Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 97

When Li Ruoxue's eyes fell on the wolf corpse next to the horse, she couldn't help but let out a cry of surprise.

Zhao Xingde wondered: "Do you know what this is?" He originally thought that Li Ruoxue would think it was just a dead dog.

"This is a wolf." Li Ruoxue replied with lingering fear on her face. "When I was young, my father was reprimanded, and my family lived in a remote place. Several wolves barked outside the door all night. I could see clearly through the crack of the door. I went out to see it in the morning. There are only bones left in the sheep quilt." Her pretty face showed a look of fear, obviously her father's experience of being demoted had left a deep impression on her.

Zhao Xingde couldn't help feeling pity in his heart, he gently put his arms around her slightly trembling shoulders, and said in a deep voice: "I'm by my side, no matter how vicious a wolf is, it won't hurt you."

"En." Li Ruoxue let out a groan, resting her head on Zhao Xingde's chest, suddenly remembered, and asked, "You were guarding outside the tent last night?"

"That's not true. I was woken up by this damn wolf in the middle of the night." Zhao Xingde kicked the wolf's corpse, and took out a small knife. Several arrows that 'shot' the horse corpse and the wolf corpse were dug out, and the arrowheads were washed with clean water so that they could be used again.Li Ruoxue frowned and saw that his hands were bloody and bloody. Zhao Xingde was also a little embarrassed, and explained: "It is the habit of the army in Hebei that the arrows are enough to save their lives. Collect it."

Li Ruoxue sighed in a low voice: "Du Gongbu's poem said, 'Forty thousand rebels died on the same day. Hus returned and washed their arrows with blood, and they still sang Hu songs to drink the city.' It turns out that it is true. It is worthy of the name of poetry history." It turned out that she read Du Fu In the collection of poems, when I read about An Shi's "chaotic" and "chaotic" separation, I thought it was quite an exaggeration, but now I really believe it.

Zhao Xingde was silent for a moment, and sighed: "If you are born in a 'troubled' world, and your morality is not good, you have to follow the law of the weak and the strong, and repay your grievances directly."

The two packed up the clothes on the carriage, in order to avoid trouble, Li Ruoxue changed into Zhao Xingde's old clothes, and mixed black charcoal ash into the face cream, she was reluctant to do it, so she closed her eyes and let Zhao Xingde wipe it.Zhao Xingde raised his hand high, "It's started." The back of his finger lightly slid across the shattered skin, watching her face turn crimson, and then smeared with black ash. After a while, he said with a smile: " It's fine." At this moment Li Ruoxue looked like a dark and thin boy.

Li Ruoxue's eyes were wide open, and she sighed, "I really want to see what ugly monsters you paint, but unfortunately there is no mirror."

"Who said no." Zhao Xingde smiled, pulled out his saber, and the spine of the sword stood up. Li Ruoxue leaned in front of him, stroking his cheek with a hand, and a vague shadow appeared, and he laughed too: "It seems to be Wu Wu." Daozi painted Zhong Kui." Zhong Kui was supposed to be a Jinshi in the Tang Dynasty, but he was deposed because of his black face and died after touching a pillar.She didn't feel embarrassed by comparing herself with this.

After laughing for a while, Zhao Xingde picked up the burden and searched for the ferry with Li Ruoxue. After traveling for about half an hour, Li Ruoxue's legs and feet were sore, and the two of them sat on a cliff by the bank to rest. Below the cliff was the rushing roar of the Yellow River. Even the ground trembled slightly.The volume of the Yellow River at this time was much larger than that of later generations. The river in this area was narrow and gorges, and the terrain was undulating like stairs. Under the impact and erosion year after year, Ren was eroded, hollowed out, and finally collapsed like a fragile and dangerous wall, and the whole thing became the mud and sand submerged in the water of the Yellow River rushing through the ages.

"Don't you see that the water of the Yellow River comes up from the sky, rushing to the sea and never returning!" Zhao Xingde raised his hands and shouted loudly. In the huge roar, it seemed so weak.

Seeing his strong ambitions, Li Ruoxue was not disappointed, she smiled and said in a low voice, "Don't you see the mirror in the high hall with sad and white hair, the morning is like blue silk and the evening is snow."

"Five-flowered horses, thousands of gold, Hu'er will exchange for fine wine in the future." "Sell with me..." Zhao Xingde's voice became low, and within his sight, dozens of figures vaguely appeared, slowly walking along the road. Walking north along the river bank, if he guessed correctly, the purpose of this group of people with large and small bags was the same as his, the smuggling ferry of the Yellow River.

Just as Xia Guo tried his best to attract the people of Song State, Song State also tried every means to prevent people from migrating to Xia State.However, with a hundred years of rest and recuperation, the population that the fertile soil of the Kanto claimed to carry has gradually reached a limit. The cultivated land becomes smaller and smaller, or there is no land at all, and the land can only be leased.For the Kanto farmers who regard the land as their life, it is an irresistible temptation to go to the West of the Guanxi to receive a grant of land in Xiaguo.

There are almost endless land grants in Xia Kingdom. It has been a hundred years since the founding of the country. As long as you are willing to go, the [-] mu of hard land is yours. family property.Of course, this field is not in Guanzhong, not in Shuzhong, or even in the river, but in a place farther away. Those strange place names are really hard to tell. There are only stories handed down from generation to generation that inspire them to continue westward. swing'.Some of the money was not enough. One generation spent the rest of their lives in workshops or farms in Guanzhong, the second generation married and had children in the river, and the third generation continued to migrate until they got their own land.Such an obsession of theirs makes even the cruelest barbarian feel ashamed.Accompanied by the reclamation and rooting of these land-granting farmers, the territory actually controlled by the Xia Kingdom grew bit by bit, line by line, just like the root seedlings under the rocks, and finally grew into a towering tree, which once weighed on the top of the head. The rocks of the earth become the soil that nourishes itself.

In the deep prison, the officials of Kaifeng Mansion are torturing Zhang Bing.Because of the severe pain, the clothes were soaked in bead-sized sweat beads, and the sweat flowed to the unhealed wound, like a knife cutting fire.The bright candles shone on his pale and swollen face, like a ghost.

Fan An, who was in charge of carrying out the punishment, was also a little apprehensive. If he died before confessing, he would also bear a lot of responsibility.The boss ordered him to ask questions, and he said: "Mr. Zhang, you also know that even an iron-clad hero can make him speak when he enters the Kaifeng mansion. Why are you ruining your body?" What he asked, In fact, it is just a word of "recruitment". The person who executed the sentence has experience. As long as the prisoner's defense is broken, it will be a matter of course in the future, and he will definitely be unable to change his words in court.

Zhang Bing tilted his head to one side, his black and white eyes only looked to the side.The monitoring Kaifeng mansion was so angry that he waved his hand, and half a bucket of cold water poured down his head, which made him shiver all over, and he had to turn his head around again, looking coldly at the torturers. official errand.

His throat moved, but he couldn't make a sound. The officer thought he was going to confess, and was very pleasantly surprised, so he ordered someone to pour cold water on him.

Zhang Bing coughed a few times, spit out a mouthful of bloody sputum, and said in a hoarse voice: "You have been asking me for a long time, and I will come to ask you too. If you get the answer, let me recruit, that's fine."

The officer frowned and didn't speak, Zhang Bing continued: "Let me ask you, plowing the fields and weaving, can I compare with ordinary farmers?"

The officer thought to himself, this is because he lost his mind and went crazy. The leisurely and leisurely Guozi Jiansheng refused to do it. He insisted on going against Cai Gongxiang and Tong Gonggong, and now he wants to farm again. Humph, I'm afraid it will be impossible.As he thought so, he shook his head.

Zhang Bing sighed, seemingly disappointed, and asked leisurely: "Go to battle to kill the enemy, defend the country and protect the border, can I compare with ordinary soldiers?"

The officer thought to himself, you want to reduce your sentence and assassinate your spouse to join the army. Unfortunately, the only crime of treason is to behead Ling Chi. He disdains to deceive a mortal man in such a trivial matter, and shook his head again.

Zhang Bing sighed again, and continued to ask: "Then running errands and settling accounts, is it worthy?"

The officer thought, the scholar really lost his mind, and still shook his head.

Zhang Bing coughed, and continued to speak slowly: "Tell me, I don't work hard, I don't know the five grains, and I don't have the strength to restrain the chicken. What's the use of it?"

The official was taken aback. He usually disliked these Confucian officials the most. They were all dull-witted. Some even handed over official documents to the clerks, and some were deceived by the subordinate officials of the entire yamen without knowing it.He also often complained secretly that Laozi just failed the imperial examination, if he became an official, he would be a hundred times better than you nerds.

But Zhang Bing said slowly in a hoarse voice: "Let me tell you, scholar-bureaucrats read the books of sages and sages, receive the imperial salary, and only observe morality and righteousness for the people of the world." One is a scholar, if you can't even uphold morality, you might as well die." After finishing speaking, he closed his eyes, looking calm and calm.