The scenery of the northern country is magnificent, and the mountains and rivers are slightly less beautiful, but the vast atmosphere is heartbreaking.

Compared with last year, the biggest difference around Fangtou is the creation of order.

As a hub of north-south exchanges, this place has maintained a certain degree of prosperity even in the most chaotic era, but even in the most powerful era of Shizhao, it actually presents a chaotic state of savage growth.

The interweaving of river networks and the dense crossing of Jindu here constitute an extremely complex living environment, and many people rely on this place to survive. Of course, this situation is also a normal state in Hebei Shidao nowadays, but it is the most concentrated and fierce around Fangtou.

There are basically three ways to make a living for people living in this realm. The most secure is undoubtedly farming, weaving, fishing and hunting in the suburbs, and this part of the people themselves is protected by the local township and the strong, and is the most basic productive population. The second is to gather in the large and small Jindu River valleys and work hard to earn a living.

These two kinds of people are just down, and they can live in one place, and the harm is not high. Even if it is invaded by military forces, or even if it is a new ruler, it can be taken over and controlled in the shortest possible time, and it will not cause too much turmoil.

But there is another kind of people that are difficult to control, and that is the bandits that roam the countryside and rivers. These strong beams are brave and wander all over the wilderness, and the main means of making a living is to make money and kill people.

They rely on the characteristics of extending in all directions around Fangtou and being difficult to encircle and suppress, free from the law and unconstrained, and there is no distinction between north and south, black and white, whether it is the previous Qianhu or the current Huainan Wangshi, it is difficult to completely eradicate them.

Their own strength is naturally not as good as that of the regular army, but they are better at having no fixed place, and they can flee and transfer at any time when the situation is not good, or they themselves have a cover on the surface, and they are ploughing and cowardly, half of them are good people, half of them are thieves.

In the past, the country was powerful, and it could only turn a blind eye to such an existence, which was like a weed growing in the suburbs, wildfires could not be burned, and the spring breeze blew and reborn. And these strong beam bandits also have their own way of survival, and they dare not frequently provoke the bottom line, so as to maintain a living space.

After occupying this realm, the Huainan Wangshi was also faced with a choice of whether to encircle and suppress these bandits, and Xie Ai, as the general of this land, finally decided not to encircle and suppress them after some weighing.

If there is no chaos in contrast, the superiority of order cannot be reflected, and the existence of these strong beam bandits can also force the surrounding people who are unable to protect themselves to live more under the protection of the king.

Moreover, to be honest, these bandits themselves do not have a clear position of friend or foe, and if they show a strong attitude from the beginning, it is very likely that they will be forced to the side of the country. This is tantamount to adding a lot of helpers who are familiar with the terrain of the region and are accustomed to committing crimes.

Of course, not encircling and suppressing does not mean that it is completely laissez-faire, and the tricolor order issued by Xie Ai in Yecheng last year is a strategy to deal with this type of personnel, and it has won the hearts of the people in a very short time. And this is also one of the reasons why the Metropolitan Governor finally chose Xie Ai to sit in the front-line important place of Fangtou.

The previous Tricolor Banner Order, because it was created in an extremely chaotic and evil situation, was inevitably poorly structured. For example, the black flag order that can be divided into land and autonomy was generous to others at that time, and there was no intention of guarding the land for a long time anyway.

However, now Fangtou is used as a frontline base for the king's division to attack Hebei, and the existence of this territory must form a complete strategic defense line with Fangtou as the center, and it is impossible to easily grant it to untrustworthy rogues.

Therefore, Xie Ai imposed extremely strict conditions on the granting of the Black Flag Order, and there were two rigid criteria, that is, donating money and food and beheading the head of the cara. In the more than half a year that Xie Ai has been running Fangtou, a total of six black flags have been awarded, either to hand over more than 1,000 heads of Qihu, or to be able to steadily donate money and grain to Wang Shi.

As for the remaining dock walls and bandit dens, they have basically disappeared in the Huainan Army's clean-up and the bandits' captivity, or they have been hidden in remote areas that are inaccessible.

Although the black flag of land autonomy has been restricted, the red flag of killing and plundering has lowered the threshold for collection, and as more and more people receive it, the significance of this red flag has also been greatly reduced, and basically it can only ensure that you can legally own forbidden items such as war horses and weapons.

As for the original Yellow Flag to ensure the safety of transportation, since the Wang Division itself already had a complete logistical supply, the significance has also been reduced, and basically only business travelers who come and go will deliberately spend money to buy one to obtain the protection of the Wang Division along the way.

However, in addition to these three flags, there is also a kind of red and yellow flag, which has the functions of the original red flag and yellow flag, and is legally armed and not subject to encirclement and suppression.

But the greater significance is that as long as you have this kind of banner, you can directly trade with the king of Fangtou, whether it is people, cattle and horses, money and food, or beheading, and even some military information, you can exchange them for goods.

Among these items that can be exchanged, there are even the exquisite ordnance of the Fangtou Wangshi, of course, these ordnance cannot be supplied openly, and the monthly limit can only be bought by bidding.

It is located in the north of Fangtou dozens of miles away, the angle of the water ditch of Qishui tributary is shaped like a crane's beak, so it is called Hekou Stream. A dock wall on the east side of Hekou Creek is one of the few regional forces that has obtained the black flag of Fangtou.

This crane dock, although it is called the dock wall, is not inferior to the ordinary city in terms of scale and various buildings, especially in some military defenses, it is far better than the ordinary city.

For example, the large bed crossbows that are being installed above the doorway at the moment have huge bases, iron-cast winch, three crossbows in a row, and their arms are spread out more than a foot wide, and they look unusually hideous.

And it is true, there is already a newly installed bed crossbow at the head of another gate, and there is a fangtou worker in charge of installation and maintenance to demonstrate to the people in the dock wall how to operate this large murder weapon.

"This thunder crossbow looks heavy, but it is easy to use, if you only shoot with one arm, you can wind it by stepping on the trigger......"

As he spoke, the bare-chested worker stepped on the pedal at the end of the crossbow on the bed, and pressed down the iron wrench handle above with both hands, and then heard the suppressed winch teeth and noose friction sound coming from the iron-wrapped box, and then the crossbow arm at the front slowly bent, and when the crossbow arm was bent to a certain extent, a crisp sound of "bell" was heard in the box, and the entire crossbow arm was fixed.

When everyone on the side of the dock saw this scene, they couldn't help but let out an exclamation, if they hadn't seen it with their own eyes, they wouldn't have believed that a bed crossbow that looked so large and heavy could be wound by just one person.

Hearing this exclamation, several workers around the bed crossbow smiled proudly, and then one pushed the crossbow arrow, which was several inches thick and almost spear-like, into the middle of the taut crossbow string, and the other person swung the wooden hammer and smashed it the bulge of the buckle string, only to hear a sudden muffled sound, the full crossbow arm bounced back in an instant, and the crossbow arrow on the string turned into black light and burst out of the air.

"Wow......"

When the onlookers saw this scene, they couldn't help but exclaim again and again, and hurriedly turned their heads to look in the direction where the crossbow arrows were flying away. The speed of the crossbow arrow was almost impossible to catch with the naked eye, but because of the long range, everyone was still able to catch the track, and the cry from the mouth lengthened, until the crossbow arrow completely submerged into the distant mound of earth and stirred up a cloud of smoke, and the cry stopped abruptly, but then there was an even more enthusiastic cheer.

Taking advantage of the fact that the people in the dock wall rushed out to measure the range, the few workers began to explain the precautions again: "The thunder car crossbow is simple to operate, if you want to two crossbows and three crossbows at the same time, a single person is insufficient, and a winch must be installed under this box, and it is best to pull and lift heavy objects." This is the case for ordinary use, if it is after a vicious battle, it is best to remove the crossbow arm and crossbow string and replace it more.

Take care of the key points on weekdays, still on this box, do not kick and hit, do not disassemble at will, do not get damp and see fire, every day to use ointment from this hole to pour lubrication, remember to use high-quality ointment. The damage to other objects is just that, they can be replaced in Fangcheng, but the damage to the box cannot be repaired, and it can only be repaired if it is returned to the Shouchun Metropolitan Governor's Mansion......"

With such an amazing range of utensils, daily maintenance is naturally extremely important, so everyone on the dock wall is also very attentive, and they keep all kinds of precautions in mind, and they are not bored because of the cumbersomeness. But when I heard that the most important bed crossbow machine was actually not well repaired locally, even if someone questioned it.

You must know that any kind of fierce situation on the battlefield can be encountered, and the most important thing for this kind of killing weapon is that it can be used at a critical moment, if there is any damage, do they have to wait for a few more months to go back and forth to repair?

In the face of everyone's doubts, the workers also answered patiently, and their attitude was kind, and they repeatedly assured that as long as it was not deliberately damaged or operated in violation of regulations, the box was generally difficult to break, and even if it was broken, during the repair process, they could also temporarily rent a replacement in Fangcheng without delaying normal use.

Of course, there is a reason why the attitude is so good, Hewu bought four of these bed crossbows called thunder car crossbows in Fangtou this time, and spent more than 200,000 yuan in grain at a total price! If such a huge sum of money is used to buy ordinary armor equipment, if it does not require too high a high standard, it is even enough to arm a team of 1,000 people!

This is also because the crane dock itself has a deep heritage, gathering thousands of people, and the development is also good, and if you change to other dock walls, even if you win this place, you can't afford to buy it at all.

"Of course, the real use of such a heavy weapon is still deterrent. Now that hundreds of miles from far and near know that Hewu has such a powerful weapon, who dares to come and invade without knowing whether to live or die? Even if the slave general Ma Qiu led the crowd to attack, seeing such a murderous weapon at the head of the city, he would definitely have to avoid the side of the road! ”

In the face of such a high roller, those workers were also told to be kind, so they did not hesitate to praise: "You disciples wandering in the opposition are also precarious, lucky to follow General Xiang such a big-minded, heroic general, peace is just the beginning, the rest of your life is full of joy and enjoyment!" ”