The Red Mansions Across the Four Seas

Chapter 260

It turned out that the man with gloves was one of the exiles escorted by the Fubingtuan this time, but he didn't wear gloves now.

"Oh, this world is so small, where are your gloves?"

Jia Min thought this guy was quite interesting, so he made fun of him.

"They won't let you wear it."

The glove man smiled awkwardly.

"It's fine if you don't wear it. You say you wear such a thing every day. How awkward. What's your name?"

"Jia Qiao."

"It turns out that we are still a family, so why did you stop me at the beginning? Did those guys kill me in the end? Now that they are fine, you are here in exile? Why didn't I see you along the way?"

On the way to escort, Jia Min would check in the prisoner line from time to time, but he didn't find Jia Qiao.

"I'm sorry to let my lord see it, but as soon as my lord goes, I will bow my head."

"Your skills are not bad, stay well. If you behave well, you can join me as a soldier. Xu Mingtao, this Jia Qiao is my acquaintance, tell Zhuangtou not to abuse him on purpose."

"Yes, Chief Min."

While they were talking here, a man came galloping from the direction of Sijiazi on horseback, and when he got there, someone got off his horse.

"Fortunately, I saw Xu Zuoling. I'm going to report to Bu Kui."

The person who came was none other than Liu Mingde, a head of the Sijiaziguan Village.

"Liu Mingde, what's the matter? Come and see Chief Min."

Xu Mingtao introduced it, and Liu Mingde greeted him.

"Yizhihua came again and took away three cattle from Sijiazi."

"It's another flower, when did it happen?"

"It was last night. The family got up early this morning and found that the cattle pen had been demolished, so they hurriedly gathered a few people to chase after them. When they caught up, they saw that it was a flower. They went up to reason and were beaten up. came back."

"This one flower, it's still the same thing. Fortunately, she is still a lady."

Xu Mingtao gave Jia Min a general introduction to the situation and was about to go to Sijiazi.Jia Min didn't have anything important to do, so he went to Sijiazi together.He also wanted to go to Guanzhuang to see how it works.

On the way to Sijiazi, Xu Mingtao introduced the situation of the bandit leader Yizhihua to Jia Min.

A flower named Qu Pianxian, her father was originally from Liangdao, Hubei, but was exiled to Bukui because of corruption.

According to the laws of the Dade Dynasty, criminal officials like her father would also have their wives and concubines exiled along with them. This is the harem system with a history of more than 100 years.

If the husband and wife are exiled, if the parents and children are willing to follow, they are allowed to follow.Liang Dao had only one daughter, Qu Pianxian, so he had to bring her along.

Within a few years of coming here, Qu Pianxian's mother died of illness.When Qu Pianxian was 15 years old, she also suffered from a serious illness. It happened to be the busy season of summer farming. Liang Dao took care of her daughter for a few days, but her daughter was not well.

Helpless, he had no choice but to go back to Guanzhuang to do labor, because if he didn't go back, the head of the village would punish him for escaping.

Qu Pianxian couldn't deal with the rest, so Liang Dao had no choice but to carry his daughter to a small forest by the roadside, throw her there, and let her fend for herself.

The following story is the version of the legend, and there is no evidence.

Some said that Qu Pianxian was rescued by bandits passing by; He was rescued by bandits.

In short, Qu Pianxian later became the wife of a group of bandits on Wendula Mountain.

Later, her husband died, and she became the bandit leader.

As for how her husband died, there are different opinions.Some said that they were killed by the officers and soldiers, and some said that they were killed by bandits. In general, Qu Pianxian really became the leader of the bandits.

In the following years, she successively annexed several other bandits on Mount Vendura, becoming the largest gang of bandits with a radius of hundreds of miles.

The so-called "Zuozi" is what the locals call bandits, and it is also a jargon among bandits.

Qu Pianxian is the daughter of an official, and she can read and write. It is said that she has some talents in poetry and is also very smart.

In the second year after she became Mrs. Yazhai, her father died of illness.

Later, the head of Zhuangzi where his father lived was burned to death in a fire.Some people said that the fire was very strange, Zhuangtou should be able to escape from the house, but, for some reason, he was burned to death in the house.

So some people suspected that this matter was done by Qu Pianxian.

The reason for saying this is not unreasonable.

This Qu Pianxian is very smart and alert, not only successfully annexed other gangs, but also escaped several large-scale encirclement and suppression by officers and soldiers.

The bandits under Qu Pianxian basically consist of two parts.One is the local bandits, and the other is the escaped criminals.Some of these exiled criminals went to defect because they couldn't bear the hard labor, or couldn't bear the insults and beatings from the head of the village.

Some escaped into the deep mountains and old forests by themselves, and were recruited by bandits.

In fact, when Qu Pianxian came out to commit crimes, his goal was not to kill people, but to make money.There are three main modus operandi.

One is kidnapping.If you want to kidnap tickets, it is naturally mainly to kidnap the rich.

The second is to rob Guanzhuang.The third is to steal farm cattle.

The so-called robbery is generally divided into three ways.One is stealing, that is, steal as much as you can.The second is that someone discovers it during the process of stealing, and it becomes an open robbery.The third is to grab from the beginning.For example, someone's cattle are plowing the land or pulling a cart, and a gang of bandits will rob them if they swarm up.

After committing the crime, Qu Pianxian often left a letter at the scene, saying that he was robbing the rich and unkind, robbing corrupt officials and cruel officials, robbing the rich and helping the poor, leveling the injustice in the world, and doing justice for the heavens.

It is said that she actually gave some food and money to some poor families in bad years or when there was no harvest.So some ignorant people called her a righteous bandit.

She herself also claimed that she was a celestial girl descended to earth, the incarnation of Guanyin Bodhisattva, who came to the world to save suffering.

The reason why it is called Yizhihua is because she is very beautiful.He didn't become a bandit before, but when he was still in Bukui, he was a beauty.

In the eyes of outsiders, stealing a few cattle does not seem to be a big deal.However, in this era, especially in areas dominated by agriculture like Bukui, stealing farm cattle is a big deal.

Cattle can not only pull carts, but also cultivate land, and are very important means of production.In the law of the imperial court, the slaughter of cattle is a felony that is almost equivalent to homicide. It is classified into exile just like crimes such as arson and corruption of officials.

After listening to Xu Mingtao's introduction, Jia Min felt both funny and angry, sympathetic and hating this Yizhihua.

Although there are pitiful encounters, you can also make up stories to package and market yourself.However, there are some bottom lines that you should not touch.

Whether you steal, rob, kidnap, or kill, if you do it, you do it.Such things exist everywhere.No matter how you do it, it is a criminal offense, and your label is just a bandit.

However, if you insist on labeling yourself with robbing the rich and helping the poor, eradicating injustice in the world, and saving the suffering, it is political.

Fortunately, you haven't come up with slogans against the emperor, otherwise, you would have been included in the ranks of rebels long ago.Even if you have some skills and you have the cover of Mount Vendura, you won't last long.

After all, you are just a group of bandits. If the officials are determined to wipe out you, you will be finished sooner or later.

Alas, for a lady from a great family to become a bandit leader, this transformation is a bit too drastic.Although your bandit career is considered successful, it's just not professional, and it all depends on your peers.

Walking all the way, we arrived at Sijiazi Village.

Sijiazi is considered a relatively large village.There are about a hundred families in total.These families are ordinary farmers, not official villages.

The residents are basically not local aborigines, and most of them moved here from outside.

Most of them are originally from Shandong and Zhili. They escaped famine and settled here at first.There are also those who have expired in exile and settled here as civilians.

Generally speaking, the residents here are composed of two parts, one is refugees, and the other is exiles.

Refugees refer to ordinary people who have not committed crimes.Exiled people are people who have committed crimes but have returned to the people.

If you add the prisoners in the surrounding Guanzhuang, there are three parts of people, making up the residents of this area.

Those prisoners in Guanzhuang are exiles.

Refugees, exiled people, exiled criminals, the common label is the word "exile", and they are basically immigrants.

To expand the scope a little more, bandits like Yizhi Huaqu Pianxian are actually mainly composed of exiles, perhaps it is more appropriate to call them exiles.

After walking around the village for a while, we started to go to Guanzhuang.I went to Guanzhuang No. B[-], No. B[-] in turn, and finally I went to No. B[-] Guanzhuang.

B[-], B[-], etc. are the numbers made by the yamen for the official villages, representing the seventh and eighth official villages in District B.

Liu Mingde, who went to report the news, was the head of No. [-] Guanzhuang, because he had already reported the news to Xu Mingtao, and since the new Chief Minister had arrived, he came back with him.

The exiles and soldiers of the Fubing regiment who went to the other two Zhuangzi had already stayed there.The glove man, Jia Qiao, happened to be assigned to Liu Mingde's No. [-] Guanzhuang.

Liu Mingde is not good at words, probably he has never dealt with such a high-ranking official like Jia Min so closely, he didn't know what to say after he said a few words.

Jia Min didn't care, just walked by himself, asking questions as he walked.In the end, Xu Mingtao gave more introductions.

The nine exiles who served in No. B No. [-] Guanzhuang were also invited to meet, all of them were tanned, ragged, and looked weather-beaten.One was barefoot, apparently without shoes.

Looking at their faces, hair and bodies, Jia Min judged that they were generally malnourished.

When entering the room where the exiles live, there is a pungent smell, which is a mixture of sweat and shoes.Miaoyu and Heping'er went out as soon as they entered the house.

On the big kang, quilts that could no longer see their true colors were thrown randomly, and some tattered clothes were piled up at the end of the kang.The windows were dusty and there were cobwebs hanging from the corners, obviously it hadn't been cleaned for a long time.

In the fire room, it was even more messy.A few steamed buns of cornmeal were thrown casually on the chopping board, mixed with some potatoes and sweet potatoes.Jia Min turned left and right, but he didn't see a piece of meat.No oil was seen.

It's the same after going to several official villages.

He wanted to ask the exile for questioning, but after thinking about it, he gave up.

Asking them on this occasion, they dare not tell the truth.Once he left, no matter what the exiles said, he might be liquidated by the head of the village.

Fortunately, I have dispatched the government soldiers, and after staying in each village for a long time, I will know the real situation.

In fact, the accommodation conditions in these official villages are considered good.Live in a house on the ground.Most of the prisoners in Guanzhuang live in semi-underground cellars, where the living conditions are even worse.

After staying for a while, he started to walk back.On the way, Jia Min thought about a flower again.

According to Xu Mingtao, this Yizhihua has not come out to commit crimes for several months.I came here yesterday, and she came out to commit the crime today, isn't it a bit too coincidental?
The news of my arrival in Bukui yesterday was first sent to Bukui by Jia Qin the day before yesterday.

Wendula Mountain is seventy or eighty miles away from Bukui, if someone reports a message to Yizhihua, it will be enough time.

Maybe, there might really be some mystery here.It is said that there are three fires when a new official takes office, how about burning one fire on Yizhihua?
(End of this chapter)