The biggest official in Fuldan City is Shu Haili, the leader of Kalunli, but he has been controlled by Seldan's men.
Shu Haili was sitting on the kang in the house. He glanced at the two soldiers at the door for a while, then lowered his head to think. Finally, he slowly stood up and walked two meters away under the gaze of the two soldiers, thinking for a while.
Emotionally, he bent down and saluted, and asked in a low voice with a hint of tears: "Master Jun, who is the deceased?"
As soon as he said this, the other guards in the room who had been blasted in all raised their heads and looked at the door. After hearing this, the two soldiers stared at Shu Haili with strange eyes, making him feel uncomfortable.
After a long time, a soldier finally said: "No one died."
Shu Haili didn't notice that the accent of the other party's speech was very stiff, so he bowed and continued to ask: "Then, Master Jun, who are you paying tribute to?"
The soldier rolled his eyes at him and stopped talking.
Shu Haili retreated to the Kang, took out his dry cigarette bag, sat there and started smoking. After smoking two bags of cigarettes, he stood up, picked up the teapot, and took a big sip, when he heard two soldiers outside the door suddenly drink.
:"salute!"
Shu Haili was so frightened that his hands trembled, and with a "click", the teapot fell to the ground and fell into pieces. Shu Haili looked at the teapot distressedly. He had spent a lot of money to buy this teapot when he went to Ninggu Pagoda on business a few years ago!
At this moment, he saw the soldier at the door saying to him: "You, come out!"
Several people standing in the room looked at their leader, with worried expressions on their faces. Shu Haili sighed, thinking, "It's a knife to extend your head, and it's a knife to shrink your head," so he knocked the cigarette pot on the sole of his shoe.
Knock, tuck the pipe stem into your waist, bow and walk out of the house.
Although he was mentally prepared, Shu Haili was still frightened by the scene outside and gasped!
A dozen steps away, the tall Liu Sheng and the strong Serdan stood together, looking at Karen who came out of the house with a smile on their faces.
Oh my god! Shu Haili was startled by Liu Sheng's figure. Is this still a human being? Is he the reincarnation of the mountain bear spirit? Compared with the person in front of him, he can barely reach the height of someone's chest.
Liu Sheng was also wearing white cold-proof clothes, a gray cotton hat on his head, two ear protectors hanging down, and a dark gray cold-proof mask on his face. Around him and Serdan, dozens of people
Soldiers with rifles on alert.
Shu Haili was so frightened that his legs trembled. When he was still seven or eight meters away from Liu Sheng, he knelt down.
"Slave Shu, Shu, Shu Haili, local card, card, card, Karen leads the charge, offends the Lord Tianwei!"
Liu Sheng looked at the little old man-like guy in front of him, smiled and said, "Get up, it's very cold on the ground."
"Thank you, thank you, thank you sir." Shu Haili felt a lot more at ease when he heard the other party speak fluent Mandarin. It seems that these people are indeed soldiers of the imperial court.
"How old are you?"
"This slave is forty-two this year."
"Hmm. Do you know what we do?"
"I don't know, but some blind person must have offended Lord Tianwei."
"Haha." Liu Sheng thought for a while. Zhao Xin and the others will arrive this afternoon. The first priority now is to stabilize these people. He really can't kill a group of poor guys who only have their buttocks.
.
"Yes. We are the ones sent by the imperial court from the capital to suppress bandits."
"Suppress bandits?" Shu Haili bowed and rolled his eyes again and again, thinking that the only people in this area that could be called "bandits" were the Oros people in the south. But those people had defeated the imperial troops last year.
Since then, there has been no movement. Moreover, the people in Fuldan City, from him to the people below, are all so poor that they don't even have any decent property, and many people can't even marry a wife.
Thinking of this, Shu Haili asked tentatively: "My lord, are you talking about two hundred miles away?"
Liu Sheng nodded and said, "Those are the people."
"I'm telling you." Shu Haili's expression softened, but then he became worried again. As for the soldiers and horses from the imperial court, he must serve them attentively and provide food and grass. But Fuldan City is too poor to open the pot right now.
How can we honor these military masters?
Thinking that there was still some bean cake for the horses in Karen, Shu Haili knelt on the ground and kowtowed: "My lord, please forgive me! We have been without food here for several days, and we really can't afford to supply it to you military masters. There is still some food for the horses in the warehouse right now.
Bean cakes. However, each family in the fort should still have some skins on hand, I will ask them to bring them to honor your lord in a moment."
Liu Sheng asked curiously: "What do you eat every day now?"
Shu Haili stood up and took out a paper bag from his arms. After opening it shakily, he found a small handful of ginseng seeds. "These are ginseng seeds. Just hold one in your mouth when you're hungry. Others go out to hunt for mink."
At that time, I took the skins that were going to be presented to the imperial court, and the remaining mink meat was dried. And then there’s that.”
Liu Sheng interrupted him and asked: "How many households and people are there in the fort now?"
"My lord, there are fifty-one households in the fort from top to bottom, and there are seventy-three people in Dingkou."
"Fifty households only have more than seventy people?" Liu Sheng pretended to be surprised.
"Sir, although this is the land of Longxing in our Qing Dynasty, you have also seen that it is surrounded by wasteland. In the twelfth lunar month of winter, the white-haired wind blows so hard that no one dares to go out. Alas! No one wants to marry here.
It’s a good place. I’m not afraid of your jokes, there are dozens of people in the castle who can’t find wives.”
"how about you?"
"The slave's wife is from Oroqen. The slave's father saved her family's life, so he allowed his daughter to marry the slave."
Liu Sheng changed the topic and asked: "How long have you been without food?"
"It's not enough after February 2. The days here are short in spring and summer. Although the imperial court has sent two oxen, there are not many strong laborers." Shu Haili said, and wanted to reach out to touch the dry pipe on his waist several times.
But then he put it down again. Liu Sheng saw it, and took out a box of Tianxiang cigarettes from his arms, took one and threw it towards Shu Haili.
"then!"
Shu Haili subconsciously stretched out his hand to fish it out, and found that there was a small paper roll with a white upper half and a reddish brown lower half. When he held it in front of him, a smell of tobacco entered his nostrils.
"This is.?"
"Smoke the newly released cigarettes." After Liu Sheng finished speaking, he also hung up one. Just as he was about to take out a lighter, a soldier beside him had already taken out a match and lit it for him with a click.
Liu Sheng deliberately threw the match to the other party, but then he changed his mind and thought that it would not work. What if the secret was revealed and the other party took the match and set it on fire. So he motioned to his men to light Shu Haili's cigarette.
Shu Haili looked at the matchbox in the soldier's hand in surprise, thinking that it was much easier to use than the fire box! It seems that all the good things in the world are in the capital. Seeing the bright flames rising, Shu Haili imitated Liu Sheng's look,
Put one end of the filter in your mouth and light a cigarette on the fire.
"Ahem~~"
Liu Sheng looked at him with a satisfied expression on his face after coughing twice, and then said with a smile: "Keep talking."
"Hey! Where did you talk about just now? Oh, farming. In the past, when spring started, some people from Ning Guta would be sent over to help with farming." Shu Haili said while raising his head to pay attention to Liu Sheng's reaction.
Seeing that he was listening carefully, he continued: "However, heavy rains often occur in this place in July and August. If the harvest is not harvested in time, the food in the fields will become moldy. In the past, before winter, Ning Guta would send
People sent me some food, but last year I couldn't even see a shadow."
"Then you didn't ask for it?"
"I've gone. The adults in Keningguta said that all the excess grain was transferred to Wula, Jilin, and they didn't have much food left. The slave finally begged his grandfather and grandma, and finally begged for two hundred kilograms of sorghum and two hundred kilograms of sorghum.
Jin Bean Cake, I’ve been dealing with it like this until now.”
Liu Sheng nodded and said: "I will send someone to follow you back to the fort, and you can appease the people. The grain transport team will come over in the afternoon. Will the one thousand kilograms of wheat allocated to you be enough?"
Shu Haili looked at Liu Sheng in surprise, threw away the cigarette in his hand, knelt down and kowtowed: "That's enough! That's enough! If you cook some wheat porridge every day, you can deal with Kaichun'er no matter what. Sir, you are really a life-saving Bodhisattva!"
I wish you a long life and may you be a prince forever!" He only learned this last sentence from Ning Guta.
Liu Sheng shook his head and said with a look of helplessness: "Go to the city now and tell the residents that everyone is waiting at home and are not allowed to wander around in the fort. The grain truck will arrive in the afternoon." Then he said to Serdan next to him.
: "Take someone to follow him." Serdan saluted and went down with Shu Haili.
It was only then that Shu Haili remembered that he hadn't even asked the other party's name and official position. He wanted to turn around and ask, but Serdan beside him asked: "What do you want to do?"
When Shu Haili heard that the other party was speaking Manchu, he quickly bowed and asked with a smile: "I haven't asked you, sir, what is your official position?"
Serdan thought for a while and then said: "My lord's surname is Liu Mingsheng, and he is a general under Marshal Fu."
"Ah, Marshal Fu is back?"
"Don't ask what you shouldn't ask!"
"Yes, yes. What do you call me, sir?"
"Where's all this nonsense? Let's go!"
Shu Haili glanced at the compound bow on Serdan's shoulder and the quiver on his waist, and said to himself that the bow and arrows were rare, and he didn't know what the many bowstrings and wheels on them were for.
At this time, the old castle of Fuldan City was heavily guarded. Five hundred soldiers from Beihai Town were guarding the front and back of each house with guns. The local residents were so frightened that they huddled on the kang in the house and did not dare to make a sound. Occasionally, there were
Several babies' cries rang out from the house, but were quickly suppressed.
Shu Haili looked at the scene in front of him and thought to himself that these old men from the capital were so arrogant that they wouldn't even let him out. He walked to the middle of the street, glanced at Serdan behind him, and saw that he was charging at him.
He nodded, then shouted loudly in Manchu: "I am Shu Haili, don't be afraid, everyone. This is the military master sent by the imperial court from the capital to suppress bandits."
At this time, every family felt a little relieved when they heard that they were military horses from the imperial court. They heard Shu Haili outside the door shout again: "Now the adults outside the fort take pity on us who are hungry and cold, and have specially prepared 800 horses."
Shu Haili was suddenly tapped on the shoulder. He turned around and saw Serdan's cold eyes staring at him. Shu Haili was so frightened that he trembled all over and quickly changed his words: "A thousand kilograms of grain will be specially prepared for me to wait for.
"
"Bang!" The doors of more than a dozen houses opened at once. When the people who came out saw the gun-wielding soldiers at the door, they shrank back and stood at the door and asked loudly: "Sir, what are you talking about?"
real?"
"Of course it's true! Why do you want us to suffer so much? Bamagong, you don't even have a wife, you only have one pair of pants, what can you do to lie?"
As soon as these words came out, everyone in the house, whether at the door or in the house, looked happy, as if they were the emperor's sage!
At noon, Liu Sheng asked his soldiers to collect more than a hundred compressed biscuits and delivered them to the fort residents door to door. After each family thanked the soldiers who came to deliver the food, they looked at the small piece in their hands.
The "food" wrapped in oil paper, I thought it was not enough to eat.
An hour later, when Shu Haili's wife opened the lid of the pot, a rich aroma of oil floated into the house, mixed with the aroma of sesame, green onions, and a hint of meat. There were four people in his family, and they were given a total of
The seven biscuits were boiled in water for more than an hour before they were all melted. At this time, the originally hard small cubes had turned into half a pot of paste. At this time, the family gathered in front of the stove, smelling the steaming smell, and drooling.
of secretion.
"It smells so good!" Shu Haili took the wooden shovel from his wife's hand, gently added a little bit of paste and put it in his mouth. The sweet and salty greasy taste made him almost scream out of happiness.
"Dad, I want it too~" the youngest daughter begged while tugging on Shu Haili's sleeve, shaking gently.
"Everything is available, one bowl per person."
The eldest son held the bowl and sipped the paste with a smile on his face: "Dad, this is much better than sorghum porridge."
"Yes, if you can be like the gentlemen in the capital and eat this every day, you won't change it even if you give it to the emperor."
"Dad, what does the emperor eat every day?" the little daughter asked curiously while eating.
Shu Haili was stunned for a moment, then said: "Your Majesty, your Majesty rides a tall horse to patrol the capital every day. In the sash on the horse's back, there is a thousand-year-old ginseng on one side and a gold ingot on the other. When you are hungry, you eat ginseng, and when you are thirsty, you use the ingot to buy tea.
drink."
"What's so delicious about ginseng? According to me, it's not as good as this paste." The eldest son raised his head and drank the paste in the bowl, then continued to take the second bowl from the pot.
"You know nothing! Your Majesty is the True Dragon Emperor. Can he be like us?!"
The two soldiers outside the house couldn't understand the gibbering words of Shu Haili's family. They each took out a compressed biscuit from their pockets, sighed, and took a small bite.
No matter how delicious the food is, no one can handle it. In order to rush on the road, Liu Sheng and his soldiers ate and slept in the open air. Every day they ate raw compressed biscuits or boiled compressed biscuits. Twenty in a row.
After many days of eating, all of his subordinates had dry stools, and the smell of compressed biscuits made them want to vomit. If he continued to eat like this, Liu Sheng himself would collapse.
After the fort residents had eaten, they huddled contentedly on their own fire pits and waited for the food distribution in the evening. Occasionally, a few people would circle in the yard after eating, and the soldiers did not stop them. Liu Sheng inspected the fort at noon.
After a lap, seeing this scene, I finally felt at ease.
At around four o'clock in the afternoon, with people shouting in the distance, Zhao Xin finally arrived with 3,000 people. The migrant workers in Beihai Town had already gone through the drill, and they were very specific about what they had to do when they arrived at their destination.
Clearly. As soon as the horse-drawn sleigh stopped, three thousand people began to work nervously.