An imperial edict has not reached the recipient's hands after two and a half months' journey from Yangzhou. Its mystery can no longer be explained by the excuse of rebellion in southern Hebei. All the officials who came to greet them have been in official positions for many years.
The veteran, after thinking for a while, had already guessed the evil ways here. It was the middle of winter, the north wind was like a knife, but there were still people with their mouths wide open, and their tongues were almost frozen to their teeth.
Some people began to regret it, secretly asking themselves whether the flattery was worth it or not.
"That's fine. It's rare for us to meet again, so you might as well stay in Qi County for a while. Anyway, there is still some surplus food in the treasury, so I won't be able to feed and drink your four thousand troops!" Soldier Cao Xu Wenjing guessed that there was someone in the court.
He didn't want Li Xu to get the appointment as soon as possible, so he simply suggested that he go with the flow. In his opinion, the purpose of dragging Li Xuwan to take office for several months was just to create opportunities for some people to control the children of Qijun. But Qin Shubao,
With Luo Shixin and Runfu, the son of former Tongshou Jia Wuben, here, some people's wishful thinking will not be easy to succeed. Moreover, the imperial court has passed the relevant appointments to all counties in Henan. Some powerful people, no matter how powerful their methods are, dare not combine the two.
The imperial edict issued more than a month ago was swallowed up. So instead of traveling thousands of miles to receive the edict, Li Xu might as well wait quietly and see how those people end up. If he can be forced to eagerly send the imperial edict to Qi County
, it would be a good idea to let out this bad breath.
"That's right, General Li might as well wait for the first-class imperial envoy in Qi County. Xu Yuanlang is causing a lot of trouble in the south. If the general can kill him easily, the elders in all counties in Henan will remember the virtue of a general!" Wang Shouren was a prudent person and thought about the problem.
The perspective is very practical. He is the parent official of Qi County and does not need to care about the rags and rags of Dong County. The most urgent thing he needs to deal with right now is to prevent Qi County from being spied on by rogue bandits. As for how the big families of the imperial court and the bandits are making trouble at the foot of Wagang Mountain, after all, it is far away.
Thousands of miles away, there's no need for him to worry about it.
"That's right. General Li has been fighting for several months, so he should take a break, at least after the New Year!" Similar views to Xu and Wang were the owner of the household, Bo Yangyuan, who also served in the war that year.
An acquaintance who has many contacts with Li Xu cannot help but think of old friends when analyzing the situation. In his opinion, since someone dares to delay the imperial edict, it means that His Majesty the Emperor's control over the government has reached a point where he can ignore it. In this case, Li Xu
Why rush to go outside Hulao Pass to work for the already shaky imperial court? It is better to wait and see for a few months and wait for the latest development of the situation.
"Brothers, I appreciate your kindness!" In a few words, Li Xu roughly guessed everyone's thoughts, smiled and cupped his hands, thanking him. "We will discuss these matters in detail some other time. For now, I would like to trouble you brothers to help me.
Brother arranges a place to stay, and then takes my younger brother to pay homage to General Zhang!"
"It should be so!" Local officials with different thoughts agreed in succession, stopped being polite, and under the assignment of Wang Shouren and Wu Qi, began to arrange for the Boling Army to be stationed.
The school ground where Zhang Xutuo, Li Xu and others trained their troops is still there, and the nearby military camps are also well preserved. Officials at all levels are the old team of Pei Caozhi, so they are very familiar with the operation. Therefore, Li Xu does not need to spend too much time.
With time and energy, he quickly arranged the official affairs at hand. He ordered Wang Xuba, Zhou Daniu and others to take turns on duty to restrain the brothers. Then, he and Wu Qi, the general guard of Qijun, rushed to the Zhang family mansion located in the center of the city.
"If possible, please advise Mr. Zhang." Wu Qi sighed and suggested to Li Xu while walking on the road.
"Brother Yulin, are you talking about Yuan Bei? What happened to him?" Li Xu was shocked when he heard this, and asked with a frown. The reason why he made a long detour to Licheng was not only to pay homage to the tomb of old general Zhang Xutuo.
, and another very important purpose is to take Zhang Yuanbei to Dongjun. With the eldest son of the old general Zhang Xutuo here, it is equivalent to holding a righteous name, no matter how hard the backstage behind others is.
, and will never be qualified to compete with Zhang Yuanbei for control of the county soldiers.
"Yuan Bei, hey, it's hard to say, it's really hard to say!" Wu Yulin sighed and shook his head. "Since the news of the old general's death in the battle spread to the local area, he seemed to have changed. At that time, I advised him to raise a few more
Qianjun soldiers went to Dongjun to inherit the mantle of the old general, but he refused to listen. Later, an imperial envoy came from the imperial court and conferred the title of Old General Zhang on the Third Division of Kaifu Yitong, Shangzhu Kingdom, General Hussar, and Duke of Qi. He also
He refuses to come forward to express his gratitude. He just stands in front of the old general’s soul every day, and it feels like he has lost his soul. He is neither willing to go out and organize manpower to avenge the old general, nor does he have the heart to come out to support the lintel!"
"Maybe Yuanbei has unspeakable difficulties in his heart!" Li Xu thought for a while and defended the other party in a low voice. In his impression, although Zhang Yuanbei, the eldest son of old general Zhang Xutuo, had experienced less hardships, he was not
He was a coward who fell down after a slight blow. The reason for his temporary depression may be that he has not yet recovered from the pain of losing his father. It is more likely that he does not want to give people the excuse of fighting for power and gain because his father was not taken care of. Anyway,
It shouldn't be that he was intimidated by the rogues' fighting prowess and became a coward from then on.
"I don't know. Anyway, he is very decadent!" Wu Qi shook his head and responded.
The two bought some ingots and candles on the road, carried them on horseback, and walked to the Zhang family's old house. Because the head was still hanging on Wagang Village, the old general could not be buried for a while, so the Zhang family's mourning hall
It has never been demolished and is located in the main house where the old general originally lived.
Li Xu and Wu Yulin handed the horse to the servants of the Zhang family, held the sacrifices and bowed to Zhang Xutuo's spirit as juniors. Zhang Yuanbei, who had a pale complexion, knelt beside the spirit and returned the favor as a filial son. After the ceremony,
Three pairs of red eyes faced each other, but none of them could say anything. They could only hear the whistle from the north outside the curtain, making the withered grass on the roof tiles make a sound like weeping.
After a while, Li Xu wiped away his tears and asked quietly, "I am going to lead troops to Dongjun. Yuan Bei and Yu Lin, are you two willing to go with me?"
"I will definitely go! Wu will never forget the life-saving grace of the old general!" Wu Yulin immediately straightened his body and agreed loudly.
His martial arts skills were not great, but he was indeed very courageous. When Beihai was plundered by thieves, it was he who broke out of the siege and rushed hundreds of miles to Qi County to ask Zhang Xutuo to send troops to rescue him.
So deep down, Wu Qi was very dissatisfied with Zhang Yuanbei's recent behavior. He wished he could use all means to force him to go with him and go to the foot of Wagang Mountain to avenge the old general's shame.
"My father did not die at the hands of the Wagang Army!" Zhang Yuanbei hesitated for a moment, then looked at Li Xu and Wu Yulin who were full of expectations with dim eyes, and responded in a very low voice.
"How do you say this!" Li Xu was shocked and asked looking at Zhang Yuanbei's haggard appearance. Under the dim sunlight shining through the window paper, he saw an old and haggard face. Compared with the young man in Li Xu's memory,
Yinghao, the current eldest son of the Zhang family is almost twenty years older. His face is lined with wrinkles, and his once-straight waist is bent, like a cooked shrimp. People who practice martial arts have a big frame, and he
His bones were too big to be contained by his flesh, his forehead was protruding, and his eyes were sunken. If you met him by chance at night, you would really suspect that this person was a skeleton that had just crawled out of the soil.
"My father did not die at the hands of the Wagang Army. He had already anticipated this day before asking me to return to Qi County to arrange the funeral for my mother!" A trace of sadness appeared on Zhang Yuanbei's face, and he confessed in a low voice, "It's not that Zhang is unfilial.
Before my father ordered me to return to Qi County, he had a strict order, saying that if anything unexpected happened, I would not be allowed to come forward to avenge him, nor would I continue to be an official of the Sui Dynasty. Therefore, the good intentions of Brother Li and Brother Wu
I can only accept it from my heart."
"Then, then you just watch the old general's head hanging on a high pole and letting the wind blow?" Wu Yulin couldn't bear it, jumped up, pointed at Zhang Yuanbei's nose and asked.
"My family has gone to Wagang with gold and silver to find Zhai Rang to redeem my father's head. The results will be available in a few days. When my father's head is returned, I will evacuate the mourning hall and return to my hometown with the coffin!"
Zhang Yuanbei behaved like a soulless zombie, not moved by Wu Yulin's words at all.
"It's a pity that the old general lived a heroic life, but his head was lost, and his descendants actually had to pay for it to be redeemed by his enemies?" Wu Yulin was so angry that he was trembling, and despite being right in front of the other party's soul, he sneered and scolded. If there is a way, he can
He did not hesitate to bear the notoriety to let Zhang Yuanbei regain his strength. Unfortunately, this move failed again. Zhang Yuanbei just sighed and stopped making any response or excuse.
"Yuan Bei, what happened? Can you tell me in detail? Why did General Zhang die? What did he tell you?" Seeing that Wu Yulin was eager to grab Zhang Yuanbei's collar and beat him, Li Xu
He quickly separated the two of them and asked in a low voice.
"Since you went to Yanmen, our Qijun children have only received supplies twice. One was from you asking Brother Qin and Shixin to send it back, and the other was from the Li family in Hedong! Brothers are short of food and pay, so we still need
Hungry and fighting against the thieves, the more we fight, the weaker we become. However, the soldiers and horses from Dongdu are nominally under the command of my father, but in fact they have never obeyed the order once." Zhang Yuanbei smiled and shook his head, his eyes seemed to have seen through all the illusions in the world.
."My father began to give bribes to the court to ask for food and salary, and impeached Liu Changgong and others for disobeying orders. But he never got a real response. Later, he himself had no strength to vent his anger on others, so he turned to offense and defended himself.
Brothers, prevent the Pan-Wagang Army from continuing to expand its sphere of influence."
The imperial court did not believe in the thieves' fighting power, and was also afraid that there would be a force so large that it could not be restrained near Dongdu. Li Xu, who had been in the officialdom for so long, quickly deduced the truth behind the scenes from Zhang Yuanbei's words. However, he did not expect that usually
The officials who were fighting endlessly were on guard against Zhang Xutuo's concerted efforts. Not only did they cut off the old general's supplies in one fell swoop, they also didn't even give the old general a chance to appeal.
I remember when I was under the old general, when did I not chase and beat the bandits, and when did I show weakness to the enemy? However, the old general Zhang was forced to bow his head by the traitorous ministers and gave up the field battle he was best at.
The defeated general is exhausted from fighting. What kind of humiliation is this for a warrior who has been fighting for half his life?
But this humiliation is far from over. Some people are not good at doing things, but they are very good at finding faults. Due to his understanding of the court, Li Xu knew what would happen next. And Zhang Yuanbei's words also confirmed his speculation.
A perfect fit!
"But the orders from Dongdu and Jiangdu kept urging my father to clear the Wagang as soon as possible." Hearing Zhang Yuanbei's words, Li Xu and Wu Yulin felt chills all over their bodies, as if they were being lifted out of bed early in the morning.
A ladle of ice water was poured into the pocket.
Full of righteous indignation, they heard Zhang Yuanbei continue to say, "I remember the last imperial edict came, and the wording was very harsh. After that, my father ordered me to lead the only son of the county soldiers back to Qi County in the name of my mother's funeral, and asked me to make a
I solemnly swear that I will never have any thoughts of revenge!"
"Old general, didn't the old general tell you who was setting him up behind the scenes?" Wu Yulin, who couldn't care less about his guilt, asked in a deep voice while trembling.
Zhang Yuanbei was right. The old general did not die at the hands of the Wagang bandits. Behind this, there was a very clear force pushing him to a dead end step by step. From this point of view, why did the always cautious old general die in the Qin Dynasty?
, Luo's behavior of rashly leading troops to chase down the enemy when they were no longer around is also very clear. He wanted to prevent Qin and Luo from accompanying him to death in battle, so he specifically chose two of his favorite generals to be away from him.
Opportunity! His last battle was not to kill the enemy at all, but to use his own life to protest against the mastermind behind the scenes.
"The letter my father gave me said that the Sui Dynasty was seriously ill. He was favored by two generations of His Majesty and died for the Sui Dynasty. It was natural. But I have no obligation to die for the country, so I can no longer serve the country.
Official of the Sui Dynasty." Almost gritting his teeth, Zhang Yuanbei finished the old general's final instructions, and a stream of blood dripped from the corner of his mouth.
Li Xu felt that he was completely frozen. He felt the whooshing wind in the mourning hall. It was cold, ten times colder than the snowy fields outside the Great Wall. This was the end of the life of the old man who once supported half of the Sui Dynasty with a pair of shoulders.
Through experience, he has already seen clearly the end of the road. He can no longer protect the court and can only protect the little faith in his heart. He was indeed not killed by the Wagang army. When the old man rushed into the siege to rescue the fallen Paoze again and again,
, I am afraid that there is no life left in my heart, and all I have is sadness, anger and despair.
"Where are you going after burying General Zhang?" At this moment, Li Xu no longer had any reason to ask Zhang Yuanbei to go with him. He could only do his last bit for his former mentor and invite his descendants to the six kingdoms under his rule.
The county lived a relatively peaceful life.
"They say that everything in the world is predestined! I want to spend ten years to find out what are the hidden rules in this world?" Zhang Yuanbei sighed softly, speaking in a way that did not belong to him.
The voice answered. After saying that, he took off the linen mourning hat on his head, revealing his bald forehead and several scars. (To be continued)
