The biggest official in Fuldan City now is Shu Haili, the leader of Kalunli, but he has been controlled by Seldan's men.
Shu Haili was sitting on the kang in the room, glancing at the two soldiers at the door for a while, then lowering his head to think. Finally, he stood up slowly and walked two meters closer under the gaze of two soldiers. After brewing his emotions, he bent down and saluted, and asked in a low voice with a hint of tears: "Master, who is this?" The Lord has passed away?"
As soon as he said this, several other standbys in the room who were blasted in all looked up and looked at the door. After hearing this, the two soldiers stared at Shu Haili with strange eyes, making him feel uncomfortable.
After a long time, a soldier finally said: "No one died."
Shu Haili didn't notice that the accent of the other party's speech was very stiff, so he bowed and continued to ask: "Then, military master, who are you paying tribute to?"
The soldier rolled his eyes at him and stopped talking.
Shu Haili returned to the kang sarcastically, took out his tobacco bag, sat there and started smoking. After smoking two packs of cigarettes, he stood up, picked up the teapot, and took a big sip. He heard two soldiers outside the door suddenly say: "Salute!"
Shu Haili was so frightened that his hands trembled, and with a "click", the teapot fell to the ground and broke into pieces. Shu Haili looked at the teapot distressedly. He had spent a lot of money to buy this teapot when he went to Ninggu Pagoda on business a few years ago!
At this moment, he saw the soldier at the door saying to him: "You, come out!"
Several people standing in the room looked at their leader with worries on their faces. Shu Haili sighed and said to himself, "Stretching out one's head is a sword, and shrinking one's head is also a sword." So he knocked the pipe pot on the sole of his shoe, tucked the pipe stem into his waist, and walked out of the house with a bow.
Although he was mentally prepared, Shu Haili was still frightened by the scene outside the house and gasped!
A dozen steps away, the tall Liu Sheng and the strong Serdan stood together, looking at the leader Karen who came out of the house with a smile on his face.
Oh my God! Shu Haili was startled by Liu Sheng's figure. Is that human being? Could it be the reincarnation of the mountain bear spirit? Compared with the person in front of me, I can barely reach the height of his chest.
Liu Sheng was also dressed in white cold-proof clothing, with a gray cotton hat on his head and two ear protection hanging down; he wore a dark gray cold-proof mask on his face. Around him and Serdan, dozens of soldiers armed with rifles were on guard.
Shu Haili was so frightened that his legs trembled. When he was still seven or eight meters away from Liu Sheng, he knelt down.
"Slave Shu, Shu, Shu Haili, local card, card, card, Karen leads the charge, offends the Lord Tianwei!"
Liu Sheng looked at the guy who looked like a little old man in front of him, smiled and said, "Get up, it's very cold on the ground."
"Thank you, thank you, thank you, sir." Shu Haili felt a lot more at ease when he heard the other party speak fluent Mandarin. It seems that these people are indeed soldiers of the imperial court.
"How old are you?"
"This slave is forty-two this year."
"Hmm. Do you know what we do?"
"I don't know, I must have offended Lord Tianwei."
"Haha." Liu Sheng thought for a moment. Zhao Xin and the others will be arriving this afternoon. The primary purpose now is to stabilize these people first. He really couldn't bear to kill a bunch of poor guys with nothing but their buttocks.
"Yes. We are the ones sent by the imperial court from the capital to suppress bandits."
"Suppressing bandits?" Shu Haili bowed and rolled his eyes again and again, thinking that the only people in this area who could be called "bandits" were the Oros people in the south. However, since those people defeated the imperial troops last year, there has been no movement. Moreover, the people in Fuldan City, from him to the people below, are all so poor that they don't even have any decent property, and many of them can't even get a wife.
Thinking of this, Shu Haili asked tentatively: "Sir, are you talking about two hundred miles away?"
Liu Sheng nodded and said, "Those are the people."
"I'm telling you." Shu Haili's expression softened, but then he became worried again. Speaking of the troops coming from the imperial court, I must serve them attentively and provide them with food and grass. But the city of Fuldan is too poor to take the blame right now, so how can we honor these military lords?
Thinking that there was still some bean cake for the horses in Karen, Shu Haili knelt on the ground and kowtowed: "My lord, forgive me! We have been without food here for several days, and we really can't afford to supply it to the military masters. There is still some food for the horses in the warehouse right now. Bean cakes. However, each family in the castle should still have some skins on hand, I will ask them to use them to honor your lord in a moment."
Liu Sheng asked curiously: "What do you eat every day now?"
Shu Haili stood up and took out a paper bag from his arms. After opening it shakily, he found a small handful of ginseng seeds inside. "These are ginseng seeds. When you're hungry, you can eat one of them. In addition, when each family went out to hunt mink, they took the skins that were sent to the court as tribute, and the remaining mink meat was dried. And..."
Liu Sheng interrupted him and asked: "How many households and people are there in the fort now?"
"My lord, there are fifty-one households in the fort, and there are seventy-three people in Dingkou."
"There are only more than seventy people in fifty households?" Liu Sheng pretended to be surprised.
"Sir, although this is the land of Longxing in our Qing Dynasty, you have also seen that it is surrounded by wasteland. In the twelfth lunar month of winter, the white-haired wind blows so hard that no one dares to go out. Alas! No one wants to marry here. Here comes the place. Don’t worry about your jokes, there are dozens of people in the fort who can’t find wives.”
"how about you?"
"The slave's wife is from Oroqen. The slave's father saved her family's life, so he allowed his daughter to marry the slave."
Liu Sheng changed the topic and then asked: "How long have you been without food?"
"It's not enough after February 2. The days here are short in spring and summer. Although the imperial court has sent two oxen, there are not many strong laborers." Shu Haili said, and wanted to reach out to touch the dry pipe on his waist several times. But then he put it down again. Liu Sheng saw it, so he took out a box of Tianxiang cigarettes from his arms, took one and threw it at Shu Haili.
"then!"
Shu Haili subconsciously reached out and fished it out, and found a small paper roll with a white upper half and a reddish-brown lower half in his hand. When he held it in front of him, a scent of tobacco penetrated his nostrils.
"This is.?"
"Smoke the newly released cigarettes." After Liu Sheng finished speaking, he also hung up one. Just as he was about to take out a lighter, a soldier beside him had already taken out a match and lit it for him with a click.
Liu Sheng had the intention to throw the match to the other party, but then he thought about it. What if the secret was revealed and the other party took the match and set fire to it? So he motioned to his subordinates to light a cigarette for Shu Haili.
Shu Haili looked at the matchbox in the soldier's hand in surprise, thinking that it was much easier to use than the fire discount box! It seems that all the good things in the world are in the capital. Watching the bright flames rise, Shu Hai imitated Liu Sheng's example, put one end of the filter in his mouth, and lit a cigarette against the fire.
"Ahem~~"
Liu Sheng saw the satisfied expression on his face after he coughed twice, and then said with a smile: "Keep talking."
"Hey! Where did you talk about just now? Oh, farming. In the past, when spring started, some people from Ning Guta would be sent over to help with farming." Shu Haili said while raising his head to pay attention to Liu Sheng's reaction. . Seeing that he was listening carefully, he continued: "However, heavy rains often occur in this place in July and August. If the harvest is not harvested in time, the food in the field will become moldy. In the past, before winter, Ninggu Pagoda would send people Send some food over; but last year there was not even a shadow."
"Then you didn't ask for it?"
"Gone. But the adults in Ningguta said that the excess grain was transferred to Wula, Jilin, and they themselves didn't have much food left. The slave finally begged his grandfather and grandma, and finally begged for two hundred kilograms of sorghum and two hundred kilograms of sorghum. Jin Bean Cake, I’ve been dealing with it like this until now.”
Liu Sheng nodded and said: "I will send someone to follow you back to the fort, and you come to appease the people. The grain transport team will come over in the afternoon. Will the one thousand kilograms of wheat allocated to you be enough?"
Shu Haili looked at Liu Sheng in surprise, threw away the cigarette in his hand, knelt down and kowtowed: "Enough! That's enough! If you cook some wheat porridge every day, you can deal with Kaichun'er no matter what. Sir, you are really a life-saving Bodhisattva!" I wish you a long life and a long life!" He only learned this last sentence from Ning Guta.
Liu Sheng shook his head and said with a look of helplessness: "Go to the city now and tell the residents in the city to wait at home safely and not to wander around in the fort. The grain truck will arrive in the afternoon." Then he said to Serdan next to him. : "Take someone to follow him." Serdan saluted and went down with Shu Haili.
Only then did Shu Haili remember that he hadn't even asked the other party's name and official position. He wanted to turn around and ask, but Serdan beside him shouted: "What do you want to do?"
When Shu Haili heard that the other party was speaking Manchu, he quickly bowed and asked with a smile: "I haven't asked you your surname, what is your official position?"
Serdan thought for a while and then said: "My lord's surname is Liu Mingsheng, and he is a general under Marshal Fu."
"Ah, Marshal Fu is back?"
"Don't ask what you shouldn't ask!"
"Yes, yes. What do you call me, sir?"
"Where's all this nonsense? Let's go!"
Shu Haili glanced at the compound bow on Serdan's shoulder and the quiver on his waist, and said to himself that the bow and arrows were rare, and he didn't know what the many bow strings and wheels on them were for.
At this time, the old castle of Fuldan City was heavily guarded. Five hundred soldiers from Beihai Town were guarding the front and back of each house with guns. The local residents were so frightened that they huddled on the kangs in their houses and did not dare to make a sound. Occasionally, a few babies' cries sounded from the house, but they were quickly suppressed.
Shu Haili looked at the scene in front of him and thought to himself that these old men from the capital were so arrogant that they wouldn't even let them out. He walked to the middle of the street, glanced at Serdan behind him, and saw that the other party nodded towards him, so he shouted in Manchu: "I am Shu Haili, don't be afraid, everyone. This is sent by the imperial court from the capital. The military master who came to suppress the bandits."
At this time, every family felt a little relieved when they heard that they were the military horses of the imperial court. I heard Shu Haili outside the door shout again: "Now the adults outside the fort take pity on us who are hungry and cold, and specially prepare 800 yuan."
Shu Haili's shoulder was suddenly tapped. He turned around and saw Serdan's cold eyes staring at him. Shu Haili was so frightened that he trembled all over and quickly changed his words: "We specially prepared a thousand kilograms of grain for me and others."
"Bang!" The doors of more than a dozen houses opened at once. The people who came out shrank back when they saw the gun-wielding soldiers at the door. They stood at the door and asked loudly: "Lord, what are you talking about?" real?"
"Of course it's true! What did you do to make us suffer so much? Baman Gong, you don't even have a wife, you only have one pair of pants, what can you say to lie?"
As soon as these words came out, everyone in the house, whether they were at the door or in the house, looked happy, as if they were the emperor's sage!
At noon, Liu Sheng asked his soldiers to collect more than a hundred compressed biscuits and deliver them door to door to the fort residents. After each family thanked the soldiers who came to deliver food, they looked at the small piece of "food" wrapped in oil paper in their hands and thought to themselves that this is not enough to eat.
An hour later, when Shu Haili's wife opened the lid of the pot, a rich aroma of oil floated into the house, mixed with the aroma of sesame seeds, green onions, and a hint of meat. His family is a family of four, and they were given a total of seven biscuits. They boiled them with water for more than an hour before they were all melted. At this time, the small, hard cubes had turned into a half-pot of mush. At this time, the family gathered around the stove, smelling the steaming smell, and their saliva continued to secrete.
"It smells so good!" Shu Haili took the wooden shovel from his wife's hand, gently added a little bit of paste and put it in his mouth. The sweet and salty greasy taste made him almost scream out of happiness.
"Dad, I want it too~" the youngest daughter begged, pulling on Shu Haili's sleeve and shaking gently.
"Everything is available, one bowl per person."
The eldest son held the bowl and sipped the paste with a smile on his face: "Dad, this is much better than sorghum porridge."
"Yes, if you can be like the gentlemen in the capital and eat this every day, you won't change it even if you give it to the emperor."
"Dad, what does the emperor eat every day?" the little daughter asked curiously while eating.
Shu Haili was stunned for a moment, then said: "Your Majesty, your Majesty rides a tall horse to patrol the capital every day. In the sash on the horse's back, there is a thousand-year-old ginseng on one side and a gold ingot on the other. When you are hungry, take a bite of ginseng, and when you are thirsty, use the ingot to buy tea. drink."
"What's so delicious about ginseng? According to me, it's not as good as this paste." The eldest son raised his head and drank the paste in the bowl, then continued to take the second bowl from the pot.
"You know nothing! Your Majesty is the True Dragon Emperor. Can he be like us?!"
The two soldiers outside the house couldn't understand the gibbering words of Shu Haili's family. The two of them each took out a piece of compressed biscuit from their pockets, sighed, and took a small bite.
No matter how delicious the food is, if you eat it every day for more than ten days, no one can bear it. In order to rush on the road, Liu Sheng led his soldiers to eat and sleep in the open air, eating either raw or boiled compressed biscuits every day. After more than 20 days in a row, everyone who ate it had dry stools, and the smell of compressed biscuits made them want to vomit. If he eats like this again, Liu Sheng himself will collapse.
After the fort residents had eaten their fill, they huddled contentedly on their own fire pits and waited for the food distribution in the evening. Occasionally, a few people would run around in circles in the yard after eating too much, and the soldiers would not stop them. Liu Sheng took a tour of the fort at noon. Seeing this scene, he finally felt at ease.
At around four o'clock in the afternoon, as people shouted in the distance, Zhao Xin finally arrived with 3,000 people. The migrant workers in Beihai Town have gone through drills long ago and know exactly what they want to do when they arrive at their destination. As soon as the horse-drawn sleigh stopped, three thousand people began to work nervously.
(End of chapter)
