Chapter 827

Longchuan was originally Xiji; after the whole territory of Xiji was captured by Panlongcheng, this place was naturally annexed into the territory of Panlongcheng. Because of its special geographical location and historical legacy, Longchuan became a major hurdle for He Lingchuan to take over as the commander of Yuheng City.

He wanted to see the context of Longchuan in real history.

Being able to open a retrospective perspective of more than a hundred years was his advantage.

Just after opening the information, his state of mind was still very happy, but as he read more, his face became more and more solemn.

The records inside greatly exceeded his expectations: in real history, during the period when Panlongcheng took over, the banditry in Longchuan was suppressed for a time, but it was not eradicated, and even intensified in the later period!

Five years after capturing the Xiji Nation, Panlongcheng had to abandon the southern trade route.

This meant that the trade between Panlongcheng and White Sand Bay was interrupted, and the external communication that Zhong Shengquan had been thinking about almost vanished into thin air.

As for the reason, the county annals only had one record: The Panlong Army was tough, causing civil unrest.

He Lingchuan couldn't believe it.

He had originally thought that with the strength of the Panlongcheng army, clearing out the Longchuan water bandits was just a matter of time. But history told him that it was not like that at all!

Because it was a long time ago and Longchuan was a place of banditry, outsiders didn't know much about it, and the county annals only had a few sparse records.

Between the lines, how much heart-stopping and back-and-forth tug-of-war was hidden? The reasons recorded above were of course incomplete, and could even be said to be biased and one-sided. But He Lingchuan read word by word, back and forth four or five times, before turning to look at the local clan histories.

History is always written by the victors; places that the victors disdain are rarely recorded in official history. Fortunately, there are always prominent families in the locality who will compile family and clan histories, and inadvertently write the truth into them.

The parts of the two clan histories He Lingchuan read that mentioned Longchuan, the Zhang family was once a local gentry, and the Li family was a wealthy household in Tu County. The whereabouts of these two families are unknown to this day, because their clan histories were hidden in a private library in Tu County, and all books were stamped with the "Lu Pavilion" seal.

It can be seen that Wu Shaoyi also visited local sages to get these private collections.

In troubled times, there were still people in Tu County who paid attention to classics; this was He Lingchuan's luck.

Both books were tattered, and he had to read them carefully.

The parts of the Li clan history that mentioned Longchuan had already been circled and noted by Wu Shaoyi with a brush.

The wording here was very bold, saying that the Panlongcheng army's suppression of the Longchuan water bandits was extremely tough, with thunderous and swift means; once they went deep into the hinterland of Longchuan to suppress bandits, they encountered fierce resistance and killed more than 600 people.

These 600 people were not all water bandits!

Battles are like this; sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between bandits and people.

The local folk customs were fierce, and the Panlongcheng army's actions immediately aroused public anger. Several major water bandits in Longchuan even united to retaliate, sneaking into the south of Yuheng City and slaughtering two villages.

The main residents of these two villages were all Xiluo people who had migrated with the Panlongcheng army.

Since then, suppression was endless, and riots were endless.

The Li family's ancestors also nearly lost their lives in the struggle, which was why they gave up their original livelihood and moved to Tu County to live.

He Lingchuan discovered from between the lines that although the Li clan history was decorated with flowery language, their ancestor was probably also from a background of doing business without capital.

And the Zhang family's clan history was relatively sloppy, only recording that the southern trade route gradually withered, and their own paper and grass business was greatly affected.

He Lingchuan finished reading Wu Shaoyi's notes and wanted to close the book to think, but didn't want to flip two more pages, and a sentence caught his eye:

In the spring of the following year, the Yuheng City Guard was assassinated and died.

This sentence gave him a real fright.

There was no He Lingchuan in the real history of Yuheng City, so the commander in charge of city defense was someone else, which meant that after Xiao Mao returned to Panlongcheng, someone else took over the position of commander.

But the record in the Zhang clan history was too simple; did "City Guard" refer to Wen Daolun, who was in charge of city affairs, or the new commander in charge of city defense? It couldn't be seen.

He Lingchuan hurriedly flipped through the other books from beginning to end, hoping to find the time and place of this assassination.

Unfortunately, nothing was found.

In short, a key official in Yuheng City was assassinated and died, which was probably also a legacy of the failure to clear the bandits in Longchuan.

He Lingchuan threw down the books, rubbed his temples, and picked up Wu Shaoyi's letter.

The envelope was intact, written with "Eldest Young Master, please open." But He Lingchuan suspected that He Chunhua had already checked this letter before he could safely pass it to him.

Anyway, Wu Shaoyi was a military general, and the handwriting on the envelope wasn't very beautiful, making it easy to forge.

He unfolded the letter and read it; he originally thought Wu Shaoyi was complaining to him about how hard it was to get these materials, but he didn't expect that there was actually dry goods in the letter.

After He Chunhua defeated the main force of the southern rebels, he immediately sent Wu Shaoyi and others into Longchuan to continue mopping up the rebel party, calling it "eradicating evil completely."

The difficulty of this task was not great; the remaining rebels in Longchuan had become stray dogs after hearing that the main force was defeated, and once General He's army came to mop up, they all surrendered.

Wu Shaoyi found an old water lizard over 230 years old in Longchuan.

This old monster was a native of Longchuan, with low magic power but a long life and wide knowledge, having experienced all kinds of storms and waves, and had even been a local water spirit for twenty or thirty years.

Wu Shaoyi asked, and this old guy wasn't senile yet, and could recount the events of more than a hundred years ago like a family treasure. So he wrote down the old water lizard's confession of more than ten full pages and finally sent it to He Lingchuan in a letter.

These dozen sheets of paper recorded the history of Longchuan, most of which were trivial matters. He Lingchuan scanned them at a glance and quickly extracted useful information from them:

Previously, the Zhang clan history recorded that the Yuheng City Guard was assassinated and died.

And the old water lizard remembered very clearly that this "City Guard" was called Zhao Yinan, the commander of Yuheng City.

Hmm, He Lingchuan scratched his chin, which meant that in real history, the Great Commander who succeeded Xiao Mao in Yuheng City was Zhao Yinan.

Further down: "Zhao Yinan had just taken office, and the water bandits raided Yuheng City at night, causing heavy losses to the city."

So the water bandit raid on the city really happened in history, and it was also successful?

But in the Panlong world, because of He Lingchuan's participation and command, this event had a completely opposite ending.

According to the old water lizard's confession, Zhao Yinan was indeed assassinated and died, which was consistent with the record in the Zhang clan history. Of course, it wasn't at the scene and didn't know the process.

Heh, the enemy plays this hand, He Lingchuan is not afraid.

He was used to dying in the Panlong world and didn't care about one more time.

But the next sentence made his face look ugly: The following year, the Yuheng City Guard Wen Daolun also died.

He Lingchuan felt a chill in his heart, and immediately remembered that some time ago when he entered the Panlong world, Wen Daolun had mentioned to him that he had divined a hexagram of danger.

So, Wen Daolun and his beloved son Wen Xing, in the end, still couldn't escape the death tribulation and couldn't fight against fate?

This kind of predestination in the dark is the most desperate, right?

(End of chapter)