The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

With horses instead of walking, the distance between the south gate and Feishuihe wharf can be reached within one stick of incense. {.

The horse team rushed to the embankment along the slope, Su Jin looked at the river below the pier, and immediately cursed.

On the wide pier, a small boat has left the pier and reached a place four or five miles downstream. There are a few figures on the boat, who seem to be Zhu Shiyong and others; Very quickly, the boat took advantage of the flowing water and went straight downstream.

"Damn, this guy really ran away, what should I do?" Everyone also cursed and patted the horse's neck angrily.

Su Jin gritted his teeth and said: "If you escape to the sky, you will be caught. He has a boat, so let's board the boat and chase after him. Let's go to the pier to find a boat."

A large group of people rushed down the embankment and came to the pier. There were more than ten large houses built on the pier. They were originally used to let the boatmen and the wharf porters rest. Of course, when it rained and snowed, they were also used temporarily Stack the goods.

Dozens of carts were parked on the pier outside the house. Dozens of idlers were leaning against the wall to bask in the sun. Suddenly, they heard the sound of horseshoes. , at a loss.

"Is the owner of the dock here?" A young man with torn clothes and bloody face rode forward and asked sharply.

Everyone wondered for a while, this guy seemed to be the leader, but why he was dressed in such shabby clothes was really incomprehensible.

Su Jin looked at the people's stupid gestures, anxious in his heart, raised his horsewhip and lashed the ground violently, sending the dust flying all over the sky, and shouted: "I'm asking you something."

A short, fat, middle-aged accountant ran out of the house, hurriedly stepped forward and cupped his hands and said: "This military lord is very polite, my master usually doesn't stay on the pier, the villain is in charge of the pier, what do you need?" , might as well tell the villain and see if the villain can help."

Su Jin snorted, pointed at the small boat going down the river with his horsewhip and asked, "Did you let go of this boat?"

The manager cupped his hands and said, "Yes, I just hired him. <.. ..>"

Su Jin yelled: "Are you guilty? Those who escaped on the boat were major rebels. We came to chase them, but you let them go. Quickly find us a big boat. We need to board the boat and pursue them." .”

The steward was taken aback for a moment, and said hesitantly: "Master, it's hard to find ships now. There have been no ships arriving at the port for several months, and all the ships that were moored here have gone to other places to find work. The ship just now was delivered in the morning. The guests came, and happened to be returning to bring people down to Jiangling."

Su Jin's heart felt cold, could it be God's will?Zhu Shiyong deserves to be lucky, can't he catch him?If you can't catch up by water, you can only go to Fanchang Lianhua Mountain by land to arrest him. Not to mention traveling five or six hundred miles. go?

Su Jin frowned and smacked his tongue, and the imperial guards were also jumping anxiously. They were all chattering, some said to chase after them with bamboo rafts, some said to go to the downstream pier to find a boat, and some came up with bad ideas and said to go to the city to collect large wooden basins and tie them together Being a ship envoy made Su Jin dumbfounded.

These northern guards are all landlubbers, and they don't understand the dangers of rivers at all. The fat water river is naturally calm, and simple boats are naturally unimpeded; once they enter Chaohu Lake, it will be a vast ocean, and then enter the big river, it will be choppy water The turbulent waves are high, unless it is a serious boat, even a small boat with a black awning will do. Bamboo rafts and the like will all fall into the water and become water ghosts.

Just as he was not thinking about it, the steward suddenly boldly asked: "My lord...you said that there is a criminal on board? The villain is a little puzzled."

Zhang Long scolded: "You're blind, the prefect Zhu Shiyong of Luzhou is on board that escaped, the city is in chaos, don't you know?"

The steward was stunned and said, "Prefect Zhu? No, it's not him. Of course the villain in Prefect Zhu knows him, but he's not on the boat."

The folk husbands and coachmen who watched the excitement were also dumbfounded, and said one after another: "I haven't seen Zhu Zhifu, how could Zhu Zhifu take such a small boat? Every year he goes to Jiangnan to play, and the passengers are all hired by the lower reaches. What about the cruise ship?"

Su Jin thought to himself, perhaps Zhu Shiyong had disguised himself to teach people not to recognize each other, so there was no delay anyway, and he had to hurry up and pursue him by land, so he immediately ordered his troops to divide into two groups, pursue all the way along the river, and go to the downstream pier to have a look Whether the ship can be found, the other way goes straight to Lianhua Mountain, rushing to block him at the head.

"Mr. Jun, don't blame me for talking too much. The ship is really not the prefect of Zhu. If you don't believe me, you will be in vain later, but don't blame the villain for not making it clear to you. The villain wants to talk, one is one, two is two. , on that boat is obviously Zhang Daguan from Nanqi Town who went to Jiangning Mansion to visit my father-in-law, although the villain is old and dim, Zhang Daguan will not admit his mistake."

The steward who was chasing after Su Jin kept nagging, he knew that if he didn't speak clearly, Su Jin and others would miss nothing, and they would definitely come back to find their own bad luck.

Su Jin quickly turned the horse's head and asked, "Really? Is it really not Zhu Shiyong?"

The steward swears to the sky with a sincere expression, and guarantees with his life that there is only Zhang Daguan on board, not the prefect Zhu.

Su Jin bowed his head in thought, chasing all the way, the official road was empty, there was no one, and Zhu Shiyong was not seen on the pier, did he chase in the wrong direction?

Impossible, Zhang Long asked the soldiers guarding the south gate, and he also got the news from Zhu Shiyong's concubine, Yu Shukou, both of which indicated that Zhu Shiyong must escape by taking the waterway at the south gate, but the road and the pier were nowhere to be seen. Could it be that Zhu Shiyong was at this time Do you still dare to play around in circles?If Zhu Shiyong has such courage, then I should really admire him.

"Leave [-] brothers to watch at the pier, and keep an eye on the river. Don't teach the old thief to get a boat and run away secretly; the rest of the brothers searched along the way I came. Since Zhu Shiyong didn't come to the pier, he decided to stay in the city. somewhere out there."

The imperial guards were also confused, it was not easy for this old thief to be able to make a fool of himself; in any case, since he didn't escape by water, it was a good thing, as long as he was still nearby, he could always be caught.

Everyone got up their spirits, suppressed their tiredness and hunger and thirst, and followed Su Jin back and forth.

This time it wasn't the rush of time, the crowd fanned along the official road slowly and galloped, their heads looked left and right like a spinning top, catching clues in the wilderness.

Suddenly, a forbidden soldier in the front right shouted loudly: "Special Envoy Su, come and take a look, what is this?"

Su Jin rode over and looked in the direction of the guard's finger, and saw a big wooden frame in the shape of a well lying across the grass, covered with some wild grass randomly, it's hard to see if you don't look carefully.

Su Jin jumped off the horse, kicked the weeds away with his feet, pointed to the wooden frame and asked the guards who surrounded him, "What is this?"

A guard soldier said: "This seems to be a broken shaft, painted with tung oil, looking at the break, it is still a new stubble, it seems that someone's cart shaft is broken, and it was thrown here."

Su Jin frowned and said with a smile: "The car shaft? Did you read it wrong?"

"It must be the shaft. The long logs on both sides are stretched out to the sides of the animals to shackle the animals. The two small crosspieces at the back are where the handlebars sit. That's right, they are the shafts."

Su Jin laughed loudly and said: "It turns out it's God's will. It's not that this old thief doesn't want to go to the pier, but that the shaft of the carriage is broken and he can't go at all."

"However, the carriage and the mules and horses are missing. If the shaft is broken, where can the carriage go?"

Su Jin smiled and said: "The shaft of the car is broken, and it can still be dragged, but it can't go far; how could Zhu Shiyong put the car on the road and tell us that his car is broken, it must be hidden somewhere, everyone Look around, it won't be very far."

Everyone agreed and went out to look for it. As expected, after a while, someone shouted loudly: "It's here, it's here."

The people gathered around, there is a wild pond in the field Xu in the official road, under the high pond ridge, a carriage rolled over at the root of the pond ridge, fortunately the wild pond can't hold water, so even though it turned over here, it didn't matter It was not submerged; a horse died beside the cart, its throat was cut off with a knife, probably because it was afraid that the neighing of the horse would reveal its whereabouts.

Su Jin stood on the ridge of the pond and looked down, only to see that the curtain of the car was torn in half, and he could see several pairs of feet crowded together in the carriage.

Su Jin smiled and said: "Prefect Zhu, come out, don't hide."

A pair of black official boots moved, and finally lifted the curtain of the car and leaned out, stepping on the wet withered grass beach, and then Zhu Shiyong's hair was messed up, and the crumpled and dirty head and body of the official uniform came out, looking up. He looked at Su Jin on the pond ridge.

The dazzling sunlight shot from above Su Jin's head, making Zhu Shiyong dizzy for a while, swaying his body, squinting his eyes to help the carriage stand still; due to the backlight, the row of figures above the pond ridge were all dark, Can't see the face.

"Don't come here without any problems, Prefect Zhu." Su Jin's words were full of ridicule.

With a gloomy face, Zhu Shiyong tidied up his clothes, arranged his messy buns in an orderly manner, pinned them with gold hairpins, and said flatly: "Special envoy Su, you are a master at chess, and the government has nothing to say, but One person does things and one person is responsible, can you let the dog live, and in the next life, I, Zhu, will tie a grass ring and repay it."

"Father!" Zhu Tianshun cried from inside the carriage.

Su Jin said: "Lord Zhu, don't think about it anymore, you know that I don't have such great rights, you know your affairs yourself, and you know better than anyone how serious it is; you still need to save your son's life, For the current plan, be honest and correct, the emperor is a benevolent lord, so it may be that he will not be merciful outside the law."

Zhu Shiyong raised his head and laughed loudly: "The old man knows that begging is in vain, but as a father, you always have to make the last effort. Heaven obeys my son, and being a father is also benevolent and righteous. Whether you can survive depends on your own destiny; more words No benefit, Special Envoy Su, let's go."

Su Jin didn't expect Zhu Shiyong to say such open-minded words. Although he was a little sad for him, he didn't want to talk nonsense with him, so he just waved and ordered: "Take them and bring them back to the government office..."