"The army? Where did you get an army? Zhong Shiwen once again couldn't hold his breath and asked in some surprise.

Zhong Youpeng, who was on the side, was stunned for a moment, then showed a clear expression and said: "The army that the virtuous son-in-law said will not be the hundreds of 'Five Tiger Villages' that you and other brothers subdued a few years ago, well, now it should be called 'Flying Dragon Village', right?" Although those bandits and robbers are a little brave, they are too few in number. Fighting alone may be able to defeat the officers and soldiers, but in the face of the Khitan army, I am afraid that I will not have the courage to fight in a continuous battle, so I will flee early. ”

Wang Feng waved his hand when he heard this, and said, "What my father-in-law said is the old yellow calendar. Yes, a few years ago, when our brothers subdued the minions of the 'Five Tiger Village' and renamed them 'Feilong Village', there were indeed only more than 300 minions in the village. But as the saying goes, 'Shibei should be impressed in three days', not to mention that three years have passed in between. To hide my father-in-law's words, this team has not only expanded to 6,000 people, but also has a resounding name, called the 'Flying Dragon Army'. And its scale is still expanding, if nothing else, by the time of the Zhou Army's Northern Expedition, the number of this 'Flying Dragon Army' will definitely exceed 10,000. ”

"You and the rest of the brothers already have 6,000 men under their command? Will the Zhou army exceed 10,000 during the Northern Expedition? How is this possible? With such a large liliang placed there, how could the Khitans not notice it at all, and let you and the others pull up the team so smoothly? Zhong Shiwen was not surprised at this time, but said in astonishment.

Not only Zhong Shiwen, but even Zhong Youpeng, who has always been calm and calm, couldn't help but change color a little on his face. When he heard from various sources that his son-in-law and his brothers had subdued a small group of bandits, he only said that these overseas returnees were in a strange foreign land, and they had earned a lot of money by auctioning glass treasures, and they were inevitably a little unsure, so he relied on his own courage to collect these hundreds of bandits and grass robbers by his side, and use them as a bodyguard and a family member like a homeguard. Unexpectedly, these guys from overseas have a very big plan, and they can expand the team of these hundreds of people to 6,000 in just over three years, and it will reach more than 10,000 in the near future.

With these 6,000 people -- there may be more than 10,000 during the Northern Expedition of the Zhou Army -- he is naturally full of confidence, and it is no wonder that his son-in-law said so confidently when he said that he took advantage of the Northern Expedition of the Zhou Army to start an incident and lay the foundation of his own business in one fell swoop. After all, with 10,000 troops in his hands, even if there was no Northern Expedition of the Zhou Army, there would be no Liliang to set off a big storm in this land of clouds and shake the local foundation of the Khitans.

Even if the uprising fails, with this liliang, her son-in-law and his brothers will be able to protect themselves - her daughter has been to the so-called annex that the "Qingyuan" brothers called "Liangyuan", according to her own words, even a little woman like her, who knows nothing about military affairs, can see that this so-called annex is far stronger than many military fortresses. In the garden, there are many watchtowers and arrow towers, and it is like a huge fortress. Not only that, but there is also a large area of flat land for cultivation and a pond that connects to the river outside the park. With such an arrangement, coupled with thousands of soldiers guarding it, even if the Khitans gathered all the troops in the Land of Clouds, they would not be able to break through this strong fortress in a short time.

However, after a short period of shock, Zhong Youpeng was also full of doubts in his heart, like Zhong Shiwen, he didn't understand how the Khitans couldn't find out where such a large team was, and let Wang Feng and his group of brothers quickly sit big and strong, so that it has reached this kind of scale that is too big to deal with. Could it be that this is the son-in-law deliberately deceiving himself, obviously there are only a few hundred Ding Nursing Homes, but he said that it is an army of tens of thousands, so that he can agree to help them do that big thing that I don't know what it is until now?

But whether it is from Zhong Youpeng's understanding of Wang Feng in the past, or from Wang Feng's demeanor and look on his face now, his son-in-law will not deliberately deceive himself, but Zhong Youpeng is indeed difficult to believe what his son-in-law said. At this time, Zhong Shiwen raised a question about this issue, which can be said to be in his arms, and he had to listen carefully to how his son-in-law answered.

"It's hard to say this, it's easy to say," Wang Feng replied, "10,000 people is a lot, and if it were placed near a town or in a densely populated village, it would be impossible for this large group of people to hide." However, the place where our brothers trained their troops was neither near the town nor in the village, but in the Xiayunling and its surroundings, which were stacked on top of mountains and far away from the crowd. The mountains and barren land were so barren that few outsiders came to disturb them, except for the hunters who lived in the mountains and a small number of peasants who were hiding from the oppression of the government. In addition, our brothers have bought all the owner's land twenty or thirty miles away from Xiayunling, and the uninhabited wasteland has also been incorporated into their own names through acquaintances in the county government. And the people who originally lived there have either moved far away, or have been recruited to work for the 'Flying Dragon Army', or simply joined the 'Flying Dragon Army' as soldiers. ,

It can be said that within twenty-five miles around Xiayun Ridge now, except for the 'Flying Dragon Army' and the people who do things for the 'Flying Dragon Army', there is no outsider. In addition, the 'Flying Dragon Army' has also set up multiple checkpoints within the 25-mile range, in the name of protecting private property, to block those outsiders who want to enter the territory of the 'Flying Dragon Army' for various reasons. In this way, whether it is an unintentional entrant or a snooper, they will never expect to discover the existence of the 'Flying Dragon Army' camp several miles or even twenty miles away. ”

"This arrangement can indeed prevent the leakage of news," Zhong Shiwen nodded and said, "It's just that you are not afraid that your soldiers will sneak out for some reason, and tell the government about your wanton cultivation of private soldiers to ask for merit and reward for yourself?" ”

"But this is not afraid," Wang Feng replied, "our brothers have very strict control over the 'Flying Dragon Army', and many soldiers have family members working for the 'Flying Dragon Army' or for our brothers, if any of them are out of the control of our brothers, then he or their families will be punished, and the situation will be quite difficult." The fleeing side will be hunted down by the 'Wyvern Army' forever, and will never die. ”

"This arrangement is also a safe policy, it seems that you and other brothers have put a lot of effort into this," Zhong Youpeng said, "It's just that it is one thing to form a large army to keep its secrets and prevent outsiders from discovering its existence, but how to recruit soldiers and build weapons is more difficult than not letting outsiders discover the existence of the army." After all, whether it is a town or a village, it is a big deal to suddenly lose a large number of young people, and it is almost impossible to pull these young people into the mountains without people knowing and ghosts noticing. ”

"What my father-in-law said is that my son-in-law and my brothers have also spent a lot of brains on this," Wang Feng echoed, "It's better to talk about weapon building, and the eldest brother of the son-in-law and many other brothers have a lot of experience in weapon building, especially firearms building." They opened mines and smelted iron and steel in many parts of Youdu Prefecture, and built a number of workshops in the 'Liangyuan' to create various weapons and firearms for the 'Flying Dragon Army' to use.

As for the recruitment of soldiers, many methods were tried at first, but in the end they all had little effect. Fortunately, God favored us, and after our brothers tried everything to no avail, two things happened that brought us a turning point.

The first is that the Zhou army invaded the Han Dynasty, and a large number of Han people fled to the Liao State to escape the war, especially to the secluded land where the Han people were the majority. After the end of the war, although the Han State requested the Liao State to return the people, the Khitan Emperor 'Sleeping King' also issued an edict demanding the repatriation of the Han refugees from all over the country. However, many of these Han refugees were reluctant to return to the Han State, which was weak and often harassed by the Zhou army, and chose to stay in the territory of the Liao State to earn a living.

These Han refugees are not the people of Liao, so naturally they will not be in the list of people in the official offices of Liao. Our brothers could take advantage of the abundance of land and industry in their hands to absorb a large number of these displaced people, who had neither identity nor source of livelihood, and use them for the use of our brothers, without worrying that the local officials would care about the decrease in the number of Han refugees under their jurisdiction - perhaps this was a situation they would not like to see, after all, the will of the Liao Emperor was to let these Han refugees return to their hometowns.

The second is that when our brothers bought officials from Xiao Siwen, under the combined effect of various reasons, the son-in-law's starling brother and eleventh brother were appointed by the Liao court as the commander of the township, responsible for arranging the tenants on their own land as villagers. In this way, our brothers have a reason to openly recruit young people, and under the pretext of arranging village soldiers, they will conduct certain training for these young people. Then, select the qualified leaders and absorb them into the 'Flying Dragon Army', gradually expanding the strength of the 'Flying Dragon Army'.

In the past two years, our brothers have been constantly buying land and opening shops, and constantly recruiting Han refugees to become tenants or hired laborers, so that a large number of new refugees have been added to them. Therefore, although the number of displaced people who have been selected to join the 'Wyvern Army' continues to be selected, the number of displaced people under the control of our brothers has not decreased, but has increased. As a result, the number of villagers who asked our brothers to be in charge of training was increased from 2,500 to 5,000. Moreover, judging from the order given by the General Military Division to the eleventh brother of the younger son-in-law, if the number of displaced people under our control continues to increase, there may be more villagers who need our training in the future.

And it is precisely with these arrangements and conveniences that our brothers can quickly and secretly form the 'Flying Dragon Army'. I don't know if the words of the son-in-law can answer the questions in the hearts of the father-in-law and the eldest brother, and eliminate the concerns in the hearts of the father-in-law and the eldest brother. ”,

After listening to Wang Feng's detailed explanation, although Zhong Youpeng's doubts in his heart were greatly reduced, as the so-called "seeing is believing, hearing is false", even if Wang Feng said it wildly, it was only his words. Before he really saw the other party's strength, Zhong Youpeng would not easily agree to the other party's request for his help - not to mention that until now, Wang Feng had not told him what he needed to help.

Therefore, after a moment of silence, Zhong Youpeng decided to find out what the other party wanted to ask him to help first, and then think about how to get the other party to confirm the situation just said. He said: "Since the virtuous son-in-law and those brothers of the virtuous son-in-law already have such a strong strength, they can take advantage of the situation during the Northern Expedition of the Zhou army. The old man believes that with your ability and strength, it is not impossible to say that you have made meritorious contributions and sealed your wife and son, but you want to monopolize the clouds and divide one side. The old man is now just a powerless commoner, what do you have to ask the old man to do? In other words, what can the old man's clothed body do for you? ”

Hearing this, Wang Feng waved his hand again and again, and said, "My father-in-law is too humble. You may not have as much money as our brothers, no power as our brothers, and no soldiers as our brothers, but your father-in-law, you have something that our brothers do not have, but which will be important in the future battle of the clouds—connections. ”

As soon as Wang Feng's word "connections" came out, Zhong Youpeng understood what the other party wanted to ask him to help with. However, he didn't break it immediately, but listened to Wang Feng's words calmly.

Wang Feng continued: "As the saying goes, 'planning is in people, and success is in heaven', although the son-in-law and his brothers have set a strategy of secretly accumulating strength and taking advantage of the situation, the result of the Northern Expedition of the Zhou Army is unpredictable by anyone. After all, the son-in-law and the brothers planned to start acting after the Zhou army moved north, and if the Zhou army won a complete victory, there would naturally be nothing to say. But if the Zhou army and the Liao army are tied, and even worse, the Zhou army is defeated, what will happen to our brothers at that time? Is it to spit out all the benefits that have been received and surrender to the Khitan court, or to retreat to Xiayunling and confront the Khitan army with a deep ditch and high fortress? I'm afraid that no matter which one you choose, your brothers will be devastated, and it will be difficult to have a chance to make a comeback. ”

"I don't know what the virtuous son-in-law and his brothers plan to do?" Zhong Youpeng asked.

"Since our brothers have already started an incident, there is no reason to turn back," Wang Feng said firmly, "No matter whether the Zhou army can win or not in the Youyun War, our brothers will raise the banner of anti-Liao." It's just that, at that time, our brothers will have to face the attack of the Khitan army alone. Although our brothers have enough confidence in the strength of the 'Flying Dragon Army', they believe that they will eventually defeat the Khitans. But after all, the disparity between the enemy and us in terms of strength may be very large, and the 'Flying Dragon Army' will not be able to destroy the Khitan army overnight. And getting the support and help of the gentry and people of the sixteen states of Youyun is the only way for the 'Flying Dragon Army' to defeat the Khitan army and make the gentry of the sixteen states of Youyun get rid of the exploitation and oppression of the Khitans.

My father-in-law has a wide range of friends in Youyun Sixteen Prefectures, whether in officialdom or among the people, he has many close friends and a wide range of contacts. Moreover, my father-in-law also said just now that he had made a blood alliance with many like-minded friends, and it was his mission to free the people of Youyun from the rule of the Khitans. Therefore, what the son-in-law and his brothers want to ask his father-in-law to help him do is to contact all the officials, generals, gentry and common people who have the same thoughts as my father-in-law and our brothers in the land of clouds, and everyone will work together to achieve great things and feats, drive the Khitan people out of the land of clouds, and restore the rivers and mountains of our Han people. ”