Longmen Memoirs

"It's not that I can't say, well, that's the case. I met His Highness in the neighborhood he was in charge of. His Highness is actually a pretty easy-to-get-together person. Then when he talked about what you said before, he just talked to I said, that's not right. I guessed that he might bypass the Guard Bureau and attack the slums. In short, although I don't know what Chief Wei meant, if you knew you, based on my understanding of you, you would Things were a mess.”

"So it's all your guess."

"Didn't I ask Chief Wei for confirmation later and sent someone to contact you in time? Fortunately, there was no conflict." Shi Huaiya broke the jar.

"No." Chen suddenly shook his head and looked at Chen: "You knew the news in advance. My informant was able to spread the news, but the communication signal of the Guards Bureau was blocked. Moreover, after coming here, they did not tell us who they would be. When it was handed over to the Guards Bureau, the attitude became tougher."

"What do you think, Lao Chen?"

"This is not a coincidence. They are deliberately attracting the Guards Bureau here, but for what reason? If they really want to attack those people, they don't have to do this. Also, their attitude just now is not normal now that I think about it. It's like they are waiting. It’s like the Guards Bureau comes to take these people in, but they need the Guards Bureau to show them something.”

"..."

"Maybe it's not for them to see." Xing Xiong paused and shook his head. He pointed in the direction of the scrap car yard. The detained people came out of it under the leadership of the police in a panic.

Rarely, Chen saw some emotions other than rejection in those people's attitudes towards the Guards Bureau that were different from the past.

"..."

Chen fell silent.

"So you put a lot of effort into putting on a show like this just to put on a show for the people in the slums, a show where the Guards attaches great importance to the slums. Why?"

Chen couldn't believe it, she looked at Xing Xiong.

"What drama are you talking about, hello? Hello, are you still there? Chen, Xingxiong? What are you doing?"

"I don't know, Lao Chen, maybe it is, maybe it's not." Xingxiong replied. "But these are not things we can decide. If this is really just a show to win people's hearts, then perhaps only Chief Wei and that person know the cause and effect, and we are just characters on the stage."

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Longmen ghetto

5:10pm

weather/overcast

"Your Highness..."

"Shan Chang, are you done with everything?"

"Yes, Duke Wei has also received a reply, and the Guards Bureau has accepted those personnel. However, His Highness's promise to Duke Wei was just settled in such a hasty way?"

"I'm willing to admit defeat. If the Guards Bureau chooses another path, according to the agreement, we will clean up the hidden dangers in the slums on behalf of Longmen. But now that the Guards Bureau has shown their determination, they have the courage to fight with our army for this. Confrontation, so what if things in the ghettos are decided by themselves.”

"Your Highness seems to attach great importance to Superintendent Chen? You were deliberately irritating her before."

He glanced at Gao Yi in surprise.

"The last general made a mistake." Gao Yi said hurriedly.

"It's okay, I don't really care, I'm just curious. By the way, I'll teach Wei Yanwu's nephew. I'd like to hear Shanchang's evaluation of Superintendent Chen."

"... He is upright, courageous and upright, and he is determined and motivated. If he were a man, he would be able to achieve a lot of achievements."

He just looked at Gao Yi who said these words until Gao Yi felt something was wrong.

"Did the general say something wrong?"

"If those female generals from Yumen hear your words, they may get into trouble."

"The general made a mistake."

"Don't worry, you know this and I know it." He pointed at Gao Yi and then at himself: "Actually, I don't need to go to Longmen myself, right? If you are good at it, there is no need to participate in Longmen. Regarding the affairs, I know you want to ask these questions, why is it not Jianzhi who comes to Longmen but me, and why should I order in advance to board the camp first and march with the ship."

"But I won't tell you the answer."

He turned his head and looked at the sky in Longmen. At this time, the sky was pointing towards dawn, and a ray of white faintly lit up on the horizon, exaggerating the deep darkness, like a ray of dawn.

Longmen gradually wakes up in this morning after the rain.

"I have always thought that Longmen is a very wonderful place. It would be a pity not to see it in person. It is not like the North or the capital. As one of the gateways to Great Yan, Longmen gathers all kinds of characters. These things are Longmen's most precious asset, Wei Yanwu spent 20 years making this city famous across the land, but it would not take as long as 20 years to destroy it."

Maybe I'm too impatient.

Chen is not ready yet, and neither is Chi Xiao. There is no need for her to get involved in these things.

Chapter 24 A heart as solid as stone

Longmen is a city that has long been stereotyped. What it looks like has been clearly divided in Wei Yanwu's 20-year plan. The various industries in Longmen, the various power structures of Longmen, and the division of interests and interests that control these rights. With the right people, the balance that has maintained Longmen's prosperity and stability to this day will be difficult to break by people living in Longmen.

Rights is a beautiful word.

Countless people come and go under these two words, which determine the life and death of countless people, determine the direction and development of a city, and determine the lives and destiny of countless people living in this city.

Today, Chen Mo is already in the same or even higher position than Wei Yanwu.

When people gain power, you will be surprised to find that the difficulties and desperate situations that left you helpless in the past are actually nothing at all. You will find that the love and hatred you once had are nothing at all. You will find that many things you hated in the past are nothing at all. By now, you can actually let go of and face the people and things that have struck you to the core with ease.

This is scary, but also normal.

It's like when you were in middle school, you had a girl you particularly liked. You liked her so much that you fantasized about the names of your children in the future. But when you see her again more than ten years later, you will never feel anything about her again. It's not that you no longer like her. Instead, you will discover how naive and stupid you used to be, and what you once loved so much that you thought was deeply rooted in your bones turns out to be no longer worth mentioning.

People are always changing, moving towards a higher position step by step. Looking back at the past, people will never stay where they are.

Chen Mo walked too fast.

In the eyes of the fox, he really walked too fast. The last time he saw him, he was just a little transparent person who returned to Longmen alone. When he saw him again in Londinium, there was already an uneasy feeling around him. With little power, until now, he has become the royal family of Dayan after returning to Longmen.

Sometimes Fox really feels like he can't understand him.

The fox cub was used to seeing all kinds of people in Longmen, big and small and with different appearances, but someone as special as Chen Mo would never be able to be seen clearly by the fox.

Even the governor of Longmen Wei Yanwu, even the old and sick tiger in Gray Lin and Shi Huaiya's family, these numerous big shots in Longmen are not as mysterious and weird as her dog.

Is there something wrong? Fox thought this more than once. Otherwise, why would someone like her have such good luck? The person she met casually in the resettlement camp when she was young turned out to be not as good as she thought. Simple.

Oh, it would be better to say that the fox had already been prepared for this when he saw his posture in Londinium, but in the end, he always exceeded the fox's highest expectations after he came back.

The difference is that every time he exceeds people's imagination of him. The same thing is that every time his thoughts become deeper and deeper. Maybe for a long time, but not for a long time. Five years ago, Chen Mohu still had the confidence to say that he could She could understand him, but the current Chen Mo made Fox feel unsure.

You can't guess what he wants to do, and you can't see clearly what he is thinking now. You just feel that the distance between him and yourself is getting farther and farther, making it impossible for anyone to get closer. When he is clearly standing in front of you, the fox I can also clearly feel that there is a long distance between me and him.

That distance was even more distant than the wariness and hostility he felt when he first saw him when he returned to Longmen.

Perhaps the thing about power and position really makes people feel a sense of distance, just like a friend who was once so close that they could wear a pair of pants suddenly became a big boss when they came back after not seeing each other for a few years, even though he didn't have sex with you. Keep a distance, and still make jokes that can only be made between two people like you did when you were young. Even if you suddenly jumped on his back when he wasn't paying attention, he would just laugh and scold you for being ridiculous.

Obviously the relationship has not become cold, but you still feel a sense of distance because you can't understand what he does, because now you and he inevitably live in two different worlds.

Although the sun still rises and sets, and we breathe the same air, the world between people is often very different. The gap between people is sometimes even greater than that between people and pigs.

Of course the fox is not a pig, the fox is just a treacherous fox, but the fox's good friend, the black dog cub who crawled around like her and thought they would grow up together, suddenly one day he grew scales and horns , his thin body no longer huddled under the eaves, exposed his sharp claws, rose into the air, and roared towards the sky.

Become what you are.

The fox could only stand blankly in the forest. She crossed the cliff with all her strength, climbed up the mountain, and jumped onto the tallest tree on the top of the mountain. Along the way, she fought through swamps and almost fell to death on the cliff. Below, she was almost torn to pieces by other beasts in the forest. Day after day and night, she finally stood on the top of the highest mountain, hoping to get closer to the black dog that turned into a black dragon, but the black dog jumped over the dragon gate. , Longmen is just the starting point for it to transform from a dog into a dragon.

The stupid fox covered with bruises stood on the tree and watched it leap into the clouds and soar freely in the sky. He belonged to that sky, to that vast sky. The fox had so much joy and so much loss in his heart, and right there When she crouched down under the tree in despair and licked the wounds from the fight, the black dragon turned back again and returned to the forest at Longmen from its sky.

Even though the fox knew that he would not take her away, the fox still felt happy.

A fox is just a fox.

In Longmen Dongcheng District, the sky is slightly bright.

This is the largest cemetery in Longmen. Unlike the small cemetery area in the core city, most Longmen people who are not buried in tombs are buried here, including but not limited to the public collection of the Longmen Guard Bureau. Every New Year, requiems are buried here. It is very lively here during the Spring Festival and Qingming Festival. It is the busiest time for the Longmen paper fire business, especially at night. When you look at the bright light from candles and yellow paper, you will see this quiet and desolate land brightly lit from the direction of the city. It seems like this is another bustling world.

Fox was not as lucky as Chen Mo. She still had some unreliable memories at that time, but Fox knew nothing about how Longmen disposed of her parents' bodies, and she had never thought of searching.

She is different from Chen Mo. Because she is a family member of the Guards Bureau, at least she has former colleagues who are willing to help restrain her. But Fox, she doesn’t have many relatives and friends in her family, and even then she doesn’t care about others. Fox never talks about it. Her own parents were poor and had no big family to take care of them. In her words, they were the type where one person had enough to eat and the whole family was not hungry. Most of the people in the orphanage fell into this type.

Think about people who do not belong to this type. As long as there is a kind-hearted relative in the family, they will not live in an orphanage. Living in an orphanage means that those who were once so-called relatives and friends have become passers-by.

The relationship between people is so pure and simple.

Compared to Chen Huijie's family, which was complicated and full of love and hatred, ordinary people like Fox and Chen Mo didn't have so many concerns.

Perhaps the reason why Fox doesn't like Chen very much also includes this. In the eyes of people like Fox, Chen is probably a person who doesn't know the blessings despite being blessed. However, everyone has an unspeakable secret. Maybe Chen is still envious of Fox, who is alone and has nothing to worry about. , but when the roles are reversed, no one can feel at ease.

In the past, Chen Mo and Fox were the same kind of people. No, they are also the same kind of people now. No one in the world can understand Chen Mo better than Fox. But because they know each other too well, the relationship between them has never been warm. Fire, after all, no man likes a man who understands him too well, and no woman wants to find a man who understands herself too well.

This kind of person is suitable to be a good brother who talks about everything, but is not suitable to be a husband and wife. It is better for the husband and wife to have some secrets and freshness, otherwise they will look at each other cleanly with just one look. What else does it mean? .

So when Chen Mo was squatting in front of the three tombstones and burning paper money, and the fox crept up from behind and suddenly pounced on his back from behind, Chen Mo didn't react much.

"Don't grab me by the horns."

Probably many people have a bad habit, especially the older they are, the more obvious this bad habit is. They usually like to chatter and talk to themselves when someone is burning paper in the cemetery. Chen Mo also contracted this bad habit. But fortunately, the fox's timely appearance did not make him embarrassed.

"I'll help you try to see if it's genuine."

The fox's voice came from behind, and Chen Mo felt that the hands on the corners of his head and the weight on his body were gone.

"You've wanted to do this for a long time, right? Don't deny it in a hurry. You already wanted to do this when I first met you."

Chen Mo turned his head and saw Wolper squatting next to him, just like he did on the slope behind the resettlement camp when he was a child, like two children who had not grown up.

"Where are your guards?"

The fox looked at the yellow paper in his hand, and threw it into the fire. The firelight in the cold cemetery illuminated the thin figures of the two people, and the stone slabs under their feet were still moist from the rainy night.

Chen Mo held a broken branch from somewhere in his hand and started the fire, sending sparks flying.

"Are you leaving?"

"The news from the north is that Ursus has assembled three armies. The third army has entered Chernobog. The two armies on the border are confronting each other. The Ursus delegation arrived at Honglu Temple in Beijing half a month ago. In the court, he openly questioned Dayan about the conflict between the border garrison troops on both sides in Suho Plain. Ursus needs to give an explanation, and the noise is now extremely noisy."

As he spoke, he handed the yellow paper in his hand to the fox's arms.

"This is such a big news, why don't you just tell me this?"

"The news half a month ago, let's talk about it..." The fox saw him stretching out his hand to pinch his little finger with a look of disgust on his face: "You are a senior official in Longmen Zhima, what can you do if I tell you?"

"Hey."

"Unconvinced?"

"How dare you? How dare I, an older official, not be convinced in front of a big shot like you?"

He curled his fingers and flicked it on the fox's forehead. The fox rubbed it, and then he sighed and threw the paper money in his hand into the fire bit by bit.

"Really going to fight?" Fox asked.

"If you can't hit Dragon Gate, both sides will always find a decent excuse if they want to fight. The young and strong factions in the parliament in Ursus are now very excited. They want Dayan to pay the price. The emperor and his reformists can no longer restrain these people. Warlike sentiments, and under their propaganda, it was the Ursus border garrison that was invaded by Great Yan first, and they were unwilling to give Ursus a reasonable explanation at this time." Chen Mo said: "Twenty years ago, the Battle of Blood Peak and Great Yan After the rebellion, the high-ranking officers in the Ursus army faced a purge. Now the backbone of the Ursus army is the new generation of young and middle-aged officers. Each of them is eager for war and achievements, and the emperor's reforms touched the army. In order to protect the interests of these people, Ursus needs a real war to divert the various ambivalent emotions that have accumulated in the country since the over-development of the imperial era."

"And 20 years ago, in the war between Ursus and the Eastern Kingdom, if it weren't for Great Yan, they would not have been defeated so completely. Even the subsequent Great Purge would not have left the military faction without the ability to resist." He said, revealing Smile: "Now, everyone in the army and civilians of Ursus is longing for the era of the first emperor, and Feodor does not dare to mess with them at this time."

Fox nodded.

"What about Yan? We haven't fought in decades, right? This time we really want to fight Ursus."

"It is precisely because Yan has not used force for decades that Ursus came to Yan. The border conflict between the two sides has been protracted for a long time. This time it is not that Great Yan wants to fight Ursus, but that Ursus has already Pressed forward, the envoy openly questioned in the court, and the border legions gathered. Even if Ursus suddenly declared war on Dayan and attacked the border towns, they still had the stated reasons, and most people in Ursus firmly believed that it was Dayan. Ursus provoked first." Chen Mo said: "The key is not the war itself, but how much the military faction hopes to gain from this war. The emperor's reforms have touched their interests. Feodor is determined to contain the army and various parties. They were unwilling to sit still and wait for death, so they chose Yan as their opponent, because only an opponent like Yan could allow the emperor to delegate power to the army and various nobles. If this war was completely lost, the first thing people would think of would not be the army but the army. It’s the emperor, and I’m thinking of the former emperor and the new emperor, so Fyodor’s position will become precarious.”

"So the emperor of Ursus had to delegate power to various armies and princes, but when the war was over, it would be difficult for him to take back these rights." Fox asked.

"You are right. No matter whether the war is won or lost, the military will never be completely defeated. It seems that they have learned from the experience of the Blood Peak War. After all, the Eastern Kingdom is too small and has limited strength. They won the victory on that battlefield but Backstabbed by the emperor and parliament, followed by a great purge to consolidate imperial power, this time they used the same method against Fyodor."

"The Emperor of Ursus..."

"It's too late. An envoy was sent from Holy Castle to Ursus. Nowadays, the public sentiment is high. Feodor and his speaker can no longer pull back the reins of this wild horse." Chen Mo said: "Fyodor does not have Fraula. With Kimil's iron fist and prestige, it is undoubtedly impossible to rely on him to correct Ursus. All he can do is to gain as much political capital for himself in this war. On the other hand, if the military faction loses completely, He might be able to gather the army into his own hands in one fell swoop.”

"That is to say..." The fox took a breath.

Chen Mo smiled.

"That is to say, the emperor of Ursus may also be the promoter. Both sides are planning. It doesn't matter which person the envoy sent belongs to, nor does the outcome of this war matter."

Chen Mo said: "The political struggle in Ursus has reached this stage. They chose Yan because Yan is located in the northwest, close to the frozen soil in the northwest of Ursus, and the urban agglomerations of Ursus are close to Letania Gaul. In the south of the old land, even if the battle on the front line is unfavorable, they still have a long depth. The deeper into the interior of Ursus, the longer the Great Yan's supply line becomes. However, there are not many valuable targets in the desolate northwest, including If Dayan stops developing those mines in Ursus, Ursus has countless ways to take back the mines developed by Dayan."

"Even if Ursus loses the land in the northwest, it will not affect the development of the country for the time being. On the contrary, if Great Yan takes over the land of Ursus, the anti-Yan sentiment of the Ursus people will reach its peak, and then they will frequently harass The gains outweigh the losses for Dayan, and by then the political struggle in Ursus has already come to an end." Chen Mo said: "Usas, who are united and united, will be extremely troublesome in the face of Dayan with a long supply line."

"But here comes the crux of the problem. The Ursus envoy openly asked, how embarrassing it would be if Dayan didn't respond. Besides, the opponent Chen Bing is on the border. Dayan can't bet on whether Ursus dares to attack first. Dayan is the best. The method is to defend the enemy from outside the country and even counterattack. After defeating the Ursus Legion on the border battlefield, organize an elite army to go deep into the hinterland of Ursus to raid. It is best to seize several mobile cities in Ursus until Ursus Once the domestic situation is stable, the two sides will sit down and renegotiate." Chen Mo said: "Big countries with huge land areas like Ursus and Yan cannot completely defeat them with just one or two wars. This type of big country They usually die at home rather than abroad, but when this war is over, there will be peace on the border between Yan and Wu for a long time, which is also the result that Yan and Wusas hope for."

The fox was so surprised that she couldn't speak. She just looked at Chen Mo's face as he stirred the fire, and even briefly forgot to throw the yellow paper in his hand into the fire.

The Chen Mo in front of him was so strange to the fox, not because of his appearance, but because of the person who said these words.

"I originally wanted to ask you why you let those people in the slums go, which is different from what we originally expected." The fox suddenly said, she stared at the bonfire, and Wolper's ears above her head twitched slightly.

The first ray of skylight from Longmen in the sky finally broke through the thick dark clouds that slowly dispersed, and fell on the spiers of the city tower in the distance, shining with dazzling light.

"Ah."