The first year of Chongzhen, deep winter, dawn!

A solemn and majestic city, towering in a lofty mountain, the city was called "Chang'an", "Jingzhao" in ancient times, renamed Xi'an Mansion since the two years of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1369), and has been used to this day. This ancient city has a history of 6,000 years, and thirteen dynasties have made it their capital. It is bordered by the Wei River in the north and the Qinling Mountains in the south, which has a majestic and heavy historical heritage.

At this time, before dawn, this majestic city was still asleep, a fast horse suddenly galloped from the official road in the northwest, the knight on the horse was already tired, the whole person was lying on the horse's back, his hands hanging the horse's neck, the horse under him was also too tired, and kept snorting.

The horses were still far away, and the defenders on the city wall were awakened by the sound of horses' hooves, and shouted, "Stop...... It's not time to get into the city yet......"

The knight on the horse roared, "Eight hundred miles to expedite ...... Changing horses without changing people...... Emergency MI...... It doesn't matter what time it is, let's get started! "It turned out that the knight was a messenger.

Hearing the words "eight hundred miles urgent", the guards on the city wall did not dare to slack off, and quickly opened the city gate, allowing the post guard to rush in, and then the post guard did not even change his breath, patted the horse's buttocks wildly on the dawn street, and rushed all the way into the prefect's yamen...... After a pillar of incense, the prefect's yamen was brightly lit and noisy, and countless people ran out of the palace and ran towards the mansions of various officials in the city, informing the whole city of the military information brought by the post guards.

"Someone in Baishui has killed officials and rebelled!"

This news was like a wing, and it flew into the ears of officials large and small in Xi'an Prefecture in an instant.

The prefect was shocked, the political envoy was shocked, the criminal envoy was shocked, the envoy was shocked, the governor of Shaanxi was shocked, the governor of the grain road was shocked, the political participation was shocked, the senate was shocked, and the Yiyan road was shocked...... In addition to these bigwigs, there are also a large number of guerrilla generals, thousands of households, and hundreds of households, all of which are like exploding the pot.

More than a year ago, Chengcheng Zheng Yanfu rebelled, and he had already shocked these guys once, but he didn't expect it to stop for a long time, and Bai Shui came again.

A group of civil and military officials also didn't care about the dawn, hurriedly dressed up, and gathered in the governor's yamen.

The governor of western Shaanxi is named Hu Tingyan, who is fifty-eight years old this year, dying of old age, and wanted to finally mix in the position of governor for a few years, but when it was time to transfer, he retired with honor, and returned to his hometown, but he did not expect that this was still a year or two away from retirement, so he encountered this kind of thing, and in desperation, he had to welcome all the civil and military officials into the governor's yamen and put tea on the table...... Meeting!

A group of bigwigs sat together, all staring at each other, and the post man kneeling in the hall, seeing that all the officials had arrived, Hu Tingyan waved his hand and said to the post man: "You report carefully, what's wrong with Bai Shui?" ”

The post man kowtowed twice and said loudly: "Report to your lordship, Zhu Ba and Wang Er, the citizens of Baishui* County, led the people to revolt, killed the * county commander Gu Huaxiu, and robbed the silver and grain in the warehouse...... He continued to make trouble, wreaking havoc in the countryside, burning down countless gentry's mansions and robbing countless silver coins...... Then he fled into the Huanglong Mountain......"

"Silk!" All the officials gasped in unison.

Those who are officials are most afraid of encountering this kind of mass incident, troublesome! Whoever gets his hands dirty is unlucky.

The post guard said again: "That bandit leader Zhu Ba actually collected taxes from the squire, it is simply bold, this is obviously a rebellion!" ”

When Hu Tingyan heard this, he was already very unhappy, if it was just a group of homeless people making trouble, he could completely turn a big thing into a small thing, and a small thing, there are homeless people making trouble everywhere in the world, this is nothing, and reporting to the court is often handled lightly. But if it is reported that someone in the court has killed an official and rebelled, then it will ...... It's a big deal!

He coughed lightly and said, "Messenger, don't talk nonsense, a group of hungry people are making trouble, why did it become a rebellion in your mouth?" Myths confuse the public...... Come on, drag this person down for me, hit the thirty boards and come back to talk. ”

The post man had a block in his head, he didn't understand what was going on at all, he worked tirelessly, and sent a letter eight hundred miles in an urgent manner, but he actually became a demon to confuse the public? What does this mean? Before he could figure it out, several members of the Hu family rushed up, twisted him out of the hall, and knocked him down on the stone slab outside the hall, and raised the board.

The sound of crackling boards came into the hall from the atrium, and a large group of civil and military officials had strange expressions on their faces.

Hu Tingyan coughed dryly, straightened his appearance, and then said lightly: "A little hungry people make trouble, look at what this person said, I really don't know anything." ”

As soon as he said this, the officials in the hall understood that this was going to cover the lid! It is a common practice in officialdom to deceive the superiors and subordinates, and everyone understands it, and they can understand it at a glance, so they smiled tacitly.

When I was in the cold, I suddenly ...... Outside the hall, another post man rushed in, and shouted loudly: "Eight hundred miles to hurry...... Anxious about the military situation. ”

"What?" Everyone was shocked, and Hu Tingyan's heart also tightened, what's wrong?

I saw a dusty post man running in under the guidance of Jiading, kneeling on the ground and reporting: "The big thing is not good, Wang Jiayin of Fugu* County made a rebellion, led Yang Liu, Bu Mu and other thieves to make a rebellion, robbed the rich gentry, killed people everywhere and set fires, and the number of people was as high as 3,000 people. ”

"Silk!" The officials gasped again, the white water was messed up, and Fugu came again? It's not such a coincidence, is it?

A civil official wiped his sweat and said, "Your Excellency, what are you going to do about this?" ”

Hu Tingyan spread his hands and said: "Who cares about them, wait for them to make trouble, wait until it rains next spring, these hungry people will obediently go home to farm, and become good citizens again, we don't care what they do." ”

"Your Excellency is wise!" Although a group of civil officials were sweating profusely, they still hurriedly slapped a sycophant.

"!" A discordant voice suddenly came from the hall, and a middle-aged official suddenly stood up indignantly. Everyone turned their heads to look at it, and saw that the official who stood up was about thirty-five years old, with a relatively thin appearance and three strands of beard, and looked quite heroic. It turned out that this person was Hong Chengchou, the governor of Shaanxi * Western Grain Road.

Hong Chengchou is a capable person, 23 times in the examination, the following year to Beijing will take the exam, Lianjie Dengke, as the fourteenth in the second class to get the Jinshi background, and later appointed as the head of the West Qing Bureau, the former Lang, Lang Zhong, served in the criminal department for six years, promoted to Zhejiang to learn to do things, only highly knowledgeable, incomparable, so he got the imperial court, and was promoted to the governor of the grain road.

To put it simply, this guy is awesome!

This awesome man was obviously dissatisfied with the inaction of the governor, he waved his sleeves angrily and said: "If the rogues are in trouble, if they are allowed to let the tiger return to the mountain, they will rise again, and when the rogues recuperate, they will rush out of the mountains next year, and they will cause trouble for the place, I don't know how much trouble it will make......"

Hu Tingyan choked for a while, and then said angrily: "You are alarmist, I think the hungry people will disperse on their own!" It won't be a disaster again. ”

"You're covering your ears and stealing the bell!" Hong Chengchou waved his hand indignantly: "The Tao is not the same, I am too lazy to talk nonsense with you here...... Since you don't care, I'll take my own family to take care of it, so I'll go to Fugu to meet Wang Jiayin! He waved his sleeves and strode out, and then the sound of a fast horse sounded in front of the governor's yamen, although this Hong Chengchou did not come by sedan chair, but rode by himself, it seems that there are two brushes.

Hong Chengchou's trouble, the atmosphere on the scene was a little embarrassing, all the officials thought in their hearts, the governor is indeed a little old, and he is afraid to take care of it when he sees the peasant uprising, so he actually lets it go, this really doesn't work, or what Hong Chengchou said makes sense, since he went to Fugu to suppress bandits, then we still have to think of a way to deal with Zhu Ba and Wang Er in Baishui.

At this time, a military attache jumped out of the hall, and everyone looked at it, and it turned out to be Yang Hong. This Yang Hong is not simple, last year he led troops to quell Zheng Yanfu's rebellion, and in just a few days, he broke through Zheng Yanfu's cottage, wiped out the bandits, and brought back Zheng Yanfu's charred corpse, which made a small splash in Xi'an Mansion.

Although this chaos was not reported as a rebellion for pacification because of the desire to deceive the imperial court, but only reported for the pacification of a group of mountain bandits, the credit was not small, Yang Hong himself received a large amount of silver, which has been included in the sequence of promotions from above, just wait for which position is vacant, and let him make up for it immediately. When everyone saw him come out, they knew that there was a good show to watch, and they immediately looked forward to it.

Yang Hong arched his hand and said with a smile: "Lord Governor, please fight, Lord Hong is also reasonable, these hungry people run out to make trouble, we can't ignore it, otherwise we will go to the emperor, Lord Yu's official reputation is hindered, please Rong Beizhi bring some soldiers and horses, and go and capture Zhu Ba and Wang Er." ”

The reason why Yang Hong asked for the war, in fact, the reason is very simple, he and Zheng Yanfu have a fight, knowing that the peasant army is very easy to bully, just put up a military formation, you can defeat the other party, even if you can't win, with the strategy of attacking the heart, it is simply effortless, in this case, whoever goes to quell the chaos can properly make a great contribution, be promoted and make a fortune, and it is just around the corner. Such a good thing, who does he pick up?

While the other generals didn't know that the peasant army was easy to bully, and they were still a little afraid to fight, he hurriedly jumped out and took this job into the palm of his hand.

Seeing Yang Hong come out, Hu Tingyan also breathed a sigh of relief, he was indeed afraid of war, but with a capable person like Yang Hong coming forward, it was another matter, and he said happily: "General Yang is willing to go?" That's great! With you out of the horse, I put a hundred hearts. ”

Yang Hong smiled, at this time, of course, he, a ruffian, wanted to think of another benefit, so he arched his hand and said: "Lord Governor, this time the rebels have entered Huanglong Mountain, and it is not easy to go into the mountains to suppress bandits, the mountain roads are difficult, and the mountains are cold, my soldiers can't bear this kind of hardship, and I also ask the governor to pay more military salaries, so I can use it to stimulate morale." ”

Hu Tingyan was just waiting for a smooth and steady retirement, how could there be no reason not to allow it, and hurriedly said: "This is a trivial matter, I will give you money and food, you must solve Zhu Ba and Wang Er's gang for me......"

"Yes!"

The civil and military officials in the hall all had smiles on their faces: "I wish General Yang a victory." ”