There are many alleys in the inner city of Qufu, and some of them are specially designed for the families and doctors who are dilapidated but can't pull their faces to move to live in Waiguo.

In the alley, there is an ordinary square courtyard, which looks particularly deserted during the rainy season in June. The drizzle was sparse and sparse, and the sound of water ticking, mixed with the chewing of food.

A white-haired old man dressed in a deep coat of kudzu was eating his morning food under the rain eaves in the courtyard.

The old man's dark clothes were old but not tattered, his white hair was carefully tied up with a black silk belt with cloud stripes, his bare feet were coiled on the reed mat, and his fingernails were slender, and it was evident that he did not work on weekdays.

Beside him was an old servant as old as him, with a respectful face, who was serving his master with a morning meal.

The morning food is very shabby, just a bowl of wheat rice, a plate of sunflower vegetables, a plate of soybean beans, no meat, no wine, but there is a steamed grass carp. Perhaps because of the fish, the old man ate it so sweetly that he had to chew dozens of times before swallowing it slowly.

Anyone who saw this meeting would never have thought that this old man with shabby food and clothing was once a monarch with fine clothes and fine food!

He was the exiled monarch of the Ju Kingdom, Gengyu, and ruled the Ju Kingdom for nine years after usurping the throne of his nephew Ju Madness!

But his tyranny made the Ju people unbearable, and the public opinion among the people who supported the restoration of Ju Mania became louder and louder, and Geng Yu planned to betray the Qi country, so the doctor and the people jointly expelled him. He had no choice but to flee to Jijiao City, and asked Ju Mad and the people of Qi to leave this city for him to spend his old age in peace, but was ruthlessly refused.

Even this situation did not last long, and the defenders of the city had already secretly planned to betray him to Ju Maniac one night. Ji Barrier City was broken, and he took four swordsmen to fight his way out of the siege. Under the cover of night, he fled to the country of Lu and sought refuge from the Ji family.

In Qufu. Geng Yu was regarded as a guest, and he had a large mansion with four entrances, where he planned his great cause of resumption. At first, Lu Zhaogong and Sanhuan were courteous to him, but as the days gradually passed, Ju Mad sat more and more firmly on the king's couch, and the doors that were originally open for him were closed one by one, and their lives became increasingly poor.

His hope of returning to China became more and more slim, and the Lu people also believed that he had lost his use value and stopped funding. The cronies walked away. Dead and dead, the concubine found in the country of Lu stole all the little money and silk that was left, and it didn't take long for him to be expelled from the spacious house and moved to the alley.

From that time on, Geng Yu was dead, and he said to the only remaining old servant around him: "I can't even take back a mansion with a hall, let alone Ju Guohu?" ”

After that, they began the difficult years, dreaming at night of the years when they were still kings. Gengyu will also be in tears, and his hands will tremble, but in this life, it's probably like this. It is his luck to survive the coups of the Lu State. The only hope is to be buried in the mother state after death, to a place where you can smell the smell of the sea.

After swallowing the last clump of hard wheat rice. The old servant took a wooden scoop that hung under the eaves and scooped a scoop of water from the water tank next to it. Respectfully handed to the owner. Geng Yu took a sip and drank it all, and then he breathed a sigh of relief. Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at the sword hanging in the room.

Gengyu didn't speak, and the old servant didn't speak, but he didn't hurry over and took off the sheathed sword, and presented it to the lord with both hands. The master and servant have relied on each other for so many years, and he knows the habits of the lord and the monarch well, and after the morning meal, he will start to sharpen his sword.

Gengyu loves the sword like life, loves it more than the beauty, the gods, and even the country. He was tyrannical and good at forging swords when he was in Ju State, looking for Wu Yue's craftsmen everywhere, or the swordsmen of Chu State, and often used people to test the sharpness of the sword every time he cast a sword, at first he used a concubine, then he used a palace maid, and finally he went to the street to kill the Chinese people who looked unpleasant, and even the doctor's family......

He lost his country because of the sword, and when he fled, he didn't take anything else with him, but he clung to the sword he bought from the Yue Kingdom. In the past few years, in order to buy supporters in Juguo, Gengyu sold all his jewelry. Up to now, even the money and silk obtained from selling the close-fitting jade pendant have all been spent, but he will not sell this priceless sword when he dies!

The long sword was crossed by his lap, and Geng Yu looked at it with the eyes of a young man with strong blood looking at a girl in his arms, and his speckled hands held the soft leather, gently rubbing it, wiping away the dull patina that had grown in the rainy season.

He can be old, but it can't be old!

After rubbing it several times, the dim light on the sword seemed to be swept away, and it was covered with regular black diamond-shaped dark checkered patterns, with blue glass on the front and turquoise on the back. The sword body is slender, with a middle ridge, two sharp blades, a concave forward arc, two convex hoops on the stem, and concentric circular patterns of round jewelry.

This is the authentic Wu Yue Sword! It can be exchanged for a sword with a city and a hundred horses!

At this point, the white-haired Geng Yu sighed, looked at the treasure in his hand with satisfaction, and sighed: "The swordsman, the king of a hundred soldiers!" It's a pity that I can't witness the rumored top ten famous swords in the world. ”

However, at the same time as his exclamation sounded, several black umbrellas just stopped at the gate of his small courtyard, and several people did not knock on the door, but directly pushed the door in!

……

The old servant who was dressed in a cloak to clean the ditch in the courtyard was holding a wooden stick and staring at the visitor vigilantly, but he was stopped by Gengyu.

After the Zhao family entered Qufu, the security of the inner city was excellent, and the bandits and thieves were extinct.

Sure enough, Geng Yu silently watched as a clean official boot stretched out from under one of the umbrellas, which looked extremely dazzling in the color of Qufu's black cloud pressure.

Above the official boots was a black official uniform, and above was a young face, mean lips, two sagittal beards, an eagle-hooked nose, stiff eyebrows, and deep and cold eyes.

This person's face is hard to forget, but Geng Yu's eyes are firmly fixed on the waist of the comer, in addition to the scabbard of the sword, the silk belt is also tied to a black-painted hedgehog card.

Legend has it that the pig has a high level of wisdom and understands human nature. Its eyes are wide open, it can distinguish between right and wrong, it can know good and evil, and when it finds an evil official, it touches him down with his horns and eats his stomach. So the judges of the shogunate wore white hedgehogs and were responsible for judging people's innocence in the public court; The inspectors wore black pigs and were responsible for inspecting the counties. Punish corrupt officials and treacherous officials.

The person who came was the chief official of the Shogunate Supervision Bureau who made Lu Guoqun's officials frightened, Kan Zhi! Kan Zi me!

Kan Zhi walked out from under the black umbrella. Letting the autumn rain wet his official robe, he walked lightly under the eaves. Then he bowed to Geng Yu and said, "Kan Zhi has seen Ju Jun." ”

He was followed by several men, all with swords at their waists, and even armor in their deep clothes. If you are not mistaken, all of them are good swordsmen among the soldiers, and they are experienced, and as soon as they enter the courtyard, they will stand in separate columns, blocking any flaw that can escape from the door.

Geng Yu looked at the old servant. Shaking his head to let him retreat, he looked at the bronze sword in his hand again, and then replied: "How can I still be worthy of the title of Ju Jun, just a lost man who fled in despair, if it weren't for the general who sent troops outside the alley to shelter in the past six months, not to mention that I could add a fish to every meal, I'm afraid that I would have been killed several times by the assassins sent by Ju Mania." ”

"It turns out that Ju Jun knows." Kan Zhi smiled, as soon as he entered Qufu, Zhao Wuxian protected Gengyu and other people who had been exiled to Lu from other countries. At first, he thought that this was to raise a group of idlers to eat rice, and it was not until today that he realized that the lord's far-sighted plan was not something he could speculate.

Geng Yu opened his mouth and laughed miserably: "If the people who have lost the country are more insensitive, it is inevitable that there will be no bones left in this foreign country." Kan Chang has a reputation for being jealous and hateful, and killing corrupt officials and corrupt officials like slaughtering dogs. Even I, an old man who lives in seclusion in the alleys, knows, but you and I are meeting for the first time, and we don't come to the door for anything. I don't know what I'm here for? ”

"Come and condolences to Jun Ju." Kan Zhi saw that Geng Yu was much more indifferent than he imagined, and he couldn't help but be a little bored. Perhaps twenty years of exile have worn away all his edges.

He paused slightly, and then continued: "And borrow something from Ju Jun for the general." ”

Geng Yu narrowed his old eyes: "I don't know what the general needs?" ”

Kan Zhi didn't say anything. Instead, he unsheathed his sword, raised it flat with his left hand, and gently drew it out with his right hand.

Geng Yu's eyes suddenly widened, and the sword was only pulled out a little, and he felt dazzled.

The body of the sword is covered with crystalline tortoiseshell textures, which are the result of countless blends and forging, and its blade is like autumn frost, and the cold light is shining. With Geng Yu's many years of experience in playing with swords, this sword should not be cast by gold and tin, but forged with evil gold.

Looking at Geng Yu, who fell into a stupor when he saw the famous sword, Kan Zhi showed his miserable white teeth and said with a smile: "What the general wants to borrow is Ju Jun's head!" ”

……

"Famous for his love of swords, he lost his country and went into exile because of swords, and finally died under the famous sword, which can be regarded as a well-deserved death......"

Zhao Wuxian closed the wooden box containing the head, and no longer looked at the white-haired head.

"What are Gengyu's last words?"

Kan Zhi said: "The lord does know Gengyu very well, he died with a smile, saying that it is much better to die under the sword of the cadre than the old death bed, so he died generously, just to be kind to the old servant, he also said......"

Wuxian thought of the smile on the mouth of the head in the box, and for some reason his mood was a little complicated and melancholy, maybe this is the price of hegemony, and asked, "What else did you say?" ”

"He cursed Ju Maniac that he would definitely lose the country, and begged the general to bring his body back to Ju on the day he came to Ju Kingdom."

Zhao Wuxian put his eyes on the overlapping streets and alleys in the twilight rain in the distance: "Only, I promise him that if I can die one day, I will definitely bury him on Langya Terrace and worship him with a famous sword!" Let him climb Langya Mountain with me and watch the sea! ”

Now, all you need to do is to marinate this head in lime and send it to Ju country. This is the "sincerity" that Zhao Wuxian showed to Ju Mania, who hated him, the uncle who was in exile in Lu State. As for whether you can get what you want from Ju State, it depends on Zigong.

……

In the middle of June, Zigong returned from Ju and drove straight to the general's mansion, still holding the silk book signed by Lu Ju's secret agreement in his hand.

After paying a small price that is not worth mentioning through half-truths and half-truths diplomatic deception, Zigong deceived General Zhao from Ju Guoyu into what General Zhao really wanted, and he couldn't wait to dedicate this harvest to the sovereign!

When he walked into the side room of the hall of the General's Mansion under the guidance of Qi Wan, he happened to hear Zhao Wuxian discussing things with Chen Dingguo, a retainer of the Le family from Song Guolai.

When discussing things with outsiders, they are also allowed to enter the auditorium, which is the treatment only available to confidants, and only Zhang Mengtan had a courtesy in the past, but now, Zigong also enjoys it. Although he knew that this was Zhao Wuxian's order in advance, he couldn't help but feel excited in his heart.

But then Zigong's ears pricked up, and his expression became focused.

Because what the general discussed with Chen Dingguo was a matter that affected the minds of all the shogunate officials.

It's about the wedding of Zhao Wuxian and Le Lingzi!

PS: Zigong's profession is a vertical and horizontal strategist, and what he says on diplomatic occasions is naturally seven points false and three points true, just write the supporting characters in the book, and readers don't believe it all.

(To be continued.) )

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