"Go over there!"
"Didn't you eat?! Strength!"
The hard laborers wore only a few pieces of rags on their bodies, their bodies were hunched over, their skin was black and dirty, and they were obviously young, but at this time they looked like old people. out.
"Someone fell here!"
"I'm out of breath!"
The soldier rolled his eyes and said angrily, "Throw it into the pit outside."
The laborers don't have too many expressions, they bury their heads and do their own things, like animals that don't need brains.
The soldier took a whip, took a sip of the wine from the jug he carried with him, and rushed to the people around him: "Take your strength out!"
The laborers did not speak, they were silent, and they worked hard like old cows.
Looking at the scene behind the hillside, Li Congrong spat and scolded in a low voice: "They are all bird people, they only dare to bully ordinary people, what kind of heroes, good people, they are tortured like pigs, dogs, cattle and horses at every turn. Beating and scolding, it is a dog, and it has to be fed and eaten to be faithful."
Zhu Chongba advised: "Brother Dao, don't be in a hurry, when it gets dark, I will go and burn their granary. At that time, Brother Dao mixes into the crowd, raises his arms, and naturally someone responds."
Although Li Congrong has never read military books, he also knows the old saying, "The soldiers and horses go before food and grass." Hundred households, also known as centurions, have more than a hundred soldiers under their command.
But the labor here is more than a hundred.
Most of these people are villagers from nearby peasant households. They have been detained here for digging and transporting coal. They are on the verge of collapse. Seeing the soldiers have wine and vegetables, only they know how they feel.
Li Congrong and Zhu Chongba put on tattered clothes and prepared to act as soon as it was dark.
"It's really cold." Li Congrong was so cold that his teeth were fighting.
Zhu Chongba wasn't much better either. People were made of meat, so they would feel cold and hurt.
"Brother Dao, be patient." Zhu Chongba said.
The sky was getting dark, and seeing people finishing work and walking back to the shed one after another, Li Congrong went down the path around the hillside. He stood outside the shed, hesitant to know which shed would be better to enter.
Just when Li Congrong was in a dilemma, someone suddenly pushed him behind him.
There were only two words in Li Congrong's mind: "finished".
However, when he turned around, what he saw was a scrawny middle-aged man, his numb eyes seemed to be covered with a layer of fog, the man looked at Li Congrong and asked indifferently, "New here? "
Li Congrong nodded stiffly.
The man pulled open the rag curtain at the door of the shed: "Come in."
Li Congrong went in with the man. There was nothing in the shed. A bunch of people were lying on the ground. When they saw strangers, they raised their heads and stared at Li Congrong vigilantly, but their eyes were full of sympathy.
The man who led Li Congrong in pointed to an open space: "Where are you?"
So Li Congrong walked over and sat on the wet ground. There wasn't even a bed of hay here. Li Congrong asked the person lying next to him, "Aren't you going to get some grass to spread?"
The person next to him laughed sarcastically: "Can the gentlemen ask you to fetch hay?"
Li Congrong didn't mind being ridiculed, and he asked again, "How long have you been here?"
No one answered him.
Li Congrong said to himself: "I used to be a porter in Wucheng. Although it wasn't a good life, I didn't have to worry about eating and drinking. Occasionally, I was lucky and I could eat meat for a while."
Still no answer.
Li Congrong grabbed his ears and cheeks: "By the way, what about your children and mother-in-law?"
Speaking of this, someone replied in a muffled voice: "I don't know."
"I don't have children, and the mother-in-law may have run away with someone."
"My parents are still waiting for me to go back home."
"I don't know how the autumn harvest will be at home this year."
Li Congrong said quickly: "It's a mess outside now. Many people sell themselves. You still have to go back and have a look. There's no man at home, so isn't it being bullied by others?"
"Do you think you can still walk when you're here?" Someone rolled over. "There's no going out here, only the ones who are thrown out after they die."
Li Congrong rolled his eyes: "I heard on the way here that some soldiers killed the guards and fled."
It was quiet in the shed.
Suddenly someone said: "A soldier can have a weapon."
The people stopped talking.
"Sleep, think about tomorrow's business tomorrow."
Li Congrong was anxious: "It's better than living a life like a beast here, why don't you fight it? It's a dead word after all. If you spell it out, at least you have a chance to live!"
Someone scolded him angrily: "How can it be so simple! Do you think no one has ever done it? The troublemakers were skinned alive! Even if they were happy, it would be better than skinning!"
Li Congrong was stunned on the spot, he didn't expect that the person in charge here was so mad, isn't he human? Can the heart be so cruel
"How can I get better if I don't get caught by them?" Suddenly someone whispered, "When I left, the mother-in-law was still pregnant. I want to see my baby."
After a while, someone continued: "My parents are getting old, and I am the only child..."
"My son was only three years old when I left."
A group of already numb people burst into tears while talking at this time.
"What are you talking about!" a soldier outside shouted, "Don't go to bed soon! Tomorrow will make you look good if you delay things!"
The man's voice was so loud that everyone in the surrounding shed could hear him.
But everyone has become accustomed to it, and they all keep silent, lest they be beaten.
After all, even if he was beaten, he still had to go to work.
When he got to work, he was beaten again if he didn't do well. Many people were beaten to death like this.
Just when everyone closed their eyes and was about to fall asleep, Li Congrong shouted: "Grandpa is afraid of you birdman?! If you have the guts, just fight Grandpa!"
When these words came out, everyone was stunned.
Especially the soldier on the night watch, he was stunned for a moment before he realized: "Who was talking just now! Get out!"
Li Congrong: "Grandpa called you, grandson!"
The young soldier rolled up his sleeves and pulled out his whip: "Wait, I'll skin you alive!"
Many soldiers were attracted by the shouting.
The people in the same shed as Li Congrong shivered in fear.
Just as the footsteps approached, a loud shout came from outside: "The granary is on fire! Come and put out the fire! Quick!"
The footsteps that were approaching were far away.
Li Congrong turned his head to look at the person who had already sat up, his expression was indifferent: "As long as you have the guts, just rush out with me and fight his brother to the death! Stay here, either die today or die tomorrow, fight hard, There is still a chance of life.”
"Masters, you have been reduced to beasts, and you don't even think about resisting."
"A manly man, a seven-foot man, bloody!"
"Think of your mother-in-law! Son! Father and mother!"
Li Congrong opened the curtain: "The gentlemen above won't give us a way to live, we will earn one ourselves!"
Li Congrong looked back, but found that the people who were sitting were all standing up.
They didn't say a word, standing behind Li Congrong, Li Congrong finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Everyone walked out of the shed and picked up the wood or stone around them. Li Congrong rushed to the front with his bare hands and shouted, "Fight with them!"
A group of skeleton-like men followed behind him, their eyes were red, and they shouted: "Fight!"
It was probably because there was too much movement on their side, and the people from the other sheds also came out in fear.
There are also soldiers who have not gone to put out the fire. Seeing Li Congrong and the others coming out, they hurried over and said, "What are you doing! Go back! Otherwise, I will make you look good!"
But Li Congrong pounced on him at this moment. He grabbed the opponent's whip with one hand, sat on the opponent's body, and tied the man's neck tightly with the whip. He stopped swinging, making a "uh" sound from his mouth.
"What are you doing? Can't you do the opposite?!" Someone else came over, but this time those who followed Li Congrong stood up.
As soon as they swarmed up, the other party obviously did not expect that people who were obedient like pigs and dogs on weekdays would resist. They were accidentally pressed to the ground by these people, smashed their heads with stones, and lost their breath in an instant.
"Kill them!"
"Kill them!"
Li Congrong held the whip: "You have to live! You have to go back to see your family! Rush out with me!"
The soldiers were divided into a group of people to fight the fire, and the other group had weapons, but they could not compete with the large number of laborers. The people who are blessed with fish and meat, when they really encounter a desperate posture, retreat first in their hearts.
However, at the juncture of life and death, once retreated, it was a word of death.
These laborers have nowhere to go. If they retire at this time, they will be liquidated afterwards. No one can escape, and their families will be affected.
At this point, they don't have to fight, they have to fight.
What's more, emotions can infect people, everyone around them will rush up, and those who don't rush will rush.
In the dark night, people can't see the blood, the ground stained with blood, and they only have hatred and the enemy on the opposite side. The knives and guns picked up by the soldiers, they are all ordinary civilians, they have no fighting skills, but they have a desperate momentum.
Like a pack of hungry wolves.
Soldiers are their food.
At this time, the blood was boiling, and everyone seemed to have forgotten the fear of death.
The moon above his head was covered by dark clouds, Li Congrong looked up and felt that the moon was also red.
He will never forget the night, never forget the first person he killed.
In his trepidation, he had another feeling.
An indescribable excitement.
He finally understood what Lin Yuan said.
"If you don't, you won't have a way to live. If you don't, you can survive."
Li Congrong shouted: "Kill!"
In the darkness, Li Congrong no longer knew how many he had killed, and he himself was injured, but he didn't feel the pain, and his spirit was extremely excited.
However, the situation is getting worse.
After all, the opponent is a soldier. Even if they have never been on the battlefield, they are soldiers. They have weapons that the laborers do not have. When they gather together, the laborers are not opponents at all.
Just when Li Congrong and the others were getting more and more disadvantaged, a roar suddenly came from the mountain, echoing in the mountains, giving the illusion of a large number of people. The group of people rushed down from the mountain, shouting and killing people.
coming!
Li Congrong took the machete he grabbed and slashed at a soldier in front. These soldiers were wearing commoner clothes and had no armor on their bodies. When the knife went down, the man turned his head to see who killed him.
Li Congrong also saw the face of this soldier through the moonlight that dissipated from the dark clouds, a young and surprised face.
Li Congrong gritted his teeth. He didn't look at this person again, but shouted: "The people who helped us are here! Don't panic! It's the people who helped us!"
Probably because Li Congrong was at the forefront in the beginning, the laborers listened to his words and believed it without thinking. The arrival of the reinforcements greatly improved morale, although these reinforcements were only the four who had been waiting on the mountain from the beginning. ten people.
Li Congrong breathed a sigh of relief, it seemed that Zhu Chongba was not caught.
After all, they agreed that after Zhu Chongba went to burn the granary, he went up the mountain and rushed down with people.
The shouting and killing made the soldiers confused, and Baihu Burigude shouted: "They are bluffing! They are not allowed to retreat! Whoever retreated from the military law disposal! The opposite is just a group of rabble!"
Brigude held a knife in his hand: "Follow me!"
Li Congrong also shouted: "Follow me!"
Zhu Chongba and the others have reached the battlefield. They all have hoes in their hands. Compared with the laborers, their physiques are stronger and their arms are stronger.
Zhu Chongba said to them, "Just chop pigs and sheep, don't treat them as human beings! They don't die, we are the ones who die!"
The men shouted, "Got it!"
In the bloody storm, Zhu Chongba searched for the figure of Burigude in the dark. After all, Burigude was a hundred households. Even if he rushed in front, he was surrounded by many people to protect him.
Zhu Chongba cautiously approached the knife that Li Congrong gave him in his hand. He could hear his heartbeat and even feel the blood flow. He had never been so scared or so excited.
Brigold chopped off a person's head and said in a breather, "Kill them all!"
Then he said to the people around him: "Don't worry about me, I am a warrior of Dayuan, and these rabble can't get close to me."
Hearing the words, the soldiers beside him dispersed.
The Brigude family have been military households for generations, making their fortunes on the heads of their enemies, and he is the only one of them who has ever been on the battlefield.
In his view, these people are not opponents at all.
"Hundred households." Someone called him.
Brigold turned his head and saw a young man, probably because the young man looked strong and not like a laborer, he naturally thought it was a soldier in his hand: "What are you doing? Kill the enemy?"
The young man looked frightened: "I... my knife is gone... "
Brigold snorted coldly: "Something that doesn't work."
Saying that, he threw his knife to the other party: "Take mine."
He has more than one knife himself.
The young man approached and said, "Hundred households, I'm afraid..."
Brigude scolded impatiently: "Things without eggs! I'm afraid of a bird! Don't hurry up!"
"Hundred households." The young man looked at him earnestly and took a few steps closer, "I will protect you."
Brigold snorted coldly: "I am..."
Before he finished speaking, he saw a cold light flashing before his eyes, and he was speechless.
Brigold covered his neck, blood kept pouring out, and his mouth was full of blood. When he opened his mouth, blood came out of his mouth.
Because he couldn't make a sound, he couldn't even pronounce the names of his personal soldiers.
Brygold fell to the ground, he watched helplessly as he approached, and then — lost consciousness.
Zhu Zhongba cut off Burigude's head with one knife. He climbed to a relatively low hillside and shouted: "Your hundred households are dead! Disarm and kneel down and not kill! Your hundred households are dead! Disarm and kneel down and don't kill!"
To capture the thief first capture the king, Zhu Chongba had not read several military books, but he understood this truth without a teacher.
The soldiers were in disarray in an instant, and when they lost their minds, the butcher's knife of death had fallen.
When the people around him fell one after another, the soldiers dropped their weapons and knelt down.
The sky was getting brighter, and the battle had been fought for a whole night. When the sun rose from the east, everyone saw the corpses all over the place, including soldiers and laborers. All they could see were bloodstains. Finally, someone issued the first call. a cry.
Slowly, the crying became louder and louder.
I don't know if I'm crying about the dead or I'm crying for the rest of my life.
Li Congrong had scars on his shoulders and back. Fortunately, the wounds were not deep. He sat on the stone, gasping for breath from exhaustion.
Zhu Chongba asked people to tie up the soldiers, and then he said to the surrounding laborers: "We have our place. If you want to go home, you can go now. If you have nowhere to go, you can also come with us. ."
Most of the survivors chose to return to their hometowns, and they still have relatives and ties.
Only a few chose to leave with them.
Li Congrong sat paralyzed on the ground and asked Zhu Chongba, "What should we do now?"
Zhu Chongba said calmly: "Take your weapons, as much coal as you can pull, and drive back."
The deep winter is coming soon. What they have now is not enough for them to survive the severe winter. They must go back to Zhuangzi, and the food they brought out is about to be exhausted, so they must go back as soon as possible.
"Understood." Li Congrong said, "I'll lie here for a while."
Zhu Chongba also sat down, Li Congrong looked at Zhu Chongba's expression and asked, "Are you not afraid at all?"
How can he be so courageous when he burns grain and grass alone
He also killed hundreds of households, which Li Congrong felt he couldn't do.
Zhu Chongba smiled at Li Congrong: "I don't know either."
Instead, he gained strength in the sound of fighting, and his hatred for the imperial court burst out completely, which made him extremely excited.
The people who wanted to go home had already left. Before everyone left, Zhu Chongba gave them some beans, enough to fill their stomachs. When they left, they knelt down and kowtowed to Li Congrong and Zhu Chongba. , and then stooped away from the blood-stained land.
They don't know what their future holds, and they can only go down the road in front of them.
"Although no iron was found, it would be nice to have coal." Li Congrong remembered the purpose of their trip at this time, "As long as there is coal, the iron pots and kitchen knives found can be turned into weapons. These machetes are good."
These soldiers still have some good things.
After staying for half a month, they began to hurry on their way.
In addition to the forty people who were originally brought out, there were more than ten new ones, all of whom were willing to follow them.
These people also quickly became one with the original forty people.
When the fire was burning at night, they listened to the forty people talking about the village.
"I can eat enough." This is the biggest temptation.
"The owner doesn't hit anyone."
"You can sleep in a bed at night and have a quilt cover."
When Zhu Chongba brought clothes to these people, these people had an unprecedented yearning for Zhuangzi. Although these clothes were not made of cotton, they were stuffed with hay, but they were also velvet, which was much warmer than ordinary coarse cloth. , what's more, they are here, but they can't even wear coarse clothes.
A lot of people died from freezing last winter. They survived last winter, and they also know that this winter, they will be more fortunate than lucky.
But now, they see hope for life.
Everyone wants to live as long as they have the chance to live.
The snow was flying, covering the ground with a thin layer. Lin Yuan stood in front of the window. This was the first time he saw the snow in the south. Compared with the north, it was much smaller, and it was not every year. see luck.
The people in Zhuangzi were exclaiming in surprise.
"It's snowing! It's actually snowing this year!"
Erliang and Gouzi wanted to push a snowball out with so little snow, and were squatting on the ground outside to play.
After all, he is a young man, and he still has fun.
Lin Yuan looked at the snow, hoping that tomorrow's harvest would be better.
Now the granary is full, and there are two sheds dedicated to raising bamboo rats, ducks and chickens. If everything goes well, by this time next year, Zhuangzi will be fully self-sufficient.
If Li Congrong and Zhu Chongba can return safely and complete their tasks, this Zhuangzi can cultivate his own armed forces.
During the uprising in the four places, take a share of the rich and powerful people.
For the future, Lin Yuan only had a rough idea in his mind, he needed time to think about it and time to implement it.
"Master."
"Master! People are back!"
"Brother Dao is back safely!"
There were cheers from outside.
Lin Yuan rushed out of the door, he ran in a hurry, and he was even out of breath.
They are back safely!
When he was about to run to Li Congrong, Lin Yuan stopped.
He looked at Brother Dao and Zhu Chongba who were intact and gasped for breath.
In the end, Brother Dao took a step forward and hugged Lin Yuan.
"We have lived up to expectations this time, right?" Brother Dao smiled smugly.
Then he asked Lin Yuan in a low voice, "I'm not wrong about the word "live up to expectations?"
Lin Yuan also laughed: "That's right! That's right!"
Lin Yuanchong said to the women behind him, "Go catch chickens and ducks, and taste the meat tonight!"
"There is meat to eat!"
"The owner said to eat meat tonight!"
Lin Yuan felt that he had never been so happy before, even if he did nothing, the smirk on his face couldn't stop.
It was noon, and the sun fell, melting the little residual snow on the ground.