Zhang Mengjin and his gang from Duhe Fort once again completed the task brilliantly, which somewhat comforted Yang He, the current governor of the trilateral who was increasingly anxious.

However, although the arrogance of the thieves was quickly suppressed by the officials and soldiers, there were still things that worried Yang He. That was the Dingding in the vicinity of Ningsai Fort on Yansui West Road, and they were in a bit of a commotion during this sensitive time.

However, the responsibility for investigating the reasons is not on them, although the dwindlings have made many military exploits in the past few months, but the reward of the imperial court has not been issued. In this regard, many of the soldiers in the military fort were very dissatisfied.

The soldiers who have become grassroots soldiers think that they have won many times for the imperial court, but they have not been rewarded as they deserve, which is because the imperial court looks down on and does not trust them. Therefore, many people even semi-openly expressed their opposition to the imperial court, claiming that they were not as free as they were when they were thieves in the past.

The restless posture of the soldiers near Ningsai Fort even attracted the attention of Ma Yixun, the governor of Qingyang Mansion. As early as mid-July, he heard that some of these thieves were planning to gather 400,000 people to attack the provincial capital to vent their anger.

Ma Yixun naturally couldn't pretend that he hadn't heard it, and he quickly reported the situation to his superiors. After receiving the news, Yang He immediately sent people to question the superior officers of Ningsai Fort, including Shen Yikui.

Of course, Shen Yikui knew about the noisy situation of his subordinates. But his subordinates used to be quite complicated. Some of these old bandits, if they have no money and food to reward, even the original palm of the plate god will not be able to control it.

Shen Yikui, who thought that there was no good way, had to secretly make a list of thorns, and went to Yang He, the governor of the three sides. He said that he was unable to deal with the people on the list, and that he needed to take action on the Governor's own initiative.

Shen Yikui's list of Chen is full of problematic characters that he can't control, including Ru Chengfame, who has always been very cunning. This rebellious former thief twice made meritorious contributions to the operation of stopping the Mongols, but he never received the reward he deserved, so he was very angry during this time.

Ru Chengming even got angry during an argument with his superiors and directly beat the staff general Wu Hongqi and the lieutenant officer Fan Li. Although Shen Yikui caught Ru Chengming and beat him with a military stick, Ru Chengming was still angry and very unconvinced that the court did not fulfill his promise.

For this kind of behavior of Ru Chengming, Yang He will naturally not tolerate it. However, considering the special background of the soldiers in the Ninsai military fort, most of the rash disposal will not be successful, but is likely to provoke a mutiny.

So after receiving Shen Yikui's list, Yang He prepared to clear out some of the possible rebels in his eyes. The person who happened to come to deliver the list was Shen Yikui's henchman Liu Jin, who was also Yang He's old acquaintance.

Shen Yikui also instructed Liu Jin to deal with Ru Chengming with Governor Yang He. In this way, Yang He and Shen Yikui worked out a plan to prepare to rectify the descendants around Ningsai.

Regarding these secret discussions that took place at the Yansui West Road Military Fort and the Shaanxi Trilateral Governor's Office, Shi Kefa, the governor of Xi'an, was completely unclear. Now he is inspecting all parts of Yan'an Mansion after suffering from the thief rebellion again, patrolling the work assigned to him by Yu Shi Wu Fu, and Shi Kefa has been working hard to complete it with all his might.

……

Standing in the wilderness, Shi Kefa raised his eyes and looked around, the fields were full of crops that the people of Yan'an Mansion expected for their future lives, and many of them had lost hope for the autumn harvest because they had been trampled on and maliciously damaged. Not far away, the village that had been looted and burned by the thieves was also lifeless and looked miserable.

When Shi Kefa saw these scenes, his heart seemed quite heavy. Although he is the magistrate of Xi'an Mansion, these circumstances in Yan'an Mansion make Shi Kefa, who regards saving the people of Li as his own responsibility, feel quite sad. He was an official who cherished the beautiful ideals of traditional Chinese scholars and doctors, and he always had a lofty sense of mission for himself.

Although his mood has always been very heavy, Shi Kefa can't avoid these tragic situations. He walked on for a while, and finally found some remnants of the people.

It's just that these surviving people, their current posture is not very good. Shi Kefa saw a civilian covered in knife wounds, prostrate on the ground and unable to move. He hurriedly stepped forward to prepare for treatment, but after getting closer, the tragic situation of more people came into his eyes, and Shi Kefa didn't know who to save first.

The swaddling baby was stained with mud and blood, and was now crying but no one took care of it. Shi Kefa saw a woman beside the baby, but this person was pale and shrunk and trembled. Shi Kefa asked him a few words, but the other party couldn't say a word because of hunger and cold.

couldn't watch the people die in front of him, Shi Kefa hurriedly dragged off the cloak and covered the other party. At the same time, he ordered his men to immediately treat the remaining people, and he himself picked up the crying baby beside him to calm him down.

"My lord, a remnant of a civilian was found here, and it didn't appear to be injured." When the subordinates who were ordered to start their work inspected their surroundings, they found an old woman with gray hair in a thicket of artemisia.

Hearing this, Shi Kefa handed over the baby in his arms to his servant, and he hurriedly walked over and began to inquire about the details. "This old man, who destroyed your place, and how many people remained."

The magistrate of Xi'an Mansion tried his best to make his voice sound kind, but the old woman who was questioned did not respond to Shi Kefa's questioning. She looked mentally deranged. Just kept crying while muttering to himself that his wife had died so miserably.

Seeing that he couldn't ask anything, Shi Kefa had to ask his subordinates to take the old woman to the side to rest. At this time, another subordinate found a remnant of the people, this person was an old man, but his mental state seemed to be quite normal.

"Old man, who is responsible for your tragic situation here, and is anyone still alive?" Shi Kefa began to question again.

"It's all dead, it's all gone, my sons have been killed by thieves, woo woo." The old man, who was originally quite normal, cried uncontrollably when he heard Shi Kefa ask who else survived.

Seeing this, Shi Kefa hurriedly began to comfort him, and after a period of hard work, the old man whimpered and introduced the situation in their village clearly.

This place was originally a relatively peaceful village, and even during the previous natural disasters, the people in the village helped each other grit their teeth to tide over the difficulties. However, a group of thieves who were appeased before first fetched food here and said that it was to pay for returning home. After that, they simply began to openly rebel again, and the whole village was washed in blood.

The peaceful and harmonious village has been completely destroyed, and some of the villagers' entire families have been slaughtered by thieves, leaving their mutilated bodies in the grass and no one to collect them for them. Like the sons of the old man, they were all killed by the thieves because they were forced to obey the thieves, and they began to resist, and the rest of his family members were also taken away by the thieves and disappeared.

The old man kept crying to Shi Kefa about the cruelty of the thieves, and he couldn't understand why the court wanted to let go of these scumbags, and why he didn't send officials and soldiers to exterminate them all.

Shi Kefa was silent, not knowing how to answer. He also supported the court's appeasement strategy, but now it seems that they are still too idealistic about this matter.

Shi Kefa didn't say anything to reply to the old man, he just worked with his subordinates to help the dead in the village complete the collection of corpses, and after leaving some money and food, he began to inspect other places.

It's just that there are similar tragic situations everywhere, and the brief appearance of peace before is almost an illusion. On the way, Shi Kefa saw that some people were fleeing, and a family suddenly collapsed in the ditch on the side and stopped getting up, but the people around them walked indifferently, and no one looked back.

As far as the eye can see, there is not a single house intact. Collapsed houses and charred earthen walls are upside down in the ancient wall of Artemisia annua.

Not a single grass could be found in the field, and it was eaten up by hungry horses or trampled by soldiers. On a tree that was almost dead, only the setting sun hung on it, and the scene was all the more bleak after a few crows sounded. (Note 1)

These decades of abundant produce, the people of the peaceful region are only a few remnants of the former prosperity. Shi Kefa, who was infected by the tragic scene in front of him, asked secretly in his heart: "Why are the people of Shaanxi so unfortunate and have to suffer so many tragic things, and is the work of the government right or wrong?" ”

The more he thought about it, the more he couldn't find the answer, so he could only choose to go back to Wu Fu first to report the situation he had investigated, and by the way, seek answers to his doubts from Wu Fu.

No one knows how Wu Fu replied after that, but the dissatisfaction of the gentry in Shaanxi with the imperial court's appeasement strategy has become bigger and bigger.

PS: Note 1: Actually, here the author has translated a slightly modified version of a part of the ninth volume of "Chai An Shuji". The original words make people feel even more sad, "Or the ruined house is scorched, upside down in the ancient wall of Artemisia." There is no grass in the wilderness, and all the horses are wounded. The tree hangs in the sun, and there are only black iris tears. ”

And the "within the yellow artemisia" in this sentence is also the origin of the author's name of this novel. At first, the author also considered using "Tree Hanging Sun" as the title of the novel, but finally chose to give up for various reasons.