Ma Shuo's busy business is to check the quality of the stirrups and saddles that have been built by the craftsmen of the secret base in the past few days. Although there were no war horses at that time, Ma Shuo had already prepared the craftsmen in the base to prepare the saddle and stirrups.

Of course, because the conditions here are not mature enough, in the few days since Ma Shuo left, the number of finished saddles and stirrups created by the craftsmen was not very large, that is, less than thirty sets.

However, to Ma Shuo's delight, the base on the other side of the Iron Ore Valley has also been initially established, and it has been able to smelt iron on a small scale. As long as iron could be supplied, saddles and stirrups would be produced much faster. Of course, Ma Shuo also has to nail a horseshoe to each horse so that it can prolong the life of the horse.

After inspection, Ma Shuo found that the saddles and stirrups produced by these craftsmen were of good quality, although they were not fast, but the quality was really good. For this, Ma Shuo praised everyone well, and promised to give each person a reward of one or two pieces of silver when the production quantity of the two items reached 1,000.

Ma Shuo's commitment immediately mobilized the enthusiasm of a group of craftsmen, and the enthusiasm for work was high, and the number of products also increased rapidly. Of course, taking advantage of this opportunity, Ma Shuo also gave the shape of the horseshoe to the blacksmith in charge, and asked him to arrange for someone to start manufacturing at the same time.

Horseshoes don't have much technical content, so they are produced much faster than those two harnesses.

In just two or three days, the craftsmen produced the first batch of nearly 500 horseshoes. So, Ma Shuo directly organized people to start nailing horseshoes to the selected adult horses.

Although no one had done this work before, after Ma Shuo demonstrated it, those craftsmen quickly mastered it. Everyone didn't know why Ma Shuo wanted to put an iron ball on the horse's feet, but Ma Shuo's order was unconditionally carried out, so things went very smoothly.

While waiting for the saddle and stirrups, Ma Shuo tried to make up for the loss of the militia and the thousand-man team, and at the same time, taking advantage of this opportunity, he organized a reserve force composed of almost three hundred barbarians.

Of course, the reserve team is treated worse than the regular militia and the 1000-man members, but they work half the time and train half the time. There is no way, and now the construction of the secret base still needs manpower very much.

After this period of rapid construction, the outer defense of the secret base has been constructed, and a sturdy wall with a height of five meters firmly encloses the entire area, and it is impossible for ordinary barbarians to break in.

Around the wall, there are many traps. Therefore, even if a barbarian breaks into this place, I am afraid that it will be difficult to escape these traps.

While Ma Shuo's side was in full swing to build and train his subordinates, and secretly develop his own strength, the situation on the side of Zhenmanguan became more and more severe. From the letters sent back by Mark and the information collected by the hidden guards, Ma Shuo basically grasped the situation on the other side of Zhenmanguan.

The barbarians who have gathered near Zhenmanguan have exceeded 500,000, and the momentum of gathering has not decreased significantly. The military fortress in the Huangsha Gorge has been abandoned, and the Shanzi battalion stationed there has been successfully withdrawn.

Of course, during this period of time, the garrisons of the Shanzi Battalion still played a great role in the Huangsha Gorge Military Village, and they won nearly a month for the overall defense arrangement of the Zhenman Pass.

In this month, the Shanzi battalion stationed in the military village also suffered great losses, almost ten thousand troops were disabled, and only five officers of the rank of commander lost five, and three commanders survived, but it was impossible to go to the battlefield again in a short time.

Under the fierce resistance of the Shanzi battalion, the barbarians also lost nearly 30,000 people in front of the Huangsha Gorge military fortress. Although, compared to the large number of barbarians, such a loss is not a pain in the bones, but for the Shanzi Battalion, it is still a great achievement.

After Mark returned to Zhenmanguan with a full number of men, he was not immediately placed at the front line. However, from the moment I returned to Zhenmanguan, I started to train intensely every day, and it was much stricter than usual.

At the same time, to make up for the losses in the previous battle, the entire town barbarian army also carried out a temporary expansion, and after simple training, the city guards drawn from various cities were directly integrated into the thousand-man teams at the head of each battalion, and the scale of each thousand-man team was expanded.

Now, Mark's thousand-man squad has exceeded a thousand, reaching thirteen hundred. It's just that the number of cavalry in it is still very small, only a hundred, and most of them are scouts.

Judging by the current situation, it is estimated that it will not be long before the barbarians will launch a real large-scale attack. For the barbarians, they must attack the Zhenbarian Pass, and only by entering the Zhenbarbarian Pass can they have the opportunity to plunder the various resources of Great Qin.

The changes in the situation in Western Xinjiang made Ma Shuo feel extremely pressured, time was pressing, and the power in his hands was not strong enough, so he must continue to accelerate the pace of development. However, in the current situation, it is not easy for Ma Shuo to obtain sufficient resources through normal channels.

According to Fan Zeng's report from the hidden guard, the sales of Huangsha City's high-grade liquor have been greatly affected recently, and there are many fewer people drinking alcohol. Slightly better, though, is that the military's demand for alcohol has increased considerably. However, it seems that the pressure on the military side is not small, and the latest transaction was not able to do all the cash transactions, and the white slip of 5,000 taels was played.

At the same time, the prices of various materials on the market have also risen a lot, especially grain, which has risen by almost 30% compared with before, and this trend seems to be getting stronger and stronger. In this case, Fan Zeng had already tried to send people to other cities to buy supplies.

Time passed quietly, and when the situation in the western Xinjiang was deteriorating, the two teams under Ma Shuo were transforming at the speed they saw. After almost a month of overtime, all the saddles and pedals needed were finally fitted, and all the horses were fitted with horseshoe. Although, for the time being, it is not possible to achieve the high standard of one person and two horses, but it is barely able to achieve the configuration of a single person and a single horse.

Horses are limited, but training is not relaxing. Fortunately, with the saddle and stirrups, it was much easier for everyone to ride their horses, and they didn't have to spend too much energy on controlling their stability. As a result, the cavalry combat level of the militia and the thousand people is constantly improving with the training.

At the same time, during this time, a batch of bows and arrows and cavalry weapons were also produced in the workshops on the side of Panlongling, which basically met the needs of 2,000 people to change their clothes.

Finally, after almost exhausting the accumulation of the recent period, the cavalry of 2,000 people in Ma Shuo's hands finally began to take shape. Next, it's time to get ready for the test of actual combat!

The opportunity to test the test will soon come.