Xu Di smiled and said, "Since they're working for me, I have a responsibility to protect them. If I know they're two fierce tigers, and I still keep them in a cage, what if the cage breaks? The only solution is to pull out the tigers' teeth so they don't have the energy to do dangerous things." Xu Di looked like he was forced into a corner.

The scholar was too exhausted to say anything more to him. After the medicine dissolved, he obediently drank it. The person next to him initially resisted, but after the scholar glanced at him, he drooped his eyelids and drank the medicine as well.

Xu Di nodded and said, "Those who know when to yield are the heroes. You are truly heroes. Your daily food and water will contain this medicine. But don't worry, when you are released, you will have a few good meals and go to the toilet a few times, and you will be fine."

Upon hearing this, the scholar couldn't help but sigh. Anyone who was captured like this never thought of getting out, after all, he knew very well what he had done.

After seeing the two off, Zheng Boyuan asked Xu Di with some curiosity, "Brother-in-law, is your medicine really that effective?"

Xu Di glanced at Zheng Boyuan, sneered twice, and said, "You have no confidence in something made by your mother-in-law?"

Upon hearing this, Zheng Boyuan touched his nose, chuckled twice, and managed to get away with it.

The person who went to inquire in the neighboring Huang County returned quickly, saying that the two had been staying at an inn in the county town for some time. Every day, they either stayed in the inn without going out or went to wander around the sea. As for when they went out to sea, the innkeeper did not know. The fishing boat carrying the two people was not a local fishing boat, but a boat sent by the Japanese pirates to pick them up. It looked no different from a local fishing boat.

Looking at this information, Xu Di asked, "Were the guest rooms they stayed in inspected?"

The guard said, "We checked it and found no clues. However, the innkeeper said that this scholar always orders an extra serving of rice when he eats. As you know, rice is not grown in Dengzhou Prefecture, so it is a rare commodity. The innkeeper sent the waiter to the grain store to buy it."

Xu Di frowned upon hearing this. He thought that the scholar's speech had a southern accent, but his Mandarin had a more northern accent. In that case, it would be really difficult to determine whether he was from the south or the north.

Xu Di thought for a long time but couldn't figure it out, so he simply gave up and stopped thinking about it. Since he had already locked the people up, and they wanted to contact the Japanese pirate leader, he could just urge Zheng Boyuan to wipe out the Japanese pirates. It was almost June, and after June, typhoons were likely to hit the sea. He could take advantage of this time to make a few more trips to sea and maybe he could really bring the people back.

Xu Di went to the barracks several times, to the point that Zheng Boyuan didn't want to see him anymore, and only then did Xu Di stop.

The wheat in the fields had been harvested, and the corn planted in the fields was only a hand's breadth tall. After Xu Di went to the village to teach how to fertilize the corn, he gathered a group of people and began to prepare the piece of wasteland that he had already chosen.

Because the wasteland had a high sand content, it was unsuitable for growing crops, so no one thought of cultivating it, and it remained abandoned. Xu Di had people pull out all the weeds from the land, spread them out to dry on the ground, and let them dry in two or three days. Then they burned them, and the ashes could be used as fertilizer to fertilize the land. So they just left it to dry.

Xu Di was busy studying his fruit cultivation, feeling a sense of peace and tranquility. Meanwhile, Zheng Boyuan was having a very exciting time. Apparently, the leader of the Japanese pirates couldn't swallow his anger after being captured by Zheng Boyuan, so he stopped hiding and took the initiative to confront Zheng Boyuan head-on.

How could Zheng Boyuan waste such a rare opportunity to train his troops? The cannons were aimed at the Japanese pirates' ships, and one cannonball after another was fired. Several small boats were quickly capsized by the waves created by the cannonballs. In the end, the Japanese pirate leader saw that things were not going well and steered his ship away.

This battle greatly boosted morale. After returning in high spirits, Zheng Boyuan sent his cooks to the county to purchase a lot of meat, both raw and cooked, to improve the meals for the entire camp.

In this battle, dozens of Japanese pirates were killed or wounded, and several were captured. Xu Di and Zheng Boyuan tried every means to finally get one of the pirates to talk, and learned that the capital had not only sent people to negotiate with the Japanese pirates, but also sent people to Liaodong to negotiate with the Jin people. Now the three parties have made initial contact, with the aim of the Jin people and the Japanese pirates landing in southern Liaodong and then coordinating from within and without to invade and occupy Liaodong.

I heard that the one in the capital has already given the word that if things go well, Liaodong will be given to the Jurchens.

Hearing this, Zheng Boyuan's eyes turned red with anger. He slapped the table, and half of it was gone. Xu Di, on the other hand, remained calm. Zheng Boyuan was furious and asked him, "Why aren't you angry after hearing all this?"

Xu Di sneered twice and said, "Why should I be angry that the imperial family has produced such a spendthrift son? Back then, they wanted to use Yanmen Pass to do favors, and the Northern Barbarians were defeated by us. Are they planning to repeat the same trick and use Liaodong to do favors?"

Zheng Boyuan recalled the battle in Hexi back then. Under the command of his father-in-law and General Wei, and with the strong support of all the men, women, and children in Hexi County, they managed to win a decisive victory against overwhelming odds, and the Northern Di army was unable to recover for thirty years.

Zheng Boyuan felt relieved, but he was still somewhat unconvinced. He said, "Such unworthy descendants, instead of thinking about how to make the country built by our ancestors prosperous and strong, only think about how to use the family property to do favors and exchange this land for their own interests. They are truly ashamed of their ancestors."

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