The neatly dressed shopkeeper who stood at the door saw us leading the horse approaching, and hurriedly stepped forward to greet us warmly, and after learning Lin Yi's identity, he hurriedly led us to the two upper rooms that had been booked inside, and the horses had already been led and fed.

After rewarding the shopkeeper, I closed the door and said to Lin Yi: "The crystal packaging I have on hand is really simple, and I am afraid that it will look inconspicuous if I give it to Sun Thief, so it is best to find a jewelry store to order a few exquisite brocade boxes, so that it is not so abrupt!" ”

Lin Yi nodded and said, "Yes!" I was so busy during this time that I almost forgot about this important thing. We just went out to dinner, so let's go to the jewelry store and finish it. ”

The two of them packed up a little, took the bag of crystals, and walked towards the downtown area.

Lin Yi often travels back and forth to Ningzhou and other places, and there is a Lin family mansion in the city, so he knows the road situation here well. Ningzhou City is not very large, and there are only a few streets in total. He took me to a jewelry store called 'Ji Cui Xuan', and Shi Shiran walked in.

We came to the store, but saw that the store is spacious and bright, the atmosphere is quiet and elegant, and there are more than a dozen antique sandalwood display shelves placed against the wall around them, and countless jade, jewelry, and some porcelain vases of various styles are also displayed in it, which is very luxurious and exquisite.

An old man in a gray robe sitting in the cabinet saw Lin Yi come in with a burden, stood up with a smile and said, "Oh! Why did Lin Gongzi have time to visit our store today, there must be some rare treasures to bring to the eyes of the old and decayed, right? ”

"Hey! Isn't it! Liang Lao is indeed a clear vision! This really makes you say, there are some unusual things here, and I am about to bother Mr. Liang to take a look at it and see if it can still enter your eyes. ”

After speaking, he spread the bag of crystals on the table of the Eight Immortals and gently opened the baggage. Against the backdrop of pearlescent, Mr. Liang's face also changed color in an instant.

His eyes were shining as he stared at the crystals, and his hands and feet trembled slightly. He carefully picked up a string of crystal rosaries and carefully played with them, with a look of surprise and envy in his eyes.

He looked at the two crystal balls one by one, and only after a long time did he reluctantly raise his head and say, "Lin Gongzi's treasure is indeed extraordinary, the old man has never seen such a crystal clear rare crystal in his life!" It seems that there is no doubt that this is a rare overseas crystal, but the strange thing is how such a realistic Buddha statue can be inlaid in it makes me think a lot. Unless it is the hand of God and man that has such a masterpiece, it is ...... Ay! What a strangeness! Odd! ”

Lin Yi smiled slightly and said, "I don't know why I got these things in the next place, so I went to your store to ask for advice." Even the famous Liang Shutong can't say anything, and my treasure seems to be of little value. ”

"Hey! How can these treasures be so detrimental? In my opinion, these treasures are extremely difficult to obtain, and this Buddha bead alone is worth thousands of taels of silver, and this pair of crystal balls is even more extraordinary. If Lin Gongzi is in a hurry to make a move, he is willing to give 10,000 taels of silver, I don't know what to do? ”

Lin Yi laughed and said: "It is said that Lao Liang's strange goods must live, and it is really good, but it is a pity that these treasures are already famous, and I just want your store to make some good brocade boxes, and the more expensive the materials, the better." Come and get it early tomorrow morning, I don't know if I can do it? ”

That Uncle Liang suddenly looked a little gloomy when he heard this, and then asked tentatively: "I don't know who is the famous flower owner that Lin Gongzi said?" Don't... Could it be Sun Dashuai, who is about to become king? ”

Lin Yiwei was stunned for a moment, and deliberately surprised: "Lao Liang is really magical, and he found this treasure after many investigations, and he was about to dedicate it to the king, in order to seek an official and a half-position, and to glorify the ancestors and revitalize the lintel, but I didn't expect it to be said by Lao Liang." Hehe! ”

"Oh! I see, so it is, alas! Now it's really a bad day! I didn't expect that the Lin family, who is famous in the world, is also keen on fame and fortune, and actually committed this unrighteous thing for a mere pseudonym, hehe! Hey! Uncle Liang shook his head and sighed, turned around, and ordered the man to come over and measure the size of the crystal with an expressionless face, and ignored Lin Yi and me anymore.

Lin Yi and I only smiled slightly bitterly, but no longer spoke. Xin said that although this wealthy jewelry merchant was only a philistine businessman, he was also a big man, and he looked down on those who tended to be inflammatory, and if he could put down the rebellion in the future, he would have to rely on this person. Lin Yi waited for the guy to finish measuring the size, wrapped the crystal, held it in his arms, and walked out of the store with me after a slight bow, and heard a cold snort behind him, but he didn't care.

The two of us walked a little further and walked into a restaurant called 'Jade Huchun' on the side of the road. It was noon, and there were many customers in the store. Originally, we wanted to eat as much as we wanted, but there were no empty seats on the first floor. The guy in the shop seemed to be very familiar with Lin Yi, and immediately stepped forward to lead the two of us upstairs enthusiastically, and finally found an empty table in the window near the window.

After sitting down, Lin Yi instructed the guy to serve the food according to the old rules, plus a fish soup and a pot of aged cellar wine, and the guy agreed.

At this time, I carefully looked at the surrounding environment, the decoration on the second floor is simple and elegant, the tables and chairs are made of fine solid wood, the lacquer color is bright, the carving is fine, and you can see that it comes from everyone's hands. I was about to turn around, but I found someone staring at me like lightning, which made me feel a chill in my heart. What kind of person can have such a breathtaking gaze?

I just wanted to turn my head to take a closer look, but I didn't expect that the gaze was gone, leaving me with only the back of a black-clad suit, which was a window position separated by two tables, and three black-clad youths were sitting there bowing their heads and drinking, and they couldn't see their faces clearly through the crowd.

I watched for a while, and when I saw that they never looked back, I stopped paying attention to them. At this time, the wine and dishes were also served one after another, and the four plates of exquisite side dishes were nothing more than seasonal fresh vegetables and sliced beef, and a pot of fine wine was far inferior to Lin Qingliang's self-brewing. Lin Yi and I worked all morning, and we were also a little hungry, so we ate and drank the wine to the end.

During the meal, Lin Yi pointed to a majestic mansion guarded by soldiers diagonally opposite, and said to me softly: "That is the Yunnan Xuanfu Embassy Mansion, and the one that has just been completed next to it is Sun Decheng's Yunnan Palace, let's go over and take a look in a while." ”

I nodded, looked closely, and secretly remembered the terrain around me in order to arrange the upcoming battle. I don't know when, when we were full of wine and food, I realized that the three young men in black had long since disappeared.

When we returned to the inn, Lin Tong, Le Meng, and Liu Huang were already waiting there. As soon as the five of us returned to the guest room, Lin Tong couldn't wait to tell us that a group of more than 100 people had entered Ningzhou separately with the help of He Shoujie, and all of them settled in the Lin family's mansion hundreds of meters away, just waiting for Guo Zhun and his party to be picked up in the afternoon.

According to the news from Lin Jiabao, Lin Duo has also returned from Shanxian Mansion and is expected to arrive here early tomorrow. In the end, Lin Tong insisted on leaving Le Meng and Liu Huang here to protect us and be responsible for the liaison between the two sides on the grounds that we were alone and unable to resolve the danger in case of danger. We had no choice but to agree.

After Lin Tong left, I instructed the guys to arrange a place for Le Meng and Liu Huang to live next door. I was about to discuss the meeting with Qian Shitang in the evening, when suddenly the shopkeeper knocked on the door and said that a guest had visited. When I was wondering who it was, Jian Zheng strode in in a light robe.

When the door was closed, he respectfully bowed to me, and then said in a low voice: "Originally, the lower officials would not have time to come until the evening, but I didn't expect Sun Thief to order today that all officials above the seventh rank should go to the Xuanfu Embassy for a meeting at night, so I came over in advance to inform the adults." ”

I hurriedly invited Jian Zheng to sit down and asked about the current defense situation of Ningzhou City and the Xuanfu Embassy. Jian Zheng described it in detail.

It turned out that Sun De had become a wooer for Jian Zheng, and had just appointed him as the commander of the Ningzhou soldiers and horses, responsible for the command of all the horse infantry troops in Ningzhou, including the three inspection divisions such as Majie and the military jurisdiction of the Yuezhou Guard, so that Jian Zheng could fully understand the deployment situation in Ningzhou, and quickly grasped the deployment arrangements of Ningzhou's soldiers and horses.

Ningzhou's soldiers and horses are mainly composed of city guards, with a number of about 1,300 people, mainly responsible for the defense of the four city gates, although these troops are all in charge of Qian Shitang in Ningzhou, but Sun Decheng also sent nearly 100 tooth soldiers to supervise separately, and not everything is decided by Qian Shitang. The 600 soldiers brought by Jian Zheng were specially responsible for security patrols in the city, and they were not allowed to enter the Xuanfu Embassy without special circumstances.

The Xuanfu envoy's palace was in charge of Sun Decheng's 600 cronies, and the power to command the troops was in the hands of Yang Baocheng, the capital ya. Although these people usually live a leisurely life of pampering and pampering, most of them are also carefully selected from the army at all levels, and their strength should not be underestimated.

In the end, Jian Zheng explained that if he could not get Qian Shitang's help in the end and forcibly attacked the Xuanfu Embassy, he must have a strong enough force to completely overwhelm the soldiers in the palace. Otherwise, all of Jian Zheng's troops would be used to contain the city defenders, and they would not all be organized to attack the Xuanfu Embassy in a coordinated manner, and their forces would inevitably be scattered. Therefore, convincing Qian Shitang has become the key to the success of the counterinsurgency plan, and I was instructed to try my best to win Qian Shitang over.

However, Jian Zheng also pointed out that Sun Decheng had promised to appoint Qian Shitang as the left servant and the secretary of the ministry after the founding of the country, which was obviously a great temptation. Moreover, Qian Shitang's whole family is in Ningzhou, and he can't help but think about the safety of his family. So it's not easy to convince him.

Jian Zheng quickly finished these words, didn't dare to stay longer, and hurriedly said goodbye and left after handing a pass waist card to me.