In late April, it is the late spring season, and the weather is getting hotter. Huzhou City.

In the past, the yamen of the state capital of the Great Song Dynasty has now been occupied by officials of Wu State, and at this time, it is Qian Maocai, who is also in charge of the military and political power of Huzhou, who is also the secretary of the Ministry of Industry of the DPRK, although in the eyes of outsiders, this arrangement is too big and useless, but in view of the current situation of Wu State, he can manage the military and political affairs of a government, and he can be regarded as an important minister in the court.

However, Qian Maocai was not satisfied with his official position, as the founding father who assisted Fang La in the uprising and played a major role during the period, he thought that he had greater credit than Fang Fei, Pang Wanchun and others, but as a result, he could not take the turn of the three princes in the court, and even the important position of the six Shangshu He actually only had the turn of a Ministry of Shangshu, which really made him unacceptable.

If you are above the court of great unification, this post of secretary of the Ministry of Industry is also a fat difference with great power, and every year the money for various projects alone is enough for any corrupt official with a large appetite to eat and drink. But in Wu State, the Ministry of Industry is completely a decoration, and it is difficult for the imperial court that does not have much money to accumulate grain, and it is difficult to even distribute the officials, let alone allocate money to build a large number of buildings, so the Ministry of Industry Shangshu has no real power in his hands, and he Qian Maocai can only be transferred to Huzhou to serve.

What made Qian Maocai even more dissatisfied was the deeper purpose behind such an arrangement. Fang La refused to leave him in the capital Hangzhou, in the final analysis, he still didn't trust him enough, for fear that he would sit in Hangzhou and affect his own authority. And the reason for this is only in Qian Maocai's background, he is a descendant of the Qian family of Wu Yueguo a hundred years ago.

Although it is only a side branch two or three generations away, Qian Maocai's influence in the south of the Yangtze River, especially in Hangzhou, is not small. Of course, this is also related to the imperial court's excessive exploitation of the local people in Jiangnan over the past few years, and what kind of flowers and stones have been carried out, forcing the people to be cornered. You must know that although the original Wu Yue Kingdom was weak, but after many years of establishment, the king was still sympathetic to the people, and did not let people suffer any crimes, thus leaving a good reputation, even if it was a hundred years, the people of Jiangnan still have respect for the Qian family.

It is precisely because of this that when the people of Jiangnan were finally overwhelmed and were bewitched by Fang La to raise an army, Qian Mao also raised an incident in Hangzhou. Soon after, the two sides quickly merged, and Fang La, who was good at using soldiers and people, and Qian Maocai, who was very famous in the south of the Yangtze River, became complementary to each other, so that the power of Wu expanded rapidly, and in just a few months, he occupied many cities, and finally established the country and became the emperor.

But during this period, Qian Maocai's ability was far inferior to Fang La and others, only his false name failed in the subsequent court battles, and finally only got the official position of the Ministry of Industry and the official position of guarding Huzhou, not to mention compared with Fang La, who was the emperor, even compared with Fang Fei and others, there was a huge difference, and the resentment and resentment in his heart were naturally great.

However, he is not completely without gains, in the past few years of open and secret battles, it turned out that only hot-blooded, simple-minded Qian Mao finally grew rapidly, and after suffering a big loss, he finally understood that what name is false, and the military power in his hands is the real truth. So after coming to Huzhou, he devoted himself to cultivating his cronies' soldiers and horses, and now he has built Huzhou into an iron plate, and has also trained a team of more than 10,000 elite soldiers and horses who are only obedient to him.

That's not all, during the period of dormant Huzhou, he also made friends with many other people, and formed alliances with some other rebels who were also excluded by Fang La, and could only serve in the local area, so that he had a considerable force outside the Wu Dynasty, and was ready to return to Hangzhou at any time.

However, all this has to wait until Jiangnan is completely occupied before doing it, after all, he still takes the overall situation into account, plus Fang La's name has been decided early, and it is not something that he can overthrow with a few local officials. But at this moment, Sun Tu's text arrived, and it hit the soft underbelly of Wu State, making the people's hearts float, and many local scholars began to question the orthodoxy of Wu State.

Qian Maocai quickly seized this opportunity, secretly planned several popular uprisings, and spread this theory, causing more and more panic within the Wu State. And he chose to do this, not only because he wanted to take the opportunity to take back his things, but also because he was indeed suspicious of them. He was also a scholar, so naturally he could not accept Manichaeism as a foreign way to control the court. He had even made plans, and when the time was ripe, he personally led his men to Hangzhou to question Fang La in person about the fact that Manichaeism would replace Confucianism as the foundation of the Wu state.

But before he could make the trip, Hangzhou sent someone to Huzhou. At noon on April 18, a group of hundreds of elite Wu troops came directly to the yamen under the leadership of Fang Bo, and quickly entered the hall to see Qian Maocai.

This Fang Bo is also a brother in the Fangla tribe, although he is not capable enough, but he is loyal and reliable enough, so he was named the commander of the Imperial Forest Army, and his status is not low. Because of this, when he saw Qian Maocai, he didn't have much respect, but just hugged his fists and said: "Qian Shangshu, this official is here at the behest of His Majesty, and I am here to invite you to go back to Hangzhou to report on your work, and please leave with me." ”

"Huh? This is not a year, which profession am I talking about? Although he was unhappy, Qian Maocai didn't have an immediate seizure, but just frowned and asked.

"Now that the foreign enemy is present, Suzhou has fallen into the hands of the Song army, and maybe Huzhou will become the next target of the Song army. Your Majesty is worried that this place will not be well fortified, so he will announce your return and make further plans after discussion. Fang Bo said, took out another holy decree and handed it to the other party.

Wu Guocai has only been established for two years, and there is not much attention to the etiquette of the monarch and ministers, one is handed over, and the other is taken casually, and there is no red tape at all to bow down and listen to the decree. However, after casually sweeping the content of the will, the gloomy color between Qian Maocai's eyebrows became a little heavier: "Your Majesty still plans to let you take care of all the affairs of Huzhou on my behalf?" ”

"Exactly. After all, Huzhou is not far from the Song army, if they suddenly attack, Shangshu you are not there, maybe something will happen. But since Ben will be here, it is enough to hold Huzhou! ”

"Your Majesty is really thoughtful." Qian Maocai smiled a little sneeringly, and then said: "But there is no need to be so troublesome, I have done all the defense matters in Huzhou, and I have written the seal early, you just have to bring it back and let Your Majesty know it." And I don't feel at ease after all to let you be an outsider in Huzhou, so I'll guard it here. But he immediately rejected the other party's request, and he didn't even leave any room for it.

This time, it was Fang Bo's turn to have a gloomy face: "Qian Shangshu, this is His Majesty's will, do you dare to disobey?" Are you planning to resist the decree? ”

"There will be no disapproval of the king's life outside! His Majesty's will also mentioned that Huzhou is now the key to resisting the southward advance of the Song army, how can there be any negligence? Qian Maocai immediately replied forcefully. In the struggle after the founding of the country, he had already suffered the loss of being seized of power, and he was already weak-hearted, how could he leave Huzhou's nest at this time and go to Hangzhou alone?

Fang Bo's face changed again, his hand was also on the handle of the saber at his waist, and he asked in a deep voice, "Qian Shangshu is really unwilling to follow the order?" If this is the case, then Your Majesty still wants me to ask you, can the chaos that happened in Deqing, Chongde and Wukang in the past month be related to you? ”

These words made Qian Maocai's heart jump suddenly, his face changed, and he hurriedly said: "Nonsense, I am a courtier of Wu State, how could I do such a thing?" ”

"But the leaders of the rebels and thieves who were taken down in the local area confessed that they had contact with Qian Shangshu, and you had contact. If you refuse to go back to Hangzhou to give an explanation to Your Majesty, then you will have to offend! Fang Bo said, he had already pulled out his saber and was about to make a move.

And Qian Maocai, who had long been weak-hearted, reacted extremely quickly, and quickly retreated while shouting loudly: "Someone, there are assassins!" ”

At the same time as he shouted, the guards in front of the door had already pounced on Fang Bo as quickly as a cheetah, and the four steel knives immediately took Fang Bo's body from four directions. The whistling sound of the knife made Fang Bo give up the pursuit of Qian Maocai, turn around to block the opponent's attack, and shouted: "Qian Maocai, you dare to make a move against Qin Cha, do you really want to do the opposite?" ”

"I think you're the one with ulterior motives, kill him for me!" Qian Maocai, who was almost slashed by the other party with a knife, was also shocked and angry, coupled with the evil breath that he had been holding in his heart, he quickly exploded at this moment, and without thinking too much, he issued such an order.

Those guards thought less, just did what they were told, and attacked with all their might right now. These four people were the masters he had carefully selected from the army, and they were four people who attacked together, and in just a few moves, Fang Bo had been forced into a corner, and there were several more scars on his body.

At the same time, there was also a sound of fighting outside, and it was obvious that the men and horses who came with Fang Bo finally noticed that something had changed inside, and wanted to rush in to save people, and had a head-on conflict with Qian Maocai's guards. Just looking at this reaction, Qian Maocai immediately understood, the other party really didn't leave any room for himself, and immediately became even more angry, didn't say anything more, drew his sword, and rushed over with an arrow.

Although his own martial arts skills are not very high, but for Fang Bo, it became the last straw that broke the camel's back, and after flashing two knives and holding another knife, he was already slashed in the shoulder. And before he could change his tricks to save himself, Qian Maocai's long sword had already roared, and it suddenly sank into the defenseless Fang Bo's lower abdomen, stabbing him through it.

"You ......" Fang Bo screamed, before he could say anything, Qian Mao, who was already iron-hearted, quickly drew his sword, swiped it with his hand, and cut the artery in the other party's neck with a bang, blood shot out, and when the scream started, Fang Bo fell down in response.

This sword killed Fang Bo, a cronie sent by Fang La, and also cut off all Qian Maocai's back roads by the way. Huzhou, it's going to be messy......