Madao Stone Fort, the black flag on the fortress wall, rattled and fell in the cold wind.

Due to the convenience of the eagle's talon fort letter post, Xiao Ye had not returned to Madao Stone Fort, and Meier and Lena were already waiting at the gate of the fort with their stomachs straight; Tian Xiuxiu was dressed in a white fox fur and a long fur, and her son was also looking forward to it, and the two wolf cubs who had grown up at her feet jumped vigorously around the fallen horse that passed by the door, and from time to time she bared her teeth and made noise.

Unlike the strict hierarchical wives and concubines of the big families in the city, the three daughters stand side by side, but there is not much respect and inferiority, which is also one of the reasons why Yang Tianshou is reluctant to come out, out of sight and out of mind.

The guards surrounding the family of the big boss were dressed in black coarse cotton jackets, with thick uniforms and soft boots, and they were not clearly wearing weapons.

However, the blacksmith shops of the three stone forts, the guards who made the horses/knives, have already been delivered, and they are waiting for Xiao Ye to come back and give them the swords.

The guards who were just carrying a short firearm or a box cannon in their arms faintly surrounded Mei'er and them, but the cold wind blowing on their faces made everyone endure the biting cold.

Wang Ziliang and Xin Rulin were not far from the ladies, and they were also wearing long jackets, wrapped in big coats, and holding warm hands in their arms, but their faces were pale from the cold.

The snow that was shoveled to the side of the road has been frozen into hard snow and ice, and stepping on it is like a white stone, and the winter on the northwest grassland is as cold as ice.

"Tread, trample," when a few high-headed horses flashed on the snow track in the valley, Kong Xiangming, who was guarding Mei'er's side, was secretly relieved; The letter sent by Liu Shuihe is quite reliable, otherwise these three ladies and adults have sons, plus two Xiucai, if the weather is cold and cold, he will not be able to deal with it.

Boom, more war horses flashed out from the other side of the valley, looking into the distance, isn't it the big leader Xiao Ye who is the leader, why does it look much more powerful; The sharp-eyed guards, almost at the same time as Kong Xiangming, straightened their waists again.

A team of horse-drawn carts and craftsmen pulling charcoal across the mountain road saw that their own adults in the valley beside the road had returned, hulala knelt on the residual snow beside the carriage, and shouted loudly, "Your Excellency is back, your Excellency is back,"

On the top of the hill west of the stone fort, Zuo Shi and Wang Meng stood on the roof of the military compound, took the binoculars to the valley down the mountain to watch, and after seeing Xiao Ye and their figures, the two of them invariably put away the binoculars, looked at each other and smiled, and then went down the wooden ladder.

Zuo Shi and a team of guards have been patrolling around the stone castle for almost a month, and even Wang Meng has been tense his nerves, for fear that there will be a little problem inside and outside the stone castle; Now it's okay, Xiao Ye's return is tantamount to reassuring the two of them.

The same is true for others.

Xiao Ye, who was full of smiles, let go of the reins and put the horse speed, shouted to the craftsmen he knew, greeted them one by one, and drove up the ramp; Seeing a group of people in the open space next to the Fort Gate, Xiao Ye's eyes flashed a hint of softness, and he jumped off his horse with stride, threw away the reins and strode over.

"My lord, my subordinate Kong Xiangming is leading the team on duty," Kong Xiangming saw Xiao Ye coming, hurriedly straightened his chest and lowered his head, flashed to the side, pressed his right hand into a fist on his left chest, and reported in a deep voice; According to the military regulations of the Ming Dynasty, the sergeant who performs military affairs does not worship the official, but he wears leather armor inside.

"Well, yes, it looks like you're more sure than you," Xiao Ye patted Kong Xiangming's shoulder, squinted his eyes and glanced around the guards, and after saying a word, he kept walking towards Mei'er.

"Look, on this cold day, you are freezing one by one," after seeing the faces of the three girls one by one, Xiao Ye complained distressedly, greeted the two Xiucai on the side, took Mei'er's cool little hand, and walked towards the castles.

For his children, Xiao Ye said that he didn't have much doting, his heart was not yet determined, and there were many things around him, so how could he have the leisure to hold his children and slip away.

Wow, a team of sergeants on duty at the gate of the fort, as well as the sergeants on the fort wall, stood with their guns on their shoulders, stood with their chests up, and dozens of bright eyes up and down stared at Xiao Ye's body, and their burning eyes were all full of joy.

These sergeants, who had eaten bread and beef and mutton all day, were all strong, wearing long sheepskin jackets, black soft boots with hard soles, uniform khaki field uniforms, and iron helmets wrapped in a layer of black coarse cloth on their heads.

Coupled with the daily non-stop drills, at this time, the battalion under Xiao Ye's men was already strong and strong, and the soldiers were basically full.

Back in the house, Xiao Ye stayed on the kang in the backyard bedroom with his wife and children, rested for an afternoon, Xiuxiu was hearted, took a lot of crystal cakes and pastries, and some dried fruits, which filled the entire low table; The family complained about him for a long time.

Fortunately, Jin Sanniang prepared all kinds of silk and gouache rouge for Xiao Ye's wife and concubine, and finally allowed Xiao Ye to deal with the three women. Zuo Shi and Han Juan, who hurriedly ran back, ate refreshing pears, leaned on the corner of the kang and looked at Xiao Ye's bitter face and only smiled vigorously.

Sitting on the cushion, Xiao Ye talked to Mei'er about his outing, while curiously playing with the glass on the low table; The glass with hot tea poured on it looks crystal clear, but when you look closely, it is still a little rough.

"This was sent by Uncle Kang, and when he saw that there were some broken glass in the castle, he and a few old craftsmen made this kind of cup, which is quite rare," Mei'er, who had a peaceful and gentle face, sat cross-legged beside Xiao Ye, peeling the fried chestnuts and said softly.

However, Lena was quick to talk, teasing the babbling Simon Guard, and told the origin of the cup.

Kang Hongyuan led the craftsmen to pull out of the tunnel, the largest number of goods are still glass, and the shops in the stone castle are sold at very cheap prices, so each household basically has no papyrus paper on the windows, but asks someone to install glass on the window frame.

The broken glass is very sharp, and it has accumulated a lot, and Kang Hongyuan, who stays in the mill compound, sometimes goes to the warehouse to do things, and it is a pity to see these broken glass.

A few old craftsmen who were with him, including a blacksmith with good skills, discussed it with a few people, and set up a small coke kiln in the corner of the compound and asked Wang Qing for two carts of good coal.

The furnace in the blacksmith shop is not easy to make, but for the blacksmith it is just a hand-down craft, and besides, the refining road is not big, and it can melt the glass fragments.

So, with good coke, truckloads of broken glass, which were considered garbage, were added to the red-hot furnace to make large pieces of glass hydrothermal liquid.

The amateur life in the stone castle is really shabby, and Kang Hongyuan's actions immediately made the people in the castle interested, and they gave him ideas to see if they could make an imitation crystal cup.

It is said that in the Warring States Period, there was a crystal cup, which was in the south, and there were skilled craftsmen in the north except for the Beijing Division, who could carve out the glass cup, which was the crystal cup of Waiyi.

After many repeated inspections, Han Damin, who was still a lacquer craftsman, and Li Xin'an of the logistics team, made a move to Kang Hongyuan, using a long hollow iron pipe, one end was wrapped in glass hydrothermal liquid, and the other end slowly turned to blow air inside.

The masters are all in the people, and after many tests, Kang Hongyuan and the seven glass crystal cups they made were sent to the back house of the big boss.

"Well, yes, yes, Uncle Kang, they really have a unique vision, and they have one more business," Xiao Ye picked up the cup and took a sip of hot tea, chewed a piece of crisp cake in his mouth, and muttered for a moment.

"The glass crystal cup, let the mill compound build it, send it to the Shi family shop to sell, the price will be set by Xin Rulin, and Uncle Kang will get fifty percent of the profit," said the light words in his mouth, setting the prospect of this kind of cup.

However, Xiao Ye did not expect that the craftsmen in the mill courtyard would rely on this glass hydrothermal liquid to obtain fifty percent of the profits, and not far away, one by one, they were very rich and went to the account office to order stone castles for the next female for a lifetime.

During Xiao Ye's outing, Zuo Shi began to clean up the stone castle according to Wang Ziliang's intentions, with the acquiescence of Xin Rulin, after asking his brother with a letter post.

In the stone fort, everyone who could get close to the mansion of the big chief, according to the roster, including Pang Hai and his mother-in-law, was taken to an empty military compound; The guards on duty who lived inside followed Xiao Ye out and just made room.

The four iron boxes that Kang Hongyuan took out were stored by the guards in Xiao Ye's study, and under the witness of Mei'er, Zuo Shi took out three hundred and fifty primary powerful potions.

These people, who had drunk the blood of cattle and sheep three times a day, were stared at by Zuo Shi and took the red five-star pill one after another.

More than 300 people spent thirteen days, after the torment of the medicine, and nineteen of them died, such a low mortality rate was unimaginable in the past; Of course, the families of the deceased craftsmen, sergeants, and displaced people will be properly resettled by their own accounts to pay for the bereavement.

Most people have increased their strength by 100 catties in vain, and they are grateful to Zuo Shi for his approach, but the problem lies with Pang Hai's mother-in-law.

The emaciated woman with a splitting headache was lying on the ground screaming incessantly, crying and grabbing the ground to confess, her distant relatives in Gansu Town were arrested by Jinyiwei, and she was forced to come here, in order to be a hidden stake of Jinyiwei.

Fortunately, he had not received the next instruction from Jin Yiwei, and Pang Hai, who was in the dark, also survived the ordeal of the medicine unharmed.

"There is no doubt about employing people," Xiao Ye's reply with four words, so that Pang Hai's family survived, and cooked for Xiao Ye's family as usual. Xiao Ye didn't send the woman who harbored malice towards him to the black room of Eagle Claw Fort for the first time, but in exchange for Pang Hai's extreme loyalty.

Of course, that woman will lie on the kang for a while, and in the future, her body will recover her strength, and she may not be able to carry more than a dozen pounds of heavy objects; This is also a characteristic of powerful medicines, which must be reversed, and the medicinal properties actually devour and eliminate the power of people; It's just that Xiao Ye didn't bother to leave trouble for himself, and all the people who had bad intentions towards him were sent to the black room, or they were dealt with secretly, and they didn't find this way.

In the evening, I invited my father-in-law Yang Tianshou, Xiucai Xin Rulin, Wang Ziliang, and my wife and concubine to prepare for a dinner together.

At the dinner table, in addition to ordinary dishes, glass crystal cups appeared, which was also given to Kang Hongyuan and them to publicize.

Chef Pang Hai took out the treasured "pepper" and turned out the copper hot pot sent by the merchant, with a round fire barrel in the middle of the pot, made of copper, thick at the bottom and thin at the top with carbon inside; Outside the stove was a circle of red oil soup, bubbling hot.

This kind of copper hot pot that has just prevailed in Datong, the chassis, the pot body, the fire seat, the copper cover, the fire tube and the small lid are composed of six parts, the pot body, the pot lid and the small cover, respectively, are engraved with the pattern of "dragon and phoenix Chengxiang", "flowers and birds and landscapes", and the shape is beautiful; The convenience of businessmen and people in all directions allowed Xiao Ye to enjoy the enjoyment of the rich and noble people in Gansu Town on the barren grassland.

The base soup made of beef bones, with green onions, ginger, sesame peppers, sesame oil, and red peppers, makes the hot soup tumble, and it smells hot and spicy.

"Pepper", which is commonly known as chili, plus Sichuan's specialty pepper, let everyone see the spicy taste.

A large plate of sliced beef and mutton, white and tender tofu, yellowed frozen dried tofu, as well as green vegetables from the warm cellar, sliced radishes, lotus roots, and a small bowl of sesame sauce in front of him, but Xiao Ye was sweating profusely and applauded again and again.

Several other people around have tasted the taste of spicy hot pot a few times, although they despise Xiao Ye's surprise, but everyone's hearts are sour, this is Xiao Ye's first time eating hot pot.

"No, I'll have to eat it a few more times in the future, this hot pot is too enjoyable to eat in winter," Xiao Ye, who wiped his sweat with a hand towel, drank double the Fenjiu with a smile, and drank five plates of beef in his belly, and then slowly and methodically put the vegetables into the pot.

"Brother Liu Ren, if you ask someone to send a letter to Liu Shuihe, let the merchant bring more hot pot and sell it in the shop, it must be a sought-after product," Wang Ziliang responded with a smile to Xiao Ye's suggestion.

However, the vegetarian dishes on the table today are not something that ordinary people can eat, and the price of green vegetables on the grassland is more than several times more expensive than beef and mutton.

But now, Xiao Ye generally doesn't give things to his subordinates at will, the salary is paid monthly, and the wage logistics team in the mill finds the account room to settle the bill, if you want to live a good life, go to the shop.

All the sergeants and guards who have entered the military register, the weapons are rationed at night, the field uniforms are four singles a year, thick field uniforms, and there is no shortage of bits and pieces of equipment, so they don't have to worry about food and housing, but in addition to getting back food and salary for their families, they can only go to the shops to buy things.

is the same as enforcing military discipline, as long as the rules are a habit, everyone naturally doesn't have many opinions, anyway, it's the same as the people around them; Of course, in terms of the level of salary, the people who contributed in the mill were not as good as the logistics team, the logistics team was not as good as the barracks, the barracks were not as good as the communications team, and the communication team was not as good as the guards.

Xiao Ye, who never opened his mouth to intercede, acted according to the common rules of the Ming Dynasty, naturally saving trouble and worry, what he is looking at now is only the result, which person who takes the lead does not pay attention to the rules, once he is denounced, the military sticks and whipping of the guards are not to watch and play.

The cost of the medical hall, the school and Wang Ziliang is another story.