The sound of horses' hooves sounded, and they rode from the dirt road under the high ground, and when they were standing, the rider pulled the reins of the horse, jumped off the ground and led the horse forward, and saw Mu Qing hurriedly clasping his hands, "I haven't seen you for many years, Mrs. Gu has always been Kangtai." ”

Mu Qing looked at him twice in surprise, as if he was familiar, and then looked at it carefully, and suddenly laughed, "Hu family man? ”

The man nodded and smiled: "Exactly, exactly, Madame has a good memory." ”

"How early or late will you return to Beijing? How can you be here? Mu Qing was suspicious in his heart, and still remembered that Du Ruhui once said that he was afraid that his family would be implicated in the prince's enclosure case, and he was sent out far away, and no one knew where he went, and now how he returned to Chang'an.

"In order to bring down Prince Yin, Da Lang once checked the household registration and cultivated fields near Chang'an for me, and now he is doing something for me, which is very effective." Du Ruhui seemed to see the doubts in her heart, and replied lightly.

Hu Dalang grinned embarrassedly, "In fact, I didn't go far back then, and I made up my mind when I avoided trouble, and it was not what I wanted to be a Tian Shelang for the rest of my life. How did you know that after the calm and calm down, he returned to Chang'an, but he couldn't find anyone again, until a while ago, he knew that Cai Guocheng was now Du Gong'......"

"Madame, look at the land." Hu Dalang suddenly stopped talking, raised his hand and pointed to the wheat field that Fang Cai Mu Qing had appreciated, "That piece of land was originally occupied by Concubine Yin's father and brother, and now it has been returned to the hands of the people." ”

That Hu Dalang was talking about Xingtou, and before he could say it, Du Ruyan interrupted him in a deep voice, "It's obviously a good year, but the reason why you still have to default on the rent adjustment." Can you inquire clearly? ”

Hu Dalang hurriedly collected the gossip, smiled apologetically at Mu Qing, turned around and said to Du Ruxuan: "I visited a few households, there are various reasons, probably because of the war for many years, although it is too peaceful now, the men in each household are still not good, and there are still forty days of regular service to serve, and there are not enough manpower in agricultural affairs." That's why it's not far from anywhere else. ”

"Are you in the mood for a few steps?" Du Ruhui turned to Mu Qing. A warm smile was on his face. "No one needs to follow, let's pretend to be a merchant who collects grain and go around the village."

At that moment, the two pulled the horses that were driving, and followed Hu Dalang to trot all the way to the village under the high ground. The rest are Aliu and others. With a few servants who came with them, they set up the felt tent with their hands and feet. Place the round waist stool of the lower food table, preserved fruit and wine syrup, etc.

In the end, it is next to the imperial city. The villagers here are not strange to outsiders, but when they hear that they are merchants who collect grain, they all wave their hands and shake their heads and walk away. Hu Dalang grabbed a few villagers and asked, but they all said that there was no grain to sell.

Turning most of the circle, walking to a slightly neat and wide house, the courtyard door is wide open, an old man is facing the courtyard gate sitting under the eaves of his house scraping bamboo strips, Du Ruhui stood in front of the courtyard gate, and looked at Hu Dalang, "This household looks at Yinshi, why don't you go in and rest, inquire in detail." ”

Hu Dalang bolted his horse, leaned in and shouted, "Disturb the old man." After saying it twice, the old man raised his head from a pile of bamboo strips, and looked up and down the three people in front of the courtyard with a little defense.

"In Xianai, the passing merchant originally wanted to go to Guizhuang to buy some grain and grass, but when he was tired, he asked his uncle for a bowl of water to eat, and then borrowed Gui Land to rest." Du Ruhui bowed to the old man.

The old man put down the bamboo strips, looked at the three of them in turn, hesitated for a moment, nodded, and without saying much, turned around and went into the house to bring water.

The three of them found a few wooden stools in the courtyard and sat down, and Du Ruhui thanked the old man again, then picked up his robe and sat down, and slowly drank the tea in the stoneware bowl. "Dare to ask my father-in-law if there is any surplus food to sell at home? Or there is silk cloth and linen can also be. In terms of price, it will never make the old man lose money. ”

The old man shaved the bamboo strips unhurriedly, turned his head and glanced at him, and the work in his hands did not stop, "What this Ah Lang asked is all rent, and now every household in this village is tight, and it is too late to prepare it, where is there any left?" The old man snorted a chuckle in his nose, "Ah Lang is probably not a merchant, but I'm afraid that he is from the official family." ”

Hu Dalang and Mu Qing raised their heads together in surprise, and looked at Du Ruhui from head to toe, and there was no flaw. Du Ruhui was also taken aback, choked his words, and then laughed out loud, and said: "The old man has extraordinary eyesight, and he looks stingy when he hides it again." It's really not deliberately hidden, but I'm afraid that I will bluff the villagers and not hear a word of truth. Unexpectedly, he was seen through by the old man at a glance, and please forgive me for the disrespect. ”

The old man put down the bamboo strip in his hand and confessed the crime, "Ah Lang forgives the sin, the old man and idler are too talkative and offensive." ”

"How can my husband see the clues?" Mu Qing pursed his lips and smiled, and couldn't help but interject and ask.

"What's so hard about that?" The old man turned his head and saw that it was a woman in a beautiful beard, so he replied with a smile: "How can there be a merchant who does not smell of money, and a mouthful of 'under the bottom' is like this, and then look at a few drafts, if the ordinary merchants are thirsty, they will pick up a bowl and drink a cow, how can there be such a slow drink." Look, Ah Lang is an official and is willing to come to inquire about the agricultural affairs in person, it must be a good official who can't be wrong. ”

Everyone laughed once, and when the old man saw that they were kind, he was not restrained, and felt that the official family was willing to talk more to him, so it was inevitable that he felt a little proud in his heart, and he didn't realize that he had more words.

"Good to teach Ah Lang to know, we say that it is a hundred acres of land per ding, but it is actually an imaginary number, and there are still dozens of acres of Yongye fields handed down by the ancestors in these hundred acres of fields, and the grain collected is not accurate. Besides, some people are prosperous and have fewer women, so they don't have to worry about paying this rent, but there is still silk and linen, but they can't pay it. There are also families where there are more women than men, and the situation is the opposite. ”

Du Ruhui slowly frowned, muttered for a long time, and Hu Dalang hurriedly took out a small pen from his bag and hurriedly recorded.

The old man was talking on one wall and the other wall made up a small bamboo basket in his hand, looked at this small basket and said: "It seems that right now, a certain family has gone to serve in the official service, although the family has good fields and good wheat, but no one harvests, a certain old and frail, after all, he can't move, only a few hundred dollars, begging neighbors to help collect the land, after all, it is not very rich, and a few hundred dollars is not a small amount." After thinking about it, I would make up some small objects and take them to the west market in the city every few days to sell. Slightly change a few money to subsidize the subsidy. ”

This servant Mu Qing also knew, originally in the East City to listen to Kang Saburo and others talk about it, because the merchants are wealthy, although it is difficult to avoid the regular service, roughly give some money and silk can offset the forty days of regular service, the official family has been repeatedly banned, and there has been no chaos left and right, so they have turned a blind eye and let it go.

Where did the ordinary people in the peasant households get so much spare money to avoid regular service, they all honestly went to serve forty days of conscription, and came and went. However, the rent transfer was delayed. I can't complain that the people are dragging our feet.

Du Ruhui stood up from the wooden bench, paced a few steps in the courtyard, turned to the old man and said, "Thank you for telling me bluntly, I have been bothering you for a long time." It delayed my husband a lot. And so he took his leave. ”

The old man got up to see him off. Send them straight to the entrance of the village. The three of them rode their horses for a while, and then circled the village. When he returned to the high ground, Shiro ran out of fun. was jumping down from the horse, Mu Qing stepped forward to take his hand, saw that his head was full of fine beads of sweat, and was about to wipe it for him, but his little hand slipped from her palm, shouted "Daddy", and ran towards Du Ruhui on the ground.

Du Ruhui took him by the hand, led him to a large rock, and sat facing the vast golden wheat waves underground. Mu Qing looked behind the father and son, only to see a distant point, a look up, and I didn't know what to say, the sinking autumn sun in the west carefully outlined a warm picture of people, which made her stunned for a while.

After sitting for a long time, seeing that the sun shadow was skewed, a group of people packed up the car in an orderly manner and returned to the city leisurely.

There was nothing to say for days, Mu Qing pretended to be sick as always to avoid the banquet assembly, Du Ruhui went to the court as soon as he opened the door every day, and returned in the afternoon, and he didn't come out of the study with his head bored. It wasn't until the third watch that he put out the candle in the study and went back to the main room to rest lightly.

Mu Qing only felt that he was getting more and more difficult, so he simply sat in his study every evening in his spare time, accompanied by him, picked out candles for him, and boiled tea to warm his hands. When he had nothing to do, he looked through the books, or clumsily did some needlework, or did nothing, and sat in a daze, peeking at him sitting at his desk, and contemplating his eyebrows.

After the third watch, Mu Qing left the book, needlework, and went to the back kitchen to make some food and bring it to him to satisfy his hunger. The two often ate a bowl of soup cakes together, and she only picked one or two funny things to say, intending to make Du Ru loose and loose.

The autumn wind blows for several days, the weather is getting drier and colder, the chill is getting stronger, and the winter solstice festival is coming.

Li Shimin attached great importance to the winter festival in the first year of his ascension to the throne, and the whole department of ceremonies was so busy that the bureaucrats did not dare to be careless at all, and they did not dare to return home for half a month in the official office. Even with Taichang Temple, Guanglu Temple and other departments, they were busy together.

Mu Qing secretly speculated that the last time he directly replied to the eldest grandson in the Lizheng Palace, his identity was embarrassing, and he was quite unjustifiable, and he rejected Mrs. Wu's edict, and this time the big sacrifice would have nothing to do with her. Unexpectedly, the Changsun family still sent the internal supervisor to Yongxingfang to announce it with great fanfare.

On the day of the big festival, the weather was so cold that people were frightened, and seeing that heavy snow was about to fall, Mu Qing wrapped his dark fur cloak tightly, and shrunk his neck to board the car and enter the palace. Walking in front of the Suzaku Gate, she still had to get out of the car and walk in, this way her hands and feet were stiff, and the heat she breathed out almost immediately condensed into ice foam, but it was not good to walk too tightly.

There are a lot of people today, and the inner eunuch who came to lead the way is a face, Mu Qing smiled and thanked him, and asked by the way: "Why don't you see Wu Neijian?" ”

The little inner supervisor bowed his waist and replied as he walked: "Mrs. Lao Gu is worried that he is an old man who can work a lot and is busy. ”

Mu Qing smiled and nodded, and remained silent. After walking a section of bluestone brick road, I turned into the inner garden, and gradually showed some strange stones. It was not the first time Mu Qing had seen these scenes, but he still couldn't help but slow down and take a few more looks. But I saw that in the garden in winter, there were many more reed poles, some of which were planted by the water, and some of them simply covered the landscape next to them.

The little inner supervisor was clever and quite able to understand the meaning, seeing Mu Qing's eyes lingering here, he said with a broken mouth: "Madame looks good at these reeds?" In the past two months, it has been erected in a hurry, but there is a different scenery. ”

"What's the point?" Mu Qing smiled kindly.

"This ...... Madame doesn't know? The little inner eunuch lowered his head and looked left and right, knowing that gossip was taboo in the palace, hesitated for a while, and finally couldn't bear it, and whispered: "I heard that Mrs. Yinghua fell in love with a reed in the palace because of homesickness. ”

Mu Qing sighed lightly and nodded.

With her sigh, the little inner prisoner became a little bolder, "In the first two months, I don't know where the words came out, only Mrs. Yinghua...... Madame, she can't return to her hometown, and her soul is uneasy. Her Royal Highness the Queen's personal decree, the palace planted reeds to comfort the soul of Mrs. Yinghua, so there are these, here is nothing, and then I will arrive at the Lizheng Palace, where the reeds are vast and large, that is called a good-looking. ”

Mu Qing let out a deep breath from his chest, his words were a little sad, and he muttered: "In the end, Her Royal Highness the Queen has a heart." ”

"That's not what I said." The little inner supervisor continued: "The saint also praised Her Royal Highness the Queen, virtuous and gentle, and set an example for women in the world, and the slave and maid listened to it with their own ears." Since then, the saint has been diligent in coming to the Lizheng Palace, ......" He suddenly realized his gaffe, and immediately stopped his mouth, and said with a sneer: "The slaves and maids have made a mistake, and this is not what the slaves and maids should talk about. ”

"It's okay, I just haven't heard of it." Mu Qing whispered. The little inner supervisor was very determined in his heart, and he thought to himself, all of them said that this Mrs. Gu was interested and broad-minded, and she was no better than the troublesome ladies and gentlemen, and since she didn't talk about it, she would never be able to do such a thing as suing behind her back.

Mu Qingqiang endured the chill and the boundless smile in his heart, and walked forward casually, the corners of his mouth turned up slightly, hooking a faint smile, if the little inner eunuch dared to look up carefully, it was not difficult to find that the smile in her eyes was even colder than this cold day. (To be continued.) )

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