"Lord Hou, when are we going to choose the operators, you must know that this time His Highness has high hopes for the adults. [This site has a new domain name. initials, previously registered accounts can still be used]"

Out of the tavern, Hou Jie looked around as he usually wandered the streets, and didn't seem to take the errand ordered by Li Jie to heart at all, and followed for half an hour, Li Que finally couldn't help but take two quick steps to Hou Jie and asked, with a hint of hatred for iron and steel.

Don't look at Li Jie's simple explanation this time, and the number of people mobilized is only about 100 people, but its importance is no less than the big action of mobilizing tens of thousands of people, once Princess Anna is supported to ascend the Byzantine throne and coerce her, it is equivalent to millions of square kilometers, millions of people and more than 100,000 troops indirectly enter the control of Fujian.

With Byzantium as the main body of the war, launching an attack in the back, the Fujian State can attack and retreat and defend, once the Arab Empire is destroyed, for the Byzantine Empire far to the west, the Fujian State has a great advantage politically, maybe it is not impossible to annex Byzantium at the opportunity.

The huge national events all depend on her and Hou Jie, but Hou Jie's casual appearance now makes Li Que not angry.

It's a pity that in the face of Li Que's questioning, Hou Jie still spread his hands so casually: "This time the commander-in-chief is me, the reason why the King of Min chose me is because I am better than you here, Captain Li, you just have to listen to the order!" ”

"Humph!" Seeing Hou Jie pointing at his head lightly, Li Quan flicked his sleeves and got out of the way, but Hou Jie did not continue to walk for the first time, but stiffened his body.

This action is so familiar!

No, it can't be!

Shaking his head, Hou Jie put his thoughts aside, and led the way in front of himself.

The Xinhan Valley was located at the gap between the Himalayas and Khorasan, and the continuous construction of the walled city pass included the entire valley mouth, which was at least 150 miles away from the Punjab grain producing area, and the more than 30,000 garrisons of the city plus more than 100,000 merchants and craftsmen passing by the residents and craftsmen naturally could not rely on the rear transportation.

Outside the city, dozens of tribes attached to Fujian have built dozens of villages, large and small, relying on the meltwater of the Himalayas, barely cultivating patches of farmland on this barren land.

By the end of February, the laborers of the poor tribes could already be seen bending over and toiling in the cultivation of wheat. The nomads of Khorasan and Punjab are more violent, preferring to squat under the city walls with swords in their hands, waiting for their unknown employers to lead them to the unknown desert to bleed and sweat and fight with sand pirates to earn commissions, rather than live this kind of hard work.

So religion flourished here, with more than 40 small villages, more than 20 Christian churches, mosques, and Zoroastrian temples.

At this time, most of the people were farming in the field, and at noon they ate some simple food directly in the field, even if they worshipped God, they also needed to eat a full stomach, but they followed Hou Jie along the ridge of the field for a while, and in front of a simple Christian church at the very edge, more than 100 ragged peasants gathered for the first time, and they were tired and sweaty all morning, but they would rather not eat lunch, but also came to pray.

This place is poor, and the large amount of wheat planted is not like the citizens of Fujian who only need to sell it to the official, and most of the Shoucheng has to be handed over to Xinhan Valley as a protection fee, and the missionaries who come to this remote place are generally saints and priests who can really endure hardships and stand hard work, and the priests who lead these farmers to pray are mixed with oily and slippery, half-new silk priests' robes, and the crosses they wear are actually pure silver, and they are even inlaid with precious lapis lazuli from Upper Post.

Such a rich man can fool such a large group of devout believers, this priest is capable enough, but Hou Jie converted to Islam, why did he come to find a Christian pastor?

Even if he held his breath and kept his mouth shut, Li Que was still puzzled, but Wu Yuanqing, a pampered fat man, was used to it, and without waiting for Hou Jie to say hello, he had already waved his fat hand from afar and said, "Old Paul, don't come unharmed." ”

Li Que has always believed that he sees people very accurately, and when he saw Wu Yuanqing for the first time, Li Que was sure that there was a golden light in his eyes, but he didn't respond immediately, and the pastor who called Paul still finished the last few words of prayer with his goatee, and then raised his hand upward: "This is the end of today's noon prayer, God loves you, lost lamb." ”

"God bless you, Father." It was also a reverent bow, and a group of old and weak peasants in ragged clothes dispersed, to Li Que's surprise, he sent away the disciples, and instead of welcoming Wu Yuanqing, the big financier, Paul rushed over with a cold face and shouted: "How many times have I said it, Master Wu, don't come to me again, I will never do this again." ”

"Don't do that, old Paul, we're still the same price."

"No, no amount of money can betray my devout heart to God!"

Li Que was confused, Paul and Wu Yuanqing pushed up the price, and on the other end, Hou Jie, who led the way, turned around and left, following the group of ragged Christians out of the chapel.

After a while, Hou Jie led four ragged Christians back, just now these people were the most pious when they prayed, Li Que has a deep memory, who expected that in a blink of an eye, the four of them were also peach blossoms, greedily baring out their big yellow teeth.

"Old Paul, your believers' devotion to God is much cheaper than yours, twenty dollars, and the four of them will cooperate with Ben."

In Hou Jie's triumphant voice, old Paul visibly froze, and Li Que, who was proficient in Latin, could even see that after he cursed a swear word, this loyal believer who was unwavering in his devotion to God also showed a merchant's philistine.

"Okay, according to what Master Wu said, triple the price!"

It turned out that the pastor's devotion to God was worth sixty strokes.

In addition to being a pastor, this Mr. Paul turned out to be an intermediary, and it is not right to say that he is a middleman, because he does not trade money, but faith.

In the era of spiritual emptiness, the mercenaries who squatted under the city gate to find a way to survive in the desert and the tribes, after the bloody battle of the sand thieves, they would also feel empty and tired, so the priest Paul posted it, and used his leisure time to continue to use Christianity to explain these "lost lambs" with knives and promised to help them pray, so that they could go to heaven after death, and they got acquainted with the mercenaries back and forth, and the mercenaries also took the initiative to tell him some things they encountered in the desert and kill people.

After coming and going, the information of these mercenaries also became a sum of money for Paul, and there were thousands of such poor mercenaries who were waiting for war or protection under the city walls, and Paul knew who was more astute, who was more loyal, who had better brains, and who was better at living in the desert.

Traveling to and from the desert, it is not only the mercenaries who eat with their heads, but also the merchants, as long as they find Paul, they can hire the most capable guides, the most loyal warriors, and Paul's reputation among the great merchants spreads.

I have also cooperated with him, Wu Yuanqing, and Hou Jie a few times, otherwise, how could Wu Yuanqing's Red Mansion on Third Street have so many rare and hard-to-find beauties, princesses of Tubang, daughters of chiefs, snake girls, black pearls, Roman nobles, so many beautiful women, but they are not completely willing to go to Beijing to sell themselves and laugh at those rich masters, and they always need to go through some gray channels.

As for Hou Jie? Let his brothers die hard, not only do they need fair and heroic leadership, but they also need to compensate the disabled subordinates of the soldiers, the little money given by the court is not enough, and Hou Jie also needs money.

"Paulus, several adults need your services. Agrippa, be as faithful to a few adults as you are to God, Almini ......"

With the help of this land snake, more than 1,000 mercenaries, and after a while, more than 30 were singled out, even if he was used to seeing masters in front of King Min, Li Que had to admit that these alien Hu mercenaries ranging from twenty to forty, licking blood and living in the desert, were all real guys.

Although Li Que still didn't understand why Hou Jie no longer selected people from the elite of the Punjab, after taking the money, these elites were either lively or silent, which made Li Que have some confidence in completing Li Jie's task.

Although there are still fewer people.

"Lord Hou, let's take these mercenaries with us?"

"Of course it's more than that." waved his hand casually, in Li Que's relief, Hou Jie turned around and walked towards Paul, who helped pick out the mercenaries, and walked away, holding the silver coin given by Wu Yuanqing, Paul was a little bit like a priest, and with a hippie smile, he put the front money bag into his arms, and before he could turn around and leave, Hou Jie's hand was slammed into his hand.

"This time, Pastor Paul, you're going with Ben too! And the four of you. ”

"What?"

Including Paul and his four nurses were dumbfounded, seeing that Hou Jie did not seem to be a fake, Paul scratched his head again, and said sadly: "My lord, I am a monk in the lower place, and I am not contaminated with the dust of the past, and the business of the adults is not involved, and the small ones are not involved." ”

"yes, little monkey, aren't we, uh, princess? What do you take him to a pastor for? ”

Wu Yuanqing is bent on adding a real princess to his Red Mansion, and his obsession is a little obsessive-compulsive, he has played the idea of Princess Dongying before, explored whether the old guy has a daughter, and sent someone to Nantianzhu to visit, which is also agreed with Hou Jie, otherwise Hou Jie would not have said that he had a suitable goal, so he would have brought this fat man.

Although this time it is indeed a princess, and it is estimated that his Red Mansion will not be enjoyable, Hou Jie did not disclose the mission goal, poor Wu Yuanqing was still kept in the dark, looking at his partner's questions, Hou Jie nodded heavily: "Brother Wu, this is part of my plan, and Pastor Paul needs to come in handy." ”

His eyes slanted to Paul, who was leading the four apprentices and was about to slip away, Hou Jie snorted again: "This time, General Xi said to Ben General that those cults outside the city are bewitching the people and bewitching the people, and they should be killed by picking some heads, and Ben will remember that a certain church is on General Xi's list." ”

I really shuddered, on the one hand, through the changes of the wind and clouds, the desert of the Khorasan Plateau, where the sand bandits are like a sea, the journey of peeling off the skin, and on the other hand, the sky here, Xi Jun bought more than the killing order, and Father Paul almost didn't cry.

After Wu Yuanqing got on the thief ship, he forcibly pulled four more, and under Li Que's increasingly incomprehensible gaze, Hou Jie himself became more and more satisfied with his team, leading more than 30 mercenaries, Wu Yuanqing, the stupid big head, and Paul's master and apprentice The five gods returned to their Zhonghu Military Mansion, while instructing them to prepare supplies and packs, while dragging Li Que and the two people out again.

"The person invited this time is very important, be respectful!"

After sparing many laps in the Xinhan Valley, and finally stopped in front of a large number of inconspicuous houses in the simple slum dwellings near the root of the city wall, Hou Jie, who had become unruly and prodigal, actually showed a solemn and respectful expression for the first time, and seriously told Li Que.

Looking at the dark and shabby house, Li Yuer couldn't help but reveal a strong curiosity .......