Late Tang

After noon, Li Jing and the other ten new soldiers who had been registered on the register still set out on the road under the urging of the officer, even though they were reluctant to part with each other.

The Han family and Gui Niang have been sent several miles outside the village, and it is difficult to say goodbye.Although Li Jing was also somewhat reluctant in her heart, in the end she was determined not to look back.He didn't know if he would have a future in joining the Tutuan, but time was running out, and he couldn't sit and wait any longer.What's more, Wang Liang's bastard was drawn this time, and Li Jing joined the Tutuan, but he just had a chance to get rid of him.

There are ten newcomers in Wangli Village, besides Wang Liang, Xiao Shitou and Li Jing, there are seven others.They are much different from Li Jing and the others, and the other seven people are all middle-aged men who have not yet grown up, and they are all juniors in their teens and twenties.At home, they hadn't really been in charge of the family yet, and this time they were drafted to Ding. Of course, their father, as the pillar of the whole family, could not apply for the job, so he sent the son of the family here.

Except for Xiao Shitou and Qiu Sheng, the son of Carpenter Li at the head of the village, who was a little excited, the others all looked depressed like Wang Liang.Especially Wang Liang, who had already made an appointment to get married in the next half month.But he didn't realize that, when the recruitment order came down, he wasn't even given one night's time, and he didn't even have a chance to get married right away.It is said that this time entering the soil group, it is easy to go but difficult to come back. I don't know when this marriage will be entrusted.

Seeing Li Jing inadvertently, Wang Liang snorted heavily, but kept his distance from Li Jing, hanging behind Li Jing far away.The other juniors looked at Li Jing with a little puzzled eyes and deep envy.

Although I don't understand why the scholar Lang obviously didn't win the lottery, why he replaced Ying Ding for the old village chief's family.But when they came, they also heard that the old village chief rented [-] mu of land to the Li family, but did not collect the rent.Moreover, they opened a warehouse and borrowed ten stones of grain from the Li family. With so much grain, the Li family didn't have to worry about the grain until next summer's harvest.

But apart from these, what they envied was the horse that Wang's family gave Li Jing, and the big bag on the three-year-old bay red horse. The ancestral armor is now given to this scholar.

In addition to the horse and the unseen armor, Li Jing also had a horizontal knife on his waist and a horn bow on his back.Compared with the other juniors who were dressed in short brown clothes and had empty hands, they seemed like beggars, while Li Jing looked like a general.

Among the ten juniors, apart from Li Jing who went to Penglai, the prefecture of Dengzhou, to take the state examination, only Wang Liang went to Fangdeng County when he was a servant of Zhang Kuguan in Chishan Town. Xiao Shitou, Qiu Sheng and the others have only been to the town as far away as possible.After living away from Wangli Village for more than ten years, he couldn't help feeling confused.The little stone became Li Jing's tail early in the morning, and followed Li Jing closely, one bite at a time.In addition to Li Jing's horse, there were five donkeys in the team, two donkeys and one donkey. These donkeys were not used for riding, but for carrying all kinds of military supplies.When everyone came out, they didn't bring anything except a few pieces of clothes with them.The village collected more than 200 pieces of silk, so it was not necessary for each family to collect tents, weapons and armor, etc., and wait until the military camps were unified.

Now the five donkeys are carrying the silk, as well as some local products such as rice wine and dried fruits that the village honored to the clerk and the officer.

In addition to Xiao Shitou following Li Jing, the little carpenter Li Qiusheng and two young men surnamed Li also surrounded Li Jing.The rest were all surnamed Wang, they didn't follow Li Jing, but got together with Wang Liang, they were a small gang.Firstly, Wang Liang and them both had the surname of Wang, and secondly, Li Jing was a scholar, but Wang Liang had worked as a servant in the town after all, and the younger generation of the Wang family all regarded him as the leader.

The ten recruits were clearly divided into two groups, but the clerk with the goatee and the officer with the knife turned a blind eye.The clerk rode a big blue and white mule, and the officer rode a black war horse. The two rode in front of the team, but they didn't talk to each other, they were silent all the way.

Li Jing had been secretly observing the two of them along the way, and from what the old village chief Wang had told him, he only knew that the clerk was an assistant official from Fangdeng County, surnamed Zhang.Assistant officials are not officials, but officials, and they belong to miscellaneous tasks that are not even considered outsiders.However, it is also very important in the county government. It is under the senior officials such as Zhu Bo and the county lieutenant. official head.

Another officer who has been quiet all the time, the old village chief Wang only knows his surname is Wang, and it is said that he seems to have a lot of background.It seems that he is the nephew of a general in Qingzhou, and now he is a servant in Dengzhou Prefecture, but he is not sure what his official position is, only that Zhang Zuoli is very polite to that officer.

Since everyone was reluctant to leave home along the way, turning back three times at every step, from noon to evening, they only walked more than ten miles.Seeing that it was nearly ten miles away from Chishan Town, the officer who seemed to be dozing off on his horse suddenly gave the order to stop.

"Just rest here for a while, and take the time to drink and feed the horses."

Zhang Zuoli looked up at the sky and saw that the sun had already set in the west. He walked up to the officer and said softly, "Accompanying the soldiers, it will be dark soon, and now we can rest for a while before we can make it to town. There are only ten miles ahead. Let everyone work harder and rest after entering Chishan Town."

Captain Wang smiled noncommittally and jumped off the horse.Wang Liang immediately trotted forward with a mean smile on his face, nodded and bowed and handed over his water bag.Then double opened a cloth towel, took out two golden and fragrant flax cakes, and presented them to Wang Xiaowei and Zhang Zuoli as treasures.

Li Jing recognized at a glance that the flax cakes were made by his mother Han and his sister-in-law. Han specially borrowed some mutton and wheat flour from the Wang family, and each flax cake was considered luxurious.Use one catty of mutton, spread it layer by layer among the reconciled wheat flour, put pepper and fermented soybeans in the interlayer of the cake, then pour the whole cake with ghee, then put it in the stove and bake it until it is half ripe. take out.

The aromas of wheat, mutton, butter, pepper, and fermented soybeans burst out. Han made a total of ten of them, each weighing about three catties.Three of the ten cakes were given to Li Jing, and three to Xiao Shitou, but that bastard Wang Liang got four.This made Li Jing very upset for a while, but in the end he endured it for the time being. Since he participated in the Unity Army together, he was afraid that he might not have a chance to get rid of this bastard.

In Li Jing's memory, he only ate this luxurious flax cake once, and it was when his father Li Gang was promoted to be a county official, and the whole family only had a luxury once.He put this precious cake in his burden, and he was not willing to take it out and eat it.But Wang Liang was willing to take it out to flatter the two superiors.

The flax cake made by Han's is indeed full of color and taste, both Wang Xiaowei and Zhang Zuoli were attracted by this cake, each of them grabbed one, and opened their mouths to bite.

While biting the flax cake, Wang Xiaowei said vaguely to Zhang Zuoli: "I know you are worried that you might not be able to return to Chishan Town before dark. Don't worry, it's okay even if you can't make it back, we are not merchants." Cavalry, are you still afraid that bandits won’t be able to rob them?”

"It was agreed in advance that we will go to Chishan Town to rest tonight, and the solidarity soldiers recruited from other villages in Qingning Township will also gather in Chishan Town. I am not afraid of bandits, but I am afraid that they did not meet up on time. The superiors will blame them ah."

"The higher-ups are to blame, who is the higher-ups? You really used chicken feathers as an arrow." Wang Xiaowei bit into a fragrant flax cake and ate a large piece.

Zhang Zuoli said: "Accompanying the army is on a business trip. Naturally, you don't need to care about these things. It's just that you are just a small assistant official, but you can't bear these responsibilities."

After speaking, Captain Wang also nodded, holding a cake in his hand and nodded: "Well, what you said is also reasonable, since it is related to my brother's future, brother, I can't make my own decisions. See if the horse and donkey are fed and drunk. , when you’re done, you’ll continue on your way right away, and you’ll have to go to Chishan Town to spend the night before dark.”

Although Li Jing studied in the past, he also practiced martial arts with his elder brother, and helped the family farm for a few years. His body is extremely strong.After walking for half a day, he didn't feel tired at all, and he didn't even give up riding the horse, just feeling a little parting in his heart.Just after some water, I ate a piece of cooking cake, and I was full of energy again.Hearing the rush, he got up and went to untie the horse, while beckoning to Xiaoshi to lead the donkey.

It's just that when he raised his head, he suddenly found several bright lights flickering in the forest in front of him.The light flashed away, but Li Jing's heart was suddenly turned upside down.Xiao Shitou and Li Qiusheng were still standing there in a daze, Li Jing jumped suddenly, grabbed them and pushed them down to the ground, yelling softly, "Get down, don't say anything!"