Then I got the first assignment to go out with the team, to receive the tax for the donation of a certain place, which is a beautiful difference, according to the custom.

Especially for a logistical auxiliary clerical staff like me, who is responsible for keeping records, it can be described as a task with little risk, fast input, short cycle, and a lot of oil and water.

The main thing is to go to the peripheral forces of Liangshan to collect grain, cloth, and other sundries, since Liangshan won and continued to survive, the surrounding local people who lost their protection because of the damage and contraction of the government power will have to pay some price for this.

At the shady ferryhead at the bottom of the mountain, a group of people had gathered there to wait.

In this team of more than 100 people, I was a little surprised to see a lot of familiar faces, who seemed to have dealt with the rebels, and the leader was the veteran Deng Fang of the Volunteer Army, but I didn't expect him to live well.

He is also a deputy capital head now, and it is said that he has re-worked to this position from a miscellaneous chief, but he is still in the sequence of Beiding, and he often has to run between the camps inside and outside the mountain, and he can only be counted in the lower boss class.

After seeing me, there was a lot of sighing and sighing, from a certain Cheng dù, including the former leader Jiang An, most of them were not very happy, this time it was easy to be reunited, and I couldn't help but hold some kind of expectation and hope.

After waiting for a while, he didn't wait for Jiang'an's arrival, so he had to set off with a little disappointment from the old capital Deng Fang.

As expected, as the promoter of this matter, the absence of the former leader Jiang An, I also have some regrets and inexplicable things, but I don't know where it comes from.

After everyone arrived, we boarded the head boat provided by the water camp in batches, which is flat and wide, shallow and stable, and easy to turn, especially suitable for transportation in this kind of water and river network area.

Hundreds of miles of water, as well as the same area of even reeds and grass, constitute the best outer cover of the Xiaoliang Mountain Range, the wind urges the grass, rippling like a blanket, the yellowing and withered reeds have fallen away, only a piece of grass stalks remains.

I came here as a captive last time, so I'm not in the mood to enjoy this watery scenery, but now I can finally take a good look at it.

In the small boats, many women are salvaging aquatic plants and other debris, and then picking the edible parts of them. This is also one of the small things I did to save myself.

The reeds are also plucked up in pieces, and the white brittle roots are peeled out, and the taste is slightly sweeter. It is also a good side dish for ordinary people. Others were digging lotus roots with wooden shovels in the shallows where the lotus leaves had withered, and the mud was steaming hot on a cold day.

Seeing their hard work and helplessness, I suddenly felt that my own situation was not so bad.

The boat traveled far and wide in the winding waterways, and soon the front and back were drowned in the edgeless water and reeds, and my mind drifted with these continuous reeds

According to Luo Kedi's statement, I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived here, because there was internal information that the armies of Liangshan were intended to be expanded and supplemented again in the beginning of spring, and then among the descendants, including this former rebel army, they would select capable people and organize them into a number of new capitals and regimental heads.

This time it was my turn to go on a trip, but it was an incidental investigation trip, which was regarded as taking care of my old acquaintance's origins, and it was also a disguised stain of my light.

Because, it is said that this part of the people who surrendered to Liangshan really produced several characters with good appearances, and they were looked at correctly by some upper classes.

However, this so-called familiarity is just an accidental turn back after the road has drifted away, or it is just a disguised temptation from some kind of conspiracy.

I thought about it like this, and along the way, there were several groups of people from other mountains in the Xiaoliang Mountain Range, large and small, to join, and finally this expropriation team reached four or five hundred people, and the right to lead the team was also handed over to a Chinese army leader named Dai Zong, although he did not have the ability and nickname of Shenxing Taibao, but he was polite to me.

It seems that he has been explained in advance, and he even asked Deng Fang's subordinates to arrange a few people to follow me and obey my orders.

In the labyrinthine network of rivers, after a sudden opening up again and again, we have come to the mouth of the river, a small water village that extends half into the river.

After stepping on the land again, he entered the edge of Liangshan's subsidiary strength, and on both sides of the road that was artificially stepped out, the traces of the battlefield were still there, and the rusted weapons and flags were broken, and they were not buried because there were too many of them, and the scattered bones that were torn by wild dogs were faintly visible in the white grass.

Burned villages and abandoned fields were not restored, and in a deathly silence, they were reduced to a paradise of crows and wild dogs.

This scene lasted for a long time during our journey, until we saw low earthen walls and hedges, and the lonely sound of barking dogs and chickens.

But that wasn't our goal, and in the silence and the prying eyes hidden in the huts, we walked through the place, taking the dogs, chickens, ducks, and other living creatures we could see, and moving on.

This time we didn't have to walk long to reach our first destination, Xiaoguang County, surrounded by broken low walls and dry ditches.

Xiaoguang County, as its name suggests, is a small county with the lowest tax household rating, and it is also one of the many new counties that were separated from Qingzhou during the Guangyuan period, and developed as a market town on trade routes.

Although it is already dilapidated, it is a county government, so there are probably thousands of permanent residents in the city, maintaining the basic functions of the villagers of the four fields, collecting and trading on a daily basis.

As an inferior small county, the low earthen fence here is full of traces that have been gnawed out by dogs, broken and destroyed, and have not had time to fill it.

In the dilapidated county town, there are residents with vegetables, shops along the street still have traces of fire and slashing with knives and axes, there are almost no people on the street, and even wild dogs are wittily clipped their tails and hide in the shadows of houses and alleys.

All that remained were the holes in the buildings that had not yet had time to be repaired, the terrified faces painted in the dust, and the cautious snooping eyes and glances that cowered behind the doors and windows.

This is just the sworn ownership of Yangsan after the war, to the peripheral forces, so there is almost no force to meet obstacles.

After controlling a few key points of entry and exit, on the ruins of the burned Yamen, the leader of Dai Zong's team began to gather the leaders to explain loudly.

"According to the rules, it's easy to slam the door and get out of this trip......"

"Everyone can have fun here......"

"By the way, let's see what you can do at home, just go and get it"

Then he turned his head and explained to me

"Xia Bookkeeper, even if you want a woman, there is no problem, if you like it, just go to negotiate......"

"As long as you don't kill people afterwards......"

I couldn't help pouting, well, the rumor that I am very for women has also spread on Liangshan.

Several representatives of the residents who were dragged out to negotiate stood at the entrance of the long street, tremblingly currying favor with these outsiders and making careful negotiations.

In addition, it is the loneliness of the long street where the wind sweeps the long street, dust and garbage fly together, and occasionally the cries of ignorant children are immediately stopped by frightened parents.

The only bright spot is that after the arrival of the Liangshan people, there are only a handful of shops that have been forced to open their doors.

The bean miscellaneous shop, shrunk behind the cabinet, the shopkeeper who was like a sieve of chaff, looked at these men who were eating and chewing freely, and didn't dare to come out.

There is also sweet porridge water boiled in thick bean juice and millet, and steamed wheat rice covered with old tofu in sauce, and a lot of green onions and mustard greens are cut, although there is no oil and water, but it tastes exceptionally fragrant.

Pack many portions as dry food for the return trip, and then leave half a horse of coarse silk as a price.

Other marinated dishes, cooking cakes, dried sauces, altar dishes and the like are also collected, which can be regarded as a personal stipophore.

When the selected soldiers, led by mules and horses, began to patrol this small county town, I also began to lead people to wander around the city.

Of course, I couldn't really go to find any women, but I used this as a reason to look at most of the businesses in this small town and the things needed to make a living and keep going on a daily basis.

Although they closed the door, it did not prevent me from taking people to knock in, and then take some samples under the frightened eyes of the family, which was a kind of social investigation of Cheng dù.

The other people who went with me had unaware expressions and looks.

The whole process was uneventful, although we were plundered by soldiers and bandits, but the remaining people still made up what we needed.

More than a dozen cartloads of grain, including rice and wheat beans, gray-white sea salt in baskets, sauces and wine in jars, bundles of white plain cloth, irregular iron ingots, stacks of skins and jerky, live poultry in cages, and a few women who had dried their tears.

My rounds of the blacksmith's shop and the various goldsmiths' houses have come to an end for the time being, and I have some jingling things in my bag.

After a few cries and devastation, it was the next market town along the road. My task is very easy, just count and keep accounts, basically everything I need, run errands and so on, and people rush to do it.

When my bag was already full of bits and pieces collected from all over the place, and the cart full of supplies was lined up, and the number of women on the cart had reached more than twenty, and all kinds of impure gold and silver ingots and fragments were filled into a box.

According to the rules of the mountain, in addition to the wealth that can be used as money, twenty to thirty percent of the things that are collected when they go out are allowed to be used as routine dispatch materials, of course, the things actually collected are far more than these, and these losses have already been shared.

Those who have the ability to lead the team will also eat according to the place, so these indicators of material consumption are often saved as personal benefits. Generally, the leaders divide half of it, and the rest of the profit is given to other ordinary soldiers, which is a small income for individuals.

But the most popular are the women who come in, as long as they stop to rest, they are always crawling with all kinds of men, and every day after dark, the best women are left in the leaders' tents for the night.

This is also a disguised means of incentive, almost everyone has a share, and the only one who has not touched these women is me and the old army Deng Fang.

It's because I really can't look down on it, and I can't bear to toss these poor people who are forced to fill their bodies with all kinds of men's bodily fluids as soon as they are free.

I may occasionally sympathize with and pity their plight, but there is nothing I can do to change this situation, even if I secretly let them go, it is estimated that Dai Zong's people will not pursue anything, but it doesn't make much sense to do so.

Because even if they go back, there will be no good results, not because of some feudal and rotten concept of chastity or anything, in fact, it is quite difficult to live in this troubled world, and there is not much leisure to care about etiquette.

But as long as Liangshan is still standing for a day, their father, brother and family will not dare and will not accept these women who fled back halfway. On the contrary, those villagers and neighbors who are afraid of the power of Liangshan will regard them as a way to bring disaster to them, or a bad omen, and send them back to the mountain, or secretly kill them to prevent future troubles.

This is one of the tragedies and inertia of the bullshit world, the chaotic era of goddamn, countless places, and every day.

I can only give some advice, such as treating these women a little bit with the reason that strange goods can live, taking care of food and hygiene, in exchange for better service quality, reducing the frequency of arrangement, punishing those who are too rough, avoiding overuse, and affecting sustainable development.

outcome

There was also a small episode during this period, a young man from the local area, with the help of two companions, actually wanted to sneak into the camp at night and rescue a certain childhood sweetheart who was expropriated by the Liangshan people, even if she had been developed by others and could not be redeveloped.

He had already succeeded, and then because of the woman's plea, he wanted to bring a few more, but these women who were turned with some weak legs became a burden to him, and when he fled, he alarmed Deng Fang, the veteran soldier who was patrolling the night, and was caught red-handed.

Then all three of them were brutally cut off their limbs, their tongues and lower bodies cut off, and they were stuck on wooden poles, and left on the side of the road to make markers, until we pulled out the camp and left, before they were completely dead, it was Deng Fang who gave them a mending knife to end the suffering.

As the encounter of the rescued female companion, she cried dry tears under the siege of a group of men, and was fiddled with like a rag doll.

This incident also made me firm again in my determination to leave the unkind place of Liangshan at the first opportunity.

But when we saw the empty official village that was the barrier of the state capital from afar, we finally embarked on the road back.

Compared to the levy route, which requires a large detour at the time of departure, the return route is a shorter and straighter route, therefore,

Soon we came to a ferry, and according to the agreement, the boaters of the right battalion returning from other places would be responsible for receiving and carrying us on a section.

The ferry port was deserted and there was no one in sight, only a few dilapidated resting sheds and Tuwei teahouses.