The news of Gao Wensheng's death came back to Wuguan, and if you want to say that you are the happiest, it must be where you are.

Temporarily handed over all the things in the inspection department to An Ning and a few of them, Lin Fan hid from the others, and only took He Fang to Zhang Ping's grave.

He Fang caressed Zhang Ping's tombstone, his eyes weeping, and he muttered: "Zhang Ping, good brother!" My brother knows that you died unjustly, and now that Gao Wensheng's dog thief is dead, you can also turn a blind eye! ”

Speaking of this, he hugged Zhang Ping's tombstone and cried silently.

Before coming, Lin Fan specially went to Deyue Tower to buy a few boxes of dim sum and two jars of good wine to pay tribute to Zhang Ping.

Lin Fan vigorously patted the mud seal at the mouth of the altar, he slowly poured one jar of wine in front of Zhang Ping's tombstone, and the other jar of wine was held in his hand, and he drank it in small sips.

"Ahem!" Lin Fan, who was leaning on the tombstone, accidentally choked on the wine and coughed repeatedly.

"Your Excellency!" He Fang, who stopped crying, looked over with concern.

Lin Fan waved his hand to where he was, signaling that he was fine, don't worry.

He smiled bitterly and looked at the wine jar he was carrying, it seemed that he had been out for so long, he was still not used to drinking, and he still had to practice more in the future, otherwise with his current amount of alcohol, it would be too unusual.

Lin Fan unconsciously took another big sip, the spicy liquor burned his stomach, and the cold tombstone behind him invaded his heart and lungs.

knew that Zhang Ping's parents didn't want to see him, so on the day of Zhang Ping's burial, Lin Fan didn't come over, but just asked someone to send this stone tablet.

Zhang Ping's tombstone is polished from a whole bluestone slab, and the inscription on it is written by Lin Fan himself, and then he found a stonemason to carve it up.

In fact, with Zhang Ping's family background, he was reluctant to erect such a good monument for him.

Zhang Ping's family is not wealthy, otherwise Zhang Ping would not have been a soldier.

In addition to his elderly parents, he also has an elder brother, who is an honest and unspoken farmer, who will only serve the few acres of thin fields at home all his life, and live a tight life.

A few years ago, Zhang Ping's eldest brother married a relative, and now he has two children, and since then, the life of the family has been even more miserable.

Zhang Ping's sister-in-law is a rather fierce and spicy woman, when Zhang Ping was at home in the past, he was squeezed and ridiculed by his sister-in-law, saying that he didn't do anything at home all day, and he knew that he would eat and wait for death. Zhang Ping will come out of the house, in addition to being for food, there may not be no reason why he can't stay at home.

The Zhang family felt sorry for Zhang Ping, especially his eldest brother who was too honest and his sister-in-law, who was known for being tough, one was that they felt that if they had stopped it a little more, this kind of thing would not have happened; One was even more guilty, thinking that he had forced Zhang Ping away and killed him.

But people can't be resurrected after death, and the days of the living still have to be continued, just rely on the little things of their own few acres of real estate, if they are all used in Zhang Ping's funeral, then I am afraid that the next big family will drink the northwest wind.

Lin Fan would not criticize the Zhang family for this, and he even knew that the money he left to Zhang Ping's parents was also begged for by Zhang Ping's sister-in-law after he left.

But the second elder didn't say anything, and he, an outsider, didn't want to take care of it, and although the woman was spicy, it was not to the point of being unfilial to the second elder. Most of that money will still be spent on the second elder and the two children, so Lin Fan doesn't need to care about it.

Lin Fan poured most of the remaining half of the pot of wine on the pedestal of the tombstone: "I didn't come to see you off a few days ago, I hope you don't blame me, this wine will be regarded as making amends for your sins!" ”

"My lord, someone's coming!" Seeing that Lin Fan wanted to drink alone, he consciously went not far away to check where the movement was moving.

"Hmm!" Lin Fan responded.

He stood up with the tombstone, patted the dust on his body, and wiped the inscription on the tombstone: "It's not too early, we should also go, and we will come to see you next time when we have time!" ”

Taking the reins handed by He Fang, Lin Fan turned over and got on the horse, he took one last look at Zhang Ping's tomb Ying, and said to He Fang: "Let's go!" Let's pay our respects privately and let the Zhang family know if it's not good. ”

The memorial service was over, and the two of them no longer stayed, and rushed back to the inspection department.

When Zhang Ping's parents, who came to catch up with their son, arrived here, the two had already walked away.

Although he didn't see it, it was not difficult to guess who it was when he looked at the two empty wine jars and wine marks left on the ground, as well as the obviously valuable offerings placed there.

Lin Fan and An Ning had long expected Gao Wensheng's fate, and this matter was also planned by Lin Fan himself, and Gao Wensheng's death was not a big deal for them. But for the officialdom in Anzhou and other places, this incident brought a great shock.

Lishanguan's audacity and recklessness dared to intercept and kill the imperial court officials, which undoubtedly greatly stimulated the officials of Anzhou and Shenzhou.

These mountain bandits usually rob some people, as long as they are not too excessive, and they often know how to be filial, these officials and men are too lazy to worry about them, and they usually do what they do and deal with.

But now they even dare to kill the officials of the imperial court, so this is worth it.

Officials are also human beings, and they all have wives and children, and they finally get fame and become officials, and that is for fame and fortune, and to glorify their ancestors, not to come and be afraid.

Besides, if the government can't even save the lives of officials, who will care about the authority of the government and where will the face of the court go.

All in all, Lishanguan has stabbed a hornet's nest this time, and officials at all levels in Anzhou and Shen all want to set foot in Lishanguan.

This is not only to give an explanation to the world, but also to let those who have thoughts of despising the majesty of the court see that the majesty of the court cannot be violated, otherwise it will end up in a bad fate.

Therefore, the officialdom of the two states is gearing up, just waiting for the beginning of spring next year, after the ice and snow melt, they will level the Lishan Pass in one fell swoop.

However, man is not as good as heaven, and a sudden natural disaster disrupted all plans at once.

In the spring of the eleventh year of Chongping, there was a great drought in the Central Plains.

This severe drought has almost wiped out all the summer grain harvests in all the prefectures and counties of Central Plains Province, which is tantamount to adding insult to injury for the people who are already struggling to survive.

At the same time, the war in the north was tight, but there was no money in the treasury, and the imperial court could only order an increase in salaries in addition to this year's taxes to be used for border wars.

Natural disasters have been going on for many years, and the common people can't survive. The government tax collectors were also aggressive, beating and scolding the people who could not pay the tax money, and putting them in prison at the worst, forcing their families to pawn houses and fields to save people, and hundreds of people were forced to ruin their homes.

Officials at all levels have taken this opportunity to get their hands on it, and they are all making a lot of money, where will they care about the life and death of the people.

In the Central Plains, hunger is everywhere, the people are easy to eat, and the corpses of the dead lie on the road, allowing wild dogs to compete for food.

The government forced the people to rebel, and the people had to rebel. The people have no way to live, they can only be thieves, and for a time, countless people rushed to Chenzhou and defected to the so-called Xingwang Chen Xinglong.

This made Chen Xinglong, who had already appeared to be in decline under the encirclement and suppression of the imperial court, revived.

At this time, he had hundreds of thousands of troops, not only repelled the encirclement and suppression of the official army, but also captured Bozhou, Songzhou, Yingzhou and other places. And Chen Xinglong was not satisfied, and the soldiers even pointed directly at Luo and Liang, and the world was in an uproar.

If the two states of Luo and Liang are lost, the whole territory of the Central Plains Province will be in danger. Since ancient times, those who have won the Central Plains have won the world, and if the traitors have won the Central Plains, their momentum will be difficult to stop, and the north can endanger the Beijing Division, and the south can go straight to the south of the Yangtze River, or go west to Guanlong, no one can control it!

The imperial court would not be unaware of the importance of the Central Plains Province, but now that Chen Xinglong is gaining momentum and the war is unfavorable, the imperial court can only strictly order Zhou Chang, the governor of the Central Plains Province, to encircle and suppress it with all his might.

Fortunately, Zhou Chang used his troops well, mobilized the army of the original road, and successively defeated the 100,000 army led by Liu Qingyuan, a general under Chen Xinglong, in Liangzhou and other places, and once again suppressed the Xingwang army back to Songzhou and other places, and regained the initiative.

It's just that now the troops in Chen Xinglong's hands have far surpassed the officers and troops led by Zhou Chang. Therefore, although the official army won several battles, it was unable to carry out large-scale siege operations, so it could only adopt a siege strategy and constantly consume the Xingwang army.

At this point, the war resumed stalemate, and the imperial court and the Liukou launched a tug-of-war in Songzhou and other places, both of which suffered heavy casualties.

The war was protracted, and it was the people who suffered in the end.

After several years of continuous fighting, the Central Plains Road has almost become a scorched earth, and for the people who have no way to live and do not want to be thieves, they can only choose to leave their homes and be displaced.

And if there is chaos today, there is no pure land in the north. Most of the people can only choose to go south, to find that ray of life.

Although the Central Plains Province was the most severely affected by the drought, Huainan Province was not much better. Shenju, Gwangju, Shouju and other places in the north have also experienced droughts of varying conditions, and even people have died of starvation repeatedly.

Among them, Shenzhou was the most severely affected, and most of the grain fields in various counties in the prefecture had their yields reduced or even failed, and famine of varying degrees occurred in various places.

Not only the victims of the disaster in Honshu need relief, but also the displaced people who have fled from Nakahara Province also need to be reassured.

The yamen of all states are busy at this time, where will they have time to take care of the little in Lishan Pass, so they can only put it aside first.

………

Shenzhou, Shifang Town, Luoshan County, a porridge shed set up by the government.

The porridge shed had just been set up, and the people waiting for the soup kitchen had already gathered around and lined up in a long line outside the porridge shed. If it weren't for the servants to maintain order, I'm afraid the porridge shack would have been trampled by these hungry people.

"Why is it so much?" An old woman with a thin face and a thin body held the bowl of porridge in her hand that could see the human figure clearly, and asked weakly to the messenger who was giving the porridge.

The messenger said angrily: "Go and go, go while going, that's all, drink if you like, and get out if you don't like to drink." I don't want it, not even that! ”

"But there are not a few grains of rice in this bunch, how can you eat enough with such a little thing, please do well, and give me more anyway; My grandson hasn't eaten for a few days, and now he has a fever again, and he's waiting for this porridge to save his life! The old lady begged him.

The servant became even more impatient, and pointed to the men behind the old lady and said, "Oops! I said, you old lady, what's the matter with you, don't you see that I'm busy? Your grandson hasn't eaten? Then you ask these people who are waiting here, which one of them hasn't had a tooth for a few days? You're messing around here, what about the others? ”

The words of the errand officer aroused the resentment of the people in line here with the old lady. They all said to the old lady: "That's it! Hurry up, everyone's waiting, we haven't eaten in days. You can do it when you are old, and you can leave quickly after you finish the porridge! ”

Everyone knows that the old lady is pitiful, but so what? In this world, I can't take care of it myself, and it's too extravagant to take care of other people's affairs.

Under the anger of the crowd, the old lady had no choice but to leave the porridge shed tremblingly with the bowl, thinking that she would hurry back to feed the porridge to her grandson, who was ill.

The old lady was full of silver hair, she was already very old, and her body couldn't bear it because of the hunger and fatigue during this period of time, so she walked very slowly. By the time she finally returned to her place, the porridge was already a little cold.

It is said to be a place to live, but in fact, it is just a place for displaced people to gather and rest temporarily.

Everyone fled and came, and if the conditions were good, there could still be something to cover their heads; And like the old lady and her grandson, the broken straw mat that is now under the grandson is already the most valuable object on their bodies.

She can't take a breath, because her grandson is still waiting for her bowl of porridge!

The old lady carefully separated the crowd, for fear that the thin porridge in the bowl would be spilled.

She walked next to her grandson, squatted on the ground, gently pushed her grandson's body with one hand, and called softly: "Bao'er, wake up, get up and drink porridge, drink the porridge first, and then go to sleep after drinking!" ”

She shouted twice in quick succession, but the toddler on the ground did not respond.

The old lady's hand froze suddenly, and she realized what had happened.

It was a long time before the old lady came to her senses.

She put the porridge bowl aside and picked up her grandson with both hands, trying to take his somewhat cold body into her arms.

She moved very slowly and carefully, for fear that if she tried a little harder, she would hurt her grandson in her arms.

After picking him up, she gently patted the child's back with one hand, beating the beat, and humming the nursery rhyme she often sang when she lulled her grandson to sleep.

"Yang Liu'er works, smoking a spinning top;

Yang Liu Erqing, empty clock;

Yang Liu'er died, kicking the shuttlecock;

The willow sprouts and plucks the child. ”

The old lady was just an ordinary peasant woman, and she didn't know much about singing, but this song was what she was best at. From her son's childhood to her grandson, she sang this song to lull them to sleep.

Singing and singing, the old lady suddenly held the child's corpse and cried loudly, painful and powerless.

She didn't know what she had done wrong, and God was going to punish her like this.

She has been honest and honest all her life, and she has never done anything harmful. But what is the reason why the originally happy family has become like this.

Years of famine and war have made his wife, son, and daughter-in-law leave him one by one. When he fled here, he and his little grandson were left alone and dependent on each other.

But now, God didn't even leave her only remaining grandson to him, and wanted to take him away. What is the reason for all this?

The old lady died, and until she died, she was still holding her grandson tightly and sitting there.

By the time people nearby found out she was dead, it was already the next morning.

No one was surprised, because they were used to seeing dead people along the way, and at any moment someone could fall to the ground and never get up again. Even if he is still alive, he has long been reduced to the walking dead, and he only knows how to move forward numbly,

Whether it's the dead others or themselves, they don't care anymore. Perhaps, they are also waiting for death.

Some of the people who fled from their hometowns couldn't bear their bodies in the wild, so they worked together to bury their grandparents and grandchildren.

There was no coffin when they were buried, so they simply wrapped the bodies of the two with their straw mats and buried them hastily. But I guess they wouldn't care about that at this time.

And there was no tombstone left in the place where the body was buried, only a small inconspicuous mound.

The mound was so small that it would take only a few feet to disappear completely, just like these people who died on the road, leaving nothing but a dry bone.

And such mounds have left an unknown number along the way, and under each of them, there are one or more human lives.

As for erecting a monument, it was too extravagant for the exiles. Let's not say that no one here knows how to read, just take this old lady and his grandson, their family is dead, and no one will come to claim it again.

Maybe in a few years, there will be no one in this world who knows them and knows them, so what's the use of a rotten tombstone!