Devil’s Advent

"So, our deep sea comrades will soon come here to fight with us again."

Xue San joked while adding carbon to the bottom of the pot.

"Um."

Zheng Fan nodded, picked up the kettle next to him, and added a little more water to the white water pot.

This is a small charcoal stove hot pot, the soup base inside is very simple,

A pinch of salt, two spring onions, and three slices of ginger.

The side dish is even simpler, just silken tofu and nothing else.

After the water boiled, Zheng Fan put a few pieces of tender tofu into the pot, and after cooking for a while, Zheng Fan, Blind Man and Xue San each took out a piece.

The dish is even simpler, just soy sauce.

The tender tofu is dipped in soy sauce, and it tastes smooth and tender, delicious and hot.

"call……"

All three of them were eating while exhaling.

Blind Bei took another sip of the rice wine from Yinlang County, and his expression was quite enjoyable.

"This way of eating, in winter, can be said to be quite comfortable." Xue San said with emotion.

The blind man Bei nodded, and added: "Before, it was still the way of the poor to eat, because tofu is cheap."

But at least the demon kings in Green Willow Castle have good eating and drinking conditions, and occasionally some light and simple taste is just a change of mood.

Immediately afterwards,

Blind North poured a few more pieces of tofu into it and said to Zheng Fan:

"My lord, what does your lord plan to do about Zuo Jiqian?"

Zuo Jiqian had already begged at the door yesterday, although Zheng Fan put it off and left angrily in the end, but after Xu Wenzu took office, this matter will definitely be settled.

"Do nothing." Zheng Fan replied very sincerely.

Blind Bei nodded, expressing his agreement, and said, "The lord is wise."

"According to the date, Xu Wenzu should enter Yinlang County today. Let's go to the post station after eating. Let's greet him in advance."

"Of course, the Lord is considerate." Blind Bei Bei agreed.

No matter what, Comrade Shenhai is here, and before he enters Nanwang City to take up his post, it is a matter of great benefit and no harm to meet in private in advance.

Meeting an old friend in a foreign country is a warm event in life, and it is a good story for Emei Peak and Shenhai to cooperate again on another front.

Zheng Fan couldn't empathize with Zuo Jiqian's nervousness and panic, but it was predictable that Zheng Fan's life would be more comfortable after the chubby Xu Wenzu and Mr. Xu came here to be his immediate boss.

Zheng Fan took a sip of the wine and said, "Okay, then let's leave after eating."

In the small room, the three of them ate quite comfortably with the soft tofu hot pot. However, halfway through the meal, there were knocks on the door and the sound of grass:

"Master, Mr. Liang sent someone to ask, there are a lot of refugees gathered in Nanwang City, and asked if we want to accept Cui Liu Castle?"

"Refugees?" Zheng Fan put down his chopsticks and asked, "Anyone say where the refugees came from?"

"It's from the south."

"From the south?"

The location of Green Willow Fort is considered to be the southernmost line of the Yan Kingdom, and those who come from the south are obviously from the Qian Kingdom.

Zheng Fan put down his chopsticks and said to the blind man:

"Come on, let's go and have a look, and then go to the post station to wait for Xu Wenzu."

…………

The refugee team is not very large, but it is definitely not small. There are refugees on both sides of the road. According to preliminary estimates, there are several thousand people.

Zheng Fan was sitting on horseback, beside him were Blind Bei and Xue San.

Perhaps it was because last time Zheng Fan had a good time and went to Gan Guolang, which made the demon kings under him terrified. Therefore, every time Zheng Fan went out after that, there would be at least two people by his side. If the magic pill on his body is included, it is a lineup of three demon king bodyguards.

Some of the Yan Kingdom cavalry who don't know which castle they belong to are maintaining the order of the team, and at the same time leading the direction of the team.

These refugees are basically as small as a family or as large as a village. They move with their families. Because there are many old, weak, women and children, the proportion of young and old people is not very high.

Xue San deliberately rode over to inquire about the situation, and came back to report:

"Your Majesty, they are indeed from Qian State. They originally went to Nanwang City, but they were re-led and assigned out on the way. Those cavalry were from Ji Tuibao. It is said that Zuo Jiqian ordered him to take over. All dry country refugees."

"It's really a Chinese." Zheng Fan said with emotion.

Because Qianguo has always given people the impression that those who love the rich love the rich.

Although the military strength is not good, it has considerable advantages economically and culturally.

Therefore, Zheng Fan really didn't expect that people from Qian country would sneak across the border and come to Yan country.

Blind Bei noticed Zheng Fan's surprise and said:

"My lord, this is normal. Qianguo is rich, but Qianguo has never seriously managed the three northern counties because of the incident of the first Marquis of Zhenbei a hundred years ago. In addition, the three northern counties have many soldiers and labor burdens. , after being oppressed severely, for these ordinary people, it is not as easy to live as Yan Guo in the north."

There are many clans in the country of Yan, but the clans of these aristocratic families are really not that bad for the farmers under their control. At least, the main family will find ways to make their farmers survive as much as possible. At the same time, Under the premise of their own conditions, they will also release some economic and even political benefits to share with them.

Because these tenants are actually the family's own "citizens", their users and political influence, including their own "private soldiers", are actually the most fundamental source of the household population on their own land.

This is a bit similar to the kind of "public things don't waste for nothing" in later generations, but one's own things should be especially cherished.

For the court bureaucrats, the people under the court's rule are actually similar to public property, but once they become their own farmers, they become their own private property, and their attitudes must be different.

In addition, in recent years, Yan State relied on the cheapness of the Silk Road, and developed commerce and trade. Unlike Qian State, Yan State could not really collect commercial taxes. Therefore, the Yan State’s court did not have much control over the local area. Gao, and secondly, he has already obtained substantial financial supplements from commercial taxes, which has caused the pressure of survival of ordinary people under the rule of Yan State, which is indeed much smaller than that of the other three countries.

This was also Zheng Fan's first impression of the spiritual outlook of the nearby households when he first came to Green Willow Castle.

"I just don't know how the officials and literati of the Qian Kingdom will feel when they know about this."

"My lord, this is actually understandable. Things like culture are a bit too far away for the low-level people. They don't know the big truth, but they know how to vote with their feet.

There are also similar records in the Song Dynasty. The people in the Song Dynasty voluntarily gave up their identity as Song people and fled to Liao Kingdom to become the subjects of Liao Kingdom. "

"Yan country is not Liao country." Zheng Fan reminded.

"Yes, the Lord said so."

"Zuo Jiqian lured all these refugees to his Ji Tuibao for resettlement, probably because he wanted to show his performance as much as possible before Xu Wenzu took office."

The appearance of these refugees is a kind of merit in itself, proving that the destiny and the people's hearts are in Yan's hands, and Xu Wenzu has not taken office yet, which means that a wave of political achievements has already come to the door.

But there are thousands of mouths, and they have to eat every day, so Zuo Jiqian, with the financial support from the Zuo family behind him, dared to lure all these refugees to his Ji Tuibao, where he came to raise them.

It is equivalent to the Zuo family spending money to give the new general Xu Wenzu a political achievement. Zuo Jiqian probably hoped that Xu Wenzu would take this matter into account and take lightly the fault of Zuo Jiqian's previous military defeat in Qianguo.

"Should we not want these people?" Zheng Fan looked at Blind Bei.

Blind Bei shook his head and said, "If they were all young and strong, we would not be unacceptable, but there are still so many old and weak women and children, so let's not compete with Zuo Jiqian for the opportunity to perform."

"Yes, after all, Zuo Jiqian's Chicken Leg Burger has enough chicken legs."

In fact, if financial resources are really counted, the Cui Liu Castle supported by the Sixth Prince is really not afraid of Ji Tui Castle.

First of all, the operation and construction of Green Willow Fort has been completed. Although there are still some small details that need to be repaired and improved, it will be enough to tap and sew a little after the spring thaws. It has the ability to absorb the population. At the same time, Zheng Fan knew that in the storehouse of his fortress, he not only stored some extra armor and equipment, but also had a lot of food reserves.

The sixth prince is really grand, if he doesn't make a move, he will definitely suck you up if he makes a move.

Blind Bei even said that someone from the commercial firm over there sent a message to ask why he didn't expand his troops, which was obviously a sign from the sixth prince.

For a fortress that is in charge of defense, the imperial court is generally only responsible for the military expenses of 500 people, but if you have the ability, you can support 800 or 1,000 people. Generally speaking, the imperial court will turn a blind eye to this. For one thing, this is the current atmosphere in Yan Kingdom.

At the same time, the main attention and main conflicts of the imperial court are still on those big lords. It is very common for those big lords to rule out tens of thousands of Tianhu. .

It's just that Zheng Fan has always wanted to take the route of elite soldiers. If you gather a lot of miscellaneous soldiers, it really doesn't make much sense.

It’s better to wait for Yanhuang to open up the door before expanding. The people in the door are firstly of high quality, and secondly, they are eager to make contributions after being exiled. Maybe they can receive glowing cubs in the future. It’s not like relying on these farmers How much more useful is it to gather the number of soldiers?

"Actually, my subordinates feel that there is something abnormal. In the past, some people from the Qian Kingdom fled to the Yan Kingdom to make a living. No matter how unbearable the country's border army is, there is still no problem in the nest. The border is lined with flint fortresses, and small groups of smugglers are okay. All of a sudden, these thousands of people smuggled over together. The secret tricks of the Chinese people are here."

Secret tricks refer to spies, and there may be quite a few of them.

"Let's not talk about the quality of the frontier troops in Qianguo, but the silver armored guards over there, at least give me the impression that they are not bad, and they even assign wives."

"Hehe." Blind Bei also laughed, "Actually, this subordinate thinks that Zuo Jiqian should also know that there must be a time bomb in it, but now he is full first, and he doesn't care if he will have diarrhea in the future. gone."

"Okay, don't read it, let's go to the station and wait for Xu Pangpang."

To meet with Comrade Shen Hai ahead of time, Zheng Fan decided not to make too much fanfare, so he brought Blind Bei and Xue San there instead of soldiers.

The three of them rode their horses and marched from noon to dusk before arriving at the post station in the outskirts of Yincheng.

Nanwang City is the well-deserved largest city in Yinlang County, but Yincheng is the capital of Yinlang County, but like some cities in later generations, it has no sense of existence.

Yan Guo’s post station receives officials on business trips and is also responsible for preparing horses and entertaining messengers, but it’s not that they don’t do business with outsiders. Zheng Fan has lived in many post stations along the way from Beifeng County to Cuiliu Fort. The post stations are similar to the comprehensive hotels of later generations, and officials do not have to pay.

Because he was not on a business trip, and because he wanted to cover up his relationship with Xu Wenzu, Zheng Fan chose "at his own expense". Considering that he would have to chat with Xu Wenzu for a long time after meeting, Zheng Fan simply asked for two rooms. guest room.

When ordering food and wine, Xue San was in charge of going up to set the pattern, asking which room the guest from Beifeng County lived in.

Because Xu Wenzu's body characteristics are too obvious, it's easy to make stereotypes. The news I got is that Xu Wenzu and his group have booked a first-class hospital.

Well, as the newly appointed commander-in-chief of Nanwangcheng, there is still a point of honor for this.

However, when Zheng Fan went to the first-class courtyard to explain his purpose to the guards at the gate, the guards replied that Xu Wenzu had gone out to visit friends in the afternoon and would probably not come back until night.

As for who the friend he visited was and where he lived, the guards who stayed here were not clear either.

There was no other way, the three of Zheng Fan could only hastily ate the dinner prepared by the inn, and then rested and waited in their respective rooms.

Xue San gave some money to the clerk at the post station, and asked him to report when Xu Wenzu came back.

There is no need to worry about being suspected of this, because there are people who want to "encounter" high-ranking officials and dignitaries in the post station every day, but there are many, and this small official is obviously commonplace.

Blind Bei and Xue San lived in the same room, and Zheng Fan lived next door to them.

Fortunately, Director Zheng can be regarded as a little "earth emperor" in Green Willow Castle, and no one will record the director's attendance, so it's okay to stay outside for a day and not go back.

Lying on the bed, Zheng Fan made a bow posture with both hands, experiencing it over and over again.

This month, with Ah Ming accompanying him to practice arrows, Zheng Fan felt that he had made great progress, but he still hadn't been able to control the size of his blood well.

In the eyes of ordinary people, a ninth-rank warrior is considered a master, and in the army, he can also be a small soldier leader, but Zheng Fan knows that it is really difficult to survive with this level of cultivation.

During my trip to Gan Country, I killed more than one high-ranking martial artist on the battlefield.

Zheng Fan felt that at least Sha Tuo Queshi's level of cultivation was enough to guarantee his safety. In fact, if Sha Tuo Queshi hadn't wanted to die at the beginning, it would have been really difficult to die.

Lying in bed over and over again, "Arrow in heart is better than no arrow in hand", time, before you know it, it's late at night.

Zheng Fan was a little worried that Xu Wenzu wouldn't stay with his friends tonight and not return to the inn, right?

Or, simply that friend is actually a widow who used to be an old friend?

"Boom boom boom..."

There was a light knock on the door.

Zheng Fan thought it was Xue San or the blind man at first, got up and got out of bed, and opened the door.

After opening it, I found that standing at the door was a short and fat woman in her forties. The woman's face was smeared with thick powder, greasy and greasy.

"My lord, do you need someone to accompany you at night?"

Therefore, the service of hotel rooms in later generations actually existed in ancient times, right?

Zheng Fan pointed at this woman,

road:

"You come to accompany?"

"Oh, look at what you said, my lord. Of course it is not a concubine. There are many young ladies under the concubine. The handsome horses of Jin, the thin horses of Xiahang, the noble horses of Chu, and the strong horses of our Yandi , My concubine has all of them, my lord, tell me which one you want to choose, and later, the girl will come up and make sure you are satisfied."

The girls in the Jin Kingdom are pretty and have a good figure, and the thin horses in Xiahang are already very famous. Even the Emperor Qian accepted the three sisters of the Yang family in Xiahang. There are many nobles in Chu who have been passed down for hundreds of years. There are often noble girls who wander out. As for whether they are real noble girls, no one knows, but at least they will pretend to be a noble girl to serve you. The strong horse of Yandi is just as the name suggests.

To be honest, there is the world's most outstanding mother, Si Niang, at home. Zheng Fan really has no interest in hunting wild food outside. Worse than the outside?

Furthermore,

There are two of my subordinates living next door, and there is also a blind man who can play "live broadcast" for you even if there is a wall between them. How could Zheng Fan look for services here?

"I'm tired, no need."

"That concubine will disturb me."

Fat Mommy gave Zheng Fan a good taste, turned and left, and soon there was a knock on the door next door.

Immediately afterwards,

Then came Xue San's voice,

Only Xue San shouted excitedly:

"I want, I want them all, one of the same!"

"Master, just wait, the girls will be here soon."

After finishing speaking, the fat mummy went downstairs, probably calling for a girl.

Zheng Fan walked out of the door and stood in the corridor on the second floor. Xue San also came out at this moment, and when he saw Zheng Fan, he showed a shy expression on his face.

"It's fun, let the blind man come to my room."

Zheng Fan has a fourth wife himself, and although he has not been able to hit the base, the sentiment of playing needlework is also wonderful, so he can't eat enough by himself but keeps his subordinates hungry.

Xue San shook his head, and walked to Zheng Fan from the door. Because the floor on the second floor was old, there was a creaking sound on the corridor floor when he came.

"Master, did you hear that?" Xue San lowered his voice and asked.

Suddenly, Zheng Fan understood.

"My subordinate is so short and small, the floor makes noise when he walks here, but when that fat mummy just walked by, there was no movement at all."

"It seems that someone sneaked in and wanted to harm Xu Wenzu."

Then I can be regarded as Xu Wenzu's savior, and I have caught up with this.

But when I think about it, I find it quite ridiculous. Back then, Zheng Fan wanted to kill Xu Pangpang when he was outside Zhenbei Hou's mansion. For this reason, he dispatched the barbarian king Zuoguli King,

As a result, Xu Pangpang unexpectedly got out of the carriage to go to Laya at that time.

It was a veritable piece of shit luck.

But now, Xu Pangpang wants to be his immediate boss, and he, who originally wanted to kill him, now wants to protect him.

At this time, a small official downstairs with a lantern came out, shook the lantern at Zheng Fan who was standing on the corridor above, and then left.

This is to tell Zheng Fan that Xu Wenzu has returned, because he lives in the courtyard, so he does not go through the gate of the post station.

At this time, Blind Bei also came out of the room, and looked at Zheng Fan,

"My lord, hurry up and remind Xu Wenzu to take precautions."

Zheng Fan nodded, and went downstairs alone. As for Xue San and Blind Bei, they didn't go with Zheng Fan. They should be in charge of supporting the outside.

The guards at the gate of the first-class courtyard have changed. It should be that the guards who accompanied Xu Wenzu to visit friends during the day have just changed their guards.

The one who can go out with Xu Wenzu to visit friends during the day and be responsible for safety must be one of the personal soldiers, and these two personal soldiers actually recognized Zheng Fan. Seeing Zheng Fan appearing here, the two were first stunned, and then immediately showed their guard The color, even put his hand on the handle of the knife,

"Captain Zheng, is that you?"

asked a soldier.

"It's Mr. Zheng, please inform Ming Zhenggong that Mr. Zheng is visiting."

If it were someone else, who wanted to vote for the ranking, to confuse the eye, and to leave the relationship, the soldiers might think that Xu Wenzu was tired when he came back, so he stopped him, but seeing that it was Zheng Fan, this is his lord's angry and tooth-itching enemy character , They didn't dare to be negligent, and one of the soldiers immediately went in to report.

"Let him in, come on, let him in."

Xu Wenzu's voice came from inside, and he himself was walking towards the door quickly.

The guards at the door stopped blocking him, Zheng Fan walked in, and saw a huge mountain of meat pressing towards him.

Xu Wenzu lost a lot of weight on the way back to the Zhenbei Hou Mansion, but now it seems that he has completely recovered, and it is even better than before.

This is Yinlang County, not Beifeng County, and the surrounding area is guarded by his own trusted soldiers, so Xu Wenzu was very relaxed, and walked over with a smile to greet Zheng Fan.

Zheng Fan didn't have the time to tell Xu Wenzu how happy his comrades were to meet again,

He directly lowered his voice and quickly said:

"My lord, be careful. There are assassins who want to assassinate your lord in this inn. My humble job is to inform you as soon as you get the news."

"ah!"

"ah!"

at this time,

There were two screams from the outer wall of the courtyard. It was obvious that Xu Wenzu's personal soldiers had been shot to death.

To Zheng Fan's surprise, he originally thought that the assassin would infiltrate Xu Wenzu by poisoning him, or rely on door-to-door service to get close to Xu Wenzu.

But I really didn't expect,

The assassin actually came to kill him carelessly.

at the same time,

Angry voices came from outside again:

"Yangou Zheng Fan, blood debt is paid in blood, life is coming!!!"

"..." Xu Wenzu.

"..." Zheng Fan.