Three days ago, he sent a post to the Shuzhou Assassin Mansion in the name of Guanghushou Defense and Capture Envoy Sima's subordinates, but did not receive any reply. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

The next day, Hou Chen went to the Shuzhou Assassin's Mansion again, and an attaché under the jurisdiction of the Shuzhou Assassin's Mansion saw him, and the news to him was that he had joined the army and had not returned, and he could not give him any reply for the time being.

On the third day, Hou Chen went on a trip in the morning and afternoon, but there was still no result.

Hou Chen was very displeased with the arrogance of the Shuzhou Assassin's Mansion, and he didn't think that he had come with bad intentions, how could he expect the warm reception of people with a pleasant face, and now the Shuzhou Assassin's Mansion had already been suspicious of his posting, and he didn't know what this envoy from the evil neighbors in the north was doing in Shuzhou.

Hou Chen's post was also vague, only saying that he was ordered by Lord Sima of the Defense and Guarding Mansion to pay homage to Lord Shi about the ant thief's southward journey.

It was already half a year for the ant thieves to go south from Shouzhou, when the ant thieves Han Baling bypassed the southern Tianzhu Mountain mountains from Shengtang and Huoshan, and broke through from the Shucheng salient in the west of Luzhou, which once caused a big shock in Luzhou, thinking that the ant thieves would invade Luzhou in a big way.

As a result, the ant thieves went directly south from the west of Shucheng, invaded Shuzhou, plundered on the Tong'an line, and then avoided the west direction of Huaining, which forced the Shuzhou army to intercept the ant thieves along the line of Anhui, and after several fierce battles, it was only after several fierce battles that they relied on the Anhui water to block the ant thieves.

However, the ant thieves did not cross the river when they invaded Xuanzhou in the south, and still left a force in the southeast corner of Shuzhou near Zongyang to Xuanzhou Qiupu line, because of the response of the river bandits, the ant thieves can freely travel to and from the north and south of the river, making this ant thief also become a problem in Xuanzhou.

Fortunately, the number of ant thieves at this step is not much, only two or three thousand, and the scope of activities in the second half of the year is only limited to the southeast corner of Shuzhou, the Shuzhou army in the two failed to clear and even attracted most of the ant thieves from Xuanzhou to cross the river to the north again, but also gave up the idea of solving the problem by military means, and sent troops to guard the line from Tong'an to Anhuikou with peace of mind to ensure that the ant thieves do not pose a threat to the state city.

Hou Chen was followed by Zhang Ji, an attaché who defended and guarded the embassy.

This time I came to Shuzhou, mainly Hou Chen, supplemented by Zhang Ji.

Zhang Ji is a member of the Zhang clan in Gwangju, and Zhang Yue is also a distant relative, and he also has to be recommended by Zhang Huang and Zhang Yue to enter the defense and capture embassy.

The defense and capture of the embassy is dominated by civilian staff officials, because it is mainly related to military affairs, so it is different from the requirements of the assassins' mansions, and the requirements for loyalty and reliability are higher, especially the standards for ordinary officials are stricter.

Zhang Ji is different from Hou Chen, Hou Chen is still proficient in martial arts, although the level is lower, and he only practiced to a forging period in his early thirties, in his own words, there is no day to practice martial arts, but he has a flexible mind, excellent eloquence, and the recommendation of Wang Huang, the brother-in-law of the next room, so he entered the defense and capture envoy to seek a background.

But just because you're able to get into the Defenses doesn't mean you're going to be able to get out of the way.

When the defense and capture envoys were first established, the judges, marching horses, envoys, secretaries, and officials had not yet been fully formed, which meant that the corresponding divisions were still in a state of preparation for simplicity, and the personnel of each division were still in a state of serious shortage.

It can be said that except for the Wuwen Hall, which was personally formed by the Lord of Defense and Capture from the beginning, that is, the department of the Ministry Division, which is still complete, the other divisions are scattered and broken, and there is no time for three or five months to fill them slowly, so they can't be set up at all.

This state is what Hou Chen is most happy to see, everyone knows that the grass stage is the easiest to produce results, and the earlier you join, it means that the more seniority you have, and the more confident you will be promoted in the future, of course, all of this must be based on the premise that you have taken out the results.

For Hou Chen, he never thought about messing around, he was eager to get more opportunities, so he had this trip to Shuzhou.

As for Zhang Ji, since he is a disciple of the Zhang family, he is loyal and has a great future, although he does not have much experience, but he can read and write, and his mind is also clear, so he followed Hou Chen to Shuzhou to assist Hou Chen in completing this mission.

Shuzhou Thorn Mansion is also located in the east of the city, not too far from the post house, only one street in the middle, when Hou Chen and Zhang Ji walked to the Thorn Mansion with unhurried steps to ask again, they got the same answer and continued to wait.

However, Hou Chen could already see something in the eyes of the receptionist, it was irritability mixed with some helplessness, and there were also some worries.

That's enough.

It should be the actions of the Huaiyou Army on the front line of Huoshan and Shengtang that stimulated the Shuzhou side and made the Shuzhou side a little unstable.

Coming out of the Thorn History Mansion, Hou Chen's expression was much more relaxed, which made Zhang Ji, who followed Hou Chen, a little curious.

"Lord Hou, has there been a change?" Zhang Ji didn't see many clues.

He was still in the learning stage, and this time following Hou Chen to Shuzhou was a rare learning opportunity for him.

Before entering the defense and capture envoy's mansion, Zhang Ji specially went to pay homage to Zhang Huang and Zhang Yue, one is his uncle, and the other is his distant cousin.

This seems to be a bit contradictory, and it also makes Zhang Ji have been recalling the words given to him by the two most important bigwigs of the clan since he entered the defense and capture envoy's mansion.

"Gorou, have you noticed? When we came this time, the receptionist didn't change much, and the words of answer didn't change much, but their attitude changed. Hou Chen said with a smile.

Zhang Huang also specially asked someone to bring a message to himself, hoping to bring this young man with him, as a senior official in the Huaiyou bureaucracy, of course Hou Chen agreed, this was originally the right intention.

"Well, did you mean that he let us into the hall this time and offered tea?" Zhang Ji's mind is also very flexible, and his observation is also very detailed.

"What else?" Hou Chen smiled and nodded, the child can be taught.

"Well, the words are still those perfunctory words, nothing has changed, but the tone seems to be a little hesitant?" Zhang Ji asked hesitantly as he tried to recall the situation at that time.

"Well, that's good, Gorou is very observant. Hou Chen was a little surprised, this young man has a very serious attitude towards learning, and he makes progress quickly, not to mention, but this kind of observation and judgment ability is not something that can be improved casually by simply learning, this guy is very talented.

Zhang Ji was quite excited, and he was also very happy to be praised by Shangguan, which showed that his efforts were not in vain.

Indeed, the other party's tone became a little vague, although it was still an excuse, but it did not let us have to wait at the inn, they were a little weak-hearted, but they still wanted to use this way to observe and judge what we wanted. Hou Chen's eyes were a little more cunning, "It's time for them to come to us." ”

Hou Chen guessed correctly, the Shuzhou Thorn Mansion was feeling a headache for his posting meeting.

The content of the post was vague, only saying that it was for the ant thief, but did not mention the specific content, which made Shuzhou unable to guess what this neighbor who had never had contact with although separated by a mountain wanted to do it.

Han Baling's ant thieves have been wreaking havoc in Shouzhou for a long time, and Shuzhou has also been paying attention.

They have always believed that the ant thieves should go along the Huaidong, Haozhou Luzhou and Chuzhou Chuzhou should be the target of the ant thieves, Shuzhou is located in the south, and the wealth is far less than Chuzhou Luzhou These places, no matter how you think about it, it is impossible to come to Shuzhou, and Shuzhou and Shouzhou are also blocked by Tianzhu Mountain, and the road for ant thieves to go south is not smooth.

Unexpectedly, the ant thieves unexpectedly detoured to Shucheng south into Shuzhou, making Shuzhou also a mess, and fortunately, relying on the Anhui water to block the road of the ant thieves to invade the west, otherwise Shuzhou would have no peace.

Finally, when the main force of the ant thieves crossed south into Xuanzhou, the evil neighbor in the north came again, especially the evil neighbor in the north also annexed Shouzhou in one fell swoop, although he nominally obtained the right to rule Shouzhou in the name of Guanghun Shou Defense Envoy.

This is a question that the whole of Shuzhou is pondering, especially when news came from the north that the two armies of the Huaiyou Army were again moving on the front line in Shucheng in the name of eliminating ants, bandits, and bandits.

Shuzhou Thorn History Mansion.

Zhou Lun rubbed his cheeks and looked at the ground in front of him expressionlessly.

"Father, what does this Huaiyou Army want? This post says that they want to negotiate the matter of ant thieves, but what do they negotiate with us? They have no ant thieves in Shouzhou and Huzhou at all, and there are only more than 2,000 ant thieves in our Shuzhou, if we were not willing to provoke the ant thieves, we would have been able to drive them across the Jiangnan long ago. ”

The young man who spoke was white-shirted and heroic, and his words were full of doubts and incomprehension.

"What does Duan Gong think?" The old man sitting at the top gently stroked his long beard under his chin, and the picture of landscapes, birds, and birds on the face of a folding fan in his hand was extremely exquisite, although he was over fifty years old, but he could see from his face that he was definitely a beautiful man when he was young.

"Xiang Zhuang's sword dance is intended for Pei Gong. After pondering for a long time, the middle-aged scribe sitting on the side said thoughtfully.

"Oh?" the fifty-year-old man stroked his beard again, "Duan Gongyan has something to say, but it's not good for us in Shuzhou?"

"Lord Thorn Shi, what our neighbor to the north has done in the past year or so, do you think he will be a good person?" Duan Gong smiled bitterly.