After hearing this meaningless sentence, Li Xia pondered for a moment and said: "Magistrate Jiang and the landlord are both good people with upright character."
"That's not bad!" Wu Tong cursed with a smile, without any concealment.
He didn't wait for Li Xia to answer, waved his hand and said: "Brother Li doesn't need to tell me, I can also think of the virtues of civil servants. Seeing that you are your age and have no fame, you will definitely make things difficult for you. You brought people here today,
It seems like they let you do whatever you want, but in fact they leave you to do all the dangerous things."
"The war is about to begin. It is my duty as a county captain to keep the county safe."
"Look at you, look at you, are you lying to your brother?" Wu Tong was unhappy, glared at Li Xia, and smiled again: "Relax, come, have a glass of wine, relax, don't
Hold it."
Li Xia raised his glass and took a sip.
Wu Tong nodded and said: "Haha, let's be honest. When I saw Brother Li today, he felt happy and knew that we were on the same road... I saw your soldiers at the top of the city. They were well trained. Hua
Didn’t you get a lot of money?”
“It’s just under construction and the cost is really high.”
"How many?"
"Nearly six thousand guan has been spent."
"Six thousand guan is nothing." Wu Tong sneered, raised his finger to the sky, and said with a smile: "I just said that my brother gave it to... I won't tell you who he gave it to, just to any one person, my brother would give more than 6,000 guan every year.
You just gave me two bunches of money, hahaha, brother, why don’t you collect the customs duties yourself?”
"What does Inspector Wu mean?"
"Qing Fu Fang Yan Kai is bullshit."
When Lu Hu heard this, his expression turned ugly.
Before he could say anything, Wu Tong pointed at him and cursed again.
Huhu finally bowed his head.
"Haha." Wu Tong then explained to Li Xia: "Your subordinate is also a Yi man. He is so stupid. He wants to show off to me as a civil servant... We are talking about business. My brother wants to sell salt in Qingfu County.
Can Lieutenant Li allow me to do so?"
Li Xia asked: "How exactly?"
"Anything specific? Isn't it just selling salt? Let you Qingfu people buy salt for less money, and my brother will give you dividends every month. Isn't this the best of both worlds? Xiong Shan, what do you think about this?
"
Xiong Shan said: "Of course that's good!"
"What did Brother Li say?"
"How much will I pay each month?"
Wu Tong acted swiftly and said directly: "The minimum is five hundred guan, and the maximum is 800 or more thousand guan. The premise is to get that Fang Yankai away."
"He doesn't support you?"
"Hey, for the sake of political performance, why don't the civil servants care if the people don't have enough salt to eat?!"
Li Xia asked again: "I heard that Inspector Wu even went to Wumeng to sell salt. Is this trade route still open today?"
"It works! How come it doesn't work?"
"Isn't the Dali Kingdom destroyed? Isn't the tea-horse trade route also cut off?"
"Look what Brother Li said." Wu Tongtong said: "If the Dali Kingdom is destroyed, won't it still be in the hands of the Duan family? Aren't the people still the same people? Under the jurisdiction of Mongolia, those who should eat tea and wear silk clothes,
Don’t you have enough food and clothing?”
"smuggling?"
"Hey, let me tell you, the tea-horse trade route is closed, and the Dali horses are just sold to the Mongols. We, the people who transport things there and exchange money for it, can make more money than in previous years. What? Brother Li is interested?"
"I'm interested." Li Xia said, "But, so to speak, the Five Feet Road and Shimen Road are not abandoned as others say?"
Wu Tong said contemptuously: "You have been with those civil servants for so long that you can't even see your farts. There are businessmen passing by my brother twice a year. Since you are interested, we will slowly cooperate."
Li Xia rarely took the initiative to raise a glass to Wu Tong.
"What does Inspector Wu want me to do?"
"It is the duty of the county captain to check for illegal salt. Fang Yankai holds the authority. Brother Li can take it back. When my brother's salt arrives in Qingfu County and is sold, I will introduce you to big merchants and come to Qingfu County."
Collect the tea and sell it to the southwest. At that time, the people of Qingfu will have a better life. They can eat cheap salt and sell tea to add another income."
When Wu Tong came here, he raised his eyebrows at Xiong Shan again.
"Xiong Shan, you think so?"
Xiong Shan said: "The landlord is a good bookkeeper, but as Inspector Wu said, it is also good for Baiyan Village."
"Brother Li, what do you say?"
"good."
"It's so happy!" Wu Tong was overjoyed. He picked up the wine bowl and greeted Li Xia, saying: "Brother Li doesn't talk much, but he acts happily! Damn it! Do you want me to help you bring down Fang Yankai?"
"I have already considered this matter without Wu's inspection."
"Call me brother." Wu Tong glared and said, "You're still polite! From now on, he will be my brother."
"I'll give Brother Wu another drink."
"Haha, brother Li is elegant, elegant, brother Wu is brother Wu... How are you going to bring down Fang Yankai? Are you sure?"
Li Xia said: "As long as I can make some achievements in this battle, I will take care of Brother Wu going to Qingfu to sell salt."
"What's so difficult about this? Brother Li will wait here for more than a month. If a small group of Mongolian troops does come, I will give you some heads. It's simple."
Li Xia glanced at the loose soldiers again.
I saw a man leaning against the door, picking his ears, exposing his dark arms.
His arms are not strong, but at first glance he looks like a dexterous and powerful man.
The discipline of Wu Tong's men is average, but their combat prowess is indeed not weak...
Li Xia pondered for a moment and said, "Brother Wu, I still want to take people to the front to have a look and get familiar with the terrain."
"Too cautious, tsk tsk."
"My men are all new soldiers, unlike the village soldiers like Brother Wu. They should see some blood and sharpen themselves. I wonder if there are any villages on this five-foot road that need to be destroyed?"
"That makes sense... Someone, bring me my map!"
The map was also so simple that it was difficult to see clearly. There were only a few lines drawn on the winding five-foot road, and many village names were marked on both sides. Some of the village names were circled, and some were not.
Wu Tong seemed to be a little drunk. He squinted his eyes for a while and said: "Brother Li, who has been named, please don't touch it. I have planned this. The rest are all southern barbarians who don't know whether to live or die. They are always robbed."
He said, Brother Li, let’s watch and suppress them.”
Li Xia only took one look and understood why Wu Tong himself did not suppress it.
Those hijacked roads are often the most winding places on the map, indicating that high mountains are difficult to attack.
Sure enough, Wu Tong said again: "But I would like to advise Brother Li not to do these thankless things. These southern barbarians... are not easy to suppress. Just be careful when passing by."
"Then please ask Brother Wu to switch and let go?"
"Haha, okay! But Brother Li, please don't stop on this five-foot road..."
After Qin Shihuang unified the six countries, he ordered the construction of Chidao with Xianyang as the center to connect various places.
As the name implies, "Chidao" means that it must be able to pass horse-drawn carriages.
But even with the courage of the Qin Empire, the Five-foot Road built could not do this.
In order to open roads in Sichuan and Yunnan, Qin used firewood to burn rocks, which was to burn fire on the rocks, and then quickly cooled them with water to cause the rocks to crack.
The narrowest point of such a laboriously dug road is only five feet, and can only be passed by a single horse.
At the steepest point, the road is dug directly into the cliff.
Like a long snake, it gnaws a passage on the cliff.
Li Xia walked on the Wuchi Road for several days, heading southwest from Junlian County and entering the Guanhe Gorge.
Looking back, I can see many "Bo people hanging coffins" hanging on the cliff opposite, which are the coffins of the deceased hanging on the cliff.
Maybe there is also something hanging on the cliff above Li Xia's head.
He didn't understand how the Bo people hung the coffin, but just seeing the coffin, he understood why Jiang Chun and Wu Tong both said that it was a thankless effort to suppress these robbers.
With such terrain, it seemed impossible to climb up, but people just went up with the coffin.
I led a group of farmers to suppress these local indigenous people, but after seeing it on the spot, I realized that it was impossible.
The map given by Wu Tong was also difficult to understand. Li Xia had been walking for so many days and had no idea how many villages he had passed, let alone which ones could be suppressed and which ones could not be suppressed.
From time to time, you can see the trees in the distance shaking, and then a group of indigenous people come out with bows, arrows and bamboo spears, disappearing like monkeys in the mountains and forests.
Most of them wanted to rob Li Xia, but gave up after seeing that he had nearly two hundred people...
Li Xia increasingly realized that the idea of using bandits to train troops was a bit naive.
When these natives saw us from a distance, they laid an ambush. Even if they came closer, they wouldn't be able to spot them, and if they did, they wouldn't be able to get through.
Whenever he turned around to look at his recruits at this time, he found that their faces were pale and confused.
Of course, there are also great rewards from this journey.
This team has indeed undergone radical changes due to this difficult journey.
That evening, we finally walked to a wide place to camp and rest.
Everyone was tired and speechless, and soon fell asleep on the ground.
That night, Huhu was on duty, leading a few people to watch the bonfire and chatting softly.
"The county captain said that we have to turn around and go back after six or seven days. Counting this trip, it will take almost twenty days in total."
"Can the Mongolian army really come through this way?"
"Maybe……"
Suddenly, a scream sounded in the night.
"ah!"
Luhu stood up quickly and heard arrows whizzing towards him.
"Someone is robbing the Tao!"
"Don't panic! Guard the array..."
In the chaos, Xu Kui stood up. In the cold moonlight, he could faintly see a rope falling from above and hooking the bag of dry food on the ground. With a "swish", the bag of dry food was hooked away.
Xu Kui was completely stunned.
Looking up again, I saw only a cliff, which was terrifyingly steep, with swaying trees on it.