Chapter 1: Lu Sixiang

Deng Changjiang was originally a small boss under the Xuanfu guerrilla Lu Yong.

Guan Shengyun is a native of Yan'an Mansion, Shaanxi, and his father is a poor talent who has tried and failed many times, and he makes a living as a teacher. It is said that it is teaching, but in fact, it is that the slightly richer people in each village half hang him for 800 to get together a few copper coins, and ask someone to teach the baby to read a few words in the agricultural slack - yes, it is just literacy, and the scientific examination is undreamable.

In those days, education was a very luxurious thing: five or six-year-old babies began to cut pigweed, collect firewood, and could help adults do a lot of things; When you are a teenager, you can go to the field and work as most of the laborers. In the year of a good harvest, it is a well-off family to eat dry, and it is a well-off family, and the dynasty is Tian Shelang, and the twilight is Tianzitang, which is just a beautiful myth - the hungry Tian Shelang will only think about eating the mouth bag in his heart, and will never daydream about Tianzitang.

If the wind and rain are smooth, coupled with several generations of thrifty family management and no ruined family and no lawsuits, a normal family needs three or four generations to change the court: the first generation squeezed out a few dollars from between the teeth to let the baby know some words, the second generation saved dozens of acres of land and property, and the third generation continued to work hard, the whole family can have hundreds of acres of family business, and then join the strength of the family, ask some good gentlemen to teach the dolls of the whole family, and strive to let one or two of them be admitted to the show, and finally, Let the smartest baby in the fourth-generation family be out of production, and the whole family will provide him with a single-minded study, and if he can pass the township test and pass the lift-from then on, this family will realize the leap into the dragon gate and enter the gentry class.

Wealthy families will not find Luo Dixiu to be a Xixi. After years of drought, I can't eat enough, who has spare money to ask Mr. to teach the baby to read? So Guan Xiucai was hungry and sick, and soon died. Guan Shengyun was a teenager, escaped from the disaster after burying his father, begged and wandered all the way, and when he arrived at Xuanfu, he was so hungry that he was desperate, so he planted a straw label and sold himself. When I met Lu Yong, I saw that this little Huazi was actually literate, and he was amazed and accepted as a small servant.

The guerrilla official position is not big, and there is not much money that can be greedy, so it is very good to be able to afford three or four family members. The family wanted to change his surname, but Lu Yong was a rough man, so he asked his master to give him a name. The master arranged down according to the Tai Chi Liangyi and Four Elephant Gossip, so Guan Shengyun became Lu Sixiang.

Most people today have a misunderstanding of the word "Jiading", either thinking that the so-called "Jiading" is a crooked gourd and cracked jujube, or it is a servant who does chores for the main family - this is crooked by the stupid lack of film and television dramas.

Actually, it's not true.

At that time, the so-called "family ding" was very different from the "subordinate". The subordinates of the domestic helper, there are long-term and short-term workers, of course, there are also those who have been emotionally related to each other for a lifetime for too long, but the subordinates do not need to change their surnames, they will always be counted as "outsiders", and the family members must change their surnames and count them as "their own people" - it can be understood as "the lower status of this 'family' 'own people'". Not only do you not have to worry about eating, drinking, Lazar, and change, but even marrying a daughter-in-law to support the elderly and even burying the dead, everything is covered by the head of the family. In this case, the family will naturally have a high degree of loyalty to the main family, even if it is at the expense of his life: the main family will remember this affection, and after that, it is needless to say that the family will take care of the old and young, and the child may even study and grow up with the young master in the house.

It is a family member who can eat enough, Lu Sixiang's size and strength are long, and in just a few years, he has become a strong young man who is half a head taller than ordinary people (the average height of people in the Ming Dynasty is about 1.6 meters). In addition to the master, the Lu family is the one who knows the most words, so Lu Yong also prefers it, teaching him martial arts hand in hand, and later simply enrolled him in the military and became his own personal guard, and then later, he simply recognized his son. If there was no tragedy later, Guan Shengyun would probably be able to get mixed up with a thousand presidents in the end, or guerrillas, and die in the border pass.

In those years, although the horse market was opened openly and secretly, and Mongolian compatriots could exchange mules, horses, cattle and sheep for some cloth, grain, salt, iron, and so on, the border passes could not be said to be very peaceful: there was no big fighting, and the harassment of groups of three or five on both sides was sometimes endless. However, in this regard, both the imperial court here and the tribal khans and princes over there also turned a blind eye: with the communication and transportation conditions at that time, it was impossible to manage these trivial things.

Xuanfu Town has a number of outposts hundreds of miles outside the main defense line, and the garrison has a dozen to dozens of people, whose duty is to give early warning. The small group of northern captives don't need to be bothered, they can't gnaw at the stronghold - then again, the semi-permanent stronghold that has stored a few stones of miscellaneous grain has no oil and water to gnaw on the head, and when they see the large group of people who are coming to attack, they just run back after lighting the beacon fire.

The soldiers of the beacon tower are carefully selected. The selection criterion is not that you have a strong mind and strong martial arts, but that you have a small family. If the northern captives on the other side come to commit a big attack, what should you do if you are so scared that you surrender directly or forget to call the police? If you have a small family, things will be easy to do: kill your whole family.

Lu Sixiang and his companion Lu Bagua once went to several close outposts for Lu Yong to convey the order of "catching some homeless people to replenish the auxiliary troops when they are free", and on the way back, they met more than a dozen Mongolian compatriots. Seeing the two lonely rangers in bright armor from a distance, the Mongolian compatriots enthusiastically surrounded them: Iron armor is a treasure! Lu Gossip didn't run away, Lu Sixiang's horses also lost their strength, and they saw that it was difficult to escape, just at this moment, a whistle sounded, and the rescuers arrived - dozens of Huazi appeared in front of him like divine soldiers descending from heaven!

The Mongolian compatriots threw down seven or eight corpses and ran away. In this way, Lu Sixiang met Deng Changjiang.

The latter is leading this gang called Huazi, oh, wrong, the little leader of the mighty army of the Ming border army - the life of ordinary soldiers is too hard, no different from beggars. Deng Changjiang is the general manager of another outpost stronghold, he was afraid of soaking multigrain cakes in salt water, and secretly led his brothers to sneak out, hoping to hit a big luck, to see if he could meet a Mongolian friend who had grazed away from the blood mold, and had a cordial and friendly exchange to drive some cattle and sheep back to sacrifice the five visceral temples, if he could meet three or five gods of wealth who rushed to the horse market to trade, it would be even better, but he didn't expect to save Lu Sixiang by beating crookedly.

Although he didn't make a fortune, seven or eight first-level skills definitely won the jackpot! Although the military merit system of the Ming Dynasty is not immutable, generally speaking, the number of beheadings accounts for one percent of the number of reported soldiers, which is a proper first-class merit!

What is the number of soldiers? It is the number of soldiers under a certain general recognized by the military department of the imperial court whose names are recorded in the military department.

At that time, no one could say clearly how many troops the Ming court had. The generals asked the court for food and wages, so they exaggerated the number of their men to death. A military town (chief military officer) reported that it was normal for the "army of 100,000 tigers and wolves" under its account, which was called a sky-high asking price. The court is not stupid, it is really according to this amount of food and salary, and it is not enough to sell all the ladies in the palace, and it will definitely go bankrupt! Therefore, to "investigate", that is, the military department sent people down to count the heads, which was to repay the money on the spot.

The uncle of the military department (please read twice) came down, asked the military head to call everyone together, and began to swipe down the numbers: the old, weak, sick, disabled, and pregnant do not count, all roll, those who do not have weapons do not count, all roll, those who do not have iron heads (such as wooden sticks) on weapons do not count, all roll, those who have iron heads but belong to farm tools (such as hoes and dung forks) do not count, all roll...... At least half of it was cut down every time it was brushed, so the 100,000 male divisions became three or four thousand called Huazi. The next is the regular process of eating cards and taking them, the military head serves the uncle comfortably, and may add five hundred people to you, the uncle is unhappy, saying that you are dazzled just now, and the official will count it carefully, it must be that you don't know how to lift and provoke the uncle...... In the end, the court will pay you according to the amount he has counted.

Generals want to make a fortune, support their families, and provide equipment and training for their own soldiers, all of which cost money, of course the imperial court knows, but it is impossible to pay for you! What to do? Figure it out for yourself. So the generals drank the blood of the soldiers, which was to deduct food and wages. The general soldier deducts the deputy general, the deputy general deducts the general, the general deducts the guerrilla, and the guerrilla deducts the general ...... In the end, when I got to the big soldier, I could only be left with a situation where I could barely starve to death.

Do you think you'll get money and food after counting the newspapers? What kind of dreams do you have? And "drifting"! It's the rule.

To put it simply, drifting is the meaning that the ship sinks, the car overturns, and suddenly an old monster pops out, ah, woo, eat all the silver and grain, you don't have to worry about it. The proportion of drifting is generally about 30%. Some (like the Sun family), two percent, no backers and stinky temper, the escort officer insisted that you have no place to reason for losing half of the road on the road.

What's more, that is, the imperial court will send official documents to officers at all levels on paper for the distribution of food and salary to the army! The subtext is - see it, the Bodhisattva is good, it's all crooked mouth monks chanting crooked scriptures! Money and food, the court has sent everything that should be distributed, don't ask me how much you get, find your superiors!

This magic weapon is called "big and small system".

For the military town, the chief military officer is "big", and the deputy general is "small": how much the imperial court gives to the military town, the deputy general you see for yourself, how much you actually get, and the deputy general is calculated by yourself! What's the matter, the court treats you well, right? You know who's the bad guys, right? In the future, if this guy wants to rebel and pull you into the gang, you know what to do...... As far as the "association" is concerned, the deputy general is the big one, and the staff general is the small one...... The purpose is to make you have contradictions, lest you form gangs and factions to deal with the court!

Can such an army be combat-ready? Who cares about this! Anyway, there are many homeless criminals, and the generals can arrest the government at any time and send them every day, are you worried that there will not be enough cannon fodder?

The imperial court fully understands that if you report four thousand soldiers, you will definitely be sure that there will be water when you dig it out, and there will definitely be water, not to mention - the head of the military department of the survey will take a concubine when he comes back, don't think that the Jinyi guards are all blind! A military town, if you go into battle, you can really fight, and if you die, it is the two or three hundred (soft-hearted) and three or four hundred (this guy is more ruthless) pro-soldiers raised by the generals themselves. Winning or losing the general's own report will not be counted, and the head handed in shall prevail. You said it was a big victory, but you didn't hand in the first level? Well, verbal praise. Want to get promoted and ask for a bonus? Hands it over!

The first level of acceptance is also very strict: whether the hair has been hinged (ethnic minority compatriots and Han hairstyles are different), whether there is a beard (don't take children as a number), there must be an Adam's apple (don't take a woman's head to cover things), if it is really difficult to distinguish, throw it into the water, raise your face to look at the sky, and the back of your head is a woman (this belongs to the high-tech of Qiankun Yin and Yang)...... The number of heads that can pass the acceptance is certainly far less than the actual results, and after combining these two points, a reward system of 1 percent of the beheading merit has been formulated.

In the master's wonderful pen, the court saw the guerrilla general Lu Yong, heard that the northern captives were on the side, and the case was raised, and resolutely led the headquarters of the children out of the pass to meet the head-on attack, in the face of the menacing captives, the unhesitating pioneers, the Shengshang Hongfujia border army tiger might, four hundred tigers and wolves chased and cut more than 10,000 thieves for more than 20 miles, killing the enemy is not counted, but the vast majority of the heads are trampled to unrecognizable...... The handing over of these genuine heads is ironclad evidence!

Two levels of work!

The guerrilla Lu Yong became the first general Lu Yong to be promoted to the rank of deputy general. Lu Sixiang and Deng Jiangzong, who were brave and invincible and led the charge, also became Lu Qianzong and Deng Qianzong; Deng Changjiang, who left his post without authorization, was originally not in Lu Yong's eyes (otherwise it would be impossible to go out to find food by himself hungry), and he became Lu Yong's henchman by virtue of this, and everyone was happy.