Two days later, the dark clouds over Taishou Mansion in Pinggang County finally faded.

The weather is already warming, as is the case in the county.

In the battle two days ago, the Yellow Turban Army and thieves besieging the city were defeated with one blow, and not only that, but they also killed the thief chief Yu Hu in the battle. That day and night battle, Zuihou was not only because the cavalry of Wen Chou, Han Dang and others successfully broke through, but also some officers and soldiers on the south tower also took advantage of the transfer of the Yellow Turban Army outside the city, took the initiative to kill the generals out of the city, and covered up the rear of the Yellow Turban thieves for a while, completely disrupting the formation of the Yellow Turbans, so what was laid was not only a complete victory in the camp outside the northeast city gate, but directly led to the full rout of the Yellow Turban Army.

Today's Pinggang County is particularly popular, and those who have been closed during the lockdown can finally easily appear in the streets and alleys and start working for their future livelihoods.

The barracks in the city continued to be unstoppable, with people coming and going, taking prisoners, carrying corpses, or rescuing the wounded. The crying and howling were faintly behind the peace.

In order to celebrate the completion of the siege and quelling the chaos, Taishoufu once again held a banquet and invited all the soldiers who participated in the battle and received outstanding meritorious services to the banquet. The food in the city does not seem to be a big problem, not to mention that the crisis of the lockdown has been lifted, and the battle two days ago and the night before, a lot of grain and grass were snatched from the Yellow Turban Army. However, on the way to the city from the out-of-town garrison of Zu Zhao, Zu Ling and others, they saw some shocking scenes.

Passing by a small alley on the outskirts of the city, there were seven or eight figures in the alley, with yellow faces and thin muscles, and their breath was like a hanging silk.

At the other end of the alley, there were several ragged women, searching for something from some dilapidated mess. It didn't take long for one of them to find what he was looking for, but he didn't dare to say anything, and hurriedly hid those things in his rotten clothes. But it soon became clear that the others rushed up, struggling and scuffling, but everyone's movements were so weak. Eventually, he snatched the contents of his shirt out.

It turned out to be just some dirty, broken fruit.

Zu Zhao didn't say anything or do anything, just silently remembered it in his heart.

He knew very well that although the siege time of the Yellow Turban Army was not too large, it was only about twenty days. However, the county government hoarded grain and grass as early as the beginning of the siege, which was "hoarding", that is, requiring all households in the city to hand over a fixed amount of grain and grass for the needs of defending the city. Now that the war has passed, no one has considered returning the grain and grass collected before to the people, whether it is the Taishou Mansion or the county government.

Sometimes, many things are "predestined", but if you think about it, including such a large-scale Yellow Turban Uprising, it is by no means groundless.

When Zu Zhao and his entourage arrived at the county capital, many soldiers who had been invited to come had already gathered in the main hall.

In addition to the volunteer leaders of the counties in the north of the county, there are also many officers and generals. Wen Chou, Zhou Zhi, Tian Kai and others were naturally among them, and some officials of the county government and the county government were also present. After Zu Zhao and others arrived, they first greeted everyone one by one, and then under the guidance of the county officials, the volunteers and brave people in the north of the county sat together. After all, most of the brave men are white, and their status is inevitably different from those serious generals, and the seats arranged are also at the bottom of the palace.

Before long, Liu Cheng, the eldest prince of the county government, and several county officials were present.

Liu Cheng was refreshed, and a long-lost smile hung on his face. After he had spoken in an official tone, he invited everyone to move to the atrium and enter the banquet hall.

After all, it was just after the Great War, and most of the people invited this time were martial artists, so the banquet was not so magnificently arranged, and there was not even the accompaniment of drums and flutes. Naturally, the big bosses don't pay attention to it so much, and they have been fighting hard for more than half a month, waiting for a celebration banquet today, and looking forward to the promise of being rewarded for their performance.

Under Liu Cheng's greeting, the banquet officially kicked off.

The servants brought plates of delicacies one by one, these delicacies were naturally not as good as the specifications of the previous banquets, but compared to the thrift of more than ten consecutive days, today was already very rich. The banquet was carried out in a joyful atmosphere, and everyone pushed each other's cups and set up lamps, and the meat was staggered, and the aroma of meat overflowed.

Zu Cheng, Zu Ling and the others didn't have much thought, and they ate and drank like everyone else.

Only Zu Zhao's face was heavy, and he just drank slowly.

Liu Cheng, who was in the upper seat, began to toast to the guests one by one with a slightly drunk demeanor after the third round of drinking.

I thought that Liu Cheng's toasting order would inevitably go from the chief to the last seat, and the dignity and humility would go down one after another. Who knows, when Liu Cheng raised his glass and stood up, he walked straight down from the chairman and came to Zu Zhao, who was at the bottom of the seat. The lively sound of the banquet stopped a little, and many people's eyes followed Liu Cheng to Zu Zhao's side.

Zu Zhao raised his eyes to look at Liu Cheng, and after thinking for a while, he stood up.

Liu Cheng smiled and faced the wine glass in his hand to Zu Zhao, and said happily: "Zu Yishi, this first glass of wine, I must respect you." If it weren't for you and the county north who rushed to help, the county government wouldn't know what it would be like today. In addition, leading the righteous to recover the sunset, and killing the thief chief Zhang in a battle, it must be regarded as a great achievement! ”

Zu Zhao smiled lukewarmly, raised the wine glass in his hand, and said, "Righteous things, men can't resign." Being able to serve the county government this time and repelling the thieves by luck is really the credit of the joint efforts of all of you here, and you will never dare to support it! ”

Liu Cheng said with a smile: "Zu Yishi is really a humble person, he is young, he has such bravery, and he has such a mind, which is really a blessing for me in Beiping County." Come, I'll ask for this glass of wine first. When he finished speaking, he tilted his head and drank the wine from his glass.

Zu Zhao did not hesitate and drank this glass of wine as well.

After Liu Cheng breathed a long sigh of relief and relieved the strength of the wine, he said: "Before, the general of the Che Cavalry wanted to take Zu Yishi for questioning, but it was nothing more than some unwarranted suspicions. In this way, Zu Yishi not only gathered righteousness to protect the county, but also killed the thief chieftain Zhang to play, and all these things are enough to prove the innocence of Zu Yishi. But don't worry, yesterday I have repaired the letter, truthfully reported the merits of the ancestors, and tomorrow I will send it to the county government as soon as possible. ”

Zu Zhao bowed and thanked: "Thank you for the success." ”

On the side, Zu Cheng, Zu Ling, Han Dang and others were all comfortable. Especially Zu Cheng, he even felt overjoyed, from this point of view, Zu Zhao will not only be fine, but it is very likely that he will also get a meritorious service and official rank.

When Liu Cheng said these words and wanted to turn around and return to his seat, Zu Zhao suddenly said again: "Please forgive me for taking the liberty of being here, I hope that the eldest prince can agree to another request in the next place." ”

Liu Cheng was interested, turned around and asked, "Oh, is it?" Zu Yishi but say it bluntly! ”

Zu Zhao said quietly, not arrogant or humble: "The city has been trapped for many days, there are countless refugees, and now the city wall is lifted, and the eldest prince is invited to open a warehouse to release grain, and help the refugees inside and outside. ”

Liu Cheng's face did not change much, although what Zu Zhao said seemed to be very reasonable, or maybe he was drunk at this moment, he just responded lightly: "Well, this matter is reasonable, I will personally supervise it in a few days." ”

Without saying that, he didn't know how to turn his head and stepped back to the upper seat.

Zu Zhao looked at Liu Cheng's back, and he was not too disappointed in his heart, but had a more conclusive understanding of the eldest prince of the county government. In the past two days, he has heard Zu Ling and others already mention, regarding Liu Chengqiang's order for Zhou Zhi to lead the army to break through to Yuyang County to ask for help, it seems that Liu Cheng has a lot of trust in Zhang Chun, such paranoid people who do not care about the situation are not the material for leading the county government at all. His opening of the warehouse and the release of grain was nothing more than out of morality and a sense of justice, as for whether Liu Cheng was willing to do it, it was another matter, and he naturally would not quarrel with Liu Cheng over this matter.

A few days later, at the initiative of Wen Chou, the county government launched a military operation to recover Changcheng and Guangcheng counties.

Zu Zhao and other county north volunteers naturally went with the officers and soldiers of the county government.

The Yellow Turban Army thieves who retreated from the county government quickly retreated to the south of the county, still the party that was in trouble, and there were still nearly 5,000 people. It's just that after the defeat of the county government, not only was the vitality damaged, the people's morale was weakened, but also nearly half of the military supplies, including grain, grass, and armaments, were lost, and they completely became the original form of the peasants with extremely poor combat effectiveness at the beginning of the uprising.

In early March, the official army launched an operation against Guangcheng. After all, this is the thief's den of the Yellow Turban Army in Youbeiping County, and it still gathers most of the troops of the Yellow Turban Army that have retreated from defeat. There are more than 2,000 officers and soldiers led by Wen Chou, and counting the more than 1,000 people in the north of the county, they are still inferior to the Yellow Turban Army in terms of numbers. However, in terms of morale, equipment and quality, it is naturally far more than a rabble.

By the seventh day of the first month of March, the siege of Guangcheng was less than five days, and the Yellow Turban Army was defeated. Since the destruction of the city wall by the Yellow Turban Army, it has not been rebuilt, and the Yellow Turban Army has no danger to rely on in this offensive and defensive operation, and it is completely attrition by virtue of the frontal hedging operation. Morale was declining, losses were mounting daily, and many of the Yellow Turbans were already disheartened long before the city was breached. This discouragement is not the same as a ruin, but a kind of insensitivity!

After breaking through the defensive line, Wen Chou began a massacre early the next morning. His hatred for the Yellow Turban Army is increasing day by day, even if the war has been going smoothly in the last ten days, but some of the shame and humiliation are unforgettable, coupled with a natural temper. Zu Zhao did not have complete pity for the massacre, but he did not feel the slightest support, and most of the participants in the Yellow Turban Rebellion were poor people, just like some bleak scenes in the county capital after the siege was lifted, but some things could not be interfered with by themselves, and some things were quite important for the time being, so they turned a blind eye.

After the recapture of Guangcheng, the population of Guangcheng County plummeted, and the whole city was in a depression, and some corpses and blood stains could be seen everywhere on the streets. Some ragged and sorrowful civilians, dragging their tired, emaciated bodies, slowly cleared the streets, but everything seemed so slow and weak that they could fall to the ground at any moment and become one of those corpses.

In the middle of the year, Wen Chou raised troops and marched to Changcheng County.

In fact, Changcheng County has long been in chaos, although the old department of Zhang Play who was brought back from the county government is still entrenched here, but because when the Guangcheng Yellow Turban Army sent people to ask for help, no one was in charge, and no one was willing to fight.

The army of Wen Chou drove straight in, and most of the traitors threw away their clothes and blades, pretending to be ordinary people, hoping to escape. How did he know that after Wen Chou entered the city, he didn't mean to let these people go at all, so he ordered the whole city to search and arrest, and asked the lieutenant governor to make a list of those who had participated in the rebellion, and kill one member of the lieutenant chief's family if there were less than ten people. Under such intimidation, the lieutenant chiefs had no choice but to confess those who had participated in the rebellion, and some even had no rebels at all or no rebels at all, but unfortunately Wen Chou did not listen to any explanation at all, and executed a lieutenant commander on the spot.

It is precisely this kind of coercion that many lieutenants can only list innocent people arbitrarily.

Only two days later, turmoil and flight broke out frequently in the originally safe county.

For this reason, Zu Zhao specifically found Wen Chou and strongly demanded that Wen Chou revoke the order to extract confessions he had issued before.

Wen Chou didn't have a reason at first, and even angered Zu Zhao.

Zu Zhao was not afraid of Wen Chou at all, and said righteously: "As the saying goes, the officials force the people to rebel, and now the city has been broken and the people are tamed. Even if you want to punish the traitors, set an example, and take one or two, why bother to sit in a wide range of ways, isn't it to let those innocent people be forced to rebel? The population of the county is only 8,000 households, and 10 people are killed in each mile, how many of the 5,000 traitors can be implicated? If Wen Duwei insists on doing so, then I will truthfully report this matter to the county government and the state capital, but I want to see how the public anger you have aroused will be explained! ”

Under this tirade, Wen Chou really felt a certain amount of pressure, even if he was so angry with Zu Zhao, he didn't dare to mess around easily, so he could only lift the previous order the next day. However, even so, in the list that had been collected, he still ordered all of them to be captured, and all of them were beheaded when they gathered in the city on a certain day.

[When I met a Peking Opera beauty with the group on Beijing TV, although she wore Peking Opera makeup, her eyes were too seductive, and she felt that she could live a lifetime. It's a pity that it's finished at three o'clock in the afternoon. Alas! 】