nanming man

Chapter 1 The Silly Son of the Landlord's Family

A man has to go through many hardships in his life, and he has to be disappointed and anxious several times in his life.

After the cold rain and wind, the personality is more brilliant.In the heart of a man who stands up to the sky, he is upright and never bows down.

……

In 1642 A.D., the 15th year of Chongzhen, there was a severe drought in Henan, and locusts covered the sky. Wherever they passed, the seedlings, reeds and grass stood up. Along the road, many people died of starvation.

In the same year, earthquakes in Shanxi and Henan affected more than ten prefectures and counties. Urban and rural houses were dumped, plagues were rampant, and Zhongzhou was corrupt.

In the same year, the Qing army conquered Songshan, and the governor of the Ming Dynasty, Qiu Minyang, and the commander-in-chief Cao Bianjiao and Wang Tingchen were all killed. The governors Hong Chengchou and Zu Dashou were captured, and the latter two were sent to the Qing Dynasty.

By the 15th year of Chongzhen, under the torment of internal and external troubles in the Ming Dynasty, the country was already in turmoil.

……

Outside Chenliu County in the south of Kaifeng, there are thousands of miles of barren land, and the wheat and leaves have been eaten clean. Gao Zurong, who is in his 60s, carried a lantern and patrolled the earth castle. When he saw no one in the yard, he couldn't help calling out Twice, "Yi, Yi."

A black figure with a gun on his back rushed out from the corner in a panic, "Old boss, I'm here."

When Gao Zurong saw the man in front of him, he was a little unhappy, and he beat the ground with his cane, "Where are you going? How many times have I told you to keep an eye on the granary, and the whole village is counting on this little grain to survive the famine. Mile."

Gao Yizhen lowered his head and said in a low voice, "Old boss, there is someone watching from the grain depot."

Gao Zurong glared at him, and walked towards the granary with a cane. Before he reached the door, there was a lewd laughter from inside, "Ms. Zhao, you just follow me. Your man was dragged to beat the Tartars, and you are still here!" Can you come back? Tens of thousands of people died in Songshan, and your man can't come back."

When Gao Zurong heard the sound inside, he turned his head back in astonishment, while Gao Yizhen hurriedly turned his head aside, pretending that he didn't hear anything.

"Nizi, beast!" Gao Zurong was so angry that he crutched on the ground and was about to open the door when he turned around, but when he reached the door, the hand pushing the door stopped.

Gao Zurong thought to himself, if I push this away, the wife of the Zhao family will probably lose face, and my stupid son's reputation will be stinky, not to mention the humiliation of the family. Affected, besides, there are many people in the Zhao family in the village, and they will never stop if things get serious.

Gao Zurong hesitated for a while, and finally took his hand back, but when he heard the obscene smile inside, he was not angry at all. Lao Tzu was famous all his life, why such a thing was born, he was really angry in his heart, and he couldn't help it. He stayed and cursed in a low voice: "Beast!"

When he finished cursing, he suddenly turned around again, and saw Gao Yizhen stretching his head, with a lewd smile on the corner of his mouth, just as he was listening, Gao Zurong immediately hit him with a cane, and then said with a straight face: " Yi, tomorrow morning you will get two buckets of face in the account and send it to your old lady. She is too old to go hungry."

"Two fights of face?" Gao Yizheng was taken aback for a moment, and when he realized it, his face suddenly burst into joy. He was about to thank him, but Gao Zurong stopped him with a cane, glanced at the grain depot out of the corner of his eye, and then stared at the grain depot. Looking at him, he whispered, "Don't tell anyone what happened today, understand?"

Gao Yizhen got the benefit, nodded his head, "Old boss, don't worry, I'm tight-lipped."

"That's good. If someone finds out, you won't come to work in the village next year." Gao Zurong nodded slightly, then waved his hand and said, "You go to inspect the dirt wall, and you don't need to look after it tonight."

When Gao Yizhen heard the news leaked, he was not allowed to go to work. He was so frightened that he shrank his neck, made a promise, and fled the yard in a hurry.

When Gao Yizhen left, Gao Zurong also left the grain depot, but he didn't leave the yard because he was afraid that someone else would come.

Gao Zurong is a gentry landlord in Gaojia Village. Eighty to ninety percent of the land in the village belongs to his family.He is the head of Gaojia Village and also the head of the clan, and has the responsibility to maintain the stability of the village.

The people in the village have been dragged up for generations, most of them have the same ancestor and are related to each other. Therefore, although Gao Zurong is a landlord, he does not do evil in the village like other evil gentry.

He has a reputation as a scholar, has read some books, and is more benevolent. Besides, the land needs people from the village, and the world is chaotic. A rich man like him is easy to suffer, so he pays attention to the relationship with his neighbors, and his reputation has always been very high.

However, his good reputation, as his second son Gao Yihuan grew up, became more and more stinky.

In the early years, Gao Zurong had a son who was more powerful than his current son Gao Yihuan. Unfortunately, during the Wanli period, he died in the battle of Saerhu along with Wang Xuan, the chief soldier of Baoding.

The perpetrator in the granary was his second son, Gao Yihuan, who was born to his concubine the year the eldest son died.

The old man loves his concubine the most, and he loves his youngest son the most. After losing his eldest son, Gao Zurong loved his second son very much, and his doting made this second son a dandy in the village, bullying men and women, and doing all kinds of immoral things. Not only did he lose half of his family's wealth, but he also made Gao Zurong's reputation as bad as him.

Gao Zurong knew his incompetent son, and he should come out in just a short while, so he stood in the dark, ready to leave after the inside was finished. I almost lost my breath.

Just when he was angry and decided that he must strictly discipline him from now on, so that Nizi could not be allowed to act recklessly and ruin the family business and reputation accumulated by three generations, Gao Yizhen, who had just left, ran back to the yard.

"Didn't I tell you not to come over!" Seeing him coming back, Gao Zurong said angrily, sticking his cane.

"Old boss, it's not good, the thieves are here." Gao Yixuan panicked and pointed to the outside of the courtyard, with a panicked expression on his face.

"What?" Gao Zurong froze, reacted, and immediately ordered: "Quickly ring the bell and wake up everyone in the village. Women and children go into the yard to hide, and all the young and strong are on the wall to defend."

In Henan right now, the rule of the imperial court has long since collapsed. The government can only retreat to protect the big cities, but cannot control the villages. Bandits, officers and soldiers, and powerful dogs are intertwined, and they often merge with each other. The chaos is like a pot of porridge, and the villages can only unite The stronghold protects itself from looting by strongmen.

Gao Yizhen came to his senses, hurriedly picked up the iron plate at his waist, and started beating "Dang Dang Dang~", the sound pierced the tranquility of the night.

Gao Zurong didn't care about his stupid son, and hurriedly walked towards the earthen wall with a cane. When the night watchmen in the village discovered the situation, they shouted, "The thief is here, beware of the thief."

The door of the grain depot opened, and a woman with disheveled hair ran out of it, followed by Gao Yihuan, who was a little fat, also came out of the grain depot in shock.

In the yard, Gao Yizhen was beating the iron block with a wooden hammer, and shouted anxiously, "The thieves are here, they are all on the wall."

Gao Yihuan was startled by the sudden voice. He didn't succeed in his good deed, so he opened the door and came out to meet Gao Yizhen, and immediately said angrily, "I'll kill you bastard for daring to ruin my good deed."

"Young proprietor, I am wronged!" Gao Yihuan was beating, and when he saw Gao Yihuan rolling up his sleeves, he was about to hit him, he hurriedly explained: "The thief is here, and my old boss asked me to knock."

Just as he was explaining, the long-term workers sleeping in the wing rooms in the yard rushed out of the house with knives and guns.

"Where are the thieves coming here?" Gao Yihuan retracted his hand in doubt when he saw this, he heard that the village was like a frying pan, and then his face changed, and he ordered: "Go, go up the wall and see where the turtle is. "

At that moment, Gao Yihuan led more than ten people including Gao Yizhen to the earth wall. The people in the village were helping the old and the young to hide in Gao's earthen castle. The old people, women, and children directly stayed in the yard, while the men in the village Guard the wall with a shoulder pole and a hoe.

The current situation in Henan is a bit like that of the Five Husbands in China. Anyone with a little wealth will build a fort, and some big families will also choose to form a village. It's just that at that time they were defending against the barbarians, but now they are defending against bandits and officials.

Living in the area of ​​Runing, local tyrant Liu Hong built a stronghold for dozens of miles, and Dengfeng also had a wealthy family with more than [-] people to protect themselves.If there were no establishment of slaves outside the customs, the world might have entered the era of the Yellow Turban Rebellion at the end of Han Dynasty and the era of separatist rule by powerful warlords.

Gao Zurong didn't have that much power, he was just a small landlord, but he also built an earthen castle to protect his family property from harassment.

In the past few years, Henan has become more and more chaotic, and thieves often come to harass. From the way the villagers retreat into the fort, we know that the village has been attacked by thieves more than once.

Gao Yihuan had seen this kind of thing a lot, so he was not afraid of it, instead he rushed up the earth wall quickly, but when he came up, the angry expression on his face froze instantly, and then turned into panic.

In the dark night, nearly a thousand figures with torches came across the wild, and there were many more thieves than he had imagined. The flickering torches were like the galaxy in the sky.

Gao Yihuan saw the first person, with a torch in one hand and a broadsword around the head in the other, with leopard eyes and beards standing under the earth wall, but it was Liu Heizi, a well-known hob meat in Chen Liudi's world. He was a ruthless character, but Gao Yihuan But I had a few drinks with him and had some friendship.

"Father, I know that man, he's my brother!" Seeing that he was an acquaintance, Gao Yihuan knew the truth, and walked to the side of Gao Zurong with a serious face.

Usually the local thieves are only a few hundred people. Gao Zurong makes money out of harmony, and he can send them to other places to grab food if they are given some food.Nearly a thousand people came this time, and the old man was really taken aback, feeling a little uncertain.

Hearing Gao Yihuan said that he knew the thief, he thought to himself that this kid made some friends, but he didn't expect it to be useful, so he hurriedly said: "Then send them away, let them go elsewhere."

Gao Yihuan hurriedly walked to the wall, saw that Liu Heizi walked under the earthen wall, thrust a big knife into the ground domineeringly, behind him were nearly a thousand refugees carrying poles, dung forks and holding torches, he couldn't help swallowing , and then shouted down: "Brother Liu, I am Yihuan! Why did you bring my brother here."

Hearing the sound, Liu Heizi glanced at the earthen wall, and saw a fat white man sticking out his head timidly, his face couldn't help but smile.

It turned out to be Chenliu's famous second idiot. When he was wandering in Chenliu before, when he had no money, he would find this guy to eat and drink, and even set up a trick to cheat a lot of money, so Liu Heizi replied loudly with a joke: " It’s Brother Gao! In the past, you often invited your brother to eat and drink in the city, but today my brother came here to ask you to do him a favor again, to borrow some food from him, you don’t like it.”

Gao Yihuan heaved a sigh of relief when he heard that it was just a borrowing of grain. He looked back at his father and saw him stretching out a slap. There are more than 100 households that need to eat, I will give you ten stones of wheat, brother, you take your brother to look elsewhere, do you win?"

"Ten stones of wheat just want to send my brother away, even if I miss it!" Liu Heizi suddenly pulled out his knife and put it on his shoulder, "My brother is now the captain of the back neck of King Chuang, and he is collecting food for King Chuang. , If you vote for the whole village today and hand over all the food, my brother will always give you a whistle, if you don’t give it, then my brother will not be sympathetic.”

The following Liu Heizi didn't give Gao Yihuan any face at all, which made him feel a little embarrassed. The usual thieves would send away after giving one or two stones of wheat. It is too much.

After listening to the conversation, Gao Zurong knew that his son was useless, so he supported the wall with one hand and said: "This General Liu, Mr. Li from Qi County is old with the old man. For the sake of Mr. Li, can we let Gaojia Village go? General If you are willing to raise your hand, I am willing to donate thirty stones of food. The Wangjiabao next door has a lot of food, why don't the general go there to have a look."

"I am your mother, Gao Zurong, you son of a bitch, did you instruct those thieves who came to Dongcheng last year to come to our Wangjiabao? You old man, why are you so wicked!" Gaozu Rongfang said At the end, a thin man came out from the thieves below, but it was Wang Jiaping, the chief of the fort next door. He pointed at the earthen wall and cursed.

Gaojiabao and Wangjiabao are close to each other, and conflicts often arise over issues such as water sources, and armed fights often occur.When Gao Zurong saw Wang Jiaping appearing in the team of thieves, he was so shocked that he fell down, and the old man couldn't say a word.

The Wang family can also be regarded as a scholarly family, and their ancestors were Jinshi, so how could they also be thieves?

There is only one Mr. Li in Qi County, that is Li Yan, the powerful leader of Henan Province, and now he is the counselor of King Chuang, but Liu Heizi does not belong to Li Yan's faction, and he does not believe that the old man above can have anything to do with Li Yan.

He turned his head to discuss a few words with Wang Jiaping beside him, then raised his head and said: "King Chuang has besieged Kaifeng for several months, the army is in short supply of food and grass, Wang Jiabao has already taken refuge in Ben Duwei. It’s time to help King Chuang. Don’t talk too much today, I want all the food, and I also want all the people.”

Kaifeng is a big city in Henan. Li Zicheng had been besieging Kaifeng for a long time. The army did not do any production. The food near Kaifeng was eaten up by the invaders. So Li Zicheng sent several groups of people to collect food in Chenliu, Lanyang and other places. And coerced a group of people to continue to attack Kaifeng.

After finishing speaking, Liu Heizi waved his sword, and nearly a thousand refugees rushed up to the earth fortress.

The people on the bunker heard that the thieves not only wanted to rob them of food, but also forced them to be conscripted. Gao Yihuan saw the refugees approaching and his face turned pale. , fight with the thief!"

……

(End of this chapter)