The original plan was that the horse thieves were attacking from the east and west, and deliberately released the fleeing rebels from the exit at the bottom of the mountain, so that the bandit army mistakenly thought that the horse thieves had escaped, and then killed the mountain with all their might, so that the horse thieves could occupy a favorable position from behind, and take advantage of the scattered formation of the bandit army, and they would kill the bandit army by surprise in one go.

However, he was recognized by Baili Yan and sent fifty people from Fang De to the back of the mountain to intercept it, if the horse thieves continued to kill from behind the mountain, they might invite a decisive battle against the bandit army. So the sneak attack on the horse thieves in the back mountain temporarily changed the plan, the main attack became a feint, and the main force was transferred to the exit under the mountain, and after the bandit army counterattacked the mountain, the main force of the horse thieves killed the mountain from the bottom of the mountain, and the two breads copied the bandit army.

At this time, Bailiyan fell to kill the main force of the bandit army and went down the mountain, and was unexpectedly meeting the horse thief at the entrance of the cave.

However, this group of mountain bandits is still not chaotic in the face of danger, which shows that the horse thieves sitting in the lair must not be idle, otherwise they would not be able to make such a huge transfer and deployment in a very short time.

Bai Liyan, Song Jie, Tang Zhaoren and others led one hundred and fifty people down the mountain like a tiger, and in the blink of an eye, they had reached the foot of the mountain, and a large number of women who fled in panic could be seen in the southwest of the mountain, and there were women who escaped from time to time.

Smoke billowed from the foot of the mountain, and I don't know how the horse thief built the cave, the smoke in the cave was even bigger than the outside, no wonder they all ran out after holding on to a tea time. If you hold it any longer, you will choke to death.

The bandit army went all the way south, and when they arrived at the entrance of the cave, they were also taken aback.

To say that this horse thief is also a good skill, he is a person in two lives, even if he can think of it, but where can he think that today's people can do such wonderful ideas.

The horse thief made a gate of huge stone slabs, with a width of less than two meters and a height of more than three meters. The outer layer of the stone gate is camouflaged with shrubs and soil, not to mention that Song Jie and other royal guests have never seen it, and Baili Yan is also incredible.

The gate was opened and closed with a winch, and at this time it was unimpeded, and hundreds of horse thieves were ready to guard the exit of the cave, and the bandit army was condescending, and the two sides looked at each other, and the horse thieves were taken aback.

At this time, Song Jie shouted and said:

"The royal guest is here, you must surrender as soon as possible, so as not to be plagued by swords!"

As soon as the words fell, a cold arrow came, Song Jie rolled sideways to avoid the cold arrow, and more than a dozen sharp arrows had been shot out, hitting more than a dozen people in the blink of an eye.

"Damn, you dare to release cold arrows, kill me!" Gu Shan snorted, he had already killed him, and the royal guest followed closely and rushed up.

At this time, only Baili Yan led eighty young men to press the formation in the back, seeing that Gu Shan had already killed the generals, and the number was far less than that of the horse thieves, he had no choice but to lead the crowd into the cave and kill with the horse thieves.

This wave of horse thieves is not as good as the previous sneak attack horse thieves, they are all infantry, and their combat power is far inferior to the horse thieves last time.

The horse thief originally fled to the cave, but the cave was filled with wolf smoke, and just hid in the cave, he was driven out of the cave by the smoke.

Seeing that the horse thief had no fighting spirit, Bailiyan shouted:

"Wait and listen, those who disarm will not be killed, and those who resist will be killed!"

Horse thieves are also human beings, and most of them are forced to fall into the grass, even if they are extremely vicious, if they are forced too quickly at the end of the road, the gains outweigh the losses.

As soon as the voice fell, there was a faint shout from the cave:

"Words count!"

Bailiyan replied:

"There is a debtor and a master, I know that you and other big bosses are not in the mountains, and you are not the leader of the evil bandits, there are royal guests here, as long as you surrender, you will be free to save your life."

"Okay, I'll wait for you."

After a while, there was a sound of metal falling to the ground, and dozens of people walked out of the darkness.

Song Jie and Tang Zhao didn't dare to slack off, they outflanked the people left and right to isolate the people from the weapons, and Bai Liyan held a wooden shield and shouted at the people:

"Whoever is the leader of you, come out and speak."

"Me."

A man in leather armor took a few steps forward with a messy face, and there was still a blood stain on his chest, which he thought was contaminated during the fight.

The man is not tall, about 1.7 meters, about 30 years old, with thick eyebrows, big eyes and beards under his chin, and he does not look like a wrongdoer.

"What is your surname, and how many masters are in the cottage?"

"The defeated general Sikong Nan, the big boss, the second boss, and the third master have all pulled the people away, leaving only me and others in this lair."

"In that case, you're the one who uses the trick."

"It's down there, I don't want to be taken advantage of by you. I am convinced that I have been defeated by you today. If you want to kill, you must scrape and listen to the respectful, I hope that your Excellency will keep your promise, and do not implicate these brothers in the cave. ”

"Why did you kill you, when you have come down to me? I ask you, there are still people in the cave. ”

"More than 800 women and craftsmen in the cave escaped from the cave, and there was no one else."

Bailiyan was also surprised, there were more than 800 people hidden in the cave, counting more than 500 horse thieves and hundreds of horses, not to mention more than 2,000 people in the cave.

According to Sikong Nan's own confession, he was originally a Zhuang Ding of a large family in Shaoping City, Xianxi County, and because of the lack of grain in Shaoping City, the rebellion was due to the lack of grain in Shaoping City, and six ploughing cattle were stolen from the big family. Later, when the rebels rioted and stormed the prison, he was able to escape.

After that, he followed the rebellion of the people, wandered around and fought with the officials and troops, and was finally dispersed, and he also fled to Beihai to fall into the grass. Because of his literacy, the horse thief leader put him in charge of the supply of grain and grass for the bandits' nest.

This time, there were a total of 113 left-behind bandits, all of whom belonged to the old, weak, sick and disabled, craftsmen and women. The big boss Huo Xing, the second boss Niu Gui, and the third boss Wu Shan brought 261 cavalry, and the 157 steps left the lair more than 20 days ago.

Although Sikong Nan was in charge of military quartermasters, only three masters knew about finance and military aircraft, so he couldn't tell where these more than 400 people went.

Follow Sikong Nan into the cave, the smoke is dissipating, faintly visible in the dim can be seen in the dim for the convenience of life and living and the caves dug one after another, the cave is relatively dry, warm in winter and cool in summer, the ventilation is also good, but it is very crowded. If it weren't for the smoke from the outside, I'm afraid no one would have known that there was such a large natural cave inside the mountain.

Huo Xing, the big boss, took a lot of gold, silver and jewelry with him when he left, and all the other valuable items that he couldn't take away were shrunk in the big boss's bedroom.

Prie open the door of the dormitory, and the huge wooden boxes in the dim light are impressive. The cave covers an area of more than sixty or seventy square meters, and at least more than forty square meters are stacked with various wooden boxes. Each wooden box has a copper lock, and if you pry one open, you can see a box full of copper coins.

After searching the scene, I found that there were two other wooden boxes that had been opened in advance, and there were still scattered scattered inches of gold and silver, obviously these two boxes were used to store precious metals. But such a large box cannot be filled, only partially. If it is full, it will cost thousands of inches of silver, and the same amount of gold.

The big boss Huo Xing emptied almost all the precious metals when he left, and it seems that he is still very prescient, otherwise if the old nest is taken out, he will not lose all his money, not to mention that it has actually been taken out.

Soon after, Baili Yan blocked the bedroom of the big boss, and then followed Sikong Nan to investigate several entrances to the smoke.

Bailiyan was very puzzled, the smoke flowed to a high place, even if some of it passed through the vent on the ground and entered the inside of the cave, it was impossible for such a large cave to be full of smoke in a tea time.

After checking the vents on the spot, I realized that there were several vents that directly hollowed out the heart of the tree, and the tree died without bark and had no core to live.

These big trees with hollowed out wooden cores are all equipped with a triangular ventilation pipe connected by three bamboo tubes and cowhide at an angle of 180 degrees, which is the same as the principle of three large iron pipes welded into a triangle and installed on the chimney in modern times. All of them use the principle of convection in the cavity by using the difference in wind speed in three different azimuth angles.

In this way, even if there is no wind outside the world, a certain amount of air convection can be generated through natural wind creation, which in turn promotes air circulation between the indoor and the outside world.

If the wind is strong outside, the wind speed of the ventilation device will also be greater, resulting in smoke from the outside, the outside air temperature is much higher than the indoor temperature, and the indoor temperature is more constant and cool, not to mention the temperature difference of more than 10 degrees, coupled with the wind to help, the outside smoke is easier to enter the cave.

Seeing this, Bai Liyan couldn't help but exclaim in amazement:

"I never thought that there were skilled craftsmen among the horse thieves."

"Alas...... It is a shame to say that many people are forced to work in captives and make a living in a small trick. ”

"Little trick?!" Bai Liyan shook his head, even this kind of ventilation device is a practical technology patent in modern society.

After looking at the vent, Bai Liyan suddenly thought:

"By the way, you just said that there are craftsmen in the cave, and they are forcibly taken to work, what do you mean? Could it be that Huo Xing and others have other ways to make money? ”

"That's the case, most of the craftsmen captured by Huo Xing are blacksmiths and carpenters, specializing in building strong crossbows, which can make more than 50 strong crossbows of various types every month, two or three thousand crossbow arrows, and hundreds of bronze weapons."

"Crossbow!"

Bai Liyan was startled, and remembered the crossbow used by Huo Xing when he attacked the deserted village.

Nowadays, in addition to light bows, long-range weapons, hard bows, strong bows, and various types of strong crossbows are controlled instruments, and they are forbidden to be lost to the people. But all the common people who pick up a military crossbow must hand it over, otherwise the crime is the same as murder.

Hard bows and strong bows are far stronger than light bows in terms of distance and lethality, and can even pierce through better leather armor. The crossbow can shoot the enemy from a distance of 200 paces, which is extremely lethal and more tightly controlled.

Among them, the manufacturing requirements of the crossbow are higher than that of the strong bow, a good bow takes a year or even a year and a half from the preparation, handling, drying, upper force and then forming of the wood, and the strong crossbow has higher requirements for the wood, and the good solid wood is needed, due to the constraints of the current technology, the wood can be put into production for two years naturally.

However, the strong crossbow has high internal brackets and high requirements for metal processing, so the production of strong crossbows is greatly limited.

Fifty crossbows per month, six hundred in a year, and three thousand in five years, not counting arrows. According to this calculation, at least 3,000 crossbows have been produced in five years, and there is no trace of crossbows and arrow clusters in the warehouse, except for the spare parts found sporadically.

"Sikong Nan, when did Huo Xing start producing strong crossbows?"

"When I came, there was already production, and at that time, I could only produce more than ten strong crossbows per month, and it was only in the past few years that the number of fifty crossbows per month was reached."

"What about these strong crossbows and arrow clusters, Huo Xing sold them?"

"The villain doesn't know. The villain is only responsible for grain and grass, and everything else is handled by the second and third masters, and it is not impossible to know who these strong crossbows are sold to. ”