In late autumn when Xu Erdan was eight years old, the leaves on the trees were almost gone. In the past, Xu Erdan and the children in the village liked this season the most. Because the busy farming season ended, everyone was well-off and they were relaxed in their hands.

The children were looking forward to one thing, that is, there was a smoke column rising in the sky in the north. Sometimes adults would take their whole family to the mountains. Although the adults drove a cart to pack up the fine and soft and livestock and poultry, they were busy, but the teenagers found it fresh and interesting, and they went on a trip with the whole family.

Unfortunately, the smoke from the sky was sparse and the adults didn't care much, which disappointed Erdan. It seemed that he could only stay in the village by winter this year.

When the Mongolian horse team suddenly appeared, everything was too late, and the children playing outside the village subconsciously ran to the village.

Some parents were waiting for their children to enter the cellar together, while others did not wait. When Erdan ran home, the whole family had already hidden in the cellar. Erdan cried and asked without any response. He didn't know how to open the cellar entrance, and his family had no intention of opening it from it.

When he heard the sound of horse hooves and howlings, Erdan could only hide in the chicken coop. In order to keep the new hay on the shop, he hid in the corner of the chicken coop and blocked himself with hay.

Xu Erdan didn't see what happened next, but she always saw everything in her dreams, because the sound was right in her ears, and she also oozed in with her ears.

Some of the children abandoned by their families were killed immediately, some were ravaged to death, and some were forced to betray their families. Everyone knows that there is a cellar and it is not difficult to find. But someone gives some advice to save some effort. When the first family was found, they are forced to confess the cellar of neighbors and relatives, and give a promise that no one can believe it, but they have to write a letter - find a cellar of Tibetans to survive...

No one in the village knows who, and they have no taboos, and no one is so tough and unyielding to do things for life outside of their families. Illusory promises are better than no promises.

The cellars of each family were found, including the Xu family. Xu Erdan heard the begging for mercy, howling and screaming from his parents and sisters. The screams of his mother and sister lasted for a very long time. Xu Erdan bit the straw and did not dare to make any sound until the village became quiet. Then the fire ignited. More than a dozen hours had passed since he hid in the chicken coop.

The Mongolians took away all the chickens, but they were too lazy to search for the chicken coop. Someone leaned in and glanced at them. They couldn't see anything dark and smelled so scent that they couldn't hide anything.

Xu Erdan was so choked by the smoke from the burning fire that he could not stand it, otherwise he would not dare to leave the chicken coop, and he was so scared that he was about to collapse.

In his own yard, Xu Erdan saw the bodies of his parents, brothers and sisters, among which his mother and sister were naked and tragic. Xu Erdan stumbled out of the village, and he knew many corpses and many corpses.

After running outside the village, Xu Erdan didn't know what to do. He could still see the smoke and dust raised by the Mongolian horse team going far away, and he could only watch the village burning.

I waited until it was dark and the cold was too cold to walk into the village again. Although the smell was bad, the unburned houses and courtyards could still warm people. It was not until this time that Xu Erdan started crying on the street, crying until she was exhausted and fell asleep.

At noon the next day, when Xu Erdan was looking for food in the ashes, he heard the sound of horse hooves coming from outside the village. He wanted to hide. There was nowhere to hide in the village full of ruins. Xu Erdan, who was not very brave, didn't want to hide so much, and sat in his yard in a daze.

This time the official cavalry came. At first they ignored Xu Erdan. Xu Erdan heard "...kill Lisuo with one knife..." "... Why is it so unlucky, there is nothing left in the village..." I only remember that an older mature cavalry scolded everyone and came over to pick them up and ask.

Fortunately, Xu Erdan still remembered that he had relatives in the city, but fortunately, the cavalry were all listless because the village was turned into ruins, so they were sent to relatives' homes in Huairen County.

Xu Erdan's uncle, who was separated by a layer, had two sons, but they both got sick. Then he gave birth to three daughters and survived. The couple was childhood sweethearts and unwilling to find a young man. They always wanted to adopt him but no one agreed. Xu Erdan came just in time.

He just treated it as a biological son until he was old. When the old man got older, he passed the errands smoothly to Xu Erdan. Although the rules inherited by clerks, although the blue-clothed square hat and soap robe could be passed on to the next generation, the position could not be passed on. Good errands were substituted according to their qualifications. If the younger generations had no support, they would even have to wait for the position year after year. The Xu family used money to make Erdan wait for only one year at home, and made the worst deputy servant, and gave a civil servant to a household house to listen to the bad.

Such an errand is not as good as a good person and is busy. If he is a smart person, he can still flatter and get close to his personal connections, but Erdan is good at everything, but he is a little gloomy. His adoptive parents sighed and said that the family is not rich and his favors are almost exhausted. Could Erdan be the child who can only be a servant for others?

The three-class staff, whether they are the main or deputy, have a very important job. Except for a few decent masters who are on the list, everyone else must participate. Even those masters who want to be able to sit firmly, they must participate. This job is to collect grain and collect taxes.

This collection of grain and taxes is not a trivial matter. Small people and small households can make money, but the big clans and gentry can only bargain. How much can they be collected in the end depends on how to negotiate, and on the other hand, who can fight. The gentry and officials also have the privileges recognized by the officials. When facing the big clans and settlements, it depends on who has a big fist.

If there are villages in the mainland, although there are clans, the clans dare not fight against the government, many of them are scattered sand. However, this Datong border town is different. Many villages are derived from hundreds of households or military household remnants.

Although they are small households and have no clan support, some of the habits in the army are passed down. They are still a little afraid of thousands of households and cavalry officials who command the masters. They are really unambiguous in the government service. Even other households with no source of military households with garrisons are also border residents in border towns, brave and aggressive, and some people take the lead in fighting. Otherwise, they will be bullied by hundreds of households and military villages on weekdays.

Under such circumstances, if the government wants to collect grain and taxes in places like them, it has to rely on the knife and stick of the three-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad-squad

Therefore, every autumn grain season, three squads of the city are mobilized. Whether they are in charge of the business or listen to the poor, they have to take their families out of the city and walk over to villages one by one. They will be fooled when they should, and beat them when they should, and collect the grain.

Erdan is not particularly thin, nor is he particularly strong. He doesn’t talk much and doesn’t cause trouble. He is the honest person he often thinks, but not to mention an honest person, as long as you are in the third class, the disabled have to go out to collect grain together.

Although they are fighting and nervous, they are often yelling and intimidating each other most of the time. In addition, some private transactions are not enough to fight each other with their families. It is just that a few villages dominated by military households have to fight every year. Although they will not be disabled or die, they will not be able to hand over them if they don’t fight.

The officers could pull out more than 200 young men, with a complete set of equipment and a few bows, and the military villages were far inferior. But I never thought that this year, it would be a situation of 20 to 300. The officers suddenly became much weaker. They originally had to add 20%, but now they had to collect 30% less.

Cutting off people's wealth is a great revenge, but if you really want to take action and you can't beat them, the officers are in trouble all at once. The military villages are full of arrogance and must take advantage of the verbal advantage. Some people not only scolded the official language, but also spoke a few words in Mongolian language.

There are many Mongolians in the border town of Datong, many of them are indigenous officers and soldiers who have been loyal to the Ming Dynasty for generations. It is not uncommon to speak Mongolian words, and those who speak Mongolian words may not necessarily be masters and soldiers. Everyone can learn a few words.

No one expected that Xu Erdan, who had not made any noise, exploded and rushed into the crowd with the wooden stick in his hand. He had no strong martial arts skills. Those two moves were all the workers in the three classes. The move was simple, but he couldn't resist and was really fierce.

In this crowd, most of them were gathering together to fight. They were not willing to cause serious casualties when they really fought. Why should the officers make a big grudge? Xu Erdan's move was unstoppable, and he knocked down several young and strong men in the front row of the other party in succession. Some wanted to dodge, and some had always fought. At that time, the morale of the officials was also brought up by Xu Erdan and rushed over with shouts.

In this battle, the official defeated the victory with great joy. The people were injured eleven people, three people bleed, five people were injured, and two were bruised. One of the official rescued was very proud and intimidated other villages to pay taxes. Everyone knew that the official rescued the official rescued the ruthless move this year, and there were ruthless people.

"...Warning well, our yamen dares to rush forward like this, and responsible young people should use it..." This time, the bravery made all the masters of the Sixth Room know Xu Erdan. The Jingcheng of the Lifang and the Hufang both gave a speech to praise it, and the head of the Third Team also felt that there was light on his face.

The leaders of the officials and servants all had this attitude, so Xu Erdan immediately became popular, and changed from a small role who was watching the door and listening to others to a deputy officer in the third squad who was responsible for escorting the city gate to a deputy officer in the third squad. These errands were all very good.

After Xu Erdan made his mark this time, the fierceness that came from unknown to him was also aroused. All the subsequent fire and fights were charged forward, and he was not afraid of being injured or bleeding. Perhaps the family disaster he encountered when he was a child had exhausted his bad luck. No matter how he fought, his companions around him even caused casualties, and at most he would have bruised.

After just one year of this, Xu Erdan was about to be forty years old and was one of the decent officials in the county. Although he still had not been included in the official list, the benefits in his hands were no less than those of everyone. His name was changed from Zhou Gui, the House Jingcheng to Erdan. It was a decent name. There may not be many people calling him the name directly, and they all called him "Master Xu".

Mr. Xu also had his own apprentice, as well as the deputy and Kuaishou, so he didn't have to do many things with his own hands. His silence and gloom gradually disappeared, and he became a philanthropist. He would not be excited and furious when he heard others speak Mongolian words. It was normal for everyone to be like this.

But when the war smoke rose in the sky, and when there were "false alarms" again and again, Xu Erdan began to get anxious. Outsiders could see that Xu Erdan was having a bad rest, and he was listless during the day. He often went to the city wall to look around, and he couldn't take care of many common errands who made money.

When it was his turn to set up a checkpoint at the city gate to check, others regarded this as an opportunity to make some money, but Xu Erdan did it very seriously, and it was not okay to have a little ambiguity or suspicion, which made other officers very unhappy. Some even said, "Why don't Xu Erdan meet Zhu Da, you will definitely suffer a big loss, but they didn't meet."

As the situation became more and more urgent, Xu Erdan was also anxious. He secretly bought a courtyard in the area where poor people lived in the city. He and his eldest son expanded the existing cellar and put in necessary supplies. On the day the city gate was closed, they let their family change their appearance. Although the city was not big, no one could recognize it. Even his colleagues in the yamen only knew that the Xu family went up and down to visit relatives outside the city.

After all these were arranged, Xu Erdan began to take the initiative to ask for the rotation of the city. He thought it very clearly that it is easy to misjudgment in the city. No matter whether the reaction is slow or the false alarm is a bit slow, it is easy to cause trouble. However, if you observe on the city and take action quickly, it is the most efficient and safest way to do it. As for others, who can still care about it?

Speaking of which, the vast army that appeared under Huairen City was the first time Xu Erdan saw a real Mongolian army. When he was a child, he encountered three years ago in the Battle of Yingzhou. After that invasion and harassment, the Tartars were forced to the north by the Ming Dynasty's official army little by little. Huairen County began to be peaceful from that time.

Since seeing the Mongolian army, Xu Erdan's anxiety suddenly disappeared, and his whole body became gloomy again. Just like his teenage state, he polished his rusty knife to a sharp edge.

On duty at the city wall is a chore. No matter how good the supply is, it is not as comfortable as at home. The Zhu family and the young police officers are still very enthusiastic, so they are dedicated to their duties. The young and strong men who were recruited are strictly supervised and dare not relax at all. However, the old men who have been up and down in the yamen for many years can get through. As for the guards of the Li family caravan, they just respond to the story.

Everyone knows the nature of these old men. When arranging defense, they are placed on the second or even third lines, filling in vacant places, passing messages, checking guard supplies, etc. Anyway, they can't count too much except doing odd jobs.

But the intention of calling is useless. The servants are all guessing. If the Zhu family boy wants to control the whole city, he cannot let the city pick up the group. The city speaks effectively and can pull people up. The people who are still interested in making trouble are just gentry and officials. The ones who have some force are the servants. Of course, they have to pull these under fifty years old to the top of the city and stare at them at any time.

If you think about this, you will know that as long as you don’t make trouble, no one will strictly control your lazy work. Moreover, you are always sloppy and you can get confused by your face.

As a result, some gathered to gamble, some were drinking secretly, and some were looking for a place to shelter from the wind and stock. Zhu Da was very tragic and suffered a lot. After that, he was scolded and calculated, and everyone understood what the scale was.

When they went to the city to be on duty day and night, they would chat and chat with places where they were few, and they would also bring wine pots, but they just drank one or two sips and didn't dare to overdo it. Everyone chatted all day long, from eating, drinking, gambling, to the wild world, and then to the officialdom, and it was a rare leisure time.

In the past, Xu Erdan would have been involved happily, but now he can't even pull him. He was patrolling the city and on duty with his sword all day long, and was treated as a bad brain by his colleagues.

After staying at the city for a few days, the officers began to rumor that they would release the siege outside the city, saying that Mr. Zhu had already come down easily, and everyone didn't have to be so nervous. Just wait for the siege to withdraw. There were a lot of complaints out of thin air, saying that they would withdraw the siege anyway, and they were practicing everyone so ruthlessly. This little master is too unkind. In the future, he will not rely on everyone to do things in Huairen County?

Unlike his colleagues' relaxation, although Xu Erdan could not see anything from the movements of the enemy outside the city, he instinctively felt something was wrong. This reaction was verified with the reaction he could see, and he could immediately draw a conclusion that was completely opposite to everyone.

Xu Erdan has been thinking about what to do after the city is broken. He also thought of his reaction, which would be scared and even go crazy. But the situation is approaching, and Xu Erdan is at a loss. He sneaked home twice and asked his family to go to a place that had been resettled for a long time. He told him to go into the cellar immediately whenever he heard the noise in the city, and not to be afraid of wrong judgments or too late, but he didn't want to hide.

The gangster and the yamen have already made a judgment. Even if they absent from work, the young master will not pursue the matter. The reason why everyone is still following the rules is that when the Tartars leave, everyone still has to make a living under this Mr. Zhu. If you don’t bend over now, you will have trouble in the future. Xu Erdan naturally understands that these few days are the best time to escape...

Xu Erdan thought about his family and his fear. When the small cavalry of Tartars began to watch the formation, he ran back to his hiding place for the first time, but hesitated for half an hour, explained a few words to his family and returned to the city. Then he went through two or three more times. When the last time, Xu Erdan was in a daze and thought about it clearly. He might not want to hide, but wanted to fight. Some of his memories were rumbling, and he thought of the crying and screams he heard in the chicken coop, especially his parents, brothers and sisters.

When he left his hiding place this time, the few words Xu Erdan told his wife were like last words on his deathbed, which scared his wife to tears.

The scars and anger hidden in the heart may not suppress fear and despair. Xu Erdan regretted it when he returned to the city. The anger and revenge thoughts brought by those crying and screaming were not as good as the fears he had when he was hiding in a chicken coop.

It was still time to go back. Now I have to take my family into the cellar. I can still work in the yamen and live a good life after the Tartars left... Xu Erdan was hesitant. He wanted to see what Zhu Da was doing and judge the situation outside through Zhu Da's reaction, but he didn't see anyone. He found out that the young master was actually asleep.

Is the situation not as bad as he thought, otherwise how could this young master go to sleep without caring about the city defense? But Xu Erdan still believes in his intuition more and has been worried for so long. Could it be a false alarm?

But what Xu Erdan did not expect was that he had a fight with his eyelids, and his sleepiness surged, and he couldn't hold on anymore. He was worried and scared until now, no one could sleep well at night, and even had insomnia all night. Even though there was no result and no decision, his body and spirit had reached their limits and could not hold on any longer.

These oil-sluts in the yamen have long found a place to sleep where they can sleep. Xu Erdan also knew that if they die in the morning or have a false alarm, they would not delay anything after a sleep. Although it seems more likely that it is a false alarm now, Xu Erdan yawned and walked towards a place where military funds were piled up.

I fell asleep quickly, but I didn't sleep well, but I quickly fell into my dream. After some strange scenes, Xu Erdan had the nightmare that I had repeated many times, hiding in the chicken coop and not daring to move.

Listening to the crying and screaming of the family, the conversation and laughter of the Tartars, and the dead silence that gradually became quiet. The nightmare has these every time, and every time it ends with the Tartars discovering the chicken coop. It seems that this time is slightly different from before. This time, the Tartars even reached into the chicken coop, and even poked and stabbed inside with swords and guns, just to see if there were anyone inside. Xu Erdan was frightened and cried and struggled. He even felt the damage of the swords and guns...
Chapter completed!