Traveler Major League

Chapter 51 Preparation and Arrangement

"Brother Liu, I'm leaving. I have to inform other people." Wang Youyuan turned on his horse and cupped his hands. Liu Ze was not the only one who came out to sweep up the village, and the scope was not limited to the few villages near Majiazhai. Including the vast area of ​​Chengcheng, Baishui, Xiaotong in Pucheng, and Zichuan Town in Hancheng, Wang Youyuan had to take people back and forth to inspect again.

Standing in front of the gate of the village, Liu Ze also cupped his hands and replied, "Brother Wang, walk slowly, and the journey will be smooth. After I make arrangements, I will escort the money and food back to Chengcheng tomorrow. Then we will have a drink."

"Okay." Wang Youyuan waved his hand, and with a swipe of his whip, the brown horse kicked all four hooves, splashing a burst of mud.

Wang Zhe, who was standing next to him, saw that the two knights were far away, and then asked: "Commander, just now we entertained the entourage of Chief Wang, and he said that Second Brother Wang is living happily in Chengcheng, drinking and having fun every day to collect beauties. That's not a good sign."

"Who does he drink and have fun with every day? Which beauties have he collected?"

"It is said that he sent most of his men out to sweep up the villages, while he himself kept in touch with the big clans in the city all day long, and even accepted some beauties and singers from the big clans."

Liu Ze nodded, "I'm afraid this is also the second brother's expedient measure. When I followed Yu Ting in Chengcheng, I found that there was not enough food in the official warehouse. Most of it was in the hands of those wealthy families. I have some complaints. I reckon that all the subordinates he sent out should return to Chengcheng this time, once the second brother's strength increases greatly, I am afraid that the lives of those big families in the city will be in danger."

"Then we?" Wang Zhe asked with a frown. He didn't know what Liu Ze would do. Although they had occupied a few villages and gained some strength, they were still far behind Wang Er in the city. , there will be no good fruit for doing it. Now that our side is weak, we can only hide behind Wang Er and develop wretchedly.

"Of course we obey orders. We only have a hundred or so people to fight, occupying only four or five small villages, and the food is not enough for us to feed ourselves. What other ideas can we have?" Liu Ze sighed. I didn't find a single blacksmith, but I found a few stonemasons and carpenters, all of them individual craftsmen. There were no other workshops, and they were all growing grain.

"Let's go, let's pack up and set off tomorrow. Let's bring food back this time to repay the life-saving grace and to submit a certificate!" Liu Ze patted Wang Zhe on the shoulder and urged.

"As ordered!"

Although Wang Zhe was unwilling, he still felt that this was the best thing for now.

Because he didn't know how many days he would be out, Liu Ze called all the officers and leaders to the Du's mansion for a meeting to arrange work during this time.

"I received a message from my second brother this time asking me to send money and food back to Chengcheng. I'm afraid there will be other things at that time. I will need to be away for a few days. I can't be sure now, so I will stay behind during my absence. Li Kefu, your platoon needs to arrange work and rest according to my training plan, and notify the militia teams in each village to elect their own vice-captains to come to Dujiazhuang for unified training. When I come back, I will arrange for those who perform well to serve as captains in each militia team. "

"Especially Cheng Mo, you need this time to follow what I told you, compose some catchy songs and storytelling jokes to promote us, and take care of your little apprentices, you are very important to us."

As Liu Ze said, he patted Cheng Mo on the shoulder. Cheng Mo really didn't expect Liu Zezhen to find him a few young apprentices in their teens. Now he just wants to pass on this skill quickly, and it won't be in vain. With this ability, let's not mention the matter of escaping. This army is in chaos, starving people are everywhere, and the road is not safe for one person.

"Notify the peasant associations and militia teams in all villages that all main roads will be blocked during this period, and those who pass by will be detained until I come back to deal with it. This is an eventful time to prevent spying by the Ming army. All civil affairs are under the leadership of Lao Kong, Li Kefu is in charge of all military affairs."

Suddenly several figures flashed in Liu Ze's mind: "By the way, there are also Guo Shunwang and those who are always hanging out together, always talking strange things, and not active in doing things, all of them will be transferred to follow me this time."

After the arrangement was completed, everyone around stood up and said, "Your Majesty!"

Seeing his subordinates disperse, Liu Ze suddenly thought that Miss Lu had no arrangements. She must have had a good night's sleep last night, and her face was much ruddy when she had dinner at noon.She devoted herself wholeheartedly to the medical profession and wanted to save lives and heal the wounded, so she took over the work of treating wounded soldiers just after she came.Liu Ze didn't know what would happen when he went to Chengcheng this time, but maybe there was something she could come in handy.

But what if there is danger?Liu Ze paced back and forth, after much deliberation, he still thought it would be better to ask Miss Lu in person.

It was mid-afternoon, and the heat hadn't dissipated. As soon as Liu Ze walked into the courtyard, he saw Lu Wan'er who was enjoying the shade on the porch while studying medical skills. She was holding a medical book in her left hand, and a cattail leaf fan with a torn cloth edge in her right. At this moment, she was concentrating on reading the book, completely oblivious to Liu Ze's footsteps behind her.

"Miss Lu."

Lu Wan'er was taken aback by Liu Ze's whisper, she hurriedly put down the book and cattail fan in her hand, stood up and bowed to Liu Ze.

"I didn't intend to disturb the girl's study of medical skills. It's just that I need to bring someone back to Chengcheng tomorrow to report to Second Brother Wang. I don't know how many days it will take to go, so...so I came to ask the girl, if you would like to go with me."

"Okay, I'll go with you tomorrow. I'll make arrangements to take care of the wounded soldiers later on."

Lu Wan'er agreed without thinking about it, then sat down again, picked up the medical book that was placed on the low table just now, and continued to study. After a while, seeing Liu Ze beside him was still stunned, she raised her face and asked a question : "Young master, is there anything else?"

"It's all right, I'm leaving now." Liu Ze waved his hand awkwardly, followed Lu Wan'er's previous example, saluted and left in a hurry, which made Lu Wan'er blush, because it was It is very interesting for Liu Ze, a big man, to do the etiquette only for women.

Now Liu Ze has nearly 500 taels of gold and silver in total, and the copper money and cloth are worthless. These must be handed over to Second Brother Wang, so Liu Ze will have much less money to use.

Historically, Shaanxi has relied on external salt imports for a long time. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, Shaanxi basically consumed Huamachi salt in Dingbian area and Hedong salt pond in Yuncheng, Shanxi, and Pucheng salt was closer to Liu Ze. Lubotan can produce soil salt, but the soil salt contains too many impurities, so the taste is extremely bitter. It is reasonable to say that it is not suitable as edible salt, but it cannot be cheap, so it is often sold as private salt among the people. This gave Liu Ze had his chance.

Because Liu Ze can purify table salt!
The method of purifying salt is very simple. Take a small amount of fresh water and add the coarse salt prepared above to make it saturated salt water, first precipitate and filter it, and then add the filtered solution of plant ash (potassium carbonate) to remove excess calcium ions Wait, and then through precipitation, then filter and reboil crystallization.

The quality of the salt obtained in this way will be much better, and it can be sold to ordinary people.

If you want better quality, you can add slaked lime (CA(OH)2, in excess), then add soda ash (in excess), and then filter and crystallize to purify.

So taking advantage of the opportunity to go to the county seat, Liu Ze is going to get some snowflake salt and sell it to big households, to see if he can open up relationships and start a private salt business in the future. Before that, change to something affordable. If it is too late, then find a way to find another way.

This time back to Chengcheng, Liu Ze only brought two platoons of Wang Shanbao and Yang Zeming who had been replenished, a total of more than 70 young and strong, and all the other old and weak stayed at home, driving seven grain trucks with a total of nearly [-] catties of miscellaneous grain The sundries and a bag of purified snowflake salt were mostly gifts that Liu Ze wanted to repay his second brother for saving his life.

Even Liu Ze himself didn't realize that because of the slate, he subconsciously felt that he had a retreat, and he didn't even value these precious food too much.

At this time, Liu Ze even felt that he had returned to modern times, forgetting that this was the cruel end of the Ming Dynasty, so he was very concerned about repaying kindness, although the pros and cons of repaying and not repaying can be weighed, traded, bought and sold, even Wang Er This kind of kindness is not a life-saving grace in the subjective sense, but the objective fact has been achieved, and Liu Ze followed the morality in his heart to repay as much as possible without thinking too much.

Fortune is where misfortune lives, and misfortune is where blessings rest.

(End of this chapter)