Looking at the queue at the city gate and the officers and soldiers guarding the gate, Chi Fei couldn't help but have a headache about how to enter the city.

Because he has no way to guide him.

In ancient times, the management of household registration was very strict, and the supervision of foreign migrants was even more so.

The imperial court stipulated that if someone wanted to stay 100 miles away from their place of residence, they would need to be issued by the local prefecture and county.

If you want to enter any county, you need to check the road guide and confirm that it is correct before you can be released.

Wei law stipulates: "Whoever has no literary quotation and privately passes the Jinjin with eighty rods, if the door is not closed, the Tianjin is not crossed, and those who exceed the degree are given ninety rods." If he crosses the border of the border, he shall be punished with a hundred rods for three years. Therefore, those who leave the country are hanged, and those who guard the guards, and those who knowingly indulge in it, are guilty of the same crime. and those who have lost their cross-examination shall be reduced by three to each of them, and the rod shall be one hundred for sin. If there is a quotation, the impostor will be eighty rods. Those who take risks to each other in the family will sit on the parents. Those who keep the guard know and are guilty of the same crime. Those who don't know don't sit. He who takes the horse and mule to pass the gate privately will have sixty rods, and those who have crossed the degree will have seventy rods. ”

In other words, the road guide is equivalent to the certificate of going out, and it is difficult for people without road guide to enter the county. If caught, they will be punished with a cane or imprisonment.

As a result, the homeless people outside the city could only beg on the roadside and could not enter the city to earn a living.

If you have relatives and friends in the capital, you can go to the household registration department to apply for a "white nationality", that is, a temporary residence permit, under the guarantee of relatives and friends.

The term of each "white card" is only one year, and it needs to be renewed after expiration, otherwise once it is caught, it will be treated as a no-guide person.

In addition, if a "white national" person buys a property in the local area, he can apply for a "yellow nationality", that is, a permanent residence permit, and officially settle in the local area.

This property not only refers to the city, but also the farmers who have houses and fields outside the city, and they are also legal residents with "yellow nationality".

As for those who have no relatives or friends in the capital, but have a craft or a whole body of strength, there are ways to make a living in the capital.

That is, to find a middleman to buy a "fake relative".

As long as there is a need, there will naturally be a market.

Some people specialize in this business, helping outsiders who have no relatives and no reason to apply for "white nationality".

To put it simply, the intermediary will first write down all the information about the employer, including the place of birth, what are the names of the parents, whether they have children under their names, etc.

Then go to a local family with a "yellow nationality" and ask him to pretend to be a relative of the employer, sponsor him, and help the employer apply for a "white nationality".

Since it is a guarantee, it is naturally risky.

Once the employer broke the law in the capital, the local person, who was a "relative", would naturally be implicated, and even the middleman would not escape responsibility.

However, as the saying goes, money can make the devil grind, although there are risks, but because of the large profits, there are still many people who do it.

Some locals have more than a dozen such "relatives" in their names, and they can live well even if they don't do anything.

In fact, when this line first appeared, the middleman made a large share, and the locals who were responsible for impersonating relatives took a small head.

But after more people do this business, after a long time, the locals who are responsible for impersonating relatives will naturally know the inside story.

No one is stupid, so why should I take the most risk and get the least money?

So the market gradually changed, and the middleman wanted to use the previous price to fool the locals, but no one did it.

If you want to do it, you can add money.

Later, the bulk of the "handling fee" gradually fell to the locals, because the risk was the greatest, and the small head was the middleman's side, and it gradually became the norm.

Of course, Su Zhen, a penniless little beggar, has no money to do this, but if he doesn't enter the city, he has no way to live, so he can only venture in.

Since the tide of displaced people had not been long in coming, and there were still some displaced people outside the city who had not left, the officers and soldiers in charge of guarding the gate were very strict with everyone who came in, and those who did not have identity documents could not enter the city at all.

Su Zhen is young, if he dresses better, as long as he follows an adult and pretends to be someone else's child, he will have a chance to go in.

But he was dressed in tattered clothes, and he looked like a little beggar at first glance, and the officers and soldiers guarding the door were not blind, so it was strange that they would let him in.

After observing for a long time, Chi Fei's eyes suddenly lit up, and he thought of a way.

Among the queues, there were also some ox carts and horse-drawn carts, and Chi Fei was aiming at an ox cart carrying two big fat pigs.

He secretly walked to the vicinity of the ox cart, and saw that the owner of the ox cart was a middle-aged man wearing a cloth coat and straw sandals, and he looked like a farmer who was raising pigs and farming nearby.

In addition to the two big fat pigs whose limbs were tied and could not move, there were also several baskets of rice, peanuts, red beans and other crops on the ox cart, which should have been sold together in the city.

The middle-aged man was chatting with an uncle in line, obviously an old acquaintance, and he was chatting energetically.

Su Zhen took a few steps back and suddenly shouted loudly: "Look behind, someone is fighting!" ”

It is human nature to love to watch the excitement, and this loud shout immediately attracted the attention of many people, and many people began to habitually look behind.

People have a herd mentality, and when someone does this, it will cause more people to follow suit.

Soon, more and more people looked behind them curiously to see what was going on. Even the two peasant men who were chatting energetically couldn't help but stretch their necks to look.

Chi Fei, who had been prepared for a long time, immediately bent down to the bottom of the car, and then looked for a place where he could grip his hands.

Fortunately, he was lucky, the wheel was just right to grip there, and he relied on his thin body to keep his body from falling off the wheel, and successfully hid under the car.

Because no one really fought, the commotion quickly subsided. Everyone thought it was a prank, so they chatted and chatted, smoked hookah, and continued to wait in line to enter the city.

After waiting for about ten minutes, it was finally Chi Fei's turn to accept the interrogation of the ox cart.

Because the two big fat pigs exuded a foul smell of urine, the officers and soldiers guarding the door covered their noses and casually looked at the "yellow book" in the peasant man's hand and let him in, not even bothering to ask, only letting him go quickly.

This is also the reason why Chi Fei chose this ox cart, he knows that most people do not want to carefully examine this kind of cart carrying livestock and smell.

So, without knowing anything, this middle-aged man took Chi Fei into the city like this.

The middle-aged man pushed the cart to the back door of a restaurant, and then tied the ox cart tightly to the railing on one side with a rope, and then knocked on the door to find the people inside.

While he was entering, Chi Fei immediately climbed out from under the ox cart and slipped away.

As he walked, he looked at his surroundings and saw that there were ancient buildings everywhere that could only be seen in costume TV movies, most of which were made of blue bricks and black tiles.

The eaves are hung high, the walls are high, and there is an atmosphere of isolation from outsiders.

Among them, there are mostly quadrangle courtyards, some large and some small, and they are distributed.

The pedestrians were all dressed in clothes similar to Hanfu, and Chi Fei didn't know what it was called.

Most people wear cloth with long sleeves, but the style and color are different, and there is usually a belt and various pendants around the waist.

Occasionally, you will see some people wearing short clothes and towels, carrying baskets and frames, and they are all people who specialize in coolies.

Typical places such as restaurants, restaurants, rice shops, cloth villages, and green buildings can be seen everywhere along the street, with dense crowds and extraordinary liveliness.

Being in it, it was like being in the picture of the river during the Qingming Festival, and he had also become a small person in a picture, which made Chi Fei feel more deeply that he had indeed come to ancient times.

This is only a part of the outer areas of the capital where civilians are concentrated, and I don't know what kind of prosperity the royal palace and the central area of the city where the dignitaries lived.

Chi Fei didn't look any further, because his stomach, which had only eaten half a steamed bun last night, began to crow again, and he had to quickly find a way to eat.

He began to walk down the street, shop by store, looking for signs to see if there were any recruitments.

He also went to the pier and found it to be the most populous. Countless men waited there for the owner to hire them to unload the ship.

However, as the so-called monks have more porridge and less porridge, there are not many who can be selected by the ship, and the price has been pressed again and again.

I heard that it used to cost two pennies to carry a sack, but now it is a penny per bag, which is half less.

Even so, there are a lot of people rushing to do it.

Chi Fei looked at his short arms and legs, and left directly.

It's not an ordinary sack, any one of them weighs hundreds of pounds.

With his size and strength, it is estimated that he will not be able to move one even if he is tired, so he should find other work to do.

After walking six streets, he finally saw the notice of Mr. Billy at the door of a large rice shop.

Chi Fei thought about it and walked in directly.

There are five guys in the shop, three of them weigh the rice for the customers, one is in charge of counting, and one of them is more plain-looking and stands at the door to greet the customers.

Seeing Chi Fei come in, the white guy standing at the door immediately shouted with a cold face: "Go out, this is not the place for you to beg for food." ”

"I'm not here to beg for food, I'm here to apply for the job of Mr. Ledger."

"You're here to apply for Mr. Ledger? Are you kidding! Get out, get out right now, and I'll beat you up if you don't leave. "If it weren't for the fear that Chi Fei would be dirty, that guy would have started to drive people away.

Chi Fei didn't want to waste time arguing with this kind of person, so he suddenly lowered his body and got past him, and then ran to the shopkeeper who was sitting inside.

"You little beast dare to run, catch him! Get him! The guy chased and called for help.

This call immediately attracted the attention of other guys and guests.

"What happened?" The shopkeeper, who was originally reading the account book, was noisy and raised his head in displeasure.

As soon as he looked up, he saw a little beggar dressed in tatters running in front of him.

Before the shopkeeper could get angry, Chi Fei first clasped his fists and saluted, then looked directly at the other party and said in a very calm voice: "The shopkeeper is polite, the kid is not a beggar, he is just temporarily in trouble in the capital." I saw that your store posted a notice at the door to hire a bookkeeper, and it happened that the boy had a slight talent for arithmetic, so he came to apply. If there is any disturbance, please forgive the shopkeeper. ”

Seeing that the little beggar spoke clearly and elegantly, obviously reading a book, the shopkeeper couldn't help but feel very surprised, so he stopped the janitor who wanted to take Chi Fei away forcibly.

I looked at the young man in front of me again, and saw that although the other party was ragged and thin, his face was yellow and thin, but his face, hands and feet were clean, and his eyes were bright, and he was not afraid to look at people, and he really didn't look like an ordinary beggar.

"Do you really know how to do arithmetic?" The shopkeeper asked as he carefully observed the other party's expression, trying to see if he was lying.

Chi Fei smiled: "If I say yes, you may not believe it." Why don't you let me give it a try? ”

"How do you want to try?"

"If it's convenient, the shopkeeper, you can give me the revenue account book of the past few days, and it will be clear."

The shopkeeper thought about it for a moment and finally agreed. Tell them to bring the account book and abacus of the day before yesterday.

After the ledger and abacus were delivered, the shopkeeper said, "Let's begin, time is within a pillar of incense." ”

"Thank you, shopkeeper." Chi Fei picked up the account book and flipped it up directly.

Seeing that he just flipped through the account book page by page, but never touched the abacus at all, the shopkeeper couldn't help asking: "Why don't you use the abacus?" Don't you know how to use it? ”

"You don't need an abacus, you can do mental arithmetic."

"Well, bragging, and not making drafts." The guy standing at the door sneered.

Chi Fei ignored it and continued to flip through the ledger page by page.

The shopkeeper watched him without saying a word.

In less than five minutes, the ledger was quickly turned over.

After turning the page, Chi Fei started to turn the page again.

This time it was faster than the first time, and it took less than three minutes to finish.

After turning it over for the second time, he put down the account book, and then said to the shopkeeper: "A total of one hundred and six hundred and seventy-seven dollars and fifty-three wen, please verify it by the shopkeeper." ”

The shopkeeper took the white paper that had been pasted on the last page of the ledger, but he had torn it off in advance, and the total amount was written on it, and he turned it out of his sleeve and looked at it.

After looking at the amount on the paper clearly, he couldn't help but change his face and showed a very shocked expression.

It turned out to be word for word.

At this time, there is still a lot of time before the time of a pillar of incense.

What's more, this kid was obviously checking the results when he just flipped through it for the second time. That is, he could have figured out the answer earlier.

Such amazing mental arithmetic ability is simply a prodigy. How could this not shock the shopkeeper.

If Chi Fei knew what he thought, he could only say hehe.

What kind of prodigy is he, he has only been doing mental arithmetic since elementary school.

His level, in the eyes of modern real mental arithmetic masters, let alone green onions, hair is not counted.

However, the shopkeeper guessed one thing correctly, he was indeed checking the results when he went through it a second time.

Because there was only one chance, he didn't dare to be careless, and he had to ensure that there was no mistake in the amount, so he checked it again.

Anyone who has learned mental arithmetic knows that the principle is very simple, that is, imagine that there is an abacus in your heart, and then use this imaginary abacus to calculate addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

People who are average in mental arithmetic also need to use their fingers to simulate the action of the plan to assist in calculation when calculating.

And people who really learn well, all the actions are completed in the brain, and there is no need for finger cooperation. Chi Fei belongs to this category of people.

Since the action of dialing the abacus with your fingers is completely omitted, it is naturally much faster than the person who actually uses the abacus.

Although the principle sounds very simple and it is quick and convenient to use, mental arithmetic is like the piano, which needs to be practiced from an early age, and it is very difficult for adults to practice.

The ancients, who had never learned mental arithmetic or other quick arithmetic methods, would naturally be shocked to see that someone was able to extract results from such a large amount of data at once, and the other party was only a teenager.

Seeing the shopkeeper staring at him with wide eyes, Chi Fei knew that he had made the right bet, so he deliberately said: "If the shopkeeper still has doubts, you can take the test again." ”

The shopkeeper shook his head and said, "No need, the little brother's mental arithmetic ability is amazing, and the old man admires and admires." ”

Arithmetic is different from poetry and essays, and a wrong number is also wrong, and there is no room for confusion at all. What's more, he stared at the whole time, there could be no fake.

As soon as these words came out, the other guys and the guests watching the excitement looked at the ragged teenager in disbelief.