The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

Long Zhen got up early in the morning, and at dawn, he ordered Zhao Dutou and Fang Dutou to drive up the soldiers one after another, leaving 50 people to wait on the horses, bring enough dry food and water, and then send 50 people to various car dealers to gather carts , the rest followed him to a certain inn in the north of the city that he had agreed with Yan Biyun.

A servant of the Yan family lived in the inn. He was in charge of contacting Ma Jun. Yan Biyun didn't want Long Zhen to know that he was from the Yan family, so since he entered Luzhou City, he only contacted Long Zhen and others through this inn. .

The servant hurriedly went to Hefeng Tower to report to Yan Biyun, and after a while, Yan Biyun and Xiao Xian'er came in a carriage surrounded by Yan's nursing home with their veils on.

Long Zhen stepped forward and said: "The vehicle has been assembled, and the lady can take me to the granary for delivery."

Most of the stones in Yan Biyun's heart were put down. In the past few days, she also ordered her family and Su's family to gather carts everywhere, but with little effect. .

This Long Zhen really has some skills, and he actually let him gather a large cart. It seems that it is easy for an official to handle things, and no matter how many people want to give some face.

Since this is the case, it should not be too late, the delivery should be made earlier and the road earlier, Yan Biyun led the people out of the city without saying a word and went straight to the grain storage place in the north of the city. A manor was found in a dense forest.

Long Zhenxin said: This kind of food storage place can't be found even if you want to find it. These merchants are really crazy, and they have exhausted their brains just to make money.

It doesn't matter if you look outside, but when you enter the inside, everyone can't close their mouths. There are more than a dozen houses, and the sacks inside are piled up like a hill. Each bag is full of high-quality rice, which looks spectacular.

Long Zhen gave an order, and the carts filed in. The weighing and loading of the carts was in full swing. They were busy until Shenshi in the afternoon, and finally loaded all the 50 shi of grain into the carts, but the 50 carts still couldn't fit. Fortunately, Yan Biyun had collected Some vehicles were hurriedly transferred, and then the [-] shi were barely loaded into the vehicle.

Looking at the nearby roads, more than 900 carts lined up in a long line, stretching for five or six miles. More than 40 carts were loaded with clean water and food for the road and fodder for the livestock. The scene was spectacular. A team of 1000 to [-] people, plus thousands of livestock, turned a remote northern suburb into a downtown area.

Long Zhen ascended the heights and looked from afar, his heart skipped a beat. With such a long convoy, let alone bandits coming to rob or rob it, even if no one came to make trouble, he would not take good care of it; but this is the first time he has commanded such a big scene. Really some heroic pride rose from the bottom of my heart.

Yan Biyun ordered Xiaoxian'er to take out a pen and paper and hand it to Long Zhendao: "Commander Long, please make a receipt, and my family will use this receipt to go to the third division to settle the money."

Long Zhen had never handled such a large amount of goods before. When asked about the price, Yan Biyun said indifferently: "Don't specify the price, just say how many stones of grain you received."

Long Zhen didn't talk too much. This woman was as cold as ice, and she was covered with a cloth all day long. Although her body and voice were excellent, she was by no means the type that I could control. Seeing her domineering appearance, I'd better not provoke her, so I wrote The receipt, signature, stamp, and fingerprint were all in order; Yan Biyun and his party took the receipt and left without a trace.

Long Zhen gave an order: "All vehicles gather at Dongmen Square. It's getting late today, and we'll leave early tomorrow morning."

The cars drove to the east gate like a long dragon, and gathered together in the square outside the east gate. After hearing the news, Zhu Shiyong who arrived was righteous enough to send [-] troops to assist the guards. That night, the square was lit up. Dozens of bonfires illuminated the entire east city in a red light. People in the square neighed all night, kept the people around them awake all night, and scolded tens of thousands of mothers. <Going in the direction of the mansion, there are three figures standing by the window of a small building near the city gate.

One of them whispered: "The courier has been dispatched. It seems that the magistrate has agreed to this method. We mentioned it to him yesterday, but he still scolded us. It seems that he is not full of benevolence, righteousness and morality. He is full of male robbers and female prostitutes."

Another person said: "Old Huang, didn't you scold us all by what you said? This should be said in this way. In today's world, one's brains are sloppy, and one can survive by being tough. We have no choice but to do so, magistrate." My lord has no other choice, if someone refuses to let us have a good life, we will let him have no life."

The first person laughed lightly and said: "The president can still speak. After saying this, it sounds much more comfortable."

A dark and thin figure next to him smiled and said: "Why doesn't Weng Tang go to the test for fame, just relying on this method of being able to tell the truth over and over again, no matter what, he can become a magistrate."

Tang Jiyuan laughed and said: "Old Liu, you come to arrange me too, but everyone in the world thinks it is better to be an official. If you want me to say that it is the most affordable to make money, what is the use of a magistrate? Let's ask him to send someone to do things. Don't you think that's the case?" Did you just follow our instructions? What’s the difference between him being the magistrate and us being the magistrate? Don’t you have to follow the eyes of the men?”

Chairman Liu nodded and said, "Jingpi, we don't bother to be officials, but those who are officials are dispatched by us."

The three of them laughed loudly, and accidentally made their voices a little louder, which caused the surrounding night dogs to bark wildly, and the night birds flew up.

……

In the early morning of the next day, the noise in Dongmen Square was even louder, shouting, cursing, the sound of driving wheels, the sound of whips beating animals, and the sound of horseshoes, all of which could be heard endlessly; At that time, the East Gate Square was already empty.

Dozens of piles of burnt bonfires billowed with green smoke, and the square was in a mess, with cow dung and horses drowning everywhere, attracting more than a dozen hungry wild dogs to scurry around in the square, fighting endlessly.

Two carts lined up on the official road, even though the team stretched for nearly three miles, Long Zhen ordered Zhao and Fang to lead [-] cavalry troops each to break the road, and the remaining [-] people organized five horsemen in addition to one person at [-] paces. The ten-man team rode back and forth to the left and right in case of accidents.

The snow on the road had already melted, and it was not as difficult to walk as he had imagined. Although the official road was muddy, the weather was cold, and the clods of soil had frozen together. Apart from some slipping and the feet of the animals, there were no major problems.

But Long Zhen didn't urge everyone to hurry up, he planned to just crawl slowly on the road, it's okay to climb for ten days and half a month, as long as the grain truck is on the road, he doesn't care when it arrives, Privy Envoy Du Yan The words are still in my ears, Su Jin can offend, Yan Shu can offend, and his immediate boss, Du Shumi, the highest military officer of the Song Dynasty, must never offend.

Besides, the position of Commander of the Bodyguard Department promised by Privy Du is really attractive. Once this position sits under his buttocks, he will be one of the most trusted people of the emperor. So why did you come here? Could it be that you have enough food and clothing to play with a few women?Isn't it for the glory of the ancestors?

The convoy squirmed like reptiles on the official road. At noon, it took less than [-] miles in three hours. At this speed, it could reach up to [-] miles a day, and it would be difficult to reach the distance of nearly [-] miles without walking for seven or eight days. Long Zhen Not in a hurry at all, very satisfied with the progress.

There is a big city called Shouzhou more than 160 miles north of Luzhou. This is the seat of Huainan West Road. There is a mountain [-] miles east of Shouzhou, named Bagong Mountain; the name of this mountain is quite mythical. , "Taiping Huanyu Ji" said: "In the past, Huainan King and Bagong buried gold here, and ascended to heaven in the daytime. The remaining medicine is in the vessel, and chickens and dogs lick it. They are all immortals. There are traces of people and horses behind them, and they are still there. , so the mountain is named after Hachiko." It can be seen that this is the source of the allusion of "one person attains the Tao, the chicken and the dog ascend to heaven".

The height of this mountain is not high, the main peak is only less than 400 meters high, but the mountain is steep, the mountains stretch quite widely, and the grass is deep and the forest is dense.

Because of this, the bandits Xiao gathered here, and Huainan Road gathered Shouzhou Luzhou and Luzhou Xiangjun to encircle and suppress all of them. The people who went down were also coerced into gangs and became bandits, and their momentum became stronger every day.

For several months, no one dared to walk alone for several miles below the mountain, fearing that these gangsters would be brave and killed. The bandit was caught.

This day, the guard post of the gangster who was idle at the foot of the mountain suddenly saw a horse slowly moving forward on the road at the foot of the mountain. Let the horse rest for a while.

The gangsters suddenly came to their senses. It is boring to be a bandit when officers and soldiers dare not come to encircle and suppress them. Although this person looks like nothing, but this person is wearing a uniform, he must be a member of the government, and he will say anything stop him.

After the news tree was cut down, the bandits in front of the mountain pass had already opened their pockets to welcome this unlucky tolerance. This gentleman didn't know it, and he was still sitting slowly on the horseback, holding a roll of noodles in his hand and eating water hyacinth. It's a joy to eat and drink.