In the spring of March, the Yangtze River water surface east wind is strong, no need for slender man, ten big ships, full of grain and silver money, on the river to line up and sail, this is to complete the task back to Beijing Li Qing and his party, five days ago, Suzhou Changshi Guo Xuping was stabbed to death by the assassins sent by King Qing in the Xishan Courtyard, that night Li Qing led the army in Suzhou Shihu to end the nest of King Qing, caught Li Li who had just returned, and found the robbed official silver in the farm, all the stolen goods, at the moment they are being detained in the bilge.

Ahead is Jiangzhou (today's Jiangxi River), the water surface is unusually open, on the left is the entrance of Poyang Lake, which stretches for more than ten miles, the clear sky is clear, and the huge white clouds like a cone-shaped mountain, hanging low in the air, and extending into an arc into the distance, disappearing into the distant sky to the west.

"Ahead is Jiangzhou!" A sailor on the mast shouted loudly, Li Qing took the curtain to look, only to see a black line faintly appeared in the west, he has been living on the ship since he came out of Suzhou, and he is very eager for land at the moment, Li Qing turned back to Li Fei Shouyu and ordered: "We have been walking for five days in a row, everyone is tired, pass my order, and rest on the shore in Jiangzhou for one night!" ”

The order immediately came out with the flag, and several large ships behind them broke out into cheers one after another, and an hour later, the fleet slowly sailed to the revetment of Xunyang County.

"Tell the brethren that they can go ashore to play, but they are not allowed to disturb the people or make trouble, and they must come back before eleven o'clock in the evening, otherwise military law will be involved!"

Li Qing passed the order, the ship began to dock one after another, the side of the ship was crowded with anxious soldiers, all of them looked excited, as soon as the boat board was hit, the soldiers poured out, except for the sergeant on duty, almost all the soldiers went ashore.

"Envoy, why don't we go ashore too!"

Zhang Jiyan also showed a look of anticipation, he saw Li Qing's gaze sweeping towards him, he couldn't help scratching his scalp in embarrassment, and said with a smile: "Although I live on a boat in Suzhou, I can't bear to walk on the river for five days in a row. ”

Li Qing laughed, "Then go ashore and have a good meal." He turned his head to look at Li Fei Shouyu, and smiled slightly: "Are you going too?" ”

Li Fei Shouyu understood what Li Qing meant, he straightened his waist and said, "Governor, please rest assured, I will be optimistic about a criminal offense, and there will never be a mistake!" ”

Li Qing smiled apologetically, "Let's go!" Let's go ashore. ”

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Xunyang County is the seat of Jiangzhou's state governance, later Bai Juyi moved to this place for Jiangzhou Sima, wrote the famous "Pipa Xing", the county seat is about three miles away from the wharf, Li Qing hired a carriage at the wharf, and soon entered the county seat, the county seat is quite large, there are 10,000 residents,

A river divides the county into two, this is the Xunyang River, the west bank is close to the river is densely packed with houses, you can't see the end at a glance, like a beehive, most of the houses are low and dilapidated, a few women in cloth clothes and thorn skirts are squatting on the bank to rinse clothes.

However, the east bank is shaded by green trees, the wide street is in the shape of a chessboard, the mansions are separated by the courtyard wall, the two main streets intersect in a cross, and one is the north street where the official yamen is located, which is deserted and solemn; The other is a prosperous place of commerce, all kinds of shops are also crowded one after another, wine shops, green buildings, dart bureaus, shops, inns, everything, here the transportation is convenient, the business is very prosperous, you can see the merchants from the south to the north everywhere, of course, at this time the street is crowded with soldiers who speak the Beijing accent, although there is no trouble, but the old fist threatens the shopkeeper is everywhere, there is a long queue in front of the green building, but it is precisely because of the existence of these soldiers, the hooligans and ruffians who pick quarrels and provoke trouble on the streets are gone.

Li Qing saw a headache, so he flashed into a restaurant, more than a dozen relatives surrounded him, and the diners were talking about the soldiers outside, and suddenly saw a large group of fierce soldiers pouring in, and they were immediately frightened and silent, and their eyes were strange and secretly looked at Li Qing, who was the leader.

"It seems to be a high-ranking official."

"Shhhh Be quiet, and don't be heard. ”

At this time, Xiao Er came up and said with a smile: "This master, it is better to go upstairs to the elegant room, the room is large, and twenty or thirty people can sit down." ”

Li Qing waved his hand and said, "You lead the way in front!" ”

The group went up the stairs, the ladder was trampled and creaked, and as soon as the head poked out of the floor, Li Qing heard someone muttering to himself: "Strange! How did the Yulin Army get to Jiangzhou? ”

The person who spoke was sitting in front of the window, looking out of the window with his back to Li Qing, seeing that his back should be an old man, his hair was gray, his body was thin, and his back was slightly rickety, at this time, he turned to the entourage next to him and said, "Wang San, go and inquire whose army it is?" ”

Just as he turned around, the eyes of the two met, and the man was stunned for a long time, and suddenly lost his voice and said: "Li Shilang!" ”

Li Qing was also stunned, this drunken person was none other than Wang Zhonghe, the envoy of Longyou and Hexi Jiedu, who was questioned and degraded half a month ago.

"It's really a place where we don't meet in life, Li Shilang, I didn't expect us to meet here, come! Come! Come! Come over and have a drink. Without saying anything, he dragged himself to his seat.

Li Qing instinctively and slowly raised his steps, the shock in his heart still did not subside, in less than a month, Wang Zhonghe, who was just in his early forties, turned into an old man like a ten-year-old, Li Qing looked at his gray hair and haggard face, and felt a trace of sadness, this famous general of the Tang Dynasty who admired countless soldiers and made the Tubo people frightened, has fallen to such a point.

He sat down slowly, suddenly remembered something, and couldn't help asking, "Didn't Wang Envoy Jun move to Hongzhou to assassinate the history?" How could it be here,

Passing by? ”

Wang Zhongsi put a big wine glass for him, and he filled it himself, and without answering Li Qing's words, he raised his neck and drank the wine, and then said with a smile: "The history of Hongzhou was three days ago, and now I have been promoted by the emperor to the county lieutenant of Xunyang County." ”

After speaking, he raised his head and laughed wildly, laughing so much that tears came out, and then grabbed the wine jug and poured it into his mouth, Li Qing grabbed his hand, and said slowly after a while: "The emperor deposed you only for a while, and when the East Palace is over, he will use the envoy again, you still have to take care of your health." ”

"Use me again?" Wang Zhongsi squinted at Li Qing and said with a smile: "Shilang, you are still dreaming!" Are you really degrading me for the sake of abolishing the emperor? ”

He gently pushed Li Qing's hand away, poured more than a dozen sips of wine, and then threw the wine jug, and said very sadly: "I am in Shuofang and Hedong, and the army only knows that Wang Zhongji does not know Li Longji, and I am the same in Longyou and Hexi, the army only knows how to obey me and does not listen to the imperial court, so the four towns are all there, and nearly half of the army in the Tang Dynasty is loyal to me alone, can he Li Longji still tolerate me?" It's not that he doesn't want to kill me, he knows that if he kills me at this time, the 143,000 troops in Hexi and Longyou will immediately mutiny, so he degraded me as the assassin of Hongzhou, and then demoted me to Xunyang Lieutenant, and after another year and a half, when everyone gradually forgot me, and finally gave me a cup of poisonous wine, this is his usual method, Li Shizhi, Wei Jian, Huangfu Weiming are not all like this? ”

Wang Zhongsi sighed and said with a wry smile: "I can still sit here and drink, it is already his grace, like Zhang Qiu and Qiong, I don't even have the opportunity to drink a glass of wine." ”

"What!" Li Qing Huoran stood up, he grabbed Wang Zhonghe's shirt, and his face changed in fright, "What did you say?" What happened to Zhang Qiu Xiangguo? ”

"Don't you know?" Wang Zhongsi looked at him in surprise, "Zhang Qiu and Qiong passed away five days ago, don't you know about this?" ”

Li Qing only felt that the sky was spinning for a while, as if all the bones in his body had been pulled away, his hand slowly loosened, and he fell on the chair in a dejected manner, and after a while, he said in a hoarse voice: "What happened?" ”

"I don't know the specifics, I heard the eunuch who came to announce the decree said, Zhang Qiu Xiangguo suddenly announced the situation of the clan occupying more land, and asked the emperor to strictly investigate and deal with it, this matter caused a big wave in Chang'an, the emperor was forced by public opinion, investigated and dealt with three horses, but at this moment, Yang Guozhong, the imperial historian, suddenly impeached Zhang Qiu and Qiong also privately occupied 5,000 acres of land, and later it was found to be true, the emperor severely reprimanded Zhang Qiu and Qiong in front of the military officials, and removed him from the post of left minister, Zhang Qiu and Qiong vomited blood and fainted on the spot under the anger of the heart, and died that night."

Before Wang Zhongsi finished speaking, Li Qing violently covered his face and cried bitterly, the sudden bad news made him extremely sad, he could no longer control his sadness, and tears rushed out of his palms unscrupulously.

Wang Zhongsi looked at him silently, thinking about his fate, and couldn't help but feel sad, he didn't persuade Li Qing, just drank glass after glass, and finally got drunk and fell under the table.

After a while, Zhang Ji next to him saw that Li Qing was a little calm, so he stepped forward to help him up, and said in a low voice: "Envoy, let's go back to the boat first!" ”

Li Qing nodded weakly, and let his henchmen carry him back to the big boat.

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The sunset gradually slipped to the horizon, and the river seemed to be burning with a raging fire, reaching the sky, and even the clouds in the sky seemed to be lit.

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"Sure enough, it's you! The birthday words that are fresh in the old man are what you wrote! The writing is very good, good, good handwriting, and now it seems that the character is really good. ”

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"I just stopped by to see you, the military is busy, it's not good to stay for a long time, I'm going, remember! Although there are many rules of officialdom, but the reputation of the people is the most important, you will do more practical things for the people in the future, accumulate reputation, and only then will you have the capital to climb up in the future, and the officials will sit firmly. ”

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"You don't have to go back to Yibin County, the new Yibin County Commander has already gone to his post a few days ago, and your term of office as the acting county commander has also expired, and the position of Bing Cao in my house to join the army is just vacant, so you will be transferred to this position, are you willing?"

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The scenes from the past were replayed in front of Li Qing's eyes, Zhang Qiu and Qiong's generosity and kindness, and he could no longer repay his great kindness.

Unconsciously, he burst into tears, he slowly knelt down, shook his head heavily, looked at Dajiang and screamed sadly:

He wiped away his tears, Huo Ran stood up, pointed at the sky and said firmly: "Teacher, may you rest in peace under the spring, I, Li Qing, swear to the sky here, I will definitely return your innocence, but fulfill your unfulfilled last wish!" ”

Li Qing turned around and strode towards the cabin, but suddenly found a personal soldier standing not far away and wanted to stop talking, he stopped and asked coldly, "What's the matter?" ”

"Governor, the man I met in the restaurant in the afternoon wants to see the governor under the boat."

"Wang Zhonghe!" Li Qing suddenly remembered that he hadn't finished his words in the afternoon, and he immediately ordered: "Quietly take him to my cabin, be careful, don't alarm others." ”