Chapter XXVI: Assassination

Not long after Jiang Shanyi actually returned to Wuling County, most of the Jiang family was destroyed, and as the head of the family, he had an unshirkable responsibility. Even if the means were exhausted at the beginning, they still couldn't resist the iron hooves of the Hu people who stepped into the Central Plains unscrupulously.

At first, all the focus of the plot was on the division of power by the kings, and most of the Hu people would be attached to the kings or wealthy families. Which Cheng thought that from the very beginning, he miscalculated the rebellious heart of the Hu people. This also led to the fact that the Hu people's power rose rapidly to replace the Han people's secession, and at the same time, I didn't expect that the kings and wealthy families in the Central Plains would be vulnerable to the resistance of the Hu people. Decades of extravagance and arrogance have ruined half of the Han people.

And under the leadership of Jiang Shanyi, the Jiang family, in the whole process of the sinking of the Central Plains, except for the old and young women who were sent back to Wuling in the early stage, the entire business that had been operating in the north for decades all collapsed.

Overnight, Jiang Shanyi, whose hair was half white, should be upright and in his prime, but now he looks like he has changed from a rich man to an old man from an ordinary family, with a shiny face, replaced by a somewhat emaciated figure and a wrinkled face.

Fortunately, Jiang Ge was able to come back smoothly, although Fu Bo had already told Jiang Ge three or four times about the time from Chang'an to the middle of the river crossing, it can be said that he did not let go of a little detail in every detail. Regarding Fu Bo's question about the Bai family, Jiang Shanyi was noncommittal, as long as Jiang Ge came back smoothly, the business with the Bai family would not be lost, wouldn't it take two more years, and then half of the Bai family would come over, not to talk about money and that condition, just say that his son's life safety can be guaranteed, and in these two years, he can let the Jiang family occupy a place in the land south of the Yangtze River, which is enough for him to weave a huge net, and the Jiang family and his son can live in peace and stability.

Jiang Shanyi has been accompanying his son for the past few days since Jiang Ge came back, and all the things in the clan have been run by Jiang Shanzhong and the current directors of each branch. Unless even Jiang Shanzhong can't make decisions, he will go to the study and spend time in a meeting to discuss countermeasures.

Separated from his son for a long time, Jiang Shanyi's heart is also full of guilt and reluctance, fortunately, Jiang Ge has been wise since he was a child, and his heart is peaceful, and he can understand the difficulties of being the head of the family, although he has no blame, but there must be a lot of complaints over the years.

Therefore, Jiang Shanyi especially cares about the time Jiang Ge has spent together these days, seeing his son's good martial arts, he is also extremely happy and satisfied, and he can protect himself without asking others, which is the best ability in this troubled world. What's more, Jiang Ge's unwavering attitude towards Fu Bo is even more appreciative and proud, he has a weather in his chest, and he is praised and recognized by others, for a father, nothing can be compared.

After Jiang Ge traveled, Jiang Shanyi accumulated a lot of things, one of the most important things can not be delayed any longer, you have to go to Shaoling County and Lingling County to lie down, Changsha County's homeless power is getting bigger and bigger, and the existing Jingzhou counties have a large number of soldiers guarding the Yangtze River to prevent the northern Hu people from crossing south, so the public security is very good. But several counties around Changsha County have all fallen into the hands of the displaced people, Hengyang County is close to Wuling County, if it weren't for Jiang Shanzhong to send people to send grain, grass and goods to show goodwill, it is estimated that the displaced people will be overwhelmed by the army at this time, so the sincerity of sending it is very sufficient, the exile commander who occupied Hengyang County is the leader of the exiles who has received the favor of the Jiang family, the leader of the exiles is called Shi Peiying, the standard Shandong Han, was originally the head catcher of Pei County, and the high-headed horse Kong Wu is powerful, and the guard county is overcrowded after the southern crossing of Yangzhou, there is no place to take in a family, Then the family was small to Wuling County, after the family settled down, he was instigated by his fellow villagers to Changsha County to defect to the homeless man Marshal Du Tao, Shi Peiying did more than ten years of head-catching force and strong, naturally became one of the top ten homeless generals under Du Tao, and later Shi Peiying captured Hengyang County, thinking that his wife and children and mother were living well in Wuling and did not want to destroy the existing peace of Wuling County, so he deliberately stayed away from the border of Wuling, and only accepted the homeless people who came from Wuling, and would not harass the people in Wuling County. What's more, Shi Pei should have seen the soldiers of the Wuling County clan, and the rabble under his hands is worlds apart from them.

The officials of the three counties occupied by the exiles were either killed by the exiles, or fled to Guangzhou when the situation was not good, or simply rebelled with them.

Du Tao's top ten homeless generals, in addition to Shi Kaixiong, who was originally a forbidden army, Li Dun, the leader of the bandits, and Shi Peiying, the head catcher of Pei County, there are two brothers who rebelled with Du Tao at the beginning, one is like a tiger named Liu Kui, one is as thin as a monkey named Hou Jian, and one of the remaining five people is named Du Rui is Du Tao's brother, and the other three are Changsha Qi Zuo Wang San, Ancheng County Li Huang Qi, and Jinling ruffian Zhu Shiyi.

According to the information collection of the Jiang family from all aspects, it is not difficult to figure out the general situation of the Wandering Army, Liu Kui and Hou Jian occupied Ancheng County, and Huang Qi should kill the county guard and surrender directly. Shi Peiying and Wang San occupied Hengyang County, and Du Tao and other exiles claimed to be 200,000 exiles to defend Changsha. In addition, the exile army of Ancheng County and Hengyang County is close to 400,000.

Although it sounds like the 400,000 wandering army seems to be powerful, but no one has taken this number seriously, at most it is only 400,000 exiles, which is not enough evidence, and after the general news was transmitted back to Jinling, the court did not take this group of exiles seriously at all, gathering 400,000 people, let alone fighting, half of the old and weak women and children can starve themselves to death if they are hungry. After the internal discussion of the imperial court, it is easy to mobilize 40,000 soldiers and slaughter them all.

The northern clans, the Jiangnan clans and the imperial family negotiated and entangled the distribution of interests in full swing, and Emperor Sima Rui was troubled, so he replied casually: "Little bandits, let them fend for themselves, and Jingzhou and Guangzhou will solve them by themselves."

After the order of the military department was sent to the Wuchang Thorn Shi Mansion, he was directly thrown into the pile of bamboo slips by the drunken Thorn Shi Zhou Yi, ignoring it, lamenting that the mountains and rivers were broken and the Central Plains were sinking.

Jiang Shanyi has not been to the Assassin's Mansion, but he has sent greetings and gifts in etiquette, and at this time, the adults are not there, and Jiang Shanyi is too lazy to mediate with the drunkard.

There is a big family in Hengyang County, although it is not as powerful as the four clans of the Jiang family to control Wuling, but half of the land of Hengyang is under its control, Hengyang Hong's successive dynasties deal with mines and iron, although Hong's ironware production is not as good as the master craftsman in the palace, it is a first-class master in the people, and one-third of the iron tools in Jingzhou and Yangzhou are forged by the Hong family.

The Hong family has no family soldiers, no business and no politics, although the family is huge, Ding Xingwang is indeed an extremely docile family, and the Hong family and the Jiang family have a relationship of hundreds of years, the Hong family just arrived in Hengyang to settle down when the Jiang family did business, a large amount of ore from the Wuling Mountains was provided to the Hong family, and then the Jiang family helped him sell, the Hong family was only responsible for forging, and everything else was not concerned.

Hong's current head of the family is an old man in his sixties who still wields a forging hammer by the casting table for half a day every day, named Hong Bazhu, and his dark muscles do not look like a person in his sixties at all.

After the exiled army occupied Hengyang, it did not hurt the innocent, but was extremely polite to the Hong family, and sent 2,000 laborers to help the Hong family do these chores. The outcasts were desperately short of weapons, and most of them still used wooden sticks as weapons, and even an iron weapon was a luxury. Therefore, after occupying Hengyang, Du Tao was like a treasure, and ordered Shi Peiying to supervise the construction of weapons and equipment and train soldiers, Shi Peiying was happy not to have to run around, so he stayed in Hengyang, and indirectly became a barrier in Wuling County, so the supply of minerals, Wuling was not cut off. Maintaining a balance between the two sides is the best situation for Wuling at the moment.

Jiang Shanyi was worried that the two counties of Shaoling and Lingling in the south would most likely be completely eaten by the exile army in the near future. Then at that time, Wuling County will be trapped in the Wuling Mountain Range, and there is a possibility that it will be crushed by the exile army at any time.

Therefore, Jiang Shan rushed to the two counties non-stop, and the county guards of the two counties had already arranged for their families to go south to Guangzhou after hearing the news that the displaced army was going south, and they were all ready to flee as soon as there was any trouble.

Jiang Shanyi wanted to see the two big clans of the two counties, the Zhuo family of Shaoling County, the head of the family, Zhuo Qingshan, generations of medicine farmers, men, women and children in the clan will collect and dispense medicines, and ordinary minor diseases and ten-year-old children can be cured. Zhuo Qingshan and Jiang Shan are about the same age, and the Zhuo family's herbal finished pills and patches are basically sold by the Jiang family. Therefore, the two families depended on each other, and Jiang Shanyi also persuaded the Zhuo family to take advantage of the time to go to Wuling in a group of people to take refuge temporarily, so as not to make Shaoling, which had no official government after the homeless people entered, would be unimaginable. In the end, Zhuo Qingshan was moved by Jiang Shanyi's words, and all the medicinal materials in the clan, as well as those under the age of twenty and over fifty, were moved to Cen Yang Town, Wuling.

And Lin Yuanzhi, the head of the Lin family in Lingling County, dismissed his plan to retreat south after seeing Jiang Shanyi, and agreed to withdraw to Tancheng County in Wuling County. The Lin family has been in the timber business for generations, and building roofs, bridges, wooden bowls and pans are all casual things.

Jiang Shanyi, who had been running for five or six days, planned to return to Wuling, but he was still worried about the safety of his old friend Hong Bahammer, and he was always not safe enough under the control of the homeless. Although there is no problem at the moment, it is possible that one day there will be a fatality.

As a businessman, Jiang Shanyi was reluctant to let the Hong family suffer a catastrophe. As a neighbor and friend for many years, Jiang Shanyi hopes that the Hong family can survive the danger safely. Therefore, after negotiating with Lin Yuanzhi, he ran non-stop from Lingquan County to the north towards Hengyang County and Xiangnan County, the two places are separated by 600 miles, fortunately, along the Xiangjiang River, you can go down the river to Xiangnan County, saving half of the time of riding a horse, two days is enough.

The head of the Jiang family is basically equipped with a group of shadow guards and three groups of Tsing Yi guards when he goes out, and under normal circumstances, no team of 100 people can not defeat the tacit cooperation of these twenty people. Unless the other party also has trained guards, they cooperate with each other tacitly and have good personal force.

Twenty-one people were divided into two clippers and went down the Xiangjiang River, after a simple meal in the cabin, Jiang Shanyi took a handkerchief and soaked it in the basin and wiped his dark face against the bronze mirror, Jiang Shanyi, who had been running for seven or eight days, felt a little thinner, in the hot summer, Jiang Shanyi was not too embarrassed to look in the mirror, but when he was scrubbing, he was still nostalgic for his former chubby self, Yushu Linfeng was handsome and compelling.

---------------------------------

Two days later, in the evening, before the county seat of Shonan was closed, Jiang Shanyi and his guards blended into the crowd of people returning to the city and easily entered the city.

Although most of the displaced people army are displaced people, but there are many people who were born in the army before, and many of them were originally military households, so whether it is a deserter or a clan abandoned family guard, in the wandering army can be mixed with an official and a half-post, the wandering army gradually formed an effective step-by-step management through the standardized management of these people, from the wandering marshal to the wandering general to the regimental commander of 10,000 people, the battalion commander of 1,000 people, the captain of 100 people, and the squad of 10 people, the hierarchy is extremely clear.

Shi Peiying, who occupied Hengyang, as one of the ten generals under Du Tao, commanded more than 30,000 people, plus more than 30,000 people from the same ten generals Wang Sansuo, and the number of exiled troops in the entire Hengyang County was nearly 70,000, and there were also people who defected from Wuling County and Tianmen County from Nanping County.

After Jiang Shanyi entered the city, he lived in the Jiang family's own medicinal herb shop, Baicaotang, and after listening to the report of the shopkeeper of Baicaotang, he learned that Shi Pei should go to check the situation of summer planting in various places, grain is the most important material for the Wandering Army, and only with abundant grain and grass can the Wandering Army roll bigger and bigger like a snowball.

Xiangnan city is now Wang San sitting, Wang San was originally just a Changsha County of a puppet, dark nature, is Du Tao in Changsha when the first batch of followers, when Du Tao as Liuyang County Commander to Changsha City County Shoufu report, the county guard lustful, fell in love with Du Tao's fifteen-year-old daughter, then to a banquet to entertain Du Tao, deliberately drunk Du Tao during the banquet, and then raped Du Tao's daughter, did not expect the beastly county guard to strangle Du Tao's daughter, so in a panic and Changsha County Commander conspired to fabricate that there were homeless assassins in the house, colluded to commit perjury.

The next day, Du Tao woke up with grief and indignation, and the collusion between the county guard and the county order and the fraud on Du Tao's daughter had to make Du Tao believe it temporarily, but many of the doubts could not be explained, and Du Tao could only hold back and wait for the details to be clarified before making plans.

Du Tao stayed in Changsha with grief and indignation, and secretly found Wang San, Du Tao's family was born in the army, and he was proficient in knives, guns and sticks since he was a child, and his martial arts were also extraordinary, Wang San couldn't stand Du Tao's torture and told all the details and discernment, thinking of making meritorious service to the county order and county guard, and Du Tao said everything to Du Tao, and then Du Tao came up with a plan to ask the county guard and the county order to witness the corpse again on the grounds of re-examining the body, and issued relevant documents, Du Tao was able to send his daughter's body back to Liuyang, Otherwise, you won't be able to explain it to your family.

After dawn, Du Tao and Wang Sanyi waited together to inform the county order of the county order, and the county commander felt that Du Tao had enlightened himself after hearing the report, and was willing to take the initiative to end the matter, so he went to the county guard to ask the county guard to go to the office to witness it. But where did they think that after entering the work room, Du Tao, who had been prepared in a small space, cut off the heads of the county guard and the county order with the help of Wang San, and then took some low-level officials and hooligans who Wang San knew who had no hope for life to copy the county government and the county guard's mansion, and then opened a warehouse to release grain to help the homeless, but in three or five days, tens of thousands of people gathered and completely occupied Changsha County.

Since then, it has opened the prelude to Du Tao's uprising, and Wang San followed Du Tao's pace as a dog's leg, attacking the city and destroying the means frequently, enjoying the extreme freedom after turning over, especially like to kill officials and raid homes, Du Tao, who was extremely disgusted with officialdom, also let it go, but felt that Wang San was helping himself vent his anger, and after occupying Changsha County, he was promoted to Wang San as one of the ten generals, commanding 30,000 people's army.

Jiang Shan asked for a moment of contemplation after listening to the shopkeeper of Baicao Hall, "What is Shi Peiying's reputation?" ”

Shopkeeper: "Shi Peiying's reputation in Hengyang is still very good, sympathetic to his subordinates, and he does not disturb the people, when he occupied Hengyang, he ordered that he should not rob his house, burn and loot, nor rape-adultery and plunder, and he also persuaded the government to surrender, but Wang Sanji's subordinates were a little lawless and did everything. ”

Jiang Shanyi: "How is Master Hong's side, have you been bullied?" ”

Shopkeeper: "Shi Pei should supervise the manufacture of ordnance and requisition of grain and grass, and he is very polite to Master Hong and his family, and he is also very polite to farmers. For the time being, I have not heard of any incidents of the exile army bullying the common people. ”

Jiang Shanyi: "How is Shi Pei's ability?" What is Wang San's ability? ”

Shopkeeper: "Shi Peiying has been a head catcher for many years, he is a person who has seen some people in the world, he is brave, his mind is flexible, he looks at problems in the long term, and he is not short-sighted." As for the third king, he was born to make a living, and he likes to prostitute and gamble, and he has a dark temperament, and he will repay him. ”

Jiang Shanyi pondered for a while and said: "Try to find a way to get Shi Peiying's favor, don't be evil with him, as for that Wang San, just don't contact him." After seeing Master Hong at night, I returned to Linyuan early in the morning, and I will leave it to you here, you can't do anything, and it is important to save your life. ”

The shopkeeper knelt down on one knee and clenched his fists to receive the order, and then arranged for the guys to notify the Hong family, and scattered a few guys to take care of the streets and alleys a hundred meters away from the pharmacy.

After resting for a stick of incense, and returning from the work of going to the Hong family to spread the word, Master Hong would see Jiang Shanyi in Baicaotang an hour later, and needed some burn herbs.

After hearing this, Jiang Shanyi replied to the shopkeeper and said, "Prepare a cart of various herbs for burns and bruises, which is mixed with a box of laxatives." ”

The shopkeeper's eyes lit up when he heard the word laxative, and the head of the family still had a lot of thoughts. The shopkeeper received the order and prepared to go.

After more than two days on the boat, everyone was a little swaying, and Jiang Shan began to squint and think about things as soon as he took two sips of tea.

About an hour later, a strong white-bearded man walked from the pharmacy in front of the courtyard, with the green tendons on his hands exposed, and his strength was incomparable.

Jiang Shanyi pulled out the right hand he held with Hong Ba Hammer and shook it in the air, and said, "Master don't come unharmed, your hand strength is the same as always." ”

Hong Ba Hammer patted Jiang Shanyi's arm and said: "I've lost a lot of weight, it seems to be under a lot of pressure, but it's much more pleasing to the eye than the white and chubby rich man before, ahhahaha, what's the matter with calling me in a hurry?" ”

Jiang Shanyi invited Hong Ba Hammer to sit down and drink tea, and then said in detail the calculations and worries in his heart, whether it was words or favors, Jiang Shanyi's kindness Hong Ba Hammer had to be seriously considered, after all, there were tens of thousands of standing soldiers in Wuling, and the combat power was fierce, no one wanted to gnaw on the hard bone of Wuling, and now the situation is turbulent, the whole family can not be put in one basket, the old man understands the truth of the three holes of the cunning rabbit, but there is no better place to go, since the Jiang family took the initiative to take refuge, the Hong family couldn't ask for it, so the two hit it off. Later, a lot of methods were discussed, and the core clansmen and the old and weak women and children were withdrawn to Linyuan one after another, and they are currently responsible for building weapons.

After the discussion, Hong Bahammer took a cart of herbs and left, and the work of the pharmacy secretly informed the laxatives. Walk away.

Jiang Shanyi, who had a good night's rest, prepared the fast horse early the next morning, before dawn, and after breakfast, he rushed out of Shonan City in a hurry to open the city gate and squeeze into the crowd. Twenty-one rode a fast horse and whipped straight to Yiyang, and then went to Linyuan from Yiyang.

It could have been more time and energy to continue to go down the Xiangjiang River through Changsha and then re-invest in the water, but this waterway is full of checkpoints of the Wandering Army, and it has to pass through Changsha County, there is too much uncertainty, and it is safer to ride a horse, after all, Hengyang County is relatively stable under the control of Shi Peiying, but Changsha County is different, the base of the Wandering Army's uprising, the original honest farmers have been affected, and the vast majority of people have joined the Wandering Army. The momentum is mighty and in full swing.

It was already the afternoon of the third day when they arrived at Yiyang Realm, and when they were ten miles away from Yiyang City, Jiang Shanyi and his guards found a forest to rest, calculating that they could avoid a lot of trouble by mixing in with the crowd when the city gate was about to close.

Running around for several days is sleepy and lacking horses, coupled with the scorching sun, Jiang Shanyi is indeed a little overwhelmed, this trip, he has lost a lot of weight, and his body has become stronger, and he is out of breath a lot stronger than when he ran for a few miles on a horse before.

The guards were divided into a few people to sentry, everyone else was resting and napping, and Jiang Shanyi was still dreaming. Suddenly, the sound of Xiuxiu~ continued, and several sentry guards in Tsing Yi were nailed to the ground with an arrow before they could make a sound. As soon as he fell to the ground with a thud, the other guards were awakened, and then they each found cover and moved closer to Jiang Shanyi, and the five shadow guards had already gathered around Jiang Shanyi and took out their crossbows and aimed around.

After a while, there were no bows and arrows around, as if the other party was waiting for reinforcements, a Tsing Yi guard lay on the ground and his ears were close to the ground, and the sound of horses' hooves was faintly heard, and the Tsing Yi Wei whispered that there were about 100 horses in five miles.

One of the Shadow Guards said, the Tsing Yi Guard blocked, and the Shadow Guard got on his horse and left quickly.

As soon as the words fell, the Tsing Yi Guards who were still twelve people drew their knives, and the Shadow Guards and Jiang Shan, who had just spoken, nodded and said, "Take care, the head of the family." ”

Then Tsing Yi Wei raised his hand - the crossbow shot in a suspicious direction, and quickly left the position just now and rushed towards the forest, Jiang Shanyi and the four Shadow Guards turned their heads and rode westward, no longer passing through Yiyang, but directly along Zishui, towards the direction of Nanyuan. Jiang Shanyi, who had been a few miles away, stopped his horses and looked in the direction where they had just been attacked, and there were vague shouts of killing in all directions.

Jiang Shanyi tightened the horse leash, and only drove Marcy again under the reminder of the shadow guard next to him.

The sudden sneak attack didn't even know who the other party was. However, the hundred cavalry came from the direction of Yiyang, and it can basically be determined that it was done by the exile army. But the exact situation is still a mystery, and the Wandering Army has no reason to attack itself, at least not at this time.

Fifteen corpses were placed on the ground in the forest one after another, looking extremely miserable. A man walked back and forth on a horse, staring at the corpse and said, "Fifteen people killed all your people?" ”

A soldier with a broken arm with a bow and arrow on his back gasped and said: "We were ordered by General Wang to take a boat to guard here in advance, and all the four ten-man teams were slaughtered in less than a stick of incense. ”

"What a bunch of shit, what do you want." As soon as the man on the horse finished speaking, he pulled the horse's rope, and the restrained front legs became more empty, and then the two hooves trampled the chest of the soldier who had just spoken.

A soldier with a gray turban on his head came over from the side, half-kneeling on the ground and clenching his fists, and reported: "General, there are twenty-six cavalry members of our army. After the soldier reported it, his whole body trembled with his head down, and he watched the scene just now, for fear that the general would come to him once.

The man on the horse snorted and scolded: "Damn, a dozen people actually killed my twenty-six brothers, and hung the corpses for me and hung them on trees." Wait for Lao Tzu to kill the old guy surnamed Jiang, and then hang him up. ”

"What are you doing in a daze, chase after Lao Tzu, whoever kills the surname Jiang will be rewarded with ten thousand gold."

Eighty horsemen remained, mounted their horses, brandished their whips, and pursued them westward.

After a stick of incense, a bloody man covered in wounds staggered out of the forest to the tree where the corpse was hanging, stood up straight in pain, and put his right hand on his left chest and struck it three times.

This person is Jiang Shoujun, the captain of Jiang Shanyi's guard, in his early thirties.

Jiang Shoujun had seven or eight knife wounds on his body, and three broken feather arrows pierced through the muscles and sank deep into the flesh.

Narrowly escaped, hid in the shadows, vaguely heard some conversations, and recognized the appearance of the leader of the cavalry.

Jiang Shoujun endured the pain and told himself that he couldn't die, he must bring this information back, only four shadow guards followed the head of the family, and it was extremely dangerous, so he couldn't die.

Even if the head of the family is killed, he can apologize for his death if he is not effective in guarding, but he must let the young master know.

Jiang Shoujun drilled into the woods to the north, he needed to find a place to pull out an arrow as soon as possible to bandage the wound and apply medicine to the wound, and then find a way to get through the water and return to Linyuan City as quickly as possible.

I hope that the head of the family can escape the pursuit.

Jiang Shoujun glanced at the west and prayed silently in his heart.