Chapter 13 Section Thirteen

A small sedan chair and two riders left the capital. The people on the horse are one tall and one short, and they are dressed like Jianghu people.The taller one is Changshun, the second-class guard of the fourth rank in Da Nei, a man from the Manchurian Xianglan Banner, and Aixinjue Luo, and the shorter one is the third-class guard of the fifth rank in Da Nei, Yehe Nala Taizhuang, a man from Zhenghong Banner.Both of them were subordinates of Sushun, the third-class Fuguo general and Minister of Sanzhi.The person sitting in the sedan chair was of course Zeng Guofan, who was dressed in a businessman's attire.

Zeng Guofan didn't know how to ride a horse, so Changshun had no choice but to hire a sedan chair for him on the street before leaving.Everywhere on the street, there are three or two groups of idle sedan chairs, and the bearers get together to chat and wait for business. Chang Shun strode over, dragged two strong and strong men, and without haggling, opened his mouth and promised twenty taels of silver to carry it to Hankou, which shocked the two men from ear to ear for a long time.Because they walked to Hankou, they were so tired that they stink to death, and at most they could only earn eight taels of foot money.Today's foot money is even more cheap, and you can't even earn six taels.Chang Shun said twenty taels at a time, which frightened the two of them for a long time so that they didn't dare to talk, thinking that it was the young master who was joking and came to find fault with him.Chang Shun was impatient, and asked about the two sedan chairs in a row, but no one dared to speak, they all tilted their heads and laughed inexplicably, and some even lifted the sedan chairs and left.

Chang Shun had no choice but to return to the Zeng Mansion with his head down, and said to Zeng Guofan, "Your Excellency, even if you pay twenty taels of silver from a lowly position, you can't get a sedan chair." Foot money scares people away.He didn't say anything immediately, he just sent Zhou Sheng to the street to call for a sedan chair. For a moment, Zhou Sheng really called for the sedan chair.Chang Shun didn't believe it, he raised his legs and walked out of the yard. Sure enough, there was a small sedan chair parked at the gate, and two porters were busy cleaning the sedan chair.Chang Shun thought: "Could it be that it costs thirty taels?" Then he said curiously: "My lord is used to going around the rivers and lakes, if you dare to blackmail us, be careful!"

A slightly fatter bearer hurriedly stopped and said: "Master, since you are used to going around the rivers and lakes, you should know that when you go to Hankou now, the whole capital is full of six taels of silver for food and lodging. But the master just now, six taels of silver is life and death. Regardless of the food and lodging for the two of us, if we deduct the food and lodging, we only have four taels of money. Master, do you always say that I blackmail people?" Until Chang Shun helped Zeng Guofan onto the sedan chair, he was still wondering: "Six taels can hire a sedan chair, why can't you hire a sedan chair at twenty taels? It seems that money can really bite your hand!"

After walking for two days, a group of people entered Baoding City. Changshun, Taizhuang and Zeng Guofan were quite familiar.The two were not only respectful to Zeng Guofan, they almost said that one is one and the other is two, and they never refuted. Zeng Guofan thought to himself: "Probably the emperor has something to say to them." Thinking of this, his heart was completely let go. "Chief guard," Zeng Guofan suddenly opened the sedan chair curtain and said, "Find a clean inn. Let's rest in Baoding tonight." Changshun and Taizhuang have nothing to say.The bearers carried Zeng Guofan and slowly searched for inns on the streets of Baoding.

According to the Qing Dynasty official system, no matter how small a civil official is, he can be called an adult or a master, and no matter how high a guard is, he cannot be called a master, but can only be called a guard, just like a eunuch, no matter how high his rank, can only call himself a slave, and outsiders respectfully call him father-in-law. .The level is extremely strict, and no one dares to surpass it. There are many refugees in Baoding Prefecture, and most of them sleep in the streets or under the eaves of small households.People lying on the ground in front of the disaster relief porridge shed at the entrance of the Baoding government government office seemed to be steaming from the porridge pot, as if the porridge had just been served.

Looking at the scene in front of him, Zeng Guofan's eye circles gradually turned red.He wiped his eyes with his hands and couldn't help feeling a lot of emotion. It is difficult for Min Ning to be the emperor. Since he took office, the provinces of the country have been suffering from droughts in turn. This year, the drought area has reached eight provinces.No wonder the common people say that Min Ning is the reincarnation of the fire dragon, and Min Ning's reign has been plagued by severe droughts.Looking at the situation in the past few years, I really came to this.Zeng Guofan murmured in his heart: "Could it be that Min Ning is really like the people say, the reincarnation of the fire dragon?"

That night, Zeng Guofan and his party of five stayed at the "Fu" Hotel in Baoding Prefecture. Baoding is the Zhili governor's office.Because Zhili had the responsibility of defending the capital, the post of governor was mostly held by Manchu ministers. Before Daoguang, few Han people served as governor of Zhili.Therefore, the affairs of Zhili were almost always questioned by the emperor himself, and no Han people dared to get involved.Zeng Guofan knew the pros and cons of this, so he hardly stayed in Zhili except to rest at night. He just drove all the way forward, and he didn't care about the scenery.

Twenty days later, we finally figured out Zhili and entered Shandong.Only then did we slow down our pace and go sightseeing all the way. There are no hills in Shandong, most of it is flat land.The villages are very close to each other, and sometimes there is only a narrow road between the two villages. Once you reach the entrance of the restaurant, the sky is full of cooking smoke and the smell of sweet potatoes and taro.The people walking around were also in rags, including refugees and locals with bared yellow teeth.At the junction of villages and villages, there are always big pagoda trees or big willow trees with thick arms standing, and it is impossible to tell which village it belongs to, let alone the village head or the village tail.Under the locust tree or willow tree, occasionally someone would set up a few tables, sell a few bowls of tea to passers-by, and collect a few hard-earned money, which is very convenient.

Seeing that it was still early in the afternoon, Zeng Guofan happened to have a tea stand by the side of the road, so he stomped on the sedan chair and ordered to get off the sedan chair, wanting to drink a bowl of tea and rest his feet before continuing on his way.After Changshun and Taizhuang first helped Zeng Guofan to sit down, they went around to the back of the sedan chair to relieve their hands, while the bearers took out towels and wiped their sweat. Zeng Guofan saw that the two old men, a man and a woman, were guarding the tea stall, both in their seventies.The old man had a bare and bony back, and an old towel of indistinguishable color was draped over his back. He limped and filled five bowls of water one word at a time, said "drink slowly", and was busy wiping another one. A tea table.A black rag was tied on the old woman's head, and she squatted next to the earthen stove, pulling the bellows with her hand, while adding coal to the stove.It may be that there is too much mud in the coal and it is not easy to catch fire. The old woman arched her back and brought her mouth to the stove to blow on the fire. The white coal ash fell on the old woman's head and face.The old woman raised her head, and Zeng Guofan saw that her eyes were full of tears, probably choked by the smoke.

The two bearers had already tucked the towels into their waists, and each of them was drinking a bowl of tea. Changshun and Taizhuang also sat down while wearing their belts.Chang Shun picked up a bowl of tea and licked it with the tip of his tongue. He frowned and said, "Huh? Do you have dates or something?" He was obviously talking to the old man. The old man hesitated and said: "Young master, there are dates, but they are more expensive than tea, and they cost two big bucks a catty." When Taizhuang heard this, he took out a tael of silver from his pocket, threw it on the table, and said, "Take the silver." The old man's eyes lit up, he took a step closer and grabbed the silver, weighed it once, then put it back in place as if it was hot, smiled awkwardly and said, "Little old man doesn't have so many dates!" Chang Shun said: "Take as much as you have." The old man sighed, with a troubled expression on his face: "The little old man can't find money!" Taizhuang smiled and said, "Take out the dates first! We didn't ask you to find money." Trembling, the old man pulled out half a bag of dates from under a table, opened the bag, and held them onto the table one by one with his hands.Yinzi didn't move, just looked and looked.In the blink of an eye, a mountain of dates was piled up in front of the five people. Zeng Guofan said with a smile: "Old man, enough is enough. Just put away the money when you are old. How is the harvest this year?" The old man gave a wry smile, and while collecting the money, he said: "The little old man just accepted it with a shy face! Seeing how generous the lords are, they are from the county government in front, right?" Zeng Guofan peeled a jujube and stuffed it into his mouth. While chewing, he asked, "Old man, where is this ground? Do people from the county government come here often?" The old man replied: "This is a plain, ten miles ahead is the Chengguan. In my country, it's the season when the harvest is green and yellow, and it's not the season. Why do the people from the county government come? The old man just wants to see some wealthy people, so let's just talk about it." , it cannot be taken seriously.” When Chang Shun heard that Chengguan was ten miles ahead, he put down his dates and said to Zeng Guofan, "Master, let's go ahead. There will be more food at Chengguan." Zeng Guofan smiled, knowing that Changshun was not very interested in this backwater, so he had to grab two handfuls of dates and put them in the sedan chair, saying "Old man, please be busy" before getting on the sedan chair and moving forward. After walking for less than two hours, I saw a city tower in front of me. Although the city wall was a bit dilapidated, the word "plain" above the tower was really eye-catching.The bearer quickened his pace, and soon passed through the deserted city gate. Zeng Guofan thought strangely in the sedan chair: "It's not yet noon, when there should be a lot of people, why are there so few people entering the city?" Pingyuan County is an ancient county. Although it has a small population, it has a great reputation. It is said that Liu Xuande, the emperor's uncle of the Han Dynasty, once served as the county magistrate here, and Zhang Yide, who is 3,000 years old, still flogged the postal supervisor here. It was noon when Zeng Guofan came here, and he shouldn't have rested his feet, but when a group of five people passed by the county government office, Zeng Guofan heard that this was the county government office, so he raised the curtain of the sedan chair to have a look. Out of his curiosity.He found that in front of the spacious county yamen, not only were there no complainants and grievances, but there were also no yamen servants. Zeng Guofan let down the sedan chair, walked out, and looked at it for a long time. Opposite him were only two stone lions squatting on both sides of the door. As we all know, the Qing Dynasty has entered a period of unrest since the end of Jiaqing, and more and more people are filing lawsuits, and the gates of yamen everywhere are overcrowded every day.How can the scene in Pingyuan County not be surprising? "Master," Chang Shun has been calling Zeng Guofan for many days, "Let's hurry! Why is a dilapidated yamen's gate worth your attention?!" Zeng Guofan gave a wry smile, got back into the sedan chair, but said to Chang Shun: "Chang Steward, let's rest in the plain." Chang Shun is now playing the role of housekeeper, and Zeng Guofan is naturally the big shopkeeper of the firm.