Chapter 169 The green lotus splashes the autumn rain, and the ancient sword competes with the wind and thunder
Chendu County, formerly known as Yuandu, is located on the south bank of the Hun River across from Zhangzhou of Yan State on the north bank. It has six counties under its jurisdiction. Compared with other counties in the state, , is much smaller, but the flow of goods from the north to the south here is prosperous, and there are many inns and wine shops, which has spawned many rivers and lakes and green forests to make a living here, and the public security is extremely poor.
The wide streets and compacted pavement have rows of small holes on both sides that have been dripped by rainwater for many years. The low-eaves alleys and stone-paved dirt roads are soaked in rainwater and splashed by hurried pedestrians.
The autumn rain fell continuously for three days. In a nearby wine shop, Fang Xuejun was sitting in a private room on the second floor. Eight knives were bundled together and wrapped in a long cloth and resting on the table.
It was the tenth day after taking a boat from Zhangzhou into the Wei Kingdom. In order to hide from others, she and her men dispersed and entered the city in different directions. There were many rivers, lakes and green forests in the city, and there were more than ten people there, but they did not attract attention. .
After a moment, a woman in smart clothes came up from below with a body full of moisture.
"Xuejun..."
She is Fang Xuejun's senior sister, who is good at wielding a pair of mandarin duck knives. Ever since she learned that her junior sister has become the princess of King Xia, she took several of her disciples with her all night long. A senior fellow apprentice and some familiar friends from the martial arts world came together.
"Senior sister, how are you doing inquiring?" Fang Xuejun poured tea for her.
“I have some clues.”
The woman's surname was Li, and she was famous in autumn. She was one year older than Fang Xuejun. She was quite beautiful, but tall. Originally, her family proposed a marriage for her, but the other party heard that she was from the world, so they refused. .
At present, I am still not married until I am twenty.
Li Wangqiu drank the tea in one gulp and put down the cup: "Just now, several senior brothers and I took over respectively. When the information is summed up, there should be no difference. That cousin should have been killed by someone here. They were captured by a gang, and some people saw their people gathering in the middle of the night. According to my inquiries, this gang is related to the Sikong family of the Wei Dynasty, and should be controlled by a family member of the third prince of the imperial court."
Fang Xuejun frowned. She was somewhat prepared. After all, he found Guo Jia ten days ago. He guessed that someone from the Wei Dynasty might have done it.
It sounds a bit tricky right now.
"Senior sister, can I ask where Su Ting was taken? If he was taken to Luyang, the capital of Wei State, things would be in trouble."
"I can't find out. After the other party captured Mr. Su, There has been no movement, and their people have been living in seclusion recently. If you want to know where Mr. Su is being held, it is best to capture the other gang leader...or...take down the prefect of Chendu County, but these two. It’s difficult for us, let alone the governor’s house, to rob the prison.”
Li Wangqiu’s next words actually wanted to persuade this junior sister not to act recklessly.
However, Fang Xuejun didn’t listen to what she said next. He raised his eyebrows and said, “She lives in seclusion...”
What kind of situation would lead to seclusion?
Avoid danger, or...set up an ambush!
After following Su Chen in and out of the military camp for a while, Fang Xuejun knew something. She quickly picked up the bundle of knives beside the table, turned it over to her back and tied it, and said quickly: "Senior sister, inform our senior brothers. Everyone, hurry out of the city. The other party may have an ambush. We have been here to inquire about the situation in the past few days. Maybe the other party already knows. Senior sister will lead us out from the north gate, and I will lead us out from the east gate. Hurry!”
Putting down a few copper coins, the two of them quickly went downstairs and came out of the tea room.
……
It has been raining for days and days, and the temperature has dropped sharply.
The gloomy prison was even colder and damper. The mottled blood and human feces and urine turned into dirt and mixed together, creating an unspeakable stench.
The ragged figure huddled in the corner, and the pain on his body was not completely healed. Then he heard the sound of the lock being opened, and several jailers walked in.
Seeing them, Su Ting trembled all over.
This is the Chendu County Government Prison. They were tortured for more than ten days in a row. Su Ting almost collapsed and fainted several times. He was awakened by cold water and continued to be tortured. There was no place on his body that could be beaten. After applying wound medicine, he was thrown into prison for a few days and then taken to the execution room for interrogation again.
"Please... I am really an ordinary merchant from Yan State... My surname is Liu... My name is Liu Chuanxu... I am from Lingzhou."
The continuous torture, unpalatable food, and turbid water made him sick and feverish. He was dragged to the execution room by the guards in a daze, and was beaten until he knelt on the ground.
Surrounded by this, Su Ting still kept talking about the made-up name. He knew that once the other party knew that his name was Su Ting, the two wealthy families who had colluded with him would be punished by the Wei court. In the future, he wanted to It would be extremely difficult to contact him again.
The second reason was to give Wei Guo an excuse to criticize his clan brother Su Chen, saying that he could not transfer this matter to the massacre of the people of Fenzhou. It was said that Su Chen was wrong first, and Wei Guo then retaliated.
Whether it is true or not, there will always be people who believe it.
"Brother Liu, just say it. If you keep talking tough, you will only suffer."
The one who carried out the execution was the cell leader. There were many ways to torture people. He held a handful of coarse salt in his hand and looked at the disheveled Su Ting with a smile.
"People have to live for themselves... If you say so, you will suffer less."
"I am really... a merchant... there is a shortage of food in the north... I came here to buy food. If you bring them back and sell them, you can make a lot of money... These brothers are so generous, and I have money... Give me a chance to honor these elder brothers, okay?"
"Haha, my brothers would like to think so. Who dares to accept this money if you have the life to do it?" The prison head smiled and winked at the two jailers, took off Su Ting's clothes, and took a little bit of the coarse salt in his hand. Sprinkle it down and pour it on the wound.
The wound that had just healed a little bit suddenly hurt. Su Ting scratched it with both hands, and his body became stained with blood in a moment.
"Come, put the torture tools on Brother Liu."
The prison head sat back on the old chair, put his legs up and poured a bowl of herbal tea. He drank and watched while the two jailers over there put the clamping stick on Su. On Chen's feet.
The two jailers pulled the sticks from left to right and tightened them.
Su Ting shouted "Ah!" and threw himself on the ground, trying to roll over. Two jailers stepped on his back, making him unable to move.
“I did it, I did it!”
The prison head smiled and raised his hand, asking his men to let go, "That's right!"
Just as he was about to continue asking, Su Ting quickly said: "My name is Liu Chuanxu, a businessman from Qingzhou..."
“Continue to torture!”
The cell leader felt that he had been tricked, and his face looked ugly. He continued to let his men torture, but after only a while, Su Ting called out again and paused for a while. , and retracted the confession.
His face turned green with anger.
In the past, when dealing with this kind of person, he could directly extract a confession and get it done, but the other person might have to be escorted to Luyang. If he retracted his confession there, it would be difficult for him to do business.
The confession must be written down by the other party's own hand before it is complete.
"Brother Liu... You are not very old, so why bother? Don't wait for someone to rescue you. There are informants everywhere outside. They have already set up a dragnet, waiting for your accomplices to get involved. Oh! When they confess, you will be worthless."
"My name is Liu Chuanxu..."
"Continue to torture!"
...The continuous autumn rain has no intention of stopping yet.
The group of seven people wore different costumes. The leader, Fang Xuejun, was wearing a raincoat and a bamboo hat and quickly left the city gate. The eight knives tied behind his back were shaking and clanking.
Less than half a mile out of the city gate, when turning to the east ferry, there were several groups of people standing in the rain on the half-sloping terrain, waiting for her and her senior brothers.
“What a handsome girl.” A strong man with a bald head and tattoos on his head was holding a knife in the rain. He looked at Fang Xuejun, turned around and said with a smile: “Everyone is blessed with that thing in their crotch today. ”
"How presumptuous!"
Several fellow apprentices behind Fang Xuejun stepped forward and pulled out their sabers. Around them, the people from the Xuanshui Gang burst out laughing. They were not afraid of the seven people in this group, and they all showed their weapons and surrounded them.
"Don't waste time, capture them!"
"Ah..."
At the same time as the words of the strong man from Xuanshui Gang sounded, another drunken sigh When it came over, the voice was ethereal, as if it was resounding from all directions.
"Who?!" The strong man shouted violently, shouldering his sword.
A long sigh followed closely behind: "...Oh!"
Only then did everyone hear the long sigh, which came from an old tree twenty steps away. Fang Xuejun and the fellow disciples around him looked up and saw a middle-aged man in blue and white robes lying on his back on a branch, with a long sword hanging and a gourd in one hand, taking a sip from time to time.
“I came after a long journey, and I didn’t even have time to take a few sips of wine...”
“Everyone wants to show off his skills, brothers over there, surround him first!” The strong man was not afraid, "Let's take this side first..."
Before he could finish his words, the seven or eight people who rushed over suddenly let out screams and fell down. Under the old tree, they saw several figures in brocade robes and embroidered clothes standing under the old tree, with tree bark in their hands. The disguise was thrown to the ground.
“What?!”
The strong man looked at the moment when his man fell to the ground. He went to the branches above the old tree, only the branches and leaves were swaying. The drunken old man was long gone. trace.
The next moment, he heard a sound: "All the birds are flying high, and the lonely cloud is alone..."
He suddenly looked up, and the figure in blue and white robes had jumped to them From above, then, it rushed straight down with a swish, the sword light was flying, and the falling raindrops were split in an instant, turning into a fan shape and flying out.
"We never tire of looking at each other..."
The strong man rushed into the battle group with a roar, and slashed out with a big sword. With a 'cang' sound, the big knife flew into the air, and a round of sword light passed along his neck. Pulled over.
The figure in the white robe of Qingshan stood behind him, and then the last verse fell: "...Only Jingting Mountain."
The strong man's body fell down with a bang, and the middle-aged man fell down with a bang. The long sword in the man's hand was inserted into the scabbard, he reached out to take the fallen wine gourd, and poured a sip into his mouth.
He smiled and raised his hand towards Fang Xuejun and others who were all opening their mouths.
"I'm in the Department of Embroidery...Qinglian layman Li Bai!"
...
Almost at the same time.
At the east gate of Chendu County, Li Wangqiu and five Jianghu people were not so lucky. Before they could rush to the city gate, they were stopped by people from the Xuanshui Gang on a street.
Under the eaves in the rain, she moved vigorously back and forth along the long street, kicking on the pillars under the eaves, turning around in mid-air, and slashing out a pair of mandarin duck knives in her hands, before flying towards her. A master from the Xuanshui Gang slashed his chest several times.
The body fell to the ground, and Li Wangqiu followed him. The bamboo hat was gone, and the coir raincoat was chopped to pieces in the chaotic fighting.
She touched the water stains on her face and looked at the street, which was already in chaos. In the direction of the city gate, not all the masters of the Xuanshui Gang were out.
Two of his Jianghu men fell, and the rest were pushed back.
Li Wangqiu gritted her teeth tightly, knowing that she would not be able to escape today. She held the hilt of the knife and whispered: "Young people in the world will die sooner or later. You all, fight again!"
Retreat! The three people who came back pursed their lips and nodded.
The footsteps, which were originally inaudible under the sound of rain, breathing, and words, now came clearly to everyone's ears, and several Xuanshui Gang masters in the direction of the city gate turned back.
The raindrops fell on the top of the umbrella and splashed.
A figure in black robes and white clothes held an umbrella and walked through the lead-green rain curtain. He held an ancient sword in his left hand, with a leather rein tied to the sword's head, swinging back and forth at the man's feet.
"Your Excellency, don't come over here!" Li Wangqiu thought he was a knight-errant who was fighting an injustice, and hurriedly shouted to him.
But the expressions of the masters of the Xuanshui Gang changed slightly. They sensed a hint of 'trouble' from their breathing and walking movements.
"Who are you?" someone asked in a low voice.
"I'm here to catch someone."
Under the paper umbrella, Pei Min slowly raised his face and looked at these people, "His name is Daozhantie. I heard he is Xuan The leader of the Shui Gang, is he here?”
“I’m not ashamed to say that!”
A master of the Xuanshui Gang who wields a long whip and wears a bamboo hat rushes towards Pei Min who is walking through the stagnant water. , Pei Min raised his left hand, pushed his thumb to the hilt of the sword, and the sword buzzed out. He grabbed the hilt with his left hand and struck the opponent with a sword. Before the scabbard fell to the ground, the ancient sword had been sheathed and fell. He was also held by Pei Min on the way.
The long whip broke into two pieces and fell into the pool of water. The flying master fell directly to the ground, and a bloodstain spread from his forehead to his jaw.
Pei Min only paused for half a breath and walked with a paper umbrella.
"I, Pei Min, the commander of the Embroidery Department of the State of Yan, came here to kill people on the order of the King of Xia."
The skill just now was enough to shock everyone.
Hear the other person’s last words.
Everyone present was shocked, including Li Wangqiu and the others.
(End of this chapter)