Chapter 1129 Ancient Town
More than twenty miles northwest of Fushan County, there is a place called Guxian Town. The town is only five or six miles away from the coastline. There is a small river in the north of the town that leads directly to the sea. However, this small river is only more than 20 feet wide. The water depth and navigation capacity are relatively limited. Large sea-going ships rarely sail directly to the town. In addition, generally only some fishermen from the seaside will drive their fishing boats to the upper reaches to sell various catches to the residents in the town.
Before the Denglai Rebellion, Guxian Town had a permanent population of two to three thousand people. It was considered one of the population gathering places in Fushan County. However, because it is closer to Dengzhou City, the impact of the war on Guxian Town was also far away. Across Fushan County, many people were forced to flee their homes during the war. It is not an exaggeration to say that out of ten houses there were nine empty houses. It was not until the war that the town's population began to slowly recover. However, due to various reasons, the town's population only maintained around a thousand people and has never been able to return to the pre-war level.
Wendeng County, Rongcheng County, Mouping County, Fushan County, Chengshanwei, Weihaiwei and other places under the jurisdiction of Dengzhou. The land passage between these places and Dengzhou City must pass through Guxian Town. Every year There are a lot of floating people coming and going here, so the livelihood of the residents in the town is mainly based on service industries such as restaurants and hotels. According to incomplete statistics, there are more than a dozen inns in the town alone. Considering a town with a population of a thousand, this number is definitely quite astonishing.
In the afternoon that day, a horse team suddenly came to the town, with about thirty or forty riders. It is not too accurate to say that it is a horse team. The people coming are not a caravan carrying goods, but more like a cavalry unit. The leader of the riders had a red and blue flag on the saddle. Everyone was wearing gray cloth shorts and trousers, carrying a long backpack, and there was a saber hanging on the saddle, but there were not many belongings on the horse. luggage items.
Before entering the town at first, some people thought that this group of people was the Ming army passing through this place, but when they got closer, they saw that the clothes of these people were significantly different from the Ming army, and most of these people had their hair cut. It was very short, and there was no bun on the head. It was obvious that he was not Akito. The owners of several inns were more knowledgeable and recognized the identities of this group of people, and immediately ordered their subordinates to close their establishments.
A few days ago, people came to Dengzhou City and posted a notice to calm the people in the town, saying that a group of armed pirates calling themselves Haihan had arrived near Zhifu Island in Fushan County, and asked the public to avoid contact with them as much as possible to avoid danger. The most striking appearance signs of this group are the red and blue two-color flags and very short hair. The group that came to the town clearly fit the description on the notice.
But not everyone is nervous about the arrival of the uninvited guests. A few days before Dengzhou's notice of peace of mind was posted in Guxian Town, news of Haihan's actions in Fushan County had spread here one after another. In the eyes of some people, Regardless of whether the Haihan people are a pirate gang or not, they have not done anything harmful in Fushan County. On the contrary, they assisted the government in driving away the Wanjia Army and rescued many local people. There is also a county government notice posted on the gate of Fushan County. Public recognition of Haihan people. These deeds were spread from Fushan County through some parties and are extremely credible, but they were not mentioned at all in the notice issued by Dengzhou to calm the people.
Faced with two completely different statements from Dengzhou City and Fushan County, some people chose to believe the notice issued by Dengzhou City, while others believed that Haihan's performance in Fushan County was the real situation, so they were not prepared for the arrival of the Haihan people. There is not much resistance. However, out of caution, no one in the store took the initiative to go out to the street to recruit these people.
This group of people rode horses slowly forward along the official road that passed through the town, and in the blink of an eye they had passed through most of the ancient town. Just when everyone was guessing whether they didn't intend to stay here, the group stopped in front of the largest restaurant in the town.
"That's it!" Sun Zhen got off his horse and quickly put the reins on the hitching post outside the store. After entering the town, we walked here and finally found a restaurant with a large row of horse tethering posts and watering troughs outside the store. I didn't plan to look for another place at the moment, so I directed the team to stop here.
Wang Jinmin, who was following him, also got off his horse, but his treatment was better than that of Sun Zhen. Someone immediately took the reins from him and took the horse to the side to settle it. This group of people came from the mouth of Jiahe River and had walked for more than 20 miles. They were planning to stop for lunch in the town before continuing the rest of the journey.
At this time, a waiter came out of the store to greet him, but the smile on his face was quite stiff: "Dear guests...are you eating in a small store?"
"Can the store accommodate people like us?" Wang Jinmin asked casually.
"You can sit down! You can sit down!" The waiter saw that the people behind Wang Jinmin were taking off their sabers from their saddles and holding them in their hands. His voice trembled when he answered: "Guest... Guest, please come in..." < br>
Wang Jinmin left a few people on guard outside, and he and Sun Zhen entered the store with their men. Although this restaurant is the largest in town, it actually only has less than 20 tables on the upper and lower floors. When they entered the restaurant, there were only two tables of customers in the restaurant. The empty tables could indeed accommodate all the people in this team. People. However, the guests at these two tables had also finished their meal at this time and were hurriedly paying their bills.
Wang Jinmin and Sun Zhen knew that these people were afraid of their arrival, so they did not tell them immediately and just asked the waiter to quickly bring out the food that could fill their stomachs. Their mission target was not in Guxian Town. They could have detoured outside the town, but their intention to show up here was for other purposes. One was to check the attitude of the local people towards Haihan, and the other was to let the outside world know about Haihan. The scope of activities has reached here, frightening those evil spirits and ghosts who are secretly plotting against evil.
The news that the Haihan people came to Guxian Town spread throughout the town almost at lightning speed. While Sun Zhen and his team were still dining in the restaurant, people in the town had already had various reactions.
Some chose to close their doors for stability, planning to wait for the Haihan people to leave Guxian Town before returning to normal life; others believed that Guxian Town was no longer safe, so they packed up their gold and silver and sneaked out of the town and rushed to Dengden. The state city is hiding. Most people were huddled indoors, and very few people really dared to come out to watch the fun.
However, there are also audacious guys among them, who are not ready to accept the fact of Haihan's arrival. Next door to the restaurant where the Haihan Horse Team dines is a small inn with two courtyards. The owner Gan Sheng has been running this inn for nearly ten years. During this period, it was renovated once after the Denglai Rebellion, so the front door looks like It's quite new, and the daily business is pretty good.
There is no difference between Gan Sheng and other inn owners in the town. They all follow the path of making money in a harmonious way. On weekdays, they don't argue with others at all. Everyone treats him as a good gentleman, and few people know that he is apart from the inn. In addition to the identity of the boss, he actually has another identity in private.
When the Haihan horse team stopped at the door of the restaurant next door, Gan Sheng, who was paying attention to the movement, quickly asked the waiter to close the door and ordered that no guests would be admitted today. He hurried back to the backyard, pushed open the door of the wing and went in. After closing the door, he hurriedly said: "The Haihan people are at the door. You should hurry up and go through the back door!"
"Why are you panicking! There's no way they know I'm here. Besides, if they really want to arrest someone, they might have blocked the back door a long time ago. How can they get out now?" There was no light in the room, so he couldn't see clearly as he was sitting at the table. The person's expression was different, but his tone was calm and he was obviously not panicked. The man pointed to the chair in front of him and motioned for Gan Sheng to sit down and talk.
Gan Sheng sat on the chair, raised his hand and wiped the sweat on his forehead with his sleeve and said, "You really don't want to leave? If the Haihan people notice something is wrong, both of us brothers will end up here!" Sit down! The man in the dark said: "Are you afraid? You are afraid of being implicated by me, so you want to drive me away?"
"No!" Gan Sheng waved his hands and said, "Brother, I'm just worried that the Haihan people will do something bad to you and that something will happen to you. The Haihan people are eating next door right now. You must not make any noise or cause trouble!"< br>
The man stood up, walked to the window and opened it. The light from outside came in, and he could finally see his appearance clearly. It turned out that this man was Gan Qiang, the leader of the Wanjia Army who had fought with the Haihan Army in Fushan County earlier and managed to escape. Gan Sheng, the owner of this small inn, is a close brother to him.
After the Wanjia Army was defeated that day, Gan Qiang and military advisor Pu Xueguang fled into the mountains with the remaining soldiers and tried to reintegrate the remaining forces of the Wanjia Army. These days I have been traveling back and forth between various strongholds to deal with the reorganization of the Wanjia Army, and I have achieved some results.
The inn opened by Gan Sheng in Guxian Town was originally a secret stronghold of Wanjiajun. On the one hand, he used the flow of passengers here to collect information and select fat sheep that could be taken advantage of. On the other hand, he would occasionally secretly Buy supplies or sell stolen goods here.
Gan Qiang secretly came to Guxian Town this time to raise food and grass for the bandit armed forces hiding in the nearby mountains. Since the Haihan people controlled the area near Fushan County, the Wanjia Army was unable to collect grain from the area, so they had to resort to the next best thing and turn their attention to the outer areas of Fushan County. However, there is not much cultivated farmland in Guxian Town, and there will not be much harvest if you want to collect grain directly from the local area. Gan Qiang’s plan is to use Gan Sheng as a spokesperson to collect grain from nearby Liuhang Town, Jijia Town, Chaoshui Town, Fuxin Town and other local organizations organized food purchases.
Yes, that's right. Since Wanjiajun suffered heavy losses in the battle with Haihan, it is now unable to organize large-scale armed personnel to go out to attack villages and towns and directly rob people from the hands of the people. They can only use money to buy food outside the mountains. Moreover, Pu Xueguang had lingering fears about the power of the Haihan cavalry, and was also worried that once he took action, his whereabouts would be exposed and the Haihan people would quickly pursue him. Therefore, they plan to obtain food in a low-key way and try to overcome the current difficulties first.
In order to hide his whereabouts, Gan Qiang took a small number of people out of the mountain this time, less than ten people. He didn't expect that he would be so lucky. He just arrived in Guxian Town in the morning, and Haihan people also arrived in the afternoon, and went to the restaurant next door as if they were smelling the smell.
Although Gan Qiang was tough on his words, he had personally experienced the power of the Haihan people, so he did not dare to make any mistakes. It is said that in the reward notice posted by the Haihan people in Fushan County, his worth has been increased from the 50 taels of silver that Fushan County government offered to him in the past, to 500 taels of silver. Regardless of life or death, he and military advisor Pu Xueguang are on the wanted list in Fushan County. Tied for first place in net worth. If he accidentally exposes his whereabouts, not to mention the Haihan people, there are many murderers coming and going in this town, and maybe someone will try to capture him for money.
Gan Qiang said: "The Haihan people don't recognize you. Go next door and see how many people they have. Also, try to find out why they are here and where they plan to go."
Gan Sheng hesitated and said: "I heard that all the Haihan people are as smart as ghosts. If they see through this, they will be in big trouble!"
"You are so scared!" Gan Qiang scolded: "They are humans and not gods, so how can they be so capable!"
"Isn't that... arresting all the bosses?" The fear on Gan Sheng's face was still very obvious.
There are many rumors among the people about the battle between Haihan and Wanjiajun in Fushan County, and the rumors became more and more mysterious later on, and they have long deviated from the truth. The saying in Guxian Town is that all Haihan soldiers are eight feet tall and invulnerable. The horses they ride in battles will turn into dragon colts, and they will come and go like the wind on the battlefield. The Haihan soldiers' specialty weapons are It is a palm thunder that cannot be seen or touched, but can kill people from a distance.
In Gan Sheng's view, the Haihan people who were able to defeat the Wanjia army were almost unable to fight back. In fact, they were no different from the legendary heavenly soldiers and generals. Of course, he also asked Gan Qiang to verify the authenticity of these rumors. Although Gan Qiang tried his best to deny it, he could not explain how the Wanjia Army lost. This made Gan Sheng even more convinced of the rumors that the Haihan Army was invincible. Don't have the courage to fight against it.
Gan Qiang was so angry that he cursed: "That's because Wan was useless and was captured by mistake. If the Haihan people are so powerful, why did I and the military advisor safely withdraw from Fushan County? It's not easy for you to stand by with your hands and feet." In front of you? Just go next door to eat and see if you can hear any news.”
Gan Sheng was cowardly and did not dare to argue with Gan Qiang. He had to muster up the courage and went out to the restaurant next door.
There were several dark-skinned Haihan soldiers standing at the door of the restaurant, sabers in their hands, staring at him coldly. Gan Sheng did not squint, and walked into the restaurant cautiously, not daring to look more and sitting in the lobby. Several tables of people walked directly to the counter.
The restaurant manager naturally recognized him. He forced a smile on his stiff face and said, "Manager Gan is here for dinner!"
Gan Sheng responded: "Yes..."
Before he came in, he had thought about his words, saying that business was good here, so he didn't want to occupy a seat to eat here. He ordered a few dishes and had the restaurant take them to his store, but when he thought about it, he would definitely not be able to tell Gan Qiang when he returned. , I can only bite the bullet and stay.
(End of chapter)