Wu Shigong took his first independent leadership very seriously, and he was careful and vigilant at all times while escorting the salt cargo. However, when passing through the mountainous area filled with bandits, nothing happened.
It's not that the bandits didn't notice Wu Shigong and his group. It's just that when the bandits blocking the road discovered Wu Shigong's army escorting the salt cargo, especially when Wu Shigong personally led the escort, they immediately dispersed.
But later, a few bold bandits begged Wu Shigong and his party to reward them with some salt. Lu Yunhuan and Lu Jianchen threw down one or two bags of salt and gave them to them, and the bandits were very happy.
He took the salt and left. This made Wu Shigong feel very awkward. These bandits didn't look like bandits at all, they seemed like beggars.
After delivering nearly ten pieces of rock salt, Wu Shigong and his party arrived at their destination safely. The journey back was even smoother.
After being escorted like this several times, Wu Shigong discovered that the bandits really did not dare to mess with him. Wu Shigong simply gave up this escort task and asked his various leaders to take turns leading the team. Moreover, Wu Shigong also arranged for the soldiers to be escorted.
, during the escort journey, some training on marching and camping was carried out.
Yang Goudan also made an artillery piece using those copper blocks. But in the past, no one, including Yang Goudan, knew how to build an artillery piece. Therefore, this artillery piece was just like an enlarged cannon.
It looked like a blunderbuss. However, after Liang Hui and the others tried the artillery, they were able to fire it. This was because the caliber of the artillery was relatively small, about the size of a one-pounder, and it was not very powerful.
But Wu Shigong was already very satisfied, at least his craftsmen could make artillery. Wu Shigong asked those craftsmen to design a gun carriage with wheels and fixed the artillery on the gun carriage. Now he only needs to use horses to pull the gun
Artillery, you can let this artillery march with your army.
Wu Shigong no longer had the financial resources and materials to make new artillery. He could only ask these craftsmen to continue to make four gun mounts, and install the two Tiger Crouching Cannons and the two Franco machine guns he brought from the capital to the gun mounts.
Go up.
At this time, Wu Shigong also fixed the number of personnel for escorting the caravan. For each escort, one squadron, which was a cavalry of fifty people, and two squadrons, which were two hundred infantrymen, were dispatched, accompanied by a cannon.
.
With the development of the escort business, Wu Shigong's income in this business has gradually stabilized, reaching about 500 taels of silver per month. Moreover, as the situation in the counties of Runing Prefecture gradually stabilized,
, those people who fled because of the rebellion of the Holy Spirit gradually returned to their homes, and the demand for salt products in these counties gradually increased. Therefore, Wu Shigong's income also increased month by month.
Seeing this situation, Wu Shigong couldn't help but laugh at himself: "Others who traveled through time either used gold fingers; they occupied places with salt fields and sold private salt; or they built ships and smuggled in coastal areas to engage in maritime trade, so money was never
Question. But now I am working as an escort, which is really embarrassing to the time-travelers!"
However, such an escort allowed Wu Shigong's army to start training for marching and camping. Although these marches were not long, only five or six days at most, Wu Shigong and Xue Yongli discovered that their troops were marching
There were many problems during the camping process. After repeated training and exchanges and learning, Wu Shigong's army's marching and camping level has been greatly improved.
In addition, the reconnaissance squadron led by Zhang Biao and Li Sanhe who accompanied the escort team basically observed the nearby terrain and produced military maps of several nearby counties.
And Zheng Zhen also came back from the capital. He brought back more than 70 war horses, nearly 200 sets of horse gear, as well as several gun heads and waist knives. These were all sent to Wu Shigong by his father Wu Weizhong and his eldest brother Wu Shixun.
The value of these things is already slightly greater than the money Wu Shigong paid to reinstate his fifth brother Wu Shiwen as county magistrate. However, it is also conceivable that the father Wu Weizhong will definitely not take out his own money, and will definitely use his authority to
Pretend to be self-serving.
In addition, father Wu Weizhong and eldest brother Wu Shixun also wrote letters to Wu Shigong. In their letters, they both praised Wu Shigong for caring about brotherhood. They also asked Wu Shigong to take care of his health.
As long as there is a suitable opportunity, they will also find a way to transfer Wu Shigong back to the capital.
Although the ideas of his father Wu Weizhong and eldest brother Wu Shixun were different from Wu Shigong's own, Wu Shigong was still very pleased that his "married" son was finally accepted by his family again.
Then Wu Shigong remembered the shop he bought from Yuan Xingshan in Guide Fucheng. Wu Shigong sent someone to inquire about it. As expected, the shop had been occupied by Hou Xunhou's family.
So Wu Shigong sent someone to send a letter to Hou Xun. Of course, he only wrote some words of admiration for Hou Xun in the letter. However, in the letter, Wu Shigong also included the land deed and house deed of the shop.
, I want to give that shop completely to the Hou family.
Now Wu Shigong also knows how high the status of Hou Xun, a Jinshi who resigned and stayed at home, is. From the position that Hou Xun could walk in front of the governor of Guide Mansion at that time, his status can be seen.
Therefore, Wu Shigong did not want to offend Hou Xun at all.
Unexpectedly, after receiving Wu Shigong's letter, Hou Xun replied to Wu Shigong. In the letter, Hou Xun was also very polite to Wu Shigong. He also said to Wu Shigong: Those previous things were all misunderstandings.
Xun will also be returned to Wu Shigong.
The main reason for Hou Xun's behavior was that Hou Xun wanted to win over Wu Shigong.
We can see this. The governor of Henan, Eunuch Xiao and Hou Xun, the governor of Henan, all invariably made some moves to win over Wu Shigong. The main reason why they did this was because they all saw Wu Shigong's contribution this time.
In their eyes, they also affirmed Wu Shigong's ability.
For those in high positions, they not only need submissive minions and flatterers, but also some little tigers who are vigorous and resolute in their work. Of course, if this little tiger can also flatter, that would be perfect.
This can't help but make the author sigh: There are so many capable people in modern times who refuse to put down their bodies just for the sake of face. If they were a little sweeter to their bosses, they might be able to move up to a higher level and be able to better utilize their abilities!
After Wu Shigong received Hou Xun's reply, he was flattered. He quickly wrote to Hou Xun and refused firmly. Anyway, the two sides pushed and pushed, and finally Hou Xun returned the shop to Wu Shigong. And Wu Shigong was in this shop.
He opened a store there and gave 50% of the dry stock to Hou Xun.
In this way, Wu Shigong had a foothold in Guide Prefecture and was able to obtain the protection of the Hou family, the top family in Guide Prefecture. His own caravan business also improved to a new level.
In this shop, Wu Shigong even started the cosmetics and powder business of Zhao Ruya. Moreover, Wu Shigong used some of the extra women among his domestic slaves to open a cosmetics and powder workshop under the guidance of Zhao Ruya.
Although the business of this cosmetics business in Guide City is far less prosperous than the business in the capital, at least it has some income and can barely cover the expenses of the inner house.
During this period, Wu Shigong set up a large number of workshops. First of all, he set up a textile workshop based on the quilt workshop. Silk and cotton were not produced in Guide Mansion, and the technology of this textile workshop was also very good.
It is backward. Therefore, this textile workshop can only produce some coarse cloth, and the cost is relatively high. Therefore, the areas where these coarse cloths can be sold are the nearby counties. If they are too far away, they cannot be sold at all.
.
However, thanks to this textile workshop, Wu Shigong's supply of clothing fabrics for the soldiers was solved. Besides, Wu Shigong could also use these coarse cloths as military pay. Because in the Ming Dynasty, there were a lot of cloths.
Can be used as currency.
Another one Wu Shigong established was a poultry and livestock breeding farm. Wu Shigong relied on the poultry and livestock he captured, purchased some breeding pigs and breeding sheep, and used the old, weak, women and children among the domestic slaves to develop a large-scale breeding industry.
And because there is no shortage of pigweed and green grass on the hill behind Wu Shigong's Qianhusuo Fortress, Wu Shigong only needs to mobilize manpower to harvest it. So now, Wu Shigong's poultry and livestock can not only meet his own needs, but also
I took some of it out and sold it in the market. I made some profit.
More importantly, because Wu Shigong's breeding industry was developing relatively well, the food quality of his soldiers was greatly improved.
When Wu Shigong first arrived at Qianhusuo Fortress, except for the guards he brought from the capital, the soldiers Wu Shigong recruited locally were basically skin and bones due to long-term malnutrition. They could not withstand the high-intensity military force.
train.
Some soldiers, due to unbalanced nutritional intake, developed night blindness and were unable to walk at night. But now because Wu Shigong kept them fed for a long time and used meat to increase their nutrition, the soldiers' physical fitness has improved.
It has been greatly improved. It is no exaggeration to say that the physical fitness of Wu Shigong's soldiers now has completely reached the level of the first-class elite soldiers of the Ming Dynasty.
Wu Shigong also used the trees on the hills behind Qianhusuo Fortress to set up a charcoal workshop. Moreover, he also discovered a small charcoal (coal) mine on the hills, so this also gave him
made some profits.
All these items were added up, and by October, Wu Shigong finally reached a balance of payments, which made Wu Shigong breath a sigh of relief. He finally had a firm foothold here.
And that's not all that makes Wu Shigong happy. Because of Wu Shigong's large-scale water conservancy project and his large use of livestock to transport water, plus the good weather in the second half of the year, during the autumn harvest, the fields owned by Wu Shigong achieved a bumper harvest.
The food reserves in Wu Shigong's Qianhusuo fortress suddenly reached more than 16,000 shi.
Wu Shigong was completely relieved at this time. This was really—there was food in hand and no panic in mind!
