The new year had just begun in the first month of this year. In the Central Plains, Liu Yu carefully fulfilled his responsibilities to the Jin Kingdom and sent his prince Liu Lin to lead his troops across the Huaihe River to attack Wu. At the same time, Da Qi envoys went north to the Jin Kingdom to persuade Wu Qi Mai, Zong Han, Zong Fu and others sent troops to conquer the south - this was not the first time. For two or three years, Liu Yu knew that he could not defeat the Wu Dynasty with his own strength, and he was also worried about the black flag spies in the court. He could kill himself at any time and at any time, and he has been looking forward to the Jin Kingdom going south to solve all the problems once and for all.
However, in March, something big happened in the Jin Dynasty court. Wu Qimai suffered a stroke and collapsed, and he could never stand up again. Although he still dealt with state affairs every day, the discussion about the Southern Expedition had a great impact on Qi Dynasty. The messenger closes.
The emperor was ill, and even the Jin Kingdom had to stabilize its internal affairs first. Naturally, the southern expedition had to be put on hold.
Liu Lin was defeated when he crossed the river, and he led his remaining troops back to defeat Yangyang. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. They looked at the Kingdom of Jin and the southwest. The two terrifying forces were quiet and motionless, so that was fine.
For a period of time, everyone can pass by carefully again...
It was also at this time when the spring was warm and the flowers were blooming. Along the thousands of miles from Damingfu to Zhengzhou, the refugees with their families passed by towns and passes with anxious eyes. The nearby government organized manpower to Either blocking, driving, or killing, trying to keep these hungry people out of the territory.
In relatively affluent areas, people in towns experienced the excessive taxation and expropriation imposed by Liu Yu's court and were barely able to survive. Leaving the towns and entering the mountains, forests and wilderness, they gradually entered hell. Bandits and caravans plundered everywhere, and the fleeing people left their hometowns. , there was no shelter anymore, and they gradually gathered towards the place where the "Ghost King" was rumored to be. The government also sent troops and dispersed the refugees led by Wang Shitong twice at the border of Huazhou. The refugees were like a pool. The turbid water was hit several times by fists and scattered, then gradually began to gather again.
This huge wave of refugees occurs every year. Compared with the Kingdom of Jin in the north and the Black Flag in the south, it is not a big deal after all. After killing twice, the army will no longer be enthusiastic. They cannot kill all of them, and sending troops requires money and food. After all, you have to manage your own one-third of an acre of land. Even if it is for the sake of the world, it is impossible to devote all your time to it.
Development is also important.
The Yellow River turns a big bend and rushes all the way to the northeast. From the wilderness near Zhengzhou to the mountains and rivers near Damingfu, in many places, there is no rooster crow for thousands of miles. Compared with when the Wu Dynasty was prosperous, the Central Plains at this time , the population has been reduced to three-quarters, the mud walls of the small villages have collapsed, and they are deserted. Migrants are walking in the wilderness in small and large groups. Bandits who dominate the land and horse bandits who gather together come. Coming and going, most of them were in ragged clothes and had no food on their faces.
In the remaining villages, capable landowners built archery towers and high walls. Many times, they were visited by the government and the army, dragging away carts of goods. Horse thieves also came, and they had no choice but to come, and then Either the horse thieves were scattered, or the high wall was broken, and the killing and fire continued. The woman holding the baby was walking in the mud, and she fell down at some point and could not stand up again. Finally, the child's cry gradually faded away. Disappearance... In a world that has lost order, not many people can protect themselves.
The world of silk and satin, with its well-connected trade routes, has faded away in my memory.
North of Puzhou, Wang Shitong, wearing tattered black clothes and messy hair, squatted on a stone and stared blankly at the dark, chaotic sea of ​​people, hungry and thin people, and his eyes had turned the color of blood.
"Wait a minute, wait a minute..." he muttered to the deputy, who had lost an arm.
Spring is warm and flowers are blooming. Many of the people who went south last year froze to death in that winter. More people gather here every day. Sometimes you can find edible leaves, fruits, and small animals in the woods.
There are fish in the water, and some of the people who abandoned their homes and went south after spring still had some food left.
They are not hungry enough.
You will always be hungry.
To the north of the Yellow River, the original territory of the Tiger King, after Tian Shi succeeded to the throne, he carried out mass killings and a series of reforms. General Yu Yulin held the plow in the field and cultivated it himself. He came up from the field to wash away the mud.
Later, I saw Lou Shuwan, dressed in black, sitting in a hut on the roadside, reading the incoming intelligence.
In the past few years, I have dealt with a lot of things at hand. The woman who worked under the dim oil lamp every night hurt her eyes. Her eyesight was not good and she was short-sighted, so she held the paper with both hands and looked at it close to her like a posture.
After the old man read it, she straightened up. Yu Yulin walked over and realized that the third iron cannon transaction with Nanmian Black Flag was completed.
After last year's coup, Yu Yulin held a large number of troops and held a high position, and his relationship with Lou Shuwan became closer. However, since then, he has spent most of his time in the north stabilizing the situation and keeping an eye on him as an "ally".
Wang Juyun is not a good person, but the two sides don't meet many times.
"The month before last, Wang Juyun's subordinate An Xifu came over to discuss garrison affairs with me and talked about Li Xizhi. I saw that Wang Juyun was interested in starting a war with Li Xizhi, so he came to test our intentions."
Yu Yulin sat down on the chair next to Lou Shuwan. When talking about these things, Lou Shuwan folded his hands on his knees, thought about it, and said with a smile: "War is your business. What do I, a woman, know?"
General Yu, please explain it clearly whether it is good or bad."
Lou Shuwan's words seemed lively, but Yu Yulin had long been accustomed to her distant attitude and didn't care: "When the Tiger King was there, there were three of us in the north of the Yellow River. Now that our two families have joined forces, we can push Li Xizhi to his side.
One push. One of Wang Juyun's meanings is that Li Xizhi is an eggless person. If the Jurchens come to kill him, they must kneel down and beg for mercy. Wang Juyun has made it clear that the chariot and horse are against gold, and Li Xizhi is afraid that Li Xizhi will stab him in the back."
"That means it's good for them, but not for us?" Lou Shuwan smiled.
South of Yanmen Pass and the north bank of the Yellow River are divided into three parts. Generally speaking, it is naturally the territory of Daqi. In fact, the east side is controlled by Liu Yu's confidant Li Xizhi, and Wang Juyun occupies the most chaotic area near Yanmen Pass. They are talking verbally
The Shang also did not surrender to the Jurchens. The Tian family, which was the most developed among them, occupied the mountainous areas where horse racing was not easy, and instead had both sides.
Yu Yulin, Lou Shuwan and others who presided over the killing of the Tiger King this time are considered the rational faction among the forces. Together with the radical Tian Shi and others, they can no longer stand the numerous scum who rely on the Tian family relatives to live in dreams and die. The Tian family has been in power for more than ten years.
The operation has not yet formed a complicated network of interests. After some killings, the internal excitement has been more or less effective. Especially the transaction with Black Flag has allowed their private strength to increase a lot. But due to the previous position
Ambiguous, as long as you don't break up with the Jurchens immediately, there is always some room for change when facing the Jurchens.
"Last year, the hungry ghosts made a big fuss. The eastern states had ten houses and nine empty houses. Now they are in a state of disgrace. As long as there is food, they can eat it. Moreover, with the addition of these iron cannons, it is necessary to choose soft persimmons for military training.
.But the most important thing is not this..."
When Yu Yulin spoke, Lou Shuwan interrupted with a smile: "There is a lot of waste waiting to be done. Where can there be surplus food? If you pick a soft persimmon to train your troops, you might as well pick him. Anyway, we are good people under the command of the Jin Kingdom. It is only natural and right for us to take action against the rebels."
Yu Yulin also laughed: "The most important thing is not this. Wang Juyun, An Xifu and others want to mess with Li Xizhi and provoke Black Flag to take action."
Lou Shuwan was stunned: "Dayan Yanyan, what does it have to do with those people?"
"Black Flag has some business in Shandong."
Lou Shuwan looked at Yu Yulin with deep eyes, but it wasn't that she was confused.
"It's not just Black Flag... Back then, Ning Yi used a plan to defeat Liangshan and borrowed the power of several Zhuangzi in Dulonggang. Later, he also trained troops in Dulonggang and had a close relationship with the two Zhuangzi in Dulonggang. Zhujiazhuang, Zhu Biao and others
People also worked under him. Three years after Xiaocanghe, Black Flag fled south. Although Li Xizhi occupied Shandong, Hebei and other places, the people's customs were strong and he could not take many places by force. Dulonggang, Liangshan and other places
, it’s in it…”
Lou Shuwan naturally understood what Yu Yulin said. When Ning Yi broke through Liangshan and made friends with Dulonggang, a man with fierce folk customs, people didn't realize much. When Ning Yi killed the king, many things were traced back to the past, and people didn't know much about it.
Huo Ran was shocked to realize that Dulonggang was actually one of the origins of Ning Yi's armed forces. It was difficult to tell clearly how many things he left there.
The three-year war at Xiaocanghe scared the Central Plains people. Li Xizhi, who had attacked Xiaocanghe, naturally used troops against Dulonggang after taking control of Shandong, but to be honest, the battle was extremely difficult. Zhu Er of Dulonggang
Under the frontal advance of the officers and soldiers, the family had no choice but to destroy Zhuangzi. After that, they wandered around the Liangshan River and formed bandits, which made Li Xizhi extremely embarrassed. Later, he burned Dulonggang to a white ground without occupying it, and the area became chaos.
The ultimate no-man’s land.
Externally, the force behind the bandits in the Dulonggang and Shuibo areas is now Nanwu, the Black Flag Army's mortal enemy. When Ning Yi committed regicide, many people were implicated, and it was only through the protection of Prince Zhou Junwu, the female concubine of the great Confucian Wang Qisong's family, that he could
Survived, the only Miao king Shanyue, who was a single descendant of the Wang family, was originally an official in the south of the Yangtze River. After the regicide incident, he was protected by his wife Hu Sanniang and went north to take refuge in Hujiazhuang. After the fall of the Central Plains, he did not forget to worry about the country despite his guilt, and always led everyone
They were dealing with Jurchen and Daqi officers and soldiers, so on the surface this place actually belonged to Nanwu's resistance force.
There are not a few forces that care about the Southern Dynasty in the Central Plains, but they are easier for people to tolerate. Li Xizhi failed to attack several times, so he gave up and no one mentioned it too much. But this year, there began to be movement in the south.
, speculations of this kind began to float again.
"Wang Juyun thinks, is there any Black Flag in the north now? Of course there is. Unlike the Black Flag spies in the court and the army, this group in Shandong is probably the elite Black Flag who have fallen down. If Li Xizhi is in chaos,
, with Ning Yi's shrewdness, it is impossible not to come out and take advantage. If he wants to take advantage, he has to take risks. In the future, when the Jurchens go south, the first priority will definitely be Shandong. When the time comes, he will have to rely on you and me, or at least hope.
We can hold on a little longer."
"What if the black flag doesn't move."
"Then the interests of Shandong and Hebei will be shared equally among us. If the Jurchens go south, we can naturally hide in the mountains. Shandong...isn't a big deal."
"...He was determined to fight the Jurchens."
"The country of the Han people can be messed up by you and me, but not by the barbarians. The original words of An Xifudai."
"...Wang Shangshu." Lou Shuwan thought for a while and laughed. She had also seen Wang Yin, the Shangshu of the Yongle Uprising, when she was in Hangzhou. However, she was young at the time and the memories of more than ten years ago came to her mind at this moment.
, has also been blurred, but it has a different feeling in my heart.
At that time, the innocent young woman only had fear in her heart. When she saw the people who entered Hangzhou, she thought they were just rough and incompetent people. At this time, she had seen the fall of the Central Plains, the overthrow of heaven and earth, and held millions of dollars in her hands.
When I was struggling to survive and faced the fear of the Jurchen threat, I suddenly felt that among those who entered the city, there seemed to be a great hero who was upright. This hero was also very different from the original hero.
"He looks like an amazing good man." Yu Yulin said, then stood up and took two steps, "But at this moment, it seems that this heroic man, you and me, everyone in the court, millions of troops, and even the world, all look like
It was because that person was playing tricks on me."
Lou Shuwan's eyes were calm and she didn't speak. Yu Yulin sighed: "It has been confirmed that Ning Yi is still alive. From this point of view, he was also behind the chaos last year. It's ridiculous that we are fighting for our lives.
Death, which affects the life and death of millions of people, is nothing more than someone else's puppet."
Yu Yulin said this without much frustration. Lou Shuwan pressed his thumb lightly on the palm of his hand: "Brother Yu is also a great person in the world. Why belittle oneself? The world is prosperous and everyone is benefiting. He took advantage of the situation and we won."
Benefit, that's all." After she said this, Yu Yulin saw her raise her head and murmured softly: "While applauding..." She didn't know what she thought of this description, but there was a bitter and charming look in her eyes,
It was fleeting. The spring breeze blew the hair of this independent woman, and in front of her was the ever-expanding green field.
"I met with Master Lin of the Great Guangming Sect a few days ago and agreed with them to continue building temples and preaching here. Soon, I also want to join the Great Guangming Sect." Yu Yulin looked over, and Lou Shuwan looked ahead.
, said in a calm tone, "The teachings of the Great Light Sect, under Ming Zun, are listed as the incarnations of the Mysterious Lady, who can control the high and low leaders of the Great Light Sect here. The Great Light Sect cannot interfere too much in military affairs, but they can recruit from the poor.
Recruit monk soldiers on their own. To the north of the Yellow River, we support them and help them develop in Wang Juyun and Li Xizhi's territory. They raise food from the south, and we can help them look after and transport it... Leader Lin has great ambitions and has already agreed.
.”
She smiled and said: "In a short time, people will know that the king is also a god from the sky who has descended to the earth. He is the living king Xuan. Brother Yu, you are also a god general who patrols the sky on behalf of the gods. King Tota is still the king of the state. Brother Yu, you might as well
Choose yourself.”
Yu Yulin looked at her for a while: "That monk is not a kind person, so be careful."
"In this world, if you are reluctant to give up your children, how can you trap the wolf? I can save it, otherwise he will eat me, or I will eat him."
Yu Yulin stopped talking. The two of them stood and sat, looking forward for a long time. I don't know when, there was a murmur floating in the air.
"...in the palm of your hand..."
"...Sooner or later, one day I will bite a piece of his flesh off..."
The two big men talked for a long time in the fields outside. By the time they rode the carriage all the way back to the city, a bright sunset was already rising in the sky, which fell on the mighty city wall. There were crowds of people on the road, and there were many people near the city gate.
Beggar, but compared to the Central Plains at this time, this town has shown an unspeakable stability and calmness after more than ten years of peace. After leaving despair, people can always gather in this corner.
Come life and vitality.
"Guarding the land and keeping the people at peace in the surrounding areas, Miss Lou, all this is due to you. You can't do any more good than that." Yu Yulin said this when opening the curtain of the car.
Lou Shuwan looked at the crowd outside with a calm expression, just like it had been for many years. In fact, there were not many vivid expressions on her face.
There is no one left to share this with her...
Chapter completed!