Cao Guang looked at the queue of hundreds of people in front of him and said loudly: "I believe that many brothers who have just joined the village don't know what day today is, but it doesn't matter, you will know it soon, and you will remember this day firmly in the future. "
As he spoke, he waved in the direction behind him.
A bandit came over holding a wooden box.
When he got closer, the bandit placed the wooden box on the ground and then stepped aside.
Cao Guang reached out and grabbed the seal on the wooden box, pulled it open, and then opened the wooden box.
The moment the wooden box was opened, a lot of scattered silver and some copper coins were revealed.
Many people in the queue craned their necks curiously to look inside the wooden box.
In addition to these curious people, there were a few people who looked straight and were not attracted by the silver in the wooden box.
At this time, I heard Cao Guang say: "Have you seen these coins? These are your wages and will be sent to you soon."
Hearing this, many people in the queue whispered to each other.
For a moment, the neat queue became a little disorganized, and the conversation became louder and louder.
Cao Guang frowned.
He noticed that the people talking and talking were the refugees from Liaodong who had recently joined the village.
In response, he shook his head in disappointment.
I know that although these Liaodong refugees have achieved certain training results this month, compared with the several combat troops in Lingqiu, they are still lacking a lot. If it were Lingqiu's combat troops, they would never appear. Private discussions in the queue.
However, this situation did not last long. Some team leaders and squad leaders in the queue began to intervene, and soon the queue became calm again, with no more noise.
Cao Guang then continued: "You must remember that this salary was given to you by Dongzhu Liu of Tiger Character Flag. If you receive this salary today, you will work for Dongzhu Liu and the Tiger Character Flag in the future. Do you understand?"
"Understood!" everyone in the queue shouted in unison.
Of course, Cao Guang knew that among these people, except for the dozens of old people who first came to Daliang Mountain with him, the rest of the new people who joined were probably just to get the silver in the box.
But he didn't care.
When he first joined the Tiger Flag, he was just like these people, because he had food to eat, clothes to wear, and pay to live in the Tiger Flag, and his life was stable. Unlike when he was a bandit in the mountains, he was in constant fear all day long. Live a life of hunger and satiety.
He believes that as long as these people stay in his village for a period of time and realize the benefits of joining the Tiger Flag, they will definitely take the interests of the Tiger Flag as their will in the future, because other places will never give them the good life they have now.
"People from the first team follow me."
The person who spoke was the captain of the first team. He arranged for the three teams of his team to line up and walk towards Cao Guang in order.
When the first person came to Cao Guang, he immediately stood still.
Cao Guang took out a piece of broken silver from the box and asked the bandits in front of him, "Who fed you?"
The bandit replied loudly: "Dongzhu Liu."
"Who pays you?"
"Dongzhu Liu."
Cao Guang put the pieces of silver in the opponent's hand and said: "Remember, after receiving the salary of Dongzhu Liu, we have to work for Dongzhu Liu and the tiger-character flag."
"Yes." The bandit agreed loudly, took the silver with both hands, and then left from the other side.
The bandit behind stepped forward and stood in front of Cao Guang.
Cao Guang repeated what he said before and asked again before giving the money to the other party.
Bandits came up one after another, and each one had to be asked and answered at the same time.
When the last bandit got his pay, Cao Guang's voice was already hoarse, as if it was on fire.
"Master, Director Yang from the Foreign Intelligence Bureau is here. He is at the bottom of the mountain." A bandit ran in from outside to report.
"Please go up the mountain quickly, no, I will go there myself." With that, Cao Guang walked towards the outside of the mountain stronghold.
The bandit followed Cao Guang and walked out together.
Have the newly disbanded bandits gone far? Someone noticed Cao Guang leaving in a hurry, and curiously said to the people next to him: "Look, Master Cao is walking so fast, and he still goes outside the stronghold. What is he going to do?" Why go?"
The man next to him glanced at it, then withdrew his gaze and looked at the silver in his hand again.
The person who spoke earlier elbowed the other person and said, "Idiot, I'm asking you a question, why are you ignoring me?"
The man who was called Erluzi turned around, stared and said, "I have a name. My name is Wang Dazhuang. It was the name given to me by my captain. Don't call me Erluzi anymore."
"Okay, okay, okay, I won't call you Erluzi, I'll call you Wang, Wang Dazhuang." The man said, "Master Cao left the stronghold just after the pay was closed. Aren't you curious about what he did there?"
Wang Dazhuang glanced at Cao Guang's distant back and said, "I don't know what Master Cao is going to do. If you are curious, you won't chase after him yourself."
"Forget it, it's no use asking you." The man next to him said angrily.
Wang Dazhuang ignored him and continued to play with the broken silver in his hand.
The man next to him looked at it for a while, but he couldn't stand it any longer, so he said: "It's just one tael of silver, you've been working on it for a long time, and you haven't cared about it enough!"
"I just don't care enough." Wang Dazhuang said, "This is the first time in my life that I have touched money with my own hands, and it was money I earned myself."
"Isn't it just a tael of silver? Let me tell you, I..." Halfway through his words, he suddenly stopped talking and his mood suddenly became depressed.
Wang Dazhuang on the side looked up at him and said: "I know that you, Su Cheng, are the son of a landlord. You have never lacked money since you were a child. But I am different from you. I have never seen money since I was a child. My father and mother are still alive." The family never had any money at that time."
"We are the same." The man named Su Cheng looked up at the bandit village in front of him and said with a wry smile, "From now on we are all the same, we are all bandits on the mountain."
"Well, it will be the same in the future." Wang Dazhuang nodded vigorously, and then said, "This is the first time I know that being a bandit can still pay you and get money. If I had known this, I would have gone up to the mountain to become a bandit. "
Su Cheng, who heard this, smiled bitterly and said, "I'm afraid only the bandits here are paid in the entire Ming Dynasty."
"Don't other bandits pay?" Wang Dazhuang said, "I thought all bandits were the same, they all paid, and they got one tael of silver every month."
Regarding Wang Dazhuang's sincerity, Su Cheng looked helpless.
I'm afraid only an honest person like Wang Dazhuang would think this way, thinking that all the bandits in the world are paid the same as the village where they are.
However, he was also very curious.
This place is clearly under the banner of bandits, but behind it is a business called Tiger Flag.
If that was all he could understand.
When he was in his hometown in Liaodong, he had heard that some gentry would secretly collude with bandits, or even raise a group of bandits to do things for themselves.
But the village they were in was not like a normal bandit village at all. It was more like a military camp. There were rules for food, clothing, housing, and transportation, and pay was paid on certain dates every month.
This made him feel unspeakably awkward.
