Fang Chongyong wants to brew a large number of red lotus springs, high-quality water sources are necessary, and river water with high sediment content is definitely not good, and he can't use the well water in the city. In order to make good sake, it is necessary to introduce a large number of mountain springs, and it is certainly not possible to pick them by manpower, so you can only make "water pipes" from bamboo and connect them to bring water from the top of the mountain into the city.

Whether it's making tea or brewing wine, mountain springs are the first choice.

The people in the city volunteered, some went to the bamboo forest outside the city to cut down the bamboo, and some went to the mountains to survey the terrain and choose the appropriate water diversion route, all of which actively participated.

On this day, in the bamboo forest north of the capital city of Kuizhou, many woodcutters in the city cut bamboo, each as thick as an adult's arm. These people cut off the bamboo, and then opened the center of the bamboo and placed it aside. This bamboo forest has been turned into a huge construction site, and the amount of bamboo required is quite staggering due to the fact that the mountain spring at the top of the mountain is not a small distance from Fucheng.

Zheng Shuqing took Fang Chongyong and Fang Laique to the bamboo forest to check the progress of the project, and they were all very satisfied with it.

"You don't have to go to war to make wine, it's enough to carry water by hand. Why do you suggest that the spring water pipeline should be overhauled to bring the mountain spring into the city? It's all money from the government. ”

Zheng Shuqing asked puzzledly, the "small money" of repairing pipelines has not been seen by this assassin, after all, he has already seen the "big scene" of hundreds of thousands of dollars, but he just feels that there is no need to toss around.

To be honest, his ending next year will either be to enter Chang'an to serve as a branch official in the center, or he will be dismissed and return to his hometown in Xingyang, and it is impossible to continue to stay in Kuizhou as a salted fish.

Zheng Shuqing's days in the capital city of Kuizhou have entered the countdown.

Adhering to the principle that more is better than less, in fact, Zheng Shuqing did not want to repair any water diversion pipelines. There are many troubles and things, and they will not be recorded in the official assessment. To do things for the locality, only "cultural and educational prosperity" will be recorded in the assessment, and no matter how much else you do, it is useless.

It's like you can't write an essay at the end of a math test, and no matter how good you write, you can't get a score!

Although the Tang Dynasty explicitly required every state to establish new schools and recommend scholars for the imperial examination, in fact, the implementation had completely changed its tone and degenerated into a certain degree of formalism.

Take the imperial examination, don't go to rent a house around Chang'an, that is, hemp rope to mention tofu: don't mention it.

Everyone knows that the imperial examination of the Tang Dynasty is not famous, this is a "catfish" made by meat eaters in order to motivate the children of the family. Why do you want to live near Chang'an for the imperial examination, you can only say that you understand it, and you don't need to say it so clearly!

Since they are all appearances, who is this for? Who would really know that a path would not lead to death?

Therefore, in many places outside of Guanzhong, people who have financial and material resources to take the imperial examination do not care much about taking the imperial examination route at all. Not all people in Datang are yearning for the imperial examination, and the atmosphere is like this, which is also related to the narrow way out.

For example, Kuizhou.

Kuizhou is far away from the political center, and the level of natural culture and education will not be high, and there have been no decent scholars in the local area.

The locals are dismissive of the imperial examination, and their eyes are in the square hole in the middle of the money! If there is a way out for working and doing business, then why should I take the imperial examination for Jinshi?

Du Fu has a poem to describe the local folk customs of Kuizhou:

In the gorge, the husband will never die lightly, less in the public gate and more in the water.

The rich have the money to drive the big boats, and the poor give the boats.

Children stop learning and talking, and children end up traveling with business.

In the eyes of the imperial court, Kuizhou is "poor mountains and bad waters", except for money, it is money! Zheng Shuqing also has such worries, and he doesn't want to waste energy to do useless things.

He reluctantly agreed under Fang Chongyong's hard persuasion, which does not mean how high his enthusiasm is.

"Envoy, it doesn't matter if you are in Kuizhou, but it is a big problem for the next Kuizhou assassin."

Fang Chongyong couldn't help but tease Zheng Shuqing, he picked up the half-cut bamboo from the ground, and found that this kind of bamboo was indeed relatively strong. If there were no animals on the mountain (such as tigers), the pipeline would have been useful for a long time.

"Why did I give the next assassin a problem?"

Zheng Shuqing was inexplicably asked by this.

"Because Lord Jun was in office, he looted hundreds of thousands of sages for the saints. Although there is some accident in this, the sage will definitely think that Kuizhou is rich, and he has underestimated this place before, and he must increase his efforts to loot it in the future! Don't talk about fishing in Linze, then at least you have to put a few more nets and open the fishing.

It is conceivable that the next Kuizhou assassin must have a mountain of pressure on his shoulders. When the saint asks him to make more money, he will inevitably use all his strength to do it. In this way, it is hard to imagine whether the people of Kuizhou will live better or more miserable? ”

Fang Chongyong stared at Zheng Shuqing's face with those round eyes and asked rhetorically.

"This ...... It's not something that can be changed. ”

Zheng Shuqing said, not daring to look directly at Fang Chongyong's gaze.

"So, isn't it natural for the envoy to bring such a big disaster to Kuizhou, and to repair the pipeline leading to the mountain spring for the people of Fucheng, so that the people can drink safe water and do a little good deed for the local area?"

Fang Chongyong shouted at Zheng Shuqing.

"Taught."

Zheng Shuqing bowed to Fang Chongyong and saluted solemnly.

At this moment, someone in the crowd exclaimed, "Big worm! There's a big bug! ”

Fang Chongyong was stunned for a moment, and his first reaction was not to be afraid, but to recall what the hell the big worm was.

The ancients called all animals "worms", and those that flew in the sky, walked on the ground, crawled or swam in the water were all called "worms".

Even people are called insects, for example, people who are particularly lazy are called "lazy insects", and people who are particularly lascivious are called "lewd insects".

Tigers are called big worms, snakes are called long worms, and fish are called scale worms. The "big" here means "boss, first", describing the tiger as very powerful. The ancestor of Li Tang was called Li Hu, obviously the Tang Dynasty wanted to avoid this word, and the tiger could not be called a tiger, and the written language was generally called "beast" (there are also poems that directly write about tigers).

Folk, generally call the tiger "big insect".

"Lang Jun retreats, slave to drag the big worm!"

Fang Laique volunteered to step forward with an axe in his hand and stood in front of Fang Chongyong.

Zheng Shuqing, the assassin of Kuizhou, was so frightened that he almost wanted to go first, but he couldn't move.

The woodcutters who cut the bamboos ran while shouting, where could they still take care of Zheng Shuqing and them. With a salary of 800 yuan a month, you can't work anyone.

After all, it was Zheng Shuqing who had not been in Kuizhou for a long time, and they had lost their awe of the ferocity of nature all the time, not to mention Fang Chongyong, who had not even figured out the local roads.

Tigers in many places are afraid of people, but Kuizhou is different. Kuizhou Tiger is a mixed house with his staff, and even directly became a neighbor. Outside the capital city of Kuizhou, tigers are accustomed to the crowd, and there is no fear at all, and it is commonplace for tigers to sneak into the rural houses of Kuizhou.

The local Hermes-Epitek was also a scholar who cut down trees as fences and surrounded the four courtyards as a barrier to prevent tigers.

In Kuizhou, Fucheng and Jiangdi Ferry are one world, and the deep mountains outside Fucheng are another world.

Du Fu has a poem describing the local tiger in Kuizhou suffering from clouds: the gorge is 4,000 miles open, and the water is hundreds of sources. People and tigers live in half of each other, and they hurt each other for the rest of their lives.

"Get out of the way, watch me give it a sliding shovel!"

Fang Chongyong snatched the axe that cut the bamboo from Fang Laique's hand, clenched his hands tightly, and looked straight at the colorful tiger dozens of steps away in the distance! The tiger stared at Fang Chongyong and his group, as if they were calculating which one was more delicious.

After all, a tiger can only eat one person at a time! If you eat someone else, it means that you are safe.

Zheng Shuqing regretted sending Yang Ruoxu to Yangzhou to send taxes, if Lao Yang was here, with the opponent's ability to shoot arrows, it would definitely be difficult to be a tiger hero, but it was not a big problem to force the tiger back.

At this moment, the sound of desolate rhino horns sounded, accompanied by the sound of drums!

More than a dozen wingmen with cardigans on their upper bodies and shorts on their lower bodies pounced on the tiger!

That's right, it's not the tiger that pounces on people, it's people who pounce on tigers!

The tiger slapped a wingman down with one claw, but the man rolled and unloaded the force of the blow. One of the people who was traveling with him, taking advantage of the tiger's distraction, instantly shot out the bow and arrow in his hand, hitting one of the tiger's eyes!

The tiger roared in pain and rolled frantically on the ground!

When it was too late, several men rushed up, one of them held down one part of the tiger and pressed it to the ground, while the rest rushed up and tied the tiger tightly with a rope and divided it by two.

This skill in fighting with the tiger, let alone Fang Chongyong, even Zheng Shuqing was dumbfounded, if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he would never have believed that it was true.

Ordinary people are scared when they see tigers, but these bureaucrats treat tigers like stray dogs. Fang Chongyong's "sliding shovel" was temporarily useless, and he also picked up a life, which can be regarded as a tiger's mouth.

When the bureaucrats saw Fang Chongyong's gang, they naturally didn't know the official robe on Zheng Shuqing's body, and warmly invited them and their group to visit the nearby residence.

Under the enthusiasm, Zheng Shuqing sent an entourage back to report the news, and he led Fang Chongyong and Fang Laique to follow the group of wingmen to their residence.

It was a protruding flat ground on the mountainside, and the small half of it was suspended in the air!

The wingmen used a lot of thick round stakes to hold up a huge "wooden courtyard", and the space at the bottom was about half a person high, and the miscellaneous items and firewood were piled up.

Although the courtyard is small, it is well equipped, not only is there a frighteningly large wooden water tank, which houses many white slender whitebait, but there are also several cormorants with ropes around their necks.

For the wingmen, cormorants, like hunting dogs, are specially trained to catch fish.

After a while, the wingmen brought a kind of ring-shaped cake. It looks like Fang Chongyong's twist flowers in his previous life, and there is caramel boiled by himself on it.

This thing looks like it's not easy to make! Not to mention the wingmen, even if Hermes-Epitek comes to play, it is not often eaten.

"Jia Sixian's Qi Min has a technique to say: the cabinet is steam and wrap seven inches square, boil rice in soy sauce, ginger, orange peel, celery, garlic, salt, finely cut and boil grits, anoint oil coated with hoops, wrap it in a cross, wrap it in grits, and then use grits to usurp it. This ring-shaped cake is the cabinet.

The officials have forgotten that today is the big festival of the bureaucrats, and the tiger is for sacrifice! ”

Zheng Shuqing suddenly realized.

The local bureaucrats of Kuizhou, on October 1 every year, will hold a large-scale sacrifice, which is called "Zichen" by the bureaucrats. On this day, no matter how much grudge there is, we must let go of it and celebrate and sacrifice together.

After listening to Zheng Shuqing talk about these local mundane things, Fang Chongyong suddenly realized: No wonder the people came out to catch tigers during the festival today, no wonder they were invited here to be guests, and the reason is all here.

The wingmen catch the tiger not because the tiger is easy to bully, but because they want to celebrate the festival. Such a complex food cabinet is not made for the sake of appetite, but for the celebration of the holiday. invited Fang Chongyong and his party to come as guests, in addition to Zheng Shuqing's face being big enough, their big festival was also one of the main reasons.

"It's strange that there are no horses in the mountains, and they use a saddle as a wall accessory."

Fang Chongyong couldn't help but sigh and sighed, and took a bite of the cabinet. A strong "local flavor" filled his mouth, and he swallowed it with difficulty, refusing to touch it a second time. On the contrary, Fang Laique ate it with relish, as if any food was delicious in his mouth, and he couldn't refuse.

The bureaucrats are based on large families, barely considered tribes, and a family has more than a dozen men, more women than men. The patriarch came to salute Zheng Shuqing, and led the teenage boy who had just shot a blind tiger with an arrow to Zheng Shuqing, and asked Zheng Shuqing in jerky Chinese if he needed an entourage.

Fang Chongyong and Zheng Shuqing glanced at each other, feeling that this group of people was ambushed here. When people invite you to come to the door, there must be something to ask for, and it will not be untargeted.

Even if the bureaucrats have been self-sufficient in the mountains and forests for a long time, they will inevitably go in and out of Kuizhou Mansion from time to time, otherwise they will not recognize Zheng Shuqing as the assassin of Kuizhou, let alone have the idea of going out of the mountains. Many of the sons and daughters of the bureaucrats followed the merchants passing through Kuizhou to serve as guides or guards, and the information from the outside world may have lagged behind, but it has never been cut off.

"This official is going back to Chang'an, and he will be an official in the central yamen in the future, and he will not need to be guarded."

Zheng Shuqing pondered for a moment and said.

The patriarch's face paled visibly.

"But this one."

Zheng Shuqing pointed at Fang Chongyong and said: "His father is the superintendent of the imperial court, and the official is very big, and he needs someone around him to use it. Do you think this will work......"

Speaking of this, he glanced at Fang Chongyong and motioned for the other party to agree.

Although there are many flaws compared with ordinary Hermes-Epitek, there is also an advantage that no one else can compare: interpersonal relationships are extremely simple!

The merchants here often ask their guards and guides to be their guards, because they are worried that they will not be familiar with the place and will be killed by people with bad intentions! Even if the bureaucrats want to kill people and sell goods, they have no channel to sell the stolen goods! The bureaucratic circle also pays attention to this kind of thing, and deliberately avoids these contradictions.

Fang Chongyong pondered for a moment, and his heart suddenly understood. He has nothing to do now, a half-grown child, and he can really be controlled casually. Fang Lai is brave and brave, loyalty is no problem, but he is really stupid and cute, and he is not useful at critical moments.

Leaving Kuizhou is imminent, and I really need a person with simple interpersonal relationships as a personal guard. This young man can be regarded as having a "life-saving grace", so it is better to take it for his own use.

Fang Chongyong nodded slightly and said, "Follow me in the future, what's your name?" ”

"Duan."

The young man with excellent archery skills said in a deep voice.