It was noon, but the streets in Nanyang City were empty, and every house had their doors and windows closed. Pen ~ fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info a breeze blows, a few yellow rotten leaves mixed with stones swirling on the ground, the whole city from the inside to the outside exudes a desolation and gloom.

The streets of the market, which should have been bustling, have now become desolate, and the wide ground is full of messy things, and the entire Nanyang City seems to have experienced a great catastrophe.

"The harsh government is fiercer than the tiger..."Gao Yuan stood at the intersection, looking at the scene of broken worship in front of him, and couldn't help sighing.

Since the new emperor changed the name of the year to Tianfeng, in the past eight years, all kinds of messy laws and regulations have come to the face, all the things in the previous dynasty have been invalidated, even the five plants that have been used for two hundred years have to be recycled and melted down, and the new currency has a wide variety, and even the shells picked up by the water have to be taken out as money to spend, and the market is chaotic.

However, at this time, there was a disaster year in succession, and the entire Jianghuai region had no harvest, and the squires and landlords in various places relied on their power to seize the land of the common people as their own.

Running around, digging wild vegetables, peeling bark, chewing grass roots. All that is sought is to be able to continue to live. But for the victims who have nothing, even such basic demands are just extravagant expectations.

People in despair can only eat each other, and on the way to escape the famine, the plateau has seen the tragedy of eating too many children. It can only be said that it is already a very happy thing to be able to live humbly.

He struggled all the way here, and all he wanted was to get enough food and clothing, but according to what he saw and heard in the city, the situation here was not necessarily better than the camp outside the city.

It's all the same, lack of food.

"What's next? Is it true that you want to sell yourself as a slave?"

He took out a few water chestnuts from his coat and took a hard bite, chewing for a long time before swallowing them.

These water chestnuts were dug in the ditch by the side of the road last time, and he quietly hid them in the blanket of his clothes in case of emergency, which is also the reason why he dared to act alone from the ranks of the homeless.

But I didn't expect Nanyang to be dilapidated like this, which made Gao Yuan's next plans all come to naught.

Now it's okay, if you can't find anything to eat, maybe you'll starve to death on the streets tomorrow. I knew that I would go to Lulin Mountain with Wang Kuang, anyway, sooner or later I would die, and being a thief was stabbed to death was better than starving to death on the street, right?

Just as he was annoyed, there seemed to be some sound around the corner not far ahead.

He dragged his already swollen legs and slowly moved them over curiously, step by step.

At the corner of the intersection, a high wall stood in front of a solemn building, and there were several circles of people inside and outside in front of the high wall, and they were all desperately squeezing forward, as if the wall in front of them was covered with gold.

"I said why there is no one on the street, so they all came here!" Gao Yuan suddenly realized.

He saw that the people in front of him were discussing fiercely, and he also leaned in curiously, pulled a man next to him and asked, "Dare to ask this brother, why are so many people gathered here?"

The man turned around and saw Gao Yuan dressed in tatters, frowned slightly, and responded angrily: "There is a notice of the Taishou Mansion posted on the wall in front, go and see for yourself."

Gao Yuan listened to the man's words, and his spirit was suddenly shocked. He hurriedly thanked him and began to squeeze into the crowd and move forward.

For Wang Mang's new dynasty, he only knows the general history, and he doesn't know anything about the specific time, place, people, etc., and the official announcement is an excellent opportunity to understand the general environment of this era and prepare for his next move.

He desperately burrowed into the crowd like a slippery loach, and the people around him avoided him for fear of the strange smell on him, which made him effortlessly squeeze in front of the notice.

The yellowed notices were neatly placed in front of him, and after roughly browsing them from top to bottom, Gao Yuan's heart suddenly became cold, because he couldn't read any of the words on them.

During the New Dynasty, the official documents were generally used in the Zuoshu, that is, the official book of the Western Han Dynasty. As a young man who uses simplified Chinese characters from elementary school to university, there seems to be no difference between Han Li and oracle bone inscriptions, and they can't understand them anyway.

Maybe Hanli will be a little better, and some words can roughly guess the meaning by looking at the glyphs. After reading the whole notice, Gao Yuan can only half-understand.

"Looks like I'm looking for something.....

Fortunately, most people in this era are illiterate, and for the notices issued by the government, they basically have some literacy and hyphenation to read to everyone.

Just as Gao Yuan was agonizing over the cruel fact that he was illiterate, someone finally stood up.

After a while, a person came out on the left hand side of the plateau, he was wearing a plain green Hanfu, with a clog on his feet, and a pendant hanging from his waist.

"Zhou Xiucai is here! Big guy, let go. ”

"Zhou Xiucai, hurry up and read it to us, what is written on this list?"

"yes, yes, tell everyone!"

Gao Yuan saw that everyone around him was saying this, and suddenly a few drops of cold sweat dripped from his forehead.

So many people are illiterate! So you're still squeezing into it?

He secretly scolded a few words in his heart, and turned his head to look at the figure known as Zhou Xiucai.

The system of selecting officials in the Han Dynasty was called the inspection system, which was divided into four categories, and the selection of Xiucai was one of them.

Generally speaking, people who can be called Xiucai are people with a certain level of education, and such people are naturally much better than ordinary Qianshou people. Only those famous families and local tyrants and squires have the capital to educate their children.

This Zhou Xiucai was also born in a large family in Nanyang, his father was Gongcao of Nanyang County, and in the first two years of Emperor Xiaoping of the previous dynasty, he was seized of his official position because he was framed for criticizing the government and was demoted to a commoner. This week, Xiucai has been not hired as a Xiucai.

He is also good, open-minded by nature, kind, and able to read and write, so he is also famous in this Nanyang City.

"Then thanks to your lifting, I will be ugly little brother." Zhou Xiucai said as he arched his hands at everyone.

He cleared his throat with a little smugness, squinted his eyes, looked at the message on the notice, and read word by word:

"Therefore, the new emperor Longtai bathed in the grace of heaven. Now there will be strange fruits born, born in the mortal world and above the fairyland. The stem is like artemisia, the leaves are like wormwood, the flowers are like pomegranates, the real round color is red, and the immortals call it tomato. If you have it, you can dedicate it to the Taishou Mansion, and you can get ten pieces of rice and fifty gold. If you have heard of it, you will be rewarded with ten buckets of rice and twenty gold. ”

"It is hereby declared that everyone should abide by it!"

After reading it in one breath, Zhou Xiucai seemed to be shocked by the news in the notice, and he sighed for a long time before he sighed and said to everyone: "What is this tomato?" How is it so precious? Isn't it really a treasure of the fairy family?"

After listening to Zhou Xiucai's reading, the people below probably knew the meaning of the proclamation, and they gasped when they heard that they had been rewarded with so much money after finding this kind of treasure.

"This.... This..... Zhou Xiucai, is what this notice says true? If I found this fruit, would I really be given so much money?"

"Nonsense, of course it's true! Didn't you see that this was a notice posted by the Taishou Mansion? A man next to him retorted.

"Zhou Xiucai, you read a lot, do you know where this fairy fruit is?"

"Come on, if they knew, they would tell you?"

"Zhou Xiucai, Zhou Xiucai......."

As soon as the proclamation came out, everyone immediately boiled. All of you here are ordinary people, who has ever seen so much money? Not to mention that there are ten chewing grains. That's a hundred buckets of corn! It's enough for a family of three to eat for several months.

In these days, grain is the real hard currency.

Just as everyone was excited, Gao Yuan fell into deep thought.

He lowered his head, not wanting others to see his shocked expression at the moment.

"Tomatoes? Did the Han Dynasty also have tomatoes? ”

Others don't know what a tomato is, and even think it's a fairy fruit. Of course, he, the traverser, knew about tomatoes.

"But if I'm not mistaken, tomatoes seem to have only been introduced to China during the Ming Dynasty, right? So what's the matter with someone here who is still looking for tomatoes? Don't..... This is also a traverser?"

The idea immediately took over his brain. Suddenly, the excitement began to spread throughout his body from the nerve center, and Gao Yuan felt his legs tremble.

He couldn't wait to fly to the Taishou Mansion immediately and ask the person who made the notice, when did you cross over.

This spiritual loneliness and despair haunted him since he woke up, like a parched land in need of a spring of water, and he longed to find a true kind of person.

At this time, I don't know who said that they wanted to find the fairy fruit on the notice, and everyone was afraid that they would be taken first by others if they walked slowly, so they all left this place one after another and rushed to the place where they thought they might have fairy fruits.

It didn't take long for only Gao Yuan and Zhou Xiucai to be left on the side of the bulletin wall.

"Brother Tai, why don't you go with them to look for that immortal fruit?" Zhou Xiucai saw that there was still a person next to him who did not leave, and immediately asked curiously.

Zhou Xiucai's question interrupted his thoughts, and as soon as the idea of looking for his own kind came out, he could no longer suppress it, he eagerly pulled Zhou Xiucai and said, "Brother Tai, dare to ask where this Taishou Mansion is?" Can you take me on a walk?"

"Oh? Could it be that you have that fairy fruit?"

"Where, it's just that my little brother once ate a fruit when I was young, and it looks quite like the one described in the article, so I want to go to Taishou Mansion to try my luck."

Gao Yuan still understands the truth that wealth is not exposed, and he half-concealed it to Zhou Xiucai. As for whether the other party believes it or not, it is not within the scope of his consideration.

Zhou Xiucai has been reading for so many years, and he is not a fool. He naturally knew that what Gao Yuan said was quite untrue, but he didn't break it either.

When he heard that Gao Yuan seemed to know the whereabouts of the fairy fruit, his eyes rolled, and he was a little cautious in his heart.

He pointed out very enthusiastically: "My Guanbrothertai is standing tall and eclectic, this is the first time to come to Nanyang, right?" You must not know the way, come, it just so happens that I have nothing to do today, little brother, why don't you let me take you there! ”

Gao Yuan also happily pushed the boat down the river and said: "Okay, then I will be disrespectful to that little brother." Brother, please. ”

"Please."

In this way, the two of them rushed to the Taishou Mansion in the south of the city with ghosts in their hearts.

"Stop! Who are you? Register your name. The two halberd guards who were napping noticed that someone was coming, and immediately straightened up, forked the halberds, and shouted loudly.

Zhou Xiucai saw the stubborn guards, and suddenly like a mouse seeing a cat, he was frightened and hurriedly bowed and bowed to the two guards, and kept begging for mercy: "Slow and slow, lords, your subordinates are merciful, your subordinates are merciful."

He steadied a little and continued to speak: "This military master, we are here to offer immortal fruits. I'm sorry to let you know. ”

"Immortal fruit? Oh, I see, which of you is so lucky? The guard glanced at Zhou Xiucai with a little envy, this is a hundred quintals of rice and fifty gold, which is enough for him to be at ease for a lifetime.

"Wait here, let me go in and say something." With that, he turned around and entered the gate of the Taishou Mansion.

After a while, the guard came out again, and he said to Zhou Xiucai: "Taishou wants to see you, come with me."

Gao Yuan and Zhou Xiucai looked at each other and smiled, and hurriedly followed the footsteps of the guard.

At this moment, Gao Yuan's heart was full of contradictions, he was both excited and worried, excited that he would soon be able to meet the same kind of person who was suspected of being a traverser, and judging from the fact that he could ask the Taishou Mansion to issue a notice, it showed that this traverser was still a bit powerful, and he could just go to seek his help.

I am worried that this trip is too hasty, and the blessings and disasters are unpredictable. In case the other party has malicious intentions, isn't he just a sheep in the mouth of a tiger and a self-imposed snare?

Thinking of this, Gao Yuan suddenly hesitated a little.

"Brother, what are you thinking? I can't be stunned when I see Taishou later. Zhou Xiucai reminded on the side.

Gao Yuan hurriedly responded: "Yes, brother, please rest assured, the little brother is measured."

As he spoke, he hurriedly tidied up his tattered long clothes and kept up with them.

He raised his head and looked at the solemn Taishou Mansion in front of him, and there was a trace of hope for the future in his heart.

Tomato....... Will you be another traverser?