The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

In fact, there are not many other courtyards for Xia Song in central Beijing. Apart from the main house in Sock Lane, there are only three other courtyards, one in Junyi Bridge Street, one in Yuzhang Building in Pinghu, and another It is in a country courtyard in the outskirts.

But these are enough to make Xia Song proud. In Bianliang City, a metropolis with a population of one million, most people only have a small dwelling, and some families can only live in two wing rooms. .

There are special institutions in Bianliang City, that is, the repairing capital office and the Tokyo store house affairs under the third division. These two institutions are similar to the real estate development department and the urban management demolition team of later generations. All demolition, but also dragged to the board to sue for lawsuits, all the construction of the city walls, palaces and even shops and new houses need to be completed by these two departments.

Therefore, the residents living in Bianliang City enjoy the vanity of metropolitan citizens, but in fact they are very miserable. However, Bianliang City has more people, less land and fewer houses. Although it has been expanded twice, it is much larger than the previous dynasty. Doubling it is still an inch of land and an inch of gold.

The four houses are already one of the few houses in the capital, and it is Yan Shu. Apart from the big house in Tianshuijing Hutong, there is only a small house in the old city. Compared with Xia Song, it is a poor house. up. [

Xia Song also had to pay attention to the influence. Although he had money to buy a house, after all, the tree was big enough to attract people's envy, and it was difficult to explain it to the emperor's ears; so Xia Song began to invest money in shops, I bought more than ten shops in the whole city, and in order to deceive people, I made an exception to write the name of the owner as Xia Siling's name, so that Xia Siling handed over hundreds of thousands of shopfronts on Bianshuihe Street to him that night. Su Jin and Xia Song could only stare blankly.

Su Jin's guess was correct, Xia Song did keep Rou Niang in Yuzhang Tower, he knew that as soon as Rou Niang disappeared, Su Jin would immediately think that he had captured Rou Niang, and would come to save her; I would rather he come to save people, so that I can set up a net again, but before that, I need to interrogate this woman named Rou Niang.

After Liu Binhua's death, Xia Song sent people to monitor and track Su Jin and his family members day and night. On the day when the exam started, Xia Song, who was following Su Jin, suddenly made an important discovery. Among the women who went to the Gongyuan together, one seemed to be the woman who hid in the car on the day Mr. Liu died.

It's not that Ban Dang recognized her face, in fact, this woman's appearance was quite different from that of the woman in the car that day. Although her figure and walking posture were somewhat similar, it was impossible to conclude that the two were the same person based on these; String of gemstones bracelet.

When Su Jin took the three girls for a stroll that day, Rou Niang inadvertently exposed the pink and white gemstone bracelet on her wrist. When Liu Binhua hooked up with the woman in the car that day, the woman in the car seemed to be wearing the same powder. The white bracelets, the styles of the two are exactly the same, and unlike the jade bracelets worn by women today, the reason why this pink bracelet is so eye-catching is not only because of its color, which few people wear. It is pink and white, and because its style is a style of stringing gemstones, which is indeed rare in today's Song Dynasty.

That partner became very careful, and went to a jewelry store to draw the bracelets he saw, and asked the owner of the jewelry store to show him a bunch of the same bracelets; unexpectedly, the owner stared at the drawing for a long time He shook his head and said that there was no such bracelet.

The companion was determined, and went to more than a dozen jewelry stores, but none of them had this style of bracelet; an experienced shopkeeper boldly guessed from the description of the companion, that the pink and white gemstones could only be hibiscus stones or tourmalines. , and asserted that there is no jewelry store in the capital that has such a style of gemstone bracelet, and advised the companion not to waste his efforts to find it.

That companion had basically come to a conclusion in his heart until now, although the owner of this bracelet may not be the same person, but the bracelet must be the same bracelet; Beijing and Zhongzhong are not sold, but they have the same bracelet, which shows that what?

When the matter was reported to Xia Song, Xia Song immediately asserted that this woman must be the woman who seduced Liu Binhua that day. As for the slightly different appearance and height, it is very simple. The height of makeup, shoes, and clothes are different. , it must not be seen that it is the same person.

So Xia Song immediately ordered that the woman next to Su Jin be brought for interrogation. As long as Su Jin was asked to confess that he planned to kill Liu Binhua, Su Jin would be dead; Xia Song didn't even plan to go through the government, he had already thought In order to use this woman as a bait, the deceived Su Jin stepped into the trap again, and then slaughtered him personally. With this confession, and Su Jin broke into his house again, he didn't have to worry about what to do. Aftermath, because there is no need for aftermath.

The subordinates are very capable in handling affairs, and the opportunity came soon. When Rou Niang bought sugar-fried chestnuts and was eating and walking back, a black carriage stopped beside her. Rou Niang covered her mouth and nose, and with just a slight lift, Rou Niang's feather-like body was pulled into the carriage. The whole process took less than two breaths, it was really a blink of an eye, and then The carriage drove away quickly, and even the pedestrians on the street didn't notice that someone beside him suddenly disappeared.

Although Rou Niang struggled hard, how could her small arms and legs be able to twist the thick hands and feet of these companions, she was soon bound tightly, her mouth and nose were stuffed and she could not move in the carriage; if Xia Song hadn't come down A strict order was issued, they were not allowed to touch and move, they had already taken advantage of this delicate little lady, Xia Song was worried that once Rou Niang was humiliated, it would arouse her desire to die, and in the end she would not be able to ask any confession; since After his daughter blatantly forced Su Jin to let go with death, Yan Shu's view of women changed greatly. He began to believe that weak women were not without blood, and what he was afraid of was to arouse the blood of soft girls.

Yuzhang Building is the only other courtyard in the city that Su Jin doesn't know about, and his daughter Xia Siling is also 'closed' here, and the guards are also very strict. It is a very suitable place for interrogation here first, so I learned Xia Song, who succeeded in arresting him, immediately ordered him to be sent here for custody.

Yuzhang Building is actually a house, so named because the building in the backyard is called Yuzhang Building, where Xia Siling lived, and the interrogation was conducted in the wing room in front of the building.

Xia Song tried his best to make himself as pleasant as possible. Although he was a little moved by the beautiful woman with beautiful skin and eyes, he still started the interrogation with a smile on the face of a kind old man.

"How can you be so polite to the little lady? Quickly untie her!" Xia Song's first words were to scold the servants around her to untie Rouniang.

Rou Niang panicked and didn't know what happened, but this group of people kidnapped her but didn't do anything against her, which somewhat relieved Rou Niang of most of her worries.

"Who are you? What do you want to do when you kidnap the slave family? Do you know whose family the slave family is from?" Rou Niang asked.

Xia Song twirled his beard and laughed, and said: "Aren't you the concubine of the little history housekeeper Su Jin? Don't you know my name? I don't know if the lady has heard of my name, so I will He is the deputy envoy of the Privy Council of the current dynasty, his surname is Xia, and his single name is the word "竦."[

Xia Song stared at Rou Niang to observe her reaction, and he quickly got a satisfactory result. When he announced his name, the woman's panicked eyes betrayed her heart. Do you know your own name?There should be no reaction; even if his name is too famous, it will inevitably be affected in the boudoir, but where does the panic and fear in his eyes come from.

Rou Niang is a smart person, she keenly sensed that something was wrong, and it seemed that something had happened, but she quickly suppressed the panic in her heart, and said with a blessing: "So it's Mrs. It’s polite, but I don’t know what to teach Master Xia to bring the slave family here? Master Xia is a high official in the court, even if he wants to see the slave family, he doesn’t need to use such means, wouldn’t it be a loss of status if he spread the news?”

Xia Song laughed loudly, walked around Rou Niang twice, caressed Rou Niang's exquisite body for a few rounds, and said: "Little lady is still pretending to be confused, don't you know why you are here? Is it? If I were you, I would have explained all the current affairs, and the old man advises you to be more sensible."

Rou Niang said with a straight face: "I don't know what you are talking about?"

Xia Song snorted coldly, grabbed Rou Niang's small hand, and with the other hand, pushed up Rou Niang's sleeves, revealing half of her fragrant arms. Rou Niang screamed, and at the same time pulled her arm back forcefully, shouting : "Lord Xia, please respect yourself, the slave family is the person in Master Su's room, please think twice."

Xia Song spat and said: "You are an old man, did you come here because you are greedy for your beauty? Bah, eight concubines in this old man's house, all of them are like flowers and jade. If you say you are a broken flower, you are a virgin. An old man is not rare."

Rou Niang blushed and said: "Since you are holding the slave's hand like this, what are you doing? Let it go if you don't want to kiss each other."

Xia Song wiped Rou Niang's wrist with her hand, and then removed the hibiscus gemstone bracelet, then let go of Rou Niang's soft arm, holding the bracelet and said: "Tell me, what is this? "

Rou Niang said angrily: "This is a private property bought by the slave family. Master Xia asked why it was stolen by the slave family?"

Xia Song shouted: "I know it's your private property, so I asked you, where did you buy this bracelet?"

Rou Niang said: "I bought it in Bianliang, so what?"

Xia Song said loudly: "Lie to your face, my old man has checked dozens of jewelry stores in Bianliang City, where did your jewelry come from?"

Rou Niang was taken aback, and hurriedly said: "My family is so frightened and confused, this bracelet was given to my family by Su Jin, my husband. If you want to ask where you bought it, you have to ask my husband personally."

Xia Song laughed loudly, the sound was harsh and unpleasant, Rou Niang frowned and covered her ears with her small hands, and only moved away after Xia Song's laughter stopped.

"I want to ask you another question. On the third day of March, someone saw a person on the way to Dongjiaomen, wearing your unique bracelet in Bianliang City. Is that you? If it wasn't you, Who did you give this bracelet to that day? Say! Say!"

Xia Song stared and yelled loudly, the frightened Rou Niang turned pale and trembled, her eyes widened and she was speechless for a while.

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