Infernal Affairs

The road was potholed and muddy, but the convoy from Zhaojiabao kept moving forward, and twelve flatbed carriages were driven by the coachman to pass through the potholes.

The carriage was carrying large boxes covered with cloth, and looking at the depths of the wagon's wheels in the mud, you knew that the weight of the goods was not light.

The convoy was guarded by more than fifty knights on handsome horses, and the leader was the hero of Wang Danwang, but he Lingtian did not wear the set of knight plate armor, but wore the cotton robe and felt hat often worn by laymen, and rode the booty snatched from the Qing soldiers, with an elven war bow and quiver on his body, and the king's sword was wrapped in cloth and hidden under the saddle.

Behind him is a man who can ride a horse carefully selected from Zhaojiabao, and has the heavy responsibility of protecting the convoy and the castle owner, and the sixteen warriors are afraid of attracting the attention of other Ming people because they are Westerners, so they all stay in the fort to do things.

The convoy had to drive through the border pass of the Ming Dynasty to a county town with a trade market, where it would exchange all the calligraphy, paintings, and jade seized from the Qing army for grain, iron ore, and the like.

This trip is full of dangers, not to mention that you may encounter robbers and clear soldiers on the road, even when crossing the border pass, there are also Ming soldiers who want to eat and take cards, and they will not make people pit money when they go to trade with people, and they have to be careful to be targeted by the ubiquitous brocade guards.

It was Zhao Zhijin who prompted Wang Dan to take the people of Zhaojiabao out to buy grain and iron ore, and the old man's idea for Wang Dan was to enter the customs to buy, which could not only solve Wang Dan's current difficulties, but also explore the war situation between the Ming army and the Qing soldiers, and used just calligraphy and paintings that were useless to the people of Zhaojiabao.

As for the question of how to negotiate with the Ming army at the pass in order to clear the customs and guide the way, Zhao Zhijin, who patted his chest loudly, said that there was a distant relative from the original Zhaojia Village who was a guerrilla general at this pass, and he could talk about it as long as he gave some gold and silver.

Among the trophies that Wang Dan got from the Qing soldiers, there were many gold and silver items, all of which were exquisitely shaped, and if it weren't for the fact that gold was needed to open the way for this difficulty, Wang Dan would not have been willing to take them out.

The sun in early spring was warm and elegant, and Wang Dan was in a good mood when he saw the desolate and dilapidated scene around him. Countless ruins of houses and corpses that can be seen at any time are silently telling the evil of war.

Many wild dogs and crows were busy gnawing on the rotting corpses of the Ming people, and Wang Dan was not used to seeing these beasts manipulating human corpses, so he picked up the elven war bow and drew arrows from the endless quiver and shot them at the greasy wild dogs and crows.

For Wang Dan's seemingly inexhaustible arrows, the people of Zhaojiabao are no longer surprised, and Wang Dan and the Sixteen Knights who appeared like the wind are revered as heavenly soldiers and generals in the hearts of all the rescued people.

"Castle master, look, there is a pass ahead. Under the leadership of Zhao Zhijin, everyone called Wang Dan the lord of the castle.

When Wang Dan heard this, he looked forward, and a group of towering mountains was laid across the land of Liaodong. A road curves from the foot of the mountain to the mountainside, and at the end of the road is a tall city gate.

It took half a day to walk to the pass, and there were three big characters at the pass, but Wang Dan couldn't understand it.

More than 100 Ming troops in the city had already aimed their bows and arrows at Zhaojiabao and his party, and a middle-aged general asked in a rough voice: "What are you doing, what are you doing here." ”

Zhao Zhijin stepped forward and shouted, "Are you a little dog? I am your uncle and grandfather in Zhaojia Village." “

The middle-aged guerrilla general's face turned red, obviously a little embarrassed to be called out by his nickname in front of his subordinates, but he didn't dare to shout at his elders under the gaze of so many people.

After holding back for a long time, he smiled and asked, "It's Uncle and Grandpa, are you going to enter the customs?"

Zhao Zhijin smacked his lips with emotion and said, "Go into the customs to buy some things that the people in the village want to use." If your eldest aunt sees that you are now promising, she will be relieved. “

The middle-aged general asked in surprise: "What's wrong with the eldest aunt?" Could it be that her old man has ascended to heaven. "This guerrilla general lived in Zhaojia Village as a child, was raised by his eldest aunt, and left the village at the age of 20 to join the army. I have a lot of affection for my eldest aunt, and of course I feel sad when I suddenly hear that my loved one has died.

Zhao Zhijin shook his head and sighed: "A few months ago, a group of Tartars came to the village to loot, and your aunt couldn't stand the fright and went like this. ”

"Grandma!" The middle-aged guerrilla general grabbed the city wall with both hands and looked in the direction of Zhaojia Village.

After a while, he wiped away his tears and said sadly to Zhao Zhijin: "Uncle, grandpa, wait a minute." I'll switch you in right away. Then he turned and went down the wall.

Soon there was a heavy opening sound from the gate of the pass, and the gate was pulled open to both sides by two groups of soldiers, and the guerrilla general greeted Zhao Zhijin and said in a slightly calm tone: "The Tatars have been attacking tightly in the past few months. How many people were taken captive in Zhaojia Village. ”

Zhao Zhijin said with a slightly frightened expression: "As soon as the Tartar came, he killed dozens of villagers who resisted, and took the whole village away, but fortunately, the strong man next to me took his men to rescue the entire Zhaojia Village from the Tartar." ”

Only then did the middle-aged guerrilla general notice that there were dozens of escort troops, and there were many fresh faces, and he immediately hugged his fists and said to Wang Dan: "Zhao Yingxiong, a guerrilla thousand households, thank you for the rescue of the strong man and avenge this blood revenge for my aunt." ”

Wang Dan hurriedly shook his head and politely refused: "It's not my own credit, it's everyone who worked together to drive away the Tartars." ”

Zhao Yingxiong said: "This strong man dares to pursue the Tartars, which is really admirable to Zhao. "In the Ming Dynasty and the Later Jin Dynasty, there were few things that dared to fight against the Qing soldiers in the field, let alone pursue the Qing soldiers.

After some praise and thanks, Zhao Yingxiong turned his head to Zhao Zhijin and said, "Uncle, now the people in the village should figure it out, or come to Guannai to live in peace." ”

Zhao Zhijin said with a smile: "What are you doing in Guannei? As a military household, you are so poor that you can't eat enough, can you go to be a homeless person again?" ”

Zhao Yingxiong blushed and said: "I can arrange the people of Zhaojia Village in the military cantonment under my management, please believe that I will try my best to take care of my fellow villagers." ”

Zhao Zhijin smiled and said: "Forget it, you still have a boss to be honored, we might as well live comfortably outside the customs." ”

Zhao Yingxiong smiled and said, "Uncle, what are you going to buy this time?"

Zhao Zhijin smiled proudly: "Buy grain and iron, buy what you need." ”

Zhao Yingxiong was stunned and said: "Uncle, don't you know that the emperor has issued an order not to allow grain and iron to leave the customs?"

Zhao Zhijin smiled bitterly: "Didn't I find you because I had no choice?" There are too many people waiting for food in Zhaojia Village, and only by buying at least 100,000 loads of grain can we survive until the harvest time in the field. ”

Zhao Yingxiong said curiously: "The people in Zhaojia Village are only a thousand people at most, how can they ask for hundreds of thousands of loads of grain." ”

Zhao Zhijin said with relief: "Our Zhaojia Village is terrible now, there are more than 30,000 young and strong laborers, and there are more than 100,000 villagers from ten miles and eight townships who have moved into Zhaojia Village, oh." I also forgot to tell you that now Zhaojia Village is being rebuilt into Zhaojiabao. ”

Zhao Yingxiong was very happy at first, but after thinking about it again, he was shocked and said: "Uncle, you better move to Guannei, such a big fort, the Tartars will definitely not let it go." ”

Zhao Zhijin said resolutely: "Zhaojiabao now has more than 5,000 strong, everyone can go to the battlefield when the fight starts, and I will not leave the field left by my ancestors if I die." ”

Seeing that Zhao Zhijin was very resolute, Zhao Yingxiong also gave up his intention to persuade.

Out of trust in his grandfather, Zhao Yingxiong gritted his teeth and said: "You go buy food when you get old, I will change the customs in a few days, you better move quickly." Iron is free, and you don't buy it for nothing. ”

Zhao Zhijin said angrily: "If you don't buy iron to build weapons, how can we Zhaojiabao defend against Tartars." ”

Zhao Yingxiong smiled and persuaded: "You don't know the history of the Tartars, don't spend a lot of money to get the Tartars." ”

Zhao Zhijin snorted disdainfully: "The Tatar is not a big deal, the same head and two hands, if the head is cut off, you will still die, the last time you came a few thousand Tartars were not killed by the people of Zhaojiabao for hundreds before retreating." ”

Zhao Yingxiong exclaimed: "You killed the Tartars." Seeing Zhao Zhijin's complacent appearance, I remembered that this uncle usually likes to brag, but he is quite sincere.

Then I thought of him and said that the Tartars had come to the village a few months earlier. At that time, when the Tartar army was besieging Jinzhou, thinking that a small team of more than a dozen people had no intention of finding Zhaojia Village, and wanted to force cannon fodder to fill the moat, but was rescued.

At this time, I glanced at Wang Dan again and suddenly found that Wang Dan was more than 1.8 meters tall, coupled with a strong body. I think that some people might really kill the Tartars, and it would be nice if such a good soldier was recruited as his own subordinates.

So he smiled and said to Wang Dan: "This strong man has a big name, but he can have a Tartar head as a witness, and according to the law of the Ming Dynasty, you can get two taels of silver by cutting off a Tartar head." If you are a soldier, you can also be promoted to an official position. ”

Wang Dan wanted to speak, but was stopped by Zhao Zhijin with his eyes, because Zhao Zhijin found that this relative who had become an official actually had the intention of digging the corner of Zhaojiabao.

Zhao Zhijin coughed and slowly said to Zhao Yingxiong: "I said a little dog." Don't try to trick the castle master of our Zhaojiabao into becoming a soldier, we still have to obey the castle master's orders. ”

Zhao Yingxiong smiled awkwardly and withdrew his mind to recruit Wang Dan. Thinking about it, he was embarrassed and said: "Far food is already the bottom line, and iron really can't be far away." ”

Zhao Zhijin said to Zhao Yingxiong in a mysterious whisper: "If I have merit for you, can you let it go?"

Zhao Yingxiong said in surprise: "You mean to give me the heads of those Tartars for meritorious service." ”

Zhao Zhijin nodded, Zhao Yingxiong thought about it, at this time, killing the head of a Tartar is a great credit, not to mention that there are at least a dozen, and the Qing soldiers who usually come out to find cannon fodder are a team of more than a dozen people.

Thinking of this, Zhao Yingxiong gritted his teeth and nodded: "Okay, don't take it as an example." "Now the soldiers in the entire pass are cronies and are not afraid of leaks.

Zhao Zhijin happily asked everyone in the convoy to unload the big boxes on the ten carriages, and then agreed with Zhao Yingxiong to leave the time and went to the customs.

Zhao Yingxiong looked at the ten big boxes and smiled unconsciously, so he couldn't use a box for each head. Wave your hand and ask your men to carry the box into the wall.

Zhao Yingxiong walked into the gate of the pass, and while walking, he wondered whether to use the excuse of going out of the pass to kill the Qing army patrol to explain the source of these heads, how many heads should be broken up, and the above heads should be honored, and then it would be his own, and it would not be good to live for people in these years.

Suddenly, the Qing soldiers who were moving the box screamed, and Zhao Yingxiong scolded and turned to look, but he was immediately stunned.

A box was opened by his subordinates curiously but found that it was full of Tartar heads, and they could still see their faces clearly when they were protected with lime, and the Qing soldiers at that time were still very different from the Ming people.

Finding that these boxes were full of genuine tartars, Zhao Yingxiong seemed to see boxes full of gold and official hats flying towards him, but at that time, when the entire Ming Dynasty won a big victory over two or three Qing soldiers, Zhao Yingxiong couldn't imagine how much impact these ten boxes full of loot would have.

At that time, Zhao Yingxiong sent someone to report the victory to his superiors, and the good news arrived at the marshal's mansion that night, and after his cronies went to the pass to check and confirm that it was correct, the marshal let go of his hand to polish the war report and praised all the cronies and generals of the brave and fearless border army, and how the border army led by himself raided the Tartars on all fronts, and the sincerity of the description of the raging war was full of blood, and he hurriedly sent it to the capital with an urgent messenger and a fast horse.

On the evening of the third day, the good news was placed on the desk of Yang Sichangde, the secretary of the Ministry of War, and when he saw the words on the letter, he also believed that the border army did not dare to make such a big fake, so he entered the palace overnight to report to Emperor Chongzhen, and the whole palace was brightly lit this night.

Before dawn, the whole capital was full of firecrackers, and the ministers who got the news also waited early to enter the palace, and the news of the great victory was still spread by the messenger outside Yang Sichang's mansion according to the commander's instructions to shout how many Tartars to cut in order to earn face.

The next day, the ministers of the previous dynasty found that Emperor Chongzhen's face was dark, and he only said a decree lightly when he went down to the court, rewarding the border soldiers, and those who had meritorious service were promoted to one level.

In this strange situation, the ministers did not dare to say anything to announce the good news, and at noon the whole capital fell silent, as if nothing had happened today.

In Chongzhen's study, Yang Sichang sat in the lower seat in fear, and the chief eunuch carefully waited beside Chongzhen, and there seemed to be a wave of anger in the dull room waiting to explode.

Looking at the secret report in his hand again, Chongzhen gritted his teeth and asked, "Have you arranged everything?"

Yang Sichang hurriedly lowered his head and replied: "All arrangements are in place." A hundred brocade clothes are all elite soldiers. ”

Chongzhen snorted and said coldly: "Come and see this secret report, you must find out who the forces that killed so many Tartars are, if the people of the Ming Dynasty recruit them into the Ming army, if it weren't for the fear of instability on the border, I would have transferred all those at the border to fight with Li Zhang and the two thieves." ”

Yang Sichang waited for Chongzhen to nod his head and hurriedly walked to the bookcase to see what kind of note made Chongzhen, who was originally happy to hear the good news, change his face sharply.

I picked up the note and saw it in the candlelight, which read: "Jinyi Wei secretly reported to the emperor, checked the day before the XX pass, entered an unknown convoy, used ten boxes full of Tartar heads to buy the officers and soldiers guarding the pass, and entered the customs to buy a large number of grain and iron tools for several days, with unknown intentions"

Yang Sichang shook his head after reading it, these border soldiers have committed the crime of bullying the king, and hurriedly said to Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, it is rare that there is news of this big victory that I have rarely seen since the founding of our dynasty at the border pass, if you rashly punish those soldiers, I am afraid it will cause chaos." ”

Chongzhen threw the porcelain on the case to the ground, and said hatefully: "I won't pursue those people who deceived and concealed them, but this group of people who sent their heads may become another Qi family army of my Ming Dynasty, so be careful." ”

Yang Sichang hurriedly knelt down and shouted: "The emperor is wise, and the Ming Dynasty is hopeful." ”

Chongzhen waved his hand and said, "Let's go down and do something." ”

In the middle of the night, several carrier pigeons flew out of the capital.

Zhao Yingxiong is now complacent, and the handsome man will meet him in person, and there will definitely be a big reward, and he will be clear from then on.

Walking into the living room of the Shuaifu, there was no table full of wine and food, only a dozen gorgeously dressed men looked at him coldly, and the pale-faced handsome man yelled: "Zhao Yingxiong, you have made me miserable." ”

Zhao Yingxiong kicked in his heart, only to see a big man take out a waist card to show himself, and there was a big brocade word on the waist card made of gold. (To be continued......)