The good banquet has become strange because of the previous assassination incident, and it is not the first time that the officials and gentry present have seen Sima Yi, originally they were ready to congratulate the new right minister this time, which is also an opportunity for them to get close to the high-ranking officials of the imperial court, and by the way, it is also a practice banquet to send Li Fangwei off Xu Ding's appointment to Jinling. The official gentry came over to toast, Li Fangwei's face was a little not good-looking, he was also a little frightened by the assassination just now, the arrows almost flew past his body, and Sima Yi's face was flat, as if he expected an assassin to come.

"Sir, if you feel tired, the lower official will send you inside to rest." Li Fangwei changed his name to Sima Yi again, he knew that some things could not be too publicized, and the fact that Sima Yi was appointed as the right minister was still a secret of the imperial court, and it was also publicized by him among the official gentry, or he made the assassins who were ambushed in the place take action. So he still called "sir" very sincerely, instead of directly calling Sima Yi "right minister".

Sima Yi didn't like the disturbing occasions outside, nodded after hearing this, and Li Fang and Li Fang only walked out of the banquet hall of the Taishou Mansion, but went to the small flower hall next to them to rest. Li Fangwei asked people to serve hot tea and said: "Mr. is not in high interest in wine today, so I will drink tea first to relieve hangover, and after a while, the next official will arrange a song and dance performance for Mr., and Mr. can add a little more wine." ”

Sima looked at Li Fang's only eye, he had already learned from Huan'er that there were many singers and dancers in the Taishou Mansion, but Li Fangwei was not good at singing and dancing on weekdays, and the singing girls and dancers in the Taishou Mansion were completely to entertain the arrival of the imperial court, but Xu Ding was a small place after all. On weekdays, even if there is a business trip, the official position will not be very high, and when Xie Rumo and Zhu Tongjing gained power one after another a few years ago, they did send people to inspect below. However, Xu Ding, as the rear of King Hui's forces, Xie Rumo and Zhu Tongjing both intended to avoid Xu Ding, so Li Fangwei really didn't have a good chance to tie up with Shangguan.

"No need, I'll sit and go." Sima Yi said a word, seeing that Li Fangwei's face changed, he added, "I will leave for Jinling tomorrow." Always prepare in advance. ”

Li Fangwei smiled and said, "Mr. has no long things, and he came to Xu Ding just with the army." What do you need to prepare? There is an assassin making trouble tonight, why don't you stay in the Taishou Mansion first, if the gentleman is not at ease, the lower official will send someone to pick up the Huan'er girl in the post house. He felt that maybe Huan'er had served Sima Yi in the past few days, making Sima Yi feel at home. This made Sima Yu reject his "kindness". So he proposed to pick up Huan'er to the house.

Unexpectedly, Sima Yi shook his head and said, "It's better to go back to the post station to rest." ”

Li Fangwei didn't expect Sima to be so persistent, but he thought that Sima was secretly protected by those mysterious people in the north, or it was safer than staying in the Taishou Mansion, he was relieved, Xu Ding was originally a small place, and he would not make trouble with assassins in the past, but now the appearance of Sima Qi has changed this situation, because Sima Qi is the military advisor of King Hui. He is the new right minister again, and his status is outstanding. This made Sima Yi a target for the Assassins.

did not continue to persuade each other, Li Fangwei immediately went to the door to arrange the security of the post station with the soldiers and the magistrate, and the next day Sima Yi was going to leave for Jinling, which must be strictly protected along the way, plus Li Fangwei himself had to go along, even if Li Fangwei was thinking about his own safety, he could not take it lightly.

Everything was arranged, and Li Fangwei found someone to send Sima back to the mansion, and he didn't go with him to entertain the guests at the mansion.

When Sima Yi returned to the post station, he didn't say anything, and even Huan'er didn't know that an assassin had happened in the city. When they were about to go on the road the next morning, Sima Yi and Huan'er went out of the door, and the carriage was ready, but they didn't see Li Fangwei. This surprised Sima Yi, who had been waiting to go on the road to Jinling with him, and he expected that it might be the assassin incident yesterday, so Li Fangwei wanted to go on the road separately to avoid trouble.

"Let's go." Sima borrowed a word and let Huan'er get into the carriage, while he prepared to ride his horse. When he came, he only brought a few guards from King Hui's mansion, and without Li Fangwei's guidance, he would not have found his way back to Jinling. But just as he was about to set off, Li Fang, the only one in civilian clothes, trotted all the way over, and it was late. Sima Yi jumped down from his horse again to greet him.

"Sir, forgive me, I drank a few more glasses after Mr. went yesterday, and I actually missed the hour in my sleep, and I almost missed going to Jinling with Mr." When Li Fangwei came, he saluted and confessed, "I have already prepared the carriage and horses and escorts in Xia, and if Mr. goes on the road like this, it will inevitably be dangerous, so it is better to go with the lower officials?" ”

As he was talking, he pointed to the distance, and sure enough, there was a grand convoy and escort people, Li Fangwei was not only a taishou in Xuding, but also a magistrate in charge of the dispatch of soldiers and horses, which was different from the Taishou in other places who only managed civil and political affairs, and Li Fangwei could take over the military and political power without waiting for wartime, which was also the convenience of being the caretaker of King Hui's backyard. Yesterday, after the assassins, Li Fang was afraid that something would happen on the road, and he couldn't trust the soldiers, so he simply transferred soldiers and horses outside the city to escort him, although it was not reasonable, but since King Hui had said that he wanted to protect Sima Yu when he asked him to take care of Sima Yu, he felt that it was necessary to mobilize mobilized manpower and material resources.

Sima Yi smiled dumbly and said, "Is it inappropriate to be so public? ”

Li Fangwei said: "Mr. came to Xu Ding and encountered an assassin, which is also a dereliction of duty on the part of the lower officials. Leaving with great fanfare, on the contrary, makes those thieves jealous, if they dare to come, they can also protect the safety of Mr. Xia Guan didn't want any more danger on his way. ”

Sima Yi nodded in agreement, but in his heart, he thought that Li Fangwei should be thinking about his own safety. Originally, even if there were not many people to protect the road back to Jinling in a low-key manner, there would be no major incident, but now that there are so many people to protect, it may not work, Sima has seen the strength of real masters, and it is no problem for one person to fight ten or eight, even if Li Fangwei sends one or two hundred people to escort all the way, if dozens of masters are sent to assassinate, there is still no chance of victory.

After Li Fangwei finished speaking, he wanted to ask Sima to borrow a luxurious car. Sima said, "Just ride a horse below." ”

Li Fangwei was a little anxious and said, "How can this be?" By riding a horse like this, he was caught in the Assassin's sight, and if the assassin could easily assassinate him, he still considered himself thoroughly. In the car, there is also Miss Huan'er waiting all the way. ”

Sima glanced at the wide and luxurious car, there were two of them. Needless to say, one was prepared for him, and the other was prepared by Li Fangwei for himself. There is basically no difference between the two cars, so even if the assassin comes, it is easy to "mistakenly hit the secondary car". Sima Yi didn't want to accept such kindness, but he was still an easy-going person, and he had to be escorted away by a large number of officers and soldiers, and if he still came out on horseback, he would be in some danger. So he still got on the luxury car with Huan'er.

Xu Ding's officials and gentry all came out to see him off. Li Fangwei was in charge of bidding farewell to the local gentry at the city gate. Even if Li Fangwei followed Sima into Jinling this time, he was still nominally an escort, after all, he was Xu Ding's Taishou. Even if someone wants to take over Xu Dingtaishou's position in the future, it must be the person arranged by Li Fangwei. The imperial court is a family in the world, and Xu Ding's situation is similar, after several generations of the Li family. Xu Ding has long been controlled by the Li family. Sending outsiders to infiltrate it is impossible to infiltrate it at all, and only the people arranged by Li Fangwei can be qualified for the position of Taishou.

It was safe within a few days of departure, and there was no news of assassins, Li Fangwei was still not at ease, the calmer he was, the more dangerous he felt. Although Li Fangwei seems to be mediocre and only knows how to tie up with the powerful, he has a keen sense of smell in some danger awareness, and he is cautious every time he goes to a post station, and even uses his own wine and food. so as not to be taken advantage of by thieves. There are more than 900 miles of road from Xuding to Jinling, because the road of Fujian and Zhejiang generation is not flat. There are many waterways, and you can only walk fifty or sixty miles every day, and it will take at least half a month to reach Jinling.

Ten days after setting off from Xuding, the group was still more than 300 miles away from Jinling, and rested in the local post station on this day. As soon as the carriages and horses stopped, someone began to take care of them, and the whole post station could not accommodate one or two hundred officers and soldiers at the same time, and the officers and soldiers would camp and rest outside the post station on their own, and at the same time they would live in a stove, and even the post station did not need to provide water. After arriving at the post station, Li Fangwei first accompanied Sima to the guest room, and then came out to ask the officials of the post station about the situation, and learned that the place was very stable recently, Li Fangwei nodded, but felt that something was wrong in his heart, and when he came down from the second floor of the post station, there were two messengers who sent messages from the south to Jinling to rest in the post station.

"Hey, send a letter along the way for thirty miles to change horses, two days to change people, why do you want to rest here? But the thief? Li Fangwei immediately felt that the person in front of him was an assassin, and immediately came down, "Come on, take down the thief!" ”

Before a few messengers knew what was going on, they were captured by the officers and soldiers brought by Li Fangwei, and when the two groups of messengers were taken down and questioned, and then they read the letters sent by them, they knew that it was not about military emergencies, but about presenting local officials to the Son of Heaven. These are all secret recitals, but they were opened and checked by him, which made Li Fangwei feel a little arrogant, just when he didn't know how to end it, Sima Yi came down from upstairs, took those secret recitals and said: "Since it was a misunderstanding, let's leave it at that!" ”

Li Fangwei breathed a sigh of relief, Sima Yu was obviously helping him, as long as Sima Yu had seen it, even if someone pursued him back, it could be said that the new right minister was afraid of something big, so he ordered him to intercept and investigate, and he didn't have to bear the responsibility. However, it was originally an inconsequential recital for reporting local political achievements, and even if it was a secret recital, it didn't have much to do with it, and the two groups of messengers in front of them were stupid and incompetent little people, and they themselves were afraid that the secret recital had been opened. Li Fangwei arranged for someone to reseal the secret music, so it was difficult to detect that someone had tampered with it.

At night, Li Fangwei was sleeping in a daze, and suddenly heard the sound of gongs and drums, which frightened him from the bed and fell to the ground. When he looked out of the window, it was a mountain fire on the mountain behind the post station, and it was bright, Li Fangwei was afraid that no one should go up the mountain to fight the fire. Without the help of officers and soldiers, the fire raged all night, and it was not until dawn the next day that the fire was extinguished with the efforts of the local mountain people. At this time, Li Fangwei was in a difficult situation, and even the officers and soldiers escorting him had no energy.

During the morning meal, Li Fangwei found Sima and said: "Sir, you see this night of the mountain fire, the accompanying soldiers are all sleepy, why don't you stay here for half a day, and then continue on the road at the next morning, what does Mr. think?" ”

Sima Yu didn't refuse, anyway, he wasn't in a hurry to go back to Jinling, and yesterday was indeed a fierce mountain fire, and Li Fangwei's caution also made the soldiers below nervous, so he nodded and agreed.

After noon, it was still safe and sound, and the group continued to set off, but after walking more than 30 miles, they had to rest in the mountain villages along the way, but they did not go to the post stations along the way.

"It's strange, the local post station actually collapsed, it may be because of the rain in this generation, so I can only grieve Mr. to go to the farmhouse for a while." Li Fangwei said.

Sima Yi looked at the people in the mountain village who were all gathered at the head of the village in some panic, and turned around and said, "Just camp outside the village, so as not to disturb the people." ”

Li Fangwei nodded yes, so he was stationed outside the village that night. It was not yet the middle of the night, and suddenly there was a fire in the village, and the houses were burned, and the people of the small mountain village were beating the gong while fighting the fire, and Li Fangwei almost had the urge to hit his head against the wall. When he saw Sima Yi, who came out to investigate the situation, he was a little distressed and said: "Sir, this matter is by no means so coincidental, I am afraid that someone deliberately set fire, and wants to paralyze us to attack Mr. ”

Sima Yi suddenly felt that it was very inappropriate, there were many soldiers accompanying him, and although Li Fangwei did not give the order to put out the fire in this situation, there was still some chaos in the camp, and if the thieves took the opportunity to sneak into the soldiers, it was easy to be fooled. Sima Yu said: "Give the order to go down, and the soldiers with the army will all wear white cloth between their arms, and if anyone takes advantage of the chaos to sneak into the barracks, they will be killed!" ”

Li Fangwei was already shocked, but at the same time, he also admired Sima for his thoughtfulness, so he immediately went down to make arrangements. After all the soldiers' arms were covered with white cloths, Li Fangwei returned to Sima Yi and asked, "What else does the gentleman command?" ”

Sima Yi looked at the appearance of the people tired of fighting the fire, and felt a little sad in his heart, it was precisely because of his arrival that the small mountain village was burned to the ground. Sima Yu sighed: "This allows the soldiers to come forward to put out the fire, unlike yesterday's mountain fire, if there are innocent people dying in the fire today, it is not my wish." ”

Li Fangwei nodded, but he was a little helpless to arrange for the soldiers to put out the fire. Just when a lot of soldiers were arranged to go out, and there were not many people left in the camp, suddenly a group of officers and soldiers seemed to be scattered to Sima Yi's side, and in the bright fire, their arms were not tied with white cloths. (To be continued......)