Shangyuan Festival, also known as the Yuan Xi Festival, is the most lively festival in the Great Week except for the Spring Festival.

During the reign of Zhou Taizong, the Great Zhou Dynasty was breaking free from the quagmire of the chaotic times at the end of the Tang Dynasty and moving quickly towards prosperity under the banner of Wenzhi.

On the Shangyuan Festival of a certain year, Zhou Taizong took the important ministers of the clan to climb the attic of the palace city, looked at the lights of Bianjing, and asked with a sigh of wine: "If my great Zhou is prosperous, what is the people's livelihood?" ”

There were many top lyricists and poets present, who reported to Taizong about the prosperity of the wind and rain in various places, and dipped ink to write words. The palace prostitutes sang together on the spot, and the emperor and the scholars stayed up all night, completely pushing the lyrics that were regarded as frivolous slang songs to the peak.

Zhou Taizong had a good time and pointed to the royal street: "The Great Zhou is so prosperous, and Bianjing is so prosperous, how can you be stingy about the Lantern Festival." Spread my will, every New Year's Eve, the royal street is open, the city gate is not closed, so that the people of my Great Zhou will be lively for two nights. ”

A full 150 years later, the Shangyuan Lantern Festival on Yujie really embodies the atmosphere of "thousands of flowers and trees blooming on the night of the east wind".

Ma Rulan supported her in-laws, and together with the Wu family and the Li family, they watched the lanterns on the royal street. The dolls of the Wu family and the Li family ran back and forth, running to the lantern from time to time, pointing to the lantern riddle on it with their little fingers, guessing randomly. With a little money, the two families can finally send their dolls to Mengxue in a place like Bianjing.

Ma Rulan smiled from time to time and greeted acquaintances, forbidden army warriors, neighbors, yamen officials, street vendors and merchants...... Just now I met the crazy Lin Dayou, maybe his weird brother caused trouble again.

Officials in Xunyang, Shiyan, Danjiangkou and other places tried their best to cover up the unrest along the Han River. But Xunyang is less than a thousand miles away from Bianjing after all, and the Great Zhou does not scold people with words, and the people in the market like to spread exciting news...... The gentry, the big businessmen with backgrounds, the local heroes, Liu Chengdong, the old brokerage firm, the Yaxing officials, the workshop groups, and the homeless people, the riots are widespread, and the mystery and complexity of the plot are too exciting.

Even on the royal street where the lanterns are viewed, there are groups of people discussing various insider stories.

Ma Rulan had already received Li Xiang's letter, and knew that Ma Chaobei and Jiang Lan were fine, so she was relieved. But Ma Chaobei's grandfather and grandmother were gone, and the two old men were not worried that their little grandchildren were there, so they always urged Ma Rulan to bring Ma Chaobei back.

Ma Rulan had no choice but to agree, and after the beginning of spring, she would take Ma Chaobei back to Bianjing, so as to appease her in-laws.

Walking through several luxurious and lively attics, Ma Rulan vaguely saw the scene of talented and beautiful people playing, drinking and chanting poems against each other, and shook her head slightly. When she was still in a double bun, she also longed for some of the plots in the script for a while, but now in retrospect, it was just a girl's thirst for glitz.

Ma Rulan, who is over 30 years old, is already a woman, with in-laws and sons. She quickly suppressed the emptiness in her heart, and a familiar voice came from ahead, which she found quite interesting.

As Ma Rulan approached, the noise came.

Xiong Chengwu and Cheng Jianghu took a few green skin leaders, Qin Zhong and Yang Jianchuan took a few warrior monks from Daxiangguo Temple, Shen Popi and Li surnamed Dahan took a few leaders who also ran through the streets and alleys, and several sons and nephews of the forbidden army warriors took their followers...... A group of people are pressing the road mightily, and it looks very dazzling on the royal street.

Xiong Chengwu took the chestnuts peeled by his younger brother and threw them into his mouth, and shouted vaguely: "Lao Tzu told you a long time ago, don't look at the Huang Cheng family so arrogant, they can't fight our owners." See, if the workshops on the banks of Mingyueji and the Han River want to be rebuilt, we have to take action. ”

"Then what Cai Quan, don't stop me......" Xiong Chengwu ignored Yang Jianchuan's obstruction and began to greet Cai Quan's family, "He actually supported the car to make a charcoal line, a porter on the bow of the boat, and a green head to make trouble in and out of the city." After a while, Lao Tzu will take you to grab the land and beat all the scum who don't deal with us, hum! ”

After Xiong Chengwu finished speaking, he looked up at the sky, looking like he couldn't find an opponent and was so depressed. Several of his green-skinned leaders looked at each other: Boss just now, did he scold himself too?

A forbidden soldier nephew who was good friends with Xiong Chengwu and others swallowed the candied fruit in his mouth, "Isn't it, I used to be in the rather miserable forbidden army station, and I could only bully those poor sergeants who only had pants left." It's as cool as it is now, see who doesn't deal with the workshop on our side, and see who dares to play tricks and go up to fight. ”

"When I won the battle and went home, the old man didn't scold me, but praised me for being sensible."

The arrogant young man was about to continue, but Xiong Chengwu covered his mouth. Cheng Jianghu wiped his mouth under Qin Zhong's eyes, put the dripping leg of mutton behind his back, and Yang Jianchuan directly stuffed a bag of dim sum into his sleeve. Shen Popi, the big man surnamed Li, and the nephew of the martial artist, directly bowed to the elders and stood there with a smile.

Xiong Chengwu smiled hesitantly, and shouted in his heart that he was unlucky: Why did you meet your aunt? This is miserable, if the master hears any bad news, he will not be spared.

Ma Rulan's in-laws knew these young people who often visited the house, patted them on the shoulders one by one, sent the candied snacks in their hands, and followed Li Wu's family away and continued to be lively.

Not far away, fireworks and trees bloomed, and there were blowing and blowing teams passing by, and little dolls cheered and jumped.

Ma Rulan is Li Xiang's sworn sister, and she is also an old acquaintance of the forbidden army martial arts, and now she has a good relationship with several senior monks in Daxiangguo Temple, and she is still a martial arts master, and she is qualified to teach all the young people present a lesson.

First of all, Xiong Chengwu, Ma Rulan looked at him playfully, "The injury on the face, what's the matter?" ”

"Ahem, auntie. Uh, this," Xiong Chengwu rubbed his hands, his big eyes narrowed like Xiong Dachun's, and he looked very happy, "Someone made trouble for the charcoal furnace workshop and the homeless workshop outside the city, and there were also people in the city who made trouble, so the kid went over to theorize, and a guy took out an iron thorn ......"

Ma Rulan straightened her face, "Come on." You didn't start lightly or heavily, discounted several people, forced people to be anxious, and of course played with you. ”

Cheng Jianghu's mind is sometimes sober and sometimes chaotic, and he follows Xiong Chengwu blindly every day, looking for people to fight everywhere. With adequate nutrition and "exercise", this guy has skyrocketed in weight and looks like a gorilla.

Since Li Xiang left Bianjing, Qin Zhong and Yang Jianchuan took the young people selected by Mingyuezhuang to accept the training of the warrior monks of the Great Xiangguo Temple. Compared with Xiong Chengwu and the others, these two are a lot more honest, but ......

"Qin Zhong, Yang Jianchuan, you brought the warrior monks of Daxiangguo Temple out to eat meat, can you keep a low profile?" Ma Rulan had a headache, remembered Master Yuanzhi's instructions, and said with a smile: "Abbot Yuanguang, Master Yuanzhi, Master of the Prison Courtyard, Master of the First Seat, I have found the house several times." ”

"You boys, you're going to take the little monks of the Great Xiangguo Temple badly, especially the warrior monks. Now he actually took a few little masters to eat meat and swagger through the market. Don't you have an eye and can't see other people's fingers? ”

When several muscular little monks heard this, they hurriedly hid the braised pork and roast chicken wrapped in lotus leaf brown paper behind them, and did not forget to wipe their mouths and sing a Buddha name. A little monk who had just turned thirteen accidentally dropped his meat on the ground, and he wanted to pick it up but didn't dare to pick it up.

Everyone held back laughter.

Ma Rulan froze, shook her head, told a few martial artists and nephews, and continued to move forward. Behind her, there were congratulatory voices of "aunt walk slowly", "aunt walk slowly", "donor walk slowly", and "benefactor walk slowly", Ma Rulan stroked her forehead with her hand and accelerated her pace.

When Ma Rulan walked away, the young man who had just returned to the ground breathed a sigh of relief and shouted again.

Qin Zhong and Cheng Jianghu comforted the little monk who had no meat to eat, Shen Popi and Dahan surnamed Li introduced the situation of the Ma family to their peers, and the nephew of the martial artist and Xiong Chengwu sighed at the sister-brother relationship between Ma Rulan and Li Xiang, only Qin Zhong was thoughtful.

On the fifteenth and sixteenth days of the first lunar month, the royal street stayed all night.

The dignitaries, wealthy families and ordinary people in the market were lively, but it was the officials of Kaifeng Mansion who suffered. Every Spring Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival, Kaifeng's errand officers, whether they are thieves, street patrols or market managers, must keep an eye on the royal street that is several miles long. If you encounter someone who sets fire, a hooligan, or robbers, you must quickly pounce on it.

Lin Dayou finished his shift, with dark circles under his eyes, and dragged his tired body home.

twisted his sore neck and took the tea cup from his younger sibling's hand. Lin Dayou took a sip of hot tea and went straight to the side room of his younger brother Lin Xueyong.

"What's in the way? Come out for Lao Tzu and see if Lao Tzu doesn't kill you! Lin Dayou held the killer stick and knocked on his brother's door, "A few days after the completion of the family's workshop, it is easy for you to have a full-time businessman, and you are still engaged in those Laoshizi?" Did you know that he almost killed someone? Do you remember to eat or not, hurry up and come out, do you hear? ”

Although Lin Xueyong is in his twenties, he is most afraid of his brother beating him, blocking the door, and he is about to cry, "Don't blame me, big brother, it's those big families who are too much, and they recruit some splashes to block our family's workshop." I couldn't get angry, but it happened that there was a good powder in the workshop, so I put it all in a jar and threw it away. ”

"I didn't expect that. It's just that it made that thing look like millet grains, why is it so powerful? It's a good thing I didn't throw it accurately, otherwise those dozen splashes would have died on the spot. Lin Xueyong thought of this, he was excited, opened the door and asked his eldest brother: "Big brother, do you think I handed over the recipe and method of this granular powder, can I change to a petty official?" ”

Lin Dayou was stunned for a long time before raising the killing stick.

"Lao Tzu let you blow it up!"

"Some people are worried that they have no excuse to make trouble, what if they use this as an excuse to arrest you and use you? It's easy to make some spare money, you don't spend it in a serious place, you always buy some mills, copper bowls, saltpeter, sulfur, and ruined things. ”

"Lao Tzu asked you to change officials!"

"It's not like you've never been in prison as a general, how did you get so bad as Shangguan, can't you remember? People use thunderbolt fireballs and gunpowder arrows well, and you run over and say it's garbage, robbing other people's jobs, right? ”

……

We don't know how many buried talents there are in Da Zhou.

Li Xiang deployed the most skilled craftsmen and the protégé with the most flexible brains, and studied for more than half a year before he found the edge of the best ratio of black gunpowder, but Lin Xueyong came up with a complete set of methods for making granular gunpowder by himself.

At half past two in the morning, Lin Dayou, who had finished teaching his second brother, sat on the threshold, holding the killing stick and worried: This second brother is always causing trouble, it is best to send him away from Bianjing, where to send him?

When he came to Lin Xueyong's bedside, Lin Dayou watched his younger brother and sister give his younger brother medicine with tears in his eyes, and he only felt tired.

Tilting his head to look at the burning charcoal stove, Lin Dayou's eyes lit up.

Snowflakes flew in the sky, and Bianjing was still noisy.