Chapter 34: The Patriarch

"Grandpa!"

Meng Qi in front of the comfortable horse ran towards the place pointed by the old man, holding the corpse on the ground and crying, it sounded like the dead patriarch was Meng Qi's grandfather.

"My lord! My lord! ”

At this time, a middle-aged man squeezed out of the crowd, came to An Yi, and said: "Meet the group training envoy, Xiaomin Zhou Shibiao is the elder of the village, I heard that the group training envoy is stationed in the village, and the small people are familiar with the people of the village, and they are willing to be a guide for the adults." ”

An Yi turned over and dismounted, and the heart said that the patriarch had unfortunately died, and he was worried that he could not find someone who was familiar with the local people's conditions, and it was really time for the elder to come, and he held up the arms of Zhou Shibiao with both hands, and said with a smile: "Elder Zhou doesn't need to be polite, I have just arrived in this village, and I am not very familiar with the situation, so there is Elder Lao Zhou." ”

Zhou Shibiao hurriedly arched his hand again: "It should be, it should be." ”

An Yi looked at the corpses at the entrance of the village and the villagers standing in front of him, and said to Zhou Shibiao: "Elder Zhou, if you want the villagers to claim the corpses of each family, go home first." ”

Zhou Shibiao agreed, turned around and straightened up, pointed to the corpse on the ground and said aloud to the villagers: "Fellow villagers, whose relatives and friends are these people, please come and claim them, there is a group training to make the adults here, don't worry about those thieves anymore, go home with peace of mind." ”

Hearing this, there was a commotion in the crowd, and then a few villagers came out to identify the body, and the rest of the people walked back to the village one after another.

An Yi always felt that the people in Songling Village were weird, but he couldn't think of anything strange for a while. He came to Meng Qi, who was lying on the corpse and cried in a low voice, and patted him on the shoulder, telling him to mourn and change.

Zhou Shibiao on the side also followed, and said to Meng Qi next to the corpse: "The old patriarch drove the crane to the west, Meng Qi, you have to mourn and change." As he spoke, he covered his face with his sleeve, as if wiping away tears.

Meng Qi, who was lying next to the corpse, suddenly turned his head, and stared at Zhou Shibiao viciously with tear-stained eyes. Zhou Shibiao, who was watching it, was as uncomfortable as a pinprick, intentionally or unintentionally avoiding Meng Qi's gaze, and then Meng Qi stood up, ignoring the comfort, and ran towards the village without knowing his head.

"Heh, he...."

was a little dazed, looking at Meng Qi who ran away violently.

"It's okay, this Meng Qi is an orphan, and the old patriarch picked him up, just such a relative, it's understandable that he is a little sad." Zhou Shibiao looked at Meng Qi's back and said to An Yi.

After hearing this, An Yi no longer thought about Meng Qi, and asked Zhou Shibiao: "Elder Zhou, can you take me to familiarize myself with the situation in the village first?" ”

"No problem, Master Regimental Trainer, please come with me." As he spoke, Zhou Shibiao led the way in front and led An Yi to the village.

"Elder Zhou, what kind of organization is this Five Grain Sect, I heard that the nearby villages and counties have suffered from it, is that so?" An Yi asked Zhou Shibiao as he walked.

Zhou Shibiao waved his hand at An Yi and said: "Don't listen to others' nonsense, the Wugu Sect is a new sect founded by the God of the Five Grains, and there are many believers in our area, and the members of the Wugu Sect often come to our side to give porridge and distribute food, but there are many rogues who always loot the village in the name of the Five Grain Sect, so there is also the scene when the adults enter the village." ”

After hearing this, An Yi felt that this was really a strange thing, and the evaluation of the Five Grains Sect by Meng Qi and Zhou Shibiao was simply worlds apart. Meng Qi said that the Five Grain Sect burned, killed, and looted all evil, and Zhou Shibiao praised the Five Grain Sect as if the Bodhisattva was alive.

He asked Zhou Shibiao: "Have you seen this god of grains?" ”

Zhou Shibiao shook his head with a smile and said, "My lord is joking, these so-called five grain gods are just religious propaganda and mythological figures. ”

As they spoke, the two of them came to a wooden house, which was built off the ground, somewhat like a bamboo building in the Yunnan-Guizhou region. The lower floor of the wooden house is about seven or eight feet high, four unsheltered, supported by several stout wooden columns, and there is a set of wooden stairs leading to the upper floor, and there is a terrace near the upper floor, which turns into a long house.

Zhou Shibiao pointed to the wooden house and introduced to An Yi: "My lord, this is the pavilion house in our village, which contains the household registration and archives of the village. ”

An Yi followed him up to the upper floor, the wooden ladder creaking at the feet of the two of them. Pushing open the door, a musty smell of dust came to his face, and he couldn't help but keep flashing his hand in front of his nose to drive away the pungent smell.

"My lord, these are all the household registration and archives of this village, please check them." Zhou Shibiao pointed to the shelves full of books in the room and said,

An Yi looked at the three tall pavilions, which were filled with books that had been covered with a thick layer of dust, and couldn't help but rub his forehead with his hands. These things, let's let Jiang Ruyue see them after he comes, he thought to himself, but he pretended to take down a few books in his hand, dusted off them, and said to Zhou Shibiao: "Elder Zhou, can you briefly tell me about the household registration situation of this village." ”

Zhou Shibiao smiled and arched his hand at him, "Xiaomin obeys." ”

Then he briefly told An Yi about the basic situation of the village,

After hearing this, An Yi asked, "According to what Elder Zhou said, there are not many people in our village, if we want to recruit soldiers here..."

Before Zhou Shibiao finished listening, he hurriedly waved his hand at An Yi and said: "Adults forgive the small people for talking too much, the population of this village is not much, and the young and middle-aged people are very few. ”

What Zhou Shibiao said is not unreasonable, in an ordinary small village, the quota of conscription in the imperial court is only a few dozen. But as he said, Songling Village is now sparsely populated, and the overall situation may be worse than that of ordinary small villages.

It seems that the matter of conscription is not so easy, An Yi thought, and said to Zhou Shibiao: "Elder Zhou, you are tired of leading the way, let's go to the granary and have a look." ”

Zhou Shibiao hesitated a little when he heard An Yi say that he was going to see the granary,

Of course, this hesitation fell into An Yi's eyes, and he asked, "What's the matter, Elder Zhou?" Any questions? ”

Zhou Shibiao hurriedly replied: "Eh, no, Xiaomin will take the adults there." ”

The granary is located at the foot of Jiulong Mountain in the southwest of Songling Village, and it is better to call it a cave than a granary, because in fact, the entire granary is built based on the cave in the mountain, and there are only some wooden structures in it for stacking grain.

Zhou Shibiao called two villagers and worked together to push the tall wooden fence of the granary open. Facing it, An Yi felt a gust of cold wind blowing, bringing out the smell of stale grain.

When An Yi looked inside the warehouse by the light, there was not the scene of a barn full of grain as he expected, but only a small pile of grain in sacks of sack, which looked like dozens of bags at a rough glance. He stepped forward, picked up the rice bowl that had been thrown on the ground, and thrust it into the sack, and the grain inside formed a thin trickle and scattered on the ground. The texture of the grain is a little dull, and it is obviously all stale grain.

Seeing this, An Yi hurriedly asked Zhou Shibiao on the side: "Elder Zhou, why is there only these grains in the warehouse, and all of them are old grains?" ”

Zhou Shibiao replied with a wry smile: "Don't tell the adults, the adults already know about the scarcity of people in our village, and the acres of land that can be cultivated are slightly insufficient, so the grain stock in our village is not very sufficient. Before the adults came, it was the station of the hundred households of the Chengdu Right Guard, and before the Chengdu Right Guard was ordered to transfer to the north, the Wei Commander assigned the task of paying taxes and grain to all the villages in the station, saying that the emperor wanted us to pay war taxes. We had no choice but to hand over most of our stock of grain to barely enough. ”

An Yi also sighed after hearing this, the peasants of all dynasties and dynasties were the best to bully, but they were also the least able to bully. These people with their backs to the loess and facing the sky, if they were not forced to be cornered, even if they had a bite to eat, no one would be willing to stand up against the imperial court. The truth that water can carry a boat can also overturn a boat, how can those well-educated people in the court who read poetry and books not know?

But what they don't know is that they are greedy for hundreds of taels or thousands of taels, and those below dare to take tens of thousands of taels or even hundreds of thousands of taels, so often when the people rise up and smoke is everywhere, the people in the court are often at a loss, and they always feel that these people are disobedient to management and oppose the officials.

"Brother An."

A shout interrupted An Yiyi's thoughts, and when he heard the sound, he saw Lin Muzhi's horse coming from a distance.

An Yi stepped forward to greet him and said to him, "Brother Lin is looking for me, is there something wrong?" ”

Lin Muzhi turned over and dismounted, looked at Zhou Shibiao, and then looked at Anyi, looking like he wanted to speak and stopped.

An Yi looked at him, knowing that he had something to say to himself, but he didn't want Zhou Shibiao on the side to hear it. He motioned to Lin Muzhi to ask him to wait, and then turned to Zhou Shibiao and said, "Elder Zhou, when we first arrived in your land, we still need to be familiar with the customs and other conditions here, especially now, we need a person who is old and familiar with the situation of the village to take the position of the patriarch, I don't know if the old man is willing to bear it?" ”

Zhou Shibiao listened to An Yi's words, and hurriedly waved his hand at him and said: "My lord, this is unacceptable, the patriarch of a village is to be personally appointed and dismissed by the county order, and the small people have not been appointed, not to mention that they only know a little about the situation in the village, how dare they assume the position of the patriarch!" ”

Seeing that he refused, An Yi arched his hand at him and said, "For the sake of the people of Songling Village, the old gentleman must not refuse." At the moment, there is no one in the village who can call on everyone more than you, even if the county order is here, there is no objection to Elder Zhou taking the position of patriarch. ”

Seeing this, Zhou Shibiao hurriedly bowed to An Yi and returned the salute, sighed, and said: "Since the group training makes the adults look so much at the small people, then I will temporarily act as the patriarch, and I will let Xian is when the appointment of the magistrate is down." ”

"Thank you very much."

Zhou Shibiao arched his hand again and glanced at Lin Muzhi, "The regimental training envoy will handle official business, and the small people will leave first." Then he turned and left.

Lin Muzhi saw Zhou Shibiao leaving, so he couldn't wait to say to An Yi: "Brother An, our food has been delivered. ”

An Yi was overjoyed when he heard this, so he said, "It's been shipped so soon, so send it to our camp quickly." ”

Lin Muzhi said with some concern: "But... The soldiers from the Chengdu Treasury said that now that the northwest border is uneven, grain and grass need to be supplied to the border guards first, and our grain and grass should be given to us for a month for the time being. ”

Before saying that this Chengdu garrison Xia Ang is a neat person, I didn't expect it to start to be a moth so soon, An Yi frowned, "Go!" Take me to see it. ”