Li Xiao turned to look at the person who spoke directly to him, only to see that he was only in his twenties, the youngest person in the people, and it could be seen that his figure was very strong, muscular, and very powerful, which was not what Li Xiao usually saw, most of the people in this era were very thin because of malnutrition and famine.

This may be the reason why the other party usually says that the nutrition is better.

Li Xiao speculated that the common people had farmland at home and hired others to cultivate their own land, which belonged to the landlord class. In the village, you can discuss and decide on major events in the village with the famous owner and the respected old man.

Li Xiao asked the other party: "Your name is Huding, right, why do you say that?" ”

The young man named Hu Ding, regardless of the desperate eyes of Hachiro on the side, Huo Ran stood up and said loudly: "My lord, I don't know yet, I also participated in the battle between the lord and the lord on the river." In the end, though, the adults won. But my Hida spear-thrower has caused a lot of casualties to my lord, so my lord is here to take revenge, am I right? ”

"Spear thrower? Have you fought in that battle too? Li Xiao smiled slightly and asked, "So these spear throwers are all from your mountain village?" ”

Mahachiro's face changed dramatically and he said loudly: "If you return to your lordship, it is those young people in the village who are ignorant and have offended adults, and this is really their fault, please forgive me." The villain is willing to ...... If you are willing, even if you go bankrupt, you will also hand over this year's taxes to the adults, but please spare their lives. Please have mercy. ”

"Please have mercy."

Suddenly, there were eight Lang in the audience, and several of the people knelt down in a ball, only Hu Ding still stood proudly and shouted: "What does the lord ask him to do, the big deal is death, my lord, you said it is good, most of those spear throwers are from our mountain village." ”

Li Xiao laughed, suddenly sank his face, and shouted: "Huding, are you really not afraid of death?" Are you afraid that you will be punished by a stumbling sentence? ”

The so-called punishment is that the male surname is tied to the cross, and the female surname is tied to the cross, and the stabbing is carried out, which is a very tragic criminal law.

After the Battle of Nagashino, the Oda family besieged Iwamura Castle for five months, and the Takeda family general Akiyama Nobutomo ran out of ammunition and surrendered to Kaejo. Oda Nobunaga reneged on his promise of immortality and had him put to death.

When Li Xiao said that he was going to punish Hu Ti with a punishment, everyone's faces changed, and the old Hachiro cried bitterly under the tears: "My lord, please be merciful, have mercy on the people of my mountain village, Hu Ding's parents died early, so there is less discipline, please let him live." ”

Hu Ding laughed and said: "Famous master, if you don't ask him, I will die if I die, what are you afraid of." ”

Li Xiao nodded secretly, such a person is not afraid of life and death, and is upright, he can become his own warrior.

Li Xiao stood up and said, "Huding, besides you, how many people in this village have participated in the river army and fought with me." ”

Hu Ding's color changed suddenly, and he said, "Don't you even let them go?" I will do this by myself, and I will take care of it alone, and I will not burden others. ”

Li Xiao nodded and said: "That's right, it was one person who did things and one person was responsible, and Fuxin on the river who tried to put me to death has been killed by me, so my grudge with him has been settled." I will not be angry with any of you in your mountain village. ”

When Hu Ding heard Li Xiao say this, his mouth opened wide in surprise, and he asked, "My lord, is what you said true?" ”

However, Hachiro was old and refined, for fear that Li Xiao would regret it again, so he hurriedly said: "Thank you for your mercy, we have the people of the mountain village who are grateful for this and are willing to die for your adult." ”

Li Xiao laughed and said: "Hu Ding, of course what I said is true, not only that, I appreciate your courage to speak out, so I want you to be my warrior, I don't know if you are willing?" ”

"Samurai?"

Huding was blinded all of a sudden, and he knew how big the gap between the samurai and the people was, and how unsurpassable it was.

Kinoshita Toyoshiro served under Oda Nobunaga for seven years, accompanied by a smiling face, served wholeheartedly, and made many contributions before he was officially promoted by Oda Nobunaga to the head of the Ashigaru Group and became a samurai.

Because of his disability, Kansuke Yamamoto traveled all over the world, seeking a job everywhere, and became a samurai when he was almost in his forties.

However, Li Xiao promised in one breath that he would let him become his own samurai when he met for the first time, and he was born as an ordinary person, and he had no merit, which undoubtedly broke the rules of the time. However, Li Xiao is a native of the Ming Kingdom, so he doesn't care about so many rules.

Hu Ding bowed down at once, and said in a sincere and fearful voice: "My lord, Hu Ding did nothing, and he was promoted to a samurai by my lord, so I am not very afraid, please take back the order." Hu Ding is willing to be by the side of adults, as a servant, it's fine. ”

Well, for Hu Ding's humility, Li Xiao nodded appreciatively.

And Shigang Yiyu also said on the side: "My lord, it is indeed not easy to be promoted, which will make the family disordered." ”

"Okay," Li Xiao took the katana from Shigang Yiyu's hand, and then said, "Later, when you have made great contributions to me, it is not too late to be promoted to a samurai, so follow my side now." ”

"Oh!"

Hu Ding excitedly agreed, this time not only did he not die, but became the lord's attendant, although he is not a samurai now, but the lord promised him that as long as he made a contribution, he would be promoted to a samurai.

All this makes Hu Ding feel like he is in a dream, as if he is living in an unreal life.

Li Xiao declined Youhachiro's request to stay and entertain him, and walked out of his big house.

Outside the village, a large number of people had gathered, apparently waiting for news from the house.

Li Xiao stood on the steps, glanced at everyone condescendingly, and then said loudly: "People, I am Li Xiao, the new land here, and I was born in the Ming Kingdom. I have understood everyone's difficulties, so this year's tax will be postponed after the autumn harvest and halved. ”

As soon as Li Xiao's voice fell, hundreds of people became excited and excited, and they bowed down and thanked Li Xiao for his kindness.

Li Xiao continued: "However, the lord of this family ordered me to build a city here, and everyone must be used to build a city. Therefore, everyone must participate, and I will not treat you badly, and every citizen who serves in the general service will be given two allowances of rice per person. ”

As soon as Li Xiao's voice fell like this, the excitement of the people present was even better than that of Fang Cai.

In the past, when serving in the general service, where would the lord still give support rice, every time he went, he still ate and drank by himself, and he still brought his own dry food.

Li Xiao's relatively benevolent move suddenly won the support of the people, and Hu Ding felt that he was not following the wrong person.

But for Li Xiao, building Shengang City is the first priority, it is now July, and Shengang City must be built before the arrival of heavy snow in October, otherwise the weather will be bad at that time, and there will be no way to build it, so it can only be delayed until the next year.

And when the snow melts and the mountain roads are passable in the spring of next year, the Takeda family will continue to stock up on military rations from Azumi Prefecture to Kamioka Castle.

Because of the heavy snow, the time for the Hida country to use troops is half a year, and this delay is undoubtedly more crucial than the postponement, the time for the Takeda army to attack the Hida country.

If the fortification year is delayed until next year, it is a violation of the deadline set by Takeda Shingen.

So for Li Xiao, no matter what, Shengang City must be built before October this year.

However, compared with the weather, manpower considerations, Li Xiao is more worried about the interference of his sister Xiaolu's family.

From the consideration of the sister Xiaolu family, they would never allow the Takeda family to build such a frontier city for attack at their doorstep, and the Jiang Ma family's attitude was very clear, it would be good not to cause trouble for Li Xiao, let alone come to help Li Xiao.

Therefore, Li Xiao must first lay a good foundation in the local area, and recruit a force here to strengthen his standing army.

Otherwise, with only a hundred people now, it is not enough to resist the attack of Sister Xiaolu's family.

Therefore, this tiger determination is a step for Li Xiao to consider encircling the local forces, only by encircling the local forces can he firmly take root in the local area, otherwise Li Xiao is an outsider, and there is no good way to attack the sister Xiaolu family.

After getting the support of the people of Youshan Village, Li Xiao directly told Youhachiro and Tiger that he would recruit a hundred-scale standing army in his territory.

If it's like the previous battle with the river family, that elite spear thrower, there are as many as you want.

As a standing army, Li Xiao still offered seven annual salaries, plus two shares of support rice. This is a high salary for the people of Hida, who have always been poor.

Li Xiao originally thought that Youhachilang and Hu Ding would be happy about this, but who knew that Youhachiro, Huding and the two of them showed embarrassment on their faces.

Li Xiao was surprised and asked before he understood the reason.

It turned out that it was not they who let the loggers in the village serve as Li Xiao's standing guard, but the identity of those spear throwers, who were untouchables.

In the 4th and 7th centuries AD, Hida was still a remote and barren place for the Yamato court at that time, so it became a place of exile for degraded officials and prisoners.

Many of them were degraded to untouchables, who were the lowest strata of society at the time, and their status was even lower than that of ordinary people.

Untouchables also have the use of untouchables, and it has always been a Buddhist country, so ordinary people, even ordinary people, are not engaged in slaughtering and tanning, and this industry can only be practiced by untouchables.

For the samurai at that time, although they did not eat meat ordinarily, leather could be used as saddles and armor, so this was also the demand of the untouchables.

And the loggers of Hida Country were deposed and exiled by the imperial court, and they were lowly for generations.

As a lowly family, they usually say that they don't take care of it, but they can go up to the mountains to hunt, and think that eating meat is the win, especially Hida and rich in wild bears, bear meat, bear paws are even more nutritious.

It is because they do not lack food and drink and cut wood every day, so their bodies are exceptionally strong, far more than the ordinary people in this era who do not have enough meals every two meals and eat vegetarian food.

But despite this, because their status is so low, even ordinary people are inferior, so the daimyo will not recruit them as Ashigaru.

This time, the Kawagami family was determined to rebel, so they cobbled together their forces everywhere, so they made an exception to recruit the loggers of the mountain village as the spear-throwers.

And this strange army established a great achievement in the standing confrontation with Li Xiao's Takeda Army, by throwing and throwing spears.

In the thinking of Youhachiro and Hu Ding, he felt that Li Xiao would dislike their status as pariahs, so he would not recruit them as permanent standing.

But in the thinking of Li Xiao, a modern person, there is precisely no such consideration.

(To be continued)