"Dongjiang soldiers? How not? Li Mingli said with a smile: "I came once a month ago, raided an official village, and killed more than a dozen people, including five people from Manchuria, and a white armor, I heard that he was older, almost fifty years old, his body was full of injuries and diseases, and he was raised by people in the village, and he was also counted as a guard here, there was a white armor, and he was killed as a result. Pen ~ Fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info"

Cao Zhenyan said deliberately: "This seems to be very different from the style of Dongjiang." ”

"It's different." Li Mingli thought for a while: "Let's be honest, it's more like the Hutchison merchant army on the Thirteen Mountains...... I have heard that it was the heavy infantry, crossing the river in a small boat to raid, the coordination was good, the thunder blow, the heavy infantry broke into the village, the white armor and armor did not have time to react, there was no loss on the opposite side, decapitated and stripped off the armor and left quickly. Because of this, Jia La'e was really angry, several Niu Lu were really reprimanded, and the Han army was also ordered to guard the river for a long time, which can be called a rumor. ”

"Can you prevent it?"

"It's hard." Li Mingli said indifferently: "Let's go here to a wall fort, Qinghe Fort behind us, after crossing the river is Gushan Fort, and then there are Dadian and Kuandian forts, which are already controlled by the Dongjiang River, our army can only enter the Qing by chance, my army enters, and they will sneak into the dense forest, and when our army comes out, they will come out to harass." Now from Niumaozhai to here, few people dare to shoot or pick fruits and digging ginseng within hundreds of miles. Further south, there are majestic and steep mountains, and we only control Tianshuijing Station and Lianshan Pass, as well as Phoenix City further south, and the rest are controlled by the Dongjiang River. To the sea, it is people's territory, we can only look at the sea and sigh. ”

"The merchant army." Cao Zhenyan deliberately showed a look of resentment on his face, and said, "Sooner or later, I will have to settle the account of the Thirteen Mountains with them." ”

"It doesn't have to be that way." Li Mingli hesitated, but still persuaded: "Each is his master, the soldiers are fierce and dangerous, brother, you don't have to think about showing your face in this matter, it is important for us to keep ourselves safe." ”

Cao Zhenyan tried several times, but he couldn't understand the essentials, he could only drink with peace of mind, he was originally a good drinker and loved to drink, Li Mingli drank a lot of alcohol, the two drank with all their might, and after a while, they drank too much, Li Mingli helped Cao Zhenyan to sleep in the wing, and he heard snoring loudly before he went out.

"Brother Cao is really generous." When Li Mingli returned to the stove, the eldest girl happily pointed to a pile of things in the corner of the wall and said: "Two buckets of rice, two pieces of cloth, a sheep's head, a dozen catties of pork, and four frozen chickens, which are enough for us to eat for a while." ”

"This rice is for the inventory of the year," Li Mingli said: "Our family's four buckets and the current two buckets, five buckets can not be eaten when sealed, and there is more than one bucket to eat until the year ......before and after the year."

"Huh?"

The eldest girl, mother and daughter were shocked, a bucket of more grain was less than 20 catties, and now there are two months before the New Year, which means that 20 catties of grain and three people have to eat for two months.

"It's certainly not enough." Li Mingli said quite calmly: "The sheep's head is kept for the big girl's confinement, chicken, pork, and they can be exchanged for half a stone of grain, I will exchange it tomorrow...... I usually have fish to eat, and my mother-in-law and I usually eat more frugally, so we just have to be unaggrieved. ”

A family of three all know that this is a last resort, Li Mingli is a person who works, and the food must be guaranteed, but meat is not a necessary thing, the advantage of eating meat is that people can live healthier, and eating miscellaneous grains is the same, just burning their own vitality.

Ordinary people will not understand this truth, but hard work and hard work are obvious things, and everyone knows that this is a necessary method......

"Can you ask Brother Cao to help more?" The big girl's eyes flashed with tears, and she said with a smile.

"Confused." Li Mingli will not blame his wife, but he is ashamed enough to worry his wife as a person who is a top household. At the moment, he just said very firmly: "The Cao family is indeed a big family, and the burden is also heavy. After all, they are generals of the Han army, and they are all behind the back of the battle, and they can't take their turn to grab things, and they have been living on their previous family background, and there are many relatives and friends who need to help, and their lives are not as easy as they thought......"

The eldest girl didn't say anything, she knew that what her husband said was the truth, but the predicament was in front of her, like a black hole shrouding the family, before that, there was grain in the hoard, smoked fish hanging under the eaves, there was enough wood chopping wood between the stoves, there was land to plant, and there were sturdy men supporting the door of this small family, but all luck had to come to an abrupt end at this time, just because of the small thoughts of the upper nobles who turned at will?

The eldest girl looked at Li Mingli with teary eyes, choked up, and said, "What else can I do?" ”

"See walking." Li Mingli said: "Brother Cao wants me to welcome the Niu Lu Ezhen of Guan Zhuang more, and it seems that it can only be like this." First set up a food household, and then try to settle down, if it really can't work......"

Li Mingli looked at his mother-in-law and wife, gritted his teeth and said, "The eldest girl is about to give birth, let's focus on stability in everything." ”

At night, Li Mingli and Cao Zhenyan fell asleep, he never slept steadily, and was awakened by nightmares several times.

Li Mingli wanted to wake up Cao Zhenyan and tell him what he thought...... Houjin is brutal and unkind, Dongjiang Town heard that it is also very difficult, Li Mingli has not fled with the eldest girl's family, the main reason is that he can still live a stable life on the Houjin side, he is a flag-bearer and a brave and good fighter, there is always something available, the Han army will also fight for the Jurchens, so the upper should consider leaving a part of the strong and daring Han army to enrich the camp, Li Mingli didn't think much about his past before, live, and make his family live better, this is the only thing he should do now.

As a result, the tree wanted to be quiet and the wind did not stop, and the national policy of the Later Jin seemed to be to drive out the Han people who could not create profits, leaving a small number of Han troops and Han people to farm for the Jurchens as slaves, and to squeeze the Han army in the most harsh way...... From then on, the Han army will cease to exist, swords, guns and bows and arrows will be useless, only hoes and ploughing cattle will remain, and the future situation will be even more cruel and difficult.

Li Mingli was confused, he kept his composure in front of the Ding family and the eldest girl, but in fact, his heart was extremely tormented, he didn't know what the future would be, and what would be good?

Defecting to Dongjiang, he really didn't have this kind of thought.

Although the Dongjiang side is not easy to eat, but hunger and cold are a sure thing, there were also Dongjiang soldiers who ran over to spread rumors or poisoned and were caught, all of them were ragged and yellow-skinned, and they didn't want to talk about the matter in the Dongjiang River, through a lot of news, the fugitive Liao people on the Dongjiang side lived a very miserable life, hundreds of thousands of people nested in the area from Tieshan Yizhou to Phi Island, there were quite a lot of people who died of cold and starvation, and it was very hard to barely settle down. It's not the blood and sweat of others, but what if it's your own family?

If Li Mingli was the only one by himself, he would have run away a long time ago, how could he survive with his skills, and even become an officer......

Sometimes Li Mingli feels that he is trapped in a strange circle, one whirlpool after another pulls him, telling him to keep struggling in the whirlpool, the more desperately he wants to leave, the more he can't break free, he doesn't know that this is the tide of the times, sometimes personal efforts are so pale and ridiculous under the tide of the times...... He hurt his leg and didn't run away, and everything changed dramatically......

In the middle of the night, when he was in a daze, Li Mingli thought of the old team officer Yang Yi, remembered Zhou Daniu, Cheng Fang, he didn't know how they were now, but he expected to have an easier life than himself......

Cao Zhenyan got up when the rooster crowed in the early morning, he and Li Mingli said goodbye, as the fourteenth elder brother's coat, Cao Zhenyan's life was not so free, and many times he couldn't help it.

Due to the disappointment of Li Mingli's reaction, Cao Zhenyan did not mention the matter of calling Li Mingli an undercover agent, he was afraid that this big brother would refuse, and there would be no way to turn around in the future.

I don't worry that Li Mingli will betray, that's impossible.

Before leaving, Cao Zhenyan left Li Mingli another ten taels of silver, which can actually be left more...... Hutchison has a secret intelligence point on the Houjin side, the role is not to send intelligence or collect intelligence, that is quite a difficult thing, this point has only one function, just to provide funds for the spies within Houjin, as for the collection and sending of intelligence is the business of the spies, only at a fixed time and place to receive silver, usually even a single line of contact is cut off, spies like Cao Zhenyan do not contact anyone, there is no own upline or horizontal line colleagues, only according to their own ability to develop the downline, Whether or not the manpower is developed, whether the intelligence is sent, and how much effective intelligence is finally sent, this is the criterion for measuring the success of spies.

Cao Zhenyan is an ambitious young man, he is determined to do this well, and Li Mingli is the best downline candidate he likes, but whether it can really develop in, he has to observe.

"Treasure, brother!"

"Big brother stays!"

The two brothers hugged their fists at the entrance of the village to say goodbye, the inside and outside of the village were snow-white, this time the heavy snow covered almost the entire northern China, people did not know that from the fifth to sixth year of the Apocalypse, another extraordinarily large-scale famine was about to strike, starting from the Wanli period and continuing until the Shunzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, the Xiaoice period of more than forty years made North China the same extremely cold weather every year, severe cold in winter, drought in spring and summer.

It snowed heavily all night, and by the time Cao Zhenyan led his mount out of the village, the snow had already covered the horse's hooves.

Far away from the entrance of the village, Cao Zhenyan saw that the entrance of the village where Li Mingli was located was lonely, so he transferred the horse's head and began to gallop away in another direction.

This time out of Liaoyang is not easy, Cao Zhenyan asked for two more days off, of course, he said that he would get together with the brothers for two more days, and the fourteenth elder brother had a lot of clothes, although he liked this bold and refreshing little Cao very much, but it was not necessary for him, and Cao Zhenyan was the Han army in the end, and his identity was several layers worse than that of the Jurchen banner slave and the Mongolian slave, Dolgon gave Cao Zhenyan a holiday very happily, no one will suspect anything, after all, Cao Zhenyan has a brother with a strong friendship, which is a fact that many people know.