Before nightfall, all the "wood" was trapped hand and foot and gagged.

The entire Ningyang county town was quiet.

After half a year of nightmarish suffering, the people have long developed the habit of never going out in the middle of the night, even on a night when there is no evil moon.

In the southeast of Ningyang County, Zhangzhou Mansion, which is only 200 miles away, is a scene of peace and prosperity, singing and dancing.

This is the first night after the evil moon goes down, and on Pingzhang Street on the bank of the Jiulong River, there is a shuttle of people, shouting, laughing, and noisy.

In the face of the people who were full of excess energy, even if they carried the official sedan chair by one by eight, they could only slowly squeeze forward with the crowd.

Sitting in the sedan chair at this moment is the second son of Zhang Chengtao, the political envoy of the Seven Fujian Province, and the commander of the Seven Fujian Province, Zhang Xianye.

Zhang Xianye is not used to sitting in a sedan chair, if he comes by temperament, he can't wait to order his own soldiers, drive away idle people, etc., and then ride a high-headed horse, roaring across the street, instead of sitting in this suffocating sedan chair and wasting time.

Since the day he learned to ride a horse, riding horses in Zhangzhou City has been a common thing, but since his sister became the concubine of Emperor Longxing, his father did not allow him to do this anymore.

A military attache was reduced to sitting in a sedan chair, which is really a wretch.

Zhang Xianye understood his father's reason, but he felt that he was too careful - the emperor of Qimin Dao was far away, so why bother to act and deliberately low-key to show it?

The sedan chair walked slowly, and when it came to the residence of the political envoy, it was already late at night.

Zhang Xianye went straight to his father's study, and without knocking on the door, he heard his father's voice inside.

"Come in...... cough cough cough ......"

He pushed the door open and waited in front of the bed with his head bowed.

"This old bone is really worse day by day......" Zhang Chengtao was waited by the maid and sat up, coughing constantly, as if he would not be able to catch it at any time, and passed out.

The two maids, one caressed his back and smoothed his breath, and the other held the medicinal soup, and waited for a while before withdrawing with low eyebrows.

The moment the door was closed, Zhang Chengtao's sloppy eyes revealed a glimmer of light, but he still covered his mouth and coughed in a low voice.

Zhang Xianye stood motionless for a while, and when he heard the footsteps of the two maids going away, he said in a low voice: "Daddy invited his son to see him late at night, but what happened?"

"Did you find the rebellious soldiers who made trouble in Changtai County?" Zhang Chengtao said in a low tone, but he didn't look like he was sick.

Zhang Xianye shook his head and added: "A group of young people who bully the soft and are afraid of the hard have hid in the mountains. ”

Zhang Chengtao sighed and said, "Did you hide in the mountains? Then why did I receive a letter from Feiyan today, saying that it was a scholar surnamed Bu, who took 200 people to the boundary of Ningyang County, the capital of Jianzhou?"

"Ningyang County?" Zhang Xianye's face became ugly: "Who sent the letter? Could it be a mistake?"

Zhang Chengtao just shook his head slowly, and then said after a while: "Xianye...... When will you get rid of your reckless problem? The scholar came to Changtai County, you first stabilize him, and then catch the turtle in the urn. Now that there is such a big movement, people have gone to Jianzhou again, if something happens again...... It's harder to clean up. ”

"Daddy doesn't have to worry about it, I'll go to Jianzhou Mansion in person, and I won't let him run away this time. Zhang Xianye said with a stiff neck.

"What are you doing in Jianzhou Mansion?

"Daddy......" Zhang Xianye frowned, and couldn't help but say: "Son recently, there is always one thing I don't understand, this Lunatic Worship Sect was not recruited by our Zhang family, and I put up with crazy talk outside, why is Daddy also looking at the tail like this, is it ......?"

"Could it be what?" Zhang Chengtao said coldly.

“...... It's nothing. Zhang Xianye didn't dare to look at his father's eyes.

Zhang Chengtao looked at this unsuccessful son, shook his head and sighed, and after calming down, he asked lightly: "Do you still remember when you were a child, your father took you to hunt wolves?"

"Remember," Zhang Xianye replied in a low voice, "Daddy said that if you don't kill the wolves, you can easily take them if you drive the wolves to exhaustion." ”

“...... For your father's lingering illness, should you just do it for the emperor?" Zhang Chengtao got up and said: "On this Qimin Road, I don't know how many people want to take the lives of you and my father and son. ”

Zhang Xianye was a little stunned for a while, he thought that his father always pretended to be sick in front of the two palace maids given by the emperor, just to let the emperor know that their Zhang family was worried about internal and external troubles, and they had no intention of being subordinate, but he didn't expect that his father still had this deep meaning.

The hunter waited for the wolves to be exhausted before he made a move, and the Zhang family pretended to be weak at this time, precisely to lure the enemy hiding in the shadows to do it.

"Over the years, my father has neither dealings with the Confucian Party, nor from the outside to the flattering Party...... It is the success of Xiao He and the defeat of Xiao He. Your sister is a concubine, and it seems that she is the backer of my Zhang family, but the identity of the emperor's relatives is also a double-edged sword, and it will be a disaster if you are not careful. Zhang Chengtao sighed.

"Daddy, in the past hundred years, the Confucian scholars have occupied the rich land in the south of the Yangtze River, under the pretext of hiding the wealth from the people, and evading agricultural and commercial taxes......, which has long been a stubborn disease of the imperial court.

"How can it be so easy," Zhang Chengtao said with a wry smile: "Now that the Qimin Road is in chaos like this, why can my father still sit firmly in the position of political envoy? Do you really think that the emperor is sympathetic to my Zhang family?"

"The child doesn't understand. Zhang Xianye wondered.

That's the beauty of non-Confucianism. Zhang Chengtao explained: "Whether it is the Confucian Party or the Charming Party, they naturally want to find a culprit for the Moon Worship Rebellion, but no matter which side points the finger at my Zhang family, it pushes my Zhang family to the opposite side." Therefore, it is difficult for anyone to do it first. But once we took the initiative to take a stand and surrender to the Confucianism, the Confucianism would have no worries......"

"They are about to lose power, so what are they afraid of?" Zhang Xianye said.

"The emaciated camel is bigger than the horse, not to mention the trapped beast counterattacking, like thunder, how can my little Zhang family afford it?" Zhang Chengtao shook his head and said.

Zhang Xianye felt that his brain was a little swollen, and it seemed that what was in front of him was a clueless mess. The emperor's court, the two parties of Confucianism, and the moon worship cult...... and the weakest Zhang family, each with its own ideas, and each with its own difficulties, openly and secretly, yang and yin, hindering each other, no one can get out of the matter.

"What about the scholars?" Zhang Xianye asked.

"The Lunatic Worship Sect was not recruited by our Zhang family, but the officials up and down the Jianzhou Mansion are inextricably linked with our Zhang family and are inseparable...... Leave him there to mess around, and sooner or later he will get into trouble. Zhang Chengtao pondered for a moment and said, "Let's let the monks of Kaiyuan Temple go, you don't care." ”

Zhang Xianye nodded, although he didn't say anything, he still felt that his father was making a big fuss.