"Who's coming?"

Meng Hu's brainless sentence made Ma Shuo confused, and asked angrily.

"Steward Fan, the person arranged by Steward Fan is here!" Meng Hu hurriedly replied.

"Oh! It's not slow. Let's go, let's see. Hearing that the person arranged by Fan Zeng had arrived, Ma Shuo was immediately interested, and at the same time, he was in a good mood. When Fan Zeng's people arrived, the food problem would be easy to handle. These days, the transformation of the cottage is in full swing, but the consumption of food is also not small. Because Ma Shuo didn't want to treat everyone badly, after all, he was neither one of those mountain bandit leaders nor a hateful bureaucrat.

At the same time, since they want to use this as a base, these people will also be their own team. Don't look at most of them are old and weak, women and children, but as long as they are used well, they can be of great use in the future.

The food problem is the primary issue, and the people regard food as their heaven.

During this time, the harvest of the bandits was actually not small. During this period, Mark went out with his men and horses a total of two times, and relied on force to recruit two more mountain bandit teams. However, one of them was a mobile mountain bandit, which happened to hit the front of Mark's team, which was considered meat to be delivered to the door.

In the process of co-optation, it will naturally not be smooth sailing, and a big war is inevitable. Moreover, in order to train the troops, Mark tried his best to let the mountain bandits who were incorporated rush to the front every time he fought, so that they could grow up quickly in the baptism of blood and fire, and the border troops brought by Mark were mainly the role of the supervising team, and those who dared to escape from the battle were killed.

In this way, after the two battles, more than 80 mountain bandits recruited from Panlongzhai directly lost more than 20. Of course, those who stayed behind have also really grown up, and they are basically a qualified border soldiers.

Of course, the total number of people under Mark's command is constantly increasing. More than 20 people were lost, but nearly 200 people were newly recruited. In addition, he also brought back more than 100 people to Ma Shuo, among which there were not too many old and weak women and children, only twenty or thirty people.

The addition of these manpower has naturally accelerated the speed of cottage transformation to a certain extent. However, at the same time, it has also increased the rate of food consumption. Although he got some food from the nest of the mountain bandits who had been co-opted, he was able to alleviate the current predicament a little. Therefore, Ma Shuo is still looking forward to Fan Zeng's arrival.

Because it was the first time, there were not many things sent by Fan Zeng, and the total of various materials was less than twenty carriages, and there were less than 100 people in total. The guards sent by Fan Zeng were all veterans who were injured and retired.

At the beginning, when Ma Shuo was in Zhenmanguan, he once told Li Mu that if it was convenient, Li Mu could introduce him to some reliable retired veterans as escorts.

As a general, how to better settle the retired wounded soldiers under his command has always been one of their greatest concerns.

Although, retired wounded soldiers will receive a sum of compensation. However, it is clear to everyone that this compensation is only symbolic and does not ensure a normal life for them.

Therefore, the situation of retired wounded soldiers after retirement is very bleak.

Ma Shuo took the initiative to ask some retired wounded soldiers to be guards, which was undoubtedly equivalent to solving a problem for Li Mu.

Therefore, as soon as Ma Shuo spoke, Li Mu agreed without hesitation. Moreover, Li Mu also promised Ma Shuo to immediately send someone to contact the former retired wounded soldiers, and if anyone was willing, let them contact Ma Shuo immediately.

Of course, Ma Shuo would not receive those people by himself, because the place where he temporarily employed people was Huangsha City.

So, Li Mu asked people to tell those veterans that if they wanted, they would go to Huangsha City to find Fan Zeng.

Of course, Ma Shuo also wrote to Fan Zeng at the same time, asking him to do a good job of screening, as long as it is suitable, try to accept as many people as possible.

In addition to being guards, some people can also arrange for work. If some wounded soldiers have special skills, they should register them separately, receive them properly, and make further arrangements when they go back.

Because the time has not been long, and the former retired wounded soldiers are scattered all over the place, there are only seventy or eighty people who have temporarily found Fan Zeng.

I picked more than 50 people with good combat strength to be guards, and the others were arranged to do what they could.

According to Ma Lian's explanation, Fan Zeng's treatment of the veterans is not low. The guards are two taels a month, and the workmanship is one or two five.

Such treatment is no less than when they were border soldiers.

When Fan Zeng paid the first month's salary to these veterans in advance, the eyes of all the men were red.

Many of these people have well-connected families. When there was a salary, the life of the family was better, but after the serious injury and retirement, relying on that little compensation, life became more and more difficult.

They are all husbands, fathers, and sons, and they are not uncomfortable.

I thought that was all there was to it. I didn't expect that someone would be willing to hire them, and they would be paid so high that they didn't treat them as disabled people at all. You know, in this society, even if there are hired workers, few people hire them who lack arms and legs. In the eyes of the world, they are basically wasted.

More than fifty disabled veteran guards unreservedly put their gratitude to Ma Shuo into their work, and they gave full play to their advantages, and used all the defensive methods they learned in the border army, first of all, to comprehensively upgrade the defense of the winery.

After the transformation of these veterans, the defense of the winery is not to say that it is impregnable, but ordinary thieves do not want to break in. Even, even if someone could use a regular army, they would not be able to rush in without a thousand people. Even if they rush in at the end, they will have to lose more than half of it.

Fan Zeng reported these situations to Ma Shuo through letters. Therefore, when Ma Shuo saw these veterans escorting supplies over with his own eyes, a special sense of intimacy arose, these people were really cute.

There were a total of fifty guards who came over this time, which was almost the majority of the entire escort force. On the side of the winery, as the veterans continue to come and defect, the number of guards continues to increase, so with the lack of these fifty people, as long as no big things happen there, there is no problem with security.

"The old slave meets the master of the house!" After seeing Ma Shuo who greeted him and the others, Old Man Kang, who came with the team this time, was the first to rush out of the team, quickly came to Ma Shuo, and knelt down with a plop. The winery is already mature, so there is no need for Old Man Kang to sit there. This time, Ma Shuo transferred Old Man Kang over, the purpose of which was to build Panlong Village into a real wine-making base.

"I'm waiting to meet the head of the house!"

Knowing that the young man in front of him was the head of the family who hired everyone, those guards immediately knelt down in unison, and greeted the head of the house in unison, full of momentum.

"Brothers, please get up!" Ma Shuo hurriedly made a gesture to get up, and at the same time took a few steps forward, first helping the old man Kang Dingkang, and then helping the captain of the guard up.

"Xie family master!" Everyone responded in unison and stood up, the momentum was indeed extraordinary. Don't look at these veterans, they are all missing arms and legs, but they stand straight one by one, and their momentum is not bad at all.

"Back to the cottage!" Ma Shuo shouted excitedly.