The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

While Su Jin and Ge Huaimin were talking, Lu Laosan had already carried out a big sweep of the food and wine on the table. When everyone looked at him, he was chewing with oily mouth. Seeing everyone's eyes Turning to himself, hiccupping again and again in panic, Su Jin hurriedly poured a cup of tea for him and put the food in his mouth down.

Lu Laosan panted heavily and praised: "It's delicious. I haven't eaten such delicious food and wine for a long time. By the way, do you want to ask what happened to the wine? It's actually very simple, just tell me a word not worth."

Su Jin smiled and said, "Old man Lu, don't be a fool. We are all a little curious. I was in a hurry yesterday, so I didn't quite understand it."

Lu Laosan smiled and said: "As ordered, a few days ago the magistrate came to the old man's humble house in disguise to talk, thank you for your trust in the old man, and told me the secret that I will have a banquet to catch all the traitors. Your lord said that there are many guards around these traitors. , it is not easy to succeed. At that time, the adults said that they would consider using poison to kill them, but they were afraid that it would not be easy to do so. Is there such a thing?"

Su Jin smiled and said: "Of course there is. That happened four days ago. In the previous conversation, I knew that Mr. Lu also made a living by hunting and digging herbs. I guess he should know something about medicine; in Weizhou City, except me Apart from my subordinates, the other trusted person is the old man, so I went to your house to inquire."

Lu Laosan smiled and said: "Thank you for your trust, Mr. Fu Zun. I didn't give you an answer at that time. I was also very worried after Mr. Mr. left. Mr. Mr. said that you need a colorless and tasteless poison. It is best that you can't get it out even with a silver needle. The old man is worried; this kind of poison is not without, the little old man knows there are no less than three kinds, but they are all extremely rare things. When thinking hard, the old man suddenly remembered that there is a species called Ni frog in our Longshan snow stream. When I was a child, I heard people say that this food is delicious, but its internal organs are extremely poisonous, and the body will be paralyzed within ten breaths of this poison, and there is no response to pricking with silver needles; but this poison is easily detoxified. , taking a bowl of mung bean soup before and after poisoning can detoxify, so the little old man went out of the city and went up the mountain to try his luck, because it was just a rumor, and the old man hadn't seen him for many years."

Su Jin smiled and said: "But God has eyes, how many have you finally found?"

Lu Laosan opened his eyes wide and said, "How many? How can there be so many? The little old man searched the mountains for a day but didn't see half of them. Later, he ventured into a cave on the north slope, in the dark underground river. I just found one, there are so many forks in the caves, I almost lost my way and couldn’t come back.”

Su Jin cupped his hands and said, "It turns out that it's hard work for me to suffer such setbacks."

Lu Laosan said: "In order to eradicate these harmful traitors in Weizhou, the little old man is willing to die in the cave."

Ge Huaimin's face was embarrassed, the traitor Yunyun mentioned by Lu's third son naturally included himself.

"Then the few drops of light green liquid that the old man sent is the venom extracted from the Ni frog? No wonder I have to drink a large bowl of mung bean soup before we act. I couldn't find mung beans for a while, but I I can only order someone to go to the black market to buy a few catties at a high price, which is cheap for these bastards."

Lu Laosan laughed and said: "That's nothing, if you get poisoned, it will be serious. Those few drops of poison are Ni frog's bile, and a few drops of poisonous gall can bring down a hundred people. I think it is enough."

Su Jin chuckled and said, "It's enough. In fact, only 80 to [-] people were brought down. There were still some poison in our stomachs, but it was detoxified by mung bean soup."

Chao Mahan and others suddenly realized: "No wonder the master dragged us into the inner house to drink mung bean soup in the evening. Zhao Hu was most afraid of mung bean soup and didn't want to drink it, and he was almost beaten by the young master."

Su Jin smiled and said: "Old Master Lu earnestly told me that there are so many people talking and it's inconvenient for me to say it clearly, so I can only force it."

Ge Huaimin sighed to himself, he did the calculations mentally but not on purpose, Li Zhi, Xu Wei and himself were unaware of all Su Jin's actions, no wonder they didn't know they were tricked by others.

"My lord, I'm very curious about how you put the medicine. I remember that the wine jars are sealed with mud, and the wine used is other people's wine. It's not good for you to do it secretly. How did the poison get into the wine?" Mahan scratched his head and asked.

Su Jin smiled and said: "It's very simple. I soaked the poisonous bile with silk cloth and hid it in a handkerchief. When I opened the altar to pour wine, I wiped the sealing mud on the side of the altar and smeared the mouth of the altar with a layer of handkerchief." Poison, someone came to help when pouring the wine, I watched everyone drink a bowl of the poisoned wine poured from the wine jar I opened, and then I gave up. Although it was chaotic at the time, I still remember it clearly , who did not drink and who drank, it must not be mistaken, as long as there were seven or eight people who were not put down, we would be in trouble."

Everyone admires the five-body cast, under such circumstances, can still remember those soldiers who drank the poisonous wine and who drank the non-toxic wine, and kept drinking until everyone drank the poisoned wine. I have to say Su Jin Calm scary.

"But... if that's the case, why didn't your lord just use this poison at the banquet in Liangge, wouldn't it be a one-and-done one?" Ge Huaimin asked while looking at Su Jin.

Su Jin laughed and said: "This is ill-advised. Some people may think that this government's method is not fair, but I don't care; but it's a matter of business. If I poison you all in one pot, how can I get a confession? This case? All the people involved were poisoned and killed. How can the case be revealed to the world? Besides, there were many people who did not deserve to die at the banquet, and there were also many people who made great contributions to Weizhou City. I How can you bear to kill with poison?"

Ge Huaimin took a deep breath and said, "I don't know if my old Ge...?"

Su Jin interrupted him, and said solemnly: "General Ge must still have grudges in his heart, but I can tell General Ge frankly that I have no intention of killing General Ge from the beginning. General Ge also tried his best to resist the robbers. He said that every time he fights, he is the leader of the soldiers, and there are no less than a dozen scars on his body. Even if he made some mistakes because of the coercion of Li Zhihe and others, he will never be in a hopeless situation; so I tried my best to persuade General Ge Wake up, one is to admire General Ge's past achievements, and the other is to hope that General Ge will take the crime and make meritorious service. Weizhou City needs General Ge to lead troops to guard. General Kai Ge."

Tears welled up in Ge Huaimin's tiger eyes, he stood up abruptly and took two steps back, fell to his knees with a thump, choked up and said, "Thank you, Mr. Su, for your kindness of rebuilding, I, Lao Ge, will definitely obey your orders from now on, and will never Do things that harm the people, if you do unrighteous things again, the sky will hate it, and the earth will hate it."

Su Jin hurriedly stepped forward to help him up and said, "What is this for? You and I are not related to each other in official positions. You are the fourth-rank military officer, and I am the fourth-rank civil servant. We are officials at the same level. It is only right to help each other. You listened to my orders."

Ge Huaimin said: "Although this is the case, I still only listen to Mr. Su, and with his ability, he will definitely be promoted soon. Lao Ge hugs his thigh first before speaking."

Everyone burst out laughing, Ge Huaimin was straightforward, he wanted to hug Su Jin's thigh without any disguise, this person was straightforward and cute.

Su Jin smiled and said: "Don't rush to talk about this, if you want to hug your thigh, you must first wash away your charges. Li Zhihe and others, I will send someone to sort out the files and escort them to Beijing in three days. Before that, I can You need to find some excuses for you, otherwise you will not escape punishment when the imperial decree comes down."

Ge Huaimin said: "Master Su, please take care of me."

Su Jin smiled and said nothing, and greeted everyone to drink and eat vegetables. This meal was the most comfortable. Chao Mahan, Ge Huaimin and others were all drunk, and Su Jin was also dizzy from drinking. Lie on the chair and fell asleep in a daze.

Early the next morning, Su Jin woke up in a daze, the sun was slanting, and the shadow of a cluster of flowers and trees outside the window was projected in, and the sandalwood in the room was fragrant.

Su Jin yelled 'It's broken', and hurriedly got up, with the sound of footsteps outside, Xiao Sui'er trotted in and asked, "My lord, what's wrong?"

Su Jin scratched his head and said, "What time is it? Why didn't you wake me up, I still have a lot of business to do today."

Xiao Sui'er said: "It's almost time, the little servant girl and Miss Xia saw that the young master was sleeping soundly, so they couldn't bear to wake you up, but Zhao Chao Ma Han and General Ge have come and said they are going to the city to appease the people today. Let us not wake you up and let you sleep for a while."

Su Jin smiled wryly and said: "How can we be greedy for sleep after all the waste is waiting, and there is no such thing as life."

Xiao Sui'er came forward to help Su Jin get dressed, and muttered: "Even as an errand, I have to sleep and eat, the young master has been very busy recently, and I was worried that I would always fight with bad guys, so I asked the little maid to say It's better to be at ease when I was in Luzhou. The world is so big, so many bad guys, can you finish catching me? This time, sister Yan is pregnant with Liujia, but she ran so far to become an official. Didn't the little maid say, Is it worth it?"

Su Jin remained silent and felt ashamed.

A figure flickered at the door, and Xia Siling's voice came: "Of course it's worth it, Sister Sui'er, your son is an upright man, how can he stay at home all day long; as the saying goes, 'A good man has his ambitions everywhere', how can your son A man without ambition who lives at home."

Su Jin smiled and watched Xia Siling come in with rice porridge and snacks, and said with a smile, "When did Ling'er understand me so much? It's like a roundworm in my stomach."

Xia Siling smiled and said: "My family is not a fortune teller, but my family is not blind."

Xiao Sui'er pouted and said, "Is that little maid blind?"

Su Jin laughed, reached out and twisted Xiao Sui'er's pink face and said: "Of course you are not blind, Sui'er actually knows the reason. We didn't provoke others in Luzhou, so we were planted and sent to prison? It's just that You can’t understand everything I do, it’s not that I like to toss, but that if you want to live a good life, you can only toss as hard as you can, and if you don’t toss, you can’t live, understand?”

Xiao Sui'er looked up at Su Jin, nodded slightly and said, "Understood... half-understood."

Su Jin smiled and said: "It doesn't matter if you don't understand, help me take care of it quickly. Today I will take you out for a stroll and have a look at this Weizhou City. If you see a lot and think a lot, you will understand everything .”