Su Yunzhong, the Taishou of Linzhou, stood on the wall of Fengxian, which was not very high, and looked at the bandits outside the city who had gathered more and more since last night with an iron face, and the anger in his eyes seemed to have substance.

"Hasn't there been any movement in the second guard of Linzhou?"

"Also... Not yet. ”

Cao Changjie, the magistrate of Feng County, who was standing on the side, wiped the cold sweat that broke out on his forehead and replied tremblingly.

"Concubine!"

Su Yunzhong smashed his fist on the wall buttress and scolded angrily.

"When the bandits disperse, this official will definitely join those two soldiers who support their own soldiers."

"Yes, yes, I must refer to the next one."

Cao Changjie echoed.

I could see the endless bandits only three miles away from the city wall, and I couldn't help but add a sentence in my heart.

You have to live until that time.

Su Yunzhong glanced at Cao Changjie, his eyes showing a look of ridicule.

"Why, I'm scared!"

"Xiaguan... Xiaguan..."

Cao Changjie subconsciously wanted to deny it, but his body was shaking uncontrollably, so that he couldn't even say a complete sentence.

"Idiot!"

Su Yunzhong angrily rebuked.

But no matter how useless Cao Changjie is, he is also the only person available around him now, thinking of this, Su Yunzhong softened his tone again.

"Even if you put your heart in your stomach, you will give the Linzhou bandits three more dares, and they will not dare to fight the idea of three cities."

"The lower officials are dull, and I hope that the adults will make it clear."

Cao Changjie obviously didn't agree with Su Yunzhong's opinion, hundreds of thousands of bandits surrounded Fengxian, Tongcheng, and Yancheng just for the sake of fun?

Su Yunzhong glanced at Cao Changjie deeply, and said in his heart, you are not stupid, just simply stupid.

"The reason why the imperial court has allowed the bandits in Linzhou to run rampant and ignored them for many years is that in addition to the endless source of bandits, a batch of kills will be followed by a batch of them, and some are annoying. Also because the two sides have reached a tacit understanding, as long as the three cities of Fengxian, Tongcheng, and Yancheng are not moved, and the fundamental interests and nominal sovereignty of the imperial court in Linzhou are kept, they will be allowed to mess around.

But if the bandits dare to think crookedly about the three cities, hum, they are forcing the imperial court to send an army to pacify Linzhou. Although the bandits in Linzhou are savage, they are not stupid, they should know what they can do and what they can't. ”

Cao Changjie thought about it for a moment in his heart when he heard this, and felt that what Su Yunzhong said was very reasonable, and his heart, which had been hanging since last night, suddenly fell.

"The adults are knowledgeable, and the lower officials admire them. It's just that I still can't figure out one thing, since the bandits don't dare to attack the three cities, why do they want to besiege the three cities? ”

"This..."

After pondering for a long time, Su Yunzhong did not answer, but turned around and looked west.

There was a cloud floating there, dark red, and the sunlight seemed to cast a golden border on the cloud.

Su Yunzhong is also a person of profound knowledge, and when the accumulation of knowledge in his chest has precipitated to a certain level that cannot be spoken, he will have some supernatural abilities.

For example, predicting good luck and evil, and discerning eyes like torches.

So that cloud seemed very ordinary to ordinary people, but Su Yunzhong could see the supernatural.

Half a month ago, when the cloud first appeared, it was very light pink, but it turned dark red a few days ago, and I am afraid that it will turn purple in a few days.

Dozens of miles away from Feng County in the mountains, there is a naturally formed pool, according to legend, when Taizu was young, he often went to play in the pool, so it was named Golden Scale Pond.

Eight hundred years ago, Dayan was founded, and since then the Golden Scale Pond has become a forbidden place.

And below that cloud, is the pool of golden scales.

"The golden scales are not the things in the pool, and the dragon changes when it encounters the wind and clouds."

Su Yunzhong muttered.

"What did you say, sir?"

The voice was too small, and Cao Changjie didn't hear it clearly.

"It's okay, it's okay. Let's go down. ”

Su Yunzhong collected his mind and walked towards the city wall full of worries.

Will the Linzhou bandits really not attack the city?

In fact, Su Yunzhong was not sure.

As soon as he walked down the city wall, Su Yunzhong saw his student and master Feng Youdao hurriedly approaching.

"Teacher, something happened."

Feng Youdao came over, and did not shy away from Cao Changjie, and said after swallowing a mouthful of spit.

"Last night there was a group of merchants who rushed into the city before the bandits closed the city, and just now the students took people to inspect the goods and verify the taxes, and they learned a piece of news. Lao Shoufu was assassinated on the way home, although he did not die on the spot, but now his whereabouts are unknown, and his life and death are unknown. ”

"Bastard! Darn! ”

The chief examiner of Su Yunzhong's high school that year was Liu Chuanfang, who was the secretary of the Ministry of Rites at the time, and the two could be regarded as having a friendship between teachers and students. At the same time, Su Yunzhong has also received a lot of care from Liu Chuanfang over the years, and his career has been quite smooth. Therefore, when he heard the news, his face turned blue with anger and trembled.

"Teacher."

Feng Youdao lowered his voice at this time.

The students also learned from the group of merchants that there was a message circulating around Kyoto Castle today. It is said that the assassin who assassinated Lao Shoufu is a disguise of Dongchang Fanzi, and it is not someone else who wants to kill Lao Shoufu, it is His Majesty today. ”

"Nonsense, nonsense."

"Don't worry, listen to the students first. Now it is rumored that the edict left by the first emperor when he died was originally designated as the fourth prince at that time, that is, the later Yongwang Zhu Cheng to succeed to the throne. And the edict that was read out in front of the civil and military officials to the current majesty was actually forged by the virtuous concubine and the old shoufu.

Now that Lao Shoufu was implicated by the party and government, he resigned and returned to his hometown, and His Majesty was worried that Lao Shoufu would be resentful and afraid that he would leak the matter, so he sent someone to assassinate him by Dongchang Governor Jiashen, so that no one knew about the incident back then. ”

"Hu... Nonsense... ..."

Whew... Whew...

It was just a few words, but Su Yunzhong used all his strength to shout out.

After shouting, the clothes all over his body were already soaked through cold sweat.

Is it really?

In fact, Su Yunzhong already believed it in his heart.

There have always been speculations and rumors about the current majesty Zhu Sheng's improper position, but no one has been able to come up with strong evidence, so most people scoff at it.

How can the edict of succession be forged casually?

Is it really impossible to take the Yong Party and the Manchu Dynasty as idiots and blind people?

But now the assassination of Lao Shoufu has made the wind change abruptly.

Feng Youdao and Cao Changjie supported Su Yunzhong's crumbling figure, and Su Yunzhong raised his eyes to look at the western sky again, and the dark red cloud seemed to have a different meaning in Su Yunzhong's eyes at this moment.

Chaos... Coming?

……

The grievances between the various bandits in Linzhou are so complex that it is difficult for them to clarify themselves. In order to avoid conflicts and troubles, Duan Hong did not forcibly arrange for each bandit village, but allowed the bandit leaders to choose their own locations between Fengxian and Yancheng.

Therefore, when the people of Xiangshanzhai rushed to the outside of Fengxian County, they saw a chaotic scene.

"The positions close to Feng County have been occupied, and we can only look for a camping spot in the distance."

Li Yun, who had gone to inquire about the situation, reported back later.

Zhang Jun was about to nod, but he saw Duan Yu rushing towards this side.

"Hahaha, Master Zhang Zhai made his brother wait. The eldest brother has prepared a camp for all of you in Xiangshanzhai, please come with me. ”

After that, Duan Yu's gaze swept over the two or three hundred good people in the Xiangshan Cottage.

Sure enough, as rumored, there are mostly copycat women, and all of them are beautiful. Even if some people have scars on their faces or mutilated limbs, they still look aesthetically pleasing.

Under the leadership of Duan Yu, the people of Xiangshanzhai went straight through the scattered bandit camps on the periphery and came closer to Feng County.

What you see in front of you is a neatly arranged camp tent and a variety of flags with distinct colors.

The outskirts are full of unorganized and undisciplined small and medium-sized bandits.

This is where the real strength of the bandits in the southwest can be represented, Huwei City and more than a dozen bandit villages with more than 10,000 people.

"The city lord considered that your Xiangshanzhai family has a thin background and the number of people is not large, so he left a place on the south side of our Huwei City. The tents have been set up, and the food and water have been prepared, so you can just live in them. ”

Duan Yu pointed to Zhang Jun not far ahead.

"I'm tired of the city lord."

"It's all my own brothers, what do you say."

Duan Yu patted Zhang Jun's shoulder and smiled.

"Big brother is waiting for you at the main camp, and I'll leave it to Li Yun's brother Zhang Luo here."

"Okay."

Zhang Jun nodded at Li Yun and motioned for him to take care of this side, and then followed Duan Yu to the main camp.

The arrival of the people in Xiangshanzhai caused a lot of shock, even if the bandits arranged here were more disciplined, but the bandits were bandits.

At this time, the fences of the villages were full of people, whistling and saying strange things towards the elephant cottage, and even taking off their pants and showing their buttocks to this side.

Before coming here, Zhang Jun had told Li Yun that if there was a person with bad intentions or a provocateur, there was no need to worry about it, just kill him.

Seeing that the actions of the onlookers were becoming more and more excessive, Li Yun was about to take out his bow and arrow to teach them a profound lesson, but he heard a whooshing sound in his ears.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of something flying out of the team behind him, and then saw the bandit who showed his half-pulled ass scream, and the whole person jumped on the spot.

When he fell back to the ground, Li Yun saw clearly that half of the man's buttocks were blurred with blood, and a stone the size of a fist was falling from the ground next to him.

Li Yun guessed that it should be the three people hiding in the team, and he suddenly felt very happy in his heart, snorted coldly towards the bandits, and led the team to continue walking towards the camp.

"Stop!"

The fence of the camp over there opened, and a strong man with his chest bare and thick chest hair on his chest led hundreds of bandits out of the camp and stopped the people in the elephant cottage.

"Whoever hurts my brother, if you are a gentleman, stand up yourself, otherwise don't blame Lao Tzu for being polite."

The strong man waved the mace in his hand and roared viciously.

"Fourth, you are wrong, there is no master here. It's all and rabbits, hahahahaha. ”