Liaodong County, Baigeng City.
Cheng Tinghu got up early in the morning and went on a morning run with his concubine. He was sweating profusely and felt comfortable all over. Then he got up to take a shower and change clothes. He held his sore waist and sighed: "As I get older, my waist is not as strong as before. Ah, I remember when I was on the bank of the Qinhuai River, and I was just waiting for the night. "
The few followers around him smiled and said respectfully: "The general is in his prime. He can kill an ox with one punch. How can he be old?"
Although he knew it was flattery, Cheng Tinghu still felt very comfortable after hearing this. Then he remembered his son's trip to Jicheng and asked, "Has Jimao ever returned?"
The subordinate quickly replied: "No."
"It's been a few days, where have you gone to drink flower wine again?"
Cheng Tinghu laughed and cursed, but didn't take it seriously.
As the saying goes, like father, like son, Cheng Jimao's arrogance, arrogance and lawlessness were learned from Cheng Tinghu. He was used to being a local emperor in Youzhou, so no one took him seriously.
The four generals of Liaodong, Cheng, Li, Ma, and Nie, were just four frontier generals when Daliang was first established.
At that time, the Central Plains was settled, and the world was in ruins. Therefore, the imperial court was unable to transport grain and grass to Youzhou to fight against the invasion of Donghu. Emperor Taizu had to establish four major border towns in Liaodong, immigrate to settle land, and integrate military and agriculture.
With the passage of time, the four major border towns gradually evolved into independent kingdoms. The four major general families of Cheng, Li, Ma, and Nie commanded 300,000 frontier soldiers, making it difficult for Daliang's political orders to enter Liaodong.
Cheng's family was extremely powerful in Baigeng City, and Cheng Tinghu was even more noble, arrogant, and extravagant. All the merchants and people in the city were altruistic.
For merchants in the city, if an unmarried person takes the shares, your business will not be able to continue at all.
And the children of the family are equally unscrupulous. They will abduct the young daughter-in-law of a certain family directly on the street. If they dare to say no, they will kill your whole family directly in the name of being a liaison with the enemy.
In recent years, Cheng Tinghu even took the lead in plundering passing business travelers, killing people and selling goods, and obtained huge wealth. The local county magistrate did not dare to interfere at all.
Therefore, in Cheng Tinghu's view, since Ye Qingzhou had offended King Chong, he must win over him, otherwise it would be difficult to gain a foothold in Youzhou.
That's why Cheng Tinghu dared to reach out to Ye Qingzhou's trophies. The millions of cattle and sheep were really too greedy for him.
And he doesn’t want much, only 30%. Is this a lot?
You know, in Bai Geng City, if you start a family and earn shares, you have to account for 70% of the profit. Now I don't care if you, Ye Qingzhou, want 30% of the spoils. This is already giving you a lot of face.
At the same time, there was also a quarrel within the Nie family in Linghe City in Liaodong County.
"Father, you can't hesitate any longer!"
The younger son Nie Yongjie persuaded in an impatient tone: "Cheng Jimao has already taken people to Jicheng. I heard that the lions in the family are very open and will eat 30% of the spoils in one go. If we go late, let alone The cows and sheep are gone, I’m afraid even the cow dung won’t be of any use to our Nie family.”
With millions of cattle, sheep and livestock, such a windfall is really enviable.
Now that there is support from the government of the Prefectural Mufu, it is tantamount to robbery under orders. Naturally, the four major generals in Liaodong can't stand it anymore, and they all want to take it as their own.
Nie Dingyuan was very excited at this moment, but then he hesitated: "Let me think about it again, or I'd better wait until your second brother comes back."
Nie Yongjie became anxious when he heard this and couldn't help but urge: "Father, this opportunity must never come again. Why are you hesitating at this time?"
"General, the second young master is back."
"What?"
Nie Dingyuan was very happy when he heard this. He had three sons. The eldest son was mediocre and incompetent, while the youngest son was ambitious and lacked talent. Only the second son Nie Shixiong was calm and courageous, with the style of his ancestors, and he was worthy of a big responsibility.
Soon, Nie Shixiong, who had traveled all the way back to Linghe City, walked up to Nie Dingyuan and Nie Yongjie with vigorous steps: "Father, third brother."
"Shixiong is back, just in time. I have something to discuss with you."
Nie Dingyuan then recounted Nie Yongjie's words to Nie Shixiong, but his tone was more tactful: "As my father, I know that Ye Jianjun has been kind to you, and our Nie family will not take this advantage for nothing, and we will definitely come forward to deal with Jianjun. What do you think about settling the other three?”
Nie Shixiong sighed after hearing this: "Father, isn't it good to be alive? Why should we seek death?"
Nie Yongjie stood up very unhappy and scolded Nie Shixiong angrily: "Second brother, how did you talk to your father? This matter is related to the interests of my Nie family. You must not act emotionally!"
Brush~
Nie Shixiong suddenly made a move, pinched Nie Yongjie's neck and lifted him into the air: "In the past, no matter how you acted, I thought you were young and ignorant, but not this time. Master's martial arts are world-class, and I can't just watch you die. Nie family”
Nie Yongjie was pinched by Nie Shixiong until his face turned red, his eyes rolled white, and he struggled desperately in discomfort.
When Nie Dingyuan saw his brother fighting against the wall, he quickly scolded: "Shixiong, what are you doing? Why don't you let go quickly? He is your biological brother!"
Only then did Nie Shixiong let go of Nie Yongjie, who fell to the ground, coughing and panting heavily. Although there was anger on his face, he was more frightened and frightened.
"If he hadn't been my brother, he would be a corpse now."
"Shixiong, do you feel that your wings have become stiff and you don't even care about me as a father anymore?"
Nie Dingyuan was so angry that he felt that the son in front of him had become very strange. It had only been a few days?
"Did that man named Ye give you some ecstasy soup?"
Nie Shixiong didn't bother to explain too much. He directly pulled out the sword from his waist and twisted the sword forged from hundreds of steel into twists in front of Nie Dingyuan and Nie Yongjie.
The two of them gasped when they saw it. Such a shocking scene shocked their hearts.
"I have become the master's name and have been taught the art of martial arts. This is the strength I have obtained through hard training. Father, times have changed. In the face of martial arts, thousands of troops are nothing more than a joke."
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After leaving these words, Nie Shixiong turned and left.
"Where are you going?"
"According to the master's order, we will wipe out the established family and kill the chickens to scare the monkeys."
That night, Nie Shixiong entered Bai Geng City alone, and single-handedly killed three thousand elite troops of the Bai Geng Army and scattered them on the spot. Then he trampled the long street, bloodbathed the General's Mansion, and killed the entire family to death.
In the light of the sky, there was the figure of Nie Shixiong carrying the head of Cheng Tinghu and leaving. The whole Liaodong was silent for a moment.
On the second day, among the remaining three major generals in Liaodong, the heads of the Li family and the Ma family came to Nie Shixiong in person to express their surrender to the Xinwu Clan.
They are even eager to join the Xinwu Sect and become Ye Qingzhou's followers.
King Chong's plan to win over one faction and fight another failed completely.
Jicheng, the Protectorate of the Northern Territory.
Nie Shixiong carried Cheng Tinghu's head and came to Ye Qingzhou: "Master, everyone in the Cheng family has been executed. Cheng Tinghu's head is here."
"Well, you did a good job."
"Master, there is one more thing."
"Say."
"The Li family and the Ma family want to join the Xinwu Sect."
"Okay, you can arrange it."
"Yes."
Nie Shixiong immediately bowed and resigned.
After a while, Liu Chang walked in and reported the investigation results to Ye Qingzhou: "Master, the matter has been found out. The cause of the matter was that someone around King Chong offered advice."
"Oh, what a fool."
Ye Qingzhou immediately stood up and led his people straight to the Prefectural Mufu Mansion. He was too lazy to play tricks with politicians and bureaucrats like King Chong, so he just flew into the face of the dragon to let the other party see the situation clearly.
"Who are you?"
"Stop!"
"Ah!"
After several screams, the guards at the door turned into cold corpses.
Ye Qingzhou kicked the door open and walked in swaggeringly: "Where is Prince Chong? Tell him to get out and see me." "Bold madman! Do you know where this place is? How dare you come to the Prefecture Mufu to run wild, I It seems that you are impatient with life!”
King Chong's housekeeper and several burly servants came over after hearing the news. Ye Qingzhou was too lazy to talk nonsense. He passed with his sword, and the wind suddenly roared.
Under the aura of the spiritual world, Ye Qingzhou is now able to use sword energy to slash.
With one sword strike, the enemy was killed in the air, and six heads flew high. After the corpse fell, bright red blood flowed across the ground.
"Can you speak properly now?"
Ye Qingzhou's sword-qi slash move was astonishing to the heavens and earth-shattering. It was more sonorous and powerful than any words, and made everyone in the Prefectural Mufu Mansion feel chilled by it.
A moment later, King Chong, who wanted to escape through the back door, was blocked in the alley by a group of soldiers, and was finally brought to Ye Qingzhou tied up.
"Ye Qingzhou, do you want to rebel??"
"Why not?"
Ye Qingzhou's unscrupulousness instantly made King Chong dumbfounded.
Seeing that King Chong did not speak, Ye Qingzhou turned his attention to an aide beside him: "Are you Tong Yangyi?"
"Yes."
Tong Yangyi has a bit of a literary character. Even if he is now a prisoner, he is neither humble nor arrogant.
Ye Qingzhou admired such a strong character, so he decided to leave his whole body: "Here, hang him outside the gate of the Prefectural Mufu."
"Yes."
Two soldiers were immediately ordered to step forward, drag Tong Yangyi outside the door like a dead dog, and hang him in the street.
Such a ferocious move directly silenced the other staff around King Chong. They all lowered their heads and pretended to be dead. They did not dare to look at Ye Qingzhou at all, let alone talk to Ye Qingzhou.
After he had completely grasped the situation, Ye Qingzhou looked at King Chong: "Just stay in the Prefectural Shepherd's Mansion and be a mascot. You are still of some use now, so I won't kill you, but my patience is limited. Understand. ”
Later, Ye Qingzhou raised the Jingzhe Sword in his hand and said in a leisurely tone: "In order to prevent some of you from losing your mind, I will show you my power first."
Zheng~
The sound of Qingyue's sword resounded across the sky, and in the gorgeous light, King Chong and others seemed to see a soaring dragon.
Rumble~
Under the attack of the indestructible sword energy, the entire state pastor's mansion was split into two, leaving a ferocious sword mark on the ground.
"This...this power!"
King Chong, his staff and followers all collapsed on the ground, their eyes completely losing their luster.
Even if the imperial court sent a large army to conquer Ye Qingzhou's display of force, who in the world could stop this sword?
On the other hand, the soldiers behind Ye Qingzhou looked extremely fanatical at this moment. In their eyes, Ye Qingzhou, the master of the Xinwu Sect and the commander-in-chief of the Shenwu Army, was undoubtedly a true god!
When leaving the Prefectural Shepherd's Mansion, Ye Qingzhou looked up at the sky. In the vision of the divine eye, the light of luck turned into red clouds all over the sky, rolling like a tide, pouring in one after another.
"It seems that after defeating King Chong's prestige, the energy of the entire Youzhou has been mined."
Ye Qingzhou suddenly had a clear understanding in his heart, and the spiritual power surged in the spiritual platform. His spiritual thoughts became stronger and stronger, and his connection with the spiritual world became closer, making it easier to absorb spiritual energy from the spiritual world.
At this point, the Prefecture Mufu was in vain, the generals of Liaodong turned against each other en masse, and the entire Youzhou was completely under Ye Qingzhou's control, and no one dared to disobey his orders.
Even Lu Gongming, the Taoist master of Louguan Taoism who had been secretly observing Ye Qingzhou for a long time, took his disciple Xu Buyi and joined Ye Qingzhou's command.
Especially Xu Buyi, who is also an unparalleled talent comparable to Nie Shixiong and Wang Junfeng. After joining the Xinwu Sect, his cultivation has made rapid progress, and he soon became Ye Qingzhou's No. 1 disciple after Wang Junfeng and Nie Shixiong. Three direct disciples.
In the following time, Ye Qingzhou practiced in the Protector's Mansion every day, while the three direct disciples Wang Junfeng, Nie Shixiong and Xu Buyi worked hard to select soldiers, train soldiers, and strengthen the Xinwu Sect's power.
The entire Youzhou manpower and material resources were mobilized. Wang Junfeng took the remnants of the Tabai Army who had just surrendered and began to go door to door to 'reason' with the local aristocratic families and wealthy families, asking them to 'voluntarily' hand over the illegally occupied property. The land that comes.
Of course, there must have been some objections at first.
But when all those who objected died, naturally no one would object.
With land, refugees can be recruited for farming. The social order has been greatly stabilized, and it has also allowed Ye Qingzhou to gather a large number of people's hearts.
For the Xinwu Sect, the power of Si Neng is the most important cultivation resource, so Wang Junfeng and others are merciless in mopping up the die-hard factions among the wealthy families.
Preventing people from becoming enlightened is like killing their parents!
The entire Xinwu Sect is united and moving sideways in Youzhou, and its power is growing rapidly.
Ye Qingzhou originally thought that the Daliang court would gather a large army to conquer, but after waiting for more than half a year, what he waited for was the news that the Xiliang border army had rebelled and the capital had fallen.
Looking at the intelligence collected by the divine fortune teller Lu Gongming through the disciples of Louguan Taoism, Ye Qingzhou was speechless: "What is this? I haven't even started to rebel, and Daliang is about to die?"
Lu Gongming stroked his beard and smiled: "This is God's help. The Lord is destined to dominate the world, dominate the world, and achieve the only hegemony in the ages."
"What the hell is going on? It's so good. Why is the Western Region Protectorate rebelling?"
Ye Qingzhou was very puzzled by this.
The Daliang Kingdom established four major military governors in the east, south, west, and north. Among them, the most powerful one was the Western Region Protectorate, which was responsible for guarding the Western Regions and coercing other countries.
Ranked second is the Northern Territory Protectorate, which is responsible for suppressing Northern Xinjiang and blocking Donghu's southward march.
The remaining Eastern Region Protectorate and Southern Region Protectorate are naval forces that mainly engage in boat warfare. Among them, the Southern Region Protectorate maintains a large army because it wants to suppress the land of Baiyue.
In terms of military strength, Daliang is quite impressive, maintaining a huge army with a total size of nearly one million.
As a result, first the Northern Territory Protectorate was destroyed by the rebels, and now even the Western Region Protectorate, which has the strongest fighting capacity, has rebelled. This Liang Kingdom is probably going to end.
Lu Gongming said with emotion: "Alas, the country of Daliang was destroyed by the hands of uncle Li Guozhong."
"Prime Minister Li Guozhong?"
Ye Qingzhou had heard of Li Guozhong's name, mainly because of rumors about his most beautiful lady Li Yunxia.
Although she is a second-married girl, she can still charm the emperor, climb all the way to the position of queen, and lead the whole family. She is simply a model in the world of women.
After Lu Gongming's explanation, Ye Qingzhou also understood why he said that the country of Daliang was destroyed in the hands of Li Guozhong.
It is true that Li Guozhong was too imbecile. After using nepotism to climb to the position of prime minister, it would be okay if he was just greedy and took some.
But he was so greedy that he actually directly privatized the government-run counter shops in Daliang through financial reforms!
The counter is equivalent to Daliang's bank and the country's money bag.
Li Guozhong's move was tantamount to transferring the bank from the hands of the Liang court directly to the hands of himself and his disciples, completely monopolizing the financial system.
What's even more terrible is that Li Guozhong later passed tax reforms and ordered the people of Daliang to pay taxes in currency instead of directly collecting public grains.
But the problem is that the right to sell currency is in the hands of currency counters. They raise prices, continue to raise interest rates, and artificially engage in deflation. As a result, the money on the market is collected by counters. People have no money in their hands and can only find ways to sell grain. Tian went to exchange currency to pay taxes.
As a result, the people were completely manipulated by the gentry and officials. They stepped on the accelerator and ran all the way in the dead end of land annexation.
The land annexation resulted in the wealth being squeezed out by the gentry and bureaucrats such as Li Guozhong's disciples. The entire country lost a large amount of tax base, and the court could no longer collect money and grain, and was no longer able to suppress local governments.
The Xuantian Sect's religious rebellion accelerated the rise of aristocratic families and wealthy armed forces. The rebellion in the Western Region Protectorate was just the result of a series of chain reactions.
"My lord, the Emperor of Liang has fled east to Xingyang and is calling on all the soldiers and horses from all over the world to come to Beijing to help the king and attack Cao Yincheng, the protector of the Western Regions. Do we get involved?"
Lu Gongming looked at Ye Qingzhou, waiting for him to make a decision.
Ye Qingzhou saw the eagerness in Lu Gongming's eyes, so he nodded with a smile and said: "Anyway, you are idle, so you might as well join in the fun."
The Emperor of Liang was crazy about committing suicide, and even his bureaucrats were a bunch of weirdos, actually destroying the cornerstone of the regime just to make money.
It can only be said that if God does evil, you can still live, but if you do evil on your own, you can't live.
But this is a good thing for Ye Qingzhou. If the enemy does not seek death, how can he quickly unify the Central Plains and let Xuanyuan Sword be born?
Ye Qingzhou had a premonition that he would gain a lot from going to the capital. This was the whim of a warrior, and it was often very effective. (End of chapter)