A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 289
In the lobby of Zaoqiang County Government, Liu Shi is sitting on the seat of the county magistrate. In front of him are several lacquered tables with a copper seal placed on a piece of cloth. There is also a black ribbon tied on the copper seal. It is the seal of the county magistrate of Liu Shi with a salary of 800 shi.

Because Zaoqiang County is a large county with a population of nearly 100,000, the county magistrate's salary reaches 800 dan, which is far beyond the level of the county magistrate in a small county whose salary ranges from 500 dan to 300 dan.

This is the first time in the past six months that Liu Shi has sat where he belongs, and the first time he has stepped into this lobby that belongs to him.

Behind Liu Shi were two bodyguards of the family, holding the hilts of their swords in their hands, their eyes constantly scanning the hall. Below, in two rows against the wall, stood a dozen government servants who had been left behind by Wei Tie when he left. Standing with a knife in hand, the cold light from the blade made people's eyes hurt, making the officials in the hall who were sandwiched between them feel uneasy.

On both sides of Liu Shi's high position sat two clerks, making records.

"All the kings are the branches of Zaoqiang. It can be said that without the kings, the tens of thousands of people in Zaoqiang would be like a flock of geese without a head, unable to find the direction to migrate south.

But if the leading goose has bad character and wants to lead the flock of geese into the abyss, then this goose will definitely not survive. For the sake of the flock, this black sheep must be eliminated.

And this Li is the cancer among the geese, and this Li Hou is the bad-hearted goose. Now the imperial court is aware of everything and found that this goose wants to harm the geese, so it sent the county to investigate and deal with the crimes committed by Li Ni.
Logically speaking, as a member of the Zaoqiang group, if a cancer like Li Ni's disobedience to the king appears and harms the people, you should step forward without hesitation to eliminate the harm for the people.

But as for you, not only did you not take action to stop it, but you actually helped the tyrants to commit evil, which is intolerable. According to Han law, I am afraid that you will only be guilty of the crime of having a different body and head. "

Seeing that some of these petty officials couldn't stand Liu Shi's oppression, their legs collapsed on the ground. Most of them could clearly see that their bodies were shaking, and only a small part of them were not affected by Liu Shi's words.

Liu Shi was very satisfied with this effect, so he continued:
"However, your majesty is kind and generous, and believes that most of you are coerced by Li Ni and have no choice but to do so due to Li Ni's power. Therefore, as long as you produce evidence of Li Ni's crimes, you may be given the official position." You can't be a good person anymore, but your life may be saved.

You don’t want to have no one to take care of your wife and children at home, right? "

"County Lord, I'm reporting this. I'm being coerced. I have evidence of Li's, oh no, Li Ni's rebellion."

Listening to the sound of fighting gradually stopping outside, coupled with the pressure on the field and Liu Shi's words, someone finally couldn't hold on anymore and was willing to confess.

Liu Shi looked at an official who raised his hand and said: "Very good, someone, bring him into the side room. Be sure to write down what he said in detail. In the future, this will be evidence to determine Li Ni's crime."

The surrendered officials were invited into a side room by a clerk.

"Gentlemen, time waits for no one. If someone has said it before you, and you say it again, it will be of no value. Maybe someone will report your own crime. If such a thing happens, this county will also and accepted.”

Liu Shi looked at the officials below who were still unwilling to speak and teased.

"Report, county magistrate, the rebels in the west of the city have been wiped out!" A soldier came in to report.

"Report, the east gate has been captured by our army, and the rebel leader Li Yong has been captured alive by our army and is on his way to the county government."

"Report,..."

The messengers who kept coming made these local gangsters unable to hold on any longer. Gradually, more and more people chose to confess their and Li's crimes to Liu Shi.

There were only a dozen of Li's diehards left in the field, with their heads bowed and expressions of loyalty on their faces.

Liu Shi looked at it and found it funny: "Take these loyal dogs and deal with them together with the rebels. I think it is his neck that is stronger, or the knife that beheads the head."

"Yes."

Liu Shi has been sitting in his position to deal with the follow-up, and constantly dispatched soldiers. Under the leadership of the government officials, based on the confessions of these officials, they arrested Li family-related personnel throughout the city.

Li Yong met his rival Liu Shi, but Liu Shi was busy with after-sales service, so after seeing him, he was put into prison and placed under strict supervision.

At this time, Li Yong, who had lost his teeth, had nothing special in Liu Shi's eyes. No matter how insulted Li Yong was, Liu Shi had no reaction.

For five days, the entire Zaoqiang was sealed off. Only people were allowed in but not allowed out. The soldiers sent by Liu Shi, led by the government officials, continued to arrest people according to the list.

The whole county was in turmoil, and no one knew who would be next. Because too many people were arrested, the prison was full, so Liu Shi had to give up the backyard of the county government office and build a temporary prison.

As a military report came, the gate of Zaoqiang County, which had been closed for many days, creaked open, and everyone in urgent need rushed out of the city.

The content of the military newspaper was: "Lizhuang has been captured. All rebels have been arrested and taken to the county government at a selected date."

Liu Shi had a headache, and immediately ordered the military barracks in the city to be cleared out to detain prisoners who arrived later. The prisoners in the backyard of the county government were also transferred to the military barracks.

Finally, he was clean. No one knows how much pressure Liu Shi felt when working in an environment where he was always complaining about injustice. Liu Shi still doesn’t know whether he was wronged or not. Once the investigation is clear, those who are fine will naturally be let go.

Li Zhuang, where the Li family had only one or two hundred tribesmen, was besieged by Liu Shi's 400 county soldiers for seven days. During these seven days, people kept breaking out of the encirclement and heading towards Qingyang, asking for Li Hou's hand. Reinforcements were sent to the country, but all the letters asking for help fell into the sea without a single response. Finally on the seventh day, the exhausted Li Zhuang was captured by four hundred Guangchuan County soldiers. Everyone in Li Zhuang was captured and taken to the county seat. In the entire Li Zhuang, there was no one left overnight.

Why did the reinforcements never arrive?

This depends on the operation of Bai Cang, the governor of Qinghe.

The first letter to Li Hou asking for reinforcements was sent by Li Yong. Ling Qi successfully arrived in Qingyang and entered the Li family's residence in Qingyang, the Li Mansion.

But as soon as he entered the mansion, he was knocked down by several strong men, tied up, and thrown into a room. Everything on him, including the letter asking for help, was searched.

But not long after, Ling Qi saw a steady stream of people being thrown in by those strong men using the same method. These people came from Zaoqiang to ask for reinforcements.

It turned out that after Liu Shi prepared to take action, Bai Cang, in his capacity as the prefect, ordered Li Hou to send troops to exterminate the bandits that had recently been escaping in Qinghe County. As soon as Li Hou saw the name of the bandit leader, he decided to personally lead the army to conquer. .

Because the bandit leader’s name is Zhang Tu.

Since Zhang Tu was expelled by Li Hou, he had nowhere to go. He also heard that Li Hou had wiped out his entire family. He was filled with hatred and took more than a thousand of his brothers to hide in Qinghe, intending to look for opportunities to take revenge.

But now that the world has stabilized, it is difficult to be a thief, especially in a plain terrain like Qinghe where there are no tall mountains. It is even more difficult to be a thief.

By the time Bai Cang found him, there were only two to three hundred men left under his command. The rest either starved to death or ran away, but most of them were so hungry that they ran away.

Only the men who had a big grudge against Li Hou stayed with Zhang Tu.

As soon as he heard that Bai Cang was going to deal with Li Hou, Zhang Tu decided to form a partnership with his two to three hundred brothers without saying a word.

So with Bai Cang's help, Zhang Tu quickly gathered thousands of people, but it was still a bit difficult to deal with Li Hou. But I don't know where Bai Cang found 3,000 people. They were all thieves who were good at running away. Leave it to him to command.

Zhang Tu looked at these three thousand strong men who liked to wear black clothes, black headscarves, and held steel knives and claimed to be from Montenegro. Then he looked at the thousand men on his side who were in ragged clothes and held various weapons in their hands. His subordinates were speechless for a while.

Are you leading them, or are they leading themselves?

At this time, the leader of the three thousand Black Mountain Army, Fan Zhong, who was dressed in brown clothes and straw sandals, said: "Don't worry, leader, our goal is to deal with Li Hou. What's the difference between you being the leader and me being the leader?"

Besides, when Marquis Li is executed, you can definitely join the Han army with the guarantee of your envoy. When the brothers under your command want to go home and cultivate the land, the prince will allocate fields for them.

If you don't want a stable life, you can join the army with you. Anyway, the situation will be much better than your current situation. Just by virtue of your contribution in helping the court to kill Li Hou, you are still a Sima at least. "

Zhang Tu heard what Fan Zhong said and realized, yes, as long as they can take revenge, they can obey orders, no matter whether they obey them or not. When the matter is over, they can be their own officers and no matter where they go.

So Zhang Tu took his 4,000 thieves to start a business. In order to become famous, they even went to some county towns to demonstrate. They scared the local magistrate and told him that his name was Zhang Tu and he should be careful in the future.

After all, there are only a few hundred county soldiers in a county, and they dare not deal with the four thousand thieves like Zhang Tu.

So it was logical for Bai Cang to ask Li Hou to send troops to suppress the bandits.

And Li Hou also wanted to kill Zhang Tu completely, so as not to leave this problem behind and have long nights and dreams. It would be bad if he went to attack Li Village and hurt his descendants.

Therefore, after receiving the order from Bai Cang to dispatch troops, Marquis Li mobilized an army of 10,000 to dispatch troops to suppress the bandits.

Because the imperial court ordered that now that the world is at peace, all counties and counties should reduce their military strength. Therefore, in order not to attract the attention of the imperial court, Li Hou had to cut down half of his original 30,000 troops, leaving 15,000 men.

But this is still very outstanding in a county with only 5,000 people around. This is why Bai Li wants to deal with Li Hou first.

As soon as Li Hou left with his army, Bai Cang immediately cooperated with the families in Qinghe who were dissatisfied with Li Hou's tyranny. First, he used his status as a prefect to invite the generals in the city to a banquet.

Then at the banquet, cups were thrown, and all the trusted generals of Marquis Li were killed. Finally, Cui Guo, the general of Baicang, was ordered to hold the talisman of Baicang and gallop into the Qinghe military camp in the city with his bodyguards.

As quickly as possible, he captured the grassroots and middle-level officers who were interested in Li Hou, appointed his own people, seized the military power of Qinghe County, and then controlled the four city gates of Qingyang, making Qingyang unable to enter or leave. He also sent troops to arrest everyone in the Li Mansion, and used the Li Mansion to trap soldiers who came from Zaoqiang asking for reinforcements.

Not only that, Baicang also sent government officials throughout the city to arrest Li's minions according to the list.

But Li Hou, who was chasing Zhang Tu, had no idea that so many things had happened.

(End of this chapter)