Between the mountains, gullies and rivers in the eastern part of Heshui County, Qingyang Prefecture, there is a village called Luping.
After four days of marching, Liu Shizi led his army from Yanzhou through Ziwu Ridge and into Qingyang. His force was much larger than expected.
In addition to the Lion Camp with more than 5,700 people, there is also the Yuzi Camp with more than 4,000 people, which brought great difficulties to the resettlement work of Yang Yao and Feng Yu, who were sent to Qingyang in advance.
"Commander, why is there still a Yuzi camp?"
"Can't you tell from the name? My camp is big."
Yang Yao showed a clear look, and then said: "How can the old lady have more than 4,000 troops?"
When mentioning the Yuzi Camp, Liu Chengzong felt a little helpless and explained to Yang Yao: "Previously at Lion Bay, the high leader organized his 8,000 people into three camps."
"When we were about to leave, we sent someone to deliver a message to Qinwangzhuang, Qingwangzhuang, Cao Cao and others, telling them that they could rely on the high leaders in the future. As a result, they all wanted to follow us and prepare their own troops, horses and food."
Liu Chengzong spread his hands and said: "I have gathered them into a camp since I was a kid, but let's not forget that this camp is very suitable for our establishment."
"My eldest brother, Zhang Tianlin, Luo Rucai, Li Wanqing, and Li Laojiao, are the five sentry soldiers; Lin Wei's Xingzihe blacksmiths and masons form the work sentry, and there are also teams that break into the sky to transport baggage."
As soon as he finished speaking, Yang Yao said: "Yuyue is back?"
"Do you also know this name?" Liu Chengzong shook his head. It seems that Ren Quan'er gave Liu Guoneng this nickname, which is more widely known than Chuang Taotian: "I came back and brought batches of cloth to Xingzi River. I originally wanted to do it in winter.
As for the military uniforms, I came here with them all."
When he heard that the old man had formed the team, Yang Yao didn't say anything else and simply nodded and said: "Then I will transport some food to the military station."
Yang Yao and Feng Ru set up four military stations on the 240-mile-long Ziwuling Mountain Road for the Lion Battalion to rest on the road.
"No need, they move fast and they all carry food. Just find a place to camp nearby."
Speaking of the name of Yu Ziying, Liu Chengzong just wanted to laugh.
When they were marching on Ziwuling Mountain Road, Mr. Liu asked Song Shouzhen to pass a small note to the front.
A bunch of words were written on the note: 'Heroes are brave, their wings are peaceful, their wings are steady, their wings are steady, their dragons are strong, their strength is strong, their horses are fierce, their strength is strong, their strength is clear.'
Liu Chengzong thought it was a riddle at first, but Song Shouzhen said it was the name of the camp.
It was because Gao Yingxiang's reorganized unit was called the Chuangzi Brigade. Mr. Liu felt that it didn't sound good, and he was afraid that Liu Shizi would also create a Lion-character Brigade in the future, so he asked Song Shouzhen to bring the name of the camp.
Indeed, they are all good words that are very suitable for military camp names.
But Master Liu gave him this note, and his troops raised a flag with the character Yu.
Facts have proved that no matter how many things are in my mind, I still hope that the team can be named after myself, and Mr. Liu is not immune to this.
These good words will be reserved for future use when organized into brigades.
Leading horses while walking on the dirt road of Luping Village, I often see people in ragged clothes and disheveled faces on the dry farming terraces, watching the troops passing by with numb expressions.
Liu Chengzong looked at Yang Yao and asked, "Why are there still refugees in this wilderness?"
"They are not refugees, they are common people in Qingyang. From the west to Ziwuling, they go into the mountains to look for food when they have the strength. If they don't, they rest here."
Yang Yao glanced at the people on the terraces and said with emotion to Liu Chengzong: "I came out of the mountains and walked ten miles. I buried more than a hundred corpses and saw more wolves and dogs than people."
Liu Chengzong said nothing. He glanced sideways at the figure sitting on the mountain, frowned and asked: "Mr. Yang said Qingyang is a granary, why does it feel inferior to Yan'an?"
"Qingyang is a granary."
Yang Yao echoed with emotion.
The administrative seat of Qingyang Prefecture is Anhua City. Near Anhua City is a large plateau. During the Xia Dynasty, the leader of the Zhou tribe cultivated on this large plateau. Many places in the area formed black loam soil that was extremely suitable for farming due to year-round fertilization. But there are only a few lands like this. The mountains here are high and the air is cold. There are frequent droughts and little rain. After all, it is a land where evaporation is ten times that of rainfall.
Intensive farming cannot withstand a frost and drought. This situation makes the people turn to the quantity of fields, but there are too many fields and there is not enough manure. So they plant extensively and the harvest is poor. Sowing ten acres of land cannot keep up with the harvest of one acre of land.
What's more, drought is not the most terrifying thing these days.
Yang Yao said: "Drought is nothing."
"Yan'an is safe because among the many leaders, the only two generals who can resist the official army are in Yan'an. The official army cannot enter Yan'an Mansion, and he can subdue the thieves, so the people can survive the drought."
"Qingyang is different. There are all petty thieves here. In the past few days, the leaders of Qingyang will come to see the commander one after another. They will hide when the officers and soldiers come."
"Earlier there was Wu Weifan, and then there was He Huchen. When the army passed by, they were scared away without having to attack. The scattered thieves were unable to attack the fortress. What can they do because of their stuttering?"
"Either the local bandits and thieves will be driven out, and no new thieves will appear; or the government officials and government officials will be driven out, and no new troops will be stationed."
"Otherwise, this kind of place where soldiers and thieves come, alas..."
As he spoke, Yang Yao spat on the ground, raised his foot and wiped it: "Compared to humans, drought is nothing."
Liu Chengzong felt that what Yang Yao described was wrong.
It should be said that drought is terrible, but people under drought are even more terrible.
This area is still a mountainous area, and the nearest river has to go around two mountains. Liu Chengzong was worried that the river would be cut off in the past, so he stationed two battalions in more than a dozen deserted villages within an eight-mile radius.
If the river is dry, the water will come back, but it will delay time.
So the sentry posts faced each other across the ravine.
When there are more people, there are more troubles. The village can no longer satisfy just fetching water.
Usually, there is only one well in the village. If you rely on one well for food, you will not be able to have breakfast until dark.
Yang Yao said that in the past two days, all the rebel leaders in Qingyang Mansion would come to pay their respects. Liu Chengzong had nothing to do and just wandered around the village talking to the people.
There were not many people left in Luping, and even fewer dared to talk to him. There was only an old man in his seventies who moved a small stool, shook a small fan, and sat at the door to enjoy the cool air, not afraid of him.
Liu Chengzong also pulled up a small stool, sat on the edge and asked: "The old man is not afraid of us people?"
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The old man glanced at him and said curiously: "Hey, why does this young man just open his mouth and not speak?"
Liu Chengzong asked loudly again: "Aren't you afraid of us?"
"Afraid, it's scary. Isn't it helpful to be afraid? That house under the tree, the old bastard could dig at, died earlier than me. The back of his house was afraid. When the thieves came, he ran away and didn't catch up with a hot meal. He died in the back hill.
."
The old man glanced at him and pointed to an empty yard next to him: "The family's surname is Qi. They escaped from the war last year. They were not afraid of thieves. After eating a meal, they went to fight in the county town and died outside the city. My mother-in-law took the baby to hang herself in the woods of Beigou.
."
"It doesn't matter whether you're afraid or not, I'm seventy-eight."
The old man raised his hand to count, and smiled at Liu Chengzong: "All the great-grandchildren are dead. You people from Yan'an come to Qingyang and come to Qingyang to stay overnight. Sooner or later we will all die."
Liu Chengzong chatted with the old man for a while.
The old man probably had no one to talk to him for a long time, and he almost went door to door to explain how people in this village died.
Through these ways of death, Liu Chengzong understood what happened to this place in the past two years.
The old man's name is Xu Laoweng. He said that he looked older when he was young. Someone gave him the nickname Xu Laoweng when he was in his twenties. In the blink of an eye, he has been called Xu Laoweng for more than fifty years, and his real name is better than his real name.
When he called Old Man Xu, Lord Wanli had just ascended the throne.
Now those people who call him Old Man Xu are gone.
He has already defeated three emperors and is trying to see if he can defeat the fourth one.
This village used to have many low-yielding mountain fields, and relying on the official road connecting Qingyang and Yan'an, there was a market at the foot of the mountain that opened every Saturday.
Most of the people work in agriculture, but there are craftsmen and businessmen who rely on the mountains. On this official road, they are responsible for selling the skins, bones, medicinal materials, flowers and herbs collected by the mountain people to Qingyang Fucheng, so it is relatively prosperous.
But from an agricultural perspective, this village is very poor, so poor that it is immune to land annexation.
Because there is not even an acre of fertile farmland, only more than 20,000 acres of mountainous land. In the mountains where the two battalions of the Liu family are stationed, more than half of what they consider to be villages are the kilns they dug in the fields where they used to live.
There used to be a landowner here, a businessman from out of town, who saw the commercial value here and started buying land.
Generally, farmland in a village is very important. You can't just buy it. Unless the original people in the village don't want the land, it can be sold to outsiders.
But this is different. When the landlord says to buy, as long as the price is right, the villagers will sell immediately, and the landlord is not allowed to go back on his word.
Because this acre of land can only produce 20 to 30 pounds of wheat in a normal year, relatively speaking, it does not require intensive farming, and there are no requirements for the land. If you buy this, I will farm elsewhere.
The landlord couldn't hire tenants. In the end, he couldn't get back the money he paid to buy the land in five years, which made him angry to death.
Those lands became the villagers' again.
But the year before last, the drought came and the nightmare began.
The first person to die was a traveling merchant who sold mountain goods to Qingyang Prefecture every time the market was held. He went out and never came back.
People heard that because of the drought, thieves often appeared on the road.
Grain production has decreased, and there is no squire in the village who can take charge.
Some people began to think of ways to open more land and grow more food. Many people exhausted themselves to death before the land was opened.
There were also a few people who had evil thoughts and wanted to deprive themselves of their families. They bullied the orphans and widowed mothers left behind by the traveling merchants. The orphans were thrown into the ravine, and the widowed mother jumped into the well the next night.
Those people said it was unlucky to destroy the well in the village.
Then some people become refugees, some become bandits, some join the army, and some just eat and wait to die, hoping to be wiped out again.
In short, things have changed.
Until last year, a guerrilla general arrived and stationed in Luping.
The thief was killed, and the few remaining destitute people were sued by the villagers, and somehow they disappeared.
Everything seems to be returning to normal. Although the drought is still there, the newly cultivated fields at the cost of human lives are still there. There are fewer people in the village, so they can survive.
But when General Wu led his army to retreat, there were more and more thieves.
Thieves from Yan'an will pass through here when passing through; thieves from Qingyang will also pass through here when going to Yan'an.
Bandits came and went, and the guards of Qingyang Mansion also chased them.
As of this year, there were still more than 40 households left. Li Laojing came over and saw the misery of the people in the village, and said that he would take them to rob Heshui County. The young and middle-aged people from more than a dozen households followed him, but none of them came back. Among their remaining aunts, some fled back to their parents' homes, some ran away, and two of them took their children as companions and went to hang themselves in a ravine.
Later, the defeated army came again, robbed a few cotton-padded jackets, and asked the people to go into the mountains to collect medicine for them, saying that it was raining in the east.
Before the medicine was collected, the horse soldiers had already run away, and they were told to run away quickly, saying that the army had been defeated.
Later, people in the village ran, walked, and died, and now there are only seven households left.
Including the old man, the people of the seven families are well-informed and hard-hearted. They all have the same consciousness as the old man and give up resistance to suffering.
In fact, while Liu Chengzong was chatting with the old man for half an hour, there were still five households in the village.
One of them was already ill and died of it; the other got two mouthfuls of fried noodles from the soldiers of the Lion Camp, happily ate them, then left the village and hit himself to death in the main ditch.
Liu Chengzong didn't know why he died, but he seemed to know why he died.
The people who once lived in this village were not just scum who had to survive. As farmers, they tried every way to survive without the help of the government.
Those who do good things, those who do bad things, those who are thieves, those who join the army, those who farm, those who do business.
All dead.
On the contrary, Old Man Xu is the strangest. He is too old to run away or fight, so he simply gives up resistance. Whether thieves come or soldiers come, he will sit here.
Anyway, after living for so many years, it doesn’t make much sense to continue living.
In the end, regardless of whether soldiers or thieves came, given his age, they would throw him some food, and that's how it ended.
The able-bodied young people are all dead, but he is still alive.
Liu Chengzong also wanted to keep him alive, so he also asked the carrier to bring a few small bags of rice to the old man and put them in the house.
He said: "You can't die. You will be fine in the future. I can make you all eat well."
Old man Xu didn't seem to hear him again. He sat on a small stool and smiled tremblingly: "I just opened my mouth and stopped talking again."
"I said don't die! I can make you all eat!"
This time Liu Shizi was sure that the old man heard clearly, but he still trembled and said nothing.
He thought to himself that he might not be the first person to say such things to the old man.
If a normal person knows such a long-lived old man, whether he is a soldier or a thief, he will greet him and encourage him to live a good life. They may also say that you can eat.
Wu Weifan may have said it, He Huchen may have said it, and even He Huchen's deserters may have said it.
And everyone may mean it sincerely when they say it.
But how many people can fulfill this kind of commitment that has no time limit or conditions?
Who can live without regrets?
Liu Chengzong stopped sitting any longer, stood up and walked towards the military tent set up by the guards. After walking a few steps, he turned around and said: "Old man, you live well and try to send Chongzhen away."
I thought that Old Man Xu would ignore him, but I didn’t know that the old man was happy.
Old man Xu thought to himself, the county magistrate said the same thing many years ago, telling me to live well.
Now the county grandpa has been buried for three or four years.
"Hold on for a few more years and watch how I manage to make people survive."
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Note:
"Ningzhou Chronicles" records that the population of Ningzhou in the late Ming Dynasty was 16,320. By the seventh year of Shunzhi, the population had dropped to 11,990.