Chapter 68 Officials and thieves burn down the village
Arriving all the way to the door of Li Er's house, I found Li Er sitting in the small yard in front of his house, whittling a wooden horse with a knife.
Xiao Qi squatted next to him, staring expectantly at the wooden horse gradually taking shape.
The monkey leaned against the door of the courtyard, coughed, and asked, "Brother Li, are you making a wooden horse for Xiao Qi?"
Li Er looked up at him and nodded.
He knew that Hou Hou was the confidant of the Second Village Leader and never looked for him on weekdays. There might be something wrong with him coming here today, so he stood up, patted Xiao Qi and said, "Uncle, go out for a while, and you can play by yourself."
He and the monkey left the yard, came to a well, and asked, "Is something wrong?"
Monkey was just ordered to talk to Li Er, so he casually picked up a topic and said, "Brother Li, what do you think of that guy Xu Baisheng?"
Li Er frowned and said: "It is not a man's behavior to talk about others behind their backs."
The monkey secretly thought: "I know he can't pee in the same pot as you!" He coughed and said: "I think he is not as good as you. The military advisor and the leader of the village should let you lead everyone to train!"
Li Er was silent for a while and said: "I didn't expect Brother Monkey to think so highly of me. There is no need to discuss this matter. I have a question to ask Brother Monkey."
"Ah, just ask!"
Li Er said slowly: "Mountain Pig, Wang Da's senior centurions are rushing to go to Jiangdu, why is Brother Monkey the only one willing to stay in the stronghold?"
Of course it's for my wife! Monkey thought, but it was too cheap to say it. He thought about it and sighed: "There must be someone staying at the village. They are not willing to stay, so I have no choice but to stay."
Li Er nodded and said: "I see. No wonder the Second Village Master likes you so much. Let's sit down and talk."
The monkey secretly squeezed his sweat and thought to himself: "Damn, this guy has the same personality as a wild boar. He takes everything so seriously. Why does the lady like him so much?"
Monkey came up with a way to deal with the wild boar, saying as little as possible and echoing Li Er's words more. The two talked for a while, and Li Er actually expressed his confidence to him.
"Brother Monkey, in my opinion, both the military advisor and the leader of the village have long-term ambitions. From now on, we and I will inevitably fight on the battlefield. Please pay more attention to your training in the future!"
Monkey hurriedly agreed.
Li Er took out a pamphlet from his arms, handed it to the monkey and said, "Take this military book and read it. It will be good for you in the future!"
The monkey hurriedly waved his hand and said with a smile: "Thank you very much, Brother Li, for your kindness, but I can't read!"
Li Er smiled and said: "Actually, a few years ago, I didn't know a few words. This is easy. I will have time to teach you how to read in the future, right?"
The monkey secretly complained, but then he thought, if Yang Ying knew that he was learning calligraphy from Li Er, he would definitely praise him, so he gritted his teeth and agreed.
"Brother Monkey! Brother Monkey! The leader of the third village asked you to come over." A voice came from the distance.
The monkey recognized the man as the brother in charge of detecting intelligence in the village, and knew that something big was going on, so he called Li Er to go with him.
The two came to the meeting hall and met Guo Niansheng.
"Li Er is here too. Well, that's good. Zhao Desheng sent someone over just now to report that he has brought his family to Jiangdu and is expected to arrive at the foot of the mountain tomorrow. You two bring some brothers and go over to meet them." p>
The two of them took the order and went to Xu Baisheng to explain the situation, then ordered fifty village soldiers and headed southeast.
……
"Brother, why is the suburb of Jiangdu becoming more and more chaotic!" A man said to Zhao Desheng in front.
Zhao Desheng held his horse tightly and walked in front of the team, saying in a deep voice: "Hangzhou has been captured, and Jiangdu will certainly not be spared. Let the brothers speed up, this is the last stretch of the journey, and we can reach the village tomorrow!" p>
Behind him, followed a long convoy, the cars were old ox carts and donkey carts, and the people were old, weak, women and children in rags, about 800 people.
One hundred and fifty men armed with knives, guns, hoes and other weapons protected the convoy.
This convoy was the family members of Zhao Desheng and others. There were only more than 500 people at the beginning. On the way from Zhenzhou to Jiangdu, they encountered many refugees one after another.
Zhao Desheng had a dark face but a kind heart. He thought that Longtan Village had recruited so many refugees and that these people were almost starving to death, so he took them with him.
We also encountered bandits on the road, but they were all small villages. The leader was stabbed to death by Zhao Desheng, and the rest scattered and fled.
The motorcade walked along the road for a while, and suddenly saw a figure running in front of it. Zhao Desheng waved his hand to signal the team to stop, tightened his grip on the horse, and concentrated on alert.
The man ran closer and turned out to be a farmer, about forty years old. When he saw Zhao Desheng and others, he stopped and showed fear.
Zhao Desheng is well-informed and knows that many bandits like to dress up as farmers and go up to check the details of the fleet to judge whether to rob the property, so he stopped the man.
"Where are you from? What are you doing here?"
When the man saw a large group of people in the team, his fear a little lessened and he said: "I am from Shangshui Village, and the officials and thieves are forcing soldiers in the village to rob food! Alas, what kind of world is this!"
Zhao Desheng was surprised and said: "You mean officers and soldiers?"
The man showed resentment and said: "They are official thieves! Those people were originally a group of bandits from Qingniu Mountain. They somehow wore official skins and blatantly stole food and people!"
Zhao Desheng asked: "How many people are there?"
The man said: "No. 50 or 60 people, all armed with swords and guns, very vicious! Alas, if I had known this, I should have listened to Taigong He and moved the whole village to the northern suburbs!"
"Who is Taigong He?" Zhao Desheng asked.
"He is the richest family in the village. His ancestors have been officials. The He family has always been very kind to the villagers, so everyone respects him!"
"Why does he want you to move to the northern suburbs?" Zhao Desheng asked again.
The man sighed: "Tai Gong He said that Longtan Village in the northern suburbs was a righteous village. After they were incorporated into the government, they had nothing to do with Minqiu and helped fight against thieves. All the villages in the northern suburbs lived a good life!" p>
Zhao Desheng was stunned for a long time and said blankly: "You said Longtan Village was taken over by the government?"
The man said: "Yes, it's a pity that the government didn't send them to guard the west gate, otherwise our people in the western suburbs would be able to live a peaceful life!"
Zhao Desheng's heart was in turmoil.
He is a traitor to the imperial court. Now that Longtan Village is under imperial edict, his situation becomes more delicate. Maybe Longtan Village is worried about his official status and is unwilling to accept him.
A man next to him pulled Zhao Desheng's arm and said, "Brother, what should I do? Should we go to Longtan Village?"
Zhao Desheng remained silent.
The farmers over there were surprised when they heard this: "Aren't you from Longtan Village?"
Zhao Desheng stuck the word "yes" in his mouth but couldn't spit it out.
The man hurriedly rushed forward and begged: "Please save our Zhuangzi!"
Zhao Desheng took a deep breath and said to himself: "No matter whether Longtan Village accepts him or not, he can't just ignore these people. Maybe if he saves them, he will have another way out!" He immediately said: "Okay, we will help you drive away.
Get rid of those guys!"
The man nodded repeatedly, announced his name as Liu Wu, and led Zhao Desheng and others forward.
After leading the way for a while, Zhao Desheng said he wanted to turn into a small road. Zhao Desheng left fifty men to protect his family and led a hundred people towards the small road.
Not long after walking along the dirt road, thick smoke suddenly rose in front of him. Liu Wu stamped his feet and said with hatred: "These damn thieves actually set fire to the village."
After walking a few more steps, a meadow appeared in front of me, and a woman's faint scream was heard from a haystack.
Zhao Desheng strode over and found an officer raping a woman.
The woman struggled fiercely, but the officers and soldiers never succeeded. Just when she was about to drive straight in, she suddenly felt a tightness in her back, and she flew up like a cloud.
Zhao Desheng threw the officer into the air and raised the horse's chariot. The officer fell directly onto the chariot's head, struggled a few times with his limbs, tilted his head and died.
"Hey, isn't this the eldest lady of the He family? Why are you here? Where is Grandpa He?" Liu Wu looked at the woman and asked.
The woman lowered her head, folded her arms and trembled. She heard the voice sounded familiar. She raised her head and saw that she was from the same village. She cried and said: "They broke into the little girl's house, killed many servants, and even captured me here.
Daddy is only afraid...I am afraid that he is already dead."
Zhao Desheng said angrily: "You guys wait here, I will take people to kill them!"
"I'll show you the way!" Liu Wu said hurriedly.
The daughter of the He family was frightened and felt that it would be safer to follow Zhao Desheng, so she held up her skirt and followed behind in small steps.