On this day, I heard from a kind old jailer that Zuo Guangdou was being held in Dongchang Prison, so I went alone. This Dongchang prison is full of high walls and deep courtyards, with only one entrance and exit portal, and a jailer on each side is guarded with a knife, and there must be a waist card to enter and exit. There is a knife-wielding jailer patrolling every three zhang road on the outer wall to prevent people from flying in and out of the wall, and the security is extremely tight. Generally, passers-by can only be farsighted and cannot approach. I had barely gotten a few feet from the portal when I was stopped by the jailer. I retreated to a stone wall, thinking that if I broke in, I would definitely alarm many jailers, and it would be difficult for me to get out of the encirclement, and I would not be able to save Zuo Guangdou, but would suffer from it.

At this time, a dung digger walked out of Dongchang Prison with a dung basket on his back, and I saw that the dung digger, although his appearance was not good, and his body was short, but his eyes were like electricity, and he was aggressive, which made people dare not face it.

When he saw me coming, he lowered his voice and shouted:

"Who are you, and why are you blocking my way?

I say:

"You don't have to be afraid, I see that you are the prison dung digger, I must know where Lord Zuo Guangdou is? To tell you the truth, I want to save him. ”

When the dung digger heard this, he seemed to touch his heart, and he grabbed me and said:

"This is not the place to talk, come with me!"

When I arrived at a simple house, and sat down, the dung digger asked me:

"Little brother, what is your surname, where is your family, why do you want to save Zuo Guangdou?"

I told my life experience and the details of escorting Zuo Guangdou into Beijing one by one, and said:

"If I can't save Brother Zuo, I won't be able to explain when I go back!"

"I see!" the dung digger sighed and tearfully recounted his teacher-student friendship with Zuo Guangdou.

It turns out that the surname of this dung digger is history, the name is lawful, and the people of Daxing Xiangfu are good. There is only an old mother in the family, and poverty is like washing. A few years ago, in order to participate in the township examination, I came to Beijing to study. Unable to rent a house, he took refuge in a mountain temple outside the West Gate. One day it snowed heavily, and Shi Kefa was writing at the desk, and he was extremely sleepy, so he fell asleep. When he woke up, he saw a mink coat on his body, warm as spring, so strange, and when he was puzzled, the old monk in the temple said to him with a smile: "Hou Sheng, you have met a nobleman, and there are ten taels of silver!" Shi Kefa hurriedly asked the old monk about the origin, and the old monk did not know the name of the nobleman. It turned out that Zuo Guangdou was a scholar at the time, and he and a few entourages braved the snow to inspect, because the wind and snow were too fierce, he entered the mountain temple to take refuge, and saw Shi Kefa asleep at the desk, his clothes were thin and worn, and the ink in the inkstone was frozen. After Zuo Guangdou picked up the article and read it, he was secretly surprised, applauded, and took off his mink cloak to cover him, and asked the old monk for Shi Kefa's name, and before leaving, Zuo Guangdou closed the door. In that township test, the grandmaster was Zuo Guangdou. When reading the papers, Zuo Guangdou called out Shi Kefa's name, then lifted the red pen and signed "first" on it. After reading the papers, Zuo Guangdou invited Shi Kefa to his home, and said to Shi Kefa with a smile: "It's not in vain that my mink coat, and the article has grown more and more." At this time, Shi Kefa realized that the person who gave the clothes and silver was Zuo Guangdou. Shi Kefa wanted to worship, but Zuo Guangdou hurriedly supported him and said: "Don't thank me, serving the country more in the future will be a reward for me." And pointed to Shi Kefa and said to his wife Zhou: "My sons are mediocre, and those who can inherit my will in the future will be the ear of this life!" and then instructed Zhou to let Shi Kefa live in his own house, arrange and take care of all food and clothing, and treat him better than his own son. Three years later, after winning the Jinshi, Zuo Guangdou recommended to go to Xi'an Mansion to get an errand, and last year he was transferred to the capital and served as the head of the household department.

When I was in Tongcheng Jiaotang, I heard the name Shi Kefa from Zuo Guangxian and them, but I didn't know the end. Now after listening to Shi Kefa's words, he was in awe, apologized and said:

"I really don't know Mount Tai, and I hope Brother Shi will forgive me. ”

Shi Kefa burst into tears and laughed:

"Haha, little brother, in terms of seniority, you are still a head above me, but we are destined, so we are called brothers. ”

Let's say that Zuo Guangdou was sent to Dongchang Prison, and at the behest of Ruan Dayue, Xu Xianchun gave Zuo Guangdou a dismount, and after a beating, he fainted. The next day he woke up and was burned again. The skin was charred and unrecognizable, almost half of the flesh below the knee of both legs had fallen off, bones were visible in some places, and the left knee had been shattered. The back and two ribs were ulcerated in many places, and the lower end of the chest had revealed Bai Sensen's ribs. The face was also scorched, the eye sockets were swollen, and the blood sludge was sticky, and there was a thick blood scab that could not be opened. He lay on a pile of rotten grass in his cell, unable to move, in great pain, but conscious. The person he thought about the most was Shi Kefa. He wants to repeat what he said in the past face to face and mouth to mouth: "Only when literature can be lawful, people can be lawful, and Shi Kefa will be able to do so!" He believes that Shi Kefa is young and promising, and he will become a pillar of the Ming Dynasty in the future, so he often uses that sentence to encourage him. But he was afraid of seeing Kefa at the moment, he knew that Kefa was persistent and emotional, and he was desperate to come to visit and incur involvement. In the midst of his suffering, he heard someone call out in a low voice: "Teacher, teacher." He could hear it clearly, it was Shi Kefa's voice! He felt a shudder, could he really come, a fear and a bad omen came over him, and he fainted again.

It turned out that Shi Kefa learned that Zuo Guangdou had entered Dongchang Prison, and he was so anxious that he went around at home. He inquired in many ways, how to get into prison, and there was only one answer: Dongchang Prison was set up privately by Wei Zhongxian, and it was managed by Xu Xianchun, and it was strictly forbidden for the living to enter the prison. Shi Kefa has made up his mind to visit the prison even if he is killed.

This afternoon, he came to the side of Dongchang Prison with fifty taels of silver in his arms, and wandered from afar. Seeing that the gate of the prison was well guarded, everyone who entered and exited had to check their waist cards one by one. He caught a glimpse of a man walking into the prison. The man was dressed in ordinary clothes, wearing a black casual clothes, an old curly felt hat, and carrying a big dung basket on his back, and his eyes suddenly lit up: "There you have it!" He walked to the side and waited patiently. About two hours later, the man came out with a heavy basket on his back. Shi Kefa followed. The dung digger turned a street, entered a narrow alley, stopped in front of a low, dilapidated house, put down the dung basket, and pulled out the key to open the door.

Shi Kefa followed up in the house, and Shi Li said:

"There is something to ask for, please give it a convenient time. ”

The dung digger said:

"Guest officer, what you laughed at, I am a dung digger, what do you want me to do?"

Shi Kefa said:

"My father was imprisoned in Dongchang Prison, and I wanted to see him, so I asked my brother to borrow my coat, hat, waist tag and dung basket and dung shovel. ”

The dung digger was shocked, waved his hand again and again, and said:

"I can't do it, I can't help it, it's going to lose my head. ”

Shi Kefa saw that the dung digger refused, so he lowered his face and said:

"I won't teach you to take your life in vain, I have fifty taels of silver to find a place far away from the capital and do some small business, no better than digging dung in prison!"

When the dung digger saw the bag of silver thrown on the kang, his eyes were shining, and his face was happy, and he said:

"In that case, you have to be very careful, you really want to cut off your head. ”

Seeing that the dung digger agreed, Shi Kefa asked some questions about the situation in prison, and said:

"Do you know Lord Zuo Guangdou?"

Humane excavation:

"But what about Lord Zuo?"

Shi Kefa said:

"It's my father. ”

The dung digger sighed and said:

"It's miserable, I was burned by a cannon, and I don't have a piece of good skin and meat. You go in, straight in, face the last row of houses, and the innermost room on the right. ”

Shi Kefa put on the clothes of a dung digger, put on a felt hat, took a waist card, carried a dung basket on his back, carried a dung shovel, and walked straight towards Dongchang Prison.

It went well, entered the middle gate, and walked straight to the inner row. A jailer was sitting on a stone bench and was napping, and when he heard someone moving, he jumped up and rushed at him with a knife. Shi Kefa threw away the dung basket, pinched the wrist of the jailer holding the knife with one hand, covered the jailer's mouth with the other and said, "Don't make a sound, or I will kill you!" Shi Kefa's hand was amazing, the jailer couldn't resist at all, Shi Kefa stuffed a piece of silver to the jailer and said, "Open the prison door!" The jailer took the money and opened the prison door tremblingly.

Shi Kefa entered the cell, only to see a pile of black things close to the left side of the cell door, and when he walked up to him, he saw that it was a human figure, with blurred flesh and blood, and his face was unrecognizable. Shi Kefa knelt down and stroked it gently with his hand, and as far as his fingers could reach, there were hard snow scabs. There was not a single piece of good skin on his body, and his ribs and leg bones below the knees were exposed. Shi Kefa didn't believe that this was a teacher, and carefully discerned that the contours were clear and what a teacher looked like. couldn't help but mourn and choked up, and lowered his voice and called: "Teacher, teacher!" I didn't agree, knowing that my teacher was still fainting. Seeing that his teacher's clothes were all torn, he took off his underwear, but he couldn't put it on for his teacher.

Zuo Guangdou gradually woke up, and when he heard Shi Kefa's voice, he got anxious, you are so confused! What kind of place is this? Judging from his heart, he didn't want to see Shi Kefa, and Shi Kefa went deep into the tiger's den to venture to visit him, which shows his deep affection. Besides, if you are in prison like this, will you be able to get out of prison alive? If you die in prison, this will be the last time. He had a thousand words in his heart, but how could he come into this Dongchang Prison! He was so angry when he saw that Shi Kefa was thinking about the country and society and risking his life for personal reasons. He wanted to drive away Shi Kefa, so he used all his strength, leaned on, and violently tore the blood scabs on his eyes with his right hand, his eyes were like electricity, he glared at Shi Kefa angrily, and shouted:

"Mediocrity! The country has reached such a point, you don't want to serve the country, you don't want to serve the country, you don't want to be righteous and favoritism, but you come here to die, don't leave quickly!"

Shi Kefa was so happy when he heard his teacher speak, but he insisted on leaving quickly, obviously worried that he would be implicated, so his heart was hot, and he shouted "Teacher!" and fell to the ground crying. The jailer outside the door was anxious and coughed, suggesting that Shi Kefa was quieter, and urged him to come out quickly. Zuo Guangdou saw that Shi Kefa was crying and didn't leave, and he was even more anxious, so he lifted the flail beside him, glared at Shi Kefa angrily, and shouted: "Yongcai, don't leave quickly! If you don't wait for Wei Zhongxian to kill you, I will use this flail to kill you." ”

Seeing that his teacher was angry, Shi Kefa had no choice but to leave and retreat to the door step by step. As soon as I arrived at the door, I only heard Zuo Guangdou calling: "Kefa, come back." ”

Shi Kefa hurriedly came and knelt in front of his teacher.

Zuo Guangdou stroked Shi Kefa's cheek with his disabled hand, and said affectionately:

"I have come here, I am afraid that I will not be able to see the light of day again, you must be cautious everywhere, so that you can do it yourself, serve the country loyally, and help the court. Think about the future in the long run, don't be as impatient as I am. Remember!

After pausing to take a breath, he added:

"To prevent Ruan Dayue or Wei Zhongxian, don't take it lightly!"

then pushed Shi Kefa hard, urging him to leave quickly.

When I heard this, tears had blurred my eyes, and I said to Shi Kefa: "Brother Shi, the younger brother is a rough man in the mountains, even if he kills Ruan Dayue and avenges Brother Zuo, he can't uphold Brother Zuo's ambition, and you are the designated successor of Brother Zuo, and the younger brother is willing to work for you and contribute to this country!"

Shi Kefa was reluctant at first, but he couldn't bear my pleading, and finally agreed.