The topic returned to the Qinglong Army, Zhang Xiaowu asked about the recent situation of the Qinglong Army, and the innkeeper said that the Qinglong Army is now more chaotic, and the original Sixth Regiment was reorganized into six regiments after the chaos, so now the Qinglong Army still has six regiments, namely the first regiment to the sixth regiment, but things are not people. Today's Qinglong Army is led by the first regiment, and the general is one of the eighteen righteous sons of Dushanbo, and the second regiment to the sixth regiment is only one battalion each, so the Qinglong Army actually has less than 30,000 people, and the power is still under Dushanbo.

Zhang Xiaowu asked Cheng Chulai, the former guard of the Sixth Regiment, and the innkeeper said that Cheng Chu had a serious illness, so he resigned from his post as a general and returned to Beijing to retire.

"It's pathetic." Wang Yijin whispered on the side, "Back then, he was a powerful general with unlimited scenery and everyone clinging to." ”

"What does he pity." The innkeeper pouted, "You don't know how much gold and silver he is greedy for, I heard that it is only a big cart, a full twenty carts." With so much gold and silver to enjoy, and there is no need to worry about being idle in the military department, he can be regarded as having a complete life. Of course, the most unsatisfactory thing was that his two sons were drowned. ”

"What?"

"Cheng Chu's two sons went down to the river to swim, but they didn't expect the Dragon King to accept people, and a whirlpool swept the little brothers into the water." The innkeeper said, "As the so-called money is not spent on life, sometimes people are watching the sky, if people are too greedy, God will accept him." ”

Zhang Xiaowu smiled: "Your boss is very interesting. ”

In the end, the innkeeper said that there were not many old people in the Qinglong Army, and Xiahou Bao, the former deputy general of the Sixth Regiment, was demoted to a commoner because he was found to be greedy for military salaries, and Murong Hui, the former commander of the Huizi Battalion of the Sixth Regiment, was also transferred elsewhere, and he didn't know where to go, but there was a person named Lu Zhong, who was originally the captain of the Sixth Regiment Xiaocai Battalion, and is still in the Sixth Regiment as the captain of the Lu Zi Battalion.

"Shopkeeper, you know quite a bit." Zhang Xiaowu said with a smile.

The innkeeper smiled: "In our business, I have seen and heard a lot, and I am well-informed, sometimes it is better than the gold-clothed and silver-clothed guards." ”

After everyone drank wine, they fell asleep in a hurry, Zhang Xiaowu lay on the bed and tossed and turned and couldn't sleep. Even Hu Li and others, who follow him, can't see each other all over the country, this is the variety of life and impermanence.

After coming to Longdu Mansion, he suddenly thought of the prince's pair of dragon and phoenix fetal daughters, who should be seventeen years old now, their home is in Chechi County, and their adoptive father is a teacher with no children and no daughters. The teacher is called Meng Zeng, and the prince's children are called Meng Shi and Meng Ran'er respectively.

At the beginning, he promised to take care of them, although he only secretly sent someone to protect them, but he didn't really take care of them, Zhang Xiaowu thought about taking advantage of the rest in Ping'an County these days, and he went to Chechi County to take a look at the prince's biological children.

The next day, Zhang Xiaowu informed Ruan Qingwen of his decision, and Ruan Qingwen was so frightened that he said: "If you are found to be related to the abolition of the crown prince, I am afraid that this official will also do it to the end." ”

Zhang Xiaowu laughed and said: "I will be careful, I know who is secretly spying on the prince's two children, but now they are not in danger, which means that the prince's worries are actually useless, those people can't expose their identity as the prince's secret son in order to pat the new emperor's ass." ”

Ruan Qingwen was worried that he would go away for a few days again like the Fujiyama faction, so he asked to accompany him in person and bring a team of people to protect him. Zhang Xiaowu was troublesome, so he only took Ruan Qingwen, Wang Yijin, Chen Guanxi, Kang Tianen, Bao Yin and Jia Siye, and Xia Ming took the others to rest locally for two days.

Xia Ming muttered that it was me who came to see home again, so he had to watch them leave Ping'an County.

Chechi County is between Ping'an County and Longyang County, and it is also a county that relies on the Longhe River, with a small area and a small population, if it is not relying on the Longhe River, it should be the poorest county among the six counties of Longdu Province. Most of the people in Chechi County are farmers and fishermen, and the water network in the county is vertical and horizontal, and entering Chechi County is like entering the water town in the south of the Yangtze River. Everyone finally understood why the local area is called Chechi County, and any car that comes to the local area will be late, because half of the local road has to rely on legs, and half of the road has to take a boat.

Everyone finally came to the county seat of Chechi County with great difficulty, and when they arrived, it was already dark, and the city gate was almost closed, and everyone barely entered the city with copper coins. The gatekeeper guarding the city gate did not speak ill of him, he looked like he was doing business, if it weren't for the greed in his eyes when he collected the money later, everyone really thought he was a clean official.

Mr. Meng Zeng Meng was a private school for the rich man's family in the city, and at the same time wrote letters to others to read family letters to earn some meager money to support the family, Meng Zeng once married a wife, who died of illness a few years ago, so they only had a family of three to rely on each other. Although the city gate was closed, it was not yet dark, and after Zhang Xiaowu and others found an inn to stay, they immediately came to the surroundings of Meng Zeng's house.

Meng Zeng's house is a tofu factory, and in the prince's records, the owner of the tofu workshop is one of his pawns, so Zhang Xiaowu first asked the owner of the tofu workshop to come and ask him everything about Meng Shi and Meng Ran'er.

When he heard that these masked people claimed to be the Yinyi Wei Yu Party, the owner of the tofu shop named Ma Chao suddenly cried, knelt on the ground and begged: "Please don't look for me anymore, I just want to live, I just want to be a common man now, I don't want to meddle in anything anymore, please spare me." ”

Zhang Xiaowu was quite curious and said, "What? Don't even want the glory and wealth? ”

Ma Chao said: "Glory and wealth are obtained by pinning my head to my waist first, I just want to live honestly." Now his three children are getting more and more promising, the eldest has also been admitted to Xiucai, the second is in the restaurant in Longdu City as a palm man, and the third is studying in Mengyin Hall, he just wants to live in the future, and he doesn't want to be rich and prosperous.

It's no wonder that he didn't tell the court, this Ma Chao really just wants to live in peace.

"How are they?" Zhang Xiaowu asked.

Ma Chao knew who he was asking, so he said: "I watched my two children grow up from a young age, although I was ordered to monitor, but after so many years, I also treat them as my own children." Although they are poor, but Meng Shi studied very hard, and my eldest son was admitted to Xiucai together, people said that our alley should be called Zhuangyuan Lane, because there are two Xiucai in one alley, which is the only one in this county. ”

The Shenghan Imperial Examination is divided into township examinations, state examinations and national examinations, and the examinations that pass the prefecture level are called township examinations, and those who pass the examination are called children, and there are only 20 places for children in a prefecture every year, and even if Longdu Mansion has such a large population base, it is only 30 places. The state examination is an examination for all students in the entire state, and the top 30 are taken, and the middle one is called Xiucai, and only those who show talent can participate in the final national examination.

In addition to the 530 rookies from 17 states in the country, there are also those who have not been selected over the years.

There were 2,000 people, and at the most there were more than 4,000 people. The first 180 people in the national examination, these 180 people are lifted, and finally the imperial examination is held, and these 180 people are divided into three lists, heaven, earth and people, and they are respectively admitted to the Tai Academy and the Hanlin Academy, the Tai Academy trains low-level officials, and the Hanlin Academy trains high-level officials. (previously revised)

Seeing that Ma Chao had no fighting spirit and just wanted to live in peace, Zhang Xiaowu did not embarrass him, but asked about their gold mine, but although Meng Shi was admitted to Xiucai, Meng Ran'er ran into trouble. It turned out that a local family surnamed Han took a fancy to Meng Ran'er and wanted to take Meng Ran'er as a concubine, but although Meng Zeng was poor, he was unwilling to raise a daughter to be a concubine. This Han Yuanwai is quite prestigious in the local area, and he is the largest local medicinal herb merchant, but he never expected to be rejected by a little teacher, and in anger and shame, he asked Wang Yuanwai to dismiss Meng Zeng.

But Meng Zeng's adopted son Meng Shi had just been admitted to Xiucai, and Wang Yuanwai was worried that if someone would be promoted in the future and be the top student in high school, he was afraid that he would not be offended, so he told Han Yuanwai, you can find a way by yourself, don't drag me into the water.

Han Yuanwai warned everyone in the local area that anyone who wanted to propose marriage to the Meng family would not be invited to his family in the future, nor would they sell medicine to his family.

"This is a medicinal herb merchant? It's simply a live bandit. Bao Yin said angrily.

Ma Chao smiled bitterly: "The reason why his family has become the largest medicinal herb merchant in Chechi County is because he is domineering, his family has eight brothers, who are engaged in medicine shops, timber, cloth, shochu, shipping, casinos, brothel business, and one is in the county government to catch fast, so the whole county is afraid of their Han family." ”

"How old is this Han Yuanwai?"

"There are three out of fifty, but there are only five daughters, no sons." Ma Chao said angrily, "I don't know who told him his fortune, saying that he had to have Meng Ran'er's birthday to give him a son, otherwise he would have no children for the rest of his life." You say that people are not angry, how can there be such a bully, isn't this a bully? If the crown prince had become the emperor, he would have uprooted the Han family a long time ago, but it's a pity that the prince died in the north, alas......"

Everyone looked strange, the prince died in the north, how could the prince die in battle, the prince was obviously sick and died. Zhang Xiaowu and Ruan Qingwen looked at each other and smiled, it seems that Emperor Dade is an amorous person, even if he is a political opponent, for the sake of the face of the royal family, he also makes people whitewash the crown prince.

Ruan Qingwen said in a low voice: "The emperor is so weak, I am afraid that it will not be good for the empire. ”

Zhang Xiaowu said: "Could it be that he is disguised here?" ”

Ruan Qingwen said: "If he pretends to be kind-hearted, it will be even more terrifying, once this kind of person is really in power, he is afraid that he will really slaughter the world." ”

Zhang Xiaowu said to Ma Chao again: "Actually, we just want to see if their lives are good, after all, the prince treats us well, although he is gone, we can't forget the kindness." When we solve Meng Ran'er's troubles, we will live incognito and live in peace like you from now on. ”

Ma Chao said: "So the best, so the best, you and I are mortals, not dragon sons and dragon grandchildren, why bother to risk your own lives for them." ”

When it got dark, Zhang Xiaowu jumped into the home of scholar Meng Zeng, Meng Zeng was reading a book, and in another room, his adopted son Meng Shi was also reading, while Meng Ran'er was doing needlework, with a sad and helpless face, and unconsciously, bean-sized tears flowed down his cheeks.

Zhang Xiaowu knocked on the door, Meng Zeng raised his head, and saw a masked man walking straight in, Meng Zeng was about to shout, the masked man said in a low voice: "Mr. Meng, five years ago, you adopted a pair of children, each of them carried a piece of jade, a carved phoenix and a carved dragon, yes or no?" ”

Meng Zeng suddenly understood that they were going to take away their adopted son and adopted daughter, and his face suddenly became complicated, and after a long time, he sighed and said, "I knew you were coming back." He walked to the bedside, took a few gold bars out of his pillow, put them on the desk again, and said, "You take the gold, can you keep them, they are all children, they don't understand anything." ”

"You know who we are?"

"Of course I know." Meng Zeng shook his head and said, "But if you can't do it, don't waste your mind." ”

Zhang Xiaowu smiled slightly: "It's better than being bullied here." ”

Meng Zeng was stunned for a moment, then annoyed, lowered his head and said, "At least they are still alive, and with you, they may not be able to live." ”

Zhang Xiaowu said: "With you, you may not be alive, but if you follow us, you will not be bullied, you say?" ”

Meng Zeng said angrily: "You guys take it away!" ”

Zhang Xiaowu said: "Tomorrow, our people will pick them up, Mr. Meng, let's talk to our adopted son and daughter." ”

Meng Zeng turned his head uncomfortably.

Zhang Xiaowu bowed and retreated, turned around and went out, but saw a man and a woman standing in the courtyard, the boy was handsome and the girl was beautiful, sure enough, he was the son and daughter of the prince, and his genes were good. Even if their mother is an old palace maid, the twins are born so beautifully. Zhang Xiaowu knew that looking at them, they were also looking at Zhang Xiaowu, and the boy said, "You are my father's subordinate, right?" ”

Zhang Xiaowu said: "Do you know your identity? ”

The boy said, "When we left the palace, we were already twelve years old, not children. ”

Zhang Xiaowu nodded.

Then the boy said, "Let's go with you." ”

"You won the show, and you won't participate in the imperial examination?"

"What about participating in the imperial examination? I will not serve him. ”

Zhang Xiaowu admired the boy's straightforwardness and decisiveness, and said, "You go and say goodbye to your adoptive father." ”

The boy took the girl into Meng Zeng's study, and Meng Zeng was not surprised when he saw the two of them, but just sighed. The two knelt on the ground and kowtowed three times, and the boy said, "Grandpa, let's go." ”

"Is the unicorn a thing in the pool?" Meng Zeng said, "I only hope that you will be safe in the future." ”

The girl cried: "Grandpa, you have to take care of yourself, your daughter is not filial and can't serve you, you must drink less wine in the future." ”

Meng Zeng turned his head and waved his hand, tears in his eyes.

The two slowly exited Meng Zeng's door, and the boy asked, "How are you going to prepare first?" ”

Zhang Xiaowu said: "I'll take you away from the land of right and wrong first." ”

"Okay." The two replied without thinking.