Li Yanqing walked into the greenhouse again and sat down. Liu Fang smiled and said, "Do you want to check the list?"

Li Yanqing took over the list, "How many people have been admitted?"

"There are already thirty people in one morning, and there will probably be more than twenty people in this group of people who come back from the tour."

"It's not bad. In addition, Zhang Hu missed more than a dozen people, and it was almost seventy people in one morning. In the afternoon, people from other prefectures and counties will come to register. In a few days, four hundred people should be able to recruit."

"I don't think there is any problem, either."

Li Yanqing looked at the list and most of them were from Jiayu County. He pondered for a moment and said, "You should be a little stricter when registering. I suspect that the Black-hearted Dragon King's subordinates would sneak in."

"Can you?"

Li Yanqing nodded, "It is very likely that if I have such a big fanfare to suppress the bandits, I don't believe that the Black-hearted Dragon King can handle it calmly."

At this moment, a large ship came from the river in the distance, with a light yellow triangular official flag on the front of the ship. Someone shouted: "It seems that an official ship is coming!"

Li Yanqing also saw a five hundred stone official ship coming from a distance. He felt a little strange and stood up and walked towards the dock.

Soon, the official ship docked on the dock. A thin official walked down the boat. Li Yanqing was immediately overjoyed. It was Zhou Ping, a county magistrate who went to the capital, who had returned.

"Who did I say it is? It turns out that the county magistrate has returned home. Thank you all the hard way!"

Zhou Ping did not expect to meet the county magistrate on the dock. He looked around and asked in confusion: "Mr. County, this is here."

"The navy is recruiting to suppress bandits."

"Ah!" Zhou Ping was shocked, "Are you going to suppress the bandits?"

"This matter is a long story. It was initiated by the state and led by us. I will tell you slowly when I go to the capital city."

Zhou Ping smiled and said, "I met Mr. Li Ling, and I was very enthusiastic. He thought that the rent for Yiguan money for one acre of land was too small. He said that in Tangyin County, he would give twoguan money, and the same is true here."

"It's certainly better to give two stale money, I can't ask for it!"

Li Yanqing warmly greeted Zhou Ping, "Let's go to the greenhouse, sit down and have a tea before talking."

"Mr. County Lord wait a moment, I will do another thing that the county Lord ordered."

Another important task for Zhou Ping to enter Beijing is to build a batch of excellent gunpowder raw materials, saltpeter particles, sulfur powder and toner, especially saltpeter particles. Although they can also be obtained in Ezhou, they are far less quality than the saltpeter used by the Beijing Gunpowder Bureau. If there is a way to buy the best gunpowder raw materials in the Beijing black market, Li Daqi was very happy, "Have you brought them all?"

"Everyone is on the boat, with one thousand kilograms of nitrate powder, three hundred kilograms of sulfur and toner each, and two more people are brought."

"Who is it?"

"They said they knew you, and Lingzun went to find you."

Li Yanqing looked on the boat and saw two old men walking down from the boat, both over fifty years old, wearing blue cloth shirts and headscarves. Li Yanqing felt that the two looked very familiar. One of them smiled and said, "Don't Li Zhanjun know us anymore?"

Li Yanqing suddenly remembered that it was two gunpowder crafting thunder for him, because he was afraid that the formula would leak, so he sent them out of the military camp. But how could they be in their father?

Li Yanqing seemed to remember that if he had difficulties in life, he could go to Baoyanzhai, Beijing to ask his father for help. This should be the case.

"You are Hao Da, Hao Er!"

The two laughed and said, "It turns out that Li Chanjun still remembers our brothers."

"Of course I won't forget, but how could you be where my father?"

"We stayed in Shuzhong for two years. I guess the limelight came, so I went home to check it out. I found that we had already been 'dead' in the Battle of Xixia, and had no identity, and it was apart from the craftsmanship. It was not convenient to find something to do. We went to Baoyanzhai to ask about Li Zongjun. He happened to meet Ling Zun. He said you were getting married soon, so I arranged for us to match rouge in Baoyanzhai. A few days ago, Zhou County Wei came to Beijing to buy gunpowder raw materials. We took him to the black market to buy it, and then came with him."

"So that's it. The two of you came too coincidentally. I just need a gunpowder. Let's stay here first. I'll talk to you in detail later. As for your identity, you don't have to worry about it. Being a native of Jiayu County is also good."

Hao Da and Hao Er were very happy and bowed together and said, "Thank you, the county lord!"

Li Yanqing recruited a civil servant and asked him to take the two of them to the inn to rest first. The civil servant agreed and hurried into the city with them.

Li Yanqing then invited Zhou Ping to the greenhouse to sit down. A follower came to serve a cup of tea. Zhou Ping took a sip of tea and continued: "I also met Deng Zhongcheng, the Censorate, in the capital, and gave him the letter from the county lord. He was very concerned about the situation of the county lord in Jiayu County."

Li Yanqing nodded silently. Deng Yong did treat him well, and this kind of love had nothing to do with Liang Shicheng, and it was just an elder's support for his younger generation.

"He asked the county lord to take good care of himself, and he asked me to tell you that the former Privy Councilor Zheng Juzhong has passed away."

Li Yanqing was shocked, "Why?"

Zheng Juzhong was demoted to the magistrate of Jianzhou. He was less than 60 years old and had always been strong. How could he die suddenly?

"Deng Zhongcheng said it was very implicit, saying that he died halfway through Jianzhou. The reason was unknown. He was probably killed by his enemies. Otherwise, Deng Zhongcheng would not remind the county magistrate to pay attention to safety."

Li Yanqing was silent for a while and asked again: "What did Deng Zhongcheng say about us renting land and planting flowers?"

"Deng Zhongcheng went to the Ministry of Revenue to inquire about this matter for us. The Ministry of Revenue said that as long as the official land is not sold, the government will decide what to plant. However, the Ministry of Revenue does not want all the official land to plant flowers, and still keep some of the food. Deng Zhongcheng also thinks this is more safe."

Speaking of this, Zhou Ping said again: "Since Baoyanzhai is willing to give two jin of money to rent, then just rent half of it and continue to farm. What does the county lord think?"

"That's fine, what about the rental contract?"

Zhou Ping took out three contracts and smiled bitterly: "Mr. Li has signed and stamped the contract, and the intermediary also stamped the deposit. We can fill in the land and rent by ourselves. The county magistrate stamped the seal and handed over two to Jiangxia Manor. They will send it back, and then how to plant flowers, Jiangxia Manor will arrange it soon. As for the rent, we can give it to us at any time."

Li Yanqing looked at the contract and stood up and smiled, "Okay! Let's unload the goods first, and move more than a thousand kilograms of raw materials back to the county town before talking about it!"

.........

The Dragon King of Heixin was originally a butcher in Baling County, Yuezhou. He often used sick pigs to sell them to restaurants, so he got the nickname of Du Heixin. Over time, everyone had forgotten his original name and called him Du Heixin behind his back. Fifteen years ago, he killed the shopkeeper of the restaurant due to a meat-selling dispute and fled into Dongting Lake and joined a small river thief. He soon obtained the leadership of these river thieves.

After more than ten years of development, this small river thief gradually became the largest river thief in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. With hundreds of men and nearly 300 ships, Du Heixin simply gave himself the nickname of the Black Heart Dragon King, leading his subordinates to kill and rob, and ** women, and do many evil.

Especially ten years ago, he led his army to defeat the joint bandit suppression army of five prefectures and one prefecture on the north road of Jinghu, which made him even more notorious. When the people along the Yangtze River mentioned the Black-hearted Dragon King, everyone was trembling with fear. The child cried constantly at night, and the adults scared him, "Cry again, the Black-hearted Dragon King is here!" The child was so scared that he dared not cry at night.

Du Heixin did not allow other river thieves to appear. The river thieves in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River either surrendered to him or were annihilated by him, resulting in his bandits reaching 800 and nearly 500 ships of all sizes, which became a major disaster on the Yangtze River.

But since last spring, Du Heixin met his opponent. A wave of Zhang Shun appeared in Ezhou area. There were only a dozen subordinates and seven or eight clutches, but they were elusive and had extremely strong combat power. Du Heixin led more than a hundred ships to the Ezhou River to clear the Ezhou River, but was defeated twice in the hands of Zhang Shun. From then on, Du Heixin never dared to enter the Ezhou River again and acquiesced to Zhang Shun's exclusive possession of the Ezhou River.

The west mountain of Dongting Lake is the location of Du Heixin's old nest. The west mountain is part of Junshan Island, Dongting Lake. It was originally a scenic spot, but now it has become a place where bandits are rampant. The residents on the island fled one after another, and the government did not dare to take care of it. Du Heixin changed Junshan Island to Xiaoyao Island. In addition to the military camp and the bandits' families, there were also many young women they plundered and a lot of wealth.

Du Heixin's military camp is located on a hill in the west mountain, covering an area of ​​about 100 acres. The barracks are all made of wood and stone. Du Heixin and the 800 Jiangzhe thieves were stationed here. In addition, a Xiaoyao Town was built about two miles away from the military camp. Almost all the residents of the town are the families of Jiangzhe thieves. There are also commercial shops in the town, and there are only a few types of shops, such as taverns, gambling halls, brothels and grocery shops. There are as many as seven or eight, which are the places for Jiangzhe thieves to have fun.

At this time, in the Juyi Hall in the military camp, Du Heixin looked full of anger. During this period, Ezhou magistrate Wang Boyan launched a call for bandit suppression, which caused a lot of controversy in the states along the Yangtze River. Of course, Du Heixin also heard the news, which made him furious and murderous intent suddenly arose.

‘Bang!’ A fist that was as big as a bowl hit the table hard, Du Heixin said furiously: “I give them face and never rob the official ship. They just responded to me like this and wanted to wipe out my Black Heart Dragon King. Very good. I hope they will come tonight and let them all sink to the bottom of the lake to feed the turtle.”

Du Heixin is about fifty years old. He is very majestic, with dark skin. The black hair on his arms and chest is thick and dense, one inch long, his hair and beard are messy, and he doesn't look like the Black Dragon King, but rather like a Black Wild Boar King.

Next to him was his military advisor, named Yang Zhaoru, from Baling County, Yuezhou. He was a failed Juren who failed the prefecture exam. He was actually not a Juren, but he claimed to be a Juren. Everyone called him Yang Juren. He was gentle but also cruel and ruthless. He had a bit of a quarrel with Du Heixin. Du Heixin needed a military advisor, so he offered a high price to invite Yang Zhaoru as his military advisor. Not touching the official ship was Yang Zhaoru's suggestion. If he did not harm the interests of officials, the officials naturally had no motivation to suppress bandits.

"Why do you have to get angry at the camp leader? It's one thing that they want to encircle us, but it's another thing that can succeed. Ten years ago, we were able to defeat them when we were still weak. Now we are strong and our soldiers are serving us, will we still be afraid of them?"

"That's right, I'm so angry when I hear this news, and the arrival of officers and soldiers will definitely affect the life of Xiaoyao Island."

"If the village leader is worried about this, I have a plan that will make them sigh in the end."

He leaned close to Du Heixin and whispered a few words. Du Heixin nodded repeatedly, "In this way, we need to send someone to Jiayu County to keep abreast of the situation."

"This is the purpose of the humble official. When they recruit soldiers, they will arrange a confidant subordinate from Jiayu County to join the army, so that our opportunity will come."
Chapter completed!