In the valley of the upper reaches of the Huangshui, a Mongolian cavalry can often be seen galloping by, the soldier on horseback is dressed in a navy blue or pink Mongolian robe, his hair is unkempt, and the Mongol scimitar is pinned to his waist.

At this time, it is summer, the water and grass are abundant, and the Mongolian herdsmen's demand and greed for pasture grass are like the Han people for the land, and they will never be satisfied, but on this land, because of the division of the mountains, there are only a small patch of pasture, and they can't stand the huge Mongolian tribe at all, so there are scattered herdsmen chasing water and grass alone and entering the remote land in the mountain col.

When the Mongol cavalry on horseback saw this, they did not say a word, but only stopped for a moment, and then disappeared at the corner between the vast grassland and the mountain col, where a group of Ming soldiers followed that day or the next night.

Li Zicheng, Liu Yunshui and Li Guo took soldiers respectively, and the soldiers of each small banner also took turns to go to the battlefield, in fact, this was not a battlefield at all, just a massacre at night, a massacre of Mongolian herdsmen by Ming soldiers.

Liu Yunshui likes this kind of bloody smell the most, as long as he hears Wang Anping's message, he always rushes to the front, and every time he slaughters the Mongols, whether old or young, women and children, Li Guo was not very interested at the beginning, but after eating the sweet taste, he also liked the night attack, which was almost the same as being a thief, his ruthlessness was awakened, and he had a tendency to come later.

Li Zicheng still had a feeling of being too cruel at first, but considering that the Mongols were encroaching on the habitat of the Han people, and the war was provoked by them, he was calm in his heart, and then thought that the Ming Dynasty died at the hands of the Tartars, who were also nomads, and the war was not something you could stay away from if you wanted to, the Han people were not aggressive, but the trees wanted to be quiet and the wind did not stop, for the nomads, the Han people occupied this beautiful, rich and vast land, which was a sin in itself.

Half a month later, Li Zicheng calculated that he had obtained more than 70 war horses, not including underage foals, but there were fewer and fewer Mongolian herdsmen scattered, and he also needed to digest all kinds of looted materials, so he temporarily stopped the night raid.

Thousands of cattle, sheep and foals, plus war horses, if all handed over to the Han herdsmen to raise, it is not realistic, after all, there is so much grassland nearby, and the herdsmen are serious about raising horses for Xiningwei.

But it's a pity that all of them are killed and eaten meat, especially since there are many cubs, which is a waste of resources.

There are many cattle and sheep, and it is impossible to hand them over to Liu Yunshui to take care of, Li Zicheng is not worried that he is greedy for these cattle and sheep, cattle and sheep are not silver, and they can't be put in their pockets, but as soon as there are more things, people's hearts will change, Liu Yunshui is a fierce general who kills the enemy, and he must not lose his enterprising spirit.

The cattle and sheep still need to be handed over to special personnel to take care of, but his more than 100 soldiers are all soldiers, and even the firefighters are soldiers who occupy a small flag.

It seems that the expansion of the army is imperative.

The last time he was in Xining City, Wu Shaoling personally promised that as long as Li Zicheng could get him a war horse, he would give him the thousands of households that he had actually given, and he would make some preparations for the official expansion of the army.

Li Zicheng thought about it, he couldn't expand the army too much now, otherwise food would be a problem, and he decided to expand three small flags first, two of which replaced the firefighters and Wang Anping's rangers, so that the soldiers could still maintain ten small flags.

In addition, to manage military supplies, it is necessary to set up a small flag, which does not need to fight, and is dedicated to the storage and distribution of grain and other materials, as well as the care of thousands of cattle and sheep.

This little flag officer must be someone he can trust, who should he look for? Li Guo is now the chief flag officer, he is definitely not suitable, Ma Youshui and He Xiaomi have not been in charge of the personal soldiers for a long time, they are joining hands, and they can't let go for the time being, near Zhenhai Fort, Li Zicheng has no acquaintances, let alone cronies.

Suddenly, I remembered the only time I was a guest at a herdsman's house.

A lively and innocent chick, a shy and curious offspring.

Yes, let the descendants of the Sun family serve as this little flag official, the Sun family is a local herdsman who knows the roots, it is impossible to do something to harm himself, and then walk away, at least at the beginning, the Sun family is still very trustworthy, how to say that he is still the benefactor of the Sun family, the youngest son of the Sun family is sick, and he starts to talk nonsense, or he pays for the doctor in Xining.

If you want the Sun family to be loyal to you forever, you need to think of another way, and marriage should be one of the best ways.

Although Li Zicheng married a wife, Han Jin'er was killed by him because of the red apricot out of the wall, and later married Gao Guiying, and now there is no news, even if Gao Guiying lives well elsewhere, it doesn't matter, Confucianism has already solved this problem for him - marrying a concubine.

Whether the Sun family is willing to marry his daughter to him as a concubine is still unknown, but apart from Sun Lin, Li Zicheng really can't find a suitable quartermaster.

Li Zicheng himself also laughed, just when did he think about taking a concubine, but this quartermaster is him, the Sun family is honest and kind, under his own tutelage, he is not afraid that Sun Lin is incompetent, in case he is incompetent, he can be transferred in the future.

But Sun Lin is illiterate, this is a headache for Li Zicheng, in fact, whether it is a soldier or a nearby herdsman, they are illiterate, it seems that only he can teach him, and by the way, he can also get closer to the relationship between the two sides, and his influence on him will be greater.

Compared with the expansion of the army, the biggest problem is the revenge of the Mongols, although every night attack, the soldiers are quite clean, but there is no impermeable wall in the world, the Mongols will find out sooner or later, and the number of Mongols is decreasing, once it is time to meet in the autumn, they will also find out.

If the Mongol cavalry attacked in a big way, how would they respond to the enemy? Li Zicheng didn't have a score in his heart, although he knew that Liu Yunshui and Li Guo couldn't come up with any good ideas, he still held a three-person group meeting.

Liu Yunshui and Li Guo, there is really nothing they can do, they all pin their hopes on Li Zicheng, especially Liu Yunshui, since he was rescued by Li Zicheng last time, he has completely lost the momentum of competing with Li Zicheng, and he doesn't care about anything else except training and fighting.

It's okay this way, no one is restrained, and Li Zicheng can just let go of his hands and feet.

The first thing to do is to expand the army

The soldiers stopped training for a day, and under the leadership of Li Zicheng, Liu Yunshui, and Li Guo, they separately contacted the nearby herdsmen, and the herdsmen contacted by Li Zicheng included the Sun family.

Before sunset, Li Zicheng came to Sun's house, although the Sun family is a herdsman, but unlike the Mongolians, they have their own house, the pasture is around the house, and they can return to their house for the night after enclosing the cattle and horses.

Li Zicheng left the soldiers outside to guard, and only brought Ma Youshui and He Xiaomi to the outside of Sun's house, just Sun Yuan was at home, and it seemed that the cattle and horses had already returned to the circle.

"Your Excellency!" When Sun Yuan saw Li Zicheng, he bent over and was about to kneel, but Li Zicheng grabbed him, "Old Sun's age, there is no need to be polite." ”

"The villain is an ordinary herdsman, and he can't afford to be the word 'Sun Lao', just call me Lao Sun," Sun Yuan smiled innocently, the crow's feet at the corners of his eyes were as deep as a whale's tail, "Your Excellency, please sit in the house!" ”

"You don't have to go inside, it's still cool outside." Li Zicheng sat down on a small wooden bench, just when Sun Biao saw the guests, he poked his head out to see the excitement, and was drunk by Sun Yuan, "Biao'er, last time you were sick, thanks to the help of adults, you picked up a small life, and you didn't come to thank the adults?" Without saying anything, he dragged Sun Biao out of the door, pressed it in front of Li Zicheng, and knocked three times.

"Uncle Sun, you're welcome!" Li Zicheng asked Sun Biao to get up, and touched his head, "Is it completely okay now?" ”

"It's been around for a long time." Sun Biao turned around and hid behind his father.

"Little thing, as soon as you get well, you are alive!" Li Zicheng said with a smile, he envied Sun Biao's childhood life, carefree, unlike himself, licking blood with a knife every day, and one wrong step may be doomed.

"Something that can't be put on the table!" Sun Yuan scolded, "What are you doing hiding behind me?" ”

"I ...... Didn't I answer? Sun Biao's face flushed, his cheeks bulging, and he seemed to be a little dissatisfied with his father scolding him in front of the guests.

"Ah...... really answered," Li Zicheng smiled, "What a clever little guy, he must be better than your father when he grows up." ”

Sun Yuan smiled and let Sun Biao play, but shouted into the house: "Girl, there are distinguished guests at home, and you still don't come out to serve tea?" ”

"It's coming!" Sun Mengjie's voice is very soft and very close, is she eavesdropping in the house?

Before Li Zicheng and Sun Yuan could say a few words, a girl came out of the house, holding a small square stool in both hands, and two white porcelain cups were placed on the stool. ”

"Miss Jie'er doesn't have to be polite!" Li Zicheng raised his eyes and looked at it, his faint eyebrows stretched slightly, his apricot eyes were smiling, moist like autumn water, and his skin was fair, although he was not as thrilling as the big families in the water towns in the south of the Yangtze River, but he was much fairer and more delicate than the ordinary shepherdess nearby, and his face was tender and smooth, although he did not apply powder, he faintly had a hint of pink.

Her hair was pulled up high, a peach bun was tied on the top of her head, she wore some unnamed wildflowers picked in the mountains, which made her figure look taller, she wore a pink coat, her clothes were soft, she hid the two slices of burgers on her chest just right when she bent over, a light green ribbon was tied around her waist, and the tail was dragged down to her knees, and when the breeze blew, she swayed like wind chimes, and wore moon-white trousers, the trousers half covered the top of her feet, and a pair of light blue embroidered shoes were half exposed.

"Uncle Sun, sit down!" Li Zicheng pointed to the small wooden stool opposite, but Sun Yuan didn't dare to sit down, Li Zicheng insisted all the time, and then sat on the side.

Sun Mengjie returned to the house lightly, and as soon as she entered the door, there was no sound in her footsteps, Li Zicheng smiled secretly, Lord Ben is not here to propose marriage this time, what are you eavesdropping?

"Adults are busy people, come to the cold house today, I don't know what is the use of villainous places?" Sun Yuan's voice rang in his ears suddenly.

"Uncle Sun, I'm here, there are really some things," Li Zicheng picked up the tea, took a sip, the tea had a hint of lotus leaf fragrance, and there was an indescribable astringency, I don't know what kind of leaf I chose, "Uncle Sun, have you heard that we don't have enough manpower?" ”