Chapter 23: The Incident Occurs

  "Your Majesty!"

  One day in early June, at dawn, the sun had just risen.

  Li Zhēng was practicing his fist and gun on the mountain top, when he saw Zhao Wǔ panting and puffing as he climbed up. Before he even approached, he opened his mouth to shout loudly.

  Li Zheng stopped and took a deep breath, adjusted his breathing, turned around, and Zhao Wu had just arrived in front of him.

  Zhao Wu made a bow and said: "Your Majesty, Zhou Lin has an urgent matter to report!"

  "Zhou Lin?"

  In Li Zhong's mind, a round-faced young man appeared.

  Zhou Lin was recommended by Zhao Wu in mid-April as the business department manager. This person is very astute, with a smooth personality to match his round face. Such a person is indeed suitable for doing business, and since he was recommended by Zhao Wu, Li Zheng agreed.

  Zhou Lin's background was also very clear to Li Zheng.

  Fu Shi was a steward who had dealt with Li Zhong several times and was Zhou Fei's nephew.

  As for why Zhou Lin would come to Li Zheng's place to eat, Zhao Wu said it was because of Zhou Fei's request. Although the reason behind this is not clear to Li Zheng, he has some guesses.

  After Zhou Lin became the commercial minister of Caochang, he has made some achievements. By opening up the market with Hongyu bird eggs and then successively launching Hongyu birds and Ci Pi meat products, relying on the excellent quality of these three products and Zhou Lin's skills and connections, in just a short period of one or two months, they almost completely occupied the high-end meat and egg market of Lingzhou!

  Roughly calculated, it has already made a profit of more than twenty gold for the pasture!

  Don't think that twenty taels is a small amount - to put it into perspective, one dan of grain only costs 100 coins, so twenty taels is equivalent to two million coins, enough to buy 2,000 dan of grain!

  And under Zhou Lin's operation, the reputation of the three products produced by Caochang has spread to other major cities in Beidiguo, and it won't be long before these markets will be opened.

  So Li Zhong also recognized Zhou Lin's ability.

  And gave him another task - to gather information through business.

  "Zhou Lin has come back himself?"

  Li Zheng and Zhao Wu walked down while asking.

  "Yes, Your Excellency." Zhao Wu replied: "Zhou Lin has just returned and looks very anxious. I know there must be something important, so I didn't dare to delay and came directly to find you."

  Li Zheng was deep in thought, and murmured: "It seems that something has indeed happened, otherwise Zhou Lin wouldn't have come back personally." Zhou Lin had a Blue Bird in his hand, which could quickly transmit general information to Li Zheng's hands.

  "I think so too."

  The two of them walked quickly in big strides, and soon they had descended the hill. From a distance, they saw Zhou Lin pacing back and forth beside the school field, his expression somewhat urgent.

  "Your Majesty!"

  Seeing Li Zheng and Zhao Wu, Zhou Lin hurried over to them in quick steps, bowed and said: "Your Majesty, the Fu family wants to move to Mei Yang!"

  "What?!"

  Zhao Wu suddenly exclaimed: "The Fu family is going to move to Mei Yang?!"

  Li Zheng patted Zhao Wu's shoulder and asked calmly: "Is it urgent?"

  "It's urgent!" Zhou Lin hastily replied: "My uncle sent word that the Fu family has just made a decision, and they will be moving tomorrow!"

  "What's the hurry?!" Li Zhēng couldn't help but furrow his brow, and then asked again: "Where is Mei Yang?"

  "Right Fufeng, near Chang'an." Zhao Wu replied.

  "So far?!"

  Li Zhen narrowed his eyes, pondered for a long time, and suddenly said: "Is something big happening in Liangzhou? Where is Han Sui's rebel army now?"

  Zhou Lin bowed his fist and saluted, then said: "The Emperor is wise and just, it's true that the situation in Liangzhou has changed. From my uncle I learned that in March, Governor Geng Bing of Liangzhou mobilized troops from six counties, recruited 80,000 soldiers, and immediately attacked Han Sui. Fu Shi, the master of the Fu family and the governor of Hanyang, Pei Fu, advised against it, but Geng Bing did not listen and led his army to attack. When they reached Lixian in Longxi, the state's deputy captain killed Cheng Qiu, the chief of staff, and then killed Governor Geng Bing!

  At this point, the imperial court's army was in disarray. The military officer Ma Teng and the Longxi native Wang Guo led their troops to surrender to the rebel leader Han Sui, who then promoted Wang Guo as their leader!

  "Now, the rebels are occupying Han Yang Prefecture, besieging the city of Ye, and Fu Shu's family head, Fu Xie, is in imminent danger."

  After listening to Zhou Lin's words, Li Zhong's expression became increasingly solemn.

  "The imperial court's great army has just suffered a defeat, and it won't be easy to dispatch another large army to quell the rebellion anytime soon. If Han Yang falls into enemy hands, the entire Liang Zhou will fall into the rebels' grasp, and there will no longer be any barrier between them and Guan Zhong; they can directly attack Chang An!"

  The more he spoke, Li Zhēng's eyebrows furrowed tighter and tighter.

  Although he had long been at odds with the Han court, if Liangzhou were to fall completely into the hands of those scoundrels like Han Sui, it would be even more detrimental to Li Jue.

  The best situation is for the imperial court and the rebels to be locked in a stalemate in Liangzhou, only then can we muddy the waters!

  "No wonder the Fu family wants to move away immediately, I'm afraid Master Fu Xiu is in danger and may not last till dawn on one hand, on the other hand, it's also because they're afraid of being implicated by the rebel army's poison in Liangzhou and bringing disaster to their family!"

  "Hiss..."

  Li Zhēn's mind quickly turned around for a while before he said to Zhou Lin, "You first return to Líng State, pay attention to gathering information, and wait for my orders."

  "Ah!"

  Now that Lord Li Zhēng had made his decision, both Zhou Lin and Zhao Wu, who was standing beside him, couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

  Having received Li Zhong's order, Zhou Lin didn't even drink a mouthful of water and immediately mounted his horse to head towards Lingzhou again.

  Zhou Lin left, Li Zheng said to Zhao Wu: "You go and call Da Shan, Wang Lao Hu, Nu Luo and others, I'll wait at home."

  Having given his orders, Li Zhuang quickly walked towards his own home.

  No sooner had he returned home than Zhang Shan and other military leaders arrived one after another.

  Screen out Xiao Cui and Xiao Liu, Li Zhēng swept a glance at the people present, only then said: "Liangzhou's drastic change, for long-term consideration, my Shen Zhou grassland can no longer remain uninvolved."

  As he spoke, Li Zhēng recounted the information he had obtained from Zhou Lin one by one.

  Zhang Shan and others heard this, also straightened their bodies, and their expressions became serious.

  "What does Master mean?"

  Zhang Shan asked immediately after listening.

  "Hanyang Governor Fu Xie cannot die!" Li Zhong said decisively: "Hanyang has already fallen, it's a done deal. Our Divine State Grassland doesn't have the ability to defeat tens of thousands of rebel troops yet, we can only think of ways to rescue Fu Nanrong!"

  "With Fu Nan Gong's prestige, as long as he is alive, a call to arms will quickly raise a large army to counter the rebel forces and prevent Han Shui and other bandits from completely occupying Liangzhou, so as to wait for the arrival of the imperial relief troops!"

  Li Zhong had other plans, but he didn't reveal them.

  The Liu family ruled the world for 400 years, and the character "Han" has deeply entered people's hearts. Although the Yellow Turban Rebellion shook the foundation of the imperial court, as long as the emperor is not dead, the world will maintain a relatively stable situation, and no one dares to make a move.

  To reveal one's ambition, it can only be done when the vassals rise together. Or perhaps Li Jing's power can completely crush the Han dynasty, which is declining like the sun in the west; otherwise, there will absolutely be no good outcome.

  However, Li Zhēn believed that even if he revealed his unusual ambitions, the people under his command would not oppose or despise him.

  After all, the divine pasture is too mysterious, and in everyone's mind, it is linked to the heavenly god. The status of the heavenly god is naturally stronger than that of the Han dynasty.

  But Li Zhēng had his own plans, and at this stage, the Shen Zhou grassland did not have the independent strength of one side, only by relying on the Han dynasty could they gain greater benefits.

  He had long decided that before the vassals rose up together, pulling up the great banner of the Han dynasty was the best choice.

  "Your Majesty, tens of thousands of rebels are besieging Hanyang. Even if the rebels surrounding Jizhou only number in the tens of thousands, I fear..." Wang Lao Hu expressed his concern first.

  The grassland has undergone two months of development, with most of the roads leading to the mines being repaired, and a larger scale of manpower, material resources, and livestock investment. With the expansion of the hunting team and the self-production of the grassland, the first-class armor forged by the forging center has already been equipped with more than 200 people!

  The number of young arowana wearing armor on their backs has increased by one - previously there were only seven, and in this short period of time, three pregnant mothers have given birth to young ones and also put on armor. However, at the same time, two more young arowanas became pregnant, adding three and subtracting two, increasing by only one.

  Perhaps due to the effect of mugwort, the gestation period of Qingjia warhorses is much shorter than that of warhorses in other places. Warhorses in ordinary places need eleven months, while Qingjia warhorses only need about half the time. At the same time, Li Zheng also knew that his own pasture, where warhorses had been eating mugwort for a long time, had also shortened their gestation period.

  This is good news for Li Zhong.

  Apart from the eight-headed green armor war horse, the growth rate of the light cavalry war horses was much faster.

  At present, there is a light cavalry of sixty armored war horses.

  In total, Li Zhēng had sixty-eight main cavalrymen in his hands!

  Adding the 150 heavy armored gunners and more than 90 light infantry archers, the force in Li Zhong's hands had already exceeded 300!

  Although there were only three hundred people, they were well-equipped and Li Zhēn believed that in a real fight, he could easily defeat those disorganized mobs even if they numbered three to five thousand.

  So Li Zhong had the idea of rescuing Fu Xie - using infantry to respond and confuse, with the strong mobility and impact of cavalry, as long as they chose the right time, they might have a chance to rescue Fu Xie!

  Li Zheng was also fortunate that there were fewer people, which was an advantage. At least the target was small and easy to hide.

  "If it's a head-on battle with the rebels, then it's absolutely impossible." Li Zhēng said: "It can't be denied that our equipment is excellent, but after all, there are too few of us."

  "But who would be foolish enough to confront tens of thousands of enemies head-on with just three hundred men?" Li Zhong chuckled and said, "Our goal is not to defeat Han Sui's rebel army, but to rescue Governor Fu Xie."

  "With these few hundred cavalry, we shouldn't draw too much attention from the rebels. That's our advantage! Feign weakness and strike at their gaps! Rescue Fu Xie and retreat immediately."

  "As for specific tactics, we'll have to get there first and understand the situation before making plans!"

  After hearing Li Zhong's plan, Zhang Shan and others nodded in unison.

  "If we can rescue Fu Xiatao, what's the next step?" At this time, Xu Xiaojin on the side spoke up.

  Li Zhong listened and couldn't help but show a look of approval on his face.

  Xu Xiaojiu may not have read any books, but his consideration is far-sighted, and he has some endurance.

  "This question is well asked," said Li Zhēng: "If we rescue Fu Xiè and return by the original route, it's inevitable that we'll bring disaster to the grasslands, and in the end, it will be a loss."

  "So my idea is..."