Wutong Mountain is the highest mountain group in Bao'an County. It has three main peaks, namely Small Wutong, Tofutou, and Big Wutong. Among them, Big Wutong has the highest altitude, close to dry meters.
Because there are large animals such as wild boars in the mountains, ordinary people generally do not go near here, and only a small number of hunters go into the mountains to hunt.
But even if a hunter encounters a wild boar, it is quite dangerous.
As the saying goes, one pig, two bears, three tigers means that encountering a wild boar is more dangerous than encountering a bear or tiger.
Hou Yao personally led a large group of people from the yamen into the Wutong Mountain area.
With the two masters Wei Daxing and Chen Junguo here, they are naturally not afraid of encountering wild boars. If they do encounter one, they will be killed and taken back to have their teeth cut as a sacrifice.
The large group of people formed a fan shape and headed into the mountains. They originally thought they would catch some game, but they didn't expect that the actual situation here was very different from the rumors.
Not only are there no large wild animals in this mountain, there are even very few small animals.
Hou Yao couldn't help but become more and more confused as he walked, and his doubts only deepened when he reached the foot of the big sycamore tree.
At this moment, Zhou Tiesheng, who was leading the expedition ahead, came over personally to report:
"Sir, we found a village at the foot of the mountain over there with more than two hundred people, most of them young and strong.
We wanted to go in to search the village, but they blocked us and forced us to go in, fearing that there would be a conflict.
There are so many of them, we're afraid we won't be able to get any advantage."
Hou Yao's heart was pounding. It was supposed to be a deserted mountain with no people, but a village suddenly appeared. It was already weird, and it was even weirder because most of them were young and strong.
"Tell the brothers to withdraw. We will set up defenses at the mountain pass. You can ask someone with fast feet to go to Pengcheng to find Li Qianhu and ask him to bring troops to help suppress the bandits."
"Yes, sir."
Zhou Tiesheng personally led people to Pengcheng to move reinforcements.
Hou Yao and his people were stationed around Wutong Mountain here, wondering who these people were.
If these people hide in the mountains without any purpose, no one will believe them even if they are killed.
They are basically young and strong, they are already a considerable force, and they will definitely become a major threat to the security of the county.
It's okay if they are not discovered. Now that they are discovered, they must be eliminated.
This place is so close to the Guanfu Salt Field, could it be the escaped saltmen?
Probably not. There are quite a few of these people and they have formed villages, which shows that they have been living here for a long time.
The size of the village of more than 200 people is already relatively large, and it has been around for a long time, so it is impossible for people in the salt field not to know that they exist.
It's strange that you know it but why you don't take care of it.
The saltworks are not kind people, how could they let so many strong laborers go free?
Thinking of this, Hou Yao felt extremely headache.
The head of the Guanfu Salt Farm is the Chen family from Guangzhou Prefecture, and the Hong Gang is a gang that is secretly controlled by the Chen family.
It is also the largest and most powerful underworld gang in Bao'an County, and its leader is Li Jingshan's younger brother Li Jingfeng.
If you think about it this way, the reason why this village does not appear in the county annals must have something to do with Li Jingshan.
In fact, except for him, no one else had the guts to touch the county magistrate.
This is intriguing. Why would Li Jingshan hide such a village?
In short, there were too many questions, and Hou Yao couldn't think of any clues.
Pengcheng Ganhusuo City is nearly 50 kilometers away from Wutong Mountain, so it takes one or two days to arrive with the troops.
Li Jingshan would definitely be suspicious if he was absent from the county government for such a long time.
Therefore, we must rush back to the Yamen first. Regardless of whether this matter has anything to do with Li Jingshan, we must first stabilize him.
Otherwise, if he was tipped off like this, these people would probably run away.
Once they run away, it will be difficult to catch them.
Hou Yao only took Chen Junnan back to the yamen, and bumped into Li Jingshan at the yamen gate.
Li Jingshan knew that he personally led people to investigate the case today, so he asked casually:
"How is the progress of the investigation, sir?"
Hou Yao shook his head slightly, then raised his eyes to look at him and said:
"This disappearance case has no beginning or end, and the workload of investigation is too great. What clues does Mr. Li know?"
Li Jingshan pretended to be silent and said:
"Didn't we find many missing women when we raided Wanxiang House? Are there missing women in other brothels?"
Hou Yao nodded pretending to be thoughtful:
"It's possible that you mentioned it, but brothels are not as good as gambling houses and opium dens. The people behind them are more troublesome. This matter still needs to be considered in the long term."
Then he bowed his hands to Li Jingshan and saluted:
"Thank you, Mr. Li, for your advice."
Li Jingshan hurriedly returned the gift:
"Don't dare, I'm just making random guesses."
Hou Yao laughed:
"After running around all day, I will go back to my room to take a shower and say goodbye."
After saying that, he walked straight to the back office.
Li Jingshan looked at Hou Yao's leaving figure and raised his eyes slightly.
Hou Yao returned to the official residence and looked at Chen Junnan:
"What do you think, senior brother? You want me to focus on the brothel."
Chen Junnan shook his head and said:
"Confucius said: This person is not the mastermind but he knows the truth. He deliberately waited for us at the yamen gate. It can be seen that he is very anxious."
Hou Yao thought for a while and said:
"He probably didn't expect me to be so obsessed with an ordinary disappearance case.
It shows that he must know something, but he just doesn’t know what kind of character he is.”
As soon as he walked into the hall, he saw Zhou De was also at home, holding a box of watercolors and teaching Yu Xiuer how to do makeup.
Hou Yao raised his eyebrows, and Chen Junnan shuddered and ran away first.
Yu Xiuer stood up in a hurry:
"Ms. sir, you're back. I'm going to give you some water to wash away the dust."
After saying that, he turned around and went into the inner room to put out the water.
When Zhou De saw Hou Yao coming back, he pounced on him like a vicious dog:
"Cousin, the Lun family wrote a new poem today, and I want to show it to you. How about you come and help the Lun family comment on it?"
Hou Yao's head suddenly became three times bigger. He really regretted that he didn't practice Qing Gong or something, otherwise he would have come back without anyone noticing.
"Cousin, whether poetry is good or not cannot be decided by one person. You should give it to more people to appreciate."
Zhou De lifted his temples:
"Where can the Lun family take it? I don't know anyone here.
Besides, being alone outside is also dangerous, and a girl just disappeared. What will happen if the gangsters set their sights on the Lun family?"
Hou Yao had a mouthful of old blood in his chest and couldn't spit it out. After a while, he could barely squeeze out a sentence:
"You can go to the Sihai Class. The girls there are very fond of poetry, and most of their customers are literati and sluts.
If you take it there, more people will definitely see it, and then won't there be a lot of people who like your poetry?"
Zhou De suddenly screamed:
"Ah, cousin, you are still smart. Why didn't the Lun family think of this? Thank you, cousin."
After saying that, he rushed up to hug Hou Yao, but Hou Yao quickly ducked away and shouted in a hurry:
"If...you have something to say, don't do anything."
Zhou De failed to hold Hou Yao and was so angry that he stamped his feet:
"Oh, cousin, your idea is good, but the Lun family doesn't have a small amount of money. How can they go to a brothel? Cousin..."
As he said this, he wanted to rush up and act like a spoiled brat.
Hou Yao hurriedly backed away and threw out a stack of banknotes:
"I'll give you money——, don't come over. Calm down, calm down."
Zhou De happily picked up the banknote:
"Thank you, cousin. I know that my cousin is the best to the Lun family."
After saying that, he walked away with an enchanting step.
Hou Yao breathed a long sigh of relief, with a look of escape: What a sin he has done, what he has done...
…
In order not to arouse Li Jingshan's suspicion, Hou Yao worked normally in the Yamen for the next two days.
In fact, I didn't deal with anything, mainly writing teaching materials.
The children in the county school have finished studying basic subjects and are now starting to do research in different subjects.
Ji Yongning and five other students had high hopes from Hou Yao, and they studied boiling water and making steam engines every day.
A boy named Bao Haochu, whose family has inherited the brick-making craft, was studying the cement formula with two other students.
There was also Shi Maocai, who was very interested in agriculture, so Hou Yao asked him to study grafting technology.
There are also many children who have joined various industries. In short, they have their own uses. As long as they can make some achievements, it will be an important leap.
Only when there are more scholars can this technology develop significantly.
The only regret is that I have never found anyone suitable to study gunpowder.
This project is too sensitive, and people who don't have absolute trust dare not mention it easily.
And in order to keep it secret, people must be sent back to the island, where only they can conduct various weapons tests without restraint.
After half a year of hard work, he has forced a population of 20,000 onto the island, and the size of the army has reached six thousand people.
Liu Ergou meticulously followed his orders in training the soldiers on the island.
Hou Yao also made new military uniforms for them to wear.
The only regret is that the weapons have not been distributed yet, so it is really impossible to get them.
The firearms of the Great Xia Dynasty were already very advanced, but the problem was that civil servants could not get them.
If cold weapons are used, Liugan people seem to have little effect, which is also a headache for Hou Yao.
In order to solve this problem, Hou Yao has asked some people who are skilled in exploration technology to search for mineral deposits.
One is coal and the other is iron. These two mines are currently the most important to him. As long as they can be found in the county, he can officially develop industry.
However, this is a bit difficult. In his previous life, he did not remember any large mines in this area.
I can only look for it with the mentality of giving it a try. It doesn’t matter if I can’t find a big one, as long as I have a small mine that can meet the needs of research.
Hou Yao thought about these thorny issues and couldn't help but sigh, it is really a long way to go to dominate the world.
…
On the third day, Hou Yao took Chen Junnan to Wutong Mountain early in the morning.
Calculating the time, if Li Kangsheng sends troops, they should arrive outside Wutong Mountain.
Sure enough, as soon as Hou Yao arrived at the mountain pass, he saw Zhu Liang'ao and Zhou Tiesheng wearing fish scale heavy armor. They had been waiting for a long time.
"Hey, Master Li didn't come?"
Zhu Liang'ao made a military salute to Hou Yao and said:
"Returning to your lord, Sir Qian Hu is in ill health so he cannot participate in the operation?"
Hou Yao was startled and asked hurriedly:
"What's going on? You were fine when we were separated that day. Why did you suddenly become ill? What happened?"
Zhu Liangao touched the back of his head awkwardly:
"The main reason is that the wine you gave me last time was too strong. I drank it when I woke up and got drunk. I haven't had much sober time in the past few days."