Brawling on the streets of Chang'an.

Contention is fighting, striking is brawling, and seeing blood is injury.

Using fists and feet to hit people, regardless of whether it causes injury or not, is forty strokes of the *chi*.

After making a clean and efficient judgment, Chen Yuan and the fortune teller called Yuan Tiangang were to be dragged away to carry out the punishment. The Sui Dynasty changed whipping to *chi*, setting it at five levels: ten, twenty, thirty, forty, and fifty. The same system is still in use today.

Watching the two Bad Liangren (officials) take out several *jing* (thorny branches) sticks as instruments of punishment.

The wandering swordsman, who feared neither heaven nor earth, twitched the corner of his eye: "Hey, hey, hey."

"What are you doing? I'm warning you..."

"Chi punishment. In the Han Dynasty, bamboo was used for *chi*, but now *chu* is used. *Chu* is made of these large *jing* sticks, two-tenths of an inch at the big end and two and a half-tenths of an inch at the small end. You should honestly take these forty strokes." The strong man carrying the torture device covered with barbs walked over, and Chen Yuan's eyelids twitched wildly.

Seeing the big man smash the *chi* stick on his butt, he directly shouted:

"Wait, what are you doing?!"

"You're humiliating me!"

The swordsman, seeing the destination of the *jing* stick, was furious:

"My parents never hit me there!"

The Bad Liangren rolled his eyes and pointed to his back with the *chi* stick, explaining: "If the back is punished, there will be many wounds that will not heal for a long time, and may even stay with you for the rest of your life. The buttocks are fleshy, so it's just physical pain. It is recorded in my Tang law that the punishment of the *chi* stick is divided between the legs and buttocks."

"Of course, if you are willing to have the back and legs punished separately, it is up to you."

"Think carefully, do you want the back and legs punished separately?"

The big man smiled and pointed the *chi* stick at his buttocks:

"If I hit here, you'll just be lying down for a few days at most."

"If I hit your back, your martial arts skills may be damaged. Don't lose big because of small."

Bullshit! Is this losing big because of small?!

The swordsman was furious.

A scholar can be killed, but not humiliated!

But thinking about receiving forty strokes on the spine, and finally having to humiliatingly nod his head to accept forty strokes on his buttocks, a *puchi* laughter came from outside the door. Raising his eyes, he saw a heroic young man standing there with his hands folded, unable to stop laughing.

It was his childhood friend from Luoyang, who had passed the imperial examination this time.

The swordsman was furious: "Why don't you hurry up and release me?"

The Sui and Tang laws allowed for the redemption of *chi* punishment with copper coins.

That is, to bail people out with money.

The swordsman himself used all of his cousin Chen Xuanzang's money for food, clothing, and shelter. He could be said to be penniless. How could he have money to redeem himself? The noble-looking young man in front of him was a good friend who had just obtained an official position and would soon leave Chang'an to take office. He and the swordsman had become friends since childhood through fighting.

After laughing enough, he paid the money to redeem the swordsman.

Avoiding a beating on his buttocks with *jing* sticks.

When he came out, he happened to see the fortune teller opposite him. The latter had already redeemed himself, and had a bruised eye socket from a punch, but he didn't say anything or get angry. He had an elegant and ancient temperament. The swordsman's friend stepped forward to salute and apologize, saying, "Mr. Yuan, my friend has been crude since he was a child. Please don't take offense."

"It's alright."

The refined man smiled and nodded, then stared deeply at the swordsman in front of him.

"Chen Yuan, is it?"

"Yuan, huh..."

"We will meet again."

These words made the young man who was about to be dispatched as an official feel a little heavy in his heart. He didn't know why this Mr. Yuan Tiangang, who was extremely famous in Chang'an, would care so much about his friend, so he was extremely worried.

The swordsman directly translated these words into the harsh words that those down-and-out hooligans used to say after losing in his hometown.

What "the green mountains will not change, the green waters will flow forever."

Losing the person, but not the spirit.

Heh, who am I? I even beat the leader of the Luoyang Bad Liangren.

Afraid of you?

Chen Yuan sneered, "Is that so?"

"I also think we will meet again in the future."

Yuan Tiangang smiled and nodded, said goodbye, and then left freely, going far away.

His friend could only sigh helplessly and lead the swordsman to a tavern, vaguely introducing this Mr. Yuan Tiangang, but seeing that the latter didn't care, he could only shake his head and sigh. Wine and meat were placed on the table, and the young man said, "However, Yuan, how is your cousin doing?"

The swordsman reached out to eat, casually saying, "Still thinking about leaving the pass."

"I heard he submitted a memorial to the government, but it was rejected."

"It's normal for it to be rejected. These days, how can you leave easily?"

The young man sighed and said, "Now that the world is stable and everything is waiting to be rebuilt, the Tujue (Turks) have a new Xiong Zhu (chieftain). Last year, I don't know what means he used, but the Tujue Khan led 100,000 cavalry directly to the suburbs of Chang'an, and the court was shaken."

The swordsman slowed down his chopsticks.

Yes.

Last year, 100,000 Tujue iron cavalry went straight to the suburbs of Chang'an, in imminent danger.

The twenty-nine-year-old Tang Emperor met with the Tujue Khan alone, without a single guard.

And made the Tujue retreat.

Although the Tang Emperor's bravery and calmness successfully persuaded the Tujue Khan to retreat.

But this matter still made the entire Tang Dynasty feel angry, and now they are in a state of full alert. The young man who had just obtained an official position took a sip of wine, exhaled a mouthful of alcohol, and said hatefully, "Tujue, Tujue... Humph, their country should be destroyed! Their race exterminated! Their lineage ended!"

"Kill all his followers and relatives, and capture this Tujue Khan to be a dancing clown in my Chang'an city!"

"Indeed!!"

"Come, drink!"

Those domineering and brave words that might be hard to hear again in the next five hundred years.

Were the consensus of the Tang Dynasty.

Even the tavern waiter extremely agreed.

The entire empire was in a state of preparing for war at this time, holding its breath and frantically increasing its troops.

Wanting to leave the pass at this time, wouldn't that be a fool's dream?

The swordsman drank a meal of wine, and added: "However, you are a civil official. You will be sent out to be a county magistrate in a while, and I guess it has nothing to do with this matter. But I am different. This saber is here, and now everything is waiting to be rebuilt. Merit can only be obtained on horseback, so what is there to be afraid of?"

"Humph!"

The young man didn't speak. This had always been the wound in his heart.

He was a county magistrate; he couldn't just pick up a knife and go to war, could he?

Forcing himself to say, "What's wrong with being a civil official, right?"

"You still can't beat me, can you?"

"By the way, I have a good thing here that I have to send back soon. It's rare to have this opportunity. Let me show it to you first."

The young man, as expected of someone who had studied, immediately changed the subject.

So Chen Yuan smiled disdainfully.

Trying to act tough, eh?

If I can't beat you, can't I outtalk you?

Then he felt a little sad, who is the real scholar after all...

But he was still very interested in what his friend was showing him. He knew that although this guy had a brave personality, he was also very smart, and his vision was extremely sharp. The things he could fancy must be good things, worth seeing, worth seeing.

Chen Yuan opened the box and saw an ancient token inside.

It seemed to have gone through an extremely long period of time. The color was dark and dull. He didn't know if it was clerical script or seal script, but it had several characters written on it.

Da Han, Sili Xiaowei (Commander of Retainers).

"...?!"

Chen Yuan's eyes froze, and he subconsciously reached out to hold the token in a daze.

His friend had just poured a glass of wine, and was startled when he saw this. He slapped the swordsman's palm away, stopping his action, and then sighed, "You want to touch everything, when will you be able to fix this problem? Besides, I told you to study, but you didn't. It's been so many years and you still don't recognize a few characters. Do you know what this is?"

The swordsman looked embarrassed. He really didn't recognize it, but for some reason, looking at this waist tag, an unspeakable sense of familiarity emerged in his heart, making his spirit calm, as if an indescribable, strong sense of composure and peace emerged, making him confidently answer:

"Crouching Tiger Token."

"Huh?"

The young man next to him was stunned, and then his tone softened, "You actually recognize it."

"It seems you did read a little."

"That's right, this is the ancient Crouching Tiger Token, the proof of the Sili Xiaowei. If it were in ancient times, it would be a first-class military general's waist tag. Unfortunately, this dynasty doesn't establish this official position, so this thing is useless. Moreover, this Crouching Tiger Token has already lost its spirituality and can no longer be opened."

"I don't know which dynasty broke it."

He sighed, and then said, "But speaking of which, there is still an anecdote about it. During the Three Kingdoms period, Zhang Fei of Shu, Wu Hou (Zhuge Liang), Wei Wu (Cao Cao) of Wei, and even Sima Yi's grandfather had all been Sili Xiaowei, and had held the Crouching Tiger Token at different times, but Sun Wu never had this official position."

"On the contrary, Du Yu, who destroyed Wu, was a Crouching Tiger. Speaking of which, there is some fate in it."

The young man said with emotion, and once he started talking about the relationships between those countries, he couldn't stop.

He didn't notice that his friend, without changing his expression, quietly reached out again and directly grabbed the Crouching Tiger Token.

At that moment, the swordsman's pupils widened.

He faintly sensed in his ears the roar and roar of a tiger.

As if standing above the nine heavens, overlooking the world, with a tiger slowly walking behind him. After a long time of absentmindedness, the swordsman turned the waist tag over, but saw that the front of the waist tag had the words "Da Han Sili Xiaowei", but the back was empty, with nothing on it.

He looked up at his friend in front of him: "Is this thing broken?"

"It's broken."

"It's completely broken."

"I don't know who can fix it."

The latter took the waist tag from the swordsman's hand, put it in the box, and explained, "This is something from the Zhou Dynasty. It is said that King Mu of Zhou obtained it from Kunlun Mountain, and then conquered the four barbarians and established three thousand laws, so he needed Crouching Tigers to guard the four directions of monsters and evil, but this is probably just a legend."

"Let's not talk about King Mu of Zhou for now, but Western Kunlun and the Zhou Emperor are just illusions."

At this time, the swordsman had an urge to snatch the Crouching Tiger Token back from his friend's arms.

But it failed.

The reason?

Sorry.

He can't beat this guy.

The young man grabbed the swordsman's palm and laughed:

"You want it, hahaha, wait until you have made earth-shattering achievements, and then mention this matter!"

In the end, after a meal of good wine, the young man in the dark long gown exhaled a mouthful of alcohol, and walked out of the tavern with the swordsman, arm in arm. When they parted, the young man sighed, "After a while, I will be assigned to be a county magistrate. It's really boring."

"I heard you specifically chose a remote place?"

"That's right."

The young man curled the corner of his mouth: "Rong Prefecture Huangshui, which was established in the fourth year of the Wude era, only a place like this can bring out my full talent. I will come back then."

Chen Yuan said, "That place, originally Baiyue land, is chaotic, but I think the county lieutenant there is probably no match for you."

"It would be embarrassing for the soldiers and generals of the borderlands to be no match for their own county magistrate."

The young man affirmed, "He definitely can't beat me."

"As for you, Yuan, hone your martial arts skills well, and then follow General Li Jing on expeditions to gain merit."

"You and I will meet again in Chang'an one day."

"Hahaha, good!"

The two young men from Chang'an slapped each other and passed by.

The swordsman staggered.

"Then, Wang Xuance, be your Huangshui county magistrate and be a civil official."

The young civil official, Wang Xuance from Luoyang, was drunk.

"You too, don't waste your martial arts."

"See you again in the future."

"See you again in the future."

The swordsman's lightness skill was not weak, and he disappeared in an instant.

But when Wang Xuance left on horseback, he didn't notice that the Crouching Tiger Token, which had already been damaged, slowly lit up with a stream of light in his arms.

And then dimmed.

ps: Today's second update...3,400 words~

Great Tang, Wang Xuance - you can popularize it in the chapter comments, lying down.