Lord of the Desert

Chapter 258 Enlightenment
In the 28th year of Zhenghe, October [-]th.

It has been more than half a month since Hong Fan saw the firearm with his own eyes in the Qizuojian.

He has opened up more than [-]% of the fifth strange vein of the Hunran Realm, and he will be able to break through in a few days.

Outside of cultivation, Hong Fan spends most of his time on "Enlightenment".

This is the newly registered firm of Hong Fan and Liangzhou Qizuojian in early October.

The venue was a newly purchased farm outside Xijing City. The first batch of personnel were partly from Jin Haihong's family, and some were hired from Xijing.

As for the chief steward, Qian Hong was in charge.

The first generation of hot air balloons has been successful.

In order to persuade this quasi-"young supervisor" to join the field of firearms, Hong Fan spent three meals and ten catties of the best fire jadeite.

Zhuang Liren's push was equally smooth.

Years ago, the first batch of technical backbones from Zhanzhou should be in place.

In the first half of next year, Liangzhou's first matchlock gun may be produced.

But that's just the beginning of a long road.

We must first understand the technical process.

Then build a complete system from raw material mining to product sales from scratch.

As for the teams equipped with muskets in small batches to be able to create victories in the battle against the snake people, according to Hong Fan's most optimistic prediction, it may be five years later.

At that time, he will be 24 years old. If all goes well, theoretically, he will be born in the mid-to-high level of cultivation, and he will soon be off the Tianjiao list.

All in all, Enlightenment is a long-term project that costs money and time with slow results.

Fortunately, Hong Fan was neither short of money nor time.

Seven or eight days have passed since the beginning of winter, and the lowest temperature in Xijing is approaching freezing point.

Every morning, those who get up early can already breathe white, and the window lattices and steps are covered with silver frost.

For lunch, Aunt Liu roasted a whole sheep in a clay oven for two hours.

Hong Fan ate the whole lamb's hind leg, and then went to the martial arts field to kill a few hours.

Then he walked out with Zhan Yuanzi.

Today is the day when Xijing releases the fourth list, so everyone will meet for a small gathering.

Weishizheng (two o'clock in the afternoon), there is still half an hour before the announcement of the list, but the flow of people on the road has already converged to the west.

The discussions along the road were filled with the names of Qu Luoyi, Ao Zhiji, Cao Hanhai and others.

The intersection at the west end of the Xianzun Bridge and the river is a rare open space in the streets of Xijing.

Not only is there a lot of people, but the view is also good.

He Xunxing, which is located here and is six stories high, was chosen as the place to release the list.

Across the street, only a foot shorter is a restaurant. The owner was originally a well-known master in the Jianghu of Liangzhou.

The building has the same name as the person, called "Whale Rider".

Hong and Zhan entered this building.

A mob of people squeezed through the door, and they went up to the lobby on the second floor.

At the table by the window, Wu Ruyi, Lu Yunshi and others have already taken their seats.

When all the people arrived, nine people were seated at the twelve-seat table.

The waiter serves tea.

Hong Fan moistened his throat and looked out the window.

Wide field of view, condescending.

Yaohe glanced across, but there was no scene of thousands of sails helping each other in the first half of the year.

"Why so deserted?"

Hong Fan was very surprised.

The water volume of the Yao River is not small, and the lowest winter temperature in Xijing is only ten degrees below zero, so it never freezes.

"It's been like this since Wang Chengxuan left at the beginning of the month."

Lu Yunshi replied.

"For every one hundred boats on the Yao River, at least fifty boats do not pay 'overtax'."

"In the past, there were all kinds of cover-ups by the Boat Administration, but now Jin Ziming has pulled out the shell."

The "excess tax" in his mouth is the tariff, which costs [-] yuan a thousand dollars between Kyushu, and it will be several times higher if it passes through Huaiyang and other national borders.

"It's quite courageous."

When Hong Fan heard this, he praised it.

It can be said that most of the prosperity of Xijing depends on the shipping on the Yaohe River.

To achieve this step, the pressure from all parties can be imagined.

"Who said no?"

Master Lu Yun picked up a piece of sponge cake and chewed it.

"You may not know the job our team took three days ago."

"Take Niu Dequan, the leader of Bihaitang from the Fubo Gang, who is nicknamed 'Shen Jiangtie'."

Hong Fan had heard of this man before—it was the brother who got Qian Zhuangcao Shangfei's mouth.

"What did he do?"

he asked.

"It is said to be related to a murder case two years ago."

Yuan Xuesong replied.

"After the person was brought back to the state department, the procuratorial division rushed to interrogate him."

"But now three days and three nights have passed, and there is still no gain. It is probably a waste of effort."

His tone was slightly mocking.

"Jin Ziming can't be in a hurry."

Master Lu Yun swallowed the sponge cake and replied.

"When did the state yamen not deliver the impeachment memorial to Shenjing?"

"Just talking about our department, not only Director Jian, I heard that even the admiral and Qian have some opinions."

He couldn't help lowering his voice.

"The higher-ups have their own ideas, but at least we have more martial arts in multiple cases."

Hong Fan replied, a little gloating.

For things like gangsters, he doesn't have the slightest favor.

"Normally, this is the truth."

Master Lu Yun followed Hong Fan's words.

"But what happened with Mr. Jin has many entanglements, and black and white are not so clear..."

"It's hard to avoid the feeling of doing things for private people."

He glanced at his mouth as he spoke.

Zhan Yuanzi agreed very much.

"No matter where it comes from, there should always be a right and wrong in the end."

"In the case of Wang Mincai, we carried the flag and worked hard to arrest people. The criminal also pleaded guilty, but in the end he was released."

He snorted.

"It's all in vain to do it all the time."

After finishing the three sentences, Zhan Yuanzi drank the tea in one gulp.

Wu Ruyi and Bai Jiaci couldn't help but nodded.

"Of course it won't be wasted in vain."

Yan Yulin teased and said, taking the initiative to carry the pot to refill the tea.

"Without Wang Mincai, how would Duke Jin's order be given to the Ship and Ji Department?"

"That's right."

Lu Yunshi interface.

"But I don't think it's worth it if you harm the Fubo Gang for such things."

There is a bit of caution inside and outside the words.

Hong Fan was quite surprised.

Lu Yunshi has a lot of problems - conceited, reckless, good face.

But he is the only one who can't get along with timidity and fear of getting into trouble.

"The ones surnamed Bai and Jiang can't scare you down, why are you so dignified when you talk about a gang?"

Hong Fan asked.

"Bai Taiping and Jiang Wenbo are not sons of men, but at least they behave according to the rules."

It was rare for Master Lu Yun to speak kind words for the descendants of the aristocratic family.

"The Fubo gang is different."

"Don't say whether you are afraid or not, but no matter what they are involved in, it is always three points difficult."

He was serious.

"It seems that I know too little about these three religions and nine streams."

Hong Fan said, looking at Bai Jiaci.

"All I know is that they are superb at collecting protection fees."

The first team of four looked at each other and smiled.

"Bullying neighbors or something is just a trivial matter."

Master Lu Yun continued.

"The boatmen in Xijing, the dock workers, and the big and small gangsters are all covered by the Fubo Gang."

"But they are not just powerful."

"If you look at the grievances and grievances in half of the Liangzhou Jianghu as a net, the Fubo Gang is the most central knot."

"Bring murder, intelligence trading, black market smuggling...it's hard not to go through them."

Hong Fan frowned.

"So Ao Zhixian could sit with Shen Tiexin that day?"

He remembered the matter of Mingyue Tower.

PS: My stomach is better than yesterday, but I still feel nauseous in the afternoon.

Try to do another chapter tonight.

(End of this chapter)