The night is darker.

The snow gradually stopped.

The young soldier on night duty outside the governor's mansion yawned and fell asleep.

The night wind blows, shaking the lanterns hanging high in front of the house, blowing into the courtyard of Nuoda, the house is dark, like eternal night, all silent. Only the study of the governor's mansion was still dimly lit, stubborn and weak, old and deep.

In the study, the old man in the big red python robe slowly put the wolf in his hand into the inkstone, and then lifted the rice paper on the desk, and looked at the two lines of handwriting written on the rice paper with the momentum of the dragon flying and the phoenix dancing.

A head suddenly came over from the side, and regardless of whether he could see the handwriting on the rice paper or not, he exclaimed loudly: "Good words!

"The treasure knife of the state pastor is not old, and this word is still a must in my Ningzhou!!"

The man's sycophants are not very clever, but he is too lazy to work on such things as how to shoot the sycophants well, not because he is lazy - but for the old man in front of him, no matter how clever the sycophants are, they can't confuse his mind.

The old man didn't look at the man, continued to look up at the rice paper in his hand, and asked, "What time is it?"

"It's ugly. The man, who was born five big and three thick, licked his face and responded with a flattering smile on his face.

"Hmm. The old man nodded, and for the first time turned his head to look at the man, a hint of a vague smile appeared on his wrinkled face, and he said, "What are I doing in the middle of the night in such a good mood today?"

When the man heard this, his face was almost wrinkled into a grapefruit peel, he rubbed his hands, and said with a smile: "Isn't my lord teasing me? ”

"I can only see the surface, it is difficult to see the inside, the external things in the world, only the human heart is the most unpredictable. ”

"I know that the Commander has come to see me, but I don't know if the Commander is carrying the intoxicating Baizhuchun or the ...... in his arms," the old man said, his voice suddenly lowered a little, and his already narrow eyes narrowed at that time, and the narrow slits of his eyes reflected the flickering candlelight of the desk, shining with a hot but cold light—in many cases, the old man in front of him gave people such contradictory feelings.

He walked tremblingly, like a gust of wind that could blow it down, but sometimes he was so strong, like a quasi-god, embracing the whole of Ningzhou in his arms, as far as the eye could see, all beings could not hide. Since the first emperor Yuan Yan enabled him, this old man has held the authority of Ningzhou for more than 50 years, and there has long been a saying in the Great Yan Dynasty that Ningzhou knows Jiang and does not know Yan. Whether it is the current Yan Emperor Yuan Tong or the powerful Jin family in the court, before this old lion really fell, no one dared to test it.

The Yuan family didn't dare, neither did the Jin family, and the man who heard the old man's words at this moment naturally didn't dare even more.

He shook his head again and again: "What did Zhou Mu say? My old Xiao is loyal to your old man, as long as you make a statement, in the end, let's choose the prince or the Jin family, and my Xiao family will follow you without saying a word! But you don't say anything, let us guess, what do you say we can guess? Seeing that the two sides are about to go to war, if you don't choose, you won't have to choose, and I have no choice either! You can't let me wait for death with a hundred thousand brothers, right?"

When the old man heard this, he was noncommittal to the man's "heartfelt words", but after smiling, he asked rhetorically: "Since you have chosen a war horse and made a bet, you have to follow it ruthlessly. What's the use of coming to my old man's house if you don't want to solve those troubles?"

The man was unmoved, licked his face and continued to speak: "What are you talking about? Isn't it because the young man is involved...... How to deal with it appropriately, your boss has to send a message, if this matter is left to us to guess, if the guess is correct, it is fine, but if the guess is wrong, it will make you unhappy, then the sin ......"

"Xiao Xiao. The old man put down the rice paper in his hand, called the man seriously, and then walked out of the desk, and said slowly: "Since you are not a person all the way, you have to learn to go your own way." ”

"Today, whether you care about the old feelings, or you are afraid of Yu Wei, you gave way to me. When you and I meet again in the future, I won't remember today's feelings, after all, this road will become narrower and narrower the more you go, and the next time I can't squeeze out the way for you, you will have no way out. ”

When the man heard this, his heart sank, he didn't care too much about the truth in the old man's words, but he cared more about the sentence "Since he is not a person all the way"......

"What does the state pastor mean, you chose the crown prince?" the man asked with a frown.

In the entire Dayan court, among the several princes, only the five princes of the Golden Empress and the prince who has the support of Mangzhou behind him have the ability to compete for the throne of this Great Yan, the Xiao family chose the Golden Queen, since the old man and the Xiao family are not all the way, so to speak, this old lion finally decided to put the chips he had held in his hand for a long time on the table, and join this gamble that the slightest carelessness is enough to break people's bones?

This made the man's heart suddenly heavy - fifty years ago, when the old man who was still a young man came to the huge gambling table in Ningzhou, he was holding only a few copper plates in his hand. And relying on these copper plates, this young man miraculously won all the way in the big gamble of losing again and again, so the scholar who was once not favored by the world at all became a lion who held the authority of Ningzhou and ruled the land of this state in a blink of an eye, even if fifty years later, no one dares to try to shake this lion.

The man was afraid of the old and undead aftermath of this lion, and he was even more afraid that the other party would make a completely different bet from him this time - after all, he had won in this Dayan for fifty years, even if it seemed that the crown prince was weak and the Jin family was powerful, but the man still didn't think that the old man in front of him would make the wrong chip for him.

The old man understood that this was a man's temptation, but he didn't have the heart to play tricks, he shook his head at that time, and said with a smile: "You don't have to guess. ”

"Whether it's Yuan Zhichun or Yuan Yu, I don't choose it. I have a third way to go......"

Hearing this, the man's face suddenly changed, and he tried his best to think about it in his mind, thinking about every prince except Yuan Sleeve Chun and Yuan Yu carefully. But these guys are either too young, or they don't have any foundation in the court, even if the whole of Ningzhou is pressed on them, they may not have the slightest chance of winning. The man was in trouble, and looked at the old man with a crying face: "Don't joke when you are old, how can there be a third way to go?"

The old man smiled and replied, "Of course there is." ”

These words made the man sometimes stunned, and he was about to ask a question, but the old man slowly took out something from his arms and handed it to the man, and said in his mouth: "This is the third way of the Xiao family." ”

The man was stunned for a moment, swallowed back the words that came to his mouth, and looked down at the thing handed by the old man - it was a palm-sized life card, made of brass, and three evenly distributed cloud seals were carved around the life card, with a name engraved in the center, and there were a few lines of small characters under the name.

"This is the ......" After seeing the handwriting engraved on the life card, the man's face changed suddenly, he grabbed the life card, and held it with one hand, and there seemed to be flames rising in his eyes.

"Stinky boy!"

I only heard him curse in a low voice, and then turned around suddenly, and walked out of the study of the state pastor without looking back.

......

The old man did not show the slightest annoyance at the man's gaffe, he smiled and looked at the man's departing back, until he walked out of the study, until his angry footsteps faded away and became silent, the old man slowly withdrew his gaze.

He smiled again, and then walked slowly back to his desk.

He looked down at the rice paper on the table, his eyes wandered along the handwriting on the rice paper, and there were words in his mouth: "Wupan passes through Ningzhou, drifting oars and rivers." ”

"Millions of tigers and wolves knock, and the ghosts of the two rivers sniff together. ”

"The armor of the three heavens is bright, and the soldiers roar. ”

"Not an inch of soil has been covered, and the rain curtain has fallen......"

"Non-stop. ”

The old man read it, and he didn't feel a little dazed.

Probably because of his age, every time he thinks of the past, he can't help but occasionally feel like he can't help himself.

He has heard people tell people that they say that the older people are, the more nostalgic they like to be nostalgic for the past, not because of how good the past was, but just because of how young you were in the past.

Jiang Huanshui felt that he was really old, because in recent days, he always remembered the past from time to time, but it was not, or not just because of how young he was at that time—but also because, when he was young, those people were also alive......

"Xiao Qingxu, Xu Xianghou, Ning Tingqing ......"

The old man muttered these names that had long been submerged in the dust of history, and slowly put down the rice paper in his hand - the more he lived to his age, the more he understood the ruthlessness of the years, those names had shocked the north again and again, and there was also a fierce reputation that could stop children crying at night, but only a few decades later, in addition to his people will worship at festivals, who can really remember them?

"Yuan Tong, Chu Lantian, Yu Hu ......"

The old man continued to talk about those lives, his expression became more and more trance-like, and he walked to the window of the study, without his hand, the window opened automatically, and the harsh night wind whistled into the study, wrinkling the old man's python robe, and also blowing the hair on his forehead.

But the old man didn't realize it, he just raised his eyes to look at the boundless night, and looked in the direction of Ning'an Street, which should be lively at that moment.

He muttered to himself.

"I'd love to hear it again......"

"Listen to the sound of the rain sweeping again......"