Zhou Xian stayed in Kaifeng for five days, not for anything else, but for the sake of preventing Zhao Yu from changing his mind. His personality may not necessarily be that after a drunken life, he forgot all his promises.

But this time, it seemed that Zhou Xian was really worried. Zhao Yu seemed to have made up his mind and put out the store the next day and posted a notice for selling the house. Although Zhao's house was dilapidated, he was in the golden position of Kaifeng City. The only place was sold for 2,000 taels of silver, which was enough for him to spend all the expenses in the capital.

Zhou Xian kept sending him to the merchant ship to the capital, and then returned to Liangchunyuan and wrote a letter to his brother Zhou Zhen. His original plan was to meet Zhao Yu and then go back to Wuyang to meet Zhou Zhen. However, after delaying these few days, the time to go to Xiangyang had been delayed. In addition, after hearing Zhao Yu talk about the situation in Henan, he knew that it was not easy to go from northern Henan to southern Henan. He could only go to Xiangyang first and wait until he had time to go to Wuyang from there.

After writing the letter, Zhou Xian asked Li Kai to send it to the exclusive inn. About three days later, the letter could reach Zhou Zhen. Zhou Xian also decided to change the route, first take a boat to Huainan to avoid the civil war zone, and then ride a horse to Xiangfan area. Although the journey would take a lot of time, it was much safer. In troubled times, Zhou Xian always thought that saving his life was the first priority. Unless he encountered those things that had to be done, he would do it even if he tried his best to do it.

The canal transport was the north and south arteries of the Ming Dynasty. Especially when the north was in a major drought, the grain supply in the south was always the foundation for maintaining the stability of the capital and most areas in the north. Therefore, the Ming Dynasty court has tried its best to maintain the safety of the Grand Canal of the Beijing-Hangzhou. Near Dongchang Prefecture, there are nearly 10,000 Shandong soldiers maintain the safety of the Shandong River section, and in the Huainan area, there are also tens of thousands of canals in the section from Shandong to Hangzhou.

Even when the Ming Dynasty was destroyed, Lu Zhenfei, the governor of the canal transportation, still had tens of thousands of canal soldiers. If it weren't for the dismissal of Ma Shiying later, his successor would have been incompetent. The Qing army would have had to go south for some twists and turns. Lu Zhenfei was not valued in the court of King Fu after he had no soldiers and power. Later, after he surrendered to Emperor Longwu, although he was valued, he could not change the situation. After Tingzhou was defeated, he died on the way.

Therefore, in the late Ming Dynasty, waterways were always the safest way.

As Zhou Xian expected, he went south through the waterway and had no obstacles. After arriving in Huainan, he rode his horse to the west. After about twenty days on the road, Zhou Xian finally arrived in Xiangyang. But at this time, Yang Sichang had already gone to Jingzhou, so he and Li Kai hurried to Jiangling again. He finally met him outside Jiangling City before Yang Sichang went to Sichuan.

But the situation at this time was no longer comparable to a few months ago. At that time, Yang Sichang commanded the army to defeat Zhang Xianzhong and completely forced the latter to the Jedi. At this time, the official army he commanded was exhausted and could not figure out where Zhang Xianzhong was. He was useless to spend money, but he still had no gains.

Yang Sichang's former plan to "set up a net on all sides" was based on the peasant army's clothes and poor mobility in winter. He used the three months of winter to completely eliminate the thieves. In the past three months of winter, Yang Sichang did achieve great results and repeatedly defeated Zhang Xianzhong. However, Zhang Xianzhong was not destroyed, but after suffering huge losses, he joined forces with Luo Rucai, Ma Huihui and other rebels to resist the official army.

In addition, the weather gradually became hotter, and the mobility of the peasant army was restored. With the horses under their crotch, they often traveled nearly 300 miles a day in one day, sometimes east and west, sometimes south and sometimes north, and their whereabouts were uncertain.

Due to his personality, Yang Sichang himself did not handle the relationship between the generals well, which led to the two brave generals who could rely on the suppression of the thieves and He Renlong who refused to obey the orders completely, and there were many conflicts between the other generals. Sometimes, in order to protect himself, his generals actually knew where Zhang Xianzhong was, but they were unwilling to send troops to fight him. This led to his smooth journey and he could not be completely wiped out.

In addition, there was a severe drought in the north and south, and the autumn grain was not yet submerged, and the people were hungry. As the number of thieves gradually increased, Zhang Xianzhong's strength was restored in a short period of time. Not long ago, Zhang Xianzhong defeated the official army in Kuizhou Prefecture, and the situation worsened again. Sichuan Governor Shao Jiechun was incompetent, and there were no traces of peasant troops in various parts of Hubei. Yang Sichang wanted to go to Chongqing in person to preside over the encirclement and suppression matters.

When Zhou Xian arrived, he was surprised by Yang Sichang's changes. After a year, his black hair on his head had begun to turn white. Although his eyes were still sharp, they were missing the light of the past, and he looked extremely tired. He met Zhou Xian's gaze last year, waved his hand casually, and signaled him to sit down. "Come?"

Zhou Xian nodded, bowed and said, "Student, thank you for your help."

"Your Majesty did not intend to kill you, and I just followed the trend. But you did offend a lot of people in the court. In the future, you must be very cautious when doing things. This time I recruit you to the army, so don't think it is a good thing. Soon, I will go to Sichuan to suppress the thieves, and Mr. Wan will go first as a military supervisor. I want to give you a hundred soldiers to protect Mr. Wan's safety, are you willing?"

Zhou Xian originally thought that Yang Sichang would lead him to the army, but he never thought that at this moment he actually asked himself to be a security guard, and he couldn't help feeling a little sad. But that faintness passed by in a flash. After all, he had just come here. He stood up respectfully and bowed: "In the army, sir is the commander of the first army. Zhou Xian should obey all orders."

The trace of disappointment on Zhou Xian's face fell into Yang Sichang's eyes, but he chose to ignore it and said lightly: "Since you agree, go down and take a break! I will ask Mr. Wan to come to find you later, and you will go with him tomorrow." After that, he waved his hand again, and a personal soldier stepped forward to wave his hand to signal Zhou Xian to go out.

Zhou Xian bowed to Yang Sichang again and followed the personal soldier to the residence.

On the way, he kept recalling Yang Sichang's words. In fact, he didn't say much to himself. But judging from his expression, the war situation would definitely not be optimistic. Otherwise, he would not have even had time to reminisce with him.

Zhou Xian remembered that in the original history, about half a year later. When Yang Sichang was far away in Sichuan, Zhang Xianzhong sneaked into Xiangyang City, killed King Xiang and obtained all the military supplies stored by Yang Sichang. This eventually led to Yang Sichang's despair and eventually chose to go on a hunger strike.
Chapter completed!