Among the fleet sailing south from Huangpi County, there was a group of very special people.

Each of them is very strong, but they are not soldiers, and there are no women among them.

They were sitting in a long row of boats and talking about it.

This is a group of several hundred trackers. They are the same group of trackers who pulled a boat upstream from the mouth of the Sheshui River the day before yesterday.

However, this group of several hundred trackers did not belong to one group, but was divided into dozens of groups.

Although sometimes large fleets will require hundreds or even thousands of trackers to work together, the actual number of trackers in daily life is usually 20 or 30 people forming a small group, which is in line with the general requirement for a ship to have only 20 or 30 people.

Can complete fiber drawing needs.

Only when there is a big job, they will temporarily form a loose alliance.

Although many of this group of hundreds of trackers knew each other, they were not together before. Instead, they were gathered one by one along the Jinshui River and around Houhu by Li Ping's troops who organized a strong wall and cleared the country to defend Jinshui.

of.

Li Ping was able to find so many of them near a large area, probably because the Jianshui River is the largest river near Wuchang except the Han River, and the life experience of traveling all over the country gave the trackers a better understanding of the difficult conditions around Jianshui.

In fact, it is most ideal for avoiding war.

It could also be a herd mentality.

When I hear that a certain team of trackers has decided to run somewhere to avoid trouble or find work, other teams of trackers are often easily influenced and follow blindly.

"Old uncle, you are the leader and the eldest. The more than 20 mouths in our group are all pointing at you to make decisions! When we reach the Yangtze River, what should we do?" A young tracker said.

Said to an old tracker with a gray beard and a furrowed face sitting next to him on a small boat.

Today, none of these trackers did any pulling. Instead, they sat in various small boats and went down the Jishui River.

The depth and width of the Sheshui River are both small. Although the area of ​​Wuhu Lake connected to the Sheishui River is vast, the water is relatively shallow in winter and the water channel connected to the Sheishui River is even narrower and difficult for large ships to pass. Therefore, the water that can be collected on the Sheishui River is

There are few big ships and many small ones.

In fact, except for the dozen or so boats that were pulled up along the Sheshui River the day before yesterday, which can only be regarded as medium-sized or even smaller boats, most of the fleet are small boats.

"Yeah yeah!"

"We all listen to you, but you also want to give us an idea!"

…

The young man's words aroused the collective resonance of the other dozen or so trackers who were crowded together in this small boat.

Although the old tracker's beard is white, his body is still strong. The exposed forearm has tight skin and obvious muscle lines. It can be seen that he usually works with everyone.

Even though he is old and yet he also practices action, his words will naturally carry weight, and he is also a true core and leader.

However, the old tracker just continued to fiddle with the pull-up handkerchief in his hand without expressing his opinion. He was still hesitant.

The pull-on handkerchief is a stretch shoulder shawl. It is often simply called pull-on. It is made of fine "white official cloth" and is what the trackers depend on for their livelihood.

, always the most meticulous.

The part of the puller that rests on the shoulder cannot have any decorations or any threads. Otherwise, even a small thread will be enough to cause the tracker's shoulders to be torn and bleed by the fiber cables made of bamboo.

That's right, fiber cables are all made of bamboo, which is hard enough and full of toughness. It is the crystallization of the wisdom of ancient working people and is more precious than pulling.

For fiber cables, we need to take the best bamboo from the mountains. We ask the best bamboo craftsmen to carefully draw the bamboo green, and then weave the flexible and thin bamboo green into fiber cables of different thicknesses.

The prepared fiber cables should be boiled in a pot of boiling sulfur water. The boiled fiber cables will not only be tough and will not be eaten by insects, but will also be smooth when entering the water and will not stick to the water when they come out.

"I heard that Boss He and Boss Zeng have already made up their minds. They plan to accept General Li's warm invitation and will continue to follow him. They are also willing to join the army." A sturdy man with a square head said anxiously.

It was obvious that he was tempted to eat military rations.

"Why, I bribed you after two days of full meals? Are you even risking your life?" the old tracker said in a very rude voice.

The square-headed man's face suddenly turned red. He argued: "They are recruiting soldiers, so why are they taking our lives? But if we become soldiers, at least we will not have to worry about food and clothing."

The old tracker stopped fiddling with his hands and said angrily: "Now no one can stop the bandit army. If you become a soldier, you think you can eat for a few days with your mouth. It's just that you will be beheaded early and later. Sooner or later, you will be like that."

One day. But as long as we still have fiber cables, no matter whether it is a bandit army or an official army, whoever occupies this place will have someone to pull fiber cables, and our days will go on."

The square-headed man was very dissatisfied and continued to retort: ​​"Now that the bandits have occupied the Han River, the government troops are plundering all over the Yangtze River, and all business travelers have been cut off, how can we find a living? Fortunately, General Li is benevolent and willing to take care of the business."

Let’s eat, no matter if he asks us to serve as soldiers or as coolies, it’s better than starving to death.”

The old tracker glared hard at the square-headed man and said, "Old man, I eat more salt than you eat rice, and I've seen a lot of things. Do you believe everything they say? How can there be such a good soldier in the world as they say?"

Wu.”

"Old uncle, we believe you! Aren't we all waiting for you to make up your mind?" The young man tried to smooth things over.

But the square-headed man didn't seem to want to give up completely. After shutting up for a moment, he muttered in a low voice: "Then Captain Han said that he was a miner more than half a year ago, and he was a hard worker like the rest of us. I don't think he lied.

.Look at the enthusiasm of the people in Huangpi County just now, it makes people cry! It can’t be fake, right? Just because you haven’t seen it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist in this world. Anyway, I believe in Company Commander Han and this army.”

The old tracker did not reply this time, but patiently listened to the complaints of the square-headed man. Maybe he was also touched in his heart. After all, his experiences in the past few days, especially what he saw and heard just now, completely overturned his original attitude.

Cognition.

He stretched his neck and looked at other ships in the distance with an irritated expression.

On a slightly larger boat that the old tracker focused on, a tall and powerful man holding a knife was chatting and laughing heartily among a group of trackers.

The trackers all know that man's name is Han Jiu. He was just the leader of a group of miners half a year ago, but now he is a military man who has no worries about food and clothing and has an official status.

He was a cheerful and trustworthy person, and the trackers could almost instinctively recognize that he was the same person as them.

Han Jiu has many characteristics of people who have exerted great efforts and suffered great hardships.

Han Jiu actually had a special talk with the old tracker yesterday afternoon, but the old tracker did not give Han Jiu any clear advice. However, Han Jiu should have gained something elsewhere, and he is still continuing to work hard.

It was obvious that Han Jiu and this well-disciplined army valued the trackers very much and wanted to recruit them into their group.

But the old tracker's life experience told him that when things go out of control, there must be monsters. When have people like them been taken seriously? This seems to be very abnormal.

However, many other people do not think so, and more people are still more willing to believe in the immediate benefits.

The young tracker finally became a little anxious.

He said carefully: "Old uncle, you also have an attitude! Our work is over, and the boats behind us will go along the water, so there is no need to stretch. But we continue to eat and drink from others, and even ride on them

You don’t have to walk to catch someone else’s boat, isn’t that shameless!”

"Why are you so anxious? We'll wait until we get there. Aren't most people still undecided?" the old tracker said impatiently.

The old tracker had a stubborn attitude here and was not in a hurry, but Han Jiu was very anxious.

Although Han Jiu was pretending to be relaxed, his eyes kept looking at the old tracker's boat inadvertently, and he felt extremely depressed.

His comrades-in-arms fought a dizzying and enjoyable battle by the Jianshui River, but he took on the laborious and laborious job of persuading people to join the army, and then managed to complete it sparsely.

He didn't even know how to explain it to Li Ping.

The stubborn old tracker was the oldest among all the trackers, and also had the highest prestige. He did not relent, and his team did not take the lead, so most of the trackers followed and watched.

Isn’t this nonsense!

But Li Ping's direct order to Han Jiu was to use his unique advantage of personal testimony to try to get most of the trackers to join them.

The reason is simple.

Although the trackers are generally not young, and their long-term specific working habits have also caused many physical injuries to them. But their sense of obedience, habits of mutual cooperation and generally strong bodies make them, like miners, the easiest to train and produce in this era.

A fighting group.

Li Ping's army was seriously short of troops, how could he let it go?

Han Jiu also understood this principle very well, but in the past few days he had been talking a lot and tried his best but with little success.

In addition to the fact that Li Ping's army did not commit any crimes, the people of Huangpi County were moved in part by the fact that Li Ping's army had saved many of them.

Some people were willing to take the initiative to join the army or follow Li Ping's army, more because they had made enemies with the peasant army in the process of counterattacking the peasant army, not just because they were moved.

But after all, this did not happen to the trackers.

Moreover, the actual favors received by the trackers are that they were not mistreated after being rounded up by force, they were given free meals, they were given money for hauling, and now they are allowed to make boats for free to return.

The trackers have feelings, but not so strongly. The experience of traveling extensively and seeing a lot for trackers also makes them more willing to be cautious and not so easily impressed.

Naturally, Han Jiu could only feel distressed because the time given to him was too short.

Although they were going down the river, due to their late departure and lack of hurry, the fleet from Huangpi County did not complete the 40-mile journey to the mouth of the Sheshui River until well after noon.

At this time, Zuo Liangyu's army had already moved away along the river.

Thousands of huge teams led by Li Ping have all gathered on the east bank of Sheshui River through several pontoon bridges that were quickly built.

Since the turbulent Yangtze River made small boats unsafe, and many carriages and horses could not be carried by small boats, marching eastward along the river by land was still an important way for them who lacked large ships for the rest of the journey.

However, after joining forces, Li Ping was not in a hurry to leave.

He ordered the release of the beauties and rough wives that Zuo Liangyu gave him yesterday, and set aside a group of people to send them to Wuchang by boat. All other people who were temporarily trapped in his support camp for various reasons included many people.

Trackers who want to go to Wuchang can also go with them.

Before crossing the Jishui River, Li Ping had already ordered the release of the people whose homes were temporarily detained around the Jishui River because of the initial clearing of the country.

Although Li Ping did not return the ships he had cleared in order to prevent the peasant army, such a kind act undoubtedly shocked the people again.
To be continued...