Three small boats carried more than twenty minions into the reeds.

It didn't take much effort for the reeds to row out two large boats and five small boats.

Twenty or thirty people were carried in large boats, and seven or eight people were carried in small boats.

Shi Jin, Zhu Wu, Chen Da, Yang Chun, Zhang Qing, and Sun Erniang sat in the water pavilion built behind the grass house, watching the children enter the park in batches, and talking about the situation after separation.

Shi Jin and others had already used up the grain and grass they brought when they went on the road, and after entering Shandong, they bought grain and grass along the way, and the baggage was not much, but it was also a time-consuming and laborious thing to cross more than 100 horses and cars.

When they crossed the Yellow River, they first let dozens of people pretend to be caravans to make a few big boats dock, and then control the boatmen, so that they could honestly cross the river for everyone. Otherwise, seeing a large group of men and horses with knives and guns, those boatmen would not dare to dock anyway.

The big boats on the Yellow River are much larger than the big boats bought by Zhu Wu, and the river is not so complicated, so it is not so laborious to cross the river.

Seeing that a big boat could only carry three horses, and a small boat could only carry one horse, Shi Jin suddenly said: "The horses can swim in the water, tie the war horses to the boat, can you take them over?" ”

Belch?

Everyone was stunned for a moment.

If it is in the rapids, I am afraid that the horse will be washed away, but the water in the berth is not very flowing, and the Lijia crossing is only a few miles away from Liangshan, so maybe the horse can really swim over.

Zhu Wudao: "What my brother said is reasonable, I'll let the children try to get a few horses first." ”

Shi Jin said with a smile: "Brother Zhu Wu, sit down, Shi Zhu, you go and inform." ”

"Yes."

Shi Zhu, who was standing outside the water pavilion, answered, and went to the water's edge to convey Shi Jin's meaning.

Soon, a few minions led the cart to the berth, tied the horses with the reins, and tied them to the boat.

As the ship went offshore, the horses were pulled into the water.

At first, the horses resisted, and the boat was pulled straight away, but after being driven into the water by the minions on the shore, the horses swam forward under the pull of the boat.

Seeing that several horses were pulled into a line by the boat and entered the reeds, Chen Da shouted: "Brother, this method is good, it will be much easier to enter and exit this water in the future." ”

Shi Jin shook his head and said: "It depends on whether those horses can swim to the shore, even if it works, this method can only be used when returning to the mountain." If you come out to fight and the war horse swims over, I'm afraid you won't have much strength to rush and kill. We still have to recruit some fishermen, who can hold the boat or fight on the water. ”

Zhu Wu said with a smile: "This matter is easy, recently it has been rumored that the imperial court wants to encompass 800 miles of water as public land, and the people want to enter the lake to fish, collect lotus roots, and cut cattails, all of which must be taxed according to the size of the boat, and if there are violators, they will be punished as thieves." Like this tyranny, how can the people not flee. We are waiting to set up a village in Liangshan, and there should be no shortage of manpower. ”

Earlier this year, Du Gongcai, a Xu official in Ruzhou, in order to tie up with the eunuch Yang Jian, flattered and said that there were many ownerless fertile fields in Ruzhou.

Naturally, there is no ownerless fertile land in Ruzhou, and Du Gongcai's method is to consult the land contracts of the people in various places.

Because the Song Dynasty did not prohibit land annexation, many people's fields were bought and sold many times, and sometimes in order to evade taxes, the sale was not filed with the yamen, but only signed a contract in private. Others came from the reclamation of wasteland, and there were no land deeds at all.

These fields can be confiscated by the imperial court.

If it's just like this, it can't be considered harsh, after all, they all do things according to the law, but in order to loot more money, Yang Jian also promulgated a new size. The new ruler is smaller than the old ruler, so all the people's fields must be measured more than the "more" on the land deed, and the court will confiscate the "more" fields and then forcibly rent them to the original people.

The people still planted the original fields, but the taxes were increased, so the people complained a lot.

Yang Jian saw that Du Gongcai had found a lot of fields in Ruzhou, so he spread this harsh policy on Jingxi Road, and now it has spread to Shandong and Huaixi.

Liangshan's 800 miles of water is the first place for those corrupt officials to collect money, because these water pools are caused by the Yellow River breach, not only the water pools are ownerless, but all the places that have been flooded, corrupt officials and corrupt officials can refer to the retreat of the beach, and do not recognize the previous land deed.

Shi Jin shook his head and said: "The harsh government is fiercer than the tiger, if it goes on like this, the world will inevitably be eventful." ”

Chen Da said with a smile: "No matter what he is harsh or not, except for my brother, even the king of heaven and Lao Tzu can't control us." ”

Everyone laughed for a while, and the small boat that had pulled the war horse into the mooring sailed out.

Yang Chun got up and shouted, "Did those horses swim over?" ”

The minions holding the boat shouted, "It's over." ”

Chen Daxi said: "That time we dragged all the horses over, and we could also go up the mountain early to eat and drink." ”

Shi Jin shook his head and said: "Don't worry, it will take a few trips to carry everyone over, just pull five horses per boat, so as to avoid accidents." Shi Zhu, you go again. ”

"Yes."

Shi Zhu answered and ran to give the order.

Everyone sat in the water pavilion for half an hour before they got on the boat with the last group of people and came to the water pool.

After sailing for more than a mile, the ship entered the reeds.

Standing on the bow deck of the ship, the reeds are like walls, making the water like a labyrinth, and the harbor is full of water, and a little farther away, you can only see a patch of withered yellow reed flowers.

If you are not familiar with waterways, no matter how high you stand, I am afraid that you will not be able to find the right waterway.

If you are traveling in a small boat, the reeds that are as tall as one person are enough to make it impossible to see anything outside the waterway.

After walking for a while, Yang Chun was stunned and asked, "How do you remember the waterway?" ”

Zhu Wu said with a smile: "We also asked a few local fishermen to lead the way to Liangshan, and in order to make it easier for the brothers to remember the way, we made marks in some harbors. These days, the brothers have traveled many times a day to transport grain, grass, bricks and wood, so that they can remember the waterways and take those markers. lest anyone make a bad move, and when the mark is changed, let the brothers get lost in the reeds. Everyone is only familiar with the waterway around here, and if you enter the reeds inside, you will also get lost. ”

It is better to believe in the book than to have no book at all.

If you walk a lot, you will naturally write down the waterway, and you can walk without marking.

If you keep using the marker, the person who holds the boat will inevitably follow the mark.

Even if the marker is moved, the person holding the boat will most likely suspect that he has misremembered and follow the marker.

Shi Jin nodded and said, "I turned around and recruited nearby fishermen, and everyone is familiar with the waterway." In the future, you will have to defend against the enemy in this reed, and if you get lost, it will become a joke. ”

Out of the reeds, Liangshan is close in front of you.

Compared with Shaohua Mountain, which is hundreds of zhang high, Liangshan can only be regarded as a small mound of dozens of zhang, which is really difficult to say towering, and the side where everyone walks is not too steep, and some minions can be seen pulling carts and horses on the mountainside.

However, the vegetation on the mountain is lush, and there are large trees hugging each other as far as the eye can see.

The boat approached the golden beach, and the group went ashore and walked along a path a few feet wide in the middle.

There are still some weeds on the path, which is obviously the way that Chen Da and others have only come out these days.

Halfway up the mountain along the trail, you walked sideways on the mountainside for a while, and you came across a mountain pass.

When you enter the mountain pass, you will see that the mirror surface in the middle is also like a flat land, but it can be three or five hundred zhang square, surrounded by high mountains on all sides.

More than a dozen earthen houses and several grass sheds have been built on the flat ground, and the grain and grass bought by Zhu Wu are stacked under the grass sheds.

The minions who had come up earlier had already circled a field on the edge with their carts, and drove all the horses into one place, occupying a small half of the open space.

There were also several wooden stakes nailed to the side, five oxen, twenty or thirty sheep, and about a hundred chickens and ducks with their paws tied on the ground.

Many minions saw the poultry that Zhu Wu had prepared for everyone, and their eyes lit up.

Along the way, although Shi Jin was not stingy with gold and silver, and let everyone have meat to eat, most of the time he couldn't buy too much. Hundreds of people were divided, and they were just plugged between their teeth.

It is impossible to eat wine in large bowls and meat in large pieces.

Shi Jin looked around and asked, "Can the surrounding peaks be climbed?" ”

Zhu Wu shook his head and said: "Except for the Nanshan Mountain Road that we walked when we came up, it is easier to walk, and the East Mountain, West Mountain, and North Mountain are all very steep and difficult to walk, and it takes a lot of effort to climb up." A small checkpoint on each mountain will be impregnable. ”

Shi Jin nodded and said: "In this way, we only use the focus to defend Nanshan Road, and it is really a good place to settle down." First arrange for everyone to prepare a wine banquet, and tonight everyone will eat wine in a big bowl and a large piece of meat to celebrate that we have a new foundation. ”

He also remembered that later, the heroes of Liangshan set up six passes, four dry villages, and four water villages. But now they don't have so many soldiers and horses, so naturally they won't set up so many stockades.

Hundreds of houses could be built on this flat land in front of you.

Zhu Wu smiled: "Okay, my brother has a tired journey, and let's rest first, I'll arrange everyone." ”

"Okay, then there will be Brother Lao."

Zhu Wu divided everyone into two teams, one team set up a tent and prepared a place to rest at night; A team slaughters cattle and sheep and prepares for dinner.

Shi Jin was not idle, but walked around.

walked to a place where the tent was set up, and said to a man who was pulling the tent: "Tao Da, are your feet better?" ”

Tao Da is a slave of Shaohua Mountain, because of a dispute between the field and a rich family in his hometown, he injured someone, and escaped in fear of crime. After several tosses, the grass fell in Shaohua Mountain.

After walking for more than ten days, my feet became blistered and I couldn't walk.

When Shi Jin learned about it, he asked him to lead the horse. After walking for a while, he said that he was tired of riding, and after walking for a while, he asked Tao Da to also ride a horse for a while.

Tao Da also knew that Shi Jin was asking him to walk less, so how could he not be grateful.

Seeing that Shi Jin came to inquire again, he hurriedly said: "It's much better, I haven't walked much today, and it shouldn't be in the way for a few days to rest." ”

Shi Jin smiled: "That's good, now that we're at the ground, let's rest for three days." If your feet still hurt, you will come and tell me that you will be allowed to take a few more days off. ”

Tao Da said with a humble face: "It must be good to rest for three days, thank you brother for taking care of me." ”

"They are all brothers, and they should take care of each other."

Shi Jin patted Tao Da on the shoulder, turned around and walked to other places.

Along the way, every day when he rested and camped, Shi Jin would walk around and chat with everyone.

After more than 20 days, he can also call out the names of most of Shaohuashan's minions.

Seeing that the minions were carrying water in one place, Shi Jin walked over.

"Brother Shi Jin."

"Brother."

The minions who fetched water saw Shi Jin coming over and greeted one after another.

Shi Jin smiled at everyone, walked to the well, and looked out.

It seems that this well is also newly dug, the wall of the well is made of pebbles, from the wellhead to the water surface there are eight or nine feet, the well water is very clear, it seems that the water depth is three or four feet.

"Does this well produce a lot of water?"

One of the minions said, "There seems to be a spring below, and five or six buckets of water have been lifted, and the water level has not fallen." ”

Shi Jin didn't understand much either, and asked, "Then can this well provide water for all of us?" ”

"If it's really a spring, it should be able to be used up and down the cottage, and the well water is very sweet."

A clever minion scooped a scoop of water and said, "Brother taste? ”

Shi Jin took the water scoop, took a sip, nodded and smiled: "Yes, it is indeed good water." I'm waiting for good luck, this Liangshan is a blessed land. ”

"It's all my brother's wisdom."

"Exactly, if it weren't for my brother's guidance, how could I have come to this blessed land."