The weather is finally clearing. The sun appeared lazily in mid-air, stingily sprinkling light and heat on the land.

Taking advantage of the good weather, the soldiers who broke into the camp came out to do some activities under the sun, and dried up the musty smell that had been held back in the past half a month. The grooms and auxiliaries put the rain-soaked saddle armor on the threshing floor to dry.

In front of the big temple at the intersection of the mountain, there are golden drums.

Taking advantage of this rare good weather and the fact that there was no fighting, Li Zicheng sent the officers and men of the old battalion to take turns for drills, and most of those who did not have their turn to practice stepped up their familiarization with the new weapons in their hands at various stations.

There were only 300 soldiers from the old battalion who practiced in front of the temple, and the child soldiers were mixed with the old battalion, and the immature children's voices were clearly divided into the shouts made during the drill. These child soldiers not only had to practice cavalry and archery and all kinds of martial arts like adults, but also paid more attention to the practice of formations, so that the soldiers could develop the habit of listening to the golden drum and looking at the current flag and advancing and retreating left and right, so that they would not be chaotic in the middle of the battle.

Zhang Nai, Li Shuangxi, Luo Hu, and Wang Si, the leaders of the four child soldiers, each led a group of child soldiers in the queue to wave the spears in their hands, followed the sound of drums, and made left, right, prevent, pluck, stab, and pick movements.

Although the spear in their hands is very heavy, these dolls, who have been haunting the battlefield since they were ten or even seven or eight years old, can't put down this sharp spear.

The spear bottle made of pure steel is particularly long, and together with the spearhead, the length reaches three feet that no one has ever seen! In Hao Shaoqi's words, "You don't need to put on a spear shaft." This spearhead is a good guy to use right away! ”

However, when the newly cut wooden pole was wet and assembled on the spearhead, the spear, which was about one foot and five feet long, suddenly brightened the eyes of the generals. When such a weapon encounters officers and soldiers on a narrow mountain road, dozens of spearmen rush over in formation, what kind of officers and soldiers can resist?

"Let's line up the archers behind the spearmen! With arrows on one side and spears like a forest of stabs, the group of dog mongrels in the official army will only kill good and risky goods, and they dare to fight with us?! Yuan Zongdi proudly fiddled with a newly acquired bronze iron arm bow. The raw cowhide bowstring on top was plucked by his thick fingers. There was a loud bang.

And Liu Zongmin used his blacksmith's professional eye to judge the two new steel knives in his hands. The long knife, which was called the Jeho knife by the merchants, was roughly similar to the popular style of the Miao knife, but it was made entirely of stainless steel. There is nothing flashy about the frills. The amount of money to start with is very heavy. Gently twist the blade with your fingers. Being able to feel the sharpness of the blade, Liu Zongmin snorted with satisfaction for the newly acquired pair of treasure knives. It was much stronger than the pair of iron broadswords he had used for years.

According to Wu Ruyi's Jianyì. Since you can't rob it with your hands, the few people left in the old camp will be lost in vain, and it will be spread out and ruin your reputation, which businessman will dare to trade with the camp in the future? In that case, let's just trade with this group of merchants, anyway, merchants! They have traveled thousands of miles to traffic goods for a good word. Transporting these weapons to the periphery of this battlefield is either sold to officers and soldiers or to poles, whose silver is not silver?

At that moment, Li Zicheng ordered Gao Yigong, the wife and brother of the army commander, to follow Wu Ruyi to the courtyard of the Huang family to negotiate with those merchants.

However, when Chen Guoxi, the businessman who was the leader, used an official dialect with a strong Fujian accent to explain the quotation and Gao Yigong clearly, he couldn't help but make Gao Yigong a little annoyed.

"A gun costs fifteen taels of silver or fifteen silver dollars, a pair of iron armor and an iron helmet costs one hundred taels, a fire gun costs forty taels of silver or silver dollars, and steel armor is sold to dog officers and soldiers for one hundred and fifty pairs, and it is sold to us at the same price. Gunpowder is three taels of silver a barrel, and if we buy more, it will be two taels of silver a barrel. ”

With the anger of this group of businessmen taking advantage of the fire to rob, and the yearning for those strong armor soldiers, Gao Yigong had to return in a huff.

"Sue them! As long as the things are good, even if I break into the camp, even if I break into the camp, I will give them the price! Without waiting for Li Zicheng to speak, Gao Yigong's sister Gao Guiying expressed her attitude. Money and things outside the body, as long as the swords and guns are in hand, and the soldiers and horses are in hand, how much money and wealth are not all coming like a tide? If you break a village casually, you will have an income of at least tens of thousands of taels.

"Madame is right!"

Several generals who broke into the camp also agreed with Gao Guiying's words, originally! What is silver? What is lacking in the camp now is knives, guns, equipment, medicines, and cloth.

After several rounds of bargaining, Gao Yigong and Chen Guoxi reached an agreement.

The officers below the sentry commander who broke into the camp and above all put on the same Jiao skin armor as Wu Ruyi, and they were so beautiful that these old brothers who accompanied Li Zicheng in the southern and northern wars showed off to each other as the groom officials.

The more sophisticated iron armor is worn by middle-level generals such as Zhang Nai, Gu Ying, Niu Wancai, and Lin Cheng. For those steel armor that makes people drool when they see it, Zicheng also weighed it for a long time, so he had to buy twenty pairs of them, equip Liu Zongmin, Hao Shaoqi, Yuan Zongdi and others, and say to Li Shuangxi, as soon as they get out of the mountain, they will replace everyone with such good things!

The money saved was spent on the ordinary soldiers of the old battalion. These people often have only a cotton cloth shoulder on their body, and a slightly better one uninlaid iron cotton armor. Anyone who could have a shoulder-length piece of cotton armor was stripped from an officer at least the rank of junior colonel. In addition to buying a large number of funeral guns, desperate knives, gunpowder, meat porcelain jars, salt and life-saving bags, Chen Guoxi took out another thing that attracted the attention of Li Zicheng and others.

"King Chuang, please look!"

Chen Guoxi pointed to a target thirty paces away in his Fujian accent and showed it to Li Zicheng.

On a wooden pole more than a person high, a peculiar armor was tied to it, but inside the armor was a fat pig that had been slaughtered and washed clean.

A caravan guard took an arquebus, slowly poured the primer into the cleaned pot in front of everyone, filled the gunpowder and projectile, and rammed it twice with a strip to make the projectile and gunpowder better combined. Light the fuse and blow lightly to make the fuse burn. I have done the above series of actions. The guard raised his head and waited for Chen Guoxi's instructions.

"Let King Chuang and the leaders see how powerful our coconut shell armor is!"

Several generals standing beside Li Zicheng looked at the distance slightly, and then laughed a little, at such a distance, as long as the fire gun does not explode, the projectile fired will definitely be able to penetrate the human body.

"If I am lucky enough to win the chief whistle Liu Ye, then this fat pig will be given to Liu Ye's subordinates to fight for their teeth."

Faced with the questions of Liu Zongmin and others, Chen Guoxi didn't say anything, just joked with Liu Zongmin, Hao Shaoqi and others with the smile of a businessman.

"Old Chen. Speak up. It counts! Hao Shaoqi has not eaten a meal of meat for many days, and in the face of this meal of wine and meat that is almost at his fingertips, he will naturally not let go.

"Not only does it count, but there are also two jars of soju to give."

Li Zicheng has another plan. He ordered a set of cotton armor that was common in the army. "After the guards of the treasurer Chen tried this set of armor. Try this one again. ”

In the expectant gaze of everyone, the guard aimed at the target more than twenty steps away and pulled the trigger, and the fire boomed. A white smoke rose, and with the smoke from the gun, there was a green smoke on the coconut shell armor opposite, and it was the projectile that hit the armor, and the hot projectile scalded the surface of the coconut shell, but the projectile was only embedded in the coconut shell.

The same firelight came out, with the sound of the firecracker, the armor draped on the fat pig was pierced by the projectile fired at close range, the impact of the projectile hit the fat pig to the side and swayed, everyone's eyes were full of incredible looks, the shoulder-length cotton armor common in the army, there was no defense in front of the fire, but this rather strange looking armor was able to protect the body so well.

"King Chuang, how is this armor?"

Chen Guoxi is still that tepid, harmless smile.

"Lao Chen! Damn! It's a shame that we didn't bet anything else with you, otherwise, we would have to lose so much that we don't even have my mother-in-law's pants! ”

Hao Shaoqi shouted on the side, causing everyone to laugh.

A thousand pairs of coconut shell armor have become the standard equipment of ordinary soldiers in the old camp. According to Chen Guoxi's words, this armor is no worse than the rattan armor worn by the rattan armor soldiers that Zhuge Liang encountered, and it is not afraid of fire.

Now the soldiers who are practicing on the relatively wide temporary school field outside the temple are equipped with all kinds of equipment exchanged from Chen Guoxi according to their respective grades.

Shuangxi and Zhang Nai, the two adopted sons of Li Zicheng, are both wearing iron armor, holding a mourning gun, and hanging a desperate knife made of stainless steel from their waists. On his back he carried a copper-tired iron arm bow, and the quiver was full of three-edged arrows made of steel. Such equipment was absolutely unthinkable before.

And the two little brothers, Luo Hu and Wang Si, were very greedy and kept peeking at the beautiful and solid iron armor on the two big brothers, and then looked at the leather armor on their bodies, and couldn't help but feel a little depressed. Although the armor is different, the weapons of the four child soldier leaders are the same, each with spears and knives, and hard bows and arrows.

And those leaders at all levels who are training are also dressed in the same way. Even the ordinary soldiers in coconut shell armor were also in high spirits, and the gloomy atmosphere that had filled the camp a few days ago was swept away.

Looking at the new mental outlook of the entire unit, and the equipment changed from head to toe, Hao Shaoqi, Tian Jianxiu, Yuan Zongdi, Liu Fangliang and others could naturally stand next to the school field and grin and watch the battalion drill. However, in the Guandi Temple on the mountain, Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin, Gao Yigong and other family members were a little worried.

"Fifteen hundred mourning spearheads, one thousand desperate knives, one thousand pairs of coconut shell armor, twenty pairs of steel armor, one hundred pairs of iron armor, four hundred bows, sixty barrels of gunpowder, one thousand seven hundred porcelain jars, two thousand horses of cotton cloth of various colors, fifteen stone experience, and three thousand life-saving kits. There were also one hundred and fifty mules and horses. ”

The secretary of the old battalion reported a series of numbers of weapons in front of Li Zicheng, Gao Guiying, Liu Zongmin, Gao Yigong, Wu Ruyi, and Chen Guoxi, the owner of the goods.

"King Chuang, what's wrong with these numbers?"

Chen Guoxi is still smiling, just like Maitreya Buddha.

Li Zicheng had to cry out bitterly in his heart! Originally, when I bought these things, I still vigorously warned myself and my subordinates, but now I am in a difficult situation in the camp, and I don't have much money, so don't be greedy, but there are still so many things in the left and right provinces. These numbers? Alas!

A mourning gun costs fifteen taels of silver, a pair of iron armor and an iron helmet costs one hundred taels, a pair of steel armor costs one hundred and fifty taels, a barrel of gunpowder three taels of silver, a sword of despair costs twenty taels, a hard bow with thirty arrows costs thirty taels, a pair of skin armor costs fifty taels and a coconut shell armor costs forty taels. These add up to an astronomical amount that makes Li Zicheng a headache, not to mention those meat porcelain jars, life-saving bags, oil, salt, cloth and other things, as well as the one hundred and fifty mules and horses that carry the baggage.

"King Chuang. We can't get so much cash out of our camp. "Wu Ruyi as the Chinese army. Naturally, I know the family situation of the camp now.

After saying this, Wu Ruyi's right hand had already consciously or unconsciously pressed on the handle of the Jedi knife on his waist, he peeked over, and several of the surrounding soldiers also put their hands on the hilt. Just waiting for Li Zicheng's expression. An action.

And Chen Guoxi's face is still full of smiles like Maitreya Buddha. However, one hand took the arquebus of the guard next to him at some point, and seemed to be about to explain the benefits of this arquebus to the soldiers next to him.

"King Chuang. I still have a few thousand taels of silver there, and some jewelry, take them out together, and hand them over to Chen Da's shopkeeper! However, Hao Shaoqi's words immediately eased the atmosphere.

It's the same as other peasant barracks. The generals who broke into the camp also had their own small family backgrounds and small teams, and so did their soldiers and property. Only when he was in Shangluo Mountain, the camp reluctantly managed and dispatched the personal soldiers of the generals in a unified manner, but the property could not be uniformly deployed.

"Brother Flag Wave is right! I also have some silver jewels there, and I will take them out too! This account must be settled anyway! Although Liu Zongmin has always been a little dissatisfied with Hao Shaoqi, he greatly appreciates the move of waving the flag.

Li Zicheng was very pleased that his generals were so knowledgeable about the overall situation. It's not that he didn't think about turning his face and denying it, and did Chen Guoxi and others here, and he was black. But the benefits outweigh the costs. First, if you are hard-hitting, you may not be able to bargain, Chen Guoxi's caravan, always one-third of the people deal with him, and the rest are "resting" in the temporary camp. Moreover, on the pretext of facilitating the drainage of floodwater, a trench was dug around their camp that was not too deep, but absolutely wide. Zicheng doesn't plan to fill all his capital into this ditch. Second, once the incident is not secret, someone escapes, and the rumors go out and ruin their reputation, which businessman will dare to have dealings with him in the future?

"Xiao Wu, you and your wife will take out the jewelry, jade, jewelry, calligraphy and paintings I collected, and hand them over to the shopkeeper Chen for inspection." After explaining to Wu Ruyi and his wife Gao Guiying, Li Zicheng looked at Chen Guoxi with a pleasant face and even a little smile: "Shopkeeper Chen, I don't have enough silver in my camp, I don't know if the shopkeeper Chen Da accepts jewelry, jade, jewelry, calligraphy and paintings?" ”

"Humph! Humph! Chen Guoxi replied to Li Zicheng in the official dialect with a Fujian accent: "King Chuang, in fact, you don't have to give me silver, King Chuang is at the moment of luck and luck, and it is better to keep the silver at hand." ”

"As for the payment, the trumpet can accept King Chuang's jewelry, jewelry, antiques, jade, calligraphy and paintings, and even rare books!"

As soon as these words came out of Chen Guoxi's mouth, he immediately repented of the internal organs of Liu Zongmin, Hao Shaoqi and other generals who broke into the camp. In recent years, when the north and the south turned to war, they only cared about collecting hard currencies such as gold and silver, as well as some valuable jewelry, and often did not look at the antiques, jade, calligraphy, paintings, books and other things that Chen Guoxi said, or even discarded and destroyed them casually, and even used books to warm the fire.

Liu Zongmin remembered those past actions between the Jianghuai River and the Han, and unconsciously slapped his calloused hands on his thighs, and squeezed out a sentence from his mouth: "Donkey balls, you have to tell the boys of each battalion, you can't mess with things in the future!" ”

If he had known that those things he didn't know could be exchanged, Li Zicheng would not tolerate his subordinates using those books, calligraphy and paintings as firewood.

But it's too late to regret it now, so I can only wait until Izuyama gets better in the future, and then restrain my subordinates.

"King Chuang, madam, Liu Ye, Hao Ye, in fact, you are in the treasure mountain, but why are you blind?" Chen Guoxi once again pointed out a bright road for Li Zicheng's subordinate generals.

Although Wushan, Zhuxi, and Fangxian are high and densely forested, and the grain production is small, everyone will suddenly understand when they mention another geographical name of the mountains in this area.

Shennongjia.

In addition to the legend of savages that have been there for thousands of years, the high mountains and dense forests here produce a variety of precious medicinal materials. There is a bead on the top of the head, a bowl of water by the river, a pen of King Wen, a flower with seven leaves, nine deaths and yang grass, gastrodia, codonopsis, angelica and so on.

In addition to these medicinal materials, there are also a large number of animal resources, not to mention birds, there are dozens of kinds of animals. What golden snub-nosed monkeys, South China tigers, and golden leopards are readily available. These are all good skins in the eyes of everyone.

Hearing Chen Guoxi say this, everyone seemed to be enlightened, wow! Send the brothers out to hunt, first, to familiarize themselves with the weapons in their hands, to train the soldiers, and secondly, to get meat and skins. If you're lucky, you'll be able to hunt leopards and tigers, and even tiger bones with leopard bones are excellent medicinal herbs!

Chen Guoxi's words are undoubtedly a shot in the arm for the soldiers who are now reciting words.

In the days that followed, several generals under Li Zicheng took turns to lead their teams to attack and loot the commercial houses that had purchased the local medicinal materials of the mountain people in several nearby towns and villages.

The proceeds of the seizure were used to pay for the goods to Chan Kwok-hei. (To be continued......)