These people were driven out of Guishan Island by the government and forced to settle in villages and towns in the prefectures and counties around Hongze Lake. But because they were all bandits, and more or less people in their families had been or were bandits, they were actually firmly supervised by officers and soldiers, and the people around them did not dare to associate with them, and in fact these people were guarded as prisoners. They have no land to plant, no livelihood, and can only live by selling the heaviest coolies, not to be harassed. In this case, when they heard the news that the owner of the village had regained his foothold in Funiu Mountain, they fled desperately.

Gao Muqing and the brothers of Guishan Island certainly did not refuse to come here, because these are all old people on Guishan Island. For Gao Muqing, there is still guilt for them. After all, it was because of their own mistakes, or that they were deceived by the government, that led to their current situation, so it was incumbent on them to take them in. However, this has also led to big problems.

Funiu Mountain is full of mountains and ravines, and the terrain is steep. Dozens of cottages in the mountains are entrenched here, which seems to be huge, but in fact, the situation inside is complicated. On the one hand, it is precisely because of the long tradition of resistance in Funiu Mountain that the imperial court attaches great importance to the defense of the left side of Funiu Mountain. It's okay to say that the imperial court doesn't dare to enter the mountains to encircle and suppress, but you have to look at it from both sides. Although there is no risk of being encircled and suppressed, the large and small cottages of Funiu Mountain are actually not famous. After all, there are heavy troops around, Nanyang County in the south, Yexian County and Xiangcheng in the east, and Zhongzhou County in the west and north all hoarding a large number of soldiers and horses to take strict precautions. It can also be said that in fact, it was the imperial court that carried out an extremely strict blockade of the green forest cottage in Funiu Mountain.

As a result, cottages in the deep mountains inevitably produce many practical problems. No matter how many people there are, they always have to eat and dress. Although there are also many mountain people living in the mountains, they can forcibly snatch some material food, but that is too little after all. Moreover, the indigenous mountain people here are all fierce, and there is a great risk of robbing them, and often suffering deaths, so in fact, the gains outweigh the losses.

Of course, cottages of all sizes often go out of their own turf to harass the villages, counties, and villages to rob materials, grain and grass, but the risk is greater. In order to block the encirclement and suppression of officers and soldiers, the passages in the mountains are basically some steep mountain roads, which are absolutely impossible to repair. Therefore, the supply of basic living materials is a huge problem.

In this case, for more than 100 years, cottages in the mountains have had to be supplemented by hunting and gathering in the mountains or simply planting land and grain in the valleys. However, the resources in the mountains are very limited, and the suitable places for cultivation in the valleys are extremely valuable. And the beasts in the mountains eat meat and the like, but they are not automatically sent to the door, some cottages only occupy one or two small hills, and almost all the movable and flying people on the mountains are all beaten up, so they will secretly go to other people's territory to hunt. All of these situations will eventually lead to constant friction and endless fights between each other.

To a certain extent, it is precisely because of the limitations of this kind that the green forest cottage in the mountains cannot grow. The lack of resources is destined not to feed too many people, and the largest cottages only have one or two thousand people, which is already a staggering scale.

Of course, there are many other factors that cause the cottage to not grow, but the lack of food and materials is definitely one of the important reasons.

The Shiren Mountain village that Gao Muqing brought people to join is one of the larger cottages here. The location is also very good. Zuo Zongdao has some vision, and the seven or eight large and small mountains he occupies are in the east of Funiu Mountain. Out of the stone people mountain to the east can go out of the Funiu Mountain, outside is the territory of Ye County. Zuo Zongdao has more than 1,000 soldiers and horses, and in order to grab grain and grass materials, he can use all his manpower to raid the large and small markets in Ye County. A few years ago, he led his troops to break through the county seat of Yexian County, looting hundreds of truckloads of supplies and returning to the mountains. Moreover, there is a large flat area between the north side of Tiger Roaring Gorge and Pheasant Ridge on his territory, where wheat and other crops can be grown. Therefore, Zuo Zongdao's Dazhai still has no shortage of food and drink, but it is not surplus.

Gao Muqing brought more than 400 people with him when he came, because he had traveled all the way and naturally had nothing. Entering the mountain, eating, drinking, and lodging are all provided by Zuo Zongdao. With a few hundred people, Zuo Zongdao can afford to raise them, but with the remnants of Guishan Island and the people coming one after another, the number of Gao Muqing's cottages on Pheasant Ridge has reached more than 2,000 people. More than 2,000 people are 2,000 mouths, and these 2,000 mouths all want Zuo Zongdao to provide food, so Zuo Zongdao will obviously be very dissatisfied.

Gao Muqing soon became aware of these problems, but there was nothing she could do. He couldn't bear to let Zuo Zongdao give aid to grain, grass and materials free of charge, so he took out valuable things such as gold and silver in the future tense in exchange for more food from Zuo Zongdao. But these things are already limited, and they are simply not enough to offset the consumption.

When very few possessions are consumed, things get a little tricky and awkward.

The brothers under Zuo Zongdao have long been very dissatisfied, if it weren't for the owner of the village saying that this is the daughter of his deceased, if they took them in to repay their kindness, they would have scolded their mother at the beginning. After all, this is the food, grass and materials they desperately snatched, and it makes no sense to use them to support these idlers. As the number of arrivals increased, so did the discontent.

A few days ago, when several people from Guishan Island who had fled to Guishan Island were passing by the Huxiao Gorge Pass, the bandits from Shirenshan Dazhai who were guarding the mountain road of the pass shot them. The news spread to Gao Muqing's big village in the north, and Gao Muqing naturally couldn't sit idly by, so he personally came to Zuo Zongdao to negotiate and wanted to ask what was going on.

Zuo Zongdao told Gao Muqing that he was looking at the old friendship and the kindness of the old village owner to take them here. But this is not a nursing home, and he has a bunch of waste that only consumes food and grass. Gao Muqing's move to contain a large number of civilians is unwise and inappropriate.

Gao Muqing told Zuo Zongdao that these people were all people in the cottage, and they all thought they were cornered. You have to take them in. Gao Muqing asked Zuo Zongdao to help these people, and he would return it twice in the future.

Of course, Zuo Zongdao was not interested in this kind of promise, which had no practical benefits, and he clearly told Gao Muqing that he would either dismiss these people, or he would no longer supply grain and grass supplies. You can't be consumed by these people, these are important materials for the existence of the cottage. Or agree to his terms.

Gao Muqing asked him about his conditions, and Zuo Zongdao put forward two points without shame. First, Gao Muqing took the rest of Guishan Island and merged it into Shirenshan Dazhai, so that Gao Muqing could be the position of deputy owner of the village, and these people would be under the command of Shirenshan Dazhai, and there would be no name for Guishan Island Dazhai from now on. In this way, the people themselves can give them a place to live among the mountain beams, and let them farm to support themselves.

This one completely exposed Zuo Zongdao's true thoughts and exposed his fox tail. It turned out that Zuo Zongdao took in the people of Guishan Island precisely to make these people submit to him. These people are absolutely different from ordinary people who join the gang, and the four or five hundred people who followed Gao Muqing are all bandits. That's much more powerful than Zuo Zongdao's own manpower. Zuo Zongdao knew this very well, so he slowly forced everyone to obey through this method.

This article was immediately opposed by Liang Qi and others and the people in the cottage of Guishan Island. The cottage on Guishan Island is already their home in their hearts, and the reason why they followed Gao Muqing here is to rebuild the cottage and avenge the dead cottage brothers and fellow villagers. If Zuo Zongdao hadn't made it clear from the beginning that he wouldn't ask them to submit to his cottage, they wouldn't have come here at all.

What's even more atmospheric is that Zuo Zongdao is taking advantage of the danger of others and coercing the current difficult situation of the people on Guishan Island, which is really unauthentic. Everyone's gratitude to Zuo Zongdao also faded sharply because of this. Objectively, Zuo Zongdao did help himself and others, but his motives were unbearable, and this was definitely not a legitimate act.

Gao Muqing rejected this condition after discussing it with everyone, and Zuo Zongdao was very angry, but he immediately put forward the second condition.

If Gao Muqing is unwilling to accept his adaptation conditions, he will not force it. He can even continue to supply grain and grass materials to the people of Guishan Island. But the people of Guishan Island must do things for Shirenshan Dazhai in exchange for the support of these food supplies. Zuo Zongdao clearly told Gao Muqing and the others that if the Guishan Island cottage could help him exterminate the three cottages north of Yeji Ridge and include the seven or eight mountains there into his sphere of influence, in return, he would give them continued support for grain, grass and materials.

Hearing this second condition, Gao Muqing Liang Qi and the others were furious, this second condition was even more shameless and despicable, this was to use the life of the Shanzhai brothers on Guishan Island to expand his territory for him and fight for him. And he only needs to reap the benefits at the cost of grain, grass and materials. Zuo Zongdao is really cunning and despicable to the extreme.

Moreover, the most vicious point of this is that although the large and small cottages in Funiu Mountain are eyeing each other, no one dares to openly annex other cottages. Because whoever breaks this rule will be charged with the crime and will be the target of public criticism. In that way, you will no longer be restrained if you are beaten. Zuo Zongdao didn't want to bear the moral accusation, and asked Gao Muqing's people to do it, so that he could not be blamed. However, for Gao Muqing and others, this is a violation of public anger and taboo. They have not been here for a long time, and they have not been able to gain a foothold and have few people, and then they are afraid that they will be in endless trouble.

Zuo Zongdao is worthy of being able to mix in Funiu Mountain, and sure enough, the ability to kill people and eat human blood steamed buns with a knife is definitely a good hand. It can even be concluded that what he actually hopes is that Gao Muqing and them will not join his cottage, or that he knew that Gao Muqing and they would not agree to the first condition. And this second condition is his ultimate goal.