Water Margin: Lu Bu sits on Mount Liang

"Dear guests, please go upstairs——"

The loud voice of the turtle slave was echoing, and light and shadow swept across the pipa player standing against the pillar. Her slender fingers swept the "Rainbow Skirt" and shattered it into pearls and jade.

On the corridor on the second floor, a dancer in a goose yellow silk skirt whirled around and flicked her sleeves, the jade ornaments on her waist jingled, startling the swallows perched on the beams and sending them flying through the window.

A maid in a green jacket walked past a twelve-fold screen in quick steps. The secret-color cups of the Yue kiln on the gold-lacquered tray made a clear sound. The red shells of lychees in the cups fell on the Persian carpet, and the drunken middle-aged and young men stepped on them to produce rouge-colored juice.

Qiu Xiang stood in the corridor, his face flushed as he watched the women walking back and forth with their clothes fluttering in the wind.

Several young ladies and skilled female workers who had worked in the brothel for some time knew he was a virgin as soon as they saw his expression. They walked past him, looked at him, or moved their bodies, laughing at the blushing face of this innocent young man. Someone threw a handkerchief at his head.

Qiu Xiang took it with his hand, smelled it, and bent over uncontrollably.

Young people are hot-tempered and cannot withstand such a situation.

crunch--

The door behind him opened, and Wu Yong said with a smile: "It is a great pleasure to meet Brother Xiaoyi today. Unfortunately, I can't stay in Daming Mansion for long, so I have to say goodbye first."

Qiu Xiang didn't want Wu Yong to find out about his situation, so he stood up and turned around, and saw several women holding pipa and bamboo flute in the room. A fair-skinned and handsome young man opposite Wu Yong clasped his fists and said, "It's a pleasure to talk with Mr. Wu Liang. Mr. Wu, go do your work. Xiao Yi will be here to teach orchestral music for a few days. Please come over when you are free. Xiao Yi will prepare some wine for you."

"Okay, stay, stay." Wu Yong closed the door with a smile, turned around to look at Qiu Xiang's expression, and winked: "Go out and talk."

Qiu Xiang nodded, and then walked out quickly with Wu Yong. They found a secluded place and sat down. Qiu Xiang couldn't wait to ask, "Sir, do you have any idea?"

Wu Yong nodded: "Better than I thought." He paused and took a sip of water from the cup: "Although Yan Xiaoyi is a smart man, he admires Mr. Lu very much. He talks endlessly and doesn't need me to guide him. He told me everything about the Lu family."

He pointed at the cup and put it down. "Since he became an adult, Mr. Lu has not taken care of the family business much. He has let the shopkeepers make their own decisions. He has been practicing martial arts. Later, when he had a housekeeper, Li Gu, he was rarely seen. He only practiced horseback riding in the martial arts field and in the wasteland outside the city."

Qiu Xiang was stunned: "So, if he doesn't manage such a big business, nothing will happen?"

"Yan Xiaoyi said no." Wu Yong had a strange smile on his face: "But in my opinion, there is probably a big problem."

"Ah?" Qiu Xiang was stunned, somewhat puzzled: "What could be the problem?"

"There are three problems." Wu Yong stroked his beard and raised his palm. "Yan Xiaoyi was his confidant, but he was expelled from the family. This is the first. All the family property is controlled by his housekeeper. This is the second. When Yan Xiaoyi said that his housekeeper Li Gu was full of indignation and had murderous intent in his eyes. This is the third."

Qiu Xiang was stunned and didn't understand: "What does this mean?"

"It means that the housekeeper is trying to seize the Lu family's property." Wu Yong did not sell the lawsuit. He tapped the table and suddenly smiled: "Besides, a martial arts fanatic who stays away from home all day has a descendant. Haha... It's quite interesting."

Seeing Qiu Xiang still confused, he smiled and said, "Go back to Ruzhou today and find your brother. Tell him that we need capable people here and ask him to send them over as soon as possible."

"Then sir, you..."

"I'll go look for Li Gu." Wu Yong narrowed his eyes, stretched out his hand and slowly clenched his fist: "If I'm lucky, I don't think the Jade Unicorn will be able to escape from my palm."

Qiu Xiang seemed to understand, but since Wu Yong had made the decision, he just did it.

……

Lu family.

In the magnificent room, the housekeeper Li Gu walked out of the room with sweat on his head, glanced at the maid standing outside with her head bowed, and straightened his clothes: "Take good care of Jungu."

"Yes, Langjun."

Li Gu glared and said, "Everyone, please pay attention. Can you yell like that?"

"Yes, butler."

Several maids bowed and then walked into the room with red faces.

"Damn it, you are a bunch of ignorant people. I will sell you in a few days to prevent you from getting killed when something happens to you."

Li Gu wiped the sweat off his head, walked to the gate of the house, turned around to look at the door at the back, gritted his teeth and muttered: "This woman has been getting crazier and crazier recently. It's broad daylight, if that man comes back, it will be fatal."

"My dear." Someone called out from a distance: "The carriage is ready, how about..."

"Get lost!" Li Gu's eyes widened. "Do you want to die? Believe it or not, I will put you in the mountains and you will never get out!"

The servant shrank back in fear, mumbling something. Li Gu stepped forward and pushed him away, cursing: "What blind bastards! The only man here is the senior official. What brainless idiots!"

The person being scolded lowered his head, a look of dissatisfaction in his eyes, but he didn't dare to say it out loud.

Li Gu got on the carriage and sat in it. The carriage swayed and came out of Lu's house. However, he was feeling irritated. After the carriage had gone for a while, he felt suffocated and shouted "Stop!". He got off the carriage and told the driver to wait for him in the shop in front. He then walked alone on the street with his hands behind his back.

When someone familiar in the city greeted him, he just turned a cold face and ignored them. As the steward of the Lu family, he had the ability to greet others without smiling.

But not long after, I felt my waist and legs were sore after walking a few steps. My eyes became active and I saw a clean tea shop that seemed good, so I went in and sat down.

He ordered a pot of tea, and after taking two sips he felt darkness in front of his eyes. He looked up and saw a man who looked like a Taoist priest sitting in front of him, looking at him with a smile.

Li Gu's eyelids drooped, and without even looking at the Taoist priest, he reached out to pour himself some tea: "Get away from me before I lose my temper."

"Butler Li, do you really want me to leave? If I leave, there will be a bloody disaster ahead."

The voice in front of him made Li Gu pause. The hand that was holding the cup to his mouth turned blue and red, and then he put it down and looked at the Taoist priest: "Interesting, although I know that you are trying to attract my attention, but... OK, tell me, it's good." He reached out from his sleeve and took out a silver ingot of about ten taels and threw it on the table: "There is a reward!"

The Taoist priest's eyes lit up at first, he licked his lips at the silver and reached out to take it. Li Gu reached out and pressed the silver, staring at the Taoist priest: "If you don't speak well, I will make sure you can't leave this Daming Mansion."

The Taoist paused, retracted his hand, and laughed: "If you say that, I will be embarrassed." He looked at Li Gu and said: "I am best at face reading and fortune telling. Why don't you write a word, so that the calculation can be more accurate."

Li Gu raised his eyebrows, thinking of the Lu family's affairs, and couldn't help being irritated. He reached out and dipped his hand in the tea and wrote the word "Lu" on the table: "Let's test this."

The Taoist priest opposite narrowed his eyes and said, "Lu is a rice bowl. It has a fox head and a field bone dish with feet, which means "house" in pictographic and ideographic terms. "He is a fox guarding the field dish, which means "Lu". When people are at home, everything will be safe. If the fox is allowed to leave the field dish, the field dish will be bullied and everyone will be enslaved."

Shaking his head, he said, "This character is neither good nor bad. 虍 is the ridge of a house, which means the owner of the house; 田皿 is the land and property. The whole character is like a house protecting the land and property. If the owner is there, the land and property are safe and secure, and it will be difficult for others to move them."

Li Gu's heart skipped a beat when he heard this. He leaned forward slightly and lowered his voice: "What if the master is not here?"

The Taoist looked at him and said, "The master is not here, and the land and property are exposed. Naturally, they will attract people to spy on them." He stroked his beard with one hand and waved his other hand, saying, "It can't be protected, it can't be protected." Li Gu looked uneasy and said after a while, "Sir, what if someone wants to protect the master's current wealth?"

The Taoist priest stroked his beard and pondered for a while before shaking his head: "No, no, you have to be the master."

Li Gu's eyes dimmed for a moment, and then he spoke unwillingly: "The master is not the original owner?"

"This..." The Taoist paused with his hand on his beard, looked around and whispered, "It only needs to have an owner. I don't say it has to be the original owner."

Li Gu's expression eased a lot. The Taoist looked at his expression and said, "The housekeeper said so, but Master Lu is not feeling well? If I were to manage the household, I would have to spend some money since I am still young, with a large field and a small house."

Li Gu was startled, then reacted and said vaguely: "It is true that I feel a little uncomfortable..." Then he waved his hand impatiently: "Don't worry about it, let's talk about what else we have."

The Taoist looked at Li Gu for a long time and said: "Your face shows that you may be rich or poor at times. When you are rich, you will have a lot of land and houses, but when you are poor, you will die and no one will come to find you."

Li Gu's face changed color again.

The Taoist priest took out a pen and paper, licked the tip of the pen with his tongue, and quickly wrote two lines of words and handed them over: "I dare not speak nonsense about the secrets of heaven. Please keep these two sentences. You may gain something from them in the future."

Li Gu looked down and saw two lines of poetry: The setting sun does not cut the lonely star, and the white blade knows the sadness of the frost blade. The love and friendship are reduced to ashes, and the west wind blows the wild geese across the sky.

He looked at it uncertainly for a long time, and just when he was about to look up to ask what it meant, he saw that the Taoist priest in front of him had left at some point. He looked at the table and found that the silver ingot was gone. He shook his head and smiled, "Damn it, he was so quick. I let the Taoist priest talk nonsense for so long. I was also confused."

He stood up and wanted to throw away the paper, but somehow he couldn't bear to do so. He lowered his head to look at the black ink, reached out and put it in his arms, then walked out.

Next, for the next few days, what the Taoist said kept turning around in his mind. Li Gu looked at his young children, and was summoned to the room by the lady of the Lu family all day long. It happened that the head of the Lu family, Lu Junyi, went to practice martial arts after eating every day, or rode his horse outside with a stick and did not come back for several days at a time.

Meeting Li Gu once in a while would make the steward's heart beat fast for half a day.

One day, this fellow took out the piece of paper, his eyes fixed on these words: "Loyalty and love are reduced to ashes, while the west wind blows the wild geese across the sky."

Finally, he made up his mind, stomped his feet, and chose a dark and windy night to go to Liang Zhongshu's mansion.

No one knew what he had promised, until the weather turned cold and there were many robberies and murders around Daming Prefecture. Mr. Lu, who was famous in Hebei, was still immersed in his own martial arts training when he was accused of colluding with bandits, locked up and thrown into prison, and soon exiled to Shamen Island.

What outsiders don’t know is that on that day, many fields, shops and caravans inside and outside Lujia City were renamed Liang.

In the courtyard, Wu Yong heard about this and clapped his hands at the arrival of Wu Song, Mu Hong, Lei Yingchun, Zhang Yue'e and others: "Okay, get ready to kidnap them."

Dozens of figures stood up, carrying weapons and equipment and walked out of Daming Mansion.

At the end of the first month of winter in the fifth year of Xuanhe in the Song Dynasty, Song Jiang, a fierce bandit active in the areas of west Jing and Yongxingjun Road, accepted the imperial edict of amnesty.

The Song Dynasty court did not care what the crimes of his subordinates were or how long they had been in the group. They pardoned them all and registered them as soldiers, ordering them all to come to the capital.

In early mid-winter, Song Jiang, together with Wu Yong, Lu Junyi, Wu Song, Sun Li and nearly sixty other leaders, set out for the capital. After arriving, they waited quietly in the training ground designated for them, practicing martial arts and training the army every day.

In the second half of the month, an official from Qi named Zhao Liangsi entered Bianliang.

Snow fell.

……

The cold wind whistled across the fields. Some figures who had returned on war horses walked into the military camp in Zhongjing one after another. The sky was shrouded in dark clouds. Dading Prefecture still looked the same as before the army set out on the expedition, except that the copper bells on the eaves were covered with ice, and made a muffled sound like cotton cloth when the wind blew past.

The copper stoves, braziers and floor heating in the palace raised the temperature of the house. Although it was not as warm as spring and summer, it was still much more comfortable.

It was almost dusk when Lu Bu returned to the palace. The four daughters, Wu Qing, Hu Sanniang, Su Jinniang and Yelu Daribo, had prepared a lot of food. Every time they came back from a battle, it became a habit for the family to get together and eat a meal that they had cooked themselves.

"He left in the middle of the year and came back near the end of the year..." Lu Bu looked at Wu Qing's chubby face and said, "I don't know if it's a boy or a girl."

"I think it's a boy." Wu Qing smiled and ate a candied fruit: "I like to walk around a lot recently, which is different from when I was pregnant with Wen'er."

"It's good to like moving, it's good for your health." Lu Bu nodded, then laughed and said, "Maybe his personality is like yours, you like quietness, Wen'er, you were too lazy to move at that time, and ended up like me, wielding swords and guns every day."

Wu Qing thought about it and nodded: "Yes, now that I am older, I can't sit still for a moment. When you are not around, the palace is in chaos every day, which really makes me feel very worried. You don't even know how to talk to her."

Lu Bu laughed and didn't respond. Even if he was there, he couldn't do anything about it. He might even be dragged into trouble by his daughter.

There were footsteps at the door, and the door curtain was lifted. Yelu Dalibo's tall figure appeared at the door and waved: "Still chatting, come quickly for dinner."

"Come here."

Lu Bu responded and tried to help Wu Qing, but she patted his hand and said, "You don't need help yet."

Looking over there, Darib turned back and said, "Sister Yelu is a little pitiful being alone. Don't you want to have a child with her?"

"...I will." Lu Bu glanced outside the door and chuckled, "No hurry, she is still young, and I am still strong."

"Then I won't care." Wu Qing rolled her eyes: "My dear, you've been away for a long time. Talk to the children later. They feel a little lost when you're not around."

Lu Bu slowed down his pace and sighed, "It's inevitable. We may have to go to war again in the future. Since he was born at this time, he should get used to the fact that he is often away from the battlefield."

As they were talking, the two walked into the hall. Wu Qing paused and frowned at the figure in front of him: "My dear, are you going to go to war again?"

The sound disturbed Hu Sanniang and her two daughters who were placing dishes over there. They turned their heads and looked over here. Lu Bu thought about it and nodded: "Maybe..." He walked towards the table: "This battle has to be fought. Instead of letting them recover and cause trouble to me, it is better to cripple them at once."

After a pause, he said, hinting at something: "But it also depends on whether the money and grain from the south can be delivered."

The four girls looked at each other and sighed. If they were from ordinary families, they would probably persuade their husbands not to work so hard. However, since they moved into the palace, in addition to enjoying rights, there were also knowledgeable female officials who came to teach them some knowledge and rules.

The first priority is that the harem is not allowed to interfere in politics. Secondly, she is aware of the pressure that Qi is facing now and the relations with neighboring countries. Therefore, she is not unfamiliar with what Lu Bu said.

"Let's eat first."

The four women spoke softly, and then Hu Sanniang went to the door and called back the children who were playing outside. The family sat at the table, chatting and eating.

At the same time, a fleet loaded with money, grain, and tea bricks slowly set off from Bianliang, traveling along the Jishui River to the seaport in Jingdong. The money representing the alliance between Song and Qi finally set sail under the watchful eyes of the Song court. (End of this chapter)