After seeing Wang He walking, he ordered the chiefs to lead the sergeants back to the tent to rest, and then turned around and whispered to Wei Yuanqi for a long time.

After Wei Yuanqi heard this, Lao Gao, whose originally drooping head was raised instantly, stared at Zhu Lihua.

Zhu Lihua looked at him lightly and asked softly, "Do you dare to go?"

Wei Yuanqi lowered his head and thought for a while, then suddenly raised his head and rubbed his nervous sweaty hands and said, "Dare."

Zhu Lihua patted him on the shoulder, smiled and said, "Then go back quickly, remember to act according to orders, and don't make your own decisions." ”

After saying that, he ignored Wei Yuanqi, who rushed into the barracks, and walked towards the Chinese military tent by himself.

Gao Yunce, Liang Qingshu, and Liu He looked at the two and whispered, Wei Yuanqi left in a hurry, and Lihua didn't make a sound, I can't help but look at me, I look at you, I don't know what medicine is bought in the gourd.

But Fang Cai Lihua paid all the grain and grass to Wang He, which made them angry and chaotic in their hearts, Gao Yunce and Liang Qingshu suddenly had the thought that they should not follow the Li Hua at all, but the matter has come to this point and they can't just leave, it is better to think about how to deal with the aftermath is the right solution.

Unconsciously, the three of them had followed Lihua back to the Chinese military tent, and saw Lihua who came first writing the desk.

After a while, Zhu Lihua put down the pen in his hand, picked up the written letter and read it again, then folded it and handed it to Gao Yunce:

"Senior brother, please send this letter to Longde City as soon as possible and hand it over to the county order."

Gao Yunce was stunned for a moment with the letter, hesitated for a moment, and said in a loud voice to Lu Lihua:

"Lord Baijiang, do you want to report to the official?"

At this moment, not only Gao Yunce, but also Liang Qingshu also understood Lihua's intentions, and couldn't help but feel some dissatisfaction and contempt for Lihua in his heart.

Gao Yunce put the letter on the desk and said to Lihua:

"Brother Zhuli, you and I have been friends for several years, Brother Zhuli treats me well, and we also admire Brother Zhuli who is not afraid of the powerful, and the turbidity of the green lotus is not a demon, so I will also entrust my life to Brother Li.

But today's events are a little incomprehensible to me.

The Wang family clearly intends to make trouble, but Brother Lili is so weak and deceitful, although I understand Brother Li's intentions, but in this way, not to mention that my sergeant will starve in the future, even if I will deviate from the Lord in my heart, I am afraid..."

"Alright."

Lu Lihua Wen Yan waved his hand to interrupt Gao Yunce's words, handed the letter to Gao Yunce again, and said:

"When you go to Longde City, you need to wait patiently in front of the county yamen, if the county order does not open the door, you will continue to wait, and if the county order opens the door, you will submit a letter and return to the camp immediately.

If the county magistrate sees you, well, I guess he won't see you.

But if I see you, just tell him what happened today, and I will return as soon as I leave the county office.

We will be out of camp early tomorrow morning, and according to the plan we will arrive at Yuxiao Pass tomorrow evening.

From here to Yuxiao Pass, there are only more than forty miles left. ”

Gao Yunce looked at Yu Lihua in a daze, and saw that he seemed to be demented and said to himself that although he understood but seemed to have deep meaning, he took the letter and turned his head to look at Liang Qingshu.

Seeing that Liang Qingshu also shook his head in confusion, he stood on the ground at a loss.

I only heard Zhu Lihua say again: "It's time now, the city gate is closed, take my deer talisman and go quickly." ”

Gao Yunce stretched out his hand to take the deer talisman, shook his head, and turned to leave.

No matter how dissatisfied they were in their hearts, Gao Yunce, Wei Yuanqi, and Liang Qingshu could not refuse Zhu Lihua's arrangement.

In the past few years, Lihua has taken the three of them to handle one after another political affairs that others can't do, which makes them have an instinctive trust in Lihua in their hearts, although they feel that what Lihua did not do right this time, but what can they do.

Seeing that Gao Yunce had taken out the big tent and disappeared in the dim sky, Zhu Lihua wrote two more letters on the desk, and after writing it, he turned his head to look at Liang Qingshu and said to him:

"Brother Liang, inform the Minfu that he can leave the army tomorrow morning, one of these two letters is an explanation of the completion of his duties with the Minfu, and the other is a letter to Jie Zi, and I also ask the Minfu to send it to the restaurant on my behalf."

After that, he took out some broken silver and handed it to Liang Qingshu.

Of course, Liang Qingshu understood that these broken silver were used by the people who rewarded and sent the letter, so he sighed and shook his head to take the letter and the broken silver and left.

Zhu Lihua lowered his head and looked at the fire in the brazier, and was silent for a long time.

Liu He stood at the tent door, looking at Zhu Lihua with some concern, thinking about how to comfort his main general, but he didn't know what to say.

In fact, like Gao Yunce and others, he felt that Zhu Lihua was too weak.

The big tent was quiet, as quiet as the back camp outside the tent, as if there was no one at all.

The wood in the brazier was burned so hard that even Liang Qingshu and the others didn't want to see each other when they came back, but just asked Liu He to take them back to the tent to rest.

I don't know how long later, a gust of wind suddenly blew outside the tent, causing the tent to sway.

At this time, Lihua raised his head and glanced at Liu He, who looked at Lihua and shouted "ah".

Because Liu He saw that Zhu Lihua's eyes were blood-red, and his pale face was like a rakshasa in the faint light of the fire.

I only heard Lihua muttering, "Is it finally about to start!" With that, he went to the couch and slept in his clothes.

......

Wang He, his own servants, the people who carried the grain, and five servants set out from the camp in Lulihua and hobbled all the way to the east.

It had been snowing heavily for four days, making the road extremely difficult to walk, but Wang He, an old man who had passed the sixtieth century, looked like a sturdy young man at the moment, and he refused to take the car and chose to walk.

The sturdy young men who accompanied him-the five officials were a little unable to keep up with Wang He's footsteps, but they still patted Wang He's ass to their heart's content along the way.

There was no trace of the road even under the heavy snowfall, which made the grain truck go very slowly.

Wang He and the five servants slowly walked to the front of the grain cart unconsciously.

Wang He's heart was overflowing with heroism at the moment, as if he had done something big.

He thought that Zhao Yuan would definitely be very happy when he heard that he had taken away all the grain and grass from Zhu Lihua, and maybe in time he would say a few kind words to Lord Zhao Zhize, he couldn't help but hum happily.

When you are happy, you always feel that time flies quickly, so Wang He and the others have arrived outside Longde City before they know it.

Wang He's house is in Wangjiayuan in the east of Longde City, and it takes more than ten miles to travel after Longde City.

The officials who were traveling with them were also ready to say goodbye to Wang He, and then went into the city to pay tribute to Wang Stork.

At this moment, I saw the two of them walking with their heads bowed, passing them and the pedestrians from behind, trying to go in the direction of the city gate.

At this hour, there were still people walking outside the city at night, and everyone was very curious, so they looked at the two of them.

"Huh?"

A person beside Wang He said softly: "This person is so familiar, it seems to be the person next to Zhu Lihua." ”

When Wang He heard this, he also became interested, so he screamed, "Stop them!" ”

The two of them were Gao Yunce and the accompanying sergeant who went to Longde City to report to Longde City on the order of Lihua, because Wang He and the others walked very slowly with grain and grass, and Gao Yunce rushed all the way, and the two teams met at the gate of the city.

Gao Yunce was afraid that the officials would do something to make it impossible for him to enter the city after entering the city, so he hurriedly overtook Wang He and the others, hoping to enter the city gate before them.

As he was marching, he suddenly heard someone shouting behind him to stop, and he didn't have to think that it must be Wang He's family. The two of them couldn't help but speed up their pace and ran towards the city gate.

Wang He and his entourage saw that Gao Yunce and the others kept running back, so they ran out of the team and seven or eight people chased forward.

The sergeant behind Gao Yunce was trained, and he was agile and ran faster and faster.

But Gao Yunce has been working as a civil servant in the General Government for a long time, and he has been on the road for nearly an hour on a snowy night, and there is not much physical strength left.

But it didn't take long for him to be exhausted, and he watched as a group of people came from behind to catch up with him.

As soon as the accompanying sergeant saw that Gao Yunce had been arrested, he did not continue to run, turned around and turned back.

Wang He saw a group of people walking towards Gao Yunce, so he asked:

"Who are you? Why are the people sneaking outside the city at night, whether they are fleeing or not? ”

Gao Yunce raised his head and looked at Wang He, his eyes rolled to his heart, and he shouted:

"Yes, I'm the pawn who escaped from Qixia Pass, pull me to see the official, I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid!"

Wang He was immediately happy when he heard this, and everyone who accompanied him also laughed.

Wang He smiled: "Your doll is also interesting, since you are a pawn who escaped, you don't ask us to let you go, but let us send you to see the official." The people around him laughed even more heartily after hearing this.

A servant stepped forward and slapped Gao Yunce's face to swell, and said in his mouth, "Lao Tzu is an official, tell you to run away from the army", while talking, another official searched Gao Yunce's letter to the county order and the deer talisman, and turned around and presented it to Wang He.

Wang He took the letter and looked at it with interest, and said coldly to Gao Yunce: "This kid Lihua wants to report to the official, do you think the county magistrate will administer justice for you?"

In this Longde County, don't say that the little doctor and the hundred generals, it is his teacher Jieyuan who came here, I said that it was dark this day, and he didn't dare to say that it was white. ”

After saying that, he laughed, threw the letter and the deer talisman on the ground, and walked away, saying to the five officials as he went:

"Don't stop it, let them go to the official, tomorrow if Sun County Commander invites me, you can wait and let Wang Xiancheng prepare the lamb and Qingmu wine from Xinglin Yuan at home, so as not to let me run hungry."

After the five officials nodded and watched Wang Hedong go, they ignored Gao Yunce and the others and quickly entered the city gate.

Although Gao Yunce and the soldier were humiliated, they were finally able to enter Longde City smoothly, and they couldn't help but have a glimmer of hope in their hearts.

Even though he had heard Wang He's words before, it was obvious that the officials in Longde City were protecting each other, and Wang He was not afraid of reporting him at all.

But when I thought about it, I couldn't try it or try it, so I just relied on Wang He's words to go home.

The two entered the city gate with the deer charm, bowed their heads and hurried to the gate of the county office, and Gao Yunce knocked on the gate of the county government with the strength of milk.

"Bang bang" Gao Yunce vented all the humiliation of the past day to the county yamen.

"Who! Don't you want to die? What to knock in the middle of the night, come back tomorrow! "It's been a long time since someone finally answered in the door.

Where did Gao Yunce dare to let the people inside the door go back, so he punched and kicked at the door again,

"Boom!" The gate was buzzing, and the dogs of half of Longde City barked in shock.

"Wow", the door finally opened, and ten officials in short jackets came out, the first one with a fierce face, and shouted at Gao Yunce: "Is his mother impatient?" Behold that I cut off your hand and make you knock again. With that, he drew the short knife from his waist.

Gao Yunce hurriedly said: "Wait, I have a deer talisman here." After speaking, he quickly took out the deer talisman and the letter from the baggage, handed it to the official and said: "I am a sergeant under the tent of the Yuanzhou Border Doctor, and I have an urgent matter to report to the county commander, and I will report it quickly. ”

When the official heard this, he turned ferocious, put the waist knife back, stretched out his hand to take the deer talisman and took a look at the authenticity, then returned it to Gao Yunce, took the letter and turned around and entered the county office.

Gao Yunce and the sergeant waited at the gate of the county government for more than an hour, and when they saw that it was all over, they finally saw the official come out listlessly and slowly.

Gao Yunce hurriedly stepped forward and said to the officer: "This big brother, what do you say about the county order?" ”

The official said to Gao Yunce: "The county commander knows your appeal, but there have been too many cases committed by more sergeants like you in the past few days, and it is too late today, and the county order me will transfer the case to the county lieutenant early tomorrow morning, so you can go back first." ”

When Gao Yunce heard this, he pulled the official who was about to turn around and go back: "This eldest brother, we are the bitter master, not the sergeant who committed the crime, how can I be transferred to the county lieutenant, can you be accommodating for me to go in and report the details to the county commander." ”

The officer's eyes widened when he heard this: "Do you mean that I didn't report the truth to the county commander?" In the middle of the night, I gave you a newspaper for the sake of your hard work on the border, if it were ordinary people, they would have cut off your bird's tongue with a knife, so that you would be noisy again. ”

Gao Yunce endured the insult and hurriedly said: "Brother Ya Gong, don't get me wrong, it's just a matter of life and death for more than 100 soldiers on my border, and I hope that Brother Ya Gong will be accommodating." ”

"People say this every day, if I am accommodating every day, I won't be able to eat this bowl of rice.

What does it matter to me whether you are a soldier on the border? Get lost! The official pushed Gao Yunce away and was about to enter the door.

At this moment, the official suddenly saw more than a dozen people running from a distance, and one of them hurriedly said: "Go and report to the county commander, the county king has arrived." ”

As soon as the official heard that the county magistrate was coming here in the middle of the night, something important must have happened, so he hurriedly ordered someone to open the gate and greet him, and the slightly fat old man among the people who strode towards the meteor was about to pay homage, but he didn't expect to be kicked away by the old man: "Get out, Master Sun can be in the house." ”

The official hurriedly got up and followed behind and said, "Lord Huiwang, Lord Sun is in the mansion." ”

As they spoke, the crowd flocked into the yamen.

Gao Yunce and the soldiers also looked at each other when they saw this situation, and it seemed that something important had happened.

But I remember that Zhu Lihua instructed that if the county magistrate did not see him, he could submit the letter to the camp.

So the two of them had no choice but to turn around and go out of the city.

The lights in the county government are bright at the moment, and the county commander Sun Yucai originally had a big head after reading the complaint of Lihua, and he also understood that this eighty percent was deliberately done by Wang Stork and Wang He of the county.

But although he is one level higher than Wang Stork, in fact, the Wang family does not take themselves seriously at all after climbing to Zhao Zhize in Yuanzhou, and it is only a matter of time before he replaces him.

As the county magistrate, he is also trembling, and it is too late to hide when he encounters this kind of thing, how dare he catch fire.

But as the head of a county, of course he knew about the rank of Lihua and his relationship with Jieyuan.

Lihua is not to be feared, but Jieyuan is a lord, and he is at least nominally the second-in-command in Yuanzhou.

Regardless of the fear of offending the Wang family in this matter, no matter how much this matter is afraid that Jie Yuan will blame, it is better not to offend the Wang family after thinking about it, but it is not possible to offend Jie Yuan directly, so he asked the official to reply to Gao Yunce that the case will be handed over to the county lieutenant tomorrow to deal with, which is also formally in line with the law, after all, the county lieutenant is in charge of a county litigation case dispute.

When he was about to rest, he suddenly heard Wang Stork coming to the house, so Sun Yucai hurriedly packed up his clothes and came to the back hall to meet Wang Stork.

When he heard Wang Stork say that his brother Wang He and his party had just been slaughtered by bandits of unknown origin, he was so shocked that the teacup in his hand fell to the ground and was shattered.

Sun Yucai only heard Wang Stork shouting hysterically:

"Lord Sun, my eldest brother and the sixteen members of my clan were all slaughtered, and I ask you to make decisions for my clan."

When Sun Yucai heard this, he immediately ordered the officials in the prefecture to immediately inform the county lieutenant Zhang Lin of the incident, and asked the county magistrates and the county lieutenants to all go out of the city together to the scene of the incident to inspect the scene of the crime.

After the officials left, Sun Yucai comforted Wang Stork:

"Wang County Cheng mourns, there is such a thing of anger between people and gods in our county, and Sun Mou is determined to preside over justice for Wang County.

But who did it? Wang Xiancheng has thoughts. ”

Wang Stork opened his eyes angrily and hurriedly said: "It must be done by Lihua, please send troops to fight this traitor!" ”

Sun Yucai is also an old man after all, and after the shock and panic just now, he has calmed down at this moment.

Hearing Wang Stork say that it was done by Lihua, and then thinking of the situation that Lihua had just sent, he instinctively felt that something was wrong, so he rolled his eyes, and sat down slowly after a while.

Sun Yucai looked at Wang Stork and asked: "Yuli Hua to Yuxiao Pass, this afternoon only came to declare the customs, it is said that the department of 100 people, at this moment is stationed in the west of the city ten miles away Niushou Mountain, tomorrow morning will go to Yuxiao Pass, the county also learned about this in the afternoon."

Where did Wang Xiancheng know that the army of Lulihua passed through this county, and why did he insist that the nobles were killed by Lulihua? ”

With that, he picked up the freshly brewed tea, put it to his lips and took a sip.

Wang Stork was stunned when he heard this. He can be considered to understand, Sun Yucai, the old fox, must have gotten some information and is confused here.

But it was not only the clansmen who couldn't beat their own eight poles that died, but also their own brothers, thinking of this, they were sad and disregarded, so they told Sun Yucai about Wang He's going to make trouble in the camp today, but the matter became that he received a report from Wang He, saying that the Lihua army trampled on the cultivated land in the clan, so he sent several officials to follow Wang He to the Lihua military camp to investigate.

And Zhu Lihua also admitted punishment on the spot and compensated with military rations, so on the way home, he must have been ambushed by the grudge soldiers.

His eldest brother and his party were all killed, and only one person was injured and pretended to be dead to escape, and after the thief left, he hurriedly ran to Longde City to report to himself.

Sun Yucai listened to it and said to Wang He: "Wang Xiancheng, the sergeant Lihua crossed the border on the road to the west of the city, and the nobles' fiefdom was in the east of Longde City. ”

Wang He listened to Sun Yucai's question, and suddenly didn't know how to answer.

This was originally an excuse for himself and Wang He to discuss the embarrassment of Lihua before, and he originally thought that even if Lihua knew that the Wang family's property was in the east of the city, after all, he was not a native of Longde, so he couldn't be sure whether there was a Wang family's property in the west of the city.

But Sun Yucai, as the head of a county, must know that the Wang family has no land in the west of the city, so Sun Yucai asked, and Wang He was speechless, not knowing how to answer.

Sun Yucai saw that Wang Stork couldn't say why, and it was not easy to force Wang He too hard.

If Wang He tears his face, he will suffer in the end, and the speed of his tongue can only be a temporary gain and a lifelong regret, so Sun Yucai hurriedly changed the topic and asked:

"Just now Wang Xiancheng said that he had sent five officials to go to the camp of Lihua with the nobles, so could these five people be killed?"

Wang Stork was relieved to see that Sun Yucai no longer mentioned the past, so he hurriedly told Sun Yucai about the five officials and Wang He before they broke up outside the city gate, in fact, this was also reported to Wang Stork by the five officials before the incident, and Wang Stork still remembered it vividly, so he relayed it to Sun Yucai word for word.

Sun Xian Ling touched his beard and said to Wang Stork: "Wang Xiancheng, the surviving family may be sure that the killing of Brother Ling and his clansmen was done by the people of Zhu Lihua. ”

Wang Stork looked at Sun Xianling, thought about his intention in asking this question, and suddenly felt that this matter was a little strange, so he said to Sun Yucai:

"The person who reported the news said that when my brother and his party had just left Longde City, dozens of people suddenly killed from both sides of the road, and although it was dark and they could not see the faces of the comers, these people shouted while rushing to kill:

"Big fish, rich and rich, stockades" and so on, rushed up and slashed indiscriminately, cut down the people, and looted the belongings on each corpse, and then pulled the carriage south. ”

After speaking, he suddenly found that the surviving clansmen said that when these thieves rushed to kill, they shouted "big fish, wealth, and stockade", which was clearly a black word shouted by the rogues when they were in chaos.

Six years ago, the image of the "Qingchuan Rebellion" suddenly jumped into my mind, at that time, didn't the victims rob the property of merchants and wealthy families on both sides of the road, and then ran into the Funiu Mountain, Niushou Mountain, New and Old Longtan and other deep mountains and old forests east of the Sumeru Mountains to escape the encirclement and suppression of the government.

Compared with the previous Qingchuan Rebellion, the difference was only the number of people.

Every time they ambushed, they always shouted similar words, could there be another rogue rebellion?

This thought startled him, he looked at Sun Yucai, Sun Yucai also looked at him, and it is estimated that the two of them also thought of one thing.

But Wang Stork immediately said: "Lord Sun, although this year is not a good year, there is always some harvest of grain, so there will be no civil unrest, and besides, this rogue will not go to the outskirts of the city to rob it."

It must have been done by Lihua pretending to be a rogue, and Lord Sun was aware of it. ”

Anyway, this Wang Stork actually grabbed Sun Yucai's hands, obviously he felt that Zhu Lihua was despicable and shameless, and he didn't dare to admit it after killing people, which made him angry, but he was flustered and helpless, for fear that Sun Xian Ling would be deceived by Zhu Lihua.

Sun Yucai slowly withdrew his hand and said to Wang Stork:

"Wang Xiancheng, you are concerned about chaos, but it is also human nature. Fang just said that those thieves went south, and the camp of Lihua was west of Longde, which was also suspicious, and it was not good to directly suspect the generals, which chilled the hearts of the border soldiers. ”

After speaking, he saw that Wang Stork was about to get up again, so he pressed Wang Stork's hand and said, "When you came to my house just now, did you see two people standing at the door?" ”

Wang Stork was in a hurry when he came, vaguely remembering that the gate of the county government was open at that time, and there were many officials standing in front of the door.

Wang Stork shook his head and said, "I didn't pay attention. Then he stopped and waited, wanting to hear what Sun Yucai had to say.

Sure enough, Sun Yucai stood up, walked into the inner hall, and after a while, he took out a letter and handed it to Wang Stork, saying, "Wang Xiancheng has seen it." ”

Wang Stork hurriedly took it, opened the letter and saw that it was the case of Zhu Lihua accusing Wang He of robbing and robbing the military rations.

He was not surprised, because the official had also reported to him that he had met the soldiers sent by Lihua to complain at the gate of the city, and he had only told Sun Yucai about it.

Sun Yucai said: "The two people who were at the gate of my mansion were the soldiers sent by Lihua to sue Brother Ling.

Wang Xiancheng, let my brother go to the camp to take away all the grain and grass of more than 100 soldiers, did Lihua have any intention of fighting? ”

Wang Stork remembered that when his servants came back to report, he said that not only did Lihua not fight, but also how Wang He said that Lihua agreed made these officials feel disdainful.

He replied to Sun Yucai: "According to the report of the officials, there is no resistance. ”

Sun Yucai said again: "Just now you said that the official had reported to you, and Lihua sent someone to come to our county to complain, and the person who complained met Brother Ling at the gate of the city.

If Lihua is ready to send troops to kill Brother Ling, why bother to make such a move and instruct the soldiers to come to our county to complain. ”

After that, Sun Yucai stood up, looked out of the door, and said: "Wang Xiancheng, according to Qin law, kill the children of the nobles for no reason, but the three clans are punished, and Lihua is also a nobleman, if it is really what he did, although it will not destroy the three clans, but the difference in the body is certain, I don't think he will not understand this truth, listening to you talk about this person's style, I really don't believe that he has the courage." ”

In fact, it is not only Sun Yucai who thinks like this, Wang Stork carefully ponders the causes and consequences, and also feels that a timid and mouse-like aristocratic child like Zhu Lihua will not have the courage to send troops to kill Wang He, or replace Zhu Lihua with himself, at most, he will hate the Wang family, how dare he kill people and gamble with his life.

But he was sure in his heart that there was a chance that this matter must have been done by Zhu Lihua, which made his heart full of contradictions, but he suffered from no evidence.

It was impossible for Sun Yucai to order troops to attack the border soldiers just by listening to his words.

He looked at Sun Yucai again, this county order that he didn't look at very much on weekdays, this ornament that he could kick down at any time, for some reason the image suddenly became blurred at this moment.

This old fox, Wang Stork scolded in his heart.

The two of them analyzed the situation in a word, waiting for the news of the county lieutenant and the official who went out of the city to investigate, and before they knew it, the night had passed.

Outside the door, the sky is getting brighter, and in half an hour, the sun will go up.

At this moment, there was a sound of footsteps outside the door.