After a chance encounter on the left side of Taiping Town, Cheng Yuanfeng's carriage rolled north, driving directly to Zhang Shijie Dajiang Dazhai on the side of the Xingguo Army. The Ye family's convoy went along the Raozhou official road to Longxing Mansion, which is located in the southwest. When parting, Ye Mengding and Cheng Yuanfeng looked at each other quietly, as if they had realized that this would be the last meeting in their lives.

Ye Mengding watched his friend's carriage go away in the rain, and stood silently for a long time before he sighed and left abruptly.

And the Ye family's convoy gradually increased its speed in silence, as if to catch up with the time that had been forgotten in the smoke and rain in the south of the Yangtze River.

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The wind and rain are bleak, shrouding the future and the way forward.

The horse's hooves clicked, once again echoing in the Jiangnan town at night. The lights swayed in the wind and rain, as if they would be extinguished at any time, and Bihe on the pond hung his head listlessly, quietly waiting for the wind and rain to recede, as if this long rainy night had worn out the once high fighting spirit.

This is just a small town in the southeast of Raozhou, and a few miles further is the land of Jiangnan West Road. If it weren't for the fact that the night was already shrouded and the wind and rain did not stop at all, I am afraid that Ye Mengding would not hesitate to order the convoy forward, even if the road ahead was already stormy.

"Rest." Ye Yingwu stood under the horse and moved his muscles, and the guys from his own store poured out to help lead the horse. Seeing so many guests, the shopkeeper in the store didn't dare to slack off, and hurriedly greeted him, presumably it was also an old fritter who had been crawling on this official road for some years, and he didn't look at Ye Yingwu and a few people in the front, and went directly to the old man who came down in front of the saddle and behind the horse.

Ye Yingwu couldn't help but roll his eyes, this kid is quite good at being a person, and he doesn't bother to care about these at the moment, so he laboriously took off the rain hat that had been wrapped for a day, and strode into the warm inn. Compared to the biting cold rain outside, the warmth in the store is as comfortable as heaven.

Ye Jie silently stepped forward from behind, and threw all the bags of broken silver in his hand onto the counter of the shopkeeper, and the silver light flashing out of the mouth of the bag blinded the shopkeeper's eyes, and immediately beckoned the guys to redouble their service, and personally ran to the back to boil hot water for these God of Wealth.

"Something to eat, all the same." Ye Mengding instructed lightly, although he has always been arrogant, but he has never looked down on the servants in the family, perhaps this is why the Ye family is neither rich nor dominant, but there are still so many family members who swear to follow each other to the death, and follow Ye Yingwu to Lin'an and never be afraid.

Ye Jie did not hesitate to take out a bag of broken silver and throw it on the counter, as the big housekeeper of the family, no matter how prosperous or decaying the family business is, he never complains, what the minister tells him to do with all his might, Ye Jie believes in not a god and Buddha, but a "clear conscience".

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The curtain hangs low, and the green stove smokes.

Wen Tianxiang held the scroll in his hand and looked into the distance by the railing, and the fine and dense smoke and rain shrouded the small town in the south of the Yangtze River, and it was always endless. The wisps of lights in the rain swayed in the wind, and the undulating white walls and black tiles in the near distance echoed with the dark mountains lurking in the distance.

Wen Tianxiang is in such a good mood of enjoying the scenery and reading books, Ye Yingwu naturally owes everything. At this time, Ye Eryanei was in the bathroom separated behind Wen Tianxiang, soaking comfortably in hot water, rubbing the mud on his body vigorously.

It's so unfair, how can I cross back by myself is also a charming little ya, let alone go to the street to tease the lady of the good family, and even go to the Qinglou a few times for Jiang Wanli's old man's plan to retreat, so to say that he hooked up with the Lin'an Oiran by relying on the good feelings accumulated by Ye Yingwu in the official history, although he has been helped and hugged in various ways, but to be honest, he has not even shaken his hand. Ye Yingwu wondered what he had done this month except for Jiang Wanli, a cheap master, and Ye Mengding, a cheap father.

"God, why did you treat me like this!" Ye Yingwu angrily slapped on the water, but no one answered. What made him even more depressed was not what he had been doing this month, but that he hadn't even rubbed his back until now, even if he was sleeping, he was still in a room with a big man like Wen Tianxiang! In this world, people can't do it!

It is the honor of Lao Tzu Sansheng to work with you Wen Tianxiang, and sleeping with you Wen Tianxiang ・・・・・・ ah, no, what is the reason for sleeping in a room?

At this moment, there was a sudden muffled sound outside, which frightened Ye Yingwu to stand up. Immediately after Wen Tianxiang's footsteps were hurried, the scroll that he regarded as a treasure was casually thrown on the table with a "bang" sound, and this scribe, who had always been calm, rarely shouted: "Senior brother, change clothes quickly, the one who comes is not good, I am afraid that it is a bad guest!" ”

The shouts outside and the sharp sound of the clashing blades had already confirmed Wen Tianxiang's statement, his grandmother was an assassin! What is the cheap daddy who can still attract assassins?

Ye Yingwu wiped the water droplets on his body casually, and quickly put on his clothes, he couldn't help complaining that the clothes in this era were thick and difficult to wear, and he was almost desperate to put himself in, and he didn't forget to shout loudly: "Senior brother, you stay in the house first and don't move!" ”

Wen Tianxiang is a literati who rides a horse and shoots a crossbow, and he is not at the mercy of the assassins, so he will protect this national treasure first. It's just that Ye Yingwu is strange, could it be that these assassins of God Killing are really here for cheap dads? When did Ye Mengding become so popular? Or is there something hidden in this inn?

Hurriedly fastening his belt, Ye Yingwu grabbed the saber on the shelf next to him and rushed out. There are no bows and arrows in the team, after all, it is not a regular army, so Ye Yingwu is really not worried about the gang of recruits and the servants of the Ye family who are more recruits than the recruits.

"Bang!" kicked the door open, and saw Yang Bao and several veterans in the hall on the second floor guarding Ye Mengding's room to death, and there were already three or four corpses lying on the ground, and several veterans were also injured.

Seeing Ye Yingwu running out, Yang Bao breathed a sigh of relief, and there were blood stains on his face on the knife: "Qi Yu envoy, the enemy is fierce, and the downstairs can't stop it." There are still a few reliable old brothers guarding the room, but it is estimated that the assassin should be at all, and I hope he can block it. ”

The room Ye Mengding was in a corner of the hall on the second floor, facing the stairs, and no one could threaten the room behind without passing through the hall guarded by Yang Bao and the others. From the hall, you can see the battle situation below, lying all over the place, but most of them are shopkeepers, and the shopkeeper with a very good eye is hiding behind the counter, holding his head and trembling.

Compared with the temporary unharmed on the second floor, the first floor is more miserable, after all, the veteran elite are all guarding with Yang Bao. There were only three or four veterans on the first floor, with a group of recruits, Danzi and the servants of the Ye family desperately guarding the staircase. Fortunately, the martial arts of those black-clothed assassins were not very strong, and it was only the domestic servants and soldiers who were in a hurry to rest below were caught off guard, and these assassins had hidden weapons such as hidden arrows in their hands, so they had the upper hand.

I saw that the tall Jiang roared angrily, and the tiger wielding the big knife in his hand was vigorous, slashing two assassins in a row, and the remaining six assassins were all stunned, and the stormy offensive just now actually slowed down. Ye Yingwu nodded secretly, drew his sword, leaned on the railing and shouted: "They can't hold it anymore, catch them alive!" ”

The veterans didn't care about the wounds on their bodies, and they all roared and pounced, saying that they couldn't let Jiang Da, a recruit who had been able to kill the assassins with great strength and generosity, steal the limelight. Although the servants of the Ye family suffered heavy casualties, they were also eager to protect the master, and they went straight to the vital points of the assassins with a mess.

"Let's go!" One of the previous assassins wounded several servants in succession, and then suffered a brutal stab, the wound turned outward, and the blood stained the black clothes even deeper. Several Assassins did not dare to hesitate any longer, once they were surrounded, they could really be said to be unable to escape.

"Second uncle!" The petite one of the assassins rushed to the wounded leader, his voice revealing his gender in an anxious voice.

Ye Yingwu had already walked down the stairs, and was stunned, was it a woman?

The sergeants and servants on the field were also stunned, but then their faces slowly pressed on. It doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman, kill it!

"Let's go!" The assassin, known as "Second Uncle", shouted angrily, and with a wave of his sleeve, several darts shot out, wounding the two veterans who were close to him, and then slammed the table next to him, blocking several domestic servants who rushed up, grabbing the female assassin's sleeve and rushing out first, disappearing into the night in a moment.

The rest of the Assassins did not hesitate any longer, either throwing the jar or flipping the table, and stiffly slowed down each other's footsteps, and turned to follow their leader closely. Come and go as fast as they come, and in a moment these people are gone, and if it weren't for the blood and corpses all over the ground, it would have been a dream.

"Don't chase!" Ye Yingwu drank coldly, Jiang Da, who was just about to rush out, subconsciously retreated, and then the servants and soldiers behind him didn't know why, but they still obediently stopped.

Jiang Da looked at the fresh blood stains on the knife, his heart was already boiling with blood, and he hadn't killed it yet, so he couldn't help scratching his head at the moment, and shouted puzzledly: "Make the king ・・・・・・"

Ye Yingwu didn't pay attention to him, but squatted down and carefully looked at his own people who were killed or injured by the hidden weapons in his body, and only after a moment did he say coldly: "Although these assassins have little martial arts, they are good at using all kinds of hidden weapons, and in this dark wind and rain, it is easier to give them a chance to take advantage of it, and it will only increase casualties, so it is better not to chase them." ”

"I just don't know who is so bold, could it be the person in the court?" Wen Tianxiang had already walked down with Yang Bao and the others, squatting beside Ye Yingwu and asking softly. The fewer people who hear it, the better. Following the direction of Wen Tianxiang's finger, Ye Yingwu found that there was a small waist tag on the waist of the dead assassin, although it was half covered by the placket, but the half of the word on it was the real word "Jia".

"No, because assassinating Daddy doesn't do the slightest benefit to the person on the cusp, but if it is to blame the person, there are still some possibilities. It's just that in this way, things are more complicated, because there are many people who are openly and secretly enemies of that person. Ye Yingwu calmly pulled down the waist card, it was indeed beautifully made, maybe it was genuine, stolen from Jiafu.

Ye Yingwu was not very happy in his heart, but was a little inexplicably disappointed. In later generations, I have read so many martial arts novels, and those heroes wear night clothes, fly eaves and walk on the wall, and the common plot of obtaining the enemy's head in one move will still linger in my mind even if I haven't read it for many years, after all, this used to be the dream of most teenagers in an era.

But today, these legendary heroic assassins, in addition to relying on the sharpness of hidden weapons to gain the upper hand for a while, have been pressed and beaten by Jiang Da and them, and a few lucky ones who rushed upstairs did not even kill any of them, but they all lost their lives.

Could it be that in this era of Guo Jing, Huang Rong, and Yang Guo Xiaolongnu, there are only these three-legged cat assassins who can't be on the stage?

Or is this just a deliberate attempt to provoke a greater contradiction between the group headed by Jiang Wanli and Ye Mengding and the group headed by Jia Nidao and Liu Mengyan? In other words, the person behind the scenes didn't want to kill Ye Mengding at all?

"His grandmother's, not a single one alive." Ye Yingwu has seen these assassins one by one, they are all male assassins, and they all died quite well, presumably they should have some poison in their mouths when they came here, otherwise Ye Yingwu really didn't believe that those few skin injuries could be fatal?

Yang Bao was also frowning, most of the injured were servants of the Ye family, and his soldiers did not have many casualties, but in any case, this time it was considered to have disturbed Ye Mengding's people, and he was also derelict in his duties, seeing Ye Yingwu's facial expression, he hurriedly said: "Envoy, these assassins are resolute, once they are injured and know that they can't escape, they immediately swallow the poison that is pressed on the bottom of their tongue or somewhere in their mouths, and they don't give us a chance to capture alive at all." ”

"Let's clean up the corpses." This is, an old voice sounded from above, Ye Mengding leaned on the railing on the second floor, and said lightly, "The dead shop guys, the servants at home, and the guards and soldiers, and they all paid generous compensation for the old man, they all died because of the old man, I hope to be liberated by entering Jiuquan." The matter here is covered up for the time being, and it is not to be made public. ”

"Obey!" Ye Yingwu, Yang Bao and others hurriedly responded.

Seeing the cheap daddy slowly leaving, Ye Yingwu frowned and looked around at the corpses around him again, and couldn't help but wonder more in his heart, what is the origin of these assassins with low martial arts but who are not afraid of death, but I don't know if they know what they are coming for this time, and who is the person behind the scenes, who is sacred, who dares to easily break the delicate balance between the two major parties, and set off another bloody storm in the government and the opposition?

"Yuanlie, come up." Suddenly, Ye Mengding turned back and said lightly.

Ye Yingwu knew that it was impossible for the cheap dad to pass this matter away so simply, so he made a gesture for Yang Bao to end, and walked upstairs quickly, only to find that Ye Mengding just let himself enter the house alone, and Wen Tianxiang, who was obviously his own person, just stood aside silently, frowning and looking downstairs full of corpses.

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"Bring the door shut." Ye Mengding said lightly, and sat back on the chair, the few guards in the room had retreated, and the windows were tightly closed. Ye Yingwu closed the door and walked over, to be honest, this was the first time he had faced the cheap father alone since he crossed over.

Putting the saber on the table, Ye Yingwu just glanced at it and found that his cheap dad was definitely not an idle person, the place where he was sitting was in the shadows, even if someone outside the window wanted to use the reflection of the candle light to shoot arrows, it was just in vain.

Ye Mengding, who has always been shown as a breezy or enthusiastic image, is rarely sitting upright, with white eyebrows frowning slightly, but the gaze under the white eyebrows is still as bright as ever, as if he can see through the hearts of the interlocutors with him.

Ye Yingwu took a breath lightly: "Does Daddy already know who is coming?" ”

Ye Mengding's eyes did not show the slightest surprise, but showed a hint of appreciation, and then said with a smile: "I don't know if my son ever knew about the 'Imperial City Division' and 'Walking Horse Bearing'." ”

"What?!" Ye Yingwu exclaimed violently, and his heart was shocked.

If ordinary people don't know what these two institutions do, then as a graduate of the Department of History, Ye Yingwu knows it clearly. From the Han Dynasty's "Zhizhi Embroidery Messenger" and "School Affairs", to the Tang Dynasty's "Lijingmen" and "Bad People", until the Ming Dynasty has been a collection of two factories and one guard and nine sides of the "night does not collect", all kinds of spy spy organizations have played a trivial or heavy role in China's 5,000-year history, these spy organizations have always been a part of the major dynasties to pay great attention to, as an indispensable means to consolidate the country, and in the Song Dynasty, the corresponding is the "Imperial City Division" and "Walking Horses to Endure".

Nominally, the Imperial City Division is only responsible for protecting the security of the Imperial City, but in fact, its interior is an intelligence agency that spreads a large net all over the country and even in the north, and the Zouma is mainly responsible for collecting information from local officials to report to the emperor, thereby reducing the possibility of ministers supporting troops and self-respect.

Ye Mengding suddenly mentioned these two most low-key intelligence agencies, Rao is Ye Yingwu couldn't help but be taken aback, because throughout the three hundred years of the Great Song Dynasty, these two agencies are actually more fulfilling their responsibilities on the surface, one is to defend the imperial city safely and steadily, and the other is a serious supervision of hundreds of officials.

Gritting his teeth, Ye Yingwu said softly: "The child is not talented, but he has heard people talk about it. ”

The two institutions of the Great Song Dynasty are the same as the two factories and one guard of the Ming Dynasty, although it is not known how to perform their functions secretly, but many people do know what specific functions they have secretly, so even if Ye Yingwu has amnesia, it is not an abnormal thing for someone to say it, so Ye Mengding didn't care much, just nodded:

"Since Yizu, the Great Song Dynasty has been established for three hundred years, and it has become a virtual reality to bear the horse, but the Imperial City Division, because of Ning Zong's great help, has the tendency to sit on the throne. The old man and others also advised Emperor Lizong on this, but the sage did not adopt it at that time, and now the Imperial City Division is becoming more and more large, and although the official family and the person surnamed Jia are nominally obeyed, but in fact they are just yin and yang, what they want to do, is it to protect themselves or have other conspiracies, but no one knows. Although the old man is an official all over the world, he also asked himself if there has never been a thing sorry for the people in this world, this time he can gather such a large number of people, and he is not an ordinary opponent. ”

What did Ye Mengding mean in and out of his words, how could Ye Yingwu not hear clearly? But since his cheap father didn't want to say something, Ye Yingwu naturally wouldn't say it stupidly, so he nodded slightly: "The child understands, but I don't know how my father wants to deal with this matter?" After all, it can be big or small at this time・・・・・・"

Seeing that his son was not angry because of his assassination, the original irascible temper was obviously a lot better, Ye Mengding's love for this little son was even heavier, and he stroked his snow-white beard and smiled: "It is naturally best to rest people, after all, big things are small, small things are turned into small things, the old man and your uncles have not yet established a firm foothold on this Jiangnan West Road, if they rashly provoke the Huangcheng Division with deep roots, they will undoubtedly seek their own death, it is better to wait for the rabbit, since the Huangcheng Division wants to sow discord and fish in troubled waters, then let's see how they act." ”

Ye Yingwu didn't want to provoke the intelligence organization of the Great Song Dynasty in the first place, what is the difference between this and the CIA in later generations? However, if the Imperial City Division has to make an inch in the future, then Ye Yingwu will not be able to make a move, Ye Mengding and others have been in the officialdom for so many years, how can they be easy to match?

"The old man wants to see, it's not bad to provoke the old man, if it's to sow discord with the surnamed Jia, do you have the guts?" Ye Mengding said softly, the smile on his face was always a little unfathomable, and Ye Yingwu, who was across the table, couldn't help but shudder lightly when he saw it.

The Imperial City Division, the Imperial City Division, in this stormy night, and the first intelligence organization of the Great Song Dynasty had a brief confrontation, and all kinds of mysteries during it were always terrifying.

Since the cheap dad wants to wait for the rabbit, and he wants to come to the Imperial City Division and is frustrated here, he will definitely sow discord next time, so Ye Yingwu has nothing to really take to heart in addition to repeatedly telling Yang Bao to strengthen his vigilance.