Chapter 66 – Farmer, Mountain, and a Little Bit of Field
The tip of Fan Xian’s brow furrowed as he looked at the man in the shadows, and after a moment’s hesitation, he opened his mouth and asked, “Why are you so happy like this? Even though we’ve seen so little of each other, it’s kinda hard to get used to.”
The swordsman in the dark shadows bowed slightly and said with a smile, “I’ve always been such a frivolous person, please forgive me, Lord Little Fan.”
“Petulant?” Fan Xian frowned and said, “No wonder you caused such a big mess back then because of your playfulness that the palace named you to be removed.”
The swordsman’s face flinched as he said with a straight face, “Thanks to Lord Shangshu, I was able to survive until today.”
Fan Xian did not say anything else, but thought of something else, someone else.
In the battle of Dadong Mountain, more than a hundred Tiger Guards all lost their lives, and His Majesty the Emperor lent his sword in the hands of the Four Guards Sword, exceptionally cold-bloodedly and mercilessly cleansing away the Tiger Guards, and also sweeping away Fan Jian’s greatest booster that he had hidden within the imperial family, and it was because of this attitude and heart that forced Fan Jian to withdraw from this treacherous land of Kyoto early.
But Fan Shangshu had grown up with His Majesty the Emperor since he was a child, and had operated in the imperial court for many years, and had even secretly trained tiger guards for the Li Clan for so long that he naturally left some hidden hands.
The black-clothed swordsman in front of Fan Xian was one of them. This black-robed swordsman was once a member of the Tiger Guards, but later faked his death and became a direct subordinate of Fan Jian in the darkness, secretly doing some unseen things for the Fan family, even including monitoring the palace’s outstretched tentacles.
During the rebellion in Kyoto, Fan Xian risked a great deal to strike at Qing Yu Tang, and Fan Jian watched coldly from behind him and cleaned up the mess for him; at that time, it was the secret power of the Fan family, led by the black-robed swordsman, that took action. It wasn’t until that day that Fan Xian truly came into contact with this last batch of his father’s strength.
“You also know about what happened on Da Dong Mountain.” Fan Xian looked at the swordsman and asked, “How many Tiger Guards are still alive in this world today?”
“Under Lord Shangshu, there are still twenty-one.” The black-clothed swordsman smiled and said, “If the great masters are all dead and clean, these people of ours are still of some use.”
Fan Xian used to only deal with Gao Da’s seven wooden-faced tiger guards, and for a while he was really not used to this black-clothed swordsman’s tone of voice, and said with a bitter smile, “Let’s not talk about this, and go back to what happened earlier, and suddenly have to mention so much silver, isn’t father worried about someone guessing something in the national dynasty?”
The black-clothed knife guest did not answer this question, but instead, as he did, asked with a soft smile, “Young master’s recent boldness also seems to be a lot bigger, the Shangshu adults passed on the news, you really began to prepare to transfer money, and even go so far as to reach out to the Sun family and Xiong’s family, are …… you not afraid of the imperial court to detect anything? ”
With these words, Fan Xian fell into silence, and the black-robed swordsman did not continue to open his mouth to pursue the matter. In these three years after the Kyoto rebellion, Fan Xian’s covert endeavors at the Fish Gut have been done extremely small-mindedly, not seeking to be successful, but seeking to be seamless, and the progress has been a bit too slow.
But Fan Xian had to do it, and his father, who was far away in Tanyu State, seemed to approve of his caution-after all, with His Majesty the Emperor in power, no one dared to take the risk of stirring up anything, and in the event that things leaked out, it could only be a scene of blood and fire.
Only today, it seems that Fan Xian and Fan Jian, both father and son, have begun to accelerate their pace at the same time. Fan Xian’s heart is clear, the reason why his father accelerated the pace, because he knows that his heart began to gradually drift in that direction.
The black-clothed swordsman’s next words also confirmed Fan Xian’s suspicions.
“If young master wants to do something in the future, don’t forget me.” The black-clothed swordsman smiled and said, “I’m also very interested in killing my way into the palace.”
The corner of Fan Xian’s lips curled slightly as he said, “I’m interested in whether you intend to avenge your own family, or whether you want to avenge the deaths of those of your fellow soldiers on the Great Eastern Mountain?”
“Is there any difference?”
“Indeed there is no difference, for you, for those Tiger Guards hiding in the darkness. His Majesty the Emperor has never treated you as human beings, and it’s only natural that you don’t treat him as a monarch.” Fan Xian slightly lowered his eyes and said softly, “But the question is, if you say this right in front of this official, aren’t you afraid that this official will really kill you? You should know very well the relationship between His Majesty the Emperor and me.”
The black-clothed swordsman said calmly, “I’m even more aware of the relationship between you and Lord Shangshu.”
“Very contradictory.” Fan Xian smiled and sighed, saying, “You are a very powerful group of swordsmen, but you are also a very dangerous group of characters, and even I don’t know if I can control you, so I think it’s best for you to remain at your father’s side, and that includes those Dark Tiger Guards beside you as well, and don’t try to get involved in my affairs.”
A faint color of disappointment flashed in the black-clothed swordsman’s eyes.
“Father is the only one who can control you all, and I want to take everything into my own hands, so there’s no way I’m going to use you.” Fan Xian gradually restrained his smile and said calmly, “I have my own power, your task is only one thing, make sure to ensure father’s safety, as long as you do that and leave me with no worries, I may be able to achieve your and your brothers’ goals.”
The black-clad swordsman fell silent.
The silence was maintained for a long time, and Fan Xian took a sip of the cold tea beside him and subconsciously scrunched up his two legs, hugging his knees and sitting on the chair, a gesture that wasn’t very pretty, but which gave him some sense of security.
It was in this moment that he thought of the second prince, looking at the black clothed swordsman in front of him, he thought of Gouda, the innocent people who bled and died because of His Majesty the Emperor’s scheming, he even thought of Chen Pingping, and Jing Ge who had slit Qin Heng’s throat in front of the imperial palace gate in Kyoto.
It had been some days since he had seen Jing Ge. Fan Xian’s eyes flashed with a glimmer of light, thinking that Chen Pingping had secretly done so much, pulling over many people from the brink of death, while his father had actually secretly done pretty much the same thing all these years.
These two old comrades back then didn’t pass through the gas much, but the way they chose was extremely the same, probably they are both clear that only people who have really felt life and death have the courage to stand in this world and rebel against all the pressures exerted on them, and only those who have passed through the great catastrophe of life and death can still stand up straight and bravely and even proudly and wildly under the radiance of the imperial power.
This was probably what the Four Gu Swords had said about the issue of heart and mind, which had nothing to do with the level of one’s cultivation realm. Only this kind of person can go on to do truly great things, such as the black-clothed swordsman in front of him, such as Jing Ge, who wore a silver-colored mask.
“You go back and say that I’ll solve the silver problem as soon as possible, but to turn the paper from the money changers into the nutrients that the fish intestines need, the matter itself is extremely difficult.” Fan Xian looked at the black-clothed swordsman and said with extreme caution, “I’m worried that I’m surrounded by palace eyes, that’s why I came to Weizhou this time, and that’s why I’m foraging for Guan Charming to be a shadow, and if the inner court or the Ministry of Justice or the Metropolitan Police Department notices anything, they’ll only be suspicious of this layer. So you also need to be more careful, don’t be targeted.”
“The problem is that young master, you came to see Guan Feminine for the purpose of raising silver for Fish Intestine as well.” The black-clothed swordsman frowned in a rare moment, “What if the other party checks from this side?”
“Me and you, are like the shore of the cliff, forever single line of contact, even if someone wants to check, at most they will check me and never check down again. As for the flow of silver money towards, the former part of the process in the account, naturally have father stayed in Jiangnan’s Ministry of Revenue old officials to deal with, as for the latter part of the conversion …… “Fan Xian slightly bowed his head, seems to also feel that this matter is a little difficult, slowly said:” I can deal with part of it, and then we’ll see how it goes over in Dongyi City, if we can get foreign inbound goods, we should be able to speed things up a lot.”
“Then I will leave.” Although the black-clothed swordsman felt that Fan Xian hadn’t finished what he was supposed to say, he also knew that he had to go, and said with a bow of his hand, “It’s just that there’s been one thing I’ve been curious about for the past three years.”
Fan Xian raised his eyes to look at him and said with a smile, “What is it?”
“Why is it called Fish Intestine?”
After a long silence, Fan Xian said, “Fishgut is a sword, a sword used by a man called Zhuanzhu, a sword hidden in the belly of a fish, a sword that may be hidden forever in the belly of a fish and never see the light of day, but once it breaks through the belly and comes out, it will surely pierce into someone’s chest.”
“You are a fish gut, Jing Ge was once a fish gut, and the shadow beside me is also a fish gut.” Fan Xian smiled and said, “It’s just that all of you have begun to see the light of day, and only my fish intestines are still hidden.”
Fan Xian stayed in Weizhou for the night, and had a discussion with Guan Charming about the matter of collecting silver. Xia Qufei was in Suzhou at this time, and could not come over in any case, and he had to remind the master of the new Ming family, through Guan Charming’s mouth, of the great importance of this matter. The next day, Lingnan Xiong family and Quanzhou Sun family sent representatives arrived in Weizhou, Fan Xian just hidden in the shadows to see, to confirm the attitude of these two giant family may hold, and then put down his heart.
The excuse of the Xinming family was indeed very real, and although there was not much news coming from the north yet, the two Sun and Xiong families would never believe that Xia Qufei would deceive himself in this matter, because there was no benefit to any such deception.
The mutual lending between merchants and businessmen, in fact, the key is still to consider each other’s ability to repay. In Sun and Xiong’s opinion, even if the court of Northern Qi started to vigorously crack down on the smuggling of the Ming family’s line north because of Dongyi City, but the Ming family’s back is now Lord Fan, and there is a constant flow of goods from the inner treasury as a guarantee, which is always a golden nest, and in any case, it is not possible to be in a situation where one cannot pay back the money.
After confirming that this silver can arrive, Fan Xian also secretly let Guan Charming inform Xia Qifei, let him feast Yang Jimei in Huayuan, the number one salt merchant in Jiangnan, I think there should be a lot of silver hidden in the mansion, and Xia Qifei borrowed silver from him, and the difficulty is probably not too big.
If Yang Jimei could not raise the money alone, he would naturally mobilize the salt merchants in Jiangnan to help. Have to say, Fan Xian in Jiangnan a place to stay for two or three years, really laid a solid foundation, as long as the surface did not touch the foundation of the imperial court, he has the ability to Jiangnan shopping malls of the strength of the collection. And this power, is really some appalling, able to raise so much silver in a short period of time, not anyone can do.
These things took Fan Xian a whole day, and at twilight, he left Weizhou City and disappeared into the blood-like colors. From that day onward, not only did these subordinates of his in Jiangnan not know where he had gone, but even the close associates of the Supervisory Court and the Qiyan Panel had completely lost track of him.
A young ninth-grade expert who had spent his entire life immersed in the Supervisory Court, who had deliberately gone on the road in disguise, was fully capable of avoiding everyone’s attention. Just like that, Fan Xian disappeared.
After an unknown number of days, when the spring in the inner belly of the continent had deepened to the point of no return, a dusty figure appeared outside of a large mountain pass on the border between Beiqi and Dongyi City.
This place was very remote, but the transportation wasn’t too backward, as it was a transit point for the old commercial road many years ago, only that it had been abandoned for a long time, and had long since disappeared from the map, and from the hearts of many people as well.
Looking from the outside of the mountain, this place is quiet, occasionally barking dogs and chickens, there are farmers walking on the street, the night is already deep, but the occasional farmer seems to not need a little light at all, you can see the slightly wet and muddy fields under the feet.
The figure quietly brushed past these farmers and traveled towards the mountains.
The road toward the mountain appeared to be winding up, like a fish intestine going around and around. The dusty figure toward the mountain has been walking, do not know how long to walk, clothes with dew, shoes stepped on the dead branches, finally climbed to halfway up the mountainside. Originally in front of the eyes is still a deserted mountain village, a turn of the head, but see the lights, full of mountain manor, countless through a fresh flavor of the building, like a miracle, appeared in the valley.
That figure threw down the bamboo stick in his hand, looked at these lights in the belly of the mountain at his feet, and for some reason, felt very moved in his heart, so much so that his eyes were almost moist.
Because he knew how much spiritual money he had consumed and how many people were working hard for this scene hidden behind the farm, hidden in the Peach Blossom Garden.
Just like those farmers he once met in front of Mt.