The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 749 Finally, I don't have to pretend to be my past life anymore!
"I can't climb up."

"It's impossible to climb this mountain."

"Even the strongest warrior and the best herb gatherer of my tribe couldn't climb up there! Don't even think about it!"

Denial three times. In order to achieve the plan of "climbing up from the steep place, going around to the back of the village, and launching a surprise attack from the inside and outside", the captain did give Shen Le support and also transferred the mountain tribes who had come to join them;
However, even the mountain people, even those most skilled at traversing mountains, climbing trees, and scaling cliffs, shook their heads so hard they almost flew off their necks when they saw the winding red lines on the animal skin and the steep cliffs before them:

"Impossible! There's no way to climb this kind of mountain!"

Shen Le stood beside him, looking up at the cliff face, occasionally raising a finger and moving it left and right, silently calculating in her mind. To be fair, this cliff wasn't nearly as precipitous as Lazikou—

Of course, the mountain-climbing skills of the Yue people in the Wu-Yue region are incomparable to those of the people in the southwestern border region.

Not to mention, the Long March, which covered 25,000 li, only involved one region: Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan...

In short, Shen Le believed that the cliff in front of him was climbable. Of course, he wouldn't climb empty-handed; he'd need some assistance. And these assistive items weren't difficult for Shen Le to find:

I am grateful to the Special Affairs Bureau for the climbing training they provided for him in order to climb the snow mountain.

Thanks to Master Alloy and Professor Zhang for teaching him blacksmithing.

Thanks to a month of modern cramming education.

grateful……

As Shen Le busied himself with the tasks, he silently paid homage to all the powerful figures in his heart. Modern education is truly wonderful; it allows one to look down from a superior position and know how to solve problems with a single glance.

Pitting rod!

Safety rope!
Climbing shoes!

There are also all sorts of auxiliary facilities, many of which he can figure out and create!
"Try making some wooden shoe soles using this method," Shen Le said, quickly sketching a diagram. After thinking for a moment, he started mixing clay and made two different molds.

"Here, these shoes. The wooden teeth are movable. Remove the front teeth when going uphill and the back teeth when going downhill!"

"Make the shoe soles exactly like this, and carve out the patterns on the soles exactly as they are!"

The five carpenters went off to carve shoe soles. The other five blacksmiths were gathered by Shen Le and made to work with him.
"Come on, hammer it just like I did! You two, when hammering nails, use wrought iron. Hammer a cutting edge on one side and a hole on the other!"

"You two, when you're making these figure-eight rings, you have to use wrought iron. The edges have to be smooth, without any sharp edges!"

"You come and forge the iron hook..."

As for the mountain people, they don't know how to forge iron, and Shen Le doesn't expect them to carve wood.

Fortunately, they were familiar with the local produce in the mountains. With their help, Shen Le found many old vines and obtained sturdy hemp ropes from the captain, which he soaked in oil to increase their toughness and wear resistance...

Days passed in this manner. On the fifth day, while the captain could still tolerate it, the other officers, such as the squad leaders, sergeants, and military commanders, declared that they could no longer endure it. If Shen Le's troops wouldn't step up, then it would be their turn!

They must die!

"Hey, how long are you going to drag this out?!"

"How many days are you going to prepare?!"

"Don't think you can escape this way. If you can't cross the mountains, then lead your men to charge into the enemy lines!"

Shen Le didn't even look up. Holding a small hammer, he tapped the newly driven pitons a few times, then nodded.

"That's about it. — Lieutenant General, I'm going to take some men to try it out — see if my method of climbing the mountain is easier!"

He chose a section of cliff under his control and attempted to climb it. Below, the captains, officers, platoon leaders under Shen Le's command, and even his trusted followers and mountain people whom he planned to lead across the mountains, stood densely packed, craning their necks to look up.

Shen Le had a treated rope around his waist and wore wooden, non-slip hiking boots. He reached into a bag of clay, which served as a substitute for magnesium powder, and rubbed it. After carefully examining the cliff face, he strode forward.

Take a running start, dash forward, grab the protruding rock, shake your body, and flip over onto it.

Swinging and swinging until the rock face is steep and there is nowhere to hold on, then take the iron nails from the belt, hammer them into the cracks in the rock, and then tie the rope to the iron ring.
Grabbing the rope, he climbed up a bit. Looking left and right, he untied a section of the rope with a hook, spun it around quickly a few times, and threw it far away.

The rope landed on a tree above, and Shen Le pulled hard, tightening the hook...

Segment by segment, it took about half an hour, and they actually made it to the top of the cliff. Shen Le lowered the rope at the top, and the clansmen he had taught, secured with safety ropes, filed up and began to climb!
Within an hour, twenty men had climbed to the top of the cliff. Shen Le lowered himself down using a rope, stood before the captain, and bowed respectfully:

"This cliff can be climbed! I beg the general to allow me to select brave warriors, and I will personally lead the team to outflank the enemy!"

Ever since the first nail was driven into the rock face, the captain had gone to the side, picking up each nail and rope, examining them closely. Seeing Shen Le volunteer, he stroked his beard, scrutinized him from head to toe, and nodded emphatically.

"allow!"

This preparation took another three days. Shen Le selected ten of the bravest, most meticulous, and agile village militiamen, as well as twenty lithe and athletic mountain climbers, and personally trained them:
How to climb, how to drive in pitons, how to use safety ropes, what the key techniques are for rappelling... everything was prepared before he personally led them under the cover of night to begin their ascent from a cliff that was considered impossible to climb.

Even with Shen Le leading the team, the climb was still extremely difficult. Shen Le took the lead, relying on his familiarity with modern tools and the fact that while he couldn't help others, he could at least conserve his own body heat, and he was the first to reach the summit.
However, even after he had lowered the rope, he still watched helplessly as one of his cousins ​​slipped and fell. Fortunately, he was wearing a safety rope and managed to grab him and pull him back from the brink of danger.

The other villager was not so lucky. Firstly, he was too weak to use his hands, and secondly, he did not use the five-point method to tie the safety rope as Shen Le had instructed, but only tied it hastily around his waist.

He lost his footing while climbing, the rope around his waist slipped, and he was in the dark...

He fell down without a sound, dying without uttering a peep!
Of the thirty soldiers, twenty-nine successfully reached the summit. Each of them had a small wooden stick in their mouth and climbed as quietly as possible to the top of the mountain bandit camp.

Shen Le looked down, and in just one glance, she held her breath:

He saw it. He saw a beast, neither wolf nor jackal, perched atop the Yue camp. It was bleeding, had a broken leg, yet dared not charge, still growling menacingly; while below, the government troops, under the cover of night, relentlessly attacked the camp, drawing all the Yue's attention. Torches, held high, snaked and coiled along the mountain path like dragons and snakes—

No, it wasn't just like that; it was a dragon with a single horn on its head and four claws gleaming coldly, coiling above the army, ready to pounce at any moment!

I can see again?

My cheat code—no, my magic is coming back?
Shen Le quickly tried to circulate his cultivation technique, but unfortunately, nothing came of it. Those around him held their breath, waiting for his command. After he stood there blankly for a while, one of his cousins ​​quietly nudged him.
"Brother! Brother Yue! — Qu Chang!"

"Ah!" Shen Le suddenly snapped back to reality:
"Gather thatch and make torches! Once everything is ready, light the tinderboxes at the same time, set them on fire, and throw them into their camp!"

The weather was dry and the grass was withered. Although Shen Le and his group had brought torches, no one could have too many of those.

Quick as a flash, each person stabbed two more. In the darkest hour before dawn, Shen Le and the others lit torches and threw them into the village in a group.

The flames fell on the thatched huts, on the roofs of the thatched huts, on the roofs of the granaries where the mountain people stored their grain...

The wind fanned the flames, and the fire fueled the wind, burning everything in an instant. The mountain people who had followed Shen Le up the mountain shouted as previously instructed:

"Dazhai has fallen!"

"The Yu Shan tribe has surrendered!"

"Hongli tribe has also surrendered! All the tribes have joined forces to attack, and the main army is already at the foot of the mountain!"

Caught in a pincer attack, Hong's vanguard, Shan Yue, was thrown into chaos, believing the main government army had attacked from the rear, and their morale collapsed instantly. Shen Le watched helplessly as the wolf-like, jackal-like monster swayed twice before disintegrating on the spot;
Down the mountain, the dragon and snake roared to the sky and leaped up!

"Kill!" he commanded, brandishing his sword.

"The enemy is in disarray! Charge with me!"

The morale of the government troops who had been besieging the mountain for a long time was greatly boosted, and they swarmed in!

In this battle, Shen Le's elite force achieved the greatest merit! Even more pleasing to Shen Le was his transfer from the vanguard to the commanding officer's side:
They no longer had to undertake the most dangerous and difficult tasks, but instead helped guide craftsmen, manufacture various mountain climbing tools, small siege weapons, train soldiers, and so on.

In the captain's words:

"Good steel should be used where it's needed most! I wouldn't want to waste a talent like you on a suicide squad! Don't worry, with me around, you'll get plenty of military merit!"

Months later, the campaign ended, and the army returned in triumph. When it came time to reward those who had distinguished themselves, Shen Le received a substantial share of military merit—for breaking through the camp, beheading enemies, and being the first to scale the walls!
For this military achievement, Shen Le not only received a generous reward, but was also promoted to the position of thief catcher in the county, responsible for apprehending thieves and maintaining public order.

This leap crossed the threshold between officials and commoners, making him an important official in the county and also earning him a substantial share of the benefits:

According to the above arrangement, the strong mountain people who surrendered or were captured in this battle were organized into soldiers, while the old and weak were scattered and resettled, and assigned to various prefectures, counties, and townships to cultivate land.

The captain took special care of him, directly allocating five hundred mountain households to his village in one go!
Five hundred households of labor and population!
Even the mountain people who are wild and not good at farming, and who don't speak much of the language of the people of Wu County, are still laborers and people!

For a family like the Shen family, which had just achieved upward social mobility and was about to expand its business, this new batch of people was a godsend!
This battle was a great success for the Shen family. Shen Le returned to his hometown in a grand procession, carrying official seals, rewards, and resettlement documents for five hundred mountain households.

Seeing her family, young and old, all coming out to welcome them home, and watching her aunts, uncles, sisters-in-law, and cousins ​​anxiously searching for their sons and husbands in the crowd, Shen Le took a deep breath and slowly walked up to her family:

"I brought them all back!"

Not a single member of the Shen family is missing! Some were sick, some were injured, one uncle lost an arm, and one cousin lost two fingers—but thankfully, everyone has returned.

Five tenants died and about ten were injured. However, before their families could even wail in despair, Shen Le roared:

"Those who followed the Shen family out, whether dead or injured, will be taken care of by the Shen family! If someone in the family dies, each family member will be given ten acres of paddy fields! Those who are injured will have their rent waived for three years, and those who are disabled will have their rent waived for ten years!"

Upon hearing this resounding cry, the tenants who had lost their loved ones immediately stopped crying. Shen Dun, the father of Shen Le's body and the head of the Shen family, merely uttered a soft "Ah," and immediately fell silent.

The child has grown up and become independent. So be it. Half of this family fortune was built on his schemes, and it will eventually be handed over to him—let him do whatever he wants with it!

The family's ancestral worship and celebrations lasted for three whole days before things finally quieted down. When the meeting resumed, Shen Le was no longer in the back row, but had moved to sit next to the clan leader.
"My son, this great victory, though blessed by our ancestors, is largely due to your hard work and great contributions. Now, what are the most urgent matters for the family, and how should we proceed? Do you have any plans?"

Shen Le breathed a long sigh of relief. Thank goodness, they finally asked him directly, and finally stopped asking "what did the ancestor say!"

Although that was him too...

"Father, uncles, elders," Shen Le rose and cupped his hands in greeting, taking his place without hesitation.

"Our tribe has won a great victory this time, and we have been ordered to settle 500 mountain households to cultivate the land. The most urgent task is to manage them well, so that they can have food to eat and can farm the land with peace of mind."

As long as people have houses to live in, land to cultivate, and food to eat, they won't cause trouble. Furthermore, without agriculture there is no stability, and without commerce there is no wealth. Now that our clan has obtained official positions, it's a good opportunity to get involved in more industries…”

"what do you mean?"

"shipbuilding!"

Shen Le swung his arm forcefully:
"In the water towns of Jiangnan, people travel by boat. Our clan's current industries—brocade weaving, winemaking, and porcelain—can only be sold within the county. This is partly because we didn't have official positions in the past, and partly because of the inconvenient transportation."

With a boat, with our own big boat, we can at least sell our goods in the county!

The entire ancestral hall fell silent, save for the flickering candles burning before the ancestral tablets. After a long silence, Shen Dun said in a trembling voice:
"My son, are you sure you can succeed? Shipbuilding is no different from anything else; one wrong move and it could be a catastrophe!"

"Don't worry!" Shen Le said confidently, glancing meaningfully at the altar. He thought to himself:
I have personally dismantled and repaired Ming Dynasty warships with a capacity of 400 shi (a unit of dry measure), which is roughly equivalent to building them.

For a small boat that can only carry a couple hundred stones at most, sailing on an inland river, it would be a piece of cake.
Furthermore, only by building their own ships and controlling the shipping lanes can they develop a business that is crucial to the family:
Salt production!

We're almost at the seaside. If we don't go a few dozen miles east to find a piece of land on the beach to dry salt, it would be such a waste!
(End of this chapter)