Wu Yunlin came to the big courtyard where the Wei family received him, Wu Yunlin, who had recovered from the previous gaffe, sat quietly at the door of the house, staring at the sky silently, and then reached out to take the cup of tea handed over by Dumb, looked at the continuous ripples on the tea surface, blew it gently, and then drank it all, hoping to calm his turbulent heart with this warm tea.

As long as he is not a madman, after giving the order to slaughter with his own hands and witnessing it with his own eyes, he will be covered with a deep psychological shadow, and Wu Yunlin is no exception. Killing people is not as simple as he imagined, even if he has a valid reason, his conscience is still constantly torturing him.

"Life is like a reverse journey, and I am also a pedestrian." Wu Yunlin slowly put down the teacup, tasted the bitterness of the tea, closed his eyes for a long time, slowly opened his eyes and said, "The world is difficult." ”

Dumb and Zhao Kuo, who were waiting on the side, opened their mouths when they heard this, wanting to persuade Wu Yunlin, but he didn't know how to persuade him, so he could only bow his head and silently fill Wu Yunlin with tea.

Xiong Ge found a well, washed the blood stains on his body with cold well water, calmed his boiling blood, and then found a jar of aged wine from the farm, and carried it into the courtyard where Wu Yunlin was.

When Dumb saw Xiong Ge's arrival, he immediately happily put down the teapot in his hand, stepped forward, and said in a low voice: "Brother Xiong is finally here, master, he has been sitting here without saying a word, his brows are furrowed, and he looks preoccupied. Zhao Kuo and I are worried in our eyes, our mouths are clumsy, and we don't know how to persuade the master, so we also ask Brother Xiong to help adjust one or two. ”

Xiong Ge, who was carrying the wine jar, nodded, and said to Dumb and Zhao Kuo: "Don't worry, I'm here for this" He looked at Dumb and Zhao Kuo with haggard faces, thinking that they were also busy all day, and they were also witnesses to the massacre, so he opened his mouth and persuaded him: "Everything here has me, there is no chaos, you go and rest first." ”

Dumb, who was quite moved, looked back at Wu Yunlin, saluted after getting Wu Yunlin's permission, and repeatedly told Xiong Ge: "Everything is please", and then walked out of the courtyard alone and found a place to rest.

Xiong Ge walked to Wu Yunlin's side with the wine jar, gently put the wine jar down, and then found an empty teacup, gave himself a glass of wine, picked up Wu Yunlin's teacup again, shook his hand and sprinkled the tea inside, poured it full, and silently pushed it to Wu Yunlin.

"I'm still sick to my stomach, and I don't drink." Wu Yunlin smiled bitterly, pushed the wine glass away, and calmly explained to Xiong Ge: "I understand your kindness. ”

Xiong Ge didn't answer, but still pushed the wine glass that Wu Yunlin pushed away in front of Wu Yunlin again, and then drank his cup in one go, and stretched out his hand to signal Wu Yunlin.

"Well, I really can't help you." Wu Yunlin sighed, raised the teacup full of wine, and drank it all.

Xiong Ge poured Wu Yunlin a full of wine.

"You guy, you are really ......" Looking at Xiong Ge's movements, Wu Yunlin finally laughed out loud, and it was as if a big stone had fallen in his heart, he laughed and scolded: "How can you force a friend to drink." Strange to say, after drinking half a glass of wine, my depressed mood calmed down.

"This wine is a good thing, and it can solve most of the troubles of the world." Xiong Ge picked up his wine glass again and said meaningfully: "It is precisely because I am your friend that I forced you to drink." "Let's just drink it again.

After hearing Xiong Ge's words, Wu Yunlin did not speak, but silently raised the full wine glass, took a deep breath, and then drank the wine in one gulp.

Wu Yunlin, who forcibly swallowed the spicy wine, put down the wine glass, then raised his head to look at Xiong Ge, and suddenly asked, "You say, did I do something wrong?" Wu Yunlin was a little drunk at this time.

Xiong Ge, who had expected it, poured Wu Yunlin again, and said without raising his head: "You didn't do anything wrong, if I were you, I would do the same." "Only hypocrites stand on the moral high ground and condemn them arbitrarily, regardless of right or wrong.

After Wu Yunlin heard this, he raised the wine glass with his hand, left it in the air, stared at the rippling wine, and asked Xiong Gefa again: "Then you say, did the Wei family do something wrong?" ”

Xiong Ge didn't answer immediately, but pondered for a moment before replying, "The Wei family didn't do anything wrong. "Although the development of the Wei family is unscrupulous, it is also the exploitation of the county order and the extortion of the bandits, if it is he Wu Yunlin who is exploited and blackmailed by the county order bandits, then what he has to do is not nobler than the Wei family, so he does not feel that the Wei family as a whole has done wrong. As for scum like Wei Xin, Wu Yunlin did not blame his personal faults on the Wei family as a whole.

"Then why..."Wu Yunlin drank the wine in his hand, and asked loudly with drunken eyes: "Then why did things turn out like this, so many people died, someone must be responsible for this, isn't it?" ”

Listening to Wu Yunlin's deafening roar, Xiong Ge also drank it all with Wu Yunlin, then threw the wine glass to the ground, raised his head and replied equally loudly: "Because there is no right or wrong in this world!" Looking at Wu Yunlin in front of him, who was overwhelmed by the debt of his life, Xiong Ge simply stood up, leaned forward and crossed the table, stretched out his left arm to pick up Wu Yunlin's collar, and roared: "This world is like this, the strong are not guilty of murder, and the weak have no way out." You are not wrong, if you don't kill the Wei family, the Wei family will kill you, and the Wei family has not done anything wrong, if the Wei family is not strong, it will always be oppressed by the strong, and you have not done anything wrong. Do you think you're still a child, everything is black and white, and you have to distinguish between right and wrong! ”

He loosened Wu Yunlin's collar, watched Wu Yunlin fall weakly on the chair, and said quietly: "You are drunk, sleep well, tomorrow will be a new day." Then Xiong Ge turned and left, and when he came to the door, he suddenly stopped, and said without turning his head: "I will not say the same thing a second time, and do not torture yourself with your ridiculous notions of right and wrong." ”

Wu Yunlin, who was half-drunk and half-awake, watched Xiong Ge leave, then stood up hard, struggled to the bed, lay down, opened his eyes to look at the luxurious roof, and slowly closed his eyes. As a modern person, it is the first time that his values have such a serious conflict with this era, and his set of views that he has been taught and believed in since childhood is incompatible with this chaotic era of human life.

Let's get some sleep, Wu Yunlin thought, slowly closed his eyes, tomorrow will be a new day.

...................

On the morning of the next day, Wei Xu, who had Wu Yunlin's permission, pulled a wheelbarrow by himself and silently walked into the alley where everyone in the Wei family was slaughtered.

He gritted his teeth and stopped the wheelbarrow, walked to the nearest corpse to him guiltily, reached out and carefully moved it to the wheelbarrow to fix it, then pulled the wheelbarrow out of the alley, walked out of the farm step by step, and came to a small hill where no one was around, then stopped the wheelbarrow, moved the body on the car, knelt on the ground, and muttered to himself while bending down to dig the soft loess with his hands: "I'm sorry Uncle Five, I didn't want to bring you in, I'm sorry ......"

He redeemed himself in this way, hoping to get the forgiveness of the dead Wei family. Five small graves without tombstones have been erected on the hill, all of which he personally dug by hand.

After burying his fifth uncle, Wei Xu stood in front of the grave and bowed deeply, saying nothing. He resented Wu Yunlin, but hated himself even more.

"Do you hate me?" Wu Yunlin's voice came from behind Wei Xu, "Hate me for being merciless to the killer, hate me for using you to kill blood relatives." Wei Xu, do you hate me? ”

Wei Xu turned around calmly, looked at Wu Yunlin, who was in gray robe and white clothes, and said frankly: "I hate adults, and I hate myself even more. He turned his head to look at the six small mounds behind him, and said slowly: "I only hate myself, I don't know what I want, I don't know what I can do, I can't see the future clearly, I can only go with the flow and can't help myself." ”

Looking at the silent grave, Wei Xu didn't know where he should go for a while, just like a rootless catkins, helpless, killing the clansmen with his own hands, and losing his use value, what face did he have to stay in Zunyi County.

Wei Xu looked at the one hundred taels of silver ingots in front of him, didn't you come to kill me? looked at Wu Yunlin in shock, he had no use value, shouldn't he cut the grass and eradicate the roots? ? He said incredulously, "You won't kill me? ”

"Why should I kill you? Take the money and leave Zunyi, I will make proper arrangements for those old and weak women and children of the Wei family" Wu Yunlin replied:

Subsequently, Wu Yunlin left the hill and rushed to the county seat no matter how Wei Xu chose

Although the people of Zunyi County experienced the robbery and abuse of bandits, they were bullied and forcibly seized by the Wei family, resulting in the entire county being in tatters, and the streets and shops were also lifeless, and the cityscape could not bear to look at it directly. The yamen in the county was even more miserable.

directly took the core people around him to the study in the yamen and discussed his next plan.

Wu Yunlin, who had changed to an iron sword pinned to his waist, sat on the Taishi chair, but his eyes kept staring at the only topographic map of Zunyi County and its surroundings on the table in front of him. Although this map is very simple, with only a few abstract brushstrokes in many places, it also gave him a concrete understanding of Zunyi County.

"This Wei family's background is really rich, tsk" Wu Yunlin smacked his lips, hung his finger on the map, pointed to the farmland area and the shop area and said: "Most of the farmland and shops in this county are actually in the hands of the Wei family, I thought that I could barely survive by leaving only twenty percent of the family property for the widow of the Wei family, but now it seems that even if only half of the family property is left, it is enough for them to be a rich woman in peace." ”

Wei Qi, who was brought with him, heard this, and hurriedly got up and thought about the widow of the Wei family: "The adults are kind-hearted, and leave the widow of the Wei family with two percent of the family property, although these seem to be a lot, but in fact, because the Wei family only has orphans and widows, they have no ability to manage assets, so they can only hire shopkeepers, and there is no pillar in the family, so most of the income is earned by the helpers." ”

"Okay" Wu Yunlin glanced at Wei Qi, is he the kind of person who will regret it, Wei Qi thought of him too stingily.

"Since I said before that I will keep the family property, I will not take more and keep less. Wei Qi, you don't have to worry that I will regret and change my hexagram, I don't need to embarrass a group of orphans and widows, as long as they live in peace and stability in the future, I will treat them as ordinary Qingyang people and treat them fairly. ”

Wu Yunlin didn't bother to care about anything, but after receiving the Wei family's property, Wei Qi had to reunite with his father, and he had a lot of dreams at night. Facing Xiong Ge, he asked about other topics: "How are you investigating Zhang Tiande's situation?" ”

Xiong Ge walked to the table, pointed to a mountain on the map quite far away from the county seat, and said: "According to Wei Qi's confession and through the visit, he has interviewed many farmers and travelers, and it is true that he often encounters thieves and extortion in the woods there."

He raised his head to look at Wu Yunlin, and said in a steady voice: "So I guess that Zhang Tiande and the others are hiding here, using the woods as a stronghold, hiding the camp, and threatening the Wei family to pay monthly tribute and slowly grow their own power." Moreover, twenty-five days have passed since the Wei family's last tribute, and Zhang Tiande has always been very concerned about Zunyi County, so it is very likely that he already knows everything that happened in the county. ”

Wu Yunlin touched his chin and listened to Wei Xu's speculation, and was even more jealous of this group of bandits. Obviously, this group of thieves is not like the rogue who is running around to commit crimes, robbing wherever they go, and wantonly destroying productivity. Although this kind of rogue is difficult to encircle and suppress, but the ability to sustain combat is not strong, except for a few rogue bandits like Huang Chao, most of them are a rabble who can only bully more and less, and rob their homes. And this kind of thief who grows and grows without blood by threatening the local clan forces, but he should be more careful, such as the gang of thieves on Liangshan, who are rampant, and can even wrestle with the regular army of the imperial court.

Like Zhang Tiande, who let the cows find grass to eat by themselves, and milked their own milk and blood regularly, is very similar to the relationship between the foreigners in the old era and the Qing government in his own world, and the thieves who can maintain this oppressive relationship cannot fight against him with only 30 or so subordinates and a dilapidated small county town.

"Wait" Xiong Ge, who wanted to continue to talk downward, was interrupted by Wu Yunlin's outstretched hand. I saw Wu Yunlin's eyes wide, and he asked with a puzzled face: "Although I haven't seen Zhang Tiande, he should be a bandit, why did he set up camp in the woods?" ”

"This matter started a year ago," said Xiong Ge, who had been prepared for a long time, "Before they set up camp in the mountains, mainly to guard against the conquest of Zunyi County, and to facilitate their own robbery in the mountains. But since the county government was killed with the Wei family a year ago, there is no longer any force around that can threaten them, and because of the narrow mountain road, it has affected the Wei family's tax payment. In order to further strengthen his own strength, he moved down the mountain half a year ago and settled in this forest. ”

"It's very strange" Wu Yunlin still didn't solve his doubts, and continued to frown and asked: "Since they all moved down the mountain, why didn't they take the opportunity to occupy Zunyi County, but went to the woods to re-establish the camp." ”

Xiong Ge's forehead left a drop of sweat, he knew what the bandits thought, and being able to find this information from trivial information was extraordinary, it was difficult for Wu Yunlin to answer him at this time, so he could only reluctantly say: "I only know that the reason why Zhang Tiande did not occupy Zunyi County is because he has no management experience and is difficult to take over, and on the other hand, he seems to be afraid of someone."

As for why he was afraid to move down the mountain, these questions were beyond Xiong Ge's ability and preparation, and he couldn't answer them at all.

Wu Yunlin listened, lay back, leaned on the chair and looked at Wei Qi next to him and said, "Wei Qi, come and talk about it." ”

It's just that he asked Xiong Ge to investigate first and then ask Wei Qi because, after all, time is pressing now, if Wei Qi deliberately confuses them with half-truths and half-truths, they can't afford to lose at all, what he needs is to make Wei Qi convince him.

Wu Yunlin, who had made up his mind in his heart, raised his head, looked at Wei Xu with flickering eyes, and then said slowly word by word: "I heard that Wei Qi, you still have a child who has just reached the full moon. That kid.... Is it cute? ”