The meeting place of the Guard is in the open space near the residence. Ouyang Xuan and Huang Dagen arrived at the place early the next day. While waiting for the arrival of the personnel, the two had another heart-to-heart conversation. When the guard team was set up and the strongest members of the team were assigned to fight, Huang Dagen had a vague idea of Ouyang Xuan's intentions and knew that this was something like a personal army. If the whole team is like a knife, the guard is the sharpest tip. But during today's conversation, Huang Dagen finally understood Ouyang Xuan's intentions. It turns out that Ouyang Xuan wanted the Guard to serve not only as a personal unit, but as a special operations force, performing the most dangerous tasks such as reconnaissance, sabotage, and raids behind enemy lines. This was also the reason why he asked the Guard to participate in the hunt. In addition to In addition to enhancing actual combat capabilities through hunting, outstanding soldiers must be selected from hunters.
After people arrived one after another, Huang Dagen ordered everyone not to make any noise. Ouyang Xuan looked around and found that except for Huang Dagen's firemen, there were only a few tall and strong hunters in the village. Although there is no shortage of food in the mountains, and the villagers are generally taller than the army soldiers, these hunters are much stronger than Huang Dagen and other soldiers. It seems that there is an abundance of prey in the mountains and there is no shortage of meat. Looking at the scene in front of him, Ouyang Xuan was filled with emotion and confusion: he was sad that there were such strong people in Liuliba but he was afraid of the Wanjiaping bandits. What was puzzling was that Lu Dezhi once told him that there were dozens of hunters in the village. , why only a few people came? While he was wondering, Huang Dagen, who had counted the number of people, reported to him that except for the elderly hunters, 39 people were supposed to come this time, but 8 actually came, because many hunters had already gone into the mountains to hunt at the time of notification, and it would take several days or even longer to arrive. return.
This time the guards said they were discussing business, but rather they were listening to the hunters talk about their hunting experiences. The thrilling hunting stories made everyone listen with gusto. Ouyang Xuan learned from the hunter's story that there are many beasts in the mountains. In addition to large animals such as pheasants, rabbits, wild sheep, deer, bison, and takin, there are also many ferocious beasts such as wild boars, jackals, bears, and tigers. There are black and white bears. When talking about the black and white bear, Ouyang Xuan knew that this thing was a panda, so he told him not to hunt it again as long as it didn't hurt anyone. Of course the hunters didn't know that this cute thing would become a national treasure a thousand years later. Although they were puzzled by Ouyang Xuan's request, they agreed.
Hunting large prey often requires a team of several or even more than ten people, and the hunting process is also extremely dangerous. However, once successful, you will gain a lot. For example, if you hunt a bison, you can harvest hundreds of kilograms of meat. It’s just that this hunter’s life is very hard. He often spends ten and a half days out in the open, sleeping in the open air. One of the hunters named Dong Hu said that he once pursued an injured wild boar with his hunting dog and followed the blood trail for three days. When we reached the high mountain where the wild boar collapsed from exhaustion, we could already faintly see the houses on the plain in the distance. Ouyang Xuan's heart moved when he heard this, so he left Dong Hu behind when everyone left, and asked him about the road conditions when he was chasing the wild boar, but it was so long ago that Dong Hu couldn't remember clearly. Ouyang Xuan did not give up, and told Huang Dagen on the spot to pick two more capable personnel to accompany Dong Hu to find the way, and not to disclose it to the outside world. This is the most important task of the current guard. Ouyang Xuan's idea is that if a secret path can be opened to the outside of the mountain, it will not only bypass the blockade of the Wanjiaping bandits, establish connections with Hengyuan Town, Chongqing Mansion, and even further places, but also buy salt. , medicines and other urgently needed supplies are also of great military significance.
Lu Dezhi also participated in the business meeting of the trade team, which shows the mountain people's desire for external supplies. Ouyang Xuan and the others were able to enter the village because they carried things that the villagers urgently needed. The trading team had the smallest number of members among the teams. Except for Wang Youfu and Benhuo, there were only three people in the village. In this regard, Lu Dezhi explained that since the villagers had no business talent and experience, it was very difficult to select people. If the trade team needed porters and transporters in the future, they could be temporarily transferred. Due to the impassable roads, everyone discussed only future plans, but their enthusiasm remained undiminished. Lu Dezhi suggested that the trade team's property account books should be managed first. Based on his own experience, Zhu Tiaozi suggested stocking up on mountain products in advance, such as precious Chinese herbal medicines and animal skins that are best-selling outside the mountains, as well as wild peak honey and other specialties. As for bulk items such as grain and iron, it would be difficult to transport them without sufficient livestock such as horses and donkeys. Wang Youfu proposed that the trade team members also need to be trained, and at the same time, people need to be armed to protect the safety of the caravan. Ouyang Xuan agreed to everyone's suggestions one by one.
During the discussion, Ouyang Xuan asked someone to go back to his residence to get his backpack. The backpack contained a jacket, an engineer shovel, a headlamp, a climbing rope, and two empty drink bottles. He planned to maximize the value of these items. The engineer shovel and climbing rope were given to the Guards. The headlights were kept with him for thoughts after they ran out of power. The jacket, assault pants and two empty beverage bottles were given to the trade team. , see if I can exchange some money to use as the starting capital of the trade team. Everyone stared intently at the items Ouyang Xuan took out. When they saw that the jackets and pants did not get wet when exposed to water, and the drink bottles were light and transparent and could hold water, they were all surprised by the strange properties of the items. Even the well-informed Zhu He also took the pick and looked at it carefully. After a long while, he raised his head and said to Ouyang Xuan: "Brother Xuan, are these magical weapons really from the far west? As far as I know, although wars are still frequent today, but Overseas trade in the Song Dynasty has never been cut off, and items from the far west were occasionally exported to Chongqing, Jiading, Chongqing and other places. However, I have never heard of such items. If they were sold in Shu, they would be valuable but not marketable. Keep the items and send them to Lin'an for sale when the time is right, and dignitaries will flock to them." After listening to Zhu Tiaozi's words, Ouyang Xuan's heart moved, and he understood that these things of his may not be valuable in the 21st century, but things are rare and valuable, and they may be worth a lot in the late Southern Song Dynasty. What he was sure of was that the emperor and prime minister of Lin'an had never seen these items. He immediately asked Zhu Tiaozi to put away the items and make plans when the time was right.
After determining the development direction of each professional team, Ouyang Xuan's next two days will be to use his knowledge of chemistry to concentrate on manufacturing an item that can change this era - gunpowder.
