If the family is poor, it will be bitter, if the country is poor, if the country is poor, if the country is weak, how can the people live?

Civilization flourished in prosperous times, barbarism rose in troubled times, fortunately, this big country in the Central Plains has flourished for hundreds of years, even if it looks like a huge empty skin bag now, there are not many outsiders who dare to take the initiative to provoke, but the disaster does not enter from the outside but from the internal strife, and the people always have to eat.

Many people actually don't understand it, and feel that all the evils are murders, and those who become murderers for money are at most petty murderers, small murderers harm people, and those who become murderers for eating food are big murderers, and the big murderers are in troubled times.

A while ago, Yongqing County was attacked by a gang of rogues, the county government was burned, and the treasury, which had little surplus food, seemed to have been licked by the tongue of some giant beast, and there was not even a single scum left, and it was looted, not to mention that the treasury was empty, and a layer of land was scraped off.

Yongqing County belongs to Youzhou, Youzhou is nominally subordinate to Jizhou, the thirteen states in the world, and Jizhou is the most chaotic.

In the treasury, a little Taoist boy with clear eyebrows wandered around for a while, and then sighed faintly: "It's cleaner than my face." ”

Remembering that his face should not be clean, he added to himself: "It's cleaner than my ass...... The ass is cleaner than the face, what the world. ”

Before the county was breached, the rich families in the city had already fled first when they got the news, they had cars and horses and a place to go, so they were safe, but most of the people in the city could not escape, and the disaster brought by a thief was far greater than the natural disaster.

This looks like a teenager Xiao Dao Tong rubbed his stomach, has been hungry for almost two days, two days ago met a team of big families who moved to Jizhou, saw their master and apprentice and invited to come over to tell the hexagram, the master of the little Taoist to five money to start the hexagram, calculated that this family has a great future, especially the young master in this family will be able to fly in the future, just go all the way to the northwest, will meet nobles.

The head of the big family was happy to hear this, so he gave a lot of money, but the money could not buy food, so he was a little sad, and he couldn't meet any food sellers on the road, so he asked the big family for a few cakes.

Speaking of which, the master and apprentice should not be short of money, anyway, Xiao Daotong thinks so, his master is a well-known Taoist in the seven counties of Youzhou, even if he meets a rogue, he will not hurt him, the old Taoist has long eyebrows, and he has been wandering in the territory of seven counties for most of his life, and he is not willing to be kind and helpful, so he has a good reputation and is highly respected.

Xiao Daotong sometimes thinks it's funny, people like the master who pick the door to the bones will also be respected, people are really complicated, money is not as good as food in this troubled world, but his master is more important than money than life.

He went out of the treasury and saw that the master was struggling to move the corpses one by one to the open space, dozens of them had already been moved, and there were corpses everywhere in the city, at least thousands, and the old Taoist was already hungry and had no strength, and he couldn't move them anymore after moving dozens of corpses.

He rested against the wall for a while, and looked around to find something to take advantage of, but there was not even a single iron tool in the city, let alone a shovel or sickle, or even an iron pot or kettle, and there was nothing left.

Helpless, the old Taoist picked up a tile and began to dig a pit in the open space, the little Taoist ran over and also picked up a tile to dig together, and the two hungry chests were attached to their backs, but they still persisted.

"Master, there are too many for us to bury them."

"You don't have to bury them all."

"Master, isn't it unfair not to bury them all? It's better not to bury it. ”

"Fool, do what you think you should do with the greatest strength, just don't be sorry, it's already the limit that we can bury these dozens of people, don't be sorry, and exhausting yourself to death in order to do good is also evil."

An old man and a small two Taoists dug for a while and rested for a while, so they dug intermittently for nearly two hours to dig the pit, the two of them leaned on the edge of the pit and even had no wheezing strength, as if they could fall asleep with their eyes closed, the old Taoist rested for a while and saw the apprentice resting with his eyes closed, he raised his hand with difficulty and felt out a piece of hard and hard cake from his arms, broke most of it and prepared it for the apprentice, and broke the remaining half and broke it in half, and took a small bite on the small half of this small half, But he pretended to eat a mouth full of cheeks and puffed up, and bumped the little Taoist boy with his shoulder: "Yours." ”

Xiao Daotong looked at the big half of the cake: "Master, where did you get to eat?" ”

"The day before yesterday, I asked the family for food, and I told you that I asked for four cakes and two for each person, and you ate all the palm-sized cakes in one meal, but I actually asked for five and secretly hid one myself."

Xiaodao Tong snorted: "Even I lied!" ”

He took the cake and looked at the small piece in Master's hand: "Master, you have too little. ”

The old Taoist smiled: "I've been eating for a while, and I'm almost full before I call you." ”

The little Taoist sighed: "Deceived me again." ”

He took the cake into his arms: "Go pee first." ”

When he came back after a while, he had only a lost cake left in his mouth: "Master, Master, I saw someone on the street, it seemed to be a few scholars, carrying bags on their backs, walking in a hurry, and they were about to come to our side." ”

The old Taoist snorted: "In the three-year exam, these students are afraid that they will have to rush to Daxing City." ”

Daxing City is the capital of the country, thousands of miles away, God knows how long it will take to go all the way, and it depends on good luck or bad luck, bad luck is estimated to be difficult to survive when encountering Liukou, but these poor students have no other choice, only to fight this handful, fight successfully, and then you will be able to eat the court and lose...... After three years, you can fight again, and it is not for nothing that you will fight until you have gray hair.

The old Taoist ate the little cake, poured a few mouthfuls of water, warmed his stomach and recovered some strength, and began to drag the corpse into the pit, at this time the scholars passed by, and several people's faces were white and bloodless, and they saw the miserable image in the city, and they were afraid in their bones.

"Dao Chief."

One of the scholars asked curiously: "There are so many corpses outside, why aren't you all buried?" ”

The old Taoist glanced back at him, not even bothering to speak.

Another scholar snorted and said: "Pretending, probably a person who seeks fame, so that he can go out and show off to others by burying a few people, and let people be grateful to him, what kind of world is this." ”

The other two people were also indignant when they heard this, and one muttered: "I'm not afraid of retribution!" ”

Xiao Daotong was angry when he heard this, and he wanted to scold a few words, but he felt that it was a waste of effort, so he frowned, and then sighed: "It's a pity." ”

The long-eyebrow Taoist also sighed: "It's a pity." ”

The scholar who spoke first couldn't help but ask, "What is a pity?" ”

The old Taoist didn't speak, and the little Taoist shook his head and said, "It's a pity, the four of you went to catch the exam together, but it's a pity that only one person ......."

Xiao Daotong looked at the old Taoist: "Master, I don't practice enough, but I'm wrong?" ”

The old Taoist shook his head: "That's right, there is indeed only one person." ”

At this moment, the four people were all anxious, and one of them strode up to the old Taoist: "You thief, what nonsense!" ”

"I have a long brow and never talk nonsense."

The old Taoist looked at the man's eyes and spoke, and the man's eyes lit up immediately after hearing the words Changmei: "It turned out to be a real person with Changmei, I was really offended just now, Zhenren, what do you mean by your words?" ”

The old Taoist shook his head and said nothing.

The scholar gritted his teeth, took off the money bag, and counted a few coins from it: "I won't let you talk in vain." ”

The old Taoist's eyes lit up when he saw the money, although he couldn't even buy a baked cake with those few money-making money, he immediately took the money-making money and weighed it, put it in his arms and said: "If I'm not mistaken, the four of you are quite knowledgeable, and you often get together to ask each other for advice, so not only is your knowledge quite quite similar but also your ideas are similar, it is not difficult to gain fame with the ability of the four of you, but you are in the same place, and even the answers will be almost the same when you answer the questionnaire, according to the unwritten rules of the imperial court, It is not possible to choose four people in the same place, so only one person can be chosen. ”

The faces of the four people became ugly when they heard this, and someone walked quickly to the old man: "Real person, can there be a crack?" ”

The old Taoist looked at his hand, and the scholar immediately reacted, and also took a few coins and handed them to the old Taoist, who put the money away and said, "It's simple, you just need to prove that the four of you are not from the same place." ”

The four people came around, and one of them said: "Real person, our place of origin is recorded, it is issued by Youzhou Academy, and there is an official seal on it, how can we prove that the four people are not from the same place, and there is a guide!" ”

"Well, it's really hard to do."

The old Taoist was silent for a moment, sighed and said: "The four of you are all talents in governing the country, if you can all enter the office, it will be considered for the benefit of the people, I ...... Anyway, I'm already very old, and I'm not afraid of God's wrath, so I'll give my life to help you. ”

He opened his bag and took something out of it and laid it out in the same way.

"I can help you forge the learning with the guide, enough to be fake, the official seal will never see the error, this thing is really going to be damned, if it weren't for the common people in the world, I wouldn't take such a risk, I see through the red dust and don't seek longevity only peace of mind, only five taels of silver."

As soon as the last sentence came out, Xiao Daotong almost didn't hold back.

One of them said, "We...... Where can I get five taels of silver, even if I can take it out, there is not much left, how can I still go to Daxing City? ”

Xiao Daotong pulled his sleeve: "You bargain, you try to bargain, my master is kind-hearted, but it's a good bargain." ”

The man's face was happy: "Real person, can it be cheaper?" ”

The old Taoist was embarrassed: "That's a curse from God." ”

Another person said tentatively: "The real person helped us, you said that it was for the benefit of the common people, since this should be blessed, so it can be punished by heaven." ”

He has no confidence in saying this, people are in troubled times, and they believe in gods and Buddhas.

The old Taoist's eyes lit up: "It's not unreasonable for you to say that, then I'll give you cheaper...... One person and one or two silver, and you will be charged the cost price. ”

The four people immediately became happy, each took out a tael of silver and handed it to the old Taoist, and the old Taoist had a clean face: "I don't stain yellow and white things, these silver will also be used to save the world and help the people, you can give it to my apprentice to accept." ”

Xiao Daotong took the silver, and the old Taoist immediately began to make a fake learning certificate, which was unbelievably fast, using the cover of the four people, but the paper inside was changed, and then took out the four seals, and stamped it on each fake certificate, and the four people took a copy respectively, carefully identified, and it was really difficult to distinguish the authenticity.

The old Taoist explained a few more words that must not be leaked out, and the four of them left with a thousand thanks.

Xiao Daotong was curious: "Master, how do you know that the four of them have similar knowledge and ideas?" ”

"The way of the world."

The old Taoist stretched out his hand and took the four taels of silver into his arms, continued to bury the corpse, and said while burying it: "The literati are light, the people they look down on will not pull them over, and if they don't look down on them, they can't stammer, so these four people must smell like each other, how can they get together if they can't praise each other, people are like this, they look down on you and can't melt into the circle of a higher level......"

The Taoist asked again: "Master, can they really have someone to join?" ”

"the fart."

The old Taoist snorted: "Stupid like this, and you have no money, can you enter the office?" ”

The little Taoist smiled: "That's less deception, everyone should ask for two taels of silver." ”

The old Taoist shook his head: "They don't have a lot of money in their hands, and one person takes one or two, because they are not right-minded, and if they get too much, my heart is not right." ”

He looked at the Taoist: "Li Diudiu'er, you remember, everything has a degree." ”