There was not a soul in the carriage. The coachman was a young man dressed in plain clothes. If he were the son of an official, based on his appearance and if he could write well, he would most likely have a smooth career in the officialdom. It was a pity that he was from a lowly family who was not allowed to study for the imperial examinations.
Li Yang reorganized the provinces and established the Roads. In terms of the various Roads and territories, the King of Yan Chi oversaw the Southern Border, which was the most vast. The Guangling Road, which the vassal king Zhao Yi had his eyes on, was close behind. However, the degree of richness of the two could not be compared. Half of the world's taxes came from Guangling, which was not a lie. It was just that Guangling Road was not peaceful at the moment. In the past, there were still people who could rely on their connections to pass through the posthouse. However, now that a storm was coming, it was obvious that a war was imminent. The dozen or so main posthouse roads around Guangling Road were abnormally strict. They did not allow anyone other than soldiers to invade. Once discovered, they would be exiled from the two Liao. At the border of Guangling Road, there were many checkpoints with swords and halberds. One could only leave but not enter. It was obvious that the rebels of West Chu were the first to fortify their walls. Later, the matter of clearing the wilderness was handed over to Li Yang in order to catch a turtle in a jar.
Several vassal kings carrying Jingnan's banners were stationed at the border. Most of them cherished their feathers, so the soldiers under their command did not violate the law. However, some of the second and third class generals who held little military power but were unable to participate in the war immediately smelled the fishy smell. Horses would not grow fat without night's grass. Around the border, there were many bandits fishing in troubled waters. It was true that there were a few rebellious acts, but it was absolutely not as serious as reported by the local government. As a result, first there was a small-scale rebellion, and then there was the chaotic scene of bandits passing through like a comb. Immediately after that, the soldiers who were suppressing the bandits heard the news and moved into action. This was the true meaning of soldiers passing through like a string of beehives, causing many wealthy families who had the strength to complain incessantly. In the end, even the envious heads of the provincial and county government suddenly became bold. They did not care about their table manners and wantonly sent their trusted aides and advisors to the aristocratic families outside of their in-laws. Nominally, they were distributing protective talismans, promising that when the bandits roamed, the government would definitely send troops to protect the border and the people. Nobody was stupid, so they could only obediently squeeze out a smile and send boxes of gold and silver as a means of averting disaster. Nowadays, even the banknotes of the big money houses with roots in the capital were useless. As long as it was real gold and silver, the latter could only resentfully curse the officials in private.
If he wanted to get to Eastern Sea's Martial Emperor City, he would have to go through Guangling Road and take the easternmost "wild road". Hsu Fengnian, who had become a coachman, had already crossed the border. Along the way, he had seen several robbers taking advantage of the chaos to make money, all of which happened in the area between "Da Chu" and Li Yang's Prince of Guangling, Zhao Yi. Among them, there was a group of thirty robbers, each of them riding a horse and wearing armor. Although most of their weapons were rusty, they were undoubtedly weapons from the old Guangling Road's armory. It was enough to show how the Li Yang officials, who had come from outside, did not pay attention to the outside world and only cared about the wealth of the people.
However, when Hsu Fengnian arrived at the east, the situation began to improve. At first, he walked on foot, but later on, he encountered a group of fierce bandits who were chasing a wealthy family far away from trouble. At that time, more than a dozen young and strong guards were killed. Hsu Fengnian killed a few bandits who were about to attack the women and children, and a few more who were out of their minds. However, he did not chase the bandits down and let them escape. At that time, a young man who was wearing a scholar's robe, who was about to kill his savior, stared at Hsu Fengnian gloomily and said that he was willing to pay 100 jin of gold to kill all the bandits and avenge his family. Hsu Fengnian ignored him. The young man was about 13 or 14 years old and was a Juren of the imperial court, but he had not yet passed the examination. He was probably a local prodigy and was highly regarded by his family. They were all eagerly waiting for him to bring glory to their family, so it was inevitable that he developed a condescending arrogance. When the young man saw that this young man who traveled in Jianghu was not chivalrous and had suffered a tragedy himself, he did not cover his mouth and said a few very unpleasant words. Hsu Fengnian was too lazy to argue with a child and continued on his way. However, the old man of this small noble family was kind and quickly came forward to reprimand his eldest grandson's rudeness. He gave him a carriage as a gesture of gratitude and carefully gave him a small stack of silver notes. The old man originally wanted Hsu Fengnian to help escort him to a safer place further south, but after testing him, he did not force him. In fact, the carriage and the 300 to 400 taels of silver were just worldly possessions. Moreover, so many guards who acted as coachmen had died, so some carriages had become burdens and had to be abandoned. Hsu Fengnian did not refuse, which was why he had what he had now. Afterwards, there were some ignorant water bandits who came forward to harass him, but they were all easily chased away. This made the absent-minded Hsu Fengnian think of many old people, such as the large group of old and young from Mount Qingcheng, who did not look like bandits at all. As for the Jianghu chivalrous men, he remembered He Zhu who rode a horse to the Spring God Lake to deliver a message to Miss Hehe. Hsu Fengnian felt that he had been to Jianghu several times and had seen many so-called chivalrous women, but no matter how he counted them, perhaps only Liu Nerong from the Fish-dragon Gang and Zhou Qinghu, whom he met along the way when he met Great Ancestor Gu, were more in line with his impression of chivalrous women in his mind. Their kung fu was mediocre, and their appearances could not be considered stunning. If he had met them earlier, they were far from the Jianghu fairies that he had envisioned when he was a teenager. When he was young, he always thought that chivalrous women were carved from the same mold, nothing more than white clothes fluttering in the wind, otherworldly. He felt that they would not need to eat, drink, defecate, or fart for the rest of their lives. Now, Hsu Fengnian would definitely not be so naive as to take things for granted.
At first, Hsu Fengnian insisted that the restoration of West Chu was nothing more than Cao Changqing going against the current, and that he was destined to be unable to win the general trend of the world. He could only temporarily occupy a remote corner, unable to make a sound by himself. Then, he would be reduced to a new generation of young and strong generals in Liyang with little merit, and help the old generals of the Spring and Autumn Period leave the imperial court. However, along the way, he had seen many of the older generation of West Chu survivors who had endured humiliation for more than twenty years. For the time being, they still kept their mouths shut. But Hsu Fengnian knew that the more they endured, the more the Liyang officers and soldiers would exploit them. With Cao Changqing as the backbone of New Chu, it might not be as vulnerable as it seemed.
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