Yu Xinyuan and Yuan Hancheng, the king of Chu, rushed back to Juchao from Shouzhou, bringing a clear attitude towards Huaixi, and the situation was clear, so that the officials who accompanied the emperor to the west could only struggle under the framework of persuading the emperor to return to the court.

Otherwise, it is to abolish the emperor and set up another one, Huaidong will join the Huaixi and Jiangzhou armies, and send a large army to set up Emperor Yongxing as the emperor and return to the deep palace of Jiangning to recuperate - the officials who go west with the emperor should no longer think about any good fruits to eat, and Huaidong and the queen mother will clean them with hot hands, and they will no longer have any scruples.

Luzhou Mansion is the head of Huaixi, in the early years of the military town, the town army combat effectiveness is quite strong, but with the original town guard Deng Yu led the troops to the south to organize the Huinan Army, to Xie Dan's hands of the Luzhou Army although there are more than 10,000, but the generals, soldiers, brave soldiers compared with the old army, far behind. Moreover, by this time, no one had any expectations for the combat effectiveness of the Imperial Battalion.

At this time, after the imperial camp army was incorporated into the Luzhou army, although there were 30,000 soldiers and horses, but without the support of the Huaixi and Jiangzhou armies, how could there be any capital to confront Huaidong who "ordered the ministers of the Empress Dowager"?

The news of Zhang Yubo's whipping of Gu Tianqiao reached Juchao, and the officials who followed the emperor to the west were more calm, if the emperor issued an edict to take the responsibility, it would not prevent everyone from returning to Jiangning City to continue to live happily. Perhaps there is no greater authority than before, but it will not suffer the living sin of the present.

After returning to Jiangning, Cheng Yuqian, Zuo Chengmu, Zhang Yan and others, whose power and interests will really be damaged, also have to face the current cruel reality: Xie Dan still controls the grain and grass that supplies the Luzhou army for half a year in Luzhou City, but so much grain and grass is shared among the nearly 100,000 people in Xiben, and it will be able to support it for another month.

Lin Jian didn't even have to do anything, he would only send troops and horses to Luzhou's side to slowly advance, and at most he would be able to crush and collapse this side in a month or two.

Unlike others, Cheng Yuqian, Zuo Chengmu, Zhang Yan and others still know the practice, and they really don't have the capital to confront Huaidong - if Jiangning is forced to abolish the emperor and set up another one, then even the possibility of negotiation does not exist.

Weighing the pros and cons, under the persuasion of Yuan Hancheng and Yu Xinyuan, Cheng Yuqian, Zuo Chengmu, Zhang Yan and others agreed to let Liu Zhi come to the nest first, but everything was hidden from Emperor Yongxing.

In fact, in the end, if you really want to persuade the emperor to return to Jiangning, the emperor's opinion will no longer matter.

***************

On the 17th, Liu Zhi left the Yijiang River by boat, crossed the river into the Yuxi River, and went to Juchao.

Xiangjiang Binhu in Juchao County, the northwest is a big lake between Luzhou and Juchao, that is, 800 miles of Chaohu Lake, which is the second largest lake between Jianghuai and Huai in addition to Hongzepu. The west and south sides of Chaohu Lake are all hills and ridges, and further west is the main vein of the vast Huai Mountain. To the west of Luzhou, Yicheng at the southern foot of Huai Mountain, and Chizhou on the north bank of the Jiangjiang River, are the west gateway of the Jianghuai Gate.

The counties around Chaohu Lake, with Luzhou City as the center of gravity, constitute the first place in Huaixi that controls Huaishan Mountain in the west, the Dajiang River in the south, and Huaishou in the north.

The mouth of the Yuxi River, which crosses the border of Juchao County and communicates with Chaohu Lake, is on the opposite bank of Yijiang City.

Although the water surface of this section of the Yangtze River is less than two miles wide in winter, the two banks of the Yangtze River are boundless beaches, and the river level will suddenly increase to thirty or forty miles away when the summer flood hits.

Liu Zhi remembered Lin Tie's feat of repairing and defending the seawall in Huaidong, and if the embankment could be built on both sides of the Yangtze River, the large areas of sandy river beaches on both sides of the river could be reclaimed into fertile land.

In fact, the repair of embankments in Yijiang and Lujiang counties has been done by people for hundreds of years. However, they are all built by the people or local wealthy households, and the power that the people can gather is limited, so they can only pile up mud to build the embankment, and the flood peak of the Yangtze River crossing in summer and autumn is really fierce, and the mud embankment often collapses nine times in ten years, and it takes effort to repair it every year.

In fact, as long as people do not live in areas prone to collapse, large tracts of arable land can still be grabbed behind the embankment.

Although there is a loss in the embankment breach, it can effectively increase the fertility of the land after the embankment failure and flooding. After the flood breaches, before the next year's floods, it is possible to plant a season of wheat, and even if there is a loss in the embankment, the harvest is not worse than that of the dry fields between the hills and mountains.

It is only in the past few years that the successive wars have caused the dikes and beaches in this area to be destroyed by floods for many years, and they are completely uncultivateable. After the Huaisi War, Jiangning's tax collection of Luzhou was very heavy, coupled with Luzhou's own army, which made the people's livelihood in the surrounding area more and more difficult, and there was no possibility of improvement.

Liu Zhi stood at the bow of the boat, and could still see the remnants of the embankment standing alone between the river and beach from a distance, and he was quite emotional.

Liu Zhi's young family was poor, so he entered the province as a eunuch, but he dared to study hard, so he was valued by Hao Zongcheng. In the past, the utilitarian heart was too heavy, and there were too many feelings about the people's livelihood, but a prison made him reflect a lot, thinking about his own travel over the years, and his knowledge was far beyond that of other eunuchs.

Liu Zhi was thinking nonsense at the bow of the boat, and in the afternoon, the sun was tilting westward, and he saw the county seat of Juchao behind Yinping Mountain.

On the side of the nest, Yu Xinyuan came forward to greet him.

Liu Zhi brought the Empress Dowager's will and actually came on behalf of Huaidong, but after all, he was only a young eunuch of the Inner Servant Province under Zhang Yan - whether to welcome the Empress Dowager's decree or not, the ministers who fled west had not yet made up their minds, so they naturally would not go out of the city to meet the decree at this time.

Looking at the two-passenger ox cart by the wharf, the ox cart has no obstruction on all sides, and the top cover is also temporarily pasted with silk cloth.

Liu Zhi sighed lightly in his heart: I didn't expect that the emperor and hundreds of officials would fall to such a point when they fled to the nest, and they couldn't even get together a few carriages.

Yu Xinyuan and Liu Zhi exchanged pleasantries, and could guess that Liu Zhi had already joined Huaidong before he would be released from the prison for Lin Zhi to be appointed, but he thought that his family would have to bow his head under the eaves of Huaidong in the future, and he was not so indifferent to Liu Zhi.

The two ox carts slowly drove to the city under the entourage of the hu, and the nest city was in a mess, although they were all the families and entourages of the garrison and officials who fled westward, but it was still chaotic - a small city with more than 1,000 households, and 100,000 people were crammed into it at once, and the crowded situation can be imagined.

The Hu clan carried the ox cart to the Dongcheng Confucian Temple, where the ministers were temporarily deliberating, and the dusty streets were crowded with people.

In order to exchange for more food, many officials' family members or officials themselves, regardless of their status, took out gold and silver and went to the streets to exchange rice and noodles or precious dried meat that had not been tasted for more than ten days.

In front of the county government that was levied as a palace, it was as messy as a market.

Although it has only been more than 20 days, the powerful eunuchs who were extremely rich and noble in Jiangning City in the past have already had a lot of dilapidated appearances.

Liu Zhi was not triumphant, he turned around and wanted to ask Yu Xinyuan about the emperor's current situation, there was a strange sound of "whoosh", only when the wind blew, and the short arrow fired directly from the crossbow pierced the chest, Liu Zhi realized that he had been assassinated on the street of Juchao, and saw a man in a blue shirt in the crowd from a distance drilling into the alley, pointing to the past: "Where is the assassin ......?"

Yu Xinyuan was so remorseful that he wanted to slap himself, but he didn't count that there were assassins hidden in the city, so he still chose Liu Zhi to assassinate when he entered the city-Yu Xinyuan suddenly sent his followers to follow Liu Zhi's instructions to chase the assassins, climbed into Liu Zhi's ox cart, hugged him and cried: "Lord Liu, you can't die!" ”

Before Yu Xinyuan went to Huaixi, Tie Xin thought that Huaidong would purge the officials who fled west, and he had a heart of struggle when he was dying, and after returning from Huaixi, his mood was different, thinking that as long as he promoted the emperor to return to the court, although it was not good to be in Huaidong, it was not a problem to protect his relatives and raise his old age, who would have thought that Liu Zhi would be assassinated on the streets of Juchao?

If Liu Zhi is assassinated and killed, which minister will Huaidong still and dare to send to negotiate?

If Huaidong doesn't talk about it, then it will only directly abolish the emperor in Jiangning and set up another king of Lu, and if it doesn't surrender here, then it can only wait for the Huaidong army to start a big fight......

Yu Xinyuan could almost imagine the coming blood, the ups and downs of his heart, such turmoil, how could he control his loud howl.

***************

Zhang Yan's house in Juchao City was not large, but he did not have any family members and servants to follow, so it was more spacious, and after Yuan Hancheng, the king of Chu, arrived in Juchao, he lived in the same courtyard with Zhang Yan - at this time, there was not so much sophistication.

When someone came to report that Liu Zhi was assassinated in the city, Yuan Hancheng was playing chess with Zhang Yan while talking about the two Huai Yanli, and he was also shocked at the moment. Yuan Hancheng didn't say a word, but only called someone to take it there and find the assassinated Liu Zhi.

Although Yu Xinyuan was flustered, he had not lost his sense of proportion, and informed Cheng Yuqian that he would immediately deploy troops to block the streets and alleys, and he did not dare to move Liu Zhi, who was short and medium-sized crossbows, so he could only send someone to ask the national hand of the Provincial Medical Bureau in the palace to come to the street for first aid.

Yuan Hancheng and Zhang Yan arrived, Liu Zhi had already moved to the house facing the street, and only Cheng Yuqian and Zuo Chengmu were blowing their beards and staring at each other in front of the street. Zhang Yan hurriedly asked, "Did you catch the assassin?" "If Liu Zhi is assassinated, only by catching the assassin can he explain to Huaidong and the Queen Mother, otherwise they will directly face the consequences of abolishing the emperor. Liu Zhi was assassinated in Juchao, and the Empress Dowager Huaidong directly abolished the emperor and set up another one, Dong Yuan, Liu Tingzhou, Yue Lengqiu and others had nothing to say!

Huaidong can't find an excuse to directly abolish the emperor and set up another one.

"This street is full of people, how can you catch it?" Cheng Yuqian thumped his chest, he watched Lin Jian and Huaidong rise step by step, without the name of righteousness, he didn't have much courage to confront Huaidong.

Zuo Chengmu was quite calm, frowned and said: "Liu Zhi's entry into the nest today is a top secret matter, except for a few people such as me, few people know, who will assassinate?" ”

Zuo Chengmu woke up the people in his dream with a word, Yuan Hancheng, Zhang Yan, Cheng Yuqian and others stood on the street and looked at each other with a hint of suspicion in their eyes - after all, not everyone is willing to return to Jiangning with Emperor Yongxing, after all, there are still people who want to die and not give in to Huaidong! There are not a few officials and soldiers in the city who want to assassinate Liu Zhi, but there are not many people who know that Liu Zhi has entered the nest today-the instigator behind the assassination is about to come out.

"Wang Xueshan!" Zhang Yan pointed out Wang Xueshan's name like thunder, knowing that Liu Zhi would enter the city today, and only Wang Xueshan did not appear here at this time. There may be other reasons, but Wang Xueshan is the most suspicious.

Zuo Chengmu looked at Cheng Yuqian, Cheng Yuqian looked at Yuan Hancheng, Yuan Hancheng looked at Zhang Yan again, Zhang Yan said ruthlessly: "Send troops to search Wang Xueshan's residence, if there is a mistake, I will kowtow to Wang Xueshan to apologize!" ”

"Please ask the prince of Chu to accompany Lord Yu, and the three of us will go to search for Wang Xueshan's residence!" Zuo Chengmu said.

The most unsuspicious is Yuan Hancheng, the king of Chu who persuaded the emperor to return to the dynasty on behalf of Huaidong, and several other people have doubts and are unpredictable, so Zuo Chengmu asked Yuan Hancheng to stare at Yu Xinyuan, and he and Zhang Yan and Cheng Yuqian are not separated, they monitor each other, and they must use ruthless means to search out the assassins......