Lu Bu: My wife comes from two thousand years later

"Amo, tell me the truth, why do you raise an army?"

Lu Bu looked at Zhang Mo thoughtfully. What this girl had done was far beyond his understanding and was far beyond what she could do at her age. She really dared to persuade the bandits to surrender.

"What can I do? Rebellion? Do you think that's possible?" Zhang Mo avoided his scrutinizing gaze with a guilty conscience and laughed it off.

Xu Chu followed up, "You told the master you were here to help defend Jinyang. It would be fine if you recruited the bandits, but you've built your den right in the middle of a bandit's lair. It's not about defending Jinyang, it's clear you're trying to rebel."

"I really only wanted to protect myself. Think about it, if I surrendered Li Gui's troops, it would be like planting spies among the Black Mountain bandits. If any bandits were to attack, they would be able to tip me off!"

Lu Bu shook his head. "You're not telling the truth. If you really want to defend against Black Mountain, you could just send people to guard the important roads. Why go to so much trouble?"

Xu Chu looked worried: "Amo, you are walking into a den of thieves. If the head of the family finds out, think about the consequences."

"I won't let father know. Even though I released Li Gui and the other bandits today, he'll probably think I was too soft-hearted to kill them. He won't think I persuaded them to surrender. Those children will just be orphans. I'll teach them to read and write myself, and they won't have any contact with Zhao Kang. Besides, father basically doesn't ask about my business right now. We're the only ones who know about this. As long as you don't let anything slip, he won't know."

But in fact, even if she knew, she would still find a way to persuade him, and if that didn't work, she would just bring everyone up to the village.

"Then why do you insist on building a den of thieves in the mountains?" Xu Chu asked again. He really couldn't understand why a young lady like her would take such a huge risk to do such a thing.

Lu Bu also looked at her, waiting for her to give a reasonable reason.

Zhang Mo really couldn't come up with a good reason except to tell the truth, but she could never tell Lu Bu about the killing of Dong Zhuo.

"I have my own plans for this matter. This is definitely not a joke. You will know it in the future."

She looked at Lu Bu and said, "Our contract expires in half a month. Do you want to renew it?"

Although the two of them can barely be considered a couple now, feelings are one thing and transactions are another. Zhang Mo is not naive enough to think that he will give up his ambitions and aspirations because of feelings.

Lu Bu looked at her helplessly. This girl had just surrendered a group of bandits, so he couldn't bear to let her leave like that.

"Wait a little longer. Once the hostages arrive, I'll take you to the stronghold to have a look."

Knowing that he was worried about her, Zhang Mo felt a sweet feeling in her heart. To be honest, she felt very safe with him by her side.

In fact... if he is willing to stay, it would be best to hand over the stronghold to him. With her financial support, he can recruit and annex other Black Mountain tribes in the future. With his ability, it is not impossible for him to replace Zhang Yan. If she succeeds in killing Dong Zhuo, he can lead the troops to accept the amnesty. The position of General of the Central Army is inevitable, which is no worse than joining Ding Yuan and Dong Zhuo. He also does not have to bear the stigma of being a slave of three surnames, and end up with his head and body separated after wandering for half his life.

Thinking of Lu Bu's ending in history, Zhang Mo felt a pain in her heart and became more determined to kill Dong Zhuo.

……

A few days later, Juyi Manor welcomed a young man, ten women and 132 boys. After arranging them, Zhang Mo handed over all the affairs of the manor to Du Fei and Xu Ding, and took Lu Bu, Guan Hai, Xu Chu and more than ten carts of food, and followed Li Gui and others to Taihang Mountain Stronghold to find their way.

The stronghold is located at a fork in Jingxing, one of the eight passes of Taihang Mountain. It has convenient transportation and can connect to Jizhou and Bingzhou in the east and west. A small river passes through it. At the mouth of the valley, there is a river sandwiched between two mountains. The terrain is narrow and steep. As long as a wall and an arrow tower are built, it will be like a one-man-guarding-the-pass against ten thousand.

Entering the valley, the view suddenly opens up. There are continuous high mountains on both sides and a vast valley in the middle. The terrain is very flat and there is a river flowing through the valley. Once it is cultivated, it will become thousands of acres of fertile farmland.

After seeing this, Zhang Mo couldn't help but say, "What a waste of natural resources! Such a beautiful land has been left to waste like this!"

Li Gui explained with a bitter face, "It's not that we don't want to open up wasteland, but there are so many difficulties. We don't have farm tools or oxen, the fields are overgrown with weeds, and we have to carry water from far away for irrigation. If there is enough rain, it's fine, but if there is a drought, the water in the river will decrease, and there will not be enough food for people and animals."

"So, you'd rather risk your life to rob?"

Li Gui nodded firmly. He had been a farmer for so many years and had never experienced the feeling of having enough food and clothing. Instead, he was a thief. As long as he made a big deal with Zhang Yan, he could even wear silk.

However, Zhang Mo could not bear to see this large piece of land grow weeds. Although the factory output could feed this group of people, if there was a disaster year, the price of food could increase by dozens or even hundreds of times, and even if you have money, you may not be able to buy it.

In troubled times, having food is king!

As for the problems Li Gui mentioned, they can all be solved.

After the inspection, Zhang Mo returned to Jinyang the next day and asked Guan Hai to take Zhang Hai and others to the city to rob a carpenter's family and bring them into the mountain stronghold, and let him build a waterwheel in the stronghold.

The craftsmen who built the waterwheel before were all members of the Wang family. Zhang Mo couldn't let them stay in the mountain stronghold forever. If she let them go, the news might leak out. She could only become a bandit.

The river in the middle of the valley had a small drop and was unable to drive the waterwheel, so they first built a dam to raise the water level upstream, and then installed a waterwheel. The problems of irrigation and pulping were solved.

With Zhang Mo providing food, farm tools, and oxen, Li Gui mobilized the entire village's labor force to open up wasteland and dig ditches. In less than a month, all the projects were completed.

There are many grass roots remaining in the soil of newly reclaimed wasteland. The weeds have already grown wildly before the crops have even emerged. This is also an important reason why the moth thieves do not want to reclaim wasteland for growing crops.

After working hard to cultivate the land, although the fertility was good in the first two years, weeding was a hassle, and water had to be carried for irrigation. The harvest was not much, and if a natural disaster occurred, there would be no harvest at all. It was really not as convenient as just looting.

After the crops were planted, Zhang Mo invested in building walls and watchtowers at the exit. As for the paper mill and printing house that had been promised earlier, they were naturally built as well.

After several months of hard work, Juyi Village has changed a lot. The wasteland is covered with green wheat, and carts of paper and books are shipped out for sale.

Women worked in factories, supporting themselves and their children; young and strong men trained with Guan Hai every day; and the elderly could also go to the fields to help with work.

From late spring to mid-summer, Zhang Mo started construction at both ends, building Jinyang Juyi Village and Taihang Juyi Village at the same time, and truly experienced what it meant to spend money like water.

Construction materials, farm tools, tools, and food rations for thousands of people in Juyi Village almost consumed all the coal mine's annual income. Fortunately, the autumn harvest was finally approaching. Zhang Mo breathed a sigh of relief and also gained the hearts of the people she wanted.

Although there are children held hostage in Juyi Village, this is by no means a long-term solution. In the past six months, apart from teaching the children two days a week, she spends most of her time staying in the village to make herself known.

After half a year of investigation, the basic background of everyone in the village was basically understood. One third of them were old bandits who had participated in the Yellow Turban Rebellion. They believed in the Taiping Dao and had a strong hatred for the rich and officials. The remaining half were refugees who were forced to come here one after another. Most of them had accepted being bandits and integrated into this large group. There was also a small number of people who still wanted to return to their hometown and live an ordinary life with men farming and women weaving.

The old thieves were most loyal to Li Gui. Although they were extremely grateful for the affluent life that Zhang Mo brought them, because she was young and a girl, there were only a few who truly submitted to her. She was not in a hurry to accept these people.

As for those refugees who were forced to flee, because they had never been tortured by the Taiping Dao, they believed that whoever could feed and clothe them was the boss, and they were sincerely convinced by her.

Just ask yourself, which little girl in the world can be as capable as my boss? Following her, it will never go wrong.

As for the small number of people who wanted to become good people, they were each given half a month's rations and allowed to go back. After they went out for a walk, they saw the deserted fields, refugees gathered, and piles of dead bones on the roadside. Only then did they realize what kind of paradise Zhang Mo had created for them.

In less than half a month, these people came back and begged for shelter, and swore to be loyal to Juyi Village and the boss and never betray.

Guan Hai then selected one hundred men of good character and outstanding martial arts from these people to serve as Zhang Mo's personal guards.

Li Gui knew that Zhang Mo's behavior was a sign of her distrust of him. After all, she was just a little girl, and it was difficult for a group of rough men to truly submit to her. He also knew that his old subordinates were respectful to the new commander on the surface, but deep down they only treated her as the youngest child in the family. How could he expect a father to listen to his daughter?

However, no matter how dissatisfied Li Gui was, he would not think of rebelling, because although Zhang Mo was the boss of Juyi Village in name, it was actually Guan Hai who was in charge. Guan Hai was also from the Yellow Turban family, and his martial arts were much better than Li Gui's. In addition, most of the people in the village were loyal to Zhang Mo, so even if he wanted to rebel, he couldn't.