Chapter 98 The truth

The old man from the Xia family and the master were walking towards this side, and they saw the salt ditches carrying the seriously injured and undead horse thief to the edge of the deep ditch, raising his hands and falling, and cutting his head directly.

It was dark and the blood splattered after the beheading was not clear. However, Mr. Xia almost sat on the ground, and the master from Gaomi County vomited even more. When he arrived in front of Li Meng, Li Meng looked up at them. On weekdays, these two people didn't take Li Meng, who came to play to make contributions, but now that Li Meng was staring at him, Mr. Xia's knees became soft and kneeled directly on the ground.

The old man said repeatedly:

"Mr. Li, if you hadn't helped you with righteous help, my village would have suffered a great disaster. I don't know how to repay such great kindness. If there is something that my village can do, please speak up and you will definitely repay it with all your heart."

Li Meng looked at the two people in front of him kneeling down, his face remained indifferent, and he was not ready to maintain a polite attitude with them. When he heard the other party say how to "repay" the sentence, Li Meng sneered and said:

"If you are not wrong, you still have more than a hundred horses here, and I will not take advantage of you. How about dozens of dead horses here to replace you fifty good horses?"

If this is not called taking advantage, then what does it mean to take advantage? Old Master Xia and the master complained a few words in his heart. It seems that the master is still the master. After Li Meng said that, Old Master Xia looked at the master next to him, and the master gritted his teeth, raised his head and smiled:

"The great man protects the country and the people. These horses are some of the wishes of the people of Gaomi to support the righteous deeds of the great man. Please don't refuse."

Of course, Li Meng would not refuse. These horses arrived at Xiazhuang at night. The knight on the horse looked ashamed. He was grabbed by the master and slapped more than a dozen times in the face, without saying a word.

The salt genitals were doing things in a straightforward manner. Fifty horse thieves were cut off their heads and piled up outside the back door of Xiazhuang. Xiazhuang provided the best coffins. After burying the sacrificed salt genitals, Li Meng led the leaders of all levels and all salt genitals outside Xiazhuang, using the heads of the horse thieves to worship.

This ceremony was so murderous. It was the most taboo thing to pay homage to the dead at someone else's doorstep. However, the people in Xiazhuang were grateful for Li Meng and his team's death battle to fight the horse thieves. Secondly, the villagers of Xiazhuang seemed to have discovered that these young men who paid for money and never bullied others were so bloodthirsty and fierce, and everyone was afraid of abnormalities.

The next morning, all the people from Gaomi County Government arrived in Xiazhuang. Li Meng noticed that the Gaomi County Magistrate's face was pale, as if he was greatly frightened. After checking the thief's body, he worked on the spot and quickly completed the procedures for the saltmen. Moreover, the magistrate of Gaomi was forced to swear that Li Meng had protected the safety of the local area and asked Li Meng for credit from the governor and the court.

Li Meng was unwilling to stay here for more time. The battle was not large in scale and the casualties were extremely small. Although it was a little thrilling, the result was still very good.

There are so many lessons to summarize in this battle. Li Meng remembered these things firmly in his mind, for fear that he would forget a little. When he was about to go back, he would ask his master to sort them into words, which would be of great use in the future. After completing what he should do, Li Meng brought the horse salt to Jiaozhou City directly.

After returning to Jiaozhou City, Li Meng's first thing was to call Ning Gangui into the room. One person said and the other person wrote for two whole days. Then he rushed to Fengmeng Town quickly. Li Meng wanted to see where the muskets of the Liao people such as Guo Dong had reached. The blacksmiths' attitude was a little more natural than they had been in the past few days.

The new musket was only a big brethren. The reason why the progress was not as fast as before was because they were building armor as Li Meng ordered. More than 2,000 salt kids were needed, and more than 500 needed armor. Although the leather armor was inlaid and iron leaves and iron parts were hung on it, it also required a lot of working hours, and the musket was delayed.

However, the rough of the musket looked a little strange. Li Meng looked at it for a long time and asked:

"How much can this musket have after it is formed?"

"It's about thirty kilograms..."

Li Meng smiled bitterly, waved his hand and said:

"More than thirty pounds, who can carry it up and down the battlefield? Here are muskets, and clearly cannons?"

After hearing Li Meng say this, Guo Dong looked admirable and said repeatedly:

"Sir, it's really amazing. This musket is really considered in the style of a tiger squatting cannon."

Li Meng was speechless, and after a while, he waved his hand and said:

"Just follow which musket you killed. I thought about it. That musket is at least very practical. Just do it according to that one. But you still have to focus on making armor now, and the musket should not involve too much manpower."

When Guo Dong heard that the style of the musket was confirmed, his body became weak and even felt like he was slumped to the ground. Since following Li Meng, these Liao blacksmiths have been struggling with this musket for almost two years. Today, it was finally finalized, and of course they felt relieved.

After returning to Jiaozhou City, there were too many things to arrange, and Li Meng didn’t have time to stay in the blacksmith shop for more. He gave a few simple instructions and was about to leave. When Guo Dong was sent to the door, Li Meng suddenly turned around and said:

"There is a rule. Master Guo, please explain today that every craftsman has his own number. The weapon and armor you have made must be marked on the number. If there is a problem with the weapon and armor, I will pursue this sin according to the number. If there is no number, it is your sin. Is it clear?"

This rule of responsibility was not first created by Li Meng. Among the craftsmen who built weapons in the Qin Dynasty, the quality was guaranteed. The semi-slave state of the craftsmen in the Ming Dynasty had no enthusiasm for production, and the quality was not even improved. That's why Li Meng said this.

After Li Meng finished speaking, Guo Dong immediately understood the pros and cons and immediately accepted it with stern apology.

After living in the manor in Fengmeng Town for less than two days, Wu Tongzhi, who seemed extremely frightened, came to visit him. As soon as he entered the door, he knelt on the ground apologetically regardless of the difference in official ranks and ranks, which made Li Meng confused. The two sides had been tugging for a long time, but Li Meng forced Wu Tongzhi to help him up and promised not to cause trouble for him. This was to make Wu Tongzhi quiet.

Wu Tongzhi, who was sitting on the chair, still apologized and explained the reason. This was how Li Meng learned about what was so funny that happened in Gaomi City that day.

The area of ​​Xiazhuang in Gaomi is full of villages and villages where great tribes gather, and there is no room for thieves to survive. Gaomi County Magistrate and Wu Tongzhi were from the same subject. They used local horse speed and horse riding civilians to piece together more than 100 "horse thieves" and made the official official in Xiazhuang.

Then he wrote a letter to Yan Zhizhou of Jiaozhou through Wu Tongzhi's indirect attacks, and persuaded the magistrate to ask Li Meng to wipe out the thieves. Everything was well arranged. As long as the fake horse thief rushed, Li Meng and others would immediately kneel down and beg for mercy as soon as they appeared. Anyway, the documents for rewarding merit will definitely be scattered, and no one will know the real process.

Since they were pretending to be thieves and giving merit, these people were inevitably a little lazy. They originally agreed that a group of people would ride horses to the Xiazhuang gate that day, but the night before, more than a dozen leading people drank a little higher, and when they went out, they were already two hours later than the pre-order time.

As a result, halfway through the road, I saw a group of real horse thieves who were like wolves and tigers surrounding Xiazhuang. Seeing the sound of killing there, these idiots didn’t even have the courage to reinforce, and fled back to the county town in a flash.

After escaping back to the county town, he said in front of the Gaomi County Magistrate, and the county magistrate almost fainted. He originally said that he was giving me credit, but if Li Meng had confessed to Xiazhuang, he might not be able to save himself. However, Gaomi County had no garrison, and with the yamen runners and constables, Min Zhuang had no ability to fight at all.

He could only pray in the city and send people to find out the news regularly. Who would have thought that in the afternoon, the horse thieves would be killed and dispersed. The county magistrate who received the news quickly ordered more than 100 "fake horse thieves" to come and support soon.

During the fierce battle that day, some horse thieves were seriously injured and escaped from the battlefield in Xiazhuang, but were seriously injured in other places in Gaomi and abandoned by their companions. As a result, they were caught by the brave villager. After being arrested, they found out that this group of bandits were the Xiangma and horse bandits who were in chaos at the border between Qingzhou and Yanzhou. Because the officers and soldiers increased the collection efforts in Qingzhou, they fled to Laizhou and Dengzhou, preparing to open several villages to supplement the supplies and population. Four or five villages in Anqiu and Changyi were already looted by them. The paper was handed over to Laizhou Prefecture, and there were no news from Gaomi. Who would have thought that they would be encountered by Li Meng so by chance.

Wu Tongzhi said about this, with a look of terror on his face. If Li Meng had any good things, their fate would undoubtedly be very miserable.

This process is not very different from what Li Meng estimated to be in the situation. Seeing Wu Tongzhi's cautious and scared look, Li Meng couldn't say anything. After all, these people hurriedly comforted him for his own achievements, and then asked the people below to prepare a meal and to entertain Wu Tongzhi at noon.
Chapter completed!