No, gentlemen also guard against

Chapter 737 Ouyang Rong: I'm here and you're not happy [Please give me a monthly ticket at the end of the month! ]

The capital of gods, Luoyang.

Early in the morning, Qinghuafang, where many dignitaries gathered, became noisy.

Today is not a family banquet held by the most powerful Prince Wei's Mansion in Qinghuafang, but it is closely related.

The nobles who had risen early in the mansions of Qinghuafang were stepping onto the carriages soaked with dew, and were preparing to head to the square in front of the Ziwei Palace in the imperial city, accompanied by their servants and followers.

The Great Zhou Songde Tianshu, which has been in preparation for a long time, will be officially completed today. It is said that the four giant Buddhas distributed in the four directions have also been completed one after another. The much-anticipated Tianshu and the giant Buddha's songde system are considered to be completely completed.

A few days ago, Wei reported the good news, and the saint was very pleased. He specially issued an edict to hold a grand ceremony to worship the sky in the Ziwei Palace Square located in Tianshu today.

Why was it a ceremony to worship the heaven instead of a celebration ceremony like the one in Jiangzhou? The reason was actually very simple.

The so-called Tianshu is naturally a channel for communicating with the heavens. The current sage, as the emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty, is the son of heaven and the agent of heaven. He carries the will of heaven and uses it to issue laws and manage human affairs...

Communicating with heaven naturally requires sacrificial ceremonies. The ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven has belonged to the emperor since ancient times. Compared with the celebration in Jiangzhou, the saints of the time and the two kings of Wei paid more attention to its political significance of symbolizing heaven's blessing on the Zhou Dynasty. Anything that can represent heaven's will is the most important thing for the emperor and is the cornerstone of state rule.

The great affairs of the country lie in sacrifice and military affairs.

Therefore, today's ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven not only summoned all the civil and military officials in the court to participate, but also invited envoys from all foreign countries within the scope of the Divine Capital.

The specifications are very high.

The morning light fell on the carriages that were taking a grand journey to Qinghuafang.

However, the Prince of Wei's Mansion seemed a little quiet.

It's not that there was no one there, but the atmosphere in the palace was solemn.

The ceremonial guard for the trip was already prepared and parked at the main entrance, attracting the attention of passers-by, but the entire ceremonial guard was slow to move. From the prince's jade sedan chair to the inner residence deep inside the mansion, there were royal guards standing guard every five steps along the way. It was roughly apparent that the King of Wei had not yet left the mansion, and no one knew what he was wasting time on.

Deep inside the palace, in front of the gate of the Wei family ancestral hall, a group of people were gathering. There was the captain of the palace's personal guard, the chief steward, and the princes and princesses of the Wei family. They all stopped obediently in front of the door, exchanging glances from time to time, and finally tacitly cast helpless or inexplicable glances towards the closed gate of the ancestral hall.

No one dared to go in and disturb them.

They waited quietly with their hands down.

One of the helmsmen of the Wei family, King Wei Jisi, is inside. He has not come out since he went in before dawn.

But no one dared to go in and urge them.

Wei Wu, who has a close relationship with the King of Wei, is not in the capital at the moment. Some people in front of the gate couldn't help but think that it would be great if the calm and steady Wei Wu was here, at least they could go in and check out the situation.

Ever since the Sixth and Third Princes were killed outside, the King of Wei has become moody. In addition, the last incident of him drawing his sword to kill his concubine in the inner house, now the Wei family members in the palace dare not break in without permission, let alone other servants.

Different from the atmosphere of the people anxiously waiting in front of the door, inside the gate, in the Wei family ancestral hall, Wei Jisi, dressed in black and wearing a white cloth belt on his head, walked around the lobby, stopping from time to time, and burning incense on the tablets on the table one by one.

His face was calm and his movements were skillful. After a while, he came to the two tablets at the end of the table.

These two tablets belong to Wei Shaoxuan and Wei Shaoqi.

Wei Jisi lit a few incense sticks and used his sleeves to carefully wipe the dust off the two tablets.

After doing all this, he stopped in front of them for a while with his eyelids drooped.

He had his back to the door, against the light, so even if someone was standing next to him, they wouldn't be able to see his face, which was in varying degrees of light and dark.

Wei Jisi actually never believed in such a coincidence. His two sons died one after the other in that small Jiangzhou. Could it be that the place was a place of retrograde water for his family? Was it a place that only caused the death of young sons?

At some point, Wei Jisi chuckled.

He turned and walked out, and when he passed by an office desk in the corridor, he casually picked up the string of white jade Buddhist beads given by the saint.

He and his brother Wei Sixing first proposed and supervised the construction of the Tianshu and Four Directions Buddha statues of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

Today, the protagonists on the Ziwei Palace Square in the Imperial City are destined to be their Wei family!

Wei Jisi had a calm expression, with white jade Buddhist beads folded in his palm, and strode away from the desk. After taking a few steps, he raised his hand, grabbed the white cloth strip on his forehead, tore it off, and threw it on the grass beside the desk.

This scene seems familiar.

I still remember that several months ago, before Wei Wu left Beijing, Wei Wu also knelt on his knees on the grass and respectfully took the white cloth strip that Wei Jisi had casually picked up.

In front of the door, Wei Jisi, who had finally taken off the white cloth strip, slowly stopped and looked back.

The yard was empty.

Wei Jisi didn't know what he was thinking about. Before he pushed the door open to greet everyone respectfully, he murmured the words he had told Wei Wu that day:

"Then take it for me."

……

Xunyang River.

The first ray of light broke through the darkness of dawn and sprinkled on the surface of the river. The river mist was broken and dissipated in the morning light and the waves.

An official ship is sailing against the wind and waves.

A young man with a sword on his back stood on the bow deck, frowning as he looked at the unchanging river surface, as if he thought the official ship was going too slowly.

He is Lu Ya, a direct descendant Taoist priest of Shangqing.

The waves at the bow were rough and bumpy, but Lu Ya stood on the bow with his feet rooted to the ground. No matter how big the waves were, they could not make him stagger.

For some reason, since this morning, Lu Ya has felt a strange feeling lingering in his heart. It is neither a special premonition of disaster nor a sign of good news, but a kind of indescribable meaning.

Lu Ya did not know the divination skills of his master Yuan Lao Tianshi. In fact, there was someone like his master, not to mention the Shangqing Sect, but in the entire Sanqing Taoist sect, it was not certain that one would appear in a hundred years. A genius who had the talent of fortune-telling was called a sorcerer in the mountains, and was no different from a semi-immortal.

There is also an old saying within the Sanqing Taoist sect, which says that this type of sorcerer is the reincarnation of ancient immortals. This is why they can repeatedly see through the secrets of heaven. Compared with ordinary people, they are less likely to suffer the retribution of premature death and divine punishment for forcing this path. If this type of person goes further, they can also understand life and death, and even plan for the situation after death, which is immortal in a sense.

Lu Ya recalled something that his master had mentioned before. There were only two sorcerers in the past five hundred years who could make his master admire them for their skills in fortune-telling, yin and yang, and feng shui.

One was an unknown Taoist priest who lived 500 years ago. His birth and death years were unknown, and his name was not recorded in history books. He was suspected to have shed his bones and become an immortal. When the master was young, he passed by the land of Yan and Zhao and camped in the mountains. He passed by his tombstone and saw a sentence on it: "A tomb may be reopened one day, but a man will never be young again." The master was deeply impressed. The reason why the master knew that this person was 500 years old and seemed to have ascended to heaven was because he left a legacy for the master who happened to stop by his tomb 500 years later. Fortunately, on that year, month, day, and time, he left a message asking the master to open the coffin and take it himself, and not to wait after the deadline;
The other one was a scholar from the Northern Dynasty more than 300 years ago. He was born into a family of scholars and scholars, and practiced both Confucianism and Taoism. He hated Buddhism. The master knew him because he was famous and had a great reputation. He had many works that only those who were sorcerers could appreciate...

Lu Ya pursed his lips.

Although he did not have the ability like his master, he had learned a little bit from what he heard and saw, and could vaguely sense that the premonition in his heart was a sign of something big to happen.

Moreover, this matter was related to him, so he had a mysterious premonition in his heart, just like "a storm is coming".

At the moment, the things that could be related to him, Lu Ya, only involve three things: Xunyang Palace, his master, and Senior Brother Zhang.

The answer is self-evident.

Lu Ya, who was about to return, looked up towards the direction of Xunyang City.

He couldn't help but think of the water of the legacy that Prince Li Dalang swallowed.

Did Master foresee what is happening right now before he passed away? Did Master have a premonition of something like this happening?

I remember that the master had repeatedly reminded me before he passed away that the unique skill of the sect’s ancestral hall, “The Command to Descend the Gods”, was actually the most special of the Three Pure Ones’ unique skills, and should not be easily passed on to outsiders. Not only were there many living people out there who were interested in this skill, but there were also dead people watching... But Lu Ya was puzzled after hearing this, what did it mean that there were also dead people watching?

While Lu Ya was thinking, bursts of screams came from the cabin behind him.

The young Taoist priest with a paralyzed face was not surprised by this.

It’s the man named Qian Chen.

From the time he was brought on board until now, Brother Wang has been interrogating him.

Not long after, Wang Caozhi came out, holding a white cloth in his hand, casually wiping the blood off his hands.

He came onto the deck and frowned like Lu Ya.

The two stood side by side at the bow. After catching Qian Chen and his companions at Guanyin Temple in the early morning yesterday, they immediately went down the mountain to Hukou County Ferry to catch a boat and return to Xunyang, while trying to catch up with Duan Quanwu and his companions who had left a few hours earlier...

Lu Ya asked without turning his head: "Confess?"

Wang Caozhi shook his head: "You're very stubborn."

"What's the matter that makes Brother Wang so worried? What's the origin of the group he's dealing with?"

Wang Caozhi narrowed his eyes: "It's just speculation. If this person doesn't confess, it won't count as evidence."

"What are you going to do?"

"Let's go back to the city to find my brother-in-law first. As for the confession, you can go to Shuangfeng Peak to find an old cruel official named Old Yangtou. I remember my brother-in-law mentioned that he is very good at using torture to extract confessions."

"Row."

Wang Caozhi looked back at the cabin and whispered:

"In fact, I guessed that he would not confess. The outfits of the gang are all there. However, this matter involves too much, and we need solid evidence. Otherwise, even my brother-in-law may not be able to suppress it. We need the prince to come..."

Having said that, he shook his head.

Lu Ya thought of the military strategist whom he had accidentally killed.

He glanced sideways at the short young man who was talking in a mumbling tone, and didn't ask any more questions.

Wang Caozhi turned around and asked casually:
"Where are you going after arriving in Xunyang? Can we go together?"

Lu Ya shook his head: "I have to go back to the palace first and stay by the prince's side."

"Okay, Taoist Lu, wait until we get off the boat at Xunyang Ferry in the city."

Wang Caozhi looked up at the sky, as if estimating the time to arrive in Xunyang, and nodded slowly:

"To be on the safe side, I will get off the boat at Shuangfengjian Ferry one stop earlier. My brother-in-law is going to Xunyang Grottoes to host the celebration in the morning, so he must be there. Sister Rong happens to be there too..."

Shuangfengjian Ferry was newly opened in the past two years along with the construction of Xunyang Grottoes. It is located in the direction from Xunyang City to Hukou County. Ships must pass through it whether going there or returning there.

Lu Ya nodded in agreement.

After thinking for a while, Wang Caozhi reminded again:

"If we arrive early, my brother-in-law is still in the palace or in the city. Taoist Lu, remember to inform him."

"it is good."

……

Xunyang Palace, in the reception room.

When Ouyang Rong arrived, Li Congshan and Miao Zhen were standing guard at the door.

"Governor Ouyang."

Li Congshan greeted him, winked at him, and pointed to the living room. Miaozhen, who was standing next to him, had a stern face and said nothing.

Ouyang Rong turned his head and saw a petite figure in a purple palace dress inside.

"The matter seems to be very urgent. Ms. Rong Zhen also called us over and said that she might have instructions later."

"Okay, hard work."

Ouyang Rong smiled at Li Congshan and prepared to exchange a few words.

At this time, Rong Zhen in the hall seemed to have noticed his coming, stood up and prepared to come out.

Ouyang Rong immediately said goodbye to Li Congshan and entered the hall.

He saw that Rong Zhen didn't touch the tea in his hand.

"Why is Ms. Rong in such a hurry?" He paused, then added tentatively, "Was Ms. Rong at the Overwatch Council this morning?"

Rong Zhen did not answer, but walked away quickly, closed the door, and the first sentence he said when he turned around made Ouyang Rong's eyelids jump:
"The latest intelligence is that the pirates from Hukou County raided Hukou County yesterday, broke into the county government, and took control of the ferry. They are hijacking ships and heading south. They are suspected to be heading straight for Xunyang. According to the estimated time, they should arrive in Xunyang by the morning."

Ouyang Rong paused.

He frowned and asked, "Where are Duan Quanwu and the others?"

Rong Zhen also frowned in dissatisfaction:
"Duan Quanwu just arrived at Shuangfengjian Ferry this morning. He led his troops to leave a step earlier, and set out yesterday morning. At that time, he left half of his soldiers in Hukou County to guard against the pirates. No one expected that as soon as he left, the pirates seized the opportunity, emerged from the water, killed the remaining soldiers, and occupied Hukou County..."

Ouyang Rong interrupted and asked, "When did the news come? Is it accurate?"

Rong Zhen nodded, took out a blood-stained scroll from his sleeve, handed it to Ouyang Rong and said:

"There are soldiers in the White Tiger Guards who specialize in raising eagles. They are stationed in Hukou County. When I rushed to Shuangfengjian Ferry to pick up Duan Quanwu this morning, this eagle brought a letter to report. Only then did I learn about the situation in Hukou County. This news is faster than our water route."

Ouyang Rong opened the scroll and took a look. The handwriting on it was hastily written. It was a military message, extremely urgent and difficult to forge.

Moreover, this time the pirates broke through Hukou County, intercepted ships and headed south, heading straight for Xunyang City.

Along the way, it would definitely trigger the beacons of the outposts set up by Ouyang Rong and Jiangzhou government.

Ouyang Rong looked up at the time and estimated that follow-up news must be on the way. He didn't even need to go to the Jiangzhou lobby to know that urgent news was coming like snowflakes.

So this is easy to verify. Just wait a moment. At least Yan Liulang will come soon, so we can verify it again...

Ouyang Rong frowned and thought carefully.

After what happened with the Golden Knife, he and the Xunyang Palace were now extremely cautious about any emergency news. They had to verify it first. Being cautious was a good habit.

Apart from this, the most important thing at the moment is the strangeness and purpose of this matter.

Ouyang Rong looked normal, and even sat down and picked up the teacup.

The more times like this, the calmer he is.

Rong Zhen looked at his calm appearance, as if he had found his backbone. He let out a breath and asked:

"Ouyang Lianghan, what do these pirates want to do?"

Ouyang Rong pursed his lips and said:

"They just happened to be here the last time the Buddha was secretly built. What else could they be doing here now?"

Rong Zhen nodded and said in a cold tone:

"Then come on. We are the host and we are afraid of these evil guests. It would be best if all of them come, the owner of Dielianhua, Xuezhongzhu, Yu Nianyuan... all of them come. I have been preparing for so long, just waiting for these rebels to come to my door. If they don't come, then I have waited in vain, and I have learned that music in vain."

Hearing that he was ranked first again, Ouyang Rong was speechless.

I really came and you are not happy.

He couldn't help but glance at the girl in palace dress who was rubbing her hands together with a look of expectation in her eyes.

Something suddenly popped into my mind.

Ms. Rong looked so excited and belligerent. Besides being prepared to deal with Yunmeng Jianze, was she also prepared to deal with him, the sixth swordsman?

Before Rong Zhen looked over, Ouyang Rong calmly turned his eyes away...

----

(PS: It’s the last day of the month, and the monthly ticket is about to expire. Don’t forget to vote, brothers~)

(End of this chapter)