In Mulu City, which is still bustling after dark, Zheliuxuan is like a place isolated from the world. The quiet courtyard is located on a mound in Xiuye Square, surrounded by pines and cypresses, like a dark green Like a barrier, it isolates the noisy world from outside.
I don't know when the twin moons slowly moved from the horizon to the treetops. There was silence everywhere, and the flies did not chirp. In the silence, only the footsteps of two children could be heard on the path paved with bluestones. The Qiong Niang held in his arms was also swaying in the bumpy wine jar, making a squeaking sound.
"Little Stutter, are you sure we are in the right place? It doesn't look like anyone is living here. It's scary." Ning Yue said, suddenly stopping.
"I have asked many people along the way, and this is the only place in the city called Zheliuxuan." Jiang Yan still walked forward resolutely, "It is said that this courtyard was specially awarded by the Lord of Ye Kingdom. That commander, I guess he can be considered a hero, and his hobbies will naturally be different from those of ordinary people."
"What a hero. I just can't understand how anyone would like to live in such a gloomy place. It's not fun at all."
Seeing that the young man did not stop and wait for her, Ning Yue pouted unhappily, but she had to take two quick steps to catch up with him. The two of them continued walking along the stone road for a while, and finally found themselves in a secluded and deep place. I saw a few orange-red lights in the forest.
Jiang Yan and the girl next to him looked at each other and knocked on the door in front of him with only a lantern hanging on it. After waiting for a moment, a rustling sound came from behind the door. However, he opened the door to welcome two people. The child was not the doorman at home, but a shirtless middle-aged man.
I saw that the man was wearing a pair of straw sandals on his feet, and the green robe he took off was tied casually around his waist. He had a short beard on his sweaty face, and the messy hair on the back of his head was only tied into a knot with a piece of grass. A pair of thick-jointed hands held iron scissors that were only stained with splinters of wood.
As soon as he saw the wine jars held in the arms of the two children at the door, the man immediately laughed, threw the iron scissors in his hand towards his feet, and reached out to take the wine:
"Oh, it's finally here. I've been so busy these days, and I've already got the alcohol bug in my belly."
"Hey, aren't you the one who was crossing the Pheasant River -" Ning Yue's sight was blocked by the wine jar in her arms. At this moment, her eyes suddenly lit up. She finally saw the other person's face clearly, but she couldn't help but scream out. Come.
"It's you two brats? Why did you come to Mulu City and bring wine to Jia Yunzhai?"
The man opposite immediately recognized the child in front of him, laughed, and motioned for the two of them to come in. Jiang Yan was not polite, took Ning Yue's hand and walked into the courtyard.
This two-entry mansion is not very big. There is a garden after the entrance. There is a small building on the east side of the garden. A running water drawn from an underground spring passes through the center of the garden, and a row of white catkins are planted beside the water. There are weeping willows and patches of crabapples that have not yet bloomed. What the man was busy cutting and tending earlier were the budding bones on these crabapple trees.
"Uncle, could it be that you planted all these flowers?" Ning Yue had never seen such a lush flower bed before, and she couldn't help but be very surprised.
"Little girl, have you seen anyone else in this garden?"
"But aren't you the commander of the fleet? Don't you have a few servants?"
"I like peace and quiet. On weekdays, if I am not in the camp and have no other choice, I wish I could let all the guards and servants leave. Now that it is getting late, I have already sent people home. After all, everyone is thinking For those of you who are concerned about me, there is no need to waste your time here because of the Five Yang Festival."
"You—even though you look ordinary, your speech is quite unusual!" Ning Yue suddenly had a good impression of the somewhat sloppy uncle in front of her.
"Since my actions are still able to attract the attention of the little girl, you two are welcome to come and enjoy them again when the crabapple flowers bloom in a few days."
The man also grinned, the neatly trimmed beard on his lips raised slightly.
"Excuse me, do you know Qi Ziyin?"
Jiang Yan had something on his mind, but he didn't want to gossip anymore and asked directly. Unexpectedly, the other party asked about the dark-eyed young man in front of him:
"Oh? It seems that the chaos on Zitong Street this afternoon was indeed caused by you three brats. In the whole Mulu City, you can lead the Red Ling Guards by the nose and run through most of Zitong Street, and you can make a lot of money at the last moment. The person who can put an end to the trouble must be none other than that child Ziyin."
"If you say that, you definitely recognize Qi Ziyin! He said you could do me a favor and asked me to come to you specifically." Jiang Yan suddenly became excited and continued a little boldly.
The man in front of him suddenly laughed, looking up and down at the dark-eyed boy in front of him, but still did not answer directly:
"How did you three meet?"
"This is none of your business. Don't beat around the bush and just ask if you can help. If you can't help, we'll leave now so as not to waste your time cultivating flowers."
Jiang Yan was impatient and always avoided answering when seeing the other party, which made him a little anxious. But the man in front of him didn't seem to care about the two people's rude attitude:
"Little devil, since Ziyin asked you to come to me for help, he can rest assured to regard you as his friend. But since he is asking someone, he must explain what he is asking for, right? Otherwise, even if I ask Baili for help, You really don’t know where to start, do you?”
"Are you——Xiang Baili? The one who commands the tens of thousands of forbidden troops in the city, and most of the troops and horses in front of the palace are protecting Xiang Baili?" Before he finished speaking, the black-eyed boy exclaimed, but he still couldn't change the abruptness in his words.
"Little Stutter, you don't recognize this person, do you?" Ning Yue saw her companion's eyes suddenly become brighter, she gently poked his back and asked in a low voice.
"No one in the world knows Xiang Baili's name!"
"Hey, I don't know." After hearing what her companion said, Ning Yue curled her lips in disdain.
"You are a girl, so it is normal not to know these things. There is a saying among the people: 'Fufeng is fought at sea, Baili is fought on land'. Fufeng is Ye Fufeng, a pirate who once dominated the Chanying Sea. And Baili is like this A world-famous and fierce general on land is heading towards Baili."
"The most powerful general on land? Just this old man dressed as a gardener?"
"Yue'er, don't believe it. It is said that when General Baili was still serving as a general in the Yujing Dynasty, he only commanded 5,000 elite soldiers. In the next battle of Yeli City, he surrendered 30,000 Dongli rebels and became famous in the first battle. Later he became famous. He resigned from office and traveled to Mulu City, where he was appreciated by Duke Ye and granted the title of Protector of the Military and Horses in front of the palace. In his hand, he held the military talisman of the forbidden army in the city!"
"That's right." The man in Tsing Yi smiled and nodded, "But what I didn't expect was that a kid would actually know so much about me?"
"Of the boys who rose to the throne, who doesn't regard General Baili as his hero? It's just that you are called 'Land War Baili', why did you go to Baisha Camp to become the commander of the navy? "
"The boat division and the land division are two sides of the same coin. All methods of military use are common. Twenty years ago, Duke Ye thought highly of me and gave me a place to stay. Now I am ordered to assist the boat division. I should go all out when supervising the army to train, so what’s so strange about it?”
At some point, Xiang Baili opened the mud seal on a jar of Qingli. In the diffuse aroma of wine, he actually picked up the jar and took a big sip, smacking his tongue and praising:
"What a good wine, strong enough! I have been away from Yizhou for twenty years, but I can't forget the taste of Qinglishao. But let's talk about me later. You kid, tell me quickly. What do you want me to do? What's wrong with me?"
Seeing that the other party actually agreed to help, Jiang Yan couldn't help but become more and more excited. He tried his best to piece together his own experiences and fragmented memories, and told the man in front of him in one piece.
Listening to the young man's statement, Xiang Baili's expression gradually became serious:
"There are ice floes on the sea - it seems that the place where you boarded the ship earlier should be Dankou of Changzhou. However, although Ye Guo's boat master is unparalleled in the world, he usually does not go north easily, so as not to arouse the emperor's suspicion and the world's suspicion. Criticism."
"Sure enough..." Hearing what the other party said, Jiang Yan couldn't help but look disappointed, and his voice became lower. But Xiang Baili shook his head and continued:
"However, I didn't say that your memory is wrong. Just in the winter of last year, a tiger-headed flying fish boat in the camp docked at Dankou and hit the rocks in Jinghui Bay and sank. The whole boat was 11 Of the thirteen elite boatmen, only one survived—no, if you are included, there are two of them now..."
"There is still one person who survived? Who is he? Can I go see him?" The black-eyed boy suddenly saw a glimmer of hope to connect with his past.
"This man's surname is Luo, and he is the commander of the flying fish ship. Because of the shipwreck, he was demoted to the rank of Xiaoqi Captain in the Weiyu camp, leading troops to patrol outside the city. But what makes me feel strange is that , he and you have already met once at Pheasant River Crossing. If you really were on that ship, kid, why would the other party insist that you are a pirate?"
The man's words reminded Jiang Yan of the ferocious man with a beard he met not long ago, and his somewhat gloomy face. A chill suddenly appeared on the back of the young man's neck, and he stretched out his hand to think. I want to get rid of this unpleasant feeling, but I don't know how.
Suddenly, he felt that his head became half cold and half hot. Cold felt like he had walked into an ice cave made of thousands of years of ice from Baimang Mountain. Hot, it felt like he had been thrown into iron smelting. A furnace for forging steel. In the blink of an eye, the previous experience on the Hutou Feiyu boat suddenly appeared in front of the young man's eyes from the depths of his memory with incomparable clarity.
Jiang Yandeng immediately felt a splitting headache. He held his head with both hands and screamed without warning. In front of Xiang Baili and Ning Yue, he fell straight down like a felled tree.
When he woke up, the black-eyed boy had been sent back to Jia Yun Zhai. At this time, he was lying on a bed with a faint fragrance, and was taken care of by the hostess. Seeing him open his eyes, Zi Yi The woman's face finally showed some relief:
"You, since you were injured, why didn't you tell your sister? If I had known this, I wouldn't have let you go deliver the wine! You fainted without warning last night. What should you do if something bad happens after you fall? "
"Why am I here? Yue'er brought me back?"
"General Baili personally sent you and Miss Ningyue back. The little girl stayed by the couch all night and just went to sleep."
Sister Jia explained with a hint of reproach, and raised her index finger to her lips, signaling the black-eyed boy to lower his voice.
"What about General Baili? Can you let me meet with him again? I still have some important things to ask!"
"You look like this now, so don't worry about messy things all the time. Besides, the general commands fifty thousand forbidden troops in the city. Although he likes to drink the Qingli Shao here, he has never been willing to come to the door in person. Buying wine. He also specially hired a carriage to take you back last night. He didn't even enter the door, let alone have so much time to meet a kid who is delirious and may faint at any time."
Sister Jia stretched out her hand and pushed the black-eyed boy back onto the bed.
"But--"
"Your health is important, just lie down for me, there is nothing to bargain with! The other party asked me to tell you last night that you can go to Baisha Camp to find him in half a month. So you can rest here and recuperate first. A big job with a name. People will not disappear suddenly out of thin air. No matter how important the matter is, you have to heal your injuries before talking about it."
After hearing what the woman said, the young man finally gave up his persistence. He just secretly guessed in his heart that one of the important reasons why Xiang Baili refused to visit Jia Yunzhai in person might have something to do with the Jia sister in front of him - after all, she is Dong. Li people, and twenty years ago, it was Xiang Baili who personally suppressed the Dongli rebellion that scandalized the world.
After speaking, the woman slowly walked out of the room under Jiang Yan's gaze, turned around and gently closed the door. Only then did she take out a few coins from her arms to buy wine that the general had given her last night. He fiddled with it between his slender fingers.
In order to facilitate the counting, all the silver coins were hung with five pieces of five pieces on a thin rope. At the end of the red rope, a branch that was seven or eight inches long was tied, and it was slightly opened. Flower buds, bright red and attractive crabapples.
Thank you for your tasteful attention to "Twin Moon". I hope the wheat grown by Xiaoli will suit your taste. You can follow the official account of the same name~