across the Quartet

Handan is a magical city.

Since the Spring and Autumn Period, each of the powerful vassal states has several cities with large populations and prosperous trade, and the capitals of today’s Seven Heroes are the leaders of these big cities—such as Xianyang in Qin Dynasty, Linzi in Qi Dynasty, and Daliang in Wei Dynasty. , Yan and Ying of Chu, Shangdu and Xiadu of Yan, and Xinzheng of Han.

However, Handan is different from them.

Zhao is a country of the Four Wars, and it is adjacent to the Hu territory; the generosity and stubbornness of the Zhao people, the unrestrained and free and easy, are all mixed and fermented in this most special capital, exuding a smoky drunkenness.

Zhao people love wine, swords, singing and dancing, good horses in the prairie, and beautiful orchids... These beautiful things are scattered on the streets of Handan like stars, waiting for those who appreciate them.

A young man in the country of Yan was obsessed with the elegant and graceful posture of the people in Handan when they walked. He did not hesitate to come all the way to watch and train hard on the streets of the capital, but he forgot his original way of walking.

For people in Handan, there is no need to learn to walk gracefully.Perhaps since the day they were born, this kind of demeanor has been engraved in their bones and blood; even after experiencing the most tragic siege, they cannot erase their heroic and unruly nature.

Since Changping, Qin and Zhao have formed a deep sea of ​​blood; Zhao's national strength is not as good as before, but it is still like an unfamiliar horse.

——Gai Nie was walking on the streets of Handan, and somehow such an idea popped into his mind.A little sad, but also a little uplifting.

Although he still doesn't know whether this is right or wrong.

He touched the military pay in his arms, and thought with relief that this time he finally didn't have to sleep on the street or under the bridge.

Near noon, Ge Nie felt a seductive aroma of wine and meat in his nose; he looked up, and finally made up his mind to walk into a wine shop that looked quite luxurious.He is not fond of wine, but the taste reminds him of the scene of toasting with his juniors and friends in Daliang - the familiar smell makes him feel nostalgic.

The business of the restaurant is very good.Ge Nie sat in the corner and ordered boiled beans and millet, as well as a bowl of meat, which he felt was quite a luxury.The spacious hall was filled with all kinds of scholars, businessmen, and knight-errants. Many of them talked loudly about state affairs while drinking heavily, and did not offend the scruples of the powerful at all.

Handan's ethos has always been like this.

Even Guo Kai, who has eyes and ears in the capital, dare not easily break these rules.Some minions once reported to him that there were people on the streets of Handan who slandered the monarch and Shangqing. Whether these people should be arrested and judged for crimes, Guo Kai, who was not lenient, just smiled and said: "A dog that bites does not bark, and a dog that barks Don’t bite; these people can only use their tongues at best, they can’t accomplish big things, let them go.”

While eating and drinking, Gai Nie listened with interest to the discussions coming from everywhere, feeling very fresh.Most of the people he came into contact with in the military camp were vulgar people who could not read a single word, and he couldn't talk about anything other than the land and crops. Listening to them talking about the world and pointing out the world, I feel as if my eyes have suddenly become open.

"Have you heard? A few days ago, at the king's birthday banquet, General Li Mu and Guo Shangqing had an argument over Zhao Jun's rations, and finally broke up..."

"Is there such a thing?!"

"I heard that Guo Shangqing was always humble to Li Mu, and he was determined to create a reconciliation between generals and prime ministers, but it's a pity that Li Mu didn't have the courage to plead guilty to General Lianpo—"

"Bah, what is Guo Kai, who dares to compare himself to Lin Xiang?!"

"Then what's so good about Li Mu? I've heard people say that he took bribes from the people of Qin, so he retreated into Jingxing, only defending but not attacking—"

A middle-aged man in a purple shirt with a big belly got into an argument with a companion who looked like a traveling scholar. Their voices were loud, which attracted many people's attention.

Gai Nie suddenly heard a small "creak"; not far away from him, a young man who was drinking alone raised his head and stared viciously at the man in purple who had just spoken.

This young man was dressed in a crimson silk robe. He looked about the same age as Aji, but his outline was much deeper, and he had a natural nobility.Ge Nie thought he looked familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen him.

"What do you know? When the Huns harassed the border more than ten years ago, General Li Mu was guarding Yanmen. Didn't some people call him cowardly? What happened afterwards? The [-] Huns were defeated and returned, and they never dared to go south again. looting..."

"The Qin State and the Xiongnu are different. The Huns are just a group of guerrilla bandits, but now the Zhou Dynasty has been destroyed by the Qin State, and eight of the nine tripods have been transported back to Xianyang... I think that today's Seven Kingdoms , many people think that sooner or later this world will belong to Qin—"

"Zhao Laosi, are you cursing our country?!"

"Don't dare, I'm just saying that some people think so, and it's not me who said it."

"Hmph..." A sudden burst of laughter broke out between the two quarreling.Gai Nie turned his head and saw a gray-bearded fortune teller with patches on his gown and a grain of rice on the tip of his beard.However, as soon as he made a sound, everyone in the restaurant immediately fell silent, as if they were waiting for something.

"The strength of the Qin State has indeed reached the point where it can easily destroy a country." The fortune teller said slowly, "However, in recent years, they have ignored the weak Han, Wei, Wei and other countries, but they have bitten Zhao If the country does not let go, do you know why?"

"...Is it for the revenge of Changping? Or the land of Shangdang?" asked the man who looked like a scholar.

"...If you talk about Changping, it is because Zhao has deep hatred for Qin, not Qin has hatred for Zhao; and the Shangdang is now in Qin's hands, so why does Qin have any reason to go to war for Shangdang? .” The man in purple retorted.

"In the 18th year of King Zhou Nan, someone once caught a big turtle on Luoshui." The fortune teller stroked his beard mysteriously, touched the grain of rice, and stuffed it into his mouth with his fingers without hesitation. "The tortoise suddenly spit out human words, saying: 'Heshibi, Suihouzhu, get both and the world.' The words disappeared."

The restaurant suddenly seemed to be boiling, and there was a lot of noise.

"What?! Why have I never heard of such a thing—" someone yelled vigorously.

"Tianzi Zhou doesn't seem to like too many people knowing about this matter. Many people who heard this sentence have died. Unfortunately, there are still people who knew about it and secretly brought this sentence to people from all over the world. Monarch. Four years later, King Zhaoxiang of Qin State asked our country for Heshibi, willing to exchange fifteen cities."

After hearing such advice from the fortune-teller, everyone suddenly realized and talked a lot.The matter of returning the jade to Zhao is known to all women and children in the country of Zhao.

"It turns out that the Qin State has never let our country go, just to get Heshibi?" "Isn't it just a piece of jade, no matter how precious it is, how can there be such a god?" After that, I don’t know where it went, and who in this world knows its whereabouts—”

Ge Nie quickly stuffed two pieces of meat into his mouth, chewed vigorously, pretending to be fascinated by eating, and didn't hear anything.

"Although it's only a piece of jade, kings often have to believe in the legends of efficacies in this world." The fortune teller stroked his beard contentedly and hiccupped, "I heard that this time, there are also envoys from the State of Qin coming to Handan. He Shibi exchanged the two countries to strike. But the general refused."

"what?"

"What the general means is that the state of Qin is not trustworthy. It was like this during the time of King Zhaoxiang, and it is also like this for the current King of Qin. Even if he gets the Heshibi, he will never retreat."

"I see--"

"This Li Mu has been too domineering since he became a general." Ziyi said humanely, "How does he know that Qin will not retreat? I think he doesn't want the two countries to stop fighting so that he can keep the military power and keep Zhao The country became his pocket."

"enough!"

There was a loud bang from behind the restaurant.It was the crimson-clothed boy from before who lifted the table in front of him and stood up, smashing the cups, plates and wine cups on the table.His face was flushed with anger, and he pointed at the man in purple and cursed viciously: "The soldiers are going through life and death outside, Handan is a bit peaceful; you people can't devote yourself to serving the country, and you create rumors to slander them, it is really shameless!"

"Where did the milk doll come from? The hair is so horizontal before it grows." The fat man in purple gave him a sullen look. "Do you know who I am? Dare to be rude to me?"

The young man snorted coldly, strode up to him, and slapped a sword on the desk. "I don't care who you are. If you have the guts, let's make gestures with the sword!"

The man in purple drank a bowl of wine and said with a smirk, "So you don't know who I am. Little baby, you are looking for death on your own, no one else can blame you."

The two walked out of the wine shop one after the other, and marked out on the street, with an attitude of not letting go of each other.

The people of Zhao are martial arts, and most of the Zhao people are straightforward and irritable; on the streets of Handan, you can see people who fight every day because of a disagreement.But this time, probably the identity of the man in purple was really unusual. When he saw him go out, the people in the restaurant almost ran away at once; There were crowds of people on the street corner for a while.

Gai Nie hadn't finished eating, so he leaned against the window, stretched his neck and looked out while eating.

The man in purple clothes who looked full of brains stood in the middle of the road with his hands behind his back, his body didn't move, his mind moved first;

On the contrary, the crimson-clothed boy was full of rage, but his sword skills did not show any tricks.He only heard him shout "Look at the sword", and he couldn't wait to attack. The sword in his hand was like a flash of lightning, and hit the opponent's front directly.

The man in purple didn't block or evade, he watched helplessly as the three-foot cold blade was pushed to within an inch of his chest, and suddenly with a flick of his wide sleeve, the tip of the flying sword tilted up for some reason, as if it was being pushed by an invisible force. As if holding on to his strength, he slid out against the right shoulder of the man in purple—the young man in crimson only felt a tightness in his chest, and his body threw himself into the opponent's arms uncontrollably.He turned pale with fright, and quickly improved to retreat, pulling his center of gravity back abruptly; but when the purple-clothed man stepped aside, a dagger about six inches long suddenly appeared in his left hand, with a faint white streak appearing on the edge Awn, stroked towards the legs of the boy whose footing was not stable.

The young man in Jiangyi had suffered a dark move before, and now it is not easy to stand firm, let alone avoid the damaging move of attacking the lower body; if this dagger hits him, I am afraid he will never be able to stand up again.When there was no time to spare, it seemed that a beam of extremely thin and intense force passed through the gap between the man in purple clothes' dagger and the boy's legs, shaking the distance between the two.Although the young man in crimson clothes didn't understand what happened, he knew that the opportunity was rare, so he stepped back three feet and withdrew his sword to put on a defensive position.

The man in purple was inexplicably horrified.He knew that there must be someone helping him with a hidden weapon, otherwise the move of "picking flowers under the tree" just now would never fail.He has deep inner strength, and his eyes and ears are more transparent than ordinary people. At that moment, he seemed to vaguely see the "hidden weapon" that knocked him back——like, a bean?

The young man in crimson clothes didn't learn how to behave, he saw that his opponent hesitated for a while, he immediately swung his sword and attacked again, piercing three important points of Ziyi Rentanzhong, Qimen and Dabao.However, the man in purple changed his moves very quickly. First, he gently avoided the two moves, then suddenly blocked the third move with a short dagger, and at some point in his right hand, he held a long sword nearly three feet away, and moved towards the opponent's waist from bottom to top. Between the horizontal pick.

"Mother and Child Wind and Thunder Sword!" Among the spectators, several people exclaimed.

Since Guo Kai gained power, he has recruited many gangsters, bandits, and desperate swordsmen from all over Zhao and even other countries. Among them, the four most powerful guest ministers are known as "outstanding heroes from east to west, north, south, and four elephants".This purple-clothed man is the fourth-ranked "Mother and Son Wind and Thunder Sword" Zhao Beiming.It is also said that this ranking is based on age and net worth, and in terms of swordsmanship, Zhao Siying should be ranked first.

I saw that he forced the young man to flinch left and right with a horizontal thrust, and had to look for opportunities to retreat; Zhao Beiming didn't allow him to escape any longer, his wrist trembled, and the short dagger in his left hand drew a circle around the young man's sword. He made a circle——the speed of the dagger circling the circle was neither too fast nor too slow, but the sword of the crimson-clothed boy was caught in the circle and he couldn't extricate himself, sweating profusely; Impossible.

In an instant, the young man had no way to avoid it, and subconsciously used his free left hand to move the long sword that was stabbing him in the face.Many people in the onlookers sighed secretly, saying that even though the young man's life is safe, one hand is definitely useless.

It was a close shot, but the long sword of the man in purple drew back with a "huh--", the blade of the sword lightly brushed in front of him, trembling in mid-air.But he himself was shocked by the internal force that could not be retracted due to the forced change of moves, bloodshot from the corner of his mouth.

The young man in crimson clothes was stunned, staring blankly at his palm.

What is this the power of belief?

He thought he had achieved great feats, and his chest was full of blood, so he roared and rushed forward to fight again.

The man in purple could see clearly this time, just now another bean attacked him in the middle of his stomach and upper abdomen, this is where his body-protecting qi is hidden, so he had to call back for help, so he was in such a mess.He hated so much in his heart, but he was unable to get away from the boy's increasingly frustrated and courageous onslaught, unable to speak, and he had to guard against a hidden weapon that would fly out at any time. The embarrassment and pain in it were only him. knew.

Ge Nie retracted his neck from the window, and continued to bury his head in eating his beans.Er Er approached him with a big face, beard and hair unkempt; it turned out that it was the old fortune teller who had just mentioned "Heshibi, Suihouzhu", looking at him meaningfully, as if he knew everything .

Gai Nie was taken aback, feeling a little guilty for no reason, but luckily it wasn't obvious on his face.

"Old man, what's the matter with you?"

"Young man, this old man wants to meet you."

"Ok?"

"Tsk tsk, you are a noble figure... It's a pity, why is there blood in your wealth?" The old man stood up while talking to himself, and went straight out the door. "Hehe... Tiansha, Tiansha..."

"Guest, please ignore him. This man is a lunatic." Seeing that the fortune teller had gone far away, the young guy who was packing up at the side stretched his head over and whispered.

"madman?"

"That's right, I've been crazy for a long time. He always talks nonsense. But he never pays on credit, and many customers like to let him see the picture, so the shopkeeper said there is no need to drive him away."

Gai Nie nodded, checked out and left the door.

Outside the restaurant, two figures, one purple and one crimson, were still fighting endlessly.After all, the young man was not an opponent, and after several moves, Zhao Beiming finally found a flaw and sent him flying with his palm—if he just fell from mid-air like this, he would definitely be seriously injured, but for some reason, there seemed to be a soft force Pulling him, dispelling the palm force passing through his body - when he really fell to the ground, apart from some pain in his stomach, he could hardly feel any internal injuries.

The young man shook his head, only to realize that there was a handsome young man in white behind him supporting him.He smiled gratefully at the man, spit out a mouthful of bloody saliva, and got up to fight again.

"Little baby, if you are sensible, you should get out early." The purple-clothed fat man said angrily, "If it weren't for some hide-and-seek bastard who secretly helped you, you would have died ten times or eight times!"

There was a low chuckle from the crowd of onlookers.In fact, the vast majority of people didn't see the hidden weapon used to attack Zhao Beiming. They thought that this person was famous, but they couldn't defeat a young boy with poor swordsmanship in just a few moves, so they had to make some excuses to save him. face.

Seeing this, the purple-clothed man became even more angry. He pointed his mother-child sword at the sky and cursed: "Which little beast, taught by an old beast who doesn't eat dogs, doesn't dare to challenge me in a dignified way, but dares to sneak up on me from behind! If you catch it, your life will be worse than death!!"

The young man in crimson clothes wanted to scold him back, but suddenly the back of his neck tightened, his chest seemed to be gripped by something, and he couldn't breathe.

murderous look.

This is genuine murderous intent.It makes people feel like being in a sea of ​​corpses and a sea of ​​blood, and a battlefield with thousands of miles of red land.

The white-clothed young man who had just helped him turned around and walked back, suddenly leaped into the air like a crane, then turned over and threw down, punching the purple-clothed man several times in a row.Zhao Beiming came back to his senses, hurriedly opened his bow left and right, and the sword light flew, trying to stop the opponent's coercion from top to bottom.It's a pity that the man in white's fists and kicks were too fast, he was as sharp as a spirit ape, and as fast as a tiger or leopard. The moment he fell from above and met his opponent's eyes, he had already made [-] moves in a row!

The man in purple gritted his teeth and held on, dancing the twin swords of mother and child tightly, protecting the sword energy in front of him like a net; suddenly he deliberately sold an opening, and punched the mother sword in his right hand But he took the opportunity to accumulate strength, and stabbed at the opponent's face with a "poisonous dragon coming out of the hole"!

This move was originally the most vicious killing move in the Fenglei Sword; however, he underestimated the power of the opponent's punch, even if he concentrated his body-protecting qi on his face, he was still half numb by this punch, and his ears were buzzing The power of the previous stabbing move based on physical experience was also greatly reduced. The sword body was like a water snake swaying in mid-air. How could it still have the momentum of a "poisonous dragon"?

Zhao Beiming was still dizzy, and felt two strong winds pulling his body back and forth, and he could no longer hold the two swords in his hand.He spurted a pool of blood suddenly, his huge body staggered a few steps, and fell to the ground.Taking a closer look, the young man in white just now had his feet on the ground, holding the blades of the mother-child twin swords with both hands, and was looking at his tragic situation.

He didn't intend to continue to make moves, but Zhao Beiming felt that being stared at by those stern eyes, it seemed that countless swords were constantly piercing his body.

"It's okay for you to scold me, but no matter how dare you insult me, I won't let you off anyway." Ge Nie said in a word.He rarely wants to kill someone out of anger.

He took a long breath, and suddenly his hands trembled - he only heard a "crack" when they were stacked together, and the two swords made of fine iron, one long and one short, were forcibly broken by his grip!

There was a dead silence all around.The onlookers seemed to have their throats choked, and were so shocked by the bloody palms of the man in white and the broken sword thrown on the ground that they could not speak.

Gai Nie raised his head, and inadvertently glanced at a group of demented eyes, with a bad heart.He hid his hands in his sleeves, turned and left.

About a few hundred steps away, a panting voice came from behind: "Strong man! Strong man!!"

Gai Nie was stunned, feeling that this name was very fresh - he turned his head and saw that it was the young man in crimson clothes who followed him, and enthusiastically grabbed his sleeve corner: "Wait for me, strong man!"

"What do you want, little brother?" Gai Nie asked, having a good impression of this young man.

"Well, this strong man is so skilled—I, um, I'm so ashamed—" The young man was blushing, excited and admiring at the same time, "Your hand is injured, you should go to my house to bandage it!"

"No need, I have something important to do—" "No matter how important the matter is, you can't leave the wound alone! Strong man, my brother has a sincere heart, and I want to make friends with the strong man, please don't refuse..."

Gai Nie pushed and said a few more words, but he was so entangled by this child who was not a few years younger than him that he couldn't help it.Seeing that more people gradually gathered around him, he had no choice but to agree to follow him back to the mansion to bandage the wound first.

"My name is Li Zuoche. What's the name of the elder brother?" The boy felt that he was familiar with him, so he immediately changed his name.

"My... Gai Nie." "Oh, so it's Brother Gai! Who did you learn your fists from? Your master must be a master! Where is your brother from? What did you do in Handan? Big brother Do you have any plans to recruit disciples recently—"

The child's speech was so fast that Ge Nie couldn't resist it at all, and couldn't catch up with a word.Fortunately, the boy's residence was not far away, and he arrived in less than half a minute's walk.It's still a pretty big house, but it's a little deserted, and there aren't many servants there.

The young man led Ge Nie to go in, but a person turned around behind the screen wall, and when they saw the opposite, all three of them were surprised.

"Mr. Sima?" "General Sima!"

"Left car... Ge Nie! Why are you here?"

The three of them introduced the whole story, and the young man in Jiangyi smiled and said, "It turns out that Brother Gai is a member of the army, no wonder he has such a heroic spirit!"

"You caused trouble outside again. You haven't brought water and wound medicine yet." Sima Shang flicked Li Zuoche's forehead.The boy stuck out his tongue and ran away quickly.

Sima Shang turned around and said with a smile: "Zuo Che is the only grandson of General Li Mu. The general's two sons are both in the army. This child is the only remaining blood of the Li family. He is usually arrogant and willful. Please take care of him. "

Gai Nie smiled, "I think the left car is very good." He finally understood why the boy looked familiar all the time.

"Don't talk about that, why did you come to Handan specifically to find me?" Sima Shang took the wound medicine from Li Zuoche and drove him away, leaving only Gai Nie to talk secretly in the house.

"That's right, my subordinate..." Gai Nie hesitated for a moment, but instead of taking out the brass pipe, he only took out a roll of bamboo slips that he had copied overnight, "This subordinate has recently obtained a conclusive piece of evidence that Shangqing Guo Kai received. A bribe of [-] gold from the Qin envoys will be detrimental to our country; there are also several high-ranking ministers who also accepted, here is the list and the number—”

Sima Shang took it away and read it from the beginning to the end. Finally, he rolled up the bamboo slips and let out a long sigh.

"General?"

"Do you think I don't have such evidence here?" Sima Shang smiled wryly, "Since the establishment of the 'Mountain Ghost', we have continuously received secret reports from the Qin State, but what we know is that there are various spies in our country Let's not talk about how convincing your evidence is, but who are we going to show this evidence to? The general returned to court this time, and it took two full months to see the king only at the birthday banquet more than ten days ago. On the one hand, it is as difficult as going to heaven to see the king, and all the reports have to be sent to the king's bedroom through Han Cang; and Han Cang is originally Guo Kai's man..."

"Could it be that there is nothing we can do to deal with these traitors?!" Gai Nie said in shock.

"Now we can only wait for the opportunity, make a plan and then make a move. Recently, I have been mediating between Young Master Jia's forces and the general, trying to persuade the young master to help the general in the court; but the conditions they offered were harsh... Anyway, once the spring begins I'm afraid there will be another big battle between Qin and Zhao, so we can't care much about it right now."

Ge Nie bowed his head and remained silent.He really didn't know what to say.Sima Shang patted him on the shoulder, and said softly, "You've done a good job. I'll keep this list first, and it will be of great use sooner or later. The general suggested that you enter the mountain ghost. It seems to be a good idea. I don't know. How does Zhongshan Wolf treat you? I know he has a weird temperament, and he always wants to make newcomers feel wronged before he is satisfied."

Gai Nie smiled, "The leader teaches his subordinates well, and the subordinates benefit a lot."

Sima Shang became happy again, and said: "That's right, Zhongshan may not be kind-hearted, but he is thoughtful, reliable, and has a long-term vision. This time he brought back the news that the three kingdoms of Qin, Han, and Wei are about to unite. It was a headache. But he suggested to the general that although Qin, Wei and South Korea formed an alliance, they could not be of the same mind. Qin’s main force must still be in the north; The main force will probably still come out of Taiyuan from the west to attack Jingxing, or simply go south from the north to go out of Jiuyuan to attack Yunzhong and Yanmen. Therefore, we only need to defend the south and concentrate the elite in the north. The general thinks he is very talented , I plan to promote him to be a captain of cavalry. You also need to learn more from him. When Zhongshan is officially promoted, I plan to let you succeed the new leader of the 'Mountain Ghost'."

Gai Nie was stunned and could only nod slowly.