Jiuhua Mountain, here is not the holy place of Buddhism, but a small hill in the north of Nanjing, at this time it is called Zhoushan, close to the wall of the capital, outside the wall is the Houhu Lake (Xuanwu Lake) mountain is not high only tens of meters, there is a temple on the top of the mountain and the west side of the Jiming Mountain echoes each other.

Because it is close to the north city wall, the back lake outside the wall is both the northeast moat and the royal forbidden place, so it is very secluded here, except for a few pilgrims on weekdays, there are few traces. There is a cottage in the sunny place in the south of the mountain, and a few households are resting at sunrise and sunset.

There is a family in the westernmost part of the village, and the low-walled single-courtyard flower field is full of elegance and taste, and it is not an ordinary farmer at first glance.

This family has only moved for a few years, less than the villagers on weekdays, but its visitors are constantly coming and going without white ding, the villagers inquired and let know that it is a big official to come here to live in seclusion, only to know the surname Ruan does not know his name, ask him to let people call him Baizi Shanqiao, the villagers always ridicule him behind his pretense, and he has never seen a piece of firewood cut in Shanqiao......

The villagers only knew that this person was hypocritical, but they didn't know that he was Ruan Dacheng, who was inferior in character and everyone shouted and beaten, and they didn't expect that he would control the politics of the Southern Ming Dynasty in the future and make Nanjing City miserable, and give half of the country to Tartar.

Ruan Dacheng this person is not only treacherous and extremely low in character, from the time of his debut is the grass on the wall, born in Donglin but clinging to Wei Zhongxian to think about the benefits of both sides, after Emperor Chongzhen came to power, he was also ready to write a letter to the Donglin Party and the eunuch party "Party attached eunuchs" should be abolished together, and then it was revealed that Emperor Chongzhen was directly dismissed by the eunuch party, so he first lived in seclusion in Nanjing after Anqing, recruited rangers to talk about soldiers and swords to form a literary society, and later wanted to make peace with the Donglin Party, but was rejected, so he has never had the opportunity to re-enter the career, Because his reputation is too bad and his character is so bad, even the people who have returned to the society are disgusted that he is unwilling to have fellowship, which shows that his character is extremely corrupt.

The reputation is too stinky, the emperor does not need it, Ruan Dacheng can only live in seclusion in Nanjing, but Ma Shiying, who was recommended by him, has become the governor of Lufeng, and comes to Nanjing from time to time to catch up with him.

In the evening, the light rain was dripping and dripping, and when Ruan Dacheng was looking at the rain outside the courtyard and was chanting a poem, he suddenly heard someone knocking on the door, and the servant opened the door and came back to inform: "Governor Ma has sent someone."

Governor Ma is Ma Shiying.

Ruan Dacheng's spirit was shocked, this is a good friend who has always been proud and proud, you must know that with his such a bad reputation, most officials don't like him, and even avoid him, but Ma Shiying is different from him, he has always been grateful for Ruan Dacheng's recommendation to have his current glory, and the relationship between the two is very good. Moreover, in history, Ma Shiying knew Entu Bao, recommended Ruan Dacheng in the Southern Ming Dynasty, and let him be honored in one fell swoop in the Southern Ming Dynasty's military department Shangshu and university scholar, and the two of them were embarrassed and did not take long to toss and disperse the Hongguang small court, and gave up Nanjing City.

So he hurriedly asked the servants to go and invite the people in.

There were two people who came, wearing hats to protect themselves from the rain, but Ruan Dacheng felt bad when he hurriedly skimmed it, because he saw the white cloth tied around the waists of these two people, and his heart couldn't help but sink.

"The little one has seen Master Ruan" The two young men knelt down to salute, Ruan Dacheng stared at the white cloth around the waist of the two, and his lips couldn't help but tremble a few times: "But, but what happened?" ”。

"Master Ruan, my family is dead!" Saying that, the two of them fell to the ground and cried!

Ruan Dacheng was shocked and leaned back and shouted: "How come, how come" The hand that touched the teacup kept trembling. He is already sixty years old, but Ma Shiying is several years younger than him, how could he suddenly die when he looks strong and energetic.

"How did Yaocao (Ma Shiying) die?" Ruan Dacheng was shocked to hear the bad news, and he panicked.

"Lost his foot, the old man fell and injured himself in Fengyang City, and then died" One of them sobbed and said, Ruan Dacheng was even more surprised: "How could you lose your footing from the city?" The person who reported the funeral said that a few days ago, Ma Shiying was full of wine and food, and Lu Zhenfei and others went to the city to climb the heights and look into the distance, because they drank more wine and vomited on the wall but did not pay attention to the plant, they did not fall to their deaths at that time, but they knew that there was no hope of returning to the sky, so people came to report the funeral and asked Ruan Dacheng to write an epitaph for him.

Ruan Dacheng listened to it for a long time, and his heart was really mixed, how could a friend who could show off his hand suddenly die when he finally had a friend who could show off his hand in the background, and he knew that he was smelly and wrote an epitaph to him by name, and he was very moved.

"Master Ruan, the corpse on this hot day won't last long, it's busy with the funeral over there, if it's convenient for you to go to the funeral, let's hurry out of the city while it's not dark, maybe you can catch up with the last look of my master, and besides, you are a close friend of my family, you should be in charge of the overall situation" The mourner wiped his tears and said softly.

Ruan Dacheng nodded, then asked the maid to pack some luggage briefly, and took out some broken silver for the two mourners: "It's raining to hire a car, the old man can't afford to toss long distances when he's old."

"Back to Master Ruan, when we came, we had hired a carriage to be outside the courtyard, and there were also carriages waiting for us when we crossed the Yangtze River when we went out of the city," the mourner hurriedly said, Ruan Dacheng cast an appreciative look: "You are very thoughtful."

Before dark, a carriage went out of the city from Dinghuai Gate, and went straight to the Yangtze River wharf along the Qinhuai River, Ruan Dacheng sat in the car and opened his eyes to see that the sky outside was cloudy, and the drizzle was endless, and his heart was extremely depressed.

When it reached the Yangtze River, it was completely dark, and the mourners held an oil umbrella to help them out of the carriage, and there was already a ferry waiting for a long time, Ruan Dacheng was a little surprised in his heart, the old horse's subordinates were really thoughtful, and the whole process was seamless, according to this day and night, it would be more than 400 miles to Fengyang and two days at most.

The ferry boat is not big, there are only two boatmen, but the wind and waves on the river are not small, and the boat rises and falls, which makes Ruan Dacheng feel a little stunned, so he asked: "Why don't you hire a big boat?" ”

"The ferry is busy, and the big boat won't leave until everyone is ready," the mourner said, glancing at the other person and smiling.

Ruan Dacheng felt strange: "What are you laughing at?" ”

"It's nothing, I'll do everything thoroughly, Master Ruan can rest assured." Laughing as they spoke, the two boatmen laughed too.

Ruan Dacheng felt more and more strange, so he glanced at the accompanying servant, who could see that something was wrong but didn't know how to deal with it, and was just about to reach out and touch it into his arms, but he was knocked out by the boatman with a stick when he heard a muffled snort.

Suddenly, Ruan Dacheng screamed in fright, hid in the corner of the cabin and waved his hands: "You, who are you?" ”

"Report the funeral, why did Master Ruan ask such a strange thing" Several people laughed and said, at this time, the boat had reached the middle of the river, and the wind and waves were strong and the sky was dark, it was really a good place to kill people and throw corpses.

"Why did the mourner commit murder...... What do you want, I have the silver, I have the silver! Ruan Dacheng didn't suspect the identities of several people at this time, but he just thought that they might want to take the opportunity to rob money, this kind of thing is not strange in these years, it is common for domestic servants to take advantage of the chaos to rob their masters, not to mention the death of Ma Shiying's family.

"How much silver do you have?" A person asked with a smile, Ruan Dacheng threw the package over: "How many are given to you, if it is not enough, you can go back to Nanjing with me to get it, as long as you spare my life, what if you go bankrupt."

"Master Ruan, open the light," the man opened the package, turned the silver out, divided it, and then threw the package into the river, while the other person brought a large stone tied with a rope from the cabin and placed it at Ruan Dacheng's feet.

"You, you, then what are you going to do, are you Lu Zhenfei's people, are Ma Shiying killed by him" Ruan Dacheng struggled frantically, he was good friends with Ma Shiying, and naturally knew that he was at odds with Lu Zhenfei.

Several people held it down and tied the other end of the rope to Ruan Dacheng's feet: "Master Ruan said that we have done everything thoroughly, of course there is no room for mistakes", one said and trapped Ruan Dacheng's hands firmly, and then pushed into the river despite his hissing shout, and the river was turbulent.

"What about this?" One kicked the fainting servant.

The other didn't speak, and directly threw the servant into the river and clapped his hands: "Qi Huo, stay on the shore and drink flower wine to warm up."

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