Xue Rong glanced at Tian Qian from a distance, smiled faintly, and said to Li Mao: "I am the one who has ruined your reputation, otherwise this may be a good fate." Being told the secret in his heart by Xue Rong's words, Li Mao didn't feel embarrassed, but he felt a little sour in his heart, and a strong sense of inferiority arose: even if he didn't have the notoriety of disturbing the people in the middle of the night, such a woman was not something he could aspire to, what is the identity of the soldier and horse envoy, what is the identity of the head of a certain group army, black households and unemployed vagrants, the gap between them is 108,000 miles, and they are completely people from two worlds.

Is this a good match? This is called the toad wanting to eat swan meat, and the result of sexual immorality must be a tragedy. Take 10,000 steps back and say that even if the swan falls in love with his toad, the toad only has to escape, not to mention that the white swan flies well, why should he take a fancy to his gray-faced toad?

Li Mao shook his head, sighed, and fell to the ground with a stone in his heart.

Xue Rong saw through his thoughts, slapped his big hand on his shoulder, and said affectionately: "When you arrive in Chengwu County, I will find you a gentleman and follow up to study." I heard Qin Niang say that your handwriting is not as good as her, this is not possible, although I Datang does not despise martial arts, but if you want to get ahead, you have to be literate and hyphenated. Otherwise, even if the opportunity comes, it won't be your share! ”

Xue Rong's heart-wrenching words made Li Mao's heart warm, in fact, he also had such a plan, although he had studied in a junior college for three years before, but the knowledge he learned was not in tune with this era, and many things had to be learned from scratch, such as literacy, writing, and sentence breaking.

Xue Rong said again: "You are still young, loyal and courageous, and you will definitely have a good future in the future." Li Mao moved his gaze to Tian Ying, who was standing on the bow of the boat and watching the wind and waves, and slowly a smile bloomed on his face. The swan is still a swan, but the toad, who has plucked up his confidence and courage, suddenly feels that he can fly, although not as fast as the white swan, but there is still a little bit of hope.

It was only a day's journey to Weizhou, and in order to send Tian Qian ashore, the cargo ship sailed into the boat pond outside Weizhou. The boat boss was reluctant to come to Weizhou, Wei Bo's taxes were heavier than in other places, and the tax collectors were unruly, so the people who sailed the boats could hide.

Tian Qian may not know these truths, how can the white swan fly too high and too fast, how can he see the darkness in the horns. Li Mao had no intention of letting her know this, so he privately gave the shipowner two more pieces of money before letting the cargo ship dock. On the occasion of parting, Tian Qian gave Li Mao a piece of "golden-nosed worm", saying that it was kept as a souvenir, but Li Mao saw through her thoughts, she wanted to use this to pay for the boat fare and meal.

The sons and ladies of large families are ashamed to talk about money.

The currency in circulation in this era was mainly copper coins and silk cloth, and gold and silver were not legal tender in circulation, but this did not prevent the value of gold and silver itself, and in some special cases in some regions, it also played the role of currency in circulation.

The "golden-nosed worm" is actually a small piece of red gold ingot, so named because it looks a bit like a nose worm. The fineness of red gold is very high, the value is expensive, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty often takes this kind of gold ingot to reward meritorious ministers, in Ziqing, Hebei area, this gold ingot can be freely exchanged with copper coins, silk cloth, has become a kind of currency.

The two little women went out alone, if they carried a few pieces of money, they were afraid that they would not even be able to walk, and it was obviously much more convenient to bring a few small and lightweight but very valuable "goldennose worms" by their side.

Li Mao took two hangs of money and gave it to the female Qingmo, and said: "When you go out, your wealth is not exposed, and the golden-nosed worm is too valuable, so it's better to take it less." Keep this money for the road. The female Qingmo took the money, checked it in her hand, and said to Li Mao with a smile: "You are not a bad person, come to me if you have trouble in Weizhou in the future." ”

Weizhou and Weizhou have the same sound, and Qingmo, who came to see off Li Mao, did not hear the difference between the two, and Xiao Wu could interject: "That's certain, then we will take this golden-nosed worm as a token." How is it? ”

"It's a deal!" The female Qingmo responded happily, she slapped Qingmo on the shoulder, and said loudly: "Let's go, little brother, I wish you a smooth journey and have time to come to Weizhou to play." After Qingmo knew that Tian Qian was the daughter of a soldier and horse envoy, he suddenly had a feeling of looking up to the mountains for this little guy with the same name as him, and at this moment he responded with some flattery: "Definitely, definitely, I will come to Weizhou to visit my brother." ”

The female Qingmo raised her eyebrows and jumped off the trestle with a smile, Li Mao and Tian Qian looked at each other and smiled, and said solemnly to each other. Seeing Tian Qian get off the boat, he watched her back gradually disappear into the bustling crowd.

Li Mao stared blankly for a while—to his slight disappointment, the swan didn't look back at him, the toad, without a glance.

"Come back, your brother is already far away." Seeing that the little guy was stunned, Li Mao patted him on the shoulder.

Qingmo frowned, full of questions, and he suddenly asked Li Mao: "Don't you think it's a little weird, that Qingmo ...... He seems to be a woman! ”

……

Landing in Huazhou, passing south through Puzhou to Caozhou. In this era, officials were not accompanied by the higher-level organization department, and they generally went to the office with their own bodies and handed over to the regent officials. In addition, unless there are special reasons, the state and county officials on the ruling side are not allowed to move around each other in their duties, and they are really taboo in officialdom if they are in charge of official affairs and rely on letters in private affairs.

These are the rules clearly contained in the imperial court legal code, and they are written for the people of the world, but the great profundity of Eastern philosophy lies in the fact that some things can be said and cannot be done, and some things can be done but cannot be said.

If either party does not take the initiative to meet the boss, Yu Li and the law are blameless, but it is a big taboo in terms of human feelings. Xue Rong has been in officialdom, and he is no stranger to the unspoken rules of officialdom, although he is extremely disgusted in his heart, he also obeys it, this is the need to survive in officialdom, he is not a pedantic person, how can he not know how powerful it is?

There is also a convention on how many gifts to give when meeting the boss, and Xue Rong prepared according to this conventional standard.

When visiting Zhu Ming in Baoding County, Li Mao learned that the vassal commanders in Ziqing were relatively strong, and the state and county officials had to form a group if they wanted to protect themselves, so he advised Xue Rong to make the pilgrimage ceremony thicker. Xue Rong thought it was reasonable, so he let Li Mao prepare, and Li Mao added another two percent on the basis of that convention.

Perhaps it was this extra two percent of the gift that played a role, Caozhou Thorn Shi Hu Rongyu gave Xue Rong an extraordinary courtesy, when Xue Rong visited, he personally greeted the state government outside the door, after the ceremony, he affectionately led Xue Rong to visit the Caozhou state office, intimate like a friend who had not seen him for many years, but Li Mao knew that the two had never met before.

Accompanying Hu Rongyu out to welcome is Caozhou military Zhang Ye, the state military is from the nine officials, and there is no specific position, in the ya, on standby, according to the orders of the chief, if there is something to do, there is nothing to return to the ya, this position is mostly held by the new scholars, similar to the senior secretary of the government office in later generations.

Although Zhang Ye is only twenty-four or five years old, he has been mixed in the officialdom for several years, and he is familiar with the officialdom accident, this time seeing that Xue Rong only brought Li Mao alone, and the two of them walked side by side, regardless of before and after, he concluded that Li Mao was not an ordinary person, and he did not slack off talking and laughing with Li Mao along the way, as if he had not seen friends for many years.

The state government covers a wide area, from south to north is the lower horse door, the middle yaji door, the hall, the small hall, the inner hall, the dormitory, the middle hall, the warm hall, the inner garden, etc., the east of the central axis is the state court, the yamen, the stable, the state prison and so on are listed in turn; To the west of the central axis is the Military Academy, which has the Tooth Courtyard, the Confucian Academy, the Horse General Ju Field, and the Lecture Martial Arts Hall.

The full name of the Caozhou Assassin History is "the history of the military of Caozhou Prefecture", in addition to managing the civil affairs and finances of a state, it also has the right to lead the troops, the Military Yuan is the institution that manages the military of the state, and the military force under the jurisdiction of the State Court is called the state soldiers, and the main responsibility is to defend the state, clear out bandits, and maintain local law and order.

In some geographically important states, the assassin also has the titles of regimental training envoy, defense envoy, suppression envoy, regimental training guard and capture envoy, etc., and anyone with this name has the right to command the garrison within its jurisdiction. Hu Rongyu, the assassin of Caozhou, did not bring these envoys, and the garrisons of cities, towns, cities, and garrisons in Caozhou were all under the jurisdiction of the Ziqing Jiedu envoys, and the localities had no right to intervene.

The two courts have their own divisions, and they are all located in the yamen, even in the state prisons.

Hu Rongyu accompanied Xue Rong is wandering, only pointing to where a certain division is, the house of a certain division was once an antiquity of that dynasty, there are many famous people who have stayed here, what elegant things have happened, talking about the world, talking about the ancients, only today's officials, officialdom has its own officialdom, he does not provoke the officials, and the officials do not come to see, and they are at peace with each other.

However, the situation is very different in Zhangye, Zhangye is a person close to Hu Tingshi, who usually spreads news for the assassin Shi, does things, and has already mingled with the officials of the two courts, so the bureaucrats have come over to ask Xue Rong where he came from.

Zhang Ye is very affected by this feeling of the stars and the moon, he is a person who loves to show off, but people are not stupid, Hu Rongyu received a heavy gift from Xue Rong, and took him to show his face in front of the bureaucrats as a reward, but the rules of the imperial court are there, the state and county officials are in charge of each other, and private contacts have always been taboo, and things can be done but not said.

Zhang Ye didn't say who Xue Rong was, but he didn't do anything about it, Xue Rong's real name and surname can't be said, so why not show Li Mao's appearance without an official position?

Zhang Ye solemnly introduced Li Mao to the officials of the two courts, but he only reported his name and did not say his identity, which caused a group of officials to guess wildly, and immediately glanced at Li Maogao. There are too many officials, and it is impossible for Li Mao to remember everyone's names, and only one person is particularly impressed after turning around - Wang Xun, who joined the judicial army.

The reason is very simple, Wang Xun is the only person in this yamen who is taller than Li Mao, and he is also the only one who doesn't look at Li Mao directly. The judicial army is responsible for the prison and the arrest of thieves in a state, and the status is equivalent to that of the president of the prefecture-level city court in later generations, the director of the public security bureau and the director of the judicial bureau, and has great power.

Being looked down upon by others, my heart is naturally not very happy, but Li Mao can still maintain his composure and smile, but Zhang Ye's face is dark, Li Mao is an outsider, everyone meets each other and doesn't know each other, it doesn't matter what face is not face, you Wang Xun can not give Li Mao face, but I accompany the person, if you don't give Li Mao face, that is not to give me face.

Zhang Ye's face was as black as a piece of iron.