Chapter 85 1 Gust of Wind
Chapter 85 A gust of wind
Zhu Shenzhui's words immediately made Li Hu and others burst into laughter. To be honest, Li Hu was also somewhat tempted. First, he had been dealing with Mongolians for many years at the border, but had never been to the grassland. It would be nice to go to the grassland to have a look. Second, because of Zhu Shenzhui's shelter and kindness, this group of people settled down in Yangtou Mountain safely. And now his son has become Wang Jinwu's disciple, and everyone has long been a family.
I have always been grateful to Zhu Shenzhui and wanted to repay him, but I didn't know how. Now that Zhu Shenzhui said this, since Zhu Shenzhui will bring more people to the grassland next time, isn't this a good opportunity to help?
However, Li Hu hesitated again after thinking about it. It was okay for Hu Lin to go with him, and Lu Yisheng could go with him, but if he went too, there would be no one left on Yangtou Mountain. Yangtou Mountain had just stabilized, and there were still many things to do. If he left too, if something happened, they would be too far away on the grassland to rush back in time!
"Next time, let the second and third brothers take a few people to follow Sixth Master. I won't go. If I go, there will be no one to watch over Yangtou Mountain." Li Hu said to Zhu Shenzhui frankly. If others heard this, they might have some thoughts about Li Hu, but Zhu Shenzhui knew that Li Hu was a straightforward person. He didn't have any other meaning in what he said, he was just discussing the matter, so Zhu Shenzhui smiled and said nothing, and agreed readily.
Zhu Shenzui had several things in mind when he came to Yangtou Mountain this time.
One is to see the situation of Yangtou Mountain. Although I heard from Xia Dong, Wang Jinwu and others that Yangtou Mountain is developing quite well and Li Hu and others are working hard, but hearsay is only hearsay and I have to see the actual situation myself to feel at ease.
Secondly, Li Hu and others are different from the people of Wangjia Village. As the saying goes, there is a difference between close and distant relatives. After all, Li Hu is not from Wangjia Village.
Wangjia Village is considered Zhu Shenzhu's own people, and they are related to each other. He also has his uncle Wang Rong. In addition, Zhu Shenzhu has spent a lot of time in Wangjia Village over the years, and he is able to fully control Wangjia Village. But Li Hu is just a group of refugees that Zhu Shenzhu has just conquered. No matter how much kindness and kindness these refugees have shown, they are still outsiders. To truly trust them, it takes a certain amount of time.
Thirdly, through the previous placement, Zhu Shenzhui placed several people in Yangtou Mountain, but the three brothers Li Hu were still the ones who really controlled the power of Yangtou Mountain. In this case, it was not appropriate to directly intervene in some things in Yangtou Mountain with tough means. From Zhu Shenzhui's understanding of Li Hu, although Li Hu was a rough man, he had also served as a frontier soldier and a junior officer, and had considerable prestige in Yangtou Mountain. In this case, some things should be done strategically, in case they cause the other party to be disgusted, it would be counterproductive.
In addition, Zhu Shenzui also considered the arrangements for going to the grassland later. It was inevitable to go to the grassland again next time. The trade route had been opened and the harvest last time was huge. He would never give up this way of making money.
The scale of going to the grassland next time would not be the same as last time. According to Zhu Shenzhui's idea, his team would have to be much larger. Even if they could not reach the level of a large merchant, they would at least reach the level of a medium-sized merchant. But in this case, he would not have enough people.
Wangjia Village actually had quite a few people available now, nearly a hundred in total, but most of them were useful to Zhu Shenzhui. In addition to the salt smuggling team, there were also important people in Pingyang, people from Yangtou Mountain, and people who stayed in Wangjia Village. It was already a great achievement to be able to spare a dozen people from the rest.
Going to the grassland is also dangerous. The person you bring must be strong and sturdy. If you encounter something, you may have to fight with a knife. Ordinary people can't use it at all. You must have some ability to do it.
Zhu Shenzhui didn't want to take all the members of Wangjia Village who had been trained with great difficulty to the grassland. If something unexpected happened and they were left on the grassland, it would be too late to regret it. After thinking about it, Zhu Shenzhui decided to go to Yangtou Mountain and take the opportunity to test Li Hu and others.
Unexpectedly, everything went more smoothly than expected. After learning about Zhu Shenzui's arrangement to go to the grassland, Hu Lin and others actually took the initiative to propose to follow Zhu Shenzui to the grassland. Even Li Hu did not refuse and expressed his attitude sincerely, which was exactly what Zhu Shenzui wanted.
In this case, Zhu Shenzhui would not let it go easily, and he immediately decided the matter half jokingly and half seriously.
According to the agreement, Hu Lin and Lu Yisheng would pick seven or eight good fighters from the mountains to join Zhu Shenzui's caravan. In this way, with a few more people from Zhu Shenzui's side, plus himself and Ma Shizhou, a caravan of nearly twenty people would be formed.
With these people and the trade route discussed before, it would be much safer to go there. As for these people, including Hu Lin and Lu Yisheng, as long as they follow him for two more trips, Zhu Shencui believes that he can make them his own people. By then, Yangtou Mountain will truly belong to Zhu Shencui's power.
"Sixth Master, I have something to tell you." After three rounds of drinks and talking about the grassland, Li Hu suddenly remembered something and spoke.
"Some time ago, a group of strong men appeared in Zhaowuling. The leader called himself a gust of wind and started robbing houses. A few days ago, they sent someone to Yangtou Mountain to pass on a message to me..."
"There is such a thing? What was conveyed?" Zhu Shenzhui frowned slightly and continued to listen to Li Hu.
Li Hu told Zhu Shenzhui that this gust of wind had just appeared some time ago and no one knew where it came from. He gathered several hundred people and occupied Zhaowuling to the east of Yangtou Mountain.
Originally, the two sides had kept to themselves. Li Hu and his men were refugees, but now with the support of Zhu Shenzui, they had settled down in Yangtou Mountain. As long as this gust of wind did not come to Yangtou Mountain and did not affect their salt smuggling route, Li Hu did not want to pay attention to this gust of wind.
But he didn't expect that he ignored Yifeng, who actually sent someone to contact Li Hu first, implying that he wanted to join forces with Li Hu and his gang to do something big. He was curious and asked, but who would have thought that Yifeng's appetite was not small, and he actually set his sights on Lingchuan, which was the closest to Zhaowuling, and planned to do something in Lingchuan.
According to Yizhengfeng, the magistrate of Lingchuan was a corrupt official. Lingchuan had been tormented by this bastard magistrate for many years, and the people were full of resentment. In this case, why didn't Yizhengfeng do something big for the sake of justice? If he could unite with Yangtoushan, it would be easy to take over Lingchuan.
Lingchuan was not a big county, but just a small one. There were no troops stationed in the county. At most, there were only dozens of yamen runners and civilian servants plus a dozen ordinary soldiers.
They just need to disguise themselves as ordinary people, sneak some people into the county town first, and then cooperate with inside and outside to take the city gate by surprise. As long as the city gate is taken, Lingchuan will be in their pocket.
By then, everyone will respond with a response and take Lingchuan. After killing the corrupt officials and opening the granaries to release grain, Lingchuan will naturally fall into our hands. Then we can raise the flag and gather troops, and great things will be accomplished!
As long as Lingchuan is used as a base, it can enter Zhili to the east, enter the Central Plains to the south, and attack Gaoping directly to the west. Once Gaoping is taken, it will not be difficult to establish a separatist regime with Taihang and Wangwu as the power. If Li Hu is willing to join the rebellion, Yizhangfeng can divide the world with Li Hu, and the two can be kings side by side and share this glory and wealth.
After Li Hu finished speaking, Zhu Shenzhui was stunned. His first reaction was, "Is this Yifeng crazy?" The toad yawned, what a big tone!
It is now the 48th year of the Wanli reign, not the 17th year of the Chongzhen reign. The world is not yet in chaos.
Although there have been many natural disasters and man-made tragedies in recent years, and the Ming army suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Sarhu last year, the entire Ming Dynasty is still relatively peaceful now, and the people can live a decent life.
There have been local rebellions in recent years, and there have been several large and small disturbances in each province, but these rebellions were not very serious. They were put down as soon as they broke out.
For example, this was the case in Shanxi. The biggest incident was when a group of peasants killed several yamen runners, but they couldn't even take down the county government office. They were killed without a single soldier remaining. The mastermind was beheaded in a blink of an eye, and the rest did not escape.
Zhu Shenzhui didn't know where this gust of wind came from, so how could he be so confident? In this situation, he didn't want to be a promising mountain king, but he had to go down the mountain to kill officials and rebel. Where did he get the courage?
"You didn't agree to him, did you?" Zhu Shenzhui asked, thinking of this.
"I'm not stupid, how could I possibly agree to this?" Li Hu shook his head like a rattle. "I was born a soldier, how could I not know the ins and outs of this? If this matter was really as easy as a gust of wind said, we wouldn't have hidden in Yangtou Mountain back then."
"Don't mention that Yifeng's men are just a bunch of rabble. Even if he leads all the soldiers, it is impossible for him to kill the officials and rebel! Even if he manages to capture Lingchuan, what will happen? Once the news gets out, Ningshan Guard is close at hand. When the government troops arrive, Yifeng will be lucky if he can hold off for half a round. By then, he will lose his life and implicate his brothers. I'm not as stupid as him."
Li Hu's words made Zhu Shenzhui's heart sink. He then asked where the people sent by Yiquanfeng were and whether they were still in Yangtou Mountain.
Li Hu told Zhu Shenzhui that after he returned to the duel, the other party went back. When he went back, he seemed to look down on Li Hu and said a few words. I originally thought that Li Hu was a good man, and the three brothers of the Yang family in Yangtou Mountain could conspire together for great things, but I didn't expect that he was actually a coward.
At that time, Lu Yi was so angry that he almost wanted to call for someone to capture this guy and chop off his head. However, he was stopped by Li Hu. Li Hu felt that although he did not agree to Yifeng, there was no need for the two sides to confront each other. If the two sides fell out, no one could guarantee that Yifeng would not be angry and bring people to attack Yangtou Mountain first.
The foundation of Yangtou Mountain had just been established, and there was still a large amount of salt cargo from Zhu Shencui on the mountain. In addition, the salt road for private salt could not be cut off, so Li Hu thought about it and secretly swallowed his anger and let the man go back. Not two days after the man left, Zhu Shencui arrived.
After hearing this, Zhu Shenzhui frowned and didn't speak for a while. Seeing him like this, 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?
(End of this chapter)