Witch Wind

Chapter 17: Forcing People to Do What They Want (Part )
There was a hint of murderous intent in the old priest's eyes.

There was a crazy smile on Joems' face.

Seeing that another inexplicable battle was about to begin, Xing Tianli knew that he was powerless to stop it. He suddenly took a few quick breaths as if pumping a bellows, coughed violently twice, spurted a mouthful of blood far away, and then fell backwards.

Li Kuisheng was stunned, and held Xing Tianli. He shouted loudly, calling a few men from the Inspection Office to carry Xing Tianli away: "Hey, this child has been weak since childhood, and he must have been frightened by you just now. Everyone, your teaching or business affairs, wait until Xiaoyuer wakes up!"

Xing Tianli and others left.

The old priest and Joems looked at the group's quickly receding backs, hesitated for a moment, and took two steps back at the same time.

"Your Majesty, the interests of the empire are above all else!" Joms stroked the ruby ​​ring on his left hand vigorously.

"The glory of the Most High and Merciful Virgin Mary must not be tarnished." The old priest's deep gaze swept across the ring on Joems' finger. He shook his head gently and slowly rang the silver bell. With the sound of the bell, he slowly left with a few young nuns.

'The Virgin Mary will protect you', 'The merciful Virgin Mary is always watching over you', 'Those who believe in the Virgin Mary will be blessed'... The old priest walked slowly along the cobblestone street, gently ringing the silver bell and preaching loudly to the townspeople on both sides.

Along the way, townspeople from Xiaolongqiu Town kept coming and kneeling before him devoutly, chanting the name of the Virgin Mary, and some even crawled forward and kissed the old priest's boots.

It's only been a few days!

The belief in the Virgin Mary Church has become widespread in Xiaolongqiu Town.

Joms rubbed the ruby ​​on the ring vigorously, with a subtle smile, and shook his head gently: "Foolish belief. What can the gods bring to you? The real power comes from the ironclad battleships and the caliber of the cannons!"

Leave the dock.

Before he reached the entrance of the alley where his yard was located, Xing Tianli had already broken free from the support, lightly tapped the Tongtian Miaozhu, and walked slowly.

"Uncle, Xiaolongqiu Town." Xing Tianli just opened his mouth, but he didn't know what to say. After a long silence, Xing Tianli said a very famous sentence in his previous life: "A weak country has no diplomacy."

Li Kuisheng glanced at Xing Tianli.

He was silent for a while, then said softly, "A weak country has no diplomacy? A long time ago, I heard something similar from a gentleman. Back then!"

"What happened back then?" Xing Tianli asked immediately.

"Well, there's nothing much to say." Li Kuisheng hesitated. He shook his head and muttered sullenly, "Anyway, some are dead, some are scattered, hey, it's all over! I think the Great Yu Dynasty is over!"

The men from the inspection office who followed the uncle and nephew looked terrified, as if they had lost their souls.

Xiaolongqiu Town is their hometown.

The townspeople in the town are their parents, their wives and children, and their brothers and sisters.

The chaos of the previous two days resulted in so many innocent deaths and injuries to townspeople, and so many houses were reduced to ruins.

Judging from the attitudes of the Holy Mother Church and the Yingjishi, they are absolutely unwilling to give up. Xiaolongqiu Town is bound to bear the next wave of conflict between the two sides.

Look at the eight ironclad ships on Xiaoyan Dang Lake. If the ships fired their guns together, would it take half an hour to flatten the entire Xiaolongqiu Town? I'm afraid it would only take a quarter of an hour to destroy the entire town!
"Captain Li, and little brother Li, this Xiaolongqiu Town is our Great Yu Dynasty's territory, right?" A small leader of the Inspection Department asked hesitantly, "Should we be the masters of the matter?"

Li Kuisheng said nothing.

Xing Tianli said nothing.

Li Kuisheng didn't know how to explain it.

Xing Tianli knew the truth, but this was a long story with many twists and turns. How could he explain it? There were some things that, if spoken out in the current Dayu Dynasty, would undoubtedly be considered heresy and treason. He didn't want to scare these villagers to death!
At the end of the alley, the gate of the courtyard is open.

Xing Tianli and the others stopped at the same time. Li Kuisheng said in a deep voice, "We locked the door when we left this morning, didn't we?"

There was a very light sound of footsteps, and a young man with delicate features and handsome eyebrows, wearing a green silk robe, a silver belt around his waist, and a melon-shaped hat with a piece of high-quality green square jade inlaid in the middle, walked out quietly.

Seeing Li Kuisheng and others in a defensive posture with guns in their hands, the young man raised his eyebrows and said coldly: "How dare you, brandishing swords and guns, are you planning to rebel?"

The young man spoke in a feminine tone, with a shrill and thin voice, but he deliberately pinched his throat to make his voice thicker. When he scolded, he fiercely poked his fingers at Xing Tianli and others, but he also naturally pinched an orchid to point it out!
Without waiting for Xing Tianli and others to speak, the young man took out a silver medal from his waist and threw it over.

Li Kuisheng reached out to take the silver medal, but Xing Tianli took a step forward and grabbed the medal in his hand with a "snap". He lightly touched the medal with his fingers - it was an extremely exquisite carving. On the front was a "flaming dragon holding the sun" wrapped in flames, and on the back was a delicate and dense cloud pattern. In the middle were the two big words "weaving", and on the side were two lines of small words such as "so-and-so, appointed by heaven to work in the weaving department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Dayu Forbidden Palace".

"The Ministry of Internal Affairs? The Textile Department?" Xing Tianli threw the silver medal back and whispered, "It turns out that it was a eunuch in person!"

Li Kuisheng put down his hand awkwardly. He looked at Xing Tianli with an embarrassed expression and muttered in a low voice, "Xiao Yu'er, you are too cautious. This is a silver plate. If it is poisonous, you can always tell the color."

Xing Tianli smiled indifferently without saying anything.

Silver medals can’t be poisoned?
In the "Primitive Witch Book", there are at least 10,000 kinds of invisible, colorless, tasteless and traceless poisons. If they were placed on that small silver plate, they could easily kill tens of thousands of people.

The young man took back the silver medal, glanced at Xing Tianli, sneered again, and pointed his orchid finger at Li Kuisheng fiercely: "You ignorant thing, if I want to harm you, do I need to use poison?"

As he spoke, the young man rolled his eyes fiercely at Xing Tianli.

"Come in, we've been waiting for you for a long time." The young man turned around and walked into the yard lightly, still with silent steps, as if walking on clouds.

Xing Tianli and others followed.

The young man frowned, turned around and pointed his orchid finger fiercely: "Come on, you outsiders, just stay outside. This place is so small, and a bunch of stinky guys rushed in. Sniff your own body and offend the noble. Do you deserve it?"

The men from the Inspection Office looked at each other in bewilderment. One honest man lowered his head, put his hand under his armpit and sniffed hard.

Li Kuisheng let out a long breath, waved his hand heavily, and asked the subordinates who followed him to stay outside the courtyard gate.

In the front yard, under the eaves of the houses on the left and right, more than thirty feminine young men wearing green robes and melon-shaped hats were lined up in a row.

In front of the main hall door, six slightly older, feminine men, also wearing green robes but with a few pieces of jade dotted on the silver belts around their waists, who were obviously of higher status and older, were standing there with their eyes narrowed, motionless.

Through the open door of the main hall, one can see a man wearing a blue robe, a gold belt around his waist, and a jade dragon pendant hanging from his waist, sitting behind the eight-immortals table, drinking tea leisurely.

"You're here? You're Li Kuisheng? Yes, you're Li Li!" He looked delicate and tender, and at first glance, he was probably in his early thirties, but upon closer inspection, he had faint crow's feet at the corners of his eyes, and there were also some wrinkles on his neck. The man in the blue robe, who must be quite old, spoke slowly and said, "Come on, come up, I'll give you some instructions!"

Xing Tianli and Li Kuisheng walked into the main room.

"Do you know what my family does?" The blue-robed man looked Xing Tianli and the other two up and down for a while, then spoke in a long voice, word by word: "You don't have to guess, nor do you have to understand. In short, my family is the one who can decide your life or death with a single word. It's enough for you to understand this!"

The corner of Xing Tianli's eye twitched.

Li Kuisheng exhaled heavily.

The blue-robed man's eyes fell on Xing Tianli. He frowned, with a hint of confusion, and looked at Xing Tianli seriously for a long time. Then he murmured, "You are blind, boy. Why do those foreign missionaries insist on making you the chief clerk?"

Shaking his head, the blue-robed man chuckled and looked at Xing Tianli with a look of strong sarcasm and malice: "Come on, it's probably not a good thing."

"Well, Li Kuisheng, Li Li, do you know why we came to Xiaolongqiu Town this time?"

Li Kuisheng said sullenly, "May I ask why you condescended to come to our rural village?"

The man in blue robe sighed, and also unconsciously curled his fingers together and gently touched his chin: "Well, there is a distinguished person who wants to know, why are these foreigners beating drums and gongs in Xiaolongqiu Town?" Xing Tianli raised his eyebrows.

Yeah, for what?
"You have experienced these things in person these days. Do you think it is reasonable? Those foreign missionaries fought with the British, who are known as the most powerful country among the 100 countries in the Far West, in your remote place."

"There is a noble who wants to know what is going on here?" The man in blue robe sighed, "But, after all, this involves foreigners. Although the noble wants to know the cause and effect, he doesn't want the foreigners to know. We are trying to find out their secrets."

The man in blue robe closed his mouth and stared at Xing Tianli and the other man with sharp eyes.

Xing Tianli said nothing.

Li Kuisheng stared at the man in blue robe. As a straightforward man, he did not hear clearly what was hidden in the man's feminine and implicit words.

The blue-robed man was silent for a while. Seeing that Xing Tianli and the other two were silent, he slammed the table angrily and said, "Hey, you two idiots. If you enter the palace, you won't survive for more than half a month or you will be beaten to death!"

The man in the blue robe waved his orchid finger vigorously and said in a deep voice: "Li Kuisheng, Li Li, I give you seven days to find out for us why these two groups of foreigners are fighting here. Find out the mystery here, but don't alarm them. Do you understand?"

Xing Tianli coughed and said, "What if we alarm them?"

The blue-robed man nodded at Xing Tianli fiercely: "Well, everything is up to you to decide, and it has nothing to do with our family. Understand?"

Before Xing Tianli could speak, the man in blue robe had already extended his right index finger and gently stroked his neck: "If the investigation is unsuccessful and no concrete results are obtained. Or, if the news leaks out and involves the nobleman behind our family... your heads will not belong to you anymore!"

After saying a few words in a sarcastic tone, the man in blue robe slowly stood up and walked towards the door of the main room at a speed less than one-fifth of the normal walking speed of an ordinary person.

Li Kuisheng stared blankly at the man in blue robe.

Xing Tianli sighed softly.

The man in the blue robe walked at such a slow pace from behind the eight-immortals table to the door of the house. Seeing that Xing Tianli and the other two did not express their opinions at all, he stomped his feet in frustration, snorted coldly, swung his hands behind his back, suddenly quickened his pace, and rushed out with big strides.

A group of men in blue clothes hurriedly followed him.

The young man in green who had just greeted Xing Tianli and his party at the door hurried to the door, pointed at Xing Tianli and the other two and whispered, "What is that thing growing on your necks? Is that a head? Do you have pig heads? Hey, do you understand the rules?"

Li Kuisheng opened his mouth.

Xing Tianli stretched out his hand and pressed Li Kuisheng's shoulder, sighing leisurely: "Please forgive me, sir, we are all country bumpkins from the countryside, and we really don't understand the rules of 'welcoming and seeing off'."

Xing Tianli added: "However, it seems that the eunuchs still need our uncle and nephew?"

The young man in blue remained silent.

Xing Tianli smiled and said, "The eunuch just said that it was the people of the Holy Mother Church who spoke up, so I got the position of chief clerk out of nowhere. Tell me, since I got this position because of the foreigners, is my position very stable?"

The young man in green looked at Xing Tianli deeply, turned around and left without saying a word. His steps were light and soundless, but his speed was not slow. He took two or three small steps and easily covered several feet, and in a flash he was out of the small courtyard.

There was silence in the courtyard.

After a long while, Li Kuisheng turned around and asked Xing Tianli: "What did they mean just now?"

Xing Tianli was silent for a while, then said softly: "You don't understand? No wonder you have been a ninth-rank official for so many years."

Shaking his head, Xing Tianli spread his hands and sneered, "They want us to work for a nobleman, but they are unwilling to take responsibility. If things are done well, it is their credit, and if things are done badly, we are asked to take the blame. Not only that, they condescended to come to see us uncle and nephew, and gave us this opportunity to work for a nobleman. When they left, we didn't even give them any hard work fees!"

"We are ungrateful!" Xing Tianli smiled strangely and pointed at his nose fiercely.

Li Kuisheng's eyes widened, and bloodshot could be seen on the edges of his eyeballs. He suddenly let out a strange cry and cursed at the sky and the earth. After Xing Tianli's explanation, he finally understood what had just happened.

A bunch of damn eunuchs came to their door, asked the uncle and nephew to work for them and take the blame, and also wanted to extort some money from them?
"I!" Li Kuisheng gripped the gun handle tightly.

"Don't pay attention to them." Xing Tianli said softly: "After all, they said it themselves, I got this position with the help of foreigners. Tsk, why did those foreign charlatans arrange this position for me? What do they see in me?"

That night.

Xing Tianli stood on the roof of his house and looked around.

It was nearly midnight. Normally, the country folks would not spend money on candles and go to bed early. Normally, the whole town would have been dark by now.

But today, in the huge town of Xiaolongqiu, more than half of the houses were brightly lit and filled with smoke. Faintly, the sound of hymns praising the Virgin Mary floated out from those houses. In the night wind, the clear sound of silver bells could be heard.

In the center of the town, a large number of townspeople gathered in the flat area below the huge Feng Shui tree. They gathered together and listened attentively to the sermons of several young nuns. Every once in a while, the townspeople, led by the young nuns, shouted the name of the Virgin Mary in unison. Their piety chilled Xing Tianli inexplicably.

Correspondingly, the direction of the town’s dock is also densely lit.

Below Joms, the Englishmen camped near the dock. Perhaps to give themselves courage, or simply to intimidate the missionaries of the Virgin Mary, several ironclad ships on the lake in the distance would blow their whistles at regular intervals. The roar of the whistles cut through the night sky, countering the townspeople's prayers in the name of the Virgin Mary, and refusing to give in.

Xing Tianli stood on the roof, waiting quietly.

Time passed little by little.

The lights in the town finally went out gradually. On the plain in the center of the town, the townspeople, who seemed to have been given an injection of chicken blood, finally became exhausted and went home to rest.

Night fell over the town.

Near the dock, the lights were extinguished one after another, and only the Yingji guards who were patrolling in groups of three or four still had torches flickering in their hands.

Xing Tianli was like a fish slipping into the water, floating away silently in the night breeze.

By the evening, the people from the Inspection Office had found out that Joms had rented more than a dozen houses as his base with the help of the government's intimidation. But Joms himself did not dare to live in the town. At nightfall, he took a small boat to an armored frigate on the lake.

The ironclad frigate was now 20 miles away from the lakeshore. Not only that, even though it was already late at night, there were still four wooden boats patrolling on both sides of the frigate.

Xing Tianli came to the lake and chanted a secret spell. The big cauldron in his heart shook slightly. A ray of golden light burned slowly in the cauldron. Colorful mist diffused, and a touch of blue-green light rose from under Xing Tianli's skin. He jumped lightly and slid into the lake without making any sound.

No real fish can swim as fast as the Xingtian carp at this moment.

It took him less than a quarter of an hour to swim twenty miles, avoiding the four small boats patrolling on the lake and silently approaching the bottom of the frigate.

Just as Xing Tianli approached, extremely thin black shadows suddenly flew out from the lake. With the sound of "puff", the heads of twelve Yingji sailors who were paddling weakly and cruising slowly around the frigate on four small boats exploded and fell silently on the wooden boats.

Xing Tianli immediately held his breath and stood still. A dozen burly figures in black robes and wet bodies quietly emerged from the lake. They clung to the smooth iron hull and climbed onto the deck easily, step by step.

Xing Tianli smiled.

What a coincidence.

He was extremely surprised in his heart - these people from the Holy Mother Church, are they really not afraid of making things worse? Are they really not afraid of the Kingdom of England going to war with them?

They just arrived during the day, and they came to kill us on the same day?

(End of this chapter)