Ouyang Xuan is actually very familiar with Hengyuan Town - in the 21st century, this place is called Huaiyuan Town, Chongzhou City, and is famous for its rattan weaving in the surrounding areas of Chengdu. Like Yongkang City, Hengyuan Town is located at the junction of mountains and plains, with mountains and rivers at its back.

The difference is that the geographical location of Hengyuan Town is more superior than that of Yongkang City, especially the waterway transportation is more convenient.

Convenient. Although it is a town, it had a population of over 10,000 before the Mongolian army invaded Sichuan. It was an important town on the Tea Horse Road in Western Sichuan. The surrounding area is not only rich in grain and oil, but also produces a large amount of mountain products. Business travelers can follow the Wenjing River next to the village.

After passing through Yongqu Township, it goes straight down to Chongqing Fucheng, flows for hundreds of miles, and then merges into Fujiang River at Xinjin City, and then flows through

Jiading Prefecture and Chongqing Prefecture are more prosperous than Yongkang City. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Minjiang River was called Fujiang River. Hengyuan Town originally had no village walls. After the Mongols invaded Xichuan, merchants and villagers built wooden fences more than ten feet high to fill the walls.

The scale of the village wall is quite large, only slightly smaller than Yongkang City. According to the official system of the Southern Song Dynasty, in the important commercial and trade towns, the government would send a supervisor

The low-level civil servants in the town managed the affairs. However, due to the war, the imperial court did not send officials to Hengyuan Town. All affairs in the village were managed by the squires. The squire in charge of the village is called Du Fu, who is familiar with Li Shuang and Yu Zhu.

Behind the wall of the village, he saw that the leader was Li Shuang, so he asked people to open the gate of the village and welcome everyone in.

Due to long-term wars, the current population of Hengyuan Village is only more than 500, which makes the village seem empty. The villagers have planted wheat, beans and other grains in the open spaces in front of and behind the houses. Du Fu is particularly enthusiastic.

, I found a few unused rooms.

The house was provided for everyone to live in, and people were sent to bring simple drinking water. However, when Li Shuang mentioned the purpose of his visit, he looked embarrassed and refused to say a word. The question was asked urgently, and his son Du Daquan, who came with him, couldn't bear it.

He said: "My lords,

We should have paid the court's money and grain, but the Tatar soldiers looted, bandits were rampant, and the strong men and women in the stronghold were lost. There were no cattle or horses to drive them. They relied entirely on the labor of the villagers. The grain obtained, excluding the seeds, was only enough to satisfy the hunger. A few days ago, another

Encountered by mountains

When the bandits came to attack and the swordsmen increased their necks, Yongkang City refused to send officers and soldiers to come to the rescue. As a result, the bandits broke into the fort and not only killed and wounded the villagers, but also stole a large amount of rations. If food was to be requisitioned again, the old and weak people in the village would be

How do women and children live?"

"Without the officers and soldiers coming to the rescue, Hengyuan Village was defended by hundreds of people armed with weapons and weapons. It was really no match for the bandits in the mountains. The bandits threatened to massacre the village if they did not pay the food. In order to protect the people in the village, we had no choice but to

Pay grain to the bandits." Another squire named Xie next to him added. Ou

The doubts in Yang Xuan's mind were dispelled. More than a hundred civilians relied on the wall, and their combat power was not inferior to that of the grain collection team. It seemed that if the grain collection team encountered bandits, it would probably be a disaster. He now understood

Understand the reason why Cao Ergou reported that there were no bandit activities around Hengyuan Village before entering the village.

After Du Fu and others left, Li Shuang summoned Yu Zhu, Ouyang Xuan and other gang leaders to discuss the matter of grain collection. After many discussions, no good plan was found. At this time, one gang leader suggested that if tough measures were not used, it would be difficult to complete the grain collection task.

It is difficult to escape the punishment of Pan Tongzhi,

It was suggested to follow the example of other grain collection teams and use tough methods to collect grains. There were critics and echoes of this, which made Ouyang Xuan very unhappy. He couldn't help but loudly said: "How is this approach different from banditry?" Li Shuang

Wait for others to listen, everyone

Everyone was silent. After a long while, Li Shuang sighed and said, "Hengyuan Village has always been devoted to the imperial court, and the people are simple and honest. Du Fu and his son have always contributed a lot to official affairs. If the times had not been difficult, they would not have made things difficult for us. Such loyal people

How to use force?

"It turns out that Du Fu and his son are both big merchants of medicinal materials and are proficient in medical skills. Whether they treat poor people or wounded soldiers in the army, they never care about remuneration, and they have a good reputation around Chongqing Mansion. After that, Li Shuang told everyone to rest early and think of a solution tomorrow.

.

There were so many things he had experienced in the past three days that Ouyang Xuan could not sleep. Yu Zhu, who was sleeping next to him, was tossing and turning, so the two started talking in a low voice. Ouyang Xuan learned from Yu Zhu that he and Li Shuang both

He was a personal entourage of Mr. Yu Jie, and he followed Mr. Yu in the south and north. Just when Yu Jie was about to expel all the Mongolian troops from Chuanxia 4th Road, he was attacked by the traitor Uncle Xie Fang and the Yunding City Guards.

They framed Yao Shi'an and others, and not only died unjustly. After Master Yu's death, they were also implicated and demoted to Chongqing Mansion. Pan Tongzhi was once punished by Yu Jie for being corrupt and delaying military achievements, so he made things difficult for them in every possible way.

Chang Cao Ergou is a clan member of the famous general Cao Youwen. When the Mongolian army first invaded Sichuan Gorge Fourth Road, Cao Youwen and his younger brother Cao Youwan fought a bloody battle with the Mongols at Yangping Pass.

However, the handsome and treacherous minister Zhao Yanna refused to save him. As a result, both of them died in the battle due to being outnumbered. Cao Ergou followed his father to live in Shu. Huang Dagen was also a relative of the meritorious minister Wang Weizhong, the former magistrate of Langzhou.

Bing, Wang Weizhong was falsely accused by the traitor Yu Hui, Chen Dafang, Ding Daquan and others of "sneaking into Mongolia" and was executed. His soldiers were also dispersed and divided into various armies. "Birds of a feather flock together, and people divide into groups."

", Yu Zhu paid special attention to those who were excluded. Over time, his food collection team gathered more than ten people who were framed by Zhongliang or his subordinates. Before the food collection, Yu Zhu's team originally only had three people.

There were more than ten soldiers. Before leaving this time, some soldiers who were not liked by their superiors were transferred here. Commander Pan obviously wanted to get rid of them by the hands of the Mongols or bandits.

Yu Zhu's words made Ouyang Xuan shudder. They reminded him of the words "reverse elimination" and "bad money drives out good money." From historical knowledge, he learned that the ruling class of the Southern Song Dynasty was corrupt and frequently looted in Jin and Mongolia.

On the other side, despite internal and external troubles, they are still living a life of intoxication and dreams. The song "Beyond the Mountains"

"Outside the Qingshan Tower, when does the singing and dancing of the West Lake stop? The warm wind makes tourists drunk, and they call Hangzhou Bianzhou" is a description of the high-level government officials who are dissatisfied with the country's internal and external troubles, but the middle- and low-level bureaucrats are also so corrupt, which made him sigh

It is simply a miracle that this corrupt regime can sustain itself until now.

Early the next morning, Li Shuang took Huang Dagen to see Du Fu. One was to treat the arrow wounds on his body, and the other was to see if he could find a way to get some food so that he could go back to work. Not long after, Huang Dagen

He came back with a happy face and asked people to bring horse meat and salt, and went to carry grain. It turned out that after repeated persuasion by Du Fu and his son, the wealthy households in the village agreed to Li Shuang's proposal: use two hundred kilograms of marinated horse meat and salt.

In exchange for 2,000 kilograms of grain, Du Fu and his son also borrowed two wooden boats to send grain to Chongqing Mansion through the Wenjing River outside the village. It was already three o'clock in the day when the grain was loaded on the boat. Since the boat was small and could not carry everyone, Li Shuang decided immediately

Fire Chief Liu Zhong, who was familiar with water warfare, led his fire soldiers to accompany the ship to protect the food supply. Because his arrow wounds had not healed, he also returned to Chongqing Mansion with the ship. Yu Zhu took the rest of the soldiers back to Chongqing Mansion by land.

Hengyuan Town is about fifty miles away from Chongqing City. Ouyang Xuan and others hurriedly drove all the way, and it was already dusk when they arrived at the gate of Chongqing City. Chongqing City was called "Shuzhou" in the Tang and Northern Song Dynasties, and "Chongqing City" in the Southern Song Dynasty.

"Qingjun" was once the latent vassal of Gaozong Zhao Gou before he came to the throne. After Zhao Gou became the emperor, he was promoted to Chongqing Prefecture in 1144 AD (the fourteenth year of Shaoxing in the Southern Song Dynasty) and governed Yongkang.

County, Jinyuan County, Jiangyuan County, Xinjin County. Among these four counties, Yongkang County is in the northwest, Xinjin County is in the south, Jiangyuan County is in the southeast, and Jinyuan County is Fukuo County, which is the seat of Chongqing Fucheng.
Chapter completed!