The First Auxiliary Road from the Imperial Examination

Autumn has just begun, and the cold wind is already blowing in Shou'an City. Single clothes and pants have lost their function of keeping warm. Most of the wealthy families on the street have changed into fur robes and thick clothes early.

Of course, there are many wealthy households in border towns, but there are even more poor households.

People wearing felt hats with countless layers of patches were walking hurriedly on the streets. They rarely exchanged greetings when they met familiar people. They mostly nodded to each other and said hello.

The streets of Shou'an City are wide, but the numerous street shops look a little deserted.

If you are looking for fireworks, besides teahouses and restaurants, there are open-air theaters on the streets.

The open-air stage is called a stage, but in fact it is just a circle of land on a street corner that does not affect the flow of people and can be used for performing tricks.

It is strange to say that although the people of Shou'an City have a somewhat dull temperament, the local performances are mainly humorous and lively.

Of course, as a border town of Dachu, Shou'an City is adjacent to Nuerhan, so it naturally has a unique local wonder, that is, there are many foreign merchants, not only Nuerhan people, but also merchants from more distant countries.

"How does Shou'an City manage to have both the characteristics of 'gathering of merchants' and 'depression' at the same time?"

Not long after Sheng Yuan's carriage entered the city, she felt that this place was different from other places. She looked out of the car window and saw the architectural style here that was different from Kyoto. She sighed: "It feels like Nuerhan and Ajong." It blends with the characteristics of Dachu, it’s so beautiful.”

Xiaoyao's focus is different: "I see that the people here are tall and powerful. More than half of them carry bows and arrows on their backs and baskets on their waists. Look, they are quite powerful."

"The mountains here are covered with dense forests, which is a natural place for hunting, gathering, and mining. The people have always relied on the mountains and water to feed their families. Naturally, they have to supplement their families by hunting and collecting medicinal materials here." Sheng Yuan was quite happy that Ren's people had superior military strength. As long as they didn't use force to deal with her, she would be happy to see the neighboring friendly countries suffer.

Seeing that his lady didn't care, Xiaoyao focused on the snacks in the hands of people on the street.

"Kyoto pastries are mostly known for their bright colors, delicate sizes, and light taste, but the pastries here look sweet, greasy, and shiny. Each one is as big as a box here!"

Xiaoyao had a thorn in his mouth, but he swallowed unconsciously, his eyes seemed to be glued to his hand, and he murmured: "Don't mention it, it smells so good!"

Sheng Yuan nodded.

The master and the servant looked at each other in understanding.

"How about we go shopping first?"

"How about I go down first?"

The two of them spoke at the same time, and then showed expressions of disapproval at the same time.

"When a new official takes office, he must first visit the people. How can you let yourself get off the bus?"

"When you take office, you should go to the government office first. How can you not do your job?!"

Very good, each other's reasons sounded quite legitimate, and no one was able to convince the other.

While they were muttering, a carriage rolled by and soon left the busiest street.

After realizing this, Shengyuan and Xiaoyao tacitly ignored the episode, and neither of them mentioned the topic again.

Sheng Yuan and his party were very surprised when they arrived at Shou'an City; but similarly, for the people of Shou'an City, it was quite a shock to see such an exaggerated and long motorcade suddenly appear!
"Look at this, it doesn't look like a caravan doing business!" "Yes! It looks like they moved here to settle down!"

"Settle down? You can't, right? Who can't think of coming to settle here with us?"

"You can't say that. Apart from being colder here, it's pretty good. Compared with other places, at least the land is fertile, the mountain products are rich, and there are a lot of prey. There are rarely famine years. As long as you are willing to work hard, no matter how poor you are, They can also guarantee one meal a day.”

"That's what I say, but if you were given the chance to run away, would you not?"

"Yes! Yes! If we had any way, we would have moved away long ago! It's not easy to stay in a border town for a long time! My neighbor's nephew lives in a small village in Bingcheng near Nuerhan. Their village often Suffering from the harassment from Nuerhan's stragglers, three strong laborers were lost in the opponent's night attack in the first ten days of the month... If such an invasion only occurs a few times a month, even Nuerhan's side Peaceful."

"Humph, isn't it just that Nuerhan is uneasy? It's not the rich businessmen who bought the checkpoints and tore them open for the convenience of smuggling, otherwise it wouldn't be..."

"Silence! How dare you talk about such matters casually! Be careful, walls have ears!"

"Hmph! If you ask me, this Shou'an City can't stay! Speaking of which, it's not as good as the three cities that were destroyed! At least they have real integrity!"

"You can pull it off! This energy-saving thing is for food?! You are tired of living, but we haven't lived enough! No matter how the people above are colluding, it has nothing to do with us. We have no ability to go out, so we can just live here. !”

"You can't say that! The big-nosed slaves are greedy and despicable. They have tasted the sweetness so much that they wouldn't covet this place. If that day comes, how can we be better than those three cities?"

"Alas! Even if what you say is right, so what? Can you still influence the thoughts of those officials? Just live like this!"

"As I say, if you can, just move from the border to the city. Whether it's to stay with relatives or friends, or to open up wasteland with your family, it's better than living there fearfully."

"To seek refuge with relatives and friends, you need someone to rely on! If you want to open up wasteland for a family, you need to have a village to recruit people! It's not easy for anyone now. Who is not afraid of causing trouble for his own village? Even our village has become xenophobic!"

"There are quite a few families in our village with some modest means who would rather have their backs stabbed or sell their children as slaves to wealthy families with a better reputation. Why do you think that is?"

"Look, in the past, all the people from the south came to us to make a living, but now? How many of them can we still see?"

"What's the point of nagging like this? If you have this time, why don't you work harder and save some money as soon as possible! I won't tell you anymore, but we are recruiting workers to transport goods in the south of the city today! I can carry more sacks, so I can save enough to carry them. The cost of being away from here!”

"Recruiting workers in the south of the city? No way! I came from the south of the city a long time ago!"

"Don't pay attention to this guy. He's a broker from the south of the city. He charges extremely heavy fees for referrals!"

"I remembered, you're not Zhao Scaran who charges two coins for every mosquito bite!"

Zhao Scaran originally wanted to advertise his shop, but his reputation was so bad that the atmosphere changed after people recognized him. In order not to get beaten, he quickly covered his face and got out of the crowd.

People didn't grab this guy who made them hate him so much. Just when the crowd was in a state of excitement, they suddenly heard an exclamation: "Look! Someone from the government office is here!"

When everyone heard the sound, they couldn't care less about continuing to be angry and hurriedly looked forward.

I saw the government magistrate, the general magistrate and others leading two teams of government officials towards the convoy. (End of chapter)