The eastern capital is Luoyang

The farther west, the fewer the towns and villages that are rich and comfortable, and gradually there are only barren fields and wild forests, the driving speed is slow and the mountains are rugged and endless, and in some places the post roads are occupied by the banner-raisers, and they are not allowed to pass, so they have to abandon the post roads and go to the mountains, and those who encounter dangers and difficulties need to take a detour to avoid. Even if you rush again every day, you will travel less than two miles. Throughout the day, I was bumpy in the narrow carriage, and the scenery became more and more bleak. The inn and food were becoming more and more vulgar and simple, the men were still able to eat and live, and Mu Qing and Ah Liu had to endure chewing a few mouthfuls of bread and swallowing a few mouthfuls of fishy soup, and they had reduced a lot in a few days. Du Ruhui felt guilty and felt sorry for her hard work, she only smiled and shook her head and said, she is not a person who is made of thin gauze paper, how can she be so delicate.

Yinghua was not interested in the novelty for a few days, and she was so worried that she panicked, but it happened that Ah Yun, who was waiting with her, couldn't stand the mountain turmoil, and she had no intention of eating, and she was weak for most of the day. When she only looked forward to resting in the wilderness, Ada would sometimes take her into the woods to shoot a few hares and pigeons, and add a fresh dish to everyone at the evening lodging, preferably a pheasant, so that she could make up for her sister.

Ada is nearly ten years old, has no wife and children, in the past in Wu County every morning to see Yinghua practice martial arts, he sincerely loves this heroic and refreshing little lady, and he has taught her the meaning of Du Ruhui seriously, and he does not dare to slack off, and tries his best to teach, take care of it, and treat it as his own child. Mu Qing saw it in his eyes, and he was also relieved, and he finally lived up to the trust of the Wan family.

After traveling for 17 days, he finally entered Xiangcheng County. I only feel that this place is desolate and abnormal, the cold wind whins and screams, there is still sunshine in the day with some warmth, in the afternoon when the sun is thin, I feel that the cold wind drills into the bones, it is cold and abnormal, and there is no human grange along the post road. Mu Qing sat outside the carriage wrapped in a cloak, and the wind blew the two strings of small gold beads on the treasure hairpin. There are many small bulging earthen bags on both sides of the road, and the further you go, the more you go, and here you are already one after another. When she looked closely, there were piles of graves, bare loess, and the broken wooden planks erected at random were supposed to be a monument, indicating that those new graves had only been piled up in recent years. Seeing this scene, she couldn't help but feel a chill rise in her heart.

"Mother, go in and sit down." Ada glanced at Mu Qingning's expressions on the graves, and persuaded in a low voice: "This scene is terrifying, don't look at it again." ”

"Although the world is not good, I have never heard of a great famine in recent years, and how many people died. It seems that there are more dead than alive. Mu Qing turned around and asked.

Du Ruhui followed her gaze, lowered her eyelids, and wrapped her cool fingertips with her palms, "If you guess correctly, most of these are empty graves, but bury a few clothes and daily things, so that the family can have a place to worship." The slightly old tomb was set up in the first year of the Great Cause, and in that year, he conquered Linyi, and created many lonely souls in a foreign land in order to seize the treasure of Linyi. The newer ones are to open the Cao River and build the palace, and Xu is the sin created when the Great Wall was built in the year of the Great Cause. In May, Ding Nan, who gathered more than ten counties, repaired the gallop road, and in July, more than 10,000 Ding Nan built the Great Wall, from Yulin to Zihe, and it was built within 22 days, and more than 10,000 laborers died, and five or six out of ten died. If the dead laborers are buried in a mass grave on the spot, how can they be properly returned to their hometowns. ”

Mu Qing still looked at the graves one after another, frowned deeply, couldn't speak for a long time, and sighed after a long time: "On that day, I knew that many of the laborers in the cultivation palace and digging the Cao River in Wu County had never returned, but I never thought of getting close to the imperial capital, and the labor was even worse. Human life is the most precious thing in this world, and it should not be regarded as a mustard. No wonder the sky is changing. ”

"Mu Qing." Du Ruhui pulled her into the car, took her hand, looked at her eyes seriously, and said word by word: "Do you know that I want to change the world, not only to find another emperor for the common people in the world, but also to prove that I must do something in this life as a man in the world." Once it doesn't work, it's a matter of the whole clan, I was released to the Gao family, and I was willing to be expelled from Duling, because I thought that I had chosen to go, not to implicate others, and I didn't want to bring you into danger because of my own selfish feelings, and I blamed me for being selfish. Therefore, even if your filial piety period expires, I will not marry you. If the matter fails, you have nothing to do with me, you can go back to Jiangdu, I have made it clear to Steward Liu, and there will really be a day when all the property in Jiangdu will be left to you. ”

"If you want to change the day, I will accompany you to help you, you are for the common people in the world, but I am not so open-minded, only you are the only one. Since you have rejected everyone and brought me into danger alone, then even if you don't marry me, I will be by your side day and night, and I will not be able to get out of it. Suddenly, she became obsessed, withdrew her hand from his palm, raised her hand and grabbed him by the collar, leaned over, looked straight into his eyes and said: "What do I want to do with those industries, when you first arrived in Jiangdu, you said that no matter where you go in the future, you must tie me firmly to your side, and I will always remember it." If you don't want to take me to the underworld, you will be forced to live a good life. ”

Du Ruhui laughed, "I really look good, you are indeed different, you have urinated since you were a child." Mu Qing ignored him, and just asked him, "Have you answered me?" He raised his eyebrows and nodded, and without waiting for her to react, he leaned towards her lips, she was suddenly frightened, let go of the hand holding his collar, and the person ducked back, just touching the car wall, and in an instant the whole person had been firmly clamped by him on the car wall, and could not move, until he felt that it would be difficult to control himself, so he left her lips, leaned against the opposite car wall, closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled from her chest. When I was breathing steadily, I turned my head to see her blushing slightly, sitting upright on the ground, her hands pressed to her heart, and her breathing was subtle and rapid. He suddenly realized that at some point, she had lost her original childishness, seemed to grow rapidly, and began to exude a different aura from within, as if with light, perhaps one day, this light would become as bright as the day.

Early in the morning of the 19th, Ada raised his voice in front of the car: "Hurry up, you can go to the Eastern Capital at noon today." Everyone endured it, and when they heard this, they all cheered up, and the line was very smooth. Before noon, the scenery outside the car changed the previous barbaric and decadent situation, slowly lively and prosperous, as if from the dead and silent underworld, gradually walked to warm up the harmonious world, even the locust trees and the yellow leaves of the ginkgo on both sides of the road, did not see the slightest autumn bleak atmosphere, was illuminated by the sun, but became a brilliant screen.

After another section, the surface of the loess is tamped, and it is paved with large stones, and the car is fast and stable. Du Ruhui lifted the curtain in front of him, and he could already see the towering city tower in the distance. After crossing the wide moat, a soldier stepped forward to inspect it and let him go. When he really entered the city gate, the scene made Mu Qing speechless. The wide main road is paved with a whole block of boulder bricks, and there are more than seven or eight horse-drawn carriages side by side, and the Luoshui River, which is wide across the Cao River, passes through the city. The two sides of the step into a square, the square is connected. There are many shops in the streets, the sound of drums and music is heard, the buildings are lined up one after another, the crowd of people who come and go is brightly dressed and expensive, and even some women do not wear hats to cover up, and walk in the streets generously. It is said that the Jiangdu is prosperous, but now it seems that it is not as good as the corner of the eastern capital, and all the prosperity of the world is gathered in this city. Only this city has almost exhausted the people of dozens of surrounding counties, and Mu Qinghu feels that the east is a mirage city, appearing in an endless dead silence, fluctuating, and disillusioned at any time.

The carriage entered the southern city, which was also paved with polished stone bricks, and there was a road that could accommodate four horse-drawn carriages in parallel between the two adjacent squares, and their five carriages came with wind and dust, attracting people's attention, and the people in the side shops poked their heads out to take a look, and they did their own business as if nothing happened, and did not pay too much attention. Slowly driving through the South City, there is a tall and majestic square gate in front of you, named Sishun Fang. The doors of the houses in the square are all open inward, and most of them are high-walled and deep courtyards, which are more quiet and neat than the market squares that have just passed.

Eventually, the carriage stopped in front of a house. Du Ruhui first lifted his robe and jumped out of the car, and when Ada set the car and set up the wooden bench for stepping on his feet, he reached out and led Mu Qing to get out of the car, Mu Qing looked up, the door of the house was not wide, simple and clean, an old servant led four miscellaneous servants and servants to go out quickly to greet him, saluted together, called "Ah Lang", turned to Mu Qing, called "Niang", and walked to the five carriages to help unload the goods.

"The old slave's surname is He Sui, and he was sent by Steward Liu two months ago to buy this house. The old slave led Ah Lang Niang to see it, but it was agreeable. The old servant humbly bowed and led the way. Enter the gate, turn the stone screen, there is an empty compound in front of you, a small pond in the middle of the courtyard, the pond leads out a ditch to the left and right from the small stone bridge on both sides of the second gate to pass, the wing houses on both sides are the daily living houses of the servants.

The second house in the back is slightly raised two steps, there is still a courtyard in front of it, the ditch comes from the front, and flows into the ponds on both sides of the courtyard, several laurel trees are planted on the side of the two ponds, and a stone table and bench are placed, and there is a little sweet fragrance of cinnamon left on the tree, and the burnt yellow cinnamon falls into the pond, which attracts the koi fish in the pond to compete to devour. There are a few cases in the house, and the layout seems to look like the house where Du Ruhui reads and practices every day in Yuhang Gu Mansion, and the furnishings are elegant and neat, and you can see at a glance that it is used for deliberations.

The courtyard is also divided into two wings, the left and right, with beds and other living things, "which are prepared for visitors who need to stay in the house." Steward He Sui explained. The ditch leading out of the two ponds, through the alley behind the council hall, is cheerful in front of it, and a large pond occupies the whole courtyard, extending to the eaves of the first main house, and there is a curved bridge on each side of the pond that connects the corridor along the corridor. Mu Qing walked from the stone curved bridge to the main house, the original long main house was divided into blocks, the left side of the water is a delicate boudoir, the right side of the exquisite rockery is Du Ruhui's study, the room is set up against the wall to cover the bed, and there is a flower hall between the left and right rooms. There is still a garden with a wing room behind the house, some flowers and plants are planted at will, a flower path is paved, this season is full of chrysanthemums, it is not precious, but it is spread on the ground, it is very good-looking. The garden is separated from the last row of houses, which looks like a miscellaneous room and a back kitchen on the left and right, and in the middle is a residence for the maids who serve you.

"The house is not big, it is better to be exquisite, by virtue of the topography, the water in the house is flowing, leading a small branch of Luoshui, which is the proud work of the original owner. The original owner of this house was prepared to make another courtyard, but after it was built, he never lived in it, so he moved to Daxing City. When they found this house, they fought for these ponds. Ah Lang handed over the news, saying that his mother's hometown is in the south of the Yangtze River, there is no water, and the north is dry, so no matter how much the price is raised, you must buy it. He Sui steward was babbling on the side, he was originally a Hu man, his Chinese was not smooth, his tone was slow, his voice was low, and Mu Qing's heart was soft and soft, and he looked at Du Ruhui with a soft smile.

"Ah, yes." He Sui steward suddenly remembered something, and said cautiously: "The old slave only received the news from the flying slave yesterday, but I didn't know in advance that there was a little lady, and in a hurry I had time to prepare the little lady's boudoir, and after a while, someone would clean up the wing room on the east side of the conference hall, and my mother thought it was feasible?" Mu Qing nodded, "That's very good, there is Lao Hesui in charge." ”

He Sui got her willingness, sued for being unaccompanied, and hurried to settle Yinghua. Du Ruhui smiled and grabbed her shoulders, "Madame, are you still satisfied?" Mu Qing gently opened his hand with disgust, "Don't call my wife, it's not the time yet." Du Ruhui didn't hear her words, and raised his other arm and wrapped it around her shoulder, "This is Madame's home." It's not a sojourn, it's not a stay, it's a safe and secure home. ”

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