stubborn thief

Chapter 2 Close the door at night
Yuhebao is a good place, at the confluence of Wuding River and Yuxi River in the north of Yan'an Prefecture.

North Shaanxi is a good place to guard the river.

Seventy miles to the north is Yulin City, the administrative center of Yansui Township, and ninety miles to the south is Yinchuan Station in Mizhi County.

Last autumn, the hungry people passed by the official road and ate the ground clean, leaving nothing.

When night falls, the Yuhe Fort, which is backed by the mountains, looks like a huge spider lurking in the shadows.

The gray-faced Bianjun family members on the road outside the city, wrapped in ragged coats that could never be washed, squatted under the tree with soup bowls containing sprouts of leaves, their eyes numb and unfocused.

A village without chickens, dogs, or even many people is silent in the spring, like a corpse that has been frozen to death for a long time in winter, lying dead outside the fort.

It is not only because the officials and the Qingming people are happy that they can keep their households closed at night, as long as they are poor enough, anyone can.

Bypassing the narrow road, the dried-up moat of Yuhe Fort is within easy reach.

The report to Yulin asking for money to repair the city is submitted every year, like a stone sinking into the sea every year. The last time this fort was built was in the fourth year of Wanli. Taking advantage of the east wind of the commander Qi Jiguang building the defense line in Jizhen, he gave the three-zhang-high earthen wall. bricks.

But after that, no matter whether it was the second year of Apocalypse, or whether it was trapped in a corner of the city wall in the third year of rain, none of the repairs could be approved.

At this time, the dried-up moat and two earth ditches outside the city formed three dry trenches. The wooden fences and deer villages at the bottom of the trenches were all rotten. The gaps in the Yangma Wall near the city wall were scribbled and filled with wood, and there were still traces of the collapsed city wall in the southwest of the fortress. .

It was as if the war had just left.

In fact, the fort had not encountered an enemy for seven whole years.

Guard He Renlong went to Yulin City a few years ago to run to the chief soldier's yamen and has yet to return, and the guards at the city gate were also listless, only when they saw the geese on the back of the red flag, they came to their spirits.

"Yo! The lion is hunting geese?"

The brothers who were guarding the gate gathered around, each swallowed their saliva and looked at the two geese hanging from the horse's buttocks.

The mountains and waters are clear outside, and it is new to be able to bring prey back. More than a dozen servants in Baozi go out every day, and few of them can bring their prey back for ten days.

Even if you can bring something back, it may not be the prey. In the first month, someone stole a goat from somewhere, with a bell hanging around its neck.

Yesterday, a family member was embarrassed to keep returning empty-handed, and caught two monks Sha.

Monk Sha is a small desert lizard here, a palm long, and no one knows how to eat it, so he finally threw it to the Yuhebao rat extermination team and gave it a plum.

Mei Dianmei is a seven-year-old three-flowered cat. The year he was born, the Yuhebao rodent control team was an elite unit with sixteen members, including seven brothers and sisters alone.

Catch up with the rat plague, the whole family died in the line of duty, and a lot of people died at that time, and it was the only one who survived the difficult years. An important position in a fort.

When the Yuhebao Frontier Army was still able to live, the monthly salary of the Yuxi small carp was three tails, and there were a number of performance-paying mice, very happy.

Mei Dianmei is now the oldest group in the Yuhebao defenders. Although they are hungry and thin, their steps are quick and vigorous, and their prestige has not diminished.

Hungry-eyed Xiao Zuofeng tried to go to the rodent extermination team many times to ask for some food, but was beaten back, and there are still three scratches on the corner of his eye.

After Liu Chengzong served as a housekeeper, his usual tasks after training included feeding cats and dogs, and developing a deep friendship with the rodent extermination team's eyebrows. The mouse, even with the small drill wind.

Now it can't be done. People don't eat anything, so how can I take care of cats.

Standing together with the guards and guards of General He Yong, who was also a descendant of Mi Zhi's surname He, he said a few polite words and left the sentence "I will send you Yanling at night", and then took the two wild geese together. Go, happily report to the general manager.

Goose feathers are similar to goose feathers. They are common materials for arrow feathers and are not very valuable, but for someone like Liu Chengzong who often uses bows and arrows, it is cost-effective to repair arrow feathers.

When he entered Yuhe Fort, he saw a few people sitting on the inner slope beckoning to him in the shadow of the torches on the city wall, making him recognize his elder brother Liu Chengzu, Shichang Tian Shoujing and Gao Xian.

Liu Chengzu is his biological elder brother, four years older, 22 years old, he was spotted by He Renlong together with him in the seventh year of Tianqi, and recruited to Yuhebao to be his servant.

Last year, there was a management team named Zhang Wu who led the team as deserters. The brothers were ordered to go outside to recruit refugees to join the army, and when they came back, they gave a captain to fill Zhang Wu's vacancy, as if there had never been a deserter.

It's not easy to recruit troops. There are disasters everywhere, and there are refugees everywhere. At any rate, being a soldier can manage half of them.

It's hard to be hungry all the time, but it's better than starving to death.

Who doesn't want to live?
As for deserters, there are ways of deserters, they have armor and weapons, and they have learned a killing technique in the army.

Tian Shoujing and Gao Xian were both frontier troops who did not go with Zhang Wu at that time. The former's hometown was Fushi County, Yan'an Prefecture, which was separated by several mountains from Liu Chengzong's house; the latter was from Ansai County, which was a little further away. point.

In the past, they were ordinary sergeants. After recruiting new recruits, both of them were promoted to senior positions.

In a single escape, the number of Yuhebao frontier troops has not changed, but the quality has dropped by one level.

"Fighting geese?"

Liu Chengzu sat on the slope, pointed to the ground beside him, there was a wooden basket, and said, "I think you are very hungry, so I left you a meal."

Not to mention, Liu Chengzong was so hungry that he couldn't make a sound. He was not polite. He sat on the slope and lifted the lid of the basket.

Mizi and millet look similar.

Although it was cold, the mutton oil on the top was also condensed, and the smell of mutton was stronger, but it was very fragrant for those who were very hungry.

The more fragrant it is, the more heartbroken it becomes.

At the beginning of the army, the family suffered, but the conditions of the old Liu family in Miaoshan, Longwang, were okay, otherwise they would not be able to afford their two sons to study and practice martial arts full-time for more than ten years. Can't get enough to eat.

A low-level officer like the captain is not an official of the imperial court, and he doesn't make money now, but he can manage enough rations. Liu Chengzong often asks his brother to eat and drink, which makes the mix reluctant.

"It's hit, two, and the arrows are not good enough... The third arrow didn't draw the bow, and it won't be able to hit when it flies up."

Liu Chengzong said while eating, and suddenly remembered that he had something else to gain. As he said, he got up and took off the pottery pot from the horse, saying, "Brother Shoujing, I picked up a mirror and half a candle. I don't think so. Bad."

"Help me find out who has left the beans from the wasteland fire. It's okay to exchange one or two."

Their military rations are divided into two types, rations and monthly rations. The rations are like food supplements for business trips. They will only be given when they leave the station forty miles to perform tasks. Basically, they are fully provided.

Last fall, Yuhebao selected a group of cavalrymen to go out and burn the wasteland, and they were reluctant to eat it.

"Okay, I'll ask you when I go back." Tian Shoujing folded his arms and looked at the somewhat funny dyed hair of the red flag under Tupo, and said with a smile, "Hey, that red flag? What's wrong with the name Sanfa, look at the thin one after the name change. ."

Tian Shoujing said a witty remark, but Liu Chengzong, whose mouth was full of millet rice, was not in the mood to laugh at him. He picked up the water bag and filled his mouth twice, smoothed the food down, and turned his head to look at his brother.

"It's a small matter if the horse is thin." In the light of the swaying torch, Liu Chengzong had a rare seriousness on his face: "Brother, I have to think of a way, I didn't draw the bow today when I was hunting.

If this continues, our martial arts will be useless. "

(End of this chapter)