Since entering the Eight Immortals Building, Yue'er has been attracted by all kinds of colorful cricket jars, and the occasional chirping of the crickets has made her very happy and very interesting.

After strolling around the second floor for a while, she suddenly heard the noisy noise on the first floor, and Yue'er ran down happily.

The staircase of the Eight Immortals Tower is a spiral staircase, so you can't see the people below. Yue'er ran downstairs excitedly, and hit her head on the chest of the visitor, and her head hurt.

Yue'er rubbed her head, looked up, and found that it was an old man who was hit by herself, and quickly apologized: "Grandpa, I'm sorry!" I didn't mean to. ”

The old man looked at her lively appearance, listened to her call "grandpa", liked it very much, smiled with a wrinkled face, and said softly: "Girl, grandpa is fine." Don't be so reckless next time, it's not good to fall. ”

Seeing the old man's amiable appearance, Yue'er smiled sweetly at him, and said a little embarrassedly: "It was I who hit the old man, and the old man is still thinking about me." Grandpa is such a good man. ”

In just three or two sentences, this extremely popular old man was full of good feelings for this unexpected girl. Although the old man is in a high position, he has no children due to special reasons, and the more he looks at this girl, the more he likes it.

The old man shook his head with a smile and asked softly, "Girl, what's your name?" ”

Yue'er replied truthfully: "Grandpa, my name is Gu Yue'er." “

The old man said again: "Okay, Xiao Yue'er, you are busy with yours, I will go up first." ”

With that, the old man walked up the stairs, took a few steps, and winked at one of his attendants behind him. The retinue turned around and secretly followed the young girl.

The heartless maid only thought that the old man was a good person, and didn't take what had just happened to her heart, and went directly to see the crickets, but she didn't notice the people who followed her.

Although the crickets on the first floor are only the people and small traders, there are also many good crickets. There were two good insects biting in the first field, and the onlookers were crying fiercely.

The crowd surrounded the basin, and Yue'er wanted to go in, so she protected her chest and squeezed inside.

The person who was looking fascinated was squeezed by her, and turned his head to scold her, but found that it was a twelve or thirteen-year-old girl, so he didn't care about her, and someone even moved her position and let her in. Yue'er is petite, even if she stands at the front, she can't block everyone's sight.

When she got closer, Yue'er saw the scene in the basin.

A black cricket is fighting a purple cricket. The two sides have gone back and forth, and the strength seems to be comparable.

"This black hemp head is so imposing! Come up and bite. ”

"Yo, White Tooth Purple almost got her teeth extracted."

"Hey, the black hemp head was bitten back, it seems to be bitten, I look at the hanging."

"It's hard to say, Bai Yazi is a little out of strength, and his legs are a little slower."

“.......”

Listening to the comments of the people around her, watching the crickets in the bucket fighting back and forth, although she didn't understand it very well, Yue'er still watched it with relish.

After a while, everyone exclaimed, but it was the crickets in the basin who divided the winners and losers, and the white teeth and purple gritted the black hemp head so that their teeth were crooked.

The onlookers sighed for a while, and then turned to other places.

However, in other places, either the strength of one side is crushed, and the victory is decided in a few breaths, or the strength of the two sides is too poor to bite directly.

Yue'er ran for three or five years, and as soon as she saw the appearance of the cricket, she had already decided the winner, unlike a good insect that can bite for a long time.

After running a few more times, she still only saw a few seconds, and Yue'er suddenly felt a little bored.

At this time, a person next to him suddenly said: "If the girl wants to see the king insect bite, why don't you go to the third floor?" ”

Yue'er glanced at him and asked, "Can I go up to the third floor?" ”

The man replied, "Of course." ”

Yue'er saw his sworn appearance, so she ran to the third floor in a hurry, with the previous lesson, she slowed down this time to make sure that she would not bump into people.

I went up to the second floor and was about to go up the stairs again, but someone grabbed me by the sleeve. turned his head and saw that he was just about to go downstairs to find her Xu Ziling.

"Where are you going, you said don't get too far away from me." Xu Ziling said.

Yue'er tugged at her sleeves, let Xu Ziling let go of her hand, and said softly, "I'm going to the third floor to see the big cricket bite." ”

Xu Ziling patted his head and said, "My little aunt and grandmother, can you go to the third floor?" There are all officials in the court, which one do you know? You just go. ”

Yue'er thought of the kind old man, and said coldly: "How do you know that I don't know anyone." ”

Xu Ziling didn't believe it at all: "Then you say, who do you know?" ”

Yue'er was stunned, she forgot to ask the old man's name. But he was still unconvinced: "No matter, you will know who I know when you go up." After saying that, he turned around and ran up.

Xu Ziling was quite helpless, so he had to keep up. Yu Ge'er also told him not to go to the third floor casually, it has nothing to do with being afraid of things.

Mainly because the third floor is full of powerful people, with many eyes and ears, what if he shows his face, what if he attracts the attention of others? Obviously not a wise move.

followed Yue'er up to the third floor, and found that she was looking around, so she ran towards the Wu field. And in the center of the field, there was an old man sitting impressively, who was Tong Guan who he had seen before.

To Xu Ziling's surprise, Yue'er ran directly to Tong Guan's side and greeted him with a smile, and Tong Guan actually said something to her with a smile, and then she sat next to him.

This made Xu Ziling not know what to do for a while, so he had to find a place in the corner to sit down first. Quietly observe the situation on Yue'er's side.

Xu Ziling's figure is not like a literati, but at this time, he is wearing a green shirt bought by Ming Xiawei, and he has a white face and beard, but he has a bit of a scholarly temperament, and he does not look abrupt among the officials.

Xu Ziling was secretly looking at Tong Guan and a few people, and suddenly heard someone say: "This little friend has some face, I don't know who his surname is, and what position he holds?" ”

When he turned his head, a gray-haired rickety old man was staring at him.

He had no choice but to bite the bullet and say, "The kid is unofficial and unemployed, he just wants to come and see this weaving conference." ”

The old man's face changed slightly, and there was a bit of anger in his words: "Judging by your demeanor and appearance, you are not a child of an ordinary family. In the prime of life, why don't you linger in this place of recreation and don't seek knowledge and gain fame? ”

The old man's cynicism made Xu Ziling a little baffled, and he arched his hand: "Although the kid has no fame, he knows some rough kung fu, runs around the rivers and lakes, and can also do chivalrous righteousness and benefit the people." Isn't it better than those officials who eat vegetarian meals? ”

Hearing this, the old man was not angry, sighed and said, "It's the old man who is abrupt." It's good that today's imperial court is indeed not as vibrant as it used to be, and it has been made into a miasma by some officials. As he spoke, he glanced at Tong Guan and a few people.

Xu Ziling noticed the old man's movements, so he followed his words and said: "Those traitors are really hateful, pampered and arrogant, and form a party for personal gain. ”

The old man is also a figure who has been in the officialdom for many years, and he can't hear that this young man is flattering him. But he didn't say anything, and said slowly: "The so-called authorities are confused, and the bystanders are clear." There are many truths that even roadside children understand, but these people in high positions do not understand. What is the national strength of my Great Song Dynasty now? Can you fight against Liao and Jin? These so-called ministers with responsibilities and ideals are gambling with the fortunes of the country. ”

Xu Ziling was surprised: "Aren't you Dazai-sama?" ”

The old man did not affirm or deny, but asked rhetorically: "Do you have any opinions on the matter of Lianjin and Liao?" ”

Xu Ziling had just seen the demeanor of the forbidden army in the morning, so he said: "The kid thinks that the strength of the forbidden army is enough to defeat the Liao army. ”

The old man glanced at him and asked, "How many forbidden troops have you seen?" ”

Xu Ziling thought for a while and replied: "About one or two thousand, all of them are elite people, the kid is originally from Fuping County, Zhending Prefecture, and he has seen the Liao army, except for the few cavalry, the equipment and force of the forbidden army are far superior to them." ”

The old man asked again: "It's true that the forbidden army is well equipped, so do you know how much it costs to build a pair of infantry armor of the forbidden army?" ”

Xu Ziling shook his head.

The old man asked again, "Then do you know who are the richest officials?" ”

Xu Ziling still shook his head.

The old man snorted coldly: "It is the prison that was ordered to supervise the production of armaments. ”

As soon as these words came out, it was tantamount to an earth-shattering shock.

Xu Ziling couldn't believe it: "The forbidden army is related to the safety of the imperial capital, and those officials dare to be greedy for ink even here?" ”

The old man sighed, "It's hard to believe, and if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed how bold they were." The raw materials for making bowstrings, replacing beef tendons with sheep's horns, replacing ox horns with sheep's horns, and making armor iron and stone are only refined at will, and they are completely substandard...... And so on, how can it not be frightening. ”

Xu Ziling still couldn't believe it: "Cutting corners like this, can't the officials who inspected it find out?" ”

The old man's cloudy eyes closed for a moment, and he said in a voice: "The Great Song Dynasty has been at peace with Liao and Western Xia for many years. During this period, there were no troubles, and the armor and blades of countless border soldiers were rusted and rotted before they were brought to the battlefield. Because of this, the supervisor dared to wait for the opportunity to do private business. They only need to make some of the equipment for the sergeant in charge of the review, and they can cut corners to fill their own pockets.

The military expenditure of the imperial court was undoubtedly an astronomical amount. Not going to the battlefield all year round, many soldiers have lost their blood, and they just take military salaries and wait for death. What's more, they colluded with the supervisor and embezzled military spending. How much of the huge military expenditure allocated by the imperial court has been used in practice, and how can we know it? ”

The more Xu Ziling listened, the more frightened he became, and he couldn't help but look around, and found that the weaving promotion competition on the third floor had also begun, and many pots in the building were full of people standing around, but there were only the old man and himself at this table.

This is probably because the old man has been ostracized because of the idea of the Lord's peace, and no official dares to befriend him in the limelight.

Xu Ziling didn't quite understand why the old man told him so much, they didn't know each other before, and he was just a nameless warrior.

The old man looked at Xu Ziling's puzzled appearance and explained: "In the huge court now, there are almost no people who can say a few words to the old man. I just saw you sitting alone in this corner, so I chatted with you a little more.

It is not only to pour out the unhappiness in your chest, but also to let a young man like you with unique skills clearly understand the corruption under the prosperity of my Great Song Dynasty, and one day when the national disaster comes, you can do something for the people. ”

Xu Ziling arched his hand and said: "Lord Dazai has the world in his heart, and the kid sincerely admires it."

The old man glanced at him lightly: "Don't say these innocuous words, as long as your mood changes a little, it will not be in vain for the old man."

Xu Ziling sneered: "The words of the adults must be remembered by the boy."

Xu Ziling didn't want to think about such things that he didn't know yet, and he didn't want to get involved too deeply. What he said to the old man was just a false and wrongful snake, and the old man could naturally see it, but he didn't care.