On the outskirts of Yiyang City, a ritual is underway, Bazhou Assassin Shi Yuwen Wenwen and Yiyang County Shou Wang Zhi, as well as all kinds of officials, large and small, all with solemn expressions, watching several solemn monks chanting.

In front of them, several people were digging a pit wearing masks, and next to the big pit, there were piles of human heads and remains.

A month ago, the county guard Wang Zhi led the troops into the mountains to clear and suppress the mountain barbarians, and at the beginning they won the battle, but they were accidentally ambushed in the back, most of the officers and soldiers were killed in battle, and the heads were cut off by the mountain barbarians, and the bodies were abandoned in the valley.

Now the officers and soldiers who entered the mountain again advanced step by step, and it took more than half a month to come to the hometown steadily, and saw a Beijing temple with a pile of heads on the slope of the mountain where they must pass, and after several twists and turns, they were escorted by the county guard Wang Zhi, and the heads and remains were transported back to the city.

Jingguan is a high mound that the armies of various countries gather the corpses of the enemy to build and tamp up in order to show off their martial arts, and sometimes it is purely piled up with heads, which is a common cruel 'landscape' in ancient times.

During the Song Dynasty of the Southern Dynasty, the clan Liu Dan rebelled according to Guangling, and the Song Emperor sent troops to suppress the slaughter of the city, and gathered the heads of the victims on the south bank of the stone for the Jingguan, the so-called propaganda of the imperial court military might, and the shock of the Xiaoxiao.

About seventeen years ago, the Xinzhou barbarians on the boundary of the Xinzhou Governor's Mansion of the Zhou State rebelled, occupying the mouth of the Yangtze River Gorge to block traffic, and the Zhou generals Lu Teng, Wang Liang, Sima Yi and other troops led the troops to quell the rebellion, fighting from summer to autumn, and finally defeated the main force of the Xinzhou barbarians.

The Zhou army piled up the bones of the barbarian army on the side of Shuiluo City, and built it into Jingguan to show military might, and the rest of the barbarians were crying when they saw Jingguan, and since then the wolf's heart has dissipated, and they dare not go against the government.

This time, Yu Wenwen did not lead the troops into the mountain, so he did not see the so-called 'Jingguan' with his own eyes, but now looking at the remains in front of him, he can still empathize and experience the involuntary anger in his heart.

When the Tang army went east to Goguryeo, when they saw the Jingguan built by the remains of the Sui army, they must have been inexplicably angry in their hearts. So thought to himself.

The remains of the officers and soldiers have been highly decomposed, although they have been roughly processed, they still emit a foul smell, Yuwen Wen and Wang Zhi are the ones who lead the troops, it doesn't matter if this kind of scene is there, those officials are not so calm when they look at this scene.

Some don't dare to look directly, some are hesitant, as if they want to vomit but dare not vomit, and some are pale, standing there and shaking, listening to the chanting of the monks, many people live like a year.

Because the corpses were separated and more than a month had passed, the bereaved families could no longer distinguish the identities of the dead, so the county government was in charge of the joint burial of the officers and soldiers who died in the war, so as not to scatter the burial and let the bereaved families worship the wrong person in the future.

At the end of the ceremony, a body was buried, Yu Wenwen took the lead in shoveling the loess and covering it, and the rest of the people together with the young man shoveled the soil to bury the joint burial pit, and after the tombstone was erected, the monks came to 'finish'.

On the way back to the city, Yuwenwen asked Wang Zhi where these monks were invited, because there is only a broken temple and no monks in Xiyang County, in order to meet the needs of the masses to burn incense and worship the Buddha for peace of mind, he considered introducing a few monks to 'conduct business' under controlled conditions.

A small temple, a few acres of thin fields, a few monks on the line, as for the kind of 'sending children' business, or the unspoken rules of accepting pilgrims to donate land, he resolutely does not allow, the hard-earned land is to increase the rent, but I don't want to turn around and become a Buddhist industry.

The carriage entered the city and came to the county office, Yuwen Wen and Wang Zhi entered the meeting hall, there were many people waiting in the hall, the costumes of the two sides were distinct, one side was a rough cottage style, and the other side was a well-dressed businessman.

Seeing the main lord come in, everyone saluted respectfully, Yuwen Wen looked around at everyone present and said: "All of you present are the arms of the government, and the official sent troops into the mountain to chase Tian Yunshan, and now it has been more than half a month, seeing that the net is getting tighter and tighter, it is time to have a result." ”

As soon as the words fell, Zhang Ning and the others all nodded yes, and the general next to them turned the content into local dialect and said it, and several village owners were also emotional and said that they wanted to have a good time.

Their cottage is located on the edge of Osaki Mountain, and there are more dealings with the government, this time Yuwen Wen summoned this kind of cottage owner to go down the mountain to discuss matters before sending troops, and now they are all standing here, and there is no then if they don't come.

Breaking the mountain and burning the village, half of the household registration that moved out was requisitioned by the government as official servants, and the remaining half was also divided into two, half of which was digested by the owners of each village, and the other half was picked out to be young and strong to the owners.

Quarries, lumber yards, lime kilns, charcoal kilns, these owners' industries suffered heavy losses more than a month ago, just so that these 'newcomers' young and strong people can make up for the manpower gap, wages are not to think about, as for the treatment of food, clothing, and housing, Yu Wenwen doesn't care.

"Thanks to the assistance of your village owners, the official army is progressing smoothly in the mountains, according to the prior agreement, the state treasury has transferred some cloth, rice, flour and salt, you village owners go to receive it according to the list."

"When I get the heads of Tian Yunshan and a few others, the rest will be settled, of course, this is a matter of time, this official summoned all the village owners and owners this time to discuss what to do next......

In the depths of the mountain, in the Shihu Village meeting hall, Tian Yunshan, the owner of the Black Mist Village, and Ran Song, the owner of the Shihu Village, were talking, and there were several people here, they were eating roasted roasted roe meat around the fire pond, and from time to time they scolded a few times in the local dialect.

"Those bastards, helping outsiders bully their own people!!" Tian Yunshan scolded, "I used to say that while being a good person, I was a wicked person at the same time, and I dealt with those government dogs together, but now they are all backwater!" ”

"Who's to say it isn't? I also sent people to be guides, and dozens of the good men sent out by my village died at their hands! Some people also scolded.

"These bastards will settle accounts in the future, and now that Zhou Jun is forcing in step by step, what can you do?" Ran Song asked, he was trying his best to support Tian Yunshan and the government outside the mountain, and last time he sent troops to fight against the soldiers of Yiyang County with Tian Yunshan.

"This time, the Zhou army is fighting steadily, and the soldiers sent by several of our villages to attack and harass have suffered heavy losses, it seems that it is not enough to hide, it is better to find a place to block the stubborn defense, and see how many days they consume." Some proposed, others nodded in agreement.

These are all allies of Tian Yunshan, and they are huddled together with Ran Song to keep warm, and they don't dare to take any attempt by the official government outside the mountain lightly, and basically agree on a truth: if you don't go into the mountain, everyone's well water will not violate the river water, if you go into the mountain, then you will meet each other.

"The Zhou army has burned the Black Mist Village and is advancing towards Shihu Village, and now it is Hushan Chong that can choke the road, it is better for me to lead the soldiers to defend there, anyway, there are ready-made camps, and they can't attack it."

"Hushan Chong is good, but I remember that there is a small road that can be bypassed, if Zhou Jun comes alone, they are not afraid, they definitely don't know that road, but with a black heart to lead the way, I really know how to go."

"What's that, we sent people to guard the path, the road is very narrow, no matter how many Zhou soldiers there are, they have to queue up, with dozens of people guarding there, they can't pass even if they have tens of thousands of horses!"

"Okay, just rush to the enemy in Tiger Mountain!" Everyone agreed, but someone asked a new question: "Who will guard this path?" If it's an internal ghost, then everyone is finished! ”

"What do you say!! Inner ghost? Who do you say is the inner ghost! ”

"Who knows? People's hearts are separated from their bellies, and the government outside the mountain can buy those black-hearted, and some of us have been bought!! The man sneered.

Seeing that a few people were shouting and scolding, and some people were about to draw their swords, Ran Song and Tian Yunshan hurriedly stepped forward to persuade them, this is really ugly to hear, but it is very realistic: in case the 'open door thief' who guards the path, it will really be a burning jade.

"Everyone, everyone! Tian believes that no one will be like this, don't hurt the harmony" Tian Yunshan kept persuading, everyone here is his strong backing, and now he retreats with the villagers and lives in Shihu Village, which is exactly what needs several village owners to work together to the outside world.

"What the owner of the village said is right, but we must also carefully consider the candidates, it's not that I'm too careful, this is also to reassure everyone!" Ran Song said loudly, "We are guarding Hushan Chong, and we must prevent someone from copying the back road, so the people guarding the small road must rest assured, so as not to suspect that there are dark ghosts, and the enemy is not good, and we ourselves will be in chaos first." ”

Everyone calmed down, after all, this said what they didn't want to say, everyone was afraid that the people guarding the path would betray themselves, and it was not interesting to just accuse each other, so they still had to set up a candidate to quickly deploy their defenses.

According to the main road, it is the right way for the Zhou army to retreat knowing the difficulties, but in fact, the matter has reached this point, it is not that they have to deal with the government outside the mountain, they really can't sit idly by.

People outside the mountain opened the mountain to quarry and cut wood, Tian Yunshan and other village owners decided to take action to stop it, they thought that the opening of the mountain would anger the mountain god, and the disaster to the cottage was only one of the reasons, and there was one more main reason.

They felt that this was an excuse for the government outside the mountain to expand its power into the mountain, and wanted to buy the owners of the village by opening the mountain to give some sweetness, and gradually bring the mountain into the control range.

Hundreds of years of experience have shown that the government will find ways to lure people out of the mountains, move the people of the cottages out to become farmers and coolies, and for all kinds of unso-called ambitions, they will also serve as war soldiers.

Those who were assassins, governors, and generals were all trying to get people out of the mountains to drive them, but after the bloody battle, not many of the chieftains from the mountains were fairly rewarded.

In exchange for military merit with the blood of the subordinates, the court rewards an official position, which is basically a foreign official in the state and county, and it is difficult to be promoted to the court as an official on weekdays, and if you fight, you have to go up first, and if you win the battle, you will get some rewards, and if you lose the battle, you will be beheaded because no one will help you intercede.

After hundreds of years of war, the Jiangbei territory has been constantly changing masters, tossing down again and again, and few of the village owners who want to seek fame for the government have ended up eating good fruits.

Ten years ago, the Jiangbei states were not the borders of the Chen State, and Tian Longsheng, the Dingzhou assassin from the chieftain, took the Jiangbei states to the Chen State, and saw that there was no future, so he defected to the Qi State in a few years.

As a result, Zhou Jiong, the general of Chen State, was recruited, and Tian Longsheng was defeated and died in less than a few months, not only the Qi army that came to help the battle was defeated, but even the coalition army with 100,000 chieftains and village owners was also lost.

The states of Jiangbei were surnamed Chen again, but within a few years, the Zhou army came over, and some village owners sent troops to help Chen Jun, but Chen Jun was beaten to the ground, and they also lost their lives.

Life in the mountains is hard, if there is a choice, everyone is willing to move to the flat land outside the mountain to live, but the bloody lessons again and again make the owners of the village in the mountains no longer have ideas.

They have lived in the mountains for generations, living their own lives, and now they don't want to participate in the outside world, they just want to keep the village where their ancestors have lived for generations, there are still wars outside the mountains, and now they are surnamed Zhou, who knows if they will change their surname Chen again in a few years, or the distant Sui State will come over and occupy the territory.

The big flags on the city outside the mountain changed back and forth, so that the owners of the village in the mountain were at a loss, and they didn't have the heart to deal with the government outside the mountain, and they didn't want the government to pull their own people out of the mountain, so they were very sensitive to any move by the government to touch the mountain.

"In any case, we must not let the Zhou army succeed in the mountains, our sons and daughters cannot be their soldiers, and they will be sent to death in vain!" Tian Yunshan said, "Just win a battle in Hushan and use the heads of the Zhou army to build another Jingguan!" (To be continued.) )