Chapter 6 border city old friend

The caravan traveled peacefully along the official highway, only occasionally being able to discover the traces left behind by the bloody raids of the Hu people, and whenever this happened, Fan Xian would get out of his car and look around for a few moments, and then the intelligence officials of the second division under his command would carefully collect all sorts of information.

After six days of traveling in this manner, he arrived at Qingzhou, the most remote and shortest-lived state in the entire Daqing Dynasty.

Qingzhou was very different from Fan Xian’s imagination. Before coming here, he had carefully checked the information in the courtyard, and had even specifically asked the Grand Imperial Prince to inquire about the specifics of the Western Front, and had thought that Qingzhou would be nothing more than a relatively deserted and dilapidated border city, more like a heavily guarded military camp, but he hadn’t expected to find that when his party entered the city, they found that in addition to the soldiers and soldiers walking back and forth throughout the entire state city, the most people were… …were merchants.

Merchants like Fan Xian walked the few remaining streets of Qingzhou with hurried faces, anxiously going about exchanging paperwork to get out of the border, yelling at hard laborers, and keeping a careful eye on the goods they had brought to the border. All of this made the entire Qingzhou a little less ironic and a myriad more richly flavored with money, making it seem extraordinarily noisy.

Fan Xian had thought that the imperial court’s establishment of a state here was mainly a symbolic meaning, and that Qingzhou City must be particularly small and boring, but he really hadn’t expected that this place would have the feel of a small Suzhou. He sat on top of the carriage and looked at the scene in front of him with a bitter smile, not knowing how to speak.

Speaking of which, the abnormal prosperity of Qingzhou and Fan Xian can not be dissociated, the small state city, those who are busy entering the grasslands of the brave merchants, but a large part of them are from the south of the Yangtze River. The Qing court had always strictly prohibited commerce with the Hu people, and three years ago, Fan Xian advised His Majesty and secretly loosened this rule.

Salt, iron and grain were of course strictly forbidden to be sold to the hu people, but what was there to fear from selling luxury goods such as jewelry, perfume and spirits to the hu people? On the one hand, it can bring a lot of income to the treasury of Qingdom, because the princes and nobles who hold more than 90% of the wealth in the Hu people’s tribes welcome these things very much. Secondly, it is convenient to send nails to the grassland.

Fan Xian was looking at this point, but did not personally come to Qingzhou, really do not know his own a thought, but let Qingzhou City in just a few years, the development of such a rapid, has exceeded their own imagination.

It seems that with some small things that are not particularly valuable, one can earn the raw materials of gems, good horses, and blankets from the Hu people, and such a large profit has indeed made the merchants of Qingzhou so excited that they are willing to risk the dangers of the two sides’ non-stop fighting and go deep into the grasslands to do business.

Marx’s words were really good, Fan Xian thought to himself, and in his heart, he had made up his mind, since he had so many peers to cover him, he should still be able to go to the prairie.

The border troops in Qingzhou were particularly strict in their inspections of the merchants, and even though the trading firms were vigorously shoving silver tickets into the arms of the officers, they still didn’t speed up their inspections. Fan Xian and his group waited for half a day at the city gates, but it was difficult to move forward.

The sun of the autumn grasslands hung in mid-air, blazing white, and although it didn’t bring too much heat to test the merchants and soldiers in the city, this brightness made people’s emotions start to get irritated.

Qingzhou was too special after all, it was a strange state city made up of soldiers and traders. When the soldiers’ emotions got irritated, their attitude towards those merchants was much worse, while the merchants’ emotions, although equally irritated, still only had their heads bowed and compensated with smiles.

Until today, the soldiers in the western camp still could not understand why the imperial court would agree to let these profit-seeking bastards pass through Qingzhou and enter the grassland to curry favor with those uncompromising enemies of the Hu people. While sending out the paperwork, they cursed unkindly in their hearts, hoping that these money earning and shameless guys would better just die in the grassland, under the arrows of those Hu people, and never come back.

Outside the inspection yamen, there were several other officials of the Supervisory Yuan in black official uniforms, sitting beside the officers and supervising the inspection of the goods in parallel. Fan Xian gave Mu Feng’er a wink, and Mu Feng’er immediately understood his lordship’s meaning, and began to work on preparations to secretly make contact with these four fellow officers.

After arranging everything, Fan Xian, impatient to continue waiting in the caravan, jumped off the carriage, patted the dust under his buttocks, and led a subordinate disguised as a servant towards the interior of Qingzhou.

He tore open the collar, tilted his head and squinted at the sky shrinking into a small circle of the blazing white sun, the heart also feel annoyed beyond measure, on the other hand, there is no sweat, so not sad.

Right at this moment, not far behind him, the city gates of Qingzhou were suddenly opened, a series of rapid and neat hoofbeats sounded at the city gates, startling the long line of traders who were waiting to inspect the goods.

The crowd curiously looked towards the city gates, wondering which troop was returning to camp. The troops returning to the city at this time of the day should have stayed out all night yesterday, hunting rabbits in the grasslands.

Hunting rabbits was a border black saying, and it was the same meaning as the so-called hitting grass valleys of the Hu people. Qing and Western Hu have been stabbing each other for years, and it is by this kind of sweeping and counter-sweeping that the blood feud between them is maintained. It was just that although the Qing army was strong, the troops that dared to go out to fight in the city late at night still appeared to have a lot of courage.

Fan Xian also heard the sound of horses’ hooves, and withdrew his gaze from the sky, looking toward the city gates.

I don’t know if it was because the sun in the sky was so blazing that it left a blazing white mark on his retina, but when he looked at the cavalry at the city gates that had a dusty look on their faces, and especially when he looked at the general at the forefront of the cavalry, it was as if he had seen a sun.

The general who led that cavalry’s courageous night attack on the grasslands was not tall, and instead looked a bit thin against the armor, but Fan Xian felt that the other party’s body was glowing with radiance.

Especially the …… pair of eyes under her eyebrows that were like the green diaper of distant mountains.

Those eyes were still so bright, so bright that there wasn’t a single stray color, like jade that reflected the sunlight. But her brows were furrowed, and she seemed to have more heart than many years ago. Her armor was stained with blood, and the horse beneath her was weary, seemingly having been through a real fight last night.

Seemingly stung by that pair of clean gazes, Fan Xian closed his eyes and lowered his head, hoping that the other party hadn’t noticed him, but some strange feelings welled up in his heart. This scene seemed to prove that such a thing as time was not just an absolute one-way forward movement.

Five years ago, when Fan Xian had arrived in Kyoto from Tanyu, he had seen this little girl with eyebrows like distant mountains and eyes like jade outside the city gates. Only back then, the little girl who called out to his master was wearing a light-colored jacket and a playful white buckskin hat, whereas today’s girl was wearing a dusty military outfit and was all austere.

Time changed many people, changed people a lot, the only thing that remained the same seemed to be their names.

Fan Xian lowered his head deeply, using his subordinate’s body to hide his form. Ye Ling’er, who was riding on her horse, was obviously a bit tired and did not notice her old acquaintances among the merchants along the street. And those merchants, realizing that the cavalry leader was Ye Ling’er, retracted their gazes.

These merchants who had been traveling to and from Qingzhou for many years had gotten used to this scene, since it was the Ye family’s young lady leading the army out of the city, then no matter if it was night or day, she would always have to kill some bearded people before she would return to the city.

Kyoto rebellion has been over for two years, His Majesty the Emperor, in remembrance of the loyalty of the Ye family, issued a decree to take away the title of Ye Ling’er’s consort, which is in fact an implicit permission for this girl to remarry.

In the old territory of the Dingzhou army, all the soldiers and civilians, are still used to call this homecoming girl as Miss Ye, no one used to call her princess. Ye Ling’er, on the other hand, had always stubbornly called herself the crown princess, only to take a knife and force Li Hongcheng to send her to Qingzhou a year ago.

Fan Xian was silent as he looked at the fading back of the horse that was drifting away. Ye Ling’er’s life in Dingzhou Qingzhou in these two years, he was very clear, he understood more why Ye Ling’er insisted on presenting herself as the king’s consort, and why Ye Ling’er was covered in armor.

Perhaps only in the grasslands, only when wielding a sword, would she forget those unpleasant pasts. The environment of the grassland, the career of irony, was indeed the best way to make a person strong.

The young lady of the main envoy of the Privy Council, the daughter of the man in charge of the Qing Kingdom’s military and horses, would actually fight head-on with the enemy at the most dangerous border, this was probably a scenario that had never been seen before in history. But because of this drama, Ye Ling’er was no longer just receiving sympathetic glances and rumors, but respect and fear.

Fan Xian was not worried about Ye Ling’er’s safety, because that boy Li Hongcheng would definitely not let Ye Ling’er fall into a deadly situation. The people on both sides of the border had a natural reverence for the Ye family, and the cavalry Ye Ling’er led must be the elite of the elite of the Qing army.

Ye Ling’er had the strength of the seventh rank, which was enough to defend herself, and the most crucial thing was that this path to oblivion was chosen by Ye Ling’er herself, and Fan Xian extremely respected this.

After working very hard to exchange the paperwork to leave the gate, being grabbed by the ears by the Qingzhou military, reprimanded, and infinitely intimidated about the danger of those huans on the grasslands, Mu Feng’er, who had a helpless face, finally completed a set of formalities.

The goods are concentrated in the Qingzhou Division Yamen, out of the city into the grassland when, then with the hands of the road to collect, this is also afraid of checking the goods after, some people will secretly do again.

This kind of thing, no matter in which border, is quite rampant, even some officers will also into some small shares. Only the Dingzhou general’s office turned a blind eye to this matter, Qingzhou is hanging on the edge of the prairie, life is unbearable, if there is no water, which officer is willing to stay here for years.

That night Fan Xian and his entourage, in a large bunk bed, the whole room stinks of feet, but also the night cold into the bones, Fan Xian with the “privilege” to sleep against the wall of the position, although the coldest here, but also the most quiet.

Mu Feng’er was lying beside him, asking for forgiveness in a soft voice. Fan Xian smiled and didn’t say anything, in everyone’s eyes, he was a nobleman, but not many people knew what kind of suffering he had endured in his two lives, and when it came to such things as suffering, everyone would underestimate him.

As the night grew deeper, a few very slight movements came from outside the window of the datong bunk, Mu Feng’er, who had been awake all this time, immediately woke up alertly, ready to notify Lord Fan Jr. Unexpectedly, as soon as he turned his face, he saw Fan Xian’s bright, calm eyes, glowing in the night.

Like wolves.

The two of them quietly got up and met up with an official from the four quarters of the Supervisory Court, the same clever man who had secretly sent the sword to Kyoto. In a dark corner of the courtyard, Fan Xian lowered his voice and asked the official, “How many more of these knives are there?”

“Just this one.” The official replied extremely quickly, “Originally, three came back from that search, but after I took one, I realized the next day that the two were gone.”

Fan Xian’s heart chilled as he asked, “Could it be?”

The official knew what he meant and shook his head, “It wasn’t the Western Battalion that collected them. These trophies are unremarkable and are piled up in the middle of the warehouse, so no one pays attention to them. As for those two swords …… should have been stolen, but who stole them, I am not sure.”

“You weren’t watching that night?” Fan Xian stared into the official’s eyes.

The official raised his head and whispered back, “Stared all night, but found nothing ……” He paused and said, “If someone can steal the knives in front of me, they must be an expert. ”

For some reason, Fan Xian trusted this subordinate’s confident judgment, smiled, and asked, “How high?”

“As high as ninth rank.” The subordinate answered cutely.

After a few lines of conversation, Fan Xian realized that he liked the four officials whose names he didn’t know, but didn’t know where this liking came from. He gave the official a curious look without saying anything, secretly thinking, “The disciples of the ninth rank under the world are all famous and powerful people, so how could a ninth rank appear in this remote Qingzhou?

Although he liked it, Fan Xian’s eyes under his slightly drooping curtains went ice cold. His fingers flexed slightly, ready to strike out and kill the official in front of him.

“One last question, why are you so attached to this knife?”

The knife that had broken off in the carriage was of a very ordinary style, and if Fan Xian wasn’t very familiar with the material used for the blade, he would never have realized the hidden menace in it.

The four officials did not sense Fan Xian’s hidden killing intent, and said respectfully, “Your honor, the next official …… is a member of the Qinian group.”

The official knelt down on one knee and presented an object with both hands. Fan Xian took the object and slowly caressed it in his palm, his heart empty. Yes, this was the very token of his most loyal subordinate, except that he really knew nothing about this official’s existence.

But he confirmed the other’s identity, and, no longer suspecting anything, nodded.

The official stood up and said in a low voice, ”My subordinate was personally selected by Lord Wang to join the team, only that he has never stepped forward. Some years ago, my subordinate has been in the three major workshops, and was only transferred to Qingzhou by the division at the beginning of this year. Looking at this knife then felt a little strange, because this knife embryo, should be the C big workshop out of the B kind of steel …… In previous years, the weapons produced by the inner treasury, perhaps may be lost on the battlefield, but this kind of knife, has not been equipped with the military. My subordinate feels that the situation is urgent, so I hastened to inform Your Excellency.”

Fan Xian nodded and took a deep breath, knowing that his good fortune was still continuing, only that he didn’t know who the ninth ranked expert was who stole the two swords. He secretly deduced that if that person was his enemy, he was only afraid that by this time, the court would have already been filled with remarks attacking him for treason, and since it was quiet within the court, it meant that the person who stole the knives was also trying to cover up for himself.

“So you’re the person the old king personally picked.” In the darkness, Fan Xian smiled, but couldn’t see that his smile was somewhat twisted, “No wonder the speech is so …… interesting.”

Fan Xian spoke again, “Regarding the name Songzhi Immortal Order, have you gotten any results from your investigation?”

The official stood up and earnestly reported, “It’s true that there have been a few more outsiders in the Hu people’s king’s tent in the past two years, but there is no such person as Songzhi Xianling, and my subordinates don’t have a clue.”

“Hmm.” Fan Xian said, “I’ve already asked the second office to look into this name, so wait here and send someone into the grasslands to notify me as soon as you have news.”

“Your honor is going to the grasslands?”

“I’m going to find the person who stole the sword.” Fan Xian’s voice was cold, then he softened his voice and patted the official on the shoulder, saying, “You’ve done a good job this time, and after you finish investigating this case, go back to the capital and help me.”

“Thank you, Your Excellency for promoting ……,” the official was overjoyed and knelt down to answer the order, lowering his voice but unable to suppress his joy, “It’s been two years since I’ve seen Lord Wang, and I don’t know if his old man is doing well now. ”

Regarding Wang Qinian’s whereabouts, Fan Xian had never made it clear to the officials within the institution, including Yan Bingyun and the rest of the people, they all thought that the old head Wang had gone on a secret mission for the Lord of the Tishek, and no one suspected anything, and the peripheral officials of the Supervisory Academy, even more so, did not know anything about it.

Hearing this, Fan Xian was silent and thought in his heart, Wang Qinian, this old bastard, people are gone, but still keep on helping, how can I tell my old man not to miss him?