Who among the gangsters wants to fall in love?

Chapter 336: Chasing the Northern Alliance

The snowy owl flapped its wings reluctantly and squinted its eyes in the rain. As a bird of prey, why did it always have to do the work of leading the way recently?

But it is happy to do so, because after leading the way, it can go back and continue to sleep.

Zhao Wumian was worried, so he decided to go look for Guan Yunshu and Su Qingqi.

With Zhao Wumian's strength, as long as Mo Jingxue, the Lord of the Jade Palace, did not take action, he could basically walk sideways in the East China Sea. Therefore, Mu Lier did not follow him, but stayed in the tea garden, probably planning to take a bath with Luo Xiangzhu and then rest.

Zhao Wumian held an umbrella and walked alone on the street, looking at the snow owl in the sky, thinking about the mistake of Jin Boshan furnace in his heart.

The Tianya Islands are not far from Lin'an, just a few days' walk away. It is impossible that he and Jiu'er had not come here to look for it before, but they did not have the Four Glazed Jades and did not know the exact location, so they returned empty-handed.

But what clues could be left behind?
For example, who had he killed here, and who had he made acquaintances with... Unfortunately, Zhao Wumian had thought about this in Jin, the capital, and Shu, but it seemed that not many people knew him and Jiuer, or maybe he simply hadn't met them.

Yes, as an orphan of the royal family of Chen State, Jiuer certainly could not act too ostentatiously when Emperor Taizu Gao was alive.

But now that we are in the East China Sea, we should get something after finding the Wrong Jin Boshan Furnace, right?
Although Zhao Wumian's amnesia was caused by Naraku Hongsi, even if he knew what happened in the past, it would not help him recover his memory... but he wanted to know about Jiuer.

I want to know whether she is dead or alive.

Zhao Wumian exhaled a light white breath in the rain and began to think about the matter of Naraku Hongsi again.

He has never slacked off since he got this item. He has no idea how many years he has practiced in Naraku Hongsi's sea of ​​consciousness. If not for this, his martial arts would not have improved every month. But now it seems that he has reached a bottleneck.

He could use deduction and backtracking, but as he improved day by day, he felt more and more that it would not be so easy for him to recover his memory by these methods, as if something was missing... It was like reaching a bottleneck in martial arts practice and realizing the barrier.

With Zhao Wumian's current intuition, if he feels that something is missing, then it must be so.

If you want to restore your memory, it is probably impossible to do it just by practicing hard... you just lack the opportunity.

But he has no idea what the specific opportunity is... If he fails to make any progress in the Naraku Red Silk, he may only be able to gather all nine bells and ascend to heaven one day?
No, no, no, that's too long... The opportunity may be in the East China Sea, in the Cuojin Boshan furnace.

Yangzhou City is known as the famous capital of Huaizuo and the beautiful place of Zhuxi. However, no matter how prosperous it is, there will certainly be sparsely populated and deep alleys with bustling and scattered Wangbei streets.

On the south side of Yangzhou, rows of scattered alleys are crisscrossed. The floor tiles are not smooth bluestone roads, but rather muddy. There are also many square bricks on the road that can be stepped on by one foot to wade through the sewage.

The idle men in the alley took a few cents of dry tobacco and squatted in the corners of the alley in twos and threes, looking around with boredom in their cloudy and lifeless eyes.

Su Qingqi and Guan Yunshu were dressed neatly and cleanly, and seemed out of place in this place no matter how you looked at it. However, neither of them was a savage and cruel young lady, and they did not care about the narrowness and barrenness of this place.

Guan Yunshu frowned slightly and looked around, wondering why Abbot Dongwen came to such a place for no apparent reason? Was he simply unable to bear the suffering of the people and came here to help the poor?

impossible.

Guan Yunshu knew Dong Wen's personality. He always believed in letting things take their course. If he encountered such a situation, it would be no problem for him to help you, but he would not deliberately come to such a place.

Guan Yunshu retracted his gaze and took a few glances at Bei'er who was jumping and leading the way in front, wondering if Bei'er's family had any connection with Dongwen?
She asked directly: "When did your father die?"

Su Qingqi blinked and whispered, "Little girl, you are so young, why are you asking so directly?"

"No matter how young you are, you have to accept reality. Death is death. If Zhao Wumian is killed one day, I will be sad and want revenge, but I will not be too shy..."

Su Qingqi's eyes twitched, "Really not?"

"…I won't be too shy about it, but if anyone mentions him in front of me, I will beat him up."

The little girl looked back at the two older sisters who were talking to themselves, stuffed a piece of candied haws into her mouth, and asked curiously, "What does death mean?"

……

Guan Yunshu opened her mouth and was about to explain, but Su Qingqi raised her hand to block her face and smiled, "What did your father do to make a living?"

"Bei'er doesn't know. Bei'er has never seen his father since he was born."

The two girls were silent at the same time. If they had any questions, they should ask the little girl's mother.

Bei'er led the two girls around in the alley, turning left and right until the two girls were a little dizzy. Then he stopped in front of a small door, knocked hard, and shouted, "Mom, mom! Bei'er is back——"

crunch————

The door was opened, and before the two girls could see what Bei'er's mother looked like, a big yellow dog jumped out and circled around Bei'er with its tongue hanging out.

Bei'er was not even as tall as the big yellow dog when she stood up. She stared at the big yellow dog and giggled, "Hello~"

Bei'er's mother was an ordinary woman wearing a thorny hairpin and a cloth skirt. She looked ordinary and had no martial arts skills. When she opened the door, she saw two extremely beautiful women standing outside. She was stunned.

"You two are..."

……

Inside the house, the woman didn't have any good tea leaves at home, so she simply sprinkled some tea dregs into the teapot and called it "Starry Sky".

Gululu————

A yellow light was on in front of the table, and the tea was pouring into the cup, bubbling with steam.

Su Qingqi and Guan Yunshu sat properly, holding the teacups in both hands and thanked the woman.

The little girl seemed to be busy and was playing with the big yellow dog in the yard.

The woman put down the teapot, then placed the silver ingot that Su Qingqi had given her on the table and pushed it forward, "How can we accept favors from others for no reason..."

"This is not for no reason... We agreed that Bei'er will be returned to the young man in blue in the future." Su Qingqi smiled.

"Oh, he was just teasing the kid, how could the girl take it seriously... Is that young man in blue your husband?"

Su Qingqi was not shy, but just shook her head slightly, "For me, as a child of Jianghu, it's too early to talk about marriage, but it will probably be within the next two years..."

"Really? The girl is so beautiful, your husband must be a handsome man too. But listen to my advice, you should get married as soon as possible because you are a child of the Jianghu. After all, no one knows which will come first, tomorrow or death..."

Guan Yunshu took a sip of tea and frowned slightly. It was not tasty, so he put down the cup. He was not as talkative as Su Qingqi, but went straight to the point and said:
"I don't know what happened in May. Can you tell us in detail? The monk who helped you at the beginning was my master, and he has always been elusive... I am really curious about this matter."

The woman sat down at the table and was not averse to talking about this matter. After hearing this, she recalled for a moment and her face became a little bitter.
"I am just an ordinary person, making a living by weaving bamboo baskets. I don't know how I offended my enemies and got captured... The man who kidnapped me was in the dark and covered his face with a black cloth, so I couldn't see anything clearly... Maybe he was a flower thief who liked widows?"

Beauty?

Su Qingqi and Guan Yunshu looked at the woman with strange expressions.

The woman was probably in her thirties or forties, and was dressed simply, but upon closer inspection, she had a pretty face. Although she could not have been comparable to the other two girls when she was young, she was probably a pretty girl in the area.

I heard that some men just like widows, which makes sense, but...

Guan Yunshu had already prepared himself mentally for the possibility that there might be a shocking event behind this, and he felt that the answer could not be so simple.

"Really? Did he succeed? He tore your clothes and kissed your face..."

Before Guan Yunshu could finish his words, Su Qingqi elbowed him.

How could he say such a thing? If it got out, his reputation would be ruined and how would he survive in Yangzhou?
The woman smiled gently, not caring about Guan Yunshu's straightforwardness. She just shook her head slightly and said:

"Thanks to the timely rescue by the monk master, the thieves were not able to succeed... I know the monk may think that this is not a simple matter, but this is really just a casual act by the monk master, and it is a chivalrous act."

Guan Yunshu frowned slightly and raised his hand to point to the inner room...that was where the woman and the little maid lived.

The family was poor and could not afford two rooms, so they simply used a curtain to separate the room from the living room.

Guan Yunshu said, "You packed up a lot of your belongings and piled them in a corner. It looks like you're planning to move... Are you hiding from your enemies?"

The woman was stunned, not understanding how Guan Yunshu knew that.

Her expression remained unchanged as she smiled softly, "Bei'er has grown up, it's time for him to move to a place closer to the private school. Besides, if he lives here, he might be targeted by flower thieves, so it's better to move and change the feng shui..."

Before he finished speaking, Bei'er's voice could be heard outside the house, "Mother, mother, Bei'er doesn't want to study, he wants to learn martial arts!"

The woman's face turned cold, and she scolded the people in the yard.
"Why learn martial arts? Do you really think Jianghu is a good place? You've listened to those lousy storytellers so many times that you think you can be a chivalrous man and travel the world with your sword? With your appearance, you left home on the first day and were humiliated by some malicious man on the second day."

"Oh~ Bei'er looks so cute~" Bei'er covered her face in the yard, "Mom, are you saying that Bei'er will be pretty and beautiful when she grows up?"

The woman covered her forehead helplessly, and then smiled shyly at the two girls, "I don't know whose personality this girl takes after, sorry to make fun of her..."

Isn't it up to you? Just now you said that you might be targeted by a flower thief...

Su Qingqi sipped her tea and thought silently.

Guan Yunshu's red lips pressed towards Su Qingqi, and then asked, "From what you just said to her... is your husband a man of the underworld?"

"How could that be?"

"You're lying." Guan Yunshu raised his face and stared at the woman with his almond-shaped eyes. "There's a sword box under the bed in the inner room. Why would an ordinary person put something that could kill people in his room?"

The woman's face changed slightly.

Su Qingqi put down the teacup and looked at Guan Yunshu, "She doesn't want to talk about it, why bother asking about it... This is her private matter."

"I just speculated that your husband knows Abbot Dongwen..." Guan Yunshu realized that she was being a little aggressive, shook her head slightly, and said:
"The abbot has been traveling around the world for more than half a year and has not returned yet. In fact, he used to travel down the mountain frequently, but I don't know what he is doing. I can't help but be curious... Don't you really want to tell me?"

The woman shook her head in silence.

Guan Yunshu had no choice but to stand up, and then pushed a silver ingot on the table forward with his fingertips.

"You should keep this money and buy the girl some beautiful clothes. It will be our apology for our sudden visit."

Su Qingqi felt that the atmosphere was not good. She turned her head to look at Guan Yunshu and said with a smile, "Isn't this my silver? Why are you using my silver to apologize?" Guan Yunshu rolled his eyes cutely, and before he could say anything, he heard a dog barking suddenly in the yard.

“Woof woof woof——”

The woman's face suddenly changed and she quickly stood up and rushed into the yard.

Then I saw a handsome young man in green clothes, holding an oil-paper umbrella, climbing over the wall and lightly falling into the courtyard.

The big yellow dog saw the stranger and started barking wildly, but after a few barks it suddenly made a puzzled sound of "Mm-mmm", and then it leaned sideways with its head tilted, like a crab, and came to Zhao Wumian, sniffing left and right.

The little girl stood in the courtyard in a daze, staring at the young man in green. When she saw the sword and knife slung across his waist, she clapped her hands and suddenly realized something.

"The man that Sister Su mentioned was found so quickly?"

Zhao Wumian stared at the big yellow dog that kept sniffing him with doubt. When he saw the woman hurriedly walking out, he bowed slightly apologetically and said:
"This place is too complicated, so I just flew in using Qinggong. I'm sorry for visiting you without permission..."

The woman looked at Zhao Wumian's face with a look of doubt and uncertainty.

Guan Yunshu and Su Qingqi also walked out of the house, and they didn't look surprised until Zhao Wumian came over.

Guan Yunshu asked in confusion, "Why are you following me?"

"Isn't this because he's worried about you? Maybe Mo Jingxue is hiding in Yangzhou. He can even resort to such a dirty trick as killing people to force me to show up. He definitely won't mind using you two as a threat..."

Before Zhao Wumian finished speaking, the woman suddenly stepped forward, pulled the little girl to bow down, and cried with joy, "My benefactor, you came to see us?"

"Benefactor?" Zhao Wumian looked around and then pointed at himself with a look of surprise.

No, he was just worried that Su Qingqi and Guan Yunshu would come over to take a look, why...

Guan Yunshu was slightly stunned, looked at Zhao Wumian, then looked at the woman, his eyes suddenly turned cold, "This little girl, could she be your daughter?"

Su Qingqi was just about to ask, but her pretty face suddenly turned cold when she heard this. Then she changed her mind and felt that something was wrong.

When the two of them first practiced dual cultivation, they both had both primordial yin and primordial yang...

Of course it was impossible for Zhao Wumian to have a daughter behind Xiao Yuanmu's back when he hadn't lost his memory.

The woman walked into the inner room, holding the sword case and walked out, her eyes slightly red, and said to Zhao Wumian: "When my husband was killed, it was you who avenged us... Have you forgotten?"

"I was injured years ago and lost my memory. I really don't remember it." Zhao Wumian sat at the table with a strange expression on his face.

The big yellow dog lay at Zhao Wumian's feet, sticking out its tongue and smiling.

It still remembers Zhao Wumian. When it was still a puppy, Zhao Wumian held it in his arms.

Hearing this, the woman was slightly stunned, looking at a loss, "Really?"

"Why would I lie to you?" Zhao Wumian took a sip of tea, his expression somewhat awkward.

I have been longing to find a few people who know me, but I haven't met any for half a year. Now I just followed my heart and got something in return.

He said to Guan Yunshu: "What you Buddhists say about 'let nature take its course and wait for fate to take its course' really makes some sense."

"Hmm - I just ran over here and fate arrived. Is it all thanks to me, this poor nun?" Guan Yunshu's tone was ups and downs, with a hint of pride, and there was an inexplicable charm to her voice.

"Are you trying to say that this is karma between you and me? Have you forgotten Miss Su? I'm here for her too."

Guan Yunshu's eyes turned colder, and he said perfunctorily, "Really?"

Su Qingqi ignored the two and looked at the woman, "Can we talk about your husband? When the young master helped you get revenge, it couldn't have been a chivalrous act that he did on impulse, right?"

The woman obviously knew everything in front of Zhao Wumian. She nodded straightforwardly, put the sword box on the table and opened it.

Inside the sword case, there was a long sword wrapped in black cloth, and a token was placed next to it.

The woman took out the token and stroked the rough lines on it with her fingertips. The word "Zhu Bei" was engraved on it in a flourish.

Su Qingqi narrowed her eyes slightly, "Zhu Beimeng?"

"What? There is no such name among the three sects and six schools." Zhao Wumian looked curious.

Seeing that Zhao Wumian really didn't remember, the woman sighed and whispered:

"This is the East China Sea, the front line against the Rong people. In those years, many people from the Jianghu came here spontaneously. However, no matter how high their martial arts skills were, it would be difficult for them to achieve success alone...

Going to the battlefield with the courage of a lone warrior is no different from committing suicide, so some people united these warriors and named them Zhubeimeng, which means the Northern Expedition. "

Zhao Wumian frowned and calculated the time. "The Zhubei Alliance was established nearly a hundred years ago, and it has only declined after the unification of the world today?"

"Yes, it has long since fallen, but the Zhubei League back then had its roots in people from all corners of the world. Some came from Yanzhao, and some came from Chen State in the south of the Yangtze River..." The woman paused for a moment, and then continued:
"Some people just want to unify the world, and it doesn't matter who is the ruler of the country. Some people want Chen country to rule the country... After all, the leader of the Zhubei Alliance back then was the Duke of Chen country and the Grand Commander of the East China Sea Navy."

Zhao Wumian and Su Qingqi exchanged a glance. He really didn't know these old stories. As the daughter of an aristocratic family, Su Qingqi had been familiar with all kinds of classics since childhood, so she had some understanding of this. She took over the conversation and said:
"You mean General Yi Hanyu? But I remember... when the Rong people came south, General Yi was in the East China Sea to resist the Rong people and had no time to spare. That's why Emperor Taizu Gao took the opportunity to attack Huanglong and conquer the capital of Chen State..."

Su Qingqi glanced at Zhao Wumian and felt in her heart that what Emperor Taizu Gao did back then was not fair, but when it comes to fighting a war, who cares whether it is despicable or not?

All we can say back then was that God blessed Dali, and the right time, right place, and right people were all on the side of Emperor Taizu Gao.

What God does not take, is to be blamed.

Su Qingqi paused, then said with some difficulty:
"General Yi was still fighting outside, but his own emperor had already died in Yingtian, and the entire army mutinied. He spent several months stabilizing the morale of the army, and then...

...Then he surrendered to Emperor Taizu Gao and became a fierce general under his command. He led the Donghai Navy and the Dali Army in two groups, and only then did he recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun and drive out the Rong people. "

Guan Yunshu frowned. Although she was a member of the Dali people with a good family background, she could not help but consider the situation from the perspective of Chen country because of her relationship with Zhao Wumian.

"If he hadn't defected to Emperor Taizu Gao, how could the Luo family have stabilized the situation in Jiangnan so easily?"

Su Qingqi nodded, "The Chen Kingdom was destroyed, but there are still many anti-Chen forces in various parts of Jiangnan. If General Yi can reorganize them, even if he can't really restore the Chen Kingdom, he can at least cause a lot of trouble for the court."

Su Qingqi glanced at Zhao Wumian quietly, and dared not say anything else.

Zhao Wumian pondered for a few seconds, noticed Su Qingqi's cautiousness, smiled, and said:
"Why are you worried about me? If General Yi had not changed sides, the imperial court would have continued to be in a stalemate with the Rong people, and in the end it would have become just another Chen Kingdom. I don't know how long it would take to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun...

...General Yi's actions, although undoubtedly treasonous to the people of Chen, but from the perspective of the general situation of the world, he is worthy of being a righteous man who endured humiliation and bore heavy burdens. "

Su Qingqi took a sip of tea and nodded slightly.
"I can understand it, but as outsiders, it is impossible for us to empathize with the people who drove out the Northern Alliance and the East China Sea Navy back then...

According to historical records, many people tried to assassinate General Yi in the name of "killing traitors and clearing the source of the problem". General Yi must have felt sorry for the Xiao family.
...Therefore, after unifying the country, General Yi did not accept the reward, but directly retired from the army and returned to the countryside, and his whereabouts have been unknown. To this day, there is no trace of General Yi's descendants. "

Guan Yunshu listened for a while, then suddenly came to his senses and looked at the woman, "Could your husband... be the descendant of General Yi?"

The woman waved her hands when she heard this, "How is it possible... Back then, the Zhubei Alliance had five branches, and my husband was just the offspring of one of the branch masters."

Su Qingqi looked around and said, "Back then, the Zhubei Alliance had great influence in the martial arts world. Since they are descendants of the hall master, how come they have ended up like this now..."

The woman smiled indifferently and explained:
"My wife said that when General Yi defected to the imperial court, the Zhubei Alliance had almost fallen apart. They were only hanging on by the thread of unifying the country. After the world was pacified, they naturally fell apart completely...

...Our hall master, who is also the grandfather of our son, wanted to rebel against Li and restore Chen at first, and searched all over the world for the former crown prince of Chen. However, after traveling around the martial arts world for many years, he saw that the world was pacified, and he did not want to ruin the peace of the people, so he retired from the martial arts world...

But even though we let go of our obsession, some people are unwilling to let us go.”

At this point, the woman's eyes were filled with tears again, her tone became a little colder, she wiped her tears with her sleeves and said:

"My husband knows that his grandfather was a traitor, so he has always kept a low profile. In previous years, disciples from Taixuan Palace came to persuade us to move to Lin'an so that it would be easier to take care of him. But my husband was afraid of bringing disaster upon himself, so he never agreed. He never thought that what was coming could not be avoided..."

Su Qingqi was speechless after hearing what the woman said. The imperial court was definitely right in arresting traitors. If it was the previous Su Qingqi, she would not think it was wrong, but now...

She asked with some guilt, "Could it be that someone from the Detective Department killed your husband?"

The woman was stunned. "No, we didn't commit any crime. The Detective Department can't kill us just because our grandfather was a traitor... And they don't seem to have found any trace of us. The one who killed my husband must be someone else. The kid was not even three months old when I was in my belly that year..."

"Who?" Zhao Wumian had been listening quietly before speaking.

The woman recalled for a moment, then shook her head, "I'm not sure. My benefactor said that he was also investigating the matter. Obviously, he didn't know who was clearing us out. He only left me some money and asked me to move..."

As she spoke, the woman took out a banknote from her sword case, placed it on the table, and smiled at Zhao Wumian.
"I have kept it all this time and never dared to spend it... I was thinking that if my benefactor ever encountered difficulties, this money might be of great use..."

Zhao Wumian paused and said, "It's time to spend it so that I can live a better life..."

Then he asked, "Were there other people around me back then?"

The woman shook her head. "I only met you once, and I saw that you were alone at that time."

There was a force trying to wipe out the descendants of the Zhubei Alliance, and he was investigating the matter at the time...

Zhao Wumian pondered for a few seconds and wondered if this was the force that had joined forces with the Western Region Holy Church to harm him years ago.

The woman continued, "In May, I was kidnapped. In fact, that person didn't want to humiliate me... I can see that he is from the same force as the one who killed my husband."

Guan Yunshu sat next to Zhao Wumian, holding the teacup in her small hands, her beautiful eyes lost in thought, also thinking...

But she was thinking about Abbot Dongwen.

The master came to Yangzhou to help the woman for unknown reasons, probably because of the Zhubei League... When Abbot Dongwen was young, did he also have some connection with the Zhubei League?

Guan Yunshu thought that he might have found some clues... Abbot Dongwen had been traveling around the world for so long, maybe it was related to the Zhubei Alliance.

(End of this chapter)