On the river, the waves are vast, the sunset in April has set in the west, the large and small ships are sprinkled with a golden glow, the Yangtze River waves are calm, the usual whirlpool tumbling torrent has disappeared without a trace, the whole river surface seems to be condensed under the warm sunset, and there is no ripple at all.

"I'm jumping!"

Zhang Huan stood on the high mast, he was wet, ** upper body, strong muscles shining in the sunset, this is the third time he has gone into the water, swimming in the Yangtze River is his wish since childhood, I didn't expect it to be realized until today.

He took a deep breath and jumped down from the mast, his sturdy body drawing a beautiful arc in the air, like a needle, straight into the river.

There was an exclamation on the big ship, and all the personal soldiers, as well as Ping Ping, rushed to the side of the ship to pay a visit, and none of them could stop the governor's wandering, so they could only beg him to be safe.

A strong resistance rushed towards Zhang Huan, a white and bright splash in front of his eyes, a fish shook in front of his eyes, the slender tail swept to his face, and the fish body swayed and fled in panic.

Zhang Huan has been relaxed, he used every inch of his skin to experience the water of the Yangtze River, and the feeling in the river is completely different, he feels as if he is in a boundless and endless water world, he feels a broad and vast mind, he is like a grain of sand, small and humble in this endless water world, he feels that he has completely dissolved in the river, a feeling that has not been seen for many years rises again in his heart. It was a feeling that gave him courage, and as he slowly ascended, he felt as if he had been born again.

Wow! The sturdy body rushed out of the water, drawing a burst of excited cheers from the big boat.

He spread his arms, and his mighty arms struck the surface of the water with great force, causing a large splash, and he sailed alongside the big boat, the golden setting sun shining on his dark back. From a distance, it looks like a white-sided dolphin in the Yangtze River, swimming hard to the depths of the river.

The big ship departed from Jingzhou and sailed on a section of the Jingjiang River, known as the Jiuqu Ileum. After passing through Gong'an County, Shishou County, and Jianli County, I finally arrived in Baling County at noon that day.

"Eighteen Lang, look! There were a lot of people on the shore. Ping Ping shouted excitedly, walked the waterway for a few days, and the scenery on both sides of the river was already tired of seeing, and suddenly saw a large group of people on the shore, and Ping Ping actually had a feeling of entering the WTO.

Not only her, but all the pro-soldiers were smiling, and they could finally go ashore.

But none of them found it on the river. A small passenger boat also quietly slowed down. Passing by the big ship and continuing to sail forward, in the crack of the window of the passenger ship, a pair of cold eyes were staring closely at the big ship slowly approaching the shore,

"Keep walking, and turn around and come back to the shore in an hour."

The order was given to a man of about thirty years old, with a delicate and fair face, and his name was Tao Chi, of course, he was not called Tao Chi three months ago. Rather, it was called Zhu Tao, that is, Zhu's brother, since Zhu's death, the imperial court immediately deprived the Zhu brothers of all positions and titles, characterized them as rebels, and sent troops to arrest Zhu Tao, but he had prepared in advance. Don't wait for the conclusion of the imperial court. He quickly disappeared in Chang'an.

Tao Chi straightened up, and he took out a thin mask of human skin and put it on himself. Suddenly became a wrinkled boatman, the transfiguration technique has been there in ancient times, but it is not as divine as the legend, most of the time it is directly on the face with makeup, like him wearing a human skin mask, you can still see the flaws if you look closely, and it can't last.

He lowered his head to look at it carefully in the mirror, shook his head dissatisfied, tore it off casually, and coldly ordered: "San Lang!"

"The subordinates are here!" A man in a military uniform strode into the cabin and clenched his fists, "Please command, lord." ”

"I'll leave this task to you alone, you might be able to do it?"

"Please rest assured, the flying knives under his subordinates are all shots and never missed."

Tao Chi nodded, "Okay, I'll wait for your good news." ”

Zhang Huandi's three big ships have slowly docked, Lin Jiuhan, who has received the news in advance on the dock, has already led more than 1,000 soldiers to wait for a long time, this is the first time that the governor has come to Jiangnan Province to inspect, and it is also a grand event for their 30,000 garrisons.

In their opinion, this is the chief minister of the cabinet and the secretary of the military department who came to inspect Baling County, and this is the highest-ranking official that Liu Yuan has welcomed in the past few years as an official here, and if he can climb him as the backstage, his future will be promising.

The big ship finally landed on the shore, and the county magistrate of Baling County shouted, "Play music!" ”

The earth-shattering gongs and drums suddenly sounded, a team of people waved colorful flags, two teams of lion dance teams invited from Changsha began to dance, soaring and jumping, the spirit was hundredfold, the people gathered from all directions to the wharf to pay homage to the officials in Beijing, the wharf was surrounded by crowds, this was a lively scene that had not been seen for many years.

Zhang Huan bowed his head and walked out of the cabin, and walked ashore with a smile under the front and rear of the pro-soldiers, Lin Jiuhan strode forward, and half-knelt down to Zhang Huan and gave a military salute, "The last general will see the governor!" ”

"You kid, you kidnapped my maid." Zhang Huan affectionately punched him in the shoulder socket, Lin Jiuhan's heart felt warm, and he scratched his head embarrassedly and said, "Xiaoqiu also gave birth to a son for me." ”

"Good! Good! Zhang Huan helped him up, said hello twice, and then turned back to the soldiers and smiled: "Lao Lin has a son, do you want him to treat us well?" ”

All the relatives and soldiers shouted in unison, and Lin Jiuhan hurriedly bowed his hand to the old subordinates, "Brothers, don't say a word, as long as everyone lives for a long time, my old Lin can treat you every day." ”

At this time, the assassin of Baling County also hurriedly stepped forward, and he gave a deep salute to Zhang Huan, "Liu Yuan, the assassin of Baling County, see Zhang Shangshu." ”

Zhang Huan listened to his accent, which turned out to be a pure Beijing accent. couldn't help but glance at him carefully, as if he felt that he was a little familiar, "Liu Tingshi, have we met?" ”

"Shangshu has indeed seen the lowly position, the lowly father-in-law is the eldest grandson Nanfang, and last year at the father-in-law's birthday banquet, the lowly position also toasted to Shangshu!"

"I remember, you're the fifth son-in-law." Zhang Huan laughed and said, "I didn't expect to meet my old friend in another country." It's really like where you don't meet in life. ”

With this relationship, Liu Yuan can also talk and laugh freely, and he hurriedly pulled Changshi and Sima and introduced them to Zhang Huan one by one. Everyone exchanged a few words on the dock, and Liu Yuan said to Zhang Huan: "It's noon now, and the lowly post has set up two tables of light meals in the county to catch the wind for Shangshu, please be sure to give the lowly post a face, and then go to Changsha with General Lin." ”

Zhang Huan pondered for a while, and then said happily: "It's okay!" When General Lin first came to Baling, he received great help from the local government, and I would like to thank everyone. ”

The officials were overjoyed and hurriedly called for the sedan chair. Then. Ping Ping whispered to Zhang Huan: "You go to dinner, I want to go shopping and buy some souvenirs, is it okay?" ”

Zhang Huan smiled and nodded, he called two more personal soldiers and asked them to accompany Pingping to go shopping, and several people quietly slipped away when the official invited Zhang Huan to get into the sedan chair.

At this moment, Baling County has almost fallen out of the city, and the streets are crowded with people who come to see the excitement. Tens of thousands of people are pointing fingers and talking about the news, which is even more lively than watching the lanterns on the Shangyuan Festival.

With the sound of gongs and gongs, the people at the gate of the city surged, crowded forward desperately, stretched their necks to look, and many people climbed the trees, as if the officials from Beijing were three-headed and six-armed monsters.

"Get out of the way! Move! "More than 100 servants opened the way in front. Push back the people who kept pouring up to the ground. This was followed by two groups of cavalry, one on the left and one on the left. Two walls of cavalry were formed, and they patrolled the situation on both sides as they went, and from time to time they ordered the people on the trees and rooftops to come down.

Behind the cavalry is Zhang Huan's official sedan chair, hundreds of personal soldiers holding huge shields, surrounding the official sedan chair, blocking the wind, as if a huge shield mountain is slowly moving.

Yuan Zai's lesson is not far away, no one dares to be careless, the people can't see the true body of the official in Beijing, they all make noise, just behind a big tree on the corner of the street, a man stared coldly at Zhang Huan's personal team, for a while, he didn't see any chance, and disappeared into the crowd in a flash.

Baling County is a big county, with more than 8,000 households, but compared with the spacious and square urban layout in the north, it seems to be a lot more chaotic, the streets are narrow, and the houses are dense, especially the large number of refugees who fled in the Xiangyang Rebellion a few months ago, and some have not returned to it yet, which adds a bit of chaos and restlessness to the already crowded county.

In the center of the county, a Junshan Street crosses the east and west, the shops on both sides of the street are dense, the business is prosperous, the place where Liu Yuan is ready to treat is located in the middle of the street, it is the most famous restaurant in the whole Baling County, Dongting Restaurant.

As the officials in Beijing entered the restaurant, the people gathered along the way saw that there was no more excitement to see, so they went home one after another, and the street gradually returned to normal, at this moment, about 1,000 people came from the east, noisily and shouted to the Dongting Restaurant.

It wasn't until he entered the restaurant that the soldiers relaxed their vigilance, Zhang Huan came out of the sedan chair and said with a wry smile: "Do you have to work so hard even to eat a meal?" ”

Liu Yuan hurriedly stepped forward to apologize, "It's peaceful here all year round, and nothing happens, if there is something lively, the people generally come out of the city." ”

The county magistrate next to him also added with a smile: "Today's situation is not bad, when the elder of Xiangyang Wangge came to Baling County to inspect five years ago, he couldn't even enter the city at all. ”

"It turns out that I can still go to the city to eat, which is already a great luck." Zhang Huan smiled and shook his head, "Let's go!" After eating, hurry early. ”

He was just about to go upstairs when he suddenly heard a drum noise outside, "We want to see Zhang Shangshu!" ”

The voice was very clear, Zhang Huan couldn't help but stop, and asked in surprise, "What's going on?" ”

"Let's take a look." Liu Yuan ran out in a panic, he was saying something loudly, as if he was persuading people to disperse.

"We're going home! The shouts for the land intensified, and many of them were the voices of women and children.

After a while, Liu Yuan came in helplessly and said: "Back to Shangshu, there are more than a thousand refugees from Xiangyang outside, it seems that their land is gone, I heard that Shangshu is here, so I want to ask for an explanation." ”

"And this kind of thing, look at it." Zhang Huan pulled his legs and walked out of the door, Li Dingfang, the captain of his own soldiers, couldn't stop him, and hurriedly ordered his men to control the situation, and he followed closely behind Zhang Huan and walked out of the gate.

Outside the gate, more than 1,000 people were gathered, almost half of them were women, children and old people, and when they saw a large group of people coming out, everyone retreated one after another, not daring to lean too forward.

Zhang Huan stood on the steps, he glanced at everyone, their eyes were full of anxiety, and he said loudly: "I am the secretary of the military department, what grievances do you have to tell this official?" ”

At this time, an elderly man stepped forward and said: "Tell Lord Shangshu, we are all people of Xiangyang, and we have escaped with the help of Lord Shang, and now that the war disaster has been settled, we plan to return to our hometown, but I heard that the army has taken away our land as a terra nullius, and we sincerely ask your lord to give us a way to live." ”

"How is this possible? Don't you have a title deed? ”

"My lord, there are land deeds, but when the army clears the borderless land, it is a piece of demarcation, and our land is also in it, saying that it is to give compensation, or to resettle in addition, but to this day there is no explanation, my lord, most of our houses have been burned down, if there is no land, how will we return to our hometown? Ask Lord Shangshu to call the shots for us! "Ask Lord Shangshu to call the shots for us!" In front of the restaurant, a large area of black pressure suddenly collapsed, Zhang Huandi's face was gloomy to the extreme, what did Li Shuangyu do? is so simple and rude, his reputation that he has managed to create is about to be ruined by him.

Thinking of this, he said loudly: "Folks, I don't know about this matter, but please rest assured, I will immediately send someone to verify this matter, as long as you have the title deed, even if the title deed is lost or burned by the war, as long as someone proves it, the land will be returned to everyone in full, and it will never be encroached upon, and within ten days, this matter will definitely be resolved." ”

"Lord Xie Shangshu!" Everyone kowtowed gratefully, and stood up to disperse, but at this moment, a man in the crowd from Zhang Huan suddenly squeezed out, his eyes showed a fierce light, and with a wave of his hand, a blue mang shot towards Zhang Huan's throat, extremely fast, in an instant, the surrounding soldiers were so shocked that they didn't even have time to shout, Zhang Huan was appeasing the old man, he turned his head, Limang was already in front of him, hiding, it was too late, at this moment, a long sword stabbed out from the oblique brush, fast as lightning, dang! There was a crisp sound on the ground, and the sword body blocked Limang, Limang bounced, flew past Zhang Huan's scalp, and nailed it to the doorpost, and then a black shadow slammed Zhang Huan to the ground, but the second Limang shot from another direction, from the place where Zhang Huan was standing just now, and shot straight into the gate.

All of this was done in an instant, and time seemed to freeze in time.