Chapter 42: The Beginning (2)

An Yi was very puzzled where these rogues came from, why they were so reckless and robbing the villages around Chengdu, but they were not afraid of the encirclement and suppression of the garrison army, and he asked Zhou Shibiao the doubts in his heart.

Zhou Shibiao shook his head without knowing it, and replied: "Xiaomin only knows that after the incident, Xia Ang, the general of the Chengdu garrison, has personally led people to encircle and suppress the bandits, and has beheaded the bandits, but as for where the bandits came from, this is really not clear. ”

This movement is really not small, the Chengdu garrison officer personally led the team to suppress the bandits, and the bandit leader was captured, and this happened within one morning, this Xia Ang's reaction was fast enough. An Yi thought like this, suddenly, he realized that something seemed wrong, and after thinking about it carefully, he turned his head sharply and asked Zhou Shibiao,

"Didn't the patriarch leave the village all morning?"

Zhou Shibiao was confused by An Yi's question, so he replied casually: "No, I've been taking people to take inventory of this granary all morning." ”

"How did the patriarch know that it was General Chaon who personally led the team to suppress the bandits?"

"Ahh Ah, that... I learned it from the displaced people who fled back from Jiangning, yes, they told me. A trace of panic flashed in Zhou Shibiao's eyes, but it disappeared in an instant.

The panic in his eyes, of course, did not escape the comfortable eyes. But he didn't break it on the spot, he just made a haha with Zhou Shibiao, covered up the past, and kept this small detail in his heart.

Zhou Shibiao, what is he panicking about?

When An Yi rode away from Zhou Shibiao, he also hung a question mark in his heart. Now that the bandit leader has been beheaded, why do these homeless people still run to Songling Village? Moreover, this Jiangning Village and Chengdu back and forth more than 80 miles, even the report of the news and Xia Ang ordered the army and then led the team to attack, a morning did not arrive, and the bandit leader was captured, when the King of Shu learned that Gao Yingshu was held hostage, it took almost a day and a night to gather at the foot of Jiulong Mountain, Xia Ang's efficient response time, in Great Xia can be called a miracle.

While his mind was thinking about the answers to these questions, a person's name came to mind, a name that he had almost forgotten - Meng Qi. is the boy who was rescued by him when he didn't enter the village, and he had a completely different evaluation of the Wugu Sect and Zhou Shibiao before.

Thinking of this, he immediately turned his horse's head and headed towards the courtyard of Meng Qi's house.

Meng Qi's home is in the southeast of the village, and he only learned about it by asking Zhou Shibiao before. Originally, I was going to find a time to see this young man who had lost his only relative, but a lot of things happened from borrowing food to the middle of the imperial examination, and I couldn't remember it.

An Yi came to Meng Qi's yard and turned over and dismounted, and looked at the empty vegetable patch in the yard, which seemed to have been barren for a long time, leaving only the dry and cracked loess. He gently shook the squeaky wooden fence and shouted into the house, "Is Meng Qi here?" ”

However, he didn't get a response, so he had no choice but to climb over the fence to the front of Meng Qi's house and push the door directly.

The furniture in the house is quite complete, and there is a square table of black lacquered wood in the corner, with two candles on the table, a few fruit plates, and a tablet in the middle.

An Yi stepped forward and picked up the tablet and looked at it, this tablet is a little strange, there is only one word "Lay" on it, there is nothing else, it must be Meng Qi's grandfather, that is, the tablet of the former patriarch of Songling Village, but why is there only one word written.

An Yi was puzzled, and suddenly felt a chill in his back, with the sound of wind in his ears. He immediately turned around vigilantly, subconsciously forgot about the block in front of him, opened a tasseled gun that stretched out, and then grabbed it with his backhand, holding the gun firmly in his hand.

"Ann-sama!"

The person who stabbed An Yi from behind with a tassel gun was Meng Qi, and when he saw that it was his life-saving benefactor An Yi who turned his face, he couldn't help but disappear with the power of holding the gun in his hand.

An Yi felt the force on the tassel gun gradually dissipating, he snatched the barrel of the gun, threw it aside, and said angrily: "Why don't you ask someone to come up is a shot?" If I hadn't reacted faster, I'd have been chilled by you by now! ”

"I thought you were..."Meng Qi was a little overwhelmed,

"You think I can't be stabbed with a gun." An Yi was still stabbed by his shot, and if he came in with an ordinary villager, he would say that he had been stabbed here if he didn't listen.

Meng Qi also kept apologizing to An Yi repeatedly. An Yi picked up a cup of tea on the table, poured it into his stomach, calmed down, and asked him, "Who do you think I am?" ”

Meng Qi didn't respond this time, walked to a room next to him, pushed the door open, and made a gesture for An Yi to come in and have a look.

An Yi walked into the room with a puzzled face, raised his eyes, and almost didn't drop his jaw, there were several dead bodies lying in the room, all wearing burlap clothes, tattered, and a few steel knives scattered next to them.

"This.... What are they? ”

An Yi hurriedly pointed to these corpses and asked Meng Qi, he realized in his heart that Meng Qi should have regarded himself as these people just now, so he stabbed with a gun.

Meng Qi shook his head, frowned and said: "I don't know who these people are, I was alone in the house in the morning, and they suddenly broke in from outside the courtyard with knives, and cut them without answering, and a total of six people came one after another. ”

An Yi looked at these corpses, and heard Meng Qi say that they all came in the morning, and vaguely felt that it might be related to the homeless people in Jiangning Village, but why kill Meng Qi?

He asked Meng Qi, "Let me ask you, have you ever been to Jiangning Village?" ”

Meng Qi nodded, because Jiangning Village and Songling Village are not far away, and Songling Village has the only way to go from Jiangning Village to Chengdu, so there are many familiar faces among the villagers.

"Jiangning Village was looted by rogue gangsters in the morning, and there were heavy casualties."

Hearing this news from An Yi's mouth surprised Meng Qi, and he asked the same question as An Yi, why are there bandits here?

An Yixin said that you still ask me this question, and I still want to find someone to ask it, he said: "I haven't found an answer to this question for the time being, I came to you to ask you about Zhou Shibiao and the Five Grains Sect." ”

Meng Qi heard An Yi say this, but he was obviously a little cramped: "What do you want to hear?" ”

"Listen to all you know."

"Both of you are officials, will you believe what I said?"

An Yi smiled and nodded at him, he said in his heart that Meng Qi was really wrong this time, he and Zhou Shibiao really didn't belong to the official according to their rank.

Meng Qi looked at An Yi's expression, his heart was a little settled, and he said eloquently: "Let me talk about the Five Grains Sect first, I remember that when I was a child, there was no such teaching, but when I grew up, I gradually learned about this Five Grains Sect, and many of the surrounding villagers are believers in the Five Grains Sect." ”

An Yi listened to Meng Qi's words, and felt that Meng Qi and Zhou Shibiao were both consistent in terms of the number of believers, but why were the evaluations of the Five Grain Sect so different? So he asked, "Since most of the villagers are followers of the Five Grains Sect, why do I still want to make a big deal out of the Five Grains Sect when I first came to the village?" Moreover, Zhou Shibiao told me that the Wugu Sect often gives porridge to believers to do good deeds, and the gap between the two of you is too big. ”

"That's right, in the beginning, the Five Grains Sect was indeed a gesture of helping all sentient beings, often giving porridge, preaching, and doing good deeds to the villagers of various villages, which was very respected. Especially when the harvest is not good, grain and rice are distributed to each village on schedule. But later, as the Five Grains Sect grew stronger and stronger, it asked the village for 'Jishi Grain' for various reasons. ”

"Jishi Grain?"

An Yi didn't quite understand the meaning of the word,

Meng Qi paused and then explained: "In fact, it was just a reason to ask the villagers for food, at the beginning, many villagers did donate generously, but later the 'Jishi Grain' of the Wugu Sect became more and more, and many villagers began to refuse to provide it. Relying on the large number of its own believers, the Five Grains Sect issued a new canon, saying that when the congregation failed to ask for 'relief food', if other believers came to help, they could take a share of the 'relief food' they requested. ”

This kind of behavior is completely to mobilize some people to oppress other people, and under the instigation of such a doctrine as the Five Grains Sect, as long as they pay the 'Jishi Grain' to join the Five Grains Sect, they can get more rewards from other people's families.

"If I'm not mistaken, the Five Grains Sect does this, and the higher the 'Jishi Grain' is collected, the more villagers will join in one after another."

Meng Qi nodded and said, "It's true as the adults said, but later, when almost everyone paid the 'Jishi Grain' and became believers, the Wugu Sect began to appoint some villagers and even local ruffians and beggars to serve as Taoist chiefs, and every few villages had a 'Taoist chief', and the way of collecting grain also changed to collect it directly from the village, and the 'relief grain' became regular grain." For some reason, the amount of grain was much lower than the previous 'Jishi Grain', but if any village did not pay on time, the 'Taoist Chief' would bring people to harass them, destroy farmland, harass women, abduct children, and do all the things that were pickled. ”

An Yi listened to his words, frowned, and asked, "Didn't any of you go to report to the official?" Are the county officials indifferent? ”

Meng Qi shook his head, and then said: "It's useless, just like what I told my lord when I first asked me, let alone the county officials, down to the rich families, patriarchs, and elders below, and even to the lords in the various mansions, I heard that there are members of the Wugu Sect in the Cheng Xuan Political Envoy Division. Every time the Five Grains Sect finishes harvesting the regular grain, it will distribute silver taels to all the members of the sect who have reached the so-called 'Dharma level', and these people will take care of our life and death if they receive the silver taels. ”

In this way, this Wugu Sect is really extraordinary, after squeezing the villagers dry, they collect grain by directly collecting it from the village and recruit a group of officials to join, so that the people who originally suppressed them became the people who protected them. And then through the "law level"

It is really a good means to expel a part of the peasants at the bottom who cannot bring them benefits, so that the people they originally protected become those who are suppressed by them.

But thinking of this, An Yi also had a doubt in his heart, and he didn't reserve it, and asked Meng Qi bluntly: "Meng Qi, how do you know so clearly about the things in the Wugu Sect?" ”

Meng Qi also knew that An Yi was not here to suspect him, so he also said frankly: "My grandfather and I used to be believers in the Five Grains Sect, but later, when the Five Grains Sect intensified, my grandfather felt that this Five Grains Sect was clearly a cult that oppressed the people, so he took me and insisted on quitting. Later, when the Wugu Sect began to collect regular grain from the villages, my grandfather took the lead in resisting, and in the village he also suppressed the villagers who participated in the Wugu Sect. It was also from that incident that there was a great conflict between my grandfather and Zhou Shibiao. It is precisely because of this that the Wugu Sect saw that the harassment did not have an effect, so there was a scene of burning, killing and looting when the adults entered the village that day. ”

It turns out that Zhou Shibiao is still a member of the Wugu Sect this week, so it's no wonder that the Wugu Sect is good everywhere, but since the Wugu Sect will also organize people to retaliate when it can't receive regular food, will it be that the banditry in Jiangning Village is actually the work of the Wugu Sect?

Thinking of this, he said to Meng Qi: "You go to the camp with me and recognize a few people!" ”