Chapter 174: Murong Fu, Who Is a Talent

In a lush grass bush a few dozen meters upwind in the Apricot Forest,

a man dressed in light armor, disguised as a military scout, saw the last person of the Beggar Sect fall,

and a smile couldn't help but appear on his face.

He carefully covered the lid of the small porcelain bottle he held in his hand.

The contents of this small porcelain bottle were naturally the signature poison of their Hall of One-Class—"Sorrowful Breeze."

But even so, "Sorrowful Breeze" was very precious to them and must not be wasted.

He put away the porcelain bottle, then took a signal firework from his waist and pulled the signal line toward the sky.

Chirp~

Boom!

A gorgeous and colorful firework bloomed in the sky.

"The time has come, let's go!"

Deep in the Apricot Forest, in a hidden, rarely visited, and desolate small mountain hollow,

a man of thirty-four or thirty-five years old, with a hooked nose and a handlebar mustache,

wearing a steel helmet, with two braids hanging down, clad in armor, with a burly figure,

a majestic man in full armor looked at the firework bursting in the sky and shouted,

whipped his horse, and galloped toward the place where the Beggar Sect members were.

"Giddyup! Giddyup!"

The dozens of fully armed cavalrymen behind him poured out like a flood.

In less than a moment, these fully armed warriors, with small braids tied,

and obvious foreign characteristics, surrounded the Beggar Sect members tightly.

And the Beggar Sect disciples, poisoned and unable to resist, could only watch helplessly as these warriors surrounded them.

However, they were not afraid in their hearts, because their new Sect Leader was quietly watching them from the chair above.

They firmly believed that Zhang Jie, this new Sect Leader who had shattered the conspiracies of Kang Min,

Quan Guanqing, and others, would definitely be able to break the conspiracies of these foreigners again.

"Hahaha!"

"These Central Plains martial artists are just as vulnerable as their imperial court!"

The foreign warriors let out roars of satisfaction.

'This Great Song is simply finished!'

Zhang Jie, who was feigning sleep, looked at these warriors showing off their power and muttered to himself.

Although he had memories of his past life, and he, the Water Margin Zhang Jie, had personally gone to Bianliang to see what the face of the Great Song Emperor was like,

he had long known that the Great Song was good at civil war but bad at foreign war, and that most Great Song officials were just occupying positions without doing their jobs,

but it was outrageous that they could allow these fully armed Xixia warriors to run rampant within their borders.

Did they not fear that these warriors would assassinate important figures or raid important institutions,

such as assassinating the various Privy Councilors, or even raiding the Privy Council?

Or was it that they had complete confidence in suppressing these Xixia warriors, who looked unruly at first glance?

But looking at the appearance of these Xixia warriors, Zhang Jie roughly guessed how they got in:

It was nothing more than a diplomatic mission coming to discuss matters between the two countries; after all, no matter how incompetent the Great Song was,

it couldn't possibly allow so many fully armed warriors to appear in the hinterland of the Great Song's Jiangnan without a sound.

"It's you, the current commander of the Xixia Hall of One-Class, Helian Tieshu!"

Elder Chen Guyan, who had fought against the Xixia people for many years, recognized the leader of these warriors at a glance.

"This General, the Great Xia Kingdom's General Conquering the East!"

Helian Tieshu, riding on a tall horse, corrected Chen Guyan's mistake in address coldly.

"Xixia" and the like were completely derogatory terms used by dynasties like Song and Liao for their Great Xia.

One day, their Great Xia would destroy these cowardly and incompetent Song people and establish their Great Xia Dynasty!

"Men..."

Helian Tieshu was about to order a massacre, slaughtering these beggars clean.

Don't look at these beggars as unkempt and sloppy;

they were the vanguard of the Song Dynasty's Wu Lin in dealing with their Great Xia,

causing their Great Xia no end of trouble over the years,

and many experts under his Hall of One-Class had died at the hands of these beggars.

Today, he was going to slaughter these annoying guys,

destroy the Beggar Sect in one fell swoop, and create conditions for their Great Xia army to drive straight in.

Creak!

Swish!

Receiving the order, the Xixia warriors either drew their bows or unsheathed their swords,

waiting only for their leader Helian Tieshu to give the order to start a massacre.

"General, please listen to your subordinate's words."

Just at this moment, a young warrior dressed in military uniform, with sword-like eyebrows and star-like eyes,

and a long sword hanging at his waist, spoke up to stop Helian Tieshu.

"Yanzong, what do you have to say?"

Looking at this young warrior, Helian Tieshu's cold, iron-like expression couldn't help but soften a bit.

If any other subordinate dared to interrupt his order,

he would definitely let that person know what the commander of the Hall of One-Class meant,

but he was willing to listen to the opinion of this young warrior.

This young warrior's surname was Li, his given name was Yanzong, and his martial arts were so high

that he could be considered an outstanding talent even in the Hall of One-Class, which was full of experts under his command.

More importantly, Li Yan Zong was an up-and-coming star of their Dangxiang tribe,

and he was Helian Tieshu's confidant, his right-hand man in controlling the Hall of One-Class.

"General, although these beggars are vulnerable in the face of our Hall of One-Class's 'Sorrowful Breeze,'

their martial arts are still quite worth taking.

In your subordinate's humble opinion, why not capture them back to our Hall of One-Class and interrogate them for their secret manuals!

After they have no more value, whether to kill or skin them is just a word from you, General?"

Li Yan Zong came to Helian Tieshu's side and suggested in a low voice.

"This..."

Helian Tieshu stretched out his rough, huge, iron-gray right hand,

which clearly belonged to someone with martial arts, and rubbed his stubbly chin.

Also, in Xixia, which worships the strong, how could Helian Tieshu, who controlled the Hall of One-Class, a secret agency directly under the imperial family,

be a weakling without the strength to truss a chicken?

Helian Tieshu admitted that he was a little tempted.

Although these Southern people were soft and incompetent in their bones, they were very accomplished in martial arts.

Not to mention anything else, many experts in their Hall of One-Class were evil experts recruited in the Song Dynasty, such as the Four Great Evils.

And since this Beggar Sect could rank alongside major Wu Lin factions like Shaolin in reputation, they must have many martial arts manuals;

if he could obtain these, the strength of his Hall of One-Class would inevitably rise to a higher level.

"General, ever since Duan Yanqing, Ye Erniang, and Yun Zhonghe left without saying goodbye

and disappeared inexplicably, our Hall of One-Class has been extremely empty;

in your subordinate's view, it's not impossible to recruit these beggars to replenish our strength."

Seeing that Helian Tieshu was already tempted, Li Yan Zong struck while the iron was hot and continued to persuade.

"Hmm..."

"Do as you say."

Helian Tieshu thought for a moment and finally agreed to Li Yan Zong's proposal.

The Hall of One-Class was a force under his command; the more experts the Hall of One-Class had and the stronger its strength,

the higher Helian Tieshu's status in Great Xia would be, and the greater his power would be!

Although he besieged and slaughtered these beggars for the Great Plan of Great Xia, it didn't mean Helian Tieshu had no selfish motives.

And recruiting these beggars could not only weaken the Central Plains Wu Lin but also strengthen his Hall of One-Class,

and in the future, these beggars could completely do things like reconnaissance, preserving the strength of their Great Xia.

One thing, after Li Yan Zong's suggestion, the Central Plains Wu Lin loses once,

the Hall of One-Class under his command wins once, and their Great Xia wins once;

it was equivalent to him, Helian Tieshu, winning three times; he was simply winning until he was numb!

Thinking of this, Helian Tieshu admired Li Yan Zong even more in his heart,

looked at him with increasingly gentle eyes, and decided to give him more responsibilities.

"Your subordinate obeys!"

Li Yan Zong, who didn't know what Helian Tieshu was thinking, had an expression of being official,

loyal to Great Xia, loyal to the Hall of One-Class, and loyal to Helian Tieshu for the rest of his life,

but the trace of joy that flashed in his eyes exposed that he wasn't as loyal as he appeared on the surface.

'This Murong Fu can be considered flexible for the sake of restoring his Murong family's great cause.'

Slumped in the chair, Zhang Jie, who was watching the play out of boredom, sighed.

Yes, this Li Yan Zong was actually disguised by Murong Fu.

This Southern Murong didn't hesitate to hide his name and join the Hall of One-Class,

just hoping that one day he could use the power of Xixia to restore his Murong family's Yan Kingdom.

Li Yan Zong, Li Yan Zong; Li is the imperial surname of Xixia, and the founding emperor of Xixia was named Li Yuanhao,

and "Yanzong" was even simpler and clearer: to continue the clan and the ancestral temple.

The name Murong Fu gave this fake identity,

had the same effect as the name his father Murong Bo gave him, "Mu Fu" (to restore).

And Murong Fu persuading Helian Tieshu not to kill the Beggar Sect members at this time,

and bringing up reasons like martial arts manuals and recruiting people to fill the strength of the Hall of One-Class, wasn't really for the good of Xixia,

but was preparing to use his identity as Murong Fu later to "rescue" the Beggar Sect members,

making this number one sect in the world grateful to him and used by him.

And in the original development, it was because of Wang Yuyan, a living secret manual who had read all the martial arts in the world,

that the Xixia people gave up the idea of slaughtering the Beggar Sect disciples,

and prepared to capture Wang Yuyan, the living secret manual, back to Xixia to strengthen their Xixia's strength.

But this time, under Zhang Jie's influence, Wang Yuyan was still at Mantuo Villa enjoying the camellias,

and didn't come to participate in this Apricot Forest Assembly;

he didn't choose to take the initiative, just wanting to see how Murong Fu would round out his story.

He didn't expect Murong Fu to be able to use reasons like the decline in the strength of the Hall of One-Class after the disappearance of Duan Yanqing and the others,

and the urgent need to replenish experts, to dispel Helian Tieshu's idea of slaughtering the Beggar Sect disciples.

This Murong Fu is really a talent!

Hmm, except for being a bit silly in the direction of restoration~

It could also be that this branch of the Gusu Murong family had been crawling in the Wu Lin for too many years,

and had been completely assimilated by the thinking of Wu Lin martial artists, losing their overall strategic thinking.

From Murong Bo triggering the bloody battle outside Yanmen Pass, to Murong Fu going undercover in the Xixia Hall of One-Class,

they were all just spinning around in the Wu Lin, neither taking the imperial examination to become officials to grasp power,

nor joining the army to become generals to grasp military strength.

This fool Murong Fu once gave a corrupt official of the Great Song 500,000 taels of silver to buy military equipment.

He didn't think about what a corrupt official was; his 500,000 taels of silver were naturally embezzled by the corrupt official,

or rather, swindled, and even if he killed the corrupt official later, the silver couldn't be taken back,

which made the already struggling restoration plan of the Murong family even worse.

However, thinking from another perspective,

this corrupt official maintained the stability of the Great Song with his own life; he has virtue, he has virtue!

If it weren't for the book not detailing it, Zhang Jie would almost suspect that this corrupt official was a person from a special agency of the Great Song,

specifically designed to pit people like Murong Fu. ===== CHAPTER 175 =====