After lunch, all the corpses on the city wall had been carried away, and Zhao Ziliang arranged the defense and rested under the wall with the handle of the knife, and unconsciously slept until nightfall.

Feeling that someone was doing something on him, Zhao Ziliang woke up, and immediately opened his eyes, and the knife he was holding in his hand was about to be swung out, but when he saw Nie Sanniang standing in front of him, Nuer followed not far behind him with a giant mace, he breathed a sigh of relief, and the hand holding the handle of the knife also relaxed, Nie Sanniang just felt the murderous aura emanating from Zhao Ziliang's body, and couldn't help but say angrily: "What, you even want to kill the slave family?" ”

Zhao Ziliang smiled embarrassedly: "Didn't I know it was you?" I also blame that I haven't slept in the past few days, maybe I'm too tired and my vigilance has been greatly reduced, otherwise I would have felt someone approaching! By the way, why are you here? This city wall is full of murderous spirits, and you are pregnant with a child, so it is not good to stay here for a long time, so you should go back quickly."

Nie Sanniang sighed: "My husband hasn't been home for a few days, the slave family has come to see you, it's cold tonight, the slave family brought you a cloak, you put it on, there is a bucket of food here, it was sent by the Huotou Army, I saw you sleeping heavily just now, I didn't let them wake you up, you eat quickly."

Zhao Ziliang asked, "Have you all eaten?" ”

"We've eaten it, so let's eat!"

Zhao Ziliang nodded, stood up and took the small wooden barrel full of food, opened the lid, there was a small barrel of food in the small wooden barrel, and a wooden spoon, so he sat on the arrow stack and carried the small wooden barrel and began to eat with the wooden spoon.

Nie Sanniang touched her increasingly bulging belly, with a happy look, looked at Zhao Ziliang, who was gobbling up, and remembered that the child in her belly and the child in Chen Qingying's arms, who was far away in Chang'an, had not yet been named, so she said: "Husband, the child in the slave family and my sister's belly has not been named yet. What are you going to name them? ”

Hearing Nie Sanniang's question, Zhao Ziliang stopped, put down the rice spoon and patted his head and said, "You really forgot if you didn't say so-and-so, well, let me think about it, if you and the child in Qingying's arms are both girls." The big one is called Zhao Yu, the small one is called Zhao Xue, if they are all boys, the big one is called Zhao Feng, and the small one is called Zhao Ting! ”

Nie Sanniang thought for a while and asked, "It's good to call Zhao Yu, Zhao Xue, and Zhao Feng, but isn't it good to call Zhao Ting?" The name is too high, I am afraid that the child will not be able to bear it in the future".

Zhao Ziliang chewed the food, waved his hand and said: "It's okay, my Zhao Ziliang's son just has the courage to swallow thousands of miles, and he must have the momentum of thunder when he is angry!" There is also a point in naming him, and you can give him a cat and a dog name to make a living. But our family is not short of food and clothing, can't we still support children? You don't know that giving him a mediocre name is itself a very low demand for him, future achievements are limited, and giving them a resounding name is not only what we parents expect from them, but also a spur to them from an early age! ”

Nie Sanniang thought about it and felt that what Zhao Ziliang said was not unreasonable, so she said: "In this case, this matter is so decided, and the husband eats slowly." The slave family went back first! ”

Zhao Ziliang waved his hand, "Go!" Noor. worry about some on the way".

"Got it, master!"

Soon after nightfall, several officials and wealthy businessmen came to the house of Zhou Zhuchen, a wealthy merchant in the county, and Zhou Zhuchen welcomed them into the gate one by one, and after the invited people entered, he stood at the door and looked left and right. When he didn't notice anything unusual, he turned around and walked in the door, telling the family to close the door quickly.

When the door of Zhou Zhuchen's house was closed, several heads stuck out from the corner of the alley diagonally opposite, and then several people flashed out from the corner, and one of them did not turn his head back to the other three: "Zhou Zhuchen must have planned something when he invited these officials and rich businessmen to come. There must be something wrong here, Goudan and Sanwa went to report to Captain Ma, and the pillar stayed here and I was here to watch."

"Okay, be careful!" Goudan and Sanwa nodded and turned to leave.

The two quickened their pace, and soon came to Ma Lan's residence, Zhao Ziliang's main task to Ma Lan was to inspect all parts of the city, responsible for public security issues in the city during the war, strictly investigate spies, prevent people from collaborating with the enemy and betraying the country, and cooperate with the Tubo army outside the city. Now I really found a clue.

Ma Lan was very nervous after listening to the report of Goudan and Sanwa, "What? Someone sneaking up on a secret gathering? Maybe it was to collude with the Tibetan army outside the city? Who are they? ”

Goudan said: "County Cheng Ma Yukun, county lieutenant Li Tiancheng, wealthy businessmen Zhou Zhuchen, Liu Chongyang, He Dayou, they are in Zhou Zhuchen's house at this time."

Ma Ling frowned and said, "Are you mistaken?" What are the signs that they are plotting to collude with the Tibetan army outside the city? ”

Dog Dan said: "Lord Captain, these **** and others have been staring at Zhou Zhuchen, this person used to have business dealings with the Tubo people, he is the largest local horse dealer, not only from the Tubo people to buy horses, but also to buy cattle and sheep, most of which are shipped to Chang'an and Jiangnan to sell, so we first set our eyes on him, these **** and so on found that there are often birds flying in and out of his yard, this is very strange, I will shoot down one with a bow and arrow, but I found that a white bird has a small tube tied to its leg, There is a strip of white cloth in the tube, and on the strip of cloth is written the deployment of our army in the city defense, you see, this is it."

Ma Lan took a piece of cloth from the dog's hand, opened it and saw that it was indeed the situation of the city defense, his face changed greatly, and he said angrily: "I have the courage to say that these days the Tubo people have launched a fierce attack on the weak part of our army's defense every time, causing our army to suffer heavy losses, it turns out that the situation of our army's defense has been leaked out a long time ago, which is really hateful."

After putting away the strips of cloth, Ma Lan said to the two dogs: "This matter must be reported to the general immediately, and the two of you will immediately follow me to the southern city wall to see the general!" ”

The two immediately said: "No! ”

The three of them soon came to the south gate and saw Zhao Ziliang, who was on a defense inspection, "General, my subordinates have an urgent matter to report!" ”

Zhao Ziliang saw that it was Ma Lan and two soldiers dressed in people's clothes, so he waved his hand to the servants behind him: "Wait for you to step aside!" ”

A few guards were pushed to a dozen steps away from the guard, and Zhao Ziliang asked, "Didn't you tell you to go back and have a good rest?" What happened? ”

Ma Lan took out a strip of cloth and handed it over: "General, look at this!" ”

Zhao Ziliang suspiciously took the strip of cloth, called a servant to bring a torch, and then the light of the torch saw the content on the strip clearly, and immediately changed his face, raised his head and asked in a deep voice: "Where did it come from?" ”

"Dog, you come and tell the general in detail!"

"No!" Goudan agreed, and told Zhao Ziliang about what they found out in a clear manner.

After listening to the dog's narration, Zhao Ziliang frowned and asked, "So among these people, the wealthy businessman Zhou Zhuchen is the leader?" If they are really colluding with the Tubo people outside the city, intending to cooperate with the Tubo people inside and outside, it is also this Zhou Zhuchen who is presiding over this matter? ”

Goudan nodded and said, "It should be him!" ”

Zhao Ziliang thought about it, and immediately said to Ma Lan: "You don't have to come to the city wall in the past two days, give General Ben all his strength to keep an eye on this matter, don't startle the snake for the time being, General Ben wants to see what they want to do, first open the gap from one of them, secretly arrest one person, pry open this person's mouth, figure out everything, General Ben wants their overall plan."

Ma Luan's spirit was shocked, and he clenched his fists and said, "Don't worry, general, your subordinates will go!" ”

Tubo and Hexi are separated by the Qilian Mountains, Tubo and Hexi can pass, and suitable for the march of the army and the transportation of goods The traffic arteries are basically in Panhe County, the Dadou Tu Valley where the Dadou army is stationed is the widest and best road to walk, and there may be some mountain trails in the other, but they are not suitable for the march of the army, nor are they suitable for caravan walking, so Panhe County has become the passage between Tubo and Hexi, there is a large market, and the Tubo people and the Tang people often trade tea and horses here, so a group of rich merchants have been created.

In the early years, the Tang Dynasty and the Tubo people truce and signed the Chiling Agreement, the two sides took the Chiling (Riyue Mountain) in the southwest of Huangyuan as the boundary, and carried out the border exchange market nearby, Panhe County is one of the trading places, but last year the princess of Jincheng died, the Tubo people openly tore up the Chiling Agreement, and invaded Hexi, and the border mutual market was terminated. However, even if the two countries are at war, there are still merchants on the border who sell all kinds of materials to Tibet through smuggling, these merchants have unimaginable energy, they have bought off the Tang Dynasty border garrisons and guards, and they can easily transport the materials needed by the Tubo people out of the border, the rich merchant Zhou Zhuchen is such a person, he has long been a person from the Tibetan side, and often collects information about the Tang Dynasty for the Tubo people through the identity of a businessman, and he has also profited a lot.

Ma Ling took some soldiers to hide in the alley diagonally opposite Zhou Zhuchen's house, but never saw the officials and wealthy businessmen who went in, but he didn't know that Zhou Zhuchen's house was also quite unpeaceful at this time.

In Zhou Zhuchen's study, the five people sat against the wall, while Zhou Zhuchen sat behind the desk and looked at the other four with a sneer.

After a long time, Zhou Zhuchen looked at a middle-aged man in an official uniform and asked, "Master Ma, you are the county prince, the person with the highest status here, what do you mean?" ”

County Cheng Ma Yukun looked tired, his eyes showed deep fear, he looked at Zhou Zhuchen and said, "Outside of Zhou Yuan, is there only this way?" Communicating with foreign countries and colluding with Tibet to break the city, once this matter is discovered, this is the crime of exterminating the nine clans! ”

Zhou Zhuchen sneered: "Master Ma, do you think this Hecheng can be held for a few days? In the past two days, the south wall of the city has been crumbling, if it weren't for Zhao Ziliang's proper command and rich experience, I'm afraid that the city would have been broken long ago, even so, his men still suffered heavy casualties, first of all, there are less than 4,000 people in the city who can fight and treat diseases, more than 4,000 people have been injured and can not fight again, and more than 5,000 people have died in battle, and there are nearly 30,000 Tubo troops outside the city. If we express our sincerity to the Tibetan people at this time, not only can we guarantee our lives, but also will not touch our property, you think about it, there are no heads, who can control the nine tribes and not the nine tribes? It's only serious to save your life! (To be continued.) )