Chapter 22: The Seed
Hearing General Li's summoning order, Medical Officer Xiao Liu hurriedly rushed to the village with Li Deyi, bandages on his back, hemostatic powder and other first-aid medicines to gather everyone together. After the pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info assembled, he followed Mr. Li and drove north into the grassland. Li brought out a total of about 100 people this time, and almost transferred all the people in the stockade. Hurried all the way to the north.
The crowd traveled all day, eating without rest, one person took a cake, and ate it while walking. It wasn't until the sun was in the west that Mr. Li stopped with the team. General Li commanded in a loud voice: "Let's all act, now is not the time to rest, we must set up camp before sunset." At the sound of the order, everyone took action, set up tents, dug trenches, surrounded the temporary camp wall with board trucks, set up iron pots, lit fires, boiled snow and water. Li Deyi and Doctor Xiao Liu sorted out a clean place and set up a white tent in the wounded barracks.
As soon as the sun set, Mr. Li arranged for people to start burying the pot and cooking. At this time, Li Deyi suddenly noticed that Li Jiangzong had arranged more than 50 stoves, and for a while, the smoke and dust in the camp were billowing and the flames were soaring, and they could be seen from a distance. Mr. Li obviously prepared a lot of dry food in advance, and what surprised Li Deyi even more was that he actually brought vinegar this time. Weibei camp usually soak in the vinegar jar with a clean coarse cloth, then take it out and dry it, and then soak it in vinegar, and so on several times, and so on several times, after the coarse cloth is dried, you can easily take it on your body when you march, and when you eat it, cut a small piece and put it into the soup, and there is a strong vinegar smell.
Weibei Camp has a tight life, and this vinegar is easily reluctant to take it out and eat it on weekdays, but this time it actually put vinegar in the soup, and it seems that this meal Li has always paid a lot of money. Li Deyi was thinking wildly, and suddenly heard the sound of horses' hooves coming from a distance, and after a while, he heard that the sound had arrived near here, and hurriedly looked around. I saw a cavalryman holding a wooden stick in his hand, wrapped in a piece of red cloth, rushing quickly in the direction of the camp, Li Jiang always saw people coming, carefully identified the red cloth, and laughed loudly: "Han Jiang has been successful in going here, and now he is rushing back with people, this is to send someone back in advance to report the news, quickly open the camp gate, ready to welcome!" ”
The soldiers in the camp were all boiling, and Li Deyi was also very beautiful after hearing this, if it weren't for the fact that there was a little doctor Liu watching him, he would have jumped up. The gate of the village was opened, and the soldier rushed in on horseback, shouting loudly: "Han Jiang is already less than ten miles away from here, and we have won a great victory in this grain fight, and we have captured countless people!" ”
"Good!" Mr. Li took the lead in shouting, and everyone in the camp also shouted, "Hurry up and boil the water, and there will be beef and mutton to cook!" "There must be a lot of cattle and sheep brought back this time, let's roast and eat them." "Yes, yes, it's still roasted." Several soldiers shouted, and Li Jiang said with a smile on the corner of his mouth: "Later, when Han Jiang comes back, you will be allowed to roast sheep to eat tonight!" But only tonight! ”
When Li Deyi heard this, he asked his senior brother puzzled: "Senior brother, why are you not allowed to roast sheep to eat?" Doctor Xiao Liu said embarrassedly: "Over the years, our Weibei camp has been poor, don't look at the sheep to eat last year, that's a good time for you to catch up." At the beginning, the people above transferred our Weibei camp to the poor countryside of Dingbei County, with the original intention of completely trapping us. Unexpectedly, this Dingbei County can pass through Qingyuan Mountain and go straight to the grassland, but let us make money, you know, we got a lot of sheep from the grassland last year. In fact, it was the first time in seven or eight years that the brothers were able to eat mutton openly. Before that, we hadn't fished such a big mouthful of meat in Weibei for several years. Everyone has a very dull mouth all day long, occasionally get some meat, all boiled soup to eat, one person shares a small amount of meat, and drink a full water with the broth, even if it has been stained with oil, it will satisfy your hunger. Li De nodded and said, "Senior brother, what you said makes sense, but why can't you eat it grilled, it's a big deal to divide a small piece of meat for each person." ”
Doctor Xiao Liu didn't bother to roll his eyes now, and directly gave Li De a head to the door, "You can have a mouthful of soup to drink while cooking and eating, the key is that soup!" Is there soup when roasted? Li Deyi hugged his head with both hands and said aggrievedly: "For this soup, you don't have to beat me, senior brother." Doctor Xiao Liu said embarrassedly: "Seeing that you don't know how expensive firewood and rice are, I can't help it, so I hit it with my hand." Hey, shaky, shaky. Li De's face was thick-skinned, and after a while, he asked with a shy face: "Why can't I hide every time you beat me, senior brother, is there any secret to this?" "Well, when you reach the Qi Zhuang Realm, I'll teach you later." "Oh, my master, when will I be able to cultivate to strength......" "Begging for a beating!" Li Deyi didn't wait for Senior Brother to raise his hand, he ran out, and shouted in his mouth: "Senior Brother, I'll go out and have a look, you can be busy first." ”
After dark, in the eager expectation of everyone, Han Jiang and his entourage finally walked out of the night, led by dozens of soldiers on horseback, with torches, under the cover of the night, by the light of the fire, it looked very majestic. When they approached the soldiers in the camp, they found that the horses under the crotches of the dozen or so cavalry were all emaciated, and a few of them were even skinny and bone-covered.
Mr. Li scolded with a smile: "This old Han likes to show off when he has something." Hurry down, these horses are all good war horses, now they are so thin, don't ride badly! These soldiers on horseback hurriedly dismounted, and explained: "Let's also say that this horse is too thin to ride, but when the road is almost two miles, Han Jiang always wants us to ride it, saying that it is for the brothers in the family to pay respects." ”
"This old Han! What is the smelly show, I'll talk about him later. Someone hurriedly took the horse away, and they all took out dry food and fed it to the horse! These horses are now in our hands and are the baby bumps of our Weibei camp, who is hungry and has picked his skin! I fed all the beans I brought! Wheat flour cakes are also served to Lao Tzu! Don't feel sorry for anyone, I'll make up for it with jerky for you when I go back! Li Jiang shouted loudly, and his own soldiers were responsible for taking the horses, and slowly led them to the camp, and from time to time took out a cake and tore it and fed it to the horse's mouth.
"Hahaha, Lao Li, let's Weibei Camp now!" Han put the general laugh and pushed away the soldiers in front of him and walked in. Li Jiang said angrily: "As soon as I got something, I showed off my poverty, those horses were thin like that, can you ride!" It's all good horses, and if you break one, I'll see where you cry. Mr. Han hurriedly explained: "I let them ride dozens of steps, and they still rode slowly, and they didn't dare to go fast." I also want to make the brothers happy, our Weibei camp has been suffering for so many years, and there is hope for things from this year onwards. ”
"Tell me first, what did you do with these good horses?" Mr. Li pulled Mr. Han and asked in a low voice. Mr. Han rubbed his hands and said, "On the way there, I'm thinking about the current situation of the Tuliao people." Although these small tribes followed the customs to grab a handful a few years ago, last winter was surprisingly cold, and it snowed more than usual. Therefore, a lot of cattle and sheep must have frozen to death, and besides, the snow fell heavily, and the horses could not dig up the grass covered by the heavy snow to eat, and they must have starved to death a lot. When we didn't do anything about attacking a Tuliao, sure enough, the Tuliao people couldn't even organize a decent resistance, so they were directly killed by us. The Turks are very good on horseback, but this winter their horses are starving and out of strength. The Tuliao people have no horsepower, and let's kill the Tuliao people of these small tribes is not much different from slaughtering pigs and dogs. It didn't take much for the brothers to break the first tribe, a small tribe with only two dozen tents. In the remaining ten days, the time was basically spent on packing up the seizures and rushing on the road on knee-deep snow, and in the past ten days, we broke two small tribes in a row. These tribes all drew these things to their homes. ”
Mr. Li nodded and said: "The loss is heavy this year, and the horses of the Tuliao people are hungry and have no strength, otherwise we will have to spend more trouble going out this time." General Han continued: "The war horses of the Tuliao people have starved to death this winter, and the three tribes have only managed to get less than a hundred horses in total. On the way back, we didn't have enough food with us, and more than 30 horses starved to death. "Ahh Hearing that more than 30 war horses were starved to death, Li changed his tone and said angrily: "I should let you bring more food with you this trip." Alas, it's a pity for those good horses. ”
"There are still a lot of sheep in the back, but they are all thin and don't have much meat." "It's all right, when you have peeled off the skins, count the sheepskins you got last year, and make a sheepskin jacket for each of the brothers." The two generals walked back as they spoke.
At this time, Li Deyi was happily running around those carts pulled by the horses, looking at the carts full of things, and his heart was bubbling with beauty. Walking to the back of a board car, but it was covered with a cloth, Li Deyi asked the soldier who drove the car curiously: "What is this car loaded on?" Why are you still covered with a cloth? The soldier pulling the cart smiled and said, "You want to know?" Put your head over and I'll open a corner to show you. Li Deyi leaned over curiously, and the man suddenly lifted the thick cloth that was covered, revealing a corner, "Ah! Li Deyi was frightened and shouted directly, jumped high on the spot, turned his head and ran away, and a car full of severed heads.
"Master Sun asked me to tell you that this time the heads can't be handed over to that Commander Cao." Mr. Han looked at Mr. Li in puzzlement, waiting for an explanation. Mr. Li sighed and said, "This thing is like doing business, and if you have more, it will be worthless." Go back and let people sprinkle lime and save the head first, anyway, it is still cold now, and the head can be saved, and it can be handed over in three months. Mr. Han nodded in understanding.
"Hey, our Weibei camp has been suffering for so many years, and it was easy to find a reliable superior. Sun Junshi also means that he hopes to hold on to Commander Cao for a long time, after all, he is the younger brother of the current Queen Mother, and the identity of the emperor's relatives is there. Leaning on him, even if the Han Xianggong in the DPRK is still pressing us, we can have a way out. Li lowered his voice and said what was going on behind the matter. Han Jiang nodded again and again: "My old Han understands this matter, we have been too hard over the years, and now it is easy to relax, but we have to maintain this relationship well." These royal relatives are very greedy, and if you feed them all at once, their appetite should be great. ”
Li Deyi, who was frightened by the head of the car, ran to the back of the team in a panic, and found that there was a cart behind him that was full of little boys, and covered these little boys with a big blanket, a total of seven. There were also dozens of young women walking beside the cart, all of them wearing only single clothes, and a few of them were holding a piece of shabby felt to keep out the cold, shivering in the cold weather.
Li Deyi knew that these people should be the 'two-legged sheep' rescued by Han Jiang, so he glanced at them, bit his lip and didn't say much, turned his head and ran away. panting all the way back to find Medical Officer Xiao Liu, before he could run to Senior Brother, he shouted out of his mouth: "Senior Brother, Senior Brother!" "Here's it. What's the matter? It's so urgent. Li Deyi took two breaths and said, "Senior brother, do we still have extra winter clothes?" I'll be useful later. "You pant before you speak, there are no warm clothes, there are a lot of felt, make do with it, but what do you want these for?" Doctor Xiao Liu stretched out his hand to support Li Deyi and asked.
Li Deyi relieved his breath, raised his voice and said, "Mr. Han rescued some children, they are all wearing single clothes, they are pitiful, I want to help." "That's ......" Doctor Liu pondered for a moment and said, "Walking such a long way in single clothes on such a cold day, the cold must have already entered the body, and the problem cannot be solved by wrapping it in felt alone." Now, then, go and prepare some firewood, and let's make a pot of hot soup for them to drink." "Hey." Li Deyi hurriedly agreed, and turned around to get busy.
At this time, the grassland is still covered with snow and ice, the weather is very cold, and the howling northwest wind is like a knife. A roaring fire was soon lit in the camp for heating, and the soldiers were leaning together in groups of three or five to keep warm. At this time, cooking had already begun in the camp, and firewood was used everywhere, so Li Deyi quickly borrowed some back. The two brothers were busy and began to make a fire to boil water, and Dr. Liu took out the herbs to ward off the cold and added them to the water, and went to get half of the sheep back, put them in the pot and boiled them together. "Mutton is a hot and dry meat, and it is best used to make a hot soup with this herb. These children must have gone so far as to be starving. Drink this bowl of hot mutton soup, and as soon as the sweat comes out, most of the cold in the body can be driven out. "Doctor Liu said to Li Deyi while busy." You go and get some salt and come back, and get as much as you can. ”
"It's still thoughtful, senior brother, hehe." As soon as Li De finished speaking, he jumped up and went to find someone to get salt. Li and Han entered the temporary camp together, and the battalion had its own soldiers to take over the captures brought back, and drove the cart to the arranged corner to start counting. The soldiers who stayed behind looked at the seizure of these carts, and the corners of their mouths began to turn up, and the soldiers who were fortunate enough to follow the expedition were full of pride at this time, and began to pat their chests and blow up the passage on the grassland with the brothers who did not go there. After a while, the smell of roast mutton came out, and the soldiers who had returned from the expedition all sat down one after another, waiting for dinner. The soldiers smelled the aroma of roast mutton on the fire one by one, and they all showed their greed, but Li Jiang had not yet ordered to eat, and no one dared to catch it first.
Li took care of all the people, and the mutton was cooked, and said, "Let's eat." Only then did hundreds of people grin and start tearing the mutton to eat. At this time, I didn't care about the hot lamb that had just been roasted, and while grinning with my teeth burned, I tore off a piece of meat violently, blew it in my mouth, and sent it directly to my mouth. For a while, all kinds of cries sounded in the camp at the same time, "delicious", "really fragrant", "I haven't eaten this bite for a few days", "Oh mother, I'm scalded." "This is a hurry, tearing off a large piece of meat, and sending it directly into his mouth without blowing, and as a result, his mouth is full of hot foam.
Mr. Han held a leg of mutton in his hand, and while tearing and eating, he found Medical Officer Xiao Liu. Sitting next to Doctor Xiao Liu and swallowing the mutton in his mouth, Mr. Han said, "This is the person that the little doctor asked me to save and brought it to you." Said a group of children behind him. Doctor Xiao Liu said with a smile: "I thank Mr. Han for my junior brother, I bothered you along the way." Mr. Han waved his hand and said, "It's easy, it's easy to save, it's not troublesome at all." Little doctor, you're busy, I'm leaving. After speaking, he went to Mr. Li to boast about his experience of going to the grassland this time.
Doctor Xiao Liu looked at the group of children with vigilance and timidity in his eyes, sighed, and said, "One person comes over and gets a bowl, first gather around the fire to warm up, and when the mutton soup is cooked, I will serve it to you." He picked up a basket of miscellaneous grain cakes, and one person gave one, "If it's not enough, you can ask for it again, and it's full." Li Deyi also came back with salt at this time, and saw that some children were so hungry that they couldn't wait for the mutton soup, so they directly began to nibble on the cold and hard cake in their hands. With a sniffle, Li Deyi remembered when he was starving. Quickly put the salt in the pot, stirred it with a big spoon, tasted it and found that the meat was cooked, turned to the children and said, "Line up one by one, the mutton soup is cooked." The children obediently lined up in a row, and the girl automatically gave way to the younger boy. Li Deyi was in charge of dividing the soup, and Dr. Liu took a knife, scooped up the mutton, cut it into small pieces and distributed it to the child's bowl.
After dividing the soup, Li Deyi spread a piece of felt on the ground, let the children sit down to eat, and went to bring another bundle of firewood to make the fire prosperous and warm the children. After finishing all this, Li Deyi scooped up a piece of mutton by himself, picked up a cake, found a place to sit down and eat slowly. Doctor Liu walked up to Li Deyi and said, "Senior brother, what are you going to do with these children in the future?" These words stopped Li Deyi, took a mouthful of bread in his mouth, forgot to swallow it, and sat there stunned and began to ponder.
After a long time, Li Deyi swallowed the mouthful of bread in his mouth and said: "I don't know, it will definitely not be possible to send them home, their family members were killed by the Tuliao people last year." After scratching his scalp for a while, Li Deyi said: "Senior brother, there are too few people in our injured barracks, and if you count the master, we will take in this group of children, and we will help." Doctor Liu raised his eyes and looked at Li Deyi and said, "I can't be the master of this matter, you can ask Master when you go back." "Senior brother, if Master doesn't agree, you have to help me make peace." "That's fine." When the older girls in the children heard this, they all pricked up their ears.
After a few simple words, Li De stopped saying a word, finished eating, walked around the children a few times, and checked the children's physical conditions. It was found that these children were all very cold, and almost all of them had chilblains. Li Deyi hurriedly ran back to the temporary small tent and took out all the felt, "Everyone wrap it, wrap it in a few more layers, and we will have to hurry later." Can't spend the night here tonight, it's too cold and it's not safe. ”
After eating, and resting for an hour, Li General came out of the tent and shouted, "All assemble!" The whole camp was busy again, and when the soldiers were all picking up their ropes, Mr. Li took the people and began to walk towards Qingyuan Mountain. Li Deyi watched in amazement as the soldiers of the Weibei battalion took action, and the entire camp was almost gone in the blink of an eye, except for the traces of the bonfire on the ground that had not yet been extinguished, nothing else was left, and even a special soldier was responsible for extinguishing the unburned firewood and taking it away together.
The big fat man walked out of nowhere, and he was still wearing a full suit of armor, but he just took off his helmet. When the big fat man saw Li Deyi, he stretched out his hand and slapped him almost to the ground, "oops" screamed, and Li Deyi rushed straight forward. Wang Da Fat Man smiled embarrassedly in the back: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I can't help it, I drank a sip of wine, I didn't lose my strength, are you okay?" Doctor Xiao Liu rolled his eyes, hurriedly ran over to help the junior brother up, pinched his arms and legs, and said: "We are used to living a poor life in Weibeiying, and we don't leave anything behind where we go, and the brothers are very fine." Don't look at Wang Da Fat Man with a big beard, he is actually not thirty years old this year, he looks weird and scary on weekdays, but he actually likes to play tricks on people the most. Li De nodded, looked at the soldiers of the Weibei Battalion who were already lined up neatly, and then looked at Wang Da Fat, and opened his mouth, but he didn't know what to say.
Doctor Xiao Liu said bad things about the fat man Wang angrily: "Their ancestors are old-looking, so he deliberately has a big black beard to make himself look like he is in his forties." Listening to Dr. Xiao Liu's unceremonious stabbing of his old bottom, Wang Zhuangbiao could only touch his smooth brain with a red face.
There was nothing to say all the way, and Li General took the people who went out to the cottage directly. As soon as Mr. Han entered the door, he shouted: "Okay, Lao Li, you are not idle at home, with this village, it will be much more convenient for us to go north to the grassland to collect grain in the future." Mr. Li shook his head and said, "The idea of building this village is Sun Junshi's idea. I just helped the soldiers under my command. ”
As soon as Li De followed Doctor Liu back to the village, he went straight to the master and went to report the situation. In the cellar, a dim oil lamp was lit, and the old doctor Sun sat on the chair, his whole body sitting in the dim shadow of the lamp, and there was no joy or anger on his face. After a long silence, Old Medical Officer Sun asked, "Tell me, what do you think?" ”
As soon as Li De heard this, he began to think of words, and before he knew it, his head hurt again, and Zhihai began to shake violently. After a long while, he said in a cold sweat on his forehead: "These children can be kept as seeds for the future." After enduring the sharp pain from Zhihai, Li Deyi immediately fainted.