The Great Seminary

Chapter 87 Ventilation
Outside the restaurant, an inconspicuous cargo ship slowly sailed into the Zhihaizhai Wharf.

The boat stopped steadily and the boss called on Liba on the shore to unload the cargo.

A young man with a round face, wearing a light blue satin gown and a smiling face came out of the cabin and quietly went ashore behind the laborers who were moving the goods.

I took a walk around Wharf New Street.

I spent less than twenty copper coins to buy two fist-sized steamed buns with unleavened dough, stuffed them with offal and sweet sugarcane wine, and ate until my stomach was bloated.

The round-faced boy strolled out of the dock and headed deep into the military camp.

He originally thought that after walking for a while, someone would stop him and question him, but in the end, no one cared at all.

"It really has some structure, quite interesting."

Muttering to himself, the round-faced boy, standing under the scorching sun, put his hands on his head and looked around for a while.

Seeing the unique "Silence" archway in front of the Ming and Song government offices, I walked towards it.

In front of the Yamen.

The only personal soldier on duty watched the round-faced young man coming all the way, but remained silent.

Finally, the round-faced boy spoke first.

"Brother Soldier, although I am young, I have a lot of experience and can be considered knowledgeable.

But I have never seen such rules in your Zhihai Village.

In the office of the military commander, there is only one gatekeeper who also serves as the on-duty officer of the military camp.

Is it really necessary to be so frugal?

And I even stood at the gate of the government office, blocking it. As the gatekeeper, you ignored me?"

The personal guard on duty pointed to his nose and said:
"Are you talking to me, little brother?"

"There are only two of us at the yamen gate. If I'm not talking to you, who else should I be talking to?" the round-faced boy asked back with a smile.

The personal guard replied with admiration: “Young man, you don’t know.

Our governor hates empty talk the most. If one person can do the job, he will never use two people.

And he hates to meddle in other people's affairs.

It is said that the government office should only do evil and not care about anything else.

It’s like you are blocking the entrance to the government office now, and those who come here without filing a complaint are being blocked by you maliciously.

I can’t control it.”

"Interesting, interesting," the round-faced young man clapped his hands softly and said, "I already knew that your Commander Zhang Jiugui was a little different, but I didn't expect him to be such an interesting person.

Please tell a friend of his who works as a doorman at Longmen Port to come and see him."

As he spoke, the round-faced man took out a piece of silver from his sleeve and handed it to his personal guard.

“Just a little something.

We are all colleagues, and we know the hardships of the gatekeepers, but we won't tell your governor about it."

The guard was stunned and waved his hands, saying, "No, no.

Our governor has said that it is normal to like money, and everyone in the world is greedy for money.

But if we love money, we must love it openly.

I'm on duty today and I have to be exposed to the wind and sun. I can't dodge, so there is a bonus.

Not much, but long-lasting.

I took your red envelope even if the governor didn't know.

But in the long run, there is no wall in the world that is completely airtight.

So it is better not to lose sight of the long side for the short side.

But brother, our governor is a man who can't sit still.

I'm not in the village now.

If you want to see him, you can only come on the first and fifteenth day of every month.

Or leave a letter and I will give it to him.

Actually, I was on duty at the government office, and my job was to deliver messages."

As he was speaking, he suddenly saw Zhang Gui walking towards him from the direction of the village gate, and his eyes could not help but stay on him.

The round-faced boy seemed to be very good at observing people's expressions. Seeing the change in the soldier's expression, he smiled and said without even turning his head:

“I’m lucky.

It's not the first or fifteenth day of the lunar month, your commander has also gone back to the military camp."

Zhang Gui has been active on Giant Snake Island these days.

Except for occasionally coming to the True Dragon Kingdom to maintain order and spread chicken soup.

He mostly hangs out in the Xihe people's sphere of influence on the west side of the island and makes connections.

There are two reasons.

First, the situation of Yuanshan and Ming and Song dynasties fighting fiercely suddenly turned into a decisive defeat for Ming and Song, which further increased his already high opinion of Yuanshan.

I came up with the idea of ​​not just talking about it on paper but actually understanding it.

In recent decades, the maritime merchants of Xihe have been trading frequently and closely with the nobles of Yuanshan.

It is very suitable to use them as a springboard.

But this reason is just a side note.

More importantly, the lord of Yuanshan, Changsheng Tiemu, also started to rise to power when he was sixteen or seventeen years old, and achieved hegemony in just twenty years.

Although Zhang Gui has a steady personality, he feels that he is not "young anymore" and should not always spend time in a straight line between Pingyang Town, Zhihai Village and Zhenlong Kingdom.

After all, no matter how well a frog in a well develops, it is still just a toad.

Now that you are sixteen years old, it is time for you to climb out of the well and jump into the rivers and streams to grow up.

However, recently, due to the disastrous defeat in the national war, the number of Ming and Song slaves has increased in several western port cities west of the Giant Snake Head Island.

As a madman who declared himself king, although Zhang Gui had no sympathy for them, he always felt inexplicably uncomfortable in his heart.

Today I saw with my own eyes that a cargo ship carried Ming and Song prisoners of war and slaves. Due to the plague, they were trapped in the bottom cabin and dozens of them died, which was a rare occurrence.

As he saw the bodies being thrown ashore one by one, he felt more and more depressed.

Finally, I couldn't help it and teleported back to the mainland, planning to rest for half a day and change my mood.

As a result, as soon as he returned to Zhihai Village, he saw someone waiting for him.

Upon closer inspection, he realized that the person who came was the eunuch he had forced to show off his wealth and give rewards to when he went to the Longmen Port Bureau to select tribute students.

Although very surprised.

But if a eunuch were to visit an official privately, it would certainly not be because he was bored and wanted to chat nonsense.

Zhang Gui smiled, "It turns out it's an old friend who came to visit.

Please come in, please come in.

Let’s talk in the backyard.”

"Okay." The round-faced boy nodded.

The two men entered the village government office and went to the backyard.

The sweet berry trees here are a little riper than they have been in a few days.

The purple flowers bloomed more and more brilliantly.

Zhang Gui invited the round-faced eunuch into the pavilion. Just as he was about to make tea, he heard the eunuch say:

"Commander Zhang, no need for tea.

No matter how good the tea is, it will still be bitter and astringent. I don’t like it.

Just pick a few bunches of berries."

"Then the berries and some cool water from the well."

Zhang Gui nodded and picked several bunches of berries from the berry tree. After washing them, he put them in a willow basket.

The berries are covered with drops of water, which look delicious.

The round-faced eunuch picked up a bunch of fruits and swallowed them all in one gulp, his mouth full of sweet juice.

Seeing this, Zhang Gui suddenly thought of Guan Xihuilai.

An old pirate and a young eunuch, who were completely unrelated, had almost the same way of eating fruit.

"My dear, your last name isn't Guan, is it?"

"no.

Before I entered the palace, my surname was Chu. Because my family was poor and my parents were tenant farmers, I had never been to school in my past lives.

So I just gave it a random name, Tuantuan.

In my hometown, dry food made of fine flour is called steamed bun, and dry food made of coarse grains is called tuanzi.

My parents’ greatest hope for me is that I can eat sorghum dumplings with pickled vegetables every meal in the future.

Later, when I entered the palace, I couldn’t use my name before I had a rank, so my master gave me the nickname “Little Tuanzi.”

"Then I'll call you Brother Tuan Tuan.

Actually, the name Tuantuan is quite good and very domineering.

By uniting all friends who can be united, we can defeat all powerful enemies.

It is much more meaningful than my name."

Chu Tuan Tuan was stunned when he heard this, and even forgot to laugh.

"Commander Zhang, your words and actions are indeed quite strange, but you are not annoying. Otherwise, I would not have come to see you today.

This is quite a feat.”

(End of this chapter)