Secluded capital.

In the midst of the hustle and bustle of the market, there is a spacious and grand private house.

There are few doors in the house, and only sporadic figures can be seen shuttling between them on weekdays, which is particularly empty and quiet.

Compared with the bustling and lively scene outside, it seems out of place.

Afternoon.

Next to the clear pond in the courtyard.

A man in a splendid robe reclined in a rocking chair.

The man's cheeks were plump without a single wrinkle, and his mouth was smooth without a single whisker.

If it weren't for the fact that the temples were a little white, I am afraid that I would only be regarded as a lazy, young and old rich child.

It is not a middle-aged person who is over fifty years old and has quickly moved towards the word "old".

A pair of iron balls swirled unhurriedly in the middle-aged man's left hand, letting the breeze blow on his face.

Ordinary people see it, but people will be old, so they play this male and female ball to strengthen muscles and bones, reconcile qi and blood, and delay aging.

But few people know that this male and female ball is not only a middle-aged man's fitness thing, but also his weapon.

It's just that no one gets lucky enough to see it.

Or I have seen it, but unfortunately it has not survived to this day.

And in the past ten years, he has not had much chance to do it himself.

All he needs to do is use his brain and mouth, and he has a group of people who are used by him to overcome difficulties.

Next to the rocking chair stood one of the gang.

It was the middle-aged man's butler who had left in this private house.

In the huge private house, there are not many people, there is nothing to do, although there is only one housekeeper, it is easy to deal with it.

The most important thing for the housekeeper to worry about on weekdays is the "recital" that the master has to listen to when he rests at home.

The reason why it is called a report is only because the things that the housekeeper needs to report, about the border situation, about the taxation in various places, about the production of the people, about the trivial matters of the rivers and lakes, etc., should be discussed by the court, and should be known by the emperor of the current dynasty and played.

And these recitals are all more detailed than those excerpts in the court.

For this reason, the housekeeper always spends most of the day arranging all kinds of information in order to complete the report, which may not take more than half an hour.

I think that if I don't have some talent in this area, it will be difficult to be reused under such high-ranking officials and nobles.

There was also a table in front of the butler.

In addition to a pile of newspaper papers, there is also a complete pen, ink, paper and inkstone on the table.

It is used to record the master's comments on these reports and related instructions.

I don't know if the master is in a good mood today, or because he is not interested in today's report, after the housekeeper has read the first twenty-one reports, he has not written a record.

There are three reports remaining.

If the master doesn't say anything about it next, the housekeeper can be regarded as having a spare time today.

The butler picked up the twenty-second report.

This is the second report about the trivialities of the rivers and lakes.

The first two of them are related to the Tingyu Pavilion that has recently "made waves" again among the rivers and lakes.

"Listening to the song of the rain pavilion dream, Luo Piaoling and a song of the Flowing Year Pavilion Xue Qinghuan, they have all been closed in the inn for three days, and there is no contact with the Lu family for the time being. ”

"Listening to the rain pavilion escorting the father and daughter of the Niu family, affected by the heavy rain for several days, they only traveled ten miles, and as of today, they have been stranded in Xiaoshan Evening Wind Inn for two days. ”

"Gambling ......"

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of his master's right palm slightly raised on the armrest, and the housekeeper stopped talking at the right time, picked up the brush that had been resting on the inkstone for a long time, and prepared to make a record.

But I heard the middle-aged man ask: "If I remember correctly, it rained a lot in the southern part of Jiangjiang Realm. ”

The housekeeper didn't think about why his master had such a question, and after sorting out the information in his mind, he quickly answered.

"Yes. ”

"Three days ago, heavy rain suddenly fell in the south of Jiangjiang, and the rainfall was knee-high in half a day. ”

"At the end of the day, the water level of the streams in the southern part of the river soared, flooding the farmland, and the crops that had just been planted were submerged in the water. ”

"The rain continued for days, flooding all the low-lying areas, and the local government has urgently organized the affected people to move to the higher grounds. ”

"However, the Jiangjiang Mountains are contiguous, the streams are staggered, and the people are scattered and separated, and it is not easy to find them, and the flooded land is very wide, and there are many people who have suffered, and it is difficult to form a resettlement place for a while, and many people have died or fallen ill. ”

"This autumn, I am afraid that there will be no harvest. ”

"If that strange rain continues for a few more days, it will be difficult to recover next year. ”

After hearing this, the male and female balls in his left hand were still slowly turning, and the two fingers of his right hand that he had put down again gently tapped the armrest of the rocking chair, thoughtfully.

He had heard this in the court yesterday.

He remembered that the little emperor was very impatient before he heard this recital.

Although the little emperor is getting older every year, his body is slowly collapsing at a speed that is not easy for ordinary people to detect, and the first thing that shows is that his concentration is getting worse and worse, that is, he can't survive a stick of incense in the early dynasty of five days.

- This little emperor can't hold out for a few years.

A slight smile flashed in the middle-aged man's slightly open eyes.

He is from the palace, and there is naturally his residence in the palace, but the current situation is clear, and he only restricts himself at the place where he should converge, and as for these trivial matters of life, he thinks that there is no need to pretend to be low-key to embarrass himself.

After all, he is also the eyes and ears in the palace walls, but whenever there is a slight sound, he can go to the palace to preside over the overall situation with a cup of tea.

The silence only lasted for a moment, and then the middle-aged man pulled back his thoughts and said, "How is the identity of the person escorting General Niu investigated?"

Thinking of this, the middle-aged man couldn't help frowning, this is something he arranged more than ten years ago, if there is a definite result, it should be reflected in the report, obviously it has not been ascertained in detail.

Xu saw that the middle-aged man's eyebrows were gloomy, and the housekeeper hurriedly accused: "My subordinates are not doing things well......

The middle-aged man interrupted: "Okay, let's talk about the situation found so far." ”

The butler bowed his head and said, "Yes." ”

"Since Jiangning County, there are currently a total of 15 people walking with Niu Kelian's father and daughter."

"Among them, a total of six people who were actually identified as belonging to Tingyu Pavilion, Feipiao, Mu Yan, Xiao Yan'er, Ning Mad, Ruan Gu, and Zifeng. ”

"It belongs to the Xiaoyue Alliance, but somehow there is one of them, Mo Yan. ”

"There is another old and five young who should come from the Taoist temple in the southwest of Zhongzhou, and the details of the origin are still under investigation. ”

"As for the knife-bearers and blind swordsmen who came in halfway, it has been determined that the knife-bearers are from Jiangmen Town, and the division is not very famous, and it is also Jiangmen Town that was only displaced in the year of trouble. ”

"And the blind swordsman may be a member of the Moral Alliance, but he doesn't know the specific origin. ”

The housekeeper stubbornly told the situation he knew, still standing with his eyebrows bowed, only more than ten people, more than ten days have passed, nearly half of them still do not know where they came from, as usual, they should inevitably be punished.

"Or maybe it's someone from the Moral Alliance?" he heard the middle-aged man repeat in a low voice.

The middle-aged man didn't have much to blame, he knew that it was pointless to blame these subordinates, he had been pondering this way for nearly twenty years, and he still didn't necessarily have to fight the old rivers and lakes of those ghosts, otherwise he wouldn't have to be constrained everywhere and secretly seek all kinds of cooperation.

He just raised the question in his heart, since he didn't know the origin of the specific identity, how could he determine that the other party might be a member of the Moral Alliance.

The housekeeper replied, "This news comes from the Yu family's Le Gongzi." Le Gongzi had a fight with the man holding the knife, and he couldn't break through the opponent's defense. It was also seen that the blind swordsman had used the stunning secret method taught by Han Wuyue of the Daoyi Alliance, so he had this inference. ”

The middle-aged man smiled for no reason: "Heh, this Yu family kid is still difficult to change his empty temperament, if he observes more carefully, he will definitely not only gain this point." Those old rivers and lakes are very good at hiding chess pieces, but how can there be so many wizards in the world that can be tapped and cultivated. This blind swordsman will never be a person who has appeared out of thin air recently, showing outsiders a new look, nothing more than deliberately concealing his identity and confusing the judgment of the world. Don't you know that you want to cover it up?"

Expecting that his master had already guessed the identity of the blind swordsman in just a few words, the butler was surprised and did not forget to say in a praising tone: "What the master said is extremely true. ”

The middle-aged man didn't care about the sycophants in his subordinate's tone, and said, "Take the map of Zhangjiang and Jiangxi." ”

The butler replied, but didn't go far from the table.

Only beckoned into the distance, and a figure wearing a flying fish suit with an embroidered spring knife on his waist came to him, and in a short time he handed over a scroll of maps.

I wanted to spread out the map to show the master, but I didn't expect the master to put down the male and female balls, stretched out his hand, and had to hand over the map.

The middle-aged man straightened up, opened his eyes under his slender eyebrows, and carefully studied the map of Jiang Jiangjing.

After a long time, the middle-aged man sighed: "Since it is the will of heaven, then I can't blame it." ”

It was obviously sighing, but the housekeeper could hear the hint of joy in the master's tone.

"Please command, sir. "The housekeeper knows that he has something to do.

"Are the Niu family's father and daughter still trapped in Xiaoshan?" this seemed to be the last question the middle-aged man asked before making a decision.

The housekeeper affirmed: "The news that just came this morning should be fine. ”

The middle-aged man locked his gaze on one place on the map and muttered, "This place is sparsely populated and suitable for ambushes." It's just how do you get them here?"

The housekeeper knew that the master was asking and answering himself, so he didn't dare to say more.

The middle-aged man said while thinking about something: "There is a Ganjiang River between Xiaoshan and the wild boar forest, and there is an arch bridge on the Ganjiang River, the bridge is thirty zhang long, which was built two hundred years ago, and has been damaged for decades. Nowadays, it is renovated every three years in the autumn and winter, and this year seems to be the year of the repair. ”

The butler said, "Yes." ”

The middle-aged man said: "The heavy rain that is rare in a hundred years will inevitably cause floods, how can this arch bridge that has been in disrepair for a long time be able to withstand it?"

The housekeeper seemed to understand what his master was planning, and hurriedly said, "I can't bear it." ”

The middle-aged man nodded and said, "Since the embankment in the upper reaches of the Gan River can't stop the water, it should be washed away." ”

The housekeeper shuddered when he heard this, but his face was silent, he just took a note and said yes.

The middle-aged man fell into deep thought again, the location was chosen, what about the manpower?

After a while, the middle-aged man spoke: "How about you say to let some more Dongying people in?"

The housekeeper was stunned when he heard this, but his master was extremely judgmental and rarely asked their opinions.

This is really the first time.

But when his master heard about it, he was a little moody like the freewheeling Yi Wusheng.

Usually it seems to be quite kind, but it can also be said that turning the face will change the sky, and there are a lot of tricks behind the scenes, now ask this question, how should I answer it?

Between breaths, drops of cold sweat flowed down the corners of his forehead.

"Let you say it, you say it. The middle-aged man's tone was flat.

The housekeeper knew that if he didn't say anything again, the master was afraid that he would no longer speak in this tone.

Hurriedly sorted out his thoughts, and said: "The hearts of non-my race will be different, although the Dongying people who have been put in are subject to discipline, but if they want more, I am afraid it will not be easy to keep an eye on, in order to avoid a big mistake, the subordinates think that the number of Dongying people should be controlled." ”

That is, the housekeeper didn't know what the middle-aged man had done back then, otherwise he would never dare to say this in front of the master.

Of course, middle-aged men are not of any different race, but there are some things in the world that only need to be done once, which means that there will be a second and third time......

The middle-aged man said with a face as usual: "That's a good point, it's to control the number of Dongying people, but this time, I plan to try the ability of these Dongying people." ”

The housekeeper somewhat understood his master's plan, and said, "The master is saying that let the Dongying people attack and kill the father and daughter of the Niu family?"

The middle-aged man said: "Yes, General Niu has this value, let them do it." We can let in some more Dongying people, but we have to see how much they pay - how much they die, how much they will make up. ”

The butler continued to take notes.

The middle-aged man said again: "How many people do you think it is appropriate for them to go this time?"

The butler put down his pen and said tentatively, "Two hundred?"

The middle-aged man shook his head and smiled: "Two hundred, two hundred people is not enough to kill, don't forget that the Weaver Girl Cowherd is also following behind." ”

The butler hesitated slightly, doubled it, added some more people, and said, "Five hundred?"

The middle-aged man groaned for a moment.

"Five hundred, then five hundred. ”

"If you think there are 500 people, even if you use the number of people, you can exhaust those people. ”

"If 500 people can't kill 20 people, then this Dongying people are not worth spending a lot of money to win over. ”

"Eight hundred miles is urgent, be sure to send the secret letter to the hands of the Dongying people today. ”

"When the arch bridge is broken, they shall set out in two days and take a different course. ”

"The people of Dongying need to ambush this place before this, otherwise everything is empty talk. ”

"What we can help them fight for is to make the Moral League and Tingyu Pavilion deaf and blind in one day. ”

The butler kept taking notes, during which he looked up at the place where his master's finger had landed.

There are three words written on it, "Ning Terrace".