Lord: Start with a book of Water Margin

Chapter 350: Bow and Arrow

After hearing this, Zhao Zhen said to Zhu Wu and others, "It seems that Fan Shi has persuaded his father."

Zhu Wu smiled and said, "As long as Fan Ying is not stupid, he will know that his small village cannot resist us."

Shi Kuo and others also spoke up, saying, "General, you are so powerful. How dare Fan Ying, a mere hunter, offend your power?"

Zhao Zhen heard this and said, "Who will go and welcome the father and son of the Fan family in for me?"

Guang Hui said: "I will go there."

Sun Guang also said: "General, I recognize Fan Ying and would like to accompany you."

Seeing Zhao Zhen nod, Guanghui and Sun Guang walked out of the tent. After a while, Guanghui brought the father and son of the Fan family in. They saw that Fan Ying was tall and strong, with dark skin, but there was awe between his brows.

When they saw Zhao Zhen, Fan Ying and his son knelt down and said, "General, Fan Zhuang is willing to surrender and be a good citizen under your rule."

As he spoke, he took out a second-level [Hundred-year Black Ganoderma] from his bosom and raised his hands to his head: "This black ganoderma is of great age. I stole it with great difficulty from a black snake guarding in the fog. I have been hiding it at home. Today I would like to present it to the general to repay the general for not killing me. I also brought a cart of fur and feathers, which are all accumulated by hunters in the village over the years. I also brought 30 fat sheep to entertain the troops."

After hearing this, Zhao Zhen asked Shi Ying and the other man to stand up, and sent someone to bring Zhang Lanxiang, the second daughter of the Zhang family. In front of everyone, he pointed Zhang Lanxiang to Fan Shi.

When Fan Shi saw Zhang Lanxiang, he was very happy and paid homage to Zhao Zhen.

Zhu Wu said, "Fan Shi, Zhang, you two must listen carefully. The Zhang family was originally going to be forced to do hard labor because of the rebellion. Fan Zhuang took the initiative to surrender, and the great official was merciful, so he pardoned Zhang. You two should take care of yourselves."

Fan Shi said: "Don't worry, sir, Lanxiang will marry into the Fan family and will be a member of the Fan family from now on."

Zhao Zhen nodded and said, "Li Zheng Fan, you have taken the initiative to surrender and presented a precious Lingzhi plant. I have to reward you. I heard that your archery skills are well-known in the village. Today I will hire you as an archery instructor. From now on, you will be responsible for teaching the soldiers archery skills. You will receive a salary in the army, and you don't have to go out to hunt for food every day in the mountains and forests."

Then he said to the village heads, "When you go back, tell the farmers that the army is recruiting soldiers from the two capitals. Those who are interested can come and sign up. The soldiers are well paid, including basic salary, position salary, and rank salary, which are enough to support a family. There are rewards for meritorious service, and two sets of clothes for the New Year."

The people in the village were talking about it. Shi Kuo asked boldly, "General, where will the recruited soldiers be stationed?"

All the village heads looked at Zhao Zhen, who said, "Go to Liangshan County for a month of training. Once you pass the training, you can join the army. The base will be in Jingmen Town, and a general will come to lead the troops."

After hearing this, everyone stepped forward to fight for more places. As they were arguing, a soldier came in and said, "Sir, the spies encountered Xiao County Magistrate and Pei Zhubu leading people here. They have been brought here and are waiting outside the camp."

"Please come in quickly."

After the greetings, Zhao Zhen introduced Xiao Rang and Pei Xuan to the village heads.

Xiao Rang stood up and bowed, saying, "I'm new here, and I'll need your help."

Everyone knew that Xiao Rang was talking about the land reclamation of the households in Zhang Town. The situation was stronger than the people, so they naturally did not dare to resist openly and agreed. Everyone had lunch together. Xiao Rang asked the village heads to go back and find the household registration, village annals, and fish scale atlas of each village. When the time came, they would conduct on-site measurements according to the household registration and fish scale atlas to find out the omissions and fill in the gaps. Xiao Rang led a group of clerks to start the reclamation of Zhang and Qi villages in Zhang Town.

Zhao Zhen stayed in the camp to serve as a deterrent.

The two villages in the town were leaderless, and the army was stationed outside the town, so no one dared to resist. The land survey and population registration went smoothly. Afterwards, they registered each village according to distance, and left a clerk as the deputy head of the village. He was responsible for publicizing the laws of Liangshan County, running the village school, and supervising taxation.

After staying for three days, Zhao Zhen used up five points of luck to connect Fanzhuang with Jingmen Town. Fanzhuang was poor and relied on hunting and grazing to supplement the family income. The only thing worth mentioning was that the young and strong people in Fanzhuang could draw bows and shoot arrows. At a distance of fifty steps, six or seven out of ten hit the target, accounting for most of them. At a distance of more than 50 steps, the accuracy was much worse because the bow power was insufficient.

After learning about the salary of Liangshan soldiers, every household in Fan Village wanted to join the army. With his archery skills, Zhao Zhen recruited all 53 people from Fan Village into the army, planning to send them to Wanzi City for training, and then set up a new archery division together with the hunters from Shangwang Village and Liushi Village.

Zhao Zhen took Lu Zhishen, Ling Zhen and others back to Liangshan County by boat. Lin Chong and other cavalry also returned to Liangshan County through the fog. Only Commander Guanghui and 500 infantry were left to guard Jingmen Town, assisting Xiao Rang and Pei Xuan in clearing the fields and population.

Besides, during the days when Zhao Zhen was fighting in Jingmen Town, Wu Yong also ran into people from Qingzhou in Liangshan County. They were none other than Li Zhong, the Tiger Fighting General who was an old acquaintance of Liangshan, Song Jiang's brother Song Qing, the Iron Fan, and Lai Yong'er, the Ghost Seer, who were guarding six carts.

When Yong'er and the other four returned to Qingfeng Village and opened the boxes and chests, they found, apart from two boxes of gold and silver ingots, the rest were pearls, agates, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, embroidery, silk and other items, which were very difficult to cash out.

Jianze's whereabouts were exposed, and the Qingzhou government began to mobilize troops. The scarce weapons and armor in the mountain stronghold had nowhere to buy, so they set their sights on Zhao Zhen.

Lai Yong'er and the other two met the receptionist Wu Yong. After exchanging pleasantries, Lai Yong'er asked, "It is said in the martial arts world that Mr. Zhao is dedicated to making friends with martial arts heroes, helping people in need and helping people in distress. Please ask the military advisor to introduce us to him, and let us meet him today."

Wu Yong sighed and said, "You have come at an unfortunate time. The great master has had many disputes with Yanggu County, and he led his troops out yesterday. If everything goes well, the great master will be back in three to five days. On June 12, the great master will take a concubine. If you three brothers stay a few more days, you will naturally be able to see the great master. In the pigeon letter, brother Zhu Gui said that you are going to purchase military equipment, and the great master has entrusted this matter to me."

After hearing this, Song Qing bowed and said, "Student, my brother and King Chao were good friends in the past, but now he has become a bandit because of murder. The news has spread in the martial arts world that we robbed old man Cai Jing's birthday gift, and many people have come to surrender in recent days."

"It's just that the Qingzhou government is about to encircle and suppress our village. Now we are short of soldiers and armor, so we have no choice but to come to you to buy weapons and armor. Please sell us some armor, brother. Thank you very much."

Wu Yong said with some embarrassment: "Swords, spears and arrows are easy to deal with, but there is really no extra armor. Curry still has some repaired old leather armor, but there are few iron armors."

Song Qing and Lai Yong'er looked at each other, and Lai Yong'er said, "It's good to have armor. Can the scholar take us to see it?"

Wu Yong heard this and took the three of them to a warehouse, where they saw a lot of old leather armor. Lai Yong'er and Song Qing found Wu Yong and Lai Yong'er said, "Brother, we want all the leather armor in this warehouse. We also want 3000 pieces of the forged broadswords and spearheads. Please name your price."

Wu Yong said, "The price is the same as last time. I'll make the decision and sell you some more armor. How about that?"

Lai Yong'er and Song Qing looked at each other, and Song Qing nodded and said, "Student, we dare not stay any longer. Today we will count the armor and weapons, load them into the car and leave."

Wu Yong nodded and ordered his men to start clearing out the storehouse: 1000 sets of leather armor, 50 sets of iron armor, and 3000 swords and guns.

(End of this chapter)