Zan Wanshou stood at the bow of the boat, looking at the blood-red sunset in the distance. His mood was as dim as the scene under the sun. More than a month ago, he left Lin'an and went up the river. The farther away from the bustling Lin'an, the more the villages you see along the way are withering. After passing through Ezhou, I occasionally docked at the shore to replenish water and vegetables, but I saw that the wharf was full of begging refugees, and many people were disabled due to the injuries of swordsmen. At first, he also ordered people to give him water, but when he saw that there were more and more refugees along the way, even if he used the little coil he brought with him, it was not enough to fill the stomachs of the refugees he saw. Fortunately, this is the month of May, and there are a lot of wild vegetables and grass roots to satisfy hunger, but not too many people will starve to death.

Five days ago, he left Chongqing Prefecture and sailed to Jiading to take up his post. It is a common practice in officialdom to visit his boss before he takes office, and he is naturally not exempt from vulgarity. It's just that the process of visiting made him aggrieved and even humiliated. Yu Xinggao sat in the official hall, did not smile and had a cold attitude, and saw that Zan Wanshou was young, and he was even more contemptuous, and talked about things in a tone of lesson, without taking into account that the person he was training was the prefect of Jiading appointed by the imperial court. Zan Wanshou is also a young talent, he was admitted to the Jinshi at a young age, and he became the prefect of Jiading at the age of nineteen. Although most of the credit is due to the emperor's appreciation and the help of the nobles in the court, his talent can also be seen.

As soon as Zan Wanshou, who was angry, returned to the inn, a scribe from the Sichuan Preparation Division slipped into his room. This scribe was a distant relative of his uncle, and when he saw his ugly face, he knew that he was angry with Yu Xing. The scribe persuaded him with a smile on his face: "Lord Zan don't need to be angry, Lord Liu Cheng of Luzhou suffered even more a few days ago. If you want to please Lord Yu, you must pay more filial piety to some money." Hearing this, Zan Wanshou said: "Before the visit, I also ordered someone to send jade calligraphy and paintings worth hundreds of taels of silver." "A few hundred taels of silver can enter the eyes of Lord Yu, and Lord Zan has to use more money." The scribe sneered again.

Although Zan Wanshou had heard that Yu Xing's father and son were extremely greedy for money when he was in Lin'an, he did not expect them to be so greedy. You must know that twenty taels of silver can provide food and clothing for a Lin'an family, and a few hundred taels of silver is already the food and clothing needs of dozens of families for a year. Thinking that although he is old, he is still not enough to deal with all parties, how can low-level bureaucrats survive if they do not loot the people's fat and ointment? Thinking that this bad habit of officialdom must have become a trend, the heroic passion in my heart at the moment can't help but dissipate most of it, and I wonder if I can't be corrupt or corrupt, can I gain a foothold in Sichuan officialdom? If you strictly discipline your subordinates, will you alienate yourself and disobey orders?

Angry to angry, Zan Wanshou still ordered someone to take a few pieces of jewelry and jade from his ancestors to exchange for silver taels, and secretly sent Yu Xing over at night. Sure enough, when he visited again the next day, Yu Xing's attitude was much kinder, and his face changed from yesterday's cloudy to today's first glow after the rain. not only held his hand to reminisce about the past, but also kept praising him for being young and promising, and he would definitely enter the cabinet to worship the prime minister in the future, which was much stronger than Ouyang Xuan. At the mention of Ouyang Xuan, Yu Xing's face was clouded again. He warned Zan Wanshou not to give Ouyang Xuan closeness, but to be more vigilant. Ouyang Xuan's way of doing it in the Thunderbolt Army was definitely not the way of a sage, and he was really a bastard. Yu Xing didn't say that it was okay, but this statement aroused Zan Wanshou's curiosity even more. He had heard of the Thunderbolt Army and Ouyang Xuan in Lin'an, but there were different opinions.

The setting sun slowly sinks towards the horizon, and a white mist creeps up on the river. "My lord, I have ordered the boatman to dock at the river in front of him, and he will set off early tomorrow and arrive at the boundary of Jiading at noon." The person who spoke was a young general named Hou Xing, who went to Jiading with Zan Wanshou to take up his post. According to the Song system, the chief officer of one side can recommend lower-level officials and subordinates, Zan Wanshou considered that the western Sichuan where he served was a place of frequent wars, so he recommended Hou Xingchong, who was strong in martial arts and familiar with military books, to serve as a general to assist in handling military affairs in Jiading. "It's quite inconvenient to sail at night, and your arrangement is very proper", Zan Wanshou had no objection to Hou Xing's arrangement.

Seeing that it was getting late, Zan Wanshou was about to turn around and go back to the cabin, but he heard a sailor on the accompanying ship shouting loudly, "Who is coming to the ship, can't you see that this is an official ship?" Quickly avoid". He turned to look, and saw more than a dozen ships appear upstream, except for a large one, the rest were small boats. These ships only occupied the middle of the river and went down the river, and they came very quickly. They didn't pay attention to the shouting, not only did they not avoid it, but they accelerated towards the official ship, which made Zan Wanshou and Hou Xing a little annoyed. According to the Song system, civilian ships should have been given way to official ships, but not only did the ships not take the initiative to avoid them, but also did not go half of each way according to the rules for sailing on the water, but went on a rampage. For this kind of rude behavior, Zan Wanshou can deal with the crime of the ship boss, and even order it to sink directly.

Hou Xing saw that the incoming ship was rushing faster and faster, and in order to avoid a collision of the ships, he ordered the helmsman to avoid it urgently, and on the other hand, he ordered the soldiers on the ship to prepare for battle. He had already faintly noticed that something was wrong with the coming boat. Except for the large boat led by the leader, which was not clear because of the wooden plank, it could be seen that the small boat following behind was full of shadowy people, about no less than a hundred people, and they all seemed to be carrying long and short weapons. The fleet that does not avoid the official ships at night is by no means an ordinary civilian ship, not even a bandit, but only one possibility - the enemy. If the other party is also an official ship, they will slow down and report to each other, and wait for the ship with the higher official rank to go first. They even docked on the shore together and had a good drink.

The sky was hazy, and just as the fleets on both sides were about to meet, Hou Xing was surprised to find that the ship led by the ship had already removed the wooden planks from the cabin at some point, and several large iron pipes on the side of the ship were burning with bright and extinguishing fires. He suddenly remembered that there was a very powerful weapon called artillery in western Sichuan, which was mostly installed on castle fortresses or ships. It was with this weapon that the Thunderbolts were able to defeat the Mongol army repeatedly. Could it be a Thunderbolt ship? The thought flashed through his mind, and in a fit of urgency, he shouted orders for the ship to speed up. The sailors on board got his orders and began to paddle rapidly. Different from ordinary civilian boats, official ships are often equipped with the position of the oarsman and supporting equipment in order to catch up with the speed. Zan Wanshou went all the way upstream, so he was also equipped with oarsmen.

The ship accelerated abruptly under Hou Xing's order, and in the blink of an eye, it was quite a bit out. As soon as it was too late, Zan Wanshou's ship had just intersected with the opponent's big ship, and a series of huge explosions exploded one after another, and the shining white light reflected the wide river, and it turned out that the other party was a gunboat. Under the huge impact, the gunboat was also pushed sideways and almost overturned, swaying for a long time before it stopped undulating, and then it was enveloped in huge white smoke. Hou Xing came back to his senses after the explosion, he wiped the sweat on his forehead and looked back, and the cold sweat on his back was dripping down again. An officer ship accompanying him behind him had been battered to pieces, and the side of the ship facing the enemy's gunboat fire was filled with dead and wounded soldiers, and many parts of the hull were already on fire and were crackling and burning.