Although the scale of Lishui City is far less than that of Jinling, the city of three or four miles into the depth, can only be regarded as a small city in the prosperous land of Jiangdong, but it is also the inheritance of the millennium glory of the south of the Yangtze River, the pink walls and tiles, the pavilions and courtyards are lined up one after another, and the mud alleys and stone streets are like spider webs in the city extending in all directions.

It is the height of summer, the willows and willows are green and green on the banks of the Mingshi River that pass through the city, the flowers are luxuriant, there are also fifty or sixty wine shops and prostitutes built along the banks of the Mingshi River, and there is not much rouge water flowing into the river every day, making the fish and shrimp compete for food.

A bright circle is reflected in the rippling river, crushed by a two-body painting boat.

The soldiers gradually moved into Lishui, but it did not prevent the young master in the city from spending all day drinking and getting drunk.

At this time, it was originally the season to go out of the city to avoid the mountains and rivers, but now the soldiers outside the city are chaotic, and there is not enough safety anywhere, such as the late Red Mansion, which is famous in Jinling City, and the top kabuki and stunning prostitutes in the hall take the painting boat to Lishui City to make money, how can it not cause a sensation? How could it not be that the young men in the city who were full of gold and silver but could not vent their vigorous energy and desires flocked to him?

The catamaran painting boat is a four-storey wooden flower building built on the cabin of two ships seven or eight zhang long, carved railings and painted buildings, parked in the Mingshi River, like a city fortress.

In addition to the double-body bilge, the four-story flower building, the ground floor is the boatman, the guard live, the treadmill directly into the second floor, is the big candle high fever, the reflection of the hall like the light, at this moment there is a kaki is holding the pipa sitting in a corner, as if the clear spring splashed stone under the play such as clear and straight penetrating the heart of the strings, twenty or thirty boarding the ship to have fun but did not have the heart to put on the strings, I don't know who brought in from outside the city a notice, attracted everyone's attention, even around the light dress, revealing like jade snow arms, plump and long legs of the flower girl, Nor can the souls of these people be hooked again.

"I said a long time ago that the father and son of the Han family must be chaotic ministers and thieves, look at it, look at it, what is he going to do? Is it to have the root of the door valve of the big and small families? Today's dynasty inherits the previous system, and sets the difference between good and low, the Han family disregards the law, and does not say anything about the servants of the world, but also says that he is not ashamed to give acres of land, where did he get this acre, or do he want to take it from all the families? A thin-faced young man in a silk shirt, with a sharp beak and monkey cheeks, shouted in the crowd in an excited and sharp voice, his tone was full of anger, and he rolled up his sleeves, "You all feel that it is none of your business, look, can you hide from the catastrophe flying from the sky?" ”

"In my opinion, all families should gather their family soldiers, don't wait for the Han family to ride on our heads to and pee and regret it!" Someone chimed in, hating that at this time, he pulled out the young and strong servant and killed him into Maoshan to show Han Qian, who coveted the family's slaves, fields and other private properties.

Lishui is next to Maoshan Mountain, Han Qian wants to recruit slaves and maids into the army, and the first to be affected and their interests are damaged by Lishui's family clan.

These many young people in the flower boat are all children of the nearby family valves, where do they still have the desire to have fun at this moment?

Unbeknownst to them, there was a small cabin at the end of the hall that opened the small window connected to the hall, and a pair of deep and worried eyes gazed through the cabin.

Except for a very limited number of people, Jinling City did not know the connection between the Late Red Mansion and the Shenling Division of the former Dynasty and Yueyang - in fact, when the third prince Yang Yuanpu was named the king of Linjiang County, in order to avoid the involvement of the Late Red Mansion and the Shenling Division of the former Dynasty from being peeped into by the people around Emperor Tianyou, Yao Xishui, Chun Shisanniang and others cut off the Late Red Mansion at that time.

Later, Yao Xishui and others used Zhang Ping to whitewash their identities, and the famous red girl worshiped the official eunuch as a righteous daughter, or directly married into the official eunuch's house as a concubine, which is a common thing in Jinling City.

After Yao Xishui, Su Hongyu and other women separated, the Evening Red House was still the first-class place to seek pleasure inside and outside Jinling City.

The Jinling Incident, the people of the Marquis of Xinchang Mansion, all withdrew, but the late Red Mansion was very deep, and it did not startle the snake, so it was natural that it could continue to lurk in the depths of Jinling City and peep at the movements of Jinling City.

Jingshan Nunnery was defeated and then expelled from Danyang, and Li Pu was worried that if something happened to them again, he would not even have a place to hide, so he transferred a painting boat from the Evening Red Mansion to Lishui City to stand by.

After the Jinling Incident, Zhang Ping expressed his grief for Han Daoxun's tragic death, and at the same time became reticent when discussing countermeasures against Xuzhou, and did not even advocate too deep a clamp on the third prince Yang Yuanpu.

No matter how you look at it, Zhang Ping is not enough to continue to trust.

Therefore, Yao Xishui decided to act alone, without Zhang Ping and Lin Haizheng, but only two days before Zhang Ping and them entered Lishui City, and connected with Xu Jing, a director of the Shenling Division who was secretly in charge of the affairs of the Late Red Mansion, and lurked in the flower boat, and no one in Maoshan knew her whereabouts.

Of course, Yao Xishui didn't expect that as soon as she returned to Jinling, news about Han Qian shocked her one after another.

First, Han Qian attacked and destroyed Danyang City, tore up the alliance with Chuzhou, and then led the remnants to withdraw from Maoshan, formally established the Chishan Rebel Army, and formed a three-legged situation with Zhao Mingting, the Southern Ya Forbidden Army who guarded the river and the city, and the Chuzhou Army that entered the three cities of Danyang, Jintan, and Liyang in the past two days.

On the one hand, as a subordinate county of Runzhou, many people have children and family businesses in the state city of Dantu, and at the same time, the officials of these two counties and the local family gate forces are also exactly the choice of the military power displayed by King Xin and the Chuzhou army in the battle of Jingshan'an, and they chose to serve, but before the Chuzhou army only collected grain from these two counties, and never divided the troops to settle in.

After Han Qian led the Chishan Army to withdraw to Maoshan, even if the Chuzhou Army had no intention of attacking Maoshan for a short time, it was a natural and inevitable move to divide the troops into Jintan and Liyang to curb the activities of the Chishan Army on the eastern flank of Maoshan Mountain.

From Danyang through Jintan to Liyang, which is located at the northern foot of Jieling Mountain, it is almost located in a straight line, about 120 miles long.

Although the Chuzhou army sent about 6,000 horse infantry to garrison the three cities in one day, which seemed somewhat weak, but with the city to defend and enough vigilance, it was no longer possible for Han Qian to replicate the results of the raid on Danyang City.

However, from Jieling Mountain to the south and Tianmu Mountain to the north, the two counties of Langxi and Huaide under Xuanzhou, and the two counties of Anji and Changxing under Huzhou, the Chuzhou army was not able to stretch the front too long for the time being, and it had not yet divided its troops to control it.

These counties, because they were far away from Dantu, did not feel the threat of the Chuzhou army urgently, and nominally maintained their allegiance to the new emperor who ascended the throne in Jinling, but the officials and local village tyrants also secretly recruited troops and horses to hold the walled city.

At this time, Han Qian can be said to be facing the enemy on both sides in Maoshan, Yao Xishui didn't know how he wanted to take 3,000 old and weak soldiers, nearly 50,000 women and children to toss more tricks in the narrow area, where did he think that the spies who sneaked out of Lishui City yesterday brought back the letter that Han Qian spread to the surrounding towns.

Han Qian actually wanted to recruit all the slaves and maids into the camp!

After Han Qian led his troops to withdraw to Maoshan Mountain, Lishui City, which was close at hand, was like a great enemy, and the county soldiers were only five or six hundred, so they could only close the city gate and wait for the Nanya forbidden army to come to help, and no one dared to go out to inquire about the news.

These sons and buddies in the city were even more drunk and dreamed of death, but they didn't know about it until the third day when the letter was sent out from Maoshan.

The young man who was filled with righteous indignation and called on all families to unite to show the color of the Chishan Army was Shang Xi, a disciple of the Shang family, who was a small official in the city at this time, and saw that he had a saber hanging from his waist, his hand bones and joints were thick, and his tiger mouth had thick calluses, and his posture was straight, as if he had worked hard to practice swords and bows.

Yao Xishui didn't eavesdrop on the discussions of these gatekeepers in the hall anymore, quietly sneaked back to the cabin on the ground floor, changed into a spacious and gorgeous skirt, and pretended to be an ordinary-looking young man in the blink of an eye.

Yao Xi hid the short sword close to his body, and when he left the painting boat, Xu Jing, the director of the painting boat, came over, looked at Yao Xishui's dress, and asked in surprise: "Where are you going?" ”

Xu Jingnai was a middle-aged man in his early forties, and if Han Qian and Feng Yi were here, they would have recognized him as an inconspicuous porter at the gate of the Late Red Mansion.

"I'll go to Maoshan to see Master Hou. No matter what Han Qian wants to do, Hou Ye has Li Xiu, Li Qi and four hundred elite cavalry guards from the Junwang Mansion under his command, and he can't do nothing...... Yao Xishui said.

The cavalry guards of the county king's mansion are the elites trained by Li Pu over the years, and they all temper their bodies and practice good skills, and in terms of individual combat effectiveness, they will never be much worse than the silver halberd guards around Yang Yuanyan, the king of letters, not to mention that Li Xiu and Li Mo's art of war is passed on by Li Yu.

Such an elite combat force is on the near side, Li Pu can't make good use of it, how can he get rid of the negative impact caused by the successive setbacks in Jingshan Nunnery and Danyang City before?

Han Qian dared to seize military power without permission, and acted arbitrarily, to put it bluntly, Han Qian made great military achievements, and their side had elite combat power, but they did not establish enough deterrent combat achievements, and their voices were not loud, and no generals would obey when they spoke.

Could it be that just by conspiracy and trickery, we can obey the orders of the generals and obey the hearts of the people?

In addition to the fact that they have to do something in order to get back the initiative, there is a deeper reason, Yao Xishui is not convenient to find out to Xu Jing at this time, that is, Li Xiu and Li Qi, who should be used by her eldest brother.

"The four cities are closed, you have to sneak out of the city so late, it's too dangerous, right?" Xu Jing said.

"Walking alone on the road during the day is even more eye-catching." Yao Xishui said, ignoring Xu Jing's dissuasion, left the boat alone and walked ashore, walked around the streets and alleys on the inner side of the city wall, and finally found a place where the defense was negligent, climbed up to the city like a gecko, sneaked out of the city, and hid in the night......

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After Yao Xishui left, the young people were still indignantly discussing how to deal with Han Qian's recruitment of slaves and maids into the army, but Shang Xi became excited.

Because of Shang's relationship, Shang Xi received a qualification in Lishui County, but for him who was young and vigorous, it was a kind of torment.

He usually likes to use swords, bows and swordsmanship, reads military books, and makes friends with countrymen, but he has always suffered from not having the opportunity to make a blockbuster.

At this moment, he appealed hoarsely, although the sons around him who were born from the children of the gate lords were very angry, but when it really came to asking all the family soldiers to gather against the Chishan army, except for Liu Zishu, who had always been friends with him and was a side disciple of the Liu family, the others were shouting and talking about him.

"It's all stupid, if you don't send troops and help at this time, is it possible that you still expect Jingzhong to send soldiers and horses over to protect the slaves and maids and land for them, so as not to be taken away by Han Qian's shaft?" Shang Xi muttered to Liu Zishu indignantly, "Wealth and wealth are all taken in danger, Zishu, are you willing to go out of the city with me?" ”

Although Shang Xi is the nephew of Shang Wensheng in Langzhong of the History Department, how much can the Shang family's family business be shared on his head, let alone expect to be able to take on the official position, if he wants to be rich, he still has to fight for himself; And Liu Zishu, as a side child of the Liu family, is even worse than him, except for an old slave arranged by the clan in the house to serve and live, there is no small servant around him to run errands, but the two are also unwilling to be mediocre.

In the eyes of others, the people who are in turmoil are panicking, but they feel inexplicably excited.

At the moment, the two of them were no longer interested in staying in the late red mansion flower boat, having fun with those spineless sons and buddies, leaving the boat ashore, and taking the two little guys who were waiting around Shang Xi to find a wine shop near the river, leaving the little guys outside, they went in to drink and discuss gathering soldiers.

This riverside wine shop is also very lively after night, the ground floor is noisy, Shang Xi, Liu Zishu went up to the second floor to find a table near the window and sat down, just sat down to hear the whispers outside the window into the ear:

"The Chishan Recruitment Army issued a notice to recruit slaves and maids to enlist in the army, I heard that as long as people pass, the whole family will be considered to be out of slavery, and after the war, they will be given ration fields, and there will be more generous rewards for their military exploits, Huzi, do you want to go to Maoshan to join the army?"

"How can it be so easy? Besides, the lord's family treats us well, and he also said that he will help me get a daughter-in-law for two years. ”

"You are also a slave when you marry a wife, and you are also a slave when you give birth to a child, you are really willing to be a slave and maid of the Shang family for generations to come?"

"Then you have to talk to the fifth son, right? The fifth prince may agree to let us join the army incognito, earn military merits in the future, and then redeem our parents from their nationality. ”

Shang Xi had a trace of anger in his eyes, he didn't expect that the two little guys beside him, who were not waiting outside in peace, actually went around to the back street near the river to talk about such a big rebellious thing, and they were bent on betraying the master's family to join the Chishan Army?

It really made him so angry that his heart and lungs trembled.

Shang Xi thought that he had been very affectionate with these two little guys in his usual life, and thought that they were all anti-willful and wanted to join the Chishan Army, and those slaves and maids who stayed in the courtyard outside the city didn't know what to toss out!

"Go downstairs and out of town!" Shang Xi drank the wine in his hand, wrote four words on the table, and motioned to Liu Zishu not to alarm the two little guys outside the window, and go downstairs with him first.

Shang Xi and Liu Zishu went downstairs, walked out of the stone street in front of the wine shop, and called the little guy loudly, and asked them unhappily where they had gone.

Xiaowu is two stocky young men, both about twenty years old, one is called Shang Zhong, the other is called Shang Hu, several generations have been slaves in the Shang family, these two people are extremely strong, and they are rough in fists and feet, Shang likes to be powerful, so they asked them to come.

How did the two little guys know that their words had already been heard by Shang Xi and Liu Zishu, and the young man named Shang Hu wanted to say something, but Shang Zhong pulled his sleeve to stop him; Shang Xi impatiently urged them to go back to the house and bring their horses over, so that they could go out of the city and go home to the village at night.

After Shang Zhong and Shang Hu brought the horses, Shang Xi and Liu Zishu walked to the East City Gate, greeted the little colonel guarding the gate, and sneaked out of the city while the stars and moon were bright.

Not far out of the city gate, Shang Xi took advantage of the urgency to urinate, and Liu Zishu got off the horse and walked to the side of the gallop to untie his pants and pee, and said to Shang Zhong and Shang Hu: "You two also go to the side of the road to solve it, it will take more than an hour to rush to the village, and no one has the patience to wait for you on the way." ”

Shang Zhong and Shang Hu did not suspect fraud, handed over the reins to Liu Zishu, and also walked to the side of the road to pick up the placket of the robe and untie the straw rope that tied the pants.

Shang Hu was still thinking about joining the army and wanted to tell the fifth prince, so he turned his head to look back, but saw that Shang Xi and Liu Zishu had quietly pulled out the knife in their hands.

His mind was also clear, and he instantly thought of what was going on, but he was stiff in fright for a moment, until Liu Zishu stabbed him with a knife, he didn't care about lifting his pants, and subconsciously reached out to grab the spine of the knife, the speed was amazingly fast, and the strength was also great, so that the tip of the knife pierced his left armpit for half a minute before he could not advance a little, Chao Shangxi begged for mercy: "Fifth son, we want to go to the army to earn military merits to redeem ourselves, and we have no intention of betraying the fifth prince!" ”

Shang Xi had already stabbed Shang Zhong in the back, but Shang Xi used too much force and stabbed Shang Zhong to the heart, but it was difficult to pull the knife.

Shang Hu didn't dare to waste time fighting Liu Zishu for the knife, so he suddenly let go of his hand, letting Liu Zishu fall on all fours, and he even climbed and rolled over the ditch before lifting his pants and fleeing to the wheat field next to the avenue.

Shang Xi picked up the knife that Liu Zishu fell to the ground, jumped down the ditch and went to chase Shang Hu, but he didn't guard against stepping on a broken brick, his feet were broken, and his body almost didn't fall down.

"The night is dark and the wind is high, and it won't be in the way of asking a dog slave to escape, so let's rush to Shangjiabao first and discuss important matters with your second brother." Liu Zishu picked up the knife from Shang Zhong, he knew that Shang Hu was extremely powerful, and he was worried that there would be an accident when they chased him out, so he persuaded Shang Xi to go to the village with him first.

"Phew!" Shang Xi took a sip fiercely, and then limped back to the official road, seeing that Shang Zhong was still twitching slightly and not completely out of breath, grabbed his bun, wiped the knife to his neck, and a line of blood spurted out, and said, "Dog slave and maid, I don't want to think about whose food has grown into such good meat all these years, and I dare to have a backlash in the back of my head." Phew, it's better to raise a dog than to raise you cheap slaves! ”

The two threw the corpse in the field, and took advantage of the stars and moon to gallop towards Shangjiabao......

After a long time, Shang Hu walked to the side of the road in the dark, saw Shang Zhong's corpse on the side of the road, and didn't know why the fifth prince Shang Xi suddenly became so vicious and vicious, and had such a heavy murderous intention against them, and sat on the mud ridge with an empty heart for a while, only to think that he and Shang Zhong's family members who stayed in Shangjiabao, and rushed to Shangjiabao along the official road in the dark.

Shangjiabao is located at the northwest foot of Donglu Mountain, and it is nearly 30 miles to the southeast from Lishui City.

The sky was getting brighter, and the morning sun had just revealed half of his face from the forest tops at the far end of the horizon, and Shang Hu, who was very strong on his feet, walked to Shangjiabao.

He hid in the ditch of the wheat field, frightened and worried, hesitated for a while, and thought that although the head of the family, Shang Wensheng, and the young master, Shang Geng, were officials in the court, the second son Shang Zhongjie, who stayed in Shangjiabao to be in charge, knew and reasoned, and would definitely be able to uphold justice for Shang Zhong, who died for no reason, and prevent the fifth prince from going crazy and harming him.

Shang Hu was just about to walk out of the wheat field where he was hiding, but he saw a few figures leaning out of the tall and sturdy fortress battlement wall, and hung out three bloody corpses one after another, one of which happened to be Shang Biao, the father who was nearly fifty years old.

"These are the slaves who want to escape to Maoshan and join the army!"

At this time, someone came from the ridge on the edge of the wheat field and pointed to the fort wall.

"Shang Biao is such an honest person, he doesn't see a trace of mistakes when he waits for the second son, and he is getting old again, so he has to run away?"

"Shang Biao is honest, but his kid is restless, but he didn't suffer thirty iron whips together, and he couldn't carry it."

Shang Hu clenched his fists and feet, his nails pinched deep in his flesh, he didn't understand why all this was!

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Yao Xishui bypassed the light and dark sentry before dawn and sneaked into Xiaomaofeng to find Xinchang Hou Li Pu directly.

Li Pu has been sulking for Zhang Ping and Han Qian wearing the same pants for the past two days, and he is unwilling to stand with him clearly against Han Qian's recruitment of slaves and maids into the army.

After the Chuzhou army was stationed in Jintan and Liyang, it mainly restricted the activities of the Chishan army from Maoshan to the eastern flank, and there was no trace of attacking Maoshan at all.

Li Pu, Li Xiu, and Li Zhen led 400 elite cavalry to guard Xiaomao Peak, and they had nothing to do, and it was difficult to do anything.

He went to find Han Qian several times and tried to explain the pros and cons, but Han Qian ignored it, and just kept sending scouts to send scouts to the towns farther west of Maoshan to issue a proclamation letter, announcing the existence of the Chishan Army, claiming that the slaves and maids dragged their families to join them.

"Han Qian has made a lot of noise, everyone is in danger, the family gate valves in Lishui and Pingling are recruiting troops one by one, sticking to the walled fort, he is now the enemy of the family, not to mention that he can no longer collect half of the grain, maybe it will stimulate the family gate valve to gather troops to come over and cooperate with the soldiers and horses of the Anning Palace to come over to encircle and suppress," Li Pu said hatefully, "In the end, we will definitely be dragged down by him." ”

"Han Qian dared to seize military power from Hou Ye before, forcing Yue Yang to acquiesce in this matter, I think even if Hou Ye sends someone to Yueyang to complain, with Han Qian's domineering nature, it will definitely not change anything for the time being," Yao Xishui said, "Then in my opinion, it is better to follow the trend." ”

"Follow the trend, how to follow the trend?" Li Pu was slightly stunned and asked.

"Han Qian insisted on recruiting slaves and maids into the army, Hou Ye's repeated persuasion was useless, then Hou Ye was forced to cooperate with Han Qian for the sake of the overall situation, even if he caused any trouble in the future, he should not be able to complain about Hou Ye's head, right?" Yao Xishui said.

"......" Li Pu frowned and lowered his head, pondering the meaning of Yao Xishui's words.

"We should do what Miss Yao said. Didn't Han Qian insist on recruiting slaves and maids into the army? We can't persuade him, but we are forced to do what he says, in order to obey the overall situation. However, we came forward to recruit some slaves and maids, and we could leave Jingzhuang in Xiaomaofeng to increase the strength of the army, and throw the little women and children of our family to Han Qian for placement, which is better than us guarding Xiaomaofeng and doing nothing! Li Xiu heard his father talk about the old things of the Shenling Division, but he didn't expect Yao Xishui to be a woman, but his knowledge was not bad, so he immediately echoed him.

Li Xiu's departure from the mountain, no matter whether he was not optimistic about Han Qian's guarding Maoshan in his heart, he wanted to be able to do something, instead of liking the second uncle to stay in Xiaomaofeng like this, he didn't do anything, he only knew how to complain.

Li Xiu naturally didn't agree with Han Qian and the family as enemies, but the problem was that now they couldn't make Han Qian change their minds, and they didn't want to directly lead their troops to withdraw, so their best way to deal with it was not to take advantage of the situation, and also recruit a group of strong slaves and maids to expand their troops, even if it was difficult to defend Maoshan in the future, they could also bring more soldiers and horses to jump out.

Now they have 400 cavalry guards in their hands, although they are all elites from a hundred, but the number is too small to withstand damage, not to mention attacking the city and charging into battle, even if they disturb the enemy soldiers, they are terrified.

If they could gather three or four thousand strong slaves and maids to form a battalion and take Lishui City, which had already been laid out by the Red Mansion in the evening, they would be much more active than now.