Four hundred and twentieth IX door-to-door provocation
Liu Xiu helped two middle-aged villagers up and said, "You two don't need to be polite, please get up quickly!"
A middle-aged villager asked cautiously: "Wu Xinhou came to Yangcun so late, but there is something wrong?"
Liu Xiu said: "We were passing by Yang Village and found that it was freezing cold. Many of the soldiers suffered from frostbite. We wanted to buy some clothes in Yang Village."
The two villagers showed expressions of sudden realization. Liu Xiu asked: "Is there anything special about Yang Village?"
"Yes, yes, yes!" The two villagers nodded repeatedly.
Liu Xiu smiled and said, "I wonder if I could trouble you two to take me to the elder's house."
"What's so difficult about this? I'm willing to take Marquis Wu Xin to find the chief!"
A hundred households make up one li, and ten li make up one pavilion. Some large villages have a li chief, while some small villages only have a shizhang or a wu chief. (Ten households are a shin, and five households are a wu.)
The villager followed Liu Xiu out of the thatched hut. When he got outside, he looked up and was shocked. It turned out that Liu Xiu was not just bringing a few followers, but many soldiers.
Looking around, it was completely dark, and it was clear how many people there were.
After looking at it, the villagers couldn't help but swallowed their saliva and asked in a low voice: "What is Marquis Wu Xin?"
"Just take me to see the chief."
"Yes! I obey!" The villagers did not dare to ask any more questions and walked towards the village. Liu Xiu and others followed him. After a short time, the villagers stopped in front of a house in the center of the village. He was respectful.
He said quietly: "Marquis Wu Xin, this is the chief's family."
Liu Xiu thanked him, walked to the door, and patted it gently. At this time, he could have ordered the soldiers to break the door open and force his way in, but he did not do so, and kept patting it patiently.
door.
The villagers looked on and nodded secretly. They all said that Liu Xiu was a humble gentleman with high moral standards. It was indeed true after seeing him today. It took Liu Xiu a full stick of incense to call the door, but finally there was movement at the courtyard gate.
"Who is it?" Dissatisfied questions came from the courtyard.
"Liu Xiu, please ask Yang Li to open the door." On the way, Liu Xiu already learned from the villagers that the Li Chang's surname was Yang. To be precise, most of the villagers in Yang Village had the surname Yang.
"Liu Xiu?" Then there was a creak, the door opened, and a middle-aged man about forty years old walked out.
Seeing so many people standing outside, most of them wearing helmets and robes, the middle-aged man shivered with fright and couldn't help but take two steps back.
Liu Xiu cupped his hands and said, "Your Excellency must be Yang Lichang. I am Liu Xiu!"
This middle-aged man is Yang Jie, the head of Yang Village.
He just heard that the person outside the door called himself Liu Xiu. He thought it was someone from the village joking with him. Unexpectedly, the person who came outside turned out to be Liu Xiu. He froze on the spot and did not react for a while.
The villager who led the way had a good relationship with Yang Jie. He quickly stepped forward, pulled his sleeve, and reminded him in a low voice: "Chief, this is Marquis Wu Xin, please come and see me!"
Yang Jie turned around and glared at him fiercely.
Who is Liu Xiu? Now he is a key criminal with a huge reward from the emperor. Liu Xiu's head is worth one hundred thousand households! But seeing so many soldiers standing behind Liu Xiu, Yang Jie was instantly discouraged.
Even if Liu Xiu's head was worth a million households, that was something he couldn't imagine. He came to his senses, quickly saluted Liu Xiu, and said: "Young man Yang Jie, the head of Yang Village, pays homage to Marquis Wu Xin!"
Liu Xiu smiled calmly, waved his hand and said, "You don't have to be polite, Mr. Yang. Can we...can we go into the room to talk?"
"Of course... Marquis Wu Xin, please come in, please come in!" Yang Jie wiped the sweat from his forehead, turned sideways, and let Liu Xiu and others into his home.
There was a fire pit in the room, which was very warm. After sitting down, Liu Xiu bluntly stated his intention and asked for clothes. He wanted as many clothes as the adult men in the village had, and he only wanted old ones, not new ones.
After hearing this, Yang Jie looked puzzled and asked suspiciously: "I wonder what the Marquis Wu Xin wants for these old clothes?"
Liu Xiu said with a smile: "This time we are just passing by Yangcun, our goal is Jincheng."
Yang Jie blinked, his body trembled, and he asked in a trembling voice: "Wu Xinhou and his subordinates are going to pretend to be villagers and sneak into the city?"
Liu Xiu said slowly: "Mr. Yang is the head of Yang Village. He only needs to take care of things within a few miles. Mr. Yang should not take care of matters beyond a few miles. If he cares too much, he will easily get burned."
, even if you know too much, you can easily get into trouble, Mr. Yang, what do you think?"
Yang Jie shrank his neck, raised his arms, wiped the sweat on his forehead with his sleeves, and said quickly: "Ignorant...I understand, I thank you, Marquis Wu Xin, for your teaching."
"We still need Mr. Yang's help in collecting used clothes from the villagers. Of course, we will not take the clothes of the people of Yang Village in vain."
As he spoke, Liu Xiu turned to look at Zhu You, who was kneeling behind him. The latter took out a package, opened it, and pushed it in front of Yang Jie.
The latter looked down and saw that the package was full of coins, including several turtle coins, estimated to be as much as two to three thousand coins.
He swallowed, looked at the coins in front of him, and said nothing for a long time. Liu Xiuxiao asked, "Chief Yang, do you think this money is not enough?"
Yang Jie waved his hands quickly and said with an apologetic smile: "Enough, enough, and... and it's too much."
"Let Chang Yang keep the extra money for himself. If Chang Yang is willing to help us, I will naturally not treat him badly. When we conquer Wei City and reward our merits, I will naturally not
It’s missing Yang Li’s share.” Liu Xiu said with a smile.
Yang Jie's eyes suddenly lit up, and he kowtowed forward and said excitedly: "It's my honor for you to do something for Marquis Wu Xin. I have no shirking responsibility and will do your best."
Liu Xiu smiled and said softly: "Then please leave it to Yang Li."
Youli Changchang collects clothes from villagers, which can save you a lot of trouble.
Although Liu Xiu was polite to Yang Jie on the surface, in fact, he was not merciful at all. He immediately ordered his soldiers to blockade the whole village. From then on, the whole village was only allowed to enter and not to leave.
Liu Xiu dared to tell Yang Jie directly about his purpose, so he was naturally sure that the news would not be leaked, let alone spread to Yincheng.
In fact, Liu Xiu's approach was gentle enough. In this troubled world, the most worthless thing is human life, which is like a piece of grass. If it had been anyone else, he probably wouldn't have gone to such trouble and asked the village chief to come forward to collect the clothes.
He immediately ordered that all the villagers be killed and their clothes taken by force.
With the help of the village chief, things went very smoothly. At dawn, it only took half a day for the village chief to collect hundreds of villagers' old clothes.
Liu Xiu asked his soldiers to change into the villagers' clothes, then left more than a hundred soldiers behind and continued to blockade the whole village. He took the rest of the soldiers and went straight to Weicheng.
There was a large forest to the west of the city. Liu Xiu left more than a thousand soldiers who had not changed their villagers' clothes in the woods, and he took hundreds of soldiers who had already disguised themselves and went to the city.
When he was about to reach the gate of Yincheng, Liu Xiu asked his men to take out the sheet that had been prepared and unfold it. On the top of the sheet, there was a big Chinese character "Xuan" written in vermilion.
Hundreds of soldiers headed by Liu Xiu, dressed in the tattered clothes of ordinary villagers, with their faces painted black and white, held high the Xuanzi banner.
People stood in front of the city gate of Jiancheng. Zhu You, Gai Yan, and Wang Ba all raised their voices loudly and shouted into the city: "The world is in chaos, and the Han Dynasty must be in trouble! The emperor has already When he ascended the throne in Chang'an, the villain of the prince was treasonous and unethical. He pretended to be the emperor in Handan, which made people and gods angry, and the law of heaven cannot tolerate it!"
Their shouting frightened the people who were going in and out of the city. Their faces changed drastically and they ran away in all directions, as if they were carrying the plague and had bumped into the god of plague.
Hundreds of villagers openly used the banner of Liu Xuan outside the city and cursed the emperor. The news soon spread to the county government.
When the county magistrate of Jin County heard about this, his face was livid with anger, and he shouted at the government officials present: "Gather all the county officials immediately and drive away all these bold and unruly people!"
Before the officials could leave, a general with a golden helmet strode in from outside.
Seeing the government officials walking out, he said in a deep voice: "Wait a minute!" As he spoke, he walked straight to the county magistrate and asked in a strange tone: "Magistrate Hu, what are you sending these government officials for?" ?”
Seeing this golden-armored general, the county magistrate secretly grinned. This man's name was Zhang Ji, a partial general under Yan Feng's command, and the grain officer in charge of the grain and grass in Jiangcheng.
The county magistrate bowed his hands and saluted, and said with a smile on his face: "General Zhang, there is a group of unruly people outside the city who don't know the heights of the land. I am planning to send people out of the city to disperse them!"
Zhang Ji narrowed his eyes and said faintly: "They openly used the banner of Liu Xuan and not only called His Majesty by his name, but also used filthy words. In the eyes of Magistrate Hu, these people are just a group of unscrupulous people who don't know the heights of heaven and earth." ?”
The county magistrate trembled with fright and stammered: "Xiaguan...Xiaguan..."
"These audacious people are all rebels and should all be executed!"
The county magistrate's body was shaken again, and his face became even more ugly.
If these villagers can come to Yincheng, they must be villagers around Yincheng. Now they have to kill hundreds of them at once. As a county magistrate, do I want to do it again in the future? How many people will poke my spine? ?
He swallowed, grinned, and said with a dry smile: "General Zhang, those...those unruly people outside the city are just a bunch of country bumpkins who don't understand anything. I just need someone to disperse them." …”
Before he could finish his words, Zhang Ji was already holding a sword in his hand, staring at the county magistrate with a sinister look, and asked coldly: "County Magistrate Hu protects these rebels so much, is it possible that Magistrate Hu is in the same group with them?" Do you want to rebel against the imperial court with them?"
When the county magistrate heard this, his legs went weak, and he knelt on the ground with a thud. His body was trembling, and he said in a trembling voice: "I'm wronged by you! General Zhang, I'm wronged by you!"
"Hmph!" Zhang Ji glanced at him, threw off his outer cloak, and said, "Magistrate Hu doesn't need to worry about this anymore, I will handle it on his own!" As a grain officer, he sat in the rear, although it was very relaxed.
, but it can’t achieve any merit.
But now it's better. A group of villagers who don't know whether to live or die come to the door. I cut off their heads and send them to Handan, and they will be rewarded by His Majesty. Thinking of this, Zhang Ji's lips curled up, and he walked out of the county happily.
