Cao Cao, Lü Bu, Sun Ce, and Liu Bei allied forces on a large-scale crusade against Yuan Shu, not only Shouchun, but even the entire Huainan County became a battlefield, especially Lü Bu, not only when he came, he burned and plundered, but also intensified the slaughter of the city on the way back to Xuzhou from Shouchun, causing great harm to the people of Huainan.

Since early March, there has been a steady influx of refugees into Lujiang County.

By early April, on the eve of the Shouchun War, the number of refugees pouring into Lujiang County increased suddenly.

In early May, the number of refugees gathered outside Anhui County, the capital of Lujiang, has exceeded 20,000, and most of them are old and young, women and children.

Just after the hour, two military generals with grown bodies hurried into the city from the south gate.

These two people, one is Zhang Duo, the commander of the infantry army of Lujiang County, and the other is Xu Gan, the captain of the navy.

In the Han Dynasty, Du Wei was a senior military attache in charge of military affairs in a county, with a rank ratio of 2,000 stones, and his status was second only to the county guard.

However, at the end of the Han Dynasty, the Han dynasty declined, local princes rose together, and a large number of captains, lieutenant generals, and even miscellaneous generals with a status above the capital lieutenant appeared, and the capital lieutenant was not uncommon.

Even, even a remote county like Lujiang dared to set up two captains.

This Zhang Duo and Xu Gan were not Liu Xun's subordinates originally, but the local heroes of Lujiang County.

Under the Han and Qin systems, the county and county administrative bodies were set up throughout the country, which were directly governed by officials sent by the central government.

However, it is impossible to truly effectively govern a local area by relying only on a county guard, a few county orders, and a few subordinate officials appointed by the central government, so local officials must rely on the power of the clan.

The so-called clan is a group of people who gather together and live with the surname and blood as the link.

The influence of most clans is limited to Honri and Hongo, but some clans will have the opportunity to stand out and extend their influence to their own prefecture, prefecture, and even Honshu!

For example, the Yuan clan was originally just an ordinary scholar clan in Runan, but since Yuan An became the chief priest in the He Emperor Dynasty, there have been children in the third prince for four consecutive generations, so the Yuan clan quickly became famous in the world, and its influence quickly went out of the county and even the state, reaching the whole country, and becoming the first clan in the country.

Originally, no matter how influential the local clans were, they were not armed.

However, at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, especially after the Yellow Turban Uprising, the influence of the central government was greatly weakened, especially the military inability to provide protection for local clans.

For example, Xiahoudun, Xiahou Yuan brothers, Cao Ren, Cao Hong brothers, and even Xu Chu were all local heroes before they defected to Cao Cao, and Zhou Yu was also a local heroes before he defected to Sun Ce!

Even, most of the heroes in the early stage of the Three Kingdoms were born in Haoqiang!

Zhang Duo and Xu Gan were originally local heroes in Lujiang County.

Initially, Zhang Duo and Xu Gan were attached to another stronger place, Zheng Bao.

In the spring of last year, Zheng Bao gathered his neighbors to resist rent and donations, and Liu Xun sent people to collect them several times, but Zheng Bao not only did not pay the taxes according to the number, but castrated the small officials sent by Liu Xun to collect them, and what was even more excessive was that Zheng Bao also invited Zhang Duo and Xu Gan to drink with the eggs and eggs of the little officials, which was really excessive.

Liu Xun was completely enraged, and angrily sent troops to suppress him, but he was defeated by Zheng Bao!

In the end, Liu Ye designed to behead Zheng Bao, and then surrendered Zhang Duo and Xu Gan, Liu Xun then appointed Zhang Duo as the captain of the infantry army of Lujiang County, and Xu Gan became the captain of the navy.

After Zhang Duo and Xu Gan entered the city, they did not go directly to the county guard's mansion, but came to Liu Ye's mansion first.

At the beginning, Liu Ye went to Zheng Bao's lair alone and killed Zheng Bao at the banquet, Zhang Duo and Xu Gan were shocked, but they also admired Liu Ye's courage and talent, and immediately came forward to suppress Zheng Bao's subordinates, and expressed his willingness to support Liu Ye as the master, but Liu Ye refused, and handed over the two and Zheng Bao's subordinates to Lujiang Taishou Liu Xun.

Although Liu Ye is unwilling to be the leader of the two and is unwilling to dominate the world, with this relationship, Zhang Duo, Xu Gan and Liu Ye are very close, and they will find Liu Ye first in case of trouble.

Zhang Duo and Xu Gan are frequent visitors to Liu's Mansion, and they can go straight to the Inner Mansion without having to pass through.

When the two walked into Liu Ye's study, they saw Liu Ye kneeling on the seat, debugging a lyre placed on the case.

This lyre is about six feet long, about one foot wide, three inches thick, wedge-shaped, cut from sycamore wood, and used silk as the string.

Liu Ye's expression was highly focused, Zhang Duo and Xu Gan entered the study, he didn't know, but his ten fingers kept kneading, slipping, or percussion on the strings, while listening attentively, and from time to time he would nod or shake his head, saying that the timbre here was not mellow, and he still needed to adjust the clouds.

Seeing that Liu Ye's expression was highly focused, Zhang Duo and Xu Gan stood aside and waited patiently.

From this detail, it can be seen that Zhang Duo and Xu Gan's respect for Liu Ye is from the heart.

After half an hour, Liu Ye finally finished debugging, and then when he looked up, he saw Zhang Duo and the two, so he quickly knelt down and stood up to salute, and said: "Ah, I didn't know that the two generals were coming, and they missed the distance, and they hoped to forgive their sins." ”

"Meet Mr. Ziyang." Zhang Duo and Xu Gan didn't dare to hold it up, and at the same time slammed towards Liu Ye to the ground.

Liu Ye swung his sleeves and sat back on the seat, and said with a smile: "I don't know if the two generals come to the cold house, what can they say?" ”

Zhang Duo was not polite, and said straight to the point: "Mr. Ziyang, the hungry people gathered outside the south gate have just robbed the grain ship of Xu's grain store, although the grain ship was finally recaptured, but most of the grain on the ship was lost. ”

Liu Ye frowned and said, "Two generals, this matter should be discussed with the county guard." ”

Zhang Duo and Xu Gan glanced at each other and said: "The county guard doesn't listen to the last general at all, not to mention that there is Liu Wei instigating in the middle, only if Mr. Ziyang goes to say, the county guard will listen." ”

Liu Ye was silent, and he was also embarrassed in his heart.

Zhang Duo, Xu Gan's Liu Wei is Liu Xun's brother, due to the early death of Liu Xun's eldest brother, Liu Xun regarded Liu Wei as his own, and as a result, he spoiled Liu Wei.

Once, Liu Wei insulted Xu Gan's sister-in-law of the same clan, and Xu Gan was angry and beat Liu Wei violently.

Although, this matter was finally suppressed by Liu Xun, but the grudge between Xu Gan and Liu Wei was settled, and after that, as long as he caught the opportunity, Liu Wei would arrange Zhang Duo and Xu Gan in front of Liu Xun.

Xu's grain store is Xu's industry, Xu Gan hopes that the government will open a porridge shed to help refugees for the benefit of Xu's family, although this move is selfish, but Liu Ye personally is in favor, in any case, as a county guard, he has the responsibility of protecting the territory and the people, how can he watch the people starving and be indifferent?

However, Liu Ye also has his difficulties.

Because his reputation in Lujiang is too strong, whether it is the scholar class or the common people, even reckless men like Zhang Duo and Xu Gan are praised, and Lujiang is too protective of Liu Xun is not a person with a mind in essence, and in recent times, Liu Ye obviously feels that Liu Xun's attitude towards him is not as good as before.

Helpless, Liu Ye could only live in seclusion, trying not to ask about Lujiang's affairs.

However, there are some things that you can't hide if you want to, just like today's incident, Liu Ye knows that he must come forward, otherwise, sooner or later, refugees outside the city will breed trouble.

What's more, Liu Ye really didn't want to watch the refugees starve to death outside the city.

(Dividing Line)

Half an hour later, Liu Ye appeared in the county guard's mansion.

Hearing Liu Ye's intentions, Liu Xun frowned: "Open a porridge shed?" What about grain? ”

Lujiang County is a small county, with a population of only 100,000, except for a few counties along the river and Chaohu Lake, the land in the rest of the counties is mostly low-yield dry land, and several counties in the north are even more barren, and the grain cannot be collected at all.

Liu Ye continued: "Ming Gong, the food is insufficient, you can find someone to borrow, the big families in this county, Qiao's, Xu's, and Shuxian Zhou's are quite rich and grainy, no matter how bad they are, they can also borrow rice and grain from Yuzhang Huaxin and Jiangxia Huangzu temporarily. ”

"Borrowed food?" Liu Xunpi said with a smile, "I'm afraid it's not easy to borrow, right?" ”

Liu Ye said helplessly: "If Ming Gong does not give up, he is willing to borrow grain from various families for Ming Gong, and he dare not say that he can borrow three or five thousand stone of grain." ”

Liu Xun was silent, but the fear of Liu Ye in his heart continued to grow.

This Liu Ye, the ability is really there, just a scholar, he dared to break into the tiger's den alone, and he really killed Zheng Bao, a strong dragon, and what is even more powerful is that he persuaded Zhang Duo and Xu Gan to be two heroes with only three inches of incorruptible tongue, and Lujiang County has lost two harms since then, but there are more than two thousand more soldiers.

However, it is precisely because Liu Ye is too powerful and his reputation is too strong that Liu Xun is like sitting on pins and needles and can't sleep at night.

Although Liu Ye said more than once that he had no intention of fame and hegemony, and even declined the post of Lujiang Changshi for this reason, if he really intended to be famous and dominated, he would definitely not hand over all the subordinates of Zhang Duo, Xu Gan and Zheng Bao to him.

But Liu Xun knows that people will change, and Liu Ye has no ambitions at this time, who knows if there will be ambitions for separating one side next year or even the year after next?

Liu Xun's own family knows his own affairs, if Liu Ye really has this intention, with his high reputation in Lujiang Shilin, the people and the army, it is easy to set up the county guard, and he Liu Xun will become a puppet in Liu Ye's hands in a blink of an eye, and he will not even have the slightest ability to resist.

Seeing that Liu Xun didn't speak for a long time, Liu Ye asked, "What about Ming Gongyi." ”

Liu Xun looked at Liu Ye deeply and said, "This matter will be discussed later." ”