At the ferry outside Kaifeng County, on the east and west banks of the canal, two groups of shirtless men, armed with wooden sticks, and red and blue cloth strips tied to their heads, are faintly confronting each other.

It is ridiculous to say that although the canal has ferries, warehouses, and temporary markets on both sides of Kaifeng County, there is no serious bridge.

Why is this so?

Because the canal is busy, there is an endless stream of boats coming and going, and the most important thing is that the river is clear, and everything else must be behind.

With the bridge-building technology at this time, after the bridge was built, the big ships could not pass at all, which was equivalent to abolishing half of the function of the canal. A bridge can only facilitate the people of Kaifeng County, but this canal connects the north and south of the Tang Dynasty and is an indispensable economic artery.

Which is more important is not asked.

Therefore, every morning, the simple pontoon bridge, which is easy to dismantle, will be erected in a very short time for people to travel between the two sides of the strait.

The pontoon bridge is basically composed of boats connected to ships and wooden planks laid on the deck. The gap between the boats is large enough for an ordinary boat to pass through.

When the big ship arrives at the ferry, it will anchor here to rest, replenish, buy and unload, and wait for the pontoon bridge to be dismantled before leaving, which will not affect their crossing.

Why is it so troublesome to go back and forth, the real reason can only be said to be understood by insiders.

The Bianzhou government summed up a set of "methods for making money", which can be said to have used various routines to the extreme.

It's not that you can't build a bridge, but it's more cost-effective to toss back and forth like this.

Honk! Honk! Honk!

Three sharp whistles sounded, and the officials of the government removed the barricades that prevented the people from crossing the road, and then moved a table and sat there to collect the bridge tolls. It's not expensive, a penny per person, and you have to collect it back and forth.

The pontoon bridge will wear out, and it makes sense to collect bridge fees to replace the worn planks and give money to the people who maintain the pontoon, right?

Hula!

The men on the right bank, with red strips of cloth on their heads, rushed straight across the pontoon bridge and headed for the left bank! As if they hadn't seen them, the soap clerks who had collected the money allowed these people to run rampant, and the people who had planned to cross the pontoon bridge avoided them.

The sign erected on both sides of the pontoon bridge, which reads "No crowds are allowed to fight here", is more like a kind of contempt for the government by the local government. When this sign was just erected, the people who fought were also scared to death, but after some testing, they found that nothing happened, and they became more and more bold.

After these lawless people rushed to the left bank, the group of people with blue strips of cloth tied to their heads immediately pounced and scuffled with them, and the scene was suddenly chaotic! There were even innocent people who were pushed down the canal to escape the fighting.

At the gate of Kaifeng County, a few hundred meters north of the pontoon bridge, Fang Youde held a "clairvoyant mirror" in his hand, looked at the brawling crowd for a long time, put it down with some disappointment, and muttered to himself: "The gangsters in the market are aggressive and unbearable. ”

"Marshal, what should we do?"

A deputy general beside Fang Youde asked, this person's name is Li Jiaqing, a young man in the army, from Youzhou, who was Fang Youde's cronies and old department.

He is now the head of the Tooth Soldier Control Crane Army. This person is strong in martial arts at a young age, and he is strict in law enforcement and unsympathetic, and the Xuanwu Army in Bianzhou is very afraid of him.

"You have a stick of incense in your hand, and you walk up to the sign, and you don't say anything, and you don't move.

If the incense is not burned and the fighting stops, then the matter ends here, and you don't have to do anything.

If the incense is burned and those people are still fighting, then ......"

Fang Youde smiled, looked at Li Jiaqing and continued: "Xuanwu Army's military law, you should have memorized it by now. After a stick of incense, the Xuanwu Army will conduct military training on both sides of the pontoon bridge. People who are still noisy and refuse to leave, what do you think should be done, then what to do. ”

"Order!"

Li Jiaqing clasped his fists and saluted, took a stick of incense from the hands of his own soldiers, lit it with a torch, and then took it in his hand, and walked to the sign that read "No Fighting" and stood casually, holding incense (the kind with a thick thumb) in his hand.

From afar, it looks like a Buddha statue!

Not to mention the hooligans who are inexorably beaten, even ordinary people don't take him seriously, and they can't look at it properly. Li Jiaqing's face was solemn, he didn't say a word, nor did he scold the crowd that was fighting, so he stood quietly next to the billboard.

Didn't think of himself as a joke at all.

Seeing that the incense in his hand was getting shorter and shorter, Li Jiaqing was always silent. In the end, the incense was finally burned, Li Jiaqing breathed a sigh of relief, took out a small red flag from his waist, and waved the flag in the direction of the south gate of the county town with corresponding rhythm and movements!

Fang Youde watched Li Jiaqing wave the flag, and instructed the soldiers around him: "Within 20 zhang of the notice board on the left bank, there is a mistake to kill, and there is no letting go." Li Dutou will give you time calculations. ”

"Will the soap clerk who collects money next to the bridge be killed?"

The soldier asked suspiciously, pointing to the soap officer who had opened his eyes and left the hooligans fighting on the side.

"The commander does not want to repeat this, but acts in accordance with military law. Those who block the Xuanwu military exercises will be killed. ”

Fang Youde scolded coldly.

"Order!"

Dozens of tooth soldiers of the Crane Control Army rushed towards the crowd that was fighting in full swing. One team blocked the pontoon bridge to prevent people from escaping, and the other team, like a tiger entering a flock of sheep, killed the hooligans who saw it!

"Don't!"

"What are you going to do?"

"Run, the officers and soldiers have killed people!"

The slippery market gangsters shouted while running, dropped the sticks in their hands and ran, and even many of the water-based ones jumped directly into the Bianhe River!

However, this was of no avail, and those who jumped into the river and ran away were shot by the crossbowmen who had been ambushed in advance, and none of them were spared. Those who tried to resist stubbornly, after a little resistance, were like wheat that had been thrown down.

There were corpses all over the ground, mixed with severed arms and limbs, and blood flowed into the Bianhe River like a stream, and the tragic situation was comparable to hell on earth!

More than 100 hooligans and ruffians who fought were slaughtered by the accused crane army and tooth soldiers in just a few breaths! Its killing efficiency is very rare even among the elite border troops, not to mention those who fight.

The crowd on the right bank of the Bianhe River trembled with fright, and the timid quietly left the pontoon bridge, and the bold and trembling watched the excitement on the sidelines.

For the first time, these melon-eating people noticed that this Bianzhou, no matter how developed the business is, it is also the Bianzhou of the government!

In order to collect the "preservation fee" of the shop, the hooligans who fight for the business on weekdays seem to be very lively with each other for turf. The government colluded with these people as if they were mighty!

But these people are nothing at all under the pressure of the bullets of the officers and soldiers, like babies being beaten by strong men!

Many clever people came back to their senses, and the sergeant just now was holding a stick of incense, which turned out to be not for fun, but for an "ultimatum"!

The commander of this army is so insidious on horseback!

The people who came back to their senses couldn't help but secretly gasp.

"Fang Quanzhong, after so many years, you are still the same ruthless.

Your heart is really ruthless! Harder than stone! ”

Fang Youde, who was watching the battle from the sidelines, heard a sarcastic complaint behind him, it was a woman he was very familiar with.

"Princess Yuzhen, don't mention the things back then, the lower officials are this age."

Fang Youde turned around and sighed at the middle-aged woman in a gorgeous Taoist robe.

"If you want it and you can't get it, have you ever experienced that feeling?"

Princess Yuzhen looked at Fang Youde directly, and asked with a look of resentment.

"Your Highness, you should know in your heart.

What you want is poetic, and a certain is just a martial artist. The throbbing of youth is nothing more than a dream.

If you have no intention of being a concubine, it is not suitable for you to be a golden branch and jade leaf, and you don't have to this leisure for the sake of a saint.

Now that you and I have children, you don't have to look back on the past, you might as well say it bluntly. ”

Fang Youde said indifferently and bluntly.

In all fairness, Princess Yuzhen is the kind of Li Tang royal family with a decent personality, and she even admired Fang Youde back then. It's just that now that the other party has come to Bianzhou, I'm afraid it won't be for personal matters.

Princess Yuzhen looked disappointed, and then sighed and begged: "Quan Zhong, are you okay to go back to Guanzhong." As soon as you leave Chang'an, something will happen to the saint. ”

"The saint has his own blessing from heaven, and the dangerous fire in Cuiwei Palace was also eliminated by a sudden rainstorm?"

Fang Youde waved his hand lightly and said, as if he had no intention of going back at all.

After he left Chang'an last time, Ji Ge was in distress in Cuiwei Palace, it is said that there were thieves who stole the fire oil in the workshop of the Ministry of Industry, and took advantage of the opportunity of the Son of Heaven to enjoy the cool summer on the mountain, and burned Huangyu, the fire stretched for several miles, and there was a great risk of burning the mountains south of Chang'an into white ground.

And then how is this crisis resolved?

It didn't work out much, because it soon fell on an astonishing scale, which can be called a rainstorm that covers the sky! The raging wildfires were extinguished by the torrential rain.

Outrageous is outrageous, but think about it from another angle, isn't it strange that there is a rainstorm in summer?

This can only be said to be the will of heaven in the dark.

The black hand who planned this matter probably didn't calculate it, they won Brother Ji, but they didn't win against God. This rainstorm can be called a rare occurrence in ten years, and it can be said that it happened to be encountered by Ji Ge.

After returning to Chang'an, Ji Ge thought that he was blessed by God, and then set up an altar in the south of the city with great fanfare, leading the Manchu Dynasty to worship the heavens.

And then what?

And then there was no then.

Kee Ge continues to plunge headlong into the pear orchard and begins to fall in love with the strange art of dancing while undressing beautiful women.

Everything seems to have changed a lot in Chang'an, because with the popularity of Chang'an Jiaozi, commerce and trade have become more prosperous.

However, the singing and dancing are leveling, but the temperament of the Heavenly Empire has not changed at all.

Ji Ge didn't care, but the people close to him didn't let their guard down, such as Princess Yuzhen.

She was keenly aware that at the critical moment, there was no key person to "save the scene" around Brother Ji.

Whether it is Li Linfu, Li Shizhi, or civil and military officials, these people will not particularly care about Brother Ji's life or death.

Brother Ji is dead, they are all officials, drinking wine, and doing what they should do. For another emperor, as long as they are still the heirs of Jige, as long as they do not confiscate their property and settle their sins, then these officials will welcome them with raised hands.

Huang Yu was set on fire, and the response of hundreds of officials in Chang'an City was so slow, and the passage from the bottom of the mountain to the Cuiwei Palace on the top of the mountain was not opened for a few days.

Although these people organized a considerable number of people to fight the fire, for some reason, the fire still got bigger and bigger! A large number of people are in a hurry and can't get up at the bottom of the mountain, and I don't know if these people are in a fake hurry or really in a hurry.

Princess Yuzhen felt that at that time, maybe there were spies mixed in the firefighting crowd, and others splashed water and oil!

So she remembered Fang Youde.

If there is Fang Youde in Chang'an, then Brother Ji must have someone who can save the scene at a critical moment, and there will be no embarrassment of being trapped in Cuiwei Palace this time. Princess Yuzhen was also in Cuiwei Palace at the time, and she still remembered many details.

"Your Highness, a certain is just an idle official now, the so-called Xuanwu Army Festival Envoy, and there are only a thousand soldiers and horses under his command, which is a fig leaf left by the saint to the lower officials.

The princess is the sister of the saint and should not interfere in the affairs of the state.

You must not have a saint's decree here, do you? The saint must not have said that you should ask someone to go back, right? ”

Fang Youde said calmly, as if he didn't think much of Princess Yuzhen's words.

"As long as you promise to go back to Chang'an, even if it's in Huaxian! That's not a problem!

This palace is willing to live with you, if the saint wants to deal with you, step on the corpse of this palace first, what are you worried about! ”

Princess Yuzhen said excitedly.

Obviously, as Fang Youde said, this is her own wishful thinking, not Ji Ge's expectations.

Even in the event of a fire, God helped extinguish the fire, and now Brother Ji thinks that he is the chosen saint! It is sent by God to manage the Tang Dynasty, with the blessing of God!

Brother Kee already sees him as a god.

He doesn't need anyone now, he doesn't have the virtues of Fang, so what does it matter if he goes to find another one?

"Jie Shuai, the matter is done. What to do with the pontoon? ”

Li Jiaqing came over and said that he didn't pay attention to who the noble lady opposite Fang Youde was, but he also knew that he was covered in blood now and looked a little hideous. So I want to get out of here quickly and go back to the barracks to clean my armor.

"Over there, I'll let the soldiers take someone to collect the body, you just send Princess Yuzhen back to the palace, and you don't need to worry about other things."

Fang Youde gave Li Jiaqing an order, turned around and left, not caring about the friendship of the year at all.

At the beginning, Princess Yuzhen, who was a girl in the flower season, stripped naked and quietly hid in Fang Youde's quilt at night to lick the dog!

Just say that this is the humiliation of not eating it when it is delivered to the door, if it is replaced by someone else, it is really necessary to clean up Fang Youde for a meal. Thanks to Princess Yuzhen, she is sensible, and Fang Youde can live until now, this is a rare existence among the princesses of the Tang Dynasty.

It's a pity that it is not human.

"Fang Youde, this palace hates you! You'll regret it in the future! ”

Princess Yuzhen's face was full of tears, and she shouted at Fang Youde's back.

This bloody scene, Li Jiaqing, who was eating melons on the side, looked stupid.

The coach of his own family is serious and puzzled, where did he recruit women to like him, or to be today's sister.

Why bother? Is it because these women who grew up in the palace have never seen a man?

Li Jiaqing had no choice but to sigh, he really didn't understand the aesthetics of the magnates. If he is now upside down by the emperor's sister, then he will definitely have to take it!

"If Your Highness is really idle, then go back and tell the saint:

Pro-virtuous ministers, far villains, this ancestor Han is so prosperous.

Pro-villain, Yuanxian Chen, after that, the Han Dynasty fell into decline.

Fang didn't have anything else to say. ”

After speaking, Fang Youde left directly, and walked towards the gate of Kaifeng County without looking back.

"Your Highness, the post house is going this way, please."

Li Jiaqing made a gesture of please, although he had tried his best to show kindness, but the face covered with blood and water still looked hideous to outsiders.

Princess Yuzhen didn't want to deal with Li Jiaqing at all, turned around and stomped her feet, and walked in the opposite direction to Fang Youde's departure.

The two drifted apart.

(End of chapter)