At this time, the Anjiang had already approached the burning village, and not far from the village, the Anjiang dropped anchor, and several sailors put down a small boat, and several sailors jumped into the boat, rowed the boat, and passed in the direction of the village, while Zheng Sen and others watched from the boat. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

The sailors did not go directly into the village, and the situation in the village was not clear, although judging by the fire, there were probably no people left in the village, at least there would be no living people. But the sailors weren't sure if the guy who lit the fire had gone far. There are some literary perverts, they not only like to kill people and set fires, but also like to watch cities and villages burn little by little. For example, it is said that the famous second emperor of Rome, Nero, once set the whole of Rome on fire, and then stood on the high platform of the royal palace, looking down on the burning city, and recited a poem that he himself said could be compared to the chapter of the Trojan fire in Homer's epic. (Of course, it's just boasting) Although there seems to be no perverts in the official army of "Liukou" or Zuo Liangyu who like to write poems against the fire, there are definitely perverts who like to watch the fire and like to see destruction, and there are definitely a lot of them, but they don't know how to write poems.

If these guys haven't gone far, it's very dangerous to rush close to the village. The number of sailors was small, only five or six people, and the degree of armament was very average, they were not a model army after all. It can also be very dangerous if it is discovered by those who like to kill.

The sailors first climbed a hill near the embankment to take a look around the village. They have a great advantage over the rogues or the official army, that is, they have high-end things in their hands that none of those guys have - telescopes.

Even now, the Zheng family is still unable to produce glass with high transparency, although it is said that making glass is a necessary artifact for travelers, but in fact, there are many technological secrets in making high-transparency glass, which can never be solved by knowing a few chemical reaction equations, so although they invited Taixi technicians, although they offered a bounty, but until now, the glass they made not only has a turbid green, but also there are often a lot of large and small bubbles in the glass, some bubbles are very small, It is almost invisible to the naked eye, and it is even better when used as other items, but when used as a telescope lens, these tiny bubbles greatly reduce the clarity of the telescope's imagery, and it is difficult to see things that are slightly farther away. However, this problem is not unsolvable, because nature provides something much more transparent and optical than the glass that Zheng Sen's people could make - natural crystal.

Although natural crystal is also a gemstone, the production of natural crystal is much higher than that of some other gemstones, but in the era of science-based prospecting and mechanized mining technology, large, high-purity crystals are still not cheap. Fortunately, the Zheng family has nothing else but money, so the problem of raw materials is not a big problem. However, manual grinding requires skill and time, although the Zheng family is also training craftsmen, but the production of telescopes is still far from enough, at present, only the captains of those warships, and the commanders of the battalion level of the model army are expected to use telescopes, but as new craftsmen gradually mature, this thing will gradually become popular.

Of course, these sailors are not qualified to use such high-end goods, and of course they use Zheng Sen's one.

The telescopes allowed the sailors to observe in detail from a great distance, which was very useful for combat, making it difficult for other armies that were not equipped with such gadgets at the time to ambush Zheng Sen's men. Because most of the time, when the enemy is still far away, the soldiers of this era are not very accustomed to hiding from a long distance, and in the absence of a telescope, hiding from a long distance will also interfere with their own observation.

It turns out that it is necessary to be cautious. On a hill a little past the village, a group of people could be seen pointing at the burning village. In the binoculars, you can see very clearly, those people are dressed as officers and soldiers, and they are also waving a flag with a Li character on it, and I don't know whose people and horses it is.

The gang also carried a few heads of livestock, horses, and donkeys. The donkey was carrying something on its back, mostly something that had been snatched. They looked at the fire, pointing, their faces full of excitement.

The sailors stopped there, and one of the sailors ran to the shore, pulled out a small flag and waved it towards the ship.

"What does he mean?" Li Xiangjun asked.

He said there were officers and soldiers nearby...... I knew it. Zheng Sen said with a calm face.

After a while, the fire gradually became smaller. Those officers and soldiers had seen enough, so they slowly went into the distance. A few sailors made their way to the village. Zheng Sen and the others also got on a small boat and boarded the river embankment, where they overlooked the village from afar. By this time, the flames had been largely extinguished, and only a large area of ruins was still smoking. He saw the sailors slowly approaching the village and then stopped near it, apparently the temperature inside the village was still too high for them to get close. It took a while for the sailors to walk into the ruins of the village, and after a circle, they returned.

"Major General, there are no living people in the village." A sailor said to Zheng Sen.

This result was expected, and in such a fire, there could be no living people.

"Hundreds of people were locked up in a large courtyard and set on fire." Another sailor added.

"These officers and soldiers just rob things, why do they want to kill all the people?" Li Xiangjun asked.

"Huh." Zheng Sen smiled bitterly and said, "Have you ever heard of killing people?" Xiangjun, look at this village, it is so big, and there are only two or three hundred people in Qingping, and in today's situation, there can be hundreds of people in a village, which is not easy. What kind of village can basically live in such a time, and basically most people can still live without going into exile? ”

"What kind of village?" Li Xiangjun obviously hasn't figured it out yet.

"Of course, the whole village has been surrendered to a certain gentry's village." Zheng Sen gritted his teeth and replied, "Only such a village can get rid of all kinds of harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, and can barely support and keep such a large number of people in today's year." In order to avoid a lot of extortion, it is worth grabbing. ”

"But, isn't this offending the gentry?" Li Xiangjun's head hadn't turned for a while.

"Two years earlier, it was. At that time, they really didn't dare to offend the gentry, hehe, the Wuqiao Rebellion back then, wasn't it because a soldier stole a chicken from the gentry's house? But now, those generals have seen that the imperial court no longer has the strength to control them. Now that the imperial court has no money, it is naturally impossible to send troops from other places to suppress them. Moreover, they no longer relied on the military salaries paid by the imperial court, and now they had completely become new feudal towns. As long as they do not rebel openly, the imperial court will generally not pursue them, and at most they will be fined and dismissed. But what's the use of that? How much money is it? As for the dismissal, now that the army is a general, even if the official rank is removed, it is impossible to take away his army, at most it is just to make the family guilty and make meritorious service. The ordinary gentry can no longer scare them as before. As long as they don't leave too much hard evidence, no one can do anything about them. On the contrary, these villages under the patronage of the gentry were richer and more worthy of robbery than other villages. Of course, although it won't be a big deal to offend the gentry, there will always be trouble, so in order to avoid trouble, it is naturally the best way to kill all the people in the village and then push it to the rogue. The Zuo Liangyu we are about to visit is such a character. In the name of suppressing bandits, he killed and plundered less, and the bad things he did were probably comparable to several Zhang Xianzhong. There is a saying among the people: 'A thief comes like a comb, and a soldier comes like a grate.' Zuo Liangyu is the densest grate. It is said that when he was fighting against the Liukou, his army even took pleasure in killing people, and invented a lot of methods to torture and kill the people, which even the king of Shang would be ashamed to see when he saw it. ”

"Childe, will there be any danger for you to go to see him?" Li Xiangjun couldn't help but hold Zheng Sen's arm.

"But don't worry about it." Zheng Sen smiled, "Zuo Liangyu is a bad person, a villain, but he is not a madman or a stupid hat. The Master said, how to convince a villain? ”

"Zi said: 'The gentleman is said to be righteous, and the villain is said to be profitable.'" Does Childe mean that you can buy this person with a small profit? Li Xiangjun said.

Zheng Sen nodded and said, "I want to bring in homeless people, Zuo Liangyu can make a lot of money here." Besides, you think, if every living person could be exchanged for money from me, then they should be able to rob everywhere and kill for pleasure much less, because they would think that they would lose a lot of money by killing them. They love destruction, of course, but they love money even more. Other than that, what are they asking for money for? Is it to close the door every day and count the money like Wang Rong? Naturally, they want money to enjoy themselves and strengthen their own strength. My family is a merchant of the sea, and we can provide these needs, whether it is all kinds of new gadgets for enjoyment, or for muskets and cannons. On the contrary, if he is not good for me, what good can he do except offend a large group of people? Therefore, as long as Zuo Liangyu is not a fool, it will not be unfavorable to me. If Zuo Liangyu was a complete fool, then he wouldn't be where he is today. So, you don't have to worry too much about it. ”