Yin Feng sat on the ground in a bush on the bank of the Liao River. He looked through a pile of things found on the prisoners: several Ming Dynasty army standard waist knives, several short-handled daggers produced in Mongolia, and one engraved with the Wanli Year. A large Ming army bow and a pot of arrows. There are also uniforms of Ming army soldiers.
"They are rebels. They are rebels who participated in the mutiny. They probably fled westward after the defeat in Shenyang City to join the Mongols." Shopkeeper Jin said with confidence.
"Surrender to the Mongols." Chen Zhongji asked in disbelief: "It is reasonable for those Tatar soldiers to surrender to the Mongols. Are these Han soldiers also going to surrender to the Mongolian tribes? Aren't the Mongolian tribes in the west at war with the imperial court? "Chen Zhongji has been influenced by Yin Feng's theories about the country and nation since he was a child. He is instinctively sensitive to the surrender of the Han people to the Mongols.
Shopkeeper Jin said nonchalantly: "What's so strange about that? Not too many Han people have defected to the Mongols and the Jurchens in recent years. When the Gaohuai eunuchs rebelled against the Liao Dynasty, the people in Liaodong said: I have no way to go to heaven and to the earth. There is no way. No matter how long the tax is not stopped, they all go to Yi Di and live their lives freely. The residents of Qianjiatun near the Jurchen captives were forced into Yi Di by Gaohuai eunuchs and Li Chengliang to escape. Tens of millions of families were saved, and the city was almost destroyed. And left. After the Gaohuai eunuch was dismissed the year before last, the governor went to recruit him. As a result, he couldn't hold him back and he couldn't be recruited. Some people who ran away told the governor clearly: They couldn't suffer much in Liaodong. Everyone wanted to survive by clinging to the wall and obeying the captives. No more I’m back.”
Yin Feng sneered: "It's just a dream to live freely. After leaving the customs, you still have to work hard for those Jurchens. It's just that the Ming Dynasty court forced its own people to prefer to live in barbarian places. It's really in freedom. Grave digging. Okay, Luo Aquan. What are their casualties?"
Luo Aquan said expressionlessly: "This is for the captain. This group of people is still quite strong. They injured three of our brothers. About twenty of them were injured by our steel crossbows. The rest were knocked unconscious by us with wooden sticks." There should be no serious problems. It’s just that there is a pair of siblings among them. They are only sixteen or seventeen years old. We did not deal with them harshly. We just tied them up. By the way, most of them are Mongolian Tatars."
"Mongolians." Yin Feng thought for a while and said, "They must be awake. Bring the leader here. Let me ask. Aquan, your people continue to be vigilant around..."
Li Xiao woke up at dawn with a splitting headache. He wanted to touch his head and found that his hands were tied. He looked around and found that he was sitting in a birch forest. His subordinates were lying around him listlessly.
There were only three men in black guarding them around, but all of them were holding Japanese swords and sitting there motionless. Their whole bodies still exuded murderous aura; he was very familiar with this murderous aura. Only those who have experienced the battlefield can have it. Moreover. The bulging things around their waists seemed to contain this murderous aura.
Three people formed a triangle, sitting outside Li Xiao and his men, staring at them motionless.
"These are not officers and soldiers..." Prairie hunter Bali Hai also woke up. He approached Li Xiao and said softly: "Officers and soldiers don't have so many Japanese swords. Even the chief soldier only has one Japanese sword as a plaything. But this group of people has only one Japanese sword. Bundle."
Li Xiao was startled: "What. One hand. A good Japanese sword costs more than a thousand taels of silver... You read that right."
Bali Hai nodded vigorously: "I was the last one to be knocked unconscious by them last night. I saw with my own eyes that almost all of them had Japanese swords hanging on their waists. Moreover, they didn't seem to want to kill us..."
Li Xiao said softly: "I also noticed it. I thought they were only ambushing in front. I didn't expect that there are people who can lurk behind us. And these people are ruthless. Killing us is not a problem at all... Ming'er and Where are Axiu? Where are they?" He turned to one of the guards in black and shouted: "Hey, where did you catch these two kids?"
One of the men in black was older. He gave them a cold look and said, "Speak softly, otherwise we won't be polite. What is a baby?" Although he spoke Mandarin, his accent had a distinct southern Cantonese-Guangxi accent. The smell of the area. At that time, people in the Ming Dynasty had a joke about "Southerners speaking Mandarin." So Li Xiao reacted immediately and asked strangely: "You are from Cantonese. Why are you here? Hey, you are not officers and soldiers, and neither are we." Officers and soldiers, we have something to discuss. Where are the two young men?"
"You are talking about the man and woman. They have gone to see our commander-in-chief. Please be patient. Our commander-in-chief will decide how to deal with you later..."
Bali Hai secretly asked in Li Xiao's ear: "What official position does this commander have? Who are they?"
Li Xiao slowly shook his head: "I don't know either. But it seems that they have no ill intentions. I'm just wondering how these southerners came to Liaodong."
Bali Hai didn't understand where the south was: "The people from the south are from the capital city of Guan Nei."
"You don't understand. It's farther than the capital. It goes all the way south. It takes half a year to get there from us. When I was fighting Japanese pirates in Korea, those brothers in the naval camp came from there."
The older man in black had a very good ear and asked aloud: "You fought against Japanese pirates in Korea. Do you know Shi Manzi?"
Li Xiao was startled. He sat up straight and said loudly: "Of course I know. This Shi Manzi fought with us in Biti Hall and Sichuan back then. He was extremely difficult to deal with. Many of my brothers died in their hands."
The man in black and the other two looked at each other and laughed together. The older man in black stood up and flipped his wrist. A long-handled Japanese sword appeared. He handed it to Li Xiao and said, "Do you recognize the mark on this? ."
"The flag of the Shimanzi family." Li Xiao recognized it at a glance. Engraved on this Japanese sword was the family crest of the Shimazu family of the Satsuma Domain: the Maru Cross Pattern. "Who are you?" He was surprised: Could it be? This group of people is related to Japanese pirates. But what are the Japanese pirates doing in the interior of Liaodong?
The man in black smiled coldly: "It seems that you have indeed fought against Shi Manzi. To tell you the truth: This is Shi Manzi's hometown. I went to ransack the house. The bloody hatred of your brothers. Our commander-in-chief has already replaced it. You reported everything. Just four years ago, we fought all the way to Shi Manzi's lair and killed no less than dozens of Shi Manzi. Haha. Even their old man was forced to commit suicide by our commander-in-chief. Until Today, Shi Manzi’s family still has to send us money every year...We have already done it for you."
"What. Who are you?" Li Xiao's eyes widened. He couldn't believe it in his heart.
At this time, Chen Zhongji appeared in a corner of the forest. He lowered his voice and said, "The commander-in-chief wants to see the leader of this group."
…
Scholar Yin Feng was dressed up and sitting on the carriage, playing with Li Xiao's waist knife casually.
Li Xiao was loosened and stood three feet away from Yin Feng. He clearly felt the hostility of the guards around Yin Feng. He could also see that these young people were different from the men in black. They were trained on the battlefield. He has much less murderous intent, but is very wary of him, watching his every move.
"Have you ever fought against Japanese pirates?" Yin Feng slightly cupped his hands and asked kindly.
"I entered the court for the first time in the 20th year of Wanli. I was a soldier at that time..." Li Xiao has been guessing the identity of the other party: Although Yin Feng is wearing a scholar's Confucian uniform, he is too tall and does not look like an ordinary southerner at all. And he looks very kind and generous. He has a calm and calm look that is difficult for ordinary people to achieve. He does not have the bookish air of a scholar.
Yin Feng smiled faintly: "You are a cavalryman. Those Mongols are your subordinates."
"They are all my brothers..." Li Xiao answered honestly. The aura from Yin Feng made him relax involuntarily.
Yin Feng first asked him about fighting in Korea. This was Li Xiao's most proud experience in his life. So this question just tickled his itch. Li Xiao began to let down his guard and talk loudly.
It was over. Yin Feng gave Li Xiao a Japanese sword seized from the Shimazu family in Satsuma. Li Xiao accepted it gratefully. Then he remembered that he still didn’t know the identity of the other party: “May I ask your surname? .How can anyone go to Japan to fight against Shi Manzi?"
Yin Feng looked at him and smiled. The people around him also laughed. Li Xiao, as the guard general of Zhongtun, was only a member of a hundred households in the guard station. He had indeed been fighting for twenty years. But he had never thought that the Chinese would still There will be a time when I can fly directly to Japan.
"We are a Chinese company. Oh, people from Huaxing Co., Ltd. Do you know the Taiwan Island of the Chief Secretary of Fujian?" Chen Zhongji said on the side: "We have big guns and big ships. We can do whatever we want in Japan."
"Huaxing joint number. Ah, I have heard that there is your semicolon in Shenyang City. It seems, I seem to have heard..."
Yin Feng narrowed his eyes and said with a smile: "I heard something. Brother, you might as well tell me..."
"...You are pirates. By the way, you are so willing to come here. This is not the time to do business in Liaodong right now. There is war and chaos everywhere..." When Li Xiao said this, his eyes dimmed and he lowered his head. He remembered that he was the same. One of the creators of this chaos.
"I am Brother Yin Feng, the owner of Huaxing Co., Ltd. How about you take your brothers to our Taiwan."
"Go to Taiwan. I..."
Yin Feng stood up with a smile, patted Li Xiao on the shoulder and said: "We are in urgent need of cavalry. Come and work with us. I promise you will never owe wages. Moreover, I will pay you ten times the amount of money you get from the court."
…
After chatting with Li Xiao, Yin Feng gave up the idea of continuing his inspection in Liaodong and turned south to prepare to visit the capital. Li Xiao told him that due to the many conflicts between the governor and the general, and the lack of officials within the imperial court, they were slacking off. There are quite a few. Therefore, these junior officers and soldiers have not received their pay for a year.
There were nine frontier soldiers in the Ming Dynasty. Generally, sergeants had six or seven qian, or seventy-eight qian in monthly rations. Only Liaodong "prevented captives" all year round, and the monthly rations of each army was only 4 qian. Nanwei (Jin, Fu, Hai, Gai and other four guards) are only two cents and five cents, which is much less than other places. Moreover, even this life-sustaining income may not be obtained. And officials at all levels "blatantly deduct to the point of not getting even a cent of monthly rations" or income Just one or two dollars.
Xu Hongji sighed and said: "The nine sides are all borders, but the Liao is the most important; the people on the nine sides are all the people, but the Liao is the only one suffering."
…
After a day of ideological struggle, Li Xiao agreed to go to Taiwan. Except for a few Mongolians who escaped, the rest of his subordinates followed him to the mouth of the Liaohe River, boarded the Xinxing, and left Liaodong.
Yin Feng led his people southward along the Western Liaoning Corridor and arrived in front of Shanhaiguan. They planned to go to the capital to have a look after passing Shanhaiguan.