lady, please calm down

Chapter 244 May the world share this full moon

August thirteenth, dusk.

Lao Meng, the armed guard who was temporarily transferred to escort the food and grass, led a group of brothers, together with more than a hundred people, driving more than a hundred livestock carts loaded with food, and stopped at a place called the Empress Temple, preparing to spend the night here.

After running around for a day, even the animals had to rest. Lao Meng ordered Minzhuang to remove the bridles and bags of the cattle and horses. When he saw a few people were clumsy and rough, Lao Meng, who was a farmer before joining the army, couldn't help but feel sorry for the animals and shouted loudly : "Hey! You brothers, please be careful with your hands and don't hurt the animals! I see you are quite good at eating, but you can't even do this job well!"

"Yeah!"

The person who was reprimanded was Wulang, one of the brothers of the historians in Zhenyang County. He lost his bridle and was about to come forward to 'argument' with Lao Meng.

But was grabbed by Shi Da, "Xiao Wu, don't cause trouble! Forgot how my mother confessed?"

Big brother's words were useful, Shi Xiaowu glanced at Lao Meng recklessly, finally stopped, and said: "When we went to Caizhou with Chen Xiaoge, we thought we were going to serve as soldiers. I didn't want to, but I was told Incorporated into Minzhuang, I do some moving and unloading work all day long, if I knew this, I might as well go back to my hometown and watch my old lady live!"

Hearing that his brother was deeply resentful, Shi Xiaosan said in a muffled voice: "Wu Lang, mother asked us to follow Dutong to repay our kindness. Whether it's a soldier or a civilian, in short, we have to do things for him. Dutong saved our family and saved his life." My mother, as a human being, you need to know how to repay kindness."

"Of course I know! Still need you to teach?"

Shi Xiaowu was slightly annoyed.

Also, when the brothers left home, they all thought about building a career through their own abilities, but now they are doing menial labor, which inevitably gives rise to a sense of frustration.

Seeing the dismay of the elder brothers, the clever Shi Xiaoqi hurriedly said: "Last month, when we were training in the south school grounds of Caizhou, I heard that Brother Fan Guanghan and Fan accidentally said that now the number of left-behind divisions in Caizhou is full. It is the intention to expand the army, and there are no posts in hand.”

"Xiao Qi, does Brother Fan mean that we can only do these menial jobs in the future?" Shi Xiaowu attaches great importance to whether he can join the army.

Shi Xiaoqi said: "Brother Fan said that if there are outstanding people or meritorious service among the people, they will be selected to join the army."

There is no quantitative standard for 'outstanding performance', so if you are selected based on this, no one will know for sure.

'Making meritorious service' is a shortcut, but...
It was getting dark, and the seven brothers sat around the bonfire, holding in their hands the noodle pancakes they couldn't eat enough for the past two months, tearing off a corner and stuffing them into their mouths.

"We do these crude jobs all day long, and we don't know where the battlefield is, so where is the opportunity to make meritorious deeds?"

Shi Xiaowu said dejectedly, causing the brothers to sigh at the same time.

That's right, it's not that easy to make meritorious service.

Three hundred paces away.

Night after day, Li Kui, who ran seventy miles, pushed aside the blue and yellow mottled grass in front of him, and looked at the group of teams spending the night in the wild in the distance.

A stalwart man next to him seemed to smell the wheat aroma of baked pancakes floating in the distance, and his stomach could not help but roar.

But seeing that the other party has a large number of people, he said worriedly: "Brother, this group of people is not small, we only have a dozen or so brothers."

"I'm afraid to ask for help. There are many people. See, there are only seven or eight soldiers, and the rest are mud legs."

Li Kui said contemptuously.

In the past few months, he has seen too many timid refugees. No matter how many people there are, they are just a group of docile and timid rabbits who know how to escape.

After the defeat of Xiaojialing, how did he gather tens of thousands of people again?
Just rely on one ruthless word!
He can single-handedly frighten more than ten people, or he can lead these ten people into a certain village, so that no one in the village dares to resist, allowing him to plunder and rape.

Furthermore, all the sons who were still following him at this time were fierce and cunning, otherwise they would not have escaped here with him after losing the battle.

In Li Kui's eyes, he and Erlang are tigers, and the common people are sheep.

No matter how many sheep there are, the tiger will not be afraid.

"Boys, hurry up and rest for a while. They were asleep when they were waiting, so we went over and killed the dog officers and soldiers. So much food and animals are enough for us to find another mountain to build a stronghold!"

"Okay, listen to big brother!"

At the beginning of the child.

Everything is silent, except for the occasional chirping of half-dead autumn insects.

Most of the people in the grain transport team had fallen asleep, while Lao Meng and his subordinates were divided into two groups and took turns keeping watch.

The bonfire has dimmed, and the firewood burned into charcoal blocks flickers in the breeze.

Yingying illuminates a radius of one or two feet
Shi Xiaowu folded his hands behind his head and looked up at the stars with his eyes open, without feeling sleepy.

There were seven of them, the oldest was thirty and the youngest was eighteen, but none of them were married.

I was so anxious that I didn't think about food or food all day long. After the flood, I accidentally followed Chen Dutong, thinking that I could make a fortune with my own skills.

I don't want to, but I still do the bidding of cattle and horses.

This life-saving kindness has to be repaid, Shi Xiaowu thought, the brothers have served Xiaoge Chen for a few years, waited for the kindness to be repaid, and waited for my mother a hundred years later, at worst, he would go up the mountain and fall into the grass. He has had enough of this poor life.

Brother Chen is an official in Caizhou, from now on the brothers and I will just fall into the grass on the boundary of Caizhou.

"To the east of Lao Wu, the water is overflowing."

Just as he was thinking wildly, he suddenly heard his elder brother call softly, and Shi Xiaowu immediately called the police.

In the past, the Shi brothers worked part-time in business on the Huai River. The phrase "the water is overflowing" means: someone is coming to kill them.

Shi Xiaowu remained calm and turned over as if he was asleep. His face happened to be facing the 'east' where the elder brother said the water was flooded.

Sure enough, in the moonlight, a group of people came towards this side with simple knives in hand and their waists bent.

The opponent is very alert, and once he sees a patrolling sergeant, he will hide in the grass with a low body.

Shi Xiaowu, who was lying on his side, watched the other party as if playing hide-and-seek, couldn't help laughing, stretched out his foot and lightly kicked Shi Xiaoqi's butt beside him, "Lao Qi, wake up, a friend is here."

"Fifth brother, I woke up early." Shi Xiaoqi closed his eyes, looked up to the sky, and said with his lips together.

The visitor had approached twenty or thirty paces, and seemed to be preparing to attack Lao Meng and other officers and soldiers first.

After a few breaths, using the cover of the grain truck, we finally got inside the temporary camp.
Shi Dalang wanted to wait for the other party to go deeper before warning, but Shi Xiaowu couldn't help it. He stood up quietly, grabbed the stick and followed shortly.

"brother."

"Shh!"

When I heard someone speak, I hurriedly turned my head and glanced at my companion who was also stooping, signaling to keep silent.

But at the next moment, Xiao Luo was stunned for a moment, the man who was so close at hand was very strange.

"Who are you!"

"Hey, I'm your grandpa."

Before he finished speaking, Shi Xiaowu had already swept out a stick with a smile on his face, and hit the minion's body with the tip of the stick, only to hear two clicks one after another.

The crisp sound is the stick breaking, and the muffled sound is the bone breaking.

The unlucky guy hadn't figured out what was going on, he flew two or three feet across, and hit a grain truck, and he died instantly.

'Cang lang~'

"Who!"

The commotion was not small, and the sound of drawing a knife and Lao Meng's shouts immediately sounded in the camp.

Li Kui and more than 20 minions who were walking in front turned their heads and looked at Shi Xiaowu.
They haven't figured it out yet, it's obvious that this side is a sneak attack, how could someone touch their back?

But Shi Xiaowu immediately dropped the half stick, walked a few steps to the side of the minion who had just been killed with a stick, picked up the simple knife, and then turned towards Li Kui and the others He smiled kindly, and said gratefully: "Hey, God is so smart, just now I begged him to give our brothers a chance to make meritorious deeds, and you are here."

Not far away, Lao Meng and others ran over with their knives in hand.

The rest of the awakened Min Zhuang panicked for a while, but then immediately calmed down.

Not only did they not run away, but their eyes shone as if they had seen a treasure.
Shi Xiaowu, who had been calm when facing the enemy, became anxious now and hurriedly shouted to the brothers who were still walking slowly: "Can you hurry up! If you wait any longer, this great achievement will be taken away by others. !”

"Brother, what should I do!"

The sneak attack failed, and the imaginary scene of Min Zhuang fleeing in panic did not appear. This time, Li Kui and others panicked.

"Kill out!" Li Kui gritted his teeth and led his men to turn around and fight back.

But the man who appeared first was blocking their path with a sword in his hand.

As soon as he took over, Li Kui was surprised. This humble-looking man had such strong skills.
Immediately afterwards, the other six historians also entered the battle group.

None of his men could work together. The Shi brothers were as easy as tigers rushing into a flock of sheep, chopping melons and vegetables, and then surrounded Li Kui.

Li Kui tried his best to block Shi Xiaowu's sword, but felt his wrists were numb and his chest felt tight. He took four or five steps back before someone behind him helped him stabilize his waist, "Don't be afraid, keep going!"

The person behind him pushed Li Kui's back with both hands, pushing him back in front of Shi Xiaowu.

Li Kui hurriedly stopped and stopped a few steps in front of Shi Xiaowu. Shi Xiaowu did not take the opportunity to attack, but looked at Li Kui with a smile.

Li Kui looked around and saw that one of the group of men was one by one, sizing him up like watching a monkey show.Li Kui couldn't help scolding his mother secretly: Numb, is this Minzhuang?
Same day.

Under the cover of Li Luozi and others, Jin Taiping stole a small boat and crossed the Ying River during the chaos caused by the "Dugu Qiubai Junzijian" brother attacking and killing the officers and generals.

Return to the boundary of Shouzhou again.

However, after entering Shouzhou, Li Mulezi did not immediately take him north to join the Taining army. Instead, he hung around for a whole day.

Shouzhou has experienced floods and military disasters successively. It is not an exaggeration to say that out of ten houses, nine are empty.

But in a country, not just a hundred miles away, there will always be some lucky villages that survive the disaster.

Li Mule found these villages.

At noon on the 50th, more than [-] people came outside a village called Qixingdian.

The wall of Zhuangzi village is quite high, and the people on the wall of the village couldn't help being very nervous when they saw these thieves.

Li Mulezi stepped forward with his bare hands and stood under the village wall and shouted: "Everyone, we used to be under the command of General Kaitian. Now the war is not going well. We want to go north to join the Taining Army. We pass by Guibao Land and want to borrow some food to satisfy our hunger. It’s a good journey.”

It was the first time for the people of Qixingdian to see such a polite bandit army.

However, news has spread here recently, saying that Caizhou's left-behind officers defeated the rebellious army in Yingzhou. Combined with the current thieves who are politely begging for food, this news may be true!

Otherwise, how could they be so polite? They must be incapable of breaking Zhuangzi, so they are so cowardly.

Thinking about it this way, the people in the village are full of confidence. After the Zhou inside the village came, they boldly said: "The food in my village is not enough for the people in this village to feed themselves. The good guys should look elsewhere."

Li Mulezi, who was under the village, had an anxious look on his face. He pointed at Jin Taiping, who was wearing the military's standard general's armor, and said, "Old man, we are really going to join the army. We can see that person clearly. He is the former commander of the Guangxiao Army." Jin Taiping, General Jin! General Jin has been with General Li Qiong of the Taining Army for a long time. When we join the Taining Army, he will return the grain to your village." After some talk, Qixing Village finally hung a few buckets of grain from the village.

But it's not over.

In the afternoon of the same day, Li Mule found another Zhuangzi, and repeated his old tricks.
In short, regardless of whether the food was borrowed or not, at least the few Zhuangzi who still had people alive along the way knew that a rebel army had taken Jin Taiping, the former commander of the Guangxiao Army, to join the Taining Army.

Two days later, Jin Taiping, who gradually felt something was wrong, suddenly became nervous.

On the [-]th, the crowd was less than [-] miles away from the Taining Army camp outside Shouzhou City, but in the morning of this day, Li Mule and others suddenly took him to the southeast.
Jin Taiping has been working in Shouzhou for a long time, so he naturally knows that if he walks this way, he will be farther and farther away from the Taining Army.

Along the way, Jin Taiping resisted asking questions, but began to wait for opportunities to escape.
But the more than fifty people around him also strengthened their 'care' for him.

Even if he wanted to be relieved, Naluo Hong would bring more than ten brothers to surround him and put on a chrysanthemum show.

At this point, Li Mulezi and others' intentions were no longer concealed.

At Shenshi, everyone entered the boundary of Lu'an County, Shouzhou.

At the beginning, this county was the most severely affected by flooding. It was also one of the first counties where the rebels broke out, and suffered the most severe damage.

Traveled all the way for more than twenty li, but did not see a living person.

As far as the eye can see, there are barren fields and ruins.

The corpses that died by the roadside have long since turned to bones, and the teeth marks of wild dogs are all over the bones.

When we passed a village called Lingxia Village, the sun was already setting to the west.

Several crows were hovering over the village, and the dim evening sun shone into the deserted village, making people think of the words "ghostly atmosphere" out of thin air.

Luo Hong, perhaps tired from walking, glanced at Li Mulezi and whispered, "Just here."

Li Mulezi nodded, but Li Ke next to him took the initiative to walk to Jin Taiping, looked around, and sighed: "General Jin, tell me, who gave you everything in front of you?"

"bye"

Hearing that Li Ke's tone was unkind, Jin Taiping simply stopped answering. Instead, he looked at Li Mulezi and said in a serious voice: "Brother Li, who are you?"

"I don't want to be a god. I'm in the lower town, Huai Army Data and Statistics Bureau, Special Operations Section, Li Mulezi."

"... Zhenhuai Army? Chen Dutong's men?"

After being brought to this deserted place for dozens of miles, Jin Taiping, who was already a little desperate, heard that the other party was an official soldier. He couldn't help but rekindled his hope and said hurriedly: "Brother Li! Please pass a message to Chen Dutong. , I, Jin Taiping, am willing to surrender to the capital, and from now on I will follow the leadership of the capital, and I will not dodge swords and spears."

"Really? Do you really expect my adults to follow suit?" Li Ke asked with a smile.

"Of course! From now on, my life will belong to everyone!" Jin Taiping heard that this was a serious matter and quickly expressed his loyalty.

Li Ke heard the words but smiled lightly, and said: "That's good, my lord wants to let you die"

"You and I... I can't die! I can help Lord Dutong do many things, and I still have a lot of property hidden outside Shouzhou City. I can help Dutong train his troops."

Ignoring Jin Taiping's incoherent begging for mercy, Li Ke only gave him a look, and several experts stepped forward and stripped Jin Taiping of his armor, and then tied him up.

"I can serve Lord Dutong, and my life is useful to him. You can't kill me, you can't kill me."

Seeing that Luo Hong was already sharpening his sword, Jin Taiping, who was tied up in a ball, writhed on the ground in an extremely awkward manner.

Li Ke stepped forward again, squatted beside Jin Taiping and said in a low voice: "My lord said that Commander Jin still has some skills, but he lacks the most important backbone of a soldier. From the moment you became a thief, you are already dead. "

"Mr. Li, talk to Mr. Du Tong, I can't die, I'm useful."

Jin Taiping, who was on the verge of collapse, repeated this sentence repeatedly, but Li Ke said: "You will be more useful to adults if you die. It is not a loss for you to die. I think your reputation will be spread around for a long time."

Jin Taiping didn't understand what Li Ke was talking about at all.

He was going to die anyway, so Li Ke simply asked him to be sensible and explained carefully: "In order to let my family suppress the thieves, the imperial court allowed him the power to dominate. If you die and the thieves are gone, how can my family still be good at it?" Specialize?"

"Master Tutong, don't kill me!" Jin Taiping saw hope again.

Li Ke looked at Jin Taiping, whose face was full of dirt, shook his head and said, "You are also the commander of an army, why are you so stupid? If you die, I can be Jin Taiping, he..." Li Ke pointed at Li Mule smiled and said, "He can be Jin Taiping."

Then he pointed at Luo Hong, "He can also be Jin Taiping. In short, your name will still be spread, so go on your way with peace of mind."

Li Ke stood up, and then a swordsman stepped forward.

Knowing that there is no chance of survival this time, Jin Taiping suddenly shouted frantically: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, take a look, this son of Chen Chu wants to raise a thief to respect himself! He is the great thief of the country, and sooner or later the whole country will be destroyed by this son." hand, emperor~"

With a click, Jin Taiping's shouting stopped abruptly.

A human skull rolled far away, and the blood in the neck cavity spurted out for ten feet.
The smell of blood permeated the deserted village.

Xu time.

It was dark.

In front of a house with an open door, Li Mule sat alone on the steps, looking at the ghostly village, silent.

Not long after, Luo Hong and Li Ke walked over and sat down next to Li Mule.

The three of them took dozens of brothers, and after more than three months, they finally completed all the tasks. At this time, they naturally felt some emotion in their hearts.

"Brother Luo Hong, after this matter is over, what are your plans?" Li Mule asked first.

"While Shouzhou's vitality is seriously injured, hurry up and occupy more docks with Brother Lin, so that the Cao Gang can spread all over the canal."

As soon as the big event was accomplished, Luo Hong's self-confidence was overwhelming.

Li Mulezi smiled tiredly and said: "Caobang is very good, why not come to our military commander? Lord Dutong values ​​our military commander very much."

"Hey, Brother Mule, I don't like to be restrained the most. You have many rules in the military command, and you will inevitably make mistakes and be reported to me in front of the commanding officer."

When Luo Hong spoke, he deliberately glanced at Li Ke.

Li Mulezi was afraid that the two of them would quarrel again, so he quickly asked Li Ke, "Mr. Li, what are you going to do next?"

When Li Ke was asked, he withdrew his gaze from looking at Luo Hong. After a moment of silence, he said leisurely: "After going back, find a woman to marry. I have seen too many tragedies in the world in the past few months, and I need to go to Wenrou Township to heal."

After these words, Li Mulezi and Luo Hong also fell silent.

Indeed, for more than three months, there was chaos and brutal killings around them, so much so that they all felt that their lives were worthless.

I need to live a normal life.

"There has been no news for more than three months, and my wife is so worried. Last year, because of the Tongshan incident, I didn't believe me and followed me for several months, which made her worry."

Li Mulezi sighed guiltily, suddenly missing his wife and children.

But Li Ke said: "The matter here is over. Brother Mule can take his sister-in-law to Tongshan for vacation after returning. I will show you Luliuxu. Maybe I can catch up with me and get married."

"It's so good!" Li Mule felt that this proposal was good when he heard it.

He had heard from his mother-in-law that the third lady and Zhao Ling had a "Hui Zhi Lan Xin" women's club in Tongshan County.

There are all kinds of secrets in it that can nourish your hair and beautify your face. Even though my stupid wife doesn’t say it, she can’t hide her envy in her words.

Li Mulezi wanted to take his mother-in-law to try it too.

Next to him, Luo Hong, who had not spoken for a long time, suddenly said in a half-warm tone: "Who, if you get married, don't forget to tell me."

Li Ke was taken aback for a moment, then laughed, and said with a smile: "Brother Luo, it's easy to say, just don't forget to take the money with you."

"Money is inevitable. If your appearance is not good, don't blame me."

"Hahaha, good."

The Huaibei Rebellion seems to be coming to an end.

The three of them each have their own positions, and I'm afraid it will be difficult to fight side by side in the future.

Life is sea and sea, mountains and rivers.

The parting was imminent, but there was a trace of unspeakable emotion.

In the distance, a group of Caobang brothers sat around the fire. Because the task was completed, they felt relaxed and sang hometown songs.
"Weave, weave, weave flower baskets, weave a flower basket and go to Nanshan, where red rhododendrons are blooming."

In the lonely deserted village, the cheerful tunes are extremely inconsistent.

There is a huge bright moon above the head, hanging high in the sky, overlooking the earth.

Li Mule looked up for a while, then suddenly said: "Today, Zhongqiu"

Li Ke and Luo Hong raised their heads at the same time, and they only remembered that today is such an important festival after being reminded.

The moon is bright in the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the family is reunited. But Li Ke couldn't help thinking of all the tragedies he had seen since March, and couldn't help sighing: "May the world be the same as this full moon."

"May the world be the same as this full moon," Li Mule and Luo Huo repeated softly.

Hundreds of miles away, on Tongshan Cross Slope, the annual Mid-Autumn Lantern Festival has opened.

The brightly lit Luliuxu is another nightless day.

At this time, in Lingxia Village, Lu'an County, only a group of uninvited guests came here by accident, humming hometown songs.

It makes the village feel even more lonely and cold.

Originally, there were two to three hundred people living in this village. Although it was not as prosperous as Luliuwei, it still had its own warmth.

That year, Wang Erchun and Widow Xu in the village had a secret love, but it was difficult to get married.

That month, the Huaihe River burst its embankments and the village was hit by a disaster. The whole village, young and old, led by the clan elders, fled away.

On that day, they were passing through Huoqiu County, and unfortunately they encountered bandits.
Wang Erchun and Widow Xu died in foreign lands one after another.

Unexpectedly, Jin Taiping, the leader of the rebel army, died here.

Li Mule and others did not know all this.

It seems that in the dark, there is a definite cycle of cause and effect, and the retribution is not good.

(End of this chapter)