The trek back to Fort Talon was the end of November.

Wedge Hehsan received a rich pension, and his cavalry had their own rewards, and they returned to the Galen tribe, and the dead and wounded cavalry had to let Wedge Hemu continue to replenish, which was spoken a long time ago.

Under the greeting of the scouts sent by Liu Shuihe, the convoy bypassed the vine grassland boundary, and Hao Haoran arrived in front of the Eagle Claw Fort, and Xiao Ye, who was riding on a war horse, raised his eyes and couldn't help but secretly rejoice in his heart.

With the lesson of being besieged by the Tartars, the area of the Eagle Claw Fort at this time has been doubled, and although the stone wall of the outer ring has not been completely built, the solid wall of the half-zhang high is enough to block the impact of the Tartar iron cavalry, not to mention that the guards still have fire/guns in their hands.

Soon, Liu Shuihe and others, who stayed in Eagle Claw Fort, left the stone fort to meet the returning convoy, and they were separated for more than a month, and everyone was quite affectionate when they met.

What surprised Xiao Ye the most was that after entering the outer wall of the stone castle, he found that the stone houses that had just been built were actually inhabited by a team of guards, and even the craftsmen were crowded into the Chase Shop.

"This, this, there are our warehouses and black houses in the inner fort, the guards must be strict, and it is natural for others to move out," for the doubts of the hundred households, whether it was Liu Shuihe or Wang Dali, they said the reason.

"Oh," when he heard the word black room, Xiao Ye suddenly nodded with a chuckle, okay, the inner fort is a key position, and the night owl team, the personal guard team, and the communication team are in it; Here, in the future, it will also become a storage center, which just saves the trouble of dumping.

Miao Biwu escorted the convoy into the inner fort, whether it was the ore sent to the mill or the grain sent to the warehouse, there were regulations to follow, and the accounts would be sent back to Madao Stone Fort as soon as possible.

Of the Han slaves sent back from the Galen tribe, 400 joined Liu Shuihe's family guard, and the remaining 100 men and women were arranged under Huang Hanxiang and were busy digging phosphorite all day long.

After listening to Wang Dali's report, Xiao Ye thought for a while, "Uncle Wang, Huang Hanxiang, they should go to the logistics team as if they were Bingru, so as not to make it difficult for him,"

"In the future, there will be more work in the logistics team, and it is not good to have fewer manpower," Xiao Ye pulled the gray-haired Wang Dali and said with emotion, "You have to take care of your body, our logistics team boys don't understand, and we all count on you old people,"

"Don't worry, don't worry, my old man can't do anything else, it's not ambiguous to manage a craftsman's work," Wang Dali looked at Xiao Ye, who was getting stronger and stronger, and nodded vigorously.

After resting in the stone castle for a long time, Wang Ziliang rushed over, and Xiao Ye summoned Liu Shuihe, Miao Biwu, Qin Shishi and others to discuss military affairs in the military building on the second floor.

The influence that Captain Claudius brought to him was quietly fermenting.

In the past month or so, the Tartars have sent people to trade several times, from cattle and sheep to slaves, everything has been exchanged, and Liu Shuihe, according to the explanation of the hundred households, is also in addition to firearms and other military products, can be traded at a higher price, and the process is quite smooth.

The Tian family secretly sent dozens of death row prisoners, who were scavenged from nowhere, and after replacing them with ten fires/guns, they were sent to the black house by Wang Ziliang.

The cattle and sheep and fierce fire oil sent by the Galen tribe were exchanged for some water umbrellas, tea, canned food, and crossbows.

Every day at the Madao checkpoint, Wang Gui, the speaker sent by Wang Dali, was very busy.

At present, the materials traded with mainland merchants are basically sold out in warehouses and urgently need to be replenished.

Liu Shuihe now has a new family guard under his command, and there are already more than 500 people, and he needs 100 households to make adjustments.

The construction of the stone fort on the outer edge of Eagle Claw Fort had to be stopped due to weather conditions, and it could only be resumed after the beginning of spring next year.

In short, Madao Stone Fort, Eagle Claw Fort, as well as Bailonghu, Galen Tribe, and West Wedge He tribe are all normal, but the Persian goods are about to be cut off.

After Wang Dali, Liu Shuihe, and Wang Ziliang reported one by one, Xiao Ye glanced at Wang Ziliang's calm face, knowing that he had reservations, so he could only wait and say it alone.

When everyone was finished, Xiao Ye took a sip of hot tea, habitually looked at the map on the table, and thought for a while, "The family business is finally a little foundation,"

The words of Youyou suddenly made everyone laugh, and even the knife standing at the door withdrew a trace of a smile from the corner of his mouth.

"Okay, this official knows your thoughts, but I'm afraid that my official position of a hundred households is coming to an end," without dragging mud and water, Xiao Ye put the idea of thinking about it on the road straight to the point.

"Madao Stone Fort set up a team of 1,000 people, Wang Meng, the head of a thousand households, and set up ten teams of 100 people, including five craftsman teams, and the centurion discussed separately; One communication team and one medical team, and this thousand-person team is directly led by the officer,"

"Eagle Claw Fort established the Ximen Legion, the legion commander, oh, that is, the commander, the official has received it, and the personal guards and guards are counted separately,"

"There are seven chiefs of thousands of households under the Ximen Legion, and all the family guards, logistics teams, and miscellaneous teams are incorporated into it,"

"Thousands of household chiefs, Manshanzi, Wedge Hehashan, Yushan, Du Ding, Lei Xiaoqing, Liu Shuihe," Xiao Ye looked around at everyone, and slowly highlighted the last name, "Wang Dali,"

Lei Xiaoqing, a centurion who has been guarding Bailong Lake and does not participate in the rotation, is a good keeper, which Xiao Ye saw very clearly.

The cavalry under Manshanzi has passed thousands, and everyone knows it, but Xiao Ye doesn't mention it, no one dares to talk nonsense, the risk on the grassland is not something ordinary people can imagine, a little negligence is a disaster to exterminate the clan, more will be more.

The sergeants under Wedge Hehashan, Yu Shan, and Du Ding have been extended to a certain limit, and if they want to come to a hundred households, uh, they should have a way to do so.

The Tartars dare to claim more than 10,000 cavalry if they have 5,000 cavalry, and the commander is good, trying every means to hide his strength, which is really too low-key.

"The artillery team is subsumed into the night owl team, and Qin Shi leads the team to garrison the inner fort of Eagle Claw Fort, without any orders,"

His arrangement was not surprising to everyone, but it also made the big guy's heart open up a lot, after all, the title of the guard and the sergeant, which one is more imposing, it goes without saying.

The deep meaning of this is clear to a limited number of people.

If these thousand-person teams want to make up for manpower, they can only ask for people from Aman in the short term, Xiao Ye is not afraid of which one dares to eat empty salaries, and the Haiqi team and the shadow team mastered by Wang Ziliang are not the masters of spending money in vain.

At this point, the traces of the establishment of the army of the Ming Dynasty, except for the title of the Hai Banner Team, have basically been eliminated. This kind of transitional adaptation can also calm the minds of the sergeants, and Xiao Ye's goal has been achieved.

To put it bluntly, these people have become his personal soldiers, even the hundred sergeants on the surface, and they have never seen the food and salary allocated by Zhang Zhong.

Liu Shuihe pulled Miao Biwu, and called Shang Qin Shi to smoke and chat outside, Wang Dali talked to Xiao Ye, and said goodbye with interest.

At this time, Wang Ziliang recovered from his dull state, took out a thick stack of papers, and reported the various news collected to the hundred households.

"20,000 catties of rattan grass fruits were purchased, and the skins were transferred to the medical team, except for the black kernels, all the other kernels were put into the stone mill, and now there are caravans delivering them one after another,"

"There are merchants in Gansu town who sell hand warmers and iron-shell peat stoves, and the purchase of black fruit pits is not satisfactory.

……

"The imperial court takes the transfer of border troops into the drill as the military system," this news from the Wang family's caravan, Xiao Ye just listened to it, and it had nothing to do with him.

"Commander Zhang Zhong, the commander of the military department, was transferred to the Jiangnan Manufacturing Division due to merit, and he will take up his post after the year," Wang Ziliang turned to the last message, but still didn't make Xiao Ye abnormal, just tapped his index finger on the table, and paused slightly.

As the leader of the communication team, Wang Ziliang secretly has a complicated work, and the silver taels he withdraws from Mei'er every month are increasing over and over, but his daily food expenses and the expenses of the women in the family are all seen by Xiao Ye's guards; Being able to get so much news from all over the world, Xiao Ye thinks it's worth spending that money.

After Wang Ziliang finished reporting, Xiao Ye was silent for a long time before he spoke, "Inform Kang Hongyuan, gather the craftsmen at night and prepare to pick up the goods, this time it may be a larger amount, enough for them to be busy, let's do it overnight,"

After dinner, standing in the corridor outside the military house, Xiao Ye watched the mill below put the last cart of ore into the stone mill, and then Shi Shiran returned to the military house.

The hand lamp covered with the gauze was lit up, and under the warm light of Xun, Xiao Ye held a copy of "Soldier's Chronicles" in his hand, and looked at it hastily, and his mind was already immersed in the picture in front of him.

"The central database is randomly repaired 2.5 per thousand, and the machining platform is repaired 9 percent,"

Open the primary civilian catalog, a kind of soft paper has been added to it, and at a glance at the use, Xiao Ye almost vomited the tea in his mouth, and he used such soft white paper to go to the toilet, so he was not afraid of letting Lei split.

In the catalog of primary military products, there is one more weapon, and after reading the brief introduction and demonstration, Xiao Yele began to select materials; Oh, now that he has the list brought by Wang Ziliang, at least he can't take the civilian products at will, these are all goods urgently needed by the Shi family's shops, and the order is taken to get the goods, which is related to the eating and dressing of the upper and lower people, and they must not be sloppy.

After selecting various military and civilian supplies, Xiao Ye's eyes were fixed on that weapon, the Mauser C96 semi-automatic military hand/gun called the box cannon.

Mauser C96, semi-automatic military hand/gun, Xiao Ye didn't understand, but after he watched the demonstration again, he selected three without thinking, with 200 bullets.

The Mauser C96 with a slender barrel is loaded with ten round-headed bullets, and the firing range can reach more than 70 steps, and if you are lucky, you can hit 150 steps, which is much shorter than the revolver/gun, especially the posture of firing horizontally, Xiao Ye looked at it with a smile several times.

In terms of consumable materials, the box cannon is similar to the rear-loading fire/gun, so in the future, Xiao Ye plans to gradually replace the rear-loading fire/gun in the pro-guard team and Wang Meng's thousand-man team and take it out as a weapon for sale.

If you don't want to turn your face with the buyers behind the big merchants, Xiao Ye can't stop the trading of firearms, at most it is just a delay for some time, and the number of transactions is smaller.

He doesn't have the strength to compete with the big forces now, and the exclusive benefit is to find death, so he can only pinch his nose and admit it. Otherwise, it is impossible to say that one day the Ming army in Gansu town will be able to pull over.

Building a high wall and accumulating grain, this is Wang Ziliang's idea, and Xiao Ye agrees with it.

On the third day, when Wang Hu led a team of sergeants and escorted several pack horses to Eagle Claw Fort and brought supplementary projectiles to Liu Shuihe's department, Xiao Ye prepared to return to Madao Stone Fort.

Accompanying Wang Hu to Eagle Claw Castle were the guards Li Shan, Wang Wanquan, Liu Shui'an, and Zhang Pingfu, who were transferred to Liu Shuihe's command as centurions, which can be regarded as Xiao Ye's descendants.

"Bah, bah," the light gunfire rang out on the grassland, and the knife sitting on the war horse, holding the box cannon, aimed at a large rock fifty paces away, and shot at the wrist slightly obliquely, causing the stone chips to fly.

A guard picked up the bullet case and handed it to Xiao Ye, the warm bullet case looked up and down, Xiao Ye pulled out the hunting knife, scraped the bullet case a few times with the blade, and then looked at the powder on the blade, the corners of his eyebrows jumped slightly.

The iron bullet shell coated with a layer of copper powder, I don't think any craftsman would think of it, the bullet shell was thrown a few times in his hand, put it away, and clamped the horse's belly hard, Xiao Ye urged the war horse to speed up.

"Yo, oh," Seeing the commander spread his war horse and galloped wildly, the guards and guards on the left and right immediately became excited, and they chased after each other with strange screams.

Xiao Liuzi and Wang Hu, who were promoted to centurions, did not dare to get carried away at this time, and led people to wait around a carriage, escorting the second lady behind the smoke and dust.

Back at Madao Stone Fort, Xiao Ye first went to visit his father-in-law Yang Tianshou and told him about the affairs of Haixi Village, and in order not to irritate his father-in-law, he deliberately omitted the process of subduing the Xiwedge He tribe.

However, Yang Tianshou, who is old and sophisticated, but an old man who has been mixed with officialdom, saw that there were a few more fresh faces in the guards behind Xiao Ye, and the unique faces of the Mongols did not ask much.

"Everything is fine in the private school, you go and see the family, that Xiuxiu is about to give birth, Mei'er will inevitably have emotions, and she should be appeased," Yang Tianshou's words made Xiao Ye's face hot, and he responded.

"The Ximen family is seeing that there are traces of prosperity, and the family badge can no longer be dusted," when Xiao Ye left, Yang Tian's faint voice behind him made his body tremble, and he walked out of the small courtyard without looking back.

When he was a child, he had seen his father's badge, a bronze round badge, with a long knife stuck in a five-colored shield, but since the death of his parents, the only badge has disappeared.

The big families all have their own badges, and the people who have a declining family path have no face to take out the family heirloom badge to humiliate themselves, something that Xiao Ye couldn't think of before, but he was aroused by Yang Tianshou.

The silver knife on the collar may be a faint expectation in my heart.

Back in the stone fort, there are a lot of affairs, and Xin Weilin discussed the matter of the shop, and the iron plate and spiritual position of the dead sergeant should be sent to Shiguantun, which requires the merchant to cooperate to play cover, as well as check the various goods and weapons transported into the warehouse.

Fortunately, after more than a month of watering by Xiao Ye, Lina's stomach finally reacted, and after Li Muchen personally checked the pulse, it was announced that the second lady was also pregnant, which made everyone in the stone castle very happy.

With the descendants of the backer who depends on it, the Madao Stone Fort can be passed on for a long time, and in these years, there is no one who can stabilize people's hearts than Xiao Ye's children.

Xiao Ye was extremely ashamed of Mei'er's resentment, so he could only ignore his fatigue and work hard night and night, striving to make seedlings grow on the fertile soil.

Wang Dali's blacksmith shop and several tailors' mothers-in-law also received drawings from hundreds of households, round copper badges, which need to be cast in molds and fired with paint, which is a laborious and expensive job.

According to Xin Weilin's proposal, the sergeants of Shifu Commander wore cloth-embroidered shield badges on the collar of their field uniforms, and the sergeants were red, the sergeant was black, Shifu was purple, the centurion was red and black, the thousand-commander was red, black, and purple, and the thousand-captain was red, black, purple, and yellow.

Only Xiao Ye's unique badge is a red, black, purple, yellow and blue knife.

The badge of centurion and above is made of copper and lead.

The yellow shield outer border and the black five-cell inner border have their own colors, indicating the status of each person in the legion.

The insignia of the Guards and the Guards, regardless of color, had a long knife stuck in the shield and was not turned in until they left the Grand Commander's side.

Being on the grassland, Xiao Ye didn't care about the taboo of color at all, and even Xin Rulin didn't bother to mention it.

The badge style is simple, but the number of can't stand is larger, and now, a few tailors are busy, but fortunately, they can add people at any time.

The blacksmith shop and the sergeant's wife were busy for a month before they rushed to complete this special order.

On New Year's Eve, under the guidance of Wang Ziliang's sand table, Sun Xiaoming's personal guards, together with the guards with knives, successively found several waves of lurking assassins from the depths of the ravines north of the Madao checkpoint, but failed to pry their mouths open.

These assassins, who had not yet had time to get close to the Madao Stone Fort, were tightly wrapped, and some even had large bags of gunpowder tied to their bodies.

The captured assassin quickly committed suicide by swallowing medicine, which made them frightened and angry, but they could not find the slightest trace of their identity.

"Don't feel guilty, they are dead soldiers, how can their identity be leaked," In the study of the hundred households, Xiao Ye listened to the report of the knife, and shook his head indifferently, "They are all sent to the black house of Eagle Claw Fort, they are still somewhat useful,"

If you want to talk about your mortal enemy, Xiao Ye's first one is Jiang Jie, and the next one is Zhang Zhong, and the rest of Sun Dezhang and others, he hasn't seen it yet, oh, of course, there are guerrilla generals Lu and Jinyiwei.

Speaking of which, I'm afraid it's still my own Persian goods, and I'm still being remembered.

The cold wind was howling outside the study, the hot copper kettle was on the charcoal stove, suddenly spitting water vapor, on the low table of the fire kang, the battle between the Chu River and the Han world was not over, Xiao Ye and Xin Weilin sat on the soft cushions on both sides, sipped fragrant tea, and looked down at their chess game.

"Do you really want to do it?" Xin Lilin swallowed the warm tea and asked casually. What he meant, others don't know, but Xiao Ye on the other side can understand it as soon as he hears it.

Xiao Ye's eyes stared at the chess pieces, and the corners of his mouth twitched, "If you don't take it, you will suffer from it, this is what you often say,"

"Insulted my wife and concubine, beat and killed my personal guards, and then almost destroyed my parents' tombs, Brother Sanxing, you say, what should I do?"

"They preach the disloyalty and injustice of their officials in Gansu Town, but this stone fort, as well as Eagle Claw Fort, has blocked the road from the Tartars to Shiguantun, the Gravel Fort, and even Gansu Town, and the official does not dare to cross the horse road checkpoint one step, where is the disloyalty?"

"Its obscene goods are sold at a high price? Well, the official will close the horse road checkpoint here, see which one is in a hurry? ”

"It's a big deal that the merchant goods will go north to the grassland, and if you can't eat food, then eat meat and drink milk wine, and see which one can't help it in the end, where is the salt of the lake in the Tartars, no matter how bad it is,"

"Look at the news that the official gets every day, most of them are sent by the merchants for free, and there are copies of the official documents in the official mansion, if you want to say that the official is disloyal, then they are loyal and courageous,"

Xiao Ye, who was a little angry, saw that Xin Weilin was silent, so he laughed self-deprecatingly, picked up the chess piece and played it twice, and pressed it on the chessboard, "If you don't want to be a chess piece, you can only be a chess player,

"Be a chess player," Xin Weilin chewed on this sentence, his eyes suddenly brightened, "The price will be very high,"

"Therefore, life and death are in the sky," if my life is up to me, Xiao Ye doesn't dare to boast, but he can earn a place to live, he is trying his best and calculating at all costs.

Although the staff room is in name only, Xin Lilin's advice to Xiao Ye, which Xiao Ye can generally recognize, will basically be implemented, and his position as the shopkeeper of a shop in the hundred households is irreplaceable.

What Xiao Ye lacks most in his hands is still a reader.

Taking advantage of the fact that there was nothing to do before the year, Xiao Ye took out more than 20 congratulatory gifts, two silk and fifty taels of silver tickets, and asked Wang Dali to go around the Madao Stone Fort and Eagle Claw Fort.

The vacant houses in the stone fort were all inhabited by newly married sergeants. These two main rooms have an ear room, and outside the small courtyard, a shrub and wattle fence are erected, which is the appearance of each household in the stone fort, which is basically not much the same.

At the end of the year, the hand lamps taken out by the Shijia shops, as well as soap, iron nails, matches, as well as water umbrellas, silk cotton coats, glass and other goods, make those caravans coming and going between Gansu Town and Madao Checkpoint busy.

Truckloads of unnoticed coals were pulled from Gansu Town, bought in large quantities by Wang Dali, and soon sent to the small courtyards of various households, even as far as Bailong Lake, to be exhausted for heating in the harsh winter.

As for the fire/guns, short/guns, and fires that secretly traded with big merchants, a small amount of protective clothing, and earth-shattering thunder, they also exchanged enough food for Xiao Ye.

On the day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, a group of Tianjia caravans left the Madao checkpoint early, pulling tightly bound wooden boxes and hurriedly returning to the gravel fort; The glass that was traded with green salt this time was prepared by the Tian family to be shipped to Taiyuan Mansion.

In the guards who returned with the caravan, a few young men in sheepskin jackets were mixed in the crowd of guards, and their long black and thin faces were not the knives of the head of the guards.

Next to him was munching a meat pouch cake, Qin Shishi, who had rushed back from Eagle Claw Fort, muttering to the knife.

Taking advantage of Qin Shishi's dispatch to Eagle Claw Fort, Wang Hu was close to the water, and won Luan Fengying's heart after several maneuvers, plus the Haixi woman he brought back this time, Qin Shi knew that he had no chance, how could he not nag at the knife.

Qin Shi took two sergeants from Orion with outstanding marksmanship, and two black-clothed guards with knives, for Zhang Zhong, who was far away in Gansu Town.

This time, Xiao Ye wants to teach the officials in Gansu town a profound lesson, so that they can still remember karma when they are recklessly touching others.

The convoy that returned in a hurry, when passing by the old Yangkou tax card, followed by a short man who followed the tax collector, his eyes were fixed on Qin Shishi, who bowed his head and was silent, and after careful inspection, the short man quickly retreated to the house on the side of the road and disappeared.

The convoy that had paid the tax money soon headed for the Xilong River, and tonight, they had to cross the river before they could rest, and they passed in the gravel fort on the first day of the new year.