Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 714 Sanliang City

Sanliang City is not as prosperous as the nearby county towns, and even compared to other cities and towns in this county, it is only at a moderate level.However, compared with some remote counties and counties on the outskirts of the mainland, they are much more prosperous.

Today is not a market day, there are no vendors on the threshing floor, only a few idlers chatting and watching.Seeing the boat enter the pond, everyone was whispering.

The master Luo on the boat is the number one gentry in this town, named Luo Tianqiu.Luo Tianqiu was a juren in the last years of Wanli. Not to mention his fame, his family is still an old family in the local area. As a prefect and county official, his family accumulated tens of thousands of dollars in wealth and raised many family thugs. Sanliang City is not so much the land of the Ming Dynasty as it is the land of the Luo family.

The sedan car of the Luo family is already waiting at the pier. Master Luo will go out this day and come back. After getting off the boat, he always stops on the revetment for a while, looks around, and then stomps his feet to loosen his muscles and bones.However, today he was not so interested, he just got into the sedan chair and left.

The sedan chair was carried across Yahang Street - the earliest commercial firm on this street was the Yahang established by the Luo family. The Luo family's fortune began by relying on the mat grass that his family's ancestors used to violently monopolize the place.After four generations of effort, he has finally grown from a small clay stick to a well-dressed figure in the local area.

The house of this dental shop was rebuilt when Luo Tianqiu's father was alive.It is very grand and magnificent.However, after several decades, the gold-lettered signboard on it was somewhat dimmed in the sun, and Luo Tianqiu's heart moved: It's time to re-gilt it!

The Luo family's mansion is located in the northwest corner of Sanliang City, a large area of ​​densely populated houses, which looks formidable.There are not only residences, but also special "warehouse courtyards", "rental courtyards", "management courtyards" and "group housing courtyards".Among them, the warehouse yard specializes in storing various goods and daily necessities.The renting courtyard is specialized in collecting rent and weighing, storing grain, indigo, mat grass and various agricultural products; the management courtyard is responsible for managing various industries under the name of Luo Zhai; living.There are hundreds of houses.

The door wall was made of blue bricks, and there was a large open space paved with stone slabs in front of the door. At this time, there were dozens of housekeepers, stewards, and other figures standing there, all neatly dressed in green clothes and hats.As soon as the sedan chair was dropped, all the deacons knelt down and kowtowed to An, amidst the shout of "Welcome the master back to the mansion" from the leading housekeeper.

Luo Tianqiu didn't even glance at the servants' gracious greetings.His complexion was a bit haggard, and during the three or four days in Dongguan, he had feasted and entertained, sensualized every day, and had to visit guests and give presents everywhere, and his body really couldn't take it anymore.

He went to the inner house with two shoulders, and was carried by bearers to the inner house.

Luo Tianqiu went to the county this time to compete for the post of deputy head of the Dongguan County Training Bureau.The official team of the team training bureau is always the county magistrate, and the two deputy team chiefs are actually the principals of the team training bureau.The income of the group training bureau has made many people salivate: Dongguan County has added three cents of silver per mu to the land tax for group training since last year.The expropriation of hundreds of thousands of acres of land in the county is worth tens of thousands of silver.

In addition to the money, the regiment training bureau can also use the name of running a regiment to "raise donations", which is actually no different from the forced recruitment of hard-liners.All in all: great income.

The normal use of regiment training silver is to recruit and train regiments, buy weapons, and build fortifications. In fact, two-thirds of it is embezzled by officials at all levels and the gentry in charge of running the regiment.Therefore, the position of deputy head of the regiment has always been the target of powerful gentry in the county.In the past, the Luo family could not compete for this position, but now the head of one family died suddenly, leaving only one underage son.The vacancy immediately caught the attention of many.

In order to compete for this position, Luo Tianqiu immediately brought a large sum of money to the county town to carry out activities as soon as he received the news.After some private entertainment and transactions, Luo Tianqiu finally won the position of deputy head of the Dongguan County Youth League Training Bureau.

It stands to reason that the vice regiment always has to lead the recruited thousand brave men in the county to be ready to fight at any time, but Luo Tianqiu and the other vice regiment chief Song Yasi are both from country gentry backgrounds, let alone lead the village braves to fight. Even wielding knives and guns is still powerless.They just want to fight for power.Furthermore, they don't have the concept of leaving their hometown to serve the people of the county in the war.After obtaining the position of power, both of them agreed to send their own nephews to the county to act on their behalf.Luo Tianqiu is going to send one of his family nephews, Luo Heying, to be the "acting deputy head of the regiment".

Luo Tianqiu was in the county for three or four days, and heard a lot of bad news--Liu Xiang, who had been active in the Pearl River Estuary, had left, and a gangster who claimed to be an Australian came, and was still fighting with another group of pirates at the Pearl River Estuary. The battle was won.Taking advantage of the momentum, they went to Humen again and defeated the officers and soldiers of Humen. Now they are occupying Humen, and they will go up the river to loot everywhere in a few days.

Pirates and Jiang bandits harassed and looted along the Pearl River, and it happened in the past.That's why Sanliang City has become so heavily guarded.But this time it was the "Gun Thieves" with strong boats and powerful guns. Their names were well known in the local area, and there were rumors everywhere about how their boats were as fast as lightning and their cannons were invincible.The capture of Humen shocked Luo Tianqiu even more—Dongguan county magistrate Fan Wencai recently expanded the forts in Humen, and Sanliang City also provided a lot of labor and money.When Luo Tianqiu personally escorted the civilian husband to Humen, he went to the construction site and saw the various arrangements of the officers and soldiers in Humen. At that time, he thought that no ship could safely sail into the Pearl River under such a dense bombardment of Hongyi cannons.

Although Fan Wencai kept silent about the Humen battle, he knew how terrifying the scene was from the fact that his face turned pale every time he mentioned the Kun thief.When Fan Wencai was talking to him in the county seat, he was obviously restless. He repeatedly asked how the defense of Sanliang City was?Is it close to the main channel of the Pearl River?Whether the big ship can get close to Sanliang City and other details.Luo Tianqiu thought that the county magistrate wanted to abandon the city and escape, right?What the hell is the Kun thief, who can scare Fan county magistrate like this?

After spending some money, I learned from one of Fan Wencai's servants that the gunfire of the Kun bandits was extremely fierce. It took less than half a day for several forts in Humen to be bombarded by the guns of the bandits. It was defeated at half the point.

"I didn't expect the Kun thief to be so rampant!" Luo Tianqiu secretly hated. Of course, he was also very scared in his heart.Although Sanliang City also has a wall surrounding the whole town and two watchtowers, its defense mainly relies on the natural terrain: the labyrinth of river channels, foreign ships unfamiliar with the waterway environment will get lost, and sometimes even run aground.A few years ago, he mobilized Ding Zhuang to build a bamboo fence along the river bank—this simple facility can effectively defend against the landing of water bandits who drive boats deep into shallow water channels.

This level of defense facilities is definitely not an opponent of Australian cannons.Luo Tianqiu thought, fortunately, Sanliang City has a good location - not only is the water network complicated, but the water depth of the river is generally very shallow, too heavy and too big boats can't get in.

Big ships can't get in, and cannons can't get in either.Even if the thieves wanted to come, they could only be a small group of scattered bandits in sampan boats.There will not be many people, and it is even more impossible to carry heavy artillery and a lot of luggage.As long as you play locally, it seems that you can still fight the Kun thief.

Luo Tianqiu thought so and went to the upper room, and the maids waited for him to change his clothes and wash his hands.His wife heard that he had not had lunch when he came back, so she brought her maid to see him with a food box.Seeing him sending the servants away, she sat in the teacher's chair with a tired face and said nothing, she was a little worried, so she sat at his table and said:
"Is the master going to the county this time, and things are not going well? 500 taels of silver can't satisfy Master Fan's appetite?"

"Things are going well," Luo Tianqiu said, "Master Fan has appointed me as the deputy head of the regiment training bureau, and I will come down in a few days. But now I have gone to the thorn of Liu Xiang, and the root of the bandit. Bone!"

The grandma didn't know who the Kun thief was, and said, "The bandits on the sea go one by one. It has been like this since the year of the apocalypse. Our place is far away from the waterway, the defense is tight, and there is no one to respond. Sea bandits Even if you can enter the inland river, you definitely don’t dare to attack rashly. It’s just that I’ve been living in fear all the time, and I’m terrified when I think about you going to send troops to fight as the deputy head of the regiment.”

"It doesn't matter, I don't need to go to the war in person - I plan to let Heying go to the county to be the deputy head of the regiment. He is a martial artist, so it's good to go to the county to practice and experience, maybe he can get a career through this."

"The kid Heying is fine. That's how you let him wield knives and guns. If something happens, how will you explain it to your sister-in-law?"

"Since you want to fight for wealth and honor with a knife and a gun, you can't be afraid of death." Luo Tianqiu twisted his beard and said, "If the thieves come here in Sanliang City, all the young and strong will fight, even me, the Patriarch, is no exception , by then it will not be up to fate.”

"Oh, it would be great if everything was safe and sound." The grandma is in her 40s, and she is approaching her twilight years in this time and space. She has lived a pampered life all her life, so she is very worried about the increasingly chaotic world outside. "In recent years, there have been water bandits and pirates all day long, and the weather has been bad. Even the tenants have become troubled. They all come to complain and beg for forgiveness! How can we live in this day? If we don't deal with it severely This group of mud-legged people will not be able to survive this day!"

"The world is so chaotic, as long as we settle the Sanliang City, it will be fine - we can live on as usual." Luo Tianqiu said, "The tenants should give them a step first, and that's all there is to do - just point at them when they start fighting. They worked hard…”

"Those who don't want to work hard will take their land and seal their houses. Let's see who among these muddy legs dare not give their lives!"

(End of this chapter)