Lu Bu: My wife comes from two thousand years later

The Taihang Mountains are high in the west and low in the east. Many rivers originating from the Shanxi Plateau are able to take advantage of the huge terrain difference to cut across the mountains, flowing in deep and clear ways, with canyons connected. The rushing rivers impact into fertile alluvial fans in open areas, providing humans with a place suitable for farming and living.

There are many such valleys and plains in Taihang Mountains. After Zhang Yan's Black Mountain Army occupied Taihang a few months ago, the bandits set up camps and built strongholds in places suitable for living, and Taihang gradually became a den of bandits.

To the west of Jinyang, on the side of Jingxing Road, one of the Eight Xings of Taihang Mountains, there is a valley formed by the impact of a river. Two years ago, Li Gui, the leader of the Yellow Turbans, led a group of thieves who escaped death after his defeat and settled down here.

Li Gui is a sturdy man who is seven and a half feet tall, with thick eyebrows, big eyes, a thick beard under his chin, and a rough appearance. At this moment, he is sitting in the lobby of the village, listening to the scouts report the results of the recent reconnaissance.

"Although the manor isn't finished yet, it's stocked with plenty of goodies. Those refugees haven't been there long, and they've all transformed, their faces plump and rounded. There must be plenty of food. There are dozens of oxen working the fields. Not long ago, I saw dozens of carts of chickens and pigs being brought in. That alone is enough for us to eat for a month or so."

The scout's eyebrows danced with joy as he spoke, his voice rising even higher. "The most important thing is, that manor is just a thatched hut and wooden house, with only about a hundred strong men, all refugees who have never touched a sword or a gun. They are just providing us with meat and food!"

It was another lean period, the people had no food, and the bandits could not rob anything, especially in a small village like Li Gui, with a population of only three or four thousand, and only about a thousand young and strong people. The big county town could not be captured, and there was nothing to rob in the small villages. If it were not for Zhang Yan's urgent order, life would have been truly miserable.

The food stored in the village had long been eaten up. During this period, they had been digging wild vegetables and catching birds and beasts to barely survive. This amount of food was not enough to feed so many mouths. If they really couldn't make it, they had to drive the old man away.

These days, being a bandit is not an easy life, especially for bandits near Bingzhou.

Li Gui frowned and said, "Bingzhou has been in turmoil in recent years. The wealthy and powerful dare not leave the city at will. Every spring, they organize their troops and hire farmers, sow the seeds, and then hurried back to the city. Who is so bold as to recruit refugees to cultivate land outside the city? Is this a trap set by the government?"

The scout hesitated, "No way, I've been observing for a few days. Besides the refugees, some young and strong men have entered. They don't look like soldiers, they are probably family members."

"Do you have any war horses?"

The scout shook his head. "Only the first ten or so will ride, and the rest will be on foot."

It’s good that there are no cavalry. Even if it is a trap, there is no need to worry about being chased. Li Gui felt relieved and left two hundred soldiers to guard the village, while the rest went out of the mountain to plunder.

…………

The warm breeze caresses the willow branches green, the peach blossoms pink, and the spring seedlings in the fields sway, creating an intoxicating green scene.

The big waterwheel creaked as it turned, and the gurgling water flowed into the ditch. Farmers in groups of three or four were bent over in the fields, working and chatting.

"Before, my family of three could only cultivate eight mu of land, but now I can manage eight mu by myself. This waterwheel is really great!" A woman pulled up a weed, wiped the sweat from her forehead with her sleeve, and smiled.

"Yes, the owner of the manor has also improved the plow. In the past, the plow had to be removed at the end before turning, but now this curved plow can turn around directly, which saves a lot of trouble."

"The owner of the farm is so young, yet she's so knowledgeable and even knows farming. I used to bury manure directly in the ground, but she said we need to ferment it. At first I didn't believe her, thinking how could a little girl like her know anything. But now that I see the wheat in the field growing strong and green, I believe she's right."

"I heard the owner recently hired carpenters and blacksmiths to try to make a pedal rice thresher. He said if they could make it, the thresher speed would be dozens of times faster than manual labor."

"Really? If that's the case, I can finish harvesting all these fields by myself."

"It should be true. My wife heard it from the owner of the manor herself."

"Our owner is also very strange. Others recruit tenant farmers to work, but she recruits them for training. Why do you think she practices so many moves?"

"Of course it's for self-protection! There have been a lot more bandits around here in the past six months. If men don't improve their martial arts, one wave of bandits will come and all the food we've worked so hard for a year will go down the drain."

As the woman spoke, she straightened up and stretched her waist. She glanced at him and her expression changed slightly. "Thief, thief..."

"What thief?"

The other woman looked up and saw a large group of people running towards them from a distance, with dozens of people at the head riding horses.

"A thief is coming! A thief is coming!"

The women working in the fields screamed, dropped the weeds in their hands, and ran towards Zhuangzi like the wind.

Li Gui and others saw some farmers running to report the news, but he was not worried at all, because this farm was just as the scouts said, just a thatched house with a simple wall outside.

By the time he arrived with his men, the young and strong men of Zhuangzi had already gathered.

More than four hundred people stood in the open space outside the village with knives, guns, sticks and clubs, staring at Li Gui and others with a fierce look, like wild beasts guarding their nests in the mountains.

Li Gui looked at the enemy's lineup. There were not many people, no one was wearing armor, and their weapons were not uniform. Except for the few leaders who looked decent, the others had never killed anyone. They looked fierce on the surface, but there was fear in their eyes.

Zhang Mo's team has been training for half a year. They have all the weapons, but they don't have any armor.

During the era of cold weapons, the government had particularly strict control over ironware, especially during the Yuan Dynasty. It was rumored that only ten households of Han and southern Chinese could share one kitchen knife. Although there is no clear historical record of its authenticity, it can also be seen that the rulers had strict control over ironware.

Although the Eastern Han Dynasty was not as perverted as the Yuan Dynasty, the court still strengthened its management in this area after the Yellow Turban Rebellion. A weapons forge was built, but it was useless without pig iron. Zhang Mo was thinking about taking the risk to smuggle some pig iron back.

Seeing this situation, Li Gui was completely relieved. This group of people were indeed just refugees and followers. The hundreds of bandits under his command had all seen blood on the battlefield. Killing these people would be like playing, right?

Li Gui is not a bloodthirsty person, so it would be best if he could recruit them to strengthen his own team.

After running all the way from Taihang, Li Gui's throat was a little dry. He swallowed lightly and shouted, "I am a bandit from the Black Mountain of Taihang. Instead of being slaves to the meat-eaters, toiling hard every day for a few coarse chestnuts to fill your stomachs and being looked down upon by them, why not join me in the Black Mountain, drink wine and eat meat to your heart's content? Isn't that a pleasure?"

This was a lie. He couldn't even afford to eat chestnuts, yet he was still drinking heavily. Li Gui licked his tongue. He hadn't tasted wine in a long time and missed it.

Xu Chu sneered, "You want to be my bandit leader? Let me see if this knife in my hand agrees."

Lu Bu sat high on his horse and looked at Li Gui and others. There were seven or eight hundred of them, about one hundred of them were cavalrymen, and the rest were infantrymen. Three people in the front were wearing fish-scale armor, and the cavalrymen were all wearing double-crotch armor. Although the infantrymen in the back were fully equipped with weapons, they had no armor. Judging from the scattered formation, their combat effectiveness would not be very strong.

Such a small number of people are not enough for him to kill alone, not to mention Xu Chu, Guan Hai and others. If this group of people rushes towards him, they will really be seeking their own death.

But... Lu Bu's eyes narrowed slightly. He didn't want to kill him so quickly today. He said to Xu Chu, Guan Hai and Wei Xu, "Take it easy for a while. Don't let him run away all at once."

"Why?" Xu Chu was puzzled.

Lu Bu said, "These troops have been training for six months. It's time for a real-world battle drill. Today, we'll practice with the enemy infantry. We'll first draw the enemy cavalry aside."

"Okay!"

"it is good!"

Xu Chu and Guan Hai responded.

Lu Bu turned around and said to Du Fei and Xu Ding, "You two take fifty men and guard the gate. Don't let any thieves in."

"promise!"

After Lu Bu gave the order, he drove his warhorse and charged out first. Xu Chu and others also followed him on horseback. The soldiers automatically divided into two groups. Most of them rushed out, and the others formed two rows and surrounded the village tightly.

Looking at the people charging towards him, Li Gui was slightly surprised, then sneered, "If you're rushing to die, I'll grant your wish!"

"Come on, let me kill you! Let him know how powerful we are!" Li Gui said, raising his sword to meet Lu Bu.

Zhang Mo hid behind the gate and saw the fighting had already started outside. Her heart was bleeding.

With Lu Bu around, she was not worried about not being able to kill these bandits, but she felt sorry for those troops. The Wang family troops were okay, as they had been trained for more than half a year before following Lu Bu, but some of the newly recruited refugees had only been trained for two or three months, and none of them had killed anyone. She didn't know how many people would be sacrificed in this battle.