Dao fruit.

This city is not majestic, but it was also a frontier of a country in the age of the nations, so the foundation is still there. With the surrounding dangers, it is still larger than some cities in the hinterland of the middle land. ?Top?Point?Fiction

Now, above the city, there are strands of smoke gathering, appearing in Qiu Yan's eyes, turning into lines of words, constantly circulating.

For ordinary people, these smoke and words are difficult to detect.

Not to mention, after the smoke rose, it didn't go up, but turned to the east, as if it was converging towards a certain place.

Looking along the trend, you can see the sky in the east, and the clouds and mist are rolling. It is not formed by water vapor, but the mysterious and mysterious people's heart and luck.

"Master Hou, let's hurry up, all the officials are waiting."

A figure at the side interrupted Qiu Yan's thoughts. He followed the sound, and what he saw was a square face with Chinese characters. The beard on the face was neatly trimmed, giving people a sense of grandeur. .

This person is Yu Siyan, the magistrate of Zezhou. When he heard the news from Qiu Yan early in the morning, he mobilized the forces of one prefecture and five counties to prepare. This time, as soon as Qiu Yan's troops entered the border of Zezhou, the magistrate immediately greeted him. come over.

When Yu Siyan came like this, he not only greeted him, but also held a big banquet in the city, and mobilized people to congratulate him along the way, which can be said to be a labor of love.

"Since the magistrate Yu has made arrangements, the official is also disrespectful and wasteful. It's just that the official didn't know about this matter before. Now that we have come, we can't have such a waste of people's energy. Let's not be an example." Facing the gracious invitation, although Qiu Yan accepted it, he also warned and slapped him a lot, which shocked Yu Siyan quite a bit, and he repeatedly said yes.

Secretly, he also realized that he was flattering the horse's leg.He didn't grasp the temperament of the Marquis of Dingguo, which made the other party unhappy.

Speaking of which, although Yu Siyan, the magistrate, is not well-informed, he does not have many contacts in the court, and the information is not well-informed. In addition, Qiu Yan temporarily changed his itinerary a few days ago, everything came too suddenly, Yu When Si Yan received the news, he didn't have the time to learn about Qiu Yan's personality and preferences in detail, and then he could do what he likes.I can only guess and use this method to show sincerity, but in the end, it is still self-defeating.

After meeting Qiu Yan's order, Yu Siyan also performed enough courtesy, and kept his posture very low, even showing courtesy to the guards, leading many officials and subordinates to accompany him.

"If you only look at this person's face, you will definitely not see it. This is a flatterer." Qiu An walked beside Qiu Yan's horse, holding the former's reins.

Although he has a high level of cultivation and even has a good reputation among southern military families, he has not left his membership.He also has no official position, and in terms of status and status, he is still a servant of the Qiu family, so he does not sit on a horse on this occasion.Not to mention him, those guards themselves came from the Beijing camp, and even their family backgrounds were not simple.Now we have to dismount as many as possible.

However, what Qiu An said was not loud, and only Qiu Yan and the two guards around him could hear it.

The two guards obviously looked down on Yu Siyan's flattering appearance, so they echoed in a low voice after hearing the words: "Brother Qiu is right, the magistrate of Zezhou seems to be a man who is good at adapting to the wind, and this Zezhou is under his control." Under the rule of the government, it is estimated that it will not be easy to please." The big brother Qiu they were talking about was of course not the Marquis of Dingguo Qiu Yan, but Qiu An.

At this time, Qiu Yan said: "Water flows to low places, and people go to high places. If this person wants to use the opportunity to climb the peak, it is not necessarily a bad thing, let alone trouble because of people, because people who look down on him, Just deny what he did."

After saying this, both Qiu An and the two guards restrained their expressions.

Qiu Yan said again: "After I entered Zezhou, I was paying attention to the local conditions and customs along the way, and found that several new laws promulgated by the imperial court were obviously implemented quite smoothly here. Sufficient, I don’t see much hostility on my body. Now that I have come to the city, many merchants and people have been mobilized by the laborers, and I don’t see much impatience and disgust, let alone a strong face. It can be seen that I don’t resent the order of the prefect of Zezhou in my heart. , you may see why?"

The two guards didn't dare to say more, so Qiu An thought about it and asked, "Could it be what the people want?"

"Contradictions among the people may be distorted and affected by many factors, but at least it is the most direct reference in terms of benefiting the people themselves." Qiu Yan dropped such a sentence, and the people dismounted and passed through the city gate.

The city is full of flowers, obviously carefully arranged. Yu Siyan who was watching was very uncomfortable. He obviously knew that Qiu Yan didn't like such a thing, but time was tight, and he had no time to disperse it. It would not only be more wasteful to disperse with one sentence, but also make myself more unbearable in Qiu Yan's heart, and if it spreads out, it may affect Qiu Yan's reputation, and that would be a great offense to the Marquis.

In fact, this Yu Siyan can be regarded as a capable person. He is capable of governing the local area, but he is not good at standing in line in the officialdom. After several political struggles, he almost lost his qualifications to go further. As a life-saving straw, if you want to take a chance, you already have the intention of taking refuge, so you care about Qiu Yan's opinion.

On the other hand, although he initiated the layout of the city this time, the big families contributed a lot in it, and they took the initiative to bear a lot of money without him even needing to waste a word.

Here, Qiu Yan entered the city, looked at the specially arranged scene in all directions, knew that it was not time to do other things, so he followed Yu Siyan's lead, and entered the mansion to attend the banquet.

"This time Lord Hou can come to our Zezhou, it really makes our house full of glory." Before the banquet, in front of Zhaobi, Yu Siyan had a flattering smile on his face, and suddenly changed the subject. , "Master Hou, the purpose of your visit this time, I know a little bit about it. To be honest, the four major merchants in Zezhou City have contributed a lot this time, but I want to come to see it in my heart. If you have something to do, Master Hou, Instructions, the next official will collect carefully, so as not to leave any future troubles."

"Oh?" Hearing this, Qiu Yan took back the steps he had taken, narrowed his eyes, and carefully looked at the magistrate in front of him.

Now the two people's positions can be said to be very clever. Due to the restrictions of etiquette and status, there will not be many people behind this screen wall, and the officials and subordinates who follow behind do not dare to approach, so although they are under the watchful eyes of everyone, they do not dare to approach them. What is said is easy to be heard.

Of course, if you have a deep cultivation, or simply use your supernatural powers, you can still hear the content, but it is impossible to give up eating because of choking, otherwise you don't need to speak, but it can also be seen from this that Yu Siyan is really bold Careful people.

Moreover, the meaning of his words is also quite profound, reflecting his personal characteristics——

First of all, he guessed one of the purposes of Qiu Yandong's visit. This is not a simple matter, because the purpose of Qiu Yandong's visit is to recruit security after all. They are all the upper echelons of this dynasty. Maybe the new civil and military officials will expand the news to a certain extent within their own faction, but the detailed information has not yet been passed on.

Besides, Yu Siyan didn't have any backing in the court, and it was even more impossible for anyone to tell him these detailed information, most of which he deduced from the clues.

On the other hand, the magistrate's foothold in Zezhou City is obviously inseparable from the support of those big merchant families, but now that he has seen the situation, he immediately and decisively betrayed those few merchants. Very good, even...

Qiu Yan turned his head and looked outside the door. He knew that those big merchants were also among the crowd outside the door at this moment, and they would come in only after he sat down with Yu Siyan.

"Being betrayed in front of others, this Yu Siyan...is a bit interesting. This time, I came to Zezhou to make some preparations. Now it seems that there may be unexpected gains."

Turning this thought in his mind, Qiu Yan nodded slightly at Yu Siyan, followed by one after the other around the screen wall, and entered the courtyard.

Rows of tables and chairs had already been set up in this yard, and Qiu Yan had seen a lot of similar formations, so there was nothing he wasn't used to.

A quarter of an hour later, the banquet opened, singing and dancing, a harmonious scene.

During the banquet, officials of all sizes from the Zezhou Prefecture came to toast, and only after the officials had passed by did they come over to make friends.

There are also several aristocratic families in Zezhou, but most of them have declined during the war, and they can no longer control the lifeline of the place. They are replaced by the Four Great Ancient Families.

When the old man Lu led Lei Yuan and the others over, Yu Siyan's heartstrings immediately tensed, because he saw a strange yet familiar figure among the group.

He said unfamiliar because he, Yu Siyan, had never had real contact with this person, and said he was familiar with him because this person came to Zezhou twice before and after, and his behavior was quite suspicious. , sent someone to track him down, drew a portrait, followed the trend, and found that this person was an important figure in the rebel army.

This shocked him quite a bit, no matter what happened to Yu Siyan, he would not think that the rebels could do anything, let alone risk his own future with a few merchants.

Merchants can take risks for profit, but he, Yu Siyan, values ​​power more.

This is actually an important reason why he decisively abandoned the four major merchants and eagerly sought refuge with Qiu Yan, and planned to use these four major merchants as his vote.

Now, the person who prompted him to make such a decision is following Lei Yuan and others, approaching Qiu Yan!

"They don't want to hold Marquis Ding Guo hostage!" Thinking of this, Yu Siyan couldn't sit still, but just when he was about to make a move, Qiu Yan spoke first——

"Huang Yan, I didn't expect that you, as a wanted criminal by the court, would dare to come before me in broad daylight!" (To be continued...)

ps: Thanks to "fanfusuzi" and "Melancholy Demon" for their monthly votes!