In the twenty-first year of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, the country was divided into fifteen provinces, each of which was placed in the interview and disposal envoys, referred to as the interview envoys, in charge of inspecting prisons and supervising state and county officials, to a certain extent, it was not an official position, and it did not have its rank on the official list of the Tang Dynasty.

Henan Provincial Interview Office is located in Bianzhou, Bianzhou is today's Kaifeng, located in the water and land of the important Tianjin, extending in all directions, north through Weibo, east into Jianghuai, south of Jingchu, for the Tang Dynasty's Caoyun center, Chang'an and Luoyang to the east of the road is through Bianzhou, Bianzhou has a large population, Caoyun developed, since ancient times it is an important town in the Central Plains, all dynasties are here to compete for the Central Plains, plus it has fertile land, developed agriculture, so it has a pivotal position in the Tang Dynasty.

But from the beginning of the ninth year of Tianbao, Henan Province's Bian, Song, Pu, Chen, Xu, Slip, Cao and other seven states did not rain for four months, the riverbed dried up, the winter wheat died, the disaster has begun to appear, the imperial court decreed, the states and counties opened the warehouse to release grain, it is because of the opening of the warehouse to release grain, the natural disaster caused [***], a month ago, the most serious drought in Songzhou Gushu County broke out the starving people robbed the grain depot, killed the tragedy of the county order, three thousand hungry people fled to the south of Songzhou under the leadership of Yang Zhi, the Song City, the mountain is the king, at the same time, Tens of thousands of porters at the Caoyun wharf in Bianzhou began to gather to make trouble because they had no work to do for three consecutive months, and the yamen of the Bianzhou transit branch was smashed, and the chaos of the Caoyun people began to spread to various places.

In late April, Li Longji, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, finally issued an order to seal the original Beiting Festival to envoy Li Qing'an as an envoy to Henan Province and come to inspect all parts of Henan.

At night, in Kaifeng County, where Bianzhou Prefecture is located, the streets are deserted, and a team of officials patrols the streets in groups of three or five, but walking around, the patrol range is always circled around a few green buildings, and the husband is lazy and beating on the bamboo tube, and the sound of the rapid death adds a few nightmares to the people in their sleep.

'Bang! Bang! Bang! Watch out for the candles..... Doors and windows are closed! ’

At this time, a carriage came galloping and stopped in front of the back house of the state government's yamen, an official got down from the carriage and knocked on the door, and after a while, the door opened a crack, "Who are you looking for?" An elderly family member asked.

"Please tell Wu Taishou, just say that Songzhou Sima Yang Runing asks to see you."

"Oh! It's Yang Sima, please come in first! ”

The official dodged into the door and asked, "Disturbing me so late, did Mrs. Wu sleep?" ”

"Not yet! Reading in the study, Yang Sima, please wait here, and I will inform the master. ”

Bianzhou Taishou surnamed Wu, called Wu Qing, more than 50 years old, Kaiyuan seven years Jinshi, for nearly 30 years as an official, he has done the household Langzhong, the door to give things, Song Governor Shi and other positions, Tianbao four years since the Bianzhou Taishou, has been almost five years.

Wu Qing was born poor, but he is very good at drilling, his wife is the sister of Zhang Yun, the head of the household, with the Zhang family as a backer, Wu Qing's career was smooth sailing, at the end of last year, the imperial court expanded, he was finally nominated by Zhang Yun as a candidate, although he did not succeed in the end, but he escaped the cleaning storm of the tide file, Wu Qing couldn't help but feel a burst of happiness.

However, the drought in Henan Province pushed him to the hot spot of the Tang Dynasty, and he received a fast letter from Zhang Yun a few days ago, and the Shengshang had decided to appoint Li Qing'an, the envoy of the Beiting Festival, as the envoy of Henan Province to remind him to pay attention.

At this time, Wu Qing was not reading a book, but was thinking about how to deal with Li Qing'an's possible inspection, Li Qing'an was the only survivor in the tide file, the prince was abolished, the tide file was cleaned, and his backstage Gao Lishi was also deposed, it can be said that Li Qing'an was lost in the background, but he had Zhang Yun as the backstage, he was a step higher in terms of strength, and Tianbao was ordered in the second year of the sage to strictly prohibit interviews from interfering in local government affairs, so that he had more means to deal with him.

"Master, Songzhou Yang Sima asked to see him, saying that he was ordered by Cui Taishou to deliver a letter!" Outside the door, the butler's voice was heard.

Wu Qing immediately thought of Songzhou Taishou Cui Lian, who was originally a member of the Xiangguo Party, but now it is no longer the case, his brother Cui Qiao became the Yang Party, and Cui Lian also changed the court.

Some people in the court are good at being officials, this is the wise saying of the magistrates, so attaching themselves to the high-ranking officials in the court has become the driving force for the successive servants of the magistrates, some sons want to marry, some daughters want to marry their daughters, or worship as protégés, or turn around and lead them to the fathers' old classmates, or the mothers' needlework friends, all kinds of reasons, in short, can be used.

Taishou is also considered a high-ranking official, Shangzhou Taishou is from the third grade, Zhongzhou Taishou is the fourth grade, sometimes, these high-ranking officials of the three and four grades will also worship a four-grade waiter as the backstage, no way, there are more than 600 Taishou in the country, but there are only a dozen waiters.

Wu Qing thought a little far, he retracted his thoughts and smiled: "Please let him in!" ”

After a while, Yang Runing walked in quickly, and said with a smile: "I just arrived and disturbed Envoy Wu." ”

"You're welcome, Yang Sima, please take a seat!"

Wu Qing invited Yang Runing to sit down, and ordered the maid to serve a cup of tea, and then asked with a smile: "I heard that Yang Sima has a letter to send me?" ”

Yang Runing hurriedly smiled and said: "Actually, it's a message, my family Cui Taishou ordered me to send a message to Wu Taishou." ”

"Oh! What message? Wu Qing picked up the tea and looked at him quietly.

"Wu Taishou, the person who told the saint, we have found it, you see..."

Yang Runing said while observing Wu Qing's reaction, if Wu Qing's reaction was shocked, then he could discuss countermeasures with Wu Qing accordingly, he saw Wu Qing drinking tea casually with a teacup, his eyelids did not blink, and his hands did not tremble at all, and he couldn't help but feel disappointed in his heart.

"Wu Taishou already knows who it is?"

Wu Qing smiled disdainfully, don't say that he is a whistleblower, he even knows the content of the whistleblower letter, he knows Cui Lian's intention to order Yang Runing to find him, there is a rebellion of hungry people in Songzhou, the situation is very serious, then Cui Lian is scared, so he wants to form an alliance with himself, in order to deal with Li Qing'an together, if everyone is Zhang Dang, there is still room for negotiation, but they are Yang Dang, they don't want to conspire with them, even if they want to cooperate, Zhang Yun and Yang Guozhong will talk, this Cui Taishou is still a little naïve!

Wu Qing didn't want to refuse clearly, he smiled slightly: "I just received the news that Li Qing'an has entered Xuzhou, and he will be in Bianzhou the day after tomorrow at the latest, Yang Sima should hurry back, let Cui Taishou hurry up and prepare well!" ”

The implication was to tell him that there was no time for them to cooperate, Yang Runing understood Wu Qing's refusal, and was very frustrated, so he had to get up and say, "Okay then!" Hopefully we still have a chance to work together. ”

Yang Runing said goodbye and left, Wu Qing took a sip of tea, and continued the train of thought just now, Li Qingan had arrived in Xuzhou, which reminded him that time was running out.

．．．．．．．． The official road is dusty, it has not rained for several months, the trees on both sides are dyed yellow by dust, there is no trace of green, the small river on the side of the road is dry to the bottom, the land is cracked a finger wide, the official road is the boundary between the two counties, the east is Xuchang County, and the west is Changge County.

There is a dragon king temple not far from the side of Changge County, hundreds of peasants in front of the temple are holding a prayer ceremony for rain, three animals are placed on the table, an old man with white hair is holding incense and praying to the heavens, behind him, hundreds of farmers are kneeling on the ground, prostrate and kowtow devoutly.

In the afternoon of this day, a group of people and horses came from afar on the official road, about 300 young and strong men, their clothes were different, all of them were black robes, leather belts around their waists, carrying horizontal swords, bows and arrows on their backs, all of them were burly and majestic, this was Li Qing'an and his personal soldiers who came from Xiangyang.

Although Li Qing'an knew that his Western Regions strategy letter would be effective, he did not expect that he would come to Henan to interview the envoy, perhaps this is where Li Longji's contradiction lies, he wants to reactivate himself, but he feels that the time is not right, so he sent himself to Henan to inspect.

What to look for? Li Longji's holy decree made it very clear that to check whether there was a shortage of food for officials and whether the magistrates had broken the law, could it be that Li Longji would inevitably give up his post as a doctor of imperial history, just for today?

"Envoy, look over there!"

Several guards smiled and pointed to the people who begged for rain in the Dragon King Temple, everyone was in a very happy mood, there was no need to go to Liuzhou anymore, and the official position of the lord was restored, and the grievances accumulated in his heart for nearly a month were swept away.

Li Qing'an looked at the rain prayer ceremony in front of the Dragon King Temple with great interest, he saw the people praying for rain for the first time, the northwest court of Anxi is all relying on iceberg meltwater, not relying on the rain of the sky, there is no Dragon King Temple, but he went all the way, and did not feel how serious the drought was, especially in Xuchang County, he didn't see the hungry people fleeing, and not all the rivers were dry, like Yingshui, although the water is very shallow and can't be boated, but there is still a little bit of water, which can ensure that the people along the way drink water, which is the same as the thousands of miles of white bones he imagined. The situation of starvation is completely different.

"Zhang Yongqing!"

He turned around and shouted, and immediately ran up to a young soldier with thick and big eyes, "Envoy, I'm here!" ”

"Isn't your hometown Xuchang? Let me ask you, is this year's drought the worst in your memory? ”

"Returning to the envoy, now the drought has not yet reached a serious time, I heard my father say that the drought in the fifteenth year of the Kaiyuan Dynasty is called serious, digging grass roots, peeling tree bark, eating nitrate, starving to death many people, everyone fled to Xiangyang, all the way are sick and starved to death, but now you see, the bark along the way is intact, in fact, ....."

Speaking of this, Zhang Yongqing suddenly stopped, "Actually, what? Several guards around asked in unison.

Zhang Yongqing sighed and said: "Actually, natural disasters are not terrible, what is terrible is [***]. ”

"[***] How terrible is the law, tell me about it?" Li Qingan asked with a smile.

"My grandfather said that once there was a drought, and the imperial court ordered the opening of the warehouse to release grain, and as a result, there were at least three liters of sand in a bucket of rice, and the officials and lords were greedy for thirty percent of a bucket of rice; This is not bad, at least there is rice to eat, and there is a great drought in the fifteenth year of Kaiyuan, my father led our family to flee to Xiangyang, and when we came back, the family's ten acres of land have been sold cheaply by the county to which prince, saying that it is an ownerless field to deal with, we went to reason, but were told to redeem it at the market price, how can the family have money, so my father took us to Anxi to make a living, hey! ”

All the relatives and guards were angry, each told what they had seen and heard about the injustice, at this time, Li Qingan suddenly found that there seemed to be a piece of green a few miles ahead, his eyes lit up, and immediately urged the horse to gallop forward, everyone didn't know what was going on, hurriedly followed, about five or six miles galloped, Li Qingan restrained the war horse, on the side of the official road Xuchang County is indeed a large green tender bean seedlings, enough to hundreds of acres, several officials are busy in the field, they saw a large group of strangely dressed people on the official road, Then he shouted to the bean field: "County lord, there is something strange here. ”

In a moment, a middle-aged man wearing a hat came out of the bean rack, wearing a seven-grade official robe, the placket was tied around his waist, the corners of his trousers were pulled up high, his bare feet, a pair of straw sandals on his feet, his hands were full of mud, and he was holding a bamboo pole.

Xuchang is a middle county, and the county order is seven products, this person is naturally the Xuchang county order, surnamed Han, he drilled out and asked, "What's the matter?" ”

"Look at the official road."

Han Xian Ling looked at the official road, only to see hundreds of people riding horses, standing on a high place with the momentum of black clouds pressing the city, looking towards this side, he was a little panicked in his heart, and hurriedly ran towards the official road, several officials with knives hanging on their buttocks, flicking and following behind.

"Where are you from? What to do in Xuchang? ”

Li Qing'an has been walking for two days, all the way are bare and yellow, his eyes are astringent, and he suddenly sees a large area of green here, which is very eye-catching, he really likes it in his heart, as if he has come to a place with excellent scenery.

He turned over and dismounted, walked up and asked with a smile: "Are you the Xuchang County Commander?" ”

Han Xianling was stunned, who is this? Asking himself like this, he suddenly remembered a rumor he had heard recently, and couldn't help but stammer: "Are you just ...."

Li Qingan smiled and said, "I am the new Henan Provincial Observer. ”

Han County Ling was so frightened that he hurriedly saluted: "Humble Xuchang County Commander Han Yue, see Li Yuanjun." ”

"No need to be polite."

Li Qingan smiled and said, "I was about to go to the county, but I didn't expect to meet the county order here." ”

Han Xianling wiped his sweat with the back of his hand and said, "I didn't know that the envoy was coming, and I didn't welcome him from afar." ”

"Your bean field is the best place to greet you."

Li Qing'an was in great spirits, ran down from the official road, walked to the bean field and squatted down to look at these bean seedlings carefully, they were tender and green and lovely, like green elves.

Han Xian Ling carried a bucket of water, scooped a scoop with a spoon, watered it from the roots one by one, and said to Li Qing'an: "This is the county's public party field, this county has a total of 800 acres of public party field, it was originally all wheat fields, but all of them died. ”

"What about the water?"

Li Qingan turned around and asked curiously, "Where does the water come from?" ”

Han Xianling pointed not far away and said, "We drilled a deep well, right over there." ”

Li Qing'an walked through a bean field, and sure enough, he saw a well in a low-lying area, he walked to the well, lifted the wooden lid and looked at it, the well was estimated to be four or five zhang deep, and there was a faint light of water waves under the well.

"Don't underestimate this well, our bean seedlings of more than 200 acres of land depend on it to feed."

"Not bad! Not bad! ”

Li Qingan nodded with a smile, and said approvingly to Han County: "The key is that Han County Order takes the lead, I think the people of Xuchang County should be mobilized!" ”

"In the past two days, the county and the main book have gone to the countryside, and they are mobilizing village by village, and many farmers have come to see our bean fields, and the effect is very good."

Han County Ling said with some emotion: "In fact, the key to drought resistance is the four words 'open source and reduce expenditure', to find ways to find water, there is no river water, so the idea of digging well water, digging water to save watering, like watering manure, a seedling by seedling to water the roots, followed by saving food, saving expenses, as long as these points are done, in the end you can basically get through the drought." ”

Han County's words, Li Qingan nodded again and again, this Han County Commander is indeed very pragmatic and capable, Henan Province can survive the drought, and officials like him are needed.

As he was talking, he saw a large number of peasants on the official road, including hundreds of people, riding donkeys and driving carriages, everyone jumped off the car one after another, and rushed to the bean field, and several officials hurriedly greeted them.

Li Qingan saw that it was not early, so he smiled and said, "Han County is busy!" I won't bother. ”

"Nope! No! I led the envoy into the county seat to rest, and then arranged food and lodging. ”

Han Xianling panicked, Henan Provincial Observation Envoy transited, how could he not receive it, and he didn't want this official hat.

Li Qingan patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile: "I really don't need it, we don't go into the county seat, just find a forest and stay overnight, you are used to it, as long as you do a good job in the drought resistance in Xuchang County, I will ask you to be promoted." ”

After speaking, he strode back to the official road, turned over and got on his horse, waved his hand, and the team galloped away with him, Han Xianling looked at Li Qingan's back blankly, he seemed to have a dream-like feeling, 'Promotion? Feeling refreshed, he ran to the visiting peasants with a bucket of water.

．．．．．．．．． Night fell, the stars in the sky were scattered in the sky, Li Qing'an and his entourage had already left Xuchang County, entered the territory of Bianzhou, this is the territory of Weishi County, the county seat is in the northeast direction, there are about fifty miles, this area is hilly terrain, seven hills are distributed in a north-south direction, stretching for dozens of miles, like seven dragons lying on the great plain.

A large area of dense forest on the hill, not affected by the severe drought, the official road extends north along one of the mountain beams, this area is not in front of the village, there is no store in the back, Li Qingan saw that everyone was tired, so he looked around, his eyesight surpassed ordinary people, swept around, and saw that there was a faint light on the top of the mountain in the northeast direction, so he pointed to the light and smiled at everyone: "There seems to be someone over there, let's go and see." ”

Everyone cheered up, turned the war horse, followed Li Qing'an to the northeast, rushed up the hill, only to find that there was a temple hidden in the dense forest, the scale was not small, there was a plaque hanging in front of the temple door, looking at it by the starlight, faintly writing the three words 'Baolin Temple'.

At this time, more than a dozen monks walked out of the temple, they saw a large group of men in black, all with weapons, and they couldn't help but feel uneasy, the temple host hurriedly stepped forward to Li Qing'an and said: "The poor monk is the presiding officer of Baolin Temple, Huineng, may I ask the donors are passing by or staying?" ”

"We'll stay one night, and we'll give you money when we leave tomorrow morning."

"Amitabha! The donors want to live, although they are arbitrary, and we dare not take money. ”

Li Qingan smiled, then turned back to the crowd: "Everyone go to the temple to rest!" ”

Three hundred men led horses into the monastery, and the monastery suddenly became lively, and at this moment, in the dense forest not far from the monastery, several black shadows rushed by.

．．．．．．．．

(To be continued)