Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 148 Like a dream
The last time I came to Zhaowuling was last year, when I brought people to Zhaowu Village to deal with a gust of wind, also known as Jiang Shuishan.

After almost a year, Zhu Shenzui revisited his old place. He went directly south from Luzhou Wei and arrived at Zhaowuling in two days.

"who!"

Zhu Shenzhui was riding on horseback with two other people. When they were about to reach Zhaowuling, they had just turned a corner when several people suddenly appeared from nearly a hundred meters ahead. These people were dressed in military uniforms of the garrison, holding swords and guns in their hands, and parked their horses at the intersection, directly blocking their way.

"Sixth Master, be careful!" The two guards accompanying Zhu Shenzhui hurriedly rode forward and protected Zhu Shenzhui behind them.

"It's okay, go and ask if they are our people." Zhu Shenzhui was not panicked at all. Zhaowuling was in front of them. The soldiers who appeared in this place could definitely not be outsiders. The only explanation was that they were the garrison officers of Zhaowuling.

If they were outsiders, they would not appear here, let alone wear military uniforms. So when they suddenly appeared, Zhu Shenzhui was not surprised, but rather quite pleasantly surprised. At least the precautions here were as strict as he had requested. If they had arrived at Zhaowuling without encountering any sentries, Zhu Shenzhui would have looked unhappy.

"I am Wang Tieshu, the general flag under the commander of Luzhou Guard. Are the men in front of me brothers from Zhaowuling?" One man was protecting Zhu Shenzhui, with a vigilant look on his face and his weapon tightly clenched. The other man rode forward and shouted directly to the front.

As soon as he shouted, a reply came from the other side: "Is it Brother Wang Qi who is here?"

Wang Tieshu was stunned, looked carefully, and immediately laughed: "Damn, I thought someone was blocking the road, and it turned out to be you, kid?"

"Hehehe, how can you see so clearly from such a distance? Brother Wang Qi, why did you think of this today? Didn't you say that you went to Pingyang with Sixth Master? What's the matter? Did the commander ask you to come here on business?" The man who spoke was a fellow from Yangtou Mountain. Wang Tieshu used to go to Yangtou Mountain frequently with Wang Jinwu, Xia Dong and others, so he naturally became familiar with them after dealing with them so many times.

After the establishment of the centurion offices in Yangtou Mountain and Zhaowuling, all the young and strong men except the old, the weak, women and children were incorporated into the military households. In addition, Wang Rong was now the commander-in-chief, so he directly arranged for Li Hu and Lu Yisheng to have the status of a centurion. Even the brothers below who were lucky enough got the official position of a general flag or a small flag.

Li Hu, the centurion, is still in Yangtou Mountain. Zhaowuling was originally under the charge of Lu Yishen, so he is now also the centurion of Zhaowuling (Zhaowu Village).

As for Hu Lin, this kid has become particularly interested in traveling to the grassland ever since he followed him on a trip to the grassland. In addition, the subsequent cooperation with Ashe Temur requires caravans to travel to the grassland frequently. The trading company is short of staff. Even if there are Mongols brought back, Zhu Shenzui still needs a leader to travel back and forth for trade.

Seeing that Hu Lin was more willing to do such a thing, Zhu Shenzui left him to Ma Shizhou after asking him what he thought, and asked him to follow Ma Shizhou for a few times first, and then hand him over to a caravan alone after he was familiar with the route.

In addition to this, he also helped Hu Lin get the position of captain in the Jinyiwei. This was not difficult to do. The captain of the Jinyiwei had no official rank anyway, and Zhou Anmin was now a deputy captain, so it was easy to appoint him to such a position.

Not only Hu Lin, but also Ma Shizhou and Wang Hai, also got such an identity. Although this position is not high, having the identity of Jinyiwei makes it much more convenient when doing business. At least once the local garrison or government makes trouble and the name of the trading company cannot suppress it, the identity of Jinyiwei can come in handy.

"What official business? Stop talking nonsense. Why don't you let your people make way? Sixth Master is right behind us." Wang Tieshu rode his horse forward a few steps and said hurriedly.

"Sixth Master is here?" The man who was blocking the road was stunned for a moment, and he tiptoed to look forward. When he saw clearly that the person sitting on the back of the two horses a hundred meters away was Zhu Shenzui, he slapped his forehead and hurriedly called on his brothers around him to quickly move the horses blocking the road away.

"Thank you for your hard work, brothers." When he got closer, Zhu Shenzhui did not pass the checkpoint immediately, but jumped off his horse and exchanged a few words with everyone.

This was his first time here since the establishment of the Hundred Households Office, and he was not familiar with the situation here. Although he had not reached Zhaowuling today, Zhu Shenzhu was quite satisfied with the tight guards at the intersection.

Everyone saluted Zhu Shenzui respectfully. They were just refugees when they lived in Yangtou Mountain. They fled in fear all the way, without enough food or warm clothes, and even survival was a problem.

If it weren't for Zhu Shencui, they would have starved to death long ago, not to mention that they could fill their stomachs and live a good life later. Especially now that they have become officers and have gone from being refugees to military households, it is no exaggeration to say that Zhu Shencui is their reborn parent.

These people respect and admire Zhu Shencui from the bottom of their hearts. Even though their nominal leaders are Li Hu and Wang Rong, in the hearts of many people, including Li Hu, Zhu Shencui is their real leader.

He chatted with them in a friendly manner and asked them about their garrison situation, including their daily training and life. The leading flag officer answered all Zhu Shenzhui's questions and took him around the sentry post. After seeing it, Zhu Shenzhui was quite satisfied. Although it was not as good as Wangjia Village, it was at least much better than other military households.

After a few words of encouragement, Zhu Shenzhui got on his horse and continued to move forward with his men. After Zhu Shenzhui left, the small flag that had blocked the road just now withdrew his gaze and called on his brothers to prepare their horses and cheer up.

"Brother Han, who is this Sixth Master?" a young man couldn't help but ask. He was not an old man from Yangtou Mountain, nor was he from Zhaowu Village.

After the establishment of the 100-household unit here, Wang Rong, in the name of the commander, moved a group of military households from the 100-household units under the 1,000-household units to this side. The 1,000-household units and the 100-household units did not care about this operation at all, and they cooperated abnormally.

Firstly, the Qianhu Office is now doing business in partnership with Wang Rong, and they have already seen the benefits of this business. The two sides have formed an interest group and can be said to be family members. In addition, Wang Rong is the commander-in-chief and their nominal superior, so they have to give him face even for such a small matter.

Secondly, with the population growing over the years, the number of staff in each thousand-household unit, including its subordinate hundred-household units, has long increased a lot compared to the beginning. In addition, due to years of land annexation, the land originally belonging to the thousand-household unit or hundred-household unit has become the private fields of the thousand-household unit and the hundred-household unit, and ordinary military households have also become tenants of these officers.

Under such circumstances, the situation of the thousand households and hundred households eating empty salaries was very serious, making life increasingly difficult for ordinary military households. Even if they were tenants of the hundred households and thousand households above, it was not easy to fill their stomachs.

In addition, Shanxi is a place with many mountains and little land. With the corruption of the military household system, many military households who could not bear it anymore fled. Now Wang Rong took the initiative to take over this matter and wanted to relocate a group of military households from the thousand households and subordinate hundred households for resettlement. This was a blessing for the thousand households and hundred households.

Just get rid of these burdens, and their life and death will have nothing to do with me in the future. I can also use this incident to build a good relationship with Wang Rong, so why not?
In this way, since the establishment of the two centurions in Yangtou Mountain and Zhaowuling, dozens of military households have moved here from various places in Luzhou Wei. The migration of these military households has also supplemented the personnel of the two centurions. More importantly, after coming here, they were pleasantly surprised to find that life was much better than before. Not only did they get the long-awaited military pay, but the centurions also gave them farmland. Even if they didn't know how to farm, there were other jobs they could do. Relying on their own abilities, they could finally have enough food to eat.

The young man who was speaking had migrated here from other places. He had been here for more than a month. These days in Zhaowuling were much better than the hardship of starving and fullness in the past. Although the rules here were strict and there were trainings, which were tiring and hard, compared to the past, now was like heaven.

"Sixth Master is not some kind of adult." Brother Han said to the young man meaningfully, "Sixth Master is Sixth Master. Remember to be alert when you see Sixth Master next time! It's okay if you offend Lord Lu, but if you offend Sixth Master, hehe..."

This puzzled the young man. He wondered in his heart, could it be that Sixth Master was some big shot? But thinking about it, since Brother Han was so respectful and had two general flags around him, this Sixth Master must be someone of high status. Maybe he was the son of that big shot? Or maybe he was some great nobleman?
Zhu Shenzui naturally had no idea what the young man was thinking. After passing the sentry post, he continued to move forward.

Zhaowuling, since it is a ridge, it is a mountainous area. Compared with Yangtou Mountain, Zhaowuling is higher but lower than Yangtou Mountain. Moreover, this place happens to be located in a branch section of Taihang Mountains. Going forward along the road, there is a winding path that passes through a valley, and going forward and upward is Zhaowuling.

From here, crossing Zhaowu Ridge and heading south, you will reach Zhaowu Village. Although this area is mountainous, it is still easy to walk on.

After walking for a while, they arrived at the valley. When they looked up, they could see houses and other buildings on the higher ground ahead. These houses were built later and were connected to the original nest of the Zhaowuling Breeze. It is also the location of the Zhaowuling Hundred Households Office now.

"Sixth Master!" Hu Yisheng came hurriedly as soon as he got off his horse. When he saw Zhu Shenzhui, he quickly stepped forward to salute.

"Lao Hu, I haven't seen you for a while. How are you? Are you doing well here?"

"Okay, okay, of course there's a reason why I can't. Haha, thank you very much for your kindness, Sixth Master. To be honest, I never dreamed that I would wear an official uniform in my life." Hu Yishen grinned. He was just an ordinary miner. He followed Li Hu to kill people and fled. At that time, Hu Yishen was in danger of his life and it was good enough to be alive.

But now, Hu Yisheng not only has a formal military position, but has also transformed himself into a centurion officer, which he could never have imagined in his dreams.

Hu Yisheng woke up from his dreams laughing countless times while wearing the uniform of a centurion. He couldn't wait to touch his body and take another look at the official uniform. Everything was just like in a dream, and he didn't know whether it was true or not. But reality told him that everything was real.

Today is the last day of 2023. The difficult year of 2023 has finally passed. I wish you all the best in 2024!

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(End of this chapter)