This winter, Yibin has had an unusually heavy amount of rain, and whenever you look up, the sky seems to be gray forever. Pen ~ fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info trickle of drizzle from those clouds drifted mightily, and the world was enveloped in a layer of ink and smoke and rain. From morning to night, the trickling rainwater hangs on the eaves and treetops, and then merges into small streams, and three or two pedestrians on the road are hurrying, and only the thick dark green moss born in the cracks of the walls and corners of the house looks more and more vivid in the rain.

On this day, a group of strange people came from outside Yibin City.

The men dressed in caftan brown walked steadily, covered in dust, with a resolute look on their faces, hats on their heads, each carrying a gun and a knife, scattered on both sides, guarding the three carts in the middle; At the head were two young men on horseback, about the time they were about to reach the city gate, and they deliberately tightened their reins and marched slowly; In the middle of the procession, there were four or five men of different heights and ages, all of whom were pale and had nowhere to dry and dry, and were walking dejectedly from time to time.

This team is small in number, but it is very comparable. Yibin is also the capital of a state, the hub of water and land in eastern Sichuan, the residents here must not be said to be uninformed, especially since the second year of the Apocalypse, the southwest war has been raging, whether it is the guard army or the battalion soldiers, or the legendary Yi army that can stop children crying at night, Yibin people are not uncommon, but even so, there are few teams that can match the momentum of this team.

There were people who wanted to enter the city—peasants carrying burdens and wearing slices, servants in green clothes and hats, poor and sour talents in half-worn shirts, officials in sedan chairs, daughters-in-law riding donkeys with children in their arms, and idlers with their hands in their hands, all of whom involuntarily gave way when this group of men and horses arrived. In fact, they did not shout loudly, on the contrary, they did not make a sound, but just walked silently.

The little banner guarding the gate saw them from afar, and stopped them when the group approached. Although he was blessed with a good uncle who was an official of a thousand households, and was on duty at the city gate, a place with a lot of oil and water, he was not without eyesight. Not to mention the muddy guards now, they are all commanding the elite family team, which is not as good as them!

"Where are these centaurs?" Xiaoqi pinched the tooth flower vigorously and muttered secretly, "What a big momentum!" But looking at the clothes and banners, they don't look like they are in the camp," and finally the young Xiaoqi guessed: "Maybe where is the big family?" ”

With this thought, Xiao Qi was also a little polite, stood in front of Li Yongzhongma, looked up and down, grinned, and said, "Where did this come from?" He kindly reminded: "Those who carry knives and guns, after all, this is the land of the state capital, you are afraid that you should be cautious." ”

He Taili jumped down from the horse, hugged his fist at Xiaoqi, and said politely: "My lord, we are the salt merchants of Fushun, this is the new head of the family who came to visit Lord Chen, the yamen of the salt class, and he is definitely not a villain anywhere." Because of the unrest on the road, carrying weapons is also for self-protection, you see," he pointed his hand to the sleepy people in the middle of the group, and his voice brought some pride: "This is the bandit I am waiting to capture, and I will send it to the county government in a while." ”

After he finished speaking with a smile, he neatly and naturally instructed the guards to send a small box to Xiaoqi, with a somewhat humble expression, and said:

"These are local products, and it's not worth it to give adults and brothers a taste."

Xiaoqi's eyes rolled twice, he smiled, and was a little more polite and affectionate: "What am I saying!" It turned out to be the people who caught the thieves! Since it's your kindness, then the official is disrespectful, since you're going to visit Shangguan, don't miss the time, let's go! He waved vigorously and grinned to signal that the team was ready to enter the city.

He Tai turned over his horse, hugged his fist at Xiaoqi, and said gratefully: "Thank you!" If you have leisure, you can go to the house marked Li Mansion near the Yamen of the Salt Class to find me for a drink! ”

Xiao Qi was stunned and muttered to himself, "Li Mansion? Fushun? When the team walked cleanly, he suddenly realized, slapped his thigh fiercely and said, "I actually let go of such a fat sheep!" Alas! The soldiers under his command pouted him to open it and wanted to take a look, he weighed the weight, and he couldn't help but be a little complacent, and when he opened it, it was a box of snow-white salt!

He Tai glanced back at the noisy city gate, turned his head and asked Li Yongzhong with some concern: "Zhong Guan'er, this is a good snowflake salt, we didn't bring much together, it was just a small flag, why bother to give him such a good thing?" ”

Li Yongzhong smiled, and while paying attention to the lively street scenes, he casually said to He Tai: "Although he is a small person, he also has his own benefits. Believe it or not, after tonight, early tomorrow morning, half of Yibin should know that the Fushun Li family is here! Ignoring He Tai, he looked at the shops on both sides of the road with interest.

Although he followed the caravan to make salt when he was a teenager, he mostly took Guizhou all the way, and even Yunnan had been to it twice, but Yibin, which was close at hand, did not come much, and his memory was only more than ten years ago, when Li Qi was still in good health, he took him and his eldest brother Li Yongbo to visit friends in Yibin, but in the end, he asked the chief steward Li Sanzhong to take the two brothers to go shopping, and Li Qi himself disappeared for a whole day. Li Yongzhong thinks about it now, it is true to visit a friend, but this friend must be sensitive and embarrassing, most likely his cheap father-in-law.

Yibin Prefecture and County are in Sanjiangkou Shicheng. "Two feet high, seven feet high, one foot eight feet thick, one thousand and eighty-seven feet in a week"; "The east and south take the big river as the moat, and the west and north chisel the wide five zhang, one zhang and five feet deep"; "There are culverts in the waterways of the city, two feet wide and three feet deep, and there are wells eight feet deep in the ditches, which are dug once every three years to prevent silting"; There are six gates in Shicheng: Dongli Ming Gate (East Gate), East South Hejiang Gate, South Qixing Gate (Small South Gate), West Wenchang Gate (West Gate), North Wu'an Gate (North Gate), South Dongding South Gate (Great South Gate). The six gates are opened, the five gates are near the river, and only the west gate is slightly far away from the river, which is conducive to the connection of water and land.

The streets and alleys in the city include east, south, west, north and Da Nan, Xiao Bei, Wai Nan, Liujia, Zhuangyuan, Maoshi and other streets. In the city, the big Shizi of "Tongqu Sida", as well as the "T-shaped mouth" and "small Shizi". The main street in the city is in the shape of a "well", which corresponds to the six city gates.

The east of the city is the center of gravity of politics and military, with government offices and county offices; Around the eleventh year of Yongle, the South Sichuan Provincial Department was established. Outside the prefectural and county offices, there are prison divisions, tax divisions, experience divisions, delivery offices, river berths, etc. There is also a martial arts hall in the city, and an ordnance bureau has been established, and the southern guard of Hunan is also among them.

In the city, the county school was rebuilt in the eighth year of Hongwu, and the government school was established in the seventh year of Yongle. Cuiping Academy, Santai Academy, Fuxi Academy, and Xiaojie Academy are built near the city; There is a woodcut printing workshop on College Street.

Yibin original Jiuzhou White Tower is still there, Longqing three years east of the city to build the East Wild Goose Pagoda (White Tower), before and after the south of the city Qixing Mountain to build the Wen Pagoda (Black Tower). Zhenwu Mountain is halfway up the mountain to build a Wangjiang Tower. In the city, the big Shizi built the scripture book building, the west of the building was built in the Jiajing of Sejong, and there was the hanging yellow building near the lock river stone in Jiangbei.

Li Yongzhong and his entourage entered Yibin from Wu'anmen, and traveled all the way from North Street, and the hundred cities were prosperous, and the shouting and selling along the way were endless. Yibin is known as the "southwest half of the wall" of the reputation, since the six years of Hongwu abolished the Yuan Xuzhou Road for the Xuzhou Mansion, then the Sichuan General Army Cao Guogong set up the Xunan Wei Thousand Households in Yibin City, built the stone city, according to Jiajing's book "Sichuan General Chronicles" contained "the old city in the inside". For more than 200 years, the people have prospered and the city has prospered.

Wearing a small hat of mountains and rivers, the restaurant guy dressed in green clothes and brown has a rag on his shoulder, smiling so much that he can't see his eyes, and he greets the guest back and forth, clever and clever; There are all kinds of shops on the street, and the men are busy hoarsely trying their best to attract customers under the cold eyes of the shopkeeper, and they dare not slack off; Farmers pick up a load of vegetables and sell them slowly along the street; After a morning of hard work, I like to go to the noodle restaurant to eat a bowl of oily and flavorful Xufu noodles; The woman with coarse cloth and wooden hairpin set up a tea shop on the street corner, and her husband who was silent was busy back and forth, and the three eldest sons of Lao Yin Tea had a pot, and if they were willing to take out a penny, they could have a plate of melon seeds and peanuts, and sit idle for an afternoon, so happy.

In order to prevent injury, Li Yongzhong and He Tai did not ride horses anymore after entering the city, but took a car. After lifting the curtain and looking at it for a long time, Li Yongzhong turned around and sighed to He Tai: "I have also walked through many places, but few of the places I have seen can be as lively as Yibin." ”

He Tai has been with his father since he was a few years old, and he has been to Yibin many times, and he has long been familiar with them. Seeing Li Yongzhong's appearance, he showed a bit of innocence and childishness that had long been gone. On the one hand, he felt nostalgic, and on the other hand, he couldn't help but feel pitiful-in order to be valued by Li Qi, Li Yongzhong took the initiative to go far away every time he went to salt-but he just smiled on his face: "This time Zhongguan'er can play a good trick, there are many temples outside the city in Yibin City, and there are a few good river towers and good temple towers. ”

Li Yongzhong lowered the curtain, his face showed a complicated look, and after a while, he shook his head lightly and said, "I'm not here for this. He Tai was strange and wanted to ask again, but saw Li Yongzhong leaning on the carriage board with his eyes closed, obviously reluctant to say more.

More than 400 years later, he also went to Yibin to play, and saw the introduction of Yibin at a glance. Looking back now, I only remember that in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Xianzhong, the Ming army, and the Qing army fought repeatedly in Yibin, and the prosperity that I see now has been reduced to nothing in the early years of Kangxi in the Manchu Dynasty! Cities built by more than 200 years of accumulated wealth have been reduced to desolate and dilapidated ruins. Once people rubbed shoulders, after a few decades, only the so-called "eight surnames" remained, the small north street they passed through became a thatched house, the east street was empty, became a long-distance avenue, the south street and the west gate were a grass thatch, everywhere there were piles of white bones, tigers and leopards in and out!

At first, it was just a slight feeling, but now Li Yongzhong is likely to witness the smoke and tragedies with his own eyes! His face seemed calm, but there seemed to be a fire burning in his heart. How is the name cleared over the ages? How is life safe? How is it to work for half a lifetime? What about generations living together? will be turned into powder in one war after another! The current family is happy, but it is like a comb, a soldier is like a grate before the shadow in the water, a flower in the mirror!