"It's very possible. Li Hui, what you said is very possible. This group of people may indeed be soldiers and horses gathered by the refugees. The refugees went south and gathered here, and there are no officials to manage it. They will naturally gather into groups in order to gain a foothold.
"Haha, Li Hui, what you said this time makes some sense. It must be so." Lu Zhan said loudly.
Li Hui's heart was already in a mess. If this guess is correct, then Juchao County is more than just a dragon's pond and a tiger's den.
In the small Juchao County, there are lake bandits, refugees, homeless militia and horses, and there may even be self-protection troops from local wealthy families. It’s really lively now. Isn’t this a mess?
"Magistrate Lu, if you think so, I'm afraid we won't be able to enter Juchao County. They have already issued a warning. If we enter the city with such a meager manpower, we may be a sheep entering the tiger's mouth." Li Hui said solemnly.
road.
"No, no, no, that's wrong. This time we have to enter the city even more. If there are stray soldiers and horses, we have to enter the city even more. I want to subdue them and use them for my own use. Aren't you worried that we don't have soldiers and horses?
"Why don't you use the troops and horses that came to your door?" Lu Zhan said loudly.
Li Hui was stunned and frowned: "I'm sorry that I'm stupid and don't understand what you mean. How can Magistrate Lu be sure to say such a thing? How do we know they will be used by us?"
Lu Zhan said solemnly: "You are really stupid. If they are not gangsters, but just homeless militiamen, how dare they confront the imperial court? I am an official of the imperial court, how dare they disobey the orders given by the imperial court? Don't wait until they come to threaten you.
On my part, it was just a cowardly act. If they were really not afraid, as you said, why didn't they just kill us? Just because they didn't dare, they made a dead pig's head to scare us. This would have the opposite effect
It exposed their harsh and cowardly mentality."
Li Hui stared blankly at Lu Zhan, and his understanding of Lu Zhan rose to a new level. Being able to draw such a conclusion from this perspective was something Li Hui never expected. Li Hui wanted to look at Lu Zhan's face.
He spat and called him a fool. However, he still restrained his impulse.
"Magistrate Lu, do you really think so? Are you kidding me? This is a matter of life and death." Li Hui said in a deep voice.
He hoped that Lu Zhan was just arrogant and stupid, but that he was not really ignorant of the danger before him, and that he was risking his own life.
Lu Zhan was angry, thinking that Li Hui was questioning his wisdom.
"This county will let you see how I subdued these wandering militiamen. Li Hui, if I had known you were so incompetent and timid, I should not have let you be the county magistrate. You have been as cowardly as a mouse along the way, which is shocking.
Disdainful. It has disgraced the face of my Jiangnan family. The Gu family are all people who are as cowardly as a man and can make a success of themselves. This time I will teach you how to use the methods of the Lu family in Wu County. I will teach you who is the No. 1 in Jiangnan.
A wealthy family. Get in the car and enter the city."
After Lu Zhan said this, he turned around and walked towards the mule cart to get on.
Li Hui said loudly: "Magistrate Lu, please don't forget what Mr. Lu told you before leaving. He warned you that I must be careful and act within our capabilities. We must know how to advance and retreat, and stop when enough is enough. In this situation, you
If you want to forcefully enter the city, wouldn't it be a violation of Mr. Lu's instructions?"
Lu Zhan turned around and shouted: "Don't use my grandson's words to pressure me. This time I not only want to show it to the world, but also to show it to my grandson. Let him know that among the children of my Lu family,
Who is the most capable? Let him understand that his previous views on me were all wrong. Get in the car."
After speaking, Lu Zhan bent down and got into the carriage, loudly giving the order to set off.
Li Hui stood there, unable to say a word. He suddenly seemed to understand something. What he had always been confused about before was why the Lu family wanted to let their own children come to take risks instead of finding someone like him like the Gu family.
Identity person comes to die.
It is said that Lu Zhan got the permission only after insisting on his request and stalking him. But now it seems that this may be what the head of the Lu family, Lu Na, and the rest of the Lu family want to do.
This Lu Zhan is arrogant and extremely stupid. The Lu family is probably disgusted with him. Since he is willing to take risks, why not follow his wishes. If he succeeds, it is the glory of the Lu family. If he fails, the Lu family will also be disappointed.
It's just a loss of a fool.
Of course, this is just Li Hui's current speculation, and this may not be the case. But the problem now is that he will be forced to follow him into the city to take risks, because if he doesn't leave, he has no way out.
It was late afternoon, with the pale and feeble sunlight shining overhead, and amidst the biting cold wind, a group of four carts arrived in front of the east gate of Juchao County.
The city gate is dilapidated, and the suspension bridge is swaying in the wind. The walls on both sides are mottled and covered with withered yellow vines. However, the whole city is still intact, and the tower above the city gate is also relatively intact.
"The new Juchao County Magistrate has come to take office. Open the city gate immediately." The guardian shouted towards the city.
Several figures on the top of the city shook for a moment. Soon after, the suspension bridge was lowered and landed with a roar. The city gate was pushed open, revealing a dark hole in the city gate. It looked like the mouth of a monster.
Lu Zhan was not afraid and ordered the vehicles to go up the suspension bridge and enter the city. Everyone walked through the dark city gate. When the light became bright again, they were already in Juchao County.
As soon as I entered the city gate, I was shocked by the scene in front of me. However, I saw that the small square inside the east city gate was filled with black huts and huts. The scene was in a mess, and the ground was full of garbage and mud. There was a disgusting smell in the air.
The smell is so noisy and suffocating.
When the vehicles drove in, as if by magic, many heads popped out of all the shacks. Then, these people got out of the shacks one after another and stood there staring blankly at the vehicles of Lu Zhan and others.
These people were in ragged clothes, with dark and thin faces, and they numbered in the hundreds. They were men, women, old and young, some had gray hair and were wearing crutches, some were just young children, their faces were red from the cold, and their noses were running.
It was still a swaddled baby held by a woman. Everyone stood silently in the cold wind and stared blankly at the large cars entering the city, their eyes numb and dull, without any vitality.
Li Hui immediately understood that these should be the refugees who fled to Juchao County from the north. They had no way to go south and could not survive in the wilderness, so they concentrated in Juchao County. Looking at it like this, this square
It's a refugee camp.
Judging from the condition of these refugees, they are probably in a state of hunger and cold. There was a light snowfall in the Jianghuai area some time ago, and now it is the twelfth lunar month, a time of severe cold. They are hiding in such huts
, how can you survive this?
I saw some refugees in Liyang City, but their situation was much better than that of the refugees here. At least there were temples offering porridge, and I heard they also had places to stay. The situation of the refugees here was much more miserable.
When Li Hui was thinking about these things, he suddenly heard someone shouting loudly. "Common people, this is the new magistrate of Juchao County, coming to provide relief to everyone. Aren't you hungry and cold? Are you still there?" Why don't you go to the county magistrate to get food and clothing? There won't be anything left if it's too late."
This loud shout was like a hornet's nest, and hundreds of refugees suddenly woke up from a dream. They thawed out of their torpor, shouted and rushed towards the convoy.
"Give us something to eat, the old and the children are going to starve to death."
"Please, Lord County Lord, be merciful. We are all going to freeze to death and starve to death."
"Thank God, the court finally came to rescue us."
The crowd swarmed in, like a group of hungry zombies. Lu Zhan was dumbfounded, waved his hands and said loudly: "There is no relief, there is nothing for you. Don't get close, don't get close."
The people didn't listen to him and rushed over to surround the cart. Some people had already reached out and started to pull things on the cart.
"What are you doing standing still to stop them? Anyone who dares to steal anything will be beaten hard by me." Lu Zhan shouted angrily.
Several nursing staff yelled loudly and raised sticks to beat the arms that were being pulled around on the car, causing them to moan loudly. Even so, the crowd was still frantically grabbing things on the car and refused to step back.
"Magistrate Dog refused to help the people and beat them. Drag him out." Someone yelled loudly.
The refugees didn't think much after hearing this. Two people rushed to Lu Zhan's mule cart. One reached out and opened the door of the mule cart. The other even reached out and grabbed Lu Zhan's arm and pulled it out.
Lu Zhan screamed in fright, raised his foot and kicked out the refugee who leaned in, and started yelling and cursing.
The scene became extremely chaotic in an instant.
When Li Hui saw this, he knew that he could not stay here for a long time, otherwise not only would everything in the car be robbed, but people would also be beaten to death by this gang of refugees.
"Rush over quickly, don't stop." Li Hui yelled.
Zhao Dachun raised his whip and whipped the green mule pulling the cart hard on the buttocks. The green mule grinned and pulled the cart forward. The refugees gathered on both sides of the convoy. There were not many people in front. When they saw the mule cart approaching, they all gave way. Li Hui's mule cart rushed out of the crowd.
The drivers of Lu Zhan's three carts behind heard Li Hui's roar and immediately whipped their mules away. The three mule carts rushed out behind Li Hui's mule cart.
A dozen refugees originally held on to the ropes on the cart and refused to let go, but the mule cart was moving very fast and the group of people were too hungry to have any strength, so they had to let go. A bunch of people fell to the ground and turned into a mess. Ground gourd.
The mule cart ran very fast, and after a moment it got rid of the crowd of refugees. Li Hui turned around to look at the past, and there were still unwilling refugees staggering behind the cart to catch up. But they obviously couldn't catch up. .
"Hahaha." Harsh laughter came. During the bumps, Li Hui saw a group of people standing on the wall behind him laughing. One of them, a tall man in armor, stood above the city gate. At the crenel, he laughed loudest and proudest.