weaving

Chapter 253

The tip of the black wood hawthorn is the remaining vein of Yanshan Mountain, and the highest point is less than two hundred feet. Less than ten miles to the northeast is Magukou Fort, and less than five miles to the west is the river valley.

The west, north and east sides of this Black Muzhajian are steep cliffs, which cannot be climbed. Zhao Shihu's cottage is located in a ditch on the east side of Muzhajian, and only opened at the mouth of the ditch in the south. There is a mountain gate.

In front of the mountain gate is an uphill mountain road. Although it is not too steep, it is not wide either. It is only about [-] steps. There are steep cliffs on both sides. This is the only entrance to Zhao Shihu's cottage.

Zhang Cheng and others turned in from the valley on the west side, rode their horses along the mountain road and gradually came to the mountain gate.

They were dressed in different colors and held various weapons. They looked disorganized. There were only a dozen or so people wearing armor. Zhang Cheng rode his horse and looked at them.

I saw a brawny man wearing armor rushing to report loudly: "Brothers in the village welcome the return of the village master and welcome General Zhang into the village!"

Zhao Shihu was embarrassed, so he could only smile sarcastically, and said, "Please, General Zhang."

Zhang Cheng looked at Zhao Shihu, and said with a smile on his face, "Master Zhao please first."

Zhao Shihu didn't shirk, he rode his horse and walked in front, Zhang Cheng, Chen Zhong and others rode their horses to follow behind, and a group of knights rode their horses and rushed into Muzhajian Village.

…………

Inside the Muzhajian Village is a north-south ditch, and the inside is only wider in the middle, about a few hundred paces wide, but it is several thousand feet long.

After entering the village, there is a small empty field, presumably to defend the place left by the gate of the village, and behind it are rows of houses, these are extremely simple earthen houses.

In the village, a group of people were also scattered on both sides of the mountain gate. Seeing Zhao Shihu galloping towards the gate, they cheered enthusiastically. Zhao Shihu got off his horse and handed the reins to a bandit next to him.

He turned around, cupped his hands and said, "General, let me show you how the situation in the village is."

Zhang Cheng also got off the horse, but he handed over the reins to Lei Zhancheng, the guard team officer who caught up behind him, and Lei Zhancheng also took the reins of Chen Zhong's war horse.

When handing over the reins of the horse, Chen Zhong still whispered to Lei Zhancheng's ear, "Be careful, watch out for our horse."

After speaking, he gave Li Changsheng a wink, and Li Changsheng understood, and softly said to Liu Jinhai next to him: "Brother Jin Hai, help us look at Zhengbiao and others, let's go hang out with the general."

Zhao Shihu accompanied Zhang Cheng, and introduced to him the various buildings in the village. At the widest part of the belly of Dougou, there was a barracks and school ground, where the soldiers in the village usually practiced.

Inside are the houses of the backbone of the village. Although they are still adobe houses, they are obviously much more upright than the adobe houses just entering the mountain gate, and some houses also have courtyards.

Inside is the largest house in the village, there are three yards, this is Zhao Shihu's residence, his wife and children live in the back yard, and the front yard is where his personal guards live.

Only the middle courtyard was where Zhao Shihu met guests, held banquets, and discussed matters, and behind this courtyard with three entrances were the warehouses of various places in the village.

There is a wooden fence between the three courtyards and the warehouses. A team of Zhao Shihu's cronies guards the wooden fence day and night. No one in the village is allowed to approach this wooden fence without Zhao Shihu's token.

What is stored here are the money, food and other materials that the whole village depends on for survival, so one must be cautious. Although Zhao Shihu is the owner of this village, there are not many cronies who can make him feel at ease.

Since he decided to take refuge in Zhang Cheng, he has carried out several cleanings in the village, but he only sent those who were unwilling or those who were too banditry out of the village, and did not kill them all.

It turned out that there were only three people left in the fleeing army who accompanied him. One of them, because he opposed Zhao Shihu's defection to Zhang Cheng, took more than [-] bandits and went to another place. He is worthy of some money and food.

At the gate of the three-entry courtyard, there was a strong man in armor with a beard all over his face, looking very fierce. He saw Zhao Shihu accompanied Zhang Cheng all the way to the gate of the courtyard.

Then he stepped out of the courtyard door, clasped his fists and said, "Master of the village."

Zhao Shihu also said politely: "Da Ning, come, pay a quick visit to General Zhang."

Hearing the words, the strong man walked up to Zhang Cheng, bowed down and said: "Mu Hawthorn becomes Daning and sees the general!"

Zhang Cheng leaned over to support the strong man, and said, "Oh, they are all my brothers, why should you be so polite, get up quickly."

…………

The first entrance of the people into the compound, the entrance is the courtyard, on both sides are rows of wing rooms, in front of the room stands a weapon rack with knives, forks, swords, halberds, axes, hooks and guns on which are placed many kinds of weapons.

"General, it's past noon, rest here today, let's start tomorrow." Zhao Shihu asked tentatively.

"Okay, I'll stay in Muzhajian tonight, and I'll leave tomorrow morning."

Zhang Cheng readily agreed, without any hesitation, Zhao Shihu and Cheng Daning saw it, and felt a burst of joy in their hearts.

This fully reflects Zhang Cheng's trust in them, and also shows that Zhang Cheng sincerely accepts them as part of the series, not using them. Although they are still a little wary, they can understand.

"Ten tigers, those newly recruited brothers in Changjiazhai don't know the rules yet, you arrange to be clever to take care of them there."

Zhao Shihu nodded and said "yes", then turned around and went to instruct the matter in person, Cheng Daning accompanied Zhang Chengwang and walked into the courtyard, still thinking in his heart:

Those people in the Chang family village insist on sitting on a strong village, and their children are all skilled in hunting and bowing. They never put the villages in their eyes, but now they also vote under Zhang Cheng's command?
With this in mind, he couldn't help but look at Zhang Cheng more carefully, with a more respectful expression on his face. He carefully led Zhang Cheng into the Daozhong courtyard. At this time, Zhao Shihu also quickly chased after him.

He directly let Zhang Cheng into the main hall, and asked him to sit on the front seat, Zhang Cheng did not refuse, and directly sat in the upper chair, and everyone else took their seats at the lower ones.

Seeing that Zhang Cheng was sitting firmly, Cheng Daning said, "General, please wait a moment, the food and drink are being prepared."

"Well, there's no rush for food and drink. I won't be leaving tonight anyway. As the saying goes, good food is never afraid of being late." Zhang Cheng said.

Zhao Shihu sat down on the left side, and he said: "General, some of the officers below also want to come up to pay homage to the general. I wonder if the general's intention is correct?"

Zhang Cheng thought for a while, and then said: "Alright, let's ask them to come and meet."

Zhao Shihu ordered Cheng Daning to go down and summon the team officers of each team.

After a while, fifteen strong men in armor rushed out of the hall. Every time five of them entered the hall, they paid homage to Zhang Cheng and expressed their loyalty. Zhang Cheng also comforted them one by one.

(End of this chapter)