When Yang Shuo left the Cao Gang, Nangong Jun and Yang Shuo had already informed the Cao Gang hall masters at the secret meeting just now. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 Although Yang Shuo had instructed everyone to keep it secret, after Yang Shuo left, Nangong Jun himself knew very well that the few hall masters staring at this position were not indifferent to fame and fortune. Yang Shuo still has a strong martial arts, as well as the fame that he has brought to him as the "Top Ten", but Nangong Jun has nothing, just a little fame among the low-level gangsters in the gang, and there is no deterrent power at all for those old oilheads.

Nangong Jun also thought about asking Li Yan for help, but thinking that he would always provoke this big beam, he finally decided not to tell Li Yan, who was recuperating outside the city with his children and grandchildren, and was ready to discuss with several deputy hall masters and helmsmen supported by several cronies and Li Zhou, but in this way, the division of the Cao Gang was inevitable.

When he saw the scene where Li Yan sneaked into the Cao Gang almost overnight and appeared in front of him, Nangong Jun felt a burst of pain in his heart, and this pain stemmed from a kind of powerlessness. Can you really balance the various forces in the gang at this time? Can you really make the Cao Gang, which has no external troubles, twist into a rope?

Now Li Yan's face was expressionless, and his tone was not harsh, but Nangong Jun still felt uneasy, as for Li Yan's question, in fact, he didn't have a definite answer.

So, after wanting to open his mouth several times to excuse Yang Shuo, Nangong Jun still chose to shake his head and say that he didn't know.

"Ah Shuo, this kid, has always taken responsibility very seriously, and now although the Cao Gang has no external troubles, but the internal worries have been revealed, does he want to force me, an old man, to death?"

Hearing Li Yan's words, Nangong Jun couldn't help but sigh and tried to excuse Yang Shuo, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he was beaten back by the glance that Li Yan looked at him.

"I know that Ah Shuo has a hard time, he is a person who values righteousness and does not value fame and fortune, the existential crisis in the Cao Gang has been eliminated, and he is also on the right track like he planned with Zhou'er, and it is only a matter of time before he leaves the Cao Gang. Jun, I remember you officially joined the gang eight years ago, right?"

Nangong Jun was surprised that Li Yan didn't have the slightest harsh criticism of Yang Shuo in his words, and he was very puzzled by the last question, but he still held back his slightly impatient temperament and nodded.

"Zhou'er and Ah Shuo won't tell you those old things, but you really didn't have the slightest strangeness back then? Before Zhou'er took over the Cao Gang, the Cao Gang was simply a gang of water bandits, and it can even be said that Jiang Yang was a thief, and the reason why they were not wanted by the government was just that we smashed half of the net profit into the government every year. You should be very aware of these things. ”

Li Yan slowly turned his head and looked at the slightly flickering fire candle, and there was still a trace of melancholy in the old voice.

Nangong Jun knew that Li Yan was going to confess to himself, and when his brain moved again, he understood that Li Yan had accepted the reality and accepted Yang Shuo's proposal, and a trace of joy appeared in his heart. So he didn't do any deception, and said honestly: "Of course I remember, if it weren't for the aspiring brothers like Brother Li and Brother Yang, I'm afraid I would not be ashamed of this style of my gang." ”

"Indeed, then you should also know that after the rise of the Yangdaomen, our Cao Gang was robbed of its profits, right?"

Talking about the original incident, the candlelight in Nangong Jun's eyes seemed to be more vigorous: "Of course, I can't forget that the profits of the gang were suppressed by them by various means, and our two families formed a deep feud because of this." ”

"At the beginning, the plan was very secret, even Ah Shuo didn't know the whole picture, of course, with his temperament, if he knew, he would definitely oppose it. ”

Nangong Jun was stunned, but he gently recited the two words that Li Yan had just mentioned: "Plan?"

"Yes, planned. You don't think that Yangdaomen really colluded or pretended to be bandits to rob our smuggling boats, did you?"

Nangong Jun was even more surprised when he heard this, his tongue seemed to be knotted, but he couldn't even say the words of confirmation.

Li Yan did not intend to stop there, but told these old things and discussed: "How can they fight with us with the financial resources of Yangdaomen? Speaking of which, most of their merchant ships were leased from us at the beginning. It wasn't until they became bigger that they threatened our Caoyun business that some people noticed. Therefore, after our goods are robbed, we don't need to say it, naturally some people will be suspicious of Yangdaomen, so you should be able to understand, right?"

Although Nangong Jun's eyes were a little sluggish, his consciousness was still clear: "In other words, we are raising bandits and respecting ourselves?" If you say so, I will understand that this is all a foreshadowing for Brother Li to take over...... It's also a foreshadowing for the restructuring of the Cao Gang——"

At this point, after figuring out these joints, Nangong Jun suddenly felt that he suddenly became enlightened, and the connection between some old things became clearer and clearer, and Li Yan looked at Nangong Jun at all, and there was no rejection or anger at all, and a heavy heart also gave birth to a lot of joy.

"This kid may really be able to do as well as Zhou'er. Big brother, this is the rotation of feng shui, right? After so many years, the helper has returned to your Nangong family, and the younger brother can be regarded as keeping his promise, right?"

Speaking of the old past, and also thinking of the old past, Li Yan's expression was also very different from Fang Cai, and the corners of his mouth were slightly upturned, as if he had returned to the era when he fought the world with Nangong Feilong, but this thought only occupied a few breaths in his mind, and this old man who was almost old was once again ruled by calmness.

"You know, I'm an old man who doesn't know martial arts, but I'm a businessman and I have a little experience in how to run a business. If we follow the previous path, no matter how good and big we do, we are just a fat chicken in captivity by the government, and if the eggs we lay are not to their liking, they can slaughter us at any time. It's a pity that most of those patriarchs are from grass and don't have any long-term vision. In order to give us one more way out, it is inevitable that Zhou'er will take the position. Ah Jun, when you hear this now, do you think that Zhou'er and I were too insidious and despicable at the beginning?"

Nangong Jun shook his head, and his tone was more sincere: "Ah Jun understands that the gang leader and Brother Li are working hard, and I am definitely not a pedantic person, just a ......"

Li Yan nodded, extremely satisfied with Nangong Jun's quick thinking, and before he could ask the question, he replied first: "You have to ask, why did Yangdaomen finally become the climate, right? Speaking of which, he used the hand of Yangdaomen to let Zhou'er take the position, and in the name of external troubles, he made Zhou'er drastically reform the internal regulations of the gang, and he also secretly controlled the Cao boat used by Yangdaomen, originally he just wanted to use them as a chess piece. At the beginning, Zhou'er and I didn't expect that Yangdaomen would really become the climate, when the reform was on the right track, I wanted to break the agreement, but unexpectedly, the middleman disappeared strangely in Yangzhou, and those so-called contracts naturally became some waste paper. And the Yangdaomen suddenly continued to inject money, so even if we really started to suppress them with all our might, it would inevitably become a tug-of-war. ”

"That money ......"

"After the return of our informant, the behind-the-scenes financier of Yangdaomen...... It's a god gate. ”

The old age in Li Yan's eyes seemed to disappear in an instant, and Nangong Jun saw a kind of firmness trying to hide his panic from the eyes staring at the candlelight.

Shenmen, this involves the Jiangnan Jiangbei martial arts disputes, although the Cao Gang has become the first big gang on the Jianghuai Road at the moment, but Shenmen is the first major faction in Jiangbei, and the disciples under the disciples are really walking in the rivers and lakes There are thousands of disciples, if you add those nominal disciples and squires and magnates, then the number can be about tens of thousands.

There is even a saying in the rivers and lakes that the imperial court is helpless against them.

Of course, both Li Yan and Nangong Jun knew very well that how could the imperial court be helpless against a Jianghu force? They had only seen the combat strength of the Xiang army a month ago, and even if it was the most elite unit of the Jian'an Army, they did not dare to guarantee that the 2,000 members of the Cao Gang would be able to gain the upper hand in the battle.

Moreover, the most elite troops of the Great Song Dynasty were the forbidden army, and those forbidden troops were the combat power that could fight head-on with the Great Liao, and every pawn could probably have the general strength of a Jianghu man with mediocre qualifications and several years of martial arts. What's more, the power displayed by the army after forming a formation is not comparable to these rabbles in the rivers and lakes.

But with such a big force as Shenmen occupying Jiangbei, why didn't the imperial court make the slightest move?

Everyone has their own guess, in Nangong Jun's view, the imperial court is probably unwilling to spend too much money to exterminate these rivers and lakes forces, after all, the rivers and lakes forces cannot be killed, and they may be subject to their chaos, after all, the rebellion of the former dynasty and the division of the towns is also inseparable from the late Tang Dynasty's suppression of the rivers and lakes. Since the rivers and lakes are at peace with the imperial court, and the imperial court has the absolute strength to suppress the rivers and lakes, it is an extremely stupid thing to send troops to exterminate them.

But no matter what you say, the strength of the Shenmen is not comparable to that of a dwarfed gang like the Cao Gang.

Nangong Jun was shocked in his heart, but he immediately reacted, Li Yan did not come to tell him the history of the Cao Gang for no reason, he must have something to tell him.

Sure enough, after seeing Nangong Jun calm down, Li Yan spoke again:

"Ah Jun, you haven't forgotten, how did we solve the Yangdaomen?"

"It's only been a month...... How could Jun forget?"

"Before stepping down as the gang leader, I was thinking every day and every night, how did Sikong Gu solve the Yangdaomen, after all, after this series of incidents, there are too many doubts. ”

Hearing this, Nangong Jun nodded hurriedly and responded, "Indeed, many things are too coincidental...... Wait, behind the Ruoyang Dao Gate, it is really the God Gate that is supporting ......"

"Ah Jun, the murderer of Sikong's family, have you heard the rumors on the street?"

Seeing that Nangong Jun was speechless for a long time, Li Yan also sighed deeply:

"We...... I'm afraid that someone has calculated, he already knows all this, and we have fallen into that kid's trap. ”

"Presumably he ...... It has long been known that the Li Brotherhood will be assassinated. ”

As soon as Nangong Jun said this, he knew that something was wrong in his heart, and he looked at Li Yan's expression again, but the candlelight was dim, and Li Yan was old, so he really couldn't see half a clue.

But listening to Li Yan's voice, it seems that he has digested this reality: "Sikong Gu, this kid is unfathomable, I see, his whole person is dominated by revenge." Even if Ah Shuo didn't know that Shenmen was the master behind the Yangdao Gate, with a deeper understanding of him than us, I am afraid that he had already guessed this link. So, I don't think it's strange that he chose to run away in the end, or to find out the truth, but ...... I think it's a little too fast. ”

"If it's really according to the helper's guess, then we should ...... Refuse his request?"

"Ah Jun, don't let your emotions dominate your brain, if you believe it carefully, although he said that he was deceived at the beginning, he did apologize. It's just that we haven't thought through it at the time, and we haven't seen him as a character. ”

"That ......"

"Have you heard the story of Zhuge Liang and Lu Su at the end of the Han Dynasty?"

Nangong Jun shook his head, he didn't like to read, and he didn't remember hearing anything about Lu Su in the storyteller's mouth, but Zhuge Kongming often heard about it.

"Before the Battle of Chibi, Zhou Yu ordered Zhuge Liang to make 100,000 arrows within three days, and Zhuge Liang made a military order to allow it, but as soon as he came out of the big tent, he took the hand of Lu Su, a Chinese minister of the Eastern Wu Army, and asked him to save himself. Lu Su prepared a lot of grass boats for Zhuge Liang, until the night of the third day, Zhuge Liang invited Lu Su to get on the boat to drink, the two of them drank and drank, Lu Su felt that the boat seemed to be moving, when he looked out the window, only to find that the grass boat was heading towards Cao Jun's big tent. Lu Su was very scared and wanted to get off the boat, but Zhuge Liang told him: 'Zi Jing (Lu Su table), the boat has arrived in the heart of the river...... 'Ah Jun, and finally Zhuge Liang relied on the fog to trick Cao **** into more than 100,000 arrows, this is the story of the grass boat borrowing arrows...... Do you understand?"

Nangong Jun sighed deeply, nodded and said, "Yes...... The boat has arrived in the middle of the river. ”

Li Yan was extremely satisfied, nodded again in approval, looked at Nangong Jun's frowning brows again, and was about to say something, but he stopped talking.

The two of them were in the room, one lazily half lying on the back of a chair, the other standing with his hands behind his back, his brow furrowed.

I don't know how long it took for Nangong Jun's tense shoulders to loosen, and when he turned his head to say something to Li Yan, he found that Li Yan had already fallen asleep.

"It's here, pretending you didn't guess anything, and treating that young man as usual is the best choice, right? ”

Saying so in his heart, Nangong Jun also hugged a thin quilt and gently covered it for Li Yan, and then strode out of the room and walked towards the Cao Bang Council. Thinking about his cronies and the hall masters and helmsmen promoted by Li Zhou, they have been waiting for a long time.

At the same time, in the backyard of Mingyue Building, Xiao Liu, who looked at Sikong Gu's lights-out bedroom from afar, was still entangled in his heart.

"The moon on the horizon is not as bright as it was then, and he is not the same as it was then...... No, has he changed? It's just that I have other ...... in this world besides him. Relatives?"

The girl stretched out her lotus arm, put her hands together, like a blooming green lotus, and gently held a handful of moonlight.

"This night, sure enough...... It's a little chilly. ”