From Fuyang to Xiangguo, it was only two days away, Li Xiaofei and his team came all the way, and what they saw were still villages destroyed in the war and corpses that fell on the side of the road from time to time, as well as countless wild dogs and crows tearing around the corpses. However, more than 2,000 people have become accustomed to such scenes, except for the occasional sight of a few dock forts in the distance near the mountains, and they have not encountered a single living person along the way.

When he arrived in Xiangguo, except for the 400 people brought out by Li Xiaofei from Shou County, the rest were handed over to Chen Hongyi and dispersed to various battalions. After settling the two thousand soldiers, the next thing is where Li Xiaofei and a few of them went. After Li Xiaofei defeated Pajaqili, he found a night pearl and a scimitar with a scabbard inlaid with gems from the captured booty, which was brought over this time and was dedicated to Chen Hongyi and Liu Jian.

Chen Hongyi and Liu Jian accepted Li Xiaofei's gifts, entertained everyone to eat and drink, and took Li Xiaofei and the four of them to a secret room. When the door of the chamber was closed, it was pitch black, and everyone could only hear the breathing of the others. Chen Hongyi didn't light the lamp, but suddenly shouted: "Xiaofei, you have repeatedly killed people in Fuyang? Could it be that he is really going to rebel? ”

Li Xiaofei was about to explain, but Chen Hongyi spoke again: "If people don't know, unless you don't do it, I know that you are all people with great merits, but the court has denied your merits, and you have resentment in your hearts." But a manly man can bend and stretch, what is the temporary grievance? I also know why you kill, but the others who kill and want to kill are convinced, they are impeccable, and they have to talk about means! ”

Li Xiaofei knelt down with Xiaoyu and Pharmacist Zhu: "It's all because we are reckless, and we have affected the handsome." We will go to Jinling on our own to ask for the law", but Murong Ling did not say a word.

Chen Hongyi smiled: "What do I have to make you involved, the people in Jinling City still dare to touch the old man, but a few of you are people who can become good generals of the country, it is easy to get a thousand armies and it is difficult to find a general, the old man and the prince can't bear to let you cut yourself off like this." Are you ready to go back to Shou County to live a small life? ”

"Dashuai is clever, if it is peaceful today, I just want to go back and be an ordinary person"

Chen Hongyi shouted angrily again: "Stupid, a few of you go back to Shou County, not only can you not save your own lives, but even your family will suffer with you, if you are in the army, I and the prince can still protect you, if you go back like this, it will be self-defeating, and they will kill you with a crime!" ”

Pharmacist Zhu couldn't help but speak: "Dashuai, if it is calm today, but a few of our big men want to follow Dashuai and the prince to eat white food, I, Pharmacist Zhu, would rather die in the countryside"

Liu Jian spoke: "Haha, you are quite backbone, to be honest, this king's palace has not yet worked to deal with it, and in the future, when you return to the feudal country, what is the long history, joining the army, Gong Cao, Cangcao, Hu Cao, Bing Cao, and the main book is lacking manpower, are you unwilling to work for this king?" “

Li Xiaofei hurriedly responded: "It is naturally better for the little one to serve the prince again."

"I am also willing to follow the prince and be a cangcao", Xiang Xiaoyu also responded immediately

"If the prince doesn't dislike it, I, Zhu, am willing to raise horses for the prince."

Only Murong Ling didn't speak, and Chen Hongyi couldn't help it: "Mr. Murong, do you want to be a ranger?" “

Murong Ling replied: "I'll go back to Shou County"

As soon as Chen Hongyi thought of Murong Ling's skills, he didn't keep them anymore: "It's okay, I'm not afraid of anywhere with Mr.'s skills."

Unexpectedly, Murong Ling replied: "I'll go back when I go"

Everyone was very surprised, and Murong Ling continued: "I want to eat the food of Shou County."

For a while, the originally tense and depressing atmosphere suddenly broke, and everyone laughed.

Chen Hongyi and the others stopped laughing, and spoke again: "It is a good choice to be the right-hand man of the prince in the palace, but for the long-term development of the country, I think Xiaofei and the pharmacist still stay in the army." I will ask the imperial court to restore the system of garrisoning the Great Wall, and the two of you will go to the Dushikou area to build a castle and repair the passes around the Great Wall.

Liu Jian smiled: "It seems that only this Xiang Xiaoyu is following this king, since you eat the food of the three people alone, you might as well be the long history and master of my palace."

Xiang Xiaoyu hurriedly kowtowed to thank him, and Murong Ling spoke again: "And me"

Everyone was shocked by Murong Ling again, and Murong Ling continued: "The palace food is delicious."

Everyone was amused again, and Liu Jian choked: "Okay, cough, okay, Mr. Murong is in charge of the palace meals, just tell what to eat."

After the whereabouts of several people were negotiated, Murong Ling and Zhu Xuehua followed Chen Hongyi's envoy to the south, Xiang Xiaoyu followed Liu Jian to Luoyang, and Li Xiaofei and Zhu Yaoshi stayed with Chen Hongyi to train cavalry and wait for the new appointment.

Chen Hongyi's top watch arrived at the Jinling court, Xiao Ding was about to press it down, but Xie Rui's face was solemn: "The right prime minister, played by the hussar general, has not been damaged in the slightest, he likes to fight and make trouble, so let him make trouble in the north."

"I don't agree with what Sikong said, if he wants to restore the system of garrisoning the Great Wall of the previous dynasty, he must levy strong men and increase taxes, how can it not be damaged by us at all?" Yuan Kang took over and refuted Xie Rui.

"No, this is a good opportunity, Chen Hongyi has a heavy army, if he cuts his military power now, he will definitely lead his troops back to Jinling to coerce us and others, but if we follow his request, send additional guards, and order the northern states and counties to levy strong men to garrison the border, once the people are provoked, the officials of these states and counties will meet to impeach Chen Hongyi. Chen Hongyi will inevitably be in a dilemma, when the time comes, he will be the one who expropriates and extorts, and he is also the one who abuses the people's power. This Chen Hongyi naturally can't stay in the north, and he doesn't have to go back to the dynasty with a gray class, and the knife and gun enter Kuma and put it in Nanshan, and he will be useless if he doesn't fight", Xiao Shan's words, everyone had to admire, no wonder he was the head of the family, and he was really old and vicious.

"Yes, this Chen family army wants to fight on the border, it is nothing more than to provoke and start a war with Mobei, there is a battle to fight them in order to seize the military power, alas, it's a pity that none of us can lead the troops to fight, I heard the eyeliner said that Chen Hongyi and they have a lot of treasures this time", Yuan Kang followed Xiao Shan's words and analyzed it, Xiaoshan Xiao Ding Xie Rui was also very much in favor, and the four important ministers decided to present the recital to Emperor Liu Xuan, and then agreed to this recital together at the court meeting. The four of them couldn't help but laugh out loud at the thought of weakening Chen Hongyi.

Chen Hongyi's recital was passed without suspense, and it was the end of May when the will reached Xiangguo. Li Xiaofei and Zhu Yaoshi took 5,000 men and horses to Dushikou to build a fortress and restore the city wall. On the way north, I saw soldiers from the county town in front of me going door-to-door to catch people and load goods into the car. Li Xiaofei immediately went to ask, only to hear the soldiers cursing Chen Hongyi while snatching a few coins from an old woman.

Li Xiaofei shouted: "You are so bold, you loot the people yourself, and you dare to frame and slander the hussar general"

A soldier sneered: "Heh, what kind of good bird are you Chen Hongyi, what is he going to do to repair the Great Wall, the imperial court has sent additional guards to pay the city salary, and each county will send a thousand strong men to repair the Great Wall." I said that you are all soldiers, didn't you go to collect money and arrest people? ”

Li Xiaofei was a little puzzled: "The will of the imperial court does not say that the counties will pay for it, my five thousand brothers are going to build a fortress and restore the city wall."

A few soldiers have already got the money, and they got up and walked around: "Don't guess as a soldier, anyway, it's all the people from above who want us to levy salaries and arrest people, and they're all bastards."

The old woman's money was taken away, and she sat on the ground crying and scolding: "Damn Chen Hongyi, he arrested my son and robbed me of my money, why didn't God thunder and kill him?"

Li Xiaofei said loudly to the old woman: "You old man is so unreasonable, it is obvious that they robbed you of your money, but you scolded Chen Dashuai"

The old woman cried and said, "If I scold them, they will beat me to death, I scold Chen Hongyi, Chen Hongyi can't beat me"

Li Xiaofei couldn't cry or laugh, and hurriedly ordered someone to repay Chen Hongyi, and he and Pharmacist Zhu continued to take people to Dushikou.

Along the way, the people were looted and exploited again, and Zhu Yaoshi said to Li Xiaofei: "It seems that the court of the Liang Dynasty is not much better than the original Qin State, I thought that the people would live a good life after unification, but I don't know that it is not as good as before."

Li Xiaofei sighed: "We fought desperately, what we said was to protect the family and defend the country, but in the end it became a means for the family to make a fortune, which is really sad." “

After walking for dozens of miles, they met a group of people with black scarves on their heads chasing and killing some soldiers, Li Xiaofei and Zhu Yaoshi took a closer look, but it turned out to be the original Deputy General Zhao who was leading people to cut and kill the soldiers who were collecting salaries and arresting people. Several soldiers shouted for help when they saw the imperial court soldiers and horses, and Li Xiaofei waved his hand: "Brother Zhao, let them go, they are just acting on orders."

Vice General Zhao also waved his hand to signal his subordinates to stop, and let go of the soldiers. Pharmacist Zhu looked at the dozens of people brought by Vice General Zhao, except for the black scarves on their heads, they were still clean, and they were wrapped in some messy cloth and fur: "Brother Zhao, didn't we divide the settling-in allowance for the brothers at the beginning?" Why are you like this? “

Vice General Zhao sighed: "At the beginning, we wanted to go back to Fanyang's hometown to farm and graze, but not long after we went back, Taishou ordered that we were deserters from the Qin State, robbed the treasury, and had to pay money to atone for our crimes, and the settlement fee had to be taken out to save our lives. But we brothers don't bully the poor, and if the officials and soldiers are in front of the levy, let's go and kill the officials and soldiers, and divide the money we have recovered with the people."

Li Xiaofei looked at these dozens of people: "There are as few as 2,000 soldiers and horses in these counties and counties, and there are tens of thousands of them, how can you dozens of people get out?" “

Vice General Zhao smiled: "The people in this place are our eyes, where there are more officials and soldiers, where there are few, someone has come to inform us, not to mention that the garrison sent by Liang Guoxin is not comparable to your team at all, and it is not a problem for us to beat dozens of them one by one." By the way, many of them can't even ride horses, some of them lie on the back of the horse and wrap their arms around the horse's neck, and some tie people to the horse.

Zhu Yaoshi looked at them, ordered someone to give them some grain, grass, clothes and quilts, and prepared to recruit Vice General Zhao to go to Dushikou together, but Vice General Zhao refused: "Thank you good brother, we dozens of people are used to coming and going freely, and we are also afraid in the army, afraid that one day we will be dismissed again, and by then people will be old, so we can only be slaughtered."

When Pharmacist Zhu and Li Xiaofei heard this, they thought that they were not the same, now that Chen Hongyi and Liu Jian were protected, if these two were brought down by the family in the future, they would also fall into the grass. Li Xiaofei smiled: "We don't force Brother Zhao, the little brother only has one thing to ask for, if you encounter difficulties, you can come to us, you must not vote for the Mobei foreigners"

Vice General Zhao laughed: "Surrender to the foreigners, where are we qualified, and people don't look down on us, besides, we have always been dissatisfied with the king of heaven, and it is impossible to go to the foreigners to beg for food!" Two brothers, farewell! ”