There was a stove in the hall, and there was wine on the stove.

The fire in the furnace is booming, and the carved wine pot worth eight taels of silver has been burned slightly red, and it is obvious that this is not the first pot of wine.

The rice wine in the pot has not yet been seen, but the faint aroma of wine can not be suppressed from the pot, if there is a good wine here, it must be recognized that it is the best aged flower carving in Shaozhou, transported from the south to Mengzhou City, the minimum is three coins of silver to sell a catty.

There is a pot of charcoal in each of the four corners of the flower hall, plus the wine stove in front of him, so although it is the ninth season, the hall does not feel a little cold.

Hao Dashu, a wealthy man in Mengzhou, sat in the middle of the flower hall, wearing a fur coat, except for a pair of close-fitting trousers, there was no extra wisp. So much so that on the chest covered with black hair, several mottled and vertical knife marks are clearly visible.

Mengzhou is not big or small, in the Southern Qi can also be regarded as the middle and lower state city, although it is located in the north of the Jiangbei, but there is no worry about defending the land, in the north of the north, there is Huaizhou, the city of the Ping Domain of the Southern Qi Dynasty.

Now that the situation is quite peaceful, the rivalry of Southern Qi and Northern Wei, after years of war and exhaustion, also need to breathe a sigh of relief. In the past five years, there have been occasional minor frictions on the border between the two countries, and there have been no major clashes. This temporary calm is not reassuring, but rather a sign that something big is about to happen.

However, these things are what those scholars above the temple who eat the king's fortune have to worry about, and they have little to do with Hao Dashu. What he should be more concerned about is how to firmly grasp this Mengzhou City in his hands.

I don't know if it's because the fire in the hall is too strong, the two beautiful concubines sitting next to Hao Dashu also stripped off only their close-fitting profane clothes, and between bowing their heads and leaning over, they often showed a piece of snow white on their chests. The strange thing is that they did not wrap Hao Dashu around Hao Dashu with their soft body as a flower snake as usual, but sat there obediently, quietly not daring to make a sound.

Although they don't know what happened in the house, when the seventh aunt who is the most favored on weekdays, because she relied on the favor of the lord, she played a few small words as before, and was slapped by the lord for fifty, and after being kicked out of the mansion, no one in this huge Hao Mansion dared to say a word of gossip in front of the lord.

Hao Dashu hugged the two beautiful concubines, his hands were habitually rubbed, but there was no primitive desire in the eyes of a pair of surprisingly large leopards, just quietly staring at the half cup of residual wine in the bottle in front of him, as if there was some big secret hidden in this cup of wine, and he wanted to see through it. If you look closely, there is a trace of extreme cold in the depths of those seemingly calm eyes, and even the charcoal fire in the furnace and the liquor in the pot have not melted it.

............

Hao Dashu is not surnamed Hao, nor is he from Mengzhou. He was the executioner of the Yuezhou Nanhai Dart Bureau, more than ten years ago with the Dart Bureau to Jiangbei to take a dart, who would have thought that just after Jiangbei, he met a group of unknown Jiangbei bandits, and killed a dart team of more than 30 people, all of which were sent to the Yangtze River to feed the shrimp and turtles.

Maybe it was luck, or maybe it didn't deserve to die, but Hao Dashu didn't die. Whatever the reason, he survived, although he woke up with two more cuts in his chest that went deep into his flesh and bones. What's even more coincidental is that the bandits came and went in a hurry, but they missed a box of red goods.

After Hao Dashu woke up, he saw that there was no one left in the dart bureau, and when he saw this box of red goods, his heart moved. He recovered from his injuries at a nearby farmhouse, and then continued northward with the box of red goods, incognito until he came to Mengzhou City.

With a windfall and ruthless methods, Hao San, an outsider, quickly gained a firm foothold in Mengzhou City and had his own power. After more than ten years of operation, it has become a big man in Mengzhou.

Since he is a big man, he can no longer be called Hao San so cheesy and famous, because there is a towering tree with a crown like a cloud in his new house, so the executioner Hao San became Hao Dashu Hao Ye.

Hao Dashu attaches great importance to this big tree, and even the news from the mouth of Hao's subordinates that the reason why Hao Ye bought this house is entirely because of this big tree.

I don't know how many years the tree is, the trunk is already slightly curved, and there are countless traces on the body. Although it is winter, the original lush canopy of the tree has long been scattered, but the branches and branches that are covered with snow exude a strong vitality, and the whole body of the tree is upright, revealing a hint of unyielding.

Hao Dashu felt that this tree was very much like himself, or he was very much like this big tree, and he rooted his roots in the soil of Mengzhou, desperately absorbing nutrients to strengthen himself.

He is over fifty this year, and the best ten years of his life have been spent in this Mengzhou city, and he is very satisfied. Although he knew the destiny of heaven, he never felt old, and he was still energetic like a young man in his early twenties, who could drink more than ten catties of good wine every day, and had at least two aunts to accompany him every night. He thought he would live happily for many years, just like the tree.

So he protected the tree very well. In order to take care of it, Hao Dashu invited more than 20 subordinates to serve the tree. Because he came to Mengzhou City alone, no one had ever seen him look like his parents, but a few of the people in the house were bold and had discussed after drinking that even if the master's parents were here, they might not be able to take care of them as well as that tree.

Hao Dashu protects himself better. Since his career, he has invited five leaders and recruited more than 100 strong men to serve as caretakers. Although there are rules in the imperial court, the number of private soldiers of local wealthy families cannot exceed 100, but the emperor is far away, and the governor of Mengzhou is his brother, who cares about him?

Therefore, Hao Dashu is the largest tree in Mengzhou City, and he is the soil emperor of Mengzhou City. In Mengzhou City, no one dared to touch his tiger whiskers, ordinary people did not dare, not even the Mengzhou Zhizhou, who represented the imperial court. It was not because of the name of the brothers, but that more than seventy percent of the extra silver in the Zhizhou eunuch bag was given by Hao Dashu, and the two newly married aunts were all given by Hao Dashu.

Such a character shouldn't have too many worries, and if there is any problem, there will be many people who are willing to help him settle it.

But Hao Dashu has been a little restless recently, although he didn't deliberately show it, the people in the house can still feel it. But they can't figure it out, there are still people and things in this Mengzhou City that can make the old man worry?

............

The fire in the furnace became more and more intense, and the wine in the pot began to spit out bubbles.

Hao Dashu didn't move, and there was still the half cup of residual wine in front of him. The two beautiful concubines who were waiting by the side did not move, and they did not keep adding wine and changing lamps as in the past, they knew that the master's mind was not on wine today.

Seven or eight days have passed, since the letter was received. Hao Dashu couldn't figure it out, he didn't know why the young man wanted to find him. Although he has secretly done a lot of unconscionable things over the years, those things are very secret, and only a few confidants know about them. In recent years, Hao's reputation in Mengzhou City is still good, and the restrictions on the subordinates in the mansion are also strict, and there is almost no bullying of the weak. In the disaster year, the Hao Mansion even took out a lot of food to relieve it, and now the plaque of Ren Xia Feng in the hall was given by the imperial court because of this matter. Of course, this matter is indispensable to the credit of his Zhizhou brother.

The letter was sent from Langzhou City, two hundred miles away, and it was on the imperial court post road, and it cost two cents of silver. At this time, the letter was on the low table in front of Hao Dashu, next to the wine bottle.

Hao Dashu shook his head, and finally stopped staring at the half of the residual wine, since he couldn't figure it out, there was no need to think about it again. Moving his gaze, his gaze fell on the piece of paper. The letter paper is very ordinary, just a thin sheet, and you can see all the contents at a glance.

"On the eighteenth day of the lunar month, Hao Dashu in Mengzhou". The words are very ordinary, even a little ugly.

There is no head-up, no payment. Or it can't be said that there is no payment, but in the blank space at the bottom of the letter, some simple lines are vaguely drawn, and when you argue carefully, it is vaguely in the shape of a small sword. It's just that this person's drawing skills are too poor, as if he was a child's casual graffiti.

Just this simple piece of paper, Hao Dashu has been reading it for seven days.

............

Two months ago, no one knew what this piece of paper meant, because it first appeared two months ago, on October 17. On that day, a major event happened in Luzhou City, which is located on the East China Sea. Meng Qinghai, a tycoon in the city, competed with others in the mansion and was seriously injured, and has been closed since then.

Although this matter was given an extremely strict ban order by the Meng government, where could the paper be wrapped in the fire, it gradually spread out, causing a sensation in Luzhou for a while. A well-informed source revealed that before that day, Meng Qinghai had received a letter.

The whole story of this matter is not fully understood, but the consequences are clearly visible. Meng Qinghai has been dominant in Luzhou for many years, occupying countless benefits, which has long made several other forces red-eyed. It's just that Meng Qinghai has been in business for many years, his power is strong, and his martial arts cultivation is extremely strong, so no one in Luzhou City dares to provoke him in person.

Now that he was seriously injured, although he didn't know whether the news was true or not, there were always a few unwilling people who wanted to take the opportunity to test it, but the Meng Mansion did not move. In this way, several forces in Luzhou City fought and fought for territory, and the city had already become a pot of porridge.

The matter of Luju City has not yet been resolved, and then there are accidents in Jeju and Huangzhou.

On the 10th day of the winter moon, Jeju City Lee Bo-woong was defeated in the palace, one arm was broken, and the door was closed ever since. On the twenty-third day of the winter month, Liu Tong of Huangzhou was defeated in Fuzhong, and his life and death were unknown.

No one seems to have seen the confrontation several times, but it is certain that they have also received a letter before that.

It is now, the piece of paper in front of Hao Dashu.

Different from ordinary people, Hao Dashu, as a big man, of course has his own news channels. On the third day of Meng Qinghai's defeat, he had already received the news. But he didn't care at the time, he didn't feel that this matter had anything to do with him, and he was even a little faintly happy in his heart.

When the events in Jeju and Huangzhou happened one after another, Hao Dashu realized that something was wrong. So he made some arrangements at once, and he had not received the letter at that time. But he already had a hunch that the next person to receive the letter would definitely be himself.

With a "s......queak", the door was pushed open from the outside, and a cold wind poured in violently, and the temperature in the room immediately dropped, and the two beautiful concubines leaned closer to Hao Dashu.

Hao Dashu didn't get up, he knew who was coming, and there was only one person who could enter his room without knocking.

The visitor was standing in the doorway, with his back to the house, shaking off the snow from the yellow paper umbrella. Looking at his back, and the snow flakes gradually melting on the black and red cloak, Hao Dashu's slightly uneasy mood gradually calmed down. For so many years, it is not that he has experienced wind and rain, but as long as there is this person standing by his side, Hao Dashu will feel very stable.

"You're back? The snow has been getting heavier and heavier for the past few days, and I've worked hard for you. ”

The person turned around and entered the house, leaned the yellow paper umbrella that had been put away against the corner by the door, brushed the falling snow on his body, and turned his head to look at the snowflakes flying all over the sky, as if in response to Hao Dashu's words, and as if he was saying to himself, "Look at the situation, the snow tomorrow will be bigger than today." ”