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

Chapter 56: Searching for craftsmen, the officers and soldiers arrived late

Yesterday, Ma Jinliang and others were waiting for Liu Sheng near Wuliwai Official Road in Beijiekou. Nothing happened. Later, they were found by Wang Laowu and Yang Kuiwu and returned to Minggang Town.

We rested at the Zhang family mansion last night.

As for the families of Zhang Ao and more than [-] archers, they were all taken to the Zhang family's mansion by Shi Jincai yesterday.

Therefore, no matter what these archers think, with their families at hand, Liu Sheng can use them.

When Ma Jinliang saw Liu Sheng, he looked complicated and said, "Brother Liu has done a great job."

Liu Sheng said: "It's just a town destroyed, it's not a big deal."

Ma Jinliang didn't know how to answer this.

He originally thought that Liu Sheng would at best be a carefree bandit in Tianmu Mountain. Even if he wanted to do big things, he would have to have a chance.

Unexpectedly, Liu Sheng, who had agreed to come to Minggang for shopping, hooked up with the Red Lady rebels and directly defeated Minggang Town.

After another mental sigh, he asked: "Brother Liu, do you want to give me or the housekeeper something to give you?"

Liu Sheng nodded, "I want Brother Ma to take the housekeeper to visit the big families in the town and ask them for a list of craftsmen in each industry, as well as a list of other craftsmen in the town.

In addition, by the way, I asked them how much grain each family had, and they said that our rebels were willing to pay for it. "

After listening to this, Ma Jinliang looked embarrassed.

"Brother Liu, if I visit these big households for you, wouldn't I tell them that I got involved with the rebels? I can't afford to have the government accuse me of being a thief later."

Liu Sheng looked at him with a smile and said nothing for a while.

Wang Laowu, Shi Jincai, Zhang Ao and others standing in the hall all looked at him unkindly.

This made Ma Jinliang feel very uneasy.

Ma Gui next to him was even more uneasy.

He leaned into Ma Jinliang's ear and whispered: "Master, I am asking you to hand over your name."

Ma Jinliang was stunned for a while, and then he realized that he and Liu Sheng were already involved, and Liu Sheng had something to do with it, and Dashui Pingzhai was near Liujiazhai.

As long as Liu Sheng is recognized as a rebel by the government in the future, it will be difficult for him not to be noticed by the government.

So, when Liu Sheng entrusted him with the task of visiting a big business owner in Minggang, he was actually asking him to hand over his certificate so that he could "co-conspire for a great cause" with peace of mind?
Looking at Liu Sheng's smile, and then looking at the knives in the hands of Wang Laowu and others, Ma Jinliang made a very conscientious choice.

"I'm willing to do this for Brother Liu, but these big households have nursing homes. I'm afraid they don't know what's good and what's wrong and won't cooperate."

Liu Sheng said: "I will ask Zhang Ao and Wang Laowu to bring 20 people to accompany Brother Ma to handle this matter.

After meeting with the heads of major households, Brother Ma can clearly tell them that if the list and reply they gave me are not satisfactory, I will personally visit them. "

After speaking, Liu Sheng said to Zhang Ao: "You go and pick ten uninjured archers. Wang Laowu goes to Yang Heqing to ask for ten rebel infantry, and we can do this together.

Zhang Ao should know the situation of the big households in the town, right?You can talk to Brother Ma more on the way. "

"Yes!"

Wang Laowu and Zhang Ao responded and left the room.

After a while, the two of them each ordered ten subordinates to accompany Ma Jinliang and Ma Gui to do things.

There are thousands of people in Minggang. Liu Sheng wants to find the craftsmen among these people and ask the big households for the list. It is easiest because many craftsmen only work for the big households.

With Zhang Ao, the chief archer of Minggang, Ma Jinliang, a fellow landlord, and housekeeper Ma Gui, it would not be easy for those big families to deal with this matter even if they wanted to.

Moreover, each of the large households submitted a directory. Even if someone wanted to hide the craftsmen in his own industry, it might be leaked by other large households, which would lead to attacks by the rebels.

This was just an insurance policy he made to better collect craftsmen. In fact, he didn't think that big business owners would risk angering the rebels in order to retain craftsmen.

···
Afternoon, two o'clock.

Outside the entrance of Minggang South Street.

Two thousand refugees have been moved here, including more than 500 young men and women!

There are more young men and women because of the cruel selection process for fleeing famine, resulting in a very high proportion of young men among refugees.

Among the remaining 500 people, most are children and teenagers (under 16 years old), and less than 45% are elderly people over [-] years old.

As for the Refugee Valley, there are only less than a thousand people left. Because they were too hungry, too weak, or sick, they need to train for a day or two more before they can go on the road.

In addition to the refugees, there were [-] carts and [-] wheelbarrows outside Nanjiekou!
These were purchased from the town with grain after the Red Lady distributed grain to the townspeople.

Minggang belongs to the north-south transportation artery and is only [-] miles away from the Huaihe River, so transportation is very busy in normal years.Therefore, many people in the town are engaged in transportation-related jobs.

Although the transportation industry in Minggang has declined due to successive years of natural disasters and wars, most of the large and small cars owned by ordinary people have been preserved.

A large vehicle driving on the plain official road can carry a maximum load of 1500 kilograms.

Nowadays, the official roads are often uneven, and considering that the last section of the road is to enter Tianmu Mountain, Liu Sheng arranged for each large vehicle to carry 1000 kilograms and five sacks, which is equivalent to about five stones of grain.

(In the previous article, the red lady's car contains ten stones, which is incorrect. It has been changed to five stones.)
The maximum load capacity of each wheelbarrow is 200 kilograms, so it can only carry one stone of grain.In other words, only relying on carts and wheelbarrows to transport grain can only transport [-] shi in one trip.

So, when Wen You and others were arranging the refugees, Liu Sheng pulled the red lady aside.

"Including the grain I later purchased from other large families in the town, the grain we had before was just close to [-] dan.

In the morning, food was distributed to the townspeople, and nearly [-] dan were given out.You were generous in purchasing vehicles, mules, horses, donkeys, etc. from various families, and spent about a thousand dan. "

Hearing this, the red lady couldn't help but interrupt Liu Sheng and explained: "It's not that I'm being generous, but the livestock in Minggang are very expensive nowadays - I can't rob them by force, right?"

In fact, those who can afford to feed livestock in Minggang today are not considered small households, and most of them can barely be rated as middle class. Therefore, Liu Sheng believes that even if the rebels do not forcefully recruit, they can still buy them at low prices.

However, now that there is a lot of food, it may not be possible to transport it all, so Liu Sheng does not care about the generosity of the red lady.

He said: "Okay, I made a mistake. What I want to say is that if we only rely on vehicles to transport grain, we can only transport [-] shi in one trip, and the remaining grain will have to be transported in five or six trips.

Minggang is eighty miles away from Dashui Pingzhai. It takes at least a day to go there, and another half day to Minggang.

Including the half-day rest for the escort, it will take us at least twelve days to transport all the food.

And our estimated fastest time for the officers and soldiers to arrive at Minggang is three days - what do you think? "

After hearing this, Lady Hong furrowed her eyebrows and thought for a moment, then said: "Food is very important, we can't throw it away - I still don't know if the treasure land you mentioned is reliable."

What was said before was that Liu Sheng first took the Red Lady to Tianmu Mountain to inspect the "treasure land". However, as Liu Sheng's performance in a series of incidents made the Red Lady, Yang Heqing and others more recognized and admired, the Red Lady decided to directly lead the rebels and Refugees enter Tianmu Mountain.

Because they had obtained so much food in Minggang, they would definitely become the target of the army's extermination. Hiding in Tianmu Mountain to temporarily avoid the limelight was one of the Red Lady's choices.

Even if the "treasure land" Liu Sheng said was unreliable, she could still lead the team through Tianmu Mountain, enter Nanyang Mansion, and even go north to Kaifeng Mansion.

This does not go against her original idea of ​​taking the team all the way north.

Therefore, the investigation of the "treasure land" mentioned by Liu Sheng can be carried out only after entering the Tianmu Mountain with the team.

Liu Sheng also wanted to transport all the grain away.

Although the climate in North America is better than here and there is a lot of wild food coming in, it is not easy to get enough food to feed thousands of people.

Therefore, after listening to the Red Lady’s words, he said: “Incorporate all the refugees and Minggang people who are willing to come with us into the food transport team, and let them carry some food according to their ability.

There were [-] refugees and about [-] people in Minggang Town for the first migration. Even excluding the elderly, weak and children, the manpower could carry [-] shi of food.

In this way, we can deliver two thousand stones in the first batch.The remaining [-] stones can be transported in four round trips. "

"That will take eight days," the red lady frowned, "it's better to transfer the grain to Gaozhuang from the second time."

"Gao Zhuang?"

The red lady explained: "I led the refugees to rob Xingji half a month ago. Although the refugees were out of control at the time, I later gathered more than 800 people. Now they are led by Brother Zhang and are hiding in Gaozhuang."

"Where is Gaozhuang?"

The red lady was slightly surprised. She didn't expect that Liu Sheng didn't know the village in this area, and then said: "It's between Minggang and Xingji, one or two miles south of the official road, and only about [-] miles away from Minggang."

Twenty miles?

The vehicle transportation can make almost two round trips a day, and it takes exactly two days to transfer all the remaining grain from Minggang.

After doing this calculation, Liu Sheng nodded, "Okay, then starting from the second trip, the grain will be transferred to Gaozhuang first."

···
seven days later.

More than eight in the morning.

Liu Sheng stationed his horse on a mound three miles away from Minggang, observing the activities in the town with a telescope.

Five days ago, after all the grain was transferred from Minggang to Gaozhuang, Liu Sheng sent Wang Laowu, Shi Jincai and other riders to monitor outside Minggang town in two groups in order to be wary of officers and soldiers.

Wang Laowu reported to him last night that about four to five hundred officers and soldiers entered Minggang Town before sunset.

Although Liu Sheng knew that it was unlikely that the officers and soldiers in the Ming Dynasty would carry out a night attack, he still stepped up the vigilance in Gaozhuang and took precautions all night.

Nothing happened.

Therefore, early this morning, he brought a few cavalry here to observe, hoping to use the telescope to detect the movements of the officers and soldiers in advance.

If the officers and soldiers want to search in the direction of Gaozhuang, he will bring dozens of riders to attract the officers and soldiers to go elsewhere to buy time for the delivery of the last batch of food.

But he observed from five o'clock in the morning to eight o'clock in the morning when he saw some officers and soldiers appearing near the street intersection.

But it didn't look like they were going to conduct a military operation. Instead, they entered the shops in small groups, as if they were shopping, or blackmailing the merchants?

Seeing several officers and soldiers coming out of the shop with small cloth bags containing rice in their hands, Liu Sheng felt ridiculous and speechless.

"Are these the officers and soldiers from Zhoucheng?" he asked Shi Jincai and others.

"It should be so." Shi Jincai was not sure either.

(End of this chapter)