When it was almost noon, the rain and snow that had been going on for three or four days suddenly stopped. Although the sky was still covered with dark clouds, the sun passed through the gaps between the clouds, and seized the time to transmit the golden sunlight on the small hill where the military village was located.

The provisions brought by the pack team had been collected into the storehouse, the pack horses and mules had been led to the stables behind the military village to feed the grass and feed, and a corner of the small school yard was once again idle, except for the messy footprints on the ground and the horse and mule droppings that had been trampled everywhere, there was nothing to prove how lively this place had been a moment ago. A few stakes that had been used to tie horses had been used for a long time, and now they had come in handy. Fine hemp rope has been involved between the wooden stakes, and from time to time there are border soldiers who come over with their covers, and spread the bedding with rough patches of various colors on the hemp rope, and they want to take advantage of the good weather to dry the wet and moldy bedding well. Soon, there was a blue-and-blue flower landscape.

Behind the military village, several old barracks that had been vacant for many years suddenly became lively, and most of the unworthy border soldiers gathered here, watching a few border households move. Yikes! The border households can even live in the military village! It's so unusual! This is even rarer than being a border army and being able to eat and hug your belly in winter! Could it be that the sun is coming out in the west?

The border soldiers whispered about the unusual thing, whispering their "insights" and criticizing the character of every woman who came and went in these barracks. Even if these women are all dressed with shaved chins and convex cheekbones, and now they are wearing the same bloated black coarse cotton robes as them, which does not show their status at all, and on weekdays, it is these women who help them sew and mend these rude men, and they are familiar faces to each other, but the soldiers are still unwilling to let go of this opportunity, until they stare at every woman in the border household with red faces, and still have no intention of giving up.

From a large open shed farther back, there was a sudden shout in a long tone: "Open a meal!" Let's eat one by one! ”

This sound is obviously more attractive than a few big girls and little daughters-in-law, it is like a call to go around, so that the crowd of onlookers disperses in an instant like the sea at low tide. The border soldiers who had been prepared for a long time knocked the earthen bowls and chopsticks in their hands loudly, shouted and cheered in their mouths, and rushed towards the house on the mud and water.

The fat guy jumped on the whetstone at the door of the gang room, and announced over and over again in a grand manner: "Venison minced pickle soup, a big bowl for one person!" One white flour cake per person, one yellow flour bun for one person, and the bran dumplings are as you like! He swung the long-handled spoon in his hand like a spear, and every now and then he struck the restless fellows who wanted to eat more and take more. If you command your lordship, let you muddy balls also get oily meat! Suffer your mother one by one! Put it down! One cake per person! With a rebuke from him, the spoon struck exactly on the hand of a fellow......

The greedy guy retracted his hand and scolded unconvinced: "Take more cakes and you howl bird feathers!" It's about your plague! ”

The gang leader puffed out his eyes and was about to scold back, when a stack of shouts rolled out of the gang room: "Dodge, dodge, dodge!" Beware of scalding! ”

The crowd parted awkwardly, and the two men, one carrying a steaming barrel and the other carrying a large sieve basket, hurried through the crowd and trotted to the command post. The gang leader pointed to the two soldiers and taught the guy who stole just now: "See? The adults are still hungry, so I'll give you guys a ride first! You don't know what to do! "There were also people in the crowd who were scolding. The guy had already seen that the sieve basket in the hands of the soldiers was also less bread and more bran and vegetable dumplings, and he also regretted that he was talking too much, and found that he was angry, so he didn't dare to speak again, blushing and shrinking his neck, grabbing his own meat soup and squeezing out of the crowd.

The gang leader did not give up, and chased the back of the soldier with his waist crossed, still scolding: "...... Bird feather egg thing! The brothers who sent grain from Zhongzhai are also two buns, which one do you eat more and occupy more! Even the commander himself only has this weight, which ** hair are you, and you dare to eat two cakes? ……”

Tian Xiaowu also blended in with the crowd and slowly moved forward. But the position he grabbed was not good, and by the time he finally squeezed in front of the soup pot, the broth had no more meat than the soup. The soldiers went down with a spoonful and only filled him with half a bowl of soup. He looked at the "broth" with few oil flowers, there was no expression on his face, and the spit that the face man sprayed on his face did not wipe the stars, so he dragged over to get his share of food.

Most of the border soldiers who received food did not return to the barracks, but they took their bowls and food, and gathered around the "new homes" of the border households like a swarm of wild bees returning to their nests, and while devouring bread and buns, they continued to look at the women with great interest.

Tian Xiaowu didn't stop here. He went back to the barracks with a gloomy face, and then threw himself on the big kang.

He sat on the edge of the big kang and stared blankly at the sunlight crawling on the ground at the door and feet. I don't know how much time passed, but I raised my head with the bowl, as if drinking, poured most of the bowl of soup into my stomach in one goo, and then smashed the pottery bowl on the mud floor like a gas.

The big bowl clattered into several large and small pieces......

He stared at the broken pottery shard with bulging eyes. Because of the depression and anger entangled in his chest, the muscles on his bearded cheeks were ridged, and the small sarcoma on his upper lip also shone a terrible red. After a long time, he sighed and put the bread he had clenched tightly in his hand to the head of his bed. He comforted himself in his heart: Forget it, everything is over, he has been kicked into the border army now, what do you want? What else? But a voice immediately stood up and sneered: That's it? Would you really like to leave it at that? Look at the monks, look at what people look like now, are you really willing to be a little border soldier? Look at the monk's cyan officer robe, you could have been an officer, you could have had the opportunity to wear an officer's robe...... Now is your chance! You can go and ask the monk to help you, maybe you can find justice and come back......

His heart pounded immediately. Yes, he can go and ask the monk, maybe the monk brother has a way to help him get justice! For the sake of the past relationship between the two people, it is impossible for Brother Monk not to help himself! …… He should be able to help himself, right?

But he wasn't sure if Shang Cheng would help him in the end. After all, Monk Shang is now a big officer, and the cloud pattern jade pendant, the lieutenant of Guide, these things are as far away to him as the clouds on the horizon...... Will he still help himself? Is he willing to help his former companion? It's hard to say......

Another person came in the barracks, but he only glanced at it and didn't pay attention to it, just sat on the edge of the kang, and hesitated to ask Shang Cheng for help.

The person who came in had a dark face, a wide forehead and deep eyes, a short but strong figure, walked with a little looped legs, held a bowl of soup in his hand, and did not take a cake bun, only grabbed a few black bran dumplings. This person also seemed a little strange, Tian Xiaowu didn't go to the side household to join in the fun, and stood at the door before stepping in. However, he soon found broken pottery shards on the ground. He glanced at Tian Xiaowu in surprise, immediately put down his bowl and food, and took a broom from the corner behind the door.

It wasn't until this person swept all the broken pottery pieces into a pile that Tian Xiaowu jumped up from the kang as if he suddenly woke up, and when he came over, he couldn't help but say and grab the broom: "I'll come by myself!" ”

The border soldier, who was obviously not from the Central Plains, silently handed him the broom, picked up his own food, and walked to the innermost and darkest corner of the barracks without saying a word.

Tian Xiaowu swept the pottery pieces outside the house, came back and put the broom at the door as it was, stood by his kang mat for a while, took the white bread and yellow bread that he had not touched a mouthful, walked to the border soldier of the Tuqi tribe, and said, "Here you go." The soldier looked up at him, shook his head, lowered his head and continued to chew on his chaff.

Tian Xiaowu put the three bread buns on the soldier's kang mat and turned around silently.

He stood on his feet, looking incredulously at the sudden increase in the room. I don't know when, Shang Cheng took the commander of Shangzhai and the two sentry commanders into this low, damp and unventilated barracks, and now he is looking at him with a smile.

Shang Cheng was obviously a little unaccustomed to the height of this room, although he would definitely not touch the beam of the house if he stood up straight, he still leaned over his tall body, and said to Tian Xiaowu with a smile: "I'll take a walk and take a look." Didn't expect you to be in this what. Sit, everybody, sit. As he spoke, he pushed aside the dirty bedding wrapped in a ball on the kang mat next to him, sat down first, and looked at the outside of the room and said, "...... Originally, I went to see the situation of the border households, but over there...... Let's just go around first. ”

Several officers sat down on the edge of the kang with smiling faces.

Shang Cheng stretched out his palm and slowly stroked it on the kang mat, and said to several officers with a smile: "You don't usually harass the side households, right?" No one did anything to a few women from a few side households, right? ”

Several officers immediately stood up and patted their chests to assure that there was absolutely no such thing. Shang Cheng waved his hand for them to sit down, and said, "That's what I asked, don't be nervous." I don't care about the previous things, but in the future, this kind of thing must be put an end to, you have to make it clear to the soldiers, who dares to commit crimes on this, who dares to steal chickens and dogs, I don't recognize it. ”

As soon as several officers sat down and brushed their voices, they all stood up, stood up solemnly, and said in unison, "Obey the orders of your lordship."

"Sit and sit, don't stand and sit and be surprised." Shang Cheng continued, "Don't burn the kang during the day? Is there a lack of charcoal? He reached out and touched the futon, rubbed his fingers and said, "The futon is too thin, and the cotton filled in it is rotten. In this way, you make a list, I will take it back and write down all the things you lack here, estimate the approximate amount, and I will go back and have someone send it over. He bit his lip and thought about it, paused and said, "But you also know our current situation, it is impossible to solve all the problems at once, so you can only choose the most important things to do first, just solve the matter of burning charcoal in winter, and the problem of soldiers' clothing......

A few officers, you look at me, I look at you, and they all look a little unable to sit still.