Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 59: Painstaking Efforts to Peace the People (I)

Many years later, when Li Xiu led his troops into Yanjing City, he would recall the morning when he first met Liu Huai.

At that time, Li Xiu was just a mountain king who led dozens of brothers to become bandits in Dayi Mountain.

Unlike hard-core ruthless people like Song Jiang and Fang La, Li Xiu, the mountain king, was really miserable. Not only did he not have the heart to rob his fellow villagers, he even rarely attacked passing merchants.

On weekdays, apart from extorting some wealthy families, they would also rob the territories of the Meng'an Mouke households.

It has a bit of the meaning of a chivalrous thief.

As a result, although they have a good reputation, their lives are usually miserable. These dozens of people have to work in the fields and just make ends meet to survive.

However, the chaos on July 20th made Li Xiu, the mountain king who usually had a relatively good brain, start to get confused.

First, I heard that a regular government army came from Qushan County and stationed in Dayi Town.

Just when Li Xiu was thinking about abandoning the stronghold and running away, Dayi Town suddenly became chaotic at nightfall. There was a lot of noise, flames shot up into the sky, and shouts and cries resounded through the sky, which could be heard clearly even in the mountains several miles away.

Li Xiu woke up from his sleep with a start. Without thinking too much, he picked up his broadsword and took several servants to investigate the situation in Dayi Town at the foot of the mountain. Before he was halfway there, he saw Mr. Zhou, a wealthy man with a very bad reputation in Dayi Town, running up the mountain along the path with a panicked look on his face.

Although Li Xiu had always looked down on this man, he had also tried to take advantage of him a few times. He knew that the Zhou family had several brick kilns and 300 kiln workers, and they were extremely powerful. Normally, he was the only one who bullied others, so how could he be in such a mess?

However, before Li Xiu could even ask, Mr. Zhou shouted that disaster was coming and that the army was massacring the city.

Li Xiu looked at the fire in Dayi Town at the foot of the mountain, still not understanding what was going on. Then countless villagers from Dayi Town came up the mountain from various small roads.

For a moment, Li Xiu could only force himself to calm down and arrange accommodation for the villagers in the dark.

We were really groping in the dark and didn't even dare to light a torch.

Li Xiu had no idea what the bandits at the foot of the mountain were doing. Although under normal circumstances, no army would attack the mountain at night, who could say for sure?

Li Xiu led his subordinates to maintain order and asked his confidants to guard the mountain gate. They were busy for half the night and killed more than a dozen second-rate people who took the opportunity to cause trouble. By the time the sky in the east was getting light, he had initially settled down the nearly 1,000 people who had gone up the mountain.

The small village that originally accommodated hundreds of people was now packed.

Shelter was easy to find. It was only the beginning of autumn and the weather was still hot, so the worst that could happen was to sleep outdoors. But food was definitely not enough.

Li Xiu calculated that the food stored in the village could only last for ten days at most.

But before the people in the village had time to worry, the situation that followed was even more confusing.

First, on the morning of the second day, the Jin army in Dayi Town set out in a hurry. Then, when Li Xiu was hesitating whether to go down the mountain to investigate with dark circles under his eyes, the Jin army fled back along the official road in twos and threes.

Most of these Jin troops were in disarray and had lost their armor. They only took some food and money in Dayi Town and then continued to flee north in a hurry.

Soon, in the afternoon, another wave of troops arrived in Dayi Town and erected a large flag with the word "Song" on it on the low city wall.

At night, someone finally came up the mountain to report that the Song army had defeated the Jin army in the northern expedition, and the people of Dayi Town who had been forcibly conscripted by the Jin army last night had been released.

After hearing this, Li Xiu almost couldn't sleep all night.

how to say.

This was pure anxiety, typical of ordinary people at a crossroads in life. But Li Xiu was a hero after all. After a night of deliberation, the morning after the Song army arrived, he brought a few companions, along with Mr. Zhou, who was anxious to go down the mountain to look after his property, and disguised himself as fur hunters, heading for Dayi Town at the foot of the mountain.

Some people may wonder, since Dayi Town has just suffered such a disaster, will there still be small vendors coming into the town to do business?
Of course there are answers, and quite a few.

This is the small peasant economy in feudal society, with extremely low ability to withstand pressure.

The average family only had a few dou of grain in their daily supply. The deer they hunted, the cloth they wove, and the firewood they chopped had to be quickly converted into food, otherwise disaster would ensue.

Coming to Dayi Town at this time does not necessarily mean death, but if you don’t come, you will most likely starve to death.

In fact, it wasn't just the vendors; farmers could be seen hard at work in the fields surrounding Dayi Town. Many of them wore mournful expressions, their bodies wrapped in mourning cloth, as it was clear someone had recently died in their family.

But what does it matter? The dead are dead, and the living must live on.

"Master Li San, are we going to meet the commander of the Song army?" After passing through the low city gate, Mr. Zhou came to ask impatiently with his fat face shaking.

Li Xiu was staring at the guards at the gate with bloodshot eyes, and was surprised that they not only did not extort money, but even did not collect entrance taxes. After hearing this, he asked with a half-smile, "Mr. Zhou, is it not possible?"

Mr. Zhou was stunned when he heard this, but he immediately smiled and said, "Master Li, I left home in a hurry the night before yesterday and didn't take care of my family. I want to go back home first. Please come to my house and stay for a while, Master Li."

Li Xiu felt disdainful.

The Zhou family is a large family with many people, young and old. The day before yesterday, Mr. Zhou not only left his wife and children, but even his mother to the bandits and fled alone in a hurry. It was really despicable.

It is questionable whether this kind of person has that string in his crotch.

"What are you pretending to be?" Someone among Li Xiu's companions immediately mocked him, "If you were really worried about your wife at home, why didn't you fight the Jin thieves to the death? Instead, you ran away with your tail between your legs!"

The fat on Mr. Zhou's face trembled. Although he felt embarrassed, he still replied in a low voice: "When the time comes, I'm afraid."

"Why aren't you afraid now?" Li Xiu replied jokingly.

Mr. Zhou hesitated for a moment, then bowed and said, "Master Li, do you know why I dared to go to the stronghold in the dark the night before? Because you are a man of rules. No matter how harsh the rules are, there are still rules. You are not like the Jin thieves, who were talking politely two hours ago and then started killing people without explanation two hours later. Now that I see the streets are in order, it is enough to prove that the commander of the Song army is a man of rules. In this world, as long as there are rules, I can accept them, no matter how harsh they are."

Li Xiu: "Then why don't you dare to go with me to see the general directly?"

Mr. Zhou hesitated to speak, but one of Li Xiu's servants interrupted him sarcastically, "Isn't it because Mr. Zhou doesn't cultivate virtue on a daily basis, and he's afraid of being exposed as a good man's pig bladder?"

"You have to be thoughtful..."

Before Mr. Zhou finished speaking, he heard the pedestrians on the street suddenly make a noise.

"He killed someone again!"

"We've only rested for two hours..."

"They got a good deal, they lived two more hours..."

"No, I have to go check it out... Youngest, hold our father's spirit tablet..."

Seeing that both vendors and common people on the street were rushing forward, Li Xiu turned his head to signal, and also carried the fur on his back, brought his companions, and followed the crowd forward.

(End of this chapter)