The school Wei Chai Ping rode a red horse on Tianlong near Guangzhou, but he was thinking and thinking. Recently, under the rule of the rebel army, he still couldn't be calm, and all kinds of crimes and crimes were always banned repeatedly. , From time to time, the evil things of killing and overstocking occurred, but the remnants of the officials and soldiers still appeared in various dark corners, creating endless rumors and rumors, giving the rebels follow-up benefits and comforting the people’s livelihood. Caused a lot of right and wrong and hindrance.
He used to be a farmer in the countryside of Ruzhou, Henan. He was born in a poor peasant family who relied on the soil for generations, and he also had a decent family; his father, Chai Tieniu, was a well-known crop-handling style in Sili and Baxiang. Anyone who sees it without discomfort should raise their thumbs and praise "True Iron Cow". Therefore, some people once sighed that they would not join the army with a good background, but stay in the village and bury their heads in the soil. Pity. However, he has a simple and honest temperament that is indisputable in the world, which is just a smile.
And his mother is also a very diligent and hard-working woman. She can go down to the fields and get a stove, and she can be no less inferior to men in many things. Therefore, she relies on her parents’ diligence and hard work to double their sweat and water, not only grows her own. With more than ten acres of hillside land, and at the same time, the ancestors owned the land of the big family in the village. In the same land, they can always dig out more things in the soil than other families; and let his small and cramped family break down, A little bit of purchase has also hit the saplings, opening up more corners and corners.
However, his family's efforts have never been able to change or keep up with the drastic changes and spreading momentum of the entire current situation.
Since the imperial court implemented the two-tax law of keeping expenditure within the limits of income, their lives have become more and more difficult for ordinary people, because under the government’s performance appraisal, household registration and taxes can only be increased but not decreased, but due to famines and turmoil. The resulting loss and reduction of hukou cannot appear on the official side, so as not to damage the kindness of the emperor of Tang Dynasty.
However, there are more and more fugitives, and the corresponding taxes cannot be reduced by the slightest. On the contrary, the performance and evaluation of officials as officials are increasing day by day, so more and more vacancies are allocated to these hukou who have not yet escaped; Of course, after the government's additional levy is allocated, the people who are related to the powerful clans and the subordinate staff will not lose any money, but they will have to divide the benefits and make the profits;
Then under the urging and exploitation of all hands, this constitutes a vicious infinite loop. The heavier the tax, the more the escape, and the more the escape, the more the tax on the remaining households will be heavier. Therefore, as a model of the most diligent and hard-working housekeeping in the village, Chai Tieniu's family inevitably encountered difficulties and embarrassment.
In order to provide the food and wine needed by the subordinates in the countryside, they almost had to toss up their hard-earned foundation, and then in order not to hurt the so-called "excessive debts over the years", they had to hand over to the eldest sister in tears. Then he met the emperor's Qianqiu birthday and the government "called" the people to show their hearts, and his little sister had to be sent to the city as a maid who sold the contract to death.
Relying on the turnover of selling my sister and younger sister before and after, after such a cold and lonely new year, God turned his face again when he was young and yellow. There are thousands of miles in the red land, and there is no harvest under the fire, but the taxes and corvee levied by the government are indispensable at all. In addition, the other party has a lot of miscellaneous branches, filial piety, and waves of subordinates and subordinates who are forced to go to the countryside. Miscellaneous hands, like a grates across the field, harvested crop after crop, took away pigs and sheep, chopped away trees, and removed the beams of the house. Even the chickens and ducklings were not spared.
Honestly, Bajiao Kong has a strong and powerful Chai Tie Niu, but he can only endure and torment silently by knocking down his teeth and swallowing blood, even if those people from the village who have escaped and fleeing come to invite again and again, they are even guilty. Because he was afraid of things and hard to leave his homeland, he refused to meaning. He always said, "Forbearance", "Forbearance and forbearance will pass", "There will always be a day when the day will get better", and persuade him in turn.
Fortunately, at this time, Murakami was a model farmer among the firewood and iron cattle, and the Cui Taigong's Zhuangzi, who was mentioned from time to time, took the initiative to give his family a chance, and he needed to use his strength to load, unload and transport grain to the state city. It is only used for "preparation"; and Chai Tie Niu can therefore bring back a miscellaneous cake saved from the gap between the teeth every day, and let the hardship continue. Chai Tie Niu, who is tired and sweaty and exhausted every day, will also use this as an example, chanting "good people will always be rewarded" and "work honestly will have the opportunity to be valued by others..."
However, the good times didn't last long. A grain truck suddenly broke its axle when it was being transported to the state capital because of too much shipment in Zhuangzi. The golden wheat grains and chestnuts broke the bag and scattered all over the ground. Then, amidst the begging and crying of the firewood and iron cows leaping in a hurry, these scattered grains were looted by the nearby refugees waiting to die; even the soil on the ground was scraped away by a third of its thickness and could not be retrieved again. . As a result, a charge of "litongliu thief, destroying official property" fell on Chai Tieniu's head out of thin air, and was arrested on the spot by the waiting officer before he turned around.
For Chai Ping and her son, it was like the sky collapsed all at once; because the villagers ran back to report the letter in advance, their mothers could only hide in the grass in the wild with red eyes and tears, and watched the broken house. The plants and trees, bricks and tiles that I built by myself were in the hands of the public servants brought by the Cui family. They were looted and looted. Even the vegetable seedlings in the border were not let go, and then they were ignited. The torch disappeared among the steaming fireworks and the floating black ash.
Then, they had to embark on the road of fleeing famine. They couldn't get out of existence very far, but the dog released by Cui Zhuang sniffed it out. In the lifeless escape, he lost his mother again, in order to lead away the vicious dog that came after him. , She deliberately cut her hand and ran to the river, and then with the last bit of courage and determination in her life, she hugged the vicious dog that rushed to bite and fell into the rolling Daqing River together.
"Brother Cun, hurry up and go..."
Chai Ping still remembered that moment of sorrow and sorrow and finally said goodbye. Then as the pursuit stopped at night, nature began to show a terrifying and cruel side to him, a farm boy.
At night, the sky is so dark, the wind is so big, the dew in the grass is so cool, the countryside and forests that were once so familiar, at night are like strange ghosts, in countless shadows and wind. Roaring in the middle, threatening him, a young man who was alone; his hands were worn out, and his body was scratched with bloody strands, but he did not dare to stop at the feet of the egg tart, because he was afraid that he would be caught if he stopped. Some unknown force dragged away and swallowed;
But the real danger came from Tianming, because he was thirsty and tired, and he found that he had been taken by many wild dogs; these corpse-eating creatures were not afraid of human beings at all, and followed them so unhurriedly. Not far behind him, and very patiently followed him around; as if waiting for the next moment this exhausted and bloody meal, he fell to the ground and the feast opened.
At the last moment of this lingering panting, Chai Ping finally met someone. It was a monk with iron head and stick covered in patches. Not only did he drive away these unwilling wild dogs with his stick, he also gave them from the gourd. He fed a few mouthfuls of water, then broke half of the bran cake from his arms and gave it to him.
Relying on the support of a few mouthfuls of water and half a piece of bran bread, he finally ran into the family who had invited his family to escape the famine before he passed out. He is under the command of General Wang, who is equal to Tianbu, therefore, he also left a kind of unforgettable impression of the monk who met by the water.
Only at the beginning, he was too young and people didn't accept it at all. He just gave some coins and dry food and then he made a big deal; this once again strengthened his determination and will to join the rebel army and finally followed all the way. , Was able to be accepted as a "voice kid", that is, using his young and humble identity to sneak into the city controlled by the military and the army to inquire about news and spread rumors.
Because after the Christians everywhere responded to the uprising of the rebels, the towns where the official army was stationed also stepped up the investigation and expulsion of the young and strong refugees, and even the killings were carried out from time to time by Ning Fuwu, but it was for women and children. , Less and can open one side of the net and let it come and go.
Relying on the cleverness and contingency tactics that he honed in the countryside since he was a child, he has repeatedly completed the tasks of inquiries, investigations, and transmissions in the official army's territory without any risk, and finally got the favor of the upper ranks of the rebels. Recognized, and began to let him lead a team of young people alone, and made many achievements for the cause of the rebels to go to the world.
And after following the rebels for a long time, he finally ushered in the day when all the rebels joined forces to attack the city of Ruzhou. After several twists and turns, he finally defeated the official army aided by outside the city. After the echoing righteous people helped to break down the city, he rushed into the big prison in the city and couldn't wait to take the suffering father out to rest and enjoy the good fortune for a while; but the one who greeted him, But it is where the fence is empty and full of filth and mottled.
In the end, he only found a torn shoe covered with black blood in the rotten haystack in the most empty space; because then he learned that the locality was harsh and harsh in the days before the rebels began to attack Ruzhou. At this time, the prestigious man, he cleared the prison on the grounds of "preparing for bandits" and "policing the city and chaos in the city", that is, all the officials and criminals in custody were dragged to the streets and killed in the door regardless of the severity of the crime. And Chai Ping, his honest father, was taken as an example of killing chickens and monkeys because he had no money to manage the jailer. He was tortured and died in jail. In the end, he only ended up with the result of "fearing crime and self-mutilation, escaping education" .
For these prisoners who die from time to time in prison, staying in the city is also filthy and desecrating the eyes, ears and noses of most nobles and good houses; therefore, the large mass burials outside the city have been used for many years to cast unknown corpses and starve to death. Gang is the best place for these humble ant-like sinners.
He finally knelt there to face the corpse of the pillow that had been torn apart by wild dogs and was completely unrecognizable. After crying like a wild dog all night, it was surprising when he came back at dawn. He found that the whole head became gray; he really hated this world where good people can’t live, and thus discarded the simple hope of "Chai Cun, Cun Brother" that his parents once gave "to live without disease and disaster". The name was renamed Chai Ping, taking the meaning of following the generals at that time to average the world together;
As a result, it also created a "Gray Head General" title with a price of 24,000 yuan on the official army's unsuccessful list. With a group of little brothers, along with the begging army to search for and kill the existence of suspected officers and soldiers, especially those big households and squires with deep collusion in the jade government, they are almost facing the "gray-headed ghost" in this rumor. All kinds of fearful and shunned.
Now, in his opinion, as long as the corrupt officials who followed the King of Huang rule the world, as well as the big and powerful families who colluded with them, have been killed, maybe they can get a way out of the poor and poor. But this time after I laid down Guangzhou and had time and buffer to settle down and rest, some things that happened afterwards started to make him a little confused and suspicious.
Because, he saw those rebel generals who had lived and died together and waded through the sea of blood. Many people began to become strange and unknown to him;
Because after they entered the city, they couldn’t wait to retreat from their blood-stained shirts and armors, and wore gorgeous and clean silks and silks. They moved from the crowded barracks to the nearby mansions and bought them for themselves. A lot of servants came to serve; therefore, he set up strict door guards for his residence, and even the closest old subordinates had to be notified after several notifications; and began to drive the soldiers in helmets and armors, raising flags and flags to open the way ahead He Qing Dao, as an indispensable pomp and honor guard for daily entry and exit,
Even learning from the decent people and so-called high-class people who were once despised and despised by him, the officials, wealthy and wealthy, and the so-called high-class people, their daily speech and demeanor are generally fair.
It's like the corrupt officials that he saw with his own hands, or the powerful households who knocked bones, sucked the marrow, and cannibalized people without seeing blood. They were resurrected or possessed by these good old brothers, Haoerlang. general.
Chai Ping was slowly riding in the midst of thinking and remembrance, and he saw that his destination had been vaguely revealed in front of him. (End of this chapter)