"Master, Yang Tou is back."
Not long after it got dark, Liu Heng was leading people to inspect the camp, and a bandit hurried over to deliver a message.
"Where is he? Take me to see him."
Upon hearing the news that Yang Yuan was back, Liu Heng asked the bandit who delivered the letter to lead the way and take him to see Yang Yuan.
There was a large tent in the camp, which was usually used for discussions. As soon as Liu Heng entered the tent, he found that several leaders from the bandit camp were in the tent.
There was no covering on all sides of the big tent, and only a roof was left on top for shade. Since it was night, there was no need for shade. Instead, a few torches were lit for illumination.
"The boss, his subordinates are incompetent, and all the money he brought was cheated." Yang Yuan lowered his head in shame when he saw Liu Heng.
Liu Hengyi frowned.
This time Yang Yuan left the camp and took away almost half of the camp's silver, specifically using it to find craftsmen to make firecrackers and a batch of iron spearheads.
"Is everyone okay?" Liu Heng did not mention the money immediately, but was concerned about the safety of Yang Yuan and the bandits he brought with him.
When Yang Yuan heard this, his heart became hot, he knelt on the ground with a thud, and said with a choked voice: "Master, my subordinates are useless, things are not done well, please punish me, master."
"Get up!" Liu Heng's face darkened, "Where are the people who went with you? Something happened?"
"No, everyone is fine." Yang Yuan hurriedly explained, "Only Chen Sanhe suffered some skin trauma, and he can recover after a few days of training."
When he heard that the person was okay, Liu Heng breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Since the person is okay, why are you crying? Stand up and talk about what's going on."
Yang Yuan stood up from the ground obediently and began to talk about what he encountered when he went to Lingqiu.
Yang Yuan, who originally went to Lingqiu, first went to the back mountain where the private iron yards in Lingqiu were located, and then went to Lingqiu County. In the county, he found a blacksmith who could make fire guns. , but the price was a bit expensive, so I wanted to visit other blacksmith shops. Not long after I left the blacksmith shop, I met a man on the road who claimed to be the owner of the Dongshan Iron Works. He said that he had a batch of good iron in his hands, but needed money urgently. To sell at a low price...
After hearing the whole story, Liu Heng frowned and asked, "Have you never suspected that the other party is a liar?"
Yang Yuan lowered his head and said: "At first, my subordinates were also suspicious, but the man took out a document from the Dongshan Iron Field with the official seal on it, and he also took his subordinates to the Dongshan Iron Field to see the documents that had been refined. of iron ingots, and the miners there also call him the proprietor.”
Liu Heng frowned and said, "So you believed it and thought there was an advantage to be taken. In the end, you spent all your money but didn't get those iron ingots."
Yang Yuan's head dropped lower and lower.
Li Shuheng on the side advised: "Okay, Yang Yuan also wants to save some more money for Daying. With these iron ingots, the blacksmith shop can also save a lot of money."
So many deceptions have been exposed in later generations, but there are still people who are deceived. In the final analysis, they are greedy and suffer big losses for a small gain.
Yang Yuan's incident reminded Liu Heng of a saying: Take advantage and suffer big losses.
"So the one who injured Chen Sanhe was also the iron farm owner from Dongshan?" Liu Heng asked.
"No, they are from the yamen." Yang Yuan lowered his head and said, "While I was arguing with the iron yard owner, several servants suddenly came to help the iron yard owner drive us away. I was worried that my identity would be exposed. If Chen Sanhe dared to take action, he tried to defend himself but was beaten by the guards with water and fire sticks."
The more he spoke, the more Yang Yuan lowered his head.
Liu Heng frowned when he heard that there were people from the yamen involved.
Zhao Yutu, who had been silent all this time, said at this time: "This matter is easy to understand. Someone in the yamen colluded with the iron farm owner to bully Yang Yuan, who is not a local. This kind of thing can't be taken away even if there is a middleman who sets a guarantee letter. Those iron ingots, the iron farm owner is sure that Brother Yang Yuan can't take advantage of him."
Yang Yuan said in confusion: "This is my first time going to Lingqiu, and I don't know anyone. What's strange is that he came to me and knew that I would definitely buy his iron ingots."
Zhao Yutu smiled and said: "I'm afraid you attracted people's attention when you went to the Dongshan Iron Field, and then you went to the blacksmith shop, and your dress didn't look like someone with a background, so people would naturally keep an eye on you. "
Yang Yuan lowered his head and looked at the clothes on his body. Although they were shabby, there were no patches or holes. They were cleaner and neater than those worn by ordinary people. The servants of wealthy families could only dress like this.
Zhao Yutu's reminder, Liu Heng also noticed that Yang Yuan's clothes were too ordinary and could not be seen in the bandit camp, but when he went out, he would naturally feel like a lowly person.
Thinking of this, Liu Heng knew that his own inexperience was his fault for this. Since he asked Yang Yuan to take people to Lingqiu for business, he forgot to let them change into better clothes.
Liu Heng did not blame Yang Yuan for losing the money. He could only say that both he and Yang Yuan were too inexperienced, which gave others an opportunity to take advantage of.
Chen Xunping, who was standing next to him, said angrily: "Tomorrow I will take people to Lingqiu to kill that bastard who dares to defraud us of our money. I will give him life to earn his life."
"Don't be impulsive." Li Shuheng scolded.
The government may not dare to provoke the bandit army outside the city, but when it goes to the city, it's a completely different story, and it becomes a piece of meat on someone else's chopping board.
At this time, Liu Heng said: "Second brother, please stay and continue training. Yang Yuan and I will go to Lingqiu early tomorrow morning."
"No!"
"Master, be careful."
Li Shuheng and Zhao Yutu spoke one after another, neither of them agreed with Liu Heng going to Lingqiu City.
Liu Heng waved his hand and said: "There is no need to persuade, Lingqiu will go to Lingqiu sooner or later, so I would like to take this opportunity to go there in person."
"No, it's too dangerous for you to go to Lingqiu City. You'd better let Xunping go." Li Shuheng disagreed with Liu Heng's risking his own life to go to Lingqiu City.
Chen Xunping answered: "Yes, I'll just go. I promise to get all the money back."
Zhao Yutu who was standing next to him also said: "The training in the camp still needs to be done by the headmaster himself. It is better to let others go to Lingqiu while the headmaster stays in the camp."
"There is no need to persuade me. I went to Lingqiu not only because of the money I was defrauded, but also to meet the blacksmith who made the fire guns. None of you know more about fire guns than I do, so it is most appropriate for me to go in person." Liu Heng had stayed in a firearms camp during his stay in Liaodong, and was most familiar with firearms such as matchlocks and three-eye blunderbuss.
Li Shuheng frowned and said, "Does our camp have to be equipped with fire guns? Those things are often used as fire sticks."
Li Shuheng, who had also served in the army, was very dissatisfied with the firearms. In the Ming army camp, the highest status was naturally the servants, followed by the main camp soldiers, then the spearmen, and the lowest status was the soldiers of the firearms camp.
"We must be equipped with fire guns." Liu Heng said solemnly.
He is familiar with the trend of history and knows that firearms are the direction of future weapon development. Even the Jurchens know how to make red cannons. He has the memory of future generations and is even less likely to give up such sharp weapons as firearms. Moreover, the biggest advantage of firearms is that they are easy to use. You can use it skillfully after a period of training, but it takes at least several years to train an archer.
If the bandit camp wants to grow, it cannot always rely on spearmen and less than a hundred archers.
Seeing that Liu Heng was determined to go to Lingqiu, several people had no choice but to tell Liu Heng to be more careful.
At this time, Yang Yuan, who had been lowering his head, whispered: "I also found out a piece of news..."
