Thief Emperor

Chapter 11 Books and Letters

"What are you moving?"

The weather was great, and Xue Yun'er finally felt no longer depressed in the house. Before she even walked into the yard, she saw Li Yun moving a large box into the house.

Village Chief Li looked up at the little girl and said jokingly, "Finally you came out. If you stay in the house any longer, mushrooms will probably grow on your head."

This joke did not amuse Miss Xue. Village Chief Li was thick-skinned and not embarrassed. He just said, "These are all books."

Cangshan Dazhai has been around for twenty years, and what they have looted is not only money and food, but also various other things, such as many books.

There were more than thirty people in the village, and only two or three of them could read, so most of these books were hidden in the hands of the second in command, Yuan Zhengming, and were snatched away by Li Yun all at once.

Whenever others asked him why he was moving books, Mr. Li would simply evade the question by saying, "My wife wants to read them."

Xue Yun'er looked a little curious: "You want to see?"

"of course."

Li Dazhaizhu said as a matter of course: "Are you going to bring them back to burn for firewood? These things are very valuable."

Books have always been a luxury in the era of backward productivity. Not only books, but also pens, ink, paper and inkstones are all luxury items.

Therefore...poor people cannot produce noble sons.

Li Yun had only known a little about this world through Xue Yun'er before. Now, he needed to learn as much as he should know through books.

After saying this, the head of the Li village looked at Xue Yun'er and said, "I forgot to tell Miss Xue before that I have sent someone to deliver the letter down the mountain. If nothing goes wrong, it will be delivered to your father in the next two days."

Xue Yuner nodded. She looked at the book in Li Yun's hand, hesitated for a moment, and said, "You don't understand..."

"You can come and ask me."

Li Yun smiled and said, "Miss Xue has read a lot of books?"

“Not a lot.”

Xue Yun'er said, "But I've read some books with my father since I was a child, so I should... I should know more than you."

"it is good."

Village leader Li walked towards his room holding these miscellaneous books.

"If there is anything I don't understand, I will definitely ask Miss Xue."

After returning to the room, Li Yun put the box in his hand on the ground and picked out about twenty or thirty books from it.

These books are very miscellaneous and not systematic.

There are miscellaneous unofficial histories, more serious books, and some reading notes.

One of the books is called "Miscellaneous Records of Zhongding".

The cover of the book is very worn.

Village Chief Li opened the book and flipped through a few pages. He could basically recognize all the words and read it through without any problem.

He read a book for almost an hour, until noon, when he put the book down, walked out of the room, stretched, then walked into the yard outside, staring at the sky in a daze.

After being in a daze for a while, he walked to the window of the big room, knocked on the window which was not particularly tight, and asked: "Ms. Xue, before the Great Zhou..."

"Is it Jin?"

The window opened quickly, and Miss Xue looked at Li Yun with a strange look: "Since you can read, how come you don't even know this?"

"That's it."

Li Yun looked at Xue Yun'er and asked, "I read in a book that there were many aristocratic families in the Former Jin Dynasty, many of which were said to be thousand-year-old families and extremely extravagant. Are these families still around now?"

Miss Xue blinked and said, "Of course I am. This dynasty... This dynasty is..."

Although she was in a den of bandits, she still had some concerns. After looking around, she whispered, "In the past, Emperor Taizu of our dynasty relied on the power of the aristocratic families to gain control of the world..."

Li Yun seemed to be thinking: "That means... the aristocratic families of the old Jin Dynasty still control the government and are still as arrogant and extravagant as before."

Miss Xue thought for a moment and said, "I've read some history books. In the first hundred years of this dynasty, the noble families were more restrained and not as extravagant as they were in the Former Jin Dynasty. However, in the last few decades..."

She sighed: "I don't know those people from the aristocratic families, but I heard that they are all very domineering."

Li Yun nodded slightly.

"Thanks for the advice."

It is written in Zhongding Miscellaneous Records that aristocratic families... fed pigs with human milk just to make the pork taste better.

There are countless other similar records. Li turned around and walked towards the kitchen in the yard, muttering to himself.

"If I have the chance, I really want to meet these nobles..."

………………

In Qingyang County.

Liu Bo handed a letter to a beggar and gave him a few copper coins.

"Send it to the county government office and say it's from Miss Xue. I'll give you five copper coins when I come back."

The beggar rolled his eyes and did not take the money. Instead, he stared at Liu Bo.

Obviously, anything involving the government would likely get him into trouble, so he was reluctant to do it.

Liu Bo glared at him, took out ten copper coins, handed them to him, and said unhappily, "You don't need to take them in. Just give them to the yamen runner at the door."

At this point, he whispered, "If you try to be sneaky, Grandpa won't forgive you."

The beggar then took the copper coin with a smile and ran to the county government office to report the news.

After arriving at the gate of the county government, he handed the letter to the yamen runner at the gate and said, "Sir, this is a letter from Miss Xue."

After saying this, he stuffed the letter into the hand of the yamen runner, turned around and ran away without looking back.

The county yamen runner naturally knew about Miss Xue's affairs. After hearing the three words "Miss Xue", he was startled and immediately shouted loudly: "Catch him! Catch him!"

Seeing several colleagues rushing towards the little beggar, the yamen runner did not dare to delay and hurried all the way to the back hall to meet Madam Xue.

Nowadays, Mr. Xue has been bedridden for several days.

When the yamen runner saw Madam Xue, he lowered his head quickly and said, "Madam, a little beggar came here to deliver a letter, saying it was... it was from the young lady."

Upon hearing this, Madam Xue quickly reached out to take the letter, her voice trembling a little: "You...did you hear it right?"

"That little beggar spoke Qingyang dialect, I didn't misunderstand it."

Mrs. Xue then took the letter and ordered, "Go and bring the little beggar to the county government office for questioning. I will go to see the master."

"Yes."

The yamen runner bowed his head respectfully and said, "I have already sent someone to chase them."

Mrs. Xue then took the letter and went all the way to the bedroom in the back house, where she met Magistrate Xue who was bedridden.

She hurriedly placed the letter in front of Mr. Xue.

"Master, Master, someone sent a letter, saying it was... it was a letter from Yun'er..."

It was because of this matter that Magistrate Xue was worried that he fell ill. Upon hearing this, he was shocked and actually struggled to sit up from the bed.

"Say...say what?"

"I came here right after I got the letter, and I haven't had time to read it yet."

Magistrate Xue quickly took the letter, opened it, took a look at the handwriting, and found one or two places where variant characters were deliberately written. He became even more excited: "It was Yun'er, it was written by Yun'er..."

Xue Yun'er has been learning to read and write since she was a child, and she and her father have agreed that some special words should be written in a special way to distinguish their identities.

It's a disguised form of anti-counterfeiting.

After reading the letter from beginning to end, Magistrate Xue put it aside, tears streaming down his face: "Heaven have mercy on us, Heaven have mercy on us..."

Mrs. Xue then picked up the letter and read it from beginning to end. She said with some concern: "Master, although it is indeed Yun'er's handwriting, where did this knight come from?"

"Don't ask. Don't ask."

Magistrate Xue waved his hands repeatedly and sighed: "The state is shirking responsibility again. Sima Cao speaks in official language. There is no way the county yamen runners can go to the Cangshan stronghold, no matter who it is..."

"As long as my daughter's life can be saved..."

Magistrate Xue coughed violently several times.

"Then he is the hero..."

Mrs. Xue patted her husband's back with some distress and said softly, "Master, Dalang and Erlang are on their way here, please don't worry..."

Magistrate Xue did not respond, but sat up, took his daughter's letter and read it again, then murmured.

“Why a month…”

(End of this chapter)