Taiping Inn

After Li Xuandu and his party entered Jinyang Prefecture, they settled in the Taiping Inn. The Taiping Inn had already received the news that the master was coming, so it stopped opening three days in advance to accommodate Li Xuandu and his party.

The inn specially prepared an upper room with a single-family yard for Li Xuandu, which was divided into three rooms, the innermost one was a bedroom, the middle one was a study, and the outermost one was a living room. Li Xuandu had just sat down in the study and wanted to continue studying the "Taiping Qingling Sutra" when the innkeeper knocked on the door outside.

Li Xuandu was a little impatient, but he didn't show it on his face. He said, "Come in."

The proprietress of the inn was a beautiful woman. After carefully pushing the door open, she reported, "My Lord, the Governor of Youyan is here to visit."

Li Xuandu was startled: "Xu Zaiyuan, the Governor of Youyan?"

The proprietress nodded and said, "Yes."

Li Xuandu put away the "Taiping Qingling Sutra" in his hand and asked, "How many people did he bring?"

The proprietress said, "About seven or eight people."

Li Xuandu was a little surprised. He didn't expect Xu Zaiyuan, who was a core member of the Hou Party, to come to visit. But no matter what, the Governor of Youyan was one of the frontier officials. Since he was willing to put down his airs and take the initiative to visit, it was not right for him to avoid him. He hesitated for a moment and said, "Please ask Xu Butang to wait in the flower hall. I'll be there soon."

The proprietress took the order and left.

Li Xuandu got up and went behind the screen in the bedroom. He changed into a wide-sleeved long gown, then left the yard and went to the elegant seat in the flower hall specially opened by the inn.

Four guards stood outside the flower hall. Although their realms were not bad, they were nothing in front of Li Xuandu. But this was reasonable. Since Xu Zaiyuan came to visit in person, he would not deliberately put on a heavy guard. These guards should be just a routine.

The proprietress also stood outside the flower hall and whispered: "My clan leader has arrived."

The guards immediately made way, and Li Xuandu walked straight into the flower hall without stopping.

At this time, in the flower hall, in addition to the two attendants standing by, there was only a middle-aged elegant man sitting on a chair, closing his eyes to rest. Just looking at his face, this man is probably in his forties. Even though he is no longer young, he is still very handsome. You can imagine how handsome he was when he was young. In addition, he has been in a high position for many years, so he has a majestic demeanor, which is more charming than a young man. After hearing the footsteps deliberately made by Li Xuandu, he opened his eyes: "Is it Mr. Li who has arrived?"

Li Xuandu stopped not far away and bowed: "Mr. Xu, Li Xuandu is here."

Xu Zaiyuan stood up from his chair to return the greeting, and then pointed to the chair next to him: "Mr. Li, please sit down."

Li Xuandu lifted his robe and sat down, and Xu Zaiyuan sat down again: "I heard that Mr. Li was going to pass by Jinyang Prefecture, and I have been waiting for a long time."

Li Xuandu asked: "I wonder if Mr. Xu has any advice?"

"I don't dare to give you advice." Xu Zaiyuan said: "I just heard of Mr. Li's name for a long time and want to make friends with him."

While speaking, Xu Zaiyuan looked directly into Li Xuandu's eyes, very sincerely, and coupled with the man's gentle demeanor, people felt like being bathed in spring breeze.

Li Xuandu smiled faintly and said, "I don't deserve such a response from Xu Minister."

Xu Zaiyuan was born in the royal family and was trusted by Empress Dowager Xie Zhi and King Jin. He stood on the opposite side of Li Xuandu during the Imperial Capital Incident. He took the initiative to visit Li Xuandu at this time, with unclear intentions. Seeing that Li Xuandu did not speak harshly as expected, a dark color flashed across his eyes, and he said, "Mr. Li is too modest. Qin Minister of Qizhou praised Mr. Li."

Li Xuandu said, "It is Qin Minister who praised you."

Xu Zaiyuan saw that Li Xuandu was not in a hurry at all. Although he was young, he was an old man. If he did not get to the point, he was afraid that he would go around in circles with him for a long time, so he had to say, "By the way, speaking of Qin Minister, I heard that Mr. Li has agreed to the marriage between Mr. Li and Miss Qin. Mr. Li is going to Liaodong this time to marry Miss Qin. Is this true? "

Li Xuandu coughed lightly: "It's too early to talk about the marriage. This trip is just to pay a visit to the Qin clan leader. Let's just say it's an engagement."

Xu Zaiyuan smiled and said: "That's not much different. Mr. Li and Miss Qin are a match made in heaven, and it's also a great event for the Li and Qin families. Although Xu cannot leave his post without permission due to his duties and cannot go to ask for a glass of wedding wine, he still needs to congratulate them."

After the voice fell, the attendant standing by came forward with an exquisitely crafted box and handed it to Xu Zaiyuan.

Xu Zaiyuan opened the box and saw a pair of finely carved purple mandarin ducks in it, about the size of eyeballs, lifelike. Xu Zaiyuan smiled and said, "This pair of mandarin ducks is made of jade. We don't produce jade in Wei, only overseas Posuo Province can produce it, and jade is divided into different grades according to different textures. The best quality jade is almost transparent and very rare. According to different colors, it is also called: "Emperor Green", "Blood Jade Red", "Purple Eyes", which are rarely seen in decades. This pair of jade mandarin ducks is carved from the "Purple Eyes" raw stone, which is not easy to obtain."

Li Xuandu is not a person who regards money as dung. When he suddenly saw such a treasure, his eyelids jumped slightly and said, "I wonder how much this treasure cost?"

Xu Zaiyuan said, "Not much, not much. Xu has some friendship with the merchants in Posuo Province, so I only spent 10,000 Taiping money."

Ten thousand Taiping money is 300,000 taels of silver, which is not too much. After Li Xuan became the acting leader of Taiping Sect, the amount of silver was only this one year. Li Xuandu said seriously: "I dare not accept such a valuable gift."

Xu Zaiyuan smiled and said, "Everyone knows that Taiping Sect is rich. Take this Taiping Inn as an example. It can be worth tens of thousands of taels of silver. However, there are countless Taiping Inns like this. Mr. Li is Taiping. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is a wealthy man in the world. Don’t say that it is just 10,000,000, and even 100,000 are not taken seriously. Mr. Li is disgusted with the lack of courtesy.”

Li Xuandu said, "This is a bad thing for Xubutang. I am just the leader of Taiping Sect and take charge of Taiping Sect on behalf of him. Taiping Sect is not my private property."

Xu Zaiyuan completely disbelief of Li Xuandu's words. It is said that the Qing magistrate had 100,000 snowflakes in the past three years. Even a small magistrate was like this, let alone the sect leader of Taiping Sect? So he just thought it was Li Xuan who recommended it, and did not refute it. He said sincerely, "No matter how thick or thin it is, it is my whole heart. I hope Mr. Li will not dislike it."

Li Xuan did not rush to answer, but began to think about Xu Zaiyuan's intention to leave a way out like Princess Xuanzhen, or did he want to use this matter to test something?

Xu Zaiyuan was not in a hurry to urge him, but just covered the box and placed it on the table.

After a while, Li Xuandu slowly spoke, "Xubutang, you and I have just met each other for the first time and have received such a tribute. It's really..."

"Mr. Li Xiao, what are you talking about?" Before Li Xuan finished speaking, Xu Zaiyuan had already interrupted: "Although I met Mr. Li for the first time, I was an official in the same court as Qinmen Hall and the Great Mr. Li and Governor Lu also have friendships, and they should give a gift for both emotion and reason. Besides, this gift is not only given to Mr. Li, but also to Miss Qin. If Mr. Li wants to refuse, he must ask Miss Qin first?”

Speaking of this, Li Xuandu no longer refused and said, "Since that's the case, I'm disrespectful. I also thanked Xu Butang for his good intentions on behalf of Miss Qin."

Next was an insignificant chat. The two talked about the local government army. Xu Zaiyuan was extremely dissatisfied with the local government army. He said that these local government army were simply invincible and well understood the wonderful meaning of "Wind Forest Volcano", and turned against him at the last minute. As fast as the wind, the marched into the forest, burned, killed, robbed, plundered, and rushed to help friendly troops as they remained as mountains. He also praised the Liaodong Iron Cavalry under Zhao Zheng, and even gave the praise used to describe the Iron Buddha Tu of the Golden Horde, which was invincible!

Li Xuan heard more and said less, and finally heard some meaning. Xu Butang knew very well that if the Liaodong cavalry went south to enter the pass, the entire Yanzhou would probably not be able to stop it for a moment. So this gift is worthy of fun. Do you want to leave a way out early?

Half an hour later, Xu Zaiyuan stood up to say goodbye, and Li Xuan naturally wanted to get up to see him off, not only did he deliver him out of the flower hall, but also out of the inn.