Late Tang

Li Jing rode a black war horse 'Yi Zhang Hei', carried a horn bow, a seven-foot sword, a horizontal knife, and a horse spear, and led Zhang Chengzong, Liu Shouqian and eighteen young and hungry people to the north gate.When they arrived at the north gate, a large number of villagers had already gathered under the village wall of the north gate.Lin Wei, Lin Wu, and Wang Zhong also all dressed up and rode their horses to arrive, but the eight of them, Xiao Shitou, arrived one step earlier, also wearing iron armor and armed with spears, they went up to the village wall.

The villagers were all worried when they heard the alarm bell. Village head Wang Lao and Shugen village head saw Li Jing approaching, and they immediately surrounded him. "Sanlang, could it be bandits and bandits? Shuanzi said that there are more than 100 people, all of whom are tall and powerful." That Shuanzi is a slave of the old village chief's family, and he often does some shopping. Things, can be regarded as a more flexible person.Seeing Li Jing looking at him, he immediately said: "Those people are gathered on the road in front of the Xinluo Mansion, and I saw many of them with bows and sabers, and some with spears."

Hearing this, Li Jing felt a little confused: "Those people gathered in front of the mansion with their weapons?" After receiving a clear answer, Li Jing already ruled out more than [-]% of the possibility that the bandits were coming. .If it was bandits, they would most likely come quietly after dark. It is impossible to come here in broad daylight with open flames and staffs, and they actually gathered in front of the Shilla Mansion, which is only a few miles away from Chishan Army Town. .

Lin Wei's marriage with the fourth sister has now gone through the matchmaker and the dowry, and even the zodiac day of marriage has been set on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month.In a few days, Lin Weike and Li Jing will be a real family.He and Li Jing looked at each other and saw that he had the same thoughts as himself. "Sanlang, I don't think these people are bandits, why don't Erlang and I ride horses to investigate."

"Alright, you two, be careful, don't get too close to them, check them from a distance and come back quickly."

"I know, if these people are really bandits, then I will let Erlang come back first, and I will go directly to Chishan Town to ask for reinforcements. If the people who come are friends rather than enemies, I will come back first and notify." Lin Wei and Li Jing discussed a After a simple countermeasure, Xiao Shitou and the others opened the village gate and rode away with Lin Wu.

The old village chief stepped forward and said: "Sanlang, if it is really a bandit, the old man and all the old and young in the village will fight the bandit to the end, and you will lead everyone. As long as you pass on the number, we will all listen to you." Li Jing nodded: "You don't have to say that, Shi Bo, this Wang Li Village is also Li Jing's Wang Li Village, if the ones who come are thieves, I will definitely wait until the reinforcements arrive. In fact, you don't have to worry too much, our Wang Li Village Li Village has a village wall of nearly two feet, and there are more than a hundred young men in the village, and these weapons, even if the bandits are counted, Chishan Town is so close, we can insist on reinforcements."

"Brother Wang, don't all guard the north gate of the village. If the ones who come are thieves, we have to wait at least two or three hours before Chishan's soldiers can arrive. So I will guard the north gate, and you will divide some to guard the east gate. Wang Li There are only two village gates in the village, as long as they are well guarded, horse thieves with more than a hundred horses will not do anything." Wang Zhong said: "I listen to you."

Wang Zhong chose the village chief Shugen who had been the leader of the team as his deputy, and picked out three armed and armored men, including Xiao Shishi, and then picked fifty village chiefs with sticks to rush to the east gate.Li Jing directed the rest of the people to set up an iron pot under the village wall to boil water and hot oil, and moved some stones and wood to the village wall.He also arranged for Zhang Chengzong, Liu Shouqian and a few other archers to share their bows and arrows, and told them to ignore other things and just follow his instructions. When the bandits approached, they would shoot people first and horses first, and especially asked to pick the neighbors to shoot.Li Jing believed that no matter how powerful the horse thief was, if the leader was killed, he would still be able to deter him.

When everything was about to be arranged, Zhang Chengzong, who climbed on the long log of more than four feet temporarily erected in the wall and watched, immediately shouted: "Here they are."

"See clearly, how many people are here?"

"There are more than 100 numbers. The front ones are all on horseback, and there are more than a dozen carriages in the back, and some trucks."

"Did you see Big Brother Lin or Second Brother Lin?"

"It's too far away, I don't know if they are with those people, but there are no other people beside their team."

Li Jing frowned, why didn't Lin Wei and Lin Wu send someone back to report the news as agreed in advance?Could it be that they fell into the hands of bandits? It seems impossible with their brother's skills.Just guessing wildly, Zhang Chengzong suddenly shouted: "Two riders came out from over there, oh, one of them is Brother Lin."

Li Jing hurriedly stared into the distance, and sure enough, there was smoke and dust coming all the way, and two horsemen came straight.When we got closer, it turned out that one of them was Lin Wei.The two arrived in a blink of an eye, Lin Wei stopped his horse outside the village gate, waved to Li Jing and laughed loudly: "Sanlang, open the door quickly, it's Wendeng County Magistrate Huangfu Mingfu and United Soldier Wendeng's Song Ten Generals and Chishan Township General Cui Jin came to pay respects to his mother-in-law on her birthday."

After hearing the result, Li Jing couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.At this time, the team at the back was also approaching, and several people got off the carriage. Li Jing had good eyesight, but he had already seen that among these people, there were indeed General Cui Zhen from Chishan and General Song Shi, the old boss of the Tuanjie Battalion. The one next to him with a green robe and a hooded head must be Huangfuzheng, the magistrate of this county.Immediately, he quickly turned to the wall and said: "Open the village gate, the county magistrate Huangfu Mingfu, general Cui Zhen from Chishan, and Song Ten generals from the Tuanjie camp have arrived."

The old village chief below breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that it was an official or not a bandit, and when he recovered, he immediately realized that the person who came was the parent official of Wendeng County.How could he dare to be negligent at the moment, and quickly asked the village head Li Shugen to beat the gong again, and organized the villagers to go out of the village to greet him.

Li Jing led the villagers out of the village, and from a distance, he cupped his hands and said with a smile: "General Cui, Ten Generals of Song Dynasty, Huangfu Mingfu, you guys came to Bi Village, I was really surprised. I greet you late, Hai Han is also welcome." It was the first time that Li Jing and Huangfuzheng County Magistrate met, and they felt that this county magistrate was a bit too young, at most thirty, and even had a short beard.But the long image is good, and he is very amiable when we meet, and he doesn't have any airs.

"It's me who should say I'm sorry. I've heard that there is a civil and military talent in this county. At the age of 16, he passed the imperial examination as a township tribute. Later, he voluntarily enlisted as a united soldier. On the road, he fought fiercely with bandits and killed several times. Thieves. As soon as they entered Dengzhou, Cui Gong and Yu Gong had good eyesight and accepted them as disciples. They performed outstandingly in the Dengzhou camp and created a set of training laws and regulations. This is the honor of our Wendeng County, and it is my honor as the parent officer of Wendeng County. I heard that General Li was returning to his hometown, but I have not been able to come to pay a visit. It is really rude. I heard that General Li is very filial, and he wants to hold a birthday for his mother. That's why I specially invited the big and small officials from Wendeng County to come here."

"Unexpectedly, this matter was learned by the rich and gentlemen in the county, and they all wanted to follow and witness General Li's demeanor with their own eyes, and even came to pay respects to Li's mother's birthday in person. It is not easy for me to refuse this matter, so we went together They came here together. When we arrived at Chishan, we happened to invite General Cui Zhen and General Song Shi to come with us as a recommendation, but I didn’t expect to hear that it caused the general to misunderstand, what a sin.”

As soon as Huangfu said these words, Li Jing understood the reason why so many people came suddenly.According to his words, more than half of the officials, gentry and wealthy households in Wendeng County are concentrated in front of him.If Li Jing was just a general of the seventh rank, it is naturally impossible to have such a result.He knew that if Huangfuzheng and others supported him, the bigger reason was because of his two teachers' identities.Everyone can carry the flowery sedan chair, and everyone can do things like holding people up.In a small seaside county like Wendeng, a young general suddenly appeared, and he was also a student of Cui and Yu. Naturally, these officials and gentry in Wendeng County would not miss this opportunity to curry favor.

Although many people understood that even if they came to cheer so eagerly, Li Jing might not really care about them.But there is a saying in the officialdom, you may not remember the other party if you give a big gift to the show, but if you don't go to the show and don't give a gift, the other party will definitely remember you.

The people who came were all guests, not to mention all the leading figures in the same county. Li Jing was also very polite to these officials, gentry and wealthy households who came.He personally welcomed people into the village and arranged them at home.The Li family didn't have enough space, so they arranged for those without official status to be in the homes of several wealthy households such as Village Chief Wang and Village Chief Li Shugen.They also arranged for people to boil water, fry tea and serve wine, and the village was very lively for a while.The guests over there came, of course, it was impossible to come empty-handed. The more than 100 guests all brought a generous gift, ranging from [-] to [-] guan, and as many as Cui Zhenjiang, Huangfu Zheng, and Wen Deng. Several wealthy businessmen in the county offered gifts worth a hundred dollars.In particular, the head of the Du family, the largest wealthy businessman in the county, even offered a thousand pennies as soon as he made a move, but he also brought such a generous gift with a small condition, that is, he hoped that Li Jing would let his second son Find an official position with Li Jing's subordinates.Li Jing met Du Zhongwu, the second son of the Du family who came with him. Although he was a little frail, he had passed the imperial examination seriously and passed the Jinshi.However, it took two years after Datang became a Jinshi to be selected by the court officials, and not every Jinshi could be selected as an official.

Du Zhongwen waited for two years after becoming a Jinshi, and participated in the official election twice but was not selected. Du's richest man heard that Li Jing was very capable, so he brought his son here.As soon as he made a move, it was a thousand guan. Sure enough, Li Jing happily accepted this heavy gift, and then told Du Zhongwu and his son that as long as Du Zhongwu didn't mind going to the frontier garrison, he could arrange for him to be a soldier from the ninth rank. Assistant official position.Hearing this result, Du Shoufu almost fainted with joy.Although it was only the lowest grade within the thirtieth grade from the ninth grade, for the Du family, a merchant family that had never been an official for generations, this thousand guanhua was worth it.

Li Jing not only took money from Du's family, but he did not refuse any gifts brought by other people who came, and accepted them all.The sum of the gifts from more than a hundred people was as much as [-] guan, and Li Jing made a windfall.

"Chengzong, are you going to see if the troupe is ready? When you're ready, the singing will start first, and the banquet will also be set up." Seeing that dusk was approaching, Li Jing hurriedly asked everyone to prepare for the birthday banquet.Li Jing was about to go home to invite his mother, Mrs. Han, to come over and accept everyone's birthday greetings, but Xiao Shitou suddenly ran over in a panic.

"Brother, something serious happened!"

Ask for a recommendation ticket! ~