The fleet marched very fast, but it had already entered the territory of Beizhili in ten days, and more than 1,000 guards with the fleet were placed on both sides of the Grand Canal in turn, and the men and horses were on strict alert within a radius of ten miles, for fear that the marquis of Zhenyu would be attacked by gangsters on the road.

At this time, Shandong had been recaptured from the hands of the Liukou for nearly a year, and although bandits were still rampant on the road, it was still unique in daring to attack the fleet protected by the officers and soldiers. In fact, what the guards and battalion officials were afraid of was not bandits, but in fact, they were afraid that some people in the court with ulterior motives would take advantage of the opportunity of the capture of the marquis to leave Nanjing and the protection of the army of the Three Guards to kill him.

After all, Yang Sichang had been operating in Shandong for nearly a year, and the officials and garrison generals of a province had all been replaced by Lu Xiangsheng's old subordinates to his cronies. As we all know, Yang Sichang has always held a grudge against the Marquis of Zhen, and has wanted to put him to death several times, but he has not succeeded in the future.

Now that Yang Sichang has won a great victory over the thieves, his actions are becoming more and more arrogant, even if he openly sends a large army to kill him halfway, it is not surprising.

After passing through Jinan Mansion, an unknown group of people did appear. This made more than 1,000 guards nervous suddenly, and the guard battalion officers also prepared for the worst, once the other party suddenly launched a sneak attack, they would fight desperately, and at the same time, they also had to cover the landing of the Zhenhou and break through to return to Jiangnan under the escort of the cavalry squad.

Li Xin laughed out loud after listening to the battalion officer's report, and then said to the battalion officer: "Don't worry, even if Yang Sichang has this thief heart, he doesn't have the courage to be a thief, tell the soldiers, just rest assured and move forward boldly!" ”

Seeing that the Marquis of Zhenyu was so determined, the battalion officer retreated with a little peace of mind, and no one dared to sneak attack them along the way, until they reached the Gaoyang Realm, and the people and horses who were secretly monitoring disappeared.

This is not that Li Xin is like a god, but that he has an accurate judgment of the character of people like Yang Sichang. Xiang Yang Sichang, a minister who is pampered and authoritarian, and has mediocre ability, although he will do everything to fight for power and profit and fight against dissidents. But in the final analysis, it still needs a fig leaf, that is, at least a plausible charge can be put on the other party's head, and then completely beaten with the authority of the imperial court.

He neither disdains nor dares to do such a thing as a halfway robbery and assassination, after all, there will be many variables in doing so, and if he misses, it will be an irreparable mistake. Therefore, why rush at this time, it is better to leave the hot potato in the capital and let the cabinet emperor worry about this heart, wouldn't it be better for him to reap the benefits of the fisherman?

In fact, Yang Sichang is really so ordinary, and the people sent out are only for surveillance, for fear that Li Xin will regret it halfway and flee back to Jiangnan District. If Li Xin had the slightest intention of turning south halfway, then he would send heavy troops to chase and intercept him, and even if he did, he would have to block Li Xin to Beijing, so that the emperor could deal with this guy, just like when he killed Yuan Chonghuan.

Seeing that Li Xin's men and horses abandoned the ship and landed after crossing the Shandong boundary, the chief general in charge of monitoring was indeed nervous for a while, but they soon discovered that Li Xin abandoned the ship and landed to escort the coffin of Sun Ji, the former governor of Nanzhili, back to Gaoyang.

After Yang Sichang received the report from his subordinates, he put his heart back in his stomach, knowing that Li Xin would not return to Jiangnan, so he ordered the surveillance personnel to evacuate and return to the Shandong station.

After Li Xin passed through Texas, he parted ways with Zhang Fangyan, Zhang Fangyan still took a boat to Beijing, while Li Xin changed to the overland route, escorting Sun Jiao's coffin to his hometown, Gaoyang.

After entering the boundary of Beizhili, Li Xin could already clearly feel the desolation along the way. The horse team walked nearly 300 miles along the official road, and there were more than a dozen villages along the way, but when they entered, they found that they had long been empty.

Everywhere there was a mess left after the looting, and occasionally you could see a few white bones, I don't know if they were human or beasts. It's really a thousand miles without a rooster crowing, and the white bones are exposed in the wild.

"Zhenyu Hou, it's not a way to go on like this, there is not a single family on the road, and it is difficult to buy some grain and rice!"

They could use large boats to load grain and grass when they traveled by water, but once on land, they could survive up to seven days without a special auxiliary force responsible for transporting food.

Li Xin's initial idea was still very optimistic, nearly 1,000 men and horses carrying seven days of food was enough, and the rest could be purchased from the local county town or wealthy households.

However, after going out for 300 miles, Li Xin realized how big the gap between his ideas and reality was.

Along the way, even the only county town passed through has been abandoned in the war, the ruins are broken, uninhabited, and almost a dead city.

Li Xinchang sighed, unexpectedly getting closer to the Ming Jingshi, it was so depressed and barren, which seemed to indicate on the other side that the Ming Dynasty, which he loved and hated, had inevitably slipped into the abyss of destruction step by step.

"Insist on persevering, and talk about it when you get to Gaoyang!"

Li Xin was now afraid that even Gao Yang would be gone, and at that time he would probably have to transport Sun Jie's coffin to Beijing, where he also had a son who had reached the age of 20 and was an official in the household department.

However, from the desolation seen along the way, it is inferred that it is difficult for anyone to be there in Gaoyang, after all, since the eighth year of Chongzhen, the Manchu Dynasty has frequently knocked on the south to fight the grass valley, in addition to the Zhang Li Liu Liukou who are wandering everywhere, after the ravages of these two soldiers and horses, the people on the land of Beizhili will also face a terrible plague. Let's ask, in this desperate situation, how many people are left who can persist in staying?

Especially in the prefectures and counties that are getting closer and closer to the city of Beijing, which places are too close to the Great Wall, as long as the Tartars knock on the pass, they will bear the brunt, because after the people have fled several times, they simply have been living in a foreign land, it is better than being killed by the Tartars after returning, or robbed outside the pass to be slaves, or even die of famine and plague.

Li Xin knew that a large part of these people who had fled their hometowns were forced by their livelihood to join the army of rogues of Zhang, Li and Liu, and then turned into villains who burned, killed and looted, and inflicted all the suffering they had suffered on the same people as them.

"The old man stuttered it!"

While searching an abandoned village, a scrawny refugee suddenly sprang out of nowhere, kneeling on the ground and kowtowing, begging for a bite to eat.

Li Xin ordered his rations to be distributed to the refugee, but after the refugee received the food, he didn't want to leave, but asked timidly: "Are the big men the king's horses?" Accept me, I can resist hoes, I can also resist big guns, as long as I accept me, let me do anything! ”

The guards were just about to angrily reprimand this guy for being blind, but Li Xin waved his hand to stop them, and asked kindly: "How do you know that we are the people who broke into the king?" ”

The refugee first grabbed a handful of raw rice and stuffed it into his mouth, and then replied vaguely: "When the officials and soldiers enter the village, some people will rob them, and no one will burn them." The big men don't rob or burn it, and they are definitely not officers and soldiers. ”

"Nonsense, how can the officers and soldiers rob and burn?" A scribe beside Li Xin angrily reprimanded, he was born in a merchant family in Nanjing, and naturally he didn't know the harsh living environment in the north, and the officials and soldiers and the rogues were only the color of their skins to the common people.

The refugee pouted and said: "Don't test me, I know that when King Chuang comes, he will not pay for food, but will also distribute the landlord's grain to our poor people!" ”

This sentence was like a sharp sword slammed into Li Xin's chest, and King Chuang came to pay no food, as early as the twelfth year of Chongzhen, Liu Guoneng took the lead in mentioning it. But at that time, it was just a slogan and a show shouted by the gangsters, and the people did not approve of it. Now, years later, this phrase is heard again, but it comes from the mouth of a refugee who has fled.

It is conceivable that the phrase "King Chuang will not pay for food when he comes" has gained considerable weight among the people of the five northern provinces.

Li Xin was suddenly a little deflated, after all, even the people had to rush to vote for the rogue who destroyed the Ming Dynasty building, so is this Ming still the Ming he is bent on saving?

"You look carefully, we are neither officers nor rebels, we are the Three Guards under the command of the Marquis of Zhenju."

A team officer told the refugee in a stern manner. The refugee shuddered when he heard this, and then hugged the grain bag on his chest.

"You, you're not the one who broke into the king?"

The refugee's eyes immediately showed a look of horror, for fear that the people in front of him would snatch the food he had in his hands again.

Li Xin couldn't cry or laugh, why is the reputation of the Three Guards not as good as Liukou in Beizhili?

This is also a situation that Li Xin has never encountered, even if the people applaud wherever the Three Guards go, at least they will get a pertinent evaluation, this officer army is different and never disturbs the people!

Just when Li Xin was stunned, the refugee had already turned around and wanted to run. Several guards immediately pulled him back and put him on the ground, leaving him at the disposal of the town's captive.

The refugees were so frightened that they thought that their lives were at stake today, so they knelt on the ground and kept kowtowing, begging for mercy in their mouths: "The big man spares his life, the villain doesn't know Mount Tai with his dog eyes, beg the big man to spare the villain, spare the villain......"

Even so, the refugee always had one hand clutching the sack of grain, as if he was clutching not just a bag of rice, but something more precious than his life.

In an instant, an idea flashed in front of Li Xin.

"Get up, I'll let you join the Three Guards, and you will have white flour buns and rice to eat every day in the future!"

"What, what? Is there such a good thing? Isn't the old man talking to me again? Where is my cheap life worthy of being fed by the old man's rice and white noodles? ”

"I am the marquis of the court, how can I ever say empty words?" Li Xin said in a deep voice!

Seeing that Li Xin's gaze was relatively calm, the refugees' fear decreased slightly, and they talked more.

"I, I don't dare to think about rice and white noodles, as long as the eldest lord can enjoy a mouthful of mushy porridge every day to pad his hunger, I don't dare, I don't dare to waste food for the eldest lord!"