Ye Zhou, who thought that the residence of the general guarding the pass would be relatively clean and tidy, was in despair. Since there were no stone slabs on the ground outside the house, no matter how clean the room was, as long as the door was opened, yellow sand would be blown in immediately, and there was a layer of fine yellow sand on the stone slabs inside the room.
When Ye Zhou stepped into the threshold, he made up his mind - he would sleep in a tent tonight.
They walked through the still dilapidated corridor, passed through two round arches, and finally saw Sarah.
It's just that... Sarah looks like a bandit who bullies men and women.
She was sitting at the door, with a "human mat" wearing a green cloth on her butt. Perhaps seeing Ye Zhou coming in, Sarah stood up instantly, and in order to cover up the "evidence", she kicked the "human mat" aside.
The "mat" rolled down the steps and landed right under Ye Zhou's feet. The "mat" raised its head and stared at Ye Zhou.
Sarah ran down quickly and kicked the "mat" away. She put her hands behind her back and gave Ye Zhou a fake smile. Her voice turned into a sweet girl's voice: "Boss, you are here. Everyone is inside. I didn't let any of them go."
"You, stop! If you run again, I'll break your legs!" Sarah shouted at the guest who was kicked away by her and finally got up and tried to run away.
The man stood still and dared not move. Having witnessed Sarah's ghostly methods, the guests were all scared. Sarah shouted and he lost his brain and turned into a puppet that moved according to commands.
Sarah explained carefully, "I sat on the door sill at first. It didn't work, you can ask him. It's just that the door sill is too hard and my butt hurts after sitting for a long time. So I asked them if they were willing to give me a cushion."
Ye Zhou looked horrible, but he did not blame Sarah - no matter whether Sarah was a vampire or how strong she was in combat, at least she could have not done this. Her duty was only to protect his safety, not to be his thug.
"How do you want to arrange these people?" Ye Zhou asked Chen Hou who was standing beside him.
Chen Hou's gaze fell on Zhang Rong, who was lying on the side and had lost consciousness. He also saw that the other's head seemed to be split open, with medicine powder smeared on it. At the moment, it looked white and red, which was very terrible.
"What is he doing..." Lord Chen's voice also became much softer.
Sarah: “I ripped his scalp off.”
Including Ye Zhou, everyone except Zou Ming gasped.
It really hurts just to hear it.
Sarah: "He still wanted to bullshit me and didn't want to ask someone to open the door. It's not my fault."
Ye Zhou: "I don't blame you, go and have a rest."
Sarah shook her head: "You guys make the arrangements first, and leave the killing to me, okay?"
Chen Hou shuddered. The more he looked at Sarah, the more he felt that she must be a mountain spirit who would kill people without blinking an eye. He could only look at Ye Zhou for help.
Ye Zhou did not agree immediately, but said: "I will discuss it with Lord Chen when the time comes."
Sarah smiled and said, "I'll wait then."
Chen Hou went to see Zhang Rong first. Zhang Rong was unconscious, so he could only let Chen Yan take him to the dormitory to keep an eye on him. Zhou Yuanhe also went there with him. Zhang Rong could not die yet, so they had to save him first.
As for the remaining guests...
Lord Chen walked into the hall and looked at the guest official huddled in the corner. He sighed in his heart.
He didn't expect that there were so many people in Chen State who didn't want him to come back.
He used to think that he was a good monarch loved by the people - since he ascended the throne, he had never increased taxes because of his own reasons, and the only jewelry his wife often wore until he left was those wooden hairpins.
As the king of a country, he never indulged himself in selfish desires.
The Marquis of Chen looked at the guests. He did not get angry, nor did he ask them to be taken away. Instead, he pressed down his robe, stood upright in front of them, raised his hands flat, and saluted. He asked with a difficult voice: "May I ask you, is it that Ji is not virtuous enough to make you serve? Or is it that Ji, as a monarch, is incapable, and you think it would be better for Chen to change the monarch?"
The fear in the guests' hearts gradually faded away as they looked at this benevolent and noble monarch, but no one dared to answer.
——To be honest, they are all traitors.
Only one person stood up. He returned the greeting to Lord Chen and said loudly, "It's not your fault, but the people's fault. People are greedy for profit. Everyone here wants to be in an important position, but they don't have enough ability, so they can only take crooked ways. They are all villains and have no reason to be with your majesty."
Chen Hou looked at this man. Although he was pretending, he still shook his head and asked, "Sir, you are not a villain. If you were a villain, you would never say such a thing."
The man raised his head. His gaze was originally on Chen Hou, but it involuntarily moved to Ye Zhou who was standing in front of Chen Hou.
There was a flash of surprise in his eyes. This man had no hair or beard, had a delicate and handsome face, and a gentle temperament. How could there be such a person around Lord Chen?
The way he dresses...is not similar to that of people of his time. Just looking at his facial features, it is hard to tell which country he is from.
Most people from Chen have long waists and narrow shoulders. Judging from their body shape, they are more like people from Zheng, with broad shoulders and thin waists.
But his appearance was better than the people from Zheng. Most people from Zheng had broad foreheads, flat noses, and slightly large nose wings, but this man had dark pupils, long but not thin eyes, slightly raised eye tails, a straight nose, and thin but narrow lips. He did not look heartless, but rather romantic.
Even the king of a country standing next to him could not suppress his temperament.
Such a person, just by looking at his appearance without looking at his dress, you can tell that he must be from a noble family, but he does not make people feel difficult to approach. On the contrary, just by looking at his appearance, you will feel that he must be a modest gentleman with a broad mind and a gentle temperament.
Chen Hou also noticed that this person was looking at Ye Zhou. He coughed lightly to draw the person's attention back.
The man came back to his senses. He stopped looking at the man beside Lord Chen and continued, "General Zhang has already bowed his head. We have nothing to say. Your Majesty, please do whatever you want with him."
After he finished speaking, the other guests refused to obey. They shouted again and again: "Your Majesty, it is General Zhang who is greedy and has nothing to do with us!"
"We are just guests, how can we influence the general's decision?!"
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty, please spare our lives!"
Lord Chen looked at Ye Zhou and said, "Immortal... could you please discuss this with me in private?"
Although Ye Zhou didn't know what Lord Chen wanted to discuss with him, he still nodded in agreement.
The two of them walked out the door and went behind a pillar to talk.
The Marquis of Chen sighed and said, "My Immortal, I really don't know what to do with them. If I kill them, no more scholars will come to my Chen State in the future. People in the world will not see these scholars as rebelling against me, but will only think that I am jealous of talented people and kill scholars."
"If we don't kill them, these people will spread the news..."
After Chen Hou's explanation, Ye Zhou realized that now all countries are recruiting talents and want to win over all talented people to their own country. Therefore, no matter what the tempers of the monarchs are, their attitude towards scholars is very consistent - the attitude must be as humble as possible.
After all, the competition is fierce and there are too few scholars.
Here, being literate is even more luxurious than in the Liang Dynasty. Almost all scholars are from aristocratic families. What is even more different from the Liang Dynasty is that the children of aristocratic families have little interest in royal power. They are born with everything. If they want to be an official, they just have to ask their elders for recommendation. Anyway, they are hereditary nobles and have no need to worry about falling out of this class in the future.
Therefore, they are proud of "not serving the king", as if wanting to become an official after studying is inferior.
A true scholar should not be interested in fame, wealth or power. If anyone wants to be an official, we should despise him together.
The scholars who could be won over by the monarchs were mostly from small families, not from aristocratic families, but they were also very likely descendants of fallen nobles. They needed to return to the court and rebuild their families.
But these people are also scholars. They still have to pick on the monarch, the national strength, and even the monarch's attitude towards them.
Anyway, scholars here are synonymous with nobleness. In the feudal era, it would be unthinkable.
After listening to this, Ye Zhou was silent for a while and then said, "This is the hereditary nobility. They are born the way they are, and they will be the same after they die. Since they have their fiefdoms and salaries, they naturally don't care whether they can move up to the next level."
If there is no upward channel, then why work hard? Let's all be bad together.
Those who worry about the country and the people are a minority.
What's more, in this era, the concept of family and country was not so important, and there was no crime of treason. Scholars from Lu could serve as officials in Chen, and scholars from Zhao could go to Zheng. There was no psychological obstacle to dealing with their own motherland.
The concept of loyalty to the emperor and patriotism was emphasized only in the feudal era, but this is not what today's scholars believe in.
What they want is to showcase their talents.
Therefore, this is a complete second-party market, and monarchs have no choice, unless it is a superpower that has a wealth of talented people.
After all, Ye Zhou was not a native, so he could not understand the reaction of the local people or scholars to Chen Hou's decision. He could only say, "Since we can't kill him, but if we release him we're worried that they will spread the news, so let's lock him up and temper him. Maybe he can be used in the future."
Chen Hou nodded. He also thought so: "But the scholar who just spoke, I think he is not the same as others."
Ye Zhou: "Then lock him up first, and then take him out first, saying that he is willing to serve you. If others want to go out, they must follow his example."
Chen Hou looked at Ye Zhou: "He is indeed an immortal. This skill of controlling people..."
Ye Zhou waved his hand: "Lord Chen, you don't have to flatter me. Go and deal with them."
Ye Zhou could tell that Lord Chen was trying to flatter him.
After seeing Chen Hou leave, Zou Ming walked to Ye Zhou and said, "Let's set up a tent tonight."
Ye Zhou nodded and sighed: "I guess their capital isn't much better."
"I hope the streets in their capital are compacted and there's not dirt everywhere." Ye Zhou's expectations for the capital of the Kingdom of Chen were reduced a little. Without expectations, there would be no disappointment.
Ye Zhou: "In fact, I don't think it's possible to hide the fact that Lord Chen has returned. You'd better not sleep too deeply tonight, in case someone assassinates you."
Zou Ming nodded: "With so many people in the military camp, it's normal to have a few secret agents."
Even if we can't go to the capital right away to tell the mastermind, there must be someone close to him nearby.
Ye Zhou smiled and said, "It's good that they are here. It will allow Cao'er and the others to participate in the actual combat."
"We can't keep you and Sarah standing in the way."
Zou Ming pursed his lips, and after several seconds he said, "I can always be in the front."
Ye Zhou patted Zou Ming on the shoulder and said, "You are not made of iron, you are also a mortal. You must remember to take care of yourself. Look at me, I never get up early if I can sleep in."
Zou Ming twitched the corner of his lips.
The person who has always been standing in front has never been him.
·
When Zhang Rong woke up, he felt like he had just had a long and horrible nightmare. He looked at the familiar wooden beams, and finally breathed a sigh of relief. He immediately shouted, "Someone, come! Bring me some water!"
There were footsteps outside, and Zhang Rong reached out and touched the top of his head.
He remembered that the witch in his dream pulled off his scalp. Although he knew it was a dream, he still couldn't help but want to touch it to confirm it.
However, when he put his hand on his head, what he touched was not hair, but a thick strip of cloth.
Zhang Rong maintained the posture of stroking his head. He turned his head stiffly. The door was pushed open from the outside, and a familiar, frightened face appeared in his sight.
"Awake?" Chen Yan came into the room and sneered at Zhang Rong. "Why? Don't you recognize me? If you don't recognize me, do you recognize the Lord?"
Only then did Zhang Rong realize that everything that had happened before was not a dream.
Chen Yan walked to the bedside and looked down at Zhang Rong. He studied this upright and honest face and could not remember how he became like this.
Zhang Rong knew that he could not escape the blame, so he said desperately: "You and the Lord are brothers from the same clan, so you naturally don't understand my difficulties. If it were you, would you be willing to stay here for the rest of your life? My wife and children are in the capital, and I can only go back to see them at the end of each year."
Chen Yan was heartbroken: "Guarding the border is an important task! The king trusts you, so he didn't change the candidate!"
Zhang Rong yelled, "I don't want this kind of trust! I am a descendant of the Zhang family! If I were not here, I would be living the life of a child of an aristocratic family!"
Chen Yan looked at him in disbelief. "What kind of life do children of aristocratic families live? What kind of life do children of aristocratic families live? Writing nonsense articles every day, thinking that they are talented, but not even knowing how ordinary people make a living? Have you ever thought about living like this?"
Zhang Rong sneered, "Yes, you look down on the children of noble families, the royal family! Brother Junhou, since you don't know my suffering, don't come to talk to me like this! Now that things have come to this, what are you going to do? Kill me? How are you going to explain to the Zhang family?"
"You are just relying on the fact that Zhang is one of the three major clans." Chen Yan finally understood, and he couldn't help laughing, "Yes, Your Majesty cannot offend the three major clans, and cannot afford to offend your Zhang!"
Zhang Rong was afraid of the witch, knowing that she was not an ordinary person and would kill him without blinking an eye, but he was not afraid of Chen Hou.
Not to mention that Lord Chen is a sentimental man, even if he is not, he would not kill me.
He came from a noble family, so even if Lord Chen wanted to punish him, at most he would just do it for show and dismiss him from his post.
Otherwise, his Zhang family controlled thirty-six cities of the State of Chen, and the governors of these cities were all members of the Zhang family. The Marquis of Chen would never dare to kill him.
Chen Yan looked at Zhang Rong deeply, then walked out.
Chen Hou, who was waiting at the door, looked at Chen Yan coming out of the room with a complicated expression.
The two men looked at each other, and Chen Yan saw dejection on Chen Hou's face.
The two walked aside, and Chen Yan finally said: "Your Majesty! We can't wait any longer. We must obey the reforms that the immortal said! If we continue like this, the aristocratic family will be overturned!"
Chen Hou sighed and said softly, "Do you think I don't know? My father once told me that the noble families are my hands and eyes. I can't do without them. Without them, who will serve as an official? Who will help me govern the country? Peddlers? Ordinary people on the street?"
“But my father also said that since we are the hands and eyes, we cannot be the masters of the brain.”
But since they have become the hands and eyes, and the king relies on them for everything he does, how could they not be the brains?
Chen Yan angrily said: "Hateful! These people are hateful! They all deserve to be killed!"
Chen Hou sighed, "Brother Yan, now only you and I are of the same mind."
Chen Yan immediately cupped his hands: "Yan swears to be loyal to the king until death!"
"Then, what should Zhang Rong do?"
Chen Yan hated Zhang Rong, but he also knew that what Zhang Rong said made sense. Marquis Chen could not kill him unless he wanted to turn against the aristocratic families. But once they turned against him, Marquis Chen would truly be the lord of Linzi. To be called a king, he was even worse than a prefect of a city.
Chen Hou finally showed murderous intent in his eyes: "If he is sure that I dare not kill him, then I must kill him! But not now."
"The Immortal is right. Whoever has the bigger fist has the final say. I must use the twenty-rank military merit system!"
"Brother Yan!" Chen Hou grabbed Chen Yan's hand, "With you here, this decree can be implemented."
The only one who is truly loyal to him is Chen Yan.
"I don't trust anyone else." Lord Chen said affectionately.
Chen Yan's eyes also turned red: "I am willing to serve you, my Lord, even if I die a hundred times, I will never regret it."
Ye Zhou, who has excellent hearing, said: "..."
Why did he feel it was a bit corny? Was this how the emperor and his subjects got along at that time?
After dark, a group of people gathered together to eat. Cao'er's mother took out the pots, pans, and seasonings and set up a pot in the yard. Because there were so many people, she didn't stir-fry any dishes, but directly made a stew.
"Is this an iron pot?" Although the soldiers could not eat Cao'er Niang's big pot meal, it could not stop their curiosity.
"How much iron does it take to make such a big pot?"
“Won’t this iron pot deform?”
They all used bronze weapons because bronze craftsmanship was more perfect than iron.
The iron-making technology is not yet advanced enough to manufacture weapons. Not only is quenching troublesome, but only a few people can make a sword that does not bend. There are only a few craftsmen in modern times who can do it. The long swords they quench are worth millions of gold, and only the heads of aristocratic families and monarchs in each country can afford them.
While Cao'er's mother was putting meat and seasonings into the pot, she also wanted to reply to the soldiers' words. She put her hands on her waist and said, "Make way, don't crowd in here! Go and see your own dinner!"
The soldiers also had meat to eat, but they only ate smoked meat and bacon. They still drooled at the sight of such fresh meat.
At least he still remembered the military discipline and did not ask for it. He could only swallow his saliva silently.
It was the first time for them to see Cao'er Niang cooking. They watched her continuously add spices they had never seen before into the pot, smelled the fragrance, and all of them stared in the direction of Cao'er Niang.
"What are you looking at!" Bo Chang scolded his soldiers, "Isn't it enough to have meat now? Look at the soldiers outside, how many of them can eat meat? You are all so strong now, and you still want a bite of rice?"
While giving the lecture, Bo Chang himself couldn't help swallowing his saliva.
The soldiers under him did not dare to argue with Bo Chang, and no longer went to see Cao'er Niang openly, but just closed their eyes and smelled the fragrance.
Although they are all meat - they only eat boiled bacon and bacon with salty taste, but what they cook is more than just salty taste.
I guess only a king is worthy of eating such a meal, right?
After training his soldiers, Bo Chang couldn't help but look in the direction of Cao'er's mother.
So greedy.
Ye Zhou sat on a folding chair. They also brought their own folding tables. The employees sat at several tables, while Ye Zhou and Chen Hou sat at a table alone. However, the dishes were the same, all stew and rice.
"My lord, I am going to take Zhang Rong back to the royal city as well." Chen Hou had no appetite. He only ate two bites before putting down his chopsticks and saying, "I am worried about leaving him here. It's just that I can't find a suitable person to take on the duty of guarding the gate for the time being."
Ye Zhou asked curiously: "No deputy general?"
Lord Chen: "Yes, there are, but the commander is already like this, and the deputy commander is also..."
Ye Zhou: "Promote him first to stabilize the situation. I think there are not many people who are willing to be subordinate to others in the military."
"Leave a few trusted followers to watch over it, and nothing should go wrong. In an emergency, we should act according to the circumstances. If we think too much, we will miss the opportunity."
Chen Hou thought for a moment and said, "I am afraid of what the immortal said."
Ye Zhou added: "Lord Chen, please eat something. If I'm not mistaken, we will have a tough battle tonight."
Chen Hou was a little surprised: "But we just got here..."
Ye Zhou: "You would keep your confidants, so how could you not keep the people who harmed you?"
What he said came true.
Late at night, Ye Zhou, lying in the tent, had not fallen asleep peacefully. For safety reasons, he slept in the same tent with Zou Ming again after a long time. They slept shoulder to shoulder. As soon as they heard the noise, they both opened their eyes immediately and sat up very awake.
Ye Zhou grabbed Zou Ming's shoulders, closed his eyes and listened, leaned close to Zou Ming's ear and said, "More than 30 people."
Zou Ming nodded. His hearing was not as good as Ye Zhou's. He could only tell that the number of people was not too large. He could not calculate the number so accurately.
When Zou Ming was about to stand up, Ye Zhou's hand that was holding his shoulder slid down and grabbed Zou Ming's hand.
Zou Ming's whole body trembled, as if he had been acupunctured, and his fingers even trembled slightly.
Ye Zhou still whispered: "I have informed Sarah before that you, Sarah and Chen Shu cannot go this time. Wu Yan and the others have already made preparations."
"You can't protect so many people every time something happens. They have to learn to protect themselves." Ye Zhou took out the walkie-talkie.
Zou Ming looked into Ye Zhou's eyes: "What about you?"
Ye Zhou picked up the rifle from beside the pillow. He smiled at Zou Ming: "Of course I want to exercise too."
Zou Ming frowned, and he almost immediately said, "No, I'll go with you."
Ye Zhou called his name softly: "Zou Ming!"
"I can't always hide behind you or Chen Shu."
"I can't live without you either."
Ye Zhou was rarely so serious. He looked directly into Zou Ming's eyes and said in a tone that did not allow for rejection: "One day, I will face danger alone."
"No one can protect me except myself."
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