The copper kettle leaked, the iron horse swayed, and Wu Ciyou never slept all night. Thinking of the strange and thrilling encounters he has experienced in the past few years, Wu Ciyou is nervous, excited, and sad, and it is always difficult to sleep. Long'er, a strange student, has a temperament that does not match his age, which makes him very suspicious. Su Malagu's flickering shadow was always dangling in front of her eyes...... He also had a lot of "self-denial", but he still felt that he couldn't "go down and regain his body". At some point, he fell asleep in a vague way, and it was not until the third o'clock in the morning that he was awakened by the knocking of the pillar outside the door. Zhu'er shouted outside the door: "Second master is awake, right?" Master Suo and Young Master Long are here to see you! ”

Wu Ciyou hurriedly got up and opened the door. Long Er stepped into the courtyard and said with a smile: "Mr. An! Long Er hasn't seen Mr. for a long time, and I'm really worried about it! He wanted to bow down, but Wu Ciyou hurriedly stopped, looked at it with his shoulders crossed, and said with a smile: "I haven't seen each other for many days, and you are more and more energetic!" When he looked back, Suo Etu and Wei Dongting had also entered the hospital, smiling and standing aside; There was also a person dressed in a long dress carrying a gift box in his hand and following behind Wei Dongting; Wan Niang held a handkerchief and stood with her hands hanging to the side. Everyone had seen the salute before they went into the house.

"I heard Wan Niang say, Mr. has been sick for the past few days, I don't know if he is better?" Suo Etu smiled all over his face, and while instructing someone to open the gift box, take out the gift and put it on the table, he continued, "After hearing about it, my mother gave me a good lecture, saying that she invited such a good gentleman, and she didn't give anyone any benefit except for being frightened, so don't hurry up and take a look." - It's also strange to say, these days our family has been in trouble, and I didn't bother to visit my husband, what a shame! ”

Wu Ciyou smiled and said: "Master Suo is busy with state affairs and family affairs, and he keeps sending people to send things, and the adults are so troubled, it makes the students feel very ashamed!" With that, he got up and went to the table, and looked at the gifts: a jade ruyi with carved flowers and beads, an old mountain ginseng wrapped in red silk mulberry paper, a few bottles of aged cellar wine, and a bluestone inkstone. Wu Ciyou picked up the bluestone inkstone and looked at it carefully: there were wisps of red silk sandwiched between the spots on it, like a landscape painting with a red pen. The most strange thing is that a white jade tendon is naturally generated next to the inkstone, and the four words "mountain high and moon small" in the cool Xiao Yan Zhenqing body. The jade tendon penetrates through the back of the inkstone, and although the handwriting is unclear, if you carefully identify it, it is like a sight. Wu Ciyou looked at it carefully for a while, and suddenly laughed out loud: "This masonry is quite puzzled and spoils the materials!" ”

This is Kangxi selected from the newly paid stone in Yunnan, and the special jade worker was cut into an inkstone, and he was not willing to use it, so he took it to pay tribute to Mr. Unexpectedly, when Wu Ciyou said such a thing, he was shocked and asked, "What?" ”

"This thing is called chicken blood green jade, which is extremely precious and rare, and these four words naturally generated on it are even more peerless. Master Suo, not the student Meng Lang, the Zun Mansion will never have such a thing. Wu Ciyou replied.

"This is a gift from the Holy One." Suo Etu smiled, "It's just that why is it ruined?" ”

Wu Ciyou sighed: "This thing is made into an inkstone, although it looks very exquisite, but I don't know that this stone is extremely hard, it can't be polished into ink, and it can only be used as a plaything, isn't it a pity?" Seeing that Kangxi was staring at himself suspiciously, Wu Ciyou smiled faintly, poured some water and grinded the ink in it, and sure enough, it was not easy to ink, and the black water and oil beads that were ground out rolled around, and they couldn't get on the inkstone, so everyone was very convinced. Kangxi couldn't help but shout: "It's a pity, it's a pity!" ”

"What a pity!" Wu Ciyou said, "The generation of all things is the work of creation, not human beings." Xunzi's "Persuasion of Learning" said, "Those who fake horses are not profitable, but thousands of miles; Those who fake the boat are not able to water, but the rivers. A gentleman is not different, and he is good at fake things', and a smart person is better than a foolish person, that is, he can follow the human condition and physics. If you use something other than your own material and act against human feelings, you will inevitably make jokes. Rosewood boxwood can carve Buddha, if it is used to make a sedan bar, it will not be ruined. If this piece of jade falls into the hands of a skilled craftsman, decorated with gold and carved with a dragon, it can be placed on top of the Ming Hall of the Son of Heaven......"

Su Malagu has always believed in Buddhism, and when she heard these words, she felt very unlucky, so she didn't wait for Wu Ciyou to finish speaking and interjected: "Could it be that this inkstone is not good at all?" ”

"What's the matter," Wu Ciyou said with a smile, "it's just a pity that it's not very practical." Seeing that everyone was silent and thoughtful, Wu Ciyou was also silent for a while, and then said with a dumb smile, "I have a few lines of ugly poems, you might as well write them out and talk about them as ridicule." As he spoke, he took his pen and ink, and walked the pen and book. I saw him write without adding any words:

The ancestral dragon angrily whipped the stubborn stone, and the blood on the stone was rouge.

The vicissitudes of life have changed for a few autumns, and the water washes away the sand and erodes the surplus foot.

The flying flowers are sticky and red, what do you want to do with the green fields?

But seeing the mountains and the moon are small, the seafarers are high and the coral branches are high.

Qingyu is difficult to fill with inkstones, and the desk person laughs at it.

Why don't you return to the Nuwa furnace and refine the azure white juice again?

wrote and smiled: "This is just about physics, as for human feelings, as the saying goes, 'thousands of miles of goose feathers', I don't know how to understand it, and I won't even know the deep affection of Lord Suo and Long'er...... Today, I swept away the excitement of the dragon, and I look like a Mr. Winter Baking Taoist! ”

"Taoism is not necessarily bad." Kangxi smiled when he heard this, "For example, Lord Xiong, who often comes to the mansion to learn from Mr. Xiong, is a Mr. Taoist. Wu Ciyou said: "Xiong Da is a good talent, and he is straightforward, but he is too broad. For example, a stubborn person like Wu Sangui, when he came to Beijing last year, Lord Xiong still talked to him about 'morality', isn't this playing the piano to the cow? Just like a thief like Ao Bai, he is holding the anger between heaven and earth, if the emperor is like a bodhisattva and tells him karma and hell reincarnation every day, will he listen to him? ”

"That being said," Wei Dongting said with a smile on the side, "If Mr. is now in charge of the imperial counsellor and the government, I am afraid that even his life will be difficult to save if he says these words!" Wu Ciyou said with a smile: "Where to sing which song, if I am asked to counsel the government, I will not be able to let Ao worship overwhelm the government and the opposition, and Wu Sangui will support the army and respect himself." If these two wild horses are allowed to continue to do their own thing, once they join forces and make a mess, the situation will not be easy to clean up. Now one is recuperating in Yunnan and is eyeing the enemy, and the other is snaring party henchmen in Beijing, tyrannical and tyrannical, and we should make a plan to get rid of them as soon as possible. - Ahem! What do you do when you say this, cloth clothes talk about government politics, scratch your boots, and make people laugh in vain! ”

Ao Bai and Wu Sangui often exchanged letters, Kangxi knew about it for a long time, but he didn't think much about the two of them "merging". Now hearing Wu Ciyou's discussion, I can't help but be anxious in my heart. But he couldn't let Wu Ciyou see it, so he had to pretend to be smiling and quipped: "Mr. is Buyi, and Long'er is Buyi's student!" We don't have to worry about the ancients when we talk about the Three Kingdoms, but since Mr. said this, I would like to ask, will they merge? In the opinion of the gentleman, how should we formulate a strategy to deal with them? ”

Wu Ciyou glanced at Suo Etu and said with a smile: "Lord Suo, you are an important minister of the imperial court, do you think they will be together?" ”

"Not yet." Suo Etu thought that Wu Sangui had a huge army and responded to Geng Jingzhong and Shang Kexi's requests, he couldn't help but gasp and muttered, "But it's hard to say after a long time." The surname Wu is not a thing! ”

"This person first rebelled against the former Ming, and then betrayed Li Zicheng, and there will be a third anti-bone behind his head. Now, the top priority is not to let them close the groove and take the method of removing them one by one. Wu Ciyou said.

"How can we make them not fit together?" Wei Dongting couldn't help but ask. "A man dies like a lamp goes out." Wu Ciyou smiled faintly, "First stabilize the three feudal domains, don't move their feudal positions, and then punish." When Kangxi heard this, he couldn't help but sweat on his forehead, he had planned to issue an edict to withdraw the feudal domain two years ago. He sighed and said softly, "It's so dangerous! ”

"Huh?" Hearing his tone, Wu Ciyou turned his face and looked at Kangxi in surprise.

"I mean," Kangxi came to his senses from his contemplation and said with a smile, "It's very dangerous that the emperor still reuses Ao Bai now!" Wu Ciyou said with a smile: "Long'er doesn't have to worry, it seems that the emperor has not touched the position of the three feudal domains so far, and he is extremely smart." Aobai's qi will not last long," Wu Ciyou gritted his teeth and said, "I calculated his life for him." ”

As soon as the words came out, everyone in the audience looked at each other in surprise. After a while, Wei Dongting Fang grinned and said, "Ao Bai is now in full swing, why can't he see it for a long time?" ”

"Although I am not proficient in the art of Feng Feng Horn Elephant Number," Wu Ciyou said, "but I know a little bit about the Book of Changes—can Master Suo remember the days when he searched the house?" ”

Suo Etu frowned and thought for a while, and said, "It seems to be the ninth day of the eighth month." ”

"Yes, it's the ninth day of August." Wu Ciyou said, "The Weishangu store is November 29. Occupy two 'nines' in a row, both of which are the poles of numbers. The piano was not tuned and should have changed the tune, but he went to play it vigorously, and there was no reason to keep it! "I Ching" says that "don't use the nine hidden dragons", to put it bluntly, it is to return to one every ten, the moon is full, and the water is full. Ao Bai went too far, and his qi had to be folded! ”

"Sir's calculations are really good." Kangxi didn't know much about this, but he was very willing to listen to it, so he leaned over and asked, "Why didn't Mr. teach me these when I was leaning before?" ”

"These are the stubs." Wu Ciyou said with great interest, "I'm not profound in this way, and I just do it occasionally." My father is good at this. With this foundation, there is no need to understand these things anymore, just follow the people's feelings and follow the principles of heaven, and there will be no bad luck. If we only focus on this, as if we only care about 'profit' but forget 'righteousness', then no matter how strong and shrewd we are, we will also fall into the evil path. He was a little thirsty, but the cup was empty, Wei Dongting was about to go to Zhang Luo, but Wan Niang had already poured out a glass of water from the silver kettle she brought with her.

Wei Dongting couldn't help but sneer, and when he saw Kangxi eating tea with his face down, he covered it. Suo Etu saw Aunt Su Mala's face blushing and retreated to the side, and couldn't help but think, "Mr. Wu is like a natural pair, but it's a pity that this full man is difficult to ...... for the old man."

Wu Liuyi sat in the signing room of the Yamen of the Jiumen Admiral's Mansion, and retired from the official Zuo, he had to think about it alone. At this moment, he took the "Holy Secret Decree" sent by Xiao Wei Zi and read it repeatedly, although he had already memorized it word for word, he was still reluctant to put it away, and he was still chewing it word by word. He admired the edict for being well written—not in the words, but in its deep and thoughtful meaning. He believed that he must have been instructed by a capable man. Now that I have no room for maneuver, I can't be careless when it comes to the final decision. Because Aobai also often sends Ban Bushan and Jishi to come here to do something. The top boss Tai Bitu is a party again. This is a crucial step in my life, and I can't go wrong!

"Come on!" Wu Liuyi suddenly called, and a long entourage came in respectfully, and gave a thousand words cleanly, and took half a step back and lowered his hand. "Go, please come Mr. He!"

Less than a bag of cigarettes after the messenger went, he heard Mr. He laugh outside the door: "Dong Weng lost the Shuanglu fight last night, and he still wants to get it back today?" So saying, he came in with the curtain. Wu Liuyi hurriedly got up with a smile and gave up his seat and said, "Zhiming, the iron beggar is about to play a big game of Go with you, we can't lose." ”

"Yes, this game of chess has to be played by you and me." He Zhiming said with a sly wink.

He Zhiming has a short figure, two small black beans embedded in his face, and as soon as he speaks, he drips and turns, with a fierce face. Among the Qing guests invited by Wu Liuyi, he is the most useful one. He has followed Wu Liuyi since he was a general. The two of them escaped death together several times, so although there is a difference between guests and hosts, they are really closer than family.

This "Go" joke also has a story in the two of them. He Zhiming plays a good hand of Go, but Wu Liuyi is a chess. The two of them teamed up and played against the master and apprentice of Jinling national player Wang Shoutai, and actually killed the other party in the middle of the game and admitted defeat. The reason is that He Zhiming made a very scoundrel arrangement before playing chess - he asked Wu Liuyi to sit on top of Wang Shoutai, but he was under Wang Shoutai. It was agreed in advance that "no matter how closely the other party attacks and defends, Wu Liuyi will kill and rob." Facing Wu Liuyi, a stupid chess player who even had to focus on the "Straight Four", Wang Shoutai was dumbfounded and busy coping. After a game, it was He Zhiming and Wang Shoutai's apprentice opposite. After more than 100 years, Wang Shoutai had no choice but to admit defeat with a smile.

At this time, when it came to "double kill chess", He Zhiming laughed: "Good, good!" Follow the last killing, keep it and win! But I don't know who the opponent is? ”

"Auxiliary Chief Minister Aobai!" Wu Liuyi hoarsely snorted, leaned forward and said, "How about it, it's not too enjoyable, right?" ”

He Zhiming was laughing heartily, and when he heard this, he stopped abruptly, put on his robe and sat down: "Dong Weng, you have been playing chess with him for almost twenty years, did you just start today?" ”

"Yes. But if you talk about today's move, in Go, it can be regarded as a mid-game victory and defeat, and in chess, it is a killer! Wu Liuyi's face trembled, and the fierce light in his eyes was intense. Although He Zhiming has been friends with him for many years, he also shuddered. After being silent for a while, He Zhiming suddenly raised his head, and a pair of black bean eyes flashed: "Understood, how to kill?" ”

"The Holy Lord wants me to be his killer weapon," Wu Liuyi said, "This is a huge game of chess, you have to help me go." We can't afford to lose to others! He Zhiming excitedly straightened up and said, "How come!" ”

"Let's go, the red top is yours." Wu Liuyi leaned back in the chair, stretched his body and said, "If you can't walk well, then we will have a 'red top' together!" After speaking, his eyes looked at the shed board and he was silent. He Zhiming said while thinking about it: "A few days ago, Du Cha Yushi impeached the patrol yamen for dereliction of duty, and I am afraid that the lack will come out. This is like a plate opened by Ao Zhongtang, I expect that this side will also deal with it, and you have said this today, so there must be a letter. ”

"The surname Ao will bring Jinshan here at this time, and I can't get from him!" He was already not on good terms with Aobai, and Wei Dongting hinted several times in front of Cha Yihuang: The seven folds that saved Cha Yihuang from prison were all rejected by Aobai, and Long Live Ye can't be the master. made Wu Liuyi hate this auxiliary minister even more.

"When it comes to gold mountains, there is none. There's something here for the general to look at. He Zhiming said, bending down and taking out a piece of paper from his boots and handing it over. Wu Liuyi took it and looked at it, but it was a leading silver ticket of 100,000 taels. Looking at Wu Liuyi's suspicious gaze, He Zhiming hurriedly said, "This is a classmate of the late students, who was sent by order last night under Tai Bitu's subordinates. ”

"In what name?" Wu Liuyi looked He Zhiming up and down.

"Nominally?" He Zhiming laughed, "In order to congratulate the young son of the general on the 100-day soup cake meeting, he was afraid that the general might not accept it, so he asked me to do it." I thought that they had enough black money, and since they couldn't lose their money, they laughed at it. ”

"Good! It's good to have yours, and it's good to take it! Wu Liuyi said with satisfaction, and asked, "What else did he say?" ”

"He also said that Ao Zhongtang wants to recommend you to be a squire in the military department!"

"The Squire of the Army? Hahahaha......" Wu Liuyi looked up to the sky and laughed, "One hundred thousand silver plus a second-grade official, I want to exchange it for a dragon and a hundred tigers and a beggar and your Mr. He's head......" Wu Liuyi put his hands behind his back and paced back and forth for two steps, "Mr. He, I'll show you something too." - As soon as the matter starts, I will immediately appoint you to be the squire of the military department! As he spoke, he took out the secret edict from his bosom and showed it to He Zhiming.

He Zhiming took the edict, repeatedly examined the cinnabar jade seal on it, "Tiyuan Master", gnawed a few sentences on the edict word by word, and suddenly jumped up and said: "Military gate, with this, things will be easy to do!" ”

"So I invite you to come," Wu Liuyi calmed down, "what is the way to discuss it." ”

He Zhiming hesitated, took out the coals and lit the dry tobacco, half lying on the chair, squinting his eyes and thinking hard, the two of them did not speak for half a meal. "Alas!" After a long time, He Zhiming sighed lightly, sat up straight, and emitted a green faint light from the black bean eyes, "Although it is a little ruthless, it hurts the yin and skull, but it is only like this." ”

"Please tell me more!" Wu Liuyi sat upright, he didn't smoke, and the two huge steel balls in his hand kept spinning.

"Under the military tent, I expected that Ao Bai must have done something else. This 100,000 pieces of silver, knowing that they are useless, are just using it to buy the hearts of adults. ”

"That's right! He wants to do great things, and now he only has one sentence to promise a prince, knowing that I don't buy it, so he came to this set. ”

"See you at the military gate!" He Zhiming said with a smile, "You just buy it, and when he becomes the emperor in the future, he will also put you on the list on the side of the Qing monarch." As he spoke, he turned around, "It's worrying that the generals Li and Huang under the general's account, as well as Deputy General Zhang and Liu Shoubei, these dozen people have always been ......."

"You don't have to say it," Wu Liuyi said, "I know it in my heart." I will send them all to Fujian on an errand on the same day, so that they will not be able to do anything! ”

"That won't work!" He Zhiming said, "What kind of person is Aobai? Bambur is even more indecent! Now that the time has not come, you are at the mercy of this, can they not be suspicious? It gave them a guard. ”

"Grandma Ge!" Wu Liuyi gritted his teeth and said, "When the time comes, they will all be buckled!" ”

"No! We are the killer in this game of chess, and the protagonists are them surnamed Wei. In case the seizure is not exhausted, or is saved by someone else, Brother Iron Beggar-you and I are really going to be 'top red'! ”

"So, what about you?"

"Kill!" He Zhiming's eyes flashed, "The dead can't be messed with - from now on, all the officers under the tent will go to the yaying and vacate the two corridors for them to live in." It's one! He stretched out two fingers, "Second, a few henchmen and lieutenants are densely packed, promising high knights, heavy remuneration, bows and knives, and they can respond at any time." Wu Liuyi couldn't help but nod when he heard it. He Zhiming stretched out his third finger and said, "As soon as the matter is released, the Holy Secret Decree will be issued, and the dozen or so people will be ordered to be beheaded in one go!" knock on the mountain and shake the tiger, and the rest will not dare to make trouble! ”

"It's-"

He Zhiming suddenly burst out laughing: "The military gate calls itself an 'iron beggar' in vain!" How can you be soft-hearted in doing this? In his early years, he killed people like hemp, but now he is back to good? ”

"That's good!" Wu Liuyi gritted his teeth and said, "That's it!" ”