Ma Xiaotian chatted with Li Yan all the way and seemed confident. Compared with him a few months ago, he was indeed a little different. The sense of calmness reflected from the bottom of his heart made the red lady really puzzled. And in the past, Ma Xiaotian would secretly pay attention to the red lady no matter what the situation was, fearing that she would neglect her, and would go over to talk to her from time to time, but now the red lady could not feel Ma Xiaotian making such an action.
As if the red lady was not around, Ma Xiaotian only looked ahead, firm and steady.
What kind of thing makes an immature boy suddenly become like this? The red lady didn't know, she just felt a hint of melancholy. Of course, this didn't mean that she fell in love with Ma Xiaotian, but it was just a creature like a woman. When she found that the man who used to have a crush on her no longer loved her, it was inevitable. There will be a sense of loss.
The group of people were about to enter the lobby of the Yamen. Unexpectedly, a woman came out of the Yamen first. This woman looked quite weak and seemed to fall down when the wind blew. She had a woman's bun on her head, which showed that she was married. people. The red lady has practiced throwing knives, and her eyesight is naturally extraordinary. She can recognize this woman at a glance. She is a little mute.
She couldn¡¯t help but be surprised: The little mute was actually married?
However, what was even more surprising was yet to come. The little mute ran towards Ma Xiaotian, stretched out his hand and handed over a piece of wet cloth and said: "Ms. sir, you are tired after coming back from a business trip on a hot day. You are sweating profusely. Wipe it off quickly." .¡±
Ma Xiaotian smiled slightly, took the wet cloth and wiped it on his face a few times, sweeping away all the sweat beads on his face. Showing some energy, he said softly to the little mute: "Siya, have you been waiting here?"
The little mute nodded: "They are worried about you. I heard you say that you went out to catch the spy who spread the children's songs. They are worried that the spy will jump over the wall and hurt you By the way, where is the spy you caught?"
Ma Xiaotian smiled and said: "There is no spy. It's the Red Lady who is back. She came to introduce the military advisor of the Chuang Army, Mr. Li Yan. I'm taking them to see Zhu Bage."
"Red the red lady is back?" The little mute was shocked. In her simple world, there was no one else except Ma Xiaotian, so she only saw Ma Xiaotian among a large number of people. Who were the other people? They were tall, short, fat and thin. Is it male or female. She didn't even take it seriously. Until Ma Xiaotian said these words. The little mute was startled, and quickly turned around to look for her in the crowd, only to see the red lady staring at her with a strange look on her face.
The little mute immediately took a few steps back. She was far away from Ma Xiaotian, with a look like a mistress who was caught having an affair flashing across her face. By the way, he is obviously Ma Xiaotian's first wife, why does he look like this? It turns out that the little mute knew very well how Ma Xiaotian felt about the Red Lady in the past. In fact, a large part of the reason why she was able to marry Ma Xiaotian was that Ma Xiaotian mistook her for the Red Lady. That night, she was confused and inexplicably turned out to be a good thing.
It would be a woman of later generations who would cry, make trouble, and hang herself. She would hold her husband's ears and scold her every day to make him forget about his first love. But the little mute was not such a person. Instead, she felt that she He took away the position of the Matchmaker and snatched a good young man like Ma Xiaotian from the Matchmaker to become his man.
With this thought in your mind, how can you not be afraid when you see the Red Lady? What's more, she saw the strange look in the red lady's eyes, which made her even more frightened. Her weak body shrank far away. She was obviously a wife but she acted like a mistress. I really felt pity for her.
Actually, she didn¡¯t understand that the weird look in the red lady¡¯s eyes wasn¡¯t because of Ma Xiaotian, but because the little mute actually spoke The red lady rushed up in one stride and held the little mute¡¯s hand.
The little mute was frightened: What a tragedy, she must be going to hit me.
She quickly closed her eyes, gritted her teeth, and prepared for a slap. However, I heard the red lady asking happily: "Little mute, how come you can speak?"
"Eh? Didn't she blame me for robbing Ma Xiaotian?" The little mute's head was full of questions, but she didn't know that the red lady was also a very innocent little girl. She basically didn't think about men's affairs in her mind, only about men's affairs. Fight and kill. And the little mute never thinks about fighting and killing, he only thinks about his own man These two women are completely parallel, and their thoughts can never come together.
"You can speak, and you're still married to Ma Xiaotian?" the red lady asked anxiously.
"Hmm" The little mute lowered his head and thought to himself: "She asked so clearly, is she really going to hit me now? Or ask me to return my husband to her? No! She can hit me, but my husband must not give her."
??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Instead?he breathed a long sigh of relief, and then thought in her mind: No wonder Ma Xiaotian doesn't treat me like that anymore, it turns out that he has already married the little mute, phew, my heartA big rock fell to the ground! If I had known earlier, I wouldn't have run out to hide from him. As a result, I got lost in the mountains and suffered a lot. Fortunately, I picked up Li Yan, otherwise I would still be jumping around in the mountains.
Although the red lady felt a little lost because of Ma Xiaotian's transference, she felt more like a feeling of clearing away the clouds and seeing the moonlight, finally having nothing to do and feeling light. She just felt that the troubles that had been bothering her for a long time had finally disappeared. How happy it is to be able to happily be a carefree little leader in the Zhu Army all of a sudden.
She couldn't help but hugged the little mute and shouted happily: "It's great, it's great!"
The little mute thought to herself: I stole the man who liked her, but she said it was great? Miss Hong is really a generous and good woman. Alas, I am not as good as her.
The two women were chatting incoherently, and the people next to them couldn't understand what they were talking about. In fact, they themselves didn't understand much either, but they were able to keep talking and get better and better. The conversation goes deeper and deeper.
At this time, Ma Xiaotian was not idle. He led Li Yan straight into the lobby. He saw many people standing in the lobby. Most of Zhu Jun's leaders were here. It turned out that Zhu Jun had just skinned a bad official today, and it was Li Yan who was at the door. Seeing that, this incident caused a stir among the leaders of Zhu Jun, so Zhu Yuanzhang summoned the leaders here to emphasize the issue of integrity.
Zhu Yuanzhang also knew. The corruption and bending of the law by officials cannot be rectified overnight. In a few hundred years, there will still be many in the so-called "new era", but it will be a little better than in the so-called "feudal era". And the methods he is using now, including "high salary to maintain integrity" and "criminalization of illegal and unidentified property," can only be said to be a compromise plan and cannot be perfect.
In his previous life, Zhu Yuanzhang hated evil and vowed to kill all corrupt officials in the world. But looking at the world hundreds of years later. He also knew that it was the idea of ??an angry young man. What he was thinking now was that it didn't matter if he couldn't kill them all, just try to reduce them as much as possible. therefore. He gathered his closest men together. I spoke a few words to them with great sincerity.
When Li Yan walked in, he happened to hear Zhu Yuanzhang say: "Corrupt officials do a lot of harm to people. How did we revolt in the first place? Wasn't it because we were harmed by corrupt officials that we revolted? If we allow our officials to come to the court, That's the trick. Aren't we also becoming villains in the eyes of the people? What if we fight the officers and soldiers in the front and the people rise up and rebel in the back?"
"What Zhu Bago said is true!" Wang Er jumped out next to him, waving his big fist and said: "If anyone is a good citizen, I will skin him before Brother Zhu can deal with him. Even if he is my own brother, I will kill him too." That's right." As he spoke, he glared at Bai Yuzhu sitting below, because everyone sitting here knew that Bai Yuzhu's group of old brothers were the most evil in the entire Zhu army.
Bai Yuzhu did not dare to challenge Wang Er, and of course he did not dare to challenge Zhu Yuanzhang. He laughed twice and said: "Brother I also support what the two eldest brothers said. Tonight, brothers will go to the whole camp to kill those disobedient bastards." After some practice, I won¡¯t believe they are still unruly.¡±
Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand and said: "Bring the skinned corpse at the door to them and warn them"
At this time, Ma Xiaotian walked into the hall and said loudly: "Brother Zhu Ba, Mr. Li Yan and Mr. Li want to see you."
"Oh? Li Yan?" Zhu Yuanzhang's expression remained unchanged, his eyes slowly turned around, fell on Li Yan, and said calmly: "Why did Li Zicheng's military advisor come to see me?" Although he was asking like this, he saw that When the red lady walked in from the back, she already had a close guess in her mind.
Zhu Jun and Chuang Jun had a good relationship before, but since the battle at Agate Mountain, they have regarded each other as serious enemies. At this time, Chuang Jun's military advisor came to visit, and I really didn't know what it meant. Several leaders in the hall suddenly became nervous, thinking: Could it be that Li Chuang is coming to declare a challenge to us?
In the surprised expressions of everyone, Li Yan suddenly bowed his head, bowed down, and said sincerely: "Wan Sheng came here to ask Brother Zhu Ba to preach and teach me If I can find a good strategy to govern the country and save the people, Wan Sheng I am willing to do my best for Brother Zhu Ba"
When they heard this, everyone was moved: It turns out that this person is here to surrender!
That day, after Li Yan joined the Zhu Army, he went to the back hall with Zhu Yuanzhang. The two of them said nothing but what they said. All they knew was that when the two came out of the back hall, Li Yan was completely impressed by Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Yuanzhang regarded him as a heavenly being. It seemed that the military advisor who broke into the army had willingly become a member of Zhu's army.
However, Zhu Yuanzhang did not immediately welcome him as Zhu Jun's military adviser, because the specific abilities of Li Yan would be left to be observed later. For the time being, he was active in Zhu Jun as an idle aide.
Then Zhu Yuanzhang sent people to capture Li Zichengjun¡¯s family members.After searching for a while, Li Yan's wife Tang was found. Li Yan was very happy to see that his beloved wife was safe, and he was even more devoted to Zhu Jun.
At the same time as Li Yan threw himself into Zhu's army, in the mountains near Guangyuan, a Sichuan army of more than a thousand people was moving slowly. The leader of this Sichuan army was three brothers, Meng Changshui and Meng Changsheng. , Meng Changxing.
These three brothers originally belonged to the army led by Zuo Guangxian. After being defeated by Zhu Jun, Zuo Guangxian fled eastward and disappeared without a trace. However, the three brothers were unwilling to follow Zuo Guangxian to retreat eastward because they were all natives. They are from Sichuan, and the hometown of the three of them happens to be in a small mountain village under the rule of Guangyuan.
After Guangyuan was captured by Zhu Jun, the small mountain village in their hometown became Zhu Jun's territory, which made the three of them even more reluctant to leave. The people of Sichuan were very rural. Compared with people in Jiangnan and the Central Plains, Sichuan people People are more attached to their hometown, and so are these three brothers. They vowed to take their hometown back from the hands of the rebel army.
But the three brothers couldn't take action immediately because their third son, Meng Changxing, was in the last battle. After being stabbed by the red lady, the three brothers had a deep love for each other, so they hid in the mountains in the northwest of Guangyuan. With the help of local mountain people, they hunted game and ate some weeds. They managed to survive in the mountains for half a year and let the third brother survive. After recovering from their injuries, more than a thousand Sichuan soldiers prepared wild game as dry food and emerged from the mountains again. I plan to go back to my hometown. "Rescue" all the people in my hometown.
Only the Sichuan soldiers can do this kind of thing, hibernating in the mountains for half a year to prepare their own food. Any other army would have starved to death in the mountains of Sichuan.
The three brothers carefully climbed out of the mountain. Move slowly among the ravines. The closer I get to my hometown. The more familiar the terrain becomes, turning a ditch here and drilling a hole there. Unbeknownst to gods and ghosts, even the sentry posts scattered all over the Zhu Army could not detect them at all. The three brothers actually found their way to the hillside outside a small village. The name of this village is Mengjiacun. There are more than 40 families in the village, all of whom are surnamed Meng. They are basically members of the tribe who can be beaten with eight poles.
The three brothers were not in a hurry to lead troops into the village. Instead, they disguised themselves slightly and became three local farmers. It's really not easy to pretend to be people from your hometown. With the three of them dressed like this, not to mention Zhu Jun's soldiers couldn't tell that they were fakes. Even if they were from a neighboring village, they wouldn't necessarily recognize that the three of them had left many years ago. The three brothers of the Meng family settled down and became officers and soldiers.
After the three brothers disguised themselves, they went out of the mountain and walked openly along the dirt road to Mengjia Village. Although on the surface, the three brothers seemed to be walking carelessly, in fact, the three of them were carefully observing the surrounding situation. On the one hand, they were looking at the situation in their hometown to see if there were any traces of being ravaged by the bandits. On the other hand, they were looking for their own safety. Guaranteed, if anyone from Zhu Jun sees through them, they will immediately turn their backs.
Before the three of them could enter the village, they saw a group of people walking on the dirt road in front of them. Apparently, they were people sent by the "official government" to collect summer gifts. Several of them were wearing official uniforms, and one was wearing an official uniform. ! There were many followers and vehicles transporting taxes.
Of course, these people cannot really be from the "official government", they can only be from Zhu Jun. The three brothers of the Meng family glanced at each other and thought: The government's method of collecting taxes is usually to designate a place and the people pay it themselves. This designated place is usually the county seat. But these Zhu Jun actually came to the village to collect taxes. This shows that they not only want to collect taxes, but also want to squeeze the people and take away all the food stored in their homes!
The three brothers felt very uncomfortable and wanted to go back to the mountains to bring out the army. However, the three brothers were not reckless. The situation in the village had not yet been clearly investigated. What if Zhu Jun had ambushed a heavy army in the village? This is entirely possible. You must know that the Sichuan people are very tough. If the thieves come to grab food, they will definitely be resisted by the Sichuan people. Therefore, the thieves cannot enter the village to collect taxes with just a group of people. They must send an army. accompanying. The three brothers did not want to rush into Zhu Jun's encirclement impulsively, so they had no choice but to continue to follow.
Until they arrived at the entrance of the village, the three brothers saw the small tax collection team entering the village, so they climbed up on a big rock next to them and looked into the village. They saw that the Mengjia Village was quiet. Where was the trace of the army?
The eldest of the three brothers, Meng Changshui, was overjoyed and said: "The main force of the bandit army is coming, and this is the only group of tax collectors who has come."
The second eldest brother, Meng Changsheng, hurriedly said: "Then what are you waiting for? Let's go back quickly, mobilize our troops and kill them all."
The third oldest Meng Changxing also nodded and said: "Exactly, after killing these guys, we took the forty or so families in the village to escape far away and went into the deep mountains and old forests. We will never let them suffer the consequences of Zhu Ba's guys again." Bully."
The three brothers all have normal thoughts and no longer follow the village, because the people in the villageThe three of them were so familiar with the situation that there was no need to go in to take a look. They hurried back to the ravine, fired up more than a thousand Sichuan soldiers, and headed straight for Mengjiacun.
But it was said that this team came to Mengjia Village to collect taxes, and the leader of the team was none other than Xia Erduo!
He was considered a very important civil servant in Zhu Junzhong. How could he come to collect taxes in person?
It turns out that Mengjia Village is located in a remote location with extremely poor water and soil. It is a very poor mountain village in Guangyuan, and the land is thinner than other places. When Xia Erduo was promoting corn here, he put a lot of thought into it, and he found it from the coast. The pirates who came here and knew how to grow corn also racked their brains here, thinking about how to grow corn well here.
Later, Zhu Yuanzhang came up with a little trick. After sowing corn in thin soil, then covering it with a layer of straw. This planting method really made the corn grow obediently. Zhu Yuanzhang's move made the pirates from the coast admire him with admiration. He really didn't expect that corn could be grown like this. Of course, Zhu Yuanzhang would not say that he saw it accidentally in later generations. He could only vaguely say that he was blind. of.
However, no matter how good the corn grows, if the harvest is not many, it will be a waste.
After the harvest season this time, Xia Erduo personally came to inspect this mountain village. On the one hand, it was to collect taxes. The main purpose was to find out how much results the method provided by Zhu Yuanzhang could bring to the village.
The arrival of Xia Erduo and the pirates caused the whole village to boil. Uncle Meng, Uncle Meng, the second son of the Meng family, and others in the village, all of whom were named Meng, ran out of the house together and surrounded Xia Erduo. Many teams were telling jokes, and they were all compliments. It turned out that Mengjia Village had gained a lot this time, and it was no different from other places. In Mengjia Village, a place where the land is particularly barren, It can be considered a miracle.
Therefore, the villagers welcomed the arrival of Xia Erduo and his party. While the soldiers and civilians were getting married, they suddenly heard a burst of shouting outside the village. The three brothers of the Meng family came over with more than a thousand Sichuan soldiers in a fierce manner.