After staying at home for another three days, Bai Minghe left Meixian County and boarded the boat again from the Weishui Wharf in Xi'an Province. Go straight to Hepu County.

Bai Minglu's Yin Prison's voucher was given out, and the one that Bai Minghe handed over to Shen Xiong, in the name of Bai Minghe, gave five hundred taels of silver as a thanks, and then stayed in the Bai family in Guanzhong.

Then he left another 800 taels of silver as a contribution to the construction of the ancestral hall and three rooms.

Bai Minghe left home and brought thirteen children of the Bai family, all of whom were not good at studying and liked to dance knives and guns since childhood.

The only person who is not in the plan is Bai Yinglan.

Bai Yinglan, who is only four and a half years old. If Bai Minghe doesn't bring Bai Yinglan out, Bai Yinglan won't eat. What's even stricter is that Zhu Jianshen stood by the well, crying tears, although he didn't say anything. Bai Minghe didn't dare to refuse anymore, if something happened to this little guy, the Bai family didn't have to save zài.

It took only a dozen days for the white crane to travel from the capital to Xi'an, which represents the development of Caoyun.

From Xi'an to Hepu County, take the waterway first, and it only takes more than ten days to get to Guilin, and it is less than one-tenth of the total road from Guilin to Hepu County, but it takes nearly a month for the white crane to walk.

The more you walk, the more desolate it becomes, and the more you go, the more you feel a sense of despair.

It seems that it really seems to have walked into a deserted place.

In the last two days of the journey, there were only two villages that Shirakawaru saw. The two villages together have less than a hundred people, and none of them are young and strong.

Walking further south, I finally saw the county seat of Hepu County.

There was not much life in the entire county, but many young people fled as if they saw the team on Bai Minghe's side. Entering the county seat, anyone who saw the team of white cranes on the street, regardless of age or old, had a reaction and fled.

The county seat, which was originally ten rooms and nine empty, left a few shops pù, also closed quickly.

Standing in front of the main gate of the county government, looking at the empty county office, the hearts of Wu Bin and others had sunk to the bottom and were cold.

Bai Minghe didn't react much, looked at the dilapidated county office, and asked very softly: "Did the people sent out to inquire about the news come to report?" ”

"Seeing us enter the city, at least a few people should come over quickly!" Shen Xiong replied beside him.

Bai Minghe did not answer, but stepped into the county office.

There are blood stains on the county office, and a pillar has been broken, and if it is not repaired, this main hall will definitely collapse. Du Shuangyu checked back and forth, and when he came back, he said: "Lord Bai, this county government has been empty for at least a few months, and there is no trace of fighting. The bloodstains on the main hall are supposed to have been left by years of torture. No one was found. ”

Bai Minghe nodded: "Arrange a few people to find the file." ”

"Yes!" Du Shuangyu actually volunteered to be a subordinate to Bai Minghe, and personally brought a few scribes from Jinyi Wei to the yamen. The two brothers Yang Xin and Yang Yi hugged their fists: "Lord Bai, I'm afraid there are no county guards in this county, and our brothers will take over the city defense." Do we occupy the previous barracks or not! ”

"Occupy it, and count it by the way."

The two Yang Xin brothers also left with people, he had two hundred soldiers and horses from the five cities of the original capital, and it was not a problem to take over such a small county town.

Wu Bin took two hundred brocade sweatshirts, as well as craftsmen and palace maids who came with him, and went to find an open space outside the city to camp first, but fortunately, the team had not yet entered the city, and now they don't have to run back and forth.

Bai Minghe stood in the county office, looking at the plaque hanging high in the mirror.

"Lord Bai, two spies are back." Shen Xiong brought two people in, and at Shen Xiong's signal, one of them stepped forward to report: "My lord, the county seat is already ten rooms and nine empty. The five major households in the county were all killed or fled under last year's riots. Because the county seat is dilapidated, the people of the county town have also fled! ”

"You say, ten rooms and nine empty?" Bai Minghe asked.

"Yes!" The sergeant bowed: "Because the lord came with soldiers and horses, and the rest of the people also fled." ”

Hahaha! Bai Minghe laughed: "What kind of bastard is this, is it that the people are afraid of the officers and soldiers, or the officers and soldiers are like bandits." ”

"If you go back to your lordship, this time the matter is suppressed by the prefect of Lianzhou, and in fact it is already a civil uprising. Therefore, it is normal for the people to be afraid of officers and soldiers. Because at the time of the civil uprising, two of the five large families had already died. The other three families were able to escape, but they still spent a lot of money to hire a servant chief to rescue them. ”

"Desperate?" The white crane was very surprised.

"Yes. However, as far as the subordinates investigated, there are some hidden secrets. A family was originally thin, and the whole family had only six people, so they hid in the cellar in advance for fear of the impact of the rioters, and all of them were suffocated to death. The other family, the maiden family of the concubine of the governor of Qinzhou, was really beaten to death by the whole family. ”

Another person stepped forward and added: "I found the woman for questioning, no one was humiliated, and the deceased was killed." ”

"Write it down and keep it for the record. Then the courtyard of that family was requisitioned. Nominally, it is naturally His Royal Highness King Yi who wants to stay. Again, if the official had more news here, no matter how big or small. Arrange for a literate one to be recorded for the king. ”

After giving the order, Bai Minghe thought of this county government and asked, "Is there anything alive in this county government?" ”

"Back to the adult, there is no one. The county order fled, and some people wanted to flee, but they were besieged by the rebels on the road and all of them were killed. Hardly any of the county officials survived, and the corpse of the head catcher of the yamen was still seen outside the city when we arrived, and I don't know that night, it was taken by wild beasts! ”

"Post a notice for the people."

"How to write it?" This time it was Shen Xiong who asked.

Now, I stopped asking the white crane. Yes, how to write this security notice.

"Rong Benguan thought about it first, and arranged to stay in the past two days. How much food we still have, first find a way to contact the surrounding areas to see if we can collect some food. ”

Everyone went down and got busy as instructed, and all kinds of information began to be compiled according to Shiranazuru's request.

The Anmin notice was written by Qinghe by Bai Minghe, and then asked a few literate old craftsmen to copy it, and then pasted it at the city gate.

Three days, three full days passed.

In the entire Hepu County, the only people who can be seen in the activities are still the people brought by the white crane, and it can be said that even if there are still people in the entire county, they will not be closed. In the afternoon, a few households can occasionally be seen cooking smoke.

Bai Minghe did not live in the county government, but in the compound where the whole family was killed by the rebels.

"Does this count as a usurpation of civilian property?" Wu Bin sat down and asked.

"Count, but this one is dead. And our people have also inquired in Qinzhou. Zhizhou also fled, and there was only one Jiupin scribe in Qinzhou City sitting in the state capital, and there were few open shops in the state city. Du Pisces replied as he sat next to him.

Bai Minghe interrupted the conversation between the two: "Don't talk about it yet, listen to Master Bai tell us about the information we have summarized!" ”

Master Bai! Naturally, it is Qinghe who is dressed as a man, it doesn't matter what her surname is, but now she is called Qinghe, because she is a domestic slave of the Bai family, so she can also be called Bai Qinghe.

With a flick of the folding fan in his hand, Qinghe opened the scroll in front of him.

"Let's talk about the Hepu Rebellion first, don't say Hepu at the moment, the entire Lianzhou Mansion is already in chaos. The Guangdong Political Department was lowered, and the Lianzhou Government was downgraded by one level, and now it has jurisdiction over only one state and two counties. The state is Qinzhou, and the county is Hepu and Lingshan counties. According to the news from the Jin Sweater from Lianzhou Mansion sixty miles away, the gate of the government has been closed for three months. ”

The yamen has been closed for three months, what kind of official can do this kind of thing?

Qinghe continued: "The same news from the Jinyi Guard, the hundred households received the benefit of one thousand taels of silver, and the news of the riot here was concealed and not reported. Lian Zhouwei commanded the envoy to collect 10,000 taels of silver and helped hide the matter. ”

With that, Qinghe took out a letter.

"This is a letter from Commander Wei Mao of Lianzhou to your lord, Commander Mao is the nephew of Lord Mao Sheng, the governor of Zuodu, and before the lord came to Hepu, he had received a letter from Lord Yu and Lord Mao."

The white crane is a little grateful to Yu Qian, at least there is one of his own people here.

When I opened the letter, I first said a few kind words of greeting. Then go straight to the topic, and clearly tell the white crane that he collects money by himself, and the adults in the capital also know that he has to collect it. As for the reason, it is very secretive to tell the white crane, and after seeing your true ability, you will be qualified to hear the official's explanation.

I said that I didn't explain it, but I still explained about the chaos here.

Lian Zhouwei did not report and did not send troops, which is also Yu Qian's meaning. Once the army is dispatched, the casualties of the people will be even greater. And this matter lies in Qian's eyes, first of all, it is the fault of the officials in Lianzhou Mansion, and then it is also the fault of the eunuchs here.

Bai Minghe put down the letter and asked.

"Who is the eunuch here?"

To answer this question, it is natural to have a professional person. Jin Jie opened his mouth and said: "It's an incompetent old guy, called Brother Zhao." He recognized Eunuch Cao, who was younger than him, as his godfather, and in the official, there were two eunuchs who were also in their group. If Brother Bai has a chance, he will trample him to death, and he will not deal with my father-in-law along the way! ”

"! When will there be a personal vendetta in military affairs? No matter how much you talk, you will take care of the craftsmen. ”

Jin Jie was trained by Bai Minghe like this, so he quickly lowered his head and didn't dare to say a word.

Bai Minghe picked up the letter again and saw that it was written that the rebels were still outside the Lianzhou Mansion at the moment. If Qian Wuyan, the prefect of Lianzhou, does not take out 100,000 taels as military expenses, Lianzhou Wei will not send troops.

At present, several large households in Lianzhou Mansion have been begged for almost 100,000 loads of grain by these chaotic people to keep them safe.

As long as these chaotic people do not move the military warehouse, Commander Mao said that he would definitely not send troops.

The last few sentences of the letter are that if the rebels attack Hepu again, Commander Mao will save Bai Minghe, but only once. The implication is that you can't even settle the chaos with the people, and if you come to Hepu by yourself, you will be sent to death, that is, a waste.