Concubine

Chapter 5
Yang Qiuchi shook his head in embarrassment, and looked up at the village halfway up the mountain. He wanted to go into the village to ask questions, but he was very tired after walking for a long time. Thinking about it, it was only five miles away from the county town, so he might as well go into the city and go to the village again. Asked, then walked along the path to the county seat.

After a short walk, I went out of the mountains to the plain, and after walking for a while, I saw a section of the city wall rising from the horizon, and came to a road. The road was bustling with people coming and going. Most of these pedestrians were wearing coarse cloth and green clothes similar to myself. Or wearing a straw hat and carrying a load, or pushing a cart, or leading an animal, coming and going in a hurry.

Walking to the bottom of the city wall, there is a moat, the river is very clear, and a pontoon bridge spans the moat. Two soldiers with knives slung across their waists stand at the gate of the city, very similar to the soldiers in ancient TV dramas.Above the city gate are three large official scripts: "Guangde County"

Guangde County?Where is this?I haven't heard of it, let's talk about it first.

When Yang Qiuchi entered the city gate, the two city guards didn't stop him, they didn't even look at him, they just chatted and laughed.

The city is very lively, the streets are not wide, and there are many shops on both sides, with various signboards such as "Ruifuxiang", "Miaoshoutang", and "Linjia Restaurant".

Yang Qiuchi was very curious. He looked around all the way, walked along the street, and walked not far. After passing a crossroad, he saw a very tall and majestic building, covering a large area, surrounded by red walls and green tiles. up.There is a black lacquered gate with three bays, the two gates on the side are closed, only the middle gate is wide open, and there is a pair of stone lions at the gate, which are mighty and majestic.There is a sign next to the gate with the words "Release the notice" written on it.What's the meaning?I don't understand.

Next to the gate, there was a man in soap clothes with a knife on his waist standing there. He looked like an official servant, and he came up to ask.Yang Qiuchi walked up the steps, clasped his fist at the man with the knife, imitating the tone of the ancients and said: "Dare to ask this big brother, what is this place?"

The man looked Yang Qiuchi up and down, snorted, and burst out two words: "County government office!" He turned his head and ignored him.

County government?This is the Yamen of Guangde County?interesting!When thinking of the yamen, the scene of the official in the TV series who is afraid of the gavel, and the yamen servants on both sides shouting "mighty" immediately comes to mind.Go inside and have a look!Seeing that people kept coming in and out of the gate, the man with the knife didn't check, it seemed that he could come in and out at will.Yang Qiuchi probed into the gate, and saw a few people inside pointing and watching around a screen wall, so he straightened his chest, pretended to be nonchalant, entered the gate, and came to the screen wall.

This screen wall is facing the gate, and it is made of polished bricks, and the top of the wall is covered with roof tiles.There are several notices posted on the screen wall, one of which reads: "Tian Dazhuang and Wang Xiaoshan Dian, who are in charge of the trial, do not pay deed tax for the purchase of land and houses, but do not pay taxes on land and houses. Treacherous intentions are rampant, and there are many tricks. No tax deeds, trying to make the certificates dim; After a long time, he didn't quite understand the ancient texts, and many of them were in traditional characters, let alone understand them. However, judging from the last "one hundred sticks", it seemed that it was a judgment made by a county magistrate. The date reads "the second day of September in the seventh year of Yongle"

Seven years of Yongle?Yongle? "Yongle Grand Ceremony"!Could it be that he traveled through time and space to the Ming Dynasty? "Yongle Dadian" Yang Qiuchi knows it. The middle school history teacher said that Yongle is the reign name of Ming Chengzu Zhu Di. He presided over the compilation of a large encyclopedia, named after his year name, called "Yongle Dadian", It is the first encyclopedia in Chinese history.

Ming Dynasty, I returned to the Ming Dynasty?Yang Qiuchi's head was buzzing, he didn't know whether it was joy or worry.He didn't learn history well, so he tried his best to search for other related words of this dynasty that he could think of: Zhu Yuanzhang!That ugly monster from a beggar to an emperor, Zheng He sailed to the West!I only know that Zheng He was from the Ming Dynasty and was an eunuch, but I don’t know if he was from the age of Ming Chengzu. By the way, there are also Ming Dynasty secret service agencies such as Jinyiwei, Dongchang, and Xichang. I can’t think of others. up.

Regarding Ming Chengzu, all Yang Qiuchi could think of was "Yongle Dadian", and everything else was blank.It's over, even if you want to predict the future!Yang Qiuchi smiled wryly in his heart. If he had known that he would come to the Ming Dynasty and take a good look at the history of the Ming Dynasty, he would be able to predict the future and change history.Alas~!You can't blame the government for your hard life!

At this moment, a scream came to his ears suddenly, which broke Yang Qiuchi's thinking. The sound seemed to come from behind the screen wall.Yang Qiuchi turned to the back of the screen wall and saw many people in a large courtyard. A group of people lined up on the east side. Right in front of him was a hall with steps half as high as a person. It was a rectangular platform made of stones. A middle-aged man was lying on a long stone bench on the left side of the platform. A scorpion was holding the man's shoulders with both hands, and another scorpion was hitting the man's buttocks with a large board. The man let out howls like killing a pig, which caused the crowd in the courtyard to burst into laughter.

Yang Qiuchi hurried over to watch the excitement.There were many onlookers, Yang Qiuchi could only stand far behind, stand on tiptoes and stretch his neck to look inside.I saw two rows of soap slaves in soap clothes standing in the lobby, each holding a long red lacquered board in their hands.In the middle is a warm pavilion, with a desk in front of it. Behind the desk sits an old man in official robes with a gray beard. The light in the hall is a bit dim, and the old man's appearance is a little blurry and hard to see clearly.

The man was hit by a board, his ass was bleeding, and he couldn't even stand up.After Zaoli let go of the man, two young men in the onlookers bent over to the platform, fastened the man's trousers, put them on a door panel, and carried them away from the yamen.

A yamen servant came out and pointed to the people waiting in line on the left, and the two people in front of the line glared at each other, holding a blank piece of paper in their hands, they went to the platform and entered the main hall respectively, bent down and handed the blank piece of paper to the people on the side. A man with the appearance of a scholar went to the middle of the lobby and knelt down, kowtowed to the old man with a white beard, stood up and took a few steps back, turned around and left the lobby, came to the platform, knelt down on a big bluestone on the left, The other kneels on the large bluestone on the right.It seems that these two people are the plaintiff and the defendant, and they are here to file a lawsuit.

Yang Qiuchi listened to what the old man with the gray beard was talking about, but he couldn't hear clearly from a distance.After listening to it for a while, it was boring, and my stomach was growling, so I decided not to watch the excitement, and go to fill my stomach first.

Yang Qiuchi turned and walked out, and found a brick carving on the wall behind the screen wall, which was an image of a monster. The shape of this monster was a bit like a unicorn, with a big mouth. day.I don't understand what this means.

After going out of the gate, I looked back and found that the walls on both sides of the gate were not straight, but inverted to highlight the gate. I remembered that there is a saying: "The yamen is open, and you can't come in if you have a reason and no money." It's interesting to come to the Yamen like this.

Walking out of the yamen, not far away, I saw a restaurant with a big banner, which read: "Gapeng Inn".Walking to the door of the inn, a man who looked like a waiter wearing a melon cap and a white towel on his shoulders greeted him, and asked with a smile: "Guest officer, do you stay at the top or stay at the inn?"

Yang Qiuchi has heard this sentence a lot in TV dramas. To hit the tip is to leave after eating. Of course staying in a hotel is eating and staying, so he said: "Of course it is staying in a hotel!"

"Okay!" the shop waiter turned around and shouted loudly, "there is a guest officer in the inn." Then he bowed and said: "Guest officer, please come in."

Great attitude!Yang Qiuchi raised his foot and was about to walk in, when he suddenly remembered that he was penniless, what did he have to live and eat?She blushed and forced a smile: "I'm sorry, I forgot to bring my money."

(End of this chapter)