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The walls of the outer mountains, which were built during the reign of Sejong, were more than three feet high, so that the high winds in winter and spring were somewhat blocked by the high walls, but the dim yellow sky still made people feel oppressive, which was a common climate in the winter and spring in the north, which was called wind haze at this time and sandstorms in later generations. Although such a climate has always accompanied everyone since entering Beizhili, Wang Xingping's mood since he went north is actually not good.

After arriving in Tianjin along the canal, because he was going to visit Tian Shengjin's brother Tian Shengzhi of Gu'an Zhixian County, he did not go north to Tongzhou along the canal with everyone after coming out of Tianjin, but went northwest along the Lugou River. After meeting Tian Shengzhi in Gu'an and handing over a letter to Tian Shengjin, he spent two days in the county, this old man Tian is really a long-term honest and quiet person as rumored, and he has a good reputation in Gu'an, and he is a young official with some ideas.

After that, he went west in Laishui and Fangshan counties to go around before Shi Shiran hit the horse and went north, but once he left the canal, this place in Hebei was withered, even if it was said that Xu Guangqi had overhauled the water conservancy and tuntian, and after separating from Zhou Yiming, he encountered two or three ruffians along the way. However, I heard that there are a large number of ringing horse nest owners in the middle of Xiongxian and Renqiu in the south, near Baiyangdian, and if they encounter such a robbery, they will consider themselves unlucky.

In short, the feeling of Beizhili made Wang Xingping feel that there was incongruity everywhere, although the Cao City of Tianjin and Tongzhou was extremely prosperous, and there were many people in the military towns outside the Guanxi to purchase military rations here, and the strange goods from all over the world gathered here, but Wang Xingping felt that there was no foundation and seemed to be a little deformed.

Wang Xingping clearly remembered that he entered the realm of Shuntianfu on the New Year's Day of the Western Calendar, and according to the Ming calendar, it was still in the last half of the forty-sixth year of Wanli. Because it is from the southwest direction, all along the way are in Wanping County, the north and south of the two capitals are the same, are the county attached to Guo, in Beijing Shuntianfu dialect, is Daxing in the east, Wanping in the west. Wang Xingping looked at the "Miscellaneous Records of the Wan Administration" that even the service expenses and royal sacrifices of the large and small official offices in the capital had to be spread over the heads of the two counties, not to mention this burden, and the county officials at the feet of the Son of Heaven were really not easy to do.

Wang Xingping naturally wants to take refuge with his uncle Wang Zunde in Beijing, and it is almost the New Year, and it is the most idle time of the year, but it is only because the east is now tight, and he will be a little busy in the yamen. However, the so-called busyness is only in the officials, and most of the millions of soldiers and civilians in Beijing are busy preparing for the New Year's Festival, and the rest may not be clear when they ask him where Fushun is. The treatment of the officials of this dynasty is not good, this is not only to say that there are holidays, and this time of the year is the most comfortable, the winter solstice just passed to give three days off, New Year's Day is from the first day of the new year to the fifth day of the new year, and the Lantern Festival is to be full of ten days.

After December, it finally snowed a few times, and the sky cleared.

Now that the New Year Festival is getting closer and closer, the domestic servants who deliver the greetings at the door of the wealthy families in the streets and alleys are running in the snow, just like the mass text messages sent during the festivals of later generations, which makes Wang Xingping, who is a newcomer, a little dizzy.

Wang Zunde was a square person, and did not let Wang Xingping live with him in the government office, but just handed over some letters from Guizhou and arranged for him to go to the south of the city, compared to the inner city, the inn in Outer Guocheng was relatively cheap. Ma Shiying naturally arrived, and what surprised him was that Yang Wencong really won the lift, and became Zhang Rulin's student like him, and he also went to Beijing this time, these days he has already seen several of Yang's father Kong and Ma Shiying in Beijing in the same year, including the famous Ruan Dacheng, and the banquet has already been held many times.

In this way, his schedule is also extremely full, and he doesn't look at the list that Gu Ziming has given him, but in terms of his own identity, in addition to the necessary entertainment, there are many people he feels must meet. Just a few uncles are famous figures in the same year, today's Zuo Yude, the teacher of the prince Zhu Changluo, Yang Shouqin, the prince of the country, Wu Zongda, the son of the country, and the son of Zuo Chengzong. The first two are still half of the Zhejiang Party, and it is not difficult to bring Zhang Rulin out to meet him, after all, although the official positions of these two people are noble, they are not important positions.

Qi Chengjiao in the military department, Wang Zunde's same year, Zhang Rulin's fellow villager, Qi Biaojia's father, such a relationship is naturally more beautiful, and this one's dispatch is what Wang Xingping is most interested in these days, after all, the war in Liaodong is the clearest thing is the military department, and the country's major affairs are enshrined in Rong, and if you want to speculate and make profits, such a direct source of information is not much higher than the outside Di Bao, even if people can reveal it is really limited.

Wang Xingping set three tasks for his trip, he thinks that as long as he completes the second one, he will be satisfied, one is to collect first-hand information for himself and Gu Ziming as much as possible, as long as it involves everything in Liaodong and the south, and the second is to recruit some talents for himself, especially those who have talent but no way to enter, such people are not few in Beijing, and he also has some clues, and the third is to find some opportunities to speculate and earn some business profits, but this is also the easiest one to give up.

However, today Wang Xingping took his family by car, but there were two other characters to meet, but they were not among the above.

…………

At this moment, there are three people drinking in a wine shop in the westernmost oil mill alley of Yongfang in the capital, and one of them has a fat face and a kind look, which is Zhang Bingfang, who has been walking with Wang Xingping before. He went to Beijing this time to find some opportunities, and naturally made friends everywhere as soon as he entered the capital.

The two people who drank with him today had some friendship in the past, an old man with slightly pale sideburns and dark skin, and a dark blue shirt with an ink-colored square scarf. This person's name is Zhang Jiebin, and Zhang Bingfang is a fellow villager in Shaoxing, who came to Beijing with his father when he was a child, and is now a famous doctor in Beijing. The other person is named Li Kezhuo, with a sharp jaw and small eyes, and he looks very ill-fitting in a public uniform. One of these two is proficient in medical skills, the other likes Dandao, and they both travel extensively among the princes and ministers of the capital, and Li Kezhuo is also in the palace, and he is a figure who can see the emperor from afar from time to time, and he is the most ideal 'friend' in Zhang Bingfang's heart.

This restaurant at the mouth of Youfang Hutong is not famous, but the taste of shabu mutton alone is excellent, this famous dish named after the emperor of the previous dynasty is a rare delicacy in the imperial capital in this season, and the fermented bean curd and sesame sauce produced in the oil mill in this Hutong are also excellent condiments in this season when fresh vegetables are hard to find.

A few sips of wine and meat were in the stomach, and a few snowflakes were floating on the charcoal stove by the window, and there were more words.

"Brother Huiqing hasn't looked good for a few years, but it's good." On this occasion, Zhang Bingfang will not be cold.

Li Kezhuo also smiled, "So it's best to be your 'familiar land' in the capital, why bother to go to the north to eat the wind in the first place." ”

Zhang and Li also seem to know each other.

Zhang Jiebin's ancestor is the hereditary commander of Shaoxing Mansion, and his father is the doorman of Dingxi Hou Jiang Jianyuan, although he studied medicine with his father since he was a child, but he has always been yearning for the ancestors to make military achievements, so after his prime of life, he joined the army and traveled to the north, and his footprints in Shanhaiguan, Phoenix City and the north and south of the Yalu River, it can be regarded as the unity of knowledge and action, and Zhang Bingfang also fancy the relationship between him and the Dingxi Hou Mansion.

Zhang Jiebin shook his head when he heard this, and said with a wry smile, "If it weren't for the rampant construction of slaves in recent years, the irreparable situation in Liaozuo, I would not have returned to Beijing in discouragement." ”

"Has the situation in Liaodong really reached this point? Isn't the imperial court already mobilizing a large army to suppress it? "Li Kezhuo is working in Honglu Temple, and he has the opportunity to serve the emperor for a banquet, and there will naturally be no less news heard at the wine table.

"You have to be able to fight, haven't you heard? Because of the local arbitrary employment of people to Shanhaiguan, Governor Jin Dafu of Baoding, has just been inspected by Daojiang, Zhejiang. Although Zhang Bingfang has only arrived in Beijing for a few days, the news is more well-informed.

Li Kezhuo obviously heard the news and was a little disdainful, "I've heard about it, but Jiang Ricai is also eager to make progress, and he has been on three impeachment chapters this month, and he is really like a mad dog." ”

"Actually, it's all the same, Tianjin Wei heard that there was also a flower child sent it." Zhang Jiebin still has a lot of respect for Jiang Ricai, and he didn't answer the words, but he didn't have a good temperament, he really followed the army, and he was the only one who knew best what kind of virtue the army in the north of the Ming Dynasty was now.

Zhang Bingfang played a round field, he didn't want to turn the private banquet he made into a criticism venue. "Speaking of which, the little brother still has to thank the slave chief, it's not the Jianzhou barbarians, we can't eat this delicious taste."

Zhang Bingfang said that the elephant in the lamp is naturally the right moment, and this place is only separated from the elephant training room by a Xuanwumen inner street, and if it is summer, you can directly smell a smell of feces and urine. Therefore, choosing this place to eat wine in addition to mutton is also because of the proximity, an elephant that froze to death around the winter solstice this year was reported as usual, and the elephant meat was sent to Honglu Temple for use, and Li Kezhuo was the official in charge here, and the best elephant meat was naturally kept for him. And the so-called mouth blessing is really because the emperor has been worried all day since the Eastern Affairs, and on the tenth day of the first month of last month, he issued an edict to ban the slaughter of the Beijing master, and the hundred officials also followed the vegetarian for a few days.

If in the past, such a 'big supplement' thing as Xiangba could have been encountered but not sought, Li Kezhuo naturally wanted to honor the emperor, but now the emperor is a vegetarian, and a few days ago he also issued an edict saying that cough and phlegm are dizzy and can't see things, so this thing can only be left to enjoy at home. In order to prolong his life, Li Dianshan himself is alchemizing, where will he let go of such a good product, although Zhang Bingfang is the east today, it is still Li Kezhuo's love.

Zhang Jiebin also said: "I said how I chose to be here, it turned out to be because of this thing. ”

He looked at Li Kezhuo, it was meaningful, although the elephant taming room across the Xuanwumen Inner Street in this oil mill alley was suspicious, but for Li Kezhuo, the closer Catholic Church was the same. This Catholic church was given to Matteo Ricci by the emperor that year, although many foreign clergy were expelled after the Nanjing case, but this place was not affected because it was a royal gift, and it was supported by religious officials in the court. But Li Kezhuo is obsessed with Dan Dao, and it is rumored that he still has something to do with the White Lotus Sect, so naturally this kind of foreign paganism is not very pleasing to the eye.

However, while putting down his thoughts, while eating a piece of money and meat that is thicker than a donkey's license, occasionally pulling a few Spring Palace jokes, and talking about a few secrets of the government and the opposition, the relationship between the three of them is a lot closer.

Li Kezhuo's face was slightly red at this time, and he said vaguely: "To say that this elephant is a southwestern animal after all, it is troublesome to spend the winter in the north." ”

Zhang Bingfang said with a smile, "There are a lot of troublesome things in the southwest, isn't the joke of one place and three places made by Brother Li?" ”

Zhang and Li laughed again when they heard this.

This is an anecdote in the early years of Jiajing, it is said that the name of the inland state and county of the Ming Dynasty is more than two words, but the southwest place uses a lot of words, sometimes there is a long lawsuit under the jurisdiction of the Huguang Division of the water exhaustion source Tong Taping to pay tribute, the small officials responsible for the reception of the Honglu Temple do not know why, regard it as the water exhaustion, the source of the Tong, the tower of the three places, is a joke that spreads widely.

Zhang Jiebin seemed to remember something, and said: "Speaking of the southwest, I have a kid from Guizhou here who handed over a famous thorn to ask to see, or recommended by his friend Ni Chunyu, it is said that he has some means in medicine and military management, which is interesting." ”

Li Kezhuo also said: "Two days ago, I also received a kid from Guizhou named Thorn, was recommended by a friend in Linqingzhou, I heard the name of that person familiar and thought about it carefully, it is still an old acquaintance, last year's Wusi Zanggong envoy in Beijing mentioned this person in front of the Long Live Lord, and he really has some ability." At that time, he was still a white body, but now he has become a deputy thousand households...... I'm only fourteen years old. ”

He smashed his mouth, only to hear two other listeners scream in surprise at the same time.

Zhang Bingfang said: "You may be talking about the person who went to Beijing with me, a student with a strict family in Guizhou, and he is indeed a handsome man." ”

"It's called...... Wang Xingping's? Zhang Jiebin and Li Kezhuo asked in unison, and then glanced at each other meaningfully.

"Isn't that it?" Zhang Bingfang pouted at the Catholic Church opposite downstairs, but suddenly saw Wang Xingping's figure appear here, and his heart was full of suspicion.

[References]

1, "Daming Huidian"

2, "Records of Emperor Mingshen Zongxian"

3, "History of the Ming Dynasty • The Biography of Sun Chengzong"

4, "Kangxi Macheng County Chronicles"

5, "Wanli Shuntianfu Chronicles"

6, "Wanli Ye Ed" Shen Defu

7, "Tao'an Dream Memories" Zhang Dai

8. "A Brief Description of Beijing Economy in the Ming Dynasty" by Han Dacheng

9. "Wanli Shuntianfu City Restoration Map"

10, "Emperor Ming Fengyi Doctor, Right Chunfang, Right Concubine and Hanlin Academy, Reading and Presenting Zhan Shifu Shao Zhan Shikun Fuyang Cemetery Epitaph" Sun Chengzong

11, "Kangxi Huiji County Chronicles"

12, "Imperial Scenery and Things" Liu Tong, Yu Yizheng

13, "Wan Department Miscellaneous Notes" Shen Bang

14, "History of the Late Ming Dynasty" Fan Shuzhi

15, "Guoyi" talks about relocation

16, "Ming Ji Beiluo" counts six odds

17, "The Economic Life of Beijing in the Ming Dynasty" Xu Daling