V. Take over

16. In the face of danger

Celebrate the sixth year of the calendar, Bingxu, the turn of midsummer.

Zhong Shiheng died in Huanzhou. His son Zhonggu avenged his father. He led 20,000 people of Huanzhou's army to fight with Canglong, a general of Xixia. He killed Gui Dechuan. Unexpectedly, he fell into the pocket array that had been set up by the Xixia army for a long time, losing soldiers and killing more than 10,000 people.

If Zhao Ze hadn't led Dengzhou reinforcements to arrive in time, repelled the Xixia army, opened the escape channel for the seed army, and rescued 5,000 kinds of elite families. Huanzhou would be in danger, and Huanzhou's army would be in danger.

The result of the matter arrived at Huanzhou Prefecture half a month later, which was read by Sima Guang, the new general judge and transfer envoy of Huanzhou.

The content was drafted by the Privy Council. Fan Zhongyan, a member of the political affairs officer, approved and stamped it to take effect. Later, he obtained the permission of Empress Cao, and the minister of the court agreed to send it to Huanzhou.

This well-sophisticated official document gently expressed his affirmation of Zhong Shiheng at the border over the years, praised him, and rewarded him with a large amount of gold, silver, silk and satin. At the same time, he was removed from the post of Lieutenant of Zhonggu Tianxing and officially became the governor of Huanzhou.

Yin's younger brother's kind, kind of diagnosis, and kind of friendship is a Sanlang, and he can go to Beijing as an official when he becomes an adult.

In view of the credit of Zhong Shiheng, the court granted Zhong Gu to help his father's coffin and return to his hometown. After the expiration of the period of filial piety, he can return to Huanzhou to serve.

The position during his absence is concurrently held by Sima Guang.

Finally, Zhao Ze was promoted to Zhizhou of Huanzhou, and the place was defended against the invasion of Xixia.

The mountains in Huanzhou are high and wide, and there is not much land. There are seven mountains lying in the west, with thousands of clear walls, dividing the half of Huanzhou into seven narrow zones.

These areas are rarely inhabited. There are many birds, birds and beasts, and many people live there. One third of them are the Qiang tribe that Shiheng recruited when he was alive. Among them, the leader of the Niu family living in the area of Huluquan was called Nu Yu. He was forty-eight years old. When he learned that Zhong Shiheng died in the battle, he was heartbroken. He led his family to go to Huanzhou Prefecture to express his condolences.

Subsequently, Su, the leader of a Xiang tribe living near Papaya Fort in Huanzhou, came to Tongyuan City to worship Zhongshiheng at the age of thirty-nine.

Zhao Ze received them cordially and rewarded the two people with a wooden cow and a flowing horse, a specialty of the Song Dynasty, a hundred muskets, and 20 boxes of projectiles.

He held a banquet to entertain the two. During the banquet, Zhao Ze told him that he appreciated their bravery and decisiveness, and praised their virtues and noble sentiments for serving the Song Dynasty. He represented the people of Huanzhou, and the people of the Song Dynasty thanked them. The Song Dynasty would not treat them badly.

Su Jianbag, the leader of the Qiang people and the leader of the Party Xiang clan, was very grateful to Zhao Ze's great kindness and great virtue. He vowed to follow the Song Dynasty forever, just like Meng Huo in the Three Kingdoms.

When the wine was half drunk, Zhao Ze pretended to be drunk and revealed some news to them, saying that there was a kind of magic weapon in the Song Dynasty, which could not only be indestructible, but also easy to attack the city and plunder the land. It is estimated that it will not be long before the Song Dynasty will launch a counterattack against Xixia. If the two of them are willing to work, Zhao Ze promises At that time, they will have inexhaustible gold and silver treasures, even if they are crowned kings and marquis, it is very likely. This shocked them even more, because they had witnessed the earth-shaking scene on Guidechuan before and heard it. This time, it was even more difficult to hear Zhao Ze say it himself.

In fact, whether it is a slave or Su, he came to Tongyuan for two main purposes this time. One is to worship Shiheng, and the other is to test who the new state official in Huanzhou is. If he is a ungrateful person, they will have other countermeasures. If vice versa, they will continue to work.

The matter is beyond the expectation of the Qiang people's leader, the leader of the Qiang people, and Su, the leader of the Party Xiang nationality. The new Zhizhou in Huanzhou is not only righteous and wealth, but also a virtuous corporal, but also very kind.

Every three or five days, the two of them will be entertained in Tongyuan City, and then they will be rewarded with some treasures to let them go home.

This made Nu Yi and Su Zibag Ming feel it. Two months later, Nu Yi and Su Ci Bao Bao made an appointment with Zhao Ze, the Zhizhou of Huanzhou. As long as Zhao Ze is in Huanzhou for a day, they will always obey his orders and will never regret it.

With the assurance of these two people, Zhao Ze was so sure that he began to hoard grain and grass, drill wells to get water, and wait for further orders from the court.

At this time, there were 30,000 troops stationed outside Huanzhou City, 10,000 troops in the city, and the defenders scattered in the east of Huanzhou, Papaya Fort, Huiding Fort, Ansai Village, Mubo Town and Fangqu Village, with a total strength of more than 56,000 people in Huanzhou, which cannot be underestimated.

The first major problem exposed is the lack of drinking water. Not to mention the hot summer, coupled with the large desert adjacent to the southern part of Xixia, the heat wave is rolling, and only a gust of wind can cross the mountain and rush into Huanzhou. It can be seen that the summer in Huanzhou is extremely sultry, and the temperature difference between morning and evening is very large.

Although Huanzhoufu Tongyuan City was built by the water, Zhao Ze found a problem.

That is, this Maling water formed by the confluence of Guidechuan and Baima River flows from the territory of Xixia.

Not long ago, Chao Fang told him that a camp brother had abdominal pain because he drank the Maling River.

After that, Liu Banxian in the army diagnosed that the river was poisoned and came from the upper reaches. It must have been done by the Xixia people. Fortunately, it was found in time, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable.

From that day on, Zhao Ze was responsible for this matter and posted a notice in Huanzhou to warn the people that the water of the Maling River was poisoned by the Xixia people. At the same time, he ordered the three armies not to drink the water of the Maling River again, and instead mobilized local troops to drill wells to get water, which was shared by the military and civilians.

The well is ready, and autumn has come. There have been years of war in Huanzhou, and it is so poor that it is very poor. You can know by looking at the clothes of the officials in the state government. Although the salary is good, Huanzhou is really poor. Otherwise, these border soldiers will not fight desperately, eat wildly, and exchange their flesh and blood for the meager salary to support the family. I'm young.

It seems that the toughness of this folk style is inversely proportional to the region.

That is to say, the poorer you are, the more realistic the people are, and the more brave the war is.

It is no wonder that more than 5,000 elites of the family can survive in a fierce battle that is several times more than themselves. This toughness is unquestionable.

The autumn in Huanzhou is very beautiful. The mountains are golden, and red flowers and green leaves can be seen everywhere.

However, the food collected from villages, villages and tribes is simply chilling.

I don't know how Zhong Shiheng survived when he was alive. The war is so fierce, and there is so little food and fodder, won't it be a mutiny?

In fact, Zhao Ze doesn't know anything about it. As the saying goes, there must be advantages and disadvantages, and the advantages and disadvantages have always been born in one.

Although Huanzhou has little land and less grain production, it has dense forests and a lot of game. Zhong Shiheng usually trains soldiers to hunt in the mountains.

It's just that he was in a hurry and was in a bad mood and didn't explain it to Zhao Ze. There is another point that Shang Jian's six generals were a little hostile to Zhao Ze. He always felt that he was a fisherman, but he was grateful to Zhao Ze, which was very contradictory.

Where does this gratitude come from? It's about He Lin, the first general of the army. He was almost dying with several shots.

Fortunately, Zhao Ze came in time to save the family army and personally took out the projectile for him.

In Zhao Ze's words, "General He is really lucky. The iron sand projectile is only embedded in the surface of the internal organs and does not go deep, otherwise even if Hua Tuo is alive, he can't save you!"

He Lin raised the general in the city for more than two months before he could walk around. Seeing that Zhao Ze's army's food and grass were consumed quickly, he didn't know that he went into the mountain to hunt, so he came to the government office to help Zhao Ze's army tide over a difficult momentarily.

Zhao Ze's army is not short of clothes, but the people of Huanzhou, as well as the barbarian tribes in the deep mountains and forests, are simply not flattering, even compared with an ordinary people's home in Beijing.

That is a heaven and an earth.

The people in Beijing eat soup, and the people in Huanzhou can only eat coarse corn and rice bran. Some poor families still live with wild vegetables.

Zhao Ze led troops to the mountain several times to visit slaves and Su Bingbags. Along the way, he found that many ordinary people lived such a poor life.

Most of the people who can hunt are in barbarian tribes, and ordinary Han people still make a living by farming and fishing.

As a governor, Zhao Ze always felt unbearable. What method can he use to help these people?

Zhao Ze thought about it for a long time and wrote a lot of methods in the study, but it took a long time and the effect was slow.

At this time, Xu Zhu, who came back from hunting in the mountain, took a dead duck in his hand and came to see Zhao Ze.

Huanzhou government office, back hall living room.

Xu Zhu hugged his fist and replied rudely, "Your Excellency, I beat you a duck. Eat this tonic at night."

Zhao Ze was drinking tea. He looked up at the dead duck in Xu pig's hand and sprayed out a mouthful of water.

asked, "I said, Xu Guard, has your duck fallen into the mud pit? Can you eat it? It's so black?"

Xu Zhu giggled and said, "Your Excellency, don't look at this duck stained with black water and guaranteed to eat it?"

"What? Black water?" Zhao Ze was surprised.

"Yes, it's black water, not mud, you see, my lord"

Xu Zhu slipped with his big hand, and the duck immediately squeezed out a layer of black mucus and fell to the ground in the blink of an eye.

Shangguan Mei covered her mouth and smiled. Zhang Zai, who was discussing with Zhao Ze, also smiled and said, "Xu Zhu, what is this? It looks disgusting. Can you eat it? Throw it away quickly. Don't be disappointing."

"Oh, I finally shot the wild duck. This guy is excited. If the adult doesn't eat it, I will take it back and eat it by myself."

"Okay, I'm going to eat some vegetarian food. Xu Huwei, you can keep it for yourself. By the way, don't eat your stomach, or don't say that I didn't remind you."

"It's okay. Pull out the hair and bake it with fire. How fragrant it is."

"Go down, I still have something to talk about. Don't bother me."

"Yes, my lord, I'm going back."

Let's go

After Xu Zhu left, Zhao Ze continued to discuss with Zhang Zai about land reclamation, logging and building houses in Huanzhou.

Zhao Ze planned to train troops in batches to let the recruits who came from Dengzhou slowly adapt to the sultry weather in Huanzhou and mobilize 10,000 horses to reclaim those uninhabited land into good fields. As for grain seeds and arable land, all the utensils were transported from Beijing.

The house to be built is built with two to three floors according to the folk style.

For the army to spend the winter, the extra houses will be given to the poor people, and let these people be responsible for the autumn harvest of arable land reclaimed by the military in the coming year, and they will be exempted from taxes for three years.

Zhang Zai thinks this method is very good. If it can be implemented smoothly, the people of Huanzhou will be more supportive. However, what will the court say? Although Zhao Ze is the head of a state, he can't do too many things without authorization.

Zhao Ze nodded and finally decided to send a memorial to the capital first, asking the court to order the local people to be exempted from taxes for three years and recuperate.

After talking about this matter, Xu Zhu roared outside, which scared Zhao Ze.

Thinking that something big had happened, he hurriedly took Zhang Zai and Shangguan Mei out of the house and came to the courtyard next to the east wing.

As soon as he entered the door, Zhao Ze saw a lot of people standing in the yard. When he saw that Zhao Ze was coming, he quickly made way. Then, the excited immediately came to Zhao Ze and reported, "Your Excellency, something happened to Xu's guard roast duck. It burned like the Lord of the stove. Look."

When Zhao Ze came to the fire, he saw a man sitting with his back facing out, with black smoke all over his body. Although he didn't see any expression, Zhao Ze could also guess it. It must be nothing good.

So, he shouted, "Xu Zhu, you are causing trouble again. Didn't I tell you that you can't make trouble again? Otherwise, you will be punished to go outside to carry water."

As soon as Xu Zhu heard that Zhao Ze was behind him, he quickly turned around and kowtowed, but he didn't dare to raise his head.

Zhao Ze said, "Look up and let me see what's wrong with you?"

"This?" Xu Zhu hesitated for a long time before answering, "Your Excellency, my subordinates are roasting ducks. Unexpectedly, with a bang, the duck exploded. My subordinates and subordinates are all different. Are you afraid of scaring your adult?"

"Nonsense, how can a duck explode? Raise your head," Zhao Ze ordered in a low voice.

Xu Zhu didn't dare to say more. He slowly raised his head and looked at Zhao Ze.

For a moment when his eyes were facing each other, a burnt face appeared in Zhao Ze's vision, which scared him to take a big step back.

"This? Did the duck really explode? Zhao Ze asked incredulously.

"Lord Hui, it is indeed caused by the duck explosion," several guards next to him echoed.

"Oh" Zhao Ze was shocked and said to himself how the duck could explode. Could it be...

In the afternoon of the same day, Zhao Ze asked Liu Banxian to check the wound for Xu Zhu. Liu Banxian took a breath and replied, "Your Excellency,

How big is Xu Huwei's life?"

"How to say?"

"If I guess correctly, the duck must be wrapped in something, so that when it is sharply heated, the interior expands, and finally bursts the body, which is the same as steamed buns."

"What would that be?"

Later, Zhao Ze asked Xu Zhu what was going on?

Xu Zhu answered truthfully. He flushed the duck with water and couldn't wash off the black water on it. In desperation, he wrapped the duck with a ball of mud and roasted it on the fire. He thought that the duck's hair would fall off when it was cooked, but he didn't expect that it was only half roasted. The duck exploded, making his face bloom.

Zhao Ze frowned and felt that it was very strange. It was not accidental. He suddenly remembered something and asked, "Where did you beat the duck?"

Xu Zhu replied, "In the swamp opposite Wulunzhai, there is a large area of water, all of which are black water."

Xu Zhu mentioned the black water again. Zhao Ze suddenly woke up and said, "Is it oil?"

The next day, at dawn, Zhao Ze took a guard carrying a bamboo basket with a crock in the basket. After rowing across the river, he headed for Malunzhai, northwest of Huanzhou Prefecture.

After nearly two hours of searching, Zhao Ze found open-air oil near a thorn in the southwest of Malunzhai.