The strong man Liu Blacksmith strode up the mountain. Before anyone arrived, a silver ingot flew over.
Li Zicheng grabbed the silver and laughed, "Why are you joining in the fun? Aren't you afraid that Lao Wangtou will break your legs?"
Liu Zongmin said with a playful smile: "The old man went to the village to catch up on something, I have the final say in the shop!" 1
He is from Lantian. He fled with his family to Mizhi when he was young. His mother remarried and settled there.
Li Zicheng entered the blacksmith shop earlier than Liu Zongmin, and the two were brothers for seven or eight years. Later, Li Zicheng failed in his studies and abducted his juniors to fight all day long, so he was kicked out of the apprenticeship by Lao Wangtou.
There have been many thieves recently, and all the county government's swords and guns are being repaired in the blacksmith shop. This time sixteen knives were brought out.
Liu Zongmin blew his nose, wiped his hands on his clothes, and said carelessly: "You don't need my elder brother to do anything for the high thief. It depends on my younger brother how to deal with him. I will lead the way."
His family lived in Buripo, less than two miles up the hill past Gao Jie's Shipangou Village. The two had known each other since childhood and had often fought.
Li Zicheng took the Yanling Sword and waved his hand, "Let's go!"
Everyone walked around in the ravine and soon arrived at Shipangou.
Liu Zongmin went directly to Gao Jie's house.
At this time, dozens of people gathered in front of the cave dwelling, and they were all watching the pig killing.
"Get out of my way!"
Liu Zongmin shouted loudly and pushed the spectators away.
When the villagers in rags saw a dozen men carrying knives, they screamed and dispersed.
Gao Jie had just shaved off the pig hair. When he looked up, Liu Zongmin had already walked closer.
"Brother, you..." 2
"Snapped!"
Liu Zongmin slapped him in the face, "You high thief, are you capable? How dare you steal my eldest brother's pig!"
"Ah? No, no, little brother..."
Gao Jie's eyes were filled with stars, he covered his face and was waiting to defend himself, but his nephew was not happy anymore.
Li Benzhen picked up the water ladle and threw it at Liu Zongmin, "Why are you screaming so loudly when a donkey begs for a son?"
"What a fool!" Liu Zongmin glared and cursed angrily, then stepped forward with his knife in hand.
"Brother!" Gao Jie hurriedly grabbed him and hugged him, "Monkey boy is not sensible, please be patient and don't be as knowledgeable as him."
But Li Benzhen was not to be outdone and bent down to pick up the woodcutter. 3
"What a request!" Liu Fangliang couldn't bear it anymore and rushed forward and kicked Li Benshen to the ground.
Gao Jie hurriedly stood in front of Liu Fangliang and kicked his nephew, "Please help me! It's so embarrassing, what do you think you can say?"
After saying that, he walked up to Li Zicheng again, bent down and apologized with a smile: "Brother, it's all a misunderstanding. I admit my mistake, I will kowtow to you old man to apologize."
Gao Jie knelt down with a plop.
"..."
Li Zicheng didn't react for a moment, which made him feel a little embarrassed.
"Get up, get up..."
Li Zicheng helped Gao Jie and said earnestly: "In the future, you should do less sneaky things. How many coins can the poor people get out of their bodies? If you have the ability, you can go to the landlords and rich people to eat and wear his mother. If you don't open for three years, you will eat for three if you open for three."
Year."
Gao Jie agreed confusedly: "Don't dare. What the elder brother taught me is that the younger brother will remember it."
He didn't know that Yinchuan Post had closed down, and he didn't dare to offend Li Zicheng because of the principle that the people would not fight with the officials.
Although a postman could not be said to have any status, Li Zicheng was well known in the county and he had a hundred ways to kill people.
The world is so dark these days.
The only thing that puzzled Gao Jie was, why did the other party tell him to steal from a wealthy family? Was he deliberately teasing?
He thought to himself, if you have a long pole and a strong one, let's give it a try!
Gao Jie plucked up the courage to test and said: "Brother, the rice vat at home has already bottomed out. No one, old or young, can survive. Brother, please show me the way. I will rob whoever you say... How about we start with the Ai family first? As long as
The eldest brother said something, and the younger brother didn't say a word and just hit his head and knocked open the door of his house."
Li Zicheng laughed and scolded: "What a fool! Are you and I capable of offending Mr. Ai?"
When he was young, he used to herd sheep for the Ai family, and was often beaten for sleeping on the stone square in front of other people's houses and peeing under the walls.
But I don't dare to take revenge.
The Ai family is full of nobles and is the largest family in Mizhi.
Ai Yingjia's grandfather was a Gongsheng student and served as a farewell driver in Jiangzhou; his uncle was the first Jinshi in Mizhi County and was promoted to the right minister of the household department.
Ai Yingjia's father once served as the deputy commander of the Army and Horse Department in the east city of the capital; his third uncle was the second Jinshi from Mizhi, and his official residence was in Shanxi, where he served as the Inspector General; and his fourth uncle was a Jinshi from Wu and served as the admiral and chief military officer of the Beijing camp.
Ai Yingjia himself was a Gongsheng student who was promoted from county magistrate to prefecture magistrate. The year before last, he returned to his hometown from the position of tong magistrate of Ganzhou.
Ai Yingjia's son Ai Wannian passed the martial arts examination as a junior student. He joined the army last year and was promoted to Shenmu General with military merit. 4 In the eighth year of Chongzhen's reign, he fought with Li Zicheng in Ning County, Gansu Province and was defeated and died.
Because there have been high-ranking officials for generations, the Ai family has annexed a large amount of land, with no less than 30,000 acres of dry and paddy fields, and the family wealth is rich.
We don't dare to provoke such local tyrants and evil gentry now, as they are simply seeking death.
When Gao Jie heard that there was room for negotiation in Li Zicheng's words, he suggested again: "Either go and rob the Chang family, the Gao family, the Ji family, no matter which family, as long as the eldest brother makes a statement, the younger brother frowns and is not raised by humans."
"You don't need to tell me if you want to rob someone."
In order to avoid future troubles, Li Zicheng had no intention of accepting Gao Jie and was too lazy to talk nonsense with him at the moment.
He turned around and ordered Liu Fangliang to cut off the pig's head and keep it - to form a good relationship, and let his younger brothers lift up the remaining pig body and take it away.
Gao Jie originally thought that the deal was a failure, but he didn't expect to get a pig's head and a basin of pig's blood, so he was grateful.
After leaving Shipangou and walking out of the mountain to the official road, the dozen or so people holding open fires were so eye-catching that Li Zicheng wanted Liu Zongmin to return to the city first with his waist knife.
Liu Zongmin didn't take it seriously, "Brother Gao has already changed his shift to guard the south gate. Please relax."
"Don't be nagging, just do what I ask you to do."
Li Zicheng didn't want to cause trouble now, and it was not yet time. He simply took off Blacksmith Liu's tattered cotton-padded jacket and wrapped up the knife in his waist.
Liu Zongmin hugged his arms and shivered non-stop, "Damn, I'm almost stung and it's still so cold. Fang Liang, come and sing a sour song to warm things up."
"Want something warm? Okay!"
Liu Fangliang rubbed her hands and sang with a smile——
"At the first watch, there was a jingle, and Brother Qinglang was standing on the door of the slave's house. The mother asked the girl what the noise was, because the northwest wind made the door latch jingle. At the second watch, there was a jingle, and Brother Qinglang entered the slave's embroidery room..."
Everyone was laughing and joking and headed straight to the county seat.
…
Gao Ligong is the small leader of Mizhi Minzhuang, and he is guarding the city gate with a few people at this time.
"Hey! Brother Li is back?"
"Thank you, big brother!"
After greeting each other, Li Zicheng patted him on the shoulder and invited, "Brother Gao, come to Yuan Butcher's house to eat meat at noon."
Gao Ligong rubbed his hands and said happily: "Okay! Let's enjoy our brother's glory."
…
Mizhi County is divided into upper and lower cities. The upper city was built first against the mountains.
During the Jiajing period, the city's population increased day by day, and the lower city was built, enclosing the entire city from the east and west gates to Huayan Temple Bay. During the Wanli period, further renovations were carried out, establishing the current layout.
Liu Zongmin took the knife back to the blacksmith shop first, while Li Zicheng and others carried the pig through the Guanlan Gate in the city and entered the upper city.
Everyone was thinking that there would be pork to eat soon, and everyone was smiling.
But this pork is really not that easy to eat, and it is destined to have twists and turns.
Because Butcher Yuan is in trouble.
A young man wearing rags and carrying a chicken coop on his head walked to the meat stall.
"Brother, the county master wants to build a water conservancy project in Liujin River. Your family will allocate two taels of silver. Please pay it."
Yuan Zongdi held his nose and sat there without even raising his eyelids.5
The boy next to him put the knife on the chopping board and shouted: "Hand your horse! Get out!" This chapter has been completed!