As the days passed, in the stone fort of Shiguantun B, the craftsmen resumed their normal work, and every ten days, the stones of Bailong Lake were transported at night, but Xiao Ye still arranged for the personal guards of the personal guards to do it; Seeing this situation, Wang Dali has a mind.

His five flag teams accounted for the sergeant establishment of the hundred households, but they were doing the work of craftsmen, which caused the sergeants in Xiao Ye's hands to be very nervous, and it was time to have a good talk with the hundred households.

The craftsmen quit the flag team, and as long as their food and salary remain the same, he can guarantee that they will not cause trouble. It's a drill every ten years, and that's a good thing, at least it can be used at a critical time.

There is not much enthusiasm for holding a knife and a gun here, and there is a lack of sergeants who are uncomfortable, and I think that Baihu will agree to his suggestion.

And Xiao Ye, who trains sergeants every day on the training ground, is at this moment, like Wang Dali, and gradually has a mind. Shiguantun's troops, facing the threat of the Tartars from the north, really made it difficult for him to sleep.

June is the rainy season, but also the busy season, after a few heavy rains, Shiguan Tunli military households, Jiming Village hunters, as well as military houses, the first thing everyone worries about is to repair their own roofs, with a mortar stirred into a slurry, smeared on the thick artemisia grass, to prevent the next rain home into a water curtain hole.

Even the 100 households have guards, and they are busy covering the roofs of the 100 households, as well as the roofs of the guest rooms and military houses, again; The roofs of the four shops and warehouses are being repaired.

Fortunately, in that slippery arsenal, the roof king specially found wood to make a board to make the roof, paved with a layer of stones, and then poured a thick layer of yellow plaster, but there was no problem of rain leakage.

The basement of the arsenal, after two months of painstaking renovation by craftsmen, was finally completed; The basement is 20 steps deep and 10 steps wide and one and a half meters high, all of which are made of stucco stone blocks on all sides, and two thick stone pillars hold the load-bearing beams.

The basement covered with thick lime on the ground and a layer of wooden planks became the god hangar of the Baihu Institute, that is, the munitions warehouse, leading to the ground with eighteen stairs of stucco, and the exit was covered with a five-inch thick wooden plank, plus the warehouse above was tightly guarded, Xiao Ye was very satisfied after seeing it.

When Xiao Liuzi took his personal guards and transported most of the fire/guns, projectiles, crossbows and other materials into the basement overnight, Xiao Ye finally breathed a sigh of relief.

If it weren't for the scary cost, he would have even thought of building two more basements.

Wang, Tian, and Huang San's household grain, green salt, and cloth and other daily goods, plus a small amount of silver taels, in exchange for three B-shaped stone mills, in the mountains south of Shiguantun, found a flat place, and couldn't wait to build a simple workshop.

There is an inexhaustible supply of a large number of stones not far away, and the yellow plaster comes out in a steady stream as soon as the stone mill turns, these are all money, and it is strange that they are not in a hurry.

There is a stream nearby, and the workshop that is about to be built has an abundant water source.

In the hastily built mill, the mule pulls the stone mill and rotates, and after the craftsmen put in the raw materials in strict accordance with the ingredient list, the stones that were smashed into bowls were also sent to the grinding eye; The yellow plaster flowed out of the grinding groove in streams under the pull of the mule and horse.

The Coptis trees on both sides of the road leading from Shiguan to the gravel fort grow very quickly, and each tree has a few branches on it, and then cut a few branches and plant them, bury them in the soil and water them a little, and they can also quickly take root and turn green.

On the fork in the road from the Houshan Workshop Area to the avenue, the branches of Coptis trees on both sides were also quickly planted by the craftsmen of the three merchants, and Wang Dali's plan to sell the saplings to make a little money was also frustrated.

The soil layer on the stone mountain is scarce, but the soil full of rotting grass can still be found everywhere below the mountain, and the branches can be planted to survive, which is natural in Wang Dali's opinion.

In addition to planting trees, in the past year, inside and outside the tunli on the stone mountain, as long as there is a bit of flat open space, Wang Dali has asked people to transport soil from the bottom of the mountain to sort out pieces of vegetable fields.

Now there is no shortage of water sources on the mountain, and I bought seeds such as greens and shallots from the shops, at least after a while, the vegetables on the mountain can see the green; Otherwise, with the pickles transported from the store, it is estimated that Xiao Ye would have been scolded by the end of the year.

Coptis trees were planted, houses were built and courtyard walls were built, roads were leveled, and a group of craftsmen were busy day and night in the backhill workshop area, which was stimulated by huge profits, and there were more and more simple grass houses.

When a row of trimmed warehouses was erected on the hills south of Stone Mountain, Bauders announced that his shop would be moved to the workshop north of the mountain, and that future transactions would be carried out in the warehouse in the workshop; With his statement, Huang Deshan gloated and predicted that Shiguantun would be deserted just around the corner.

Bauddes wanted a few warehouses in the Workshop District, and the three merchants were eager to give a few more.

Soon, in mid-June, with the departure of the Baodes shop, the Shiguantun Wangjia warehouse was evacuated, the Huang family shop was also removed from Shishan, and even the Tian family shop only left two guys, Tian Fangjun moved to his own workshop compound, and leaned on the Persian shop nearby.

As long as they keep an eye on Baudus, the goods from the steppe will not flow into the hands of others; As for Xiao Ye, who earns a living by escorting goods, he has been put behind by the merchants for the time being.

The Baodes shop is still open regularly in the workshop in the back mountain, and the defense is tight, and among the sergeants guarding the shop, there is an extra herald with dyed red hair.

The Huang family now has a guy who goes up the mountain every few days to see that the yellow plaster has accumulated enough in the quarry stone castle warehouse, and he can hand in the silver ticket and pull it down the mountain in a carriage, or talk to Wang Dali about exchanging it for groceries. As for the Tian family, it was entirely for the sake of the white flute paper that they kept a grocery store.

Xiao Ye, who was secretly operating the plan, watched Shiguantun, who had fallen silent, standing on the castle wall, holding a monocular and muttering; Beside him, Wan Ziliang slowly shook the paper fan.

In the envelope around Wan Ziliang's waist, there was also a letter from Wang Chongli, a thousand households, asking Shiguantun Baihu to strengthen their vigilance and strictly prevent the Tartars from invading from Shiguan. However, there was no mention of the food and salary needed by Shiguantun.

In the workshop area, there are a lot more domestic guards in various businesses.

"There is no land and no pay, and the thousand households are so careful," Wan Ziliang, who was dressed in a green shirt, said softly with an unkind face, "Now, no one cares about this Shiguantun, but once the hundred households can't resist the scimitar of the tartar, the blame from above, and the knife in the thousand households is sharpened,"

Following the direction pointed by Wan Ziliang, Xiao Ye glanced at the direction of the gravel fort, as a military household, he has the responsibility of guarding his homeland, but it is obviously not very pleasant to give people the taste of caring for the home.

It's so ugly.

"Yes, it's time to get ready," Xiao Ye, who muttered to himself, held the handle of the knife with his big hand, tight and tight.

Nowadays, the four B-shaped stone mills are obviously running every day, but the only A-shaped stone mill has not changed for a long time, and what is silent is a huge iron lump.

In the grassland between Shiguan and Bailong Lake, the team escorting saltpeter and stone has been repeatedly harassed by the Tartar rangers several times, and each time Huang Hanxiang sent a sergeant, there are as many as 200 soldiers.

In the confrontation between Bailong Lake and the Tartars, Huang Hanxiang used a large number of thunderbolts, which not only ensured the safety of the water source, but also made the Tartars dare not easily approach the valley, but made Xiao Ye's inventory almost invisible to the shadow of thunderbolts.

If it weren't for the secret passage behind Bailong Lake, Huang Hanxiang would have dared to do his best to ensure the safety of the pack team.

For this reason, Xiao Ye deliberately allowed Huang Hanxiang to select 200 sergeants again among the exiles and miscellaneous servants, and did not require them to be able to ride horses, and usually mined saltpeter and sulfur, and only used them as infantry to guard Bailong Lake in an emergency. With his own personal guard as the flag officer, the training of the infantry team should not be deviated.

However, according to the calculation of the minimum grain consumption of three stones per person per month, the rations of more than 700 people in Bailong Lake plus the subdued Tartar slaves will cost nearly 300 stones per month, plus the amount of Shiguantun, thinking about Xiao Ye is a headache; Fortunately, Mei'er is responsible for these accounting matters, he just needs to find a way to make money.

If he hadn't taken out Baodes in time to stand in front, relying on food consumption, Sun Zhenfu would have been enough to suspect him Xiao Ye.

According to Yang Tianshou and Wan Ziliang's estimates, once the Tartars have passed the season when cattle and sheep grow fat, they will definitely attack Shiguantun along the canyon, and people's eyes are not blind, so they can see the connection between Shiguan and Bailong Lake.

With Wan Ziliang, Xiao Ye went to the arsenal not far away, and slipped through the ten arsenals, the inside was opened up by the door, and there was only a small door outside, and the key was hung on Uncle Kun's belt.

Uncle Kun was holding a purple sand teapot and playing chess with a guard in the small courtyard outside, around the stone table.

Uncle Kun, who is already old, Xiao Ye doesn't want him to be tired, but the stubborn Uncle Kun is still happy to stay here, as long as Li Hanjuan can come and take a turn every day, he will be satisfied.

Speaking of Hanjuan, Xiao Ye is very big, except for being quiet when she is studying in a private school, this time she took a group of children all over the world to pick flowers for money, and Xiao Liuzi was busy.

Xiao Liuzi led the sergeant to repair the roof of the military house, Zuo Shi led the team to guard the quarry fort wall, the other three small flags practiced fire/gun in the mountain depression to the west, and Qin Shi led the shotgun team to guard the mountain.

Counting the heralds in his hand, nine were no longer enough.

Walking into the arsenal, Xiao Ye didn't look at the angular bows and scimitars stacked in the warehouse, and walked straight to the innermost room.

At the end of the warehouse, in the empty room, the tattered leather armor of the Tartars hung on the walls, and the guards lifted the wooden planks on the ground and lit the air death lamps.

Going down to the basement, in the dim light, on the wooden frame against the wall on the left, rows of black and shiny rear-loading guns, and boxes of projectiles on the ground, surprised Wan Ziliang; Although he knew that this was a forbidden place for firearms, he didn't expect that there would be so many fires/guns.

"These are all fire/guns that are about to be scrapped, and Bowdes will send someone to pick them up tonight," Xiao Ye walked in without stopping, taking a brand-new rear-loading gun from the wooden frame on the right, skillfully pulling the bolt, looking at the magazine coated with gun oil, and putting it back in its place with satisfaction.

"Here, it's the fire/gun used by our sergeant," with Wan Ziliang, Xiao Ye checked the boxes of weapons, turned his head to look at the stunned scholar, with a smile on the corner of his mouth, "Fire/gun, we don't lack it, what we lack is manpower,"

At this time, Wang Ziliang suddenly realized that he really saw that the Baodes who was sitting firmly in the workshop in the back mountain should be just a puppet released by Baihu, so the so-called Persians are probably just a gimmick.

"Lord Baihu, the cost of these weapons is not small," suppressing Peng Peng's heartbeat, Wan Ziliang calmly touched the cold barrel, and his voice trembled a little.

"It's not small, but for this official, it's just time," Xiao Ye patted his staff on the shoulder, "Where do these materials come from, you don't have to ask, even the Persians are difficult to control,"

"Tonight, Huang Hanxiang will lead a team to the mountain, you follow him and meet the Haixi people on the grassland," Xiao Ye pointed to the large number of goods in the room, "There is still our trade there, you must familiarize yourself with it as soon as possible,"

He had promised the village chief of Aura a deal that had dragged on long enough, and in order to win over his allies living on the steppe, the trade was bound to take place.

Walking to the end of the warehouse, from the palm-sized ventilation hole, under the light that penetrated, the wooden box opened, and Xiao Ye took out an iron lump with a thick arm in the shape of a jujube kernel, "You have a long way to go, the Tartar will definitely intercept and kill halfway, fortunately with this thing,"

"What is this?" Wan Ziliang stretched out his hand and touched it, a little infiltrating coldly, and asked puzzledly.

"It's called a geotechnical bomb, and it's quite convenient to open a mountain and take stones," Xiao Ye smiled, holding this geotechnical bullet, "Let's go, let's go to the training ground and try how powerful it is,"

At present, there are only two guys guarding the shop in the Tian family shop on the mountain, and the training ground is far away from here, even if they hear the movement, they will not guess the difference between this earthwork bomb and the earth-shaking thunder.

Out of the weapons depot, let the guards call Xiao Liuzi, Xiao Ye and Wan Ziliang rode on their war horses, took the guards, and a group of several people trotted to the training ground.

On the training ground, near the foot of the mountain, Xiao Liuzi carefully put the projectile, which weighed more than ten pounds, in a shallow pit with the thickness of a small leg, pulled out a thin line from the tail of the bullet, tied it to the thin rope on the ground, and then removed the annular bolt on the tail of the bullet body.

The sweaty little six sons, straightened out the thin rope in his hands, although Baihu explained to him several times, he still tiptoed back a few steps, and then quickly ran to the distance, lay on the ground, and picked up the rope placed on the ground.

Holding the thin straw rope, Xiao Liuzi looked back at Baihu, and saw Xiao Ye nodding at him, so he turned his head, stared at the geotechnical bullet a hundred steps away, and pulled the rope fiercely.

"Tong," After a muffled sound, except for feeling the ground under him shake twice, and not feeling the debris bursting over, Xiao Liuzi looked at the faint smoke and dust in front of him, got up and ran over.

At the explosion point, the shallow pit less than a foot deep was blown into a large pit five feet deep and three feet round, and the little six sons who jumped into the pit kicked a few times in four times, and then patted them four times with his hands, and found that the four walls of the pit and the scattered rocks had been pressed solidly.

If this is a layer of soil, there may be a larger and deeper pit.

"Geobombs are used to allow the sergeant to cover his body, and it is good to resist the Tartar horse team, but it is better to use it to mine stones," Xiao Ye, who came over, stood on the edge of the pit with Wan Ziliang, squatted down with great interest, and said, "Look, it's not bad to be trapped in the horse pit,"

"In case you encounter a team of Tartar horses on the road, find a high ground, and quickly dig a tunnel with geotechnical bullets, which can allow the sergeant to dodge the arrows, and if the projectile is sufficient, you can hold on until the reinforcements arrive," Xiao Liuzi, who was already familiar with the power of fire/guns and earth-shaking thunder, thought more than Xiao Ye.

Xiao Liuzi, who was hit by the Tartar war horse and broke his sternum, has been injured for a few days, and now he still has some problems with breathing, and he is very taboo about the danger of being rushed to the front of him by the Tartar.

That night, Huang Hanxiang led a team through the canyon and brought a team of pack horses up the stone mountain, he only took fifty sergeants, and the other one hundred and fifty people guarded the exit of the canyon.

Unloading Bailonghu stone and saltpeter in the quarry stone fort, Wang Dali commanded the sergeants to load boxes and bags wrapped in cowhide tarpaulins onto pack horses.

Xiao Liuzi took fifteen personal guards, and this time he accompanied them, and on the back of their fifteen horses, the whole box of geotechnical ammunition was loaded with ten boxes of 100 pieces, and there were also 200 jumping mines.

In the hundred households, Xiao Ye introduced Huang Hanxiang to Wan Ziliang, "There are four hundred of our soldiers in Bailong Lake, this is Huang Hanxiang, the acting general banner, his own brother,"

Turning his face, Xiao Ye pulled Huang Hanxiang with a dusty face, "Hanxiang, Liu Renke will be handed over to you, be sure to pay attention to safety along the way,"

"Yes, the subordinate officer knows," Huang Hanxiang, who was fully armed, patted his chest vigorously, "The sergeants carry three times as much ammunition, not to mention the Tartars, and they have more than enough to protect themselves," from him down to the flag officer, as well as those old guards, they all have protective clothing on their bodies, and they are full of confidence.

"Well, the fire/guns carried by the pack horse can be used in case of trouble," Xiao Ye said, raised his feet and walked into the courtyard, took out a delicate long leather bag from his bosom, opened it and took out the cylinder with the length of his palm.

Unscrewed the sturdy iron shields on both sides, revealing a cylinder with dark green lenses, and handed it to Huang Hanxiang behind him, "Come, you use it to look at the castle wall," Xiao Ye said with a smile.

"Oh," took the cylinder similar to the telescope, and skillfully held it up in front of his eyes, and in the dim moonlight, Huang Hanxiang was stunned to find that on the fort wall a hundred steps away, the guards patrolling with fire/guns on their backs, he could see clearly.

"Baihu, I saw it, I saw it, it's probably two dogs, the left shoulder is always walking with a collapse," Huang Hanxiang, who shouted loudly, held the telescope tightly, and looked at the farthest fort wall several times, and sighed in amazement, for a long time, he reluctantly handed it back to Xiao Ye.

The twentieth item produced by the stone mill, Xiao Ye didn't know what kind of raw materials were needed, but the pattern of this shimmer mirror dimmed after the stone mill produced this one item.

The stone from Bailong Lake was put into more than a dozen batches of stone mills to make this mirror, and I have to say that Xiao Ye's luck is really good.

"This is a microscopic glass, you can use it at night, you can bring it," Xiao Ye handed the leather bag and the mirror to Huang Hanxiang, "The three merchants of the monocular are also sold, maybe the tartars on the grassland can also be bought, you must be cautious on this trip,"

"Yes, don't worry, even if you can't run during the day, you can't run away at night," Huang Hanxiang happily put away the shimmer glasses, cherished them in his arms, and knelt down on one knee in front of Xiao Ye, "Lord Baihu, the lower official has retired,"

"Let's go, along the way, we must take the protection of the sergeant as the priority, and the other money and goods are secondary, and the water umbrella will go to Wang Si to borrow two, and Brother Liu Ren will also prepare," handed the letter written by Lena to the old village chief to Huang Hanxiang, and Xiao Ye waved them to go.

There were sergeants who knew the road in the guards, plus water umbrellas, and they went from the Gobi Desert to Haixi Village, and they did not have to worry about the problem of lack of water.

Looking at the backs of Huang Hanxiang and Wan Ziliang leaving, Xiao Ye, who was standing in the small courtyard, muttered in his mouth, "Jiang Jie, the bait is here, when will you come?"

Jiang Jie is greedy for money by nature, Jiang Qinggui is even worse, Xiao Ye heard that his ears were calloused in the gravel fort, and now on the land under his original jurisdiction, this Persian goods have come out, if he can bear not to stretch out his claws, Xiao Ye can only wait for another opportunity.

The appearance of Baodes and the disclosure of the "Persian" business, Xiao Ye is all for one person, that is, Jiang Jie, whether it is Yang Tianshou or Wan Ziliang, they can't imagine that Xiao Ye did all this just to take revenge.

Of course, if he could catch and kill the black hand behind Jiang Jie, Xiao Ye would not hesitate to use the force of Bailonghu.

Wang Ziliang went to the grassland, Xiao Ye who was not disturbed by the merchants, practiced knives and read books every morning, stayed in the mill at noon, took the sergeant out to practice fire/gun in the afternoon, and spent the evening with his two wives and concubines.

Just looking at those sergeants training to raise fires/guns every day, standing still for an hour, and Xiao Ye also went into battle in person, Mei'er knew that the hatred in Xiao Ge'er's heart was afraid that it would not be suppressed for long.

In the hundred households, the strict military discipline and the daily large-scale exercise exercises were not implemented in Wang Dali's five small flags, but Xiao Ye's personal guards and four small flags were suffering from life, although no one complained, but the tired figures of the sergeants, Mei'er and all the military households saw it.

If it weren't for the fact that all the hundreds of households secretly subsidized the silver taels, the whole pot of bone broth in the military house was openly supplied, and the food was sufficient, these sergeants would have been exhausted long ago.

Fortunately, in these years, the Ming soldiers who can eat a full stomach really have strong endurance, not to mention the treatment of 100 households with enough food and clothing and warm moon and silver.

It's just that now the three flag officials of Heizi Lei Xiaoqing, Hao Yongliang, and Qin Shishi privately strongly demand that like Wang Hu and Wang Mengxiaoqi, they will be rotated to the grassland to supervise those Tartars once in half a month, and they are all afraid of the drills of hundreds of households.

Every morning, he was fully armed to carry stones in the quarry, and fire/guns and ammunition were not allowed to leave his body, and after a small team of 5,000 catties of stone was finished, he ate again.

After dinner, the whole team used wooden knives and wooden sticks to catch and kill in the training ground, and those who lost ran around the training ground for five laps, and those who won went to the depression in the west to practice fire/guns, and became familiar with the use of earth-shaking thunder and jumping thunder, and the sound of gunfire explosions made the sergeants sleep at night with buzzing in their ears.

Of course, in addition to the drill of the field formation phalanx, sometimes the old Orion who was invited would teach the sergeants to conceal their bodies in the woods and grasslands, look for traces and outflank the prey, etc., interspersed with training, as long as it was in the military book and in the arsenal, Xiao Ye was simply eager for the sergeants to master it.

For a while, the daily meat expenses in the military house more than doubled, and Xiao Ye just smiled in the face of Mei'er's report.