The orange-red sun was slanting so hard that it stretched the shadows of the horses on the muddy dirt road for a long time. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 The weight of the cargo carried on the horse's back was not light, and the pack horse, which was less than four feet old, walked with no ease at every step, panting and struggling to pull the horse's hooves out of the mud.

"The Huangzhou of this straight thief doesn't even repair an official road, and the court doesn't know how much silk has been allocated to Hehuang in a year, and it's all in the dog's belly!"

"That is, it is the same road, the royal street can be sixty or seventy zhang wide, and there is not a single depression along the way, and it is called comfortable when walking."

"Can this be called a road? Is it still compared to the royal street? If it's in Tokyo, hey! I don't know how many heads I've lost for a long time......"

"How do you know someone is going to lose their head?"

"Hey, if I were a father-in-law, I would definitely knock out all the corrupt officials in the world."

"So you're not a husband, you're a little guy."

"You-"

The men with horses and the guards with knives on the side were also not having a good time, complaining about the bad intersection along the way, and greeting the families of the officials in Huangzhou one by one.

"Okay, okay, this Huangzhou has only been stable for a few years, can it be compared with Kaifeng Mansion? Besides, stay in the city of Tokyo, waiting for the sky to drop money to feed your family? ”

Walking in the middle of the horse team, looking up at the sky from time to time, Liu Qingzhi waved his right hand impatiently at the guys because of the muddy road conditions that made the trip delayed, and wanted them to stop the meeting, seeing that it had no effect, he grabbed the abacus made of elm wood hanging on the horse next to him with his left hand, shook it a few times, suppressed the voices of others, and said irritably.

"If it weren't for the thirty wages, the ghost would be willing to come to this place......"

Han Cen, who was not very old, muttered unconvinced.

"What do you say?"

Liu Qingzhi turned his head sideways and stared at Han Cen, who was half a head shorter than him, and his voice was obviously much higher.

"It's nothing, it's nothing, I mean even if this hellish place is stable, it can't be compared to Kaifeng."

Han Cen was taken aback by Liu Qing, and secretly scolded a dog in his heart, but replied with a respectful look on his face.

"Hmph."

Liu Qingzhi snorted lightly, hung the abacus in his hand back on the pack horse, and wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. Then he glanced at the mud-stained soap boots with disgust, and shouted at the guide hired from Qinzhou at the front of the team.

"Old Liutou, if you go around this mountain, you can see Huangzhou City."

"Dongjia, out of this mountain is Huangzhou City. There are still eleven or twelve miles to go.

It will be dark in about half an hour on this day, and we must hurry up, otherwise the city gate will be closed as soon as it gets dark, and we will have to spend the night outside the city tonight. ”

Lao Liu Tou is a Han in Qinzhou, in his early fifties, his father and brother have followed Wang Xianggong (Wang Shao) to open up the Xihe River in his early years, and in previous years he himself also followed Wang Xianggong's son Wang Hou Wang Jingluo to pass through the river again, and took it back from the hands of the Fanren. Later, Wang Jingluo passed away, and Lao Liu Tou was also dismissed due to typhoid fever, but fortunately survived, and after recovering from his illness, he was often hired as a guide by businessmen who came to Qingtang to do business because he had the experience of traveling back and forth to Qinfeng and Hehuang many times.

"This Huangzhou city is not as good as Qinzhou, just naturalized, the surrounding departments are all unruly, a few months after you left last year, there were three tribes in the west of Huangzhou City who colluded to rebel, and robbed a caravan under the nose of the defenders of Huangzhou City, and there was no one left! I think that when Wang Jingluo was here a few years ago, how could these people dare to be so presumptuous......"

Maybe it was frightened by Lao Liu's words, or maybe it was because he had been on the road for several days in a row, wanting to sleep comfortably in the city inn at night, and the horse team finally arrived in Huangzhou City before dark.

"It's another group of people who want money and don't want their lives."

A few soldiers who had stood guard all afternoon, blackened by the sun on the plateau, stopped the horse team that was about to enter the city, ready for a routine inspection, and a slightly older muttered.

The leader approached, and by the glimmer of light before the sun set, he turned his head sideways and carefully looked at Liu Qingzhi who was standing next to the guide Lao Liu.

"Oh - you're the one who sold drugs last year. What are all the camels on this horse? ”

"Official, I don't just sell medicinal materials, but also leather and jade. The camels on the horseback were all tea, cloth, and pots and pans, and they didn't make much money. ”

Liu Qingzhi walked to the front of the team, stomped his feet vigorously, stomped off most of the half-dry mud on the soap boots, and then slapped the wrinkled caftan brown on his body a few times, and returned to the Tao amicably.

"If you don't make any money, you're still running so far here? Are you stupid or am I stupid? ”

The leading soldier snorted lightly and turned his head to look at the guide, Lao Liu.

"You're also a money-hungry person, this is the third trip this year, and you won't rest during the holidays?"

"It's not that Saburo Shiro in the family is of age, it's always good to earn a few more."

Old Liu Tou smiled and lowered his head.

"I remember you, last year, you ran with the various tribes of the Wang owner's family, and every day you held an elm abacus and rattled followers - how about it, why didn't you see your owner this time, only you are the account room?"

The leading soldier glanced at Lao Liu Tou again, ignored him, and continued to pay attention to Liu Qingzhi - Huangzhou, a remote military state that has just been naturalized, is not too much to describe as poor mountains and bad waters. The remote geographical location, the unstable surrounding environment, and the poor and scumbag people really did not attract many mainland businessmen. Especially after the rebellion at the end of last year and the robbery of a caravan, the caravans that came to Huangzhou to do business became more and more rare, and most of them stopped in Lanzhou and no longer moved forward.

"You don't speak, you don't have a good eye. What is the account room and not the account room, I am now the owner! See, the goods on the twenty horses behind are all mine! ”

Liu Qingzhi was sent by his family to study since he was a child, hoping that one day he would be able to take the exam and become a scholar doctor who shared the world with the Son of Heaven in the mouth of the Duke of Luguo. But the reality gave him a hard slap, and he took the exam for more than ten years, but he never even passed the first pass of the imperial examination......

In order to make a living, after he failed to pass the second examination, he found a livelihood in the account office, hoping to work to support his family and study for the imperial examination. However, the reality is that the accounting is becoming more and more proficient and clear, but the reading is falling more and more, and the confidence to pass the test is not as good as once and again. Therefore, after he failed to participate in the examination for the last time in the year he was established, Liu Qingzhi completely gave up his dream of being a "scholar" and completely fell into the eyes of Emperor Song Tongbao.

But in his heart, Liu Qingzhi still cares a lot about his identity as a scholar, in addition to being in front of the owner, he especially minds that others call him the account office - even though the emperor and Song Dynasty were prosperous, but the identity of a scholar is always high. What's more, this is the first time that Liu Qingzhi has left the owner to go alone after 20 years of entering the business industry - almost all of his savings.

"It turned out to be a change of owner, and I said how come this horse team is missing more than half." The leading soldier said flirtatiously.

"Don't talk nonsense, let's go in as soon as we're done with the inspection, and we're still waiting to eat and sleep."

After Liu Qingzhi saw the soldiers who checked his horse team retreating, he impatiently interrupted the annoying Qiu Ba in front of him and said.

"Yo! It's different. This willow account room has become Liu Dong's house, and his temper has grown a lot. In the past, it was possible to pay a city entry tax of ten wen per person and one mo per horse. ”

The leading soldier was relieved to see that the soldiers who came back did not report the abnormality, and the right hand that had been holding the handle of the knife retracted, then rubbed it on his clothes, pinched his waist and looked at Liu Qingzhi's horse team and said.

"What? The entrance tax to the city has to be a horse and a stranger? Why don't you go and grab it? Last year, there were only 20 Wen! ”

Liu Qingzhi's eyes widened, and he looked at the evil Qiu Ba in front of him viciously, like a cheetah that had been robbed of food by a group of earth dogs.

"Last year was last year, and this year is this year. This year's rule is one horse and one money! ”

"What kind of bullshit is this that breaks the rules, who decides it!"

"Lao Tzu decided, what's the matter? Pay the money and get in, don't pay and get out! ”

Not to be outdone, the leading soldier glared at Liu Qingzhi with the same viciousness and said.

"The owner, the man is under the eaves ......"

Lao Liu Tou saw that the two sides had a tendency to fight, and hurriedly grabbed Liu Qingzhi's arm and persuaded him.

"You stinky hill eight, calling you an official is lifting you, and you still kick your nose in the face, right? Others are afraid of you, but I am not afraid of you. I'm from Kaifeng Mansion in Tokyo, and the emperor has seen it seven or eight times, but I haven't seen any battles? ”

Liu Qingzhi shook off the old Liu who was pulling him, took a step forward, and was almost about to head off the head of the leading soldier.

"Yo, don't you want to make trouble?"

"So what!"

.......

In the end, the conflict still did not happen, and the city gate was closed, and Liu Qing and his party could not really be allowed to spend the night outside the city, in case the caravan was robbed at the end of last year, resulting in the extinction of the Huangzhou caravan, not to mention that the assassin Shi wanted to kill a few of them who were poor soldiers, and the large and small departments waiting to do business inside and outside Huangzhou City could also eat them.

"Boss, you're amazing."

He San, the youngest in the team, unloaded the goods on horseback, and looked at Liu Qingzhi, who had just finished negotiating with the innkeeper, and said.

"What's the matter? Those Qiu Ba didn't dare to let us in. When I was in Lanzhou, I had already inquired, and in the first half of this year, there were only ten caravans going to Huangzhou, and the farthest was from Xi'an, and the largest scale was only about 20 horses, less than one-third of last year.

This Huangzhou is not big, but it is not small, it is more than 100 miles in radius, there are dozens of large and small departments, they neither weave cloth, nor farming, only rely on grazing and collecting medicine. Many daily necessities such as salt, tea, cloth, grain, ironware, silk, porcelain, and luxury goods needed by the nobility needed to be transported from outside. If those Qiu Ba had driven us away just now, we wouldn't have been able to tell who would have been unlucky.

Besides, what if he really gave him a lot of money? Twenty horses are only two dollars, not enough to buy a table of wine in Alum Tower, and the poor Qiu Ba in such remote states and counties can see it. ”

Liu Qingzhi took a bite of the fruit that he didn't know the name of the guy who had just come from the hotel, and said while eating.

"Boss, have you really seen the emperor? What does the emperor look like? Isn't it very majestic, and he speaks like thunder? ”

He San is from Gyeonggi Road, but he is not in the city of Tokyo, but is almost at the border of Zhengzhou in the west. Although there is nothing comparable in front of people in Tokyo like Liu Qingzhi, in Zhengzhou, it is indeed possible to say with a sense of superiority: "You Jingxi Yankees".

"Of course, there is more than one, Shenzong, Zhezong, and the current emperor have all seen it. But we Kaifeng people don't care if the emperor is called the emperor or the official. Don't ask me why, it's a long story, and I don't have time to elaborate on it for you right now.

As for what the official parents look like... I don't know. ”

Liu Qingzhi saw He Sanhu's suspicious look, and hurriedly said:

"How can I usually see the official family, which time is not when the emperor is out on patrol and looks at it from a distance in the crowd. How can it be possible to see what it looks like when the royal street is so wide, let alone the sound.

However, I didn't lie to those hiccles. ”

Liu Qingzhi said with a big grin, hehe, he laughed evilly. Then he patted He San on the shoulder. shouted at the men who were unloading the horses on the tether:

"There is beef in this small shop, and there are not many people in Tokyo who dare to eat this except for those nobles, so everyone hurry up and try it when it's over!"