Li Guodong smiled and said, "In fact, we do good deeds for ourselves. In the future, these refugees will be our new force. Even women can farm and fish and solve the problem of food and grass. We need to expand our strength, the more people we need, the better."

Wang Quan smiled bitterly and shook his head: "But you have also seen that the fields outside the city are all deserted. It's not that I don't want to farm, but that the water bandits nearby are rampant and cannot go to farm outside the city. Every time I send people out of the city, either a few of us old friends escort them, or at least a hundred young and strong people dare to go out, otherwise they will be killed by the water bandits."

"I'm here this time to help you solve the problem of water bandits! If the bandits are not removed, we will not be able to produce with peace of mind. When the bandits are removed and the surrounding fields can be developed, I plan to move more people here."

After asking about the situation, Li Guodong learned that the leader of the bandits in this area was named Cheng Jikong, and the old thief kings Daoshan, Zhang Fangzao and others. Li Guodong sneered in his heart: "Does Cheng Jikong really treat himself as Lu Junyi? Wang Daoshan and Zhang Fangzao, one treat themselves as Chao Gai and the other treat themselves as Song Jiang? Bah! What else can you do for heaven? It's just a group of bandits! It's these bandits, the surrounding fishing villages were destroyed and the land was barren! The court cannot remove them, so let's get rid of them!"

In fact, Li Guodong was very disgusted with the so-called Liangshan heroes in Water Margin. The so-called heroes were all a group of bandits and criminals. Except for a few innocent people like Lin Chong, all the others were full of crimes. Similarly, Cheng Jikong claimed that he was forced to rebel by the people, but Li Guodong felt that this person had a relationship with chivalrous people, which was the evidence of collusion with bandits. In real history, after Zhang Xianzhong fought in the Lianghuai area, the three thieves took the opportunity to attack Zhoucheng and rob the people on a large scale. Later, Cheng Jikong fell into Gao Jie's plan and was lured and killed by Gao Jie, and the bandits disappeared.

But Gao Jie was later lured and killed by Xu Dingguo with the same strategy.

Wang Quan pointed to the endless Hongze Lake in the distance and said, "Brother, please see, the 800-mile Hongze Lake is not a water area, but consists of large and small lakes. The surrounding river network is crisscrossed with reeds. The bandits come and go like the wind with the benefits of lakes and rivers. You and I are from the north, and are good at riding but not good at boats. How can I suppress the bandits? I am stationed here. The bandits do not attack, but they come to harass each other from time to time. We can do nothing. I am a shipbuilding and training navy, but unfortunately there are very few people who are good at water in the city."

"How many people can be recruited by recruiting all the fishermen nearby?" Li Guodong asked.

"I am also recruiting people, only recruiting more than a hundred fishermen. With just this little man, I can't go to the lake to deal with the water bandits."

Li Guodong nodded softly: "Okay! Then I'll help you recruit some fishermen. You train the navy within one year. I'll go to Jiangnan first. When I will come back next year, I will take you to suppress the thieves in person. There is another thing that can make us earn a lot of money, but it may take three to five years."

It is now the fifth year of Chongzhen, and there is still enough time to go before Chongzhen's 17 years. During this period, Li Guodong is developing his own strength and making as much money as possible.

"Three to five years? Has it been a bit long?" Wang Quan felt a little anxious.

"Brother, why are you anxious? It will take at least one year to wipe out the water bandits! You will have to develop the wasteland outside next year as soon as next year. Let's make money first. After three years, if the bandits attack Nanzhili, we can recruit more refugees." Li Guodong knew that Zhang Xianzhong had broken Fengyang in the eighth year of Chongzhen, and the agriculture of Lianghuai, which had been barely maintained, was severely damaged. After Zhang Xianzhong withdrew his troops, the land of Lianghuai was a thousand-mile wilderness, and tigers and wild wolves ran to the once prosperous Lianghuai area.

Zhang Xianzhong conquered Fengyang, and on the one hand, he robbed a group of gentry officials, burned the imperial tombs, and took away a large number of farmers, which led to serious damage to the agriculture in the Huaihe River.

Some farmers who could not survive fled to the south, but were blocked by the Yangtze River. As a result, many farmers were incorporated by Zuo Liangyu, and Liu Liangzuo also killed Liang and made contributions in the Anqing area. Li Guodong's idea was that instead of those people being incorporated by Zuo Liangyu and massacred by Liu Liangzuo, it would be better to incorporate them by himself.

"How much money can we earn in three to five years?" Wang Quan thought about it and asked.

"You can earn at least one million taels. Brother, you immediately build a wall in the city and dig a pond in the wall. After digging the pond, you organize some trustworthy brothers to fish for a batch of river clams and ask for smaller young river clams. After fishing it up, I will start work overnight. After I have processed it, I will throw the river clams into the pond. Five days later, you will fish the river clams out of the pond and put them into the river ditches outside. From then on, every half month, you will put the fermented manure into the river ditches, and then fish the sams out of the river ditches three years later."

Li Guodong and his men started digging a pond in the village. The pond was ten meters in diameter and a wall was surrounded outside to prevent people from breaking into the river and clams from being taken away. A ditch was dug outside the pond, connecting it with the moat, and introducing the water from the moat into the pond.

A circle of wooden fences that were ten feet high were pulled up outside the pond, and the wood was densely inserted, like a wall, and people outside could not see the situation inside.

After digging the pond, Wang Quan took his six men to the lake to catch river clams.

Because Wang Quan and others often went south to the south of the Yangtze River, they were all good in water. Two days later, seven people caught more than 3,000 young live river clams.

Li Guodong caught a batch of river clams from the lake, and asked someone to cook the river clams, ginger and tofu together. After the soup was made, he sprinkled some chopped green onions and distributed them to the refugees in the city. After eating, the river clam shells spit out were collected by Li Guodong and crushed them into particles about the same size as fine sand.

Later, Li Guodong performed surgery on a young live river clam in the late night. He broke the river clam shell open, carefully inserted the crushed river clam shell between the river clam shell and the coat membrane, and then threw the river clam into the pond in the city.

At the same time, someone grinds the soy milk, and Li Guodong pours the soy milk into the pool, so that these river mussels that have undergone surgery can recover and reduce the mortality rate.

Five days later, the river clams that had undergone surgery were almost recovered. Li Guodong and Wang Quan and others took out the recovered river clams from the pool overnight and threw them into the river ditches outside.

In order to prevent the river clams from being washed away by the water, Li Guodong also asked Wang Quan and his men to pull up a river dam that was infiltrated into the water at the entrance of the river ditch into the Tawau. The river water can flow over the dam, maintaining the flow of the water flow without causing the river clams to be washed into the lake by the river water.

"If you encounter a season of heavy rainstorms for several days, you can fish out the clams and put them into the pool in the village. When the rainy season passes, then put the clams back into the ditches." Before leaving Liu Dadezhuang Village, Li Guodong specially explained the precautions to Wang Quan.

If the river clams are washed into the lake, it will be difficult to catch them again.
Chapter completed!