The first rays of dawn illuminated the eastern horizon, spreading across the vast earth.
Milky white mist soaked in the warmth of the sunlight and flowed across the ground. To the west of the ancient city of Jiangning, the low-lying mountains and rivers were faintly discernible in the mist of light. Amidst the rise and fall of the hills, in the gaps between the mountains, they flowed like a tide in the slight morning breeze. Occasionally, the traces of villages, roads, fields, and people could be seen in the path between the hills and the fields.
On the road between the hills and the fields, many pedestrians and merchants had already set out on their journey. This place was already quite close to Jiangning. Many shabbily clothed pedestrians were either alone or dragging along their families, carrying their belongings and baggage towards the territory of the "Party of Equity". There were also many swordsmen with swords and spears on their backs and fierce-looking jianghu people walking among them. They were the main force participating in this "Hero Assembly". Some people met from afar and loudly called out their greetings, boldly announcing their families' names. Spittle flew everywhere, appearing exceptionally awe-inspiring.
There were also foreign caravans. Amidst the clanking sounds of carriages and horses, ferocious-looking or vigilant escorts escorted the goods along the official road. The leading escort carriages hung flags that symbolized the protection of the different factions of the Party of Equity. Among them, the most common was the Baofeng's Heaven, Earth, and Man banner, or Mister He's Fair King banner. On a few special roads, there were also some special banners hung together.
The Party of Equity rose to power quickly in Jiangnan. Its internal situation was complex, and its destructive power was great. But apart from the initial period of chaos, it was impossible for its internal trade with the outside world to disappear. In this period of time, the most primitive accumulation of the Party of Equity's rise was the accumulation of killing and plundering many of Jiangnan's rich and powerful families. The food, cloth, and weapons were naturally digested on the spot, but the many treasures and cultural relics they obtained were naturally tried by merchants who believed in seeking riches amidst danger. At the same time, they also transported goods from the outside world into the Party of Equity's territory.
The initial risks of this kind of business were extremely great, but the rewards were also extremely high. By the time the Party of Equity's power had joined together in Jiangnan, with He Wen's tacit approval and even cooperation, it had already given birth to giants like the "King of Equality" and the "Baofeng" that could rival the Party of Equity.
By the time the Party of Equity occupied Jiangning and released the news of the "Hero Assembly", most of the Party of Equity's power had already become somewhat controllable. And to ensure that this assembly could proceed smoothly, He Wen, Shi Baofeng, and the others had sent out many people to maintain order on the main roads of the city.
As a result, the number of caravans and escort teams that came from the outside world in an attempt to "seek riches and honor amidst danger" increased. They hoped to enter Jiangning as a transit point and "pick up" more of the accumulated wealth that the Fairness Party had plundered from the rich over the past year or two. After all, the Party of Equity's people had killed the rich and powerful families just for food and clothing. During this period, they had robbed of many of the rich and had yet to sell. It was still difficult to count.
Ning Ji was dressed in patched clothes, carrying a small bundle from home, a cloth bag on his shoulder, and a small medicine box hanging by his side. He was travel-worn but relaxed on the road to Jiangning.
Ning Ji walked east towards Jiangning with a dusty but relaxed gait on the road to Jiangning. He curiously sized up the crowd and quietly pricked up his ears to eavesdrop on the conversations around him. It was thousands of miles from the southwest. During this period, the landscape changed several times. Near Jiangning, the undulating of the mountains became gentle. Small rivers flowed leisurely. In the morning mist, there were clusters of trees that surrounded the small villages by the water or in the mountains. When the sun turned warm, there was an occasional fragrance from the roadside. It was: green feathers in the desert wind, osmanthus in the south of the Yangtze River in August.
When he had left Tongshan County last month, he had originally ridden a horse.
For the sake of this horse, he fought four times in less than a month, and more than thirty people were beaten until their heads were bleeding. Although it was refreshing to turn hostile and fight, he inevitably felt a little disheartened after the fight.
The reason for the fight was also very simple. His appearance looked pure and kind, and his age couldn't be considered old. Traveling alone on a good horse, he inevitably attracted the attention of some of the local gangsters who ran hotels and inns along the way. Some wanted to defile his horse, some wanted to rob his things, and some even called the bailiffs to charge him and send him to prison. Ning Ji had been following Lu Wenke and the others for the past two months. He had never encountered such a situation when he was in a group. He did not expect that such things would happen so frequently after he was alone.
Even the people on the way did not seem to be repeat offenders who ran illegal inns. They just saw that he was easy to bully, so they could not help but be tempted. According to Ning Ji's violent character at the beginning, these people should have been severely injured and then used their whole lives to experience the law of the jungle in troubled times. But when it was really necessary to fight, considering these people's identities, he showed them a little mercy. The only one who was directly injured by him was the yamen runner who wanted to catch him.
The fourth fight was when he was leading the horse to sell. The horse dealer directly snatched the horse and was unwilling to pay. Before Ning Ji did anything, the dealer had already accused him of making trouble and beating him. Then he even mobilized half of the people in the market to rush out to catch him. Ning Ji ran all the way until midnight. He returned to the horse dealer's house, robbed him of all his money, released the horses in the stable, set the house on fire and left. He did not set the houses in half of the market on fire. He felt that he had restrained his temper. According to his father, he had become more self-restrained. But in his heart, he faintly understood that these people might not live like this in peaceful times. Perhaps they had become distorted in troubled times.
Because the things were relatively messy, he did not leave the name "Long Aotian, the Batterer" in these incidents. After these four fights, he also felt helpless. Since he had already gotten rid of the good horse, he simply changed into patched clothes and disguised himself as a young man from a poor family. On the way, he did not stay in good inns. In this way, he was not harassed like this again.
As for the options of joining a caravan or making friends to travel with him, Ning Ji had deliberately skipped them.
In this way, in the middle of August, he finally arrived at the periphery of Jiangning City.
It was actually the 14th of August, only one day before the Mid-Autumn Festival. The pedestrians on the road were in a hurry. Many people said that they were going to Jiangning City for the festival. Ning Ji walked and stopped along the way, enjoying the nearby scenery and the bustle he encountered along the way. Sometimes, he would also walk to the surrounding villages.
More than ten years after the fall of the Central Plains, the Jurchen searched the mountains and seas twice. There had even been massacres near Jiangning. Coupled with the sweeping of the Equity Party, the flames of war had enveloped this area several times. Nowadays, most of the villages near Jiangning had suffered disasters. But at this time, under the rule of the Equity Party, the villages of various sizes were already occupied by people. Some of them were fierce and fierce, blocking outsiders from entering. There were also some who would set up sheds by the roadside and sell fruits and sweets to merchants from afar. Different flags were hung in each village. Some villages even had several flags hung in different places. According to the surrounding people, negotiations or fights would occasionally break out in these villages.
Ning Ji loved these exciting Jianghu gossip.
As he walked, he eavesdropped. Occasionally, he would see the kind-looking aunties selling things by the roadside. He would also smile and go buy some food while inquiring about the surrounding situation. Yesterday afternoon, he had entered the territory controlled by the Equity Party. By this morning, he had already figured out a lot of things.
Among the members of the Equity Party, the relatively more open and kinder were the "King of Equity" He Wen and the people under the banner of the "King of Equity" Shit Baby. They also occupied more villages by the roadside. The more fierce and fierce were the lackeys of the "King of Hell" Zhou Shang. Outside some of the villages they occupied, there were even corpses in horrible states hanging on flagpoles. It was said that these were the corpses of the rich families nearby who had been killed. This Zhou Shang had two names. Some people said that his real name was actually Zhou Shang. Although Ning Ji was a poor student, he still knew the difference between the two characters. He felt that this Zhou Shang was exceptionally domineering and really made him feel like a villain. In his heart, he was already thinking whether he should kill him this time and make a name for himself as Long Aotian.
The "High Heavenly King" did not occupy a lot of places, but of course there were. It was said that he controlled half of the military power. In Ning Ji's opinion, this kind of power was very powerful. As for the "King of Chakravarti" Chu Zhaonan, he was the son of the Great Radiant Sect's Lin E Chan. It was said that the leader of the Great Radiant Sect had already entered Jiangning in the past two days. The surrounding followers of the Great Radiant Sect were extremely excited. Some of the villages even organized people to rush into Jiangning City, saying that they wanted to kowtow to the leader. Occasionally, they would see them on the road. Gongs, drums, and firecrackers were going off. Outsiders thought that they were crazy, so no one dared to stop them. Therefore, the power of the "King of Chakravarti" was also increasing.
Although the "King of Equity" He Xiaojiao and the "King of Equity" Shit Baby were more open, the villages on both sides still had to fight over the issue of paying for the road.
The "King of Hell" Zhou Shang was said to be a lunatic. However, in the vicinity of Jiangning City, He Xiaojiao and Shit Baby teamed up to suppress him. Therefore, these people did not dare to go crazy on the main road for the time being. Occasionally, there would be some small conflicts, and the fights would be very serious.
The soldiers under the "High Heavenly King" did not seem to cause any trouble, but in fact, they often interfered with the other forces and asked for benefits from them. From time to time, they would join in the fights. However, their stance was not clear. When a fight broke out, people would often try to rope them in. Today, this group of people stood with He Xiaojiao. Tomorrow, they would be bought by Shit Baby to fight Chu Zhaonan. There were a few times when they fought with the lunatics on Zhou Shang's side, and both sides suffered heavy casualties.
In the periphery of Jiangning City, all the forces were in chaos. Frankly speaking, Ning Ji really liked this feeling! Occasionally, when he heard people talking about him, he would blush and want to jump up and cheer a few times.
Two years ago, he had fought with Female Zhenrens on the battlefield. However, after he came down from the battlefield, his favorite feeling was naturally to hide in a safe place and watch the tigers fight. Thinking about the current situation in Jiangning, he found a secluded high place to hide. He watched as hundreds of people fought on the streets below. That kind of feeling made him tremble with excitement.
Thinking about the situation in Chengdu last year, they only fought for an entire night. Adding up to a few hundred people, it was noisy, and then they were suppressed by his side. He stayed with Yao Shubin's big mouth for half a night, and only met two or three troublemakers. It was too boring!
— — And over here! Look over here! From time to time, there would be hundreds of people negotiating, and if they couldn't come to an agreement, they would start fighting! A group of bad guys were bleeding, but he didn't seem to feel any psychological burden at all! This was heaven on earth!
Ning Ji clenched his fists and jumped in excitement at the side of the road where there was no one!
Father didn't come.
Aunt Gua didn't come.
Aunt Hong didn't come.
Uncle Chen didn't come.
Uncle Du didn't come.
Big Brother didn't come.
Yao Shubin's big mouth didn't come.
Yuwen Feidu and Brother Xiaohei didn't come.
… …
He came to such a lively and interesting place alone. When he went back and talked about it, they would be envious to death! Of course, Aunt Hong wouldn't be envious. She had returned to her natural state of purity, but his father, Aunt Gua, and his big brother would definitely be envious to death!
Ning Ji was so happy that he ran on the road like a little wild dog. When he saw people on the road, he restrained his emotions, and then secretly leaned on the pedestrians on the road to eavesdrop on what they were talking about.
At noon that day, Ning Ji took a temporary rest in the lobby of a courier station by the road.
For the current world, most ordinary people didn't have the habit of eating lunch, but traveling on the road was different from staying at home. This courier station was one of the largest stops within a radius of more than twenty miles. It provided tea and rice, plain water, as well as well-roasted, fragrant ducks hanging on the counter. Since there was a signboard with the word 'Baofeng' hanging on the door, and there were a few villains inside, no one dared to cause trouble here. Many merchants and people from the Lulin Forest had settled down here for a temporary rest.
Ning Ji spent a lot of money to buy half a duck, put it in a cloth bag, and then asked for a flatbread. He sat on a stool in the corner of the lobby and ate while listening to the bragging of the rich people from the Greenwood Forest. These people were talking about the story of a force called "Grand Dragon" in Jiangning City, which was about to make a name for itself. Ning Ji listened with great interest and wanted to raise his hand to join the discussion. While eavesdropping, the lobby was full of people. Some people came in to share a table with him. A bearded man with a nine-ringed saber sat on a bench with him, but Ning Ji didn't mind.
"Big Brother, where are you from?" He felt that the nine-ringed saber was quite powerful, and maybe there was a story behind it. He tried to curry favor with the man, but the man glanced at him and ignored the young man, who ate the flatbread wretchedly and almost lay on the table.
Ning Ji was snubbed, so he no longer paid attention to him.
The man who was talking about the story of "Grand Dragon" started to quarrel with others. There was nothing good to listen to. Ning Ji was ready to eat the flatbread and leave. At this time, a figure outside the door caught his attention.
It was a little bald monk who was a little younger than him. He was holding a small rice bowl in his hand and standing outside the courier station. He looked at the roast duck on the counter with some fear and longing.
A group of strangely dressed people from the Greenwood Forest came in from the outside. They looked very much like Zhou Shang, the King of Hell and his gang of idiots. The leader reached out and pushed the little monk's shoulder from behind, probably saying something along the lines of "Get lost". The little monk swallowed and stepped aside.
The brainless people from the Greenwood Forest did not touch his shoulder, but the little monk had already stepped aside, so they swaggered in. Except for Ning Ji, no one noticed the problem with the scene just now. Later, he saw the little monk walk into the courier station, put his palms together, bow, and beg for alms from the waiter in the courier station. Then, he was rudely driven out of the inn.
A breeze was gathering.
This was an inconspicuous thing that happened outside Jiangning City at noon on the 14th of August.
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