Surrounded by mountains, some low grass huts are sparsely distributed, and the young people in coarse cloth clothes do not serve the crops in the fields, but practice with sticks in the open fields of the village. The young men were patched on their clothes, and their hands were covered in dirt and calluses, but they were lined up and danced with sticks, shouting and waving sticks at the sound of a middle-aged man!

Due to the restrictions on sanitation and living standards, the average life expectancy of people in such villages is limited, and people over 50 years old can be called longevity, and the owner of this small village is such a birthday star who is nearly 60 years old. The old man was dressed in a rough homespun cloth shirt and straw sandals, and his clothes were the same as those of ordinary peasants, but they were exceptionally neat and unstained with dust.

The years have carved countless furrows on his face, but the old man's gaze has been sharp, and the huge hooked nose on his face makes the whole person's face a little hideous, and the gray beard seems to carry a bit of danger. Compared with most of his peers, the old man was healthier, his waist was still straight, and he walked with gusto, smoking a cigarette pouch while watching these training children, like a general reviewing the troops.

Fan Jin followed the old man, wearing a Confucian shirt and cloth boots sewn by the locals on his feet. Shen San and Zhang Tiejian were guarding his side on the left and right, and a little farther away, they were the guards brought out by Fan Jin from the Beijing Division.

These guards are from Mingfeng Dart Xing, they are all disciples of Feng Mingqi, and their personal martial arts cultivation and experience in the rivers and lakes are very rich, and their eyes are also very vicious. Originally, I didn't look at the drills of these rural descendants, but when they were the village regiments, they gradually became a little more vigilant in the eyes of these guards.

These seemingly earthy peasants, the tricks they practice are extremely simple, and they only turn over and over a few times, which is not a masterful martial art. But the shot was swift and powerful, and the seemingly honest eyes were full of murderous energy. If you fight alone, you may not be very powerful, but if you fight in a group, these ten guards with high martial arts skills may not be able to defeat these dozens of descendants in the village. This is a military martial art, not a kung fu of the rivers and lakes, and it is definitely not a good look......

Fan Jin's brigade did not follow into the village, and this small mountain village could not accommodate such a large team. Zhang Shunqing led the team to move forward under Fan Jin's name, while Fan Jin led a team to secretly break away from the team. He left his beloved wife and went to the countryside, naturally not to watch a group of village juniors practice martial arts, let alone for the hot eyes of the enthusiastic and energetic country girls in the village and the cloth boots they sewed overnight. The importance of this mountain village to Fan Jin was second only to that of the imperial court, and these seemingly ordinary villagers were enough to withstand tens of thousands of soldiers if they were used properly.

The deliberate choice of the Sanggan River as the route of progress, and the deliberate avoidance of Xuanfu and direct entry into Datong, represented that the focus of Fan Jin's work was on Shanxi rather than Hebei. According to his inference, there is probably a large-scale operation among the Tumut tribes, and it is unclear whether the Chahar tribes will follow suit. Whether it is from the righteousness of protecting the people or the small ninety-nine with his own work performance, he has the obligation to ensure that the Xuanda defense line is impregnable and there are no mistakes.

Fan Jin is not a military strategist, he does not know how to command troops to fight, and when it comes to his role on the battlefield, the civilian officials sitting on the nine sides are above him. All Fan Jin could do was to increase the weight of the imperial court as much as possible before the war, so that the balance of victory would tilt.

Fan Jin's own talent and position determine that there are not many things he can do. The option of manufacturing advanced weapons must be ruled out, he has little interest in ordnance in his two lives, and there is no so-called god craftsman who can make finished products in the Ming Dynasty. What's more, the innovation of weapons relies on the progress of the entire industrial system, and the current Ming Dynasty has no supporting functions, and Fan Jin has never thought of engaging in an industrial revolution or steam engine in the Ming Dynasty, so this article is naturally vetoed. Another weapon of the traverser to train the new army cannot be realized. Let's not talk about Qi Jiguang's presence, and Fan Jin can't be trained in turn, so it's too late to talk about time, so there is no need to think about it.

With his ability and ability, the work he can do to prepare for war is to mobilize materials and analyze intelligence as much as possible, so as to make up more than 50% of the chances of victory before the war starts. This job is actually not easy, Fan Jin is not an immortal, and he can't turn stones into gold. Xuanfu no longer plans to intervene, he just wants to feel at ease and stay out of the first line of defense. However, public opinion in Shanxi is complicated, and requisitioning materials there is a tiger's mouth, and it is indispensable to have a good fight with the local gentry.

Fan Jin was not a member of the Goryeo Kim clan and had no interest in acts such as the Suffering March. He is a person who pursues enjoyment, he can sit and never stand, he can lie down and never sit, and in the face of strong enemies, he does not want to improve himself, but to find a few more helpers.

Although the caravan members provided by Zhang Guodong were limited in number and had extremely low status, these people went deep into Mongolia and had contacts with many tribes, and they had deep ties with the border army. Whether it is from the grasp of intelligence or the dispatch of materials, it has its own way, and getting the help of these people is equivalent to having an extra elite army out of thin air. It is precisely because of their importance that it is worth Fan Jin to put down his wife and rush over here to sleep on a hardwood bed.

The old man named Wu Shishi in front of him was an important member of the contact list. According to records, his family has been engaged in smuggling business for at least 100 years, and if judged by his behavior, he is a standard smuggler who brings disaster to the country and the people. But his other layer of identity, but is one of the Ming military households, when he was young, he was guarding the city at the border to kill the enemy, and he used to fight with the captive cavalry, until a serious injury that almost led to cripplement made him take off his robe and change to civilian clothes.

On the one hand, his caravans carried out the supplies that the Mongols urgently needed, and on the other hand, they also brought back important information, and in many cases acted as a pressure relief valve, trying to get the small tribes to abandon their plans to plunder. His grandfather and father died in the course of the trade, and several of his siblings and sons died on this dangerous trade journey, leaving him and his grandchildren alone.

His grandson Wu Leopard is a simple and sturdy young man, with a black and red face, and his appearance is at least ten years older than his actual age, and he is a little wooden. And his granddaughter is a heroine who can catch a tiger with a tiger's waist and a tiger, and on the first day Fan came in, he saw her scolding with a few country women with her waist crossed, and the swear words of an unmarried girl made several women unable to reply.

Just such an ordinary looking country house and such a village that looks like a paradise, there are at least thirty of them distributed in this area, and Wu Shishi is their common leader. This old man, who looked like an old peasant, was able to mobilize hundreds of young men who could carry weapons desperately, and his own big hands with exposed green tendons still had the strength to break the necks of others.

This is the merchant in the frontier, fierce and cunning, and the most important thing is ruthless. If you don't have this ability, you don't want to survive at the border.

Fan Jin's contact with Wu Shishi was not smooth, and the communication skills he had trained in officialdom were difficult to play in this old man. The cunning of the merchants, the vigilance of the mountain people, and the experience of killing people in the field are combined to create this difficult old monster to deal with.

This old man, who looked like an ordinary peasant and was like his name, was stubborn and had no idea where to start. Fan Jin not only revealed his identity, but also used the code words provided by Zhang Guodong to prove that he was indeed from the Ministry of War. He also took out spirits, colored satin, silver, and miscellaneous goods purchased in Jingshili as a purchase, but Wu Shishi's attitude was still lukewarm, cautious and obedient, but he just didn't tell you.

On the surface, Wu Shishi respected Fan Jin like a god, and when he heard that it was the old man, he lay on the ground and said that he didn't dare to get up, and ordered all the sheep in the village to be killed, and the mutton and sheep were boiled for the distinguished guests to eat. At dinner that day, the old man asked all the men and women in the village to change into new clothes and pay homage to the lord of the courtyard. When the wine was hot, the old man held a wine bowl and sang on the spot, dancing in front of the fire and singing local tunes, full of an old country man who had never seen the world and could sell his life with a few words of compliment.

He could tolerate his granddaughter and a few big girls in the village making shoes for the white bread man, or singing a fiery tune on the pyre, because he drank too much earth burning, one of the guards who accompanied Fan Jin could not control his belt, and hooked up with a young woman in the village with flattering words, and took her arm and drilled into the crop field, the old man clearly saw it but kept silent, and did not allow the woman's brothers to obstruct it. Fan Jin even believed that if he touched his granddaughter's bed at night, he would pretend to be asleep and not hear it.

But no matter how enthusiastic and easy-going he was, he just refused to talk to him about business, and as soon as he mentioned the business and the situation in Mongolia, he looked dazed, as if he was listening to a book from heaven. If it weren't for the fact that the name was correct, and the two parties did match the code, Fan Jin would even suspect that the intelligence of the Ministry of War was wrong.

It's not that Fan Jin has nothing to do with the old man, just look at the way Wu Shishi's granddaughter looks at him, and the passionate words are full of primitive appeal, Fan Jin can drag her into the crop field without effort, and it is not difficult to ask the truth from her mouth. But he was not interested in the girl who could kill the tiger and looked like a tiger herself, with Zheng Chan and Xue Wu by his side, the girl couldn't get into his eyes, and even the boots looked at her and a few girls with expectant eyes and couldn't bear to refuse.

Wearing these boots that several girls drove out overnight can be regarded as a compromise, and it is also a warning to Wu Shishi. He had been here for two days, enough time for his granddaughter to make a pair of half-finished boots, and if he didn't tell the result today, after eating the last chicken in the village, his own people should set off to chase the army. He is important, and his time is also important, and it cannot be wasted without limits.

Wu Shishi watched the group of juniors practice, and lit it with a cigarette pouch:

"Look, big lord, the leopard's doll practices very hard, this doll has wanted to be a soldier since she was a child, saying that she wants to rely on martial arts to make her family rich. I beat him several times, but I couldn't beat him, and his father, his uncle, and his uncle were so rich and rich that they didn't take back the bones. The Wu family is just this seedling, he hasn't gotten married yet, if there are three long and two short, my family will be extinct! Last! ”

Fan Jin coughed, "Relying on martial arts to fight for wealth and wealth doesn't necessarily require hard work. Even in the army, there are some places where you can be promoted without having to work hard, and the main thing is to look at the relationship. For example, as a guard for a nobleman, he doesn't need to fight, and he rises quickly. ”

"It's hard. This baby has a bad brain, and he has a tendon to do things, which noble person wants him. Not to mention the nobles, he doesn't even have a woman who likes him, he can't get married at such an age, and he is sad to death. And my little flower, what a good girl, who can work and endure hardships, and her body is strong, and she can give birth at a glance. If you pass the door, you will have babies one after another. ”

"Children and grandchildren have their own children and grandchildren, you are not young, don't worry too much. Everyone has their own fate, and sometimes there must be a fate, and there is no time in life to ask for it. ”

Wu Shishi looked at Fan Jin's feet, "These boots are sturdy, right?" I also know that it looks a little dirty and the stitches are not good, but it is all genuine. We are not better in Shanxi than in Beijing, there are many mountains and stones, and it is useless to look good in shoes in this kind of place, the key is to be strong. The boots you brought from Kyori don't look good, but they don't sturdy. ”

Fan Jin smiled, "As long as it looks good, who cares if it's strong or not, everyone is a decent person, who really waits for it to wear out, and if it's old, it'll be lost." Just like the colored satin I brought, the texture is definitely not as good as the home-woven cloth, but when it comes to the price, the homespun cloth is not as good as silk. ”

"It's natural...... Nature. ”

Wu Shishi took two puffs of cigarette and looked at Fan Jin, "Master, are you leaving?" ”

"yes, it's time to go."

"What do you think should be done about the three girls of the donkey's family? It is said that for a woman in the mountains, you gave twenty taels of silver is already a sky-high price, and it doesn't take so much to marry her as an aunt. But Zhang Donkey's family is not having a good time, and the seven sons are all counting on the three girls to change wives, and it is not good for this broken person to ask for a bride price...... Would you like to see if you can add more? ”

Fan Jin smiled, "This matter is on my side, if you make a mistake, you have to admit that you are beaten and stand firm, and I have to give money if people want it." A yellow flower girl can't just sleep with someone and lose money, I will let my entourage marry her and be responsible for her to the end. I asked, he didn't get married, and he didn't use force on women, at most he was a rhetoric, and this time he just let him cash in. That kid looks passable, although he doesn't have a big profit, he can earn more than 100 taels of silver every year by his side, it's not a loss to that girl, right? The Zhang family was sent to live in Beijing, and I came to pay for the settlement. If the Zhang family is not satisfied, I will use Shang Fang's sword to behead my subordinates, give the three girls anger, and pay another sum of silver taels. The old man took the trouble to ask, whether they want to be in-laws or do I want to kill people, from the mouth of the Buddha, I will do whatever the bitter master says. ”

A suspicious smile appeared on Wu Shishi's wrinkled face, and a broken tooth flashed in the sunlight.

"I knew from the first day the lord came that you were a cool person and a good person. As soon as the incident of the three girls came out, you took the silver out to compensate. A few years ago, an official from the Ministry of War also came, and like you, he brought dozens of people with him, and he also wanted to go out to the border pass. It was not our village that came, it was the Shangxia village in front, and the village also killed sheep and drank wine. When he drank too much, he couldn't control himself, and the official took the lead in hugging a girl into the room, and the others did the same. Over the years, there were a few more children in the village, and now I don't know who my father is, and that night ...... The women of the whole village are not well. Or we are good at creation and meet a good official. ”

"I'm not a good official, I just don't want to be a fool. The person you're talking about stays here if you want to. ”

Wu Shishi smiled, didn't answer the question, and only knocked the cigarette pouch a few times. He said to himself: "There is no way to bring about good fortune and misfortune, people are artificially different, the three girls of Zhang Donkey's family look like a cow, but they are a good man." I am in charge of this matter, the girl married Master Fan's subordinates, and the silver was given a few taels, and I only begged him to take a boy from the Zhang family into Beijing, and the others stayed. ”

He looked at Fan Jin again: "Master, do you think that my surname Wu is not a thing?" Received money but refused to tell the truth, and refused to serve the court? ”

"Everyone has their own ambitions, and I don't force them."

"After all, he is a student, and his words are different from our old coarseness. I don't understand these big truths, so I'll tell you a little bit of our country vernacular. In your book, Shanxi is a total of seventeen road merchants, right? I'm the first way, I don't know how to lift, so the old man will go to find someone else. ”

Fan Jin didn't answer, only looked at Wu Shishi. The latter smiled bitterly at Fan Jin, "If I tell you that you are old, it is an old yellow calendar in your hand, the Seventeenth Road Merchant Gang, all you can find is my stinky and hard old stone, what should you say?" ”