Chapter 99 Encounter with Lihu, Sea Shark Sword Technique
Xingyang County City.
Cao Xi was having constant thoughts at this moment, tossing and turning, and could not sleep at night.
After several days of investigation, he was convinced that the "big boss" mentioned by the horse dealer was undoubtedly the owner of Jinling, the capital of Soochow.
According to the clues he has searched in the past few days, Wang Li, the governor of Hanoi County in the Great Wei Dynasty, is indeed inextricably linked to this matter.
It seems that I really need to go to Hanoi to get closer to the truth.
Cao Xi tossed and turned, but still couldn't fall asleep, so he simply put on his clothes and started to prepare his luggage. He decided to set off early tomorrow morning with a few soldiers of the imperial army to Hanoi County to conduct further careful investigation and find him in one fell swoop.
The person who is behind this conspiracy is the enemy!
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The eastern border of Yanzhou is Lihu County.
After passing through this place, if you go several hundred miles further, you will reach the border of Yanzhou and Qingzhou.
Dusk was approaching. Xia Houxuan led "White Bird" and walked slowly on the streets of Lihu County, intending to find an inn to rest.
Lihu already had a county seat as early as the Han Dynasty. There is also a bizarre legend about this small county.
According to old legend, when Lihu was first established as a county seat, the site was originally set on a large flat land south of Pu River. However, there was a strange thing happening here, that is, there was often a strange beast burrowing here, causing trouble.
The local people did not dare to settle here. According to local people's rumors, the burrower was a thousand-year-old fox. In desperation, the local chief had no choice but to move the county seat to the north of Pu River, where Lihu is now.
The county seat was moved here to avoid the sacred fox, so the county was named: Lihu.
Just as Xia Houxuan was deep in thought, a burst of noise on the roadside interrupted his meditation. He couldn't help but look up and saw people moving in front of him.
"Uncle, this uncle, please do it. Please...my brother is about to die of illness. Please show mercy and reward me with a few plants..." I saw only a thirteen or fourteen-year-old boy.
The young beggar, with tears in his eyes, was kneeling on the ground, holding on to the lapel of a well-dressed pedestrian, begging bitterly.
"Get out of here! Get out of here, you stinking beggar, don't dirty your clothes!"
The pedestrian who was pulled by the beggar could tell at first glance that he was a wealthy man, but he was obviously unwilling to give alms to the young beggar, so he kept kicking the young beggar with his feet while he was scolding him. After a while, the surrounding people gathered around him.
Bystanders were pointing and talking.
"Stop!" After Xia Houxuan observed the situation clearly, he decided to intervene and take care of the matter. He ducked and squeezed easily into the circle of onlookers, shouting to stop.
The well-dressed rich man who was beating and scolding the little beggar was stunned for a moment when he heard this. Then, he turned around and saw Xia Houxuan, who was wearing a sword and had an extraordinary momentum. He immediately felt scruples in his heart. After hesitating for a moment,
In the end, he chose to stop and no longer beat the beggar. After all, Xia Houxuan looked like a powerless ordinary person. No matter how arrogant the rich man was, he would not dare to take action rashly. And the little beggar seemed to
He was also frightened by Xia Houxuan's momentum and did not dare to pester the pedestrian again.
"Please, brother, please spare this little brother for my own sake." Xia Houxuan was neither humble nor arrogant, and even saluted the rich man. Although he was the Marquis of Changling Township, he still
He had a good upbringing and traveled around the world when he was young, so he learned a lot about how to behave in the world.
When the rich man saw that the beggar no longer bothered him, Xia Houxuan was also courteous and courteous, which allowed him to step down, so he "hum" and walked out of the crowd arrogantly without looking back.
When the little beggar saw that Xia Houxuan was indeed someone he couldn't afford to mess with, he panicked and was about to take the opportunity to run away. Unexpectedly, he was discovered by Xia Houxuan. Xia Houxuan smiled and easily grabbed the little beggar's arm.
The back of the neck was lifted up.
"Brother, I was wrong, please...please don't take me to see the official, please..." Seeing that he was being controlled by others, the little beggar rolled his eyes and struggled loudly.
Begging for mercy.
"Who said I was going to arrest you?" Xia Houxuan couldn't help laughing when he saw the clever and funny little beggar. He smiled slightly, let go of his hand, took out the money bag from his arms, and took out a lot of money.
Five baht was put into the hand of the little beggar: "Take it, go get medicine for your brother."
"Thank you... thank you..." The young man seemed to be touched, and something seemed to be twinkling in his eyes. He murmured: "Brother... I'm sorry... In fact, I just lied to others. I actually...
I don’t have any brothers… and I don’t need money to buy medicine…”
"It doesn't matter. No one has made mistakes. If you know your mistakes and can correct them, there is no greater good." Xia Houxuan was not surprised or angry. He smiled and touched the child's hair and said with a smile: "Remember, you are still young now.
, There is still a long way to go in the future, and you shouldn’t live like this. Take the money, don’t spend it randomly, and remember to find something meaningful to do.”
Xia Houxuan knelt down and stared into the young man's eyes: "One more thing, you have to remember that as a human being, your knees must be harder. You cannot kneel down casually for others. You must live your own dignity so that others can respect them.
You, I will never bully you again."
Xia Houxuan smiled slightly, stood up and left the crowd.
"Brother, my name is Su Mu, what's your name?"
Xia Houxuan did not turn around or stop. He stopped for a moment, raised his head and shouted loudly: "My name is Xia Houxuan..."
On the street, the little boy looked at the retreating figure, his eyes seemed a little more determined.
Yanzhou spans both sides of the river, and Hanoi County is located on the north bank of the river.
From early morning to early afternoon, Cao Xi and his party finally crossed the river and arrived at the southern border of Henei County, Hebei Province.
Although the weather was not very hot, Cao Xi and the two accompanying imperial soldiers were sweating profusely after traveling for most of the day, so the three of them found a tea house nearby and planned to drink tea and take a rest.
After drinking tea and resting in the teahouse for half an hour, the three of them felt that it was not so hot anymore, so they packed up their things and prepared to continue on their way. As soon as they walked out of the teahouse, Cao Xi saw a group of people gathered in front of a notice, talking about it.
Cao Xi approached the crowd and looked at the notice.
"Today at 12 o'clock, two thieves stole more than ten official horses from the county and city, fled south, and disappeared without a trace. If there are strong men among the people who can recover the lost horses and capture the thieves, the county will have a heavy reward. - Taihe IV
It’s not yet time on the 13th day of February in the spring of that year.”
Cao Xi thought to himself, two people stole more than ten horses, but the government failed to intercept them. Is it because the Hanoi officials were incompetent, or was someone colluding with the thieves? He believed that as long as the two fleeing men were caught,
Horse thief, all your questions will be solved.
The three of them took a shortcut along the trail and turned back south. Cao Xi thought that the two men driving more than ten horses would definitely not be able to escape from the trail, so he took a shortcut to chase them. He might be able to catch up with the two thieves before they crossed the river and fled south.
More than an hour later, Cao Xi finally arrived in a bush to the north of the ferry. The three of them hid in the vegetation and looked towards the ferry. As expected, they saw two people in the distance, leading many horses, talking to a boatman.
What are you wearing?
"General, do you want to take action now?" a forbidden soldier asked in a low voice.
"Move carefully, don't alert the enemy!" Cao Xi gave the order, and the three of them began to slowly approach the ferry.
In the distance, a short, fat man among the two men was yelling and swearing at the boatman: "You old guy, don't be ignorant. We gave you so much money, why don't you drag us across the river!"
"Sir, who is not willing to do this profitable business? I am not willing to ferry you across the river, but you have so many horses that I can't pull you across. Otherwise, I will help you first.
How about you pull the horses across the river, then turn around and ferry the two of you across the river..."
"No!" I saw the other of the two thieves, a strong young man with a big beard, saying: "We two brothers have spent a lot of manpower and money to bring these horses back. What if you let the horses go?"
After crossing over, if you don't come back and drive the horse away by yourself, what will happen to the two of us?"
"In that case, brother, let's not talk nonsense with him, just kill the old man, throw it into the river to feed the fish, and let's paddle across the river ourselves!" The short, fat man said and pulled out the scimitar from his waist.
, and pounced viciously on the white-haired boatman!
"In broad daylight, we stole horses, killed people, and robbed boats to cross the river. How shameless!" When Cao Xi saw that the man was trying to commit murder, he shouted loudly in the bushes.
"Who! Get out of here, don't pretend to be a ghost!" Although the short and fat man looked very vicious on the surface, he was actually a little guilty at this time. The strong man also muttered in his heart. He had bribed the Hanoi County officials. Logically speaking,
On the north bank of the Yellow River, you will not encounter any obstruction from the government, but if you are not a member of the government, who will interfere with this kind of thing?
"Look up to the gentle spring breeze and listen to the mournful chirping of hundreds of birds!" I saw a red light protruding from the bushes. Cao Xi stepped on the "cloud walking step" and used the sword "Bronze Bird Drunken Sword".
"A hundred birds screamed" and attacked the two men.
"Quickly, kill him!" Seeing the fierceness of the opponent's attack, the strong man immediately pulled out the steel sword in the sheath, shouted loudly, covered his body with a sword wave, and took two steps back to resist Cao Xi's attack.
The short and fat man tried to confront Cao Xi head-on. He looked like a shark jumping in the sea, and the steel knife was like a shark fin, twisting towards Cao Xi. It turned out that the short and fat man planned to use the knife in his hand to block Cao Xi.
The weapon in Xi's hand took the opportunity to get close to the opponent and give him a fatal blow. But what he didn't expect was that the opponent had a magic weapon in his hand. As soon as the two knives came into contact, the steel knife in his hand was cut off like a piece of clay!
Not only did he fail this time, but he also hit the opponent's knife edge with his knife. The short and fat man died immediately, and blood spattered on the spot!
The strong man couldn't help but feel horrified. There were three brothers in total. They were quite famous in the Fujian and Yue areas with their powerful and domineering "Sea Shark Sword Technique". Therefore, they were valued by the Lord and were entrusted with the important task of going north to buy horses.
, but I didn’t expect that my brother would fall into the hands of a young boy the first time he came to the Central Plains!
The man saw Cao Xi's exquisite swordsmanship, sharp blade in hand, and two helpers beside him. Knowing that he was no match for his opponent and that his companions died tragically, he was so frightened that he dropped his sword to the ground and planned to capture him without mercy. The two forbidden soldiers immediately
He stepped forward and tied up the man.
Cao Xi's hand holding the knife trembled slightly, he killed someone...
This was his first murder.
I didn't want to kill anyone originally, but why did the other party use this weird, as if death-like attack method...
Cao Xi looked at the blood dripping from the tip of the knife, feeling filled with sorrow in his heart, and tears fell inadvertently.