Moreover, there are many thieves in the mountains, not only these few bandits, but it is even more difficult to say if you encounter other thieves; In addition, the mountains are densely wooded, and there are all kinds of fierce beasts such as tigers, wolves, and bears, even if you don't encounter other thieves, if you encounter a group of wild wolves or a few tigers and bears, it is very difficult to say

Wen Chou immediately called Tian Yuanhao and Zhao Yun, and ordered the two of them to select a few shrewd and capable brave warriors from the county soldiers and Xixiang light warriors to immediately go out of the city to find Guo Jia in the mountains, and it was another three days, and the people sent out returned one after another, but they could not find Guo Jia

That afternoon, the last group of searchers returned, and reported to Wen Chou, but still found nothing

Wen Chou sighed, and said in his heart: "Alas, this Guo Jia is afraid that it will be more auspicious."

He and Guo Jia are first acquaintances, the two have no feelings, and they are just sorry for this, seeing Yuan Shirong sitting on the table sadly, and thought: "Anyway, Guo Jia was recommended to me by Yuan Shirong, and I also let him discuss Cao Peng for my lieutenant, he went to the mountains for me, and now I don't know whether he is alive or dead, it is likely that he has lost his life or died in the hands of the thief or died in the tiger's kiss, I can't help but say" that is, Qi Rong, sighed and said, "Although I and Junchang are the first time to meet, but at first sight, a few days ago when he volunteered to go to the mountains, I was very bold." , but he didn't expect his whereabouts to be unknown! If there really is three long and two short, it is me who mistakenly Junchang! ”

He summoned Li Dian, who was outside the court, and ordered: "Prepare a generous gift and send someone to Junchang's house" This is a settlement fee

Li Dian received the order and bowed to withdraw

Yuan Shirong sat in the hall, his hands clasped, his eyes closed on his back, and tears flowed down the corners of his eyes

Wen Chou comforted him and said: "Although I haven't found anyone from Junchang, and I haven't seen his body, the mountains are very big and there are many forests, maybe I just didn't find it." But it doesn't seem that something happened to Junchang, so don't be too sad."

Yuan Shirong shook his head slowly, choked up and said, "Junchang must be killed in the mountain!" It's not the lieutenant who mistook me, but I misunderstood him! Woe Junchang, woe Junchang! He covered his face with his sleeves and wept on the ground. While crying, he said, "Junchang! I recommended you to the lieutenant because I wanted to attach the lieutenant's tail with you to build the work of my husband, but now you have abandoned me, disappeared in the mountains and forests, and disappeared in Shiquan. Alas, Junchang! Since you have passed away, I am left alone, although the world is big, I am independent"

Yuan Shirong doesn't have a few close friends, and the most intimate friend is Guo Jia, otherwise he wouldn't have recommended Guo Jia to Wen Chou when he was made a lieutenant in the main book, but now Guo Jia has disappeared in the mountains because of his recommendation, thinking of this, how can he not be heartbroken? Losing a good friend. I lost a good friend, although it was afternoon at this time. The sun was shining outside the hall, but he was sad

Yuan Shirong's impression of Wen Chou is that he is strong and energetic, and at this moment, seeing him so sad, and even out of shape that he is lying on the ground and crying bitterly, Wen Chou can't help but feel sorry, and said in his heart: "No matter how strong a person is, there are times when the husband is in tears. Just because he didn't get to the sad place, he got up and left his seat, came to Yuan Shirong, helped him up, and said with relief, "Gongzai." Don't cry, I'll send more people to the mountains to look for it! No matter how long you need to look for it, you must see people when you are alive, and see corpses when you die, in short, until you find Junchang, how about it? ”

Yuan Shirong gradually stopped crying and said, "No need! ”

"No need?"

"Junchang is a person with strange festivals, he died in the mountains and forests today, and he is accompanied by a clear spring of rocks day and night, which can be regarded as the right place" Yuan Shirong wiped his face, pressed his chest, and said, "Lieutenant, eight days ago, Jun said that he was going to Xingxian, because of Junchang, it is important to delay the state affairs so far, I will wait for tomorrow morning to go to Xingxian."

Yuan Shirong said that Guo Jia is a person with strange festivals, in the eyes of Wen Chou, he is really a person with strange festivals, just grieved for Guo Jia to the point of gaffe, and immediately after recovering, he proposed to go to the county, not to abolish state affairs because of personal feelings, he can afford to put it down, and he is vigorous and resolute, which is admirable

Yuan's Rong is resolute, Wen Chou is not a mother-in-law, when he was familiar with Yuan's Rong, he saw that he had indeed recovered, so he patted his arm vigorously and responded: "Okay! ”

Early the next morning, Wen Chou and others went out of the city and county, in addition to Yuan Shirong and others, Li Xuan also accompanied them (hot book library debut:

Early in the morning, Wen Chou and others went out of the city and county, in addition to Yuan Shirong and others, Li Xuan also accompanied them

Yuanshi County is in the southernmost part of Changshan Country, and the rest of the counties are in the north of Yuanshi, so everyone goes out of the city from the north gate

The lieutenant's palace is in the west of the city, go out of the palace to the east, go to the cross street, and turn north

The scholars in Yuanshi County live in the north of the city and enter the north of the city, and the wide streets are sometimes seen by cars and horses, and most of the people who walk are either high-crowned Confucian clothes with broad sleeves, or embroidered clothes with sachets and swords, which are very different from the west and south of the city

Wen Chou is not only a micro-clothes travel, since he will not wear official clothes and ribbons, do not wear a crown, wrapped in a scarf, wear an ordinary coarse cloth black clothes, and insert a straight blade on the waist of the ring knife knife is a hundred refining good knives, the scabbard is an ordinary wooden Yuan Rong Xun Yu and so on are also rough clothes Changshan Guo Although the shoes from the Yuan family to the northernmost Zhending also have more than 200 miles, if you hike, let alone ten days, plus go to the mountains to the west to take a look, this back and forth is estimated not to come down for more than a month, Wen Chou does not have so much time, so although it is a micro service county, But he also brought a mount, his snow-stepping black horse was too conspicuous, and he didn't bring everyone to bring ordinary horses, because it was in the county, Wen Chou didn't want to ride a horse, and everyone walked on the side of the road

They were dressed in ordinary clothes, and they were walking on the side of the road, and no one noticed them by the cyclists

There are three miles in the north of the city, when he walked to the second mile, Yuan's Rong lightly "hey" Li Dian Wei walked in the front, Dian Wei fell last, Wen Chou Xun Yu Li Xuan and Yuan Rong Xing in the middle Wen Chou heard Yuan Rong's light voice, turned his face to follow his gaze, and saw that outside the second inner gate in the north of the city, a cart and a chariot were decorated luxuriously, but the most eye-catching thing was the horse, which was a red horse, like fire all over the body, without half a stray hair, seven or eight feet high from the hoof to the neck, and nearly a foot long from head to tail. But it's a rare rouge horse

The good horse of the ancient times is like a good car of later generations, a good horse walking on the road is very attractive to the attention of the audience, and generally speaking, there are several good horses in a county, who are these good horses, many people in the county also know that this red horse is a famous good horse in Yuanshi County, Yuanshi Rong looked at this horse, and said: "This is the horse of the Yang family, but how to stop here?" ”

"The Yang family?"

The Yang family that Yuan Shi Rong said at this time can only be the Yuan family's big tycoon Yang He said: "Although the Yang family is a powerful and powerful sect in this county, they have not earned money in the county, but have lived in the manor in the township for generations, and they usually go to the city. is also mostly his family's sons, nephews, and slaves, and it is rare to see his family's parents enter the city, but why did they come to the county today? ...... and parked the car here"

This red horse is the best horse of the Yang family, and the ten people who can use it to control it are the parents of the Yang family, that is, the patriarch

I heard Yuan Shirong say that this is the patriarch of the Yang family entering the city. Wen Chou paid more attention to it

A few days ago, he was a soldier of the county of Shati, and the tun chief who was killed was a guest of the Yang family, and many of the county soldiers and officers who were killed by the Shatai were people of the Yang family, although the Yang family did not make trouble because of this, but the more they did not make trouble, the more they seemed to be worried, and the family was a local famous surname of the Yuan family, and there were many slaves and guests in the family, and there were family soldiers who were raised, and there were backers in the county. It is a bit strange to act according to the way it used to be, and to be silent and unmoved now

It is already strange that there is no movement silently, and a few days ago, Yuan Shirong reported that the Yang family invited many big surnames in the county to a banquet, which is even more strange Wen Chou guessed at that time that the Yang family was probably trying to engage in a series and conspire against him

He glanced at the red horse a few times and said with a smile: "What a good horse, just looking at its appearance, it seems to be on par with my snow-stepping black horse!" "Smile and ask Yuan Shirong." Can the Qing family have such a good horse? ”

Yuan Shi Rong shook his head and said, "Don't talk about the Rong family. Even the whole county can't find a few horses that can compare with the Yang family's horse."

"Do you like it?"

"Who doesn't love such a good horse?"

Wen Chou smiled, no longer continued the topic, and instead looked at the red horse diagonally opposite the second lane in the north of the city, where the cart was parked, and said, "I remember that the Leshi of this county lived in this place, right?" ”

"Exactly"

There are many residents here. The surname is only Le's, which is worthy of the Yang family's parents, and only Lejia is thought to come

Wen Chou asked: "The relationship between the Yang family and the Lejia is very good?" ”

"The second son of the Yang family is a good friend, and he has many friends with the sons and nephews of the big families in the county, not only the Lejia. Don't hide it from the lieutenant, he also has a good relationship with Rong's brothers and nephews."

"What about the parents of the Yang family and the parents of the Lejia?"

"They haven't heard of much contact."

While speaking, everyone had already walked through the second Limen Xun Yu looked back as he walked, and suddenly said, "Is the person who came out the head of the Yang family?" ”

The people turned their eyes to look, and saw several people coming out of the middle, one of them was more than fifty years old, not tall, with thin eyebrows, and beards under his chin, and walked in front and followed two or three people behind him, one of whom followed him closely, bent sideways, as if to send him out

Yuan Shirong nodded and said, "That's right, the one at the front is" The person who watched the Yang family's family come out sighed lightly and said, "Weird! ”

Li Xuan was also full of surprise, and said, "Isn't the person who sent him out of the county Lang Guan?" ”

The vassal states are the same as the imperial court, and there are doctors and officials in the country, but they do not favor these officials and are all subordinate officials of Lang Zhongling

Wen Chou suddenly remembered that Lang Zhongling Huang Ming also lived here

Xun Yu said hesitantly: "The parents of the Yang family didn't come to find Lejia, but to see Lang Zhongling."

Wen Chou frowned, and said in his heart: "The parents of the Yang family held a banquet before, and I heard that Yuan Shirong said that in addition to inviting some big surnames in the county, he also invited Huang Ming, but what did he want to do when he met him to see Huang Ming today?" Do you want to encourage Huang Ming to go against me? ”

Realistically speaking, although Huang Ming is the son of Duan Jue in the middle of the journey, but this person is not bad, he has never done anything to mutilate the people, after Wen Chou came, he was also very enthusiastic about Wen Chou Wen Chou is very unwilling to stand on the opposite side of him The parents of the Yang family are engaged in tandem in private, if the series is only some of the local surnames of the Yuan family, Wen Chou doesn't care too much, he has now controlled the county soldiers and city defenses, and there are more than 2,000 righteous infantry riders loyal to him under his command. But if Huang Ming is involved, it will be different, his father is a popular mid-range in the court

The parents of the Yang family invited Huang Ming to a banquet and came to visit Huang Ming's house, which could not but arouse Wen Chou's jǐng feeling

But although there is a jǐng jue, then again, Wen Chou is also helpless about this Huang Ming is a eunuch nephew, he can't take the initiative to associate with Huang Ming, and with Duan Qi as Huang Ming's backstage, he can't move Huang Ming for no reason

He pondered for a long time, sighed, and said in his heart: "Is it so difficult to do something practical?" ”

The hardest thing in the world is to do practical things, especially when there are long-standing shortcomings. If you want to do practical things, you have to be genuine, and if you do something real, it will inevitably affect the interests of some people or groups, and if the interests of these people or groups are affected, they will find you trouble

Wen Chou has been doing some practical things for several years now. has also experienced setbacks, and the difficulty of doing practical things has long been clear to him, in fact, he is not sighing about the difficulty of doing things, the more difficult it is, the more accomplished he has, he sighs that the Yang family is about to rise up if the Yang family is not long-sighted, but your Yang family is still looking for trouble, isn't this adding to the chaos?

Yuan Shirong thought that Wen Chou was worried that the Yang family and Huang Ming might collude together to oppose him, so he turned his face and glanced at the Yang family's parents who were boarding the car, and turned his head. Ran said: "Although the Yang family is called the big surname of my Yuan clan, it is just that some slaves are raised in some fields and villages in the clan, which are neither famous clans nor generations of hairpins, and the people who rely on them are nothing more than a few county officials and lieutenants, why should they worry about this Yang family?" When Xingxian returns, if the lieutenant allows it, and depends on Rong's means, how to clean up his house! ”

Li Xuan said: "The Yang family is easy to deal with. If so? ”

"It's like rotting wood growing on bad soil, and there is no Yang family to make trouble from it. And then there will be no rotting wood."

Huang Ming is a foreigner, the Yang family is a local, and after Wen Chou came, Huang Ming was very enthusiastic about Wen Chou, without the Yang family mixing it, Huang Ming would not be a problem

Wen Chou smiled. said: "The Yang family is the surname of the county, I came to Changshan Country as an official, and I am about to use the power of the surnames,......" He paused, looking at Yuan Shirong. smiled, "How can you make trouble for no reason and 'clean up' the Yang family?" Gongzai, don't say this again, if it spreads, I am afraid that the gentry and strong sect of the country will misunderstand me."

Yuan Shirong comprehended, and said in his heart: "It's not okay to 'clean up' for no reason, isn't it okay to 'have a reason'?" But he didn't say much, and nodded his head as promised

As they spoke, the head of the Yang family had already said goodbye to the man who sent him out, sat in the car, and the royal husband turned around on horseback, drove onto the street, and soon passed Wen Chou and the others, and went out of the city

Wen Chou and the others watched the cart go away

Seeing the red horse driving the car, he sighed again, and praised again: "It's such a good horse!" ”

With the flow of people out to the outside of the city, the cool breeze blows, it is very pleasant to look at the distant mountains on the right, the fields and trees nearby, Wen Chou takes the lead, everyone turns over and gets on the horse, and goes north along the official road

Wen Chou and the others left the county seat of Yuanshi, got on their horses and walked north along the official road

Zhao Chen's counties as early as the former Han Dynasty is "thin people", now after the rebellion of Montenegro, "land" is more and more "thin", and "people" is not "many" in the county town is good, although compared to the past, but the street people come and go, it can still be called lively, this out of the county, the farther away from the city, the more I feel that the countryside is depressed, sometimes even seven or eight miles of road, there is not a pedestrian on the official road, looking forward and looking left and right, only to see the distant trees in the autumn wind, the grass grows on the field, sometimes the road meets the township, I saw that the inside and outside of the door were empty, and I listened to them with my ears, and I didn't hear the sound of chickens and dogs

Such a scene, although Wen Chou had seen it once when he came to Yuan's office, he still couldn't help but sigh again and again when he saw it again

Yuan Shirong also sighed very much, and said: "Although the county is a small county with a small population, but because of the steep mountains in the west of the country, Mintai half lives in the east of the country, and there are a lot of pedestrians and merchants who come and go on the official road, but now it is empty, and it is suspected that it is not the world."

The population of Changshan country is not much, there are about 30,000 households before the chaos in Montenegro, and the population is less than 200,000, compared with Yingchuan Runan, these large counties with many people, the population of less than 200,000 is indeed very small, but because of the steep and flat terrain in the west of Changshan country, the five counties of Changshan country are all in the east of the country, almost distributed in a straight line, therefore, except for a few mountain people, most of the people of Changshan country live in the east of the country, in other words, that is, Most of the nearly 200,000 people in Changshan Country are distributed on both sides of the official road of more than 200 miles from Yuanshi County to Zhending County, and more than 100,000 people live in a radius of more than 200 miles

In addition, this official road is a section of the Imperial North-South Avenue "Yuan's Guangyang Road", usually not only the people of Changshan County come and go on the road, but also a large number of merchants or from the north or from the south, from the south to the north, driving horses and cars, endlessly, as Yuan Shirong said, "there are a lot of pedestrians and merchants coming and going", it is very bustling and lively, but now it is deserted, and the cars and horses are sparse

In fact, although the land of Changshan Country is not as good as the inner county, it is not thin and explosive, and it is not thin after generations of ancestors of the pre-Qin and Qin dynasties to rectify and work, and now at least the land in the eastern part of Changshan Country has been very suitable for cultivation The land is suitable for cultivation, and the climate and rainfall of Changshan Country are also good, the climate is mild and rainfall is abundant, when there is no disaster in previous years, every summer harvest and autumn harvest, walk on the official road, look around, The eyes are full of heavy ears of wheat undulating with the wind, golden and lovely, but now there are foxes and rabbits in the wild, almost barren

Li Xuanyao pointed to Daodong and said, "Lieutenant, I remember the last time I passed by here, Jun said that the ditch was built by Lu Shuling?" ”

Lu Shuling, the name of Pi, Fufeng Pingling people, is the last monarch of the Lu State during the Warring States Period, after Lu Qinggong, the famous Confucianism during the reign of Emperor Zhang, the Kanto number is "the revival of Lu Shuling in the Five Classics", the first year of Yuan and the first year was worshiped as Zhao Xiang, six years in office, repaired irrigation, built a lot of ditches on the basis of the old canal of the previous generation, diverted water to irrigate the fields, made the people rich, loved by the people

Wen Chou turned his eyes to it, on the field a few miles to the east of the road, a ditch meandered south among the wild trees and weeds in the bleak world, and flowed to the north to Changshan Country There are four larger rivers from north to south, the northernmost river is in the south of Zhending Jiumen, and the southernmost river is in the north of Yuanshi, all of which originate from the mainland Ze in the territory of Julu County in the east, and the water of this ditch that flows into the mountains in the west is drawn from the southernmost river, the ditch is very wide, the water in the canal is sufficient, and it is several miles away, and it can be seen sparkling from the horse

Wen Chou said: "I am also speculating, but because I see that compared with the old canal, the embankments on both sides of the canal are more neat, and the willow trees planted on both sides of the canal are also relatively green and strong, not as lush as the trees on both sides of the old canal, so I guess it should be one of the canals built by Lu Shuling for Zhao Xiangshi" asked Yuan Shirong, "Gongzai, am I guessing right?" ”

Yuan Shirong nodded and said: "Lieutenant God, I know that this canal was indeed repaired by Lu Xiang when he was in office."

Xun Yu sighed: "Such a good canal and such a good field should be a paradise on earth, but now it is so cold!" Lieutenant, this field is overgrown with weeds and bushes, if it is not rectified immediately, I am afraid that next year's Chun planting will be delayed" suggested Wen Chou, "Jun should pass on the letter to the gentleman, and ask him to organize the villagers to weed and reclaim the field, so as to prepare for the cultivation of the Chun in the Ming Dynasty"

"This place is not far from the Yuanshi, Xiangjun should not know that the reason why the people did not organize the people to remove weeds and shrubs should be due to the sudden decline in the population of the war-torn country and the shortage of manpower."

"Although there are many people who died in the chaos, many of them have fled, and now Jizhou has been decided, Changshan has been safe, and the prime minister should post a list to pass the bill, so that the commanders of each county will recruit the dead to resettle the displaced people, as long as the fleeing people come back, plus the displaced people who have been resettled, the people lost in the war will be able to recover slowly, and with the people's mouth, there is no need to worry about the shortage of manpower."

"What Wen Ruo said is that after I return from the county, I will pass on the letter to Xiangjun, and ask him to refer to it" Wen Chou paused, and said, "Recruit the deceased to settle the displaced people to cultivate the land and prepare for planting, these are all civil, and it is okay to pass the text to Xiangjun, and I will wait for less to say."

If Wen Chou wants Changshan to expand his military strength, he must get the support of Minister Li Jin, and even if he can't get support, he can't make Li Jin oppose him, so he has always been very respectful to Li Jin, and he has always been very careful not to participate in civil affairs

Xun Yu, Yuan, Rong and others promised

The five counties of Changshan country from north to south are: Zhending Jiumen Luancheng Shiyi Yuanshi Shiyi is in the northeast of Yuanshi, about thirty or forty miles apart, Wenchou and so on are Yuanshi County in the morning, all the way through the township Jingting, not only carefully observe the local people's conditions, when you see the high mountains and cliffs in the west or the road meets the river danger, you will also run to the nearest place to watch carefully, recorded on the paper by Li Xuan's description, the speed is not, to the twilight of the ri, there are more than 20 miles away from Zhending, I found a wild pavilion nearby, rested for a night, and set off again before dawn the next day

……

After walking for more than ten miles, the sky was bright, and looking ahead, the county seat of Shiyi was faintly visible

Probably because it is close to the county seat, there are more and more pedestrians of Taoists

From time to time, you can see groups of ragged people supporting the old and the young, or staggering on the road, or sitting on the side of the road to rest, or scattered on the field, bending their heads and hooking their waists, carefully looking for whether there is food to eat, they met a lot of homeless people when they just left Yuanshi County, and then gradually fewer, and now there are more (to be continued.) )