Liu Chengzong had just put the lower string of his long bow on the cold kang, stuffed the animal sinew string into his arms, and blew out the oil lamp. When he heard someone calling him outside the door, he had to get up, put on the tanned leather jacket spread on the quilt, and said: "Do you want to go to the door?"
If you don’t plug it in, go pick up a fire stick and light the lamp.”
Outside the door was a child, only nine years old, named Sixteen, with a bright little head.
Sixteen is from Mizhi. Last year, he followed his parents to flee south.
Regardless of whether it is northern Shaanxi or Henan, since ancient times, when something happens, one has to run to Guanzhong.
In fact, the yield per mu in Guanzhong is not ridiculously high, and there is a reason for this.
In ancient times, people wanted to have good weather. In the era of poor infrastructure, we relied entirely on the weather. If we were not careful, we would suffer from drought and floods. Natural disasters in Guanzhong were less than other places. If we fled to Guanzhong, the men would work as long-term workers, and the women would remarry, and people would always be in trouble.
There is a way to survive.
But there were more people going south, and there was not enough food on the road for them to escape.
Both his parents died of starvation on the road, and Sixteen ignorantly followed another group of people heading north to Yuhe Fort.
The Liu brothers went out to recruit soldiers. Seeing that he had no other way to survive and no ability to protect himself, he would stay among the victims and be eaten by hungry people sooner or later, so they picked him up and brought him back to the fort, begging He Renlong to stay.
Anyway, he is young and eats less. If a soldier in the team eats half a mouthful of food at each meal, he will be fat.
This is how the name came about. There were thirty-two people in the team under Liu Chengzu's charge. Every day they would eat together. Sixteen would bring an empty bowl, and each person would scoop half a spoon into his bowl. Don't worry about eating it dry or thin. The ration was sixteen spoons, so
Called Sixteen.
There are many ways to light a fire. Matches dipped in sulfur, fire tablets, friction sickles, or fire sticks are not enough to save money and trouble.
In places where many people live together, the most economical way to make fire is to leave a tinder to keep the stove burning.
Changming stove is a small mud stove. The principle is similar to that of Huozhezi. It minimizes the air entering the furnace and keeps it in a smoldering state. When needed, the fire can be started by blowing on it.
After a while, I heard rustling outside the house, and the wooden door was pushed open. Under the moonlight, the little bald head came in holding a fire stick to light the oil lamp. When I went out, I rubbed the stick out on the ground and placed it next to the stone lock beside the door. Then I went back in.
Room.
When Shiliu first arrived at Yuhe Fort, his messy hair had grown three inches long, and his head was covered with lice eggs.
Liu Chengzong used a grate to grate him several times, but the grate was always not clean, and he was afraid of infecting others, so he finally shaved his head.
Generally, children in the Ming Dynasty would shave their surroundings and leave a small braid or braid on their head. When they grow up, they would tie up their hair, or they could shave it off directly.
The fort was full of military men, and no one was that particular. Later, when I saw that Shiliu's hair had grown, someone would naturally shave his head.
"Brother Lion, you are so strong. With such a big lock, how much does it weigh? One hundred kilograms?"
Liu Chengzong, who was wearing a coat on the cool bed, folded his arms and said with a smile: "It's only seventy kilograms. I used to play with it a lot, but now I don't want to play. I just put it outside to stay at home."
"What is a town house?"
"Just to scare ghosts."
The little bald man looked envious: "It's amazing. I can play with a seventy-pound stone lock anytime. I can't even lift a three-and-a-half-pound knife, so I can only drag it away."
It is normal for a knife weighing three and a half kilograms to be swung with difficulty. Although it is light, the center of gravity of the knife is forward. When Liu Chengzong first learned the knife, it felt heavy.
"It will be fine in the future. When you grow to be as tall as me, you can play around." Liu Chengzong asked, "Why are you here?"
"Oh, Uncle Tian asked me to bring you beans. He and Team Cao were playing leaf cards in the barracks, sold the mirror, and asked me to bring beans."
These words made Liu Chengzong frown, why is Tian Shoujing the uncle and I am the lion brother?
As he said that, the little bald man put a bag on the table and said, "I'll cook it and grind up the grass."
Liu Chengzong saw that there were a lot of beans in the bag and said happily: "This old thief really has food in his hand. Let's cook it. When it's cooked, you can eat some before going back. There will be wild goose soup to drink tomorrow."
Cao Guan team's name is Cao Yao. He is also a veteran of He Renlong family and is a veteran in his thirties.
His hometown is in Henan. When he was young, he was transferred to Baoding to serve as a soldier. With good ability and good luck, he joined the Beijing Army Firearms Camp.
As a result, he caught up with the battle of Saarhu and was sent to aid the Liao Dynasty. He belonged to the Wang Propaganda Department. He met the Jurchens and was defeated by Nurhaci.
The defeated army fled all the way south. Cao Yao originally wanted to flee back to his hometown in Henan with the defeated army, but he was beaten for a while by the governor Zhang Wo in Henan. He was unable to enter Tongguan and did not dare to return to the army. He had to flee to Shanxi and Luocao, Shaanxi.
Many of the bandits in Shaanxi today are veterans from the defeat of the Saar Hu. They have weapons in their hands but no serious status, and they are engaged in the business of occupying mountains and robberies.
Cao Yao couldn't run away in Shanxi. He worked as a thief for a while, and he and a dozen of his brothers were recruited as frontier troops in Datong. Who would have thought that he would be sent to aid Liao again in the year of Tianqi. This time he didn't want to say anything.
After running to the battlefield and starving, he became a deserter and crossed the Yellow River westward to northern Shaanxi.
There was also a period of time in northern Shaanxi where people gathered in the mountains and forests. Later, he was recruited by He Renlong and given a team of fifty people, and he did a good job.
They were all very familiar with each other. Liu Chengzong even learned wrestling from Cao Yao for a while, but he was not good at it and just threw it for fun.
While Xiao Liu was cooking beans, Liu Chengzong saw that the bowl was empty, so he went to the vat to scoop out a bowl of water and continued to drink.
Nowadays, the soldiers on night duty in Baozi do not have enough food to eat, they are slack at work, and the sound of patrolling the streets is also low.
He was afraid that he would not be able to hear when he was fast asleep and would delay getting up at night to feed Hongqi, so he drank more water before going to bed.
A hungry man and a hungry horse have to get up and feed them three times a night.
Some time ago, Liu Chengzong fed Hongqi twice one night and didn't get up until midnight. The animal picked up the rope with his mouth, opened the stable door valve, went out and bit off an arrow at the garrison, and returned with a bloated belly.
Six months pregnant.
At that time, the veterans in the hospital were extremely happy, and they were all eagerly counting the red flags when they would die.
No one cares about the regulations regarding the burial of war horses made in the Wanli Year.
At least in the Yuhe Fort frontier army in disaster years, the superiority of cavalry lies here. When the war horse dies for some reason, everyone can have a meal of stewed horse meat.
If there are special talents who have mastered cooking skills, such as Cao Yao, who served as a soldier in Baoding Prefecture in his early years, he can also make delicious horse meat.
Later, Hongqi didn't let everyone get what they wanted, so he stomped the arrow and digested it.
After that, Liu Chengzong didn't dare to let it eat too much. He fed it three times during the day and three times at night. He locked the stable with a gourd lock at night to save it from coming out on its own.
Sixteen, a little bald man, was not very old and was very efficient at work. After a while, he came back with his hands clapped and said: "Brother Lion, I have cooked the beans, chopped the horse grass, sprinkled with salt, and made the ingredients directly at night."
That’s it, I’ll turn off the fire and leave later.”
After that, the little bald man squatted in the corner with his hands folded, and raised his hands toward the doghouse. It looked like he was doing the thirty-two movements of the boxing sutra, but he was not energetic.
Liu Chengzong smiled and said: "Who did you learn boxing from?"
"Hey, I learned it from watching the guards."
"What kind of boxing do you, a little monk, need to learn? All of us soldiers have armor. You can't kill someone with just a pair of fists for a long time. It's very cruel."
"Then what to study?"
"One courage, two strength, three kung fu. Don't rush to learn. Eat more, sleep more, run more and jump more. After two years, practice with stone locks to strengthen your strength, and then learn things when your body and bones are smooth."
Liu Chengzong thought for a while and said: "When the time comes, go to the old thief Cao and ask him to teach you how to throw. If you catch someone and say "Amitabha", throw them to the ground. The heavier they are, the harder they will fall. If you just overtake them, isn't it more interesting than this punch or that punch?
"
Little Sixteen didn't say anything for a long time. He reached out and wanted to throw Little Zuanfeng on the edge of the doghouse, but he didn't dare. He just grinned stupidly.
After a long pause, he raised his head again and asked seriously: "Brother Lion, I heard that Brother Gao said that the general will come back tomorrow. After paying the military salary, he will buy my aunt back. When the general comes back...will we have something to eat?"
"
The smile on Liu Chengzong's face froze, and he laughed twice after a while. He raised his finger and pointed outside and said: "I don't know, but you have something to eat now. The beans are ripe, go get some to eat."