On the fourth day of the first month, 300 children of the Xiangfan Society (including 200 children of the original Ma Gang) assembled on the south bank and temporarily incorporated into the Qingjiang Water Camp Protector Army, which belonged to Wei Yu.

In the next few days, nearly 10,000 quintals of grain entered Taishan and Wuling Mountains along Lishui one after another. Mi Yusheng is still the natural candidate for the main general of the grain delivery fleet, but Xu Ruyu asked Yun Yuansheng and Zi Yangqiu's other protector Mingsu to serve as Mi Yusheng's deputy to assist in the grain transportation; Considering that the slave hunters might be encountered on the banks of the Lishui River, the speed of the grain ship could not be too fast, Wei Yu led a heavily armed escort of as many as 300 people, and the ships were equipped with twenty ordinary crossbows and four strong crossbows.

Yunyi returned to Yunqiao Village, while Zhang Xu continued to stay in the camp of the Qingyan Army and was responsible for the liaison between Taishan and the Qingyan Army.

On the seventh day of the first month, Meng Yi returned from Wuling Mountain, accompanied not only by Ziyangqiu's escort named Mingna, but also by 300 elite soldiers of Baiyi, as well as 400 Yiren sailors who were urgently needed by the Qingyan Army.

From their mouths, they learned that the first batch of grain had arrived at Cuishi Peak the day before yesterday, and Mi Wusheng and Wei Yu would temporarily stop in Wuling Mountain for a period of time to purchase the products in the mountain. Xu Ruyu and Ziyangqiu agreed that the two families would equally share the proceeds from the sale of Shanzhong products in Yongyang Port. This is probably the fairest deal Zi Yangqiu has ever encountered. Zi Yangqiu is not afraid that Xu Ruyu will break his promise and get fat, because in previous years, these products often could not be exchanged for tens of thousands of loads of grain, Xu Ruyu used 20,000 loads of grain to completely buy out these properties, and Zi Yangqiu would not hesitate to accept it.

In the past, he was sent by Xu Ruyu to the Huaiyu Mountains on the west side of the Qingjiang River to reconnoiter the enemy's situation, accompanied by twenty soldiers of the Qingjiang Cavalry Battalion. The Lishui River Valley is divided into three pieces by the Qingjiang River and the Lishui River, Xiangfan will live on the north bank of the Lishui River, the Qingyan Army will live on the south bank of the Lishui River, and the narrow area on the west side of the Qingjiang River is close to the towering Huaiyu Mountain. Huaiyu Mountain is majestic and upright, and most of the people who have built villages in the mountains are families who have lost power and declined in the hegemony of Jingjun, and their forces are much more elite and powerful than the villages on Taishan. Xu Ruyu is still unable to take care of the land on the west side of the Qingjiang River.

Originally, there was no need for Ming Xi to personally go out for things like reconnaissance of the enemy, but Zi Yangqiu had a little doubt about Ming Xi's identity recently, and heard that the general who led three hundred Yi soldiers down the mountain was Zi Yang Qiu's own sister Zi Yang Yalan, Ming Xi took the initiative to ask for avoidance, "Ziyang Yalan has been brilliant since childhood, and her father loves her very much, and she often takes her with her to teach her personally, and she will recognize me." ”

At this time, the parapet wall of the camp was only knee-high, and dozens of simple earthen houses were built in the camp. Xu Ruyu's big tent is still set up in a big tent. Xu Ruyu demanded that the treasury be built first, and the 10,000 quintals of grain purchased from the grain merchants would be stored first.

Gu Mingchen set up the warehouse in the southeast corner of the camp, designed as a circular fortress tower, stone-based brick wall, at this time can also be used as a defensive fort in the southeast corner of the camp.

Meng Yi and the other twelve sects led the 300 Yiren soldiers from the cavalry camp and Ziyang Yalan into four teams to infiltrate the Wuling Mountains and carry out counter-hunting against the slave hunting team.

Only 100 Qingjiang cavalry soldiers and 100 horse gang children remained in the camp, but fortunately, due to the addition of 400 Yi people, the progress of camp construction has been accelerated a lot. On the tenth day of the first month, the stone foundation of the parapet wall of the camp has been built, plus the crossbow and the longbow to form the basic protection, and Xu Ruyu does not need to be unable to sleep all night. Liang Bao also woke up and is recovering.

The first batch of grain has been transported to the large and small villages in Taishan, and the villages in farther areas have also come to buy grain one after another. Of course, they organized the transportation of grain by themselves, and they were scattered in various dangerous areas of Qingjiang Prefecture, and Xu Ruyu was no longer able to provide escorts by force. They will choose to pass through this section of Lishui Road, which is quite safe within the sphere of influence of Yunqiao Village and Jizhai Village, but after this sphere of influence, there are still some small villages that have been robbed by the people of Yuantun and Gaotang Village. There is no news from further afield, but I am afraid that the situation will be worse.

After Mi Yusheng and Wei Yu returned from Wuling Mountain, Xu Ruyu had the spare strength to organize centralized grain transportation routes into various places. Xu Ruyu recalled Ming Xi from Huaiyu Mountain, and asked him to command the Qingjiang cavalry battalion and 100 horse gang disciples to guard the route east of Jizhai, and Jizhai and Shengyun Village also sent 300 men each to assist Ming Xi. This route is to enter Fuzhou, where the people in Fuzhou will buy grain from here into Taishan, and then enter the Lishui River.

Wei Yu led the Qingjiang Water Camp Protector and 100 Mabang disciples to cross the Lishui River and march to the hilly belt in the north of the Lishui River Valley, responsible for guarding the northern villages into the Lishui River Valley to buy grain, Yunqiao Village and Shao Zhai each sent 200 good men to assist Wei Yu; At Xu Boying's insistent request, Xu Jingcheng reluctantly let Xu Zhaorong lead 200 Xiangfan elite horsemen into the area.

The camp of the Qingyan Army only left a hundred disciples of the Xiangfan Society, and there were two hundred Xiangfan Hui elite cavalry led by Xu Jingcheng on the north bank, as well as a weak Qingjiang water battalion led by Mi Yusheng. At this time, let the enemy infiltrate, the result will be unimaginable.

Xu Boying showed a worried look from time to time.

Xu Ruyu pretended to be relaxed and said: "There are 400 anti-hunting teams in Wuling Mountain in the south, Taishan Sizhai and Ming Xi in the east, Jingcheng and Wei Yu in the hills in the north, the wide and turbulent Qingjiang River in the west, and the Qingjiang Water Camp in the west, Bo Ying don't worry too much." ”

Xu Boying smiled bitterly and said: "You are really good at calming people, but as long as a team of five hundred people infiltrates us, we will be in danger, even if we let the Qingjiang bandits find out our situation, it will be enough for us." ”

Xu Ruyu sighed: "Yes, now we are walking on thin ice, but if I don't send Ming Xi and Wei Yu out, we can't guarantee that the grain can be safely transported out of the villages outside Xuancheng." The strength of those villages is too weak to be able to escort grain along the way. This is also beneficial, the eyes of the bandits from all walks of life will be scattered, and before they can react, Ming Xi and Wei Yu should be able to come back. ”

Xu Boying knew that it was necessary to open the situation before Xiangfan would gain a foothold, and he had no choice but to make this dangerous move, so he sighed and said: "Wei Yu and Ming Xi both had some casualties, but fortunately, the enemy was only a test and there was no large-scale invasion. The anti-hunting team has been in the mountains for four days, and there is no news yet, which shows that everything is going well. ”

"What do you think of the attachment of Xue Rengong, the owner of Taishan Xuejiazhai?"

"Xuejiazhai is the first village to take the initiative to say that it belongs directly, and there should be no problem with the motive, but it is just that it will be immediately incorporated for fear that more defensive weaknesses will be exposed. Xuejiazhai has a total population of 800, including 150 soldiers. However, the strength of the few guards who went down the mountain with Xue Rengong was only as strong as the ordinary sergeants of the Qingjiang Teaching Battalion, not to mention compared with the soldiers of the Qingjiang Cavalry Battalion, so it can be seen that the combat strength of the 150 Zhai soldiers is not worth our expectations. If the people and horses of Xuejiazhai are allowed to go down the mountain at this time, other weak villages will also come down one after another, but we don't have enough defense now, and the scale of the camp can only accommodate 2,000 people. ”

Xu Ruyu looked at the wall, which had been rammed beyond the top of the people, and the four corners of the six-zhang high lookout arrow tower had already stood there to perform the function of a watchpost guard. Ni Tuozi and Gu Mingchen stood by the Nanzhai Gate, as if they were arguing about something. Although it was not far away, Xu Ruyu could hear their conversation as long as he mentioned Danxi, but Xu Ruyu still guessed with interest what they were arguing about; Xu Ruyu thought that if they felt the need to let themselves know that they would come to confess, eavesdropping was not what a commander should do.

Xu Ruyu said: "The more difficult it is, the more you must show overwhelming confidence. Why don't tens of thousands of people in Taishan dare to go down the mountain? Because there is no strong person who can shelter them yet, if we hesitate a little, they will hesitate even more. That's when our progress slows down. The official report from Yongyang, you have already seen it, the Xun family of Fen County had already begun to implement the prefecture and county system in Fen County ten days ago, and within two years, the real local power would appear on that land. In less than a year, the content of the prefecture and county system will spread, and the benefits of the prefecture and county system may make the Yuan and Rong families in Nanping postpone the time of restoration, but the conditions for Nanping to implement the prefecture and county system are more mature, and it may not take two years, and the strength will be stronger. No one can predict where the general trend of the world will be in three years. We have only four to five years at most to stabilize the situation in the south-east, and it is now impossible not to take risks. ”

Xu Boying said: "With Ru Yu, in just a few months, my vision is no longer limited to the Nanyang Basin, and Ru Yu teaches me like a teacher. It's a blessing to be able to jump out and look at the world, no matter how the years change, I will continue to support you. Okay, let's accept Xue Jiazhai down the mountain. ”

On the fifteenth day of the first month, the 800 villagers of Xuejiazhai came to the mouth of the river as the first batch of people who joined the Qingyan Army on the warship of the Qingjiang water camp, and the grain transportation on the eastern front was nearing the end. Xu Ruyu and Youli led everyone to welcome the 800 villagers into the camp, looked at the skinny and weak villagers, omitted the speech they had prepared, and said to Xue Rengong: "Let them all go into the house and rest." ”

The 150 soldiers were also very old-looking, and most of the long halberds and short knives in their hands were rusty, and only the twenty or thirty people in front of them were slightly more energetic.

Xu Ruyu said to Xue Rengong, who was full of wrinkles: "Select fifty people from them to be assigned to the first post of the guard camp, and the others will be organized into reserves." ”

Xue Rengong's expression was a little sluggish, although he didn't know much about what Xu Ruyu said. The young man with a purple face holding the sword behind him whispered, "General Qingfeng wants to rearrange these more than 100 people, and only fifty people can he see. ”

Xue Rengong said "oh" and said, "I just listen to General Qingfeng's orders, and I will separate the dog cubs in this county." ”

Xu Ruyu glanced at the young man and said, "Master Xue Village, is this Lord Xue Shaozhai?" ”

"What kind of village is not the owner of the village, you can get the protection of General Qingfeng, but the blessing of the eight hundred people in Xuejiazhai is now down the mountain, General Qingfeng still calls me Xue Mazi, they all call it that. This kid is my little five, and the first four didn't survive. Degui, don't you kowtow to General Qingfeng? ”

Xu Ruyu rolled up his sleeves, helped Xue Degui, who was about to kneel down, and said: "There is no such thing here, since you have come to the camp, you will be a brother in the future." Degui, seeing that you have practiced martial arts for a few years and know some military affairs, then you will serve as the first sentry captain of the forward of the guard camp. ”

There was a commotion in the barracks behind, Xu Ruyu looked over, and a sergeant hurriedly walked over and said, "One person eats too much, it seems that it is not good." ”

Xu Ruyu hurriedly walked towards the barracks, and asked as he walked: "Didn't you send food to the village once, how could this situation still occur?" ”

Xue Rengong whispered: "At first, General Qingfeng didn't agree to take us in, and he didn't dare to eat more food, so he filled his stomach, and then he knew that he could go down the mountain and give the grain to the village next to him." If you haven't eaten enough in your life, you have no moderation. ”

Xu Ruyu sighed lightly, looking at the old man lying on the ground, his thin hand as a bird's claw was caressing his high and bulging abdomen, sweat was constantly oozing from his forehead and flowing along the deep wrinkled ravine, moaning in pain, and several people kneeling next to him were sobbing in low voices.

Uncle Fang Wu stood up and whispered, "The stomach is broken, and I can't be saved." ”

Xu Ruyu nodded, squatting in front of the old man with a gloomy expression, watching him suddenly open his eyes and flash a dazzling light, only to hear him mutter. Xu Ruyu didn't understand, and glanced at the old woman opposite. The old woman said, "The old man said that he thought every day that he would be able to eat and die one day, and now he finally got his wish......"

On the twentieth day of the first month, Wei Yu led the Qingjiang Water Camp Protector and a hundred Mabang disciples to return to the camp, and a total of 1,500 people from the other three small villages joined the Qingyan Army. The soldiers of Sanzhai and the soldiers of Xuejiazhai were incorporated by Xu Ruyu into the first post of the guard camp. Although it is said that the number is full, the combat effectiveness cannot be compared with the 125 soldiers of the Qingjiang Cavalry Battalion. Liang Bao gradually recovered, and the teaching cavalry battalion he commanded was still in Wuling Mountain, so Xu Ruyu asked him to temporarily take charge of the training of the camp of the guards.

The camp now numbered 3,000 people, plus 400 sailors.

The Qingjiang Water Battalion can now be fully equipped with eight warships, which means that the Qingjiang Water Battalion has 600 sailors and divisions, 200 sailors, and 400 escorts. At the present stage, the combat tasks of the navy are mainly undertaken by the water battalion guards, and Xu Ruyu selected 150 people from the downsized village soldiers to supplement the shortage of the navy.

According to the establishment of the water battalion at that time, a 100-tip warship equipped with a considerable number of large-wing warships (or fighting ships), Mengchong ships, and patrol ships is a complete establishment of the water battalion sentry team, with a personnel establishment of about 300 to 400. As the main general of the battleship, the hundred warships confronted the enemy head-on, the small warships guerrilla, and the patrol ships were the basic tactics of water warfare at that time.

Of course, if there are 200 or more warships in the water camp, the formation will be even larger. However, the most powerful Pingcheng water battalion had only 20 400 warships, only 10 larger building ships, and less than 100 warships with 100 and 200 warships.

At present, the Qingjiang water battalion lacked small warships, and the tactical use was extremely inflexible, but fortunately, there was no type of ship on the Qingjiang River that could compete with the hundred warships, and Xu Ruyu requisitioned some fishing boats from the upper reaches of the Lishui River to serve as patrol boats, and barely perfected the establishment of the Qingjiang water battalion.

On the 26th of the first month, Mi Yusheng and Wei Yu led six reorganized warships and ten transport ships to leave Xuancheng. Ten transport ships were loaded with Xuancheng's products. He was accompanied by twenty empty ships of the owners of the smuggled grain ships, who had made a lot of money.

The destination of Mi Yusheng and Wei Yu's trip will be Yongyang City, and the goods will be handed over to Jiang Lingtian for full disposal, and Xiangfan Zhong will have 1,000 people on board from Yongyang and 1,000 people from Jiangjin this time, and of course they will have to buy a large amount of food and other necessities from Yongyang and Jiangjin to return to Xuancheng.

This kind of transaction, especially for the first time, was supposed to allow Boying to take care of it himself, but there were also a lot of things in the camp, and Xu Ru left him with a bitter face.

On the 28th, Meng Yi and other anti-hunting teams returned to the camp to replenish supplies, instructed the cavalry battalion to strictly implement the operational requirements of raiding and killing, and completely avoided confronting the slave hunting team head-on. The two anti-hunting teams led by Ziyang Yalan and Minna suffered heavy casualties, with more than one-third of their casualties, and Ziyang Yalan himself was seriously injured and had to recuperate in the camp.

Meng Yi and the others did not hear from Wei Yan in the mountains.

Xu Ruyu sighed and said, "He may have entered the mountainous area in the eastern part of Wuling Mountain, where the situation is even worse. Well, don't talk about him, teach the cavalry battalion to spend a month in the mountains, and the combat power has risen by more than one level compared to when it was formed. I will now draw forty men out of them and form the second and third posts of the camp forwards. In addition, a group of people were assigned to supplement the training camp. ”

At this time, there were more than 5,000 people who defected to Xu Ruyu, including as many as 7 or 800 soldiers, but they all faced the same defect, and the grassroots military ranks lacked the most basic military literacy. Meng also solved this problem when he brought the camp back from the mountains. Xu Ruyu drew 40 people from them to supplement the forward of the camp of the guards, which could not only improve the combat effectiveness of the camp more quickly, but also strengthen the control of the camp of the guards. Xu Ruyu also selected a group of people with military potential from these seven or eight hundred people to be trained in the training camp, so that the establishment of the teaching cavalry camp reached 150 people.

Liang Bao said: "Half of the teaching cavalry battalion are recruits, in this case, it is not appropriate for the teaching cavalry battalion to enter the mountain again, although the mountain slave hunting team has received a certain blow, but it has not yet withdrawn from Wuling Mountain." Liang Bao was afraid that Xu Ruyu would stop the anti-hunting operation, so he hurriedly spoke.

Xu Ruyu said: "The anti-hunting operation has been controlled in the Wuling Mountains west of the Lishui River, and although only 300 people were killed in 20 days, nearly 30 slave hunting teams returned from Wuling Mountain in vain. Now along the Lishui River, Yunqiao Village, Shaozhai Village, and Jizhai on Taishan have formed an alliance with us to prevent the slave hunting team from entering the western area of Wuling Mountain, and Shengyunzhai controls the route from Fuzhou to Taishan. The slave hunters in Fuzhou and the east and north of Fuzhou can only enter the eastern Wuling Mountain along the tributaries of the Qianjiang River such as Yunxi, Bapei Creek and Huhe, and only the slave hunters in the northern part of Taishan such as Yuantun and Gaotangzhai and the north of Xuancheng can enter the western Wuling Mountain from the low Ling District on the west side of Taishan. ”

"It takes time and effort to build a dock fort there, Gaotang Village is only thirty miles away from there, and it is also the passage for Gaotang Village to enter the Lishui River Valley, how can they allow us to build the dock fort on his lifeline?"

"It's easier to build a dock fort there than to directly capture Gaotang Village." Xu Boying stood up, looked at Gu Mingchen, who was not very accustomed to attending this kind of meeting, pointed to the topographic map and asked, "How long will it take to build a defensive stone fort of 200 people here?" ”

"The stone should be polished in advance, and sufficient labor should be ensured, which takes a month."

"One month, it only took one month to build this camp, why does it take so long for a stone fort?"

"I've been there three times, and the terrain is too difficult to build a stone fort. My personal opinion is that the fort should be built on the outer edge of the low mausoleum, where there is the ruins of an abandoned town, and we will rebuild the town later, and build a fortified fort above the town to control the way out of the water and protect the town. Although the protection of Wuling Mountain is a little weaker, don't we have to think further, it is a little troublesome now, but it will be much more convenient in the future. ”

"Mingchen's idea is more appropriate, I went back to Yingzhai to see Mingchen's planning of Yingzhai, as well as the planning of residential houses in the southeast of Yingzhai, which shows that Mingchen is a person who sees far."

Xu Ruyu saw Meng Yi praising Gu Mingchen and smiled knowingly.

In addition to the three types of buildings of the official hall, the barracks, and the storehouse, a number of houses have also been built in the 300-square-foot barracks, but they are far from enough for 5,000 or 6,000 people to live in, and more people will go down the mountain in the future. Although he has not yet been able to build a city, Gu Mingchen has a flat land of sixteen miles around the southeast circle of the camp as the land for the city. On this ground, build two horizontal and two vertical four long four-mile Chi Road as the main road of the Hou Cheng Pool, build a square courtyard of 500 steps on both sides of the Chi Road, the Fang Yuan is open on all sides, the Fang Wall is as high as Zhang Yu, the brick and stone structure, the courtyard door is closed, and each Fang Yuan can be used as a defensive unit of reading power. Dwellings, craftsmen's houses, and shops were built in the courtyards, each of which could accommodate 16,700 people from 200 households, and when one courtyard was filled, another could be built, so that the whole city could be filled. And in the open space here, the land of various public functional departments is retained, such as government offices, military camps, commercial districts, school fields, schools, health and other land, and finally as long as the high city wall is built on the periphery, a functional city can live more than 40,000 residents.

This made Xu Boying deeply admired, saying that Xu Ruyu got a very talented construction official out of thin air, and his method advanced the time of building the city to the present. Now, in addition to the camp at the mouth of the river, three weakly defended courtyards have been built in the southeast. At present, the fourth and fifth courtyards are being built non-stop. Xu Ruyu estimated that about 20,000 civilians would come down before the spring ploughing. In that way, the pressure on Taishan can be effectively relieved.

Xu Ruyu thought carefully about his suggestion of building a fort on the outer edge of the low tomb area, and felt that building a fort there would be conducive to attracting the villagers of Yunqiao Village to come down the mountain and form a larger market town there. However, Zhang Xu and Zi Yangqiu were present, so it was inconvenient to say this idea in public.

Xu Ruyu said: "According to Mingchen's opinion, build a fort on the outer edge of Gaotang Creek in the low Ling District, so that the vigilance of Gao Tang Village can be reduced, and at the same time as the fort is repaired, a simple wharf will be built, and then the water camp will be dispatched to block the ten miles of Lishui in the low Ling District, this time Wu Sheng and Wei Yu will bring back a batch of small warships from Yongyang, and they can be put there." ”

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