The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

Long Zhen's face was ugly, and Tang Jiyuan felt a little regretful in his eyes. I have heard for a long time that the imperial guards in the capital are idiots, and all of them are old-fashioned soldiers. Today, I saw that their reputation is well-deserved. According to common sense, two hundred cavalry are as good as ten against short-bladed infantry. The power, let alone some mob bandits.

The bandits in Bagong Mountain killed no more than four or five hundred people. Tang Jiyuan exaggerated that there were thousands of people. His purpose was to make Long Zhen fight timidly when he encountered bandits. The food was robbed smoothly; but looking at the dragon's real appearance, it seems that what I said frightened him a lot. If he was too timid to transport the food out of the city, wouldn't it be wise to be misled by his cleverness? Did some calculations come to nothing?

Thinking of this, Tang Jiyuan hurriedly remedied: "However, there is no need to worry about Commander Long. After several rounds of encirclement and suppression, the strength of the bandits has been greatly reduced, and the number of bandits has also decreased a lot. As long as they don't arouse their viciousness, two hundred cavalry are more than enough to deal with them .”

Long Zhen felt his gaffe, and he was afraid, but he had to keep it in his heart, and he had to act like a hero no matter what, he said with a straight chest, "What am I worried about? Can some bandits compare to my elite men?"

Tang Jiyuan thought: Your soldiers are good at playing with women. After the banquet, they all went to brothels to invite prostitutes. Several brothels were ruined by these forbidden soldiers, and they even beat up several piao customers. If it weren't for the magistrate The adults mediate from it, and they have long refused to give up.

"Commander Long is so proud, and all his brothers are carefully selected. Of course, there is nothing to worry about. The old man said something wrong, and he should be fined a glass." Tang Jiyuan picked up the wine glass and poured it into his stomach. The bachelor was in a mess.

Long Zhen said: "President Tang is thinking of me, I am very grateful, you are right to remind me, we brothers should be careful when we are on business, but this bandit is on Bagong Mountain, the official road is hundreds of miles away from Bagong Mountain Do they have the guts to come here? I don’t think they will.”

Tang Jiyuan laughed and said, "That's right, that's right, not to mention that the ground is covered with ice and snow, and the road is difficult. They wouldn't dare to borrow their courage."

Long Zhen said: "It turns out that the car dealers are afraid of this, so it's no wonder they don't want to."

The owners of the car dealers sitting in the Tang Dynasty stretched out their hands and said: "Because of this, I specially invited a few of you here today, so that the owners of the car dealers can see the demeanor of Commander Long and dispel their worries. Several clubs have already fallen to the ground with a stone."

Several car dealers cupped their hands and said: "There is a dragon commanding these people to sit in the town, and there are two hundred elite soldiers under his command. The bandits are so courageous that they dare not come to harass them. I will worry too much."

Tang Jiyuan laughed and said: "It's okay for a few of you, so today I will ask you on behalf of Commander Long, are you willing to hire the carts in the car dealership to Commander Long to transport grain? Commander Long's price here is not worth it. Besides, it’s an errand for the court, once it’s done, Commander Long will be promoted and get rich thanks to you guys, right?”

The car dealers all laughed and said: "How dare you ask Commander Long to thank us, this car is naturally hired to transport food to the officials, the price will be according to the market price, and the rest will be bought by Commander Long to show that we are waiting for you." My respect, tomorrow morning the [-] large vehicles of our four major dealers will be dispatched by Long."

Long Zhen stared dumbfounded at the fact that Tang Jiyuan had hired the cart himself. In fact, he was still struggling with the bandit issue, and planned to go back and discuss it with his brothers. Everyone wants to die, to desperately, that is absolutely not willing.

However, the matter has come to this point, and the carts delivered to the door have to be abandoned, so he bowed his hands to express his gratitude. Tang Jiyuan was too enthusiastic, and at the meeting he decided to hand over the two hundred carts from the chamber of commerce to Long Zhen for free. Hundreds of vehicles, a total of 50 carts, and [-] shi of grain can basically be transported away, even if it is almost, it is not much worse.

At this time, I was still worried about not having a car to transport food, but suddenly, I had the worry of happiness again, the food can be transported, what if I encounter bandits?

Worrying about death without a car, afraid of being blamed for being incompetent, and having a car is also entangled, fearing that bandits will steal food and kill him, Long Zhen then feels restless, chewing on the table full of good food is like chewing wax, this meal The second half of the meal was tasteless.

After the banquet, Long Zhen unexpectedly rejected the romantic program arranged by the chamber of commerce, hurriedly said goodbye and went back to the barracks.

……

On the afternoon of the second day of November, Su Jin brought Wang Chao Mahan and Song Xiang's official document to Yangzhou Guancang, which is located on the shore of Baoyang Lake in the north of Yangzhou City. Guancang chose this place because Baoyang Lake is directly connected to the canal. , near the wharf, convenient for transportation, and at the same time, this place is also the barracks of the Yangzhou Xiang Army. Because of this, when there were several riots in Yangzhou, the mobs did not dare to approach the official warehouse.

Due to the tense situation in the city, 100 Yangzhou Xiang troops were sent to various places in the city to enforce the ban. The troops who stayed behind in the granary were under one command. One command governed the five capitals, each with 500 people, a total of [-] people; a small Guancang faction Five hundred soldiers were sent to sit in the town, which shows how much Song Xiang attaches importance to the granary.

Pan Jiang, the commander of the Granary Chamber Army, was a short, capable man in his forties. After Su Jin made himself known, he showed a cautious respect.

After carefully inspecting the prefect’s official documents brought by Su Jin, Pan Jiang cupped his hands and said to Su Jin who was watching the snow scene: “Master Special Envoy, this is military rations, and the prefect has given strict orders not to move it no matter what.” Why did you make such a decision this time, even if you don’t have any rations?”

Su Jin turned around and stared at him and said, "Commander Pan, is it necessary for me to explain to you? The prefect's official document is here, and you can just follow orders."

Pan Jiang was a little embarrassed, but he still didn't give up. He came up to make amends and laughed: "Master Special Envoy to appease the anger, the lowly position is not to blame, but it is a big deal to open a warehouse with military rations. Why don't you come?"

Su Jin suddenly became violent, and slapped Pan Jiang's eyes with a backhand slap, and cursed angrily: "Presumptuous!"

Pan Jiang was beaten into a daze, pointed at Su Jin and said, "You..."

Seeing that the leader was being beaten, the soldiers under him clamored and stepped forward. Wang Chao Ma Han leaned forward like an iron tower, concentrating on preparing to strike.

Then I heard Su Jin say: "You are the one who is short-sighted. Who is this envoy? It is the special envoy of grain affairs appointed by the emperor himself. Do you hear me clearly? The title of this official position has already explained everything. All matters are decided by me, and it is superfluous to ask your magistrate to open a warehouse, but I didn't expect a small commander like you to come and talk nonsense, I just ask you, are you going to disobey?"

Pan Jiang covered his mouth, his seven orifices were filled with smoke, but he really didn't understand Su Jin's details, and rolled his eyes hesitantly.

Su Jin pointed to his nose and said: "Okay, okay, I didn't expect the special envoy appointed by the imperial court to be obstructed by a small commander of the Xiang army. Anyway, this envoy left Yangzhou and returned to Beijing. The matter is reported to Your Majesty Ming, not only you, a little commander, but even your magistrate will also participate; it is truly a miracle that the Yangzhou government has such subordinates."

Su Jin waved his hand, turned around with Chao Mahan and left, Pan Jiang didn't say a word, panting and watched Su Jin and the other three walk towards the gate of the Guancang courtyard. After many steps, I didn't see Pan Jiang make a sound, and I thought to myself: Don't be self-defeating, if this Pan Jiang doesn't like himself, it will be a joke.

Seeing that he was about to walk out of the gate of the official warehouse, Su Jin's heart became colder and colder. He secretly cursed himself for acting. When there was snow outside the gate of the upper courtyard, Su Jin was already desperate, and this matter was completely screwed up.

For the current plan, he had to leave Yangzhou immediately. Once the official documents were exposed, Song Xiang would definitely join him, but where could he go?Some calculations turned out to be her own shackles, and Su Jin was so depressed that she almost cried.

"Master, please stop!" Pan Jiang's voice came from behind like the melody of nature.

Su Jin was so excited that he almost sat down on the ground, stopped, but did not turn around, trying to suppress his excitement.

With rustling footsteps behind him, Pan Jiang trotted behind Su Jin, knelt down on the tunnel with a 'puff' and said, "Humble post and rudeness, please forgive me, the granary has been opened, please inspect the grain."

Su Jin turned around, snorted and said, "That's right, I thought you were really stupid enough to disobey orders, get up, I'm not a grudge."

Pan Jiang hurriedly thanked him and stood up, his palm prints on his face, but his expression was relieved. Su Jin knew that he was hesitant just like himself; Act so as not to cause complications.

Su Jin ignored him, strode back to the official warehouse, and plunged in.