In the shabby market of Yulin City, Ma Ke leads the horse and walks forward aimlessly.
His belly seemed to be filled with thunder and lightning, and it kept screaming.
Since he was defeated and returned to the army last year, Ma Ke's life has not been easy. His achievements in bloody battles have been wiped out, and his general official position has also been lost.
Logically speaking, this is nothing to a person like him.
After all, once you have served as an officer, as long as you can make meritorious service in a bloody battle, it will not be difficult for you to be reinstated.
But Marco did not catch up with the good times.
This year, Yulin is suffering from the same drought as Yinchuan, and there is no summer grain harvest. The price of a bucket of rice in the city's grain stores has been as high as six cents of silver.
However, the price of rice in Yulin can only indicate the severity of the food shortage, but cannot prove that rice can be sold at this price.
Because Yulin is a military town, in the fourth year when the imperial court defaulted on military pay, the soldiers no longer had any money.
And the generals who can afford to buy twelve kilograms of rice for six cents of silver are not in such embarrassment that they only think of buying grain at this time.
The entire Yulin City was shrouded in hunger and wailing, and people looked forward to the day when they could survive until the imperial court transferred military rations from Linzhou.
Marco felt that he couldn't hold on any longer.
He was really hungry. As a young general, he ate more than others.
In the past, he was in charge of food in the camp and still had a monthly salary of forty taels. He led the troops in the camp for a month, and after receiving his salary, he had to pay three and a half taels for food to the troops.
But it is precisely because of this that I have not saved any money for several years in the army.
Suddenly the official position was taken away, and the gap in status change was easy to solve, except for eating.
The military rations in the military camp were only enough to feed a rabbit every day. After eating, it felt like he had not eaten. His stomach growled for half an hour, and Ma Ke was hungry every day.
He now has hallucinations when he walks on the street. From time to time in a bleak market with nothing in sight, a head of hot-boiled mutton will pop up in his eyes. He will look up at the braised lamb face and run past with four braised lamb elbows dancing.
I can’t hold it any longer.
During this period of ups and downs in his official position, Ma learned a lot.
In the past, I always heard soldiers complaining. He always felt that the court was in trouble, so he could just endure it and get over it. Who hasn't been hungry?
This time he knew that being hungry once in a while while chasing the enemy was really different from being hungry every day.
It’s so difficult to live in this world.
It turned out that those subordinates loved him so much that every time they heard him say that he would just tolerate it, they didn't even kill him.
He walked for a long time until he reached the horse market and started bargaining with the horse dealer.
"Shopkeeper, although this yellow gelding looks ordinary, it is really extraordinary. Let me tell you, do you know that Suide rebelled against the sky star? Yes, this is his horse."
The shopkeeper laughed when he heard this. He turned back and pointed to a black horse in the stable and said, "Have you seen that one? I told you not to do this. There was a veteran just the day before yesterday and said that it was Liu Chengzong's horse."
"That's impossible."
Ma Ke asserted: "I have seen Liu Chengzong's horse. It is a big horse, fat and strong, and its mane is red."
After he finished speaking, he regretted, "Why am I telling you this?" He turned around and patted the horse he had led and said, "This is really a horse that has surpassed Tianxing. My name is Ma Ke. I used to be the commander, and I fought with General Li Bei against Liu Chengzong."
During the battle, Guo Tianxing injured my horse, so I snatched his horse."
"Alas, the villain knows General Ma."
The shopkeeper sighed, looked up at the horse and said: "The horse is a good horse, but it is starving and thin. To be honest, the horse market is about to run out of business. I can't afford to buy a horse, but I can't afford to raise it."
"How many war horses have been lost this year, doesn't the general know in Yulin City? This horse can only have less than 200 jins of meat, but the villain cannot afford the general to buy 200 jins of grain." p>
In fact, if he didn't know that he was Ma Ke, the store might have done the deal and paid three to five taels for the horse. But if he knew that he was Ma Ke, how could he dare to make such a deal?
Now it costs twelve taels of silver to buy two hundred kilograms of grain. Even in the past, a good-looking horse only cost ten taels of silver.
At this time of year, let alone raising prices for horse-trading transactions, you would be considered a good person if you don’t lower the price too outrageously.
"Master General, it's better to listen to the advice of the villain. You can take it to the meat market, and maybe you can get some more money."
After hitting a soft nail, Ma Ke felt no better and finally asked: "Then you don't want to accept this horse?"
The store owner quickly waved his hand: "I don't dare to accept it, and the general... I heard that Shanxi has blocked the trade route and is not allowed to transport grain to Shaanxi."
A bolt from the blue.
Marco didn’t believe it.
On the way back, my stomach started growling again.
He didn't catch anything when he went out, and he went around and consumed two ounces of noodles, but he didn't want to kill the horse.
Being hungry for a long time made him change his mind a lot. It was not that he hated the imperial court, but he felt that these officials were really not good enough.
Why can't the army, which is doing so well, have enough to eat?
It made Marco want to go back to his hometown.
It's not that he wants to be a deserter, he just wants to go back to his hometown and have enough food for three months, so that he can gain back the lost meat and then guard the border for the imperial court.
Returning to the lifeless camp, the soldiers were all lying on their beds. Pao Ze said that the commander had issued an order that there would be no training in the camp for the past few days, so everyone should rest.
This made Ma Ke believe the horse dealer's words a little bit. Maybe the trade route in Shanxi was really cut off.
Just thinking about it made him even more angry.
Damn it, I can't stop Wang Jiayin, but I want to stop the military supplies of the northern Shaanxi army.
The frontier soldiers in the same team advised him not to go out. Just eat this little food, which is not enough to run around.
But Ma Ke felt that this was not possible, so he packed up his things and went to his home in Yulin City.
He has a small house in a remote area in the west of Yulin City. The location is not good. He didn't like living there when he was an officer. Now there are rules in the camp and he can't live there even if he wants to.
So that house was used by him to store things.
When he went out, Ma Ke didn't take the horse with him and walked all the way to the city. When he arrived at the door of his house, he was furious.
There was a burglar at home, and someone broke the door lock.
When I entered the yard, I saw that the doors of the three rooms were open, and a few piles of books in the side room were scattered all over the floor.
It was a military manual and strategy published by the Ministry of War over the years. The military camp could not accommodate it, so he would send it to his home every once in a while for storage.
It's strange to say, but in this year and age, Ma Ke feels that these things are the most valuable, but for many military households in Yulin who are illiterate, they are afraid of having words printed on them.
But according to Ma Ke's idea, just send these stacks of books to Liu Chengzong, who just robbed the treasury, why not exchange them for a thousand taels of silver.
"Nothing in sight!"
After a long time of cleaning up and wasting two taels of white flour, Ma Ke counted the losses at home.
Li Bei's battle armor placed in the main hall was stolen, and a large porcelain vase from the Yaozhou kiln next to it was smashed, along with a cotton jacket and trousers, as well as some small odds and ends such as silver scissors.
And the portrait that the artist painted when he first joined the army... He couldn't figure out why someone would steal his portrait!
He's not a fucking celebrity.
So angry!
With a bed full of messy things, Marco took stock of the items at home to see if there was anything else he could sell.
He has five weapons left.
Li Bei's sword is a sword made of patterned steel. It weighs two kilograms and is very useful for cutting people. But this one cannot be sold, so this is the only one left. Fortunately, it is hidden under the bed.
There is also Gao Yingxiang's long knife. The knife is very good. It was thrown in the corner of the woodshed but was not stolen.
In the end, there was only one sword of his own left, which was not actually his. It was a silver-clad straight-edged hidden sword that he stole as a trophy from Hai Tazi.
The remaining two items are bows.
Ma Ke did the math and found that, considering his net worth, nothing was his.
After making up his mind, he slung Li Bei's sword and his own knife on his shoulder, pulled the bed sheet and wrapped Gao Yingxiang's long knife in his hand, rolled up the two lower strings on his back, stood up and walked out of the yard.
Since the door lock was broken, I simply didn’t lock the door again.
Anyway, without food and salary, the public security in Yulin Town will continue to deteriorate. Installing new locks will be useless. It is better to just do this so that people know that this house has been broken into by thieves.
This world.
Ma Ke held his stomach all the way back to the market outside the city and went straight to the weapons shop.
The hidden knife that had been with him for several years was slapped on the table: "Craftsman, do you want to keep this knife?"
The weapon shop's business seemed to be pretty good, with knives hanging all over the wall. The blacksmith in the back was forging iron. I ignored him and hammered a few more times, then he threw the knife blank aside and walked over with a blast rope. p>
"General, this sword is rare!"
"Qinghai Tatar, there is silver on it, do you want to accept it?"
"Collect."
The blacksmith drew his knife and looked at it, then looked up at Marco: "Six hundred."
Marco frowned: "Six hundred?"
He thought that if this knife could be sold for twenty taels, it would be a big deal. The blacksmith's brain was burned out by the charcoal kiln?
"Yes, it's worth six hundred. If you use Wanli Tongbao, I'll give you six hundred in flat money. If you break it in two, I can give you four hundred and fifty."
"Four hundred and fifty, or two percent off?"
Marco raised his hand and took the knife back: "Are you crazy or am I crazy?"
"You're not crazy, please calm down."
The blacksmith also looked helpless: "The knife is a good knife, and it is worth more than this. But nowadays, despite the situation in Yulin, the pawnshops have closed down. It's not that I am evil-minded, I can only afford this little money."<
/p>
"Who else can I sell my knives to in this day and age? I have so many knives in my hand, I paid a deposit, and no one comes to pick them up when they are ready."
The blacksmith pointed to the weapons hanging all over the wall and said: "If you have money, you might as well take a look. The knives in the shop are cheap now. Whichever one you like, I will give you two hundred dollars."
Marco was so angry that he scratched his head and his abdomen exploded like thunder. He really couldn't hold it anymore.
"Four hundred dollars, I'll stake this knife with you, and I'll redeem it for six hundred dollars within a month, okay? My name is Marco, and I used to be the boss."
Oh, you are Ma Ke!
The blacksmith looked at Marco carefully. Well, he is very young, very similar to the rumors.
It is said that he was the general who escaped with his life when Li Bei conquered Liu Shizi in Yan'an.
He is a famous person in Yulin.
The blacksmith thought for a while and said with a smile: "It turns out to be General Ma. Does the general think this is okay? I will keep this knife in the shop. I will pay the general four hundred dollars. If any guest likes the knife, four taels, more than four
I sold it for two taels of silver."
"When the general comes again, give the general three liang; if no one likes it, the general will just take four hundred coins to redeem it."
After the blacksmith finished speaking, he bowed his hand to Marco: "It's just that when the weather is good in the coming years, general, just don't forget about the shop."
Facing the blacksmith's kindness, he looked at the knife in his palm with a bit of reluctance in his eyes.
But the hunger in his belly was really unbearable, so Ma Ke gritted his teeth and said, "Okay, I'll do as you say."
The four hundred Wanli Tongbao was wrapped in a piece of cloth by Ma Ke. Although he lost the old weapon, he could temporarily suppress his hunger with three kilograms of money.
He was thinking, how could these four hundred dollars plus military rations not last until August?
With money, people have enough confidence.
Ma Ke walked all the way to the De Sheng Building in the city. He wanted to eat a bowl of mutton noodles and get four Suide oil spinels.
Damn, I haven’t had enough to eat since the Chinese New Year. I want to have a good meal today no matter what.
Passing by a rice grain store, across the street, a dozen veterans wearing torn mandarin duck jackets squatted on the wall to bask in the sun. Some people looked at the grain store and made noodle-eating gestures in the air.
Marco thinks they don't look like veterans, they look like beggars.
But his perspective is no longer as domineering as before. Being hungry for half a year made him very clear that the destitute veterans were helpless against the famine.
The shopkeeper looked at them with particularly contempt. He stood up and lazily turned over the shop signs.
Dou rice, seven coins.
After entering the restaurant, the environment is completely different.
It was not a meal at this time, but there were quite a few scholars and martial arts students who had nothing to do to drink. They were busy chatting with each other, and from time to time they added a few words of sadness about the current situation.
Marco was too familiar with such scenes. He had been like this before, thinking that the court had problems for a short period of time, and the blame lay on the deserters of the rebel mob, who made the situation worse.
The sergeants who still stick to their posts can see things turn around as long as they endure a little longer.
Each and every one of them behaved with the world in mind.
Now Ma Ke knows that having the world in mind is actually useless.
Marco, who was fully armed and carrying a long sword and a short sword, startled others as soon as he entered the restaurant. Fortunately, the shopkeeper and the waiter knew him.
He smiled and said hello and called the general, letting the guests know that he was a serious man, and then he calmed everyone down.
It's just that he couldn't eat the mutton noodles in the end, and only ordered two fried spinels.
Ma Ke felt that he was so stupid. He only thought that the price of rice and grain was high, but he did not expect that the price of the restaurant was also high.
A bowl of mutton noodles costs 90 yuan, and four fried sesame seed cakes cost 60 yuan.
The four hundred dollars he spent to buy two fried sesame seed cakes every day would probably only be enough to last him until July.
He heard the scholar holding a wine cup at the table say: "In April, in Changle Castle, toads crawled out of the river and lined up seven feet wide. No one knew how long they were. They came out of the obstruction along the official road... All the toads know Yulin
I can’t live anymore!”
"Wang Jiayin was fighting in Hequ, and the governor of Shanxi blocked the trade route. The military grain could not be transported in, and the grain merchants could not come in either. Times were very worrying!"
Times are worrying.
Marco no longer has any extra energy to think about how miserable the time will be.
His own stomach is very worrying.
How long can he live like this? Although he is invincible in all his abilities, he can't even fill his stomach.
The oil was served on the table, and the topic of worrying about state affairs at the next table had also turned to the matter of a Korean member from the western suburbs taking a fourth concubine at the age of sixty.
The more you eat Ma Ke’s fried spinach, the less it tastes.
Others can rob him, but just because he is a hero, he deserves to suffer from hunger?
This thought rose up in his heart and could not go down. Marco slapped the money bag on the table and shouted: "Shopkeeper, add three more pieces of oil and spin a bowl of mutton noodles!"