"I understand, the old general is worried that the armor will flow into the hands of others and endanger the Tiantai Kingdom, the old general, you can rest assured that these armors will never be sold into the hands of others, how about I swear by my own Dao heart?"

Sealing the beacon fire to Zhao Feng, the monarch Zhong Hailan also has the intention of leaving a way out for the barbarians in the west. How could the old general not know the inside story? He sighed and said, "When it comes to this, what else can the old man say, I don't know how much the bachelor needs?" ”

"The more the merrier."

"The old man can only give 3,000 sets of armor, a fixed price, 200,000 gold coins."

"Yes." Zhao Feng responded in one bite.

After talking about the armor, Zhao Feng proposed to buy cattle, sheep and horses, the old general often plundered the herdsmen of northern Xinjiang, this cattle and horses are very rich, can take out 2,000 unicorns, 2,000 cattle, more than 10,000 sheep, and 120,000 gold coins for trading, and there are 300 unicorns can be taken away on the spot.

After negotiating the deal, the old general did not leave any guests, so Zhao Feng got up and said goodbye. On the way back to the city, Zhao Feng instructed Mucheng to pay attention to the handover of the armor.

Although Mu Cheng didn't ask, he knew by looking at his face that everyone was also suspicious. So, Zhao Feng explained that in history, there are few border generals who don't eat empty salaries, why do they eat empty salaries? Just because of the bitter cold at the border, the consumption is too large. For more than ten years, the beacon fire was not as good as day by day, and now there is not even a business trip, and if you want to make more money, there are also ways, which are nothing more than two ways: selling soldiers and robbing herdsmen.

It's just that this military salary is easy to pay, and the armor is difficult to sell, and the old general will not sell the armor in the Tiantai Kingdom, of course, he will sell it to distant countries. Those looted horses, cattle and sheep are easy to do, and they are sold directly to the imperial court. Now, the beacon fire is suddenly going to be withdrawn, and those guaranteed armor and horses, if they can't be sold in time, they can only be thrown into the sea, in short, they can't be brought back, and if they are brought back, they will be taken by someone, and they will be charged with trying to stand on their own, and they will not be able to wash themselves by jumping into the sea. Another point is that the garrison of Fenghuoyuan is not satisfied, but the soldiers who return to China still have to be full, so it is necessary to hire some people to fill the number, and it costs a lot of money, where does this money come from? It also fell on these soldiers, oxen and horses, and the old general deliberately delayed the withdrawal time, and also had the meaning of waiting for the buyer to come to the door.

Zhao Feng explained the reason for his purchase of armor again, and only said that he needed to use it to deal with the herdsmen in northern Xinjiang, and several people also understood that the herdsmen were too powerful, and it was inevitable that they would invade the north.

Back in Xiyuan Port, Zhao Feng convened everyone to discuss and assigned all kinds of affairs, and before the meeting was over, there were subordinates who reported that the Yueling girl not only occupied the shipbuilding, but also occupied a mansion next to it, Zhao Feng only told people to ignore it.

After the meeting, Zhao Feng went to inspect all places non-stop, and more than 100 people were one person and two horses, starting from the Xiyuan Fortress and running along the canal to the mountains. The most precious thing in this beacon plain is water, and there is also well water near the port, but it is bitter and turbid, and the cattle are reluctant to enter it. Fortunately, there are two canals that bring water from the mountain streams, otherwise, drinking water is a problem.

Zhao Feng walked around the fortress and found a problem, that is, the expansion of the Blood Sand Valley. According to the map mastered by Zhao Feng, the western edge of the Blood Sand Valley is at least thirty miles away from the sea, but now it seems that it is only twenty-two or three miles, that is to say, in a hundred years, the Blood Sand Valley has expanded by seven or eight miles, and in another three hundred years, there is no need to excavate, and the Blood Sand Valley will be submerged by the sea, but this is not a bad thing for Zhao Feng, after all, a lot of projects have been saved, right?

Everyone marched along the canal all the way, came to the foot of the high mountain, only to see that the mountain is extremely high and wide, the top of the mountain is covered with white trees, the ancient trees on the mountainside are towering to the sky, there are patches of grassland between the forests, and the meltwater of the snow-capped mountains merges into a stream, meandering into a lake between the mountains, which is really a picture of vitality. And only three or five miles away from the foot of the mountain, but it is a different scene, the dim yellow earth is barren, even the original gravel road is only seen a vague shadow, even if it is the stream that flows out, it is only a dozen miles to disappear, it can be seen that the damage of the bareback ant is heavy. Zhao Feng and others traveled all the way east along the foot of the mountain, and occasionally saw individual leaders, and walked more than 20 miles before they saw a village formed a wooden village in the mountain col, which was called Qiniu Village.

Before Zhao Feng and his entourage approached, a reckless horn sounded in the village, only to see chickens and dogs jumping in the village, dozens of villagers jumping on the wooden fence, each scimitar out of the sheath, and the longbow pointing to the sky, which was to defend against foreign enemies.

Seeing this scene, everyone grabbed the horses, Hong Jiao volunteered to call the door, not long after, the wooden village opened the gate, and the villagers welcomed Zhao Feng and his party into the village. The head of Qiniu Village is a thin old man with gray hair and a sad face, and he is respectful to Zhao Feng. Zhao Feng walked around the village, only to see that the family was poor, and last year's grain had long been exhausted, but fortunately, there were some cattle, sheep and wild fruits for food, otherwise, the villagers were afraid that they would all starve to death. Zhao Feng had been prepared for the poverty of the villagers in Fenghuoyuan, but when he saw the truth, he still had a headache, and he said to everyone in the village:

"Villagers can go to Xiyuan Fortress to work, manage food and housing, and give another two catties of rations every day, even women can work, and the ration will be halved."

After hearing this, the villagers knelt down and kowtowed to thank them. There are more than 300 people in this village, and women and children can do this herding business, and there are nearly 200 people who can go to work, and they will have 300 catties of rations every day, and they will not starve to death until the end of the year. Seeing that Zhao Feng was open-minded, the head man cautiously mentioned the matter of paying taxes, and Zhao Feng said that this village can worship ten sheep every year, and the head man's orange peel-like old face smiled. Zhao Feng inspected the grasslands, woodlands, and mountain fields on the mountains, which were very high and barren.

Leaving Qiniu Village, Zhao Feng and his entourage inspected the remaining dozen or so villages, all of which looked withered. There is only one village that is slightly better, this village is called Wentian Village, in the valley near this village, there are more than a dozen hot springs, and the fields next to it can produce some more grain every year, so it is better, even so, Zhao Feng proposed to recruit workers, and the villagers are also very enthusiastic. In Wentian Village, Zhao Feng took a good dip in the hot spring, but found that the hot spring water actually contained the qi of the earth and yang, which made Zhao Feng overjoyed and eager to move here immediately.

Zhao Feng and his entourage went straight east along the foot of the mountain, and finally came to Dongyuan Port and the fortress next to it, where the situation was worse than that of Xiyuan. Here, Zhao Feng also found signs of expansion in the Blood Sand Valley. After a preliminary calculation, the total length of the canal is not more than 50 miles, and the river is two zhang deep and ten zhang wide, and if 20,000 people are put in, it is possible to complete it in half a year if only the river is excavated. However, it is useless to just dig the river, the difficulty is to use stones to lay the slope protection and the bottom of the river, otherwise, under the erosion of the sea, the sediment on both sides of the river will soon be blocked, and the canal will be considered abandoned. Under Zhao Feng's command, the only one who really knows how to build is Yue Hai, who took a branch to write and draw on the ground, calculated for a long time, and said: "Lord Dudu, I thought that this laying of stone slope protection would take much longer than digging a river channel, and a year and a half may not be possible." ”

Zhao Feng was also worried, but fortunately, he had an idea in advance, so he led people up to a high ground, pointed to the distance, and said to Yue Hai: "What do you think is there?" ”

"It's Dongyuan Port."

"Where's the outside of Dongyuan Port?"

"They are all abandoned houses, but the walls are quite sturdy, and they look like dock forts."

"You see the walls, I see the stones, I just want the houses, as for the walls, what's the use of keeping them? They all dismantled and paved the embankment. Zhao Feng said.

After coming to Fenghuoyuan, Zhao Feng saw those bunker-like manors outside Xiyuan Port, and he started to think. In the prosperous days, there were hundreds of merchants who traded here, and in order to defend against pirates, each merchant was eager to build manors and warehouses into dock forts, and the walls were considered low by one foot high, and these alone were enough to lay a long section of the river bottom.

"So, what if the pirates come?"

"So, we have to live in the fortress, in the future, my western barbarian brotherhood will move in one after another, which pirate dares to come to make trouble, is it too long?" Zhao Feng replied.

Only then did Zhao Feng's subordinates understand that Zhao Feng had this idea, but even if these walls were demolished, the canal of twenty miles could not be repaired, and the gap in stones was still very large, and it was still necessary to enter the mountain to quarry, no matter how it was calculated, it would be difficult to complete it in two years, and Zhao Feng was helpless about it.

After inspecting the territory, Zhao Feng planned to return to Xiyuan Port along the southern edge of the Blood Sand Valley, but was unanimously opposed by everyone, so he had to give up, and everyone returned to Xiyuan the same way. The inspection lasted six days, and Zhao Feng found that his territory was indeed very barren, and in the entire territory, I was afraid that there were no 6,000 people, and there were many old, weak, sick and disabled.

Back in Xiyuan Port, it happened that the first batch of slaves arrived, and after handing over to those slave traders, Zhao Feng got a slave seal. The slave seal is actually a kind of seal-shaped spiritual weapon, as long as you use this small seal to stamp a stamp on the person's body, a red mark will appear, this mark can not be washed off with water, the knife can not be removed, this person will also be subject to this slave seal, this mark to remove, you also need to use the slave seal in the original place to stamp a poke again, or destroy the slave seal. Holding the list of slaves, Zhao Feng took a look, this batch of slaves totaled 5,000 people, of which 2,000 were craftsmen.

When he checked it, Zhao Feng found that these slaves were indeed different from the Tiantai people, and in terms of size alone, most of them were not inferior to the barbarians in the Western Realm. At this time, the beacon fire was still cold in spring, and seeing that these slaves were still single-clothed, and many of them were shivering from the cold, Zhao Feng immediately arranged for the distribution of winter clothes, started cooking, and asked these slaves to choose a few leaders.

It took two hours for the slaves to choose seven leaders. When they came to the lobby, only one of the seven leaders bowed and saluted, while the other six stood there blankly. "There is still some integrity, no wonder he can be chosen as the leader."