Jiang Qing

Summer in Minzhou.

Before the burning clouds covered the entire sky, Fei Yongchang led the people back to Minzhou, and without stopping to take a breath, he went straight to Nanyang Hou's Mansion.

Nanyang Hou's Mansion is not located in a prosperous area, and the house is not big. If it weren't for the two majestic stone lions at the door and the inscription on the plaque, it would be difficult for people to connect this simple house with the Hou's Mansion. stand up.

Fei Yongchang got off his horse, loosened his cloak and threw it to the porter's boy, strode towards the mansion, and asked, "Where is Lord Hou?"

"Master Hou should be at the pond in the backyard at this moment."

After getting where Ren Heyu was going, Fei Yongchang didn't need anyone to lead the way. He turned around a few porches with ease, and arrived at the pavilion by the lotus pond. Instead, he slowed down his pace and stood quietly waiting in the pavilion.

The pond in Hou's Mansion is not that big, Fei Yongchang just glanced at it, and saw Ren Heyu who were picking lotus pods in the pond.

A gap was slowly cut in the lotus leaves clustered one after another, and Ren Heyu waded ashore with a lot of lotus pods in his arms.

Seeing this, Fei Yongchang hurried up to meet him, Ren Heyu raised his head and glanced at him, and then sent the lotus pod in his hand to the shore first, and then walked up step by step.

The mud in the lotus pond was covered with Ren Heyu's bare feet and rolled-up trousers. He was wearing commoner clothes for working in the fields, and only the straw hat on his head was clean.

He hunched his back and leaned forward to protect the bulging things in his arms, slowly bent down, and spread the lifted robes, and immediately rolled out a few lotus roots covered with mud.

The muddy water stirred up just now after wading ashore gradually calmed down, revealing the clear water above.

Ren Heyu squatted on the bank, pulling the water from the pond to wash the lotus roots that had just been fished out one by one, and put them into the basket with more than half of the lotus roots on the side.

Drops of water rolled down his tanned skin, glistened in the afterglow, and dripped into the basket.

When scrubbing the lotus root vigorously, the muscles on Ren Heyu's arms swelled slightly, and then calmed down as he finished washing.

After washing the lotus root and pouring a few palms of pond water to clean the mud off his feet, Ren Heyu entered the pavilion with the lotus pod in his arms.

"Are you back? Come, sit, and help me with my work."

After motioning Fei Yongchang to sit down together, Ren Heyu picked up the lotus pod and peeled it up. While asking questions, he instructed him how to peel the lotus seeds without any effort.

"Is the thing coming back?"

"No." Fei Yongchang struggled with the lotus seeds in his hand, holding back his energy, "I met Mei Shao, and something happened in the middle, Lin Hu died, and everything was gone."

Ren Heyu was used to his brief response, so he let out a "huh" and put a palm full of lotus seeds on the plate.

"Since the things don't come back, they're gone if they're gone." Ren Heyu replied lightly. He raised his eyes and glanced at the bumpy lotus in Fei Yongchang's hand, his eyelids twitched, and said casually, "Lin Hu is dead. Let the lady sleep better at night."

Fei Yongchang's hands trembled, and he pulled off a large piece of skin from the lotus pod.

"Forget it, it's okay for you to lead troops, don't peel it off."

From the corner of the eye, he caught sight of Ren Heyu stretching out his hand, Fei Yongchang subconsciously shook, the next moment, the lotus pod in his hand was pulled away, he regained his senses, and carefully wiped his sweaty palm on his body .

"Have you fought against Mei Shao? How about it? Compared with his old man, who is better?"

"His martial arts style is not as grand as his father's, but he is more ruthless than his father's." Fei Yongchang had nothing in his hand, so he had to lay it flat on his lap awkwardly.

"What, did you offend him?" Ren Heyu quickly peeled a plate full, and began to pick out the bitterness inside one by one.

He picked out the cyan core and twisted it on his fingertips, revealing a bitter taste instantly.

"Before leaving, the secret passage exploded, and Mei Shao happened to be inside." Fei Yongchang paused, and added: "But he didn't die."

"Tsk." Ren Heyu clicked his tongue and said, "It's hard to deal with half-dead."

He tilted his head and continued, "Is Prime Minister Bai present?"

"No, I didn't dare to wait until he came, and left before the accident."

With a little appreciation in his eyes, Ren Heyu laughed and scolded: "For you are sensible, you didn't bump into him, his eyes are too poisonous to see things, and your knowledge is not enough to mess around in front of him. But he will still be suspicious, just take it There is no solid evidence."

After picking out the lotus seed heart, Ren Heyu didn't talk nonsense with him, holding the plate of jade-like lotus seeds, glanced at the sky, and his brows were stained with joy, "It's time, madam should be back, I can just eat some. "

Fei Yongchang was still thinking about his last sentence, he was a little anxious, and blurted out, "What should he do if he finds out?"

Ren Heyu had already left the pavilion and walked into the house, as if he didn't hear his words.

Not long after, he changed his clothes and came out. The purple clothes and jade belt, the high crown and the hair tied him made him tall and straight, and he looked like a gentle and jade-like child from an aristocratic family. He didn't have half of the wildness just now, and even walked and talked changed. look.

He condescendingly glanced at Fei Yongchang who was waiting at the door, and walked towards the door of the mansion, "After following Benhou for several years, why are you still in such a hurry?"

His voice was gentle, without any intention of reproach, but it made Fei Yongchang bend over involuntarily, not daring to raise his head.

"Go and find that blood ginseng in the house and give it to Marquis Pingdong. That medicinal material is the most nourishing for qi and blood, and it is just right to nourish him. Losing his Taishan birthday gift, after all, we have lost face and have to make it up. "

Ren Heyu walked a few steps, then remembered something, and said: "In a few days, you come to the mansion to get my souvenir, and along the way, take the lotus root starch I made, and choose a suitable person to send to Cangzhou, and give Bai Xiang an explanation. .”

He patted Fei Yongchang's face with a smile, and said softly: "We are all family members, so Benhou will naturally protect you, go."

As soon as the words were finished, an exquisite carriage stopped at the gate of the mansion. Before Ren Heyu could go up to meet him, the car curtain opened, revealing a delicate and lovely face.

"Husband!" The woman is well maintained, she looks only in her early twenties, especially her eyes, which are as clear as a little girl who doesn't know much about the world.

"Why did you come back by yourself? I was going to pick you up." Ren Heyu smiled instantly, stepped forward to support her, gently hugged her down, smoothed the broken hair on her forehead, and asked: "Did you find any good things while shopping outside today? Look at your blushing. You are not allowed to go out when the heat starts. I just peeled some lotus seeds for clearing away heat and relieving fire. I will use some later."

"Bitter." The woman frowned lightly, coquettishly like a cat.

"Hey, just eat two, okay?" Ren Heyu patiently coaxed him into the mansion.

The woman stopped when she saw Fei Yongchang, and bowed obediently, "General Fei."

Fei Yongchang quickly returned the salute, bowed to Ren Heyu, and left the mansion.

A woman asked softly from behind, "What happened? Why did General Fei come to the house?"

"I'm thinking about something. It's just that Mrs. Fei has been worrying a lot lately. He came to ask me for some soothing prescriptions, which are the kind given to you. It's not all because Mrs. Fei always said that I look like a quack. No, Fei The general came to ask me for a prescription."

As Fei Yongchang walked further and further away, the voices of the conversation between the two became smaller and smaller, and finally disappeared in the noisy cicadas, and they couldn't find a trace.

More than ten days later, Ren Heyu's souvenir was placed on Bai Bingchen's desk along with a can of lotus root powder.

The letter was sincere, apologizing for Fei Yongchang's reckless behavior in Weihu Mountain, asking about Mei Shao's injury, and asking Bai Bingchen for the thief who stole.

After closing the letter, Bai Bingchen always felt that something was wrong, but he couldn't feel anything.

The person Ren Heyu wanted had already been buried in the cave, and he couldn't hand it over. Even though Bai Bingchen still thought that the theft of the birthday gift didn't exist, he had no choice but to pretend to be deaf and dumb if the lights went out and there were no clues.

Before Mei Shao tortured the people in the cottage, only one of Lin Hu's confidantes said that he had seen the thief take something and met Lin Hu in private, and the time coincided with the birthday banquet that Fei Yongchang said.

Mr. Jiang's birthday banquet was indeed at that time, and the people around Lin Hu had also seen the thief, and all the clues were neatly put together. Hu died again, which made him want to die with Mei Shao, but he has only come to Weihu Mountain for a few days, and he has become Lin Hu's confidant with just a few treasures, and he also knows that most people in the village are not Knowing the hiding place of gunpowder, this is too staggering.

But now that there are no other strong clues, Bai Bingchen can't speculate out of thin air, so he can only suppress this doubt in his heart for the time being.

The real events at the birthday banquet were only known to the Jiang family as the host, so Bai Bingchen wrote a letter and asked Fang Min to hand it to Ping Donghou in person after he came back from staying at Taishan's house for a while, and asked about it. Let's make plans for the minutiae.

During the period when Mei Shao was raising her, Fang Min was not idle either.

The news of Weihushan being suppressed spread, and the remaining villages in Cangzhou were very interested, and they gave way one after another to dredge the ditches, and also spit out the annexed lakes.

The flood season in Cangzhou passed smoothly, and the documents for clearing Weihu Mountain were also handed over. In the past two days, Mei Shao and Bai Bingchen packed their luggage and prepared to leave for the capital.

After the explosion in Weihushan, Bai Bingchen sent people to clean up the collapsed tunnel and found a lot of gunpowder left.

Lin Hu's method is very sophisticated. He put the gunpowder in batches in the secret compartment of the secret passage, and each place has taken sufficient waterproof and fireproof measures, so as to prevent the gunpowder in one place from exploding and spreading to other places, thus threatening The explosion on Hushan only destroyed a section of the corridor in the middle, and Mei Shao was lucky enough to escape from death.

Gunpowder, weapons, and horses, these three kinds of materials that are in short supply on the battlefield are all gathered in Weihu Mountain, and considering the control of Anxiang Pavilion over Li Guo's military power, it is not difficult to conclude that the black hands behind it want to weaken the court's military strength first, and then rise up.

The Huang family controls the transportation of Cangzhou boundary waterways, which makes it easier to transport gunpowder to Weihu Mountain for storage.It's a pity that after the Huang family ran away, even if Fang Min went to search his house immediately, he couldn't find anything useful.

Although there is a list of water transport items submitted by the Huang family every year in the government, but nine times out of ten it is due to his errands, and there is no beneficial clue in it.

As a result, trying to dig out the Anxiang Pavilion from Weihu Mountain became a dead end.

And in the blink of an eye, it was time to return to the capital.

The author says:

The story in Cangzhou is over, and Mei Mei is going back to the capital in vain!