Chapter 104: The Long Sleep of Fan House

As the main envoy of the Privy Council of Qing, and the first person in the military below His Majesty, Ye Da Da Shuai personally led his elite troops to the outside of the Taiping Special Courtyard, and was responsible for suppressing as well as monitoring and controlling Fan Xian. It had to be said that the Qing court and palace maintained an extremely high level of respect and vigilance towards Fan Xian, and this respect and vigilance was manifested in strength.

Fan Xian’s face was gaunt and slightly white, a trace of a somewhat muddy color appeared very striking on his handsome face, which should be the branding of the rain and the thousands of miles of dust and smoke mixed together. He looked at the horse Ye Chong’s slightly cold gaze, but the whole person seems to be a bit mute and indifferent, as if he did not see Ye Chong himself and the thousands of fully armored cavalrymen in the body.

Strength to Fan Xian and Ye Chong this level of people, naturally know that in the plains, probably more powerful experts can not escape the thousands of elite cavalry pursuit, in addition to the realm of the great master, however, this place is still in the suburbs of Kyoto, dense forests, clear rivers, mansions are still dense, Fan Xian if you really give up all the things of Kyoto, turn around like a giant bird to escape, I’m afraid that these thousands of elite soldiers really can not catch him for a moment.

His Majesty the Emperor ordered Ye Chong to personally lead the troops to deal with this matter, naturally also thought of this point, in the thousands of elite cavalry, there are many military experts, the most critical, can be with Fan Xian frontal confrontation of Ye Chong, the Qing country very few stand above the ninth grade of the strong man.

Fan Xian narrowed his eyes slightly at Ye Chong on the horse, and suddenly his heart moved slightly, thinking of another Tsubaki thing, and could not help but laugh to himself.

In the beginning of the three kingdoms in the world, with the number of experts of the ninth grade, of course, it was Dongyi City that had the most, but the Qing Kingdom had conquered the world with its swords and horses, and the experts also came out in endless streams, especially between the seventh and eighth grades of the strongest, that is, the strongest who had progressed to the ninth grade, at first, there were a few of them when counting in the Kyoto.

However, all of this has become history, gathered the most seven or eight grade masters of the Tiger Guard, because of the Qing Emperor for the former household secretary Fan Jian’s vigilance, all sacrificed Dongyi City that ferocious sword, and the military’s strongest, but in the Kyoto rebellion three years ago in the death of the dead and wounded, especially Qin Ye father and son all died in front of the Imperial Palace, plus perished in the Great East Mountain of the old man Hung, the Qing Temple successive deaths of the Great Sacrificer and the Second Sacrificer ……

The top experts of the Qing Kingdom were unconsciously waning because of His Majesty the Emperor’s scheming and paranoia, to the point where there was actually a great void, so much so that now, in order to suppress Fan Xian, a character on the ninth rank, there was no one left to send, and Ye Chong, the number one person in the military, had to be sent to come personally.

“The fact that the young lord is still able to laugh out loud is very surprising to this marshal.” Ye Chong had slowly converged the coldness in his eyes and said calmly.

“This official is just thinking about a question, if even you and Gong Dian are dead, what other trustworthy and strong people can His Majesty have by his …… side?” Fan Xian’s lips curled slightly and said in a hoarse voice.

Ye Chong’s heart trembled slightly, knowing that Fan Xian had seen the flaws in Qing’s force at a glance. Although Qing’s iron horsemen were still unrivaled in the world, whether it was the Dingzhou Army, Yanjing Battalion, or the old Western Conquest Army that belonged to the Grand Hall of Justice back then, all of them were tigers and wolves on the sands, however, if it came to the frontal confrontation between small groups of elites led by a strong man, it was difficult for Qing to find a master to rely on any more.

“All the strongest men in the world are in my hands.” Fan Xian looked at Ye Chong and slowly spoke, “I don’t care what His Majesty’s previous decree to you was, I only know that if you don’t immediately withdraw the scouts and cavalry that you sent out, a lot of scenes that you don’t want to see will surely occur.”

All the strongest men in the world are in my hands, what kind of arrogant sentence is this. There is no land under the sky that is not the king’s land, and there is no minister under the sky that is not the king’s minister, Emperor Qing, as the most powerful emperor in the world, should have the allegiance of most of the strongest people in the world, however, time has changed, and no matter if it was luck or coincidence, Ye Chong had to admit that most of the truly powerful masters in the world had already landed in Fan Xian’s hands.

Although Ye Chong did not know the truth about the assassination at the Hanging Temple, the scene on the court earlier made him certain that the real masters in the Supervisory Court, such as the mysterious Sixth Division Organizer, the legendary youngest brother of the Four Gu Swords, Shadow, would surely be at the head of Fan Xian’s horse.

The most crucial thing was that the Thirteen Apprentices of the Sword Lodge, in addition to Yun Zhilan, who had already taken up the position of Lord of Dongyi City, there were eleven Nine Ranks.

“His Majesty doesn’t have a clear decree down for the young lord.” Ye Chong said in a deep voice, “But those black riders and one of the officials who accompanied you out of the capital …… have violated the Qing law and acted as if they were conspirators, do you think that the court will leave them alive?”

“It is I who will keep them alive.” Fan Xian lowered his head somewhat wearily, feeling that negotiating with Ye Chong here is really a bit tiring, and slowly said, “You are a smart person, you naturally know how to do it, his majesty is now in a rage …… I heard that he is also injured, and I am afraid that the decree given at this time is only not very wise. ”

“It was very difficult for me to control my emotions, and I don’t think you would be willing to really drive me crazy, once I go crazy, it won’t do any good to you to me, to the officials and people of this Daqing dynasty, or even to the one in the palace.” Fan Xian hunched over, shook his head and said, “You know what my bottom line is, starting from the old cripple, all the way up to me, my style of the Supervisory Court is to be protective of the shortcomings, that is, to not allow my own people to be harmed.”

“I understand, but this is resisting the decree ……,” Ye Chong quietly looked at the messy hair on Fan Xian’s forehead, “I am a vassal of the Kingdom of Qing, and for all those who violate the law and rebel against the officials, I have the obligation to apprehend and capture them. ”

“Don’t say such useless words.” Fan Xian waved his hand somewhat wearily, “There aren’t any other people around at this time, if you want to keep the Dingzhou army safe for the millennium, you’d better make a decision quickly.”

Ye Chong and Fan Xian stood far ahead of the cavalry at this time, no one could hear their conversation, even Yan Bingyun, who had been following Fan Xian all along, stood quietly beside the black carriage and did not come forward.

Ye Chong pondered in silence for a long time and said, “Even if I let them off the hook at this time, but those black cavalry under your hands have already been mentally depleted to the extreme, no matter whether you let them go to Xiliang to throw themselves at Hongcheng, or go to Dongyi City to throw themselves at the Grand Palace, the garrison of the various counties in the states along this road …… ”

When the words reached here, Ye Chong suddenly paused and sighed in his heart. He who knew the inside information naturally knew the arrangement of the imperial court these days, in the intelligence, obviously Fan Xian was still far away from Yanjing some days ago, who knew that he actually rushed back to Kyoto today, once he thought about it, the heart of this Qing military powerhouse couldn’t help but give birth to a shocked feeling, how could he not understand how Fan Xian flew across the thousands of miles of Guanshan Mountains and rushed back to Kyoto with those hundreds of black cavalrymen.

“As long as you don’t take action yourself, it’s impossible for those state troops to stop my men.” Fan Xian said in a sandy voice, “As long as I’m willing to go with you, His Majesty won’t be angry at your letting go.”

After Ye Chong was silent for a long time, he suddenly spoke, “That’s right, as long as you’re willing to return to the capital, His Majesty’s anger will subside a lot.”

“See, isn’t this a simple matter?” Fan Xian said these words expressionlessly, then turned his head and walked away, directly into the black carriage that Yan Bingyun had brought with her, lowered the curtains, closed his eyes, and began to recuperate.

Carriage slightly upside down, began to move forward in the official road, thousands of Qing elite cavalry seem to escort, seem to escort, along with this black carriage toward the direction of Kyoto slowly forward.

And into the main sun gate, and traveling in the quiet and solemn street. Fan Xian, who had been resting his eyes in the carriage, suddenly opened his mouth and said, “Is it to enter the palace?”

“No.” Ye Chong rode on his horse, straightening his not-so-tall frame, and calmly replied, “His Majesty did not issue a decree, only that you are not allowed to leave the capital.”

“Very well, then I’ll go home.” Fan Xian reclosed his eyes and spoke softly. Yan Bingyun, who was in charge of driving the carriage, had a slightly condensed expression on his face, and with a pull of the reins, he drove down the fork in the road at the Salt Market entrance in the direction of the southern city.

There were some figures in the shadows around who followed this black carriage closely, and Ye Chong’s cavalry team also divided a group of people to catch up, while Ye Chong himself was stationed at the street entrance without any action.

There are already pedestrians on the street, although the scene on the court in the fall rain has been spreading in the people, but after all, it is a distant matter, not how to really affect the people’s lives, so the life in Kyoto with the cessation of an autumn rain will return to normal.

Those people who were walking along the roadside under the eaves had already been driven to the sides of the street by the soldiers, they looked at this scene blankly, looked at the black carriages surrounded by the soldiers, and guessed the real identity of the big person in the carriages very simply, and their eyes flashed with a lot of colors of nervousness, excitement, incomprehension, and worry.

Ye Chong stood on his horse and watched the black carriage slowly drive away in the direction of the southern city with an indifferent face, his heart feeling unusually heavy. According to reason, the order of catching Fan Xian back to Kyoto and forbidding him to go out of the capital had already been accomplished, but he still could not feel relaxed, on the one hand, it was because of Fan Xian’s naked and calm threat, he had to give up chasing those black riders who roamed across the wilderness of the Qing country and one of the officials of the Supervisory Board who dared to oppose His Majesty’s order, and after he went to the palace, he didn’t know what kind of ferocious wrath His Majesty would usher in, and the most important stone pressed against his heart was the cold, hard, and heavy stone. The coldest, hardest and heaviest stone in his heart was the demeanor that Fan Xian had displayed along the way.

Ye Chong knew very well that he hadn’t captured Fan Xian back to Kyoto, but Fan Xian had followed him back to Kyoto. What chilled his heart was that Fan Xian had no intention of entering the palace to see His Majesty. Whether Fan Xian was angrily accusing His Majesty or explaining something to His Majesty, it was actually more comforting than Fan Xian’s indifference at this moment.

That indifference implied anger towards His Majesty, a suppressed chill, and a disregard for imperial power. Ye Chong didn’t know why Fan Xian had the guts to do this, but he was clear that the cold war between His Majesty and Fan Xian had just begun at this moment.

His Majesty, who was healing his wounds, was probably waiting in the palace at the moment for his bastard son to enter the palace to explain something, to rant about something, and yet Fan Xian …… had let all of His Majesty’s hopes and preconceptions fall to the wayside.

Ye Chong slowly lowered his head, thinking about those calm but powerful words of Fan Xian earlier outside the Taiping Farewell, and could hardly help himself from shaking his head grimly. The fact that he had been forced to give in under Fan Xian’s cold compulsion proved that this person, Fan Xian, already possessed the strength to go head-to-head with the forces of the Qing State’s army, and such strength undoubtedly made the relationship between His Majesty and Fan Xian a lot more variable.

Ye Chong could even guess His Majesty’s and Fan Xian’s mind, His Majesty would never take the initiative to issue a decree for Fan Xian to enter the palace, he would wait for Fan Xian to take the initiative to enter the palace, while Fan Xian would never take the initiative to enter the palace, he would wait for the man on the dragon chair to open his mouth first.

This is the so-called attitude, heart, will of the contest, the basis of this contest lies in the strength of both sides of the contrast, but also lies in both sides of the extremely strong cold heart, who first beat up.

Ye Chong took a deep breath, the expression on his face returned to solemn calm, a clip horse belly, ready to enter the palace to resume orders. Regarding the war between this pair of fathers and sons, it was not for him as a vassal to intervene, the reason why the Dingzhou army intervened back then was because of His Majesty’s decree, and it was obvious that His Majesty’s attitude towards Fan Xian, the illegitimate son of Fan Xian, was completely different compared to those other sons.

As the head of the Qing military Ye Chong, he only hoped that this war would end peacefully in the end, or …… end as quickly as possible, and not be like the autumn rain of the past two days, which is always sheepishly cold and disturbing.

The carriage stopped at the gate of the Fan Mansion in the South City, the street was quiet at this time, the two stone lions at the entrance of the Mansion that were wet with rainwater stared with wide eyes, angrily and uneasily gazing at the people who were traveling over in the surroundings. The closed gate immediately opened, and several guards from the mansion with swords poured out and stood under the carriage.

Fan Xian stepped down from the carriage without looking at Yan Bingyun on the yamen, but only lightly swept a glance at the surroundings, and could easily tell that there were many secret agents watching, probably all of them sent out by the palace, and no more than the thirteen magistracies or the group of people raised by the Da Lisi.

The spies from the Supervisory Yuan were still at the farther end of the street. The corners of Fan Xian’s lips spread a gentle smile, in this aspect of surveillance, the entire court combined, are not necessarily the Supervisory Yuan’s rivals, look at the appearance, their own mastery of those spies, still in their own hands, has not yet been grasped by the emperor.

He walked up the steps. Yan Bingyun sat on the yamen and sighed, and was about to leave when he suddenly heard a sentence.

“I probably won’t be able to manage that courtyard for much longer.” Fan Xian didn’t turn around, half of his arm was supported by a family of daughters-in-law, exhausted and with a hint of self-deprecation, he said, “Originally, I didn’t manage it for too long, but I hope that you won’t make the same mistakes that you used to once make before, the reason why my Supervisory Court is an ironclad one is because it relies on not the clear distinction between rewards and punishments, but the fact that it’s …… protecting the shortcomings.”

“It is estimated that many people have already been imprisoned, and it is unlikely that in the future, these old men will continue to stay in their positions in the Eight Divisions.” His back slowly straightened, “If the official position is jacked, then it’s jacked, but you have to make sure that they can stay alive, if even they are all dead as well, how you maintain this broken yard will be meaningless, understand?”

Yan Bingyun was silent for a moment, then nodded, not caring if Fan Xian could see it or not. Fan Xian sighed and stepped into the high threshold of the Fan Mansion with the assistance of that daughter-in-law.

As soon as he entered the Fan Mansion, a familiar scent came over him, wrapping Fan Xian’s tired body into it and making him sleepy; this was probably the potency of the so-called home. However, Fan Xian forced himself to stand up straight and walked on the stone path, even leaving that daughter-in-law’s support.

There were dark tsubos buried around the mansion, and there were guards walking solemnly, everything was well organized, and there was a full sense of killing. This is the tradition of the Fan Mansion, no matter how stormy it is outside, but there is always no big loophole inside, three years ago when Kyoto rebelled, the Fan Mansion was well prepared, and today the Fan Mansion is well prepared again.

This tradition was a rule that had been established since his father was around, and no matter how chaotic Kyoto became, it would take at least a few hundred soldiers to drag the Fan House down. Fan Xian watched all of this with satisfaction, knowing that Wan’er had made extremely good preparations, so he had to keep himself strong as well, letting these Fan House people, who had taken themselves as their backbone, know that their young master had not yet fallen.

After traveling through the flower garden and arriving at the back garden, he saw that gentle woman at the entrance of the flower hall, and Fan Xian looked at her with an extremely forced smile and said, “I’m back.”

Lin Wan’er’s eyes misted up, but she forced herself to suppress it, she too had just returned from the palace not long ago, and took a few steps forward, grasping Fan Xian’s cold hand, she smiled sweetly and said, “It’s good that you’re back, let’s have a sleep first, probably haven’t slept in a few days.”

“Six days without closing my eyes, I didn’t think I’d be able to pull through.” Fan Xian’s heart ached a little, forced a smile, rested his body weight on his wife’s shoulders, and walked toward the bedroom, one side of the line said in a warm voice, “These two days must have been bitter for you.”

“Not bitter.” Lin Wan Er helped him into the bedroom, but found that there was some blood on his palms, her heart was slightly gloomy, but she didn’t dare to say anything, she just let him sit down by the bedside, and then instructed the servants to hurry to call for hot water to wash his face, and then rested the brass basin for washing his feet at his feet.

Lin Wan Er sat on a small stool and took off his shoes and socks for him, only then did she realize that the days of hard running, even though he was riding a horse, had made Fan Xian’s feet and shoes seem to be connected together, especially the center of his feet that were in the stirrups, which had worn out an extremely deep blood mark.

Lin Wan’er’s heart sank as she carefully placed Fan Xian’s feet into the hot water basin. Fan Xian sighed, but he didn’t know if it was too comfortable or too sad.

“The outside of the courtyard is all full of people, there’s no way to get in.” Lin Wan’er lowered her head, gently rubbing those feet while saying softly, the courtyard in this sentence naturally referring to the square and gloomy building of the Inspectorate.

“Earlier when I left the capital, a place where some bold fellows followed me out of the city.” Fan Xian looked at the top of his wife’s head and smiled gently, “I know it was you who tipped them off, I’ve already arranged for them to leave, so don’t worry. As for the courtyard side, at least for the moment, His Majesty certainly won’t allow me to contact them.”

Lin Wan’er’s hand stiffened slightly, on the one hand she was worried about Fan Xian, on the other hand she was thinking about whether or not to say that thing, a moment later, she lowered her head and said in a trembling voice, “Sister went into the palace yesterday to treat his majesty’s wounds, and hasn …… not returned.”

“Normal thing.” Fan Xian had long heard this news from Yan Bingyun’s mouth, and calmly said, “His Majesty has always grasped people’s seven inches tightly, and only the old cripple didn’t have any seven inches to be grasped by him, and that’s why it ended up being like this today.”

Speaking of Chen Pingping, Fan Xian’s face dimmed. In fact, Chen Pingping’s only seven inches in this life was Fan Xian, only that this old cripple still cut Fan Xian apart in such a deadlock, leaving His Majesty with nothing to grasp, only to end up walking into a deadlock of certain death.

After saying this, Fan Xian fell asleep, his feet in the water basin, his head lowered on his chest, and fell into a deep sleep, having not slept for a long time, he finally relaxed his mind in front of his wife, and his face sank into a deep sleep with a trace of sadness that he could not get rid of.

Lin Wan’er gently stopped the movements of her hands and looked at that haggard and sad face, somehow saddened, a few tears rolled down her face. She looked at Fan Xian and wondered when that bright young man had become so pitiful.

Fan Xian slept for a full day and night. When he woke up leisurely, he realized that it was already another dusk, and the dim twilight light filtered in through the window, casting an unfamiliar halo over all the familiar things in the room.

Outside the window came Wan Er’s voice, seemingly ordering her subordinates to do something. Fan Xian did not want to startle her, and remained quietly under the warm blanket, not wanting to get up, perhaps knowing that once he came out of the soft blanket, he would have to face the things that had happened and the things that were about to happen.

His eyes turned slightly, saw the bedside towel, reached out and pulled over, gently wiped the corner of the eye of the dirt, followed by a look at their own body, and found that the body clean and fresh, it seems to fall asleep, Wan Er for their own body rubbed.

This is such a simple two actions, but the pulling of his body aches and pains, the thousands of miles of running, strong fighting, deep into the marrow of the grief, really let him weakened to the extreme, absolutely not simply sleep can be well.

Fan Xian quietly lay on the bed, slowly urging the two strands of true qi in his body, especially the natural dharma of the Heavenly Dao, returning to his vital energy, his eyes looking straight at the tent roof embroidered with intricate decorations, secretly thinking about that man in the palace, what is he thinking about at this time?