Winter turned to spring, and at the top of the mountain, the tallest and largest ancient pine, first showed a little green sharp horn, and the sharp pine needles were covered by the snow for a whole winter, and at last leaned out, swaying happily in the wind, and a drop of crystal dew fell on the snow between the branches with its shaking, and rolled downward, and finally slipped out of the edge, and smashed on the ground with a dingdong.

As if to wake up the creatures on the top of the mountain, deep in the snow, several unknown insects crawled out of the loose snow cave, facing the rising sun, all the way to the top of the tree.

More of them appeared, and they gathered into thin water rolls, slowly melting into grooves on the snow covered by the trees, and the melted snow dripped down these small ditches like rain.

In the sky, the sun was shining, but it was raining all over the mountain.

A trickle of water pooled and flowed from the heights into the valleys, eventually converging into a rolling flood that rumbled and flowed downwards.

The mountains are getting greener day by day.

The snow melted, revealing the ground that had been dormant for the winter, and seemingly overnight, the ground was covered with a plush green carpet, and as far as the sun could see, tiny shoots poked out tenaciously from the ground, swaying in the wind with a weak but powerful figure.

Taiping City is also lively. Everyone was divided into three parts.

Part of it is military. Since last winter, they have completely detached themselves from the affairs of pioneering, and there is only one thing every day, and that is to train the troops. The second part is the weaker young people, the old people, and the women, who have been separated in this spring to prepare for spring sowing, while the third part, still doing the work of the previous winter, is constantly cutting down trees, opening mountains, building walls, and building houses.

A few miles down the Taiping City, there is Donglai Village. This is a flat land between the two mountains, and the people of Donglai County, led by Sun Deliang, began to build their own houses here last winter, and when the ice and snow melted and everything recovered, their village had begun to take shape.

Hundreds of people gathered on a wasteland, here, the original trees have been cut down, only some low bushes and weeds remained, Sun Deliang held the torch in his hand, looking at the large wasteland in front of him, his eyes flashed with excitement, from the escape to the present, they finally have their own land again.

"Open the wasteland!" He raised his torch high and waved it at the crowd, and to the cheers of the crowd, he lowered the torch and set fire to the withered yellow weeds around him.

The fire was blazing, the smoke was thick and the sky was obscured, and black ashes were flying all over the sky, but hundreds of people ignored the scorching flames and followed the burning fire all the way, cheering and jumping.

The fire finally stopped between the pre-set barriers, after the fire, the ground was exposed to the fertile black soil, the sharp plough probed into the soil with temperature after the burning, the men put the lasso on their shoulders, the old people held the plowshare, with a shout, the plow slowly advanced, the black earth wavy sides rolled out, countless years of unseen underground soil, finally saw the sun in the sky for the first time.

Sun Deliang stood on a high place, looking at the soil waves drawn by countless ploughshares, and looking at the rumbling stream in the ravine not far away, his heart was full of satisfaction. Last year's gamble, he finally won.

He had planned that riot, and hundreds of people had been punished for him, and although he was hidden behind the scenes, he felt that the young general's sharp eyes seemed to see him clearly, and he was in front of him as if he were undressed. That kind of look can make people lose their last line of defense.

But the other party did not treat him well, but gave them these people who have families and rooms to settle in, he took the money back to Shayang County, after thinking about it, he still decided to take these old and weak all the way to Taiping City, at that time, the refugees outside Shayang County, the number of displaced people became more and more, and it became a more difficult thing to live there.

Now it seems that the lonely throw at that time was a good move.

Here, there are mountains, water, land, and their own houses.

Not far away, the houses with wooden and stone structures, the same pattern as the houses in Taiping City, were designed by a man named Skillful Hands in that army, sturdy and durable, although it still looks a little rough now, but no matter what kind of house, as long as a person lives in it, it will give him life, and they will become better and better day by day.

The streams in the mountains, which do not stop flowing even in the dry season, ensure the most basic needs, and with land and water, they can make the land bear fruit.

The women are sowing seeds on the land they have cultivated, which is their hope, because from this autumn onwards, they will not only start to be self-sufficient, but also have to pay a certain amount of taxes to the city.

Such a village, around the Taiping City, there are at least a dozen of them, the number of people is more or less, the big one is like Donglai Village, gathering hundreds of people, and the small one is also dozens of people, all of them are villagers from the same place, and after here, they gather together. As for those who were lonely and scattered, they all stayed in the Taiping City, where a lot of labor was needed, and they did not worry about having no food.

Taiping City began to recruit soldiers last winter, but under the instruction of Sun Deliang, no one from Donglai signed up, good men are not soldiers, this is Sun Deliang has always adhered to the creed, as long as there is land, you can live, and as a soldier, you may die outside at any time. And what made Sun Deliang even more grateful to Qin Feng was that although he came to the village to be many young and strong, and there were even more people who were physically strong, no one came to force them to join the army.

Taiping City is a kind of voluntary enlistment system, those who intend to join the army to sign up by themselves, but the conditions for their admission are extremely harsh, ten people, at most only one or two people are admitted, such a high elimination rate makes Sun Deliang very shocked, he has seen the imperial court recruitment, that is not a recruitment, that is to draw a strong man, three to draw two, two to draw one, whether you want to or not, a rope is put on the sleeve and left, since then there is no news, at least in Sun Deliang's memory, those who were pulled away, None of them will be able to come back with the glory of their ancestors.

As long as they are sucked away, the family is basically dead. Therefore, at that time, the recruitment of soldiers once in the third year of the imperial court was a nightmare for every family, and at this time, many families were blackmailed by some officials to almost bankrupt in order to avoid the draw.

Sun Deliang didn't think that there would be a battle in Taiping City, he had walked back and forth three times on this road, and wanted to reach Taiping City, those lofty mountains and mountains along the way were natural barriers, and he also saw that at which dangerous passes, Taiping City has set up sentry posts, and any wind and grass will let Taiping City get the news.

This is probably the reason why General Qin did not recruit troops on a large scale, Taiping City did not need too many soldiers to ensure their safety. Raising soldiers is a costly affair.

"General Qin, raising such an army, the cost is too great?" Ge Qingsheng frowned, thinking about the large and small expenses and the wealth he has in Taiping City now, and there is always a gap in his heart.

As the county commander of Qianfeng County, after being abandoned by Old Lady Liu and staying alone in Feng County for half a year, on Chinese New Year's Eve, after Wang Hou personally came to the door for a deep talk, Ge Qingsheng gritted his teeth, rolled up the cover roll, and entrusted his family to Wang Hou, and then went to Taiping City with a gritted tooth.

He was warmly welcomed by Qin Feng and immediately assumed the position of the city lord of Taiping City. Qin Feng's command has no shortage of generals who charge into battle, but there is a lack of such pro-people officials who can coordinate the overall situation.

Ge Qingsheng also never expected that in this deep mountain, so many people had gathered, and when he entered the mountain, the population that fled into the mountain one after another had swelled the number of people in Taiping City to nearly 30,000, which was almost the scale of an inferior county, even Feng County, counting the county seat and some surrounding villages and towns, there were only so many people. Feeding so many people is no easy task.

The current Taiping City is still a bottomless pit with only expenditures and no income, and 30,000 people have to consume food every day, even if Ge Qingsheng just thinks about it, he has a creepy feeling.

"General Qin, now we only have so much inventory in Taiping City, if there is no other income, our grain storage will not be able to support the harvest after the autumn, but even if there is a harvest after the autumn, the income will not be able to feed so many people. At this time, you have to spend so much money for the army, it is really a bit of a cart before the horse, and the money you handed me is indeed a lot of money, but I think this money should still be used to buy food, so that we can at least get through this year. The affairs of the army, let's hold off! ”

"Nope." Qin Feng shook his head firmly, "Anything else can be slowed down, the affairs of the army must not be slowed down." Without an army, we have nothing, and Lord Katzu, or it won't be long before we will go out of the mountains to fight, without good equipment, how can we win this war, if we don't win this war, we will lose everything. ”

"Moro won't necessarily come." Ge Qingsheng said: "Even if he comes, he may not come to Feng County, Shayang County will be a more attractive target for him." ”

"Even if he doesn't come to Feng County, I will go to him, I will not allow him to occupy Shayang County, I need a stable Shayang County, and I need a stable ally like Old Lady Liu." Qin Feng Dao. "Ge County Order, you are experienced, and I don't want to interfere with your civil governance of Taiping City, but in this matter, there is no need to discuss."

"Okay, I'll think about it again, and then plan and see where I can save some." Ge Qingsheng frowned. (To be continued.) )