Dozens of miles southwest of Luoyang, a large group of people were slowly heading south. Luo Zhixue was sitting on a two-wheeled carriage in the middle of the crowd, with Lin Yu'er sitting next to him.
Looking at the crowd around him, Luo Zhixue frowned slightly.
Since waking up two days ago, he has discovered that something strange happened to him. For some reason, he returned to ancient times after being drunk and possessed the body of a young man whose family had died.
In the past two days, he had already found out clearly from the words of people around him that this would be the seventh year of Chongzhen's reign, and that he was living in Luoyang, Henan Prefecture, and he was a person who was forced to do something because of successive droughts in his hometown. Fugitive refugees.
After understanding the environment he was in, Luo Zhixue has been thinking about how to go in the future.
Even though he is not a history major, he still knows that this will be a year of troubled times, and the land of Shaanxi and Henan is a land of war.
How miserable this place is at this time, you can tell by looking at the original situation.
Except for him, everyone in the family died!
Moreover, he also discovered something that was either good or bad. The original person actually joined the bandit army a few minutes before he leaned over...
Moreover, after joining the bandit army, he choked half to death on the first steamed bun he ate. He leaned over in a daze...
This unlucky kid!
Perhaps the original person was averse to joining the rebel army, but Luo Zhixue had no objection to this. On the contrary, when he understood the situation, he took the initiative to find the cavalry leader Li Tonglin: "General's life-saving grace, Zhixue will always remember it. Although I don’t have the power to restrain a chicken, the general has given orders, and Zhixue will do his best.”
This directly shows the intention to surrender.
reason?
There is no other reason, just to survive!
If he were allowed to continue to be a refugee with Lin Yu'er, whose family had also died, he really didn't have the confidence to survive, and he might starve to death in a few days!
The troubled times in the late Ming Dynasty were no joke.
Li Tonglin was obviously very satisfied with Luo Zhixue's attitude. He smiled when he saw Luo Zhixue: "From now on, just follow us and work hard. Don't worry, we won't let you go into battle and fight hard. Nowadays, the army is full of rough guys who can't even read. The government officials who are encircling us can’t fucking understand the documents, so you can just help me take care of the documents from now on.”
"I, Mr. Li, don't dare to speak loudly, but from now on we are all brothers. If I have something to eat, you will not be missing something to eat."
Li Tonglin spoke loudly, not only for Luo Zhixue, but also for the other cavalrymen around him.
Sure enough, after the cavalry around them heard this, many of them had smiles on their faces.
Looking at this scene, Luo Zhixue thought to himself: It seems that this Li Tonglin is not as careless and brainless as he seems. His words are obviously very good. Also, how can he be a fool to become the leader of a rebel army in troubled times?
After officially announcing that he had joined the rebel army, Luo Zhixue also learned the general origins of Li Tonglin's group from the people around him.
What surprised Luo Zhixue was that this group of people was not part of a large-scale rebel army, but an independent rebel army.
But I didn't expect that Li Tonglin and his party were actually independent rebels.
It is actually not accurate to say they are rebels. It is more accurate to say they are rebels, because just a few months ago they were officers and soldiers.
Li Tonglin and others were originally Yulin border troops and were transferred to the Shaanxi and Henan areas to encircle and suppress the bandits. However, when they were asked to kill the bandits, they were not paid, not to mention wages, and were not even given military rations.
In order to fill their stomachs, a group of Yulin frontier soldiers who were so hungry couldn't help but rob a gentry's granary to use as military rations, and then stirred up a hornet's nest.
That gentleman has a high-ranking official in his family...
As a result, Li Tonglin and the others changed from officers and soldiers encircling and suppressing the bandit army to being surrounded and suppressed by the bandit army!
Li Tonglin, a member of the former Ming army, simply refused to do anything and took the lead in contacting hundreds of old brothers to rebel.
Because if you don’t rob, you will die. If you rob, you will die if you don’t resist.
And there is still a way to survive in resistance.
In the past few months, they have been wandering around eastern Shaanxi and western Henan, avoiding encirclement and suppression by officers and soldiers while grabbing food and recruiting soldiers.
As of today, Li Tonglin has more than a thousand soldiers under his command.
But in Luo Zhixue's opinion, among the more than a thousand people, only the more than a hundred cavalry led by Li Tonglin were actually soldiers, while the remaining more than a thousand people were all refugees.
These people are all sallow and thin, and they don't have any serious weapons and equipment. Only a few of them have spears and swords. As for armor, don't even expect it. Li Tonglin's hundreds of cavalry don't have much armor.
It is impossible to use more than a thousand people to fight a war.
Luo Zhixue saw all this, but he didn't say much. In the past two days, he took Lin Yu'er and followed Li Tonglin and his party.
Because he and Lin Yu'er were weak from lack of food for a long time, Li Tonglin allowed them to ride in a carriage pulling baggage.
When the group of them arrived in the southwest area of Yiyang, Li Tonglin decided to rest for a few days in an abandoned village here.
They had been operating continuously for more than half a month, and they even ran around Luoyang City in the middle. The team needed to rest and regain their strength.
At this time, Luo Zhixue, who had been eating for several days, was still relatively weak, but he finally recovered and had basic mobility.
Also on this day, Li Tonglin found him and asked Luo Zhixue how he was recovering. After receiving Luo Zhixue's affirmative reply, he immediately said:
"Mr. Luo, you have also seen that our place is in a mess now. The account books are all in a mess. I don't even know how many days our food can last. Later, you will help Lao Sun manage the food and grass and make the account books first. , so that Li can be aware of the payment of wages and food in the future."
Although Li Tonglin respectfully called Luo Zhixue Mr. Yiyi, Luo Zhixue knew that this was just a common courtesy, and he would not be too pretentious.
A person like Li Tonglin, who directly led troops to mutiny and rebel, could not be as careless as he appeared to be, and he could not be as careless as he appeared to be, and he could not be as open-minded as he appeared to be.
Immediately he stepped forward and said: "The general's words are serious. I am worried about you because I am eating your salary. I will not hesitate to provide you with heavy supplies, pay, and create a register."
Then he turned sideways and said to a short, thin, pockmarked middle-aged man next to Li Tonglin: "General Sun, I will trouble you more in the future."
That pockmark was Sun Chengcheng, who was in charge of the baggage affairs of Li Tonglin's rebel army.
Luo Zhixue behaved politely, and Sun Chengli also laughed: "Mr. Luo, you are too polite. I should trouble you more from now on. Although I am in charge of food and grass, I am not afraid of your jokes. I can't read a single Chinese character, and I don't even have an account book." Nothing can be done.”
Li Tonglin obviously had other things to do. After saying this, he left first, but Sun Chengli stayed and introduced several people to Luo Zhixue who were also in charge of baggage affairs.
Several of them welcomed Luo Zhixue's arrival, but a middle-aged man named Fang Ada, dressed in the same robe, was lukewarm towards Luo Zhixue. After the introduction, before leaving, he turned back and glared at Luo Zhixue. Zhixue took a look.
Luo Zhixue frowned slightly when he saw this scene.
He could clearly feel the obvious hostility shown by Fang Ada towards him.
But why?
I'm new here and haven't been in contact with anyone else in the past two days. I guess I didn't offend him, right?
——
The next day, Sun Chengli began to take Luo Zhixue to conduct an inventory of the army's food supplies and make a list. Fang Ada was also involved in this matter.
Only then did Luo Zhixue find out that Fang Ada was the person who originally registered the military baggage.
This person claims to have been an accountant in a big trading house before, but after Luo Zhixue read the account books he wrote before, he can be sure that this person was definitely not a serious accountant before, and he didn't even know a few characters. .
There are a lot of typos in the account book, and many of the words do not convey the meaning, and many of them are even just random glyphs written blindly.
The most important thing is that there are a lot of inexplicable circles and crosses in the ledger. Not to mention that Luo Zhixue can't understand it. Even if he asks Fang Ada what these symbols mean, he is confused and can't explain. .
As a result, when the inventory was subsequently inventoried and the materials were re-recorded, the numbers found were completely inconsistent with the numbers recorded in the original account books, and there were many mistakes.
This made Sun Chengli very angry, and he cursed Fang Ah bloody in the morning.
In the afternoon, when they checked the horse information, they found that they were not right again. When they asked Fang Ada, he didn't know anything. Sun Lili, who was so angry, immediately dumped him.
After beating Sun Chengcheng, he was still very unhappy and scolded: "Trash, just let me manage the accounts like this. If you remember the other things wrong, forget it. Damn it, you even remembered the food and grass wrong. You bastard, you can't even pay back the money." I don’t know how much horse information there is, so what the hell are you in charge of?”
After Fang Ada was slapped in the mouth, he was so frightened that he knelt down and begged for mercy: "General, please calm down. I know I was wrong."
Seeing Fang Ada kneeling begging for mercy, Sun Chengli felt very unhappy.
He was in charge of all the army's baggage affairs, but he himself was illiterate, so Fang Ada was responsible for the daily registration and bookkeeping of all kinds of materials.
After all, Fang Ada claimed to have been an accountant before, and he could indeed write a few words.
It's just that Sun Chengli couldn't understand the account book, so he usually did whatever Fang Ada said, but he didn't expect that the account book would be so messed up that even the amount of food and grass would be so confusing.
Luo Zhixue on the side watched this scene silently without saying a word. It was not his turn to speak on this matter.
Luo Zhixue followed Sun Chengli to conduct inventory of various materials that day. He acted as a human-shaped ledger and never said anything about the records in the original ledger.
On the one hand, it was none of his business; on the other hand, there would have been a lot of dirty things in the accounts, but he had no intention of putting himself in the spotlight by lifting the lid.
Otherwise, someone would stab him with a knife one night and there would be no explanation.
Luo Zhixue felt that he had just traveled through time for a few days, and was still in the bandit army in troubled times. He couldn't be too high-profile. He had to stay low-key and check the situation first.
————
After Sun Chengli angrily led his people to continue checking supplies, and Fang Ada got up from the ground, he looked at the people in front of him while touching his red and swollen left face, and finally set his eyes on Luo Zhixue. On the back, there was a fierce look in his eyes.
That night, in a dilapidated house in an abandoned village.
Fang Ada and several others were discussing secretly under the dim oil lamp.
Just listen to Fang Adaodao: "That man named Luo is a disaster. If he hadn't suddenly ran out, he wouldn't have checked the baggage again. If he didn't check again, he wouldn't have found that the ledger was not correct."
"Everything is fine now. It's just that the accounts are a little confusing, and the errors and omissions found are only minor things. But if Sun Chengli and Luo Zhixue are allowed to continue this investigation, I'm afraid our lives will be in danger."
As he said that, Fang Ada glanced at the other people in the room: "What we have done in the past two months is not enough to be chopped off with ten heads."
