Chapter 71 Twilight in Sihe Mountain Col
The recent snowfalls in Xueling County are not heavy, but the snow in the mountains melts very slowly. When several snows are added together, the mountains have turned white. .
The trees, rocks, and wasteland seem to have turned into a unified dark tone against the contrast of the snow.
Mottled black and white, orderly in chaos, clear-cut yet hazy in beauty, the huge mountains are like an ink painting.
At dusk, Jin Liancheng led the way, and Su Hanshan and others followed them to a mountain col. When they looked up and looked into the distance, what they saw was such a beautiful scenery of mountains and rivers.
However, the Black Seven Thieves' stronghold was not set up in the distant mountains, but was set up in this mountain col.
The so-called mountain col is an area with gentle terrain between the roots of mountains.
The mountain col where they are currently is is a thousand acres in size, and there is a small river flowing from the mountain next to it, and the river has frozen.
There are hundreds of low houses scattered on both sides of the river bank. There are many stones half on the bank and half in the water. There are some flat wooden sticks scattered on the stones. It is obviously the summer time for the villagers. Will wash clothes here.
At first glance, Su Hanshan felt that this place did not look like a village occupied by big bandits. It was just an ordinary mountain village.
Walking into the village, old trees with copper bells, cowsheds and sheep pens are everywhere with traces of the villagers' life. The paths are winding among them. There are no gravels deliberately paved or the land is compacted, but they have been trampled and trampled by people all year round. path out.
But after taking a closer look, he discovered something was wrong.
Although these houses are very old, many of the doors and windows are made of newly replaced wooden boards, which are smoothed and nailed tightly.
There are some tattered wooden doors, curtains, and long stools discarded under the corner. Many wooden boards have traces not of wear, but of being broken by knives and axes, and stained with stains. color.
And the people living in these houses are extremely alert. Even in some houses, thunderous snoring can be heard from a distance. As long as the sound of their group of people moving closer comes closer, the snoring will disappear immediately.
There were many people peeking between the cracks in the door panels, and seeing Jin Liancheng leading the way, they were not all reassured and went back to sleep.
In addition, the further you go deeper into the village, the more majestic, tall and newer the houses you see.
The wall is made of rocks mixed with paste in the mountains. The wall is one foot thick. Every three steps, there is a thick tree trunk standing among the rocks, acting as a pillar to support the roof.
But the roof of such a grand house is not covered with tiles, but with a large number of thick animal skins and tent cloth. There are large stones on the ridge, and there are large and small stones in all directions. , tied at the corners of the cloth and animal hide to prevent it from being blown up by the wind.
“Why did you find a village in a mountain col as a place to live?”
Su Hanshan deliberately talked to Jin Liancheng, "Wouldn't it be more secluded and trouble-free to live in some caves in the mountains? If you don't think it's impressive enough, you can find a dense forest and hide in the dense forest. It can also block the wind. You only need to build some wooden houses and wooden buildings. That’s enough.”
Gold. Liancheng twirled the cigarette stick in his hand: "If you live in the mountains, if someone wants to attack, you can go up from the foot of the mountain and circle around the top of the mountain. When the time comes, the people in the caves and villages want to evacuate or run away. But it’s difficult.”
“After all, we are not local. It is impossible for people to be so familiar with the mountainous terrain. ”
“And living in this mountain valley, although it is not connected in all directions, you still have a wide view and many roads. If someone comes, it will be easy to detect. Come, when the time comes to disperse and evacuate, the government will never Such a large number of troops can surround such a large area and set up ambushes among the mountains."
Su Hanshan smiled and said, "Let me put it bluntly, you seem to have done a good job. Are you ready to flee?”
"Xueling County is not Shanyang County. If you want to settle down and live here, it will never work if you just rely on old eyesight. You must have more escape routes."
Jin Liancheng did not feel dissatisfied. Instead, he felt a sense of complacency. He pointed to the mountains in the distance on three sides with his cigarette pole and said, "Escape is escape, but it is not a retreat. We have hidden food, oil, salt, and cloth in many hidden places in the mountains." Torches, pots, swords, each brother only knows one location. After they escape, they each find their own place to hide. After a while, they can naturally contact each other and reunite."
In this way, even if the government If you really call on the experts, mobilize manpower, climb mountains and wading rivers, find this place to attack, I'm afraid you won't get any results, or even miss it time and time again, wasting energy and materials.
Su Hanshan felt even more afraid of these bandits and said: "It turns out that there are so many things to pay attention to when choosing a mountain village as a place to stay. I have learned a lesson."
"Choose this village. It’s not easy either.” Jin Liancheng sighed. He said, "First of all, among all the surrounding mountain villages, we need to find the most remote place that is least likely to be taken care of by the government. The scale should not be too small. It should be convenient for us to transform and eliminate the possibility of these villagers going out to spread the news."
“There were more than 200 households of villagers here. When we first came, we killed a lot of them. We thought that killing chickens to scare monkeys was enough to make them obedient. Under our command, they dug earth and moved rocks, built new houses, and modified them. Village, I didn’t expect that there are many tough people among this group of mountain people, always trying to escape at night.”
"We killed one group after another, and in the end there were thirty or forty households left. Although they seemed to be quite obedient and helped with some hard work, after the work was done, they did not dare to stay any longer, and they were still all Deal with it.”
Su Hanshan felt murderous in his heart, but his face became tense and expressionless.
At this time, the performance of Li Erhu and his group was more natural and showed no flaws.
Although they were a little shocked by the cruelty of these people, they had seen too many human tragedies on their way to escape. Just hearing such news was not enough to make them emotional.
Su Hanshan glanced at their reactions and his heart moved slightly, but he learned the details of their manners from them.
Jin Liancheng was still there sighing: "If this were in our hometown, with the name of our Seven Black Thieves, we would at least be able to pick out dozens of young men from here and take them into the village, and the others would also They will be more obedient.”
“So, we have changed places, so we can’t rely on old ideas.”
At this time, everyone was approaching the deepest part of the village.
An eight-foot tall man with messy hair hanging over his shoulders and slightly white temples walked out of the tallest stone-walled house, walked through the courtyard, and pushed open the thick wooden fence that was nearly two feet high and was like a city gate.
“Lao San, you are back.”
Listening to his name and his appearance, this person should be the second in charge of the Black Seven Thieves, Chen Zuen.
Jin Liancheng handed over to Su Hanshan, left their side, walked over a dozen steps, and whispered: "I have been out for a while, has anyone come?"
"Again A group of people came, one-eyed Toutuo's men, only a dozen of them in total. Old One-eyed had lost his life more than half a year ago, and the village of two hundred men was completely destroyed. The remaining dozen were useless. ”
Chen Zuen was a little dissatisfied, "We people on Shanyang Green Forest Road have really declined too much in the past three years."
"Back then, our family alone was able to recruit candidates, and there was still plenty. Now I have called on more than a dozen groups of people to come over, but they can't even get six to be useful. "
"I think there won't be anyone available in the future. Let He Yanmang take over for the missing one."
Jin Liancheng immediately came. Said: "No."
"Tsk!"
Chen Zuen frowned, "I know you have some grudges with the old man in Hejiazhai. Isn't that old man gone? We still focus on the overall situation."
Jin Liancheng said quickly: "I only care about the overall situation, He Yanmang There is something powerful about this kid, but after all, in terms of internal strength alone, he has not yet reached the level of Qi Hai. If you really ask him to set up a formation, I am afraid that he will not be able to do it. Adding flaws to the formation."
Chen Zunen said, "You found Tan Ying and the others. Didn't the flag envoy say that their village was empty before? Since you found them, why didn't you bring them? ”
Chen Zuen also met Tan Ying many times. He looked over at Su Hanshan, but he didn’t see Tan Ying there.
“Their village was either empty or overturned. The boy who was sent out before probably didn’t notice the newly buried corpse next to the village because of the snow.”
Jin Liancheng gently turned his cigarette stick and said, "The one carrying the sword is the new head of Kuangshi Village, Tie Jiangliu. His kung fu should be slightly better than Tan Ying's. I think he is much more suitable than He Yanmang."
(End of this chapter)