The First Great Ancestor of the Five Dynasties

Chapter 365

Zhu Xiu and his party left Hongfu Tower with two carriages and two horses, walked several times around the lively and bustling streets of Wazi on Wangfu Street, and then headed towards Puji Temple on the east bank of the Qinhuai River.

Zhou Xian and Dong Mei, who were sitting in the carriage, did not notice at all that while they were going around the tiles, another carriage and Pan Mei and Zhu Xiu, who were riding in front, quietly turned the corner to Ganquanfang. go.

There was another carriage, and two people with very similar clothes and body shapes to Zhu Xiu and Pan Mei merged into the convoy.

Zhou Xian opened the car curtain and looked forward. He could still see the backs of Zhu Xiu and Pan Mei riding horses.

"Hey, where are you going to take us?" Zhou Xian yelled dissatisfied at the back of "Zhu Xiu".

The strange thing is that "Zhu Xiu" sat upright on the horse, not looking back, and paying no attention to her.

"Hello? Your surname is Chu? Chu Xun?"

Zhou Xian slapped the carriage angrily.

Dongmei quickly stopped, fearing that the young lady's actions would anger the gangsters.

It's a pity that "Zhu Xiu" in front completely ignored Zhou Xian's shouting.

Cha Hui, who was driving the car, turned around and said with a smile: "Mrs. Zhou, what's the matter with you? It's the same thing as the villain. You don't have to work for my husband."

Zhou Xian said angrily: "Go and ask Chu Xun where he is taking us?"

Zha Hui said with a smile: "Mrs. Zhou, please be patient and don't be impatient. We will know later. Didn't my Alang say that as long as we get to the place, in exchange for my Alang's relatives, we will let Mrs. Zhou leave safely."

Zhou Xian rolled his eyes at him with disdain and hummed: "You say 'my Alang', but you call him kindly. I wonder if Chu Xun regards you as one of his own.

He is obviously a descendant of Jiangning, but he helps a group of northerners commit crimes. Sooner or later he will be punished by God! "

Zha Hui was a little annoyed and couldn't help but sarcastically said: "The villain deserves to die for taking refuge with the Northerners. He has lost the face of his ancestors. However, the Zhou family has been forced to raise rents every year so that the tenants cannot survive. Our Banqiao store has long had a bad reputation. Secretly, countless tenant farmers whose families were ruined cursed the Zhou family!

If the villain is punished by God, Mrs. Zhou will not be much better off!Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been caught by my Alang.”

Zhou Xian didn't expect that a boy who was driving the carriage would dare to contradict and ridicule her. He was startled, his pretty face was sullen, and his almond-shaped eyes showed a look of grievance and anger. He clenched his fists tightly and shouted: "You are talking nonsense! Zhou Ling's behavior has nothing to do with my Zhou family." What? Why should the name of the Zhou family fall on me?"

Zha Hui sneered and said: "Mrs. Zhou should go and explain to the tenant farmers who were persecuted by Zhou Ling, what is the relationship between Zhou Ling and the Zhou family? Zhou Ling ruined the tenant farmers' families. People don't care about Zhou Ling or the Zhou family. Anyway, you all have the same surname." Zhou is another ancestor, and the evil done by Zhou Ling should also be recorded on the Zhou family!"

"You, you~~~"

Zhou Xian's eyes were red with anger, his teeth were clenched, but he didn't know how to refute.

Zha Huiya had a sharp mouth and said viciously: "Mrs. Zhou was born in a wealthy family. I'm afraid she doesn't know what terrible things people will do if they are hungry!
General Tianbao, who started an uprising in Jurong County at the beginning of the year, originally had land left over from his ancestors, but unfortunately it was usurped by the magistrates of the county in collusion with the gentry. General Tianbao was so angry that he killed officials and rebelled, massacring all the county officials, big and small. , the county lieutenant and the wealthy gentry had their houses broken into, and their wives, children, and children were all killed!

I heard that the county captain’s wife and daughter were rewarded by General Tianbao to his subordinates. They were all struggling to make ends meet. Where have I ever seen a woman with delicate skin and tender flesh?
In the end, these two unlucky women couldn't bear it anymore and jumped into the well and died.
Tsk tsk~ If Zhou Ling continues to bully us poor people like this, he will end up dying badly sooner or later!

Those rebellious mud-legged people are much more vicious than my Alang. Madam Zhou and Zhou Ling are relatives. What will happen if they fall into their hands?
Hehe~ Why don’t Madam Zhou stay with my A Lang and serve as a maid? My A Lang is very capable and can definitely keep Madam Zhou safe.”

Zhou Xian's face turned blue and red, biting his slender lips and saying nothing.

A few months ago, the murder of officials and rebellion in Jurong County was quite serious. She also heard about it from Zhou Zong and learned some of the truth.

The county government offices in Jurong County were almost completely slaughtered, and even burned to the ground in a fire. The imperial court mobilized tens of thousands of Jiangbei Navy troops and Jiangning Forbidden Army, and laid siege for a month before wiping out the rebels. Jurong County was left dead. There were few people, and several floodways of Chixian Lake were blocked by corpses. The fighting was quite fierce.

Dongmei glared at Zha Hui: "Shut up! Drive your car!" Pulling down the curtain to block the carriage.

Zha Hui snorted coldly and muttered: "I just have a good face, which made my Alang feel moved. If it were me, I wouldn't be able to look down on this kind of person who can't carry it on his shoulders or lift it with his hands." Stupid woman."

Through the curtain, Zhou Xian and Dong Mei heard his muttering.

Zhou Xian's face turned pale, a little embarrassed, a little sad and angry.

Dongmei quickly comforted her in a low voice: "Miss, please don't listen to that boy's nonsense. Zhou Ling's evil deeds have nothing to do with the Zhou family, and it has nothing to do with Miss! The rebellion in Jurong County will not happen again in Jiangning. Jiangning is at the feet of the emperor." , with the Forbidden Army stationed there, there will definitely be no chaos.”

Zhou Xian bit his lip and whispered: "Dongmei, is this world really as bad as he said?"

Dongmei smiled bitterly, hesitated for a while, and sighed: "Miss knows that this servant is from Nanling, Xuanzhou. Last year, the master was kind enough to allow me to return to my hometown to visit my relatives. Along the way, I saw many things that I couldn't see in Jiangning."

After a pause, Dongmei said bitterly: "Jiangning is prosperous, but outside of Jiangning, there are many poor people. They work hard to cultivate food all year round, but when the harvest is harvested, the majority of it is taken away by the owner. What is left is only enough for the family to make ends meet.
If there is a calamity, the kind-hearted owner will reduce or reduce the rent, and life can still be lived. But if the owner is cruel and the rent is not less, the family will be hungry.

There is really no way to survive, so I can only sell my son and daughter.
In the grass market in Nanling County, there are many poor families selling their children, and three buckets of rice can be exchanged for a seven or eight-year-old girl."

Zhou Xian was shocked and said: "Xuanzhou is a major grain-producing area. Hundreds of thousands of grains are turned over to the state treasury every year. How can the local people who farm there have no food to eat?"

Dongmei smiled bitterly and said: "I heard that it is precisely because of Xuanzhou's high grain yield that the imperial court classified Xuanzhou as an important grain-producing area. In the hands of the squire officials, in order to cope with the court, they raised the tenant rent. In the end, the court obtained a large amount of grain, and the local wealthy households did not suffer much loss, but the tenant farmers who cultivated the land had no food to eat."

Zhou Xian murmured: "How could this happen? How could the Xuanzhou government treat the people so harshly?"

Zhou Xian couldn't believe it. Dong Mei's words gave her a new understanding of the world outside Jiangning City.

It turns out that not every place is as rich and prosperous as Jiangning.

In Xuanzhou, hundreds of miles away from Jiangning Prefecture, a place famous for its rice production, the tragedy of buying and selling children in exchange for grain was still going on.

The false prosperity conceals the numerous bones beneath it, and the powerful and powerful gentry lie on the bodies of the common people and suck their bones and blood.

Zhou Xian was silent, and her anger towards Cha Hui dissipated in an instant. She opened a corner of the car curtain, looked at the bustling crowd on the street, and whispered to herself: "If I have the chance, I want to see the real thing." 's human world.”

~~~
On the second floor of the Zhike Hall of Puji Temple, Zhou Ling and Zhou Tong stood in front of the window, keeping a close eye on every carriage and pilgrim entering the temple.

Suddenly, Zhou Tong pointed to a carriage that had just entered the temple: "That's them!"

Zhou Ling looked around and saw a tall man with a long beard and a red face coming on horseback, accompanied by a young man in rich clothes and shaking a folding fan.

There were two carriages behind them, and they entered the temple one after the other.

"The young man holding the fan is the bandit leader, and the red-faced man is his subordinate. Seeing that he is not weak in martial arts, be careful!" Zhou Tong reminded in a deep voice.

Zhou Ling took a good look at the appearance of this group of people and sneered: "Don't worry, no one can escape!"

Zhou Tong looked carefully again to make sure he saw it correctly.

Although he had only seen this group of people twice on the cruise ship, he had already deeply remembered their appearance and would never admit their mistake.

Zhou Ling leaned against the window and watched for a while. The two carriages were so covered that it was impossible to tell which car Zhou Xian was in. "The bandits are cunning and don't let the people in the carriage show their faces." Zhou Ling cursed angrily.

"Go down and contact them and ask them to bring the hostages first."

Before Zhou Ling finished speaking, he suddenly saw Zhou Xian and Dong Mei stepping out of the last carriage. The red-faced and bearded man looked around warily and led the two girls into the Zhike Hall.

The red-faced man with a long beard kept his hand on the handle of the knife at his waist, obviously on high alert.

Zhou Ling and Zhou Tong looked at each other, but they didn't expect the gangster to ask Zhou Xian to show up on his own initiative.

Zhou Ling thought anxiously: "Qi Si will go and prepare immediately, so that the brothers must not act rashly and obey my orders!"

Qi Si clasped his fists and said, "I humbly obey my orders!"

Just as Qi Si was about to go downstairs, he heard a burst of noise coming from the Zhike Hall downstairs. Zhou Tong hurriedly looked out the window and saw many pilgrims swarming out of the hall in panic and fleeing in all directions. The scene was extremely chaotic.

Suddenly, a thick, choking smoke rose up to the second floor. Zhou Ling's expression changed and he shouted angrily: "No! Someone set fire!"

Zhou Ling pulled out his sword and shouted: "Blow the eagle and summon the men. Don't escape even one bandit!"

Zhou Tong hurriedly shouted: "Don't hurt the lady!"

A sharp hawk sound came from the second floor of the Zhike Hall. Soon, many soldiers armed with swords came from all directions. There were also many soldiers dressed in disguise and mixed in with the pilgrims and rushed into the hall.

However, the main hall caught fire and the fire spread very quickly. Thick black smoke rose from the four eaves of the main hall. The entire second floor was enveloped in black smoke. Panic pilgrims fled from all parts of the temple towards the gate. The courtyard was overcrowded and crying. There was a chaos of shouts and curses. Zhou Ling's soldiers who were ambushing everywhere were crowded together with the chaotic crowd, and their movements were greatly restricted.

Zha Hui dragged Zhou Ling and Dongmei into the crowd and fled away. The three of them had some black ash on their faces and escaped from the Zhike Hall in the crowd.

Zhou Xian was confused the moment she stepped off the carriage. She discovered that "Chu Xun" and "Pan Mei" were pretending to be two strange men she had never seen before.

Before they could figure out what was going on, the two girls were viciously escorted into the Zhike Hall by Zha Hui and others.

As soon as they entered the main hall, a fire broke out in the curtains hanging at the back of the main hall. The fire quickly burned to the beams and pillars and spread to the second floor. The choking smoke billowed up. All the pilgrims squeezed out of the main hall in panic and fled for their lives.

Zhou Xian was again dragged out by Zha Hui in a daze, but the two pretenders had long since disappeared.

In the chaotic and crowded crowd, Dongmei looked around anxiously. She pulled Zhou Xian hard and shouted: "Miss, why not take this opportunity to escape!"

Zhou Xian was startled, and then he realized that now was the best opportunity to escape. If he didn’t escape now, how long would it take?
The two women looked at each other and nodded vigorously.

Zhou Xian's arm was tightly held by Cha Hui, and she struggled desperately to get rid of him.

"Why are you so crazy!?" Zha Hui was startled and cursed angrily.

Dongmei hugged Zha Hui's arm and bit him hard on the wrist. Zha Hui screamed in pain, and when he let go of his hand, he saw that his wrist was bitten to pieces and was covered in pain.

"Miss, run!" Dongmei screamed and threw herself on Zha Hui to stop him.

Zhou Xian hurriedly squeezed into the crowd and fled with the crowd.

After running a few steps, someone suddenly grabbed his arm. Zhou Xian looked around hurriedly and saw a familiar face, it was Zhou Tong!

"Uncle Tong!" Zhou Xian was surprised and happy, whimpering with a cry.

Zhou Tong's eyes flashed with joy, then his eyes turned a bit strange, and he said in a deep voice: "Is Miss okay?"

Zhou Xian nodded hurriedly: "I'm fine. Uncle Tong, go and rescue Dongmei. She was caught by the gangsters!"

Zhou Tong looked along and saw Dongmei tugging at a thin monkey man in front of the Zhike Hall where the fire was raging.

When Zha Hui saw Zhou Xian and Zhou Tong reunited, he secretly muttered something bad. He also saw Zhou Tong's soldiers rushing towards him. He pushed Dong Mei away in panic and squeezed into the crowd, dodging left and right in the crowd like a slippery loach. , and soon disappeared without a trace.

"Ehuang!" Zhou Ling shouted, raised his sword and led his troops to arrive.

"Cousin!" Zhou Xian's face, stained with black and gray, was flushed with tears and looked as dirty as a little cat.

Although she didn't like her cousin very much, it was a great comfort to her to escape from the gangsters' control and be out of danger, and to be reunited with familiar and trusted people like Zhou Ling and Zhou Tong.

Zhou Ling took a look at it and couldn't help but secretly marveled.

Although Zhou Xian is wearing a coarse wavy skirt and no makeup, she looks like an ordinary country girl, but her rough dress does not affect her beauty in the slightest. Her pretty oval face is stained with dirty tears, which still makes me pity her.

Zhou Ling and Zhou Tong looked at each other, with a bit of strangeness flashing in their eyes.

"Please ask my cousin to send me back to my hometown. Emperor E will definitely tell my father about my cousin's life-saving grace!"

Zhou Xian knelt down and saluted.

Zhou Ling said with a smile: "Ehuang is so polite. You and I are brothers and sisters of the same race, why do you need to be so open to outsiders? You get in the car first, and I will take you back to your home personally, brother."

"Thank you, brother!" Zhou Xian saluted gratefully.

Zhou Ling waved his hand and Qi Si brought a carriage. Dongmei helped Zhou Xian get into the carriage.

Before getting in the car, Dongmei looked back at Zhou Tong and Zhou Ling, feeling a little suspicious in her heart. She always felt that their expressions were a little weird.

Qi Si whispered: "General, the street patrols and government officials are rushing to the temple. I'm afraid the general will have to step in to deal with it."

Zhou Ling's face became angry, and he cursed: "Damn the northern bandits, it's really cunning to set fire to the temple!"

Zhou Tong whispered worriedly: "What is the purpose of this gang of gangsters who brought the lady here, but they didn't show up, set fire to them and fled in a hurry?"

Zhou Ling sneered and said: "No matter what their intentions are, they can't find her if she is locked up in Ganquanfang! The top priority is to send that girl to Jujingyuan first."

Zhou Tong hesitated for a while, nodded and said solemnly: "I will go back and report to the old lady."

Zhou Ling patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile: "Thank you for your hard work today, Zhou Yaya. This general will never forget your contribution!"

Zhou Tong sighed, glanced at the carriage Zhou Xian was riding in, turned his head, stepped on the horse and left from the backyard of Puji Temple.

Zhou Ling looked at his back, his slightly narrowed eyes flashing with a fierce light like a poisonous snake.
(End of this chapter)