Walking on the streets of Jianzhou City at the end of October, it was cold and lonely. Zhao Dangshi's mood is also the same as this climate, gloomy and incomprehensible. An hour ago, he had just witnessed the whole process of Zhang Miaobai and Wu Liangjie's execution. Even though he said that his heart was as hard as iron, he still felt uncomfortable when these two people died one after another.

Zhang Miaobai's infinitely resentful eyes before he died made him sad, and Wu Liangjie's wail through the sky made him sigh. Just the passage of time can make their original self stand on the opposite side, what factors caused their mood to change? Zhao Dangshi thought about it for a long time, but he didn't find an answer. The old saying "time can change a person" is really not that simple.

The cold wind swept up the fallen leaves under the trees and fell from the air. Zhao Dangshi dusted off the dead leaves attached to his armor and shook his head. There are too many things he can't comprehend, and the ones that are piled up in his mind are extremely headaches as long as he thinks about them. Sometimes, he wonders if he should go to the temple and ask a monk to accompany the army and solve his problems at all times. But after thinking about it, which monk would be willing to come to Zhao Ying to settle down regardless of his identity and public opinion. Even if he was forcibly "invited", he was afraid that he would not be sincere in facing himself.

In another hour, the funeral of Bai Jiaolong will be held in the north of the city. The high-level generals of the Zhao battalion, including Zhao Dangshi, who are in Jianzhou, will attend. Although Zhao Dangshi did not have a deep friendship with Bai Jiaolong, he still couldn't help but feel sorry when he thought that he sacrificed under Wu Liangjie's blade to protect the grain and grass from being burned.

As soon as Bai Jiaolong, who was the commander of the former battalion of the old army, died, the position was vacant, and a suitable replacement could not be found in the short term, so Hou Dagui, the chief soldier of the old army, temporarily took over the post of the general manager. Hui Dengxiang, the staff officer of the front battalion, thought that he could be on top, but who knew that things backfired, and he complained in private. Pang Jinming told Zhao Dangshi about this, but Zhao Dangshi did not pursue it. As long as Hui Dengxiang can grasp the proportions, Zhao Dangshi will be stable and will not embarrass him.

This morning, Zitong quickly reported and conveyed two military information.

The first is Jiangyou. Hao Shaoqi led the army to storm the city, and the southeast corner of the city was broken yesterday, and the Zhao camp took advantage of the situation to break into the city. The process is commonplace, but it is worth mentioning that after Ma Hongyuan, the county governor of Jiangyou, was captured alive, he sacrificed his wife to redeem himself. Hao Shaoqi saw that his wife was quite attractive, and secretly accepted it. This episode came from Yang Zhaofeng's report, but Zhao Dangshi did not deal with it. Zhao Ying is not a monk camp after all, the generals are all mortals, and it is inevitable that they have seven emotions and six desires, and they have all reached the level of Hao Shaoqi, and it is irrelevant to leave some private goods. After all, it's just a sentence, everything is within the degree, Zhao Dangshi is also reasonable, turn a blind eye, if you go too far and cause a bad impact, then I don't have to say, Wu Liangjie is the best demonstration.

The second is the Tongchuan Prefecture side. Guo Ruke led the army to pursue the official army and rout the army into the state, and won another victory in Yanting. After that, he bypassed Yanting County and continued to go south - this was the task given to him by Zhao Dangshi, and it was not a dereliction of duty. The first battalion crossed the Tongshui and advanced to the city of Tongchuan Prefecture. Guo Ruke felt that his morale was available, so he wanted to try his luck and launched an attack on the state city. Unexpectedly, the official army was continuously repulsed, and later, the situation was completely reversed, and the official army in the city even divided most of them out of the city to fight, wanting to completely defeat Guo Ruke. Fortunately, it was dark, and Guo Ruke seized the opportunity to turn back, but he also folded hundreds of people. Later, after inquiring, I learned that Tongchuan Prefecture had already been stationed in northern Sichuan, and Zhang Ling, the deputy chief soldier of Sichuan, and his 2,500 soldiers.

This order is known as the "Divine Crossbow General", the arm strength is amazing, and he immediately uses a five-stone crossbow, and he will be pierced in the chest. And he is not young, his qualifications are still above Hou Liangzhu, and Qin Liangyu is as famous as Sichuan and Shu, and the people of the time compare him with Lian Po and Huang Zhong. Like Hou Liangzhu, he also started in the Lu'an Rebellion, but he was a rebel at the beginning, and later because of his meritorious service anyway, he was awarded the rank of general and even deputy commander-in-chief.

Guo Ruke suffered a loss, knowing that Kezhou was hopeless, and then returned to Zitong, and Hao Shaoqi also began to pull out his army and embark on the way home after looting the river oil for a night. It is expected that by tomorrow evening at the latest, the first army will be regrouped in Zitong.

The use of soldiers must be like water, moving and spiritual, quiet and self-extinguishing, and it takes time to disperse and reunite. This is especially true for a camp like Zhao Ying. Zhao Dangshi estimated that after Bai Jiaolong's funeral was completed, the entire army of Jianzhou City would have to meet in Zitong.

Zhao Dangshi buried himself in thinking about the next matters, walked away, turned an old locust tree, and suddenly smelled a faint smell of smoke. Because Wu Liangjie wanted to 'burn the military rations, Zhao Dangshi was particularly sensitive to fireworks in the past two days.

The smoke led him to a courtyard, and when he got closer, he saw that there was an incense burner in it, and the fire was beating in it, and there was a pile of yellow paper wrapped around it.

The maid standing next to the woman saw Zhao Dangshi and opened her mouth to speak, but Zhao Dangshi put her index finger in front of her lips, signaling her not to make a sound, and then quietly flashed to the side, quietly looking at the fire and the woman who was burning the fire.

When all the yellow paper in his hand was burned out, another quarter of an hour passed. The woman clapped her hands and said with relief, "It's burned out." Xiaozhu, let's go back. As he spoke, he got up, but in an instant he caught a glimpse of a tall and straight figure, and the smile bloomed from his face almost instantly, "Zhao ...... General Zhao, why are you here? ”

Zhao Dangshi replied with a smile: "I happened to pass by, come and see the county lord." ”

At this time, Hua Qing had already changed into the ordinary women's clothes in the camp, and she had already cleaned up the wide robe and big sleeves that she wore out of Hanzhong Mansion earlier. Out of Hanzhong Fucheng, I am just Huaqing. ”

Zhao Dangshi made a look, Xiaozhu walked up quickly, put away the incense burner, and went back to the courtyard first. On the quiet and neat bluestone street, only Zhao Dangshi and Hua Qing were left talking to each other.

"That incense burner ......" Zhao Dangshi smiled and frowned, pointing to Xiaozhu's back as he hurriedly walked away.

Hua Qing's face suddenly showed a hint of loneliness: "I heard that she, she went this morning...... I didn't know her, and I didn't know what she was doing wrong. From what she said yesterday, it seems that it was because of me again. I couldn't do anything, so I wanted to burn some paper for her and pray for blessings......"

"You don't have to take this on yourself." Zhao Dangshi interrupted without waiting for her to finish, "The main cause of this matter is her, and the second cause is me, and it has nothing to do with you." ”

Hua Qing was silent for a while, and suddenly said: "My mother often says, 'People are good, and blessings are far away.'" I don't know her, I don't know if she's a wicked person, but I'd rather believe that she's a good person. But in that case, aren't you a wicked person? But I know that you must not be a wicked person, so she can only be a wicked person. ”

Zhao Dangshi listened to her babble for a long time, and he couldn't laugh or cry, but when he saw that she was serious, he could see that she had thought about it seriously. Listening to her finally believe that she is a good person, I can't help but be moved.

However, no matter how evil a person is, there will always be some good thoughts. The best way is to persuade people to do good deeds and change their ways, otherwise, life will be lost and everything will no longer be possible. ”

Zhao Dangshi nodded and said, "What you said is reasonable." But who is either good or evil in this world, including you and me? Sometimes, however, good thoughts prevail, and cordiality prevails; Sometimes, evil thoughts prevail and many wrong things are committed. It is a pity that people's desires are difficult to extinguish, and the demons in their hearts are stupid, how many people can always abide by morality and let good thoughts always prevail over evil thoughts? Speaking of this, he sighed, "If everything in the world can be changed with the word 'persuasion', then what are we working so hard for?" ”

"Maybe ......" Hua Qing said two words, but did not say any more. Because she suddenly remembered the murder of innocent people by Liu Shaozong outside Hanzhong City. She found that the experience of just a few months was completely beyond her imagination in the previous ten years. Everything that seems to her to be simple and easy to do will become extremely absurd and unreasonable when it comes back to reality.

She didn't want to admit that what she had learned from books, from her mother, and from her teachers was wrong, but ironically, she slowly felt that maybe she, as the book says, had been living the life of a caged bird.

Zhao Dangshi stayed in Zitong for two days, and on the third day, Hou Dagui was in Jianzhou to organize the army and logistics to transfer the work, and he and Xu Hui took the lead. When they arrived in Zitong, Guo Ruke, Qin Jinxiao, and Hao Shaoqi came to see each other, and after Zhao Dangshi roughly dealt with some of the remaining problems of the three of them, a heavy news came.

The news itself is very simple, that is, Wang Weizhang, the governor of Sichuan, may be removed from his post and investigated. This news is currently only a few rumors and has not yet been implemented, but Zhao Dangshi and others believe that this matter is very likely. Because the reasons that contributed to this event came from many sources.

First of all, the imperial court has long been dissatisfied with Wang Weizhang. Since taking office, Wang Weizhang has been criticized by courtiers for his conservative style, and the governors and governors of Shaanxi, Henan and other provinces have cooperated with each other to pursue and suppress the rogue. Wang Weizhang repeatedly refused to participate in it, and only when he could not stand the pressure could not stand it, he would occasionally send a small group of troops out of the province to help in the war. He just wants to keep his one-third of an acre of land and keep his black gauze hat, but his overly cautious personality is really difficult to get the appreciation of Hong Chengchou and other colleagues and the favor of an impatient emperor like Chongzhen.

Second, since the eight years of Chongzhen, it has been proved that Wang Weizhang's caution has not brought the desired stable effect. Not to mention anything else, let's just say that two years ago, Zhao Ying entered Sichuan for the first time, and turned the whole Sichuan upside down. Wang Weizhang has been commented on at several court meetings as "mediocre and inactive". This time, Zhao Erying entered Sichuan, and the momentum was huge, and Wang Weizhang almost repeated the mistakes of the last time, and still failed to come up with an effective countermeasure to stop the second battalion. It stands to reason that Hong Chengchou forced the second battalion to the south, and the Sichuan army should cooperate with the attack to the north, annihilating the second battalion in one fell swoop, and never suffering in the future. However, Wang Weizhang's disagreement with Hou Liangzhu, as well as the incompetence and improper deployment of the imperial majesty, directly contributed to the sinister scene of not only striking a blow to the second battalion, but instead of escaping from the gap. This responsibility can only be borne by Wang Weizhang.

Again, not long ago, Li Zicheng broke through Mianzhou and slaughtered Liu Yuliang, the current cabinet minister and secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and it is hard to imagine that Liu Yuliang would be indifferent to this. Liu Yuliang can't directly retaliate against Li Zicheng, so it is inevitable to impeach Wang Weizhang, who is unfavorable to the thief. In addition, as early as before the second battalion entered Sichuan, Wang Weizhang favored a person named Jin Chuni and listened to his words to promote the "White Lotus Sect" Zhu Tingyi to join the army, and he was also stabbed to the imperial court and impeached by the editor Ma Shihua. The outcome of this matter is still unknown, but if you think it will be combined with Wang Weizhang's "accumulated criminal record", the final conviction will not be small.

A lot of the news about Wang Weizhang obtained by Zhao Dangshi above comes from Li Zicheng's communication - breaking into the camp has blossomed in all directions in the past two days, first breaking through Chongning, then burning Xindu, Peng County, and then breaking Jintang and other places, almost poisoning the prefectures and counties around Chengdu Prefecture, in addition to collecting grain, gold and silver, but also pry out a lot of news from the mouths of local officials and squires.

If Wang Weizhang is removed from office and arrested, then the supreme power in Sichuan will inevitably experience a vacuum for a period of time before the new governor takes office. And this vacuum period is the best time for the development of the second battalion.

At present, Li Zicheng has surrounded Chengdu, and after Zhao Ying is assembled in Zitong, he will pass through Mianzhou and other places, and he can go to Chengdu to meet under the city unimpeded. However, Zhao Dangshi thought of another plan.