Two days later, the simple village in the secret base of Zhongnan Mountain had begun to take shape, with thatched huts arranged vertically and horizontally, and the chirping of pigs, horses, cows, sheep and other domestic animals echoed.

Not only that, a few hundred meters away from this village, in the dense forest and grass, there are more wild beasts such as bears and leopards, wandering everywhere, making the villagers in the village very frightened and afraid to go out easily, just moving nearby, cultivating the cleared cleared vacant land, sowing what?

Li Zicheng stood in the middle of a wood, holding a leopard cub in his arms, constantly teasing. There was also a female leopard squatting in the distance, staring at Li Zicheng, deeply afraid that this human would be bad for her child.

However, the small tower-like body of the black ruffian is next to Li Zicheng, no matter how much the mother leopard wants to get her child back, she is not at ease with humans, but the remnants of the black ruffian can only stay far away, and do not dare to step forward.

Xu Xiake stood at the edge of the woods, looking at the busy villagers, with a look of relief on his face, and couldn't help but recall some pictures in his mind, since following Li Zicheng, what this boss had done. Although it is wild and uninhibited, it pays attention to doing things casually, and it is very good to do things, but everything implies a degree of advance and retreat, which is quite meaningful.

Whenever the Li family's army grew stronger and its strength continued to grow, the boss would consciously dismember the troops, place some of his subordinates in the deep mountains and old forests, establish secret base areas like those in front of him, wantonly recruit displaced victims, form villages one by one, and train groups of militiamen.

After thinking about it, Xu Xiake suddenly had a glimmer of realization, the place where Li Zicheng chose to establish a secret base was very distinctive, either there were many victims, or it was close to some mineral deposits in the imperial court, such as iron mines, saltpeter mines, gold mines, and so on.

Of course, the deep mountains and old forests are the most important indicators, which can not only be well hidden, but at the same time, the troops in the base areas can also enter and exit from time to time, capture some nearby villages and towns, and loot the rich and unkind families, landlords, and government treasury and silver granaries.

In less than half a year, Li Jiajun has become famous throughout Shaanxi. Especially among the people, the reputation is excellent!

So far, with the addition of the secret base areas of Zhongnan Mountain, although there are only four, the total strength of the Li family army is at least 8,000 people, mainly distributed in the base areas of Mawei Mountain, Xinglong Mountain and Taihua Mountain. The first two, in particular, already have an independent operating mechanism and can be self-sufficient.

However, Xu Xiake has always had a doubt in his heart, during the trip to Jiangnan a year ago, the boss not only bought a large amount of sulfur, but also purchased hundreds of catties of fireworks, and now he is still constantly purchasing and secretly transporting them to the three base areas. The most puzzling thing is that after buying back the fireworks, Li Zicheng did not allow anyone to set them off, and also reprocessed them and added some special condiments to them.

Moreover, every soldier of the Li family army carried a lot of fireworks, as a secret weapon of battle, hidden in the bookcase on his back. No one is allowed to use it without Li Zicheng's permission.

At this time, Liu Fangliang ran from a distance, and his hearty voice woke up Xu Xiake in his memory, and also attracted Li Zicheng's attention.

"Boss, I finally understand why you chose to attack Zhouzhi County first, instead of Lantian County. You want to put the hard bones to the end, gather all the brothers, and attack Lantian County with all your might. ”

"Yes, Captain Liu, Lantian County has a population of at least two or three hundred thousand, not only is Lantian jade abundant, but the smelting and forging of steel is several times stronger than that of Zhouzhi County? It is definitely an important military and economic town, and the place where the imperial court is heavily garrisoned, if there are only 800 of us, it will be difficult to take Lantian County. Xu Xiake had some information in his mind and blurted out.

Li Zicheng was still teasing the little leopard, his interest did not diminish at all, listening to the story of the two, his eyes flashed twice, and he said lightly: "When I say attacking Lantian County, I don't mean now, but in the near future, when the army will be stronger." ”

Liu Fangliang paused for a moment, and was puzzled again: "Then~ Boss, why did you make your brothers ready for battle?" Did you send Tian Jianxiu to lurk in Lantian County? ”

Li Zicheng stroked the soft fur of the little leopard, the latter looked even more enjoyable, Liu Fangliang's words just fell, feeling his burning and puzzled gaze, Li Zicheng looked up, and then said casually: "Didn't Mr. Xu say it?" Lantian County is rich in Lantian jade, so why don't we rob the Lantian jade that was dug up? There are also iron mines and gold mines, which are the goals of our actions. ”

Who doesn't love money? Especially in this era, the gap between the rich and the poor is huge and has deteriorated dramatically.

As soon as he heard about the Lantian jade mine and the gold mine, Liu Fangliang became excited! With gold and Lantian jade, are you still worried about not having food and weapons? Especially the latter, it is even more valuable, even he, a rough man, knows that Lantian jade is the object of competition among the powerful!

"Boss, when are we going to act?" Liu Fangliang swallowed his saliva.

Li Zicheng didn't answer immediately, but looked in the direction of the village, pondered for a moment, and then said, "Wait a few more days~!" When the population here reaches 2,000 and the militia is formed, let's take action. ”

Whether it is Xu Xiake and Liu Fangliang, or the others present, they all know that this has become a convention. The reason why after the militia was formed, was to let them participate in the battle, first, to train them in actual combat training quality, and secondly, to make it impossible for these people living in the city to think about the imperial court, and it is not an exaggeration to call it a letter of surrender.

Moreover, as long as the militia has combat power at the beginning, after they and others leave, under the training and leadership of the brothers who remain, they can still carry forward the boss's style of doing things, rob the rich and help the poor, loot the property of those landlords, and constantly expand the base area!

At the same time, Xu Xiake's heart was secretly guessing, who would Li Zicheng leave behind this time? And how many troops will be left?

Unlike in the past, this time the base area was almost incorporated into a formed imperial court city defense army, and once the arrangement was slightly improper, the personnel in charge were not suitable, and there were not enough Li Jiajun left, it was easy to have problems.

However, Xu Xiake felt that there was no big problem, Zhongnan Mountain was no different from other places, and the people left behind still had a new force, that is, the beasts that haunted the wilderness. Even if he can't obey the command, he can still deter some Xiaoxiao, and the effect is no less than that of hundreds of Li Jiajun.

Thinking of this, Xu Xiake looked at the black ruffian again, that lazy guy is very humane and spiritual, he is very proud at the moment, stinky fart!

A few days later, in Lantian County, on a narrow and remote official road, Li Zicheng led 500 cavalry to walk slowly.

At this moment, Li Zicheng took the lead, walking slowly, looking left and right, smashing his mouth from time to time, and muttering to himself a little greedily: "Hehe... I didn't expect that Lantian County, which is dominated by mountains and mountains, has so many fertile fields.

Liu Fangliang was very familiar with the boss's expression, and immediately knew what Li Zicheng had in mind, and then followed with a wicked smile, pretending to be envious and said: "The brother who stayed behind is happy, and if you wait for two or three months, you can get a lot of food!" ”

Li Zicheng nodded in agreement, looked at the higher and higher sun, seemed to think of something, and asked instead: "By the way, Fang Liang, how long will it take for us to reach that iron mine?" ”

"Boss, that iron mine is just ahead, and there are about five miles to go." Liu Fangliang blurted out without any hesitation, which shows that he is already familiar with this area.

"Hmm~!" Li Zicheng hummed lightly, then rode his horse and whipped his whip, and said loudly at the same time: "Then hurry up, take this iron mine as soon as possible, Tian Jianxiu is still waiting for us at the gold mine and the Lantian jade mine." Aim to complete all the tasks in a day and avoid a head-on confrontation with the imperial reinforcements. ”

"Yes, Boss!"

Liu Fangliang agreed, and then followed the horse. Although he is bloodthirsty and belligerent, and likes the feeling of fighting enemies, it does not mean that he is blind and reckless, and he is careful.

Dusty and the sound of horses' hooves, the group soon disappeared into the narrow official road surrounded by mountains.