Lin'an Never Night

Chapter 529: Rat and Fox Tracks
Hundreds of riders in bright clothes and on fine horses galloped across the wilderness with the sound of rumbling hooves.

Each horse was fully saddled and the knights on horseback looked brave and equipped with bows and swords.

There were even some knights with shields and crossbows hanging next to their saddles.

Among such a strong and powerful group of people, there was only a young man in the middle, wearing gorgeous clothes and having a jade-like face and red lips.

"Mr. Factory Master..."

Oh, it’s a mix-up.

"Sir Shangguan, there is a village ahead. It's getting dark. Should we go into the village to rest?"

Shangguan Luo patted his horse's neck, and the horse was covered in sweat.

"Well, take a night off."

Shangguan Luo had a snow-white handkerchief, and he wiped his fingers cleanly after touching the horse's sweat. "We are exhausted, how can he be any better? There is no rush."

The knight breathed a sigh of relief and shouted an order, and the entire knight team cheered.

Wanyan Luti has already ordered the newly established local governments to set up checkpoints to capture the wanted criminals.

The arrest warrant did not dare to draw a portrait of Yang Yuan, but his approximate age and appearance were noted.

Shangguan Luo brought Shaniu'er and a group of elite royal guards, who were originally the trusted followers of the Prince of Yue's Palace, and headed straight for Huanxi Ridge.

Huanxiling is indeed the place Yang Yuan is least likely to go to.

But because of this, Shangguan Luo took the gamble instead.

He bet on Yang Yuan's back-up plan and set it up on Huanxi Ridge.

……

Yang Yuan was lucky enough to find a cave in the leeward side of a barren mountain.

This can be his place to stay tonight.

His sled was loaded with food, including a large amount of cooked meat that had been cooked that night but not eaten.

He threw down a few chunks of frozen cooked meat and let the local dogs gnaw on them happily.

Yang Yuan picked up some more firewood, and a warm fire started in the cave.

The best sled dogs can run more than 100 kilometers a day.

If there are nine or ten sled dogs and one person, it's like a piece of cake.

Yang Yuan’s sled dogs are not the best in the world, but in this icy and snowy environment, the distance they can cover in a day is quite impressive.

Yang Yuan boiled some snow water, let it cool down, and then brought it to the dogs.

They must be fed, watered and rested well. Yang Yuan's journey is relying on them.

After taking care of these tall local dogs, Yang Yuan began to prepare food for himself.

The cave was quiet, with only the crackling sound of burning dead branches.

……

On Huanxi Ridge, Wanyan Luti's family had not yet moved to Shangjing.

The main reason is that most of the people who stay here are the elderly, the weak, women and children, and they will be living in Beijing for a long time, which means they will move completely.

In that case, a lot of preparation work will have to be done during this cold winter.

The main reason is that the current trading location is still in Huanxiling.

There are even some tribes that are still using sleds to transport goods here, so someone must stay here to manage the situation.

However, the transmission of information between Huanxiling and Shangjing City has become extremely frequent.

Therefore, the news from Beijing was known here very quickly.

The news had already spread that Wanyan Luti and Li Taigong wanted to arrange marriage between the royal family and Li Taigong's family and Yang Yuan respectively in order to recruit Yang Xue Shi from the Song Dynasty.

Princess Li has become the queen and went to the capital before the coronation ceremony. Now the one who is in charge of the situation in Huanxiling is the fourth aunt.

The fourth aunt informed her niece Wanyan Ping about this matter.

Princess Li has only one daughter, so the position of the principal wife must belong to her.

When Wanyan Ping came out from Fourth Aunt's house, she felt dizzy, as if she had gotten first place in the grade.

Her little face was red, her eyes were blurry, she walked unsteadily, and she would giggle foolishly from time to time.

Her strange reaction, of course, aroused the curiosity of her friends.

So they asked Wanyan Ping.

You got first place in the exam, so why don’t you tell others?
So, Wanyan Ping shyly but happily told everyone, sorry, I accidentally became your master's wife.

As long as one person knows about it, the matter can no longer be concealed.

Soon, all the students in Class 1, Grade 7 of Huanxiling Middle School knew about it.

The girls of the Li family were indignant, so they went to ask their fourth aunt for confirmation.

"This damned child has no control over what she says. I have warned her many times not to tell anyone."

While secretly cursing her niece's daughter for being unreliable, the fourth aunt helplessly told the girls of the Li family that someone in the Li family would marry Master Yang as his concubine.

We have to appease them. Now we are relying on them to do work. Fourth Aunt is old and she doesn't have that much energy.

Besides, the decimal counting method and table method are mastered by these girls, but they are all mysterious and unwilling to teach others.

The same goes for the girls from the Wanyan family.

What a waste of giving birth to a bunch of ungrateful people.

Princess Li had only one daughter, so the other girls in the Wanyan family had no chance to compete for her.

But Grandpa Li had several sons, and each of them had a daughter, and each of their daughters was considered Grandpa Li’s legitimate granddaughter.

Now, it’s hard to say who has the chance to become Teacher Yang’s concubine.

Xiuning, Yuanzhi or Qinglu?
Wenxiu is not impossible.

Therefore, the girls of the Li family immediately became wary of each other.

Wanyan Ping was still waiting for the girl from the Li family to come and cause trouble for her, but she waited and waited and no girl came.

Wanyan Ping secretly sent someone to inquire about it, and found out that the girls in the Li family were fighting among themselves.

Tsk, there is no one who can fight!
The class monitor raised her proud head.

……

The nights in the north are bleak, especially on winter nights. Before it gets dark, the streets and alleys are deserted.

The cold wind was biting and the snow foam was blowing into my neck. Wouldn't it be nice to lie in the warm bedroom?
But the Jiangnan region has a completely different landscape.

Lin'an is a city that never sleeps.

The night in Fanfang was just like many other busy areas in Lin'an, and it was even more lively at night than during the day. The strange and lewd skills of the Hu people were no less than those of the brothels of the Song people.

The foreign girls selling wine at the bar and the dancers welcoming customers at the door cast a decadent atmosphere over the night in this foreign quarter.

Emmanuelle Belle, wearing a sword, strolled through the brightly lit foreign quarters.

Li Fengniang wore a long sword that was just as long as Belle's and followed her.

Because the little girl was not very tall, but was wearing an adult's sword, the proportions looked a little funny.

But Li Fengniang had her hand on the hilt of the sword, her expression serious, her posture upright, she looked just like a smaller female knight.

During this period, Li Fengniang learned sword skills, horse riding and archery command, and logistics scheduling from Teacher Belle. Comparing and integrating this knowledge with what she learned in her father's army, Li Fengniang made rapid progress.

Her temperament hasn't changed much, as the saying goes, it's hard to change one's nature, but it can change the country.

But her eyes were opened.

It's okay for a person to have great energy and like to argue and fight. It all depends on the level at which you put this argument and fight.

Li Fengniang's vision is expanding, and she is no longer the same Li Fengniang as before.

Belle is now in charge of "military aid" to the Jin Kingdom following Fei Yuye, and needs to purchase a large amount of supplies.

A Fanfang is a business place, and these Fan merchants have great business capabilities.

Therefore, Belle is now fully responsible for dealing with the foreign merchants.

And Belle handed some of these things over to her female disciple Feng Niang. How could Feng Niang's eye sockets still be as shallow as before?

"The noble Knight of the Holy Rose, Lady Emmanuelle-Belle!"

In the bustling street market, a voice suddenly rang out that Belle felt was very familiar.

She had been in Song for so long that she hadn't heard the familiar Frank language for a long time.

Even in a place like Fanfang.

After all, it is extremely rare for our compatriots to have drifted here from the distant Frankish Empire.

Belle stopped in surprise and looked towards the place where the familiar accent came from.

A beggar-like man was running towards Belle excitedly.

Li Fengniang took three steps forward in time and blocked Emmanuelle Belle.

She heard that barbarian women didn't care much about the distinction between men and women, so even if the man looked like a beggar, she had to be on guard.

She heard from the foreign women in Nianhua Cottage that Master Belle would become her uncle's woman.

But we can't let her do anything immoral and put a green hat on her uncle's head.

Then she will also be embarrassed, right?

Emmanuelle patted Li Fengniang's thin shoulders and asked the man in Frank in surprise: "Who are you? Why do you speak Frank?"

She hadn't spoken her hometown language for a long time, and when she suddenly spoke it, she even stuttered a little.

Of course, it could also be because I was a little excited.

Li Fengniang frowned. They all spoke Tibetan, so who knew what they were saying?
This won't do. Even though my uncle isn't a good person and is very warm and friendly to my dad, he turns around and becomes a different person. He throws me around and is not responsible at all. But I can't let my foreign master have the chance to hook up with other men.

So, Li Fengniang coughed and shouted seriously: "Do you want to deceive my master? Speak the language of us Song people, this is the Great Song Dynasty!"

"Crack!" As she said this, she drew out a half-foot long sword, looking very majestic.

The beggar-like man was startled and quickly smiled and said, "Yes, yes, I... I speak the Song dialect."

This time it was his turn to stumble.

However, at least Li Fengniang understood, so she moved aside with satisfaction.

A scheming child is just scheming. She was obviously guarding her uncle's personal property as if she was on guard against thieves.

But to Belle, Feng Niang felt like a caring little girl who was concerned about her safety.

So, Emmanuelle Belle patted her shoulder with satisfaction, thinking that her love for this apprentice was not in vain.

The foreign man dressed as a beggar stammered in Chinese and spoke to Emmanuelle Belle.

It turned out that this foreign man was also a member of the Knights of the Eastern Expedition.

He belonged to another order of knights, but he had heard of Emmanuelle Belle's name.

It's just that the two armies never had the chance to come into contact, so he had never seen it.

His group was also broken up, and he was taken prisoner and sold into slavery.

Because of his expertise in navigation, which was his selling point, he was bought by a large sea merchant.

As a result, their ship encountered a storm on the way, and the ship was destroyed and everyone on board died.

Fortunately, he was holding onto a piece of plank and was rescued by a passing ship, which took him to the Song Dynasty.

However, although he regained his freedom because his buyer died at sea, he also lost his source of livelihood.

Because the ship owner who rescued him from the sea wanted to recruit him for his own work, and he had been hiding it very well.

However, after setting foot on the land of the Song Dynasty, he relaxed his spirit and was not on guard anymore, and was discovered by the ship owner that he was praying.

Because he was actually a priest accompanying the army.

This made the pagan ship owner very angry. If he had not been in the Song Dynasty, he would not have dared to kill anyone easily. He would have ordered the sailors to tie the heretic to stones and sink him into the sea.

So, the ship owner expelled him.

He had been hanging around in Lin'an for more than a year, half begging and half doing odd jobs.

It was only recently that he heard from others that he had a fellow villager who was also in Lin'an and was doing very well.

So, he wanted to ask Belle for help.

Belle was surprised and asked, "You...are actually a priest?"

"Yes, it's me!"

Father Mark choked up and said, "I don't have much left to prove my identity. This is all I have left. Your Excellency, please take a look."

As Mark spoke, he took out the only thing that could prove his identity as a priest from his arms and handed it forward.

Li Fengniang snatched it away, looked at it carefully, and found no mechanism that could hurt anyone, so she passed it to Bei'er.

Belle took it in her hands and looked at it carefully.

Is this... a piece of ivory?
No, no, no, it's not just a piece of ivory, it's also carved with dense words and patterns.

Belle's pupils suddenly dilated!

She recognized it.

She had also seen one of these things at the cardinal of the Cathedral of Satyr, to which her father, Grand Duke Crito, was attached!

(End of this chapter)