Great Warriors of Sui and Tang Dynasties

Chapter 1106 Eight Claws
The clarified river is named Maoming Water, which is five hundred miles long and flows into the sea in the south. The source is the destination of Liu Rengui's trip, Huaide County, Yongxi County.

There were about 200 people on Liu Rengui's trip, including more than [-] Habayashi, a hundred soldiers from the government that Li Jingba gave him, and dozens of Lingnan natives like Ah Fa.

The farther north you go, the narrower the river is, and the water becomes shallower.

On both sides of the river with nine bends and eighteen bends, the mountains are not high, but there are many. The undulating hills seem to be many giant beasts running on the flat ground.

"There is a legend that is true. It is said that there was a nine-day goddess who drove many giant beasts to the beach to drink water. As a result, many crops and villages were destroyed when passing by, so a god gave a great supernatural power to turn all these giant beasts into Mountains of rock and earth."

Liu Rengui chuckled.

At this moment, horns sounded in the mountains and fields that were suddenly heard.

"Buffalo horn." Ah Fa said immediately.

Liu Rengui's men subconsciously pressed the horizontal knife at his waist, and Ah Fa laughed, "Don't panic, it should be Luo Douman who discovered us."

Sure enough, the horns sounded one after another, and it was even possible to hear that they were passing each other.

Soon, the drums sounded again.

The war drums corresponded to the horns, and the soldiers of the Huaide camp on the Jiangli boat had already raised their shields and picked up their bows and crossbows.

"Listen to the voice, this is not a warning, nor does it mean war, it should be a welcome."

Liu Rengui was dubious, "Can you still hear this?"

"Naturally, commanders, don't worry. Luo Douman has already gone to Li Shuai's side to surrender. There is absolutely no reason to make trouble now. The Great Qin Heavenly Army is mighty, and they dare not."

The ship slowed down.

"Ahead is Huaide County."

Huaide City County is on the banks of the Maoming River. Although Huaide County has a history of more than a hundred years, it has been just a prison before, to control the barbarians in Luodou Baidong.

Later, during the Sui Dynasty, Chen Longshu and his son opened the frontier, set up a county government in Da'andong, named Huaide, and sent members of the Chen clan to serve as county magistrates.

However, the bureaucrats in Zhudong under their jurisdiction neither naturalized nor taxed, but the Chen family began to center on the county government, established a stronghold here, stationed private soldiers, set up a market, and gradually attracted the bureaucrats They came to trade, collected the city tax, and sent people to reclaim the fields. It was at that time that the Afa family came to Huaide.

Later, Chen's father and son were kicked out of this area because of their participation in the rebellion, and the slang chief Tan Dian became the leader of the tribal alliance in this area. Later, when the Qin army came, Tan Dian was transferred to Yulin, and Feng Xuan came to serve as the prefect.

The last time Feng Xuan rebelled, Chen Longshu, the prefect of Cangwu, came back again and united with many scumbags to seize Yongxi County, but soon the Qin army quelled the rebellion and transferred Chen Longshu to Guilin to serve as the commander of the governor.

"Actually, no matter how these prefects change, this place has always been the territory of the sluts. The biggest force in the nearby counties is the Luodoudong Alliance, which consists of more than 100 caves."

According to what Ah Fa said, although the Liao people are the largest ethnic group in south of the Five Ridges, in fact, the Liao people are not a whole, not to mention the fact that there are different groups of Liao people, even if they belong to different tribes of the Liao people, they are still classified according to their regions. Tribal alliances were formed one after another, and the alliances governed more or less Xidong, and those alliances often fought with each other. Therefore, it was the civil strife of these Baiyue people that made the Han people who went southward gradually live in the village. Lingnan has gained a firm foothold and is becoming more and more powerful.

Most of today's local officials retreat to the mountains, and those plains have instead become the territory of local Han people like Afa and the like.

After Feng Xuan's death, Chen Longshu was transferred away, and his private soldiers were also evacuated. Therefore, the current Huaide County is actually empty, with no officials and soldiers, and it is managed by the Luo Doudong Alliance.

The ship has not yet landed.

There are already many people standing at the riverside pier by the county seat.

Buffalo horns and bronze drums are still beating.

As the sound spread far and wide, many Luo Douliaos were coming.

"This bronze drum is found in every village. Once it is sounded, it is unusual. The Liao people can use the bronze drum to express alarms, assembly, etc., and the Liao people outside can distinguish the drum order after hearing it. Now this is the assembly drum order, so People are coming."

The boat approaches the shore.

More than a dozen shirtless, short-haired Liao people with various patterns on their bodies jumped off the Jiangchao boat. Liu Rengui was always on high alert, but when they got to the side of the boat, they just pushed the boat to the shore.

"It's them welcoming you and showing that you are their valued guest."

Liu Rengui was a little relieved.

Ah Fa was the first to jump off the boat and go ashore.

As soon as he landed, he loudly announced Liu Rengui's identity in vernacular.

"The Commander of Huaide Battalion, Weifu, Yongxi County, Guangdong Road, South of the Great Qinling Mountains, Liu Gong, the commander of Huairen School, has arrived, and all the bureaucrats have come to pay their respects!"

Dozens of Liao people with broken hair and tattoos, which are almost the same as Ah Fa, came over. Some of them were dressed in silk but barefoot, some were wearing hats but shirtless, with various animal tattoos on their bodies. Some are lightning, some are spiders, snakes and ants, etc. It makes people uncomfortable to watch.

The leader is about 50 years old, short in stature, but very strong, with a beam crown on his head and a green robe on his body.

He introduced himself as Bazhuo, the county magistrate of Huaide.

He spoke vernacular, and Ah Fa translated for him.

"Who appointed this acting county magistrate?" Liu Rengui asked.

A-Fa communicated with Bazhuo, "It was appointed by Chen Longshu after the capture of Yongxi, and the previous county magistrate was appointed by Feng Xuan, who was killed by Bazhuo."

"Then does this person have Li Shuai's letter of appointment?"

"No."

Liu Rengui nodded, "Since there is no letter of appointment for the Xuanfu Envoy of Lingnan Jinglue, from now on, he will no longer act as the county magistrate of Huaide. The city of Dexian County and the county government are temporarily taken over by my Huaide Camp, and according to the court system, Liu Rengui, the commander of Huaide Camp, acts as the county magistrate temporarily."

Translated by Afa.

Bazhuo's complexion was a bit unsightly, and he even talked a lot to Ah Fa excitedly, as if to curse someone.

"What did he say?" Liu Rengui asked with a serious face.

Ah Fa hurriedly said, "Bazhuo said that he respects the imperial system and obeys the orders of the new county magistrate Liu Gong."

"That's not the original story, is it?"

Ah Fa smiled, "He is a little unhappy, but he still obeys Mr. Liu."

"That's fine."

The team enters the city.

Liu Rengui was very disappointed to find that the so-called Huaide county town was actually a big village with neither city walls nor gates, only a simple wooden fence, no more than one person tall.

From the looks of it, there are only a few hundred families in the county.

And after the last rebellion and seizure of the city, there were not many people in the county.

"School Liu, Bazhuo said that the city has just experienced a war and is very dilapidated with few people. He invited Mr. Liu to go to their village first, and he wants to host a banquet for Mr. Liu."

Liu Rengui didn't want to go.

Ah Fa reminded him that now in Huaide County, the chief commander of Luodoudong, Bazhuo, is the real local tyrant, and he cannot be offended. Besides, to build the Huaide barracks, he has to borrow Bazhuo's officials.

"Okay, let's go for a walk and see what their village looks like."

Ba Zhuo finally looked a little better when he heard Ah Fa say that Principal Liu was willing to show face.

He had the buffalo horn blow again, and the bronze drum again.

The Liao women danced and sang in unison, and the Liao men carried all kinds of knives, axes, bows and arrows and sang along.

For a while the singing was loud.

Looking at this scene, Liu Rengui finally understood that he had entered the wild world.

"Eat betel nuts!"

Bazhuo handed something over and said it in Central Plains Chinese.

Liu Rengui was surprised.

"Liu Gong, this is betel nut. People in Lingnan love to eat betel nut and treat guests with it. They pick it up with Fuliu green leaves and add lime, put it in your mouth and chew it. It's very refreshing." Ah Fa explained on the sidelines. .

Liu Rengui took it dubiously, looked at the betel nut wrapped in green leaves and dipped in white syrup, tried to put it in his mouth, chewed it a few times, and felt a strange and unspeakable taste directly on his forehead. He almost fainted, he almost thought it was someone who poisoned him.

It can be seen that Ah Fa also took one and put it in his mouth, chewing it with gusto, and even immediately refreshed, Liu Rengui endured and chewed a few more times.

"Good thing, good thing, betel nut." The eight claws seemed to be able to speak very simple Chinese, and gestured with a smile.

Liu Rengui thought to himself, if this is a good thing, he will see a ghost, but he forced a smile out of face.

Following Liao all the way into the mountain, he soon came to a hillside, where there was a large stockade.

"This is a dry fence. The humidity in Lingnan is heavy, and there are many insects and snakes, so the local people build this kind of dry fence to live in."

This kind of dry fence is actually a bamboo or wooden building, with pillars on the bottom, but the bottom is suspended, people live on the upper floor, and pigs are raised on the empty bottom floor.

The black and autumnal pigs roam freely in the stockade with the patterned pigs.

There are many children and old people in the village. Liu Rengui found that most of those old women also had face tattoos on their faces. Ah Fa introduced that this is embroidered face, and married women can embroider face.

Men, on the other hand, get tattoos when they become adults, and they will have some kind of beast tattooed on their bodies.

They used to have their hair cut short, shirtless or barefoot, and some had feathers on their heads.

As the chief of the alliance of more than 100 Liaodong, Bazhuo's house is also a dry fence, even compared with other people's dry fences, it is only slightly larger.

There are also pigs under his dry pen, which is also dirty.

However, this stockade is very large, with about a thousand stilts, which means that there must be at least three to four thousand people in this stockade.

Compared with the ruined village-like county that I saw just now, this place seems to be Huaide County.

The thousand-jin bronze drum in the village lifted the drum cover, and then it started to ring.

A group of officials played the gourd sheng, and the women began to sing and dance again.

"These people are really carefree and happy." Liu Rengui couldn't help sighing.

With feathers on their heads, bare feet, holding hands, singing and dancing, they are indeed very carefree.

"Captain Liu, don't think that these people are really warm and hospitable to guests. Many Liao tribes still retain the custom of cannibalism. They will hunt and kill their enemies, and then cook them for dinner. Even in some tribes, He will even kill his first-born son and entertain relatives and friends."

Liu Rengui was dumbfounded, what kind of person actually killed his eldest son and entertained relatives and friends?
When his eyes returned to those singing and dancing Liao people, he was no longer as relaxed as before, and he even felt a little goosebumps all over his body.

"Don't worry, Principal Liu. Luo Douman has no cannibalism. They are very good at mining and smelting copper and iron. Especially the bronze drums they make are famous in the south of the Five Ridges, and they are very exquisite."

(End of this chapter)