Di Renjie's expression was stern at this time, his slender eyes narrowed into a slit, and he said to Wu Qing: "Don't be afraid, virtuous nephew, with my Di Renjie here, I will return your innocence." ”

So a moment later, in the county office, Wu Qing knelt on the ground with his mother, here Wu Qing really felt the nest, the atmosphere in the lobby was so strict that it was infiltrating, and the atmosphere was so solid that it could drip water on both sides of the soldiers' battle columns. The British Duke Li Ji sat in the hall, and Zhang Wenjun, the waiter of the East Stage, and Shi Peiyan, the waiter, sat on the side.

Seeing the awesome characters in the Sui and Tang Dynasties for the first time made Wu Qing very embarrassed, but he was still very excited in his heart. Li Ji's original name was Xu Shiji, and he has been famous all over the world since Wagang Mountain. Later, he assisted Tang Taizong Li Shimin to lay down the country, and decades have passed in a blink of an eye, and Li Ji is still alive. Those resolute and cold eyes looked at Wuqing's mother and son majestically, wanting to get something he wanted from this mother and son. But he was disappointed.

Aunt Wu did not see the actions of the big officials crying and shouting like ordinary women, nor did she angrily reprimand corrupt officials like a resentful woman who shouted grievances, she looked at Wu Qing quietly, and just wanted to take a look at her son before being beheaded. If she bears the blame, she is willing to bear a qiē. In fact, she can completely avoid this qiē, because there is a secret in her heart, this secret can save her and Wu Qing, but she can no longer face it after years of wandering.

Wu Qing had a light in his eyes and stared at Li Ji without blinking.

Li Ji is very strange, how can this child not be afraid of himself at all, there is a kind of wisdom light in those eyes that he has to praise, yes, it is the kind of pure and thorough wisdom light, through the fog, through the essence of all things in the world, it is really strange that a child has such a gaze, so he wanted to understand.

"Who is the child in the hall?" Li Ji's voice was loud, and the dust on the beam was shaken off a lot.

Wu Qing said loudly: "Grass people Wuqing, I have seen Lord Guogong. ”

"Huh? Do you know me? ”

Wu Qing said respectfully: "The prestige of the country is unknown, and no one in the world knows it. ”

This sycophant made Li Ji feel a little interesting, so he said again: "Well, yes, little baby, do you know what crime you have committed?" ”

Zhang Wenjun wanted to stop it, after all, the trial of the case was not the business of the grandfather of the country, but Li Ji's prestige and official position were too high, although he was not afraid of the powerful, but Li Ji was really famous, a veteran of the three dynasties, and an auxiliary minister, this face was to be given.

Wu Qing was still not humble or silent, and said: "The grass people don't know what the crime is, as the people of the Tang Dynasty, they should do their meager efforts, whether they are poor or rich, if it is also a deserved crime to save refugees with porridge, then the grass people are willing to admit their crimes." ”

Aunt Wu hurriedly said: "My lord, it is all the idea of the people's women, and it has nothing to do with my son, and the people's women are willing to bear the responsibility." ”

Li Ji frowned, and couldn't help but be puzzled by what Wu Qing said, "No matter whether you are poor or rich", you must know that the Tang Dynasty is strong, but the rank is also very strict, there is an essential difference between good people and untouchables, not to mention the rich and nobles, there are also strict regulations, but no matter what, the sentence "as a common person of the Tang Dynasty" was still recognized by Li Ji, so he said: "The official hasn't asked you yet, don't worry." Ask Wuqing again, but the refugees you gave porridge relief have become chaotic people, rebelled and occupied the county seat, and killed my Tang people. How can this be explained? ”

Wu Qing shook his head, pondered for a moment, and said, "Lord Guogong, please allow me to stand up and talk in detail. ”

Li Ji had already developed a strong interest in this little kid, and laughed: "You may get up and speak, and someone will loosen your ties." ”

A soldier came out of the ranks to loosen the tie to Wu Qing.

Under the gaze of everyone, Wu Qing stood up, dressed in truth, and looked like an adult, and then raised his eyes to look at the soldiers, and looked at the officials in the hall, all of whom were old, and then arched his hand, and said: "During the Jin Dynasty, there was a Mr. Dongguo, who was traveling with his own donkey one day, and met a wolf who was about to starve to death halfway, and in good faith Mr. Dongguo saved the wolf, gave it food and water, and let the wolf lie on the back of the donkey, and led the donkey by himself, and walked for a long time, Mr. Dongguo was tired, Hungry and thirsty, he sat down to rest, but the wolves ate the food and water. Then the wolf jumped off the donkey's back and said, 'Now that you can't walk, I can eat you.' Mr. Dongguo was furious and asked, 'Why, I have treated you so kindly, let you eat, let you drink, and let you have a donkey to ride?' The wolf laughed and said, 'Because I'm hungry again.' After saying that, the wolf pounced on Mr. Dongguo. ”

Wu Qing said it with emotion, which can be said to be appropriate, and the story of Mr. Dong Guo and the wolf is what really happened. Wu Qing didn't know the bottom of his heart, because this story was still in the Ming Dynasty and later in the book, if it weren't for this fable in the primary school Chinese textbook, he didn't know if he could get past it.

In the middle of the night, the entire lobby was silent.

Li Ji coughed and said loudly: "It's really a prodigy, come here, set up a banquet, and the official wants to accept Wuqing as an apprentice." ”

"Ahem, that, that Guogong, can you let the officials listen to this story before drawing conclusions?" The person who spoke turned out to be Sima Li Xiaolian.

Here I want to talk about Sima's official position, before the Tang Dynasty, Sima's functions were very large, in charge of military affairs, including recruiting soldiers, training morale, etc., but since the Tang Dynasty, Sima has become a subordinate official of Changshi, and has almost become a place for the degraded ministers in the court, which is an idle position. Although these people are idle, the state and county officials will not approach or distance themselves, because these people are likely to return to the center again, or they may perish. But no matter what, Sima is a position with idlers. So Li Xiaolian, a person who doesn't know anything at all, heard such a story, but there was no ending, and he blurted out in his heart, but he regretted it after saying it.

Di Renjie also heard the trial first, and he couldn't laugh or cry at Sima Li Xiaolian's inappropriate sentence. frequently hinted at Li Xiaolian, but to no avail.

After Li Ji was stunned for a moment, he said disdainfully: "Who else has objections?" ”

Everyone knew the facts of the case, so after Wu Qing's explanation, they didn't say anything more. Moreover, after Zhang Yuan and others are escorted to Chang'an, there will be Dali Temple and Yushitai, as well as the Criminal Department for trial.

The officials present are deeply influenced by Confucian culture, and they pay attention to a golden mean in people and things, not to mention that they also think that people are kind, but you don't know if the person you treat kindly is kind, even if he kills people and sets fires, but there is no such sign before, such a fault cannot be imposed on the benefactor, just like Mr. Dongguo, who is kind enough to save the wolf, and does not know that the wolf wants to eat him.

When he heard that Li Ji accepted him as an apprentice, Wu Qing was pleasantly surprised, can it be said that he has climbed a high branch in one step?

Wu Qing was excited, but there was no person and expression on his face, he still had to pretend when he should pretend, he couldn't just jump up like a monkey when a British duke wanted to accept an apprentice, not to mention this solemn and cold hall, but it was still necessary to express it properly, so Wu Qing bowed and said: "Thank you for the love of the Duke of Guo, the apprentice has seen the master." ”

Wu Qing bowed and bowed three times, which was regarded as a big gift. Of course, the stricter worship ceremony is to burn incense, bathe, fast for three days, and then perform the worship ceremony. But at this time, it was different from the past, and Li Ji also suffered.

Li Ji laughed, picked up Wu Qing, looked at the child with clear eyebrows and beautiful eyes, and then held Wu Qing's slender arm, and said: "You knew how many times better than the old man when you were six years old. ”

Wu Qing was very excited, really excited, originally it was just to brush up some prestige, but I didn't expect to see the benefits so soon, it seems that I will have to brush up more prestige in the future, this era is to pay attention to fame and pay attention to a person's quality.

Not to mention the celebration of the rebellion.

It was getting dark, Wu Qing and Aunt Wu returned home, and saw Wang Xiu and Xu Xiaoying crying at the door.

Wu Qing was angry and kicked on the door, almost breaking his foot. After entering the house, I saw two corpses, one was Mrs. Xu's, the other was an obscene man, and there was a big burden beside him, and the burden was exposed, and Wu Qing could see it clearly, it was a bag of gold, silver and jewelry.

Wu Qing and Aunt Wu first got the body to a hidden place, and Wu Qing said: "Go get a coffin tomorrow and bury Aunt Xu." As for this house, it looks like it can only be burned down. ”

Aunt Wu now believes in her son's words, and Xu Xiaoying and Wang Xiu have no opinion. So after a short rest, Wu Qing raised the torch and set the house on fire directly.

There was nothing of value in the house, and the remaining more than 100 taels of silver were also robbed by the rebels, so in order to destroy the corpse, they could only burn it with a fire.

Nowadays, there are fires everywhere in the city, so it is normal for the samurai to be on fire. The houses of the Tang Dynasty were mostly wooden structures, so the fire was soon difficult to control, the neighbors helped to extinguish the fire, and more and more people came to help, after Li Ji heard the news of the fire, he sent a team of soldiers to help extinguish the fire, but unfortunately, the fire was too big, and after it was extinguished, only a piece of ash remained.

This is a rented house, if there was a fire, it would have been counted on the head of Wuqing's mother and son, but it was different if there was a civil unrest, because it was the result of arson by the chaotic people, as for compensation, then ask the chaotic people to ask for it.

At night, Wu Qing asked Xu Xiaoying and Wang Xiu, it turned out that they were hiding in the room, and Aunt Xu wanted to get them something to eat, but after waiting for a long time, they had the courage to come out, only to find that Aunt Xu was dead, and there was a man's body lying not far away, as well as a bag of gold, silver and jewelry, and the others were gone. Only then did Wu Qing understand that there was something else wrong with Aunt Wu's death, but the corpse had been destroyed, so there was no need to care about it anymore. Anyway, I don't know how many people died on this day. Not to mention that it is still useful to leave a bag of gold and silver jewelry.

On the second day, Wu Qing went to the coffin shop to buy a coffin, but he didn't expect that the coffin in the coffin shop had been sold out, there were too many dead people during this time, and the coffin shop shopkeeper Wang Tou was happy, and the apprentice, son-in-law, son, and the whole family went into battle together, and it was not enough to rush to work day and night, and even cutting corners was still in short supply.

Wu Qing had no choice but to pay three times the price, and spent 500 Kaiyuan Tongbao to buy a thin wooden coffin from the hands of a deceased's family, which is usually less than 120 yuan. After simply putting Aunt Xu's restraint into the coffin, hiring an ox cart to send it to Xu Beicun and burying it with Xu Xiaoying's father, Wu Qing and the others, who were tired, finally had a night of rest.

It is still the home in the east of the village, the persimmon tree is already fruitful, and the scarlet apples will fall one or two when they are blown by the wind, Xu Xiaoying used to like to eat this sour little apple, but now, he sat silently under the persimmon tree with Wuqing's mother and son and Wang Xiu. Because from tonight onwards, they will face a new life, and Wuqing may have to go to Chang'an, and they will either follow or stay in Xubei Village.

Wu Qing broke such a quiet atmosphere and said: "Now that Aunt Xu has settled in the earth, I will go to Taiyuan Mansion tomorrow, and then follow Master to Chang'an." If you two want to go, come with me. ”

Xu Xiaoying and Wang Xiu, the two little children, have also become a lot more mature after experiencing so many things, both of them nodded and agreed, Wang Xiu can choose to stay in Xubei Village, after all, his clan is here, as for Xu Xiaoying, what else can he do besides following Wuqing's mother and son?

Wu Qing said solemnly: "Okay, since you have chosen to follow me, then I will make it clear first, I will treat you as friends, or even subordinates, but I will not treat you as slaves, what you give me is infinite loyalty and endless trust." Do you understand? ”

The two of them nodded in agreement, although Wu Qing said something a little inexplicable, but at this moment they both chose to agree, because they saw that Wu Qing was a very capable person, at least someone who could be accepted as an apprentice by the Guogong, it was not simple.

Aunt Wu was very strange about her son, but she didn't stop it, she knew that her son must have his reason, but she didn't want to think about it, her son was less than seven years old.

Wu Qing pondered for a moment, his eyes became sharper and sharper, and then he stood up and said firmly: "Brothers are united and help each other in the same boat, our organization is called Freemasonry." ”

Thus, Freemasonry was born in this ancient country of the East a thousand years earlier, with only three children and a middle-aged woman in the Church.