stubborn thief

Chapter 279

Xining City Tea Horse Department Office.

As night fell, on the window sill on the second floor, the Zhongguan Zhang Yuanheng who watched over the tea horse finished burning incense, leaned on the wooden railing, held a pipe, and looked at the lights of thousands of houses in the city.

Xiningwei is very prosperous, but this false prosperity is based on a huge smuggling trade that no one can control. The imperial court asked him to monitor the tea horse department because a lot of Sichuan tea from the tea horse department was sold. Hequ However, none of the horses were shipped to the mainland.

Zhang Yuanheng is very clear about the reasons. Xining Acropolis is now controlled by a group of frontier soldiers called natural disasters that change lives, and Zhang Yuanheng is also one of them whose lives were changed by natural disasters and man-made disasters.

If there is a ranking for unlucky ghosts, he must be at the top.

He was born in Xiong County, Baoding Prefecture. His father was a veteran who fought in North Korea. After the war, he returned to his hometown and bought [-] acres of land with his life money. His mother opened a tailor shop in the county. He had four children. Zhang Yuanheng ranked first third.

At that time, prices were cheap and the economy was prosperous. My eldest brother served as a soldier in the Beijing camp, and my sister also married a Beijing army.

In Zhang Yuanheng's childhood, he lived a very happy life. On weekdays, there was always meat to eat every half a month, and it was not a holiday if there were no five dishes on the table.

He was the smartest son in the family. He studied in social school since he was a child. The teacher always said that he was the unicorn of the Zhang family and could become a high-ranking official in the future.

In the 45th year of Wanli, he was 16 years old and passed the examination for scholar in Xiongxian County. It seems that since that year, the surrounding environment has changed rapidly, and the joys, sorrows, sorrows and joys of life have come to him one after another.

The elder brother who promised to give him a Korean bow disappeared in the Sarhu battlefield. The brother-in-law escaped from the battlefield but did not return. He only sent back an official document stating that the deserter was executed. My sister was ridiculed and stared at by the neighbors because of this official document. , chose a night that no one knew, and hanged himself on the beam of the house.

My mother always said that she dreamed that Dalang came back, hugging her head, and asked her to sew it up, and stood outside the east gate of Xiongzhou ancient city every day waiting. Over time, she lost her mind and suddenly disappeared one day.

Losing two children and wives one after another, his father said it was his retribution for killing too many people, and he became taciturn and drank all day long until he lost his mind.

The carefree Zhang Yuanheng has become the pillar of the family. His old father needs to be taken care of, and his younger sister is still young. He can barely maintain the business of the tailor shop until the sixth year of Tianqi.

Two small things happened that year.

The first thing is that the earth dragon turned over on June [-]th, from Xuanda to Tianjinwei, from the capital to Kaifeng, and affected more than [-] prefectures and counties in four provinces. There were dozens of aftershocks in a row, and they were crushed to death by the collapsed houses. Countless people, his father was just one of them.

Zhang Yuanheng didn't have any savings, but his old father's funeral had to be held, so he borrowed a sum of money to do the funeral in a hurry.

He didn't want to be sloppy, but at that time every family was having a funeral, and their mouths were swollen, and no one cared about attending other people's funerals.

This money is nothing, since the grain in the field should be harvested, and the account can be paid back after harvesting the grain.

The second minor incident came. Half a month later, a torrential rain broke the banks of the Haihe River and the Xionghe River swelled, flooding everything from Tianjinwei to Zhendingfu.

Repayment of debts is justified, and it is his turn to make a choice, whether to use the younger sister as a second house to the creditor, or to use the cheap land in the disaster year to the creditor.

The former was much more cost-effective, but Zhang Yuanheng chose the latter. He lost his land and his tailor shop was not well managed. In the second year, he gave someone else five taels of silver as a dowry for his younger sister.

Let him think about it now, since he became a scholar, the only thing that went well was probably marrying his younger sister to a good family.

The evening when the younger sister got married was beautiful, and he still remembers the sunset that day, it was so beautiful.

He had a good family, but it fell apart in the beautiful scenery of a beautiful day, and he had nothing left.

Later, he traveled to many places with his luggage on his back. In Beizhili, he scurried back and forth like a hooded fly with both civil and military skills.

Never mentioning his background as a scholar, he understood that a scholar could not change his wealth status, but it could allow him to get in touch with dignitaries and dignitaries that poor farmers could not reach, adding a little coldness to the already miserable life.

In the seventh year of the apocalypse, he went to the capital with the idea of ​​trying his luck. The atmosphere there was more depraved, the polarization of the rich and the poor was more polarized, and there were more scholars than stray dogs, so there was no place for him.

He also thought about finding a job as an official, but he hadn't studied for many years, and neither his financial situation nor his knowledge reserve was enough for him to take the Juren examination again.

What's more, I don't have any property. Even if I want to make a relationship, others don't care about a poor scholar.

It is not the scholar who is ashamed, but the poor.

It was not easy to meet a little eunuch who was also surnamed Zhang, and he was able to speak well. The eunuch is amazing. Zhang Yuanheng felt that his fate in this life was tied to this little Zhang.

He tried his best to get Xiao Zhang drunk, pressed his head to recognize an uncle, and recognized his relatives the night before, and Emperor Tianqi passed away the next day, followed by King Xin's enthronement and Wei Zhongxian's downfall.

Little Uncle Zhang not only failed to pull Zhang Yuanheng's life experience together, the two of them got down together and were taken by Zhang Yuanheng to hide in Tibet. Half a biscuit was broken into four petals. One meal today and another meal tomorrow.

Until it was confirmed that the court did not pursue Xiao Zhang on the eunuch.

On the fourth day of February in the second year of Chongzhen, he will always remember that day.

It wasn't because that day at Yuhebao in northern Shaanxi, a frontier soldier fainted from hunger and drank the icy water of the Wuding River to satisfy his hunger; it was not because that day was the birthday of Zhu Cihong, the prince of the Ming Dynasty, and the whole world celebrated it.

It was because Zhang Yuanheng, who had been stared at all his life, stayed up all night and woke up early, thinking about his family's future.

He thought this way: there are so many scholars in the world, so many that they can't find a suitable job; there are so many eunuchs in the world, so many that hundreds of people are looking for jobs in palace gates.

But there are not many eunuchs in the world who have a reputation as a scholar. As long as they cut their roots of right and wrong, no matter whether they enter the palace or the palace, with their knowledge, they will definitely be able to seek a prosperous future.

No matter how bad it is, it is better than Wang Zhen, the god of war in the civil castle, right?

Gritting his teeth, he stabbed himself with a five-inch knife.

A real man stands in the world, his face is gone, so what's the use of keeping a dick?
But it wasn't a good day.

Before the blood on his crotch was dry, in the evening, the officials pasted the imperial edict of Emperor Chongzhen on the gate of the city: From the date of the edict, if anyone dares to purify himself without permission, he and his subordinates will be beheaded, and the whole family will be smoky The local army is sent to the army, and the announcement is made at home and abroad, and it is strictly obeyed. The body is like a wounded heart, and we are in the realm of benevolence and longevity.

In the day and night of panic, he was finally denounced, and he was supposed to be sent to Liaodong for exile. Fortunately, Uncle Zhang helped him and sent him to Songpanwei Xiaohe camp, which was also barren.

Although Songpanwei was also a frontier guard, it was not as strong as Liaodong. Zhang Yuanheng had just arrived in Songpan in the autumn of the second year of Chongzhen, when he heard that Huang Taiji of Houjin had entered the bandits and cut off the communication between Liaodong and Jizhen.

How should I put it, serving as a soldier in Songpanwei isn't too bad, but if it's for serving as a soldier... Zhang Yuanheng doesn't quite understand, what is it for when he was stabbed, just to gain weight?
On the fourth day of December in the second year of Chongzhen, a major earthquake occurred in Chengdu and Songpanwei. There were twelve consecutive earthquakes in one day.

Throughout the three years of Chongzhen, Zhang Yuanheng was repairing the city wall in Songpan.

It has been repaired until this summer, when a letter from Beijing made him ecstatic, and Uncle Zhang was activated again in the inner court. He wrote to see if his nephew of the same family was dead, and got two for him to change his life. Hurry up to the capital before you die.

Time was tight and the task was heavy, so he ran to the capital and put on the flying fish suit he had dreamed of. He had two stalls and twenty subordinates under his command, and he had to choose between two big jobs.

One is to guard the supervising army under the local eunuchs in Liaodong.

The second is to guard the local eunuchs in Shaanxi to monitor the tea horse department.

Although Zhang Yuanheng had been building the city wall in Songpanwei for a year, he didn't know anything big or small that happened in the world during this time, but as long as he is not a fool, he knows that these two things are not good jobs.

Needless to say in Liaodong, it is not news that the people's uprisings in Shaanxi are serious.

What's more, in terms of business, it can't be a good job to be as dangerous as the supervision of the army in Liaodong.

But if he does not choose, Zhang Yuanheng can only return to Songpan to serve as a soldier.

Between the two, he chose to go to Xining.

All I know is that on the day the capital set off, eight of the 22 subordinates under his command went elsewhere, and one broke his leg while riding a horse, so he couldn't follow him to the west.

His eyes were smeared, and he was fortunate to be able to go on the same journey with the chief eunuch who was guarding the local eunuchs in Shaanxi, and he received great power and support from his superiors.

The eunuch guarding the Shaanxi area said: "Yuan Heng, as long as you don't start quarrels, the tea and horse department of Xining Wei can do it!"

That eunuch was really a kind and strong old man. Zhang Yuanheng had never been entrusted with such a heavy responsibility in his life, and was so trusted and supported. For a moment, all he could think of were six words: the scholar dies for his confidant!

Hot blood can't be eaten, and when he walked to Xiningwei, Zhang Yuanheng was already a devout believer who converted to the three religions.

Regardless of whether the Taoist ancestor or the Buddha, whichever opened his eyes, he was transferred to the Liaodong Supervising Army, and he was willing to worship incense for life.

His subordinates prostrated behind him, interrupting Zhang Yuanheng's contemplation of looking at the lights of the Wan family: "My lord, I have found out that there are five thousand and six soldiers in the guards of Xining, five hundred soldiers in Fuqiang Fort in Nanchuan, and five hundred soldiers in the Zhenhai camp in the west of Chengxi." One thousand and five, there are fourteen chieftains, and the local soldiers rated it at [-]."

"Forehead soldiers?"

Zhang Yuanheng turned his head and thought to himself, there should be fifteen chieftains, he asked, "Where are the real soldiers?"

"Real soldiers..." The front man's face was ugly: "Xining Wei has [-] real soldiers, Fuqiang Fort has [-] real soldiers, and Zhenhai Battalion has [-] real soldiers. The number of local soldiers is still unknown."

Military households in remote areas have always fled a lot, only those with fewer real soldiers than quota soldiers, no one has ever seen a place where there are more real soldiers than quota soldiers.

Today Zhang Yuanheng had his eyes wide open, he knew what was going on, frowned and said, "How many of them are soldiers from Chieftain Liu's family?"

The captain of Fanzi shook his head and said apologetically, "I am incompetent in a humble position, I can't figure it out clearly, I hope the master will forgive me."

"What do you think?"

The head of Fanzi had a bitter expression on his face. He didn't know how to explain this matter. In his opinion, the situation in Xining was chaotic and orderly.

The order is because it has been two days. The flag army in the city should train, dig the ground, build equipment, and build equipment without delay.

But in this case, it was the senior generals of Xiningwei who stopped working.

For example, there is a general in Tusi Qi's family, who is sent as a commanding envoy to guard Fuqiang Fort. He is busy at home supervising the local soldiers and doing business every day. Know what kind of sheep you are leading.

A similar situation happened to the chieftains and the generals of the generals, especially those few officials. The Xining Wei seemed to have assigned them military households ranging from ten to fifty according to their official positions, and sent them all day long from Lanzhou. Go to Hanzhong and run around.

The Chief Fanzi raised his hands and rubbed his face, he said heavily but uncertainly, "All... all?"

Zhang Yuanheng didn't show his face, and in his heart he cursed all the swear words he could say in his life to the eunuch guarding Shaanxi.

He thought that he came to Xiningwei to monitor the border tea-horse trade, and told him to let him go without provoking border quarrels. He felt that this was unparalleled support.

But now the situation is getting clearer, is this called the border?This is called fucking deep behind enemy lines!

No wonder before leaving Beijing, Cao Huachun, the great eunuch next to the emperor, specially called him to meet him, but he didn't say anything, and looked at him with sympathy.

At that time, he thought that Eunuch Cao was sympathizing with his tragic experience in defending the city wall in Songpan!

No wonder when I came to Xiningwei, there was no one to greet me, and I was directly taken into the Tea Horse Office by the officers and soldiers.

Zhang Yuanheng sighed, shook his head and said, "We have entered the den of tigers and wolves, how did you find out about this information?"

"what?"

The captain of the Fanzi was stunned for a moment, and said: "The soldiers outside said it, and they also said that the master came to Xining, and he will live a peaceful life here. If he wants to earn some money, it's not difficult, as long as he doesn't go against them with Marshal Liu."

In fact, Zhang Yuanheng didn't care too much about the question of whether he could go back, he frowned and said: "If you don't go back, to put it lightly, what should we do if the court punishes us?"

After speaking, he was stunned for a moment, this is the enemy's territory!
Who can the imperial court send here to kill him?

Zhang Yuanheng raised his hand to stop the captain who wanted to speak, got up and paced around the room, took a breath and said, "You said, Chieftain Liu won't let us leave, so if the imperial court wants to arrest us, won't you?" ...you have to pass chieftain Liu first?"

This is what the Chief Fanzi wanted to say. In the current situation in Xining, how capable is the court to go to Xining Wei to arrest people?
The captors went to Xining and were treated similarly to them.

"Master, if Chieftain Liu doesn't want to harm us, we are probably safer than guarding the eunuchs in Shaanxi at this moment."

Zhang Yuanheng thought for a moment about the terrain and situation he was in, and immediately opened his mind. He understood why the guarding Shaanxi eunuch said that he could not start a frontier quarrel.

Xining is bordered by the Yellow River in the south, the Qilian Mountains in the north, and Lanzhou in the middle through the Hehuang Valley. It is the front-line base for attacking Qinghai Lake.

It is said that Lanzhou blocks the Yellow River, just like Shanhaiguan, and can keep Xining out, but the problem lies in the fact that wars cannot be fought around Lanzhou. It is a large camp that stores grain for Gansu. The food was cut off immediately, and even the treatment owed was gone.

"Why did the imperial court give such an important place to Thief Liu... No!" Zhang Yuanheng shook his head with emotion, and suddenly covered his mouth and said, "Give it to the Grand Marshal of Qinghai Marshal's Mansion?"

After finishing speaking, he shook his sleeves, clapped his hands and said, "Okay, go to sleep, everyone thinks that you won't offend, so they think your master is a big fool, heh, it's been so unlucky for so many years, your family The master is still alive, so he won't die this time!"

　Ugly is good!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)