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, the rich are still the same as before, and even live a little more luxuriously 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, your life is much better than yours. The people outside have reported that you are all like cannibals. As a result, 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. 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 one hundred is reduced to two hundred. 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 he died, his son who was still in the court was humiliated for a reason. 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. His eyes were already red under the firelight.

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. My wife died of illness right after giving birth to a daughter. She didn't suffer this hardship, but all of us brothers don't have wives at home..."

Mo Da's voice was trembling. "When we went back, there was a smell of blood everywhere, and the ground was full of people. The government didn't care about collecting the bodies. We could only identify them one by one. Because they were deserters, we had to bury them quietly."

"At that time, those adults had been dead for many days. They had corpse poison. We buried them for a few days, and people died one after another. Later, we were the only ones left."

No one drank or ate meat anymore. The air was filled with a sad atmosphere. Wei Mingyan even heard someone sobbing softly.

"Where are the children?"

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

This time it was Hou Er who spoke up. He shook his head and said hoarsely, "No one knows. No adults were left alive, and the children were missing. The older boys were with us, and the ones left behind were all under eight years old."

"I originally... had a pair of twins."

He took a sip of wine with red eyes, and the redness in his eyes was just because of the alcohol. "The elder sister is called Ya'er, and the younger brother died when he was born before he was named."

"Her mother didn't have enough food to eat, and Ya'er didn't cry when she was hungry, and she slept obediently. The two of us were so happy. It's easy to treat her as a treasure and grow up a little bit. When I left, she was only seven years old. I was thinking that it would be great if I could make some money while serving in the army, so that I could give my daughter a dowry when I come back. "

"But when I go back..."

Hou Er was shaking more violently with the bowl full of wine, "Her mother was stabbed to death with a knife, a knife in the chest, when I went there, she was face down, and maggots were all over her..."

Wei Mingyan moved his eyes and tilted his head to look at Hou Er who was trying hard to hold back tears, "You said, a knife in the chest?"

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

"Seven years ago, when the army was just recruited, the swords we are wearing now were not allowed to be seen by the people."

Mo Da was wiping away tears to hide his tears. When he heard this, he suddenly raised his head and looked at him, "What do you mean?"

"Seven years ago, Jin had not yet opened up the passage to the Xiongnu. Even if there were robbers, they had no swords to use. Most of them used bamboo sticks. If they were really robbers with swords, what good would it do them to rob a village with nothing?"

"What's more, even if there are no men in the village, there are still many women left, plus some children who are already sensible. If robbers enter the village, there will be at least one or two fish that escape in the chaos."

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

"Except They were not prepared at all, and it can even be said that they stood in one place in cooperation, allowing those people to kill them one by one. "

Mo Da's expression has begun to be confused, "Brother, what do you mean? Although the people in our village are timid, they can't stand and let people kill them."

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

"Because those people deceived them."

Hou Er slowly raised his head, his eyes were red like a devil, he looked at Wei Mingyan, and said word by word, "It's the government."

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

"Only the government can wear 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 kill people in our village? Didn't they say they were robbers?"

"Brother!"

Hou Er turned his head and looked at him, "You still don't believe it?"

"So many people in our village were reported, and we won't get a penny of the money."

"We are cowardly and timid. We don't think about doing anything to these officials, but what about them? Do they think so too?"

"All the men in the village were taken away, leaving only the women and children who were powerless."

Hou Er's voice was almost squeezed out from between his teeth. He said, "After we left, those officials came with knives. Maybe they told our relatives that they would give them the money for conscription and let them bring their children to collect the money together."

"Of course they dare not disobey the words of the government, and they think they are really rich. So they led the children and stood together, waiting to get the money for selling our bodies. "

"Then..."

"Stop talking!!!"

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

"Because of the children."

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

"No matter what these children are used for, they are a lot of money."

"They took you men away, who are already adults, and killed the women who revealed these two things, and took away the children who knew nothing and dared not say anything as long as they were trained a little bit. It was a good deal."

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

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

"We killed those two soldiers..."

"Brother, don't you understand?"

Hou Er also stood up, looked at him with a pair of bloodshot eyes, and slammed the wine jar on the table to the ground.

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

"No matter if we are obedient or not, or if we have done anything 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 work like slaves!! We are obedient!! It's 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 will send red envelopes, good night everyone