Two catchers and an old man wearing a wooden flail were the guests brought in by Ngawang.

At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the Quartet was not peaceful, the political situation was unstable, there were many prisoners, and it was not uncommon to escort prisoners, but these three people were a little special: the old man had white hair, looked fifty or sixty years old, and wore a pair of wooden flails, and the two catchers around him were about thirty years old, and they were in the prime of life, which may be the reason for the long journey. It seems that he is escorting two arresters.

At first glance, I knew that the old man was a man with a story, but for some reason he became a prisoner.

"Guest officer, is it a tip or a hotel." Xiao Wu walked up and asked with a smile while wiping the originally clean desktop with a cloth.

The meaty catcher said lazily: "Stay in the hotel, but I'm hungry, get some food first, what do you have here?" ”

"Guest, today's menu is hung on the wall, rich and thrifty, including mixed lamb haggis soup, steamed silver saury, fresh fish painting, roast chicken and sauced mutton are the signature dishes of our store, many guest officers eat a good word." Xiao Wu skillfully introduced the situation.

"A roast chicken, a plate of shepherd's cabbage, two bowls of rice and two-horned green ant wine, that's all." The meaty catcher thought for a moment and quickly ordered.

"Okay, please wait a while, the little one will go and prepare." Xiao Wu saw more of this kind of scene, so he responded and trotted to inform the kitchen to prepare.

The fisherman, who was as thin as a monkey, opened the wooden flail for the old man, and at the same time stabbed: "Old man Wang, now you are under the flail, don't move for a while, remember not to go out of this inn." ”

The old man nodded expressionlessly, but did not speak, and the two catchers did not speak again.

It's not a meal now, there aren't many guests coming to the house, and Xiao Wu and Shui Sheng quickly deliver the meal.

The chicken has long been marinated with secret ingredients, and it has been roasted to five or six minutes cooked, and some guests order it and then put it on the charcoal to roast for a quarter of an hour.

After serving, two catchers quickly tore a roast chicken in half, one took half of the chicken, and while drinking, he drank and mouthfully mouthed the roast chicken, eating his mouth full of oil, and it could be seen that they were very satisfied with the roast chicken, to Lu Ting's surprise that these meals did not have the old man's share, only to see the old man silently take out a handful of fried rice from his backpack and eat it carefully.

Lu Ting kept the accounts, looked at the old man who was gnawing on fried rice, and then looked at the two meat eaters and drinkers, and couldn't help but sigh lightly.

"Master Lu, but do you sympathize with that sinner old man?" At this time, the shopkeeper Huang came over with a teacup to add tea to himself, and when he heard Lu Ting sigh, he asked in a low voice.

The counter was two feet away from the table where the catch was eating, and they couldn't hear it if they lowered their voice.

"I'm going to be exiled at an old age, and those two catchers only care about themselves, and they don't respect the old." Lu Ting said with some indignation.

"Quietly" The shopkeeper Huang was startled, and hurriedly persuaded: "This guilty old man has obviously offended people, and it is still a big man who has offended, so it is better for the son to ignore it, so as not to get into trouble." ”

"Uncle Huang, how do you know? Do you know that old man who is guilty? ”

The shopkeeper shook his head and said: "I don't know, the old man has been guarding the store for decades, no one has seen it, he has long practiced a pair of tricks (eyes), as soon as the guests enter the door, they can guess eight or nine without leaving ten, like this sin old man, although he was exiled, but the condescending bearing is still there, he must have been an official, son, you look at his waist, as straight as the board, after sitting down, the legs of the two fast catchers swayed from side to side, but the sin old man did not move, there was a kind of aura of not being angry and arrogant, he should have been a sitting official. ”

said so much in one breath, the shopkeeper Huang was also a little thirsty, wiped a sip of tea, and continued to show off: "The imperial court has always respected respecting the old and loving the young, at the age of a sin old man, unless he commits a big crime, he doesn't have to be exiled, but goes to prison, that is, he is exiled for crimes, according to Tang Law, at most he wears a rope flail, not a wooden flail, but he wears a wooden flail, obviously there are big people who don't let him have a good time, and the two catchers also deliberately keep a distance from him, which shows that this sin old man is not simple, and the most important point, whether it is two fast catchers or sin old men, speaks with an obvious Chang'an accent, can someone who can be an official in Chang'an, can he be a small person? ”

Wonderful, it's just a face, after listening to what others said, the shopkeeper Huang analyzed the three of them to the head, and Lu Ting wanted to applaud.

"Uncle Huang's trick is simply sharp-eyed, no wonder the owner handed over such a big deal to Uncle Huang to take care of." Lu Ting put on a high hat for the shopkeeper Huang without a trace.

When the shopkeeper heard that Lu Ting was so high in his opinion of himself, he smiled and patted Lu Ting's shoulder and said: "Childe has won the award, that is, he has seen a lot of people and has a little experience, these are all side doors, not as good as Childe's knowledge, take care of it, the old man went to the back kitchen to take a look, those Tian Shenu, if you don't look at it for a while, you will be lazy, and you will have more time to go around." ”

Thousands of wears, sycophants don't wear, everyone loves to listen to good words, and the Huang shopkeeper is also vulgar, but it also depends on the person, if Xiao Wu and Shui Sheng they shoot, the Huang shopkeeper will laugh when he hears it, and maybe he will ask them what their intentions are, and Lu Ting is different, the accounting is a first-class good, even the young lady of the Zheng family in Xingyang also treats him with a teacher's courtesy, and the weight of what comes out of Lu Ting's mouth is obviously much heavier than that of ordinary people.

"Uncle Huang, don't worry, I will definitely keep an eye on it." Lu Ting responded with a smile.

If you have a good relationship with the top leader, you will definitely not suffer.

Not long after the shopkeeper Huang walked away, the white-haired old man suddenly beckoned Xiao Wu over and said a few words, and soon Xiao Wu reported to Lu Ting with some embarrassment: "Master Lu, that sin old man wants to ask for a bowl of water, but he has no money." ”

If it was an ordinary person, a bowl of water would be given, but the problem was that it was a prisoner who asked for water, and the two catchers didn't say yes, nor did they say no, Xiao Wu was a little embarrassed all of a sudden, for fear that he would do something wrong.

Lu Ting thought for a while, and quickly said: "Isn't it just a bowl of water, being convenient with others is convenient for yourself, bring him a bowl of warm water." ”

The two catchers didn't say that they wanted to give the old man to drink water, and they didn't say that he was not allowed to drink water, and the two catchers must have heard it when the old man talked to Xiao Wu, but they chose to ignore it, that is, they didn't object.

After getting Lu Ting's reply, Xiao Wu did not hesitate, and quickly brought a bowl of warm water to the old man, when the old man took the warm water, he also cast a grateful look at Lu Ting, Lu Ting smiled and responded, and then buried himself in sorting out his account today.

Halfway through the accounting, the two catchers who had eaten and drank quickly came to register the information with the old man, and the shopkeeper Huang said that he was inspecting the back kitchen, and he didn't know whether to steal food or steal leisure, but fortunately, Lu Ting also figured out the business in the past few days, and got up to check in for them.

"Xiao Langjun is optimistic, this is an official document, Qian Yicheng said that there is an in-house price for check-in with the official document, and the room fee is only seventy percent, right." Thin Catcher quickly handed a piece of paper to Lu Ting and opened his mouth to confirm.

Lu Ting took the official document, nodded and said: "Yes, there is a contract between our store and the post house, and only seventy percent of the room fee will be charged with the official document. ”

In ancient times, people could not move around casually, usually left home more than 30 miles to apply to the government to prove their identity things, the Warring States period with "festival", the Han Dynasty with "pass", the Tang Dynasty evolved into "passing", after the Tang Dynasty called "road guide", ordinary people go out to pass the office, the people of the government use official documents, with official documents to pass, enter the city, accommodation.

Arrest and escort prisoners, should live in the post house next to the guest house, but the post house has a rule, the same status of the first first served, the low official position to the high official position of the room, Suzhou is a big city, and in the transportation hub, the post house is often full, so with the guest to live in cooperation, when the post house is full, will be divided into some guests to the guest to live, the guest to live to give a certain discount, this line of three people is Qian Yicheng introduced.

Lu Ting opened the official document to prepare the registration information, only to see that it was written: I hereby send the arrester Zhang Changming and the arrester Lu Xiaoding to escort the prisoner Wang Qi to Yuezhou, and the customs post will be received along the way, and the last of the official document is the big seal of the Criminal Department.

The shopkeeper Huang is really like a god, just after listening to two sentences, he judged from the accent that he was from Chang'an, and so on, Lu Ting suddenly hit a spirit, Wang Qi? No, the sin old man in front of him with white hair and beard and wearing a wooden flail just now, this sin old man turned out to be Wang Qi, one of the four famous ministers of the early Tang Dynasty?