Chapter Fifty-One The Sky is High and the Birds Fly

  Li Qīn shouted from below, and Tāng Jiè heard it clearly on the city wall. He was greatly surprised to see that Li Qīn had returned after eliminating the bandits, bringing back a large iron cart! What's going on?

  Tang Jie lay on the city wall and shouted down: "Is that Li Lang? When are you going to suppress the bandits?"

  Li Qinxin heard it was Tang Jie's voice, and he hastily said: "Has Lord Tang not rested yet? I am Li Qinxin. Because I went halfway to escort the iron troops, unfortunately encountered bandits, so I chased them all the way, burned down the bandits' lair, obtained countless wealth, and specially returned to the city to hand over the task to Lord Tang!"

  Tang Jie naturally knew about the encounter with the bandits, and Tang Biao had told him all about it when he ran back. But what he couldn't understand was how Li Qin had managed to burn down the bandits' lair!

  The soldiers opened the city gate, and Tang Jie came out of the city to welcome them personally. At this time, a large group of people arrived, and when Tang Jie saw that there were horses, women, and teams carrying iron carts, he was even more surprised. The officials behind him were also shocked and delighted, and they all asked Li QIN in a hurry what had happened!

  Before arriving at the city gate, Li Qin had already let Xu Xiaoni lead Jia Xun and Ma Chao back to Fu Jiao Village, taking away the box of pearls and the large knife, as well as a batch of weapons, so that Tang Jie wouldn't see them.

  Li Qin dismounted and bowed, saying: "Lord Tang, I have come with the troops to escort the iron convoy..."

  He briefly recounted the events, which were about encountering bandits, bravely attacking them, chasing after them, retrieving the iron carriage, and not forgetting Lord Tang's teachings, so he fought fearlessly, ran to the bandits' lair, set up an ambush, waited for the bandits to return, and defeated them in one fell swoop. Unfortunately, due to insufficient manpower, some of the bandits managed to escape. He repeated all the words that Jia Yu had taught him.

  Tang Jie and all the officials listened, none of them were not surprised, there was such a strange thing, Li Qin was so brave again, it was really amazing!

  Tang Jie looked out at the people and horses outside the city, and it was hard for him to believe that what he saw was true. Li Qin was not bragging after all. Tang Jie called over Jing Ming to handle the matters outside the city, while he himself pulled Li Qin along with him as they walked towards the county government office.

  Li QIN turned around and saw Jing Qi approaching Jing Ming's side, whispering softly to him. He put his mind at ease, knowing that Jing Qi would handle things properly. It was impossible for Jing Ming to make things difficult for anyone, let alone his own nephew.

  Tang Jie led Li Qin into the county government office, and after dismissing the idle people, he and Li Qin sat on opposite sides of a table on the couch. Tang Jie said: "Li Lang, how did things really happen? Tell me carefully!"

  Li Qin had to repeat what he said outside just now, but this time added some details. At the end, he said: "Lord Tang, if you don't mind, I'd like to move into the city and live near the county government office, so that I can follow your orders at any time and serve you with all my might."

  Tang Jie hummed a few words, his mind elsewhere. He still hadn't come to his senses yet. As for Li Qin's mention of annihilating the great thief, She Luo Xiao, he hadn't fully digested it yet. For him, taking down She Luo Xiao was almost an impossible task!

  Just then, Jing Ming rushed in from outside and shouted: "Congratulations, sir! Congratulations, sir! This time Li Lang brought back 49 levels of strong thief heads, including the heads of Sha Luo Xiao and Sha Luo Zhan. There are also two thousand catties of raw iron, not one less, all of which have been recovered!"

  Tang Jie exclaimed in surprise, his body shook, and he came back to his senses. He nodded and said: "Good, good, this is great!" He continued nodding, looking at Li Qin.

  Jing Ming asked again, "As for the women who were robbed by bandits and followed us back, I don't know how to arrange their accommodations. And what about that large group of horses? Should we find a place to pen them up first?"

  Tang Jie had something on his mind and waved his hand: "You go deal with it!"

  Jing Ming immediately replied: "Yes!" Before leaving, he smiled slightly at Li QIN and then turned around to leave.

  Li Qinxin thought: "It must be Jing Qi and he said something about the women, let him arrange it, that's less trouble, can directly send them to Fu Jiao Village, those women are all pitiful people!"

  Suddenly, Tang Jie asked: "Li Lang, from the way you fought with the bandits, do you know some military strategy?" He finally asked, Li Qin's performance was too outstanding, his merits were too great, making him feel threatened under the rule of Fuping, so he had to ask.

  As expected, it seems that Jia Yu's analysis was correct. Li Qin hurriedly said: "In response to the master's words, I am originally a descendant of the Flying General, and I am his eleventh generation grandson."

  Tang Jie suddenly "woke up", but his expression was one of belief, while in his heart he didn't believe it at all. In this day and age, there were plenty of people pretending to be relatives of the imperial family, so what's so special about pretending to be a descendant of Li Guang? In the past, there was someone named Li Jue in Fuping who also claimed to be a descendant of Li Guang, but it was said that he later went to Bianzhou and did quite well for himself. Now another one had appeared, wasn't that just like being related to Li Jue!

  Tang Jie was a smooth talker and wouldn't embarrass Li Qin, who loved to pretend to be someone else. It didn't matter to him anyway. He said, "No wonder, it turns out you're the descendant of a famous general." After saying this, he fell into deep thought again, lowering his head without speaking.

  Tang Jie thought to himself, "This Li Qin is not a simple person. It's better to keep him at arm's length. On the one hand, if he makes any progress, it will be thanks to me and he'll remember my kindness. On the other hand, those bandits haven't been completely eliminated yet, and I still need him to fight battles. Relying solely on that useless nephew of mine won't do; I can hardly go into battle myself!"

  With the decision made, Tang Jie raised his head and said: "Li Lang, our Fuping is not peaceful, the bandit troubles are getting more and more severe. From last night's robbery, it can be seen that relying solely on defending the city won't work. If we can attack from both inside and outside, the chances of winning will increase greatly. Therefore, I want you to build a fort thirty miles outside the city, station troops inside, and if the county town is attacked, the city and the fort can support each other like pincers. What do you think?"

  Li Qin was taken aback, he hadn't expected this outcome, and hastily said: "Your Excellency, building a fort thirty miles away from the city seems a bit far-fetched? Moreover, if we build a fort, one thousand soldiers are simply not enough, I'm afraid it would take an entire army to make it work!"

  Tang Jie was secretly pleased, thinking that he wanted to be an official and become a commander. Alright, never mind being a commander, even if it's a military marquis, I can let you be one. The question is, can you recruit soldiers? Can you afford to feed them? You want me to grant you an official position, I'll permit it, but I won't give you any food supplies. Let's see how you'll manage!

  Tang Jie shook his head and said, "I'm afraid even a thousand people won't be enough. How about this? I'll transfer the position of Military Marquis that Tang Renjian holds to you. You can be the Military Marquis, lead 200 soldiers, and go build a castle. However, as you also know, our Fuping army is understaffed, so you'll have to recruit the castle guards yourself."

  He paused for a moment, feeling that this was a bit too much, and added another sentence: "The land around the castle, you can cultivate it yourself, use it to raise soldiers!"

  He paused again, feeling that this matter was still not quite right. Fuping's land was valuable, but the local land was not worth much, no matter how much it cost. The land of Xuliqin and the unlicensed land were different.

  "He continued: 'How about this, the captured weapons and equipment this time, you pick the best ones to take a portion, and I'll reward you with fifty... hmm, horses are precious things, too many of them would be hard for you to raise, so I'll reward you with twenty horses. As for other things, you're also clear about the county's situation, too much is beyond my power, but I'm fully supporting you, if there's anything in the future, just come find me, as long as it's within my power, I'll definitely do it for you!'"

  Li Qin said: "Thank you, sir, for your support! I, your subordinate, dare not slack off!"

  Tang Jie finished speaking, waved his hand to signal Li Qin to leave. As he was about to leave, he said: "Start selecting a location tomorrow and build the castle as soon as possible to alleviate my worries."

  Li Qin repeatedly agreed and bid farewell to the hall. When he arrived in the courtyard, the night wind blew by, and Li Qin felt a chill all over his body. Jia Xun's self-defense technique was indeed effective, and he didn't make any mistakes!

  Great credit, but not necessarily a good thing. This is just the land of Fuping County, and Tang Jie is only a small county magistrate. He has only eliminated a group of bandits, which doesn't even count as "annihilation", yet he is already being squeezed out, but this kind of squeeze is exactly what he wants.

  Out of the yard, Li Qinxin thought: "Finally independent, the sea is wide and the fish jump, the sky is high and the birds fly!"

  He saw that all the soldiers were waiting outside, including Feng Cheng. Jing Ming was still busy. He walked up to Jing Ming and told him about it. Since he had become a military marquis, he naturally wanted to expand his army. Could he give him some old soldiers, hinting at Feng Cheng and others?

  Jingming congratulated him repeatedly, but he couldn't make decisions about deploying soldiers. He was the county's deputy magistrate, not the county commander, and was only in charge of military records, not actual personnel. However, Jingming promised Li QIN that he would definitely help facilitate things for him and try to get Feng Cheng and others assigned to Li QIN.

  It's not good to open the city gate at night, so Li QIN took the soldiers with horns and went to Jia's house, where they spent the night. He also told them the news of Jia Yu's return. Mr. and Mrs. Jia were overjoyed; Li Jia was also delighted beyond words, her husband had finally returned home, whether he had a future or not was unimportant, what mattered most was that the family could be reunited and live together.

  The next day, Li Qin and the Fu Jiao soldiers slept in late and didn't go to find Jing Ming until almost noon. They had two purposes: one was to retrieve their horses and weapons, and the other was to ask about Feng Cheng's situation. Jing Ming handled things efficiently, providing twenty of the best horses and twenty curved knives. As for Feng Cheng's situation, it was even more smoothly resolved - Feng Cheng was a subordinate of Tang Biao, but they had fallen out with each other. Even if Feng Cheng didn't want to leave, Tang Biao would have driven him away anyway.

  Everything went smoothly, Li Qin led the soldiers and horses, along with the three members of the Jia family, back to Fu Jiao Village.

  Back in Fuan Village, there was another lively scene. Jia Yu and his relatives met again, crying and laughing at the same time. Jia's father and mother saw their son, first scolding him in anger, then smiling through tears. No matter what, as long as their son had returned, they were happy. Li Jia saw her husband and didn't know how to say any affectionate words, but Jia Yu held her hand, calling her "good wife" repeatedly, saying that she had suffered hardship for the past two years. Li Jia immediately felt that the hardships of the past two years had not been in vain, it was all worth it.

  The soldiers were again boasting of their great achievements, exaggerating their own merits and saying that Li Lang had become a military marquis, celebrating wildly, the scene was extraordinarily lively.

  Waiting until evening, after Li Qinxin had served his parents and they went to sleep, he then called out Jia Yu, the two sat in the courtyard, Li Qinxin told him about the matter of repairing the city wall.

  Jia Yu heard this and said: "You want to build a city, but you don't even give him a grain of rice, Tan Jie's tolerance is too narrow!"

  Li Qindao said: "Those treasures, I want to find someone to sell them, but they can't be sold locally, for fear of arousing Tang Jie's suspicion."

  Jia Yu thought for a moment and said, "Let's take it to Longxian County to sell. It's far from Fuping, but there are many rich people there, and I'm familiar with the place, so we can get a good price. Let's choose a location for the building first, and then go."

  Li Qingsheng nodded heavily, his own career in the late Han Dynasty might have started from that unknown castle!

  ——

  The second update is here! It's not easy to start a business, Li QIN is not easy, Ping An is also not easy, Ping An is really not easy! Asking brothers and sisters for collection, votes, support, Ping An thanks you!