Time has long passed, and this year's Lin'an City has shown a heavy and dilapidated appearance inside and out.

Some of the mansions in the city have long been in disrepair, and after the death of the owner, they have experienced the ravages of war, and the ruins of the mansion have become a gathering point for displaced people and broken households. Occasionally, the thieves would come, bringing officers and soldiers to hunt down the thieves, and sometimes fireworks would be lit again in the city.

Some of the bluestones on the royal street are dilapidated, and no one can repair them. After the spring rains, the sewage channel is blocked, and the sewage gushes out, and then flows on the street, and when the weather clears, it turns into a foul smell and blocks people's snorts. The small imperial court and the yamen, who were in charge of government affairs, were always entangled in countless things, and they could not manage such things.

In fact, in such years, a little stinky sewage has long been unable to disturb people's purity.

A year ago, Lin'an, there were also many splendid flowers, at this time, the paint gradually faded, the whole city was mostly occupied by gray and black, walking on the streets, occasionally you can see the trees that have not died in the corner of the courtyard wall blooming new green, it is a dazzling scenery. The city, without the embellishment of paint, remains the heaviness of the earth and stone material itself, but I don't know when, this heaviness itself will also lose its dignity.

In February, the main force of the Jurchen Eastern Route Army had withdrawn from Lin'an, but the continued turmoil did not leave much room for the city to live. When the Jurchens came, they slaughtered hundreds of thousands of people, and for half a year, the Han people living in the cracks attached themselves to the Jurchens, and gradually formed a new ecosystem, which was broken with the evacuation of the Jurchens.

The fighting and fighting of the low-level gangs and outlaws are staged in the city every night, and the dead can be seen on the streets every morning.

Compared with Lin'an a year ago, the population of the city has decreased sharply, but the living space enjoyed by everyone has not expanded, but has been greatly reduced. This is because the materials in the city have been reduced even more, and it is not too strange for the skin-covered people to kill their compatriots in the dark alleys for the sake of the small interests that they did not want to see in the past, and it is not too strange for dozens of people to die in the fire for a few catties of rice and for the benefit of a butcher's shop.

We can't blame the cruelty of these survivors, and when the survival materials in an ecosystem are greatly reduced, it is inevitable that people will fight to reduce the number of people who fight to reduce the number of people. The rations of ten people cannot feed eleven people, and the question is only how the eleventh person will die.

Only a few people are still living a good life.

The rain stopped for a while, and the carriage of Li Shan, the servant of the ministry, drove through the long street overflowing with dirty water, and beside the carriage was an entourage of ten guards, who were accompanied by soldiers with knives to block the carriage from the pedestrians who tried to come by the side of the road to beg. From the window of the car, he watched as the woman with the child in her arms who wanted to rush over was pushed to the ground by the guards. The baby is a fake.

"Poor." Thinking so to himself, he lowered the curtain in frustration.

At this moment, what really bothered him was not these bad things that he could see every day, but all kinds of strange news from the west.

Since last year, the officials and forces of the former Wu Dynasty led by his mentors Wu Qimei, Tie Yan and others have defected to the Jin State, and elected a side royal family who is said to be related to the Zhou family to the throne and establish a small court in Lin'an. At the beginning, although I was trembling, I would blush a little when I was scolded as a traitor, but as time passed, some people gradually adapted to their self-made public opinion.

In fact, the establishment of this small court of the Wu Dynasty may not be the worst choice in the current situation of the whole world. In the more than 200 years of the Wu Dynasty, several emperors now, whether they are Zhou Zhe or Zhou Yong, can be called mediocre and perverse.

Even Emperor Zhou Ji, who was caught in the middle and reigned for less than a year, was a faint man who asked God for divination. He used the so-called "Heavenly Master" Guo Jing as his general to meet the Jurchens, and as a result, he opened the city gates, so that the Jurchens could enter Bianliang without much effort during the second southern expedition. At the beginning, perhaps no one dared to say it, but now it seems that this Jingping shame and the half-life humiliation suffered by Zhou Ji after that can be regarded as self-inflicted.

The luck of the Wu Dynasty is gone after all. With the Central Plains and Jiangnan already falling, some resistance may also come to an end—there may be some chaos, but as the Jurchens stabilize the situation of the entire Jin Kingdom, these chaos will gradually disappear.

After all, it is the process of one dynasty replacing another.

Whether to accept this reality, or to die in the predictable chaos that follows. In this comparison, some things are less difficult to accept, and on the other hand, many people don't really have much choice.

The torrent of history is too big and too intense, and in recent times, Li Shan often feels that he is just an ordinary person who has fallen into the tide of anger, or grabs the only wooden plank in his hand and tries to survive, or lets go of his hand and is swallowed up by the tide. He was able to reach the position of a servant in such a small court, perhaps not because of ability, but just because of luck:

He worshipped Wu Qimei as his teacher, and Wu Qimei became the right minister of the imperial court, and he followed. If he didn't, he wouldn't have any more options.

In the past few months, on the whole, the development of the "Jun Society" headed by Wu Qimei has been quite gratifying. In the small court, Wu Qimei was originally condescended to the right minister, and the most powerful was Tie Yan, the left minister, but many of Tie Yan's forces came from the army of Fujian. And Wu Qimei, who has a more steady pace, not only expanded her momentum, but also won more appreciation from the Jurchens to a certain extent.

At present, the Lin'an court does not pay attention to too many checks and balances, Wu Qimei is very popular, and the rest of the people will also ascend to heaven. As a disciple of Wu Qimei, although Li Shan is still only a squire in the Ministry of Officials, even Shangshu does not dare not give him face. In the past two months, although the bottom situation of Lin'an City is still difficult, many things, including treasures, land deeds, and beauties, have been sent to Li Shan like flowing water.

In such a situation, Li Shancai felt for the first time in his life what is called the general trend, what is called the unity of heaven and earth, these benefits, he doesn't need to open his mouth at all, and even refuses to feel that it hurts others. Especially in February, after the main forces of the Jin soldiers were evacuated one after another, the situation at the bottom of Lin'an was stirred up again, and more benefits were sent to Li Shan.

In the foreseeable near future, the "Jun Society" led by Wu Qimei will become the ruling class of the entire Lin'an and the entire Wu Dynasty that really covers the sky with one hand, and Li Shan only needs to follow forward to have everything.

After all, the dynasty is already changing, he just follows, only seeking self-preservation, and does not take the initiative to harm others, and there is nothing to be sorry for his conscience.

If it weren't for the messages that had come in the last few days, all that he had experienced would have been a heavenly dream.

In the Battle of Changsha, Chen Fan defeated the Jurchen army and slashed the silver technique.

In the southwest, the Black Flag Army defeated Allah and killed Yan Xibao.

These two rounds of big news, the first one arrived a few days earlier, and everyone is still confirming its authenticity, and the second batch entered the city the day before yesterday, and now only a few high-level people really know, and all kinds of details are still being passed on.

Thousands of miles apart, 800 miles of expedited delivery takes several days to arrive, the first round of information often has errors, and the confirmation period is extremely long. It is difficult to confirm whether there are other problems in between, and some people even think that the Black Flag Army took advantage of the turbulent situation in Lin'an and used false information to stir up the situation - such doubts are reasonable.

In the midst of all kinds of speculation, in general, this news has not yet made too many waves on this side thousands of miles away, and people try not to make any statements according to their thoughts. And on the real level, it's that people don't know how to react to such news.

At the end of last year, when news came that the Battle of the Southwest had killed Lili, there was still some way to deal with it – and soon after, Huangming County was breached, and the Southwest Jin Army had made its own gains, and some of the talk subsided. Can I get to today...... The black flag can really defeat the Jurchens.

Didn't you say that the Jurchen army was the strongest in the Western Imperial Court? Is it possible to exaggerate a legendary figure like Wanyan Zonghan?

What the hell is going on?

What kind of person is Wanyan Zonghan? What is the situation in the Southwest? What is this war like?

All kinds of questions swirled in Li Shan's heart, and his thoughts were restless and unspeakable.

The carriage drove all the way into the mansion of the right minister, and the people of the "Jun Society" also arrived one after another, and people greeted each other, talking about the situation in the city in the past few days - almost all the interests involved in the small court, the "Jun Society" got the lion's share. People laughed at each other when they talked about it, and then they were all paying attention to the situation of military training and recruitment.

Only in a very private circle may someone mention the information that has come from the southwest in the past few days.

As Wu Qimei's disciple, Li Shan's status in the "Jun Society" is not low, although he is not a pivotal figure among his senior brothers, but he has a good relationship with others. When "Senior Brother" Gan Fenglin came over, Li Shan went up to talk, Gan Fenglin walked to the side with Li Shan, exchanged a few words, and when Li Shan mentioned the matter of the southwest, Gan Fenglin asked something in a low voice.

"Back then, in Lin'an, Senior Brother Li knew a lot of people, and I heard that Li Pin and Li Dexin had dealings, but I don't know what the relationship is?"

"When Li Dexin was in Lin'an, I did have contacts with him, and I also came to the door several times to ask for advice......"

Li Shan frowned, and for a while he didn't understand Gan Fenglin's purpose in asking about this. In fact, Wu Qimei lived in seclusion back then, although he was a great Confucian and had many disciples, but there were no too amazing and brilliant people among these disciples.

The break between Li Pin and Li Dexin and Ning Yi caused a stir for some reason, and it spread widely, and since he ran a newspaper in Lin'an City, his reputation has increased very quickly, even enough to be compared with Wu Qimei and others. Li Shan had no achievements back then, and his posture was low, he visited everywhere in Lin'an City to learn the relationship, he had the same surname as Li Pin, and he could be said to be his own family, and he participated in several gatherings and had the opportunity to speak.

But within the Wu brothers, Li Shan usually ignores this matter. After all, Wu Qimei worked hard to save a reputation as a recognized Confucian, and Li Pin Huangkou Xiaoer relied on a quarrel with Ning Yi to faintly become one of the leaders of Confucianism, which is really too much to gain fame.

What's the big deal about quarreling with Ning Yi, Mei Gong even wrote more than a dozen articles to reprimand the demon who killed the king, which one is not a sprinkling and eloquent argument. But the world is ignorant, and only loves to make fun of vulgar things.

"What did the junior brother and that Li Pin talk about?"

"Uh......" Li Shan was a little embarrassed, "mostly ...... When I first came to the door, I asked him about the sincerity and sincerity of the university section, and he said, ......"

Li Shan repeated the conversation between the two sides a little, and Gan Fenglin waved his hand: "Have you ever mentioned the matter of the southwest?" ”

"Southwest...... What's the matter? Li Shan was shocked, in the current situation, everything about the southwest was very sensitive, he didn't know the purpose of the senior brother, and he was a little afraid that he would say the wrong thing, but he saw that the other party shook his head.

"The teacher asked me to investigate the situation in the southwest." Gan Fenglin confessed, "The news of the past few days has been confirmed by all parties, and now it seems that it is generally true, we thought that there was no suspense in the battle in the southwest, but now it seems that the suspense is not small." In the past, it was said that it was rare to lose the world, but now that I think about it, I don't know if it is an exaggeration or there are other reasons. ”

"On the other hand, in the past few years, we have known very little about the Southwest. Therefore, the teacher asked me to inquire about the people involved in the southwest, what kind of murderous thing this Black Flag Army was, and what kind of situation it became after the killing of the king...... Knowing oneself and knowing the other party can survive a hundred battles, and now you always have to know in your heart...... In the past two days, I have found some information, but it is more specific, and not many people want to know about it......"

Li Shan understood in his heart.

For a long time, people in Lin'an have talked about the southwest, but in fact, they have only talked about a shady scene. People abused, condemned, and cursed, but the people in Lin'an really didn't know much about the specific situation in the southwest. On the one hand, this is due to the tremendous pressure exerted by the Jurchens all the time, and on the other hand, in the face of such an "enemy" as the Jurchens, everyone can still treat it with a rational attitude.

Perverse behavior, the world is going to die, in short, there is no doubt about it. As for treating the southwest with the attitude of national war, everyone will feel that there is no face, and people are willing to understand the Jurchens, but in fact they are not willing to understand the southwest.

The reasons for this situation are too complex to be analysed. This time the Jurchens marched south, for the strength of the Jurchens, the people of the Wu Dynasty were actually a little difficult to measure and understand, the entire land south of the Yangtze River fell under the attack of the Eastern Route Army, as for the legendary more powerful Western Route Army, how strong it was, it is difficult for people to explain rationally, for the battle that will take place in the southwest, in fact, it is beyond the scope of understanding of people who are in dire straits thousands of miles away.

There is no need to understand too much, in short, after the strongest army in the world is killed, the southwest will be completely destroyed.

But at this time, all this development went wrong, and the people of Lin'an couldn't help but seriously understand and measure the situation in the southwest.

What happened to the country of gold?

Is Sticky Han really the number one player today?

In the rumors, the Jurchen Western Imperial Court, which is highly accomplished, is actually not so terrifying? Are these rumors about the Jurchens all false? The Western Route Army was actually lower than the Eastern Route Army? So, is it also possible to speculate that there are rumors about infighting in the Kim Congress, which are in fact also fake news?

All of this is a possible result of rational analysis, but in the most unlikely case, there is another explanation......

If the Jurchen Western Route Army is really stronger than the Eastern Route Army.

If Mu Han is really the undefeated famous general who dominates the world and establishes half of the Jin country.

If the Jurchen Wanyan Xiyin, Yinshuke, Pull Out Su, Han Qixian, Gao Qingyi...... And so many people really still have the strategy and martial arts of the past......

If there is a very small chance that such a situation exists......

So in the past few years, in the southwest mountains that people have not paid much attention to, what kind of army will it be established and created by the demon who killed the king? How to rule, how to train, how to operate...... What will be the team that defeated the strongest Jurchen force with a small number of forces...... What about barbarism and brutality?

Cold sweat soaked out of Li Shan's back......