stubborn thief

Chapter 308 All Beings
Gansu, Gaotai guards thousands of households, camel city.

The setting sun in the desert is still round, but when the long river dries up, the camel city in the evening is even more lonely.

Strong winds swept across the yellow sand. It used to be the capital of Northern Liang and an important town in Hexi, but when the oasis faded into a desert, the deserted city wall that was more than half submerged became a natural camel pen, a place for merchants to stay overnight.

Camel bells came from the wind and sand, people unloaded goods along the base of the city wall and set up tents, piles of bonfires lit up, and the figures thrown on the wall took off their headscarves that shielded them from the wind and sand, revealing the purple gold crown tied with their hair.

Wang Ziyong touched the traces of swords, slashes and arrows on the wind-eroded city wall, and fell into deep thought until the young man ran over and said, "Master, the camels are all driven into the city, so there won't be any thieves here?"

Wang Ziyong laughed loudly when he heard the words, and then said solemnly: "Little master, in the northwest land, the biggest thief king is your Lion Brother, are you still afraid of thieves?"

The young man took off his turban, revealing a face of only thirteen or fourteen years old, scratching his bald little round head, grinning stupidly, sitting by the fire, breaking off the dry and hard sac, and eating a little bit of mixed water.

It's sixteen.

Wang Ziyong looked at the children beside him, and also grinned.

Compared with Liu Chengzong's westward marching army's majesty, it was not so easy for Wang Ziyong to leave northern Shaanxi. Most of the elite soldiers who participated in the aid of Liao with him stayed in Yan'an Mansion and did not want to eat sand with him westward.

Starting from Yan'an Mansion, there were hundreds of people around, and they walked all the way in fear. When they gathered in Lanzhou, only 32 people arrived as scheduled.

It's not that he died, he didn't encounter any danger on the way, and even in Pingliang, because of the help of Han Xiaowang and Gao Xian, he ate well, but many people didn't want to have sex with him anymore.

Wang Ziyong thought to himself, what kind of identity can he get for these 32 people who defected to Liu Chengzong?Not to mention the comparison with Zhang Tianlin, I'm afraid that even Luo Rucai's juniors can't compare with them, so I plan to start a career in Lanzhou, and go to defection when I have momentum.

After finally mobilizing more than 600 people, the news leaked out and the officers and soldiers suppressed it. There was a period of silence in Liangzhouwei.

In the end, he felt that he couldn't hold his neck hard and had to ask Liu Chengzong for some support, but Wang Ziyong couldn't contact Liu Chengzong, he could only find Mr. Liu. .

Mr. Liu's reply was very open. He sent someone to send a letter saying that Xining could support him to arm a thousand troops with swords, guns, swords, halberds, armour, and guns. Wang Ziyong was so scared that he hurriedly wrote back to ask Mr. Liu to stop, why does he want this.

Today is different from the past, Wang Ziyong's own ability is not bad, and he is very good at inciting peasant rebellion in northern Shaanxi. During the time he joined forces with the Lion Camp, he also saw Liu Chengzong's ability to win the hearts of the people without relying on ghosts and gods.

After thousands of miles of aiding Liao as an officer, what he saw and heard greatly increased his talents.

In particular, the defeat in Lanzhou made Wang Ziyong realize the difference between Gansu and northern Shaanxi. If he wants to do business in Gansu, the last thing he needs is force. Instead, he must solve the problem from the heart.

As long as the problem of people's hearts is solved, isn't the officer's army's armored guns and even veterans, isn't that his reserve barracks?

So his reply letter to Mr. Liu is that he wants an educated man who understands military regulations to teach him how to read and write. In addition, he only needs to give ten or twenty people, one hundred and ten taels of silver, and a portrait of Liu Chengzong. .

The manpower is mainly doctors, funeral teams, cooks, and tattoo masters. There are not many people, but the requirements for skills are very high, because if there are too many, the king can't afford it for his own use.

Master Liu read the letter, although he didn't know what Wang Ziyong was thinking, but it was very easy to handle, and the requirements for cultural people were a bit high... During the period of rapid expansion of the Marshal's Mansion, there was a huge shortage of cultural people who could be sent abroad. Most of the scholars have basically gone to Kangning Mansion.

But Wang Ziyong was at least the leader of the former joint army, and he didn't pay enough attention to sending a boy over there.

In the end, Master Liu decided to send Shiliu there.

Anyway, what Wang Ziyong needed was education. In the Taiping era, even ordinary landlords couldn't afford a teacher like Liu Xiangyu. Sixteen studied with Liu Xiangyu for three years, and he was even able to enlighten the lion soldiers in the academy in Juerwan.

Moreover, Shiliu understands military regulations. Except for his young age, sending him to teach is a bit of a joke, and the rest of the conditions are very in line with Wang's own requirements.

The most important thing is that everyone knows that Shiliu was Liu Chengzong's little follower at the beginning, and later Liu Xiangyu's book boy. The fact that such a little boy was sent here showed Liu Xiangyu's importance more than sending other boys.

It's just that this is a bit too heavy for Wang Ziyong. If this kid dies here, how can he have the face to go to Liu Chengzong.

Waiting for the sixteenth to bring four guards and a funeral team for weddings and funerals, a group of more than [-] people entered Gansu along Sunan.

Wang Ziyong almost became sworn brothers with him. In the end, the two had a discussion, and Shiliu worshiped Wang Ziyong as his teacher, and Wang Ziyong called Shiliu the little master who taught him how to read.

Shiliu was sent to Gansu, and he was very excited along the way. In Zhuantianmao in northern Shaanxi and Juerwan in Xining, he heard a lot about Wang Ziyong.

People say that Wang Ziyong is miraculous, and he can always easily pull out a peasant army of thousands of people when needed.

Shiliu also wanted to have such a talent, but he was very disappointed when he came to Wang Ziyong... There is no spell here, and there is no barracks that Shiliu is familiar with. People don’t even live together at ordinary times. Get together when you need to do something.

This made Xiaoliu too unaccustomed to living separately, which would make Shiliu lose his sense of security, just like returning to the northern Shaanxi where he met Liu Chengzong, wandering around and fleeing famine.

After getting to know Liu Chengzong, no matter what he does, he stays with the army, and the army is his home.

Wang Ziyong established a sect in Gansu, named Sanjiehui.

They use the three-leaf lotus as a symbol, and the initiation ceremony is to burn incense in the dark room and pierce blood.

Among them, talented people will thorn the Big Dipper on the back of the three-leaf green lotus on the palm, and give them names such as Langtou, Land, Judge, and Pioneer.

The rules and regulations were all dictated by the king himself, written by Shiliu and mixed into the military law system... However, in Shiliu's view, their sect has nothing to do with fighting or rebelling.

They are usually active in the outer suburbs of Ganzhou, helping the doormats in the porters and the widows and loneliness of the soldiers in the countryside. The dead are not buried, and they are as happy as the New Year.

So up to now, there are not many congregations of Sanjiehui in Gansu, but there are quite a few people who used white ash to smear three-leaf lotus outside the earthen house, but there are only a few local leaders and land-level figures.

This time they passed through Camel City, and they were going to Heiquanyi in the west. According to Langtou of Sanjiehui in Zhenxibao, there was a postman in Heiquanyi who lost his job and his old mother had no money to ask for medicine. The leader of the meeting was able to help with the burial practice, so he approached them.

They were far apart, and news transmission was slow. Wang Ziyong didn't know if he could catch up with the rescue, so besides bringing the doctor, he could only prepare for the funeral according to the other party's requirements.

Shiliu followed the team and set off. After simple calculations, he finally determined that Wang Ziyong really wanted to rebel.

Just for others, they brought medicinal materials, medical craftsmen, funeral team and apprentices of this set of candidates. Dozens of people set out from Ganzhou, crossed the barren fields and the desert that spread for hundreds of miles, and they were almost at Jiuquan.

Wang's own funeral team is very famous in Ganzhou. The doctors are proficient in various difficult and miscellaneous diseases, the cooks can skillfully cook dishes for hundreds of people, and the funeral team is also very professional and experienced; The funeral of the Dao family.

They were invited by Qianhu to preside over their mother's funeral in Ganzhou Wei, and they were not required to deliver the coffin, which cost 40 taels of silver for a set of funerals.

Here, as long as someone speaks to the poor, they will respond to every request, whether it is funerals, marriages, or medical treatment.

The carpenter disciples of Zhenxibao even made a coffin, which cost a lot of money, and no one would do it except for those who wanted to rebel.

This time they went west, apart from funerals, they also had a mission, which was to let Shiliu meet their Langtou in Zhenxibao.

He was an old widower in his 60s. He lived in the sand outside Zhenxibao. He had three dilapidated houses with simple furnishings and a very poor family. There was only a little clay figurine on the stove.

But the house was extremely lively, and the congregation in Zhenxibao heard that Tianshi Wang, the head of the Gansu General Assembly, was coming, and they all flocked to Langtou's house to pay their respects.

This old man is a hard-working man. His ancestors lived on [-] mu of land for generations, but in his father's generation, the desert invaded, and it was said that he had only [-] mu of land left, and now the [-] mu of land was swallowed up by the desert.

Had two sons and a daughter, the eldest son was bought away, the daughter did not survive, and only the youngest son served as a soldier in Zhenxibao.

When the wife died just in time for Qiufang last year, the youngest son came back. The old widower himself was also a marginalized person. No one could lend a helping hand to his distant relatives and neighbors. He was buried by Wang Ziyong. He didn't stab the Big Dipper on his back, and he didn't stab the blood to make an alliance. He only led the congregation in Zhenxibao to worship the marshal.

Who is the Marshal?It doesn't matter if you don't know.

Zhenxibao now has more than 50 congregations, most of them are old men's wives and left-behind soldiers, mixed with some bankrupt farmers. They all joined after Wang Ziyong helped the old man prepare for the funeral.

No one cares who is worshiping, anyway, King Ming Maitreya hugged his brother and Wusheng's old mother in his arms, the intention is to worship the Marshal, and when there is an accident at home, there will be someone to help.

Wang Ziyong brought a doctor to see the illnesses of the disciples who came to visit, and then asked sixteen tattoo artists to preside over the initiation ceremony for the new disciples. Draw clover lotus, bring a few unemployed and landless men to carry the coffin, and drive the camel caravan to continue on the road.

The unemployed postman at Heiquanyi is called Suokang. His ancestor is a yellow-headed Uyghur. He is over 40 years old. He spent half his life in the post station doing business for the imperial court for the money. up.

Gansu in the Ming Dynasty was a large barracks. If northern Shaanxi was a semi-military society, then Gansu was a very pure military society.

The military society's control over the common people is naturally strong, because every household is a soldier, and the common people are naturally organized, but once the soldiers can't live, then this kind of military management over the common people will collapse in an instant.

The Han people have entered a stage of semi-collapse in society, and at least they can still rely on their clans; the people of other tribes can still rely on the support of their own clans to live together.

Only a naturalized foreigner like Suokang, whose ancestors had Chinese names for three generations, lived in places where Han people lived together, and did the work of imperial planning passed down from generation to generation.

After being unemployed, it is difficult for them to return to their nomadic tribes, and they are not tolerated by the local Han clans. They are helpless and become a truly vulnerable group.

After being unemployed, Suokang's life was difficult. His family had no land and wanted to make a living by martial arts, but the wealthy families in Gansu did not need to recruit martial artists to guard their homes.

The big families in Gansu have more or less owned a group of civilian armed forces. These days, deserters are running around, and his resume is not competitive at all.

Suokang can only try to be a porter, but he can't give gifts to the industry leaders. Instead, he is discriminated against because of his appearance. Except for a few postmen who have been laid off like him, he has no friends at all.

Finally, in desperation, a laid-off postman became a tenant, and he naturally became a day laborer hired by the tenant.

In fact, when he was a postman, Suokang always thought he had a lot of friends, but when he was seeking medical advice for his old mother, he realized that he actually had very few friends.

Two friends brought 210 Wen and two bowls of rice. The neighbors who lived in the same village were so poor that they could only make ends meet, and could not give any help except caring.

Holding two bowls of rice, Suokang ran all over Heiquanyi, but he couldn't find a doctor who could help him. He returned home with his two sons who ate weeds to feed their hunger, and the old mother had died.

The old lady didn't die of illness. She couldn't see her son kneeling and kowtowing to others in order to keep herself alive, and then filling in all the three melons and dates at home.

So the old lady took advantage of no one at home, tied a rope to the window frame, tied the other end around her neck, rolled over from the bed, and disappeared.

No matter how much Suokang cried, planning for the funeral must be put on the agenda, but the current situation is that the neighbors are afraid that he will borrow money, and they are afraid that they will not have the money to pay, so they dare not even go to the door.

Just as he was starting to raise money for the funeral again, Wang Ziyong arrived with a caravan of camels.

The funeral team that came from afar made every family in Heiquanyi feel strange, but Wang Ziyong expressed his guilt for being late with his kind eyebrows, and then presented Suokang with his monk Taoism certificate, asking him what kind of ritual he wanted, Then he recited scriptures for seven days in a row.

At the same time, the medical artisans who brought him also set up a stall at the entrance of Suokang's house to see the symptoms and prescribe medicines for the common people.

People are grateful to Dade, and Suokang even burns incense and stabs blood. He bows three times and nine times to the portrait of the marshal in the dark room. Sun, be the Langtou of the Three Tribulations Club in Heiquanyi.

When something happened, Wang Ziyong took his men away, chose another way, and returned to Ganzhou.

Shiliu asked on the way: "Master, we always do this, is it useful for riots?"

"The imperial court, the army, and even a club all need people. Just like the marshal's mansion, there are always not enough people. The government is different. There are too many people in the government, and there are too few people to use, so there are many positions. It's useless, it doesn't make people idle... just like the abolished postmen."

Wang Ziyong explained: "These people who are laid off are useless people. The last thing a useless person can't solve is life and death, and face."

"Unless associations can create financial resources, associations and mutual aid cannot solve this problem. You see, everything I do has nothing to do with rebellion, but I will definitely rebel in the end, because associations need financial resources to solve problems of life, death, and face."

"Doctors need money, and weddings and funerals also need money. I treat people and become a lifesaver. Others have joined the Sanjiehui and have brothers to share their difficulties. After receiving this benefit, I will call him when I have something to do in the future." just come."

Shiliu was full of doubts: "Why did you come here as soon as you shouted, they are not afraid of death?"

"I'm afraid, it's useless to be afraid. They are all useless people. There is no association. Who will preside over the funeral when their old parents die? Who will treat the baby who is seriously ill? The whole village is full of disciples. What do others think of them? Already You are a useless person, how dare you throw away this life-saving straw?"

Wang Ziyong raised his hand and rubbed Shiliu's head, looked at this disciple named 'Little Master' and said with a smile: "Little Master, I have seen people who worship Maitreya, and I have also seen people who worship Wusheng's old mother. The portrait of the marshal is just to prove one thing."

Sixteen asked, "What's the matter?"

"These useless people who were left behind first, as long as all sentient beings can stand with them, it doesn't matter whether they worship King Ming, Maitreya, the old mother or the marshal."

As he spoke, Wang Ziyong smiled relaxedly: "Because the catastrophe is approaching."

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)