Stay until late at night, the wine shop, tea shed, Qinglou Chu Pavilion and so on are also closed, along the road you can see three or three twos, drunk pedestrians hooking shoulders and backs, supporting each other towards home.

At this time, an urgent cry accompanied by a hurried gong suddenly sounded: "Go water, go water, Ganlu Lou go water!" ”

The so-called water is people's taboo about fire, so the fire is called "water walking".

The pedestrians looked at it in amazement, and saw a red light shining somewhere on the third floor of the Ganlu Building, and there were flames beating in it.

All of a sudden, the pedestrians panicked like ants in a bombed nest.

In ancient times, all the buildings were made of wood, and because the city was narrow and the land was expensive, many houses were built next to each other and were very close to each other.

Often, if a fire breaks out in a house, it will affect the next house, and if the fire is not controlled in time, it will become a monstrous disaster.

Take the Chang'an fire in the last years of the Tang Dynasty as an example, at first, a house caught fire and caused a fire, because the control was not timely ignited the entire street, and the fire burned for more than a month before it was extinguished.

In this Chang'an fire, most of Chang'an City was reduced to nothing, and more than 100,000 people were left homeless, and this fire also led to the accelerated decline of the Tang Dynasty.

So at this moment, as long as it is a fire, it is not a trivial matter.

Soon, all the people in the surrounding houses rushed out, and everyone shouted and shouted along with the passers-by on the road, carrying buckets and basins, shouting and rushing towards the Ganlu Building, and the scene was chaotic.

And in the Ganlu Building, Yi Zuo, who had just been lying down, was also awakened by this Mu.

"Hall Master, what happened outside?" Walking out of the room, Yi Zuo asked a question to a sturdy man.

There are more than 30 men who are called the masters of the royal hall, and they are the hall masters of the four states branch of the Ming Sect.

At this time, he calmly said to Yi Zuo's envoy: "Zuo envoy, it is said that there is a room downstairs that is not very popular, and now the fire is unknown, do you think we should go out and avoid it?" ”

Yi Zuo made a slight groan, and flatly refused: "No, there are many people outside now, and there will definitely be officials and soldiers who will come to put out the fire later, so we are afraid that something will be wrong when we go out like this, so we should wait." ”

The hall master of the Wang Hall naturally made the horse head to look at it, nodded and said, "No, the subordinates obey the order." ”

Yi Zuo continued to instruct: "In addition, you instructed the brothers to guard the staircase, as long as no one is allowed to enter without the permission of the envoy, and send someone to keep an eye on Lu Ruoxuan for me, there must be no mistakes." ”

"My subordinates understand." The lord of the hall took the order and went with his fists clenched.

On the other side, the fire in Ganlu Tower continued, and the huge noise spread far and far in the night sky, and the entire city could hear it.

Fortunately, in less than a moment, the defense army of the Fugu County Army Patrol Shop arrived in full swing.

The so-called military patrol shop is a professional firefighting team established by the government from the Tang Dynasty, which is usually served by the people recruited by the people, and is named the Fangyu Army.

However, this defense army in Fugu County is extraordinary, and it is all selected from the soldiers returning to the hometown of the Zhenwu Army.

In addition, the governor of the Zhenwu Army has always attached great importance to the construction of the defense army, and is equipped with sufficient fire extinguishing equipment, so the defense army of Fugu is extremely elite.

When the defense army rushed to the bottom of the Ganlu Tower, the leader of the army immediately asked in a loud voice: "Where is the owner, and what floor is on fire?" ”

At this moment, the owner of Ganlu Lou was already in a hurry, and when he saw the anti-corner army rushing to come, he was as excited and happy as seeing his relatives, and hurriedly ran up to the first floor in broken steps, and said to the leading general: "My lord, the small one is the owner of Ganlu Building, it is the third floor, and the inn on the third floor is on fire, and it has spread to three rooms, please help me!" ”

The leading general is exactly what happened to him.

Hearing this, Cheng Shifei sneered imperceptibly at the corner of his mouth, turned to the twenty or so defense soldiers who came with him, and ordered: "Quickly set up a pump and immediately extinguish the fire." ”

The soldiers immediately responded to the order, and they were busy, and under their skillful operation, the two bamboo pole-shaped fire extinguishing devices had been erected, which became the chirp that had just been done.

This pump is made of the thickest bamboo, up and down the hole, with the water rod of the sac, the water from the hole, the farthest shot can reach seven or eight zhang, it is the most powerful fire extinguishing equipment at the moment.

I saw that the soldiers put one end of the pump in a water tank filled with water, and pressed the water rod together, and the water suddenly sprayed out from the other end, flew straight to the third floor, and poured it on the fire.

At the same time, Cheng Shifei did not forget tonight's business, and asked the owner sharply: "The owner, has everyone in the building come out?" ”

The proprietor said urgently: "Most of them have come out, but only the guests who live on the fifth floor have not gone downstairs, saying that they will wait and see." ”

Cheng Shifei knew that it was the Mingjiao demon who lived on the fifth floor of Ganlu Building, and his expression changed at the moment, so he pretended to be angry and said: "The fire is ruthless, devouring everything, who made them stay upstairs and not come out?" Do you want to live?! This is nonsense! ”

The proprietor said with a sad face: "My lord, the little one went to persuade me just now, but they didn't listen, what can the little one do?" Why don't you go and tell them about it yourself? ”

It was not the intention to succeed, and when he heard the words, he couldn't ask for it, so he immediately nodded and ordered his subordinates: "Except for the brothers who operated the pump, everyone followed the official to the building to put out the fire and save people." After saying that, he rushed in first.

Now the fire is only spreading on the third floor, so the smoke in the building is not too big, so it is safe for Cheng Shifei and others to enter the building, and the fire tonight was premeditated by Cui Wenqing, and the fire looks amazing, but in fact, it can be completely controlled, so there is nothing terrible.

When the group hurriedly climbed to the fifth floor, there were two sturdy men in cloth who were holding swords in front of the door, and when they saw the comer, they immediately shouted: "Who is it? Don't trespass here, stop now! ”

The success did not stop according to the words, and said to the two guards: "These two brothers, this official is the leader of the Fugu County Defense Army, tonight the Ganlu Building suddenly caught fire, the fire is amazing, and please be able to put your own lives first, and leave the building as soon as possible." ”

The two guards looked at each other, and one of them said, "I'm sorry, my master said that we don't have to go out for the time being, and Your Excellency's kindness is appreciated." ”

Cheng Fei's brows furrowed, and the expression on his face sank: "This brother, this is a matter of human life, not child's play!" What is the status of your owner? Do you want to put your life at risk? ”

The man said coldly, "I'm sorry, we will never go downstairs, and please leave quickly." ”

Seeing that he couldn't persuade the other party, he knew that he could only break through, so he pretended to be angry and said: "Bold, this official is the defense captain of Fugu County, how can you be allowed to push back here and be unwilling to go downstairs?" Come, brothers, drive them all downstairs. ”

"No!" The dozen or so defenders who followed the incident responded in unison and rushed up towards the staircase.