When Li Yu and Bai Ge returned to Shenyang, the Jin army had been back for more than two days, and the troops were disbanded and returned to their respective homes, and there were almost no captures in this time, and there was no excitement in Shenyang like when he returned triumphantly in the past, when Li Yu returned to Azig, Azig told him: After the old Khan came back this time, he was in a very bad mood, and he wanted to summon him, but now he had to postpone it, but the old Khan still rewarded him with ten taels of silver and a green cloth, and let him continue to stay in the literary hall to do things, and read more books by the way.

Li Yu took the opportunity to propose to visit the villagers in Fengjibao, and Azig happily agreed, the army would not send troops in a short time, and Bayala didn't have much to do.

Coming out of Azig's place, Li Yu returned to his home outside the literary hall, Meng Ke was in a daze in the house, and when he saw Li Yu, he complained loudly, this is a nest that can barely sleep, where can it be considered a home, I knew that it was better to follow the grass to be a thief.

Li Yu is also angry, tell you not to follow me, you will die and not leave, it is not too late for you to leave. Meng Ke shouted, if you don't want to drive me out of the door, I'll rely on you.

Li Yu reluctantly took out a small bag from his arms and spread it on the table, sighed and said, "Meng Ke, this is all my belongings, plus this reward is a total of more than ten taels of silver, if you want to leave, take it all." ”

Meng Ke was unhappy: "A lot of money, you take back the silver, if I want to take advantage of you, I will leave early, being a thief is much better than living with you, to be honest, I see that you have the ability and good character, so I am willing to mix with you, I have already had enough days of eating and drinking spicy food, and now I want to find a place to live, without worrying about falling asleep and being cut off by others." ”

Li Yu nodded and said: "If you are willing to endure hardship, just stay, I am a poor bastard, I don't have a master here, Aha, only my own brother, if you are here for a day, I will treat you as a brother for a day, if you want to leave that day, just go, I won't blame you." ”

The two were silent for a while, and then discussed the matter of living in the future, Li Yu said about returning to Fengji Fort, and planned to leave ten taels of silver for the villagers of Wula Mountain, and the remaining three or five taels were handed over to Meng Ke to buy some household goods for the two of them, and there was no shortage of food for the time being.

Originally, Li Yu planned to leave the next day, but Haoge came early in the morning - this time he did not go out with the army, and when he heard that Li Yu came back, he came to visit immediately, and by the way, he brought a few old clothes and a bag of grain, saying that Sibeile asked him to bring it, and Sibeile planned to find him a house to settle down, and then increase the monthly rations for his Wenguan to three buckets of rice. After sending Hauge away, Turai and Aobai came again, and he must be dragged to have a meal, which Uncle Wei Qi had instructed not to go, and he returned home in the evening, and the day passed in a daze.

Li Yu postponed the road for a day, and when he left, Sonny carried a bag of dry food to him, and repeatedly told him that the road was unsafe and there were thieves and thieves, and the weapon must be carried with him, and he must not eat Nikan's food, and don't ask Nikan for water to drink, and when he saw that Nikan had a lot of people, he must first prepare knives, spears, bows and arrows, Sonny said angrily: "Nikan is still killing less, and he is getting more and more courageous, and he dares to sneak attack in the daytime when he sees that we are small, you bring a waist card, and when you encounter something wrong, run to the surrounding castles, where there are our people." ”

Li Yu took Meng Ke out of Shenyang City, all the way to the southeast, Fengji Fort is only forty miles away from Shenyang, the road is not far but the snow is thick and not easy to walk, Li Yu borrowed a donkey cart from Aobai's house, which was loaded with a hundred catties of grain and some sundries for Kulu them, sometimes the donkey cart could not move and had to get off the horse and push, so follow the donkey cart to stop and go, and only half of the way was walked at noon.

Meng Ke couldn't help but mutter, after walking all morning, there were not many shadows on the road, and there was no popularity in the villages along the way, so the fool came here to be a thief, and the guard named Sonny must have been too worried. Li Yu ignored him, continued to drive the donkey cart, and walked about five miles, when the long-awaited "thief" appeared - five or six guys armed with wooden sticks and kitchen knives stopped in the middle of the road, all unkempt, unclothed, shivering in the cold wind, if these people were also called thieves, Meng Ke felt that they were all insults to his past occupation, and it was accurate to say that they were a group of people asking for food.

The following thing is simple, Meng Ke didn't wait for Li Yu to speak, he took a wooden stick and went up and beat him hard, and in a few strokes, he beat this group of people who wanted food to flee in all directions, leaving only two injured ones lying in the snow and wailing, Meng Ke beat and kicked mercilessly, threatening to break their legs, so as not to come out and harm others in the future, several women ran out of nowhere with their children, hugged Meng Ke's thighs, knelt on the ground and cried and begged, Meng Ke didn't care about these, kicked away these girls and beat them, until Li Yu scolded a few times in the distance, He put away his stick and returned to Li Yu, who took a bag of dry food from the car and threw it to the women, and then said, "Let's go!" And he continued on his way.

Meng Ke said disdainfully: "I just want to teach them a lesson, and I don't really beat them, or they would have died a long time ago." You're just a good person, and you're going to suffer sooner or later. ”

Li Yutou didn't reply and said: "You haven't tasted starvation, don't say be a thief when you're hungry, you will have the heart to eat people." ”

Fengji Fort finally arrived, the flag keeper of the fort looked at Li Yu's waist card, and told them very enthusiastically that they couldn't walk three or four miles north out of the fort, and the village at the foot of the mountain was Beitunzi, and it was still early in the day, and it was too late to go into the house and drink a few mouthfuls of hot soup to warm up and then go, and Niu Lu Beiyu lived in Fengji Fort, he could help inform him, Li Yu thanked him and said no, drank a bowl of water and immediately left on the road.

Seeing Beitunzi, Li Yu's heart was excited, his eyes were a little moist, and he couldn't help but let out a long roar: "Hao-Rui, Hao-Rui." Hearing this familiar shout, there was soon movement in the village, and someone appeared at the entrance of the village, and there were more and more people, and someone shouted: "The wild man is back, our wild man is back!" Two small figures ran towards him, and after a while, they threw themselves into his arms, and Li Yu excitedly picked them up one by one: "Hadari, Rabdu, are you okay?" ”

When Li Yu pulled Hadari and Rabudu into the village, the villagers of Wula Mountain immediately surrounded him in the middle, and Uncle Wudai hugged him and said without listening: "Good boy, you are finally back, the people in the tribe miss you, and they are afraid that something will happen to you, and you really shouldn't have let that Sibeile take you away." ”

Aunt Naya wiped her tears and said with a smile: "Uncle Wudai, the wild man is a good boy, and the gods of Ula Mountain will bless him, and nothing will happen." ”

When Kuru appeared in front of him, Li Yu excitedly went up and grabbed his hand and brought him to his car: "Uncle Kuru, look at what I brought, there is a lot of food here, as well as a piece of cloth and some clothes, I can help the people of our tribe live a good life in the future." Then he took out the cloth bag in his bosom and handed it to Kuru: "Here are ten taels of silver, which the Great Khan gave me." ”

Kuru nodded and then turned to everyone and said, "Today our child is finally back, we have to celebrate, he has grown up and can help us, in the future, everyone should not call him a wild man, but call him Da Lu." Everyone agreed in unison.

On this night, Beitunzi was unprecedentedly lively, the men sat on the kang in Kulu and talked with Li Yu about what happened during this time, Aunt Naya led the women to cook a meal of wheat noodles and meat that each family had put together, and the children of Hadari, Rabdu, and others also ran around the house and outside the house, and everyone dispersed until very late.

Late at night, only Kulu, Wu Dai and Li Yu were left in Kulu's house, Ku Lu and Wu Dai now have some official positions, Ku Lu is one of the four thousand general managers in Niu Lu, assisting Niu Lu to prepare for the management of Niu Lu, Wu Dai is the Pashi Library, in charge of paperwork, food, but in fact, they are doing the work of the village chief, and some things can only be talked about by the three of them.

Kulu shook his head and said: "We thought that we would have a better time when we entered Zhenbeiguan, but we didn't expect to starve, and the Dajin Kingdom placed us here, and divided the land according to the edict of 'Ji Ding and Grant Fields' - six yuan per ding, and the others were an order of the Great Yamen to live and eat together, and we lived in Nikan's house, and the Nikan who lived together gave us four liters of grain per month. The slogan of the people who raised the grace of the Dajin country is deceitful, no one in the Dajin country has no grace, we live in Nikan's house, eat Nikan's grain, and after the beginning of spring, Nikan and Nikan go down to the field together to plough together, it is Nikan who is supporting us, Nikan is not rich in Beitunzi, we can't live anymore after we come, everyone who can run has run, and the remaining group of old and weak Nikan can't afford to support us, now it's okay, Zhushen and Nikan have become poor eggs, and they all have to starve together. ”

Wu Dai continued: "In fact, the 'Ji Ding Grant Field' is also bullying Nikan, and the land allocated to us is all cooked land that Nikan has cultivated, and Nikan's land is gone, so we either reopen the land by ourselves or only flee the wasteland." He said angrily: "We are all mountain people, we have strength and ability, we have always supported ourselves, Nikan has a better life, that is people can farm, why use a knife to force others to support us, I blush when I think of this." ”

Li Yu heard Sakhalian say that Zhushen and Nikan lived and ate together, and knew that this was a bad policy against Nikan, but he didn't expect that this evil policy not only hurt Nikan, but also made Zhushen unable to eat in the end, so he couldn't help asking: "Then what should we do?" You can't let everyone go hungry all the time. Seeing Kuru and Udai's helpless looks, he thought about it and said, "Why don't I come back, I can do more work." ”

Wu Dai smiled: "What's the use of you coming back, we have almost two hundred people, plus more than five hundred men, women, and children in the village Nikan and Zhushen from elsewhere, no matter how much work you do, you can't feed so many people." ”

Kulu said solemnly: "Erlu, uncle knows your kindness, but you must not come back, this burden is too heavy and will crush you, you are nineteen years old this year, it's time to go out and make a career, you don't care about our affairs here in the future, you must remember that the bigger your career in the future, the greater the hope of Beitunzi people to live a good life, which is much more important than you do more work." ”

Wu Dai saw Li Yu's depressed look, and said with a smile: "Don't worry, there are still two of us old guys here, Beitunzi will not collapse so easily, we can survive if other villages can survive, the people here are very good, those Nikans are also honest and diligent, a few days ago you went to fight Ningyuan, some Ming guerrillas rushed over to loot, Nikan in Tunzi and we worked together to beat them away, in fact, everyone wants to live a peaceful life, not forced to be helpless, Who is willing to abandon their family and business to escape from the famine with a family starving and cold, I have discussed it with your Uncle Kulu, we will not have a master, Aha in the future, there will be no Zhushen and Nikan, there will be food to share together, everyone will do the work in the field together, and we will organize some people to go into the mountains to hunt, I don't believe that we can't survive the difficulties. ”

Kuru nodded and added: "We are reluctant to sell the horses and weapons that Turai gave you last time, and we will also organize young and strong soldiers like other Niu Lu, and we will also go to war in the future, as long as we can share the spoils, our people in Tunzi will have a much better life." ”

Listening to their words, Li Yu immediately felt confident again.

After Wu Dai left, Li Yu told Kuru about seeing Yehebu Mandahai, Kulu immediately remembered this person, and whispered to Li Yu: "I have seen this person, he has some ability, he sent someone to find me, and asked me to fight with him with the Houjin Kingdom, but I didn't agree, the disparity in strength between us and the Jin Kingdom is too great, I don't want to bury the hundreds of remaining people in our tribe in vain, but what he said is very reasonable, you really have to leave a mentality, the people who love the Xinjueluo family, including the four beylors, one is more ambitious than the other, One is more ruthless than the other. ”

Early the next morning, the preparation of this Niu Lu Ba Yang Ha ran to Kulu's house, he heard the banner of Fengji Fort last night said that the Shenyang Imperial Palace of the third class guard went to Beitunzi to visit relatives, this kind of Great Khan's close ministers can not be seen, and then inquire which guard it is, he was even more shocked, this Erlu actually and his master Seven Elder Brother Abatai still have a relationship, at the end of last year, Abatai Belle came back from Ningguta and wanted to include this Erlu in his own Niu Lu, and also put on a happy loss to receive the Kulu tribe with few men and livestock, but I didn't expect to be intervened by Concubine Abahai and Sibeile halfway, and there was less Elu among the people who accepted, and Abatai really suffered a loss, and he was scolded by Fujin when he went home.

Bayanha is a rare businessman in the Houjin Imperial Palace, when he was mixed in Fushun Horse Market, when the old Khan rebelled, he knew that the business could not go on, and tangled a group of small merchants and vendors in the horse market to defect to the old Khan, and also mixed a reserve official position, but when everyone saw him clearly, his life was not easy - he and his gang of people had enough brains, but the war was too sloppy, and over time everyone didn't bother to call him about the looting of troops, and gave him the nickname "Bayanha who sells pine nuts", If you don't have the opportunity to send troops to fight, you won't be able to get the spoils of war, and Bayanha's Niu Lu will be so poor that it will be tinkling, but Bayanha is not discouraged, and is ready to seize any opportunity at any time, for example, today's person may be an opportunity, if he is not afraid of walking at night and meeting the Ming army guerrillas or Nikan who does not want to die, he wants to run to Beitunzi that night. Early this morning, Bayanha rushed to Kuru as soon as he slipped through the smoke, and brought Niu Lu and the other three thousand generals, and the others were still outside the door, shouting to see the guard.

As soon as Li Yu saw Bayanha, he felt that this person was easy to get close to, Bayanha was a thin man, not tall, a pair of small eyes liked to turn around, there was nothing to attract attention, and the impression left was that he was poor, the cotton robe and boots were patched, and the hair of the old fur hat on his head was all worn out. Li Yu thought to himself, this guy should be a poor man like me, such a person is always easier to deal with than a rich person.

Sure enough, it didn't take long to talk, the two called each other brothers, Bayanha held Li Yu's hand tightly and said affectionately: "Brother Erlu, at the end of last year, I heard that the seventh elder brother said that you can't come to our Niulu, the elder brother feels uncomfortable, what our Niulu lacks is a young talent like you, we have hope when you come, but the Great Khan wants to reuse you, and we can only stare and watch, counting on you to be content at a glance, I didn't expect you to come so soon, I am so happy in my heart, I can't sleep all night with excitement." Now it's okay, I'm finally seeing you, our Niulu is your home, my brother will treat you as a family member, and I'll tell you everything I want to say, anyway, Uncle Kulu, Uncle Wudai and everyone here are not outsiders. ”

At this time, Bayanha suddenly stood up and made a big salute to the people present, and then continued with tears in his eyes: "I Bayanha has no ability to cause all the people of Niulu to suffer poverty, I am sorry for everyone, but I am unwilling, if I can let everyone live a good life, I will admit this life." Today, Brother Erlu is here, he is a person close to the Great Khan, he has the ability and knowledge, he can help us refer to it, and we will think of some ways together to make the villagers have a better life. ”

Bayanha said this point, and everyone was also moved, racking their brains together to think of the idea of getting rich. Kuru and Udai glanced at each other, and explained to everyone the method they had thought of last night.

Bayanha applauded, Nikan who could run in several villages under his jurisdiction had already run, and the rest really couldn't squeeze oil and water, as for Aha, there were not many of them who were poor cows, and they couldn't work in the fields if they didn't want to, so instead of continuing to put on a stinky shelf, it was better for everyone to be honest and share weal and woe. Bayanha knew in his heart that they were separated from Nikan, and they could not plant well if they had land, when they were in Jianzhouwei, if it weren't for the looting or fleeing Han people and Koreans to help grow crops, Zhushen could only live a hard life of hunting and ginseng picking, at that time, Zhushen regarded Aha as a family member, working together in the field during the day, and sleeping on a hot kang at night was very common, Bayanha did not feel that there was anything wrong with getting along with Nikan and Aha friendly, Bayanha even said that not only the Zhushen of this Niu Lu was not allowed to bully Nikan and Aha in the future, If other Niu Lu's Zhu Shen dare to bully this Niu Lu's Aha and Nikan, they must also be beaten out.

As for organizing young and strong soldiers, not to mention the problem, in the past, the Bayanha gang did not have this ability, and the white-armored soldiers and red-armored soldiers they selected were often the jokes of the Eight Banners, but now it is easy to do with Kulu, Bayanha immediately said that the young and strong people in each village will be handed over to Kulu to bring, as long as it is a leisure time, Kuru can be deployed at will, and in the future, Kulu will take them out to fight.

It is a bit of a headache to organize people to hunt, and it is easy to do it, and the people who come from Wula Mountain are competent enough, and the hunting ground is easy to find, Beitunzi is built by the mountain, and there is Tashan behind it, and there are many beasts on the mountain. The problem is that the old Khan has an edict that hunting must be carried out by all flags, and the prey must also be distributed by all flags, and it is forbidden to go into the mountains to hunt without permission, and the most troublesome thing is how to exchange fur for grain, cloth, cotton and other urgently needed goods, the Great Khan only allows the people to sell their own chickens, ducks, pigs, and sheep, and it is strictly forbidden to do business for profit, so you can't be stupid to hand over the fur to the flag.

Some Qian always said, I heard that there are other flags and Niu Lu sent people to hunt privately, secretly exchanging furs for food, and I haven't seen anyone punished, since others dare to do it, why don't we dare.

Li Yu suddenly thought of the shopkeeper Fan from Shanxi, Mingguo, this person's business is not small, the caravan has fifty or sixty carts, maybe he can help with this, Li Yu thought of this, and told everyone about the shopkeeper Fan.

Bayanha's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he patted his thigh and said: "This matter is so decided, Uncle Kuru is training, Uncle Wudai is hunting, and then find a few good farmers from Nikan to take everyone to farm, and the Erlu brothers will help us contact the merchants of the Ming Kingdom, and I will do the business business, no matter how strict the Great Khan is, he has to give us food, and if something happens, I will take it, and it is a big deal to remove me from my post and kill my head." ”

Everyone made up their minds and immediately began to move, and Bayanha went to every village under his control to announce the new policy of Benniulu.

Li Yu was not idle, followed Wu Dai into the mountain, they were still too few, plus the Nikan hunters who volunteered to participate, there were only more than 30 people, it was impossible to organize a hunt, it was now February, the snow had not yet melted, and there were already prey that began to forage around, but most of them were still hidden in caves, and experienced hunters could find prey, Li Yu was such a hunter. Meng Ke came to Beitunzi after he was excited, people became very diligent, every day early in the morning to help several families around chopping wood, carrying water, who has any work to do, as long as he heard about it, he immediately ran to help, as a result Meng Ke was very popular in Tunzi, Li Yu was very suspicious that this guy was a bad idea, but Meng Ke said innocently, where he used to go, where the chickens and dogs jumped, everyone was avoiding him, but here it feels different, if you don't do some work, you feel uncomfortable, and finally Meng Ke also said leisurely: "It's nice to feel at home."

Li Yu felt that Meng Ke was a little wrong.

This time out of hunting, Li Yu didn't want to take him, Meng Ke has the strength but no experience in hunting, Li Yu said that this season hunting in the mountains is cold, at this time the beasts that come out to forage are also the most fierce and dangerous, Meng Ke claimed that the more such a job, the more he should not be missing Meng Ke, he shouted to go, Hadari, Rabdu also had to follow, and finally arranged for Meng Ke to take the children in the mountains to lay a trap, this job is not dangerous, you can catch some pheasants, hares, etc., and if you are lucky, you can also catch red deer and roe deer, Monk, who had never played this life, soon became interested and took a few children to play in the mountains in the dark.

Li Yu, Wu Dai and other hunters stayed in the mountains for several days, and Meng Ke had not had enough of playing, and kept encouraging everyone to go to the depths of the mountains, and it was best to hunt a tiger, a bear or something. At this time, Bayanha sent someone to deliver a letter, Shenyang urged Li Yu to go back quickly, and Kurtang also wrote a note, on which the words were only two lines - "Erlu, are you lazy and don't want to study, get back to me immediately." ”

Wu Dai and Li Yu discussed, this time the time into the mountain is not short, and there are a lot of prey, two wild boars, other red deer, roe deer also have several, even Meng Ke They have harvested a lot of pheasants, hares, silver rats, gray squirrels and other small prey, and they should indeed go back to rest for a while, or no one can stand it, and the group returned to Beitunzi.

Bayanha was waiting in Beitunzi, during this time he was also very busy, and his home rarely returned, when he saw Li Yu, he immediately urged him to go back to Shenyang, and asked him to contact the merchants of the Ming Kingdom by the way.

Early the next morning, the people in the tunzi came out to see Li Yu, this time not only Zhu Shen, but even Nikan also came out to see him off—when everyone had meat to eat, the feelings were different, Aunt Naya and a group of women put the prepared dry food and barbecue on his donkey cart no matter how Li Yu excused himself, and Meng Ke also carried a few squirrels in a cage - this was given to him by Hadari and Rabudu to play.

Kuru pulled Li Yu and quietly instructed: "You don't have to worry about us after you return to Shenyang, we can live, you just have to do your own thing, Shenyang is even more sinister, your Uncle Mandahai's words are not wrong, you must be careful when doing things." Kuru took out the silver that Li Yu gave him from his bosom again, and stuffed it into Li Yu's hand: "When you grow up, it's time to start a family, and the silver will come in handy for you." ”

The people of the village had been sending Li Yu to Fengjibao on the main road before he dispersed, and Bayanha heard that Li Yu had encountered thieves on the way to come, and specially sent more than a dozen people from Fengjibao to accompany Li Yu to Shenyang, and Bayanha specially ordered these people not to come back without seeing Shenyang City.

Li Yu's trip to visit relatives ended like this, and Meng Ke walked on the road and said meaningfully: "Big boss, your folks are so good!" ”