Chapter 8: Shan Yu

Fan Xian looked at the young man and smiled, only to have his mind, which was hidden extremely deeply by the smile, not be discovered by this young man. He had been standing in the meadow for quite some time, watching this young man walk out of the king’s tent, waiting for this young man to gradually approach this meadow before he uttered those six words.

He wanted to give this young man a chance to strike up a conversation, for he knew that this young man, who had come out of the king’s tent, must be eager to speak for a while with the merchant of the Middle Kingdom. And the means of striking up a conversation was one of Fan Xian’s best kung fu skills, and to think that the Holy Maiden of Northern Qi, Haitang, had ultimately lost to his verbal kung fu years ago, not to mention this young man.

“Of course.” That young man laughed and said, “Although it’s only six words, the grassland aura was suddenly forced out by these six words.”

This is the excuse, this is in the grassland has been lonely for a long time, the urgent need to chat with the original Chinese people, chat to solve the homesickness of the young man, looking for a very bad foot excuse – perennial supervision of the Academy’s secret service work, so that Fan Xian in such a short period of time, quickly made up his mind – -This young man’s appearance was clearly not that of a hu man, but yet he had come out of the king’s tent, and must have some connection with the person he was pursuing, which was why he had struck out.

“A person from the Central Plains?” Fan Xian pretended to look at him suspiciously and asked, “I haven’t seen you in the caravan all the way.”

“When I came back last time, some of the goods didn’t make it out, and the Great King treated us guests extremely well, so I stayed to see if there were any benefits.” Obviously, this young man was not an expert at lying, and something was heard by Fan Xian in his tone.

“It’s my first time.” Fan Xian laughed, pointing at the Lunar Sea and the grasslands in front of him, saying, “I didn’t realize that the scenery of the grasslands would be so fascinating.”

“After seeing it for a long time, one would get tired of it.” That young man said with a bitter smile.

“Oh? I just arrived today, and I haven’t managed to feel tired of it yet. How long have you been here?” Fan Xian asked curiously, “They say that the Hu people are barbaric, aren’t you afraid that they’ll suddenly go crazy if you stay here?”

After disguising himself, Fan Xian possessed a handsome and sincere face, which, combined with his comfortable tone of voice and incomparable sincerity, made it easy to gain the trust of onlookers, and his conversation with this young man proceeded quite naturally.

The young man’s name was Wei Wucheng, presumably a false name, in his words, he was also a member of the grassland business, but was forced to be stranded in the grassland, and had stayed here for more than three months.

However, Fan Xian already had a plan in mind, so naturally he wouldn’t believe these excuses. If he was a merchant, how could he get in and out of the king’s tent so easily? By having a heart and dealing with the homesick young man with insidiousness in his sincerity, he easily managed to extract some words.

Especially the young man’s attire, the pair of Hu people’s leather boots that had been worn out, revealed that he had been on the grasslands for a long time. Through these conversations, Fan Xian obtained a lot of useful information, such as the fact that there should be more than just one young man from the Central Plains who stayed at the King’s Tent of the Lunar Sea, and that those who stayed for a long period of time were at least more than ten, and for example, some of the slight changes that had taken place at the King’s Tent during the past two years, and so on and so forth.

“After all, it’s the territory of the Hu people, after the goods are cleared this time, Brother Wei should return to the Central Plains.” Fan Xian invited very sincerely, “Follow our merchant caravan, and safety on the road is guaranteed.”

Wei Wucheng froze, not knowing how to answer, looking at this young merchant’s sincere expression, he actually felt a bit apologetic in his heart. He didn’t quite understand why he had been chatting with this seemingly ordinary young merchant for so long, but he could feel that the conversation was comfortable, and the other party was a very trustworthy person to talk to.

If this inference of Wei Wucheng’s was spread, I’m afraid that the whole world would laugh their asses off, Nan Qing Fan Xian, is someone who can be trusted?

“Alright, I’ll go and consult the elders of the clan.” Wei Wucheng reluctantly smiled and answered. Fan Xian, however, would not be foolish enough to point this out directly, and stood up from the meadow, patted his butt, and said, “Brother Wei, see you in the evening.”

In the evening, the Western Hu King’s Tent hosted a banquet for the merchants of the Central Plains, and if Wei Wucheng really was a merchant, he would definitely be able to meet him at the banquet. Wei Wucheng hesitated for a moment before explaining, “The banquet is set up at night to entertain you, we don’t think we will come.”

“Wei Wucheng doesn’t have an accent, but he’s definitely not a merchant.” Fan Xian took a sip of the goat’s milk wine and frowned somewhat uncomfortably as he said to Mu Feng’er beside him, “Moreover, he’s been on the grasslands for at least a year, and there are at least a dozen other people who can come and go as they please in and out of the king’s tent along with him.”

Mu Feng’er glanced at her lord and lowered her voice to ask, “Is it the person we’re looking for?”

“It should be close.” Fan Xian didn’t seem to have expected his luck to be as good as this, but whirled around and shook his head, “But this Wei Wucheng isn’t a professional spy, or he couldn’t have made such a big mistake. I’m wondering, what exactly are these Central Plains people trying to do by staying in Western Hu territory?”

Fan Xian set aside his bowl and looked at Mu Feng’er, “The most crucial thing is that the person called Songzhi Xianling has yet to show himself. Regardless of what Wei Wucheng’s party can do to help Xihu, but the fact that the Xihu King’s Account trusts this party so much is definitely because of the Songzhi Immortal Order.”

“According to Your Excellency, I went to inquire about it, but didn’t dare to name it directly for fear of attracting the attention of others.” Mu Feng’er reported, “However, in the past two years or so, Xihu Shan Yu has not taken any concubines or consorts, and has not even had a woman other than his main wife.”

Fan Xian paused for a moment, from the very beginning, he had thought that Songzhi Xianling was a woman, which was why Mu Feng’er had started to look into it from this angle, but at this moment, hearing Mu Feng’er’s report back, Fan Xian could not help but laugh to himself and said, “If it really was her, how could she possibly go on to become Shan Yu’s favored concubine.”

“There is another problem.” Mu Feng’er said seriously, “I think that Wei Wucheng appeared too coincidentally, so coincidentally that it cannot be explained, and what he said cannot be completely trusted, what if it’s a trap, or misleading?”

“My target was not originally those Central Plains people in the king’s tent.” Fan Xian bowed his head and said, “Wei Wucheng’s appearance seems coincidental to you, but it doesn’t seem coincidental to me at all.”

He shook his head and said, “The grasslands and the Central Plains are two worlds altogether, you don’t stay here for a year and a half, you simply can’t understand those people, for the homesickness …… Wei Wucheng is still a young man, homesickness is hard to stop, seeing us merchants from the Central Plains, of course, you want to talk and listen to what’s really happening in your homeland. and listen to what interesting things are really happening in our homeland.”

Homesickness could really be so difficult to suppress? Mu Feng’er frowned, secretly thinking that after he was transferred from one place to the Qiyan group, he had also been on foreign missions before, but he didn’t feel how it would be.

Seemingly guessing what Mu Feng’er was thinking, Fan Xian said, “There will always be a day when the foreign missions are done, but those Central Plains people …… or Northern Qi people who go in and out of the king’s tent, they may never be able to go back to their hometown again.”

After saying these words, he fell into silence. The reason why he felt so clearly about Wei Wucheng’s mind was entirely because Fan Xian understood very well how much emotion would build up in the heart of a wanderer whose homeland was difficult to return to and who was stranded in a foreign land.

Just like himself, after leaving that world filled with the flavor of potion, he could never go back, and although he had never broken his heart, he was still thinking about it in a way that was hard to suppress.

“Even if …… Wei Wucheng is homesick and wants to talk to the merchants in Central China, but are the people in the king s tent not afraid that he will speak out?”

“He’s using the identity of a merchant, and we can’t go deep into the king’s tent to see the proceedings of the Western Hu nobles, so no one can prove anything.”

Obviously, Mu Feng’er was still worried about Wei Wucheng’s chance encounter with Lord Tishi, frowning tightly, she said, “It just seems strange that since it was a casual chat, why didn’t he go to the Xiong family’s merchants, or to me …… in favor of you, my lord?”

Fan Xian was silent for a moment, and a lovely smile surfaced on his face as he spoke, “My encounter with Wei Wucheng was not a coincidence in the first place …… If you know that when he came out of the king’s tent, I was already standing on top of the meadow, watching his every move.”

That scene scene, Mu Feng’er also saw it clearly, he stood at the entrance of the tent next to the Crescent Moon Sea, and watched Lord Tiji standing above the meadow, overlooking the grassland lake.

“I’m better looking, even if I put on a disguise, I’m still better looking ……,” said Fan Xian with a smile, “And it gives people a feeling that they are willing to get close. When I stood on the meadow, the Hu women next to the sea were all looking at me hotly, didn’t you notice?”

Mu Feng’er’s face changed, this kind of narcissistic talk was not really good to take. But he was also clear that what Lord Tiji said was just the truth, he might be able to dress up as an ordinary merchant, but he was also definitely the most attractive one amongst the merchants.

“I am standing on the meadow to attract the attention of that young man who hurriedly walked out of the king’s tent.” Fan Xian said, “I want him to see me at a glance, and then …… come to me. It wouldn’t be a deviation from the truth to say that I seduced Wei Wucheng to come and talk to me.”

Mu Feng’er spread her hands hopelessly and said, “So it’s a beautiful man’s plan.”

The two of them were gossiping in the tent, actually waiting for the arrival of the king’s tent banquet when the sun sloped down on the Lunar Sea. It didn’t take long for one of the interpreter roles in the Hu people to come and respectfully invite guests. The merchants in the various tents came out one after another, not carrying goods with them, but looking at their arms, they should be carrying valuable gifts to offer to Shan Yu.

Mu Feng’er’s body also carried some, the specific arrangement Fan Xian was not very clear, he just walked at the end of the crowd, not attracting the slightest attention towards the king’s tent.

That largest tent under the mountain, that branch of the king’s flag towering high above, marked the honorable status and great power of the people inside. Watching this scene, Fan Xian’s heart couldn’t help but feel something strange. This was the king’s tent of Xihu, in which lived the master of the grassland. The Qing army had fought and chased the master of the grassland for countless years, but not once had they been able to find this king’s flag.

Because the Xihu King’s Tent migrated at any time, and its trail was mysterious, no matter whether it was Emperor Qing himself who led the troops on the western expedition back then, or the subsequent successive attacks by the Grand Prince as well as the Ye family, none of them had been able to find each other, or even get close enough to get close.

Fan Xian’s feet moved slowly, thinking in his heart that the king’s tent, which tens of thousands of iron cavalry were unable to get close to, was actually right in front of him, and this attraction and temptation was just incomparably great. However, he immediately calmed down, the fact that the Xihu royal tent actually dared to be so proclaimed in front of the world now also proved the other party’s attempts as well as the changes brought about by those Central Plains people in the royal tent.

Entering the king’s tent, he realized that the tent no longer looked like a tent, but rather like a uniquely styled palace, with the high ceiling painted with strange patterns in paint, with strange lights appearing in the clouds and flowing brushstrokes, which gave Fan Xian a strange feeling of familiarity, as if he had seen it somewhere before.

His status was that of the second master of the first merchant house in Sha Zhou, a much lower status than all the other great merchants, and he just followed Mu Feng’er and sat in the position closest to the door.

And the master of the grassland, the monarch of Xihu, was sitting on the main seat in the deepest part.

The tent was dim, and it was impossible to see the face of that single king. Fan Xian squinted his eyes and stared there as unobtrusively as possible, only about making out that it was a middle-aged man in his thirties.

Then Fan Xian realized that his calmness was, indeed, very necessary. For at the side of that Western Hu monarch, there were half a dozen Hu experts looking coldly down the mat.

They were true experts, and three or four of them were even above Hu Ge’s strength. Fan Xian lowered his head, secretly estimating that even if he played to his extreme level, he could at best only deal with four people, and that King of the Grassland, whose face was hidden in the gloom, was sitting in a stable and wolf-tiger-like posture, and he really did not know the strength of his strength.

In the tiger’s den still want to capture the tiger king, this is not brave, but stupid, and Fan Xian this trip, also did not act as the Qing army iron cavalry daredevil consciousness, so he lowered his head to take the leg of lamb nibbling, silent, listening to both ears.

It was just a pity that there wasn’t much information to keep in mind at the banquet. The mutton was good, and the Hu maidservants who poured the wine were full of wholesome beauty, but the merchants’ songs of praise and the enthusiastic toasts of the right and left Da Dangshi were just a bit tiresome to listen to. The king of the prairie was not as full of the rough flavor of the prairie as Fan Xian had imagined, and even after a whole banquet of more than an hour, the monarch only said three words in total.

But it was these three words that made Fan Xian feel a trace of coldness, for although the tone was polite, there was a sense of intimidation within.

In the detailed information of the Supervision Bureau, there were not many records about this Shan Yu. For one thing, the king’s tent has always been secret, for another, also because these decades, due to the powerful Qing country’s continuous blow, West Hu for many years of defeat, the control and influence of the monarch’s royal court has been far less than before, the right and left two wise king’s prestige is gradually high, in the monarch’s father’s death, and even had the rumor of choosing one of the two wise king’s successor.

Later on, although this monarch struggled to inherit the royal court, but the entire grassland, but vaguely to the two wise kings as the strongest. Qing’s intelligence work has also long been turned to the tent of the two wise kings, and this monarch has been somewhat neglected.

I did not think that the young monarch in his early thirties, actually very good control of the situation on the prairie, began to vigorously weaken the power of the two wise kings, especially the force of opinion, greeted the barbarians from the north above the snowy plains of the brotherhood, more than 10,000 barbarians elite into the royal family personal guards, the strength of the sudden surge.

What’s more, there are still so many people from the Central Plains in the king’s tent, what exactly does he want to do? As Fan Xian sipped his wine, he pondered over the thoughts of the single lord in the shadows.

At that moment, that Shan Yu seemed to have sensed something strange, frowned and raised his head, revealing an eagle-like gaze in his eyes as he swept across the table.

He didn’t find anything, because when his gaze fell to the doorway, Fan Xian was drunkenly peeking at the bulging breasts of the Xihu girl beside him, with a hint of constraint, a hint of reluctance, playing the role of a merchant’s follower to the hilt.

As the old saying goes, Emperor Qing and Fan Xian are the two strongest actors in the world.

After a big banquet, many merchants were drunk by the hu people, the oil lamps were hanging high in the tent, emitting black smoke, Shan Yu and the right and left Gu Yi Wangs went to take a rest, leaving the two big bosses and the good men of the hu tribe, who were still grabbing the merchants in the central plains and pouring them with alcohol.

Fan Xian and Mu Feng’er have long been drunk to unconsciousness, was carried back to the tent, just a pity but also celebrated, Western Hu act, not like the Central Plains people denigrated that ridiculous and shameless, at least these Central Plains merchants tent, there is no attractive body, such as wildflowers like beautiful Hu women to accompany the bed.

After the lights went out, Mu Feng’er sat up with great difficulty, and when she turned around, she saw Fan Xian’s bright, wolf-like eyes.

In Qingzhou City, Mu Feng’er had also seen this kind of eyes, which did not resemble the usual gentle and refreshing eyes of an adult, and she wondered if it was because of the autumn winds on the grassland, which had brought back something fierce and cruel in Fan Xian’s heart.

Fan Xian handed over a pill to relieve his drunkenness, and without explaining anything in excess, he left the tent, took advantage of the cover of darkness, passed through the camp of the Hu people, and came under the lonely mountain at the back of the Crescent Moon Sea, tied up his clothes, and climbed towards the mountain.

When he was about to climb to the top of the mountain, he found a protruding rock, sat down on the side and back of it, took out a small tube from his bosom, fiddled with it very carefully twice, and then lengthened it and brought it up above his right eye.

The latest telescope from the inner library, Fan Xian personally designed it and was the first to use it.

The cylinder was quietly pointed at the still noisy Western Hu King’s tent camp below. After an unknown amount of time, Fan Xian’s brow furrowed, for in the cylinder, he saw that Shan Yu march out and turn toward a small tent at the right rear.