"It's none of your business." Yu Ren gently patted Lu Yue's shoulder and walked in front of Ruolan.

"That's it! You don't have to be too sad if you don't come back to life. When your sixth uncle betrayed Juhetang, he should have thought that sooner or later there would be today's ending. It was already a great happiness for him to see you before he died. Yu Ren said, reaching out and closing his eyes for Liang Ruming.

Those Smelling Fragrance Sect disciples who came with them saw that their elders were killed by Lu Yue's sword, and they were already frightened and ran away one by one, and Lu Yue, who was free to kill the wrong person, of course, had no intention of paying attention to these little minions. Before the temple was broken, only Yu Ren and Li Zhaoji were left at once.

Li Zhaoji put away the big knife, walked up to Lu Yue, and gave her a deep salute. "Thanks to the girl's help, I saved my next life."

Li Zhaoji follows the rules of the rivers and lakes and does not claim to be his own official, which can be regarded as a kind of respect for Lu Yue.

Lu Yue hurriedly helped him up. "The general doesn't have to be polite. Actually, we're looking for you too. ”

"Oh!" When Li Zhaoji heard this, his face couldn't help but show a vigilant **.

"This is the beloved daughter of King Lu, the lord of Mochizuki. Under is the Yanzhou guard. We had just broken out of the encirclement yesterday, and we were going to Jinan to ask for help, but later we learned from Li Xianzhong that the general was going to work alone. It just so happened that this news was also heard by the incense smellers who were present at the time.

We rushed to find you, fearing that you would be besieged by the Smelling Fragrance Sect. ”

"It turned out to be His Royal Highness the County Lord!" Li Zhaoji said and bowed to Lu Yue again.

Lu Yue hurriedly stopped him.

"Generals don't have to be formal. We don't have that much time to slow down here. At present, we have to hurry to Jinan, and then organize people to go to Yanzhou to relieve the siege. Lu Yue said urgently.

Li Zhaoji sighed when he heard this.

"I didn't want to rush to Jinan earlier. However, at the moment, Shandong is full of thieves. Let's just talk about me this way! Not to mention, there were ten batches. Fortunately, almost none of these people have much strength, but they also let us all break through.

But there is a gang of thieves in front of us, but we will never be able to break through. They occupy the only pass from Taizhou to Jinan, so I can't reach Jinan. ”

"Oh! What kind of thief? Yu Ren hurriedly asked. Only then did I understand why Li Zhaoji was still lingering here.

Li Zhaoji seemed a little discouraged when he heard Yu Ren ask about this group of thieves. He leaned the heavy knife in his hand against the tree and sat down slowly.

"I'm ashamed to say it! The old man fought all his life, and at the age of fourteen he went into battle with his father to kill the enemy, and he had never lost so badly as this time. Speaking of this, Li Zhaoji's expression darkened.

"The general is a general who is strategic, and most of these thieves are reckless, and they lose to them alone, which does not mean that the general will not fight, nor will it affect the prestige of the general." Yu Ren saw Li Zhaoji's depressed expression and hurriedly comforted.

Li Zhaoji shook his head, showing even more frustration.

"I didn't fight them alone. I'm not the kind of person who just knows how to be brave and ruthless.

At that time, I also had more than 50 personal guards with me, all of whom were elite soldiers who had been fighting with me for many years. This way into Shandong, I relied on them to break through one obstacle after another.

Although we have repelled more than a dozen strongmen along the way, we have not met a real opponent. These strongmen and us are all defeated in a battle, and they are vulnerable.

So, when we were stopped by this group of strongmen at the foot of Mount Tai, I didn't pay attention to it. However, when the two sides exchanged hands, I realized how wrong I was.

My men were all cavalrymen, and when they saw that there was a strong man blocking the way, they did not say much, so they rushed forward with their swords. However, the other party seemed to have been prepared, and before my own soldiers could rush to the scene, a dense rain of arrows shot from both sides of the mountain road. It hurt more than a dozen of us at once.

I hurried them back.

At this time, a group of people appeared at the opposite crossing, about 100 people. The leader of them is a man named thirty-five or sixteen. He claimed to have the surname Zhang.

Seeing that I looked unconvinced, the man surnamed Zhang made a suggestion to me. He asked me to pick thirty people myself, and he also sent thirty people, and the two sides lined up in the open space in front of them. If I win, he'll let us go. If I lose, then ask us to return it automatically, or exchange the head of Yao Wenguang, the prefect of Jinan, to pass.

At the time, I thought the surname Zhang was too conceited. Still, that's fine. Otherwise, there are many of them, and they seem to be prepared, and it is really not easy to rush over. ”

Speaking of this, Li Zhaoji sighed heavily and did not say anything more.

"And the result?" Yu Ren asked.

"The result?" Li Zhaoji showed a wry smile, "As a result, my thirty personal soldiers were captured alive by his thirty subordinates surnamed Zhang. I was so shocked that I turned my horse around and ran, but I didn't have time to inquire about these people. ”

Yu Ren stopped talking, he really didn't expect that there would be such a group of powerful people in Taizhou. Yu Ren habitually called out "Zongyi". Only then did I remember that Liang Zongyi was separated from himself when he broke through yesterday.

Yu Ren couldn't help but sigh. Liang Zongyi is a well-known person in the rivers and lakes of the Ming Dynasty, from south to north, there is almost nothing he does not know. If he were here, he would have been able to know who this robber head surnamed Zhang who appeared at the foot of Mount Tai was.

"Can you go to Jinan from another place?" Yu Ren asked Lu Yue. At the moment, among the remaining people around him, she is the only one who is most familiar with Shandong.

"Yes. But to turn back to Naoli, and the road is not very smooth. Without waiting for Lu Yue to answer, Li Zhaoji answered him first. With just a few of us, we can't go to Zhili at all. ”

Hearing this, Yu Ren lowered his head and said softly, "It seems that you can only find Yao Wenguang!" ”

Li Zhaoji was taken aback when he heard this. "This, I'm afraid it won't work! I'm just a Shandong commander-in-chief, and I'm in charge of quelling the turmoil. The emperor did not grant me the right to arbitrarily make decisions on the spot. What's more, I heard that this Yao Wenguang was a teacher of Zhao Shangshu, and Zhao Yan, the governor of Shandong, sent him to guard against Taizhou to prevent the Wenxiang Sect from going north to Jinan. If we kill him, not only will we weaken the defensive ability of Taizhou City, but we are afraid that we will also have a feud with the Donglin Party! ”

"Which Zhao Shangshu?" Yu Ren asked.

"It's Zhao Nanxing, Zhao Lao Shangshu! Zhao Lao has just been appointed by the emperor as the secretary of the ministry, in charge of hundreds of officials, and is the leader of the Donglin Party. Except for the emperor, he has the most power, and even the emperor has to listen to him for many things!

We didn't even notice him, so we killed his disciples, I'm afraid it won't be easy to explain to him, right? ”

Yu Ren was also very surprised to hear that this Yao Wenguang was still a disciple of Zhao Nanxing. For a long time, he thought that even if the Donglin Party members were not all good officials dedicated to the people, they would at least be able to keep their duties and distinguish the line from the officialdom moths that can be seen everywhere. I didn't expect that there would be an official scum like Yao Wenguang, who specializes in exploiting the people to satisfy his personal desires.

When it comes to Zhao Nanxing, Yu Ren also has to be cautious. Although this Mr. Zhao is actually his father-in-law. But he also knows that his father-in-law has hated him to the extreme. The old enmity has not yet been erased! If he kills his proud protégé again this time, then there will be no way to resolve this hatred.

What's more, even if he doesn't think about himself and thinks about the big picture, he can't do this. Because the next task he promised to Qi Shijiao was to enter Beijing to persuade the Donglin Party members to support Xiong Tingbi's comeback and re-serve the Liaodong Economic Strategy. And to complete this task, the first person he has to convince is Zhao Nanxing. If he kills Yao Wenguang this time, his enmity with Zhao Nanxing will be deeper, and it will be even more difficult to convince him again.

Yu Ren weighed it again and again in his heart, and decided to go and meet this surnamed Zhang for a while to see if there was any other way.

Several people then rode their horses to the direction of Jinan, walked about 20 miles, and arrived at Taizhou City, but Taizhou City was already closed at this time. However, they unexpectedly met the separated Liang Zongyi here. At this time, there were still five or six brothers left around Liang Zongyi.

Several people met, and Yu Ren hurriedly asked him about the details of this surname Zhang.

Through Liang Zongyi's explanation, Yu Ren learned that the surname Zhang was named Zhang Pan, and he was one of the two most powerful factions in Taizhou.

"Speaking of which, this plate can also be said to be a family with itself."