Heaven and earth are divided into yin and yang, and the world is divided into black and white.

If the yin is prosperous, the yang will decline, and the imperial court will be weak, and there will be a vacancy in the control of the locality, and this part of the vacancy will not be empty forever, but will be filled by other forces.

To take the simplest example, there are beggars in every big city, with great power, who help the government to find out the news, carry corpses, clean up garbage, take care of the floodgates, do some thankless dirty work, or have craftsmanship, it is nothing more than pretending to sell one's body to bury one's father, one's grandson is in distress, pretending to be disabled, etc., saying that it is begging, but in fact it is a deception. The leaders of the beggar gang are all half of the "official faces", and there are tokens symbolizing the authorization of the government. Its leaders have the overwhelming power to kill and seize the underground beggars, and they sit on the beggars on weekdays to worship and live a luxurious life, not only with fine clothes and food, but also with slaves and maids, and often have multiple wives and concubines, and the enjoyment of life is no different from that of rich merchants. Under the general leader, the leaders at all levels live in various dilapidated temples and shrines inside and outside the city, and each has its own territory. The domain is distinct. No beggar shall cross the line to beg at the entrance of the hall. Outside beggars also have to register at the entrance of the main hall to beg, otherwise they will be beaten and expelled, or they will be killed and then tied to a stone and sunk into the river.

Just in Langya Mansion, there are more than 5,000 registered beggars.

The beggar gang is just a gang, and further up, there are large and small sects, as well as the power of the Jianghu sect such as the princes of one side. After the establishment of the Great Wei Dynasty, the implementation of the policy of banning the sea was equivalent to the Great Wei court taking the initiative to give up the Sifang sea area, so the Tianzong, Qingweizong, and Cihangzong filled this vacancy, occupying the Beihai, East China Sea, and South China Sea respectively, developing fleets, monopolizing sea trade, and thus prospering.

And the prosperity of the sect is also closely related to the imperial court, the reason why the Soap Pavilion Sect will develop back then is because the Golden Horde entered the Central Plains, killing rivers of blood, corpses and mountains of blood, which made the Soap Pavilion Sect, which is proficient in the method of refining corpses, prosperous, and with the subsidence of the war, the weakening of the Soap Pavilion Sect is also reasonable. At the time of the previous dynasty, the Zhengyi Sect was repeatedly sealed, making the Zhengyi Sect known as the head of the world's Taoist sects, which was extremely powerful. During this dynasty, Zhengyizong was repeatedly suppressed, so that its status and momentum weakened, and Shenxiao Sect was repeatedly sealed by the imperial court, so that it was able to dominate Jingzhou.

Nowadays, with the repeated decline of the imperial court, the "vacancy" is constantly exposed, and the clans and wealthy families continue to fill these vacancies and exercise part of the power of the imperial court on behalf of them, and the resulting situation is that the imperial court is weak and the rivers and lakes are strong, and the development to this day, the imperial court has to cooperate with local wealthy families in some places in order to stabilize the situation, especially in the south of the Yangtze River.

The governor of Jingchu is known as the place in charge of the three states, namely: Luzhou, Chuzhou, and Jingzhou, but among these three states, the governor of Jingchu has the weakest control over Jingzhou, because Jingzhou is the thoroughfare of several states, connecting Jiangbei in the north, Jiangnan in the south, and adjacent to Zhongzhou, Qinzhou, and Shuzhou. And Yunmengze is known as the eight hundred miles of Yunmeng, the vast lake, countless islands, when the Great Jin Dynasty was at its peak, he had trained the water division here, and he might be able to completely control it, but now not to mention that the Great Wei court is weak, just the water division has been abolished for nearly a hundred years, which is really not worth mentioning.

So the big ship of Li Xuandu and others sailed all the way unimpeded on the vast blue waves of Yunmengze, without seeing the pursuers or any obstacles. This is also one of the reasons why Li Xuandu immediately decided to switch to Jingzhou after the road was closed by the soldiers and horses of the Jingchu Governor's Mansion in Luzhou. Unless the governor of Jingchu can mobilize all the local forces in Jingzhou at this time, the leader of which is the Shenxiao Sect, but now the Shenxiao Sect is trapped in the infighting between Sanxuan Zhenren and Ling Chong Daoist and can't extricate himself, where will he come to take care of other people's affairs.

Zhao Lianggeng has also made it clear that after the disappearance of him, the governor of Jingchu, the entire governor's yamen, including his two sons, the first reaction was definitely not to find someone. To save people, it is necessary to have a fight first, and to quarrel with a result, whether to find someone or to promote the new governor, and Zhao Lianggeng also has expectations for the outcome of this battle, most of which is a two-pronged approach, just like the means of suppressing the rebellion, his two sons also have to make two preparations, one is the preparation for Zhao Lianggeng to seize power after being killed, and the other is the preparation for Zhao Lianggeng's safe return, in this situation, Li Xuandu and others seem to be a risky move, but in fact it is the safest way, enough to leave the scene safely.

After listening to Zhao Lianggeng's words, Li Xuandu was not surprised, because he grew up in the Qingwei Sect, and this kind of intrigue was less than He Zeng. For the sake of power, the master and apprentice are not like the master and apprentice, and the father and son are not like the father and the son.

After sailing like this for two days, he was still in Yunmengze. Yunmengze is divided into two parts by the river, the part in the north of the river is located in Jingzhou, and the part in the south of the Yangtze River is located in Xiaozhou, and this lake has also become the dividing line between the two states. Because of Zhao Lianggeng's changes, Li Xuandu and others deliberately deviated from the original established route, and did not enter the river from the lake, but came to Yunmengze in Xiaozhou.

After another day's travel, you can already see a small lakeside town. This is already the territory of Yiyang Mansion in Xiaozhou, and it is necessary to go all the way to the north, enter the territory of Wuling Mansion, return to Jingzhou through Shimen County, and then go up the river, and you can reach the White Emperor City in about ten years.

The group abandoned the ship and went ashore to the small town, where they rested and then prepared to hire a horse-drawn carriage instead. Su Yuncheng smiled at Li Xuandu and said: "Speaking of Xiaozhou, Yu Qingning is the landlord, but it's a pity that she went to Qizhou, not in Xiaozhou at this time, Zifu is from Qizhou, have you ever seen her?"

Li Xuandu nodded and said: "I have seen it, I wanted to do a little bit of the friendship of the landlord, but I was summoned to Luzhou by Zhang Luanshan in a letter, and I met you halfway." ”

Speaking of this, Li Xuan couldn't help laughing at himself: "It is said that it is the friendship of landlords, and I am not worthy of the name of the landlord." ”

Yan Feiqing said: "Speaking of this, it's also ours, we thought that Zifu could talk about the old sword god, but we didn't want the old sword god to be like this...... Resolute. ”

The palace official sneered: "There are many idle clouds and wild cranes on the rivers and lakes who claim not to be interested in fame and fortune, but in my opinion, it is very funny, these people have never had real power, but they claim to dislike power, they are not famous and rich, but they boast that they do not want fame and fortune, whether they are unwilling or not, whether they are content and happy, or self-comfort, but they have to think about it." Who really has the power in his hands, who is willing to let go easily? And he will continue to pursue greater power, and after dominating the rivers and lakes, he still wants to be the emperor, and after becoming the emperor, he wants to live forever, which is called 'the human heart is not enough to swallow the elephant', and this has been the case since ancient times. Heroes and heroes can not like women, they can not love gold and silver, and even the word 'love' has been abandoned, but few people can escape the word 'power'. ”

Although Li Xuandu knew that the palace official was talking about his teacher, he was irrefutable, so he could only sigh helplessly.

Song Fuchen didn't say a word, just walked silently.

Zhao Lianggeng, who was walking side by side with Li Xuandu, suddenly spoke: "The palace girl can see it thoroughly. In fact, whether it is the Earth Master or the Holy Monarch, who doesn't think so? If it weren't for the sake of power, what would they be planning so hard for?"

The palace official snorted lightly: "I don't know what the earth master thinks, but I know that the Holy Monarch is not for any power. ”

Zhao Lianggeng knew his current situation, and he didn't go to the palace official, lowered his eyes and was silent for a while, then raised his head again, but looked at Li Xuandu: "What does Zifu think?"

Li Xuandu said: "Power and responsibility are equal, if you have power and fulfilled your duties, then it is beyond reproach, you are afraid that you have power, but you do not fulfill your duties, and even abuse your power, this is not allowed." ”

Zhao Lianggeng smiled and said: "Zifu is talking about me, so does Zifu think that I, the governor, have fulfilled my duty or not?"

The group deliberately distanced themselves from the many servants who followed behind, and they were not afraid of being heard, and at this time, several people were silent when they heard Zhao Lianggeng's words.

Li Xuandu said: "I think Zhao Butang has at least fulfilled part of his duties, otherwise I would not have deliberately left Zhao Butang's life." And in today's world, no one can be willful, and a small willfulness is enough to let himself fall to his current position. ”

Zhao Lianggeng smiled and said: "To be able to get such an evaluation from Zifu, I also have some confidence in my heart." ”