The source of soldiers is the key.

Where is the source of soldiers?

In the border areas, most of the soldiers come from those border villages, because the descendants are the descendants of the older generation of border soldiers, and they have a deep attachment to joining the border army.

However, such a source of troops is actually very limited. It takes time for a new life to grow.

Therefore, it is imperative to open up new sources of troops. However, this matter is really difficult, and the border area is not a place where people from other places are willing to migrate over, so the total population here is actually very limited.

Without a sufficient population base, it is really difficult to get enough troops.

Ma Shuo couldn't help but ponder, he had to think of a way to help Mark solve this problem, his younger brother couldn't be a commander without soldiers.

"Bandits!"

Suddenly, a thought flashed through Ma Shuo's thoughts. That's right, that's to suppress the bandits, and then recruit some of the available people, that's the best source of soldiers. In this way, we can also kill multiple birds with one stone, which can not only quell the bandits at the border passes, alleviate the worries of the border army, but also obtain grain, grass and goods, and the most important thing is to solve the problem of the source of troops.

When Ma Shuo told Mark about this idea, Mark jumped up with excitement.

"I knew that my eldest brother must have a way. Haha, this method is good, this method is good! Mark was thrilled.

Of course, if you want to suppress bandits, you must first go to places where there are more bandits. Obviously, in the place close to Zhenmanguan, generally speaking, there will definitely not be too many mountain bandits, because if you dare to be a mountain bandit in this place, it is estimated that there is something wrong with your brain. Therefore, Mark had to apply to Li Mu to pull the team out and go to the mountains far away from the border pass.

Mark's request, Li Mu agreed without the slightest hesitation. Although there is a shortage of people in the Yellow Sand Gorge at the moment, he has already brought two thousand troops to reinforce him, and at the same time, he has sent someone to send another five thousand troops over. Therefore, without Mark's three hundred people, it will not affect anything. Moreover, Mark's 300 men were already tired soldiers, and it was time to withdraw to rest.

Of course, Mark did not tell Li Mu the method that Ma Shuo thought of to solve the source of soldiers, this method is not suitable for promotion for the time being, and it is better to make a fortune quietly.

Because Ma Shuo was originally here to help Mark, now that Mark has withdrawn to rest, Ma Shuo will naturally not stay in Huangsha Canyon anymore. He took the Meng family's uncle and nephew with Mark and evacuated the Yellow Sand Canyon.

Although Ma Shuo was gone, the apprentices remained. After the baptism of this war, the medical level of these apprentices has also been greatly improved, so it is enough to deal with regular injuries. Therefore, seeing that Ma Shuo was going to leave with Mark, Li Mu didn't insist after staying for a while.

However, before Ma Shuo left, he also finalized the cooperation with Li Mu again. In the future, the matter of alcohol procurement will naturally be handed over to Fan Zeng by Li Mu's side, because it is paid for military expenses, so it is basically a matter of delivering goods with one hand and paying money with one hand.

In the Yellow Sand Canyon where the team of the Ma Shuo brothers left together, there were also many wounded this time. This side of the Yellow Sand Canyon, after all, is not a suitable place to recuperate, and after there is no danger to life, it is most appropriate to return to Zhenmanguan to recuperate.

When they arrived near Zhenmanguan, the Ma Shuo brothers took the three hundred under Mark's command and separated from the ranks of the wounded. Then, Ma Shuo and the others went straight to the target area.

Although there were only about 300 people under Mark's command at this time, there were still more than a dozen professional scouts inside. In order to find the target as soon as possible, Ma Shuo asked Mark to dismiss the scouts early.

Therefore, when the group arrived at a place called Panlongling, which was about 100 miles away from Zhenmanguan, the scout brought a piece of news that made the Ma Shuo brothers very happy, and in the area of Panlongling, there was a mountain bandit of about 300 people.

Probably because it is located in Panlong Ridge, the cottage of this gang of mountain bandits is actually called Panlong Village.

Just when those scouts reported the news of Panlong Village to Mark, in the main hall of Panlong Village, the three masters were sitting together discussing things. In fact, it is not easy to be a mountain bandit in the border pass, because the resources here are actually very limited, and the surrounding border villages are very poor, so there is not much oil and water.

"Boss, these days, it's not easy to do business! Listening to the news from outside, it was the barbarians over there who had moved, and the trade routes had also been affected. As soon as this trade route was affected, our brothers' trading was affected. His grandmother's, what are those barbarians doing to toss around? "The one who spoke was the third child of Panlong Village, who was blind in one eye.

"Yes! Sad! More than 300 mouths to eat. Really. "The boss of Panlongzhai is called Zhou Tianyu, a middle-aged man, who was originally the son of a small landlord. However, later his house was ransacked by a group of mountain bandits, and only he escaped by luck, but he ended up becoming the leader of the mountain bandits. Of course, he didn't forget about revenge, and after he took control of Panlong Village, one day he directly led his mountain bandits to destroy his enemies.

In fact, there are not many people in that group of mountain bandits, only seventy or eighty people. In front of the team of more than 200 people in Panlong Village, those seventy or eighty people were not able to set off much of a storm at all, and most of them were quickly wiped out.

Because it was revenge, Zhou Tianyu didn't leave a single live shot this time. At the same time, because of this, Zhou Tianyu's position as the boss of Panlongzhai has also been completely stabilized, and no mountain bandit at the bottom dares to easily offend this ruthless boss.

Panlong Village has actually been entrenched in Panlong Ridge for five or six years, and it can be regarded as an old bandit here. In normal times, they survive mainly by collecting protection money from caravans, except for a few things from the surrounding villages. Of course, some fields have also been opened up in the cottage, which are mainly cultivated by the old and weak women and children in the cottage, and they can also get some food to support the daily life of the cottage.

Therefore, although Panlong Village claims to have a scale of more than 300 people, in fact, there are less than 200 real bandits who can fight. The others are all the families of these people, the old and the weak, women and children, and they are purely the number of people. There is no way, although these mountain bandits have gone up the mountain to become bandits these years, they are not without relatives.

Naturally, as the boss, if you want to get the support and support of your brothers, you can't ignore their families.

With a decrease in income and more than 300 people having to eat, the head of the family naturally has to worry about such a thing.

"Report to the three masters, there is a group of people coming in the direction of our cottage-" The three masters were worried, and suddenly, a small minion rushed in from outside and reported loudly.