The last few snowfalls in Snow Ridge County are not too big, but the snow in the mountains is melting slowly, and the mountains are already white.

The trees, rocks, and wasteland, against the contrast of the snow, seemed to have turned into a uniform dark hue.

Black and white mottled, orderly in chaos, layered and hazy beauty, huge mountains, like an ink painting.

At the twilight, Jin Liancheng led the way, Su Hanshan and others followed them to a mountain col, looked up into the distance, and what they saw was such a beautiful scenery of mountains and rivers.

However, the cottage of the Black Seven Thieves was not set up between the distant mountains, but in this mountain pass.

A mountain col is an area with gentle terrain between the roots of the mountains.

The col where they were currently located was a thousand acres in size, and there was a small river flowing from the mountains beside it, and the river was already frozen.

On both sides of the river, there are hundreds of low houses, many of which are half on the shore and half in the water, and there are some flat wooden mallets scattered on the stones, apparently where the villagers will beat their laundry in the summer.

At first glance, Su Hanshan felt that this was not like a cottage where the big bandits were entrenched, it was just an ordinary mountain village at all.

Walking into the village, the old trees and copper bells, the cowshed and the sheepfold, everywhere are the traces of the villagers' life, the paths, winding in them, without deliberately paving any gravel, tamping the land, is the path that has been trampled by people all year round, stepping out.

But after a closer look, he noticed that something was wrong.

Although these houses are very old, many of the doors and windows are freshly planked, smooth-cut and nailed.

There were still some tattered wooden doors, curtains, and long benches under the corners, which were discarded there, and many of the wooden boards left not bad marks, but traces of being chopped by knives and axes, and stained with blood.

Moreover, the people living in these houses were extremely alert, and even if some of the houses were far away, the snoring would disappear immediately as soon as the sound of their group of people moving approached.

There was no shortage of people peeping between the cracks in the door panels, and when they saw Jin Liancheng leading the way, they were not all relieved and went back to sleep.

In addition, the deeper you go into the village, the more imposing, tall, and newer the houses you see.

The mountain was a foot thick with a thick wall of stones, and every three steps, a thick tree trunk stood among the stones, acting as a pillar to support the roof.

But in such a magnificent house, the roof was not covered with tiles, but a large number of thick animal skins and tent cloth, and large stones were placed on the ridge of the roof, and large and small stones were tied to the corners of the cloth and animal skins to prevent them from being blown by the wind.

"How did you find a village in the col as a place to live?"

Su Hanshan deliberately accosted Jin Liancheng, "Wouldn't it be more secluded and troublesome to go to the mountains to find some caves to live in?" If you don't think it's grand enough, find a dense forest, hide in the dense forest, and also block the wind, just build some wooden houses and wooden buildings. ”

Jin Liancheng turned the cigarette stick in his hand: "Living on the mountain, in case someone wants to attack, touch it from the foot of the mountain, and surround the peak, when the people in the cave and the village want to withdraw and run, but it will be difficult." ”

"After all, we are not locals, and the mountainous terrain cannot be as familiar as the locals."

"And living in this mountain col, although it is not said to be accessible in all directions, it is also a wide field of vision, and there are many roads, if someone is coming, it is easy to perceive, and when the time comes, the government will not have so many troops to be able to enclose such a large area, and to set up an ambush between the mountains."

Su Hanshan said with a smile: "I said something presumptuous, why do you seem to be ready to scatter and flee?" ”

"Xueling County is not Shanyang County, if you want to settle down here, if you only rely on the old vision, it will never work, and you must have to prepare some back roads."

Jin Liancheng didn't think it was angry, but there was a kind of complacency, he took a cigarette stick and pointed to the mountains on three sides in the distance, and said, "Escaping is an escape, but it is not a rout, we have many hidden places in the mountains, hiding grain, oil and salt, cloth and torches, pots and swords, each part of the brothers only knows one of the locations, after scattering and escaping, each looking for their location to hide, after a while, it is natural to contact and reunite." ”

In this way, even if the government really called on the masters, mobilized manpower, climbed mountains and waded through rivers, and found this place to attack, I am afraid that it will not get any results, and even fight again and again, wasting energy and materials.

Su Hanshan felt even more jealous of these bandits in his heart, and said: "It turns out that I chose a mountain village as a place to settle down, and there are so many exquisitenesses and teachings. ”

"It's not easy to choose this village."

Jin Liancheng said with emotion, "First of all, among all the surrounding mountain villages, find the most remote place, the least easy to be taken into account by the government, and the scale should not be too small, so as to facilitate our transformation, and also to eliminate the possibility of these villagers going out to spread the news." ”

"There are more than 200 villagers here, when we first came, we killed a group of people, thinking that killing chickens and monkeys was enough to make them obedient, digging soil and transporting stones, building new houses, and modifying villages under our command.

"We killed a batch and killed a batch, and in the end there were thirty or forty families left, although they looked quite obedient and helped to do some coolies, but after finishing the work, they didn't dare to stay longer, so they all disposed of."

Su Hanshan was murderous when he heard this, but his face was tense and silent.

At this time, the performance of Li Erhu and his group of people was more natural and did not show flaws.

Although they were also a little shocked by the ruthlessness of these people, they had seen too many human tragedies on the way to escape, and just hearing such news was not enough to make them fall in love.

Su Hanshan caught a glimpse of their reactions, and his heart moved slightly, but he followed them to learn the details of his demeanor.

Jin Liancheng still sighed there: "If this is in our hometown, with the name of our Black Seven Thieves, at least we can pick out dozens of young people from here and put them into the village, and others will be more obedient." ”

"So, we've changed places, so we can't rely on old eyes to act."

By this time, the crowd had approached the deepest part of the village.

An eight-foot man with messy hair draped over his shoulders and pale sideburns stepped out of the tallest stone-walled house, walked through the courtyard, and pushed open a thick wooden fence nearly two feet high and like a city gate.

"Third child, you're back."

Listening to his name and looking at his appearance, this person should be the second leader of the Black Seven Thieves, Chen Zuen.

Jin Liancheng bowed his hand to Su Hanshan, got out of their side, walked over more than a dozen steps, and said in a low voice: "I'm out for a while, is anyone still coming?" ”

"Another group is coming, it is the subordinate of the one-eyed head, there are only a dozen people in total, the old one-eyed lost his life more than half a year ago, and the village of two hundred people was destroyed, and the remaining dozen or so are all unsuccessful things."

Chen Zuen was a little dissatisfied, "Our people on the Shanyang Green Forest Road have really declined too hard in the past three years. ”

"Back then, our family alone was able to gather candidates, and there was still a surplus, but now more than a dozen groups of people have been called over, and there are less than six useful ones."

"I think, there will be no more people who can use it in the future, and the one that is missing, let He Yanmang take it."

Jin Liancheng immediately said: "No." ”

"Tsk!"

Chen Zuen frowned, "I know you have some grievances with the old man of Hejiazhai, isn't that old man gone, let's still focus on the overall situation." ”

Jin Liancheng hurriedly said: "I'm just for the overall situation, this kid He Yanmang is a little powerful, but after all, in terms of internal strength alone, he hasn't reached the level of Qi and the sea of Qi, so if he really lets him set up the formation, I'm afraid it will add flaws to the formation." ”

Chen Zuen will come to his senses: "You found Tan Ying and them, didn't the flag envoy say that their stockade was empty?" Why didn't you bring someone with you when you found it? ”

Chen Zuen has also met with Tan Ying many times, and he looked at Su Hanshan a few times, but he didn't see Tan Ying there.

"Their stockade is not empty, it is overturned, and the kid who was sent out before estimated that because of the snow, he didn't notice that there was a newly buried corpse next to the village."

Jin Liancheng's cigarette stick turned lightly and said, "The one who carries the knife is the new master of the Crazy Lion Village, Tiejiangliu, and his kung fu should be slightly better than Tan Ying, I think he is much more suitable than He Yanmang." ”