"Shiro! You and I are not from Tokyo, no matter how good we are here, we all have to go back, and Anyang is the root of our life. Speaking of this, Zhou Ping remembered that in a few years, this fantastic city would be in ruins, and future generations could only find her prosperity in the album and words, and couldn't help but sigh: "Besides, the prosperity of Tokyo can only be maintained by the efforts of the people of the world, do you think it can be maintained forever?" ”

Xue Liangyu blinked in confusion and asked, "Ah Ping, what do you mean by this?" ”

"Hehe, don't talk about that!" Zhou Ping hung the wrapped bow and arrow on the wall and said with a smile: "Didn't you say how powerful that 'Xiao Guan Suo' is?" Okay, let's go out tonight! ”

"Great!" Like all young people, when he encountered something he was interested in, Xue Liangyu immediately put his doubts behind, he smiled and picked up his robe and put it on, and said with a smile: "Today is exactly the twenty-third day of the lunar month, and the "thorn basin" on the side of the Xuande Gate of the forbidden city is going to rehearse the Lantern Festival. ”

The so-called "Thorn Basin" is a large square outside the Xuande Gate at the entrance of the forbidden city, temporarily surrounded by silk picking, reed mats and bamboo frames, which can accommodate tens of thousands of audiences, which can be regarded as the dragon gate of the drama industry. Which program was chosen, and suddenly the price was ten times higher, becoming a de facto national program, not to mention ordinary artists, it is the favorite general around today's official family - Liu Qi, the commander of the guards and pro-army horse army, Si Long Shenwei, and the four compartments of the guard, had performed superb riding skills in the "thorn basin" when he was still a sanitation officer; In Beijing, Zhao Xi, the king of Zhengyan, who is famous as the "King of Drums", also performed drumming there. In the city of Tokyo, everyone is an actor, and while watching others perform, they are also performing, even the ministers around the Son of Heaven.

The two arrived at the "Thorn Basin" and watched the hanging silk puppet performed by Zhang Jinxian and his wife, as a traverser of later generations, Zhou Ping naturally did not immerse himself in the performance like his companions, but he also had to marvel at the amazing talent of the performer named Zhang Jinxian, who was able to use ten fingers to pull several wooden puppets, relying on his flexible gestures, the puppets could not only make the same, but also make different movements, vertical dragonflies, somersaults, fluttering and wrestling, everything came, and his Hun family, nicknamed "a piece of gold" A golden voice sings along with the puppet's dance movements. Sometimes she sings loudly, sometimes she whimpers like a wisp of water swirling in the hollow. The hearts of the audience seem to be suspended by them with a silk thread. Perhaps visually speaking, this puppet show cannot be compared with later movies and television, but if you look at personal skills, the couple has reached an extremely amazing level.

Finally, in the midst of cheers, Zhang Jinxian's puppet show ended, and a half-grown child in his teenage years ran out with a small basket and asked the audience for money, and the audience gave generously according to their financial ability, generosity, and special preference for expressing their vanity in the court.

When the basket came to Zhou Xue and the others, Xue Liangyu turned his head with a pleading look on his face, and Zhou Ping knew that he had almost spent the money. He smiled, took out more than ten coins from his arms, compared himself with Xue Liangyu, and threw them into the basket.

"Thank you, two masters!" The half-grown child sang a promise to the two. Zhou Ping nodded, then squeezed out of the crowd with Xue Liangyu and walked towards the Jiaojiao performance place that Xue Liangyu said. Along the way, Xue Liangyu couldn't stop praising the performance just now, but Zhou Ping fell into deep thought, the more than ten dollars he dropped just now were a strong man's rations for two days in Anyang, but here he could only let two people watch two puppet shows, and the Zhang Jinxian couple was afraid that what they got in one night was better than what a farmer got in a year. Perhaps this is a normal thing in a modern society with extreme material abundance, but in Bianjing in the Middle Ages, it was quite strange. Such a disparity in income only shows that the empire has concentrated a considerable part of the resources of the whole country in the capital, so that in the whole time when the empire was still a natural economy, there was such an artificially created and highly developed commodity economy in the capital, and this deformed prosperity inevitably corrupted the residents, officials, royal family, and soldiers who lived there. This may not be the case in times of peace, but once it enters war, it will become a source of calamity, because the great wealth accumulated here not only cannot be turned into a force of resistance at once, but will attract the greed of the enemy, especially since Bianjing is located on a plain where there is no danger to defend, and there is no major geographical obstacle separating the iron cavalry in the north from itself, and this harm is especially serious.

"It's here, it's here!" Xue Liangyu's cheers woke Zhou Ping up from his thoughts, and he raised his head to see that compared to the surrounding buildings, the destination of this trip was a little shabby, just a piece of open space surrounded by a bamboo fence that was four or five zhang square. In addition, there is a thatched hut for the contestants to rest at each end of the open space, and the guests with status watch from the upper floors around the open space, but the simple furnishings do not hinder the enthusiasm of the audience, and hundreds of spectators gather outside to shout loudly and cheer for their support.

"Fortunately, it's not too late, this group is over, and it's 'Xiao Guan Suo' Li Bao's field!" Xue Liangyu inquired about the number of scenes from others and ran back to tell Zhou Ping. Zhou Ping was about to find a place with a better line of sight, but suddenly saw two Hu people sitting on the second floor opposite who had shaved off the front half of their hair and combed the hair on the back of their heads into two braids. Zhou Ping's heart couldn't help but move, weren't these two messengers of the Jurchens he heard in the post station that day?

Xue Liangyu squeezed inside, and when he looked back, he found Zhou Pingsilly standing there, and couldn't help but say angrily: "What are you doing standing there, Li Bao is about to appear!" ”

"Oh, oh!" Zhou Ping responded and followed, and at this time, there was a burst of cheers from the crowd, and it turned out to be Li Bao who appeared.

Zhou Ping looked at the man who came out of the thatched hut, and saw his middle figure, but he was very stocky, with a long belt around his waist, shorts, and his feet were wearing cocked shoes, and his naked upper body was full of tired muscles. He hugged his fists and made a gesture to the onlookers, and the crowd of onlookers let out a higher cheer, Zhou Ping even heard the screams of many women, and couldn't help but think in his heart, feeling that this Li Bao is still very popular with Tokyo women.

At this time, with the sound of a gong, the cheers fell silent, and hundreds of eyes suddenly gathered on the two people who were preparing to fight in the clearing. This corner is a traditional hand-to-hand fighting technique in China, its rules are probably closer to modern wrestling, in order to push the opponent out of the circle or fall to the ground to win, in the Northern Song Dynasty is extremely popular, whether it is the military or the people have countless supporters, Tokyo as the world's elite gathering place, among which the corner of the good hand is innumerable, this Li Bao can sit on the first reputation, its natural extraordinary strength. I saw that his legs were slightly bent, his toes were buckled, his arms were naturally drooping, and his eyes were looking at his opponent coldly, waiting for his opponent to attack first.

The man on the opposite side circled Li Bao a few times, but did not find a chance, his heart couldn't help but be impatient, he grabbed two steps with a loud shout, stretched out his left hand and put it on the opponent's right shoulder, at the same time, his right leg made a trip, just waiting for his fingertips to touch the opponent's shoulder, then twisted his waist and exerted force, and the opponent fell. Although this flutterer is not as famous as Li Bao, but before coming to Tokyo is also a very famous flutterer in the local area, this corner of the technique, the most important thing is the strength of the waist and legs, he took a hugging size of the water tank since he was a child, and turned it vigorously, at first it was filled with water, and then it was filled with sand. After nearly 20 years of hard work in the cold and summer, at his age, he was able to rotate the water tank filled with most of the sand and soil as usual, and the strength of his waist and legs can be seen. As soon as he pulled the force, even a male mule couldn't help him.

He thought that no matter what, Li Bao would take half a step back, let go of his own grasp, and then make an assertion, but he didn't expect to stand motionless over there.

Seeing that his fingertips were about to touch Li Bao's shoulder, there was a flower in front of him, but he disappeared, and he didn't know what was going on, and as soon as the root of his thigh hurt, the whole person flew up and fell into the dark.

"What a little squeeze!" Zhou Ping on the side couldn't help but be speechless, he saw clearly on the side, it turned out that Li Bao did not retreat but advanced, leaned over, not only avoided the opponent's grab, but took the opportunity to fork his right leg into the middle of the opponent's legs, loosened the opponent's roots, and then took the opponent's waist and lifted it hard, and then threw the opponent to the ground.

The crowd erupted in a deafening cheer, and countless copper coins were thrown into the room, even with a few gold and silver pieces of jewelry in between. Then Li Bao made a group gesture to the people around him, and then went in to rest, ready to deal with the next opponent, and his own child came out to pick it up.

"That's amazing!" At this time, there was a strange cheer from the rear, Zhou Ping turned his head to look at the place where the sound came from, but it turned out that the applause was the two Hu people on the second floor, only to see one of them wave his arm, and an object fell on the sand of sumo wrestling, Zhou Ping looked at it, but it was a fist-sized silver ingot.