There was a knock on the door, and the concierge went over to open the door, only to see three men with official looks standing outside.
"I'm from Chang'an. I am Zuo Qianniu Guardsman Cao Shenjun Military Liu Luogu. Is Aunt Gongsun here?" The other party picked up a command talisman and asked.
This person was too powerful, so the concierge hurriedly went to report it.
After a while, Aunt Gongsun went to the front hall to meet them in person.
She was living in seclusion in her hometown and was enjoying herself. She was practicing her sword under the flower tree just now. There were petals on her clothes and her face was rosy.
"Ms. Gongsun is here well. She seems to be looking better than when she was in Chang'an?"
Aunt Gongsun looked at the middle-aged man in front of her carefully. She saw that he had a high nose and was very handsome, but he was very unfamiliar. She couldn't help but ask: "Have we met before?"
"I saw the aunt several times when I was guarding the city gate, but she must not have seen me."
"This old woman has stupid eyes, don't mind Liu Canjun."
"The saint has a reward for my aunt, and he specially ordered me to bring it over."
A box was pushed in front of Aunt Gongsun, and when she opened it, there was a gold comb back, which was used to insert into a woman's hair bun.
This is indeed a palace thing.
"The old woman thanks the saint for his grace."
"In addition to the reward, the saint hopes that the aunt will return to Chang'an City as soon as possible to worship her."
Aunt Gongsun said: "The old woman and the saint have returned home for a year. Why did the saint think of the old woman?"
"The envoy from the Cheshi Kingdom will arrive in Chang'an soon. The sage hopes that my aunt can dance the sword at the royal banquet."
Although Aunt Gongsun still doesn't want to leave her hometown, she is mentally prepared to return home for a while and eventually leave. Her skills belong to Chang'an.
"A saint is called, and he should be called."
Liu Luogu asked: "How about we set off tomorrow?"
"So urgent? The old woman has many disciples, so it would be too hasty to set off tomorrow."
"The royal banquet is approaching, so we can't delay it. I don't need to bring any disciples with me. I can just dance alone when the time comes."
The two agreed on their departure and chatted some more. Liu Luogu casually mentioned a casual matter and asked, "By the way, when I passed by Yanshi County, I saw the Number One Scholar."
"Liu Canjun also knows the number one scholar?"
"I am a good friend in Chang'an. I heard that he took office as Yanshi this time and subdued the bandits on Erlang Mountain, thus pacifying the person behind the Lishan assassination case. This is another great achievement."
After hearing this, Aunt Gongsun couldn't help but be a little confused and didn't answer.
Liu Luogu had already understood what he wanted to find out from her reaction.
~~
That night, three people from Chang'an were arranged to stay in the guest room of Jianzhuang.
Tian Qianzhen opened the door, looked around carefully, and said, "Lang Jun, the dust in this guest room is very thick. It doesn't seem like someone has stayed here recently."
The middle-aged man behind him is holding Liu Luogu's talisman, but he is noble.
He only glanced at the guest room and said calmly: "Xue Bai didn't live here at that time, but I'm sure he has been here."
"How can Mr. Lang be sure?" Tian Qianzhen was very curious.
"Fan Lao sent people to say that Aunt Gongsun rescued Xue Bai. This was a trap. If I asked this, she would know that I was here to check on Xue Bai. But I changed the way of asking and deliberately missed some small flaws. Her expression gave her away."
Tian Qianzhen listened attentively and said: "The gentleman is wise."
Gao Shang shook his hand and sighed: "If you are not smart, you will lose if you lose."
He was unwilling to lose to Xue Bai, but even so, he had to be prepared to win back the victory.
Xue Bai wanted him in Yanshi, but he planned to use Aunt Gongsun's name to travel, bypass Yanshi, and go directly to Chang'an to expose Xue Bai's crimes.
He quickly went to bed to recharge his batteries and prepare for a counterattack.
On the way to escape, for fear that Xue Bai would send people to chase him, Tian Qianzhen and Kang Bu would take turns guarding him during the night rest. Even though they stayed at Jianzhuang tonight, they still did this.
Not that I thought Xue Bai could send people to chase him here so quickly, but old soldier Fan Yang was naturally more thoughtful than ordinary people.
Tian Qianzhen fell asleep first, and soon there was a thunderous snore.
Kangbu put two big axes in his hands and sat there looking at the stars in the sky.
The starry sky tonight is beautiful, but the wind is very strong. In addition, it has not rained much since the beginning of spring, so the sky is very dry, and there is dust when the wind blows.
As we watched, it was already late at night, and Tian Qianzhen was still snoring loudly, so Kang Bu decided to keep watch for him a little longer.
Unknowingly, he became sleepy, took a nap, and lowered his head.
At that moment, there was a flash of cold light in the night, and someone rushed towards him with a knife.
"call--"
When the knife struck down, Kang Bu quickly avoided it and reached out to pick up the axe. The opponent stepped on one of the handles and struck down again with the knife.
But in the blink of an eye, Kangbu picked up another ax and started to fight with the opponent.
At the same time, more people rushed up and attacked Gao Shang.
Kangbu was furious and smashed the ax in his hand, smashing half of a man's head, but he himself was also stabbed.
Unaware, he blocked the door with his body and was immediately stabbed again.
"A Tian! Take your husband away!"
The snoring in the room had stopped, but there was a flame burning from the window. This was Tian Ganzhen in the room who had set the curtains and bedding on fire.
The fire quickly broke out and spread to the wooden walls.
Kang Bu had been stabbed countless times and was still blocking the door of the room.
"puff."
Lao Liang was furious. He stepped forward and chopped off the big man's head with all his strength, and his head fell to the ground. Kang Bu's head rolled several times on the ground, still glaring with anger.
At the same time, there was a "bang" sound, and two people were knocked out of a burning window.
Tian Qianzhen knocked down one person immediately after he crashed out, and led Gao Shang to break out. However, Lao Liang had made arrangements, and there were people guarding the courtyard ahead.
"Walk!"
Tian Qianzhen roared angrily and rushed towards the gate. Then he suddenly changed his direction and went towards the inside of Jianzhuang.
Lao Liang also arranged manpower there, but he didn't have enough people. The ones he arranged here were disciples of Aunt Gongsun, who had extraordinary martial arts skills.
But Tian Qianzhen was even more impressive. He slashed with his sword and forced all the disciples back. He did not seek to kill anyone. He endured several sword stabs and led Gao Shang through their defense line.
"They can't run away." Lao Liang shouted: "Chase!"
Tian Qianzhen and Gao Shang didn't seem to be in a hurry to escape, and ran separately into the dark flowers and trees, unwilling to be easily obtained by them.
Here they are still fighting and chasing, but over there the wind is fanning the fire, and the fire in the guest room has quickly spread to the trees in the courtyard.
From time to time, several sources of fire appeared in the Jianzhuang, which were caused by Tian Ganzhen.
"call--"
The weather was dry and the fire was getting bigger and bigger, reaching the point of being out of control in a very short period of time.
Seeing this situation, Lao Liang had no choice but to stop letting people chase them. Instead, he guarded the outside of Jianzhuang to prevent them from escaping, and prepared to put out the fire.
It's not yet dawn, but it's getting brighter and brighter in the distance from Xiangtan Pond, and there are crackling sounds everywhere.
Li Twelve Niang hurriedly took out several of her treasures from the room, and then wanted to go back to rescue other things, but Aunt Gongsun grabbed her.
"If it's burned, just burn it." Aunt Gongsun looked at the fire and sighed to comfort herself: "I said I want to live in seclusion, but living in a place where everyone can find it is considered seclusion?"
A wooden building collapsed in the fire.
Lao Liang led everyone to retreat outside, putting out the fire while preventing Gao Shang and Tian Qianzhen from escaping. In the end, he never saw them again...
~~
This fire made Lao Liang feel angry. When he returned to Yanshi, he immediately apologized to Xue Bai.
"It's useless for me to lead so many people in a sneak attack and let them burn down Gongsun Jianzhuang under my nose."
"Just pay it to Aunt Gongsun." Xue Bai didn't think anything of it and asked, "Is Gao Shang dead?"
"Probably dead."
Lao Liang had been with Xue Bai for so long, and this was the first time he said yes. In that situation, Gao Shang really didn't have much possibility of escaping.
Xue Bai originally wanted to be alive. He knew Fan Lao's thoughts and wanted to follow the clues to explore the situation in Anlu Mountain, but death was not a big deal.
A fire at Gongsun Jianzhuang was not a bad thing for him.
He planned to compensate Gongsun for a house and temporarily invited her and her disciples to live in Yanshi; he also planned to send people to Yancheng to buy a house, so as to contact the officials of Yancheng and restart the smuggling of copper and iron.
But Lao Liang still needs to be reminded.
"Have you learned a lesson from this matter?"
"You should work more carefully."
"Old soldier Fan Yang is not ordinary. Keep your spirits up when you see him later." Xue Bai said: "Also, there was a fire at that time. Nobility is not important. If you escape, you should run away. You should put out the fire earlier to avoid harming innocent people."
"Here!"
Lao Liang agreed and kept it in mind. Then he held up Kang Bu's head and said, "Old soldier Fan Yang is here."
"Pick it in lime and quickly send it to Chang'an to Yang Guozhong to make a fuss for him."
"Yes, there are these, they are noble things."
Xue Bai looked at it, picked up a talisman and looked at it carefully. He saw that the words "Zuo Qianniu Guards Cao Shen Military Liu Luogu" were engraved on it, and his eyes flashed with doubts.
Since there is a prophecy about the Maojin Sword, this "Liu Luogu" can serve as an official in Zuo Qianniu Guard, which shows that he is quite trustworthy.
This matter will be investigated later when we return to Chang'an.
Aunt Gongsun also came and handed the back of the golden comb Gao Shang gave her to Xue Bai.
"The reason why the old woman believes that he is from Chang'an is because it is indeed a palace object."
Xue Bai took it and looked at it for a while, then said: "It's not surprising that Gao Shang has the things in the palace. The saint gave them to An Lushan, and then An Lushan gave them to him..."
At this point, he paused and suddenly felt a little funny.
So, I put the back of the gold comb and the talisman together and installed them carefully.
Nobility is smart. He anticipated the danger early and ran away. What was even smarter was that he also wanted to take Aunt Gongsun away with a few words to fight back.
Unfortunately, wisdom is misled by wisdom, and the more you do, the more mistakes you make.
~~
Xue Bai wrote a letter, put it together with Kang Bu's head, and sent it to Chang'an by post horse. It arrived in Chang'an only two days later.
Now Yang Guozhong has moved to the luxurious mansion in Xuanyangfang. The reason why he has become so prosperous is that he is now the first person to manage personal funds for the emperor.
He just returned to the house from the Taifu that day. When he saw a wooden box placed in the front hall, he smiled and said, "Who gave this gift? It is placed here."
Just as the steward was about to speak, Yang Guozhong waved his hand and said: "Don't worry, let me guess, this wooden box is made of poor materials. I haven't seen such a poor wooden box for a long time. But the more broken the wooden box, the more
The more valuable the thing is, the more valuable it must be..."
With that said, he opened the wooden box directly.
"ah!"
What he saw was a head with glaring eyes and murderous intent. Yang Guozhong was so frightened that he took two steps back.
It wasn't that he was timid, but that he was too sure of his guess and was frightened for a moment.
"Who eats dog intestines as a gift?!"
"It's Xue Lang. Along with the gift is a letter."
"Gifts are bullshit."
Yang Guozhong took the letter and opened it directly to read it.
Xue Bai's calligraphy is getting better and better, but his writing is casual and has no champion style, and is not even as good as Yang Guozhong.
"In the beginning, the demon thief Lishan caused chaos, and the sage asked me to go to Yanshi to have a look. Now I have seen the results..."
Yang Guozhong raised his eyebrows, got close to Kang Bu's face, looked at it carefully for a while, and finally asked Kang Bu.