The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

Chapter 35 Xingji is abandoned and Minggang is abnormal

May 25.

Liu Sheng took the cavalry team, which was increased to ten people, to meet Ma Jinliang at Dashui Pingzhai.

The new members of the cavalry team are coachman Yang Dagui and former guard soldier Ma Jinshui. Counting Liu Sheng, the cavalry team has 11 people.

Returning to Dashui Pingzhai ten days later, Liu Sheng found that there were even fewer people working in the fields. There were almost no pedestrians on the streets in the Walled City, and several of the few shops in the walled city were closed.

The few remaining shops that are open are probably owned by the Ma Jinliang family.

Arriving at Ma Jinliang's house, Liu Sheng handed over the mules and horses to Yang Dagui, Ma Jinshui and others to look after, while he took Wang Laowu, Shi Jincai, and Yang Kuiwu straight into the courtyard.

Ma Gui, who came to greet him after hearing the news, nodded and bowed, laughing along with him without daring to stop him in the slightest.

Ma Jinliang was a little surprised to see Liu Sheng and said, "Brother Liu, didn't he say we would meet outside the west gate of the village? Why did he come to my house so quietly?"

"Didn't I just stop by to take a look since you haven't arrived yet?"

Liu Sheng said, and he sat down on a back chair without any hesitation, not treating himself as an outsider at all.

After sitting down, he stared at Ma Jinliang and said, "If I hadn't come in to take a look, I really wouldn't have known that Brother Ma actually turned a deaf ear to what I said before."

Hearing Liu Sheng's unkind tone, Ma Jinliang wondered if Liu Sheng was staring at his neck at this time, and suddenly felt a chill on the back of his neck.

He thought Liu Sheng blamed him for starting late, and said a little aggrievedly: "How dare I turn a deaf ear to Brother Liu's words? I'm already ready and about to go out."

"Am I talking about going out?" Liu Sheng sneered.

"What's that?" Ma Jinliang was really confused for a moment.

Liu Sheng said: "The night I brought people back from Xingji, I had a drink with Brother Ma and asked Brother Ma not to keep so much money and food, but to use some of it for work as relief, to dig canals, dig weirs, and drill more wells.

But today I took a look inside the Walled City and asked people about it, only to find out that Brother Ma didn't do anything. "

After Ma Jinliang heard this, everyone was dumbfounded.

That night, Liu Sheng was drinking wine, holding his shoulders and talking like a casual conversation.In addition, the content seemed outrageous to him, so he thought it was a drunken joke made by Liu Sheng.

I never expected that Liu Sheng was serious!
A bandit leader actually taught a hundred households to provide work for relief and to dig canals and weirs. Isn't this a dog meddling in other people's business? !

Although he scolded Liu Sheng in his heart, Ma Jinliang did not dare to show any dissatisfaction. Instead, he slapped his forehead and said: "Brother Liu, you really can't blame me for this. What you said while drinking that night, I still I thought it was a joke."

Liu Sheng said: "I never joke about serious matters - this time when you come back from Minggang, you have to implement this matter."

"Okay, make sure to implement it." Ma Jinliang breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Liu Sheng handling it gently.

Liu Sheng stood up and said, "Brother Ma, since you are ready, don't be impatient. Let's take the people and set off."

"Listen to Brother Liu."

···
This time, Ma Jinliang followed Liu Sheng's request and brought four servants with him. Instead of riding in a sedan, Ma Jinliang rode a docile female mule.

Even Ma Gui changed his ride to a mule.

Because the Minggang Town that Liu Sheng was going to this time was far away, the distance was more than twice that of Xingji, which was about [-] miles.

Everyone set out at around eight o'clock in the morning, because it took three hours for everyone to arrive outside Minggang Town on mules and horses.

If you drive all the way, the speed is faster, and it will probably take more than two hours.

But it is not necessary.

On the one hand, the road is not smooth, and it is easy to encounter an ambush while rushing along; on the other hand, it consumes too much physical strength of the mules and horses, which is not conducive to dealing with dangers.

Stopping a mile or two north of Minggang Town, Ma Jinliang couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when he saw smoke rising from the town and there were still many pedestrians in the market at noon.

He took out a handkerchief and wiped the Han water mixed with dust on his face while saying, "Fortunately, fortunately, Minggang Town is not in ruins."

The reason why Ma Jinliang was so emotional was that when everyone passed by Xingji before, they found that Xingji, which was abnormally prosperous more than ten days ago, was ruined.

A small number of houses in the market were burned by fire and turned into ruins. Many shops and houses had broken doors and windows. There were no pedestrians on the street, and there were no more refugees gathering outside the street.Liu Sheng and his party rode in on mules and horses, and the survivors were so frightened that every family closed their doors.

Later, it was Wang Laowu who threatened him, so he called out an old man and asked why.

But on May [-]th, the day after Liu Sheng and others recruited refugees to leave, a group of bandits came from the south and took the refugees outside Xingji and ransacked the market.

According to the old man, there should be less than a hundred bandits in this group, but it seems that a woman is the leader.At first, it was said that they would only loot money and food from landlords and wealthy businessmen, leaving the poor people untouched.

But when thousands of refugees rushed into the market, things got out of hand.

Fortunately, the bandits were quite responsible. After eliminating the manpower of the Inspection Department and several large organizations in the market, they drove out the out-of-control refugees.

Unfortunately, the refugees were too ferocious, and the gangsters in Xingji took advantage of the situation to rob them. Even if it only took more than an hour, many houses in the market were broken into, and many people died.

The most important thing is that without the supervision of the inspection department and a few large families, Xingji has lost its order and security.

Many people were afraid that the bandits would come again, so they took their families and fled to relatives or fled south.

As a result, Xingji no longer held fairs, and it became the deserted market that Liu Sheng and others saw.

Through the experiences of Xingji and Maojiaji, we can know to what extent the bandits were wreaking havoc in the rural areas of Henan.

So on the way, Ma Jinliang was worried that Minggang Town would also be attacked by bandits and become dilapidated and deserted.If that were the case, he and Liu Sheng would have been here in vain.

If Liu Sheng wanted to sell treasures or recruit people, he would have no choice but to go to Queshan County.However, these days, a guard officer with hundreds of households, when he goes to the county seat, is no different from a rural landlord, he will be bullied and harmed...

When Ma Jinliang's thoughts changed, he heard Liu Sheng smile and say: "Minggang Town is not comparable to Maojiaji and Xingji. It is not so easy to be robbed by bandits."

Liu Sheng took two flights in Minggang before crossing over, and he knew something about this town.

It is bordered by the East Henan Plain to the north and Tongbai Mountain and Dabie Mountains to the south. It is also an important transportation artery for Xinyang Prefecture, Queshan, Tongbai, Biyang and Zhenyang.

It is also the only place that the Daguan Road must pass from Henan to the south of Yiyang Sanguan.

It has a long history dating back to the Western Zhou Dynasty. It has been a place of prosperous trade since ancient times and is one of the top famous commercial ports in Zhongzhou.

The tax revenue of such a famous commercial town may be higher than that of some counties, so it must be the focus of the Ming Dynasty officials.

Liu Sheng looked around at this time and saw that the buildings in the town were connected one after another, and there were four or five streets vertically, horizontally, and diagonally.

Although Liu Sheng has not been to any county town in the late Ming Dynasty, he feels that the scale of buildings in Minggang Town is estimated to have exceeded that of some county towns.

What surprised Liu Sheng was that there were no refugees visible outside Minggang Town.

However, there are 50 patrol archers (the general term for patrol patrol soldiers, not just archers) guarding the entrance of the town here, collecting taxes from pedestrians and business travelers entering the town, and conducting interrogations.

Liu Sheng took out his telescope and took a closer look, and found that these archers were actually divided into two parts.

There were fourteen or five people who were probably knife players, or servants. Most of them were sitting in the shack on the west side of the main road at the entrance of the town, drinking tea and eating melon seeds, and some were sleeping on the table.

These people were obviously stronger and stronger. They were all equipped with waist knives and felt hats. There were even a bunch of round shields placed next to them. Three of them also wore cloth armor.

There were another group of about 40 people, ten of whom were doing tax collection and inventory work, while the other 30 people were sitting or lying in the shacks on the east side of the road, and most of them were sleeping.

Some of these people are holding spears, and some are carrying bows and arrows. They don't look as strong as the sword players in the west. They should all be spearmen and archers.

However, in Liu Sheng's opinion, people on both sides have one thing in common, that is, lack of discipline and lack of vigilance.

If bandits want to attack Minggang Town, they only need to organize a ten-man cavalry team, and there is a high probability that they can defeat the patrol archers at the entrance of the town and rush in.

Just as Liu Sheng was looking at these archers with his binoculars, dozens of people who looked like refugees were staggering in from the northeast.

Some of the archers who were investigating immediately stepped forward to stop the refugees.

At the same time, a dozen archers in the shacks on the east side were awakened and walked toward the refugees with long spears and bows and arrows on their backs.

The scene that happened next made Liu Sheng roughly understand why there were no refugees gathering outside Minggang Town.

　Thanks for the reward of 100 starting coins from [The Demon in Heart]!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)