Fucheng is close to Wenjing River, the city wall is nearly two zhang high, it is made of rammed earth outer blue bricks, the four sides are about three miles long, there are still 10,000 people, and the garrison is 2,000 people. Before the grain conscription team approached the city gate, they saw Liu Zhong running from afar, and he ran and shouted at Yu Zhu: "Lord Yu, I encountered water bandits on the way back, and Lord Li was injured, and now he has been carried back to the barracks."

The barracks was on the west side of the city. On the way back to the barracks, Liu Zhong recounted the situation of encountering water bandits. Because it is downstream, it is much faster to take the water route than the land route. Below the confluence of the three rivers in Yongqu Township, the river channel suddenly widened, so that the water flow in this section was shallow and gentle, and the riverbank and the sandbar in the river were covered with dense reeds. When the boat reached this point, Liu Zhongzheng instructed everyone to carefully avoid the shallows, and suddenly several light boats appeared in the reeds in front of them, and on each boat sat several men with swords and clubs, most of these men were naked, their bodies were dark and lean, and their eyes were full of fierceness. Li Shuang saw that the situation was not good, so he called someone to shout, and the other party should not speak, so he drove the boat straight over. Needless to say, this group of people is a water bandit who eats the river by the river. Liu Zhong ordered the two grain ships to move closer, and the soldiers held swords, shields, and spears on both sides, and instructed the paddlemen to paddle hard in an attempt to rush over. However, the sailors were obviously more skilled in handling the boat, and they soon caught up with them. When the chase got closer, the water bandits threw short spears at the grain ship, although most of them were blocked by wooden shields, but two people were still pierced, and Li Shuang was also hit by a spear in the thigh because he couldn't dodge, and he fainted immediately. Then the water bandits jumped to the grain ship and killed it, fortunately, although the number of these water bandits was large, but the body was thin, and the small space of the boat limited the number of water bandits, and Liu Zhong, the fire soldier, was also familiar with water warfare, so in the hand-to-hand combat, although the grain soldiers broke two more, but the water bandits were also stabbed by spears and killed a few people. The bravery of this group of grain transporters was obviously beyond the expectations of the bandits, and in normal times, the officers and soldiers could only fight a good battle, but when they encountered today's situation, they often threw down their weapons and scattered in a hurry. Fearing the loss of food, the bandits did not attack by fire or by digging boats, so they did not take advantage of the meat game. After several attacks, the bandits still could not succeed, so they could only watch the grain ship go down the river and no longer pursue. Although food is expensive, life is even more expensive.

When he walked to the barracks where Li Shuang lived, he was lying on the bed. There was a soldier in the army who was treating his wounds beside him, and when he saw Yu Zhu and Ouyang Xuan and others coming, Li Shuang supported him and half lay up, and without waiting for everyone to speak, he looked up with a pale face and said to Yu Zhu urgently: "The water bandit who killed a thousand knives misunderstood me!" Go and report the situation of this trip to Pan." Yu Zhu's identity was not qualified to meet Pan Tong, but after listening to the order, he made a deep bow to Li Shuang and took Huang Dagen to the mansion.

When the leg wound was tied in the middle of the army, everyone surrounded Li Shuang and asked for warmth. Ouyang Xuan and others learned from Lang Zhong that Li Shuang's thigh bone had been injured by a short spear, and he could only lie on the bed for a few months, and even if he recovered, he was afraid that he would be disabled, which made Li Shuang's eyes look sad and gloomy, and everyone was relieved. Just as everyone was comforting Li Shuang, Huang Dagen, who had just followed Yu Zhu to report the situation, pushed the door in, he was ordered by Pan to come back and take Ouyang Xuan to the mansion, which made everyone both stunned and puzzled.

On the way to the mansion, Huang Dagen explained to Ouyang Xuan, who was confused, why he was called. It turned out that when Pan Tongzhi saw that Yu Zhu came to report the grain requisition, he angrily asked Li Shuang why he didn't come? When he heard that only 2,000 catties of grain were levied on this trip, he was even more furious. When Yu Zhu presented the heads of the two Mongolian rangers, the anger on his face faded slightly, and as for Li Shuang's injuries and how many soldiers died, he didn't ask. After carefully inspecting the two heads, Commander Pan said to Yu Zhu: "Although the yellow-haired and blue-eyed people are the Hui people in the Tartars, this black-haired and black-eyed head may not be, and you are killing good and risking merit?" "Pan Tongzhi has always had a bad feeling for Li Shuang, and the ruffians in the official army often hunt down civilians to kill the enemy, so that there are even white-haired heads among the heads of the enemy army who report for merit, so he forcibly resigned and did not listen to the explanation, leaving Yu Zhu and Huang Dagen speechless. The two did not dare to argue, so they had no choice but to petition Pan to allow Ouyang Xuan to testify.

Seeing Yu Zhu and Huang Dagen kneeling on the ground, although Ouyang Xuan was extremely reluctant in his heart, he still knelt on the ground and explained in detail to the Pan commander who was sitting high in the hall about the night attack on the Mongolian rangers. After a long time, Pan Tongzhi twisted the few beards on his thin yellow face and said: "Although your statement does not seem to be a falsification, it cannot prove that this black-haired and black-eyed person is a Tartar soldier, and there is no weapon and clothes to support it, so this matter will be abandoned for the time being." ”

"Listen to my orders", Shaoqing Pan said solemnly to Yu Zhu, who was kneeling on the ground.

"The food you have collected for this trip is very small, and it is not enough for the team to eat for a month, and you still come to see you with a shy face! Although he did some success in killing the Tartar soldiers, he broke a few more soldiers. The official decided to remove Li Shuang from his post as an inspector. The rest of the people have two merits and demerits, and they will not be punished this time. Tomorrow, your team will go out of the city to collect food again, so as to make up for the ........"

"As for you," Commander Pan set his eyes on Ouyang Xuan, "In view of the merit of killing back the Hui Tartars, the official sees that you are also a little clever, so you will fill the position of the dead team, and go out of the city together tomorrow to collect grain." ”

After walking a long way out of the gate of the palace, when Yu Zhu and Huang Dagen were congratulating Ouyang Xuan on his promotion to the position of supporting the team, Ouyang Xuan was called back to the palace by Pan's personal soldiers. In the side room of the main hall of the mansion, a small official handed a document and said, "You are Ouyang Xuan, right?" There are still formalities for you to be promoted to the position of team supporter". Ouyang Xuan put the document in front of the faint light of the oil lamp, and vaguely saw that "Chongqing Mansion killed nearly 100 Tartar soldiers, hundreds of Tartar soldiers were defeated, and due to the summer heat, the first level was corrupted, and only two ..... were left." Seeing this, the little official impatiently pointed to the end of the document and said, "Just sign your name here." Ouyang Xuan secretly scolded Pan in his heart for being shameless, and his subordinates dared to report their merits so falsely after killing two Mongolian soldiers.

When the signing painting was escorted out of the gate of the mansion, Ouyang Xuan still heard the little official nagging behind him and scolding him for not knowing etiquette and etiquette. He pretended not to hear, buried his head and walked forward quickly, found Yu Zhu Huang Dagen who was waiting, and told the two of them about the situation just now as he walked. Yu Zhu said with a smile: "Brother Xuan, you don't know, if you are promoted in the army, you have to bribe your boss, and you also have to deal with the small officials, this time the Pan commander did not ask you for money and things according to the usual practice in order to falsely report his military achievements, so the small officials in charge will have no oil and water, how can I not complain about you?" Next to Huang Dagen said: "In recent years, the Chongqing Mansion Xiang Army has suffered repeated defeats under the rule of Pan's system, I heard that the thieves were hunted and killed as the head of the Tartar soldiers and sent to Pu Zezhi's Lord and was recognized, and he has been reprimanded by Pu several times, this time Huang Fa returned to the head and sent it to Chongqing Mansion, and he will definitely be praised by Pu Daren, if not, this time it will definitely be difficult for you." ”

While walking and talking, Ouyang Xuan learned from the two that corruption was rampant in the army at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, and soldiers and generals had to bribe their superiors if they wanted to be promoted, especially the implementation of the "promotion system" made the army's combat effectiveness plummet. The so-called "promotion system" means that the chief general with the army can recommend personnel to the imperial court to serve as his subordinate generals, and only need to file with the relevant divisions, in actual operation, it is often that the meritorious ones are not rewarded, and the meritorious ones are promoted, and the rich bribe the bosses to be promoted quickly, and the rich ones are difficult to promote even if they have military merits, so the generals and officers in the army are either incompetent or relatives and friends. In particular, the generals who led the troops in Sichuan, which was located in remote areas, also became warlords with huge party henchmen.

The three of them went straight back to the barracks and informed Li Shuang and the people of their team of Pan's order. Li Shuang's expression was calm when he heard this, and only Yu Zhu and Ouyang Xuan were left in the room after retreating from everyone. After a long silence, he said to Yu Zhu: "After we attack and kill the Tartar soldiers, they will inevitably retaliate, and the Pan Commander will not let him rest and force him to collect food again, which is a common means to get rid of the disgusted people by the hands of the Tartar soldiers." I'm a useless person, you must take care of your brothers! This time in Hengyuan Town, I didn't use all the salt for food, but hid most of Huang Dagen in a nearby cave, so you can use it for a living."

"Brother Xuan, you are knowledgeable and resourceful, and you will definitely do something in the future; Brother Yu Zhu and I have been comrades for many years, brave and not meticulous, good at charging into battle and not good at planning, I hope you will help ...... more." Li Shuang's heartfelt words made Yu Zhu on the side choke. Since the two of them have been under the account of Lord Yu Yu for more than ten years, they have not given up, and tomorrow Yu Zhu will go to collect grain again, life and death are uncertain, and although Li Shuang has no danger of life in Fucheng, but the disabled people in troubled times often have a difficult life, and the prospects are very bleak.