That night, Li Xin did not go back, but stayed in Qili Village and spent Chinese New Year's Eve with the border soldiers and displaced people.

There are no fireworks this Chinese New Year's Eve, only noodles and porridge, but the tube is full. also asked the women to wrap some dumplings, radish and cabbage filling, each person can get two or three, which is considered to be the end of the New Year.

The border soldiers who followed Li Mu each had an extra bowl of wine and barbecue. Li Xin brought three jars of wine, which was enough for them to drink, but Li Xin could only let them drink one bowl each, just to satisfy their hunger, and not affect his plan.

They are quiet here, but in the county is still lively, firecrackers, fireworks, lanterns are not lacking, in the big households, wine and meat delicacies, singing, dancing and opera, still the same.

The next day, on the first day of the Lunar New Year, Li Xin began to register the population and count the soldiers, but the result was a great disappointment for Li Xin. There are more than 40 families here, with a small family of 200 people, and there are only 16 families who are willing to stay and farm his land, and they are basically from Wang Dejiang's family. The rest of the family couldn't believe Li Xin's promise and didn't want to send their young men to be soldiers.

Li Xin did not force it, and registered those who were willing to stay, and then drove those who did not register out of the village. However, Li Xin was not ruthless, and each of them gave them two catties of food, and what happened after that, they could only rely on themselves.

But only a few of these families left to help the old and the young, and continued their escape. The rest of the family did not go far and lived in the abandoned village, wanting to stay next to this group of strongmen, hoping to get the protection of this compassionate 'Li Gongzi'.

To Li Xin's surprise, the families of those bandits also chose to stay. But thinking about it, it is understandable that they were basically robbed, and it is definitely impossible to go home, and it is more likely that they don't even have a home. For a weak woman like them, leaving here can only be the beginning of another period of suffering.

"Fourth brother," after everyone dispersed and their brothers returned to the house, Li Mu said a little anxiously: "This is too little!" There are only sixteen families, sixteen people, plus us, less than thirty! ”

Li Zhong looked at Li Xin, who also had a bad face, and comforted: "There are not many soldiers, don't worry." ”

Li Xin finally spoke: "It's a little less, they still can't trust us." ”

"According to me, let's leave all the people behind, first pick out the young people to practice for a few days, and then take them to gather the bandits and homeless people nearby, it won't take much time, tens of thousands of people dare not say, thousands of people are still not a problem." Li Mu immediately put forward his own suggestion.

Li Zhong sighed helplessly, and persuaded Li Xin: "Second brother, why don't you follow your cousin's method?" If there are officials and soldiers to encircle and suppress this, we can't stop it. ”

Li Xin thought for a while, shook his head, and said, "We can only press half of it, let's wait for these recruits to be trained, and then we will go and sweep away the bandits and thieves nearby." ”

He paused for a moment, then said, "But, follow my rules." If you want to eat and have land to plant, you have to have Ding Zhuang to join us! ”

Li Mu complained: "What's the use of this? How many people can there be? ”

"Didn't you say that you would give me a year," Li Xin stood up, patted Li Mou's shoulder, and said with a smile: "Bear with me, a year will pass soon." Now let's go and train the recruits and let them know to obey the orders. ”

Li Mu nodded helplessly and turned to leave.

Li Zhong said worriedly: "Will this affect the development of the team?" ”

"The thief's method is simple, but over the years, you have also seen it, second brother. They will only make the world more chaotic, and they will only displace more people and leave them hungry. Li Xin said uncompromisingly: "Let's give it a try, maybe there is a new way." ”

Li Zhong stroked his beard, and finally reminded: "If we fail, we will bring the Li family into a situation from which we will never recover." ”

Li Xin smiled faintly and said jokingly: "This is not simple, the current thieves and bandits, which one doesn't have a nickname?" Let's get one too, no one knows who we are. ”

"Cao Cao, Liu Bei? A dragon, a bucket valley? King Chuang, Eight Kings? Li Zhong said quickly: "Then what kind of one shall we take?" ”

"Li Yan." Li Xin opened his mouth and came: "I'll just call this, and I will use words in the world." ”

Li Zhong was thinking about what he was going to call, and when he heard Li Xin's words, he said with some surprise: "Then I'll use Li Feng?" ”

Li Xin shook his head and vetoed: "Second brother, you can't be lazy in this matter. If you also use table characters, we are all on the side of the mountain character, which is easy for people to see. ”

Li Zhong thought about it for a long time and found that the names in "Water Margin" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" had been used by the rebel army. But he didn't want to use the name of the very vulgar king so-and-so, and he didn't know what kind of name he wanted to give himself.

"Second brother, think about it slowly, there is always a suitable one." Li Xin stood up and walked out, and said, "When we need a name, it will take a while, so don't worry." ”

Li Yan (Li Yan and Li Xin were the same person after that) did not return to the county seat for the next few days, but stayed in Qilizhai all the time. There was no hurry to train the recruits, and what he had to do now was to begin to carve out one hundred and sixty acres of the surrounding deserted fields, and to fulfill the promise made to the sixteen families who were willing to follow him.

Sixteen families, each family has only one young man to participate in Li Yan's army, even Wang Dejiang, the most populous in the family, only sent his third son, who has not yet become married, to be Ding Zhuang.

As for those wastelands, the original owners have already run away anyway, and they probably won't come back to plant. But it doesn't matter if they come back, with Li Xin's strength, there is no way to deal with a large group of officials and soldiers or a large group of thieves, but it is more than enough to deal with ordinary peasants.

In the past few days, Li Yan has commanded these homeless people who follow him, using wooden stakes and ropes to mark the periphery, and each family's own territory is marked by themselves with things. Li Yan doesn't have to worry about the rest of the grass burning, reclamation and the like, he just needs to get farm tools and seeds.

He had already figured out that the wheat had missed the time of farming, so he could only plant some corn and millet in the spring. In fact, he felt that planting taro (potatoes) was the best choice, which was recorded in the "Complete Book of Agricultural Administration". But at present, he has not seen this kind of thing, this thing is only planted in coastal places such as Fujian, and inland areas like Henan have not yet been introduced.

As for whether this kind of taro is suitable for planting in Henan, Li Yan is not worried. It was a gut feeling, like one of those barrel wrenches he hadn't seen before, and he could make it. This taro can be grown in Henan, and it has a huge effect, it is also this intuition, or subconscious, that he is convinced of this.