On the twenty-fourth day of the first month of the tenth year of the first year of Xianchu, the monolith fort was covered with a layer of heavy snow, and the strong wind outside the fort blew the ice flowers into the air, and the blood stains could be scraped on people's faces. Li Xiaofei wrapped his leather robe tightly, put on a fur hat bought from Mobei, and patrolled back and forth between the four arrow towers, and suddenly hit the south, and one person and one rode towards the monolithic fort.

Li Xiaofei covered his hands in front of his eyebrows and looked at the past, the man was dressed in a red robe and rode a red horse, which was particularly conspicuous in the ice and snow, the man took out an arrow from behind and shot at Li Xiaofei, Li Xiaofei couldn't dodge, the arrow hit the chest and fell, this arrow turned out to have no arrow. But the archers on the four arrow towers saw that the man was firing arrows at Li Xiaofei, and before Li Xiaofei could give the order, they shot arrows at the man and fired back. Li Xiaofei yelled to stop firing the arrows, but the wind was so loud that everyone thought they were going to shoot someone to death, so they shot harder.

The man in red waved his long knife to block the arrows he shot, and soon reached the first low wall, and the man in red jumped up, jumping around several staggered low walls, and went straight to the bottom of the arrow tower. This time the arrows couldn't be shot, and the soldiers drew their swords one after another to arrest the man in red from the arrow tower, and Li Xiaofei also went down to the bottom of the tower under the protection of everyone.

As soon as they arrived at the bottom of the tower, everyone put away their knives, because they all recognized that the man in red was Murong Ling. Li Xiaofei gasped: "Hey, Murong, can you not break in so hard without saying hello, will we keep you out if you report your name?" ”

Murong Ling pointed to the low wall behind him: "Vulnerable"

Li Xiaofei almost choked: "You, do you think that the enemies who come are all beyond ordinary people like you?" “

Murong Ling shook the ice and snow on his body: "Fortunately, you are not my enemy"

Li Xiaofei began to tremble: "Enter the house, enter the house, you want to freeze us to death", after speaking, he took Murong Ling to a cave and walked down. Murong Ling wanted to lead the horse in first for the soldiers to settle, Li Xiaofei had to step on the ice and snow with him to lead the horse, as soon as he saw the fiery horse, Li Xiaofei was amazed, and Murong Ling glanced at him: "Don't pay attention."

The two of them had a fight, and soon went to a cave to rest. This hole is five zhang long, three zhang wide, one zhang high, a large pile of firewood and red-hot stones are piled up in the middle, and the four corners of the hole are opened a hole the size of a fist to breathe, and there are about 20 people sitting in it around the fire and reaching out to keep warm. A few barrels of wine and water were placed in the innermost position, followed by the pots and pans that Li Xiaofei had made themselves, and there were a few pieces of beef and mutton that were about to be smoked in the corner. When everyone saw that Murong Ling was back, their eyes lit up, after all, they themselves were already sloppy, and now seeing such a glamorous and beautiful person coming in, they couldn't help but have a love for beauty. Pharmacist Zhu got up and greeted: "General Murong, on such a snowy day, it is really not easy for you to rush to the monolith fort."

Murong Ling smiled: "What is this, it's just that your guards are too loose, it's best to pray that the enemy doesn't come"

Li Xiaofei suddenly remembered something: "Murong, you only came alone this time?" ”

Murong Ling took out a bunch of letters from his arms and handed them to Li Xiaofei: "Look at it for yourself, this is the letter that your family asked me to bring."

Li Xiaofei found the red note that Hongrui had prepared for him, and handed over the other letters to the rest of the people. Li Xiaofei sat down and looked at it slowly with the help of the red light, and tears came out when he looked at it.

Pharmacist Zhu also asked about Zhu Xuehua's situation, and Murong Ling frowned: "She also wants to come with her, she was left behind by me, and everything is fine in Shou County."

The soldiers were not very literate, so they all went to a few literate people to read the letters, and now it was lively, some crying, some laughing, and some jumping around with the letters. Either the daughter-in-law of the family gave birth, or the parents were sick, or a relative died, but it is mostly a good thing. The reason Murong Ling told them that after Xiang Xiaoyu arrived in Luoyang, he specially hired a few ox carts to send some money back to the families who came out to join the army. This money from Xiang Xiaoyu is usually rewarded by Liu Jian, plus Xiang Xiaoyu takes care of the affairs of the palace in an orderly manner and can do business, and he has become a rich man for most of the year.

Li Xiaofei and Zhu Yaoshi were envious, but they were also very ashamed, especially Li Xiaofei, who opened a market privately on the border and made a lot of goods, but they never sent them back to Shou County. Murong Ling smiled: "When these meat are sent to Shou County, they will be rotten a long time ago, don't think about it."

Li Xiaofei asked again: "Murong, who is in charge of Shou County now?" ”

Murong Ling thought for a while: "The current Taishou is an old man named Xiao An, he treats everyone well, he is a good gentleman, don't worry, the Xiao family also has good people." Meng Crow Huang Banxian continues to lead the troops to defend the city, and your daughter-in-law is still in charge of the treasury, but she has replaced you, and it seems that everyone is still living a better life without you."

Li Xiaofei replied: "Without me, there is a shortage of people to drink, and they can't drink happily"

Pharmacist Zhu also interjected: "I often hear you mention Meng Crow and Huang Banxian, if I have the opportunity, I will also go to Shou County to find them to drink."

Murong Ling glanced at Pharmacist Zhu: "I'm afraid you can't get used to eating Jiangnan perch."

Pharmacist Zhu patted his chest: "I, eat it all!" “

Murong Ling's stomach screamed, and then he punched Li Xiaofei: "Fool, go cook it."

Li Xiaofei got up and went to get meat, and several soldiers next to him immediately stopped him: "General, let's come."

Murong Ling glanced at it: "That's right, I'm afraid that he will spoil the meat when he comes to cook it."

The people quickly set up the cauldron, washed and cut the meat, mixed it with wild vegetables and dried vegetables and threw it into the pot and boiled it. Murong Ling took out another burden from his arms, opened the bag, took out some things, and threw them in. Soon the aroma overflowed, and from time to time people outside the cave came in and asked what kind of meat was boiled, why they had never smelled this fragrance.

Murong Ling only ordered everyone to take turns to cook meat, eat meat, and drink soup, but he didn't say a word about what was added. Li Xiaofei didn't ask for a long time, but Pharmacist Zhu seemed to have found a treasure: "If we cook another pot of fragrant meat for the people of Mobei to smell, wouldn't we be able to hook them all over?"

Li Xiaofei patted his head: "Yes, let's not change things this time, let's change people, men and women, let them graze and transport goods to farther places for us, it's much better than going by ourselves."

Murong Ling was very disdainful: "You two just hire a group of people from Mobei to guard the city."

Pharmacist Zhu smiled innocently: "This is a good idea"

The three of them made trouble in the monolithic fort, and in a blink of an eye, spring began, and after the beginning of spring, there were many herdsmen on the grassland who were bitten by snakes, and Zhu Yaoshi and Murong Ling were treated regardless of whether they were from the Central Plains or Mobei. This came and went, and there were more and more people in the market, in addition to those who came to barter, and those who came to treat diseases. As soon as there were many people, the news could not be hidden, at first the Xiao family's people in Mobei passed the message back, Xiao Shan and the others didn't care, thinking that it was nothing more than a border army in exchange for rations, so they didn't take it to heart. In April, the table of Youzhou Thorn Shi Xiao Ming was delivered, only to know that Li Xiaofei and others had started a big business in the monolith fort, and even the merchants did not run to Fanyang, they all went to the monolith fort, and the table said that "grain and herbs, salt and iron treasures, and local specialties are all exported to Mobei from this fort, Li Xiaofei and others are called garrisons to defend the city, but in fact, they are collaborating with the enemy to fund the enemy, and the minister Youzhou Thorn Shi Xiao Ming asked the court to deal with Li Xiaofei and others, and change the garrison to defend the country!" “

Xiao Shan and the others were very angry, Li Xiaofei and the others did not give gifts to the important ministers, and second, they did not let the families participate, even if they didn't kill them this time, they had to be replaced, how could such a profitable business make them rich. So at the court meeting, everyone discussed and discussed, except for saying that they wanted to kill Li Xiaofei and others to change their guards, no one mentioned this big crime of collaborating with the enemy without authorization, Liu Xuan couldn't help but ask: "According to your meaning, it is permissible to open the border to trade with the enemy country?" Now it's just a matter of changing people, right? “

Yuan Kang had already prepared, so he quoted the scriptures and said that it would benefit the country and the people from the state of etiquette and etiquette, and so on, Liu Xuan smiled helplessly: "Since this is the case, order Li Xiaofei and others to hand over the profits to the imperial court, and then replace them, and let people loyal to the imperial court preside over the mutual market." If you have to kill them, if they do defect to the enemy, won't they cause great trouble? “

Xiao Shan and the others glanced at each other, since the emperor agreed to let their people run this business, there was no need to offend Chen Hongyi again, after all, if they killed Li Xiaofei and others, Chen Hongyi would definitely make a stumbling block for the new people.

Li Xiaofei and the others were not ambiguous, knowing that the matter had been revealed and that they would not stay long, so they distributed some property to the sergeants, and sent 20 cars to Chen Hongyi and Liu Jian, and the remaining 50 cars were sent to Jinling, and 20 cars were left in the treasury of Dushibao. Li Xiaofei Murong Ling took twenty carts of property to Luoyang to defect to Liu Jian, Zhu Yaoshi brought ten carts of property back to Fanyang's hometown, and 5,000 garrisons also returned to Xiangguo Chen Hongyi's account after changing defenses.

Originally, the opening of the mutual market could make a lot of money, but the generals sent by Jinling, Xiao Zhijianjun, Xie Li, joined the army, and Yuan Ke deceived the people of Mobei with shoddy, plus the two doctors Zhu Yaoshi and Murong Ling left, and the patients in Mobei no longer came to the monolithic fort, and the business of the monolithic fort plummeted. Seeing that the property sent to Jinling was less than one time, the three of them were worried, and couldn't help but come up with a poisonous plan, sent people to the grassland to poison, poisoned a lot of cattle and sheep, Mobei people had to sell the poisoned cattle and sheep to the monolithic fort, which made it much worse, and naturally it was discovered by the Mobei people.

In Mobei, there are not only the fire dragon people of the Black Flag Khanate, but also the mountain people, the Roumo people, and the whale people in the north of the Ghost Country. The fire dragon people of the Black Flag Khanate had to swallow their anger because they were defeated by the Liang army several times, but the others had revenge, and the mountain people climbed the wall and were a good hand, even if the monolithic fort was so complete, but the people stationed there were no longer the troops brought by Li Xiaofei, but the domestic slaves of various families who came from Jinling to make a fortune, so the mountain people attacked at night, and actually killed the general Xiao Zhi and the supervisor Xie Li, and Yuan Ke escaped by hiding in the cave of the army.

Joining the army, Yuan Ke went out of the cave to check under the protection of the left and right when it was dawn, but fortunately, the fortress was not captured, but Xiao Zhi and Xie Li died, Yuan Ke sent people to send the corpses of the two back to Jinling, and wrote that the night attack of the Black Flag Khanate on the monolith fort was repelled by Yuan Ke and the army was sent back.

After Pharmacist Zhu returned to Fanyang, he first sent six carts of property to Xiao Ming, and then divided a cart to relatives and friends, and built a manor outside the city with a cart of property, specially accepting homeless people, and taking hundreds of homeless people to open up wasteland to grow grain and graze, and live the life of a farmer.