157. Bandit Emperor (3) (1/2)

157. Bandit Emperor (3) (1/2)

Wei Mingyan not only bought good wine and food this time, but also the roasted whole lamb and roasted suckling pig.

In today's world, rich people are still the same as before, and they even live a more luxurious life than before because of rising prices due to the war.

It's different for the poor.

Nowadays, ninety-nine out of one hundred ordinary people cannot afford meat, let alone make new clothes.

In this day and age, men are everything in the family. Because of the military conscription, it is okay if there are several men in the family. But if there is only one and loses the mainstay, then the wife who stays at home will have a difficult life.

If there are more children, it is common for them to be hungry when they are older than the child. A half-grown child will be poor, but in this era, no matter how old a child is, he can live in poverty.

There are no children on this mountain, only a group of bandits who have not had any income for more than two years, especially since each of them is tall and strong, and each of them can eat.

On the rack of roasted lamb, dozens of men wanted to rush up to it with saliva dripping from their mouths.

By the time the wine was poured into the bowls, these people's eyes were almost glowing green.

Wei Mingyan sat there, looking at their hungry eyes as they swallowed hard, but they didn't dare to go up to eat without orders. He looked at Mo Da next to him strangely, "How did you get into such a mess? You are still taking advantage of it after all." It’s a mountain.”

"Look at the bandits in Pingwagang, their lives are much better than yours. The people outside have reported that you are all cannibals, and in the end you can't even eat meat."

Mo Da was also greedy and drooled, but his eyes immediately widened when he heard his words, "Who spread bad words about us? We are also villagers who are responsible for our duties. If we didn't have a place to live, no one would want to be a bandit." ah."

Maybe it was the smell of meat that was stimulating here, or maybe it was the aroma of the wine that made Mo Da a little excited. As he spoke, his eyes turned red, "When the village recruited soldiers, the superiors forcibly increased the number of soldiers in order to get more silver coins." Most of them, originally only one male per household was used, and the rest could be left to support the family. But because of this, no matter whether they were seventy, eighty or fourteen years old, every male in every household was arrested. go out."

Wei Mingyan understood it as soon as he heard it.

They were probably talking about the first year of conscription. At that time, the emperor did not want to pay a penny. The old ministers who were not dead at that time knelt down in the hall and prayed, saying that at least they should leave a way for the people to survive.

The emperor was impatient and had to order money to be allocated from the treasury, so that the man's family would get the money.

The money is usually not much at all, but when accumulated together, it becomes a large amount of money.

At that time, many corrupt officials would withhold the money, and those with some conscience would give some of it to the people, while those without conscience would withhold it all, and Mo Da said it was the kind that had a bad heart.

In order to get more money, the original population of 100 is reduced to 200. What if one person per family is not enough? Then catch them all.

This incident caused the death of many families, especially many old men in their 60s and 70s who had to be taken away, and most of them died on the road alone.

The veteran minister at that time knew about this and petitioned the emperor to investigate thoroughly, but was slapped in the face by the memorial.

The king he assisted said nonchalantly, "It was Shangshu who insisted on compensating the people. Now that something happened, isn't it all because of you, Shangshu?"

That night, the old minister who wanted to help the king protect the country died out of anger. Just after his death, his son who was still in the court was found an excuse to humiliate him. The old minister's son was just like his father. He was also very strong-willed and refused to bow his head at all.

The next day, he was trampled to death by a crazy horse on the street.

From that time on, the old ministers who were once the late emperor's confidants and who had devoted themselves to defending the country either resigned from their posts to bring disaster, or died mysteriously in various unimaginable ways. Now, there is no good official in the court.

"Our village was originally the largest village nearby, but because of this incident, almost all the men in the village were brought out except for the baby."

"At that time, almost all the old people in the village were dead before we reached the boundary, and then the younger ones also left. Later, the government officials who escorted us actually wanted to select some good-looking young people to sell. Their elders resisted and were beaten to death. , that young man strangled the two government officials to death that night."

Everyone gathered around the fire, eating meat and drinking wine. They should be in a good mood, but except for the crackling sound of sparks, no one spoke.

Even Hou Er, who has always been relatively out-of-the-box, listened to Mo Da's words in silence, "The yamen officer died. Regardless of whether we did it or not, it is a capital crime. The young man committed suicide after killing someone. We brothers We discussed going back to pick up the family, even if they were on the run, it would be better than leaving them at home without a man to suffer. "

Wei Mingyan glanced at the silent people around him. Hou Er raised his neck and took a sip of wine. Under the firelight, his eyes were already red.

He said firmly, "You didn't receive anyone."

"right."

Mo Da said in a hoarse voice, "We found out after we went back that a group of robbers came to the village just after we left that night."

"There are no men in the village, the women have no strength, and the children can only cry. The robbers took away all the property and killed all the adults."

Wei Mingyan also fell silent. Each of these men seemed to be thirty years old. Seven years ago, at this age, it was impossible not to have a family.

"I'm lucky. The mother-in-law in my family got sick and passed away just after giving birth to her daughter. She didn't suffer this hardship. But among us brothers, none of us have a wife at home..."

Mo Da's voice was trembling, "When I went back, there was the smell of blood everywhere, and people were lying on the ground. The government didn't care about collecting the bodies at all. We could only identify the people one by one. Because they were deserters, even the burials could only be done quietly. ”

"Those adults had been dead for many days at that time. The corpse poison was present. A few days after we buried them, people started to die one after another. In the end, we were the only ones left."

No one drank or ate meat anymore, and there was a sad atmosphere in the air. Wei Mingyan even heard someone sobbing quietly.

"Where's the child?"

He suddenly asked, "Those adults were killed, what about the children?"

This time it was Hou Er who spoke. He shook his head and said hoarsely, "No one knows. None of the adults are left behind. The children are dead and alive but their bodies are not seen. The older teenagers are all with us. All the ones left behind are... It’s under eight years old.”

"I originally...had a pair of twins, a boy and a girl."

He took a sip of wine with red eyes, and the redness in his eyes was just due to the drunkenness, "My sister's name is Ya'er, my brother's name has not yet been given, and he died on the ground."

"Her mother didn't have enough to eat. Ya'er didn't cry when she was hungry. She slept obediently. The two of us finally treated her as a baby and raised her up a little. When I left, she was only seven years old. I still I thought it would be nice if I could make some money while serving as a soldier so that I could make a dowry for my daughter when I come back.”

"But wait until I go back..."

Hou Er held the bowl filled with wine and shook it even more violently. "Her mother was hacked to death with a knife in the chest. When I went there, she was face down with maggots..."

Wei Mingyan's eyes moved, and he turned his head to look at Hou Er, who was trying to hold back his tears, "You said, a stab in the chest?"

Hou Er nodded, unable to say a word. He drank the wine in the bowl and hung his head to hide his tears.

"Seven years ago, when the military was first drafted, knives like the ones we wear now were not seen by the public at all."

Mo Da was hiding his tears when he suddenly heard this sentence and suddenly raised his head and looked at him, "What do you mean?"

"Seven years ago, the Jin State had not yet opened up the channel with the Xiongnu. Even the robbers did not have knives to use. Most of them used bamboo sticks. If they were really robbers wearing knives, they could loot anything. What good is it to them if they don’t have a village?”

"What's more, even if there are no men in the village, there are still a lot of women left, plus some children who are already sensible. If robbers enter the village and there is chaos, one or two of them will escape."

Wei Mingyan knocked on the wine jar in front of him, "How come all the adults were killed and not a single child was left."

"Unless they were completely unprepared, it could even be said that they stood in one place cooperatively, allowing those people to be killed one by one smoothly."

Mo Da's expression was already confused, "Brother, what do you mean? Although the people in our village are timid and fearful, there is no way they can stand and be killed."

"What's more, there are children... Even if they can't run away themselves, they will try their best to let the children escape."

"It's because those people lied to them."

Hou Er slowly raised his head, his eyes as red as an evil ghost. He looked at Wei Mingyan and said word by word, "It's the government."

"Only the government can make these children fearful and obedient."

"Only the government can carry swords and make the people in the village stand in one place obediently."

Wei Mingyan looked at him and said nothing.

Mo Da looked at his brother in panic, "Hou Er, what are you talking about? Why did the government want to kill people in our village? No, aren't they talking about robbers?"

"Brother!"

Hou Er suddenly turned his head to look at him, "You still don't want to believe it?"

"So many people have been reported in our village, and not a penny of the money will be given to us."

"We are cowards, we are timid, and we don't think about what to do to these officials, but what about them? Do they think so too?"

"Take away all the men in the village, leaving only the helpless women and children."

Hou Er's voice was almost squeezed out from between his teeth. He said, "After we left, people from the government came. The officers and soldiers brought swords. Maybe they told our relatives that they would give them the money to recruit soldiers. Let them bring their children to receive the money."

"Of course they didn't dare not listen to what the government said, and they thought they were really rich, so they led the children and stood together, waiting to get our money from selling themselves."

"Then……"

"do not talk!!!"

Mo Da trembled all over and stood up with red eyes, "Why did they do this? We didn't want to tell this matter, we didn't want to report it..."

"Because of the kids."

Wei Mingyan also stood up and looked at him quietly, "At that time, there were wars and chaos everywhere, and people were scarce. What was lacking was not workers, but slaves."

"These kids are a lot of money no matter what they're used for."

"They took you men away, killed the women who were adults and would reveal these two things, and took away the children who didn't understand anything and wouldn't dare to say anything as long as they were raised a little. Killing three birds with one stone." ,Good deal."

Mo Da almost collapsed, "No, no, we, we have always been obedient..."

"We followed the officers and soldiers obediently and asked our children to wait at home. Even though we knew we would not be able to come back, we did not dare to resist..."

"We can't kill those two officers and soldiers..."

"Brother, don't you understand yet?"

Hou Er also stood up, looked at him with a pair of blood-red eyes, and knocked the wine jar on the table to the ground.

"They don't want us to live!!!"

"It doesn't matter whether we are obedient or not, whether we have done something wrong!! If they don't want us to live, we can't live!!!"

"It's the emperor!! He won't let us live at all!!"

"We are acting like cows and horses!! We are obedient!! It is useless!!"

Wei Mingyan threw the wine in his hand: "Rebel!"

"If he doesn't let us live, then we won't let him live either!"

The author has something to say: The first ten little angels give out red envelopes, good night everyone