In the fifth year of Guanghe, in the summer of 182 AD, Yan Baihu, who was originally wiped out when the overlord Sun Ce went south to Jiangdong, was captured by four young men, Zhu Kui, Wang Cheng, Gan Ning and Zhou Tai, more than ten years earlier.
At the foot of Gusu Mountain.
That year, Lieutenant Kaohsiung of Moling County beheaded Yan Baihu in public on the city tower. Later, it was reported to Danyang County that Zang Min, the governor of Yangzhou, publicly praised him: "What a young man who seeks out thieves, he is a pillar of the country."
After the war, the imperial court rewarded them with a lot of money and brocade cloth, but there was no substantial reward. However, Zang Min's public praise undoubtedly gave the four people a lot of fame, and now they can be regarded as slightly famous people in Jiangdong.
In the future and after the title, it will be easy to promote talents, filial piety, integrity, etc., and there is no need to ask for recommendations. As long as no one makes things difficult for you, you can successfully become an official.
Reputation was extremely useful to the people of the Han Dynasty and was more valuable than any gold and silver wealth.
Liu Bei only had a good reputation, so he could fall and rise again one after another. It was not just because of his reputation of benevolence and righteousness throughout his life.
Among the four, Wang Cheng is the most famous. He captured the leader of the thieves Yan Baihu at the age of twelve. People deified him through false rumors. His life experience also spread among the descendants of Wang Jian, who all said that he inherited the magical power of the heroic spirit of his ancestors.
But in the eyes of insiders in the Lu and Zhang families, they all guessed from a series of processes that Zhu Kui was the real person in charge of this new force in Moling County. However, in Lu Xian's view, Zhu Kui was very friendly to him.
And it is also very valuable. The harvest from Baihu Village has made the Lu family tens of millions of dollars.
More importantly, Zhu Kui is still unable to pose the slightest threat to the hegemony of their Jiangdong family. He, the Lu family, is a prefect and a local emperor. Money does not equal power, and reputation does not equal power. In ancient times, power was supreme.
After all, he is just a white boy without any political power. Unlike these four major families, which have produced high-ranking officials for generations, now there are subordinate officials and disciples everywhere in the officialdom of Jiangdong counties. Looking at the last time, Lu Xian and Zhang Hong are brothers-in-law.
This can be seen from the fact that it can slightly influence the governor's decision on Gaojiazhai.
Otherwise, if these two powerful families intend to confront you as governor, and the lower-level officials delay and ignore your decrees, it will be very annoying. Of course, they can fight and eliminate them, but that will be a nerve-wracking thing that will hurt both sides.
"A Cheng, what was the result of the investigation I asked you to do?"
In Zhu's house, Zhu Kui sat beside the table and asked, tapping his knees with his fingers.
"Third brother, you are really good at predicting things. There is indeed another mechanism in the warehouse of Baihu Village." Wang Cheng said with admiration.
Previously, Zhu Kui went with Kaohsiung to unlock the wealth that had been collected in Gaojiazhai for many years. I heard that all bandits and water bandits have a habit of storing the treasures that have been collected for many years in an open warehouse and a hidden warehouse. The open warehouse is the public property of the village, while the hidden warehouse belongs to the owner of the village.
Private collection.
Although it was unclear whether Yan Baihu had the same habit, when Lu Xian borrowed Wang Cheng, he ordered him to come down and pay more attention.
"Don't the Lu family know about this?"
"Third brother, don't worry. I have already killed those who discovered the secret door at the hands of Baihu Village."
The so-called death at the hands of Baihu Village means that during the battle, if you deliberately rush to the front, you will die quickly.
"Okay, you and I will go dig it out the day after tomorrow."
Five days later, in the warehouse of Baihu Village, Zhu Kui and Wang Cheng brought twenty strong men. These were the men he borrowed from Kaohsiung. He was not prepared to hide this matter from the people of Gaojia Water Village.
At this time, Baihu Village has been emptied of people and the corpses have been cleaned up. After being reborn, Zhu Kui no longer sneers at things about ghosts and gods. Whether it is Shijiu Lake or Moling City, he tries his best to ignore the enemy or ourselves.
Help collect the corpses and reduce the number of corpses in the wilderness.
According to his mentality, when we were alive, we were enemies and fought with each other. There was nothing we could do. After death, we would bury our remains and die as soon as possible. Don't come to me again. To put it bluntly, it was also a way of seeking peace of mind...
The warehouse was built by Yan Baihu by digging out the belly of the mountain. It occupies five acres of space. According to Wang Cheng, there were originally hundreds of boxes of money and goods. All kinds of jewelry and bronzes were piled on the floor, and the walls were hung with various hangings.
The weapons were all empty now, having been carried away by the Lu and Zhang families.
There are gains as well as losses, so Zhu Kui naturally does not dare to imagine that he can monopolize everything.
"Third brother, the secret door is behind the wooden frame."
According to what Wang Cheng said, after helping open the wooden frame, he knocked on the wall, and the sound was indeed much clearer than other parts.
With a push, the stone door opened.
The sloping stairs were dark, and everyone walked down slowly holding torches. The distance was only about five meters, and a small warehouse of forty square meters appeared in front of Zhu Kui. There were thirty-five boxes in total.
Lie there quietly.
Opening them one by one, I found six boxes of gold nuggets, eight boxes of jade, five boxes of jewelry, and fifteen boxes of copper coins. Roughly calculated, they were only one-tenth of the value in the open treasury outside.
"Huh."
Zhu Kui was suddenly attracted by a bronze sword in the corner. Otherwise, this sword was too similar to the one he had seen in a game in his previous life. The sword was engraved with the sun, moon and stars, and the skills of farming and animal husbandry were written on it.
He walked over slowly, picked it up and looked at it.
"really."
Zhu Kui murmured. After turning it over, the other side of the sword was indeed engraved with mountains, rivers and vegetation, writing the strategy of unifying the four seas.
He thought to himself: "Yan Baihu didn't know its origin, so he threw it aside. Could it be that the sword has a thin rust color on it, so he kept it as an ancient sword?"
"Third brother, what kind of sword is this?"
"Xuanyuan Sword."
Wang Cheng touched the back of someone's head and thought for a while. It seemed that he had never heard of this sword's name among the famous swords in the past.
"Okay, don't think about it. In fact, I'm not sure yet whether it's the one I think of. Let's transport these boxes back first.
Zhu Kui wanted to take over the dock that Gaojiazhai had built near Moling for his own use, and wanted to transform it into a villa on the waterfront. The three hundred Gaojiazhai water bandits who had been dismissed were used as guards for his villa. He had already consulted about these things.
Kaohsiung, with his permission and Kaohsiung's help, everything went smoothly.
Boxes and boxes of Yan Baihu's ill-gotten wealth were transported to this stronghold to be used as assets for him to settle down in the Han Dynasty in the future.
After taking care of everything, Zhu Kui went to the county magistrate's house alone with his bronze sword.
In the battle of Moling, everyone had merit in defending the city, but only Ma Jun received a substantial reward. The old county magistrate Zhao was already old and had not made any progress in defending the city. The old defendant returned to his hometown, and Ma Jun was promoted from county magistrate to county magistrate.
, Kaohsiung only got a thousand taels of gold.
The deeper meaning is that Zang Min, the governor, did two bad things. Anyone with a discerning eye can see that Zang Min favored one over the other and deliberately tried to drive a wedge between the two heads of the Gao family's water village, thus breaking up their cohesion. This made him increasingly dependent on the imperial court.
, to serve the imperial court.
If it were an ordinary thief, this idea would be effective, but Gao Mei and Gao Mei were inseparable, so it was impossible for them to have any quarrel. Ma Jun was a wise man. They wanted to have a laugh and happily accepted the court's arrangement.
It seems that they can find a future for the Gaojia Water Village, and their wish is enough, and they have no intention of competing for the upper reaches.
Zhao'an and Yan Baihu relied heavily on Lu Xian's help, so their contacts with the Lu family deepened, but outsiders thought that Kaohsiung was a subordinate force deliberately cultivated by Lu Xian. At least now, the people in Jiangdong believed that it belonged to the Lu family in Moling County.
This has further enabled the Lu family to firmly consolidate its position as the head of the four major families in Jiangdong, making it difficult for the other three families to shake.
"Xuanyuan Sword? I have never heard of it. There is no historical record of Xuanyuan Huangdi's sword. From which unique book did Xiao Langjun learn about it?" Ma Jun stroked his thin beard, thought for a while, and said helplessly.
With.
There is no historical record, so Zhu Kui didn't know this. He knew that Ma Jun was very knowledgeable, so he took the sword to find out whether it was the Xuanyuan Sword...
In his previous life, he learned about it from the game Xuanyuan Sword, in which the descriptions of the ancient times were as illusory as they were real. Could it be that this misled him.
Seeing Zhu Kui deep in thought, Ma Jun continued: "The famous swords of the past dynasties are only recorded from the end of the Shang Dynasty to the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty. Going further up, swords are said to be only made of bronze and are weapons of killing. The Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan was one of the three ancient emperors.
, The manufacturing process of bronze swords at that time was extremely crude, and it is impossible for it to be passed down to this day."
"The texture and craftsmanship of the sword, as well as the rust spots attached to it, must have been made in the late Spring and Autumn Period and the early Warring States Period."
Over the years since he came to the Han Dynasty, Zhu Kui had seen a lot of handwriting on ancient bamboo slips, and knew that what Ma Jun said was true. He smiled, breathed a sigh of relief, and figured it out: "Whether it is true or not, from now on this
Let’s call the sword Xuanyuan Sword, and I’ll ask the Wu brothers to polish it tomorrow.”
"Sorry to bother you, sir, I'll take my leave first."
Ma Jun watched Zhu Kui say goodbye and leave, swinging the Xuanyuan Sword, walking like a tiger and dragon, and left happily. Suddenly a scene appeared in his mind, Zhu Kui wearing a nine-dragon robe and a flat crown on his head ascended the throne in Mount Tai.
"Xuanyuan, the Emperor, Xiao Langjun insists that it is the Xuanyuan Sword? Why? Could it be that what I saw just now is something from the future, a manifestation of the ancestor?" Ma Jun raised his moustache, patted his forehead, and slapped
I cleared my dazed mind and thought in confusion.
But when he looked at it again, the Nine Dragon Robes and the Pingtian Crown were simply dazzling to him, and then he laughed at himself and stopped thinking about it.
After leaving the county government, Zhu Kui returned home happily. His family had already returned home from Wu County. At the same time, when Zhu Laoshi returned to the city, he also brought the girl from the same village into the city, hoping that after getting along day and night with his son, he could
Over time, love blossoms and bears fruit.
As soon as he stepped into the house, he saw Zhu Laoshi coming out of the house. When he saw his son, he smiled.
"San'er, you're back, come on, come on, follow your father's footsteps."
Then without any explanation, he took his son's hand and walked back inside.
After taking him to the room next to Zhu Kui's, he stopped. Zhu Laoshi stepped forward and knocked on the door: "Liu'er, are you there? Come out."
"Liu'er?" Zhu Kui was thinking about which girl's name this was.
A female voice came from inside the house: "Uncle Zhu, here we come."
Then a girl in her late twenties walked out of the room step by step.
This girl may not be considered very beautiful, but she is still pretty. She has dark braids that hang down to her waist, showing off her curvy figure. Zhu Kui took a look and realized that it was his little sister.
He was just confused as to what a name like Zhang Liu was about. He looked at the little sister in front of him who was shy and didn't answer, and looked at his father Zhu Laoshi in confusion.
"Haha!" Zhu Laoshi explained with a laugh: "San'er, you are a person who has read books. Liu'er was named after his father. What do you think?"