A quiet and peaceful village, twenty miles from the Yellow River, with fertile land protected from flooding; It is not far from Chang'an, and it will neither sway with the turbulence of the political landscape, nor will it be harassed by bandits too close to the border.

The people here have lived here for generations, and their lives are not good, but they are still fed.

The peasants, who were accustomed to working in the fields early, were walking into the fields at this time when they heard the sound of hurried footsteps, and more than a dozen sturdy men were running quickly.

The men, armed with weapons but dressed in civilian clothes, thought at first glance to be robbers, and the villagers avoided them. But these people paid no attention to passers-by, and only buried their heads in the road.

The peasants were about to start their work when they heard footsteps again, but this time it was less hasty and much more dense. After a while, dozens of figures appeared, and the peasants hurriedly lowered their heads to work, not daring to do much.

It turns out that these people are all members of the He family of the Xiayang County scholars, who are famous scholars in Xiayang, and their strength is enough to control the place, and in recent years, they have occupied all the land near the county seat as their own. The village a little farther away naturally knew about it, but they didn't dare to bother with the affairs of his He family.

"A few of you, and the other over there, come here!"

Although the peasants ignored him, trouble came straight to the door.

After a while, everyone arrived. The man at the head of the tribe asked, "Did you just see a group of gangsters passing by?"

Several peasants looked at each other and kept asking, and one of them had to describe the appearance of the few people who had just passed.

Unexpectedly, as soon as the old peasant finished speaking, all of these tribes had evil smiles on their faces, and the leader suddenly shouted: "Bold! You and the people dared to collude with the thieves, connived at him and others to escape, took them all, and sent them back to the head of the family and the county magistrate to decide. ”

"Ah, what's going on?"

The leader of the trilogy said proudly: "What's the matter, those are the remnants of the Xiliang Dong thief, what do you say?"

"Wronged, I really didn't collude with them when I waited."

No matter how much the peasants pleaded, they took them all down and prepared to take them away.

"Wait."

A rather righteous voice sounded.

When the trilogy looked at it, they were not slightly surprised, and then said fearlessly: "Who else should I be, it turns out to be Gaoling Zhang Derong." ”

The person who came was Zhang Ji, the word Derong, who was twenty years old at this time.

He was born in a poor family, his family was well-off, he served as a subordinate official in Feng Yijun at the age of sixteen, and was promoted to the warehouse official of Xiayang County last year, in charge of the chief of the warehouse in a county.

Although Zhang Ji's family is relatively wealthy, because he was born in an ordinary literati landlord family, there were no well-known officials in his ancestors, so he was only an official at this time, and he could not be an official.

Of course, in history, this person later came to raise Maocai, served as the county commander of Zuo Fengyi Xinfeng County, and ranked first in the three auxiliary counties for his political achievements during his tenure. Later, he followed Cao Cao and developed the economy of Guanzhong under Zhong Xuan, counterbalanced Xiliang Ma Teng, Han Sui and others, and later made repeated military exploits to pacify Hexi. After Cao Pi ascended the throne, Zhang served as the assassin of Yongzhou, and was known for his political ability and appointment of talents.

Xiayang He's family is a well-known local scholar, and recently has a very close relationship with the county magistrate. Of course, Zhang Ji knew that this matter was very tricky, but the purpose of the He family's move was to snatch more land near Xiayang, and the young and upright Zhang Ji naturally would not sit idly by. At this time, Zhang Ji was followed by more than a dozen people, who were the village's Li Zheng and strong laborers.

The leader of the trilogy was not afraid of Zhang Ji and the others at all, but said arrogantly: "Oh, there is also Li Zheng in Shili Village." It just so happens that this place is under your jurisdiction, and you will take it with you for dereliction of duty! ”

Zhang Ji asked: "The king leader takes people like this in broad daylight, I'm afraid this reason is not enough, right?" ”

The tribes were stunned for a while, and they couldn't imagine that this young man was so persistent, so they had to reveal: "The county commander and county lieutenant in the county town are arresting Geng Qing, the remnant of the Dong family. The few people who escaped just now are Geng Qing's subordinates, do you dare to take care of this? ”

Zhang Ji was stunned for a moment, and he really didn't dare to shake it head-on. It turns out that this Xiayang County is a large county of 10,000 households, with one county order, one county officer, and two county lieutenants. One of these two county lieutenants is a child of the He family, and the other is Geng Qing who just mentioned.

This Geng Qing was born in the Xiliang Army, and he was stationed in Xiayang with a song of soldiers and horses before, and also served as a county lieutenant. The local warriors represented by the county commander and the county lieutenant of Hejia were originally unaccustomed to Geng Qing and other border soldiers, but because of the prestige of the Xiliang army, they swallowed their anger.

Ten days ago, it was learned that Dong Zhuo had been executed, and thousands of people from Xiayang's scholars, disciples, tribesmen, slaves and maids, etc., held a huge celebration. After that, he began to plot to get rid of Geng Qing and others in the Xiliang Army.

At this time, Geng Qing was forced to be helpless, and he didn't want to cause more trouble, so he was naturally loyal to the Han court. Chang'an was paying attention to other things, so it recognized the status quo that Geng Qing continued to serve as the county lieutenant and his headquarters continued to be stationed in Xiayang.

However, the local scholars in Xiayang have coveted this position for a long time, and under the temptation of exterminating the remnants of Dong Thief and having an official position and a heavy reward for wealth, the unreliable Geng Qing has become the best target.

Zhang didn't care much about the affairs of the Xiliang Army, he had already heard of the battle between the county commander and the county lieutenant, and no matter how young and impulsive he was, he wouldn't intervene to stop it. However, it was too bad to directly frame the people and forcibly seize the land, and Zhang Ji decided to do his best to stop it.

He no longer hesitated, stepped forward, not afraid of the He family's strength and holding a sword, and said: "I, Zhang Ji, am a county official, so naturally I will not sit idly by."

"Well, tell you, we're pinching you to death like pinching an ant. Brothers, do it, this village is surnamed He. ”

……

The convoy finally walked out of the mountains, and they had never seen the plains for more than ten days, and they suddenly felt a burst of openness and happiness. Except for a few scouts who rode away to reconnoitre, most of the rest of the people stopped to rest for a while.

This time out of the mountain, to the northeast is Xiayang County, to the south is Jayang Township, to the north is Longmenjin. Of course, the convoy did not dare to be careless, this place is about 500 miles away from Chang'an, and the fast horse takes the official road, and the message can be transmitted to Chang'an in two days.

Everyone rested for a moment and was about to set off, when suddenly the scout came to report in a hurry.

"Ten miles ahead, I found a village, which had just been looted and destroyed, and it was estimated that it would take no more than half a day."

Tong Yuan asked, "Have you ever checked carefully, are there any living people?"

"The scouts did not approach rashly to prevent exposure"

Tong Yuan felt that he had heavy armored cavalry, so he didn't need to be afraid of ordinary bandits, so he immediately ordered: "In this way, all the members of the first song put on their armor and horses, and follow me to carefully explore this village." The second and third songs cooperate with others to stay behind and protect the monarch and daughter. ”

Ten miles away, Tong Yuan can still ride a horse back and forth. In the past few days, Tong Yuan had to overcome his fear and learn to ride a horse on his own for the sake of his life. Fortunately, this body is relatively strong, and from the perspective of modern people, it is completely opposite to the fat general statue on the ancient picture scroll, belonging to the kind without fat, and he must have ridden a horse from time to time before, and he adapted very quickly.

This allowed Tong Yuan to quickly adapt to riding a horse and galloping, plus in the team, the Hetao horse is only one meter four tall at the shoulder, and Tong Yuan is seven feet seven, that is, one meter seventy-seven, his height will not feel difficult to get on and off the horse at all. So it's not a big problem to get used to it for a few days and ride for a few hours.

A group of more than 100 people set off quickly, all of them are plains, and the country roads are smooth and open, and they will arrive at the village in a short time. I saw that there were thirty or forty thatched huts and wooden huts in this village, many of which had been destroyed and knocked down.

Tong Yuan ordered the scouts to be on guard around, some of them stayed behind, and the rest were brought into the village for inspection.

I saw that all the houses in the village had been smashed open, the tables and collapses in the houses had been smashed, and the grain and cloth had been looted, but not completely, and it was obvious that the robbers did not have the sole purpose of robbing food and property.