Qin Official

The journey from Daliang to Xinzheng is only over a hundred miles and can be reached in a few days.

Riding on the road, Zhang Liang, who was appointed by Xiang Liang as the "Fake King of Korea", knew that his motherland had arrived...

Zhang Liang knew very well that he was testing Xiang Liang, and Xiang Liang was also testing himself. If he refused to be king, he might never be able to return to Yingchuan.

So he pretended that he was not a royal family and could only be a false king. Xiang Liang then agreed and asked Zhang Liang to return to Korea quickly and organize the Koreans into an army to resist the Qin army's eastward advance.

The water in Putianze Lake is so clear and deep that it can never be exhausted. It is a delicacy of fish and shoots. When Zheng Guo was still a minister of the King of Han, many ditches were dug here to irrigate the Korean land. The grains on both sides of the ditches were plentiful. On Zhang Liang's way back to the country, when he realized that Wang Ben might launch a thunderous attack on Xu Di, he advocated moving north and taking refuge here.

Unfortunately, Han Wangcheng did not listen to him and died at the hands of the Qin army. However, the seeds of the restoration of Han were preserved in Putianze. Finally, half a year ago, with the help of the Chu army, the entire Yingchuan County was captured, and Korea was officially recovered. , return to the old capital!

But has the restoration of the country really been successful?

In the reeds beside the road, there were many hungry eyes flashing. They were in ragged clothes and holding pitchforks and sickles. They had probably been lying in wait here for a long time. After realizing that there were many people like Zhang Liang, they retreated wisely and retreated in. Deep in the grass, I saw that they were thin, maybe they had been hungry for a long time...

"It's a group of thieves."

Sima, who led the way, said helplessly that Putianze was the base camp for the successful restoration of Korea, but now, it is suffering from bandits.

"The war between Qin and Chu was between Jing and Suo. The refugees from Sanchuan and the common people in Yingchuan who had no food and clothing all ran to the grassland. At least they could catch some fish and shrimps here. If not, they could dig grass roots to satisfy their hunger. If they met pedestrians If you pass by, you can also plunder their property.”

Zhang Liang sent people to stop the thieves, but they didn't look back and ran faster...

"I'm afraid you'll catch me and join the army to fill ravines! To them, harsh government is as fierce as a tiger!"

An old man with a red nose wearing a side crown said this while drinking wine. This man's name was Li Shiqi. He was a doctor in the state of Wei and the brother of Duke Chenliu of Chu. When Zhang Liang left Daliang, he said shamelessly. He said he was going to Xinzheng and asked him to give him a ride.

There was no legitimate reason for this person, but Zhang Liang asked his men to ignore it and freed up an empty truck to load the old drunkard. Although Li Shiqi drank all day long, his cloudy eyes were observing various situations along the way, and he came to see Zhang from time to time. Liang speaks.

"The great chaos is like this. Bandits are rampant in many places in Wei. Heroes have risen together. Qin officials have been expelled and killed, and Qin laws and regulations have been abolished. However, no one can stop those who kill people and steal goods. Big bandits , such as Peng Yue, who suddenly became a prince, a small bandit, or he joined the big bandit and became a county magistrate, or he continued to stay in the grassland and plundered everywhere."

Thanks to the Restoration of Korea movement and Zheng Chang's policy of allocating Korean property to serve Chu, the order in the entire northern part of Yingchuan has completely collapsed.

As the instigator, Zhang Liang remained silent.

Going further south, they arrived at Yuanling County.

Li Shiqi smacked his lips and said, "Is this Yuanling the ancient country of Xi?"

As early as 600 years ago, Duke Huan of Zheng was the Situ of Zhou Youwang. He was very worried about the corrupt Zong Zhou and wanted to set up his own business and leave this doomed ship. He used his position to find Zheng Guo in the east. A new foothold. Tai Shibo at that time analyzed him and said: "In today's world, in the country of sons and daughters, Guo and Hao are the largest. Uncle Guo relies on power, and Hao Zhong relies on danger. If two cities are conquered, then Xin is in the front and the river is behind, and Luo is on the right and Luo on the left. Ji, Zheng Guo can be less solid..."

Dongguo is the area of ​​Xingyang, and Haoguo is the ancient name of Yuanling. This area is the foundation of the Zheng State. Although the capital is built in Xinzheng in the south, Yuanling is still a prosperous city.

Going up to the city, Li Shiqi saw how big the houses were and couldn't help but admire: "Zhuangzai County is no less than a large city. How many household registrations do you have here?"

Someone told him the answer: "In the early years, there were 10,000 households. In recent years, there have been many wars and many people have disappeared. Now there are only 5,000 households..."

No one knows whether the five thousand missing families fled, fled to the grasslands, or were kidnapped by the passing Chu army.

Li Shiqi sighed: "It's a pity, it's a pity, but not only Yuanling, as far as I can see, whether it is east of the river or in Hanoi, these former prosperous areas of the Three Rivers are also in decline."

It seemed that the words were intentional or unintentional, as if he wanted to touch Zhang Liang.

Everyone rested for one night in Yuanling and continued southward. They stayed in a pavilion on the way that night. Because Zhang Liang was a simple man, he only had coarse rice with him. His attendants asked the pavilion chief for food and asked him to offer the best food. , Unexpectedly, when it was time to eat, the director of the pavilion steamed chaff for everyone to eat!

Zhang Liang's cronies were immediately furious: "Bold, do you know who the noble man is!"

The pavilion chief was not afraid, he puffed out his chest and said:

"Don't you want the best food? There is only dross in all the villages. Even if Zheng Chang and Zhang Liang come, they can only eat this!"

However, Zhang Liang was not angry. He comforted his subordinates, picked up the chaff, ate it with a smile, and asked others to share the dry food they carried with the pavilion chief.

"Old man, how long have you been eating chaff?"

“I’ve been eating it since winter.”

The pavilion chief looked at his family gobbling up dry food and sighed: "This county is hilly and dangerous. We live in mountains and are grown from five grains. The best ones are wheat and beans. What we usually eat are mostly beans, rice and grasshoppers." Soup, once the harvest is not good, you can only eat the chaff."

"Last year, Qin and Chu fought a war, but the fields were not destroyed. The harvest in our hometown was originally good. However, when the Chu army passed by in the autumn, Zheng Chang actually ordered all the grains along the way to be donated, even the life-saving grains were not spared. We These are the only things left to satisfy our hunger.”

That's good. Now that last year's food has been used up, and next year's seeds have not fallen, by the time summer comes, I'm afraid I'll have to eat bark and grass roots.

When the pavilion chief was worried, after scolding Zheng Chang, he scolded Zhang Liang again.

"When the Qin officials ruled this area, although the corvee was heavier and more than half of the tax was collected, we still had enough food and clothing, and no bandits dared to openly plunder."

"But now, we are living in such misery. What will Zhang Liang do if he wants to restore his country? His Zhang family's wealth has been restored, but the food, clothing and life of our common people have been restored!"

The attendants dared not speak out in anger, but Zhang Liang just nodded and continued to eat the chaff in the pottery bowl.

There was no salt, no oil, and no honey. The dry chaff was hard to chew, and swallowing it made his throat sore.

Like choking in throat...

Did he do all this for the sake of his own wealth, for this so-called "fake king"?

Li Shiqi looked at Zhang Liang's expression and seemed to be aware of it.

After nightfall, Li Shiqi went out for a walk with his wine in hand, and found Zhang Liang standing on the field ridge outside the pavilion, looking at the stars.

He walked over and said with a smile: "People are like this. They are always ungrateful and vengeful. If things are not as they used to be, they will resent the people who brought them to where they are today."

"Nothing but the ovary, no, now I will be called the false king of Han. Your family has always been with Han, and Han is destroyed. You don't love ten thousand gold. You avenge Han and attack Qin. Junan assassinates, and the world is shocked. Today, the country is finally restored. He succeeded and even became a false king. This is the ultimate commoner, so what are the regrets?"

As he said, Zhang Liang did have a heroic spirit and a strong spirit in his youth.

However, the assassination of Qin failed, and Da Tiezhu died to save him. The experience of being in exile in Xiapi made Zhang Liang mature and steady, and he began to abandon assassination and work on strategy. Unfortunately, he was trapped in the restoration of Han and could not play on a larger stage. Emerging on the scene.

But now his dream has come true, South Korea has recovered, and he has even been promoted to the position of "False King". It seems that he has control over some things in South Korea, but Zhang Liang is not happy at all.

"If you want to be crowned, you must first bear its weight..." Zhang Liang said this and said with a smile:

"It's still the same as before, when I only fight for my own anger, I feel free to do whatever I want. When I was young, I thought it was simple to restore my country and take revenge. After doing it for more than ten years, I realized how difficult it is. But more The difficulty is still to come. Only when Zhang Liang carried the weight of millions of people in South Korea on his shoulders did he understand how heavy it is."

"I cannot afford to be this false king."

Li Shiqi shook his head: "But who in Han can afford it? Zheng Chang? Han Xin?"

He said meaningfully: "Zifang, in my opinion, you are the only one who can save Han Di."

"Save Han?"

This word is so familiar, as if it reminds me of what a "Korean traitor" said when he was questioned by Zhang when he was young.

At that time, the young Zhang Liang scoffed.

Zhang Liang shook his head: "There are fire pits in front and behind, so there is no need to save me. Is Li Sheng going to point me to a clear path?"

Li Shiqi almost blurted out the words, but he still held back in the end.

The time has not come yet.

Zhang Liang stood up, patted Li Shiqi, and said in his ear:

"Li Sheng said earlier that both Hedong and Hanoi are in a very poor state. I just want to ask, you have gone to Guanzhong before. How is the people's livelihood there under Heifu's rule?"

Li Shiqi had prepared a lot of tricks, but at this moment, there was only shock on his face.

Although Li Shiqi reacted quickly and put away his surprise and replaced it with confusion.

For Zhang Liang, the expression at this moment was enough for him to confirm his guess.

"What does Zifang mean by this? I have been to Xihe once, but..."

Li Shiqi held a sharp dagger in his broad long sleeves. It was this hand. When he was lobbying a Wei county magistrate in Hedong, he suspected that he had changed his mind, so he pretended to be drunk and stayed with him in the middle of the night. But he secretly got up and cut off his head and presented it to Han Xin as an incompetent old man, a high-yang drunkard, and a pedantic scholar. They were all disguises to cover up the fact that he was a blood-licking knight in his youth!

But this time, the hunter asked the goose to peck his eyes.

Li Shiqi's hand was stopped by Zhang Liang first, and the dagger was snatched away, and instead he held it in his arms!

Everything happened suddenly. Only when they saw the perseverance in Zhang Liang's eyes did people often think of this beautiful woman, who seemed like a frail scholar, but she made her name by assassinating the First Emperor of Qin!

"There are no outsiders here, so you don't have to pretend."

Zhang Liang smiled and said:

"Li Sheng came to me, was he following the orders of your lord Heifu, or was he acting on his own initiative for the sake of great achievements?"

…

ps: Chapter 2 is at night.