July Flowing Fire.

The meaning of this idiom is that the weather in July has turned cooler, and in the evening, you can often see large Mars setting from the west. So much so that at the end of July, Yang Guozhong already needed the fat maids as meat screens to keep him warm.

In the eyes of some people, Xue Bai's reputation is not much better than Yang Guozhong's.

He went to Yuzhenguan today, inquired, and the two female crowns surnamed Li lost their temper and moved back to Yuzhenguan, so he went to coax them. After coming out, he went to Du's house, and the villain saw him quietly ride out of the city with the Du family sisters, and went into a small courtyard on the edge of the Qujiang River to mingle, and returned home before dusk. ”

"Leaning on the red and green all day long, don't do anything serious?"

"No, I've never seen anyone more merry than him."

It was Yuan Siyi who sent someone to keep an eye on Xue Bai, but after listening to these romantic things for several days, he was also a little annoyed, and muttered: "In the past, I saw that he was hungry for power, but recently he has not been motivated at all." ”

"According to the villain, he should be more motivated, and it is better to set off fireworks to please the saint than to do those thankless things. Besides, isn't it just to live a life surrounded by such beauties? ”

Yuan Siyi suddenly said: "I'm so cautious, is it also to live like that?!" ”

"The villain is guilty."

Accompanied by this confession was the slap of "snap", which was crisp and neat.

But the reason why Yuan Siyi was angry was not because he was offended, but because he felt that his subordinates were slacking off and not doing their duty.

He checked Xue Bai, not out of personal grudges, but in the spirit of the attitude of being cautious and ensuring that everything is safe for the saint, the saint let Xue Bai be the fireworks envoy and set off grand fireworks on the Thousand Autumns Long Live Festival, which in his opinion contained some kind of danger.

As for where this dangerous premonition came from, Yuan Siyi had a conjecture, but before there was no evidence, he himself felt ridiculous.

Finally, Fu Zhuolin arrived.

"The man sent to Danshan has returned?" Yuan Siyi asked, "How?" ”

Fu Baolin's expression was quite uneasy, his eyes dodged, and he replied with a bow: "The first batch of people I sent has not returned, I thought it would take time to investigate old things, but I couldn't wait a few days ago, so I sent a second group of people, and they came back today to restore their lives, saying that they were all gone." ”

"What's missing?"

"The Lu 15 and our people that Chen Xuanli said are gone, Lu 15's house was burned down, and the wheat was not cut."

"What about paintings?"

Fu Zhulin was very ashamed, and replied weakly: "The painting is gone." ”

"Smack!"

This time, it was Yuan Siyi who stepped forward in person and gave Fu Zhulin a slap.

After that, he took two deep breaths to calm down, pondered the whole thing, and muttered, "Anyway, our people are dead. ”

"Yes."

"Someone didn't want us to investigate this, but he forgot that killing people alone can't hide the truth, and killing people will expose him to me."

Yuan Siyi's eyes couldn't help but look worried, and he began to believe that his original conjecture was right. If Xue Bai is really the son of the deposed prince, and he deliberately approached the saint and sought the position of fireworks envoy, shouldn't it be for assassination?

He had to be cautious about Xue Bai's fireworks.

The next day, he went to the workshop where he made fireworks for the Thousand Autumn Festival.

~~

The Thousand Autumn Festival falls on the fifth day of the eighth month and is the birthday of the saint.

There is no precedent for setting the emperor's birthday as a festival since ancient times, but Li Longji likes the meaning of "long live the thousand autumns", and jokingly calls this "self-ancient", so in the seventeenth year of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, hundreds of officials played, please take the fifth day of the eighth month as the Qianqiu Festival, every day, the world rejoices, the states feast, and the vacation is three days.

Qixi Festival decided to set off fireworks on the Qianqiu Festival, the time was less than a month, Xue Bai hurriedly transferred manpower from the ordnance supervisor and the general supervisor, set up a workshop, and purchased raw materials from all over the country...... By the time all the preparations are in place, there are only a few days left. But for the sake of the saint's pleasure, the craftsmen worked day and night.

In this case, Yuan Siyi thought that the workshop would be a mess.

However, when he went to see it in person, he found that everything was so orderly.

The fireworks workshop was built outside the Chunming Gate, across the city wall from the Xingqing Palace. The guards seemed to be stricter than Xingqing Palace, with Jin Wuwei holding halberds outside the door, and the guards were officials recommended by Xue Bai to the Ordnance Prison, with a serious expression, and after reading Yuan Siyi's order, he actually shook his head.

"It's not a sign that can get into the fireworks shop."

Yuan Siyi had never encountered such a situation, and said: "See clearly, with this talisman, you can even enter and exit the Forbidden Garden." ”

"Even if it's a sign to go to the Heavenly Palace, you can't enter this fireworks shop."

"Do you know who I am?"

"The Jade Emperor is here, and he has to use the signage of the fireworks shop to enter and exit."

Hearing this, Yuan Siyi was quite calm, and the attendants behind him had already blown up the pot, and they all scolded non-stop.

At this moment, a round-faced young man ran out and calmed the chaos.

"Ah, this is the eunuch in the palace, I'll approve the article and take him in."

"Even if Master Du wants to bring people, he has to follow the rules."

"Yes, yes." The young man happily agreed, hurriedly turned around, and said awkwardly: "I've seen Eunuch Yuan, I'll take Eunuch Yuan in." ”

Yuan Siyi saw that he was a little familiar, and couldn't help asking, "Who are you?" ”

"Du Cheng, I am the master of the fireworks workshop, and General Yuan can call me 'Wulang'."

"You're Du Goro? Take me in. ”

"Yes, Eunuch wait."

Du Wulang took out the article from his sleeve, wrote Yuan Siyi's name on the paper, and wrote very objective descriptions such as "white face, cold expression, big mole with rice grains on the right cheek, slightly cross-eyed", and covered it with a sigh of "snap" on his seal, before getting up and saying, "Let's go, you can go in." ”

Yuan Siyi was not surprised that Xue Bai was a confidant in this matter, he patiently watched Du Wulang do these things grinding, and realized that this ordinary and especially easy to ignore young man was actually Xue Bai's powerful helper.

"You also know how to make fireworks?"

"A little bit of understanding, a little understanding." Du Wulang looked a little frightened every time he was asked, but his words were very dense, "The eunuch also knows about bamboo paper, and when I invented bamboo paper, I poured a soak of urine into the pulp pool, which also played a role, and sometimes it takes some small whimsy to make, and I am a person with a little whimsy." ”

"This firework is related to fire, but is it dangerous?"

"Ah, of course there is a danger, and what we have to do is to put an end to it. Chief, we have big water tanks every few steps, just for fear of fire. Originally, the supervisor said that the fireworks workshop would be placed in the imperial city, which would be okay, in case it burned. By the way, there is also a coincidence, the house of Li Qiwu, who will be the supervisor, caught fire more than a year ago, and it also burned to the house of Mrs. Qiu Guo next door, the water and fire are ruthless, you should be more careful......"

Yuan Siyi didn't want to ask this, he came to investigate the assassination case, but Du Wulang pretended to be stupid with him and deliberately answered the question.

In other words, others dared to play such a clever trick in front of him, and he could directly slap the other party into prison, but at this time, he didn't want to startle the snake. hit Du Wulang's straw bag, which alarmed Xue Bai's poisonous snake.

"The saint was very concerned about the progress of the fireworks, so he asked me to understand the progress and show me everywhere." Yuan Siyi pointed to the courtyard where the craftsmen were working and said, and Du Wulang wanted to lead him elsewhere.

"Huh? It stinks and gets dirty over there. Du Wulang originally wanted to refuse, but Yuan Siyi was too majestic, so he said: "Okay, Yuan Eunuch, please." ”

The courtyard was filled with a pungent smell, and the strange thing was that the craftsmen did not speak much, each performing their duties, each of them only bowed their heads to do what they were doing and often had only one action, beating pulp, making paper shells, milling flour, proportioning, and pulling ropes...... There are also partitions between the positions, and only the finished objects can be passed under the partitions.

Yuan Siyi didn't understand why this was at first, but when he looked closely, he suddenly understood the reason.

He deliberately pretended not to understand and asked, "Why is it arranged like this?" It's not like a workshop in full swing, but like a cold palace in the court. ”

Du Wulang was still pretending to be stupid, without any city government, and replied: "Fireworks are a craft that should not be passed on to the outside world, so there is no fear of spreading the method of making it." And it's faster, much faster. ”

"Yes."

Yuan Siyi knew that Du Wulang only said half of what he said, and another reason was that in this way, Xue Bai could make fireworks into a big killing weapon without anyone knowingly.

He became more and more convinced of his previous guesses.

In the evening, I ended my trip to the fireworks workshop and returned to the Inner Servant Province. Yuan Siyi summoned Fu Zhuolin again and said, "All along, we have ignored Du Wulang. ”

"Dougoro?" Fu Zhaolin thought at first that he was talking about Li Linfu's son-in-law Du Wei, but he was stunned before he reacted.

"If this son doesn't have any city government, or the city government is very deep." Yuan Siyi was obviously more inclined to the latter judgment, and said: "Xue Bai used his voice as a cover, and the person who secretly did things for him was only afraid that it was the Du family, and the Du family had done something during this period of time. ”

"......"

The Inner Servant Province is very energetic, and in just one day, Fu Zhuo Lin found out all the major events that have happened in the Du family recently.

When he returned, he also sold a pass to express his surprise at hearing important news.

"Grandpa, do you know that during the period when the saint was stationed in Lishan Mountain, what kind of official was Du Wulang made?"

Of course, Yuan Siyi would not pay attention to the role of Du Wulang when he was in Huaqing Palace, so he kept a cold face and waited for the following.

Fu Zhaolin said: "In the Mid-Autumn Festival last year, Du Wulang left his post without permission when he was appointed as the lieutenant of Jincheng County, and was impeached by the imperial history because of this, and he has not been able to make up for it. But in the middle of the year, that is, after the saint left Chang'an, he was appointed to join the army as the secretary of the palace of Jianning County! ”

Yuan Siyi immediately stared at it and thought about it.

The prince of the Tang Dynasty and the county prince's palace have set up officials to assist, teach the lord of the palace or manage the government affairs of the palace, and the county prince's mansion allows this long history, Sima, rafters, subordinates, master books, record rooms to join the army, and Gong Cao to join the army, six people to join the army, two pawns, nine relatives to distinguish the affairs, and sixty-nine people in the account.

With the sage's defense of the prince's sons and grandsons, the princes' mansions have long been absent, and the rest of the bureaucrats such as relatives and tents have been canceled, and most of the military members are only nominal official positions, mixed with qualifications.

However, the king of Jianning County is different, he is the third son of the crown prince Li Heng, Li Qi, who is very outstanding among the young people of the entire clan, and has always been loved by saints. Such a character suddenly recommended Du Wulang, who was close to Xue Bai, to join the army in the palace, why?

"Did King Jianning also notice Xue Bai's identity? Is this an attempt to find out the truth of Xue Bai? Yuan Siyi knew that Li Qi had some means, and thought in his heart: "What is Du Wulang's role in it?" ”

~~

"Huh? I? I don't know. ”

On this day, Yang Xuan met Du Wulang and asked him why he suddenly became a prince to join the army, but Du Wulang was at a loss and said, "I really don't know." ”

"Then it must be that Donggong wants to win you over."

Yang Xuan has been exposed to it for a long time, and he actually analyzes the situation of the DPRK.

He followed Yang Guozhong to Lishan, and every day he followed Jia Chang to fight cocks and lackeys, and after returning to Chang'an, he had found Du Wulang many times, but Du Wulang was very busy every time. Today, Yang Xuan was blocked outside the fireworks workshop to be able to meet.

"Woo me? Maybe. ”

Yang Xuan put his arm around Du Wulang's neck and said, "Then you won't be a friend of the county king, right?" Let me tell you, my grandfather and Donggong don't deal with each other. If you turn against you, I won't recognize you as a brother. ”

"It's the king of Jianning."

"I know, the king of Jianning County, the eldest son of the crown prince, of course he is from the East Palace."

"It's not the eldest son, the eldest son of the crown prince is Li Li, the king of Guangping, and Li Qi, the king of Jianning, is the third son of the prince."

"I don't care about Li Beast or Li Phlegm, I can't write their names." Yang Xuan said, "Anyway, I don't deal with them." ”

Du Wulang was helpless and said: "If you really can't tell the difference, just remember that King Jianning is 'Little Li Sanlang', and the sage calls him Yingguo like himself, so he calls him like this." ”

Yang Xuan was very displeased when he heard him praise Li Qi, and said angrily: "Between me and this little San Lang, you can only be friends with one person, you can choose!" ”

"Huh?"

Du Wulang had a big headache, thinking that only Xue Bai was his best friend, what could these two have to fight for?

Just as he didn't know how to answer, a convoy slowly came from the east, and Du Wulang hurriedly said: "I still have an errand, let's go back." ”

As he spoke, he hurried to the front of the carriages, took out the list from his sleeve, and said, "But it's here, I'll do the math, there are eighteen boxes in total, right?" Move over there. ”

Still busy, Yang Xuan chased after him, pulled Du Wulang's shirt, and said, "You say it first, whose side are you on." A manly man, there is no reason to be a grass on the wall. ”

"Okay, okay, I'm on your side, and I'm appointed to join the army for the palace, and I don't want to."

"Why are you so reluctant?"

Then a guard came to pull Yang Xuan and prevented him from entering the fireworks workshop. Yang Xuan didn't follow, and had to ask Du Wulang clearly.

As it was pulling, it affected the team transporting the raw materials, and a box fell to the ground and rolled out the saltpeter inside.

"Huh?"

Du Wulang turned his head to look, because he saw a few arrow-like things falling from under those saltpeters, and he couldn't help but wonder.

"What's that?"

"The villain deserves to die, please forgive the sins."

The next moment, several Lifu had already squatted down to pick it up, and their bodies blocked Du Wulang's sight, loaded the saltpeter, hurriedly packed the box and continued to carry.

This scene fell in the eyes of one of Yang Xuan's entourages, his eyes flickered, and he lowered his head.

~~

"Did you read that right?"

When Yuan Siyi got the news, it was the second day of the eighth month, and there were only three days left before the Qianqiu Festival.

In addition to fireworks, there are many things to prepare for the Qianqiu Festival, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs is also very busy, but he still does not forget to ask Xue Bai and Du Wulang about the current situation every day, but an entourage of the Yang family who was bribed by Fu Zhuolin told him a trivial matter.

"Are you sure it's a cluster of arrows?"

"The villain is far away, but it should be true."

"Why do fireworks need arrows?"

Yuan Siyi had become more and more sure that Xue Bai was plotting against him and planned to assassinate the saint.

Time was pressing, and now what he had to do was not to find evidence, but to stop the assassination and uncover Xue Bai's conspiracy for the saint to know.

How?

Just thinking about it, a spy staring at Xue Bai replied with a message.

"Xue Bai bowed to King Jianning today."

~~

There are many Keju fields in Chang'an City, and the Keju field in Princess Xianyi Mansion in Pingkangfang is a better one.

The Keju on the court was at the time of intense competition, and the stands were also very lively.

The stands here are very luxurious, with bamboo curtains, soft couches, burning stoves, and maidservants serving wine and food from time to time.

Li Tengkong and Li Jilan sat side by side, staring at Xue Bai's figure.

Recently, there has been some trouble between the two. Li Jilan looked at Li Tengkong several times, observing her every move and smile, but she didn't know what she wanted to see.

"How could he get together with King Jianning today?" Li Tengkong was a little embarrassed and started a topic.

"It's said that Du Wulang pulled the line, oh, you see that Du Wulang is also on the field, it's quite obvious."

Li Jilan originally wanted to say "it's quite clumsy", so she changed the word out of politeness.

Li Tengkong thought to herself that this was the case, she had heard Xue Bai say that Du Wulang's wife gave birth to a daughter when she was in Lishan, and not long after, Du Wulang was queed as the army of Jianning Palace, she was quite worried about this, afraid that Du Wulang now has a weakness, is coerced, and does something unfavorable to Xue Bai.

At this time, on the juju field, Xue Bai and Li Qi each led a team to play against each other, and Du Wulang was very lagging his feet, and he had failed to catch the juju ball kicked by the opposite side many times in a row.

There is another laggard is Yang Xuan. On the contrary to Du Wulang, Yang Xuan's ball skills are very superb, and he is full of tricks when he turns the ball upside down, but he likes to shout, and always asks others to give him the ball to turn it around, which causes others to repeatedly land when they touch the ball.

The most remarkable thing is Yang Yuyao, as soon as she gets on the court, she shows a completely different side from usual, and she is not inferior to men.

As for Xue Bai, although his ball skills are mediocre, his physical strength is good, and he is calm and calm...... In Li Tengkong's eyes, he is still the most eye-catching presence on the court.

It's a pity that although Xue Bai played very beautifully, he still lost to Li Qi and those Wuling young heroes who were already good at juju.

After it was over, I saw Xue Bai and Li Qi talking alone from a distance, and the two walked to the other side of the court and had a more intimate conversation.

Li Tengkong didn't know what they were talking about, and her heart gradually became uneasy, because she now knew Xue Bai's deepest secret, and she also understood how much risk it would bring. At this time, the emperor's grandson Li Qi suddenly began to deal with Xue Bai frequently and closely, which inevitably made her wonder whether Xue Bai had been discovered by others.

"Vacate?"

When Li Tengkong came back to his senses, he found that Li Jilan had called her for a while.

"Huh?"

"Have you been on your minds lately?" Li Jilan hesitated and said in a low voice: "I always wanted to ask you, why did you ask me to cover it up when you went out with Xue Lang that night?" Are you afraid that Yan Niangzi will be unhappy? ”

"It's not." Li Tengkong said in a low voice, "I told you last night, I really didn't want to do anything with him, and I don't want to do anything with him." ”

"But why?" Li Jilan said: "He saved your family, and Mrs. Yan also agreed, it is time to become a family member in the end." ”

"There is no why...... I, I'm cultivating. ”

Li Tengkong wanted to help Xue Bai realize his ambitions, but he didn't know how to explain it to Li Jilan. On this issue, the two have talked privately many times, and it is difficult to have a result, so they returned to Yuzhenguan together, which seems to be Li Tengkong staying with Li Jilan all the time in order to prove that he is still innocent with Xue Bai.

As for how long it will be like this? She thought in her heart, maybe wait for Xue Bai to get the power she wanted. She is not in a hurry, she is satisfied with the feeling of knowing that she is happy with each other now, and does not seek to stay together.

In this way, it is inevitable that Li Jilan is a little anxious.

"You talk about cultivation again, but I have suffered a great wrongs for you."

"Don't worry, General Gao won't say it."

"I am ......"

Li Jilan said that she was suffering, but the next moment, she saw someone coming this way, so she had to quickly shut up. She looked back and saw that it was Li Yuesu, and hurriedly got up and beckoned.

"The county lord is late, and Keju is over."

As soon as the words were spoken, Li Jilan found that there was a person walking behind Li Yuesu, a handsome man, who seemed to be a little familiar.

"I'm going to come and see you and the empty man, and it doesn't hurt if you don't look at Keju." Li Yuesu stepped forward happily, and then thought of something, turned around and said, "This is my eldest brother, King Guangping, you should have seen it, right?" ”

Li Jilan couldn't remember where she had seen it, so she said, "I've seen King Guangping." ”

~~

Li Jiao has been quite worried lately.

He had heard about what had happened in Lishan, and that his grandfather, the crown prince Li Heng, had been accused by Ji Wen of colluding with Wang Zhonghe's rebellion, and although it turned out to be a false frame, the sage's attitude towards the East Palace had changed subtly.

Although there is no evidence, Li Li knows that there must be Xue Bai's participation behind this matter, and Xue Bai can always have a great impact on the East Palace.

His third brother Li Qi also thought deeply of this, and always managed to contact Xue Bai and achieved results, arranging Du Wulang to join the army for the palace. Therefore, Xue Bai's attitude towards the East Palace finally eased and agreed to come to Keju today.

Li Li didn't know how Li Qi did it, but for the East Palace, this was an unexpected joy, and it was also a clever move, Li Li didn't expect that Du Wulang, who seemed to be useless, was actually a very key figure in Chang'an City.

For example, at the moment, the touching Qianqiu Festival, the fireworks are directly prepared by Du Goro.

Li Jiao wanted to know the reason for Xue Bai's change in attitude, was he hoping to join forces with the East Palace to deal with Yang Guozhong or An Lushan? Is it in trouble and needs a helper from the East Palace? Or is it just to be friends with Li Qi?

That's why he came today.

walked up to the stands with Li Yuesu, but met a beautiful woman in a Taoist robe. Li Jiao looked at it and recognized Li Jilan, who he had seen at the imperial banquet in Zhongnan Mountain.

He saw that Li Jilan had done a blessing to himself with a smile in her eyes, and couldn't help but recall that she also looked at herself like this when they met for the first time. Unexpectedly, she has been busy with social affairs all these years, but she is still infatuated.

Compared with Princess Cui Caiping's jealousy, Li Li prefers this kind of gentle and shy woman, so he politely replied.

When Li Yuesu and Li Jilan ran away holding hands, Li Jiao turned around and said to the eunuch Cheng Yuanzhen behind him: "If I want to take her as a concubine and give her a grade, can I?" ”

Cheng Yuanzhen was stunned for a moment, stepped forward, and reminded in a low voice: "No, the same surname is not married." ”

The corners of Li Jiao's mouth raised a hint of ridicule slightly, thinking that the saint could snatch Yang Taizhen into the palace, what else could he do?

"She is a monk, how can she have a common surname?"

Of course, he just thought of it in his heart and casually mentioned it, after all, he is not a saint now.

Maybe there will be a chance later.

After standing for a while, Li Qi and Xue Bai came over talking and looked quite close.

"Brother."

Li Qi's tone was hearty, and he stepped forward with a smile and said, "You are late, I have already bowed with Wu Yi, and I plan to go to the fireworks workshop with him to have a look." Let's talk about how this thing can be used in the army, let's go together. ”

Xue Bai was also more approachable than usual, and asked with a smile: "King Guangping, I haven't seen you for a long time, do you want to go out of the city together to have a look?" ”

"I can't ask for it." Li Li also smiled and said: "I always hear people say how beautiful the fireworks bloom in Lishan are, I am curious, how can I miss the reason?" ”

Several young people seem to be outstanding and outstanding, standing together with high spirits, and even make people feel the vigor of Datang Sheji.

Over there, Li Yuesu looked back at this meeting, and couldn't help but be very happy that they could get along so well.

Only Li Tengkong stood there and watched, and could feel the temperament of Xue Bai that was incompatible with the emperors and grandsons, and the temperament of a traitor......

(End of chapter)