Jingzhou, located in the westernmost part of Daliang and adjacent to Youzhou, is a veritable border city.

In the previous dynasties, Jingyou and Liangzhou were two famous places of exile, almost every year a large number of prisoners were exiled here, over time, the folk customs here became stronger and stronger, often gathering crowds to fight is commonplace, what makes the court more headache is that the local lawbreakers actually colluded with the black market in the Western Regions, and did the business of blocking and robbing on the trade routes between the two countries, making the border a miasma, and the merchants were miserable.

Therefore, the imperial court had to send troops to suppress it, but did not want to be fiercely resisted, several battles down, the imperial court ended in failure, stunned that it could not defeat this gang of outlaws, and finally had no choice but to give these people officials and knights, spend a lot of money to buy people's hearts, and use the method of black to eat black, so as to calm down the war.

Who knows, after less than ten years, the world has changed, and the good days of these people are over, the Great Liang Dynasty only recognizes the family of the previous dynasty as respect, and naturally disdains the titles of these bandits who were born halfway, so the two states of Jingyou have launched rebellions from time to time, and there have been people who have mentioned yì to restore their titles to avoid these unnecessary troubles and conflicts, and they should spend money to buy peace.

But the first emperor categorically refused, saying that the previous dynasty was destroyed in such a thing, and Daliang must not repeat the mistake of giving these people official titles.

Therefore, more than 30 years after the founding of the Great Liang State, Jingyou and Jingyou began to rebel continuously, and the imperial court has been sending troops to quell the rebellion, until six years ago, Jingyou and Jingyou launched a large-scale rebellion again, and attacked like the mainland at a speed that was not out of sight.

Along the way, Mu Yunting looked at the familiar scenery in front of him, and couldn't help but mention the war with Shen Qingli, and the days when there was a river of blood and mourning.

Although Jingzhou is not the main battlefield, wherever the war was affected back then, there is an inseparable emotion for him.

After a few years, Mu Yunting's tone of voice was very calm, as if he was talking about other people's affairs, but Shen Qingli was terrified when she heard it, she covered his lap and said faintly: "Then where are the remnants of the remaining rebellion now?" Isn't it all gone?"

Looking through her memory, the original owner didn't seem to have much impression of this war, so she couldn't say that she was ugly.

Mu Yunting frowned, and said in a deep voice: "As far as I know, now those people have been brought under the command of a gang called Canglang Society, and in recent years, they have done some mining and trading darts for people, and they have not caused any trouble, so the imperial court has not chased them hard."

"Canglang Society?" Shen Qingli repeated in a low voice, looked at him, and said in a low voice, "So that Canglang will be a gangster organization?" ”

At the mention of gangsters, she conjures up images of men in sunglasses fighting in the streets with axes in their hands.

I just don't know what the ancient gangsters would have been like.

"As long as they don't oppose the imperial court, they are not gangsters." Mu Yunting saw her looking at him curiously, so he said, "Okay, stop here, these are the affairs of the imperial court, you know too much." ”

"Mmmm, I won't ask, if you know too much, you will be killed." Shen Qingli smiled, changed the topic again, and asked casually, "Shizi, do you like Jingzhou?" ”

In the field of vision, there is a continuous navy blue mountain, undulating, stretching to the horizon, seemingly endless, occasionally a bird or two skimmed by, and disappeared in a blink of an eye.

"It's okay!" Mu Yunting smiled, he walked back and forth from Jingzhou several times, his impression of this city was not very good, he always thought that the people of this place were fierce, and the locals were still more bullying, I remember that when he first arrived here, he was not familiar with the road conditions, and asked several people, all of whom reached out for silver without concealment, and did not give silver or show the way, which made him very uncomfortable.

Therefore, when he was in a hurry, he rarely stopped in Jingzhou, but rushed to Youzhou to settle down, although Youzhou is also a border city, a hundred miles away, the people there are much better than Jingzhou, at least, the same is to ask for directions, not only do people not accept cash, but also want to personally send people to the place to stop.

It's just that what he didn't expect was that he would marry a woman from Jingzhou, and in just a few months, he came to Jingzhou several times, and now, he actually accompanied his daughter-in-law back to Jingzhou again.

When the carriage entered Jingzhou City, it was already dusk.

There are not many pedestrians on the road, and the mottled bluestone pavement is soaked in the orange glow, which looks ancient and vicissitudes.

The hometown is more timid.

Shen Qingli lifted the curtain and looked at the unfamiliar scenery around, and couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive, although she had the memory of the original owner and would not show her stuffing, but after all, this was the first time she came to Jingzhou and the first time she went back to her parents' home.

The people of the Shen Mansion had obviously received the news a long time ago, and knew that the young aunt was back today, and they had been waiting at the intersection for a long time, and when they saw the emblem on the oncoming carriage, they turned around excitedly and went back to report the news.

After the two got out of the carriage, they were surrounded by the maids who had been waiting there all the way into the courtyard, Shen Ke and the Qin family came out when they heard the news, and welcomed the guests to the main hall with a spring breeze on their faces.

As Bi Tao said before, Shen Ke is a little old-fashioned and bookish, even if he saw his dearest sister, he didn't seem to show much joy, but he had more compliments on the brother-in-law of the official to the third grade, this kind of compliment is not from the heart, but from the bottom of his heart to appreciate the color, in Daliang, the young official to the minister of the third grade, but he is the only one.

And the sister-in-law Qin is an out-and-out shrewd person, quietly looked at the hairpin ring on Shen Qingli's clothes, and saw that the makeup of this sister-in-law is not only delicate and picturesque, but also looks very good, especially the aunt next to her, who is also a talented son, and more importantly, the aunt looks at her, and there is even a trace of spoiling, it seems that the sister-in-law's life in the Hou Mansion is not bad, and her face has already been twisted into a flower, holding Shen Qingli's hand, and constantly wiping the corners of her eyes, and repeatedly instructed the nurse to bring her daughter, who was babbling, to Shen Qingli.

Shen Qingli didn't have this niece's memory of it, she touched the child's pink and tender little face, and hurriedly took out a mutton fat jade bracelet from her wrist and put it in the child's hand, saying that it was a meeting gift from her aunt.

The Qin family hurriedly accepted it with a smile, pulled Shen Qingli to ask long and short questions, and glanced at Mu Yunting from the corner of his eyes from time to time, Mu Yunting frowned, turned around to look at the paintings on the wall, most of those paintings were paintings by famous artists of the previous dynasty, and they were very valuable.

It wasn't until Shen Ke reminded his sister and brother-in-law that they had to go back to the house to change their clothes and wash up first, and then talk after eating, that the Qin family gave up.

The mother-in-law who had served Shen Qingli stepped forward and led the two back to the room where Shen Qingli originally lived, changed clothes and washed up, and then returned to the main hall and sat down.

After eating, Shen Ke took Mu Yunting to the study to play chess.

The Qin family accompanied Shen Qingli to sit in the coat room and chat, she just looked at the gift list presented by the housekeeper, and was even more excited, and at the same time looked at the sister-in-law who was dressed up with some jealousy, frowned and sighed: "Li Niang, it's not that I, who is a sister-in-law, can only cry poor, but this family is really a bottomless pit, like our family, the children of the former dynasty family have never been valued by the imperial court, and now your brother is still just a little Jingzhou teaching, every month is so much, life is tight, I have to rely on my mother's family from time to time to make up for it. ”

Shen Qingli looked at Qin's face with heavy makeup, and felt very uncomfortable in her heart, she didn't cry poor What is this, remembering what Chun Tao said at that time, she was very dissatisfied with the original owner, when the sister-in-law actually withheld most of the sister-in-law's dowry, not to mention, in just half a year, she actually asked the original owner for money several times, completely ignoring the life and death of the original owner, what else is there to sympathize with such a sister-in-law, so she couldn't help but mention the dowry: "Sister-in-law, when I got married, I left almost all the dowry, and there were only a few people in the house, Where did all the money go? ”

If the family is really tight, then why are there so many maids and wives in the house, if it is just to decorate the façade, then it will be troublesome.

"Li Niang, you don't know how expensive firewood and rice are if you don't have such a big family business every month without a hundred or eighty taels of silver to support, how can you survive?" Qin said, sighed deeply again, frowned, and said, "After all, we are a family of the previous dynasty, and the people who meet on weekdays are all famous families, not to mention anything else, just to usher in these things that are sent, it will cost a lot of silver, and you can't stop interacting with others because you don't have silver, right?" Your brother is a face-saving person. ”

It turned out to be a proper slap on the swollen face and fat man!

Shen Qingli suddenly felt speechless, and simply said: "Sister-in-law, how much money does our family have, we can't compare with others, when my grandfather was here, we were the Guogong Mansion, and when I arrived at my father's generation, it was the Hou Mansion, and now it is my brother's place, but I have attacked the title of Earl Anping, our family is a downgrade, and it is already going downhill, and the degree of food and clothing should have been reduced, but now the party in the mansion is still the same as before, and of course the days are tight, this is in Jingzhou, the mountain is high and the emperor is far away, if you are in the capital, you have to be played by others. ”

"Li Niang, isn't our family in the capital?" Qin's eyes flickered, and he said disapprerovingly, "Speaking of which, we are also for your own good, you want you to marry into the Yongding Marquis Mansion, you are not familiar with the place, if you don't have your mother's backing, you will be bullied by your sister-in-law, only if your mother's family is powerful, you can straighten your waist when you talk and do things in the mansion, right?" ”

After a pause, he said, "Li Niang, sister-in-law, I have already inquired, at present, among the daughters-in-law of the three rooms of your Yongding Hou Mansion, our family is the weakest, and you must not be as tough as your sister-in-law and your younger siblings when you talk and do things in the mansion, so my sister-in-law wants to take this opportunity to let the prince say a few kind words in front of the emperor and let your brother be a Beijing official, so that we are close, when will you have in the future, your mother's family can also help you, right?" ”

"Sister-in-law, is this what my brother meant?" Shen Qingli couldn't help but interrupt her.

"Of course." Qin blinked his eyes and said, "Who in this world is not willing to go to the capital to be an official, who doesn't know that my uncle is a popular person in front of the emperor, can't you even help your mother's family with this favor?" ”

Shen Qingli refused without thinking: "Sister-in-law, it's not that I don't want to help, but if my brother intends to transfer to the capital, you can tell Shizi directly, don't beat around the bush like this." ”

"How can that work?" Qin Shi was stunned for a moment, and then said, "If your brother speaks in person, won't it be that we have a request for the world?" You know, your brother has always been high-minded, so he naturally refuses to beg lightly, but if you mention it to the son, it will be different, it means that you want to bring your mother's family, and you will not refuse to ask the son in the future. ”

Shen Qingli suddenly held a mouthful of blood in his heart, he had never seen such a selfish person, he had never seen such a selfish person, and he was so insincere even asking for help, but he insisted on pressing the reason on her, and he was cheap and sold well, he was really speechless. R1152