Han Ping smiled bitterly: "The three villages combined only have three or four hundred people, how many are strong young men? Go deep into the mountains? What we should be worrying about right now is whether the wild beasts from the mountains will come down and ravage us."
It wasn't as if this hadn't happened before. About ten years ago, there was also a drought. The wild beasts in the mountains ran out of food and charged down into their village.
That time, the number of villagers who were killed, injured, or dragged away to be eaten reached over twenty.
And the most tragic part was that it wasn't just a one-time occurrence. The wild beasts came down twice more after that. Even though they had taken precautions, dozens of people were still killed or injured.
Thinking of the situation back then, the three of them couldn't help but shudder.
Who was whose food was truly hard to say.
Fortunately, it rained later, and they managed to survive that ordeal; otherwise, their entire clan might have been wiped out.
But could they survive it this time?
Han Da looked at the dense forest in the distance, which was beginning to turn yellow and wither in many places: "If it doesn't work out, let's leave the mountain. A tree dies if moved, but a person survives."
Han Yi and Han Ping both looked at him, their tones filled with disbelief: "What did you say? Leave the mountain? There are wars everywhere out there. If we leave, how could we possibly keep our lives?"
"Right, we can't go down the mountain. If worse comes to worst, we'll search deeper into the mountains to see if there are other water sources."
Han Da shook his head, pointing at the distant mountains with a sigh: "Open your eyes and look. If there was water around here, the trees in the mountains wouldn't look like this."
He was met with silence. How could they not know that if it didn't rain soon, they would have no way out?
Even if they survived this year, they didn't even have seeds left. Everything was gone, all planted in the ground, unable to be harvested.
Gefeng City.
Yao Ji watched Jiang Jin and her group galloping on horseback in the distance, a smile appearing on his face: "Quick, open the city gates! The Lord and the others have returned."
Jiang Jin first returned to her quarters to wash off the blood and dirt before heading to the county office.
Yun Ci and the others had already learned the outcome of this campaign from others. He smiled kindly: "Annihilating over five thousand of Qu Zhao's men. I'm afraid Qu Zhao's envoy will be coming again in a few days."
Yao Ji smiled, full of high spirits: "Then I guess his expression will be even uglier this time."
"Haha." Dong Si laughed loudly: "If the envoy really comes, why not let me meet him? I guarantee I'll make him spit blood out of anger."
Xia Chanyi sneered: "The Lord already made him spit blood last time. If you ask me, we should just let Luo A'man handle him. Who knows, she might even cripple him."
Yun Yu couldn't help but laugh: "Then we'd have to let Luo A'man go up and poke the envoy a few times, otherwise the power wouldn't be enough."
Luo A'man's special constitution was very famous in the army. Of course, this was limited to the higher-ups and the members of Luo A'man's own group.
Zhou Sui, listening to the increasingly off-topic conversation, couldn't help but feel a drop of sweat form on his brow: "Alright, after this incident, I'm afraid the Qu Zhao people will completely avoid Gefeng in their future routes."
Yun Ci, on the other hand, quite enjoyed seeing the youth full of vitality. He chuckled and said, "Then we will expand our sphere of activity and head to the neighboring counties."
"Using the Lord's combat strategy: if we can win, we fight; if we can't, we run. We'll use guerrilla warfare."
Everyone looked at Jiang Jin, waiting to hear what she would say.
Jiang Jin smiled and shook her head: "Starting tomorrow, expand the reconnaissance range towards the northeast."
Zhou Sui quickly understood her intention: "Lord, is your next target Chunrong County?"
The others' eyes also lit up, all gazing at her fervently.
Jiang Jin nodded: "Yes, but not just that. This time I plan to take Shanguan County as well."
Everyone was stunned for a moment. It should be known that Gefeng did not have a large population, and they had just over 5,000 soldiers.
Xie Nanxiao couldn't help but ask, "Isn't it too risky to take two cities in a row?"
Jiang Jin traced two imaginary lines on the map: "Here, if we build a watchtower at regular intervals, then these three cities will truly form a triangular encirclement."
Almost a year of infrastructure building in Gefeng was not for nothing. The current construction workers were basically all skilled hands with ample experience and high efficiency.
She had cement and bricks; building watchtowers really wasn't too difficult.
And although there were high mountains and steep ridges between Gefeng and these two counties, there were also many flat areas. By choosing the right route, they only needed to build a watchtower every six or seven miles, or even over ten miles, so long as they were in sight of each other.
They could even build the watchtowers on hillsides, offering a wider field of vision and making them easier to defend.
Calculating it, it would take less than a few dozen watchtowers to connect these three cities. This was much simpler than building city walls, but the effect wouldn't be much weaker.
Equipping each watchtower with two eight-ox crossbows and a few dragon-feather crossbows would make them act like bunkers, and they could also pass messages to one another.
Yun Ci quickly understood: "Brilliant! This way, the watchtowers can not only transmit information to each other but also coordinate to snipe enemies. We can retreat to defend, and coordinate offense and defense."
Most importantly, transmitting information this way would be faster than any express courier. The three cities could essentially be linked into one entity.
Zhou Sui looked at the map and nodded, a look of admiration on his face: "The Lord is wise."
He realized that Jiang Jin did things very securely and with planning. When she could only defend one small city, she only attacked one small city. Now that she could defend three cities, she was attacking three cities.
Jiang Jin tapped the central area between the three cities: "With the protection of the watchtowers, this area will basically be a safe zone."
Yao Ji raised his eyebrows slightly: "Lord, you want to farm in this area?"
Ever since she planted over ten thousand acres of fields outside the city, he had noticed that Jiang Jin, their Lord, loved farming!
Jiang Jin nodded, carrying a rare trace of pride: "If we have three cities, the population will naturally increase, and there will be more people to feed."
"Relying solely on this bit of land in Gefeng City is far from enough. We have good seeds, so naturally we must plant more fields to let more people survive."
"Good." Yun Ci was full of lofty sentiments: "The Lord is truly benevolent!"
Zhou Sui also felt uplifted. This was the princess of their Yan State, wholeheartedly devoted to the people. All the decisions she made were to save more commoners.
Jiang Jin looked around at everyone and continued, "When the time comes, we will also need to build roads so that it's convenient to travel between the three counties."
Speaking of which, they still lacked manpower. Fortunately, after she took those two counties, the population would also increase.
A few days later, Mei Sheng's team finally returned to Gefeng.
"Fortunately, I did not fail the mission." He was very excited, feeling as if his eyes were welling up with tears.
Jiang Jin nodded: "You've worked hard. Take a good rest for the next few days."
After Mei Sheng and Mei Ren both left, Jiang Jin then looked at Chen Xi and Mu Ning: "How was it? Was the journey smooth?"
Chen Xi nodded: "Smooth."
Mu Ning bowed: "Everything went smoothly."
The two then talked about what they had seen and heard on the road, as well as the situation regarding selling slaves.
Jiang Jin nodded. She looked at Mu Ning: "You will temporarily be in charge of these hidden chess pieces we've planted. Remember to report any information to me promptly."
A look of joy appeared on Mu Ning's face: "Yes, I will definitely not fail the mission."
As soon as Mei Sheng returned home, he was called to the study by his father, Mei Qian.
"Tell me the truth, what exactly have you all been doing lately?"
Although the reason Mei Cai gave him was very sufficient, he hadn't lived to such an old age for nothing. He naturally saw that things were different.
Mei Sheng took a sip of water before carefully considering his words: "This time, I was handling affairs for the Lord."
He did not elaborate on exactly what he had done. On this matter, he and Mei Cai shared the same mindset: it was something that could not be spoken of, not even to their closest kin.
Mei Qian felt a twitch in his brow as a faint suspicion arose in his mind. However, he quickly regained his composure and looked at his son with a complex gaze. After a long while, he finally sighed, "Then just do your job well."
Mei Sheng secretly breathed a sigh of relief. It was good that he did not ask any further, as he was terrified his old father would insist on getting to the bottom of things.
A look of shame appeared on his face. "Father, I was reckless this time. I had everyone move to Gefeng without asking for your opinion first."
Mei Qian waved his hand dismissively. "Your choice was the right one. Although I haven't been in Gefeng for very long, this place is indeed different from anywhere else. I am very satisfied with it."
Saying this, he leaned back against his chair and let out a comfortable sigh. "There are many novelties here. Take this chair, for example. It is quite comfortable to sit in. Do you think we could negotiate with Gefeng to take up this business?"
Since the slave trade was forbidden in Gefeng, they naturally had to seek out other means of livelihood. They could not simply sit idly by and drain their resources.
Mei Sheng thought about it for a moment and shook his head. "Gefeng is only so big. The lord is already running this business, so there would be no market left for us."
Mei Qian smiled. "Who said anything about doing it in Gefeng?"
