Volume 1 Chushan Bandits Chapter 13: Mistakes of Wisdom
It took a long time for Xu Wujiang to come back, and Xu Xin'an couldn't help but follow him happily.
"Mr. Deng said that the inn is full of people coming and going, and the dust and noise are not conducive to the rest and recuperation of your character. He ordered us to vacate the yard next to his residence and arrange for Mr. Wang to move in. If Mr. Wang has any orders, he can order us." Xu Wujiang walked up to Wang Bing and said.
Xu Xin'an ran over eagerly to help pack the luggage.
Xu Huai ran to the stable, led out the horse and harnessed it to the cart. He watched Lu Xiong pack his bag and came over. He learned that Xu Wujiang had already taken Xu Xin'an to the front yard to pack up, and said, "Deng Gui is a sensible man."
No matter how angry and reluctant Deng Gui was, since the prefect Chen Shi had decided to keep Wang Bing in the Huaiyuan military camp, he could not bear the blame for Wang Bing's accident under his nose.
Although the post house was within the military camp, in addition to passing officials, some merchants coming from the west who were unable to cross the Baijian River in time after nightfall and stayed in the inns in the Hedong street market would also stay overnight at the post house. These were not under the control of the Inspection Office.
He now arranged for Wang Bing to live in the family courtyard of the Inspection Office and provided him with strict protection so that assassins would no longer be able to succeed. Even if Cai Ying was resentful, he would think that Deng Gui was acting in accordance with Chen Shi's orders and would not blame him directly.
"My reaction is still a little slow. It's inevitable that too much cleverness will lead to mistakes!" Lu Xiong was really used to seeing officials like Deng Gui in his life. Or perhaps there were too many such smart officials in the court. They were very calculating, but they also lacked responsibility. He looked down on them from the bottom of his heart.
After loading all the luggage onto the carriage, the girl Wang Xuan supported the still weak Wang Bin, and they all walked to the yard less than fifty steps to the south.
Xu Wujiang was packing up inside with Xu Xin'an and two soldiers from the Xu family. Di Niang brought two brand new quilts and said to Lu Xiong apologetically, "There are only two new quilts in the house. They were bought when I married Wujiang. They will be used by Mr. Wang and Miss Xuan first. Tomorrow, I will go back to the manor with Xu Huai and bring another new quilt for Master Lu."
Di Niang also learned martial arts, and even if Xu Wujiang hadn't said it, she could see that Lu Xiong was not an ordinary servant beside Wang Bing.
"You're too polite, Niang Di. I can just borrow a quilt from Mr. Cheng. There's no need to go through so much trouble." Lu Xiong said.
"It's not a problem. Xu Huai and his men go back to the farm every now and then. The food, fruits, vegetables, chickens, ducks, bacon, etc. brought from the farm are always much cheaper than those in the Hedong market. If my husband needs anything, you can ask Xu Huai to buy them all." Di Niang said.
Wang Bing was demoted to Tangzhou and the local government was responsible for supervising him, but apart from the monthly ration of grain, oil, flour, and cloth and cotton for making clothes, he had to take care of everything else by himself.
This also means that if Wang Bing and his grandchildren want to eat better and more affordably, the best way is to ask Xu Huai to bring some food from Lutai Village in Yuhuangling, where the Xu family lives.
"Thank you, Ogi-san."
Xu Wujiang pretended to be stupid, but apart from Xu Huai, Wang Bing could see that Di Niang was a warm and kind woman, so he bowed and thanked her.
"Xu Xin'an, go to Hedong and buy two pounds of mutton and a jar of wine." Oi Niang went back to her room, took out a string of coins and threw it to Xu Xin'an, telling him to go to Hedong to buy wine and food.
Di Niang and Xu Wujiang were very loving. After a few days' separation, when she saw Xu Wujiang coming back in the afternoon, she couldn't wait to stew a fat chicken. At this time, she saw Wang Bing moving to the next door, and a fat chicken was not enough to congratulate Wang Bing and his grandson on their new home.
"How can we ask Di Niang to pay for food and wine?" No matter how high Wang Bing's status and ambition were in the past, he knew that he would have to rely more on Xu Wujiang and Di Niang in the future. How could he let them pay for food and wine? He looked at Lu Xiong.
Seeing Lu Xiong looking embarrassed, Xu Huai couldn't help but want to slap his forehead, thinking that all the belongings of Wang Bin and others could not be just the few silver ingots that Lu Xiong took out a few days ago?
Isn’t this too poor?
"Master Lu asked me to do something this morning, and I still have quite a few silver ingots here," Xu Huai said as he took out a few broken silver ingots. "I'll go to Hedong to buy wine and food for Master."
"You idiot, we are congratulating Mr. Wang, how can he pay for the food and drinks?" Xu Wujiang reached out and patted Xu Huai on the back of his head.
"This is what I should do. I will have to trouble Xu Jiejie with everything in the future. Today, I'm sorry to bother you, Brother Xu, to make one more trip." Wang Bing said.
…
…
Xu Huai has been accompanying Lu Xiong and guarding Wang Bing closely these days. Now he also wants to go to the street market to inquire about some information and see if there are any unfamiliar faces around.
Xu Huailin left the camp and returned the military uniforms, leather armor and crossbows.
These all have a certain amount, especially the armor. The Inspection Office allocates them per person, and if there is any damage, they have to be exchanged for new ones with the County Lieutenant Office. Xu Wujiang's rank is too low, and he is not qualified to embezzle military equipment such as armor.
However, Xu Huai still tied the narrow-blade iron knife around his waist and did not take it off, and Xu Wujiang did not care whether he wanted it or not.
Everyone knows that the crisis has not been resolved.
The setting sun has already fallen on the distant mountain ridge, and the red clouds are burning the sky above the mountain top like a fire.
Xu Huai stood on the ferry with a knife in his hand. Although he had not yet figured out why the assassin did not take action, he inexplicably felt less uneasy.
Perhaps it's the confidence that comes from receiving Lu Xiong's guidance in the past few days and feeling that I've made rapid progress?
Although Huaiyuan is the only way from Guangzhou and Xinyang to Tangzhou and Biyang, there were very few merchants and travelers crossing counties and states at that time, and most of the people strolling in the night streets were the people living on both sides of the Baijian River.
Xu Huai went to three inns in the market under the pretext of asking about the price of wine, but he did not find any suspicious people around - of course, everyone thought he was a fool, and no one would pay attention to him when he wanted to inquire about the news seriously, which made him very frustrated.
Finally, I ran to Zheng’s shop on East Street to buy meat.
It was a butcher's shop on the street. It was already dark, but the butcher's stall was still open.
Under the open awning, there was still half a block of unsold mutton and some chickens, ducks and fat geese on the butcher counter; separated from the butcher counter facing the street by a high cabinet, there were also several square tables in the shop where diners could sit and eat meat and wine.
When Xu Huai came over, there were two people sitting at the square table in the corner of the shop drinking. On the table were cooked mutton, roast goose, boiled peanuts and other side dishes.
The shop was dimly lit, with only two oil lamps on the tall cabinets providing illumination.
Xu Huai glanced inside and didn't pay much attention at first, but the two men quickly turned away after seeing him. Only then did he notice that there were two long bundles on the square stool next to the two men's table.
At that time, merchants and travelers were not prohibited from carrying knives for personal protection, but unless they did not want to attract attention, they would not normally wrap their swords with cloth.
"What do you want to buy, you idiot? Why don't you open your dog mouth and talk? You're standing in front of me like a dead person. Don't you think it's in the way? Why would Xu Jieji ask you, an idiot, to come and buy meat? Isn't he afraid that you will be eaten halfway? No wonder your parents died early. If they didn't die, they would have been mad at you for being so stupid!" Zheng the butcher was sitting behind a tall counter. When he saw Xu Huai standing in front of the meat counter and looking around the shop, as if he was greedy for other people's food, he started to scold him.
"Fuck you!"
Others called him "idiot" all day long, and Xu Huai was unhappy about it for a long time. Zheng the butcher usually relied on his relationship with the Tang family to bully others in the streets of Huaiyuan and had bullied him with words in the past.
Just as he was worrying about not having an excuse to start a fight, Xu Huai reached out and grabbed Zheng the butcher by the collar of his robe, lifted the thin man up from behind the butcher counter, and slapped him twice, breaking his teeth, twisting his mouth, and spurting blood. Then he grabbed his crotch with one hand and threw him into the shop.
"Fuck you!"
The two people who were secretly observing Xu Huai never expected that Xu Huai would suddenly attack and throw a living person weighing over a hundred pounds directly from a distance of three or four feet.
They were agile but could only stand up and avoid it, watching helplessly as Zheng the Butcher knocked down the elm table with a loud crash.
The dishes and wine bottles on the table fell down along with the stool beside the table, the cloth bundle spread out, and the two swords rolled into the corner of the wall, with the blades bouncing out of their sheaths.
Xu Huai heard from Lu Xiong that Cai Ying had been in charge of military affairs for many years, and had adopted orphans of generals and soldiers who died in battle and trained them into his own army.
After being promoted to Privy Councilor and returning to the central government, Cai Ying, as per convention, transferred the command of the army to a general appointed by the court. However, some of his confidants followed him to Bianliang as his private servants; most of these confidants were experts in the army.
That day at Yingzizui, the three assassins were far apart, and their faces were covered with beards, so Xu Huai did not see their faces clearly. However, he did meet the two assassins who sneaked into the caravan and suddenly left the next day.
To be honest, the two men in the shop looked unfamiliar, and they were not the ones who had sneaked into the caravan before. But at this moment, the two long swords that rolled to the corner of the wall bounced out with the impact. The blades were narrow and straight, and the handles were embedded with several thin and long bright silver strips for easy grip. They were exactly the standard swords used by the generals of the Western Army as Lu Xiong said.
Apparently, after four or five days, Cai Ying sent new assassins from Bian Jing to reinforce Huaiyuan Town!
"Fuck you, if you insult me again, I'll burn down your shit shop!" Xu Huai grabbed the slab of mutton on the butcher's counter and smashed it into the face of Zheng the Butcher who stood up and was about to pounce on him viciously, knocking him to the ground again. Without even looking at the two men, he grabbed the two roast geese on the butcher's counter, wrapped them in lotus leaves and tied them with straw ropes, and shouted, "These two fat geese are on credit from my Seventeenth Uncle. Tell your mother to put on some powder and come over to collect the debt..."
The two assassins stood against the wall with knives in their hands, looking at each other. Seeing that Zheng the Butcher was unable to get up and sat on the ground groaning, they were secretly shocked by the supernatural power of Xu Huai's arms.
Usually there were two waiters helping out in the butcher's shop. They were also from a bad background and were used to bullying the butcher Zheng in the streets. At this time, they heard the noise and ran over from the kitchen in the back.
How could they be willing to let Xu Huai go when they saw Zheng the butcher being beaten?
One of them picked up a stool and chased him out of the shop, while another walked behind the tall counter, grabbed a boning knife from the butcher's counter and was about to jump out of it: "You son of a bitch, you're rebelling, you even dared to smash your grandfather Zheng's butcher's shop!"
There was wind behind his ears, but Xu Huai did not draw his sword. Instead, he stepped sideways with his left foot, and his back flipped over like a dragon, sweeping his right arm across the arm of the man who was smashing the bench at him . Then he squatted forward, swung his body up violently, and used his elbow like a sledgehammer to hit the man's chest.
The first two postures of the Fu Mang Fist and Whip Hammer were changed one after another in a flash. Xu Huai felt indescribably refreshed in his heart. In actual combat, he was able to better appreciate the essence of the horizontal fist and horizontal slashing knife posture.
The scoundrel who picked up the bench and pretended to learn some kung fu, he could bully the weak normally, but how could he be a match for Xu Huai?
The man didn't even have time to react before he flew out.
Although it was early spring and the coat was thick, Xu Huai did not use his full strength, but the man was hit in the chest by a heavy elbow, and there was a dull "crack" sound. He fell more than two meters and fell to the ground, gasping for breath rapidly, and it was unknown whether his sternum was broken.
Several passers-by hurriedly ran away, fearing that they would be implicated. Someone screamed, "Xu's idiot killed someone!"
Xu Huai then took off his sword and stared at the scoundrel who was standing on the butcher's block with a boning knife in hand and was about to pounce on him: "Chen Gui, come here, I'll let you curse Grandpa again!"
"You stupid dog - I, I, I'll go talk to Xu Wujiang, you're right to hurt someone!" The scoundrel didn't want to be a fool on weekdays. At this moment, his eyes looked like he wanted to kill someone. He didn't dare to really pounce on the butcher block.
