On Guazhou City Street, Shi Gong reported the situation in Guazhou to Li Xingzhou as he walked. Guazhou people are now panic and the food is absolutely true. In some places, one stone of food can be exchanged for two children. Many people in the village are afraid that the officers and soldiers will run into the mountains to take refuge.

Li Xingzhou asked Guazhou's prefect carefully again and learned that in order to intimidate the people, Yang Hongzhao killed more than 200 talents to suppress them and asked the people to pay the food. In those days, the heads were piled up in small hills at the city gate.

Yang Hongzhao's deputy general heard this and quickly said to the side: "Prince, the general is also helpless. Never listen to the words of the whole family. This matter... This matter is definitely not that simple."

Li Xingzhou raised his hand to stop him, and he naturally knew that it was not that simple.

Many things in the world are hard to tell right or wrong, and this is what it means to be kind and not to command soldiers.

More than 30,000 soldiers gathered here, without the village in front or the shop behind. If they could not obtain food immediately, the army without food mutiny occurred, and more than 30,000 trained soldiers scattered and became bandits all over the mountains, which was even more a disaster for Guazhou.

In the eyes of anyone, what Yang Hongzhao did is worse than beasts and is full of conscience. The local people hate him to the core, but more visionary people can know that he has saved Guazhou. Although his methods are very cruel, no one will be grateful.

"Is General Yang ready to return the food?" Li Xingzhou asked.

The adjutant hesitated and nodded: "It is true. In fact, the general wants to release grain when the imperial army arrives. The army brings enough food from the capital, and opening warehouses to return grain to the people, but... but the people dare not come and collect it."

He nodded. In the eyes of the people of Guazhou, Yang Hongzhao was probably like Yan Luo. He had killed so many innocent people. Who would dare to come to collect his food? He was afraid that he would be chopped off again. Moreover, many people ran to the mountains to take refuge and did not dare to go down the mountain at all.

......

Li Xingzhou understood the hidden dangers. This matter involved a lot. He had to cut the mess quickly, otherwise there would be endless troubles. However, most people did not see the benefits and harm. He thought for a while and said, "I will preside over the release of food."

Both of them looked at him in surprise.

Li Xingzhou explained, "I am an outsider and I have not interfered in this matter. The people do not resent me. I am still a prince of the court. I have the status of it, with prestige and appeal, and the people are willing to believe me."

Shi Gong thought about it and seemed to think it was a good idea.

"I will go to General Yang to discuss this matter in person."

Shi Gong nodded happily and immediately knelt down to thank him.

.........

Guazhou is actually a good place.

This place is connected to the mountains in the north and the river in the south. It is open and flat in the east and west, and the water flows slowly. It is an ideal wharf. Moreover, it is the middle area of ​​the river that runs through the north and south. If the north and south shipping of the royal mansion is connected in the future, it is a very good choice to choose this place as a supply station.

The royal family also had a business contract with the Huai family in Guazhou. After he asked, he found out that the Huai family was not in Guazhou City, but had its own villa in the north of Guazhou.

After a day of shopping, when I returned to the camp, the soldiers of Shenji Camp were drying the gunpowder they brought, and carried twelve 120 caliber guns from the car, reassembled them, wiped them dry and then oiled them for maintenance.

Xiaogang's strength and toughness allow the barrel to be lengthened, but because it is a backward front-loading gun design, the barrel should not be too long, otherwise it will be difficult to clean.

In the fifth capital of the Shenji Battalion, the special artillery soldiers have to follow the repeated training of Li Xingzhou Cult every day, how to load medicine and ammunition, how to clean the gun barrel, how to correct the shooting elements, and how to disassemble and assemble them.

The sharpshooters were fed with bullets, and so were gunners. The musket team fired more and more frequently because they fired guns early, so they were very familiar with them. However, this gun was the last thing produced by the royal palace. It was shipped to the 10th Army and the army set off a few days later. Most of the gunners were only familiar with the operation, but the hit rate was terrible.

However, the accuracy is enough, and the density is actually the case in most large-scale hot weapon wars in history. But the problem is that the gun density is not enough. The entire Shenji Camp currently has only twelve guns.

This is a treasure, so they must improve accuracy, and shooting, recording, summarizing, improving, and repeating time and time, become the daily routine of artillery soldiers. Even after a long journey, they cannot rest when others rest well.

The loud noise also attracted many people's curiosity, but everyone knows that it was the camp of the King Pingnan of the imperial court. Even though he was curious, he dared not run to investigate as he usually did.

That night, Li Xingzhou asked Yang Hongzhao to talk about the release of food.

Yang Hongzhao was very happy and agreed almost immediately. Although he was a bad guy and Li Xingzhou gained fame, he didn't care. He was very happy to hand over the deputy general to him to command, and was fully responsible for the release of food.

Li Xingzhou could guess some of Yang Hongzhao's thoughts, so he said that.

After all, the status of a prince is not comparable to that of him, a commander in front of the palace. If he was busy in charge of the release of food, he would naturally have no time to interfere in his decisions and threaten his power. Duke De told him that Yang Hongzhao was cautious and cautious. As expected, even if he had explained his purpose to him, he was still worried.

So in the following days, Li Xingzhou, apart from supervising the training of the Shenji Camp, started to release food.

With his statement from the Prince of Pingnan as a guarantee, and with Shi Gong's advice, a large number of official notices were posted in the streets and alleys, at the ends of the villages, and with the word of mouth, the people finally returned one after another, and the food distribution began to proceed in an orderly manner, but there were also many obstacles.

Not only is the distrust of the people, but many people also want to falsely claim and take more. The key is that the household registration system at the end of the year is not as perfect as in later generations, and it is difficult to recognize even if someone does this.

Li Xingzhou then simply asked Shi Gong to summon officials from all over the country, mobilize the yamen runners, carry the Pingnan King banner to distribute each household one by one, once each household, with rice and flour based on the household registration.

Many people were grateful and gradually believed in him. More people came back from the mountains. Of course, some people cried and shouted to see King Pingnan, saying that they would sue Yang Hongzhao. These are all later stories. In short, King Pingnan's identity saved Guazhou.

Li Xingzhou saw that the biggest crisis was the season. It was still spring. Only when the people returned could spring plowing continue. Otherwise, spring plowing would be delayed and famine would occur in autumn and winter, which would cause even greater disasters.

The people of Guazhou were all grateful. The goodness of Li Xingzhou, King Pingnan, was also known by word of mouth. In just a few days in Guazhou, almost everyone was known, and many people were praising it.

Li Xingzhou was naturally happy, not only because of his good reputation, but also because of him, he finally became a good person.

If the people were not as a guarantee, the people would not dare to go home. When Qiudong had no food to live, resentment towards the imperial guards broke out. If Guazhou was not handled well, it might become the second Suzhou.

Yang Hongzhao was also happy that the people of Guazhou hated him to the core, and he was unable to deal with this situation. He handed over the mess to King Pingnan to deal with it, and at the same time kept him away from the center of power. He must worry that King Pingnan would compete with him for power.

While doing these things, Li Xingzhou would also inquire about the situation in Luzhou and want to get some news about his sister-in-law, but most of the time he would have no results.

In mid-March, the spring breeze on the river surface was even stronger. After the defeat of Anxia, ​​the north-south waterways were cut off in Suzhou. A section of Suzhou controlled by the rebels was really difficult to pass. Therefore, few ships passed through Guazhou, and some nearby fishermen were also some nearby fishermen.

These days, Li Xingzhou will go to the court to practice morning every day. By the way, if he sees the fishermen have good harvests, he will also buy some fresh fish. Although he is away from home, he will live a good life.

After the morning exercise that day, he stood at the ferry by the river as usual, watching several small fishing boats in the distance taking advantage of the morning light and then started fishing. Sometimes he would get on the boat to fish with the fishermen for a while.

Li Xingzhou stretched, and Yan Shen had already brought "Baixue" over.

"Go back." He relaxed his body, and just turned around and found a somewhat suspicious ship from the corner of his eyes.

A small boat on the riverside is coming from the west and going upstream, which looks like a fishing boat.

"What do you think of the prince?" Yan Shen took a few steps and turned around and asked when he found that he had not come.

"Yan Shen, look at that ship." Li Xingzhou pointed to the small boat in the distance.

Yan Shen stepped forward and took a look: "On ordinary fishing boat."

Li Xingzhou looked carefully for a while. There were several ships on the river, which were far away. In addition, the morning fog had not yet dissipated, so he couldn't see clearly. He couldn't remember whether he had seen the ship before, but he always felt strange: "That ship is too light, please watch it draws water carefully."

In order to keep the fish fresh, fishermen will pour water into the cabin prepared at the stern of the boat, so even if they have no harvest, the boat is very heavy and has a deep draft. The surrounding fishing boats are like this, but the small boat is obviously much shallower in draft.

Yan Shen looked at it for a while and couldn't help but nodded: "It seems to be true, do you not want to fish anymore?"

Li Xingzhou looked at it for a while and it was not only that, but the boat was moving too fast, which easily shocked the fish. It was definitely not a fishing boat, but rather a rushing boat.

It doesn't fish but is decorated like a fishing boat. There are fishing nets hanging on the boat, but it is still coming from the west...

"Stop him and ask." Li Xingzhou decisively: "Be careful." As he said that, he untied the Xiaogang sword on his waist and handed it to Yan Shen.

Yan Shen nodded, found a boat to dock at the ferry, gave the boatman a few copper plates, and asked him to row towards the middle of the river. The morning mist gradually dissipated, the morning sun rose, and the rays of light were shining...

From afar, Yan Shen's boat approached, it seemed that he had said something to the suspicious boat. Both sides spoke, but the distance was too far to hear what they said.

After a while, the boat actually followed Yan Shen's boat and headed towards the ferry.

The two small boats docked one in front and one behind. Yan Shen jumped off the boat and shouted: "The prince is from the prince's mansion! He is from Princess Qing'an!"

Li Xingzhou was stunned and quickly walked over. The boat was indeed not a fishing boat. There was only a man with a messy body and a messy hair on it. As soon as he saw him, he knelt down and cried: "The villain finally saw the Tian family!"

"Who are you?" Li Xingzhou asked.

The man wiped his tears and said, "The villain is the servant of Princess Qing'an. The mansion is in a hurry. The gangsters in Suzhou asked Luzhou to hand over the princess' head, otherwise they would march into Luzhou. In desperation, the princess wrote a letter to us to take us to the capital, present to the emperor, and ask the Tian family for help.

But the waters near Suzhou were guarded by thieves, so we couldn't get through. Several brothers died, and in the end, only the villain pretended to be fishermen and came over!

Please save my prince!" As he said that, he started kowtowing again.

"Tell me the letter." Li Xingcheon said.

The man quickly took out the envelope wrapped in several layers of cloth from his arms, and Li Xingzhou took it and took it apart.

The letter paper has slightly yellowed, with wrinkles wet with water stains, oil stains, and the smell is not good. Some characters are divided by moisture, but the handwriting is similar to the letter written by my sister-in-law to the letter she wrote to me in memory.

"The father and the emperor are respectful to him. His daughter is unfilial and has not returned for more than ten years after leaving the capital. Now the matter is urgent, so I will ask for help.

The rebel thief in Suzhou overthrew the Tian family and told the whole area that he wanted to take his daughter's life. The Huaihua government office had few soldiers and few generals, and it was difficult to resist. The prefect raised Dong to protect the letter and urgently wrote a letter to his father to submit it to his father, hoping to ask his father to help him, and his unfilial daughter Li Nianqiu.

This Buda, please,

Jin An.

Female Li Nianqiu knocked on."

The handwriting is sloppy and written in a hurry and concise manner. The ink behind it is muddy, and Li Xingzhou cannot see the date of the signature clearly.

Looking at the letter, Li Xingzhou suddenly realized a serious problem, was shocked in his mind, and asked, "How many days have you been leaving?"

The man shook his head: "I don't know, the villain was running around and was in a daze on the river. He didn't know how many days he had passed. He only knew that it was mid-February when he left the princess's mansion."

really......

Li Xingzhou hurriedly ordered Yan Bian: "Take him to take care of it, and then settle down."

As he said that, he took back his Xiaogang sword, and took a few steps up to Meixue, and rode his horse away.

The messenger left the princess's mansion in mid-February, but it's already mid-March! It's a whole month.

Moreover, although this letter was all about the sister-in-law's call for help, saying that the rebels threatened to kill her, and the prefect of Luzhou loyally told her, Li Xingzhou saw clues from it, and there were even worse speculations.

They may face an enemy who is smart and ruthless in doing things.

Many things gradually became clear in his mind, and many things that he couldn't understand before instantly flashed the sky, and the worst situation still happened...

...........

In the past year, there have been constant troubles in the capital. First, the Wude envoy Zhu Yue framed the governor of Guanbei, Wei Chaoren, and his whole family was killed. Then the emperor was assassinated and the prince was defeated in Anxia. Then, the prince of Kyoto Dahei Xiao was actually named Prince Pingnan. Then, there was a report that Meng Zhiye, the verdict of the Ministry of Rites, was boycotted by Li Xingzhou, and was imprisoned by the Censorate for resisting the order.

For a moment, many people scolded Li Xingzhou. Not only did they use unrelevant means to be crowned kings, but they also harmed the great scholars in the court. Many scholars criticized them and even planned to go to the Meridian Gate to force the palace like the merchants and people after the last defeat in Anxia.
To be continued...