Witch Wind

Chapter 113 Busy (Part )

Of course, there was no fight.

Cai Jing, Tong Guan and others were indeed immortals, but in this Dharma Ending Age, any immortal with a clear mind would not risk his life to fight with others. That was not a fight, that was a fight of life!

Xing Tianli naturally didn't dare to fight.

Don't be fooled by his aggressive appearance of displaying millions of armored soldiers and coastal artillery positions. He doesn't want to fight. He doesn't care about the lives of those Dongyun people, but he still feels heartbroken for those coastal artillery and those mansions in Black Pearl Harbor!
These are all his belongings, all his money!

Under Wei Zhongxian's mediation, the attitudes of both sides softened rapidly. Xing Tianli no longer mentioned the title of "Six Thieves of the Northern Song Dynasty", and Cai Jing and others no longer looked down on everyone from a high position.

After both parties carefully consulted Zhao Qingqi's opinion, they decided to stay in Black Pearl Harbor for the time being?

Black Pearl Harbor, the geisha house that was once used for entertainment by Dongyun's top brass, has been taken over by a powerful Yingji businessman. After a simple decoration, it has been transformed into a high-end hotel with ancient oriental style, and even given a name with quite oriental ancient charm - "Yue Lai Inn".

Regardless of the grudges between Zhao Qingqi and her group, Xing Tianli saw that Zhao Qingqi refused to marry and Cai Jing, Tong Guan, Wei Zhongxian and others refused to leave, so he simply arranged them here.

Xing Tianli secretly instructed Tom and Jerry to increase the price of the inn, the price of all items, from room charges to food and beverage expenses, by ten times. Even for a glass of boiled water, Xing Tianli dared to let people charge these fools one or two taels of silver!
Anyway, the price is this price, it’s up to you whether to stay or not, eat or drink as you like!

Xing Tianli also understood that all the gold and silver spent by the people of the three ancient families were "tributes" extorted from the Dayu Dynasty. The so-called Jiazi walking was the "debt collectors" sent by the three ancient families to collect debts every sixty years!
Since it is the Dayu Dynasty that is going to pay the bill in the end, of course they will be slaughtered and cheated whenever they can. Why should we be polite to them?

Cai Jing, Wei Zhongxian and others brought many followers with them, and there were thousands of people staying in Yuelai Inn. Moreover, each of them was proud of their status, calling themselves this prince, that duke, this duke, or that marquis.

Among the nearly 10,000 Jinyiwei accompanying Zhu Ming, there were more than 300 hereditary commanders!

Uh!
These people, can't be called arrogant, they are simply "unruly". Especially when they saw that the managers and waiters of "Yue Lai Inn" were either Yingjishi or Dongyun people, the attitude of these guys was terrible.

In short, whether it was the Zhao Song or the Zhu Ming, from top to bottom, not a single person, even a soldier, regarded these "barbarian slaves" from the hundreds of countries in the far west and these "dwarf island slaves" from Dongyun as human beings.

Less than a quarter of an hour after they checked in, a Jinyiwei commander with the title of earl slapped and squeezed the overly high chest of an English maid.

When an English manager who boasted of his "chivalry" spoke righteously and sought justice for his employees, a group of Jinyiwei officers rushed up, stripped him naked, pressed him at the door of the inn, and started beating him with the cane!
Tsk!
Thirty beatings with the cane were enough to almost kill the fellow. The Dongyun soldiers who were in charge of the inn's security were so scared that they raised their guns and almost had a fight with Zhu Ming's soldiers on the spot.

This kind of thing happened several times in succession. Xing Tianli was furious and personally came out to discuss with Wei Zhongxian. He once again deployed his troops and showed off his muscles to Cai Jing and Tong Guan. Only then did the top leaders of both sides speak up and slightly suppress the arrogance of these arrogant generals and dandy princes.

While busy, Yang Nianzu gave Xing Tianli a booklet.

After Xing Tianli ran to a deserted place, he opened the booklet and took a look at it. Only then did he understand the whole story of Zhao Qingqi's escape from marriage.

Among the three ancient families in China today, the one with the strongest power and the most outstanding influence is undoubtedly Zhu Ming!

Let’s take a look at what the three emperors left behind by Zhao Song were like.

Huizong, Qinzong, Gaozong!

These three old bastards!
And who are the three people who stayed behind in China during Zhu Ming's reign and were responsible for protecting the ancestral land?
The Yongle Emperor who proclaimed himself "the Grand Marshal of the World to Suppress the Barbarians".

Emperor Zhengde who proclaimed himself "General of Four Expeditions".

Emperor Chongzhen who called himself the "vanguard in suppressing the Japanese invaders"!

It goes without saying that Yongle was a horseback emperor.

Zhengde was a very strange person, he was very fond of military affairs.

What about Chongzhen? He had a typical sense of "knowing shame and then being brave", and also had a very strong manifestation of "war trauma syndrome". Compared with the "Grand Marshal" and "Grand General" above him, he, the "Grand Vanguard", was a little hysterical, otherwise, he would not have launched twelve consecutive wars against Dongyun just after taking over the divine weapon!

Among all the three ancient families.

Like the Li Tang and Zhao Song dynasties, they all stayed quietly in their ancestral lands to recuperate, waiting for the changes of heaven and earth and the right time in the future.

They don't make a fuss or jump around, and they wholeheartedly collect the tribute from the current court every sixty years. They wear gold and silver, and enjoy soft jade and warm fragrance. Don't you know how happy and joyful they are in their ancestral land?

Only Zhu Ming is the only one among all the three ancient families that, in addition to their own ancestral land, also owns an independent fiefdom in the outside world - this land is not big, with an area of ​​11 Jiangdong provinces; the land is not very good either, as it is located in the wild frontier area in the far northwest of the Dayu Dynasty.

What would Zhu Ming's great marshals, generals, and vanguards do with such a large piece of territory?
They used it to support their troops.

Keeping an army through war!

What’s even more interesting is that in the northern border of the Dayu Dynasty, in a mountain range that stretches for more than ten thousand miles, there are 108 mountain strongholds called Tiangang and Disha. In each of the strongholds, there is a group of vicious bandits, with the number ranging from more than ten thousand to twenty or thirty thousand.

Some people say that the 108 strongholds of Tiangang and Disha are thugs recruited by Zhu Ming.

Zhu Ming firmly denied this.

But someone once saw a bandit leader in a Tiangang village who looked exactly like a certain "Zhengde" general. Even the leopards following him had the same fur patterns as the general.

Fun, right?
What’s even more interesting is, how do these 108 villages support themselves?

Collect protection money!

They openly set up checkpoints all over the northern border of the Dayu Dynasty to collect money. They did not harm the common people in the slightest; from private merchants, they collected one-tenth of the commercial tax; and if they came across a transport team carrying tax silver or grain from the government, ha ha, they would take three out of ten!

They have many spies and informants, and they have secret agents in thousands of cities of all sizes in the northern border of the Dayu Dynasty.

County magistrates, prefects, county governors, and other officials at all levels, if they are honest, will not be harassed; but those officials who are "honest in three years as a magistrate, earning 100,000 silver coins", will have their sons, daughters, wives, concubines, or their own fathers and mothers kidnapped once every three years on average.

Those secret agents knew the assets of these officials very well. Every time they kidnapped someone, as long as they converted half of the property into silver and followed the requirements to hand over the property at a certain time on a certain day of a certain year at a certain place, the hostages would be released and the officials could continue to work safely.

Once upon a time, there was a "brave" county governor. After his son was kidnapped, he was so angry that he called the state soldiers to attack a certain stockade overnight. In just one night, 30,000 state soldiers were defeated, and the county governor was ordered by the Dayu Dynasty to be exterminated with all his clans!

This is Zhu Ming!
Cough!

Weird Zhu Ming!
And this Prince Huai Zhu Diaochong was actually the grandson of Emperor Chongzhen.

He did not inherit the spirit of "knowing shame and then being brave" of Emperor Chongzhen. Instead, he inherited the "artistic temperament" of some famous emperors in the history of the Ming Dynasty. He had a great interest in sculpture since he was a child and showed a very high artistic talent!
When he was nine years old, he used an ivory ball with a diameter of three inches to carve out an eighteen-layer nested "ghost ball". On the eighteen layers of the sphere, a total of 360 kinds of exotic flowers and plants were carved, all of which were ingeniously crafted and lifelike!
Apart from carving, this Zhu Diao Chong Prince was not interested in either literature or martial arts. As for literature, it is said that he could not even recite the Thousand Character Classic when he was in his twenties. As for martial arts, he was already in his twenties, and with the resources of Zhu Ming tilted, his cultivation level was only at the level of refining essence into qi.

In comparison, Zhao Qingxuan, who is two years younger than Zhu Diao Chong, is full of poetry and books, especially his exquisite flower and bird paintings. He has also mastered the Slender Gold and Feibai styles. His own cultivation has reached the peak of the soul. As long as he overcomes the three disasters and five difficulties, he can reach the realm of immortals.

How could such a beautiful lady fall for a playboy like Zhu Diaochong?
In particular, the red eagle worm is so round, five feet tall, and has a waist circumference of five feet!
With a rubbing of his hands, Xing Tianli crushed the information about Zhu Ming sent by Yang Nianzu into pieces. With his hands behind his back, he gave a few words of advice to a few brothers and left.

It was just a marriage between two families, but the girl didn't like the person she was going to marry and ran away from home.

Is such a small matter worth making a fuss about?
Zhao Qingqi looked down on Zhu Diao Chong, fine, just change someone. Although Zhu Ming was full of eccentrics, there were also some great men. For example, Zhao Qingqi could definitely marry the "Emperor Yongle". Xing Tianli felt that the "Yongle" Marshal, except for being a little older, was not bad in other aspects, such as being "wise and brave" and "both civil and military".

However, we are all practitioners, so does age matter?
At nightfall, large tracts of firelight flickered in the jungle, and large groups of young and strong natives came out of the jungle one after another. Under Xing Tianli's order, Black Pearl Harbor was ready to receive them.

There were originally one million residents in Black Pearl Harbor. With Xing Tianli's order, half of the residents moved out and moved into the homes of the other half. Half of the houses in Black Pearl Harbor were vacant.

These natives were not picky either. They could live in simple huts in the jungle, but when they arrived at Black Pearl Harbor, these nice houses with white walls and black tiles, and the spotlessly clean floors, were like paradise to them.

There was smoke rising from the Dongyun soldiers' barracks and from many civilian houses.

The steamed rice is fragrant and fragrant, and the rice used is the long-grain fragrant rice that is a specialty of Black Borneo. Its fragrance is much stronger than that of ordinary rice. While the rice is steaming, the cleaned sea fish is thrown into the pot and sprinkled with salt. For these natives, it is the supreme delicacy.

Xingtian's brothers, along with the Dongyun soldiers, patrolled the houses with sticks in hand.

There was a well, water was pumped out, and there was ready-made soap, so the natives were stripped naked, pressed to the ground, and rubbed and washed. The dirty water that came out of the open sewer in the residential area was all black.

The natives cried out in pain as they were rubbed and washed, but after they were cleaned and put on the uniforms of the Dongyun soldiers who were of similar physique to them, they stopped crying and smiled happily. They leaned into each other's armpits and sucked in the smell left by the soap.

Xing Tianli led his men on patrols, showing himself in front of these young and strong natives from time to time, and using his status as a "god" to intimidate these wild guys to prevent them from causing trouble for him.

After the inspection, Xing Tianli suddenly turned around and looked back, and saw Wei Zhongxian following him and his group quietly like a ghost. He didn't know how long he had been following them. Xing Tianli did not release his spiritual power to look around, and none of his brothers noticed the old eunuch!
"General Manager Wei, what are you doing?" Xing Tianli stared at Wei Zhongxian with wide eyes: "Shouldn't you be serving your little prince and helping him to flirt with Zhao Qingqi?"

Wei Zhongxian hunched over, with his hands in his sleeves, and looked at Xing Tianli with a very kind smile.

"What you said is right. Whether the matter between the young prince and His Highness the Zhao family will be successful or not, this is actually the case."

Wei Zhongxian waved his hand disapprovingly: "It was Cai Jing who sent people to our house, eagerly trying to force their prince to our little prince, but it was not our little prince who fell in love with their prince and eagerly went to ask for marriage!"

Xing Tianli widened his eyes.

No wonder the red carved insect behaved so strangely at the dock before, and seemed to be completely disdainful of Zhao Qingqi.

It seems that it was not Zhu Ming who proposed marriage, but Zhao Song who took the initiative to marry his daughter?

"What's going on here? I don't understand." Wei Zhongxian smiled kindly, "I'm just an old eunuch. The hearts of those scholars are very dirty and dark, especially the old treacherous minister like Cai Jing. His heart is like a thousand-year-old toilet. Who knows what kind of mess is hidden in it?"

"In my family, I am too lazy to guess or think."

"If this marriage can be successful, it's good, and our little prince won't suffer any loss. If it can't be successful, it doesn't matter, and we won't suffer any loss either, right? We have deployed these twelve treasure ships, dispatched nearly ten thousand Jinyiwei, and tens of thousands of elite soldiers. Hey, with the food, supplies, and travel expenses, we can always make a fortune, right?"

"I'm just curious, what are you doing?" Wei Zhongxian pointed at the natives who were making noises and chirping in the houses nearby and said, "These black monkeys, are you going to use them as cannon fodder?"

Xing Tianli coughed and was about to explain something.

"No need to explain, I can see it. You have a dark heart. You don't feel bad when someone who is not of my race dies. You want to cause some trouble in Black Borneo, but you don't want to let your brothers die. Therefore, including those slaves from Dongyun Island, they are all cannon fodder you have chosen!"

Wei Zhongxian smiled brightly: "These cannon fodders, one, don't feel bad when they die, two, don't need pensions when they die, what good cannon fodders! We understand; we know."

Xing Tianli took a deep breath, he wanted to explain something. But looking at Wei Zhongxian's smiling face, which was as bright as an old chrysanthemum, forget it, don't explain. That's right, he is looking for cannon fodder! In this Black Borneo, even in Dongyun, and even in the territory of the Great Yu Dynasty in the future, he wants to do something!

What he wanted to do would involve bloodshed and death.

He was reluctant to sacrifice his brothers.

Therefore, the people of Dongyun and these indigenous people are dead, and Xing Tianli can help them recite some scriptures for their salvation, which can be regarded as a favor.

Xing Tianli was a little annoyed.

The skin is a bit dark.

The truth is, Wei Zhongxian, an old and treacherous eunuch, had seen too much filth in the world. He bluntly pointed out the selfishness and darkness hidden deep in Xing Tianli's heart. Xing Tianli was a little angry and embarrassed!

"Don't get angry, we are not saints, isn't it normal to have some small thoughts?" Wei Zhongxian looked at Xing Tianli with a smile: "I am old and I was born a eunuch. Every now and then, I find a few young palace maids to warm my bed, to experience the feeling of 'a pear tree overshadowing a crabapple tree'."

"As long as you are not a saint, you can't avoid the seven emotions and six desires, the petty pursuits and the meanness of life."

Xing Tianli, who was full of anger, let out a sigh of relief. He was actually persuaded by Wei Zhongxian - that's right, he was not a saint. He practiced hard for decades in his previous life and only became a celestial being by luck!

Since you are not a saint, isn't it normal to have a little darkness and calculation in your heart?

As soon as Xing Tianli thought of this, he shuddered - what a good old eunuch! No wonder emperors in ancient times who favored eunuchs basically had no good ending... Such a dirty and shameful little thought was made so 'clear' and 'natural' by you in just a few words!

Tsk!
Xing Tianli pointed at Wei Zhongxian and said with a smile, "Old man, did you come to me just to say these few words?"

Wei Zhongxian put his hands in his sleeves, looked around, and murmured, "What a good place! It's really a good place. The land is fertile, the products are abundant, the area is vast and the population is sparse, and the potential is unlimited. It's really a good place. That idiot from the Great Yu Dynasty, tut tut, such a good place was abandoned just like that!"

"Xingtian boy, let's join hands and take over this piece of land!" Wei Zhongxian smiled brightly: "As soon as I saw you, I knew you were a good boy and you were to my liking."

"Let's stop talking nonsense. The Dayu Dynasty doesn't want Black Borneo, but we have our eyes on it."

"Let's discuss the terms, shall we?"

(End of this chapter)