Cen Wu is twenty-eight years old this year. He has curly hair, turned-up nostrils, a big fat mouth, and some buck teeth. He is ugly in appearance but not bad in heart. When others bullied him since childhood, he just smiled and kept in mind his mother's words: People can be ugly but not bad in heart!
When he was nine years old, his mother died in a flood. He was rescued by his father and survived with his mother's scraping.
Feng Hanzi, a Taoist priest from Sanqing Mountain, led his disciples down the mountain to provide disaster relief. They found that the child was young and ugly. However, after receiving the food, he knelt down and presented it to his mother and father. He only ate some dregs, so he asked him why.
Cen Wu replied that there was no greater favor than this for his mother and father to save their lives. Although he was young, he was rich and powerful and could collect bee seeds to satisfy his hunger.
Feng Hanzi was very surprised. She felt that this child knew how to repay kindness and responded clearly, and she liked him very much. So he taught Cen how to identify fifty-six kinds of wild vegetables and how to cook them, and agreed to meet him in a month.
When he came back, he found that although the local people had plenty of food, none of them starved to death.
After asking, I found out that the fifth child of the Cen family taught the children of each family the methods he taught, and mobilized everyone to dig wild vegetables, collect bee seeds, and catch fish and crabs, and then distributed them to various families, especially those who were orphans or widowed and those who had lost relatives.
Feng Hanzi was silent, and finally found the Cen family and told Cen Wu's father that your son had the ability to do great things. He wanted to take him as his apprentice for nine years and buy fifteen acres of land for the Cen family as support.
Cen Wu followed his master to Sanqing Mountain for nine years. In addition to the Four Books and Five Classics, Feng Hanzi also taught him martial arts and medical skills. After he completes his studies, he will be released back to his family.
While Cen Wu was raising his own mother, he also diagnosed diseases for local people and taught martial arts to young people in the village to protect his hometown. He was famous for his bone-setting skills and was good at using a steel mace. He later became a master of armor and his reputation as a "good ghost" spread to Beiguo.
His late mother's surname was Kuang. The Kuang family originally lived in Yangjiadu and had been in the timber business for generations. The burning of Yangjiadu caused the Kuang family's business to plummet, so the Kuang family hated the Yintuo tribe.
Coincidentally, there was a man named Kuang Yi in his family, who was the nephew of Cen Wu's late mother and a member of the Tea Mountain Club. Because of the lack of livelihood, everything is boring. At this time, Cen Wu reluctantly agreed to be a tax collector and set up a checkpoint on Huating Bridge, so he came to recruit him as a tax collector.
Unexpectedly, the Tsing Shirt team's reconnaissance team failed to find Kuang Yi in Yangjiadu, so they searched for the tax card and found out the situation here.
Upon hearing this, Li Dan and Gao Hanzi felt that Cen Wu might be winnable, so they sent scouts to discuss with Kuang Yi. If they could win over Cen Wu, it would be best to quietly find a way to handle the matter that would not hurt anyone. If not, they would The internal and external response was to seize the bridge by force.
In order to persuade Cen Wu, Li Dan specially called for Lei Jisheng and asked him to bring two guards to act as companions and go to the agreed place to wait for reconnaissance to contact him.
However, a guard came back at midnight and reported that Cen Wu readily agreed and was willing to let the Qing Shi team cross the bridge. Li Dan was very happy and had a solid sleep. When he got up, the whole battalion wore clothes and ate dry food, and then each team set off in sequence.
Shi Dajun led the team first, riding his horse full of excitement. He had just learned that the bridge was controlled by the reconnaissance platoon and that he could cross without any further effort.
The Third Company took advantage of the dim light to move forward, and a scout placed a torch on the side of the road to show him the direction. Half an hour after setting off, he saw the bridge.
At this time, Lei Jisheng moved a stool and sat at the end of the bridge. When he saw him coming, he came up and held his hands: "Old Shi, you have worked hard. The bridge is intact. The drama behind it depends on you!"
"Hey, don't worry! We will definitely fool those idiots today!" Shi Dajun returned the favor on his horse.
Lei Jisheng smiled and pointed with his hand: "These two sacks are specially prepared for you, please accept them."
"What is this?" Shi Dajun asked.
Lei Jisheng walked closer, asked Shi Dajun to lean down, and spoke to him in a low voice. Shi Dajun looked up at the two sacks in surprise and said with a smile:
"Sir, Mr. Shi has a great idea. I am ashamed to accept it. When I get back, I will visit you to say thank you!" After saying that, he asked his men to load the sacks into the car, said goodbye to Lei Jisheng, and rode away.
The two guards left behind before Yin Tuo left were two brothers. The elder brother was called Duan Fang and the younger brother was called Duan Yan. The elder brother is good at martial arts and brave in battle, while the younger brother is careful and conscientious in his work.
Duan Yan kept in mind Yin Tuo's instructions not to be careless in guarding the city, and took the fate of his predecessor as a warning. Therefore, he got up before dawn every day and led his soldiers to clear the city wall in order from the east gate, south gate, west gate, and north gate. Again.
Walking nine miles every day made the soldiers miserable, but he never tired of it.
This morning he patrolled as usual, but when he reached the north wall, he suddenly felt some fire dancing in the corners of his eyes. Duan Yan rubbed the corners of his eyes and looked carefully, but couldn't seem to see anything clearly.
The sky was already starting to light up at that time. Who would light a torch at this time?
He wondered if he was being blinded, so he continued walking forward. Just after passing Hongshan Gate, I suddenly heard noises coming from the direction of Beiguan below.
Duan Yan turned his head and took a look. He saw that the horse path from the lower city was less than a hundred steps away. Usually he would go down here and then go back to the county office to sleep in his cage. However, hearing the noise over there, he still pulled his foot back.
"Go and see what the fuss is about?" he ordered his soldiers. Someone immediately ran towards Beiguan.
After a while, the soldier came back panting: "Chief, someone called the door outside the city, saying that a team came from nowhere and tied up all the people at the Huating Bridge Customs. Only one messenger came out! "
"Team? How many people are there?" Duan Yan was confused.
The composition of the rebel army was extremely complex, and many of them were not highly educated and did not have much military literacy. When reporting to their superiors, they would not be as accurate as those in the army that Li Dan had seen in his previous life. The level of the Green Shirt Team was definitely unique at that time. One serving.
Not to mention Duan Yan, even Yin Tuo and Lou Zishi didn't think about the need for a standard for reporting this matter, so officers and soldiers at all levels gave messy descriptions.
For example, a "group" can be seven or eight people, or it can refer to twenty or thirty people, and a "group" can be as many as dozens or even hundreds.
However, it is understandable for a group or a group to be strict. After all, there are bold and unruly bandits outside the city, but the word "team" is difficult to describe.
When he came to see the report of his subordinates, he mentioned the "team", which was at least a team of nearly a thousand people! The problem is that there are mountains everywhere in the north of the city. Where can a large army come from and suddenly appear quietly?
Duan Yan, who was confused, listened for a long time and couldn't figure it out. In the end, he had to run to find out what happened. When he went to Beiguan, he recognized the man as Kuang Yi, who was the cousin of Cen Wu, the head of the customs.
He was the one who persuaded Cen Wu in the first place, which was his pride. As for what he did, it was not important. What was important was that this person was quite influential. He could ensure that everything was safe and sound by going to Affiliated Guo in the north outside the city.
But... why did Kuang Yi come here? Seeing that it was almost time, Duan Yan asked someone to open the north gate and let him in. He asked him to go up to the city and ask more carefully. There was actually a team of thousands of people.
"Did you see clearly? There are indeed thousands?" Duan Yan still found it unbelievable.
"Indeed. After my cousin was captured, the villain has been hiding in the dark to observe. The people, horses, and convoys lined up all the way to the end of the town. It is definitely not a team of only three to five hundred people."
"Then whose banner are they using?"
"Um... I turned around to speak. It was too dark and I didn't know much about reading, so I really couldn't see clearly. It's just that the team was very well-organized, and their posture was not inferior to that of the official army!"
"Why do I get more and more confused the more I hear this?" Duan Yan was really confused. No one had told him that there was such an armed force operating nearby, unless... He was startled by his thoughts and looked outside the city involuntarily.
"Hurry, go back to the county office!" After running for a few steps, he stopped again, turned around and saw the guard of Hongshan Gate following him: "Hurry up and send two people to ride to the Huating Bridge to see what's going on. What happened? Go quickly! Report back quickly!"
When he ran into the bedroom in two steps at a time, he saw his brother still sprawled on the bed and snoring, his belly like a hill rising and falling. "Brother, get up, get up quickly! Team Qingshirt is back!" Duan Yan shouted.
Duan Fang was being drunk by his wife in his dream. Leng Buding's voice frightened him so much that he woke up. Yigulu jumped up from the bed, pulled out the steel knife from the bedside, and shouted: "Where, where is it?"
"At Huating Bridge." Duan Yan poured a bowl of water and drank it.
"Aren't you in the city?" Duan Fang dropped the knife and complained to his brother: "Then what are you talking about?"
"A convoy of thousands of people is only four or five miles away from the city. Shouldn't brother wake up?"
"How did you know it was the Blue Shirt Team?"
"I've sent people to check. Besides, isn't there just one enemy coming and going around here?" Duanyan wiped his lips and suddenly felt something was wrong:
"Didn't you say that... they went to Shangrao, why are they back again? Didn't you say that a hundred thousand troops gathered in Shangrao? Didn't you say...?"
"Why are you talking so much nonsense?" Duan Fang waved his hand impatiently: "If you are sure that it is the Qingshirt team, then maybe they will come back defeated! If you and I send troops to intercept and kill, we will get a great achievement. Is there anything suspicious coming and going?"
"Here, we send troops without orders. If we are defeated, we can't afford the punishment from Commander Yin!" Duan Yan said in surprise.
"Nonsense! Yin Shuai didn't give orders, but at that time he didn't know that the Qing Shirt team would come back!" After Duan Fang finished speaking, he immediately went out to greet his men to order troops and gather generals.
When he arrived at the school grounds, the Tan Ma who had gone out came back and reported that it was indeed the Qing Shirt Team who had returned, and that there were many cars and horses and the momentum was great. "There are many chariots and horses? How many soldiers are there?" Duan Fang heard the clue and asked.
"There are about a thousand soldiers. The exact number is unknown. There are cavalry scouts. We can only watch from more than a mile away and cannot get closer to take a closer look." Tan Ma replied.
"Hey! The opportunity has come!" Duan Fang said to his brother excitedly: "I think the number of enemies is not large. There are many carriages and horses. Maybe they are sneaking the goods in Shangrao City out! Let's rob them, even if we don't get any credit. You can also get some benefits! Just defend the city and wait for my brother to return in triumph!"
Duan Yan agreed, so Duan Fang gathered a thousand people and drove to the east gate.
Just as he was preparing to leave the city, a messenger suddenly came: "Two leaders are in trouble. Enemy troops have occupied Wangjiangdui and took advantage of the heavy fog in the morning to drag many ships from the south bank to the north bank.
Now, flags are flying everywhere on Wangjiangdui, drums and trumpets are blaring, and people are coming and going as if they are reinforcing the dock. It seems that they are coming to attack the north gate! "
The two brothers looked at each other and felt cold sweat break out on their backs. Duan Yan said, "Fortunately, my brother hasn't left yet. Otherwise, wouldn't he have fallen into the bandit's plan to lure the tiger away from the mountain?" Duan Fang gulped and told the team not to leave the city yet. The two brothers followed their horses and came to Hongshan Gate.
I climbed up to the top of the city and looked across. Sure enough, there were boats coming and going, people shouting and horses neighing, and it was very lively. As expected, we saw many flags on the mountain behind the early morning mist. Even though we were nearly two miles away, we could still see someone cutting down bamboo on the mountain.
"Damn, this team in green shirts is really cunning, they actually did something like this!" Duan Fang was stunned.
"Brother, please stop stumbling. There are more than a thousand people still on the street. What should we do? Leave the city, or stick to it?" Duan Yan was calmer than his brother. The key moment of panic was when he rushed to the county government office. It's gone before.
"In my opinion, why don't we all move here, half of them go to the north wall, and the other half stand by under the city gate?"
"Okay, okay, let's do it like this!" After Duan Fang finished speaking, he suddenly narrowed his eyes again: "There won't be a few suspicious soldiers on the other side, right? You move your troops first, and I'll take a look."
Just like this, Duan Yan went to mobilize his troops and arrange them, while Duan Fang continued to observe each other on the city. The two brothers forgot that there were still people passing by at the Huating Bridge, and the North Gate was extremely busy for a while.
It was already the time for the city gates to be opened every day, but today the city gates were hurriedly closed within a moment of opening.
When the people in the city learned that there was a war at the north gate, they were frightened when they saw soldiers running northward. They didn't know whether it was the officers and soldiers coming, or a fight between the kings, and the whole city was in panic.
Shi Dajun on the other side of the river was much more relaxed than these two brothers. After finishing the arrangement, he first went to the top of the mountain to walk around and enjoy the wind, and saw clearly the shape, layout and surrounding features of the city opposite, and then walked into the thatched pavilion.
There is a wooden plaque in the thatched pavilion that says "Ti Lu", but Shi Dajun doesn't worry about which one is written. This title house is not so much a pavilion as a two-room thatched house with only the north wall. Shi Dajun asked the guard to bring him a wine bag, but he didn't drink it while holding it in his hand.
"Why don't you drink?" the guard asked.
"What are these guys doing?" Shi Dajun raised his chin and pointed to the opposite side.
The guard looked carefully and saw that the city was quite lively with people coming and going. "Hey, they seem to have increased their troops!" he shouted.
Shi Dajun found a telescope and looked over, and laughed: "Sure enough, the bastards have moved their troops to the north gate! Wow, now half of the good things are done!"
"But... they won't call, right?" someone said worriedly.
"I have made arrangements long ago. Anyone who dares to come will not be allowed to go back standing!" Shi Dajun asked: "Did you leave a boat for them?"
"Leave it, stay it!" Someone quickly replied, "According to your request, we have left two or three boats near the north gate unmoved."
Just as he was talking, someone shouted: "The city gate is open, and someone is walking out!" Everyone quickly watched. Sure enough, about four to five hundred people filed out from behind the horse barrier in Beiguan. After forming a team outside Beiguan, they headed towards the dock.
Shi Dajun jumped up with a loud laugh, clapped his hands and shouted: "My son is so good, as expected!" He called his soldiers from behind: "The deal is here, sons and daughters, follow me!"
He still had the same tone as when he was a water bandit. The governor's nose was so angry that he thought he would have to give this stone a good lesson later! Of course, that would have to be done after the battle.
The person who came was none other than Duan Fang, the elder of the two brothers. The more he looked on the tower, the more puzzled he became, and he decided to take some people across the river to find out.
Duan Yan was worried, so he ordered seven hundred people to come out. Three hundred followed Duan Fang across the river, and he led the remaining people to hold the battle for him.
The original ferry wharf was occupied and people were not allowed to land, so we had to walk down the river three hundred steps and stop at a gentle beach on the west side of Wangjiangdui.
Duanfang led a hundred people to stand on the beach. On the one hand, he called the boat back to pick up the people behind him. On the other hand, he immediately divided his men into three groups and formed three small semicircular formations to guard the beach.
Before the formation was completely completed, someone in the woods laughed loudly: "A bunch of bandits can also form a formation? It really makes me laugh to death! Sons, let's put our formation out to give him some experience!"
"Yes!" About a hundred people in the forest responded in unison, and then a bamboo flute sounded, and the people in the forest shouted out.
Duan Fang thought that the opponent was coming to kill him, so he was shocked and shouted: "Be careful, defend!" Qian Dianfeng clenched his sword and gun and stared nervously in front of him. I saw a group of people in blue clothes and trousers with blue cloth headbands rushing out and quickly formed two or three rows, with shields in front and soldiers behind.
Duan Fang was stunned for a moment, thinking that's it? But then the bamboo flute changed its tune. The people in front of them moved somehow and immediately turned into two large circular formations.
On the third sound of the bamboo flute, the large circular array changed. There was a goose head in the middle, and six small arrays on the left and right sides arranged like wings. The third bamboo flute sounded, and the goose's wings were retracted tightly, shrinking into an arrow.
Everyone here had their mouths wide open, as if they were watching their opponents perform magic tricks, and then they saw the man with the goose head walking out and wielding two iron whips on the ground:
"I own this mountain, no! Hey, this is the territory occupied by Grandpa Shi. Who are you and what are you doing across the river? Tell me your name!" When the Zhenfu heard this from behind, why did he turn back? Are you in the Lake Bandit accent?
But this time Duan Fang was confused. Why did he hear this man's mouth full of Jianghu flavor? Could it be that he came down from some mountain? "This hero is Duan Fang, the city's guard."
He took the initiative to step forward and came to a distance of about ten steps from Shi Dajun. He cupped his hands and said, "My subordinates came here early to see the flags flying on the mountain and reported to me. I don't know who the hero is. He has the responsibility to defend the land, so he came here to pay a visit!" "
As soon as he opened his mouth, Shi Dajun on the opposite side was also stunned for a moment. I don't know why, this man looked so big and thick, but he spoke so politely? Shi Dajun suddenly felt ashamed in his heart.
"Hey, I didn't expect you, a thief, to speak well? I admire you, I admire you!" He cupped his hands and said.
Hearing him say that he was "a thief", Duan Fang smiled bitterly but was not annoyed and replied:
"Ashamed, ashamed. To be honest, Duan looked pretty good when he was young. He was awarded the title of scholar at the age of sixteen, but later he became more and more vulgar. In the year when he participated in the provincial examination, the examiner actually dismissed his reputation as a scholar because of this, saying The Emperor cannot be seen with such an appearance. Alas!"
"Hey, have you ever been elected? How could such a strange thing happen? Then...why did you become a thief later?"
"Which one is born willing to rebel?" Duan Fang sighed: "Both of my brothers have studied literature and martial arts since childhood. I thought, if the literary one is not good, then I can take the martial arts exam, right?
As a result, the two brothers went to take the exam that year. The examiner took a bribe from another candidate and brought that person up, and my brother lost his name.
The guy in the examination room obviously lost to my brother. We were so angry that we exposed the examiner's bribery, and all the candidates went to his door to make trouble.
Not wanting to cause serious trouble, he not only invalidated my ranking, but also ordered my brother to be wanted for treason. I have no choice but, isn’t this the only place in the world that can accommodate the two of us? "
Shi Dajun sighed after hearing this, and told him: "The next piece of stone is Shi Dajun, you can call us Shitou. I was originally a subordinate of Liao Huazi in Poyang Lake, and I joined the Qingshirt team this summer."
I am a rough man and cannot compare to your brother Duan, who is versatile in both civil and military affairs. But because I killed a taxman who took the opportunity to rape a widow, I was said to be a tax-resisting person, so I had to hide in the lake and cut trails.
Now I am following Li Sanlang of the Qing Shirt Team, but I can see the blue sky through the clouds, and even get a confession from the ninth rank! "
"Oh?" Duan Fang's eyes lit up, he looked back at the people behind him, and then lowered his voice and said, "I wonder if my dear brother can introduce me to them?"
Shi Dajun's eyes also lit up. He knew that if he could persuade the two brothers to offer the city, the credit would be greater than carrying a few heads back! But who is not a thousand-year-old fox?
After all, he, Shi Dajun, has been in the lake for ten years. Although the man in front of me said this, he didn't know whether he meant it or what his purpose was.
Furthermore, he remembered his mission. Don't worry about it. Just occupy the mountain and make an offensive posture. So he shook his head and whispered:
"I was only ordered to attack the north gate. Don't be surprised if there are so many military orders. As for you, if you are willing to accept the recruitment, it is not unprecedented. When I return to camp tonight, I will see the lord and report to him in detail. It is up to the lord whether to contact you or not. Decision, brother, what do you think?"
"That's great. If my dear brother really succeeds in this matter, my brother will definitely be richly rewarded!" Duan Fang said with serious eyes.
"But now we have to cooperate with you to complete this scene." Shi Dajun said softly: "You also have to make sure that your subordinates don't see any flaws."
As he spoke, he raised both whips in his hands and shouted: "Since you won't surrender, there's no need to say more. Come on, come on, how about you and I fight for three hundred rounds?"
"Who is afraid of you? Don't leave, just be patient here!" Duan Fang said and walked back to the team. It turned out that he was using two short-handled double axes, but two soldiers were carrying one for him. .
He boldly came back with a pair of axes and stood on the beach. Shi Dajun and others couldn't help but cheer when they saw him. "A piece of stone, how about you use your whip to try my two axes?" Duan Fang struck with his axe.
Shi Dajun was overjoyed. His hands immediately itched and he jumped off the field and shouted, "Duan, do you have a nickname?"
"A certain person is called a flower-waisted scholar!"
Shi Dajun looked at his waist and saw that he was dressed in plain clothes, with only a brocade trimmed with leopard skin around his waist to protect his waist. There were hibiscus embroidered on it. Wasn't he a flower-waisted scholar? He smiled and said: "No, no, I should be called an ugly whirlwind!"
"Don't talk too much!" The two stopped talking nonsense, each raised their weapons and stepped forward, playing "ping ping pong" together. When the fight actually started, it was not what they said. The two strong men were gnashing their beards and frowning with ferocious expressions, which made the sergeants on both sides shocked.
Some people died, but not completely...
