The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

Chapter 104 Master Li proposes marriage and prepares for the Hai Salt Factory

Xiao Li Village.

Li Changwen locked the courtyard door himself, tightened the baggage on his shoulders, and smiled at his daughter: "Don't look at it, there will be plenty of opportunities to come back in the future."

Li Lingfei looked at the small courtyard where she had lived for more than ten years and was still reluctant to leave.

"Dad, do we really want to join the rebels?"

Li Lingfei will be 15 years old after the Chinese New Year. She has been studying with Li Changwen since she was enlightened at the age of five.

In addition to some must-read books for women in the Ming Dynasty, such as "Female Commandments", "Inner Training", "The Analects of Confucius", "Female Filial Piety", etc., she also read through Li Changwen's other books.

These books are mainly based on the Four Books and Five Classics and related essences.

Therefore, although Li Lingfei was young, she was greatly influenced by Confucianism because she did not go out much.

I always felt that it was not good to join the so-called rebel army.

If this matter had not been decided by Li Changwen, and the harm done by officers and soldiers to Xiaoli Village that day had also made her see the darkness of the Ming Dynasty, I am afraid she would not have used the term "rebel" to Liu Sheng and others.

Li Changwen motioned to a pair of old servants at home to lead the mules ahead.

Then he replied: "Lingfei, you have doubts about your father's choice because you have too little knowledge. When you see more of the outside world, you will know why my father joined the rebels.

In addition, the rebel camp is a novel place. I believe you will like it after going there. "

Li Changwen's words successfully aroused Li Lingfei's curiosity about the "Rebel Camp", and she became less reluctant to leave the small courtyard.

After leaving, Li Changwen didn't know how long he would stay in North America.

Although Xiaoli Village was quite close, he certainly couldn't always trouble Liu Sheng to escort him in and out.

Therefore, when he went back this time, he leased all the fields to the villagers for farming, and he took his daughter, a pair of old servants, and a mule to move to Huachu Camp.

Knowing Liu Sheng's itinerary for the afternoon, he first went to Dashui Pingzhai to meet Liu Sheng, and also visited the second-in-command in the rebel army, the Red Lady.

"Li Changwen paid a visit to the leader and met Commander Hong."

In the original [-]-house government office in the Walled City, Li Changwen met Liu Sheng and the Red Lady, and greeted them formally.

Although the Red Lady is no longer the leader of the rebel army, it can be seen that the rebel army is still very happy to have scholars actively surrender.

Even a little overwhelmed at this point.

"Mr. Li, there is no need to be polite to me. Please sit down quickly."

Liu Sheng also smiled and said: "Mr. Li, please sit down and let's talk - the red lady is full of praise for the plan you came up with this morning."

Then, the three of them chatted freely in the hall about various aspects of the rebel army.

Li Lingfei stood behind Li Changwen, looking at Liu Sheng for a while and then at the red lady, feeling that her world view had been greatly impacted.

Although she had heard some stories about strange women, this was the first time she had actually seen someone like the Red Lady.

He was abducted by human traffickers when he was a child, but was rescued by an acrobatic class leader, adopted and taught him skills, and became a rope acrobat.

Then there was a sudden meeting, and she rebelled and killed officials and became the female leader of the rebel army. She led hundreds of thousands of people to rush across the state and county, killing the rich and helping the poor!
It's incredible to think about.

Liu Sheng, the leader of the rebel army, was also different from what she had imagined.

Not to mention he is tall and powerful, but his conversational skills and knowledge can make even his father admire him. It is really rare.

No wonder people like this rebelled so hard that the officers and soldiers abandoned their armor and were completely defeated.

···
After Li Changwen arrived at Dashui Ping Village, he chatted with Liu Sheng and Hong Niangzi for nearly half an hour, and then visited Dashui Ping Village together.

Li Changwen has not been here since the rebels took control of Dashui Pingzhai.

He had always heard the people in the village say how good the village had become, and he didn't quite believe it at first. But when he saw it today, he realized that what the villagers said was not exaggerated at all.

First of all, the streets of the Walled City are much cleaner than before, and the roads have also been repaired.

The ditches in the fields are also well repaired. Just a heavy rain can make the village inside and outside full of vitality.

The most important thing is that the spirit of the people in the village has obviously improved a lot than before.

Looking at it gives people a feeling of having a head start in life.

At the end of the tour, he asked around and found out that although Liu Sheng drafted various government orders, it was the Red Lady who implemented them.

I couldn't help but have a higher opinion of Red Lady, the former female leader of the rebel army.

On the mountain road back to Liujiazhai, Li Changwen couldn't help but approach Liu Sheng and whispered something like this.

"The Red Lady is a strange woman. I'm afraid she can do great things even without meeting the leader."

Liu Sheng smiled and said: "Sir, you have such good eyesight, you could even be a fortune teller."

"The leader is joking." Li Changwen said modestly at first, and then changed his words: "But after all, she is the former leader of the rebel army, and being too capable is not a good thing.

I heard the leader say before that after the army expansion, there will be two battalion commanders and one adjutant, who are all sworn brothers of the Red Lady? "

"That's right." Liu Sheng nodded, "Yan Yuanshan, the logistics manager of several major camps in North America, was once a confidant of the Red Lady."

"The leader is really big-hearted." Li Changwen sighed a little yinly at first, and then said: "The Red Lady is a woman after all. Has the leader ever thought about the impact that one day she will have if she marries someone else?"

Liu Sheng glanced at Li Changwen and said with a smile, "Maybe the influence is not very good."

"Since the leader knows, he should have made plans in advance."

"What do you think I should do, sir?"

Li Changwen stopped, looked at Liu Sheng and said, "Since the leader hasn't married yet, why not just marry the red lady?
In this way, the rebel army will become monolithic, and there will no longer be any worries of division - at least in the early stage. "

"Hahaha," Liu Shengchang laughed, "My husband also said that he is not worthy of being a fortune teller, but you actually made me say all the plans I had in mind."

Li Changwen was slightly surprised.

Then it dawned on him that with Liu Sheng's intelligence and determination, it was normal for him to think of marrying a matchmaker to completely stabilize the rebel army.

Then he said: "Since the leader has this plan, please take action early to avoid accidents."

Liu Sheng said: "I've been busy, haven't I? Wait a minute. When everyone is free around the Chinese New Year, I can ask your husband to help me place the betrothal gift. How about that?"

"This is my honor!"

···
He left the matter of recruiting local warriors to assist in transporting grain to the Red Lady, and Liu Sheng stopped taking care of it.

However, the matchmaker would still report the progress of the matter to him through the walkie-talkie every night.Generally speaking, the villages are quite cooperative.

After all, it had been swept away by the rebels once before. Not long ago, the rebels defeated more than [-] official troops, which greatly frightened the gentry, landlords and even ordinary people.

In addition, after all, the rebels were recruited and paid with food. Although they only had one fight, it was much better than the government forcibly recruiting local warriors.

If forced by the government, not only will they not be paid, but they will also have to provide their own food rations.If he died, he wouldn't even get a pension, which would be very miserable.

Under such circumstances, after asking Liu Sheng for instructions, the Red Lady simply recruited a thousand rural warriors and rented many two-wheelers, wheelbarrows, mules and horses.

Coupled with the [-] young refugees sent to her by Liu Sheng and the numerous donkeys, mules, and vehicles, she could transport [-] shi of grain at a time.

It is not inferior to Liu Sheng's transportation capacity when he brought back more than 2 people from Queshan last time.

Liu Sheng has decided to take Ruyang and several counties upstream of Ru River first after the autumn harvest.

By then, Queshan will be the advancing base of the rebels, and will become the hinterland after the war.

Therefore, only 2 shi of food from Queshan can be transported back, and the remaining [-] shi will be kept as future army rations.

In this way, the grain transportation team made four round trips and took more than half a month to complete the grain transportation task.

Liu Sheng, on his side, was building a salt factory while selecting and training new soldiers...

The first of October.

It has been four days since Yang Wanyong and his family of five moved into this place called North America with the rebel army.

He was originally a rich farmer in Xiping County, with dozens of acres of land.

A few years ago, when I was running business in Kaifeng Prefecture, I was involved in a gang of bandits. After more than a month of thrilling life as a bandit, I managed to escape and escape back to my hometown.

Having seen the horror of war, he wanted to live a good life.Unexpectedly, natural disasters and man-made disasters forced him to leave his hometown and flee.

My parents were in their sixties and couldn't leave their homeland. They didn't want to drag down their children and grandchildren, so they chose to stay at home and wait to die.

He took his first wife and three sons on the road, originally prepared for some travel expenses, and planned to at least go as far as Xinyang - as long as he left Henan and entered Huguang, he might have a way to survive.

Unexpectedly, not long after leaving Xiping County, they encountered a group of bandits composed of hungry people.

Although the family managed to escape, they almost lost all their food and transportation.

I can only beg all the way to Ruyang, hoping to get relief in Fucheng.

After finally arriving in Ruyang, they found that there were tens of thousands of hungry people outside Ruyang city, and the government could not help them at all.

Yang Wanyong continued to go south while his family could still leave.

When they arrived near Queshan County, my wife and young son were almost at their physical limit.Fa's wife became ill from hunger and could no longer travel.

Therefore, they could only rely on the porridge and soup provided by the Queshan County government office every three days, and boil some grass roots, bark, insects and ants to survive.

Seeing that his wife was about to starve to death first, the rebel army captured the county seat, giving Yang Wanyong hope of survival.

Although what happened next was quite different from what he had imagined, the final result was better.

This group of rebels from Tianmu Mountain is very different from the bandit team that Yang Wanyong stayed in.

They did not let hungry people into the city, and they did not let the city turn into a hell of blood and fire.

Instead, they truly took control of Queshan County.

Later, he helped the hungry people in an excellent way, and promised to take them to the mountains to open up wasteland to prevent them from starving to death.

Yang Wanyong, like other hungry people, developed enough trust in the rebels after several days of efficient relief.

Therefore, when the rebels led them into Tianmu Mountain and said that they could reach a fertile land through a cave, many people chose to believe it.

Although Yang Wanyong had doubts, he still chose to believe in this rebel army and the leader Liu who was very organized.

The subsequent experience was more incredible than the drama, but it also proved that their trust in the rebels was correct.

It can even be said that they are all blessed people because they could meet the rebels and come to this blessed place.

Out of this understanding, in the past few days, Yang Wanyong, as the captain in charge of fifty households of refugees, not only built his own shack strong and sturdy, but also asked dozens of other refugee households in the team to also build shacks.

When he woke up this morning, Yang Wanyong originally thought he was going to gather his team to cut trees or cultivate fields.

Unexpectedly, as soon as the young men of the five teams arrived, the captain announced something that didn't sound good -

"The leader wants to recruit [-] families from our two camps, Huazuo and Hexi, to go to the seaside to make salt. If any family is willing to go, please come and sign up!

If less than [-] households take the initiative to sign up, the quotas will be allocated equally to each brigade and squad! "

Hearing this, the originally quiet team suddenly started buzzing with discussion——

"Making salt? Doesn't that make him the rumored kitchen owner?"

"What is a kitchen door?"

"It's the family in the Ming Dynasty that specializes in cooking salt for the imperial court - a stove farmer who escaped from our hometown before said that his life was miserable. He collected firewood to cook salt all year round, but the whole family still starved to death."

"Salt is so expensive, how can the kitchen owner who cooks it and his whole family starve to death?"

"Who knows then?"

"···"

Affected by the situation in the Ming Dynasty, many people became nervous and frightened when they heard that the salt makers were kitchen households.

Although most of them are poor farmers, they are still decent households. As long as the year is good, they can live a good life, which is much better than the kitchen households.

Now that I have moved to this blessed land, how can I be willing to become a kitchen household?
Yang Wanyong also frowned, showing worry, and thought to himself: Could it be that Leader Liu deliberately tricked them into coming here just to force them to become kitchen households?

He has also seen Zaohu, and life is really hard. Many people are in their twenties, and their hands and feet are rotten.

Seeing the crowd talking louder and louder, and even becoming commotion, the captain realized that what he had just said had caused a big misunderstanding.

He shouted hurriedly: "Quiet! Quiet! Don't get me wrong, everyone. Making salt for the rebels will not give you the same treatment as the kitchen and salt households in the Ming Dynasty!"

Although the crowd was quieter, it was not completely silent.

Yang Wanyong saw that the captain was angry and anxious, but could not suppress the noise for a while, so he asked loudly: "Captain, tell us, why are the treatment for the rebels making salt different from that of the kitchen households in the Ming Dynasty?"

He had a loud voice and had some prestige in the group, which immediately made the crowd quieter.

(End of this chapter)