Witch Wind

Chapter 21: Walking in the Jiazi Period (Part )

However, Xing Tianli was, after all, 'Mr. Li' who had been telling stories in teahouses for many years, and his professional habit kicked in when he was telling the stories. He described the cruelty of the missionaries, the arrogance of the British, the flattery and incompetence of the local officials, and the helplessness of Li Kuisheng and his uncle and nephew...all these faces were described vividly and incisively by him.

As a result, the faces of these foreign devils became more and more hateful, the morals of these local officials became more and more despicable, and the glorious image of the uncle and nephew, who were concerned about the country and the people and could not sleep at night, was established.

The purple-robed woman listened carefully to Xing Tianli's story. After a while, she sneered and pointed fiercely at the faintly visible ships on the lake: "Look, look, the Fen tribe is really just barbarians from the mountains and forests, not worth mentioning. If it weren't for the great changes in the world and the chaos of the various families, how could they have ruled the world?"

Xing Tianli's heart beat violently.

Great changes in heaven and earth?

The Fen clan took over the world?

Hey, speaking of this, he was very interested. He had read the "History Book" and other "historical books" officially published and distributed by the Fen Clan, which were widely circulated. In them, the story of the Fen Clan's great ancestor who raised an army in the mountains of the northeast six hundred years ago and swept the world in just a few years was written in a glorious and just, moral article.

What about the Fen clan's Taizu's righteousness, what about the Fen clan's Taizu's wisdom and bravery, what about the Fen clan's Taizu's obedience to the will of heaven, what about the Fen clan's Taizu's pleading for the people, what this, what that!

It is also recorded in "The Records of Ancestor Burning" that in the previous dynasty of the Dayu Dynasty, the court was corrupt, dirty and dark, and it was a disaster sent by heaven, and the people were living in misery. From the emperor to the royal family, nobles, civil and military officials, all of them were lazy and frivolous, making the vast world of China a hell.

As a result, the founder of the Fen tribe, as the leader of a mere mountain tribal alliance, raised an army in the barren frontier areas and easily conquered the world.

Hearing what the purple-robed woman said, it seems that the Fen Clan established the Dayu Dynasty at a special time, and it was a benefit they gained out of thin air?

Xing Tianli said softly: "That's what happened. The root of the problem is that the Yingji people are trafficking our people, and those missionaries are crazy and are willing to go to war to stop this."

"Your Excellency is a man of great ability. Please, for the sake of the innocence of the people, give them a helping hand." Xing Tianli said sincerely, and bowed deeply to the purple-robed woman.

He sincerely hoped that the woman in purple robe could intervene in this matter.

It is not only for the well-being of more than 10,000 villagers in Xiaolongqiu Town, but also for the men and women who are continuously transported to Pinghai City, and then transferred to large sea ships from Pinghai City and transported to Yingji mainland.

Xing Tianli knew very well that with his current ability, he could only do some minor damage here, and he could not fundamentally stop this matter. But this purple-robed woman was different. She had so many masters under her command, her own methods were extremely powerful, and her background was mysterious. If she could intervene in this matter, there might really be a turning point.

The purple-robed woman's eyes moved slightly.

She looked at Xing Tianli and smiled softly: "I didn't expect that he is really a person who cares about the country and the people."

With her hands behind her back, the purple-robed woman looked at the frigate on the lake that emitted a low whistle and said softly, "I am Zhao Qingqian, one of the three ancient families, the Zhao Song Dynasty."

"Do you know what the Jiazi Walk means?" Zhao Qingqi did not wait for Xing Tianli to answer, and said to himself: "The so-called Jiazi Walk means that every sixty years, the three ancient families, the three medieval families, and the three recent families will select elites from their clans to walk around Shenzhou and survey the world."

"If the world is peaceful and prosperous, we will just sit back and watch, ask for a tribute from the current court, and return to our ancestral land. The world's affairs will have nothing to do with us."

Xing Tianli said in a deep voice: "What if the state is in chaos and the people are living in misery?"

Zhao Qingqi frowned slightly and said softly, "Of course, there are some rules here. However, the current situation of the Great Jade Dynasty of the Fen Clan is very different from what was described by our family sixty years ago."

"The barbarians and lowly slaves are so unscrupulous and lawless."

"Their armor is surprisingly strong and exquisite, and it is quite mysterious."

"Your ships are made of iron armor and have powerful guns!"

Li Kuisheng and a few other men from the Inspection Office were looking over here from a few feet away. Zhao Qingqi suddenly stretched out his hand to him and said, "Inspector Li, come here. Is that thing on your waist the produce of these barbarians and slaves? Let me have a look!"

Li Kuisheng blinked his eyes, trotted over, and handed a revolver from his waist to Li Qingqing.

Zhao Qingxuan played with the heavy revolver filled with bullets for a while, then shouted softly to the person behind him.

A strong man like an iron block strode forward and stood two feet in front of Zhao Qingqi. The strong man took a deep breath, and with the terrible sound of his muscles and bones shaking, his body suddenly grew three inches taller, and his muscles under his skin squirmed. His skin seemed to have suddenly become three points thinner. From his cheeks to his neck, and then to his palms, the muscle lines under his skin were clearly visible.

Zhao Qingqi raised his gun and started firing. Six consecutive gunshots rang out, and six large-caliber bullets were fired, hitting the big man's thigh, which had swelled to almost the thickness of an ordinary person's waist.

With the sound of "puff", the six bullets caused the muscles on the big man's thigh to dent slightly, and then the bullets bounced out weakly.

The big man's face suddenly changed slightly, and he clasped his fists respectfully towards Zhao Qingqi and said, "Your Highness, the power of this thing is extraordinary. We, the Xuanwu Imperial Guards, are naturally not afraid of it. But the two major imperial guards of our family, 'Guide' and 'Jingsai', will find it difficult to withstand the concentrated fire of this thing even if they are wearing armor."

Li Kuisheng stealthily took out a foreign-made grenade from his sleeve and handed it to Zhao Qingqian.

Zhao Qingqi asked about the use of the grenade, pulled off the cable himself, and threw it toward the lake. There was a muffled sound, and a water column several feet high exploded on the lake surface, smoke rose up, waves rippled, and small shrapnel flew around, making a sharp whistling sound.

The expressions of these Xuanwu guards changed slightly, and the man who had just tested the gun immediately volunteered.

Zhao Qingqi was also a daring man, and immediately, a grenade exploded a few feet away from the man. The huge body was shaken and staggered back, and the surging blood made his face flush.

"These are just small bombs used by ordinary foreign soldiers." Xing Tianli explained, "The gunboats and frigates have real big guns. Well, they also have armored ships that are ten times larger than the frigates. The guns on them can destroy half of a town with one shot."

The expressions of Zhao Qingqi and others suddenly changed.

Her eyes flickered as she stared at Xing Tianli for a long while before she nodded slowly: "In just sixty years, how could the world have come to this? Hmm..."

She glanced at the eunuch.

The eunuch took out an extremely thin and flexible piece of paper from his sleeve, hurriedly wrote a long string of words in tiny handwriting on it, then stuffed it into a thin silver tube and tied it to the claw of a Saker Falcon.

Zhao Qingqi let out a clear whistle, and two gers flew up into the air with flapping wings, circling above the crowd for three times, and then soared up with the help of a gust of lake wind, and in an instant they disappeared into the depths of the cloud layer that was invisible to the naked eye. There was a faint sound of crisp cries coming from them, and from the sound, they flew all the way to the northwest.

Next to Xing Tianli's courtyard, Zhao Qingqi rented several houses at a very high price. She planned to rest in Xiaolongqiu Town and wait for news from her family before deciding on her next move.

Xing Tianli looked at the flickering look in her eyes and always felt that she might have a special interest in those missionaries.

At nightfall.

Xing Tianli stood in the yard, and across the wall and the alley, the sound of gunfire could be heard from the yard next door from time to time. The gunshots of the revolver were rapid and loud, the gunshots of the double-barreled shotgun were slightly long and dull, and the gunshots of the standard magazine-primed firing needle rifle were crisp and long.

Along with the gunshots, there were also the "puff" sounds of bullets hitting flesh, the "clink" sounds of bullets hitting iron, and the feminine friction sounds of hitting unknown objects.

Zhao Qingqi was next door, testing the power of various firearms with a group of followers.

Amid the faint sound of gunfire, the back door of the courtyard was knocked. Xing Tianli was stunned for a while - it was a courtyard, of course there was a small door. But since he moved into this courtyard, how many years had it been since his back door was knocked?
Ding ding, lighting the bamboo, Xing Tianli came to the back garden, passed through several clumps of purple bamboo, and came to the back door. He pulled out the rusty bolt with force. With the creaking sound of the door hinge, a middle-aged eunuch in a blue robe and several eunuchs in green robes walked in silently.

"Oh, are you the eunuchs?" Xing Tianli sniffed hard, "I will never forget the incense you all wore."

The blue-robed eunuch quickly raised a finger, put it in front of his lips and said softly, "You little bastard, you are going to die. Be quiet, don't make a sound, don't alarm anyone!"

Xing Tianli nodded thoughtfully.

The eunuchs from the weaving department, who were so arrogant that night, became inexplicably cautious as rabbits today. They didn't even dare to come in through the main gate of the courtyard, but went through the back alley and sneaked in through the back door.

"You are really well-informed, sir? You also know that someone from the Zhao Song family lives next door? Hey, that Miss Zhao Qingqin calls herself 'this palace', and her followers call her 'Your Highness'... Oh, my heart is throbbing with fear. They are committing treason, sir, they are overstepping their authority! They want to rebel!"

Xing Tianli grabbed the blue-robed eunuch's cold hand and said hastily, "You can't let them go so easily. Move the troops, move the troops, arrest them all, and torture the mastermind behind them!"

Xing Tianli burst into laughter in his heart.

In particular, when he saw a few eunuchs with expressions as if they had been forced to eat cow dung and wanted to take out a knife and chop themselves a thousand times, he felt inexplicably happy!
"There's no rush for this matter!" The blue-robed eunuch coughed lightly and hurriedly shook his hand, trying to pull his hand back from Xing Tianli's.

However, Xing Tianli deliberately increased his strength a little bit, and there was an invisible suction force in the palm of his hand that firmly sucked the blue-robed eunuch's hand. No matter how hard the blue-robed eunuch tried, he just held the blue-robed eunuch's palm tightly: "Hey, what you said seems... This is a traitor, aren't you in a hurry to arrest him?"

Xing Tianli smiled as if he had suddenly realized something: "I understand. You are trying to play the long game to catch a big fish. You want to find the mastermind behind Zhao Qingqi, and then catch them all in one fell swoop and execute the entire Zhao Song family!"

When talking about the words 'the whole family will be executed', Xing Tianli's expression became very serious.

The expressions of the eunuchs became increasingly strange.

The eunuch in blue robe shook his hands several times, but he couldn't get rid of them. He gritted his teeth, stared at Xing Tianli from head to toe for a long while, and finally sighed softly: "Boy, if you were castrated and entered the palace to serve the nobles, you would be able to rise to prominence. Your weird skills are not much weaker than those of my family who have been in the palace for more than 20 years."

"Come on, stop saying weird things to us here!"

A group of eunuchs sneaked into the back garden. Instead of going to the front house to serve tea, they stood among a few bamboos and surrounded Xing Tianli in the middle.

"I want to ask you to tell me in detail what happened at the dock today. In particular, what did you and the Zhao family girl talk about?"

Several eunuchs held their breath, their eyes wandering, constantly looking around. They looked like a little maid in a wealthy landlord's house who was secretly meeting her lover for the first time. They were extremely cautious, fearing that they would be caught in the act.

Is Zhao Qingqin next door really that scary?
Xing Tianli coughed lightly and also very dutifully recounted in detail what had just happened at the dock, including how the old priest and a group of missionaries were violently killed, only two young nuns escaped, and the conversation between Xing Tianli and Zhao Qingxuan, etc.

Without exaggerating or changing the story, he just told the story as it happened.

When the eunuch in blue robe heard Xing Tianli say that Zhao Qingxuan had released two Saker Falcons and sent a message to his family, his face became extremely ugly. He clenched his fists and stamped his feet lightly. It was obvious that he hated the beast to the core, and was also wary to the core.

"Tell me more about what that old foreign priest said to you!" The blue-robed eunuch looked in the direction where the gunshot came from and asked Xing Tianli with gritted teeth.

Then, Xing Tianli repeated his conversation with the old priest word for word.

The blue-robed eunuch took a deep, deep breath. For a moment, his feminine yet extremely sharp eyes were actually blank for a while. After a long while, he whispered, "Yingjishi and the Holy Mother Church, there are actually people behind them?"

"Could it be that among those barbarians in the far west, there are also aristocratic families like the Zhao and Song dynasties?" The blue-robed eunuch frowned and whispered, "Strange, why are they so worried about all those refugees?"

"Several provinces in the northwest are experiencing severe drought, with more than 100 million people displaced and without land... I don't know how many people die of starvation, thirst, and disease every day. What's there to be nervous about for something as lowly as a dog?"

The blue-robed eunuch muttered in a low voice, but his words caused waves in Xing Tianli's heart.

The severe drought in the northwest affects several provinces?
Are there hundreds of millions of landless refugees?
In these days, more than 100,000 or 200,000 young and strong men and women have been sent away by the British. In the mouths of the blue-robed eunuchs, they are just "lowly things like dogs"!
The blue-robed eunuch, just a slave in the palace, had this attitude.

It is conceivable that in the minds of the high-ranking officials of the Dayu Dynasty, the lives of these refugees are no more valuable than "pigs and dogs".

While he was thinking, the eunuch in blue robe suddenly took out a small silver plate and put it into Xing Tianli's hand. Xing Tianli touched the silver plate with his fingers. On the front was "a picture of a flaming dragon holding the sun", and on the back was "weaving" in two large characters, with two lines of small characters next to it, which read "Li Li, the eighth-rank lieutenant of the weaving department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Great Jade Forbidden Palace, was appointed by the emperor".

"Our Lianxi is the sixth-rank eunuch in charge of the weaving department." Eunuch Lianxi gently patted Xing Tianli's shoulder and said with a smile on his face: "Xiao Li, you will slowly learn what our weaving department does in the future."

"Now, you are also a member of our weaving department. Don't underestimate your title of eighth-rank lieutenant. Even if you are the governor of a county, you have to be polite to our brothers. You will slowly understand the benefits of this in the future!"

"Now, I'll give you a job!"

"Follow that Zhao Qingqi, the Jiazi Walker of the Zhao Song Dynasty!" Eunuch Lianxi narrowed his eyes, his face full of extremely obscene and vulgarity: "Do everything you can to follow her, flatter her, and coax her. Hey, become her confidant!"

"If so!" Eunuch Lianxi laughed a few times, "Brother, you are so tall, handsome, and Zhao Qingqi is still young. If you can get something done with her... To be honest, if you get her pregnant, hey, our nobleman behind us will definitely reward you handsomely!"

"We are counting on you, do a good job!" Lian Xi pinched Xing Tianli's shoulders hard, chuckled, and ran away with a few eunuchs.

Xing Tianli stared at their backs in amazement.

These damn eunuchs, what did he just say?
Instigate me to hook up with Zhao Qingqi?
Well, Xing Tianli admitted that Zhao Qingxuan was indeed an extremely noble and beautiful woman, and she did fit Xing Tianli's aesthetic taste...but taking the initiative to flirt with her and being instigated by a dead eunuch like you, how could this be the same thing?
Moreover, by accident, I have become a member of the weaving department?

An eighth-rank captain?

Is this weaving factory serious?
That night, a sudden thunderstorm hit. Amidst the dull rolling thunder, someone knocked on the courtyard door. Xing Tianli stood under the eaves of the front yard, watching Xiangliu Baifei lead in a man who was seven feet tall, with a majestic frame, but skinny, with a layer of pale white skin tightly wrapped around his bones, like a living skeleton.

What shocked Xing Tianli was that there was a very thin circle of blood on the big man's neck.

The position of the blood line was as if the big man's head had been chopped off by someone and then put back together on his body, with the wound growing back and healing, leaving behind a scar.

Xing Tianli was worried.

His intuition told him that his guess was correct - this big man had indeed been beheaded by someone with a knife, and then his head was pieced back onto his body, the wound healed again, and he came back to life!

He became so thin, as thin as a skeleton. It was obvious that the blood and essence in his body were almost exhausted and could not be replenished sufficiently in a short time, resulting in this strange phenomenon.

Li Kuisheng also came out to greet them.

When he saw the skinny man, he said in shock: "Head Coach? Weren't you beheaded?"

(End of this chapter)