"Zhou Qingfeng, you're a big idiot."

As soon as these words rang out in the fortress office, Zhou Qingfeng's slave subordinates stood up one after another and glared angrily. However, Zhou Qingfeng couldn't cry or laugh, and asked the maid who came to pass the word: "This is what Abahai said?" ”

Seeing that Zhou Qingfeng's subordinates were full of hostility, Abahai's maid hurriedly shrunk her neck, not daring to repeat it any longer. She lowered her tone and said carefully: "The hostess still has a few words, but I don't dare to say it as a slave." ”

Zhou Qingfeng only thought that Abahai was angry again, he waved his hand to the slave subordinates beside him, signaled the latter to leave temporarily, and pointed to a chair for the maid to sit down, "Go on, just explain the meaning." ”

"Slaves and maids dare not sit." The maid waved her hand again and again and refused to sit down, and continued to stand and said: "The eldest concubine asked the slave to tell the little master, you are a Han who does not understand the customs of our Jurchens. The Han people are accustomed to farming and labor, while the Jurchens are accustomed to plundering and annexing, and we are two completely different people.

The eldest concubine said that Chu Yingbeile arrested you to come to Eherculun completely casually, but it was a shocking move for you to gain a firm foothold in Eherculun. There are more and more industries made by the little master, and whether it is Chu Ying or Wucha, he will be greedy. The petty master's repeated distribution of profits can only increase their appetite and slightly delay the time for them to start annexing.

The little master made out the fortress, burned the pottery, and smelted iron, and the Belle bebes of Ekhkuren had long been blushing. This time, they wanted to pull the little master to the north to contain the wild Jurchen, they should have felt that the fat was big enough, and they couldn't wait to swallow it. But the little master put forward the idea of going west, which was nothing more than to make Ucha and the others feel that they could wait a little longer.

The little master must have his own plans to go west this time, but he has to be careful. The eldest concubine said that Ucha and the others must have wanted to take advantage of this time to weaken the strength of the little master, take the opportunity to occupy the property established by the little master in Ekhkulun, and then capture the little master back to work for them forever. ”

I thought it was Abahai and messing around, but when it came to this, Zhou Qingfeng suddenly felt a cool breath all over his body, his forehead was full of cold sweat, and there was a buzzing sound in his head. Thinking that he was in a wolf's den without realizing it, he no longer had a smile on his face, as if he saw an executioner standing behind him who could harvest his life at any time.

Abahai talked about the changes in the pattern around Ekhkulun before, and Zhou Qingfeng felt that his vision had been greatly improved, but he did not feel the immediate benefits. Now Abahai has turned over the question of national character again, so that the doubts that he has been puzzled for several days have been perfectly answered, and it makes him suddenly feel fearful, such as Mang is behind the wild Jurchen Why is it a wild Jurchen, it is not unreasonable.

These barbarians don't have any win-win cooperation in their heads, what they are good at is burning, killing and looting. This is a different way of thinking brought about by different living environments, and it is not something that Zhou Qingfeng can easily change.

It is no wonder that when Zhou Qingfeng proposed to attack the west the day before yesterday, the Jurchen nobles, including Chu Ying, were all silent and had strange expressions. They had probably already figured out how to divide the industry created by Zhou Qingfeng, but they found that Zhou Qingfeng could get a bigger piece of fat, and their greed made those wild female nobles hesitate.

Whether it is to the north or west, Zhou Qingfeng will be unlucky.

Fuck it, Chu Ying must have a part in this. This big Baylor is eager to achieve quick results, he not only wants Zhou Qingfeng to become a sharp spear under his hands, but also wants to get more benefits from Zhou Qingfeng. Zhou Qingfeng could even think that he could be in peace until now, it must be the result of the mutual checks and balances between those Jurchen nobles.

But the Jurchens are a gang after all, this is a guy who is afraid of power and has no virtue. They didn't care when Zhou Qingfeng came to Ehekulun, but Zhou Qingfeng was a lamb to the slaughter when he created wealth. The disagreement between them is probably just about fattening the lamb until when it is eaten.

Thinking clearly about the cause and effect, Zhou Qingfeng's mind returned to clarity again. He looked at the maid and asked, "What does Abahai want from me?" ”

The maid lowered her head and said: "My concubine said that she is a woman, and I only hope that the little master can save her from fire and water at a critical time for the sake of her helping you many times." She said that compared with the selfish Belle Beizi in the city, the little master, a Han person, is more affectionate. ”

"Abahai isn't worried about me going back?" Zhou Qingfeng asked again.

The maid shook her head, and said only that Abahai did not mention the stubble.

Zhou Qingfeng sneered again: "Or Abahai also feels that I will definitely not be able to escape, and I will come back sooner or later." ”

The maid couldn't answer this.

Zhou Qingfeng sat down again, closed his eyes slightly and pondered, and after a while, he said to the maid in a deep voice: "I originally just wanted to escape, but I really didn't expect that my property would attract covetousness. Go back and tell your master, I have written down her favor. Ekhkuren will soon become the eye of the maelstrom, and everyone can only follow the trend and fight as hard as they can. But I can't give her any promises. ”

Unable to get Zhou Qingfeng's promise, the maid left with some disappointment, and reported Zhou Qingfeng's words to Abahai after returning. After finishing speaking, she commented angrily: "This week, the little master really doesn't know what to do, the eldest concubine is so good to him, he doesn't help at all." If Ekhkuren really started a war, I am afraid that he will not be able to count on him. ”

Abahai was facing a bronze mirror in the room, and in the mirror was a face that could easily capture a man. She sighed lightly at the mirror: "This is a real man, what is the use of him if he talks nonsense?" I've seen a lot of people without conscience, and he can say that he remembers my favor, and he is a good man with a conscience and commitment. Who can we count on now? Isn't that kid the only one? ”

The maid whispered again: "Little Master Zhou said that he may never come back." ”

"Hmph......." Abahai snorted coldly: "He is no longer the person he was when he first arrived in Ehkulun, at least fifty or sixty close cronies are going to be taken away. Bringing these people back to the Ming Kingdom is not something that can be done alone.

Chu Ying and Wu Cha calculated this correctly, and then they let Zhou Xiaozi go in to grab it. They must have wanted to consume Zhou Xiaozi's strength and force him to come back and continue to work. Right now, everyone is calculating, it's up to them to see who can have the last laugh. Besides, I don't expect this kid to have a conscience to save me, I just want this kid to stir up the situation in this Hekulen. ”

"The eldest concubine is the most intelligent, and she will definitely have the last laugh. Although the little master Zhou is young, he is still fascinated by the concubine. The maid praised a few words, which made Abahai quite complacent. But the latter sighed lightly: "I can only do this, the key is to wait for when the Great Khan can send troops to rescue." But it is also difficult to wait for the army to come but worry that you will not be able to escape. ”

The beauty is sad, but she is getting thinner and thinner.

When Zhou Qingfeng heard the news from Abahai, he immediately began to re-examine his current situation. He called the slave girl Sun Ren and asked, "How much iron ore do we have?" ”

"Three rooms are piled up." Sun Ren couldn't say exactly how many, so he could only make a rough estimate: "It's enough for our iron-making furnace to burn for three days." ”

"Is there less and less iron ore being delivered lately?"

"That's right, less than half of the original."

"Let the iron-making furnace smelt all the iron ore, quickly."

"Then in two days at most our furnaces will cease fire. Master, didn't you say that once this iron-making furnace starts burning, it can't be easily stopped? ”

"Because somebody is coming to rob us. The iron ore will be smelted quickly, and the iron smelted will be made into weapons and tools as soon as possible. Let those blacksmith apprentices go to practice, and it doesn't matter if you don't play well. We can also stop the kiln where we burn pottery. As soon as the furnace and the furnace stop, you will do as I tell you. ”

Zhou Qingfeng whispered a few words, and Sun Ren couldn't help but be surprised. Zhou Qingfeng continued: "After the matter is done, we must also send someone to continue to burn the fire in the stove and continue to smoke. You can't see too many flaws. Those guys want to plot against me, but I won't let them take advantage of me. ”

Sun Ren didn't understand what Zhou Qingfeng was going to do, but he went to arrange it after he understood it. Zhou Qingfeng sent someone to check the deployment of the Jurchen nobles in the city, and after finding that the other party did not show any signs of mobilization, he was immediately relieved that everyone was acting now, and it depended on who played well.

Everything seemed to be fine, and Zhou Qingfeng only pretended that he didn't know anything and continued his marching training. After two days of training on foot, he began to add transport carts to his team, increasing the weight and increasing the distance of the march and the difficulty of the terrain. There were even tasks such as the temporary erection of bridges to cross the river.

The slaves who participated in the training complained about it, they had never experienced it before, and they did not know the meaning of such training. In particular, the last bridge building task was a disaster, there were not enough tools, the materials were not complete, and the craftsmen did not know what to do, and more than 200 people could not even cut a few pieces of wood in a day.

After Zhou Qingfeng announced the failure of the mission, he even found that a few slaves were missing, and he didn't know whether he escaped or was washed away by the river, anyway, he never appeared again. However, this kind of training has given him and the core backbone a lot of command experience, at least understand where the limits of his ability are? What can be done and what can't be done.

After a total of ten days of training, Zhou Qingfeng's food stock was consumed by more than half, but he was not distressed at all. The abundant food supply kept the slaves energetic and physically strong, and gave them enough morale to accept all kinds of tossing and turning.

By the ...... of the eleventh day, Jia Gang had returned.

"I ran to more than 30 stockades in the west, and this is my approximate map." Jia Gang took out a map drawn on silk silk, which roughly marked the road and the location of the village between Hetuara and Ekhkulun. This map is very crudely drawn, not even mountains and rivers, at most it is a reference, and cannot be used for marching.

"That's all there is to it?" Zhou Qingfeng asked

Jia Gang nodded and said, "The road from Ekhkulun to Hetuara is full of mountains, and the road is difficult to travel, so there are not many choices at all. That's all we can do. ”

"We need to march along the water source, and there is no shortage of water on that road?" Zhou Qingfeng asked.

Jia Gang thought about it and added a few more thin lines to the map as rivers and streams.

"Where's the mountain?" Zhou Qingfeng asked again.

Jia Gang thought that he had drawn clearly enough, but he didn't expect Zhou Qingfeng to be so demanding. He used his memory to mark a few more mountains, but soon said helplessly: "There are mountains everywhere on this road, how can I draw them?" ”

"That stockade is worth grabbing?"

"First of all, we can go to Liuhe Village, this place is the closest to us, and we can get there in two days. Then hit the Meihe estuary, which is the place where the Jianzhou Department is stationed with soldiers and grain, where I saw a lot of horses and livestock, enough to grab a handful. However, there are at least 200 garrisons at the mouth of the Mei River, and it is also close to Hetuala. If the news leaks during the attack on Liuhe Village, Nurhachi will be killed in a day at most. ”

Zhou Qingfeng estimated the road conditions and distance, and agreed with Jia Gang's opinion. "How many troops does Liuhe Village have?"

"There are few people in Liuhezhai, only about 300 people, more than 20 soldiers, and most of them are Yu Ding who can't fight much." Jia Gang said, "The trouble is that there are several villages near Liuhe Village. If we disturb them to come to our aid, we will not be able to attack the mouth of the Mei River, because the enemy is likely to cut off our rear route. ”

Yu Ding is the informal Jurchen soldier in every Niu Lu, and he belongs to the reserve army. Those who have been trained are the first soldiers, and the elite of the first soldiers is the white armor bayala.

"Then we have to do it quickly, and after hitting Liuhezhai, we will immediately set off to fight Meihekou. And hit the Meihe estuary ...... Zhou Qingfeng's gaze continued to look west, and if he wanted to return to the Ming Kingdom, he had to pass through Hetuala. Otherwise, we will have to go north and then west through the Mongolian Khalkha Department, and that road will be enough to choke, "Rest today, set off tomorrow, we will kill our way from this dead land." ”