Since Wu Xian left Jin, his yard has become a place where I rest and dry my medicine on weekdays. I led Yin Duo into the room, took the stove, charcoal, and clay pot myself, and took out the newly retrieved mountain spring water from the bamboo basket and poured it into the clay pot.

"I think you can't finish talking about this for a while, I just got a small box of Shu Di Fang a few days ago, not with rice, millet cooking, but can fry soup to drink, you must taste it."

"The Fang Di of Shu is worth 100 gold, is Qing rewarding you?" Yin Duo sat down on the pu mat, casually opened the black lacquer red lid box containing Fang Tu and smelled it, and said with a sneer, "I only heard this thing from people from the land of Bashu, let alone drink, it's the first time I've even seen it." I have a drink today thanks to you, and I can brag a few words when I meet people in the future. ”

"Looking for someone to brag about? Xing Xu Cheng Yin will be thrown into the dungeon tomorrow after seeing the prime minister, with whom will he blow it away, with the death row prisoner? I took the lacquer box back from his hand and laughed.

"You sorcerer, I haven't seen you for so long, and your mouth is still so unforgiving."

"Cheng Yin wants to ask Prime Minister who he wants, let me hear it?" I put the charcoal piece by piece into the small stove and gently fanned the wind with a puff fan.

"Actually, when I came back this time, I just wanted to find someone to go to Jinyang to repair the house and dig the ditch, there is nothing new."

"Didn't the prime minister send a hundred workers?"

"It's a busy spring season, and according to the rules, you can't build a house during this time. The people of Jinyang City have all gone to the fields to farm, and these craftsmen also have fields to plant at home, so I have sent a boat to send them all back a few days ago. ”

"You sent all the craftsmen back?! You're too bold! "If you say that you love the people, no one can compare to Yin Duo sitting in front of me, who risked the crime of killing his head that day to tamper with the number of victims in Jinyang City, and reduced the tax and grain of more than 200 stone for the citizens there. Later, Zhao Ying also agreed to his and Wuxian's request and exempted the men of Jinyang City from forced labor for one year.

This time, he understood that the craftsmen had to pay the land tax at the end of the year, so he released the people back to Xinjiang without permission, turned his head and asked Zhao Ying what kind of slaves he wanted from Xianyu Kingdom. "The craftsman has been sent back by you, and I say no amount of more. Since you want me to help you, tell me about the slaves. ”

Yin Duo smiled, took the pu fan in my hand and gently fanned the fire: "Eight years ago, when the prime minister was crusading against the Xianyu Kingdom, he brought back a group of prisoners, and not long after more than 700 people arrived in the Jin Kingdom, they were sent as slaves to the col of Huotai Mountain to quarry. ”

"Huo Taishan?" The last time we went from Xinjiang to Jinyang, Wuxian and I only met dozens of bandits when we passed by Huotai Mountain, so we were quite impressed by that place.

"The people and the common people have land to plant, only the slaves who quarry have no fields to cultivate, and Huo Taishan is not far from Jinyang City, so it is most convenient to transfer people from there."

"But the post doctor has a point, eight years ago, the people of the Zhao family led the army to destroy the Xianyu country, how can you bring these foreigners with national hatred into the Zhao family's mining estate? It's too risky, it's not appropriate. ”

"I have been to the quarries of Huotai Mountain, and more than 700 slaves have died, and now there are less than 500 people left. They were chained, whipped and unclothed from sunrise to sunset. Ah Shi, ten years later, they are no longer the brave and good sons of the past. They are old and sick, and they can't open a quarry, but they can still dig the ground. And I put up huts for them outside the city, and they did not go into the city to build houses, but they lived outside the city and dug ditches. I will give them food, water, and wages, and they will not rebel. ”

In these years, from south to north, from east to west, dozens of large and small vassal states have had several battles every year. Those captured in the war, even if you come from a family, will still be reduced to the lowest slaves of the victorious nation. The women are better, or rewarded to meritorious soldiers, or paid into the nobles' families as maids, like the mother-in-law who was a female prisoner of war who was included in the house by Zhao Ying. In contrast, men were less lucky, some of them were put to death directly, and some of them were served as hard labor until they died.

The mountain spring water in the clay pot was bubbling up, but I didn't have the heart to cook it at this time, so I poured a bowl of cold water into the clay pot casually, "Prime Minister has always acted boldly and informally, tomorrow you told him what he just said, he may agree." ”

"But once this person says no, it will be difficult to beg him a second time. I'm going to have to find a reason why he can't refuse! Yin Duo leaned forward as he spoke, looking at me expectantly.

"Tell me, how do you want me to help you?"

"On the way here, I heard that the seedlings of Jiuyuan all died overnight, and now everyone in the city and outside the city is talking about it, saying that the monarch and the four secretaries have no way to govern the country, and the disaster has fallen on God."

"I know about this, the prime minister is discussing with the monarch in the palace these days how to settle this matter."

"Jinyang moved, Jiuyuan Miao died, and a few days ago, thousands of dead fish appeared in a section of Huotai Mountain in Fenshui. This is the first time that someone complains, then there is the wrath of heaven! ”

"What do you mean......" I pinched a small handful of Fang Di and slowly threw it into the boiling water, looking up at Yin Duo.

Yin Duo pursed his lips and nodded heavily.

"Okay, we still have to discuss this matter again, you stay in Xinjiang for two more days, and then go to ask for someone with the secretary when the time is ripe."

Yin Duo wanted to use the name of natural disasters to ask Zhao Ying to exempt Huo Taishan from the hard labor of more than 500 prisoners of war. But since natural disasters and human grievances are mentioned, we can't just mention Huo Taishan. Two days later, I discussed with Yin Duo and came up with a set of arguments, urging Zhao Ying to exempt more than 900 slaves from hard labor in eight places, including Jiuyuan and Huo Taishan.

The Zhao family first moved in Jinyang, and then lost two men in a row, and now Zhao Ying himself is also sick, if he follows Zhao Ying's usual style, this thing can probably be done. But I have forgotten one of the most important common senses - human power, that is, financial resources. Even if the Marquis of Jin agreed to exempt the more than 900 slaves from servitude, it would be impossible for Yin Duo to move them all to Jinyang City. More than 900 people, what a fortune! Even if Zhao Ying was willing, Zhi Yao would not agree, and neither would Wei and Han.

In that year, in order to take away 500 prisoners of war from Zhao Wu, the king of Handan, Zhao Ying caused a rebellion of the Six Qings that shook the world. Now these slaves, everyone in the four major Qing clans wants them, but no one dares to ask for them.

In the end, the Marquis of Jin only exempted Huo Taishan from the hard labor of more than 100 slaves who were over forty years old, and Yin Duo then moved them from Huo Taishan to Pingling, a small city near Jinyang City, in the form of secondment, and then let them dig ditches in Jinyang City like ordinary people in March to earn food for a living.

In order to calm the people's discussion of him, the Marquis of Jin decided to hold a grand sacrifice outside the city of Xinjiang half a month later, and the sorcerer in charge of the sacrifice was Tai Shimo of the Jin Kingdom and his son Zi Di.

So, I started to get so busy, so busy that I couldn't touch the ground.

In the busyness of day and night, the only consolation is Hongyun'er's letter.

When he left, he took a harrier eagle from the house, and every few days after that, the black-feathered harrier eagle would send him a message from afar. Sometimes it's just "well", sometimes it's a beautiful little rock, and I'll be honest with him about what happened in Xinjiang and what I did. Only once, I suddenly got up and tied a mosquito-repellent straw bag to the harrier's eagle's legs, and then I remembered that when the eagle flew away, I was afraid that the straw bag had already withered and had no effect when it flew over a thousand mountains to his hand.

The days when the harrier eagle came were getting longer and longer, and the high platform used for sacrifice outside Xinjiang City was also higher and higher.

On the seventh day before the sacrifice, Ming Yi, who had disappeared for a long time, suddenly appeared in the Zhao Mansion. That day, I was sitting on the edge of Bolu's bed, and I had only poured half a bowl of medicinal soup in my hand, and in the thick heat, Mingyi, who had a worried face, pushed the door and walked in.

He was dressed in a gray-white robe, and his long hair, which had been scattered behind him, was now tied up high, and his almost transparent skin, which was almost transparent, was slightly red from the scorching sun. The whole person was dusty, but in the gray dust, there was a charming pink. Even if this man is embarrassed, he is still surprisingly beautiful.

I stared at him blankly, but he didn't seem to see me, and only took the medicine jar from my hand as he passed me.

He didn't speak, and neither did Berus, pouring and drinking the medicine, and it all ended in silence.

Mingyi smiled and wiped the potion from Boru's lips with his sleeve, then gently leaned his head into his lap.

He said, I'm sorry, I'm back.

I saw the color of the water in Beru's eyes, and heard the sigh in my heart. In an instant, I suddenly realized that I had decided to stay and was waiting for this scene.

Mingyi is back, and I can leave with peace of mind. In the distance, there is also a person waiting for me, waiting for me to accompany him to see the legendary sea, the sunrise on the sea.

For the next few days, I didn't go to Zhao Mansion again.

I told Si'er that after the ceremony of worshipping the heavens, we were really going to the country of Qi.

On the third day before the sacrifice, I slept in the Taishi Mansion as usual. In the middle of the night, when I was sleeping deeply, there was a sudden sound of chaotic footsteps in the courtyard, and then someone seemed to be shouting: "People are here-the head of the house, the head of the house ......" I couldn't tell whether the sound came from a dream or reality, I scolded in a daze, and buried my head in the quilt.

The cacophony of voices grew louder and louder, and the voices kept pounding on my head like little fists, and just as I had a splitting headache, there was a loud thud, and everything was calm again.

"Uh-" I opened my eyes, and the beating red flames on the white screen window across from me woke me up instantly.

Fire?

There was a fire!

"Quick! Wake up! It's on fire! I sat up sharply and shook the sleeping boy who was lying on the edge of the bed.

The boy smacked his mouth and fell to the ground in a snort.

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