Chapter 23: Japanese pirates in the A-character scroll
Feng Ziying leaned against the wall, looked at the dark sky, and thought rapidly.
“Erlang, the house over there belongs to the Ren family, right?” The Ren family is also a famous and noble family in Linqing, and the Ren Garden is a famous garden in Linqing.
The last patriarch of the Ren family, Ren Zhenglin, once served as the right deputy imperial envoy of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and his third brother Ren Zhengshan also served as the prefect of Anqing. The other family also has a person who has been awarded the second-level Jinshi, and is now serving as the minister of the Nanjing Ministry of Rites, so The Ren family can be regarded as a truly famous Linqing family, but the Ren family also has a mansion in Dongchang Mansion. Most of the family members live in Dongchang Mansion. This mansion is also similar to the Feng family, with only a few people guarding the house.
"Uh, yes." Feng Ziying swallowed and immediately reacted, "Brother Feng, you mean we go through the back garden of Ren's house?"
“Well, our Feng residence has been occupied by thieves, and the Ren family must be about the same. But even if the back garden is occupied by thieves, no one will pay attention to it, so..."
Zuo Liangyu immediately became excited, "There is a big locust tree outside the wall of Ren's back garden. I used to climb up there..."
"That's good. Let's climb over from Ren Garden. Along the back wall of Ren Garden, we can reach the opposite side of the stone archway. We can climb out from their east wing to see if there is any chance to get to Banjing Street."
The reason why Feng Ziying has an impression of Ren Yuan is that both the Feng and Ren families are considered prominent families in Linqing. However, except for the lineage of Feng Ziying's grandfather, the other branches of the Feng family are not very impressive, unlike the Ren family. The trees in Linqing are flourishing, and they are also blooming in Dongchang Mansion, which is far better than the Feng family.
When Feng Ziying came to the Qing Dynasty, she noticed the Ren family, which lived next to the Feng family. She felt that the Ren family was more powerful than the old Feng family. After asking around, she found out that the famous Ren Garden belonged to this Ren family, covering an area of hundreds of years. acres, can be called a luxury.
Turning the corner, Feng Ziying saw a large locust tree at least three feet high leaning against the wall outside the Ren family's house. He was also a little curious as to why such a locust tree that could obviously pose a threat to the security of the house was not left by Ren's house. The house was cut down and left here to stay.
Zuo Liangyu seemed to have noticed Feng Ziying's doubts, and whispered: "It is said that this locust tree is the Feng Shui tree of the Ren family. It must be kept outside the courtyard so that it can protect others from wind and rain outside the courtyard wall. Only then can the Ren family prosper forever."
Zuo Liangyu pointed at the tree and drew a special arc.
"Did you see that this courtyard wall was originally able to include the locust tree? It was only after listening to Mr. Feng Shui's advice that I deliberately placed it outside the wall, but it cannot be too far away, otherwise it will not be able to cover the Ren family. The wind and rain are out, but fortunately there are not many people living here in the Ren family, and ordinary predators and thieves don’t dare to provoke the Ren family.”
These days, both wealthy gentry and famous poets and writers attach great importance to Feng Shui, so this situation is normal.
“Let’s go, no matter what the Feng Shui tree is, we will trample it under our feet today.” Feng Ziying suddenly thought of something, “Is this Ren family not prepared at all for this?”
It was impossible to see the expression on Zuo Liangyu's face in the dark night, but Feng Ziying could feel that he must be very proud: "Brother Feng, how is this possible? Everyone knows that the mastiffs in Ren's backyard are powerful."
"Huh?" Feng Ziying stopped suddenly, but quickly reacted: "Do you have any idea?"
"Hey, how can you be unprepared when wandering around outside?" Zuo Liangyu smiled, pulled out a bamboo tube from his waist, carefully poured out a few drops of liquid and smeared it on himself, and then smeared it on Feng Ziying's body. Then he said: "This is the big insect urine I got last year from a theatrical troupe that set up a dock in our Linqing Guandi Temple. There are also a few strands of tiger hair in this leather bag, which are good things to avoid dogs. Anyway, No matter what kind of mastiff or dog he is, they will all retreat when they hear him."
Feng Ziying had to admit that it was the wisest decision to bring this guy with her. I'm afraid that neither Feng You nor herself would be as convenient as this guy.
Along with climbing the tree, he quietly climbed over the wall and slid along the wall into Renyuan. After a low whimpering sound, several black shadows slowly retreated and disappeared. Presumably, these should be the mastiffs left by Renyuan in the back garden. .
“Let’s go!” Feng Ziying motioned for Zuo Liangyu to follow, and the two of them hurriedly walked along the path beside the wall with half-hunched bodies.
“Erlang, have you been here before?”
"I've been here a few times. People say that this place is made of mountains of gold and silver. I came in and took a look twice, but I didn't see even half a copper coin, and there was nothing inlaid with gold or silver." Zuo Liang Yu shook her head repeatedly, "Anyway, I don't see what's good about this place."
Feng Ziying didn't care. Naturally, this kind of garden was not something that Zuo Liangyu and other military children could appreciate, and it would be the same for him.
"That's the ear room next to the east wall over there. Hey, someone is coming here." Zuo Liangyu is much more flexible than Feng Ziying. He is familiar with the road conditions and is familiar with the roads in this garden. Apparently, he has been here many times to "hunt for treasure" without success, and he has been unable to find it. willingly.
They saw two figures strolling over. Neither of them expected that there would be people walking through the verandah over there so late. Even the sentry shouldn't be patrolling the back garden. It's just unavoidable, so There was a rockery nearby, and the two of them hid behind the rockery.
The two people walked vigorously, but they did not walk fast. They slowed down even more when they reached the rockery.
Some of the hurried words were low and powerful, but Feng Ziying and Zuo Liangyu were shocked when they heard them.
Zuo Liangyu couldn’t understand it, but Feng Ziying could understand fragments of Japanese language.
When he was in the Imperial Academy of the Capital, he had contact with the translator of the Siyi Pavilion. There were still some big differences in some lexical and sentence expressions between the Japanese language and modern Japanese, but overall they were of the same origin. He could only talk between these two people. He heard some words in pieces, and one of them mentioned "His Excellency the Resolute General", which sounded familiar to him.
In his previous life, he also liked reading. He had read "A Dream of Red Mansions" a long time ago, but later he needed to adjust his mood, so he took the fat version of "The Story of the Stone" and reviewed it again. He also read "Tokugawa Ieyasu" written by Shohachi Yamaoka. He had read a few books sporadically, but had not finished them all. He only read a general outline, but he still knew about the Four Tokugawa Kings. Kanbaru Yasumasa was known as the "resolute general". These two Japanese could actually mention Kanbaru Yasumasa, so he had to let him Be surprised.
“Kenjiro, we can no longer converse in the language of our homeland in China. Your Excellency Hideji has repeatedly warned us to prevent our whereabouts from being exposed..."
“Hi!” Another person immediately responded: “Liji, I...”
"What am I telling you? I can no longer use the words of my hometown, nor can I use the customs of my hometown!" The voice became stern, "Although these White Lotus cultists are not worth mentioning in general, China is a vast country. There is a large population, and most of the thousands of people are mediocre, but as long as there are one or two outstanding people among a hundred people, they cannot be underestimated when they gather together! If we are not careful, and they spy out the clues, it will be a trivial matter for us to die. Delaying His Excellency General's important affairs will lead to eternal death!"
The language has changed into formal Chinese, but with some accents from Nanzhili, but I don’t know where these two Japanese people came from, and they are so careful, and they can even speak fluent Chinese. With some local accent.
"I understand." The other voice spoke more slowly, probably very respectful to his partner, and his tone was somewhat respectful, "It's just that His Excellency Xiuji asked us to blend in with these White Lotus cultists. What's the point? These guys came from Lunan. I thought they were going to rebel before, but now it doesn't look like it. Although the inner city is strong, the guards in the city have come out, but there are only a few hundred people guarding the city. Even if this group of people can't stand it, they should be easily taken. That’s it…”
"I'm not sure of their intentions now. We are here to observe as representatives from the Songjiang Prefecture in South Zhili. We can only take it one step at a time." The man called Liji seemed to be thinking deeply, "Their senior officials, we We haven’t seen him yet. It stands to reason that the leader came from Beizhili, and the characters like the headmaster and Zhangshang of Linqing here may not be seen. However, the general headmaster surnamed Xu is very shrewd, and he is very smart in Juye, The preacher from Yuncheng actually reached out his hand here, he is quite a character."
“You mean the half-covered man?” The man named Kenjiro asked in a deep voice.
"Well, that guy is extremely cautious and shrewd, and there are always people around to protect him. I heard that this person is the direct disciple of the leader, but I don't know where he is from or his real name. And I guess even if he is the person around him, except for one Even close friends and relatives may not know his true identity."
“Liji, how long are we going to stay in this land of China? When will we be able to return home after wandering aimlessly?”
"Hmph, you're tired of it after only two years? Why did Lord Hideji choose us to come to China? The battle of Bunroku Keicho is like yesterday, and I still can't forget the battle of Bokutokwan. Kenji, Toshio, Kyōtaka and the others were beside me. I died surrounded by screams and groans. In the battle of Ulsan, if General Cheongjung had not defended with all his strength, and if Generals Soo-won and Changzheng had not arrived in time, we would have become bones in the grave, and the reservoir was filled with the corpses of my companions. , I couldn’t even ask for a piece of horse meat, and countless people died of starvation. But when I return home, who will remember my robes? The losers are not worthy of being remembered, so..."
The man's voice became a bit shrill and high-pitched, but he realized something in an instant and lowered it again.
(End of this chapter)