In the Bianshui in March, the grass grows and the warbler flies, the willows on the shore are still clinging, and the boats on the river are like shuttles.

At this time, the scenery is just right, and it is the season to go green.

The gentlemen, the common people, and even the children of the eunuchs in the city had hairpins and flowers, stepped on the green turf, and walked under the willow trees by the river. Silk and bamboo music leisurely on the river, it is a prostitute accompanying the benefactor on the water. There are several places by the river with heavy curtains, and a piece of land is enclosed with silk satin, which is the resting place of the ladies of the dignitaries.

However, Su Song took his son Su Xi out of the city today, but not to go out. Instead of going to a secluded place by the river, he came to the dock outside the city, where he had come to welcome a guest.

Su Song, who is in his fifties, has been up and down in the officialdom for 30 years, and now he is in a high position, a bachelor of Jixian Academy will make tens of thousands of bureaucrats can only look up to him for a lifetime, and the position of Yingtian Prefect, which he will soon take up, is also the top five important positions in the four hundred military states of the Great Song Dynasty.

Although on the dock, there were not many people who recognized Su Song in regular clothes, but more than a dozen Yuan Sui in red robes were already everyone's sideways, and they were all speculating about which way of the immortals could make at least the high-ranking officials of the two systems go out of the city to greet them in person. Curious people soon found out. Every time an official ship arrived on the dock, one of Su Mian's Yuan went up to ask loudly at the cocktail party, asking if it was a boat from Su Huangcheng in Yongzhou.

The Imperial City Envoy is a martial artist, a positive seventh-grade position, the highest level among the forty-order palace envoys, and it is only one step away from the horizontal class. However, this official position is obviously far inferior to that of the officials of the two systems in the lower ranks, and it is by no means qualified to be welcomed. will only come to greet relatives and elders, most of whom have the same surname Su. There are not many noble officials above the two systems in the DPRK and China, and there are not many surnamed Su. Those who were familiar with the personnel of the court quickly guessed the identity of the high-ranking official on the dock.

Time passed little by little, every time I asked, it was a negative answer, and the Yuan followers who came with Su Song gradually lost their spirit. Around noon, with the sound of several gongs, another official ship from the south gradually approached the wharf. Su Song's Yuan Sui stepped forward as usual, and shouted weakly, "But the ship of Su Imperial City in Yongzhou?" ”

"Exactly!" The answer was full of anger, and he asked rhetorically, "But Su Zirong Su?" ”

Su Song stepped forward: "Su Song is here!" ”

An old man with gray hair and a swarthy face quickly stepped out of the cabin, looking like he was in his sixties, with wrinkles on his face that almost killed mosquitoes. However, he is in good spirits, and his back is not at all as rickety as an old man of this age. Standing on the board of the boat floating up and down, I didn't see my body shake for half a minute.

The people who accompanied him all had tanned skin, and even a little girl of six or seven years old was also slightly dark. Moreover, there were a number of servants who were obviously of Lingnan appearance, and were obviously officials who had entered Beijing from the south.

As soon as Su Song saw the old man, he bowed down on the dock: "Nephew to meet Uncle Twenty-six." ”

"Zirong, don't be polite." The old man waited for the boat board to come up, hurriedly walked up to the trestle, helped Su Song up with his own hands, and looked up and down: "I haven't seen this for many years." ”

Su Song held the old man's hand and looked at each other with teary eyes: "Last night, my nephew received a letter from Uncle Twenty-six from Yongqiu overnight, and he was really overjoyed. The first few times the twenty-sixth uncle went to Beijing, the nephew missed the foreign officials, and this time it was really a coincidence. ”

"Who's to say it isn't? The last time we met, it was when Renzong was in time, and it had been more than ten years. The old man and Su Song sighed together for a long time, and finally remembered something, and turned around and beckoned the two teenagers and the little girl with slightly dark skin: "By the way, this is your nephew and niece." Then he shouted at his grandchildren, "Don't come to see your seventh uncle yet!" ”

Su Song calmly accepted their salute and asked the old man, "Are they all Brother Yuan'er?" ”

"Well, it's all big brother's." The old man nodded, "The two of the second brother's family are still young. This time I went to Beijing, and let them see the world by the way, and they couldn't stay in Quang Nam for the rest of their lives. ”

A gust of wind blew on the river, and the old man squinted: "It's still spring, I've stayed in Lingnan for too long, and I'm not used to the cold in the north." ”

Su Song said with a smile: "Uncle Twenty-six has been four years old, why are you still not used to it?" ”

The old man then smiled, with a hint of bitterness: "If you really get used to it, I don't know how to go back to Yongzhou [now Nanning, Guangxi]." ”

Yongzhou Zhizhou Su Mian, this spring is another order.

In the fourth year of Xining, Jiaozhi made a fuss, and there was news that he was preparing to commit a crime in the north, but it turned out to be a false alarm. But today, Su Mian was transferred to Yongzhou. Since he was selected as a jinshi, Su Song's cousin has been an official in the Southern Zhulu for nearly forty years, and even participated in the war against Nong Zhigao's rebellion. In terms of experience, qualifications, and prestige, they are all at the forefront in Quang Nam. With him guarding Yongzhou, the Son of Heaven and the court can rest assured.

But this is also where Su Mian's sorrow lies.

In the Que Pavilion outside the stream, there are hundreds of officials guarding every day, but no one goes to Chengtong Likui and Fujing Guangnan. Ordinary officials go to these eight routes, and it is easy to be promoted-let alone selecting people to be governors, such as those military states on Qiongya Island, and even have officials in charge of state positions-it is difficult to come back. Especially if you go to Lingnan to serve as an official, once you stay there for a long time, it is almost impossible to return to the north.

Chengdu Fu Road, Tongchuan Fu Road, Lizhou Road, Kuizhou Road and Guangnan East Road, Guangnan West Road, Fujian Road, Jinghu South Road, the eight southern roads, due to the geographical remoteness, the people of the Central Plains are reluctant to go to their places to serve, and they are officials and others all the year round, rather than ordinary people and other officials. Many positions are vacant, and as long as someone is willing to do them, they can click on them, and they can do whichever one is clicked on - this is finger shooting.

Since there are many officials in the Eighth Route in the south, and no one in the court is willing to replace them, some of the only officials in those roads have to be transferred back and forth, and there is no chance of coming back at all. For example, Su Mian, in the past 40 years, he has basically been transferred back and forth in the south. When Di Qingping Nong Zhigao, Su Mian was already the governor of Yingzhou [now Yingde] and the governor of Guangnan East Road, and twenty years have passed, and he is now the governor of Yongzhou and Guangnan West Road. I have spent my whole life in Lingnan.

Su Song looked at Su Mian's depressed expression, and sighed secretly in his heart. His twenty-sixth uncle was unlucky, and as soon as he passed the Jinshi examination, he was sent to Guangzhou to serve. But Su Mian did not refuse, but took the position. Since then, officialdom has never been separated from the South.

"Twenty-sixth uncle, my nephew has already set up a reception banquet at home, so let's go to the city early."

Su Song said. Su Mian is only four years older than him, but generations are generations. Seeing Su Mian, who was ranked twenty-six in the clan, Su Song also had to respectfully say to the twenty-sixth uncle, claiming that he could only be a little nephew and nephew.

Su Mian put away his thoughts and laughed: "Lao Zirong is bothered. ”

"Don't dare...... That's right," Su Songqian said again, "Uncle Twenty-six is ordered to go to Chengnanyi to leave a name first, but the luggage can be sent to his nephew's house first, so you don't have to move back and forth." ”

Su Mian nodded, "That's fine." ”

Su Song also went to Beijing this time, and then went out of Beijing to take up a post. However, he entered Beijing with his father at the age of ten, and his family had already settled in the city of Tokyo, and he did not need to live in the south of the city. Similarly, Su Mian only needs to leave a name in the south of the city.

After his son met his distant brothers, Su Song and Su Mu got into a car, and the rest of them rode on horses and returned to the city together.

The group walked along the avenue from the east of the city to the post house, and the rich and prosperous streets along the way dazzled Su Mian's grandchildren who had never seen the beautiful scenery of Beijing.

The granddaughter who was in the same car with Su Mian and Su Song, although she sat quietly beside Su Mian with etiquette, she kept looking out of the car window with a pair of dark eyes. When the carriage entered the city, he suddenly pulled Su Mian's sleeve and shouted, "Big Daddy!" What is that? ”

Su Mian looked in the direction of her granddaughter's finger, and saw a few large and small black dots, floating in the air far and near. However, he was already old, and his eyesight was weak, so he squinted and looked twice, but he couldn't see what was flying in the sky. However, Su Song beside him, although he is also old and old, he knows what is flying in the sky.

"That's the ship." Su Song turned his head to Su Mu and said, "Presumably, Uncle Twenty-six heard about it on the way north, right?" ”

Su Mu nodded, narrowed his eyes into a slit again, and stared at the black spots in the sky: "I heard about it, I heard about it when I changed ships in Sizhou." Wang Jiefu's son-in-law did it, right? It's just that I didn't expect to be able to fly. ”

"That's right, it's Han Gang." Su Song sighed with emotion, the news of the spaceship sending people to the sky was like a boulder thrown into the water, and the waves in the world could be guessed even if you guessed, "Su Ri saw insects and birds flying in front of me, and I never imagined that I could see people go to the sky with my own eyes in this life!" ”

"I heard that it was in the middle of February, and it went to heaven in Jinming Pond?"

"It was the first time in mid-February. In the past month, Jin Mingchi has been able to see the spaceship in the sky every day, and dozens of people have already sat on it. ”

"Those are with people?" Su Mian raised his hand and pointed to the spherical objects in the sky, and as the carriage moved forward, the nearest spaceship could already be seen clearly.

"What can carry people is called a spaceship, but what can't carry people is now called a hot air balloon. Now these things in the sky in the city are actually hot air balloons. ”

Su Mian was very surprised: "It's only been a month, how can you make so much?" ”

"It's just that no one thinks about it, it's actually easy to build it, and it's not made by the ordnance superintendent." Su Song felt a little funny when he said it, "The first one is the Wang's shop next to Xingguofang, I heard that on the fourth day after the test flight of the Jinmingchi spacecraft, two hot air balloons went to the sky with signboards, and then there were many guests every day - and they came up with it - after only half a month, seventy-two stores, and now the hot air balloons began to hang at the door of every house." In the old days, it was Cailou Huanmen, and now it is a balloon hanging door. ”