Chapter 293 Baling was assassinated

Above the river, the waves are vast. The April sunset has set. The ships of all sizes are full of golden light. The Yangtze River waves are calm. The torrents that usually roll in vortex have disappeared. The entire river surface seems to have condensed under the warm sunset, and there is no ripples.

"I'm going to jump!"

Zhang Huan stood on the high mast. He was wet all over, naked with his upper body. His strong muscles shone brightly under the sunset. This was his third time in the water. Swimming in the Yangtze River was his childhood wish, but he didn't expect it to be realized until today.

He took a deep breath, jumped down from the mast, and his agile body drew a beautiful arc in the air, like a needle, inserted straight into the river.

There was a burst of exclamation on the ship, and all the personal soldiers and Pingping rushed down the side of the ship to visit. None of them could stop the governor You Xing, and could only beg him for peace.

A strong resistance rushed towards Zhang Huan. A bright white splash in front of him. A fish shook in front of him. The slender tail swept to his face. The fish body swung, and fled in panic.

Zhang Huan had already relaxed all over. He used every inch of his skin to experience the water of the Yangtze River, which was completely different from the feeling in the river. He felt as if he was in an endless world of water. He felt a broad and vast heart. He was like a grain of mud and sand, small and humble in this endless world of water. He felt that he had completely dissolved in the river. A feeling that had not been seen for many years rose again in his heart. This was a feeling that could make him full of courage. As his body slowly floated up, he felt like he was reborn.

‘Wow!’ The agile body rushed out of the water, attracting a burst of excited cheers on the ship.

He opened his arms and his strong arms hit the water forcefully, stirring up large splashes of water, and sailed side by side with the big ship. The golden sunset shone on his dark back. From a distance, it looked like a white-fin dolphin in the Yangtze River swimming hard into the depths of the river.

．

．

．

．

．

．

．

．

．

．

．

The large ship set out from Jingzhou and sailed on the Jingjiang section known as the "Nine Curves" and passed through Gong'an County, Shishou County, and Jianli County. At noon that day, it finally arrived in Baling County.

"Shibalang, look! There are many people on the shore." Pingping screamed excitedly. After walking on the water for a few days, he was already tired of seeing the scenery on both sides. Suddenly, he saw a large group of people on the shore. Pingping actually felt like he was in the world.

Not only her, but all the personal soldiers were smiling and finally able to get ashore.

But none of them noticed that on the river where the boats came and went, a small passenger ship also quietly slowed down, passed by the big ship, and continued to sail forward. In the crack of the passenger ship's window, a pair of cold eyes were staring at the big ship slowly docking.

"Continue to move forward, turn around and go back to the dock after an hour."

The order was a man in his thirties, with a pretty and fair face. His name was Tao Chi. Of course, three months ago, he was not Tao Chi, but Zhu Tao, who was the younger brother of Zhu Li. Since Zhu Li's death, the court immediately deprived the Zhu brothers of all positions and titles, characterized them as rebellious, and sent troops to arrest Zhu Tao. However, he had prepared in advance and disappeared quickly in Chang'an without waiting for the court's conclusion.

Tao Chi stood up straight, and he took out a thin human skin mask and put it on himself. He suddenly became a wrinkled boatman. The disguise technique has been used in ancient times, but it is not as magical as the legendary one. Most of the time, he put on makeup directly on his face. He wore a human skin mask like him. You can still see flaws when you look closely, and it cannot last long.

He lowered his head and looked at it carefully on the mirror, shook his head dissatisfiedly, tore it off casually, and said coldly: "Sanlang!"

"I'm here!" A man in a military uniform stepped into the cabin and bowed his hand and said, "Please give me the order."

"I will leave this mission alone to complete, you may be able to do it?"

"Please rest assured, my lord, my subordinates' flying swords are shot every time, and they will never fail."

Tao Chi nodded, "Okay, I'll wait for your good news."

．

．

．

．

．

．

．

．

．

．

．

Zhang Huan's three large ships slowly landed. Lin Jiuhan, who had already received the news on the dock, had already led more than a thousand soldiers to wait for a long time. This was the first time the governor came to Jiangnan Road to inspect and was also a grand event for their 30,000 troops.

There were also Baling County Governor Liu Yuan and some local officials standing on the dock. In their opinion, this was the chief minister of the cabinet and the Minister of War came to inspect Baling County. This was the highest-level official that Liu Yuan had welcomed in his years as an official. If he could climb to him as a backstage, his future would be hopeful.

The big ship finally landed on the shore, and the magistrate of Baling County shouted, "Play music!"

The sound of gongs and drums suddenly rang out, and teams of civilians waved colorful flags. The two lion dance teams invited from Changsha began to dance, jumping, and were full of energy. The people gathered from the docks in all directions to pay homage to the high-ranking officials in Beijing. The docks were already crowded, and this was a lively scene that had not been seen in many years.

Zhang Huan lowered his head and walked out of the cabin. He walked up to the shore with a smile surrounded by his personal soldiers. Lin Jiuhan strode forward and half-kneeled to salute Zhang Huan, "I will meet the governor!"

"You kid, you actually kidnapped my maid." Zhang Huan touched his shoulder affectionately, and Lin Jiuhan felt warm in his heart. He scratched his head embarrassedly and said, "Xiaoqiu gave birth to a son for me."

"Okay! OK!" Zhang Huan helped him up and said ok twice. He turned around and smiled at his personal soldiers, "Old Lin has a son. Do you want him to treat us well?"

The soldiers shouted in unison, and Lin Jiuhan hurriedly bowed to his old subordinates, "Brothers, don't say a word, as long as everyone lives for a long time, I, Lin, can treat you every day."

At this time, the governor of Baling County also hurried forward. He bowed to Zhang Huanshen, "I am not in charge of the governor of Baling County, Liu Yuan, to meet with Zhang Shangshu."

When Zhang Huan heard that his accent turned out to be a pure Beijing accent, he couldn't help but look at him carefully, as if he felt familiar, "Governor Liu, have we ever seen it?"

"Shangshu has indeed seen the Wei Zi. The father-in-law of Huye was Changsun Nanfang. Last year, Wei Zi even offered wine to the Shangshu at his father-in-law's birthday party!"

"I remembered that you are the fifth son-in-law." Zhang Huan laughed and said, "I didn't expect to meet an old friend in a foreign land. It's really a place where we meet in life."

With this relationship, Liu Yuan could chat and laugh freely. He quickly pulled Changshi and Sima and introduced them to Zhang Huan one by one. Everyone exchanged greetings on the dock. Liu Yuan said to Zhang Huan: "It's already noon now. Bei Zhi has set up two tables of dinner in the county to welcome the Minister of the Shang Dynasty. Please be sure to give Bei Zhi a face and then follow General Lin to Changsha."

Zhang Huan pondered for a while and said happily: "Okay! General Lin first came to Baling and received great help from the local government. I want to thank everyone."

The officials were overjoyed and hurriedly called the sedan chair. At this time, they quietly said to Zhang Huan: "You go to have a meal, I want to go shopping and buy some local specialties, is it okay?"

Zhang Huan nodded with a smile. He called two more personal soldiers and asked them to accompany Pingping to go shopping. Several people sneaked away while the officials asked Zhang Huan to get into the sedan chair.

At this moment, Baling County was almost intoxicating. The streets were crowded with people coming to watch the fun. Tens of thousands of people were pointing fingers and talking about the wind, which was even more lively than watching the lanterns on the Shangyuan Festival.

As the sound of gongs came, the people at the city gate surged, and they all rushed forward desperately, stretched their necks and looked around. Many people climbed up the trees, just like the high-ranking officials from the capital were monsters with three heads and six arms.

"Doway! Dodge!" More than a hundred yamen runners led the way in front, pushing the people who kept rushing back. Then two teams of cavalry, one on the left and right, formed two cavalry walls. They walked and patrolled the situation on both sides, and ordered people on the trees and roofs to come down from time to time.

Behind the cavalry team is Zhang Huan's official sedan chair. Hundreds of personal soldiers held huge shields in their hands and surrounded the official sedan chairs, covering them so that they were not airtight, as if a huge shield mountain was slowly moving.

Yuan Zai's lesson was not far away, and no one dared to be careless at all. The people could not see the true identity of the high-ranking officials in the capital, and they all started to roar. Just behind a big tree on the corner of the street, a man looked at Zhang Huan's personal soldiers coldly. After a while, he could not see any opportunity, and flashed and disappeared into the crowd.

Baling County is a large county with more than 8,000 households. However, compared with the spacious and square city layout in the north, it seems to be much messy, with narrow streets and dense houses. Especially a large number of refugees escaped during the Xiangyang Rebellion a few months ago. Some of them have not returned yet, which has added a bit of chaos and restlessness to the already crowded county town.

In the middle of the county town, a Junshan Street crosses the east and west, with shops on both sides of the street and prosperous business. The place where Liu Yuan is preparing to treat guests is conveniently located in the middle of the street. It is the most famous restaurant in the entire Baling County and Dongting Restaurant.

As the high-ranking officials in the middle of the capital entered the restaurant, the people gathered along the way saw that there was no fun to watch, so they went home one after another. The street gradually returned to normal. At this moment, about a thousand people came from the east and walked towards the Dongting Restaurant noisy.

It was not until they entered the restaurant that the personal soldiers relaxed their guard. Zhang Huan came out of the sedan chair and smiled bitterly, "Is it going to work so hard for a meal?"

Liu Yuan hurriedly came forward to apologize, "There are peace and tranquility here all year round, and nothing happens. If there is a lively thing, the people will usually come out in love."

The county magistrate next to him also smiled and added: "The situation is pretty good today. When the old man from Xiangyang Wangge came to Baling County for inspection five years ago, he couldn't even enter the city."

"It turns out that I can still go to the city to have a meal, which is already a blessing." Zhang Huan smiled and shook his head repeatedly, "Let's go! After dinner, hurry up and go."

Just as he was about to go upstairs, he suddenly heard a clamor from outside, "We want to see Shangshu Zhang!"

The voice was very clear, Zhang Huan couldn't help but stop and asked in surprise: "What's going on?"

"Let's go and have a look." Liu Yuan ran out in panic. He was talking loudly, as if he was trying to persuade people to disperse.

"We want to go home! We want land..." The shouts became even more intense, and there were many voices of women and children.

After a while, Liu Yuan came in helplessly and said, "Report to the Secretary of State, there are more than a thousand refugees from Xiangyang outside, and it seems that their land is gone. I heard that the Secretary of State is here, so I want to ask for an explanation."

"There is such a thing, let's see." Zhang Huan pulled out his legs and walked out of the door. Li Dingfang, the chief lieutenant, could not stop him and quickly ordered his men to control the situation. He followed Zhang Huan closely and walked out of the door.

Outside the gate, more than a thousand people were gathering together, almost half of them were women, children and elderly people. Seeing that a large group of people came out, everyone retreated one after another and did not dare to lean too far.

Zhang Huan stood on the steps, and he glanced at everyone. Their eyes were filled with anxiety, and he said loudly: "I am the Minister of War. Do you have any grievances to tell me if you have any injustice?"

At this time, an elderly man stepped forward and bowed, "Report to Lord Shangshu, we are all people in Xiangyang, and Lord Meng's rescue has fled here. Now the war has been quelled, so we plan to return to our hometown. But people say that the army has taken away our land as a homeless land. We especially ask Lord to give us a way out."

"How is this possible? Do you have no land deed?"

"Report to the Lord, there are land deeds, but when the army cleared the unlimited land, we were demarcated in large numbers, and our land was also included. We said that we would give compensation or resettlement, but there is no such thing as this day. Lord, most of our houses have been burned down. If even the land is gone, how will we return to our hometown? Please make the decision for us!"

"Please be the decision of Lord Shangshu!" A large area of ​​kneeling down in front of the restaurant was suddenly dark and dark. Zhang Huan's face was extremely gloomy. How did Li Panyu do things? It was so simple and crude that the reputation he had finally created was about to be destroyed by him.

Thinking of this, he said loudly: "My fellow villagers, I don't know about this matter, but please rest assured. I will send someone to check the matter immediately. As long as you have a land deed, even if the land deed is lost or burned by the war, as long as someone proves it, the land will be returned to everyone in full and will never be encroached on it. This matter will definitely be resolved within ten days."

"Mr. Xie Shangshu!" Everyone kowtowed gratefully, stood up and dispersed, but at this moment, a man suddenly squeezed out from the crowd several feet away from Zhang Huan's house. His eyes were fierce, and with a wave of his hand, a blue sharp light shot towards Zhang Huan's throat, which was extremely fast and arrived in an instant. The personal soldiers around him were so shocked that they didn't even have time to make a sound. Zhang Huan was comforting the old man. When he turned his head, the sharp light had arrived.

It was too late to hide in front of me. At this critical moment, a long sword pierced out from the ground, as fast as lightning. With a crisp sound of "don't!", the sword blocked the sharp light. The sharp light bounced up, flew over tightly against Zhang Huan's scalp, and nailed it to the door post. Then a black shadow suddenly pounced on Zhang Huan to the ground. The second sharp light shot from another direction, shot straight into the gate from where Zhang Huan was standing just now.
Chapter completed!