turmoil

"Four...five years ago, that is, in the 17th year of Taiping, Mr. Wang presided over Qiuwei in Anhui. He personally named a student with the surname Zhang as Xie Yuan, and praised his article," Yang Fan said in a low voice, "Mr. Wang said , this person has a superb literary talent and a deep chest. Judging from his writing style, he is not like the year of dancing elephants. He will soar into the sky in the future, and his future is bound to be limitless."

"It's just that the teacher didn't expect that this young man, Xie Yuan, whom he was so optimistic about, failed to participate in the examination that year."

Yang Fan's voice paused, and he looked at Zhang Jingche meaningfully: "Zhang Tongzhi, do you know why?"

Zhang Jingche was expressionless.

"I heard it too... It is said that Zhang Xieyuan's family is poor and has only one old mother. She does some sewing every day and has worked hard to bring him up. That Zhang Jieyuan probably hopes to bring his mother to Beijing to enjoy the blessings after high school, but he doesn't want Aunt Zhang When I went to the street that day, I offended Prince Huainan for some reason, and was dragged half a long street by Prince Liu, who rode his horse and smashed his head on the stone lion in the palace, and he just disappeared."

Yang Fan sighed: "That Zhang Xieyuan has been dependent on his mother since he was a child, how can he swallow this breath? But at that time, the Huainan fiefdom had not been withdrawn, and the Huainan king was like an emperor in the south of the Yangtze River, even the court couldn't do anything about him. "

"Zhang Jieyuan had nowhere to ask, and was chased and killed by the Huainan king in every possible way, so he had to feed a tiger with his body, and killed the Huainan prince's son with his own hands..."

Zhang Jingche interrupted him abruptly: "Master Hou, it's all old stuff, so don't mention it again!"

Yang Fan didn't listen to him, and said to himself: "According to my Great Yin's criminal law, the murderer dies, not to mention the son of a feudal prince who has been officially enshrined! That is to say, his family is gone. If he is still alive, he must be executed. The Nine Clans! Mrs. Wang heard about this incident over and over again, and his heart ached beyond measure. In just half a month, he sent more than a dozen memorials to the imperial court one after another. I just want to save the life of that student surnamed Zhang."

Zhang Jingche was stunned when he heard this secret for the first time.

"Later, the imperial court ordered the dismantling of the domain, but refused to spare the life of the student surnamed Zhang. The reason was very high-sounding: If there is a grievance in the family, they can live and kill and do whatever they want. What do you want the king to do? If things go on like this, anyone can What kind of chaos will the world turn into if the enemy is punished by lynching?"

Zhang Jingche sneered, then listened to Yang Fan's voice paused, and said without any emotional ups and downs: "...It's just that the pedants who said these words don't think about it. If Wang's law really works, who is willing to let it go Don't want a good future, take your own life to die with an ignorant beast!"

Zhang Jingche gave him a slightly surprised look.

Yang Fan knew he had made a slip of the tongue, and laughed at himself mockingly: "My lord Wang really cherishes this talent's talent, he did not hesitate to travel thousands of miles back to Beijing, entered the palace to see the Holy Majesty, and knelt at the gate of the palace for a day and a night."

"It was mid-winter at that time, and the snow had just fallen, and a drop of water could still turn into ice. Mr. Wang is old, and he is tired of traveling thousands of miles. How can he live in the ice and snow and kneel for a night? Before the Holy Master let go, he passed out. , was sent back to the mansion by the eunuch, and developed a high fever that day, and later became ill, most of which were caused by this."

Zhang Jingche suddenly trembled all over. He could not change his expression when he was trapped in Beile and was beaten severely, but he couldn't restrain himself in Dingbianhou's light words.

Yang Fan lifted his clothes and patted him on the shoulder, as if he wanted to say something, but felt that in this matter, saying anything was superfluous, so he sighed and walked out first.

Zhang Jingche trembled for a while, and looked up at the dark divine tablet, half of his face was hidden in the shadow, and his eyes were blushing unknowingly.

When he was in purgatory, tormented by hatred, when he was covered in blood and screaming in the near death situation, it turned out that he was not alone and helpless. There was such a person thinking about him, thinking about him, and running hard for him.

Even if there is no result in the end, this friendship is already a luxury he can only hope for in this life.

"Teacher," Zhang Jingche called softly in his heart, "I'm leaving."

Although he does not have a serious status as a master and apprentice, this kindness is his final reconciliation with this world that is afraid of hard and bullying.

Zhang Jingche kowtowed again, and after bowing three times, he retreated respectfully.

Yang Fan was waiting for him outside the ancestral hall. Hou Dingbian, who hated cats and hated dogs, had itchy hands all day long, and was holding a small stick to tease the ants on the ground.Zhang Jingche ignored him and walked past him. Yang Fan hurriedly got up, but he stretched out his hand and wrapped his arms around his neck.

Zhang Jingche thought that this man's claws had caught an ant just now, and his expression darkened immediately: "Let go!"

Yang Fan had a playful smile, as if the gloomy face in the ancestral hall just now was just Zhang Jingche's misreading: "Don't be so ignorant, you and I have both listened to lectures in Mr. Zhang's hall, and we are barely classmates... Well, call senior brother to listen ?”

Zhang Jingche smiled on the surface: "If I remember correctly, the humble job should be older than Lord Hou, right?"

Yang Fan's skin was very thick, and he immediately climbed up the pole and said, "That's why I call you senior brother... senior brother!"

Zhang Jingche's knees trembled, goosebumps almost fell off his body.

He dragged the skinless and shameless Dingbianhou out, and You Yunwei, who was waiting outside, looked at his nose, nose and heart, pretending that his eyes were lame.After walking one or two hundred feet, Yang Fan smelled the aroma of hot noodle soup, so he pulled Zhang Jingche back: "I'm in a hurry, I haven't had lunch yet, let's fill my stomach first."

Zhang Jingche pulled off his claws that were holding onto his sleeve: "You can eat by yourself, I'm not hungry."

Marquis Dingbian has no other advantages, except that he has a rare pair of ears, but if he doesn't like to listen, it will be filtered out: "What? You're hungry too? That's just right, hurry up, Ben... I want to try it too Taste the beef noodles in Luzhou City, as a brother, shouldn't you show your kindness as a landlord?"

He dragged Zhang Jingche to the noodle booth and sat down.

Zhang Jingche was so stalked, he really didn't understand where he got Ding Bianhou's attention, and he asked him to stalk him so hard that he wanted to recognize himself as a cheap senior.

Since the establishment of the Great Yin Dynasty, civil servants and military generals have been distinguished. Zhang Jingche didn't intend to get involved too much with the first-rank military marquis. He ordered a few bowls of noodles, lowered his head and filled his mouth with noodle soup, and let Yang Fan's chattering sound like wind.When he was sweating profusely from eating, a few men of medium stature walked by, sat down at the next table, and ordered hot noodle soup.

Zhang Jingche didn't pay attention at first, but Yang Fan, who was sitting across from him, frowned slightly, and the chopsticks in his hand fell on the edge of the bowl, making a persistent "ding" sound.

Zhang Jingche looked up sharply: "What's wrong?"

Yang Fan waved his hand, listened intently for a moment, opened his mouth to say something, but swallowed the words back.He dipped his fingers in the tea, and wrote on the table like a wind: "The accents of those people are very strange, as if their tongues can't be straightened, unlike people from the Central Plains!"

The two tables are not close to each other, and this place is facing the street, bustling with people coming and going, only a practicing family like Dingbianhou can have such sensitive eyes and ears.

Zhang Jingche also dipped in the tea, and wrote on the table: Beile?

Yang Fan shook his head.

Zhang Jingche wrote again: Dongying?

Yang Fan thought for a moment, then nodded slightly.

The two looked at each other and reached a consensus in the blink of an eye. Zhang Jingche buried his head and continued to eat noodles, while Yang Fan clinked the noodle bowl with his chopsticks, chatting casually about romantic anecdotes about Huajieliuxiang.

Zhang Jingche's ears hurt from his noise, and he wished he could conjure up two balls of cotton to plug his ears.After finally waiting for the short guy at the next table to finish eating, Zhang Jingche winked, and the two Youyun Guards understood, and followed silently.

The two groups of people went away one after the other, Yang Fanfang said in a deep voice: "Since the founding of the dynasty, Dongying has not paid tribute, but it has been peaceful... It's just that in the past two years, there have been frequent civil wars in Dongying, Many ronin warriors who have lost their livelihood come to the Central Plains to seek a living, and sometimes they do some sneaky and outrageous things."

He paused, and then said: "However, these people have been entrenched along the coast of the south of the Yangtze River, but Luzhou is deep inland... How did these Dongying people come here?"

After Zhang Jingche finished eating the noodles, he asked the owner of the noodle stall to order a bowl of tea, and drank it slowly while blowing off the heat.

Yang Fan poked him with his elbow: "Hey, I want to ask you something!"

Zhang Jingche was stunned by him, and hot tea was almost spilled on him, and he looked helpless: "I'm not a roundworm in the stomach of Dongying people. Master Hou asked me, who should I ask?"

Yang Fan's long eyebrows stood upside down, and he heard Zhang Jingche's next sentence: "But people come and go in this world, and they do nothing more than two things, one is fame, or the other is profit—these Dongying people have been on the island for a long time, and they are used to being uncivilized. If you don't know the name of the picture, it can only be for profit."

Ding Bianhou lay on the table in a shapeless manner, and repeatedly pushed the wooden chopsticks with his guilty paws: "What kind of benefits will allow these Dongying people to come here from the coast without fear of officers and soldiers and trouble?"

He exerted all his strength for a moment, and the chopsticks rolled to Zhang Jingche's hand, and the soup-stained chopsticks rubbed against the cuff, leaving a stain the size of a soybean.

Zhang Jingche raised his head and gave him a cold look.

Yang Fan rubbed the tip of his nose in a slightly embarrassing way: "It's not intentional... At worst, I'll pay you one thing after returning to Beijing!"

Zhang Jingche turned his head away in disgust.

These Dongying people appeared strangely, not to mention what attracted them in Luzhou City, the customs clearance along the way alone was a big problem.But they not only came, but also swaggered into Luzhou City, which in itself can explain many problems.

Zhang Jingche didn't know their reason for coming, but he vaguely guessed that these people didn't act spontaneously, and there must be someone behind them.

And the instigator's status is probably not low.

Zhang Jingche's speculation didn't last long - You Yunwei was reliable in his work, and followed the Dongying people all the way to the inn where they stayed. After remembering the location, he came back and informed Zhang Jingche.Zhang Tongzhi pondered for a moment, then tapped his fingers on the table: "I caught it!"

The leader, You Yunwei, was taken aback: "Is that how you got caught?"

Yang Fan on the side smiled, "It's just a few Japanese thieves who hide their heads and show their tails. If they are caught, they will be caught. Do you still need to choose a day? You Yunwei is inconvenient to do it, so let the Marquis's soldiers go. If there are no eyesight If you ask me, I will take care of myself!"

Marquis Dingbian spoke, You Yunwei no longer had any scruples, and left two people guarding the inn, and the rest came out in full force.

You Yunwei was founded by Zhang Jingche, and each of them is one of the best players in a hundred. I thought that catching a few Dongying rogues would be easy, but there was a mistake.

That night, taking advantage of the dead of night, You Yunwei quietly touched the inn, and when he was about to start, he found that the Dongying people had also changed into night clothes and were planning to go out at night.You Yunwei, the leader, moved his mind slightly, rushed behind him and gestured to suspend his action, followed all the way, and saw the group of Dongying people make a half-circle in the city, and went straight to the west of the city.

Where there is light, there is shadow. Although Luzhou has a prosperous literary style, there are also shady corners.For example, in the west of the city, there are mixed religions and fish and dragons, from peddlers to Jianghu gangs, they all settle down in this area.

The Dongying people, who had changed into night clothes, seemed to be shadows melting in the dark night. They inserted into the middle and west of the intricate streets and alleys, and quickly touched the place.It was a small restaurant, divided into two floors, with three or four guest rooms on the second floor, which also served as an inn.

The men in black with their heads covered looked at each other and were about to jump into the courtyard.In the blink of an eye, the leader of the Dongying people seemed to hear something, turned around suddenly, and whispered a few words in Dongying dialect.

A group of Dongying people turned around quickly, and in the next moment, countless black shadows emerged from the depths of the night, approaching silently.

Since its establishment, You Yunwei has been engaged in the business of killing and extorting goods. The Dongying people are also not weak in skill, and both sides have their own ghosts.In an instant, the cramped narrow alley was filled with the shadows of swords and swords, and dazzling sparks were knocked out when metal and iron collided.

You Yunwei was afraid of being entangled for a long time and alarming the nearby residents, so he didn't plan to confront them head-on at all.You Yunwei, the leader, deliberately sold a loophole, and the group of You Yunwei fought and retreated, leading the Dongying people into the narrow alley.Just as the Dongying people were chasing after them, the group of You Yunwei, who lacked great virtue, suddenly raised their hands, and a large cloud of thick smoke exploded unexpectedly.

The Dongying people did not expect this move, and inhaled several mouthfuls hastily.Unexpectedly, there was actually something added to the smoke. After a while, the group of people felt dizzy and their eyes were swollen. They struggled and called out "despicable" a few times in Japanese dialect, and fell down involuntarily.

Commander You Yunwei did not follow the rules of the Dongying people. Taking advantage of the immobility of these people, he tied them up with ropes, put them in a prepared sack, carried them on his shoulders, and walked away without getting dust on his feet like when he came. .

The surroundings became quiet again, and after a while, there was only a "squeak", but the owner of the small restaurant slowly opened the door and poured a basin of residual water into the courtyard.He raised his head in a daze and glanced into the night, not knowing that he had escaped inadvertently.

You Yunwei did not bring him back to the inn, but found a deserted ruined temple in the west of the city.The Dongying Ronin in the sack bumped all the way, already suffering unspeakably, when he was thrown heavily on the ground, he felt dizzy and dizzy immediately, struggled for a while, finally poked his head out of the sack, and saw a bonfire lit in the ruined temple, a The young man stood beside the fire, his long body was drawn by the bright flames.

The leader of Dongpu was frightened and angry, and asked in his unproficient Central Plains dialect: "Who are you? What do you want to do!"

Zhang Jingche didn't speak, but smiled gently at him.

He was born very well, and his smile was even more indescribable. The leader of Dongpu couldn't help being stunned, and before he could speak, the handle of You Yunwei's knife had already fallen down on his head and face, slapping him out of his annoyance and even some untimely thoughts.

Immediately afterwards, the very good-looking young man smiled slightly: "What do I ask, what do you answer, other than that, you better keep quiet."