The towering Taihang Mountains are more than 800 miles long, running from northeast to southwest. The mountains are steep and dangerous, like a barrier separating the Hebei Plain and the Shanxi Plateau. However, there is a saying that goes well: there must be a road before the car reaches the mountain, and there must be a road before the boat arrives.

The bridge head is naturally straight.

Although the Taihang Mountains are towering and steep, they are not impassable. The valleys between the peaks have become the main transportation routes through this mountain. Since ancient times, there have been eight important roads through the Taihang Mountains, called Taihang Bajing, Pu

Yinxing and Feihuxing are one of them.

This time Li Jing sent troops from Yi County in Shanggu County via Puyinxing, arriving at Laiyuan County first, and then via Feihuxing to attack Lingqiu County in Yanmen County. Unfortunately, due to his sudden assassination, the plan ultimately failed.

At this moment, Gao Bufan was walking on Puyinxing with his fifty cavalry soldiers. He saw that the mountains around him were rising continuously, towering and steep, but the road was still barely passable by carriages. Li Jing had spent several months repairing it.

As a result, in order to facilitate the passage of baggage vehicles, and a post station was built every twenty miles for military couriers to rest and transmit messages, it can be seen that Li Jing was indeed well prepared this time.

Around afternoon, the terrain in front of us suddenly opened up, and we saw a small city in front of us surrounded by mountains.

Gao Dahe, the captain of the soldiers, pointed and said: "Look, King Qi, that should be the town of Laiyuan County."

Laiyuan County is under the jurisdiction of Shanggu County. It is a mountain basin with a small area and an estimated permanent population of no more than 10,000. This is an important base for Li Jing's logistics supply. All military supplies will be transported here first for storage and then transferred.

Gao Bufan and others rushed to the outside of Laiyuan County. Guo Xiangxin, the magistrate of Laiyuan County who had received the news in advance, led the local officials several miles out of the city to wait.

"Guo Xiangxin, the magistrate of Laiyuan County, pays homage to the King of Qi." Magistrate Guo led the crowd to kneel down to greet him, very respectfully.

Gao Bufan rolled over and fell off his horse, helped the gray-haired old county magistrate up and said: "Without courtesy, everyone, please get up."

Since Shanggu County moved to Youzhou under the leadership of the governor Lu Hongsheng, the local officials have not changed. They are still the same team. Everyone is seeing the King of Qi for the first time today, so they are all very nervous. At this time

Seeing that Gao Bufan was so approachable and obviously not a difficult person to serve, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Everyone exchanged a few pleasantries, and Magistrate Guo flattered him and said: "King Qi has had a hard time traveling and traveling all the way. I have prepared a small amount of wine for King Qi and all the soldiers to cleanse themselves from the dust. I also invite King Qi to follow me into the city to enjoy it."

"

The sun was still quite high now. Gao Bufan originally planned to rush to Feihu Ridge in one go, but when he saw the cautious flattery smiles on the faces of all the local officials present, he couldn't help but feel moved in his heart, so he nodded and said: "That's fine!

"

Magistrate Guo was overjoyed and said quickly: "Please, King Qi."

Gao Bufan was about to take a step when he suddenly stopped again, pointed at an inconspicuous scribe in the team and asked, "May I ask what I call this dear fellow?"

County Magistrate Guo was slightly stunned, then carefully introduced him: "King Qi, this person is the chief executive of this county. His surname is Chu Mingliang, and his surname is Ximing."

The county secretary was just a minor official responsible for managing household registration documents. He was not a professional and could only stand at the back of the team to fill in the number of people. Therefore, County Magistrate Guo had no intention of introducing this person at first. Unexpectedly, Gao Bufan took the initiative to ask.

However, County Magistrate Guo only thought that Chu Liang's stinky face made King Qi unhappy, so he secretly regretted bringing this guy out, frowned and shouted: "Chu Ximing, why are you standing there, why don't you come to see King Qi?"

After hearing this, Chu Sihu stepped forward and saluted with neither humility nor arrogance: "I have met His Highness King Qi."

Gao Bufan took a look at this person and found that he was about fifty years old, with a calm demeanor. Although he was dressed in simple clothes, his face was full of bookishness. Maybe this was the so-called self-confidence of poetry and poetry, and the officials present They all had smiles on their faces, but this person had been silent all the time. He seemed to be looking on coldly and looked out of place, so he attracted Gao Bufan's attention.

"Who is Chu Sihu from?" Gao Bufan asked with a smile.

Chu Liang's heartbeat suddenly accelerated a little, and he replied: "I am a member of the Qian Tang family in Hangzhou, and my ancestral home is Yangzhai, Henan."

Gao Bufan nodded thoughtfully when he heard the words, and said nothing more. He just walked towards the city gate. Chu Liang's eyes flashed with a trace of imperceptible disappointment, and his heartbeat returned to normal. He silently retreated to the back of the team and returned to the city gate. Return to silence.

When Gao Bufan entered Laiyuan County, the county magistrate Guo Xiangxin prepared a reception banquet. However, this meal was not a light wine. The delicacies of mountains and seas were really available "by sea, land and air". For the poor people in Laiyuan County with less than 10,000 people, For a small county, it was extremely luxurious. Gao Bufan estimated that the cost of this meal should be enough to feed ten ordinary households for several months. Moreover, after the banquet, Magistrate Guo made very considerate arrangements. Having two beautiful maids to serve Gao Bufan for the night also benefited a group of soldiers, each of whom received one hundred pence.

As night fell, candles were burning in the room. Gao Bufan sat behind the case, holding a charcoal pencil and tapping lightly on a map of Yanmen County.

At this time, the guard captain Gao Dahe came in, placed a large bag of heavy copper coins on the ground, and sneered: "Your Highness, King Qi, this County Magistrate Guo really doesn't know what to say, he actually gave each of the brothers a hundred coins. , my subordinates collected all of them."

Gao Bufan nodded and said casually: "Save it for the brothers."

In fact, Gao Bufan's personal soldiers are paid very well. His monthly military salary alone is four thousand cash. Naturally, he will not take a mere one hundred cash in his eyes. However, this precedent cannot be set, lest these bastards do whatever they want in the future. When accepting bribes from others, as the saying goes, a thousand-mile embankment breaks down in an ant's nest, and we must be on guard against small mistakes.

"By the way, have you heard what I asked you to inquire about?" Gao Bufan asked.

Gao Dahe replied: "I heard about it, and it turns out that Chu Liang really has some background. He was originally a minister of Nanchen, and he was the minister of the Shangshu Palace. Later, Nanchen was destroyed, and Chu Liang became an official in the Sui Dynasty and served as a scholar of the East Palace. , but this person was too upright, and because his advice offended the emperor, he was demoted to the position of Secretary of the Laiyuan County."

Gao Bufan was overjoyed. It seemed that he had indeed made a mistake. He was a talented person. Being awarded the title of Bachelor of the East Palace by Yang Guang showed that he must be quite talented in literature. Moreover, he was demoted because of his direct remonstrance. His character should not be the same. It will be different.

Conquering the world depends on military generals, but governing the country still relies on civil servants. Currently, Gao Bufan has three pens under his command: Wei Zheng, Du Ruhui, and Wen Yanbo, but it is obviously not enough. It is the people who are in urgent need of such knowledge. Moreover, with the territory As the industry grows bigger and bigger, the demand for talents will continue to grow.

Gao Bufan waved Gao Dahe out, took out a small notebook, and wrote Chu Liang's name on it. It must be said that Boss Gao Dahe's vision is quite vicious, and he is surprisingly lucky. Although Chu Liang is not well-known now,

Although he was not as famous as Yu Shinan, he also wrote a lot of books.

The next day, Magistrate Guo sent Gao Bufan away with a bitter look on his face... Oh, no, Guo Xiangxin is no longer the Magistrate of Laiyuan County, because Gao Bufan let him "resign and return to his hometown" on the grounds that he was old.

, in other words, he was high

The big boss had a surprise, and the person who took over the post of county magistrate was actually the county's secretary--Chu Liang. Not only others were shocked, but even Chu Liang himself was dumbfounded, secretly sighing at the work of His Highness the King of Qi.

Act vigorously!

In fact, Gao Bufan is not a harsh person. He understands that when the water is clear, there will be no fish. However, after the exchange and contact at the reception banquet yesterday, Gao Bufan discovered that this Magistrate Guo is actually an uneducated person who belongs to that group.

He only knows how to flatter a horse and speculate

You said you were greedy and could tolerate it, but you were greedy, mediocre, and incapable of doing things. Gao Bufan couldn't tolerate it, so he found a decent excuse to remove County Magistrate Guo, and made an exception for Chu Liang.

This sihu was appointed acting county magistrate.

Gao Bufan's plan was to first let Chu Liang serve as county magistrate for a period of time and test his abilities. If he was truly a talent, he would then transfer him back to the Central Committee and entrust him with important tasks to enrich his team.

Let's say that after Gao Bufan left Laiyuan County, he arrived at Feihu Ridge at noon. Feihu Ridge is really dangerous, with tall cliffs on both sides. It is literally thousands of feet tall and difficult for monkeys to climb, and there is only a narrow seven or eight meters wide in the middle.

The valley is passable. Li Jing set up a camp here and built fortifications to defend it. Even if you have thousands of troops, you will never be able to get through.

Due to the narrow space on Feihu Ridge, Li Jing's tent was set up at the foot of the ridge. When Gao Bufan came to the tent, Li Jing actually came out to greet him and saluted: "I see you, King Qi."

Gao Bufan's eyes flashed with surprise, and he blurted out: "Second brother, are you injured?"

Although Li Jing's face was a little pale, his movements were fine. He winked and whispered: "Let's talk after we go in!"

Gao Bufan's heart moved. It seemed that his second brother's injury was not as serious as what was written in the emergency report. He was probably trying to cover up other people's eyes and had other motives. He quickly stepped into the tent, while Gao Dahe and other soldiers guarded the tent vigilantly.

Outside the account.

Inside the tent, Gao Bufan checked Li Jing's injuries and found that it was a sword wound, hitting the back of his heart. Fortunately, it did not penetrate. However, this position was also quite dangerous. If the sword tip had penetrated a few inches deeper, it would have stabbed the heart.

"Second brother, have you seen the assassin clearly?" Gao Bufan asked solemnly.

Li Jing shook his head and said: "The other party dressed up as a patrolling soldier, and he was also easy-going. His martial arts skills were extremely high, and he could move away with one strike. Fortunately, I reacted quickly, otherwise I would have already confessed."

Gao Bufan raised his eyebrows and asked in a deep voice: "Second brother, who do you think did it?"

Li Jing muttered: "It's hard to say, but the most suspects should be Li Tang and Liu Wuzhou, especially Li Tang."
Chapter completed!