The old Taoist priest came here about six or seven years ago.

Whether it was six years or seven years, the people in the city couldn't tell. The owner of the Chen family winery said that he came six years ago because he saw the old Taoist priest for the first time six years ago and came to his winery to buy a gourd of rice wine; but the man who ran the river on the wharf said that it was seven years ago, because he saw a Taoist priest for the first time seven years ago taking the new boat he had just bought into the city, but he was not sure if it was not the old Taoist; while Jiang Laosi said that it should be six and a half years, because the old Taoist priest began to live in his courtyard six and a half years ago.

However, when exactly did it come from, the people in the small town actually didn't care, it was just one more thing for everyone to talk about after dinner, but they were sure that the old Taoist priest didn't bring a child with him when he first came here.

The child was brought back by the old Taoist priest six years ago.

Granny Li of Shimen Street at the gate of the city said that she saw the scene of that day with her own eyes: "The old Taoist priest ran into the city in the rain with a child in his arms, and the child was crying all the way. No matter who came to verify, Granny Li said so distressedly.

Something so big happened that almost the entire small town knew about it, and the men and women of Tuochuan Street, and even the residents of several other streets, all ran from their respective homes to gather around Jiang Laosi's old yard, wanting to see what strange appearance this child who was picked up by the old Taoist priest was.

Some people say that this is the child that the old Taoist priest picked up in the field when he helped people tell fortunes in the countryside, and some people say that this is the old Taoist priest bought it from the countryside to send him to his death, and some people even say that this child was fished up by the old Taoist priest from the water, and it is the incarnation of a water ghost, and it will become a disaster in the future.

Everyone fought back and forth, but there was no result. Finally, a woman with a gray cotton headscarf on her head slapped her thigh and said, "This can't be stolen by the old Taoist priest from somewhere?"

In the vast world under the jurisdiction of the entire Great Qin Dynasty, this is also a big crime to lose your head, not to mention that in this kind of small city, the last time a person from another town came to the city to steal a dog, he was chased by a group of people for three streets.

Everyone can't decide whether you come or go, so I elected a middle-aged man called "the official reporter", the second child of the Chen family, to go to the county government to beat the drum and report the case, and asked him to bring some officers and soldiers over.

After the second child of the Chen family left with a group of people, everyone gathered at the gate of the courtyard of Jiang Laosi's house, saying that they were afraid that the old Taoist priest would run away when he heard the report, so they blocked the door of the old Taoist priest's house here.

The old Taoist didn't sound like he wanted to run, because the sound of the children crying in the yard was still loud, and everyone was anxious, so they thought of a way to ask a few strong middle-aged people to squat at the bottom of the wall, and then step on a few light young people, so that they could see the situation in the courtyard.

As soon as the method was proposed, everyone dispersed and accumulated into a small group linked by blood relations, and the middle-aged and sturdy man took the initiative to squat down, revealing his sturdy back, and motioned for his juniors to step on it.

A young man was still hesitating whether to step on this shoulder, and the man who was squatting there scolded: "You little short-lived ghost, I finally have a chance to step on me for you, don't know whether it is good or bad! The young man was at a loss, and finally gritted his teeth and stomped his feet.

If you look from the outside of Tuochuan Street, you can see that there is already a whole street of pedestrian ladders on this wall.

"See! A group of people who could not form a human ladder shouted impatiently at the people standing on it.

"Oh no! get up some more!" The young people had not experienced such an interesting thing, and they had not fully grown themselves, so they could not wait to stand on tiptoe, stretch their necks, and find that they could not reach it, so they had to shout down a little higher.

"Stand up, stand up below! Be careful, don't fall!" Everyone could only stand in place and shout when they saw such a critical and exciting scene, and they only hated their parents for not giving birth to more high.

"I'm about to see it, I'm about to see it!" One of the taller boys, seeing that his eyes were about to pass the top of the wall, shouted with joy as if he had been the champion of the Confucian family, and as soon as he was proud, the strength under his feet loosened a little, and he fell down to the bluestone pavement behind him, along with the elders who were holding him below.

If it falls on the stone slab on the ground, it will be really fatal, and if you are lucky enough to fall on your back, you will have to suffer a hot pain for several days; if you fall to the back of the head, the lighter one will have to put some ointment on it, and you can get out of bed and walk around after dozens of days of rest; if it is serious, the old Taoist priest is now in the courtyard, and you can ask him to come out at any time to do a ritual, and even the effort of finding someone to do white things will be saved.

Seeing this, the crowd around the theater hurriedly stepped forward to support the two of them, one on the left and one on the right, supporting the young man's body, and slowly lifting the frightened young man from the back of the middle-aged man.

The man obviously knew the seriousness of it, although he was a little annoyed, he didn't say it in front of everyone, but he was annoyed that he was the first to see the name in the courtyard, and said angrily: "I don't understand anything, I can't do anything!"

"The second child of the Chen family is here!" At the corner of Tuochuan Street, everyone spoke in unison, as if it was not the second child of the Chen family, but some great man.

The sound first came from the entrance of the street to the ears of everyone at the gate of Jiang Laosi, then from the middle of the street, then from the back of the street, and finally to the door of the courtyard at the end of the street.

The second eldest of the Chen family gasped for breath and ran to the end of this Tuochuan Street, hunched over, pressed his hands on his knees, and was so tired that he couldn't speak, and it took a while to recover. Then he took a cup of tea handed over by others and drank it, and said, "Officer, the officers and soldiers will be here soon, and I will come over to send you a message first." ”

The crowd cheered, and those who climbed the wall and peeked through the crack in the door all stopped; those who brought tea called a few familiar women and girls and children to pour some tea everywhere; as for the "official reporter" Chen Jia's second child, he was treated like a hero, pinching his arms, rubbing his legs, and serving tea and water.

The old man of the Chen family squinted his eyes with a smile, and kept praising his son for his ability. Seeing this, a middle-aged woman who poured water said: "I know that this kid has a good life, look at this physique, he is very strong! This hand, this leg, can carry hundreds of pounds of stones at once!"

"What is the matter! I just saw him have nothing to do at home, and asked him to go to the county town to be a soldier for a few years, training his body, what is this, I heard him say ah, the head of the county town is a person who can break a stone as big as our city gate with one punch!" The old man laughed as if the head of the sect was his son.

"That's amazing!" The crowd was amazed, and heard the foreign businessman say that this kind of person was a big man in the imperial court, and he wanted to be a general!

"The second child is amazing, under this general, he must have learned some skills, and he is really promising! I'm afraid that I will be able to be a captain in the future! Maybe I can also be a general! Lao Chen, you will rely on him to glorify your ancestors in the future!"

The old man of the Chen family smiled, took out his carved brass small cigarette gun, stuffed some tobacco leaves, and the second child of the Chen family saw this, and very cleverly took out the fire fold and lit it for his old man, and said with some persuasion: "This cigarette is not a good thing! When I was in the county town, those old men didn't smoke this thing! You smoke less!"

The crowd just wanted to say something "this child is really filial" to praise the Confucian virtue of filial piety of the father and the son. At this moment, there was a shout from the entrance of the alley, "The officers and soldiers have arrived--quickly avoid-", and they dispersed in unison like birds and beasts.

......

After a while, several soldiers wearing gray-blue cotton uniforms and carrying a long knife with a curved handle on their waists came to the depths of the alley, and the one led by first swept the scattered people with his eyes, and then said in a low voice:

"Is this a household?" Seeing that everyone nodded, he waved his hand to signal a subordinate with a very loud voice to come out, and the loud soldier shouted inside, and the man walked up and shouted: "Listen to the residents inside, we are the officers and soldiers of the Jianyi County Ya, and some people have come to play that you are suspected of abducting children, and I hope to open the door, otherwise we will break in!"

In the Great Qin State, trespassing on other people's houses without permission is a taboo, although from the law of the Great Qin State, it can only be punished with a whip of sixty and a minor crime of imprisonment last month. But this kind of thing is not small among the people, and the seriousness of this kind of thing is like encountering a "hemp kidnapper" who abducts and sells children from outside in a small town, and everyone in the small town beats him to the point of being half-paralyzed, and the county government also turns a blind eye.

Seeing that the two wooden doors were still locked, the soldier who took the lead was also a little angry, after all, no matter how he said it, he also ate the bowl of rice of the imperial court, and the people living in you were not some immortals who could go to heaven and earth, but just a poor old Taoist priest, who dared to flout the laws of the imperial court so much, how could this be?

The leading soldier pulled out the long knife with a curved handle on his waist, clenched his hands tightly, and suddenly took a breath, and then shouted: "Chop!" A knife slashed a nearly four-foot crack in the wooden door from top to bottom, and the rest of the soldiers then shouted: "Slash!" Then he cut the poor wooden door through it. Then two soldiers stepped forward, stretched out their feet and kicked down together, and when they stepped down, the poor and transparent wooden door shattered into pieces of wood.

Everyone watching the play on the sidelines shouted happily when they saw this: "It's open!" As soon as the shouting was finished, a few anxious people wanted to squeeze inside, but the two soldiers who kicked the door stopped them.

The leader was still holding a long knife with a curved handle, and cautiously looked into this ordinary courtyard, and when he found that there was no obvious threat, he turned to everyone and said, "Fellow villagers, don't worry! Let us go in first to find out the situation! If there is no danger, call everyone in." ”

When everyone at the door heard this, they didn't make a fuss, but just gathered around the door, wanting to see what was going on inside.

The officers and men slowly walked into the courtyard gate, and watched with alarm all the items in the courtyard, the main hall was locked, and so was the west wing. Only the door of the east wing was ajar, and from time to time there was a cry of a child. The thick hemp rope on the top of an old blue-brick well in the middle of the courtyard was still spinning on the wheel, as if something was underneath.

The soldier who was walking in front looked into the well and found that there was a figure floating in the water under the well, and it turned out to be a person who had fallen into the well! He immediately threw the official knife in his hand on the ground, and while pulling the thick hemp rope on the wheel, he shouted to several companions: "Someone has fallen into the water! Come and take a hand!"