Chapter 347

In the following days.

Wang Wang Lengran, who had been making a big show and searching everywhere, suddenly became quiet.

There was no situation of breaking into the Prince Xunyang Prince's Mansion.

Both sides were safe and sound.

It seemed like maintaining some kind of strange tacit understanding.

It might be because the military edge of Cai Qin's army at the front was approaching.

The Jiangzhou main hall's search for Wang Wang Junzhi was a tiger's head and a snake's tail, ending in nothing.

However, in these few days, the entry and exit of the East and West city gates, as well as the docking and implementation of ships at Prince Xunyang Ferry, gradually became stricter.

The government strictly checked customs clearance documents and household registration documents.

An atmosphere of being loose on the outside but tight on the inside.

Afternoon.

The sky was covered with dark clouds.

After passing three consecutive inspection checkpoints of the Zhechong Prefecture soldiers at the city gate, Magistrate Ouyang Rong finished the complicated procedures and returned to the city.

Riding on Dongmei, he looked back at the city wall guarded by strict soldiers.

His gaze fell on a familiar assistant figure on the city tower.

"Prefect, you are back."

Magistrate Ouyang Rong's gaze moved away from the city tower without changing his expression. He turned his head and saw Yan Yan Liulang, who was greeting him with a concerned look.

He nodded and said indifferently:

"Let's go, back to Huaiye Lane."

"Yes."

The two boarded a carriage that had been waiting for a long time by the city gate.

The carriage passed through Xingzi Workshop and drove toward Chaisang Workshop.

Although Wang Wang Lengran controlled the Jiangzhou main hall as the Prefect and forcibly squeezed out Magistrate Ouyang Rong.

But Magistrate Ouyang Rong still held the power of acting according to circumstances in opening Shuangfeng Peak and building the Donglin Great Buddha, and could move around everywhere.

Today, he was also taking the excuse of going to Shuangfeng Peak to inspect the progress of the statue construction, went out of the city, and walked around the surrounding area.

In the carriage.

"Prefect, this is a letter sent by Master Chenjun Xie, newly mailed back from Shenjing Luoyang by Master Chenjun Xie, which arrived this afternoon."

"Hmm."

Magistrate Ouyang Rong took the letter, tore open the wax seal, and browsed it.

Yan Yan Liulang looked at Magistrate Ouyang Rong's expression and suddenly explained:

"The guard officer at the Xicheng Gate is a team of three shifts, changing every day. It happens to be Assistant Chen today.

"Now the manpower in the city is tight. Except for the Prefect and me, officials above the ninth grade are all holding multiple positions, filling in everywhere. The six-department assistants all have to go to the city tower to guard."

Perhaps because he had followed Magistrate Ouyang Rong for too long, he noticed his hidden focus, so Yan Yan Liulang mentioned this topic.

Magistrate Ouyang Rong nodded slightly, his gaze still on the letter paper, not moving away at all.

Yan Yan Liulang asked curiously:

"Did you find anything on this trip, Prefect?"

Magistrate Ouyang Rong used one mind for two purposes and said softly:

"The iron chains between Suojiang Tower and Huilong Rock have been arranged, and a pile of large iron cones has also been prepared on the shore."

Yan Yan Liulang sneered:

"Heh, although it is slower than the Prefect, it can't be called a real idiot. This Wang Wang Lengran is purely bad, but he still knows clearly what is a good strategy to block the water and land military edge."

Just then, Magistrate Ouyang Rong's brows gathered slightly, and he sighed:

"Another team of the Emperor's private envoys came from Shenjing Luoyang? They should have brought the Emperor's imperial decree. I don't know what it is specifically... The travel specifications are quite high."

Yan Yan Liulang was surprised: "What did it say?"

Magistrate Ouyang Rong handed out the letter sent by his teacher Chenjun Xie Xun. Yan Yan Liulang looked at it carefully, and muttered in his mouth:

"Why did that Saint suddenly send a team of envoys?

"Heh, under the slogan of comforting the front line, I think it is actually to supervise the Prince Xunyang Prince's Mansion, and maybe even knock on the Prince of Prince Xunyang."

He raised his head, as if he remembered the chat in the main hall that day, and looked at Magistrate Ouyang Rong with admiration:

"The Prefect is still sharp and has foresight, calculating the actions of the imperial court and the Saint so early."

Magistrate Ouyang Rong said noncommittally.

"Looking at the date this letter was sent, this batch of envoys should arrive tomorrow at the earliest..."

He muttered to himself: "It seems that Wang Wang Junzhi's matter cannot be delayed and must be solved quickly."

"What is the Prefect saying?" Yan Yan Liulang asked.

"Nothing."

Magistrate Ouyang Rong shook his head.

Returning to the residence in Huaiye Lane in the evening, before getting off the carriage, Magistrate Ouyang Rong turned to ask Yan Yan Liulang:

"Is there any movement in Zhenguang Street in Xingzi Workshop?"

Yan Yan Liulang lowered his voice and answered: "There is still a pot of begonia flowers on the wall."

Originally, Magistrate Ouyang Rong handed over the matter of receiving Qin Heng's secret signal to Ye Ye Weilai, letting the little girl go to the East Market of Xingzi Workshop every morning to buy flowers and fruits, and keep an eye on it by the way.

It's just that recently, he felt the atmosphere was wrong and felt a little uneasy, so he simply let Yan Yan Liulang, who was as "idle" as him, go shopping often.

If the begonia flowers were switched to azaleas, report the news immediately to avoid missing the window period.

Hearing that it was also calm there,

Magistrate Ouyang Rong exhaled lightly.

In the evening, returning to the residence in Huaiye Lane, Magistrate Ouyang Rong walked into the study, wrote a letter, and prepared to send it back to his teacher Chenjun Xie Xun tomorrow, asking in detail about certain court movements.

At present, the Chief Clerk position is temporarily suspended, and he has lost the channel of the Jiangzhou main hall. Magistrate Ouyang Rong can only rely on letters from Chenjun Xie Xun, Shen Shen Xisheng, and others to understand the first-hand news in Shenjing Luoyang, or the old connections of the Prince Xunyang Prince's Mansion in Shenjing Luoyang, such as the Xiang Prince's Mansion.

Letter communication is ultimately inefficient, requiring repeated communication, and it takes quite a while to go back and forth.

It can only be said that it is better than nothing.

For example, the Shenjing Luoyang envoy who might arrive tomorrow just made Magistrate Ouyang Rong prepare mentally in advance.

Night is deep.

The moon is cool like water.

Magistrate Ouyang Rong's figure appeared again in Juxian Garden of the Prince Xunyang Prince's Mansion.

Arriving at the study, he informed Li Su Xian and Li Su Dalang of the news in Chenjun Xie Xun's letter. The two were surprised and nervous, obviously only knowing it now.

After exchanging information, Magistrate Ouyang Rong was optimistic as usual and comforted them a few words.

He picked up the teacup, took a sip, held the warm cup with both hands, and said:

"Wang Wang Junzhi's matter must be decided early."

Li Su Xian couldn't help asking:

"What good advice does Tanlang have."

"Look at the attitude of this batch of Shenjing Luoyang envoys." His eyes were fixed on the water mist in the cup: "Whether it is angry or gentle, the Prince is safe and sound.

"Because thunder and rain are all the Emperor's grace. Moreover, between mother and son, scolding is natural. Conversely, it shows that the Emperor cares about the Prince in her heart, treating him as her own family, so she hates that iron cannot become steel.

"This is the safest situation."

"What about gentle?" Li Su Dalang asked curiously.

"Gentle is not bad either, but it is more biased toward naked interest considerations. The Emperor reluctantly sent someone to express her attitude, protecting the Prince and not letting people below receive the wrong signal to attack the Prince's Mansion.

"This is actually considered temporarily safe. What I fear is the third situation."

"What?"

"Indifferent."

Magistrate Ouyang Rong lowered his head:

"If the envoy's attitude is like this, then wait for stricter confinement. It will definitely not be as free as it is now, and even..."

Magistrate Ouyang Rong didn't say much, but Li Su Xian and his son's faces were worried.

Li Su Dalang looked troubled and opened his mouth:

"Tanlang thinks how to deal with the one surnamed Wang? Why not transfer him out? I'm afraid that when the envoy comes, it will be too late."

"No need."

Magistrate Ouyang Rong shook his head and explained:

"If it is the first two, let Wang Wang Junzhi shine one last time to help the Prince show loyalty.

"If it is the latter indifferent... the Prince can immediately consider the retreat mentioned by the Little Princess."

The atmosphere was silent.

This small meeting ended with a sigh from Li Su Xian.

Magistrate Ouyang Rong walked out of the study, did not leave immediately, and turned to go to the reception hall.

In the past two days, this reception hall has become the most strictly guarded place in the Prince's Mansion, confining someone.

On the roof, Magistrate Ouyang Rong saw the pretty figure of his Xiao Shimei.

Quite surprisingly, the figure of a certain Little Princess with plum blossom makeup was also there.

"Why is the Princess here, not going back to rest?" On the roof, Chenjun Xie Chenjun Xie Lingjiang and Li Su Guoer sat side by side. Magistrate Ouyang Rong walked over, sat down beside Chenjun Xie Chenjun Xie Lingjiang, and was separated from Li Su Guoer.

After Magistrate Ouyang Rong asked casually, Li Su Guoer shook her head, holding a letter sword that had stabbed Wei Wei Shaoxuan, and looked at the distant Yangtze River night scene in a daze.

The wind blew up a few strands of hair at her temples, setting off her stunning little face, making her look pitiful.

Magistrate Ouyang Rong didn't look much. Chenjun Xie Chenjun Xie Lingjiang held his left palm with both hands, palm to palm, tested the temperature, rubbed his palm and back with her plain hands, and her sandalwood mouth leaned close, exhaling orchid wind and warm air.

Li Su Guoer seemed to look back.

"Here."

Magistrate Ouyang Rong took out a package of pastries wrapped in oil paper from his arms and handed it to his Xiao Shimei.

"Coming back this afternoon, passing by Xingzi Workshop, I saw that the old-fashioned pastry shop you like opened its door."

Chenjun Xie Chenjun Xie Lingjiang couldn't suppress the curve of her lips, but her pretty face showed a look of annoyance, and her tone was slightly blaming:

"Too sweet, I'll get fat."

"It's as if you'd get thin if you didn't eat it."

Being twisted ninety degrees on the waist by a plain hand reaching out, Magistrate Ouyang Rong straightened his waist and took a breath of cold air.

Just as Li Su Guoer wanted to stand up and say goodbye, the pair of Ru Shixiong and Xiao Shimei finally finished making a scene.

Chenjun Xie Chenjun Xie Lingjiang wrinkled her little nose:

"What time is it, and Ru Shixiong is still joking."

Magistrate Ouyang Rong smiled.

Li Su Guoer asked without looking back: "Why don't you go back."

"Come to accompany you two to sit for a while."

Chenjun Xie Chenjun Xie Lingjiang asked in a low voice: "Is Ru Shixiong also very nervous?"

"I'm not an immortal, just a mortal body, and I also have seven emotions and six desires."

Magistrate Ouyang Rong answered with a smile and turned to look at the house under his feet.

"Thank you for your hard work, guarding here in the middle of the night."

"Nothing, this Wang Wang Junzhi is cunning, and I don't trust others, so I have to guard it myself. However, we are just laborers, Ru Shixiong, you are the one who works hard, even harder."

Chenjun Xie Chenjun Xie Lingjiang reached out gently, tidied Magistrate Ouyang Rong's collar, and said softly:

"A few days ago, regarding Wang Wang Junzhi, I didn't see you speak much... I haven't asked yet, Li Li Zhengyan, Wang Wang Junzhi, and their actions, Ru Shixiong, are you not angry at all?"

"What's the use of being angry? It can't solve the problem."

The two women saw Magistrate Ouyang Rong shake his head.

"But there is always a feeling."

"Feeling, huh..."

He rubbed his face:

"I really hate this feeling of being calculated by others."

Li Su Guoer asked suddenly:

"Magistrate Ouyang Magistrate Ouyang Lianghan, Left Chief Clerk of the Restoration Mansion, one person below ten thousand. Li Li Zhengyan's conditions of being sincere and treating scholars with courtesy, are you not tempted at all?"

She pursed her red lips and said to Magistrate Ouyang Rong:

"You said one sentence that makes a lot of sense: chaos is a ladder. This is not just for the Wei clan.

"It's also for ambitious heroes like Li Li Zhengyan. You said my father and brother can't suppress Li Li Zhengyan and the others, and it's easy to become a mascot.

"But what about you?

"You didn't mention this point.

"Now you are being suppressed by villains in Prince Xunyang City. A scholar can be killed but not humiliated. You have suffered such great humiliation.

"But now, as long as you nod slightly and turn to that side, with your talent and understanding of the bloated drawbacks of the Great Zhou local system, you can help Li Li Zhengyan easily take down Jiang Nan...

"Wang Wang Lengran and other Wei clan minions are shouting now, but they can fall into your hands in the blink of an eye, taking revenge and washing away shame.

"Not to mention, the power is much greater than that of the Jiangzhou Chief Clerk. For you, following Li Li Zhengyan to start an uprising and obtaining marquis-like power is not difficult.

"Are you really not tempted at all?"

Li Su Guoer asked in one breath what she had been thinking about these past few days.

Magistrate Ouyang Rong looked at her and didn't speak.

Li Su Guoer frowned and guessed:

"Or is it that you have other plans in your heart, and you trust our family more, and are unwilling to take Li Li Zhengyan's dangerous path..."

Chenjun Xie Chenjun Xie Lingjiang interrupted:

"Dangerous path? Now Prince Xunyang City is like an isolated city, exposed to the military edge of Cai Qin's army, and your family is also guarded against by the imperial court. May I ask, which one is the dangerous path?"

Li Su Guoer was silent.

The air between the three on the roof was quiet for a while.

"Want to hear the truth or the lie?"

Magistrate Ouyang Rong turned his head and asked with a smile.

The two women were stunned.

"The lie." Chenjun Xie Chenjun Xie Lingjiang tilted her head slightly and said first.

"The lie is that I am a Metropolitan Graduate of the Great Zhou, having long bathed in imperial favor. I am at odds with rebels like Li Li Zhengyan. How can I talk about defecting? It's simply insulting to the scholars."

The corners of the two women's mouths twitched.

Chenjun Xie Chenjun Xie Lingjiang glared at him: "Then speak human language, the truth."

Magistrate Ouyang Rong smiled, his expression gradually becoming serious:

"The truth is...

"Li Li Zhengyan's request, I am actually very tempted, even eager to try.

"Thinking that if I went over, I could do many free and bold things, compared to being tied up now, it would be much more refreshing, simply vast and open... I am a little longing."

The two women were stunned, their faces complex, neither of them expected that under his calm surface of the past few days, there would be such thoughts.

Couldn't help but pursue: "Then why did you repeatedly persuade us to hold back..."

Magistrate Ouyang Rong answered softly:

"Because this is just for me, it is a good choice.

"But as the Little Princess said, for Uncle Li, for Su Dalang, and even for the thousands of people in the Jianghuai region behind us, this is probably not the best choice."

He looked at the two women and recited softly:

"The book says, one general's success is built on ten thousand bones.

"It's not just me, but also Li Li Zhengyan, Wei Wei Shaoqi, Du Du Shuqing, Wang Wang Junzhi, and even that young Prince Teng who defected.

"I often think, how many 'ten thousand bones' are needed to achieve these 'one general'?

"Is it really necessary to be like this now..."

Magistrate Ouyang Rong seemed to be talking to himself, or asking the two women.

"Hmm, let's be rebellious. Take this matter of restoring Great Gan, for example.

"If we take Li Li Zhengyan's path of military mutiny and northern expedition, and take Uncle Li's path of forbearance and seizing the throne, both can be achieved in the end, why increase the loss in vain...

"But to be honest, just from my personal perspective, am I tempted?

"I am definitely tempted."

The atmosphere between the three was silent.

Magistrate Ouyang Rong suddenly reached out, pinched a piece of pastry from Chenjun Xie Chenjun Xie Lingjiang's hand, and took a hard bite.

Looking at the two beauties who were stunned beside him, he shrugged:

"Did you not expect that I also have times of greed and selfishness, just that I pretend well. Hmm, laugh if you want, it's better than mythologizing me too much, as if I'm omnipotent."

Magistrate Ouyang Rong smiled self-deprecatingly.

Chenjun Xie Chenjun Xie Lingjiang shook her head immediately.

Li Su Guoer stared at him for a while and said word by word:

"Magistrate Ouyang Magistrate Ouyang Lianghan, greed and selfishness have never been a flood or a beast.

"You are greedy and selfish, longing for the career of one general's success built on ten thousand bones, yet you remain unmoved.

"So you are wrong, do you know?

"It is precisely because you are so greedy in your heart that your restraint is moving."

Chenjun Xie Chenjun Xie Lingjiang tilted her head and thought for a while, her pretty face serious:

"A true strong person is willing to take the weak as their boundary."

Magistrate Ouyang Rong's hand pinching the pastry paused by his mouth, his old face flushed, feeling a little embarrassed.

Just then, the voice of Princess Wei Mei suddenly appeared below, and she came in a hurry:

"It's bad, Tanlang, Guo'er, Chenjun Xie niece, from Shenjing Luoyang, the informant from the Xiang Prince's Mansion brought news and rushed here overnight. The Prince and Su Dalang are receiving them, and they are all anxious to death. They are calling you to go over quickly..."

"What news?"

The three stood up in an instant, jumped off the roof, and followed quickly.