Liu Chengzong was witnessing a great collapse.
He understood the normal world as one in which a person wants to control his or her own life under social rules, and ability is the test indicator. The stronger the ability, the easier life becomes.
But after the collapse of this set of social rules, it's just the opposite. People don't even see the checkpoints that test their abilities, and they're on the road to death.
Farmers used to be obedient to the people, but now they can't pay taxes even if they borrow grain, and they can't farm anymore.
I used to study hard to take the imperial examination and become an official. Now my family is hungry and I can't study anymore.
The border troops used to guard the border and eat food, and the garrison troops could practice and perform meritorious service in battle. Now if they stay in the army, they will starve to death.
Even his father, who was an official, could no longer be an official because he told the truth - if he didn't get tax exemption, there would be big trouble.
Gao Xian, the chief minister who went to Lincun to look for his mother-in-law, came back in the middle of the night. He heard from the frontier soldiers on duty that he would ignore anyone with a straight face when he came back. Later, someone heard suppressed cries during the night duty.
When Liu Chengzong heard about this the next day, he didn't want to ask what happened and which pot it was.
He estimated that most of the people in the village had fled, otherwise why would they not have received the mother-in-law.
But he went anyway and didn't say much. It wasn't appropriate to talk too much about this kind of thing. No matter how much he said, he couldn't conjure up an aunt for Gao Xian, so he went to find Cao Yao first.
I picked up a small clay pot from him. There were two ounces of shochu in the clay pot.
Then he begged his brother for leave, so that he could replace Gao Xian on duty at night and let him drink two taels.
Team Liu was different from Team Cao. That team was loosely managed by bandits. When they left Yuhe Fort, it was like grass had fallen all over again. They had completely forgotten the rules of the frontier army. They left no one on duty at night and set up small tents in all directions around the camp. Pull four cotton strings from a tree branch to the campfire, and hang bells on the strings.
Liu Chengzu, the leader of Team Liu, was as Cao Yao said, a serious military maniac. He always paid attention to the fact that the local officers were so busy that they explored the location of the camp, its horizontal length and vertical width, the big houses, huts, caves, wells, and intersections. It is clear that at night, sentries must be sent forward and backward to find another escape route.
Be precise and take the trouble.
As for why you want to have a drink at night when you have nothing to do? Don't say there is no wine to drink, even if there is wine, don't even think about it.
But this time there were special circumstances, and Liu Chengzu also wanted to train his younger brother to lead the army, so he was allowed to stand guard for Gao Xian at night.
After all this was done, Liu Chengzong handed Gao Xian the wine he had bought in exchange for twelve wild goose feathers and arrows.
The reality is similar to what he imagined, but there are still five families in Qiyanyao who have food reserves. They have divided all the land in the village and plan to carry on for another year. They don't believe that the drought will continue in the fourth year.
But the family that took in Gao Xian's mother-in-law had already eaten up all their grain reserves a year ago, packed up their belongings and took their cattle, and went to Shanxi, east of the Yellow River, to join their relatives.
The road is long and dangerous, and we don’t know where the relatives in Shanxi are. Not to mention, how can Shanxi, which is separated by a big river from the disaster in Shaanxi, fare better? The sea of people is huge, and I am afraid that we will never see each other again.
When they march further, farther away from Yuhe Fort, there will be more pedestrians on the road.
Groups of bankrupt farmers, horse-riding swordsmen wrapped in sheepskin coats, and southern merchants escorting goods.
Except for a swordsman from the caravan, Liu Chengzong didn't see any of these people - his brother Liu Chengzu posted two mounted scouts in the front of the team. Their appearance of wearing helmets, carrying armor, carrying bows and knives scared away most passers-by.
Scouts can let others know that there are troops marching behind. In these days, the behavior of the government and the army is very bad. There are almost no people who do not disturb the people. The difference is just robbing and collecting food or killing people and burning villages.
As soon as they appear within sight, no matter who they are, they will choose to enter the mountain.
Even when they arrived at a liquor store located on the edge of the official road, only a dozen miles away from Lisuijin Town, the lame old shopkeeper immediately rolled up the shop with his little daughter who was helping in the shop as soon as he saw the two cavalrymen. Not many Xinruan ran to the other side of the river.
When Liu Chengzong and his team arrived at this wilderness shop, the old shopkeeper had just taken his daughter to cross the river, but he still thought they hadn't gone far enough, so he ran towards the mountains on the other side.
I have a female baby at home, but I am afraid that it will be ruined by the officers and soldiers who compete with these sows against Diao Chan.
The leader of the swordsmen who protected the caravan was Liu Chengzong who he saw at this wine shop on the official road in the countryside.
The swordsman was an acquaintance of theirs, a former soldier of Shenmu Shenjiang Ai Wannian.
As the saying goes, heroes in rivers and lakes don't just have to be heroes, but only where there are rivers and lakes can there be soil for heroes to flourish.
In a large area of land connected by loess roads, no hero in the world can be as reliable as the landlords' armed forces.
Originating from the Zhengde period, the ancestral escorts and standard escorts are often found in big cities. However, in northern Shaanxi, where the situation is becoming increasingly chaotic, especially in Mizhi County, which is close to the border, merchants want to pass safely, but the standard escorts are unreliable, so it is best to do so. The way is to seek asylum from Ai Shi.
The two Ai's in Mizhi have a common surname. The old one is Lao Ai. In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the younger Ai family moved in. They were engaged in business and education and were very rich.
They once bought 15,000 acres of land, and now more than ten members of the family have passed the imperial examination. In the past 200 years of the Ming Dynasty, the number of Jinshi in Shaanxi was only 800. There are 96 counties in Shaanxi, and the Ai family occupies six of them. quota.
Many villages and places here are directly named after Ai, such as Ai Dongzhuang, Ai Haowan, Aijiaping, Aijiazhen, Xiaiqu, etc.
Nowadays, the population is booming. Ai Yingjia, the unemployed governor of Ganzhou Prefecture in Jiangxi Province, is at home. His third son Ai Wannian is the Shenmu General and has thousands of tribesmen as tenants.
It's just that in the current situation, even they can't guarantee that the caravan will be unscathed. They can only give each other face as much as possible and avoid losing money and disaster.
The soldier from his hometown came over to take a look at the situation. He knew that it was He Renlong who had dispersed the border troops who could not feed him, so he said a few words and went back.
Not long after the meeting, two helpers wrapped in sheepskin coats brought a sheep with two bags of dry food and cakes on its back, tied it to the wine shop and left without saying anything else.
After that, six carts loaded with goods passed by the official road peacefully under the guidance of old soldiers and a dozen young men.
Even so, the frontier soldiers who were stewing and slaughtering sheep inside and outside the wine shop still looked at the caravan like wolves eyeing their prey, which made people feel scared from the bottom of their hearts.
"Don't even look at it. What's on that car is tea that is sold to other countries. We can't eat it or use it. After a while, we'll stew it and eat the meat given by Ai Laoju. This sheep weighs seventy kilograms. The bones are picked out and half of it per person. It’s more than a pound.”
Liu Chengzu sat under the sign of the wine shop and said cheerfully to his subordinates: "The Ai family has sent a message to the Inspection Department of Suijin Town. We don't need to take a detour. The road to Suide today is peaceful."
Liu Chengzong, who was squatting on the ground and counting, saw his brother telling his soldiers to look into the mutton pot. He shook his head and smiled. He stood up and threw the branch and asked the fire soldiers to divide the bones with clean meat into two for Xiao Zuanfeng to grind his teeth.
As for the director of the rodent control office, Mei Dianmei, just wait.
He was just thinking about how to feed this army.
During the two days of traveling, Liu Chengzong made a comprehensive analysis of the current environment and his own future.
If you want to have a full meal, you have to go back to your hometown in Yan'an Prefecture, but your hometown is not safe. Bandits and robbers are running around everywhere. There are traces of bandit activities in Yanchuan, Yanchang, and Ganquan counties around Yan'an Prefecture.
There was no telling when the entire village would be looted and captured.
If you want to protect your family, you have to use force. These border troops are the people who are at hand.
The only problem is that they can't afford it.
To feed fifty frontier troops, it would cost at least twenty shi of food per month.
Stone is a multi-purpose unit, with ten liters and one bucket, and ten buckets and one stone.
Nowadays, in the drought-ridden northern Shaanxi, there is no harvest from wheat cultivation. Only drought-resistant millet can barely yield four or five dou per acre. Liu Chengzong's family only has his father and mother, with no strong labor force, so all the fields have been rented out.
The grain handed in by the tenants had to be used to pay taxes, and the remaining grain was only enough to feed seven or eight people.
Basically, when the brothers went home and had enough to eat, the family couldn't provide more food.
Liu Chengzong carefully calculated that he could not afford it.
Still have to think of another way out.
While the mutton was being stewed, Liu Chengzu couldn't take any time off, so he called on his younger brother Liu Chengzong, Tian Shoujing, and Gao Xian to explore the surrounding terrain and teach them the team leader's experience in leading troops by words and deeds.
The central idea is that as an officer, you cannot be lazy or greedy for enjoyment.
Liu Chengzong was asked to secretly write down many key points, but also sighed in his heart that his brother really had an extraordinary interest in military affairs.
Generals need to check every detail of everything. This principle is very clear in the ancient art of war. No general does not understand it. Especially after Qi Jiguang's military book was compiled by the imperial court and distributed to the army, the military book even told soldiers how to buy food. Everything is written clearly.
But who can really implement it?
I am afraid that even He Renlong who taught them may not be able to do it all, but Liu Chengzu strictly enforced it.
By the time they returned, the mutton had been stewed, but before they started eating, another travel-worn person came walking from north to south on the official road.
This man was so courageous that he was not afraid when he saw the officers and soldiers in the wine shop while riding a donkey. He just got off the donkey and led him forward to salute and then walked over quietly.
But as soon as he took two steps, he was stopped.
Because the brothers Chengzu and Chengzong discovered that the young man leading the donkey and carrying a whistle stick was an old acquaintance, Li Hongji, a Yinchuan postman who had taught them riding skills.
It is even more interesting for Liu Chengzong. This person is not called Li Hongji in his mind, but Li Zicheng, the Dashun Emperor who later overthrew the Ming Dynasty and invaded Beijing.
