Broken Iron Clothes

======================

The two who were reminiscing about the old days were still chatting to the lamp, and there were only three figures sitting on the haystack, feeling lost with wine.

The waning moon is getting longer and longer, and it is almost giving out half of the light today. Gu Nanxing narrowed his eyes a little, and with the help of his eyelashes to store light, a hazy haze appeared in front of his eyes.

I don't know what Yi Qinchen said about being able to see light and shadow, is it this kind of light and shadow?Thinking about it, Gu Nanxing sighed helplessly.

"The human heart is really long, but if there is another person who needs to be worried about it, it will be too heavy." Gu Nanxing said to himself, raised his head and took another sip of wine, but saw He Xiao, who was sitting high diagonally above, staring at him. wandering somewhere.

"Brother Xiao, who do you miss?" Gu Nanxing asked.

He Xiao just lowered his head and smiled at him.

Gu Nanxing immediately stepped on the haystack and sat down beside him, raised the wine jar in his hand to touch him, and said, "I asked Ji Dong to go to the owner's side to find out some information for me, and it made you feel a sense of lovesickness." Bitter, don't blame it."

He Xiao replied: "It's good if you don't come, this is not a good place, let's not say that swords have no eyes, just in this camp, a group of old men gather together, seeing how cute she is, it's hard to guarantee that I won't look at her more A few glances."

"Hey, it's okay to be jealous in front of my father-in-law, but you should say these things in front of her. If you don't say it, who knows you like her so much," Gu Nanxing raised his elbow to him "But let me tell you, you're pretty reliable in your work, why are you so dumbfounded when you're in front of Ji Dong?"

He Xiao lowered his head and touched the wine jar in his hand, and smiled: "I have been in the military camp with my master for many years, and the people I deal with on weekdays are all rough men, and there is nothing particular about her. I'm stupid, I'm afraid I'll make too many mistakes, besides, what I owe to the Yuan family has to be repaid by serving the master, she followed me, I'm afraid..."

Gu Nanxing interrupted: "You think a lot, kid. Ji Dong has been by my side for so many years, and he is the most considerate. If you really want to treat her well, just say it when you should say you like her. Don't be afraid of being stupid. , and don't always let her guess, as for other things, I don't believe that Yuan Mucheng can still lose you two."

"It really won't."

The two touched the altar again and took a sip each.

After drinking, Gu Nanxing suddenly became more serious: "Be nicer to her. She has been with me for so many years, and she has suffered a lot from running around. If she was wronged, I wouldn't be as easy-talking as I am today."

He Xiao immediately said seriously: "Brother Gu, don't worry, as long as she is willing, I will definitely treat her well."

Gu Nanxing smiled, turned his head and saw Lai Chang who was sitting next to him, and pulled out a dry straw beside him and threw it there.

"Xiao Lai, to be honest, isn't this kind of mouth annoying on weekdays?"

Lai Chang waved his hand to sweep away the straw that fell on his shoulders, he only touched the piece of broken jade on his chest, and said, "My younger brother is in the sky, I'm afraid to disturb him when I talk at night."

As soon as he finished speaking, a handful of straw hit his shoulder. Lai Chang shook his arms in dissatisfaction. When he turned his head, he saw Gu Nanxing pat the empty space beside him, and gave him a few glances.Reluctantly, Lai Chang picked up the jar at hand, jumped up briskly, and sat beside him.

"He kept your precious pendant." Gu Nanxing asked.

Lai Chang said: "Originally we were divided into two halves, but when we were taken into the Sand Snake, my piece was taken away. Those people said that when they came to Jaecheng to do the job of killing the king, they had to be clean."

"Want to go back?" Gu Nanxing asked again.

Lai Chang laughed contemptuously: "Every day there, we are either locked in the room to fight to the death, or tortured to exercise our will. To put it mildly, the weak prey on the strong, but to put it harshly, they have never seen us as human beings. But I This cheap life is sold here and there, but this time I have no regrets, anyway, now it is the most human-like life I have lived, and if I want to go back, I will kill it."

Lai Chang was different from them, he didn't even have a living person to care about by his side, Gu Nanxing was still a little sympathetic, so he secretly pondered the words in his mind, but just as he wanted to comfort him, he heard him say something else: "I'm no better than you, but it's good to have no worries, so that you don't want to die when you should be desperate. Then you will hang your breath, like a fish on a chopping board, and you will not die."

Although it is true, this metaphor is really, too ugly.

Gu Nanxing suddenly lost his mood, so he had to signal He Xiao to pour him some wine together, at least to keep his mouth shut for the night.

-

The round sun hangs alone in the sky, forcing back the thin clouds and mist around it. After noon, the hot air wraps the bright banners that are constantly surging with the wind and blows them to the civil servants standing in front of Qinghui's military stele. military attache.

Standing in the crowd under the sunshine, Jiang Shiqing was standing in the crowd, but cold sweat was dripping from his forehead, his lips were even less bloody when the ceremony was over, and he asked Liu Zhaoyu to leave before he could wait for a long time.

The distant figure became much thinner against the backdrop of the light leakage in the forest, Song Bing glanced sideways there, and secretly breathed a sigh of relief.Song Bing had a rift with Jiang Shiqing because of the incident of the guards besieging the house and breaking into the door. Now that Jiang Shiqing had the opportunity to meet Liu Zhaoyu, he couldn't help but feel worried. Fortunately, Jiang Shiqing left without saying a word.

However, the carriages and horses carrying people did not return to Jiangzhai as they wished. After the guards sent to follow him turned back to report, Song Bing felt relieved again.

"Where did you go?" Song Bing asked.

"It seems to be going to your mansion."

Unable to guess Jiang Shiqing's intentions, Song Bing felt inexplicably uneasy. As soon as Liu Zhaoyu left, he hurried back, and just turned the last corner of the street, and happened to see the carriage parked outside the door.

Seeing Song Bing coming from not far away raising his whip, Xu Guo tapped on the carriage and said, "Master, the man is here."

Jiang Shiqing clenched his fist and leaned against his mouth to cough a few times, then a slender finger reached forward and raised the covering curtain.

"Song Shilang, please stay safe."

Song Bing straddled his legs, got off his horse and grunted, "Master Jiang looks like he's in good health."

Jiang Shiqing smiled and slowly got out of the car, walked up to meet him, and said, "That's also thanks to Song Shilang."

Jiang Shiqing stood still, but his eyes were not as weak as they appeared on the outside. Song Bing stared at him vigilantly and asked, "What do you want to come here?"

Jiang Shiqing said: "The Jiang residence has been besieged for nearly a month, so naturally I came to ask Minister Song to withdraw his troops."

Song Bing said: "Is that so, why didn't Master Jiang just remember to sue me for crimes before His Majesty?"

"Today's ceremony, I don't intend to disturb the peace of the heroic spirit there," Jiang Shiqing said, "However, if Song Shilang thinks it is more appropriate to bring this matter before His Majesty, I don't mind making another trip. At that time, I will say first Would it be better for the Yan family to assassinate the courtiers and put the blame on Yemen Zhuang, or would it be better to say that Song Shilang once played with Yemen Zhuang and pretended to kill Cen Yu?"

Song Bing's voice was deep, and there was a vague threat in his tone: "Jiang Shiqing, what evidence do you have?"

Jiang Shiqing raised his eyebrows slightly, with an innocent face on his face: "Do you need evidence? Isn't it evidence that you took the guards to Jiangzhai to jump? Is there evidence, or is Song Shilang saying that there is no evidence that you conspired with the Yan family to frame the former crown prince?"

Being touched by Ni Lin, Song Bing's expression became more and more gloomy, and a sharp edge of the saber at his waist was already showing.

"Master Jiang, be careful what you say."

Jiang Shiqing lowered his eyes and smiled, and said: "Song Shilang has a bad temper. This is not a good thing. If he is used by someone with a heart, Song Shilang will suddenly become an outcast like Cen Yu."

There was a deep meaning in the words, Song Bingyou thought about it for a moment, but the saber in his hand suddenly sank, and he was dragged out.

When he looked down, he saw Jiang Shiqing stretching out his hand to hold the blade tightly, the wound that had just scabbed in his palm had been squeezed out with thick blood, and instantly soaked the gauze wrapped outside.

Song Bing was startled for a moment, then raised his eyes, and saw the man smiling coldly, the coldness and madness in his eyes were directly attacking him through his eyes, just looking at him like this, the coolness rushed from his back to his head. top.

Before he could react further, a large number of horses and horses behind him mixed with human voices, and at the same time there was a burst of heavy footsteps. Song Bing turned his head and saw Liang Yuanqing leading the troops coming, followed by Liu Zhaoyu's dragon chariot behind him.

Counted!

Song Bing couldn't hold the knife, so he pulled the handle in panic, but Jiang Shiqing let go of his hand suddenly at this moment, and fell backwards in a loss of strength, and happened to bump into Xu Guo's arms.

Seeing this, Liang Yuanqing yelled: "Song Shilang, what are you doing!"

Seeing Liu Zhaoyu getting out of the car and coming in a hurry, Song Bing couldn't argue with anything, so he threw his knife and knelt down facing Liu Zhaoyu.

"Forgive me, Your Majesty. The knife is in the hands of this humble minister, but it was indeed the owner Jiang himself who bumped into it."

There was blood on his hands, and Jiang Shiqing's face turned even paler, so he could only walk towards Liu Zhaoyu with the support of Xu Guo, kneeling down and saluting, "Return to Your Majesty, it was Cao Min who suddenly saw that the blade was frightened, and fell unsteadily on Song Shilang. Block it with your hand."

"Master, why are you still talking for him at this time!" Xu Guo looked upset, knelt down and kowtowed, and said, "Your Majesty, I have told you the truth, my master has been bullied by Song Shilang and the guards for some time. For some reason, they offended them. The guards first surrounded the Jiang residence, and then broke in suddenly not long ago, saying that they wanted to search for people. The head was buckled, the master sent someone to give false testimony in the Jiang mansion in order to prevent Song Shilang, so he was stabbed by Song Shilang, the two of them clearly had a good chat today, Song Shilang suddenly drew the knife, my master was being beaten every day Trapped in the house, my body became weaker and weaker, and I was startled when I saw the knife, but Song Shilang took the knife and slashed at my master's hand!"

Song Bing turned his head and refuted: "Stop talking nonsense!"

Xu Guo replied: "Why are you talking nonsense? Now it's outside the Song residence, and everyone else is speaking for Song Shilang. Is my master going to suffer from being dumb? Besides, what the guards do to the Jiang residence on weekdays Just grab anyone on the road and ask them, and you can figure it out, how dare I talk nonsense in front of His Majesty!"

"Xuguo, don't talk about it," Jiang Shiqing seemed to endure grievances, his voice was also weak, "Your Majesty, I think there is some unexplained misunderstanding between Yemen Village and Song Shilang, so Jiang's house is surrounded by personal guards, making it difficult to enter and exit , attracted the neighbors to watch many times, Caomin rarely went out, so he wanted to take the opportunity to ask Song Shilang to make it clear, maybe Caomin accidentally angered Song Shilang again, and then there was a conflict."

Liang Yuanqing continued: "Master Jiang is already so weak, why would he use his life to make a joke? If he hadn't been forced to the point of no choice, he would not have dragged his sick body to seek help from Mr. Song in person. Now Mr. Song accidentally injured Mr. Jiang with a knife, regardless of the reason. Anyway, it’s better to explain the misunderstanding clearly.”

Seeing that the gauze was drenched with blood, Liu Zhaoyu couldn't bear to look away, and turned to Song Bing and said: "I also heard about the Ministry of War and Jiang Zhai, and I wanted to take this opportunity to ask Song Shilang for clarification. Explain it here."

Facing Jiang Shiqing's hypocrisy, Song Bing secretly clenched his fingers angrily, but Liu Zhaoyu said again: "Mr. Song, Xianfeng's words have excused you a lot. Now tell me, is there any misunderstanding between you?"

Hearing Liu Zhaoyu's "envy wind" call, the closeness and closeness can be understood in an instant. Today's Liu Zhaoyu is no longer the emperor who thought of everything in a perfunctory way before, so naturally he is not easy to be fooled.

Song Bing guessed today's result, but still struggled a bit, and said: "Although the owner of Jiangzhuang claims that murder and arson in Yemenzhuang are all to get rid of evil, it is hard to say whether it is true or not, and there are frequent assassinations of courtiers in the city. When something happened, I thought of Jiang Zhai to inquire, or acted improperly, and then there was a misunderstanding."

Liu Zhaoyu asked: "You led troops to search people, do you have evidence?"

Song Bing gritted his teeth and said in a low voice, "I haven't found it yet."

"It's a good one that hasn't been found yet," Liu Zhaoyu snorted coldly, "I ask you, who is worshiping in front of the monument today! King Wei Xu and Qinghui Army were framed by traitors, and died in battle to defend Ningzhou. As the son of King Wei Xu, when will it be the turn of the Ministry of War to say that there is no basis for suspicion and you will be bullied so far, do you not take King Wei Xu seriously, or do you not take me seriously!"

Song Bing fell down: "Your Majesty, calm down."

"The war in the Western Territory has not been settled, and there have been frequent incidents in the palace. The Ministry of War has not done its job, but has the leisure to take care of the affairs of the Governor's Mansion and the Ministry of Punishment. Is this how the personal guards usually guard the city?!"

Liu Zhaoyu shook his sleeves angrily, led by Liang Yuanqing, and the guards present knelt down to apologize.

"I gave the guards one day to withdraw from the Jiang residence. In addition, everyone involved in this matter will go to the official department to receive [-] boards, and then they will be fined for one month!"

Liang Yuanqing secretly glanced at Jiang Shiqing, and said, "Your Majesty, forgive me. The guards obeyed orders. It was my humble minister who was incompetent. I would like to accept the punishment for the guards. From now on, I will strictly control the military department."

Without waiting for Song Bing to have the opportunity to attack, Jiang Shiqing immediately continued: "Your Majesty, the original intention of the guards is to serve the imperial court. If this matter hurts the morale of the army, the grassroots will not be able to take responsibility."

Liu Zhaoyu took a few steps and replied: "Okay, then I will read Liang Shangshu and Xianfeng's intercession, the punishment of Xu's personal guards will be halved, and Liang Shangshu will receive ten boards for the personal guards, plus half a month's fine .”

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Liang Yuanqing bowed his head and kowtowed, but he lowered his head in the hiding place and gradually revealed a smiling face.

-

When Jiang Shiqing was sent back to Jiang's house, he lost all strength, and was finally able to lie down on the couch with Xu Guo carrying his arms.

Zhong Dingshan's face was ugly, and he never said a word to Jiang Shiqing from applying the medicine to bandaging.Seeing that he was silent, Jiang Shiqing gathered some strength and called out hoarsely, "Sir?"

"Ten days and a half months will make such a toss, who are you insulting?"

Zhong Dingshan gave him a reproachful look, then got up and brought the flower pot from the window sill, dragged a stool to the side of the couch, pushed the bottom of the pot up, and said coldly: "What's going on, you can tell yourself."

Today Zhong Dingshan was in a hurry in the house and took care of the flowers and plants in the yard. Then he suddenly remembered the pot of flowers in Jiang Shiqing's house that couldn't grow, so he went into the house to take a look.

Just looking at it like this, he finally realized that something was wrong, so he stretched out his fingers to pick up some wet soil and rubbed it, but a smell of medicine came out, which made him angry.

Jiang Shiqing felt guilty and didn't answer. Zhong Dingshan saw that he was speechless, and the more he thought about it, the more angry he became, and he said angrily: "What's the matter with your body becoming weaker and weaker? I finally understand it today. Tell me, I will match you up." Where did all the medicines go? I wonder why this flower pot is kept in the house every day because it won’t sprout. Is your Jianghuai River made of soil or raised in soil? The soup and medicine have to be poured into the soil every day to enter you. Is it your mouth?!"

After the assassination incident, neutral ministers such as Liang Yuanqing and Zhuo Wei have gradually turned towards Wen Yao and Gao Li, and a group of forces belonging to the Liu family are quietly being established.

Jiang Shiqing wanted this sick body so that he could break the morale of the pro-guard army acquired by Song Bing in one fell swoop today, so that Liang Yuanqing could take the opportunity to win over the pro-guard army and secure his position as Minister of the Ministry of War. In this way, the Yan family lost control of the pro-guard army Military power means that he is one step closer to Yuan Mucheng.

He had planned to take good care of himself after today, so he pretended that the incident of secretly pouring the medicine had never happened, but Zhong Dingshan broke it.

"Sir..." Jiang Shiqing called again, but Zhong Dingshan was so angry that he put his hands on his hips and turned his back to stop looking at him.

"Don't cry, I can't control you anymore. Anyway, I don't think you have the heart to survive. You can still struggle with such a body. You don't think your life is short, so don't worry about me being an old man. It makes me so angry. It’s worth it to have multiple people buried with you after a short life!”

There was a rustle behind him, Zhong Dingshan resisted not looking back, and after a while, he heard Jiang Shiqing say again: "It's Huai Chuan's fault for making Mr. trouble bother, you can punish him however you want, don't get angry and hurt yourself because of this."

"You still know that it hurts your body—" Zhong Dingshan turned his head suddenly, but saw that the bed was empty, and Jiang Shiqing was kneeling upright behind him. He thought about Jiang Shiqing's injury, so he had to stop his anger, and hurriedly pulled him up, "Tsk, get up .”

Seeing the bloodless white face in front of him, Zhong Dingshan sighed helplessly, brought the medicine bowl on the table and handed it over: "Drink it."

Jiang Shiqing took the bowl and handed it to his mouth, gulping the bitter medicine down his throat all at once.

Seeing his frown frowned by the bitterness, Zhong Dingshan moved the candied fruit prepared by Xu Guo away, and said: "It's just so bitter, and I will watch you drink it every day from now on, and you are not allowed to contain anything that can relieve bitterness." , I must let you have a longer memory."

Seeing Zhong Dingshan's anger come and go quickly, Jiang Shiqing swallowed the last bit of bitterness, peeked at him from the edge of the bowl, and smiled slightly in his eyes.

"What are you laughing at?" Zhong Dingshan took the empty bowl and muttered, "I'm used to it, the skin is so thick."

Jiang Shiqing said: "I will peel the walnuts for you to apologize."

Zhong Dingshan pointed at the gauze-wrapped hand with an angry smile, and said, "What can you peel with this hand? Close your eyes and get a good night's sleep. If something goes wrong again, I'll bring the walnut here for you to peel enough."

-

After Zhong Dingshan left, Jiang Shiqing leaned on the couch alone in trance, unable to sleep for days, he picked up the rosary beads again, and was twisting them one by one in his hands at the moment.

Xu Guo poked half of her head in from the door, and ran in with her braids tossing when she saw that there was no one else in the room, and mysteriously stuffed an envelope into Jiang Shiqing's arms.

"Master, this is the general's letter that Brother Qinchen asked Lin Song to deliver."

"And this." Xu Guo stretched out his other hand, handed him a small sachet, then ran away with a smile.

The sickly sick face suddenly became more joyful. Jiang Shiqing read Zhan Xin, lightly pasting his fingertips on the ink marks that covered five pages of paper, smiling lightly.

After pausing for a while on the name where the signature was signed, Jiang Shiqing put the sachet against the tip of his nose and sniffed it, only to find that it was not filled with spices.Curious for a while, he stretched out his fingers and opened the mouth, turned the mouth of the bag over, and poured out two strands of black silk tied with red strings.

Jiang Shiqing held the red rope between his fingers and looked carefully, and saw that the two locks of black hair had been tied into a knot by Yuan Mucheng, intertwined with each other without distinguishing each other, one lock was called Jiang Shiqing, and the other was called Yuan Mucheng. Bai Xue, this life will not be separated until the white head.

Jiang Shiqing felt that he liked it, looked at it and touched it, then put the hair in his bag and put it under the pillow.Xu Shi got a little peace of mind from under the pillow, but within a short while, a bit of drowsiness appeared in his eyes, and he gradually fell into a dream.