A month ago.

Lodu.

Crape Myrtle City.

Early summer, afternoon.

A jujube tree grew next to the side wall of the main hall with the red wall, and its flourishing branches and leaves almost reached into the window.

"Got it—got it—"

The warm water-like sun roasted the brown skin on the branches and chirped.

But it didn't disturb the people by the window at all.

Whoop –

In the center of the table full of desks, on the vacant tabletop, a pile of small wooden sticks of uniform length were scattered.

They are frequently fiddled with by a wrinkled palm on the back of one hand.

There was a loud noise, and the small sticks were moved around.

It didn't look like play, the old withered palm fiddled with them very seriously.

On closer inspection, this pile of small wooden sticks is not messy, and there is a faint implication of regularity.

Next to the pile of small sticks, there is a thick booklet.

The withered palm of the other is holding a slender wolf pen, slowly writing lines of italized characters on a certain page of the thick book.

The regular characters are neat, stroke by stroke, like carving, without spirituality.

On the thick book, the ink that has not yet dried is a dull number:

[Millet, more than 2,357,000 stones],

[Silk, more than 3,719,000 zhang],

[Hemp, 550 ......]

Wait a minute.

The fat old man sat on his knees in front of the desk, bent over and bowing his head, his eyes very close to the album.

Habitually squinting, withered hands to register the books.

It turned out that the pile of small wooden sticks in the fat old man's hand was a pair of chips.

is similar to Ouyang Rong's abacus and abacus in his previous life, but it is more complicated and inconvenient.

The fat old man is settling accounts.

On the desk in front of him, the desks were piled up, and the table was on the inside side, with a burgundy lacquer finish.

The palms and wrists of the old man were polished smooth and oiled, faintly reflective.

This fat old man in an official uniform with squinting eyes and wrinkles seems to be at this window workstation, spring, summer, autumn and winter, boring and settling accounts day after day.

If you look up and look over the towering case, you can see that the fat old man's workstation is actually at the top of the entire hall.

In the hall, in addition to him, there were more than ten officials.

They sit at the back of their desks, focusing on their work.

There are young and strong people who are magnificent, and there are old people who are like deep pools in the twilight, all of them are neat in official uniforms and fish bags.

More than a dozen officials were calm and calm, implying a noble posture.

On the corridor outside the hall, from time to time, there are green-robed officials holding documents and rushing to this hall.

But as soon as they approached the palace gate, they unconsciously bowed their heads slightly, and after entering the hall, they presented official documents to the scarlet-clothed officials.

As a result, it seems that this hall, and the more than ten officials working in the hall, are becoming more and more serious and profound.

However, when the eyes of these scarlet-clad officials fell on the innermost workstation in the hall, with a small green window in the background.

After seeing the figure of the ordinary fat old man who was quietly settling accounts, they all bowed their heads slightly, lowered their eyes, and continued to work with some awe flashing in their eyes.

Speaking of which, this solemn atmosphere of the office hall, in terms of luxurious decoration, in this entire luxurious palace city, is not at all inconspicuous.

Not to mention not far away, the Empress Wei was compared to the Zichen Hall of the early dynasty.

But it's called Zhongshu Province...... No, it's called Fengge.

One of the highest authorities in the Shendu.

On the simple workstation by the window, the fat old man buried himself in the accounts, occasionally covered the book, looked out the window at the green branches, and muttered a little sadly:

"It's going to cost you more......"

Shaking his head, he continued to sit at his desk.

In the chanting of knowing his life, the sun on the branches of the jujube tree gradually slanted westward unconsciously.

"Bell—"

The rhythmic ringing of bells resounded among the crape myrtle complexes.

At the beginning of the first two quarters, the next value time.

In the Fengge Palace, more than a dozen scarlet-clothed officials did not raise their heads, and still bowed their heads to do things.

However, at the workstation by the small window at the top, the fat old man put down his pen and book, immediately got up, left the desk, passed by everyone, and walked out of the main hall.

More than a dozen scarlet-clothed officials exhaled slightly, and then got up one after another, packed up their things, and left the hall.

There was a smile on the face of the scarlet-clad official.

This is the highest official of the Feng Pavilion who is boring and settles accounts every day, and this is good, he never drags the hall and leaves when he arrives.

Even the last time the empress passed by the Feng Pavilion on a whim and entered the palace to condolence and inspect, the fat old man was like this, and His Majesty was not allowed to squeeze everyone's time on duty.

Ziwei City is the main palace of the Great Zhou Dynasty and a symbol of imperial power.

It is located in the northwest corner of Luoyang, the capital of God.

The entire Ziwei City is roughly composed of two main bodies: Ziwei Palace and the Imperial City.

Including Ziwei Palace, it is the residence of the empress and the place where the ruling dynasty is in power.

The imperial city is outside, with five provinces, three central government offices inside, as well as a pavilion to receive foreign guests.

Therefore, there are very few official offices that can be located in the Ziwei Palace and close to the Son of Heaven, and almost all of them are the highest institutions in terms of real power or etiquette.

For example, this Phoenix Pavilion.

The position of the Feng Pavilion is inward, but the fat old man who took the lead in walking out of the Feng Pavilion was the first official to walk to the Yingtian Gate, one of the main gates of the Ziwei Palace, and waited for the door to open and leave the palace.

Everyone was left behind.

However, with the passage of time, a group of old ministers and young officials who were in the core positions of the Great Zhou Dynasty gradually gathered outside the Yingtian Gate and waited for the door to open.

Seeing the familiar figure of the fat old man in front of him, a small half of the officials gathered forward.

Words such as "Master" and "Di Gong" spit out from the mouths of this small group of Zhu Zigongqing.

The fat old man, who was meditating in front of the city gate, turned his head and bowed slightly in return.

The old man who stepped on the next value was the world-famous Prime Minister of the Great Zhou Dynasty, Di Fuzi, the respectful old man in the mouth of the Empress Wei.

The word "Master" is originally a title in Confucianism, and it is one of the highest honors of Confucianism.

It is conceivable that the old man has a lofty position in the hearts of the world's scholars.

The civil officials of the Manchu Dynasty, most of whom were scholars, naturally had many titles of "master", and they were used together with the honorific title of "Di Gong".

Gradually, everyone in the world called it that, but as for Difuzi's real name, no one knew it.

Under the gate of heaven, facing a colleague.

The fat old man smiled.

The conversation was quite humorous.

Shangguan is like this, and the atmosphere is naturally harmonious.

In a few hours, the hour had come, and the forbidden army at the head of the city opened the city gate as usual.

A group of ministers went out one after another.

As soon as they left the city gate, several palace servants who had been waiting for a long time stepped forward, and there was a luxurious sedan chair behind them, and they respectfully bowed their hands:

"Greetings Master, please get on the sedan chair."

Difu shook his head and refused, took the reins handed by the old servant, turned over his horse, and rode away.

The palace servants who accepted the emperor's order had no choice but to carry the empty sedan chair and follow the fat old man riding a horse in front of him back to the mansion.

Around, the ministers who boarded the carriages lifted the curtains, and when they saw this, they seemed to be in the habit, and some of them were envious.

Sitting in a sedan chair is not something that ordinary Zhou courtiers can enjoy, only old ministers who are old and highly respected can sit in a sedan chair to enter the court and leave the court.

It's just that the empress is sympathetic to the arrangement of the elders, and Di Fuzi doesn't seem to be used to it.

Divizi rode out of the city and went home along the street.

Parting with his colleagues, the smile on the fat old man's face on the thin horse had already been retracted, and his eyes were distracted.

He grasped the reins in his hand, his two withered fingers curled slightly, and rhythmically tapped the horse's mane.

From time to time, he muttered.

It's settling accounts again.

This scholar of the world is the pillar of the Baoli faction in his heart, and the famous minister of the Great Zhou who is fighting at the forefront of the resistance to the Wei clan, and his daily life is not impassioned or insidious and cunning, but he does the most boring thing in the world.

Accounts.

The fat old man is calculating the rent and tax of more than 1,000 states and counties in the world, the deficit of the national treasury, and the budget for the coming year.

There are also the willful and extravagant expenses of the Empress Wei and the nobles and princesses of the Great Zhou Dynasty in Luoyang City.

By the way, there are also the handful of qi practitioners who are not used by the imperial court.

In the eyes of the fat old man who was born in Confucianism,

Even if those who are hidden outside the world, these qi practitioners who can walk in the world, Confucianism and other prominent sects in the world are not productive themselves, and they cannot govern the country and the country.

In addition to being on the battlefield, it is just a beautiful pendant for the already fierce and ferocious surrounding army.

Because of various restrictions such as mythology, these Qi practitioners outside Confucianism should have stayed away from the supreme imperial power that was most likely to alienate the Dao Heart, and went to the rivers and lakes to be 'lonely souls and wild ghosts', and life and death were up to the sky.

As a result, he took a shortcut, and for the sake of resource supply, he learned the three sects of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, and entered the WTO under the guise of cultivating his mind.

Her Majesty the Empress and the powerful families such as the Wei Wangfu prefer this kind of "beautiful pendant", or rather, they themselves also invest in this "beautiful pendant".

Eat white rice, and only increase the tragedy of internal friction such as party struggle and power struggle.

But the most helpless thing in this world is:

There are no people who are willing to farm, there are few cooks who cook well, but there are many people who can climb up to the table to eat dry rice, and they still mumble about big fish and meat, and some of them still kick under the table legs after burping.

If you ask Difuzi, what is the prime minister of the Great Zhou?

It's the biggest cook above, and you have to prepare a big family's meal. In the words of a young prefectural magistrate, it is the economy that determines the superstructure.

On the street, the fat old man on horseback looked ahead and was very quiet.

A skinny old servant who followed closely on the side, seeing the silent appearance of his master, was not surprised.

This master, who has been calculating accounts and scratching his white head short, looks like him in the court or in front of the crowd...... Humorous and sharp.

But when you can work or be alone, it's a different look...... Taciturn, cherish words like gold.

To leave the graceful and atmospheric Ziwei Palace, you also need to take the right door to leave the imperial city.

After leaving the imperial city, in the distance directly in front of him was a flowing Luoshui.

If Luoyang City is overlooked, it is almost square.

A Luoshui runs through the central part and divides it into two Lifang districts, Luobei and Luonan.

The Great Zhou Imperial Palace is located in the northwest of Luo.

The royal family nobles lived in the Lifang district in the northeast of Luo.

Luonanli Fang District, separated from them by a Luoshui, is where most ordinary people live and move.

Most of the officials and ministers of the imperial court also lived in the Lifang district of Luonan.

However, most of them are close to Luoshui, because Luoshui has a long bridge, so that they only need to cross a few bridges to directly reach the imperial city and go to the early court.

Difuzi's residence is adjacent to the south bank of Luoshui.

The group crossed Luoshui, and as soon as they arrived at the main street of Dingdingmen, they bumped into a group of fanren envoys in strange costumes.

They seemed to have entered Beijing to pay tribute, looking all the way around, looking at the gorgeous and colorful streets of Luoyang with novel eyes.

The whole city of Luoyang is filled with an open and prosperous atmosphere.

There are Luoyang boys who wear Hu clothes and hats, there are also bold little ladies who wear full-breasted skirts like ladies and women's paintings, and there are Taoist priests and monks who slow down and keep rituals.

There is a saying that the palace is opened in nine days, and all nations are crowned with crowns.

Seeing these high-nosed people who came from nowhere, the people of Luoyang on the street were already surprised.

In the whole Luoyang City, there is no shortage of Hu people, Hu merchants in the West City, Hu Ji in wine shops, and envoys of the feudal state, all of whom are fluent in Chinese, all of which are mixed in the daily livelihood of the people of Luoyang.

There were even quite a few Luo people who threw a sneering glance at these new foreigners like hillbillies.

Difuzi frowned slightly when he saw these foreign worship envoys popping up in the corners of nowhere.

"It costs money to return the gift."

muttered, the fat old man beat the horse away, but the specifications of the empty sedan car following behind him revealed his identity.

On the main street of Dingdingmen, the people and envoys saw the prime minister's sedan car giving way one after another.

"It's Difuzi!"

"At this point, it should be the next dynasty, and the master still doesn't like to ride in a sedan chair......" Youluo people showed off their knowledge to their companions.

Those blonde and blue-eyed foreign envoys didn't know that they had been disgusted by the fat old man, and the officials of the Dali Temple who were receiving them hurriedly pulled the envoys and turned sideways to the side of the road, and they turned their heads to look at the back of the powerful minister of the Heavenly Empire, their eyes full of admiration and admiration.

Difuzi rode back to the mansion of Jishanfang.

This mansion is not large, when it was first restored, the empress was favored and rewarded with a luxurious mansion, but it was in the honorable district in the northeast of Luo.

He didn't go to live, because it was too far away from the imperial city, and it was inconvenient to be on duty to go to court.

And this simple mansion in Jishan Fang is close to the imperial city, and Di Fuzi often lives in this mansion, and he employs few servants, which can be regarded as saving money.

However, the small house also has the disadvantage of a small house, for example, at this moment, people from all over the country who came to visit and deliver the stickers lined up on the street, and the parked carriage almost blocked the street of Jishanfang.

The fat old man was quite experienced, and he whipped his horse, shook off the clumsy sedan chair in the rear, and made a direct detour to enter the house through the back door of the house.

The old butler had long been guarding near the back door, hurriedly stepped forward, and handed over the sorted post:

"Master, today's post, you can see ......"

Divozi turned over and dismounted, led the old man into the stable, squatted down and sprinkled some hay, clapped his hands and walked out of the shed, and took the invitation.

He habitually squinted, swept it, and suddenly pulled out the last one, opened it and looked at it carefully.

The fat old man recursed the rest of the stack to the steward:

"No."

Shaoqing closed the invitation left in his hand and said:

"Take Senior Disciple Xie Xun to the study."

"Yes, sir."

About half an hour later.

A modest study with books piled up on a wooden couch.

With a slight "squeak", the door opened from the inside.

There was a serious young man with a national character face who hurried from Jiangzhou, Jiangnan Province, walked out of the study lightly, closed the door respectfully, and walked away along the corridor.

Inside, under the half-closed windows.

Divizi sat behind an old desk with a book on the foot of a table, and he casually opened the letter sent by Xie Xun and... A picture album.

The album is spread out.

A very familiar, but slightly unfamiliar map of the county came into view.

Div raised an eyebrow.

Familiar, because this is Longcheng County, where he once degraded.

Unfamiliar, because this dragon city is missing something, and there is something more.

The fat old man, who was silent and unsmiling in private, squinted and continued to look.

Oh, he suddenly made a "huh", looked up in the cover, and muttered:

"Can you save money like this?"

The Master showed his face.

PS: This chapter tried the illustration function

(End of chapter)