Soon after entering the inner city, Ma Yuanyi said hello to Zhang Huang and the others, and left with the dozen or so Taiping Dao disciples in the carriage full of treasures, while She Zhi stayed as previously agreed and accompanied Zhang Huang and the others to visit Xun You's mansion in Luoyang City.

Walking on the side of the street, Zhang Huang was puzzled to find that although the middle of the street was very empty, the pedestrians on the street only dared to walk on both sides of the street, as if there was some underlying rule that made them dare not walk in the middle of the street.

"No one is allowed to leave in the middle of the street?" Zhang Huang asked suspiciously.

She Zhi smiled faintly and explained in a low voice, "Ordinary people can only walk on both sides of the street, including you and me. ”

Zhang Huang looked up at the pedestrians, and found that as She Zhi said, walking on both sides of the street were ordinary people with their heads down and busy with their heads, which couldn't help but make him feel a little surprised.

"Didn't you say that the inner city was inhabited by famous and wealthy families? How can there still be ordinary people? ”

She Zhi was amused when he heard this, and asked with a chuckle, "How can the branches and leaves live without roots?" …… If the inner city is inhabited by the rich and famous, who will call whom? There's got to be some ordinary people for them to drive, right? ”

Zhang Huang immediately understood when he heard this, and suddenly came to his senses and asked, "The people here are employed by those famous and rich families?" ”

"Yes." She Zhi nodded and said, "There are more than a thousand famous families in the inner city of Luoyang, although most of them have family slaves, but they still can't meet their daily needs...... The people who sell meat and vegetables in the bazaar, pour filth, and deliver wine in restaurants, roughly calculated, in this inner city, tens of thousands of ordinary people can afford to be rich and famous......" Speaking of this, he closed his mouth, because the rest of the words were no longer convenient to say in broad daylight, so as not to be detected by the eyes of the court in the sky.

[It seems to be in Luoyang.] The pyramid-like class system is even stricter......]

Zhang Huang secretly sighed in his heart, although the scenery and architecture of the inner city of Luoyang made him quite amazed, but the atmosphere here was dignified that Zhang Huang had never seen, and it was far less good than the atmosphere of Taishan County and Guangling County that were relatively rural counties. There, at least, ordinary people can walk in the middle of the streets, and even if they smile more than they do when they are sad, it is at least real. Unlike this Luoyang, the people don't even have the right to decide their own expressions.

I walked about a mile or two. Two men were talking and laughing on the other side. Unlike the ordinary people in the vicinity, the two men, dressed in splendid costumes and with swords at their waists, walked in the middle of the street without any eyes, talking and laughing as they went, as if they had not seen the people in front of them.

And unbelievably, when the two men approached, the people nearby stopped what they were doing and lowered their heads one by one. Watch the two men walk away.

Even She Zhi stopped as the two men approached and whispered to the Black Feather Crows, "Keep your head down." ”

The black-feathered crows looked at each other. Like the rest of the people nearby, he stood by the street with his head bowed and watched the two men walk away.

"He, the Shi clan too!" After the two men were gone. Seeing the puzzled expressions on the faces of the black feather crows, She Zhi explained in a low voice and admonished: "Shi Nai, a third-class nobleman, you are waiting in the inner city. Don't provoke. ”

"Third class?" Zhang Huang asked suspiciously.

She Zhi pondered for a moment when he heard this, and explained, "Wang (the Son of Heaven), Hou (princes), Qing (important ministers of the court or the palaces of the princes), Shi (ministers of the court or those with great fame), gentry (rich people), Shu (commoners), ......", he explained it carefully to Zhang Huang and others.

After She Zhi's explanation, Zhang Huang understood the class system. Putting aside the supreme existence of the royal rank, Hou is the most noble noble, such as the teacher who taught Taishi Ci's archery, Chen Wang Liu Chong, he is the highest first-order storage zài among the nobles; And under Hou, it is the Qing and the Shi. However, the dividing line between the Qing clan and the scholar clan has always been blurred, such as Xun Yu, his Xun clan was originally a scholar clan, but if his sixth uncle Xun Shuang accepted the position of Jiuqing or even the third prince canonized by the imperial court, then the Xun family immediately changed and could be regarded as the Qing clan, with a higher status than the ordinary scholar clan. However, generally speaking, the Qing clan and the scholar clan are ranked at the same class level, but their status is different; The gentry under this status, that is, the rich people with a lot of wealth, they can not be called nobles, but it is undeniable that some rich people's family wealth is even stronger than that of the nobles, in this era when money can make grinding ghosts, these rich people who are not nobles also compete to make friends with the nobles, or pay huge sums of money to the court, hoping to squeeze into the ranks of the nobility. Especially after Liu Hong proposed to sell the official porridge, the rich gentry in Luoyang also competed to buy officials with money, so this class now only refers to those rich people in the countryside (outside Luoyang); As for the last class of the Shu, that undoubtedly refers to the common people and commoners, including the rebels like Zhang Huang and others, which can be regarded as the lowest level of the Han class system.

By the way, in fact, under the common people, there was also a class of slaves, but those people had long since lost their personal freedom and became vassals of famous and wealthy families, and sometimes even goods. Therefore, they are sometimes not even human beings without the slightest status, even if they are beaten to death by the master of the family, Weiwei Temple will not care. The most common example is the house prostitutes raised by some families, who are good to say as singers and dancers, and their good looks are even among the maids and concubines, but the essence is still the same, not even the common people.

"Can the gentry walk in the inner city with a sword?" Chen Zhi frowned and asked She Zhidao.

You must know that the swords that Zhang Huang and the others carried with them had been left in the secret room after being reminded by Ma Yuanyi and She Zhi before going out today, after all, Ma Yuanyi reminded them that the inner city of Luoyang was different from the outer city, and they were not allowed to wear weapons, but now Chen Zhi saw the two scholars wearing swords and brazenly walking in the middle of the street, so he couldn't help but wonder a little.

She Zhi nodded and reminded in a low voice, "In the inner city, only nobles can wear swords. …… Therefore, if you see the other person wearing a sword, don't provoke him. ”

"What happens if I provoke it?" Li Tong asked curiously.

She Zhi glanced at Li Tong deeply, lowered his voice and said, "He is a nobleman, you are a commoner, he is not guilty of killing you, and it is a felony for you to hurt him." And, even if you get away with it. The all-pervasive Jin Wuwei will also go to arrest and execute you...... Are you sure you want to provoke? ”

Li Tong's eyes almost popped out when he heard this, and he shook his head again and again and muttered, "Murder is not guilty, and there is such a thing?" …… So, what if the other party does it? ”

She Zhi glanced at Li Tong with a complicated expression, and whispered as if warning, "You can't fight back, you can't scold back." …… If you don't want to implicate your relatives or friends. ”

[Unexpectedly...... It's unbelievable! ]

The black feather crows looked at each other, and Li Tong's expression was even stiffer, and he asked in astonishment, "Just ...... Just let the other party kill? ”

"Unless you have the ability to escape from Luoyang in the hands of Jin Wuwei." She Zhi chuckled. Shaking his head, he said, "Trust me, that's hard!" It's very hard! ”

Walking and walking, a luxurious carriage came in the middle of the street, and She Zhi saw that he didn't say a word, and directly pulled Zhang Huang into the side alley and hid.

"Why hide?" Zhang Huang asked puzzled.

I saw She Zhi pointing to the ordinary people on both sides of the street who knelt down to see the carriage leave, and asked, "Do you want to be like them?" ”

Zhang Huang was speechless. After half a ring, he frowned and asked, "Why do you want to kneel?" ”

"Because of the Banish." She Zhi explained.

Zhang Huang was immediately confused when he heard this, you must know that when the two scholars came before, the people just stood with their heads bowed and watched. Why did the people in the vicinity have to kneel when the carriage of the same scholar clan came?

Hearing Zhang Huang ask about this, She Zhi explained, "There are also high and low status within the scholar clan. Like the two warriors of Fang Cai, although they said that they were walking with swords, they looked at the clothes on their bodies. But it doesn't look like a line of scholars; The carriage in the inner city of Luoyang is all important people from famous and wealthy families, or uncles and brothers of the head of the family, or direct children, in addition, even the collateral clansmen in the scholar clan are not qualified to drive the carriage in the inner city...... In Luoyang, you must first train a pair of eyes that can distinguish the status of the other party, otherwise, let alone gain a foothold here, it may be difficult to save your life one day. ”

Seeing She Zhi say such alarmist words, the black crows instinctively didn't believe it, but what they saw and heard along the way made them look at each other and be silent again and again.

It's like a scene where Zhang Huang and the others watched the servants in a mansion come to the door of the mansion with a large bucket of swill (that is, a mixture of leftovers to be discarded), and without pity, they used all the food that they had eaten a few bites, or large chickens and ducks, and large plates of fish and meat to feed the domestic dogs in the mansion. On the other side of the street, a girl from an ordinary family, who was only five or six years old, held hands with her mother, while tightly clutching the dry white bun in the other hand, and looked at the leftovers that were being snatched by the dogs with longing eyes.

What made Zhang Huang and the others even more incredible was that after the dogs were fed and led to the gatehouse, several ragged people came out of the nearby alley, picked up the leftovers of the dogs from the ground, and chewed them heavily.

"There are still beggars in the capital?" Zhang Huang looked at those ragged people and asked with a complicated expression.

"Beggars?" She Zhi snorted lightly, lowered his voice and said, "Those people were originally similar to you, some were rebels, and some were wanderers who came to Luoyang to make a living!" ”

"What?" The black-feathered crows' faces changed dramatically, and their expressions were in disbelief.

At this time, the gatekeeper of the mansion also noticed this, and drove the men away with sticks, and clubbed them, and to the sorrow of the black crows, the ragged people actually used their rigid bodies to be beaten by the housekeepers, just to eat more than the dog to eat.

[How sad!] ]

The black crows couldn't help but feel a wave of embarrassment in their hearts.

"How so?" Zang Ba asked in disbelief, he couldn't imagine that those guys who had obviously mastered the rigid body would be so willing to fall into poverty and compete with dogs for food.

She Zhi glanced at Zang Ba and said lightly, "If a person who practices martial arts wants to get ahead in Luoyang, there are only two ways out. First, they were fortunate enough to be called into the Northern Army or the Southern Army; Second, it has become the home of some famous and wealthy families in Luoyang City to take care of their families. On the other hand, if neither of these two can be done...... Then you can only be reduced to begging. ”

"It's unimaginable......" Tai Shici's eyes were full of anger.

As if he had guessed the indignation in Tai Shici's heart, She Zhi whispered, "The ambitions and ambitions in people's hearts will be wiped out. When those people first arrived in Luoyang, they thought that their waists would be straight......" As he spoke, he stretched out his hand and slashed down on the backbone of Zhang Huang's back, and continued, "But when the will is worn out. If the backbone is drained, then you will never be able to stand up straight......"

Hearing She Zhi's meaningful words, Zhang Huang opened his mouth, but he didn't know what to say.

After a long time, Zhang Huang asked with a complicated expression, "What will happen to those people?" ”

She Zhi seemed to notice something, and said in a low voice with Nunu in front of him, "You can wait and see for yourself." ”

The black crows raised their heads when they heard this, and only then did they notice a team of brightly armored guards walking towards them on the side of the street in front of them. After noticing the scene of a few family members driving away the ragged people not far away, this group of guards immediately walked over and arrested all the righteous soldiers of the original righteous army that She Zhi said.

"In the land of the royal capital, there are no people to beg for food!" She Zhi explained in a low voice the reason for the actions of those guards, although there was nothing wrong with his tone, but Zhang Huang saw a deep sarcasm in his eyes.

[It turned out to be such a 'people without food'......]

Zhang Huang couldn't help but sneer in his heart. It was not difficult for him to guess the words of the Tong Guò She Zhi and the actions of those guards to arrest them. It's not that there are no so-called begging people in the land of Jingshi, but these people have long been caught.

"Will they be killed?" Xu Fu couldn't bear to ask.

"That's not going to happen." She Zhi shook his head and explained, "After those people were captured. It will be sold by Weiwei Temple to the famous and wealthy families in the city, as slaves and servants...... But the money, hehe. ”

"How so?" Zang Ba and Tai Shici showed unbearable expressions.

To the surprise of the two, She Zhi said lightly. "There's nothing wrong with that. The backbone of those guys has long been exhausted, and the reason why they continue to hide in the inner city is nothing more than the extravagant hope that one day they will be favored by the family and adopted as a family yard. …… They are all slaves and servants. What's the difference? ”

"Didn't they think about relying on their own skills?" Chen Zhi clenched his fists and said angrily.

She Zhi sighed slightly: "Didn't you say it, the backbone of those people has long been exhausted!" …… This is Luoyang, further on the clouds of the nine heavens, taking a step back and a bottomless abyss, and there is only a line between the two. …… This city, I don't know how many ambitious heroes have been thwarted. ”

"......" The black crows glanced at each other, and they all saw each other's heavy mood.

The government has meat to feed dogs, and there is no food for hungry stomachs, and it is probably appropriate to use this sentence to comment on the situation in the inner city of Luoyang. Although the inner city is not as chaotic as the outer city, there are many dragons and snakes, and it is necessary for a large number of Jinwuwei to patrol constantly to intimidate the righteous men with strong blood and strength, so that they understand and obey the rules of the sun. However, the inner city is also much more lifeless. If what Zhang Huang saw in the outer city was the cruel rule of law and order of Jin Wuwei, and what he saw was the sorrow of the common people who lost their freedom even when they chose their own expressions, then here, in the inner city of Luoyang, what Zhang Huang saw was the absolute class system.

"Let's go." Zhang Huang let out a long breath, and he finally realized why Cheng Pu once said that Luoyang was definitely not a good place for them to go. However, Guo Jia also insisted that Zhang Huang must go to Luoyang to find a lofty ambition that is more practical and beneficial to the world than his 'being a great hero who hoes the strong and helps the weak'.

[A hoe to help the weak does not eradicate the real suffering of the people.] …… Let's go to Luoyang! See more things, see more people, and you will understand. ]

This sentence seems to echo in his ears, Zhang Huang has vaguely understood a little at this moment, but he still has no clue about the road to take in the future. Could it be possible to overthrow the Han Dynasty? This is a road that is almost the enemy of the whole world.

Zhang Huang let out a long breath.

On the rest of the road, the mood of the black feather crows seemed to be extremely heavy, perhaps because the sun was far from being as beautiful as they imagined.

The unequal treatment that they saw on the way made the young black-feathered crows turn blue with anger.

However, their expressions made She Zhi, who instilled in them the rules of Luoyang as he walked, nodded secretly, and muttered in his heart: It's almost time to reveal something to this kid, just tonight, try to test these kids.

For about an hour, Zhang Huang and others finally found the official residence of Xun Yu and Xun Gongda of the Xun clan in Luoyang by asking passers-by.

Compared to the many luxurious mansions they saw along the way, Xun You's official residence was small and simple, and it was not even larger than Zang Ba's old mansion in Taishan County.

"Xun Gongda, it seems that he is a clean and self-righteous scholar."

Even She Zhi, a disciple of the Taiping Dao, couldn't help but nod his head in praise after seeing the simple mansion. After all, in Luoyang, a place full of luxury, it is too rare for a self-disciplined scholar like Xun Yu to be seen.

"Tuk-tuk." Zhang Huang stepped forward and knocked on the door of the house.

It didn't take long for an old man to open the door and look outside, and shouted with a straight face: "The old man is not at home, please go back." ”

[Xun Yu is not there?] ]

Zhang Huang was stunned, and couldn't help muttering a little in his heart, but after thinking about it, he suddenly understood, thinking that it was this old man who mistook their group for someone who came to offer money and befriend Xun You, after all, Xun You is a squire of the Yellow Gate, and he is a close minister of the Son of Heaven and a subordinate official of Shang Shutai, and his power is not small.

Thinking of this, Zhang Huang hurriedly explained to the old man: "In Xia Zhang Huang, these are my companions, and we came from Yingchuan to visit Lord Xun. ”

"Yingchuan?" Hearing this, the old man muttered with a puzzled expression, "Why are you also from Yingchuan?" ”

"Huh?" Zhang Huang was a little puzzled when he heard this, and asked curiously, "Who else?" ”

The old man simply opened the door of the mansion and recalled, "A few days ago, my squire received a letter from his family, saying that a few friends from Yingchuan were coming to Luoyang and asked my squire to take care of it...... No, the squire went to the south gate to greet him in the past two days. …… I don't know who has such a big shelf, and I want my squire to greet him personally! ”

"What's it called?"

"It seems to be called Zhang...... Huang ......" Speaking of this, the old man suddenly squinted at Zhang Huang and asked uncertainly, "What did you just say your name is?" ”

Seeing the old man's increasingly unkind eyes, Zhang Huang felt a faint sweat in his head.

“…… Zhang Huang. (To be continued......)