Chapter 32 Section IX

From then on, Lou Hu never came to the door again. I still train my fighting cocks every day, and my life is like a fish in water, but because of my reputation, it is inevitable that some ranger boys will come to join me.Although I am not interested in them, since I make a living by fighting cockfights, I cannot avoid making friends with some of them.Cockfighting is not a simple thing, he and blood, bravery, wine and meat are like brothers, there is no distinction between each other, blood is thicker than water. During this period, Chen Tang actually came a few times. From his speech and behavior, it can be seen that he is not very satisfied with his position.It's no wonder that serving the emperor for dinner is not an easy task, if you are not careful, you may get into trouble.Moreover, he said that his ambition is not to be this kind of official, he hopes to have the opportunity to become a political official who governs political affairs, so that he may have the opportunity to do one or two earth-shattering things in order to leave his name in history.And how could an official who served the emperor for dinner leave a name in history?

I don't have much to talk to him, so I can only persuade him to wait for the opportunity. I said: "Chen Jun, if you want to be promoted as a big Han official, if you don't rely on military merits, you have to rely on hard work. Today's emperor is a sage, and the world Anle, there are no battles to fight, so you can only rely on hard work. Since you have Zhang Hou to help you, if you rely on a few more powerful officials, you will surely succeed." Maybe it's because my words don't hurt or itch, Chen Tang has been here a few times, and he doesn't show up anymore.

And the few times he came, I ordered the servants to block the news and not tell Wan Xin, so Wan Xin didn't know about those few times.Now I feel more and more that Chen Tang is really not a reliable person. It is better not to let them meet again than to make Wan Xin feel turbulent again after seeing him.Perhaps, it was precisely because of my indifference in words that Chen Tang finally disappeared from our Wanjia. However, it seemed to me that I was destined to never get rid of him again, and soon I had to deal with him again. In the winter of the first year of Huanglong, it was bitterly cold. I was sitting in front of the charcoal stove at home to keep warm. Suddenly, I heard a commotion in the yard. Li Chang came in with red and swollen eyes. Behind him were two prison gates with the same expression. eccentric.Just as I was about to speak, the head of the village interrupted me and said, "Just now the Chang'an order has passed down a document announcing the death of the emperor, and the post-horses have sent mourning to all the counties and countries in the world."

I immediately pretended to be sad, and at the same time pretended to be incredible.The head of the village ordered: "Give Wanjun a piece of cloth and a bucket of rice." A prison gate took out a piece of white cloth and a bag of rice from a box beside him and handed them to me.The head of the village looked up at my house and said, "Wan Jun, hang the white cloth on the lintel properly for at least twenty-seven days. If you want to express your condolences to Emperor Daxing, you can go there every morning and evening when you are eating. Kneeling at the north gate of Weiyang Palace, facing the gate of the palace, weeping, there will be people in the palace who will distribute money and food to everyone who cries."

Nonsense, it is wishful thinking to ask us to kneel under Beique and cry in such a cold day.And am I short of that little money?But I still bowed and said, "Okay, I will definitely go. Li Jun has worked hard." The head of the village wiped his tears and confessed a few more times, and went to another house.I scratched my scalp, feeling that this was a very annoying thing, and such a piece of white cloth hanging on the door lintel seemed too gloomy.If you want to go back and think about it, you have to obey the order.I ordered the servants to hang up the white cloth, and I walked into the room boredly.

There is a watchtower in my house, which is the place where I usually go to see the distance. In the early morning of the next day, I went up to have a bird's-eye view of the whole house, and found that overnight, the lintels of every house were covered with white cloth.Although the north wind howled and was bitingly cold, there had been no snow this year, but the white linen made it look like a heavy snow had already fallen. Of course, I dare not speak out about these disrespectful thoughts.I just don't like Emperor Daxing very much. Although he is indeed capable and manages the country in an orderly manner, his methods are too cruel. Since the death of General Huo Guang, his methods of governing the country have become more and more severe.According to some white-haired elders, the emperor's governance methods are a bit like Emperor Xiaowu's, and he also likes to appoint grammatical officials, and he is also cruel and ungrateful to his ministers.Those officials who were loved by the people, such as Jing Zhaoyin Zhao Guanghan, Sili Xiaowei Gai Kuanrao, Zuo Fengyi Han Yanshou, and Pingtonghou Yang Yun were all sentenced to beheaded for a small mistake.Especially Jingzhao Yin Zhao Guanghan, when he was in office, there were almost no roads in the Jingzhao area to pick up things, so once he was sentenced to death, Chang'an actually gathered tens of thousands of people to go to Fuque outside the Golden Horse Gate to ask, willing to go to the execution ground instead of Zhao Guanghan and die.Such agitated public opinion, the emperor did not listen.Now that he is dead, what is there for the people to be sad about, and I have always heard that the prince is fond of Confucianism, magnanimous and benevolent, I am afraid that the people will hate him for his early death.

This new year is really unhappy. You can't drink and eat meat, you can't play bamboo and sing, and the whole Chang'an is shrouded in a chill atmosphere.On the fourth day of the New Year, when Emperor Daxing buried Du Ling, we finally felt relieved and removed the white funeral cloths from the lintels one after another.The new emperor immediately issued an edict to amnesty the world. This is even more wonderful news for me, because from today onwards, some of the things I did in the past that violated laws and regulations will be cancelled. unwilling.But if I don’t do it, others will lend me money and beat me.Do I have a choice?

In the days that followed, I hardly ever went out, slaughtered chickens and sheep every day, and enjoyed the delayed joy of the New Year at home, and the days passed quickly without realizing it.When the coldness of the New Year was still very solemn, the plum blossoms in my yard were already in full bloom. This aroused my interest in viewing the flowers, so I ordered a banquet to be held and invited my sister to drink with me.My sister is still depressed throughout the winter. I hope I can persuade her well so that she can go out for an outing in the coming spring, and bid farewell to the past in her heart with the old year.

My sister is in good spirits today. I told her that the palm of my left hand is a little stiff. Maybe an old injury from the past is about to recur as I get older. She seems worried, so she has been carefully advising me how to take care of myself and Advise me that I must marry a wife and have a lot of children, so that my ancestors will not be deprived of blood in the future.Yes, she has a point.The reason why I have never married a wife is that first of all, I have never been able to get rid of the woman who sold pots in my heart; second, I feel that although I am rich, it is not a righteous way after all. If I marry a wife and have children, in case of disaster in the future, Wouldn't it be harmful?

Usually, I can't express this kind of thought, but today, taking advantage of our brother and sister expressing our thoughts, I said it without any scruples, but I didn't expect her to say that she understood it very well.I was very happy, and the conversation became more and more intense. When I was drunk, I seemed to hear a noisy voice outside, which was very noisy. I was a little irritable, so I ordered the servants around me: "Go out and see, what is going on?" What's going on?" After a while, the servant came to report: "It's nothing, but there is a guest outside asking to see you."

It's a guest again, I hope it's not Tian Tingtian's ilk.I think. "Where's the famous thorn?" I breathed out the smell of alcohol, like cooking smoke in the cold air.I thought, if this guest is a good friend, it would be a coincidence. It might be a good idea to enjoy the snow and plum blossoms together.I am very excited today. If I can meet a close friend to join in the conversation, I may be even happier. "He doesn't have a name badge." The servant replied, "That's why Er Niu and Xiao Hei didn't let him in." I interrupted him unhappily: "How can a guest who comes to join Wanzhang stop me at will, it doesn't matter whether he has a famous stab or not, please invite him upstairs, I want to drink wine with him and enjoy the plum blossoms." As soon as I finished speaking, the servant actually covered his mouth and laughed.I was a little unhappy: "Bold, are you laughing at me for being elegant?" I slapped my palm on the table, and the wine judge jumped up. The servant hurried to the seat and said: "My lord, forgive me, how dare the villain laugh at the lord, besides the lord has always been an elegant person, no matter how much he appreciates the plum blossoms, the villain is laughing because the guest outside the door looks really... ..." At this point, he hesitated. "What are you hesitating about, tell me quickly." I was getting impatient. "The villain dare not say it." He kowtowed again. I said, "Why?" "Because the villain is worried that the master will scold the villain again, the villain does not want to be disrespectful to the guest, but this guest, the villain thinks that he is really unworthy to make friends with the master." He pretended to be trembling and said, but in fact, I have always treated my servants with gentle words and pleasant expressions. , he has no reason to be afraid of me. "It doesn't matter." I said, "Just say it, I don't blame you." The servant said: "He has a dark complexion, his skin is like grapefruit peel, bumpy, like Qin Dali, a blacksmith from the east of the city. In addition, his teeth are really terrifying. The villain thinks that he may have kept a lot of them in his mouth. The worms are specially used to help him remove food residues, but those worms are superfluous, and even his teeth are decayed together." My heart was pounding suddenly, my God!It was him, although the servant tried to describe it with teasing words, but it just made me sure who was here, and I said loudly: "You damn thing, how dare you be so mean. Give me the guest Please come in, I know who he is, he is indeed my friend." Seeing that I was really anxious, the servant was also a little panicked: "God, really. Then the villain asks the master not to tell him what the villain said. The villain deserves death." "Okay, you go. I'm going in and changing clothes." How could I not know this guest, his name is Lu Zhong, a good friend I met when I went out to buy chickens.It was the first time I went out of customs, and I was unfamiliar with the place. When I passed by Taiyuan, a group of rogue youths surrounded me in an alley, and seven or eight full bows were aimed at me. Not only did I almost lose everything, but I'm afraid I won't even be able to save my life.Fortunately, Lu Zhong and a group of iron officials and prisoners passed by, everyone was carrying shiny weapons that had just been forged, drinking away the gang of scoundrels, and I was lucky enough to be rescued.At that time, I was very grateful to him, but he didn't take credit for it, and even bought me several liters of wine, and personally sent me out of Taiyuan before returning.Later, when I got rich, I sent someone to ask about his news, thinking that if he was still an iron official prisoner, I would spend money to redeem him.Unexpectedly, the person sent out came back and said that Lu Zhong was said to have gathered in the mountains and forests to become a group of robbers, killed the local county magistrate, and stole the weapons in the arsenal. We must not mess with him, so as not to be implicated by him. I have no choice but to know that the law punishes group thieves extremely severely, which is comparable to ordinary thieves. Anyone who has interrogation with group thieves will be cut in half.I had no choice but to put away my thoughts of looking for him, and I couldn't help but sigh in my heart, a person like Lu Zhong is kind in nature, if he really became a group of robbers, I would not think him a villain, I can only complain about the injustice in this world .I didn't expect that he was still alive and found my door, how could I not feel excited. I said loudly to my sister: "Benefactor, the guest outside is the benefactor I mentioned to you, Lu Zhong. Do you want to meet brother's benefactor?" Wan Xin was also surprised and said: "It turns out that it is the benefactor you often mentioned. If it is him, of course I have to see him. Why should I toast a glass of wine? If he hadn't drawn his sword to help back then, how could we, brother and sister, be where we are today?" "Yes, yes." I said, "Actually, even if those rascals didn't kill me that time, but just robbed my money, I guess I would have died. Ah Xin, it's good if you want to see him, but You have to be prepared. Although this benefactor is tall and strong, his face is really terrifying. According to him, it is because he has been working in iron officials for many years and was scalded by molten iron. The teeth are indeed ugly. Rough old rice." Wan Xin said calmly, "Don't worry, brother, your sister doesn't judge people by their looks." "That's good." I said. After a while, I only heard the sound of the stairs, and a servant brought up a person. As I expected, it was Lu Zhong.