Shang Cheng sent a sigh of emotion, seeing that Guan Miao just put his hands together and bowed his head, and it was not good to force him to come over and sit with him to talk, his palm pressed the ribs in his left chest that were faintly painful through the wet clothes and gently stroked it, and then changed the topic and asked: "Lao Guan, your family is an old man from Ximazhi, I want to ask you something." A few times ago, I heard from you that Dujiadian is a village that has long been abandoned, so it was occupied by bandits as a lair. But I see today that this store has mountains and rivers, and it is a very good place, how can you say that you will abandon it? I'm afraid there are more than ten acres of flat land outside this village, right? It seems that there were still people cultivating the ridges and ditches a few years ago, but there are only two pieces of ripe land that have been reclaimed in the past two years...... I wondered, didn't anyone think it was a pity that this land was barren? Was the store abandoned because of poor traffic, or was it something else? ”

Guan Miao hurriedly said: "I have no connection with the traffic." Adults, please see, this road in front of Dujiadian is the post road built by Gaozong of the former Tang Dynasty, connecting Mazhi Dazhai in the east, connecting Beizheng, crossing Baichuan in the west, passing through Mengguan to Chuxian County directly to Duanzhou, since it is the important place of Dongyanshan, otherwise how could there be this Dujiadian military village back then? A few decades ago, when the road was smooth, the merchants who traveled to and from Duanzhou in North Zheng were willing to go this way, and the mobilization of military horses in the imperial court also passed through here......

Shang Cheng's tongue was against Shang'e, staring at the road pointed by Guan Xuan without speaking. The post road is in disrepair for a long time, the side edge is broken and the road is bumpy, there is no trace of the official road, and the pedestrian trampling out of the sidewalk is not a little different, a few street trees are withered and withered, bare and lonely on both sides of the road, indescribably bleak and desolate. Looking at such a road, listening to Guan Xuan's narration, and then imagining the busy scene of cars and goods on the road back then...... Liang Jiu sighed and asked, "Why did it become abandoned later?" ”

Guan Miao smiled bitterly and said, "There's no water." Since the Barbarian River outside the mountains in the fourth year of Qiming was cut off, this large area in the east has been dry for many years, and the closer to the grassland, the more severe the drought becomes. Xima is straight, although the West River only has two and a half seasons of water throughout the year, but there is always water...... If you go into the mountains, you won't be able to drink enough, and where will there be water to water the ground? It was because of the lack of water that gradually the caravan and horses stopped taking this road, and the road became desolate, and the villages that had developed along the way by the post road were all dilapidated, and those who had a way moved south, and there was no way to ......" He spread his hands and smiled helplessly.

Shang Cheng frowned and asked, "There are also people who have moved out in West Malaysia?" How not? ”

Guan Xuan said: "It's not too much, after all, it's all land handed down by ancestors, where can you say it's lost?" And now that the fields can't be sold at a price, and the cost of moving their homes can't be removed, who would dare to drag their families to the south to make a living? There are only so many families who can do this, and they will re-establish their family business in Yanzhou, Duanzhou in the south, and leave one or two people in charge here......" He said as he suddenly darkened his face, turned his face to look at the flagpole in the middle of the village, and his eyes were already showing a fierce light. "The Lu family is this kind of capable family, more than ten years ago spent a lot of money to buy acres of Xuntian in Yanzhou, and climbed the door to 'high relatives', and now they are also people with heads and faces in Yanzhou Mansion......"

He didn't mention the Lu family, Shang Cheng had almost forgotten about it, and only then did he remember that Sun Zhongshan's hidden secrets were exposed, and that a kid surnamed Lu made them bad. He pressed his hands on his chest, took a deep breath, and shouted loudly, "Stone! After shouting twice and no one answered, his face sank and he was about to get angry, and Bao Kan ran along the wall with a brand-new cotton robe in his hand.

Bao Kan helped him strip off his wet robe, and said, "Shi and Qian Laosan are in the grain treasury of the bandits in front. He took out the wound medicine raw cloth from his arms and handed it to Guan Xuan, "Help take it", his fingers pressed around Shang Cheng's wound, and at the end of the sentence "hurt two ribs", he took the water hyacinth to wash the wound, and then sprinkled the wound medicine, wrapped it back and forth with raw cloth strips and shoulders and chest, tied a knot hard, and said indifferently: "Small injury, just rest for ten days and half a month." ”

Shang Cheng was so pained by him that his mouth sizzled and snorted, seeing Guan Xuan staring intently at the scars on his body, he tried to squeeze out a smile on his face and said, "Lao Guan, you are also the one who leads Xuntian, are you still afraid of this?" ”

Guan Xuan swallowed his saliva vigorously, and said with some shame: "Let the adults laugh." My family's Xuntian was received by the ninth generation of ancestors when they were fighting the Tuqi people, and it has been fifty-nine spring and autumn seasons so far; Since then, there has been a drought and a shortage of water for many years, and the people of Tuqi have not come to Koubian, and few of the children of the Guan family have gone to the battlefield again. Don't hide it from my lord, although I am also a little martial arts trained by my ancestors, I can fight with real swords and guns, and today is the first time in my life. …… So at first glance, when I saw the adult's injury, I was indeed a little surprised. He looked at the bright red scars on Shang Cheng's upper body, chest, shoulders and arms, and muttered for a while, "It's just that the adult's injury is really ...... It's just too much. It's all new injuries......"

Bao Kan helped Shang Cheng put on a clean new cotton robe and said to Guan Xuan: "Do you think my family is a person who lies on the ancestral merit book to cheat on food and drink?" These seven grades are returned to the German lieutenant, and they are exchanged for their lives! ”

Guan Xuan nodded and shook his head, puffed out his lips and smacked his tongue for a long time, but he didn't say a word, just sighed faintly.

Shang Cheng walked back and forth on the wall for a few steps, stretched his arms and waist, felt that the injury on the ribs was not a big deal, and was about to ask if the bandits in the village had been cleaned up, a border soldier came to report, except for a few bandits who ran away when they saw that something was wrong, the rest of the bandits had all surrendered, and now the border army and Xiangyong were cleaning the battlefield; Sun Zhongshan and Jin Xi were counting the number of people and summarizing the battle situation, and they were about to seal the treasury and lock up the money and grain, and they couldn't report to him for a while, but the bandits' "meeting hall" had been cleared out, so they asked him to go over and rest first.

When he led Bao Kanguan to the so-called "council hall", the three border army officers had already arrived, and they were warming themselves around a red-hot charcoal stove in the hall. Qian Laosan held a large clay sea bowl in his hand, and sprinkled the brown liquid on the charcoal fire in a circle against the edge of the basin, and the green smoke rose with the sound of clattering. There was a pungent smell of vinegar in the room. Sun Zhongshan and Kim Hee were talking in a whisper together. When they saw him come in, they all got up to greet him.

Shang Cheng sat down first, and asked everyone else to sit, and slowly slipped away with a cup of tea and soup.

Sun Zhongshan was the commander of the border army named by Shang Cheng, and he didn't give in to Jin Xiqian, so he sat down and went straight to the topic: In this battle, the border army dispatched one hundred and eight people, 22 dead and 24 wounded, and the village brave squire dispatched 29 people, 9 dead and 16 wounded; The number of bandits in Dujiadian has been repeatedly verified, and there are a total of 127 people since the habitual bandits broke through the sky, of which Zhao Jiuniang, the "second master", is not at "home", and a hidden pile may have fled after the border army started, so the actual number of people in the village is 125 people, of which the corpses of 57 bandits led by the sky have been found and confirmed, 56 bandits have been captured, and another 12 are missing; The Sanshi border army is searching around the stockade. The border army also arrested several people from the Lu family in Xuntian, Yanzhou, and Sun Zhongshan didn't know what to do with them, so he first detained these six people alone. There are eleven "meat tickets" kidnapped by bandits in the stockade, all of whom are women, who have been rescued, and specially sent people to protect them from harassing them by stupid soldiers. After counting, a total of swords, guns, weapons, pack horses, mules, copper coins, gold and silver, wheat and millet and beans and other grains were seized. There are also 30 steppe horses......

Shang Chenghuan asked with interest, "Is it the horse of the Tuqi people?" ”

Sun Zhongshan nodded: "Yes." The Turquoise guide ......" Kim Hee said beside him, "Suza." Sun Zhongshan said: "Yes, it's him, Suza." There were three Tuqi women in the meat ticket, and Suza had asked in the past, and it was from a tribe of Ka...... Kad tribe! Those three were women of the Kade family, who had been kidnapped by bandits to extort horses. Seven were tied up before, and thirty horses were exchanged for four, and these three were not important people, and the Kade family was reluctant to give up the horses, so they did not redeem them. The horses are all good horses, all of them are three or four years old mussels, and Suza said that he was the war horse of Tuchuz. ”

Shang Cheng held the cup and sighed, staring at the fire. Now whether it is a horse or a trophy, he is not busy thinking about it, the first thing to think about is how to deal with a hot problem and get through it one by one, what to do? In fact, he had already planned this matter in his heart, but he couldn't act arbitrarily on such a big matter, he had to listen to the opinions of his subordinates, and the most important thing was that he had to let them have the same mind as him. Jin Xi, Qian Laosan and Bao Kan don't have to think about it, they are of the same heart as him. As for Sun Zhongshan, he has already noticed it, Sun Zhongshan looked very calm when he mentioned the bandit who broke through the sky, it seems that Jin Xi has told Sun Zhongshan all the things that have broken through the sky, and he must have explained everything very clearly, no need to ask, Sun Zhongshan, a person who understands, must know how to do it.

He took a sip from his cup, and quietly glanced at Guan Xuan through the steaming mist at the mouth of the cup. Guan Xuan obviously didn't hear the mystery in Sun Zhongshan's words, but just listened with a wooden face.

He put down the cup, coughed lightly, and said: "This is a big victory for me to suppress bandits in Mazhi Xizhai, and I want to write a detailed battle table and submit it to the Yamen, the commander of the Dazhai and Beizheng border armies, to ask for merit for the soldiers and the villagers." ”

Hearing him say this, the other five people all had different expressions. It didn't matter if he was a tong, he pulled the charcoal with tongs, and picked out all the charcoal that had not burned through and set it aside. Guan Xuan's face was full of red light, and he rubbed his hands excitedly, and kept exhaling. Qian Laosan was both excited and nervous, straightened up and sat on the drum stool, his eyes were leveled and trying to make himself appear calm and steady, and the hand pressing on his knee barely pulled his pants off the line. Jin Xi was also very excited, but his expression was mixed with nervousness and apprehension, and he secretly glanced at him several times, looking like he wanted to speak and stopped. However, Sun Zhongshan has been with him for a long time, and he knows him better, only staring at the fire with his eyelids down, sitting upright and waiting for his next step.

Shang Cheng continued: "The swords, guns, and weapons in the spoils of war are filled in the actual numbers, and the money and grain are only reported as half of the money, one and one hundred and twenty yuan, plus a fraction of one hundred and ten wen, and the grain is forty or fifty stones, and the types are filled in randomly. Horses and mules can be written casually, ten or eight. As for the gold and silver, they were not reported, but distributed to the soldiers. The wounded border soldiers who died in the battle were all generously compensated, and the township warriors were given preferential treatment by two percent compared to the border army's examples. Remember, these are two different things from the rewards of the commanders and envoys of Dazhai and the border army, and each counts its own thing. The grassland horses are all left in the border army, and the rest of the livestock Guan You is half of the two families, and you will distribute it yourself. Several women captured by the bandits had to be questioned separately about the situation in their homes, paid for their travel, and found reliable people to send them back. A couple of women ......" he frowned. This one is the most troublesome. Of course, it is the best way to exchange these women for horses, but if the matter is stabbed, he will not be able to eat, and he will be able to walk around, and it is enough to kill him for the crime of "fornicating with foreigners and plundering people". But these women were sent back for nothing...... Truth be told, he was reluctant. Just as he was thinking of ideas with dry eyebrows, Sun Zhongshan said, "You can let them stay." ”

Shang Cheng also opened his mouth, Jin Xi laughed first, half joking and half seriously: "Lao Sun misses his daughter-in-law?" Don't blame us for not reminding you, you are an official, and you are an aunt who grew up drinking mare's milk on the grassland, so don't even think about wearing this officer armor. ”

Sun Zhongshan smiled and said, "Where did I think." We can't ask for it, maybe the soldiers below are willing to marry the lady of Tu Duci one by one" turned his face to Shang Cheng and said, "My lord doesn't know, the border army has a hard life, and some old border soldiers are in their thirties and forties and still can't get a daughter-in-law, and there is no quiet time to break pots and bowls all day long." This man has no home, and he is always impetuous. I think we don't want to send these three grassland women back, and if we don't send them back, there is no place to settle them, so we just ask the old border soldiers to see if there is anyone willing to ask for a grassland daughter-in-law. One by one, this is not to ask for a daughter-in-law, it is just a number of women in the house, and it is easy to reply if you ask from above. ”

Shang Cheng heard him say that "the old border army is impetuous, in his thirties and forties", a hint of a mocking smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, and it was fleeting, and he nodded and said, "Then you can do it." "This is actually to hand over the three grassland women to Sun Zhongshan to arrange. Jin Xi and Qian Laosan have no opinion. Ximazhi has not met a sword soldier for decades, and his life is stable, so many border army officers in Xiazhai have families, and some soldiers with good family backgrounds have also begged for daughters-in-law, but Sun Zhongshan brought all the soldiers who came from Ruqi, and none of them got married.

"Of the 279 bandits in Dujiadian, only 12 escaped......"

The words of the young boss made the faces of the three officers change color together, and they looked at Shang Cheng together. This is a false achievement, and it is a terrible thing to find out!

Jin Xi's face turned pale, and he stammered: "This, I'm afraid this won't work." The command of the border army, the yamen, must check the first-class prisoners, and they will ...... Only...... Just ......" He said three "just" words in succession, but no more "just" came out.

Shang Cheng grinned and continued: "...... Twelve escaped and are searching with all their might. The following article must be added: This battle is won, the whole battle is in time, and the command of the Beizheng border army is well planned. specially get a box and send the head that broke through the sky to command the yamen, and they will know how to deal with it. In the credit, we account for one hundred and sixty heads, Lao Guan reported ten, Lao You reported fifteen, and Lao Guan's third brother also reported ten and one He made great contributions, and this honor is what he deserves. ”

"No, no...... Not so many heads. ”

"Cut down all the captives." Shang Cheng ignored the consternation and panic of everyone, poured the cold tea in the cup, poured himself a cup of hot soup, and didn't drink it, just held it in his hand to keep warm, looked at the dark night outside the house, and sneered at the corner of his mouth, "Lang Lang Qiankun, Qingping the world, what is not good to do, do you have to think that the law of the country is child's play?" The last sentence almost burst out from between his teeth, and his tone was cold and low, making people shudder. The four officers and Guan Jian could no longer sit still, and stood up together and bowed down to listen to his lesson.

Sun Zhongshan asked, "Then, what should the people of the Lu family do?" ”

"Cut it, and send the head to Beizheng. Dare to be a bandit, this is the end. ”

Sun Zhongshan swallowed his spit and said with difficulty: "I'm afraid that adults don't know that the Lu family is leading Xuntian, and the current Yanzhou Tongju is a family of sons and daughters, if, if ......"

"What is the value of a fake Xuntian who cuts a tiger to make a big banner? If you cut it, you cut it. Shang Cheng stroked the scar on his face and said, "Maybe the Lu family still dares to come to seek revenge?" Don't want to live? If I don't hold them accountable for the sin of fornication, they should burn incense and worship the Bodhisattva. Is there anything to eat? After running for a long time and fighting for half a day, my stomach is hungry! ”

Jin Xi had already woken up from the panic just now, and hurriedly said, "Yes, yes!" ”

"If you have it, bring it quickly! Rice flour cake and steamed vegetable dumplings, anything is good, just eat it! Damn it, I didn't die at the hands of bandits, if I was starved to death by a few of you here, it would be wronged! ”

Several officers laughed together, and Guan Xuan, who won the big prize, laughed so much that his eyes narrowed into a slit.