stubborn thief

Chapter 194
On the evening of July [-]th.

Between the hills and valleys in the east of Heshui County, Qingyang Prefecture, there is a Zhuangzi named Luping.

After four days of marching, Liu Shizi led his army from Fuzhou through Ziwuling and entered Qingyang. His force was much larger than expected.

In addition to the Lion Camp with more than [-] people, there is also the Yuzi Camp with more than [-] people, which brought great difficulties to the resettlement work of Yang Yao and Feng Rubu who were sent to Qingyang in advance.

"Marshal, why is there a Yu camp?"

"Can't tell from the name? My big camp."

Yang Yao showed a clear expression, and then said: "How can the old man have more than four thousand people?"

Speaking of Yuziying, Liu Chengzong was a little helpless, and explained to Yang Yao: "Before in Lion Bay, the high leader reorganized his 8000 people into three battalions."

"We wanted to leave, so we sent someone to send letters to Qinwangzhuang, Qingwangzhuang, Cao Cao and others, telling them that they could rely on the high leader in the future. As a result, they all wanted to come with them and prepare their own troops, horses and food."

Liu Chengzong spread his hands and said: "I saved them into a battalion when I was young, but let alone, this battalion is very suitable for our establishment."

"My eldest brother, Zhang Tianlin, Luo Rucai, Li Wanqing, and Li Laozhen happened to be five sentry soldiers; Lin Wei's Xingzihe blacksmith and stonemason formed a work sentry, and there was also a team that broke through the sky to transport the luggage."

As soon as he finished speaking, Yang Yao asked, "Jiaojuan is back?"

"You also know this name?" Liu Chengzong shook his head. It seems that Ren Quan'er gave Liu Guoneng this nickname, which is more widely known than Chuangtadatian: "I came back and gave Xingzihe a batch of cloth. I originally wanted to do it in winter." As for the soldier clothes, bring them all and come here."

As soon as he heard that the old man formed the team, Yang Yao didn't say anything else, just nodded and said, "Then I'll deliver some food to the military station."

Yang Yao and Feng Fu set up four military depots on the 240-mile-long Ziwuling Mountain Road for the lion camp to rest on the road.

"No need, they are walking fast, and they all carry food, just find a place nearby to station."

Speaking of the name of Yu Ziying, Liu Chengzong just wanted to laugh.

When they were marching on the Ziwuling Mountain Road, Master Liu asked Song Shouzhen to pass a small note to the front.

A bunch of words were written on the note: "The hero fights the gods, Yi Ning Ding Xiangyao, Long Zhang Su Xuan Zhuang, Chong Huo Xiao defends the victory, mighty Zhao Jingxiu." '

Liu Chengzong thought it was a riddle at first, but Song Shouzhen said it was the name of the battalion.

It was because Gao Yingxiang's reorganized army was called the Chuangzi Brigade, and Mr. Liu thought it was unpleasant. He was afraid that Liu Shizi would also set up a Lion Brigade in the future, so he asked Song Shouzhen to bring the name of the battalion.

They are indeed good words that are very suitable for the name of a military battalion.

But Mr. Liu gave him this piece, and his troops raised a Yu flag.

Facts have proved that no matter how many things are in his mind, he still hopes that the team can be named after him, and Master Liu is not exempt.

These good words will be saved for reorganization into brigades in the future.

Walking with horses on the dirt roads of the village in Luping, on the dry terraced fields, I often see people in ragged clothes and disheveled faces, watching the troops crossing the border numbly.

Liu Chengzong looked at Yang Yao and asked, "Why are there still refugees in this wilderness?"

"They are not refugees, the people of Qingyang, from the west to Ziwu Ridge, go into the mountains to look for food if they have the strength, and rest here if they have no strength."

Yang Yao glanced at the people on the terraced fields, and said to Liu Chengzong with emotion: "I came out of the mountain, walked ten miles, buried no less than a hundred corpses, and saw more dogs than people."

Liu Chengzong didn't speak. He glanced sideways at the figure sitting on the mountain, frowned and asked, "Mr. Yang said that Qingyang is a granary. Why do you feel it is not as good as Yan'an?"

"Qingyang is a granary."

Yang Yao echoed with emotion.

The seat of Qingyang Mansion is Anhua City, and there is a large plateau near Anhua City. During the Xia Dynasty, the leader of the Zhou tribe, Bu Yu, cultivated on this large plateau. Many places in the area formed black loamy soil that is extremely suitable for cultivation due to perennial fertilization.

But there are only a few lands like this. The mountains here are high, the air is cold, and there is much drought and little rain. After all, it is a land whose evaporation is ten times that of rainfall.

Intensive farming cannot withstand a frost and drought. This situation makes the people turn to the quantity of land production, but there are too many fields and there is not enough manure. Planting extensively and harvesting little, planting ten acres of land cannot catch up with the harvest of one mu of land.

What's more, this year, drought is not the most terrible thing.

Yang Yao said: "Drought is a dick."

"Yan'an is safe because the only commander-in-chief among the many leaders who can resist the official army is in Yan'an. The official army cannot enter the Yan'an mansion, and he can subdue the bandits. The people survived the drought and were relieved."

"Qingyang is different. They are all small thieves here. In the past few days, the leaders of Qingyang will come to see the commander one after another. When the officers and soldiers come, they will hide."

"Before there was Wu Weifan, and later there was He Huchen. When the army crossed the border, they didn't even need to attack to scare them away. The scattered thieves were powerless to attack the fort. What can they do because of stuttering?"

"Either the local local thieves and thieves will be driven out, and no new thieves will appear; or all the officials, soldiers and government offices will be driven out, and no new troops will settle in."

"Otherwise, this kind of place where soldiers and thieves come, alas..."

Yang Yao spat on the ground, raised his foot and wiped it, saying, "Drought disaster is nothing compared to human beings."

Liu Chengzong felt that Yang Yao's description was wrong.

It should be said that the drought is terrible, but the people under the drought are even more terrible.

This area is still a mountainous area, and the nearest small river has to go around two hills. Liu Chengzong was worried that the small river would be drunk again, so two battalions and sub-posts were stationed in more than a dozen barren villages within a radius of eight miles.

If the river is cut off, the water will come back, but it will delay time.

So the sentries and whistles face each other across the ravine.

When there are too many people, there will be more troubles, and the village can no longer be satisfied with just fetching water.

Under normal circumstances, there is only one well in the village, and people rely on one well for food, and they cannot have breakfast until dark.

Yang Yao said that in the past two days, the fallen and rebel leaders of Qingyang Mansion would come to see him, and Liu Chengzong was fine, just wandering around the village talking to the people.

There are not many people left in Luping, and even fewer dare to talk to him. There is only an old man who looks at his seventies, moves a small stool and shakes a small fan, sits at the door to enjoy the cool, and is not afraid of him.

Liu Chengzong also pulled a small stool, sat on the side and asked, "Isn't the old man afraid of us?"

The old man glanced at him, and wondered: "Hey, why does this young man just open his mouth and not speak?"

Liu Chengzong asked again loudly: "Aren't you afraid of us?"

"I'm afraid, I'm afraid it's useless to be afraid. The house under the tree, the old bastard can pick it up, and died earlier than me. The queen of his house was afraid. When the thief came, he ran away. He didn't catch up with the hot food and died in the back mountain. .”

The old man glanced at him, then pointed to an empty yard next to him: "The surname is Qi. He escaped from a war outside last year. He was not afraid of thieves. After eating a meal, he went to fight outside the county town to die outside the city. The mother-in-law took the baby to the Beigou forest to hang himself. .”

"It's useless to be afraid, I'm 78."

The old man raised his hand to count, and smiled at Liu Chengzong: "The great-grandsons are all dead. You people from Yan'an come to Qingyang, come to Qingyang, come and stay one night, sooner or later we will all die."

Liu Chengzong chatted with the old man for a while.

The old man may have had no one to talk to him for a long time, and he almost finished talking about the death of the people in this village from door to door.

Through these methods of death, Liu Chengzong clarified what happened to this place in the past two years.

The old man is called Old Man Xu, and he said that he looked old when he was young. Someone nicknamed him Old Man Xu when he was in his 20s.

When he was called Old Man Xu, Lord Wanli had just ascended the throne.

Those who called him old man Xu are gone now.

He has also survived three emperors, and is trying to see if he can survive the fourth.

This village used to have a lot of low-yield mountain fields, relying on the official road connecting the two prefectures of Qingyang and Yan'an, there was a market at the foot of the mountain every Saturday.

Most of the people work in agriculture, but there are craftsmen and businessmen who rely on the mountains to eat. On this official road, they are responsible for selling the skins, bones, medicinal materials, flowers and plants collected by the mountain people to Qingyang Fucheng, so it is relatively prosperous.

But from an agricultural point of view, the village is very poor, so poor that it is immune to land annexation.

Because there is not a single mu of fertile land, there are only more than 2 mu of mountain fields, and the hills where the Liu family's two battalions are stationed are considered to be villages, and more than half of them are kilns dug in the fields where they used to live.

In the past, there was also a landlord here, a merchant from other places. He took a fancy to the commercial value of this place and began to buy land.

Generally, the land in a village is very important, and it does not mean that you can buy it if you buy it. Unless the original people in the village do not want the land, you can sell it to foreigners.

But this is different. The landlord says to buy, and as long as the price is right, the villagers will sell it immediately, and the landlord is not allowed to go back on his word.

Because this one mu of land can only produce [-] to [-] catties of wheat in a normal year, relatively speaking, it does not require intensive cultivation, and there is no requirement for the land. If you buy this, I will go to other places to farm.

The landlord was unable to hire tenants, and at the end of the day, he could not get back the money he paid for the land for five years, and he was so mad at himself.

Those lands became the villagers again.

But the year before last, the drought came, and the nightmare began.

The first one to die was a traveling merchant who sold mountain goods to Qingyang Mansion every time the market opened, and never came back after going out.

People heard that because of the drought, thieves often appeared on the road.

Grain production has decreased, and there is no squire in the village who can take care of it.

Some people began to think of ways to open up more land and grow more food. Many people exhausted themselves to death before the land was opened.

There are also a few people who have a crooked mind, want to eat out their families, and bully the orphans and widows left by the traveling merchants. The orphans are thrown into the ravine, and the widows jump into the well the following night.

Those people said it was bad luck and destroyed the well in the village.

Then some people will become refugees, some will become bandits, some will join the army, and some will eat together and wait to die, aiming at when they will be wiped out.

In short, changed.

Until last year, a guerrilla general Wu came, stationed in Luping.

The thieves were killed, and the villagers sued the remaining few who had no households. Somehow, they disappeared.

Everything seems to be returning to normal. Although the drought is still there, the newly opened fields at the cost of human lives are still there. There are fewer people in the village, and they can survive.

But when General Wu led his army to retreat, there were more and more thieves.

The thieves from Yan'an will pass through here when they cross the border; the thieves from Qingyang will also pass through here when they go to Yan'an.

The thieves came and went, and the guards of Qingyang Mansion also chased them back and forth.

This year, there are still more than 40 households left. Li Laozhen came over, saw the miserable appearance of the people in the village, and said that he would take them to rob Heshui County.

Among their remaining mothers-in-law and aunts, some fled back to their natal homes, some ran away from their natal homes, and two of them took their children as companions to hang themselves in the ravine.

Later, the rout army came again, grabbed a few padded jackets, and asked the people to go into the mountains to gather medicine for them, saying that it was raining in the east.

Before the medicine was collected, the horsemen had already run away, and they were told to run away quickly, saying that the official army had been defeated.

Later, people in the village ran, walked, and died, and now there are only seven households left.

Including the old man, the people of the seven households are well-informed and hard-hearted, and they all have the same consciousness as the old man, giving up resistance to suffering.

In fact, during the half hour that Liu Chengzong was chatting with the old man, there were still five households left in the village.

One was already sick and just died of illness; the other asked for two mouthfuls of fried noodles from the soldiers of the Lion Camp, and after eating them cheerfully, he went out of the village and bumped himself to death in the canal.

Liu Chengzong didn't know why he had to die, but he seemed to know why he had to die.

The people who have lived in this village are not only scum who have no family, they have tried all ways to survive as farmers without the help of the government.

Those who do good deeds, those who do bad deeds, those who follow thieves, those who join the army, those who farm land, and those who do business.

are dead.

On the contrary, Old Man Xu was the strangest one. He was getting old and couldn't run or fight.

Anyway, after living for so many years, it doesn't make much sense to continue living.

In the end, it doesn't matter whether the soldiers or the thieves come, depending on his age, they will throw him some food, and they just come here.

All the strong and strong offspring were dead, but he was still alive.

Liu Chengzong also wanted him to live, so he asked the carrier to bring some small bags of rice to the old man and put them in the house.

He said: "You can't die, you will be fine in the future, I can feed you all."

Old man Xu didn't seem to hear it again, he sat on the small stool and smiled tremblingly: "He just opened his mouth and didn't speak again."

"I said don't die! I can feed you all!"

This time Liu Shizi was sure that the old man heard clearly, but he still trembled and did not speak.

Perhaps, he thought, he was not the first to say such things to the old man.

A long-lived old man like this, whether he is a soldier or a thief, normal people will say hello when they know about it, encourage him to live a good life, or say, you can eat.

Wu Weifan may have said it, He Huchen may have said it, and even He Huchen's deserter and rout may have said it.

And everyone probably meant it when they said it.

It's just that how many people can fulfill this kind of commitment without deadlines and conditions?

Who can live without regrets.

Liu Chengzong didn't sit any longer, got up and walked towards the military tent set up by the guards. After walking a few steps, he turned his head and said, "Old man, you should live well and try to send Chongzhen away."

I thought that old man Xu would ignore him, but he didn't know that the old man was happy.

The old man Xu thought to himself, how many years ago, the magistrate of the county said the same thing, let the old man live well.

Now the county grandpa has been buried in the earth for three or four years.

"Hold on for a few more years and watch how I make people survive."
-
Note:
"Ningzhou Chronicles" records that the population of Ningzhou in the late Ming Dynasty was 320, and by the seventh year of Shunzhi, it had decreased by [-].

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)