Zhu Nao

Enthusiastically, Qian Qing walked into the back garden of the state capital, found Song Rentou who was feeding the eagles, and greeted him: "My subordinates have met Song Zhoumu."

Song Rentou held a piece of raw meat that was still bleeding, carefully stuffed it into the cage, and said casually, "Master Qian, what's the matter?"

What he was feeding was the golden eagle that had just been sent to the state capital a few days ago.The golden eagle has black feathers all over its body, its body is nearly one meter long, and its wings are longer than a human body.This golden eagle is ferocious by nature, but Song Rentou loves it so much that he insists on feeding it himself.

The golden eagle looked at Song Rentou fiercely, as if it wanted to pounce on him and peck him in the head, but it was trapped in the cage and couldn't perform it.So it grabbed the raw meat that Song Rento handed over in one bite, and with a lift of its neck, he swallowed the huge piece of raw meat alive.

Qian Qing was frightened by this scene, and even took two steps back, almost forgetting what she wanted to say.

With a loving smile on his face, Song Rentou picked up the second piece of raw meat and asked, "Master Qian, what's the matter?"

Qian Qing suddenly came back to his senses, and hurriedly said: "Zhou Mu, now five cottages have been recruited by the government, and several more cottages are under negotiation. The threat of bandits has been eliminated in many places, and many people have returned to their hometowns. "

"Oh?" Song Rentou praised, "Not bad, not bad, you have done a great job."

Qian Qing was very happy, but also worried: "However, the conditions offered by those bandits are much higher than what I originally imagined. There is not much silver in the treasury..."

Song Rentou said casually: "No money? If you don't have money, you can increase taxes."

Qian Qing hurriedly said: "No, no, if the tax is increased, the people will rebel. I... Let me see, I should be able to last for a while. Next year, the refugees will return to the fields, and the bandits will also receive the cultivated land. The number of farmers in this state will increase greatly, and the tax revenue will increase accordingly. As long as we survive until then, everything will be fine.”

Song Rentou took another piece of meat and fed it to the eagle: "You can do whatever you want. Anyway, I won't be here until next year anyway." His term of office will come next year.He will be transferred away from this place, whether the treasury has money or not, whether the bandits are strong or not, or whether the people rebel or not has nothing to do with him.

When he spoke so clearly, Qian Qing was speechless for a while, she smiled, turned around and left.

……

Everything seemed to be as Qian Qing expected, the surrender of Tulangzhai set an example, and several cottages accepted the government's recruitment one after another, the bandit disaster in many places was lifted, and the people who were forced to flee their hometowns gradually returned. native land.

However, the good times didn't last long, and this situation didn't even last more than a month, which made Qian Qing's unexpected situation happen, and everything quickly headed towards the direction of collapse.

Because Tulangzhai was recruited with a lot of money, it actually aroused people to follow suit.Ordinary people rushed to fall into the grass, the small cottage went to the big cottage, and the big cottage expanded rapidly.In just two months, more than 500 people defected to Changming Village!

Ordinary peasants can't save [-] mu of land and dozens of taels of silver after working hard for a lifetime. Being a bandit can make a fortune quickly.What's more, in order to attract the attention of the government, many cottages even burned, killed and looted like the Tulang village.

As a result, the livelihood of the people is further damaged, and more and more people are desperate and have to join the bandits and break with the government.

Not only is the people's livelihood in decline, but the state capital is also in chaos.

The bandits were organized into the Xiangbing, and Zhao Tulang was the commander of the Xiangdu, which naturally did not match the original Xiangbing.The two sides clashed again and again, but Song Zhoumu didn't care about anything and let them make trouble.The two sides fought several times, and once even almost set the state capital on fire.

In the middle of Sichuan, it seems that it has been in dire straits.

……

beginning of spring.state capital

"Be careful, if you hurt my bird, I'll never end with you!" Song Rentou was losing his temper with someone.

The few officials who were scolded by him were full of grievances, and carefully carried the birdcage onto the carriage.

Qian Qing rushed into the back garden with several state officials and staff, and saw that Song Rentou's pet birds had been caged, and he was shocked.

"Zhou Mu, you can't go!!"

Song Rentou waved his hands impatiently: "My term of office has expired, and it's time to return to Beijing."

Qian Qing was sweating in anxiety: "State Mu, Song Zhou Mu, the new state shepherd officials haven't come yet, if you leave, the state will be without a leader, what should we do?"

Song Rentou said impatiently: "What does it matter to me if he doesn't come? Who knows if he was cut down on the road. If he doesn't come, why don't I keep going? I've been waiting for him for half a month! Benevolent to the fullest!"

"You can't do this." An aide was so anxious that he didn't even use his honorifics. "According to the law, you have to wait until the new official takes office and complete the handover with you before you can leave!"

Song Rentou said coldly: "Then you go to the capital and sue me. This Langzhou has been made into such a ghost by you. If I stay here again, maybe someday the common people will rebel or bandits will rush into the state capital. Even I was killed. Go toss yourselves, forgive me for not accompanying me."

All the staff were dumbfounded by Song Rentou's shamelessness.

Qian Qing said: "What do you mean by being made into such a ghost by us? Zhou Mu, you are Zhou Mu!! You..."

Song Rentou's birds had already been hit by the carriage, he was too lazy to talk nonsense to the crowd, he picked up the cage containing the golden eagle and wanted to get on the carriage.Qian Qing was in a hurry to pull him, several guards rushed up and blocked the scholars outside.

Song Rentou said: "Coachman, let's go."

The coachman set up the carriage and drove out of the state capital.

The staff of the state capital could only watch Song Rentou leave in despair.

Song Rentou saw the carriage leaving the gate of the government office, so he lowered the curtain of the carriage, held the birdcage fondly, and began to tease the bird: "Little darling, I'm going to take you to the capital."

Suddenly, there was a panic shout outside.Song Rentou thought that ordinary people were causing trouble again, so he didn't bother to take care of it, so he just left it to his coachman and guards to solve it.

After a while, the carriage stopped suddenly.

Song Rentou felt strange and didn't want to go out, so he ordered: "Hurry up and finish it, hurry up."

He didn't even want to listen to the shouts, shouts, and all the messy sounds outside, and he just concentrated on teasing the birds.

After a while, the carriage did not move forward for a long time, and Song Rentou seemed to hear the sound of weapons clashing, and felt something was wrong in his heart.He hurriedly lifted the curtain of the car to take a look, and was instantly dumbfounded—his coachman and his guards had all disappeared!

At this time, he finally heard someone shouting in the distance.

"It's not good!! Xiang soldiers rebelled and killed them!! Everyone, run away!!"

Song Rentou was frightened, and shouted: "Where are people?! Come here!"

His guard didn't call out, but a group of side soldiers armed with weapons rushed out from the corner and ran towards him aggressively.Song Rentou recognized the leader at a glance—if it wasn't Zhao Tulang, who was it? !

Song Rentou was confused, and quickly jumped out of the car with the birdcage in his arms, trying to escape.There was no one to support him under the carriage, and he fell on the ground as soon as he landed. The bird cage in his hand fell to the ground, and the door latch of the cage was shaken open.

Before the soldiers arrived, a menacing golden eagle had already come out of the cage, and its sharp claws and sharp beak rushed towards Song Rentou's face!

"what--!!!"

Heart-piercing screams hovered in the air for a long time.

=====

Yu Changming walked into the farm and found where Zhu Nao was staying. He saw that Zhu Nao was standing in the yard with a table in front of him.

Yu Changming stepped forward and found that the table was covered with a map of Sichuan.

"Zhao Tulang led his troops to rebel and killed Zhou Mu. After he ransacked the state capital, he took his men back into the mountains." This was his first sentence.

"When will we raise the army?" This was his second sentence.

When Zhu Nao asked him to train soldiers, he had expected this day to come, but he never thought that this day would come so soon.Now that the state official has been killed, the situation in central Sichuan is in dire straits, and someone must stand up to set things right.Otherwise, it will be even more miserable and the people will be in dire straits.

Zhu Nao's gaze still stayed on the map, and he said softly, "It's too urgent."

He bought Changming Village for this purpose.But this is not the best move.Although Changming Village has expanded rapidly recently, the expansion is too fast, and the newcomers in the village have not yet integrated in, and it may take some time to educate and guide them.

If there were other ways to choose, he didn't want to take out the knife of Changming Village so quickly.In case the blade gets damaged, he has yet to find a second, better knife.

He thought for a moment, and suddenly remembered something: "By the way, the new state pastor hasn't come to take office yet?"

When the imperial court transfers officials, let alone the letter of appointment has been issued half a year ago, the officials should also leave a few months in advance.It stands to reason that before the old officials leave office, the new officials should have arrived.The two sides have ample time for handover.But spring is almost over, and the official to replace Song Rentou has not yet arrived, which is really abnormal.

When this matter was mentioned, Yu Changming had a weird expression on his face: "I'm here today, and I want to tell you about this too."

He took out a yellow bag from his pocket and handed it to Junao.Zhu Nao took it without knowing why, and opened the package.

"A few days ago, another cottage came to join me. To show their sincerity, they gave me all the things they looted before. I found this among the things they sent." Yu Changming said, " It was hidden in a bag of dry food, but they didn’t find it, I found it. I asked them where it came from, and they said they killed a group of passing business travelers last month and snatched it.”

Zhu Nao had already opened the package, and Cheng Jingzhe who was on the side also came over curiously to have a look.

Just looking at it, both of them were shocked.

It was actually an official uniform inside!The standard of official uniforms is impressively - state officials!

Zhu Nao felt that there seemed to be something hard inside, so he unfolded the official uniform, revealing an official seal and a letter of appointment.

Junao: "..."

Cheng Jingzhe: "..."

Yu Changming looked helpless: "I didn't expect that..."

Before he finished speaking, Zhu Nao carefully folded his official uniform again.After folding, he hugged the package and said calmly: "Oh, what a coincidence."

Yu Changming was taken aback for a moment: "Huh?"

"I didn't expect you to find what I lost." Junao smiled, "Thank you."

Yu Changming: "..."

Yu Changming: "!!!"