The road to Jianghu started from the martial arts hall

Chapter 185: Fighting against the Heavens
"Yes, it is to settle the accounts. Commander, don't forget that it is September now, and it will be November in two months. At the end of June and November every year, each prefecture must send the collected taxes to Jinling.

In November, Chunyang Prefecture will pay taxes and grain, and will also hand over most of the pig iron stored in the government-run iron mines to Jinling Prefecture!"

Yu Jiaolong immediately realized what Fang Xun was referring to.

"You mean, a large number of people in Chunyang Prefecture disappeared, and the mines and farmlands were abandoned, so they couldn't collect the required amount of taxes to be paid, so members of other prefectures secretly supported them to make up for the shortfall in taxes?"

In an instant, Jade Dragon understood everything.

Daxuan implemented a two-tax system a year, levying taxes once in June and once in November.

The time to pay taxes in November this year is also the time when Chunyang Prefecture is most likely to be exposed.

This is a prefecture with a population of tens of millions, and the taxes and grain collected are astronomical figures.

There is also the iron mine in Chunyang Prefecture, which also has to hand over a large amount of pig iron to Jinling Prefecture.

But now there are no laborers to work, no one is farming and no one is mining. Liu Yuanxin used to be the prefect, and he could help cover up other things well.

But the only things that could not be concealed were pig iron and taxes. Taxes could be paid in the form of grain instead of silver, but pig iron was very troublesome. Once the tax could not be paid, everyone would know that there was a problem in Chunyang Prefecture.

Fang Xun frowned and said, "But the disappearance of a large number of people in Chunyang Prefecture is something that Black Water Abyss can only conceal for a while, but not forever, no matter how perfect it is."

The abduction of thousands of people in a prefecture is no small matter.

Anyone who enters the territory of Chunyang Prefecture will sense that something is wrong. No matter how secretive Heishuiyuan is, he won't be able to hide it for long.

unless
"Unless they don't plan to keep it secret for too long, a few months will be enough!"

Jade Dragon immediately understood what he meant and said with a look of surprise.

Fang Xun added solemnly: "Yes, in the next few months, Black Water Abyss will definitely make big moves, and now that we have already found out about the Black Wind Village, there is no guarantee that they will not be alerted and take action in advance!"

"Time is urgent. This is beyond the ability of Jiangzhou alone to handle. I will report your discovery immediately and send a letter home for help!"

The Jade Dragon stopped immediately and paced back and forth.

Fang Xun also clasped his fists and said, "That's right. Speed ​​is of the essence in war. Commander, I will go to Qingyang Prefecture in person and try to find out more."

"Okay, then you just have to work harder. I will remember all your contributions!"

Fang Xun did not stay in the Six Gates for long. After talking with Yu Jiaolong, he immediately returned to the mansion to prepare.

About an hour later, he left Jinling City. However, after leaving the city, Fang Xun did not set off immediately. Instead, he first went to Ying Town, ten miles away.

Jinling also has a market town where villagers from all the villages in the prefecture usually do not go to the prefectural city, but go to these towns to buy daily necessities.

Among them, Yingzhen, just by listening to its name, indicates that it is another film city residence.

The town is not big, with only two streets. Ordinary people will not come here. Only people from the underworld gather here to trade.

When Fang Xun arrived at Ying Town, he felt that it was much more lively than Jinling City.

Although the buildings are very monotonous, either inns or warehouses, the streets are full of stalls selling goods.

As Fang Xun walked along, he attracted many eyes, and people talked in low voices and exclaimed from time to time.

After Liu Xinyuan's death, his name became known to people around him.

Although there are people who say Fang Xun is taking advantage of the situation, such remarks are mostly ridiculed by others.

Even if it was a bargain, it was still a victory over a Grandmaster, and such a bargain is not so easy to come by.

Fang Xun didn't pay much attention to other people's gazes and walked straight into an inn.

The inn looks small, but it is a different world. The route inside is very complicated. Fang Xun turned left and right all the way and walked for a long time before he arrived at a dark room.

This place was decorated exactly like the Huahong darkroom in Guangling Prefecture's Film Market, with red wooden boards hanging in the air from the ceiling.

Various red list mission commissions were marked on it, and dozens of warriors who were either in disguise or had their faces covered were checking the red lists.

Deep inside, behind a desk, Fang Xun saw a familiar scene.

Old man Mo was lying in a rocking chair, rocking leisurely.

After seeing this, he couldn't help but say, "Old man, with your wealth, why don't you go to the city to enjoy yourself? Why do you stay in this shady place every day?"

In an instant, everyone in the room was startled, and Old Man Mo suddenly opened his eyes and glanced at Fang Xun.

"You have been promoted to deputy commander, so why do you still have the time to come to me, an old man who is about to be buried? Do you have a big business deal?"

Soon, everyone else hurriedly left the Huahong dark room, not daring to listen in on the conversation between the two.

Fang Xun found a chair and sat down in a familiar manner. Old Man Mo looked at him for a few times and found that he was carrying a bag and looked like he was going on a long journey.

"Why, did you make Yu girl angry and she wants to banish you to another place?"

Fang Xun waved his hand and replied, "Go away, what are you thinking about? I just made a great contribution, and my boss is very happy."

Old Man Mo suddenly became confused: "Then you came to me because there was a problem with Tianshi Tanxiang's business?"

Fang Xun shook his head: "Not really, Tianshi Tanxiang's business is very good, I don't need to worry too much, I came to you this time to borrow your bird."

"My bird?"

Old Man Mo was stunned for a moment, then he immediately realized: "Are you talking about the eagle?"

"That's right," Fang Xun's face became serious when he said this. "I'm going to Qingyang Mansion in the near future. Old man, you should have heard about what happened in Chunyang Mansion, right?"

Old Man Mo's face also turned serious: "Of course I have heard about this kind of thing, but I didn't expect that the guys in Heishuiyuan would be so cruel. There are tens of millions of people in the prefecture!"

Fang Xun also said solemnly: "Those people are probably in danger now. Some of them have been transformed into the Dao of Forgetfulness. I don't think the rest will be much better. They may have been bewitched and brainwashed into becoming Tianli followers!"

"Hiss—" Old Man Mo jumped up after hearing this, "I was wondering why I couldn't see the right stars no matter how I looked at them recently. It turns out something really big has happened!"

"Go away, stop showing off your lame tricks. It would be a miracle if you could see it clearly."

Fang Xun said this with a look of disgust, and spoke again before Old Man Mo became completely furious.

"Old man, would you like to borrow your bird for transportation this time?"

"Humph, if you don't want to lend it to me, get out of here!"

Old Man Mo snorted coldly, turned his head away and ignored Fang Xun.

"Uncle, senior, I was wrong just now. Young people should just say what they want to say. Don't take it too seriously."

Fang Xun shook his head and had to apologize with a shameless face. After saying a lot of nice things, Old Man Mo finally gave in.

"Hmph! It's just this once, it won't happen next time!"

Soon, Old Man Mo brought Fang Xun to a square in Ying Town and blew a long whistle.

-

Immediately, a high-pitched cry was heard in the air, and then a small black dot appeared in the distant sky, flying rapidly towards where the two were.

"My eagle is very alert. It will only land when it sees someone it knows and calls it. Please be careful when you use it. You don't need to prepare any meat on weekdays. It will fly to the mountains to find food. Just blow a whistle to summon it."

As Old Man Mo explained, a strong gust of wind descended from the sky, a large cloud of dust rose from the ground, and the Iron-winged Cloud Eagle spread its wings and landed steadily on the ground.

Just as Old Man Mo was about to say something, he saw Fang Xun leap up, jump onto the eagle's back and gently stroke the huge head.

The Iron-winged Cloud Eagle also narrowed its eyes slightly, as if enjoying the caress; the man and the eagle seemed to be getting along very harmoniously.

This scene made Old Man Mo stunned for a moment. He walked up quickly and said in confusion.

"That's not right. You've only sat on it once. How come it's so close to you?"

Fang Xun smiled and said, "Maybe I'm more popular."

In fact, he could clearly sense the emotions of the Iron Winged Cloud Eagle, and it was very easy for him to communicate with him. After seeing this, Old Man Mo said no more and waved his hand to urge him.

"Alright, alright. Speed ​​is of the essence in war. You should get on the road quickly. Just remember not to die in Qingyang Prefecture!"

"Thanks, I'll treat you to a drink when I get back!"

-

Accompanied by a long, high-pitched cry, the giant eagle flapped its wings and soared into the sky like an arrow.

After flapping its wings several times in a row, the shadow town on the ground became smaller in Fang Xun's eyes.

I saw pairs of eyes looking at the giant eagle soaring in the sky with envy.

The Iron-winged Cloud Eagle flies high and fast, and can cross Jiangzhou in at most one day.

Not to mention the convenience of traveling, when encountering danger, you can just jump onto the eagle's back and fly hundreds of feet into the sky. Even the grandmaster can only stare blankly when he sees it.

A strong airflow blew towards him, but Fang Xun stood still as straight as a pine tree, without any sign of discomfort.

Looking up, an indescribable feeling of joy flows in my heart.

Below, he saw a group of black spots gathering outside the city of Jinling.

The flags are waving and the murderous aura is rising.

At a glance, there were no less than tens of thousands of black-armored soldiers marching slowly towards Chunyang Prefecture.

Seeing this scene, Fang Xun also sighed.

"I hope General Sun will be successful in his trip to Chunyang Prefecture. Otherwise, it will be really troublesome."

Soon, the Iron-Winged Cloud Eagle flew away from Jinling City and entered the sky above the Corridor Mountains.

Suddenly, Fang Xun felt as if someone was staring at him from below.

But when I looked again, there was only dense forest and I couldn't see clearly whether there were any people there, and the feeling of being watched disappeared.

"illusion?"

Fang Xun frowned but didn't think much about it. Anyway, even if there was a master on the ground who wanted to kill him, he would first have to learn to fly, otherwise he could only stare at the giant eagle.

In the forest, the black-robed master did not withdraw his gaze until the iron-winged cloud eagle in the sky disappeared into the horizon.

"Where is Mr. Mo going now?"

He only thought about this question for a moment and then put it out of his mind.

The figure of the black-robed master was seen flying rapidly through the mountains.

A quarter of an hour later, he arrived inside a mountain.

The cave is dimly lit and feels extremely cramped. Its length, width and height are no more than three meters.

When he arrived, he took out a black jade pendant and poured internal energy into it.

In an instant, a gray mist emerged and enveloped the black robe.

The next moment, one transparent figure after another, with their bodies and faces shrouded in gray fog, appeared in the cave. Including the black-robed master, there were seven people in total.

After waiting for a while, someone finally spoke up, "I didn't believe it at first, but since Lao Liu didn't come, it seems like he's really screwed. Lao San, what's going on?"

The voice was indistinguishable from male or female, young or old, and had a slight accent, which was obviously disguised.

Before the black-robed master could answer, another deep and hoarse voice mocked him first.

"Haha, how else could it be? He fell twice at the hands of a young boy. I really don't know how this piece of trash could break through the divine will!"

The black-robed master frowned immediately. Not only him, but another person couldn't help but say, "Old Five, that's enough! Old Six is ​​already dead, please be more polite!"

“Okay, okay, I won’t say anything more, but since Lao Liu is in trouble, will our future plans be affected?
Lao San, you are a native of Jiangzhou. Have the Six Gates found anything fatal?"

Suddenly everyone's eyes turned to the black-robed master.

The black-robed master said calmly, "The Six Gates have found that Black Wind Village and all the people at the town and village level in Chunyang Prefecture are missing. Sun Donglai is leading 10,000 soldiers and is heading towards Chunyang Prefecture at full speed."

In an instant, all the transparent figures fluctuated for a moment, as if caused by the excitement of their emotions.

"Hmm? That's troublesome!"

"Yes, the headquarters' operation in Youzhou will not officially begin until half a year later. How are we going to survive the next six months in Jiangzhou?"

"Yes, we want to take action now, but we can't do anything if Youzhou doesn't move!"

"Ah!

In my opinion, we should just take action and tear a small hole in the seal of Qinggang Mountain's earth veins first, unearth Ziwei Sanren's treasure and get what the headquarters wants first.

As for the seal of Qinggang Mountain, once we break the seals of other places, we can come back and deal with Jiangzhou easily."

At this time, the black-robed master suddenly said, "That's at least another ten years. I still have at least eighty years to live, but I'm afraid some people are too old to wait for ten more years!
There is also more than one grandmaster in other halls who is about to die. They are just waiting for the seal of the earth veins to be broken and the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to be revived, so that they can take this opportunity to break through the Yang God in one go.

And don’t forget, there are also several Yangshen Grandmasters in the main hall who are also like this, just waiting to break through to Yangshen and fight for their lives with the sky! "

All of a sudden, everyone fell silent.

The lifespan of a Yin Shen Grandmaster is 200 years, and the lifespan of a Yang Shen Grandmaster is 300 years. Although there are some fluctuations, the maximum lifespan is five years.

If you want to live longer, you can only continue to break through to the next level.

And this is exactly the purpose of Black Water Abyss.

The black-robed master has strong energy and blood. He can still live for another eighty years, so he is not in a hurry.

However, in other halls of Blackwater Abyss and even in the main hall, there are many elderly masters who are about to be buried.

Why do the masters and grand masters like Heishuiyuan secretly and painstakingly plan this and that?

Isn't it for the purpose of gaining greater strength and longer life?

But at this critical juncture, the Sixth Master of Sanyue Hall, Liu Xinyuan, was defeated, the arrangement of Chunyang Mansion was exposed, and the army had already set out.

Several hall masters who were about to die of old age were filled with gloom in their hearts.

The other 'young people' didn't know how to start the conversation, for fear of upsetting these elderly people.

After a long while, the black-robed master finally spoke again.

“I have informed the headquarters of this matter and received a response.”

Instantly everyone's spirits perked up, and the deep and hoarse voice from before couldn't wait to ask, and it was obvious that he was also an 'elderly master'.

"What does the headquarters say?"

This concerns whether one can live another hundred years, and few people would not be anxious.

The black-robed master looked at him and then spoke slowly.

"The plan will be moved forward to three months later. We don't have to worry about Youzhou. The headquarters and other halls' masters will handle it.

But Jiangzhou must divert official attention. They must not find out that there is a problem with Qinggang Mountain for at least three months!"

"What to do?"

"Aren't there still those crazy people from the Tianli Sect? Don't they love to rebel? Let them make as much noise as they want this time. The bigger the better!"

(End of this chapter)