son-in-law

Chapter 1063 In Hell
August fourteenth, cloudy.

Tang Minjie led Xu Xiaolin through the inspection at the gate of the city as Xi Ren, and walked towards the post station outside the city.On both sides of the road on the official road outside Yunzhong City, there are gray and white land, so bare that there is not even thatch left.

In the distance, there are manors, workshops, and simple slums. In the field of vision, you can see Han slaves moving like corpses on the other side. In the field of vision, an old man is walking slowly with a small bundle of firewood, hunched over - just here. As far as the environment is concerned, it is actually hard to say whether it is an "old man".

There are mountains and trees farther away, but Xu Xiaolin remembered what Tang Minjie said, because of hatred for the Han people, many people are not allowed to pick up the trees in the mountains.The houses in the field of vision are simple and crude. Even if they can keep warm, many people will die in winter. Now that there are such restrictions, when the heavy snow falls, this place will indeed become a hell on earth.

When he came up with the caravan, he also saw the houses in these slums, and he had never felt the mood like this moment.

Tang Minjie walked beside with his head down, talking in his mouth: "... I don't want to write much about the grassland people in the letter. After you go back, please ask Mr. Ning clearly. I did something stupid, but that was because of the weakness of the Wu Dynasty itself. Now that the Southwest War is over, and it will take some time to fight north, it might be a good idea to drive tigers and wolves here. This year, the grassland people came here not to seize the city. They went to snatch the weapons of the Jurchens, I think their plans are not small..."

"I will convey this matter in detail." The question about the prairie people may become a major policy for future work in the Northland. Xu Xiaolin also understands the key to this, but then he has some doubts, "However, the work here Bian already has the power to make a temporary decision, why not make a judgment first and then pass it on to Nan Bian?"

"For the prairie people, Mr. Ning's attitude is a bit strange. I didn't make it clear at the beginning. I was afraid that I might make a mistake, or there may be some key points that I don't know."

As Tang Minjie spoke, he briefly mentioned it to Xu Xiaolin.At the beginning, Mr. Ning had been to Xixia, and when he came back, he could only treat the grassland as an enemy.It's just that the group of prairie people had never set foot in the Central Plains at that time, and there was no incident of besieging Yunzhong in the first half of the year. Ning Yi's judgment may have seemed a little simpler. Now that there are more specific situations, there can naturally be new solutions .

"...Yunzhong was originally considered a big city, but after Zong Han put the 'Western Court' here, and added one million Han people captured, the city could not live in the early years, and outsiders were added. These villages and workshops. When the prairie people came in the first half of the year, a small part of the Han slaves outside the city ran into the city, and most of the rest were captured and surrounded outside the city. Most of the surrounding villages were burned..."

Seeing Xu Xiaolin looking at the scene, Tang Minjie then introduced the surrounding area.

"...The purpose of the prairie people is the ordnance stored in Toyosu, so they didn't do a massacre here. After leaving, many people still survived. But so what, the surroundings are not good. After the house was burned, it was even more difficult to live in these rebuilt ones. Now the firewood is not allowed to be cut. Instead of this, it is better to let the grassland people come a few more times. Their horses come and go like the wind, although it is impossible to attack the city. , but they are good at field battles, and they like to throw corpses that have been dead for a few days into the city..."

"...At that time, Yunzhong sometimes had Liai sitting in the town, and the plague hadn't broken out, and most other cities couldn't prevent it. When people died a lot, the Han people who survived might be able to live better..."

Tang Minjie babbled, his words were as calm as a southwestern lady walking on the road while talking about her daily life.In the past, Xu Xiaolin would have had many thoughts about the consequences of attracting the prairie people, but at the moment when he saw those hunched figures, he suddenly understood the other party's state of mind.

Afterwards, they chatted all the way, and arrived at a place not far from the post station to meet up with the previously arranged Xiren caravan. Tang Minjie communicated with the caravan boss, and came back to give some instructions on the journey.The two parted under the gray sky, and when Xu Xiaolin looked back for the last time, the seemingly inconspicuous figure had already merged into the crowd of pedestrians heading for the cloud, and was gone in a blink of an eye.

……

Pass the inspection of the city gate, and then go back to the place where you live through the streets and alleys.It seemed that it was going to rain, and the pedestrians on the road were in a hurry, but due to the north wind, the smell in the mud on the road was a little less.

When approaching the dilapidated street where he temporarily lived, Tang Minjie slowed down as usual, and then made a small circle to check for signs of stalkers.

The sky was cloudy and rainy, and there were not many people on the road, so it was easier to judge, but when approaching the dilapidated courtyard where he lived, Tang Minjie's footsteps slowed down slightly.A black figure in shabby clothes staggered forward while leaning on the wall, and sat down under the eaves outside the courtyard gate, as if trying to use the eaves to shelter from the rain, curled up into a ball.

Doubts flashed through Tang Minjie's mind, he walked slowly, observed for a while, and saw that figure struggling to get up again, and staggering forward.He breathed a sigh of relief, and walked towards the courtyard door. On the side of his field of vision, the figure hesitated for a moment on the side of the road, and then walked back, probably because he saw that he was about to open the door, and took two quick steps to reach out to grab him.

"Help……"

Tang Minjie avoided the opponent's hand with one side of his body. It was a haggard and thin Han woman with a pale face and a wound on her forehead, asking him for help.

"Help, good man, help... Please take me in..."

Over the past ten years, the Kingdom of Jin has successively captured millions of Han slaves. Very few of them have free status. They were coolie prostitutes like pigs and dogs at the beginning, but not many of them can survive until now.In the next few years, Wu Qimai banned the slaughter of Han slaves at will, and some wealthy families began to use them as maids and servants.Combined with the current environment of Yunzhong Mansion, it can be deduced according to common sense that this woman should be a slave who sneaked out from someone's family who couldn't survive.

Someone from the other side of the street came towards this side. She didn't seem to notice the situation here for a while. The woman's expression became more and more anxious. Tears covered her thin face. They were all scars, and large pieces of flesh and blood had begun to fester, giving off a penetrating stench.

She cried and said: "They took me back, I'm going to die... I beg good people to take me in..."

Tang Minjie looked at her, he couldn't tell if this was a trap set by others.

The servants from an unknown family on the other side of the road ran towards this side. Someone pushed Tang Minjie away, then kicked the woman to the ground, and began to punch and kick her. The woman curled up on the ground and screamed a few times, and then He was tied up with a chain and dragged back like a pig or dog.

It's not a trap... I can be sure now.

Tang Minjie watched all this blankly. When the servants came to question him, he took out the household registration document from his arms and said in a low voice, "I'm not Han Chinese." The other party left.

It began to rain icy cold.

Open the door and go home, close the door.Tang Minjie hurried to the room, found two books containing some key information, wrapped them in cloth and put them in his arms, then put on his coir raincoat and bamboo hat and went out.When the courtyard door was closed, the traces of the woman's beating could still be seen in the corner of the field of vision. There were blood stains on the ground, which slowly mixed into the black mud on the road in the rain.

He glanced at it, then did not stop, walked through two streets in the rain, and knocked on the back door of a house in the agreed way, and then someone opened the door. deputy.

The order to put the espionage work into a dormant stage had been handed down layer by layer. This was the meeting that Tang Minjie had arranged with him.After entering the room for a short inspection, Tang Minjie stated his intention straight to the point.

"Starting today, you will temporarily take over all my work in Yunzhong Mansion. There are some key pieces of information. Let's hand over..."

As Tang Minjie said, he took out the two books from his pocket. The other party looked puzzled, but he nodded first, and began to write down what Tang Minjie said seriously.

The whole process lasted for quite a while, and then Tang Minjie solemnly handed over the book to the other party. After finishing the matter, the deputy asked, "What are you going to do?"

"I'll go to Beijing." Tang Minjie said.

The deputy frowned: "Didn't I say it before, even if you go to Beijing at this time, it is difficult to interfere with the overall situation. You let everyone save their lives, so why are you going to join in the fun?"

"Look carefully at the first-hand information. Although I couldn't intervene at the time, it will be easier to find a way in the future. The Jurchens and the East and the West may fight, but the meaning of the possible fight is that it is also possible, and there will be no fight."

The deputy frowned: "...Don't be reckless, shopkeeper Lu's style is different from yours. He puts more emphasis on intelligence collection than action. When you arrive in Shangjing, if the situation is not ideal, you will kill them if you try hard. "

"I won't force it, don't worry."

The other party looked over, and Tang Minjie also looked back, and after a while, he reluctantly withdrew his gaze.Tang Minjie stood up.

"That's it, take care."

"Take care of yourself when you travel two thousand miles north."

The deputy said.

In the process of sending him out, he couldn't help telling: "In this situation, they will definitely fight, just watch it, don't do anything."

"Understood, don't be a mother-in-law."

……

All the way back to the courtyard where I lived, the rain seeped into my coir raincoat, and the weather in August was astonishingly cold.Think about it, tomorrow is August [-]th, and the moon will be full during the Mid-Autumn Festival, but how many moons will be full?
Tang Minjie stood outside the yard for a while. At his feet was the place where the woman was beaten and bled. At this moment, all the traces had been mixed into the black mud and could not be seen anymore. He knew that this was on the land of the Kingdom of Jin. Some of them—including myself—can still bleed red blood when they are beaten, but sooner or later, they will all turn into this color.

The next day, August [-]th, Tang Minjie set off for the north.

(End of this chapter)