"Da Liu, I'm back," before entering the gate of the fort, the old people and mothers-in-law who were picking fruits on the edge of the vine grass outside the stone castle greeted Da Liu from a distance, and Da Liu also greeted the big guy with a smile on his face, without the slightest indifference in the wilderness.

Looking at Da Liu's smiling face, Yang Shiba's heart moved slightly, but the steps under his feet were even more eager, he wanted to hurry up to find Wang Gui in the warehouse, I hope I didn't go to Shiguantun today.

The chief guarding the fort gate recognized Da Liu and Yang Eighteen, and raised his voice to say hello, so naturally he did not stop them.

"Don't worry, Wang Gui is not here, you can go to Uncle Guo," comforting Yang Shibai, Da Liu walked into the fort gate, met Hu Shibiao head-on, hurriedly stepped forward to help carry water, went to the warm cellar to put down the burden before leaving.

Hu Shibiao's family took care of the warm cellar, seeing that there were green vegetable seedlings in it, but it opened the eyes of everyone in the stone castle, the warm cellar covers an area of only more than one acre, even if it is the end of autumn, only the big boss's house can eat green vegetables, and the military households and craftsmen are also satisfied.

These guards, they don't want to look at the big boss's family, just like them, the most back and forth on the dinner table every day is those few pickles, even if they eat meat, they can't compare to a plate of green vegetarian dishes.

Let Yang 18 go to the warehouse, and Da Liu kept entering the communication team.

After a meal, Da Liu went out of the communication team and went home directly, the big leader was not in Shibao, he had already paid the military order to Ziliang, and the two waist cards of the Tian family guard were also handed in, so he was naturally fine today.

Only Wang Ziliang, who was sitting in the communication team, stared at the simple map on the wall, and thought about it angrily for a while, and then picked up a small flag from the table and planted it on the map; On the rudimentary topographic map, there used to be a small flag of four colors, but now there is another one.

Faintly, Wang Ziliang felt that he seemed to have missed some problems, but he couldn't remember what was wrong, and after thinking for a while, he could only helplessly turn his head away and go out of the house with a fan.

This kind of brain-racking doubt, I have to go to the Shi family's shop and ask Xin Xiucai for advice.

At present, the identities of those spies have been figured out that there are Gansu Town Commander Si Yamen, Jinyiwei, and Huang, Tian, and Wang's three merchants, but Wang Ziliang is puzzled by the fact that people are constantly being sent out in layers, and Wang Ziliang is puzzled by what the problem is.

dared to constantly send people to death, or did these families work together, Wang Ziliang wondered, could it be that these forces had too many people to waste?

Shijia shop, Xin Lilin entertained Wang Ziliang who came to solve his doubts in the backyard, Xin Lilin who was sitting in a wooden wheelchair, wearing a green robe and a book of Analects, drinking tea and reading quietly, but Wang Ziliangxiang was very envious.

"Hehe, Brother Liu Ren is busy with affairs, but it's rare to come here," Xin Weilin put down the book in his hand, looked at Wang Ziliang with a smile, and raised his hand to signal him to sit down and speak.

"Oh, good my brother, you are idle, little brother, I don't dare to slack off for a moment," Wang Ziliang shook his head and sighed, sat on the stone bench, took the teapot and poured himself a cup of warm tea, and drank it dry in one go.

"Oh, then, is there trouble?" I have to say that Xin Weilin's eyes are vicious, and he guessed his intention just by relying on Wang Ziliang's two sentences.

"Hehe, that's the case," didn't treat Xin Weilin as an outsider, Wang Ziliang told about the spies on the periphery of the Madao Stone Fort, which was simply unclean, which made him very annoyed, but he didn't know why there was such a situation.

"That's right," Xin Lilin touched the short hair on his chin, and a hint of surprise flashed in his eyes, "Brother Liu Ren, you tell me about the situation on the Tartar side, as well as the affairs of those homeless people,"

Xin Weilin had heard of the trade between the Mongolian Tatars and the Eagle Claw Fort on the steppe, but the last few transactions have repeatedly increased the price arbitrarily, and the types of goods to be traded have also been specified, and he did not know these news.

When Wang Ziliang said that the nearest team of Tartars had been captured by the leader for military training, Xin Lilin's face showed a trace of worry, and most of those homeless people were old and weak, women and children, which made him gasp.

After being silent for a long time, Xin Lilin sighed, raised his eyes to look at the blue sky, and slowly shook his head, "Drive the wolf and devour the tiger, if you want to say that there is no black hand in this, there is absolutely no reason,"

"Oh, I don't know what Brother Sansheng means?" Wang Ziliang frowned and asked puzzled.

"Hehe, if the homeless can run to Shiguantun, how far do they have to run? You know, there is a border wall there, and the homeless people are not afraid of the Tartars? Xin Weilin sneered.

"What we lack most in Madao Stone Fort is not food, a large number of displaced people have come, and less than thirty percent of the young and strong people in it are not in vain, isn't this a waste of food? You know, the most dead among the homeless people are the old and weak, women and children, and the young and strong can live longer,"

"The Tartars on the grassland are greedy for money, if they are provoked to raise the transaction price, which one will benefit?"

"Those spies are just scouting the rumors, and what they desperately want to see now is nothing more than us fighting with the Tartars, so that the Yellow Sparrow will show its head,"

"Which one is the yellow finch, it goes without saying,"

The analysis of the words, although it was not explicitly stated, but Xin Weilin's meaning was very clear, I am afraid that the black hands behind the scenes are the officials and merchants, and they will not look at the goods that continue to appear in Xiao Ye's hands and exchange them for a large amount of materials and money.

You must know that the exclusive monopoly of goods is the one that provokes the most criticism from merchants and families, and Xiao Ye has been doing just that.

I'm afraid that they have reached an agreement with the Tartars to take the Madao Stone Fort in one fell swoop, and Xiao Ye is still in the dark at this time.

If there is a conflict between Xiao Ye and Tartar, the Ming army on the side wall, as well as the guards of the big merchants, may come from the south at some point, and under the attack from both sides, the Madao Stone Fort will be wiped out in ashes.

If it weren't for Xin Weilin's understanding of Xiao Ye's strength, he would not be able to sit still now.

But in that case, killing a thousand enemies and injuring eight hundred is not what Xin Weilin wants to see, his whole family's life is now resting on Xiao Ye's body, he used to worry too much, and he didn't want to say more, today is not the time to entertain himself.

Xin Weilin's words made Wang Ziliang suddenly suddenly, his face was so blue that he couldn't sit still, snapped the paper fan, stood up and was about to leave, but was stopped.

"Don't worry, Brother Liu Ren, we won't mess up here, the south won't do it easily, they want to be yellow birds," Xin Weilin leisurely picked up the teacup, "The tribe of the imperial court, they still have to maintain their face on the surface,"

"Now we have to be cautious that the merchants will cut off the grain trade in the near future, at least there will not be a large number of transactions, we must be prepared here,"

"Hmph, they thought about it carefully," Hearing this, Wang Ziliang sneered, "Brother Sansheng, do you think the big boss is just going to see that Gujiabao?" ”

"The big boss guards the knife, the offender was expelled from the stone fort, that was to let him go to the west, this guy ran to the vicinity of Chijin, but he got a lot of cattle and sheep back to Gujiabao, and he owed Wang Gui money for weapons and silver earlier, and he just paid it off, and even had a win,"

"In Wang Gui's warehouse, the canned beef and mutton right now, I'm afraid it's all piled up, even the winter military uniform is enough for everyone to have one," there was a pause in his mouth, Wang Ziliang didn't continue to speak, he was afraid that he would not be able to stand it if he said it.

The wild Tartar captives who were entrusted by the knife to be brought back by Wedge Hashan by the way, a total of 1,000 people, were directly sent to the Eagle Claw Fort, and were thrown into the black room there, and all disappeared.

If a thousand young and strong Tartar captives are captured on the steppe, then there will definitely be more young and strong, old and weak female Tartars will be killed, and only with cruel and bloody killings can the captives dare not resist; Otherwise, if you are escorted back along the way, you will be pierced with a leather rope through the pipa bone, and you will not be able to deter the unruly Tartar.

Therefore, Wang Ziliang can be sure that this time Xiao Ye will send a lot of arms to the knife when he goes out to Gujiabao, that guy seems to be really a horse thief, and his business is too smooth.

After getting what he wanted from Xin Lilin, Wang Ziliang quickly took his leave, hurriedly returned to the communication team, and sent Xin Lilin's guess to Eagle Claw Fort, and then the herald there quickly went to Gujiabao.

Wang Meng, who was stationed at Madao Stone Fort, also received Wang Ziliang's warning at the same time, and the number of sergeants patrolling inside and outside the Stone Fort suddenly increased for a while, and even the transactions between Wang Gui and Shiguantun began to slow down.

Gujiabao, a stone fort with a length and width of more than a mile, has stood on the grassland, although the crazy vine grass that spreads in all directions is very disturbing the scenery, but the stone fort is very lively, and the people are boiling.

It is different from Eagle Claw Fort and Madao Stone Fort, which is made of stucco and stone mixed with rattan grass branches and solidified, although the degree of solidity is not as strong as those two stone forts, but it is no problem to support it for more than ten years, Wang Dali knows better than anyone else.

This is also what Xiao Ye specially explained, in order to make Gu Jiabao unable to get rid of the control of Madao Stone Fort in the future, and ten years later, Gu Yanwu still owes a large amount of money for the renovation here.

Wang Dali's logistics team, with the help of hundreds of poles, with the use of a large amount of yellow plaster, the speed of building fort walls and stone houses is much faster than before, and now the mill and military house in the stone fort have also reached the end of plastering the white ash on the walls.

The medicine households in Gujia Village, as well as the displaced people who had just arrived, began to move into the military houses according to the designated area, although there are still several families crammed together on a big kang, but it is much better than living in a tent outside.

Only Wang Hu's barracks, where the sergeants still lived in tents.

Gujiabao is located deep in the grass, and the original construction plan was a large stone fort, but this summer, there were constantly Tartar pack horses passing by, Wang Dali and Gu Yanwu discussed, or decided to build the inner fort first, at least in winter, the predecessors lived in it first.

According to this method of building a stone castle, the amount of money spent is more than thirty percent of the plan, but Gu Yanwu has more lice and does not worry about biting, for the sake of the safety of the clansmen, he gritted his teeth and admitted it, and he should be a medicine household for Xiao Ye for a few years first.

By this time next year, after the outer fort wall of the stone fort is built, a strong castle here covering an area of three miles will become a shelter for the people of Gujia Village, which is also something that Gu Yanwu is extremely eager for.

The grassland outside the stone fort, the soil Gu Yanwu and a few old people have checked, although it is not easy to reclaim, but as long as you make efforts to open up the wasteland, it is still possible to open up the medicinal fields, the problem of water sources can be solved, and you can plant ordinary mountain hemp, daisies and other common medicinal materials next year.

The most important thing is that the vine grass fruit can be seen everywhere, although it is a gray-red core, but the outer peel can be processed into the medicine belt, Xiao Ye has already placed an order with Gu Yanwu, just wait for them to gain a firm foothold and start work.

Gu Yanwu was very shrewd, this gray-red kernel, he dried it and ground it into powder, and found that it was a very pure phosphostone, and then he exerted the prestige of the village chief, and sent all the old people, women and children to pick this fruit in large quantities, and hoarded it and waited for Wang Gui to buy it.

The arrival of Xiao Ye made Gu Jiabao even more festive, and the more than 30 carts of grain, cloth and other materials that came with it, although Gu Yanwu owed a sum of money, but the thirty or so brand-new umbrellas inside made him feel very happy.

Wang Hu stood in the compound of the military house, looking at the boxes of cardboard shell projectiles and earth-shaking thunder, which were properly sent into the warehouse, and then looked at the serious expression of the big leader, he knew that things were far from being as easy as they looked from the outside.

Sure enough, Xiao Ye took Wang Hu to climb the fort wall, looked at the grassland in the distance, and the Altai Mountains faintly visible in the west, and looked back at Wang Hu, "The Tartars will not live in peace,"

"This time, I went to the Eagle Claw Fort to trade a team of Tartars, I took it to the new sergeants, trained my courage, cut off their heads, and it was cheaper to buy these wild Tartars," swallowed the goods traded by the Tartars, and even did not let go of people, Xiao Ye said very plainly.

"The Nala Milk tribe will not give up, you are the first to bear the brunt here, you must put away this stone fort, and you must not retreat without an order," Xiao Ye's words made Wang Hu feel excited, and immediately cheered up, "Yes, no retreat without an order,"

No wonder the fort gate is so narrow, barely able to push a carriage in, and there are stone pillars piled up inside, thinking of this, Wang Hu felt a chill down his spine.

"Those homeless people have never seen the cruelty of the grassland, if they want to survive here, they have to face the scimitar of the tartars, otherwise there is no need to stay," indifferently glancing at the crowd in the fort, Xiao Ye raised his legs and walked towards the corner wall.

At the moment of the great enemy, regardless of men, women and children, they must have the backbone to defend their homeland, and what Xiao Ye can do and say is nothing more.

The stone fort is three feet high, and there are stone fortresses built at the four corners, and the sergeants stand in it, not only fearless of wind and rain, but also chest-high shooting holes, which can just stop the enemy outside; There are such forts every ten steps on the road of the fort wall, which is also to avoid the dampness of the projectile in the rain and snow of fire/gun, and to maximize the advantage of fire/gun.

After seeing a few fortresses, Xiao Ye nodded with satisfaction, in a few days, Qin Shi's night owl banner team will be able to arrive, and at that time, a 10,000-strong team of Tartars will come, as long as there is no large number of artillery, it will be difficult to attack here with manpower alone.

Since Liu Shuihe seized that team of Tartars, Xiao Ye knew that he was bound to fight with the Tartars, although the Tartars traded nearly four hundred fires/guns, but he controlled the number of projectiles sold.

The amount of various materials that the processing center can provide every day has already made Xiao Ye impatient, if he just mixes like this, God knows when he will be able to form a powerful army, and he will gradually lose sight of the small fights.

The ore in Shuangta Lake, Xiao Ye is bound to get this winter, for which he has already spent a lot of silver, just look at the effect of the first move.

Night is about to fall, on the grassland northwest of Gujiabao, a faint black spot emerged, and after a while, more than 300 war horses appeared in the sergeant's telescope, and the first to ride on the horse was the knife that was driven into the grassland by Xiao Ye.

I haven't seen him for more than half a month, and there is an extra layer of wind and frost on the face of the knife, but the evil aura on his body is even stronger, his black face, a long jacket, short boots, and a knife and a bow, if it weren't for the lack of those eye-catching pigtails on his head, he would be a living tartar.

Xiao Ye, who heard the sound of climbing the castle wall, raised his binoculars and looked at the knives that were getting closer and closer, and couldn't help but secretly rejoice, this guy seems to be living very happily on the grassland.

It's just that, looking at the knife again, those strange riders, Xiao Ye's face suddenly darkened, and he only saw one of the guards who followed the knife out, and the others didn't follow.

"Hey," sighed in his heart, Xiao Ye quickly stepped down the fort wall, and rode out of the stone fort with the guards.

In the cold breeze, Xiao Ye, who was riding on a black horse, trampled on the withered yellow weeds with his hooves, and a dozen fierce guards lined up behind him, watching the horse team rushing towards him.

The knife that rushed to Xiao Ye's approach, his stiff face twitched twice, the horse stopped, raised his legs and jumped off the war horse, threw down the reins and stepped forward to kneel on one knee respectfully, "My lord, my subordinate is back,"

Behind him, the lonely guard's eyes were red, and he jumped off the horse and knelt in front of Xiao Ye, but the hand holding the horse's reins did not let go.

The Tartar riders who had come with the knives dismounted and fell to their knees, shouting in unison to meet the lords.

Xiao Ye ignored these attached tartars, his eyes were fixed on both sides of the saddle next to the guard's war horse, and the six small coarse porcelain jars that were firmly tied made the corners of his mouth tremble.

With a bang, the knife took out a handful of iron plates from his arms, and the iron plates tied to these thin iron chains directly shattered Xiao Ye's little hope.

Since leaving Xiao Ye's side, Daozi, with the secret help of Wedge Hemu, took the borrowed cavalry of the West Wedge Hebu to rob three small tribes in a row on the grassland controlled by King Hami.

A medium tribe of two thousand people, it looked defenseless, but on the way to the sneak attack, the knife met an ambush, five bronze cannons, or the kind of artillery placed on wooden wheel supports, the siege of a thousand bald Luo cavalry, but the knife was completely kicked to the iron plate.

Fortunately, the 800 riders sent to him by Wedge Hemu were also brave and good at fighting, and they desperately protected their knives to kill the trap, but there were only 300 people left.

At this time, the knife suddenly realized that relying on the sharp firearm in his hand, it is not possible to do everything as he wants, and if he wants to gain a firm foothold on the grassland, he cannot live without a brain; But the brothers who died under the iron pellet shells and the horned bow scimitars could no longer stand up and laugh.

In this sudden ambush, not only did the knife lose a lot, but even most of the firearms were lost, and the strength was greatly reduced for a while.

In order to recover the bodies of the dead brothers, the knife hid in the grassland for several days, and only then did he come out in embarrassment when the bald Luo cavalry retreated.

"The corpses of the brothers have been refined, and I implore you to send them back to Shiguantun Land Temple," the knife that didn't dare to lift his head, and the sound of Xiao Ye's heavy breathing in his ears had to be stubbornly said.

Seventeen capable guards, in the blink of an eye, there was only one alive, even the dead ones were only brought back, and the others were not even broken and could not be found, Xiao Ye, who was pale, strode off the war horse, and the whip in his hand creaked.

"Sixteen people, sixteen guards of this official, that's how you took them, ah," Walking to the knife, Xiao Ye couldn't bear it anymore, roaring and raising the horsewhip, "Do you still have a brain?" The tactics handed over to you are all fed to the dogs? "Smack, smack,"

"You can't run if you can't beat it, have you grown legs?" "Smack, smack,"

"Where did you put it, Scout? Get carried away with you," "Smack, smack,"

Slap, slap, smack, with Xiao Ye's angry scolding, the whip that came down strongly, each whip, the thick leather jacket on the back of the knife was directly cut into a big hole, and the skin flakes were scattered, and the red blood was soaked in Xiao Ye's pupils.

The close-fitting earthy yellow protective clothing, although it saved the knife's life, was broken by the angry Xiao Ye.

Xiao Ye, who was extremely angry, was quite unsympathetic, and with more than a dozen whips, he beat the knife that was as strong as an ox to the ground and did not move, if it wasn't for the guards who rushed up and hugged the big leader, I am afraid that the knife would have been killed on the spot this time.

Wang Hu lowered his eyebrows and led people to carry knives away, and by the way, he also took away those Tartar riders, Xiao Ye took the iron plate into his arms, personally led the horse, tied the reins to the saddle of the war horse, and returned to Eagle Claw Fort overnight.

This time, he was really angry with the knife, but the herald he met halfway through the road made him throw the knife behind him.

The information sent by Wang Ziliang was about Xin Weilin's speculation about the situation, and the other was the results of the investigation of the jade vines and grass around Madao Stone Fort.

The story of the praying mantis catching the cicada and the yellow finch, Xiao Ye could do nothing but speed up his plan, but the spread of the jade vine grass made him smile even more bitterly.

The rattan grass that spread south from Shiguantun has reached the periphery of the fields outside the gravel fort, and traces have been seen outside the town of Gansu to the east, and it has also crossed the vicinity of the original Jiming village to the north.

This is because of the scarcity of rain this year, and if the wind and rain are good, I don't know where it will go.

It's just that while the vine grass spread north to the north of Eagle Claw Fort for more than ten miles, some scouts found that the more vine grass went north, the smaller the broken leaves on the branches, and the more dense the stingers became.

"Fortunately, with Coptis chinensis, and with the detoxification of the young leaves of the vine grass, I think this vine grass will be resisted," Xiao Ye, who was secretly wiping cold sweat, asked himself for comfort. He also could not have imagined that rattan grass could grow in the Gobi Desert, where there are only sparse poplar trees and shrubs, and now there is another poisonous weed.

In the compound of the Gujiabao military house, the knife lying on the kang was bare-chested, and there were clansmen sent by Gu Yanwu on the side, who were bandaging his wounds; Although the wound looked bloody and scary, Xiao Ye still showed mercy and did not use force to hurt the muscles and bones of the knife.

Gu Jialang left, Wang Hu put the lamp on the table, sat on the edge of the kang with his buttocks, and felt uncomfortable with the cold sticky on his back, and his underwear was wet with sweat, but he was scared.

"Oops, it's just going to scare people to death, Baihu is really angry today," shaking his head, Wang Hu habitually called Xiao Ye's old official position, "It seems that the food and salary of our thousand households are not so easy to get, maybe one day the whip will be called,"

"I deserve it, even if the adults kill me, I will admit it," the knife, who had been silent, lay on the felt carpet, and responded sullenly, he had already sobered up, but because of his face, he did not want to open his eyes in front of the sergeant.

Wang Hu rolled his eyes, there was no accident, he was a second-order sergeant, and he knew the strong physique of the fourth-order sergeant of the knife, "Brother, this lesson must be remembered, and next time, I'm afraid you will go to the mill for your life,"

"Give me more fire/guns and projectiles, and I'll leave in an hour," the knife ignored Wang Hu's ridicule, turned over and sat up, with unwilling flames in his eyes, "Jump thunder, earth-shattering thunder, give me more,"

"What's the matter, you're going to kill a horse pistol?" Wang Hu saw that the knife was not like a joke, and asked in a deep voice, "Do you need my brother to bring someone to help?" ”

"No, where I fell, where I got up, that bald tribe, if Lao Tzu didn't slaughter it, the adults wouldn't spare me," the knife gritted his teeth hatefully, grabbed the leather jacket on the kang, "Go eat first,"

After putting on the knife in leather boots, he was about to walk out of the military house, when Wang Hu behind him said, "There are five wooden boxes prepared for you by adults, you can go and see them later,"

In a tent that was closely guarded by a sergeant, the knife saw five familiar iron boxes, of different sizes, stepped forward to open one, and the hand lamp shone inside, and the knife's gloomy face suddenly bloomed with a trace of warmth; It seems that adults are still thinking about themselves.

Twenty pieces of protective clothing, two boxes of fifty rifles, one box of thirty cannons, and the rest of the boxes were full of Huang Cancan's bullets.

Grabbing a brand-new rifle, the knife skillfully pulled the bolt, and the sound of the bolt made his heart uplifted, "Damn, it's time for revenge,"

In the box containing the bullets, the knife found a flare gun, although there were only five thick bullets, plus the letter whistle in hand, the connection between him and Wang Hu had one more means.