Three Kingdoms: Ten Times Speed, Diao Chan Says I'm Too Fast

That night.

The west gate of Luoyang.

White Horse Temple.

In the seventh year of the Yongping era of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Emperor Ming of Han, Liu Zhuang, dreamed of a golden man flying around the palace, which sparked his interest in Buddhism.

Therefore, he sent the physician Cai Yin and the scholar Qin Jing to India to seek Buddhist teachings.

According to records such as "Mingxiang Ji" and "Biographies of Eminent Monks", in the tenth year of Yongping, Cai Yin and Qin Jing, along with the monks Kasyapa Matanga and Dharmaraksha from Central India, brought Buddhist scriptures and statues back to Luoyang.

To commemorate the contribution of the white horse in transporting Buddhist scriptures over a long journey, the temple was named "White Horse." The name "temple" comes from Honglu Temple, because the first place Western monks stayed after arriving in Luoyang was Honglu Temple.

Therefore, the temple was named after the White Horse Temple.

The White Horse Temple has a history of over a hundred years. It started by occupying only a few acres of land, and then it has been continuously expanded to now occupy hundreds of acres.

Over the course of more than a hundred years, even more monks came from India to live at the White Horse Temple in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Every year, the imperial court would allocate a large amount of money and grain to support the monks of Baima Temple.

From a few monks in the seventh year of Yongping (1560), the number of monks in Baima Temple has grown to around a thousand in the more than one hundred years since then.

Under the cover of night, the vermilion walls surrounding the White Horse Temple separate the temple from the outside world.

It seemed like two different worlds were inside and outside the wall.

Luoyang City had a population of nearly one million, but the total number of people living in the city was only about one hundred thousand.

Most of them were high-ranking officials, nobles, and royalty.

The majority of the remaining people lived outside the city of Luoyang.

Therefore, Luoyang was not only prosperous within the city itself.

The area surrounding Luoyang was also exceptionally prosperous.

Wealthy merchants and powerful figures were everywhere, all surrounding Luoyang, the capital city.

Although it was already night, there was no curfew outside Luoyang.

The area outside Luoyang at night is far more bustling than the city itself.

Here, you can find anything you can imagine.

Under the emperor's nose, powerful and wealthy people are as numerous as hairs on a cow, and where there are upper-class people, there are naturally lower-class people who serve these upper-class people.

Hard work, unclean work, shady work, and all sorts of dirty deals all need to be replaced.

Therefore, the area outside Luoyang was a melting pot of all sorts of people, with wandering knights everywhere.

A wandering knight-errant, to put it nicely, is a person who upholds justice and helps others.

To put it bluntly, they are scoundrels of this era.

Of course, those wandering knights who could make a living in Luoyang, under the emperor's nose, and who were even named and had their own identities, were all wandering knights who relied on the wings of power.

Water transport, smuggling, running brothels and gambling dens, human trafficking, livestock trafficking...

Anything that requires cunning to accomplish is inseparable from these chivalrous knights who serve the powerful and wealthy.

Of course, the vast majority of this money eventually ends up in the pockets of the powerful and wealthy.

Only a small portion will end up in the hands of the wandering knights.

Even this small portion alone is a number that ordinary people cannot imagine.

These wandering knights would use this money to gradually strengthen themselves, make contact with more powerful and influential people, and obtain more resources.

Such groups of wandering knights were as numerous as hairs on a cow outside Luoyang.

At this time, in the center of a bustling residential area west of Baima Temple, there was a huge mansion covering more than ten acres.

It can't really be called a mansion.

Because neither the courtyard walls nor the construction of the houses reveal any trace of luxury.

A low adobe wall, about half a person's height, surrounded the courtyard.

The houses in the courtyard were mostly built of adobe bricks mixed with straw, without a single decent piece of bluestone.

There are quite a few houses scattered throughout the huge courtyard.

However, it lacks any pavilions or towers.

There were just a few huge round tables in the courtyard.

In the middle of the earthen houses surrounding the courtyard wall, there is a slightly larger earthen house.

An oil lamp was lit inside the room, its light bright.

Every now and then, a few wandering swordsmen with short knives at their waists, their shirts open and their hair disheveled, would stroll back and forth in the courtyard as if on patrol.

Inside the brightly lit room, the sounds of women's wanton laughter and men's cheers could be heard intermittently.

There is a courtyard wall between the front and back of the courtyard.

There is a large vermilion gate in the middle of the courtyard wall.

The gate was tightly closed, and four tall, muscular men with fierce expressions stood at the entrance.

Everyone was carrying a horizontal sword.

The backyard and front yard are basically the same size and spacious, but there are fewer houses in the yard, and the layout of the yard is more exquisite.

There was still a light carriage parked in the courtyard at that time.

A man dressed in a purple brocade robe, with a scar on his right cheek, pushed open the door of one of the houses and stepped out.

Behind him followed a middle-aged man dressed in a black robe, who looked like a scholar.

"Second brother, tell the brothers to stay alert and not cause any trouble."

"If there's any rustling or noise around you, keep your ears perked up."

"Also, all the messages sent out around here have made them open their eyes wide."

"If there is anything unusual or any unfamiliar faces, come and report it immediately."

Li Yu nodded: "Don't worry, brother, nothing will go wrong. There are our people all around here, to the left and right, within a radius of several miles."

The scarred man did not let his guard down.

"Being careful is always the best policy. This is an order from a high-ranking official. If there is even the slightest mistake, not only will you and I suffer, but our ancestors for eighteen generations will also be implicated."

As the middle-aged man with the scar spoke, he walked outside and left the courtyard in just a few steps.

The courtyard is located near a bustling area.

Not far from the door is a bustling street with a high concentration of taverns, gambling dens, and brothels.

All sorts of people crowded the long street, which was illuminated by the lights of the shops on both sides.

The pedestrians on the long street were of all kinds, some dressed in bright and shiny clothes, and others wearing coarse linen clothes and straw sandals.

Duan Yu sat in a tavern on the second floor in the middle of the long street, looking down at the street below.

Duan Liuqing sat opposite Duan Yu.

"Master, we've found out." Duan Liuqing said softly, "The man is in the hands of a local chivalrous man named Li Hu. He's a well-known wandering knight with several hundred men under his command, and he controls the brothels and gambling dens in the area."

Duan Yu picked up the teacup in front of him, took a sip of hot tea, and then nodded.

Having experienced modern society, Duan Yu naturally understood what this kind of wandering knight represented around Luoyang.

"Are all the personnel ready?" Duan Yu asked.

Duan Liuqing nodded gently.

The reason why no troops were mobilized was because Duan Yu did not want others to know who did it.

If that boy really was Liu Bian, then naturally they would have to act in secrecy.

No sooner had Duan Yu finished speaking than a person came up from the second floor of the tavern.

Behind him followed several wandering knights, their short swords tucked into their waistbands, who, even in the dead of winter, did not forget to keep their chests open.

As soon as the middle-aged man came up, the customers on the second floor of the tavern greeted him with smiles.

"What brings you here today, Tiger?"

"Tiger Lord".

"Tiger, please sit here."

Upon hearing the sound, Duan Yu glanced towards the stairwell on the second floor.

Just then, Li Hu's gaze swept around the second floor and landed on Duan Yu.

Then Li Hu's gaze sharpened.

Duan Yu's physique, coupled with his unique aura, instantly put Li Hu on high alert.

"This person... looks a bit unfamiliar."

Li Hu took the initiative to speak to Duan Yu, saying, "My name is Li Hu."