stubborn thief

Chapter 38
Strictly speaking, Cao Yao and the thieves entrenched in the old temple village have completely different paths.

The former wants to be a thief, and the latter is a thief.

The two types of thieves are not involved in production. Their only means of obtaining survival resources is looting. It seems that it is easy to merge into a group, but in fact they are completely different.

This is the cruelty of the world. The reason for their chaos is nothing more than the fierce class contradictions in the Ming Empire at this time.

Their common enemies are obviously the Ming Dynasty clansmen who occupy a lot of land, money and food and squeeze their living space; it is obviously the Ming emperor who lives in the Forbidden City and keeps increasing taxes;

But they can't reach those enemies.

Although those people and they breathe the same air, and even some people live on the ground under their feet, they have nothing to do with each other, as if they are in a parallel world.

If the big households have soil enclosures, and the landlords are in the city, how can the rebels who just rushed out of the wasteland have any decent ability to attack the fortress?
If you want to survive, you can only loot the villagers in the countryside, or you can eat black.

It was as if their world was just a chessboard, and the hand of the nian chess was so close at hand, but he could only fight with the opposing pieces forever, with blood flowing into rivers.

They may not be enemies, but they can only swing their knives at each other.

Because they are all weak, the weak can only devour the weak to become the strong, and only have the qualifications to compete with the strong.

Master Liu is also such a weakling. He clearly can go to the world with his fame and fame, but he can only trap himself in the Black Dragon Mountain to fight beasts.

It looks like there are many options, but in fact there is nothing to do.

The experience of Laomiaozhuang is not far away, people in Xingping are fluctuating, and the village women and children are shrouded in an atmosphere of terror.

After that day, Liu Chengzu set up seven sentries in Heilongwang Temple Mountain, all of which were led by veterans of the war.

Under the threat of survival, everything in Xingping is developing towards military defense, except for a few families who made up their minds to escape, the whole family disappeared one night.

The nearly [-] households who stayed here continued to transport wood and rocks to Liujiamao Tuwei every day.

Even the villagers who went to the Panlong River to fetch water had to go down the mountain with a bow and arrow.

On April [-]th, Liu Chengzong stood on the mountain to dig a hole for himself to sleep in. This post was well concealed by him. The soil dug up was piled under the old tree next to him. It was difficult for him to stand here during the day and night. Find.

Limited by the lack of technical level, the division of arms in this era cannot be as clear as later generations. The necessary skill of soil work is a skill that both foot and cavalry have in the frontier army.

Now that the weather is a little warmer, Liu Chengzong plans to dig a single trench on the mountain, so that he can stand guard here during the day, sleep in the trench at night, and hear the movement of the mountain road next to him.

The Xingpingli sentry post implemented a three-man system. Nearly 30 people were used for the seven outposts alone, plus the exchange of news, and the delivery of food and water. Liu Chengzong was surrounded by tenants Shi Wanzhong and Guo Zhashi, who had not recovered from his leg injury.

Right now, the two of them were working, and Guo Zashi sat on a horse and watched the wind.

Just as Liu Chengzong was about to put down his shovel and rest for a while, he heard Guo Zashi's voice lowered and exclaimed, "Master, there are soldiers coming from the south!"

In a word, he suddenly raised his heart, and quickly picked up the pile of dead grass, laying on the small soil slope and looking south.

The official road along the river was filled with smoke and dust. First, five tang riders carried the battle flag and rode out on their horses. After a while, the endless line of guard flag troops led by officers lined up, some with weapons and some without weapons. To the north is dusty.

Shi Wanzhong, who was standing beside him, covered his brows with his hands, and before he could see why, he was dragged down by Liu Chengzong and pressed on the slope: "Get down!"

"Young master, the officials of Yan'an Mansion? A lot of people."

Shi Wanzhong and Guo Zashi, one called him Shao Dongjia and the other called him Dongjia.

But in Liu Chengzong's eyes, the situation of this army that marched from south to north was clear at a glance.

"Don't make a sound, it's too far away, let me see when they get close, um... the number is wrong."

The Tang cavalry is the cavalry of the Tang newspaper, whose function is to investigate, communicate, and serve as the ears and eyes of the army. In the north, there are five cavalry and one pond, each holding a flag.

Liu Chengzong had briefly served as the captain of the pond cavalry under He Renlong, so he knew the functions and abilities of the northern tang cavalry.

The size of the Tangqi is largely proportional to the size of the troops. In the past, when the frontier army went out to burn wasteland, there were 24 Tang cavalry on each road. The army crossed the Tangqi and scattered to [-] miles to find out along the way. The progress of each pond is safe. .

But at the moment there is only one cavalry on the official road, and they do not look like serious cavalry.

Even with Liu Chengzong's eyes, it is impossible for them to travel a mile each time.

The main soldier at the back looked even less like that, causing great doubts to Liu Chengzong.

These people in line, dressed in smocks and jackets, don't look like soldiers.

This feeling is very vague, just seeing their first reaction.

Looking carefully, they wore a lot of dark armor with bubble nails, and they had a lot of weapons in their hands, including fire guns, three-eyed guns, and bows and arrows.

The soldier shrugged his shoulders and hunched his back like an invisible basket full of stones; his footsteps were weak and weak, as if he was overwhelmed and would fall to the ground in the next step.

There are also officers on horseback who have just been counted by his head. Baihu's armor is better. It is a clear armor that does not see corners. The whip to the big animal was swung on the flag soldiers who passed by.

Like an overseer.

The positions of the grassroots officers in the guard can be identified by the helmet gun on the helmet and the flag on the back. After Liu Chengzong made an inventory, this team consisted of three people from thousands of households, 26 people from one hundred households, 37 people from one hundred households, and [-] general flag officers. There are seventy small flag officers.

According to the number of mid-level officers, the strength of this army should be between 360 and [-].

According to the number of junior officers, the strength of this unit should be at least 770 six people.

But no matter how Liu Chengzong looked at it, he didn't see that there were 700 people in this army.

At most, two hundred and five.

When he saw the officers and soldiers marching north, there was no joy on his face, but the sadness became more and more intense. He got up and took off his armor and said to Shi Wanzhong: "Go and send a message to my brother, Qianhu will lead the team, and more than 200 banner soldiers will go north. .”

"Let me greet the clan, hide the horses, cows, donkeys, mules, armors, valuables, and the beautiful mother-in-law in the village, and prepare food."

(End of this chapter)