Hebei, Mozhou, Tangxing County.

As a man from a family of Zhuang, with a fairly solid family background and years of hard work, Li Hu, who is about to stand up, has a good figure.

Because his ancestors have been authentic farmers for generations, he can't read a few big characters, and his relatives and friends are all croppers, Li Hu has no lofty ambitions, nor does he have the luxury of being rich and expensive.

Although he also liked to dance with guns and sticks when he was young, he often fought with his peers in the countryside, and had a mixed reputation, which was quite feared by young people, but after starting a family, Li Hu settled down like most people.

With a daughter-in-law and children, Li Hu's biggest thought in his life is to serve the family's more than 100 acres of fertile land.

It would be best if you could save some money to buy a few acres of land, expand the family business, and let the daughter-in-law and children live better.

Because the location of the land left by the ancestors is good, it is very convenient to divert river water for irrigation, and after so many years, Li Hu gradually has some savings, and the eldest son can also go to the field, and the family lives happily despite hard work.

The fly in the ointment is that although Tangxing County is a poor place with sparse population, the officials and landlords here are even more vicious than those in prosperous places.

The landlord coveted his family's fertile land, and he made several ideas openly and secretly, just sabotaging his aqueduct, and did it several times, which once reduced his grain output a lot, and the officials even took the opportunity to collect his harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes in an attempt to force him to sell his land.

Fortunately, there was a lot of money left over at home to save food, so Li Hu did not end up with a wife being separated.

Later, whenever the farmland needed to be irrigated, Li Hu took his neighbors and eldest son to build a shed by the canal to live.

There were also a few disputes with the landlord and the errand in the middle, Li Hu had some prestige in the end, many young people bought his account, and his lips were cold, so they jointly resisted the landlord and the county poor, and finally barely survived.

Originally, life would have been stumbling like this, although there was the oppression of large landlords and corrupt officials, but after all, they did not fall into the abyss, and there was still food to eat.

What I never expected was that the situation changed abruptly overnight, and the general trend of the world was changed, Beihu suddenly invaded, and the soldiers and horses of the imperial court had almost no resistance, and Yanping was lost in October.

Then the Son of Heaven fled south, and the bearded cavalry swept Hebei.

The armies of the officials and generals of various prefectures and counties were either defeated by the wind and fled to the south, or they were swept and annihilated by the Beihu army, and Tangxing County, which was originally peaceful, was also swept up in the torrent.

Because the bearded cavalry came too quickly, the officials were more well-informed, and they could run away when the situation was not good, and the people, especially the rural people, basically couldn't escape.

When everyone came to their senses, the iron hooves of the beard were already close in front of them.

In order to protect his homeland and his wife and children, Li Hu could only pick up a hoe as a weapon, summoned the young people in the neighborhood, and entered the manor of the big landlord to resist the enemy together.

The landlords in the countryside, Zhuangzi are prepared to prevent thieves and criminals, built quite strongly, and the courtyard wall is not short.

The other party seemed to have forgotten the filthiness between them, and was very polite to him, a young leader, and scolded the county officials who fled with them.

It is said that they accept bribes, embezzle money, and fish and meat in the village on weekdays, drinking human blood and drinking red faces, and their waists are full of money, but when they really need to preside over the situation and protect the people, they run faster than dogs.

is really not a son of man, and he should be stripped of his beard.

Li Hu didn't know if Hu Zi could catch up with the fleeing officials and dismantle them in pieces, but when Hu Zi's cavalry arrived outside Zhuangzi, they realized very clearly that it was really easy for the other party to cut them down.

The fierce war horses, the murderous armor warriors, the sharp and bright knives, and the cultivators who leaped over the dock wall as if they were walking on the ground all made them feel desperate from the bottom of their hearts.

In a short confrontation, the cultivators in the bearded cavalry broke into the manor, arrested the landlord, and killed several guards and people, while Li Hu and the others could only stare dryly.

Just when the manor was crying and wailing, Li Hu thought that these people would soon become the souls of the bearded cavalry, the landlord came back intact, and he was sent back.

Those bearded cultivators, although they did not pay respectful to the landlord, did not deliberately humiliate them, and the landlord stood outside the gate, shouted open the door, and swaggered in.

Seeing Li Hu and the others who were confused, the landlord smiled like a trumpet flower before he could speak.

He told Li Hu and the others that everyone didn't have to die, and the bearded cavalry outside didn't mean to kill them all, all they wanted was the money and grain in the Zhuangzi, and not all of them, only half of them.

As for the rest of the people, they can go back to their respective homes to continue farming and live as usual, as long as they do not offend their beards and do not want to "rebel", and the other party promises not to hurt their lives.

At first, Li Hu didn't believe it, in his understanding, the invasion of the beard, that is, he came to kill people, and it was absolutely impossible to reason with them.

Because the other party is not a human being at all, it is a group of uncivilized and uncivilized beasts, killing people and robbing people's wives and daughters, which is a sure thing.

The landlord ignored Li Hu's scruples, he instructed his family to open the storehouse, and then took a team of bearded armor soldiers to move his own grain.

During the whole process, the bearded armor didn't give Li Hu and the others who were holding the hoe one more time, as if to them, Li Hu and the others were as no threat as rabbits.

When the bearded cavalry brigade left, Li Hu finally believed that the other party really did not mean to kill them.

And the reason why the landlord can still laugh is because he saved his life, but on the other hand, it is because when he was just arrested, he has been told by the other party that from now on, he is the county lieutenant of Tangxing County!

The previous county officials, as well as the squires with heads and faces in the county, have all run out, and the landlord is the most powerful and powerful existence in the township.

The dwarf pulled the general, and he was chosen by the beard to support him to help the beard county order govern the place.

The wind and rain of the dynasty abruptly changed, the war came abruptly, the emperor retreated south and fled, the powerful and rich abandoned their homes and businesses, and countless people died, but the landlord Liu Shi looked at himself, not only did not die at home, but also successfully entered the official mansion, and served as the county lieutenant above 10,000 people under one person in the county, and the money was immeasurable.

This is simply the smoke of the ancestral grave, and the shit luck is gone, or the extraordinary shit luck.

How could he not be glad about this?

Li Hu is not as excited as Liu Shi, after all, he didn't get anything, but his family didn't have to be killed by the beard, and he could go back to live the old days, so he wasn't too sad.

Just looking at those bearded armor warriors who showed off their might, he felt very uncomfortable, and a nameless anger and humiliation surged in his chest, making him want to pick up a hoe and fight with the other party.

In fact, if you really want to talk about it, in the past twenty years of life, Li Hu was not less called by officials and servants, and their attitude towards Li Hu was not much better than that of the bearded armor.

Now it's just a change of group of people to stay overhead, and Li Hu has no actual loss.

But as a former country hero, Li Hu just can't accept it, he is a dignified man, and he wants to be ruled by a group of beards in the wilderness, and he wants to be a cattle and sheep under the rule of the other party!

Where is the dignity of his eight-foot husband?!

When he walked in front of the bearded armor, Li Hu wanted to splash his husband with blood in anger, but he still didn't swing the hoe at the other party in the end, because he was still followed by his wife and children, and if he was impulsive, his wife and children would not survive.

Not to mention his wife and children, from the bottom of his heart, if he can live, is Li Hu really willing to really have the courage to die regardless of everything?

Pifu was angry and blood splashed five steps, it was very bloody and dignified to say, but what do you want and what can you get?

It's better to die than to live.

After returning home, Li Hu's life was uneventful, he still served the crops every day, and when the work in the field was busy, people had almost no energy to think about anything.

It's just that the people on Liu Shi's Zhuangzi, whether it is his family or an ordinary nursing home, are getting more and more vigorous day by day when they walk on the road, and their attitude towards them ordinary farmers is also becoming more and more arrogant day by day.

In terms of the degree of recklessness, it is even better than that of the previous county government officials.

From the beginning of the fruit and garlic that took the sheep to others, to the fat chickens and ducks that robbed other people's houses in a grand manner, and then to punching and kicking people at every turn, it seems to be the style of the king of heaven.

It is said that it is the king of heaven and Laozi is basically not bad, and now the beard of Tangxing County is in charge, and Liu Shi, as the county lieutenant, has the highest status among all Qi people and holds great power.

As long as the beard above does not move him, who among the people below can do anything to him?

Li Hu felt breathless.

This breath is getting stronger day by day.

A few days later, Liu Shi sent someone to call him to Zhuangzi, and what he didn't expect was that Liu Shi, who was sitting high on the Taishi chair, looked like I was the eye of the sky, and actually gave him a pie.

Liu Shi told him that the county government wanted to recruit a group of soldiers, inspect the township and maintain order in the county, because Li Hu had some prestige, Liu Shi decided to reward him with this golden pie and let him be a small leader among the soldiers.

On the condition that he recruit fifty young men who obey orders.

As soon as Li Hu heard that he was going to use Hu Zi as a minion and help Hu Zi rule the Qi people, the anger in his heart suddenly surged into his head, and he refused without thinking about it.

However, he had no brains, and when he refused, he reluctantly found a reason for being sick.

Liu Shi saw that he didn't know what to do, so he was so angry that he blasted him out on the spot, and threatened to regret it one day.

When he walked out of the gate of Zhuangzi, Li Hu spat viciously and scolded in his heart: "Regret? You disloyal and unrighteous bastard, when you go down to the underworld, you will know what regret is!"

Although Li Hu can't abandon his wife and children, risk his life, and fight to the death with Hu Ren, his self-esteem will never allow him to nod his head and bow his head and kneel to serve Hu Zi.

Li Hu has a bottom line, but not everyone has it, the night he returned home, Wang Er, who was a gangster, couldn't wait to come to the door and asked him if he had taken the beauty difference given by Liu Shi.

"Brother Huzi, like us who honestly farmed, originally didn't want to get ahead in his life, he could only face the loess with his back to the sky, work hard all year round to swing his hoe, and be angry with big landlords and corrupt officials for the rest of his life.

"Now that the pie that has fallen from the world has smashed on the head, we can finally be masters again, and my brother can follow you to get a light - Brother Huzi, when will you take office?

"Don't forget your brother, take me with you!"

In terms of courage and prestige, Wang Er is far inferior to Li Hu, he is always behind his ass on weekdays, and he is the only one who looks forward to everything, and he has always admired him.

Although the two are not related by blood, he is more respectful to Li Hu than to his own Laozi.

He had just heard about Li Hu, and he ran over as soon as possible.

Li Hu was angry, and when he saw that Wang Er was so eager to be a dog for his beard, he suddenly became angry and blasted the other party out.

After some time, when Li Hu saw Wang Er again, the other party was already in the county government soldier Ding team, and his subordinates were followed by a large number of young people, most of whom were those who had dealings with him before and were often close to him.

At first, when he met Wang Er, he was still very polite to Li Hu, but after a long time, Wang Er gradually became arrogant in front of Li Hu.

In front of Li Hu, when Wang Er was talking to his subordinates, he often pointed at Sang and scolded Huai.

Yin and Yang weirdly say ten years in Hedong and ten years in Hexi, some people don't look like people and dogs, in fact, they can only farm one land for a lifetime, and they don't have the life of drinking wine and eating meat in a big bowl.

And some people start out with bad luck, but once the time comes, it is real wealth.

It was not only Wang Er who gradually looked down on Li Hu and alienated him.

Those relatives and friends who had a good relationship with him before and had many places that relied on him on weekdays stopped looking at him one after another, and they all ran to flatter Wang Er.

In a few days, Li Hu went from a small reputation in ten miles and eight towns to a good man who was warmly greeted everywhere he went, to a poor man who was not respected and cared about, and was often squeezed and disgusted by the villain.

All this certainly made Li Hu feel very uncomfortable, so as not to scold these people in private for being undignified, treating them as dogs with beards, and being people who lost their ancestors, but what made him most sad was not this.

Since Hu Zi ruled Tangxing County, Liu Shi became the county lieutenant, and the common people, including Li Hu, have become more and more difficult day by day.

Because of the tense war on the front line, the army needed food, and the beard levied more taxes than before, and Liu Shi's methods of eating the people were more unscrupulous than those officials before him.

Almost all the grain stored in every household was looted by him, half of it was handed over to the county government, and most of it went into his warehouse.

Not only that, but he also bought other people's land at low prices at every turn, annexed other people's shops, and used the name of the government and the power in his hands to make a lot of money.

In this case, the fertile land of Li Hu's family, which was remembered by Liu Shi earlier, naturally could not escape the clutches of the devil, and Li Hu was also beaten by the soldiers of the county government for many days and couldn't get out of bed.

The person who beat him was still the so-called brother who shouted affectionately from Brother Huzi before.

Li Hu, who could only drink gruel on the bed, could imagine the pain in his heart, but his bad luck did not end there.

Because of her solid family background and outstanding character, Li Hu's daughter-in-law is a well-known beauty, and her daughter-in-law went out to the pharmacy in the county town to grab medicine for him that day, and never came back.

Li Hu was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot, and he searched and inquired with his eldest son, and finally figured out the reason: his daughter-in-law was taken by the bearded county order and taken away on the street.

Li Hu's eldest son got the news first and went to the county government to ask for someone, but was stopped by Wang Er.

Because he cursed Wang Er for being disloyal and unrighteous in person, and he was a villain who had milk and was a mother, the eldest son was annoyed and ashamed Wang Er, and he was given a name of trouble and rebellion, and he was beaten on the spot with only half a life left.

Li Hu rushed to the county office and brought back his eldest son, who was covered in bruises, and the other party died of his injuries that night.

So far, in a short period of time, Li Hu, who has lost the land passed down from generation to generation, lost his daughter-in-law and died of his eldest son, and is already a family with four walls, has completely fallen into madness and despair.

He entrusted his youngest daughter to a friend who was just as hostile to beard as he was, and he himself carried his own axe for chopping wood, and sneaked into Wang Er's hometown in the pouring rain in the middle of the night.