Chapter 204: The tree wants to be still but the wind does not stop, Hong Chengchou is anxious and angry
"Brother, has my big furnace been refined?"
"It's a pity that I can't use your big cauldron, otherwise I would have tried it a long time ago to see how difficult it is to refine the elixir and the weapon."
Seeing that the magic cauldron that Li Dingguo had specially refined for him was completed, Xiao Douya was overjoyed. He jumped from nearby to the front of the big cauldron, looked at the cauldron in amazement, and then picked it up with one hand.
"This third-grade ultimate magical instrument, the cauldron, must weigh at least 10,000 jin."
"Legend has it that after a life-defining magic weapon recognizes its master and refines it, the master cannot feel its actual weight. This is really convenient."
She couldn't wait to take the magic cauldron to the side to refine her life-long magic weapon and recognize its master.
Li Dingguo quickly said, "Xiao Douya, after you refine this alchemy furnace into your own life magic weapon, go get your pair of Lei Gu Urn Golden Hammers and I will help you refine them again. You can also refine them into your own life magic weapon."
Li Dingguo knew that Xiao Douya liked the pair of big hammers very much and would not switch to other main weapons in the future, so he helped her reserve the remaining two natal magic weapons.
"You said that Hongmei had successfully cultivated her life's true fire rune last night. This is a great thing."
"When you have time, go ask her what kind of natal magic weapon she likes."
"Hongmei's hand is also a top-grade spiritual weapon. Give it to me and refine it into a third-grade top-grade magic weapon. It can also be refined into her life-defining magic weapon."
"I will also have to refine my ten thousand year old cold iron bright silver spear again, and prepare to refine it into my life-defining magic weapon. It will be much more convenient to carry it when I use it to fight the enemy in the future."
Hongmei, like Xiaodouya, was able to cultivate her own spiritual fire. Li Dingguo would not find it strange because she had always been extremely talented in this area.
Before the Fuxing Army was formed, Hongmei had learned how to prepare medicinal soups such as the Nourishing Spirit Soup and the Qi and Blood Soup.
The girl Hongmei, like Xiaodouya, has the innate attributes of gold and fire. She has successfully cultivated her true fire and has the prerequisites to become a weapon refiner and alchemist.
Since the spiritual materials for refining the third-grade top-grade magic weapons are difficult to obtain, Li Dingguo currently has no plans to refine natal magic weapons for other generals of the Renaissance Army.
In order to help Xiao Douya refine a third-grade top-grade magical cauldron, Li Dingguo searched all the warehouses of the Fuxing Army where various spiritual materials were stored, and only then was he able to gather the required spiritual materials.
Even if Li Dingguo wanted to refine life-defining magic weapons for other generals of the Renaissance Army, he could not find so many top-grade spiritual materials at present.
We have to wait until we capture top-grade spiritual weapons again in the future, or obtain a large amount of top-grade spiritual materials.
This new force that he had formed was already extremely lucky to have three alchemists and weapon refiners.
Many large forces do not even have a single master craftsman. The spiritual weapons and treasure ships, spiritual cannons, and spiritual crossbow carts that they need all require a large amount of money and rare treasures, which can only be obtained through transactions.
Their own forces will soon have three weapon refiners and alchemists who are much more powerful than the master craftsmen, and they are already standing at the starting line of victory.
"Brother, when I refine this big furnace magic weapon, I will go get my big hammer and give it to you."
"Then I will go find Sister Hongmei and ask her what kind of life weapon she likes. I will also take her top-grade spear spirit weapon and bring them over to you for upgrading."
After saying that, Xiao Douya excitedly took the big furnace magic weapon, walked to the side, sat cross-legged on the ground, and started refining his natal magic weapon.
The refining of the natal magic weapon is similar to the recognition of the master of the ancient magic weapon. One only needs to force out a drop of natal blood essence, wrap it with one's own divine thoughts, and send it into the core formation center of the magic weapon to be absorbed and integrated by it.
After an incense stick of time, the third-level ultimate magic weapon cauldron had been refined by Xiao Douya into her own magic weapon cauldron. With a "whoosh", it turned into a stream of light and sank into her Yin Tang sea of consciousness.
“Rub…”
This girl got a magical instrument, a tripod furnace, and excitedly stood up from the ground. She ran out of the professional workshop and disappeared without a trace in the blink of an eye.
Li Dingguo was meditating on the spot, recovering most of his true energy and mental strength that had been consumed in refining a third-grade top-grade alchemy furnace magic weapon.
With his current level of cultivation, after refining a third-grade top-grade magical weapon, he must meditate to recover before continuing.
Next, he needs to refine a top-grade combat weapon for himself, Xiao Douya and Hongmei, which will take a lot of time to complete.
……
Jiexiu, the old house of the Fan family.
This huge building complex occupies 30% of the land in Jiexiu City and it stretches as far as the eye can see.
Here in Jiexiu City, the government’s words are not half as effective as those of the Fan family.
The Fan family is the real local tyrant in Jiexiu City.
In the meeting hall of the main house, Fan Yongdou had a gloomy face. He was holding a secret letter in his hand that he had just finished reading, and his whole body was shaking slightly with anger.
This is the information urgently sent back by Fan Dexing, the manager of the Fan family who is in charge of the Denglai area.
This Fan Dexing was none other than the second son of the chief steward Fan Maocai, and also the younger brother of Fan Defu who was killed by Li Dingguo not long ago.
Although Fan Dexing is not as proficient in both literature and martial arts as his brother Fan Defu, he is an extraordinary genius with extraordinary aptitude for cultivation.
At the age of eighteen, he is already a martial arts master in the late fourth level and is one of the three young geniuses of the Fan family.
Fan Dexing is not only extremely powerful in martial arts, but also ruthless, so he is highly valued by Fan Yongdou and is sent to Denglai area to be in charge of all foreign maritime trade affairs of the Fan family.
Just now Fan Yongdou received the letter sent by spirit pigeon, but learned a shocking piece of bad news: the two treasure ships of Fan family for foreign trade disappeared after going out to sea, and there was no news at all!
If this situation happens overseas, it means there is no chance of survival!
When the Shanxi merchants go out to sea, they always travel in groups.
Each fleet that set sail would consist of at least forty or fifty treasure ships, with at least one top-quality treasure ship serving as the flagship escort to protect the safety of the fleet.
These large fleets of Shanxi merchants had not had any accidents for several years, but now two fleets have disappeared in succession within less than a month!
"it is good!"
"very good!"
Fan Yongdou was a shrewd man, so how could he not guess what was going on? "You southern merchants are so cruel!"
"You can't interfere with the border trade of the three northwestern provinces of the Ming Dynasty, but you want to cut off our Shanxi merchants' overseas trade!"
“That’s too good!”
Fan Yongdou knew clearly that in terms of overseas trade, the foundation of their Shanxi merchants was far inferior to that of the Southern Merchant Alliance.
The other party can easily cut off all the sea trade routes of Shanxi merchants, but you can't do anything about it!
"Just wait, you will have something to worry about in the future!"
Fan Yongdou's face turned green and red for a long time before he suppressed his anger. "I will use the spirit pigeon to send a message to Wen Cheng in Liaodong as soon as possible to explain what the Southern Merchant Alliance has done."
"Let Wen Cheng spread rumors among the high-ranking generals of the Later Jin from time to time, emphasizing the wealth of the Southern Gentry Alliance, arousing the greed of the high-ranking generals of the Later Jin, and laying the groundwork for future revenge actions."
"Hum..."
He snorted sinisterly and thought to himself, "If my estimate is correct, it is inevitable that the nine provinces of China will fall into the hands of the Jin people again!"
“It’s time to start choosing sides for the Fan family and increase investment in the Houjin clan.”
"When that time comes, hehe... those Southern Merchant Alliance, just wait and see!"
Fan Yongdou had already made the decision while gritting his teeth.
Because of his huge contributions to the Later Jin clan in the past few years, Fan Yongdou recently received a commendation from Huang Taiji himself. He used the divine bird Saker Falcon to deliver a thousand-year-old Polygonum multiflorum, and with the help of the medicinal power of the thousand-year-old elixir, he successfully broke through to the late fourth level of martial arts.
Fan Yongdou couldn't help but feel grateful for Huang Taiji's generosity, and he became more determined to work for him in the hope of gaining great wealth for the Fan family in the future.
"We have been temporarily cut off from overseas trade by those wealthy southern merchants, which has dealt a heavy blow to our Fan family and the Shanxi merchants."
"But it's not a fatal blow."
"Since this overseas route is temporarily blocked, we can only make up for these losses by increasing the volume of trade with the Mongolian Tartars and the Later Jin clan outside the Great Wall."
Fan Yongdou was no ordinary man. After a little thought, he came up with a way to temporarily resolve the crisis. "Since the Southern Merchant Alliance has given up fighting the petty thieves outside the Great Wall, we can't let Li Dingguo and his petty thieves stay."
"I will personally go to the Dongtao Plain outside the Great Wall and visit several large Mongolian Tartar tribes in the north to implement the issue of increasing commodity trade between the two sides."
"At the same time, invite one or two of the big tribes to come south and completely eliminate Li Dingguo's group of petty thieves!"
"Li Dingguo's gang of petty thieves is the only hostile human force outside the Great Shanxi Merchants. We must destroy it as soon as possible!"
Since it was necessary to completely open up the trade routes outside the northwest customs to make up for the huge losses caused by the loss of maritime trade, this matter was of vital importance, prompting Fan Yongdou to decide to go outside the customs in person.
Li Dingguo never dreamed that he would plan to honestly start farming in the second half of this year and not cause any trouble.
As a result, by some strange coincidence, the big Shanxi merchants headed by the Fan family have made up their minds to destroy their new power in the shortest possible time.
This is how unpredictable things are in the world and how disasters can come from nowhere.
……
"Have those wealthy merchants in the south already withdrawn from the markets outside the three northwestern provinces?"
"They even launched a retaliation, completely cutting off the overseas trade routes of Shanxi and Qin merchants?"
"Humph! These profit-seeking guys!"
"I was thinking about how to get them to contribute a large amount of money and food so that we can start a full-scale anti-bandit mode in the second half of this year and completely wipe out all the rebels in Qin!"
In the large study room of the main house in the backyard of the governor's office in Xi'an City, Hong Chengchou had just received various intelligence reports from his spies. He was so angry that he was furious and cursing!
It was not until he was promoted to the position of governor of the Qin province that Hong Chengchou finally realized what a terrible mess he had taken over!
Today, the entire Qin area has been devastated by increasingly severe natural and man-made disasters, making life truly miserable for the people.
How long has it been since Hong Chengchou personally led the army to wipe out the rebels in Qin and Jin provinces?
Only half a year has passed this year, and the three northwestern provinces are already in the midst of war!
The large number of rebels who have risen up in rebellion is much larger than last year, both in number and scale!
These rebels elected Wang Ziyi, the "Purple Gold Beam" who had luckily escaped last time, as the new leader of the Qin and Jin provinces, and once again formed an alliance of thirty-six rebel camps, known as the "Thirty-six Celestial Beings".
The most notorious rebels today, apart from Wang Ziyi, are the three biggest bandits Gao Yingxiang, Luo Rucai and Zhang Xianzhong.
These three big rebels changed their previous strategy of using elite troops, each swept up millions of refugees and civilians, and became giant bandits!
They only obeyed the orders of "Zijinliang" Wang Ziyong in name, but in reality they all did their own things.
Every failure makes one wiser. After being severely beaten and taught a lesson by Hong Chengchou, these rebels have learned their lesson.
They no longer occupied any city. Even if they captured towns in Qin and Jin provinces, they would simply sweep away all the people and property and then flee far away.
They never gathered together again, fearing that they would be wiped out by the government troops again. Now they were scattered everywhere in the provinces of Qin and Jin.
This year in the Ming Dynasty, not only are Qin and Jin provinces full of rebels, but even Henan Province and the lands of Qi and Lu are also plagued by rebels.
The Tartars began a fierce offensive in Liaodong. The officials of Qi and Lu received an imperial edict and dispatched reinforcements to the north. As a result, the Liaodong army led by Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming and Li Jiucheng rebelled and quickly swept across most of Qi and Lu!
The imperial court had no time to care about the three northwestern provinces and the Central Plains. The imperial court only ordered local governments to be responsible for suppressing the rebels, but did not allocate the money and food needed to suppress them.
Hong Chengchou was so anxious that he was fuming. He had originally thought of making a big profit from those wealthy southern merchants who wanted to open up trade routes to the three northwestern provinces.
It turned out that the other party had completely fallen out with the Shanxi merchants and had actually withdrawn from the three northwestern provinces to concentrate on foreign maritime trade business.
Hong Chengchou was in urgent need of a large amount of money, food and supplies in order to fulfill the imperial court's order to local government officials to eliminate local rebels on their own. However, when he received the details of this intelligence, he immediately lost his usual calm and became anxious and angry.
He then waved his hand and asked everyone present to leave. He sat quietly on a large wooden chair in the study, with a cold light flashing in his eyes, and no one knew what he was thinking.
(End of this chapter)
