stubborn thief

Chapter 232 The First Seven
Ma Ke was imprisoned in the dungeon of Chieftain Chen's house.

He knew Chen Shiwen, and had fought with the chieftain heir when he was a child, so he knew that Chieftain Chen had no dungeons.

What's more, after all, whose dungeon has an unpleasant pickle smell everywhere?

This is a vegetable cellar. Because Liu Shizi needed a dungeon, Chen Shiwen, who was busy repairing the warehouse, vacated a vegetable cellar overnight as Ma Ke's new home.

Regarding the assassination of Liu Chengzong, Ma Ke was quite decisive at first, and he had no self-interested calculations. He just didn't want to live anymore. He happened to have a grudge against you. Let's reincarnate to be a companion, and we will not be lonely on the road to Huangquan.

But now he doubts life very much.

There is a small window in the cellar, and the sun can be seen for half an hour every afternoon. Ma Ke squatted against the damp earth wall, and with the light coming in from the small window, he stretched out his hand and pressed a dead animal to run around in the mud. bugs.

He didn't know why he wanted to go home, nor why he wanted to assassinate Liu Chengzong.

Speaking of which, it was to fill his stomach. He robbed it once in Yulin masked. It's not that difficult, it's easy to fill his stomach.

It is said that the assassination of Liu Chengzong was to avenge General Li. He saw Li Bei, and Li Bei was indeed still alive, and it was quite comfortable to be alive.

The general eats with Liu Chengzong's father every day, and there is a special cook. Mr. Liu's meal is a bowl of soup with one meat and one vegetable for each meal, and Li Bei has two meat and two vegetables and a bowl of soup.

I heard that the level of education in General Li's social circle has risen, and there are no warriors who come and go every day, either Liu Juren or Yang Jinshi.

Not only did she not suffer, but she also gained twenty catties, her face was full of flesh, and she looked much more amiable.

So Ma Ke was thinking, what drove him to travel two thousand miles from northern Shaanxi to Xining, eat and sleep in the open, and plunged into the vegetable cellar of Chieftain Chen's house?

Regarding the fate of assassinating Liu Chengzong, Ma Ke estimated that he would not be very good, but seeing how General Li was treated very well in the Lion Camp, he should not sit back and watch himself be killed.

He reckoned that he was guilty of capital punishment but could not escape the crime of living.

bang bang bang!
Before Mako could figure it out, someone knocked on the window of the vegetable cellar above the ground.

Ma Ke understood that when the time came, the soldiers guarding him would send him meals twice a day, one with porridge and a bowl of water, and one with fried horse offal and highland barley corn bread.

It is said that Liu Chengzong's Lion Army did not understand the prices in the Hehuang Valley, so they worked hard to bring hundreds of thousands of shi grains. These grains can be sold at a high price of [-] taels or even [-] taels per shi in the east of Liupan Mountain.

But when I arrived in Lanzhou and Xining, I found that the prices of various grains, highland barley and wheat noodles here fluctuated between [-] yuan and [-] yuan per shi.

Great efforts were made, but big losses were made.

In order to recover the loss, Liu Shizi took out part of the grain and engaged in a barter with Chieftain Li who monopolizes the grain market in Xining, exchanging the white rice and white noodles that are not easily available locally for more barley noodles and beans.

But this kind of business is just better than nothing. No matter how you look at it, it is better to bring 200 million silver to save trouble.

It was only a hundred carts with silver. They brought a lot of grain, and thousands of carts had to set up stops on the road to transport them back and forth.

No matter how you look at it, it's a loss, but it makes Ma Ke faintly feel relieved of his stupidity in his heart.

In this confused age.

Liu Shizi was frightened by 2 people who were hungry, and he never thought of bringing food in exchange for money. He was also frightened by hunger, so it is not surprising that he had some stupid ideas.

Thinking of this, Ma Ke reached out to touch the wooden tray, and heard someone remind him: "Slow down, there are a lot of things today."

Ma Ke was thinking that it was time for him to eat the fried horse offal again.

He even wondered if this dish was made by Liu Chengzong specially for him. Simply put, it is to smoke and save the messy horse belly, chop it, chop it, fry it, and the frying technique and seasoning are very lacking. .

It can be regarded as something to maintain survival, far from the level where the taste can be considered.

Then he brought out a bowl of soup, which looked like horse meat soup, with scallions floating on it, and it was fragrant; he also took out three oil swirls with donkey meat, and the man on it said: "There are more, take it again."

He brought out a jug of highland barley wine, and it seemed that the lion soldier above saw that he was tired of holding everything, so he said "take it" and threw down a red apple.

Ma Ke put away all kinds of delicacies that he hadn't eaten for a long time, so he could smell them one by one. He squatted against the wall and took a bite of the apple. His mouth that lacked taste was very satisfied, and he casually asked upwards: "Brother , what good thing are you doing today?"

The people above said: "Good thing? You can say so if you want, I will be able to return to the team after today."

Marko is also very optimistic: "Substitution? Then congratulations brother."

"No one came."

The people above were silent for a while, and said: "Your time is up, and someone will come to take you away in the afternoon. It is not a bad thing to die in your hometown."

Ma Ke was stunned for a moment before recalling what the cellar keeper said.

He sat blankly for a long time. To be honest, after seeing Li Bei, he never thought that he would be killed.

Li Bei was treated so well in the Lion Camp, how could Liu Chengzong kill him?
Thinking of this, he suddenly jumped up and asked out the window: "No, won't General Li save me?"

"Oh, your General Li is just a guest. It's just that the commander-in-chief's father treats him personally. He hasn't spoken to the commander-in-chief for so long. We all listen to the commander-in-chief. He can't save you."

Ma Ke's body slowly slumped against the wall, the apple slipped from his hand, and the donkey meat soup that was swirled with donkey meat and floating in oil was no longer fragrant.

The cellar guard still said: "Hey, it's been a while, what are you afraid of, don't you know the consequences of doing this? In our case, you are assassinating the commander-in-chief. If I can make the decision, I will kill you." Tie it to a pillar and bombard it with twenty cannons in turn, if you can’t be scared to death, then bombard you to death.”

"Let's put it aside for the imperial court, you're called assassinating a third-rank official, don't say that Li Bei is not a general, even if he is still a general, he can't keep you."

Marco was so stupid that he picked up the apple and threw it on the opposite wall.

Co-author Li Bei's high treatment is an illusion, so is he not finished?
He thought to himself, then why the hell are you giving me apples, you should throw me two corn buns to make me feel better, and you just have to die.

This makes me feel comfortable and enjoy the beauty of the world, and I will be dragged out to be slaughtered when I'm done. Isn't this torture?

Even if he didn't want to live, he couldn't just die like this.

Regardless of whether he starved to death before becoming a thief, or Li Beizhen died. He assassinated Liu Chengzong and was killed successfully.

But to die like this is too aggrieved.

It's strange to say that a man like him who has been on the battlefield many times, given him a spear and sent him outside the mouth to fight with ten captives, can walk forward with his head held high and his chest held high.

But in this dirty vegetable cellar, knowing that his death was approaching, he felt a little cold, and his forehead was still sweating.

Marco wiped his face.

He stood up and looked at the upper window and thought for a long time, until he thought that the donkey broth was cold, before he said, "Brother, do me a favor and send a message to Marshal Liu. I surrender."

The person above said: "Oh, forget it, you think you are lonely and want to drag me? You assassinated the commander-in-chief, and you want me to intercede for you. The commander-in-chief killed us both this afternoon."

The cellar keeper comforted: "Okay, calm down, life is like this, short and hurried, eat well, and go on the road when you are full."

Put your mind at ease!
Ma Ke squatted on the ground, and said calmly, "Brother sent me food for several days, what's your name?"

"Wu Panlong, from Zhenyuan."

"Wu Panlong, I remember. Listen." Ma Ke said in a muffled voice in the cellar, "Don't send me a message, and I'll come back to you in the first seven days!"

Wu Panlong slapped himself on the top, why sign up with a fucking dead man?
But after all, he has studied and became a thief. He is not afraid of being a hooligan at all. After a brief surprise, he laughed: "I think you forgot what Xining is. There are monks all over the mountains and plains. Wait for the commander to kill you." , I will find a monk to save you in a while! I still want to come back for seven days, what a fart!"

Ma Ke was so angry that his teeth were itchy, but there was nothing he could do. He had no defense against the magic attack in this world.

I can only sip the cold soup with a sip of oil in the cellar, and then drink a sip of wine to relieve the resentment in my heart.

At this moment, he suddenly heard the footsteps of Wu Panlong walking away from above: "Master!"

Liu Chengzong is here.

It was only two days after he released the words that he wanted to kill Ma Ke, and his father brought Li Bei to intercede for him, followed the trend, and became the instructor of Qianzong in the Chinese military camp.

So he came over to release Ma Ke, took a walk around Hong Qi, and showed off Hong Qi's new vest.

When Hongqi first arrived at the Beichuan River, he plunged into the river, and his mane faded again.

Liu Shizi suddenly felt that he had to dye Hongqi's head every few months. This kind of behavior was a bit naive and did not meet the status of a strategic commander.

So I decided to make a vest for Hongqi.

Anyway, winter is coming, and the red tassel wig is directly made on the vest, which not only rewards the heroes who fought against the enemy in battle, but also saves time-consuming and laborious hair dyeing.

Kill two birds with one stone, once and for all.

To be honest, Hongqi's performance in fighting horses was really impressive. He had seen horses trampling the enemy's formation and kicking back and forth to attack the enemy, but it was the first time he had seen a horse bite someone's shield with its mouth out.

Hongqi is quite capable, but this habit is not good. If it dares to bite the shield this time, it may dare to bite the knife next time.

There are ready-made vests in the army. The horses of the Northwest Frontier Army have developed from half armor to no armor.

But Cao Wenzhao gave him more than 500 collars, and Liu Shizi kept them without distribution. He planned to give them to the officers who had done meritorious service as rewards.

This time I made a vest for Hongqi, and I chose a small set of armor with a piece of armor, but the cloth surface of the vest was torn, so Liu Chengzong asked the people from the work post to change the cloth surface of the cotton vest for him. Good sewing.

As a reward for Hongqi, this vest looks very expensive.

Long red tassels fell behind the clean iron-colored horse face, and the armor sheets down the neck of the cotton armor were arranged in alternating light and dark, one row outside and one row inside, and the best fabric in Liu Shizi's hands was used in the middle.

The third-rank official robes with dark patterns of crimson auspicious clouds are made of regular clothing.

The chest armor of the war horse is all hidden inside with dark armor, and the outside is the shining third-rank military officer Tiger Buzi.

He wants to use this vest to tell everyone that even if they enter Qinghai, they are still not Daming.

Walking to the vegetable cellar, Liu Chengzong asked Wu Panlong: "Ma Ke is still inside, I heard you calling the first seven when I entered the yard, what's the matter?"

He remembered Wu Panlong, this was a boy from Zhenyuan County, and he was also the first person in Zhenyuan County to belong to him. He had been his false county magistrate in Zhenyuan County before, and he did a good job.

He is a good equestrian, with some martial arts in riding and archery. He has never held any actual position on the way west with the brigade, and worked as an aide with Yang Dingrui for a while.

This is a person who can display his talents in a county, but Liu Shizi believes that he still needs to strengthen his military. In the future, he can be a person who dismounts to manage the people and mounts to govern the army.

After Wu Panlong saluted, he said: "Marshal, this Marco said just now that he used to be the general of the army and would lead troops. If he wanted to surrender, he asked me to report to him. I didn't report to him. He said that the first seven would come back to find him." I."

"Ah!"

Liu Chengzong stood by the window of the vegetable cellar and said, "You are a murderer, do you still believe that the first seven can come back?"

Ma Ke said in his heart that if he believed it, he still had another thought, but if he didn't believe it, he would lose nothing if he died!
But how dare he argue with Liu Shizi at this time, he quickly seized the opportunity and said: "Liu Shuai, I did something stupid, I figured it out in prison, don't kill me here, spare my life, I will kill you enemy!"

"What you said is the same as Lu Bu, I'm Cao Cao." Liu Chengzong smiled at Wu Panlong, and then asked in the cellar: "You want to understand, don't you kill me?"

"I assassinated the commander-in-chief to avenge General Li. I don't know that the commander-in-chief is tolerant and generous. General Li is alive and well. Why should I assassinate the commander-in-chief?"

Ah!
Liu Chengzong smiled and said: "Why did you go so early? You should have surrendered directly when you lost the battle. I heard that when you go back to the imperial court, you will also be dismissed from office. You have suffered a lot as a soldier, and you have to go back to your hometown... come out." .”

"Let him out."

"Let, let him out?"

Wu Panlong was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly responded and opened the cell door for Ma Ke.

Marko squinted his eyes and raised his hands to cover his face. He came out of the dark prison, which made his eyes hard to see for a while. When he came out, he bowed down and said, "Thank you, Commander, for your mercy. From now on, I will fight to the death to repay you." Thank you for not killing me!"

"Don't be so polite. It's me who should thank you for not killing me. If you assassinate me, you can still live." Liu Chengzong chuckled at Ma Ke and said, "Get up, thank General Li if you want to thank him, he said I will do it for you Please forgive me, now he has accepted my official position and is the commander-in-chief of the Chinese army."

After hearing the words, Ma Ke thanked him again, and just got up, when he saw the red flag in the vest of a third-rank military officer, his eyes almost popped out.

But maybe it was because he was a thief, he quickly came to his senses, regained his composure, and asked, "Where does the commander-in-chief plan to let the humble job go?"

"Where are you going? You didn't kill me, and you still want me to seek a general position?"

Liu Chengzong shook his head and said: "I didn't kill you because I begged for mercy, but you also said that you will fight to the death for me in the future, so you are now a soldier."

"But as long as you don't change your mind in the future, I can guarantee that you will expose the matter of assassinating me. From now on, everyone will be treated equally. If you have done something wrong, you will be punished, and if you have meritorious service, you will be rewarded."

Seeing that Ma Ke hesitated to speak, Liu Chengzong frowned and asked, "What's your question?"

"Marshal, soldiers..."

Ma Ke took a deep breath and asked what he wanted to ask the most: "Can the soldiers eat enough?"

After finishing speaking, he quickly shook his head: "I don't want an official position. The commander asked me to be a small team leader, as long as I can eat enough. I'm so hungry in Yulin."

"If it's because of this, you don't need to be the captain anymore, just be a soldier."

After Liu Chengzong finished speaking, he raised his chin proudly and said, "I'm not the emperor who dispatched hungry soldiers. Everyone can be full after following me."

　good afternoon!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)