To form a hundred-household team with 112 people, money is needed to support it. Each soldier plus 20% of the military salary will get nearly 15 taels of silver a year. With 112 people, that is nearly 2,000 taels of silver. In addition,

The addition and maintenance of weapons and equipment cannot be done without 3,000 taels of silver a year.

Su Ming knew that the eldest brother was so generous in raising the military pay for the soldiers. One reason was that Erwei Fort was not short of money and the soldiers were loyal to work for him. The other reason was that they had exchanged so many supplies. Without improving the soldiers' pay, these things could not be sold.

Staying is also a burden.

The refugees of Erwei Fort never left. Now the population of the original six villages outside the fort is growing, and the new fourth village is also under construction. The population of Erwei Fort is increasing, and he needs a group of loyal men to protect him.

management and safeguard the rights of the Su family in the Baihu Office.

"I think the demobilization of soldiers should have been implemented long ago. Without soldiers to protect us, Wei Fort will end up being a wedding dress for others no matter how good its development is.

It’s just that all the soldiers are off-duty training, but what about the patrol and protection of the salt factory? Without the guidance of the soldiers, we may suffer great losses when Japanese pirates land." Although he agreed with his elder brother's statement, Su Ming still expressed his worries.

.

"I have already considered this. All the soldiers in our Second Wei Fort who are over 40 years old will be discharged, and all young people will be recruited to join.

Retired soldiers can go to the salt factory or serve as guard captains in each village. They can form a guard team to protect the salt fort and each village. The guard team members participate in production and participate in training at least twice a month, and each guard team

Members can receive half of the military salary of the soldiers, and every six months the soldiers and the escort team jointly hold exercises to strive for our escort team to have a certain combat capability." Su Ren said his plan.

"Brother, how many guards are needed for the Salt Fort, and how many guards are needed for each village?" Su Qingping looked at Su Ren and asked.

"Each village will first recruit 5 to 10 people, and a squad leader will be in charge. Salt Fort will form three squads, each with 10 members, and appoint a squadron leader.

All members of the escort team are evaluated every three months. If our soldiers are killed in action, they will all be selected from within the escort team. I have selected 17 of our soldiers who are over 40 years old. There is no problem for them to become the captain of the escort team.

"Su Ren said.

In this way, Wei Zhuang's escort team may have hundreds of people, and the number of soldiers available to Fort Wei suddenly doubled.

"I think it's good. The escort team is not out of work. It just increases training and gives everyone more income. In the future, if you encounter refugees who are good at martial arts, you will leave the escort team for a period of time to test their loyalty and then be included in the army."

Su Zhe also thinks this method is good.

"We don't care about money. The food is enough for the time being, but the number of soldiers suddenly doubled. Where will we get the weapons to use? Without weapons, we can't practice combat effectiveness." Su Qingping said.

"Then we can only wait until the end of September. The trade fleet from the north will return at the end of September. A large amount of weapons and equipment will arrive by then. We can also buy some cattle, sheep and war horses by then," Su Ren said.

Most of the Ming army was in the north to resist the attacks of various tribes in the grasslands. In order to make money, the northern guards officials smuggled a large number of weapons and equipment issued by the court and sold them to various places. Otherwise, how would the guards of various aristocratic families and the armors of pirates and Japanese pirates come from?

, not everyone knows those armor-making skills, and the imperial court does not allow private armor-making. As a result, the imperial court itself became the largest seller of weapons and equipment, although the sales method was somewhat special.

"This is the only way. The key now is to build up the structure of the escort team and select capable young men to increase our military strength. However, we have to take it step by step to decommission the troops. If we directly drain the salt field of combat power, it may be a disaster.

There is danger." Su Qingping said.

The four brothers agreed, and Su Qingping went to tell Cao Chunrui and the small banners the news. Su Zhe also went outside Su Bao to investigate the construction status of the four villages, but Su Ren stopped Su Ming.

"Buddy, this time we were able to complete the transaction so smoothly, and you have the greatest credit. I am also worried about putting so much gold and silver here. The output of snowflake salt in our salt farm is getting larger and larger. Brother knows that all your guns are wasted.

You bought it at a big price, take this gold, eight hundred taels of silver will be enough for us to use for a while." Su Ren unexpectedly took out the box containing the money and wanted to hand all the gold to Su Ming.

"Brother, you'd better take the money first. We don't have any money in the castle, so what can we do?

Snowflake salt cannot be sold every month. Our salt farm is producing more and more snowflake salt, and the price will definitely get lower and lower in the future. Now there are thousands of people in Erwei Fort. When we encounter weapons and equipment, we still have to

Big money.

I know what you mean, brother, but now even if you have money... you can't buy guns. If we sell salt next time, I will find a way to get some guns," Su Ming said.

Last time the Li family guards were hiding in their hiding place. If you carefully look at the wounds of the dead Li family guards, you will know that Su Ming shot them to death secretly. Su Zhe was just in front to attract attention.

So Su Ren must have guessed that Su Ming also has a gun. Anyone who is interested can definitely guess it as long as he pays attention. Therefore, feeling that the pressure on Erwei Fort may be increasing, Su Ren's first thought was to let him

Brother, let's get some more guns.

"In this way... our Second Weibao will change more and more, and Yao Qianhu will pay more and more attention to us. The secret of your return can no longer be hidden. You should pay more attention to your own safety.

From now on, you will be responsible for all the affairs of the escort team. I will make it clear to the captains of each team at that time. We must settle down and accumulate strength in the next period of time. You should take good care of the salt factory and the escort team.

Son." Su Ren said to Su Ming.

Everything seemed normal in the following days. As soon as Wang Zhi's fleet left the coastal guard stations, all the coastal guard stations had money in their hands, and more people began to do business.

There are also two more shops and an inn in Erwei Fort. A pottery shop and a medical clinic attract more and more villagers entering the fort every day. The inn was opened by Su Ren, an old soldier from the camp.

At the end of May, the No. 5 new salt field of the salt production plant was completed, and the four salt fields were put into production together. The salt boiling pots in the Salt Fort were not stopped every day, and the daily salt production exceeded 20 shi.

The formation is also going on quietly, but ordinary people don't pay attention to it.

News about Japanese pirates in Zhejiang, Guangdong, and Fujian came from Yao Qianhu of Jinshan Guard Town. Now more than 4,000 pirates and pirates have landed in southern Zhejiang, and some guard posts have been breached. The imperial court attaches great importance to this, and specially asked Jinshan Guard to

Send troops to clean up.

However, there have never been any Japanese pirate attacks in the coastal area of ​​Erwei Fort. Perhaps it was because they suffered setbacks here twice before and the pirates also knew that Erwei Fort was not easy to mess with.

Su Ming didn't hear his elder brother talk about the refugees again, but more and more people were building new houses in the villages outside the fort. In just one month, the four villages in the southeast and northwest already had more than 30 households here.

Settling down the family. Many military households in the fort have hired servants. The eldest brother found an old woman and two young servants for the family. They all live in temporary huts in the courtyard. From now on, the work at home will be limited to

There is no need for the four brothers to do it themselves.

The eldest brother wanted to find a maid for Su Ming several times, but Su Ming refused. Su Zhe was reluctant to agree when Su Ming refused. Su Ren told the two of them to wait until their yard is completed next year and then buy it themselves.

In this era, the life of the poor was low. Ten taels of silver could buy a beautiful maid. If it was sold to an official's family, the price would be even cheaper.

Tomorrow is the thirtieth day of the month. Su Ming rode on horseback and escorted three carriages to each other with two groups of guards and slowly entered the Second Wei Fort.

In May, the weather starts to get hotter, and the efficiency of drying salt in salt fields is also greatly accelerated. Basically, salt can be boiled once every 7 to 8 days. Including the time for removing salt water, a salt field can be boiled three times a month.

The total of these three carts of salt is more than 22 shi, which is the harvest of the salt field today. 9 shi of snow salt and 13 shi of green salt. This month, I have boiled an extra 10 shi of green salt and put it in the warehouse to prepare for next month.

There are more and more people on the construction site of Erwei Fort's new city wall. Su Ming estimated that there are more than 500 people. Most of these people are villagers from the ten villages outside the fort. Working here not only can have two meals a day, but also

There was also wages to be paid, and many refugees who came from far away stopped leaving when they arrived at Erwei Fort.

Entering the fort, there are construction sites everywhere for building houses. The elder brother has already begun to prepare for the internal reconstruction of the new Erwei Fort. Many of the newly built houses made of stone and cement look particularly eye-catching from a distance. Nowadays, the sale of cement is also a major issue in Erwei Fort.

Economic sources.

After sending the salt back to the warehouse, Su Ming came back and saw the two newly bought servants carrying water. The smell of the maid cooking in the kitchen wafted out, and Su Ming's stomach couldn't help but growl.

The eldest brother is teaching his nephew Su Xinwen Zama Steps. It is time for such an old child to practice martial arts. In the future, he will inherit the eldest brother's position as a hundred households, and he will not be able to do it without knowing martial arts.

"Eighth brother, you're back!" Su Ren asked when he saw his younger brother coming back.

"Well, brother, don't be too harsh on the news. He is still young. Training too hard will affect his physical development." Su Ming saw that his nephew was only wearing a short jacket and had a few bloody marks from bamboo strips on his back.

It was so obvious that I couldn't help but say.

"Hmph! How can we not be strict? If we continue to be lazy, we will be ruined. Is everything okay in the salt field?" Su Ren asked.

"Everything is fine. Tomorrow is the day to trade with Fenglingdu. I will take Fifth Brother and Tiezhu there with me. In the future, we can establish a good relationship with Fenglingdu. This will give us one more way to go," Su Ming said.

"Yes! By the way, I went to Jinshanwei Town today. Yao Qianhu said that it would be very expensive for the guards to go to Zhejiang to suppress bandits next month, so we asked us to hand over 50 pieces of stone green salt this month." Su Ren said.

"Can the quota be increased so casually? The quota is directly raised from 30 shi to 50 shi. What will happen if the payment cannot be made?" Su Ming couldn't help but ask.

"Both Wang Xianxiang and I tried our best to express that the salt fields could not produce so much green salt, but Yao Qianhu said that he had invited salt masters from Fujian to help us increase our salt production, and he also sent a team of personal guards to help us
Chapter completed!