Chapter 6 chapter Five

It was already the next morning when the bandits who robbed Mingde Hall returned to Taibai Mountain.After they delivered the goods, they were taken to a piece of flat ground in the cottage to squat and defecate collectively, surrounded by other bandits.Everyone must, if you don't come out, you can't leave.This is called Qingtang.The purpose is to prevent bandits from hiding opium privately. The hiding place is the anus, which is called dry boat in jargon.The bandit leader knew that the minions would not hide the big cigarettes in their clothes, it would be easy to find out, and there was a secret hole in the man's body, where things could be hidden.

The bandit who was always slapped by Bald Spot was the first to come out, and the smell was incomparable.With such stinky dung, the bandits who were watching nearby had to pull it apart with a stick to check it, so that everyone else pinched their noses.The bald spot scolded, halfway, you have eaten pig manure all day long, and it is still old pig manure that has been retting for ten years!When they returned to the cottage, they didn't have to hide their names, so they opened their mouths.With a half-smile, he said, second shopkeeper, relax your eyes, get rid of it early, and get some sleep when you go back.

Waiting for the bald spot to be over with great difficulty, just about to go back to sleep, but was called away by the shopkeeper Han Dilong.Han Dilong had just finished his breakfast. He pointed to a bowl of Hu spicy soup on the table and said to Bald Ban, Horse Monkey, I don’t know when you will come back. I asked the cook to save it for you. It has just been reheated and sprinkled with coriander. eat quickly. Ma Houzi's heart became hot, and he felt that the boss was really careful, and he even remembered his love of coriander.He chuckled, picked up the old Yaozhou bowl with a big head, and finished it in a short while.As soon as he put the bowl on the table, Han Dilong asked him, where are the silver coins?

Half of the dog day!Ma Houzi scolded in his heart. The silver coins... have been returned to the owner.The monkey horse said hesitantly. You are so brave!Han Dilong turned dark and asked, is this silver coin yours or mine? It's yours, it's the treasurer's.The sweat on the horse monkey's head dripped down. Look at you!Handilong took off the white goat belly towel covering his head, wiped Ma Houzi's forehead vigorously, and said, you should say that it is neither yours nor mine, but it belongs to Uncle Xiucai. Ma Houzi looked at Handilong, not knowing what the shopkeeper meant, and he didn't know how to reply.He rolled out of the bandit's den, and he knows the bandit's capricious nature best.

Han Dilong suddenly couldn't help laughing and said, second shopkeeper, we didn't intend to grab the silver coins at first, it was given by the owner on his own initiative, and you don't want it to show our benevolence and righteousness.well done! Monkey Horse let out a sigh of relief. Handilong asked, is my brother Xiucai still in good health? Ma Houzi said that he is not even afraid of being tied up with hemp rope! The dry land dragon asked with a smile, you were not recognized, right? No, Monkey Horse said, our faces are heavily painted, don't say they can't recognize them, even we can't recognize them.

Handilong is an acquaintance with Zhou Kewen. He used to be Zhou Niuwa's long-term worker. Of course, he was not called Handilong at that time. His real name was Shouwa. He was from Liujiagou, a neighboring village of Zhoujiazhai.He herded sheep for his family since he was a child. In the autumn when he was ten years old, he was herding sheep on the plateau. When it rained suddenly, he took shelter under a big saponin tree.The cave dwelling of his house in Yuanxia was destroyed by the flood, and the parents who were working in the field were driven back by the heavy rain, and they happened to be buried in the landslide. It took several hours to dig them out, but they were already hopeless. , died hard.

Shouwa sold her only five sheep and bought a stubble coffin for her parents to bury them.Originally, there was still some Susukida, but Shouwa was too young to know how to farm, so he was robbed and divided by several uncles, and he became a helpless orphan. At this time, Zhou Niuwa, the rich man of Zhoujiazhai, found him and asked him to herd sheep for Zhou's family, take care of food, housing, clothing, and give him a stone of wheat every year.The host's treatment was good, so Shouwa agreed. This is something both the master and the long-term worker are satisfied with, and they settle their own accounts.Zhou Niuwa has carefully calculated that the wages of hiring a strong laborer is more than three times that of a child laborer. The job of herding sheep is similar to that of an adult baby, not to mention that this little long-term worker has herded sheep before and has experience.Speaking of eating, how big is the doll's appetite?There are several long-term workers in the family, so they just have an extra pair of chopsticks when eating.It's easy to keep it under control, the big kang in the barn is wide, and it's no problem to squeeze one or two more people.As for clothes, it was even easier, and the old clothes his son didn't wear just came in handy.What makes Zhou Niuwa most proud is the wages for that stone of wheat, whether it is given or not is the same.This doll is an orphan. He has had enough to eat and drink here, so why do he need food?Zhou Niuwa persuaded Shouwa to store the food with him first, and give it to him whenever he needs it.Shouwa also thinks this is a good way. He has no place to store the grain after he brought it back, and it will be cheaper for those unconscionable uncles.The wages are kept with Zhou Niuwa, in fact, it is the same as if they were not given to Shouwa. As for whether they will be paid in the future, that is another matter, at least now they can be used for lending.In a word, Zhou Niuwa thinks it is worthwhile to hire such a long-term worker.As the scene just turned upside down: Guanzhong dialect, the meaning of pushing.Zhou Niuwa, a small fortune on the uphill slope, had to plan carefully.

For Shouwa, his account is another algorithm.He has no home, not to mention building a house, but rebuilding a kiln, how much will it cost?He is so young now that he doesn't have this ability at all.Without the sheep and without the land, what life does he expect?It's okay to go to the uncle's house for a meal or two, but if things go on like this, people will definitely be impatient.He has to support himself. Now that Zhou Niuwa has hired him, he has enough food, clothing, housing and transportation. He has worked for him for ten or eight years. With the wages he saved, it is probably enough to go home and build a house and marry a wife.

Because the two sides have their own plans, the two get along well.During the eight years of herding sheep for a living, Shouwa has mastered two unique skills.One is flying stones and throwing objects, with a hundred shots and a hundred hits.Zhou Niuwa's family has a lot of sheep, and when they are rushed to the ditch and the plateau, they will spread out in a large area. It is a difficult task to drive and restrain the flock of flocking sheep, which will test the skill of the sheep herding boy.Others use the sheep shovel to herd the sheep, rely on the sheep shovel to throw soil and stones, beat the head sheep, and command the flock.Shouwa thought it was troublesome to use a sheep shovel, so he threw objects with his bare hands. After a long time, he practiced very accurately.Even when he later became a bandit, he seldom used a gun. When he robbed houses, he always tied a big purse around his waist, which was filled with mosaic eggs picked up from the Weihe beach. He liked this primitive weapon, and it was easy to use. Not killing people.

Another unique skill is walking like flying, walking through ditches and climbing cliffs like walking on flat ground.Someone told him about "Water Margin", saying that he resembled Dai Zong, the god-walking Taibao in it, but he didn't think so.Dai Zong tied a charm on his leg. With the help of God, he ran completely dry, fighting with his own leg strength.He really works hard to herd the sheep, unlike some long-term workers who take time off to fool the owner.Herding sheep is to go to the place where there is grass, and if the nearby grass is exhausted, you have to go far away. Sometimes you have to walk a hundred miles a day. This road is not flat, but full of ravines and ridges.Shouwa has been walking for a long time, and her legs are getting thinner and stronger.Sometimes after walking too far, Shouwa would eat wild food by herself if she couldn't come back for lunch.Rabbits and pheasants are often hidden in the remote places at the bottom of the ditch and the top of the plateau. Shouwa throws flying stones, and then chases the injured wild animals all over the mountains and fields, and uses them to barbecue to satisfy their hunger.Sometimes the wild animals are too far away for the flying stones to reach, so Shouwa will let go of his pace and chase wildly until he has no strength to run after chasing the hare and pheasant.This kind of kung fu allows Shouwa to often be able to make tooth sacrifices and work as a long-term worker under the stingy Zhou Niuwa. Others can only eat a meal of noodles from the master’s house on the day of the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month. On this day, it is regarded as the treasurer seeing off the long-term worker.Later, the reason why Shouwa had the size of Handilong among the bandits was because of his swift legs.

It is often said that people are not happy for a thousand days, and flowers are not popular for a hundred days. In the eighth year, two things happened one after another, and Shouwa finally left Zhou Niuwa's house. One thing is that I met wolves that autumn, not one or two wolves, but a pack of wolves.In autumn, when the corn and sorghum rise up, the wolves have a place to hide, and they are very courageous.At dusk that day, Shouwa came down from Majiamao with a flock of sheep, and was about to set foot on the official road of Huanglongyuan when a pack of wolves suddenly came out of the green gauze tent and blocked his way.They lined up one by one, which surprised Shouwa and the sheep.Shouwa took a look, my God, there are five of them, big and small!The flock of sheep turned their heads and swarmed back, hitting Shouwa almost unable to stand.It would have been fine if the flocks had fled into the cornfields, but Shouwa had trained them to be well-behaved. They only ate weeds and didn’t chew crops. The sheep fled from Shouwa, and left Shouwa in front of the wolf. Shouwa was unarmed. At this time, he regretted why he didn't bring a sheep shovel.But the wolves didn't seem to be interested in people. They left Shouwa and went straight to the flock of sheep, grabbed the sheep by the neck and dragged them into the cornfield.Shouwa seemed to have forgotten to be afraid at that time, he stooped down to pick up a piece of raw ginger stone on the ground, and threw his bow left and right to hit the wolf.I don't know if the wolf was full or was scared by Shouwa. In short, the wolf disappeared after an hour.At this time, it was dark, and Shouwa didn't dare to delay, gathered the flocks and rushed home with them. After coming back, the host's attitude made Shouwa feel like falling into an ice cellar.When he told Zhou Niuwa that he had been attacked by wolves, the shopkeeper rushed to the sheep pen in a hurry, but left the blood-stained sheep-herding boy aside and ignored him!This was completely beyond Shouwa's expectation. He thought that the rich man would ask if he was injured even if he was pretending.After a while, Cai Dong ran back angrily and asked Shouwa, do you know how many sheep died?five!How are you herding sheep!Shouwa originally wanted to reply, but I didn't invite the wolf here, who wants to!But before the words came out, the tears flowed out first. No one cares about the baby without a mother, and the people who have eaten hard food are not as good as the cattle of the wealthy owner! What's more, he had just washed his face and changed his clothes, and he didn't even bother to eat. Zhou Niuwa handed him a loop cage and said, Shouwa, you have fast legs and know the place, go back and have a look The sheep were all killed, or if they were killed, we picked up all the bones and meat that the wolves hadn't eaten, and we made mutton soup when the Mid-Autumn Festival came.Shouwa said, shopkeeper, let me have a few bites of rice first.Zhou Niuwa said, take the steamed buns and eat while walking, and let others pick them up too late.Shouwa said, I'm afraid, I don't know if the wolf has run away?Zhou Niuwa said, leave early, that is a passing wolf, why don't you call some long-term workers to accompany you.It was more than ten miles from Majiamao to Zhoujiazhai, and the long-term workers who accompanied them were woken up from their beds, and scolded Shouwa all the way. After that incident, Shouwa felt resigned, thinking that she was a long-term worker anyway, and it would not be difficult to find a benevolent owner.But he didn't expect that something happened later, which forced him to leave the master's house immediately.He left his master's house and did not find another master's house, but instead joined the bandits. This second incident was his great shame.One day in the winter of this year, two cotton-players came to Zhou's village. Zhou Niuwa's family was just about to sew new quilts for the New Year, and the pock-marked wife left them to play cotton covers.The two of them didn't finish their work until dark, so they naturally spent the night at Zhou Niuwa's house.Zhou Niuwa arranged them on the big kang in the barn and squeezed together with the long-term workers.That day, Shouwa was sent by the shopkeeper to deliver dry food to Zhou Shuan who was studying in the county seat. It was already late when he came back. When he went to sleep in the barn, he found that the kang was already full.The kang is actually not as big as Zhou Niuwa said. If the kang is bigger, there will be more firewood for burning the kang, so Zhou Niuwa will not waste it so much.Usually, four long-term workers sleep on the kang, plus one and a half children of Shouwa, which is just right.Tonight, two strong men are stuffed in at once, where is there room for Shouwa to sleep?Shouwa told Zhou Niuwa about the situation, and said, should I go to Xiafang to make do for one night?There is an empty kang in the building, and occasionally the eldest and young master come back to live.Zhou Niuwa said, the kang is cold and needs to be burned.He still led Shouwa to the barn, and said to the people on the kang, squeeze everyone together and make room for another seat.Those people slept like dead pigs, and no one moved.In fact, they are not dead asleep, but unwilling.It's already crowded enough to stick to the pancakes, and another person will be suffocated!Zhou Niuwa saw that these people were pretending to be asleep, so he said to Shouwa, take off your clothes quickly, and I will find time for you.After speaking, he brought a roller pole from outside, soaked it in the water urn at the head of the animal trough, and stuffed it into the gap between the people on the kang.In the twelfth lunar month of winter, when dripping water turned into ice, the popsicle-like stick was inserted in and pried left and right, and immediately pried out a space more than one span wide. Zhou Niuwa patted Shouwa and said, and quickly got in. In this way, Shouwa drove a wedge into the seam of flesh.There should be something to do that night, and he happened to be inserted between the two cotton flicks.Because they were tightly stuck together, he couldn't move at all. Those two people hugged him one after the other. After a while, he felt a hard prong pressed between his thighs, and he didn't care at first. , Sleeping in the big bunk is naked, body collision is inevitable.But what was strange was that the prong kept moving, going upward and upward, and went straight to his back door.Only then did he suddenly understand what was going on, isn't this the usual scolding Hijiriko?Shouwa was terrified. He wanted to shout, but someone covered his mouth. He wanted to swing his arms and legs, but his whole body was entangled with other people's arms and legs.A person whispered in his ear, don't make a sound, other people will lose face if they find out. Shouwa thought so too. It would be a great shame and humiliation for a man to let someone go on a dry road!You don't even want to meet people when the news gets out. The reason why people scold people about this is because it's too embarrassing.Shouwa endured the humiliation and was ashamed, and said nothing, which made the two of them take advantage.It turns out that these two guys are a pair of two tails, no wonder the two big men go into business together and are inseparable. The next morning, those two dog days hurriedly left Zhoujiazhai. When they went out, they looked at Shouwa and smiled at each other.This smile made Shouwa feel ashamed and indignant, he decided to avenge his shame, if he endured this matter, he would not grow up!Shouwa still went out to herd sheep that day, but not long after he got outside, he killed a fat sheep and carried it on his shoulders as dry food, and stoned the rest of the sheep to go home. He followed them through the countryside, across the country, and across counties, but he never had a chance to make a move.There are two of them, and they have big arms and round waists, and they always hold cotton bows and mallets in their hands.His flying stone throwing can't kill people, but it will scare the grass and startle the snake, causing trouble for himself. Outside the unfamiliar place, killing him is as easy as killing an ant. The result of the follow-up was to find out where the two men lived. They had to go home anyway. When those two returned home, Shouwa ran to Qinling Mountain to join the bandits. He knew that only with the help of them could he deal with those two bastards. Five years later, Shouwa became a dry land dragon. The first thing he did after he became the big shopkeeper was to run long distances to catch the two cotton players, cut off their tongues first, and prevent them from revealing their secrets. Do a trapeze trick with them.The trick is played like this: bend two mulberry trees with thick bowl mouths, sharpen the tops of the trees, stab them into the eyes of the two people, and then let go, the trees spring back suddenly, sending them into the blue sky.They made his eyes hurt, and he made them hurt even more.This is called tit for tat! As for robbing Zhou Niuwa, Han Dilong thought it was to recover the debt.He worked for Zhou Niuwa for eight years in vain, and he didn't get a penny of the wages he owed.When I left back then, things were urgent, so I left without saying goodbye, and couldn't ask for wages.Later, when he became a bandit, he dared not show his face in public, let alone ask for wages.But this account has to be settled.So I had no choice but to rob, and smeared pot ashes on my face to ask for debts.Of course, debts cannot be raised, but the money equivalent to eight stones of wheat cannot be less.But this week Niuwa is a stingy man who wants money rather than life, and would rather be beaten than give up his money, so he had to show him some color, so he set it up and set it on fire. In fact, the fire was so far away, it was just frightening.Han Dilong is in control, although he also hates Zhou Niuwa, he is stingy and selfish.If he is not stingy and does not save firewood, he will not be let through the back door that night, and he will not be selfish and will not value his sheep more than people.But think about it the other way around, as long as you want to make a fortune, you can't do it otherwise. Which rich man is not a stingy man?After all, Zhou Niuwa did no harm.Such a person should generally be considered a good person.Besides, they took him in during his most difficult time, and this benefit must be remembered.Handilong is a person who will pay for his deeds and demerits, and he will definitely finish everything that is owed to him, regardless of grievances or grievances. On that day, in the end Zhou Kewen couldn't bear it any longer, and he saved his father by offering a big cigarette.Xiucai is an interesting person. Under such circumstances, he can't forget to show off his knowledge and tell them the story of the knife in the village of Zhuangzi.Books are confusing. I heard that Zhou Niuwa died later.Some people said that he died of fright, others said that he died of illness, no matter how he died, since he didn't die at the scene of the robbery anyway, it has nothing to do with him.He gave an order to rob Zhou's house, and no one should die. A few years later, Zhou's house was robbed again to give Zhou Kewen a warning.Zhou Kewen has been organizing village guards in the countryside over the years, buying fast guns and making local guns, and even made a statement to wipe out the bandits in the Qinling Mountains.If Zhou Kewen is allowed to go on like this, all villages and villages will follow suit and raise their arms, and the business of bandits will be really difficult.Moreover, once these rural armed forces are united, the theory of flattening the Qinling Mountains may not necessarily become a reality.Although the Qinling bandits are not limited to Taibai Mountain, he Handilong has the responsibility to stand up for everyone, first clean up Zhou Kewen, put down his prestige, and kill the chicken for the monkeys to see. Didn’t Zhou Kewen brag that their Zhou Family Village was impenetrable? The people from Taibai Mountain smashed the village this time, confiscated their guns, took Zhou Kewen’s cigarettes, swept his face, and let him die completely. The idea of ​​armed self-defense! However, he did not go down the mountain this time. He had gone to Mingde Hall last time, and he was afraid that Zhou's family would recognize him if he showed up again. After all, he had stayed there for eight years. Brother Xiucai, Han Dilong said with a smile, you have read a book on the river beach, but have you never read a book on military affairs? He read the book until his eyes.Monkey Horse agreed. As soon as the word "尺" was mentioned, Handilong felt that he had been stabbed somewhere.He slapped the horse monkey across the face, and cursed, you are the only one who talks too much! Ma Houzi was taken aback by the beating, thinking, this is retribution, he slapped him halfway, and Dry Land Dragon slapped him again.