The new era of chaos begins in the Song Dynasty

Chapter 285: Open Plank Road

Historically, Li Qingzhao married Zhao Mingcheng at the age of seventeen (in 1101 AD, the actual age of eighteen). In this timeline, Li Qingzhao is nineteen years old but is still an unmarried woman. It can be said that Ergou delayed her for two years.

Nineteen-year-old Li Qingzhao (actually twenty) was considered an old girl in the Song Dynasty.

She made an engagement with Ergou, but Ergou delayed and refused to consummate the marriage. Not only Li Qingzhao himself, but also Li Gefei, as a parent, was quite dissatisfied.

If that's all it takes, after all, Ergou's actions in Xiangzhou in the past two years have been a bit excessive, and he couldn't care about Qingzhao's young lady for the moment.

It just so happened that Li Qingzhao was also in a period of inspiration in the past two years, with high-level poems emerging one after another.

Such as "Ru Meng Ling·Chang Ji Xi Pavilion Sunset", "Resent the King and Sun", "Huanxisha·The Spring Scenery in the Small Courtyard Idle Window" and many other well-known masterpieces.

Due to the influence of Ergou, Miss Qingzhao even wrote many poems that she had never written in another timeline, especially some poems and poems about people in the boudoir who missed their lover, which made some libertines in the capital ready to move. Among them was calligrapher Zhao Da, who had a hole in his forehead.

It just so happened that Miss Qingzhao had some inelegant hobbies, such as gambling and drinking. If the demon suppressors in the capital, especially Mulanji, hadn't been keeping a close eye on her, this stupid woman would have been taken advantage of long ago.

By the way, Miss Qingzhao has already joined the [Mulanji] organization. She has some understanding of Ergou's reputation among the demon-suppressing people, but she has three little wives in Ergou's family and even gave birth to four children. However, Mulan Ji and the others kept the matter a secret from Li Qingzhao, including Li Qingzhao's stepmother and cousin, who did not hesitate at all on this matter.

Otherwise, with her unique temperament, this female literary youth would have ditched the two dogs and found a new love.

Don't think that Li Qingzhao is a submissive traditional feudal woman.

She may be quite heroic in big matters, and she can look down on all the men in the world, but she is also a strange woman who is not bound by etiquette in small matters, has a very rebellious spirit, romanticism, and is a bit petty.

It is no exaggeration to say that Li Qingzhao dared to love and hate.

Now that the situation in Xiangzhou has entered a relatively stable period of development, Ergou dare not ignore the young lady Qingzhao anymore, what should he do if he has a long dream and loses his army.

The Mulan ladies in the capital have already sent letters, saying that they are very worried about the situation of the Song Dynasty.

Cai Jing, the right servant of Shangshu, was eyeing Li Gefei, who was then Zuopushe. Historically, Cai Jing gave Zeng Bu's position to Zuopushe at this time. However, the Zuopushe position had been occupied by Li Gefei two years ago, and for some reasons, Li Gefei's official position is quite secure.

Therefore, Cai Jing and some gangsters are plotting to cause trouble at this time, and it seems that they are planning to make something big.

This has caused Li Gefei to be under great pressure during this period. Last month, he even sent several letters asking Ergou when he would go to the capital to marry Li Qingzhao.

So after receiving the letter from Chaogu, Ergou discussed with a group of think tanks, but decided to build a plank road openly and secretly cross Chencang.

On the surface, Ergou is going south to Hongzhou to set up a trap to rescue the so-called Han Cunbao and defeat the plot of the conspirators against him.

But secretly, the main bodyguards under Ergou were going to the capital to pick up Li Qingzhao, the future housewife of Siming Mansion, back to Xiangzhou.

Some people may ask, it's just a wedding, why is it so solemn, like a war?

The only reason is that Ergou's reputation is too great now, and his influence on the world's great cause of suppressing demons is too great.

In the past few years, Ergou not only secretly carried out land reform and rent reduction in Xiangzhou, but also developed several far-reaching industries.

This first industry is the refining of salt essence.

Salt essence is not only an indispensable daily necessity for the Haichan Liu family, it also shows strategic effects on the battlefield against strange evil spirits.

When the Demon Suppressor is camping in the wild, first sprinkle a circle of salt essence around the camp so that no matter how insidious the monster is, you will not be able to sneak in silently.

When encountering those demon pretenders who are good at changing and confusing, the demon suppressor no longer has to worry about how to identify the fake ones. He can directly let the opponent receive the salt essence on his face first. As long as someone gets burned or screams to avoid it, there must be something wrong. .

Others, such as using it as a disinfectant and corpse powder for evil spirits to neutralize evil spirits, and even the devil-suppressing people use salt essence to make a bowl of water every day and drink it as a nutritious soup, etc. It can be said that the salt essence has been promoted to an almost irreplaceable top-grade snake oil. status.

This led to a sudden increase in the demand for salt essence among the demon-suppressing people, and it was a huge and extraordinary increase without any boundaries.

This is not only the consumption of salt essence by the demon-suppressing people, but also the fact that they all have a habit of hoarding salt essence.

Just like the rabbits of later generations who suffer from a phobia of insufficient fire power, demon-suppressors also tend to suffer from a phobia of insufficient salt and essence.

Due to the pursuit of salt essence by Haichan Liu's clan and the demon-suppressing people, no matter how much salt essence Ergou refines in Xiangzhou, it will be sold out as soon as it is released.

This has resulted in the salt essence being in a priceless but marketable state to some extent.

Of course, even so, Ergou did not deliberately raise the price due to the scarcity of salt essence. Instead, while stabilizing the price, it also negotiated corresponding quotas with the Liu family and the Demon-Suppressing Logistics Department.

However, this does not meet the real needs of both parties.

The reason is very simple. For the Liu family and the demon-suppressing people, salt essence is an indispensable consumable. No matter how much you buy, it cannot stop the endless consumption.

This was also the reason why Liu Zhongwu set up Han Cunbao to seize his salt essence earlier. The family's quota could not meet Liu Zhongwu's needs, and he couldn't buy it even if he wanted to. With Han Cunbao being such a gold holder, how could he not be tempted!

In order to meet the increasing demand for salt essence from the demon-suppressing people, Ergou has established a complete set of production processes (also called rituals) that can efficiently extract salt essence, and has assembled several relatively large salt essence refining plants. .

These salt essence refining factories can produce thousands of tons of salt essence every year, which greatly improves the efficiency of the demon suppressors in combating strange evil spirits.

However, although Ergou no longer needs to do it himself to refine the salt essence, the group of ritual choirs he formed and trained are enough to complete the most important blessing work. But there is one level that cannot be avoided, that is, as the inventor of this ritual, Ergou's name is an indispensable part of the congratulatory message.

There are rumors that if Ergou is killed, the salt essence he invented will become useless.

To put it bluntly, the salt essence industry cannot do without the protection of Ergou.

Not only salt essence, Ergou also established a production line for Thunderbolt Fire Pills, which was another immeasurable innovation that affected the combat mode of demon-suppressing people.

In the past, the secret weapon of thunder and fire could only be regarded as a secret weapon that only a very small number of demon-suppressing people were eligible to enjoy. However, with Ergou's large-scale production of Thunderbolt Fire Pill, even ordinary demon-suppressing people can occasionally enjoy the power of the Grenadier. treatment.

In addition, Ergou is also integrating and developing the iron smelting industry in Linzhang. Linzhang County is adjacent to Cizhou to the north and is not far from Wu'an County in Cizhou. There are many coal and iron deposits in Navuan County, and its iron ore resources were one of the four rich iron ore bases in China in later generations. Under such advantageous conditions, it would be a waste for Ergou not to develop the steel industry. However, although Ergou's steel smelting workshop now has a steel-making furnace, it is rarely involved in the production of weapons. Iron farm tools are now Ergou's main business project.

In addition, there are some handicraft industries in Xiangzhou that are under construction or have not yet started in Ergou's plan. They are the bones and bones that Ergou has given to Xiangzhou, and they are the foundation for Ergou to turn the tide in the future.

Of course, what Ergou's enemies fear the most is his miraculous "medical skills" that can truly revive and kill people, flesh and bones. The name of the Lord Siming is by no means in vain.

Therefore, if there is a chance to kill Ergou, the demon and its followers will never let it go.

Take the matter of Ergou marrying Li Qingzhao, for example. If Ergou can't put some thought into it, his enemies will definitely make Ergou's wedding journey comparable to Tang Sanzang's "Nine-Nine-Nine-Eighty-One" Difficulty in the Journey to the West. journey of despair.

Otherwise, in the face of repeated letters from his old father-in-law urging marriage, Ergou wouldn't have been so procrastinating that he didn't give a real explanation.

After making a series of arrangements for Xiangzhou's affairs, Ergou followed Chaogu on his journey south to "rescue Han Cunbao."

This time Ergou traveled, Siming Mansion equipped him with an extremely powerful escort team.

There are twelve people in this temporary escort team, led by Li Shouzhen, Ergou's most trusted friend. Among the twelve people, except for Liu Tang and Chen Da, who were just fake little masters, the remaining ten, including Li Shouzhen and Li Zhu, were all top masters comparable to Buddhist Arhats.

Such a powerful team was really shocked that Chaogu acted as the leader, so after setting off, he began to provoke Ergou's nerves with words overtly and covertly, expressing his concerns about Han Cun's safety in an insidious manner.

It seemed that if Ergou couldn't save Han Cunbao quickly, Han Cunbao would die without a burial place, and they would also become unjust sinners.

Ergou is very aware of Chaogu's little thoughts.

When they were in Xiangzhou, he had a conflict with Chaoguxu and She, pretending to be unmoved. It was not until the group passed the Anli Army and arrived at the Baimajin area in Huazhou that the two dogs showed some ferocious looks.

He led his guard men suddenly up to Tiantai Mountain not far outside Huazhou City, and drove directly to the Xuanfang Palace, which was once the residence of Sitian Daoting.

No one could have imagined that Er Gou would suddenly bring someone here, whether it was Chaogu as a mole, or a group of evildoers who were hiding in Xuanfang Palace and were preparing to cause trouble for Er Gou in the next two days.

The official historical record of Xuanfang Palace can be traced back to the period of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty. It is said that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty built a golden embankment here to resist floods in the Yellow River, and built the Xuanfang Palace to control it.

In fact, the real reason for the construction of Xuanfang Palace was related to the witchcraft disaster in Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty in his old age. At that time, the evildoers headed by Emperor Wu's favored minister Jiang Chong used witchcraft to harm the prince Liu Ju and deliberately forced him to rebel, which led to extremely tragic consequences. If it weren't for the demon-suppressing people headed by Si Tian Daoting who risked their lives to quell the chaos, the Han family would have been almost overthrown by the demons.

Afterwards, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was grateful for the achievements of the demon-suppressing man, so he built a palace to feed the Taoist court and conferred it the title of Zhengshuo.

Nowadays, Xuanfang Palace has been occupied by the followers of Qingbao Tianzun. Many evil disciples and casual cultivators come here to admire and pay homage to the palace, and to laugh at the failure of the demon-suppressing people.

This time, in order to plot Ergou, there is also a group of powerful evil disciples and Taoist cultivators lurking here, waiting for opportunities.

When the evil gangsters received the news that the two dogs entered the territory of Huazhou, they all gathered in the dilapidated palace of Xuanfang Palace, each using dirty words to describe their upcoming sniper plan against the so-called Siming Shenjun.

Twelve powerful and fully armed warriors suddenly rushed into the palace. They were all wearing thick yet lightweight plastic armor, carrying sharp swords on their backs, but each held a multi-barrel repeating crossbow in their hands.

Accompanied by a soft shout: "Shoot indiscriminately!"

The twelve repeating crossbows began to spit out thunderous bolts. Those terrifying little things were like monkeys running around in an almost irregular manner. Once they hit something, they would suddenly explode and tear the target apart. of crushing.

At least two-thirds of the evildoers were shot and killed in this horrific fire coverage and turned into a pile of rotten flesh, and almost every one of the remaining one-third suffered injuries.

Of course, even if they escaped the coverage of the terrifying bolts, it didn't mean that everything would be fine for these poor guys.

The demon-suppressing people discarded the empty multi-barreled crossbows, took out the swords and axes they carried with them, and began to collect the frightened fish that slipped through the net.

Those evildoers who suffered heavy losses all showed their extremely crazy side, but the powerful demon suppressors were not moved at all. They tore the evildoers into pieces mercilessly like lawnmowers and minced them.

A big hole was opened in the belly of a villain, revealing the activated organs inside the body. The snake-like intestines spiraled out of the gap, trying to wrap around a demon-suppressor holding a sword.

However, the demon-suppressing man's sword was too fast. In the blink of an eye, he divided the intestinal snake into several sections, then chopped the evildoer into pieces. Finally, he cut off the evildoer's head and trampled it to pieces with his iron boots. .

Soon the remaining evil disciples were all strangled, leaving only the last monk sitting in front of a strange stone statue, covered in filthy and smelly blood, laughing and looking at the demon suppressor, and shouted: " Lord Siming, the Sa family knows you are here! Hahaha! You finally left your doghouse and came to this great temple, are you ready to face your final fate?!"

Then the Taoist recited a disturbing incantation, and his whole body melted like wax oil and poured into the stone statue. Not only that man, but the flesh and blood remains of all the slain evildoers began to melt and converge towards the stone statue.

The stone body of the stone statue began to be slowly and urgently covered by the oil, and began to transform into a flesh and blood body.

Suddenly, a figure jumped down from directly above the hall. Accompanied by a heart-stopping violent noise, the figure held a strange sword-like weapon with countless rotating serrations in both hands, and cut the resurrected statue from the top of its head downwards. , the rotating saw teeth tore apart the half-flesh, half-stone material.

Ergou regretfully let go of the serrated sword that turned into debris. This was the best-looking weapon he had found from the steel giants in the subspace. Their lethality against evil spirits was really impressive.

It is a pity that as long as they leave the subspace, these magical creations have only one blow, and then they will automatically weather and corrode, turning into the dust of time.

The torn idol did not lose its activity, but was transformed into flesh and blood at a faster speed, and then all its physical internal organs flowed out and scattered on the ground.

The eyes of the statue shot a strange divine light at Ergou, and at the same time, a shrill thought conveyed a message to Ergou: "You are going to die!"

Ergou just smiled coldly, turned around and said to the people behind him: "Smash this monster to pieces!"

Everyone swarmed forward and used their weapons to chop the flesh-and-blood monster transformed by the idol into pulp. Then the monster turned into the essence of stone again, and never had a trace of life again.

Then Ergou said to everyone: "Next, I will go south as planned, and you stay here in Tiantai Mountain to clean up the evil spirits! And wait for the large group of people to come and take over."

(End of this chapter)