Li Mao's guard of honor continued to march towards Yizhou, but he secretly returned to Yunzhou, and after entering the city, the three of them found an inn to settle down. Qingmo opened the window and looked out, and the more he looked, the more he felt that something was wrong, and said: "Murderous, there is murderous aura everywhere, is this the festival marshal going to do something to the four major families?" It's long overdue! Let them spit out what they eat, and have everything, and we want to pick food from the mouths of the small people? ”

Zhang Qi also stretched his neck to look out, and said, "Lang Lang Qiankun, where did the murderous spirit come from?" Brother, you look dazzled. ”

Seeing that Li Mao didn't speak with a cold face, Qingmo deliberately said loudly: "It's just murderous, I can smell it." Zhang Qi squeezed his eyes at him, Li Mao was worried, this Qingmo could see this, but he didn't know what it was, this state has been since Li Mao met Niu Baidan in Zhangjiazhuang, and even more so after seeing Mao Xiong in Caozhou.

He deliberately spoke so loudly, just to hook Li Mao's words out of his stomach.

Li Mao still had a cold face and didn't speak.

Zhang Qi suddenly said: "I have acquaintances in the military mansion, I'll go and inquire." ”

Qingmo said: "You just returned to Yunzhou from Chang'an, where did you come from?" By the way, it's been a long time since you've seen that acquaintance. ”

Zhang Qi said: "Not long after, we drank together a few years ago. ”

Qingmo knocked him on the head and shouted: "How can it be child's play when you lose your head, you really don't know how to write dead words?" ”

Zhang Qi shook his head and said, "I don't know." ”

The conversation between the two still did not lead to Li Mao's words, and they knew that the matter was much more serious than imagined, so they shut up at the same time, Li Mao was silent for a long time, and suddenly got up and said: "Don't go anywhere here, I'll go back when I go." ”

Qingmo wanted to persuade, but was stopped by Zhang Qi: "Brother Mao's face is not good, you pay attention to the smell." Qingmo said: "My life is at stake, and I will go if I am beaten." Zhang Qi held on, and said: "You don't know what he is going to do, maybe it will be bad if you go with him, listen to me or ask my friend to inquire and see what happened?" ”

This is also reasonable, and Qingmo agreed.

Li Mao went out of the inn, and returned to the back door of the house, which was the main entrance of the house, and after opening the door on the opposite street, the side door was sealed, and this door was used as the back door, unless important guests and festivals, ordinary entry and exit are still from this door.

There are wine shops, shops, and teahouses in the streets and alleys outside the door, and people come and go, which is also lively. When I bought this land to build a house, I took a fancy to the quiet environment. Li Mao is not often in Yunzhou, even if he is, he goes out early and returns late, and now he has the main entrance on the street, and he does not go through the back door, so there are few people who know him on the whole street.

Li Mao changed into a brown shirt, put on a straw hat, pretended to be a dusty pedestrian from afar, sat in a tea shed diagonally opposite the back door, and asked for a pot of tea to drink slowly.

Seeing that the guests always visited Li Mao's house, the teahouse owner smiled and asked, "Hey, are you here to give gifts for your parents?" ”

Li Mao said perfunctorily: "If you give a gift, you don't have to be so frightened, his head owes my master five times the money, and he wants me to ask for it, you say this is an unlucky errand." The teahouse owner pursed his lips and said, "Poor, how can you ask for such an errand, how powerful the master of that house is now, how dare you go to collect debts, be careful to break your legs." ”

A tea guest said: "That person has a hard heart and a black hand, killing a county official is similar to pinching an ant to death, if he is fine in Yunzhou, if he is on patrol, those officials in the local state and county hang themselves, drink medicine, hit the wall, jump into the river, and are busy and don't know how to die. ”

Another tea guest said: "That's no way, you have to do the same when you sit in that position, if you don't kill people, people will kill you, if you don't get others down, how can you go up yourself, you take care of your wife and children, and people still think about your wife and concubine." If you want to be an official, you have to be ruthless and shameless, not ruthless, like us, as a small people, sweating and strong, eating like pigs, suffering all your life, that day I fell down, closed my eyes, and settled the account. ”

"After the account, your wife and daughter will belong to Li Mao."

Everyone ate and snickered, and looked at the high wall of the Li family and the wooded courtyard together.

Li Mao was also laughing, he never thought that his reputation would be so vicious and unpopular.

"Alas, in the world, it is worth it like him, high-ranking officials and generous officials, good fields and mansions, beautiful wives and concubines, even if they are killed tomorrow, they will be blinded."

Some people sighed, and everyone sighed in unison. The shopkeeper hurriedly bowed and begged the people to be cautious in their voices, so that the walls of the partition would not have ears and people would listen.

A diner said: "What are you afraid of, you just happen to live opposite their house, and this wall alone is a world apart, and mortals can't cross it in their lifetime." After speaking, he asked Li Mao: "Although the third lady of that family is a noble lady, she is doing a lot of business, and she is the most reasonable. As soon as he said this, he suddenly jumped up and pointed with his hand: "Aunt Meng is out, she is a person who speaks well, you go and beg her, ask her to introduce you, maybe it will be successful." ”

Li Mao didn't dare to meet Aunt Meng, so he pretended to be flustered, turned his head in, and asked urgently: "I don't know what this person likes, I'm so prepared." ”

Everyone laughed and said: "She is a widow, what do you like, go, go, you little body, tsk, I see it." With that, they pushed Li Mao out.

Aunt Meng is Su Qing's nursing mother, she has been inseparable from her since she was a child, Su Qing is going to Dengzhou to leave Zhu Wan'er to take care of the bell and take Aunt Meng with her, how can she appear here? Li Mao was already trembling.

Everyone didn't understand why Li Mao's face was pale and trembling, thinking that he was afraid of seeing people, so they laughed and said: "Just this pus, and she came out to collect the debt, she owes you, what are you shaking." ”

These words reminded Li Mao, and Li Mao thought hatefully: "It's her who is sorry for me, what am I afraid of?" ”

He clenched his fists and strode towards Meng, who suddenly saw Li Mao, trembling with fright, and turned around to run and nailed his feet to the ground and couldn't move. Li Mao grabbed his arm and shouted, "Don't scream, come with me." Meng Shi didn't dare to disobey, and followed Li Mao into the tea shop tremblingly, Li Mao threw a bag of money on the table, and shouted: "Close the door, I have the teahouse." ”

The shopkeeper was surprised and delighted, and as soon as he got angry, he had a windfall, and hurriedly bowed to the few tea customers and apologized.

The door slammed shut, and the room went dark. Meng Shi trembled with fear, trembled and knelt down for Li Mao, and begged with a handful of snot and tears: "No, you don't know her temper, she won't let me say how dare I say it." ”

Li Mao asked, "When did it start?" ”

Meng Shi trembled and said: "Soon after you went to Beijing on business, first the military government sent people to send things every once in a while, saying that it was given by Mrs. Pei, and after receiving things, the three ladies naturally wanted to enter the house to thank them. The third lady won't let me say it, and the other side won't let me say it, if I leak the slightest rumor, the whole family will die, how dare I talk nonsense. ”

Li Mao said: "After I came back, they were still coming and going? ”

Meng Shi nodded, and said: "Not at first, but it started to exist a while ago, the third lady was afraid of being broken by you, so he asked him to take you, in order to hide people's eyes, he said that he was going to Dengzhou, and when he walked to Qingzhou, he said that he was not happy, and sent Mr. Zheng and them went, and his family came back, and he ...... last night."

Seeing that Li Mao's face was as black as a piece of iron, Meng didn't dare to say any more.

Li Mao instructed: "If you say half a word about today's matter, I will kill your family like this." Got it. Meng nodded like a chicken pecking rice, and said in a voice I understand.

After Li Mao went for a long time, Meng Shifang was able to stand up with his hands on the table, but he felt that his legs were as soft as noodles, and he rested on the table for a while, a sneer appeared at the corner of his mouth, and he said lightly: "I should kill someone, it turns out that I want to be a green-haired king." Bah. "Squirmed and swung out, his legs and feet were floating, and he almost fell when he went out.

Li Mao returned to the inn and said to Qingmo and Zhang Qi: "We will go back to Caozhou tomorrow." ”

The two of them saw him smiling forcibly, knowing that their hearts had not gone and they didn't dare to ask more, Qingmo went to order wine and food, and Li Mao, who had not been drinking for the past two days, drank half smoked for the first time.

Just after the hour passed, there was a noise of footsteps outside the inn, and someone broke into the inn and went straight into Li Mao's guest room. The person who came was Zhao Jinglai, it is not surprising that Zhao Jinglai could find Li Mao, he is a senior leader in the head of the copper tiger, and he has more real power than Li Mao, the acting director, he has been working in Yunzhou for many years, and his eyes and ears are all over the city, Li Mao's whereabouts can be hidden from others but not from him.

Seeing Li Mao, Zhao Jinglai knelt down on one knee and bowed, talking about the class in the head of the bronze tiger, he should have made this great gift. Li Mao hurriedly helped him up, Zhao Jinglai is not only a senior leader in the copper tiger head, but also Li Mao's entry leader, in this organization that pays attention to qualifications, it is impossible to be contemptuous.

Zhao Jinglai said: "Wang Wang Li Fang's four families refused to return the benefits swallowed into their stomachs, and conspired with Liu Wu to start an incident, wanting to kill the commander and establish Mizhou, the inner courtyard army is now divided into two, the fierce fight is in full swing, the tooth army patrol camp has been involved, the city gate is closed, the foreign army is not allowed to enter, and now the only person who can save the commander is the chief manager, and I pray that the chief immediately dispatches the sword army into the house to quell the chaos." ”

After Liu Wu killed Zhang Shuye, he was promoted to the capital of the government, and replaced Li Changshan as the envoy of the inner court, and the two of them served as the envoy of the army and horses of the inner court, so that they could supervise each other and prevent the power from becoming too powerful and endangering the monarch.

In the battle of Ximatang on the same day, Li Mao's soldiers made a dangerous move and successfully beheaded him in one fell swoop, helping Li Shigu regain military power. On that day, Liu Wu led his troops to control the inside and outside of the military government, killed Zhang Shuye and Pei Junyan, turned things around, and contributed greatly to the influence of Li Shidao in the subsequent purging of Li Shidao, and it was not too much for one person to hold two positions. (Dissertation College)