stubborn thief

Chapter 42 Bribery
When Liu Chengzong's parents met Cai Zhongpan, they were overjoyed, and when they heard what happened to Sanyuan, they were even more sympathetic.

The blood is connected, the external environment is chaotic, and there is no way to help. Even if the Xingpingli people are unable to protect themselves, they are better than the northern Shaanxi where there are thieves everywhere.

The family happily prepared meals for Cai Zhongpan and his wife and brother Chen Ruji. Unfortunately, the last old hen in the family was slaughtered by Liu Chengzong yesterday, and he couldn't come up with a meat dish for a while.

It is rare for the Liu family to have a meal at noon.

After dinner in the afternoon, people were muttering in their hearts. Even the old man Liu Xiangyu walked into the yard several times and looked up to the north.

"What's wrong with the north, hasn't there been any movement yet?"

According to the time, if the official army wants to fight the thieves in the morning, then the battle at the old temple village should be over.

The distance between them is only seven or eight miles away, and it's fine if you can't hear the sound of the battle, there shouldn't be even a single black smoke.

Liu Chengzong couldn't sit still either. He went to the stables to bring the war horses to the north, but was stopped by Cai Zhongpan and said, "Lion, go with you, and find me a couple of gunpowder."

"Gunpowder? Can you use it, uncle?"

Facing his doubts, Cai Zhongpan leaned the eight-foot-long knife stick against the door, turned around and took out a double-barreled gun from his backpack, saying, "This is better than a bow."

Uncle took this thing out of his bag, but Liu Chengzong was too stunned. He took it over and looked at it again and again, and said unexpectedly, "Where did this come from?"

This handgun is well made, the double tubes are parallel, the length is the same, and the caliber is also the same. The bed has a brass cover with drawstrings inside.

The wooden curved gun handle is heavy in the hand, and there is a small wooden cover at the bottom of the prototype gun handle that can be pulled open.

This is the first time in his life that he has seen this kind of short-handled gun, and at first sight there are two pipes, but in another memory in his mind, he clearly sees that this thing has a different bloodline from this land, and blurted out: "Western firearms?"

"Huh! The lion knows quite a lot when he doesn't leave the Yan'an Mansion. It's serious. Mr. Kui Xin gave your uncle a reward for killing thieves. Mr. was baptized into Nestorianism. He was very good with the Taixi Yi people and learned a lot of things."

Cai Zhongpan smiled and said, "Sir, there is also a handle. It looks better than this. It is a gift from the Taixi Yi people."

In another memory, Liu Chengzong had a deep impression on foreigners, especially Westerners. However, he did not expect to hear news about the Western Church in Shaanxi.

"I've seen it a few times, except that it looks warmer, and it's not different from us."

Looking warm?

Warm doesn't seem to be a word to describe looks.

Just when Liu Chengzong was puzzled, he saw Cai Zhongpan spit out two words with a serious face: "Mao Chang."

Liu Chengzong couldn't help laughing at this explanation, and immediately listened to his uncle: "But they all call themselves Western Confucianism, and it takes more effort to learn the Four Books and Five Classics than a student to raise a son. Because some scholars joined the teaching, many people in Sanyuan also believed in it. teach."

Western Confucianism?

He repeatedly chewed on this title, which was incompatible with the Westerners in another memory. That memory did not have a good impression on people on the other side of the world. Especially in this era, almost all of them were thieves, pirates, thugs, colonizers, and opium. Words like traders and slave owners are probably not related to Confucianism.

Fortunately, Liu Chengzong was very open to this matter, or he just asked a few questions on a whim, but he lost interest very quickly. The two taels of gunpowder packed in his waist pouch led another horse and traveled north together.

In his heart, he had a little understanding of the literati class joining the church, and he also had some guesses about the behavior of the missionaries, thinking that this was just a different dream of the two sides, each taking what he needed.

As Cai Zhongpan said, missionaries win over people from the upper classes in order to get the people at the bottom to join the teaching; scholars who are willing to join the teaching or who are curious are mostly reformers, hoping to use external forces to improve their knowledge for the people and the court. Only interested in translating books.

Both sides are smart people, each gets what they need, and neither can be a fool.

As for himself, Liu Chengzong felt that this matter had nothing to do with him. Anyway, he didn't have the chance to see the missionaries.

The two uncles and nephews rode their horses north, and talked about what they had seen in previous years. One talked about Yuhebao in the north and the other in Sanyuan County in the south.

Following the trail of soldiers and horses crossing the road for five miles, Liu Chengzong was shocked to realize that the trail of the carriage and horseshoe was broken.

This is extremely strange, the traces of the guards of 300 people, they have no energy to hide their footprints, how can they stop it at will.

The two of them searched for a long time on the road, and suddenly saw someone on the west bank of Panlongchuan beckoning to them, a group of five or six people slowly walked out of the mud barriers and walked quickly towards the east of the river.

When they got close, these people took off their shoes and rolled up their trousers and came over, and Liu Chengzong realized that it was Lu Bin, who had just separated yesterday and followed Zhang Qianhu as a guide.

The few people behind him were men and women, their clothes were tattered and dirty, the children were running noses, and they were all disgraced.

Dirty is the norm in a water-deficient environment, but shabby is not. After all, even if the weather turns warm, the mountain ridges will still not stop the cold wind. Obviously, they are in a hurry no matter where they come from.

After crossing the river, Lu Bin led everyone to salute, and then introduced: "Second Master Liu, this is my brother and sister-in-law. That day, the thieves broke the old temple and hid in the cliff cave to escape with their lives."

Liu Chengzong naturally handed over to a few people, and then asked: "You didn't lead the way for the official army to suppress the thief, why did you come back by yourself, the official army?"

Speaking of the official army, Lu Bin seemed to have endless indignation, and he beat his chest and feet in anger, and said, "Second Liu, I don't know, I and Zhang Qianhu lead the way, and there are cavalry in front of them. If you don’t leave, lead the army across the river to the west, and don’t let me run around, and send three or five soldiers to watch.”

"I don't think it's right. I took the opportunity to escape in the middle of the night. In the morning, some thieves brought a few carriages from the north. The straw mats were covered and I couldn't see what they were. The officers and soldiers returned to Fushi from Hexi."

"I had the courage to go back to the old temple village at noon, and there were no traces of thieves in the village, just villagers..."

Lu Bin's voice was a little choked, his brother took the words and said: "The villagers didn't leave the whole body, the thieves were not in a hurry to evacuate; now that Zhuang Po's family is dead, my two brothers want to borrow some people from Xingpingli for burial. Father, is it okay?"

Liu Chengzong never expected such a result, so he lost his mind for a while, turned his head and muttered to himself: "What is the officer doing?"

"I ran away. Most of the time I took bribes from thieves. What do you think is in that box?"

Cai Zhongpan leaned sideways on the horse, in a direction that the Lu brothers couldn't see, raised his hand above his neck for comparison, shook his head and said, "I don't see this kind of thing uncommon in Sanyuan... In my opinion, let's go first. Go back to the mountains and have a long-term plan."
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Note:
The handgun is referenced from the antique Dashun Chuangwang's inner servant's double-barreled handgun, which came from Funiu Mountain, Luanchuan, Henan.

(End of this chapter)