The sun was scorching, and the fiery red sun hung high in the sky. The heat in Xiangping City was overwhelming. But in a secret room in the Liaodong Governor's Mansion, it was particularly gloomy.
Gongsun Du looked at his confidants in front of him with a sullen face, and circulated the order letter sent to him by Taiwei Liu Ming, who was also the Shepherd Liu of Youzhou.
After everyone had finished circulating it, Gongsun Ducai looked at everyone and said in a deep voice: "Gentlemen, you have all read the order letter from Mr. Liu. What do you think?"
Everyone stared dumbly for a long time before Bei Yuci, Gongsun Du's marching counselor, replied: "My lord, this order from Mr. Liu is clearly a tactic of driving tigers to devour wolves and killing people with borrowed swords. My lord must not be fooled and cannot be used."
Gongsun Du said to himself: "The enemy is clear, but the friends are not yet determined. If you lead your friends to kill the enemy, you will not be able to rely on your own strength..."
At this time, another person stood up next to him, and it was Gongsun Du's first adviser, Murong Xing. Murong Xing handed over his hands to Gongsun Du and said, "My lord, although Mr. Liu did such a despicable trick to us, Mr. Liu
As the shepherd of Youzhou and as a Taiwei, I can take charge of this battle of recovery. Now that he has the great righteousness of the imperial court in his hands, we must listen. And now that we are under the rule of Mr. Liu, we can only
Only by being careful and cautious can we preserve the lord's power. If not, he will definitely use his excuse to punish and conquer us. Previously, we could only submit to Mr. Liu on the surface, but it was between us and Mr. Liu.
Separated by Liaoxi Gongsun Zan, who had a long-standing enmity with Mr. Liu, Mr. Liu's power was beyond our reach. But now that Mr. Liu can use such despicable tactics against us, then, if what I expected is true,
, as long as we do not obey Master Liu's general order, Master Liu will definitely order Gongsun Zan of Western Liaoning to come and destroy us. If Gongsun Zan obeys Master Liu, we will waste our strength with Gongsun Zan. Even if we can defeat Gongsun Zan of Western Liaoning, Master Liu
They will also take advantage of this opportunity to destroy our tiring journey. In the end, Master Liu will only benefit. And if Gongsun Zan does not obey Master Liu's orders, then Master Liu will have an excuse to destroy Gongsun Zan first and then come back.
Attack us until we have wiped out all the forces within Youzhou that are not willing to accept Lord Liu's dispatch. This strategy is extremely vicious, my lord, you should think twice."
"The left can't succeed, the right can't succeed either, so what should we do?" Gongsun Du helped the case and thought to himself.
"Lord, how about we unite with Mr. Gongsun Yu and Mr. Gongsun Zan and rebel. This is better than plotting against that little Liu Ming. With the strength of our three counties, we may not lose to that little Liu Ming. Then, we will
The imperial court apologizes above. It is said that Liu Ming's son forced the ministers who defended the border, and we had no choice but to do it. At that time, as long as we use mean words and bribe the dignitaries in the imperial court with large sums of money, we will forgive the imperial court in this troubled time.
I won't use weapons rashly and start fighting again. In this way, my lord draws the land and rules, wouldn't it be happy?" Bei Yuci tried to figure out Gongsun Du's thoughts and offered advice.
Gongsun Du felt a little moved.
"My lord, you must not do this!" Murong Xing glared at Bei Yu Ci and angrily said, "How can you offer this to my lord, a plan to destroy your family and your clan?" After saying that, he turned to Gongsun Du and said, "My lord, this is
Nothing can be done. It is precisely because these are troubled times that the imperial court cannot tolerate rebellion. Zhang Ju and Zhang Chun are examples of this. What’s more, we have only been here for a year, and our strength is not as good as that of Zhang Ju.
Hey, Zhang Chun is strong. Even if we unite with Gongsun Zan, Gongsun Zan has just been seriously injured. He has less than ten thousand soldiers and can't ride a thousand. With soldiers and horses like ours, how can we fight against the whole world? Moreover, Liu Ming's soldiers
Horses are not just a mob, and Liu Ming is famous all over the world for being the Yellow Turban, and has been on the battlefield for many years. In the battle of Feiru, with thousands of cavalry, he defeated the Wuhuan cavalry of more than 10,000 and won. How can we be the enemy?
Yes? Please, my lord, be clear about it."
After Gongsun Du thought about it, he had no choice but to say angrily: "Can't we just sit back and wait for death?"
After hearing this, Murong Xing smiled slightly and said: "Lord, please calm down. We may not be like this. Now that Mr. Liu has given us an order, we must abide by it. In this way, we can recruit troops, buy horses, gather grass and gather food.
. Earlier, Mr. Liu’s subordinates built water conservancy projects and set up waterwheels in Youzhou. Didn’t we do the same thing and learned a lot of good methods and experienced a lot of benefits? As long as we have food, we are not afraid of not having soldiers.
?As long as we have soldiers and food, we can expand our territory. We can nominally abide by Master Liu's general orders, conquer Mahan, recapture Lelang, and lead the army, but we can actually expand our territory in secret, and
We will divide and alienate those people who disobey the king, conquer those die-hard tribes, and take those tribes that are close to us into our wings. For those tribes that are quite powerful, the lord can even marry them to win their hearts.
When we are fully fledged, we can map the Central Plains when we advance, and conquer the land when we retreat, and become a vassal king of a barbaric frontier. Wouldn't it be a happy life, my lord?"
Gongsun Du laughed heartily after hearing Murong Xing's words.
Gongsun Du's close friends and others in the secret room also burst out laughing.
At this time, in the Taihang Mountains, at the foot of Dongling Peak, a person walked slowly. There was a group of people patrolling the mountain. They thought they had a fat sheep coming to the door, so they gathered a dozen people and others, and after a shout, they surrounded the person.
Among them, the leader shouted loudly: "Hey! Listen to the boy on the other side. If you don't take the road to heaven, there will be no door to hell. Grandpa, is this where you came from? If you know someone, quickly spend all the money on you.
If you hand it over, grandpa will give you a happy life. Otherwise, I will chop you into pieces and eat you like a vegetable. You can't blame grandpa for being cruel. I only blame you for being reborn in your mother's womb by mistake and coming to the wrong place!"
Usually after the leader shouted, the passers-by who were robbed would either faint and sit in a heap, or they would wail and cry, begging for their lives. But today, the person who was robbed was doing something strange. I saw that the man heard
What the little leader said was neither surprised nor angry, nor fearful. Instead, he said with a smile: "What is the name of your king?"
The leader was very amused now. Hey, in this big world, there are really many wonders. This traveler is not afraid of robbers, and even asked us the name of the king. How funny, does he still want to fight with us?
Is it possible for a thief to have some friendship? Thinking of this, the leader glared and shouted at passers-by: "Don't you stop here and instigate friendship. We will not accept your tricks. If you have money, bring it, but if you don't have money,
, Grandpa will send you on your way now."
As soon as he finished speaking, he saw the passerby moving like a rabbit. In a flash, he knocked the dozen gangsters to the ground, unable to move. Only the leader was left in a daze. At this time, the passerby asked again
The leader said: "This time, can you tell me who the king of your family is?"
The leader was stunned and stammered: "I-I-the king of my family is-yes-is Chu Feiyan."
The passerby smiled, patted the leader on the head, and said softly to the leader: "Why don't you go and repay me quickly? Tell your king that an old friend from the past is visiting."
The leader Ru Fenglunyin turned around and ran away at an extremely fast speed. This startled the passerby, who thought to himself: Good guy, why is this guy running so fast? However, the passerby did not dare to neglect and followed him in a hurry.
Afterwards, we walked towards the village.
In the hall of the cottage, Chu Feiyan was drinking and having fun with her brothers, drinking and having fun with each other.
One of the leaders said to Chu Feiyan: "Brother, it is much better for us to gather together now than to follow the great virtuous master and work hard to survive."
Another leader also said: "That's right, that's right. We have wine and meat now, how carefree and happy we are."
Chu Feiyan, who was sitting firmly in the middle, burst out laughing.
Suddenly, a small leader ran in in a panic and said loudly: "The king is not in good condition. Someone from the front mountain broke in. He claimed to be the king's old friend and came to visit."
Chu Feiyan stroked his beard and said vaguely: "Maybe it's our brothers who were originally under General Tiangong's tent. They knew we were making a fortune here and came here to seek refuge. It must be you guys who don't regard heroes as the ones who offended my brothers.
Let me go and take a look, it’s that brother here, don’t let this be neglected.”
With that said, Chu Feiyan was about to get up to pick her up, but at this moment, a voice came from outside the hall: "No, I'll come in by myself." As he finished speaking, the passerby stepped into the hall.
All the leaders in the hall saw clearly who was coming. Except for a few recent leaders, the old men who had followed Chu Feiyan for a long time all hurriedly stood up and saluted: "Well, young master."
Chu Feiyan was so surprised that she stood up and stepped in to salute: "Young Master is well. Ever since General Tiangong's misfortune, the brothers have been thinking about Young Master's safety day and night. We are really happy to see that Young Master is fine now."
The young master nodded when he heard this and said: "You still remember General Tiangong, and he is somewhat loyal. But when you gather in the mountains and forests, rob and kill passers-by, where do you put General Tiangong's teachings?"
Everyone in the hall was ashamed and speechless. Even Chu Feiyan didn't know how to answer.
At this moment, a leader who was an old man from Taiping Road stood up next to him and said to the young master: "Young master, you have come here after a long journey. I wonder if you have any advice?"
The young master glanced at the leader and asked, "Who are you?"
The leader said loudly: "I was Liu Shi, a general under General Zhang Niujiao. The general later died of injuries from a stray arrow. The general led me kindly, and I will never forget the general's teachings."
The young master nodded and said with a smile: "Zhang Niujiao is my father's most proud disciple. His usual teachings must be to teach you how unfair the world is and how our poor people have suffered?"
Liu Shi replied loudly: "Yes, this is what the general teaches us. We dare not forget it at any time."
There seemed to be a few subordinates beside him who seemed to have raised their horns before. At this time, they also said passionately: "General's teachings, we dare not forget them at all times."
The young master looked up to the sky and laughed loudly, shouting loudly: "Father, Brother Niujiao, you have spirits in the sky. How can you know that there are so many brothers? Remember your teachings, and you should be smiling." After that, the young master said
He said to everyone present: "So, if I raise the banner of justice again, gather my brothers again, and fight to overthrow this unjust dynasty, will you all support me?"
Liu Shi said loudly at that time: "I am following the young master."
"Shut up, it's your turn here to decide?" Chu Feiyan slapped the table and yelled.
"Oh. If Chief Chu says this, does he mean he is no longer willing to raise the flag of righteousness?" the young master asked Chu Feiyan.
Chu Feiyan hesitated and said: "Young Master, it's not that Feiyan doesn't want to follow the legacy of General Tiangong. It's actually that the current weather is really not conducive to us. Brothers everywhere who hold high the banner of righteousness are being wiped out one after another.
, and those of us brothers who were lucky enough to survive occupied this place. The mountains are high and the rivers are far away, and the officers and soldiers are not here. No one knows it. It has just been a few days of peace. We are no longer afraid of being chased by the officers and soldiers. We can have enough to eat and can
There is a way to survive. I really want to live in seclusion. If the young master is willing to raise the flag of righteousness, we can fund part of the gold and silver property of the young master. But if the young master wants to pull us brothers to raise the flag of righteousness, then we will have difficulty obeying the order.
That’s it. Young Master, you’d better hire another Gao Xian.”
The young master looked at Chu Feiyan and whispered: "So, you must go against the wishes of General Tiangong and Brother Niujiao, and would rather be a bandit than contribute to my Taiping Dao?"
Chu Feiyan gritted her teeth and said, "Yes!" After Chu Feiyan said that, she secretly began to be wary of the young master. As a former Taiping Dao general, Chu Feiyan knew the interests of the young master. But Chu Feiyan thought to herself.
This is his own territory, and there are countless brothers and soldiers under his command. The young master is just alone. What, the young master will not go into danger alone.
But as soon as Chu Feiyan finished saying the word "yes", she heard the young master say vaguely: "If that's the case, what's the point of keeping you?" The young master waved his hand, and Chu Feiyan quickly dodged, but
However, he felt that his limbs were not listening to the instructions. He was busy and shouted for help, but his voice was hoarse and his breath was not smooth.
Everyone around looked at this very strange scene. When the young master said, "What's the use of keeping you?", no one had time to move. They saw the young master wave his hand, and the big Feiyan
A line of blood immediately appeared on the leader's throat, and the whole person just like this, slowly piled up. Everyone didn't know why, and they were shocked. Only some sharp-eyed people seemed to see a ray of silver light flying back.
It slipped into the young master's sleeve.
At this time, the young master shouted loudly: "Chu Feiyan has betrayed my teachings of Taiping Dao and disobeyed my decrees, General Tiangong. He has been executed! From now on, you will be led by me, Zhang Yan. If you have other ideas, this is your fate."
!”
Everyone in the hall only felt that Zhang Yan's evil aura was overwhelming, and no one dared to respond. But those subordinates who had originally been Zhang Niujiao were sincerely happy to return, and they could finally carry out the general's last wish.