The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

(For collection!)

Shortly after noon, hundreds of Xiang soldiers went deep into the streets and alleys, and they only asked one thing: "Did you ask if there were thieves at home in the past few days?"

"Stopped by thieves? The family is destitute, and there is not even a valuable guy. Rich people only recruit thieves. Our thieves don't even look down on them. Welcome to reading"

"Have you been thieves? That's true. Wang Er, next door, steals firewood from my firewood pile every day to make a fire home, but you don't need to take him; Wang's second hand and foot are disabled, and there is a blind old lady at home. Steal as much as you want." , there is no need to catch him, it's poor."

"Thief? I just want to laugh when I say it. The winter before last year was like this. It was freezing cold. A thief came to my house to steal something. That day my wife was blaming me for losing [-] Wen in a bet yesterday. At night, I was stuck in the bed with a mallet and I was not allowed to go to bed. I had no choice but to sleep on the floor on the floor. Unexpectedly, a thief came at night. I pulled the latch and stepped on it. I just guessed my arm and just slipped like that. , Lord Bing, guess what? Hey hey... Lord Bing, don’t leave, I haven’t finished talking yet, these guys, Qiuba, why did you leave when I just got addicted to storytelling?”

Master Bing didn't listen, and the people next to him became interested: "Tell me quickly, what happened afterwards?"

"What happened later? The thief hit the edge of the bed with a bang, and the girl in my family thought I was sneaking up on the bed, and beat the little thief with a mallet without thinking. In the end, the crying father and mother ran away, that miserable... tsk tsk tsk."

The eyeballs of the onlookers flicked on the ground: "That old woman in your family is quite cruel, brother, you must have eaten a lot of sticks, it's no wonder you are still alive and kicking."

"Go, go, you know what a fart. A beating is a kiss or a love. Besides, my wife has a sense of proportion. She only hits the forehead and never hits the vital part. She knows that my forehead is harder than iron." points, bear it."

"Cut...!" Everyone scattered in a hurry, bragging too much.

……

Such an afternoon, the soldiers didn't find out anything, but they heard a lot of stories, but they were all stories that had nothing to do with the past few days. Silver and copper coins are completely different from the thief that the envoy told us to find.

The sun was setting in the west, and the soldiers came to the yamen to report to Su Jin. Su Jin's heart sank a bit when someone came, because what he brought was not a clue.

Seeing the end of Shenshi, the sky was getting dark, and the yamen was about to close, Su Jin finally got up disappointed, and walked to the inner hall of the yamen dejectedly. After tossing so many brothers out all afternoon, he ended up engaging in a lot of petty theft cases , the master of the yamen sat in the hall and asked smugly: "Master Special Envoy is really clever. He can know that thieves and robbers are prevalent in Yangzhou City without leaving home. After this rectification, my Yangzhou City will become a peach blossom garden that never closes its doors at night and does not pick up things. Admire it." ,admire."

Su Jin was furious, and stretched out his hand to stuff a stack of petty theft cases into the master's arms, saying: "It depends on your Song Fuzun to solve them one by one, Yangzhou Qingping World depends on you, I will do my best."

The master was dumbfounded. Mr. Song Fuzun didn't know what happened these few days. He was sick in bed, sighed, and didn't even sit in the lobby of the yamen. Most of these cases fell on him. Big cases are easy to handle. I'm afraid that trivial cases will not be investigated until the New Year, which is really unlucky.

As soon as Su Jin walked through the yamen with a livid face, he heard the sound of footsteps behind him. Turning his head, Zhao Hu came running out of breath, and said loudly, "Master, go slowly, I heard some news."

Su Jin hurriedly asked: "Why did you come back now, didn't you ask you to go to the neighborhood to ask?"

Zhao Hu said: "I asked all over the neighborhood, but I didn't find anything. I asked all the way to the south city, and kept asking around the mound in the southeast corner. Finally, a family said that their house had lost things recently."

Su Jin cheered up and said, "What was lost?"

Zhao Hu said: "It's an old couple. The woman is sick and can't walk, and the old man has deaf ears. He talked to me in a wrong way. I was so anxious that I almost jumped. It took me a long time to finally figure it out."

Su Jin rolled his eyes and said: "Yes, yes, you have worked hard, tell me what I lost?"

Zhao Hu swallowed and spit: "The thief stole the cold rice balls from that family's kitchen for several days, and he came again last night. He stole the rice balls, but he also took the old man's old cotton trousers; poor man The old man’s house only had a pair of cotton trousers, and the old couple took turns wearing them, and this is great, the old couple sat on the bed naked and couldn’t get out.”

Su Jin frowned and said, "Why didn't the old man report to the government a few days ago?"

Zhao Hu said: "The old man thought it was a wild cat who entered the house. Besides, the place is far away, almost reaching the bottom of the city wall in the southeast corner. The old couple originally planted a few fields of vegetables on the hill, fearing that pigs and dogs would ruin it. , so I set up my house on a small slope for guarding, far away from the streets of the city."

Su Jin patted Zhao Hu on the shoulder vigorously and said: "My good brother, this is the way to do things. You are not what you used to be now. You are rough but fine. Make a note of merit; the news you have heard is very important; let’s prepare right away, and we’ll set off now.”

Zhao Hu was very embarrassed by Su Jin's praise, and coyly said: "I learned it from my master, where are we going?"

Su Jin said: "Let's go to the old couple's house and ask someone to bring some rice, oil, money and silver. By the way, find some cotton-padded clothes and trousers to take. We can't go to the old man's house empty-handed."

Zhao Hu said: "Do you want to catch the thief at night?"

Su Jin said: "No, at the end of the day, at night, the thief's stomach will be hungry again, I hope he is Long Zhen, if it is not for him, I will jump into the river in a hurry."

As night fell, Wuqi slowly approached the small thatched hut that Zhao Hu had mentioned on the remote Nancheng alleyway. When he reached the foot of the small slope, Su Jin got off his horse, and the four generals of the Dynasty Mahan Hengha also dismounted and tied the horse. At the foot of the slope, a few people quietly came to the hut carrying rice oil, new cotton jackets and new cotton trousers.

Su Jin patted on the door lightly, but there was no sound in the darkness. Su Jin thought for a while, the old man was hard of hearing, maybe he couldn't hear, so he stretched out his hand and pushed.

The door was pushed open with a squeak, and just as Su Jin was about to open his mouth to ask a question, he heard the sound of the wind rushing towards his face. Wang Chao's eyes were sharp, and he stretched out his hand to pull Su Jin aside. Immediately afterwards, a short old man with white temples and white temples rushed out angrily with his naked lower body, holding a steel fork and shouting: "You bloody thief stole our food, even the old man I also stole my cotton trousers, return my cotton trousers, return my cotton trousers.”

Only then did everyone understand that the old man regarded him as a thief. Zhao Hu hurried forward, stuffed the cotton-padded clothes and trousers he was carrying into the old man's hands, and said loudly, "Old man, do you still know me? I've been here."

The old man couldn't hear what Zhao Hu was saying at all, but he still recognized Zhao Hu's face. He saw Zhao Hu handing over a pile of cotton-padded clothes and trousers, several other people were carrying rice oil on their backs, and one was carrying a Fragrant roast duck, I still don't understand that these people are here to help me, so I hurriedly dropped the fork, covered the cotton-padded clothes and trousers with both hands, and smiled like a flower on my face.

Everyone lowered their heads and entered the house, filled the oil lamps and lit them. Su Jin looked around and felt a little bit in his heart. This is still a place where people live.

In addition to a bed in the house, there are a few tree stumps on the ground, which seem to be benches; a coir raincoat is hung on the wall, and a straw curtain is blocked in the corner of the room, revealing a corner of an adobe bed, and the room is smelly. It's almost impossible to breathe.

Poor people live in hell, and the fate of people is so different. The old couple probably have never seen a luxurious house and brocade quilts in their whole life. They have been busy all their lives, and their families are desolate. It really makes people feel sad.

Trembling, the old man scooped out a bowl of water from an earthen jar in the corner of the room, and brought it to Su Jin as a gesture of hospitality. Seeing Su Jin look around the room, a trace of embarrassment appeared in his wrinkles.

"There is nothing to entertain at home, drink a bowl of water, and there are a few red dates in the dustpan, the old man will catch you and eat."

Su Jin looked at the dark bowl, how dare he drink this bowl of water, and hurriedly said: "Don't be too busy, old man."

"What? Want to eat candy?" The old man spread his hands and said, "There is no need to eat candy. The old man hasn't seen what candy looks like for several years."

Wang Chao hurriedly said: "It's not that you want to eat candy, my son wants you to stop working, we are here to help you catch thieves."

"What? Want the old man to pay? My lords, the old man didn't hurt you. I took you as the thief who stole the pants. I don't want to blackmail people. If I didn't hurt you, why should I pay for it?"

Everyone rolled their eyes and were speechless, the old man interrupted endlessly, it seemed impossible to communicate.

There was an old woman coughing from the bed in the corner of the room. Su Jin scolded herself for being stupid. The old woman was paralyzed on the bed but she was not deaf. Why not talk to the old woman in the future? "Grandma, we are official servants. We came here because we heard that there was a thief in your house and came to catch the thief. Please tell me, let me wait in the house."

The weak voice of the old woman said: "I heard it all, you call him in, the old man just tell him."

Su Jin hurriedly turned to the old man and pointed to the bed behind the straw curtain. Then the old man put down the dirty water bowl and went in happily with a rice oil cotton coat. He didn't know what gesture the old woman made, but seeing the old man Nodding again and again, he kept looking at Su Jin and the others, finally turned around, bowed to the tunnel and said: "My old man is deaf, but I misunderstood a few poor men, so it's natural to ask for help in catching the thief. Damn it, if I catch him, he will definitely feel chilled."

Su Jin breathed a sigh of relief, so through the old woman's translation, he told the old man not to make a sound, just go to bed and rest, and do everything by himself; Suo Suo helped the old woman put on the new cotton coat and trousers, and the two of them gesticulated and rowed, obviously very happy.

Su Jin had no time to watch the old couple show their love, so he blew out the lamp, and ordered Zhang Long and Zhao Hu to hide by the firewood pile next to the house, while he and Wang Chao Ma Han hid in a corner of the house, waiting quietly.