The tip of the black wooden hawthorn is the remnant of Yanshan Mountain, and the highest point is less than 200 feet. Less than ten miles to the northeast is the Magukou Fort, and less than five miles to the west is the river valley.
The west, north and east sides of Black Muzhaojian are steep cliffs that cannot be climbed. Zhao Shihu's mountain village is located in a ditch on the east side of Muzhaojian, and is only open at the mouth of the ditch in the south.
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 thirty steps. There are steep cliffs on both sides. This is the only entrance to Zhao Shihu's village.
Zhang Cheng and others turned in from the valley on the west side, rode their horses along the mountain road and gradually arrived in front of the mountain gate. They saw that the mountain gate was wide open, and there were more than a hundred strong men standing on both sides of the gate.
They were wearing different colors and holding various weapons. They looked disorganized. There were only a dozen of them wearing armor. When Zhang Cheng rode his horse and looked at them, he felt that they still looked like bandits, without a trace of the military atmosphere.
I saw a strong man wearing armor running towards me and loudly reported: "Brothers in the village welcome the return of the village master, and respectfully welcome General Zhang to the village!"
Zhao Shihu looked embarrassed, so he could only smile and said: "General Zhang, please."
Zhang Cheng looked at Zhao Shihu and said with a smile on his face: "Zhao Village Master invites you first."
Zhao Shihu did not shirk, so he took the lead on his horse. Zhang Cheng, Chen Zhong and others followed behind, and a group of knights galloped into Muzhaojian Village.
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Inside this Muzhajian Village is a ditch running from north to south. The inside is only wider in the middle, about a few hundred steps wide, but it is indeed several thousand feet long.
After entering the village, there is a short empty space, presumably to defend the place left by the village gate, and behind it are rows of houses. These are extremely simple earth houses.
There was also a group of people in the village scattered on both sides of the mountain gate. When they saw Zhao Shihu galloping into 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 us show you the situation inside the village."
Zhang Cheng also got off the horse, but he handed the horse's reins to Lei Zhancheng, an officer of the personal guard team who caught up behind him. Chen Zhong's war horse's reins were also taken away by Lei Zhancheng.
When handing over the reins to the horse, Chen Zhong whispered to Lei Zhancheng's ear: "Be more vigilant and keep an eye on our horse."
After saying that, he winked at Li Changsheng. Li Changsheng understood and said softly to Liu Jinhai beside him: "Brother Jin Hai, please help us keep an eye on Zhengbiao and the others. Let's go shopping 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 sergeants in the village usually trained.
Inside are the houses of the backbone members of the village. Although they are still adobe houses, they are obviously much neater than those just entering the mountain gate, and some houses also have courtyards.
Inside is the largest house in the village, with three courtyards. This is where Zhao Shihu lives. His wife and children live in the backyard, and the front yard is where his personal guards live.
Only the middle courtyard is where Zhao Shihu receives guests, holds banquets, and holds meetings, and behind this three-entry courtyard are where the various warehouses in the village are located.
There is a wooden fence separating the three courtyards and the warehouses. A group of Zhao Shihu's cronies guard this 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 is money, food and other materials that the whole village depends on for survival, so one must be careful. Although Zhao Shihu is the leader of this village, there are not many close friends who can make him feel completely at ease.
Since he decided to seek refuge with Zhang Cheng, he has carried out several purges in the stronghold. However, he only sent those who were unwilling or too bandit to leave the stronghold as gifts and did not kill them all.
There were only three deserters left with him. One of them, because he opposed Zhao Shihu's defection to Zhang Cheng, took more than 30 bandits and went to find another place. Zhao Shihu naturally divided
Some of his money and food are considered worthy of him.
At the entrance of the third courtyard, there was a strong man in armor with a curly beard on his face. He looked very fierce. He saw Zhao Shihu accompanying Zhang Cheng all the way to the entrance of the courtyard.
Then he stepped out of the courtyard, clasped his fists and said, "Master of the village."
Zhao Shihu also said politely: "Da Ning, come and pay homage to General Zhang."
Hearing this, the strong man walked up to Zhang Cheng and bowed down, saying: "The point of the hawthorn is like a big Ning, see the general!"
Zhang Cheng leaned over to support the strong man and said, "Hey, we are all brothers, why should we be polite? Get up quickly."
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The first step everyone entered into the compound was to the courtyard. There were rows of side rooms on both sides. In front of the room there was a weapons rack with many kinds of weapons including knives, forks, swords, halberds, axes, axes, hooks and spears.
"General, it's past noon. Let's rest here today and start again tomorrow." Zhao Shihu asked tentatively.
"Okay, we'll stay at Muzhaojian tonight and leave tomorrow morning."
Zhang Cheng readily agreed without any hesitation. Zhao Shihu and Cheng Daning saw this and felt happy in their hearts.
This fully reflects Zhang Cheng's trust in them, and also shows that Zhang Cheng sincerely accepts them as his subordinates and is not taking advantage of them. Although he is still a little wary, they can understand it.
"Ten Tigers, those new brothers in Changjiazhai don't know the rules yet. You should arrange for someone to be smart and take care of them over there."
Zhao Shihu nodded and said "yes", then turned around and went to give the order in person. Cheng Daning accompanied Zhang Chengwanger into the courtyard, still thinking in his mind:
The people in Changjiazhai are confident that they are sitting in a strong stronghold, and their children are all proficient in bow and hunt. They have never taken other villages into consideration, but now they have joined Zhang Cheng's command?
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but look at Zhang Cheng more carefully, and the look on his face became more respectful. He carefully led Zhang Cheng into the Daozhong courtyard, and at this time Zhao Shihu also quickly chased after him.
He directly let Zhang Cheng into the main hall and invited him to sit on the main seat. Zhang Cheng did not refuse and sat directly on the chair at the top, while the others took their seats at the bottom.
After seeing Zhang Cheng sit firmly, Cheng Daning said: "Please wait a moment, General, the food and drinks are being prepared."
"Well, there's no rush for food and drinks. I won't be leaving tonight anyway. As the saying goes, good food never comes late." Zhang Cheng said.
Zhao Shihu was sitting at the bottom on the left side. He said: "General, some of the team officers below also want to come up and pay homage to the general. Is it okay with the general's wishes?"
Zhang Cheng thought for a while and then said: "Okay, just ask them to come over and meet."
Zhao Shihu then ordered Cheng Daning to go down and summon the officers of each team to come.
After a while, fifteen strong men in armor rushed outside the hall. They entered the hall five at a time, paid homage to Zhang Cheng, and expressed their loyalty. Zhang Cheng also expressed his condolences one by one.