Zuo Zongtang and Hong Yun'er left one after another, and only Xiao Yungui and his personal guard swordsman were left in the lobby, Xiao Yungui sat in the front of the lobby, his feet on the table, and he thought to himself in his stomach, four-eyed sister, if you don't help, I'll do it myself.

At this time, Li Yiwen suddenly came to ask for a meeting, Xiao Yungui was about to send someone to get Zuo Zongtang's family to come, and when he heard that Li Yiwen was coming, he was even more happy in his heart, this Li Yiwen is Li Xiucheng, he is very reliable, and he will be able to do things if he is sent, so he immediately ordered someone to pass him in.

Li Yiwen came to the hall and hugged his fists to salute, Xiao Yungui waved his hand, and asked him to sit down and talk with a smile, Li Yiwen just came to report some trivial matters after the First World War in Liuyang today. In the first battle of Liuyang, the Taiping army suffered little losses, but the Qing army lost more than 800 people, and the loss of food, firearms, and red medicine was not counted, all of which were captured by the Taiping army.

He also said that according to the confessions of the captured soldiers of the Qing army, this looting was only because most of the grain from the official warehouse near Changsha had been transported to Changsha to help defend it, and Wang Jialin and Taqib's soldiers and horses were suffering from lack of food when they arrived in Liuyang County, and the large households in the city had limited donations, so they were not allowed to go out of the city to the countryside to eat with the Qing army. Originally, they only wanted food, but as soon as these Qing soldiers were released, they were like wild horses that had escaped, and Zuihou became a large-scale burning, killing and looting.

The plundering of the Qing army aroused great public anger in Liuyang, originally Luo Huandian helped organize a regimental training in Changsha, and most of the recruits were Liuyang Xiangyong, but as a result, the Qing army of Wang Jialin and the Hubei defeated army of Taqib ravaged the countryside, so that the Liuyang Xiangyong of Changsha City all defected to the Taiping army, and for a time the new army of the Taiping army in the city had nearly 1,000 more people.

Now that the Taiping army in the city has enough food, the more Li Yiwen talks, the happier he becomes, Xiao Yungui said patiently after listening to his words with a smile: "Brother Li, this king wants to send you to do something. ”

Li Yiwen immediately stood up and hugged his fists and said, "If the King of the West has any send, his subordinates will definitely do it." ”

Xiao Yungui waved his hand and said: "You are also an old brother, in the future, we will be commensurate with each other, you sit down, let's talk slowly." ”

Li Yiwen's face was full of joy, and he sat down upright, Xiao Yungui coughed and said, "I want to send you to bring Mr. Zuo's family to Changsha, Mr. Zuo is the teacher who wants to go out of the city during the day." ”

Li Yiwen said slightly: "Then Mr. Zuo, I know, but where is the younger brother going to pick up his family?" ”

Xiao Yungui was stunned, yes, where is Zuo Zongtang's home? He only knew that Zuo Zongtang claimed to be from Xiangyin Jinliang and should be from Xiangyin County, but Xiangyin is so big, where will this guy's nest be?

Xiao Yungui frowned, stood up and paced a few steps, did he want to ask Hong Yun'er again? Hmph, I'll do it myself this time! After walking a few more steps, I remembered that Deng Yi, Li Shourong, and Wang Minyun were still locked up in prison, and they were all acquaintances of Zuo Zongtang? Hopefully they'll know.

Thinking of this, Xiao Yungui's eyebrows danced, and he immediately brought Li Shourong to the court, saying that he wanted to try the demon and the spy at night, and let Li Yiwen listen to the trial together.

After a while, Li Shourong brought it, only to see him haggard and flustered, Xiao Yungui looked very happy in his heart, he saw that among the three Li Shourong was heavier and weaker, usually asking for a confession to find this kind of person is the most suitable to start.

After searching for a long time, he couldn't find where the shocking wood went, so Xiao Yungui had to slap the table with his big hand like a fan, and shouted angrily: "The people in the hall are pure demons and spies? ”

Li Shourong's face was pale, although he was still standing, his feet trembled slightly, but he tightened his lips, and it took a long time before he mustered up the courage to say: "I, I, Xiaosheng is not a secret agent of the official army, I am just a student." ”

Xiao Yungui snorted coldly: "Nonsense! This morning, you teamed up with Deng Yi and others to commit murder with knives, chasing and slashing my Taiping Holy Soldier, and you still say that you are not a spy?! Then he glanced at Li Yiwen. …,

What kind of eyes does Li Yiwen have? He immediately stood up with a roar, pulled out the long knife at his waist, and shouted loudly: "Good traitor! How dare you fight against my holy soldiers?! I cut you! Then he raised his long sword high and made a gesture to slash it.

Li Shourong finally sat on the ground in fright, her face even paler. Xiao Yungui secretly praised Li Yiwen for being really capable, knowing his mind, and waved his hand at the moment and said, "Wait!" ”

Li Yiwen slowly put down the knife, and Xiao Yungui said lightly: "Li Shourong, if you want to say that you are not a Qing demon and a spy, then I will ask you, you answer me, if there is anything untrue, hum, don't blame Li Yiwen's fast knife next to you is not welcome!" ”

Li Shourong hurriedly said in a trembling voice: "What Xiaosheng said is the truth. ”

Xiao Yungui snorted and asked, "Let me ask you, how long have Zuo Zongtang and you known each other?" ”

Li Shourong didn't understand why Xiao Yungui asked about this, and replied casually: "About ten years." ”

Xiao Yungui snorted and asked, "Where is this Zuo Zongtang's family?" ”

Li Shourong said stunned: "Originally in Xiangtan, nine years ago, Brother Ji Gao returned to his hometown of Liujiachong, Dongxiang, Xiangyin, for three times because of his three failures, and spent 900 taels of silver to buy 70 acres of paddy fields and 80 acres of mountainous land, planning to return to Tao Yuanming. Brother Ji Gao is quite talented, built his own farm, and personally wrote the willow village on the forehead. There are rice fields, paddy fields, tea gardens in front of Liuzhuang, and there are bamboo forests in the back, and Brother Ji Gao calls himself a farmer in Hunan Province. Every day, the surrounding farmers can see Brother Ji Gao plowing the fields, building walls, making trenches, building forts, raising pigs and cattle, planting mulberry forests, planting willows and plums, and being busy every day. ”

Li Shourong seemed to have opened the conversation box, and Xiao Yungui asked strangely: "Have you been to Zuo Zongtang's Liuzhuang?" ”

Li Shourong was simple-minded, and did not doubt him, so she nodded and said: "Brother Ji Gao's eldest son Xiaowei and second son Xiaokuan were both born in Liuzhuang, and I went to congratulate them, so I have been to Liuzhuang." There is indeed a paradise-like scenery written by Tao Yuanming, just the so-called day and mediocrity of the people of Longmu, the seedlings are beginning to grow, the fields and water are cong, the birds change their voices, the grass is new and the soil is moist, there is no happiness. ”

When Li Shourong said this, her fear gradually disappeared, and she no longer trembled when she spoke, and she also described the scenery in Zou Zou.

Xiao Yungui smiled slightly, it seems that this Li Shourong is an honest gentleman, but he can't control his mouth, it can be seen that he likes gossip a lot, and immediately ordered someone to move a pestle for him, let him sit down and talk, and then asked: "Who is in Zuo Zongtang's family?" ”

Li Shourong thanked the seat, sorted out his appearance for a while and sat upright and replied: "Brother Ji's family background is a little pitiful, since Brother Ji's great-grandfather, the three generations of the Zuo family have been teaching for a living, living on the land rent left by their ancestors. There are two brothers in the family, the eldest brother Zuo Zongzhi, the second brother Zuo Zongzhi, and Brother Ji Gao are the third sons in the family. That year, Brother Ji Gao's eldest brother died of illness, and Zuo's mother was depressed and died within a few years. A few years later, Zuo Gong Guanlan also died of illness, and Ji Gao's parents were no longer alive. ”

Xiao Yungui sighed lightly and said, "It turns out that his parents also died in his early years, what about his second brother?" ”

Li Shourong replied: "Brother Ji Gao's second brother Zuo Zongzhi is quite talented, and he won the Xie Yuan in the township that year, but he also failed many times after that. In the first year, Xianfeng was appointed to Beijing and was elected as the secretary of the cabinet. Now long ...... Taiping raised troops, because of the suspense of the family, in the summer of this year, he went home, and since then he has never been able to advance, and now he is serving as a chair in Hengyang Shigu Academy, and he has not been an official. ”

Xiao Yungui sighed and said, "It's easy to do it if there is no one in the family to be an official in the court." Then he asked, "What about Zuo Zongtang's wife?" ”

Li Shourong said with envy on her face: "Speaking of Brother Ji's family business, it is indeed envious of others, Brother Ji's wife is not only knowledgeable, virtuous and dignified, but also more rare is that Mrs. Ji's mother's family is honest, it is the leading family in Xiangtan, and Brother Ji can enter the Zhou family is indeed blessed by the ancestors." ”…,

Speaking of this, Xiao Yungui sighed softly, Zuo Zongtang is the son-in-law of the family? Li Shourong continued: "Speaking of Brother Ji's involvement, it also became a good story at that time......

It turned out that Zuo Zongtang's wife's name was Zhou Yiduan, and her maiden family, the Zhou family, was the largest household in Xiangtan County. The Zhou family has a thick road, and has built a large courtyard in the purple mountain residence at the eastern foot of Xiangtan Yinshan Mountain, named "Gui Zaitang", commonly known as "Guizi Hall". This courtyard covers an area of 15 acres, and there are 48 patios in the whole courtyard, arranged according to the gossip figures. The courtyard is tortuous, like a labyrinth, and people who don't understand the I Ching go in, and there is definitely no entry or exit. At the gate stands a bluestone, which was given by the emperor. All the civil officials and military generals who came to Gui in the hall saw this stone tablet, and they all had to get off the sedan chair and dismount, kowtow and worship.

Zhou Yiduan, knowledgeable, virtuous temperament, dignified appearance. But she was twenty years old at the time, the same year as Zuo Zongtang, and she was also an older daughter at that time. It's just because she thinks very highly of herself and refuses to marry casually, so she delays the period of leaving the cabinet. Zhou's mother had no choice but to open the door to recruit a son-in-law and choose a good son-in-law for her. Zhou's mother is also from a scholarly family, and the method she came up with is to recruit relatives by poetry.

At that time, Zuo Zongtang had just finished the township examination, so he went to participate in the recruitment of a son-in-law with the help of a group of friends. Of course, Zuo Zongtang had nothing to say about his poetry and talent, and he passed all the way to Zuihou, and Zhou's mother saw that he was dignified, so she recruited him as her son-in-law.

But any poor inverted son-in-law, who has always been blinded in the woman's family, I am afraid that there is a sour feeling in his heart, for the arrogant Zuo Zongtang, he does not have the financial resources to marry his wife back home, but to live in his mother-in-law's house, for his own life, there is a special feeling. Fortunately, his wife was gentle and virtuous, and often comforted him, so that he could study hard to participate in the imperial examination, and only hope that one day he would be able to raise his eyebrows in high school.

It's a pity that it backfired, Zuo Zongtang failed to go to high school three times, the Zhou family thought that the eldest son-in-law would definitely be able to go to high school, but they didn't expect Zuo Zongtang to have no luck in being an official, and he was a poor boy, so he couldn't help but look at him coldly, and gossip became more. There is a Xiangtan folk song, which is clearly a sarcasm of Zuo Zongtang, and the folk song sings: Xiangyin Zuo Zongtang, came to Guizitang, ate five loads of grain, and slept in a bed.

When the imperial examination landed, Zuo Zongtang was depressed, and he had to suffer from the cold eyes of the Zhou family, so he felt "ashamed and couldn't eat himself", when Zuo Zongtang's life was at a low point, Zhou Yiduan did not consider his honor and disgrace at all, and consistently stood on her husband's side. In order to take care of Zuo Zongtang's face, she persuaded her husband to set up another door, go out to seek work, and take care of the children at home. Zuo Zongtang borrowed a house from his widowed mother-in-law, which was a courtyard that entered and exited alone, which was regarded as a self-established portal, and the place was in Chenshan in Xiangtan, called the West Building, and he also started to teach to make a living.

Zuo Zongtang was not interested in Baguwen, and failed to participate in the examination twice in a row, so he devoted his mind to practical knowledge. For a time, he locked himself in the west building, concentrating on reading and writing, and studying geography. Later, he saved some money from teaching, and then returned to his hometown in Xiangyin to buy a family property in Tianyuan.

Zhou Yiduan was willing to act as his assistant for her husband's studies. Since she married Zuo Zongtang, a cold man, she has never regarded herself as the daughter of a rich family, nor does she think that she has insulted herself. She has always maintained a quiet and chaste attitude. In fact, she herself not only writes lyric poetry, but also reads history, writes dozens of epic poems, and comments on ancient figures, from Qin Shi Huang's criticism to Zhang Juzheng in the Ming Dynasty, which shows that she is not an ordinary woman.

Hearing this, Xiao Yungui sighed that this Zuo Zongtang is really a lucky man, no wonder Li Shourong would say that his marriage was envious of others. In the long years when Zuo Zongtang was not talented, it was really a blessing that ordinary people could not get to have such a confidant and such a virtuous helper.

At this time, Xiao Yungui was even more determined in his heart to get Zuo Zongtang's family to come, but he had some scruples, after all, Zuo Zongtang's wife is a famous lady, if he sends a group of big men to "invite", there will be any disrespect at that time, I am afraid that it is possible for Zuo Zongtang to fight hard and himself, let alone take refuge in himself.

If you want to invite Mrs. Zuo to come, it seems that the most suitable person now is naturally her nominal wife, but do you want to ask her for help? Xiao Yungui touched his chin and muttered for a while, and then he had already thrown the idea he had just made up his mind out of the clouds without principle, and thought cheekily: "It's better to let that four-eyed girl do this kind of thing, let her run errands for Ben Gongzi, and it is easier for women to communicate with women, it's a big deal to coax her, that kind of four-eyed girl with low emotional intelligence, Ben Gongzi is still comfortable coaxing her......