Although Heifu claimed to have "taken Jingzhou completely", in fact, Dongting County (Qianzhong County), located in the Jiangnan region, was not fully controlled by the Northern Expeditionary Army until the end of June.

Dongting County is probably located in the later generations of Xiangxi, western Hubei, named after the border with Dongting Lake, this whole county to put it bluntly, but Wuling Mountain and Xuefeng Mountain two mountain ranges between the narrow dam area, north and south nearly a thousand miles, the mountains are vertical and horizontal, and the main artery that runs through the whole county is Yuanshui.

Yuanshui has five main tributaries, and the local indigenous Bapu barbarians call it Xiongxi (Wushui), Manxi (Qushui), Youxi (Youshui), Luxi (Shuishui), and Chenxi (Chenshui), so this place is also called "the land of five streams".

Marquis Wu Zhong sent two armies to attack Dongting County, one was Sima Man, who went south from Yidao (Yidu, Hubei), and the other was Zhao Tuo, who went north from Guilin through Rongcheng (Hunan Passage County). It stands to reason that the north-south attack can be carried out in ten months, and the reason why the progress is so slow is not only that the Dongting county guard and lieutenant have adopted a policy of resistance, but also because the county roads are simple and the mountains are crisscrossed......

Qianling County is the most remote county of Dongting County, ninety percent of the local population is Puyue barbarians, the people of Qi account for only eleven, it is built next to the river, close to Youshui, take it as a moat, there is a rammed earth city wall of more than one high zhang, two hundred steps long from east to west, more than one hundred steps from north to south, it is not so much a county seat, it is better to say that it is more like a military camp.

But although the sparrow is small, all the organs are complete, Qianling County has a complete system of rules and regulations, no worse than the Central Plains County, and the officials are also serious and responsible, although the only way to communicate with the outside world is to let the postman run errands and go in and out once a month.

Therefore, the news here is often one to two months behind the outside.

The postman dutifully ran on the road day by day, taking away the documents of the relocation of the tomb, and bringing back the news from all over the country, but from some day, he found that every time he brought back the letters, the faces of the county leaders would be more solemn, and the atmosphere in the county became more and more tense.

I can't help but worry the officials, and in the past three months, there has been no good news: at first, in May, there were police in Lingyang (Cili, Hunan) and Linyuan (Changde, Hunan) in the north, and the rebels in Nanjun were storming there. Then, in June, Chenyang (Chenxi, Hunan) and Xinwuling (Lipu, Hunan) in the south were in an emergency, and it seems that the fortress was also captured by the Lingnan rebels.

It wasn't until a few days ago that the worse news came, the county rule of Linyuan had fallen, Yuanling, which was the gateway to Qianling, had also surrendered, and the rebels were marching west along Youshui to take Qianling County, a small town that was still loyal to the Qin court in the end.

The people in the county were panicked, and the local barbarian monarch ran out early, leaving only the three chiefs from Guanzhong, with more than 100 county soldiers sticking to their posts.

The county lieutenant's name is "Jing", and he has just returned from outside the city:

"The county gentleman, the three townships of Duxiang, Qiling, and Erchun have also been completely cut off, and I am afraid that they have been obtained by the rebels.

"How many rebels are there?"

The county order is called "pull", and he has served in the county for ten years and has been conscientious, but he didn't expect to encounter such a thing.

"At least two thousand ......" the county lieutenant was a little desperate, this number was twice the population of the county.

"It seems that the tomb can't be defended."

The county man whispered on the side: "I heard that this rebellion was caused by Marquis Wuzhong's threat that the first emperor was killed by traitors and rebels, and it was under the banner of Jingnan, not a rebellion......"

The implication is that they conform to the general trend, and it is okay for Kaicheng to surrender, anyway, Jingzhou has all fallen, and Dongting County is only a small county with Qianling left, how can they use their mantis arms as a car?

"The law is orderly, I only recognize the documents of the county government and Xianyang, no matter what reason Marquis Wu Zhong has, he is only the commander of the Southern Expeditionary Army, he does not respect the order of Xianyang, he raises troops privately, occupies the county and seizes the city, and sets up his own door, what is this not a rebellion?"

But the county commander is a person who admits death, although he does not have the confidence to resist the rebels, but he still has to do his last duty, he gritted his teeth and said: "Take out all the documents, and burn them all before the rebels enter the city!" ”

……

Because of its remote location, Qianling County did not catch up with the trend of Xianyang and Jiangling, and still uses the old bamboo slips, and most people in the county do not know what paper is.

Large bundles of bamboo slips were moved out of the official office, all of which were precious archives kept for many years in Qianling County, with hundreds of thousands of pieces, filling several rooms, dating from the 25th year of the reign of King Qin to the 37th year of the First Emperor, and the details were detailed to the month and day, continuously.

Its contents are even more all-encompassing, involving household registration, land reclamation, land rent and taxation, labor and forced labor, storage of money and grain, armor and materials, roads and crossings, post management, slave trade, judicial documents, prison management, sacrifice to the ancestors and related government decrees.

Everyone gathered behind the county temple, and the light of the burning firewood reflected their uneasy expressions, and the county commander's face twitched when they watched each scroll of slips being thrown into the fire and burned.

Every word, every Jane, is the bits and pieces of the past ten years, and they are all the serious painstaking efforts of the Qin officials.

But there is no way, destroying documents, this is the last duty of Qin officials, which originated before reunification.

At that time, the officials of the border counties and counties would be repeatedly told by the Imperial History Office that in case the city was forced by the enemy country, the simple documents must not fall into the hands of the enemy country!

They are like the big data of a region, everything is recorded, and it is the basis of the government's governance, and destroying them is equivalent to destroying the cornerstone of the rule, unless it takes years or even ten years to re-survey the acres of land and count the household registration, otherwise, it can only maintain extensive rule.

These simple documents are the secret of Qin's ability to dominate the world......

But there are too many Jane, more than ten years of accumulated archives, until the rebels came to the city, there are still many that have not been burned.

The county magistrate looked at the dry well behind him: "Throw down everything that has not been burned." ”

Everyone had to hurriedly throw the Jian Mu that had not been burned into the deep well outside the official office, and no one said a word during the whole process, only the loud shouts of the rebels outside the city, and the Youshui not far away whimpered in a low voice, sighing for the fate that Qianling was about to usher in.

The wellhead was calm, and the prefectural order was issued, and the earth and rocks were also thrown down, and finally the wellhead was filled tightly......

After doing this, the county commander sighed, glanced left and right, there were fewer people left, the county man who wanted to join the enemy had long since disappeared, and the county lieutenant Jing was also gone, and he said that he was going to organize everyone to defend against the enemy, but who knows? Maybe he ran to open the city gate and surrendered?

In fact, even if it is not opened, the wall is no more than a foot high, and the enemy can easily break through the city.

"Let's disperse."

The county commander said weakly.

"County Jun!" The postman, the squeeze, and the servant all fell to their knees, bewildered and overwhelmed.

He ordered: "After a while, you will go out and join the rebels, and say that I did everything." ”

"Officials, the upper must be worthy of the court, and the lower must be worthy of the people in the jurisdiction. I have done my last duty, destroying the documents, and living up to the court, but I will not insist on going my own way, tying up the whole city to die together, go quickly, go quickly......"

He waved the crowd away, and looked back at the filled well.

There are still more than 30,000 slips that have not had time to be burned, but I don't know, is it possible for it to be opened again and see the light of day again?

"No, just like me."

He sighed and walked into the empty county temple alone.

A moment later, when the Guilin soldiers entered the temple in Qianling County, they only saw the person wearing an official uniform and stabbing himself above the hall, and the blood flowing all over the ground soaked him in a dark official uniform......

As intellectuals, military judges are knowledgeable, and they are busy looking for simple documents, but they find nothing, and they are so anxious that they jump to their feet.

The captain only cares about fighting, so he doesn't have to worry about this, he goes directly to the couch and arrogantly points to the uprooted corpse: "That's him!" ”

"General Zhao said that under the order of the Marquis of Wuzhong, every county must be punished with a cool official, since the county lieutenant and Cheng Zhiqu surrendered, and the county commander committed suicide in fear of crime, he was elected! Cut off the man's head and hang it on the wall! ”

……

In the era of change, the world cares about the princely hegemony, the warriors competing in the territory, and the think tank wrestling with the power scheme.

Just like a small village at the foot of Wuling Mountain on the bank of Yuanshui 100 miles away from Qianling County, the villagers couldn't help but be frightened when they saw the army passing by frequently, and looked at their wives and daughters like wolves.

Despite the haste of coming and going, being restrained by the military judges, and the soldiers who offended with bad intentions were punished on the spot.

But two of the female relatives have been insulted, and no one dares to block the lives of the whole family on the military discipline of the soldiers.

Therefore, in order to avoid the war and the possible looting, dozens of Qiantou leaders gathered in a small area have helped the old and the young, walked by the stream, and came to a peach blossom forest. Toilet boat, enter from the mouth......

Dozens of people disappeared into the cave of the Peach Blossom Spring, and no one ever saw them come out again......

In troubled times, life is as cheap as grass, and the disappearance of a small aggregate is not worth mentioning.

The only thing worth mentioning is that on the first day of the seventh month, Zhao Tuo, a general of the former Southern Expeditionary Army, slowly led thousands of Guilin soldiers into Linyuan (Changde, Hunan).

From May to the present, in two months, I don't know how much has happened outside, but Zhao Tuo has only captured Dongting County, the speed is comparable to turtle climbing, even though there are the reasons why the mountains and rivers of Dongting County are treacherous and the roads are difficult, but more importantly, Zhao Tuo has some ideas in his heart, and he does not urge the soldiers, and deliberately slows down......

Zhao Tuo can be said to have been forcibly tied to Heifu's chariot, on the one hand, he was worried about whether the clan in the north would be implicated, and on the other hand, he still had doubts about whether the "Northern Expeditionary Army" could achieve the final victory.

No, as soon as he arrived in Linyuan, he asked his cronies to inquire about something from the people from the north.

"Wang Ben and Marquis Wu Zhong confronted each other in Nanyang, how did they win or lose?"

After a while, the cronie returned, but he was escorted in......

Zhao Tuo couldn't help but be surprised, but the person who came was on the order of Heifu, and the army that went south to Linyuan was going to the disease, and he laughed and said:

"General Zhao Pi, you led 10,000 people, it took two months to capture Dongting County, the confrontation and decisive battle of hundreds of thousands of troops, the famous generals competed in the field, and it took a long time for the heel army to clash and see the moves, how could it be so quick to divide the victory and defeat?"

……

PS: The second chapter is in the evening

。 m.