Chapter 61 Ferry Elegy

"Hey, why did you agree to him to take a military boat? We can't take a military boat! We shouldn't take a military boat! We don't want to take a military boat either!" Shen Shizhu finally broke the silence and asked angrily.At this moment, the four masters and servants had left the thatched house and were walking on the stone road leading to the river. Liu Jingting didn't make a sound.Yu Huai also pursed his lips tightly with concern. Seeing them like this, Shen Shizhu became even more angry.He stomped his feet vigorously and yelled: "It makes me sick to think about mixing with those things that are not as good as pigs and dogs! If you want to sit, you go and sit, I won't sit!" Then he stopped in anger.

The other three had no choice but to stop.Liu Jingting naturally knew that the accusation was aimed at him.However, he did not refute, just sighed, and said: "Brother Kun Tong is right. It is said that it is really disgusting to mix with Tartars who are not as good as pigs and dogs. Then, the twelve taels of silver are not as good as Even if we send that bastard director, shall we find another ship?" After making such a proposal, he probably saw that the two friends did not agree immediately, but they did not express any objection either, and he added in a casual tone: "It's just that the bastard said just now that our number plate is not strong enough, so I'm afraid that it will When I checked again from time to time, I found something wrong, so..."

During the time in the thatched hut, Yu Huai had no choice but to pay the money, but he was actually very upset about going to take the military boat.Because in addition to hating mixing with Qing soldiers, he was also worried that if he got caught, he would not even have a chance to escape.However, now that Liu Jingting suddenly mentioned the number plate, he was stunned for a while, and said hesitantly: "That number plate is genuine. The person who gave it to me said it—well , but, won’t the Tartars stop checking their cards when they get on a warship?” Liu Jingting smiled wryly: "Shicai, that's what the bastard director said. Whether it's true or not, you'll have to go through it to find out. But if you hire another boat, you will definitely have to inspect it, and you can't escape it!"

After a pause, he blinked his eyes cunningly: "Actually, taking a military boat seems to be dangerous, but it is the safest. Don't you hear that there are thirty-six strategies in military strategists, and there is a strategy of 'crossing the sea'!" Although he said this to persuade Yu Huai, but it seemed that he also knew that Shen Shizhu usually regarded himself as a general, and when he talked about the art of war, his eyebrows were beaming, so he deliberately raised some itchy talk.Sure enough, Shen Shizhu's expression became more focused, he stopped making noise, and seemed to be waiting for the next sentence.

Liu Jingting smiled slightly, and said again: "Actually, if we really got on the military ship this time, it would be more than just 'crossing the sea', but actually wanting to 'enter the tiger's den and get tiger cubs'! However, since neither of you wants to sit on it, then Just hire another boat!" "Hey, how did you get the cub by entering the tiger's lair? Dad, let me hear it!" Shen Shizhu was obviously attracted, and asked eagerly. "You still don't understand?" Liu Jingting folded his folding fan towards his palms, leaned forward, and said in a low voice, "The more Tartar soldiers on board, the more mouths must be; the more mouths, the more people will inevitably lose their grip. Mazi has such a solid tongue, and he talks nonsense with them, what about his military skills... Haha!"

No one can doubt the ability of that mouth of the famous Liu Mazi.Now that he said so, it was not something he had to do to take the military ship this time, but it became a rare opportunity to spy on the military situation.Therefore, Shen Shizhu stared at him blankly, his eyes gradually brightened.Finally, he scratched his bald head and said with an embarrassed smirk: "Hey, dad, since you have such an idea, why didn't you say it earlier? If so, let alone a mere military ship, it is the lair of the emperor of the Tartars. I, Shen People dare to break into him!" After finishing speaking, he waved his hand, turned around, and happily led the way to the river.Yu Huai looked at Liu Jingting, and found that the pockmark looked calm, so he stopped talking and just followed behind.

At this moment, it was time for Jomo to draw.Probably because of the wind, the sky, which was clear just now, was covered with gloom in a blink of an eye.The masts of the ships lined up along the canal like a forest also swayed from side to side.The four masters and servants passed through the still crowded crowd and had just reached the embankment when they suddenly heard someone shouting: "Hey, here we come! Here we come!" As soon as the shout fell, the whole pier gave a "coax", and all the people stood up at once. "What? It's here?" "Where is it? Why can't I see it?" "Hey, it's here, it's there!" "Oh, thank God, it's here!" "Hey, I don't know but I can find someone ?”

As these various voices sounded from all directions, the whole pier was in chaos like a boiling pot.People ran in a hurry, greeted loudly, turned around in place, and then rushed to the edge of the river embankment.Apparently because they had waited too long, each of them became excited and excited, calling out ecstatically, their eyes sparkling.The fastest group of people had just stopped on the edge of the river bank, and the second group of people immediately picked them up, and there were even more people behind, trying to squeeze forward.If it weren't for the boatmen of the big and small boats on the pier, who obviously had experience in this, they would have taken out their long poles, tried their best to block them, and shouted to stop them, maybe someone would have been squeezed into the river.But even so, Yu Huai and the other four masters and servants were still hoodwinked by the sudden commotion, and before they even understood it, they were crowded in the middle, unable to advance or retreat, and could not even move a step no.

However, this situation did not last long.Because suddenly someone shouted again: "Damn it, the boat is not leaning here, it is leaning over there, over there!" Everyone turned their heads to look, and sure enough, they found that the heads of those people who were crowded downstream were swarming and rushing to the south.Then everyone suddenly let out a burst of noisy screaming and cursing, and you pushed and hugged and followed.In a blink of an eye, he left cleanly.In the original place, there are still only four masters and servants including Yu Huai. "Hey, seeing how they are like this every day, what's the use? How many people can recognize the redemption?" An old voice said from the side.

The four masters and servants looked back, and it turned out that it was an old boatman who spoke.He was standing on the prow of a balance boat, putting the long pole back on its bracket under the canopy. Yu Huai hesitated for a moment, then cupped his hands and asked, "Dare to ask my father, I heard that these women are going to be transported to the north. Why do you allow her family to come and confess?" The boatman glanced at them and said lightly: "Well, in the first place, redemption was not allowed. It was the people who cried and begged the government a lot, so they allowed this case. It's just that there are so many soldiers in the south of the Yangtze River, how many people are there? People who have the time to come to the pier to wait every day? Just like these people who have the time to come, how can they know which pier their wives are taken to? It’s just doing their best! Besides, these women are nine out of ten I'm afraid I've been tricked by the soldiers, even if I ransom them back, it's still... Sigh!"

The three friends looked at each other and stopped asking.But these words of the old boatman still made them feel deeply humiliated and stinging again.After standing silently like this for a while, finally, Shen Shizhu raised his head and suggested hesitantly: "It's still early to leave the ship, maybe——I'll go over and have a look later?" Neither Yu nor Liu raised any objections.Everyone moved their feet and walked slowly along the embankment. Due to the distance, they hadn't seen clearly how the boats landed just now, so they couldn't figure out how many women they had brought.Now that they got closer, they realized that they had arrived in three large boats.There were quite a few people, at least two or three hundred, and most of them had landed and were sitting on the embankment in a pile; some were disembarking.Most of them have fluffy buns and no makeup, and the dresses on their bodies seem to be haphazardly made, which looks very inappropriate.Some of them were looking around, but most of them had their heads drooped, with a look of shame and humiliation.A few Qing soldiers with bows and arrows hanging from their waists, knives and guns were guarding the side.As for the river embankment, it is full of people.Stretching their necks and widening their eyes, those who were about to confess their relatives and ransomed them looked anxiously toward the embankment, and at the same time shouted: "A Hua!" "A Nan!" "Xiaobao's mother!" "Sister-in-law!" Following this call, the women on the embankment also became agitated. They also stretched their necks, their eyes widened in panic, and began to push each other, responding sharply: "Hey!" "Here I am!" "Xiaobao!" "Dafu!" However, the calls belonged to the calls, and some of them sounded like they were connected, but in fact they were just the same name, and it was soon discovered that they were not. As a result, for a long time, no one recognized each other.In this way, the people seemed to be discouraged, and they stopped pushing forward, and the shouts also decreased... However, at this moment, a loud shout suddenly sounded: "Hey, isn't this the girl Chun! Then, I saw two men, one old and one young, shouting "Chun girl! Chun girl!" while pushing forward desperately.Hearing this call, a girl among the group of women on the embankment suddenly let out a scream, and rushed down staggeringly. When she reached the embankment, she tripped over something and fell a somersault, but she turned over and stood up again. He rushed forward suddenly, and finally threw himself into the arms of the relatives who had come to him, and burst into tears... "Ah, I got it! I got it!" People told each other one after another, some were surprised, some sighed, and naturally some were jealous.But at the same time, everyone was obviously encouraged by this successful recognition, so they once again let out a chaotic call, and scrambled forward.Seeing this scene, the group of women on the embankment also got excited and ran down the embankment desperately.The few Qing soldiers guarding the side obviously had long experience, and at first they kept yelling, trying to stop them.But when they saw no effect, they automatically withdrew from the crowd, stood on the periphery, and watched from a distance. At this moment, people from both sides have joined together.So husbands look for wives, wives look for husbands; fathers look for daughters, daughters look for fathers; nephews look for aunts, brothers look for sisters, nephews look for aunts.Fortunately, I found it, and wept with joy; if I couldn't find it, I couldn't help crying.So for a while you cried, and I cried too. The cry of pulling clothes and stamping feet is so sad, so pitiful and desperate, it shakes people's eardrums and tugs at people's hearts and lungs.In the end, even those Qing soldiers turned their backs... "Well, I might as well go!" Yu Huai finally couldn't bear it anymore, and turned around to suggest.Seeing that both Shen and Liu were nodding, he turned around, intending to leave the crowd, but when he looked up, he found a young woman standing beside her, her eyes wide open in panic, and she kept looking at them.Seeing them turn their faces, she trembled a little, and asked in a low voice, "Don't dare to ask the guest officer, is this father, is this father Liu who speaks big books?" Yu Huai was slightly taken aback, he didn't expect that there would be someone who came to meet Liu Jingting, looked him up again, but found that his face was very strange.But because she was not asking the question herself, it was inconvenient to answer for a moment, so she had to look at Liu Jingting in a blink of an eye. Liu Jingting was very straightforward, nodded, and said, "Xiao Lao is Liu Mazi. I don't know how the girl recognizes me?" While waiting for an answer, the woman's face was pale and she looked very nervous.It wasn't until she heard this promise that she bent her legs in relief, knelt down on the ground, kowtowed her head and said: "The maidservant is the maidservant of Rugao Maopijiang Prime Minister's family, and her name is Ziyi. Because Liu's father once went to My family came to teach the book, and the servant girl was waiting on the grandma to listen to the book behind the curtain, so I knew my father." The three friends were a little surprised and uncertain because the incident happened suddenly and they didn't recognize each other.Now that she found out that she was the maid of Maoxiang's family, she said "ah" and understood.However, the impostor's maid unexpectedly appeared among the group of kidnapped women, which surprised them, and an ominous thought suddenly flashed in their minds. "Ah, since you are the maid of the Pijiang family, why did you come here?" Shen Shizhu asked hastily. "The servant girl was... robbed." "So, what about your master?" "My master—servant...don't know." "I don't know? Could it be that you're not here anymore?" Out of surprise and nervousness, the three friends widened their eyes at the same time. "Oh, no, no, they were still there when the servant girl was robbed. But later, later, I don't know..." This was undoubtedly the truth, so after the three friends looked at each other, they had no choice but to stop asking.However, concern for the safety of Maoxiang's family made them unwilling to give up.So after a moment of silence, they still asked Ziyi about the escape of Maoxiang's family in detail.They didn't feel relieved until they learned that if their old friend was still alive, they might return to Haining or go to Yixing to join Chen Zhenhui. "Well, at this point, what are your plans now?" Liu Jingting looked at the maid from under his short eyebrows, and asked. Ziyi had already stood up, but after hearing this, her eye circles suddenly turned red, and tears welled up, but she still managed to control herself. "The servant girl always...does evil in the past life, so this... is born...rewarded...retribution!" She whimpered, "Since it is so fate, the servant girl...doesn't dare to resent. I just think, think about it in the young master, grandma... When I was with Wanniang, I didn't serve my uncle with all my heart and responsibilities, and my heart was extremely uneasy. My father and the two husbands are friends of my uncle. If you see my uncle, please tell him, and say that Ziyi will die again in this life. Also... I can't serve him anymore, I just hope to be a cow...a horse in the next life, and...to repay his great kindness..." After finishing speaking, she couldn't control herself anymore, and finally fell to the ground, mourning Weeping bitterly. While Ziyi was still sobbing and talking, Shen Shizhu's face already had an unbearable expression on his face.At this moment, he found Yu Huai standing aside, his eyebrows were tightly frowned, so he stretched out his hand and tugged at his friend's sleeve, and when Yu Huai walked a few steps after him, he hurriedly said: "She is a girl from Pijiang. Huan, it's really pitiful to be in such a situation now. We might as well spend some money and redeem her!" Yu Huai shook his head: "I've thought about this too, but I'm afraid it's not right!" Shen Shizhu stared: "What's wrong? Could it be that we have the heart to die!" "Brother, don't worry!" Yu Huai made a stop gesture, "Didn't you hear what she said just now, were there seven maids who were robbed with her? Even if they got separated later, there are still four On this pier. You can't redeem them all, can you? Besides, we have a heavy responsibility to go south this time, and we can't bring a bunch of maids to show off. Not to mention that we may not be able to see Pijiang at that time— —Hey, under the overturned nest, there are still eggs. Now that things are going on, we can only focus on the big things first!" "So--" "Hey, give her some money and let her find her own way of life!"