Water Margin: Lu Bu sits on Mount Liang

Chapter 7
Raindrops finally came down in the gloomy sky, but before anyone could tell where the rain was heavy, the rain stopped and retracted into the dark clouds.

When Lu Bu returned to the courtyard, the treasure boxes piled up were still being moved out for loading.I could only hear bursts of depressing crying and the faint smell of blood lingering in my nose. I saw Gao Chenggu's body thrown in a corner Gada in a blink of an eye. Obviously, Bali Haili had obeyed his orders to kill him. up.

It was his death that made the rest of Gao's family panic, especially Gao Chenggu's wife and concubine, who huddled together and cried with red and swollen eyes and did not dare to cry loudly, so they could only comfort each other non-stop.

It's just that I don't know that when there is alive, these women will not be so harmonious.

After waiting for a long time, a horse thief came to report: "Boss, everything is ready."

Lu Bu nodded, and stepped out first: "Take all the men."

"Boss, don't you bring any girls?" A horse thief looked at Gao Chenggu's female relatives and swallowed.

"I'll give you money to visit brothels when I go back, and these girls won't bring it with me, so as not to let the news go." Lu Bu glanced at him, but didn't blame him.

If usual, if the subordinates wanted to rob women, they would just rob them. However, they would take the grain truck all the way back.

The horse thieves behind looked at the female relatives regretfully. Because of the two firefights, they did not dare to oppose Lu Bu, and hurriedly pushed the males to follow.

All of a sudden, there were only a few women left in the courtyard of Gao's family, and the horse thief was gone. The women wept and cursed loudly, and they didn't know whether they were crying for Gao Lizheng or the money and food that had been robbed.

After leaving Gao’s house, I saw a group of horse thieves waiting in front of the door on horseback carrying grain. Behind them was a cart full of grain. The farmer divides the food.

Seeing the smiles on the faces of those dealers, and the way they bowed gratefully to themselves and others, many horse thieves involuntarily straightened their waists. Since they stepped on the green forest road, they all saw fear and panic. , Have you ever been respected by others?

Even Lu Bu was there in a daze.He just felt that it was a pity to burn the food and grass because he was not in the war, but he didn't expect to gain a wave of popular support, so he was a little overwhelmed by this novelty.

He only saw this look when he defeated the Hulu when Bingzhou was a frontier army. After that, he spent more time in the barracks and had less contact with the bottom. Until he entered Luoyang to become a marquis and worship general, he ate less human fireworks.Later, when he moved to the Central Plains, the common people either ignored him or feared him. How did they ever face him with such a smile?

Is the popular will so easy to satisfy?Support whoever feeds them?Why hasn't it been discovered before?That's right, at that time there was not enough food for the army, so there was no way to distribute it to the people.

Lu Bu remained silent, quietly watching the fiery scene in front of him.

"Brother." Deng Fei came over at this moment and said, "These people want to join us."

Lu Bu raised his eyes and saw seventeen or eight dealers standing behind Deng Fei, all dressed in tatters, with earthy faces and thin figures.

After a moment of silence, Lu Bu asked a question he would never have asked before: "Why do you want to join?"

"I can't survive." The leader grinned his yellow teeth, and said with a bitter smile: "Haha, I don't have much income for a year, and I have to be squeezed by Li Zheng and tax officials. It's better to be happy with the kings." .”

Lu Bu squinted his eyes, and said in a deep voice: "Now that all of you are dead, you still have food to share with you. Each household can get at least ten stones of grain, so you still want to follow me?"

The several dealers looked at each other, and it was still the leader who said: "Your Majesty is merciful."

As he said, he cupped his hands, and continued: "However, this is useless. Maybe it can relieve the emergency, but when the government knows the news, I'm afraid it will be too much to keep [-]% of the food."

Lu Bu frowned, as if he didn't believe it. Is the Liao Kingdom exploiting so hard?
Deng Fei saw Lu Bu's doubts on the side, and said with emotion: "This is the way of the world now, officials and subordinates exploit layer upon layer, everyone stretches out their hands, and treats the people as mud under their feet."

Lu Bu asked in his heart when he heard the words, "Is this the case in the Liao Kingdom?"

Deng Fei shook his head and said with a sneer: "The same is true in the Song Dynasty. In the eyes of these officials and lords, only those rich and powerful families are the people, and the rest are just mud legs, inferior people attached to the big families. It's just that the Han people in the Liao Kingdom lived more. Feel aggrieved."

Lu Bu was silent, how imagined this is like the big man, the gentry controls most of the resources, the people have to work for the gentry, and even many poor families have to rely on the aristocratic family, even the people in the "world of people who win the hearts of the people" as the sages said, It also refers to the gentry rather than the common people.

Why do these princes have to get the support of the family, not only because of money and food, their hidden population is the largest source of the army, but also the talents who govern the place, and these people need to nod to enter the administrative system, otherwise they can use some means Make it difficult for those who come to be officials to move.

Lu Bu understood this very well. In Xuzhou, due to the non-cooperation of Xuzhou gentry, he never had much money, food and soldiers, let alone talents. It was not until Cao Cao came in and faced his death that he knew that the Chen family, the largest family in Xuzhou, had been in Plot against him, resulting in his defeat and death.

"Follow me and you may die." Lu Bu's eyes were a little inexplicable. In the past, he would accept these people without even asking, and he would even recruit the young men of other dealers if possible. Today, for some reason, he is so talkative.

"That's better than being exploited. Besides, we have only one life left. We have nothing to worry about, and we can be happy following the king." Several dealers said with a smile.

A smile appeared on Lu Bu's cold face, he looked at several people and asked, "Can you drive a cart or ride a horse?"

"I'll drive."

"I can do it too."

"I do not know."

Lu Bu nodded, and told Deng Fei: "For a while, let the brothers who can drive the car help drive the car, and those who can't sit in the car and take it with them."

"Yes." Deng Fei nodded.

Everyone was overjoyed: "Thank you, Your Majesty."

Finally, many farmers brought all the food back to their homes with smiles like ants moving house.

Seeing that they had nothing to do, Lu Bu and the others reluctantly took a last look at the Gao family's house that had "sent" a large amount of supplies to them, waved their horsewhip, and started their journey home.

……

Drink Machuan.

The clean air in the past is now full of the smell of blood, and the turquoise grass is stained with dark red blood.

Amidst the thunderous shouts of killing, soldiers with sharp blades followed the armored generals in front of them and rushed through the damaged wall. Bandits with savage faces rushed over with knives and were cut in half by the generals.

The waving battle flag gradually occupied the sight of the Yinmachuan bandits as the soldiers entered. Baomi Sheng kept roaring and adjusted his formation to provide support to Yelu Zongyun and Yelu Zonglei in front, so as not to prevent them from being separated from the brigade. out of touch.

Not long after, he saw three general flags appearing not far away. It was obvious that Tian Shanyong, who had attacked the Houzhai, led the Yelu brothers to break through the Houzhai gate.

The front and rear flanking teams gradually converged, and the gangsters in messy clothes were gradually divided into several small circles by several fierce generals.

"Abandon weapons and surrender!"

"Abandon weapons and surrender!"

With the winning ticket in his hands, Baomi Sheng yelled loudly, and then more officers and soldiers began to yell at the bandits in order to put down their weapons.

Yeluzongyun's four brothers were in a hurry, if these bandits gave up their resistance and surrendered, wouldn't they have nothing to fight with them?
He couldn't help but strengthened his hands, swung the blade more bravely, and chopped down a few more at once, and the rest became more flustered, throwing away the blade in their hands, and shouted: "May I surrender, don't kill me! May I surrender!"

"Bah! You are a coward!"

Yelu Zonglin resentfully took back the knife in his hand.

The bandit minion who was almost hacked by him widened his eyes, panting as he watched the blade leave him.

"Live... survived..."

Minion's legs softened and he knelt on the ground.

"Everyone immediately cleaned the battlefield, counted the prisoners, and collected the corpses."

Baomi Sheng handed down the new order, while he walked over on the blood-colored soil.

Yelv Dezhong rode a tall war horse slowly into the village, the heavy horse passed by, and the blood that was squeezed out of the hoofprints seeped down again.

"Finally the fight is over, this group of bandits is quite tenacious." Yelude said in admiration, and glanced at the battlefield. Although the victory was won, the soldiers on their side were still "half dead" even though they were excited, and some even went to the ground sat down.

Baomisheng leaned over and echoed: "What the commander said is that he thought that a bandit camp could be destroyed like a ruin, but he didn't expect to fight for so long."

Yelu laughed again, but he lamented in his heart. In the past, there were countless soldiers in Daliao, whether it was tribal troops or Han soldiers, they were used to fighting.It took only a few hours for today's battle to show an exhausted attitude. We know that the military equipment of the southern states and counties has been so slack, and it seems that it will not be a day's work to regain the glory of the past.

Just as he was thinking, he heard the voices of his sons.

"I killed thirteen in this battle."

"What's the matter, I killed seventeen."

"Bah! I have twenty."

"I'm fifty!"

"I am one hundred!"

"I..."

The corners of Yelv Chong's eyes twitched. If these rebellious sons continue to argue, the bandits will be stuck in here. With a headache, he said to the soldiers: "Let those rebellious sons come here quickly, it's a shame."

……

Xingtang County Yamen.

Cui Ming had just finished his instructions on the official document, and picked up the tea bowl and took a sip. This is the way of ordering tea in the Song Dynasty specially learned by his wife for him. It tastes special and suits his appetite.

"Master, master!" The voice of Uncle Zhang, the housekeeper, came from outside.

Cui Ming put down the tea bowl strangely, looked up, and saw Uncle Zhang running in in a panic, panting and said: "Master...Master, Huhu...It's not good, someone came to report just now, saying yes Horse bandits looted Bodi Village, and my wife's brother and family were killed."

"Ah?" Cui Ming was shocked: "Gao Chenggu and his son are dead."

"That's what the messenger said." Uncle Zhang raised his sleeve and wiped his sweat.

"How is Madam now?" Cui Ming asked again.

"I didn't dare to tell Madam, because I was afraid that the news would be too irritating to her, so I hurried to tell you." Uncle Zhang said with a wry smile.

"That's right, that's right, you're right, don't tell Madam yet." Cui Ming nodded repeatedly, and suddenly remembered something: "Quick, get your horse ready, I'm going to have a look over there."

"Hey." Uncle Zhang agreed and went.

A fast horse carried Cui Ming out of the county government office and headed straight for Bodi Village. Not long after, a mournful roar resounded through the Gao family's granary: "Damn thief, how dare you ruin our family's important affairs!"

(End of this chapter)