Li Zhiyun and the others were just about to leave, but the shopkeeper ran over to stop him and said, "Childe, you paid for me, I can't repay it, so I invite you to eat broth cakes." Li Zhiyun shook his head with a smile and said, "No, we're not hungry yet." ”

"I have to eat even if I'm not hungry, or I won't be able to go."

Li Zhiyun saw that his attitude was sincere, and it was difficult to refuse, so he had to say, "Okay, let's eat some." The shopkeeper welcomed them to the front of the shop under the bamboo hut and served each a bowl of broth cakes – in fact, shredded pork noodles, and all pasta was called bread at that time. Li Zhiyun picked up the bowl and was about to eat, when he saw more than a dozen soldiers coming over on the street, and the one at the front was riding a tall horse. He was dressed in armor, his body was stout, his skin was bronzed, and his face was covered with large and small pimples, like the skin of a pomegranate turned upside down, and his appearance was very ugly.

The soldiers stopped in front of the nearby shop, and the soldier who was collecting money in the shop ran out, and the officer ran up to say something to the man on horseback, and looked at him nodding his head, probably reporting to the commander.

Li Zhiyun turned his head and asked the shopkeeper standing aside: "Who is that person riding a horse?" The shopkeeper said: "This person's name is Zheng Lei, who was originally a scoundrel in the market, but now he has become a general." The money you just gave me is what he collected. Those of us who do small business, in addition to paying taxes to the government, he still has to take 20% of the daily profits, how can people live? The shopkeeper shook his head and sighed, turned and walked away.

After listening to the report of his subordinates, the general named Zheng Lei led his subordinates to continue walking. When he passed by the side of the shed, his eyes unconsciously glanced at Li Zhiyun, and he rode over.

After Li Zhiyun and the others finished eating the broth cakes, they said goodbye to the shopkeeper and continued to walk along the street. Along the way, Li Zhiyun and Cai Hu were very cautious, and their eyes were full of vigilance. It was the first time Fan Shuxiang came to Xia County, and he was very curious, looking around all the way, asking this and that from time to time. After walking for a while, Cai Hu suddenly touched Li Zhiyun with his elbow. Li Zhiyun turned his head to take a look, only to see Cai Hu snorting to the right front with his mouth. Li Zhiyun looked in the direction he pointed, and saw a person walking towards him on the other side of the street. The man was not tall and wore a brown cloth jacket. Li Zhiyun took a closer look, wasn't that the main bookkeeper Hong Zhaoran?

Hong Zhaoran walked with his head down, but he didn't see them. Li Zhiyun stopped, watched him walk over, and then whispered to Cai Hu, "Let's follow him." With that, he turned around and walked across the street.

Fan Shuxiang was walking forward by herself, turned her head, and found that the two companions were missing, and hurriedly turned around to look for them, and found that the two were walking across the street, and hurriedly shouted: "Hey, why are you going?" Cai Hu had no choice but to return, grabbed her and whispered, "Don't squeak, come with us." ”

Li Zhiyun and the others followed behind Hong Zhaoran, seven or eight feet away from him. After walking for a while, Hong Zhaoran turned into an alley. The alley was long, about five or six feet wide, with only a few pedestrians. After entering the alley, Li Zhiyun quickened his pace. When he caught up with Hong Zhaoran, he shouted: "Master Hong." Hong Zhaoran stopped when he heard the sound, turned around, and looked at him with a blank gaze. Li Zhiyun walked up to him and smiled: "What, don't you know?" Hong Zhaoran stared at his face for a moment, and hesitated: "You... Could it be the King of Chu? Li Zhiyun smiled and nodded. Hong Zhaoran breathed a sigh of relief and said, "It turns out that it is really Your Highness, I almost didn't recognize you like this." ”

Cai Hu and Fan Shuxiang followed, and Hong Zhaoran also recognized Cai Hu, so he said, "Your Highness, why are you here?" Li Zhiyun looked at both ends of the alley and said, "This place is not a place to talk, can you find a secluded place?" Hong Zhaoran thought for a moment and said, "Then let's go to the cold house, just in front." ”

The three of them followed Hong Zhaoran towards his house. Frankly speaking, Li Zhiyun and Hong Zhaoran did take a certain risk when they met. Now that Xia County has changed owners, he doesn't know many situations, and his identity will be exposed if he is not careful. However, he had contact with Hong Zhaoran and knew that this person had a good temperament and should not betray them. Besides, when they entered the county seat, if they always ran around the streets like headless flies, it was not a solution, and they had to find an acquaintance to inquire about the situation.

Hong Zhaoran led them into a small courtyard, and after entering the house, he beckoned them to sit down, and then wanted to make tea for everyone. Li Zhiyun stopped: "Master Hong, don't be busy, sit down and tell us about the situation." Master Hong sat down opposite, looked at him and said, "Your Highness, what do you want to know?" ”

Li Zhiyun couldn't wait: "Just tell us about Lu Chongmao." Hong Zhaoran pondered for a moment and said: "Lu Chongmao was originally a wealthy local family, with a lot of money, and there were two or three hundred nurses in the house. This man has always been insidious and murderous, and few people dare to provoke him. A few months ago, when Liu Wuzhou went south to attack Hedong, he secretly built armor and weapons at home, recruited soldiers, and led people to rush into the barracks when the moon was dark and the wind was high, killing all the officers and soldiers, occupying the entire county, and then proclaiming himself the king of Wei. ”

After Li Zhiyun listened, he secretly thought in his heart, it seems that this Lu Chongmao is the same as Gao Tansheng at the beginning, he is a very ambitious guy. This kind of person, when he encounters an opportunity, will make waves. It's just that they have empty ambitions, but they don't have great talents, and they will only fail in the end, but they want innocent people to bury them. In the history without Li Zhiyun, Xia County was later slaughtered by Li Shimin. All the residents of the county paid the price with their lives for Lu Chongmao's ambitions.

"How are Xu County Ling and Ding County Cheng now?"

Hong Zhaoran sighed and said, "When Lu Chongmao rebelled, Xu Xian Ling was killed in battle, and Ding Xian Cheng was captured and executed. After a pause, he added: "It seems that we are not a petty official, but Lu Chongmao is not too embarrassed, and let us take the original position." A few colleagues and I secretly buried them, and Xu Xianling was buried next to his wife's grave. ”

Thinking that this loving couple could finally meet under Jiuquan, Li Zhiyun was embarrassed. He was silent for a while, and then said, "Master Hong, more than ten days ago, a Tang army was defeated by Wei Chigong, and several important generals were captured, do you know where they are being held now?" Hong Zhaoran shook his head and said, "I don't know." I can inquire, though. ”

"Well, if you have any news, you can go to the post station and tell me."

Hong Zhaoran agreed, then looked at Li Zhiyun, and was a little puzzled: "Your Highness, there are only three of you here?" Li Zhiyun smiled and said: "No, this king brought 10,000 elite soldiers this time, and they were stationed in Gaoyang Town, fifty miles away, just because he didn't want Xia County to be ruined, so he didn't let the army come to attack the county seat." Although Li Zhiyun's words were exaggerated, what he said was not wrong. If he wanted to attack the city, he only needed to transfer the eight cannons of the firearms battalion and take the city in half a day.

After leaving Hong Zhaoran's home, Li Zhiyun and the others returned to the post station and waited for news from him at the post station. Hong Zhaoran's efficiency was quite high, and in the afternoon of the same day, he came to the post station. After entering the guest room and sitting down, he said in a low voice: "Your Highness, the villain has already inquired that Lu Chongmao has built a new cell in Dongcheng, which is specially used to hold prisoners, and King Yong'an and they are imprisoned there. When Li Zhiyun heard this, he was very happy, Uncle Cousin and they are still alive, it's really good! He asked Hong Zhaoran to sit down for a while, and then got up and went to Cai Hu's room next door. After a while, he sat down after he came back, put a gold bar on the desk and said, "Master Hong, can you let me meet with them?" Hong Zhaoran picked up the gold bar and said with a smile: "It's just to see each other, with this gold bar, it shouldn't be a problem." ”

The next day, Hong Zhaoran came to him and said, "Your Highness, the villain has already been arranged, and I will go to see you immediately on the third watch today." ”

After the second watch that night, Li Zhiyun took Cai Hu and followed Hong Zhaoran to the Dongcheng cell. The officer on duty led them to a cell and opened the door. Li Zhiyun asked Cai Hu to stay outside the cell door and walked in alone.

The light in the cell was dim, and a small oil lamp hung on the wall, flickering like a bean flame, and from time to time there was a "crackling and peeling" sound. Although the cell was small, only seven or eight square meters, the light did not completely cover it, leaving many places in shadow, but thanks to some light from outside the wooden fence, everything in the cell could be seen clearly.

After Li Zhiyun's eyes adjusted to the light in the cell, he saw a layer of straw on the ground opposite the wall, and several people were sitting on the straw. They leaned loosely against the adobe wall, and though they sat in different positions, they all looked at him curiously. From the expressions on their faces, it was clear that they didn't recognize him.

Li Zhiyun took a closer look, there were a total of four people in the cell, except for his cousin and Tang Jian, the waiter of the internal history, the other two he didn't know, and he didn't know if they were Yu Yun, the governor of Shaanxi, and Liu Shirang, the head of the march. He glanced back at the outside of the fence, where the guard had turned and walked away. He walked up to Uncle Cousin, bent down, and said in a low voice, "Uncle Cousin, it's me, I'm Zhiyun." When Uncle Cousin heard this, he quickly got up from the ground, looked at him carefully, and grabbed his two arms tightly with both hands: "Zhiyun? Are you really Zhiyun? ”

"It's me, it's me."

When the three people next to him heard this, they all got up and surrounded him in the middle. Tang Jian was pleasantly surprised: "King Chu, is it really you?" Li Zhiyun hurriedly raised his index finger and "shh Uncle Tang hurriedly said, "It's okay, it's okay." Zhiyun, how did you get here? Li Zhiyun told the second brother that he sent him to lead the army to aid Xia County, and they told him about the defeat of Wei Chigong in Meiliangchuan, and then said: "Abba heard that you were captured, and he was very anxious, so write to me and my second brother, let us rescue you." Tang Jian lowered his voice and said: "King Chu, you can get us out quickly, it's too uncomfortable to stay in the cell, I'm covered in lice, and I can't sleep at night." ”

Li Zhiyun nodded and said, "Don't worry, I will find a way." Immediately, he turned his gaze to the other two and said, "Are you Lord Yu and Lord Liu?" The two nodded repeatedly. Seeing that the four captured generals were there, Li Zhiyun was relieved.

At this time, the guard came over and shouted to the cell: "When the time comes, someone will come to check the prison in a while, you can come out quickly." When Li Zhiyun heard this, he said to his cousin: "You have to take care, I'm leaving." Several people reluctantly said goodbye to him, and Li Zhiyun turned around and walked out of the cell.