"Ranked, although I am contemptuous, I have also heard that in the past, Tang Taizong did the king of Qin to break the formation, and he was a barbarian in all directions, and today he imitated the sages to prepare for martial arts, so as to make everyone laugh!" As soon as the words fell, Liu Cheng slammed the drum three times, and the dull drum sound echoed in the thatched hut, as if knocking on everyone's chest.

Before the gentry could figure out what was going on, more than 20 men in black ran out on the flat ground diagonally below, lined up in one or two rows, holding a bird gun in their hands, and one of the leaders was holding a small flag, facing the direction of the thatched hut, looking like they were on standby.

Knock knock!

Liu Cheng slammed the war drum twice, the man with the flag scolded twice, and the man in black lit the fire rope first, and then took out the medicine bottle lead from his waist, filled the medicine, squatted down in the front row, stood up straight in the back row, and took aim with the gun. When the man with the flag saw that his subordinates had finished loading, he waved the small flag in his hand violently, and at the same time issued an order. More than 20 bird guns fired at the same time, and the ears of the people in the thatched hut seemed to sound out of thin air, and a few gentlemen with good eyesight saw dust splashing on the dirt slope not far away, and the bird guns in the hands of these men were actually loaded with live ammunition!

Knock knock!

Liu Cheng struck the war drum twice, the flag-bearer waved the small flag again, the black-clothed men retreated from the left and right sides in two rows, and then walked out behind more than 100 sergeants wearing armor and holding spears of about four meters, these sergeants were divided into four columns, and they stopped every five or six days of advance, and the spears in their hands made a stabbing shape, if they advanced fifty or sixty meters and then suddenly retreated back more than twenty meters, the black-clothed men who were holding birds and guns came forward from both sides of the gun array and put a row of guns, and those sergeants with guns moved forward again.

Even if the gentleman in the thatched hut has never seen it again, when he sees this, he understands that this is not a dance to entertain the public, it is obviously a martial arts. A few of those who were more interested in military affairs on weekdays saw more of this: first bombarded with birds, and then suppressed in a dense formation with infantry armed with spears, killing the wounded enemy soldiers who fell to the ground. Forcing the enemy to resist in a dense formation with a fresh force, then shooting the enemy in a dense formation with a bird's gun, dispersing the enemy and then attacking with a gun team, and so on, was a very typical firearms and infantry attack at that time. As long as the attacking side is superior in numbers and can skillfully and quickly complete this tactical move in the field, the strength and morale of the smaller defender will be quickly depleted. It was finally defeated. Under the command of Liu Cheng's drums and the banner of the team leader, this team of people and horses is quite skilled in changing formations and cooperating with each other, which is obviously not a day's work.

Just as everyone in the thatched hut looked into the alley, Liu Cheng's drum rhythm suddenly changed, and before everyone could understand what was going on, they saw the infantry turn the tip of the gun upside down and rush towards the thatched hut, with the sound of the drum, the distance between the gun array and the thatched hut continued to shorten. It was only twenty or thirty meters, and the gentlemen could clearly see the iron-like faces under the sharp spear tips and helmets, and the faces of many of the gentlemen had changed, and they just sat on their chairs. Lu Boqi hurriedly ran to Liu Cheng's side, lowered his voice and said, "Liu Dusi, what are you doing, why don't you let your sergeants stop!" “

Liu Cheng smiled slightly, and slammed the war drum with both hands a few times. The sergeants stopped, put their guns away, and stood. The gentlemen breathed a sigh of relief, and a few clever ones were thinking about how to compliment Liu Chengzhi in a good way, but they saw those bird guns suddenly stepped forward, either standing or squatting, and the mouth of the black hole was aimed at the people in the thatched hut, and there was a bang. Fires were flying.

"Mother!" There was a sudden chaos in the thatched shed, the gentlemen knelt or lay down, fell to the ground, and the sound of crying father and mother was endless, and Zhao Laosan was even more unbearable. Directly foaming at the mouth and lying on the chair and fainted, only Liu Cheng stood next to the drum, like a green pine, standing proudly!

"Lord Lu!" Liu Cheng helped up Lu Boqi, who was already soft on the ground: "There is only gunpowder in this bird's gun, but it has never been filled with lead, but it just wants to make everyone laugh!" “

"You, you-" Lu Boqi was already speechless when he heard Liu Cheng's words.

In this way, after tossing for a while, the gentlemen in the thatched hut came back to their senses, and a few older ones were already pale, trembling hands and feet, as if they were seriously ill, and this wine order naturally couldn't go on. Liu Cheng smiled slightly, asked his subordinates to take down the drum, and made a group gesture to everyone: "In the rough drum skills, I am ugly, so that you can laugh!" “

"Okay, you Qiu Ba, you dare to show off your military skills in front of the state officials, coerce the gentry, what kind of system do you become?" Zhao Laosan had just recovered his breath, and immediately jumped up, pointed at Liu Cheng and scolded.

"Master Zhao, I don't understand what this official says!" The smile on Liu Cheng's face disappeared suddenly: "Fang is what you want the official to demonstrate, this official is the training department of Yansui Town, and the director is nothing more than training and martial arts, so let his soldiers practice to make everyone laugh, but I don't know what makes Master Zhao dissatisfied?" “

"If it's a martial arts, why are you aiming your guns at us?"

"Master Zhao said with a smile, the spear was not pierced, and there was only gunpowder and no lead in the gun, so the rank was so unbearable, but when the soldiers killed the enemy in the battle, they were white blades and arrows rained. I just want the lord to know a little bit of the hardships of the border soldiers! “

Zhao Laosan was speechless for a moment, it wasn't Liu Cheng's rhetoric, but he was not a fool, he had already heard the subtext in his words: "I just put a few empty guns, you are all scared like this, if you really anger me, turning you into powder is just a few drums!" "After all, the sound of the guns just now is still echoing in my ears, and it would be a fool to fight for the benefit of this tongue.

"Liu Dusi!" Lu Boqi's reaction was much slower than the others, and at this time he recovered from Fang Cai's fright, and he pointed at Liu Chengqi's fingers trembling, unable to speak for a while.

"Lord Lu!" It was Ma Ziyi who came out to play the round, he reached out and grabbed Lu Boqi and pointed at Liu Cheng's arm, and said with a smile: "Isn't Liu Dusi's drum very exciting?" Besides, with such elite soldiers, our generation can sit back and relax! ”

Lu Boqi got this step, snorted coldly and returned to his seat, but the banquet naturally couldn't go on, and the gentlemen went home in twos and threes. As soon as he returned home, Ma Rencheng asked: "Father, this Liu Dusi is so domineering, why do you want to speak out to relieve the siege of Liu Dusi." ”

"Well, you can wait until you get home and ask me, it's really grown!" Ma Ziyi stretched out her hand and washed it in the copper basin. Ma Rencheng hurriedly took a dry towel from the servant and sent it to him, Ma Ziyi wiped his hands and sighed: "Don't I know that Liu Cheng is a domineering person?" When I opened my mouth, I guess those gentlemen tonight will say that I, Ma Ziyi, have lost the integrity of a scholar, and I actually openly flattered a Qiu Ba. “

"Father!"

"What are you anxious about!" Ma Ziyi sneered: "I'm taking you there today, first, to let you see characters like Liu Cheng; Second, I will also teach you a lesson, don't read books and be stupid. Read a waste that does not understand the affairs of the world, and ruin the inheritance left by the ancestors. “

"Reading is stupid? The child is unknown, and I ask my father to mention it! “

"The truth in the book of the saints is naturally good, and it is the foundation of our generation. But the way of the saints also talks about the right of the scriptures, when to be the scriptures and when to be the right, which will not be taught to you in the Four Books and the Five Classics, and cannot be taught to you. If you think that you can cover up everything in the world after reading a few books, then it is strange not to cause trouble! "Speaking of which. Ma Ziyi patted the armrest of the chair and motioned for his son to sit down: "Judging from today's events, Liu Cheng's house is a little more domineering, but the elite soldiers in his hands are not fake, and the main thing in this Li Minpi has also been given to our Ma family, I help him is to help our Ma family himself, this is one of them; I'm over sixty years old, and the gentry don't even say anything about me. What's wrong with me? But if we hold this benefit in our hands, our Ma family will have an unshakable foundation for hundreds of generations. Isn't it clear which is more important? In the final analysis, the emperor takes turns, and when he comes to my house next year, the officials and lords are all false names, and the field house is the foundation of the heirloom, which is the second; Judging by the number of dealings that have been fought. Although this Liu Cheng seems to be domineering, he is not an unreasonable person, I helped him play a round today, and he will repay him in the future. You see the soldiers in his hands are refined, in this troubled world. We have so much more to rely on him! “

"But he said that he wanted to repair Pitang, and he wanted money and food, but he used it to train the army, what if someone accused him of ill intentions?"

"He is the training capital of Yansui Town, and training is his duty, what is the ill-intentioned? Besides, there are thousands of thieves Ding Zhuang who have been appeased here, and his training and defense is the right way, and it is a fool to sue him for this! Speaking of this, Ma Ziyi looked at her son, who was still a little confused, and patted the other party's shoulder with a smile: "Rencheng, what my father said today is so much, it doesn't hurt if you can't understand it for a while, just write it down and understand it slowly." went to the Pitang Bureau, and saw more about how Liu Cheng acted, and carefully figured it out, there will be progress over time. Your two brothers are in a foreign country, and your father is old, so you have to take care of the family affairs as soon as possible! ”

Ma Rencheng looked at his father's eyes full of expectation, his chest couldn't help but feel hot, and he bowed his head and responded: "Yes, father!" ”

No matter how much this unexpected episode added to the living room and study of the gentlemen in the next few days, the stone tablet with more than one person high with the four big characters of "Ze was Juzhou" was still erected directly above the gate the next day, which also caused a lot of rumors and jealousy to Ma Ziyi, but Ma Rencheng still followed his father's instructions, and came to the construction site in a green shirt early the next morning, but he didn't want to attract the attention of others, so he just rode the mare yesterday out of the house, and only brought a scholar who was used to it. Like most sons who have been praised by their fathers with great difficulty, Ma Rencheng's heart is full of enthusiasm to make a career.

"See Lord Liu below!" While bowing his head and saluting, Ma Rencheng carefully looked at the corner of his eye, so as not to be discovered by the other party that he was peeping, and it was difficult for him to connect the short-footed, dust-covered man in front of him with the unruly martial artist in a brocade robe yesterday.

"Brother Ma, please get up!" Liu Cheng stretched out his hand to help the other party up: "Brother Ma, I have a mess here, and there is no clean place for you to stay, why don't you go to my office on the embankment to rest first, and then I will drink tea and talk with you when I finish dealing with this matter!" “

What Liu Cheng said was in Ma Rencheng's arms, and he was about to respond, but his father's advice to him yesterday echoed in his mind, and the words changed when he reached his mouth.

"Forgive me, Lord Liu, you also know my father's temper, if you let him know that the adult is busy, but I sit and drink tea on the side, I am afraid that I will not be able to run away from a good fight."

"In that case, then I won't force it!" Ma Rencheng's answer was quite unexpected by Liu Cheng, he thought that a child of a family like this, who was rich in his duties on weekdays, and who fought for power and profit without falling behind, went to the construction site to endure hardships and hardships. I didn't expect to come early the next morning, not only did I come but I didn't want to drink tea and blow the wind in the house, I would rather suffer hardships on the construction site, and I couldn't help but have a great change in my impression of Ma Rencheng.

Ma Rencheng followed Liu Cheng to a house next to the canal, half of which was suspended from the canal, and it looked like a water-powered mill, but this house was much larger than an ordinary mill. Ma Rencheng secretly thought that Liu Chengmo didn't want to use the hydraulic power of Pitang to grind grain and flour, there are so many young people on the construction site, there must be a lot of grain and rice eaten every day, and it is not bad to build a water mill.

"Brother Ma, please come in!" Liu Cheng pushed open the door and made a gesture to invite in, Ma Rencheng lifted the front hem of the long shirt and entered the house, only to see a machine placed in the room, with two huge wheels on both sides of the machine, the wheels were wrapped with belts, and there were hundreds of one-foot-long sharp hammers on the support, and I don't know what it was for. There were five or six ragged craftsmen standing next to the machine, and when they saw Ma Rencheng in a long robe, they hurriedly bowed down at a loss.

"Brother Ma, please look!" Liu Cheng walked to the machine and gently patted the iron bracket, his face full of pride.

"Lord Liu, what is this?" Ma Rencheng asked with some surprise.

"Hehe, let me sell it, Brother Ma will know later!" Liu Cheng snorted, turned to the craftsman beside him, and said, "Let's start!" “

"Yes, sir!" The leader of the craftsman answered, walked to the window and pulled a pry bar, and then Ma Rencheng heard a slight vibration under his feet, and then the two wheels of the machine began to spin slowly, and the small spikes on the platform also rotated with the wheels, but these spikes rotated much faster than the wheels. Seeing this, Ma Rencheng looked at Liu Cheng on the side with some puzzlement, could it be that the other party spent a lot of effort to let himself watch these sharp hammers spin? (To be continued.) )