In a thatched tea shop next to the official road, a strong man who looked like an official picked up a rough porcelain tea bowl and brought it to his mouth. He just took a sip and spit out the tea with a pop.
"Is this fucking tea too?"
A young man sitting opposite the official said angrily:
"Lu Jianxing, I told you that we are not in the capital. How can there be a decent tea shop in this wilderness? If you want to drink good tea, go back to the capital!"
There were more than a dozen refugees gathered around the tea shop. They were all in rags and skinny. One of the women was holding a child in her arms.
A group of refugees gathered around the tea shop, eagerly waiting for alms from the tea guests who got off the carriage.
At least in their opinion, this group of tea guests were dressed in extraordinary clothes, and they looked like they came from wealthy families who came from the capital.
"Go, go, stay away, don't delay my business!"
A man with monkey cheeks and a sharp mouth wielded a wooden stick to drive away the refugees who were approaching the tea shop. An old man with inconvenient legs and feet was beaten twice and fell to the ground wailing.
"Damn it, these Henan barbarians, if they don't beg for food in Henan and go to the capital to beg for money, get out!"
The waiter cursed, turned around, immediately put on a flattering smile, and smiled broadly at Shen Lian and others.
Along the way east, there was an endless stream of refugees. They came from Henan and Beizhili, and some were refugees from Shandong.
At first, Shen Lian gave some money and food to these refugees. Later, when he saw more and more refugees, and there were tens of thousands of refugees, he was really unable to do what he wanted, so he ignored them.
The scene in front of him made people furious, and several people around him were about to get angry. Shen Lian winked at them, and Lu Jianxing sat down.
"Liaodong is much worse than the capital. General Liu's military laws are strict. Soldiers are trained to shed several layers of skin before they can pass. Those who violate military laws will be beheaded. Don't blame me for not reminding you. But,"
Shen Lian paused for a moment and continued:
"If you achieve military merit, you will be promoted quickly. Deng Changxiong and Wang Erhu, who fought with me at that time, are now Qianzong, equivalent to our Ming Dynasty's generals, and they will have to be promoted in the future."
"Why haven't you heard Brother Shen talk about it? So, Brother Shen, if you had not left Kaiyuan, you would be a general now?"
Shen Lian remained silent.
Several of his subordinates, Chen Qi, looked at Brother Shen a little differently.
Zhao Yuanzhi said to Lu Jianxing:
"What Shen Baihu said is, Mr. Lu, you have only been in Zhenfu Division for a few days, and you are already not used to such a simple meal. If Brother Shen hadn't promoted you, you would still be a green man in Dingzi Street! Brother Shen can do this. None of the generals are as capable as you!"
Lu Jianxing looked embarrassed, and his neck turned red.
Shen Lian waved his hand to interrupt the two of them and whispered:
"We have killed so many people, burned down the Jiaofang Department, and committed a heinous crime. There is no way to escape. If you escape here with Shen Lian, I will definitely show you a way to survive. When we get to Kaiyuan, Observe the rules and laws, be more careful when doing things, and keep Dongchang's temper away from me. From now on, I will take my wife to wander the world, and no one will be able to protect you."
The tea shop was full of people. This small tea shop set up on the official road between the capital and Tianjin was rarely as lively as today a few times a year. The five or six shabby tables were all full. The waiters drove away the refugees and went to work. After getting busy, I poured tea for the guests and gave them some steamed cakes and steamed buns.
Cai Lian handed the hot tea to Shen Lian and his wife. Zuo Miaoqing stared blankly at the refugees in the distance, giggling.
Pei Dahu, Lin Yu, Wu Xiao and others sat at other tables.
They rested here for half an hour and still hadn't set off. Everyone was worried that the pursuers might catch up at any time, and they were all a little anxious.
After leaving Zuo'anmen, Pei Dahu told Shen Lian that the convoy must rush to Tianjin as soon as possible. If Tianjin Port is not frozen, take a lucky boat from Zhangjiawan to Weihaiwei. When they arrive at Weihai, they will open the original army territory, and Dongchang will take them away. There's a solution.
On the other hand, Shen Lian was laughing and joking all the way, wearing bright clothes and angry horses. Rather than running away, he was more like spending his honeymoon with his Annan sweetheart.
"Brother Pei, is this Shen Baihu reliable? One moment he retreats to the world, and the next moment his children are in love. Why did the Marquis of Ping Liao send this person to the capital as an undercover agent?"
Wu Xiao stared at the tea leaves at the bottom of the bowl, spat, and said with an unhappy look on his face.
"The lives of dozens of people are in his hands, and he is still so careless. If you ask me, let's not go with them. The troops should be divided into two groups. Let's go to Tianjin first and let him grind away at the back."
As Wu Xiao said this, he picked up the Yan Fei Dao and made a gesture to get up and rush on his way. Seeing that Pei Dahu still didn't say a word, he had to sit down again.
He looked back at Lin Yu, who was a head taller than him.
"Hey, Big Lin, if Brother Pei doesn't leave, will you leave? If you don't leave, you will be caught by the gangsters. I heard that if you go to Dongchang, you have to cut off that thing first. From now on, you can only enter the palace and become a eunuch. ····”
Lin Yu was silent. His mouth hadn't stopped since he sat on the bench, but he was not talking, but eating.
In less than half an hour, the giant ate twelve steamed cakes in a row, drank five bowls of tea, and looked like he was about to eat a thirteenth one.
Wu Xiao took out the last few pieces of broken silver from his sleeves, placed them on the table, and said angrily:
"Take it easy, we only have so much money left."
Along the way from the capital, Wu Xiao scattered all the broken silver he had on him to the refugees. His hometown is near Henan, and he said he felt warm to hear the accents of these refugees. Not only did he lose all his money, he also took out Pei Dahu and Lin Yu's money.
Pei Dahu stood up and said to the two of them:
"Okay, I'll go over and talk to him. Jin Yiwei's way of doing things is different from that of Kaiyuan. He has to rely on others to take care of him along the way."
Shen Lian picked up the tea bowl, called the shop clerk, motioned the clerk to sit down, took out a few pieces of broken silver from his sleeve, and spread them on the table one by one.
The tea shop clerk's eyes were bulging as he stared at the broken silver in a daze.
When Pei Dahu and others saw this, they all looked here impatiently.
Shen Lian knocked on the table, and the man woke up from a dream.
"This little brother, you are a very nice person, and the tea is also good. It is in the winter, and the soles of the feet of those who drink it will be warm. I am happy today, so I will reward you with this money. We are medicine merchants from Shaanxi. We are in a hurry. Rush to Henan, where there are many people dead and medicinal materials are easy to sell. How far is it from Tianjin?"
The clerk took the broken silver and immediately put it to his mouth and bit it, with an expression of disbelief on his face and said in a panic:
"Two, twenty miles, only twenty miles away from Tianjin Wei."
Shen Lian picked up the second piece of broken silver and continued to ask:
"You come here every day and meet a lot of tea drinkers. Do you know what interesting news has happened in Tianjin Wei recently?"
This tea shop is located in a wilderness. On weekdays, local farmers and traveling merchants usually pass by. The waiter has never seen such a generous tea shop. He reluctantly accepted the money and narrowed his eyes into a thin line:
"Your Majesty, please ask. Tianjin Wei happens to have such a thing, let me tell you about it."
After receiving the money, the clerk didn't show off and said straight to the point:
"Lü Tongzhi of Tianjin Guard, has your guest heard of it?"
Contrary to the waiter's expectation, Shen Lian nodded.
The waiter smiled with a smile on his face and lowered his voice:
"My guest is really well-informed, and I can't hide it from you. This Lu Tongzhi has a big business and is as rich as any of Tianjin Wei. However, Mr. Lu has suffered a disaster recently."
Shen Lian took out a bag of melon seeds from his sleeve, sat on the small bench, crossed his legs, and chatted with the waiter while eating melon seeds.
"What kind of business are you doing? Can you be richer than the governor of Tianjin?"
The guy pretended to be mysterious and said:
"The guest officer doesn't know that the governor of Tianjin is his uncle. Half of the private salt in Beizhili is sold by Mr. Lu, as well as the brothel and porcelain business..."
Shen Lian laughed loudly:
"He's an uncle again. Why am I always having trouble with my uncle these days?"
The waiter didn't understand what Shen Lian was talking about, so he laughed twice and continued:
"Didn't I say that Mr. Lu suffered a disaster? He said that two shipments of goods, whether silk or porcelain, that were sold to Inchon Port in North Korea this fall were robbed by a group of Pidao pirates! The news has just been sent back to Tianjin. Wei, Master Lu is so angry that he vomits blood!"
"Pi Island Water Bandits?"
The waiter was still chatting, when a man came over from the opposite side of Shen Lian and pushed away the sharp-mouthed tea shop waiter. The waiter yelled and cursed. When he saw that the man was tall and had a bad face, he quickly changed his face to a smile.
Pei Dahu didn't even look at the waiter. He sat down and glanced at the several guards. After the waiter took a few steps away, he said:
"The Pi Dao water bandits are Master Liu's navy."
Of course Shen Lian didn't know in the capital that in the past few months in North Korea, the Liaodong Navy newly built by Ping Liaohou had been developing for almost a year and had begun to take shape. At present, the main business of the Liaodong Navy is to pretend to be pirates and rob North Korean trade. Tianjin merchant ships - the owners behind these merchant ships are basically high-ranking officials from all over Beizhili, who are either rich or noble. What Wu Aheng and the others are doing now, to put it bluntly, is to rob the rich and give to the poor.
"Ping Liaohou's plan is not small, he even has a navy, but this business of water pirates may not be completed for a long time."
Shen Lian clicked his tongue in surprise.
This Lu Tongzhi was also unlucky. In the 47th year of Wanli, Kaiyuan was robbed once, and in the second year of Taichang, he was robbed again. I don't know how much money he will lose this time.
Pei Dahu looked back at the refugees gathered in the distance. Lin Yu was holding a basket of steamed cakes and was distributing them to a few old, weak, women and children. Pei Dahu cursed in his heart, now his money was completely gone.
This fierce butcher leader rarely showed his true feelings. He looked at Shen Lian and said with a sincere expression:
"Shen Baihu and Ping Liaohou are doing this all for them."
Shen Lian nodded noncommittally.
Shen had seen much worse things like this in the capital. During the twelfth lunar month, there were more than a dozen carriages transporting corpses out of the city every day.
"Isn't this the case in the Ming Dynasty? I was reading the pond newspaper in Zhenfusi. In the disaster-hit counties in Shaanxi and Henan, all the tree roots have been eaten up and people are being eaten. The disaster relief money distributed by the emperor has not yet left Zuo'anmen. Half of it was taken away by the Cabinet Secretary, Rites, Supervisor, and Zhenfu Division..."
Shen Lian looked indifferent, as if he was talking about ordinary things.
"So Ping Liaohou wants to destroy the Ming Dynasty and save the people of the world."
Pei Dahu's expression suddenly became serious.
"Brother Shen, stay in Kaiyuan, General Liu needs talents like you!"
Pei Dahu looked at the female relatives next to him and continued to persuade: "You have killed so many people in Zhenfusi, and the court will not let you go. If you take me to travel around the world, I am afraid that you will not be able to fulfill your filial piety in the end and stay in Kaiyuan and Pingliao." Hou will protect you."
Shen Lian shook his head and smiled:
"Who said I would take my mother to escape?"
Pei Dahu was stunned for a moment, but then heard Shen Lian continue:
"I will leave my mother and Zuo Guangdou's daughter in Kaiyuan, and Marquis Pingliao will help me take care of them. I will only be with her,"
As Shen Lian spoke, he pointed at the Annan woman who was looking at him not far away.
"Together with her, we will explore the world."
Pei Dahu was speechless.
"Ahem, of course, Shen won't let you help in vain. I will give Kaiyuan a big gift."
Pei Dahu quickly asked: "What kind of gift?"
Shen Lian smiled slightly and whispered into the ear of the head servant. Pei Dahu's eyes turned into bull's eyes after hearing this.
"What? Let us rescue him?"
"Yes, let's leave and leave him alone and helpless. Aren't you afraid that Marquis Pingliao will blame you?"
"Besides, he has a lot of contacts in Tianjin and may be able to give us more surprises."
"I just left a message to this kind-hearted guy. Let's leave immediately. The troops will be divided into two groups. The Jinyiwei will take the official road, and you will take the small road. We will meet at the east gate of Tianjin tonight. I estimate that by then the Dongchang Fanzi also caught up."
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