Northern Dynasties

Chapter 24
"what happened?"

Li Tai ran back to the manor from the hillside, found Li Zhusheng who was gathering his troops, pointed to the villagers gathered on the west side of the boundary stone and asked.

"After the grass is mowed, the plow must be plowed, and after the plow has been plowed, the fields must be watered. My envoy sent several people to the canal to check the water situation, but they were chased by the villagers. Three escaped and two were captured by them. arrested and beaten."

Hearing what Li Zhusheng said, Li Tai's face immediately turned down. Seeing that there were hundreds of people gathered in Jieshi, they were waving their sticks and shouting continuously. Take a fight.

"Take my horse!"

Seeing this scene, Li Tai was already furious, and he ordered directly, and soon all the strong men working in various parts gathered together.

Seeing all the troops holding bows and knives, Li Tailue pondered for a while before saying, "Don't use sharp knives and hand out sticks. Quji, Yantou, Xiaoyong, get on the horse and take back your companions first!"

Li Tai got on his horse, didn't pick up the horse spear that Bu Qu handed over, picked up a long stick and rushed straight towards the crowd on the opposite side.Li Quji and a few others rode their horses to follow, while Li Zhusheng shouted from behind: "Rush to the left! Hao Erlang, who lost his life in the battle, don't allow the local bandits to do harm!"

The villagers on the opposite side thought they were numerous and powerful, but they didn't expect the crowd in the countryside to be so staunch. They were still shouting and shouting, but when they saw Li Tai rushing towards them with a stick on his horse, they panicked.

"Folks, use the blood of Kansai Erlang to kill these foreign thieves who invade my hometown!"

A strong villager leading the team raised his hoe and threw it at Li Tai who was charging towards him. Li Tai was about to shake his stick to stab him, but when he got closer, he shook his stick and swept it directly under the man's armpit.

With the force of the stick and the momentum of the horse, the man was immediately swept away.With a slash of the long stick in Li Tai's hand, more than a dozen villagers on the road ahead were swept away.The momentum of the good horse under his crotch did not fade away, and the villagers who had no time to dodge were knocked out one after another.

Seeing his ferocious approach, all the people in the back also ran away one after another, and soon the battle of the villagers was pierced through.Li Quji and a few others rushed forward and turned their horses to the north consciously. Although they only counted the horses, their momentum was uncontrollable. Soon, a gap several feet wide was cut into the battle of the villagers.

"Whoever abandons the staff does not pursue, but those who hold the staff pursue!"

Li Tai fought back from the back road and the fields, and the fleeing villagers in the fields became even more confused. He picked up the villagers who were still waving the sticks like a snake in his hand.There were four or five brave villagers who were still waiting to besieged, but they were knocked down one by one by him with a swing of his stick before they got close.

"Uncle Jiu's leg was broken by this foreign thief!"

A cry of mourning sounded from the chaotic battle of villagers, and the scattered villagers gathered together again after hearing the sound, filled with righteous indignation.

At this time, Li Zhusheng also led his team of strong men to rush forward, smashing all the way from the chaotic place on the left, and the villagers who had just gathered were rushed again.

Although there are no severed limbs, broken arms, and blood flying in the village fight, when it comes to the confrontation in the battle, these mobs of villagers are no match for Li Tai's trilogy.

Most of these people are old soldiers who are used to life and death, but they have voice orders to guide them, and they will never retreat in battle. Although there are not many members, their momentum is not comparable to that of the villagers.Soon the battle of hundreds of villagers was scattered, and even though father and son were close relatives, they couldn't cooperate seamlessly in this chaotic scene.

Soon, some villagers fled in fear, and when there was the first, there would be the second, and the formation of hundreds of people fled in an instant.

At this moment, the trilogy has already made a real fire. Although some villagers beg for mercy, they will inevitably be beaten.

Seeing that the villagers no longer had the courage to gather again, Li Tai reined in his horse and stopped, and ordered: "Clean the field, collect farm tools and prisoners, delay the wounded, and dig ditches for the uninjured! Distribute bows and arrows, dare Anyone who comes too close will be shot at, regardless of casualties!"

In addition to those villagers who fled, there were more than [-] people left on the scene, either exhausted or terribly wounded.

Seven or eight villagers with broken tendons and bones were dragged back to the pastoral camp, and the remaining forty or so people who were still able to move were all driven to the side of the canal. Lost in spirit, either wielding a hoe, or using both hands and feet, dug a big gap in the canal.

"Dig from here, all the way to my garden. If you want to die, stand up, and if you don't want to die, dig hard!"

Li Taile stood in the field, roaring angrily with a livid face.

From the bottom of his heart, he doesn't want to be an enemy of the villagers, but that doesn't mean he has to tolerate everything.

It's late spring and early summer now, and the villagers' fields have already been cultivated according to the season, but these villagers still gather to prevent others from diverting water from the canals. This is no longer a matter of grabbing water for their livelihood, but simply embarrassing and repelling them, outsiders. .

Is it bearable, what is unbearable?

The villagers gathered nearby did not have the courage to regroup for the time being, and those captured villagers could only dig ditches with all their strength under the threat of bows and knives.

But nearly an hour later, the country road to the south was dusty, and a group of nearly a hundred knights galloped across the field.

Li Tai had expected this for a long time. He ordered the dirt dug by the villagers to be piled up into a ditch. Seeing the knights approaching, he ordered: "Form behind the ditch and distribute bows and knives!"

"You wait for the villains from other states to take my words yesterday as rumors!"

That group of knights rushed quickly, and the leader was Zhou Changming, the garrison lord Shang Yangshu saw yesterday, but this time he was no longer an old farmer with muddy trouser legs, wearing a half-body armor, holding a long knife, riding on horseback. The bow was placed in front of the saddle, the Hulu arrow was hung on the waist, the horizontal knife stood in front of the ditch, the halberd pointed at Li Tai and roared.

"Lord Zhou Shu, save me..."

When the villagers who were forced to dig ditches saw the rescuers coming, they also shouted loudly, and some fled across the ditches.

Li Tai is also holding a horse at this moment, ignoring the escaped captives, and only sneered at Zhou Changming's angry eyes: "A month ago, in the battle of Mangshan, the Eastern Thieves could not stop me from returning to righteousness! Daxingtai Before the battle, I will be rewarded, and I will be given five acres of land and Kansai to make a living. The villains in the village will prevent me from diverting water to cultivate, and they will cut off my vitality!
If Zhou dares to cross the line of this ditch, he will die today!If my husband dies, I will die. If there is no river of blood in this town, I will fail the ancestors in the sky!Come, fight! "

When Zhou Changming heard Li Tai's shout, his expression became quite ugly for a while.As the lord of the village, of course his priority is to protect the villagers, but when he heard Li Tai's words, it seemed that the villagers were the ones who provoked him first.

Although Shangyuan is located in the countryside, it is also close to the suburbs of Huazhou.Hearing Li Tai's announcement of Daxingtai's rewards before the battle, Zhou Changming will inevitably throw his hands at him.

At this time, several captives from the countryside fled over the ditch and begged Zhou Changming to rescue them for revenge.

Zhou Changming thought for a moment, and asked in a deep voice, "Why are you fighting?"

"Yes, it's Zhao Party Leader from Yuanxi, and Shi Xianwei. They sent slaves to tell the township that these foreign thieves are arrogant, and they want to punish the villagers for their crime of stealing the boundary stone, and they will expand the garden to the Luoshui River... ...call on the villagers not to allow them to use water, to suppress the arrogance of these foreigners..."

Several villagers didn't dare to hide it, so they told the reason of the matter with trembling voices.

Zhou Changming's face became even more ashen after hearing the words, and he said angrily: "You can plant the fields, and you can weed the grass with peace of mind. Why do you block the canals! The fields can't be planted, and the land can't produce anything. How is it different from killing people? The ancestors taught you this Bullying outsiders, killing people in wasteland!"

"We, how dare we? They are just big families in the village. They, they don't like outsiders to take root in the village... The few families that moved the boundary stones are all poor households from the countryside. I really can't bear to see them being asked to die by officials."

"Shut up! Go home quickly and don't cause trouble!"

Zhou Changming yelled again, and drove away the villagers, then got off his horse, clasped his fists at Li Tai across the ditch, and said, "Your lord, today's disturbance is due to my villagers' unreasonableness. No matter whether the situation in the country is good or evil, the land is always innocent." People's food is the foundation, and abandoning farming is a crime. Before the public land was abandoned, the poor villagers couldn't bear it, so they stole it... If you have me in your eyes, I will take the liberty to be an arbitrator, and the invaded land will be harvested, and half will lose Compensation is limited to three years, the matter is decided in the village, and there is no need to go through the public, what do you think, sir?"

Li Tai was furious, and it was not because his farm was invaded by villagers. After hearing the words, he said: "Although I am a visitor from a foreign country, I also know that it is difficult for the villagers to make a living. I don't feel at ease because the fields are short and long. But these villages only protect the canal and cut off the water, disturbing my livelihood, I can't bear it!"

Hearing this, Zhou Changming couldn't help feeling a little fond of Li Tai in his heart. After pondering for a while, he said, "I led the soldiers here, only then did I realize that the fault lies with the villagers. The righteousness of the villagers is upright but they don't protect the evil. If there is a mistake, we should admit it." , and help Lang Jun build canals and enter the garden with the soldiers of the township, and do not miss the plowing work, and thank Lang Jun for his righteousness and donating land to the poor households in my township!"

In fact, many disputes and disputes are not resolved by force alone.Hearing what Zhou Changming said, Li Tai also slightly changed his opinion of this lord who still felt domineering and arrogant yesterday.

He handed the horse to Buqu, got off the horse himself, pointed to the ditch and said: "It is true that the villagers are at fault in this matter, and the lord of Zhou is willing to help with righteousness, so I will accept it. Don't let the villagers do it in vain. When you enter my garden, you will have a gift of thanks. As for whether the villagers have invaded the fields or not, I have only been in the village for a short time, so I don't know or ask."

Hearing this, Zhou Changming took a small step back, and bowed to Li Taishen: "I saw you for the first time yesterday, I was rude and offended! We will live together in this village in the future, but if you want to ask me, I will never refuse!"

(End of this chapter)