In Pucheng City, the Tang Tower of the South Temple, the Song Tower of the North Temple, echo each other from afar, the Ming Examination Institute, the Six Dragon Walls, the Bemu Library, and the archways in the hometown of the Xiang Xiang abound. Following Confucianism for thousands of years, the old city has been built like a big square chessboard. A north-south central axis, is the middle of the chessboard of the Chu River Han boundary, the whole Pucheng is divided into two, the east and west streets, and the city is divided into north and south districts again, so that is the four boundaries of the rules, the place of dead streets, is cut by the horizontal and vertical alleys, are square and vertical, the streets are the lines on the chessboard, and the squares are the grids on the chessboard, and the people in this square are the children on the chessboard.

Although Pucheng is a boxy and a chessboard shape, it has its own inside and outside, the Buddhist temple is self-contained, the official subordinates of the yamen are on one side, the gentry and the mansion are more than the shape of the feng shui, and the rich family, in their own courtyard, build a huge, or exquisite windmill, or for practicality, or just for the scenic spots, every day in a hurry, with the wind direction of the north and south, slowly swaying. As a result, whether it is in the courtyard of a deep house or a delicate house, through the wall, you can hear the water flowing loudly.

Standing on the top of the high-rise pagoda, you can see all the pedestrians entering and exiting the road and alleys, and the women in the back building singing and dancing are unique.

However, it was all the literati and scholars who relied on the eternal Yaxing, and now, Yang Er and the horse riding on the wall came out to steal.

Yang Er, whose name is Yang Fan, is a hundred households in the Pucheng Guard, a small official, Ma Er is his brother, and at the same time, he is his personal soldier.

Originally, according to the normal reason, these hundred households were serious officers of the imperial court, and the horses were also military men of the imperial court, which were paid by the military and the property of the guards, but now the Ming military households are no different from beggars, but this Pucheng is different from others after all, and the military and Han have nowhere to go, and more or less every year in the county office, receive one or two stones of grain to live, and the rest, that can only rely on their own coolies.

The burden of the horses is not heavy, and the family has one single person, and in the spring and autumn, they do some short-term work, do some help, and then do some coolie short-term labor in those merchants, and they can still maintain their own food and clothing, at least not starve to death.

Yang Fan is not good, because he not only has parents, but also has a wife and children, although it is enviable, but life is more embarrassing, sometimes there is no money and food at that time, it is really impossible to support this family of five, and now seeing that the thieves are coming, I also know the above arrangement, I really want to use Pucheng as bait to attract the thieves to besiege the city, and then the internal and external communication, a reserve can not be short, who knows how long the siege of the city will take? And although he is a hundred, he has no overnight food, so in order to reserve more food, he only has a part-time job and is a thief.

White Heaven Hall is upright, and at night it turns into a thief, which seems funny, but this is life.

But fortunately, Pucheng is located in the Weinan Plain, which was originally very wealthy, even in this last days, there are many high-ranking officials and nobles, and there are many wealthy families, and there are landlords from all over the country who have heard the wind and run into the city to take refuge, and the target is not difficult to find. In particular, he is not insatiable in stealing, neither stealing every day, nor stealing anything too valuable, so although the thefts are frequent, the officials never care, most of the time, the butlers of those bitter masters just stand at the door and shout a few times.

Lama'er joined the gang entirely because he pitied this little brother, it was not easy to see him earn a living alone, only relying on the income of the coolies, barely able to eat a full meal, not to mention saving money to marry a daughter-in-law, it was difficult to eat meat and sell a pot of wine, so he had the heart to take this brother to get some money to supplement the family.

The horse is smart, and his hands and feet are sharper than Yang Fan, a man in his forties, and the horse will take over the matter of entering the house, and Yang Fan just needs to control the wind.

Yang Fan rode on the wall, waiting for the horse to come back. In fact, Wangfeng is just a name, and now, the official who patrols the city and collects thieves does not come out at all, so Wangfeng has become a way for Yang Fan, who is worried all day long, to look up at the sky scenery and soothe his mood.

He tilted his head and looked at the starry sky obsessively, the night sky was like a wash, the moonlight was cool, the stars were swaying like jewels and dotted into the sky in all directions, and in his ears, there were constantly rich people singing and dancing in the breeze, which came in the gentle breeze, if it weren't for the long howl of a homeless beggar dying somewhere, disrupting such a beautiful scenery, this is indeed a kind of enjoyment.

Yang Fan's generations of military households, when he was a child, he envied the story heroes of the battle in his father's mouth, grew up, took over the big knife in his father's hand, and inherited the coveted official body of a hundred households, eager to one day go to the frontier, serve the country, kill the female straight Tartars, kill the Mongolian Tartars, defend countless Ming people, make meritorious contributions, and glorify the ancestors.

But things are always too far from the ideal, there was nothing at all, and then the world was difficult, and a large number of homeless people began to pour in near Pucheng, and there were also poles flowing out of the mountains in the north to loot, and their own guards sent troops to encircle and suppress them several times, but every time Yang Fan thought that the vicious rogues were all ragged and unkempt people, especially, during a pursuit, he captured a family of four who were hugged tightly together, old and weak, two gray-haired old men, and a grandson who was less than five years old, When he looked at him with eyes of fear and despair, when the only young man in the family, holding a freshly cut stick, and his blood-red eyes were playing against his team, he saw in the eyes of that man anger, unwillingness, and—despair.

When the man felt that his resistance would not have any hope, he stood like that and said loudly to Yang Fan: "The court lackey, I don't want to be a thief, it was forced by your officials, the way of the world is like this, I have nothing to say, now, I will commit suicide in front of you, exchange my head for your reward, and use my head in exchange for you to release my family."

After the man finished speaking, the family behind him hugged the man's thigh and cried bitterly.

Yang Fan stood in front of the man at a loss, this was too far from his ideals, what he wanted to protect became his own killing, how could this not be frustrating? Yang Fan was on the battlefield, let the family go, and watched them support each other and go away, one of his subordinates complained in a low voice, "Four, according to the rules, that's four taels of silver, this is the easiest business in the world, it's a pity, it's a pity." ”

Yes, according to the military exploits of the Ming Dynasty, the head of an enemy was beheaded, five taels of silver from other races, and one tael of liukou, of course, now, the imperial court can't take out these silvers, but the rich landlords here are willing to take it, this time, it is true that there are no four taels of silver, but there is no Yang Fan's fiery heart to serve the country. As a result, the desire for military exploits slowly became indifferent.

"My lord, my lord, it's done." A low voice whispered Yang Fan back to reality.

A figure sneakily emerged from the courtyard, looking around with a probe. Yang Fan, who was riding on the wall and pondering, came back to his senses, beckoned to him, and called softly: "I'm here!" ”

The horse flashed quickly, and when he reached under the wall, Yang Fan stretched out his hand and pulled him up to the wall. The wall is made of loess rammed, the days are long, the wind and rain have been dry and decayed, and a few pieces of soil embryos are kicked down by Ma Liu, but fortunately there is a stream nearby, and the stream is uproaring, covering the sound of the soil falling to the ground.

The horse sat down at the head of the wall, and immediately praised: "My lord, you really have a vision, and the place where you can pick this wind is so secret that even I can't find you when I come out." ”

"Don't pat yourself on the back, what did you touch, take it out and see." Yang Fan lightly hammered the horse.

With the horse bulging in his arms, he sat down on the wall, took out a stack of open plates and two bottles of willow branches and flowers from his bosom, and said, "What a bad luck! I thought that this yellow man was so rich outside, who knew that he was a horse dung ball, a sheep egg, and he was not only on the outside. Looking at the spaciousness, there are no too valuable objects at home, so I only touch a few things. ”

Yang Fan smiled, stuffed the plate into his arms, and said, "This belongs to me, and the bottle belongs to you." After picking up the things, Yang Fan couldn't help but say helplessly: "How many are there really rich and wealthy now?" They are all such landlords, and the really rich and noble have gone to Xi'an to take shelter from the wind. ”

Ma Er said, "Yes." ”

He reached into his arms, took out two more things, shook them in front of Yang Fan, and said proudly: "What do you see here?" ”

Yang Fanyi frowned and said, "What is it?" Don't be too valuable, that would be troublesome. ”

He stretched out his hand and snatched one from his hand.

As soon as he started, Yang Fan was free, it was just a book, and it was not unusual.

Ma Er grinned and said: "I saw that your nephew had to go to the bookstore every day to copy a book, and it was very hard, but this time I saw that the Huang family had a few copies, if I wasn't afraid of taking them out to provoke the Huang family, I would have brought them all." ”

Ma Er told the truth, in this era, the value of a book is something that he Yang Fan is reluctant to buy, so he can only watch his son work hard to copy books.

Yang Fan looked at the horse in the moon, with a happy face, and showed his little white teeth.

His own children are good at writing, which is different from the ancestors of previous generations, but this is also his pride, he was born in a military household, but he is almost surrounded by four walls, where can he afford to invite a gentleman? Where are you still selling books, not to mention, I know best, this Ming Dynasty is already at the end of his life, and it is useless to be admitted to the top of the show or not.

But the child has this heart, and the brother has this heart, so he is moved.

didn't look at the name, Yang Fan put the book in his arms, smiled at this brother who was absolutely close to him, and said: "Don't stay here, it's a big night, two men are riding on the wall of others, not thieves are thieves, let's go back." ”

The horse stopped talking, and followed Yang Fan to get down the wall, looking for a dark corner, avoiding possible pedestrians and walking back, to the old Wang's house where the stolen goods could be sold.

Along the road, there were no patrols, no arrest of Xiaoxiao officials, although there were countless homeless beggars lying along the street, but there was no movement when they saw the two people, and let the two people walk through the streets and alleys.

It was a lifeless night, and although the moon was bright and there were many stars, it could not hide the dead air of the heavens and the earth.