The author said: Keep updating, update every day, never have a bad ending, never plagiarize!
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When Yiran and Yelu arrived at Qiu Yi's house, several tables had already been set up in the yard.
Yizhi saw Yiran coming from afar, and ran over quickly, pulled her aside, and said, "I knew you were up to something. Let me ask you, what bad things did you say about me in front of my adoptive father that day? I was scolded by my adoptive father!"
Yiran had already seen the crooked purse she had made hanging on Qiu Yizhi's waist, and her mood immediately improved. She glared at Qiu Yizhi and said, "You did it yourself, are you afraid of what others will say?" Without waiting for Yizhi to answer, she pointed at a few people in the courtyard and asked, "This is the first time I've seen those people. Why don't you introduce them to me?"
Of course, it was inconvenient to question more in public, so Qiu Yizhi had to follow Yiran's words and introduce Zhao Chengxiao and others who he had just recruited to Yiran one by one. Zhao Chengxiao had 20 or 30 people under him. Their names were just crude rural names like cats and dogs, but their nicknames in Jianghu and Shan were very impressive. They were either called "Nine-tailed Dapeng", "Iron-headed Dragon", "Eight-armed Arhat", or "Green-faced Ghost". These people had ferocious faces, either with a big scar on their faces or covered with tattoos. If they walked on the streets, passers-by nearby would probably hurriedly avoid them, and the shops on the street might even take the initiative to offer tributes.
However, Princess Yiran from Bohai liked these heroes the most. Seeing their rough appearance, she felt that they were much more approachable than those pedantic scholars from the Central Plains, so she unceremoniously invited them to sit down and drink.
Qiu Yizi was not very drunk, so he drank two bowls of wine and then leaned back in his chair, watching everyone feasting and drinking happily.
After half a round of drinking, everyone, who were all new to the Youyan Army, took advantage of the alcohol and proposed to show off their skills in front of His Royal Highness Prince Yi. The martial arts of the soldiers in the army emphasized coordination and uniformity, which Qiu Yizi was very familiar with, but he had never seen the kung fu of the heroes in the rivers and lakes, so he readily agreed with a wave of his hand.
So these heroes showed off their special skills. Some were good at Qinggong, and could climb onto roofs and remove tiles with one leap; some had the "Iron Head Kung Fu" skill, and could break stones with a single bald head; some were proficient in hidden weapons, and could smash ten wine bowls at the same time with a wave of their hands; and some had a body of hard Kung Fu, and even a knife or an axe could not break their skin.
Qiu Yizhi was horrified when he saw this. He thought that if he had 10,000 or even 3,000 such soldiers, he would be able to dominate the world. So he hurriedly called Zhao Chengxiao and asked, "I wonder how long it takes to master such skills?"
Zhao Chengxiao had a dark complexion and was called Zhao Heizi since he was a child. After drinking heavily, his face was not flushed at all. He replied, "If you are not born to practice martial arts, it will take at least 20 to 30 years to practice to this level. And you see that person who practices hard qigong, that is a virgin qigong. If he loses his virginity, a needle will pierce him..."
After hearing this, Qiu Yizi felt relieved and thought: This martial art is so difficult to practice, no wonder no dynasty has ever trained the army with strange skills. Even if famous martial arts masters were invited to serve as teachers in the army, they would only teach the most basic stick and sword skills.
Yi Ran, who was standing by, was the most competitive and arrogant. He would usually argue with Qiu Yizhi. Today, seeing the Central Plains hero showing off his skills, he felt a sense of pride and gently nudged Ye Lu next to him with his elbow. Ye Lu knew what his princess meant, so he drank the wine bowl in his hand, stood up, and bowed to everyone, saying, "You are all so skilled in martial arts that I am dazzled. Ye Lu has no other skills, only great strength, and I would like to learn from you."
All the guests were veterans who had been in the martial arts world for a long time. Of course, they could hear that Ye Lu meant that they were just "flowery fighters". Remembering the saying that "force can defeat skill", they could not help but get ready to give it a try and embarrass the Tartar.
Seeing that everyone was infuriated by Yelu's words, Yiran smiled and took out a piece of gold nugget the size of half a fist from his sleeve, and said, "There is a saying in the Central Plains that talking without practice is just a show. How about this, Yelu will compete with everyone in arm wrestling, and whoever wins will get this piece of gold!"
More than 20 people at the table were originally bandits. Seeing such a large piece of gold, everyone was delighted. Someone had brought a table to compete with Yelu. Unexpectedly, Yelu was extremely strong. Eight or nine good fighters came up, but none of them could make his wrist deflect even a little.
Ye Lu was polite. Seeing that no one dared to challenge him for the moment, he cupped his hands and said, "Thank you for letting me win. Thank you all for showing mercy. Ye Lu will be the first to drink a toast to your honor!" Those who had come forward to challenge him were so ashamed that their faces turned red.
Yelu had just picked up a bowl of wine and had not yet raised his hand to drink it when he heard someone say loudly, "Wait a minute!" The voice was not loud but very deep. Yelu looked in the direction of the voice and saw Zhao Chengxiao standing there with a gloomy face.
He didn't say much, but walked straight to the table where they had just competed in physical strength, got ready, and waited for Yelu to fight. Yelu saw this, a smile flashed across his face, half-crouched in front of Zhao Chengxiao, stretched out his hand and tightly grasped Zhao Chengxiao's right hand, and with a little force, it was as if he was pushing a mountain with his bare hands without any movement. He thought this man was different, so he calmed down and took the fight seriously.
The two men concentrated their energy and concentrated all their strength on their wrists. The veins on their arms bulged and the muscles swelled with blood. On this side, Ye Lu's square face with a beard was flushed red, and his eyes were round and round, as if they were about to spurt out blood. On the other side, Zhao Chengxiao's black face was so tense that it seemed to be cracked, and the muscles on his cheekbones jumped, looking very ferocious.
Everyone gathered around, staring intently and talking about it.
"I didn't expect our boss to be so strong. Why haven't I seen him show off before?"
"That's because you're blind. Didn't you see it when we fought against the 'Flower-Eyed Leopard'? The 'Flower-Eyed Leopard' was a master of grappling skills. The boss turned around and grabbed him tightly, pinning him to death in the mud. His strength..."
"I think the eldest one is in danger too. I used all my strength just now, but I couldn't shake him at all."
"You? Widow Li's breasts are so big and round, do you need to put in any effort to suck her? The little strength you have is not enough to tickle this Tartar!"
"You're not much better than me. Seeing how anxious you were just now, you wanted to bite that barbarian, didn't you?"
… …
Yelu and Zhao Chengxiao fought for a cup of tea, but their hands were still tightly clasped together, and neither could do anything to the other. The onlookers didn't know who would win in the end, so they gradually shut up and watched intently. Qiu Yizi, who was sitting on the side, didn't expect that his "Brother Zhao Hei" was born with supernatural powers. No wonder he could become the leader of the mountain stronghold, and no wonder he was fearless when facing a dozen vicious servants at Zhao Fuyi's house. Therefore, he also watched the two of them intently, as if he could even hear the sound of their gnashing teeth and the beating of their blood vessels clearly.
Neither Lu nor Zhao Chengxiao had any intention of losing on either side of the table. The two were evenly matched like a tiger meeting a lion. They could not afford to be careless, otherwise they would be swallowed by their opponents.
Just as the situation was at a stalemate, there was a sudden "crack" sound, and the table under Yelu and Zhao Chengxiao's elbows could not bear the force and broke into pieces of firewood, which scattered all over the floor. Seeing this, the two men stood up at the same time, looked at each other and laughed, saying to each other:
"You are a good man! I, Zhao Chengxiao, got to know you today!"
"There really are heroes in the Central Plains! I've made you my friend!"
After saying that, they each took a bowl of wine, drank it all, and smashed the bowl to pieces on the ground.
Everyone drank until midnight, and the gates of Guangyang were already closed, so they couldn't leave the city to find an inn to rest. Yiran went back to the palace, and Yelu also went to stay at the servants' residence. The rest of the people saw that it was not cold at night in summer, so they just lay on the ground in the courtyard of Qiu Yizhi's mansion for the night.
The next day, just after the hour of Chen, someone knocked on the door. Ruishou opened the door, took a name card, and went to the back hall to give it to Qiu Yizhi. Yizhi looked and saw that it was the clerk sent by Zhongli Kuang to review the Tianzun Sect's classics. The leader was a scholar named Ruan Wenyuan, who was in his forties or fifties. This person was the same year as Zhongli Kuang in the provincial examination. He also failed to pass the examination several times, so he was invited by Zhongli Kuang to help with work.
This was a serious matter, so Qiu Yizi got up quickly, woke up everyone who was still drunk, cleaned up the mess in the yard, and then invited twelve or thirteen clerks into the gate.
Qiu Yizhi returned the name card to Ruan Wenyuan and asked, "Mr. Ruan came from Master Zhongli. I wonder if you have any advice on this matter of reviewing the cult's scriptures?"
Ruan Wenyuan accepted the invitation with great respect and said, "Mr. Zhongli is still with the prince as an advisor. He sent someone here yesterday and asked me to select a few capable clerks to assist Your Highness in this task. I dare not neglect it. I will stop here and leave it to Your Highness to send you. But I don't know how many books of this heresy are there?"
Yizhi said: "I left in a hurry and haven't counted the books yet, but the number of these books is at least over 5,000." After that, he asked Zhao Chengxiao to have everyone move out all the books in the backyard.
Seeing that there were indeed a lot of books, Ruan Wenyuan rubbed his goatee and said, "Mr. Zhongli has strictly ordered that this matter must be handled in your residence to protect the confidentiality. But the list of books is so huge, and the few rooms in your residence... I'm afraid they are not enough..."
Qiu Yizhi's mansion is indeed not big. Whether in terms of area or number of houses, it is just the level of a middle-class family in Guangyang City. The clerk's words are realistic. Yizhi smiled and said, "This is easy. I will go to the military camp to get some oil cloth and wooden beams, and set up a few sheds in this yard. I think it will be enough."
After hearing this, Ruan Wenyuan estimated the area of the courtyard and couldn't help but clap his hands and laugh, "This is a very good idea. If we work indoors, we're afraid that the heat will be unbearable in this dog days of summer! No wonder Mr. Zhongli always says that Your Highness is resourceful!"
"Ha! Master Zhongli, who is so stern, harsh and serious, would actually praise me behind my back." Qiu Yizi was very happy thinking about it. He cheered up and asked Zhao Chengxiao and a few others to go with him to the military camp to carry the supplies.
Guangyang was originally a military camp fortress, and they arrived at the material warehouse after walking a few steps. Qiu Yizhi informed the military officer guarding the warehouse about the purpose of the materials, and then he wrote a note in a flamboyant manner, and led people into the warehouse to move things. Seeing that the newly made Youyan army uniforms were neatly stacked on one side, Yizhi asked Zhao Chengxiao and the newly recruited brothers to change into them according to their body sizes, and from then on they were considered soldiers in the Youyan army.
Everyone moved the necessary materials to Qiu Yizhi's house and hurriedly set up the tent. Then Qiu Yizhi and Ruan Wenyuan and other clerks handled the review of the cult's books here.
As for Zhao Chengxiao and others, Qiu Yizhi found a small unused barracks for them to live in, and informed them of the military discipline of Youyan, ordering them to train every day, not to make noise and drink for no reason, and to have one day off every ten days, so that they could go out of the city to drink and relax in the streets of the outer city. (To be continued)