Chapter 64: Mandarin Duck Array

Li Wenliang asked his men to prepare a carriage, and then went out of the city with Zhao Zizhong. Everyone drove away from Mingzhou City, walked for more than an hour, and came to a small village.

The village is located on the edge of a small river and is home to about 50 families. It was now nearly dusk, the smoke was rising, and the village was silent. Li Wenliang led everyone to the door of a large mansion in the west of the village and knocked on the door.

The style of this house is simple, and the white walls and tiles reveal the vicissitudes of time. The door opened, and an old man walked out. Li Wenliang bowed and saluted, "Fifth Uncle has always been well?" The nephew is back. ”

The old man was dressed in a blue cloth coat and carried a cane, and he looked to be sixty or seventy years old. He squinted at Li Wenliang, smiled, and said, "It's the third son!" You haven't been back in more than half a year, come in. ”

Li Wenliang showed a smile on his face, helped the old man and said, "Where did Xiao Qi go, why are you at home alone?" ”

The old man shook his head and said helplessly: "He and others have been selling porcelain for several days, and I am alone at home." ”

Li Wenliang introduced Zhao Zizhong to the old man, "Fifth uncle, this is Mr. Zhao, a friend of Cui Hong's cousin, who came to Mingzhou to do business, and needs to stay at home for a few days, just to be your companion." ”

Zhao Zizhong stepped forward to salute, "Old man, I'm bothering you, we'll pay." ”

The old man was very happy, and said again and again: "I can't help it, I can't help it, what kind of money do you want!" I am glad that you young people can come and stay with me for a few days. Besides, you're still my nephew's friend, so you shouldn't see each other, don't mention any more money! ”

Li Wenliang helped the old man to walk into the courtyard and let everyone in. They pulled the wagon into the yard, and they untied the horses from the cart and took out the fodder they had brought to feed the horses. The old man said to Zhao Zizhong: "Most of the people in the family have gone out to do business, and there are many empty rooms, Mr. Zhao doesn't have to be polite, let your partners choose a room to live in at will." ”

Zhao Zizhong called Zhai Xiaoshan and asked him to take someone to cook, so he accompanied the old man into the house to chat. Li Wenliang looked at the sky, "I can't go back to Mingzhou today, let's have two drinks with Mr. Zhao in the evening." ”

Zhao Zi thought about it again, "Proprietor Li, you work hard, send someone to Cui's house, bring a message to Cui Hong, let him come here early tomorrow, I want to discuss some things with him." ”

Li Wenliang nodded and agreed, called a guy, and wrote a note asking him to go to Cui's house to report the news. The guy left in a hurry, and Zhao Zizhong and Li Wenliang chatted with the old man.

After a while, Zhai Xiaoshan came in and said that dinner was ready, Zhao Zizhong invited the old man to eat together, and everyone came to the hall and saw that there were two tables of food.

Li Wenliang helped the old man sit down and poured wine for everyone. During the banquet, everyone pushed the cup and changed the lamp, and ate and drank very happily. Zhao Zizhong said to Zhai Xiaoshan: "Tonight, you arrange someone to be on duty at night, two people in a shift, and each shift is an hour." ”

Zhai Xiaoshan hurriedly ate a few bites and went to make arrangements. At this time, the man who delivered the letter came back and said that he had seen Cui Hong, and he said that he would come here early tomorrow morning.

After drinking for a while, the old man was a little tired, so Li Wenliang helped him in to rest. After eating, everyone went to find a room to sleep.

Zhao Zizhong slept for a while, and in the middle of the night, he woke up and got up to go out to inspect. By the light of the moon, he walked to the gate and saw one of the guards napping against the wall.

He walked up lightly, grabbed the guard by the neck with his left hand, and pinned him to the ground. The guards struggled violently. Zhao Zizhong let go of him, and the guards stood up and rushed over with their swords drawn.

Zhao Zizhong let go of him, stumbling under his feet, and the guards suddenly threw themselves to the ground. Zhao Zizhong said: "It's me, what's your name?" Why are you alone at night? ”

The guards struggled to get up, and when they saw Zhao Zizhong, they scratched their heads in embarrassment, "Big leader, I --- my name is Ding Zhengping, I accidentally fell asleep, you can punish me!" ”

Zhao Zizhong said solemnly: "You can fall asleep at night, you are really promising, if I were an enemy, you would have died eight times." A hundred push-ups, starting right away, will keep you in good spirits. ”

Ding Zhengping was so frightened that he immediately lay on the ground and did push-ups, and Zhao Zizhong stared at him until he finished one by one. Ding Zhengping finally finished it, he was so tired that he was panting, and he couldn't get up from lying on the ground for a long time.

Zhao Zizhong asked, "Didn't I arrange for two people to be on duty at night in each shift?" Where did that person go? ”

Ding Zhengping stood up with difficulty, and said breathlessly: "Report to the big leader, the other person is on duty in the backyard for the night, and it was arranged by Zhai Xiaoshan." ”

Zhao Zizhong stared at him for a while, Ding Zhengping lowered his head, not daring to look at him. Zhao Zizhong opened his mouth and said: "Tomorrow you will double your morning run in the morning, and you will have to do a review in front of everyone, can you be convinced?" ”

Ding Zhengping nodded desperately like a chicken pecking rice, "Convincing, convincing, I was wrong, you can punish me as much as you want." ”

"Stand guard and don't sleep anymore." Zhao Zizhong walked to the backyard.

He crept into the backyard, hid in a corner, and saw a guard walking back and forth, patrolling the backyard. He thought to himself, this guy is not bad, at least he didn't sleep.

He repeated his old trick and took down the guards. I thought to myself, the training is still not enough! The vigilance is too poor, and the night anti-sneak attack subject will be strengthened in the future.

He lectured the guards again and went back to sleep. The next morning, he gathered twelve guards and reprimanded them severely. Everyone was ashamed and kept their heads down and didn't speak.

Zhao Zizhong asked them all to go out for a cross-country run, each carrying a weight of thirty pounds. Carrying bags full of dirt, everyone went out and ran on the dirt road in the countryside. Zhao Zizhong and Boris followed.

After running about three kilometers or so, the team gradually slowed down, and many people could not run. Zhao Zi shouted again: "If you can't finish it, you won't be given food, everyone hurry up and run!" ”

The guards cheered up, gritted their teeth and continued to hold on. After running for another kilometer or so, Zhao Zizhong ordered to run back. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and finally had hope, turned around and stumbled back.

Zhai Xiaoshan ran desperately at the front, full of self-blame. Zhao Zizhong asked him to arrange the work of the guard last night, but he made a mistake and felt that he had failed the leader's cultivation. He secretly swore in his heart that he would never make such a mistake again in the future, he had to work hard, worthy of the generous treatment given by the leader, if he really worked for five years, he would get fifty acres of land, which was a family heirloom! I didn't dare to think about it before, it is said that I have to send a mother-in-law, where can I find such a place in the world! It's like heaven.

Zhai Xiaoshan felt that his whole body was full of strength, he shouted, and began to speed up, leaving the others far behind. Zhao Zizhong saw this scene and felt very relieved, this kid is very self-motivated and worth cultivating.

Driven by Zhai Xiaoshan, the speed of the team accelerated a lot, and everyone gritted their teeth and persevered, and ran back to the village. When they entered the gate, many people sat on the ground and said nothing. Zhao Zizhong forcibly ordered them all to get up and move their bodies, and everyone went to cook together.

After the meal, Cui Hong arrived. Unable to greet Li Wenliang, he came to an empty room with Zhao Zizhong and Boris, and said eagerly: "The atmosphere of the entire Cui manor in the past few days is very strange, many people are ready to move, and I have bought off some people in other rooms, according to them, five days later, at the plenary meeting of the Cui family, someone will take the lead in making trouble, forcing the head of the family to abdicate, and hand over the production and management rights of the spirits, and the profits of the spirits will be equally distributed by the six rooms of the Cui family. ”

Zhao Zizhong raised his eyebrows, "It's really a group of people with a lot of eyes, our brothers can do something casually, and the income will not be less than that of spirits." They can be completely attached to us, and they will definitely make a lot of money, so there is no need to do anything! ”

Zhao Zizhong asked again: "An Dalang, how are they doing?" ”

"After they arrived, An Dalang immediately adjusted the arrangement of the guards of the long house, and now the territory of the long house has been strictly protected by them, and Da Lang is always with the head of the family to ensure his safety."

Zhao Zizhong breathed a sigh of relief, and then asked, "Who is the leader of the Cui family's houses?" Is there a clue? ”

Cui Hong thought for a while, "It is said that the other rooms are connected to each other by some juniors, and the important people have not moved. ”

"There must be someone manipulating in secret, you still have to increase your efforts, spend more money to buy a few important people, and all the money will be counted in the accounts of Qishan Island, and I will explain to your family master."

Cui Hong nodded and agreed, and Zhao Zizhong continued: "You go back immediately, find a house closer to Cui's house, we will live in it as soon as possible, and we will go to support as soon as there is something." I'll send someone to follow you, dress up as your buddy, and let him inform me if anything happens. ”

Zhao Zizhong came out, called Ding Zhengping, asked him to change into the clothes of a servant, and set off with Cui Hong. He instructed: "When you go to Cui's house, go to An Dalang, and say that we have arrived, so that he can't relax his vigilance, guard day and night, especially keep an eye on the people around Cui Daoshu, understand?" ”

Ding Zhengping stood up straight and said excitedly: "Big leader, I will definitely do a good job, otherwise you will cut off my head!" ”

Zhao Zizhong couldn't laugh or cry, "What do I want your head for?" Go ahead, be calm, be careful, and if you come back alone, go around a few more times to prevent someone from following you. ”

Ding Zhengping patted his chest and agreed, and followed Cui Hong. Zhao Zizhong gathered eleven guards and began to urgently train everyone's collective combat capabilities. He took out the 'Mandarin Duck Array' of Qi Jiguang, a famous general in the Ming Dynasty.

The Mandarin Duck formation is a team of 12 people, with the captain at the front, and Boris is the captain. The second two are sword and shield soldiers, responsible for covering heavy arrows and spears, they hold light rattan shields and carry javelins and waist knives, mainly covering the advance of the rear team, in addition to covering can also melee with the enemy. Then the two are wolf whizzers, wolf whizzes are the use of the southern growth of bamboo, choose its old and solid one, the end of the bamboo is obliquely cut into a pointed shape, and leave sharp branches around it, each wolf whik is about 3 meters long, the wolf whizzard uses the sharp blade at the front end of the wolf whizzle to assassinate the enemy to cover the advance of the shield hand and the attack of the spearman behind. Then there were four spearmen with spears, two on the left and two on the right, and the shieldmen and wolf-bearers on the left and right in front of them. This was followed by the skirmishers with short knives, who, if they did not stab the enemy, rushed forward with their daggers to slash the enemy. The last one is the crossbowman, which is held by Zhai Xiaoshan.