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A feathered arrow was shot three feet in front of Li Mao's horse, and after a trumpet sound, fifty or sixty people appeared on the slopes of the mountains on both sides, and twenty or thirty people rushed down from the mountain, pinching their heads and tails, and surrounding Li Mao and others. complete works

Everyone first suspected that they were mountain bandits, but they saw that everyone was dressed strangely, and their heads were decorated with pheasant tail feathers, and they were dressed like Xi Ren. Li Mao tried to say hello to everyone in Shanxi, trying to lure the leaders of the crowd to kill him, but he overheard someone on the hillside behind him calling: "Is it the lonely mountain uncle below?"

Li Mao looked up, was also taken aback, and hurriedly got off the horse and said, "Why is the king here?"

On the hillside stood an old man in his fifties, holding a slippery wooden cane, with three grown pheasant tail feathers on his head, and a necklace made of animal bones between his neck.

Li Mao knew that this old man was the king of Shanxi, Luo Ke, who entered Beijing to meet him a year ago, and the Son of Heaven gave a banquet to the Lin De Palace, and Li Mao was also there.

The amount of wine is very good, there are big bowls to drink, but the Manchu Dynasty civil and military are unwilling to drink more with a barbarian chief, only Li Mao accompanied him with three bowls, and their impressions of each other are not bad.

After the meeting with Luo Ke, the imperial court made him the assassin of Guiyi Prefecture and the governor of Qingshan Prefecture.

Given a purple robe and jade with the sword of the Son of Heaven, after returning to the grassland, he vigorously promoted sinicization, causing a backlash from the conservative forces of the tribe, and was expelled from the tribe by his son about a year ago, and his whereabouts are unknown.

Li Mao didn't expect him to fall into the grass, and looking at everyone's dress and temperament, he was very desolate after falling into the grass, almost to the point of begging.

Yu Luo could see Li Mao's dress, and asked with a smile: "General, which house is this going to Xuanfu?"

Li Mao said: "I am also a fallen person at the end of the world, and now I am in trouble like the king." ”

Luo Ke nodded slightly and said, "I already saw it." ”

Qin Mo snorted dissatisfiedly: "The king is really as wise as a torch, this can also be seen"

He was proficient in Chinese and was an old man, so he could naturally hear the sarcasm in Qin Mo's words, so he said: "Although we have only met once and drank three bowls of wine, I can see that you are different from other officials in the imperial court, you are not pedantic, you treat people sincerely, and people like you have no place in the court." ”

Qin Mo said: "The king's eyes are like torches, I am convinced." But I don't know why the king abandoned his position after only half a year after returning to the grassland. ”

This question was very rude, but fortunately, except for Luo Ke, the other Xi people didn't understand Chinese, and when they saw Qin Mo smiling when he spoke, they thought he was saying something good.

Luo Ke's face was gloomy for a while, he sighed, and said: "If you don't go to Chang'an, I don't know the gap between my department and the kingdom, there is a world of difference, how can you not catch up with the old man is too hasty, he doesn't complain about others, he only complains about himself." ”

Li Mao said: "It has always been a great difficulty to change customs, and they use this to incite dissatisfaction and squeeze out the king, which shows that the means are despicable. Then he asked Luo Ke what his plans were, and Luo Ke shook his head and said, "I don't have any plans, just live here." Li Mao persuaded: "Why don't you go to Liaodong with me and go through Liaodong for me." ”

Lu Luo Ke snorted: "I am still a high-ranking official of the Tang Dynasty, but you are a civilian, I go to Liaodong, you are the master, or I am the master" Li Mao was stunned for a while, but Luo Ke laughed and said: "Joke, joke, I am a thief now, and a thief has no official character." You are still a civilian, and a commoner has no official rank, but his reputation is better than that of a bandit. When you arrive in Liaodong, you are naturally the master, and I obey you. ”

At that moment, Li Mao and the four of them stayed in the cave where they lived for one night.

The cave not only smelled and smoky, but also had many fleas and lice, and everyone was itchy and couldn't sleep, so they went to sit outside the cave.

This night the moon is bright and the stars are scarce, high and far away, the scenery is quite good, Qin Mo scratched for a while, saw that his arm grabbed blood, held back, and asked Li Mao puzzledly: "Okay, you get a mountain king to follow, such a person will pretend to be pitiful if he is in trouble, once he gains power in the future, I am afraid that you will not be able to cure it." Shi Kong said: "You listen to what he said, I am the third-grade official of the Tang Dynasty, you are a civilian, this is not much, I am busy dividing the priorities, how to balance in the future"

Li Mao said with a smile: "He is the king of Shanxi, there are also Xi people in Liaodong, but there is no king, they are all slaves who were plundered and sold by the Khitans, and they ran away secretly, and they were savages over there, and their lives were very bleak." The barbarians are simple-minded, once they know that their king has arrived in Liaodong, then they don't have to come to meet us, and we don't have to do anything to pull up a pole. ”

Qin Mo said: "Then what about him, he is strong and strong, will he still take you, the civilian lord of Liaodong, in his eyes?"

Li Mao said: "We didn't go to Liaodong to be officials, if we can't even settle with a king of Shanxi who is bent on converting to China, and expect to be able to settle those fierce and unreasonable barbarians, what's wrong with you, where are all the ambitions in the past, and suddenly become so unconfident, and be scared like this by a king of Shanxi who has become a thief."

Shi Xiong said: "When the time comes, I will go and partner with him and keep him dedicated to doing things for us." ”

Li Mao said: "You didn't spy on him in the past, but helped him, helped him strengthen his determination to weird China, and when we occupy Liaodong in the future, we will help him go back to his hometown, regain power, repay today's humiliation, fulfill yesterday's wishes, eliminate evil, promote civilization, and always be a good vassal and good neighbor of my Tang Dynasty." ”

Shi Xiong said with a smile: "The people of the grassland, it's better not to be civilized and civilized, so as not to become the enemy of my Tang Dynasty." ”

Qin Mo said with a smile: "General Shixiong Gao Jian, the grassland is too big, the horses in the grassland are running too fast, it is really civilized and civilized, but it is a trouble, it is best for him to be ignorant for thousands of generations, relying on force alone, the country of Hulu will not last for a hundred years." ”

Li Mao asked Shi Kong: "What do you say?"

Shi Kong was dozing off, and this question woke up in shock, and hurriedly said: "If you can't accept him, you will be friends with him, and if you can fight, of course you will accept him as a junior brother, and if the younger brother is disobedient, he will teach a lesson, and he doesn't need to be polite." Slimy, want to fight but don't dare to fight, who treats you as a green onion. They asked, "What do you say?"

Shi Kong asked blankly, "Didn't you ask how to deal with barbarians?"

The crowd laughed, and this laugh alarmed the guards at the entrance of the cave, and some craned their necks to look at it.

Li Mao said: "Sleep first, and then discuss this matter later." ”

Early in the morning of the second day, Luo Ke packed his bags, burned down the cave mansion, and followed Li Mao all the way to the east.

This year, the wind and rain on the grassland are smooth, there is no catastrophe, the climate of this year has been warm, although it is late autumn, the grass on the grassland has not completely withered, the herdsmen have food and drink, and there is no idea of going to the border people of the Tang Dynasty for the time being.

Thousands of miles of frontier, calm for the time being.

The customs of the northland grassland are generally similar, there is a grassland pass through Luoke, it is very convenient to go all the way, and this day to the boundary of Yingzhou.

Half a month ago, a group of Khitans went to Yingzhou City to buy salt, because the price could not be negotiated, they smashed the Yingzhou Salt Iron Courtyard with a brute force, beat the officials, robbed the salt, and the government quickly went around, grabbed 20, ran 20, and died four more in the melee.

In order to calm the people, the government released the captured Khitan people out of the city, and entertained them with good food and drink before leaving, and each person sent a bag of five catties of salt when they left, although so the Khitan people did not appreciate it, and for a while the flowers and feathers passed the stalk, and gathered seven or eight hundred people to gather under the city of Yingzhou, set up camp, and claimed to hand over the murderer, otherwise they would break the city and kill a chicken and dog.

Yingzhou City is high and deep, heavily defended, not afraid of him, ignoring him, the Khitans plundered everywhere, blocking business travel, in order to exert pressure, so Yingzhou City closed its doors every afternoon.

Li Mao and his entourage did not know why, and they could not enter the city at a time of delay, and the Quartet spread that the Khitans were going to attack the city at night, and the merchants gathered under the city made bribes to enter the city.

Li Mao carried with him all the hard currency salt and vinegar cakes that were common in the grassland, and these things were worthless in the eyes of the Yingzhou guards, and when he saw that there were many others, he was afraid of causing trouble and refused to be accommodating.

Li Mao had no choice but to beg the guard general to send a letter to the Assassin Mansion to ask for a meeting with Sihu Zhu Kejian.

The guard asked, "What do you have to do with him?"

Li Mao said: "I am from Xiangzhou, and I am the same township as Mrs. Zhu, and I am still her cousin in terms of seniority." ”

Zhu Kejian's wife Mi Chunniang is from Xiangzhou, and the guard general is indeed a southerner when he listens to Li Mao's accent, as for whether it is a Xiangzhou accent, he has never been to the south, and he rarely has the opportunity to talk to Mrs. Zhu, but he is not sure.

He checked the gold ingot in his hand, thought for a moment, and said, "You wait." ”

A pawn was sent to deliver the letter to Zhu Kejian, who had been promoted to the secretary of Yingzhou at this time and joined the army, actually presiding over the affairs of a state.

Zhu Kejian read the letter, invited his wife Mi Chunniang, and handed the letter to her, Mi Chunniang read it, and said with tears streaming down her face: "It's the benefactor who has arrived." Zhu Kejian said: "He is now involved in a murder case, this case is tortuous and complicated, and the stakes are important, I should not meet him, you go to see him, you have to entertain him." ”

He also sent his family Zhu Hong to make arrangements, and Li Mao and his party entered the city smoothly and stayed in the best inn in the city.

Qin Mo respected Li Mao like a heavenly man, looked at him with an upward gaze all the way, and when he arrived at no one's place, he accompanied him and asked carefully: "What do you have to do with this Mrs. Zhu, people help you so much?"

Li Mao said: "Hugh wants to be crooked again, do you remember Mi Rulong?"

Qin Mo said: "Of course I remember, this Mrs. Zhu's surname is Mi."

Li Mao said: "She is the daughter of Mi Rulong, her brother Mi Chengxiu married the daughter of the Zhu family in Yingzhou, with a beautiful appearance and style. happened to be Mi Rulong who hated Yun Shuai, and Li Shidao instructed the copper tiger head to destroy his whole family. ”

Mi Rulong, Qin Mo knows, the history of the Caozhou assassin of the year, because of the proximity to Li Shidao, offended Li Shigu, and was destroyed in a daze, the brothers fought secretly around Mi Rulong for a long time, and it was rumored that Li Shigu instructed the copper tiger head to destroy Mi Rulong, kill a hundred people, and give a warning to those who are not strong-willed.

"It turned out to be made by Li Shidao, and the lady of the Zhu family is very beautiful."

"The Zhu family has foreign blood, and Mrs. Zhu is different from the Han woman, so she is naturally very beautiful."

"You've seen her"

"One side. Do you remember Wang Zhibang?"

...