Sha Po Lang

"I think this face looks familiar." Gu Yun held a wooden stick, looked at the "woman" on the ground repeatedly for a while, and concluded.

The wolf king's tent in Calais Yinghuo was turned upside down by the people from the Black Iron Camp, and they found that there were neither rare orbs nor iron mesh corals inside. , He didn't even let him go, he was really a selfless lunatic.

To Gu Yun's great disappointment, they failed to find the legendary voodoo secret technique.

Think about it, only Liang people like to write everything on paper and put it into a book. Many primitive customs are preserved in the Eighteen Tribes. Some things that need to be recorded are likely to be engraved on stones, tortoise shells, or fur... ...Or simply passed on from word to mouth, the voodoo secrets they were looking for might only be hidden in Calais's brain and burned to ashes.

In the end, only such a weird portrait was brought back to the northern Xinjiang garrison under Chen Qingxu's insistence.

"Miss Chen just said what this thing might be?" Gu Yun casually asked the soldier next to him, "What is it?"

"Soul puppet." The soldier replied, seeing Gu Yun poking around with a wooden stick without restraint, he couldn't help but said, "Commander, I think this thing is very vicious, there may be something unclean, you should hide farther away?"

The "soul puppet" is the size of a real person, but only weighs [-] to [-] kilograms. After washing, the appearance and skin are the same as that of a real person at first glance, as if you can speak when you open your eyes.

It is said that this is not actually a complete piece of human skin. It is made of the best human skins of many boys or girls. After being treated with some kind of voodoo method, it is formed into a whole piece, wrapped in wood, and the wood is peeled beforehand. In this way, the human skin and the wood are pasted together tightly, and a lifelike dummy can be imitated.

The Eighteen Tribes believe that this kind of ghost can attract the souls of people who have died in foreign lands.

At the beginning, this soul puppet was covered with a layer of dust, but after washing it, it looked like a naked real person. Shen Yi felt that this thing was too indecent, so he specially asked someone to find clothes for it to "put on" .

Gu Yun stared at the soul puppet's closed brows and eyes, and vaguely felt that Chang Geng looked a little like when he was a child. He stretched out his fingers and stroked his chin, tried to recall the memory, and asked, "What did you say this trick is?" Is it the soul of that barbarian concubine back then?"

The soldiers believed in evil, a little afraid to look at it, and said frightenedly: "Marshal, it's better to move out quickly, these gods, ghosts and ghosts are panicking..."

"It's okay." Gu Yun glanced at the puppet's face, and said casually, "I think she looks pretty pretty."

Soldier: "..."

During this period of time, Gu Shuai took care of both the north and south battlefields, and he was probably so tired that he lost his mind and went crazy.

At this moment, Chen Qingxu who was worried about going to see Shen Yi suddenly broke in: "I remembered!"

Gu Yun: "Huh?"

Chen Qingxu pulled out a knife out of nowhere, half-kneeled on the ground, and under the watchful eyes of Gu Yun and his superstitious soldiers, cut the soul puppet open from the chest with one knife.

Gu Yun: "..."

His soldier trembled in fright, turned his face away and recited "Amitabha". Gu Yun looked at him, then at Miss Chen, who was like a ox, then stretched out his hand and handed the wooden stick to his silent relative. Bing, said sympathetically: "Take it to ward off evil spirits and defend yourself."

Chen Qingxu ignored her surroundings and concentrated on the tip of the knife. The human skin looked flat on the outside, even very soft. After being cut open, there was no flesh and blood inside, and the two sides were separated cleanly. The texture was like tanned cowhide. Chen Qingxu grasped it with all her strength. Well done, just enough to cut through the human skin without hurting the wood underneath.

At first, Gu Yun was idly watching. Suddenly, he squinted his eyes, rolled up his sleeves and squatted down. He unhesitatingly put his hand on it, gently lifted the peeled skin, and delicately touched the surface of the wood.

The soldier's face turned green, he pleaded guilty in a mess, and ran outside to guard the door with the evil stick given to him by the commander.

Gu Yun touched it for a while, then asked in confusion: "Why, there are still words on this wood?"

Chen Qingxu had scratched the human skin from head to tail. She changed a smaller knife like peeling the shell of a raw egg, and carefully peeled off the human skin bit by bit until the entire human-shaped wood was exposed. Then he breathed a sigh of relief, and took the time to reply to Gu Yun's words: "Yes, but the engravings are small and shallow, and people with extremely keen senses of touch can only touch them out. Ordinary people may have to use tools if they want to see them—the commander-in-chief can do it for me." Can you tell what is written on it?"

The Black Tie Camp and the Eighteen Tribes are old enemies of two generations. Many high-ranking generals in the Black Tie Camp can recognize the common barbarian language. Gu Yun groped for a moment on the neck of the humanoid wood, hesitated for a long time before replying: "All It’s a very uncommon word, steaming... what... I don’t know, there’s a number behind it... Well, it seems to mention some kind of sunlight..."

Gu Yun looked at Chen Qingxu confusedly: "Why is Zhang Shen's mysterious recipe engraved on this puppet? Uh...Miss Chen, what's wrong with you?"

Gu Yun had never seen such an excited look on Chen Qingxu's face, and there were tears in her cold eyes.

As if she had never seen wood before, she hugged the human-shaped wood with both hands, took out a piece of silk and carefully wiped off the dust on it, as if she was holding a rare treasure.

"In order for the soul puppet to be able to attract the return of the soul from a foreign land, it needs to communicate with life and death. The usual method is to hide a personal object of that person in the wooden heart, but since this method is used to pay homage to the dead soul, the deceased is usually thousands of miles away. , most of them can’t find the place of burial, so personal things are not available every time. I just remembered that in this case, the caster usually uses the last words left by the deceased, or Inscriptions representing the dead instead."

"When the barbarian sisters fled from the deep palace, the elder sister died in a foreign land on the way, and the younger sister took her children to live in the bandit's den. Before the imperial concubine died, she left a very important thing for Hugel, which was later taken from Hugel. After tossing and turning, it finally fell into the hands of the wolf king Calais..."

When Gu Yun heard this, his heart jumped wildly without warning.

"It's the Goddess Mystery Technique." Chen Qingxu pointed out what he was thinking in one breath, "I... I thought there was such a possibility, but who knew it was really..."

Everyone's impression of the "barbarian goddess" is only the image of Hugel, the lunatic, and the noble concubine has no sense of existence.She died too early, from a "half-god" on the high grassland to a harem with nine closed doors, she has no way of knowing whether she feels resentment, hatred or resignation to her fate.

And what is her attitude towards her children?

Presumably, according to human nature, it should be hated. Even Calai couldn't help but feel murderous when he saw Chang Geng's face that resembled a goddess sister when he was young, let alone the person involved?

But the voodoo techniques of the Eighteen Tribes are so unpredictable that even the Chen family has been at a loss for many years. As the inheritor, the noble concubine can kill an unformed fetus without anyone noticing it. Why is she What about leaving that child behind?

Did she know that the child was finally made into a Ur bone by the insane Hugel?

The old man is almost dead, and no one will know whether the barbarian goddess decided to keep the child because of a mother's reluctance, or just learned that Hugel was pregnant with another child, because of the death of the dead. The hatred of genocide planned a peerless evil god.

But no matter what, it was still the Goddess' soul puppet that left Chang Geng with a glimmer of life.

This is almost a bit of the mysterious meaning of cause and effect.

Chen Qingxu didn't want to discuss karma, she put all her heart and soul into this piece of wood, and before Gu Yun could react, she picked up the wooden figure like the wind and ran away, not even picking up the silk when it fell on the ground.Gu Yun was stunned for a long time, he breathed out belatedly, his chest was hit by an unspeakable hope, after he stood up, his eyes were almost dark, it took him a long time to recover, his ears were still ringing.

He couldn't help but reached out and rubbed his chin, trying to put on a normal and serious face as much as possible, his brows were subconsciously wrinkled together, but the corners of his mouth laughed uncontrollably. Intertwined with uncontrollable joy, it became a standard "whispering", Gu Yun himself felt that his image at this time might be a little crazy.

At this time, General Shen's soldiers next door poked their heads outside the tent for a while, and asked, "Is Doctor Chen finally gone?"

"Let's go," Gu Yun heard his own soldiers reply, "What, is there something wrong?"

The little soldier who inquired about the whereabouts of the genius doctor hurriedly shook his head, and ran back to report.

The next moment, Gu Yun heard a scream of pain that had been held back for an unknown amount of time from General Shen's tent.

Shen Yi's back was bruised and scalded in a large area, which was extremely miserable, but he still stubbornly refused Ms. Chen's treatment and visits. He shut the visiting Ms. Chen outside several times, resolutely refusing to let her see him. He also resolutely found a military doctor who was good at killing pigs to treat the wound. During the period, he sent someone to secretly come out to inquire four or five times, until Chen Qingxu finally left. Finally, he could bear it to the end and let go. Opened his throat and howled.

Gu Yun listened intently for a while, only felt that giving birth to a child could not be called so miserable, and he couldn't bear it, so he picked up the piece of silk that fell on the ground, shook the dust on it, and went out to stuff it for himself. The little soldier ordered: "Send it to General Shen quickly, it will relieve the pain."

Regardless of what the silk silk rubbed against, the effect was very effective anyway, as soon as the things were delivered, Shen Yi's howling immediately became much quieter.

Gu Yun black-heartedly finished entertaining his brothers, and returned to the commander's tent. He planned to approve the dozens of battle reports that were backlogged on the table and a pile of letters from various garrisons, but when he picked up his pen, he realized that he was completely silent. Don't worry about it.

He knew every word in the battle report, but he couldn't connect it into a sentence and jumped into his eyes. After a while, he thought endlessly: "Then the wood only records the method, but no solution?"

After a while, he thought again: "That's okay, as long as there is the ins and outs of Wuergu, the Chen family can always figure out a way."

Then after a while, he secretly said: "You won't really ask me to burn incense for those bald donkeys in Huguo Temple? Damn..."

...... all kinds of over and over again, no clue.

And an indescribable longing broke out a bloody path through the myriad of threads, jumping into his heart.

A drop of ink fell from the tip of Gu Yun's pen, and he finally came back to his senses. He simply pushed away all the official business, took out the letter paper as if he was blissfully happy, and began to openly occupy the official time for selfishness.

In April in the world, the land of two rivers is almost exhausted, and the long rainy season steams from the river and sea.

For more than a month, Chang Geng has been in Jiangbei. He first arranged the funeral of General Zhong, and then, Fang Qin wrote a letter suggesting to Emperor Long'an to keep King Yan where he was, and to assist the court envoys in making contact with the Westerners.

Although King Yan has already stepped down from the political arena, Fang Qin still feels that his presence in the capital is a very thorn in his throat.

It stands to reason that if you fight a snake with a stick, you should kill a political opponent with one blow, but the reason for King Yan's resignation was not planned by Fang Qin himself. Except for the great crime of treason, there is really nothing that can kill him.

Fang Qin had no choice but to try to push him away from him.

The word "assist" is very subtle, which means that this matter is not led by King Yan, he only has obligations and no power.After the matter is completed, it is also the credit of others, but if something goes wrong, there will be more places for the Yan King to make a fuss about.

It's a pity that the sky didn't come true, and the "chaos" that Fang Qin hoped to see didn't appear. King Yan got along like a fish in water in the Jiangbei camp, and his popularity was very good.He was already very likable, and he had the friendship to fight side by side with the soldiers, and he was escorted by the face of General Zhong and Gu Yun.

The envoys sent by the imperial court were very eye-catching. After arriving in Jiangbei, everything was guided by the king of geese. In addition, Gu Yun kept writing letters on weekdays. He would make a special trip to take a look at them for ten and a half months. The work of bullying Westerners along the two rivers was very smooth. After three or four small battles on the water, the advantage was taken, and the soldiers practiced. Li Feng couldn't say anything, but felt a little sorry for the Yan King—this is the reason for the so-called far fragrance and near smell.

At the same time, another unexpected event happened to Fang Qin, which made him unable to spare energy to take the opportunity to install forces in the land of Liangjiang——

The first batch of beacon tickets expired and had to be paid back.

The status of the first batch of beacon tickets is very special. It is not an exaggeration to say that they are the life-saving medicine of the Liang Dynasty, which was beset by wind and rain. At that time, if this batch of materials had not supported Gu Yun's victory in the Western Regions, he would have suffered many hardships in the northern battlefield. Under pressure, when the domestic Ziliujin was exhausted again, it was only a matter of time before the Westerners besieged the capital again.

The first batch of people who subscribed for the Bonfire Tickets are very kind to the country, and the debt must be repaid out of reason. If the court does not take out the money, it will not only be a breach of trust, but it is certain that the Bonfire Tickets will not be issued in the future. The government decree that "beacon tickets are equivalent to gold and silver among the people, and merchants are prohibited from rejecting them" that was implemented by Yan Wang with great difficulty before will also become a dead letter.

In this way, even if others agree, those court officials who subscribed for a large number of beacon tickets for the sake of black hats in the early days of the official reform cannot agree.

It wasn't until this time that Fang Qin had to admit that although Yan Wang used fierce methods, he never relented in killing political opponents with a knife. He used the knife of reform to gouge out whoever's flesh, and even offended a large number of people... But he planted a seed early in the end, and tied the whole court to his thief boat regardless of enemy or friend.

According to the original plan of the Military Aircraft Department, the first batch of Beacon tickets were released at the beginning, and there was a follow-up plan: the third batch of Beacon tickets was released just one month before the expiration date. According to past experience, it can sell for about seventy-seven a month. Eighty-eight, part of the money raised in this sum is reserved for the repayment of the first batch of debts, which is more than enough in both time and amount.

But what no one expected was that after King Yan left, merchants big and small would not buy it!

Fang Qin knew that the thirteen rich merchants were on the side of King Yan in private, but Daliang had a vast territory. Could it be that other than these few ambitious people who wanted to participate in politics, no one else was doing business?In addition, there are officials who want to sharpen their heads and climb up. The provinces can easily raise money by plugging in indicators.

But he underestimated the merchant alliance network.

This is what Du Caishen pushed forward with all his strength during the post-war period under the instruction of King Yan.There are chambers of commerce in various industries, and all chambers of commerce form a large alliance. Although members are bound by the chamber of commerce, they also enjoy benefits, not to mention discounts for importing and exporting goods from other members, mainly in the chaotic world where bandits are rampant. If With the seal of the Chamber of Commerce, you can request the protection of the local government garrisons - this is the privilege that the imperial court gave to the first batch of thirteen rich merchants who subscribed for the beacon ticket, and Du Wanquan generously gave it up to share.

And many merchants have gradually discovered that accepting restraint is not a bad thing. With the logo of the Great Chamber of Commerce, the trust of private buyers has increased a lot, and they no longer have to fall into price wars with those shoddy merchants.

This merchant alliance network spread across the country quickly, and there may be various problems in decades, but at the initial stage of its establishment, the loyalty of its members is very high, and it has become an iron plate in front of Fang Qin. .

The third batch of beacon tickets were blocked at the very beginning. Except for some officials who were eager for quick success and quick profits, they were almost unable to push them at all. Move, everyone follow suit.

But neither lure nor coercion will work.A group of upstarts promoted by thirteen wealthy businessmen has become popular, and it is no longer so easy to move them.

The beacon ticket is promoted by the military aircraft department, but the military aircraft department is only responsible for pushing it, and the money is coming in and out from the household department. Fang Qin wished that he could ask a bunch of party members to pay for it himself-but it is not enough, not to mention whether the major families are willing to pay for it. This money, even if he wanted to, took out such a large sum of money without blinking his eyes, and the poor people of the two houses, who could even scold the king of wild goose, were appointed to swarm up, and they would not give up until they got their bottom up.

As the day approached, even Li Feng couldn't sit still anymore, and asked him several times in person. In three or four days, he called Fang Qin and the people from the Military Aircraft Department into the palace to reprimand him. The pressure finally increased. Unable to stand it anymore, the six ministries had to jointly write to the Military Aircraft Department, asking King Yan to return to the court.

When the decree arrived in Jiangbei, Chang Geng accepted the decree very calmly, and then arranged for the handover of military affairs in an orderly manner, maintaining an even and steady attitude of "not surprised by favor or shame", as if he was not in any hurry to go back. When the second urgent order was delivered, He packed his bags and prepared to go north without haste.

Just as he was about to leave, the news of the Northern Xinjiang Great Victory arrived.

For a moment, the whole Jiangbei was boiling. While listening to the cheers and cries in his ears, Chang Geng took the letter for himself from the messenger.

Among Gu Yun's letters to Chang Geng, some are purely private letters, while others are serious matters to tell King Yan. Chang Geng is very experienced, and he can tell whether it is public or private by pinching the envelope before opening the envelope. Gu Yun's official business is usually only A thin piece of paper, a few words.When he took the letter from the Xuanying messenger, he was a little disappointed for a moment, because it was very thin, so there must be nothing personal about it.

Chang Geng casually instructed Xuanying: "Gu Shuai may not know about it yet. I'm leaving for Beijing today. The matters on Jiangbei's side have been handed over. Please go back and let me know."

After finishing speaking, he opened the letter without much shyness in front of everyone.

There was indeed only a piece of paper inside, with a hand drawn on it, and Gu Yun wrote a line: "Send it to Jiangbei with a palm, and measure for me whether Yi Ren's belt is wide or not."

Everyone looked at Yan Wang inexplicably for so long, and then they blushed.