Lu Bin is the youngest of the Lu brothers in Laomiao Village. He has a square head and a strong build. Liu Chengzong has met him.
Last time outside the Muzha checkpoint in Laomiaozhuang, Lu Bin wore a white scarf on his head and a white sheepskin jacket. He was riding on a horse with a bow and arrow on his back and a wooden spear. His voice was loud and high-spirited.
Liu Chengzong chatted with him for a few words. He didn't ask about the situation in Laomiaozhuang, but he made out everything about Dingjia Station.
However, half a month later, Liu Chengzong once again saw this thirty-year-old man in the clan ancestral hall. Suddenly something happened, and his appearance changed a lot.
As soon as he entered the square courtyard of the ancestral hall, Liu Chengzong noticed the figure sitting on the ground in the corner. The dirty white hair towel was put aside. Lu Bin had disheveled hair and dirt mixed with blood and mud on his body. He looked like a frightened rabbit.
I came over and wanted to get up.
"Is it you?"
His mouth movements were very small and his voice was low. The left side of his face was covered with a bloody white cloth. He looked extremely uneasy. His hands were stroking around him, trying to grab something to defend himself.
"Liu Chengzong, I met you at the village half a month ago."
As Liu Chengzong spoke, he stepped forward, pulled over the long bench where the clan sat during discussions, raised his eyebrows and asked, "What's going on on your face?"
"Hit by the arrow, two teeth were lost."
This answer made Liu Chengzong not sure whether to say that Lu Bin had good luck or bad luck. Of course, the bad luck was that his face was pierced by an arrow, and the good luck was that he only had his cheek pierced.
Wounds can reveal a lot of information.
For example, he could imagine how Lu Bin was hit by an arrow. He was probably injured by a stray arrow when he looked back at his pursuers.
"You came on horseback, you alone? Where are the others?"
Lu Bin nodded. Maybe it was an encounter or an injury, which made him look quite short of breath, as if all his energy had been drained away. He slowly shook his head and said: "I, I don't know."
"The Ding family led thieves into the village and scattered the villagers. A few brothers and I lured them away and ran away... they were all scattered."
Since Lu Bin had a horse, the thieves also had a horse. Liu Chengzong finally asked what he wanted to know urgently: "Listen to me, those thieves are Wang Zuogao's people. How did you know?"
It seemed that this was not the first time Lu Bin had answered a similar question, which made him a little impatient. He frowned slightly and replied: "They said it themselves, saying that Zuo Guazi led them to a defeat by the army in Yaozhou, and thousands of people died.
Scattered and scattered, they are just one of them."
After answering, Lu Bin was so anxious that he talked and gestured, saying: "Master Jun, you have seen me and know that I am from the old temple village, not a thief. Can you let me go? Hiss!"
I don't know where the big move pulled it, it seemed to be his back. The pain made him stop talking, but he only paused for a moment, and then continued: "Give me back the horse and bow, I have to go back."
Liu Chengzong stood up and walked to his side. Lu Bin was sitting against the wall. He hadn't noticed it just now, but now he saw a big hole in the back of the sheepskin jacket. Brown blood stains were left on the jacket, but the inside of the hole was wrapped in white cloth.
, I think it was when I escaped to Xingpingli yesterday that a doctor applied medicine and bandaged it.
"Go back? If the thief is still in Laomiaozhuang, what can you do if you go back?"
"I have to find my family, my brother, my sister-in-law, my nephew, my mother-in-law and my children. I am not the only one in my family of eleven. If there is no one for me... I have to avenge them."
Liu Chengzong didn't say anything. He wanted to sit back on the bench. As soon as he sat down, he stood up again and said, "You have an injury on your back and you can't even draw your bow. How can you take revenge when you go back?"
"I have to occupy two people to watch you. Just be content. You can live here and recuperate with peace of mind. Someone will take care of your food every day. What a good thing."
Liu Chengzong felt happy when he said that. To be honest, if it hadn't been for what happened to Laomiaozhuang, having someone to take care of the food in a place like Xingping would be something that many people outside and inside would only dream of during the disaster years.
After all, this was not the right time to laugh. Liu Chengzong restrained his smile, thought for a moment, stepped forward and patted Lu Bin on the shoulder, saying: "I'm going to the north in the next two days. If I can run into your brother, I'll bring him over.
You can live in peace and don't mess around in my ancestral hall."
"I'll go out and ask if I can give you another place to live."
After that, regardless of Lu Bin shouting behind him, Liu Chengzong walked out of the ancestral hall without looking back.
Standing under the eaves of the ancestral hall with a high lintel, he looked up at the blue sky and sighed.
In the less than two months since I left Yuhe Fort, more people have died around me than in the past nineteen years.
He should have known that the eight wolves at Dingjia Station were not fuel-efficient lamps. They even killed tax collectors. Even if there were no thieves, they would rob others if something went wrong. If there were thieves, they would hit it off immediately.
The more he thought about it, the more Liu Chengzong felt that he wanted to take a look north.
If Lu Bin's brothers and family members are still alive, they will probably not be found.
Unless the person is dead, maybe he can see a corpse.
Otherwise, he can be found, and so can the thief. Without the ability to hide, he will definitely not survive.
If you have the ability to hide, you won't be able to find hundreds of people hiding in the barren mountains and bald ridges that can be found everywhere within a ten-mile radius, let alone a few people.
"I just came back from Ansai, where are you going?"
Mrs. Cai returned home after distributing grain to the tenants. As soon as she entered the door, she saw a pile of horse cakes left in the middle of the courtyard door. Looking inside again, she saw Liu Chengzong in the stable carrying a bedroll and putting a saddle on the back of a red flag.
I couldn't help but say: "It's such a mess outside!"
"Mom is back. The village in the north has been robbed. I will go there to explore."
Seeing his mother coming back, Liu Chengzong took off the saddle and hung the bedroll on his back in the stable for the time being. He walked out and said with a smile: "It's okay. Na Lu Bin is locked up in the ancestral hall and wants to find his family. If he goes out and meets a thief, he will die.
I'll go out and take a look for him."
"If you don't hide on the streets outside, how can you still search the mountains to find people?"
Mrs. Cai complained anxiously, but had no other choice, and said: "If you can't find anyone, what are you going to do in the north? Listen to mother and stay at home. Don't run out anymore."
"How can I not go? There is no village seven or eight miles away. I have to go there and see which way the thieves are going. They are still there, so we should make preparations in advance. If we want to go to other places, our family can sleep at night.
A peaceful sleep, isn’t it? Mom, don’t worry.”
Liu Chengzong raised his hand to wipe the sweat from the horses he was tidying up, and knocked the frontier army's dark armor that was worn on his body, saying: "It's full of armor pieces as big as a palm. I ride two horses. I can run away from thieves even if I'm injured."
Not to me."
"If you can, please return the armor plate. Not even a single person in the village has escaped from the murderer. What's the use of wearing a armor plate?"
After all, Mrs. Cai knew she couldn't stop her son, so she could only frown and said: "Your brother is going to see the Cao Guan team and he will be back in the afternoon. You have something to eat first, and you two will take care of him when he comes back..."
Whose horse is that?"
"That's fine. When he comes back, I won't worry about going out when there are many people at home."
Liu Chengzong thought that his eldest brother probably felt unsafe after learning about the banditry in the north, so he went to retrieve Cao Yao and his party. There would be fifty border troops at home by then, so he would not be afraid even if the bandits came.
Thinking of this, he felt more relieved. He pointed to the stable and said: "That's the horse left by the Cao Guan team of the Houyao for my sister-in-law. I just borrowed it. I can't walk in a hurry. Its shoe is loose. It needs a new hook before it can go on the road."