Yuhe Fort is a good place, located at the intersection of Wuding River and Yuxi River in the north of Yan'an Prefecture.
Northern Shaanxi is a good place guarding rivers.
Seventy miles to the north is Yulin City, the seat of Yansui Town, and ninety miles to the south is Yinchuan Station in Mizhi County. The official road used for military purposes has been in disrepair for a long time, and there used to be grass growing on both sides of the wide dirt road.
Last autumn, hungry people passed by the official road and ate the ground clean, leaving nothing behind.
As night falls, the Yuhe Fort with its back to the mountains looks like a giant spider lurking in the shadows. The desolate fields outside the moat and the rolling sand beams west of the river are its broken spider webs.
On the path outside the city, the disgraced family members of the frontier soldiers were squatting under the trees, wrapped in tattered coats that could never be washed, holding soup bowls filled with new leaves and sprouts, their eyes numb and unfocused.
The village without chickens, dogs or even too many people was silent in the spring, like a corpse that had been frozen to death for a long time in winter, lying outside the fort.
It’s not just the officials who govern the Qingming Festival and make the people happy who can stay open at night, anyone can do it as long as they are poor enough.
After bypassing the long and narrow path, the dry moat of Fish River Fort is within easy reach.
Reports to Yulin requesting funds to build the city were submitted year after year, but they fell into the sea every year. The last time the fortress was built was in the fourth year of Wanli. Taking advantage of the east wind when General Qi Jiguang was building a defense line in Ji Town, he built a three-foot-high earthen wall. Bricks.
However, after that, no matter whether it was the bandits who invaded the city in the second year of Tianqi or the rainy weather in the third year that a corner of the city wall sank, no money was granted for repairs.
At this time, the dry moat and the two ditches outside the city formed three dry trenches. The wooden fences and deer villages at the bottom of the trenches were all decayed. The gaps in the sheep and horse walls close to the city wall were scrawled with wood. There are still traces of the collapsed city wall in the southwest of the fortress. .
It was as if the war had just left.
In fact, the fortress had not faced an enemy for seven years.
The guard congratulatory man Long Nian went to Yulin City to pay the General Military Office and has not returned yet. The defenders at the city gate were also listless. They only regained their energy when they saw the wild geese on the back of the red flag.
"Hey! Did the lion hunt the geese?"
The brothers guarding the gate gathered around, each swallowing their saliva and looking at the two wild geese hanging on the horse's buttocks, asking questions.
The mountains and rivers outside are clear, and bringing back prey is a new thing. More than ten servants of Baozi go out every day, and not many of them can bring back prey for ten days in a row.
Even if you can bring something back, it may not be prey. In the first month of the year, someone stole a goat from somewhere with a bell hanging around its neck.
Yesterday, a servant was too embarrassed to return empty-handed and caught two sand monks.
Monk Sha is a small desert lizard here, one palm long. No one knows how to eat it. In the end, it was thrown away and fed to the Yuhebao Rat Control Team, which made the general manager frown.
Mei Dianmei is a seven-year-old calico cat. When she was born, the Yuhebao Rat Exterminator Team was an elite force of sixteen, and she had seven siblings alone.
When the rat plague broke out, the whole family died in the line of duty, and many people died at that time. However, it was the only one that could survive the difficult years. After the company was laid off, the daughter took over her mother's business and was ordered to take over as the commander-in-chief of the Yuhebao Rat Exterminator Team. An important position in a fort.
When the frontier soldiers in Yuhebao could still live a comfortable life, they were very happy with their monthly salary of three small Yuxi carps and a number of performance-paid mice.
Now Mei Dianmei is the oldest group among the garrison of Yuhe Fort. Although she has lost weight due to hunger, she is agile and vigorous, and her majesty is still the same as before.
The hungry little Zuanfeng tried to get some food from the rat extermination team many times but was beaten back. To this day, there are still three scratches on the corners of his eyes.
After Liu Chengzong became a servant, his daily tasks outside of training included feeding cats and walking dogs. He developed a deep comradeship with the head of the rat extermination team. As long as the rat extermination team was open, there would be a Meicha cat sent to him under the window sill. The mice even have a little Zhuanfeng aspect.
It can’t be done now. People don’t have anything to eat, so how can they take care of cats?
Standing together with General He Yong's personal soldiers and gatekeepers, who was also a descendant of Mizhi named He, he said a few polite words and left the sentence "I will send you the wild goose feathers at night", and then lifted the two wild geese. Go and happily report to the general manager.
Wild goose feathers are similar to goose feathers. They are very common arrow feather materials and not very valuable. However, for people like Liu Chengzong who often use bows and arrows, it is cost-effective to repair arrow feathers by yourself.
When he entered Yuhe Fort, he saw several people sitting on the inner slope in the shadow of the torches on the city wall, waving to him, letting him recognize them as his brothers Liu Chengzu, Shi Changtian Shoujing and Gao Xian.
Liu Chengzu was his biological eldest brother, four years older and twenty-two this year. In the seventh year of Tianqi, he and he were spotted by He Renlong and recruited to Yuhe Fort as servants.
Last year, there was a team leader named Zhang Wu who led the team and became a deserter. The two brothers were ordered to go out to recruit refugees to join the army. When they came back, they gave a captain to fill Zhang Wu's vacancy, as if there were no deserters.
Recruiting soldiers is not easy at all. There are disasters everywhere and refugees are everywhere. Being a soldier can at least make a living.
It's hard to be hungry all the time, but it's better than starving to death.
Who doesn't want to live?
As for deserters, there are many ways to desert. They have armor and weapons, and they have learned killing skills in the army. If they fall out of the grass and become thieves, they may die badly, but they may not have to worry about food and clothing.
Tian Shoujing and Gao Xian were both frontier soldiers who did not follow Zhang Wu at that time. The former's hometown was Fushi County, Yan'an Prefecture, just a few mountains away from Liu Chengzong's home; the latter was from Ansai County, which was a little further away. point.
They were both ordinary sergeants in the past, but after recruiting new soldiers, both of them were promoted to captains.
During the escape and mention, the quantity of the Yuhe Fort border troops did not change, but the quality dropped by one level.
"Catching geese?"
Liu Chengzu sat on the slope, pointed to the land beside him, where there was a wooden basket, and said: "I guess you are very hungry, so I left some food for you."
Not to mention, Liu Chengzong was so hungry that he couldn't scream. He was not polite. He sat on the slope and opened the lid of the basket, then took out the golden millet rice and ate it.
Millet and millet look similar.
Although it has cooled down and the mutton fat on top has solidified, and the smell is a bit strong, it is very fragrant to a very hungry person.
It's so fragrant that the more you eat it, the sadder it becomes.
When I joined the army, my family suffered a lot, but the conditions of the old Liu family in Longwangmiaoshan were not bad, otherwise they would not have been able to support their two sons to study and practice martial arts for more than ten years. Although they suffered from hunger before serving in the frontier army, they did not suffer from hunger for three years. There is not enough to eat every day.
A low-level officer like the captain is not an official of the imperial court, and he is not paid any money now, but his rations are enough. Liu Chengzong often looks for his brother to eat and drink, so he can only do it reluctantly.
"I hit, two, and the arrows were not used well... The third arrow was not drawn, and when it was attached to the arrow and it flew, I couldn't hit it."
Liu Chengzong was eating and talking, and suddenly he remembered that he had other gains. He stood up with the bowl and took off the clay pot from the horse, saying: "Brother Shoujing, I picked up a mirror and half a candle. I don't think it's worth it." bad."
"Help me see who has the beans left in Shaohuang. I can exchange them for one or two handfuls."
Their military rations are divided into two types, rations and monthly rations. The rations are like meal supplements for business trips. They are given only after they have to leave the station forty miles to perform tasks. Basically, they are given in full.
Last autumn, Yuhe Fort selected a group of cavalry to go out to burn the wasteland, but they were reluctant to eat. Some of them still have some left over.
"Okay, I'll ask you a question when I get back." Tian Shoujing folded his arms and looked at Hongqi's funny dyed hair under the slope, and said with a smile: "Hey Hongqi? What's wrong with the name Sanfa? Look at this person who has become thinner after changing his name. .”
Tian Shoujing made a witty remark, but Liu Chengzong, whose mouth was full of millet rice, was not in the mood to respond with a joke. He picked up the water bag and poured two mouthfuls into his mouth, put the food down, and turned his head to look at his brother.
"It won't matter if the horse is thin." In the light of the swaying torch, Liu Chengzong's face showed a rare seriousness: "Brother, I have to think of a solution. I didn't draw my bow while hunting today.
If this continues, our martial arts skills will be useless. "
