Zhu Guoxiang stayed in the mountain village for one night and then went back to Shangbai Village.

Zhang Guangdao came to pay a visit with a woman: "Brother Zhu, this is Brother Yao's wife."

The woman is very young, under twenty years old, and she is quite handsome.

She held the child in her arms and immediately knelt down and said, "Thank you, the master..."

"Call me village chief," Zhu Ming interrupted directly and said to Zhang Guangdao, "You can also call me village chief."

The woman said, "Thank you for your life, and send my child back."

Zhu Ming smiled and nodded, reminding him: "Live a good life in the future. I will give you ten acres of dry land, so I can ask Brother Zhang San to help recruit tenants."

"Thank you, village chief!" the woman said happily.

Zhu Ming asked Zhang Guangdao again: "What did the house repairs and houses be built in the past?"

Zhang Guangdao replied: "It's just like the government collecting corvee labor, not paying wages, only rations."

Zhu Ming had a conspiracy in his heart, and he could hire villagers to work and use wages to further enhance his prestige.

The sixth month of the lunar calendar is quite easy, so it is very busy planting rice. The paddy fields need to be irrigated and the medium rice fields need to be top dressing.

But most of the land here is dryland, and farmers are idle and can call some to work.

If the matter continues, the baojia Chief is responsible for the recruitment.

A total of thirty young and strong people were selected, and the next day I went up the mountain to clear the burnt ruins.

They were frowning when they worked. Although Zhu Ming announced that he would give money, no one believed it.

Zhu Ming was riding a treasure pot and wandering around. Thirty young and strong men were working while peeking at the "supervisor" master, with more fear in his eyes.

In the evening of that day, while eating, Zhu Ming announced: "The wages are paid every day, and we come to collect the money after dinner."

Seeing half of the iron money being carried out, the young and strong finally stretched their eyebrows and showed joy.

I didn't bother to eat anymore, and I came over to wait with my rice bowls.

Zhu Ming smiled and said to Bai Sheng: "Get the salary."

The first young man who received his wages rushed to Zhu Ming: "Thank you the village master to give me a reward!"

Zhu Ming corrected: "First, don't call the village chief, just call it the village chief. Second, this is not a reward, this is your wages. I am different from a bandit. I will get as much money as I do. After you go down the mountain, you can tell your neighbors."

The young and strong people were overjoyed. For only this moment, they forgot their former leaders.

What a bandit is a big deal?

Still Zhu Village Chief is generous!

Before the reward was paid here, Tian Er ran over to report: "Village Chief, someone in Shangbai Village is looking for you."

"Take him here." Zhu Ming said.

But the person who came was Lu An, the son of the housekeeper, who was sent by Bai Zongwang to pass on the message: "Zhu Xiucai, the envoy of the school will come to our village tomorrow. The master asked you to go down the mountain tomorrow."

"Is there any other arrangement?" Zhu Ming asked.

Lu An replied: "Our family slaughtered pigs and sheep, and prepared a lot of food. Zhu Xiucai passed by before noon. Lu Tixue didn't know when he would come, but he just said that he would definitely arrive tomorrow."

"I understand," Zhu Ming said, "It's just right here to put food. You can go back and report after you eat."

Zhu Ming had no expectations for that Lu Tixue.

It was really unreliable. I traveled around for three consecutive days and suddenly came to inspect the Eight-Level Scholars.

Lead the horse to the warehouse, where there is food and money.

There is not much grain, and less than 2% of the land of six or seven square kilometers is paddy fields. Most of the remaining dry land belongs to mountainous land, and it is difficult for farmers to live by themselves. In the past, they had to pay taxes and taxes to the village owners.

But there is a lot of money!

It mainly relies on robbery and smuggling.

The income from private tea is fine, but robbery is a huge profit. The group of horses that robbed last year were all the best.

The Song Dynasty bought horses in the northwest border, and the more expensive they reached the later stage. By the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the purchase price of the frontier was more than 10 guan, which was still the most ordinary war horse. If transported to Kaifeng, ordinary war horses would be more than 40 guan, and the best good horses would be more than 100 guan.

The bandits robbed more than 40 official horses and sold stolen goods through the sale of novice officials. The horse prices ranged from 20 to 40 cents per horse. This transaction alone earned a thousand cents of coins.

The money was paid by several leaders, but they hadn't spent much money yet, so they all got the money off Zhu Ming and his archers.

"My husband, the food is ready." A woman came over and said.

The woman's name is Aunt Lu, and she is the daughter of Luwan, Jiachang. She is about sixteen years old and looks average. She has not yet married and is full-time taking care of Zhu Ming's daily life.

There are also four servants, who are responsible for sweeping, chopping firewood, cooking, etc., all of which are left by the Yang brothers. There is not a large population here, so the bandit leaders enjoyed it and lived the life of a landlord.

One thing was amazing. Zhu Ming dismissed the leaders' servants and asked them to go home to work, leaving only four servants. These servants were unhappy because they could barely eat enough in the village, but they were very likely to go hungry when they went down the mountain and went home.

Zhu Ming handed over the treasure pot to his servants for feeding and went back to his house to have dinner.

This is the house of the village leader Yang Jun. The area is very small. Including thatched cottages, there are only twelve houses in total. Moreover, the thatched cottages, utility rooms, etc. are all thatched roofs, which are particularly shabby compared to the old Bai official’s home.

Rice, a plate of green vegetables, and a small pot of stewed chicken.

This is extremely rich, after all, there is not enough food in the mountains.

Aunt Lu stood beside him and waited, and Zhu Ming did not ask her to come to her deskmate to have a meal. When she was just a newcomer, she had to maintain a sense of distance so that she could enhance her authority.

Of course, after all, it is someone around you, so you still need to use some means to win over it.

"Auntie," Zhu Ming always felt that the name was awkward, "Do you don't have a serious name?"

Aunt Lu said, "I'll call you Auntie, and my sister's call you Erniang."

Zhu Ming thought for a while and said, "There are many vines and vines, and you can call them Lu Fangling in the future."

Aunt Lu didn't understand what it meant, she just thought the name sounded nice and said happily: "Thank you, my husband, for giving me a name."

Zhu Ming had no interest in this ordinary-looking farm girl and said, "If you have a good man, you can bring him a look. If you are loyal and honest, I will be a matchmaker to get you married and let him move in and help you do things."

"I...I haven't had a good relationship yet." Aunt Lu said shyly.

"Next to talk about it later."

Zhu Ming still lacks a housekeeper. Although Bai Sheng is smart, his identity is similar to a personal assistant and is mainly responsible for some external things.

Zhang Guangdao was the deputy village chief, and his next task was to go to the mountains to recruit fugitives.

After a full meal, Zhu Ming went back to his bedroom to rest and gave the remaining stewed chicken to several servants. The servants were overjoyed and gathered together to eat voraciously.

They are all very pitiful, it was like this in ancient times.

When President Zhu comes, he will be able to launch a large-scale production campaign.

After sleeping until dawn, Zhu Ming arranged the matter and took Bai Sheng down the mountain.

The bandit's main battleship is still there, the hull is several meters long and it is quite fast. I arrived at Shangbai Village before noon.

Not long after walking, I saw a villager and hurriedly greeted me: "Little Mr. Zhu!"

Yes, the title has been changed. President Zhu is the Grand Duke Zhu, and Zhu Ming becomes the Grand Duke Zhu.

Zhu Ming still smiled and said hello as usual: "Where is Uncle Deng serving the rice fields?"

Seeing that Zhu Ming was not pretending to be arrogant, the villagers said happily: "I want to dress up tomorrow, so I pulled out the weeds today."

"Then you can do it first." Zhu Ming said.

He walked straight to Chen Yourong's house, but only Grandma Yan was at home.

Grandma Yan was even more enthusiastic and wanted to cook water and tea, but Zhu Ming refused. There was no need for her family to be so polite.

Zhu Ming said: "I have a house to live in, and the eldest lady can move in with her next year."

Grandma Yan was a little worried and asked, "There are all bandits there, and they are very fierce?"

"Everyone is convinced, just like the villagers here." Zhu Ming said.

Grandma Yan was still a little worried. She was afraid that her grandson would slowly learn bad things if she went to the thief's nest.

Zhu Ming didn't force it and started chatting about family matters.

Soon, Zhu Guoxiang came back from the field and went to the house to change into clean clothes.

"The envoy of the Tixue has not come yet?" Zhu Ming asked.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "I only said that I would come today, but I didn't understand when the Bai family didn't know how to entertain me."

Zhu Ming complained: "He is also a confused official who doesn't know how to arrange plans."

Zhu Guoxiang said: "If you really want to study in Taixue, you can give away one Hubian. For the sake of Hubian, you will definitely be more active in promoting academic missions."

"Send it," Zhu Ming said, "I asked Li Hanzhang that the Imperial College has a total of 3,900 students, and many students cannot graduate for several years. The old students are reluctant to leave, and the freshmen can only wait for the vacancies. Even if I am approved to enroll this year, it will take two or three years to wait for the vacancies. After all, Yangzhou is too remote and there is a vacancies, so it is the first time that the scholars of Gyeonggi and Jiangnan will take the lead."

Zhu Guoxiang went back to his house to get the pen and chatted: "When did you get your armor? It's been more than three months, and I'm afraid it's already rusted and moldy."

"It's not rusted, the leather may become moldy. I'll get it back to the copycat in a few days." Zhu Ming said.

The father and son were chatting, and Bai Dalang suddenly came to visit.

The guy looked sad and did not treat the Zhu family as outsiders. As soon as he met, he complained: "A master who is so big, he has no rules for doing things. I sent a boat upstream to wait, and when I saw the boat, I came back to report the news. It was noon and there was no news at all. My family was killed by pigs and sheep, and I was hesitant not to know when to put the pot."
To be continued...