Fucheng is adjacent to the Wenjing River. The city wall is nearly two feet high and made of rammed earth covered with blue bricks. It is more than three miles long on all sides. It has a population of 10,000 and a garrison of 2,000. Before the food requisition team approached the city gate, they saw Liu Zhong running over from a distance. He shouted to Yu Zhu while running: "Master Yu, we encountered water bandits on the way back. Master Li was injured. He has been carried back." Barracks".
The barracks is to the west of Fucheng. On the way back to the barracks, Liu Zhong told the story of his encounter with water bandits. Because we are going down the river, taking the water route is much faster than the land route. Below the confluence of the three rivers in Yongqu Township, the river channel suddenly widened, so that the water flow in this section was shallow and slow. The river banks and the sandbanks in the river were covered with dense reeds. When the boat arrived here, Liu Zhongzheng directed everyone to carefully avoid the shoal. Suddenly, several light boats appeared in the reeds ahead. On each boat were several men holding knives and sticks. Most of these men were naked, their bodies Dark and lean, his eyes were filled with fierceness. Li Shuang saw that the situation was not going well and called someone to shout, but the other party didn't respond and rushed over in his boat. Needless to say, this group of people are water bandits who rely on the river to feed themselves. Liu Zhong ordered the two grain ships to move closer. The soldiers held swords, shields and spears on both sides, and ordered the oarsmen to paddle hard in order to rush over. However, the water bandits were obviously more skilled in boat maneuvering, and they caught up soon. When they got closer, the water bandits threw short spears at the grain transport ship. Although most of them were blocked by wooden shields, two people were still hit. Li Shuang was also hit by a spear in the thigh because he couldn't avoid it, and he fainted immediately. passed. Then the water bandits jumped to the grain ship and killed them. Fortunately, although this group of water bandits was large in number, they were thin. In addition, the small space of the ship limited the water bandits' numerical advantage. In addition, Liu Zhong, a fire soldier, was also proficient in water warfare, so in Although two more soldiers protecting the grain were killed in the close fight, several of the water bandits were also stabbed to death with spears. The bravery of this group of food transport soldiers was obviously beyond the expectations of the water bandits. Normally, the officers and soldiers could only fight with the wind, but in today's situation, they often dropped their weapons and dispersed. For fear of losing food, the water bandits did not use fire attacks or ship-cutting attacks, so they did not gain the slightest advantage in the flesh-and-blood game. After several attacks, the water bandits still couldn't succeed. They could only watch the grain transport ship go down the river and stopped pursuing it. Although food is precious, life is even more precious.
When he walked to the barracks where Li Shuang lived, he was lying on the bed. A military doctor was treating his wounds beside him. Seeing Yu Zhu, Ouyang Xuan and others approaching, Li Shuang supported himself half-lying down. Without waiting for anyone to speak, he raised his pale face and said hurriedly to Yu Zhu: " The water bandit who killed a thousand swords mistook me! Go and report the situation of this trip to Pan Tongzhi." Yu Zhu's identity was not qualified to meet Pan Zongzong, but after hearing the order, he made a deep bow to Li Shuang and took Huang Dagen to the government office.
When the doctor in the army was bandaging the wound on his leg, everyone gathered around Li Shuang to ask for help. Ouyang Xuan and others learned from the doctor that Li Shuang's thigh bone had been injured by a short spear and he could only lie in bed for a few months. Even if he recovered, he might be disabled. This made the look in Li Shuang's eyes become sad and gloomy, and everyone was confused. Some words of advice and comfort. Just as everyone was comforting Li Shuang, Huang Dagen, who had just followed Yu Zhu to report the situation, opened the door and walked in. He came back to take Ouyang Xuan to the government office on the order of Pan Tongzhi, which made everyone both shocked and puzzled.
On the way to the government office, Huang Dagen told the confused Ouyang Xuan why he was called. It turned out that when Pan Tongzhi saw Yu Zhu coming to report on the grain requisition, he angrily asked Li Shuang why he didn't come? When he heard that he only received 2,000 kilograms of grain for this trip, he became even more furious. When Yu Zhu presented the heads of the two Mongolian rangers, the anger on his face faded slightly. As for Li Shuang's injury and how many soldiers died, he did not ask. After Pan Tongzhi carefully inspected the two heads, he said to Yu Zhu: "Although the yellow-haired and blue-eyed heads are Hui people among the Tatars, this black-haired and black-eyed head may not be. You are waiting to kill a good person." Merit?" Commander Pan always had a bad feeling for Li Shuang. In addition, the ruffians in the army often killed civilians to show off the number of enemy kills. Some of the enemy heads reported for credit even had white hair. Therefore, He argued hard and refused to listen to the explanation, leaving Yu Zhu and Huang Dagen speechless. The two did not dare to argue, so they had no choice but to petition Pan Tongzhi to allow Ouyang Xuan to testify.
Seeing Yu Zhu and Huang Dagen kneeling on the ground, Ouyang Xuan, although he was extremely reluctant in his heart, still knelt on the ground and told Commander Pan in the high seat in the hall the story of the night attack on the Mongolian Rangers in detail. After a long while, Commander Pan twirled the few beards on his thin and yellow face and said: "Although your statement does not seem to be a lie, it does not prove that this black-haired and black-eyed Tatar soldier has no weapons or clothes. As evidence, the account will be put aside for the time being."
"Listen to my orders," Commander Pan said solemnly to Yu Zhu who was kneeling on the ground.
"The food collected for this trip is very small, and it is not enough for the army to last for a month, but you still come here with a shy face! Although you have achieved some success by killing the Tatar soldiers, you have also lost a few soldiers. I have decided to remove Li Shuang It is the duty of inspection. The merits and demerits of the others are equal to each other, so there will be no punishment this time. Tomorrow your team will leave the city and collect food again to make up for the faults..."
"As for you," Commander Pan turned his attention to Ouyang Xuan, "Since you have accomplished the feat of killing the Tatars, I think you are also somewhat clever, so I will leave you to take over the position of the dead support team. Let's go out to the city together tomorrow to collect food. "
After walking out of the government office gate for a while, Yu Zhu and Huang Dagen were congratulating Ouyang Xuan on his promotion to the position of supporting the team. Ouyang Xuan was called back to the government office by Pan Tongzhi's soldiers. In the side room of the main hall of the government office, a clerk handed over a document and said: "Are you Ouyang Xuan? You still need to complete the procedures to be promoted to the position of supporting the team." Ouyang Xuan put the document in front of the dim light of the oil lamp and vaguely read: "Chongqing Mansion killed nearly a hundred Tatar soldiers, and hundreds of Tatar soldiers were defeated. Their heads were rotten due to the heat, and only two poems remained...". Seeing this, the clerk impatiently pointed to the end of the document and said, "Just sign your name here." Ouyang Xuan secretly scolded Commander Pan for being so shameless, for his subordinates dared to falsely claim credit for killing two Mongolian soldiers.
When the signed painting was escorted out of the government office gate, Ouyang Xuan still heard the clerk nagging behind him, scolding him for not knowing etiquette and etiquette. He pretended not to hear, buried his head and walked forward quickly, found Yu Zhuhuang Dagen who was waiting, and told the two people about the situation just now. Yu Zhu smiled and said: "Brother Xuan, you don't know something. If you are promoted in the army, you have to bribe your superiors, and you also have to handle the junior officials. This time, in order to falsely report your military exploits, Pan Tongzhi did not ask you for money or materials as usual, so what should I do? I've lost my job as a junior official, so why don't I blame you?" Huang Dagen next to him said: "In the past few years, the Chongqing Prefecture's Xiang army has suffered repeated defeats under Pan Tongzhi's rule. I heard that thieves were hunted and killed and used as the heads of Tatar soldiers. Mr. Pu Zezhi has been exposed again and has been reprimanded by Mr. Pu several times. This time Huang Fa returns his head and sends it to Chongqing Mansion. He will definitely be praised by Mr. Pu. If not, it will definitely be difficult for you this time. "
While walking and talking, Ouyang Xuan learned from the two people that corruption was prevalent in the army in the late Southern Song Dynasty. Soldiers and generals had to bribe their superiors if they wanted to be promoted. Especially the implementation of the "generation system" caused the army's combat effectiveness to plummet. The so-called "recruitment system" means that the general who leads the army can recommend people to the court to serve as his subordinate generals, and only needs to file a record with the relevant department. In actual operation, those who have meritorious service are often not rewarded, and those who have no merit are promoted and bribed with money. Superiors are promoted quickly, but those without money cannot be promoted even if they have military exploits. Therefore, lieutenant generals in the army are either incompetent or relatives and cronies. In particular, many of the leading generals in remote Sichuan became warlords with huge partisanships.
The three of them went straight back to the barracks and informed Li Shuang and the men of Pan Tongzhi's order. After hearing this, Li Shuang's expression was calm. After he dismissed everyone, only Yu Zhu and Ouyang Xuan were left in the room. After being silent for a long time, he said to Yu Zhu: "After we attack and kill the Tatar soldiers, they will definitely retaliate. Pan will not allow them to rest and then forces them to collect food again. This is a common way to use the hands of the Tatar soldiers to get rid of the disgusted people." I am no longer useless, you must take care of your brothers! This time in Hengyuan Town, I did not use all the salt in exchange for food, but hid most of it with Huang Dagen. You can put the cave nearby to good use."
"Brother Xuan, you are knowledgeable and resourceful, and you will definitely do something great in the future. Brother Yu Zhu and I have been working together for many years. We are brave enough but not refined enough. We are good at charging into battles but not good at planning. I hope you can help me...". Li Shuang's heartfelt words made Yu Zhu choke on his side. They have been inseparable for more than ten years since they were together under Master Yu Jie's tent. Tomorrow Yu Zhu will go to collect food again. Life or death is uncertain. Although Li Shuang is not in danger of life in the city, he is a disabled person in troubled times. Survival is often difficult and the prospects are bleak.
