In the far southwest of Hengday, there are plateaus and barren mountains.

A little to the north, there is a desolate vast grassland.

This is the junction of the easternmost border of the Western Feihuang Kingdom and the southwesternmost part of Hengyang. Since the Feihuang Kingdom was broken by Heng Day, this place was naturally included in the territory of Heng Day.

Heng Sun built a city here and established state capitals and counties. Nominally, it is to educate the people, but in fact, the main purpose is to guard against the barbarian witches behind the barren mountains of the southwest plateau.

The emperor sent envoys deep into the barren mountains of the plateau many times to find barbarian witches, trying to contact them and establish communication. But the barbarian witch has always been mysterious, and basically every time the messenger returns in vain, and even the location of the barbarian witch tribe has not been found. Or maybe there is no return.

However, it is not the barbarians who need to be guarded against now, but the rebels hiding in the mountains.

General Bashao's counterinsurgency army was stationed here.

The task of the counterinsurgency army is naturally to counterinsurgency, but this grassland is vast, and behind the grassland is the boundless vast mountains, and it is said that there are mysterious and terrifying barbarian witches in the deep mountains and old forests behind the mountains, how can this quell the rebellion?

But His Majesty still doesn't understand, and often openly condemns him in the court for Bashao's counterinsurgency.

Indeed, the counter-insurgents have been stationed here for a long time. Spending countless money and food, but not accomplishing any merits, His Majesty is naturally dissatisfied.

But Ba Shao can't help it!

Hit it, you can't beat it, you can't even catch a figure. Withdraw your troops, and the rebels will set the plains on fire in this southwestern location.

Ba Shao is very embarrassed, and His Majesty the Emperor is also very embarrassed.

In fact, according to Bashao's words, this southwestern land is full of people!

With 300,000 rebels, why can they hide in this mountain? Not to mention anything else, the 300,000 people who eat, drink, and Lazar alone is a big problem. Are all 300,000 people hunters? How to provide food and clothing?

Without the support of these Diao people in the southwest, how could so many rebels be able to hide!

And the most troublesome thing is that behind the counterinsurgency army, natural and man-made disasters happened to occur in the southwest of the Heng Sun Empire, which caused a wave of refugees.

The so-called natural disasters are naturally the disasters of great drought and flooding, which made the original vast land without harvest and starvation all over the wilderness.

And man-made disasters are also one of the purposes of His Majesty the Emperor's southern tour, which will be recounted later.

Bashao's army is stationed here, and it is really like sitting on pins and needles.

The supply of food and grass for the 100,000 counterinsurgency army was transported from the rear through the disaster area with great difficulty, but on the way, it was necessary to prevent the rush of the hungry and red-eyed victims.

They are all their own people, and it is not appropriate to use too slow or radical means.

However, when there was a great drought in the southwest realm of the original territory of the Heng Sun Empire, there was a sufficient water source flowing down from the snow-capped mountains of the plateau in the territory of the former Feihuang Kingdom further west.

Originally, this water source flowed eastward along the river and through the area of constant day drought into the sea. However, due to natural disasters, after flowing through the original Feihuang border, it dried up and disappeared.

As if deliberately, it made the Heng Tian Dry Area desperate. Do you say that people are angry?

Rumors suddenly spread. What is the eternal day, the king is unreasonable, the people are unkind, and the heavens are angry and condemn him. The rebels are also becoming more rampant.

The rebels held high the banner of the way of heaven and declared to the world:

Heaven and earth are unkind, and all things are dogs, and all heavens and earth are equal. The Heng Sun Empire marched against the sky, divided the people into the noble and the low, and practiced the way of respect and humility from the upper and lower levels, which was to send great disasters from heaven and condemn them in anger! Our army marched along the sky, walking the way for the heavens, equalizing the fields, cultivating the same crops, sharing the wealth, and sharing the responsibility. There is no difference between high and low, and there is no difference between thin and thick things, which is blessed by heaven and earth. The world is unified, the world is the same!

Heng Sun destroyed the countries one after another, and although the people of the countries were included in the Heng Day, they were estranged from the local people of Heng Sun after all, and they were often blinded and bullied. At this moment, the rebels shouted: "All are equal!"

Can the people of all countries not support it?

The peasants and industrialists were strictly hierarchical, and the oppression of the peasants by the landlords in the southwest was particularly severe. But the cultivator had no land, and in the end all the toil of the year was handed over, and he could not even eat enough. At this time, the rebels shouted: "Equal land, cultivate together!"

The vast number of local farmers and friends in Heng Sun will also support it!

The southwestern region has just been hit by a natural disaster, and most of the people who have suffered have gone to the east and north.

Why not head west?

Because the west was incorporated into the territory after the eternal day broke out other countries, and it was still a citizen of another country a few decades ago. How did the local people discriminate against other people's countries and ruined people in the past? Now that you have suffered a disaster, you think of asking others to help you?

Even if the Heng Sun Imperial Court issued a writ ordering joint disaster relief, it would be useless if no one responded at the bottom.

Everyone did superficial work and did perfunctory things.

At this time, it was the rebels who came out and shouted: "Share the burden with wealth and wealth!"

We, the old people of other countries, are not inhuman, we do not accept you, but we have a small request. Come, join the rebels, and join us in overthrowing the tyrant of the ever-day!

Knock it down, push it! You don't care about him! At least there is food to eat!

Everyone was crying bitterly, and it felt like they had finally found an organization!

For a time, the rebel army developed rapidly, and at once it pulled up a team of 300,000 horses. Since then, it has been in a stalemate with the Hengyang court.

On this day, the sun was scorching overhead.

The capital of Heng Day moves from autumn to winter, but the southwest land is from spring to summer. Actually, there is not much difference, it is summer all year round. The so-called winter is only when it is not so hot.

At noon, the storyteller was walking on the avenue.

The little donkey he was holding behind him was also hot enough, and he followed weakly as if he had been beaten.

The old gentleman was tired and hot, but when he looked back at the donkey's appearance, he couldn't bear to ride it anymore, so he went by himself.

Roll up your sleeves and wipe the beads of sweat rolling down your neck, squint your eyes and raise your hands to cover the shade, and look into the distance. In the village in front, there is a road of cooking smoke in a straight line, straight into the sky.

The old gentleman took a sip of water, raised the water bladder again, fed the little donkey water, lifted his spirits, and pulled the donkey forward.

Turning the corner, the village was close at hand, and it was a short walk away, but the old gentleman suddenly stopped.

The old gentleman bent down and looked carefully at his feet.

Then, he squatted down again, and even lay on the side of the hot avenue, carefully observing the broken weeds on the side of the road.

The road surface is dry and hard, but the weeds on the roadside are slightly softer. Tend to be softer ground, will carry more information.

The old gentleman brushed aside the sparse weeds, looked at them carefully for a while, stood up, and was stunned for a moment.

The little donkey was still behind and drooping its head weakly.

The old gentleman came back to his senses, dragged the donkey and hurried forward.

The little donkey straightened its neck, snorted in dissatisfaction, and moved its hooves to hurry forward.

Soon, a man and a donkey entered the village.

The villagers in the village saw it and greeted each other: "Mr. Wen, you are here!"

The old gentleman also waved and said hello, but hurried under his feet.

Walking to a fenced yard, a half-old child was repairing farm tools, smashing a wooden wedge into the harrow hole with a hammer.

The child raised his head and saw Mr. Wen at the entrance of the yard, and immediately put down the work in his hand and shouted, "Mom, Mr. Wen is here!"

A woman in the kitchen of the next room leaned out and greeted with a smile: "Mr. Wen, you are here!

Then he shouted in a loud voice: "Chun'er, pour a bowl of tea for the old gentleman!"

The boy had already come with herbal tea, held it to the old gentleman, and said, "Sir, if you are thirsty, take a sip of tea to go to the heat." ”

The old gentleman took the tea and drank it all.

The boy beckoned, "Sir, come in, it's cool in the house." ”

The old gentleman grabbed the child's sleeve and asked eagerly, "Chun'er, let me ask you, have you heard any strange noises recently?"

The kid frowned and thought for a moment, "Strange sound?"

The old gentleman reminded: "The sound is very loud, like the drums of war." ”

The child remembered and said, "Oh, yes! It was that night, like thunder, that the dogs in the village were woken up and barked for half the night!"

The old gentleman asked, "Think about it, what night was it?"

The child tried to think about it and said, "It's been more than half a month......

The old gentleman returned the bowl to him and said, "Okay, Chun'er, I'll go first, you can say hello to your mother, say hello for me!"

With that, he took the donkey and left.

The boy shouted anxiously from behind, "Hey, sir, you have eaten before you go!"

The old gentleman waved his hand behind his back: "Don't eat it, I still have dry food in my bag!"

......

Night shrouded the wilderness, and the barracks of Bashao's counterinsurgency army were silent.

Under the moonlight in the field, a young man broke through the night and came from a distance in the direction of Bashao's army.

Mr. Wen is waiting here. The moon was dim, and the young man was so tall and thin that he couldn't see his face clearly.

The man approached, and Mr. Wen stepped forward and asked, "Childe, how is it?"

The young man replied, "I didn't dare to get too close, but I took advantage of the night to look in the distance, and the number of barracks of Bashao's army was still undiminished. ”

The old gentleman said, "No, I did see horses' hoof prints on the side of the road, and the villagers heard the roar of cavalry running by." ”

The young man nodded and said, "You're right, most of the camp should be empty!"

"Oh?"

"Especially the war horses, there are at least seven or eight out of ten missing!"

The old gentleman asked, "Now that we are sure, do we have to do something?"

The young man said: "The point of righteousness is from three hundred, and you will set off with me early tomorrow morning." ”

Mr. Wen frowned and asked, "Three hundred, will it be too little?"

The young man smiled and said: "Heng Tian will not withdraw his troops easily, let's not act rashly, wait for me to go to the rear to investigate." ”

The old gentleman nodded: "Okay!"