Liu Xingzuo had an accident at the beginning of this year, he and the Ming Dongjiang General Soldier Mao Wenlong's secret envoy was captured by the Jin army with a letter, this time Liu Xingzuo's crime of collaborating with the enemy is conclusive, Tiancong Khan, who has always valued him, can't help him, and ordered him to be imprisoned in Shenyang City to prepare for the crime, but Liu Xingzuo This guy died and didn't admit it, insisting that someone else framed him, and his "******" in the small circle of Sakhalian, Kurtang and Dahai also desperately defended him, Kur Tang was the most fierce, insisting that this was Ming's counter-plot, If Liu Xingzuo is killed, it will definitely make the people of the Ming Kingdom laugh, and although the Han officials of the Dajin Kingdom dare not speak, they are also panicked - Liu Xingzuo's qualifications, ability and prestige are still very influential in the Dajin Kingdom, Tiancong Khan thought about it again and again, or temporarily let Liu Xingzuo go, killing Liu Xingzuo is still emotionally unbearable, Liu Xingzuo, who was regarded by the old Khan as a nephew, has been studying with them since he was a teenager and fighting together, and Tiancong Khan has never wanted to believe that Liu Xingzuo will really betray the Dajin Kingdom.

Liu Xingzuo didn't have to worry about killing his head for the time being, but this time the evidence was more sufficient than the last time Fuzhou changed, and it was difficult to make others believe him, Tiancong Khan came up with a compromise solution, allowing Liu Xingzuo to return to his home outside the city, but sending people to watch him and not allowing him to go out. However, Liu Xingzuo seems to have been really wronged, leaving a testament to Sakhalian, Kurtang and Dahai and other friends, telling their grievances to the fullest, and then died at home, the letter from Shenyang said that Liu Xingzuo's death was unbearable, the body had been burned and deformed, and only from the ring on the corpse's hand could it be determined that this was Liu Xingzuo, and everyone present was sad.

Tiancong Khan's heart was sour, Aita was an old man of Dajin in the era of Feiala, who had shared the joys and hardships with them and started a business, but now he ended up like this, it seems that he was really wronged, he sighed and said softly: "I should go and see Aita, let's withdraw the army." ”

In the early winter, Yulin City is cold and windy, the grass and trees are withered and yellow, it is close to evening, but there are not many pedestrians on the street, although some shops are still open, but they are also deserted, there are few customers who patronize, only the three or five groups of beggars at the corner of the street are engrossed in watching the occasional passer-by, two young people passing by on horseback just appeared at the street corner, they became the target of the beggars, a group of unclothed children swarmed up, dirty little hands immediately stretched out to them.

A tall and thin young man subconsciously touched his pocket, but another young man waved the whip in his hand without hesitation, shouted angrily to drive away the crowd that surrounded him, and at the same time pulled his companion away quickly, and walked out of the distance before saying: "Yushan, this is not the time for you to be kind, surrounded by this group of people who want to eat, it will not be easy for the two of us to get out." ”

"Meng Qing, is Du Shuai in good health when he comes back from Liaodong? I wanted to visit him later, but I didn't expect him to come to Yulin in person. Li Huai ignored it, but diverted the topic.

"My uncle is in good health, he is pretending to be sick to fool the court, so that he can get out of Liaoxi, but he is idle and panicking in his hometown in Ningzhai."

Li Huai laughed in his heart, it was not the first time that the handsome man did this kind of thing, in the first year of the Apocalypse, the imperial court transferred him from the Yulin General Army to Liaodong, Du Wenhuan didn't want to go, so he found an excuse to go to the border Hetao to do the work of smashing the nest, which led the people of the Jacket Dusi to enter the border wall of Yansui to loot, and the matter of transferring him to Liaodong was naturally over, that time he was dismissed by the imperial court to wait for investigation, and in the second year of the Apocalypse, Du Wenhuan was enabled again, and was transferred to the Sichuan Prime Minister Sichuan, Gui, and Hu Guangming to conquer the Shuixi thief Extravagant Chongming, and after capturing the Futu Pass in Chongqing, he and the governor Zhang I continued to fall out again, slapped his ass and went home on the grounds of illness, which angered the imperial court, and he was condemned for the crime of the Yansui wreck last time, but Du Wenhuan obviously did not accept the lesson, and after being activated this time, the old trick was repeated, and he pretended to be sick and went home from Liaoxi.

"My uncle seems to have some idea when he sees your letter, and he has to come in person, and you don't know that he has such a temper." Du Hongtai is Meng Qing, the nephew of the handsome Du Wenhuan, a son who is one department later than Li Huai, and Li Huai have studied together in the Du family's private school since childhood, the two have a close relationship, and they speak casually, "My uncle is also very happy to hear that you have found your elm, Yushan, can there be such a coincidence in this world?" Don't mistake people. ”

"He's my brother, and I won't mistake him if I mistake you."

"Yushan, don't worry! Of course I hope you find a brother, I still remember Yuzi's appearance when she was a child, quite a sturdy and cute child, but he doesn't like to read and likes to be naughty with a broken stick. ”

Li Huai left Yanghe all the way to the west, returned to Yulin at the end of July, Yansui governor Yue Hesheng had fallen ill in bed at this time, he has not been smooth since taking over Yansui, first the six years of the Apocalypse Qingjian flood, the flood has been flooded to the city wall, and then the central county is a big flood, the flood has been a drought, the seventh year of the Apocalypse in northern Shaanxi, accompanied by the drought is the earthquake, Mizhi, the central earthquake, and then Yan'an, Anding and then earthquake, this year is the first year of Chongzhen, but God does not give the new emperor face at all, from Yan'an, Pingliang to Xi'an, The beginning of spring is frost, and then from spring to summer and autumn without rain, the seedlings in the fields are all dry, and the disasters for two consecutive years have caused great hunger in the northwest and displaced people everywhere. When Li Huai went to see him, Yue Hesheng scolded him unceremoniously, the northwest dilemma is no longer solved, you don't want to find another job elsewhere, come back to accompany me, an old man who is going to die, what are you doing, you better leave quickly.

The situation in the northwest is indeed becoming more and more tense, the land in the northwest is barren, the fields are few and there are many people, the local people mostly serve as the border army and post soldiers who eat the emperor's grain to support their families, and they have always had to be maintained by the imperial court to transport money and grain, after I agreed to pay tribute, the relationship between the Ming Dynasty and the northern Tatars eased, and Liaodong with the eastward invasion of the barbarians and the rise of the later Jianzhou, the war became more and more intense, the attention of the imperial court shifted eastward, a large number of grain and wages were exported to Liaodong, the northwest gradually faded out of sight, and the five towns of Yulin, Gansu, Ningxia, Guyuan and Lintao on the three sides had been in arrears over the years and had reached one million, In July, Wang Jiayin and Wang Zishun rebelled in Fugu, Wang Zuohang, and Miao Mei rebelled in Yichuan, and the displaced people from all over the country responded in groups, and the hungry Yi people and Han people inside and outside the border wall were also connected with each other and ready to move, and the situation in the northwest became more and more out of control.

The news of the civil uprising in the northwest kept coming, and the Yulin Governor Yamen and the General Military Office could not come up with a decent countermeasure to the rebellion of the displaced people one after another, Li Huai was worried but had nothing to do, at this time he heard that the marshal Du Wenhuan had resigned from Ningyuan due to illness and returned to his hometown to recuperate, and hurriedly wrote a letter to greet his benefactor, and by the way, he also said that he had found his younger brother Li Yu, and he wanted to take time to go to Ningzhai to see the handsome later, but he didn't expect Du Wenhuan to go to Yulin.

Li Huai and Du Hongtai talked to Du Wenhuan Yulin's home, as soon as the Du family's family saw them, they took them to the study - the Li family has followed the Du family since Li Huai's father Li Biao joined the army, and the Du family has always been regarded as their own people, which is extremely common in the northwest generals, each family has its own series of elite soldiers, some have changed their surnames to become family members, and some have not changed their surnames but have lived and died with the benefactor for several generations, advancing and retreating consistently, just like a family, the Li family and the Du family are the latter situation, and the Du family's affairs do not need to shy away from Li Huai.

In the study, Du Wenhuan was chatting with two middle-aged people dressed as scholars, and when he saw Li Huai and Du Hongtai coming in, he waved his hand to signal the two to sit down, and he continued to talk to the two scholars.

Du Wenhuan, the son of the famous general Du Tong of the Wanli Dynasty, the nephew of Juniper, at the age of sixteen, followed the famous general Guan Bingzhong to fight in the northwest, made great achievements for the Ming Dynasty, successively served as the Yulin General Army, Ningxia General Army and other important positions, is the most prestigious general of the Ming Dynasty today, the leader of the Northwest General, and is also a rare military general who is proficient in literature and ink in the Ming Dynasty.

"Liaodong can't do anything, when I arrived in Ningyuan, Mangui lived in Shanhaiguan, You Shilu lived in Jinzhou, Hou Shilu lived in Tashan, a long snake formation set up a four-hundred-mile-long front, everywhere is loopholes, everywhere is controlled by others, this kind of battle can't be fought at all, Liaodong Jingluo Wang Zhichen is too timid, I asked him to give up Ningjin He didn't dare, but wanted me to be the prime minister outside the customs and Ningjin front-line military affairs, I am not so stupid, I can't fight this kind of battle waiting to be beaten, Wang Zhichen turned his face with me, and wanted to transfer Mangui to Guanwai, let me go to Shanhaiguan, But this kid Mangui is careless and refuses to move his nest, in this case, what am I doing in Liaoxi, Wang Zhichen is also good, smarter than Sun Chengzong, and finally made up his mind to give up Jinzhou, Tashan, and Xingshan in May this year," Du Wenhuan said excitedly, stood up and paced beside him and scolded: "Fighting is our warrior's business, and civil officials will lead troops to fight after reading "Three Kingdoms" and "Sun Tzu's Art of War" a few times? Wang Zhichen is the person who came out of Lintongwei in Shaanxi, and it is relatively realistic, what is that Sun Chengzong, a teaching gentleman patted his brain and thought that he knew the art of war, and only Ma Shilong, a waste who couldn't get along in the northwest, mixed with him, his set of 'Liao soil to raise Liao people, Liao soldiers to guard Liao soil' to deceive the emperor is okay, but you can't fool us people who have fought in border towns all their lives, look at the bastard things done by Li Chengliang and Liaodong officials, the court is a fart in the eyes of the Liao people, and the money given by the court can't fall on the Liao people and Liao soldiers, It's just a pretext to make money for the local snakes like Liaoxi Wenchen and Liaoxi Zu Dashou, and I and You Shilu, Hou Shilu, these Northwest people, and Mangui are like working for them for a long time. ”

"This time I went to Liaoxi with the marshal, the court will not settle accounts, the Liao people who withdrew to Liaoxi are only about 500,000, this manpower has to cultivate the fields and defend, where can we talk about pacifying the Liao chaos, but it is just to send a group of tenants to the Jiangmen of Liaoxi, this money is spent in vain, it is better to withdraw people to the customs to open up wasteland and farm, so as to increase taxes for the imperial court." The tall, lanky scholar sighed in a southern accent.

"Yongnian is right, this money is spent in vain, or the handsome method is good, give up Ning Jin and retreat to Shanhaiguan, the money saved is used to train soldiers, the strong soldiers of the Ming Dynasty are all in my northwest, but I owe more than one million salaries in the five towns on the three sides, and the border army can not get a penny a year The military salary abounds, the soldiers are so poor that they pawn their wives and sell their children, and they work hard for a long time, as long as we are given two million taels of silver a year, we Northwest people will be saved, we are willing to choose 100,000 Northwest athletes to calm the Liao Trouble for the imperial court," another burly scholar spoke in Shaanxi dialect, He said that his face was swollen red, and he lowered his voice and said, "My northwest boy has been fighting for the imperial court since the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the dead are not counted, the blood is flowing like a river, the northwest people are worthy of the imperial court, but the imperial court is sorry for our northwest people, now the northwest has been in drought for two consecutive years, and there is almost no harvest in the fields, the imperial court not only does not give relief, but collects taxes and levies, and the people have no food and clothing to starve to death, and have to be displaced and flee to beg, this is the court forcing the people to rebel, the northwest chaos is a foregone conclusion, the northwest is chaotic, the northwest is chaotic, Can Da Ming'an not be messy? Dashuai, you are the head of the Northwest General, you have to find a way to live for the people of the Northwest! It's a big deal, let's do it again for 20 years. ”

Li Huai and Du Hongtai were startled, this guy dared to say anything, Du Wenhuan glared at this Shaanxi man fiercely, and the Shaanxi man immediately shut up. The twentieth year of Wanli was the most tragic year for the Northwest people to fight with the imperial court. "Rebellion", the five years of Longqing Ming and the Tatar Altan Khan peace agreement, the Mongolian right wing and the Ming relations eased, the Altan Khan drove out of the eastern border of the Chahar people (that is, the barbarians in the mouth of the Ming Dynasty) became the main opponent of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming increasingly poor financial resources also turned to Liaodong, the poor northwest faded out of the field of vision of the imperial court, lost the financial supply of the imperial court, the northwest border town officers and soldiers became more and more impoverished, in order to survive, the native northwest generals and border town officers and soldiers fought with the court or open or secret, In February of the twentieth year of Wanli, the fierce conflict broke out, Ningxia Governor Dang Xin deducted the soldiers' salaries and cotton cloth and finally ignited the long-standing grievances, and the soldiers launched a mutiny under the leadership of the junior officers Liu Dongyang and Xu Chao, killing the governor Dang Xin and the deputy envoy Shi Jifang, and the chief soldier Zhang Weizhong hanged himself after handing over the handsome seal. With a hot brain, he also participated in the mutiny with his son Bi Chengen, and became the leader of the mutiny in a daze, huh? , Liu Dongyang and the mutinous officers and soldiers actually did not have the courage to rebel, after making a big fuss, they waited for the imperial court to recruit peace, and the northwest generals also added fuel to the fire, taking the opportunity to coerce the imperial court to increase the food and salary invested in the northwest, the northwest towns of the Jiajing Dynasty famous generals such as clouds actually no one came forward to quell the mutiny, the emperor was furious, the court's ministers were furious, they must not accept the coercion of a group of military leaders and soldiers, the emperor and the court directly characterized the mutiny as a rebellion, transferred Li Rusong from Liaodong, Datong transferred to Magui, and resolutely suppressed the rebellion with the guest army, The Hanyi border army in Ningxia town was disappointed, they were loyal to the Ming Dynasty, the mutiny was just to let the emperor remember that they could give them food, but in exchange for ruthless killing, the northwest men have a strong personality, since they want to fight, then fight, they faced the Liaodong army and the Datong army that occupied an absolute advantage, and held the Ningxia Acropolis for eight months, until the imperial army opened the Yellow River and flooded the city, the mutiny was suppressed, and the "huh? "Rebellion" has become one of the three major expeditions of Wanli boasted by the imperial court, but since then, the people of the northwest and the imperial court have gradually separated from Germany, and the northwest generals have also become the target of the imperial court's suppression, and Li Chengliang and Li Rusong father and son in Liaodong have become the most dazzling generals of the Ming Dynasty.

Du Wenhuan obviously didn't want to mention the old things, so he changed the topic: "Bo Xi, Yongnian, although you are businessmen, but in troubled times, you must be bolder and far-sighted, so that you can keep your millions of property,"

Du Wenhuan was full of energy, his voice was loud, he looked like he was sick, pointed to Li Huai and Du Hongtai and said: "My Du family's two thousand-mile horses are here, you should all know each other, we are a family, we can talk about business." ”

"How can the talents of Du Mansion not be recognized." The two smiled and arched their hands towards Li Huai and Du Hongtai, and Li Huai and Du Hongtai also hurriedly got up and saluted.

Li Huai knows both of these people, the taller one is Shen Shoulian, a native of Chongming, Suzhou Prefecture, Nanzhili, and the burly one is Sun Tingyao, a native of Sanyuan, Xi'an Prefecture, Shaanxi Province, Boxi, both of whom are all living beings, but they are in charge of the huge business of each family, and the two families have also been friends with the Du family for several generations, and they often come and go with the Du Mansion, and both of them have met with Li Huai. Among them, the Shen family started by selling salt, and later operated the Yangtze River and coastal trading and shipping, and was a giant merchant in Nanzhili, and the ancestral home of the Du family was originally Kunshan, Suzhou Prefecture, and there was this relationship, and the two families naturally got close; And the Sun family originated in the early Ming Dynasty of the opening of the law, the ancestors had reclaimed the land in Yansui to operate Shangtun, during the Hongzhi period of the household department Shangshu Ye Qi changed the grain to open the middle for the exchange of silver, the land of Shangtun gradually abandoned, the business of the Sun family also turned to Nanjing, Suyang and other places in the south of Zhili, and the Shen family in Chongming, Kunshan Du family had a contact, several generations down, the powerful northwest border town will be the door of the Du family and the Shen family of the giant merchant in the south of Zhili, the Sun family of the giant merchant in Shaanxi wrapped together into one.

"Yushan, you have read the letter to me Boxi, Yongnian, we are very interested in Fengzhou, your little three Yuzi did a good job, he has the land and population outside the border of Datong, the recent Tang newspaper said that the imperial court has promoted him to the general of Datong Jingyu, and we want to support him at a young age." Du Wenhuan said with the letter Li Huai gave him in his hand.

Li Huai couldn't help but fight a cold war, he knew that Du Wenhuan had always been ambitious, and Sun Tingyao and Shen Shoulian, these giants, were all bold, did they want to fight Yuzi's idea? Li Huai hesitated for a moment and said: "The situation in Fengzhou is complicated, the advantage of inserting the Han is obvious, we only control the area around the Barbarian Mountain, there are few people and little food, and the future is unpredictable, it is not easy for the marshal to make a difference!" Besides, that Li Yu has a bad brain and can't remember the past, what if he is not my brother? ”

"I recognize him, he is, he has to be, he has someone who has land and the Tatars also support him, why can't such a good condition be used by me, I want to write to Mangui in Datong, Hou Shilu in Xuanfu, You Shiwei in Changping, and the generals in the northwest, telling them that Li Yu in Fengzhou is a member of my Du family," Du Wenhuan glanced at Li Huai, who was pale, and said in a slow tone, "We won't harm him, you and your eldest brother, and Yuzi all grew up under my watch, what is the difference between you and my Du family's sons and nephews?" If Yuzi wants to become big in the future, it is not possible to have the identity of Mingguo. ”

"Thank you Dashuai for your love, but what does Dashuai need my brother to do?" Li Huai asked.