A chilly wind passed by.
Lu Bu yawned and galloped nine hundred miles to Xiaoguan without resting for two days. Even his body felt tired.
Lu Bu smiled noncommittally at the change in Lin Mo's title, then shook the reins, and the red rabbit horse moved forward slowly.
When passing Lin Mo, Lu Bu looked ahead and said solemnly: "Get on your horse and follow me."
Lu Bu's words were like the Confucian sayings in later novels. There was an inexplicable force that made Lin Mo get back on his horse and follow him.
One mile, two miles, three miles...
After walking for a long time, Lu Bu didn't hurry or speak.
This depressing feeling made Lin Mo feel uncomfortable. He bravely called out: "Marquis Wen, where are we going?"
Lu Bu in front still walked silently.
Helpless, Lin Mo could only follow.
"You go, Wen Xiang, go to Wu County. The next thing has nothing to do with you."
After walking for another three or four miles, Lu Bu still didn't say anything, and Lin Mo had a bad feeling.
After resurrecting his life, he was particularly in awe of life, but there were some destined things that he had to accept calmly.
Could it be that kneeling on the ground and begging him to let her go will make her death look better?
But Xu Sheng's end should not be here.
"Sir, I heard Zuo Rong talk about a line of your poems, and I like one of them very much. In conversation, we live and die together, and a promise is worth a thousand pieces of gold."
Xu Sheng's expression was expressionless, and he said calmly, "Even if we really go on the road, I would also like to accompany you."
This guy is a person who values friendship and loyalty. After Lin Mo tried to persuade him a few times, he remained indifferent and simply said nothing.
After walking for about ten miles, Lu Bu finally jumped off his horse.
"You wait here."
Lu Bu glanced at Xu Sheng and then looked at Lin Mo, "Yunwen, follow me."
After saying that, he walked into the woods beside the post road.
Lin Mo raised his forehead, signaled Xu Sheng to wait, and followed him.
The two walked in tandem. After walking for a while, their eyes suddenly opened up. On a hill, they saw a group of people plowing and clearing wasteland in the spring.
Even from a distance, you can see that many people have smiles on their faces, and they look like they are thriving.
"This place is about ten miles away from Xiaoguan. A year ago, they would not have been able to travel so far to open up wasteland. Because renting cattle far away from the outer city requires paying a deposit, which is too high and the common people cannot afford it. In addition, it is far away from here. Xiaoguan is easily overtaken by bandits during the autumn harvest."
Lu Bu was introducing the situation here like a tour guide, pointing to a piece of land and saying: "That keel waterwheel is enough to irrigate dozens of acres of land around here. With the money provided by the state government, the people only need to pay for renting cattle and Qu The money for the shaft plow is enough.
Moreover, I asked Xuan Gao to drive away all the bandits around here. There will also be sergeants patrolling this area on weekdays, so there is no problem with safety. "
Why are you telling me this?
When Lin Mo looked confused, Lu Bu patted him on the shoulder and said solemnly: "They should all thank you, because all this is thanks to you."
"I thought Marquis Wen would kill me..." Lin Mo tested Lu Bu with a guilty conscience.
But he didn't seem to hear it, and just sighed: "If Qian had been born decades earlier, I probably wouldn't have walked from Jiuyuan to Xuzhou."
A gust of wind blew, soothing Lin Mo's nervous mood. He didn't understand what Lu Bu meant by his emotional words, so he just waited quietly.
"sit."
Lu Bu pointed to the stone beside him, used it as a stool and sat on it. He took out two wine bags from his arms and threw one of them towards Lin Mo.
The former Weng son-in-law looked at each other, uncorked the wine, and drank heavily.
"Let me tell you a story."
"Story?" Lin Mo became increasingly confused as to what Lu Bu was thinking.
He quietly looked at this insurmountable peak that stood before the world's military generals, and found that the perseverance in his eyes seemed to be crumbling inch by inch.
Twenty-five years ago, in a small village, an ordinary couple and three children were farming in their own field.
The youngest child is only one year old, and the second child is five years old. He is sitting on the field ridge with his sister. The eldest child is eleven years old and can already help his parents to open up wasteland.
It’s not possible without help. The two-cow farming method is doomed to require three people.
Fortunately, although the eldest son is young, he has extraordinary strength beyond his years. Not only can he help, but he can also greatly reduce the pressure on his parents.
The third and second youngest children had some holes in their clothes that could not be repaired and they were reluctant to throw them away. After all, the family could still have fun in spite of the hardships.
As long as the weather is good this year, when the autumn harvest comes and the taxes are paid, there will still be enough money to buy some cloth for the children to make new clothes. The mother-in-law's eyes are shining with hope.
until one day...
"Old Lutou, the county has adjusted its tax collection. Starting from this month, it will increase the head tax and resettlement tax. This autumn, your family will have to pay a total of two thousand pounds and three hundred kilograms of millet."
The tax collector's words made Lao Lutou and his wife panic as if the sky had fallen. "Master, how come the price has risen so much at once? More than half of the harvest has been taken away from renting cattle, starting tax, and land tax. If we add more, how can we survive?" "
The tax collector grinned and sneered, "Let me give you a way to survive. The Huang family in the east of the city is planning to build a new mansion in the outer city, which happens to be near your home. If you sell the land to the Huang family, the money problem will be solved." Well?"
"You can't do it, Master Jun."
Lao Lutou bowed as if worshiping a god and begged: "If the land is sold, how will my baby live?"
"Then there's nothing I can do to help! If you don't hand it over by then, you'll be responsible for the consequences!" After saying these harsh words, the tax collector left, leaving only Lao Lutou and his wife crying in each other's arms.
However, tears can never solve the problem. The children who are waiting for food can do nothing but look at them in horror.
After the couple prepared a meal for their child, they sat together sadly to discuss it.
After some discussion, I still felt that the land could not be sold, and if it was sold, it would be difficult to escape the path of serfdom.
"Work harder. I'll go hunting in the evening. You can weave more cloth, my dear. If you're lucky, you can survive."
"Okay, I'll go find Aunt Zhang tomorrow."
In the following days, the couple had no time to stop and tried their best to become ordinary people.
All this was seen by the eleven-year-old boy.
In order to share the pressure from his parents, he would also use his strange strength to do part-time work for others.
Taken together in bits and pieces, it seems like it can really endure.
Of course, this means if the autumn harvest can go smoothly that year...
Just as the harvest was about to come, the land of Lao Lutou's family was infested by wild hogs. The fallen grains of grain finally caused the family that was struggling to support it to collapse.
The tax collector who came to collect taxes couldn't get the money and grain, so he knocked down Lao Lu's head with his fist. With the combination of fists and kicks, the miserable old farmer failed to survive.
After the child cried hysterically, she chose to cook the last meal for her child, then hanged herself and followed Lao Lutou.
The young man who returned from working as a part-time worker will never forget the scene he saw after returning home happily with twenty five-baht coins.
He was only eleven years old, but he was strong enough not to shed a single tear. Two voices were arguing in his head, and his heart was shouting, revenge! But his parents told him since he was a child that he should not provoke the government and powerful families. We ordinary people cannot afford to offend them.
Finally, looking at my younger siblings crying loudly on their parents' cold bodies, I finally suppressed the urge.
After burying his parents with the family's little savings, he shouldered the burden of taking care of his younger siblings.
The first two months were fine, but after the autumn harvest, powerful people from well-known families no longer needed to work part-time, and the boy's life became even more difficult.
He could only pick up the bow and arrow left by his father and go hunting in the mountains to make a living.
In the winter of that year, the snow was so heavy that the young man, who couldn't find any prey at all, knelt helplessly at the foot of the mountain and cried loudly.
The death of his parents failed to break through the boy, but he was overwhelmed by life. Thinking of his younger brothers and sisters who were still hungry at home, tears poured out like a torrent of water.
When he returned home empty-handed, a fire broke out in his house. People around him were putting out the fire. The young man sobbed and joined the fire-fighting team.
After the fire was extinguished, and looking at his brother and sister who were burned to charcoal, he finally broke down and roared hysterically, asking God why he was so unfair.
"My child, please sell the land. This land has already killed four people in your family. You can't let anything happen again, otherwise Lao Lutou will be wiped out." A kind-hearted old man finally couldn't help but remind him. .
