Chapter 002: Up and Down Qingliang Mountain

The sky was getting dusk.

Xu Fengyen walked out of Xu Weixiong that medicinal smell of the house, maid cucumber in the past few days as soon as the free time is sticky with the long time not met the son, in the doorway wrinkled nose sniffing, thinking of taking off the waist scented capsule for the son to hang, so as to dissipate some of the smell of medicine, but Xu Fengyen shook his head and walked together to the courtyard, saw Xu Snapdragon sitting on the stone bench doze off, cucumber quietly cover his mouth with a smile, tip-toed out of the yard, do not disturb the king of Northern Liang and His Royal Highness. His Highness, the world’s son to get along, before leaving the door, looking back, the world’s son white head, let her heartbreaking. Xu Fengnian just sat down, snoozing Xu Snapdragon came to his senses, rubbed his cheeks, laughed at himself and said: “Older is sleepy, remember when I was young, no matter whether it was to kill the enemy or flee, three days and three nights without closing their eyes is a common thing, did not see any fatigue, as long as squinting on a sleep, woke up and can eat four or five pounds of cooked meat, in the end, not to serve the old can not be ah. ”

Xu Fengnian laughed: “A good man does not mention the courage of the year. Who still do not have an old time, you are not Taoist hiding in the cave in the blessed land to cultivate longevity of the real people, and then again on your enlightenment also want to prove longevity? A lifetime of the second grade small master realm, and then look at than you are younger than General Gu Jiantang, have entered the martial arts list, you are not ashamed of it?”

Xu Snapdragon wanted to laugh loudly, but did not dare to disturb his daughter in the house to heal and recuperate, wrapped his arms around the cuffs, his hands in his sleeves, neither like the king of Beiliang, nor like a great general, but like an old man in the village with no worries about food and clothing, laughed softly and said: “This you don’t understand, I’ve already become a father, and I’m at this age, I don’t want to compare the height of the martial arts or the size of the hat, compare to compare to my own son, in the end it’s still better than my own son, I don’t know. In the end, it is still compared to their own son, you see Gu Jiantang’s children, the male is not good at martial arts, the appearance is also crooked, the female is also no surprise, Gu Jiantang want to compare with my Xu Snapdragon? I’m not even happy to take care of him, play his big sword on the cool side.”

Xu Fengnian scoffed, “You think big.”

Xu Snap turned his head to look at the Yellow Crane Tower at the top of Qingliang Mountain and suggested, “Chatting while climbing the mountain?”

Xu Fengnian nodded, waved his hand and called the big maid in his second sister’s courtyard, asked for two jugs of warmed yellow wine, got up and handed Xu Snap a jug, “Drink less green ants, some of them are making me feel like I have a smoky throat, since you’ve convinced yourself that it’s getting old, in the future, drink more yellow wine, to nourish your health.”

Xu Snapdragon smiled and took the yellow wine, poured a small mouth, out of the yard, along a green stone main road to the top of the mountain, when the king’s house was built, according to the king of the northern Liang meaning is how to gold and jade how to come, this mountain road can not wait to directly paved with gold, and then his daughter-in-law said that the green stone plate on the line, but also a good symbol of the green cloud road, do not seek to step on the green cloud, children and grandchildren even if they walk strenuously, it is always still ascending to the green cloud. Xu Snapdragon agreed without saying a word, when personally involved in carrying stone paving this kind of hard work. Father and son, leisurely hiking, Xu Fengyen said: “Chu Lushan has gone to take office in Beiliang, awarded the Hussar General, because Chen Xiliang is ready to start organizing the Beiliang military positions, many of the miscellaneous number of generals will be canceled, only eight or nine. The title of lieutenant would be worth a lot more than before, so let’s start with this Hussar General without the word ‘Great’. Yuan Zuozong outlawed Zhong Hongwu to become the commander of the cavalry, and awarded him the title of Che Cavalry General. Qi Dangguo and Ning Emei both served as the main and deputy generals of the Iron Floaters respectively, and Huang Ban’er led the new Dragon Elephant Army, all three of them were not authorized as generals for the time being. Fruit Yi Lieutenant Huangfu Ping official promoted one level, as for the specific is authorized Youzhou general or how, I still have to wait for Chen Xiliang’s folding. Xuanyuan Qingfeng sent Hui Mountain Secretary Hong Pei, really has the talent to lead the army, whether to replace Huangfu Ping as the captain of the fruit Yi, is still under deliberation. When Second Sister wakes up, have her lead your 30,000 man Great Snow Dragon Cavalry, do you have any opinions?”

Xu Snapdragon laughed, “Since I can be a comfortable hand-holder, how would I have an opinion. Old cucumbers painting green and pretending to be young is also too insensitive.”

Xu Fengnian glared, “Sounds like a lot of resentment?”

Xu Snap waved his hands in a hurry and said, “Nothing.”

Xu Fengnian sighed, “The Northern Liang Army is turning upside down, from the top to the bottom there are not small changes, if in case there is a sharp contradiction and I can’t suppress it, I may have to ask you to step in and pacify it.”

Xu Snapdragon said flatly: “There won’t be any big deal, the Zhao family ‘family world’ for twenty years, our Xu family ‘family Beiliang’ is also almost twenty years, Beiliang side with me about the same age of the old man, father asked himself, one are not I know about Zhong Hongwu’s case, and I know that he is a good man. Zhong Hongwu thing I know, if he dares to secretly conspire with Yan Wenluan to engage in small actions, I do not mind letting him completely drink the northwest wind to go, generals do not have to be, and even the title are removed, peace of mind as a rich man in the field. As for Yan Wenluan, when he and Changling is trying very hard to persuade me to divide the river to rule the world, so many years, has always been the head of Yi Shan laughingly known as the emperor faction, pulling together a lot of old man with grievances in his heart, Yan Wenluan single-handedly promoted the group of young and strong generals, most of them were attached to the dragon hopelessly discouraged and retired from the old generals of the children and grandchildren.”

Xu Fengnian sipped a mouthful of yellow wine, “Almost twenty years of carrion, thanks to your boldness, long ago, you simply let Yan Wenluan set up his own family, did not let this vine climb along to the cavalry to go, so that the entire Northern Liang Iron Cavalry did not let the disease into the terminal illness.”

Xu Snapdragon carrying a wine pot, sighed: “also can not help things, the spring and autumn war, nine countries side by side to fight for supremacy, our northern Liang army in one breath on the extermination of six countries, are hard to take the life for, you say how many heroes have to die? I do not want to call the emperor, and then horse trekking jianghu, okay, go are some with the jianghu involved in the old pawns, but the conquest of the Northern Mang, the emperor that the decree is a ruthless, I have no choice but to pull back, Beiliang began to disorganized, the reasons are very complex, but the result is the loss of a large number of captains, many of the original rely on the taut breath want to establish a world of old men, but also faded out of the field of vision. That is why it is difficult for a scholar to rule the country, and it is easy for a scholar to harm people. You have to be extra careful of Yuan Benxi this and Yi Shan Qi famous schemer, that secret decree from his hand, spring and autumn chaos, hard knife rely on me and Gu Jiantang this group of martial arts, this kind of bloodless soft knife, most of his handwriting, blue-eyed child Zhang Julu by a small Huangmenlang jumped so many steps, three years later, directly when the first minister, but also his authorization. In my opinion, the readers are naturally more talented than our horseback riding with a sword to have talent, but most of the eyes are high and low, can not become a big thing, talent is very high, very few things. The really scary is Yuan Benxi this can take advantage of the situation for the ambition of the readers, the emperor before ascending to the throne, had said in good faith ‘I would like to be Mr. Yuan’s strings puppets’, so Yuan Benxi let him be the nine to five, Zhao Heng that woman, surely dying hated this so that he lost the dragon chair Mr. Yuan, haha, spiteful woman! Zhao Heng, before his death is a rare man, to die in exchange for Zhao Xun hereditary recklessness, he twenty years ago to have this mind, has long been no matter of today’s son of heaven. The blind man called Lu Deng, blind heart live, two sparse fourteen strategy, write beautiful, even I can read, I heard that you and he also played chess in the Yongzi Lane? How come you didn’t just grab him as a strategist in Northern Liang?”

Xu Fengnian shook his head, “I couldn’t care about him at that time, of course the main thing is that I don’t believe in my gambling luck, so I missed it. There are some regrets, but can’t talk about how to regret. Zhao Xun this Jing’an king I taught the ability, very good at stoicism, but still worse than his father, if there is no Lu Yan, Jing’an king of the feudal land must be replaced by an eloquent and strategic figure to guard, by the time the northern Liang will be more and more difficult to bear, might as well let Zhao Xun on the side of the small family drumming and tossing. Clan king in accordance with the rule of four years into the capital to face the saint, if he dares to piggyback on the Lu Ran, I am worried for him will be cut corners, by then he is a hundred years of the civilian clan king will become a big joke.”

Xu Snapdragon laughed in delight, “Worthy of being my Xu Snapdragon’s son, domineering.”

Xu Fengnian smiled helplessly.

Xu Snapdragon hahaed, “Outside Dunhuang, a man with a sword guarding the city gate is also quite domineering. No wonder that girl Sweet Potato is dead set on you.”

Xu Fengyen stopped when he was still some distance away from the top of the hill and looked out at the panoramic view of Liangzhou state capital together with Xu Snap, “Ye Xizhen and Chu Lushan, one bright and one dark, hold the Beiliang Spy Agency, Lukqiu’er, since he has become the Beiliang Capital Protector, he will have to spit a piece of meat out of his mouth, and I am going to let Chen Xiliang take care of it. Ye Xizhen that piece, do you have a suitable candidate?”

Xu Snap asked softly, “Why didn’t you choose Xu Beihao?”

Xu Fengnian shook his head and said, “I want him to be focused on becoming the next Secretary of the Jingliu, dabbling in the matter of spies and laboring over it will distract him too much. Spies are scheming for the small and the small, while a war strategy envoy requires scheming for the big and the huge, furthermore Xu Beihao’s health is not good, I don’t want him to follow in my master’s footsteps.”

Xu primrose nodded and looked into the distance, his figure silent.

Continuing to climb the mountain, Xu Snap said, “Wu Qi should have already entered Shu from North Mang to join Chen Zhi Bao.”

Xu Fengnian said bitterly, “This trip to North Mang was grueling, but I didn’t even see this uncle’s face.”

Xu Snapdragon shook his head and said, “I might have seen him, you just don’t know. You need to think more about this matter, the fate between relatives is over.”

Xu Snap continued, “No one’s son is born with a rich and noble destiny, and there is no reason why anyone’s son must not die, my Xu Snap’s son is no exception. If you want to inherit the family business, you have to rely on yourself to fight. These twenty years, I am waiting for you to grow up, Chen Zhi Bao is waiting for you to die young. My love affair with the old Chen family is gone after he went to Iron Gate Pass thinking of killing you and Zhao Kai together. This is good, and no one is sorry for anyone. Feng Nian, father forced you to go out and travel three times, don’t blame father for being cruel.”

Xu Feng Nian joked, “I know, you are holding a grudge for so many times I whisked and beat you with a broom.”

Xu Snap almost burst out in tears of laughter, coughed a few times and poured a mouthful of warm wine to poorly calm down his emotions.

Finally climbed to the top of Qingliang Mountain, the weather is clear, the view is excellent.

Xu Snapdragon hunchbacked, squinting at the western city gate, “Today’s six feudal lords, in addition to father, to Yanzhi King Zhao Bing most powerful soldiers, when the emperor in the hall to let Chen Zhi Bao king of the southern border, there is no attempt to check and balance Zhao Bing. Guangling King Zhao Yi, and the emperor with the same mother and out, deeply valued, the surface of those knocking, is nothing more than a show to outsiders, let the door under the province of the left eunuch Sun Xizi as the Guangling Road, is worried about the means of Zhao Yi overly aggressive, causing criticism, it is difficult to ensure that the third dynasty of the Liyang dynasty of hereditary succession. The Emperor’s approach to these two people can be seen in their affinity. Jiaodong Wang Zhao Suo, because of the town of the two Liao, and I inevitably some friendship, these years by the emperor and Zhang Julu Gu Jiantang successive clip gun with a stick a clean up, the situation is indeed somewhat bleak, but although this person was born in the emperor’s family, but the nature of the rare straight, after the heart, trustworthy. Jingan Wang Zhao Xun not to say, Xiongzhou Huainan Wang Zhao Ying, originally cool like the old emperor, just lack of qi, and he himself had to be clear mind, five clansmen vassal king in order to he was suppressed the most miserable, half of the real power are not. This time the vassal kings routinely enter the capital, I definitely won’t go, but Chen Zhi Bao, who has yet to be crowned king on the surface, is destined to go, so it will be a big scene of six kings entering the capital.”

Xu Fengyen shook the empty wine pot and asked, “The crown prince has not yet been decided?”

Xu Snap smiled and broke the ice, “Unsurprisingly before those emperors seal the throne and take up their vassalage, the fourth prince Zhao Zhuan will be made the crown prince. Who let this kid be favored by Yuan Benxi.”

Xu Fengyen frowned, “Isn’t it true that the eldest is not the youngest and the first son is not the commoner? Although Zhao Zhuan is the first son, the eldest prince Zhao Wu is the rightful first son.”

Xu Snapdragon handed Xu Fenian the wine jug that still had half of the wine in his hand and calmly said, “Zhao Wu has a strong character, and now that the world is at peace, what he wants is to secure his career, and he does not need a crown prince who is suitable for the world. Zhao Zhuan is different, he has been hiding for many years and is destined to make a splash without making a splash. There is also a key point, these two people’s own mother empress Zhao Zhi, it seems that since childhood began to quietly instill the idea of his brother as a general to the north brother to claim the throne, Zhao Wu, although short-tempered, but from a young age to Zhao Zhi’s words convinced, and with his younger brother Zhao Zhuan’s relationship is extremely good, I believe that this time more than ten years of vacant throne surfaced, there will not be too many ups and downs. Feng Nian, you have to know that the Qing Party which is attached to the Grand Prince has already been split up, and the northern scholar group which is competing with the Jiangnan scribes for power and profit, although they have placed heavy bets on Zhao Wu, as long as Zhao Wu is able to successfully go to the two Liao Liaos to guard the border area, and Zhao Zhuan, who will be crowned as the Emperor in the future, will surely make compensations for these people, for them, the benefits of the personal interests will not be lost but rather increased, and their grievances will not be too large, and they also don’t dare to be too large. As for the second prince Zhao Bo supported by the number one force in the dynasty, the Zhang Party, it’s just a blindfold for Zhang Julu to join hands with the Son of Heaven to act, it’s not worth mentioning.”

Xu Fengnian took a sip of wine.

Xu Snap smiled, “The newly favored eunuch Song Tanglu seal ribbon supervisor, after the people cat Han Sheng Xuan out of the capital, although not to the point of directly becoming the seal eunuch of the Palace Supervisor, but also from his master’s hands to take over the twelve supervisors in the internal official supervisor. The court knows that I obviously will not take care of this Prince on the throne of the Prince out of a good show, let Song Tanglu privately rushed to Beiliang, to give you with two sets of feudal king Prince’s complementary clothing, python clothes a red and white, white set, is considered to be specifically for you to break the sewing. In the end, is to let you go to the capital to observe the ceremony. Are you going or not?”

Xu Fengnian asked, “Nine deaths?”

Xu Snapdragon shook his head and said, “This trip is different, it’s hard to die. The Emperor and Empress will protect you on both sides, now that the situation in Liyang has been finalized, especially since Chen Zhi Bao entered Shu to be crowned the King of Shu, if they still think about the chaos in Northern Liang, who is going to hold back the millions of iron horsemen of Northern Mang for them? Without us in Northern Liang, even if Gu Jiantang builds the Eastern Front to be as solid as a golden soup, not to mention the Emperor, the whole capital is just as panic-stricken, that bunch of bastards, they just scolded me fiercely, and privately, they still have to be thankful for having the 300,000 iron cavalry of Northern Liang.”

Xu Fengnian asked, “Last time you entered the capital, only after leaving the hall you maimed an official, why?”

Xu Snapdragon laughed: “That ungrateful fellow said that the Northern Liang Iron Horseman was a watchdog, I beat him half to death, look at the civil and military officials at that time, who dared to say anything? Also, Gu Jiantang took a good stab at that guy afterward, and that comment was to scold him, the great general, into it.”

Deadly Shiyin was out of his element, and said softly, “Eunuch Song Tanglu has already arrived outside the palace gates.”

Xu Snap asked, “You really want to go to the capital, but the human cat hasn’t been killed yet, aren’t you worried?”

Xu Fengnian shook his head, “I’m just waiting for him to come to my door.”

Xu Snapdragon wanted to say something.

Xu Fengnian suddenly said, “Will you blame me if I kill Yang Taiyou?”

Xu Snap said calmly, “This old brother of mine deserved to die.”

The case of the White Clothes in the capital, the mastermind of the Zhao family’s Tienzi, and the one who planned it was that sneaky Yuan Benxi. Among the many experts, Han Diaoji was one of them. As for that Heavenly Image Realm expert, there was someone else.

Xu Snap said softly, “Go down the mountain.”

On the way down the mountain, Xu Snap saw Xu Fenian carrying two wine jugs in his hands and laughed, “I’ll carry it? If you’re old enough, you can at least put on armor and mount a horse, so carrying two wine jugs is still no problem.”

Xu Fengyen slowed down his steps, looked at the green stone slabs under his feet and said, “Old age is old age, but don’t die.”

Xu Snapdragon sighed softly, “I also want to hold grandchildren.”