end song

Chapter 10 Bronze Medal
After Li Xia and his party of 23 people crossed the Yangtze River, they walked for another four days and arrived in Luzhou.

Luzhou is almost the Hefei City of later generations, and it is quite an important strategic town today.

It can be seen from its location that the Huaihe River is in the north and the Yangtze River is in the south. It is called "the right throat of Huaihe River".

Since they set off, they have always bypassed the cities they encountered. This time when they arrived in Luzhou, Nie Zhongyou decided to enter the city.

Because they were pretending to be a caravan, they paid the tax once at the gate of the city, and paid the residence tax once again after entering the city.

Li Xia could tell that Nie Zhongyou had a different kind of affection for Luzhou City. When he raised his head and looked at the city wall several times, his eyes showed a look of nostalgia, and his hands were subconsciously stroking the neck. a scar.

It was an old scar, probably because Nie Zhongyou fought here many years ago...

They found an inn in the city to live in, and booked a yard. There were not many rooms, and they shared one room in twos and threes.

Li Xia was unlucky and was assigned to live with Nie Zhongyou.But when he thought that Lin Zi and Bai Mao had even worse luck and lived with Liu Jinsuo, whose snoring was earth-shattering, he was relieved.

After entering the inn, Nie Zhongyou first asked Han Chengxu and Lin Zi to buy some supplies.

Because of Wu Dexian's death, now it is Han Chengxu who pretends to be the leader of the caravan, and he handles the trivial matters along the way, so the treatment of the grandparents and grandchildren is much better.

After explaining these things, Nie Zhongyou turned to Li Xia and said, "Accompany me to go out and do something."

After the incident of the Yangtze River water bandits, Nie Zhongyou seemed to have a little more trust in Li Xia. Sometimes he would discuss things with him, and he always took him with him when talking and doing things. It seemed that he intended to train Li Xia to be a deputy who could replace Jiang Xing.

The two went round and round, and walked around the city for a while, before finally arriving in front of an ordinary house.

Nie Zhongyou had obviously never been here before, he only knew the address, and he seemed a little hesitant when he knocked on the door.

After a while, the door of the small house was opened, and a white-haired old man poked his head out and asked, "Who are you looking for?"

"May I ask if this is the Gao family?" Nie Zhongyou asked.

The old man stared at Nie Zhongyou for a while, but didn't speak. He didn't know if he was too old to react slowly, or he was sizing up the visitor.

Nie Zhongyou thought for a while, took out a copper token, flashed it in front of the old man, and said in a low voice, "It was Lv Taiwei who asked me to come."

"You have the wrong person."

The old man looked confused, and after speaking slowly, he was about to close the door.

Nie Zhongyou was taken aback for a moment, then asked again: "Is this Changfeng Lane?"

However, the old man closed the door without hesitation.

Nie Zhongyou turned his head and looked around for a while, making sure that he had found the right place, and a pensive look appeared in his eyes.

Li Xia watched this scene silently, and felt that something was wrong, and secretly became vigilant in his heart.

It was a waste of time for the two of them, but on the way back, Li Xia faintly felt a sense of being spied on.

He was about to turn his head to take a look when he suddenly heard Nie Zhongnie say something in a low voice.

"Don't look back, just pretend you didn't find out."

It was only at this time that Li Xia was sure that he was being followed.

He was also big-hearted, and after a while, he pointed to a street vendor selling eggs on the side of the road and asked Nie Zhongyou if he could buy all the eggs.

Nie Zhongyou agreed, and not only bought the eggs with the basket, but also specially bought a hen.

During this process, Li Xia didn't look back, but Nie Zhongyou seemed to glance behind when it was not easy to notice.

Back at the inn, Nie Zhongyou seemed a little hesitant, paced back and forth for a while, looked into Li Xia's eyes, and said, "Your father is in my hands."

This sentence is inexplicable, but Li Xia can understand Nie Zhongyou's thoughts.

Knows to threaten people all day long.

"I know." Li Xia said: "Since I promised to do things for you, I will keep my word."

Nie Zhongyou continued to stare at Li Xia for a while, as if he was thinking about whether he was trustworthy or not, and finally said, "Can you guess the purpose of our trip to Kaifeng this time?"

"I can't guess..."

Suddenly, there were footsteps outside, followed by a knock on the door, Lin Zi said: "Brother, someone is looking for you, claiming to be Lu Fengtai, saying that he is your old friend."

Nie Zhongyou seemed to be in a daze for a moment, and murmured: "Lu Fengtai?"

~~
Lu Fengtai walked into the guest room.

He is a middle-aged man in his 30s, tall and strong, he looks like a soldier in the army. Although he is dressed in civilian clothes, he has an aura of calmness and prestige.

Seeing Nie Zhongyou, Lu Fengtai smiled and said, "I haven't seen you in almost ten years?"

"Yes." Nie Zhongyou said, "I haven't seen you in ten years."

Lu Fengtai stretched out his hand, patted Lin Zi on the shoulder, and said: "Little brother, you don't have to be so guarded against me. Back then, brother Nie and I followed Du Xianggong to defend the city in this Luzhou city. We were life and death friends."

Lin Zi was standing by the door looking on guard, but after being slapped like this, his aura weakened.

The heart is not firm, and the aura is not strong, so when they meet, they are suppressed.

Then, Lu Fengtai's eyes fell on Li Xia, and he turned away after a moment of concentration, and said to Nie Zhongyou, "Let's talk in private?"

Without waiting for Nie Zhongyou to answer, he said naturally: "You all step back first."

A look of embarrassment flashed across Lin Zi's eyes, and he seemed a little cramped.

Li Xia was still very calm, and had no intention of going out.

He had just crossed over, and he still had the mentality of treating everything as a game, no matter how aura Lu Fengtai had in front of him, he couldn't be considered a character in his eyes.

What's more, he and Nie Zhongyou share this guest room, he is half the master, so he should not be the one to go out.

Nie Zhongyou gave Lin Zi a look, signaled Lin Zi to go out and guard the guest house, and then said to Li Xia: "It's just right, Brother Lu is here, so you stay and listen, lest I have to tell you something from the beginning."

"it is good."

Lu Fengtai looked at Li Xia again, didn't mind, turned to Nie Zhongyou and said, "Have you been to Changfeng Lane today?"

"Yes, is that old man yours?"

"Yes, show me that token."

"Changfeng Lane, where is the person I'm looking for?"

Lu Fengtai said: "Let me see first."

Nie Zhongyou didn't shy away either, took out the token and put it in front of Lu Fengtai for him to take a look, and asked, "Where's the person?"

Lu Fengtai looked at it for a while, obviously he couldn't understand the words on it, he shook his head and asked, "Who are you looking for?"

"You asked knowingly, didn't you catch him?"

"I really don't know." Lu Fengtai said: "I only know that they are people who escaped from the north. I need to find them and return them to Mongolia."

Nie Zhongyou put away the token, thought for a while, and replied: "Dali Kingdom, Gao family."

Lu Fengtai was slightly taken aback, as if he had suddenly realized, but also as if he was still a little puzzled.

Nie Zhongyou glanced at Li Xia, seeing that Li Xia was also puzzled, so he simply explained.

"Brother Lu also knows that since the Kingdom of Jin was destroyed, Mongolia has repeatedly tried to capture the land of Sichuan in the Great Song Dynasty, intending to occupy the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and attack Lin'an. Fortunately, the soldiers and civilians in Sichuan fought hard and relied on Yu Dushuai's hard work He worked hard with blood and repeatedly defeated the Mongolian army."

At this point, Nie Zhongyou bowed his hands to the southwest, with a solemn expression.

"That's right." Lu Fengtai also cupped his hands, expressing his admiration for that "Marshal Yu".

Nie Zhongyou just continued: "The Mongolian army failed to take Sichuan, so they decided to take a detour to the western Sichuan plateau to attack Dali. Using the manpower and material resources in the southwest, they formed a roundabout offensive against our Song Dynasty."

Lu Fengtai said: "I know that the Mongolian army destroyed the Dali Kingdom, but the distance is too far, so I don't know the details."

Nie Zhongyou said: "Dali is a small country in the southwestern border, and the ruler is the Duan clan. The Gao clan is the leader of the Bai clan, who has been the prime minister of Dali Kingdom for generations, or the regent prime minister.

A hundred years ago, there was a coup d'etat in the Dali Kingdom. The Duan family abdicated the position of the king to the Gao family and changed the name of the country to Dazhong.Later, due to the opposition of various tribes, the descendants of the Gao family supported the Duan family as emperor. However, the Gao family still held the real power in Dali.

In the first year of Xingchang, the Mongolian army broke through Dali. At that time, Gao Taixiang, the prime minister of Dali, fought hard and killed the Mongolian envoy to show his determination to resist Mongolia. Later, he was defeated and captured, and was slaughtered. "

Lu Fengtai said: "From this point of view, although this person is a powerful minister, he is also a loyal man."

"Gao Taixiang has integrity, but Duan Xingzhi, the ruler of Dali, has no backbone." Nie Zhongyou said: "After Dali was destroyed, Duan Xingzhi surrendered, Meng Ge named him the governor of Dali.

Duan Xingzhi took his life and was grateful to Mongolia, so he acted as a guide for the Mongolian army to hunt down and kill the remaining soldiers of Dali, and suppressed the people of all ethnic groups who resisted the Mongolian army.

Dali was originally a subject of our Great Song Dynasty, but now it has become the eagle dog of Mongolia, forming a north-south threat to our Great Song Dynasty.

From then on, the Mongolian army could avoid the water battles in the Jianghuai River and the mountainous areas in Sichuan, and detoured to our weakly defended areas of Guangdong and Guangxi.And most of the war horses in our dynasty came from Dali. After this, the source of the war horses was also lost.From then on, the situation in the southwest became worse, and the situation in the world became worse. "

Lu Fengtai asked: "The person Brother Nie is looking for is related to that Dali Prime Minister Gao Taixiang?"

"Yes. After Gao Taixiang's death, the Mongolian army brought Gao Qiong, the eldest son of the Gao family, back to the north." Nie Zhongyou said: "The situation in the southwest is urgent, and the imperial court transferred Taiwei Lv to the southwest. Last year, someone from the Bai people contacted Taiwei Lv. Ask Da Song to help him rise up against Mongolia.

Lv Taiwei then learned that the rest of the Gao clan went north with the intention of rescuing Gao Taixiang's son and appealing to all ethnic groups in Dali.But their actions in the north failed, so they had to flee to the territory of our Song Dynasty, and Lu Taiwei sent people to resettle them in Luzhou.

I happen to be going north this time, so I can learn about the situation in the north while meeting them, and even bring Gao Qiong back for them. "

Lu Fengtai was silent for a while, and said: "So that's how it is."

"What does brother Lu have to do with this matter?"

"The Mongols sent envoys to Luzhou to beg for fugitives." Lu Fengtai said: "I found that house according to the clues, but unfortunately I was one step too late, and the people had already left. So I left my staff and waited, but I didn't expect to find you, Brother Nie. "

"You're going to hand them back to Mongolia?"

"Yes."

Nie Zhongyou asked: "Now that I have told Brother Lu who they are, you still want to do this?"

"Yes." Lu Fengtai said: "The current situation is delicate, and Mongols must not be allowed to have an excuse to declare war on Song Dynasty."

"ridiculous."

"It's very dangerous and meaningless for you to do so." Lu Fengtai said, "Dali Kingdom has been destroyed, and a little bit of Bai's rebels and descendants of the Gao Clan can't do anything. We don't have the time to care about the fate of a small border country. Our own crisis is imminent. At this critical juncture, it is not yet possible to carefully maintain the covenant. If you do this, once you lightly provoke..."

"Lightly open the border?"

Nie Zhongyou obviously didn't like this word, his brows were frowned, and his tone was immediately displeased.

"Brother Lu, how can you not understand this truth? As long as the Mongolian army wants to go south, it will be useless for us to maintain the covenant carefully."

"I know, but the two roads in Huainan are not ready yet."

"Ready?" Nie Zhongyou asked back: "We were ready when we defended the city desperately in Luzhou? Almost 18 years have passed, and now you say you are not ready? Prepare for what? Are you not ready to die for the country? ?"

(End of this chapter)