Chapter 1: On the day of leaving Zhen (Part 2), amidst the sounds of fighting all over the country, that cry was so clear. It was after listening to the reminder from the other side that Li Xu, Liu Hongji and others fought their way through the rebellious army.
After escaping from Shengtian, everyone guessed who was the mastermind behind sending dozens of people to shout in unison on the river bank. Liu Hongji said afterwards that Li Jiancheng was not a quick-witted person, and this idea was definitely not his idea.
It is said that the old general Yuwenshu fainted on the river beach as soon as he saw his son's figure.
"Escape, flee to the north, Zhong Jian, flee to the north -" Li Xu vaguely heard an anxious female voice mixed with the shouts of dozens of people. Every time he woke up from a nightmare, that voice kept ringing in his ears.
The sound echoed throughout today, until he led his horse out of the house, the shouting still lingered and refused to go away.
He remembered that when he, Liu Hongji, Samurai Xun and others were recuperating in western Liaoning, Li Waner had come to visit them many times. She either followed Li Jiancheng or walked with Li Shimin. Every time she came, she rarely spoke and just listened to the man.
They talked about the gains and losses of the Liaodong War for a while, then silently stood up and walked out. Miss Li Er's sudden girlishness made everyone very puzzled. The warrior Xun also secretly joked about the eighteenth change of women, no matter whose girl grows up.
When you get married, you will suddenly change from a lion to a sheep
Xuzi didn't dare to guess that Li Waner's tenderness was because of him, although he longed for the truth deep down in his heart. Li Waner liked to practice martial arts with Li Xu and chat with her. This was something that the entire food protection army knew, but Li Waner liked everything that aroused her curiosity.
Things such as kittens with weird coats, puppies, horses, cattle and sheep, and even customs outside the Great Wall, Khitan people's clothes, and Mohe people's clothes. She only inadvertently revealed her curiosity about Xu Zi. Liu Hongji once told everyone
He warned like this while chewing his tongue, and Li Xu also vaguely agreed with this point of view.
'She is just curious, well, curious,' Xuzi comforted himself over and over again. 'The environment of the two families is so different. It's no big deal that the daughter of the Duke's family is curious about the lives of the common people!' As for whether these reasons can deceive him,
Xuzi tried not to guess
In the breeze of February, the sun-soaked young man was thinking about what he was thinking, and walked to the restaurant owned by his uncle without any restraint. He was about to go to Liaodong. He wanted to say goodbye to his uncle. He had no son, and he had always treated Xuzi as his own child.
There is an inn that has become very lively now. Ever since the news spread that Li Xu was appreciated by the Duke of the dynasty, the yamen's helpers, headed by Brother Zhao, rarely come to fight in the autumn wind. Some local ruffians who bully Zhang Baosheng are old and childless.
, he also paid off the wine debts he had owed for several years in a decent manner. Without these extra expenses, Uncle Baosheng's wallet gradually became fuller. He promptly recruited a clever waiter and hired a chef who had resigned from a restaurant in the city.
After painstaking efforts, the entire inn slowly came back to life.
In Li Xu's eyes, the look on his uncle's face was much better than before, and even Mrs. Zhang Liu's behavior was not as startled as before. When she saw her nephew coming in, Mrs. Zhang Liu quickly got up and poured tea.
He left and said in a low voice: "Xuguan, come in quickly and sit down. Your uncle is thinking about sending someone to find you. Yesterday afternoon, a noble man brought you a gift!"
"Your Excellency?" Li Xu asked in surprise and looked up at his uncle, only to find that his uncle had his eyes narrowed and was looking at him as if he were looking at a treasure.
"Last night, when it was about to close, a strange man came!" Zhang Baosheng explained slowly while pulling his nephew to sit down, "As soon as he came in, without ordering, he first asked if the owner of this hotel was Li Xu.
uncle!"
"How can there be such reckless people?" Li Xu smiled and said that this kind of behavior was very similar to that of several of his friends in the food protection army. Suddenly, he realized that those few friends who acted laissez-faire had been gone forever.
After leaving, I couldn't help but feel sad again.
"I told him yes, and he ordered wine and food, invited me to sit down and eat with him, and kept asking about how you are doing!" Uncle Baosheng said proudly that he was respected by others because of his nephew, rather than the other party respecting him directly.
I am happy
"Is it possible that Lao Qi and the others are still alive?" Li Xu was startled by the sudden thought in his mind. He quickly interrupted his uncle and asked eagerly: "Did he tell you his name? Did he tell you where he went?
?”
"I also found it strange. When I asked him his name, he refused to tell me. He just said that he has a friend who is very familiar with you, so he specially ordered him to bring you a gift. I asked him the name of his friend, and he said
You’ll know it when you see the gift.”
After that, Uncle Baosheng jumped off the chair and took Li Xu, who was confused, to the backyard to see the gifts. He didn't even taste the tea that Jin Jin had cooked. He was so angry that Jin Jin stood at the door of the house and cursed: "So
You are so old, you can’t calm down? You didn’t even give him a drink when Xu Guan just came in..."
"Drink again later. What does your wife know? This friend Xu Guan must have asked for something. I gave him a gift and was afraid that he wouldn't accept it, so I came up with such a weird way." As he spoke, Uncle Baosheng had already walked into the courtyard and stepped out from under the pergola.
He took out a long oilcloth package, held it in both hands and placed it in front of Li Xu
"What's inside? I didn't dare to open it for you. I guess he may be a child of a wealthy family nearby. He heard about your reputation, so he wanted to make friends with you..." Uncle Baosheng frowned suddenly.
He overturned his statement again, "If he wasn't familiar with you before, how could he know his uncle's name?"
"You're just asking around! Xu Guan is so promising now! Yi County is only about the size of a palm. After asking around, no one knows who his uncle is!" Jin Jin and Zhang Liu also chased him out. Obviously, they were worried about the mysterious man.
She was equally curious about the mysterious gift
After being tossed over and over by his uncle and Jin Jin, Li Xu also felt that something was a little weird. He carefully untied the velvet rope on the package, and unfolded a thick layer of grass cloth and two layers of felt. What caught his eye was a black paint stick.
long painted stick
He suppressed his excitement, lifted up the long stick with both hands, and then gently shook off the wool wrapped around the top of the stick. A horse stick that was eight feet long, with a black pole and a silver edge was immediately placed in front of the three of them.
"What a long stick!" Zhang Baosheng praised out loud. He stretched out his hand to touch the handle of the stick and flicked it. The feeling between his fingers was as warm as jade.
"I'm afraid it's worth a lot of money! Xu Guan just needs it!" Even though Jinyu and Zhang Liu didn't know how to identify weapons, they could tell from the warm color of the stick that this thing was not of extraordinary quality.
Li Xu did not answer the words of the two elders. He held the pole carefully, as if he was holding a priceless treasure in his hands. In an instant, the past events he and Xu Dayan had experienced outside the Great Wall, scenes of the second expedition to Liao appeared before him.
The battle is about to begin again. What is Xu Dayan doing now? If he is with his friends, he should give advice and predict the success or failure of this battle.
"Xu Zi, Xu Zi!" Zhang Baosheng called his nephew cautiously. His suddenly serious expression made the old man feel uneasy. Xu Guan was now a member of the officialdom, and people in the officialdom had rules in the officialdom. He did this for him for no reason.
A heavy gift might cause him a lot of trouble...
"How about wrapping this thing up and asking your uncle to throw it back to him when you see him again!" Mrs. Zhang Liu was far more agile than her husband. She stepped forward and suggested loudly.
"No, this is a gift from a friend I haven't seen for a long time, so I'm a little confused!" Li Xu freed up a hand, scratched his head, and explained to the two elders apologetically.
"This friend of yours seems to be very rich?" Jin Jin calmed down in shock and asked tentatively.
"Very rich and very trustworthy!" Li Xu nodded, replied and then eagerly asked his uncle: "He said where did the person who brought the gift go now? How is his life?"
"No, I didn't say that the man was very weird. After dinner, he left the gift and a bunch of copper coins and left in a hurry. I said he wouldn't need so much, but he refused to take the money back!" Zhang Baosheng!
My wife and I looked at each other awkwardly and answered in unison.
They were rewarded with a coin for every meal. This was the most generous drinker they had ever seen in their lives. When the two of them and the waiter woke up from their shock, they chased him out. The man was already far away, not to mention the person who gave the gift.
The details of the incident were not even clear about his whereabouts.
"I guess he was in a hurry and didn't notice that the person who gave the gift was called Xu Maogong. He was the tall one in the caravan with clean clothes when I left home last time!" Li Xu saw the difference between the two elders.
Embarrassed, he stroked his long hair and whispered to help the two of them.
"Oh, I remember, he's the son of the Xu family, the one with all the shops in our family!" Uncle Baosheng covered the back of his head and said as if he suddenly realized, "Didn't he come out of the country with you? Didn't he join the army with you later?"
"He said that in the Liaodong battle, there was no victory but defeat, so he refused to go with me!" Li Xu kindly covered up his and Xu Dayan's experiences outside the Great Wall.
"It turns out that Mr. Xu asked someone to give the gift. No wonder he is so generous. He is an out-and-out wealthy family, unlike that five-year-old son who has little money and pretends to be a rich man!" Ms. Zhang Liu also remembered that she had appeared at her home that day.
The young man in blue shirt who passed by, while admiring him, also did not forget to hit the Zhang family's Xiao Wu. Ever since he came back from Liaodong last year, this fifth boy often took people to restaurants for dinner. He refused to pay the full bill every time and relied on Baosheng.
Uncle gave him a discount
"Don't talk nonsense, the fifth son has just started his career, I am very happy!" Zhang Baosheng has a kind temperament and does not want to talk about the junior behind his back, so he glared at his wife and scolded him in a low voice.
He didn't have any authority in front of his wife, so it would have been better if he didn't glare, but the glare aroused Zhang Liu's anger. She didn't care that her nephew was right in front of her. Baosheng Jinjin immediately raised her eyebrows, widened her almond-shaped eyes, and retorted loudly.
He said: "What do you mean by talking nonsense? You can do the math. Since he came back during the winter solstice last year, and until noon the day before yesterday, he has met with friends here many times, said to the autumn wind how many times he is happy to be successful, and everyone has done the same thing.
After becoming a school captain, I didn’t see him being a big deal in front of his classmates and friends! How good he is, relying on Xu Guan’s care to become a team captain, he just showed off, for fear that others would not know that he was an official!”
"You, please keep your voice down, don't let the guests in the front yard hear it!" Zhang Baosheng looked at Li Xu, who looked embarrassed, and begged his wife in a low voice.
"If you hear it, you will hear it. He is actually a big man in disguise!" Jin Jin angrily threw her two uncles and nephews away and walked into the back room.
"Oh, you Jinjin has such a temper!" Zhang Baosheng had no choice but to explain to his nephew with a red face. Li Xu felt that the scene in front of him was particularly warm. He shook his head and whispered: "Fifth brother is indeed too much. I will see you someday."
Go to him and ask him to pay back the money. He owes so much, do you need me to advance some for him first?"
"No, you don't have to pay back some food and drinks, they're not worth much in the first place!" After hearing what his nephew said, Zhang Baosheng waved his hands repeatedly as if he remembered something. He paused and continued: "Why haven't you invited your classmates and friends?
Teacher? Please, don’t let people say that you forgot your friends just after you gained fame!”
"I'm in Shanggu County and I don't have many friends!" Li Xu shook his head and smiled bitterly. Because his family was relatively poor, few people in the entire county school were willing to talk to him. The only person who was kind to him was his mentor Yang Fuzi, but he doesn't know how to go now.
After Li Xu came back, he made a special trip to the county school to visit his teacher, but failed. Several other teachers in the county school said that Teacher Yang left quietly, and no one could figure out where he went.
Where is it?
Thinking of this, Xuzi tugged on Zhang Baosheng's sleeve and asked in a low voice: "Uncle, have you heard where Master Yang went?"
"You said Old Master Yang, he bought a few jars of wine from me before he left, saying he would drink it to relieve his boredom on the way." Zhang Baosheng patted his head and tried to recall, "I chatted with him a few times and asked him where he was going. He said that he should
Invited by the son of an old friend, I want to serve as a staff member for you. Let me wait for you to come back and say hello to you! Look at my memory, how could I have forgotten such a big thing!"
"Uncle is busy, it doesn't matter, think about it slowly!" Li Xu was afraid that Zhang Baosheng would be anxious and confused and forget the key words left by Master Yang, so he quickly comforted the old man in a low voice.
"He said that the official career is difficult, and he asked you to do things for yourself rather than ring the gong for the king!" Zhang Baosheng had a good memory, and vaguely recounted Master Yang's message, "He also said that it will be difficult to meet each other from now on, so he asked you not to
If you look for him to talk about worldly things, chances are he will be unsatisfactory. It may not be fun to force things, so it is better to take a step back and the world will be brighter!"
"The one who is unsatisfied out of ten will die!" Li Xu tasted Old Master Yang's message and was speechless for a long time. The only person who could make Master Yang help despite his age should be the son of Yang Su, the Yue Gong, and the only one who is currently the Minister of Rites, Yang Xuangan.
Only the friendship between the sons of an old friend can exist
But why did he go all the way to find Master Yang? The young man stroked the long tree in his hand, and his heart was filled with waves!
