Fengzhou, as the border between the Tang Dynasty and the Khitan, has always been a gateway city for the exchange of goods and services.
In the past, you could see foreigners with thick beards and different looks here all year round, coming and going, making it very lively. But now, the Tang Dynasty has sent troops to Khitan, and all the foreigners in Fengzhou City have been driven out.
A Xiaoguan City was re-established in Majia Village, fifteen miles north of Fengzhou City, but the scale was completely different from before.
After a month of trekking, Li Xin'an and the other five finally arrived at Fengzhou City one afternoon.
After a month of sleeping in the open air, the five of them almost looked like savages. As soon as they entered the city, Ye Qinglan clamored to find an inn to take a bath.
"Yelai Inn, this is it."
Li Xin'an found a place to stay, and the waiter greeted them warmly. After putting their luggage away, the five of them each ordered a large bucket to take a bath.
Soaking in the hot water, Li Xin'an felt that his bones were about to become crispy.
"Huh... comfortable..."
Wrapped in hot water, he fell asleep in a daze, and waited until the water cooled down before waking him up.
After washing her body, Li Xin'an put on her clothes and shaved her beard, then she asked the waiter to move the tub away.
In the lobby on the first floor of the inn, Xiao Xuangan and Zhou Bian had already ordered a table of dishes and were drinking wine.
"You came out early."
Li Xin'an sat down on the stool and took a wine bowl: "Where are Bai Mumu and the others?"
Xiao Xuangan said: "You came out late, Ye Qi took Murong Bai to go shopping on the street, and let them inquire about the news."
"I accidentally fell asleep." Li Xin'an scratched his scalp, feeling a little embarrassed.
After about a cup of tea, Murong Bai and Ye Qinglan returned to the inn carrying large and small bags of things.
Ye Qinglan sat next to Li Xin'an and complained:
"This Fengzhou City is too small. I went around it in just an hour, but there are no interesting enemies."
Li Xin'an said: "After all, it is the border and there is a shortage of supplies. Of course there is nothing."
Murong Bai snorted coldly: "Is he looking for something fun? He is looking for a brothel!"
Ye Qinglan blushed and stuck out his tongue: "One month, do you think I, a young and energetic young man, can recuperate my energy for a month without venting?"
Li Xin'an smiled: "You just can't control yourself."
The waiter on the side intervened at the right time: "Young gentlemen, you don't know. On the surface, there are no brothels in Fengzhou City, but there are secret prostitutes. They are all female slaves bought from various places. They have a different flavor. It's just that
During the recent war, these prostitutes followed the foreigners to Majia Village outside the city, but they were nowhere to be found."
Ye Qinglan's eyes gradually glowed, and Murong Bai said coldly:
"If you don't mind being dirty, go ahead and I won't stop you."
"...Oh." Ye Qinglan immediately became depressed.
"Thank you, second brother." Li Xin'an smiled slightly, and then asked: "How is the situation in the city now?"
"The war is currently going well, and martial law has been lifted in Fengzhou, so there is no obstruction to travel, and alien faces are gradually appearing in the city." Murong Bai replied, "But if you go north, there will be checkpoints along the way, and you will need a pass warrant from Fengzhou Yamen.
"
"Okay, I'll get up early tomorrow morning." Li Xin'an said, "We'll have a day off tomorrow and set off the day after tomorrow."
…
Early the next morning, Li Xin'an and Zhou Bian went to Fengzhou Mansion.
Cao Yu, Sima of Fengzhou, met them. When he heard that they were going north to the grassland, his expression changed immediately.
"Bold! Left and right, get it for me!"
Li Xin'an didn't know why: "Sir, why is this?"
"You two have unknown identities. Now in the middle of a war, you are going north to the grassland. What do you want to do? You must be Khitan spies. Why don't you just capture them without mercy?"
"Sir, this is unfair."
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Li Xin'an smiled bitterly and said: "Pei Min, the commander-in-chief of the Western Route Army of the Tang Dynasty, is an old friend of the villain. My brother is going north this time to defect to him."
"Pei Min is your old friend?" Cao Yu smiled coldly, "What a joke!"
"Everyone knows that Pei Min is the Sword Master of the Tang Dynasty and an important minister in the court. How could such an important figure know someone like you and dare to lie? I will kill you without mercy!"
The two looked at each other, Li Xin'an sighed softly, and reluctantly took out something.
"I thought that after leaving Chang'an, I would no longer be able to use the identity given by His Highness. Unexpectedly, no matter where I go, my identity will be checked."
"Master Cao, can you recognize this thing?"
Cao Yu frowned and looked over, then his eyes widened in disbelief and he stammered:
"Humble... humble position, I didn't know you were here... I'm so offended... please forgive me..."
Zhou Bian put his head next to Li Xin'an's ear and asked, "What else did you get?"
"The token of Zuo Longwu Army." Li Xin'an chuckled, "Now, I am the chief of Zuo Longwu Army, and I am much older than the officials led by Youwei before."
"Master Cao, get up, you did the right thing."
Li Xin'an said: "There are five of us in total. We actually have important things to do when we go north, so it's inconvenient to explain."
"Yes, yes, I understand." Cao Yu nodded and bowed, "Two adults, wait a moment, I will sign the warrant right now."
"Uh..." Cao Yu, who had just written, smiled awkwardly, "Dare you ask the names of five adults?"
"Li Xin'an, Zhou Bian, Murong Bai, Xiao Xuangan, Ye Qinglan."
He didn't hide anything. In a remote and desolate place like Fengzhou, no matter how famous the Central Plains people are, they can't spread it here.
Cao Yu wrote quickly, and in a short time, he wrote five customs clearance documents and handed them over respectfully.
Li Xin'an didn't delay much, took the ultimatum and walked out of Fengzhou Yamen.
However, what he didn't know was that after they left, a government servant beside Cao Yu sneaked away through the back door.
"Where to go next?" Zhou Bian asked.
"Let's just take a stroll and buy some things. We still have a long way to go to the grassland."
"The grassland is so big, do you know where Mr. Pei Min is?"
"According to what my senior brother and His Highness said, the war has now entered a stalemate stage. Master and the others have returned to the Zhulan River camp for repairs. Of course, that was a month ago. I don't know what the situation is now."
"Anyway, let's go to Zhulan River first. Senior brother has left someone there, and we will contact him."
The two of them went shopping along the street, went to the grain store, and purchased a hundred kilograms of grain. They also bought ten water bags and felt the money in the money bag, only less than twenty taels were left.
"Why are things here so expensive?" Zhou Bian complained, "It's more expensive than Chang'an."
"Fengzhou is desolate and remote, so food is naturally in short supply, so it's normal for it to be more expensive."
The two of them ordered the good shopkeeper to deliver the food and water bags to the Yuelai Inn in the south of the city. When they were about to take a walk, they suddenly noticed a commotion in front of the road.
"Let's go and have a look."
The two squeezed into the crowd and heard a familiar voice:
"Young master, I'm going to hit you!"
Li Xin'an was startled and blurted out: "Ye Qi?"
The owner of the voice was stunned for a moment: "Brother Xiao, why did I hear Brother Li's voice?"
"Me too." Xiao Xuangan said.
Li Xin'an and Zhou Bian squeezed to the front and saw Ye Qinglan stepping on a young man with oily hair and pink face. Next to Xiao Xuangan, there were four or five wailing and rolling young men lying next to them.
"Ye Qi, Brother Xiao, what are you doing?"
"Oh, Brother Li, it's really you."
Ye Qinglan said happily: "This guy molested a good woman, beat her husband up, and wanted to take her back and make her a child."
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Concubine, if they don't obey, they will sell them. I can't get angry, so I will teach them a lesson."
While saying this, he also stepped hard on the young master's butt.
"Oh, just wait for me!" the dandy said harshly, "My father is Fengzhou General Zhang Heyan, and I will never let you go!"
"Stop talking nonsense!" Xiao Xuangan said coldly, "If you talk again, I will cut out your tongue!"
The dandy young master was so frightened that he immediately became silent.
Ye Qinglan grabbed his ears and asked fiercely: "What's your name?"
"Zhang...Zhang Shuo."
"Very good, Zhang Shuo, please apologize to others!"
As soon as Ye Qinglan moved his butt, Zhang Shuo lost his balance and fell forward. With a "plop", he knelt in front of the frightened young couple.
"say!"
Zhang Shuo's face turned livid, and he gritted his teeth and said, "Yes...I'm sorry..."
"Are you a fly?" Ye Qinglan frowned, "Speak louder!"
"Okay, okay..." The couple was so anxious that they almost cried, "We don't dare to accept such a great gift from Mr. Zhang, please get up quickly."
Ye Qinglan was puzzled: "Huh? He just wanted to bully you, how could you forgive him so quickly?"
Li Xin'an saw something was wrong and waved his hand: "That's it, Ye Qi, just let him go."
"Zhang Shuo." Li Xin'an said in a deep voice, "Don't be domineering and domineering in the fish and meat town anymore."
"Yes...yes..." Zhang Shuo nodded repeatedly, and then with the help of the boy, he fled from here like flying.
Ye Qinglan clapped his hands, looking proud.
To everyone's surprise, the people watching around them not only did not applaud them, but instead started making irresponsible remarks and pointing fingers.
The young couple who were rescued by Ye Qinglan were hugging each other in fear and crying bitterly.
"What's wrong with you?" Ye Qinglan, the second monk, was confused.
"well……"
An old man who was watching sighed: "Everyone, please disperse. Don't gather here, or you may get burned."
The people around him left in twos and threes. The old man helped the young couple up and said to Li Xin'an and the others:
"Four gentlemen, please take a moment to speak."
Li Xin'an and the other two followed the old man to a secluded place. The old man looked at them carefully and said:
"This young man who saved people has a handsome appearance, thin skin and tender flesh. He must be from Jiangnan."
"Yes." Ye Qinglan nodded and admitted.
"You are all not from the Northern Territory, and you don't know the rules of the Northern Territory."
The old man sighed: "There are three people in Fengzhou who must not be offended!"
"May I ask, father-in-law, who are these three people?" Xiao Xuangan asked.
"The first person is Hong Shi, the boss of Fengzhou Honglai Grain Company. He controls the grain on all five grain transportation lines in Fengzhou. He has countless eagles and dogs under his command, and even has foreign masters working for him. Including this time in the Tang Dynasty
When he sent troops to Khitan, he had a lot of food supplied by Hong Shi, which gave him a backer in the army. If he offended him, at least the whole family would be without food and hungry, at worst, the whole family would be wiped out.
!”
The old man paused and then said: "This second person is Zhang Shuo, the son of Zhang Shuo who you just wanted to provoke, Fengzhou General Zhang Heyan. Zhang Heyan controls Fengzhou's 15,000 garrison.
We dare to be angry but dare not speak out. The four young masters beat his sons. Not to mention how you will be treated, even the couple you rescued.
, I’m afraid, I won’t have a good life either.”
"Why is this like this?" Li Xin'an said in shock, "The two of them are so lawless, so the Fengzhou prefect just doesn't care?"
"Guess?" the old man smiled mockingly, "Master, who do you think is the third person who should not be offended?"