stubborn thief

Chapter 31 Ansai City

Crossing the Mudan River and heading west along the winding valley, the city of Ansai built on the mountain is near.

Being close to the county seat did not add to Liu Chengzong's short journey, and the broken walls and ruins along the way reminded the three of them that they were getting closer and closer to danger.

In the morning, he also wanted to continue the fine tradition of hardship and simplicity from Yuhebao, and continued to touch the ruins of two cave dwellings, trying to find some useful things from them.

Liu Chengzong felt that this habit of wanting to go in and touch when he saw a broken house might be a kind of disease, making him look like a rogue and indecent.

Different from the context of a few hundred years later, the hooligans of this era are literally, floating refugees.

Only they can touch the house, but Liu Chengzong likes it very much, like a garbage guy.

When he sees an unfamiliar house that appears to have no owner and has something in it - he never knows what he'll find.

But this experience on the outskirts of Ansai may make him lose his curiosity about abandoned houses forever.

Not every place in northern Shaanxi is like the vicinity of Yuhebao. The only enemies of the common people are the reduction of production brought about by the drought and the urging of tax collectors in the imperial court.

Most of the houses near Yuhe Fort are empty houses. The owners left to avoid taxation. Although they will never come back, most people still have a small idea of ​​returning to their hometowns before leaving. Was packed very clean.

Around Ansai is different.

He found half bones and swarms of worms in the cave, and the other half bones were burned to ashes under the stove with the door panels.

There are still deep strangles left by hanging on the door frame, but the rope does not know where to go.

It is impossible to imagine what the owner of the house experienced here before and after his death.

In order to maintain physical and mental health, Liu Chengzong came out of the cave pouting and decided not to touch the house in the future.

Who knows that bigger shocks are yet to come.

When he walked out of the valley, the sun was rising, and Liu Chengzong, who was riding in front of the horse, looked west from the mountain pass, and the winding and sturdy Yanhe River flowed southward, with a huge city standing in the middle, like a giant beast with its back against the mountains.

He also finally saw the living again.

The two yamen were pushing the cart along the official road. When Liu Chengzong found them, the two were parked on the side of the road, covered a corpse beside the road with a straw mat, and laboriously carried them to the cart.

Suddenly seeing a fully armed cavalry appearing on the official road, the two yamen were terrified, and their faces were stunned because of cold and hunger.

One of them reacted faster, grabbed the companion who turned around and wanted to run, and tightly grasped the short whistle stick on the cart: "You, who are you?"

Liu Chengzong was expressionless on the horse, took out the waist card from his waist and hung it in his hand, and said, "The prefect of the government, come to pick up the family of Mr. Yang from the city."

The waist card obtained from Yang Dingrui lit up in his hand and put it away. Liu Chengzong took the reins and walked around in place before frowning and asking, "You two are county yamen?"

Not far away, the Ansai city gate was closed, the flags fluttered, and the suspension bridge over the moat was raised. It didn't look like a county town at all, but it really looked like its name, a fortress.

Beneath the city wall was a crowd of people. Hundreds of shabby shacks spread out to both sides along the moat. The crowd was sitting quietly, the atmosphere was heavy like a pool of stagnant water.

Even Liu Chengzong didn't expect that the prefect's name would be so useful. The two yamen heard the words and did not distinguish the truth from the fake. With a bang, the whistle fell to the ground: "Master General, is the prefect sending reinforcements?"

"Reinforcement?"

Liu Chengzong has two big heads. Where did the reinforcements come from? Combined with the sound of the suspension bridge rising in Ansai County, he asked, "Is there a thief in the county?"

It was the yamen who raised the whistle first and said, pounding his head like garlic: "Six days ago, the small county thief Gao led a few hundred cavalry to raid outside the city, and asked the county to open the warehouse to release grain.

Said to open the warehouse to release grain, who does not know that he wants to help those thieves, none of the elders in our county. "

The yamen raised his head and said, "Fortunately, my county magistrate is skilled in military affairs and led the crowd to defend the city and resist the thieves.

"The county sent two horses to go to the city to call the police to call for troops and allocate food for disaster relief, but there is no news. Now the people in the county are [-] miles away to take refuge under the city, and the granary for porridge has long since bottomed out."

Liu Chengzong said in his heart that the high thief in the yamen's mouth should be Gao Yingxiang, and the scale of the hundreds of paces sounds very powerful. He heard the yamen say that the county's grain and grass have bottomed out, and nodded: "Well, I see it."

The social status of yamen servants is low, and they are compared with officials.

In fact, how many officials can a small county of 3 people have?Compared with ordinary people, yamen servants still have a higher social status, and their income is generally guaranteed.

Taking [-] steps back, he said that cooking porridge should be done by the yamen, and at least he would eat two more bites than ordinary people.

Right now, even these two yamen are so hungry that their faces are pale, and it is conceivable how bad the grain warehouses in the county are.

"Where are you pulling these corpses?"

While speaking, Liu Chengzong's hand on the horse's back made a quiet movement, indicating that Gao Xian, who was still on the other side of the mountain pass, should not drive the carriage out, regardless of whether Gao Xian could see it or not.

There are eight people's rations and water in the carrying skins on their carriage. They are for Yang Dingrui's family to use on the way back. The people here seem to be hungry. abdomen.

Liu Chengzong rolled his eyes and made up his mind - Yang Dingrui and the carriage must not approach Ansai City.

When the hungry people in the city saw the food, even this small amount of food would cause a big mess. The gathering of hundreds of hungry people was definitely not a situation that he and Gao Xian could control with two knives.

"Several big pits have been dug outside the city, and those who died of starvation and freezing will be buried. The county magistrate said that keeping the corpses will cause plagues."

The yamen said that it was only normal, and pointed to the big pits not far away from the city. Several big pits were piled up like small hills with corpses. I don't know how many corpses were buried. Take out the corpse and throw it into the pit.

At this time, Liu Chengzong even decided not to approach the city gate himself, because he was worried that there would be a plague in the place where the hungry people gathered.

What's more, he didn't want to let others check his identity when he needed to call the suspension bridge to enter the city.

He simply took out the bag of dry food from Matun Sang, took out a piece of cake and split it in half, and said, "I haven't eaten well for a few days, I can't help others, you two can eat this cake."

The two yamen saw that Bing's eyes were about to glow green, and they rubbed their hands together to look at me, I looked at you, and then tentatively looked at Liu Chengzong, wondering if the 'General' on the horse in front of him really wanted to give it to him. they eat.

After confirming again and again, the yamen in the lead stepped forward and quickly took the cake, dragged the other person to kneel before the horse immediately, banged his head twice on the yellow earth, and devoured it.

After putting the cake into his mouth a few times, he couldn't bear to swallow the last two mouthfuls, so he chewed a few more times, and instinctively looked at Liu Chengzong again, but he retracted his eyes in fear and swallowed it with difficulty.

Liu Chengzong was not in a hurry. He was also a starving person, and knew that the half of the cake could not be full. People are not afraid to endure hunger, but they are afraid that they will not be full when they are extremely hungry.

He opened his mouth, pointed to the bag in his hand, and said, "I still have a few cakes here. One of you two went into the city to help me bring three people out. These cakes are yours, how about that?"

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)