The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

Chapter 69 Say hello and seize the iron ore

Majiazhuang is dominated by the Ma family, and other families with surnames are also related to the Ma family. Today, there are more than 100 households with a population of five to six hundred people.

Zhuangzi was built on a slope, with a large weir and pond next to it. To the northeast of Zhuangzi was a large field reclaimed from the valley.

There used to be a lot of paddy fields, but in the past two years they have all been converted into dry land. Most of them are planted with millet and a few with wheat.

Although the world was not good, Ma Wenlong, as the leader of the Ma clan and the largest landowner in Majiazhuang, had a pretty good life.

But a few days ago, he heard that several bandit villages in the mountains had been attacked by officers and soldiers, which made him a little uneasy - as the saying goes, "bandits are like combs, soldiers are like grates." He would rather deal with bandits than officers and soldiers.

After breakfast, he visited the village and Ma Wenlong taught his three sons swordsmanship in the martial arts training ground of his mansion.

The Ma family's ability to continue to grow in this mountain depends on their ability to fight.Now that we are seeing troubled times again, rich people like them naturally pay more attention to force.

While they were practicing, Ma Wenshan, the captain of the young men, hurried over under the leadership of the housekeeper.

"Clan leader, a group of officers and soldiers are coming outside Zhuangzi!"

"The officers and soldiers are really here?" Ma Wenlong walked down to the martial arts training ground with a knife in hand, frowning and asked: "How many people are here?"

"Quite a few, it looks like there are two to three hundred!"

"Two or three hundred?" Ma Wenlong was not scared by this number.

Although their Majiazhuang only trained more than 100 young men, if they really wanted to fight, they could still produce two to three hundred young men.

Moreover, some local officers and soldiers are sparse in combat effectiveness and may not have strong men who can fight.

"I'll go meet them!"

Ma Wenlong came to the upstairs of the village gate and looked at the ranks of the officers and soldiers, and his heart suddenly sank.

I saw these officers and soldiers with complete armor and neat ranks. Standing there in the hot weather, they didn't even move!

The most important thing is that there are ten sword players wearing iron armor and ten fire gun soldiers inside.

This made Ma Wenlong lose all his previous confidence and felt frightened.

He did not dare to go out of the village gate, so he stood on the gate of the village and shouted: "I am Ma Wenlong, the village elder of Majiazhuang and the head of the Ma clan. May I ask what the general is doing here?"

Liu Sheng, wearing a Ming army flying saucer hat inlaid with iron plates, stood more than a hundred steps away from the village gate with Ma Gui, who was wearing a bamboo hat.

Hearing this, Ma Gui took a few steps forward, took off his bamboo hat, and said loudly: "Master Ma, I am Ma Gui, and these are the guards trained by hundreds of households in my family."

Ma Wenlong was obviously relieved when he saw Ma Gui.

His Ma family came from Dashui Pingzhai. Although his relationship with Ma Baihu was far away, he knew Ma Jinliang and Ma Gui and occasionally walked around.

Then he looked at the more than [-] officers and soldiers outside the village with complicated expressions.

In his impression, Ma Jinliang was just a loser who relied on the shadow of his ancestors to get by. Unexpectedly, he quietly trained hundreds of decent guardsmen.

Is it possible that Ma Jinliang also saw that troubled times were coming, so he became ambitious and changed his temper?

Thinking of this, Ma Wenlong asked again: "I wonder what Butler Ma does by bringing these officers and soldiers here?"

Ma Gui followed the instructions taught by Liu Sheng Road and said, "My family is cooperating with an iron ore mine owner in Tongshan to build an iron yard. In the future, we will transport iron materials from Tongshan back to Dashui Pingzhai via this road.

So they sent troops to clear out the bandits on this road and also greeted each village.

In the future, our escort team may rest outside each village when passing by. Then you can help keep an eye on it and provide some drinking water and meals. "

After hearing these words, Ma Wenlong's eyes jumped.

I thought to myself, not only did Ma Jinliang train hundreds of elite soldiers, but he also wanted to make iron materials. Is he trying to build more armor?

This guy really has ambitions.

For a moment, Ma Wenlong was envious of Ma Jinliang's family background.Unlike him, creating a strong team of more than 100 people in Majiazhuang is already the limit.

Apart from being envious, Ma Wenlong was also a little worried, worried that the guardsmen would forcefully break into Majiazhuang and search for money and food.

So, when he came back to his senses, he immediately responded: "This is easy to talk about. Ma Baihu and I are of the same race, so this little favor will definitely help."

Ma Gui immediately said: "With Master Ma's words, it will be easier for me to explain. However, there is an ugly saying in my family that I must bring to you - if any family is greedy and dares to touch the escort team, we will never I will give up and give up!" 'A dog relies on human power! '

Hearing the threat, Ma Wenlong cursed secretly, but smiled along with it and said, "Don't worry, Butler Ma. With all my courage, I don't dare to touch Master Baihu's goods."

"Then please Master Ma, please remember what you said today."

After leaving another line given by Liu Sheng, Ma Gui turned around and left with Liu Sheng back in the team...
Next, Ma Gui "greeted" the remaining four villages in the same way, and even with the same lines.

Because I wasted time saying hello, it took more than two hours to eat and rest at noon, so I didn't finish walking through this long and narrow valley before the sun set.

Rest for one night in an abandoned mountain village and continue on the road the next day.

After passing a village called Maojiapeng, we walked another seven or eight miles of mountain road, and finally arrived near the iron mine.

Speaking of which, thanks to the fact that this iron mine is located to the west of Tongshan, if it were in other directions, Liu Sheng and others would have to travel more than ten miles.

Liu Sheng asked Yang Heqing and Wen You to lead the standing army to rest, while he took Yishi, a pro-army light infantry trained as mountain scouts, to explore the surrounding conditions of the iron mine...

Helianyue carried a basket of iron ore out of the mine and dumped it on a pile of ore for another wave of people to pick.

It was a hot day, so he just wiped his sweat and took a breath. The supervisor of the Pan family next to him came over with a whip and cursed: "You are grinding and chirping, why don't you hurry up and get in the hole!"

He Lianyue was so angry that he glared at him. The supervisor took a step back in fear, and then hit him hard with the whip.

"Dare you glare at me? You haven't received enough beatings, have you?"

This time Helianyue grabbed the whip and pulled it hard, knocking the supervisor down.

But before he could make his next move, more than a dozen supervisors immediately surrounded him with knives.

The leader of the Pan family steward yelled: "What are you doing? You want to rebel, right? Be careful that I tie you to a tree at night and feed the mosquitoes!"

After saying that, the steward came over and punched and kicked Helianyue.

He Lianyue wanted to fight back again, but when he looked at the blades in these people's hands and forced himself to calm down, he felt regretful in his heart.

His family was originally well off, but it was only because of persecution by the officials that he broke up his family. After a severe drought hit his hometown, he fled south with the hungry people.

When he arrived in Biyang, he encountered the Pan family recruiting absentees from hungry people at a high price. He could not resist the temptation of food and money, so he signed an employment contract and came over.

Unexpectedly, what he entered was a black mine. When he arrived, he was restricted to the mining area and forced to work. He was not given a cent of the promised money, and the food was poor. If he disobeyed, he would be whipped and scolded.

The most horrific punishment was to tie a person to a tree in the forest and feed them to mosquitoes. After one night, he would lose half his life even if he didn't die.

As the weather gets hotter and hotter, people in the mining areas cannot bear to die every day.

In addition, the mine seemed very dangerous to Helian Yue, and he didn't know when it would collapse.

He felt that the Pan family had no intention of keeping them alive.

Trying his best to protect his head and other vital parts, Helianyue was about to survive the beating silently, but he heard screams and calls for death coming from outside the mining area.

Then someone shouted: "Run quickly, the army is coming to kill you!"

Hearing the Pan family's supervisors looked panicked, some of them wanted to run for their lives.

But the steward shouted loudly: "Don't panic! Our Pan family has connections in the government, and there are many people protecting the mine. Not just any officers and soldiers would dare to come here and run wild!"

You guys, hurry up and drive all the miners outside into the cave to take a look!Others follow me to deal with the officers and soldiers! "

Under the steward's shouts, the supervisors really stabilized themselves.

Then the supervisors were divided into two groups. One group ran out with the supervisors to deal with the officers and soldiers.

There were more than ten people wielding knives and shouting, driving the miners into the cave.

Helianyue realized that this was a good opportunity for him to take revenge and escape.

Seeing the supervisor who had whipped him coming over with a knife, Helianyue took the opportunity to get up, grabbed a handful of gravel and threw it at the supervisor's face, then rushed up and kicked him down, and took away the knife!

Then he cut the overseer's neck with a knife and went to kill the other overseers!

(End of this chapter)