The carriage convoy drove out of the Dongcheng ferry, along the street, all the way, but did not dare to be too rampant, after all, it was on the street, even if it was raining, but there were pedestrians, and the speed was not fast. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Stepping on the rain, he quickly disappeared into the rain curtain and headed towards the center of Taijing City.

Although the weather was really not good on this day, and the rain did not stop at all, the king of Qi, Chu Xu, did not slack off at all.

This is a case of secretly possessing weapons, and when I received a secret report that someone from the Dongcheng ferry port had secretly transported a large-scale weapon to Taijing at the end of the day, it was already almost three o'clock in the morning, and I summoned people and horses to come over as quickly as possible, and finally caught the evidence.

When he came, he naturally didn't have time to think about it so much, so he gathered people to turn over the horses and came, and when he went back, the third noble man in the entire Xia Kingdom except for the emperor and the queen mother remembered that he had been drenched in the rain for a long time, and his whole body was already soaked.

At this time, it seems a bit hypocritical to play the umbrella again, and with a wave of his hand, everyone turned over and got on the horse, took the escorted suspects, and the ferry errands sent the weapons of the carriage and prepared to return to the palace to try the case.

The chief of the palace guard followed him closely, seeing Chu Ji's indifferent face frowning, as if he was thinking about something, and soon he was relieved, galloping on his horse, and after a while, he threw off the people behind him, he hurriedly urged the horse to follow, and at the same time blamed himself for his distraction in his heart.

When he arrived at the door, Chu Ji turned over and dismounted, "Take it to the Torture Stone Hall." The old butler, who had been guarding the door, stepped forward in distress and handed over a dry handkerchief.

The Torture Stone Hall was the place where the Qi Wangfu was tortured, and this time the people who were arrested were brought here.

When several people were brought up, Chu Ji had already changed into a set of dry clothes amid the nagging of the old housekeeper, and he had not yet bathed, preparing to finish his business first and then do his private affairs.

Of course, he didn't need to speak in person for this kind of interrogation, he just came to take a look and wait for the result.

The torture in the palace is not a trial by the government, where is there any safety at all, and the punishment should not be sloppy at all.

Chu Ji sat on the chair, holding the hot tea that was brought over, and his eyelids were raised to the interrogation place from time to time, without saying a word, but the look of doubt was already accumulating in his eyes.

At this time, the palace came down and came in to say, "Lord Wang, Mr. Xu has something important to reply."

Hearing this, Chu Xuan stood up and strode out. Mr. Xu Xu Shangu is the person who has the most research on weapons in his house, and the weapons he just brought back are for him to check.

The place where Xu Shangu checked the weapons was in the Mingde Building, and when Chu Ji arrived, Xu Shangu was still looking at it with a big knife, knocking twice on the knife body, and listening to the sound that came out.

"Lord Wang." Seeing Chu Ji come in, Xu Shangu put down the knife in his hand and saluted with his fists, he was Chu Xu's diner, that is, his own person, so he didn't need to be too polite.

"Mr. Xu, what's wrong with these weapons?" Chu Ji pointed to the big box he brought back and asked, he hadn't had time to take a closer look at the weapons inside, but only glanced at them a few times, and they were not fakes.

Sometimes there is a specialization in the art industry, and sometimes it is like this, although Chu Ji is well-informed and has a vicious eye, he is not as good as someone else who has really immersed himself in this technique. "Except for a few weapons on the surface, the quality is not bad, the rest are all fancy shelves, and they can't really be used at all."

"Why?" Chu Ji asked, at this time he picked up and put down a long sword outside, and flicked his fingers, the texture and sound that came were a little different from the sword, but he would only think that the quality of this sword was too poor.

"This weapon casting is really a technical work, the cooperation between the various procedures, the cooperation between people and things must reach a certain level in order to successfully a good weapon, in which the quality of raw materials must be considered first." Xu Shangu explained to him as concisely as possible, Chu Xuan didn't want to know so much, but just wanted a reason, "These weapons are either not up to par with the raw materials, or there is a mistake in the process halfway, or there is a problem with the quenching time." “

"But obviously this is a defective product in the hands of masters, and it can still be used in the hands of the people or flowers, but the average master or regular army will definitely not consider it."

Chu Wei nodded, habitually furrowing his brows, this time he hit the deputy car by mistake?

According to intelligence, this is a weapon of rebellion, how can there be such a problem, isn't this weapon self-defeating against the cold iron knife of the forbidden army.

And since the master refining weapons have been wasted so much, then there will naturally be more refining, the question is where are the real finished weapons.

For large-scale weapons production, the Xia State official is strictly controlled, and the large-scale refining organizations have more or less official figures, and the buyers of large-scale weapons are official shore information.

Although there are people in the martial arts who disagree with the official, that kind of person is a lifelong pursuit of a divine blade, and he can't produce one or two in a few years, and the number is too small.

Outside the Mingde Building, the person in charge of the torture walked in: "Lord Wang, they all committed suicide." “

Nodding, Chu Ji waved his hand, Xu Shangu retreated, he also walked out of Mingde Building to the study, he had to sort out some clues, and the old housekeeper appeared like a ghost, asking people to move things away.

On the other side, a number of horse-drawn carriages crossed the city center and headed down the street towards the XC district.

Taijing City can be roughly divided into four urban areas, southeast, northwest, the imperial palace is on the central axis of Taijing City, in the middle, but a large part of it is built in the north, the Xia Kingdom is respected in the north, the north is mostly the residence of the powerful officials, the imperial relatives, the Chu clan, all kinds of princes and princes, and even the prince and the county king, where there is a large street on one or two families, Zhumen big households, wealthy mansions.

The status of the people in the XC district is lower, there are many wealthy businessmen, and there are also many people from small households. After all, Xia Guoguo has been in the country for so many years, and the first generation has also changed and changed, and there are still many people who live in separate houses, and now there are many wealthy businessmen in Xicheng, but more of them are ordinary people.

Nancheng District is a cultural area, with many academies, many old masters also live in Nancheng District, and the scenery is also very good, which is the first choice for outing parties. When literati read books, they became poor and sour when they read dead books, and the life of small families was also difficult.

Dongcheng District also has everyone, rich businessmen and powerful literati, and people from three religions and nine streams, also known as Dongshi, which has the largest business area in Tokyo City, and people with all kinds of financial resources.

The carriage headed towards the XC district, and finally stopped in front of the main gate of the largest house in the XC district, which was already very close to the northern city district, and there were many officials and titles next to it, but none of them were as big as this one.

There is a large plaque hanging outside the gate, the big characters painted with gold will attract everyone at a glance at any time, and the words "the first family in the world" shine brightly, so that all the people who see it are admired, here, it is the Dong family.

There is also a small plaque inside, which reads the words "Dong Mansion" in a regular manner, so to speak, these two plaques are worth more than most of the houses, and it can be said that except for the palace, there is no place to live that is more valuable than these two plaques.

"This is the Dong Mansion?"

The girl in purple opened the curtain, turned around and asked the girl in white, and received an affirmative answer.

The Dong family is the first family in the world, but they are just a merchant family.

From the beginning of the Xia country, the Dong family has quietly risen, and the head of the Dong family does not know where the capital comes from, and soon became the richest businessman in the world, making countless people red-eyed, some people say that the Dong family's house is paved with gold, white jade is made of furniture, pearl cotton agate is rolling everywhere, and silk and satin are the raw materials for fire.

It's just that others can be people, the Dong family does good deeds every day and helps many people, countless desperate people are benefited by the Dong family, and there are people who think about the good of the Dong family all the time.

The strange thing is that although the Dong family is not a title heirloom, but Xia Guoguo has been the richest businessman in Xia for so many years, and the habit of doing good deeds has also persisted.

Countless people want to know how much money the Dong family has, and spend money every day to do good deeds like flowing water, although the Dong family's good deeds are rewarded, such as how much principal is spent on treatment, and it is to ask people to help repay the medicine money in the charity, but there is no direct monetary feedback.

Until more than 30 years ago, Xia encountered the greatest disaster in history, various droughts and locust plagues, peasant riots, and invasions from surrounding countries.

It was a year of natural disasters, natural disasters occurred in every country, there was not enough food, and the land of Xia was the most fertile, and it became fat in the eyes of other countries.

The largest force of the Xia State was sent in the northwest to resist the wolf cavalry from the west, and the iron cavalry of the Great Khanate stationed troops in the northwest, but the result was still able to withstand and was powerless.

The history of the Xia Kingdom for hundreds of years, all kinds of mud and water, have long since regained the strength of the soldiers at the beginning of the country. Various families want to take the opportunity to make military merits, and it is easiest to make merit in the war, but now there are more and more big families, and the official positions are limited, and the competition is too fierce.

On the contrary, the children of the pampered family are all pampered, talking on paper, and they are all in high positions, all kinds of infighting, dragging their feet.

"Xia has soldiers, Khan has horses, soldiers are not as good as horses, soldiers are not as good as generals."

The famine in the country has intensified, and the war has been fought for more than half a year, and the state treasury has long been unable to make ends meet, and there is no material and financial support. Natural and man-made disasters did not improve at all, and later the countries of Dongsheng and Yu in the northeast and southwest also mobilized their national strength to attack the old, weak, sick and disabled Xia Kingdom.

As a last resort, Xia Guo recruited soldiers all over the country, but after such a long famine, countless people left their hometowns and relied on their families to survive, and who else was willing to abandon their families to become soldiers, this kind of stupid person who died with his family and his family was stupid.

What the world rises and falls, the husband is responsible, in this kind of obviously the abyss of death, when the people in the family will starve to death because of it, where is there anyone willing to respond.

Most of the troops are in the northwest, the soldiers in the northeast and southwest can't resist at all, Dongsheng and Yu are the whole country planning to rob the things of the Xia country to survive the famine, if they can't win, the whole country has the danger of starvation, the army is completely overwhelming, only some veterans can resist for a moment.

The Great Xia Kingdom is facing the tragic situation of annihilation, which can be said to be the biggest crisis in the hundreds of years since the founding of the country.

It was the Dong family who scattered all their money, I don't know how much silver taels they spent, and almost all of the Xia family's grain depots and grain stores donated them free of charge, and they also sent people to sell grain all over the country, and even made a detour to other distant countries to buy grain.

All kinds of clothing shops sew clothes overnight, digging mines, iron shops day and night to fight iron casting soldiers, Shun'an Tang's medicine fire never stops supplying, Dong Jiashantang's range has long been insufficient to supply, bought the surrounding houses, after opening up all kinds of help, good porridge and good clothes, it can be said that the Dong family spent countless money and countless manpower to ensure the operation of the whole country.

For a while, everyone regarded the people of the Dong family as life-saving bodhisattvas, and many of the rest of the Dong family's gold shops and bookstores, which were temporarily useless, were sold to raise money.

At this time, the Dong family began to encourage the prime of life to join the army, because they had to worry about the future, and countless people also expressed their willingness, and the troops in the northeast and southwest were replenished and reinforced.

At that time, because of the famine, the country had no money to fight, and it was the Dong family that provided the soldiers with silver taels, food, clothing, weapons and armor on time, and even most of the doctors in the Dong family's Shun'an Hall went out with the army to provide medicine at any time.

No one knows where the Dong family got so much money, and almost the entire country depends on the Dong Mansion to operate, but everyone has seen the Dong family's shops close one by one, and the rare antiques in the Dong Mansion are moved outside one by one.

Yu Guo in the southwest invited the old general Sun Yue as the marshal, and Dong Qianwei, the head of the Dong family, personally went to the northeast to help, and everyone knew that the old man Dong was still a military wizard, and finally the old man of the Dong family led a team of strange soldiers from a path that no one knew about through the fortress of the two armies, killing the emperor and the marshal of Dongsheng, and Dongsheng fell into civil strife to end the war.

The people from the northeast reinforced the northwest, and it was also the old man Dong who tried to protect the little general Chen Pu at that time, Chen Pu was from a middle-level background, vigorously reformed the army, showed no mercy, and killed many sons before stabilizing the morale of the army and driving out the iron cavalry of the Great Khanate.

The Chen Pu family has no background, and everyone knows that the Dong family is supporting him behind his back, or he would have been assassinated by the family earlier. Yu Guo in the southwest saw that Xia Guo had his hand free and took the initiative to withdraw his troops, which ended the war.

Afterwards, the emperor gave a plaque "The First Family in the World" and a Danshu iron coupon to commend the merits of the Dong family.

Hundreds of people donated money to buy the most expensive wood for a copper plate, and asked the little general Chen Pu to write an inscription, and the most skilled workers at that time framed it and sent a plaque with "Dong Mansion" written on it to express their gratitude.

In the Xia Kingdom, especially in the hearts of the older generation, the Dong family is the real living Bodhisattva, it can be said that when you go out, you say that you are buying vegetables for the people of the Dong family to cook, and the vegetable sellers will not charge a penny, but will be piled up with vegetables by the vegetable sellers competing for delivery, and you can't see people.

It is also for this reason that the Dong family has a rule that no one is allowed to go out to fight the reputation of the Dong Mansion, and they are not allowed to act under the reputation of the Dong Mansion.

The carriage stopped in front of the Dong Mansion, and a small servant came forward to knock on the door, the door opened, and a dozen or so servants in Tsing Yi poured out despite the heavy rain.

The carriage curtain was lifted, the woman in white walked out, everyone crowded to the door, and at the front was a middle-aged woman, looking at the woman in white, her eyes were full of urgency and longing, "Miss, remember me?" I'm Yanyu. “

"Aunt Yan." The woman in white bent down to show respect, Yan Yu is her mother's companion, the two are personal maids who have nothing to say from the boudoir, and they have been together until they are old, it can be said that Yan Yu has accompanied her mother more than her father.

"Hey, Miss is finally back, we've been waiting in the concierge since noon, just waiting for you to come back, and the old lady has been sitting in the main room waiting."

Yan Yu happily took the hand of the woman in white and led the way inside, the woman in white had been away from home for more than ten years and finally came back.

The woman in purple came down from behind, Yan Yu was stunned for a moment, and then reacted, "This is Miss Pei." “

Pei Nian was taken aback and nodded, it was the first time someone called her Miss Pei, everyone in the martial arts was called a girl, or a woman, only a big family would call her Miss.

"Madame has already instructed Miss Pei and Miss to return to Beijing together, and we have been waiting for a long time, Miss Pei is really a woman, generous and refreshing."

Pei Nian smiled generously, and followed the woman in white and shouted: "Aunt Yan is polite, don't dare to be, just call me Pei Nian."

The group walked into the Dong Mansion with an umbrella in the heavy rain.

(To be continued.) ）