In mid-March, the vast fields in Hexi were green and the weather began to truly warm up.

The manager of the Jiedushi's Mansion got up early this morning and became busy.

The day after the hostess left, the earthly fire dragon in the mansion stopped burning. As usual, after the fire stops every year, people should be asked to open the tunnel and the vent to avoid excessive accumulation of dust and blockage, which will affect the heating of the following year.

This should have been done long ago, but because of the fact that there were many things to do in charge a few days ago and the weather was not good, the back pain was a problem again. I lay on the bed and couldn't walk. I used the method taught by Master Weng for a few days before, and the people were more happy. The matter was delayed again and again, for a month or two. Seeing that the weather was good these days, I asked someone to come and work.

Yesterday, I took advantage of the absence of the Jiedushi and opened all the back room. Today, I did the work at the furnace mouth and the matter was done.

"Get quicker! Fallen from the dust and soil here!"

"Everyone is quiet! Today, the adults are back, and the person is still behind. Don't disturb the adults!"

The manager was busy directing the craftsmen to do things. He heard a sound of footsteps behind him, as if someone was rushing towards him. He turned around and saw that it was Cao Guo, a soldier who was in charge. He didn't know what happened, but he lost his composure to this point. He looked anxious and hurriedly met him.

"What happened to Cao Shenjun?"

Cao Guo grabbed the sleeve of the manager and panted, "Where is the governor Xie Jie, has he come back from outside?"

Xie Changgeng was not in the city a few days ago and went to the border area.

The manager said: "What's wrong with Cao Shenjun when he came back last night?"

"What a big thing happened! It's extremely urgent! The natives gathered to cause trouble, surrounded Jiaocheng, and threatened to set fire to the city!"

Jiaocheng is only fifty miles away from Guzang. The place is not big. It is an affiliated place of Guzang, but it is very important. There is a large warehouse for storing grain in the city, which is responsible for supplying the food and grass of tens of thousands of soldiers and horses in Hexi. If it is really burned, it is not a trivial matter. Jiaocheng Order is named Xu Ke. He is very reliable in daily life and is also loyal to Xie Changgeng.

The manager gasped and asked him to wait. He immediately turned around and ran into the main courtyard behind him. When he arrived at the door and looked inside, he saw that the doors and windows of the bedroom were still closed, and asked a servant who was sweeping the floor outside the gate of the courtyard.

The servant whispered: "The room that the adults returned from the study room only at the fifth hour, and it didn't take long to sleep."

The matter is of great importance. The manager dared not delay. He walked in quickly, stopped outside the door, knocked on the door a few times, and shouted: "Sir, Cao Guo and Cao's army are here, something happened!"

The inner room was quiet, the bed tent was hanging low, and the heavy curtains were dimly lit.

The sound came in, and Xie Changgeng was awakened from his sleep. His eyes moved slightly, but he did not open his eyes immediately. He continued to close his eyes and lay for a while. When the feeling of tightening and swelling and pain that came with the sleep was relieved, he opened his eyes and turned over and sat up.

He looked at the abnormality of clothes vaguely on his belly, lifted the curtain and went downstairs, went into the bathroom, came out after a while, put on a coat, and went to open the door.

When the manager saw him appearing behind the door, his eyebrows and eyes were faintly unhappy, and he hurriedly bowed: "I know that lord has worked hard, and it has not been a moment since I fell asleep. However, Cao Guo has just arrived and said something happened. The villain dared not delay and dared to call lord."

"What's the matter?"

Xie Changgeng turned around and asked while continuing to dress and heading in.

"The natives gathered to cause trouble and set fire to Jiaocheng!"

Xie Changgeng suddenly stopped and turned his head.

"Call him to the front hall and I'll go there right away."

The manager responded and hurried back to pass the message.

Cao Guo and others kept looking around in the front hall of the Jiedushi's Mansion, as anxious as an ant on a hot pan. When they saw Xie Changgeng's figure appear, they rushed forward with a quick step.

"Sir, something happened! I just received the news that many natives went out and ran to Jiaocheng. I'm afraid something happened. Sir, please go and have a look!"

"Okay, how could the natives suddenly attack Jiaocheng?"

Xie Changgeng walked out quickly and asked.

While chasing Cao Guo, he explained the whole story to him.

Jiaocheng ordered Xu Ke's son to have an affair with a native woman. He eloped a few days ago and was missing. Yesterday, the woman's family came to ask for someone, but both sides had different languages ​​and fought. The other party had few people and was beaten out at that time. Unexpectedly, one night passed, and this morning the natives rushed from all sides and went to Jiaocheng.

Xie Changgeng frowned and stepped out of the door.

There was already a team of cavalry waiting outside the gate. Xie Changgeng took the reins handed over by his entourage, got on his horse and left the city, galloping towards Jiaocheng.

Fifty miles away, he arrived in two quarters of an hour. From a distance, he saw at least thousands of native men gathered outside the city gate, holding knives and axes, holding sticks, and holding torches. They were all angry and filled with righteous indignation.

Xie Changgeng stopped his horse and looked into the distance. He saw that there were still natives coming from all directions to join the siege of the city. More and more people were.

The gate of Jiaocheng was closed, and above the city head, soldiers were lit with bows and arrows, waiting for battle.

The atmosphere was extremely tense and was about to break out.

"Xie Jiedushi has arrived! You haven't dispersed yet! Are you going to openly rebel?"

Cao Guo could speak earthly words and shouted loudly at the front.

The natives gathered in front of the city gate heard the sound of talking and turned around and saw a group of people coming to the road. A man was sitting upright on the back of a horse and wearing an official uniform. Although he looked in his twenties and was very young, his eyes were as lightning as lightning and his majestic.

The noise gradually stopped and the surroundings became quiet.

Xie Changgeng turned over and dismounted in the countless pairs of glaring at him from the opposite side.

With swords and axes on both sides facing each other, he looked ahead with calm expressions, strides through the crowd, and when he reaches the city gate, he stands firmly, without looking back, and shouts: "Jiangcheng Order Xu Ke, come out!"

Yesterday, when the natives asked for a dispute, Jiaocheng ordered Xu Keren to be away from home. Knowing that this time, his son and the native girl disappeared. The city gate was surrounded early in the morning. Seeing that more and more natives gathered, how could he dare to act rashly? I saw that the governor was coming. I was relieved and more frightened. I was at the other end of the city gate. I heard him shouting his name, hurriedly opened the city gate, ran out, knelt on Xie Changgeng's side, crying and kowtowed to apologize: "The official should die! First, he was not strict in his education, and then he was ineffective in controlling his family, which led to such a great disaster! Even if the official chopped down his head, the official dared not complain. I just hope that the official should spare me because he was still careful in his daily work and had no faults."

Xie Changgeng looked gloomy and stared at him, then turned to look at a strong native man leading the way.

After he came here to serve as the governor, he always wanted to subdue the natives to facilitate the war against the north. Although the plan has not been reached so far, he has already known the situation of the dozens of native villages in his territory. He knew that the man's name was Bai Long and he had a lot of prestige among the natives.

Xie Changgeng looked at each other for a moment and said a few words to Cao Guo.

Cao Guo then stepped forward and said, "Bai Long, the Jiedushi said that if the person is not here, he will send someone to find him. After he finds him, he will let the Xu family marry your woman. As for the argument yesterday, the adults also asked, both parties were at fault. Although some of you were injured, the Xu family was the same. Considering that you had few people at that time, they were indeed at a loss first. I would like to be an intermediary and ask the Xu family to accompany you. If you want any compensation, you can just talk and this matter will be revealed."

Bai Long said: "It's not that I don't give face to the governor, but even if I agree, I will ask my brother if he agrees!"

He looked at a man next to him.

The man was the elder brother of the woman who had run away. She had a cloth strip wrapped around her head, and there were blood stains on the cloth strips that were stained with overnight. She said angrily: "Your people seduced my sister and hid her. Yesterday I took someone to ask for it. Not only did you not return it, but you also injured my brothers. How could I give up? Let me marry my sister? Dream! If you don't hand over your husband today, I will set fire to this place!"

After he finished speaking, the people behind him made a noise, and the crowd was excited and rushed towards the city gate.

Cao Guo was furious and was about to scold him. Xie Changgeng took a step forward and spoke in a local language, saying, "I have said that people are not in the city! Even if you burn the city, it is useless, but it is just a stupid act of venting anger!"

His eyes glanced at the people opposite him and his expression turned severe.

"What's more, you really think there is no kingly law here, and you can do whatever you want? I might as well ask someone to open the city gate and you can go in and look for it. But I tell you, if you dare to set a fire, burn a house, and hurt an innocent person, I will repay you ten times. From now on, you will never have a peace!"

"Open the door! Retract the bow and arrow!"

He finished speaking and shouted loudly.

Cao Guo and others were surprised, looked at the dense crowds outside the city gate, hesitated for a while, but they still did not dare to disobey. They ordered the soldiers to open the city gate and withdraw the arrow formation as they ordered.

Xie Changgeng took a step back. "Go ahead!"

Under the city gate, which was still noisy just now, it became quiet again.

The natives looked at each other and finally looked at Bai Long.

Bai Long was shocked and wondered. He looked at the wide open city gate and looked at Xie Changgeng up and down. Seeing him standing aside calmly, he raised his hand to signal everyone to stop and said, "Do you think I don't know? There must be an ambush in your city so that we can catch all of us! If you want me to be fooled, I won't be fooled!"

Xie Changgeng smiled slightly: "Bai Long, you are very smart, but have you ever thought about it? Is it a responsibility for one party to elope? Although the man is wrong, is your brother's sister, right? It is wrong for the Xu family to hurt others. I asked them to prepare gifts to apologize. If you injured, I will send military doctors to treat the wounded. If you run away, I will also find the person who has been retrieved. If you are separated or combined, you will be killed. If you want to fight and kill, you will be obedient. What are your dissatisfactions?"

Bai Long froze for a moment and said, "Why should I believe your words?"

Xie Changgeng said: "I am the ambassador of Hexi governor, governor of Liangzhou, and a second-rank official of the court. Since I spoke, I did not break my promise."

After he finished speaking, Bai Long sneered: "Forget it, none of you officials from the court are good! If we believe it, we will be fooled! Today, we are all here, so it will be difficult to go there in vain. If the people are not in the city, then hand over all those who beat us yesterday! We will not bully the few of them, so we will be a few of them. How did they break our arms yesterday? We will break them back!"

After he finished speaking, the natives behind him agreed, and roared one after another.

Xu Ke was trembling, angry and afraid, and fell to the ground and did not dare to look up.

When things got to this point, he would not dare to respond even if he wanted to kill those people.

What he was afraid of was that Xie Jiedushi could not get out of office.

After all this was said, these natives even made such requests.

It sounds fair, but in fact it doesn't give him any face.

Cao Guo was furious: "Bai Long, don't be shameless! The lord is already kind enough to you. I really think that there is nothing I can do about you?"

Bai Long snorted: "I'll just report it to you! We'll leave after paying it back!"

"Come on! Protect the adults!"

Cao Guo ordered loudly.

The soldiers from the brigade rushed up immediately.

"Sir, arrest these people and see if they dare to cause trouble!"

Cao Guo advised, waiting for Xie Changgeng to give his final order.

The natives also raised their weapons in their hands one after another.

Xie Changgeng did not speak immediately.

Countless pairs of eyes were staring at him.

The scene that had just eased became nervous again.

At this moment, a native man pushed his companion away, squeezed hard to the front, put his mouth in Bai Long's ear, and whispered a few words.

After hearing this, Bai Long showed a reluctant expression on his face, but the person who passed the message seemed to have a high status. He hesitated for a while, and finally put his waist down, signaled everyone to retreat, squinted his eyes, and said to Xie Changgeng: "Forget it, because the wife has been kind to us, I believe you today! We will eat this loss!"

After he finished speaking, he passed the call. One by ten, ten by hundreds. The natives learned the orders and whispered to each other. With the sound of discussion, they turned their heads and left.
To be continued...