"On March 3rd, the weather is new, and the beauty of Chang'an waterside walks." Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty is full of romantic atmosphere, every year on March 3, the Shangsi Festival, the citizens of Chang'an, whether rich or poor, men, women and children, will go out to go out, and the best place to go out is Qujiang. The Tang Dynasty has set the capital of Chang'an for nearly 200 years, and Qujiang has also been prosperous for more than 100 years, the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, the Great Ci'en Temple and the Qujiang Garden, making it the best place for leisure in Chang'an. The Jinshi Qujiang banquet that arose in Zhongzong, and the inscription of the wild goose pagoda greatly accumulated the popularity of Qujiang, and also made Qujiang a good place for everyone to choose a son-in-law. During the Shenlong period of Tang Zhongzong, Jinshi Zhang Ju visited Ci'en Temple, and on a whim, he inscribed his name under the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. Unexpectedly, this move attracted the literati to follow suit. In particular, the new science and technology scholars regard the title of the Wild Goose Pagoda as a great honor. After feasting and drinking in Qujiang, they came to the foot of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda and recommended calligraphers to inscribe their names, places of origin and time on the wall with ink pens. If any of these people become prime ministers in the future, they will have to change their names to red pen writing. It can be said that the rise and fall of Qujiang is the embodiment of the rise and fall of the Tang Dynasty. During the Anshi Rebellion, Qujiang was desolate, and there was no trace of the extravagance of the Yang sisters, only the sadness of the sunset. In the spring of the second year of Suzong Zhide, the great poet Du Fu walked along the Qujiang River in the southeast of Chang'an City, came back to the old place, touched the scene and was sad, full of emotion, and was overwhelmed with grief, and wrote the famous "Wailing River Head":

Shaoling Ye Lao swallowed and cried, sneaking in the spring Qujiang song.

Jiangtou Palace locks thousands of doors, who is the green of the fine willow Xinpu?

Reminiscing about the past, everything in the garden is colorful.

The first person in the Zhaoyang Palace, the same as the king's side.

Only before the chariot carried bows and arrows, and the white horses chewed on the golden le.

Turning over and shooting clouds into the sky, he smiled and fell with his wings.

Where are the bright eyes and bright teeth? Bloodstained geists can't be returned.

Qingwei Dongliu Sword Pavilion is deep, and there is no news from each other to live!

Life is full of tears, is the river and the river flower the ultimate?

At dusk, Hu rode the dust all over the city, wanting to look at the north of the city in the south of the city.

Qujiang in the poem has long lost the beauty of the past, only the melancholy that the empire is about to decline. Since then, Chang'an has been frequent, and Qujiang is no longer in its prime. Fortunately, after the chaos of Jingyuan, Dezong appeased and accommodated the feudal town, Chang'an did not encounter a war for more than 20 years, although the country was weakened, the grand situation of Qujiang gradually recovered. A few years ago, with a poem "Leaving the grass on the plain, one year old and one withering", the current secretary of the Beijing Division, the provincial school secretary Bai Juyi Jinshi, and the latter came to the whim, and wrote the poem "The inscription under the Pagoda of Mercy, the youngest of the seventeen people", the meaning of complacency is overflowing. In fact, Bai Juyi was twenty-seven years old at the time, but it was difficult to take the Jinshi exam in the Tang Dynasty, and there was a saying that "thirty old Ming Jing, fifty young Jinshi", and the twenty-seven-year-old Zhongjin Shi was already regarded as a young man. Recently, it was said that Bai Xiaoshulang was preparing to participate in next year's election of officials, and he was busy with planning and discussing, so he didn't write such poems anymore.

On March 3 of this year, due to Emperor Dezong's big trip, although it happened to be the day of rest, the legislation of the Tang Dynasty was not as elaborate as that of later generations, but in order to avoid people's words, many official eunuchs did not go out for a spring outing, even if they appeared in Qujiang, they were very low-key. However, the people can't manage so much, they are busy begging for food and clothing every year, and it is rare to have a relaxing day, how can they stay at home and not come out? Because there are many less flamboyant eunuchs, this year's Qujiang seems to be not as lively as in previous years, but there are actually not a lot of people, citizens who travel to spring with their families, scholars who temporarily live in Chang'an and wait for the next year's exams, Dengzi who seeks sexual encounters, scoundrels who collect protection money for nothing, small businessmen and hawkers who do business, and many high-nosed and deep-eyed Hu people in the Western Regions, crowded and crowded, full of voices, laughter, and even the new weeping willows by the water are particularly energetic.

It was nearly noon, and among the extraordinarily energetic crowd, there were two taxis wearing black wings and soft hats, but they looked particularly different. One of the two was in his thirties, of medium height, dressed in a white shirt, and the other was in his twenties, with a slender figure and a handsome face, and he was a beautiful young man wearing a brand new green shirt. It's just that the current appearance of the two is not at all reminiscent of pretty, with crooked hats with black wings, torn clothes, and stains on them, and whip marks on the young man's face. At a glance, you can tell that you are not playing performance art, but that you are being bullied by a powerful person.

As soon as these two people appeared, they immediately attracted everyone's attention, especially the younger one who kept scolding "castration", if it weren't for the old man who held on tightly, he was afraid that he would rush back to find the person who beat him to settle the score. A middle-aged man who was slowly tasting on the mash stall next to him obviously heard the young man's words, and couldn't help but let out a "huh" and turned around.

This person has a peculiar face, a square face, floating eyes, longitudinal entrance, the photo book says that such a face "must be prevented from starving to death", this person is obviously not to that point at the moment, took out a copper coin from the money bag, put it on the stall, and greeted the boss, and looked for the two people.

It's just that the crowd is crowded, and the two of them disappeared in the sea of people, but where did they find them? It's just that this person is not in a hurry, but slowly walks out. It turned out that he saw that the two of them were stained up and down, and he must be in a hurry to go home and change clothes, so when he came out of the Qujiang River, there were few people, and he would definitely be able to find them. Sure enough, at a horse station outside the Qujiang River (a place to watch horses, I don't know if there was one at the time, made up), I saw that the two of them were taking out the number plate and paying to lead the horse (two cents for bicycles, five cents for electric vehicles, how many horses?). The young man was indignant, and the older man was also gloomy. Seeing that the two were about to leave, the middle-aged man hurriedly said, "Please stay, two of you." "Come forward and salute.

When the two heard someone shouting, they hurriedly turned around, but they didn't know each other. Seeing the other party's salute, he hurriedly returned the salute. The middle-aged man said: "Two, I saw two people with extraordinary bearing, obviously they are officials, but how can they be bullied?" ”

As soon as he heard the middle-aged man's words, the young man's eyes immediately turned red, and he was about to speak, but was stopped by the old man. When the middle-aged man saw it, he smiled and said: "It's abrupt in the next place, the surname is Pei, the single name is a degree word, and Hedong Wenxiren's name." ”

Before he finished speaking, the old man's face turned different, but the young man couldn't help it, and asked, "Your Excellency, is the new superintendent of the Imperial Historian Pei Du Pei Zhongzhong?" ”

The middle-aged man hurriedly arched his hand and said: "It's just below, I don't know the two high surnames?" ”

When the old man saw Pei Du asking, he hurriedly bowed his hand and said, "It turned out to be Master Pei Yushi, and I have admired Your Excellency's name for a long time." In Xia Bucai, the surname is Bai Yi Juyi, this is in the next to the handover, the surname Yuan single name is a tree character, a native of Hanoi, Henan, and the current secretary of the provincial school Shulang. "It turns out that these two people are the famous Bai Juyi, Yuan Zhen. Bai Juyi later served as the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, Yuan Zhi also worshipped the prime minister, and Pei Du was the pillar of the Tang Dynasty who worshipped the prime minister three times, and Yuan Zhen's removal was due to Pei Du's impeachment. However, these three people are just petty officials at the moment, and no one knows what will happen in the future.

Pei Du said: "Today to see two talents, it is really a blessing in three lives, since we meet, that is, there is a Cao family old store to the east, the façade is not obvious, but the taste is good, it is better to do the east from the bottom, go to the Cao family old store to talk about the heart, how?" "The old store of the Cao family was still there when Pei Duzhong was a jinshi, and after many years, he still remembers it.

Yuan Zhen was in tatters and didn't want to go, but he was stabbed by Bai Juyi, so he had to agree. Pei Du saw it in his eyes and couldn't help it. So the three of them went to the old store of the Cao family.