The frontier troops from Yuhebao hurriedly found a village in the wasteland to settle down before dusk. The village was formerly called Guoshanmao.
Mao is a loess hill with a gentle top and steep slope in the northwest. The village is built next to the mountain. There are many cave dwellings along the steep mountain wall, and there are more residential courtyards. In the past, it was a large village with hundreds of households.
.
There were still a few families here last spring. When Liu Chengzong went out to recruit troops, he saw Guoshanmao's sheepherders singing folk songs on the road.
The scenes of past years are still vivid in my mind, but this year only the collapsed and dilapidated courtyards and cave dwellings with yellow adobe covering their doors and windows are left.
Adding a bit of desolation.
The nearly 200 border troops released by He Renlong from Yuhe Fort were divided into three groups at the mouth of the river. One group led the troops northeast to bypass Yulin City and go to Baodou County. Their destination was Shenmu County and Fugu County.
Going to Qingyang Prefecture, the team from Pingliang Prefecture also said goodbye to them by the river. They carried their shoes and barefooted the Wuding River, which was more than a foot deep, to the west bank. They were going to Hengshan.
In the end, only two teams, Liu Chengzu and Cao Yao, went south, with a total of fifty people.
Tian Shoujing, the commander-in-chief, led his troops to cut firewood, while his brother Liu Chengzu had already climbed up the slope of the mountain wall when he first arrived at Guoshanmao to get a better view of the terrain.
The faces of those who were familiar with each other were filled with worries about their uncertain future, but Cao Yao's team were quite at ease. They chopped down a dead tree and used it as a door slammer to rush around the village, breaking open the soil that sealed the cave dwellings when the people fled.
Look everywhere for something useful.
It was said that they were drawn by lots, but Liu Chengzong felt that there was something wrong with the soldiers released by He Renlong.
Liu Chengzu's team was recruited from the refugees last year. This year, there was insufficient food and supplies. Their training was not adequate and their skills were limited. Judging from the ability of the old frontier army, the only thing they could show was their formation.
So twenty people were released.
As for Cao Yao's team, they are all over 30 years old and have top-notch military skills. Many of them are veterans who participated in the Battle of Saarhu. However, they have all been thieves for several years and are difficult to manage.
The old thief Cao Guandu was even happier. He ordered his men to split the door panel and set up a bonfire. He was hugging his wife to show off the bronze mirror he bought with three handfuls of beans. He didn't know what was roasting on the fire. When he saw Liu Chengzong
Walk around the village and say hello.
"Lion, lion! I see you have been wandering around the village for a long time. What are you looking for?"
"I didn't find anything. I took Xiao Zhuanfeng for a walk in the fields outside the village, but I didn't see any living things." Liu Chengzong walked over and shook his head and said, "I want to see if there is anything in the village... Guan Cao, have I walked around twice?"
You’ve met your senior high school brother, have you met him?”
Shi Chang Gao Xian was the third eldest son in the family, so they all called him Gao Laosan.
Cao Yao chuckled and waved his hand: "Hey, what are you looking for? Don't worry about Lao Gao. He went to Qiyan Kiln over the mountain to find his aunt. It's probably night by then. He won't be back until dawn, and he's still looking for me.
I borrowed three measures of grain and said I would buy it back from my mother-in-law."
"I gave him advice but he didn't listen. If he asked me to just take two people over and kidnap my mother-in-law back, he would have to sleep for a year in vain like a son of a bitch. In the end, I would have to give him food..."
Needless to say, among the two groups, Cao Yao was definitely the big one. He packed two mules with his luggage after leaving Yuhe Fort, and also had some things for his soldiers to carry on their backs.
This may be the reason why Cao Yao's group of soldiers felt very comfortable. They knew that they would starve to death, and if they couldn't, they would eat these two mules for a few days.
"Then you lent him food?"
"You can borrow it or not, I gave it to him. He said that the family was trying to help him out, bam!" Cao Yao spat into the fire: "He was trying to help out his life, why did his mother have such a good thing? Why didn't he ask me for help?
.”
Cao Yao laughed obscenely, and then yelled "ouch", but Cao's sister-in-law twisted his waist hard: "You are such a good Cao Liu'er, I still ask you for help, how shameless!
"
Sister-in-law Cao looks ten years younger than Lao Cao. She is a beauty with an oval face. She has followed Cao Yao since he defected to He Renlong and has been living outside Yuhe Fort. She is also a woman with great kung fu skills.
"Hey, I'm just going to talk about it. If I want to know this, he doesn't have to give away his mother-in-law... Look, lion." Seeing his wife getting angry, Cao Yao smiled and put aside the topic, raising his fingers to point at the few things on the fire.
A piece of meat and said: "Does it look familiar?"
The smell of meat was already coming out. Before Liu Chengzong could speak, Sister-in-law Cao smiled and said, "Stop playing tricks on the lion. This is the goose that others hunt."
After saying that, she raised her eyes and said to Liu Chengzong: "You also know your brother, he is used to being a bastard. Seeing that he won the short lottery, he felt unhappy. When he was about to leave the castle, he ordered someone to find He Yong to ask for Yanzi."
"I'm going to get one." Cao Yao said, picking up a wooden stick and checking the heat, then handed it to Liu Chengzong and said: "I'm going to roast the goose leg for you, give that one to your brother, and share the rest later."
Brothers make soup."
Liu Chengzong didn't react at all. He stared at the willow stick stretched out by Cao Yao: "Want one?"
"It's a good idea to leave one of the geese you hunted for them. Whether we see them in the future or not is another matter. Let's eat first."
Thinking about it, although Liu Chengzong felt that he couldn't do this, Cao Yao wanted to come back with a goose. The goose legs were roasted and fragrant, which was really good, so he sat down to eat.
Seeing him sit down, Sister-in-law Cao stood up and patted the loose soil on her old cotton-padded jacket. She smiled at him and said, "You two brothers are chatting about business while I go into the house to burn the kang. I won't be able to sleep at night unless I clean it up."
The person walked step by step into the cave and disappeared. Cao Yao turned his twisted neck back. His big face with a scar on his forehead still had a crazy smile like a man in a dream. After he came back to his senses, he shook his head and sighed: "Your sister-in-law is a
Good woman!”
It was useless for Cao Yao to tell Liu Chengzong. He didn't have a wife and didn't understand these things. He just nodded and asked with a gossipy mind: "Brother Cao, how long have you been with your sister-in-law?"
"How long have you been with me?"
Hearing the question, Cao Yao stretched out his hand to Liu Chengzong to hold the goose leg and paused. He leaned back, closed his eyes and thought: "Yes, it has been ten years. The year of the Salhu War, well...it has been ten years."
Already."
"Ten years?" Liu Chengzong paused, widened his eyes in surprise, handed the wild goose leg over and blurted out: "I think my sister-in-law is only twenty!"
"Yes, she was eleven when I was there. Without Saar Hu, I, Cao Liu'er, would not have been able to find such a good woman in my life." Cao Yao took the wild goose leg and took a bite, making his mouth full of oil: "
fragrant!"
"Tell you about it?" The wild goose leg was handed back. Cao Yao used a wooden stick to tease the bonfire, his eyes were filled with fire, and his speech slowed down: "In the war that year, the army was defeated and the general and I escaped.
Consider him a soldier.
When we were about to enter the pass, the general ordered Xiong Tingbi to kill him. I led nineteen brothers to kowtow to heaven and earth, agreeing to live and die together, and fled into the pass.
It was snowing heavily in Guangping Prefecture, and I didn’t dare to go to the county or city. I wanted to find a village to buy some food... Don’t look at me like that, I was only your age at that time, and I wasn’t a bastard enough. I just wanted to go back to Henan alive and put on my boots.
It doesn't matter if you sell it.
When the village was found, it was completely robbed. The defeated army that got there first was not as safe as I was, and all the men were killed, leaving only the women to cook.
We are all very hungry."
Cao Yao took a deep breath and spoke in a very smooth tone: "There was still food in the village, so we drew our knives on that group of people, and many people were killed in the fight.
I thought she was really pretty and fair, and I really didn’t know what to say, so I just said I’d take her home. She took me home. It’s a rich and nice home. I still remember the courtyard in Sanjin, with the screen wall and tiles holding up the snow. It was really beautiful.
pretty!
The wing was burning, and everyone in the front yard and six backyards were dead. I helped her carry her father and mother out and bury them, and I got a huge advantage... We paid homage at the grave.
Everyone said I was stupid, but I was not stupid. How could I keep such a good mother-in-law if I didn’t fool around? After kowtowing, I made up my mind that even if I went back to my hometown in Henan, I would still have to fall asleep. I would no longer be able to cultivate land for others in this life.
Sooner or later, my wife will have to belong to someone else.
Later, when I went to rob the road, she was the wife of a thief; when I went up the mountain to be a thief, she became the wife of the village leader; when I worked as a team leader, she became the wife of the team leader.
She's just like me, no, she's my brother!"
Cao Yao smiled and turned his head and said very seriously: "If I had just kept to myself, I don't know how many times I would have died."
After that, he took a deep breath again, his face calmed down by memories, and he stretched out his hand to pull between the two of them: "Brother, let's talk about something serious?"