One day in mid-February, under the protection of more than a dozen horsemen and followed by a number of chariots, a beautifully decorated single-wheeled carriage drove on the dirt road west of Handan City. www.biquge.info The scorching sun was on the head, the dust was rolling, but fortunately there was an umbrella-like canopy on the roof of the car, and the emperor was firmly driving four good horses in front of him, and in the open carriage, there were two teenagers sitting and standing.

The young man who sat always made a mustache, and the rest hung down naturally, draped over his shoulders, he was wearing a simple regular clothes, which seemed ordinary, but if a person who knew the goods could see that the materials were all precious silk, and the price was very high. The full moon jade ornament on his waist, which is almost the size of his palm, shows that this son is either rich or expensive, but he is holding the car rail with his hand, and his face is not very comfortable.

The young man was naturally Mingyue, and after the plan to go to Qi as a hostage was finalized, he proposed to let Zhao Kuo, the son of Ma Fujun, go to Linzi with him.

Although Mingyue's reason is a bit far-fetched, don't say anything about Zhao Kuo, even if her son wants the stars and moon in the sky, Empress Dowager Zhao will find a way to pick it, and she will not allow it.

But unfortunately, Ma Fujun Zhao Hao just returned to the old mansion of Purple Mountain yesterday.

The Queen Mother wanted the temple people to go to the Purple Mountain to preach the edict, but Mingyue wanted to visit herself.

He said: "Ma Fujun is a member of the Zhao clan, a great meritorious hero in the country, how can he be called by the little erection? It's so rude, why don't you let me visit in person. ”

Purple Mountain is forty miles northwest of Handan, and it takes two or three days to come and go, and Empress Dowager Zhao was worried about her son, so she wanted to disagree, but Mingyue pleaded in every way. If you think about it carefully, you even agreed to parting for half a year, and you still care if it doesn't work in these three days? Only then did he send a team of black-clothed guards to escort him.

Before leaving the next day, Mingyue found out that Empress Dowager Zhao not only sent him an escort, but also a small partner......

"Shu Qi has seen Chang Anjun!"

The young man of the same age as Mingyue has a young face, but he is very heroic, he is wearing a swordsman suit, hanging crown and sideburns, wearing a short back clothes, Peiman Hu Zhiying, a typical Yan Zhao scholar's dress, looks very capable.

"Shu Qi, the youngest son of Master Zuo's family?"

Mingyue was a little surprised, it turned out that although the Empress Dowager Zhao was persuaded by Touchlong and promised to send Chang'anjun to Qi State, this old lady who knew the general situation in major matters and would be careful in small matters was still a little annoyed that Mingyue and Touchlong teamed up to scold her, and her son was reluctant to scold, so he made a little stumbling block for Touchlong - didn't Master Zuo keep saying that going to Qi was good for Chang'anjun and good for Zhao? In this way, why don't you let your youngest son, who has just been added to the black-clothed guard, also go to Linzi with Chang Anjun, how about it?

Lao Touchlong can't find a reason to refuse, other people's sons can go, but his own son can't go? He had no choice but to agree, anyway, beating Zhao Mu was enough to offend King Zhao, and it was not bad to do it again.

So the first task Shu Qi received after becoming a black-clothed guard was to accompany Mingyue to Ma Fujun's house, and then set off for Linzi together in early March.

"In the future, Shu Qi will be Chang Anjun's personal guard, big and small, even if he is called."

Lao Touchlong said this, but Mingyue couldn't really treat Shu Qi as a servant, she was still polite and let him sit in the same car with him. However, Shu Qi was self-aware, saying "I am the right side of the car, how dare I sit with my son", and insisted on standing with his sword.

Mingyue had no choice but to follow him, there was a word on the road that did not say a word, in his previous life, he had been a small civil servant at the grassroots level for three years, he had no other skills, and it was not difficult to get acquainted with people. No, as soon as the carriage drove into the suburbs of Handan, Shu Qi, who was born in Zhao Chen's son, no longer divided, began to relax and chat with Mingyue.

Handan, as the capital of Zhao State, encompasses Zhang, Fu, and relies on Taihang, which is a thoroughfare between east and west, north and south, and the roads also extend in all directions. It's just that the national-level Tu Road in the Warring States Period is similar to the rural dirt roads in later generations, uneven.

In addition, the two-wheeled horse chariot they were riding, no matter how ornately decorated, could not change that it was still a relatively primitive single-wheeled carriage, and the four horses were all tied to separate logs with a complex bow, and then pulled the vehicle forward together, which required the emperor to have more complex driving skills and control each horse.

Right now, the emperor in front of Mingyue has tried his best, and there is a shock absorption system called "Fu Rabbit" under the car, but the effect is limited, after walking for twenty miles, even if there is a thick cushion to sit down, Mingyue's waist will be broken......

Mingyue, who is accustomed to the back seat of the comfortable car on the asphalt road in the future, couldn't help but secretly complain, only dozens of miles to be tired like this, and when he went to Linzi in March, he had to walk hundreds of miles, so he had to fall apart? It was a chore.

Mingyue has begun to put herself in her shoes, should she find some craftsmen to transform this single-wheel carriage into a more stable double-wheel carriage that is common in the countryside in later generations?

However, to his surprise, on this bumpy carriage, Shu Qi still stood straight, like an erected sword, which was what he was used to in a one-way carriage? Or is it because of their own extraordinary skills?

He glanced at Shu Qi's hands that did not let go of the hilt of the sword while chatting, which were full of calluses, which was moving. I heard that in the trial training of the black-clothed guards yesterday, he relied on these hands and a wooden sword to beat an experienced black-clothed man with only the power to parry.

Unintentionally inserted willows into the shade, maybe Empress Dowager Zhao really found a good helper with strong martial arts for herself.

Mingyue asked him with a smile: "Dare to ask Shu Qi, at what age did you start learning swords?" ”

……

"I struggled at the age of five, and I started touching swords at the age of eight."

There was a hint of bitterness in Shu Qi's smile, since he could remember, he was ordered by his old father to learn literature and martial arts. After discovering that his son did not have the talent to learn literature, he specialized in martial arts, and invited some famous teachers at home and abroad to teach him swordsmanship.

The sword, the weapon of the gentleman, is the head of the hundred soldiers of the Warring States. During the Warring States period, people had their own special customs in terms of dressing, and one of the most obvious ones was the sword. "The Book of Rites: Yuzao" records that scholars "must wear swords", and swords and jade are popular all over the world as a symbol of a gentleman.

This is especially true in the Zhao Kingdom, along the way, Mingyue saw that there were many pedestrians beside the road, in addition to the common people who were too poor to afford swords, those noble children who were freshly dressed and angry, scholars with single clothes and shoes, and even merchants with elegant clothes, all wore swords with them.

The sword is like a man's third leg, and if you don't have a sword, you're embarrassed to go out and say hello!

There are many people who play swords, and in addition to driving the sword-casting industry, they have also bred a group of swordsmen and swordsmen who are famous for their swordsmanship and gain fame and profit.

"From the top to the bottom of the Zhao Kingdom, from the king to the common people, all of them are as good as their lives, so many Han and Qi swordsmen have gathered in Handan ......"

According to Shu Qi, this trend is actually driven by Mingyue's "father", King Zhao Huiwen.

"When the first king liked swordsmanship, the fencing people flocked to the door for diners, as many as more than 3,000 people, they tried swordsmanship day and night in front of the first king, the dead and wounded swordsmen every year have more than 100 people, the most important is the prince at the price of a thousand gold, invited the Yangling Junzhuang Xin of Chu to persuade the first king to ......"

Thinking about it carefully, Mingyue also has some impressions of this matter, in those years, the swordsmen who entered and exited the palace of King Zhao were indeed like carps crossing the river, fortunately, King Zhao Huiwen was mainly playing swords from the palace in the north of Handan, and the Queen Mother lived in Fengtai with her children, so she didn't need to see this crazy and bloody scene.

"Moreover, this should be the Zhuangzi. The content of "Speaking of Sword", but the person Shu Qi said in his mouth was not Zhuang Zhou, but Zhuang Xin? ”

Mingyue secretly slandered, it seems that the article that is very different from Zhuangzi's style is really messed into. Thinking about it, with Zhuangzi's character of treating the princes as passers-by and fame and fortune as rotting rats, he would rather sit by the pond and watch the turtles and fish in a daze than come to Zhao to take care of this bird matter.

In addition, he didn't believe that his fierce and introverted brother Wang could do such a thing, eighty percent of it was the suggestion of the staff and cronies around the prince at that time, but in the end, this has also become a major political qualification of Zhao Wangdan, but I don't know, who can persuade the wayward prince to do this, who is smart?

Because he is also a good swordsman, Shu Qi talked about the past and was very fascinated: "When Zhuang Xin saw the first queen, he said that his own swordsmanship killed one person in ten steps, and he did not stay for thousands of miles. But he also said that this is a small technique, it is the sword of the Shuren, and he also has two kinds of swordsmanship to dedicate to the previous king, namely the sword of the princes and the sword of the Son of Heaven! ”

The sword of the Shuren is difficult to speak. Hit each other in front, cut the neck collar up, and cut the liver and lungs down. The sword of this Shuren is no different from a cockfight, once it is exhausted, it will be of no use to state affairs.

The sword of the princes takes the wise and brave as the blade, the honest as the sword, the virtuous as the spine, the loyal and holy as the sword, and the heroic as the sword. This sword is waved, if there is no one around, the sun and the moon and stars will be on the sky, and the earth will be smooth at the four times, and the public will will be neutralized to calm the Quartet. Once this sword is used, it is like a thunderous shock, and within four seals, all of them will be satisfied!

As for the sword of the Son of Heaven, it is even more terrible, when Yan Guo is the sword edge, Qilu is the sword, Zhao Wei is the sword spine, two weeks is the sword Tan, Han Wei is the sword clip, and then the barbarian Rong Di outside the Central Plains is used to wrap this sword, the Bohai Sea is around, and Changshan is the belt, and then, with the criminal law and morality to control this sword, moving like yin and yang, holding spring and summer, and walking in autumn and winter. This sword, through the floating clouds, under the thick soil, not out of the way, once out, will be a Kuang world, the princes surrender!

"What a Yangling Jun, what a sword of the Son of Heaven!"

After Shu Qi finished speaking, Mingyue couldn't help but pat his knees and applaud, that Zhuang Xin said that King Zhao Huiwen was a prince, but he preferred the sword of the common people, and it was inferior, so King Zhao Huiwen changed his ways, expelled the swordsmen from the palace, and began to refocus on government affairs and state affairs.

Having said that, King Zhao no longer plays with swords, but this martial atmosphere has spread, and the good sword style of Zhao has not been alleviated at all, but has intensified.

"Shangwu is a good sword, and it is stronger than light martial arts and Confucianism." Mingyue said so, but personally, he was not too interested in practicing swordsmanship, and he still recognized what Zhuang Xin said about the sword of the princes and the sword of the Son of Heaven!

He couldn't help but think, King Zhao Huiwen's ideal is also to cultivate the sword of the princes and the sword of the son of heaven, right? It's a pity that this Ming monarch who "tasted and suppressed Qi for more than 30 years, and Qin couldn't get what he wanted" didn't live long, and what he left behind was a seemingly strong, but in fact crisis-ridden Zhao State......

"Since I have taken possession of your son's body, let me fulfill your unfulfilled long-cherished wish for you...... The sword of the internal Xi princes to strengthen the Zhao State; Practice the sword of the Son of Heaven outside to slash Qin! Mingyue made up her mind so secretly in her heart.

It may be that he rarely talks so much to his peers who are higher than himself, especially after his father came back, he was full of praise and said that he would definitely be able to enter the Zhao Kingdom in the future. Shu Qi was a little excited, after all, he was only a fifteen-year-old boy, and when he mentioned his proud skills, he would naturally gush endlessly, and the meaning of showing off his skills of a big child was overflowing.

Mingyue also did what she liked, and kept asking questions and leading him to speak.

"The sword of the princes and the sword of the son of heaven was learned by the kings and kings, and a dull person like me just practiced the sword of the people."

But then, the swordsmanship moves in Shu Qi's mouth, such as splitting, stabbing, pointing, teasing, collapsing, intercepting, wiping, piercing, picking, lifting, twisting, and sweeping, sounded like a fog in the clouds when Mingyue, who didn't know martial arts.

At this moment, the carriage drove to a three-way junction, Shu Qi also stopped talking, stood up straight again, and pointed to the distance:

"Childe, do you see the purple mountain to the north? Ma Fujun's field house is there! ”