Chenzhou is on the bank of Cai River and is the gateway to the south of Kaifeng Prefecture. It has convenient water and land transportation and is extremely prosperous.

In mid-August, Du Zhongxiao and Han Jiang and Su Song stopped for a while from Xuzhou to Chenzhou. Then, they bid farewell to Han Jiang with Su Song and went to Bozhou.

This area is the hinterland of the Central Plains, with vast plains that are boundless and almost impossible to see high mountains. However, the wars in the late Tang and Five Dynasties were the most affected. In addition, the terrain was low and there were many floods, and it still did not recover until this time.

The group went to the morning and stayed overnight. After leaving Chenzhou, they entered Bozhou, not to Luyi County. They rested in the inn for a night, and left early the next morning to the Feishui Ferry.

This is the upper reaches of the Feishui River. The river is not wide because it came early, and only one ferry was floating there without anyone.

Du Zhongxiao turned around and looked at a breakfast shop outside the city gate, and said to Su Song: "The sun has not yet risen, so we have a bowl of porridge in the shop in our county. After passing the ferry, I don't know if I can go to Weizhen County today, for fear of not being able to eat or not on the way."

Su Song had no objection, and the pedestrians returned and arrived at the breakfast shop outside the city.

Du Zhongxiao arrived in front of the shop and whispered loudly: "Master, come a few bowls of porridge to wrap your belly. I have some fun, and there are female relatives in the car."

The master answered, and a servant ran over quickly to clean up the table and let Du Zhongxiao and Su Song sit down.

After a while, two bowls of meat porridge were put on the table. Du Zhongxiao tasted it, and added pepper to the porridge with a spicy flavor. He said to Su Song: "It was already cold in the morning, so it was just right to add some spicy ingredients to this porridge."

The two of them had eaten porridge and sat there to rest. They saw that there were still no pedestrians on the road to the city.

The sun was already rising, and Du Zhongxiao couldn't help but be anxious and asked the busy shopkeeper in the shop, "Master, this is the East and West Avenue, the sun is already rising, why don't there be a few pedestrians? There are only ferries at the ferry over there, and there are no houses holding the boat."

The shopkeeper said, "Please wait. It will take another hour before Cheng Qianliu, who is raising a boat, will leave the city. Now the road is a bit uneasy, and the guests who come and go must wait for the dawn to walk together. It is useless for Mr. Cheng to leave the city early."

Du Zhongxiao was shocked and asked hurriedly: "I have never heard of any thieves in this area, so why can't there be peace?"

The shopkeeper shook his head repeatedly: "There are no big thieves, but there are many small thieves. Recently, I heard that there were some big thieves in the capital that stole thousands of stakes of gold and silver from a foreigner. Because they were chased tightly, they fled here. The nearby thieves heard that they committed crimes one after another, and they were in chaos."

Du Zhongxiao and Su Song looked at each other and couldn't help but feel a little nervous. Because they were greedy for moving quickly, they did not ask the prefectures and counties to send escorts. Unexpectedly, there were thieves in the place. Although they often refer to the prefectures and counties, they were actually very different from the prefectures and counties. There were many officials in the prefectures and counties, including the imperial guards, the wing army and various public personnel, and generally had good public security. Ten miles away from the prefectures, it was another style. Du Zhongxiao has always compared the counties of this era to the towns of his previous life. In fact, most of the small counties were not even comparable to towns. There were no serious public people in the county, and most of them were servants without salary, plus the number of different archers. The main force of public security was ten people in the small county, and there were less than a hundred large counties. When facing a slightly larger country landlord, he felt guilty. How could he manage the local security well?

The most famous story left to the later generations of Liangshan heroes was actually only a few dozen people in history, and the subordinates he was forced to do was only a few hundred people at most. Such a force was enough to rush across several states in the mainland, as if he had entered a state of no one, which shows how weak the local power was.

Looking back at the ox cart parked by the roadside, there were Han Yueniang and her personal female envoy inside. Du Zhongxiao couldn't help but worry. The little thief on the road dared to rob the officials in a day without hearing, but once he disturbed his family, it would be bad.

After thinking for a while, Du Zhongxiao said to Su Song: "This area is full of rivers and the land is vast and the people are sparse. Who knows what people are in the countryside? We should be careful on the way and walk with the brigade of guests to avoid accidents."

Su Song nodded in agreement. He was alone and when he arrived in Suzhou, he would find a way to take his family over, so naturally Du Zhongxiao was the main focus.

Several states centered on Chenzhou have low terrain and a large number of tributaries of the Huai River, which are severely flooded and have a lot of saline-alkali land. Although they are located in the Central Plains, there are many abandoned land and not dense populations. The wars in the late Tang and Five Dynasties have developed bad folk customs in this area, and there are many rural thieves. In recent years, the imperial court has put huge financial pressure on the northwest, and the local government has banned a lot of miscellaneous taxes, making the local government even more chaotic.

Du Zhongxiao was still a little worried after thinking about it. He took his famous post and called Zhou Hou, the servant hired when he went out, and said to him: "You took my famous post and went to Luyi County Government. He only said that I and Guanren Su were going to Bozhou to take office. He sent him a public servant, a few archers, and escorted us out of the country. When we arrived in Weizhen County, there were naturally some public servants there to change them back."

Zhou Hou agreed to the promise with his hands and took the famous post and flew away. Luyi was already under Bozhou, Du Zhongxiao was the prosecutor of this prefecture, and the county should have sent someone to escort him. But he was used to being in a prosperous place and forgot about this festival for a while.

After waiting for about half an hour, Zhou Hou and Qudutou from the county rushed over with five archers.

When he handed over the famous post, Qu Dutou sang a promise to Du Zhongxiao: "The youngest one is the head of the county. The county magistrate sent him to the officials' orders."

Du Zhongxiao said: "I just heard from the master that the road was a little uneasy recently. You can take a few people and be careful along the way to escort us out of the country. I just came to our province to take office, so don't make any mistakes. But there is a little mistake, but you are asking!"

Qu Du said in a daze and said, "Officials should not listen to people's nonsense. It is peaceful now, why are the roads not peaceful? These roadside businessmen are shaking their mouths and seem to be very knowledgeable. Officials just keep on rushing their way with peace of mind, and villains are just waiting for them."

Du Zhongxiao nodded, saying nothing more, just asked Qu Dutou to be careful all the way.

After resting for a while, Du Zhongxiao and Su Song got up after seeing more and more pedestrians on the road. Qu Dutou took the archer in front of him, and the group headed towards the ferry. The archer was just a name for an organization and had nothing to do with the bow and arrow. They were locals, and they took turns to maintain local public order.

In a small boat with reeds not far from the ferry, three men sat together on a small boat, tearing a chicken and drinking. From a distance, Qu Dutou and Du Zhongxiao and his party were on the road. A man sitting inside spat: "It's not unlucky! I finally saw a fat sheep, who should have some wealth, but he didn't expect it to be an official, which attracted Qu Dutou in the county to escort him."

The man opposite him turned around and looked for a while, saying, "Brother, Qu Dutou has only five people, and there is also Jiang Erlang, who is familiar with us. The scholar, who can see that he has no power to tie the chicken, is considered a leader. It would be better for us to rob them, and we will just divide it with Qu Dutou."

The man who had earlier cursed: "What are you putting on your head? If you can be honestly escorted by Qu Du, you must be an official. Maybe you are still an official in this state. How dare you provoke him? These people all recognize us. As long as one of them leaves, we will find it difficult to escape. Forget it, just act as bad luck and don't do business today! I heard that there was a Sigong of Song who had very good skills. A few days ago, he committed a major case in the capital and was captured by the government. He came to us and brought it here. You are all more alert. With his news, report it to me as soon as possible."

Another man said: "When Mr. Song has committed a big case, he must have gold, silver and treasures in his hand. Will his brother make his fortune?"
Chapter completed!