Arhat and the others have always placed their hopes of interception and encirclement outside Guangzhou City, because once a figure of the level of a great boxer arrives in a city with complex terrain, it is almost impossible for ordinary soldiers to find him if he intentionally hides himself.

Rivers, pavilions, high walls, and houses are all obstacles to ordinary people, blocking their movements and blocking their sight, but for great boxers, it is like walking on flat ground and extending in all directions.

When the sky gradually became brighter and a red sun slowly rose among the sea of ​​clouds in the east, the soldiers who were searching vigorously stopped and stopped doing useless work.

All the troops available to Luo Han and others were transferred back to the south for defense.

After Nalando heard about what happened at night, he felt uneasy and asked Arhat to meet him.

Arhat entered the house alone and explained his intention.

"These rogue gangs are determined to come to Guangzhou. They must have taken a fancy to Guangzhou's convenient water transportation. They want to use the road from here to go overseas. For the current plan, they can only stick to the waterway, and maybe they can gain something."

Nalando nodded slightly when he heard this, took a sip of tea and said: "Your office in the Ministry of Internal Affairs has the most dealings with the gangsters, so naturally you know them well enough, but that green-faced ghost has been living in the three cities and seven villages for several years.

The means of doing things are also very different from those of ordinary gangsters. Now that he has arrived in Guangzhou, I am afraid that he will be detrimental to the wealthy businessmen in the city and some court officials."

Arhat thought: "The coach's top priority is to send away the roster. Since the green-faced ghost chose to follow the coach, he must have been influenced by the coach."

"Don't be afraid of ten thousand, just be afraid of what happens."

Nalando said worriedly, "Guangzhou City is not like the three cities and seven villages in the countryside. There are high officials of the imperial court sitting here. If he is assassinated by him, it will definitely bring disgrace to the imperial court, and those rogue parties will probably be happy to see it."

Its success."

Arhat heard what he meant and said smoothly: "In Guangzhou, Master Nalan is still the most important. I immediately asked the boxers and some people from the sticky pole to go to the general's mansion to protect you.

"

Nalando pretended to hesitate and said: "But this will inevitably weaken the strength of the troops. If the two traitors really show up, I wonder if you can handle it?"

"Don't worry, sir. Now our focus is only on the two sides. Besides, if they want to go overseas, they must show up on the ship during the day. As long as we can find out, the heavy encirclement during the day will be better than the situation at night."

, it’s quite different again.”

Arhat said, "The instructor only escaped from two hundred people that day, and everyone was injured. Now, thousands of troops have been deployed during the day. Moreover, the locations of both sides are clear and they are helping each other. The result can be imagined."

"That's good, that's good."

Nalando achieved his goal and felt a little relieved. Then he remembered, "I heard that some of the masters at Sticky Rod were unfortunately killed by those two traitors. I ordered them to be buried with honors."

"

Regardless of not mentioning it, it has been postponed until now, and it is mentioned in passing. Arhat couldn't help but frown, and said firmly: "The traitors are still on the run, and it is not shameful to bury them at this time.

Moreover, we people have long been prepared to be loyal to the imperial court, and with the grace of the palace, their corpses will be transported back to the capital for burial."

Nalando's original intention was just to give the foreigners a message to stabilize them, so as not to make them lose their patience.

But Simon Seymour paid more attention to that painting than Nalando expected.

As soon as he received the news, Seymour put down his half-drinked morning tea and directly urged others to lead the way, taking his escort with him to Baosheng Hall.

The Ma family of Baoshengtang is quite famous in Guangzhou. It is said that it has a history of nearly a hundred years. When it was passed to Ma Baiwen, Ma Zhixing and his son, the family business gained a lot of good reputation.

Both father and son are very accomplished in medical skills, especially Ma Zhixing, who studied abroad in the West. After returning, he used a mixture of Western medicine and Chinese medicine, and he actually cured several serious diseases that his father could not cure.

However, his father hated foreign things very much, so he had a quarrel with Ma Zhixing for this reason. They had a long quarrel, and it was only this year that he was willing to let him into the house.

When Dimon Seymour and the others were still half a street away from Baosheng Hall, they heard a gunshot.

The man leading the way felt his body being suddenly pulled by the wind. When he turned around to look, the two foreigners following him had disappeared.

Dimon Seymour and Mai Boer rushed to the place where the gunshots were fired and smelled the smell of blood coming from the door.

In the front yard, several soldiers were standing there at a loss. In the living room were two corpses, both old men wearing melon caps and long robes and mandarin jackets.

A man with water and blood stains on his face and gunshot wounds on his body was lying on the ground. It was Li Duo, the master of the General's Mansion.

Another one was sitting on a chair with a dagger stuck in his chest and bleeding profusely.

Seymour glanced around and saw broken pieces of porcelain on the ground and a pistol that fell under the steps, and asked, "What's going on?"

These soldiers often walked around the general's house. Knowing that these two foreigners were the general's distinguished guests, they did not dare to neglect and rushed to answer.

Their voices were messy, mixed with dialects, and they spoke urgently. Seymour frowned tightly, not understanding a word, and shouted: "Shut up."

He pointed to the soldier on the far left and said, "Speak first, and speak slower."

The soldier was startled by his shout. When the pair of green eyes looked over, he felt his whole body tightening for no reason. He stammered for a while before straightening his tongue.

Seymour listened to his words and figured out what happened.

After Li Duo brought people to the house, he talked about the Ma family's collection of ancient paintings, and then acted like a general's house, asking to buy their paintings at a low price.

People under the eaves had to bow their heads. Ma Baiwen heard that it was Nalando who wanted it. He was ready to swallow his anger and let his son take out the painting, but he asked one more question, why Nalando suddenly admired it?

Calligraphy and painting?

After all, everyone knew that the Guangzhou general did not like literary works. It was not like his past style to spend so much time trying to find out the whereabouts of an ancient painting and then come to visit him.

At that time, Li Duo was probably thinking that the things he had been told by his superiors would be completed and he could get some kickbacks. He was in a good mood, so he truthfully told the truth that the British wanted this painting.

Unexpectedly, when Ma Baiwen heard that a foreigner wanted to paint the painting, he became furious and refused to sell it. During the dispute, he even smashed Li Duo's head with a teacup.

Li Duo's head was bruised and bleeding, and his face was red from being burned by the hot tea. He took out his dagger and stabbed Ma Baiwen to death.

This scene happened to be seen by Ma Zhixing, who had taken the ancient painting. He didn't know how he had a gun on him, so he shot Li Duo on the spot.

After the soldier standing nearest shot down his pistol, Ma Zhixing fled.

While the soldiers who were left behind were talking, the few soldiers who had gone after them also ran back.

They lost Ma Zhixing.

The sound of gunfire attracted more soldiers, and Baosheng Hall was sealed off. Arhats even sent people to take a look.

The steward of the General's Mansion arrived and repeatedly assured Seymour that he would capture Ma Zhixing and present the ancient painting to him.

"No need to trouble you."

Seymour raised his hand, stopped the housekeeper from talking, and said, "Please help me ask, does anyone know which room the son of this family lives in?"

The apprentice in Baoshengtang who was helping to collect the medicine was quickly taken over by the lock and pointed to Ma Zhixing's room.

Dimond Seymour walked in by himself, while Mai Boole blocked the door and did not allow anyone else to approach.

The housekeeper of the General's Mansion could only watch from outside the door.

Simon Seymour walked around the room without any trace of searching. He just stood for a while every time he came to the table, wardrobe, or bed.

The morning sunlight had not yet fully penetrated into the house. Dimonsey Moore stood in a cool and dark place, raised his hand to lift the fly-proof gauze, and looked down at the bed.

The housekeeper thought he might be a little dazzled. Just when Seymour raised his hand and lowered his head, he suddenly seemed to see fine lines on the British man's neck that were like fish scales.

It extends from the neck to behind the ears and disappears in a flash.

………………

The green mountains are halfway into the city, and all six branches lead to the sea.

Guangzhou is surrounded by mountains and rivers. There are rivers outside the city and rivers throughout the city.

There is a saying that one-tenth of the people in Guangzhou live on the water. Each family's only possession is a small boat. They rely on the cabin for food, housing and living expenses. They rely on the planks of the boat for living expenses, or they drift and fish on the Pearl River.

, or carry passengers and goods in the river.

Just like what we saw in the Three Cities and Seven Townships, the outside of the city is desolate, dilapidated and shabby, but the city is much better, at least that's what it looks like from the outside.

But the prosperity of the three cities of Diancheng, Tancheng and Heyang combined is far from comparable to that of Guangzhou.

As the sun gradually warmed up, the city of Guangzhou was crowded with people. On the streets, there were ropes tied around the waist. Shamans wearing masks danced and led the troops forward. There were monks chanting sutras and Taoist priests ringing bells at the door of each house.

Put down the paper boat in front of the boat and wait for the owner to put some sawdust and grass residue into it.

The faces of the common people were rough and sorrowful due to the wind, frost and night rain, but they were also infected by the atmosphere and showed some lively smiles in the sunshine.

Children were even walking around on the street, holding some worthless things in their hands, some of which were just a piece of shabby red cloth, but they were also smiling happily.

The instructor squatted by a small river and looked at the scene on the street.

Guan Luoyang handed over the steaming steamed buns, squatted down next to him, and said, "Is today a festival?"

The coach said: "Not only today, September 23rd to September 28th is Huaguang's birthday. Everyone has a hard time on weekdays, but in these days, we can also have some fun."

"So it's Huaguangdan." Guan Luoyang nodded.

In fact, the Huaguang Festival is held in the Three Cities and Seven Townships, but it is only held on the 27th and 28th, and it is not nearly as lively. It is just a two-day opera with a troupe.

The instructor took a bite of the steamed bun and said, "Now is not the most lively time. The past few days were just about dancing to drive away ghosts, hoping there would be no fire. On the 28th day, the statue of Patriarch Huaguang will be returned to its place, and dragon and lion dances will be performed.

, there are also torches and lights everywhere at night.

There are tricks performers everywhere on the street, and all the Liyuan children who regard Emperor Huaguang as their ancestor must be 100% energetic, start the gong, worship the gods, and shine their voices on the stage."

Just as he was talking about this, a small boat passed by near the two of them. The man on the boat was shirtless and wearing a turban. He looked to be in his forties, but he was actually in his early thirties. He sang two songs but couldn't hear it.

Clear the tone of the lyrics.

Guan Luoyang looked around and smiled unconsciously.

There was a child in the cabin holding a yellowed candied haws with only one left. He carefully stretched out the tip of his tongue and licked it. He quickly smiled with his mouth closed and wrapped the candied haws.

Guan Luoyang, who had just been immersed in the atmosphere and felt a little happy, saw this scene, and the smile on his face slowly faded away.
To be continued...