About three days later, after fighting through the wind and snow, twenty or thirty trains of carriages finally made it back to Horseshoe Lake.
Without much delay, Xu Mu asked Mrs. Lian to arrange the wooden house. There were still many left over from those built previously by Qinglong Camp.
"Xiniang, please make more food."
After listening to Xu Mu's words, Xi Niang nodded repeatedly and hurriedly walked into the kitchen with several women.
Dusting off the snow lint on his body, Xu Mu smiled, walked a few steps, and personally helped the clan elder down.
"If you don't mind, I will treat this Horseshoe Lake as your home from now on. When spring comes next year, I will build more houses for you by Horseshoe Lake."
"I'd like to thank my boss."
In an instant, the two to three hundred villagers in front of Xu Mu were all looking excited. In troubled times, having a house to cover your head and food to eat is the greatest happiness.
Seeing these villagers excited, Xu Mu couldn't be the same.
More than a hundred mountain hunters and archers joined Zhuang Zi, which was enough to take Zhuang Zi's strength to the next level.
Helping the clan elder into the house, Xu Mu paused, then remembered the private school teacher.
"Mr. Wenlong, don't be surprised. Please go inside to avoid the snow."
"My boss is joking."
Jia Zhou didn't have any support, so he walked down the snowy ground with support. His body seemed to be aching, and he would occasionally take a deep breath.
Before that, this private school teacher who had taught for fourteen years was just a scholar.
"I'll take care of you for a few days, and then I'll help my boss with the accounting."
"The house in the south is warmer. Mr. Wenlong can choose one by himself."
"Thank you for your hard work, boss."
In the snow, Jia Wenlong bowed and bowed, as if his wound had been touched, and blood seeped out of his robe.
Didn't cry out in pain.
Walk calmly and stand upright. Bow deeply and roundly, bowing respectfully.
It's a deep bow.
The last bit of the scholar's character was clearly revealed in front of Xu Mu.
In the wind and snow, Xu Mu also bowed and returned the greeting. When he raised his head again, he found that Jia Zhou had stepped on his feet, holding his waist and abdomen, and walked towards the house in the south.
Xu Mu stood in silence for a while, then turned around. After taking a few steps, he felt a pain in his head. He lowered his head and saw a smelly boot with faint smoke coming out.
"Once a teacher, always a father, you little bastard, you shaved my beard and cut off my bun. Old Dao, you chopped him off for me. I might as well have been teaching a wild dog back then."
Lao Dao? I seem to have heard this name somewhere.
On the balcony, three old people were sitting together. Zhuge Fan, the one in the middle, had a face covered with horsehair and was crying miserably.
Chen Dati, who was beside him, didn't even bother to look over. He was twisting peanuts and drinking wine.
Only Xu Mu's "good father", the old scholar, drunkenly explained to Zhuge Fan and chattered endlessly.
"My son! My son Li Poshan, six thousand people resisted Beidi, and the bloody battle continued..."
Xu Mu raised his face and wanted to raise his head to say hello, but suddenly another smelly boot dropped down, so he had no choice but to give up and hurried forward to leave.
…
At the end of the tenth month, the goose-feather-like snow became more and more constant, and the path outside Horseshoe Lake was covered with several thick layers.
The shopkeepers who came and went to get wine were sighing and complaining to Xu Mu about the bleak business. Of course, the price of wine had not dropped, which was a waste of time.
"Master!"
Several more figures on horseback hurried back from outside.
"I have something to discuss with my boss." Zhou Zun got off his horse and his tone suddenly became serious.
Xu Mu frowned and took a few steps forward with Zhou Zun.
"What."
"My boss, after Dangyang County rebelled, three or four more counties rebelled outside the inner city. The city was broken by the army, and many defeated troops panicked and fled into the inner city area."
"I saw it on the other side of the official road. Many battalion soldiers were mobilized to catch and behead those defeated soldiers."
"There was a shopkeeper who was collecting wine, and he was accompanied by about a dozen guards. They were all beaten and robbed. After they were killed, their bodies were hung in an old tree by the intersection."
Xu Mu frowned more and more. The rebellion in Dangyang County was most likely caused by a spark that burned into a blazing flame.
Turning his head, Xu Mu was speechless and looked at Jia Zhou who was squatting by the door.
If I am correct, the initiator of all this is this private school teacher.
However, given the precarious situation of the Daji, even if it is not Jia Zhou, there will be another person who can light this fire all of a sudden.
Shoot the dead bird with a gun.
Xu Mu suddenly understood why Xiaomi Shang Changshiro, who had an army of 40,000 to 50,000 men, had been slow to move.
"Is there any news from Mr. Marquis?"
"I just heard that... the cough has gotten worse and worse, and I have been lying on the bed these days. But the traitor in the court became a little anxious, and gathered a lot of soldiers to guard the pass into the inner city."
"If this continues, no one will dare to come to get wine."
Xu Mu was slightly silent. He had expected such things.
When any dynasty is struggling to survive, there will be internal problems, and among them, the rebellion will only grow more and more.
No wonder Chang Shiro would say that Daji had only a few years to live. Even the Marquis with the surname Guo tried his best to forcefully extend his life.
"Zhou Zun, send more troops to send the shopkeepers who are collecting wine back to the city."
The inner city area, as the most prosperous place in the entire Epoch, if trouble also occurs, I'm afraid the days to come will become increasingly difficult.
After Zhou Zun left, Xu Mu walked up to Jia Zhou in silence and sat on the wooden stake with him.
Jia Zhou raised his head and exhaled two mouthfuls of white mist.
"Does my boss blame me?"
"Nothing."
"Even if you didn't do this, someone else would have done it. Besides, I don't receive Daji's official salary, so why should I blame you?"
"Master, please don't move." Jia Zhou smiled.
"What do you mean?"
"This scene can't burn like a prairie fire. It just started burning and doesn't count. What's more, there is a young marquis in the Daji Dynasty."
"Master Hou is ill."
Jiazhou Nunu pursed his lips and pointed to a bare forest in front of him.
"Master, let's see, is that forest bald?"
"indeed."
"No." Jia Zhou shook his head, "He is just giving you a false appearance. When the time comes, it will be full of greenery."
Xu Mu remained silent on the spot.
"Mr. Wenlong, what should I do?"
"Brew wine and sell wine. As I said, this fire can't burn. I just thought it was too slow, so I lit it."
"Mr. Wenlong has such ability, why didn't he join the court in the first place?" After hesitating for a moment, Xu Mu spoke in a solemn voice.
"Joining the imperial court? If you ask me to say something flattering now, I probably won't be able to think of it. I'm not good at flattering people. I've been around for ten or eight years and just be an old official who keeps records. Isn't it boring?
"
"When I was nineteen years old, I had not yet married a wife, and I was still a bit bookish. I didn't want to see harsh taxation, so I wrote a treatise on the state, covered my face and went to Changyang. I took advantage of the imperial guards' laziness and threw it on the side wall of the palace."
"After staying in Changyang for a few days, I heard that an old eunuch was lost and later passed into the hands of the late emperor. The late emperor watched it in the imperial study all night."
"But, the next day, it was torn apart in front of the entire court."
"Later, when people were wanted to arrest the rebels, I was so frightened that I hid in an old tenant farmer's house for eighteen days."