Zhu Shenzui's words immediately made Li Hu and others laugh. To be honest, Li Hu was also a little tempted. First of all, he had been dealing with the Mongolians for so many years at the border, but he had never been to the grassland. If he could go to the grassland, It’s not bad to take a look. Secondly, because of Zhu Shenzui's shelter and kindness, they were able to settle down safely in Sheephead Mountain. And now that his son has become Wang Jinwu's disciple, everyone has long been one of his own.
I have always been grateful to Zhu Shenzui in my heart, and I want to repay Zhu Shenzui, but I don't know how to do it. Now that Zhu Shenzui has said this, since Zhu Shenzui will take more people to the grassland next time, isn't this a good opportunity to contribute?
However, Li Hu thought about it and hesitated again. It didn't matter if Hu Lin went with him, and Lu Yisheng could do it, but if he went too, there would be no one on the Yangtou Mountain side. Now that Sheephead Mountain has just stabilized, there are still many things to do. If something happens if he leaves too, they will be too late in the grassland to come back in time!
"Next time, let the second and third sons take a few people to follow Mr. Liu. I won't go. If I go too, no one will be watching here at Yangtou Mountain." Li Hu said to Zhu Shenzui calmly, If others heard this, they might have some thoughts about Li Hu, but Zhu Shenzui knew that Li Hu was a straightforward person. He had no other meaning when he said this, he was just discussing the matter, so Zhu Shenzui didn't even smile. Whatever you say, agree readily.
When he came to Yangtou Mountain this time, Zhu Shenzui had several thoughts.
One is to look at the situation in Yangtou Mountain. Although it is known from Xia Dong, Wang Jinwu and others that the development of Yangtou Mountain is pretty good, and Li Hu and others are doing their best, but I have heard that the actual situation is still poor. You have to see it yourself to feel at ease.
Secondly, Li Hu and others are different from the people of Wangjiacun. The so-called difference between closeness and distance is that Li Hu is not from Wangjiacun after all.
Wangjiacun is considered Zhu Shenzui's own, they are related to each other, and his uncle Wang Rong is here. In addition, Zhu Shenzui has spent a lot of thought on Wangjiacun over the years, and he has been able to completely control the entire Wangjiacun. But Li Hu was just a group of refugees that Zhu Shenzui had just conquered. No matter how kind they were to these refugees, they were still considered outsiders. To truly trust, it takes a certain amount of time.
Thirdly, through previous arrangements, Zhu Shenzui placed several people in Yangtou Mountain, but it was still the three brothers Li Hu who truly controlled the power of Yangtou Mountain. In this case, it is not appropriate to directly intervene in some matters in Yangtou Mountain and to use strong methods. From Zhu Shenzui's understanding of Li Hu, although Li Hu is a rough man, he has also served as a frontier soldier and a junior officer. , quite prestigious in Yangtou Mountain. In this case, some things must be done strategically, otherwise it will be counterproductive if it arouses the other party's resentment.
In addition, Zhu Shenzui also considered the arrangements for going to the grassland in the future. Going to the grassland next is inevitable. The trade route has been opened. The harvest last time was huge. There is absolutely no way he will give up this way of making money.
The scale of the grassland will not be the same as last time. According to Zhu Shenzui's vision, the number of people in his team will be at least much larger. Even if it cannot reach the level of large-scale trading, it must at least reach the scale of medium-sized trading, but in this way, he will not have enough people.
There are actually quite a few people available in Wangjia Village now. There are nearly a hundred people together, but most of Zhu Shenzui's people are useful. In addition to the people needed by the salt smuggling team, there are also important business people in Pingyang, people from Yangtou Mountain, and people who stayed in Wangjiacun. It is extraordinary to have about ten people among the remaining people.
Going to the grassland is also dangerous, and the person you take with you must be strong. If something happens, you may have to use a knife to fight. Ordinary people can't use it at all, they must have some ability.
Zhu Shenzui didn't want to take all the team members that Wangjia Village had finally cultivated to the grassland. If there was an accident and they were left in the grassland, it would be too late to regret. After much deliberation, Zhu Shenzui decided to go to Yangtou Mountain and use this trip to test Li Hu and others.
Unexpectedly, everything went smoothly than expected. After learning about Zhu Shenzui's arrangements to go to the grassland, Hu Lin and others actually proposed the idea of following Zhu Shenzui to the grassland. Even Li Hu did not refuse and sincerely stated This played into Zhu Shenzui's hands.
In this case, Zhu Shenzui couldn't let it go easily, and immediately settled the matter half-jokingly and half-seriously.
According to the discussion, Hu Lin and Lu Yisheng picked seven or eight good men in the mountains to join Zhu Shenzui's caravan. In this way, Zhu Shenzui would have a few more people, plus themselves and Ma Shizhou, to form nearly twenty people. The caravan is almost done.
With these numbers, plus the trade route discussed in the grassland before, it would be much safer to go there. As long as these people, including Hu Lin and Lu Yisheng, follow him two more times, Zhu Shenzui believes that he can completely make them his own. By then, Yangtou Mountain will truly belong to Zhu Shenzui's power.
"Sixth Master, I have something to tell you." After three rounds of drinking and talking about the grassland, Li Hu suddenly remembered something and said.
"Some time ago, a group of strongmen appeared in Zhaowuling. The leader called himself Gust of Wind, and they were robbing homes and houses. They sent people to Yangtou Mountain a few days ago to give me a message..."
"Is there still this matter? What did you say?" Zhu Shenzui frowned slightly and continued to listen to Li Hu.
Li Hu told Zhu Shenzui that this gust of wind had just appeared a while ago, and he didn't know where it came from. Hundreds of his men gathered and occupied Zhaowuling on the east side of Sheephead Mountain.
Originally, the two sides did not interfere with the river. Li Hu and the others were also refugees, but now with the support of Zhu Shenzui, they have settled in Yangtou Mountain. As long as this gust of wind does not come to Yangtou Mountain, it will not affect their ability to smuggle salt. On Salt Road, Li Hu didn't want to pay attention to this gust of wind.
But unexpectedly, he ignored Guofeng. Guofeng actually sent someone to contact Li Hu first. The implicit meaning in his words was that he wanted to join forces with Li Hu and his gang to do something big.
Out of curiosity, I asked, who would have thought that Xiufeng's appetite was quite big, and he actually set his sights on Lingchuan, the closest place to Zhaowuling, and planned to do something in Lingchuan.
According to Fei Feng, the magistrate of Lingchuan is a corrupt official. Lingchuan has been tortured a lot by this bastard magistrate over the years, and people are filled with resentment. In this case, why doesn't he, Xiu Feng, work for Tian Xingdao? If he can unite with Yangtou Mountain and the two families work together, it will be easy to capture Lingchuan.
Lingchuan is not a big county, just a small one. There are no troops stationed in the county. At most, there are dozens of government officials and white servants plus a dozen or so ordinary soldiers.
They just need to dress up as ordinary people, sneak some people into the county, and then work together to seize the city gate unprepared. As long as the city gate is obtained, Lingchuan will be in their pocket.
When the time comes, we can capture Lingchuan with a single call, kill the dog officer, and then open a warehouse to release food. Lingchuan will naturally fall into our hands. Next, we can raise flags and gather troops, and great things can be accomplished!
As long as Lingchuan is used as the base, one can enter Zhili to the east and the Central Plains to the south. If one goes to the west, he can directly attack Gaoping. Once Gaoping is captured again, with Taihang and Wangwu as the forces, it will not be difficult to separate one side. If Li Hu is willing to work together, Guofeng can divide the world equally with Li Hu. The two will become kings side by side and share the glory and wealth.
After Li Hu said this, Zhu Shenzui was dumbfounded. His first reaction was, is this gust of wind out of his mind? The toad yawned so loudly!
It is now the forty-eighth year of Wanli, not the seventeenth year of Chongzhen. The world has not yet reached the stage of chaos.
Although there have been many natural and man-made disasters in recent years, and the Ming army suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Sarhu last year, the entire Ming Dynasty is still peaceful and the people can live a comfortable life.
It's not like there haven't been rebellions in the area in recent years, and there have been several large and small rebellions in various provinces. However, these rebellions have been insignificant. As soon as the chaos on the front foot broke out, the rear foot was put down.
For example, this is the case here in Shanxi. The biggest incident was when a group of mud-legged gangsters killed several government officials, but even the county government officials could not be defeated. They were killed by the officers and soldiers who came to kill them. In the blink of an eye, the mastermind was killed. Even though the head was chopped off, none of the others escaped.
Zhu Shenzui didn't know the origin of this gust of wind, and how he could be so confident. Under such circumstances, a promising mountain king would have to go down the mountain to kill officials and rebel. What kind of courage does he have?
"You didn't promise him, right?" Thinking of this, Zhu Shenzui asked.
"I'm not stupid, how could I agree?" Li Hu shook his head like a rattle: "I am a soldier, how can I not understand the meaning of this? If this matter is really as easy as a gust of wind said, what would we have done back then? I won’t hide in Sheep’s Head Mountain anymore.”
"Don't say that Xiufeng's men are just a mob. Even if all the people he leads are soldiers, it is absolutely impossible to kill officials and rebel! Even if he is lucky enough to capture Lingchuan, so what? Once the news comes out, Ningshan Guards will be close at hand, waiting for the officials As soon as the army arrives, a gust of wind can stop them for half a round, which is good, but if they are killed then their brothers will be implicated, and I am not as stupid as him."
Li Hu's words made Zhu Shenzui's heart drop. He then asked where the person sent by Gust Feng was? Are you still in Sheephead Mountain?
Li Hu told Zhu Shenzhui that he went back after he returned the duel. When he went back, he seemed to look down on Li Hu. He said a few words. He originally thought that Li Hu was a good man and that the three brothers of the Yang family in Yangtou Mountain could conspire together for big things. It's actually a coward or something.
At that time, Lu Yi was so angry that he almost called for someone to take down this guy and chop off his head. However, he was stopped by Li Hu. Li Hu felt that although he did not agree to Xiafeng, he could not cause conflict between the two sides. If the two sides fell out, no one could guarantee whether Xiufeng would become angry and lead others to attack Yangtou Mountain first.
The foundation of Yangtou Mountain has just been established, and there is still a large amount of Zhu Shenzui's salt products on the mountain. In addition, the salt road for private salt cannot be cut off, so after thinking about it, Li Hu secretly endured this sigh and let the person go. Back home, Zhu Shenzui arrived just two days after this man left.
After listening, Zhu Shenzui frowned and said nothing for a while. Seeing his appearance, Li Hu felt a little uneasy and couldn't help but think of his previous decision to let him go. Did he make a mistake?
