Yongchang County, Xingcheng.
Since the ups and downs of the Annan Conference ended in Xingcheng, the city has regained its former peace. Taoist priests wearing various robes or practitioners with strange methods can no longer be seen on the streets. It looks like a prosperous city where mortals trade.
When people walk on the streets, they still see merchants and common people, cars and horses going back and forth. Only when they occasionally see the collapsed and rebuilt house walls somewhere, or the craftsmen repairing cracks inside and outside the city walls, can they remember what happened here. It's something that really happened, not an imaginary story.
Of course, what can prove this is the stone discussing Taoism that stands outside the gate of Summer Palace and is full of names.
But only a few people know that this prosperous city is actually in decline visible to the naked eye.
I don’t know when the big merchants in the city who have been established for more than a hundred years started to move away one by one, or maybe over a long period of time in the past, they successively moved away the huge wealth they had accumulated over a hundred years. wealth.
The houses and houses in Xingcheng, or the land belonging to many powerful families in the surrounding area, changed their owners through various methods at a price far lower than before.
Even if there are shops in the city, because now that Li County has reopened trade, and people from Li County have taken over the vacant shops and run them, and the number of merchants coming and going from Xingcheng Wharf has increased again, it cannot cover up the weakness of this city and its Weakened, more and more people who lost their parasitic livelihood slipped from higher-level areas, and finally gathered in the southeast corner of the city, or a large area that is now quite large--the slums.
The slums still look like a sea of shacks, but survival is becoming more and more difficult now. How many people can be squeezed into each shack is something that no one can say. The most eye-catching thing in the slums is still the gray wall. However, since the Annan Conference, this courtyard has changed several owners in a short period of time, and it has become a bad place that no one would envy.
No matter how miserable life is, it is still more cost-effective to stay alive after all.
But now the owner of this courtyard is a somewhat remarkable woman named Liao Sanhao, who is respectfully called Sanniang by ordinary people.
This Liao Sanniang not only survived the huge changes in the Qingniu Gang a few months ago, but she even sat on the Qingniu Gang after the death of the third Qingniu Gang leader who was said to have a close relationship with her and was short-lived. It has been several months since she became the fourth leader of the gang, and it seems that she has firmly established herself on the throne. Coupled with the presence of some important figures behind her, her reputation in the slums is getting stronger and stronger. It has a vague power comparable to that of Niu Boss.
Strictly speaking, today's Qing Niu Gang is actually a much larger gang than it was during Boss Niu's time. Not only does the Qing Niu Gang have the final say in everything in the slums, but also in Xingcheng Street. The territory of the homeless and beggars in the alleys has become the jurisdiction of the Qingniu Gang. Without the arrangements of the Qingniu Gang, if you just pick up a broken bowl and beg along the street, you are destined to not be able to survive in Xingcheng for too long.
On this day, the sky was overcast all day long. When night fell, the whole city was plunged into darkness, especially in the slums where there were no lights at all.
When the chaotic night had darkened and the gray-walled courtyard was slightly glowing, an inconspicuous back door quietly opened a crack, and a dark figure flashed out of the courtyard.
This man seemed to be very familiar with this slum area. He just lowered himself into the underground of several nearby shacks and quickly disappeared into this sea of shacks. When he reappeared, he was already far away from the gray-walled yard and reached the slum area. an edge of the district.
This place is connected to a secluded alley. The figure looked around carefully and saw that there was silence in the darkness, and then suddenly accelerated and ran into the alley.
The figure's steps were light as it went deeper, until at a certain moment, the figure who had always touched the slippery wall with one hand suddenly stopped. A T-shaped fork appeared in front of the alley, and a petite figure carrying a small lantern emerged from that intersection. Came out around the corner.
The two gradually approached, and with this little light, they could see each other's appearance clearly.
The figure who had sneaked in here all the way was none other than the leader of the Qingniu Gang, Liao Sanhao, who was dressed in black.
The other one was dressed in tattered linen clothes, covered in dust and dirt, and even his head and face were smeared with dirt. His exact appearance could not be seen, but he could only vaguely tell that he was a young man.
But Liao Sanhao immediately recognized the person coming and quickly knelt down on her knees. But before she could speak, the sound of two heavy objects falling to the ground came from behind her, startling her and turning around. Go and see.
She saw a tall man in black, wrapped in black tights, gently wiping his hands, as if something had stained her, but in front of her, two men also dressed in black were gone. He was wearing a face towel and stared at Liao Sanhao with clearly lifeless eyes, unable to close his eyes.
Liao Sanhao was suddenly startled. He turned around and kowtowed to the young man who was holding the lantern. His voice trembled slightly and he said, "Sir, these people are not villains..."
"Of course," the young man said with a smile, but it was a clear and crisp female voice. If you look carefully, you can find out what kind of young man this is. He is clearly a girl disguised as a homeless beggar. Yin Hua said, "A three-level Qi refining person. A monk who is a warrior in the third realm of Dragon and Elephant. How can you, a mere Green Bull Gang, afford to support him? Get up and speak."
Liao Sanhao didn't hesitate at all when he heard the words. He stood up quickly and stood with his head bowed.
Hua Yu raised the lantern in front of her, blew it out gently, and then asked lightly, "I sent a message to you some time ago, asking you to send people to keep an eye on some generals' mansions. How about it? I found our What are the interesting things about General Xingcheng?"
Liao Sanhao said quickly, "Reporting to your lord, Xingcheng General Song Ningshan lives a very regular life. He neither listens to music and prostitutes nor visits friends and drinks. He only goes to three places every day, one is the general's residence and two It's a military camp, and three of them eat at a restaurant called An Ningxuan. The people in the general's residence are not active, except for the servants coming in and out to buy some food and clothing, and the female family members basically don't go out."
Hua Yu smiled, "These days, it's hard to find a self-disciplined officer like General Song."
Liao Sanhao did not pick up the topic, but added, "However, a few days ago, the general's residence received a guest."
"Oh?" Hua Yu looked towards the end of the alley and asked casually, "What kind of guest?"
Liao Sanhao said a little uncertainly, "The person who reported below didn't explain clearly. He only said that at night, he was a man who looked like a businessman. He came and left alone, and he only stayed there for about a stick of incense. "
"Businessmen and the like," Hua Yu said lightly, "it's really normal."
