Sheng Weiqiao and Xuanyu Feng lived in the small village for five days, and in order to welcome their arrival, the village stocked a lot of firewood, rice, oil, salt, bacon and pickles in advance, and temporarily bought a batch of live livestock.

This place is full of grass and trees, there are a lot of mountain delicacies and wild game nearby, Xu Lianshan sends a few people out to hunt every day, and at the same time as a scout, he also adds some fresh dishes to Sheng Weiqiao, so the life of a dry person is not bad.

It's just that they can't communicate with Rong Sleeping Crane, so it is inevitable that they will be secretly worried, and they will live like a year.

On the morning of the sixth day, a messenger took the lead and informed him that the matter had been resolved, and that Rong Sleeping Crane would come to pick him up in person within two days at most.

Sheng Weiqiao and Xuanyu Feng were relieved when they heard this, and hurriedly asked, "How did you solve it?"

"The king of the county took the lead and was unscathed. The envoy said, "The big boss of Jishan is the head snake of Western Xinjiang, and he knows the entire Western Xinjiang well, with their help, let's strike first, so the loss is not big." ”

Sheng Weiqiao and Xuan Yu Feng didn't know anything about the military, and they hadn't seen a decent fight, so they thought it was really an understatement.

But two days later, Rong Mianhe personally came to pick up people in the village, and the aunt and nephew noticed that there were many fewer guards with him, and Zheng Sen, who Sheng Weiqiao had an impression, was no longer among them.

"...... those people?" Sheng Weiqiao was surprised, and when he was packing up his things, he asked quietly, "But ......?"

Rong Sleeping Crane shook his head: "Some of them are injured and it is inconvenient to trek, so I asked the people of Jishan to help and sent them directly to Yizhou City." And some ......."

He didn't say anything, but Sheng Weiqiao already knew it.

Seeing his wife's serious expression, Rong Shenghe hurriedly changed his relaxed tone: "There are only so many of our guards, and the number of people who have lost them is not much. The ones who suffered the most losses were the Jishan bandits, not to mention the vassals of their cottages, the elites were all dead in the hundreds! There were countless wounded! You must know that their main village is known as 3,000 elite soldiers, and the actual number is less than 2,000.

Sheng Weiqiao looked at him speechlessly: "The Jishan thieves have decided to submit to you, they have suffered such a big loss, what are you happy about?"

"Gong Gao Zhen Lord, good girl!" Rong Sleeping Crane smiled, "Before this westward journey, what I was most worried about was that the Jishan thieves had been entrenched in the western frontier for a long time, and if the loss in this battle was too small, it would be difficult to handle it in the future." The result at this time is not a good thing for the Jishan thieves, but for us, it is right in the middle!"

“…… By the way, where did Ah Xi go?" Sheng Weiqiao was not very interested in this kind of conspiracy and calculation, and when he heard this, he glanced at him, remembered the past, and asked, "Did you send him to the sea?"

Rong Sleeping Crane said: "How is it possible? You also know that he is my most relied on confidant, and the credit of the sea at this time, King Gaomi will definitely belong to the son." Sending him over is a thankless task, how could I give him such an errand? He was sent by me to do other things, so he didn't see you for a while. But now that it's over, I'll be back in two days. ”

I asked her, "Why do you suddenly care about Ah Xi?"

"He follows you all day long. Sheng Weiqiao said, "As a result, I haven't seen it for a while, and I just think it's strange when I think about it." ”

As she spoke, she had already packed her belongings.

The other luggage has its own person to check, because I knew before I came that it was only a temporary stay here, and I still had to go to Yizhou after all, so most of the luggage was not opened at all, and it was convenient to leave at this time.

At the beginning, Silkworm Yue said that it was easy to get in and difficult to get out, but in fact, it was more convenient to go out.

Mainly when he came in, in order to hide people's eyes, the village side, or the Jishan thieves, sent a guide to help lead the way. And then a group of people who had never walked the wild road at all went up to this terrain that was not ordinarily precipitous, and it was not difficult to come into the stockade.

But when he went out, the hidden dangers on the left and right had been solved, and the Jishan thieves decided to return to Rong Sleeping Crane, and naturally had to take a hand on the departure of Rong Sleeping Crane's dependents.

They have long been accustomed to entering and leaving this village, and they walk on the mountain path as if they were walking on the ground, even if they carry a burden on their shoulders and a basket on their backs, it will not affect their speed in the slightest.

I don't even know where to get a group of strong women, carry two soft sedan chairs, and force Sheng Weiqiao and Xuanyu Feng from the mountainside village all the way to the road outside, the steep mountain road in the middle, Sheng Weiqiao sat on the sedan chair and suspected that people would fall off the cliff with the sedan chair, these people actually walked calmly and calmly.

"I don't want to go to that cottage again in my life!!" finally returned to the normal rush mode, Sheng Weiqiao leaned on the wheel of the carved and painted gold carriage, and said to Rong Sleeping Crane with palpitations, "Even if I go again, I must go by myself when I go down the mountain!"

She wanted to come down and walk over the cliff before, but the women insisted that it didn't matter and didn't let her get out of the sedan chair at all. In this way, although he did come over peacefully, Sheng Weiqiao thought of the thrill of that part of the road, and he curled up on the soft sedan chair for a long time and didn't dare to breathe, watching the white clouds slip past the soles of his feet, he almost suspected that his soul was already out of the sky, and now he feels that his scalp is numb, "I really don't know what Jishan thieves are doing there to get a stronghold?!"

"Hide gold, hide from the limelight, do the back road and so on. Rong Sleeping Crane opened his mouth and came, "It's almost the same at sea, you look at a very ordinary island, maybe there is a mystery inside." After all, if you don't pay more attention to the business, how can you do it for a long time?"

Sheng Weiqiao said speechlessly: "Yes, yes, you are a bandit and a bandit, and you can be regarded as peers, but you can understand each other best." ”

However, thinking that the obstacles to the future have been cleared, and there will be no more shadows along the way, she is not in a bad mood, so she thinks of Huan Guanlan again, "Why did he entrap the Jishan thieves in the first place? There are no famous commanders here in Western Xinjiang, right?"

"Are you addicted to killing generals as a teacher?" Rong Sleeping Crane smiled and touched her head, "Besides, no matter how the Jishan thieves are entrenched, they don't dare to confront the serious imperial court army, let alone get a military general? That is, there are many mountains and complex terrain on this side of Western Xinjiang, and the imperial court has limited annual allocation, so it is inconvenient to pursue them, which is why they have developed so far!"

"The reason why the teacher has contact with them is mainly because the court was really unable to allocate more funds to Western Xinjiang at that time, and he was afraid that they would not be able to control it after they grew stronger, so he kept a hand with the idea of taking precautions. ”

When Sheng Weiqiao heard this, he glanced at him with a smile and said: "Oh, it turns out that Duke Huan contacted them only because he had taken precautions? I thought that a mere bandit entrenched in the western frontier actually attracted the attention of the emperor, because they were originally members of the Western Xinjiang Army, and the boss ate too much empty salary, and the soldiers who were squeezed out couldn't stop looking for bandits to support their families? Then Duke Huan found out and thought that this was a good opportunity to liquidate the generals of Western Xinjiang in the future, so he hooked up with them!"

Rong Sleeping Crane asked curiously, "Good girl, why do you think so?"

"Didn't you say before that the main village of this Jishan thief is called three thousand elites, but in fact there are less than two thousand?" Sheng Weiqiao pouted, "And the reason why you trust this Jishan thief is because they were in contact with each other when Duke Huan was still alive." It was more than ten years ago that Duke Huan had an accident, and in his vision, if this Jishan thief was not very strong, how could he pay attention to it? Since he had taken care of it, it was obvious that more than ten years ago, the Jishan thief had already become big, not to mention the scale of today. ”

"And the Western Xinjiang side has never heard of any big moves over the years, and they are still so ...... If it is a pure bandit, when Duke Huan is here, he may not dare to make a mistake because of his great reputation!"

"After the disappearance of Huan Gong, he may still be shocked at first. ”

"But there has been no news from Duke Huan for more than ten years, and he hasn't lost control yet, and he hasn't grown too strong...... It's hard to be the leader of this Jishan thief, all of them are the same as the Gongsun family, and they have long been obsessed with the Guishun Imperial Court, and they even have to hang themselves on the tree of Duke Huan.

"If that's the case, what are you going to do with three thousand elites? There are so many people around you, and seven or eight people go down the mountain with a knife, and they may not be able to grab money and rice. Since he is well-trained, he can match the serious army in northern Xinjiang, which shows that the person in charge is extraordinary. Who would believe that such a person is reckless but has no ambition?!"

She snorted, "I thought at first, these people weren't made by Duke Huan, but the Huan family doesn't look like they can afford to raise these people." What's more, when Duke Huan was in the court, his main focus was on persuading His Majesty to go on the Northern Expedition, even if he had this financial resources, he would not have time to make a nest of bandits in Western Xinjiang. Thinking about it, it can only be those soldiers who have been paid empty salaries!"

After all, Huan Guanlan has a history of killing General Zhou, and if he thinks about it from this perspective, he may not have good intentions towards the generals in Western Xinjiang. It's just that because of General Zhou's many years of operation in Northern Xinjiang and the favoritism of the court, the soldiers are strong and strong, even if General Zhou's death leads to the dissatisfaction of the Northern Xinjiang Army with the imperial court, it will not affect the overall situation in the end...... The overall situation means that Ru Ru did not dare to act rashly at that time.

However, Western Xinjiang is different, this local appropriation has always been far behind the Northern Xinjiang Army, and no famous generals have come to preside over the overall situation over the years.

Although this is also because the alien races on this side of the western Xinjiang are relatively peaceful, which causes the soldiers to be comfortable. But the so-called non-our race will have different hearts, and no matter how erosive the Western Xinjiang Army is, the shelf is still there. Once there is a problem at the top, the alien race will take advantage of the situation, but it may not be what Huan Guanlan wants to see.

Therefore, Huan Guanlan tried to rein in those desperate soldiers who were forced to eat empty salaries, which not only preserved the combat effectiveness of the imperial court in this direction, so as to facilitate suppression in the event of foreign rebellion, but also grasped the handle of the generals in Western Xinjiang, ensuring that they could be justified at any time when they wanted to attack them.

It's not impossible.

Sheng Weiqiao guessed so, so she pushed her husband: "Isn't it?"

"Good girl is really getting more and more clever now!" Rong Sleeping Crane touched her cheek with a smile, "Jishan thieves are indeed not ordinary bandits, but what exactly are their backgrounds......

Sheng Weiqiao raised his pink fist: "You dare to say that you don't tell me, believe it or not, I'll beat you?!"

"Your sleeping brother wants to tell the good girl this time, but the sleeping brother himself doesn't know!" Seeing Sheng Weiqiao's disbelief, he spread his hands a little helplessly, "Good girl, don't you think that your sleeping brother is defenseless against the teacher, right?"

Sheng Weiqiao opened his mouth: "What do you mean?"

"I was young when I was in exile, and I remember that I didn't see Concubine Mo a few times when I was a child. Rong Sleeping Crane said calmly, "So I didn't know that I looked like Concubine Mo." However, the teacher's granddaughter, Huan Yehe, didn't see Concubine Mo many times, and when I was in Bishui County, I could recognize my relationship with the Gaomi Mansion at a glance, do you think the teacher would have no suspicion when he saw me?"

"Even if I have always forgotten what I said about my life experience. But as a teacher, it's impossible not to guess that I'm actually the concubine of Gaomi Wangfu. It's not difficult to ask Gongsun to give him face and send me back to the palace. ”

"But he never mentioned it to me, except for instructing me in my homework, and he never helped me with half a point!"

"My status and treatment on Tortoiseshell Island are all made by myself little by little. ”

Rong Sleepy Crane said lightly, "Of course, I don't have any resentment about this, after all, he doesn't owe me anything, he can accept me as a closed disciple, and teach me carefully, so that I once won the top prize in high school, which is already a great favor." ”

"It's just that I'm from a place like Tortoiseshell Island, so I'm inevitably suspicious. ”

"For him who has long judged my life experience, but has been indifferent, and only cultivates me as a closed disciple, I always feel that there is something in it?"

"Therefore, if I don't carefully examine the people and things that the teacher told me, I can't believe it. ”

"What this Jishan thief teacher told me is indeed the elite composition of the Western Xinjiang Army. ”

But the teacher didn't explain the specific ins and outs to me at the time. ”

"After all, the good girl also knows, the Han and Pan families joined forces to sneak attack, and even the Gongsun clan was defenseless about this, and the teacher didn't expect him to die so suddenly, so there are a lot of things, he probably thinks there is still time to tell me slowly?"

After hearing this, Sheng Weiqiao said suspiciously: "Didn't you say that you didn't know that you looked like Concubine Mo before, and you only woke up after the county lord Jingshu said it?" Then why do you think that Duke Huan knew your background when he saw you, but he was deliberately indifferent?"

Maybe Huan Guanlan doesn't know, or can't be sure?

Rong Sleeping Crane said slowly: "Good girl, have you forgotten the origin of my name? When the teacher gave me a big name, he said that it was taken from the name of the peony of the 'Sleeping Crane Fairy' that he once planted. Peony is the king of flowers, and people in the world often think that there is something in common between cultivating plants and trees and cultivating children, and they imitate each other. So what do you think I'm going to think when he says that?"

He narrowed his eyes, "What I was thinking of at the time was not what kind of sleeping crane fairy peony he planted, but ...... Imagami!"