Chapter 24 deserted yamen

Cao Cao had a grudge against Liang Hu because he failed to become the Luoyang Commander, but he realized that this humble Luoyang Northern Captain was actually a rare job when he took office. Luoyang City, the capital of Han Dynasty, was built on Mang Mountain and Yishui River. The outer city was six miles wide from east to west and nine miles long from north to south.There are eleven city gates around the city: the three gates of Kaiyang Gate, Pingcheng Gate and Xiaoyuan Gate from east to west in the south; Gu Gate and Xia Gate in the north of the city; The Middle East Gate and the Shumen Gate; the west gate of the city are the Shangxi Gate, Yongmen Gate and Guangyang Gate.South three, north two, east three, west three, this is the pattern of the eleven gates in Luoyang.Because Luoyang is the first county in the world under the emperor's feet, and its area is quite large, the towns and houses outside the city are better than those inside the city, so the imperial court set up a county captain on each side of the city, and the status is the same as that of county captains in other places.

Although the four county lieutenants in the east, west, north and south have the same official position and salary, the actual errands are very different!The Nanfang county lieutenant's job is the most difficult, because he guards the main gate and needs to arrange for officials from various counties to meet with him, and there are also important places such as Mingtang, Piyong, Lingtai, and Taixue in the jurisdiction, so although he doesn't need to be in charge, he still has a lot to worry about. There is also Nanshi, where there are daily transactions, and there are many people from all walks of life, so the Nanfang county captain is very busy all day long.The area under the jurisdiction of the western county captain is mostly common people, and the common people go to the city to work and trade in the gold market every day, so there are a lot of troublesome things to go back and forth to check and settle disputes.The east side of the city, from Yongheli and Buguangli, are the mansions of senior officials in Beijing, and there is a horse market outside the city all the year round, so the east three gates are mostly used by officials and family members.

In contrast, only outside the north gate controlled by Cao Cao is the most leisurely.The north of Luoyang City is next to Yishui. After crossing the river, there is the rolling Beiman Mountain. There are almost no residential houses here, but there are some thatched huts by the mountains and rivers. place.Originally, there were few errands, and in addition, the Wei Yamen in the north was not far from the Changshui School Wei Camp led by Cao Cao's uncle Cao Chi, so there was nothing wrong with the father and son taking care of each other. Cao Cao led his subordinates to patrol twice a day, and went back to rest without any accidents. Especially in the afternoon, he would visit his uncle's Changshui Xiaowei camp from time to time.

Although this Changshui battalion belongs to the fifth battalion of the Northern Army like the Tunqi, Yueqi, infantry, and Shesheng battalions, its soldiers are different from those of the fourth battalion. The 736 soldiers under its jurisdiction are all Hu people.Although these nomadic soldiers have returned to the Central Plains, they still maintain the tradition of being good at riding and shooting.It is also a kind of comfort and enjoyment for Cao Cao to watch these foreigners practice riding and shooting every day. After lunch that day, Cao Cao felt sleepy, he didn't even bother to lift his legs, so he simply dozed off in the yamen.

"Meng De! Are you safe?" Cao Cao felt someone calling his name with his eyes closed, and it took him a long time to recognize the big man in front of him - Lou Gui! "Uncle Zi! Where did you go, kid? How did you get in?" Cao Cao hurriedly got up and straightened his clothes.Since returning to Beijing to become an official, friends from the past have come to congratulate him one after another.First, Cui Jun and Cai Mao invited him to a banquet, then Yuan Shao came to congratulate him and brought letters from Zhang Miao and He Yong, and later even Yuan Shu came to entertain him, not to mention Wang Jun and Xu You, but this was the only one. Lou Gui has not been seen for more than a month.

"Your yamen can still stop me? I said outside that I was your eldest brother, the eldest nephew of Mr. Cao, and they bowed and bowed to let me in." "Pretend to be a relative? But you really... Where have you been these days? It's so mysterious that no one knows." "Don't mention it!" Lou Gui waved his hand, and sat down lazily without waiting for Cao Cao's greeting, "I don't have the way to be an official like you, and it's not interesting to study "Book of Rites" in the teacher's house all day long. This year, the teacher became busier instead of being a Situ; Xu You is too poor, and seems to live by making fun of people; I want to study with Wang Jun and do other things, but I can’t calm down. I've convinced him, I really have kung fu on my butt - I can sit with my book for a whole day! I can't come."

"Haha... You don't seem like a scholar, big man." Cao Cao felt amused. "Later, I simply asked the teacher for leave, and went to Liangzhou alone. Let's relax! This time it really opened my eyes." "Oh? Why did you open your eyes?" "Since Zhang Huan and Duan Jiong defeated the Qiang people, it will be a few years later that those in the west will be richer now. Duan Jiong is now a captain, and the people who used to follow him to death have all risen with the tide, and they are all ostentatious. There is also Dong Zhuo, who is the most domineering. Most of the soldiers under him are Hu people, including Qiang people, Tuge, and Huns. I figured it out. With soldiers in his hands, his waist is hard. Those guys said Officials, in fact, are similar to bandits, occupying people’s fields, extorting money and food, and linking up with local tyrants. Killing people is like crushing bedbugs.” Lou Gui talked eloquently, “These frontier generals all indulge their subordinates to oppress the Qiang people. In my opinion Those foreigners are clearly the ones who asked them to rebel; if they rebel, they suppress and kill people to claim credit from the court... The style of Yu Xu, Huangfugui, and Zhang Huan to appease the border clans is completely gone!"

Cao Cao shook his head again and again: "It seems that Liangzhou is in war and local tyrants, you must have worked hard along the way!" "That's needless to say! Fortunately, I met an elder—Yan Zhong from Hanyang. I ate and drank for nothing at his place for many days, and wrote me a letter before leaving. Hey! It's even better than Guanfang documents, Seeing Yan Zhong's letter, no one in the Qiang and Han groups dared to make things difficult..." Lou Gui suddenly changed the subject, "I can't compare to you, County Captain! Too much time to sleep in the yamen!"

"Come on! Don't make fun of me. It's not like you don't know about the affairs of the Beijing officials. How many official duties can there be in the north of the city? Don't look at the busy errands in the south and west. Only when you are busy can you achieve political achievements! There is hope for promotion. Like me I'm just messing around in this position at a young age, when will I be able to make it out! Why don't you give me a small county supervisor instead of doing this!" "Don't be ignorant of your blessings when you are in the blessings. How many people have sharpened their heads and can't get into the capital! How are you, you still want to be a foreigner, and you have only been an official for two months and you are eager to be promoted. I am the reincarnation of Gan Luo! There are a lot of magistrates who have been magistrates for more than ten years in the world, and you are in Beijing as soon as you become an official. They are all jealous. Now your father is very happy in the court, and the emperor trusts him Him, and your three uncles, which one of them is a junior? Do you need to worry about your future? If you worry about it every day, why don’t people like me and Xu You find a tree with a crooked neck and hang themselves?”

"If you hang yourself, you can't find the crooked neck tree. Your head is too high, and the crooked neck tree can't hang you." Cao Cao teased him. "Hey! Cao Mengde, you have learned how to make people happy! People say that if you get rich, you don't know the old folks. It is really not adulterated at all. When a high-ranking official comes to your yamen tomorrow, how dare you think he is tall or short? of!" "Look at what you said, an official does not shy away from the powerful. If he is a decent official, even if he is a yamen servant, I will welcome him from afar; if he is a sycophant , even if the Sangong Jiuqing commits a crime in my hands, I will deal with it ruthlessly!"

"Oh? Can you have this kind of ambition? You are very confident when you say it. I'm afraid it won't be the case when it really comes. You are now a 'song of the wind and a warrior', and you will tremble if someone really big hits you! When the time comes You can't rely on others to make jokes!" Lou Gui glanced at him, "If I were you, I would stop saying such nonsense, we brothers, who can look down on others?" Cao Cao was both angry and funny when he heard his words that the car was neither soft nor hard, and thought to himself: "This person is very good, but he loves to care about his level with others. Seven people are not convinced and eight are not angry. Sooner or later he will Suffering." "Okay, okay, it's okay to count me as wrong." Cao Cao apologized with a smile, "We are also idle. Go to Changshuiying to see how the barbarians practice?" "You really have little knowledge! During the days I stayed in Xiliang, I saw very few Qiang people? Although the Qiang people's suffering has been basically eliminated, there are still many Qiang people in the west! Especially in the area of ​​Yanhan, there is a righteous The leader of Qiang Chang is called Beigong Boyu, and there are thousands of people in his tribe! Everyone is proficient in bows and horses, and half of them can speak Chinese, isn't it better than the gang led by your uncle?" Lou Gui said to the chief Hu Bing from Shuiying dismissed it at all, "I said it would be better for you to accompany me to the horse market for a while, and only after this trip did I realize that it is not enough without good foot strength." "Okay!" Cao Cao agreed simply, "We'll leave after I arrange business." "Bah! There's a fart business at the gate of your poor yamen!"