The clear river is called Maoming Water, which is 500 miles long, flows into the sea in the south, and the source is the destination of Liu Renliang's trip, Huaide County, Yongxi County.

Liu Renliang made a trip of about 200 people, including more than 30 Yulin, another 100 soldiers from Li Jingba, and dozens of Lingnan natives like Ah Fa.

The further north you go, the narrower the river becomes, and the water becomes shallower.

On both sides of the river, the mountains are not high, but there are many of them, and the undulating hills seem to be many giant beasts running in the flat land.

"There is a legend that is true, it is said that there was a goddess of the Nine Heavens who drove many giant beasts to the beach to drink water, but because she destroyed many crops and villages when passing by, a god sent down a great magical power, and turned all these giant beasts into stone and earth mountains."

Liu Renliang smiled.

At this moment, a horn sounded between the mountains and fields.

"Buffalo Horn." Ah Fa said immediately.

Liu Renliang's hand subconsciously pressed the horizontal knife on his waist, and Ah Fa smiled, "Don't panic, it should be Luo Douman who discovered us." ”

Sure enough, the horns sounded one after another, and they could even be heard passing to each other.

Soon, the drums sounded again.

The war drums corresponded to the horns, and the soldiers of the Huaide battalion on the boat in the river had already raised their shields and picked up their bows and crossbows.

"Listen to the voice, this is not a warning, it is not a war, it should be welcome."

Liu Renliang was skeptical, "Can you still hear this?" ”

"Naturally, don't worry, the commander, Luo Douman has already gone to Li Shuai's side to join Cheng, and there is no reason to make trouble now, the Great Qin Heavenly Army is mighty, they don't dare."

The ship slowed down.

"Ahead is Huaide County."

Huaidecheng County is on the bank of the Maoming River, although Huaide County has a history of more than 100 years, but in fact, it has been only a restraint before, in order to control the barbarians of Luo Dou Baitong, and the county order is still served by the slang chieftains.

Later, in the Sui Dynasty, Chen Longshu and his son opened the border and set up a county government in Da'anyuan, named Huaide, and sent Chen clansmen to serve as county commanders here.

However, the slang bureaucrats under the jurisdiction of Zhutong neither naturalized nor taxed, but the Chen family began to take the county government as the center, established a stronghold here, stationed private soldiers, set up a bazaar, and slowly attracted the slang bureaucrats to come to trade, collect the city tax, and send people to reclaim the fields.

Later, the Chen father and son were driven out of this place because of their participation in the rebellion, and the slang chieftain Tan Dian became the leader of the tribal alliance in this area, and then the Qin army came, Tan Dian was transferred to Yulin, and Feng Xuan came to serve as Taishou.

The last time Feng Xuan rebelled, Cangwu Taishou Chen Longshu came back and united many slang officials to seize Yongxi County, but soon the Qin army quelled the rebellion and transferred Chen Longshu to Guilin as the commander of the capital.

"In fact, no matter how these Taishou above change, this place has actually always been the territory of the slang people, and the biggest force in the nearby counties is the Luo Dou Yuan Alliance, which is composed of more than a hundred mountains."

According to Ah Fa, although the slang bureaucracy is the largest ethnic group in Lingnan, in fact, the slang bureaucracy is not a whole, not to mention the division of slang bureaucrats, even if they are the same bureaucrats, they have also formed one tribal alliance after another according to the region, and the alliance has more or less Xiyuan, and those alliances often go to war with each other, so it is the civil strife of these Baiyue people that made the Han people who went south gradually gain a foothold in Lingnan and become more and more powerful.

Most of today's slang bureaucrats have retreated to the mountains, and those plains have instead become the territory of Tuhan people like Ah Fa.

After Feng Xuan's death, Chen Longshu was transferred, and his private soldiers were also evacuated, so the current Huaide County is actually empty, with no officials and no soldiers and horses, and it is managed by the Luo Dou Yuan Alliance.

The ship has not yet landed.

At the riverside wharf on the edge of the county seat, there are already many people standing there.

Buffalo horns and brass drums are still beating.

As this voice spread far and wide, a large number of Luo Dou wingmen were coming.

"This bronze drum is available in every village, once it is sounded, it is not ordinary, the wingmen can use the copper drum to indicate the alarm, assembly, etc., and the wingmen outside can distinguish the drum command after hearing it. Now it's a gathering order, so the wingmen are coming. ”

The boat is close to the shore.

More than a dozen shirtless, short-haired, and tattooed men jumped down the river and came to the boat, and Liu Renliang was always on high alert, but when these people arrived at the side of the boat, they only pushed the boat to the shore.

"It's their welcome to you, to show that you are their honored guest."

Liu Renliang was a little relieved.

Ah Fa was the first to jump off the boat and go ashore.

As soon as he landed, he loudly announced Liu Renliang's identity in the vernacular.

"The commander of the Huaide Battalion of the Weifu of Yongxi County, Guangdong Province, Daqinlingnan, has sent Liu Gong of Huairen School, and all the officials have come to visit!"

Dozens of people with broken hair and tattoos like Ah Fa actually came over, some of them were dressed in silk but barefoot, some were wearing hats, but they were shirtless, and all kinds of animals were tattooed on their bodies, some were lightning, some were spiders, snakes and ants, etc., which made people uncomfortable to look at.

The first one, about fifty years old, was very short but strong, with a crown on his head and a green robe.

He introduced himself, his name was Octopus, and he was the county magistrate of Huaidedai.

He spoke in the vernacular, and Ah Fa translated for him.

"Who appointed this acting county order?" Liu Renliang asked.

Ah Fa communicated with Eight Claws, "It was appointed by Chen Longshu after he captured Yongxi, and the previous county commander was a member of the Feng clan appointed by Feng Xuan, and he was killed by Eight Claws. ”

"Then does this one have a letter of appointment from Li Shuai?"

"Nope."

Liu Renliang nodded, "Since there is no letter of appointment from the Lingnan Economic Strategy Xuanfu Envoy, then from now on, he will no longer act as the Huaide County Commander, from now until the arrival of the new county order of the Jinglu Yamen faction, the Huaide County and the county government will be temporarily taken over by my Huaide Battalion, according to the imperial court system, the Huaide Battalion will command Liu Renliang to temporarily act as the county commander." ”

Ah Fa translation.

Eight Claw's face was not very good-looking, and he even said a big call to Ah Fa very excitedly, as if he was scolding.

"What did he say?" Liu Renliang asked with a serious face.

Ah Fa hurriedly said, "Eight Claws said that he respects the imperial court system and obeys the orders of Liu Gong, the new county commander. ”

"That's not the case, is it?"

Ah Fa smiled, "He was a little unhappy, but he still obeyed Liu Gong." ”

"That's fine."

The team enters the city.

Liu Renliang was very disappointed to find that the so-called Huaide County is actually a big village, with no city walls or gates, only a simple circle of wooden fences, but more than one person high.

It seems that there are hundreds of households in the county.

And after the last rebellion to seize the city, there are not many people in the county.

"Liu Xiao, Eight Claws said that this city has just experienced a war, it is very dilapidated, and there are not even a few people, he invited Liu Gong to go to their wall first, and he wants to set up a banquet for Liu Gong to receive the wind and wash the dust."

Liu Renliang didn't want to go.

Ah Fa reminded him that now in Huaide County, the chief of Luo Douyuan, Bapaw, is the real local tyrant, and he can't be offended, and if he wants to build the Huaide military camp, he has to borrow the wingmen of Baclaw.

"Okay, let's go for a walk and see what their village is like."

Eight Claws heard Ah Fa say that this Liu Xiao was willing to give face, and finally his face looked a little better.

He had the buffalo horn sounded again and the brass drum beaten.

The wingmen and women actually danced and sang in unison, and the wingmen carried all kinds of knives, axes, bows and arrows and sang along.

For a while, the singing shook the sky.

Looking at this scene, Liu Renliang finally understood that he had entered the wild world.

"Eat betel nut!"

Eight Claws handed over an object and said in the Central Plains Chinese dialect.

Liu Renliang accident.

"Liu Gong, this is betel nut, Lingnan people love to eat betel nut, and treat guests with it, use the green leaves and lime to pluck it, put it in the mouth and chew it, very refreshing." Ah Fa explained on the side.

Liu Renliang took it in disbelief, looked at the betel nut wrapped in green leaves and dipped in white pulp, tried to put it in his mouth, chewed it a few times, only to feel a strange and indescribable taste rushing to his brain, almost fainted, he almost thought it was poisoned by the bureaucrats.

Seeing that Ah Fa also took one and put it in his mouth, it was still delicious, and he even looked refreshed immediately, Liu Renliang endured it and chewed it a few more times.

"Good stuff, good stuff, betel nut." The eight-claw seemed to only know some very simple Chinese, smiling and gesturing.

Liu Renliang thought to himself, if this is a good thing, he will see a ghost, but he still reluctantly smiled for the sake of face.

As we entered the mountains, we soon came to a hillside with a large stockade.

"This is a dry bar, Lingnan is humid, there are many insects and snakes, so the locals build this kind of dry pen to live."

This kind of dry fence is actually a bamboo building or a wooden building, with pillars underneath, but the bottom is suspended, people live on the upper floor, and the empty bottom floor raises pigs.

The black pig and the patterned pig roam freely in the stockade.

There were many children and old people in the village, and Liu Renliang found that most of the old women also had tattoos on their faces.

Men have adult tattoos and some kind of beast tattooed on their bodies.

They used to cut their hair short, shirtless or barefoot, and some had feathers on their heads.

As an alliance chief with more than a hundred wings, the house of Octopus is also a bar, and even a little larger than the others' bars.

He kept pigs under the pen, and he was dirty.

However, this stockade is quite large, and there must be about a thousand dry bars, which means that there must be at least three or four thousand people in this stockade.

Compared with the county seat that destroyed the small village I saw just now, it seems that this should be the county seat of Huaide.

The jack of copper drums in the village lifted the drum coat and then sounded.

A group of wingmen blew the gourd sheng, and the women began to sing and dance again.

"These people are really at ease, quite happy." Liu Renliang couldn't help but sigh.

With feathers on his head, bare feet, holding hands and singing and dancing, he is indeed very free.

"Liu Xiao, don't think that these people are really warm and good guests, many tribes still retain the custom of cannibalism, they will hunt enemies, and then cook them for banquets. Even in some tribes, the first son born will be killed to entertain relatives and friends. ”

Liu Renliang was dumbfounded, what kind of person actually killed his eldest son to entertain relatives and friends?

When his gaze returned to the singing and dancing wingmen, he was no longer as relaxed as before, and he even felt goosebumps all over his body.

"Liu Xiao rest assured, Luo Douman has no cannibal customs, and their ability to mine and smelt copper and iron is very strong, especially the copper drums they make, which are famous in Lingnan and very exquisite."

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