Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 87 Suffering
Longxing Temple, also known as Huangjue Temple, was built in the 16th year of Hongwu. It is revered throughout the Ming Dynasty and is known as a holy temple.

When the temple was first built, it was large in scale, covering an area of ​​1282.5 mu. It was said that "monks ride horses to close the mountain gate". The temple was built by famous craftsmen in Zhongdu, with fine carvings and regulations. one.

The scale of the temples and pavilions is extremely magnificent.There are 380 rooms of Buddhist halls, dharma halls, and monk's houses.In addition, Taizu personally wrote the imperial Longxing Temple inscription, and the imperial script "First Mountain" stele, which further increased the majesty of Longxing Temple.

When thieves invaded Fengyang Mansion in the eighth year of Chongzhen, Longxing Temple was severely damaged. More than [-] houses in the temple were burned down, the inscription of Emperor Taizu was also burned, and all the monks in the temple fled.

Longxing Temple has now become a large construction site. Thousands of soldiers and civilians are working hard under the command of craftsmen and foremen. These civilians are recruited from the counties under the jurisdiction of Fengyang Prefecture. Some officers and soldiers of the guard.

At the back of a burned hall, several soldiers were resting lying on their backs. A thin and capable young officer in his 20s was concentrating on chopping a short piece of wood, chopping back and forth with the long sharp dagger in his hand. , Sawdust was flying, and a decent, small and exquisite horizontal knife gradually took shape.

A 30-year-old soldier lying on his back, with his hands behind his head, squinting his eyes at the sky with his legs crossed, said, "Boss, your brothers and sisters really don't know how to cook. The dry noodles they bake are delicious It’s chewy, served with a pickled radish, tsk tsk...that’s the life of the gods! It’s just a little bit missing, the one that was given to me, I swallowed it in my stomach before I thought about the taste Yes, alas!"

"Get out! There are ten fucking cakes in total, and you grandsons snatched most of them. They will share one piece, and you will eat one piece by yourself, it's not enough, right?"

The young officer put down his belongings and cursed with a smile, and the soldiers beside him also began to boo: "Zhang Laosan is as edible as a pig, and you eat the most whenever there is good food!"

"Leader Zheng, let me see, Zhang Laosan is not thinking about noodles, but about my sister-in-law, hehe~"

"I also think so. This guy is always a brother and sister. He is several decades old, and he can't get a wife. This is a good thing! Haha!"

Zhang Laosan didn't feel disobedient at all, and said triumphantly: "You bastards know nothing. I don't marry a wife because I'm afraid of trouble. I'm used to it. If I marry a wife, I have to have children to support the family. Thinking about it makes me panic !Look at how happy I am now. One person is full and the whole family is not hungry. I am paid money. I can spend whatever I want. I am happy like a fairy."

The young officer is Li Shuchun, the captain of Fengyang Zhongwei, who has been a military household in Fengyang Zhongwei for generations. He married the Zhao family who is also a military household. His wife gave him a pair of children. His son Xiaohu is five years old. To get a gun, Li Shuchun found a piece of good wood to sharpen a small wooden knife for him while he was resting, and brought it back.

Hearing Zhang Laosan mentioned the salary, Li Shuchun couldn't help but feel a sinking heart. The Zhongwei he was in hadn't paid the salary for several months.
Relying on his exquisite carpentry skills, he secretly made furniture for some big families to maintain his current life of food and clothing.

But most of the soldiers have no skills, except for the poor food and salary that is sometimes not available, either their wives do some needlework to subsidize the family, or they rely on their parents and brothers to help them get by. Li Shuchun usually donates money The subordinates of the same team.

A soldier said bitterly: "I heard people say that it's not that the imperial court didn't allocate food and pay, but that when we arrived in Weili, those gentlemen were short-changed! We can't even eat bran and vegetables, and the gentlemen are hungry for fish and meat. Tired of eating! Bah! This is a dog!"

"That's right! Why should they be short of the salary given to us by the imperial court? I don't accept it!"

"My daughter-in-law followed me, and she ate a full meal of white noodles on the day of the wedding. I feel sorry for her even thinking about it!"

"Usually I work for the imperial court and take care of sorghum rice, but this time I have to bring my own food!"

"I heard that the dog eunuch and Chen Hongzu resold all the military rations issued by the court!"

"Hou Dingguo's little dog followed him a lot!"

Zhang Laosan sat up, sighed deeply, and said, "Er Gouzi, I still have dozens of copper coins hidden in my camp tent. After finishing the work, you can use it first, and return it to me when you have it." !"

Li Ergou was the soldier who said that his daughter-in-law had only eaten a full meal of white noodles. Hearing what Zhang Laosan said, his eyes turned red, and he hurriedly said: "I can't do it! I still owe the third brother dozens of copper coins. How can I ask for your money, I don't have that shameless method!"

"Fart! If you want face, let your daughter-in-law have enough to eat! The eldest daughter married you just to drink northwest wind with you? Your daughter-in-law has a big belly, how can you give birth to a baby if you don't eat enough!? Talking nonsense, I will beat you! Wait to get the money from me!" Zhang Laosan said angrily.

Li Ergou's eyes were full of tears, he was both guilty and touched, he was speechless, and the rest of the people had been taken care of by Zhang Laosan more or less, and they were all very grateful to him, knowing that he It's just a bad mouth, but a very soft heart.

Li Shuchun said: "Ergou, when did your wife get pregnant? Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

Li Ergou reached out his hand to wipe away the tears that flowed out, lowered his head and said, "It's been about two months. I vomited after eating a few days ago. I thought I was sick. I found a doctor to see it, and then I realized that I was happy."

Li Shuchun said: "Come back from work, follow me to my house, I still have some rough noodles, you take some back, and bring a few chickens to supplement your daughter-in-law, a woman cannot lack nutrients when she is happy!"

The tears that Li Ergou just wiped away poured out again. He sobbed and said, "Captain, I will never be able to repay the kindness you and Brother Zhang San have done to me in this life! I just sometimes think, when will this hard life be the end of it all?" Boss! Will our children and grandchildren continue to be poor like this? Why is this?!"

Everyone on the field was silent, Li Shuchun looked up at the sky, a few white clouds slowly drifted past, suddenly his nose felt sour, and a tear slowly fell from the corner of his eye.

At this moment, there was a sudden commotion in front of the main hall, and a soldier hurried over to check it out. After a while, he hurried back and said anxiously: "Team is, someone is beating Wang Mutou!"

Li Shuchun quickly raised his hand to wipe away the tears, and while walking quickly, sheathed the dagger, put it in his arms together with the wooden knife, and asked, "Who beat him? How many people?"

"It's Hou Dingguo's subordinate!"

"Go! Take a look!"

Zhang Laosan and others followed closely behind, and several people rushed to the front of the hall together.Wang Mutou was also in Li Shuchun's team, and he was honest and dull. Li Shuchun and the others went to the back of the palace to be lazy after working for a while. Only Wang Mutou and the other honest soldiers were still working. If the construction deadline is missed, the Shangguan will punish him, and Li Shuchun can only let them go.

Everyone rushed to the front of the hall, only to see several men in short and brown shirts beating Wang Mutou and others with wooden sticks in their hands. There was a muffled sound on the body.

Li Shuchun yelled: "Shut up!" He stepped forward a few strides and glared at the assailant.

Those who beat people were just a few of Hou Dingguo's followers. They were in charge of patrolling the construction site everywhere, but they beat them with wooden sticks. No matter whether they were civilians or soldiers, none of them dared to resist. Arrogant.

These few people inspected the place where Li Shuchun and the others were working, and happened to see Wang Mutou and others stop their work to drink water. This group of green skins are all aggressive and ruthless, looking for trouble when they see this situation. After smashing it with a wooden stick, Wang Mutou and others were blinded all at once. They just stopped to drink some water.

Several people saw someone rushing over, so they stopped beating. A Qingpi imitated Hou Dingguo, squinted at Li Shuchun and the others, and said in an indifferent way: "Which onion are you? Can the untouchables get ahead? Don't you know who we are?"

Li Shuchun said coldly: "Someone is the leader of the Fengyang Central Guard, these people are not untouchables, but subordinates of a certain person, they are the imperial army! Who gave you the courage to beat the officers and soldiers?"

The Qingpi was taken aback when he heard the words, turned his head and exchanged a look with his accomplices, then burst out laughing, and the other Qingpis also couldn't stop laughing wildly.

"What a fucking joke! When did the military households who cultivated the land become officers and soldiers? Why didn't you see you when the bandits attacked Fengyang? Hahaha! I'm so happy! Return the officers and soldiers! Pooh!"

Li Shuchun and the others all turned dark, but they were speechless.When the bandits invaded Fengyang, their superiors took the lead in fleeing, and the general lost all morale when he fled. Even if they wanted to resist, they couldn't help themselves. They could only flee to other places with their families and retreat after the bandits robbed them. , They returned to Fengyang.

"You thieves and military households, you can't fight a war, and you are lazy in your work, it's your mother's fault!" The leader, Qing Pi, yelled with one hand on his hips and a stick in the other.

At this time, many soldiers of the Fengyang Zhongwei came to surround them. They have been in the same guard for generations, and many of them are related to each other. Seeing the conflict here, they rushed over instinctively to see what it was. What is the situation.

Li Shuchun said angrily, "Try to curse again!"

"Thief army household! Thief army household! A thief army household who eats soil all his life!" These green skins don't care about these guard soldiers. Even if the commander Chen Hongzu sees them on weekdays, it will be for Hou Dingguo's sake Be polite to them, let alone these soldiers who are inferior to pigs and dogs in their eyes.

The soldiers gathered around had formed a circle, and after hearing what had happened, and seeing these people yelling arrogantly, they were very angry.

After the renovation of the imperial mausoleum started, Hou Dingguo took this group of people around. Many people were beaten and scolded by them, but they dared not speak up. Today, when they saw Li Shuchun stand up to confront these people, they all applauded secretly .

A stone the size of a baby's fist suddenly flew out from the crowd of onlookers, and it hit the Qingpi's forehead named Cursing Unceasingly, causing stares in his eyes and dizziness, and then a stream of blood flowed down his forehead .

The Qingpi yelped in pain, felt his face become hot, stretched out his hand to wipe it, turned his hand and saw that it was covered with blood, immediately became furious, and shouted loudly: "Who threw it? How dare you hit me! Are you going to rebel? !"

(End of this chapter)