The 12 horsemen had come in awe-inspiring, but they had left in disgrace. The wind in the distance stirred up blue waves on the lake and also lifted the hair on Gu Zhuting's temples.
"Ah Lang, once they leave, we'll really have a falling out with them."
"Haha, we'll have to fall out with them sooner or later."
"But if they use all their power to stop us in time …"
"Until now, they still think that the whole thing is the result of the competition between the Li family's power and the Wu family's power in the imperial court. They think that as long as they can force me to make peace, the Wu family, who are eager to keep a low profile, will be able to get out of the predicament. As a result, they can preserve their years of painstaking work in Chang 'an. But they don't know that my real target is actually them."
A shout of surprise came from the water in the distance. A fisherman raised his fishing rod and pulled a big, lively fish out of the water. The fish struggled on the surface of the water, and the sunlight reflected on its scales, making it sparkle. It was a bailiff disguised as a fishing urn. He did not expect to have an unexpected catch, and this made him smile.
Perhaps after his shift, he would bring the fish to a restaurant to cook a fish soup and have a good meal with his brothers on duty on the lake. Perhaps he would bring the fish home and have a taste of this fat fish with his family. If he was unlucky, an impatient child might get stuck in his throat by the fish bone and lose his life.
There were countless things in the world that seemed to have nothing to do with each other, and even the tiniest of things, but they could affect many people and many things, resulting in all kinds of changes. Before any of these changes happened, they would happen because of one reason or another, and no one could predict what would happen next.
For example, the bailiff might give the big fish to a arrester as a good start. The relationship between the two parties would gradually become closer, and this would affect the arrester's future. But what if the impatient child of the arrester's family accidentally got stuck in the fish bone?
Yang Fan's plan for Ba seemed to have nothing to do with the aristocratic families. He had been trying his best to eliminate all kinds of unexpected factors that could affect his plan. As one of the planners, his encounter with an assassin on Ba was a major accident that could affect his plan. But in the end, he still managed to make this accident a part of his plan.
At this point, nothing could be changed. Everything had to go in the direction he had set. Just like the constable who caught the fish. If he gave the fish to a constable, and the constable's child died because of a fishbone, then all the other possibilities became hypotheses. The only correct result was that the child died.
If it had already happened, it could not be reversed.
"Puchi!"
Just as the fish was about to be lifted onto the bow of the boat, it slipped off the hook and fell back into the water, creating a splash. The fat fish shook its head and tail and escaped into the bottom of the water, leaving only the fisherman's pitiful cries on the surface. Yang Fan smiled and said to Gu Zhuting, "Even if they wake up now, it's too late!"
…
Yan Suguan held the knife in one hand and covered his lower abdomen with the other. Blood stained his lower abdomen. With the help of Luo Jiahao, he staggered into an alley. A few naughty children who were playing in the alley saw them and screamed in fear.
Luo Jiahao was also injured. His thigh was stabbed and he walked with a limp. He helped Yan Suchuan escape into the alley. Yan Suchuan held a half-withered tree and sat down, gasping for breath. He said resentfully, "I told you that we should separate! They didn't listen. They just didn't listen. Now we're finished … "
Luo Jiahao turned his head to look at the alley and asked anxiously, "Big brother, where did you hide our reward?"
Yan Suguan glanced at him and said, "They're dead. You take me out of here, and we'll split it evenly."
Luo Jiahao pointed at his bleeding thigh and said angrily, "Big brother, look at me. How can I take you out of here?"
Yan Suguan sneered, "Do you want to abandon me and run away?"
Luo Jiahao said angrily, "Do you want to drag me to death with you?"
Before his voice died away, four middle-aged men in cyan robes with gloomy faces landed on the wall one after another and surrounded them. Luo Jiahao raised his knife and said fiercely, "When a tiger falls into a plain, he will be bullied by a dog. You lackeys of Ba, come on. I'll kill one and break even. If I kill two, I'll make a profit!"
Yan Suchuan also stood up with the help of a big tree, and held the blood-stained steel saber in front of his chest. The four middle-aged men in cyan robes sneered disdainfully. Three of them stood still, and only one of them stepped forward. Luo Jiahao gritted his teeth, and with a shout, he raised his steel saber and rushed forward.
A figure flashed in front of him. Luo Jiahao's wrist shook violently and half of his arm was numb. He looked at the middle-aged man in cyan robes standing in front of him in horror. His knife was held in the man's hand. The man held the handle in one hand and pinched the tip of the knife with the other. He gently twisted it. "Bang!" His knife was twisted into two pieces.
Luo Jiahao and Yan Suguan were dumbfounded.
…
"Hurry up! Take them out of the city!"
There were a total of six assassins. After Luo Jiahao and Yan Suzhuan escaped, the remaining four risked their lives to fight back. Two of them died on the spot, while the other two were wounded. They were dragged by the Cao Clan's warriors toward the alley exit.
Chang 'an City was in a state of panic. The patrolmen might come at any time after hearing the news. They had to end the battle quickly and bring the two out of the city alive to prove their innocence. Before they reached the alley, two middle-aged men in cyan robes swept over from the walls on both sides of the long alley like ghosts.
"Kill!"
The heroes of the Cao Gang saw that they were not friendly. Although they did not know who they were, they knew that they must be enemies. They quickly let go of the two half-dead captives and rushed forward with their weapons.
"Clang, clang, clang, clang!"
There was a series of sounds of weapons clashing. The two men in cyan robes flew out of their attack circle like a gust of wind. Each of them grabbed an assassin and threw him over the walls on both sides. Like the wind, they swept past.
The cooked ducks in the hands of the heroes of the Cao Gang flew away. Each of them was furious. They did not have such good skills and could not leap onto roofs and vault over walls. But the walls of the square were not difficult for them. But when they climbed up the wall with great effort, they sucked in a breath of cold air and froze in place.
Outside the walls on both sides, there were already people receiving them. From a distance, they could see someone carrying the two assassins and quickly disappearing into the forest. In front of them, several men in cyan robes were holding small crossbows. The black and translucent arrowheads were pointed at them. The men in cyan robes holding the crossbows had a sinister smile on their faces.
They held the crossbows and slowly retreated toward the heroes of the Cao Gang on the wall. The men of the Cao Gang were crouching on the wall in a strange posture, not daring to move.
…
On Ba, in the hall of the Shun Gate.
On Ba, the leaders and stewards of the Eastern and Western Alliances, all the clans and sects were gathered together. In front of the hall, in front of the enormous thirty-six landscape screens, there were one main, four side and five side tables. Behind the main table sat the Chang 'an prefectural magistrate, Liu Xiantian. Behind the side tables were the Assistant Minister of Justice, Qiu Lingzhi, Minister of Justice, Zheng Zhongbo, Deputy Imperial Censor Hu Yuanli, and Minister of Justice, Chen Dong.
Liu Xiantian held the imperial edict in yellow satin. His voice was loud and clear, reverberating throughout the hall. "… Collecting resources from the Cao Gang, it is the great plan of the country! Through the Cao Gang, the capital depends on it. If the Cao Gang is blocked, the Cao Gang administration will collapse. Money and rice will inevitably be consumed, and the expense will be incalculable.
In the Cao Gang, when water overflows, it will leak, when the shore collapses, it will be blocked, when the water is silted, and when the water is shallow, it will be guided. These are the rules, and there are few changes. However, although there are established laws to govern the country, the laws will be broken after a long time, and when they are broken, they will start anew, and then new rules will be created. Because of the rules, the laws will be supplemented by the laws. Therefore, by looking at the laws, one can know the rules, and by looking at the rules, one can know the changes.
Today, a new law has been established. One civil and military official will be in charge of the Cao Gang. The civil official will be the Assistant Minister of Revenue, Qiu Lingzhi, and the military official will be the Loyal Martial General, Yang Fan. On the Cao Gang, the officials are undisciplined, and there should be restrictions. However, the officials set up their own gangs, fought over profits, and in the end caused the established laws to be broken. I sympathize with their hardships and evil lawlessness, so I banned the gangs, unified them, and reported them to the government. This is a new rule! "
Liu Xiantian talked non-stop. Many of the people below were illiterate, and only half understood what he was saying. Only many of the officials at the Cao Gang were literate, and were quite literate, so they understood immediately.
It turned out that the Cao Gang of the Eastern and Western Alliances fought over profits, and when the snow melted in the spring, they still could not go south to Yangzhou. Even the Emperor was alarmed. Because of this, the Emperor changed the old law of the Cao Gang. He appointed the Assistant Minister of Revenue, Qiu Lingzhi, the Loyal Martial General of the Imperial Army, and Yang Fan as the civil and military officials in charge of the Cao Gang.
The Assistant Minister of Revenue was in charge of the Cao Gang, which was easy to deal with. The Cao Gang transported grain, which was the same as him. The Cao Gang was directly in charge of the Cao Gang, so there were fewer intermediate links. If the grain was not transported smoothly, and the Emperor investigated, the Cao Gang would also be responsible. So the Cao Gang was in charge of the Cao Gang, and could be considered their backer. In the future, the Cao Gang would suffer less exploitation, which was a good thing.
But this Cao Gang, the Loyal Martial General of the Imperial Army, who held military power, was in charge of the Cao Gang. What did he want to manage? Needless to say, a military official asked him to manage the Cao Gang. This was a soft hand and a hard hand. If they did not understand the situation and caused some trouble, the Emperor would probably have to send out the military to suppress them.
Also, although the Emperor approved of the fact that the Cao Gang had formed their own cliques, he ordered them to be banned, and wanted them to form a unified clique. Now, Liu Qian Tian was in the School of Obedience, gathering all the cliques to deliver the imperial edict. It was obvious that he wanted to use the School of Obedience as the foundation to unify all the cliques in Ba.
Who would have thought that since the end of the Sui Dynasty, the once glorious School of Obedience, which had declined to the point of death, would rise again in the blink of an eye. From now on, it would be the School of Obedience that would unify Jianghu.
Not agreeing?
Could they not agree? The leaders of both sides were locked up in prison. Although one side was the suspect, and the other side was the witness, the officials had two mouths. Wasn't it still up to them to decide?
Most importantly, there was still the Great General in charge of the Cao Gang. Although no one had seen the Great General before, he did not come today, but he sent someone. That Lang General, Dugu Weizhi, led eight hundred Iron Horsemen and stood guard outside the hall with a murderous look.
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