Liu Xiu got off the back of the ox, quickly caught up with Zhang Ping, and said, "Brother Ping!"
Zhang Ping looked at Liu Xiu in confusion and asked, "Axiu, what's the matter?"
Liu Xiu pursed his lips to Zhong Qing, who was walking in front, and whispered: "Brother Ping, help me keep an eye on him. If he has murderous intentions towards Feng Sheng, remember to save Feng Sheng."
Zhang Ping looked at Liu Xiu in surprise and didn't understand why he said that.
Liu Xiu smiled and said: "With Feng Sheng's courage, he would never dare to lead a group of government officials to defend Caiyang City and resist."
"But just now Zhong Qing said that Feng Sheng..."
"Don't listen to Zhong Qing. He is just eager to show his loyalty. If I guessed correctly, Feng Sheng should have opened the city gates and stood outside the city to greet us!"
Zhang Ping was stunned for a moment, burst out laughing, and said, "We'll see if Axiu's guess is accurate later."
Liu Xiu shrugged, looking confident.
In fact, Liu Xiu guessed it right. As expected, the city gates of Caiyang City were wide open, and dozens of county officials and government officials headed by Feng Sheng were standing outside the city gates.
Seeing Feng Sheng, Zhong Qing turned around and said to Liu Yan: "General, Feng Sheng dares to go out of the city to fight our army. I'm going to get his dog head now!" As he spoke, he drew his sword from his ribs and urged his horse to ride towards him. Feng Sheng rushed over.
He quickly ran up to Feng Sheng and without saying a word, he raised his sword and struck. Feng Sheng was stunned and frightened. He watched a cold light falling towards his head and forgot to avoid it for a moment.
At this moment, there was a crisp clang sound, and an arrow was shot at Zhong Qing's sword. The sword that he knocked down also missed. The person who shot this arrow was none other than Zhang Ping. .
Zhang Ping put down the bow in his hand, turned to look at Liu Xiu, couldn't help but give him a thumbs up, and secretly praised him! If he didn't know Liu Xiu very well, he might have doubted whether Liu Xiu could pinch.
Of course Liu Xiu did not predict things, but he had an insight into human nature.
Feng Sheng finally came to his senses. He shuddered, hurriedly knelt on his knees, kowtowed to Liu Yan who was riding on horseback, and said in a trembling voice: "Bo Sheng, spare your life! Bo Sheng, spare your life! I went out of the city to surrender. I’m not going out to fight in the city, please spare my life, Bo Sheng!”
Liu Yan rode up to Feng Sheng, got off his horse, and stood in front of Feng Sheng. He raised his eyes and looked at the people behind Feng Sheng. As his eyes swept across, people knelt down and kowtowed, and everyone was trembling. Very powerful.
The corner of his mouth curled up, his eyes lowered, his gaze fell on Feng Sheng, and he asked slowly: "I heard that Sir Feng is going to fight to the death with my Zhu Tiandu tribe?"
Feng Sheng's body was shaken, his head was on the ground, and he didn't dare to raise his head. He said anxiously: "Xiaguan doesn't dare! Even if I borrow a hundred courage from Xiaguan, I don't dare to become an enemy of Bo Sheng!" There must be... there must be some villain who made slanderous remarks in front of Bo Sheng and framed the official. Please give Bo Sheng a clear warning. Please give Bo Sheng a clear lesson!"
"Oh, that's it." Liu Yan laughed out loud and said faintly: "My department is the Zhutiandu Department, and I am the General Zhutian!"
Feng Sheng reacted quickly and immediately changed his words and said: "I will lead the entire city to pay homage to the general!"
"Get up and talk!" Liu Yan was quite satisfied with Feng Sheng's attitude. He waved to him and said to the other officials and Yamen servants: "You all should get up too!"
"Thank you, General!"
Seeing everyone standing up from the ground, Liu Yan turned his gaze and looked at Zhong Qing. The latter shrank his neck in fright, hurriedly sheathed his sword and dismounted, bowed and said: "The general... the general is... a villain. I made an oversight and almost... almost accidentally killed Mr. Feng."
Liu Yan didn't say much. He raised his riding whip, pointed at the flag on the city top, and said: "From now on, the flag of our Zhutiandu Department will be hung on the top of Caiyang City!"
"Yes, yes, yes! I'll leave it to someone else to take care of it!" Feng Sheng nodded in response.
"Yes." Liu Yan remounted his horse and walked into the city accompanied by Liu Xiu and others.
The Zhutiandu tribe headed by Liu Yan captured Caiyang City without using a single sword or shot, and without losing a single soldier. With the surrender of County Magistrate Feng Sheng and County Lieutenant Zhong Qing, they captured the entire city without a single blow. city.
After entering the city, Liu Yan ordered people to post a notice to calm the people. In the notice, he first detailed Wang Mang's treason, stupidity and cruelty, and then stated the position of his Fangzhu Tiandu tribe, whose purpose was to restore the Han Dynasty.
Now Wang Mang is indeed unpopular. When they saw the notice posted by the Zhutian Capital, most of the people in the city were happy and supportive of the Zhutian Capital's occupation of Caiyang.
In fact, at the end of the Western Han Dynasty, the problems in the court were already very big. The imperial power was on the sidelines, and the relatives were monopolizing the power. The people's life was not good. At that time, Wang Mang had a high prestige in the country, both in terms of his ability and his ability. His virtues were talked about by the people all over the country and the ministers in the court. One thing that added points to him was that his son had killed a domestic slave. After Wang Mang learned about this, he forced him to kill him. The son committed suicide to pay for the death of his slave.
This was a very remarkable thing at the time and won many hearts for Wang Mang.
It is precisely because Wang Mang gained such high reputation and prestige that his usurpation of the throne was not a bloody rebellion or a palace coup. It was completely logical and logical to force the puppet crown prince to surrender to him. He took over the crown prince first. position, and then he became emperor smoothly.
After Wang Mang proclaimed himself emperor, he also wanted to make a difference and launched a series of retro-style new policies, such as equal distribution of land, abolition of slaves, production for everyone, etc.
It's just that Wang Mang was too idealistic. Every new policy he introduced seemed very good and had advanced ideas, but it was seriously out of touch with the society at that time, causing the landlord class to oppose him and the civilian class to oppose him.
Perhaps due to the failure of implementing the New Deal, or perhaps because of self-destruction, Wang Mang went from being a respected gentleman and a moral master to completely embarking on the road of no return as a coward and a tyrant.
If the Western Han Dynasty was not very good, then the New Mang Dynasty was a mess.
At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, even if the common people lived a hard life, they could at least survive. But by the time of the Xinmang court, the common people had no hope of surviving.
And even God seems to be against Wang Mang. During his reign, natural disasters never stopped, whether it was floods or locust plagues, and then there were the severe droughts in recent years.
Comparing the two sides, the bigger one is the bigger one. Of course, the people hope to restore the Han system and restore the Han Dynasty.
Although the people of Caiyang did not welcome the arrival of the Zhu Tiandu tribe, most people did support them.
Liu Yan originally planned to hold a celebration banquet at the county government office. After all, it was a great joy to capture Cai Yang so smoothly, but Liu Xiu stopped him in time. Liu Xiu said to Liu Yan: "Brother, let's capture Cai Yang." Yang, it is completely a matter of course, there is no cause for celebration at all. Furthermore, the life of the people in the city is very difficult, and there are so many refugees waiting for relief. If we hold a big banquet as soon as we enter the city, will it cause trouble? Is it because of the people’s resentment?”
Zhu Yun said disapprovingly: "Axiu, you worry too much. Now that Cai Yang belongs to us, what does it matter if we have a meal in the city? As for whether the people are disgusted or not, we don't have to care at all!"
Liu Xiu said seriously: "There is a saying in "Xunzi King System" that the king is a boat; the common people are water. Water carries the boat, and water overturns the boat. The king should think of danger in this way! Why is there such a thing in today's world? So many people have risen up, not afraid of the risk of being killed, and have raised troops to rebel, all because Wang Mang is unpopular. We have just started the rebellion, and there is no foundation at all, so we should take this as a warning!"
Zhu Yun had not read many books, so Liu Xiu quoted from classics and made him speechless. Liu Yan smiled, patted Liu Xiu on the shoulder and said, "Okay, okay, Axiu." , Big brother won’t hold a banquet anymore.”
When Liu Xiu heard this, he nodded happily. Then Liu Yan, Liu Xiu and others had a hasty dinner and stayed in the county government office that night. When Liu Xiu passed by the study, he found that there were many letters inside, so Liu Xiu asked someone to bring a quilt , he lives in the study.
The bamboo slips in the study are all-inclusive, and I don’t know how many of them Feng Sheng has seen, but Liu Xiu couldn’t put them down.
When he was reading at night, there was a banging on the door outside. Liu Xiu frowned, put down the bamboo slips in his hands, stood up and opened the door.
Deng Yu, Yan Guang and others were seen standing outside the door. Liu Xiu asked in confusion: "Is everyone okay?"
"Lord, something happened in the city!"
"What's up?"
"Brothers Liu Gong and Liu Jin broke into a house and wanted to take over the girl!" Deng Yu said with a sullen face.
Liu Gong and Liu Jin are cousins and relatives of the Liu family.
After hearing what Deng Yu said, Liu Xiu's brows knitted into knots and asked, "Where are they two now?"
"Still in that house!"
"Take me there!" As he spoke, Liu Xiu stepped out and walked out. As soon as he went out, he returned to the study, picked up his Chixiao Sword, and hung it on his waist.
Liu Xiu took Deng Yu and others and went straight to the house where the accident occurred.
This family is not a wealthy family, but it is not a small family either. The house occupies a large area and the facade is very impressive.
At this time, there were more than ten burly men standing outside the gate of the house, each with their waists crossed and their legs crossed, looking majestic.
After Liu Xiu arrived, he glanced at them and walked in without saying anything. Seeing this, the big men immediately gathered around and blocked the door, blocking the way of Liu Xiu and others.
One of them, a big man with broad shoulders and a round waist, looked Liu Xiu up and down and asked, "Who are you?"
"Liu Xiu!" Liu Xiu directly reported his name.
Liu Xiu, a burly man, felt that this name sounded familiar. As he was thinking about it, a famous man next to him reminded him in a low voice: "He is the younger brother of the general!"
The burly man suddenly realized, the fierce look on his face was wiped away, and he raised his hands with a smile on his face and said: "It turns out to be General Liu, disrespect, disrespect!"
Liu Xiu was too lazy to talk nonsense with him and asked directly: "Liu Gong, is Liu Jin here?"
The burly man chuckled and said, "Both young masters are here! The young lady of this family is a well-known beauty..."
Liu Xiu interrupted him and shouted in a deep voice: "Get out of the way!"
"This... my young master has told me that no one is allowed to enter!"
"I said get out of the way!"
"General Liu, don't make things difficult for me!" the burly man said, rubbing his hands.
Strictly speaking, the current Zhutian Capital Department is not even an army. The composition of the personnel is too mixed. There are single gangs, gangs, and domestic servants, guards, and retainers.
The dozen or so big men now are all servants and hangers-on of the Liu Jin family, and they all look up to Liu Jin as their leader.
