"Lady Zhao seems to be doing well..."
Li Yan also had a smile on his face and nodded slightly.
Meeting old friends makes you feel good.
Although there are many rumors about the two's various affairs in Chang'an Pingkang Ward, they all know that this kind of joy does not involve any affection between men and women.
Talking about the relationship between men and women is a joke.
They have lived two lives and have seen too many changes in people's hearts. They are used to losing their lives because of profit. From the bottom of their hearts, they will not and cannot put their minds on things between men and women.
A person who has been living in poverty since he was a child does not believe in this thing.
If true love was so easy, why would so many people sing its praises?
There is more of a tacit understanding between the two.
Li Yan In Zhao Wan Fang, he saw himself in his previous life. He had been alone since he was a child, and he kept talking about revenge, which was just to give himself the motivation to live and move on.
Zhao Wan Fang, on the other hand, envies Li Yan for being able to control his own destiny.
That tone of equal treatment was also a rare light in her dark life.
Therefore, we can only be considered friends.
It is impossible to make Li Yan trust Sha LiFei and Wang Dao Xuan with his life.
However, to outsiders, the tone of the two men seemed different.
Sha LiFei and Long Yan'er winked, indicating that they were Li Yan's old friends.
The scholar who was threatening Kong Shangzhao also turned gloomy, but he did not want to be jealous in public and lose his grace, so he pretended to dissipate, rolled up the oil paper umbrella in his hand and said with a smile, "Lady Zhao, it seems that you are very familiar with this young master, why don't you introduce him?"
Not to mention him, even the two people who fought before looked at Li Yan fiercely.
"Hahaha..."
Zhao Wan Fang shook his fan, covered his mouth and said with a smile, "Mr. Ming, they are the famous Twelve Yuan Chen, and the person in front of you is Li Yan Young Hero Li."
"Didn't I just tell the slave family that I have friendship with you?"
There was no hint of joking in his words, and his eyes were full of innocence.
But it was precisely this look that made the scholar surnamed Ming feel ashamed. A surge of anger surged into his face, and his face turned red. Without any nonsense, he clasped his fists and turned around to leave.
It's normal for a man to brag a little bit when he's drinking and having a beautiful woman.
But now that the true master is here, there is no way it can be reconciled.
When they heard the name "Twelve Yuan Chen", Yuan Heng and Tian Fan, who were fighting, also looked at each other, clasped their fists, and quickly turned and left.
At the window on the second floor, Zhao Wan Fang smiled and said, "Young Master Li, I have prepared some drinks for you to catch the wind."
Sha LiFei narrowed his eyes slightly, "Be careful."
"Well, you go first."
Li Yan nodded, casually picked up his luggage and entered the nearby wine shop.
The moment he stepped into the door, Li Yan knew why Zhao Wan Fang chose this place.
The wine shop is called "Zuihe Xuan". Although it is old and not high-end, it is very clean.
In the building with green tiles, a faded "Zuili Qiankun" cloth hanging on the elm pillars, three tung oil paper lanterns hanging on the eaves, reflecting the moist light on the blue brick steps, and the reed door curtain showing refreshing energy.
The waiter with a gray cloth draped over his shoulders was carefully cleaning the melon seed shells in the cracks of the bricks with a bamboo broom.
On the east wall of the hall, there is a row of clay pots with pickled canal carp. On the west wall, there are fir wine racks. On the rows of black pottery wine jars, there are rough-edged red papers with the words "sorghum roasted" and "millet rice yellow" on them...
The boss is obviously a hard-working person, clean and smoky.
A round-faced girl in Tsing Yi was running down the wooden stairs on the second floor. After seeing Li Yan, she suddenly panicked, stood up quickly, and said, "Li...Young Master Li, please follow me."
When he spoke, he spoke in authentic Beijing dialect.
Li Yan was not surprised after hearing this.
When Zhao Wan Fang left, he was appreciated by the Golden Swallow organization and went to the capital to focus on training. It was not unusual to have a girl from the capital by his side.
Not only that, he could also detect that there was another person in the room next to Zhao Wan Fang upstairs, with Yin Energy on him, and his breathing was even and weak. He was obviously a master sent to protect him.
Arriving upstairs, Zhao Wan Fang was also greeting me at the door.
After the two sat down, Li Yan shook his head slightly and said, "You are causing trouble for yourself."
What he said was unclear, but both of them knew what it meant.
Those three just now seemed to be the ones who liked to cause trouble.
Having lost face today, they may not dare to trouble Li Yan, but after they leave, they will definitely find a way to vent their anger on Zhao Wan Fang. Therefore, it seems that Zhao Wan Fang is using him to ward off disasters, but in fact, it has buried hidden dangers for itself.
"Young Master Li is worrying too much."
Zhao Wan Fang smiled sweetly, raised his hand to make tea for him, and said, "You have traveled around the world through life and death, and now you can dominate people just by your name. You dance on the tip of a slave's sword. Now you don't need to worry about these small characters."
"Besides, if they don't leave, the food will get cold..."
Before he finished speaking, the round-faced little girl waiting next to him immediately clapped his hands.
Seven or eight waiters filed in, and the table was quickly filled with steaming wine and food.
These waiters are uniformly dressed, have energetic faces, walk like the wind, and hold exquisite dinner plates in one hand without even shaking. They are obviously not waiters in this store.
Not only that, when the dishes were placed and the lid was lifted, the names of the dishes were also announced.
"Stewed Weishan Lake carp in soy sauce!"
"The fish holds money in its mouth, and the wealth is rolling in. The live carps in Weishan Lake are killed and cooked right now. The meat is tender and smellless, and the fish leaps across the Longmen Road!"
"Braised canal beach sheep!"
"Sir, this is goat meat with skin cut into cubes, simmered with canal reed core, Acheng yam, mutton oil melted into the miso soup, green garlic sprouts sprinkled for freshness, and you are served with Linqing cooking cakes, made with tribute bricks in an earthenware oven, and roasted with jujube wood over a dark fire..."
"Damn Jingyang Pheasant!"
"Jingyang Gang Ueno pheasant breast is thinly sliced, Jiangnan distiller's grains are fermented for three days to obtain red lees, and fried with the Wen River water chestnuts. It is Jingyang Gang who beats the tiger and calls himself a hero. He enjoys wine by the canal..."
"Very fragrant noodles!"
"Linqing's original 'Nine-Sided Noodles'! Eat all the delicacies from the north and south in one bowl!"
The dishes served are each more exquisite than the last, and they are all delicious and delicious. I cannot praise them enough.
"Thank you."
Li Yan held the tea cup and smiled slightly. After these guys left, he said, "It's the craftsmanship of 'Vegetable General'. It has been prepared for so long. It seems that he came specially to wait for me."
These dishes were still steaming hot when they were opened, obviously they had just been cooked.
It is not easy to invite "Vegetable General" to cook in person.
But it is even more difficult to predict the time when they will enter the city.
Zhao Wan Fang smiled slightly, "Linqing City connects the north and the south, and the rich gather there, so it is a must-have for the chefs. The dishes are unique. Even though this 'Vegetable General' has a good relationship with us Golden Swallow Gate, it is because of you that the slave family has this good fortune."
"Oh..."
Li Yan narrowed his eyes slightly, "Did Golden Swallow Gate ask you to come to me?"
He was alert in his heart.
Jianghu Eight Visible Gates, gold, leather, color, hanging, comment, group, tune, willow. Eight Hidden Gates, bee, hemp, swallow, sparrow, flower, orchid, kudzu, Rong, it can be said that snakes have their own ways, rats have their own ways, no one should be underestimated.
Golden Swallow Gate is the most high-end one in Yanmen.
The first is buying and selling information, the second is playing both sides, pulling the strings.
The relationship behind it is so complicated that no one from the court to the market can figure it out.
If you show your courtesy for nothing, you should not be careless.
"Don't worry."
Zhao Wan Fang covered his mouth and smiled, "Menzhong asked me to come to you because he naturally took a fancy to my friendship with you. Friendship cannot be bought with a lot of money. If you make random calculations, what is the difference between you and those cunning hawkers?"
"What's more, the elders don't want to offend a future grandmaster."
"Excessive praise."
Li Yan was unmoved, and said calmly, "You might as well tell me what's going on, otherwise I won't be able to keep my mouth shut with this table of delicious food and wine."
"Qiankun Academy!"
Zhao Wan Fang said directly, "The current situation Divine Land is like a raging fire cooking oil."
"Southwest War has just ended, and the court wants to award rewards. The civil servants don't want the generals' power to expand too quickly, so they have been arguing on Imperial Court all day long..."
"There was a major corruption case in Northern Xinjiang, and some officials were dragged into the trap by the Maitreya Sect. Two imperial envoys sent by the imperial court were assassinated..."
"On the southern coast, trade routes have flourished since the opening of the sea, but the number of Japanese pirates has also increased day by day, as well as those red-haired ghosts. I heard that their emperor actually issued a decree allowing the plundering of merchant ships from other countries. Now the sea has become a mess..."
"Not to mention that what you discovered about Nine Cauldrons has caused Xuanmen to be shaken."
"But even though everything is noisy, Qiankun Academy, which is about to be established, also attracts Imperial Court's attention."
Seeing Zhao Wan Fang talking eloquently, Li Yan sighed in his heart.
Sure enough, after three days of separation, we should look at each other with admiration.
The courtesan who was dazed and thought only of revenge at the beginning, after just two years of experience, his conversation and outlook have reached another level, and he is like a completely different person.
It seems that there is indeed a gathering of dragons and snakes in the capital.
Although he was feeling emotional in his heart, Li Yan's expression remained unchanged. He took a sip of tea and said calmly:
"It's just an academy, how can it attract so many people's attention?"
"This academy is not simple!"
Zhao Wan Fang said, "When the emperor first proposed it, not many people above Imperial Court paid much attention to it, but it was not until the academy was about to be established that many people realized that something was wrong."
"The official positions in the academy are at the same level as Imperial College. Commandery Commandant Office sent many people to travel all over Divine Land, inviting master craftsmen and masters of magic everywhere. The amount of silver allocated was astonishing, and they even specially expanded the Yulin Army to guard..."
"Someone touched the money allocated by the academy. The emperor was furious. He ransacked all the houses and sent people to take charge. He sent Grandmaster Huo Yin to personally take charge..."
"Now that things have happened, the emperor no longer hides anything. As long as he has made meritorious deeds, he may even hold separate imperial examinations for the Qiankun Academy miscellaneous students in the future. More than a dozen great scholars jointly submitted the memorial, but the emperor avoided seeing it..."
"Oh, is it such a big fuss?"
Li Yan was a little surprised when he heard this.
Of course he knew the potential of this kind of academy, but he didn't expect that the imperial court would attach so much importance to it and would even rather offend the Confucian sect.
According to what those scholars said, this was a major event that would shake the foundation of the country.
This emperor...
Wouldn't it be the same as him?
At this moment, Zhao Wan Fang spoke in a low voice again, "This matter is secret, but there are too many people who want to buy information, so I spent a lot of effort to inquire about it before I knew the reason."
"The imperial court opened the sea, and the royal family also had a large team. Because they didn't want to cause gossip between the government and the public, they pretended to be a business group and went to sea for trade. They gained a lot. I heard that a large gold and silver mine was also discovered."
"But this business group encountered Red Haired Foreigners and almost got kicked out of it."
"The power of their firearms is amazing. They even made New-Style Gunpowder, but the formula is slightly different. After asking those merchants, I found out that all the maritime powers are developing rapidly."
"They all have similar academies, such as the New-Style Gunpowder formula, which comes from a place called 'Lao Niu Du Academy'..."
Lao Niu Du Academy?
Li Yan was stunned, it wasn't called Oxford.
Zhao Wan Fang naturally didn't know what he was thinking, and sighed, "Our His Majesty only wants to establish unparalleled achievements. If we only focus on Divine Land, we will probably be more stable. But now that we are opening up the sea and competing with the countries on the sea, how can we swallow this breath?"
"Furthermore, among Southwest War, the power of New-Style Gunpowder is seen by everyone. Even if there are those great scholars who oppose it, how can they stop the power of all parties in Imperial Court."
"Qiankun Academy will definitely be the focus of the battle between Imperial Court in the future!"
So that's it...
Li Yan shook his head slightly, "You Golden Swallow Gate know a lot of people, right? I'm just a martial artist. If you don't look for those big shots, what's the point of looking for me?"
Zhao Wan Fang blinked, "Don't forget what I, Golden Swallow Gate, do."
"Outsiders don't know, but we know very well that Mr. Tian Feng from the Ministry of Industry has been recruited into the palace by His Majesty several times in the past two months. We talked for at least three hours. He is the elder Mo Sect and is likely to serve as the academy supervisor..."
"And your good friend Yan Jiuling, won the first prize in the Jinluan Palace, and directly entered the academy to practice. He has close friendship with many high-ranking officials Open Sea Faction, and will definitely be reused in the future..."
"Okay, okay."
Li Yan waved his hand and said, "You should know clearly what you want me to do?"
Zhao Wan Fang smiled sweetly and said, "Don't worry. The elders in the sect asked me to see you just to show their goodwill in advance. When you arrive in the capital, someone will naturally invite you. Golden Swallow Gate is responsible for pulling the strings. Whether you go or not, and whether you are willing to contact some people, all depends on your wishes."
"Furthermore, with Twelve Yuan Chen's current reputation, it is Golden Swallow Gate's honor that we help introduce him."
"Easy to say!"
Li Yan suddenly understood after hearing this. Without saying a word, he picked up a piece of mutton and put it directly into his mouth. "The skin is crispy and the meat is tender, fragrant but not greasy. It is indeed the work of 'Vegetable General'. You can eat it too."
When he lets go of his chopsticks to eat, it means he agrees to this matter.
As Zhao Wan Fang said, with Twelve Yuan Chen's current worth, ordinary people cannot afford to hire him.
For some secret commissions, it is not easy to come directly to the door.
It is indeed more suitable to have Golden Swallow Gate in the middle.
Moreover, Golden Swallow Gate's information spread all over Divine Land, and he was also very interested in it.
Seeing that he agreed, Zhao Wan Fang also breathed a sigh of relief, and then started drinking with a smile on his face, reminiscing about old times, and chatting about the situation in the capital.
Li Yan also listened very carefully and asked questions from time to time to avoid giving the capital a black eye.
A banquet lasted for two hours.
"Wan Fang Come with me?"
"There are still things to do here in Linqing. Master, go ahead and see you when I return to the capital."
"It's okay, things are going wrong in the world, so take care!"
"Take care!"
Li Yan didn't ask any questions and just said goodbye and left.
Zhao Wan Fang came to Linqing City. I guess I was just dropping by to see him.
But as for what the other party wants to do, there is no need to ask more.
Everyone has his own path. When Zhao Wan Fang contacted him on behalf of Golden Swallow Gate, the oiran who once begged for death in a daze had disappeared.
No matter how enthusiastic the words were, each other became more defensive.
When we left the wine shop, it was already dark and some shops on the street were closed.
"Young Hero Li, I will show you the way."
Cao Gang sent a disciple who has been waiting outside.
"Okay, thank you."
Li Yan smiled and nodded, turned to look at the inn, and strode into the night.
On the second floor, Zhao Wan Fang watched his figure disappear through the crack in the door, a trace of sadness flashed in his eyes, but when he heard the footsteps behind him, his eyes became gentle and firm.
"Uncle Liu, send us all the information about the hidden connections."
"Linqing City has become a powder keg. Some people want to use Eunuch Ma to cause an attack. Some people want to save the royal face, and some people want to fish in troubled waters. No matter who is muddying the waters, we must be the first to know!"
"Yes, Lady Zhao!"
Just as Li Yan guessed, Zhao Wan Fang came with a mission.
Linqing City, as the world's number one bank, has entangled interests and many forces, and there are always a lot of troubles.
Eunuch Ma is a tax supervisor who is deeply trusted by the emperor. Therefore, he had to bear the infamy and brought a lot of money to the treasury, which allowed the court to breathe a sigh of relief, but he also made a lot of money, which had already made people angry.
A tax riot has been brewing secretly for a long time.
Many people in the world were involved in it. What they thought they were doing was secretive, but in fact, it had already fallen into the eyes of Imperial Court's conscientious people, and they had become a knife in the hands of others.
The market, the arena, and Imperial Court have never been divided.
Of course, this matter has nothing to do with Li Yan.
Cao Gang is very good at doing things. The inn arranged for them is clean and quiet.
As soon as Li Yan returned to the yard, he saw Wang Dao Xuan walking in a hurry, still holding the Xu Fu suicide note in his hand, and said with excitement, "Unlocked, the secret words left by Xu Fu to seek immortality have been unlocked!"
As he said that, he looked at Kong Shangzhao who was following behind him, "This guy is indeed a genius!"