The road was safe, the convoy was moving forward on the official road, only occasionally it could be found that the traces of the bloody raid of the Hu people were shed, whenever this time, Fan Xian would get out of the car to inspect the film, and then the intelligence officers of the second department under him carefully collected all kinds of information.

It only took six days to stop and walk like this, and then I came to Qingzhou, the most remote and shortest state city in the entire Daqing Dynasty.

Qingzhou and Fan Xian's imagination is very different. Before coming here, he had carefully checked the information in the courtyard, and even specifically asked the eldest prince about the specific situation of the Western Front, thinking that Qingzhou was just a relatively deserted border city, more like a heavily guarded military camp, but he did not expect that his group entered the city, but found that in addition to the sergeants walking back and forth, there were the most ...... It turned out to be a businessman.

A merchant like Fan Xian hurriedly walked through the few remaining streets and alleys in Qingzhou, anxiously changing the documents for leaving the customs, shouting loudly at the coolies, and carefully staring at the goods he had brought to the border gates. This qiē makes the entire Qingzhou a little less iron-blooded, and more rich in money, which is particularly noisy.

Fan Xian thought that the imperial court set up a state here, mainly a symbolic meaning, Qingzhou City must be very small, especially boring, but I really didn't expect that this place has a little Suzhou feeling. He sat on the wheel, looking at the scene in front of him with a wry smile, not knowing how to speak.

Speaking of which, Qingzhou's abnormal prosperity is inseparable from Fan Xian, and most of the brave businessmen in the small state city who are busy entering the grassland are from Jiangnan. The Qingguo court has always strictly forbidden trade with the Hu people, and three years ago, Fan Xian gave advice to His Majesty and secretly relaxed this rule.

Of course, it is strictly forbidden to sell salt and iron grain to the Hu people, but what are you afraid of selling such luxury goods as jewelry, perfumes, and spirits to the Hu people? On the one hand, it can bring a lot of income to the Qing domestic treasury, because the princes and nobles who control more than 90 percent of the wealth in the Hu tribe welcome these things very much, and second, it is convenient to send nails to the grassland.

Fan Xian took a fancy to this back then, but he didn't come to Qingzhou in person, and he really didn't know that one of his ideas had made Qingzhou City develop so rapidly in just a few years, which was beyond his imagination.

It seems that with some small things that are not particularly valuable, they can earn the precious raw materials of the Hu people, good horses, blankets, such a large profit, which really makes the merchants of Qingguo extremely excited, and they are willing to risk the constant fighting between the two sides to go deep into the grassland to trade.

Marx's words are really good, Fan Xian thought like this, and he also made a calculation in his heart, since there are so many peers to cover, then the grassland should still go.

The border army stationed in Qingzhou was extremely strict with the inspection of these merchants, and even though those trading houses vigorously stuffed silver tickets into the arms of the officers, they still did not speed up the inspection. Fan Xian and his party waited at the gate of the city for a long time, but it was difficult to move forward.

The autumn sun of the prairie hung in the air, blazing white, although it did not bring too much heat to the merchants and soldiers in the city, but this brightness made people's feelings begin to be irritated.

Qingzhou is too special after all, this is a strange state city composed of soldiers and merchants, the feelings of the soldiers are annoyed, and the attitude towards those merchants is much worse, and although the feelings of the merchants are also annoyed, they still only have to lower their heads and smile.

To this day, the soldiers of the Western Battalion still can't understand why the imperial court would agree to let these profit-seeking bastards go to Qingzhou and enter the grassland to curry favor with those Hu enemies who do not share the same sky.

Outside the inspection yamen, there were also several officials of the Supervision Yuan wearing black official uniforms, sitting next to the officers, supervising the inspection of goods in parallel. Fan Xian gave Mu Feng'er a look, and Mu Feng'er immediately understood what the adult meant, and began to prepare to secretly contact these colleagues around.

After arranging the arrangement, Fan Xian impatiently continued to wait in the convoy, jumped out of the carriage, patted the dust under his buttocks, and led a subordinate dressed as a servant to walk towards Qingzhou.

He ripped open his collar and squinted at the blazing white sun shrunk into a small circle in the sky, and he felt extremely irritated in his heart, and he didn't sweat much, so he was not sad.

At this moment, the gate of Qingzhou not far behind him was suddenly opened, and a series of rapid and neat horses' hooves sounded at the city gate, alarming the long line of merchants who were waiting for inspection.

Everyone looked curiously at the city gate, not knowing which army returned to the camp, and the troops who returned to the city at this time should have not returned last night and went to hunt rabbits on the grassland.

Playing rabbits is a black saying about the border, and the Hu people's so-called grass valley is the same meaning. Qingguo and Xihu have been stabbing each other for many years, relying on this kind of sweeping and counter-sweeping to maintain their blood feud with each other. It's just that although the Qing army is strong, the troops who dare to go out of the city to fight late at night still seem to be full of courage.

Fan Xian also heard the sound of horses' hooves, took his gaze back from the sky, and looked at the city gate.

I don't know if the sun in the sky is too hot, leaving a blazing white mark on his retina, and when he looks at the cavalry at the city gate, especially at the general at the front of the cavalry, he seems to see a sun.

............ The general who led the cavalry to bravely attack the grassland at night was not tall, and he looked a little thin against the background of the armor, but Fan Xian felt that the other party's body was glowing.

Especially under her eyebrows, which are like distant mountains...... Those eyes.

Those eyes are still so bright, bright without a trace of miscellaneous, like jade, reflecting the sun. But her eyebrows furrowed, as if she had thought more about it than she had been years ago. Her armor was stained with blood, and the horses under her were tired, and it seemed that she had experienced a real fight last night.

As if stung by those clean eyes, Fan Xian closed his eyes and lowered his head, hoping that the other party did not find out, but some strange feelings surged in his heart. This scene seems to prove that time is not just an absolute one-way forward.

Five years ago, Fan Xian came to Kyoto from Shanzhou, and outside the city gate, he saw this little girl with eyebrows like distant mountains and eyes like jade. It's just that the little girl who called herself master back then was wearing a light skirt and a playful white deerskin hat, while today's girl is wearing a dusty dress and an awe-inspiring atmosphere.

Time has changed a lot of people, changed a lot of people, and the only thing that seems to have changed is their names.

Fan Xian lowered his head deeply, covering his figure with the body of his subordinates. Ye Ling'er, who was riding on the horse, was obviously a little tired, and she didn't notice that there were old acquaintances among the merchants on the street. And those merchants found out that the cavalry leader was Ye Ling'er, so they retracted their gaze.

These businessmen who have been to Qingzhou for many years have become accustomed to this scene, since it is Miss Ye Jiajia who leads the army out of the city, whether it is night or day, she always has to kill some Hu before she is willing to return to the city.

Two years have passed since the Kyoto Rebellion, and His Majesty the Emperor thanked the Ye family for their loyalty, and made a special decree to take away the title of Princess Ye Ling'er, in fact, he acquiesced in the fact that this girl could remarry.

In the old territory of the Dingzhou Army, all the sergeants and ordinary people are still used to calling this girl who went home Miss Ye, and no one is used to calling her Princess. But Ye Linger has always stubbornly called herself a princess, but a year ago, she took a knife and forced Li Hongcheng to send her to Qingzhou.

............ Fan Xian looked at the thin back that was gradually moving away, and was silent, Ye Ling'er has lived in Dingzhou Qingzhou in the past two years, he knows very well, he understands even more why Ye Linger insists on claiming to be a princess, and why Ye Linger is wearing armor.

Perhaps only on the grassland, only when wielding a sword, will she forget those unpleasant pasts. The environment of the prairie and the iron-blooded career are indeed the best way to make a person strong.

The young lady of the Privy Council, the daughter of the man in charge of the soldiers and horses of the Qing Kingdom, would actually engage the enemy head-on at the most dangerous border pass, which was probably a scene that had never happened in history. But it is precisely because of this kind of drama that Ye Ling'er is no longer just sympathetic eyes and gossip, but respect and fear.

Fan Xian is not worried about Ye Ling'er's safety, because Li Hongcheng's kid will definitely not let Ye Ling'er fall into death, and the people on both sides of the border have a natural awe for the Ye family, and the cavalry led by Ye Ling'er must also be the jīng rui among the Qing army.

Ye Ling'er has the strength of the seven grades, which is enough to protect herself, and the most important thing is that this path of forgetting was chosen by Ye Ling'er herself, and Fan Xian greatly respected this.

—————————————————————— worked very hard to get the paperwork for leaving the customs, was grabbed by the Qingzhou military, reprimanded, and was infinitely intimidated by the danger of those Hu people on the grassland, Mu Feng'er, who was helpless, finally completed the formalities.

The goods are concentrated in the Qingzhou Division, and when they go out of the city and into the grassland, they will pick up the road strips in their hands, which is also afraid that after checking the goods, some people will secretly do things again.

Carrying this kind of thing, no matter which border pass, is quite rampant, and even some officers will join some small units. It's just that the Dingzhou General's Mansion has turned a blind eye to this matter, Qingzhou is lonely on the edge of the grassland, life is miserable, if there is no foreign water, how can any officer be willing to stay here for a long time.

That night, Fan Xian and his party rested in a chase shop, the whole big room smelled of feet, and the night was cold to the bone, Fan Xian slept against the wall with the "privilege", although it was the coldest here, but it was also the most quiet.

Mu Feng'er lay beside him, pleading softly, Fan Xian smiled, didn't say anything, in the eyes of everyone, he was a nobleman, but few people knew what kind of suffering he had suffered in his two lives, and when it came to such a thing, everyone would underestimate him.

As the night deepened, there were a few very slight movements outside the window of Datongpu, and Mu Feng'er, who had never slept all this time, immediately woke up and was about to inform Xiao Fan, but when he turned his face, he saw Fan Xian's bright and calm eyes, glowing in the night.

Like a wolf.

The two of them quietly got up and bumped into the officials of the Inspectorate, who was the clever man who secretly sent the knife to Kyoto. In a dark corner, Fan Xian lowered his voice and asked the official, "How many more such knives are there?"

"That's it. The officer replied very quickly: "I had searched for three of them, but when I took them, I found that they were missing the next day." ”

Fan Xian's heart chilled, and he asked, "Could it be?"

The official knew what he meant, shook his head and said, "It's not from Xida's revenue, these loot are inconspicuous, they are all piled up in the warehouse, and no one pays attention to them, as for those two knives...... Someone stole it, but I don't know who stole it. ”

"You didn't stare that night?" Fan Xian stared into the official's eyes.

The official raised his head and whispered back, "I stared all night, but I found nothing...... He paused and said, "If anyone can steal the knife in front of me, it must be a master." ”

For some reason, Fan Xian trusted the subordinate's confident judgment, smiled, and asked, "How tall?"

"It's as high as nine pins. The subordinate replied cutely.

After a few words of dialogue with Liao Liao, Fan Xian found that he liked this unknown official very much, but he didn't know where this liking came from. He glanced at the official curiously, didn't say anything, and secretly thought to himself, the people of the nine grades in the world are all powerful people with names and surnames, how can there be a nine products in Qingzhou, which is far away here?

Although he liked it, Fan Xian's eyes were cold under his slightly lowered eyes, and his fingers were slightly bent, ready to kill the official in front of him at any time.

"One last question, why are you so interested in this knife? ”

The knife that was interrupted in the carriage had a very ordinary style, if it weren't for Fan Xian's familiarity with the material used in the blade, he would definitely not have discovered the hidden danger in it.

The four officials didn't feel Fan Xian's hidden killing intent, and said very respectfully: "My lord, the lower official...... He is a member of the New Year group. ”

The officer knelt down on one knee and presented an object with both hands. Fan Xian took the thing and slowly stroked it in the palm of his hand, his heart was empty, yes, this was his most loyal subordinate token, but he really didn't know anything about this official's existence.

But he confirmed the identity of the other party, no longer suspected anything, and nodded.

The official stood up and said in a low voice: "The subordinate was personally selected by Lord Wang to join the team, but he has not come forward. A few years ago, his subordinates have been in the three major squares, and he was transferred to Qingzhou at the beginning of this year, and he felt a little strange when he looked at this knife, because this knife embryo should be a B steel ...... In the past, the weapons produced by the library may have been lost on the battlefield, but this kind of knife has not yet been equipped with the military, and the subordinates feel that the situation is urgent, so they quickly notify the adults. ”

Fan Xian nodded, took a deep breath, knowing that his good luck was still continuing, but he didn't know who the Jiupin master who stole the two knives was. He secretly deduced that if that person was his enemy, he was afraid that the court would already be full of remarks attacking his treason by this time. Since there is silence in the court, it means that the person who stole the knife also wants to cover up for himself.

"It turns out that you are the person personally selected by Lao Wang. In the darkness, Fan Xian smiled, but he couldn't see that his smile was a little distorted, "No wonder he spoke like this...... Interesting. ”

Fan Xian opened his mouth again and said, "Regarding the name Songzhi Immortal Order, have you checked any results?"

The official stood up and said seriously: "There are indeed a few more outsiders in the Hu Ren Wang's account in the past two years, but there is no Songzhi Immortal Ling, and his subordinates have no clue. ”

"Hmm. Fan Xian said: "I have already asked the second place to check the name, you wait here, once there is news, immediately send someone into the grassland to inform me." ”

"Adults are going to the grassland?"

"I'm going to find the man who stole the knife. Fan Xian's voice was very cold, and he softened his voice, patted the official's shoulder, and said, "This time you did a good job, after investigating this case, you can go back to Beijing to help me." ”

"Lord Xie promoted ......" The official was overjoyed, knelt down to answer the order, and lowered his voice, but he couldn't suppress his joy: "I haven't seen Lord Wang for two years, and I don't know if his old man is doing now." ”

Regarding Wang Qinian's whereabouts, Fan Xian never said anything to the officials in the courtyard, including Yan Bingyun and others, they all thought that the old Wang Tou'er was going to carry out the secret mission of Lord Tisi, and no one suspected anything, and the officials of the Supervision Yuan on the periphery did not know anything.

Hearing this, Fan Xian was speechless, thinking in his heart, Wang Qinian, the old bastard, everyone is gone, but he is still helping himself, why doesn't Lao Tzu want him?