To form a full 112 people of 100 households, that is the need for money to support, each soldier plus 2 into the military salary, a year to get nearly 15 taels of silver, 112 people that is nearly 2000 taels of silver, plus the addition and maintenance of weapons and equipment, a year without 3000 taels of silver is not good.

Su Ming knew that the eldest brother was so generous to raise the military salary of the soldiers, one reason was that Erweibao was not short of money and needed the soldiers to sell their lives loyally, and the other reason was that they had changed so many materials, and if they did not improve the treatment of the soldiers, these things could not be sold and it was a burden to stay.

Now the population of the original six villages outside the fort is growing, and the new four villages are also under construction, and the population of the second Weibao is increasing, and he needs a group of loyal men to maintain his management and safeguard the rights of the Su family in the hundred households.

"I think the soldiers should have been out of production a long time ago, without the protection of the soldiers, no matter how good our Erweibao development is, in the end it will be a wedding dress for others.

It's just that all the soldiers are trained off-duty, so what about the patrol and protection of the salt factory? Without the guidance of the troops, we may suffer heavy losses in the event of a Japanese landing. Although he agreed with the eldest brother's statement, Su Ming still expressed his worries.

"I've already taken this into account, all the soldiers over the age of 40 in our Second Castle will be discharged from the army, and all will be added as young people to join.

Retired soldiers can go to the salt factory, or go to the villages to serve as the captain of the guard. They can set up a guard team to defend the salt fort and each village, and the members of the guard team participate in production, participate in training at least twice a month, and each guard member can get half of the military salary of the soldiers, and the soldiers and the guards jointly hold exercises every six months, so that our guards can also have a certain combat power. Su Ren said his plan.

"Big brother, how many guards do you need in Salt Castle, and how many guards do you need in each village?" Su Qingping looked at Su Ren and asked.

"If you are in each village, you will receive 5 to 10 people first, and a squad leader will be in charge. Salt Fort formed three squads, each with 10 members, and appointed a squadron leader.

All members of the convoy are evaluated every three months, and if our men are killed, they are all selected from within the convoy, and I have selected 17 of the men who are over 40 years old, and they have no problem becoming captains of the convoy. Su Ren said.

In this way, there may be hundreds of members of Wei Zhuang's guard, and the number of soldiers that can be used by the two Wei Castles has doubled at once.

"I think it's good, the escort team is not out of production, just increase training and give everyone more income. Later, when he encountered a homeless person with good martial arts, he threw the guards for a period of time, tested their loyalty, and then included them in the army. Su Zhe also thinks this method is good.

"We don't think about money, the food is enough for the time being, but the number of soldiers is suddenly doubled, where do we get the weapons to use, there are no weapons to train combat power." Su Qingping said.

"Then we can only wait until the end of September, at the end of September, the northbound trading fleet will come back, and there will be a large number of weapons and equipment at that time, and we can still buy some cattle, sheep and war horses at that time." Su Ren said.

Most of the Ming army was in the north to resist the attack of the grassland tribes, and in order to make money, a large number of weapons and equipment issued by the imperial court were smuggled and sold to various places, otherwise the guards of various families, as well as the armor of pirates and pirates, how did they come from, those armor-making skills are not anyone's ability, and the imperial court did not allow private armor-making, and as a result, the imperial court itself became the largest seller of weapons and equipment, although this sales method is somewhat special.

"That's the only way, the key now is to build up the guard shelf, and select powerful young people to improve our military strength, but if we want the troops to lose production, we have to take our time step by step, and it may be dangerous if we directly drain the combat power of Yantian." Su Qingping said.

The four brothers said yes, Su Qingping went to tell Cao Chunrui and the small banners the news, Su Zhe was also outside Su Fort to explore the construction of the four villages, but Su Ren stopped Su Ming.

"Eighth brother, this time we were able to complete the transaction so smoothly, your credit is the greatest, so much gold and silver is placed here I am also worried, our salt farm is now producing more and more snowflake salt, the eldest brother knows that your guns were bought at a great price, you take these gold, eight hundred taels of silver we are enough for a period of time." Su Ren actually took out the box containing the money and wanted to hand over all the gold to Su Ming.

"Big brother, you still have to take this money first, how can we bet on it without a little money in our fort.

Snowflake salt is not sold every month, our salt farm produces more and more snowflake salt, and the price will definitely get lower and lower in the future.

I know what you mean, big brother, but now even if you have money... I can't buy guns, and next time we sell salt, I'll find a way to get some guns. Su Ming said.

Last time, the Li family guarded their hiding point, as long as they carefully looked at the wounds of the dead Li family guards, they knew that Su Ming secretly killed them with a gun, and Su Zhe was just attracting attention in front.

So Su Ming still has a gun, Su Ren must have guessed it a long time ago, and anyone who cares about it will definitely be able to guess it as long as he pays attention, so he felt that Erweibao might be under more and more pressure, and Su Ren's first thought was to ask his younger brother to get some more guns.

"In this way..., our Erweibao will change more and more, and Yao Qianhu will pay more and more attention to us, the secret of your return can no longer be hidden, you have to pay more attention to safety.

In the future, all the affairs of the escort team will be handed over to you as the eighth brother, and I will make it clear to the captains of each team that we must settle down and accumulate strength for a period of time in the future, and you will take care of the affairs of the salt factory and the escort team. Su Ren said to Su Ming.

In the next few days, everything seemed to be very normal, as soon as Wang Zhi's fleet left the coastal guard posts, all the money in their hands, and the number of people doing business began to increase.

There are also two more shops and an inn in Erwei Fort, a pottery shop and a medical hall so that more and more villagers enter the fort every day, and the inn is opened by Su Ren to an old soldier.

At the end of May, the No. 5 new salt pan of the salt factory was completed, and the four salt pans were put into operation together, and the salt fort kept boiling salt in a pot every day, with a daily salt output of more than 20 stones, and the snow salt in the Erweibao warehouse exceeded 200 stones, and the formation of the relevant escort team was also quietly carried out, but the ordinary people did not pay attention to these.

From Yao Qianhu in Jinshanwei Town, there is news about the pirates in Zhejiang, Guangdong, and Fujian, and now there are more than 4,000 pirates and pirates in southern Zhejiang, and there are already guards who have been breached.

However, the coastal area of Erweibao has not been attacked by pirates, perhaps because of the first two setbacks here, and the pirates also know that Erweibao is not easy to mess with.

Su Ming didn't hear his eldest brother talk about the homeless people anymore, but more and more people were building new houses in several villages outside the fort, and the four villages in the southeast, northwest, and northwest were only a month, and more than 30 families had already settled here. Many of the soldiers in the fort hired servants, and the eldest brother found an old mother for the family, as well as two young subordinates. They all live in makeshift grass huts in the courtyard, and the four brothers will not have to do the work at home in the future.

The eldest brother wanted to find a maid for Su Ming to serve several times, but Su Ming refused. Su Zhe saw that Su Ming refused and couldn't agree, so Su Ren told the two to wait for their yard to be completed next year and buy it himself.

In this era, the poor can buy a beautiful maid for ten taels of silver, and if it is sold into an official's house, the price can be cheaper.

Tomorrow will be the thirtieth of the end of the month, Su Ming rode on a horse and sent three carriages to each other with two teams of guards and slowly entered the second Weibao.

In May, the weather begins to get hotter, and the salt drying efficiency of the salt pan is also greatly accelerated, basically you can cook salt once in 7 to 8 days, plus the time to remove the salt water, a salt pan can be boiled three times a month.

These three carts of salt totaled more than 22 stones, which was the harvest of the salt field in one day today, 9 stones of snowflake salt, 13 stones of green salt, and 10 stones of green salt were boiled this month, and they were put in the warehouse for the next month.

There are more and more people on the construction site of the new city wall of Erweibao, Su Ming probably estimates that there are more than 500 people, most of these people are villagers from the ten villages outside the fort, working here can not only have two meals a day, but also get paid, many homeless people from afar will not leave when they arrive in Erweibao.

Entering the fort, there are construction sites everywhere, the eldest brother has begun to prepare for the interior of the new Erweibao, many new houses with stone and cement look particularly eye-catching from afar, and now the sale of cement is also a major source of income for Erweibao.

Sending the salt back to the warehouse, Su Ming came back and saw that the two newly bought subordinates were carrying water, and the smell of the maid cooking in the kitchen wafted out, and Su Ming's stomach couldn't help but growl.

The eldest brother is teaching his nephew Su Xinxin Zamabu, it is time for such a big child to practice martial arts, and in the future, he will inherit the position of the eldest brother in the hundred households, and he can't do martial arts.

"Eighth brother, you're back!" Su Ren asked when he saw his younger brother coming back.

"Well, don't be too strict with the news, he's still young now, and practicing too hard will affect his physical development." Su Ming saw that his little nephew was only wearing a short coat, and the blood marks on his back were very obvious, and he couldn't help but say.

"Humph! If you are not strict, how can you do it, and if you are lazy, you will not be wasted. Is everything okay at the salt farm? Su Ren asked.

"It's all good, tomorrow is the day of trading with the wind chime, when the time comes, I will take the fifth brother and the iron pillar to go over, and in the future, we will have a good relationship with the wind chime, and we will have one more way." Su Ming said.

"Yes! By the way, I went to Jinshanwei Town today, and Yao Qianhu said that it would cost a lot of money for the guards to go to Zhejiang to suppress bandits next month, so we should hand over 50 stone of green salt this month. Su Ren said.

"Can the share still rise so casually? The share is directly raised from 30 stones to 50 stones, what will happen if you can't pay it? Su Ming couldn't help asking.

"Wang Xianxiang and I both tried to say that the salt pans could not produce so much green salt, but Yao Qianhu said that he had invited a salt drying master from Fujian to help us increase salt production, and he would also send a team of guards to help us protect the salt pans from pirate attacks." Su Ren said.