Chapter 45: The Scourge of War

Although Guan Shengyun took away most of the boats, there will always be some boats that slip through the net in the rivers and reeds. They were searched out by the adults one by one, and they actually found more than 30 boats of different sizes. According to the plan, Yan Wenlong, Mo Hantao and others left Yan'an Mansion with great fanfare, and after creating enough momentum, they changed to the waterway, went down the water, and went to Heijiabao to divide their troops: Yan Wenlong abandoned the boat and landed on the shore to "recover" Yanchuan, and Mo Hantao continued to take a boat to "recover" Yanchuan. The reason for this distribution is to consider that after all, the latter has been locked up in prison for so long, and his body is a little unable to bear it after a long journey on the road, so it is easier to take a boat down the river.

Unexpectedly, just after arriving at Heijiabao, Lord Yan was getting off the boat all the way, and someone was suddenly shocked to find that thousands of people were pouring here in the mountains and fields in the distance! Are the thieves still gone, or have they come back from killing, or are the people who have nothing to live after the catastrophe gathered to become thieves? The officials didn't expect to encounter this situation at all, and Lord Yan, who was still angry a moment ago, was the first to jump back into the boat, plunged into the cabin, and shouted a loud order to moor to the opposite bank immediately! How dare the boss of the boat be lazy, the oar shook rapidly, and he was tired and sweaty, but the boat did not move at all. A series of vicious curses and curses and threats erupted from the mouth of Lord Yan in a small hat in green clothes, but fortunately, Ding Zhuang on the shore found that he had forgotten to untie the cable in a hurry, and the boat was still firmly tied to the tree on the shore, so he hurriedly stepped forward to untie it. Unexpectedly, before this kind-hearted man boarded the boat, the boat rushed to the opposite shore like an arrow.

In a hurry, the kind-hearted man threw himself into the river, grabbed the rope in his hand, reached out to climb onto the boat, and ...... "snapped" a crisp sound of a broken finger bone accompanied by a miserable cry of "ahhhh ”

Other boats were in a similar situation, rowing to the south shore of Yanshui. The warriors who had already reached the north shore jumped into the river and swam to the south bank, while those who could not swim fled to the east and west, and some jumped on the shore shouting and kneeling and pleading......

The four Liang families have lived in Yangjiayuan on the outskirts of Yanchuan County for generations.

Although there is an old word in his name, he is actually only twenty-five years old, of course, he is a virtual age. He did do four - he had three older brothers, but they all died before they reached adulthood. Liang Laosi grew up to five years old, and his mother also died. Now there are only four people in Lao Liang's family: his father Lao Liangtou, his daughter-in-law, and a four-year-old baby.

The days were hard.

The land here is very barren, and the production capacity per mu is more than 100 catties (Ming Dynasty, 16 taels of scales) in good years. During the New Year's holidays, or when the farm is busy and requires heavy physical labor, you can eat one or two meals a day that are all dry, and the rest of the time is less than half dry and half thin and then take some wild vegetables, which is also okay. At worst, they eat grass roots and tree bark. You have to be particular about eating tree bark, otherwise, you will eat yourself to death in a short time...... Well, or starvation.

The best to eat is elm bark. For those who don't understand, they peel off the bark and cook it softly and chew it directly. Under normal circumstances, it will not be long before they swell to death - the bark is the bark, no matter how soft it is, it is not soft, and they can barely swallow it, and their stomachs are full of coarse fiber and cannot digest it. When the stomach is uncomfortable, I want to drink water, and the coarse fibers in the stomach are soaked in water, swelling up, and the stomach is burst, and the person is so painful that he has to roll on the ground for an hour or two, or even longer, before he can die. At this time, if you meet an experienced well-wisher, you will give your family an idea, find a thick wooden stick and hit the back of the head hard, and end the pain of your relatives as soon as possible, and you will not be saved. If you eat less, you won't be able to survive if you don't break your stomach for a while. The digestive juices of the human body cannot dissolve these things, and they all pile up in the stomach and intestines, and finally die. Longer, more painful.

The rough outer skin of the elm tree cannot be eaten, but the soft part of the inner layer can be eaten. Peel it off, peel off the old skin on the outside, cut it into sections, spread it out to dry, and then grind it into powder with a grinder, which can be eaten or mixed with acorns. The only problem is that it's a bit dry: human and sheep are like black eggs. However, it can be lived.

Picking bark is also learned. You can't go around the tree and the tree will die – when you kill all the trees around you, you'll starve to death. Pick it vertically, leave half of it, so that the tree doesn't die, and in the next year you need to count on it, it can save your life. In general, there is no need to worry about not having enough to eat: don't forget the roots! As tall as the tree grows, so do the roots! Moreover, the roots of the tree are numb, and in total terms, the roots are covered with much more bark than those on the trunk. You can rest assured that you can boldly dig up half of the roots and peel the skin and grind the powder to eat, as long as you don't dig off the taproot, the tree will always provide you with a chance to live.

The days when you need to gnaw on the bark from time to time are really bitter, but since you never know what the happy life of other people and other places is like, since you are sensible, you and the people around you are living like this, Liang Laosi also thinks that this kind of life is the normal state of everyone in this world, and he doesn't feel bitter.

Like other neighbors, Liang Laosi's father, Lao Liang Tou, worked hard to marry him a daughter-in-law in his twentieth year with a few buckets of grain that he had saved for many years. My mother's family is from Fengjiagou, not far away. Seeing that the family is only two, they are all strong laborers, and they are very happy to agree. Soon, a male baby was added to the family, and Lao Liangtou felt this pain for his grandson, and the mixed noodles and steamed buns were eaten tightly by his grandson. Once the grandson dropped the broken bowl that had been curnetted twice, Liang Laosi slapped it over, and before the grandson could cry, Lao Liang's slap hit his son's skull...... The grandson and grandfather are also very close.

A while ago, when they heard that a thief was coming, Lao Liang's family followed the villagers and hid in the ravine. After a few days, people from the county town came out one after another. It is said that the thieves are not much more fierce than the official family, and they only robbed the rich, except for arresting Ding, they did not embarrass the poor and the poor. Lao Liangtou was worried about the bits and pieces of the broken family, but his son and daughter-in-law did not persuade him and ran home. After two days, Lao Liangtou was so happy that he ran back without seeing his teeth, saying that the thieves were gone, and before leaving, he also opened the county warehouse for everyone to get grain. So the people who were hiding all went back to the village, and sure enough, the family was still like that, and the thieves only hit the county seat, not the countryside.

That night, Lao Liangtou dug out some of the buried grains, and the whole family had a dry meal in the house, most of which continued to be buried: there were 100 households in the village, and less than 10 households had the courage to go to the county seat to carry back the grain.

A few days passed, and the days were completely back to normal. On this day, Liang Lao Si went out early in the morning to chop wood, and by the way, he saw if the sleeve in the forest could catch some rabbits or something. At noon, as soon as Lao Liangtou came back from the field to tease his grandson, Yang Jiayuan was surrounded by officers and soldiers, and the accent was from Yulin.

The officers and men said that they wanted to find the thieves, and they went from house to house, and the slightly better ones were not spared, and they were all robbed. At first, Lao Liangtou was worried that the grain in his private collection would be turned out—so he buried it shallowly by the side of the kang in the house, and scribbled it with broken sacks and straw straw that lit fire. So he stood in front and bowed his waist and said good things, and begged the soldiers pitifully.

The baby was so frightened that she cried, and her daughter-in-law hurriedly hugged her in her arms and coaxed her. The baby buried her head in her mother's arms and cried, although the daughter-in-law smeared the pot ash on her face, but the baby arched, and the torn clothes did not cover the outline of the tits, and several guys were still moved by bad intentions. Several people glanced at each other, and two of them came over to drag Lao Liangtou out of the house, and the other went to pull his daughter-in-law. The baby hugged his mother and didn't let go, this guy was in a hurry, he grabbed the baby's neck and pulled it hard, and the baby's cry immediately forked, and then it was suffocated. Lao Liangtou saw that his grandson was in danger, and he didn't know where the strength came from, so he even bit and grabbed the ground and broke free from the two of them and rushed forward. Lao Liang's head fell to the ground, and the gradually dilated pupils reflected a hellish scene: the baby was lifted upside down by the legs, her head was smashed on the edge of the kang, and the daughter-in-law was pressed next to the dead baby by several people......

Almost at the same time, the whole village exploded, and everyone ran out, the fastest one was considered to have picked up a life, and most of the slow ones were killed in vain.

The people who ran into the field were horrified to find that there were people running out from several surrounding villages, and it seemed that it was not only Liujiayuan and Fengjiawan who had passed the army. Fear spread quickly, and more and more people gathered. Liang Laosi, who was dragging firewood home, saw it from a distance, threw down the bundle of firewood and ran back to the crowd, and when he recognized the people in the same village, he stopped and asked, the man didn't know what happened to his family, and shouted for him to run the army together while breaking free. Of course, Liang Laosi didn't listen, dodged and dived back, and the cat looked inside in the dry ditch at the entrance of the village, and then saw the flames coming out of his house. was hesitating whether to rush back to see what was going on, and suddenly saw some bloody corpses lying on the road, Liang Laosi understood: going back is a dead end. So I had a fluke thought in my heart: Did my father, wife and children also run out? If that's the case, it's better to look for it first, and come back in case you can't find it, otherwise it will be a waste of life. Liang Laosi turned his head and ran south after the fleeing crowd.

was in the prime of life, and he didn't bring anything empty-handed, and in less than an hour, Liang Laosi caught up with the crowd, walking through the crowd, shouting loudly for his father, wife and children. That night, the crowd, who had lost their minds, rested in the field. Liang Laosi and the others looking for their relatives didn't sleep much, stumbling all night, and continued to call in a hoarse voice.

At dawn the next day, the crowd continued to flee south. It was almost noon, and these fleeing people almost scared Lord Yan to death.

When Lord Yan saw clearly that the crowd of people under the pressure of black was actually ordinary people, he suddenly understood most of his heart: This is a deserter disaster, and it seems that the official army has already arrived in Yanchuan first!

As the saying goes, bandits are like combs, and soldiers are like grates.

Everyone is familiar with combs, but many people may not have seen grates. In the past, due to the limitations of living conditions, it was impossible to take a bath and wash your hair at any time, and second, what followed was people's self-exculpation, that is, making excuses for objective existence. The best example is the old North & Beijing fried noodles. Obviously, he couldn't afford to eat a large piece of meat and was greedy, so he chopped some minced meat and mixed it with the dead man's salty noodle sauce, Xili snorted and swallowed it with a big bowl of noodles. But...... The gentlemen of the Imperial City Root can't lose face! So make excuses. You can't have too much diced meat, it's too much of a taste! We pay attention to eight small plates of side dishes, shredded carrots, shredded radish, shredded cucumbers, shredded gluten, shredded cabbage, mung bean sprouts, soybean sprouts, and green beans! Vinegar, what about vinegar? chili oil, Sichuan pepper oil, coriander, shallots...... In short, you have to prepare all the ingredients for the master who don't need money! Hey, I almost forgot, garlic, there has to be garlic! Got it? That's what it's called being particular - stop it! You get a table of Dongpo elbow skin shrimp and crabs, and then look at what people eat! As soon as his head was ventilated, he pretended not to hear anything, and he didn't have a mouth. Wait for him to look up and blow eight small dishes with you...... Sensei asked, the plate must have bottomed out! Well, let's get down to business. Because you can't wash your hair at any time, there is a similar taboo: the big girl is unlucky to wash her hair, and washing too much hurts her vitality - the grate is the solution to not washing her hair at any time. The teeth of the grate are very dense, and cute little creatures such as lice and fleas that hide in the hair rely on it to "grate".

The bandits, because they were afraid of the encirclement and suppression of the officials and troops, paid attention to coming and going like the wind, and every time they went to a place, they would search through it roughly, and then they would immediately run away. Of course, the people must run if they can, and hide if they can't. For this reason, whether it is people or wealth, as long as it is hidden, there is always a great probability that it will be leaked.

But the officers and soldiers are different, especially the guest troops (foreign soldiers), who will never be polite to you! On weekdays, there is nothing left of the military salary deducted by the commanders at all levels, and the food can only be said to be maintained in a state of starvation, and the only chance to make a fortune is to suppress bandits!

Having said that, chasing the bandits and rogues, you are slashing with the red-eyed outlaws with real knives and guns? If you can cut it, but leave it aside, even if you really have the first-level merit, how much money can the officers get by deducting a little at all levels? Is it worth it for your mouthful of mixed noodles that barely starved to death? So, as long as you're not stupid, of course you won't chase it desperately.

For the people in the "bandit area", it is a different scene. The bandits ran away to report the "great victory" and first laid the groundwork, in order to "completely eliminate the remnants of the bandits", they have to search carefully, right? Everyone is rummaging through the cabinets, who knows what you've picked up? Not to mention raping or committing adultery with a few women, even if you cut someone, as long as you are sure that the head is a bandit or a bandit, and the dead can't speak, who can do anything to you? Besides, you can say that it was done by the gangsters, and it is clear that the fool in the township recognized the wrong person! The local civil servants will definitely not dare to deal directly with you - otherwise, if there is such a thing in the future, wait for the martyrdom, and no one will come to help him again! Therefore, at this time, the officers and soldiers will not be in a hurry to leave to chase and suppress the bandits, they will slowly look for them, and search carefully - over time, they are very experienced in this area, and when they leave, this place is basically a blank land, and nothing will be left for you. It's as clean as a grate.

In the face of this kind of military disaster like cutting grass and eradicating roots, the people naturally have to run as far as they can.

Therefore, Yan Wenlong identified the fleeing people, and knew that the official army had "recovered" Yanchuan - if it was bandits, the people would not have run so far, and there would not be so many people!