In the early morning, a country carriage drove on wheels along the wide avenue leading to the capital of Yangzhou, driven by a thin old man, who sat in front of the carriage and looked into the distance, leaning over his body, occasionally waving a bamboo stick, and whipping the four-legged livestock that always wanted to be lazy.

The old man was not dressed in a grand manner, he was dressed in coarse linen clothes with a local atmosphere, but such an inconspicuous old man was imposing, and his eyebrows and forehead were full of confidence and pride.

Taoism has visualization techniques, according to a person's appearance, facial features, demeanor and movements, guess its fortune and qi, and those who practice art have the supreme supernatural power to spy on the fate of the good and evil, and if the appearance and demeanor of the old man are in the eyes of ordinary Taoists, it is a word "cold mixture".

"Hey, you hair-rubbing beast, how can you drop, do you have to whip hard to get enough strength?" The old man suddenly pointed to the donkey in front of him who was silently pulling the cart and scolded, the donkey didn't know whether he was used to listening to it, or he was afraid of the old man's obscenity, but he snorted a few times in a muffled voice, and there was a few more inches of strength on his hooves. The two-wheeled mahogany van rolled over the uneven gravel on the road and became swaying, and the old man was also shaking his head, humming a little song in boredom.

"Why am I in the car?" A person was lying on a hard couch in the carriage, and suddenly jumped up slightly due to the rolling gravel of the wheels, and the person was awakened, and at the moment when his eyes opened and closed, a strong light came into view, and the person couldn't help but raise his hand to block.

"Who is outside the car?" The brightly dressed young man looked shocked, immediately sat up straight, looked down and saw that the golden knife was placed behind him, and subconsciously held the scabbard tightly and asked outside the carriage.

"Second son, you're awake, old man, I thought you hadn't recovered yet. The old man was a little surprised, and suddenly looked back into the curtain.

"You, do you know me?" the man in the fancy dress squeezed his brows, but he was not very surprised, but he relaxed a little, and his left hand still held on to the scabbard.

"Who is Your Excellency, I wasn't here yesterday?" the man in the fancy dress stood up, and since the carriage was not very spacious, he bent over and poked his head out to glance at his surroundings.

"The second son, the villain is a merchant in Songzi Town, yesterday evening by a girl who covered his cheeks asked to send the son to the city of Lu Gongfu, because the hour is late, the villain will drive overnight, accidentally woke up the son, blame the villain for not thinking through, and hope that the second son will atone for his sins. The old man looked humble, facing the big man in the carriage, the old man couldn't afford to offend at all, he was afraid of spilling, holding it for fear of leaking.

The children of such wealthy families can look at them at a glance, not to mention that the second to none son in Yangzhou is sitting in his own humble carriage, and the old man is flattered.

"It's just a moment of overvigilance below, looking at the old man Mo Mowei, being in the rivers and lakes, I have to be careful, and if I don't know how to die, so I run around all the year round, and my nerves are tense. The man in the Chinese costume finally unloaded his heart, and after the careful inspection just now, he really escaped from the danger, and the carriage drove on a four-five-zhang wide official road, with dense pedestrians, and arrived at the inner city of Yangzhou after a few miles.

As the saying goes, you can't have the heart to harm people, and the heart to prevent people is indispensable, and if you don't say that today is not a peaceful and prosperous world, there are still robbers and bandits rampant, I really don't know when the world is divided and combined, and when will it be the end! I'm afraid that the old man I can't look forward to that day in my life. The old man said that he had some typhoid fever, and exhaled a few turbid breaths in a decadent manner.

"The old man can say such sincere words, which makes the younger generation deeply touched and admired, I don't know if the old man was a man in the army when he was young?" The man in Chinese clothes opened the curtain and sat on the edge of the car with his buttocks, the soles of his shoes almost touching the ground, blowing the cool spring breeze, and his expression was excellent.

"Don't hide it from the son, the villain was young in the Jeju Terracotta Battalion mixed a team, it is also a sesame big official position, under the management of fifty or sixty people, life is also comfortable, in a separate state bandit operation unfortunately injured the left leg bones, failed to heal the disease completely left the patient fell for most of his life leg disease, only stayed in the barracks for eight years, after returning to the hometown to find a store to do business, then came down peacefully, it has been thirty-four years. The old man recounted slowly, without a trace of joy and sorrow in the whole process, and there was no unusual brilliance in his eyes, as if he was telling someone else's story.

"Since the old man has experienced a period of military career, he has no regrets, the younger generation has been a weak champion this year, if the boy is weak in the year of the weak crown, he should have gone to the battlefield to establish meritorious achievements, if he studied from the text, he should enter the capital to win fame, so as to live up to the good years, but it is a pity that the younger generations have not touched the edge until now, ashamed, ashamed. The man in the costume looked up at the sky, there are clouds as thick as the Yellow Sea, there are clouds as narrow as a real dragon, strange and remarkable, the man in the costume does not know where to pull the slender weeds, take it in his mouth, chew it carefully, it is a little sweet.

"The second son is really very different from the ordinary gentleman, just run towards the second son's Lingyun ambition, the heavenly prince will live up to his wishes, old man, I firmly believe that the second son will have a glorious lintel!"

"To borrow old Bergie's words, I also look forward to that day coming soon. ”

Near the city gate, a high wall stands in front of everyone, in the center is two huge golden bronze gates, there is an arrow tower rising from the ground every hundred steps on the left and right sides of the copper gate, there are soldiers on guard at all times in the corridor at the top of the city wall, heavy loading silver guns, agitating with banners, nearly 100 people patrolling and guarding under the city, solemn and solemn, this is the majesty of Dazhou.

"What's going on in front, there are so many guards, isn't it that the capital has sent a big official to make some big scenes to inspect the adults in Beijing, so that these dragons can see the big people in the capital who don't see the end of the head and the end of the heart, and then get some oil and water benefits, pat their butts and leave after eating, and say a few beautiful words for Yangzhou in front of the emperor?"

"Childe is not in the city for two or three days and does not know some things, just the day before yesterday, Yangzhou Assassin Shi died in the mansion for no reason, it is rumored that the seven orifices bleed, and the death was tragic, and this matter exploded in the city. ”

————

The situation in the city is not much different from that outside the city, every other hour there is a team of 100 cavalry officers and soldiers who shuttle through the seven or eight shops and streets in the central backbone area, the momentum is violent, and the people are panicked, at this point in time on weekdays, there is a crowd of pedestrians, and the hawkers from all over the towns and villages come all the way to shout, and they have to pay attention to the heels in front of them when walking, otherwise they will step on it in a hurry, causing a dispute of tongues.

In the past two days, the small shops are almost closed door to door, and the relatively large scale of teahouses, casinos, and restaurants, because it is difficult to bear huge losses, the huge storefronts raise dozens or hundreds of people, and every day they open their eyes and close their eyes is the silver of snowflakes, and they are open against the wind and waves, and there are few pedestrians wandering in the streets and alleys.

A person wearing a pale yellow Taoist robe walked slowly on the street, although all Taoist scholars in the world are called Taoist disciples, but the distribution is different, the spread is different, and there are hundreds of Taoist services.

The most authentic Taoist ancestral court, for example, the Heavenly Master's Mansion and the Taiqing Palace are all the same color golden crown red robe, the lotus golden crown is inlaid with unicorn beads and has the strange effect of avoiding dirt and evil, the wide-sleeved red robe is sewn by the southern country cicada silk and the workmanship is rigorous, water and fire are not invaded, because the two Taoist sects are thousands of miles apart in the following thousand years each opened a new law to change the details of service, the Heavenly Master's Mansion accepted the dragon and the thunder bird, with it as a Zhenzong divine beast, the original thunder law, the Taiqing Palace is dedicated to the fire unicorn as the apologetic spirit animal, teaching Taoist ancient arts.

"It's really clean these days, isn't it just the death of a big official with a head and a face, the world is really interesting, I want to see how this huge drama ends." The yellow-robed man looked aimlessly in all directions, suddenly focused on one place, paused for a moment and then took a step.

A carriage is speeding down the street, all the way unimpeded, if other carriages dare to be so unscrupulous, they will have been greeted and intercepted by a conscientious light cavalry guard, if the attitude is not good enough, then you will be asked to taste the iron-blooded methods of the state and county prisons, but this carriage not only no one stopped it, but every time the officers and soldiers passed, the leading lieutenant greeted him with a smile and respect, without a trace of perfunctory, and the yellow-robed Taoist was a little surprised in his eyes, but he did not show it.

"Bang, bang!!" the wheels ran over like thunder.

The wooden curtains as thick as jujubes fell left and right, and the Taoist glanced at the carriage, it was an elegant and dignified man, not very old, and should be standing at the right time, the elegant man wore a jade crown and inserted a red bird copper hairpin, was a Confucian scholar, and his intuition told the Taoist that this person was not an ordinary Confucian protégé.

The Taoist restrained his breath, so as not to swagger through the market and arouse people's eyes.

After the Taoist blink of an eye, the Confucian man glanced at him, seemed to have something to say, and swallowed it back.

"It's not simple, this person's cultivation is not low, maybe not under me, this Yangzhou City is getting more and more interesting. The Daoist's deep eyes flashed with gold and silver lines like a nematode, and his lips were slightly raised.

It was still the small stall at the entrance of the alley on the wall of Dangyang Street, the middle-aged old Daoist was just about to clean up and leave, and when he looked up, he saw the yellow-robed Taoist not far away, and the middle-aged Daoist's movements suddenly slowed down a little.

"Isn't that the strange monk the day before yesterday?" said the middle-aged man, frowning.

It stands to reason that the old man surnamed Bailongshan should not have seen the young monk surnamed Bai from Qimang Mountain, but it was so unfortunate that after Lu Jingyuan and the others got rid of Zheng Yunxiao's entanglement that day, they walked outside the west city gate, and the yellow-robed monk followed them step by step, always fifty or sixty steps apart, and the old man surnamed Wang suddenly realized that this person was not a good person.

After walking for about half an hour, the yellow-robed monk finally stopped at a spacious mansion, glanced at the four large red letters on the plaque, and looked satisfied.

The yellow-robed monk suddenly shouted, "Tell your young master that the Qimangshan monk Bai Yu has come to visit your young master." ”