Martial Arts: Start with 100,000 Xiliang Cavalry

Chapter 148 How to deal with it is a problem (24)

The capital fell, and the news of Emperor Qingxiang's death spread throughout the entire Zhou Dynasty in a short time.

The people in Mozhou and Qingzhou are naturally celebrating each other, and they are overjoyed.But in the Central Plains, the South and other places, they are all in mourning, unbelievable.

No one expected that a cluster of small flames that no one cared about before could start a prairie fire to such an extent in just a few months.

Now Mo, Qingzhou, and the capital are all in the hands of Su Yuan, and Prince Zhou Cheng and some ministers fled from the East China Sea to Haizhou by boat.

Then to the north of the Qinjiang River, only Xuzhou and Qinzhou remained in the territory belonging to the Great Zhou.

Xuzhou is located in the south of the capital and Qingzhou, and Qinzhou is located in the east of Xuzhou. The two states border each other and have a good relationship, but they have become troubled brothers.

Everyone knows that Zhou Cheng fled to Haizhou, and there is no way to call back in a short time.He must first succeed to the throne and declare orthodoxy, and then rebuild the imperial court and re-elect the capital.

There is no way, the capital city has been lost, in the end it is necessary to choose one of the eight states south of the Qinjiang River, choose a prefectural city, and designate it as the temporary capital.For this alone, I don't know how much work it will take.

Especially in the eight southern states of Qinjiang, how many of the eight state shepherds will "welcome the prince" is really uncertain.Many state shepherds have done a good job in their own emperors. Who would like to bring the real emperor to their own capital and let themselves change from the top leader to the unknown number of leaders.

Moreover, Zhou Cheng and those officials only have people and property, and no soldiers. If a certain state shepherd is bold enough to detain people directly, it is also possible to manipulate Zhou Cheng as a puppet.

It will take time to eliminate these potential dangers. For this reason, it will take a lot of effort for Zhou Cheng to choose the capital and ascend the throne as emperor, let alone lead his troops to fight back.

Only in this way, Qinzhou and Xuzhou were put in a very awkward situation.

They have only two choices, one is to fight Su Yuan to the end, take out all of their family property, and fight to the death without stopping, so as to realize their absolute loyalty to the Great Zhou Dynasty.

What can this be exchanged for?It was probably a verbal compliment from Zhou Cheng across from Qin Jiang, but there was definitely no actual benefit, and it couldn't be given.

Another option is to sacrifice the city and surrender, but there are problems in this.That means Su Yuan is a person who can turn over old scores.

Some generals and officials with bad records surrendered to him. He would not write off the past of these people at all, but would send people to investigate strictly.Even the imperial court received information that Su Yuan once asked the common people to judge whether the officials were guilty or not, which really made them feel absurd and unimaginable.

What they think is that letting a group of illiterate foolish men and women try court officials, isn't that pure nonsense?Don't any ordinary people have to convict officials!

Faced with this reality, most nobles and wealthy businessmen in Xuzhou wanted to cross the river as soon as possible and move to settle in the south of the Yangtze River.

Even Zhou Mu thought so.

In Kaiyang City, Xuzhou, at the State Shepherd's Mansion, Song Qian was looking through the list in hand.

This list records all the things he wants to take away.Not only his subordinates, but also his state shepherd is leaving.

Song Qian was very clear-headed. He knew that with Su Yuan's character, he would never allow Xuzhou and Qinzhou to be out of control. For this reason, as soon as Su Yuan finished handling the big mess in the capital, the next step would definitely be Send troops to attack Erzhou.

After hearing the news of the fall of the capital and the death of the emperor, the army of several Luqin kings basically went back the same way.They didn't want to go head-to-head with Su Yuan at first, but without their help, with the strength of the two states in Jiangbei alone, even if they were all united, they would never be an opponent of the Bei'an Army.

If you don't run now, when will you wait?
Song Qian didn't want to procrastinate any longer. If he wanted to leave at the end but found that he couldn't, that would be real despair.

He looked at the list book again, and most of the records on it were bank notes and other property.Even if he is a state shepherd, he can only be prestige in his own state. When he goes to other states, he has to spend a lot of money to clear up the relationship so that his family can live a good life and avoid being missed by some villains.

"Ugh……"

After reading it, Song Qian let out a long sigh, never expecting things to come to this point.

He originally cooperated with Su Yuan to frame Fu Chengyang.At that time, he never thought that Su Yuan could really conquer the capital, let alone that all the officials would have to flee by boat and go to the south of the Yangtze River.

What made him even more heartbroken was that his son, who led half of the Xuzhou soldiers to the capital to support him, had no news of his son coming back, and undoubtedly died in the hands of the Bei'an Army.

Song Qian hated Su Yuan in his heart, but there was nothing he could do. Even the Qinzhou Corps rushed back to Qinzhou after receiving the news.This is enough to see that Qinzhou Zhoumu also gave up his intention of continuing to fight, either he wanted to go south like him, or he would surrender to Su Yuan.

In any case, Jiangbei is destined not to stay any longer.

The only thing that made him gratified was that the crown prince still fell on Zhou Cheng in the end.After he crossed the river, as long as he led his family to the state where Zhou Cheng was going, he should be able to find a good job in the newly established imperial court.After all, half of the officials failed to escape, and the new imperial court will definitely lack a large number of people...

What Song Qian thinks here, Su Yuan in the capital doesn't care.

However, as Song Qian thought, he did not intend to send troops immediately to attack the remaining Xuzhou and Mozhou in Jiangbei.It's not that it can't be defeated, but that there are too many things to deal with in the capital. If they don't handle it well, they will lead the troops to leave, and it will only leave a mess.

He asked Shen Lian to interrogate those officials these days, prying all useful information out of his mouth.This is not difficult. Back in Beifeng City, some robbers and bandits who licked their blood would turn into lambs when faced with Shen Lian's interrogation methods, let alone these court officials who were used to pampering them?

Su Yuan reckoned that even Shen Lian didn't have to be tortured, as long as he showed them Jin Yiwei's gaudy instruments of torture, they would be frightened enough to confess.

Actually it is.

Shen Lian just personally punished Lu Guang, Shangshu of the Ministry of War. Even though the latter was so frightened that he expressed his willingness to cooperate, he still used the punishment.And let a group of officials visit. According to what Su Yuan heard, seven or eight of them fainted on the spot.

Shen Lian did this purely to scare chickens and monkeys, using Lu Guang as an example to let officials know what the consequences of not honestly confessing are.With such an example, the following is very simple, and everyone explained everything happily.

Among them, Shen Lian recorded all the valuable ones and handed them over to Su Yuan.Finally, he asked Su Yuan how to deal with these people.

"How to deal with it?"

Su Yuan is currently in the inner city, moving bricks with other soldiers, sweating profusely under the scorching sun.

He not only mobilized soldiers and civilians to rebuild the inner city, but also personally participated in it.As long as he has nothing to do, he will personally go to the construction site to work with him.

Only by personally participating in it can he have a good idea of ​​the content and progress of the reconstruction work.Moreover, this can also effectively narrow the distance between him and the people in the capital.

In the past, because of the imperial court's propaganda and frequent arrests of dissidents, most people in the capital were afraid of Su Yuan and the Bei'an Army, thinking that they were a group of murderous lunatics who were as terrifying as barbarians.

Now Su Yuan naturally wants to reverse this wrong image.His efforts had a preliminary effect within a few days. Under the strict order, except for a few black sheep who robbed the people of their property, the Bei'an Army basically did nothing to the people in the capital.That's enough to get a lot of goodwill.

The people were actually ready to be robbed by the Bei'an army, and many of them had written their suicide notes. When they found out that such a thing would never happen, they were naturally overjoyed.

Coupled with the fact that the court officials and guards set the fire before, many people saw it with their own eyes, and they hated them even more, so they would have a good impression of the Bei'an Army who helped put out the fire and save people and rebuild the houses.

Now seeing Su Yuan, the king of Bei'an, go to the construction site to work in person, even if some scholars think that he is buying people's hearts, they have to admit that at least he is better than those officials who did not pretend in the past.

With all these things, Su Yuan believed that if he implemented some of his policies in Taiyuan in the capital, sooner or later the people would be like the people of Taiyuan, and treat him and the Bei'an army as kindly and lovingly as their family members.

Therefore, now that Shen Lian came to ask Su Yuan how to deal with those court officials, Su Yuan naturally had to be like the family members of the common people.

These people burned down their own family's residence, how to repay them, needless to say?
Survival is definitely impossible, but Su Yuan hesitated for a moment, but did not choose to beheaded to show the public.

He thought it was too cheap for these people to do so.

Beheading is just a matter of that moment, but it is a kind of relief for these heinous people.

After thinking for a moment, he came up with an idea.

"You ask the jailer to tie up everyone and bring them to the central long street in the evening."

"Yes, my lord."

Shen Lian left, but Zhou Shu, who was wearing a plain shirt, arrived at this moment.She held a kettle in her hand. Su Yuan saw her, looked at the kettle and said, "Is there any water in it? I just feel thirsty."

"……Have."

Zhou Shu handed over the kettle, and Su Yuan found it was still full after taking it.

Without thinking too much, he unscrewed the cork and took a few sips.

Zhou Shu watched the sweat dripping down Su Yuan's long hair, and said, "Aren't you afraid of getting dizzy in such a hot weather?"

Su Yuan wiped his mouth after drinking, "It's okay, besides, don't everyone else do this."

"You are the king of Bei'an." Zhou Shu was puzzled, "If you have a fever, how do you do business?"

"Don't worry, I'm not that weak. But you..." Su Yuan looked at Zhou Shu, she was a little thin, she was the standard figure of a girl who hadn't worked much, and she definitely couldn't stand the hot weather.

"It's what you came out for. By the way, those people in the palace are temporarily placed in the No. [-] courtyard. You are familiar with it. Take time to deal with it."

Zhou Shu looked at the kettle in Su Yuan's hand, and thought to himself, what do you think I'm doing here?
As for the people in the palace, she also heard what was going on, nodded and said: "Yeah."

All the officials escaped in a hurry, and there were not enough places on the boat. The concubines in the palace couldn't get away, but they couldn't just sit in the house and wait to be burned to death, right?So a group of people also ran out of the palace and hid on the west hill behind the palace.

If it hadn't been for the Bei'an Army to extinguish the fire quickly, and the fire spread to the mountain, they would have to be burned to death.Later, the Bei'an army searched and found them, and naturally brought them back.

On the ruins of the burnt imperial palace, Su Yuan roughly divided several courtyards for the time being. From No. [-] to the bottom, each courtyard has corresponding arrangements. It is mainly responsible for coordinating and arranging some work, and it can be regarded as an office for the time being.

"How do you want me to arrange them?" Zhou Shu asked.

"You can figure it out yourself. Anyway, the fine clothes and fine food are gone, and you have to work if you want to eat in the future." Su Yuan said casually.

As for the concubines, eunuchs and maids in the harem, he will not kill them all. In a sense, these are also poor people.

After finishing speaking, he returned the kettle to Zhou Shu by the way, "Thank you. Did you put anything in the water? It's a little sweet."

"... put a piece of rock candy. Don't you like it?"

"No, it's pretty good." Su Yuan smiled and continued to work.

Zhou Shu's mood also improved a lot for no reason, the corners of her mouth raised slightly, and her steps became a little lighter.But after walking a few steps, thinking about what to do next, her heart became heavy again.

She came to "No. [-] Courtyard", where all the palace women were housed, both young and old, mostly young.Many of them are pretty, but because of worry and fright, everyone's face is ugly and looks very haggard.

At the gate of the courtyard built with earth and rocks, there are soldiers called by the Bei'an Army. They are in charge of guarding and not allowing these people to leave, nor allowing some irrelevant people to enter.

Zhou Shu is naturally not an irrelevant person. Her status in the Bei'an Army is equivalent to that of a staff member, and she will not stop her when summoning soldiers.As soon as she entered the courtyard, there was an exclamation immediately.

"Seventh Princess!"

"your Highness!"

"Seventh Princess, you are here!"

Most people were about to cry with joy, and some concubines also stood up one after another, looking at Zhou Shu cautiously and flatteringly.According to the etiquette of the Great Zhou Dynasty, Zhou Shu wanted to call many of them "mother and concubine", but now who cares about the etiquette.

Even concubines with a bit of a brain know that their life and death are now in the hands of Zhou Shu, the seventh princess who was not very popular in the past!
There is no way, the traitor Su Yuan in their eyes has already controlled the capital at this moment.And Zhou Shu, the princess who was sent out as a sacrifice to get married, now relied on Su Yuan to become the person who could decide their fate.

"Are you all okay?" Zhou Shu said.

"Princess Lao Qi asked, we are all right..." Everyone said quickly.

They were not talking nonsense. When they were first searched by the Bei'an army from the mountain, they were all terrified, thinking that they would suffer some inhuman treatment.But what they didn't expect was that the Bei'an Army didn't seem to be interested at all. They just took them down the mountain and left them alone after they were resettled.

After that, apart from delivering food and water every day, I will not communicate with them.This made them less panicked, but they didn't know what the future would hold.

Now that they saw Zhou Shu, hope was kindled in their hearts.

Seeing how respectful they were to him, Zhou Shu wasn't very pleased.At this time, she saw a person hiding behind the crowd, who seemed to be squatting on purpose to avoid her sight.

"Second sister?" Zhou Shu recognized the person.

The second princess, Zhou Yaqian, was shocked all over, seeing that she couldn't hide, she walked out with a mournful face.She looked at Zhou Shu with red eyes, and said in a trembling voice: "Seventh, seventh sister, can you spare the second sister, the second sister knows that she is wrong...Second sister shouldn't have treated you like that before..."

"..."

When Zhou Shu was sent to make peace with Su Yuan, Zhou Yaqian ridiculed her to the fullest, but how could she have expected that Zhou Shu would come back not long after that.Moreover, they came back together with Su Yuan's Bei'an Army, directly causing earth-shaking changes in the status of both parties.

Seeing that Zhou Shu didn't speak, Zhou Yaqian thought that the latter was trying to get revenge on her, so she burst into tears: "Please, Seventh Sister, I was really wrong, please don't let people torture me, I'm so scared!"

Zhou Shu: "..."

(End of this chapter)