A knife in love

Chapter 879

When Li Qiufeng said this, his tone was eerie.But the farmer didn't panic, and said: "Your Excellency, there is a village within a village, which is extremely strange. Wherever Wan Congyun went, it was a fake village deliberately set up by Fengmen Village. The real village he Never been there at all.”

Li Qiufeng's heart shuddered, seeing that the farmer didn't look panicked, he didn't seem to be faking it.He added a few more branches to the fire, and then said in a deep voice, "There is a village within a village, what does that mean?"

The farmer said: "After the five families of Nie, Lu, Zhao, Du, and Hua fled into this mountain, they feared that the enemy would hunt them down here, so when they built the village, they built two villages, one real and one fake. Fake villages It is located in a valley, and there is only one entrance on the west side. From the perspective of the terrain, it can be said that one man guards the gate, and ten thousand men cannot open it. If the enemy invades the valley, seeing this situation, they must think that there is Fengmen Village, absolutely not There is no doubt at all. But they don't know that the real Fengmen Village is more dangerous, and it is more difficult for outsiders to enter than climbing to the sky. The five ancestors of Nie, Lu, Zhao, Du, and Hua have spent so much effort, it is a deal If the enemy is powerful, after attacking the fake Fengmen Village, they must think that they have accomplished everything and are defenseless. At that time, the five masters who have retreated into the real Fengmen Village will suddenly come out, and they will surely kill the enemy to pieces. Keep……"

Without waiting for him to finish speaking, Li Qiufeng asked in a deep voice, "Where is the real Fengmen Village?"

The farmer smiled wryly, and said in his mouth: "When the five families of Nie, Lu, Zhao, Du, and Hua built Fengmen Village, all the disciples of the tribe knew where the real Fengmen Village was. Both sent dead soldiers to infiltrate the other family. For hundreds of years, they fought endlessly, and both sides suffered heavy casualties. Later, the Nie family stood out from the five families and became the leader of the five families. Village, the head of the Nie family stipulated that except for the heads of the five families, no one else is allowed to know where the real Fengmen village is. Unless the enemy breaks through the fake Fengmen village, the patriarchs of each family will lead the clan to retreat into the real Fengmen village. Waiting for an opportunity to counterattack. It’s just that for hundreds of years, the enemy has been unable to attack the fake Fengmen Village, let alone get a glimpse of the real Fengmen Village. Your Excellency wants to force me to tell the location of the real Fengmen Village, but even if you burn it alive If I die, I can't tell where it is."

Li Qiufeng sneered, and said in his mouth: "The words you said are too mysterious. In broad daylight, the world is bright and clear. Even if Nie, Lu, Zhao, Du, Hua and Xu's family have blood feuds, hundreds of years have passed, and the hatred has long since faded away." What's more. Although the world was in chaos at the end of the Tang Dynasty, and the five dynasties changed, Fengmen Village was hidden in this mountain. It was inaccessible, and perhaps no one knew about it. But after the founding of the Song Dynasty, the Central Plains were unified. Although the Song Dynasty was weak, it was successively conquered by Khitan, Xixia, Jurchen, and Meng Yuan were deceived. However, the Song Dynasty’s official administration was quite clear, and local officials managed the territory very tightly. This place is not far from Luoyang. Whether it was under the jurisdiction of the Song Dynasty and Khitan, or later, the Meng Yuan hid in the Central Plains, think about it. The local officials will not be unaware that there is a village here. After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, officials were set up to govern from the center of the court to even the border town. If Fengmen Village is so mysterious, how can the local officials not know?"

The more Li Qiufeng spoke, the more severe his tone became. Finally, he stared at the farmer with a cruel and terrifying expression on his face.Although the farmer was a little scared, he was not panicked.He said to Li Qiufeng: "Your Excellency only knows one thing, but not the other. I just heard Your Excellency speak, and I seem to be quite familiar with the government. Do you know how many years a magistrate is supposed to serve?"

Li Qiufeng was taken aback, wondering why the farmer would ask such a question.He thought for a moment, and then said: "I don't know the situation in the Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasties, but in the case of the Ming Dynasty, at the beginning of the founding of the country, all industries were waiting to be flourished, and the number of officials was insufficient, so the term of office of the county magistrate was longer. I once heard people say that when Emperor Taizu was in power, he imposed severe punishments and laws. From the big officials of the court to the magistrates and small officials, they killed a lot of people, which caused a serious shortage of prefectural and county officials. Therefore, some magistrates even did it in one place. 15 years as the magistrate of the county. However, after Emperor Yongle, there were no major cases as frequent as at the beginning of the founding of the country. The imperial court established the Beijing inspection system to evaluate the officials of the prefecture and county. Generally speaking, the term of office of the county magistrate is three years. If the evaluation is outstanding , they will be promoted to government, prefecture, provincial or even capital officials. If the evaluation is too bad, they will be dismissed from office and become common people."

The farmer didn't expect Li Qiufeng to be so familiar with the government's situation, and a surprised expression appeared on his face.But the surprise was fleeting.I only heard him continue to say: "Your Excellency thinks that it is an outrageous thing to be a county magistrate for 15 years in one place. But I don't know that in Xiuwu County where Fengmen Village is located, some magistrates have been magistrates for 25 years, but there is no promotion……"

Hearing what he said, Li Qiufeng's heart trembled, thinking of Huang Chong's matter.With Huang Chong's qualifications and talent, as well as his performance in governing Xiuwu County, it is not impossible to be promoted to a state official, or even a governor of a province.But for more than ten years, Huang Chong has been condescending to Xiuwu County to be a small county magistrate, which is quite strange.Although he heard Yin Butou and others talk about this matter, they said that whenever the imperial court intends to promote Huang Chong, the people of Xiuwu County will nominate the elders to the provincial capital to petition, and want to keep Huang Chong in Xiuwu County.However, the promotion of imperial officials has its own rules, and the regulations will never be changed just because of people's petitions.Huang Chong has been staying in Xiuwu County as the county magistrate, and someone must have done something behind it.

But I heard the farmer say: "This idea was born by the Nie family. The five families spent a lot of money to open up the upper and lower joints of the government. The children of the five families will be the magistrates of Xiuwu County, and sometimes even Luoyang magistrate's yamen and Henan governor's yamen." There are also children from the five families who are sent to be officials in it. These people use the power of the government to protect Fengmen Village from the harassment of black and white. Hundreds of years have passed since the Nie family made this big plan. In the past few hundred years, there may have been seventy or eighty magistrates in other places, but counting, the total number of magistrates in Xiuwu County is definitely no more than fifteen."

When Li Qiufeng heard this, his heart was clear.Nie, Lu, Zhao, Du, and Hua's family fled to this mountain in order to avoid being chased by their enemies. They chose a dangerous place and built Fengmen Village.In order to ensure nothing goes wrong, the five families not only spent countless efforts, but also built two villages, one real and one fake, to confuse the enemy.Moreover, they spent a huge amount of money to bribe the government, and the children sent by the five families were appointed as the county magistrates of Xiuwu County, in order to use the power of the government to protect Fengmen Village.As the saying goes, the county magistrate is not as good as the current one. In order to be safe, the five families tried their best to make the children of the five families who served as the county magistrate of Xiuwu County able to serve for a long time.In this way, regardless of whether it is black or white, Fengmen Village has already deployed a good number of people, so it can be said that it is invincible.It's just that what are these five families afraid of, and why after hundreds of years, they still spare no effort and spend so much money to find a perfect plan?And what is the origin of the Xu family that makes the five families of Nie, Lu, Zhao, Du, and Hua so afraid?

While Li Qiufeng was thinking about it, he heard the farmer continue to say: "Although your Excellency captured me and forced me to ask about various things in Fengmen Village. But because of this, I guess that your Excellency is not the remnant of the Xu family, nor the five of us. Otherwise, if you wanted to deal with our five families, how could you know nothing about the situation in Fengmen Village and the origins of the Nie, Lu, Zhao, Du, and Hua families?"

Li Qiufeng chuckled, and said, "You're really smart. It's really a shame that the Nie family asked you to only patrol the mountain and monitor suspicious people."

The farmer heaved a sigh of relief when he heard that Li Qiufeng had confessed.He thought to himself that as long as this person is not a child of the Xu family who escaped, he would have the hope of surviving.He pondered for a while, and then said: "If my guess is correct, nine out of ten you are a martial arts master in the Jianghu. I don't know where I heard some legends about Fengmen Village, so I found it here and wanted to find out. Let me advise your Excellency that Fengmen Village has experienced hundreds of years of turmoil since its establishment, and has placed many eyeliners in the rivers and lakes and the government. The power is huge beyond your imagination. A few months ago, after several years of planning, we Finally, it was launched simultaneously in Shandong, Jiangsu, and Fujian, and the Xu family was wiped out. From then on, Fengmen Village will be even more terrifying. If you stop now and go away, I will just pretend that this thing didn't happen, and you can save it. May your life be safe."

(End of this chapter)