stubborn thief

Chapter 9 Rice Fat
Liu Chengzong is witnessing a major collapse.

He understands the normal world as under the rules of society, if a person wants to control his own life, ability is the indicator of the test. The stronger the ability, the more convenient life will be.

But after the collapse of this set of social rules, it is just the opposite. People can't see the level to test their ability at all, and they have reached a dead end.

Farmers used to be obedient to the people before, but now they can’t pay taxes on borrowing grain, so they can’t grow land.

In the past, he improved his knowledge and became an official in the imperial examinations, but now his family is hungry and cannot read.

The frontier army used to be garrisoned for food, and the garrison could practice and make meritorious deeds, but now they will starve to death if they stay in the army.

Even his father who is an official can't be an official, just because he told the truth - if there is no tax exemption, there will be a big mess.

Shi Chang Gao Xian, who went to Lincun to look for his mother-in-law, came back in the second half of the night. Hearing the frontier army on duty at night, he ignored him with a straight face. Later, when he was on duty at night, someone heard suppressed crying.

The next day, when Liu Chengzong heard about this, he was reluctant to ask what happened.

He estimated that [-]% of the people in the village fled, otherwise why would they not receive the mother-in-law.

But he still went, and didn't say much. It's not suitable to talk too much about this kind of thing. No amount of talking can make Gao Xian a mother-in-law, so he went to Cao Yao first.

He took a small clay pot from him, and there were two taels of soju in the pot.

Then I plead with my brother to take leave, and let myself replace the high-level night at night and let him drink a couple of taels.

Team Liu is different from Team Cao. The people in that team are live bandits and loose control. Leaving Yuhe Fort is like falling grass again. The rules of the frontier army are completely forgotten. No one is needed at night. Tree branches, lead four cotton threads to the bonfire, and hang bells on the lines.

Liu Chengzu, the leader of the Liu team, is just like what Cao Yao said, a serious soldier. He always pays attention to the fact that the local officers are too busy to touch the ground. Clearly, at night, we have to set up sentries before and after, and set up a retreat.

One-on-one, no worries.

As for how long it's okay to rest at night and want to drink a drink?Don't say that there is no wine to drink, even if there is wine, don't even think about it.

But this time it was a special situation, not to mention that Liu Chengzu also intended to train his younger brother to lead the army, so he was allowed to work for Gao Xian at night.

After all this was done, Liu Chengzong handed over the wine that he had spent twelve geese and arrows in exchange for to Gao Xian.

The facts were similar to what he thought, but there were still five households in Qiyan Kiln that had food reserves. They divided the land in the village and planned to carry it for another year. I don’t believe that God can continue the drought in the fourth year.

However, the family that took in Gao Xian's auntie had eaten all the grain as early as a few years ago, rolled up the family and led the cattle, and went to Shanxi, east of the Yellow River, to go to relatives.

The road is difficult and dangerous, and I don't know where the relatives in Shanxi are. Not to mention, how can Shanxi, which is separated by a large river from the disaster in Shaanxi, get better?The sea of ​​people is vast, and I am afraid that there will be no day to see each other again.

When they marched again, a little further away from Yuhe Fort, there would be more pedestrians on the road.

Groups of bankrupt farmers, horse-riding swordsmen wrapped in sheepskins, southern merchants escorting commercial goods.

Except for a swordsman from a caravan, Liu Chengzong never saw any of these people—elder brother Liu Chengzu deployed two horse-riding scouts in the front two of the team, and they scared most passers-by away by the appearance of their helmets and armor, bows and knives.

The scouts can make others understand that there are troops marching behind them. The style of the officers and soldiers is very bad these days. There are almost no people who do not intrude on the people.

At the same time that they appear in the field of vision, no matter who will choose to enter the mountain.

Even if he was only a dozen miles away from Broken Gold Town, at the liquor shop on the side of the official road, the lame old shopkeeper saw the two cavalrymen and rolled them up with his little daughter who was helping in the shop. Not much soft run to the other side of the river.

When Liu Chengzong and the brigade arrived at this barren country store, the old shopkeeper took his daughter across the river just now, and he didn't think he had run far enough, so he ran to the mountain on the other side.

There are female dolls at home, and I am afraid that they will be ruined by the officials of the sow race Diaochan.

The chief swordsman protecting the caravan was seen by Liu Chengzong at this liquor store on Guandao in the countryside.

The swordsman is their acquaintance, the old soldier of Ai Wannian, the Shenmu ginseng general.

As the saying goes, a hero in the rivers and lakes, it is not a hero that can break into the rivers and lakes, but only where there are rivers and lakes can there be soil for heroes to run wild.

On a large area of ​​land connected by loess roads, no hero in the rivers and lakes is as reliable as the armed forces of the landlords.

The ancestors of the escort who originated in the Zhengde period are often in big cities. In northern Shaanxi, where the situation is becoming more and more chaotic, especially in Mizhi County, which is close to the border, the merchants want to pass safely, and the thugs in the standard line are unreliable. The way is to seek Ai Shi's asylum.

Mizhi has two Ai, the surname is the old one, the old one is the old Ai, and the small Ai moved here in the middle of the Ming Dynasty.

They once bought 200 mu of land at one time, and now there are more than ten members of the family who have been admitted to the Juren. In the past 96 years, there have been only [-] Jinshi in Shaanxi, and there are [-] counties in Shaanxi, and the Ai family has occupied six places.

Many villages and places here are directly named after Ai, such as Ai Dongzhuang, Ai Haowan, Aijiaping, Aijiaqiang, Xiaiqu and so on.

Today, the population is prosperous, and Ai Yingjia, an unemployed fellow of Ganzhou Prefecture in Jiangxi Province, is at home. His third son, Ai Wannian, is a Shenmu ginseng general, and there are thousands of tenants of the tribe.

It's just that in the current situation, even they can't guarantee that the caravan is unscathed.

The old soldier came over to check the situation and knew that it was He Renlong who scattered the border troops who could not survive, and went back after a few words.

Not too many meetings, the two men wrapped in sheepskin jackets brought a sheep, carrying two bags of dry food cakes on their backs, tied them to the wine shop and left without saying anything else.

After that, six carts loaded with goods walked along the official road without incident under the guidance of the old soldiers and a dozen young offspring.

Even so, the frontier soldiers who were simmering and slaughtering sheep inside and outside the wine shop looked at the caravan like a pack of wolves staring at their prey, which made people feel scared from the bottom of their hearts.

"Don't look at it, the car is loaded with tea leaves that are sold outside. We can't eat or use it. After a while, we will cook and eat the meat sent by Ai Lao Juren. This sheep weighs [-] pounds, and one and a half of them have been deboned. A lot more."

Sitting under the signboard of the wine shop, Liu Chengzu cheerfully said to his subordinates: "The Ai family greeted the inspection department of Suijin Town, we don't need to detour, the road before reaching Suide today is peaceful."

Liu Chengzong, who was squatting on the ground and counting, saw his brother's words and made his soldiers look into the mutton pot. He shook his head and smiled. He got up and threw a branch to greet the fire soldiers to divide the bones of the meat into two pieces for Xiao Zhanfeng to grind their teeth.

As for Mei Dianmei, director of the Rodent Control Office, just wait.

He was just figuring out how to feed the army.

On the way for the past two days, Liu Chengzong made a comprehensive analysis of the current environment and his own future.

If you want to have a full meal, you have to go back to the hometown of Yan'an Prefecture, but the hometown is not safe, thieves and robbers are running around, and there are traces of thieves activities in Yanchuan, Yanchang, and Ganquan counties around Yan'an Prefecture.

There is no telling when the entire village will be looted and captured.

If you want to protect the family, you must master the force, and these frontier troops are the ones who are sent to you.

The only problem is that they can't afford it.

To support fifty frontier troops, it would be less than twenty stone grains per month.

Stone is a multi-purpose unit, ten liters one bucket, ten buckets one stone.

Now in the arid northern Shaanxi, the grains of wheat are not harvested, and only four or five buckets per mu of millet can be grown for drought-resistant millets. Liu Chengzong's family has only his father and mother, and there is no strong labor, so all the fields are rented out.

The grains handed in by the tenants have to be used to pay taxes, and the remaining grains are enough to feed seven or eight people.

Basically, when the brothers go home and are full, the family can’t get more food.

Liu Chengzong made a serious calculation, but he couldn't afford it.

Still have to figure out another way out.

During the time of stewing mutton, Liu Chengzu couldn't rest, and he called his younger brothers Liu Chengzong, Tian Shoujing, and Gao Xian to explore the surrounding terrain and teach them the team leader's experience in leading the army by words and deeds.

The central idea is just one, being an officer should not be lazy or greedy for enjoyment.

While letting Liu Chengzong write down many key points secretly, he also sighed in his heart that his brother really had an extraordinary interest in the military.

For the generals, everything needs to be checked. The ancient art of war is very clear, and no general school does not understand, especially after Qi Jiguang's military book was sorted out by the court and sent to the army, the military book even told the soldiers how to buy vegetables. All written clearly.

But who can really implement it?
I am afraid that even He Renlong, who taught them, may not be able to do all of them, but Liu Chengzu strictly enforced them.

When they go back, the mutton has been stewed, but they have not yet started to eat. On the official road from north to south, there is another person who is busy.

This man was very daring. He rode a donkey and saw that there were officials in the wine shop. He just turned over and got off the donkey, led him forward and saluted, and walked over quietly.

But just two steps away, he was stopped.

Because Chengzu Chengzong and his brothers found that the young man with a donkey and a whistle was an old acquaintance, Li Hongji, a Yinchuan postman who had taught them some riding skills.

It was even more interesting for Liu Chengzong, who was not Li Hongji in his mind, but Li Zicheng, the emperor of Dashun who later overthrew the Ming Dynasty and entered Beijing.

(End of this chapter)