The valley was empty, and the cries were heard far away, followed by the howls of wolves, the howls of wolves mixed with the screams of sheep. Chao Gai looked at Luo Yun, and Luo Yun said, "The voice is coming from the southwest." ”

Chao Gai said, "Let's go, go and have a look." ”

Su Xian Ling also ran very fast, and he didn't seem to be afraid. The group walked along the meadow for 200 meters, turned a pine forest, and there was a tragic image in front of them, a dozen goats lying on the ground, and the autumn grass was stained red with a pool of blood. A shepherd man is fighting with a hungry wolf with a whistle stick, but there are too many wolves, at least six, although the man who herds sheep is not afraid of wolves, but he can't stop wolves from biting sheep.

A big bad wolf pounced on it, the man's whistle stick hit the head, the whistle stick was hollow, the solidity was limited, the wolf was a copper head and iron head, and he heard a crisp snap, the whistle stick was broken, the big bad wolf opened his mouth, and bit the man's neck viciously, the man felt the wolf's mouth full of fishy breath, lamenting his fate, and suddenly the hungry wolf who pounced on himself suddenly turned, and pounced on the small tree next to him, and his limbs were constantly scratching.

The incident happened suddenly, and the man was also taken aback, and after a closer look, he found that there was a feathered arrow on the neck of the hungry wolf, which nailed the hungry wolf to the tree. Immediately after him, a hungry wolf was hit by an arrow in the forehead and fell.

It turned out that Chao Gai saw that the situation was urgent, and was worried that the wolf would eat the shepherd, so he fired two arrows in a row to save the shepherd. Su Xian Ling put up a pergola and watched: "This has to be seventy or eighty steps away, directly nail the wolf to the tree, and the flying general Li Guang is at this level." ”

Chao Gai said: "Li Guang shot an arrow at a stone, and I shot at a tree, but I still can't compare." As he spoke, Chao Gai put away his bow and arrows.

Luo Yun next to him gestured, and with a wave of his saber, five horses flew out of the team, including Luo Yun, a total of six fast horses, and the horses scattered and galloped towards the hungry wolf on the grass.

It turned out that there were a total of six hungry wolves, two of which were solved by Chao Gai, and the remaining four hungry wolves looked at the situation here, and the wolves also wondered, why did the two companions suddenly die, and at a glance, there were six people on horseback, who looked like they were not easy to provoke, so they turned around and ran. As soon as the wolf began to trot, Luo Yun and they had already begun to accelerate, it was only a distance of one hundred and ten meters, where it would take how long, almost instantaneously, the cavalry arrived, and there was no need for bows and arrows, the cavalry bent down, the sharp sabers rested and chopped down, and the wolf's copper head and iron head were chopped off.

Luo Yun wiped out the wolves and commanded five cavalrymen to disperse to see if there was any danger around. The shepherd man saw that someone had saved him, and then looked at his own sheep, there were more than a dozen of them alive, no matter what, there were still half of them.

Although he is a man in the mountains and wilderness, the basic etiquette is still understood, the shepherd threw away half of the whistle stick, walked to Chao Gai's side, hugged Chao Gai and others from a distance, bowed and said: "Thank you for saving your life, the villain will never forget." ”

Chao Gai said: "You don't have to worry about it. ”

Su Xian Ling rode over on a pony, and when he saw this guy, he knew Zhang Daring from a nearby village.

"Zhang Daring, you are tired of being crooked, the county government has long said that there are wolves in this valley, and it is strictly forbidden to herd sheep and hunt, why are you still here."

Zhang Daring said: "It turned out to be the county master, this time it was my fault, I shouldn't have come into the valley." Originally, I was thinking that I would go back at noon to let the sheep eat some good grass, but who would have thought that I would encounter wolves in broad daylight, and I killed my sheepdog first, and I went to stop it, and the wolves came to bite me again. ”

Su Xian Ling was angry and said: "You humil person, it's okay now, the family still expects your flock of sheep to live, and it depends on what you should do if you die so much." ”

Zhang Daring sighed and said: "At most, I won't marry a daughter-in-law, what else can I do, anyway, there is always something to eat." ”

Su Xianling scolded and counted Zhang Daring down.

Chao Gai said: "You are not a little brave man, one person dares to fight with a few wolves, aren't you afraid?" ”

Zhang Daring said: "I didn't have a name when I was a child, just because I was bold, others called me Zhang Daring." It's a lie to say that I'm not afraid at all, but I'll herd the sheep, and it's my job to protect the sheep, and I have to do it even if I risk my life. Besides, it's a guy who doesn't take advantage of it, if there is an iron rod that is guaranteed to knock over a three-headed or five-headed wolf. ”

Chao Gai looked at Zhang Daring and found that this was a standard Hebei man, with a medium stature, strong and powerful.

"Want to be a soldier? There is a military pay, and there is good food to eat. Chao Gai asked.

Zhang Daring is very happy, who doesn't want to be a soldier, put on armor and ride a war horse, how majestic it should be.

Zhang Daring nodded, and shook his head again: "I want to be, but I can't." I am the only boy in the family, my parents are elderly, and I have two younger sisters to take care of. ”

"Well, your flock is ruined, and it seems that your livelihood is gone, so it's better to do this, in a few days there will be a team of horses here to graze, and then you can come and take care of the horses, and you can get some wages, close to home, and take care of the family." Chao Gai said.

Zhang boldly said: "Thank you, I will definitely come over in a few days." ”

Chao Gai and the others continued to investigate and found that this is indeed a good place, the river is not big, it can only be regarded as a stream in the mountains, but there is water all year round, so as to ensure the drinking water of the horses, there are many grasslands and wastelands on both sides, and there is no crop land, just find a flat place to build a stable to put horses here.

Su Xian Ling said proudly: "Yes, it is fifteen or sixteen miles long, and it can be five or six miles wide." This col is called Cangyan Mountain, a famous mountain near Jingcheng, and there were originally people in the valley, but later because of the double danger of bandits and wild wolves, basically no one lived here, so it was empty. ”

"It's pretty good, it's just that there are a lot of wolves. If you want to come here to herd the horses, you will inevitably have to kill the wolves again. Chao Gai sighed.

The place where the horses are raised is basically determined, and when they come back, the people from the horse farm will have to look at the terrain and decide how to build it. Chao Gai and others returned, and continued to look for the site of the wood factory, along the road to see the mountain bag of Jingcheng is lined up, the trees of the ancient timber wolf forest are also very many, fir trees, birch, pine, cypress, poplar, willow and so on are everywhere, wood resources are abundant, but there is one, the road is not good, basically can only let pedestrians and horses pass, the carriage can not go. This is troublesome, the weight of wood is large, and it is difficult to do long-distance transportation without using horse-drawn carriages.

Ma Ling said: "I don't think the wood factory can be set up in the mountains, or choose a place next to the official road into the Jingcheng Mountain, or rent or buy, and build a factory from there, so that at least it can facilitate the export of products." ”

Chao Gai said: "Well, that's the truth, the road in the mountains is rugged and difficult, and it is indeed not suitable to choose in the mountains." ”

Su County ordered that he was in a hurry, and the outside of the mountain was not under his control, so Su County ordered: "There are no official roads in the mountains, so choose a site from the official roads in the mountains and find a piece of wasteland to use for free, how good it is." ”

Chao Gai shook his head and said: "The price of land is not expensive, and the wood factory can't use a few acres of land, so why bother to find a place with inconvenient transportation in order to save some money." ”

Su Xian Ling gritted his teeth and said: "Okay, I will build the road, and I will repair the road as soon as the autumn harvest is over, organize 20,000 strong men, sort out the official roads in the mountains, and then open the spring next year, and then widen the roads in the key places." ”

Gongsun Sheng said: "For the sake of Su County's sincerity, let's open it in the mountains." ”

Chao Gai said, "Okay. ”

Seeing that Chao Gai agreed, Su County's mouth couldn't close happily, and said: "It's no problem to repair the road, and the people in the mountains are also very willing to repair this one. ”

Chao Gai had expected it, but Chao Gai had already managed the Jingcheng Mountain District as his own territory, and immediately said: "It's no problem to manage the rice, I will send someone to be responsible for eating, and even the quality of the road I will send someone to supervise." ”

Su County ordered: "Why don't Chao Tuanlian trust our Jingcheng County Yamen, our Yamen is full of good people." ”

Gongsun Sheng said: "Of course there are good people in the yamen, I'm afraid that you don't supervise it properly, and you will do something to the food of the strong men who build roads, and then my brother's reputation will not stink?" So it's still up to our people to take care of the rice. ”

Su Xian Ling was happy and quiet, and said: "Okay, anyway, the road is in our Jingcheng County, and it is all my credit to go back to the official assessment." ”

It is not enough to build roads, but also to suppress bandits, there are many bandits in the mountains, most of these bandits are not specialized, usually farm and herd sheep, and when they encounter fat sheep, they gather together and rob merchants. Chao Gai said: "The environment in the mountains is not bad, but there are too many bandits and it also affects foreign trading houses to do business, and not every trading house will have a large team of people like us to protect it." ”

Su County ordered: "It's difficult to suppress bandits, in the final analysis, they are still poor, the people are poor and have no food to eat, they have to find a way, the county government is poor, there is no money to recruit officials, and naturally there is no way to suppress bandits." ”

Chao Gai said: "You have to do something to show me your sincerity." ”

Su County Ling knew that it was not a matter for another person to shirk, and immediately said: "Okay, no matter how difficult it is to suppress bandits, you have to do it, but you have also seen the infantry army in the county, it is completely an old people's group, and it is not useful." ”

"I know you're going to borrow troops, no problem. I'll lend you the head of the infantry army in Yuncheng County. Chao Gai said.

Su County Ling was grateful to Dade, and invited Chao Gai and others to dinner, Chao Gai and others stayed in Jingcheng County for two days, and after checking the basic terrain, they returned to the external liaison office of Zhending City. Everything is fine with the liaison office, and there are no chickens and dogs jumping. Sun An and Feng Sheng are still recuperating from their injuries. Li Kui, Bao Xu, and Pang Wanchun also did not go out according to the order, but only practiced boxing and archery in the courtyard.

When Li Kui saw Chao Gai coming, he hurriedly came over and said, "Brother, is there anything interesting in the mountains?" Why don't you take me there? ”

Chao Gai said: "Your soldiers have just experienced a battle, and the casualties are so heavy, you must accompany them to relieve their emotions." ”

Li Kui said: "It's all right, the injured are basically healed, one by one, thirty soldiers can fight." ”

"Then I'll give you a task, you take the troops to Jingcheng County and help Su County order to suppress the bandits."

...

...