Footsteps, conversations, knocks on doors.

A lot of people came to Songxue Village at night, especially in the second half of the night, when it was close to dawn, a large number of people in the rivers and lakes rushed to the bottom of the mountain one after another, so naturally they could only find a family in Songxue Village and give some silver to live first.

Naturally, many people come to knock on the door of the warm and stable stone house, and money is not a problem, as long as you can come in and stay for one night.

The blacksmith still had a lot to say to Jiang Ning, it was inconvenient for outsiders to be present, of course he was unwilling, so he ordered Shen Ling to ask them to leave.

His father was well, and the enchantment seemed to have found someone to entrust him with for life, all of which made Shen Ling's originally desperate heart gradually revived, at least he didn't want to die like he did before.

But Li Ting's matter was a heavy blow to her after all, and it was not obvious when facing her sisters, but in the face of those strangers, Shen Ling was not as enthusiastic as when she was in the village before.

Li Ting's father Li Lin, Li Ting's eldest brother and sister-in-law, and the rest of the Li family in Jingyuan, except for Li Ting, she had already seen the faces of those people clearly, and she didn't dare to say that she was completely disappointed in the world, but there was obviously no false expectation at the moment.

The heavy, thick pine door pushed open a gap of half a foot, and the cold wind carried the snow in the void, and the light inside and outside the house was dim, and no one could see anyone's face clearly.

The people waiting outside the house only vaguely saw the silhouette of a woman, and then they heard the man say calmly in a voice without the slightest emotion: "The stone house will not stay overnight tonight, you should go elsewhere." ”

The three or two ascetics who were silently waiting outside the door turned around and left when they heard this, and did not say a word of nonsense.

The rangers who stood guard outside the door were not so easy to deal with.

Shen Ling also couldn't see the faces of the people standing outside the door clearly, and he didn't care.

I only heard the voice of the person closest to me with a slight dissatisfaction: "What, the girl looks down on our Changshan brothers?"

If it had changed, Shen Ling would definitely feel afraid of this, so she would have been defeated and let the so-called Changshan brothers come in, but this time, she just frowned, and repeated in a flat tone: "Shiwu will not stay overnight tonight, no matter who comes, it will be the same." ”

A large ingot of silver flew in through the crack in the door, and flew impartially into the palm of Shen Ling's hand that was casually hanging on his lap.

In such a dark environment, no one could see clearly, but the silver ingot did fly into Shen Ling's palm, and it was conceivable that the method of the person who threw the silver outside the door was indeed a little extraordinary.

"This silver is more than enough to stay in Jingyuan County for one night, is it enough for one night?"

An indifferent man's voice rang out from outside the door, but it wasn't the one who had spoken earlier.

Although this person is asking questions, his tone is clear and does not allow the other party to refuse, which shows that he is a character who speaks the same thing on weekdays, of course, his ability is enough to match the arrogance of that body.

"We don't stay overnight. The silver was thrown out of the door, and after Shen Ling repeated it a little impatiently, he was about to close the door, but there was

A hand inserted into the crack in the door, pinched the door panel, and forcibly pushed the door open from the outside.

"Stinky woman, it's really embarrassing!" said another harsh and ugly voice among the Changshan brothers.

Shen Ling couldn't resist the sudden huge force from the door, and fell to the ground with an exclamation, and the three people outside the door walked in.

The sour voice before smiled lewdly: "Yo, the figure is not bad, our brother was just going to spend the night here, since you are shameless, then we not only want to spend the night in this stone house tonight, but also want your little lady to warm the bed for our brother three!"

Before the words fell, one of them was about to tear off Shen Ling's clothes, but the next moment, his right hand was broken.

A person came out of the inner room of the stone house at some point, and a black shadow flashed away, and by the time the three of them reacted, the figure of the woman who had fallen to the ground was completely gone.

"Oh, Brother Changshan," the blacksmith's cold voice sounded from outside the inner door, "you go to Hades and be brothers again!"

As soon as the words fell, the three of them were shocked to find that there was a deep visible bone scar on their neck, even the man who had lost the silver before, the three of them covered their necks with their hands in vain to prevent the blood from flowing out, but they could only make a dull sound of 'cough, cough' in their throats, and soon collapsed to death.

The three corpses, along with their weapons, were hastily left outside the stone house, and no one dared to disturb them until dawn.

There was a muffled cough in the darkness, and by the time the blacksmith and his daughter had returned to the candle-lit room, he looked as usual, and he had lost the slightest hint of his old illness.

Jiang Ning didn't want to waste time on these boring things, and since the troublemakers had been killed, he continued to ask the previous question.

"The weapons are mostly made of metal, produced in batches, relatively heavy, it is indeed a good choice to take the waterway for bulk cargo transportation, it is normal to have business dealings with the Qingwei Gang, what did 'my father' find in the goods of Jianzhuang at that time? What happened later?"

The blacksmith sighed with a complicated expression and said softly: "Those things that happened later were also things I never expected back then!"

"What happened back then?" Shen Ling said.

"There are some shadows of the government behind the Qingwei Gang, although the disciples in the gang are uneven, and there are also some bastards who bully and dominate the market, but those people are only a minority, and in the rivers and lakes, generally speaking, few people are willing to offend. ”

"That's nature. Jiang Ning agreed.

The blacksmith continued: "So, after receiving Jiang Chongshan's letter, I was a little puzzled, did he offend that force to be afraid to such a point?"

"But when I did, I understood how dangerous his situation really was!"

Jiang Ning said: "What is hidden in that batch of goods?"

The blacksmith shook his head and said, "The goods are naturally weapons produced by Jianzhuang, and there is no problem at all. ”

"That is

Say, there is a problem with the place where the goods are to be sent or the person who receives the goods?" Jiang Ning said.

"That's right," the blacksmith said, "The disciples of the Qingwei Gang accidentally discovered that that batch of weapons, after several rounds, was actually transported overseas by private ships!"

Jiang Ning frowned.

"Important materials such as salt and iron and war horses, the dynasty is strictly forbidden to transport them to overseas countries, and it is already regarded as collaborating with the enemy and betraying the country, which is a crime to be punished by the nine clans. Those so-called chivalrous men on the rivers and lakes come and go freely, and the court can still turn a blind eye to the ban, but if the people of the court know that Jianzhuang is doing this kind of thing, then this so-called No. 1 gang in the rivers and lakes will also be trampled by the iron horse! No wonder my father is so afraid!"

"That's right!"

The blacksmith said: "Those swords, guns, swords, and halberds, although they are produced by the Sword Village, but they are transported to the hands of those foreigners, but they rely on the Qingwei Gang. But the foreign state far away in the East China Sea is the Night Country, and it is an enemy of our dynasty, if you watch Jianzhuang do these disgusting things of betraying the country, Jiang Chongshan can't do it, so he and the Qingwei Gang are in a dilemma. ”

"He invited you to the Qingwei Gang just to discuss this matter?" Jiang Ning said.

The blacksmith nodded and said: "We have summed it up several times, but we can't come up with a way to get the best of both worlds, as you guessed, although the Qingwei Gang is a Jianghu sect, but many times they will also cooperate with the government, so Jiang Chongshan does know some people in the imperial court." ”

Among them, the one who cooperated with him the most and had the best relationship was Li Sen, the salt and iron transshipment envoy arranged by the dynasty in Jiangnan Province at that time. ”

"It turned out to be him!" Jiang Ning said with a little surprise.

Even the two sisters, Shen Ling and Shen Bing, were taken aback!

"That's right," the blacksmith sighed and said, "This Li Sen is the eldest brother of Li Lin, the second master of the Li family in Jingyuan County!"

The blacksmith continued: "The Qingwei Gang and Li Sen have secretly cooperated for many years, and they have also contributed a lot to Li Sen's affairs in Caoyun, and Li Sen has borrowed the power in his hands to open a lot of convenient doors for them, which can be regarded as mutual benefit, so when we discovered this secret of Jianzhuang, we unanimously decided to seek help from Li Sen, not to be the first to sue for merit, but to ask for the stability of the next gang!"

"We originally thought that we would put this great credit in the hands of Li Sen, and after so many years of friendship, Li Sen would definitely find a way to help Jiang Chongshan keep the Qingwei Gang, but we didn't think that this person was two-faced, and he promised to be happy in the open, but secretly informed Jianzhuang of the news. Speaking of this, the blacksmith's face was a little annoyed and remorseful: "I gave this idea to your father, I thought that at least I could keep your family safe, but unexpectedly, it was because of my idea that the Qingwei Gang was destroyed, and your parents were killed one after another, speaking of which, it is indeed I who can't live with you!"

"You can't be blamed for this, if I were replaced, I might not have thought that this act of selling weapons to enemy countries would involve or even lead the salt and iron officials of the imperial court!" Jiang Ning said.

The blacksmith nodded, and said hatefully: "It's rare that you can think so clearly, and it took me a long time later to figure out that it turned out that the matter of selling weapons to the Night Country, then Li Sen was involved early in the morning, and we asked him for help, it was like a sheep's mouth!"

(End of chapter)