"Pleased, the master gave the word Zhongjian. A few days ago, he taught everyone to write a policy theory, and he criticized my strategy with the words 'righteous and reasonable, and knowledgeable', and asked me to read it to all my classmates! Li Xu interjected on the side. He didn't quite understand the difference between "Ming Jing" and "Jinshi", and his biggest ambition was to be a household slot, so that his parents and uncle could live a stable life without being bullied for a few days. I just feel that if I can take the exam a few years late, I can help my mother take care of the family business more, and second, I don't have to let my father always give gifts to Liu Xueyu. All of my classmates know that Liu Xueyu is a person who only accepts gifts and does not do things, only his parents are real, and he always takes the initiative to send them to the door to be deceived by him.

"Zhong Jian, I don't know which allusion comes from. This Master Yang ......," Li Mao's frowning brows stretched slightly. The fact that the most learned local master Yang was able to personally give his son words shows that the old man has recognized the status of master and apprentice with Li Xu. Although this title is Li Jiaqiang? went up, but with this level of relationship, there is a little more hope for Li Xu to be recommended by the government. As a dutiful father, Li Mao always spares no means to prepare for his son.

"Take the good wine that your uncle gave your father last time, your mother has never been willing to open the altar and send it to the master another day! By the way, by the way, take some mushrooms and dried game for your uncle. Although it's a drop in the bucket, I can finally put together a dish on the table! Li Mao hesitated for a moment and commanded in a low voice.

"Alas!" Li Xu happily agreed, and suddenly remembered what his uncle had asked him to do, and whispered: "What uncle urgently needs is not rare flavors, my uncle asked me to ask you today, saying that if you come back, help him find two raw cowhides." If there is no cowhide, horse skin and donkey skin will also be enough, he is willing to pay the right price to buy it, and the government is in a hurry! ”

"I have ready-made leather goods in my hands, so I don't need to go to other people's houses to buy them. It's just that the good government suddenly wants to bring leather goods? ”

"By the way, Uncle Zhong said that Zhao Er, the head of the county a few days ago, came to the door and asked when you would be back, saying that we have to hand over five raw cowhides to the government this year. Uncle Zhong begged him for a long time, only to change it to three, and when he left, he also carried two Luhua chickens! Li Zhang's family heard his son talk about raw cowhide, and also remembered the extra-tax tax levied on his family, and reported to her husband in a low voice.

"Five raw cowhides? What kind of crazy son is this Zhao Ergou, what do you want so many cowhides for? Could it be that someone died in the county lord's house, and he needed to wrap the body! Li Mao slammed the table and cursed hatefully.

Suddenly, both husband and wife turned white, you look at me, I look at you, and there is fear in my eyes.

Although both of them came from small families, they were more or less literate, and the story of the horse leather shroud is familiar. Shanggu County is close to the border, and the government collects raw cowhides on a large scale, in addition to preparing armor for the soldiers on the expedition, what else can it do. But at present, the foreign nations around the Great Sui Kingdom that can be subjugated have already surrendered, and the only one who dares to make trouble is Goryeo. In the eighteenth year of the emperor's reign, Yang Liang, the king of Han, and Gao Xi, the marshal, once led more than 300,000 horses on an expedition to Goryeo, according to the emperor himself, the final result was that the king of Goryeo bowed down to his ministers, but less than 3,000 of the 300,000 heroes of the Eastern Expedition could come back. Among the 290,000 heroic souls left in a foreign land, there is Li Xu's brother Li Liang.

At that time, Ryoko had just tied her hair, and she had the same figure and face as Xuko......

The next day, when it was light, Li Mao got up and packed his things and went into the city. Before leaving, he picked up four raw cowhides, two baskets of dried mushrooms, and a bundle of beef jerky from the goods brought back from the plug, handed them to his son, and ordered: "Send it to your uncle, don't go to school these days, there is something for you to do at home!" ”

"Skip class casually, Old Master Yang will be angry!" Li Xu protested loudly, and when he saw that his father ignored him, he muttered and added, "These two days are about strategy, and I will ....... when I try it."

"I'll go if I tell you to go, what nonsense!" Li Mao was obviously not in a good mood, and pricked up his eyes and scolded.

Li Xu didn't know why his father, who had always been kind, was angry, and he didn't dare to fight again. He hung a dry of groceries on the mule's back, and followed his father out of the house. It's still early, the official road is very deserted, the autumn wind rolls the early yellow leaves flying in the air, and the colorful butterflies are reflected in the light blue distant mountains, gorgeous with a bit of desolation.

"The emperor may be going to war again, and our Shanggu soldiers have always been famous?" At the fork in the road, Lao Li Mao looked at his son with a face full of grievances, and said with a sigh. Thinking that these words were far beyond the comprehension of a fourteen-year-old child, he smiled bitterly and walked away.

"War? A good thing, huh? I just joined the army to make a name for myself. Li Xu looked at his father's increasingly old back and thought puzzled. Pingsu studied in the county, and the old master Yang, who once followed Yang Su, the Duke of Yue, to sweep the south of the Yangtze River did not mention his own heroic deeds back then. Whenever he talked about the feat of the army crossing the river and pulling Chen Houzhu out of the well, he waved his palms and slapped the case, and the whole person seemed to be more than ten years younger.

"In this life, the husband should make a name for himself, the upper is to the king, and the lower is to defend the people, if it is beneficial to the country, although he will die without spinning......." Old Master Yang swayed his frivolity in front of all the young people. At this time, Li Xu and the others were also drunk, as if they had also become Han Baohu and He Ruobi, and followed the young King Jin to guide the country. I never thought that with my identity and family background, if I joined the army, I could only be a pawn, and there was a chance to die without turning my heel every day, and the possibility of making a name for myself was not much more than being struck by lightning.

Thinking about it, I came to the door of the "Youma" inn. In recent years, the people have withered, ordinary people have two meals a day, and there is no business to be found in the inn in the morning, and there is usually no fire. To Li Xu's surprise, his uncle Zhang Baosheng didn't prepare the ingredients in the inn, and the huge inn was empty, and there was no one in sight.

"I'm afraid I'm busy in the backyard!" Li Xu stood at the door and waited for a moment, leading his mount around the back door. The backyard of the inn was my uncle's house, separated by two dilapidated earthen walls and an empty courtyard. Li Xu looked inside along the back chai door, and just happened to see the little concubine Zhang Liu who he was most afraid of seeing.

This Liu is a well-known spicy woman from far and near, who stays at home until she is nineteen years old, and no one in the neighborhood dares to ask. Her parents really couldn't accept a dowry of ten yuan, and promised her to Zhang Baosheng to fill the house. At that time, Zhang Baosheng's business was booming, and he married a woman who was more than 20 years younger than himself, and he was afraid of melting in the palm of his hand. After Miss Liu passed the door, her temper soared, and she was soon so frightened that her relatives, friends and neighbors who came to fight the autumn breeze did not dare to come to the door. But if it weren't for that, Zhang Baosheng's inn wouldn't be able to survive now. It's just that such a woman who can be in charge of the house has never been able to continue the incense for the Zhang family, so that Zhang Baosheng always wants to have another concubine. Whenever he timidly put forward this plan, he was always scolded by Zhang Liu's nose and went out. After a long time, he had to break this unrealistic idea.

As a scholar, Li Xu naturally doesn't look at the concubine pleasing to the eye. Mencius said: "There are three unfilial pieties, and no queen is the greatest", the uncle is not too old, and he should marry a woman who can have children to inherit the lineage for him. But as a junior, he couldn't mention these 'public opinions' in front of his uncle, so he had to minimize the chance of meeting with the little concubine, in order to be a gentleman who "doesn't know if you don't see it, you don't know it, you don't say anything".

He didn't want to see his concubine, but Zhang Liu seemed to have a heart. Sensing the sound of footsteps at the door of the house, he stopped shouting without raising his head: "What, why don't you help me catch this chicken, delay the birthday feast set by Master Yang, we can't eat and go around!" ”

"Hey, hey!" Li Xu shuddered, only to find that his little concubine was holding a sharp knife in one hand, and he was facing the big rooster at the base of the wall. The rooster obviously knew that a catastrophe was coming, so he erected his comb, stretched his neck, clucked, and rushed left and right, trying to break through Zhang Liu's Five Finger Mountain. And Zhang Liu is not the master who is willing to give up, the cat has a willow waist, a plump buttocks, and the arm under the sleeve is pecked by the rooster full of blood, and he will not retreat.

Seeing this scene, Li Xu pushed open the courtyard door. Pulling up the hem of his robe and tying it into his arms, he rushed forward with a few lunges and knocked the to the ground. Zhang Liu saw that the people who came moved neatly, not like the old immortals in his own family. was stunned for a moment, and exclaimed, "Xu Guan, I thought it was your uncle who came back." Hurry up and put it down, hurry up and put it down, how is this the rough work done by the reader, God will punish ......"

As he spoke, he snatched the "captive" from Li Xu's hand, moved lightly, and took three steps and two steps to the edge of the pre-dug pit in the courtyard. Lan Zhi slowly pulled the rooster's neck under the wings, held the chicken wings and chicken neck in one place, and gently wiped the rooster with the other Qianqianyu hand, neatly settling the rooster.