Seeing that Li Zhang and Ouyang Xiu actually met, Qian Weiyan was also very happy, he liked young and handsome people the most, so he also took great care of Ouyang Xiu, a young man who was quite educated, and not only rarely let them bear trivial government affairs, but also gave money for them to eat, drink and have fun, which also gave Ouyang Xiu and others time to create a lot of poems and songs.

It was also at this time that Ouyang Xiu and others began to oppose the ornate and empty prose, and advocated the ancient text that has something to say, that is, the famous "ancient literature movement" in the history of ancient literature.

At the moment, Qian Weiyan and others invited Li Zhang to return to Luoyang, and a banquet was also set up in the city, Qian Weiyan was born in the royal family, and his life was very luxurious, of course, his family was not short of money, in addition to the inheritance of his ancestors, Qian Weiyan's official position was high, and the annual salary was very amazing, which was enough to support his luxurious life, so the reception banquet prepared for Li Zhang was also extremely extravagant, even Li Zhang, who had already eaten all the food in the world, was shocked by Qian Weiyan's generosity.

Li Zhang doesn't like to drink, and Qian Weiyan also knows this, so he asked him to replace the wine with tea, and after the three rounds of drinking, Li Zhang asked Qian Weiyan and others: "I came to Xijing to investigate and control the reappearance of the hat demon at the behest of His Majesty this time, I don't know what the trouble is now, has anyone really seen the hat demon with his own eyes?" ”

As soon as Li Zhang's words came out, the faces of everyone present changed, and then Qian Weiyan said with a solemn face at this time: "The hat demon is indeed a reappearance in Luoyang, and there are not a few people who have seen the hat demon with their own eyes, don't hide it from their nephews, in fact, I, Judge Zhou and others have also seen the hat demon with their own eyes." ”

"Oh? Uncle has also seen the hat demon? Li Zhang couldn't help but ask with a surprised expression when he heard this.

When he was in the capital before, Li Zhang had asked Wang Zeng and Lu Yijian, the two officials who had dealt with the hat demon, when Lu Yijian and the chamberlain Zhou Huaizheng were responsible for investigating the rumors of the hat demon in Kaifeng City, Tokyo, and Wang Zeng was the prefect of Yingtianfu in Nanjing, that is, Shangqiu in later generations, and also personally dealt with the rumors of the hat demon, but neither Wang Zeng nor Lu Yijian had ever seen the hat demon with their own eyes.

Even Li Zhang asked Lu Wu and Li Yonghe and other old people in the family after returning home, they also remembered the fear caused by the rumors of the hat demon, but they also did not see the hat demon with their own eyes, Li Zhang came to Luoyang this time, he wanted to find some people who had seen the hat demon with his own eyes to ask, after all, Luoyang is the birthplace of the hat demon, but he didn't expect Qian Weiyan to see it with his own eyes, he is a court official, and he is his elder, so his words are more credible.

At that moment, Qian Weiyan told Li Zhang about how he saw the hat demon, and Judge Zhou and others next to him were also witnesses, so they also made some additions, which also made Li Zhang hear the description of the hat demon by these witnesses for the first time.

Judge Zhou is just 60 years old this year, and two months ago it happened to be his 60th birthday, so he held a banquet at home.

On that day, the guests gathered together to celebrate the birthday of Judge Zhou, and the house also prepared singing and dancing performances, and the guests rarely got together, so they drank very late that day, but at this moment, they suddenly heard a commotion nearby, and then heard someone shouting on the nearby street: "The hat demon is here!" ”

With the shouts outside, the nearby area was also in chaos, and the guests who were attending the banquet in Zhou's mansion were also in an uproar, and then a sharp-eyed person pointed to the eastern sky and shouted in horror: "Hat...... Hat Demon! ”

Qian Weiyan and others also heard the sound and looked, sure enough, there was a hat-like thing floating in the air in the east, it was already dark at that time, and this hat-like thing would still glow, so they could see it very clearly, which also made everyone show a frightened expression, after all, although everyone had heard of the hat demon, most of them were seen for the first time, thinking of the horror legend of the hat demon, some guests screamed, and the whole banquet was also a mess for a while.

However, Qian Weiyan and the others were quite sober, and immediately asked people to stabilize the guests at the banquet, but as soon as the guests were stabilized here, the thing that was suspected to be a hat demon in mid-air suddenly disappeared, which was very consistent with the legend that the hat demon was extremely fast, which also caused a riot again.

Encountering this kind of thing, Judge Zhou naturally had no intention of wishing him a birthday, so he immediately returned to the yamen with Qian Weiyan and sent the officials to calm the commotion in the city, after all, it was not the first time that the hat demon had happened, and with the comparison between Wang Sizong and Wang Zeng before, Qian Weiyan certainly knew what to do.

Fortunately, although the hat demon appeared this time, nothing hurtful happened, and Qian Wei's handling of them was also very appropriate, and even arrested a few people who deliberately spread rumors, which also made the rumors in the city quickly controlled, but it was impossible to calm down, after all, even if they didn't say it on the surface, there were still many people discussing the hat demon in private, and some old people who had experienced the hat demon back then were even more disgusted, and I heard that there were several old people who died on the spot due to excessive fright.

"In addition to the appearance of the hat demon on the day of my birthday banquet, in the next period of time, the hat demon also occasionally appeared in the city, and it was all fleeting, although it did not hurt people, but it also caused great panic in the city. In the end, I saw Judge Zhou add again.

After listening to this, Li Zhang also showed a contemplative expression, and after a while, he asked, "Judge Zhou, is the hat demon at your birthday banquet the first time that the hat demon has appeared in the city?" ”

"No, in fact, there were rumors of the reappearance of the hat demon in the city before, and some people said that they had seen the hat demon, but there were fewer people who saw the hat demon before, so the impact was not great, until the day of Judge Zhou's birthday banquet, the hat demon appeared in mid-air in the open, and after a pause, there were thousands of people who witnessed the hat demon at that time." Qian Weiyan replied again at this time.

There is no pattern in the appearance of the hat demon, and before the birthday banquet of Judge Zhou, Qian Weiyan and many officials were still suspicious of the hat demon, thinking that it might be artificially spreading rumors, but after seeing the hat demon with their own eyes, they finally believed it, so now even the people in the officialdom have heard of the hat demon, but the officials have their own responsibilities, so they can only suppress the rumors in the city head-on.

"Where did you first find out about the Hat Demon, and who are the people who saw the Hat Demon?" Li Zhang asked again at the moment.