Neon Clothes and Iron Clothes

It was easy to speak. As a messenger, you just had to repeat the news that others had told you. The difficulty was how to face the people who knew everything: panic, despair, rage, doubt, all of which would flood towards you like a flood, but you really didn't know how to deal with it. What you are best at in your life is wielding a sword, but when you encounter something that a sword cannot handle, Cao Wenzong found that he was so weak and powerless.

"Commander Cao!"

"What's going on?" Cao Wenzong turned around and the captain behind him said, "A patrol boat is approaching. Look, it's over there!"

"Oh, oh!" Cao Wenzong then realized that there was a rowing boat approaching not far from the starboard side. There was a flag at the stern with the words "Xunjiansi" written on it. How could he have been so distracted just now? Maybe he was really old and it was time for him to leave. Thinking of this, he sighed and said to the captain: "Tell the patrol boat that there is a special envoy from the Prince's Mansion of Hejian on board, and he needs to meet the governor and the princes with urgent news!"

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"There is an urgent messenger from Fanyang. He is at the governor's residence. Please go there!"

To be honest, Suta didn't like the courier, which made him feel uncomfortable. Usually, the courier brought bad news, because good news didn't need to be so urgent, and it didn't matter if it came a little slowly, but bad news was different. Although no one liked to hear bad news, as long as they were not hopeless fools, they would try their best to know it as soon as possible, because the sooner they knew it, the more they could make up for the loss.

What bad news was that? A defeat? A disaster? Someone got sick? Or something worse? As his imagination flew through his mind, Suta whipped his horse's buttocks twice. He rarely rode on the city streets, but this time was different. He felt a fire burning in his chest.

As soon as he arrived at the governor's mansion, Sutada jumped off his horse and threw the reins to the gatekeeper who came to meet him. He found that there were several familiar horses nearby, which were all ridden by his brothers on weekdays.

"My brothers are here too?" he asked.

"Yes, the young masters are here!" The steward at the door responded, "Except for the two young masters who went out of town yesterday, all of them have arrived and are in the back hall! Please hurry over!"

"Who came from Fan Yang this time?" Suta asked.

"He is a burly old man with a beautiful beard!" The steward replied, "All the gentlemen are very respectful to him. The governor even calls him Cao Shifan!"

"Master Cao? It's Cao Wenzong, why is he here!" Xu Tuo was shocked. The only person with the surname Cao who could be called Master by Yuan Bao was Cao Wenzong. Although Cao Wenzong's official position has changed over the years, his main job is actually the same, that is, the chief of the guards around Wang Wenzuo. A person like this suddenly came to Jiaozhou. Did something happen to his father?
Thinking of this, Sutuo took two steps at a time and came to the back hall, where he saw Yuanbao sitting in the main seat, the other brothers sitting on the two sides, and Cao Wenzong sitting in the first guest seat. He hurriedly bowed to Cao Wenzong and said, "Sutuo greets Master!"

"My lord, please get up!" Cao Wenzong did not dare to accept Xutuo's courtesy, so he stood up and helped Xutuo up: "You sit down first!" He pushed Xutuo to sit down, looked around: "Since most people are here, I won't delay! Yuanbao, let everyone else leave, and only you brothers will stay!"

"Yes!" Yuan Bao responded and shouted, "Except for the young masters, everyone else should leave the hall. No one is allowed to approach the back hall within 20 steps without being summoned. Anyone who disobeys the order will be executed!"

"As ordered!"

Cao Wenzong looked around, and when he was sure that only Wang Wenzuo's sons were left in the hall, he nodded slightly, took out a scroll from his sleeve, and handed it to Yuanbao: "Yuanbao, all of you check the wax seal to make sure it is intact!"

After checking the wax seals one by one, everyone nodded, and the last one returned the scroll to Cao Wenzong, who crushed the wax seal, unfolded the scroll, and began to read. It turned out that the scroll contained a handwritten letter from Wang Wenzuo. The letter contained very few words, but Wang Wenzuo admitted that he did not have much time left, and called all the sons back to Fanyang to make arrangements for his funeral. There was a dead silence in the hall, and the sons looked at each other with miserable expressions.

"This, how is this possible? Father has always been in good health, why would he suddenly want to make arrangements for his funeral arrangements?" The first person to speak was Yaksha. Just like his name, he was a brave and fierce man. He jumped out and tried to grab the scroll in Cao Wenzong's hand. Cao Wenzong stretched out his hand to block and push, and Yaksha fell back on the chair.

"Master Yasha, please respect yourself!" Cao Wenzong said sternly, "Your Majesty is indeed in good health, but he is also over fifty years old this year. He fell off his horse and broke two ribs, which is even more serious. Everyone in Fanyang saw it with their own eyes. How can you talk nonsense!"

"Father has been a soldier for half his life, but he just fell off his horse, what's the big deal?" Yaksha said: "It must be that woman who has a bad heart and colluded with the quack doctor--"

"Shut up, Yaksha!" Suta shouted at the Yaksha, "How can you talk nonsense about such things? If you don't shut up, get out of the hall and stop getting in the way!"

Yaksha was about to retort, but was stopped by the medicine man next to him. The medicine man bowed to Suta and said, "Brother Suta, please don't blame me. Yaksha has been like this since he was a child. Don't mind it!"

"I'm fine, but Master Cao is carrying a letter from my father. If we are rude, it would be disrespectful to my father! At home, we are father and son, and outside, we are monarch and subject. We must be punished!" Suta said coldly: "Yaksha was the first offender just now, so he will not be punished. If he commits the same offense again, he will be punished for both crimes! Remember?"

"I'll remember this, little brother!" Yaksha understood it very well and bowed quickly.

Xu Tuo nodded, turned to Cao Wenzong and said, "Did father make any specific arrangements for us in the letter?"

"Yes!" Cao Wenzong handed the scroll to Xu Tuo: "Look, the king asked Yuanbao to stay in Jiaozhou, and the other princes returned to Fanyang!"

Suta took a look and handed the scroll to Yuanbao, and then everyone looked at it carefully. This arrangement was reasonable. As the governor of Jiaozhou and the governor of Annan Protectorate, Yuanbao naturally could not just abandon all the things and run back to Fanyang to see Wang Wenzuo to his death. However, this also meant that he would suffer some losses in the division of the inheritance. Thinking of this, everyone looked at him with a bit of pity.

"That's all I can do!" Yuan Bao sighed, "I can only ask you brothers to show some filial piety to my father on my behalf. However, Master Cao, Jumong is not in Jiaozhou right now!" "Jumong?" Cao Wenzong looked around, "If he's not in Jiaozhou, then where is he? How long will it take for him to come back?"

"He went on a diplomatic mission to Cambodia a few days ago. He should be in the capital of Cambodia, Paratipat City, but we don't know where he is now!" Suta replied, "As for when he will be back, we don't know!"

"Khmer? Water Chenla? Paratipat City?" Cao Wenzong was confused by Suta's series of place names that he had never heard of before, and said anxiously: "Then send an envoy to inform him! My father is seriously ill, how can a son not go to his bedside to show filial piety?"

"This..." Suta smiled bitterly, "Master Cao, you just heard it. We don't know where Jumong is right now. We just know that he might be there. Even if he is really there, it will take two or three months to send a ship to inform him that everything is going well!"

"What? Two or three months later?" Cao Wenzong was stunned. He then sat down dejectedly. "Ah, Your Majesty is so smart, how could you think of sending you all to such a far place? In the end, you are so old that you don't even have many children by your bedside!"

"Don't we have Ah Sheng?" Yuan Bao said, "Yan Liang and the brothers heading north should also be here soon, right?"

"Yes!" Cao Wenzong sighed, "But after all, there is still so much missing! Don't look at the king's usual appearance, he is actually a soft-hearted person, and he values ​​us old people and children very much. Outsiders don't know, but I have followed him for so many years, so I know it!"

Suta and Yuanbao exchanged glances and said, "Master Cao, how about this? You have come a long way, so go down and have a rest first. We will immediately send someone to Shuizhenla to see if we can find Jumong. As for Jiaozhou, there are also many things to arrange. Anyway, everything has been arranged, so we will go first, and Jumong will catch up later. As for whether we can catch up in the end, it depends on God!"

"This is the only way!" Cao Wenzong sighed, "Alas, if something happens to your father this time, I won't be interested in being this useless governor anymore. A few years ago, I donated a Bodhi temple in my hometown, so I can chant some sutras in the temple and pray for the king's afterlife!"

Everyone escorted Cao Wenzong down the hall, and sat down separately. The hall fell into a strange silence. Wang Wenzuo's sons who were far away in Jiaozhou suddenly found that their previous conflicts suddenly became insignificant. Faced with the current situation of their father falling off a horse and suddenly being critically ill (probably dead), they had to unite and face it together.

"Brother Yuanbao, Brother Xutuo!" The pharmacist suddenly stood up and said, "We are short-sighted and have offended you with our words a few days ago. Please forgive us. In the current situation, we will definitely follow your lead!"

"Yes, me too!"

"Me too!"

Everyone in the hall was not a fool. Even if they hadn't thought of it just now, now that someone was setting an example, the others immediately understood and expressed their opinions. Looking at the happy scene in the hall, Suta felt a little cold in his heart. It was obvious that Yaoshi and Yaksha did not suddenly find their conscience, but their father suddenly passed away, and they had to stick together as soon as possible to compete with other brothers for the inheritance.

Facing these formerly unruly brothers, Yuanbao behaved very magnanimously. He stretched out his right hand and pressed everyone: "Okay, okay, it's all in the past. We are brothers by blood, there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, I can't go back to Fan Yang to personally perform filial piety to my father this time. There are many things I can only ask you to do for me! Sorry to trouble you all!" Having said that, he stood up and bowed to everyone.

"Brother Yuanbao, what are you talking about? Isn't this our duty as younger brothers?"

"That's right, Brother Yuanbao, this is also putting public interest above personal interests, turning filial piety into loyalty!"

"That's right, let's go to Fanyang. If Brother Yuanbao is not here to guard, how can we rest assured? We should thank Brother Yuanbao!"

Everyone was humble and respectful for a long time, and finally someone said something important: "Brothers, our father is sick, and it is our duty as sons to go back and show filial piety, but we must not have the intention to harm others, and we must be on guard against others. We can't go back empty-handed and put our lives in the hands of others, right?"

"Yes, we need to be on guard. Now that my father is seriously ill in bed, who holds the military and political power in Fanyang? Most likely it is in the hands of that woman. Who knows if she will take the risk and kill us all to pave the way for her son!"

"That's right, I almost didn't expect it. How many soldiers are we going to bring back?"

The more Suta listened, the more he felt it was outrageous. He angrily asked, "What do you mean by this? Your father is not even known to be alive or dead, and you are thinking of killing your own flesh and blood? What kind of nonsense is this?"

"Brother Sutuo!" The pharmacist said, "We are not thinking about killing each other, but we are taking precautions. Others may not know who Aunt Cui is, but you don't? When father was alive, she just whispered a few words to him. If father is gone, she will be the legal mother, and she has Ah Sheng in her hands. The Qinghe Cui family is still the head of the Hebei gentry. If she goes crazy, who can stop her?"

"Pharmacist, stop talking nonsense!" Sutuo said angrily, "The military power of Fanyang is not in the hands of Aunt Cui. Besides, if father is critically ill, my brothers Yanliang and Huliang will definitely go to Fanyang. One of them is the king of Japan, and the other is the general of the court, the uncle of the emperor. Even if Aunt Cui has ten times the courage, she would not dare to touch the two brothers. Since she doesn't dare to touch my brothers Yanliang and Huliang, how can she touch us?"

Facing Suta's rebuttal, Yao Shi was speechless for a moment. Chang Nian, who was standing beside him, sneered, "Mrs. Cui really doesn't dare to touch the two brothers Hu Liang and Yan Liang, but we may not. Besides, Mrs. Cui may form an alliance with the two brothers and come together to deal with us!"

"Chang Nian, you are getting more and more like an asshole!" Xu Tuo sneered, "Let's not talk about who the two brothers Hu Liangliang and Yanliang are. How can Aunt Cui pull them both over at once? Besides, there are so many nobles and old friends around my father, and many of them have children who came to Jiaozhou with us. Do you think they will watch us being killed at will? You are really stupid!"

"Brothers, brothers!" Yuan Bao, who was standing by, saw that the argument was getting more intense, so he tried to persuade them: "What Sutuo said is right. Father is a very prudent person. He didn't die immediately after falling off his horse. He must have made some arrangements for his funeral. How could he cause a tragedy of brothers fighting each other? However, it's not good to be completely unprepared. How about this! Each of you bring 150 people, that's it!" (End of this chapter)