The lights in the Dazhai Juyi Hall on the top of Fuyong Mountain are bright, and the big boss Xu Dumu is lying on the tiger skin chair at the top of the lobby, supporting his chin with one hand, squinting his eyes and saying nothing; The ferocious-looking second-in-command Ma Zhangba stared at the middle-aged scribe in front of him viciously, and his eyes shone with a fierce light that seemed to want to choose someone to devour:

"You said that the current Fourth Prince will pass under my mountain tomorrow? Surely this news can't be wrong? ”

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"You dare to entertain Lao Tzu, beware of Lao Tzu cutting you into slices and eating wine!" Ma Zhangpachi pulled out the boning knife he had brought with him, and pointed the tip of the knife at the scribe's nose.

The middle-aged scribe was calm, as if he hadn't seen the blade shining with cold light in front of him. "The two leaders, although relieved, will stay in the cottage until the leader confirms the news; If there is any deception below, I am willing to let the two leaders deal with it. ”

Ma Zhangba glared at the scribe for another moment, and seeing that the other party still had a calm and calm expression, he smacked his lips with some unfinished thoughts, put away his knife and turned around and walked into Xu Dumu's ear and whispered a few words. Xu Dumu nodded, and opened the only remaining eye, and there seemed to be a surge of light in his eyes. He stared at the middle-aged scribe and slowly stretched out three fingers: "Three questions." ”

"First, how do you ensure that the king of the North Sea will pass under my mountain? It is said that the king of the North Sea is going to Jimo, and he can go without passing through Fuyong Mountain. ”

"Second, my cottage will only be ten and less than a thousand, how can I deal with a prince who has been personally crowned by the emperor?"

"Third, if this transaction is done, the court will inevitably be furious, and it may cause a catastrophe, so ...... What benefits can I have? ”

When the middle-aged scribe saw Xu Dumu asking, he was not surprised, he was not afraid of him asking, he was afraid that he would leave without saying a word; As long as he asks, it means that he has been tempted! At the moment, he said unhurriedly: "Don't worry, big boss, wait for me to come together." ”

"The first point is guaranteed in the next place, because I came here this time and brought two gifts." With a wave of his hand, the entourage next to him immediately pushed out a man with a big tie and a black cloth on his head stepped forward. The scribe pointed to the kidnapped man and said to Xu Dumu, "This is the first gift. This person's name is Xiahou Jie, an assistant official in Jiaodong County, the younger brother of the late Mrs. Xiahou, and the maternal uncle of the fourth prince. With his maternal uncle here, do you think the king of Beihai is coming? ”

"You're so daring! Dare to kidnap the court officials to go up the mountain without our consent, is it not good to be my sword? ”

Ma Zhangba was furious, jumped out of his seat and wanted to slash with a knife, but was stopped by Xu Dumu, and waved his hand to signal the scribe to continue, but his eyes were more fierce.

The middle-aged scribe didn't even glance at the approaching blade. "As for the second point, the leader doesn't know that this king of the North Sea has come to the North Sea, called the National Hunt, which is no different from exile, and there are only 500 guards around him; In addition, although there are 500 county soldiers to escort them, they are all native chickens and dogs, and they are vulnerable; The leader has thousands of armored people, all of whom are elite. As long as the drum is up, the county soldiers will be defeated and retreat for thousands of miles. If you use a thousand people to deal with five hundred, you won't be able to catch them? ”

Xu Dumu pursed his lips and was unmoved.

The scribe smiled and stroked his long hair, "And another gift below will surely give the leader a boost." After saying that, he took out a cloth bag and opened it layer by layer, revealing the contents inside: a crossbow with cold light flashing!

The horse stood up, his face full of disbelief; Although Xu Dumu's body did not move, his eyes were wide open, and his breathing became heavy. You know, it's a crossbow! A crossbow that can only be equipped with a small number of regular troops!

In the Bactrian military system, crossbowmen were not a standing type of troops, and only the Northern Army stationed on the border had some regular equipment; Compared to bows, crossbows actually do not have an advantage in terms of range, penetration, etc. The only thing that has to do with a crossbow is that it's easy to use, and that's especially important! Guy is difficult to train a qualified archer, usually difficult to form without more than a year of hard training, and has strict requirements for the height and arm length of the user; And the crossbow is different, with only a short period of training, the vast majority of people can master this weapon with great lethality! In medieval Europe, the use of crossbow machines was even banned for a while, and there was a popular saying that "a farmer can easily kill a noble knight with a crossbow". Most places in the Xia Dynasty adopted a conscription system, and the service period of soldiers was only two years, so there were few large-scale archers in the county and county soldiers. In such a situation, having a team equipped with crossbows can be imagined! So it is not surprising that Xu Dumu and Ma Zhangba's gaffe.

Xu Dumu took a deep breath, tried his best to suppress the excitement in his heart, and asked calmly, "How many of these things are there?" It's a pity that the slightly trembling tone betrayed the excitement in his heart.

"Two hundred, all of them are one stone strong crossbow!" One stone is 30 kilograms, enough to suppress a distance of one hundred and twenty paces.

"When will it arrive?" Xu Dumu knew that it was impossible for the other party to carry all two hundred crossbows with him.

"It will be delivered to the chief by noon tomorrow."

The middle-aged scribe was not in a hurry, and waited until the two bandit leaders slowly digested the joy that fell from the sky before continuing to speak: "As for the benefits mentioned by the big leader, I think the big leader should know that after all, this king of the North Sea is patrolling on behalf of the sky, and in addition to the materials he has with him, there are also treasures and ...... used to reward officials from all over the world Millions of dollars! ”

As soon as the words fell, there was a sudden and eerie silence in the lobby, except for the sound of gradually heavy snorts. If getting a strong crossbow is the foundation of life, then having a huge wealth is an opportunity to develop and grow! What is the concept of millions of dollars? According to the price at this time, a stone of grain is more than 100 yuan, and a good Western Regions war horse is only 10,000 yuan, and millions of dollars means tens of thousands of stone grains and grass, and hundreds of good horses! There is so much food that it is not a problem to pull up a contingent of thousands; With so many war horses, and even a cavalry, where can you not go to the world?

Does Zhao Min really have so much money?

When I set off from Luoyang, I did carry more than a million dollars with me, but a large part of it was the military salary of the accompanying tiger guards; From the perspective of team control, the emperor's general salary was placed in Zhao Min's hands, and from this point of view, it is not wrong to say that Hu Benwei is Zhao Min's private army, but it is a pity that it only lasts for one year.

As for the daily supply of the troops, in fact, it basically does not cost money. According to the summer system, when the troops had a task, the marching food, grass and baggage were provided by the counties they passed through. Some time ago, the so-called purchase was actually a white slip, and then these merchants who were bought took the white strip to the Taishou Mansion to ask for money.

Zhao Min still has some anecdotes for himself. First, as the prince's offering, according to the law, it is a thousand stones a year, and it is 100,000 yuan; The second is the king of Beihai, 3,000 stone a year, 300,000 yuan, of course, if the food is set, the money will be gone, so it is a one-time transaction; In the end, because it is the period of the national hunt, it represents the face of the Son of Heaven, and there is a "Shangyi" to take, that is, a subsidy, and this part also has about 300,000 yuan. And the money was basically received at one time when I left Luoyang.

To sum up, plus military salaries, troop supplies, salaries, etc., there are indeed millions of miscellaneous calculations. But after the consumption of the road, the cost of making wine and buying crystals in Xixian County, not to mention millions now, is not even a million, at most four or five hundred thousand!

Of course, the bandits don't know the truth. Xu Dumu is a figure who has been a big boss for many years, and he was the first to come back to his senses. He calculated in his heart: with two hundred crossbowmen in hand, coupled with the unique terrain advantage of the cottage, and then with the intention of calculating or not, not to mention the superiority of troops, it seems that he really can't find a reason to be invincible? In fact, he was already tempted in his heart, but he still pretended to be calm and asked the middle-aged scribe: "I don't ask you about your identity, but what do you want at such a big price?" ”

The middle-aged scribe bowed slightly, and admired the thief's ability to maintain basic calmness in the face of such temptation: "There is only one thing I want, and this thing is on the King of the North Sea, and it is something that the big boss is definitely not interested in!" ”