At night, Shen Zhezi led the crowd to receive Yutan in Dunan.

Although the edict had already been issued, the arrangement of affairs in Wuxing County, coupled with the recruitment of attachés and protégés who came with him, was delayed for a few days.

Along the way to the north, there were hundreds of people in the retinue alone, and a considerable number of them were children of better families. The Central Protector Army is also an important minister of the opening government, although all parties here in Taichung must definitely install some manpower, but the main body naturally depends on Yu Tan's wishes.

The so-called Shizuo 2,000 stones, as a standard of the scholar clan, in addition to the power brought by the position itself, is more important is the network of contacts woven with the help of the position to support the use and recommendation.

Yutan returned to the capital, and a large number of villagers sent their children to accompany them to seek a future. In the future, when he is gone, other families will do the same to support his children and grandchildren. This is the guarantee of the long-term prosperity of the scholar clan in politics, and the legal basis of the Jiupin Official Law has occupied the vast majority of the upward channels.

Originally, it would take a few days for Yutan to reach the capital, but because Shen Zhezi sent a message that the situation in the capital had changed, he left the entourage after entering the territory of Danyang, and traveled quickly in a fast boat, day and night, and rushed for three or four days in more than a day. Of course, this is also thanks to the mastery of the waterway, otherwise Yutan will not be able to reach it until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest.

As soon as they met, Shen Zhezi saluted Yu Tan on horseback and said: "Rong Jia is in his body, it is inconvenient to pay full courtesy, and I hope that Yu Gong will not be blamed." The situation is urgent, and there is no one in the capital, so he can only ask Yu Gong to hurry. ”

"Lang Jun doesn't have to be polite."

Yu Tan is already an old man who is nearly seventy years old, he came day and night, and his spirit is quite tired, but when he saw that Shen Zhezi was fully armed, and the soldiers behind him were also heavily armored, revealing a sense of slaughter, he couldn't help frowning slightly and said: "The situation in the capital has been so bad? ”

"The current situation has not collapsed, but people's hearts are unpredictable!"

Shen Zhezi motioned to the guards to help Yu Tan into a carriage that had been prepared, and then he also boarded the carriage, and then ordered people to move forward along Dunan Avenue: "Now that many courtiers have been summoned in Taichung, and the second duke of Wang Wen is in charge of restraint, Taichung should not be chaotic for the time being." But the courtiers are all from their own families, and it is impossible to completely isolate the inside and outside. ”

Shen Zhezi has his own news channels, and of course other people's families must have them. Wang Dao and Wen Qiao thought that if they could control Taicheng, they would be able to suppress the overall situation in the capital, but this idea couldn't help but be a little optimistic, underestimating the courage that people can breed driven by interests.

Moreover, because a large number of officials are trapped in Taicheng, the clansmen left behind by each family cannot be sensitive to the current situation, they only see what they see in front of them, and they only worry about the interests of one family, and the chaos may be even greater.

Although Yu Tan also kept an eye on the current situation, after all, he had not performed in Gyeonggi for many years, so he asked in detail the reason for this turmoil, and when he heard that Xue Yi was beaten because of the court discussion to slander Shen Zhezi, he couldn't help but sigh and said: "Although there was chaos in the capital in previous years, it was only limited to gentlemen. This kind of shady act like today is really a collapse of the world! ”

Shen Zhezi couldn't help but smile when he heard this, but he didn't comment. Political struggle has never been clean and pure, the so-called gentleman's dispute is just, and when it comes to the critical moment, you don't want your mother and son, and you can talk about elegance and elegance.

In the final analysis, the cause of this incident was just a trivial matter, but it was only because it was placed in a more complex environment, and Shen Zhezi did not intend to endure humiliation, so it expanded again. If the situation is stable and there are not too many people to add fuel to the fire, even if there are some riots, it will be laughed off afterwards and there will not be much repercussions.

No matter how chaotic it is, if you have soldiers in your hands, you don't need to panic in your heart. When Yu Liang was in power, Shen Zhezi was deliberately cultivating his own power near Gyeonggi, and when he took back Jiankang, his actions would inevitably be greater.

Now he is in and around Jiankang City, and he can mobilize more than 2,000 formed troops at any time. Although there is not much gain in numbers, it is a bit scary that more than 2,000 people have sufficient and complete armaments, which is not inferior to the strong army.

Of course, this is not an era of unconstrained chaos, so this part of the force cannot be directly displayed. Therefore, he had to wait until Yutan, the new Zhonghu army, arrived in Jiankang before he had a legitimate reason to use troops.

"At present, there is a lot of shortage in the six armies of the Suwei Army, but there are only seven thousand. There are about one army in Taichung, and there are more than 2,000 guards in Jianping Garden, and most of the rest are in Stone Town. ”

At present, the Suwei in the capital is far from being comparable to when Yu Liang was alive, and Yu Liang prepared tens of thousands of Suwei to resist Su Jun at that time. After the rebellion, these guards were scattered and killed in battle, most of them were missing, coupled with the lack of use in the capital and the intention of various local towns to suppress the scale of the guards, so there are still less than 10,000 guards in the capital at present.

If it is just to maintain stability, these soldiers are naturally enough, and even exceeded, it is because Jiangbei has no danger to defend, in order to prevent the enemy army in the north from breaking through and harassing. But if there is a slight change in the capital, these forces will be somewhat stretched, such as now.

The capital can only be used for key defenses, and the two locations of Jianping Garden and Taicheng account for more than half of the troops. Outside the capital, there is only one defense point in Stone Town, and there may be county governments and county officials in other places to maintain order, and the combat effectiveness is weak, which is basically equivalent to no defense.

Of course, the current chaos in the capital is still just a political fight, not a strong enemy, so there will be no problem with such a defense. But let's not forget that in addition to the general population, there are more than 100,000 refugees in the city.

The small people are not to be worried, the first is that they are scattered and difficult to organize. The second is short-sightedness, and once an accident occurs, there is no clear goal of struggle.

However, at present, the refugees in the city are gathered in several locations, and with the distribution of labor and the provision of food and clothing, a rudimentary organizational structure has been formed.

Moreover, with the half-year-long rebellion, coupled with the torture of famine for a whole winter, the endurance and endurance of these small people have almost collapsed, and if there is any too strong stimulation, it is really impossible to predict how they will erupt.

What will happen to Taichung, Shen Zhezi is not worried at all, he is most worried about these refugees servitude.

Because of the investment of labor costs, several wide and flat avenues have been paved in this area of Dunan to cooperate with waterways to transport various materials. The horse-drawn carriage was a little faster, but it was nowhere near as smooth as the ox-cart, but it was not too bumpy on a flat road.

After Shen Zhezi introduced the latest situation in the current capital to Yu Tan, he changed to a war horse and led more than 100 knights to escort Yu Tan straight to the west.

The night was getting deeper, and after walking for more than half an hour, Shen Zhezi and the others arrived at their first destination. In the tall bamboo pavilion, there are already nearly 100 people waiting here, and many lanterns and torches around the bamboo pavilion illuminate this place very eye-catching.

When they heard the sound of horses' hooves from far and near, everyone greeted them one after another, and not long after, Shen Zhezi in uniform appeared in their field of vision.

"Pony!"

Everyone stepped forward to salute, Shen Zhezi turned over and dismounted, waved his hand and said, "Don't be polite, come with me to see Yu Gong." ”

Hearing this, everyone's eyes lit up, they already knew that Yu Tan's return to the capital this time would be of great use, and the future returns of many of their investments in the capital would also depend on this prince.

Yu Tan was pretending to sleep in the car, and when he heard the commotion outside, he probed out, and even saw many eager smiling faces.

After politely answering each other, everyone welcomed Shen Zhezi and Yu Tan into the bamboo pavilion, where wine and food had already been prepared, and everyone hastily used them. During the meal, Shen Zhezi asked, "Is there a change happening right now?" ”

"Not yet, but since this morning, many officials have come to ask when the supplies will be distributed, and the rhetoric has been very intense. There was also some unrest in many of the camps, and there was no shortage of people who crossed the camp to enter and leave. ”

Shen Zhezi bowed slightly after hearing this, which he had expected. The Danyang people have no political advantages at all, but the local people's popularity is unreachable.

They are not fools, no matter how fierce Taichung shouts, it is actually difficult to overturn the decree that has been officially implemented, and if they want to carry out effective sniping, they can only exert force on their own advantageous side, that is, inciting the people to make trouble.

Without enough labor, no matter how strong the Wuzhong family is, no matter how much money and food they have, the project of building a new capital will be unsustainable. And once the people are incited to make a noise, these people who have been prepared for a long time will definitely wantonly encroach on the population. Even if there is an investigation afterwards, it will be difficult for the law to blame the public.

Shen Zhezi asked the villagers to rein in the supply of various materials, on the one hand, to avoid the impact of the turmoil and incur unnecessary losses, and on the other hand, to aggravate the panic of these small people.

The hometown of Danyang people is an innate advantage, passed down from generation to generation. Shen Zhezi vigorously provided disaster relief, and although he also gained a lot of prestige in the hearts of the people, as soon as their local families instigated, these people were still not very restrained.

Under normal circumstances, Shen Zhezi couldn't do anything about it, he could pick out some thorns to kill and form a short-term deterrent. But this kind of entanglement cannot be completely severed. Once something happens, the counterattack that was originally suppressed will be more violent.

The Danyang people need an opportunity to incite the people, and Shen Zhezi also needs a more violent force in a turmoil, even if it can't be completely cut off, at least this connection must be cracked down to the extent that it is not a problem.

"There will inevitably be turmoil tonight, but you have also seen that Duke Yu has returned to the capital, and we and other villagers can have no worries. Later, all of you will return to your place and watch the door, and tomorrow all will be well. ”

Let Yu Tan stop by to meet the villagers, just to make them feel at ease. Next, he told Lu Yong, who had already led the crowd to wait here, to guard the place where materials and personnel gathered in Xiadu. There are more than 1,000 people in Lu Yong's department, all of whom are original Liyang soldiers, and their combat effectiveness is not weak, even if there are rioters who want to take advantage of the fire to rob and attack here, it will not pose much of a threat.

After pacifying the villagers, the group hit the road again. The manpower owned by the Shen family is not good in the open, and the Zhou Mo department in Stone City is the force that Shen Zhezi wants to fight for. Whether to use or not to use is secondary, at least to borrow the tiger skin temporarily.

——————

"Xue Yi killed himself in the front hall of Taiji, and before he died, there were many words of admiration for the horse, implying that someone else used him to attack the horse, and he was innocently implicated, and he did not want to ......give birth."

In the Zhang family's mansion in the south of the city, Zhang Min's eldest son, Zhang Ming, described the scene that happened in Taichung to several elders in the family. He is now one of the few people in his family who is in Taichung, and if something like this happens, he naturally has to report back to his family as soon as possible.

Although Shang Shu ordered Wen Qiao to order the ministers to treat Taicheng in peace, how could everyone feel at ease at such a time. A humble and inconspicuous person like Zhang Chao used all means to leave Taicheng and go home to report the news.

After listening to Zhang Ming's description, the atmosphere in the room was a little silent, and after a long time, Zhang Min sighed: "This little raccoon dog has a rich family, dominates Wuzhong, and the old Xun is both high and not weak, and his reputation is not weak, and it has become a climate!" Xue Yan is also a poor person, involved in this kind of thing, left and right are rare good fruits, and it is also a helpless choice to give up his life to fight for some small names to be handed over to future generations. ”

"A few murderers died before, and that was just a small thing. But right now, the courtiers are killing themselves in the Taiji Palace, so sensational, they can't cover it if they want to, isn't this a dereliction of duty on the part of the center? When the town guards heard this news in the coming days, they would definitely hold the center accountable, and then it would be the real excitement! ”

Probably because he has no power and no power to cover his eyes, Zhang Min's wait-and-see of the current situation is more thorough. He also paid attention to the current situation, at the beginning of the incident, although he sent his son to the Shen family to prove his innocence, but in fact, seeing Shen Zhezi facing such a predicament, he had no lack of bad pleasure in his heart. After all, his loneliness at the moment is all caused by the suppression of the other party.

But Xue Yi died in the front hall of Taiji, regardless of whether he was coerced and tempted behind him, the situation was suddenly pulled to a new height. The contradiction between Fang Zhen and the center has been around for a long time, and it has only become more aggravated when Yu Liang is alive, even if Su Jun has been eliminated, this contradiction still exists.

With such a rare opportunity to be held accountable, how could the local towns give up this opportunity? Therefore, the future development of the situation can no longer be confined to the center, but everyone who is qualified must interject. At that time, in order to stabilize all parties, the center will be very busy, and when the time comes, who will instruct the attack on Xue Yan and who will force Xue Yan to death, it is no longer up to these Taichung ministers to decide!

"I don't know what the coming day will be. It's just that on the way home from Taicheng, Tao Yin of the Tao family walked with his son for a while and asked me what my plans were after returning home. I didn't dare to answer him, but I just said that I would ask my father for advice. ”

Zhang Chao said again.

Zhang Min sighed slightly after hearing this, then nodded and said: "You have done a good job in this regard, the current situation is chaotic, each family is vying for progress, and there is no old friendship with each other. ”

When he said this, Zhang Min's heart was complicated. It is true that his current decline is mainly suppressed by the Shen family, but if it weren't for those villagers biting back, they wouldn't have fallen so badly!

"Tao San asked you so, I should have a pre-plan to come to his house. This is normal, now that the families in the county, my family has suffered a disaster, and the Ji family is the little raccoon dog's master, and it is clear that they are advancing and retreating together. If the rest of the families have hope, it depends on what Dow does. They want to compete for township funds, and the sooner they launch, the better, and they must make a decision before the various places react, so that they can swallow the income and not spit out. ”

Danyang Tao is also a Wangzong, which is similar to the original Wuxing Shen Clan, and it is all used in martial arts. Because of the countryside in Gyeonggi, the initial momentum was more courageous than that of the Shen family, but as the Shen family was fortunate to be the emperor, it was thrown away. Tao Hui of the Tao family is now a candidate in the Northern Army, and he is equal to the Ji family's situation.

Speaking of this, Zhang Min saw that there was no lack of excitement among the people in the seat, so he lowered his face and said: "I don't care what other people's families do, but if any of you dare to go out tonight, go to the ancestral hall first to tick your name off the family tree, don't bring trouble to my family!" That little raccoon dog dared to rush into Jiankang, which was guarded by the rebels, and he didn't even care about his own life, would he be soft? Being strong may not be the only profit, giving your life or taking the lead! ”

————

"The last time there was a mess, my Danyang family suffered a lot! Those Wuxing raccoon dogs were saved in the countryside for a while, but now they are taking advantage of the rich capital to come to the north, arrogant and do not leave the friendship of the village, and want to kill all the people who live in this township such as us! With such a deep humiliation and great hatred, can you still live in peace? You are willing to be wronged, but you don't know what kind of family will be set up in this township in the future! ”

In the dimly lit room, a man shouted loudly, and his expression was either gloomy or angry.

"As soon as Xue Yi dies, it will be a shock in Jiangdong, and all parties will speak out! No one can say for sure what the situation will be at that time. But no matter what, no one will speak for my countrymen! Are you willing to give up your land to others? ”

"The only way to do this is to save yourself! At present, many villagers are trapped in the camp, working as cattle and horses all day long! Can you just sit idly by? ”

"What we do is not disobedient. Save my countrymen and guard my country! ”

"The guards are all old from my countrymen, do they just watch the old old people of the country die and die? All families are brave, and when the villagers are exhausted, who can stop them! After the overall situation is settled, everyone will gather again and celebrate the victory! ”

——————

After nightfall, the laborers returned to their camps, drank a few bowls of vegetable soup that had suddenly become thin, and then returned to their tents with heavy concerns.

"I heard that there are suddenly more defenders in Stone Town, could it be that there is another military incident going on?"

"It seems that an envoy in Taichung was beaten to death on the street the day before yesterday, and now the whole city is not peaceful......"

"How dare anyone do such an evil thing? Could it be that the slaves from the north crossed the river to commit crimes? ”

"Ha, how dare the slaves come lightly! Not to mention Tao Gong of Jingzhou and Xi Gong of Guangling, Shen Hou is an invincible general! ”

"But some people say that Shen Hou was blamed for something and has been sent back to the township! Look at those warehouses full of goods, it is said that they are all obtained by Wu Xing's traitors who took advantage of the power of Shen Hou to extort us from Danyang Township......"

"Shen Hou has been dismissed, and those Wuxing people are not panicking? They have already prepared boats and boats, and they want to transport the looted assets of our land back to Wuxing! ”

"Hugh has to say nonsense, Shen Hou Gaoyi is alive, if it weren't for the rescue of the horse, you would have starved to death in the rat hole, why didn't you have any wealth for people to extort at that time?"

"If I don't, don't others have any? Who would be kind enough to give rice and grain to others, it's not a scheme! ”

"What do you know? Earlier, Shen Hou promised that all the laborers who went out to serve would have the income from the land. But where did the imperial court come from so many fields, the prince of Taichung wanted to repent, dismissed Shen Hou, and sent Ding to Jiangbei to guard! ”

A lot of chattering quietly spread in the night, many people tossed and turned, unable to sleep at night, occasionally heard the deliberate noise in the barracks, so they suddenly turned over and looked, only to see a few dark shadows in the night groping for the few belongings tied up and tied to their bodies, and then tiptoed out of the door.

Outside the barracks, there were more and more figures shaking like wandering spirits, and suddenly a terrible scream broke the silence of the night, and everyone looked in the direction of the sound as if they had woken up from a nightmare.

"What the hell is going on in the capital? If you dare to deceive again, you will be killed immediately! ”

Many people came up with hideous faces, either clutching masonry or sticks.

"You, you thieves......"

As soon as the official was halfway through his words, a sharp blade suddenly appeared in his chest, which had already penetrated his entire body!

"When such a big thing happens, the dog thief will still deceive!"

A strong man drew his sharp blade, shook off the blood on it, and then shouted: "Heaven and earth are unkind, no one lives me!" Lao Tzu is no longer accompanied, and he wants to fend for himself! ”

As he spoke, the strong man took the sharp blade into his bosom and strode towards the gate of the barracks. When the others saw this, their minds were already in a state of confusion, and they didn't know what to do. Until someone sleepwalked, the person next to him subconsciously followed. At first, it was almost aimless, but before long, someone howled and ran wildly.

At this time, the strong man who was the first to make a move had already walked near the camp gate, and behind him, more than a dozen people had already been raised, and they were about to smash the gate open.

The successors ran there one after another, and a madness appeared on their faces, but before they could get closer, they saw the front row of people as if they were swept up by the wind, and their whole bodies flew backwards abruptly, and when they landed, two or three feathered arrows were inserted in each of the vital parts of their bodies!

"After three drums, those who do not return to the camp will be shot immediately!"

A murderous voice sounded outside the camp gate, followed by a rapid drum beat, and accompanied by the sound of the drum, the four fields screamed one by one, which was the ranger shooting and killing the escapees over the wall.

A quarter of an hour later, Shen Zhezi appeared from the open gate of the camp, looked at the camp that was still noisy before, but now it was silent, and instructed a soldier next to him: "Enter the camp according to the name of the person, and those who have no name on the name will be imprisoned for the time being." If you dare to resist, kill immediately! ”

Hundreds of soldiers poured into the camp, and Shen Zhezi rushed into the night again surrounded by more than a hundred horsemen. As the construction of fortifications began in various places, similar barracks were not in the south of the capital, but this was already the case here, and the rest of the country should be worried.