48 Chapter 48 Tiger Cub

Mu Hanzhang waited in the only restaurant in town for nearly two hours before Jing Shao came to see him, feeling quite downcast.

"What, aren't you convinced?" Mu Hanzhang pushed the job to him and asked the waiter to bring two more hot dishes.

Jing Shao was overjoyed when he saw Hao Dadao just now, and wanted to persuade him to go with him. Unexpectedly, the man actually said that he wanted to chop the meat into pieces and asked him to talk later. The weather was hot in midsummer, and it was almost noon. Jing Shao was afraid that his princess would be overheated, so he asked him to go to the restaurant to wait for him. He waited there for nearly two hours before he and Hao Dadao went into the room to talk in detail. I thought I knew him very well. He is a descendant of a famous general, with strong martial arts and extraordinary military skills. Naturally, he is frustrated by killing pigs in this small mountain village. Who knows that when I express my intention to recruit, that person is still your deputy? "Why are you like this?" troublesome" expression.

"I am making a good living by killing pigs and selling meat. Why should I go to the battlefield and fight to the death? If I don't go, I won't go!" Hao Dadao said this and kicked him out of the pork shop.

"If you want a good general, you must be patient and ask for it." Mu Hanzhang poured him a glass of water. "It will take a few days for the army to circle Dahang Mountain. We can stay here for a few more days. Don't be impatient."

Jing Shao raised his head and drank the water in the cup: "This water tastes really cool!"

Mu Hanzhang poured him a glass and told him that the water was unheated well water, drawn directly from the well in the backyard of the restaurant. It was cold and sweet, and it was very delicious: "I am already here We’ve booked a room in this store.”

"Ah?" Jing Shao swallowed a mouthful of food and looked up at him, "Jun Qing, are you sure that I can't persuade him?"

"To get a wife, you need three letters and six appointments. The principle of recruiting talents and marrying a wife are the same. You have to be sincere and have the means." Mu Hanzhang slowly took a sip of water, "But there is a problem."

"What's the difficulty?" Jing Shao frowned in thought.

In the previous life, it was because in the 19th year of Hongzheng's reign, a foolish and money-grubbing county magistrate was transferred here, and he was lax in governing the common people. The yamen servant bullied Hao Dashao's neighbor's little daughter. He was so angry that he hacked the yamen servant to death with a butcher's knife. The county magistrate wanted to arrest him, and the villagers petitioned for him. The magistrate was confused and drove the villagers away with whips. There was a moment of chaos, and the government officials actually beat to death two innocent people, triggering a sudden civil uprising.

Jing Shao's attack on the King of Huainan was frustrated at that time, and he happened to encounter this civil uprising on his way back to Beijing with his troops. After leading his troops to quell the rebellion, he killed the county magistrate in front of the people, and the people were angry. At that time, Hao Dadao trained a group of villagers who did not know how to use martial arts to fight against the officers and soldiers, which made him cherish their talents, so he requested an order to recruit Hao Dadao under his command.

However, the county magistrate probably hasn't taken the imperial examination yet.

Mu Hanzhang said calmly: "The bedding in this inn is very old, I'm afraid there are fleas."

"Ah?" Jing Shao was stunned for a moment, and then he realized that this was the difficulty his princess was talking about.

Mu Hanzhang looked at his stunned look and couldn't help but curled his lips: "After dinner, let's go pull some fabric and spread it on the bed for the night."

"Why don't you let the waiter change the bed to a new one?" Jing Shao frowned. There will definitely be fleas in such a shabby inn in a small mountain village. What if a pimple is bitten out of the princess's jade-like skin? ?

"It is very dangerous to reveal one's wealth in a place like this. It would be inappropriate for you to give that hunter some silver today." Mu Hanzhang persuaded him, raising his hand to grab some food for him.

"There are rare wild deer in this town, and businessmen often come to collect them. We are not the richest." Jing Shao picked up the bowl, gulped down all the food in the bowl, and then stretched the bowl towards himself. princess.

Mu Hanzhang glared at him, then gave him another chopstick: "The waiter said that it costs a fortune to buy a new bed, but it only costs thirty cash to buy a new bed sheet from the cloth shop opposite."

"Cough cough cough..." Jing Shao heard this and immediately choked on the rice grains. After talking for a long time, Jun Qing found it too expensive!

The two of them went to the cloth store to pick up two sheets and came back. There were no stalls in the market. Most of the people who come here to go to the market are mountain residents from the nearby mountains. They have to rush back early to get home before dark, so by dusk, the streets are already very deserted, and even the stalls selling saozi noodles have disappeared. The two of them had no choice but to go back to the inn to eat the expensive meal.

The room in the inn was really messy. Jing Shao looked at the bed in front of him and felt that even if he put the new sheets in his hand, his princess would not be willing to sleep on it, so he simply carried him to the roof of the inn and put the sheets on. After laying it on layers of rubble, I bought a new quilt from the waiter at a high price.

"It's cold at night in the mountains. If you don't have a new quilt, you'll be frozen." Jing Shao wrapped his princess in a quilt. "This is how this inn does business. It's the only one far and wide. There's nothing we can do." There's no shortage of money, so why? Is your princess getting more and more stingy?

Mu Hanzhang was wrapped in a warm quilt, resting on Jing Shao's arm, looking up at the night sky in the mountains: "When this battle is over, I want to do other business."

"Okay, in two years I will take you to live in Jiangnan. Business there is easy." Jing Shao smiled and hugged him, "Why do you suddenly value money so much?"

"I heard from Xiao Yuan that the problems in the household department have been very serious in recent years. I am afraid that the treasury has long been empty. If you want to get that position, silver is also indispensable." Mu Hanzhang sighed. Yesterday, a letter came from King Rui, The issue of corruption in the military camp was getting bigger and bigger, and he vaguely discovered that Yongchang Bo and the Fourth Prince were also involved. It would be troublesome if all the silver taels in these years were taken by the fourth prince.

"We'll worry about this later," Jing Shao touched the head of the person in his arms, "Help me think of how to persuade Hao Dadao."

Hao Dadao's ancestor was a mighty general in the previous dynasty, and he was a master of military tactics. Taizu admired him very much. After the previous dynasty was destroyed, the ancestors of the Hao family refused to obey the court and occupied the mountains in the Daxing Mountains. However, by the time of Hao Dadao's generation, the mountain stronghold had declined, and now it only made a living by slaughtering pigs.

Mu Hanzhang lowered his eyes and thought for a moment: "Hearing what you said, his ancestors were against the court. Now it may not be easy to get him to join the Chen Dynasty. I will go with you tomorrow to see and then think of a way."

The two slept on the roof for one night. The cool breeze in the mountains on a summer night was very comfortable under the quilt.

The next day, the two were stopped by someone as soon as they arrived in front of the pork shop. Jing Shao was startled and immediately protected Mu Hanzhang.

"Sir, you said yesterday that you would give ten times the silver if you took the tiger cub. You didn't frame me, did you?" It turned out to be the hunter from yesterday. After saying that, he handed over a bamboo basket.

Jing Shao opened the bamboo basket and saw a black thing scratching back and forth inside: "Is this a tiger cub?"

"How could it be false?" The hunter pinched out the thing inside, "I went up the mountain before dawn, and I don't know what took away the other tiger cubs. Only this one fell into the mud pit and survived."

Jing Shao looked at the black mass and really didn't want it, but Mu Hanzhang had already bought a cloth towel at a nearby stall to wrap the little thing in, so he had to pay the silver and send the man away.

Wipe the mud that had not dried completely with a cloth towel, revealing the little face of the tiger cub covered with mud. Although it was still dirty, it could be seen that it was a tiger. The body was about one foot long, with half-open eyes, and it shouted listlessly: "Wow~"

"Hey! Tiger cub!" The fat lady of Hao Dadao was carrying out the meat dumpling. When she heard the tiger cub's cry, she came over excitedly to see.

Mu Hanzhang glanced at her and said, "Is there any warm water in my sister-in-law's room? We need to wash this tiger cub first."

"Yes, I just boiled a pot of water to scald pig hair. Come with me." The fat lady seemed very happy and asked Mu Hanzhang to follow him into the house.

Mu Hanzhang winked at Jing Shao, and he carried the tiger cub into the house with the fat lady. He saw Hao Dadao who was slaughtering a pig in the yard: "You go and watch the stall first. I'll give this tiger cub a bath before I go."

Hao Dadao frowned slightly when he saw Mu Hanzhang, put down the butcher knife in his hand and walked out.

Although the fat lady was fierce, she worked very hard. She quickly added a basin of warm water and put the little tiger cub in the water: "Come, take a bath!"

"Wow!" The little tiger cub was startled. Just as he was about to struggle, he suddenly smelled the pig blood on her arm. He sniffed his little nose, squinted his eyes that were only half open due to the blur, found the blood, opened his mouth and licked it, and licked it more and more vigorously. He also opened his mouth without full teeth and nibbled at the thick arm. However, the tiger's mouth was even smaller, and he couldn't take half of the arm into his mouth no matter how hard he nibbled. He completely forgot that he had been soaked in water.

Mu Hanzhang looked at her skilled movements and asked: "Does my sister-in-law like to raise cats and dogs?"

"Haha, I have liked these little things since I was a child." The fat lady laughed. The young man in front of her was gentle and kind, and his voice was also gentle and elegant, which made her unable to be fierce. While washing, she chatted with Mu Hanzhang and talked about her childhood when she followed her father to perform on the street and compete in martial arts to recruit a husband.

"I guess it must be that Brother Hao won the fight to marry the beauty?" Mu Hanzhang smiled and looked at Hao Dadao, who was carrying pork into the yard for the third time.

"Tsk, him?" The fat lady glared at her husband not far away, "He lied to my father that he was the king of the Daxing Mountain, and lied to my father that I could eat delicious food and drink spicy drinks if I followed him." As she said that, she took a cloth towel and hugged the washed tiger cub and wiped it. The tiger cub struggled in dissatisfaction and kept crying.

"I heard from the villagers that the ancestors of the Hao family were indeed the kings of the mountains." Mu Hanzhang took the washed tiger cub and looked down at it. The yellow and black fur was wet. Perhaps it was because it had eaten well with the tigress before. Although it was hungry for a day, it was still round and looked at him with a pair of round amber tiger eyes: "Wow!"