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Chapter 41 A letter from home is worth ten thousand dollars

Li Guanyi did not sleep the whole night yesterday and said he wanted to take a rest in the afternoon. Xue Daoyong allocated him a guest room in the villa in the front yard. He slept soundly for more than an hour before he recovered. He sat cross-legged on the bed, looking at the sunset outside, feeling a little lazy.

Thinking about what to do next.

He picked up a silver coin and placed it on the bed.

"Exit."

Another arrow was placed in front of the silver.

"But it would be best if I could enter the country... It would be great if I could get a set of inner armor when I leave the country."

"We also need to deal with the poison in our body."

“You need to have the strongest entry foundation.”

"as well as……"

"Money. Enough money."

Li Guanyi looked at the irregular pieces of silver on the bed and sighed. These pieces of silver were the proceeds from killing Qian Zheng and his gang last night. There were a total of thirty-three taels of silver and more than a hundred copper coins, some of which were the current Taiping coins and some of which were the former emperor's Da'an coins, wrapped in cloth.

It was enough for him to spend before, but after he came out of seclusion to Ying State, plus the expenses for his cultivation, it was obviously not enough.

Mr. Xue didn't say anything about giving him more money.

Li Guanyi felt that he had to find a way to get some money.

You can't just turn your head and call someone "Miss" when something happens.

Li Guanyi was thinking while sorting out the spoils - in addition to the silver, there were also some hemostatic powders, which had turned black and were extremely pungent. It was the kind of powder that was very effective, but had a very strong medicinal property and was very irritating.

In addition, there were some letter papers, some of which had turned yellow. Li Guanyi opened the letters and saw that they were all family letters. The yellowed one was the earliest one, and the tone was somewhat complaining.

"Brother, the winter clothes are a little slow to be made this year. You wrote to me saying that if it doesn't work, I will send you money, but the taxes are too heavy this year, and the money is not much, only half. Brother has military pay, so you shouldn't spend it all."

"Just endure the cold for a few days."

It seems that Qian asked his parents to send him winter clothes when he was at the border.

The border of Chen State borders Ying State, and is located in a place neither south nor north.

The winter is as cold as in the north and as humid as in the south. When the west wind blows, the cotton clothes will be wet by the moisture and then soak into the body, as if carrying a layer of ice thorns on the back, piercing the skin and drilling into the bones. Most of the border soldiers have bad bones when they are in their fifties or sixties, and the pain is terrible.

However, the State of Chen was rich, so even the border troops had no money?

Li Guan thought of Xue Daoyong's words and turned to the next letter.

"Brother, don't write to urge me. You said the army is short of money, and mother has helped you borrow it. Grandpa has to go to the fields for the winter, and the army where father is will be joined by yours. Father is not young anymore, you should take care of him."

The third letter.

"I heard that your army also followed Marshal Yue's command and won several battles."

"My brother's reward was sent back home. Grandpa was very happy and drank some wine."

"He also introduced me to a good family. He is the second son of the old Liu family at the entrance of the town. You always played with him when you were a child. I wonder if you still remember him."

"Brother, it's time for you to find a sister-in-law for me."

The next few letters were all about family matters, and one word that could not be avoided was tax.

Five years of tax, three years of tax.

He still has money and is risking his life to kill enemies and earn rewards.

When Li Guanyi saw one of the letters, he paused slightly.

"The government is collecting spring taxes again."

"After collecting taxes for the next three years before the New Year, your reward money was taken away. There is no money at home and no way to borrow money. Grandpa's legs were broken and he was paralyzed in bed. First he got a sore, then the sore rotted and he couldn't stand up. Then he died..."

"Grandpa didn't want us to spend money on his treatment, so he refused to eat and died."

"Brother, I heard that Commander Yue was transferred away, and my father was punished for bumping into his superior. Is his injury serious?"

"There are some copper coins in the letter. I hope you can treat my father's injury."

The fourth letter.

"My father is gone, my mother cried until she went blind, and the Liu family doesn't want me anymore."

"I can't help it. The chief eunuch came to the city and said that the palace was still short of people. I thought about it and the conditions were very good, so I went to the palace first. I will give you part of the money and leave part of it with my mother. You said that it will be much better when you enter the country. I will wait for you, don't worry."

"It's nice here. No one hits me or bullies me."

Then came the last letter with delicate tentacles.

"Now, the maid Qian Qian died, according to the law, she must pay fifty strings of cash."

"Because there was no one to take charge of his burial, I paid five strings of cash for his funeral, five strings of cash for the affairs of the palace, thirty strings of cash for other debts, five strings of cash for his transfer to the post station, three strings of cash and seven strings of cash for sealing and stamping letters, and other miscellaneous expenses. The remaining 135 coins were handed over to his brother Qian Zheng to show his integrity."

Li Guanyi was silent for a long time.

He saw the colorful blood and water stains on the letter.

I saw more than a hundred copper coins wrapped in cloth, rubbed to a shine.

So he saw the crazy Qian Zheng.

Li Guanyi put the letter down.

Then he put the one hundred and thirty-five copper coins back into the cloth bag and wrapped it up.

He looked outside, seemingly thinking about something.

Finally, he suppressed all the chaotic emotions and thoughts in his mind, exhaled, and murmured to himself, the border is corrupt, there is a lack of reward money, and the families of the soldiers have to bear heavy taxes. Qian Zheng's situation is not the norm but it is not an exception.

Under such circumstances, the generals were wronged again.

"It's over."

No derivation is needed anymore.

Li Guanyi's historical perspective turned into intuition, and the answer almost hit him in the face.

A strong sense of urgency to improve the realm as soon as possible. If Qian Zheng could break through and enter the realm earlier, perhaps the story would be different. No matter how much Li Guanyi saw from it, at this moment, in his heart, stepping into the realm of entry has become the top priority.

In this broken world, I have no power to protect even myself and my aunt.

I am only good at attacking, so I have to defeat the third prince of Tiele as soon as possible and get the [Canglang Guard]. When Li Guanyi walked out of the courtyard, he saw Xue Shuangtao still practicing archery. When Li Guanyi picked up the bow and arrow, he suddenly called Xue Shuangtao. The girl looked at him in confusion. Li Guanyi said, "I just said that I shot the crows that eat human flesh and carrion. I was wrong."

"It was originally a bird of prey that hunted in the air."

"It was because of this sky that it went mad and eventually started to eat carrion."

Xue Shuangtao looked at him.

Took half a step back.

Then he tapped the boy's forehead with the bow in his hand and said, "Although I don't know what you are hinting at, but Li Guanyi."

She paused and said, "Let's practice archery first!"

The girl raised her eyebrows, pointed at the arrow over there, and said, "Playing the zither can make people feel at ease, and practicing archery can also make people calm. No matter what happens, when the body is tired, you will figure out a lot of things."

"Don't worry, I will practice archery with you until you figure it out."

While practicing archery, Xue Shuangtao asked curiously:

"Then, when you shot the vulture, did you regret it?"

Li Guanyi looked at the young lady with clear eyes, wondering if she understood something or if she simply thought that he had shot the bird and was feeling sad, so he replied, "He has become a carrion-eating bird."

So you won't regret it.

I am still a young man full of vigor and vitality in this life, so some thoughts will flash through my mind.

Will I, too, one day change my appearance in this chaotic world?

He inexplicably thought of Yaoguang's words.

As long as you don't turn into a tyrant who stirs up chaos, I will always be with you.

Li Guanyi is good at archery. What he is learning now is the shooting methods of various bows and arrows, not the accuracy. Xue Shuangtao has been taught by Xue Daoyong since he was a child, and he has a solid foundation in archery. This is what Li Guanyi lacks.

When the sun was setting, he put down his bow and arrow.

Xue Changqing had already collapsed on the stone table. Li Guanyi slowly took out the book of numerology and began to teach him. After another hour, Xue Changqing was almost completely exhausted. His face turned pale. He said, "Otherwise, sir, please tell me other stories instead of numerology."

Li Guanyi said: "I know how to do it, but I came here to teach you numerology."

Xue Changqing heard this and said, "I'll add more money!"

He took out a small piece of silver and placed it on the table, his eyes piercing as he said, "Sir, please stop talking about divination! Just tell me another hour's story today, based on your salary."

Li Guanyi seemed to be thinking about something, and said, "Then let's talk about the Third Prince of Tiele five hundred years ago."

Xue Changqing held his head and howled in frustration: "I don't want to listen to [History] either!"

The young man laughed and said, "My story is different."

The story he told was different from the boring stories in ordinary history books. It was more like a knight-errant story. It was more like the martial arts stories that Li Guanyi had heard in the past. He regarded the Third Prince of Tiele as a great enemy. Even Xue Shuangtao was curious: "Where did you hear these stories from?"

The young man smiled shyly and said, "On my way to escape, I met two people drinking. One was surnamed Jin and the other was surnamed Gu. They were drinking and telling stories, and I just listened."

Xue Shuangtao said unhappily, "You're making up stories again."

Then he crossed his arms, lay on the stone table, and listened to the story curiously.

Xue Changqing said, "Isn't the Third Prince of Tiele a big man with a height of 10 feet, a waist of 10 feet, a green face and fangs? It's different from what you said, sir."

Li Guanyi said: "That's a good description."

Xue Changqing was very proud:
"You haven't seen him either, maybe he is just like what I described?"

Li Guanyi said, "Based on your description, I will give you a math problem. How big is a piece of wood that is three feet high and three feet wide? How many wooden chairs can it make? If it is split into pieces of wood that are three feet long and two fingers wide, how many can it make?"

Xue Changqing's face was pale.

Xue Shuangtao took a fruit and threw it gently to Li Guanyi, saying:

"Don't scare him, tell him a story."

Li Guanyi smiled slightly, and in a martial arts style, he recounted the history of the Third Prince of Tiele that he had looked up earlier, saying: "The Third Prince of Tiele is good at using a scimitar, his sword skills are light and agile, he has a big beard, but a handsome face. The history books say that he is the reincarnation of the Gray Wolf in the sky."

The tone is calm and the story is fascinating.

In the story, the one who fought against the Third Prince of Tiele was a swordsman. The swordsman used a heavy sword, and fought face to face with the Third Prince of Tiele. Suddenly, the blades collided, and the Third Prince of Tiele's sword jumped on the blade like a butterfly, and then chopped down in a gorgeous posture.

The young man telling the story under the setting sun has his black hair moving slightly in the wind, and his eyes are warm and bookish.

The light of the setting sun is reflected in his eyes.

The cold light was reflected in Li Guanyi's eyes.

Li Guan turned around, raised the heavy sword in his hand and held it horizontally, colliding with the sword of the third prince of Tiele.

A clash between swordsmen.

It is the intersection of the legend of five hundred years ago and the contemporary people. At this moment, it is nightfall. He has come to this secret realm and challenges the Third Prince of Tiele again. General Xue is watching this scene with a smile. The young man pulls away, avoiding the gorgeous sword dance, and looks at the enemy who has killed him countless times.

"The Third Prince of Tiele."

"Today, I will definitely defeat you."

General Xue raised his eyebrows and smiled:
"Okay, you have the courage. Then should we raise the bet? If you can defeat him without dying this time."

"In addition to the [Canglang Guard], I will give you another one, my inheritance and gift."

"That's what the great emperor wanted back then."

"If you lose, I will write this word righteousness on your body."

At this moment, the third prince of Tiele let out a long howl, and the Canglang Dharma image appeared. With his arms crossed, Canglang Guardian, he strode forward!

Li Guanyi said to General Xue: "Then get ready!"

The bronze tripod roared and vibrated.

He held the bow.

Then the dragons roared and the tigers howled.

Thus, the dragon and the tiger followed this body on both sides.

(End of this chapter)