Ten miles southwest of Kaiyuan City, Gaotaizi Mountain Village (today's Guataizi).
The intersection of Qinghe River and the east of Kuohe Village forms a broad alluvial plain. The river land rich in alluvial soil is quite fertile, and this is also a good farmland in Kaiyuan.
At this time, the long and cold Little Ice Age has not yet come, and the Songliao Plain is getting warmer in April of the lunar calendar, which is the busy farming season.
In previous years, from March to April, military and civilian households in the guard station would sow and fertilize the fields early and work hard.
However, this year is a little different. In April, there were not many farmers busy in the rice fields.
On the other hand, there will be some Liao soldiers who look like servants, riding horses deep into the fields at intervals to drive away those households who are planting and irrigating.
Last month, General Ma and several generals returned from the battlefield in Sarhu. More than half of his servants were killed and wounded. Marin's two sons were also killed by the Tatars. The battered General was confused and confused. What's the matter?
If Marin doesn't care about things, there will naturally be people who are willing to take care of them.
Seeing the opportunity, the generals of Liao Town around Kaiyuan quickly snatched up all the military fields owned by several martyred generals.
General Ding Shen sent people to seize hundreds of acres of farmland from Kaiyuan Guard Station. The general said that these fields were the property of Ningyuan Bo Li Rusong. They had been encroached on by Kaiyuan people over the years and must be taken back now so that they could be given to the Li family. An argument.
Li Chengliang and Li Rusong have been dead for many years, and even Li Rubai has committed suicide. Li Ruzhen is the only one left in the Li family. I wonder if he will thank General Ding.
The two commanders, Ding Guozhen and Yang Qilong, had no soldiers at hand and no one above them. Naturally, they did not dare to offend these Liao Town Qiu Ba, so they had to hide far away and swallow their anger.
A few days ago, households renting farmland near Gaotaizi Village were all evicted.
It is said that Ding Shen will use these fertile fields to plant other crops. The tenants who were evicted used to pay about 50% to 60% of the land rent per year for farming to the general soldiers, and the remaining 30% to 40% was enough to feed and clothe the whole family. Now that 30% to 40% of their income has been lost overnight, they have no choice but to starve to death or throw in Tartars as clothing outside the wall.
On the eighth day of April, a team of servants arrived from the east of Gaotaizi Village. The servants rode on tall horses and looked fiercely at the newly cultivated rice fields in front of them.
A skinny old man was pulling weeds in the field with his hunched back. The old man's ricked upper body was almost parallel to the ground, like an ancient statue rooted in the land of Liaodong.
Fine beads of sweat rolled down the old farmer's cheeks and dripped into the rice field, making a small splash.
On the field ridge in front of the old farmer, there are some utensils such as earthen jars and bamboo baskets neatly placed. The jars are filled with clean water, and the bamboo baskets are filled with several steamed buns.
Suddenly, the sound of horse hooves splashing in the water came to his ears, and the old farmer looked around with fear on his face.
Not far behind him, a sturdy military man rode across the field ridge and came to the old farmer.
Without dismounting, he cracked the jar with a whip and spread the water all over the ground:
"You damn old man! I told you not to plant rice last month. Damn it! You still flood the fields! This field is for Lord Ding to raise war horses. How can you plant alfalfa after irrigation?!"
The old farmer stood in the paddy field in a daze, holding a handful of withered grass in his hands covered with soil. His withered mouth wriggled a few times, not knowing what he was saying.
Seeing that the old farmer was old and deaf, the head servant refused to talk nonsense with him. He waved his hand fiercely and shouted behind him:
"Everyone mount their horses and trample the rice seedlings! I will trample all the rice seedlings to death!"
A group of servants immediately rode forward, and the horses crossed the field ridges and trampled wantonly in the paddy fields full of green seedlings.
"Don't step on the seedlings, don't step on the seedlings!"
The old farmer shouted hoarsely. He is a farmer from Gaotaizi Village and a tenant of the military field of the General Soldier. He has been farming in Gaotaizi Village for decades.
Country people have been tending crops for decades, and their feelings for the land are incomprehensible to ordinary people. After the surrounding households were evicted, the old farmers stubbornly returned here, returned to the land they were familiar with, and continued farming with simple farm tools.
For these farmers who live and die in the soil, the land and crops are everything they have. The iron horses of the generals and the romantic affairs of the censors are too far away from them. They are other things. The story of a world.
The old farmer waved his arms as thin as dead wood, blocked a servant's horse, and shouted in despair:
"It's a good fertile field. Why do we need to grow alfalfa for livestock? We have been growing rice for Mr. General for many years. His land rent is much lower than other households..."
"You old man, if you think Marin can protect you, he will be dead a long time ago! Go and hand it over to him underground! I will let you plant it!"
The servant drove his horse and rushed towards the old farmer, effortlessly knocking the old man's thin body away.
The old farmer fell into the field, covered in mud, unable to struggle, and was already dying.
The head servant looked at the old farmer with hatred and said angrily to the people around him:
"Don't worry about this old guy, let him die in the field, and let the tenants around him see the consequences of going against Master Ding! Let's see if they still dare to plant it?"
After that, he directed his servants to continue stepping on the rice seedlings. The war horses were particularly excited when they entered the paddy field. These animals snorted as they walked, and water splashed around them. The newly grown rice seedlings were quickly trampled by them.
"Let's go! Go over there and see! Are there any rice plants left? Grab some girls and go back!"
After the servant leader finished speaking, he rode towards the east, followed by several servants, laughing all the way.
Several villagers in Gaotaizi Village stared blankly at the scene in front of them. When they saw the servant approaching them, they were frightened and fled away.
"Hahaha, a bunch of untouchables!"
The laughter of the chief servant suddenly stopped, and a group of cavalry suddenly caught up behind him. There were about fifty or sixty horsemen, all wearing mandarin duck war jackets, holding lances, and wearing firearms. The leader was staring at him, he He was holding a huge firegun in one hand, and there was a woman standing next to him.
The head of the servant Ding saw that this person was not a good person, but he believed that he was a confidant of General Ding Shen. Commander Kaiyuan wanted to give up three points to him when he saw him, so he did not take these Ming troops seriously.
"What kind of bird people are you? What do you want to do?"
Liu Zhao and Sun Ce immediately stepped forward, threw the blunderbuss to the deputy battalion officer Li Yuchen, raised his lance and pointed it at the group of servants and said angrily:
"Let your horse trample the seedlings, behead them! Harm the common people, behead them! All of you will die today!"
Seeing Liu Zhaosun like this, the head servant thought that he was a boss or something, and wanted to take the opportunity to extort a few taels of money from him, so he couldn't help but said angrily:
"You want to blackmail me?! I am a martial arts examiner in the thirty-seventh year of Wanli, and was appointed by the emperor!"
Liu Zhaosun said coldly:
"The emperor is so wise and powerful, how could he choose a beast like you to do the lifting of a man's body?"
After saying that, the lance in his hand was thrust out. The servant leader reacted and quickly raised his knife to block. He felt numb in the tiger's mouth, and his body was knocked out by the lance. He fell to the ground and howled in pain. Then, with a smooth knife Then he chopped off his head.
The surrounding servants were frightened by the scene before them. It wasn't until Liu Zhaosun chopped off the servant's head that everyone screamed and fled in all directions.
Liu Zhaosun waved his hand, and the cavalry battalion behind him chased after him. He turned around and looked at the fleeing people around him, and said loudly:
"I am Liu Zhaosun, the general of Kaiyuan. I came to Kaiyuan to protect you. I only do three things."
"Fair! Fair! It's damn fair to repay debts! It's only right to pay debts and kill people to pay for their lives! I'm here today to take back Mr. Ma's land!"
"Those of you who were former tenants of General Ma, please go to the original Bingbeidao Yamen to register within three days, and I will have your land redistributed to you!"
Liu Zhaosun dismounted, took the huge turtle dove gun, and used the prod to gently compact the gunpowder and lead bullets.
In front of him, a fierce servant under Ding Bi's command slashed and wounded a new recruit of the cavalry battalion. He looked at the five or six cavalrymen who were chasing him and was about to run away.
His face was full of panic, and he just wanted to escape back to Tieling, tell Zhidingbi what happened today, and let the general take revenge on his brothers.
Jin Yuji handed over a four-foot-long forked stick. Liu Zhaosun put the gun on the forked stick, pulled the primer cap of the musket, put his shoulder on the gun butt, pointed at the rear sight, and calmly aimed at the servant dozens of steps away. Back view, right hand pulling the trigger.
"boom!"
The turtle dove gun, which weighed more than ten kilograms, made a deafening sound.
The primer pot and gun mouth suddenly erupted into a thick stream of white smoke, and a tongue of flame more than three feet long in the white smoke was extremely dazzling like fireworks in the day and a shooting star in the dark.
A piece of lead weighing one, two or six cents was shot out angrily, and was about to tear apart all the living things in front of it.
The servants were like frightened birds, galloping on the dirt road.
"Officer, did you miss it?"
Liu Zhaosun put away his fork stick and turtle dove's musket, and smiled slightly at Jin Yuji, who was standing upright next to him:
"Let the lead fly for a while,"
~~~~~
In the inner city of Tieling, in the living room of the General's Mansion, Tieling General Ding Bi looked at the servant kneeling in front of him with his face covered in blood, and asked again:
"He said he came to Kaiyuan for fairness?"
The servant was covered in blood. He was chased by the Kaiyuan Cavalry Battalion and escaped back to Tieling with only a narrow escape. A dozen brothers around him were killed. At this time, he was shocked and angry, and he quickly said:
"Yes, sir, Liu Zhaosun said it was fair while he was killing our people. He smashed Mr. Du's head with a firecracker. If the younger one hadn't run faster, he would have been killed by Liu Zhaosun. Sir, you They have killed all the people sent to Qingtian, and he also said that they are coming to kill you, sir. The southern soldiers are very fierce, sir, let's not mess with them."
"Are you scared?"
Ding Bichen smiled coldly, looked back at the generals around him, and suddenly smiled:
"General Liu Shen likes fairness, so let's give him fairness!"
A lieutenant next to him said angrily after several servants died:
"Sir, these southern soldiers have just finished fighting the Tatars, and there are less than 4,000 left. They still have to defend the city. We have more than 10,000 people. We will call some brothers in Shenyang to help and destroy him!"
Ding Bi shook his head and rejected his subordinate's suggestion, with a sinister smile on his fat round face.
"Don't worry, let's play with him first. The land that Liu Zhaosun occupies now will have to be spit out by me twice as much! Anyone who dares to kill me, I will make his life worse than death!"
After General Ding Shen finished speaking, he clapped his hands vigorously. With everyone watching, a shrewd-looking old man, about fifty or sixty years old, walked in from the door. When he saw General Ding Shen, he immediately knelt down.
Ding Bi looked at the lean old man, was silent for a moment, and said coldly:
"Dr. Zhao, you have benefited a lot from me over the years. Now it's time to repay me."
Mr. Zhao nodded quickly and showed a flattering smile.
Ding Bi's eyes flashed with cold light and said:
"You go back and find out for me the accounts of the eight Kaiyuan families, especially the accounts of the liaison with the slaves. If you defeat them, our business in Kaiyuan will be better."
"Compile it into a memorial, send a few ministers, and find a good time to give one copy to the censor of Liaodong, one to the Yanguan, and one to General Liu Shen. Doesn't Liu Zhaosun like fairness? Let's ask him to be fair. I Let’s see if he kills or not.”
Zanhua, who was standing next to him, heard this, put his palms in his hands and laughed:
"High! It's really high! This master's move is really amazing for killing people and killing people!"
"If Liu Zhaosun dares to kill the merchant, Kaiyuan's business will be ruined. Anyway, the person who died is a member of the Li family. We can still take advantage of the chaos and make a lot of money from him. If he doesn't kill him, we will let Yu Shi Yan Guan Impeachment, saying that he connived with businessmen and had illicit money, is tantamount to conspiracy, how will Xiong Tingbi protect him when he arrives?"
Ding Bi picked up the wine bowl, drank it all in one gulp, and gritted his teeth:
"This thief Liu Zhaosun has been at odds with me many times. Now he still wants to take root in Kaiyuan and wants us to die. He is dreaming!"
He suddenly pulled out his heavy sword, took two steps forward, and slashed at the servant who was kneeling on the ground.
The servant was caught off guard and was stabbed into the lower abdomen with a heavy knife. He looked at the moody General Ding Shen in horror.
There were showers of blood all around, and Ding Bi swung his knife wildly, as if he was chopping meat. He chopped more than a dozen times before killing the servant.
There was a clang sound and the heavy knife was thrown to the ground.
"You're a useless thing. You haven't killed a single Kaiyuan soldier. You have the nerve to come back and dare to speak to Liu Zhaosun!"
After Ding Bi finished speaking, he picked up the wine bottle and used wine to wash away the blood on his hands as if nothing had happened. He raised his head suddenly, and several people around him took two steps back in fear.
The Zanhua looked at the wine mixed with human blood flowing towards him on the ground, and was so frightened that he quickly ran away.
Ding Bi looked around, gritted his teeth and said:
"We can't let him grow big in Kaiyuan. If we don't kill him, he will kill me."
Ding Bi sat back in his seat and said again:
"The things Liu Zhaosun committed in Liaodong are not just liaisons with slaves. I still have a lot of evidence of his crimes. The evidence is as solid as a mountain. I have asked Yan Guan Yushi to impeach him, and there is also Huang Shangshu in the capital. I don't need him. If you take action, someone will deal with Liu Zhaosun!"
