Leaving the courtyard, Qiao Zhun planned to go back to the hotel where he was temporarily staying to rest for a while, and then go to the pastoral mansion to complete the remaining long vacation procedures after the morning.

At this time, the sun will step into the corner, and the blazing flames have not yet begun to scorch the earth. A few lazy clouds hung in the deep blue sky, slowly changing shapes. In this secluded alley where the annex is located, there is not a single figure to be seen. The few homes are mostly open; Occasionally, someone heard the sound of the hallway, pulled the door and poked his head out to look around, and then disappeared into the dark main house. The two black dogs, so thin that they could count their vertebrae, stuck out their tongues and gasped for breath, followed him one after the other until they sent him out of the alley, and then they were disappointed to "separate" from him.

He walked down the street distraught.

To be honest, he is not willing to take a long vacation to participate in any court competition. He still knows the ink in his stomach very well, and knows that his ability to do things on the way to the article is limited, and he does not have the life of being born in the examination room, and he relies on seven points of luck to lift people in the township examination, so if he wants to go further in his career, he can only work doing things carefully. With this diligent mind, he always tries his best to do the things assigned by his boss well, carefully, thoroughly, and solidly. In addition, he has had good luck in the past few years, just after being admitted to the lifting of people, the head of the criminal department of Yixian Yamen resigned due to illness, and after he took over, he broke two small cases one after another, and he became famous in Duanzhou Mansion. Later, the chief secretary of the county government was dismissed because of an old case, and he was a lifter, and he also had a good impression in the state capital, so he naturally became the chief bookkeeper; At the beginning of the 18th year of the Eastern Era, two successive county commanders fell due to the fraud case of the Nanguan Grand Treasury, and he was appointed to perform the duties of the county order as the chief bookkeeper, and officially received the seal of the county order at the end of the year. In less than a year, he went from a cloth cloth to the county order of the eighth grade, this opportunity not only taught others to envy and jealousy, but also himself, and often felt that his luck was really good......

While being complacent about his luck, he also constantly warned himself that a person's heavenly destiny always offends with good and bad, and if you have good luck, you will naturally be unlucky, so you should be more cautious!

Sure enough, in the more than two years since then, he has encountered ups and downs in his career. The year before last, the princess of Changsha, who was obviously the governor of Yanshan at the time, did not dare to open the military warehouse to release grain, which caused Yixian County to starve to death while guarding the Nanguan Warehouse, and finally held it down, but the responsibility was on his head; Last year, the wind and rain were smooth, but in the end, there was a big case. This year, he was bent on getting an "outstanding" evaluation, but he was involved in Li Shen's case for no reason......

Originally, in his case, because he was falsely accused and wronged for no reason, then when the court returned his innocence, he should be immediately reinstated. But the Duanzhou government has already made a new county order for Yi County, and now you can't say to the new county order, someone else is back, you should move the place immediately, right? He didn't blame the Duanzhou government for appointing a new county magistrate before his case was clear. Duanzhou Mansion also has the difficulties of Duanzhou Mansion. In cases like Li Shen's, the investigation and conviction of the principal offender and accomplice is always very fast, but it is difficult for other people involved to say, sometimes the first trial is a few months, and it is not uncommon for it to drag on for three years or two years; It is impossible for the Duanzhou government to wait for his lawsuit to be successful before making personnel adjustments. Besides, before the Duanzhou Mansion appointed the new county order, it also prepared the case in the pastoral mansion. So seriously, the pastoral government also has a responsibility. Because of this, he can't blame anyone now. If you want to blame, you can only blame the person who sued the crime!

It suddenly occurred to him that these things that happened to him might be God's punishment for him, and God's punishment for his lack of pure virtue and tenacity.

A feeling of discouragement suddenly welled up in his heart.

Forget it, what is for the two terms of the official to benefit the township, and what is the spring breeze is proud of the horse on Huajie, it is not as clean and comfortable as guarding two acres of land in the field. Isn't there such a sentence in the poem "Drinking", "Picking chrysanthemums under the east fence, leisurely seeing Nanshan"? Let's go, he might as well learn from Tao Yuanming, and also come to "help plough Dongxiang and see Yanshan leisurely"......

If you want to go, it's too early! Anyway, he was detained and came to Yanzhou, and his clothes were bought temporarily after he walked out of the Inspection Division, and he basically didn't have any luggage.

Having made up his mind, he looked up at the sky on the street. It was still early before the time for the yamen to take a nap, and it didn't take half a moment to walk from here to the shepherd's mansion, so he temporarily changed his mind and turned around and walked towards the yamen.

He came at the right time, and the priest in charge of this matter had just returned from an errand. Probably things went well, and Si Cao was in a very good mood, and when he heard him say that he was going to complete the final procedures, he would immediately help him handle it in person.

In fact, the formalities he has to go through are not a big deal, the main thing is to receive this month's Yulu and some subsidies from the imperial court. His tenure in Yi County has ended, and the personnel have been transferred to the pastoral government, and the salary is no longer distributed by Duanzhou; He took a long leave to take the provincial examination for the imperial court next spring, in fact, he had given up the opportunity to be on standby, and according to the usual practice, his salary was due this month. But when it comes to him personally, the situation is slightly different. He was framed before he lost his real job, and he suffered a full month of lawsuits before and after, according to the system of the Ministry of Officials, during this period of unjustified lawsuits, he had to approve the distribution of twice the usual amount. This is one of them. Since he was innocent and was implicated, then the carriage and horse expenses for him to return to Yi County from Yanzhou would have to be spent by the pastoral government, according to the standard of subsidizing ten wen for one mile of official exchanges, four hundred and eighty miles from Yanzhou to Yi County, that is, four thousand eight hundred wen; He is an eight-rank civil official, and he has three cents for each mile of travel; There is also the firewood salary that all civil officials have, the special ice fee in summer, and the material money for the servant women at home...... The mess of all kinds of money and grain that should be received was converted into a total of twenty-four thousand seven hundred and sixty-three wen. With such a large pile of copper coins, he still has to buy a blanket to hold it. Fortunately, Hu Cao of the pastoral mansion had a blanket, and after paying forty-five yuan, he got a half-new cloth blanket. Putting the heavy blanket on his shoulder, he thanked the enthusiastic Si Cao, and then left the yamen with heavy steps. The steps can't help but be heavy; Growing up, he had never had so much money on his shoulders......

He quickly found a carriage and horse shop on the street not far from Yamen, negotiated the price with the boss, and chartered a carriage to take him back to Yi County.

He took the charioteers who had been assigned by him, drove the carriage, measured a few feet of fine silk in the market, and bought a lot of rare things that were rare in Yixian, until all kinds of things occupied the smaller half of the carriage, and he seemed to have missed nothing, and then sat down in the carriage and went back to the hotel satisfied.

At the inn, he had just gotten out of the carriage, and the innkeeper hurriedly ran over and said, "Master Qiao, where have you been?" ”

"Didn't go anywhere." Qiao Zhun said. He asked the hotel guy to help lead the driver to the back to settle down, and said to the boss, "What's the hurry, I'm not short of your room and food." He shook the blanket in his hand, which was more than half light, and the copper coins in the blanket bumped and made a loud noise.

The boss jumped to his feet in a hurry and said, "Oops! I'm not talking to you about the price! The official of the Yamen, I have been looking for you twice today! ”

Qiao Zhun was a little dazed when he heard it. In a hurry, he didn't think clearly what he meant by this, and subconsciously asked, "The official of the yamen...... Which yamen is it from? What do you want me to do? ”

"Oops, how dare I ask why!" The boss grabbed him by the arm and pushed and pulled him towards the store. "Come in, the people haven't left yet!"

While speaking, a young man came out of the hotel and asked him, "Are you Master Qiao Zhunqiao from Yi County?" ”

"It's me." Qiao Zhun was also looking at the young man with his eyes open. This man wears a long shirt on his head, and he looks like a clerk, but he is stepping on a pair of thin-soled cowhide boots under his feet, and he is not too hot in such a big weather? I couldn't figure out where the young man was coming from, so I asked, "Who are you?" ”

"Admiral's Mansion."

"Admiral's Palace?" Qiao Zhun paused for a moment. "What's the matter with me?"

But the young man did not explain, but untied the reins from the stake beside him, and said, "Follow me." Then he asked, "Do you have a horse?" ”

Qiao Zhun didn't know what this meant, so he had to shake his head blankly.

"Can you ride a horse?" Seeing Qiao Zhun nodding, the young man immediately turned to the innkeeper and said, "Find a horse to borrow." As he spoke, he touched more than a dozen coins from his arms and handed it to the boss. This is the money for renting the horses in your shop. After that, he turned over and sat on the saddle bridge, and stared at Qiao Zhun one by one, and hurriedly looked for a horse.

The boss probably didn't expect that the official of the Admiral's Mansion borrowed a bad horse to summon half a quarter of time to pay for it, and he didn't come back to his senses for a long time with the money in his hand. It wasn't until the guy pushed him that he reacted, and said with a sad face: "This errand officer, we are a small shop, where are the horses?" And he shoved the money into the young man's hand.

The young man didn't answer, and said, "Then this carriage." Hurry up. ”

Qiao Zhun climbed back into the carriage in a daze......

When he got out of the carriage again, it was already parked outside the Yimen of the Admiral's Palace.

The young man was indeed an officer of the Admiralty. Qiao Zhun didn't see him jump off the horse and say anything, and the captain who led the team on duty at the instrument gate waved his hand and let him go. When he entered the door, Qiao Zhun also caught a glimpse of the horse that the young man was riding, and there were also soldiers who went over to lead it. It seems that this young man's position may not be worth mentioning, but his status in the Admiral's Mansion is not low, and he is most likely a person who can speak in front of the Admiral.

Although it was the first time he had entered the Admiral's Mansion, he was now full of worries, and he kept guessing what was the reason why Shang Cheng came to him, so he didn't pay attention to the situation in this yamen. The only feeling is that this place is much bigger than the yamen he has seen, but it is colder than the Mu Mansion and the Duanzhou Mansion, and it is not as strict as Li Shen's right army command in Duanzhou. In Li Shen's yamen, soldiers standing solemnly with spears and swords can be seen everywhere, but it is rare to see a soldier standing guard here.

It's strange, is the Admiral's Yamen inferior to the command Yamen of the Right Army?

He soon saw a few soldiers in front of a courtyard, and they also stood in front of the courtyard gate like nails on the left and right sides with swords and spears on their shoulders, just like in the yamen of the command of the right army. In the inconspicuous place by the courtyard gate, there were two seven-rank green shirt captains wearing regular clothes, who were whispering something with their heads down.

As soon as they approached, the two officers stopped talking and looked up. Only then did Qiao Zhun see clearly that the two officers, one was clearly a Tuqi man, and the other had a face that had been cut with a knife or scratched by a wild beast, and the three scars were pulled from the right eyebrow bone to the left cheekbone, and the appearance was unusually ugly and hideous.

Seeing the eyes of the two officers glancing over, the young man who led him immediately stood still, raised his head and looked at his legs and right arm as his chest to give a military salute - Qiao Zhun knew that this person was not a clerk of the Admiral's Mansion but a soldier.

The two officers also raised their arms and returned the salute. The ugly-faced officer seemed to have a smile on his face, narrowed one eye, and said lightly: "Gao Qiang, how many times has you missed the day this month?" ”

"Fourth ......" Gao Qiang lowered his head and said in frustration. But he immediately looked up again and said, "It was the general who sent me to find someone." ”

The ugly-faced officer snorted in his nose, apparently in disbelief.

“…… Duantou, if you don't believe it, you can go to the general and ask! Indeed, he told me to find someone! Gao Qiang said aggrievedly. That's it, I was reprimanded by the general at noon. ”

The officer who looked like a Turk smiled and turned his face away. The officer surnamed Duan stared at Gao Qiang and nodded, grinned and said, "Heh, you have a long ability, you know that you have set a trap for me!" Let me ask the General? …… Good, good. Go back and get ten whips yourself. After saying that, he turned around and said something, and the other officer seemed to reply, and then bowed slightly. The two exchanged a salute, and the officer who looked like a man turned around and entered the courtyard, but the ugly-faced officer walked in the direction where Qiao Zhun came. A soldier standing by the courtyard wall who seemed to have nothing to do hurriedly spit out the straw stick in his mouth, trotted a few steps and followed.

Qiao Zhun saw all this. He was obviously less than ten paces away from the two officers, and when the two officers spoke, he could not hear any sound, only the lips of the ugly-faced officer were wriggling. It's just so weird! What made him even more shocking was that when the ugly-faced officer and Gao Qiang were talking just now, it was clear that the two officers didn't even turn their eyes to him, but he just felt that there were four indifferent gazes constantly looking back and forth on him. He felt that even if it was a hunter, when he hid in the dark and looked at his prey, it was probably just like that......

He couldn't help but whisper, "Who is this?" ”

These two are not nobodies by any means. He was curious, which of the two famous generals in the guard were these?