The two of them were not in a hurry along the way, one was to miss Nuoya's body, and the other was to pose big, so it was a little troublesome, and they were too ostentatious along the way. Whenever you cross a city, there will always be local officials lined up to greet you. When the two of them come, they are safe, they should eat, drink, and take what is easy to take, just like playing in the mountains and rivers, walking and stopping, it is also comfortable.

When the group arrived in Hubei, the wedding date of Anping and Fan Jinxiang, the son of the governor, was approaching. There were already officials sent by the governor waiting at the gate of the city, and they were sent to the post near the governor's yamen along the road. said that the wedding date was approaching, the governor was busy with affairs, and he couldn't get out of the way, so he couldn't get out of it, and he would wash the dust for the two in the evening.

Bailijiu asked, only to know that the party waiting for the town had arrived two days ago, and stayed in a mansion prepared by the governor.

The official seemed to speak politely and politely, but Noya and Bailijiu knew that this was a disappointment from the governor to the two. Baili Jiu does not have an official position now, but the name of a Nine Emperor Prince and Qin Cha is empty, and as long as the holy decree is read and handed over to the emperor, even the name of Qin Cha is not counted. Therefore, the governor did not take the two of them seriously.

Noya and Bailijiu didn't care, but they were happy in their hearts, washing away the dust all over their bodies peacefully, eating and drinking, talking and laughing freely. After resting for a while, Bailijiu was not worried about Noya's body, so he sent someone outside to invite a Lang Zhong to come in and ask Noya for a pulse.

Yuan Bao volunteered, but was stopped by the guy at the post station: "Adults are not familiar with life here, so let's run small errands." ”

Baili Jiu rewarded him with silver, and immediately thanked him with a smile, and ran out with a cigarette, but at the time of two teas, there was a man in a green shirt and a white face with a short beard, who came in behind the man with a medicine box on his back, and introduced it as a miracle doctor in the city.

Noya leaned back on the bed, accustomed to Baili Jiu's meticulousness, and obediently stretched out her wrist.

Lang Zhong closed his eyes and muttered for a moment, then smiled and said, "Your lady and the fetus are safe and sound, there is no problem." It's just a long journey, lest there be symptoms of water and soil adaptation, and you need to consolidate your foundation and replenish more qi and blood, just in case. The old man prescribed a prescription and sent someone to the pharmacy to grab ten doses of soup, two doses a day, and take it on time, that was the best. ”

The old doctor bit the words "ten doses of soup" more heavily, smiled meaningfully, Bailijiu smelled that there was no smell of medicine on his body, his heart moved, let the old doctor to the table, ordered someone to take the pen, ink, paper and inkstone, the old doctor just groaned slightly, then the pen walked the dragon, and all the required medicinal materials were prescribed.

Bailijiu handed the prescription to the soldier guarding the door, ordered him to go to the medicine hall to get the medicine according to the prescription, sent him away, and then turned to the doctor and said aloud: "I have been bumpy for days, and I have suffered from back disease in the old days, can the doctor know acupuncture and massage?" ”

The doctor bowed: "It's a family tradition." ”

Baili Jiu then closed the doors and windows, exposed his back, and climbed on the couch: "The pain is unbearable three inches from the tail vertebrae upwards." ”

When the doctor approached, he bowed his knees on the couch with two fingers, and said in a low voice: "Ninth Master, below is Wang Chao under the command of Dark Night, codenamed Goshawk, who was ordered to be in charge of detecting the anti-army. ”

Dark Night is a secret organization of the Great Chu Imperial Court, led by the emperor himself, and its members are lurking all over the world, with a keen sense of smell, which is the eyes and ears of the emperor scattered throughout the Great Chu. Bailijiu has only heard the emperor mention it once, and outsiders have no way of knowing.

For the sake of prudence, he continued to remain silent and did not answer.

Seeing that he was silent, the man continued to lower his voice and said, "Now the goshawk reports to you: the hiding place and number of the rebels have been ascertained. The total number of Huguang garrisons is 29,000, and now the actual number of garrisons has reached 43,000, of which less than 10,000 are soldiers in the imperial court, and the rest are anti-army! ”

Baili Jiurao was already mentally prepared, and such a huge numerical contrast still made him couldn't help but be surprised: "There are 33,000 people in the rebel army!" Where did I go towards the garrison? Why only 10,000? ”

"Originally, the number of 29,000 was a lie, and there was a lot of water, but in fact it was less than 18,000 or 9. The original governor of Huguang lied about a lot of soldiers in order to be greedy for military spending. Moreover, he was insatiable, looked for all kinds of reasons, and secretly reduced two or three thousand soldiers and horses. During the tenure of this governor Fan Shimou, there were frequent wars and bandits in Hubei and other places in the past two years, and they experienced several large-scale killings, all of which were bizarre and defeated for unknown reasons, and thousands of soldiers were sacrificed. Fan Shimou lied about the military situation, saying that he had not lost a single soldier and killed countless bandits, but in fact, he secretly recruited the rebels into the barracks and replaced the number of soldiers who had sacrificed, and the other soldiers who exceeded the establishment were formed into a separate battalion under the command of his son Fan Jinxiang. ”

"He actually directed and acted by himself, brutally killed the garrison of my court, and blatantly used the grain, grass and supplies of the court to raise the thieves, this Fan Shimou is too bold. In the past two years, has no one in the barracks noticed the clues and reported them to the imperial court? Bailijiu asked indignantly.

"The original generals died seven or eight out of ten in the slaughter battle, and they were almost completely replaced, and all the new generals with real power were Fan Shimou's henchmen. In addition, after many rests, in order to kill the original garrison more intensively, Fan Shimou organized the garrison independently, and had almost no contact with the rebels in the various military camps, and he did not know the specific situation. Most of the generals only knew that Fan Shimou lied about the military situation and asked for merit and rewards, and they also knew that there had been a lot of increase in soldiers in the past two years, and they never thought that he would commit such a rebellion.

At the beginning, there were indeed two brothers surnamed Bu, Bu Fan and Buqiao, who originally served as guerrilla generals and capital divisions in the barracks, and after several defeats, they became suspicious, mistakenly thinking that the commander-in-chief was improperly commanded, and collaborated with the enemy to report the news, resulting in the tragic death of his subordinates, so he ran to Fan Shimou to complain about his grievances, accusing the general army of eradicating dissidents and recruiting soldiers privately, but Fan Shimou was punished for the following crimes. ”

Baili Jiuyi punched on the couch, and with a "bang" sound, he came to his senses, hurriedly glanced out the window, saw a figure constantly shaking, and exclaimed: "It hurts, you should be lighter!" ”

Wang Chao hurriedly cooperated with the confession: "Yes, yes, the villain is guilty." ”

Baili Jiu suppressed his anger and asked in a low voice, "Are there any of our people among the generals today?" ”

"Now there is a general in the imperial army garrison, surnamed Shi Minglu, who is loyal and upright, and has great prestige. If he could know the truth, he would definitely be able to respond to every call and drive the original garrison. ”

"What about the others? Is there no going to be used? What about the two Bu brothers? Bailijiu continued to ask.

Wang Chao shook his head and said: "Eight or nine miles out of the city, there is a small gold mountain, easy to defend and difficult to attack, the two of them had to help each other secretly by Shi Lu that time, and after the catastrophe, they fell into the grass there and did the chivalrous thing of robbing the rich and helping the poor." Later, many generals in the barracks who were not accustomed to their current actions were forced to leave the barracks and join the two. Today, there are hundreds of people, all of whom are elite divisions. ”

"Then Fan Shimou actually ignored it? Letting them exist? Bailijiu asked strangely.

"Fan Shimou has repeatedly sent garrisons to the station, wanting them to kill each other so that he can reap the benefits of the fisherman. The two brothers of the Bu family threatened to go to Beijing to sue if they had no way to live, and they would never die. That Fan Shimou was a thief, and he was afraid that everyone would be forced to be anxious and then really desperate, so he took a step back and lived together for many years. ”

Baili Jiu pondered for a moment, feeling that these two people were also bloody men, and if they could get in touch, it would definitely be a big help.

"You might be able to contact both of them?"

Wang Chao nodded: "To say a word of dereliction of duty, they often need to go to the city to buy some necessary daily necessities, and they all take advantage of our people to enter and exit the city gate." Because they don't do anything wrong, my people just turn one eye open and close one eye, and they have always had friendships, so it's not difficult to get in touch. ”

"Then Fan Shimou and the Marquis of Zhenyuan, do you know the reason?" Baili Jiu nodded, asking the most critical and most confusing point.

It is said that the lord of Anping went to Huguang last month to play, and was accidentally in distress, and Fan Jinxiang, the son of Fan Shimou's family, came to help, and the two fell in love at first sight. Later, Anping returned to Yunnan, and Fan Shimou personally went to the distant marquis of Yunnan Town, and delayed for four or five days before returning to Huguang. Then he immediately wrote to the court to ask for marriage, which should be an agreement between the two parties in advance. ”

An Ping and Fan Jinxiang met by chance, Lang was affectionate, the concubine was intentional, and the Marquis of Zhenyuan and Fan Shimou hit it off again, and things became more and more confusing. Baili Jiubai couldn't figure it out, I don't know if the Marquis of Zhenyuan was blinded, and he didn't know the foundation of Fan Shimou, or did he also have other intentions and push the boat down the river?

Marquis Zhenyuan has a good relationship with the old general, and I heard that he himself is also honest and weak, how can he be embarrassed by Fan Shimou? Bailijiu felt that the former was more likely, and the Marquis of Zhenyuan was just kept in the dark.

Bailijiu had his own thoughts, and felt that if he could form an alliance with the Marquis of Zhenyuan, the Huguang rebels would be attacked from both sides, and they would naturally be able to break themselves. But now it seems that he can't act rashly for the time being, and he needs to be personally investigated by Haosheng and then calculated.

Fortunately, Chu Qingchen had already made arrangements in advance, and asked someone to investigate the situation here, so as not to have his eyes blackened and not know where to start.

The two didn't dare to whisper for too long, and there were already post soldiers walking back and forth at the door, probing the situation inside the house.

Bailijiu got up from the couch, shouted "comfortable", moved his body, and ordered Yuanbao to send off the guests on his behalf. Wang Chao bowed down, thanked the reward one after another, and walked away with the medicine box on his back.

Baili Jiu came back and rubbed his waist, and said to Nuoya in annoyance: "I only cared about the question, and I forgot to ask him if he was sure to take your pulse?" It should be that he is just pretending, and this medical skill may not be as good as that of Kikyo. ”

Noya couldn't help but laugh "poof": "I have seen the doctor every time I pass through the town along the road, where am I so squeamish?" ”

The two couldn't help but smile at each other, a little helpless.