"This arrow is not very good. It is not the modern crossbow arrow you are used to. Is it okay?"
"No problem, just take a look." Dai Xie picked up his beloved pulley crossbow. This crossbow was not his, but it had better performance. However, the crossbow arrows looked really awkward - the craftsmanship was too rough.
Of course, if they use their homemade crossbow arrows, it will be like asking for trouble.
Aiming carefully, he pulled the trigger.
There was a "whoosh", and the crossbow arrow flew out. In the quiet and intrusive night of the 17th century, the sound was simply terrifying. Then, there was a "bang" in the dark night. The dog suddenly started barking.
From near to far, all the dogs in the Ximen Pass began to bark.
"On target!" said the person who used an infrared telescope to monitor the shooting effect.
"Evacuate!" With the order, everyone quietly disappeared into the night.
After a long time, the lights finally lit up in the dark Xiguan chamber. The family that made the noise was Liu Dalin's family. The Liu family did not have many servants, and Lingao was not a very smooth place in the past, so I heard that there was someone in the yard.
After the unusual noise, no one dared to come out immediately to investigate.
Several servants lit torches, opened the door carefully with sticks in hand, and walked around the courtyard to explore. The Liu family's place was not big, and they only entered the courtyard three times. After checking, there was no difference. They walked all the way to the side courtyard, which is Liu Dalin's house.
Where the study is located, there is no one else except the servant boy at night.
"Look! There's an arrow on the door!" a servant inside exclaimed.
Everyone ran over in two steps and reached the door of the study. They saw an arrow stuck in the wooden wall and penetrated deep into the wooden wall. The servants were dumbfounded - although Lingao is not a place where people don't pick up things on the road and don't close their doors at night, but
This is the first time I have heard of someone openly shooting arrows in the city, let alone the home of the top gentry in the county.
"Quick, go and repay the master!"
Liu Dalin had already gotten up at this time, and was dressed by his wife and maid. He also woke up from the commotion just now, expecting that his family would definitely come to repay him. Liu Dalin was the most upright person in dealing with things, and treated both his family and servants with dignity.
Treat each other neatly and neatly.
He was surprised when his family came to report that an arrow had been found on the study wall. This was something that had never happened before - even when the Li people were in trouble and the county was in crisis, no arrows had hit the city.
Been here! Bandits and robbers have almost disappeared recently, why did they suddenly make such a fuss again!
He vaguely felt that this was related to what he had posted yesterday. He said calmly: "Don't panic! Take off the arrow and wrap it up immediately. Everyone should go to bed and don't spread the news randomly!"
"Master, would you like to report to the official tomorrow morning-"
"Don't report it to the official!" Liu Dalin vetoed, "Just pretend it didn't happen." He knew very well that this matter was most likely done by Chen Minggang and his group to intimidate him.
"Humph, what a despicable and despicable person!" Liu Dalin said.
His wife was very frightened: "Master, let's report to the official. Master Wu gets along well with us, so he will definitely take care of us..."
"Madam, Mr. Wu is certainly a good person, but most of his gang of foxes and dogs are in constant conflict with Chen Minggang. What's the use of reporting to the official? It's just a few government servants coming to investigate and nothing will happen. These cheap servants came into the house,
I’m also afraid of dirtying my house!”
"master--"
"Stop talking, I have my own sense of discretion," Liu Dalin said. After all this tossing, his sleepiness disappeared, he comforted his wife a few words, and went outside to light a candle and read a book.
The book was just bought from Guangzhou by someone he had entrusted. Since there were regular ships from Gaoguang Shipping Company, it has become much more convenient for someone to buy things from Guangzhou. This was the result of several scientific expeditions in the Tianqi year and Enke in the first year of Chongzhen.
The Chinese-style anthology of imperial examinations in this book are all first-class eight-part essays. Generally, only those scholars who are eager for fame are interested in reading this kind of anthology. However, those who have won the Jinshi have the same attitude towards this kind of books as
Students after the college entrance examination are all familiar with the test question sets. Liu Dalin is so enthusiastic about it because he really wants to teach a few disciples and help the county win one or two Jinshi.
But in the imperial examination, there is a saying that there is no need to write essays in the exam. A well-written essay may not necessarily lead to success in the examination. The higher the level, the more unpredictable factors there are. Not only must the essay be written well, but also the examiner must be prepared for it.
Have a certain understanding of the person's temperament, writing style and the imperial court's intentions, and try to figure out the article that is most appealing to the examiner.
Liu Dalin studied this book and wanted to take a good look at the writing style in the academic field in the past ten years. Fortunately, he had targeted guidance when giving lectures.
However, I always find it difficult to read books. The writing that seemed wonderful at first seems to be extremely boring now.
"Empty!" Liu Dalin slapped the table. He couldn't help but think of the arrow thing again. It was clear that Chen Minggang and his gang wanted to intimidate him, but they were too courageous to do so. Could it be that the Australians were behind it?
When I think about it, I think it's impossible. Australians don't need to go to such great lengths to deal with themselves. As long as they say "the report is not accurate", no one in the county can do anything about it. Why bother to do this?
It seems that only Chen Minggang and his group could do this. To think that this person actually relied on the power of the Australians to do such a treasonous thing! Even when the Li people were in rebellion and the county was in crisis, nothing like this had ever happened in the city.
What's more, it's directed at himself! Liu Dalin's self-esteem was greatly stimulated - he has always been modest, no matter how high or low the other person is. The whole county also respects him. Now a subordinate official dares to act so blatantly
To threaten him is simply intolerable.
"You think these ghostly tricks can scare me," Liu Dalin said bitterly.
However, when he went to accuse the Australians, it was an unfounded case. He thought about it again and again and decided not to say anything for the time being. At that time, the caretaker called the housekeeper and asked him to organize all the young men in the family and work day and night.
Hands to guard against someone causing trouble.
However, early the next morning, the whole county was in great panic. It turned out that that night, in addition to the Liu Dalin family who was shot with an arrow, there were also several wealthy gentry families in the county who had knives thrown into them.
There was a sticker on it, with words written in a mess, reminding them that "too much talk will lead to mistakes" and asking them to "be careful of dog heads". Someone put a knife in the gate of the dignified county school archery garden. Even the county school
A knife was also thrown in front of the student dormitory.
This incident immediately caused a sensation in the whole city. In less than half a day, even everyone in Dongmen City knew about it. Such a thing had never happened in this county. It brought a little color to the boring life of this county. For a time, there was a lot of discussion everywhere.
Almost everyone in the discussion agreed that this was done by Chen Minggang and his group. Some people were surprised by the boldness of Chen Minggang and his group, while others lamented that the gentry had lost their prestige.
Although Liu Dalin told his family not to spread the news about someone shooting arrows, at noon, many people in the county already knew that Liu Dalin's family was also warned about someone shooting arrows. Many people came to the Liu family in sedan chairs to express their condolences. Liu Dalin was killed
It's so baffling - who leaked this news? Others came to greet them out of sincerity, but it was inconvenient for me to disappear, so I had to go out and deal with it, which made me exhausted.
Huang Huangkun also came to express his condolences. He was not afraid of having a knife inserted in the door - the bandits who opposed Huangjiazhai had sent all kinds of threats to the Huang family. He
They all laughed it off. However, what Chen Minggang and his gang did was beyond his expectation. Especially how dare they threaten Liu Dalin so nakedly!
"Uncle is frightened!"
"It's just a young man jumping off the beam. It's not worth mentioning." Liu Dalin didn't care about this.
"This matter should be reported to the official..."
"There is no need to report to the official." Liu Dalin said his thoughts again.
"Uncle, you still have to report it to the police. It doesn't matter whether the case can be solved or not. Now the news about your house being shot with arrows has spread throughout the city. If you just tolerate it like this, wouldn't everyone think you are afraid of these gangsters?
――Would you rather make big things into small things than small things into nothing?”
Liu Dalin thought that what Huang Henkun said was reasonable, and it would be fine if no one knew about it. Now that it had been spread out, it would be no good to pretend to be deaf and dumb, so he asked someone to report it to the county government.
The county responded quickly. Not long after, Dianshi came to visit Liu's house. As usual, there were some inspection procedures to be completed. Dianshi pretended to look at the arrow marks in the courtyard of the study, looked at the arrows again, and ordered his men to put them away.
physical evidence.
After the investigation, he inevitably had to say some polite words, saying that he would "solve the case within a time limit", and Liu Dalin also responded with a false story.
Everyone knows that this matter has nothing to do with the county government. The key is how the Australians plan to deal with this matter?
The answer came soon. The day after the incident happened, the people at the gate of the city saw a group of people coming from the direction of Bairentan. They were all dressed in short clothes and had smooth hair. Knowing that this was the Australian coming, they hurriedly
Send someone to report to the county magistrate.
When the county residents heard that a large group of Australians was coming to the city, they flocked to the city gate to watch the excitement. There were more than thirty people in the group, all wearing blue jackets and belts around their waists, and there were still a lot of things on the belts.
There were many things hanging on them, some had muskets on their shoulders, and some had swords on their waists and hips. They were all neatly lined up and full of energy. They all looked very powerful. They were different from the rags and rags of the county officers and soldiers they were used to seeing, and they looked like beggars.
It's the difference between cloud and mud.
"The Australian soldiers are indeed elite -" someone in the crowd watching the excitement commented.
"What's wrong with your eyes! These are all fake..."
"Hush! You're going to die, Australian! Australian!"
"Yes, yes, these Australian soldiers are all recruited locally, and some are also recruited from other provinces."
"It's really audacious to feed Australians and serve as soldiers," someone commented.
"Mr. Zhao, if you don't have enough food to eat, you must be more courageous than them."