Outside Shengzhou, the farm on the edge of Longzang Pu has all been completed these days, and the rest is just some scattered auxiliary buildings, which are still being built sporadically.

The farm, as the name suggests, should be the Zhuangzi where the farmers live, a yellow mud road, paved with some gravel at most, extending from the head of the village to the end of the village, with low courtyards scattered on both sides, a paddy field is reclaimed not far away, and the traffic and the sound of chickens and dogs are heard by each other. It's not much different from the small village and town you see in the countryside.

Only this place next to Longzangpu is different!

If anyone could fly into the sky and look down from a high place, he would be amazed at what he saw.

There is a garden ring in the five-pointed star, the ring is about one zhang wide, and this whole zhang space is dug into an artificial river, a moat!

In the inner garden, two wide roads, one horizontal and one vertical, are cut into a cross, and all the buildings are built around this "ten". The two-story red building, all masonry structure, is more fire-resistant, the roof has no herringbone tile cover, and a whole cast-in-place cement roof is more defensive than thin tiles.

The five sharp corners of the pentagram were covered with high battlements and full of perforations, and now they were empty except for a few men standing guard. But obviously, Xu Chen, who is not short of money, will not lack a sharp weapon to defend the city.

In the southeast of Zhuangzi, near a corner of Longzangpu, there is a water gate, under which a waterway is dug five zhang wide and ten zhang long, which is enough for ordinary large ships to pass, and it is only a few miles from this waterway to the residential area.

The main entrance of Zhuangzi is open at a corner between the two corners, and the abrupt iron gate destroys the overall beauty of the building, but the design does not care, and the residents who live in it do not care, and the strong wall and this heavy iron gate can obviously give the simple people more sense of security.

It's a farmstead because most of the people living in it are farmers, but it's obviously not a simple farm.

The owner of this farm is walking casually on the main road in the village at this moment.

"Hello host!"

"I've seen the owner!"

"Host, try it, the freshly baked pancakes are still hot!"

"Newly picked water chestnut, the owner, let's have a few!"

……

"Okay, good ......" Facing the enthusiastic villagers, Xu Chen smiled, took the villagers one by one, and after a while, his hands were full, there were baked cakes, fruits, sugar gourds, a few strings of dried bacon jerky hanging around his neck, and half a bag of fried peanuts under his arm......

"It's full!" Xu Chen struggled to hold on to everything, smiling at the enthusiastic crowd with some embarrassment.

"Haha......" The villagers looked at Xu Chen's funny appearance and smiled kindly: "That's good!

The villagers either returned to their stalls or walked into their houses and walked away.

The two guards behind him helped the eldest brother take off his belongings, borrowed a clean bag from the stall on the side, and continued to follow the eldest brother.

While chewing on the food that had just arrived, Xu Chen pointed to the villagers on both sides of the road and asked Lu Hao, "Do you see it?"

Lu Hao understood what the eldest brother meant, but this reason did not convince him, so he looked at the eldest brother: "Can human life also be compared?

Xu Chen shook his head: "Can't!"

After a moment of silence, he spoke up again: "But I don't know them...... But I know you! I know everybody here!"

"That's the difference!"

Lu Hao asked two questions, so Xu Chen also answered him twice.

"But they're going to die...... They shouldn't have died!" Lu Hao was silent for a long time before he said bitterly.

"Then should you die?, then should I die?" Xu Chen said with a lingering coldness.

"But we won't necessarily die!" Lu Hao looked at his eldest brother and could only come up with this sentence.

"Hehe!" Xu Chen laughed, looked at Lu Hao, and said seriously: "You know, I won't take what I have mastered and cherished, and gamble on those empty possibilities!"

"I'm not a saint! I don't want to be a saint!" After Xu Chen finished speaking, he left, leaving Lu Hao standing alone......

Northeast of Shengzhou City, hundreds of miles away, is the first metropolis in the southeast, Yangzhou City!

If you want to say that in the early summer of this year, which cities in the entire Tang Dynasty have had the most difficult time, I am afraid that in addition to a few border cities in the northwest frontier, it is Yangzhou, a city full of flowers in the past!

Before the traces of the turmoil at the beginning of the year could be eliminated, the remaining people in Yangzhou suddenly found that there was not enough food in the city!

It was a painful discovery, when the panicked people smashed through the treasury of the "unscrupulous" profiteers, they saw several rats scurrying around in the warehouse.

There is no food! Not a single grain!

Yangzhou City is a big port, and the government has built a lot of Chengping, but Yangzhou City, which has always been full of fish and rice, has rarely seen famine, and the grain in Chengping has long been used to exchange old grain for huàn.

Even these old grains are short of two catties, and when this batch of old grains is also consumed......

Yangzhou guarded Tong Yu too much, and at the beginning of the year, he obeyed the construction of Huaqing in that battle and threw himself into the seven sects and five surnames. But in the end, the seven sects and the five surnames were defeated!

However, Tong Yu is like a person who has nothing to do, and he is still his Taishou Lord.

But this made Tong Yu completely desperate!

No result is not necessarily a good result, which means that he has completely lost his value and has been abandoned!

It was not dealt with, maybe it was just luck, the imperial court couldn't find someone to replace it for a while, or maybe the powerful person had already anticipated the situation in Yangzhou today, so ...... Need a scapegoat! And Tong Yu, tall, short, fat and thin is just right!

After realizing this, how can Tong Yu still have the mind to govern! Every day, he lives like a walking corpse, drunk and dreams of death!

Someone has already starved to death......

Yes, people have been starved to death!

There have been many, many people who have not starved to death in this city that was once the capital of the southeast! Even the lazy beggar can easily sustain himself by going to the swill bucket next to the wine shop.

But now, someone is starving to death!

Any words pale in this moment......

Yes, in the face of life, in the face of death, what is the meaning of more descriptions? meaningless!

No hunger in the streets, no moaning!

Since the great changes in Yangzhou City, most of the rich businessmen in the city have gone, and now Yangzhou is short of food, but there is no shortage of shelter from the wind and rain!

So, the streets are deserted!

No moaning.

People who have been hungry for a long time naturally can't moan......

When Yang Ziyun stepped into this familiar city, it was inevitable that she would be a little unfamiliar, a dead city, and there was an insurmountable gap from the Huai Zuo name in her impression.

"Is this Yangzhou?" Through those familiar buildings, she can make accurate judgments very easily, but because of this, she has some confusion, maybe just because there are people around her, so she needs this confusion to cover up something, or enhance something.

"Of course it's Yangzhou City! Yangzhou is like this now, but it's all the credit of the military advisor!"

Yang Ziyun walked into Yangzhou City in a carriage, and he was not the only one in the carriage, but also a young man with extraordinary bearing. This proud sentence came from this young man.

"Strategist?" The military advisor that the young man said was naturally not Kong Ke, for this reason, Yang Ziyun was a little puzzled, this time it was really doubtful.

"Oh, cousin doesn't know yet, Mr. Li Yi has officially accepted the invitation of his father and agreed to be our military advisor!" the young man smiled, confident and proud.

"Oh. Yang Ziyun nodded flatly, a little uninterested, but her heart was obviously not as calm as her face.

The young man did not know whether he was aware of the girl's appearance, or whether he thought that he could use these things to show his masculine charm even more, so he gushed endlessly: "With the addition of military advisors, our team will be even stronger! Then we will wave our army north and take Chang'an directly, and the world of the Li family will be back to us! At that time, my father will ascend the throne, and I will be the crown prince, and if my sister does not abandon ......."

Yang Ziyun has had this experience many times before. Yang Ziyun is also very experienced in how to deal with men's aggressive eyes, and the expression on her face will definitely make the other party feel the reserve and shyness of her daughter's family, but she will never break the other party's thoughts.

However, this time, Yang Ziyun did not show a smile with a hint of detachment in her shyness as many times as before.

Because, at this moment, Yang Ziyun's mind recalled that it was all in the high sky, in the small wooden room on that side, under the faint colored light, that clean, young man's face.

At that time, the young man's eyes also had a faint longing, like the longing of all males who see beautiful things.

But the strange thing is that whether it was then or now, Yang Ziyun did not have half a disgust for that longing look, and even had some unspeakable emotions in her heart.

So, at that time, she turned her face sideways, because she was afraid! Afraid that she would involuntarily show the smile that she had trained for many years, and that false smile seemed to the girl to be more disgusting than the cold face! Therefore, she didn't want to, didn't want the boy to see her disgusting self......

And since then, she didn't want that disgusting smile to appear on her face, like a declaration, a declaration of breaking with the past, just so that the next time, when we met, that natural smile could appear on her face.

For this reason, at this moment, the girl did not want to respond to the aggressive eyes of the young man, but closed her eyes, leaned on the carriage, and pretended to sleep......

The clatter of horses' hooves gradually subsided, the carriage stopped, and the destination arrived!

This is a mansion in the north of Yangzhou, to be precise, Li Yi's mansion. One night a few months ago, Li Yi swore in front of the door of this mansion that he would avenge the tragic death of the Zhan guard, but until now, this revenge has still not been avenged.

Yang Ziyun got out of the carriage and walked into the mansion.

The mansion is very large, and Li Yi, a businessman who can recruit a whole team of foundation building masters as guards, will naturally not be short of money.

After going around and around, I finally came to a hall. This hall is obviously alienated from the rest of the buildings in the mansion, and under the shadow, next to the trees, there are rows of armor soldiers standing quietly, waiting for them!

When I entered the hall, I saw that the hall was already full of people, all kinds of people! Looking at the dress, there were merchants, scribes, peasants with trouser legs up, and peddlers and pawns in coats......

On the main seat of the head, there was a middle-aged man, calmly looking at the people below, faintly exuding a faint majesty.

Take a closer look at the middle-aged man's face, if Xiao Yi is present, he will definitely be able to recognize that this person is the Yang family who just visited Yang Shenjin in Chang'an not long ago!

"Uncle!" Yang Ziyun walked into the hall and bowed to the middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man nodded slightly and asked, "Why is it just you, your eldest brother Yang Xun?"

Yang Ziyun replied: "Big brother and Uncle Kong are one step slower, and they will arrive later." ”

The middle-aged man still just nodded.

"Uncle, Wan'er is a little tired, and I want to go down and rest first. Yang Ziyun continued.

The middle-aged man frowned slightly, and he had a doubt for a long time, so he couldn't help but speak: "Otherwise, you better stay and listen!"

Yang Ziyun's response was very calm, and it seemed that she had been rehearsing for a long time: the negotiations between the uncle and the uncles and uncles were all military affairs, and it was inconvenient for her to stay here, so it was better to retreat. ”

As soon as the girl replied, many elderly people in the hall nodded frequently, and even the outspoken person praised it greatly: "Aster, this little girl knows the general situation!"

Seeing this, the middle-aged man in the audience was not forced to stay, so he nodded and let the girl retreat.

It didn't take long, perhaps only for a short moment, that Kong Ke, who was dressed in a Taoist robe, walked in with the sturdy young man.

"Hello uncles, Yang Xun is polite!" The young man is the middle-aged man, Yang Ziyun's brother, Yang Xun.

As soon as Yang Xun came in, he greeted everyone in the hall warmly, until he had gone through all the people he thought was important, and then he slowly saluted the middle-aged man on the first seat and said, "Yang Xun has seen the sect leader!"

The middle-aged man was the Yang Tinghe that Kong Ke said that day, and he was also the leader of their "Zoroastrianism".

In addition to its name, Zoroastrianism here has nothing to do with the Zoroastrianism that arose in the far west at the same time!

When the Chinese people rebel, they always use some sacred things, Liu Bang cut down the white snake, Chen Shi played the fox, and they were roughly the same tricks.

Around that time in the early Tang Dynasty, Persian Zoroastrianism spread to the East, but China, a magical country, could not tolerate a group of paranoid and crazy believers. For this, Zoroastrianism did not have official permission. However, the open-mindedness of the Tang Dynasty did not brutally suppress the infidels like the Holy See in the West.

Although Zoroastrianism failed to flourish in the Tang Dynasty, the name was gradually recognized by the Tang people.

And this, for Yang Ting and them, is enough!

Using the religious name of a distant country, he disguised his identity as a royal family of the previous dynasty, and then tampered with his teachings and ran into the deep mountains and old forests to deceive the kind villagers. It's a good choice!

Just like Yang Tinghe said to Yang Shenjin that day, their group of remnants of the previous dynasty have made many attempts in the past hundred years, but none of them have succeeded.

But Yang Tinghe also said that it was those people who failed, not him!

Now, Yang Tinghe thinks he has found an opportunity!

Yang Tinghe ignored Yang Xun's obvious coldness, and after nodding his head, he said to Li Yi, who was sitting on the left-hand side, "Sir, let's start!"

Yang Xun sat down opposite Li Yizheng for a while, and then looked at him with a smile.

Li Yi nodded slightly to Yang Xun, and then began to say loudly: "Everyone, the current situation of Yangzhou City, everyone must have seen it!"

"The rich businessmen have basically evacuated, and there has been a shortage of food in the city for many days, except for a few wealthy families who really can't leave, the rest of the forces are already insignificant!"

"Tong Yu, who is too guarded like a walking corpse, the government soldiers in the military camp outside the city don't have much combat power, and now he has been hungry for so many days, I'm afraid that he won't even be able to hold weapons! What can he use to resist our army?"

There was a rare smile on the faces of everyone on the field! It was really rare! For so many years, several generations, the days of hiding and hiding were coming to an end, how could it not be rare?

There was a person who was in a hurry and shouted: "Sect Master, don't wait!

"That's right! Send troops! Occupy Yangzhou City, take the entire south, and then wave troops to the north, this world, we have lost it for too long!"

"Yes, it's been a hundred years! These generations have dreamed of returning to Chang'an and our ancestors' Daxing City!"

"Sect Master, send troops!"

……

The crowd was excited, Li Yi and Yang Tinghe looked at each other and smiled: "People's hearts are available!"

"Bing, naturally, it is going to be sent! Yangzhou is naturally going to be taken! But after taking Yangzhou, where should we go? Although Yangzhou is almost ruined, the more than 100,000 people in Yangzhou City have not all starved to death, how should we deal with these people?

Chen Sheng and Wu Guang were defeated, Zhang Jiao and Zhang Lu were also defeated, although we are much stronger than these mud legs, but now the Tang Dynasty has not yet reached the time of the death of the country. ”

Li Yi's words were a little indifferent, but it was precisely because of these indifference that the anger of everyone in the hall was extinguished.

followed the prestige that had been established for a long time, Li Yi's words did not call for refutation, although some people disdained it in their hearts, but they did not say it directly to their faces.

Yes, there was silence in the room.

But this silence only lasted for a moment, and then the impatient man stood up and said: "Strategist, you can just discuss these things with the sect master! We are all rough people, just go into battle and kill the enemy! These twists and turns, let's let you come!"

The man who stood up was indeed a rough man, five big and three thick men, with a pair of arms thicker than ordinary people's thighs, and when his body turned, he could bring out a faint wind.

"Yes! As the saying goes, 'a snake can't do without a head', when we get into trouble, the sect leader leads it, and there are soldiers who go into battle to fight, and there must be a few characters like Zhang Liang and Han Xin in the middle!"

"I think the military advisor is a hundred times more powerful than that Zhang Liang!"

"But there is only one military division, so many things, I'm afraid I can't be busy!"

"That's not easy to do! Wouldn't it be nice to send a few shrewd and capable people from among the people present to assist the military advisor!"

"Uh-huh!

"In my opinion, 'Xiaoyaozi' Kong Ke, Brother Kong is known for his wisdom, so it's better to let him go!"

"And that ......"

Yang Xun was still smiling, but the coldness in the depths of his pupils was getting deeper and deeper......

"I don't know what Brother Yang thinks?" Li Yi asked.

Yang Xun's warm smile was still there: "Okay!"