When the official army escorted the thieves and the recaptured Shengchengang back to the county seat, although it was nearly four watches, there were still hundreds of people flocking to the city gate to welcome the returning soldiers, and even the county commander Liu Yaochen personally led the others in the yamen out of the city to greet them.

Liu County's order to go out of the city to greet him is naturally reasonable, and the reason why the people have such an enthusiastic reaction is because everyone has been suffering from the performance of thieves outside the city for a long time. Although the thieves of Hutou Village generally do not go down the mountain to rob the local people, but the feeling of thieves and bandits snooping around at all times still makes people feel quite frightened.

So on this night, the streets and alleys of Yuncheng County were brightly lit and jubilant, and the people were even more surrounded by the triumphant division who had returned victoriously, cheering and sending them to the county office, and then they were still celebrating outside the yamen.

Of course, there are also many people who cry out loud after knowing that their husbands and sons died in the attack on the cottage, but this sadness mixed with the joy of the people in the city is not so conspicuous.

After welcoming Suo Chao and the others into the second hall, Liu Yaochen's face was flushed with excitement, and he bowed his hand to him again and again: "General Suo is really the savior of my Yuncheng County, if you don't bring troops here, Xia Guan really can't imagine that we can capture Hutou Village and wipe out these thieves who have been in trouble for many years." ”

Suo Chao calmly accepted his thanks, and then said: "A certain person is also acting on orders, Liu Zhixian does not have to be like this." But if you really want to talk about it, I think that there are still people in Yuncheng County whose credit is not under the generals and soldiers. ”

"Oh? There are such heroes, but I don't know who they are? Liu Yaochen hurriedly asked.

"That's Sun Tu. If he hadn't come up with a way to attack with fire this time, I'm afraid we would still be left at the bottom of the mountain, and I don't know what to do! Moreover, in the subsequent attack on the mountain, Nasun Tu also made a great contribution, shooting the leader of the thieves with only one arrow, thus completely destroying the last bit of resistance of the thieves. Liu County Order, your county can have such a young hero, but it is really your luck. Suo Chao said with admiration.

Liu Yaochen was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and then nodded in agreement: "Yes, this official has long seen that Sun Tu is not an idle person, and I will definitely cultivate him in the future and let him serve the imperial court." ”

Seeing this, Song Jiang also praised and said: "County Yin, you don't know something, this Sun Saburo has indeed shown his ability far beyond others this time, even if he is humble, he is ashamed of himself." If he hadn't persevered and taken out the fire oil shipped from overseas, the next losses of our officers and troops would have been great, and it would have been impossible to break through the thieves' nest so easily and take back the Birthday Gang! ”

Seeing this, Lei Heng, Zhu Tong and others also took the opportunity to begin to praise Sun Tulai, praising him as brave and unparalleled, as if the greatest credit for winning this battle lies with him. These words fell into Liu Yuan's ears, which made him feel even more uneasy, if Sun Tu was given a chance to get ahead, his own situation would not be good.

And Liu Xianling nodded frequently and said: "Such a meritorious hero should be praised well, I don't know where Sun Tu is now?" ”

"He also came to the county office with us, so he should be outside the door. The little one went and called him in. Huang Si reacted the fastest, and quickly replied and walked out. He and Sun Tu didn't have too much of a holiday, and since the other party was now valued by his boss, he naturally needed to make friends.

After hurriedly going out, Huang Si searched for a long time, and found Sun Tu who was talking to Ya'er in an inconspicuous corner, Ya'er's eyes were still a little red at this time, but his mood finally calmed down a lot.

Sun Tu was called away early the morning before yesterday, and she didn't know why. It wasn't until I inquired later that I realized that I was actually dragged to attack the tiger head village outside the city, which scared the little girl a lot. Especially after that, the news kept coming that many people had died in this bandit war, which scared her even more that she didn't know what to do.

After learning of the triumph of the official army today, Ya'er hurriedly ran to the city gate, but there were many people at night, and she couldn't find her third brother as a little girl, and she was almost desperate at that time. It was only a little hope left in her heart that she followed the team to the county office, and then after several twists and turns, she finally met Sun Tu who was waiting in front of the county office.

When she saw Sun Tu, Ya'er couldn't control her emotions at all, and she cried all of a sudden, Sun Tu hurriedly stepped forward, half-hugged the only relative in the world, and said a lot of comforting words, before she finally let her cry, and then said: "Ya'er, don't cry anymore, you see that my body is soaked with your tears." ”

"How can there be so many ......" Ya'er slapped Sun Tu a little shyly, then looked at the person in front of her carefully, and said nervously: "Third brother, you are not injured, are you?" You can't be fine......"

"Don't worry, your third brother and I have the blessing of the gods, how can I be easily injured. Didn't I come back well, and I did some credit? ”

"Really?" Ya'er asked with a look of surprise. Before Sun Tu could answer, Huang Si, who happened to find them, came over with a smile: "Naturally it's true, no, the county Yin is looking for Sun Sanlang and asked me to lead him to get the reward." ”

Sun Tu glanced at Huang Si, then turned to Ya'er and said, "It's late at night, don't wait here, go home and rest first." When I'm done, I'll go home. ”

In front of outsiders, Ya'er was still very well-behaved and obedient, and when she nodded, and then glanced at Sun Tu a few times with some reluctance, she hesitated and slowly left. Then Sun Tu and Huang Si walked to the county office, and after walking a few steps, he suddenly asked: "Huang Bantou, it was Liu Zhisi's idea to order me on an errand this time, right?" ”

"Ah, why are you ......" Huang Si was obviously surprised, and as soon as the words came out, he realized that he had been tricked by this young man, and he immediately stopped talking. But this was enough to explain the problem, Sun Tu glanced at him with a smile, and then stepped inside, walking towards the second hall that was still noisy, but left Huang Si in place. After a while, Huang Si hurriedly caught up, and his expression was already a little more different.

After Liu Yaochen saw Sun Tu, he also praised him a few words, but it was just a cliché, and there was not much new meaning. Then another messenger said, "Take two minas of silver from the treasury." ”

When the others took two ingots of official silver in the shape of ingots, he solemnly sent them to Sun Tu: "Sun Tu, you have made meritorious contributions to the suppression of bandits in this county, and the official is deeply pleased, so I will reward you with twenty taels of silver first." As for the other rewards, let's wait until the official reports to the Jeju government. ”

Sun Tu did not shirk, and quickly took over the two heavy silver ingots. To be honest, this is the first time he has seen silver since he came to the Great Song Dynasty.

is different from those nonsense film and television dramas in later generations, in real history, at least before the Ming Dynasty, there was actually very little silver in private circulation, and the people were mostly exposed to copper coins. Because there has always been a shortage of silver in the land of China, although the government also regards silver as an important currency, it does not advocate circulation, and many people may not be able to see real silver in their lifetime.

Only in order to facilitate the delivery of taxes to the imperial court, the local government will reserve some silver, and it is not scattered silver, most of them are recast and recast, and then made into five taels or ten taels, horseshoe-shaped silver bills, which are commonly known as ingots. Now Liu Zhixian rewarded Sun Tu with ingots, and he can be regarded as having enough attitude.

However, this is not too convenient for Sun Tu, because most of the people do not accept silver, and if he wants to spend the twenty taels of silver, he has to find a silver number to exchange it for money. Of course, the value of twenty taels of silver is not low, and the official price is one tael of silver, but the people are likely to reach one tael of silver in exchange for two or three pieces of money, and fifty taels of silver will be properly started.

Subsequently, Liu Yaochen asked people to set up a banquet in the pavilion next to the county government to celebrate this victory. And Sun Tu, who made a lot of contributions in this war, was naturally invited to the table.

This is really a great honor, because the people who can participate in the celebration today are all county officials, or people with heads and faces in the county. This alone shows that Sun Tu's status in this county has been greatly improved.