After Li Chongjiu inspected the Grinding, he felt that it was a convenient move. However, after attracting local people to ask, he was very dissatisfied with the Grinding Building. However, when asked, he looked like he was angry but not afraid to speak.

Li Chongjiu asked several people that were like this, and the generals were puzzled. At that moment, Li Chongjiu knew that he would ask the local people again, but he could not get any results. He immediately returned to the county magistrate's office in the city and called Wen Yanbo, Lin Dangfeng and others.

Wen Yanbo came very late after being summoned by Li Chongjiu. After Li Chongjiu asked the reason, Wen Yanbo was a little embarrassed and then he realized that Wen Yanbo had just entered Jixian and had to visit many local gentry within one day. " ". The Wen family in Taiyuan is a prominent family since the Han Dynasty and is not far from Zhuo County, so several local gentry can be in line with their relationships with their in-laws. Therefore, Wen Yanbo had just arrived in Jixian, and many local gentry came to visit.

Wen Yanbo is treated like this as a subordinate. In contrast, Li Chongjiu is a county magistrate, but there are almost no visitors from the mansion. Li Chongjiu also went to Xue's mansion in person. As a result, before he spoke, Xue Wanshu knew that he would refuse. It was like meeting a girl he liked, and before he confessed, the other party told you that he already had a boyfriend.

Not only was it the case in the mansion, but even the old officials of Zhuo County came to the yamen to respond to Mao, and most of them accidentally took sick leave.

Li Chongjiu had a clear idea. When asked about the milling, Lin Dangfeng hesitated for a moment and told Li Chongjiu truthfully that it was built by several Zhuo County gentry.

Li Chongjiu immediately asked about peeling and grinding, which was necessary for the common people and farmers. Where can ordinary people have animals such as horses, donkeys and mules at home? Why don’t the people build their own businesses?

Lin Dangfeng replied that in the past, there were people from one village and one village who wanted to build a village, but it cost a lot of money to build a mill. Moreover, the mountains, forests and rivers were all made by the government. Without official uniforms, those ordinary people who had no background dared to invade the rivers. Therefore, this business can only be monopolized by the gentry.

Li Chongjiu immediately asked, although this squatter was monopolized by the gentry and used the power of the country to facilitate their own selfishness, it was also a convenient move for the people. Why was the people so angry? Lin Dangfeng said that it would be fine if the squatter was monopolized by the gentry, but the harm of squatter was not only this. This river channel could irrigate farmland, but the gentry built squatters and used river dams, which led to a significant reduction in the number of irrigation of farmland on both sides of the squatters. The people did not complain.

Wen Yanbo said that this is also a common thing. The Zhengbai Canal in the pass could have irrigated more than 40,000 hectares of thick fields, but for the nobles, they built mills and dams to curb water, which greatly reduced the flow of the canals. In the end, the imperial court wanted to dismantle the mills, but the result was that these powerful people were irrigated. In the end, they had to give up halfway (Note 1).

Wang Mahan, Yuchi Gong and other generals were furious when they heard this. They all said that they insisted on eliminating all the gentry who benefited the people.

Li Chongjiu was silent. He asked the generals to return home at the moment. Li Chongjiu had been busy for two days and two nights and was already exhausted. He closed his eyes and wrote the four words "Arsenal, Granary, Yongji Canal, and Aristocratic" on a piece of paper.

The next day, when Li Chongjiu woke up, he was accused of visiting Zhou Bo, a silk weaving shop, and several other veterans. Li Chongjiu did not expect that this was the first group of people who came to the mansion after he entered the city.

At that moment, Li Chongjiu met with Zhou Bo and several people in the lobby of the county government.

This time, Zhou Bo was still wearing silk, the difference was that he had a few pieces of hemp sewn in the inconspicuous corners of his clothes, and the rest of the merchants also dressed up together, and even wore hemp clothes.

When Zhou Bo saw Li Chongjiu, he respectfully performed the bowing ceremony and said, "See the envoy."

Li Chongjiu smiled and said, "No need to perform this great gift, please sit down."

Several veterans following Zhou Bo, Zhou Bo saw that Li Chongjiu did not take their status as a businessman and asked him to sit up. He thought that as Zhou Bo said, this envoy was also from the market, so he did not have any prejudice to the merchants.

Zhou Bo said immediately: "I heard from the envoy's teachings yesterday, and I came to visit my mansion today."

When Li Chongjiu heard the other party say this, he immediately chatted inside and said a few words and knew it.

These are all considered big merchants in Ji County. Each of them has several or even a dozen large ships, which are specially used for water transportation through channels and are also very rich.

On weekdays, these merchants pursue the principle of not showing off their wealth, and some money is hidden. Throughout history, in China, if merchants do not have the power to protect themselves, they are just fat sheep raised by officials and can be slaughtered and eaten at any time. The current situation is changing, Jixian is changing, and the local gentry and powerful people are self-restrained, Li Chongjiu dare not do anything to them, and he is negligent.

But at this time, there was no shelter on the head of the merchant, and it was most likely to be regarded as a fat sheep. So when he heard that Zhou Bo had this way, he came to ask for a meeting and touched the new county magistrate's way.

The two sides had a very happy conversation. Everyone was happy to see that Li Chongjiu was not as rude as Luo Yi and was like a warlord. Of course, their most concerned thing was the transportation of Yongji Canal. Li Chongji said that if you want to open Yongji Canal, you don’t have to capture Yongnu County. You just need to prepare a naval army and sweep down the river.

If you want a navy army, you need a ship. Li Chongjiu proposed this condition and tried Zhou Bo and the others. He thought that these merchants would be embarrassed. Unexpectedly, everyone discussed it for a moment, and Zhou Bo immediately said, "Our Ji County is the end of the Yongji Canal. If the waterway is broken, what's the use of asking for a ship? The envoy needs a ship, even the people can be shipped to the envoy."

Zhou Bo said this, and the merchants also agreed.

Seeing these people's courage, Li Chongjiu couldn't help but feel the courage of the merchants of this era, and immediately said, "I'll borrow ten ships from all the shopkeepers in this way."

Everyone agreed. Seeing this, Li Chongjiu went further and said, "I just arrived in Zhuo County and wanted to inspect and recruit talents. I think Mr. Zhou Xing is very familiar with water transportation. How about I let you be the Chief of the Water Transport Department in the County?"

"Shiji Cao?"

Li Chongjiu nodded and said, "The grain transportation in Zhuo County is convenient. I want to establish a water transportation department to coordinate the water transportation affairs in the entire county, and be ranked as the sixth Cao in the county."

After hearing Li Chongjiu say this, Zhou Bo was overjoyed, but said again: "I am so proud of you. The villain is just a merchant. How can he be worthy of becoming a senior official of the court?"

Li Chongjiu shook his head and said, "Hero, don't ask where the source is. I was born in the market before, but now I have become a county magistrate. You are a local person in Zhuo County. You must assist me in managing this Zhuo County."

Seeing that Li Chongjiu had a very difficult intention, Zhou Bo stopped refusing and said, "Since that's the case, I will immediately sell all the business at home and focus on government affairs."

When Li Chongjiu heard Zhou Bo say this, he glanced at the other party higher, shook his head and said, "No need to do this. Keep doing your Zhou family's business, don't quit."

Zhou Bo was stunned when he heard this, and the merchants on the side looked at the other party, and he looked envious. Everyone knew what Li Chongjiu's move meant.

For Zhou Bo, the Water Transport Department has great power, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the position of an official is also quite amulet. In the future, Zhou Bo, who is the Water Transport Department, does not have to worry about anyone and comes to trouble the Zhou family. At the same time, he can also cause trouble for others.

After all this was done, Zhou Bo and others retreated, and then Li Chongjiu issued a second appointment, allowing Lin Dangfeng to be the county magistrate of Liangxiang County.

In the first article, Zhou Bo was appointed as the Minister of Water Transportation Department, and the second article was appointed, and a riot in the circle of officials and scholars in Zhuo County. Who is Lin Dangfeng? Although he must be admitted that he is a very well-known figure in Zhuo County, no one should forget that this person was born as a businessman.

It is said that he had been in the inner circle of Li Chongjiu for a long time and ran for him to seize Zhuo County, so Li Chongjiu was promoted to the magistrate of a county. But with his background, it was too much.

For a time, all the scholars in Zhuo County were in full swing. The county magistrates did not visit their cottages three times and came to invite them to be officials. Instead, they promoted two merchants. How could they feel?

Li Chongjiu silently paid attention to the public opinion direction of the scholars in Zhuo County. The next day, a scholar who called himself a madman in Zhuo County came to the county magistrate's office and popularized his knowledge with Li Chongjiu, accusing him of going against the trend and using merchants as an official.

Li Chongjiu was not interested in this second mansion who was purely here to find fault. He immediately called someone to knock him out.

It has been several days since Li Chongjiu entered Ji County. After a few days, Li Chongjiu understood the attitude of the entire Ji County officials and gentry towards him. This is already very obvious, just three words: no words, no cooperation, no objection, and no communication.

Li Chongjiu knew that someone must have come out to take the lead in this matter. After guessing, there were only a few people.

Li Chongjiu remained silent and immediately formed a thousand naval army with the prisoners he had captured and some of his subordinates. At this time, Zhou Bo and his ten boats also sent them to him.

On the same day, Li Chongjiu ordered Sun Erniang to lead the thousand naval troops on a boat and sail downstream overnight. He also ordered Etu to lead a thousand cavalry to rush over land at night to attack. The water route from Jixian to Yongnu County was only a few dozen miles away, and the navy arrived in just a few hours.

The army quietly arrived ashore and launched a night attack on Luo Yi's soldiers stationed in Shui Pass. At the Shui Pass, Luo Yi's army was also very cautious. Sun Erniang attacked for a long time but failed. It was not until the cavalry of Ertuo arrived and the two sides came together to wipe out all the more than 100 Luo Yi's garrisons in Shui Pass.

After attacking Shuiguan at night, Sun Erniang took the sheep and kidnapped all the ships in the ship. She set a fire and burned Shuiguan and the wharf.

At dawn the next day, in Yongnu County, twenty miles away from Shuiguan, Luo Chengcai led 500 cavalry to reinforce, but it was too late.

Sun Erniang led the fleet and returned triumphantly. Zhuo County was on the Yongji Canal Wharf. Zhou Bo and others were overjoyed when they saw Li Chongjiu's victory. The Lu family and other gentry were supposed to be watching the show, but after they learned that Li Chongjiu had broken Luo Yi's blockade of Jixian waterways in just a few days, they were shocked.
Chapter completed!