On September 23rd, in Baima City, East County, just two days after a light rain that did not last continuously, the temperature was mild, dry and wet, and pleasant.
Just after noon, Captain Dou Bing of the county received an invitation from Li Tingwen, the resident commander of the county. He said that the chrysanthemums in the back house were in full bloom, which was perfect for viewing, so they held an impromptu banquet and invited Captain Dou to come with them to enjoy the flowers and drink.
Dou Bing didn't want to go at first, because as the county's deputy minister in charge of military matters, he had clearly noticed the commotion among the county soldiers in the city these days. From the most important Bai Majin to the city defense guards, the atmosphere was a bit tense.
Regarding this, Dou Bing, who was born in the Guanlong clan, certainly knew what was going on... At the beginning of the month, hundreds of thousands of bandit troops captured Dengzhou, and then they attacked the city and territory unscrupulously. The news spread along the river and Jishui, so naturally it would It had a severe impact on Dongjun, which was also the hometown of Dongqi.
But how to say it?
The days are getting sadder day by day, and it didn't start from these few days. Compared with the impact and impact of the three million marches to Dongyi in the spring and the sudden southern tour of the saints in the summer, this news came earlier than most As expected.
Probably because of this, after Dou Bing hesitated for a while, he accepted his wife's advice and chose to suspend his inspection to Baimajin and head to Li's house instead. After all, Fa Qiu was right. The geographical location of Dongjun basically ensured that it would be assigned by Dongdu. However, Emperor Cao Cao acted arbitrarily in Dongdu. There was no doubt that Jing'antai's status had been greatly improved. It was not appropriate to interact with Li Tingwen at this time. There is an awkward situation, even if the other person is from Hebei.
Having made up his mind, he put on his casual clothes, washed up and dressed up a little, then the thirty-year-old Captain Dou said goodbye to his wife, rode a horse and carried a sword, and headed boldly to Li's house with only three or five soldiers.
Dou Bing arrived first, and Li Tingwen immediately opened the middle door to greet him with proper etiquette, which made Dou Bing feel a little relieved.
However, after the two exchanged pleasantries, Li Heishou did not personally lead the people to the backyard. Instead, he just pointed to a family member to lead the way:
"Excuse me, Captain Dou, please go sit in the backyard for a while. I have also invited Zhou Juncheng and our Lord Liu, so we have to wait here with courtesy."
Dou Bing was a little surprised. If he went by what the other party said, this would be considered as inviting a county guard from the East County in Baima City together with the military and political minister. Adding Li Tingwen himself, wouldn't it mean that all the military, political and special officials from the same county were gathered together? ?
Is there something big going on?
Why don't you go to the county hall to discuss important matters?
Thinking of the recent situation, although Dou Bing still followed the other party's servant to the backyard of Li's house, he couldn't help but hold on to the saber and walked to the screen wall. He suddenly stopped and looked back at his entourage through the concierge, magnanimously. Make a sound:
"I didn't know that the Lord was coming before. I was just making ordinary preparations. It would be rude. Dou Qi, you go back and inform your mistress about this and ask her to bring the jar of 'Blue Water and Spring Moon' to cheer up."
Dou Qi was originally a close subordinate of Dou Bing's father in the battlefield. When Dou's children went out to serve as officials, they were often accompanied by such a general. His position was unusual and he always knew the secrets and important events... It sounded natural to him at this time. It was his master who became suspicious, so he immediately responded, then got on his horse and rode away.
The whole process was so fast that no one had time to react.
However, when Li Tingwen, who was standing outside the door, saw this scene, he just smiled awkwardly and said nothing.
Dou Bing felt relieved again and went directly to the backyard. He saw the simple seats and some tea and snacks set up. He hurriedly sat down and looked around, but he didn't see any chrysanthemums... But there was still nothing to say, because it was very difficult. It may be a potted plant, or it may even be temporarily purchased from the real flower owner's home.
After waiting for a while, Zhou Weishi, the county magistrate from the southeast, also arrived, and the two chatted for a few words.
After waiting for another quarter of an hour, the local host Li Tingwen finally turned back, but he was only one person. Then he hurriedly took a seat and said directly:
"The Junjun sent a general manager over. He said that the Junjun himself has been feeling unwell recently and will not come..."
When Dou and Zhou heard this, they relaxed completely and began to joke, thus stealing half a day's leisure.
However, Li Tingwen's next words stunned the two of them on the spot:
"To tell you the truth, I don't have chrysanthemums in my house. This banquet is just to hide people's eyes and ears. I want to avoid some people and talk to the prince and the two of you about something... Either today, tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow at the latest. , the wealthy families in this county are going to join forces to rebel!"
Dou and Zhou were stunned for a moment, looked at each other, and were silent for a moment. Although they were obviously shocked by the news, no one reacted violently.
"It would be weird to say they don't fight back." Dou Bing sighed and took the lead in breaking the silence. "The key is whether the information is accurate? Who wants to contradict it?"
"Not bad." Zhou Juncheng reacted and picked up a piece of sweet-scented osmanthus cake and kneaded it there. "This year's autumn grain will be transferred soon, so the calculation should be reversed... The key is who will be there?"
"It was Sun Cheng, the junior jailer from Baimajin, who came to complain. He was encouraged to rebel by Zhai Qian, the jailer in the county. He had already agreed with his heart. But at the party the night before yesterday, it was discovered that Huang Junhan, the big jailer in the city, was also among them, and he was with Zhai Qian. The leaders of brothers Qian and Zhai Kuan... Sun Cheng and Huang Junhan have always had a grudge and were not angry, so they thought about it all day yesterday. In the early hours of this morning, they suddenly came to my house and complained to me." Li Tingwen said seriously. To right. "I urgently checked... Three or four out of ten local county officials have already made an oath with Zhai Qian. It is precisely for this reason that they dare not go to the county government."
"Thirty-four out of ten..." Zhou Juncheng muttered half a sentence.
"Where's Xu Dalang?" Dou Bing lowered his voice and mentioned a character. "Is Xu Dalang involved?"
"It is said that there is, but there is no real evidence." Li Tingwen said one thing. "But six or seven days ago, when Zhai Qian and Huang Junhan took leave together, Xu Dalang was not in the city. I have some doubts..."
"Although I don't understand military affairs, I also know that if Xu Dalang wants to rebel here in Dongjun, and with the Zhai brothers and the officials in the city so connected, I'm afraid they won't be able to suppress him." Zhou Weishi pinched his hand. Osmanthus cake responded solemnly. "If you look at the tax revenue on weekdays, you will know how powerful these families are in the countryside. Twenty or thirty years ago, they were still princes of the Eastern Qi Dynasty. They really had soldiers, generals and food. But this year Since then, there has been no shortage of weapons."
"It would be fine if it was just Xu Dalang." Li Tingwen hesitated for a moment, but continued. "According to what Sun Cheng said, Zhai Qian and the others all claimed to be the leaders of the Dragon Slayer Gang. I remembered that I had caught an imperial prisoner before. At that time, I thought he couldn't bear the punishment and said some stupid things... Now that I think about it, that may not be true. So... and according to what that person said, this Dragon Slayer Gang is not an ordinary gang, the two people who are third and fourth on the black list are both among them..."
"Gushui killed Zhang Xing, Prime Minister Zhang, and Li Shu, the former conspirator of Yang Ni?" Dou Bing raised his head in surprise.
"yes."
Dou Bing immediately picked up the wine cup in front of him, took a sip directly, and then said: "If that's the case, I'm afraid it's not just Xu Dalang and Zhai brothers, it's not just White Horse, right? However, this is right, I wanted to say before , who is in charge, Xu Dalang or the Zhai brothers? If Zhang and Li are both present, I am afraid that the local tycoons such as Xu Dalang and the Zhai brothers will bow to him, and the same should be true for the rest of the county."
"Is the whole county going to rebel?" Zhou Weishi asked with difficulty, leaning forward as if he was swallowing the sweet-scented osmanthus cake in his hand.
"It's not that the whole county is rebelling." Li Tingwen smiled bitterly. "But after the three campaigns, half of the world east of Liang County rebelled!"
Dou and Tuesday were completely silent.
After waiting for a long time, the person who broke the silence was Dou Bing's family general Dou Qi. He walked straight in with a jar of wine. Li Tingwen obviously had an explanation, and his family members did not stop him along the way, causing the latter to go directly to the backyard, and then became embarrassed. Put down the drink and stand aside.
Dou Bing looked at the wine jar in front of him and had no choice but to continue asking Li Tingwen:
"Brother Li, is there any way to save this situation? You asked us to come. If you have a plan, why not give us some advice? We will do our best."
"I originally wanted to count on the commander-in-chief to come over." Li Tingwen's words were difficult to express. "Because of his great righteousness, we will attack in three directions...but if the commander-in-chief doesn't come, some things will be considered arbitrary."
"Count on him?!" Dou Bing suddenly sneered and got angry inexplicably. "I personally doubt him. I knew that the situation was not good, but he was greedy for life and afraid of death. He was incompetent and did nothing, so he hid in the county mansion and waited for death! His brother was the same way back then. He used his body as a prince-in-law to keep state secrets. Wei Gong remonstrated with the late emperor face to face. It is said that his elder brother Liu Yelong has always been arrogant and has no experience in military affairs. He is a heavy military aircraft and is not suitable for him. He just married and settled in Nanya... Think about it today, how similar are the younger brothers and older brothers? What if? If you don’t marry a woman named Sima, how can you live exclusively in this city?”
Dou Bing was from Guanxi, and he came from a rich family with a bright future. Naturally, he could ridicule Liu Yezhong, the governor of Guanlong, who was also from Guanlong. Li Tingwen was from Hebei, and Zhou Weishi was from Jiangdong, but they were not easy to talk to each other, let alone in the final analysis. , venting itself is meaningless at this time.
"If he doesn't come, we'll be on our own, and I'll take care of everything from the east!" After venting his anger, Dou Bing showed his background as a disciple of Guan Long and gritted his teeth. "Brother Li, tell me, what was your original plan?"
"What plan can we have?" Li Tingwen smiled bitterly. "It's nothing more than taking the lead and taking down the four leaders, Xu Dalang, the Zhai brothers and Huang Junhan, so as to stop the boiling water."
"Who are you going to get?" Dou Bing couldn't ask further. "Who should I get?"
"I will take the people from Jingantai to get Zhai Kuan, one of the Zhai brothers. You go get Xu Dalang... Xu Dalang's place requires troops, and only you can go." Li Tingwen continued. "After it's done, you go to maintain the city defense...and Zhou Juncheng, your task is extremely heavy. You have to summon the county officials first and delay in the name of autumn grain. Then Captain Dou and I can go out. Wait until I take the victory." Zhai Kuan, I need to find you again to capture Zhai Qian and Huang Junhan one by one."
"That's all!" Dou Bing stood up suddenly. "Are we going to imitate Liu Yezhong and just wait for death?"
Li Tingwen also stood up silently, and looked at Jun Cheng Zhou Weishi with Dou Bing.
The latter gave a bitter smile and had no choice but to throw away the sweet-scented osmanthus cake and stand up.
When Dou Bing saw this, he was about to leave.
"Hold on." Li Tingwen suddenly called to the other party. "Captain Dou... I've brought the wine, let's have a drink!"
When Dou Bing heard this, he was stunned for a moment, but he became serious again. He cut open the mud seal himself and picked up the wine jar to pour the wine. After pouring the wine, the three of them toasted at the table behind the case. They should have said something heroic. They couldn't speak, but for a moment they looked at each other and were speechless.
Finally, Lieutenant Dou looked around and sighed for a moment: "Without further ado, Dou is thirty this year, one is five years older than me, and the other is seven years older than me... I make a promise here, if I can If you get through this, I, Dou, will make you two brothers... we will share the blessings and share the hardships!"
As he said that, he lowered his head to drink a glass of wine, dropped the glass and went straight away. The other two people also quickly drank the wine and hurried out.
Come out.
Dou Bing naturally went to the camp where the county soldiers were located in the city first. Halfway there, he suddenly turned around with a lot of thoughts, but he was slightly surprised:
"How come all the warriors in the family have followed?"
Dou Qi was extremely speechless: "The young master wants wine...does the young lady understand?"
Dou Bing was in a daze for a moment and immediately shook his head: "Send half of it back and ask my wife to guard the house from today on."
Dou Qi understood and immediately took half of the people back.
The journey was not far. After a while, Dou Bing arrived at Xiaojun City, located on the north side of the city, between Baima Jin and Dacheng. Then he pretended to have nothing to do and patrolled as usual... After walking around twice, he went to the military city in the middle. Sitting in the city hall, just waiting for Zhou Juncheng to send a message.
But Dou Bing was young after all, so he couldn't help but feel impatient. He knew that it would probably take half an hour to get there, but he still couldn't bear it. After sitting for a while, he came out of the hall to look at it. After looking at it for a while, I felt that this gesture was too abnormal, so I turned back.
At this time, he suddenly noticed something, and came to ask the local county soldier who was leading the guard in front of the hall: "General Yuan, why do you have a yellow flower in your ear?"
The team general was startled for a moment and seemed a little nervous, but he immediately saluted and smiled: "To be honest with you, Captain, it is customary here to wear flowers in September, and there is also climbing... but I don't know that there are flowers in Guanlong. No?"
"Yes, yes." Dou Bing suddenly realized, smiled, and went back to the tent.
Indeed there is.
Then, without him noticing at all, in just a moment, the team of generals turned aside and headed straight for the small gate of the military city leading to Baimajin.
Not to mention Dou Bingku and other signals, but on the other side, after all, Zhou Juncheng is the oldest and is from Jiangdu. He really doesn't want to get involved in this muddy water, but when the matter comes, he has to agree, but his subsequent actions are unavoidable and hesitant. Following Li Tingwen's instructions, he came to the warehouse compound two streets away from the county government and issued an order to summon all the county officials to discuss the autumn grain plan. As soon as the order was issued, he gradually lost his composure and became a little uncontrollable. Get up... Suddenly, officials from all over the rafters gradually gathered, except Zhai Qian and Huang Junhan. The county magistrate's heart beat like a drum and he was worried.
After half a day, he was really helpless and could only carefully ask other officials who had come early: "Where is Zhai Facao? Where is Prisoner Huang? Why don't they two come?"
Not in front of Guanlong people, I still couldn't help but use the customary word Cao.
But no one answered for a while.
After a long pause, suddenly a tall figure flashed in from outside the door and asked from a distance: "Duke Zhou, did you just come to see Zhai Da?"
Hearing the voice, he knew Zhai Qian, and Zhou Weishi was relieved, but thinking that Huang Junhan hadn't come yet, he suppressed his posture and continued to assume his usual posture, frowning and asked: "Zhai Facao, why are you here so late?"
"I'll tell you the truth, Lord County Magistrate." Zhai Qian came over proudly. The surrounding county officials spread out to both sides like waves, but they came directly to him and bowed their hands in salute. "I was just drinking and wearing flowers at home, and I didn't have enough flowers. I waited a while until new flowers were delivered from outside the city, and then I dared to come over."
Zhou Juncheng followed the other person's words and naturally saw a small yellow flower tied with a hairband on the side of the other person's ear. He couldn't help but nodded: "I see, that's it... I know that this custom also exists in the south."
Next, it seems that all we have to do is wait until Huang Junhan comes again.
However, as Zhou Juncheng turned his gaze away from the yellow flower beside Zhai Qian's ear and continued to glance at the others, he suddenly froze on the spot, then became cold all over, and even trembled faintly.
Without him, the courtyard was full of low-quality officials, and almost everyone wore a small yellow flower, but Zhou Weishi did not.
After pausing for a moment, Zhou Juncheng's hands trembled obviously. He walked forward cautiously, held the hands of Zhai Qian who looked strange in the afternoon sun, and then spoke sincerely:
"Zhai Facao, September is high and autumn is high, and yellow flowers are planted everywhere. How can I be the only one missing? But there are still flowers, one for each brother."
PS: Thank you Mr. Liuliqin for your third alliance...how many times do you have to invite me to dinner?
