Since he had to go to Wancheng together the next day, Liu lived in the mansion of the Marquis of Luyang Township that day. It is said that he discussed with the Marquis of Luyang Township until very late, so when Zhao Yu met these two people the next day, there were slightly dark circles on both of them.

The next day, after breakfast, Luyang Township Hou, Liu Ying, Zhao Yu and his group set out on the way to Wancheng.

To be honest, the Marquis of Luyang Township did not intend to bring his second son Zhao Yu with him, mainly because it was too dangerous because even he and Liu Ying were not sure whether this trip could convince Wang Shangde, let alone in the view of the Marquis of Luyang Township, although his son Zhao Yu was quite respectful and humble to his acquaintances, his true personality was definitely not the case. Just looking at him humiliating Kong Jian several times yesterday, he knew that he was actually very arrogant. The Marquis of Luyang Township was quite worried that this kid would come to Wang Shangde as well.

But no matter how worried I was, I couldn't resist the boy's intelligence, and I was really smarter than when I was young... Well, it was just a little worse. After thinking about it, the Hou of Luyang Township finally decided to bring Zhao Yu with me, hoping that this boy would have a clue and come up with some good solutions.

Liu also thinks so.

Wancheng is not too far from Luyang, but it is not close. The straight-line distance between the two places is about 200 miles, and the real distance is naturally more than that.

On the way to Wancheng, the group passed by several counties one after another, such as Chi County.

From the Jingchu rebels attacking Nanyang eight or nine years ago, to the later time Wang Shangde led the Beihai army to Wancheng, Nanyang County formed two completely different patterns, namely Wanbei and Wannan.

Wannan was completely captured by the rebels. After occupying the counties in Wannan, the rebels of Jingchu killed almost all the local wealthy families who were unwilling to give up their ancestral property or had no time to escape, and distributed the fields of these wealthy families to those who had no land in the local area. After gaining support from the people, the rebels continued to attack north until they were stopped by Wang Shangde in Wancheng.

Then Wang Shangde organized a counterattack and plowed Wannan, which had been destroyed, again. Any local aristocratic families and civilians involved in the rebels were executed in public to warn others, while the rest were all exiled.

Wannan experienced these two catastrophes, and at least 30% of them died. In addition, Wang Shangde later recruited troops in Wannan one after another, so that Wannan was almost empty. Most of the Wannan people who survived by chance ran to Wanbei.

Compared with Wannan, the situation in Wanbei is slightly better. At least the rebels did not attack here. The county seats of the local counties are basically still there. However, in recent years, in order to counterattack the rebels, Wang Shangde has repeatedly collected money, grain and men in Wanbei. Therefore, although the population has only increased a lot compared with previous years due to refugees, the atmosphere in the county is really depressed, such as stealing and looting, and the county magistrates cannot stop it.

It is precisely for this reason that when he went to Wancheng this time, the Marquis of Luyang Township brought more than 20 fully-clad guards led by the guard chief Zhang Chun, just because he was worried that he would be attacked by local refugees and even locals on the way.

According to Liu Yi, when the people of Wannan flocked to Wanbei, the counties in Wanbei, just like the Luyang County a while ago, did not open the official warehouse to provide relief to the refugees. This made those refugees who could not survive take risks and started to rob families. Small-scale bandits such as three or five people or more than ten people were everywhere in Wanbei.

However, the Hou and others in Luyang Township were relatively lucky to meet or say, the twenty fully armed guards in the convoy scared away the bandits who tried to attack.

Until evening, when the group was sleeping in the wilderness, it seemed that some bandits tried to attack the convoy, but two were killed by guard Zhang Chun and others, and the rest of the bandits all fled.

The next day, the group continued to rush towards Wancheng. As they gradually entered the control of Wang Shangde's troops, all the bandits they had encountered along the way were gone, and instead they were patrolling soldiers with Yixi as a team.

On several occasions, these patrol soldiers stopped the army and interrogated the purpose of the visit, but when they learned about the purpose of the visit of the Hou and his group of people in Luyang Township, the people immediately let them go.

In this way, on the afternoon of that day, the Hou and his group of Luyang Township finally arrived in Wancheng.

Wancheng is the county seat of the entire Nanyang County, so it is logically larger and more prosperous than any county in the county. However, after entering the city, as Zhao Yu saw with his own eyes, the situation in the city was completely different.

It is undeniable that Wancheng is indeed very large, even larger than Yecheng, but there are almost no civilians left in the city. Almost all soldiers wearing leather armor come and go on the street. Nine out of ten shops on both sides of the street are closed. Even if you don’t look carefully, you can feel a depressed aura coming to your face.

This is Wancheng, the county seat of Nanyang County, which was once the most prosperous city in the county. Unexpectedly, it became a land of this kind.

Under the guidance of some soldiers along the way, the Hou of Luyang Township and his group arrived at the inn in the city.

When they were about to set up a ceremony in the inn and were about to pay homage to Wang Shangde, Peng Yong, who had been to Luyang County two days ago, rode his horse to the inn.

While greeting each other, Peng Yong smiled and said, "A moment ago, the soldiers at the city gate reported that a group of people came from Luyang to the north and wanted to see General Wang. I guess you are waiting... I will lead you to see General."

Seeing Peng Yong coming alone, everyone was very confused. Liu Ying asked cautiously: "I'm sorry to bother General Peng... Why are there only generals today?"

Peng Yong smiled and explained: "After I returned to Wancheng yesterday, the general allowed me to rest for two days. Today I was free and wandered around the city when I had nothing to do. I happened to hear that you were waiting to come from Luyang, so I just came over to lead you."

"oh."

Everyone suddenly realized it, and then thought to themselves: When Peng Yong left the village mansion the day before yesterday, the village mansion in Luyang gave him three additional jars of wine for twenty years. This gift he had given him was indeed not for nothing.

While thinking about it, Liu Ying carefully tested Peng Yong: "General Peng, I wonder what General Wang's attitude was when you returned to see General Wang that day?"

Seeing Liu Ying's worrying about gains and losses, Peng Yong did not hide it, and said truthfully: "I don't hide it from you. The general is very unhappy. Although I kept my promise and never let Kong Jian add fuel to the fire and explained the work-for-relief matter of Luyang County to the general, the general is still very unhappy. Therefore, when you meet the general later, you must be careful."

“…”

Liu Ying looked at each other with the Hou of Luyang Township, and his heart was a little nervous.

About half an hour later, Peng Yong brought the Marquis of Luyang Township and his group to a mansion north of the city. Everyone stood in front of the mansion and looked at it briefly and knew that this mansion was no inferior to the Marquis of their hometown.

Perhaps because he noticed the expressions of Liu Ying and the Hou of Luyang Township, Peng Yong explained with a faint smile: "Don't misunderstand that this mansion is not General Wang, but the general lives here temporarily... As far as I know, the owner of this mansion is named Cui. When the rebels attacked Wancheng, the owner of this mansion fled and fled, and he didn't know where he fled. According to my Dajin law, he fled without the permission of the government, and regarded it as giving up his family business on his own, so General Wang moved in."

"So that's it." Liu nodded.

In order to prevent the large population from moving during disasters, Jin State did issue such laws and even regard those who fled from their hometown as criminals. However, even so, when the disaster comes, many people will flee from their hometown despite the strict prohibition of the government and flock to other counties, indirectly implicate other counties.

Luyang County, which was almost dragged into the water by refugees, is an example.

At this time, Peng Yong walked towards the gate of the mansion and said to the four soldiers on duty outside the gate: "Wait, go and report to the general immediately, and say, Liu Yi, Liu Gongqian, the magistrate of Luyang County, and Zhao Jing and Zhao Gongyu, come to see the general together, and go quickly."

"yes!"

The soldiers all recognized Peng Yong, and one of them immediately ran towards the mansion when he heard this.

A moment later, the soldier returned. After hugging Peng Yong and clasping his fists, he said to Liu Ying, Luyang Township Hou and others: "General, please invite him to the study in the mansion....I will lead him to go."

"I know where I'll just take them there." Peng Yong waved his hand and said.

"Yes!" The soldier did not dare to have any objection and immediately returned to his original position.

"Please." Peng Yong motioned to Liu Ying and the Hou of Luyang Township.

"Okay, General Peng is here to help."

Under Peng Yong's personal leadership, the Hou of Luyang Township and his group walked into the mansion.

It has to be said that the original owner of this mansion seemed quite rich, and built the mansion quite carefully. The gardens, fish ponds, towers and water pavilions in the mansion were all available, and it was even better than the village marquis' mansion. However, the Luyang Township Marquis and Liu Ying were alone, and they were tense and worried.

It can be seen that they were really nervous and uneasy about seeing Wang Shangde soon.

A moment later, Peng Yong led the Hou and his group of people in Luyang Township to the study where Wang Shangde was.

At that time, there were four soldiers outside the study. After seeing Peng Yong, they immediately stepped forward to salute: "General Peng."

"Well." Peng Yong nodded, then pointed behind him and said, "I will take the Marquis of Zhaoxiang and the Magistrate of Liu to see the General."

These soldiers knew what was going on and pushed them to both sides. But when Zhao Yu was about to follow Liu Yu and his father, the Marquis of Luyang Township, into the study, a soldier stopped him: "Accomplice, child, stay here."

Zhao Yu didn't want to explain anything to these soldiers who were slandered, so he turned to look at Peng Yong and begged: "General Peng, I also want to meet General Wang and beg him to take back Cheng's life."

Peng Yong glanced at Zhao Yu with great interest and ordered the military soldier to say, "Let this kid come in."

"General Peng?" The soldier looked at Peng Yong in surprise: "General only said to see these two people..."

Peng Yong smiled and said, "It's okay, the general won't care. I'll take care of anything."

After all this, the soldier naturally did not dare to disobey, so he had to let Liu Ying, the Marquis of Luyang Township, Zhao Yu enter the house, but the rest, such as Zhang Chun, Jingnu, Cao An, Zhang Ji, Ma Cheng and others, were all stopped.

"Please, please."

Under Peng Yong's leadership, Liu Ying, the Hou of Luyang Township, and Zhao Yu walked into the study.

After entering the study room, the three of them watched around, and then they saw a man in ordinary clothes, lowering his head slightly, sitting behind the desk and writing something.

"That's my general." Peng Yong signaled beside him.

『That is Wang Shangde…』
Chapter completed!