Wu Shigong attached great importance to his first independent leadership, and was cautious and always wary along the way to escort salt goods. However, when he passed through the mountainous area with bandits, nothing happened.

It’s not that the bandits did not discover Wu Shigong and his group. But when the bandits who blocked the road discovered Wu Shigong’s army that was escorting salt goods, especially when Wu Shigong personally led the team to escort, they immediately scattered birds and beasts.

But later, a few brave bandits begged Wu Shigong and his group to reward some salt goods. After Lu Yunhuan and Lu Jianchen threw down one and gave them two bags of salt. The bandits left happily with the salt. This made Wu Shigong feel very awkward. These bandits did not look like bandits at all, as if they were some beggars.

After giving nearly ten stones of salt, Wu Shigong and his group arrived at their destination safely. The journey back was smoother.

After escorting this way a few times, Wu Shigong discovered that the bandits really did not dare to provoke him. Wu Shigong simply took this escort mission and asked his leaders to take turns to lead the team to command. In addition, Wu Shigong also arranged for the escort soldiers to carry out some marching and camping training during the escort journey.

Yang Goudan also used those copper pieces to build a cannon. However, because in the past, no one, including Yang Goudan, could build a cannon, so the cannon was built like an amplified fire gun. However, after Liang Hui and others tried the cannon, it could even be fired, because the caliber of the cannon was relatively small, which was the size of a pound of cannon, and it was not very powerful.

However, Wu Shigong was already very satisfied. At least his craftsmen could build artillery. Wu Shigong asked those craftsmen to design a cannon stand with wheels and fix the cannon to the cannon. Now, as long as you pull the cannon with a horse, you can let the cannon march with your army.

Wu Shigong also had no financial resources or materials to make new artillery. He could only let these craftsmen continue to build four artillery racks and install the two tiger squat cannons and two Folang machine cannons he brought from the capital to the cannon stands.

At this time, Wu Shigong also fixed the personnel arrangement of the caravan. Each time he escorted, a squadron, that is, a cavalry of fifty people, two squadrons, or two infantry of two hundred people, accompanied by a cannon.

With the development of the escort business, Wu Shigong's income in this business gradually became fixed, reaching about 500 taels of silver per month. Moreover, as the situation in the counties in Runing Prefecture gradually stabilized, the people who fled because of the Holy Spirit gradually returned to their homes, and the demand for salt goods in these counties gradually increased. Therefore, Wu Shigong's income also increased month by month.

Seeing this situation, Wu Shigong couldn't help but feel a little self-deprecating: "Others traveling through time either open their gold fingers; or occupy places with salt fields to sell private salt; or in coastal areas, shipbuilding, smuggling and engaging in maritime trade, so silver has never been a problem. But now I have started an escort agency business, which is really embarrassing for time travelers!"

However, such escorts made Wu Shigong's army start the training of marching camping. Although the distances of these marches were not long, at most five or six days, Wu Shigong and Xue Yongli discovered that their own army had many problems during the marching camping process. After repeated training and exchanges and learning, Wu Shigong's army's marching camping level was greatly improved.

In addition, the reconnaissance squadron led by Zhang Biao and Li Sanhe, who were accompanying the escort team, basically observed the nearby terrain and produced military maps of several nearby counties.

Zheng Zhen also came back from the capital. He brought back more than 70 war horses, nearly 200 sets of horse harnesses, as well as several gun heads and waist knives. These were sent to Wu Shigong by his father Wu Weizhong and his elder brother Wu Shixun.

The value of these things is slightly greater than the money Wu Shigong paid for his fifth brother Wu Shiwen to re-appoint the county magistrate. However, it can be imagined that his father Wu Weizhong would definitely not find out his own money, and he must have used his power to make use of public and private interests.

In addition, his father Wu Weizhong and his elder brother Wu Shixun also wrote letters to Wu Shigong. In the letter, they praised Wu Shigong for his brotherly and sisterly behavior. They also took care of Wu Shigong and asked him to take care of his health. As long as there was a suitable opportunity, they would find a way to transfer Wu Shigong back to the capital.

Although the ideas of his father Wu Weizhong and his elder brother Wu Shixun were different from those of Wu Shikong's own, Wu Shikong was still very pleased that his "married" son was finally accepted by his family again.

Wu Shigong remembered the shop he bought from Yuan Xingshan, the shop in Guide Mansion City. Wu Shigong sent someone to inquire. As expected, the shop had been occupied by Hou Xun and Hou's family.

So Wu Shigong sent someone to send a letter to Hou Xun. In the letter, of course, he only wrote some words that admire Hou Xun very much. However, in the letter, Wu Shigong also put in the land deed and house deeds of the shop and wanted to give the shop completely to the Hou family.

Wu Shigong now knows how high the status of Hou Xun, a Jinshi who resigned from his post at home, was. From the time when Hou Xun could walk in front of Guide Mansion, he could see his status. Therefore, Wu Shigong did not want to offend Hou Xun at all.

Unexpectedly, after receiving Wu Shigong's letter, Hou Xun replied to Wu Shigong. In the letter, Hou Xun was also very polite to Wu Shigong. He also said to Wu Shigong: Those in the past were misunderstandings, and Hou Xun would also return the shop to Wu Shigong.

In addition to his unstoppable intention towards Wu Shigong, the main reason why Hou Xun wanted to win over Wu Shigong was that Hou Xun wanted to win over Wu Shigong.

We can see that like the governor of Henan, the Henan Army Supervisor Eunuch Xiao and Hou Xun both made some moves to win over Wu Shigong. The main reason for their actions was that they saw Wu Shigong's contribution this time, and they also affirmed Wu Shigong's ability.

For those who are in high positions, they not only need to have submissive slaves and flatterers, but also need some decisive little tigers. Of course, this little tiger can also flatter, which is the most perfect.

This makes me sigh: so many capable people in modern times refuse to put down their figure just for the sake of face. If they are a little sweeter to their boss's mouth, they may rise to a higher level and be able to exert their abilities!

After receiving Hou Xun's reply, Wu Shigong was flattered. He quickly wrote to Hou Xun again and refused firmly. Anyway, both sides pushed him over, and in the end, Hou Xun returned the shop to Wu Shigong. Wu Shigong opened a shop in this shop and gave Hou Xun 50% of his dry shares.

In this way, Wu Shigong had a place to settle down in Guide Mansion City and was able to receive the protection of the Hou family, the top family in Guide Mansion. His own caravan also went to a higher level.

In this shop, Wu Shigong even started to trade Zhao Ruya's cosmetics. Wu Shigong used some extra women among the slaves and opened a cosmetics workshop under the guidance of Zhao Ruya.

Although the business of this cosmetics is far less prosperous than that of the business in Guidefu City, at least with some income, it can barely deal with the expenses in the inner house.

During this period, Wu Shigong held a large workshop. First of all, he set up a textile workshop based on the wardrobe workshop. Guidefu does not produce silk and cotton, and the technology of this textile workshop is also very backward. Therefore, this textile workshop can only produce some coarse cloth, and the cost is relatively high. Therefore, the areas where these coarse cloths can be sold, that is, the nearby counties. If it is too far away, it will not be sold at all.

However, with this textile workshop, the supply of clothing and fabrics for Wu Shigong and his soldiers was solved. Besides, Wu Shigong could also use these coarse cloth as military pay. Because in the Ming Dynasty, cloth could indeed be used as currency in many cases.

Another one that Wu Shigong established was a poultry and livestock farm. Wu Shigong relied on the poultry and livestock he seized, and purchased some breeding pigs and breeding sheep, and used the elderly, weak, women and children among the domestic slaves to carry out a breeding industry.

Also, because there are pig grass and green grass on the hill behind Wu Shigong's Qianhu Fortress, Wu Shigong just needs to mobilize people to harvest it. So now, Wu Shigong's poultry and livestock can not only meet his own needs, but also take out some of them to the market to sell them. There are also some income.

More importantly, because Wu Shigong's breeding industry was well developed, the food level of his soldiers was greatly improved.

When Wu Shigong first arrived at Qianhushou Fortress, in addition to the guards he brought from the capital, the soldiers Wu Shigong recruited were basically skinny and boned due to long-term malnutrition and could not withstand high-intensity military training at all.

Some soldiers, due to unbalanced nutritional intake, were unable to walk at night. Now, because Wu Shigong let them eat a lot for a long time and used meat to increase their nutrition, the physical fitness of soldiers has been greatly improved. It is no exaggeration to say that the physical fitness of soldiers under Wu Shigong is now fully at the level of first-class elite soldiers at the time of the Ming Dynasty.

Wu Shigong used the trees on the hill behind Qianhu Suo Fortress to set up a charcoal workshop. He also found a small carbohydrate (coal) mine on this hill, which also gave him some profits.

Adding up these several items, in October, Wu Shigong finally reached a balance of income and expenditure, which greatly relieved Wu Shigong. Now he has finally gained a foothold here.

What made Wu Shigong happy was not only that. Because Wu Shigong's Daxing Water Conservancy Project and he used a lot of livestock to transport water, and the climate in the second half of the year was also good. During the autumn harvest, the fields owned by Wu Shigong achieved a bumper harvest, which made the grain reserves in Wu Shigong's Qianhu Fortress reach more than 16,000 stones at once.

Now Wu Shigong was completely relieved. This is really - he has food in his hands, so he is not panicked!
Chapter completed!