bang.
Qiu Linbao suddenly dropped the dagger in his hand when he heard He Mulan's name in the newspaper.
He Mulan's sad and disappointed eyes were like a knife, which smashed Qiu Linbao's heart into pieces, and he could hardly stand up straight in pain.
Shame, self-loathing, sadness, guilt... Many, many emotions that couldn't be expressed in words made him cover his face and kneel before He Mulan.
"Woooooooooooooooooooooo..."
He howled like a battered and desperate man.
"General Hua, I am ashamed..."
"I am ashamed to death!"
***
He Mulan was completely drowsy after this ordeal. When A-Danzhuo knew that this unscrupulous peer was actually the son of General Qiu Lin, his expression was very complicated.
Qiu Linbao burst into tears as if he was being forced to become a pirate, but He Mulan and A Danzhuo were the parties involved, so he naturally knew that not only was he not being coerced, but he should have been taken care of among the group of robbers.
At least that group of robbers was willing to let go of their "big fat sheep" for him, and people who were coerced generally did not have this treatment.
Although these robbers are a little bit sloppy, the brotherhood is indeed felt.
He Mulan closed her eyes, not wanting to look at him.
This Qiu Lin Baotu and his mother were indeed mother and son, and they both cried so much.
After getting dressed, Mrs. Wang ran out of the main house. When she saw her son kneeling on the ground crying bitterly, she knew that this "Mulan" knew that her son was not dead. The lie she had just told in the afternoon, when the lie was exposed, her face turned blue and red, and she couldn't breathe because of her guilty conscience or fear.
Wang has never seen his son cry so sadly, and even when she forced his son to leave, he has never been so sad.
She shivered, and at this moment she really felt Ye Han.
"It's all my fault, no matter what happened to Leopard..." Wang shi opened his mouth in panic, "I made him do that, I made him run..."
"What the hell is going on!" He Mulan knelt down unbearably. "Don't hold anyone accountable. I'm not an official at all, and I didn't come here to convict anyone. Please also consider my feelings as a person who just wants to visit my fellow family members."
"Please all sit down and at least let me figure out what's going on!"
A Danzhuo was startled by He Mulan's rare seriousness, and immediately sat down on his knees.
Qiu Lin Leopard sobbed while wiping his eyes with his sleeves, his throat seemed to be blocked by something, and for a long time the sound was broken.
Wang Shi still stood, as if only in this way would she have the strength to speak.
"I... I let Leopard escape from military service... "
She said what she did wrong.
"I pushed him to death and let him escape."
In an instant, the blue veins on A Danzhuo's forehead suddenly popped out.
And Qiu Linbao, who seemed to have been judged once, suddenly heard the sound of his arteries beating in his temples on both sides, as if two hammers were beating. He was like a stone man, and he didn't dare to move.
"Well, he escaped from military service, and then what? Why do the villagers say he is dead? Also, Leopard Tu, why are you being a thief again..."
"Leopard, are you going to be a strongman?" Wang Shi gasped, "Didn't you say you found a job? Is this?"
Qiu Linbao suddenly fell down, not daring to raise his head.
"It's my fault... I was wrong from the beginning..." Wang murmured to himself, and began to talk about the whole story as if he had lost his soul.
"Two years ago..."
Two years ago, Qiu Linbao, who was almost eighteen years old, suddenly received a military sticker from the military government. When His Majesty needs to go to war, or the border is in a critical moment, the military government will send military stickers, which state the important people in the military camp, the time they must arrive, and the things that need to be prepared by themselves.
Military stickers are usually one letter per household, so when it was delivered to Shangdang’s Qiulin family, the Wang family immediately collapsed.
The Qiulin family originally lived in Rouxuan Town, which is a military town that belongs to the six northern towns like Huaishuo and Wuchuan. The Xianbei people are in the military system of the government. All families with military exploits in their ancestors have to be soldiers from generation to generation.
The number of Xianbei people killed in battle is staggering. In order to preserve the family's incense, most Xianbei military households live together in a large family. Some have many people, and a household has twenty or thirty people. Just send an adult strong man.
The Qiulin family, the Hua family, and the Adan family were all like this. Qiulin Castle, Huajiabao, Adan Clan, these people who are not even prominent families still live in groups, let alone other slightly prominent families.
Because this affected the number of soldiers recruited, in the two dynasties of Tuoba Si and Tuoba Tao, they came up with a solution—relocating people.
The Xianbei people in the densely populated counties and military towns were dismantled, and a large amount of uncultivated fertile soil and livestock were distributed, and they were relocated to other sparsely populated counties. The relocated families have become new military households, and the big family has become a small family. Originally, there were 20 or 30 people in one household, and one man was recruited. Now, there are four or five people in one household, and one man was recruited. few.
This method was very effective in wartime. The divided fertile fields and livestock caused many men to risk their lives to go abroad. Some slaves became free and voluntarily became military households under the recommendation of the original owner, and went to new places to start their own lives. Life.
But no one thought that this emperor loved to expand the territory so much. Although he would win every battle, he plundered a lot of wealth from other countries, and the soldiers who followed him on the expedition made a lot of money, but some people died. Not a lot.
When a person dies, there is nothing left, even if there is military merit, it is illusory.
A large number of military households are left with only orphans and widows, and the big families are not injured, but those of the military households who have been relocated to various places have many dead children and no grandchildren. Wang guarded her son for more than ten years, and finally pulled him up, and suddenly another army posted to her house, she almost went crazy.
Qiulin Mozhen and Qiulin Molei were the only brothers who moved to the party from the Qiulin family. Although Qiulin Molei was also a male, he was born with a heart problem. Go into battle.
It is precisely because of a heart attack that Qiulin Morey is so old that he has not even decided on a marriage.
The Wang family took the army to ask the "adults" and recruiting officers here, and wanted to ask them to leave some incense for Qiulin Mozhen's sacrifice for the country, but was refused.
"My Xianbei man has lived like this from generation to generation. The father died and the son died. The son died and the grandson died. If the whole family died, it can only be said that the skills are not as good as others, and the training is not enough." Such a rambunctious woman.
"Go and see other places, there are those who have been cut off from the battle until one household is cut off. The army is raising you and giving you fields just for this moment. This is the fate of the soldiers of the government, not to mention that General Qiulin is a hero, Even His Majesty, he was still in the army in the past, and he was able to get out of the army, didn't he know that he also wanted to keep an incense stick?"
"Sword Comes"
Wang didn't grow up in the six northern towns at all. She was just an ordinary Han woman, and she didn't live in a particularly tragic environment like Xianbei. determination.
In her opinion, she had already sent away a husband, and now she has only one son by her side. If her son also died on the battlefield, she would feel sorry for the ancestors of the Qiulin family and for her dead husband.
Mo Lei, the Qiulin family, has no children. If there is an accident between her and Mo Zhen's son, the "Shangdang Qiulin family" will be completely cut off.
"... Therefore, I persuaded my uncle to return to Rouxuan. I told him that if the leopard left, they would be alone in the same room, and I felt uncomfortable. He believed it and didn't want to join the army for my son, so I didn't want to. In a few days, my uncle will go back to Rouxuan."
With a sullen face, Wang continued: "After my uncle left, I pressed him to death and asked Leopard to flee to the mountains to escape the military service first. When the time for the conscription passed, the military mansion came to my house to ask my child about it. Why didn't I join the army as promised, I told them that my leopard never came back after going hunting, it must have been eaten by wild animals."
Adanzhuo squeezed his fist into the gaza gaza.
He Mulan glanced at him inexplicably, and patted his nervous fist soothingly.
Hearing this, Qiu Lin Baotu seemed to have wandered too far. But the corner of his eyes never left Hua Mulan. When he saw He Mulan's affectionate gesture towards A Danzhuo, his eyes dimmed.
"What can I do? I'm a powerless woman, and I can't think of any way other than to let him escape."
"Not long after I got married, my husband left home to fight. He said that there was an uncle who took care of me. In fact, I took care of him more. Later, my husband died, and I was a woman. How hard it was to support me. The eldest child, it is impossible for outsiders to understand the hardships involved. I worked so hard to raise him to adulthood, and I will send him to the battlefield before I see his branches and leaves.”
She looked at He Mulan and asked her, "You should be able to understand me, right? I heard that you didn't want your family to die on the battlefield, so you went to the army instead. I'm not like you. even if I had that kind of courage, I wouldn't be able to fight for my son, I'm not a man at all..."
"Aunt Wang, what you said is a bit exaggerated..." A-Danzhuo exclaimed in a low voice that seemed unbearable.
"She's right." He Mulan grabbed him, "I do look like a man, but I don't have the courage you think. I'm also very afraid of death, when I think of my grandfather at home after my death The remorse of my mother and brother, they simply dare not slack off in the battlefield..."
He Mulan thought for a while, then nodded and said, "Yes, I think I can understand your worries and fears, but the decision to let this child run away is just to escape. You will live in another kind of fear and fear, and take your The son is stuck in some kind of prison forever and never ends his sentence."
"At that time, I had nightmares every day. All of a sudden, my husband's body was brought back by a bunch of people, and countless people asked me to 'take care'. Suddenly, I couldn't wait for my son to come back, and even the body nothing."
When Wang Shi thought about those days, his hands still twitched. That was the sequelae she left after receiving the military sticker, and she still can't be appeased.
"But I didn't expect that they would be so thorough. The people in the military manor searched the mountain I mentioned, but they didn't find my son, nor did they find any trace of his death. They became suspicious..."
"But I'm Qiulin Mozhen's wife, they got suspicious and couldn't do anything to me. But they visited all the military households in Xiaoshi Township, and remembered the men of every military household, he Let each of them have to send a strong man to join the army, no matter whether this family has already joined the army or not."
"The military mansion said that according to the rules of the Xianbei people, if there is a deserter in a tribe, then the same tribe must sit together. Now is not the time for tribes, but the rules of the military mansion cannot be changed. If there is one less person here, other people will be To double up."
Her voice trembled slightly:
"I suddenly became a sinner in the village. When everyone passed by my door, they spat at me a few times. No one was willing to sell me anything, and no one helped me to farm. Later, because everyone in my family was 'dead', The identity of the military household is also gone. The fields and livestock have been taken back. Some people throw dung in front of my house at night and throw firecrackers. I can't sleep all night, and the leopard occasionally sneaks back to see me. I'm afraid of being discovered. I simply packed up and lived by my husband's grave."
"He was buried with the ceremony of the general, and no one will come here to take revenge."
"General Hua, you ask me why people in my village hate me so much..."
She felt as if she was stepping on the void, with no place to stand. She froze at the thought of their corpses lying in a place no one knew about, a horror and exhaustion more terrifying than the sight of her husband's body.
She did regret it, but there was no turning back.
"Because I am a sinner."