Liu Xiu took Xu Yu, Zhang Fei and Tang Yingzi all the way through the state and county, and rushed back to Zhuo County in only eight days. The three of them were okay, Tang Yingzi had been on the horse for eight days, and he really suffered a lot, and his whole face was thin. But despite this, she still doesn't regret it, Liu Xiu is not in Luoyang, she refuses to stay in Luoyang no matter what, it's not entirely because of Zhang Jiao, but she feels that except for Liu Xiu, no one can spoil her so much.

Standing in front of the remnants of the ashes, Liu Xiu's face was so gloomy that he was about to drip. He asked Liu Bei to come back to pick up Ah Weng and Ah Mu, who knew that Liu Bei brought him back a bad news: their house ran out of water, and the whole yard burned to a white ground. Ah Weng has not yet returned, and his whereabouts are unknown, and Zhuo Ling Gongsun Zan found the bones of a woman in the fire, which should be his mother Tang from the costume.

When Liu Xiu heard the news, his eyes suddenly went dark, and he almost fainted. He only had time to ask for a leave in the palace, and said goodbye to Wang Chu, so he took Zhang Fei and others to rush back to Zhuo County day and night. Along the way, he kept reassuring himself that maybe it was just a dream, but when he saw this piece of ashes, his last glimmer of hope was shattered.

He only lived here for a few months, far less than the time in Luoyang, but as soon as he heard the news, he immediately rushed back, although when he left, he had planned never to come back, for which he also specially kowtowed to his mother three times, but he never thought that it would be the last time to see his mother, he originally planned to stand in Luoyang and take his mother to Luoyang, and he also wrote a letter to Weng, asking him to leave Zhuo County with his mother as soon as he came back.

The result in front of him was something he didn't expect.

Liu Xiu was like an angry lion, rummaging back and forth in the fire, hoping to find some clues, but he got nothing but dust. Liu Bei said that Gongsun Chan had already brought someone to check, and if there was anything left, it should be in Gongsun Chan's hands.

Liu Xiu didn't say a word, went straight to the county temple, rushed to the door, turned over and dismounted, threw the reins to Zhang Fei, and the people rushed into the county temple gate. The county guard who guarded the gate was startled, and hurriedly stepped forward to intercept them, and with a flick of Liu Xiu's hand, he pushed them aside and went straight inside.

The county guard was pushed by him a lot, but he didn't even cry out for pain, and ran to the drum and picked up the drumstick to prepare to call the police. Zhang Fei stretched out his hand, snatched the drumstick in his hand, shook his head and said, "Don't be nervous, we are friends of Lord Gongsun, and I am Zhang Fei of the Zhang family." ”

The county pawn took a look, and then realized that the dusty young man in front of him was indeed the son of the rich Zhang Butcher in the county, and then he breathed a long sigh of relief. Just as they were talking, Liu Xiu had already broken into the hall, Gongsun Zhan was handling official business, and when he saw someone breaking in, his face sank, and he was about to get angry, but he found that it was Liu Xiu, and hurriedly got up to greet him.

"Bo Jue, is that corpse my mother?" Liu Xiu couldn't say hello and asked urgently.

"Deran, don't worry." Gongsun Zhan waved his hand, signaled all the subordinates of the hall to retreat, regardless of Liu Xiu's objection, pulled him to the inner room, closed the door smoothly, and raised his hand to interrupt Liu Xiu's words: "Deran, you sit down first and listen to me." ”

Liu Xiu saw that he looked weird, so he had to sit down patiently. Gongsun Zhan asked people to arrange for Zhang Fei and the others to rest, brought a pot of wine, sat down opposite Liu Xiu, poured a glass of wine for Liu Xiu, and then lowered his voice and said: "Deran, I asked you to rush back, because there are some things that can only be said to you in person." ”

Liu Xiu was surprised: "What words?" ”

Gongsun Chan told him not to worry, and then told him what had happened. After he received Li Kui's report, as soon as he heard that it was Liu Xiu's family who went to the water, he immediately rushed over, but after some inspection, he found some suspicious points. At that time, he didn't pay attention, but he asked people to investigate the fire site and bring back the recognizable things, in fact, most of these things were useless except for some bronze and iron tools, and nothing could be found at all.

Three days later, when he received an official letter from Situ Mansion from Taishou Mansion, asking him to trace the ancestors of Liu Xiu's family, he found a problem.

Liu Yuanqi is not from Zhuo County, he moved from Fan County, Dongjun County 20 years ago, and the person who issued the official document approving the relocation was Liu Bei's grandfather, Liu Xiong. Gongsun Zhan didn't care at first, he heard that Li Ding and Liu Xiong were old friends, so he mentioned this to him, and after Li Ding heard it, he also mentioned one thing: Liu Xiong died in Fan Lingren of Dongjun, and the cause of death was also because of a water incident, but that time it was the county temple that went to the water, Liu Xiong was afraid of becoming ill, and died within a few days.

Gongsun Zhan was hearted, and rushed to Liu Bei's house, asked Liu Bei's aunt about the time of Liu Xiong's death, and found that it was exactly two days after signing this official document. The more Gongsun Chan thought about it, the more he felt that something was wrong, and sent his cronies to Fanjun to investigate, and found that as Li Ding said, Liu Xiong did die in office because of the county temple, and all the household registration files at that time were burned.

Speaking of this, Gongsun Chan was silent and looked at Liu Xiu in a daze. Liu Xiu held his breath, he tasted the meaning of Gongsun Zhan's silence, it was obvious that there was probably some kind of connection between the two water incidents, and the identity of the father Liu Yuanqi was also a mystery, Fan County's file was gone, where he moved to Fan County from, and when he moved there, it is now impossible to verify. If you want to check, there is only one way, and that is to go to Fan County and ask if there is a person named Liu Yuanqi who lived here twenty years ago.

But what if Liu Yuanqi didn't call it that originally? If he had changed his name before he moved, and the file on the name change had also been burned, there was no way to find out what his original name was. Even if you don't change your name, it's not easy to check, there are too many people with the same name and surname, and there have been many displaced people in recent years, and there are many people who don't match their household registration, who can find out clearly.

No matter what his original name was or where he was from, it was almost certain that there was something wrong with his identity. Thinking that he has to go out for a few months every year, and this time last year, he didn't return for a year, Liu Xiu almost didn't have to doubt that this water incident must be because he wanted to hide something, and the direct reason may be that he knew in advance that someone would come to check his household registration.

In this way, he may have been in Luoyang some time ago, since he was in Luoyang, why didn't he show up?

Liu Xiubai was puzzled.

"I didn't write about this in the official document, I only reported an accident, and as for the whereabouts of your parents, I wrote an unknown." Gongsun Zhan leaned over and patted Liu Xiu's hand: "I only tell you one person about this matter, and no one else knows, even Xuande, I didn't say it." Your fame in Luoyang is the time when your career is smooth, and if you are affected by this incident, you may never have such a good opportunity again in your life. ”

Liu Xiu was grateful, of course he knew the key to this. Not to mention anything else, if Gongsun Chan now confirms that the body in the fire is his grandmother, then he will have to go home to mourn. And written as missing, it is a very vague word, the person is gone, but not death, so there is no need to mourn, and there will be no hidden dangers, when they appear again, it can be explained. In recent years, the situation of displaced people has been serious, and there are many people who have moved without the consent of the government.

"You take me to see the relics."

Gongsun Zhan got up and took him to the evidence room, where Liu Xiu had a good examination, but he didn't see the heavy pillow, so he was relieved. That pillow doesn't look like something that can be burned out, even if it burns out, it can't be left at all, since this thing is not there, there is only one possibility: this fire was put by Daddy, and he took Grandma and the pillow away.

As for why he set the fire, Liu Xiu couldn't be sure for the time being, but he thought that there was nothing more than something that he couldn't see, so he simply burned it to the ground. What he was strange about was that Situ Fu sent a document to Zhuo County to check his household registration, but he didn't know about it, so how did his father know?

Anyway, Dad and Grandma are not dead, for Liu Xiu, this is enough, as for whether he is a thief who kills people and causes trouble, or some heinous fugitive, he doesn't care. All he remembered was how the couple cared for him and took care of him in the months he woke. He believed that he was their only son, and that they would always come to him as long as Daddy was alive, and that if he didn't come now, it was just that the time had not come.

In that case, I'll just wait.

After thinking about it, Liu Xiu suddenly relaxed, but he didn't dare to let Gongsun Chan see the flaws, and he had to pretend to be very sad, and he didn't give any hints about Gongsun Chan's doubts. Gongsun Zhan also realized that when he saw that Liu Xiu didn't say anything, he stopped mentioning this matter, and instead mentioned the current problems in Zhuo County.

In the battle of Ningcheng last year, Liu Xiu killed Huaizong in Liangqu Mountain, and the Xianbei people were ashamed and humiliated, and they almost never stopped encroaching on Shanggu in the first half of the year. Although Xia Yu and Lu Min went all out, Zhang He, Zhao Yun and the soldiers they brought with Lu Min were also very strong in combat effectiveness, but the results of each battle were still not ideal, the Xianbei people were too fast, they came and went, and Lu Min and Xia Yu couldn't keep up at all.

In this case, of course, Shanggu could not be tuntian, those displaced people were resettled in Guangyang, Zhuo County, it was a good thing to have a population, but the pressure on food was also very great, although Zhuo County did not have as heavy a drought as Luoyang, but the harvest was also greatly affected, this winter was very difficult, Gongsun Zhan was so anxious that he was about to get angry.

Liu Xiu smiled and comforted him, you don't have to worry, my senior brother has already told me about this, I have arranged a batch of grain to be shipped over, and it should arrive in the next few days. Gongsun Chan was overjoyed when he heard this, and discussed with Liu Xiu that he should intercept a little bit to save him in an emergency. Liu Xiu accepted such a big favor from him, of course, he couldn't not give no face at all. He agreed, and rushed to Zhang's house, asked Butcher Zhang to help, and then rushed to Taogu to see Mao Qin, and asked him to contact Zhu Mao to help Gongsun Zhan solve his urgent needs.

As soon as Zhang Butcher heard that his son had become an official in Luoyang, although he did not pay a fortune, but everything was Liu Xiu in the back, he was grateful, and he was grateful for Liu Xiu's face, he also wanted to help, as for Mao Qin, Mao Zong had already returned home, he had already funded some grain before, but at that time he did not expect that Liu Xiu had arranged for the grain to be shipped over, and his own family still had some reserves, so the quantity was limited, and now he knew that a large amount of grain was about to arrive, so he prepared a batch to send to Gongsun Zhan.

With their strong support, Gongsun Chan finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Liu Xiu was not idle, he sent people to the beach to wait for the cargo ships from Jiaozhou, and discussed with Zhang Butcher and Mao Qin, after these rice arrived, I don't want these ships to go back empty, you see what good things can be brought to Luoyang to sell, hurry up and prepare. Zhang Butcher and Mao Qin were overjoyed, and immediately began to collect goods, they thought about it, and felt that the best thing in Youzhou was war horses and mink furs, so they found the big businessman Su Shuang and others, and the two sides hit it off and prepared all kinds of goods as quickly as possible.

Five days later, ten cargo ships loaded with Jiaozhou rice arrived in Bohai Bay, and Liu Xiu immediately rushed to the beach with people to pick up the goods. A middle-aged man named Song Liu greeted him, and he told Liu Xiu that this time Song Qi made a lot of money selling rice in Jiaozhou, so he gave Liu Xiu some more dividends, all of which were converted into rice and transported to Youzhou for him, plus his principal, a total of 1.2 million stone grain, in addition to some Jiaozhou jewelry and goods brought by Hu Shang, these were followed by the way, and the cost of taking the boat was regarded as the bonus of the sailor on board.

Liu Xiu knew that Song Qi must have made a lot of money this time, there were many merchants in Jiaozhou, and jewelry and the like were very cheap, so Song Qi had no reason not to make a profit, otherwise he would not have given him an extra thousand gold dividends. He didn't bother to ask about these things, and transported 200,000 stones to Zhuojun and handed them over to Gongsun Zhan, Mao Qin and others, and the remaining 1 million stones were all transferred to small boats, put into Gushui, and transported to Shanggu Fuyang and Ningcheng. Just in case, he took out the seal ribbon in the waiter, found the Youzhou Thorn History, and asked him to send someone to escort the whole process.

Coincidentally, the current Youzhou Thorn History is Guo Xun who was beaten by him and his nose was swollen and swollen, seeing him, Guo Xun was very embarrassed, but looking at his seal, he didn't dare to say anything, although he knew that this was illegal, but he also knew that if these grains were robbed, he had just spent a lot of money to get the Youzhou Thorn History would be in the soup again.

Lu Min, who was anxious about food, was so happy that his eyebrows danced, he took Zhao Yun and Zhang He, and personally rushed to Juyong Pass to greet Liu Xiu, and after meeting, everyone was very affectionate. Xie Guanglong, the original captain of Juyong Guan, has been transferred to Xia Yu of Ningcheng because of his meritorious service, and Zhao Yi took over as the captain of Guandu, which can be regarded as a promotion. People are in good spirits when they are happy, and they know that there are thousands of cups of wine every time, and they naturally want to drink it after a long time. Zhang He found an opportunity to pull Liu Xiu aside, and sincerely expressed his gratitude, he had just received the news that his subordinate brother Zhang Chao had been released as Yongchang Taishou, and officially stepped into the ranks of 2,000 stones, which was the first 2,000 stones of their Zhang family in the river in recent decades.

Liu Xiu smiled and said with a humble smile: "That's your brother's own ability, and it has nothing to do with me." Jun Yi, your ability is no less than his, follow my senior brother well, and you will definitely be able to achieve 2,000 stones in the future. ”

Zhang He was grateful and thanked him again.

After the banquet, Liu Xiu and Lu Min lay on the battlements of Juyongguan, looking at the rolling mountains and blowing the cold mountain wind, but they didn't feel cold at all. Lu Min was a little excited, and he patted Liu Xiu's shoulder vigorously: "Deran, I can have today because of you." ”

Liu Xiu hurriedly humbled himself.

Lu Min went on to say to himself, I can get the official because of your protégé of the Son of Heaven; I can sit firmly in the position of Fuyang Taishou because of the two cadres Zhang He and Zhao Yun you recommended, and there are also Wuhuan people in Baishan to help, after the last battle of Ningcheng, you gave Lou Lu the credit for killing Huai Zong, and successfully divided the Wuhuan and Xianbei people in Shanggu, and now the old guy in Nanlou is very obedient, how many soldiers and how many soldiers, and he will never dare to be perfunctory, otherwise without the support of the Han people, he will first become the target of Tanshi Huai's revenge; The last thing, of course, is this million stone grain, to be honest, I didn't expect you to really get a million stone grain, you can have half of it, I thank God, I never thought you really did it.

Liu Xiu laughed, I didn't give it for nothing, all of it had to be counted as money, and I was also in business.

Lu Min also laughed, as long as he could solve his problem, he didn't care if Liu Xiu was in business or not, he couldn't let Liu Xiubai give him food. Lu Min immediately asked about Liu Xiu's family, and Liu Xiu said lightly that the water was an accident, but Ah Weng and Ah Mu may have gone to Luoyang to find him, and they were not at home at the time, so there was nothing to lose. Lu Min listened to it, and then he was relieved.

Lu Min finally mentioned the war in northern Xinjiang. Xia Yu was very angry by the Xianbei people, and he wrote to ask the imperial court to send troops to attack Xianbei, but there was no reply after the letter arrived at the Taiwei Mansion. Now Xia Yu is very unhappy, he seems to be a little underestimated, are you going to Ningcheng?

Liu Xiu knew this matter better than Lu Min, and he was obliged to rush directly to Ningcheng.

Seeing Liu Xiu and the 100,000 stone grains he escorted, Xia Yu finally saw some smiles on his face, but as soon as he mentioned the war in Northern Xinjiang, his good mood disappeared. This year, he was bullied by Tanshi Huai miserably, and the Xianbei people didn't go anywhere, they had to come to Shanggu every time, especially his Ningcheng, and they had to fight every month. Not only the Xianbei people came, but the people of the Dou family also came every time, fortunately, they attracted the lesson of the last time, and never besieged the city, every time they either attacked quickly and ran away as soon as they fought, or they just wanted to lure Xia Yu out of the city to fight.

But this made Xia Yu even more angry.

"What's going on with the imperial court? Got a Zhang Huan to be a lieutenant, he read a lot, and he had to stroke at every turn, he said it beautifully, but what's the use of talking about it in Luoyang, why don't you come here to caress it? Xia Yu said in a strange manner: "It's not that he hasn't been in Northern Xinjiang, doesn't he know what kind of Xianbei people are?" ”

Liu Xiu smiled bitterly and told him about the situation in Luoyang. This year, there has been a drought for nearly a year, there is no harvest, and the people of Luoyang have begun to flee the famine. The reward for the last victory in Ningcheng was still the private money of the Son of Heaven, don't you know? If you don't have enough food, do you dare to get out of the jam? If you win the battle and have no reward, will your men agree?

Xia Yu had a calm face and said with some irritability: "Then what else should I do as a captain of Wuhuan Guard?" ”

"Don't worry, aren't you trying to figure out a way to solve the problem?" Liu Xiu comforted: "You can rest assured, as long as the relationship in Luoyang is straightened out, the natural disasters in the past few years have been alleviated, and with a certain amount of savings, the Son of Heaven will definitely let you send troops." Why let Zhang Huan be the captain, instead of Duan Gong as the captain, because he doesn't have the strength to fight now, even if Duan Gong is the captain, he can't fight empty-handed, right? When he fought Dongqiang, Emperor Xiaohuan prepared enough money for him to do it.

Xia Yu let out a long sigh after a long time: "These families are moral gentlemen on the surface, but they are actually more hateful than eunuchs. ”

Liu Xiu said with a smile: "Don't be in a hurry, the Son of Heaven is still young, and he still has courage, and now the situation in Luoyang is also improving step by step, it shouldn't take a few years for you to sweep Mobei." ”

Xia Yu barely squeezed out a smile, but he was not happy because of Liu Xiu's comfort, he was worried, sighed for a long time, and didn't know whether he couldn't start the war for the time being and was unhappy, or felt that the beautiful vision described by Liu Xiu had little chance of being realized.

After appeasing Xia Yu, Liu Xiu returned to Fuyang. The things that should be done have been done, and he is not in a hurry to return to Luoyang, in fact, he feels that it may be better for him to leave Luoyang for a while, first, he needs to think about which direction to go next, and secondly, he also wants to see how the situation in Luoyang will develop. Everything he can do has been done, and it seems that the effect is not bad at the moment, but his biggest question has not been solved, he wants to see what kind of person the Son of Heaven is.

In this kind of [***] era, although it is impossible for the Son of Heaven to govern the country alone, it is easy for him to corrupt the country. Just like in a dangerous environment, it is not easy for a person to survive, but it is very simple for him to commit suicide. He also knew that he couldn't do without the scholars, without the help of the scholars, only relying on those eunuchs, he couldn't govern such a huge empire, but he still initiated the party, if the last time was because he was still young and didn't know the stakes, then now that he is an adult, he has the ability to judge right and wrong, can he control his emotions in the face of the surging civil discussion of the scholars?

From Liu Xiu's point of view, he did not want to turn all scholars into obedient people, on the contrary, he felt that scholars should have the consciousness and ability to criticize, and that intellectuals with the ability to read and think are the hope of the nation. Liu Xiu only objected to the kind of criticism of scholars out of righteous indignation or irrationality, and that kind of criticism had no positive significance.

The purpose of running the Ta Kung Pao is to put the criticism of the scholars on the table, so that they can be more calm in front of the black and white letters, and not to speak irresponsibly. There are two results of this, one is that Ta Kung Pao becomes the mouthpiece of the Son of Heaven, which loses the meaning of running a newspaper, and the other is to insist on being a position for the expression of public opinion. Liu Xiu asked Lu Zhi to be the chief writer of the Tai Kung Pao, hoping to have a second result, but he clearly knew that this second path would clash with the Son of Heaven sooner or later.

At that time, the attitude of the Son of Heaven is very important. Whether he can tolerate the existence of different voices, whether he can accept criticism rationally, and even tolerate scholars at a certain level determines to some extent which direction Liu Xiu will take next.

Mencius said that the people are noble and the monarch is light, and the society is secondary. Although Zhao Qi, who has a very deep study of Mencius, said that this sentence was not what Liu Xiu understood, Liu Xiu didn't care what Mencius said, he only did what he thought he did.

If this son of heaven is not qualified, then change it.

(To be continued)