It was already the twelfth lunar month, and Guo Xun was thinking about his usual self.
In this cold season, didn't we used to sit by the warm charcoal stove, drink hot wine and hugged the soft beauty, and there was someone next to us to brag about it?
Now I'm surrounded by stinky guys who haven't taken a shower in months.
"Master Hou, that's the little Zhuangzi in front!"
Qiu Luan pointed to a small village less than two miles ahead. Although it is said to be a small village, it can actually be seen that the field in front of it should all belong to the same owner.
The distribution of houses in that small village looked unusual.
There are shadowy village walls, tall and round granaries, and a fairly flat drying ground.
It's still dark, so I can't see clearly.
Guo Xun moved his steps. He had fallen off his horse while suppressing bandits and had a large bruise on his right leg. He also bruised his knee quite badly. He is still not fully recovered yet.
He looked ahead and asked in a low voice: "How far is it from the river?"
"Less than ten miles away." Another general replied.
"Are you still here?" Guo Xun stared at that side fiercely, "If I miss him, I don't know how far that kid can run along the canal all day and night, so how can I find him?"
"There is no mistake. They haven't moved here since the news came. The general's subordinates have been keeping an eye on this place."
Guo Xun felt a little weird: "Is he stupid? Since everyone has started running away, why did he hide in such an easy place? So close to the river..."
He felt that although he was much smarter than Shouning Hou, Shouning Hou's choice was really too stupid.
"Since I'm still here, Lord Marquis, what should I do?"
It's not up to them to decide. Marquis Wuding was ordered to "persuade" Marquis Shouning to return. How to persuade him?
"... No matter what, we must surround it first so that it can't fly! Old Wei, how can we surround it?"
"I have thought about the reward for the general. Please see, Lord Marquis, those who came today are all elites. The night march is much better than before. It is not yet Yin Shi. If you want to be very safe, divide the infantry battalion into two and move over to block the west. To the north, one hour is enough. After we wait here for more than half an hour, we can spread out and slowly move over. When we get to the river, we can raise fire. The soldiers we brought with us can surround us from the east. It's so fast. very!"
Guo Xun nodded solemnly: "It's up to you, go and make arrangements!"
It is said that it is difficult to fly with wings, but it must be difficult to fly with wings. When he surrounded a group of bandits before, Guo Xun couldn't bear it and waited for others to go around to the other side to block it. Only then did some leaks leak out and he fell off while chasing after him on horseback.
He looked up at the moon. Guo Xun could 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 Shouning is hit by a stray arrow or commits suicide out of fear of crime?"
Guo Xun said contemptuously: "Don't worry, he is reluctant to commit suicide."
Why attack by force? Since everyone is running away, how can it be so easy to persuade him? Guo Xun didn't bother to persuade him.
Except for Zhang Heling himself, why would anyone else keep it? It’s still a burden to carry around.
Besides, Zhang Heling still dared to resist in the face of the protection of the army. Wouldn't "persuading" him to go back in this way be more meritorious?
Waiting patiently for the time to pass little by little, and after the old Wei came over to tell him that it was almost done, Guo Xun tried his feet, then gritted his teeth and said: "Let's go!"
A crowd of two hundred people walked out of this small mountain forest, but no one spoke.
There were two hundred cavalry hidden behind him.
Guo Xun only brought one Heng infantry sub-battalion with a total of 400 people and a Heng cavalry sub-battalion with a total of 200 people.
The five thousand soldiers of the Shenji Battalion captured Zhang Heling. This is too exaggerated, and it is easy to scare the snake.
All the elites are here today!
It dawned late on a winter night, it was almost twilight time, but it was still dark.
Guo Xun didn't step on his foot properly and got stuck in a ball 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 touch forward.
It would be better to be miserable after going back. Although the bandit suppression was very funny, after all, he, Guo Xun, was always following him on stage.
Arriving at the small river less than three hundred steps away from Zhuangzi, Guo Xun ordered: "Cross the bridge first. When you see someone shouting over there, the lights start to flicker before you raise the fire!"
So they crossed the small bridge one by one, spread out again, and slowly approached.
Two hundred steps, one hundred steps later, it was still quiet inside Zhuangzi.
Guo Xun's face changed: "No! Maybe there is a secret passage and he has escaped long ago! Raise fire and charge!"
Otherwise, how could there not even be a sentry?
In an instant, more than a dozen torches lit up on the south side of the small village, and the sound of horse hooves could be heard faintly behind Guo Xun and the others.
After running for a hundred steps, 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 Marquis, stay here and watch out for traps. We will eventually attack them!"
I could hear movement in the west and north. Seeing the fire here, people on the other side must have quickened their pace.
Hundreds of big men came around aggressively, but there was no resistance in the village and there was no movement. Guo Xun just felt that he had been tricked!
Is there really a secret passage here? A secret tunnel was dug underground next to the canal?
"Master Hou! Master Hou! Found it!"
Guo Xun was stunned for a moment, then he looked out overjoyed and shouted, "There's no ambush? Where are his servants?"
"The servants are all dead," Old Wei said in a strange tone, "Marquis Shouning was injured... very seriously..."
Guo Xun rushed into Zhuangzi and walked towards a big house. His expression changed as he entered the door, and then he cursed loudly: "Qi Yong, didn't you say you still have your brothers to watch over here? Where are the people who did it?"
"Xiao Qi from the humble post should have arrived when he saw the army surrounding him." Qi Yong, the member of the Imperial Guards who came to send a message to Guo Xun, also looked ugly, "Since he is not here now, I don't know what happened to the humble post. Mr. Wei, What do the soldiers you left here say?"
"No one was seen going out in the village. Looking at the situation now, no wonder they also saw smoke from cooking stoves in the past two days. They thought that Hou Ning was hiding here to eat dry food temporarily and was waiting for someone to respond, so they didn't dare to act rashly."
Guo Xun's face was ashen as he looked at the house full of murdered servants, more than thirty of them, and even two women.
Zhang Heling, who was tied to the bed in the back room, was already dying. The most troublesome thing is that his crotch should be gone, but it has been bandaged very well with some medicine.
"Fuck you!" Guo Xun limped around the room and yelled, "Who did this?!"
He, Zhang Heling, can suffer some hardships, but he cannot die!
Guo Xun understands this now.
But what was more difficult than death was that Zhang Heling was tortured into this state.
Would Queen Mother Zhang think it was him?
Guo Xun still didn't know what happened in Beijing. He didn't know the details. He was just ordered to find Zhang Heling and persuade him to go back.
The specific location was told to them by the Jin Yiwei sent by Cui Yuan.
Guo Xun, who had spent a hard night walking in the dark, felt empty and irritable, and now he had to be carried back to Beijing.
"Take all these out and burn them, and then go to the nearby county to find a doctor and bring a carriage!" Guo Xun gritted his teeth, "Qi Yong, you go find your people first. Old Wei, before the army comes, let the cavalrymen come. Everyone in the camp searched the area to see if there were any clues."
"...Master Hou, they only know how to kill the enemy, but they have no ability to catch the enemy."
"We have to look for it!" Guo Xun looked at Zhang Heling with his head down, "Bring some water and dry food. I'm afraid he has been hungry for at least two days."
How will I handle business when I return to Beijing this time?
…
"General, can you really handle this?"
"Isn't this all right? The people sent by Yang Zhitai and Chen Futai have nothing to say?"
Zhangye City is the headquarters of the general army of Gansu Town. The guarding eunuch and the governor's envoy were originally stationed here, but now both the guarding eunuch and the governor's envoy are dead.
After the incident, Li Long was indeed a little panicked at first when he heard that Dong Wenzhong committed suicide out of fear of crime, but then he came up with a plan. By virtue of his temporary power as the boss of Ganzhou, he not only found a lot of money from Dong Wenzhong's house, but also used it to Xu Ming and Dong Wenzhong were charged with colluding with others to deduct wages, sell military supplies privately, and confiscated a lot of money from many merchants and wealthy families in Ganzhou.
Taking part of this money will be the solid evidence that Xu Ming and Dong Wenzhong are greedy.
When those who were transferred from Shaanxi Province to serve as governors were paid their full salary, the mutiny among the soldiers naturally subsided.
Deputy Commander-in-Chief Li Yi said again: "Then Fu Juanshi..."
Li Long had a sullen face and said after a while: "It's okay! Now that the mutiny has subsided, the court will not pursue it any further."
Li Yi is talking about Fu Ji, the deputy chief official of the Shaanxi Xingdu Division. After Xu Ming died, Li Long coerced and hinted that all the officials of the Shaanxi Xingdu Division should submit seals and official letters to Xu Ming to deduct military pay. Only Fu Ji did not listen. , and later he was beaten so badly that he was bedridden on the way home.
Now that the mutiny is over, Li Long has no intention of openly killing officials again.
Encountered a bandit on the road at night.
What's more, Li Long is very sure that when Zhang Yong arrives today, he will find that at least Ganzhou cannot do without him Li Long at this moment!
Outside Zhangye City, Li Long squinted his eyes and looked at the cloud of dust in the distance.
"Here it comes! Come over!"
After standing up from the table in the small shop outside the city gate, he put on his helmet and walked out.
Not far away, Chen Jiuchou, the new governor of Gansu, stood there silently.
Seeing Li Long arrive, 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 wary of him.
Fortunately, Chen Jiuchou understood the situation very well and obediently paid the salary in full.
In the past few days, Li Long's hoard of food has been sold at a high price.
Although the soldiers were excited and killed Xu Ming this time, which was a big deal, Li Long felt that it would be faster to get money this way.
Thinking of this, he looked at the cavalry getting closer and closer in the distance, his eyes became serious.
The one who came was Zhang Yong, one of the Eight Tigers back then.
Li Long didn't care about Zhang Yong's reputation in the border town: how much does pacifying King Anhua's rebellion have to do with Zhang Yong? When he and Yang Yiqing arrived, the rebellion had already been put down by the Ningxia generals.
But when they went back, they moved Liu Jin, which made Li Longgao look a little bit more impressed.
As for the fact that he supervised the military affairs of Datong, Yansui and other towns in Xuanfu for a while seven years ago, does that mean that the late emperor wanted to take charge of the government? How many people were surrounding that place at that time?
Li Long now ran outside the city to greet him, simply because the tiger was still alive and still in charge of the Royal Horse Prison. In addition, it was also because Zhang Yong came for the mutiny.
To be able to avoid collapse for such a long time must 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 invaders. At this time, isn't it the most important thing to defend against the enemy?
Seeing the cavalry approaching, Li Long put on a smile and greeted them.
At worst, I'll give him some of the money I copied this time.
Chen Jiuchou hesitated for a moment and fell behind Li Long. Seeing him like this, the smile on Li Long's face became even brighter.
"Eunuch Zhang, it's been a hard journey..."
He didn't quite realize that Chen Jiuchou's slightly backward step also blocked Li Yi and others. As the governor, it was difficult for others to cross him to greet Zhang Yong.
So Li Long didn't know the way Chen Jiuchou looked at him: some people are alive but already dead.
Zhang Yong held the horse's rope as if to stop the horse, but the horse's head was held high and its feet began to move wildly.
"Uu~~" Zhang Yong shouted, as if he couldn't control it.
Li Long felt contempt in his heart again, why would he come on horseback if his riding skills are so poor? Pretending to be loyal to the emperor's orders and doing his best.
He stretched out his hand to help Zhang Yong pull the reins on the horse's head: "The wind and sand in Ganzhou are strong, and this horse may have accidentally lost his sight..."
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 others suddenly changed their expressions, but Chen Jiuchou in front of them suddenly turned around and shouted: "No one can move! His Majesty's decree is to punish only the first culprit!"
Li Long clutched his throat and looked at Zhang Yong in disbelief, who immediately looked as cold as ice. Zhang Yong skillfully pulled up the horse's head again, and kicked his chest with two horse hooves.
After falling to the ground, Zhang Yong turned over and dismounted with some grace, walked over, stepped on his hand, and slashed at his neck with a knife without hesitation.
Li Long's eyes were distracted: What happened to the court? are you crazy? Not investigating the case? What to do about the military defense in Gansu?
Li Yi and others held the handle of the knife with numb hands, but they did not dare to move lightly while standing there.
The more than 20 cavalrymen behind Zhang Yong did not dismount, but surrounded him on horseback.
In the eyes of Li Yi and other generals and other people in the Shaanxi Xingdu Division, Zhang Yong never said a word, but stayed where he was, chopped him twice, kicked off Li Long's helmet, and then carefully cut off his head. Cut it off.
Holding Li Long's head, Zhang Yong slowly walked over.
Li Yi and others could clearly see that Zhang Yong was already quite old, his hair had turned a lot whiter, and the flesh on his face was also flabby.
But at this moment, Zhang Yong's eyes were cold and sharp.
"The generals of Ganzhou will disarm and listen to the order!"
With a knife in one hand and a head in the other, he did not take out the imperial edict.
But Li Yi and others were so heartbroken that they put down their knives and threw them away. They also took off their helmets and knelt down.
"Li Long sent a message to the nine frontiers and warned the generals: Since I am in charge of the extreme, no matter how difficult it is in the future, it will not be difficult for the border guards! Therefore, I will send people to investigate and kill anyone who deducts military pay! If the soldiers under my control collectively mutiny , I won’t investigate, just kill! If you can’t control your own soldiers, how can you be a general? If I hear of mutiny in the future, I will regard it as rebellion!”
To put it bluntly, it is not the elegant edicts written by the imperial edicts.
Zhang Yong stared at them: "For those who participated in the agitation, please stand up so as not to harm your family. This is your Majesty's special favor for the first time the border town has established rules."
Li Yi and others turned pale.
"That means there was no instigation, but it just couldn't be stopped?" Zhang Yong's voice was still cold, "Dali Temple and Jin Yiwei will arrive soon. When the truth is found out, it will be treated as treason."
"...Li Long is arrogant and domineering, and General Mo and others can't stop him." Li Yi said immediately, "It's the commander Zhi Yong..."
A person behind him immediately stood up to pick up the knife next to him, but many people stood up behind him and pushed him and the other two people to the ground: "Eunuch Zhang, I really can't stop the generals..."
There was a sound of knives being drawn on the surrounding horses, and they got down and surrounded them.
"I will eventually be wronged..."
Zhang Yong interrupted him: "I'll say it again, if you take part in the agitation and admit it now, you will bear the blame. If you are found out, you will be treated as treason!"
The blood on Li Long's head and Zhang Yong's sword was still dripping. Finally, one man knelt down crying and said: "He is the commander-in-chief. He has military orders. How can the general not obey them? What kind of case-solving method is this?" "
