Chapter 276 Yushan Martial Arts Academy
"You two gentlemen, please take it easy, I'm going to go do some official errands first!"
After seeing off the police officers from the yamen, Mr. Xu confessed his crime with a smile on his face, then picked up the portrait and prepared to post it in the most conspicuous place.
Zuo Yu glanced at his back, with a hint of coldness on her face, as if she had murderous intentions for Zhang Xianzhong in the portrait.
Zhao Lihe said softly: "Don't worry, I transferred a satellite to the police department two days ago. He can't escape..."
Zuo Yu turned to look at Zhao Lihe and said calmly: "Why wait for your subordinates to catch him? This guy is more or less a historical celebrity. How about you and I go and see it in person?"
Zhao Lihe thought for a moment and nodded gently: "That's fine!"
After hearing this, Zuo Yu immediately stood up, threw down a silver dollar, and left the teahouse with Zhao Lihe.
These silver coins were the newly issued currency of the Daxia Dynasty. Since the Daxia Dynasty was established not long ago, it had not yet developed enough credibility among the people. It would be difficult for the people to accept the hasty issuance of banknotes. Therefore, we should start with silver coins and copper coins.
As the saying goes, it is easy to conquer a country, but difficult to govern it. Zhao Liheshen believes that.
He has now discovered that the difficulty of managing people's livelihood after the founding of the People's Republic of China has increased exponentially compared with the difficulty of conquering the world before the founding of the People's Republic of China.
The technological tree of the Daxia Dynasty was inherently deformed and was a typical result of overthrowing the seedlings. Its military strength was comparable to that of the major warring states in the late World War II, but in terms of people's livelihood, it was at best the level of China at the end of the 19th century, and it was not even comparable to that of the Republic of China. .
The country was just founded, the economy was in decline, and the talents Zhao Lihe needed had not yet grown up. Therefore, he was unable to achieve comprehensive development in terms of people's livelihood and could only focus on the people's basic necessities.
Apart from this, other aspects have not yet had time to develop.
For example, mobile communications, etc. Although the Daxia Dynasty has sufficient technology and information, it has not yet had time to build communication base stations in various places. At present, only local governments have connected telephone lines, and even landline telephones have not yet entered every household.
Because of this, in many remote areas, there are still many places that the power of the imperial court cannot reach.
This is also normal. After all, the founding of China in other worlds has not handled the matter well for decades. How is it possible to expect the Great Xia Dynasty to handle it in half a year?
But at the same time, this also gave Zhang Xianzhong the opportunity to run around and avoid pursuit.
At the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains, there is a place called Dongtang Valley, which has been a good place for bathing in soup pools since ancient times. When the Ming Dynasty was at its peak, wealthy families built countless mansions here to cool off and bathe.
Later, as the Ming Dynasty gradually declined, more and more bandits were entrenched in the Qinling Mountains, and it was not as safe as before.
Until Shaanxi took the lead in the uprising, the Qinling bandits believed that the time had come and immediately waved their flags in response. They kidnapped and even massacred many dignitaries who came to bathe in Dongtang Valley, and threw their bones into the hot spring pool of Dongtang Valley.
Since then, Dongtangyu has inevitably been abandoned.
Now that Daxia has been founded, 99% of the bandits entrenched in the Qinling Mountains have been wiped out, but the place is still desolate and inhabited.
This is not because there is no one alive in the nearby villages and towns, it is just that the surviving people are unwilling to return to live here.
Although the troubled times only lasted for a few years, it was during these years that the bottom of the hot spring pool in Dongtang Valley was covered with white human bones.
Thousands of dead souls are entrenched at the bottom of various hot spring pools in Dongtang Valley, which makes people fear this place and take the initiative to make up and spread many horror stories.
Thanks to these horror stories, Zhang Xianzhong doesn't need to worry too much. He can scare away innocent passers-by who stray into Dongtang Valley by pretending to be the spirit of an unjust death.
Of course, not all innocent passers-by can be spared. For example, today, a passing hunter was in trouble...
"Crackling——"
The precious fragrant wood that had been removed from the Gaomen mansion kept burning in the rising flames. The flames licked the wild boar meat skewered on branches above, and the rich fat roasted the fist-sized pork until it squeaked.
In front of the bonfire, three big men sat on random stones, looking greedily at the pork skewers exuding the burnt aroma.
Behind them, there was a medium-sized soup pool, in which lay a fresh human corpse.
The clothes on his body had long been stripped off, and a thick hemp rope was tied around his waist. There were many large stones with scorched black marks tied to the rope. The skin and flesh on his body had been soaked in hot water and turned white and rotten.
There was glistening grease floating on the surface of the pool, emitting a disgusting and strange fishy smell in the steaming white steam.
When an ordinary person smells this kind of smell, not to mention vomiting on the spot, it is at least unbearable. However, the three big men in front of them did not react at all. They devoted themselves wholeheartedly to the pork barbecue in front of them. They have obviously adapted to this weird smell. .
Finally, the wild boar meat brought by the unjust hunter was roasted.
The big man among them immediately picked up a skewer and ate it regardless of how hot the pork was.
After he finished a bunch, the two men next to him dared to reach out for the meat and start eating greedily.
After eating and drinking enough, the leading man sat by the soup pool, holding pig bones shaved with a knife and throwing them into the soup pool. From time to time, he would hit the corpse at the bottom of the soup pool. It seemed that he was enjoying the bones.
However, if you look closely, you can see that the focus of this person's eyes is not on the bones, but looking straight into the distance, as if he is thinking about something.
This person is Zhang Xianzhong, who was famous in the late Ming Dynasty.
Zhang Xianzhong, courtesy name Bingwu, was born in Liushujian, Dingbian, Shaanxi Province. He studied when he was young, and later joined the army. He served as a catcher in Yan'an Prefecture, but was dismissed due to circumstances. Later, he joined the army in Yansui Town, and was executed for breaking the law. General Chen Hongfanguan His appearance was strange, so he begged for mercy. Wang Wei, the commander-in-chief, looked at Chen Hongfan's face and beat Zhang Xianzhong with a hundred military sticks, and then removed him.
Since then, Zhang Xianzhong has been living in the countryside.
In the original timeline, this person should have gathered farmers from the Eighteen Villages in his hometown to form an insurrectionary army in the third year of Chongzhen. From then on, he fought in various places and grew into a giant bandit as famous as Li Zicheng in various large and small battles.
But in this world, Zhao Lihe's rise is too fast.
When Zhang Xianzhong wanted to persuade his fellow villagers to revolt, Daxia had already captured Guanzhong at an extremely fast speed. The young officials who had come out of the Tongmenhui easily gathered him with the help of account books used to allocate land. It is easy to incite public sentiment.
Looking at the fellow villagers with excited faces and obediently cooperating with the officials to allocate land, Zhang Xianzhong only felt that he could not make steel out of iron.
But he did not dare to really go against Zhao Lihe and Daxia, so he could only leave his hometown with a few fellow villagers who were also unwilling, planning to go to other places to join the real rebels.
But whether it was a coincidence or not, Daxia's army was like a great white shark that smelled blood, following behind him.
Wherever he went, Daxia's army pushed forward.
The rebels he wanted to defect to were helpless in front of Daxia's army and were easily pushed aside.
Finally, after having the same experience several times, Zhang Xianzhong couldn't help but cursed angrily. He felt that these people were just losers, so he led his fellow villagers to gather the refugees in a rage, gathered the mountains into a stronghold, and planned to build an army of his own.
But Daxia's new army was too powerful, and the bandits were no match for them. They could only be defeated and fled down the mountain.
In this way, Zhang Xianzhong, who was desperate, took his two close brothers and wandered through the countryside beyond the reach of the government. With his courage and a little cleverness, he repeatedly committed major crimes and has not been arrested so far.
But when you walk along the river, your shoes don't get wet.
Zhang Xianzhong knew in his heart that sooner or later he would fail.
If you want to survive, you must either find a way to forge your identity and turn around, or you must leave Daxia as soon as possible.
As for surrendering, Zhang Xianzhong never thought that he had already killed many people and would never be able to look back...
Suddenly, a man walked over in a hurry and said anxiously: "Brother, someone is here again!"
Zhang Xianzhong glanced at him and said calmly: "What are you afraid of? You look like a bear. Change your clothes quickly and scare them away."
The man quickly explained: "Brother, these people are not the common people at the foot of the mountain, but a group of police officers!"
Zhang Xianzhong stood up suddenly, frowned and said: "A catcher from Daxia?!"
The man nodded repeatedly, with a hint of fear and withdrawal in his eyes.
Zhang Xianzhong felt nervous and immediately asked: "How many are here?"
The man hurriedly said: "Eight, it happens to be a police team."
Zhang Xianzhong thought for a moment and said decisively: "If you can't defeat them, prepare traps and see if you can trap a few first. If that doesn't work, just hide in the cellar we found two days ago and avoid the limelight for a few days."
"yes, Sir!"
The man quickly agreed, turned around and left in a hurry.
At the same time, on the mountain road two miles away, a group of eight people were striding forward.
Beside them, a clear mountain spring water rushed down the valley, and steaming white gas steamed above the spring water. There were no fish swimming in the water, and no insects could be seen. The stones on the shore and at the bottom of the lake were covered with sulfur. The scorch marks left behind.
Smelling the smell of sulfur in the air, the young man holding the knife among the eight people couldn't help but frown slightly.
"Brother Yun, do you really think Zhang Xianzhong would hide in a place like this?"
"Yes, Brother Yun." The shorter boy among the eight people shrank his neck and whispered, "I heard from the people in Tangyu Town that there are thousands of dead souls buried in Dongtang Valley. Zhang Xian If Zhong hides here, won't he be afraid of dead souls claiming his life and evil spirits haunting him?"
"..."
The heroic young man, who was called Brother Yun by everyone, glanced at the young man and said calmly: "Good people are afraid of evil ghosts, and evil ghosts are afraid of evil people. Zhang Xianzhong has been hiding for more than three months. He has traveled to various places and committed serial murders. Just because the government knows about it. There are seventeen of them, and there are countless more who don’t know about them.”
"Such a person is already the most evil among evil people. He only worries about the government's encirclement and suppression. How can he be afraid of being haunted by evil spirits?"