Of course, there are still many people who have nothing but time to play in the mud.

For example, Gu Zheng.

At this moment, he was squatting on the ground, playing with the mud out of boredom.

The rain-soaked clay was turned upside down in his hands. It became extremely smooth in a moment, and then turned into small vivid objects under his deft fingers.

There are kettles of different shapes, teacups and even some birds and animals that are well-matched in form and spirit.

If this guy doesn't become a general, he can probably do well with his skills.

Hundreds of cavalrymen under his command were washing their horses by the stream at the moment. They were running all the way, and the horses were splashed with mud.

Gu was ordered to suppress the bandits.

However, the commander who issued this order and Gu Zheng himself knew that this was just a formality.

By the time Gu Zheng arrived, those so-called gangsters had already fled into the mountains.

These bandits, who are familiar with the terrain, have a strong local foundation. From Gu Zheng's point of view, he is afraid that someone in every household will become a bandit.

Can't live anymore.

After finally surviving the winter famine, those who deserved to starve to death were almost all starved to death, and those who deserved to freeze to death were reduced to a handful of rotten bones buried in the ground.

With spring here, when everything comes to life, you can always find something to eat.

No matter how difficult it is, you still have to plant some hope in the ground.

If you don’t have seeds, you can only buy them from wealthy households at high prices, because if you don’t plant them, wouldn’t there be no hope?

After the busy spring plowing, the common people, who were physically and mentally exhausted, had not yet recovered their breath, when a new order from the court came down.

It was this order that caused the common people to completely collapse.

Pay taxes.

Last year's taxes have been paid and last year's corvee service has been completed. This year's summer or autumn taxes are still far from due!

But the imperial court issued an order to collect it in advance.

Moreover, summer taxes and autumn taxes are collected in advance together.

If it is transferred to the head of every common person, there will be almost a lot of money.

If a family has three or five members, that is three to five thousand dollars.

Even during the Peaceful New Year, it is extremely difficult for ordinary people to save three to five thousand dollars at home. What's more, since last year, the war broke out, making livelihood even more difficult.

In addition to heavy taxes, there is also corvée that is even more terrifying.

This is not to build roads and bridges to prevent floods, but to transport food and grass for the army, build ordnance, and even build castles.

This is deadly stuff.

As a result, large-scale tax evasion and evasion broke out in various places in Dali.

When there was no way to escape, it became commonplace to raise flags and pull poles to rebel.

I can't live anymore, so I might as well go up the mountain and become a bandit, and maybe I can survive.

The local officials no longer dare or are unwilling to suppress the bandits, because they are all from the countryside. Several generations back, maybe they all belong to the same ancestral hall, and all the young men have gone up to the mountains to become

If you beat the bandits and bully these orphans and widowed mothers in the local area, it will be fine if they are destitute, but if they still have people, you may not be able to take revenge at some time.

This kind of thing has never happened.

A county official forced someone to death for tax money, and then on a dark and windy month-long night, someone knocked on his door, and all the people in the house were killed.

The suppression of bandits fell to regular troops like Gu Zheng.

Especially for the troops like him who defected from behind.

The hard work, the tiring work, the unpleasant work, the thankless work, and the work that is easy to cause misfortune, naturally have to be done by them.

In fact, if Gu Zheng was more knowledgeable, life might be better.

But he was not very knowledgeable.

The five hundred cavalry under his command were all the elite of the frontier army, and the cavalry were enviable and coveted no matter what time they were.

As soon as he arrived at Lanxi, someone made explicit or covert gestures, and later asked Gu Zheng directly to ask for it, but Gu Zheng refused immediately, meaning that the chief of Lanxi County had promised him to form an army alone.

But in fact, the one who really wanted to break up the cavalry was Long Cang, the chief of Lanxi County. But he wanted to save face and was too embarrassed to lick him up if he said it, so he asked someone else to give the hint.

Gu Zheng, I didn't expect Gu Zheng to be so disrespectful. This is very unpleasant.

I think when I lured you over, it was to differentiate Gao Yingxiang's strength. As his confidant general and cavalry leader, Gu Zheng, if you surrender, it will naturally be a huge blow to Gao Yingxiang.

Times have changed, and now Gao Yingxiang has become a grasshopper after autumn. He can't jump around for a few days. Your role in Guzheng is naturally not that important. If you don't know better at this time, you can't blame others for it.

You're welcome, aren't you?

As a result, salary arrears occurred.

From time to time, people come to cause trouble.

So the painful and tiring tasks came one after another.

Gu Zheng is very tough.

The group of cavalry under his command is actually very united.

At least so far, no one has been tempted by certain people or forces to turn their backs on Gu Zheng.

This cavalry team struggled to survive in Lanxi.

However, it is not an easy task to feed a cavalry of five hundred people.

"General!" A school lieutenant came from afar with two riding tethers to beat the horse. He turned over and dismounted, his body covered with yellow mud spots. He waved to the two soldiers to brush the horse, but he came close to Gu Zheng.

, said in a low voice: "I have inquired clearly. Yugouzie's farm is about thirty miles away from here. There are more than a hundred guards in the manor, and the equipment is very good. There are about twenty archers."

Gu Zheng didn't raise his eyes, kept his hands, and in a blink of an eye, he pinched a small figure as if drawing a sword to attack. While carefully pinching the clay figure's eyebrows with his fingers, he asked: "The key is that there are good things inside."

No?"

"I heard from that tongue that there is a large warehouse, which contains about tens of thousands of stones of rice, flour and other miscellaneous grains. Other fine gold and silver are always indispensable, because Yugou Thief's brothers have always lived here."

After placing the kneaded clay figurine upright, the captain took one look and gave a thumbs up: "General, he looks like a sly dog ​​thief!"

Gu Zheng rubbed his hands, peeling off the dirt on his hands one by one, and said: "We will do it the night after tomorrow. By the way, have we made arrangements? What do the people on the mountain say?"

"It's all arranged." The captain said: "Those bandits have tried to attack this village before, but they have never been able to attack it. General, this time, we can still follow the previous example and wait until they

When we return, wipe them out, and then we can perfectly pin all the problems on them, and we can successfully remove the suspicion."

Judging from the look on the captain's face, they probably have done this kind of business not once or twice.

"Not this time!" Gu Zhengdao said: "After taking this manor, apart from taking some necessary food with us, we will give them the rest so that they can use the food and gold and silver to quickly recruit troops and expand their power."

"General, the news will leak out. These bandits are very complicated and there are no rules at all!"

"There is no need for any rules!" Gu Zheng said calmly: "Big changes are coming, and our cowardly life is coming to an end. Didn't you say that you were beaten by Long Dayan'er in order to fight for a woman some time ago?

Do you want to stop? When the time comes, you can cut off his head to vent your anger."

The captain blushed, not because he could take revenge, but because of the news: "Is the general going to counterattack? Didn't it say that Dong Xiangguo united more than a dozen tribes and formed an army of 100,000 to attack Huichuan?"

"Isn't this just right?" Gu Zheng said calmly: "When the general retreated to Huichuan, he arranged for us to defect to Lanxi, wasn't it just for today? After this battle, you can also be a general!"

The sound of the leaf whistle sounded, and the cavalry who had finished washing quickly saddled their horses, got on their horses, and galloped forward along the road.

On the big rocks on the roadside, only Gu Zheng's exquisite handicrafts were left.

Night, Yu's Farm.

As the second largest surname and the second largest force in Lanxi County, Yu Yu is naturally the second most powerful person in Lanxi County, second only to the chief leader Long Cang. Stamping his feet will cause the whole Lanxi to tremble, but it’s not a big deal.

Exaggerated words.

The farm covers a wide area, including several hills. A river has passed through it, and tens of thousands of acres of fertile farmland are at the foot of these hills. Duandi is a good place.

It is said to be Zhuangzi, but it is also a fortress. The location of the fortress is excellent. It is surrounded by the river on three sides and forms a figure in the middle. The sudden protrusion of the highland makes the fortress safe from rising water even if it is surrounded by water on three sides.

Threatening danger.

The only piece of land is where the gate of the fortress is.

If you say you want to attack a place like this, it is really difficult to defeat it unless you organize a large enough army to attack it head-on.

It is almost impossible to expect some bandits to attack such a well-defended fortress.

In the past few days, there have been bandits nearby. The old village owner Yu has recruited all the young men from outside to come back to defend. However, I heard that several gangsters have joined forces this time, and the old village owner Yu has no confidence.

So I sent someone out to ask for help from my son, and asked the county to send a large army to destroy these bandits to ensure that the manor was safe.

In the middle of the night, the lights were still brightly lit on the fort wall, and groups of forts and young men patrolled back and forth.

Suddenly, the sound of hurried horse hooves sounded in the distance, and tension suddenly rose on the fortress wall. A moment later, a fire dragon appeared in their field of vision.

"It's officers and soldiers, it's officers and soldiers!" Everyone on the fort wall became excited. The bandits would not have so many cavalry at all.

Sure enough, after a moment, the fire dragon rushed directly to the fortress. The military formation was strict and the armor was bright.
To be continued...