The Beimang border was similar to the Han customs of the Liyang Dynasty, especially after the refugees of the Eight Kingdoms had moved in. In fact, there was not much difference. On the Double Ninth Festival, they would plant dogwood, enjoy osmanthus and eat mooncakes. On New Year's Eve, they would set off firecrackers, and today's Tomb Sweeping Day. The men of the family, regardless of age, would bring wine, food, fruits, and paper money to the graves. They would burn the paper money and cover the old graves with new soil. As the younger generation, the children and youths would fold tender yellow twigs and stick them in the graves. After burning the paper money, they would kowtow and pay respects to their ancestors, and pray for some good fortune before they could return. There was no fixed time to visit the graves during Tomb Sweeping Day. It could be sooner or later. However, because of the heavy rain in Beimang, most of the graves were on the outskirts of the city and were not close by. Many of the common people were worried about their clothes and hoped that they could wait until the rain lessened before going to visit the graves.
Therefore, the departure of the thirty-one cavalrymen from Beimang was very eye-catching. The limestone streets of Beimang were slanted from the middle to the sides. Normally, it was not easy to notice them, but during the heavy rain, when the rainwater slid into the gutters, one would be able to see them clearly. The sound of the hooves of the thirty armored cavalrymen pounded heavily on the hearts of the people on both sides of the street. Connecting this Commandant General's bloody deeds of killing more than a hundred enemies on the border battlefield and killing people and drinking to his heart's content every day in the Beimang Manor, the common people felt more and more that they could rely on this Beimang Manor, who had a military background.
Wei Feng was a merchant, and no matter how much money a merchant made, his status was still inferior to that of a landowning household. Although Wei Feng was one of the few wealthy people in Beimang, his manor was still two streets away from the Beimang Manor. Fortunately, the Wei Manor was on the main road of the city, quiet amidst the commotion. It just so happened that one could see the thirty-one cavalrymen galloping out of the city. Leading them was the armored Tao Qianzhi, who did not conform to the official system. His steed was a rare Ferghana horse, light gold in color. Ferghana horses were already exceptionally precious, and this fine steed, bestowed by the Gusai Prefecture, was the most outstanding of its kind. It was exceptionally vigorous, making the rich in the city drool and the common people fearful at the sight of it.
The city overseer, Tao Qianzhi, took the lead, his eyes looking straight ahead. Naturally, he did not notice that under the high walls of the Wei mansion's main gate, there was a young man with a saber on his back, squatting down. A servant girl with a delicate body and charming eyes was holding an umbrella for him. That young master was squatting in a corner with his knees bent, his face facing the south. With great difficulty, he had burned several handfuls of yellow paper money. Probably because he had done his best, he put the remaining handfuls of yellow paper money back into his bosom. The pretty and pitiful maid reminded him in a low voice, "Young Master Xu, it's not good to put the paper money for the ancestors into the arms of the living. Shall I help you keep it?"
Hsu Fengnian stood up and saw that her left shoulder was soaked. He used his fingers to push the mahogany umbrella towards the maidservant. He crossed his hands and placed them on his abdomen. He looked at the armored horses galloping away in the rain. He smiled but didn't say anything. He just shook his head. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that the small umbrella was quietly tilting towards his head. He took the umbrella, feeling both angry and amused, and held it over the two people's heads. The maidservant, Chun Nong, raised her small head and blinked her pair of eyes that were naturally overflowing with spring. Hsu Fengnian rubbed her head and smiled. "I'll send you into the mansion first. Later, I'll go out for a walk. You don't have to follow me. This time, I'm leaving the city and I don't know when I'll be back. If we get to the Town God's Temple and the rain isn't as heavy as it is now, I'll help you and Qiushui bring a tray of Zhouji's Soup Dumplings. "
The young maidservant, who had just started to grow, said considerately, "It's just these roads. I'll be there in a few steps. Young Master, you can just go straight for a stroll."
Hsu Fengnian narrowed his extremely beautiful red phoenix eyes and pretended to be wronged. He teased, "I wanted to say a few more words to a certain young lady, but she doesn't understand the situation."
At that moment, the young lady seemed to have been struck by lightning. Her entire heart and liver trembled. She was so infatuated that she couldn't speak. She could only tilt up her small chin, which would suddenly sharpen if she was a few years older, and look at the young master with an intoxicating smile in front of her. Some first awakenings of love were always inexplicable. Perhaps most of them would be blown away by the rain and wind. However, the scene at this moment caught the young lady unprepared.
Hsu Fengnian smiled as he sent her into the Wei manor. After entering the door, the young lady didn't immediately walk into the deep courtyard. Instead, she stood where she was and looked at his slender back. She looked carefully and saw that when he held the umbrella and walked through the curtain of rain outside the eaves, his figure paused. It was as if he was looking through the umbrella at the sky that was like a large ink-stained inkstone.
Hsu Fengnian held the umbrella and walked slowly on the street. His shoes and socks had long been soaked when he burned the paper. His Royal Highness in Beiliang stepped on the stone slabs in Beimang City to kill the thirty-one Iron Horsemen, including the Mayor. The truth was that it was a bit cold. It was similar to the damned weather that made people shrink their necks and curse.
The Fish-dragon Gang had paid a huge price to send the goods into the city. In fact, after they handed over the goods to Wei Feng, they had nothing to do with it. However, they still stayed until today and agreed to leave the city in the afternoon. In the past few days, Wei Feng had done his part as a host. He had asked several stewards to take these country bumpkins who had never seen the world to experience the taste of gentleness. This alone cost more than three thousand taels of silver. In the eyes of the Fish-dragon Gang, this was a shocking extravagance. Even they felt a little embarrassed when they were eating, drinking, whoring, and gambling. Only Liu Nerong, who had suffered a lot, remained silent. She didn't tell anyone about the death of their guest, Gongsun Yang.
The young Wang Dashi was the only idiot who had always stayed in the Wei mansion. In addition to practicing martial arts, he also memorized the incantation. The day before yesterday, Young Master Xu taught him a sword move. Unfortunately, he couldn't learn it no matter how hard he tried. Fortunately, Young Master Xu seemed to be a strange master who was not afraid of his disciple's stupidity, but was afraid of his cleverness. Wang Dashi didn't feel burdened. Since Young Master Xu had kindly taught him, he would learn it honestly. He only knew that the move was called Three Jin. Just by hearing the name, Wang Dashi was quite fond of it and felt a sense of closeness. It was not like the tricks that the masters in the Fish-dragon Gang used to scare people. Who were they trying to scare? Anyway, even Wang Dashi didn't believe that these moves could be that powerful.
Hsu Fengnian stopped and turned to look at the unexpected person. He said calmly, "You're going to visit Gongsun Yang's grave?"
Liu Nerong, who looked miserable and haggard, nodded and then said word by word in a deep voice, "Or I won't let you visit the grave."
Hsu Fengnian shook his head and said, "I'll just walk around the city. I won't go to Gongsun Yang's grave to say anything. I really have nothing to say. Miss Liu, you worry too much. "
Liu Nerong strode forward, leaving Hsu Fengnian far behind. This new enemy of fate left the city one after the other. Liu Nerong went southwest, while Hsu Fengnian went southeast. It was raining heavily, and the sky was as dark as night. The official road was muddy and difficult to walk on. Hsu Fengnian's boots were covered in yellow mud. After walking neither fast nor slow for the time it took for three incense sticks to burn, he did not come across a single gravedigger. Hsu Fengnian exhaled a mouthful of fog and closed his umbrella with a bang, allowing the soybean-sized raindrops to smash against his body. He began to run wildly, but he did not run straight along the official road. Instead, he ran in an extremely large circle. Every time his toes stepped on the ground, a mud hole would be created in the ground and countless splashes of water would splash up. If an ordinary person was watching, they would only see a green shadow flash past, leaving behind a string of water puddles that were six zhang apart like blooming lotuses. It was like using a pebble to float across a lake.
City Overseer Tao Qianzhi came to a lonely grave mound. Lying inside was a comrade of the Gusi Border Army who didn't have any official title. When he died, he was only a sergeant. This old fellow entered the border army's infantry battalion at the age of sixteen and had been in the army for more than thirty years. He spent two years relying on luck to kill a Northern Liang Cavalry to rise to the rank of sergeant. Then, he wasted an entire twenty years in this position as a sergeant, going back and forth on the battlefield, never killing many people. However, it was strange to say that after all these years of dealing with the King of Hell under a hail of arrows, he still didn't die. The old sergeant had only led a dozen or so brats under his command, and now, only four of them were left. Tao Qianzhi was one of them. He had been promoted from an infantry soldier to a cavalry soldier, rising rapidly to the position of Commandant General. One of them had become a fifth-rank infantry commander, one of them had become one of the few outstanding sentries in the Gusi Border Army, and the last one had an even more illustrious official position than Tao Qianzhi, vaguely about to become a pillar of the Northern Mang Royal Court. The old corporal was greedy for life and afraid of death. What he taught these new soldiers was not how to kill the enemy bravely, but how to fight a war with a cowardly attitude. For example, he taught them how to play dead without leaving a trace, how to steal the valuables from corpses, and how to behead the enemy to gain military merits. But it was precisely this old ruffian, who was about to receive a salary and retire at home, who had died in a battle without warning. He had blocked a fierce Beiliang saber for his subordinate, and his entire back had been slashed open. He was just an ordinary foot soldier of the Beimang Border Army, and the soft armor he wore was completely useless against the sharp Beiliang saber. Tao Qianzhi and a few of his peers were still young at that time. They held the dying corporal in their arms and did not understand why this old man, who was addicted to alcohol, said that it would be better to die on the battlefield rather than in a coffin. Before the corporal died, he nagged and nagged. He was not a man of integrity, but he was in so much pain that tears and snot flowed down his face. In the end, he said, "It really f * cking hurts."
Thirty personal guards from Gusai neatly dismounted from their horses and stood in the distance. Two of them took off their backpacks. One of them took out a few bottles of good wine that the general had specially bought with a lot of money. There was nothing else but wine. The other took out a large stack of paper money wrapped in oil paper and handed it to the general along with the firestarter. After that, he opened an umbrella to block the wind and rain.
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