The night was as cold as ice, and the cold wind was blowing outside. An oil lamp was burning in the dilapidated house. The wind penetrated through the cracks, and the flames swayed gently.
There were more than a dozen people sitting or standing in the room.
Looking at the dozen or so people in the room, Tie Mo felt a deep sense of helplessness in his heart.
As the commander-in-chief and commander of Anzhuang Fort, Tie Mo can be regarded as the talkative person of Anzhuang Fort, but in fact, there are only a dozen or so people who are willing to follow him, Tie Mo.
Although Gu Chengliang has not grown up, the prestige he has accumulated over the past ten years cannot disappear overnight. Today, one-third of the people in Anzhuang Castle still obey Gu Chengliang's orders, and most of the remaining people choose to wait and see.
It's not that Tie Mo doesn't want to teach Gu Chengliang and Yang Dayong a lesson, but time is tight right now, and he doesn't have much capital to compete with Gu Chengliang.
"I called everyone here today just to talk about my trip to the north to sell goods a few years ago. I want to hear your thoughts!"
Everyone looked at the monkey next to Tie Mo in unison. The monkey immediately frowned and whispered: "Xiao Tie, since brothers are following you, I will listen to you in everything."
Tie Mo glanced at the monkey indifferently and said, "You can't say that. It's time to take a trip to the Palace of Hell to sell goods in winter. I hope everyone can make their own decisions."
He raised his head slightly, glanced at everyone, and continued: "If you are willing to go, I am happy. If you are not willing to go, I will not force you. I will give everyone half a stick of incense time to think carefully before speaking. I don't want to wait until someone is on the road.
Hold me back."
Han Niuer and Xie Kaela looked at each other, and after a moment of silence, Xie Kaela stood up with a serious expression.
"Brother Tie, Niu'er and I will definitely follow you!"
Ruan Sangou leaned against the door panel and followed in a low voice.
"Count me in!"
One after another, all fourteen men expressed their attitude, and no one chose to withdraw.
Tie Mo flicked the wick to make the light brighter. The faint yellow light reflected the faces of a dozen people in the room.
Everyone in the room had different expressions on their faces, and naturally the thoughts in their hearts were also different.
"Okay, since no one has quit, let me talk about the next thing!"
"There are too few goods snatched from the Tatars to barter with, so we have to find ways to get more goods, but the money is not enough..."
Before he finished speaking, Han Niuer said without hesitation: "I got a lot of money from killing the Tatars before, but now I still have two hundred and sixty taels left. I will send it to Brother Tie soon!"
Tie Mo raised his hand, smiled and nodded at Han Niu'er.
"Wait until I finish my words. I have considered the money in my brothers' hands before, but even if we all put it together, it is still not enough. Smuggling goods from the North is no better than doing small business..."
"When you go to the north to sell goods, you usually risk your life. It is said that if you take a trip to the Shuangquan Sea, you will come back with ten times the gold and silver. But if you fail, you will lose everything. If you can come back alive, you are considered to be lucky. Therefore, every time
Taking away goods means accumulating a large amount of goods, otherwise, the gain outweighs the loss!"
"I also thought that the first time I take the goods, I would take it less and take it as a trip... But when I think about it, the risk of taking less goods is not the same as taking more goods? So, since we
If you want to sell goods, you either make enough money or you don’t leave..."
A dozen men thought about Tie Mo's words and all nodded silently.
The monkey sat upright with his back straight. He hesitated for a moment and said slowly: "But... we don't have enough money. I heard someone said that a trip to Shuangquan Sea costs one hundred thousand snowflakes, but you still have to have enough money."
foot."
Tie Mo smiled faintly and warmed his hands while holding the teapot on the table.
"Yes, I don't have enough money. This is the main reason why I came to you. Everyone is thinking about it, is there any way to get money quickly?"
The dozen or so men all stared with bewildered expressions. If they knew how to make money quickly, would they still be poor and hungry?
The monkey lowered his head and kept paying attention to the expression on Tie Mo's face from the corner of his eye. Suddenly, the corner of his mouth moved, but he said nothing.
After a long time, Shi Hu, who had been silent all this time, burst out angrily: "Nai Qiu! If you want to make money quickly, you can only imitate the Tatar bandits and rob the countryside!"
As soon as these words came out, more than a dozen people turned to look at Shi Hu as if they were enlightened.
Shi Hanhu’s words made people suddenly enlightened!
Robbery is definitely the fastest way to make money!
Han Hu has been stupid for nearly twenty years, but there are also times when he is smart.
Tie Mo frowned and pinched his chin as if thinking, "Robbery? That seems to be a solution!"
For a moment, the room was so quiet that one could hear needles dropping. Except for Shi Hu, who didn't think anything, everyone else knew what Tie Mo's words meant.
Robbery is definitely a good way to make money, but it means everyone has to become bandits. This is rebellion!
Tie Mo didn't speak, but looked at everyone in the room with a complicated expression. After an unknown amount of time, a cough broke the strange atmosphere.
Han Niuer grinned with a sinister smile, a hint of ferociousness appeared on his face, "Robbery is good, but isn't it just being a thief? What is more important than living? Look at what kind of life we are living?"
Anyway, I’m willing to go all out, and thieves will be thieves, at least I won’t live a miserable life.”
Han Niuer took the lead, and Xie Kaela and others also echoed softly.
In the end, only two people did not answer. One of them was a military household named Ma Miao, and the other was Ruan Sangou.
Tie Mo did not embarrass Ma Miao and Ruan Sangou, but when Ruan Sangou left, Han Niuer's low scolding came from behind.
"It's all in vain that Brother Tie worked so hard to bring Uncle Ergou back..."
.....
In the blink of an eye, two people left, and the atmosphere became a little depressing. Tie Mo stood up and laughed strangely.
"Oh, robbery is indeed a good idea, but we don't have to be thieves!"
Xie Kaela raised his head with a look of astonishment on his face, "How can you rob if you're not a thief?"
"You guys, we don't have to rob the people, why can't we rob the bandits? Recently, there have been several groups of bandits in Yehuling in the north and Baiyao Mountain in the south..."
"Robbery bandits? But we are like this..." The monkey shook his head in confusion.
More than a dozen guardsmen formed a group to suppress bandits. Who was suppressing whom?
"What's wrong with the small number of people? Brother Cao, if you think about it carefully, the bandits are just a group of rabble. As long as we deal with them properly, our chances of winning are much better than in the Tuolingpo battle!"
Tie Mo narrowed his eyes and slowly raised the corners of his mouth, "In other words, after saving some money, everyone can't risk their lives?"
The monkey's brows jumped wildly, feeling Tie Mo's gaze, and for some reason, there was a chill in his heart.
Xie Kaela raised his hand and slapped the table. The heavy sound startled everyone. He stood up and stared at the people around him.
"What else are you thinking about? If you want to live a good life, but don't want to work hard, just go home and dream!"
Hao Sanpao huddled in the corner, wiping the gun in his hand. After Xie Kaela sat down, he smiled strangely and said: "Hey, it's okay if you don't have the guts to rebel. Are you still muttering when you suppress bandits?"
Being stimulated by Hao Sanpao, everyone no longer hesitated.
...
Time is tight, and Tie Mo is a decisive person, so some things can be done as soon as he is told.
That night he wrote a letter and asked it to be sent to Li Jiasheng of the Xuan Mansion. Early the next morning, all the soldiers and horses left Anzhuang Fort in a sparse manner.
More than a dozen military households, led by Tie Mo, walked all the way south, pointing directly at Baiyao Mountain.
Baiyao Mountain is south of Anzhuangbao Mantou Mountain, about forty miles away from Anzhuangbao.
During the six years of severe drought in Guanzhong, half of Shanxi suffered from constant famines. The court failed to provide disaster relief, and starvation deaths occurred one after another. People at the bottom did not have enough to eat, so they either starved to death or made trouble.
Nowadays, in the northwest of the Ming Dynasty, refugees are everywhere. There are people pulling poles to rebel everywhere, and each of these people has a loud and strange name.
There is a saying that the heavenly kings are as numerous as dogs, and dragons and tigers roam the earth.
Whenever you pull a lever to rebel, it seems to be a very shameful thing if you don't have a resounding name.
In the past two years, several groups of bandits have appeared in Baiyao Mountain. They rely on official channels to rob the caravans of passing people.
These bandits are not many in number, but the names of the leading bandits are very strange.
Tie Mo knows only three of them!
Little red wolf, mountain tiger, little oriole...
Tie Mo never quite understood what these thieves were thinking!
The little red wolf and the mountain tiger are easy to explain, but what the hell is the little yellow warbler?