make any evaluation of the words of the clan elder, because if they said that they were not in harmony with the Mi clan people today, it would definitely affect the next 'exchange' between the two sides, and if they followed the words of the Mi clan elder to denigrate Liu Bei, it would also be a troublesome matter to reach the ears of the literati of the northern and southern countries in the future.

Although the old man of the clan is old, he is also a deaf and clear-sighted person, and when he sees that everyone does not answer, even if he understands the taboo of everyone, he will no longer talk about it.

In the village with towering ancient trees, he took everyone to browse one by one, and from time to time pointed to a house in the village and told everyone where the Mizhu brothers lived back then, and where who once lived.

After a while, seeing that the sky was gradually darkening, Wang Ze was also ready to return, and at this time, the village patriarch personally came to invite Wang Ze and others to go to dinner, but Du Qian slightly 'revealed' a surprised 'color', and he had personally come to this village a few months ago.

At that time, Chen Jun had just occupied Yuzhou Island, in order to stabilize the surrounding neighbors, he wanted to let the village with higher prestige in the surrounding area cooperate to do something, although in the end the village also cooperated with his own actions, but from beginning to end it was only Du Qian, who was only received by a clan elder, and the patriarch did not 'show' his face, and he didn't expect to come to invite Wang Ze in person this time.

When he looked up, he saw that the patriarch was nearly sixty years old, and he was in a strong spirit, and he came to the front of everyone surrounded by a group of young people, and he was dressed in single clothes like young people.

The patriarch said with a smile: "Little Lao'er is not in the village today and I don't know that your guests are coming to the 'door', and now I have come to greet you and hope to forgive your sins. ”

I said I was inviting everyone, but why do you keep looking at me with those eyes? Wang Ze felt a chill down his spine when the patriarch looked at him, how could he know that the patriarch had the idea in his heart.

The banquet was prepared in the patriarch's house, and the houses were not much different from the other people in the village, except that the area of the courtyard was slightly larger, about the size of four or five acres of land.

As soon as you enter the courtyard 'door', you can see that it is different from other ordinary people's homes, the yard is obviously much cleaner and tidier, from the big 'gate' to the lobby paved with a stone road that is more than one zhang wide, all paved with thick stone slabs.

Facing is a water of blue brick houses, chalk (lime) plastered on the walls are already hanging mottled moss to reveal a sense of vicissitudes, around the house grow more than a dozen hugging thick jujube trees, from another aspect to illustrate the long history of these buildings.

Wang Ze liked the scenery in the courtyard very much, and originally wanted to stay in the courtyard for a while, but if it was too late today, it would be dark in a short time, and finally he was invited by the patriarch to sit in the main hall.

Although the patriarch's family is only a slightly wealthy villager, after all, it was once prominent for a period of time in history, and the hospitality etiquette was not bad at all, and the tableware for holding food was all fine Wuxing white porcelain.

After a while, the table was full of all kinds of 'color' delicacies, and the table that I thought was relatively large gradually became crowded, with large boiled 'chickens', geese, turtles and a kind of deer unique to Yuzhou Island, etc., which filled the table, even Wang Ze who had seen the big scene was surprised by the patriarch's effort!

The patriarch smiled and said: "There are no good things in the Zhuang family, these are the 'chicken' ducks and geese fed by our farmers on Yuzhou Island, and the yellow monkey is just caught by the descendants of the village, and the 'meat' is when it is fresh!" ”

Seeing that everyone was hungry, Wang Ze got up and invited the patriarch and the clan elders to sit together, and the soldiers of Gao Shi and Wolf Tooth could not be ambiguous because they insisted on guarding the work, so they took turns on duty and ate in the east wing.

Du Qian also clearly saw that the patriarch might have something to ask for Wang Ze here, and during the banquet, the patriarch of the Mi clan and others continued to toast Wang Ze, and the attitude of respect was incomparable.

After being full of wine and food, Wang Ze decided to stay in the village for one night temporarily, anyway, it was less than ten miles away from the port, and reinforcements would arrive when there was no situation.

After cleaning up, Wang Ze urged Cheng Xueying and Zhu Qingqing back to his room, and he slowly tasted the tea prepared by Gaoshi.

As soon as the second cup of tea was brewed, the wolf-tooth soldier on duty outside came to inform the Mi clan patriarch to ask for a meeting, this soldier was Guo Erlang, who caught Huide, the superintendent of Jinxian Academy, when he was in Jian'an County, Wang Ze saw that this Guo Erlang was more clever, and his analytical ability was also 'very' good, so he let him follow him for the time being, and it would be easy to reuse in the future.

After a short time, the patriarch of the Mi clan entered the 'door' and came to Wang Ze, and without waiting for Wang Ze to greet him, the patriarch actually knelt down and kowtowed to Wang Ze and said, "Please also ask Xiaolangjun to spare my life!" ”

Wang Ze was very puzzled by this kneeling 'make', he hurriedly stepped forward and took the hand of the Mi clan patriarch and said: "I have never known the patriarch, why did the patriarch come to say this?" Let's hurry up."

The patriarch of the Mi clan refused to get up, but just looked up at Wang Ze and replied: "Although the land on Yuzhou Island, where the Mi clan is located, is also rich, the cultivated land is limited after all, and we have been boiling the sea for hundreds of years. But this year, the sea salt produced in Changguang County sells well in the north and south countries, and the sea salt produced by us is now unable to even recover the capital, and I hope that Xiao Langjun's subordinates will be merciful."

Six years ago, when Wang Ze was in Changguang County, with the assistance of He Bo and a group of old farmers, he explored the salt drying method, and now after more than six years of continuous improvement, it has begun to produce a large number of 'fine' salt.

People in the world can not eat sugar and buy other goods, but they are absolutely incapable of salt, and 'five flavors and salty first' is not just talking.

During this period, most of the sea salt was made from a plot of land enclosed by the sea to fill with seawater, and after a period of time, the brine was roughly dried and then boiled in an iron pot or pottery.

In addition to being mixed with sediment, this kind of sea salt also contains a large amount of impurities other than sodium chloride, which looks yellowish and very bitter.

This is also the reason why during the Song Dynasty, Western Xia could 'smuggle' a large amount of Qingbai salt from Ningxia to the Northern Song Dynasty, because the salt produced by these natural salt ponds did not have so many impurities and the taste was relatively pure, so it was favored by the wealthy people in the Northern Song Dynasty.

Now this is also the reason, the sea salt produced by Wang Ze Salt Farm, especially the 'fine' salt, is as white as snow, the particles are delicate and uniform, especially by the people of the Northern Qi and Southern Dynasties, known as the East China Sea Snow Salt, its profit is even higher than the previous sugar.

In the past, because Wang Ze's salt works were only in a few places such as Muping, Weihai, and Chengshan, these places were located in the peninsula, and there were more places where precipitation 'intersected', and the time for salt production was limited, so the sea salt produced did not pose much threat to the salt farms in other places.

However, after Wang Ze and Wang Yong captured Qingzhou, Linzi, Donglai, Changguang and other places last year, they confiscated a large number of salt farms that originally belonged to the Northern Qi government and Xianbei Haoqiang, and after some transformation, these salt farms also began to produce a large number of 'fine' salt.

With the gradual increase in the production of 'refined' salt, the price of 'refined' salt began to decrease, and the coarse salt produced by these salt farms was even cheaper.

In the past, the salt farm of the Mi family could make at least tens of millions of dollars a year, and when the snow salt of the East China Sea was first sold to the Southern Dynasty, although it was sought after by the wealthy merchants of the Southern Chen clan, the Mi family was not greatly affected at this time.

At first, Mi also wanted to explore how to produce snow salt, but after some experiments, like others, it also failed, so Mi thought that this snow salt was difficult to produce in limited quantities, and thought that it would not pose much threat to himself, so he put this matter behind him except for expressing his own admiration.

After the Chinese New Year this year, a large number of snow salt and snow were sprinkled all over the land of Nanchen, not to mention, and a boatload of coarse salt was also transported, so that the poor people of Nanchen, who were accustomed to eating sky-high salt, almost fainted happily, and moved to their homes one by one.

The other salt farms that produce sea salt have not sold a single grain of salt except for some official purchases, and the person in charge of the salt works of the Mi family almost jumped into the sea, and if it were not for the civil officials of Nanchen Shangshu Province who later took emergency measures to restrict the import of 'fine' salt from the north, I am afraid that Nanchen's economy would have suffered a serious blow.

Later, the patriarch of the Mi clan inquired around in private and found out that these snow salts were actually flowing from Changguang County under the control of Wang Yong in the north.

It turned out that the patriarch of the Mi clan still wanted to go to Changguang County in person to beg for a way to beg for his salt farm, but he didn't want Wang Yong's son Wang Ze to come here in person, so he had to worship this great god!

Listening to the words of the patriarch of the Mi clan, Wang Ze couldn't help but 'touch' his nose, and he didn't expect that this matter really fell on him.

However, after thinking about it, Wang Ze is still willing to 'befriend' this Mi family, although the Mi family is no longer as prominent as before, but it still has a high prestige in the village of Baili near Yuntai Mountain.

'Befriending' these people will also be of great benefit to his layout on Yuzhou Island in the future, of course, Wang Ze will not admit that he is a little embarrassed about Mi in his heart.

After thinking about it, Wang Ze helped the old patriarch up: "In this way, this is still mine, I'm really sorry, this matter fell on me!" ”

Hearing Wang Ze's packing ticket, the patriarch of the Mi clan was very happy, and his mouth was a little upside down, not to mention that there was no income from the salt farm these days, and he had to continue to pay salt taxes to the imperial court, how could the pressure be ordinarily small.

Now that the great god has passed by, fortunately, he has quickly hugged his thick 'legs', and a good day for himself and his people will come in the future.

"I heard that Xiao Langjun has now created a good foundation, Xiao Lao'er now has a young son and a nephew, and there are a large number of young people in the clan who are willing to join Lang Jun's command." The patriarch of the Mi clan saw that the matter could be solved with certainty, and moved on to the next thing.

"Oh? I don't know how old the patriarch's young son is so old that he is willing to join the army? You must know that the soldiers are ruthless! Wang Ze still has to say ugly things to the front, because the young son has always been the darling of his parents, how can he endure the suffering in the army.

The patriarch of the Mi clan said respectfully: "The little old man and the youngest son Mi Zang have twenty-three this year, and the deceased brother of the old man has a son, who is already twenty-six this year, and the two of them have been practicing martial arts since they were children, and they can only be regarded as strong in their upper bodies, and they only hope to follow Xiao Langjun to make some contributions and fight for a future!" ”

Wang Ze said strangely: "Now that the Great Chen Northern Expedition is like a broken bamboo, why didn't the patriarch let them go to the Governor Hou or General Cheng to join the army?" But do you want to follow me? ”

The patriarch of the Mi clan said with a smile: "Although the little old man is from a Zhuang family, he also followed his elders to the north and south when he was young, and he has seen many people. And although this Nan Chen has the appearance of rising now, it is a congenital deficiency after all, and I am afraid that it will not be able to run for a long time in the future.

However, Lang Jun has a noble status, but he is so kind to us and other people, he is obviously a master, and my Mi family Lang will definitely not suffer a big loss if he follows Lang Jun. ”

Unexpectedly, this patriarch's vision is still 'very', Wang Ze secretly said in his heart, "Now the patriarch of a village has such a vision, it seems that he was still a little arrogant before, the Chinese land is hidden in the dragon and the tiger, it seems that you still have to be careful in the future!" ’

When Wang Ze returned to the port on the second day, the son of the Mi family did not return with Wang Ze, but went out to sea in advance to wait for Wang Ze in the northern sea.

After Wang Ze's fleet went to sea, the two sides quickly converged, these young men have always been accustomed to '' boats, and they can be regarded as natural sailors, there are more good soldiers like Mi Shi, plus Yang Feihu, the former captain of Xiao Liangshui Military Academy who had defected to Wang Ze before, was also under the command of Gu Bin, which made Gu Bin happy all day long.

Mi Zang didn't talk too much, but his cousin Mi Jie was a chatter, he pointed to the direction of the north and west and said to Wang Ze: "Lang Jun, that side is a hundred miles north of Yitang County, I heard that it is the territory of General Cheng Chong's subordinates, as if the leader is a captain named Zhao Kun, and there are one or two thousand people under his command." ”

Zhao Kun, with the name of a bloody figure quickly emerged in Wang Ze's mind, the fight in Jinan City seemed to be faintly in front of him, this is also a man who can fight, I can't imagine that he has been promoted from last year's captain to captain.

Judging by the side where he is stationed alone, I am afraid that it will not be long before he will be promoted to the commander of the commander, which is equivalent to the commander of a brigade in the future.

After thinking about it, it had been delayed for a long time, Wang Ze still dismissed the plan to go to Zhao Kun for a turn, and instead ordered Gu Bin: "The ship will sail directly and arrive at Jiaozhou Port as soon as possible!" ”