A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 43 Long Street Assassination
rainstorm,

The rain flooded the streets.

The sky is dark, like night.

The rain in summer is like this. The sun was shining brightly one moment ago, and suddenly there are dark clouds, thunder, lightning and strong winds, and then heavy rain pours down.

In the southeast corner of Guangde Square, in the small courtyard newly given by Huaiyi, Huaiyu was taking Runniang, Wu Junya, Chen Xing, and Uncle Qian to help Huaiyi tidy up the courtyard and give him a gift. Bring some new pots and pans, etc. as a gift for the new house.

The sudden heavy rain made everyone quickly close the doors and windows.

Run Niang lit candles in the hall and made tea for everyone.

Although Huaiyi's courtyard is only four acres, one acre smaller than Huaiyu's, it has two front and rear courtyards. There is no middle courtyard. There is even a small pond with gazebo.

Fatty Wu is very envious of Huaiyi. He has been an official for ten years, and he is still only the right guard of the eighth rank. , and has been promoted from the Sanjie under the eighth rank.

Working for ten years is nothing compared to two months.

"Have you heard that His Royal Highness gave Xue Wanche a mansion, which is also in this Guangde Square?" Fatty Wu said.

Huaiyi became angry when he heard the fame, "Brother, are you serious?"

"I joined the army as an armored cao in the right guard, and Xue Wanche's elder brother Wan Shugang was transferred from Zuo Wei Lang to our right guard as a general."

Xue Wanche actually had seven brothers, among whom five sons were born. Wan Shu was the eldest son of a commoner. General Changshi, then moved to General Zuoweilang, and now he is awarded the title of General Youweilang, with the title of County Duke.

"This Xue family is really amazing. Now Xue Wanshu and Xue Wanche are both county dukes, and Wanshu and Wanjun are all county dukes. They have a family of four lords, and their families are all halberds. Now Chang'an says their family is called Siji Xue. Home!"

There are quite a few in Chang'an with two lords and three lords. For example, An Xinggui's brothers are all named state lords, and the three Wu family brothers are also one state lord and two county lords.

But for example, the seven brothers of the Xue family have four conferred dukes, and they are indeed the only ones in the scorpion shit. You must know that the eldest Xue Wanshu is only 40 years old, and Xue Wanche is only in his 20s. Young, and now he is already working as a bodyguard in Sanwei.

Fatty also knew about the feud between Huaiyi and Xue Wanche.

"Xue Wanshu transferred you to the right guard, and even had a meeting with me. He said that Wanche and you were each masters at the time, not a personal enmity, and now they are loyal to the new prince. He also said that he would send someone to the door to give gifts to accompany the crime."

"Hmph!" Huaiyi was so angry that if he really wanted to apologize, he would come to the door himself, and it would be nothing to send someone.

"I didn't expect Xue Wanche to live here in Guangde Square, bad luck."

"The Xue brothers all have mansions in Chang'an, so Xue Wanche may not come to live in the mansion in Guangdefang."

Huaiyu persuaded Huaiyi: "It's a good day today, don't mention that unlucky person, so what about Xue's brothers with four halberds? Our Wu family is also a Wu family with three halberds, let alone our family has a duke. It’s just two counties and two counties. Besides, when the Xue family brothers fought Dou Jiande with their father, they led an army of tens of thousands, but Dou Jiande led hundreds of dead soldiers to attack and kill the whole army. Xue Shixiong was killed The Xue family brothers ran away without even protecting their own father."

"Later they voted for Luo Yi to return to the Tang Dynasty. During the Battle of Hebei, the brothers of the Xue family claimed to be brave, but they were captured by the Hebei army, and their hair was shaved. What is there to be proud of?"

The four brothers of the Xue family are very difficult to fight. No matter what the reason is, the new crown prince is trying to win over the four brothers.

The rain comes when it comes.

But also stop and stop.

The clouds collect and the rain rests, and the light is released again.

After the rain, the air was fresh and cool. Everyone turned off the lamps and went to the porch to enjoy the air again.

"Where is Xue Wanche's house in the square?"

"North of the West Gate."

There is a cross street in Guangde square leading to the four square gates, which divides the square into four blocks, and each block is divided into four blocks by a small cross street. The whole square is actually planned into sixteen districts.

Huaiyi's courtyard is in the southwest corner of Guangdefang, that is, the piece in the lower left corner, and the north of the west gate is the second piece of the north of the four pieces near the west wall of the square, and there is a west gate away from Huaiyi. South.

The difference is not too far, especially in the workshop there is Yong'an Canal flowing from the west south to the north. The former owner of Huaiyi's house once led the canal water through the courtyard wall into the house, poured it into the small lotus pond, and then Through the wall and out of the house, it flows into the canal, and the canal water passes behind Xue Wanche's house.

The entire Guangdefang covers an area of ​​[-] mu, with [-] districts, each of which is about [-] mu.The north and south of the square are only more than one mile long. From Huaiyi's house to Xue Wanche's gift, it is less than a hundred feet away. It can be reached by crossing two side streets, or it can be reached along the canal.

Although it is quite close, the buildings in Chang'an have strict restrictions on the construction of houses, and they are not allowed to be built very high, so Xue's house cannot be seen in the courtyard.

"The next door to you is Shengguang Temple?"

"I heard it is. I haven't been there. How about going to see it later and offering incense to the Bodhisattva. After all, we will be neighbors in the future." Huai Yi said.

There are many Buddhist and Taoist temples in the city of Chang’an. It is said that there are hundreds of them, the big ones occupy an area, and the small ones are everywhere. Basically, there are temples in every square.

For example, in Guangdefang, the southeast corner is the Yongzhou Yamen, the southwest corner is the Shengguang Temple, and the north of the east of Shizijie is the Mercy Temple.This year, although Taishi ordered Fu Yi to write a letter criticizing Buddhism and Taoism, Li Yuan was also dissatisfied with Buddhism and Taoism evading taxation and labor, and issued an order to eliminate monks and Taoists.

However, before it was implemented, the Xuanwumen Incident occurred, and this matter was suspended.

Shengguang Temple in Guangdefang is still very popular.

Fatty Wu is familiar with Chang'an. He said that this Shengguang Temple was originally the residence of Yan Rong, the governor of Youzhou in the Sui Dynasty. Yan Rong was a cruel official. In office, he was good at managing with severe torture and cruel laws, and even the officials under his opponents were flogged and beaten. In the end, he himself was arrested and returned to Chang'an by Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty to die.

His house was built as Shengguang Temple by Yang Jian to Shu King Yang Xiuchi, and more than [-] monks moved to live in the temple, where Moyu Guanyin was enshrined.

The fat man was talking about the Avalokitesvara in Shengguang Temple, and suddenly Huaiyi pointed to the north and said, "Look, fireworks."

In the direction of Xue Wanche's gift they just mentioned, a large puff of smoke rose, and the flames shot into the sky.

"The heavy rain has just stopped, how can there be a fire?"

Everyone thought it was strange, it would be normal if the sky was dry and the things were dry and accidentally caught fire, but it was raining so heavily just now, how could there be a fire, and it was so big because of the fireworks?

There was a sound of gongs and drums. It was Fang Ding who found the fire and beat the gongs to call for people to put out the fire.

"Go put out the fire!" Huai Yi stood up.

"Maybe Xue Gou's house is on fire, let's take a look."

Huaiyu asked Runniang and Aunt Qian to stay at home, and he went there with Huaiyi and Fatty Wu, and specially asked Chen Xing to stay at home to take care of them.Although there are at least two side streets away, water and fire are merciless, and there is no reason to refuse to save them.

"It's far away from us, so don't worry too much about the fire coming here, it's just that the fire started a bit strangely. Brother, if you say that we are passing by now, will people suspect that we set the fire? After all, what if It was Xue Wanche's house that was on fire, and we have a feud with him, so it is easy to be considered suspicious, let's go slowly, so as not to be confused when the time comes." Huaiyu reminded.

"It may not be the Xue family." Huai Yi didn't think too much, "Let's put out the fire first."

It was astonishing to see the fire soaring into the sky from a distance, Huaiyu didn't think it was an accidental fire, otherwise it wouldn't have spread so quickly and so fiercely.

When they arrived at Dongxi Avenue, there were already many people who came to help, and the fire was extremely intense.

"Where is the fire?"

"On the north side of the street, it was burned first, the Xue's house in the neighborhood."

"The crown prince just gave this house to Xue Wanche, Duke of Wu'an County, and it caught fire today. It started so suddenly that it spread all at once."

Everyone is trying their best to fetch water to put out the fire, and many housekeepers have already started to pull down the houses next to them to prevent the fire from spreading and implicating more houses.

From a distance, Huaiyi saw Xue Wanche, he was a bit ashamed, his face was ashen, he was drinking and letting his servants wait to put out the fire, the newly given house was just here for the first time today, but it caught fire.

Not only did he feel unlucky, but he also faintly felt that this incident was not an accident.

Seeing that the newly given mansion had been burnt down, and listening to the pointing of people around, Xue Wanche snorted and turned his head and left. Moqu brought the horse, and Xue Wanche got on the horse and left with some servants.

Huaiyi stared at Xue Wanche with bad eyes.

Huaiyu stretched out his hand to hold down his elder brother's extension who wanted to touch the knife, but he couldn't be impulsive.

"Forget it, let's go back, the fire has been brought under control, and it won't spread any further." Thanks to the efforts of the neighbors, the fire has been controlled and no longer spread, but Xue Wanche's house, which covers an area of ​​tens of acres, probably won't What's left.

It was at this moment that an accident occurred.

When Xue Wanche was riding a horse to pass the corner of the street and headed for the west gate, he suddenly shot several sharp arrows from behind the wall of the square. Xue Wanche was riding the horse absent-mindedly. Responding in a timely manner, he quickly crouched down and dodged a few arrows behind him.

At this time, a series of arrows shot over again, and several of Xue's entourage were shot down.

Immediately afterwards, a group of people jumped down from the wall of that square. They were all covered in black and covered their faces. The leader of them was holding a sword.

The sword has a long handle and long blade, which can be more than five feet long, and it can reach chin height when leaning on the ground.

The masked man rushed forward to stop Xue Wanche with a knife in both hands, and directly slashed a thousand jun with his knife. Xue Wanche was still dodging arrows after being injured by the surprise attack, and the big knife came close.

Cold light flashed.

The head of Xue Wanjun's Kangju Dawan horse, which was worth a hundred guan, fell directly to the ground, and blood spattered.

"Bold!"

Xue Wanche quickly picked off the stirrup and jumped off the horse.

Because the house was on fire and left in a hurry, he didn't even have a horizontal knife by his side. Standing there with blood still dripping from his arm, Xue Wanche roared like an enraged lion.

But the masked man had already slashed over like a violent storm with a big sword.

Behind him, a group of subordinates shot down several of Xue Wanche's subordinates with arrows, and then rushed up with their knives in their hands. For a moment, the square was blazing with flames, and the street was full of swords and swords.

(End of this chapter)