Chapter 55 The Captain of the Guards

  "There are four people and five apprentices who can lend a hand."

  Wang Hai stood on one side, looking at Li Meng excitedly rubbing his hands with a puzzled expression. He thought to himself that it was just a few ironworkers and some Liao people, so why was Lord Li so happy? Just as he was pondering this, Li Meng suddenly turned around and ordered Wang Hai:

  "Go and get Ning Shiyu from next door, let Guo Tong say the name, go outside the city one by one to find, after finding, settle in Pingmeng Town, let Hou Shan think of a way to arrange."

  "Li, no need to rush, there are so many people next door discussing things..."

  "Don't talk so much, hurry up and arrange it, this is the most important thing."

  Guo Dong, who was standing beside him, had tears all over his face. If it weren't for Lang Zhong being there to bandage and apply medicine to his wounds, he would have already gotten up to kowtow. Now he just kept muttering "The great kindness of the master, even if I were to be a cow or a horse in my next life, I wouldn't be able to repay it!"

  Recorded the names, brought a book and salt, went out of the city gate to find people, this didn't take much effort. Outside the east city gate were refugees from Dengzhou, Guo's family members and fellow villagers were soon found. They bought some food in Jiaozhou City and simply filled their stomachs, all heading towards Pingmeng Town for arrangements.

  It's not yet the harvest season, and there's no extra crops to spare. If nothing unexpected happens, these refugees will likely die outside the city walls. After all, people like Guo Zhuang who pretend to be mute and work inside the city to support their families outside are extremely rare. Li Meng's actions of taking in these Liaodong refugees are publicly claimed to be selling slaves to the villagers of Fengmeng Town, but the idle people within the city walls of Jiaozhou all say that Li Erlang has really made a good deal this time.

  Hou Shan had long since stopped acting as an intermediary. He was in charge of the salt trade at both Ling Mountain Salt Field and Xue Family Island Salt Field, and he was already extremely busy. When he saw Li Meng bring so many people, he was also somewhat overwhelmed. After hearing the salt worker's message, he learned that Lord Li wanted him to arrange for the people to be taken to a villa, but he couldn't help feeling confused, thinking "what villa?" Afraid of doing something wrong, he personally went to confirm in Jiaozhou City, only to be rebuffed by Li Meng with just one sentence:

  "If there is no Zhuangzi, then just build one."

  This is also convenient, the Liaoren who have eaten their fill, whether they are military or artisan households, are all good laborers, and it happens that they can be used to build a villa, directly starting with earthwork.

  The rescue of Guo Tong gave Li Meng some inspiration. After settling down Guo Tong and his companions, he specially arranged for someone to go out of the city to investigate. All the refugees with skills or talents were taken in under the name of slaves and then sent to Zhuangzi in Fengmeng Town.

  These refugees are easy to support, as long as they have enough food. Some of them have skills, such as craftsmanship or horse breeding. Even if they don't have any skills, those who are strong and single can go to Angang Town to work, where salt is transported and produced, and also help with the construction of Li Meng's estate, which requires a lot of manpower.

  After about ten days, nearly two or three hundred people were found. The refugees outside the city of Jiaozhou are not too many, and more people have gone to the richer Jinan Prefecture and Yanzhou Prefecture. There are also those honest and simple refugee households who escaped, but Li Meng's ability is also limited, and good deeds cannot reach every single person.

  Ten days after the gathering at the wine house in May, on June 1st, Fengmeng Town was like a holiday. Not counting the construction site south of the town, there were about 400 to 500 young people who came here. At the edge of the town, several houses had long queues outside, and the young men queuing up were all looking eagerly at the gate of the house.

  Every now and then, someone would excitedly run out, while others would walk out with their heads hung low.

  In those several courtyards, there were a few tables set up, with stone locks and stone bars placed in front of them. Wang Hai, Chen Liu Zi, Zhao Neng, and Ma Gang each sat at one table. Those young people raised the stone locks and stone bars, but that was not all - they also had to follow the demonstration movements of several salt workers and imitate their actions.

  For example, lying flat on the ground, propping up with arms and then putting down, such a simple action looks like a joke, but it requires doing fifty of them. There's also lying on the ground, hugging your head and bending your waist to get up, but you can't lift your legs. What about using both hands to pull a wooden bar upwards to lift your body? These actions sound just like kids fooling around, young people feel embarrassed to do this.

  But if you can't finish, you won't be allowed to be a salt Ding, and these seemingly simple actions are not easy to do. By the time all 400 or 500 people have been verified, nearly half of them will be eliminated. These are the sons of salt merchants in Ling Mountain Wei Suo, and there is another selection, the scene of registration is naturally exceptionally enthusiastic, but in the end only 150 people were selected.

  With the addition of these 350 people and the newly recruited 400, Li Meng's subordinates also numbered nearly a thousand. With more people, expenses suddenly increased greatly, and most of the silver that had just been accumulated in Li Meng's hands was spent again. These 750 people were divided into five teams by Li Meng, with Li Meng directly leading one team, Zhao Neng, Chen Liu, Wang Hai, and Ma Gang each commanding a team. This team led by Li Meng consisted of the original old salt workers who had undergone the baptism of battle and had sufficient training, making them the strongest among all the teams.

  As for the rest of the teams, they were all dispersed with old salt dings, letting them bring new ones. Li Meng didn't even give them time to train, and directly sent them to their posts to set up training camps, and regularly checked on the training situation. These teams rotated every two months, except for the one led by Li Meng himself, there was always a team stationed between Ling Shan Wei Suo and Feng Meng Town, and after rotating to this post, this team belonged to Li Meng's jurisdiction.

  Li Meng didn't offer any explanation, and others thought it was normal. However, Zhou Xiuzai, who lived in Jiaozhou City, laughed and talked about it with others while drinking:

  "This little patrol officer is not a rustic fellow, but he really understands the way of commanding, with five teams of salt workers, he always guarantees an advantage in his hands, a perfect strategy!"

  Xunjian is a ninth-grade official, and the teachers below are all considered to be privately recruited by themselves. Those salt workers would not have any official status, and Li Meng was really thinking hard about this name. The titles of camp leader, company commander, and platoon leader were readily available, but Li Meng always had some reservations. In the end, he came up with a name: Li Meng called himself the Commander-in-Chief of the Salt Inspection Brigade, the four people below him were called Team Leaders, and under the Team Leader there was also a Deputy Team Leader. One team had 150 people and five small team leaders.

  Zhao Neng and Ma Gang didn't mind this title, adding a "long" title made them feel more pleasant. Li Meng called himself the captain of the large team without anyone objecting, but occasionally Li Meng felt a little embarrassed, always thinking that his title was similar to that of a certain modern organization - the head of the city management squadron.