The Song Dynasty has been deliberate for 16 years, only to know that it is the Water Margin

Chen Zhongjing's army did not attack the city as fiercely as Yanjing, but captured it in a short time.

Wanyan Zonghan, Xi Yin and others led the army to break through, and the Jin soldiers did not suffer much loss.

Zhao Tong wondered why the other party gave up on Zhongjing City without procrastinating. He couldn't figure it out, so he had to think that the other party had made a strategic shift.

Although Zhongjing is not as prosperous as Shangjing, it far surpasses Yanjing.

The army and horses cleared the city. After all, Zong Han and Xi Yin were both scheming, especially Xi Yin, who controlled the Jurchen intelligence agency, so it was inevitable that some spies would not be left behind in the city.

However, this process was not very smooth, because Zhongjing, like Yanjing, did not have pure Jurchen people living there. They were all Khitan, Bohai, Tatar and Han people.

There must be spies, but it is not easy to find them among these people.

According to Zhao Tong's analysis, the spies left behind should all have single-line contacts. There are countless single lines, and then they are aggregated into several thread ends. Several thread ends are also single lines, and then they are funneled to Xiyin.

The thread may be in the city, or it may not be in Zhongjing, but even if it is here, where to start investigating?
So Zhao Tong thought about it and had no choice but to mobilize the general public and put up notices offering rewards, and anyone with rewards would accept reports.

Anyone who finds someone acting sneakily or acting strangely in daily life can come and report it.

If it is found that there is a problem, then a heavy reward will be given. Even if there is no problem and the report results are just the other party's special habits or other insignificant things, as long as the person who reported the report did not falsely accuse him of lying and the other party did behave strangely, then he will also give some rewards. The reporter has his work in vain.

This immediately set off a frenzy of revelations among the people in the market.

After years of fighting, the lives of the people in Zhongjing have become difficult, and they all hate the Jurchens, thinking that it is the Jurchens' talents that have caused such a result.

Now you can not only seek revenge on the spies left by the Jurchens, but also earn some money to supplement your family's income. Why not?
At one time, they dug three feet into the ground and all the government offices were overwhelmed.

"The power of the people is the greatest." Zhao Tong said after observing this situation.

Li Yanxian, who was on the opposite side, was confused and complimented: "Your Majesty has a good plan."

Zhao Tong glanced at him: "Shao Yan is here to play chess."

After a while, Bai Ba Bai Zhan put the chess board on the table. Zhao Tao held the chess pieces in his hands and remained motionless for a long time: "Shao Yan, let's play."

Li Yanxian was stunned: "Your Majesty should make the first move, but Your Majesty hasn't made a move yet..."

"I've already made a move, Shaoyan, didn't you see?" Zhao Tong looked at the empty chessboard and said seriously.

The corner of Li Yanxian's mouth twitched. There was clearly nothing on the chessboard, but why did His Majesty say that he had already made a move...

The next day, the sun was shining and it was a good weather.

Zhao Tong took the three brothers of the Bai family, Lu Da and Li Kui, and wandered around the city.

The largest and busiest street in Zhongjing is called Jinguo Street, and the busiest section is at the intersection of Jinguo Street and Minghui Street.

Jinguo Street runs from north to south, and Minghui Street runs from east to west. There are various shops in the north and south directions here, such as silk and satin shops, rouge shops, furnishing shops, fruit shops, silver shops, etc. Minghui Street in the east and west are tea shops and water shops. , restaurants, Goulan Garden.

Zhao Tong and others got off their horses and walked around slowly.

He and the three brothers from the Bai family were fine. They had the leisure to look at all kinds of goods and experience the local customs.

Lu Da, Li Kui and the other two looked intently towards Minghui Street. In fact, there was a slight east wind at the moment, and the aroma of meat and vegetables from the restaurant over there was wafting down the wind, which was very tempting.

Both of them are drunkards. If there is no important military matter, they will drink early in the morning. But today they have to go shopping with Zhao Tao. They didn't dare to drink after getting up. Originally, they held back without thinking about it, but the wine and meat came with the wind. The aroma immediately aroused the alcohol bug in my stomach, and I kept swallowing saliva secretly.

When Zhao Tong saw the two of them, he understood in his heart, but said calmly: "Did Zhishen and Tieniu not eat in the morning? If you are really hungry, just buy some cooking pancakes to cushion your stomach."

Ruda said: "Master, this... I am not hungry, I will not eat cooking cakes."

Li Kui, however, kept his eyes on the restaurant over there, licking his lips and said, "Let's eat together at noon, let's eat together at noon."

Zhao Tong smiled, shook his head and led a few people into Jia Yin Building for a stroll.

After a while, there was really nothing interesting inside. During the war, the value of gold and silver increased, and the value of copper coins depreciated. The wealthy families in the city had already exchanged their property for various ingots and jewelry and fled Zhongjing.

Therefore, the goods inside are mediocre and pitifully small. The Mingming Silver House actually sells copper and iron items.

After wandering forward for a while, he crossed the opposite side of the road and stopped at the entrance of Minghui Street. Li Kui said, "Master, Master, we're here at noon."

Zhao Tong glanced at the sun above. It was still far from noon. How could this ignorant person learn to lie?

He said: "I'll take you to listen to a play."

When they heard about the opera, they were all very happy. Even Luda looked happy, but Li Kui was stunned and scratched his head: "The opera...is there any wine in the theater?"

Bai Ao looked at him and said, "There is tea and enough snacks."

Li Kui muttered in a low voice: "If I don't drink that stuff, I'll feel like a bird in my mouth."

Bai Zhan said, "You can buy your own wine and bring it with you. Young Master won't talk about you."

Li Kui blinked and reached into his arms to touch, but he didn't find anything big for a long time.

Bai Zhan asked curiously: "Young Master has rewarded you with so much gold and silver. You can drink enough for half a lifetime. How come it was all gone so soon?"

Li Kui said nothing and did not dare to look at Zhao Tao. He just scratched his body with his hands. He had no money and a lot of hair.

Bai Ba joked: "Is it possible that Tieniu has a crush and fills everything in? Or go shopping in Goulan and eat flower wine, no matter how much you have, it's not enough."

Li Kui was angry when he heard this. He clenched his fists and breathed heavily. He looked at this and that. He couldn't beat anyone. He had competed before. He started to push hard, but in the end he fell to the ground and ate ashes.

"Are you all just entertaining me..." He choked out a sentence for a long time.

Luda also felt his mouth was dry at this time, so he took out half a silver coin and looked at Zhao Tong: "Master...can you ask Tieniu to buy some wine to quench his thirst?"

Zhao Tong nodded, and Luda went to the rescue: "Tie Niu took it to buy wine, and don't let others coax you to give him more money and buy less wine."

Li Kui grabbed the silver coin in his hand, looked at Luda and said, "Brother is here to have fun too. Who dares to give me less wine, so that he knows how powerful the old boxer is."

After saying that, he glanced at Zhao Tao again, and Zhao Tao said calmly: "Go back quickly, go to the theater over there to find it." Li Kui immediately responded: "I know, I know, Tieniu will go back as soon as possible."

After saying that, he raised his hand to build an awning and saw a wine flag hanging in the distance. Although he was illiterate, he recognized the winding shape and knew it was a place selling wine, so he quickly walked over there.

Here Zhao Tao led a few people to Goulan Garden. This house specializes in opera singing. The stage is connected to the theater building. It is a lively time at this moment. There are many people gathered outside. Although the front of the stage cannot be seen, but listen to The sound is also quite enjoyable.

The stage is open-air facing the street, and you can only see sideways from the street. However, there are waiters in front of the building door here. When they see a few people coming, they immediately nod and bow, and invite people in.

Just when Zhao Tong was about to step into the building, the corner of his eye suddenly froze. He turned his head sharply and looked at the crowd again.

He just saw the figure of a graceful girl in pink clothes disappearing in the crowd. He couldn't help but frown slightly, with a trace of doubt on his face.

"Master..." Bai Ao saw something was wrong and immediately asked in a low voice.

Zhao Tong shook his head: "Go upstairs."

There are no tables on the first floor because it is difficult to watch the show, so all the guests are on the second and third floors.

When we went up to the second floor, there were not many people inside. There were really continuous military riots. It was a blessing that this Goulan Theater did not close down. It was almost impossible to have a prosperous business. We could only make ends meet and earn rent as a handyman. Eat horse chews.

He sat down by the window and ordered tea, soup, snacks, and seasonal fruits. The table was filled with tea, soup, and snacks. Zhao Tong looked at the stage while eating.

Khitan opera singers actually learned from the Song Dynasty. The costumes, movements and singing skills are generally similar, but the content of the operas is different from that of the Song Dynasty. After all, under the rule of the Liao Kingdom, martial arts operas were all stories of Khitan heroes, or struggles for hegemony between tribes and clans. There are also few repertoires in Wenxi City, they are all about love and hatred on the grassland.

What was being performed on the stage at this time was a martial arts play. It was probably because of the unrest in recent years and the continuous wars that there were few people watching the literary plays. Just now, I saw that there were ten plays a day, and eight of them were martial arts plays.

Naturally, martial arts dramas require a lot of effort and are difficult to perform. After performing martial arts dramas, actors have to eat two more cooking cakes after they get off the stage than when performing literary dramas. However, there is nothing that can be done about it. After all, due to the impact of the war, no one likes to watch literary dramas now.

The martial arts drama on stage is about a heroic figure in Khitan history, named Luman. He is not a member of the Liao clan, but a figure in folklore. His history is earlier than Yelu Abaoji, and he existed before the founding of the Liao Kingdom.

This was also the thought of Boss Goulan. Although it was an acting, after all, the Liao Dynasty was dead. It was not easy to play the generals and heroes when the Liao Kingdom existed, let alone the deeds of Yelu Abaoji, the Eagle of the Grassland, to save the Jurchens and the Song Dynasty. , the official was not happy to see it, and it would lead to death.

This play tells the story of Luman, who was born in a large Khitan tribe and was the son of the clan leader. This tribe often went to war with other Khitan tribes, resulting in a constant lack of people and horses and no peace.

The battle was a win-win situation. Later, another larger tribe wanted to annex Luman's tribe. The crisis became apparent. Luman came up with a strategy to change his identity and sneak into that big tribe, gain the other's trust, and then do it all in one fell swoop. Assassinate the opponent's clan leader and resolve this clan's crisis of extinction.

Then Luman acted according to the plan. After careful preparation, he successfully sneaked into the opponent's tribe, but he never had the chance to approach the opponent's clan leader to assassinate him.

Later, he met a girl named Helishe in the other tribe. This girl was the daughter of the tribe leader, and the two fell in love, but Luman never forgot the purpose of his trip.

In the end, between his lover and the survival of the tribe, he chose the latter, got close to the other party's clan leader through He Lishe, and then violently killed him.

Then, he took advantage of He Lishe's affection for him and escaped from the tribe. He Lishe sent him outside the tribe and watched him leave, and then committed suicide.

Luman returned to his tribe and became a hero admired by everyone. After all, it was he who saved the tribe from extinction.

But Luman never forgot He Lishe. He buried He Lishe deeply in his heart and wanted to wait for one day in the future to ride a horse and carry a long bow to pick up He Lishe and marry her.

A few years later, this day finally arrived. After constant battles, Luman's tribe defeated other surrounding tribes and became one of the top tribes of the Khitan tribe. He was also appointed as the next leader because of his bravery in battle, leading by example, and repeated military exploits. The patriarch.

At this time, he thought of Heli She again. Because the clan leader was assassinated, Helishe's tribe was reduced to a small tribe little by little, barely surviving. He planned to take Heli She over. After all, he had already said it himself. After all, no one can stop him from marrying He Lishe.

But when he came to Helishe's tribe in person with his soldiers and horses, he learned that Helishe had committed suicide long after he left that year, but he never knew the news.

Under the setting sun, in front of He Lishe's grave, Luman held a machete in his hand, his face was confused, and he didn't know whether it was pain or regret in his heart...

The more Zhao Yu watched this play, the less interesting it became. What kind of play was this? Heroes or not, love or not, the key is to wake up some memories that have been dusty in his heart for a long time and don't want to think of them.

"Call their shopkeeper over."

Bai Ao and the others observed Zhao Tong's unkind tone and immediately stood up and went to find the owner of the Goulan Theater.

After a while, the shopkeeper was brought in. Generally speaking, people who can open this kind of business and do this kind of business are not ordinary. White and black people have a wide range of contacts with the three religions and nine circles, and there are people behind them to support them. But things are different now. With his head changing the king's flag and the war going on, he had long since not dared to be domineering and arrogant. When he saw that Bai Ao and the others were still carrying weapons and speaking with a Song accent, they came over obediently.

Zhao Tong looked the shopkeeper up and down. In fact, the shopkeeper was in the dark and had no idea why he was summoned. He hurriedly said: "This young master, I don't know..."

Before he finished speaking, Zhao Tao interrupted and pointed to the stage outside: "Is the play just now really a legend and has a long history, or was it made up by someone now?"

The shopkeeper was stunned. He originally thought it was because of poor service, but the other party was furious, but he didn't expect it was because of the opera singing.

He hurriedly looked at the play card, checked the time, and knew that it was a play by King Luman, so he said: "Sir, this play is an ancient legend and has been circulated in the grassland for a long time. It is not made up now."

"An ancient legend?" Zhao Tong frowned: "What changes have been made? Has the story been rearranged in this play?"

The shopkeeper shook his head: "Sir, the legend of King Luman has always had this plot. No one has arranged it. This... If you don't believe it, you can ask others. Khitan and Khitan people basically know this story."

"You're dishonest, you won't get beaten!" Ruda slapped the table: "My young master asked you, and you asked someone else to ask!"

The shopkeeper was so frightened that he hugged his head: "Sir, I am telling the truth..."

Zhao Tong waved to Bai Ao and Bai Zhan: "Go and ask someone else."

The two of them went downstairs and came back soon, saying in a low voice: "Sir, I have asked people inside and outside the building. It is indeed an ancient Khitan legend, and it is exactly the same as that one."

Zhao Tao narrowed his eyes and was about to speak when he heard a sudden noise from below the window.

At this time, the stage was resting, and there was no sound, but the movement elsewhere was still loud.

Zhao Tong looked out the window and saw two people fighting together not far away, and the people were watching and cheering.

One of them was no one else, but Li Kui who had not returned from buying wine, and the other was the girl in pink who he looked back at at the door of the building but disappeared into the crowd.

At this time, the girl turned around, revealing her face. Zhao Tong stood up from the chair, stared at the girl's face in the distance, and slowly uttered two words.

"Baohua!"

(End of this chapter)