The Cao Gang rose with the Cao Yun. At first, there were only a few poor buddies, relying on a few broken boats to eat. After the rise of Caoyun, there were more people who relied on Caoyun to eat, and they united with each other to form a rope and established the Cao Gang. At Chang'an Guangyuntan Wharf, others can't plug in. Here, except for the government, all ships belong to the Cao Gang, and if you want to investigate the smuggling of grain, the Cao Gang will inevitably be involved.

Chang'an City, as the capital of the Tang Dynasty, what is there? The sweat and blood of the Western Regions, the knives of Tibet, the mare's milk wine of the grassland, the silk and tea of the south of the Yangtze River are even more common. The north of the city is inhabited by dignitaries, and the shops in the square are expensive and high-grade. When you get to the south of the city, it's different, what is practical and what is sold. There is a tea shop in the north corner of Lizheng Fang, the shop is not big, and the shopkeeper Luo set up a pergola in front of the store, and there is a big bucket of "tea" hanging on the pillar of the pergola. It was soon hot, and there were a few tables and benches in the pergola, which was larger than the area of the shop. The south of the city is mixed, and there are often merchants and porters who come and go from the south to the north to settle down here to drink tea, one to get cheap, and the other to rest by the way when they are tired.

At this moment, there were three people sitting in the pergola, two of them were wearing official uniforms, and one of them was wearing a scarlet robe, and they were actually members of the four grades of the imperial court. Shopkeeper Luo took out the rock tea produced in Jiuhua Mountain in the south of the Yangtze River, brewed a pot, put a cup, and filled it with tea. For ordinary guests, the shopkeeper Li just puts down the teapot and teacup and brews it by the guests themselves. The three people in front of him were obviously big officials, and Shopkeeper Li was a little more attentive.

Guo Li, Sun Ti, and Meng Haoran were tired of walking, and they just entered the Lizheng Square and saw a tea stall, so they sat down to rest. I didn't expect the shopkeeper to be polite and brewed tea. Guo Li took a sip, and the tea was a little dry. Guo Li didn't know much about the tea ceremony, and he didn't dare to comment in front of Sun Ti and Meng Haoran.

"Are there a lot of people in the Cao Gang?" Sun Ti asked.

"There are a lot of Cao Gang people living in the south, and this place is close to Guangyuntan, and the Cao Gang people have settled their homes here. Every day at dusk, the people of the Cao Gang come to the teahouse to drink tea when they have nothing to do, which brings a lot of business. Shopkeeper Luo replied.

"How's business going?" Sun Ti took a sip of tea and asked.

"Recently, the people of the Cao Gang came to the teahouse very late, drank for a while and left, unlike in the past, they felt enjoyable when they bragged about the cowhide." Shopkeeper Luo replied.

"There is an old gentleman who believes in Taoism living in the south, can the shopkeeper Luo know the place?" Guo Li asked.

"I know that most of the people in the workshop believe in Buddhism, and the old gentleman is very famous in the workshop. Go out from this side and go south, turn right at the second fork of the road, and walk another ten zhang to almost arrive. This old gentleman's surname is Li, and he has the same surname as Lao Tzu. Shopkeeper Luo said.

Guo Li walked to the front of a house according to the instructions of the shopkeeper Luo. The door is double-leafed, and compared to the average small family, this is already a medium-sized house.

Tapping the door buckle, a teenager opened a crack, and the probe asked, "Who are the three looking for?" ”

Guo Li smiled bitterly: "This official came to find Mr. Li. ”

"My husband is not here." The boy was about to close the door.

"Sword Lake, who's coming?"

"Three strangers, one of them wearing a purple robe, should be from the official family." The young man Jianhu said, not afraid of being heard by Guo Li.

Guo Li was so embarrassed. I thought that this young man didn't know these rules, and he didn't care about the other party's rudeness. I didn't expect the young man to say it out loud in person, it turned out that the other party knew and did it on purpose.

"It's so rude, don't you bow down when you see the official? Invite the three officials into the house to speak. ”

The young man Jianhu replied helplessly, opened the door, and said to Guo Lidun: "Meet the adults, please come in." The words were extremely reluctant.

Guo Li entered the door only to find that there was a cave inside.

I saw the wall head-on, and I suddenly opened up when I bypassed the wall. I thought this was a middle-sized family, but I didn't expect that the layout inside was far inferior to even his mansion. The housing prices in Chang'an City are extremely high, and such a large house, even in the south of the city, will cost a lot of money. Perhaps only the Wang family's mansion can be compared with the mansion in front of them. Guo Li was full of curiosity about the old gentleman in the house. Sun Ti and Meng Haoran were the same, looking at this seemingly inconspicuous mansion compound in surprise. Generally, if you want a house of this size, you should put two stone lions at the door and open the Zhu door three times.

"The old man can't welcome him from afar, the three officials come into the house to talk, Jianhu, and serve tea to the three distinguished guests."

Guo Li entered the house and saw an old gentleman kneeling on the futon, wearing a crown with his hair tied up like snow. In front of the futon is a desk, on which is a delicate incense burner, and behind the desk is a statue.

The Daode Tianzun is in the center, and the Lingbao Tianzun and the Primordial Tianzun are on the left and right.

The statue of Sanqing puts the moral celestial deity in the middle, which is different from the general Taoist temple.

After the old gentleman bowed three times and bowed nine times, he still had words in his mouth. After Jianhu brought the tea tray and served the tea, the old gentleman got up and bowed to the statue three times before turning around.

The old gentleman has fairy bones, eyebrows, beard, and beard are all white, and his beard is half a foot long.

"What are the three of you looking for the old man?" The old gentleman asked.

"This official Dali Siqing Guo Li has seen the old gentleman."

"What is the official looking for an old man?" The old man asked.

The old man did not bow, and Guo Li did not care. At such an old age, it is indeed inappropriate to worship a young man.

"I heard that the old gentleman recently bought two copies of "Zhuangzi", but I don't know if the books are still there?"

"It turns out that when I asked this, I used two books, one for my own use, and one for others." The old gentleman replied.

"I wonder who the old gentleman gave it to?"

"What's so strange about this book? The old man gave it to Liu Heming, not to hide it from the officials, this person is the son of the Cao Gang Fu Gang Master. ”

Liu Heming?

It seems that I have to go to Liu Heming to ask.

"Please also ask the old gentleman to tell Liu Heming where he is now?"

"I haven't seen it since the imperial examination, and I don't know where this kid went. The Liu family is considered to be a talent, Liu Heming is only twenty-one years old, he is a high school jinshi, and after a few years of training, sooner or later he will be a pillar of talent. ”

Guo Li and Sun Li glanced at each other, but they couldn't see the answer in each other's eyes.

"In that case, don't disturb the old gentleman's cultivation."

Coming out of the house, Guo Li looked at the closed wooden door in a daze. Who would have thought that such a façade would have a hole in it.

There are quirks.

"It's not an ordinary weirdness, since the old gentleman believes in Taoism, how can he put Daode Tianzun in the middle?"

"Daode Tianzun is also known as Lao Tzu, unless this person is a descendant of Lao Tzu."

"Lao Tzu's descendants have long been found to have no evidence, but the Son of Heaven respects Lao Tzu as his ancestor." Speaking of this, Meng Haoran seemed to think of something.

It is possible that this old gentleman is a member of the royal family.

Royalty? When Empress Wu came to power, the dragon son and grandson of the Li family were almost killed, leaving only Zhongzong Li Xian and Ruizong Li Dan.

"It is possible that it is a descendant of the Li family passed down by the son of Gaozu." Meng Haoran guessed.

Just as the three of them were about to leave, they saw a person running to knock on the door in a panic, and the three of them flashed to the side when they saw this. After a while, the young man Jianhu opened half of the door, and when he saw the person coming, he directly let him in.