Jian Yong vomited a stick of incense by the river, then Fang wiped his mouth and sat weakly on the ground.
Liu Bei took out the silk scarf he had with him and handed it to Jian Yong, then patted his back comfortingly.
Liu Jian's face was gloomy: "Actually, when I went to Fengshi Mountain to study with Master Lu, I heard a lot about this kind of thing along the way to Jizhou. It's just that Xuande and I took the high road at that time and never took the remote road.
I’ve never seen it with my own eyes, but looking back, I’m afraid it’s quite a lot.”
Jian Yong wiped his mouth and said, "Big man, what happened?"
Zhang Fei thrust his long sword into the muddy ground and said angrily: "The beasts eat their salary, the eunuchs are in power, and the relatives are under the dictatorship, how can we give the people a way to live?"
Liu Jian did not agree with Zhang Fei's words, but he did not refute it.
Although Zhang Fei is young now, he does have an inexplicable respect for nobles and celebrities. Perhaps this has something to do with the environment in which he grew up. Zhang Fei has always been the kind of person who values nobles and despises his subordinates.
In Zhang Fei's subconscious mind, if this country were all governed by elite celebrities or nobles, there might not be so many drawbacks, and all living beings would have more ways to live.
But is this really the case? Indeed, it has to be said that in terms of character and integrity, Qingliu scholars are indeed much better than eunuchs.
But where there are people, there are disputes over interests, and Qingliu also represents an interest group.
Imperial power, scholarly power, nobles, powerful people... Each vested interest group, through different means and methods, is trying every means to continuously safeguard the vested interests of its own group, so it has the support of the party, relatives, and
Eunuchs manage politics, have Hongdu sects, etc...
In this era, no one is absolutely clean in the struggle for interests among the upper classes, and no one will truly put the life and death suffering of the common people in Guizhou first.
But these are not suitable to talk about at this time...
"No matter what happens to the court, we should take care of ourselves first. What happened tonight needs to be handled properly, otherwise Gongsun Bogui may not be able to appoint us when he comes to Zhuoxian."
Zhang Fei looked at Liu Jian puzzled: "Brother, what do you mean by this? We walked dozens of miles from Zhuo County to wait for the Lord Gongsun County in this wilderness, and even lost three servants.
After killing seven thieves from Taihang, will Gongsun Zan still hate us because of this?"
Liu Jian rubbed his eyebrows and did not speak for the time being.
Brothers Liu Bei and Liu Jian were of the same mind, so they understood what he was thinking.
He explained to Zhang Fei: "Xian brother, you have to know that Ajian and I are just classmates with Gongsun Bogui. We have not had any beneficial relationship for many years, and we still have requests from each other. But Gongsun Bogui came to Zhuoxian
On the first day, we killed people on the way to meet him. Although the other party was a vicious thief who had fled here from Taihang, such a trivial matter was not considered a political achievement for Gongsun Zan. On the contrary, the barrier to the west was unfavorable, making Taihang
The bandits have fled to Zhuojun, which has caused a big problem for Bogui. If this matter spreads, it will target the westward defense deployment of the entire Zhuojun. It is not just Bogui who is involved in this. It is very likely that some people will be involved.
To the county governor, the captain, the county king..."
After all, Zhang Fei is young and does not understand politics: "The border defense in the west of Zhuo County is not good, so the bandits enter from Taihang. We have discovered a great event for the county governor and Gongsun County Lord. We have done a lot of credit. How can we still be guilty?"
Liu Bei laughed dumbly and didn't know how to explain it for a moment.
Liu Jian came to Zhang Fei's side, reached out and patted his shoulder: "Brother Xian, your thinking is too simple. How can there be such a coincidence in the world? The refugees from the counties north of Taihang crossed the border to Youzhou, and no one else noticed it.
, happened to be discovered by us just once when we went out?"
"What do you mean, brother?"
"I'm afraid this kind of thing has long been the norm. It's just kept secret."
"It's related to the livelihood of the people in Youzhou, why don't you announce it?!" Zhang Fei was furious when he heard this.
Liu Jian analyzed: "Since the defeat of Xia Xiaowei in Xianbei, You, and Binding, the land has been short of major generals in recent years. The strength to defend the border is not enough. How can there be any remaining strength to block the Taihang bandits? The Taihang Mountains can overlook Yuyang.
, Shanggu, Guangyang, and Zhuojun. How many corvees must be allocated to the major counties? It is impossible for Fang Bo and the local princes to report to the court... But local bandit affairs are related to the performance of government agencies at all levels.
We cannot make it public, we can only suppress it. If this matter is exposed by us, how will Gongsun Zan behave in front of Uncle Fang and the Lord? We have caused trouble for Gongsun Zan."
The Hengshan Mountains, Yunzhong Mountains, and Wutai Mountains to the west of the Taihang Mountains radiate to more than 90 counties including Zhuo County, Guangyang County, and Zhongshan Kingdom. These cross-state and border-crossing ferocious beasts cannot just come to Zhuo County.
It also involves important places such as Jicheng, Lunu, Laishui, and Yixian, but no one from the county governor to the county magistrates has said anything in recent years.
There is no doubt that we need to keep things under control.
In today's Han Dynasty, selling officials in Xiyuan has become the norm. In the Han Dynasty, there was a cost for serving officials with more than 400 shi to be an official. In order to speed up the liquidity of selling officials, the Han emperor evaluated local officials very highly.
Strictly speaking, if there is even the slightest misdeed, he will be removed immediately and the vacant position will be sold again.
Especially for the gimmicks aimed at local thieves, the emperor could jerk off a bunch of them without any problems.
Under such circumstances, in order to keep their official positions, at least until they earn back the money they paid for the official position, these local officials naturally have to cover up the bad deeds that cannot be solved within the country, and do not allow anyone to uncover the scars.
This is basically something that everyone in the officialdom in the border counties understands tacitly.
"Then why don't you just keep silent about what happened tonight?" Zhang Fei gritted his teeth, feeling very unwilling to do so.
Liu Bei thought for a moment and sighed: "I can't say anything for the time being. Let's bury the body first and pretend not to notice. I will welcome Bo Gui in the future in the same way!"
Zhang Fei pursed his lips tightly and said nothing.
Liu Bei did not forget to turn around and ask Liu Jian: "Deran, what do you think?"
Liu Bei's performance just now made Liu Jian feel that he was somewhat of a master, both in terms of temperament and momentum.
He was about to nod when he suddenly heard Jian Yong say "Huh".
"Deran, what do you think this is?"
But he saw Jian Yong squatting in front of the body of one of his servants, looking stunned.
Liu Jian praised Jian Yong's adaptability.
Just seeing these mutilated corpses was so disgusting that I couldn't help but vomit.
After just a little while, he actually dared to study and figure it out seriously?
"What did Brother Xianhe see?"
Following Liu Jian's inquiry, Jian Yong pulled out a slender bone arrow cluster from the corpse with his hands.
Yes, it is a bone arrow cluster - although it is small, it is well made, with round tips at both ends, which is easy to handle. Although the arrow body was pulled out, it was either because the archer was in a hurry or did not notice it because it was dark.
The bone arrow cluster was left on the corpse.
Jian Yong held the bone arrow cluster in his hand, looked it up and down, and then handed it to Liu Jian.
After Liu Jian saw the bone arrow cluster, his expression suddenly became solemn.
He didn't say anything and handed the arrow cluster to Liu Bei again.
As if it had been discussed in advance, Liu Bei's expression changed exactly like Liu Jian's in an instant.
Finally, a cluster of bone arrows fell on Zhang Fei's hand.
Zhang Fei was young and the city was not deep. After seeing this thing, he said without any hesitation: "We Han people didn't use this thing hundreds of years ago! As far as I know, people who use bones to make arrowheads look at the entire North.
, only Xianbei..."
As soon as these words were said, the ten servants present immediately became panicked.
Xianbei!
Sure enough, how could Xianbei appear on the border of Zhuojun? This is impossible!
There was a deathly silence in the room.
Finally, an older and more experienced servant of the Zhang family asked: "Four young gentlemen, are you mistaken? This is Zhuojun, not Shanggu Yuyang. How could Xianbei sneak here?
?”
The servant is right. Although Zhuojun belongs to the boundary of Youzhou, it is the hinterland of Youzhou. Compared with Shanggu County and Yuyang County in the north, it is closer to Jizhou, while the eastern and central Xianbei to the north of Youzhou are mainly
Wandering in the Horqin Sandy Land, the Chifeng area, and even Xilin Gol further north were their territory.
Even though Xianbei has thousands of miles of desert as its depth, if you want to plunder Youzhou, you must first pass through Shanggu, Yuyang or Youbeiping, Liaodong vassal state... But these places cannot be easily crossed.
Shanggu County has Juyongguan and Sanggan River as barriers, Yuyang County has Baihe River and Yanshan Mountains to the north, and Youbeiping and Liaoxi have Lulongsai (also known as Xifengkou) as a natural barrier. The terrain is abrupt and high cliffs confront each other on the left and right.
Xia Yu, Tian Yan and others lost to Tan Shihuai because they traveled thousands of miles and went too deep into the country. But for Xianbei, the huge depth of the Han Dynasty was not a natural chasm.
Xianbei may be able to plunder the soldiers and civilians of Youzhou border counties, but if they can break into Zhuojun, it is simply impossible in the Han people's concept.
Everyone did not believe that Xianbei could come to Zhuojun, but at this time, Liu Bei expressed his amazing insights.
"What if these Xianbei people are not a large force entering Youzhou from outside the Great Wall? But what if they are the advance scouts who followed the thieves in the Taihang Mountains and lurked into the territory secretly?"
This sentence completely subverted the three views of everyone present.
is it possible?
"The thieves in the Taihang Mountains colluded with Xianbei?" Jian Yong looked at Liu Bei in surprise: "What Xuande means is that the Taihang bandits we just killed were in the same group as the Xianbei people? And the Xianbei people were succumbed to them.
The hinterland of Youzhou introduced by the Taihang realm?"
Liu Bei nodded solemnly: "I'm just guessing. In the past in Fengshi Mountain, we also briefly learned some "Bingzhou Geographical Chronicles". Just imagine that if we don't go through Yuyang and Shanggu, the only way for Xianbei's small group of scouts to sneak into the country.
It's just that you enter the Taihang Mountains through the Sumu Pass in Daijun... It's just that the Taihang Mountains stretch for thousands of miles. Even the local Han people may get lost in the mountains, let alone Xianbei. If there are no Han people to lead the way, the Xianbei people will never
That’s it!”
Jian Yong bit his lip tightly: "Xuande, this is just your own guess."
Liu Bei said seriously: "But if this guess comes true, it will be a big deal! This matter cannot be hidden, and we need to report it to Lord Gongsun of the Ming Dynasty and ask him to pass it on to Uncle Fang!"
Liu Bei's words were powerful and powerful. Although the evidence was not sufficient, they resonated with more than a dozen people present to a certain extent.
Liu Jian was not moved by Liu Bei's words, but he thought of another thing through Liu Bei's words.
At present, these low-level hungry people who have fled to Taihang, under the leadership of the leaders of the various tribes in the mountains, have gradually evolved into the various forces of the Black Mountain Army in the future. The predecessor of the Black Mountain Army is the Yellow Turbans, which means that the Taihang bandits will join the Yellow Turban Army sooner or later.
Since Zhang Jiao decided to rebel against the Han Dynasty, he should be making preparations now.
Hebei is the main place where the Yellow Turbans raised their troops, and the foundation of Zhang Jiao's rebellion was guided by religion, with the poor people at the bottom as the backbone, and they fought against the imperial power, scholars, relatives, aristocratic families, wealthy families and other forces that controlled important resources...
...If he is Zhang Jiao, and if he wants to succeed in his rebellion, then Xianbei, who is in an antagonistic relationship with these enemies, will naturally be the one he wants to win over.
Putting all these things together, the Taihang bandits and Xianbei bone arrows we saw today make sense.
Just as Liu Jian was smoothing out his thoughts, Liu Bei was expressing his opinions impassionedly.
Liu Bei's intention was to have everyone take the rogue bandits, bone arrows and the corpses of his servants, and wait until Gongsun Zan arrives to tell Gongsun Zan everything.
In this way, the people of Zhuoxian County can be protected from Xianbei and Taihang bandits, and secondly, it can serve Gongsun Zan through this matter. After all, Xianbei has come near Zhuoxian County, and it is not a trivial matter like rogue bandits from other counties. It must be reported truthfully
No, Gongsun Zan would reuse them for this reason.
Zhang Fei, Jian Yong and others were greatly moved after listening to Liu Bei's impassioned speech. At this time, Liu Bei was quite a leader in their eyes. They felt that as long as they listened to Liu Bei and believed what Liu Bei said, everything would be fine.
no problem.
Zhang Fei was very excited. He looked at Liu Jian and said excitedly: "Brother, what do you think of what A Bei said? Let's do what A Bei said!"