At dusk, Guo Jincheng walked out of the newspaper office quickly, a guard followed him unhurriedly, an ox cart stopped in front of him, Guo Jincheng was just about to get into the car, someone behind him shouted to him, "Jiulang!" ”

Jiulang is Guo Jincheng's pen name in the newspaper, and the deacons in the newspaper all call him Jiulang, but few people call him by his official name.

Guo Jincheng turned back, but it was his friend Xue Qing, Xue Qing is Xue Tao's younger brother, now eighteen years old, studying tea in Taixue, under the tutelage of the monk Jiaoran, he is in charge of the tea column in the "Chang'an Express".

Although he and Guo Jincheng are nephews and uncles, they are actually best friends.

"Aren't you going to dinner?"

Guo Jincheng smiled: "Then hurry up, I'll go back to school first." ”

"Let's go together! Let me introduce you to a few young and handsome men, all of whom are officials in various places, and listen to their knowledge. ”

Guo Jincheng didn't really want to go, but he thought that his father asked him to make more friends with young Junjie, he hesitated, but still nodded, "Then I will accompany you once!" ”

The place where they ate was in Guo Ping's Mingyue Restaurant, Guo Jincheng walked up the stairs, he suddenly grabbed Xue Qing and said, "Don't forget, my name is Xue Cheng!" ”

"Don't worry! Your identity will not be revealed. ”

Xue Qing took Guo Jincheng up to the second floor, looked around, and someone called him, "Xiao Xue, this way!" ”

There were four young officials sitting at a table by the window, one of whom was waving to Xue Qing.

These four people are Xie Changming, Han Yu, Xiao Zhenye and Lu Nan, the reason why they are gathering today is that Xie Changming was transferred from Baiquan County to Xiaoguan County to serve as the county commander, Xiao Zhenye was also promoted to the chief of the Yushitai, and Lu Nan was promoted to Zuozang Ling, all from the seventh rank official.

And Han Yue was promoted to the port order of Zhengqipin Hekou Port, which belonged to Taifu Temple, and they returned to Beijing this time to go through the promotion procedures, and all four of them were promoted.

But the same batch of Jinshi with them did not encounter this kind of good thing, the main reason is that the Jin army seized Jiangnan, and the imperial court wanted to encircle the Jiangnan Shi clan, so the children of the Jiangnan Shi clan were reused.

Xie Changming, Xiao Zhenye and Lu Nan are all children of famous families in the south of the Yangtze River, Han Yu is because the contradictions in Lucheng County have been handled well, the production capacity of the salt field has been straightened out, and he has been highly praised and recommended by the Salt and Iron Transfer Bureau.

It was Lu Nan who beckoned to Xue Qing, Lu Nan is also a disciple of the high monk Jiaoran, proficient in tea art, he went to Taixue two days ago to visit Shizun Jiaoran, met the little junior brother Xue Qing, and invited him to come over tonight to get together.

Lu Nan introduced his little brother to everyone, born in Taiyuan Xue, currently studying in Taixue, and is also the writer of "Chang'an Express", responsible for the tea art column.

Everyone in the Xue family in Taiyuan was not very interested, but the deacon of the "Chang'an Express", everyone suddenly became interested and stood up to salute.

Xue Qing greeted everyone, and introduced Guo Jincheng behind him, "This is my brother, called Xue Cheng, who is studying in Taixue like me, don't look at his age, he is also the writer of "Chang'an Express", responsible for the people's livelihood column, and many decisions of the imperial court have to look at his column.

Everyone really didn't expect that this young and immature teenager turned out to be the writer of the people's livelihood column, which made everyone both amazed and awe-struck.

"Little brother, it's impressive!"

Xue Cheng arched his hand and smiled: "I hope that all brothers will give me a lot of advice!" ”

Everyone invited the two of them to sit down, three people in a row, just two rows facing each other, next to Guo Jincheng was Han Yu, Han Yu poured him a glass of wine and asked with a smile: "In the livelihood column of "Chang'an Express", there is often an article written by a person named Jiulang, do you know the virtuous brother?" ”

Guo Jincheng smiled slightly: "Jiulang is the pen name of the little brother!" ”

"No, it won't!"

Xiao Zhenye exclaimed: "Jiulang's penmanship is old and spicy, and his insights are unique and profound, we all thought he was an old Jiang Mi spicy elder, but I didn't expect it to be so young?" ”

Guo Jincheng hurriedly explained: "My penmanship is still relatively immature, and it is generally revised and polished by the main writer, and the articles you see are actually revised." ”

Xie Changming happened to have a copy of "Chang'an Express" next to him, turned to the people's livelihood column, pointed to an article and said: "This article "Winter is coming, is cotton in full bloom?" "It was written by Brother Xian! ”

Guo Jincheng nodded, "I hope Brother Xie has more opinions!" ”

"I do want to make an opinion, this article is all about Chang'an, and there is no mention of anything other than Chang'an, which is not very fair, I have never seen what cotton looks like in Baiquan County for many years."

Guo Jincheng was a little cramped, he really didn't consider the states and counties outside Chang'an when he wrote this article, after all, their newspaper is called "Chang'an Express", which mainly focuses on the situation in Chang'an.

Xiao Zhenye smiled and said: "Xue Xiaogongzi, don't look at them young, these guys are all local parents, that old Xie just now is the county lieutenant of Baiquan County, and now he is promoted to the county commander of Xiaoguan County, Yuanzhou, and the old Han next to you is the best, before he was the county commander of Lucheng County, Cangzhou, and now he is promoted to the order of Hekou Port City, this old Lu is the Zuozang order, and he holds the treasury of the imperial court. ”

Guo Jincheng was taken aback, he didn't expect these officials to be so young, they were already seven-rank officials, he hurriedly got up and said: "You are all young and handsome people of the imperial court, pillars of talent, and the future is limitless, please accept another gift from the younger brother." ”

Xiao Zhenye laughed, patted Guo Jincheng on the shoulder and said, "In the future, the little brother will definitely give you a great future." ”

As soon as his words fell, someone next to him snorted, although the voice was not high, it made everyone's ears explode, everyone was taken aback, and looked together, only to see a gray-clothed man standing behind Xue Xiaogongzi, his hair fell, half-covering his face, and everyone didn't even notice his existence just now.

"Brother Xue Xian, this is ......," Lu Nan asked.

"This is my domestic servant, and my father is afraid that I will not study well, so he will follow me."

Guo Jincheng explained vaguely, and he said to the gray-clothed man again: "You go downstairs and wait for me!" ”

The man in gray was not because Xiao Zhenye spoke wildly, but because Xiao Zhenye patted the little master's shoulder at will, which was not allowed, and the gray man gave a slight warning.

The man in gray turned around and walked away, and everyone was talking, but they didn't notice that another petite woman stood behind Guo Jincheng, filling the vacancy of the man in gray.

Guo Jincheng nodded, "In two days, I will write an article calling for the expansion of cotton production so that all poor families in the world can benefit." ”

.........

Everyone ate for more than an hour, full of wine and food, Lu Nan went down to settle the bill, and after a while, he ran back and said in surprise: "It's strange, the shopkeeper said that we were exempted from today's wine money, what is the reason for this?" ”

Guo Jincheng knew it, and secretly complained that his aunt was doing things absurdly and embarrassed himself, Xue Qing reacted relatively quickly, and hurriedly smiled: "Our newspaper often comes here to eat, and the checkout is once a month, it is estimated that the shopkeeper hangs our wine money on the newspaper, I'll go and talk about it, I'll treat you tonight!" ”

Xue Qing got up and ran downstairs, Han Yu said to Guo Jincheng: "I came back all the way from Hebei, I feel that the people at the bottom are still relatively poor, although the imperial court has many good regulations, such as stipulating that the three coarse items are sold at low prices, but many places have nothing in name when they are implemented, coarse cloth, coarse grain, and coarse salt The government itself does not have it, and they cannot sell it, and some are local officials and businessmen colluding to sell the three coarse items to merchants, and the merchants sell them at a higher price." ”

Guo Jincheng said solemnly: "Brother Han writes an article about the livelihood of Hebei people!" I published it in the newspaper so that the imperial court could take notice of these situations in time. ”

Han Yu nodded, "I'll write an article when I have time in the past two days!" ”

As he was talking, Xue Qing ran back and said with a smile: "It's okay, it's fun to drink tonight, I hope there will be a chance to get together again!" ”

Everyone got up to say goodbye, Xue Qing and Guo Jincheng got into a carriage, waved goodbye to everyone, and the carriage quickly left in the dust.

Xie Changming looked at the distant carriageway: "This Xue Qing should be the son of an official eunuch, but this Xue Cheng is incomprehensible." ”

Everyone was puzzled and asked, "What did Brother Xie say about this?" ”

Xie Changming said lightly: "Didn't you find out that he had four guards?" The three female guards, as well as the man in gray, had a deep kung fu, and snorted softly, my ears were like thunder, this was by no means a top-level guard that ordinary people could have. ”

"Could it be that he is the son of a powerful person?"

Xiao Zhenye said to himself: "But there don't seem to be many powerful people now!" ”

Xie Changming smiled slightly: "Don't forget, Princess Jin is also surnamed Xue!" ”

Everyone laughed, "Brother Xie's associations are too rich. ”

Xie Changming also felt that he was thinking too much, how could it be? It is normal for wealthy families to protect their sons-in-law and send a few more guards.

But Xiao Zhenye was thoughtful, he faintly felt that this identity called Xue Cheng should not be so simple.