Ouyang Xuan is actually very familiar with Hengyuan Town - in the 21st century this place is called Huaiyuan Town, Chongzhou City, and is famous for its rattan weaving in the surrounding areas of Chengdu. Like Yongkang City, Hengyuan Town is located at the junction of mountains and plains, with mountains and rivers at its back. The difference is that Hengyuan Town's geographical location is more advantageous than Yongkang City, especially the waterway transportation is more convenient. Although it is a town, it had a population of over 10,000 before the Mongolian army invaded Shu. It was an important town on the Tea Horse Road in Western Sichuan. The surrounding area is not only rich in grain and oil, but also produces a large amount of mountain products. Business travelers can go down the Wenjing River next to the village. After passing through Yongqu Township, it goes straight down to Chongqing Fucheng, flows for hundreds of miles, and then merges into Fujiang River at Xinjin City, and then connects to Jiading Prefecture and Chongqing Prefecture. It is more prosperous than Yongkang City. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Minjiang River was called Fujiang River. Hengyuan Town originally did not have a village wall. After the Mongol invasion of Xichuan, merchants and villagers built a wooden fence more than ten feet high to serve as a village wall. The scale was quite large, only slightly smaller than Yongkang City. According to the official system of the Southern Song Dynasty, in important commercial and trade towns, the government would send a low-level civil official named Jian Zhen to manage affairs. However, due to the war, the imperial court did not send officials to Hengyuan Town, and all affairs in the village were managed by the squires. The squire in charge of the village was named Du Fu, who was familiar with Li Shuang and Yu Zhu. Standing behind the wall of the village, he saw that the leader was Li Shuang, so he asked people to open the gate of the village and welcome everyone in.
Due to long-term wars, the current population of Hengyuan Village is only more than 500 people, making it seem empty. Villagers have planted wheat, beans and other grains in the open spaces in front of and behind their houses. Du Fu was extremely enthusiastic and found a few unused shabby houses for everyone to live in, and sent people to bring simple water. However, when Li Shuang mentioned his intention, he looked embarrassed and refused to say a word. The question was urgent, and his son Du Daquan who came with him couldn't help but said: "My lords, we should have paid the court's money and food, but the Tatar soldiers looted, bandits were rampant, and the strong men and women in the stronghold were lost, and there were no cattle and horses to drive them. , all relied on the labor of the villagers, and the grain obtained, excluding seeds, was only enough to satisfy the hunger. A few days ago, it was attacked by bandits in the mountains. When the swords were drawn, Yongkang City refused to send officers and soldiers to rescue. As a result, the bandits broke through the fort. , not only killed and injured the villagers, but also robbed a large amount of food rations. If food is to be requisitioned again, how will the old, weak, women and children in the village survive?"
"Without the officers and soldiers coming to the rescue, Hengyuan Stronghold was defended by more than a hundred people armed with weapons and weapons. It was really no match for the bandits in the mountains. The bandits threatened to slaughter the stronghold if they did not pay the food. In order to protect the people in the stronghold, we had no choice but to Pay grain to the bandits”. Another squire named Xie next to him added. The doubts in Ouyang Xuan's mind were dispelled. More than a hundred civilians relied on the village wall, and their combat power was not inferior to that of the grain collection team. It seems that if the grain collection team encounters bandits, it may be a disaster. He now understood the reason why Cao Ergou reported that there were no bandit activities around Hengyuan Village before entering the village.
After Du Fu and others left, Li Shuang summoned Yu Zhu, Ouyang Xuan and other gang leaders to discuss the matter of requisitioning grain. After many discussions, no good plan was found. At this time, a team leader suggested that if tough measures were not used, it would be difficult to complete the food collection task and Pan Tong would not be able to escape punishment. He suggested that he follow the example of other grain collection teams and use tough methods to forcibly collect grains. There were critics and echoes of this, which made Ouyang Xuan extremely unhappy. He couldn't help but shout loudly: "How is this approach different from banditry?" After Li Shuang and others listened, everyone was silent. After a long while, Li Shuang sighed and said, "Hengyuan Village has always been loyal to the imperial court, and the people are simple and honest. Du Fu and his son have always contributed a lot to official affairs. If it hadn't been for hard times, they would not have made things difficult for us. How can such loyal people use force?" ?" It turns out that Du Fu and his son were both big merchants of medicinal materials and proficient in medical skills. They never cared about remuneration whether they treated poor people or wounded soldiers in the army, and they had a good reputation around Chongqing Mansion. After that, Li Shuang told everyone to take a rest early and think of a solution tomorrow.
Ouyang Xuan had gone through too many things in the past three days. How could Ouyang Xuan sleep? Yu Zhu, who was sleeping next to him, was tossing and turning and couldn't fall asleep, so the two started talking in a low voice. Ouyang Xuan learned from Yu Zhu that he and Li Shuang were both personal followers of Lord Yu Jie, and they followed Lord Yu in the north and south. Just when Yu Jie was about to expel all the Mongolian troops from Sichuan Gorge 4th Road, he was betrayed by his traitor Uncle Fang. He was framed by Yunding City guard Yao Shian and others, and not only died unjustly. After Master Yu's death, they were also implicated and demoted to Chongqing Mansion. Pan Tongzhi was once punished by Yu Jie for being corrupt and delaying military achievements, so he made things difficult for them at every turn. Fire Chief Cao Ergou is a clan member of the famous general Cao Youwen. When the Mongolian army first invaded Sichuan Gorge 4th Road, Cao Youwen and his younger brother Cao Youwan fought a bloody battle with the Mongols at Yangping Pass. The traitor Zhao Yanna, who was the commander of the army at the time, refused to save him. , resulting in both of them dying in battle due to being outnumbered, Cao Ergou followed his father to exile in Shu. Huang Dagen was also a soldier of the meritorious minister Wang Weizhong, the former magistrate of Langzhou. Wang Weizhong was falsely accused of "sneaking into Mongolia" by the treacherous ministers Yu Hui, Chen Dafang, Ding Daquan and others and was executed. His soldiers were also dispersed to various places. military. "Birds of a feather flock together, and people divide into groups." Yu Zhu paid special attention to the marginalized. Over time, his food collection team gathered as many as a dozen people who had been framed by Zhongliang or who were his personal subordinates. Before the food requisition, Yu Zhu's team originally had only about thirty people. This time before leaving, he transferred some soldiers who were not liked by his superiors. Pan Tongzhi obviously wanted to get rid of them with the help of the Mongols or bandits.
Yu Zhu's words made Ouyang Xuan shudder. They reminded him of the words "reverse elimination" and "bad money drives out good money". From historical knowledge, he learned that the ruling class of the Southern Song Dynasty was corrupt. It frequently raided the borders between Jin and Mongolia, and still lived a life of intoxication and dreams despite internal and external troubles. The song "The green mountains outside the mountains, the buildings outside, the West Lake singing and dancing, when will the warm breeze stop?" "It makes tourists so drunk that they call Hangzhou Bianzhou" is a description of the high-level government officials who are intoxicated by the country's internal and external troubles, but the middle- and low-level officials are also so corrupt, which makes him lament that it is a miracle that this decadent regime can survive until now. .
Early the next morning, Li Shuang took Huang Dagen to see Du Fu. One was to treat the arrow wounds on his body, and the other was to see if he could find a way to get some food so that he could go back on business. Not long after, Huang Dagen came back with a happy face and asked people to get horse meat and salt, and to carry grain. It turned out that after repeated persuasion by Du Fu and his son, the wealthy households in the village agreed to Li Shuang's proposal: exchange 200 jins of pickled horse meat and salt for 2,000 jins of grain. Du Fu and his son also borrowed two wooden boats to send grain to Chongqing Mansion through the Wenjing River outside the village. It was already three o'clock in the day when the food was loaded on the boat. Because the boat was small and could not carry everyone. Li Shuang immediately decided to let Liu Zhong, the fire chief who was familiar with water warfare, take his fire soldiers to accompany the ship to protect the food. Because the arrow wounds had not healed, he also returned to Chongqing Mansion with the ship. Yu Zhu took the rest of the soldiers back to Chongqing Mansion by land.
Hengyuan Town is about fifty miles away from Chongqing City. Ouyang Xuan and others hurriedly hurried along and arrived at the gate of Chongqing City at dusk. Chongqing Mansion was called "Shuzhou" in the Tang and Northern Song Dynasties, and "Chongqing Army" in the Southern Song Dynasty. It was the latent vassal of Emperor Gaozong Zhao Gou before he came to the throne. After Zhao Gou became the emperor, it was convenient for 1144 AD (Southern Song Dynasty) Shaoxing 14th year) was promoted to Chongqing Prefecture, with jurisdiction over Yongkang County, Jinyuan County, Jiangyuan County, and Xinjin County. Among these four counties, Yongkang County is in the northwest, Xinjin County is in the south, Jiangyuan County is in the southeast, and Jinyuan County is the seat of Fukuo County, which is Chongqing Fucheng. It's just that the dilapidated Fucheng scenery in front of him at this moment is so different from the prosperous hometown in Ouyang's memory. Only the Wenjing River outside the west gate still flows quietly to the east, looking both strange and familiar.
