Jingming

Chapter 147 Some People Are Alive, But They Are Dead
It is already the twelfth lunar month, and Guo Xun thinks about his usual self.

In this kind of cold season, didn't you always sit by the warm charcoal stove, drink hot wine and hug soft beauties, and was there someone bragging next to you?

Now I'm surrounded by stinky guys who haven't showered much in months.

"Master Hou, it's the little Zhuangzi in front!"

Qiu Luan pointed to a small village less than two miles away.It is said to be a small village, but it can be seen that the field in front of it should all belong to the same owner.

The distribution of houses in that small village does not look like an ordinary village.

There are shadowy walls of the village, tall and round granaries, and a rather flat drying field.

It's not yet dawn, so I can't see clearly.

Guo Xun moved his feet. He fell off the horse while suppressing the bandits before, and his right leg was bruised a lot, and his knee was also severely knocked. He is still not recovering.

He looked ahead and asked in a low voice, "How far is it from the river?"

"Less than ten miles away." Another general replied.

"Is it still here?" Guo Xun stared at the other side viciously, "If it is empty, that kid will not know how far he can run along the canal all day and night, so how can he find it?"

"There's nothing wrong with it. They haven't moved here since the news came, and the last general's subordinates have been watching here."

Guo Xun felt a little weird: "Is he stupid? Since everyone started running, how did he hide in such an easy-to-find place? It's so close to the river..."

He felt that although he was much smarter than Shou Ninghou, the choice of Shou Ninghou was a little too stupid.

"Since it's still there, Lord Hou, what should we do?"

This is not what they can call the shots.Marquis Wu Ding was ordered to "persuade" Marquis Shouning to go back, how can he persuade him?
"...No matter what, first surround it so that it is hard to fly! Old Wei, how to surround it?"

"I've already thought about the rewards of the last general. Lord Hou, please look, the people who came here today are all elites. The night travel is much better than before, and it's not Yin time yet. If you want to be very safe, divide into two infantry battalions to block the west. To the north, one hour is enough. We wait here for more than half an hour before we can spread out and slowly touch it. When we get to the riverside, we can set up a fire, and the troops brought here will encircle us from the east, which is very fast. very!"

Guo Xun nodded solemnly: "Listen to you, go and arrange it!"

It is said that it is difficult to fly with wings, so it must be difficult to fly with wings.When surrounding a group of bandits before, Guo Xun couldn't bear to wait for others to go around to block him, so he missed something and fell off while riding a horse.

Looking up at the moon, Guo Xun can wait for an hour.

Lying in the dense forest to the south, Qiu Luan asked in a low voice: "Uncle Guo, do you really want to attack by force? What if Marquis Shou Ning gets hit by a stray arrow or commits suicide in fear of crime?"

Guo Xun said with contempt: "Don't worry, he is reluctant to commit suicide."

Why storm?Since they are all running away, how can it be so easy to persuade him?Guo Xun didn't bother to persuade him.

Besides Zhang Heling himself, what are the others doing?Carrying is still cumbersome.

Besides, in the face of the guards of the officers and soldiers, Zhang Heling dared to resist. Wouldn't it be more creditful to "persuade" him to go back?
Patiently waiting for the time to pass, after the old Wei came to tell him that it was almost done, Guo Xun tried his feet, then gritted his teeth and said, "Let's go!"

A full staff of 200 people fumbled out of the small forest, but no one spoke.

And there are two hundred cavalry hidden behind them.

Guo Xun only brought a total of 400 people from the Yiheng infantry sub-battalion and 200 people from the Yiheng cavalry sub-battalion.

The [-] Chinese Army of the Shenji Battalion caught Zhang Heling, which is too exaggerated, and it is easy to scare the snake.

All the elites are here today!

It was late in the winter night, and it was almost Chen, but it was still dark.

Guo Xun didn't step on his foot well, and got stuck in a lump of mud and sprained his foot: Damn it, it's already winter, shouldn't the fields be frozen?

Gritting his teeth and taking a breath, he continued to move forward.

It's okay to be miserable after going back. Although this bandit suppression was very funny, after all, he, Guo Xun, has been performing on stage.

When they reached the small river less than [-] paces away from Zhuangzi, Guo Xun ordered: "Cross the bridge first, and when you see someone shouting over there, the lights start to flicker before raising the fire!"

So they crossed the small bridge one by one like this, and then spread out again and slowly approached.

Two hundred steps, one hundred steps, the inside of Zhuangzi is still quiet.

Guo Xun's face changed: "Not good! Maybe there is a secret way and he ran away long ago! Raise the fire, charge!"

Otherwise, how could there not even be a sentry?

In an instant, more than a dozen torches lit up in the south of the small village, and the sound of horseshoes could be heard faintly behind Guo Xun and the others.

After running a hundred paces away, Guo Xun felt that his wound must have opened again.

However, with the light of the fire and the footsteps, there was still no movement in the village, as if there was no one there.

"Master Hou, you sit here and watch out for traps, you will eventually attack!"

It could be heard that there was movement in the west and north. Seeing the flames here, they must have quickened their pace there.

These hundreds of big men surrounded him aggressively, but there was no resistance in the village, and there was still no movement. Guo Xun only felt that he had been tricked!

Is there really a secret passage here?A secret passage was dug under the ground beside the canal?

"Master Hou! Master Hou! We found it!"

Guo Xun was taken aback for a moment, and then he was overjoyed as he walked outside and shouted, "No ambush? Where's his servant?"

"The servants are all dead," Old Wei said in a strange tone, "Marquis Shouning was injured... very seriously..."

Guo Xun rushed straight into Zhuangzi and walked towards a big house. When he entered the door, his face changed, and then he cursed: "Qi Yong, didn't you say that you still left your brother to watch over here? Where did the person who did it go?"

"The little flag brought by the humble staff should have arrived when they saw the army encircling them." Qi Yong, a hundred households of Jinyiwei who came to send a letter to Guo Xun, also had a bad face, "Since he is not here now, the humble staff does not know what happened. Mr. Wei, What do you say to the soldiers you stayed here to watch?"

"I haven't seen anyone from the village go out. Looking at the situation now, it's no wonder they saw smoke from the kitchen these past two days. They thought that Marquis Shouning was hiding here to eat dry food and was waiting for someone to respond, so they didn't dare to act rashly."

Guo Xun looked at the house full of servants who had been killed with a livid face. There were more than 30 of them, and there were even two women.

Zhang Heling, who was tied to the bed in the back room, was dying.The most troublesome thing is that his crotch should be gone, but some medicine was applied to bandage it well.

"Young lady!" Guo Xun limped up and down in the room and cursed, "Who did it?!"

He, Zhang Heling, could suffer, but he couldn't die!
Guo Xun now understands this.

But what is more difficult than death is that Zhang Heling was tortured into this state.

Would Queen Mother Zhang think he did it?

Guo Xun still doesn't know what happened in Beijing. He doesn't know the details. He was just ordered to find Zhang Heling and persuade him to go back.

The exact location was told by Cui Yuan's Jin Yiwei.

Guo Xun, who had worked so hard all night walking in the dark, was empty and irritable, and now he had to be carried back to Beijing.

"Take all these out and burn them, and then go to a nearby county to find a doctor and find a carriage!" Guo Xun gritted his teeth, "Qi Yong, you go find your people first. Old Wei, before the army comes, let the cavalry Everyone in the camp looked around to see if there were any clues."

"...Master Hou, they only know how to kill the enemy, they don't have the ability to catch fast."

"Always look for it!" Guo Xun looked at Zhang Heling seriously, "Bring some water and dry food, he must have been hungry for at least two days."

How do you go back to Beijing this time?

……

"General, can this really handle it?"

"Isn't this all done properly? Didn't the people sent by Yang Zhitai have nothing to say to Chen Futai?"

Zhangye City is the headquarters of the general army of Gansu Town. The guarding eunuch and the governor's imperial envoy were originally stationed here, but now the guarding eunuch and the governor's imperial envoy are both dead.

After the incident, Li Long was really panicked when he heard that Dong Wenzhong committed suicide in fear of crime, but then he had a plan. With the power of the temporary boss of Ganzhou, he found a lot of money from Dong Wenzhong's mansion, and even used it to Xu Ming and Dong Wenzhong confiscated a lot of money from many merchants and rich families in Ganzhou on charges of collusion, embezzlement and private sale of military supplies.

Part of the silver was used to prove that Xu Ming and Dong Wenzhong were greedy for money.

When those who were transferred from Shaanxi's procuratorial envoys to serve as governors paid full salaries, the mutiny of the soldiers naturally subsided.

Li Yi, the deputy general, said again: "Then Fu Juan..."

Li Long said with a sullen face after a while: "It's all right! Now that the mutiny has subsided, the court will not pursue it any further."

What Li Yi was talking about was Fu Ji, deputy judge of the Judgment Division of the Xingdu Division of Shaanxi Province. After Xu Ming died, Li Long coerced and hinted that the palm prints and qin books of each government office of the Xingdu Division of Shaanxi Province played together Xu Ming's deduction of military pay, but Fu Ji was the only one who refused to listen. , and later on the way home, he was severely injured and was bedridden.

Now that the mutiny had passed, Li Long didn't think about publicly killing officials again.

Meet bandits on the night road.

What's more, Li Long is very sure that when Zhang Yong arrives today, he will find that Ganzhou cannot do without Li Long at least at this moment!
Outside Zhangye City, Li Long squinted his eyes and looked at a cloud of dust in the distance.

"Here we come! Let's go!"

After standing up from the table in the small shop outside the city gate, he put on his helmet and went out.

Not far away, Chen Jiuchou, the new governor of Gansu, stood there silently.

Seeing Li Long coming, he just nodded.

Li Long didn't take it seriously, after all, the former governor had just been killed and burned in a mutiny, and Chen Jiuchou was very wary of him.

Fortunately, Chen Jiuchou understood the situation very well, and obediently handed over the full amount of the salary as soon as he came.

In the past few days, Li Long's stockpiled food has been sold out.

This time, although the soldiers beat Xu Ming to death in agitation and made a big deal, Li Long felt that it would be faster to get the money this way.

Thinking of this, he looked at the horse team that was getting closer and closer in the distance, his eyes became a little dignified.

The one who came was Zhang Yong, one of the Eight Tigers.

Li Long didn't care about Zhang Yong's reputation in the border town: how much does it have to do with Zhang Yong to put down the rebellion of King Anhua?When he and Yang Yiqing arrived, the rebellion had already been quelled by the Ningxia guards.

But after they went back, they moved Liu Jin down, which would make Li Longgao think a little bit.

As for supervising the military affairs of Xuanfu, Datong, Yansui and other towns for a while seven years ago, isn't the late emperor going to govern personally?How many people were walking around there at that time?
Li Long ran out of the city to greet him now, because the tiger is still in charge and is still in charge of the horse guard.In addition, it is also because Zhang Yong came here for the mutiny.

To be able to stay in power for such a long time, he should be a very smooth and well-aware person.

The news that came in advance also said that Zhang Yong came to temporarily replace Dong Wenzhong and appease Ganzhou to deal with the northern captives.At this time, isn't it the most important thing to defend against the enemy?

Seeing that the horse team was getting closer, Li Long put on a smile and greeted them.

The big deal is to share some of the money copied out this time with him.

Chen Jiuchou hesitated for a moment and fell behind Li Long.Seeing him like this, the smile on Li Long's face became brighter.

"Eunuch Zhang, you have worked hard all the way..."

He didn't quite realize that Chen Jiuchou's step behind him had stuck Li Yi and the others by the way, and as the governor, it was difficult for others to pass him by to say hello to Zhang Yong.

So Li Long didn't know the way Chen Jiuchou looked at him: some people are alive, but they are already dead.

Zhang Yong held the horse's rope, as if to stop the horse, but the horse's head was held high, and the horse's feet started to move wildly.

"Woo~~" Zhang Yong shouted, as if he couldn't control it.

Li Long felt contemptuous again, why bother to ride a horse with such poor riding skills?Pretend to be loyal to the emperor's order and do everything with one's heart.

He stretched out his hand to help Zhang Yong pull the rein on the horse's head: "Ganzhou is very windy and sandy, this horse is probably blind..."

Before Li Long finished speaking, Zhang Yong had already pulled out a knife from the saddle with one hand, and cut Li Long's throat neatly in an arc.

Li Yi and the others suddenly changed their expressions, but Chen Jiuchou in front of them suddenly turned around and yelled, "Don't move! Your Majesty's order, only punish the culprits!"

Li Long clutched his throat and looked at Zhang Yong, whose face was as cold as ice, in disbelief. He saw Zhang Yong skillfully pulled up the horse's head, and kicked his chest violently with two horse hooves.

After falling to the ground, Zhang Yong got off his horse nimbly in his sight, stepped on his hand after walking over, and slashed at his neck without hesitation.

Li Long's eyes were distracted: What's wrong with the imperial court?are you crazy?Don't investigate the case?What about the military defense of Gansu Town?
Li Yi and the others held the handle of the knife with numbness in their scalps, but they dared not move it lightly while standing there.

The twenty or so cavalry behind Zhang Yong didn't dismount, but surrounded him with their horses.

In the eyes of Li Yi and other generals and other people in Shaanxi Xingdusi, Zhang Yong did not say a word, but he stayed where he was, chopped it twice, kicked off Li Long's helmet, and then carefully chopped off his head. cut it down.

Holding Li Long's head, Zhang Yong walked over slowly.

Li Yi and the others could see quite clearly that Zhang Yong was already quite old, his hair had turned gray a lot, and the flesh on his face was also slack.

But at this moment, Zhang Yong's eyes are very cold and sharp.

"The generals in Ganzhou take off their armor and listen to the order!"

With a knife in one hand and a head in the other, he did not take out the imperial decree.

But Li Yi and the others were so frightened that they put down their knives and threw them away. They also took off their helmets and knelt down.

"Li Long preached the first Nine Frontiers, and warned the generals: Since I have the utmost control, no matter how difficult it is from now on, it will not be difficult to conquer the border! Therefore, if the military salary is deducted, I will send people to investigate and kill them! The soldiers under my control collectively mutinied , I don’t know how to investigate, just kill! If you can’t control your own soldiers, if you can’t manage your own soldiers, what kind of general should you be? If you hear of mutiny in the future, I will regard it as a rebellion!”

The extremely straightforward words are not the eloquent imperial edicts written by the imperial edicts.

Zhang Yong stared at them: "Anyone else who participated in the agitation, stand up by yourself, so as not to hurt the family. This is the first time His Majesty made a special favor for Bianzhen to establish rules."

Li Yi and the others turned pale.

"That means there is no agitation, but it can't be stopped?" Zhang Yong's voice was still very cold, "Dali Temple and Jin Yiwei will arrive later, and when the truth is found out, it will be dealt with as treason."

"...Li Long is arrogant and domineering, the last general and others really can't stop him." Li Yi said immediately, "It's the commander Zhi Yong..."

One person behind him immediately stood up to pick up the knife next to him, but many people behind this person stood up immediately, and pushed him and the other two to the ground: "Eunuch Zhang, the last general can't stop it..."

There was a sound of knives being drawn on the horse's back, and they rolled over and surrounded them.

"The end will be wronged..."

Zhang Yong interrupted him: "I'll say it again, those who participated in the agitation, and now admit it to themselves, then they are responsible for the crime themselves. If found out, they will be dealt with as treason!"

The blood was still dripping from Li Long's head and Zhang Yongdao, and finally one of them cried bitterly and knelt down: "He is the commander-in-chief, he has military orders, can the general refuse to listen? What kind of case law is this? "

(End of this chapter)