Ye Lan'er showed an expression of disbelief: "You? Come with us? You are the Taifu of this Xiyi country, the important minister of the country, and you casually skip work and leave other countries, don't you want the black gauze hat on your head? ”

Jade Flying Kite also had a puzzled expression on her face.

Gu Qingchen glanced at them: "You guys are mistaken. The real controller of the Xiyi Kingdom is the King of Xiyi. I'm just a target for him to throw his sword. Everything big and small in the Xiyi Kingdom is controlled by the King of Xiyi. Actually, I don't have anything to do with it at all. I just give him ideas from time to time. ”

"The daily affairs are all handled by the sixty-year-old King of Xiyi himself?"

Gu Qingchen nodded: "Yes, he is so diligent in serving the people, I don't know how many times better than the Xia Xian Emperor of the Great Xia Kingdom!" ”

Yu Feikite pondered for a moment: "Cousin, is there really no problem with you with us?" ”

Gu Qingchen smiled: "Of course, flying kite, you don't have to worry about me." ”

"That Celestia won't miss you?" Ye Lan'er sneered.

Gu Qingchen touched his nose: "The eldest princess and her father are the same kind of people, very generous and accommodating, and very clever." How much do you think she really likes me. She's just taking a fancy to my talent and trying to woo me. My trip is regarded as an experience, and what I can bring back may be a better idea to promote the development of Xiyi. I think Princess Celestia will definitely raise her hands in favor.

And, let me tell you. There is a great possibility that the next king of Xiyi Kingdom will be this eldest princess. ”

King Xiyi had four sons, all of whom were adults. However, Gu Qingchen said that the eldest princess, who is a woman, may inherit the throne, which really shocked the few people present.

"Really?"

Gu Qingchen didn't answer directly: "I'll leave my words here, at most ten years, you see." ”

In fact, he did not wait for ten years, and four years later, King Xiyi finally became ill from overwork and died of illness in his bedroom. Before he died, he issued an edict to inherit the throne, and the next king of Xiyi was the eldest princess with natural charm, Hu Yan Wanqing. And Gu Qingchen has been highly "valued" by the new king of Xiyi because of the romantic past with Huyan Wanqing, of course, these are all later words.

In fact, Gu Qingchen wanted to return to the Great Xia Kingdom a long time ago. First, it was difficult to walk away from affairs, and he liked the land of Xiyi very much, so he had a lot of inertia and was unwilling to move around.

Now taking the opportunity to send Tian'er back to the Great Xia Kingdom, it was only then that he hooked the thoughts in his heart.

He had a name hidden in his head.

Murong Ke.

The name would always fill his heart with tremors, regret, and pathos when he dreamed about it in the middle of the night. He vaguely knew that there must be some reason for this.

Later, he learned that in the capital of the Great Xia Kingdom, the general and prince who thought that he had once been a golden iron horse were under house arrest, and his name was Murong Ke.

He knew the beginning and end of the battle of Zephyr City, and deeply sympathized with this general.

At the same time, he understood that it was always difficult to erase the emotion in his heart, and the emotion that made him sleepless must be related to this person.

Later, from Yu Feikite and Ye Lan'er, Gu Qingchen had a general understanding of his past.

So, in order to make myself more free, in order to say goodbye to the past better, in addition, in order to seek better development for Xiyi country. Gu Qingchen thought that it was necessary for him to use his identity to meet this Murong Ke.

Because of Gu Qingchen's identity, Ye Lan'er and their journey went quite smoothly until they came to the border between Xiyi and the Great Xia Kingdom.

This time, the path they chose was to cross a no-man's-land of thousands of miles.

They had brought enough food and water, but they were not sure how far they had to go, and whether they would have enough food and water.

Day after day of yellow sand, the road is almost hopeless.

Just when they were extremely anxious and almost collapsed, the willows and flowers were bright, and they finally saw the green trees and grass, and came to the boundary of the Great Xia Kingdom.

Because it is located on the border, it is no different from the Xiyi country, which is also barren and barren.

As far as the eye can see, the barren grass is miserable, and birds and beasts are rampant.

It's just that on this official road, which has been completely eroded by wild grass, there is a team of carriages.

Ye Lan'er and the others finally saw some popularity, so they hurriedly chased after them and begged to go along.

When she walked in, she found that the convoy and the goods it was transporting turned out to be people.

Caravans and caravans of slaves.

They were unkempt, poorly clothed, and shackled on their hands and feet. A pair of black and white eyes looked through the gap in the fence at the free sky outside.

There was no sorrow or panic in those eyes, but a calmness like resignation, even calmness.

The leader of the convoy saw Ye Lan'er and the four people leaning over, and he was shocked, he got off the horse, and examined the four of them with the horse whip in his hand, and finally his eyes stayed on the sword worn by Yu Feiyuan's waist.

"What are you guys doing!"

Ye Lan'er saw that the person in front of her was white and fat, and her brain was full of fat, and she somehow became angry, her eyes could almost spew fire, and her fists were clenched tightly.

Gu Qingchen pulled her back, with a smile on his face: "We went to the city to look for relatives, and when we saw Your Excellency's convoy, we wanted to go together." lest you encounter wild beasts and bandits on the road. ”

The white fat face snorted: "Oh, okay, just follow it, just don't charge your protection money." ”

"Thank you, thank you!" Gu Qingchen hurriedly moved.

He looked at the dozen or so wagons, each of which contained at least fifteen slaves in each of the prison wagons nailed to the wooden fence.

Gu Qingchen walked a few steps briskly and followed the white-faced horse: "Brother Tai, in this wilderness, where did you get so many goods?" ”

The white fat face was full of pride: "Where did you do it?" Does this need to be done? The Qiang people in a town over there tried in vain to rebel and were served in a pot. Men were beheaded, and women and children were punished as slaves. ”

Gu Qingchen was silent for a while, and after a while, he picked up the conversation and said, "Oh, so that's the case." ”

The Qiang people are an ethnic minority living in the territory of the Great Xia Kingdom, and there are also quite a few people in the Xiyi Kingdom. They have no territory of their own, they have been trying to survive in the gap between the Great Xia Kingdom and Xiyi, they don't even have their own army, and the population is extremely sparse, how can they talk about rebellion?

Gu Qingchen shook his head inwardly: This is clearly the collusion between the local government and human traffickers!

For the sake of profit, they took people's lives for nothing, and turned the wives and children of these Qiang people into slaves, making huge profits from them.

Gu Qingchen sighed. Everywhere is indispensable to the corruption of officials, in this land, the sky is high and the emperor is far away, if there is an unscrupulous official, it is really a disaster for the local people.

At the back of the convoy, Ye Lan'er tried to talk to the slaves in the prisoner car, trying to understand why they had come to this end. But these slaves didn't seem to be interested in telling what happened to them, and they didn't even bother to give Ye Lan'er a look.

After learning the truth of the matter from Gu Qingchen, Ye Lan'er said hatefully: "These corrupt officials! Damn it! ”

Gu Qingchen glanced at her with slanted eyes: "Killed, and then what?" ”

"What? Substitution! ”

Gu Qingchen shook his head: "The reason why the magistrate dares to do this is because the Great Xia Kingdom has already discriminated against these sparsely populated ethnic groups and does not take them seriously at all, and because in such a desolate and barren place, the magistrate can't get oil and water, so he takes risks. ”

Ye Lan'er was indignant: "Is being an official just to make money and water?" You say, did you become such a big official in order to make money and water? ”

Gu Qingchen shook his head: "Naturally, I'm not here to get oil and water. However, I am also short of oil and water. At least, it's decent. I'm not talking about these officials, but if you want to solve this problem fundamentally, it's still above. ”

Ye Lan'er gritted her teeth: "I don't care if it's above or below, these slaves, I want to save them!" ”

Tian'er stood beside Ye Lan'er: "En! My sister is right, they are wronged, if they are slaves like this, what kind of fairness is there in this world! ”

Yu Fei Kite sighed, although her age was not much different from Ye Lan'er, and even Ye Lan'er's core was close to ten years older than her, but after all, Yu Fei Kite had experienced vicissitudes of life, and had already gotten rid of her blood and became cold and rational.

She said: "Lan'er, this world is inherently unfair. This injustice is the greatest fairness in the world. Can you save these people, but can you guarantee that they will have a good life in the future? The women in the prison car have lost their husbands, the children have lost their fathers, and they cannot return to their original homes at all. Have you thought about it? ”

Yu Feiyuan couldn't answer these questions, Ye Lan'er couldn't answer. She even began to feel justified. This thought made her feel extremely depressed.

"Do you just watch them like this, and let them be slaves? To be an inferior person who is allowed to be killed? ”

"Lan'er, this is their fate."

"Life? What is Fate? Why should we believe in fate! No! I don't believe in fate! If these people don't want to be slaves, I'm going to help them get out of this cage! ”

After saying that, Ye Lan'er turned around with anger.

She quietly approached the prisoner cart and whispered to the people in the cart to avoid being discovered.

"I know you're being framed. I can help you escape, would you like to? ”

She kept repeating, going from carriage to carriage with a horse.

For two days, she made sure that everyone had heard her words clearly, and that everyone understood her intentions. However, she did not receive the support of even one person.

They were silent, with an almost transcendent silence.

The only woman who looked a little older, she replied to Ye Lan'er.

She said, "No need, whatever, it's all alive." ”