Liu Chengzong's parents were overjoyed when they met Cai Zhongpan, and they felt even more sympathetic after hearing what happened to Miyuan.
They are connected by blood, the environment outside is chaotic, and they have no choice but to help. Even if the Xingpingli tribe cannot protect themselves, it is better than being scattered in northern Shaanxi where thieves are everywhere.
The family was happily preparing meals for Cai Zhongpan and his brother-in-law Chen Ruji. Unfortunately, the last old hen in the family was slaughtered by Liu Chengzong yesterday to make soup, and there was no meat dish available for a while.
It was rare for the Liu family to have a meal at noon.
After dinner in the afternoon, people were murmuring in their hearts. Even the old man Liu Xiangyu walked to the yard several times and looked up to the north.
"What's going on in the north? There's no movement yet?"
Judging by the time, if the officers and soldiers were to fight the thieves in the morning, the battle in Laomiaozhuang should have ended by now.
The distance between them was only seven or eight miles, so even if they couldn't hear the sound of the fighting, there shouldn't even be black smoke.
Liu Chengzong couldn't sit still. He went to the stable to fetch the war horses and wanted to go to the north. Cai Zhongpan stopped him and said, "Lion, I will go with you and find me a tael of gunpowder."
"Gunpowder? Uncle, can you use it?"
Facing his question, Cai Zhongpan leaned the eight-foot-long knife stick against the door, turned back and took out a double-barreled handgun from his backpack, and said, "This is better than a bow."
Liu Chengzong was stunned when his uncle took this thing out of his bag. He took it and looked at it again and again, and said in surprise: "Where did this come from?"
This blunderbuss is well made. The two barrels are parallel, the same length, and the same caliber. The blunderbuss tube is ruler long, four-quarters of the inner diameter, and one-minute of the outer diameter. There are double triggers underneath, connected to the twin heads with match ropes inserted above. The blunderbuss is made of wood under the barrel. The bed has a brass cover with a built-in purge.
The wooden curved gun handle is heavy in the hand. The prototype gun handle has a small wooden cover that can be opened at the bottom. After being opened, more than ten lead pellets were hidden inside and fell to the ground, leaving Liu Chengzong in a panic to pick them up.
This was the first time in his life that he had seen this kind of short-handled handgun, and there were two barrels at first sight. But in another memory in his mind, he clearly saw that this thing had a different bloodline from this land, and he blurted out: "Western firearms?"
"Hey! The lion knows a lot even if he doesn't leave Yan'an Mansion. He is a serious Sanyuan-made man. Mr. Kui Xin gave your uncle a reward for killing the thief. Mr. Kui Xin was baptized into Nestorianism. He is very good with the Taixi Yi people and has learned many things."
Cai Zhongpan smiled and said: "Sir, you also have a handle. It looks better than this one. It was a gift from the Taixi Yi people."
In another memory, Liu Chengzong had a deep impression of foreigners, especially Westerners. However, he did not expect to hear news about Western churches in Shaanxi. He couldn't help but ask: "Uncle, have you seen the Taixi Yi people?"
"I've met him a few times. Except that he looks warmer, he's no different from us."
Looking warm?
Warmth doesn't seem to be a word that describes appearance.
Just when Liu Chengzong was puzzled, he saw Cai Zhongpan uttering two words with a serious face: "The hair is long."
Liu Chengzong couldn't help but laugh at this explanation, and then heard his uncle say: "But they all call themselves Western Confucianism, and they study the Four Books and Five Classics more diligently than the students. Because some scholars have joined the religion, many people in Sanyuan also believe in it." teach."
Western Confucianism?
He chewed on this title repeatedly, which was incompatible with the Westerners in another memory. That memory did not have a good impression on people on the other side of the world, especially in connection with this era, where almost all were thieves, pirates, thugs, colonists, and opium. Words like traders and slave owners probably have nothing to do with Confucianism.
Fortunately, Liu Chengzong took this matter very openly, or he just asked a few questions on a whim, but in fact he quickly lost interest. After returning the double-barreled gun to his uncle, he rode up to Liujiamao and fetched it. With two ounces of gunpowder in his waist bag, he took a horse and headed north together.
In his mind, he had some understanding of the scholar-class's conversion to Christianity, and he also had some speculations about the behavior of the missionaries. He believed that this was just a matter of two people sharing different beds, each getting what he wanted.
As Cai Zhongpan said, the purpose of the missionaries to win over the upper class was to convert the lower class people into Christianity; most of the scholars who were willing to join the religion or were curious about it were reformists, hoping to use external forces to improve their knowledge for the common people and the court. Therefore, Only interested in translated books.
Both sides are smart people, each has his own needs, and no one can be a fool.
As for himself, Liu Chengzong felt that this matter had nothing to do with him. Anyway, he had little chance to meet the missionary. He would wait until he did.
The two uncles and nephews rode north and talked about their experiences in the past years. One talked about Yuhebao in the north and the other talked about Sanyuan County in the south.
After five miles of following the traces of soldiers and horses passing by, Liu Chengzong was surprised to find that the traces of chariots and horses' hooves were broken.
This is extremely strange. They have no energy to hide the traces of the two to three hundred guardsmen. How could they just cut off the traces?
The two of them searched for a long time on the road, and suddenly saw a figure waving to them on the west bank of Panlong River. A group of five or six people slowly walked out from between the earthen barriers and walked quickly towards the east of the river.
As they got closer, these people took off their shoes, rolled up their trousers, and came over to the water. Only then did Liu Chengzong see clearly that it was Lu Bin who had just left yesterday and was following Zhang Qianhu as a guide.
The people behind him were men and women, their clothes were tattered and dirty, their children had runny noses, and they were all disgraced.
Dirty is the norm in a water-scarce environment, but tatters are not. After all, even if the weather gets warmer, there is still a cold wind on the mountain ridge. It is obvious that they are in a hurry no matter where they come from.
After crossing the river, Lu Bin led everyone to salute, and then introduced: "Second Master Liu, these are my brother and sister-in-law. The thieves broke into the old temple that day and escaped with their lives by hiding in a cave."
Liu Chengzong naturally surrendered to several people, and then asked: "You didn't lead the way for the officers and soldiers who were suppressing thieves. Why did you come back by yourself? Where are the officers and soldiers?"
Speaking of the officers and soldiers, Lu Bin seemed to be filled with endless indignation. He beat his chest angrily and said, "Young Master Liu, I don't know, but Zhang Qianhu and I were leading the way, and there were cavalry in front of us to explore the road. Somehow, halfway through, the sentry cavalry came back to Qianhu." If I don’t leave, I will lead my army across the river to the west. I won’t be allowed to run around, and I will be sent with three or five soldiers to monitor me.”
"I felt something was wrong, so I took the opportunity to escape in the middle of the night. In the morning, thieves brought several carriages from the north. They were covered with straw mats and couldn't see what they were. The officers and soldiers returned to Fushi from Hexi."
"At noon, I bravely returned to the old temple village. There was no trace of the thieves in the village, they were just villagers..."
Lu Bin's voice was choked, and his brother took over the words: "No villagers left any intact corpses, and the thieves retreated calmly. Now that Zhuang Po's family is dead, my two brothers want to borrow some people from Xingpingli to bury them." Father, I wonder if it’s okay?”
Liu Chengzong never expected such a result, which made him lose his mind for a moment. He turned his head and muttered to himself: "What are the officers and soldiers doing?"
"You ran away. You probably took bribes from the thieves. What do you think is in that box?"
Cai Zhongpan turned sideways on the horse, in a direction where the Lu brothers could not see, raised his hand and gestured above his neck, shook his head and said: "I don't see this kind of thing in Sanyuan... In my opinion, we should go first Let’s go back to the mountains and make long-term plans.”
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Note:
The handgun is based on the antique double-barrelled handgun of King Dashun Chuang's chamberlain, Duxun, which came from Funiu Mountain in Luanchuan, Henan.
