Ren Fengtao is a very trustworthy person, saying that if he is not drunk, he will not return, that is, he will not return if he is not drunk.

At the very least, he did what he said.

About half an hour later, sitting in the elegant seat of the most famous restaurant in Jiangyou Town, near the dock, Pan Long looked at a few drunken cats who were smiling happily and couldn't help but laugh.

The group of whale gang guys said that they were inviting themselves to drink, but when the good wine was served, they drank it first.

He didn't drink alcohol - the Pan family didn't drink much, not because they didn't like it, but they really had secrets in their hearts and didn't dare to get drunk.

The patriarch can't get drunk, and the children of the clan naturally can't, otherwise how can they hide it?

Probably only when they are sure that they will not be heard drunk if they are drunk, or even if they do, it doesn't matter, that they dare to drink more.

Naturally, this is not the case now, so Pan Long just drank a little bit and put down the cup.

His excuse was that "the sages have a cloud, although the wine is good, do not be greedy, and a pleasant drink is enough".

Ren Fengtao didn't persuade him to drink, but he just drank happily with the brothers of the Giant Whale Gang.

This fat man always seemed to be very happy, even when the negotiations with the Wyvern Gang broke down and he had to do it, he didn't seem so nervous and serious.

Everyone was also very happy, not to mention the members of the Giant Whale Gang, and the two leaders of the Slender Man Guild were also very happy.

The slender men are poor, even if they are the leaders. Ren Fengtao won two taels of silver per person for them, which was worth their income for several months.

The Wyverns wanted to oppress them, which was originally a bad thing. Now that the Wyvern Gang has retreated, they have to pay them a sum of money, and the bad thing has become a good thing, so they are naturally happy.

It's just that they seem a little restrained, probably in front of the heroes of the Flying Dragon Gang, and they can't let go.

After drinking a few glasses like this, Ren Fengtao frowned and persuaded: "The two leaders, the matter has been settled." In the future, even if the Wyvern Gang is still looking for trouble, they will only come to me to be fat, and they will not toss you again. You should be happy, why are you sad?"

The two leaders of the meeting were suddenly a little flustered, and they confessed again and again, and without saying a word, they punished themselves with a glass of wine, but one of them choked on drinking too quickly and coughed for a while.

Pan Long sighed and casually found a topic: "A few people, I am a foreigner, and I am not familiar with the situation in this area. The Whale Gang is famous, I know, so what is the origin of the Wyvern Gang?"

A member of the Giant Whale Gang, who was about forty miles away, immediately took over and explained: "The Flying Dragon Gang originally built a cottage on Feilong Mountain to rob the green forest of passing pedestrian caravans. In the spring of this year, they happened to encounter an injured Jiangyang thief, who lost more than a dozen people, caught the thief, and gave it to the government. So he relied on this credit to whitewash his identity, got the name of a reclamation group, and became a reclamation man. ”

"What kind of charter is the green forest whitewashing?" Pan Long asked curiously, "I am from Yongzhou, and we have never said such a thing in Yongzhou. Either you fall into the grass and go home, how can you still get an identity?"

Ren Fengtao smiled: "The situation is different from place to place." Because of the Jincheng defense line on your Yongzhou side, there are a lot of troops, and the movements are frequent, and there are large armies crossing the border almost every year. The officials of the imperial court naturally have confidence in their hearts, and if they really can't report to the imperial court to send troops to encircle and suppress them, why should they compromise with the green forest?"

"But it's different in Yizhou. Our side is peaceful, and the imperial court garrison is limited. In addition, there are many mountains and few lands, so it is very difficult to encircle and suppress them. Moreover, the distinction between black and white on our side is not very obvious, and it is not easy for the imperial court to pull one faction and fight another...... Over time, the imperial court tended to compromise with the green forest, and there was a whitewashing theory. ”

Ren Fengtao took a drink and said happily: "Actually, our Giant Whale Gang is also a successful example of whitewashing. Back then, the Giant Whale Gang was originally a water coward, but later because they helped the patrol to investigate a big corrupt official, they were successfully cleared. Now our gang leader is the county lieutenant of Leishan County, and even I, who is a fat man, also has the identity of a township patrol. ”

As he spoke, he took out a patrol waist card.

Pan Long was a little puzzled and asked: "The Giant Whale Gang is a well-known big gang in the entire Yizhou, if everyone has an identity, wouldn't it be ......?"

Ren Fengtao laughed: "How can everyone have an identity! Even if the court is willing, we are not willing to expose the old bottom! There are only more than 100 of the four or five thousand brothers in our gang, who have an official identity. Most people are just ordinary citizens. ”

As he spoke, he patted the gangsters around him vigorously: "Everyone is a good citizen, a great good citizen!"

Only then did Pan Long understand, and asked about the process of "whitewashing".

"Whitewashing, in the final analysis, is to get an official identity for everyone. You must always have an identity when registering a population in the imperial court, and you must always have an identity if you are an official, a merchant, a farmer, or a craftsman. ”

"The key to whitewashing the green forest is that you have to be able to get an industry that can feed so many people – at least nominally. For example, our Giant Whale Gang, after being whitewashed, is a fish farmer. According to the map, most of the gangs are fishermen. ”

"The reclamation man, just to farm?"

"That's right, there are six or seven hundred people in the Wyvern Gang. If they want to be whitewashed, they must have enough fields for six or seven hundred people to live. Even if they are all inferior-grade thin fields, at least nominally, they must be able to cope with it, and only then can they be regarded as truly successful. Ren Fengtao nodded and said, "But how easy is it to reclaim the fields! If you have to help everyone to farm, it is still a trivial matter if everyone is unwilling to do so, the key is that after everyone has planted the fields and settled down, who will go to the days of licking blood with Qian Dazhong?"

He smiled and said, "Actually, the situation is quite obvious, this Wyvern Gang was known for its fierceness and ferocity back then, but now it'...... You saw it too. ”

Pan Long recalled the scene of the previous conflict and couldn't help but nod slightly.

"With the industry and the start of farming, I am naturally unwilling to fight hard. That's why Qian Dazhong was in a hurry to find someone else to reclaim the fields, lest the reclamation would succeed, and he would have no reliable thugs, and he would really become a farmer. ”

"What about the Whale Gang?" Pan Long asked.

"Naturally, too. Ren Fengtao said, "But our scale is already too big, and there is no shortage of people who can dare to fight." On the contrary, it can make a large number of brothers live a stable life, and everyone is happy. The knife head licks the blood or something, where is there a fish to live in peace!"

Pan Long's doubts were finally solved, and he smiled and toasted Ren Fengtao.

Naturally, the toast could not be toasted by just one person, so I drank it again. After drinking this circle, the middle-aged gang member who had spoken before said to Pan Long: "Seeing your appearance and thinking of your surname, I think of a person. ”

"Who?"

"That person's name is Pan Wen, a native of Yongzhou, maybe he is related to you. The middle-aged helper said, "I want to ...... He should be a famous genius in Yongzhou. ”

Pan Long was stunned for a moment, recalled carefully, and really didn't remember any "talents" in the Pan family.

Although there are only a few people in the Pan family's lineage, the population of each branch is actually quite large, and there are always four or five hundred people. But among these four or five hundred people, martial artists abound, and there are a few merchants, and there are geniuses—there is really no one.

There is no way, because of the widespread existence of transcendent martial arts, the style of the Great Xia Dynasty is really more than a star and a half worse than the world before the traversal. Even in a place where the literary style is "prosperous", it may not be possible to find ten or eight cultural people in a town who can write poems and essays, let alone any talents.

Not to mention the people, even in the officialdom of the Great Xia Dynasty, the cultural level of most officials was limited to the level of being able to read and write half-literate and half-white "official language".

After all...... I don't need to.

The Great Xia Dynasty also engaged in the imperial examination, but the most important thing in the imperial examination was the "Art of War and Martial Arts Section", followed by the "Operations Research and Arithmetic Section" and the "Decree Litigation Section".

Most of the cultural people in Daxia, except for those who have mines at home and don't need to make money, are mostly engaged in the education industry or the literary and artistic creation industry, working as teachers in official schools, or writing dramas and scripts, which is their main livelihood.

It's not a bad job, but that's how social status it is. Compared with the previous life, "everything is inferior, but reading is high" is completely heaven and earth, not the same day.

The children of the Pan family have a family tradition of martial arts and have enough wealth, unless they really like culture, who will spend their time and energy on this?

Anyway, there is no contemporary one.

So Pan Long recalled for a long time, and finally replied: "Although I am also from Yongzhou, I don't remember that there is a talented relative at home. ”

"That's a shame. The middle-aged gang sighed, "Pan Wen, the talented man of Yongzhou back then, what a handsome man he was! He was only a beginner in literature and ink at first, and later studied hard in order to pursue Miss Ren of the Qionglai faction, and it only took seven days to get Xiucai in the county school. In the autumn exam three months later, he was admitted to the twelfth in Yizhou, which is really a genius through the ages!"

Pan Long was stunned for a moment, feeling that something was wrong.

"I see that your appearance is slightly similar to him. I thought you were relatives, but it turned out that I was wrong. ”

"Wait!" Pan Long couldn't help but interrupt his emotion, "That...... Do you know what Miss Ren's name is?"

The middle-aged gang looked at him in wonder and shook his head: "I'm a serious person, why do you inquire about other girls' names?"

"So...... That Yongzhou genius, what happened to him?"

"Naturally, the beauty was returned, and the husband and wife both returned home and went to Yongzhou. ”

Ren Fengtao also interjected with a smile: "That Yongzhou genius has a famous allusion. Others drink and write poems, but he goes to the toilet to write poems. Every time I go to the toilet, I can come up with poems when I come out, which is also amazing. ”

The corners of Pan Long's mouth curled twice, and he barely managed to squeeze out a smile.

He already had a bad premonition, but he still wanted to struggle hard, and asked, "Does that talented man know martial arts?"

"Absolutely. Ren Fengtao said, "He is not a weak scholar, on the contrary, he is a scholar with both swords." He used to write with his right hand and wield a sword with his left hand, and while fighting dozens of bandits, he also wrote an article. ”

"He uses a left-handed sword?"

Ren Fengtao shook his head: "Of course he can use a sword with both hands, and he is not the great swordsman Gu Lotian who raised birds with a broken arm in the play, how can he use both hands, but he only prefers to practice his left hand?"

Pan Long breathed a sigh of relief.

But he does seem to prefer a left-handed sword. The middle-aged helper added, "After all, my right hand is very busy, and I have to write, eat, and hold the beauty...... I had to leave my left hand free. ”

"Huh?"

"This is also an allusion to him, when someone asked him why he used his left hand to use the sword, he first used his right hand to perform all the sword skills, and then he said, 'The right hand is busy'.

The more Pan Long listened, the more confused he became, he began to think that this Yongzhou genius was pretended by his father, but listening to the descriptions of these two people, it was clearly a handsome and handsome person, which was very different from his father's rough blank.

(I guess I'm thinking too much...... ）

After he was full of wine and food, Pan Long said goodbye to the Giant Whale Gang and crossed the river by boat.

But he has always been pondering in his heart, and he will never forget the matter of the "Yongzhou genius".

No matter how he looked at it, he felt that the man was somewhat similar to his father.

After thinking about it, he finally made up his mind to go to his grandfather's house to inquire.