In the 17th year of Zhiyuan, February 25th.

Spring is in full bloom, grass is growing, beetles are flying, and there are busy figures of villagers going to the fields everywhere. Men are plowing the fields to prepare to sow seeds, women picking mulberry trees to feed spring silkworms. They climb high and look into the distance. There are hundreds of sails on the sea, and there are more fishing boats.

The village heroes in Luoningying have trained for four days and took off their training uniforms and rested for a day today. They either went out to see the spring, or went home to visit relatives, and did their own things.

There are also many single and unrelated people who simply stay in the fort barracks and don’t go anywhere. There are even a few people who are still spontaneously training in the truncated playground.

"Walk in step..."

“Turn back…”

"stand at attention!"

Ten Jurchen private soldiers guarded a ox cart by the side. Several village heroes who were training themselves immediately bowed down one knee and saluted with their hands and chests, "Battleman!"

This is the most common military salute at present.

Cui Xiuning originally wanted to adopt modern military rituals, but was rejected by Li Luo. Li Luo believed that no matter how hard the two of them had, they could not change the attributes of this era.

The Song and Yuan dynasties were still the prime of feudal society.

What he needs is technology and organizational leadership, at most some institutional leadership, rather than so-called values ​​and universal ideas.

We must face or even pay attention to the concept of hierarchy, especially in the army. What Li Luo wants is a relatively leading feudal army, rather than a modern army with equal officers and soldiers.

He is not a savior, he is just an ambitious man. The savior will definitely die, but an ambitious man may not.

According to regulations, the township heroes called Li Luo "官网" instead of the official position "Duzhai". The word "官网" already shows that the relationship between the township hero and Li Luo is not as simple as a superior or subordinate.

Li Luo hopes to subtly establish and strengthen his attributes of "lord" and "lord" in his hometown courage consciousness through a title.

It is far from enough to become the commander of this army, because a superior can deprive him of military power with one order. Only by becoming the "lord" of this army can he become the Li family army.

"No gift!" Li Luo smiled and raised his hand to the township hero who took the initiative to train on these days, remembering the appearance of the people in his heart.

"Give me a greeting to the camp owner!" A young red-faced village hero was very sensible and said again. Several others quickly said to him, "Give me a greeting to the camp owner."

Li Luo put down the curtains of the ox cart with satisfaction and happened to see Cui Xiuning's contemptuous look.

"You are very proud, lord of the camp." Cui Xiuning said in a low voice. Although she was ridiculing Li Luo, she was still afraid that she would be heard by the Jurchen private soldiers outside the car.

Li Luo smiled and lowered his voice: "To be honest, do you think I did something wrong?"

Choi Soo-ning shook her cute head, "That's right. But I think you're proud."

"I don't." Li Luo was very serious, "How many people are there? Only when we have thousands of troops will you see a little pride in me."

"Okay." Choi Soo-ning was too lazy to say anything more.

Today she wore a white silk cloth embroidered plum blossom with her breasts, her hair was braided and hung behind her back, her feet were stomped, and her face was as clear as a lotus, and she looked like a Korean woman.

If you don’t know, you will definitely think that she is either a noble girl or a high-ranking official wife.

And she would never have thought that her identity was just the "wife" of the ninth-ranked Duzhai.

The one who drove the ox cart was a Jurchen boy named Ashan. He was one year younger than Yan Jun. He drove the ox cart very well.

"Ashan, have you driven an ox cart before?" Yan Jun, who was escorting outside the car, asked.

Yan Junyan and others are not the identity of the township hero, but Li Luo's private soldiers and guards, and their treatment is higher than that of the township hero. But they also have to train with the township hero in normal times.

Ashan smiled and said, "Where are there any ox carts for me to drive? I have plowed the fields too much, so I will naturally do it."

Yan Tong on the other side of the ox cart said, "You can plough the fields, why can't we drive?"

It seems simple to drive a coachman, but it is actually not easy.

Guangxia laughed and scolded: "Whether the same thing as ploughing fields or driving? Ashan can drive because his father drove a carriage for the old wolf owner before!"

Yan Jun suddenly realized, "I'm telling me why! His father drove the carriage for the old wolf master, and he drove the ox carriage for the little wolf master. He really inherited his father's business!"

Ashan said unhappily: "Yan Jun, what do you mean? Do you mock me for driving? Or we fight another day?"

Yan Jun smiled and said, "What are you fighting? Shouldn't you fight??"

Everyone laughed together.

Along the way, the hard-working villagers in the fields and the peasant women who were picking mulberry on the hills saw the Li family's ox cart, and stopped and knelt on the ground.

"Master Duzhai..."

The Li family hosted a low-interest loan before the New Year, which helped many people with no food to solve the urgent problem. The Mani Township did not freeze to death to death during the New Year, which made the people of the whole town feel very grateful.

Now, Li Luo has been in the capital village for less than three months, but the official reputation is unparalleled and even passed on to other places.

Recently, villagers also heard that Lidu Village will repair water conservancy and clear river channels so that the people can irrigate.

As soon as this news came out, Li Luo won the hearts of the Mani people.

The reason why Li Luo wanted to repair water conservancy projects was mainly for military rations, so it was naturally not as noble as the people thought.

Now he only has more than 300 soldiers, but he has to go to the city to purchase grain every five days. In the future, if there are more soldiers, the amount of grain will be purchased even larger.

After all, there are more than fifty miles in the city. Considering the transportation cost, the price of grain in the city is already higher, so the cost is nearly 20% higher than buying grain nearby in the village.

Li Luo plans to raise thousands of soldiers locally this year, and buying grain in the city will cost an additional 800 stagnant of money.

This is just a cost, and there is another account: food security.

Just going to the city to buy grain not only takes a day, but also requires a lot of transportation forces. More importantly, once someone is tied up and doesn’t sell it to him, or if the grain transport team is robbed and attacked on the road, he will lose food!

Therefore, whether in terms of capital costs, time costs, transportation costs, or safety and reliability, Li Luo needs to buy grain locally.

Mani Township needs enough food.

But the problem is that due to the poor harvest and heavy taxes, the villagers do not sell excess grain at all.

So Li Luocai planned to improve water conservancy and help the people get more food. Then he bought the food and let the people pay taxes with money.

In this way, his military rations have a safe source. The people no longer have to transport the grain to the city and sell it for money to pay taxes, and they are also taken advantage of by grain merchants.

Not only that, he made another reputation.

Although it is also the responsibility of Duzhai to build water conservancy, which Duzhai is still making decisions for the people now?

Anyway, the only people in the villagers know about Liduzhai.

Looking at the ox cart surrounded by a group of private soldiers, and then looking at the tall and magnificent Lijiawu Fort not far away, the villagers all showed awe.

Nowadays, the Mani Li family is gradually emerging and has become the second family in Mani Township after the Liu family.
Chapter completed!