While Han Xi was lying down sighing, he saw a group of villagers grabbing the mutton bones and gnawing on them, even breaking the bones with stones and sucking in the bone marrow with a trace of blood inside with relish.
Seeing this, Han Xi shook his head helplessly. He wanted to attack other people's manors and villages with firearms, even if they didn't have enough to eat.
Even if others don't defend themselves, these people would have a hard time climbing up the ten-foot-high wall.
Han Xi changed his position and lay down more comfortably, recalling in his mind that the manor he went to attack belonged to the concubine's family of the magistrate of Ganquan County, and was considered a wealthy family in the local area.
Ganquan County, just south of Yan'an Prefecture, is located on the Luo River, a tributary of the Yellow River.
There are more than 100 households of tenant farmers in the manor, with a population of about 1,000, who help the gentry cultivate 30 hectares of land, which is 3,000 acres of land.
Based on the area of cultivated land, it should be possible to recruit three to four hundred strong laborers.
The reason why Han Xiyuan led his people to attack the village was because he contacted several families who could not survive in the village and planned to cooperate with them inside and outside.
Unexpectedly, the village was defeated by a group of hundreds of officers and soldiers without even seeing it.
Even the old nest, a dilapidated stockade, was burned down.
The saddest thing is that the officers and soldiers who made the sneak attack don't know where they are, and they can't even avenge themselves.
"Leopard King, Leopard King, we found a group of hundreds of refugees coming this way," a young man as thin as a monkey ran towards Han Xi.
This is Han Xi setting up a scouting post nearby.
Han Xi picked his teeth with a small sharpened wooden stick, his expression not very concerned. It was probably that people fleeing the famine there came over after seeing the smoke.
There are not many things in Yan'an now, only refugees, thieves, and polemics.
"Drive them away. As long as they are not colleagues or officers and soldiers, don't worry." Han Xi said casually.
"Yes, Leopard King," the skinny young man turned around, picked up a corn cob whose coat was burnt black, and rushed out again.
Seeing this, Han Xi smiled, thinking that this kid was so active because he wanted to come back to get food. In normal times, he might have fallen in love with homeless people without money, and he would certainly not have come back so actively to report.
Soon, Han Xi was a little worried again. These imperial soldiers could really eat. One meal was five or six corns, and the same was true for horses.
After this meal, there were thousands of kilograms of corn cobs, and only about five hundred kilograms were left.
There were only 500 kilograms of corn cobs left, and together with 19 sheep, it was estimated that it would only be enough for the group of people to eat for two days.
Han Xi folded his hands and counted, he probably consumed 90 imperial coins a day.
Two thousand seven a month, thirty-two thousand four hundred imperial coins a year.
You can get 100,000 empire coins in three days of work.
Han Xi rubbed his chin and thought for a moment, then decided to summon two hundred more people. In this way, he only needed three days of work to ensure a year's expenses.
Suddenly, Han Xi felt like a fool! It seems that he is still a little uncomfortable with this precarious life in the last days of the Ming Dynasty.
"Let's find a place to relax for a while!" Han Xi thought with a sigh.
For someone like Han Xi, this golden finger seems a little worn out.
If he had been self-sufficient, Han Xi would only be able to support an army of 20,000 people after one year of busy work.
Twenty thousand troops?
You can’t even dominate one side, right?
While Han Xi was thinking wildly, the thin monkey young man who had just ran out ran back again, with a trace of corn crumbs still visible at the corner of his mouth.
I saw the skinny monkey young man reporting to Han Xi: "Leopard King, that group of refugees wants to join the gang."
Join? Han Xi was stunned for a moment, and then said to the thin monkey young man: "Ask them if they have a certificate of surrender."
This kind of refugees, who are not threatened by bandits or gangsters, generally need to submit a certificate of recognition to join the gang. If you bring a certificate of surrender, it proves that someone in this group must have made a pole or been a bandit in the past.
They may be people sent by other accomplices, the poles, and the competition for territory among the poles is also very fierce.
"I asked, but no." The thin monkey young man replied.
No? Those were probably villagers who had just started to flee.
"Do they have any belongings?" Han Xi suddenly thought that it was a problem that he had nothing to carry food. If these people had carts, sacks, etc., they could be kept as logistics.
"There are about a hundred cloth bags." The thin monkey young man quickly replied.
Hearing the hundreds of cloth bags, Han Xi felt that he could barely keep them, so he said, "Bring them over!"
"Yes, Leopard King." As he said this, the thin monkey young man went to the fire and took out a corn cob, and then ran down the slope.
After a while, more than a hundred people were brought over.
Han Xi looked at the clothing of the hundreds of people who were brought here. The men wore white round hats, and the women wore scarves wrapped around their heads, ears, and necks.
This is a group of Hui people.
When Han Xi saw these Hui people, he immediately understood. He had heard that when he was a child, there was a group of Hui people fighting with the Ming army in the Ziwu Ridge and Huanglong Mountain areas. These people were similar to Sichuan chieftains.
When Han Xi was originally a child, it was during the Wanli period.
After looking at the hundreds of people, there were twenty old and young, sixteen women, and eighty men.
He didn't have much belongings, just a few long white cloth bags.
All of them are as skinny as a stick.
"Hassan, do you know these people?" Han Xi asked.
Hassan is also a Hui nationality. He was left in the village because his father had some medical skills. Unfortunately, Hassan did not inherit his father's medical skills and instead became a peddler.
The main thing is to collect some supplies in the village and take them to the mountains to sell to the Hui people. However, because of Wang Er's uprising, the main force of which was the Hui people, and with constant military disasters, Hassan the salesman could not continue his work, so he came to join Han Xi.
The current bandits are composed of Hui people. The Mongols relied on the Han people to rebel, and the backbone of them were the border troops.
"I don't know. They said they came from Huan County. Why don't the Leopard King accept these people?" Hassan suggested.
Han Xi glanced at the hundreds of Hui people, thought for a moment, and then said, "Okay! These people are all under your control."
"Yes, Leopard King, I will definitely take a good look at them." Hassan said excitedly.
Han Xi waved his hand and immediately asked these people to hand over the bags they were wearing.
The Hui people thought that Han Xi wanted them to hand over the only belongings they had, and they suddenly became nervous and gathered around unconsciously.
Han Xi didn't say anything about this. He couldn't accept it. He didn't want to do anything he wanted these people to do.
Soon, under Hassan's shout, a group of people reluctantly handed over the bag.
Han Xi randomly picked up a cloth bag, opened it and looked at it.
There are some wheat seeds in it, as well as some medicinal materials and some sundries.
Han Xi asked a group of villagers to sort out the contents, hand in all the medicinal materials, seeds, and long cloth bags, and let them take back the rest.
Then, the remaining 500 kilograms of corn were put into five long cloth bags and carried on two horses.
These horses can carry a big man wearing heavy armor in battle, and carrying two to three hundred kilograms of stuff is naturally not a problem.
The remaining dozen sheep were driven by the Hui people.
The group of people climbed several mountains and walked for most of the day before finally finding a place with a water source.
Han Xi glanced at the stream that was almost drying up, then looked at the surrounding terrain, pointed at a mountain peak and said, "Let's go up and have a look."
Soon the group circled around the peak south of the creek and soon discovered the source of the creek.
It is a stream flowing from a crack in the mountain that is one foot wide.
The horses and sheep gathered around the water source to drink water. Han Xi was a little disappointed after observing the surroundings for a while. There were no abandoned villages or the like here.
If you want to settle here, you have to build a new village by yourself.
