Chapter 6: Someone in Jiaozhou is having a birthday party

The route that the Black Riders chose to attack Jiaozhou in order to hide their presence was naturally not the official highway. Even if Fan Xian again how confident, again how on the black cavalry’s strong combat power have confidence, also can’t hope once the riot potential rise, only with more than 400 riders, can be suppressed one of the three big Qing dynasty water division.

So can only quietly enter the city, shotgun don’t.

Far away looking at the city gate of Jiaozhou, Fan Xian will get off the horse, according to the practice since childhood means of the Supervisory Yuan, looking for a quiet place, the horse will be let go. The horse is quite spiritual, seems to understand the master’s meaning, also not much to linger, will go to the valley, in a while there is no trace.

It is not that Fan Xian can not kill the horse, just that the smell of blood is really unnecessary, but will bring some trouble. After confirming that the horse would not give away his whereabouts, he sat down under a tree, dug a small pit by his side, took off the clothes on his body, and buried them in the earth.

Then he took out the equipment on his body and performed a very detailed check, confirming that the black dagger, the three newly dispensed concealed crossbows, and the psychedelic poison that never left his body were all there, and he applied something on his face before subconsciously nodding his head, and then sighed in a whirlwind.

Somewhat unwillingly, he buried the Heavenly Son Sword that Wang Qinian had sent into the pit, and Fan Xian thought to himself that he didn’t know when he would be able to use this sword in a proper manner.

When he left that big tree, the small Fan, the supervisory authority, had already changed into a very unusual young man, his face was still clear, but the distance between his eyebrows became wider, and the corners of his eyes went downward, less heroic, more sincere, and he was already a completely different person.

Rough clothing inside, or that close black night clothes, good in the material first-class, breathable do extremely well, and do not feel how hot.

Along the rarely traveled mountain road to Jiaozhou City, the sun has long been sunk in the back of the mountains, a dusky twilight shrouded the four fields. In the last moment before Jiaozhou City closed its gates, Fan Xian walked to the entrance of the city, honestly handed over the road guide, and answered a few routine questions from the gate guards, easily entering the city.

The road guide made by the Supervisory Yuan is not a high level of forgery, but simply the real thing, naturally, no one will find problems, and Fan Xian answered the questions respectfully but without a trace of panic, this Jiaozhou is located at the seaside, and there are many people coming and going, so the gate guards are used to it, and so they didn’t give it enough attention.

Through the city gate, Fan Xian rubbed his eyes, smiled, like a traveler who came from afar, with some curious eyes surveyed the surrounding houses and scenery, but did not dare to be too leisurely, his feet did not slow down, perfectly playing the role of an outsider busy with business.

Jiaozhou City is really different from the general state city, although it is adjacent to the sea, but the business, to be precise, is about the retail bulk business is not developed, obviously the most prosperous avenue through the city, both sides are not open many stores, even if there are some storefronts, but also half-covered, no signboards, so that outsiders can not be clear, what is engaged in the inside of the business.

The whole city seemed a bit solemn and calm, with less of the fireworks of life, but a few more hints of majesty.

As Fan Xian walked, he watched these details, knowing that this was because the Jiaozhou navy was based here. Jiaozhou was far away from the Central Plains, a place where the Emperor was far away from the mountains, and the sailor division itself had tens of thousands of soldiers, a force that was really terrifyingly large.

Relative to the huge sailor, Jiaozhou local power is somewhat insignificant, Jiaozhou city’s highest official is only a governor, in front of the governor of the sailor still have to be honest.

And Jiaozhou should be economic affairs, are looking up to the sailor’s nose, the sailor tens of thousands of officers and men should be living in addition to the deployment of the court, that is, near the requisition, although the people of Jiaozhou some annoyance, but also brought a kind of abnormal prosperity – at least do not worry about things that food can not be sold.

It is because of these reasons, Jiaozhou City is like a huge logistics base of the navy, like a big man around the dainty yellow flower girl, only to accept the part, but can not send a few complaints.

There are sailors such a huge entity on the side, Jiaozhou City, naturally, was also brought with a very strong military atmosphere, the city’s best lots, were requisitioned by the military, the largest mansions, are inside the senior generals living in the division, the best girls, are those who are the division of the water dominated.

Although the imperial court has a clear order, do not allow the garrison generals, live in the neighboring state city, but everyone knows, this rule has long lost its effect, not only Jiaozhou, all the local state army and even the border army, but all the power of the big man, are not willing to live in the miserable tents, but will be in the state city to buy a house, to buy a woman.

The Black Riders were the exception among exceptions.

Fan Xian raised his head to look at the red lighted green house over there, and couldn’t help but smile, where there are many Qubai, the brothel business is naturally not that bad, but I just don’t know if those sailor officers and soldiers will renege on the bill, but according to the news coming from the courtyard, although the Jiaozhou sailors are the emperors of the city of Jiaozhou, they have never been very good at eating grasses on the edge of the nest.

They used to eat grass from the southern sea.

Fan Xian lowered his head, walked quickly through a mansion, that mansion covers an extremely wide area, flying eaves and phoenix, door coated with vermilion paint, wall hidden between bamboo, raw occupied half a street place, even than the Kyoto those big officials in the mansion to be more arrogant some.

And today this mansion is also like the far side of the green house, hanging red lanterns, seemingly a joyful, door pasted with white beards floating portrait of the gods, look like, should be which a big man is doing birthday.

With this joyful atmosphere is extremely incongruous, is guarding the mansion door of those soldiers, those soldiers face dark, under the ear can be seen under the color of water rust, must be a long time in the sea to mix the life of the people. These soldiers do not squint, a solemn face, vigilantly watching the pedestrians passing in front of the mansion.

Not many pedestrians dare to walk in front of this mansion, so they are more responsible for checking the guests, although the guests are not only the superiors in the navy, the rest are the officials in Jiaozhou city, and some rich merchants who can stand on the stage, and there are even a few merchants who came from far away from Jiangnan, but these soldiers still do not dare to relax, and meticulously checking the gift boxes, to make sure that nobody dares to bring the murderous weapons into the house.

Today was His Excellency’s birthday banquet, and they must make sure that everything was safe.

In addition to the tight security at the main entrance of the mansion, Fan Xian’s true qi was secretly utilized, and he had long heard that there should be quite a few nails buried in those secluded places within the mansion as well.

He walked quickly through, head lowered, a wry smile floating at the corner of his lips, and saw clearly the strength of those guards stationed at the street corners outside the mansion, and at the same time drew a map of the terrain around this area, branding it deeply into his mind. Back then, that huge imperial palace, he had only walked around once, and then he remembered all the trails clearly, not to mention a mansion like this.

Leaving behind the bustling and saluting sounds behind him, and letting the blinding red of the red lanterns disappear into the darkness, Fan Xian pursed his lips, and his gaze intentionally or unintentionally glanced somewhere under the wall next to the street, and seeing a familiar dark mark, he turned around and entered, and walked until he reached the very end of the alley.

It was a dead end alley.

Fan Xian looked up at the wall on the opposite side of the cul-de-sac, shook his head, and with a point of his toes, his entire body rose up lightly, and with a rest of his palms on the wall, he tumbled over.

Silently, Fan Xian, who was dressed as an ordinary citizen, disappeared into the city of Jiaozhou once again.

Behind the wall was a small courtyard, a place that wasn’t very secluded, and one could faintly hear the sounds of the street beyond a few large rooms. Although there were six houses in front and back, they also looked a bit old, indicating that although the people who lived here were not ordinary people, their lives were not very good either.

Fan Xian stepped on the stone steps, pushed the door, walked straight to the main seat, picked up the side of the teapot sniffed, poured himself a cup of tea and drank it down.

The owner of the footsteps walked into the room and found a young man he didn’t recognize sitting there, and was about to ask a question, but when he looked at the gesture he made with his fingers, he was surprised and delighted, “Teacher, you’re finally here.”

Fan Xian smiled, put down the cup of tea in his hand, looked at Hou Jichang’s thin face, and couldn’t help but say, “This is to come to Jiaozhou to be an official, and I thought that I could raise your dried out body better, how come it’s getting thinner?”

After Hou Jichang met with Yang Wanli at the Jiangnan embankment, he went out of his way to rush to Jiaozhou to take up his post, and the journey was tiring, plus he had to secretly investigate those shocking matters for Fan Xian, so his mind and spirit were under a lot of pressure. He to Jiaozhou has been nearly a month’s time, but there has been no progress, fear that there is an obstacle to the door division of the great event, there are a few nights can not sleep, and now the eyes are deep-set, cheekbones protruding, where there is half of the year when the rainy day in Kyoto, the appearance of the dashing genius.

He laughed bitterly and said, “I don’t have the ability to laugh at the world’s affairs as a teacher.”

Fan Xian sighed, although the four people under his discipline, Hou Jichang, were the most meticulous and acted the most viciously and boldly, but when faced with the impending bloodshed, he could see that the scholar was still a scholar after all. Originally, according to reason, this matter by the Supervisory Yuan on the good, but Fan Xian arranged Ji Chang here, on the one hand is to shock the Jiaozhou officials, on the other hand is also stored in selfish, Jiaozhou chaos, certainly some people are depreciated, some people receive the credit …… such a big credit, will be able to let Ji Chang to get unconventional promotion.

This kind of benefit, Fan Xian is still willing to leave to his student, just to let him suffer some shock, is also considered the price.

“After you arrived in Jiaozhou, was there anything unusual.” Fan Xian calmly asked, he did not bother to ask about the smuggling of sailors in Jiaozhou, because he was clear that Hou Jichang would never be able to fathom out all this filth in the official world in such a short period of time.

Hou Jichang thought for a moment and said, “The whole world knows that I am your disciple, my lord, so these officials are still polite to me, even those general officers in the navy are very sensible, but …… don’t have any understanding of the matter, they just heard a few whispers.”

Fan Xian nodded, this was a situation that had long been guessed, he thought for a moment and said, “The governor of the navy, Chang Kun, had a birthday banquet today, did he not invite you?”

Hou Jichang froze, said, “I’m just a small official, but …… should be to give face to your honor, this Governor Lord also gave me a post, just …… you said that you will be there today, so I’ve been at home to Hou, not yet Determine to go or not go.”

“Go.” Fan Xian said decisively, “You go first.”

Letting him go first naturally meant that Fan Xian would go after him.

Hou Jichang frowned and said, “You’re only one person?”

“One person is enough.” Fan Xian smiled, “Changkun isn’t Sean, he’s not qualified to make me take him too seriously.”

After a pause, he added, “Today is his birthday banquet, and in the future, his family members wishing him a meditative birthday and sacrifices can be put on a day …… which will save a lot of trouble.”

Hou Jichang’s heart was shocked, the inside of his mouth was bitter, staring blankly at his disciple, knowing that today’s birthday banquet Fan Xian was surely going to kill someone, but not knowing that, under the escort of the strong Jiaozhou sailors, the disciple was actually prepared to kill how to do it, and that the hall of the sailor governor, the big official from the first rank, could not just assassinate the matter, His Majesty and the teacher …… should not have made This kind of confused mistake. If you let that birthday banquet become a cultivated field, how to make a good aftermath?