Liu Cheng sat on a Taishi chair with half of the backrest missing, straightened his legs, drank hot tea, and looked curiously at the Yu family mansion where he was located, unlike other civil structure houses in the village that were rebuilt on the ruins, this house is very well preserved, the foundation of the courtyard wall is made of strip stones, and the courtyard wall built of bricks and stones is more than a zhang high, which is very solid. The front of the house faces the street, behind it is an empty field for drying grain and storing farm tools, and on the left side is the hillside, only the right side is separated from the neighbors by a small alley, but the wing house on the right side is relative to the house

The rest of the house is much shorter, and it is clear that a house of this size cannot be built by the financial resources of the current village. To be honest, he still doesn't have any sense of reality about his crossing, only the soreness of his calves reminds him that everything that happens in front of him is real, not a pillow of yellow sorghum. Suddenly, Liu Cheng felt a noise under the Taishi chair, and hurriedly bent down to take a look, but saw a little girl about seven or eight years old squatting under the chair, holding a black cat in her arms. ”

Liu Cheng saw that the girl had big eyebrows and big eyes, fair skin, combed two hanging pigtails, smiled and grinned slightly to reveal two little tiger teeth, and the cat in her arms was like black jade, and couldn't help laughing: "Good looking!" As he spoke, he reached out to touch the black cat, but he didn't want the black cat to make a sound, and he had already scratched a bloody mouth on Liu Cheng's hand.

"Bad little black!" The little girl saw that Liu Cheng was scratched by the cat, and hurriedly patted the black cat's head twice as a punishment, but the cat was also very well-behaved, lying in the girl's arms and not moving. The girl said to Liu Cheng: "Uncle, don't blame Xiao Hei, it is very well-behaved on weekdays, and today I am afraid that I will scratch you, and I won't be able to cook it." “

Liu Cheng smiled bitterly, reached out and touched it in his jacket pocket, and took out a few pieces of peanut toffee, which should have been grabbed casually before going out and stuffed into the girl's hand: "It's just a cat, how can I blame it!" Come, uncle will give you candy to eat. ”

The girl took the toffee with some hesitation, but she didn't know how to eat it. Seeing this, Liu Cheng peeled off the candy wrapper, broke it into two pieces, put one into the girl's hand, and stuffed the other into his mouth, and asked with a smile: "How is it, is it sweet?" ”

The girl hesitated to stuff the toffee into her mouth, a pair of eyes suddenly lit up, she got out of the chair and ran out quickly, the black cat jumped to the ground, looked back at Liu Cheng, and followed.

Liu Cheng looked at the back of the girl and the cat, a smile appeared on his face, if he only had his own safety in his heart not long ago, he hoped that Hui Neng would leave as soon as possible after bringing the news, so as not to encounter the disaster of the pond fish. Now he began to care about the safety of the villagers, and he didn't want this lovely girl to be implicated.

Suddenly, Liu Cheng smelled a strange smell, he looked for the smell, but saw more than a dozen large wooden barrels piled up in the corner of the corridor, which contained some gray-black condensation, and he didn't know what it was.

"Brother Liu, please forgive me for the neglect!"

A voice woke Liu Cheng from his reverie, and when he looked back, he saw Huineng standing in front of him, with a little exhaustion on his face.

"It's okay!" Liu Cheng looked at the village elders standing behind Huineng, and asked in a low voice, "But what is the result?" ”

"Hey!" Huineng shook his head: "Some people say that they want to defend, some people say that the rebels may not pass through here, just stay in the village, and some people say that they want to tell the government, but no one says that they want to leave, and they all have a fluke heart." Speaking of this, he sighed: "It's no wonder that they, it's winter now, if they run into the mountains, the grain and livestock can't be moved away for a while, if they are ruined by the chaotic soldiers, I'm afraid that the old people and children won't be able to survive the spring famine." ”

Liu Cheng didn't speak, he had already felt that this mountain village was not rich when he entered the village just now, he thought for a while, and said in a low voice: "Great monk, in your opinion, if you can hold it?" ”

"Can't hold it!" Huineng shook his head: "There are more than 100 young and strong people in this village, less than half of the rebels, and the village is too big, and there are firearms on the opposite side, so it will definitely not be able to hold it." ”

"Hmm!" Liu Cheng nodded, Huineng's answer was as he expected, he wanted to open his mouth and propose to leave as soon as possible, but seeing Huineng's bleak expression, he couldn't speak for a while, so he casually changed the topic, pointed to those wooden barrels and asked, "Master Huineng, what are these wooden barrels?" “

"Oh, it's pine resin." Huineng looked at the wooden barrel: "The mountains behind this village are full of pine trees, and every year the village has to cut the trees to collect resin, which can be regarded as an income." “

"If that's the case, I have a solution, but I don't know if it will work!" Liu Cheng hesitated for a moment and said in a low voice, he had just come up with a solution, but if he hadn't seen that little girl, he was afraid that he would only be buried in his stomach, after all, in this strange environment, a thousand words are better than a silence, but don't be kind enough to cause trouble for yourself.

"Brother Liu, please speak!" Huineng couldn't help but be shocked when he heard this, he had been made a little desperate by those entangled old men, and he couldn't help pinning his hopes on this somewhat strange young man.

"Isn't it said in the art of war that it is unprepared to attack it?" Liu Cheng smiled slightly, explained his thoughts and thoughts, and waited for Huineng's reply.

A stream winds down from the mountain, to the bottom of the valley into a small pool, there is a very small mountain temple on the high place next to the pool, this mountain temple is actually just a deep courtyard, enter the courtyard gate is the main hall that enshrines the statue of the gods, there is a zhang Xu Jianfang ear room on the left side of the main hall for the temple to live. Maybe because of the famine, maybe because of the war, this mountain temple has long been deserted, and the gold paint on the statue of the god in the temple has long been gone, leaving only a dilapidated clay puppet, which has become a fox squirrel's nest.

"Tongnan lock key!"

Du Ruhu stood in front of the temple gate, with the help of the morning light read out the words on the broken door plaque on the temple gate, compared to the Ming Yansui Town General a few months ago, at this time he was already thin and out of shape, as if he was a shadow, behind him, nearly a hundred ragged soldiers were chaotically surrounding the waterhole to drink water and wash their drowning, from time to time because of the competition for the position closer to the waterhole and curse and even fight with each other, but the strange thing is that Du Ruhu ignored it as if he hadn't heard anything.

"Uncle, go in and rest!" Du Guoying cautiously said to Du Ruhu that since the mutiny in Liangxiang, Du Ruhu has become strange, rarely speaks, eats less, and often sits with his eyes wide open and does not say a word, and he doesn't know what he is thinking, and he doesn't answer when he asks. Although Du Ruhu is only ten years older than him, his martial arts, horsemanship, and art of war have all been allocated by Du Ruhu since he joined the army, and in Du Guoying's heart, this uncle is no different from his father, so Du Guoying waited more and more carefully along the way, for fear that something would go wrong.

Du Ruhu didn't answer, pushed the door in, and immediately splashed a burst of dust in the house that had been empty for a long time, Du Ruhu instinctively covered his nose, and Du Ruhu on the side hurriedly said: "Uncle, wait a minute, I'll let people come in and clean up for a while." “

"No need!" Du Ruhu shook his head, with a wry smile on his face: "It's all this time, why do you still pay attention to this, you let me be alone for a while!" “

4. Uncle and nephew

"Yes!" Du Guoying answered and withdrew from the door. After taking his nephew out, Du Ruhu walked to the statue and bowed reverently, and there was a commotion outside the door. It turned out that since the Liangxiang Mutiny, he was held hostage by the rebels, although he was still a general in name, but in fact he had basically lost the restraint on the rebels, and the reason why the rebels still made him the nominal leader was because he was quite upright as an official in the past, and there was no behavior of deducting military salaries, and most of these rebels were his fellow villagers, and some were even his distant relatives; Another reason is that according to the general practice of dealing with the rebels in the Ming Dynasty at that time, they only killed the first evil, and the coercion was not counted, and these rebels just wanted to return to their hometowns, and did not have the idea of rebelling, so they insisted on Du Ruhu on their heads and also regarded them as scapegoats. In this case, Du Ruhu naturally had no ability to restrain the soldiers, and as a result, the chaotic soldiers were divided into four or five units in the past few months, and some people often fled, and in the end, less than 100 people remained, most of them were Du Ruhu's clansmen.

After Du Ruhu finished worshipping the gods, he reached into his arms and wanted to find something to worship the mountain god, but he only touched out an apocalypse coin, he looked at the copper coin, and then looked at the tattered statue, and couldn't help but smile bitterly.

"Mountain god, mountain god, I only have this one copper coin on my body, you don't have to think I'm poor, bless me Du Ruhu to return to my hometown, I can see my wife and child again, and I should reshape my golden body to repay me!" Speaking of this, Du Ruhu threw a divination on the divine case, but it turned out to be a murderous hexagram, he gritted his teeth and cast it twice, but it turned out to be a murderous hexagram. Du Ruhu couldn't help but feel a burst of anger in his chest, grabbed the copper coin and threw it at the statue, and scolded: "This mountain god, you really deceive people too much, don't you think I can't kill you?" Before the words fell, Du Ruhu jumped on the case and cut off the head of the clay puppet with a knife.

At this moment, there was a commotion outside, Du Ruhu became more and more annoyed, jumped off the case, and was about to push the door and scold, but the temple door was pushed open. But I saw Du Guoying pull a soldier with a white cloth on his head in, and said with a smile: "Uncle, Du Gu, this kid is back, the path you said is not guarded by officers and soldiers, and he has found a place to stay, as well as wine and meat, everything, you can have a comfortable life tonight." “

"Oh?" Du Ruhu looked up and down the blood stains under the white cloth on Du Gu's head, frowned and asked, "What's going on on your head?" What about the two men who went with you? ”

"Tell the general!" Du Gu crossed his hands and saluted: "I received a military order to explore the road in front, and when I met two strange monks, I fought

......So Du Gu explained that the three of them met Huineng and Liu Cheng, and there was a conflict, two of his companions were killed, he was captured, and he was taken to the village.

"I coaxed the village that there were more than 200 of us and that there were firearms, and the people in the village were very frightened when they heard this, so they let the villain go. Let the villain tell the military master: Two pigs and two sheep have been killed in the village, and the food and firewood are ready, so we can rest assured that we can use them and stay overnight. Just don't damage your houses or kill your livestock, and cross the border safely. ”

"Kill the two of us, think it's so simple? Uncle, you give me thirty people, and I'll go and slaughter that village!" Du Guoying became angry when he heard it, and shouted loudly at Du Ruhu.

"That's it." Du Ruhu is a smart person, and he has already heard the other party's meaning from Du Gu's words: "Move your hands and have no eyes, besides, those two monks are not fools, they will stay in the village and let you kill, they must have run away a long time ago, we are in danger now, Tongguan City is close to the left, more than one thing is better than one less thing." “

"Yes!" Although Du Guoying was not convinced, he still habitually lowered his head, and Du Gu on the side also interjected: "What the master said is that those two monks are not simple, one is skilled in martial arts, and the other is even more amazing, and he can do spells!" "Spells?" Du Guoying was depressed in his heart, so he sneered: "Du Gu, you kid shouldn't have filled the yellow soup again, and you are grinning again, be careful to eat wattles!" “

"It's true, that monk will lead thunder and split people, and with a wave of his hand, the lightning will shine, and my hands and feet will be sore, and I will fall to the ground and can't move!" Speaking of this, Du Gu ripped open the collar of his clothes, revealing a piece of skin that was obviously different in color from the next one: "Look, this is where the electricity was reached." “

Du Guoying looked at it, his face changed slightly, and he looked back at Du Ruhu, his eyes were full of inquiry. Du Ruhu looked as usual: "Even if there is a spell, at most it is one or two enemies, just defend yourself, we have more than 100 swords, guns and firearms, what are you afraid of him, if the spell is so powerful, it would have been the White Lotus Sect sitting in the Dragon Court a long time ago?" Du Gu, you have to talk nonsense in the army, otherwise be careful of the ruthlessness of military law, Guoying, you give the order, get ready and set off, I want to see how powerful that monk's spell is! “

Du Guoying saw that his uncle suddenly regained his usual composure, and he was also quite happy in his heart, so he turned around and went out, and after a while, there was the cheers of the rebels outside. Du Ruhu turned around, looked at the statue of the mountain god who no longer had a head, and said in a deep voice: "Mountain god, mountain god, could it be that this is your retribution for me Du Ruhu?" “

Yujiazhai.

Liu Cheng and Huineng stood beside the archway at the entrance of the village, watching the villagers help the old and the young to drive their livestock out of the village, almost everyone was carrying large or small packages and baskets, which contained their few little belongings, and most of the people's faces showed a sad and dazed look, they did not understand what was about to happen at all. Looking at all this, Liu Cheng's heart was a little flustered, could his plan work?

"Master Huineng, do you think you can fool that group of rebels?" Liu Cheng asked in a low voice.

"Actions are in people, and things are done in heaven." Hui Neng didn't look back, just stared at the villagers who were leaving, and said in a low voice: "This kind of thing is only three points at most, and the other three points are based on the person who acts, and the remaining four points are based on God." “