In addition to Huo Xing's own use, most of the crossbows had to be sold for gold, silver and copper coins, but who would be the buyer, Guo Peng? He needs to be armed with so many powerful crossbows? But it's not Guo Peng, could it be other buyers? You can't export to earn foreign exchange.

And the manufacture of strong crossbows is not enough for craftsmen and hardwood, but also need bronze or fine iron, the performance of bronze is far less than that of fine iron, after the popularization of iron, the mechanical deconstruction of strong crossbows has been mostly replaced by iron accessories, and where does so much fine iron come from.

There is no decent smelting blast furnace in the cave, so these refined iron are obtained by Huo Xing from the outside, so who supplied these refined iron materials.

Nowadays, there are three sources of refined iron, one is to purchase from the official salt and iron department in the name of agricultural materials. Such as farm tools, kitchen knives, etc., of which bronze farm tools account for the majority, iron farm tools are small in quantity and expensive. Even in deserted villages, the agricultural implements are still dominated by bronze ploughs.

The second was the goldsmith's shop, also known as the blacksmith's shop, which could buy much more bronze and pig iron from the official salt and iron division every month than ordinary people.

Finally, there are the magnates, who have the privilege of buying large amounts of bronze, pig iron and fine iron every year, but they can not buy them every year, and when they reach a certain amount over the years, it is difficult to increase the upper limit to prevent the rebellion of privately cast weapons and armor.

In addition, the abnormal channels are mainly plundering, smuggling, and money melting. Farm tools obtained by plundering villages are melted down. Unlimited sources of metals can be obtained through private mines, and finally the most costly, copper is obtained by melting copper coins.

Either way, it is not possible for one person to manufacture a precision crossbow on a large scale.

This can't help but make people suspect that it is only the powerful who can support such military production behind the scenes. Looking at the surrounding areas, only Guangxin Gong Jiang Min wanted to rebel, and Zhang Jun, the Marquis of Dingyang, Guo Peng and others, had no such courage, and had no political motive to rebel.

The more she thought about it, the more cold and piercing her heart became, and Bai Liyan didn't even dare to continue to think about it. However, there are still a few doubts that are puzzling.

First, why did Jiang Min, the Duke of Guangxin, want to raise the horse thief Huo Xing with Guo Peng's hands, and secretly make weapons, isn't he afraid of being exposed by Huo Xing? Or Jiang Min is secretly trading with another cronies, confident that he will not be discovered by Huo Xing.

Second, Huo Xing attacked and harassed the deserted village that day, obviously to kill the head of Baili Yan, if Guangxin Gong knew in advance that it was Guo Peng's instructions, and he wanted to indulge the horse thieves to attack and harass, what did he want, did he want to try the depth?

Third, the manufacture of ordnance is a top secret matter, and it is impossible to hand it over to a horse thief, and it is absolutely impossible for Guangxin Gong to hand over this matter to a horse thief.

Fourth, the price of a strong crossbow is not cheaper than a strong bow, even though the accuracy and lethality are higher than those of a strong bow, but the launch efficiency is low, and if it is not produced on a large scale, the equipment and procurement are not cost-effective.

Guangxin Gong nominally only has 2,000 subordinate soldiers, even if there are private soldiers, equipped with two or three thousand strong crossbows, it is too much. What's more, the archer formation accounts for three or four percent of the army, and the crossbowmen usually only account for one or two percent of the establishment if they do not have an independent legion like Zhiguo.

In this way, there are at least 30,000 or 40,000 horses under the command of Guangxin, so many people not only Guangxin can not hide, but the financial resources of Guangxin City can not afford to support, if it is a poor army, as long as you look at the economy of Guangxin, you will know whether the local economy has shown fatigue.

Nowadays, Guangxin's economy is full of vitality, and it is not at all like a posture of raising 30,000 or 40,000 horses.

Without a clue for a while, Bai Liyan turned back to find Song Jie, Song Jie, Tang Zhao, Fang De and others led the royal guests to turn the entire cave upside down, as if they were searching for evidence for the robbery and killing of them in the first place.

"Fang De, can it be found." Song Jie asked eagerly.

"No, all the houses have been searched, and all of them have found traces of the Broken Star Arrow."

Fang De was sweating profusely, and searched the entire cave without any trace of broken star arrows. At this time, Tang Zhao guessed:

"Could it have been destroyed, or was it the work of another group of people?"

Song Jie nodded and said:

"It's possible, but with such a large group of horse thieves entrenched here, even if there are other thieves, most of them will be swallowed up by horse thieves. If it weren't for Huo Xingyi's so-called horse thief, who would it be. ”

"Fuck it, catch the dog thief surnamed Huo for the first trial, I feel that it takes so much effort." Gu Shan scolded and said, Song Jie and the others couldn't help laughing.

Gu Shan's words are not false, if he can't get evidence, catching Huo Xing may be the most direct way.

At this time, Baili Yan came head-on, Jian Song Jie and the others looked at each other, and asked Sikong Nan again:

"Sikong Nan, about a month ago, did the horse thieves go out to rob and kill anyone?" Bai Liyan asked.

"Before January...... Sikong Nan thought for a moment and said, "In addition to the deserted village before January, there were two votes. The specific things are only known to Huo Xing and others. ”

"So, a month ago, the horse thieves did ambush the royal guest."

Sikong Nan was taken aback:

"Ambush the Guest! Do you say ......"

"Exactly, at that time, someone tried to shoot the royal guest with the Jin Kingdom Broken Star Arrow, and was lucky to be escaped by the royal guest, and then happened to meet me, but unfortunately he was attacked by Huo Xing, and the two things came together, and Huo Xing deserved to be unlucky."

There is no suspense for Huo Xing to attack Song Jie, Tang Zhao, Fang De and others, but what is Huo Xing's motive for attacking Song Jie and others, is it secretly instructed by Jiang Min, Guangxin Gong, if it is instructed by Jiang Min, what is Guangxin Gong's motive, what benefits can he get, is it just to frame Ding Yang Hou with broken star arrows?

The assassination of the royal guest is different from the assassination of the prince and noble, and if the royal guest is provoked, they don't care what the prince and nobleman are, and they will gather tens of millions of people to attack the city and pull out the village, and they will also find out the culprit and punish the Ming canon, so no one dares to provoke the royal guest.

If you look at it from this point of view, although Guangxin Gong does not approve of the suppression of thieves, he still has money and food, and it does not seem to be deliberately making things difficult and delaying.

Gather all the fleeing people in the cave and gather them small, nine hundred people. Not counting the horse thieves who were disarmed, there were still more than 800 others. Among them, there are more than 400 people who belong to the families of horse thieves, most of whom are also taken captive and forced to have children from thieves, and more than 200 women are taken captive for sexual pleasure, and less than 200 craftsmen are taken captive.

In addition to the captives of Lincheng, Guangxin, and Dingyang, many of these people were looted from other places, and most of the craftsmen came from the mandala in the north of Chunan County.

The mandala is famous for manufacturing looms, and also makes bows and crossbows and other war equipment, when the peasant rebels broke through the mandala, robbed a large number of official craftsmen and folk craftsmen, after the defeat of the peasant army, most of the craftsmen fled for their lives, scattered places, and then were incorporated by bandits from all walks of life, and gradually came to the hands of the horse thief Huo Xing.

The inventory of the materials in the cave warehouse totaled more than 200,000 copper coins, more than 500 pieces of silver, more than 20 pieces of gold, and a number of jewels and jade. Huo Xing and the others transferred a large amount of gold and silver when they left, and the remaining copper coins were left in the cave because they were too heavy to be transported, and the amount was really surprising.

In addition, there are more than 3,000 stones of grain and grass, some meat, more than 600 horses of linen, cotton, silk, etc., and there are still more than 20 horses, a number of poultry, hundreds of bronze weapons, more than 90 stones of salt, more than 12 barrels of oil, a number of coal, iron, bronze, and wax, and more than 2,000 farm tools.

In this battle, a total of 37 horse thieves led by Sikong Nansuo were killed and 49 wounded, and more than half of them were killed or wounded. Nine of the bandits were killed and 31 wounded. There was only one dead person, but eight strong men died, and the combat effectiveness was not half of the difference.

"Brother Song, with so much money and food, I don't know what Brother Song's plans are?"

With so much money and food, it is obviously not possible to swallow it privately, and you have to ask the opinions of Song Jie and others.

"Huo Xing has been a disaster for a long time, and there are huge amounts of money and grain, so if you look down, the money and grain should be distributed to the surrounding villages to make up for the losses of horse thieves."

Song Jie suggested that the money and grain should be scattered and distributed to the surrounding damaged villages, which is the consistent style of Yuke, and Bailiyan is not easy to say, but he has spent his own efforts, and he can't get any benefits, and it is too unreasonable.

"Brother Song, Dingyang and Guangxin are relatively wealthy, but Lincheng is poor, and I think that money, grain and other things should be given more to the villages to which Lincheng belongs, and Guangxin and Dingyang should be given less.

In addition, the deserted village has suffered a lot since the last war, and each family has also contributed a lot this time, Huo Xing and others have not yet subdued the law, and they thought that there should be a part as a military pension in case of emergency. ”

"What Wei Lang said is extremely true, then act according to what Wei Lang said."

Song Jie finally relented and agreed to give 20% to the deserted village, so that 20,000 copper coins, 600 stones of grain and grass, and more than 400 farm tools were included in the name of the deserted village. In addition, in addition to more than ten pieces of silk, the metal was scattered to other villages, and the rest of the things such as weapons, horses, salt, oil, pull, coal, iron, copper and other materials were all under the private name of Bailiyan.

As for the more than 800 people who were taken captive, most of them were women, some of them had dragged their families after the thieves, and some of them had not given birth, but they were also ruined by the horse thieves in turn, and even if they returned to their hometowns, most of the families were killed and injured due to disasters, and even if they went back, whoever could tolerate the unclean women would be forced to die in the end.

Anyone who is willing to return to his hometown will be given travel expenses and ten catties of polished rice, and his personal finances will be returned. Those who do not want to return to their hometowns shall be resettled in deserted villages on the spot.

Most of the craftsmen are mandala people, after the mandala was broken, it has repeatedly changed hands between the peasant army and the official army, and the current population of the mandala is less than 70,000, and most of them are the people who moved to the mandala for the purpose of consolidating the agricultural mulberry.

Bailiyan sent to the craftsman's travel expenses, rice and grain is twice as much as others, and those who are willing to stay are the best, and those who want to go back to the mandala can go back, and if they feel bad, they can come to the deserted village again.

After dealing with the horse thief's lair, it was already two days later, and a large number of materials needed to be transported back to the deserted village.

The news of the destruction of the bandit's nest was then transmitted back to Guangxin, and it also reached Qin Han's mansion as soon as possible:

"Qin Ye, Qin Ye!"

A strong man in gray rushed into the inner house in a panic, Qin Han's face sank and he scolded:

"What kind of system is panicking."

The strong man sweated like rain and said in a panic:

"Master Qin, the horse thief, the horse thief's lair was served by Wei Xian!"

"What!" Qin Han was taken aback, as if he was stunned by five thunderbolts, and instantly sat down on the collapse.

"Master Qin, what is good now."

"I really didn't expect that he could find out if he hid so deeply." Qin Han clenched his fists, and then said, "What about Wei Xian and the others? ”

"Wei Xian, Song Jie, Tang Zhao and other royal guests are reporting the victory in the public mansion, and they will also distribute the countless money and grain they have paid to the villages and counties in Lincheng to make up for the losses caused by horse thieves for many years."

"Heheheha......"

Qin Han smiled bitterly, and the strong man asked cautiously for some reason:

"Master Qin, what is good now."

Qin Han helped his body and replied:

"No, no. Huo Xing still had more than 400 people in his hands, 300 cavalry people, and Wei Xian and the royal guests were more than 300 people at best, far from Huo Xing's opponent. Even if it is found that Guo Peng is in contact with Huo Xing, it is difficult to know the whereabouts of the team. You should rush to Dingyang City now, and then do this......"

Qin Han secretly gave the opportunity, and the strong man then rode on a fast horse and went straight to Dingyang City.