Subei Road
Daxing City
As the northernmost Taoist seat south of the Yangtze River, Daxing City's current geographical location is particularly eye-catching. After Pang Ba, the former general of the Sui Dynasty, raised the banner on the side of the Qing Dynasty in the south of the Yangtze River, he used Daxing City as his base for a long time. When Pang Ba's army crossed the north, it also used Daxing City as its starting point.
Daxing City has a history of at least 500 years. As the first important town in the south of the Yangtze River after Emperor Taizong of the Sui Dynasty ordered the Southern Expedition, there has never been a lack of attention here. The reason why Li Xiao chose this place as the place to attack Nan Chen was because the strategic location here was extremely important.
It can be regarded as an important hub of Jiangnan and Jiangbei.
The most famous one in Daxing City is Meiyuan.
When the emperors of the Sui Dynasty went to the south of the Yangtze River, they must go here.
As one of the seven famous gardens in the south of the Yangtze River, it has received five emperors of the Sui Dynasty, and the owner of this eyebrow garden, the Daxing Jin family, can imagine its status. Speaking of which, the common people have forgotten how many years the Jin family has been the master in Daxing City. No matter which dynasty or family ruled the Central Plains, the Jin family has always had the final say in Daxing City. Even if this is where Xinnan County is located, there is a county governor, even if this is where Subei Dao is located, there is a governor. But no matter what the adult is, as long as he is still in Daxing City, he will always visit Meiyuan first if there is any important event.
Zhou Huai'en, governor of North Subei Province, is a frequent visitor to Meiyuan. People in Daxing City often see the governor's carriage parked outside Meiyuan.
As one of the twenty-four governors of the Sui Dynasty and a veritable official of the frontier, Zhou Huai'en's actions in Daxing City cannot be separated from the support of the Jin family. If his decision conflicts with the Jin family's, he will never He will insist on going his own way but will follow the wishes of the Jin family.
It is also because of this that Zhou Huai'en's governor is extremely stable. The Ministry of Officials of the Great Sui Dynasty sent people to inspect the administration of officials every year, and the inspection officials of the Ministry of Officials would secretly visit various places to listen to the people's sentiments. Then comprehensively evaluate the qualifications of the local officials based on the performance documents written by the local officials themselves.
Among the twenty-four governors, Zhou Huai'en ranks among the top few in the evaluation of the Ministry of Officials every year.
Speaking of which, he doesn't have any particularly outstanding political achievements, but he wins in stability. During his tenure, Subei Dao has been smooth and stable without any incidents that worried the court. Because it is close to the Yangtze River, there are naturally many floods, but he has never asked the Ministry of Households for a tael of silver to repair the embankment, but none of the things that should be done have been left behind.
So even if he chose to stand on the side of the rebels in the end, the local people did not criticize him a lot. After all, Zhou Huai'en has done a lot for Subei Dao over the years.
Since Meiyuan can be called one of the seven famous gardens in the south of the Yangtze River, it naturally has its praise. This garden can be called a model of gardens in the south of the Yangtze River. It is beautiful but not petty everywhere.
Every time Zhou Huai'en comes to Meiyuan, he will find different beauty from it.
Sitting in the gazebo by the lotus pond, sipping a pot of bird's tongue worth enough for a middle-class family to live for a year, he looked at the koi in the lotus pond and was a little absent-minded. Jin Shixun, the eldest son of the Jin family and currently in charge of the affairs of the Jin family, glanced at him, smiled and said, "What's on your mind today, Lord Governor?"
Kim Se Hoon
If Fang Jie heard this name, the first thing he would think of was Jin Shixiong, the general who was struggling to support in the northwest of the Sui Dynasty. In fact, Jin Shixiong is indeed from the Jin family in Daxing City, and is Jin Shixiong's third brother.
Jin Shixiong is already in his fifties, and Jin Shixun is the eldest son, who is already sixty-two years old.
It's a pity that he still has the final say in this family. He has been waiting for this day for many years, but he has a healthy and long-lived old lady, and she is also an old lady who has an absolute desire for power. But even so, no one dared to underestimate this old man of the Jin family.
"Is there any news from the third master?"
Zhou Huai'en asked.
Jin Shixun shook his head: "The situation in the northwest of the third child is very difficult. Gao Kaitai and Wang Yiqu control the waterway, and Luo Yao's people are in the middle. Even if I want to help him, I can't help him. Now let's see if he can do it." Bringing up the team by ourselves, if we can... we wouldn't care so much about Yang Zhi, who has been imprisoned in the Northeast for more than ten years, and we wouldn't be able to support a Pang Ba."
"If it doesn't work, let the third master come back. The tens of thousands of remnants in the northwest are not worth his energy. With his ability to lead troops, he will not worry about not being able to accomplish great things in the future."
"Let's look again, you also know the stubborn temper of the third child. If you are sure about it, you will not be able to pull back the nine cows."
"correct."
Zhou Huai'en asked: "Why haven't I seen the old lady for a while?"
"she?"
Jin Shixun shook his head: "I don't know anything about cultivation. My mother has entrusted me with most of the things these years, and I spent almost all of my time in retreat. When I came out a few days ago, I was very happy and said that I had improved again. A state, I don’t know much about this, so I didn’t ask too much. However, the higher your mother’s cultivation level, the more stable the status of the Jin family in Tongu Academy. The reason why Dong Qingfu always treats my Jin family I respect you a lot, but it's not because my mother's cultivation is strong enough."
Zhou Huai'en nodded: "The old matriarch went out for a walk a few years ago. It is said that he taught a few juniors who didn't know the heights of heaven and earth in Tonggu Academy. We have never been able to match this courage. According to my guess, the old matriarch's cultivation Because even if it's not as good as the legendary Wan Xingchen, I'm afraid it won't be much worse."
"Wanxingchen..."
Jin Shixun curled his lips: "His time is long gone."
As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly froze for a moment.
"Who is that?"
Zhou Huai'en followed his gaze, and found that not far away was a hunchbacked old man walking slowly, with a package on his back and a long sword in his hand.
"Not from Meiyuan!"
Jin Shixun was slightly annoyed: "Those servants are becoming more and more presumptuous and slack, they put everyone in the garden!"
He was just about to get up and order someone to drive the old man away, when suddenly he was in a daze, and the old man came in front of him somehow. Shi Shiran picked up the teapot on the table and took a sip, then there was some approval in his eyes. This old man who looked like an old plum tree squinted his eyes and said calmly, "Wan Xingchen has never had an era, but if he wants to, it's not difficult."
Jin Shixun froze for a moment, and then flew into a rage. He pointed at the old man and was about to order his servants to take it down, when he suddenly found something sticky in his hand.
He lowered his head to look, and then he let out a scream, but he was frightened and passed out.
A human head fell from his hand and rolled into the lotus pond with a plop.
"Old... Granny..."
Zhou Huai'en was so frightened that he collapsed, and when he looked again, there was no sign of the old man, as if he had never appeared before.
At this moment, half of a three-story wooden building behind Meiyuan collapsed suddenly. The broken marks were so straight, as if someone had cut the three-story building in half. The body of the old woman was headless in the half of the building that did not collapse.
…
…
Liuzhou
There is a small courtyard on the westernmost side of the city, which looks ordinary and no different from the houses next to it. It's just that the owner of this yard has always been mysterious, and the neighbors have never seen him come out. Every day, only the servants of the family go out to buy vegetables, and they seldom talk to the neighbors.
The little girl in the neighbor's house was born, and the man who had just become a father was overjoyed. He wanted to invite the neighbors to drink and knocked on the door of the small courtyard, but a servant came out to ask what was the matter. After he explained his intention, the servant Turning around and going in, it didn't take long to hand him a letter of money saying that the Patriarch was unwell, so this money should be a congratulatory gift.
Fifteen years later, on the day the little girl got married, the man with many wrinkles on his face thought about it for a long time, and finally decided to invite his neighbors. Fifteen years ago, he received so many gifts of money from them, but he didn't even have a glass of wedding wine. It's not that he didn't want to make it up, but that the owner kept refusing. So he knocked on the door again, and found that the servant had changed at some point. After he explained his purpose, the servant went back, and after a while, he came back with a letter of silver and said, "Your family has a happy event, and my master is also very happy. This is considered Congratulations.
Twenty years later, the man died of illness, and his wife asked his son-in-law to help inform the neighbors. The son-in-law knocked on the door of the neighbor's house, and a servant with a face asked what was the matter. He explained his intentions, and the servant returned after returning, and handed him a letter of silver, saying, "The master is also very sad about your family's misfortune. The old neighbor who has been around since 1980 left as soon as he said he would. This little money is probably the owner's wish.
Another ten years later, the gray-haired woman led her family to say goodbye from door to door. After her parents died, she moved here with her husband. Now her son has married and is working as a copywriter in the county government office. She plans to take their family to live in the county government. She also misses her son, so she decides to move out. When knocking on the door next door, a little book boy asked what was the matter, she explained why she came, the little book boy went in and came back, handing over a heavy money bag.
At this time, she remembered that she had never seen the Patriarch that the servants next door were talking about since she could remember. I don't even know what kind of person it is. Now she is old, but the Patriarch has never appeared in her sight.
Only then did she understand a little bit, and three words emerged from her mind.
Practitioner
Yes, if you are not a practitioner, how can you have such a strange habit? How can you live so long? So she bowed deeply at the door, murmured that there was a fairy living beside her, and left in awe.
After that, her family was mysteriously killed on the way to Junzhi. If she didn't have that murmur to herself, she might still be able to spend her old age in the County Sheriff's Office. Or maybe her father shouldn't have knocked on the gate of that house in the first place. What's more, she didn't know that the old neighbors nearby had moved away for various reasons, and then they all died on the way. Therefore, the newcomers don't even know who lives in that small courtyard.
The two little bookboys were talking in a low voice as they walked, their voices were very soft and their steps were even lighter. Today is the first day for the two of them to serve the Patriarch in this yard. The previous servants are already too old, so the two of them were replaced. The two of them were selected from the more than 300 servants of the Chen family in Haining, and they were smart enough. And the old man who lived in this yard seemed to like the handsome little book boy to serve him.
The two of them didn't know the identity of that burly and tall old man. They only knew that the Patriarch of the Chen family brought the two of them here in person last night, and explained many things along the way.
A little bookboy pushed the door open and lifted the curtain for his companion. Another little book boy walked in with a tray, on which was a bowl of round-grained rice porridge and several plates of delicate side dishes. When the two of them went in, they first bent down to salute, then straightened up and were startled.
In the house, an old man with a hunchback appeared at some point, sitting opposite the owner.
"Your cicada cultivation skills regard this house as a cave, and it has been shrunk for seven or eighty years... But you are still in the cave, but your heart is never there, so you will not be able to take that step in the end."
The hunchbacked old man reached out to bring over the rice porridge on the tray, and then finished the rice porridge with side dishes.
The tall old man looked at him, and asked seriously, "Why did you come out?"
The hunchbacked old man wiped the rice grains stuck to his beard: "I'm going to die, take a few old friends down for tea."
The old man Gao Da was silent for a while and said: "You are really unreasonable. We haven't done anything for so many years. We just didn't want you to come out, but you did come out in the end. This rule was set by you at the beginning. People are not allowed to participate, but you are now breaking the rules yourself."
The hunchbacked old man curled his lips: "It was I who beat you up at the beginning, so you followed my rules. This rule was originally set by an unreasonable person. Whoever has a hard fist is the one who makes the most sense. Do you still believe in this principle?" Don't understand? Besides... Among the three killed by Zhang Yiyang, there was one at the top of the Illumination Realm, you really shouldn't be testing me like this."
After saying this, the hunchbacked old man got up, picked up the package, picked up the ancient sword and walked out of the house. The two little book boys looked at each other, not knowing what happened. After the tall old man pondered for a few seconds, a pair of transparent cicada wings suddenly appeared from his back and flew into the sky. A few seconds later, he fell from the high clouds in two corpses, and made two deep pits on the ground.
Finally, he lived in the cave. Unfortunately... it's a separation.
The hunchbacked old man continued to walk tremblingly with the ancient sword in his hand, but disappeared in an instant.
"I'm so tired..."
He sighed helplessly: "I don't know how many doors we can visit, and how many old friends we can meet."