Emperor Qianlong: the beginning of his glory

Chapter 29 The Juanjuan Girl Shows off her Skills and the Shijiazhuang Imperial Envoy Composes Poems on Mid-Autumn Night (1)
In the golden autumn of August, the weather is neither too hot nor too cold, which is a good day to go out for a long trip.But soon after Fu Heng left Beijing, things changed.First, the wind blows, and the deserted autumn clouds dye the sky into a gray sky.The green gauze tents in the Zhili area of ​​the capital had been cut off long ago, and the westerly wind was raging on the empty and lonely fields, and waves of yellow sand and floating soil were blowing towards the face, making people suffocate.After passing Baoding, the wind was a little bit lower, but it began to rain.The rain is dense and sometimes sparse, like a huge sieve in the sky that "sieves water" down unhurriedly.Fu Heng walked in the cold autumn rain, and at first he was in high spirits, talking and laughing all the way.After several days in succession, there was either wind or rain, which gradually became boring and monotonous.Wu Xiazi and others who accompanied him didn't understand his style of elegance.Fu Heng had no place to drop his book bag, so he became depressed.After Xinle, Huolu County is ahead.It leads to Jingjing Road in the west and Dezhou Fu Water Transport Wharf in the east, and the north and south post roads run through it, and the population is getting denser and denser.There was an endless stream of merchants and merchants, and Fu Heng's mood gradually improved.

By the end of the day, the rain had subsided a little.Blind Wu saw a big, dark town in front of him, raised his whip and pointed with a smile, "It's been down for seven days and seven nights. It seems that the sun will clear up this day. Sixth Master, you are tired of walking with such a precious body." .Ahead is the famous Shijiazhuang, and we will be shooting here tonight. Today is August [-]th. Let's take a good rest for a day, and we can make it in the day after tomorrow?"

"It's not the Mid-Autumn Festival, I've completely forgotten about it!" Fu Heng laughed, "In fact, it's not just the Qingming rain that makes people lose their souls. Doesn't this Mid-Autumn rain also make people feel depressed! My body is numb after walking. In this way, rest here tomorrow before leaving." A servant next to him named Xiao Qi'er smiled and said, "It would be nice to go to the south of the Yangtze River to take a waterway. Take a boat to see the scenery, and when you are tired, you can walk around the shore. After a few times of persuasion This time, I won’t listen! Riding a horse and walking in rainy weather is enough. Don’t talk about me, even the servants can’t take it anymore.” Fu Heng smiled and said, “You know what! I want to go to Henan first, let’s go Has the waterway been completed? Besides, the water transportation is busy now, and the canal is full of boats transporting grain to the north, and it takes half a day to block it. When will it be possible to reach the south of the Yangtze River?"

Blind Wu was stunned for a moment, and said, "Didn't the Lord say to disembark from Dezhou? Why are you going to Henan again?" Fu Heng laughed and said, "I also want to go to Xinyang to buy tea." Seeing that he had already entered the town, he got off his horse, Pulling the rein, he said, "Find an old shop to rest first." As he was talking, he saw a few shop assistants coming over with a lantern in his hand. On the lantern were written "Liu's Inn", "Ludao Linfeng", " Shunfeng Restaurant" and other words, these are the inns in the town who came out to solicit customers-seeing Fu Heng and his party coming, several people rushed up one after another, grabbing business, and there was a lot of noise.Fu Heng was so annoyed and funny by the noise, he pointed to a guy next to him who couldn't squeeze in, and said, "This is the one I live in - the old Ji's shop!" Going to look for other guests.

Fu Heng and his entourage followed the staff to the south and turned a corner. They saw an empty field opposite a hotel facing north. There was a big beige watermelon lantern hanging in front of the gate, which read:

Jijia, a century-old shop
The six big characters imitating the Song Dynasty were written neatly. There are two stone lions, one big and one small, standing beside the door. The big one is as tall as a person, and the small one looks like a monkey.Blind Wu looked carefully at the threshold. It was a stone slab carved with passionflower, and the center had been worn into a crescent shape. The stone lion's claws and neck beside the door were smooth because of many people stroking it. Come.But Fu Heng was very curious, and asked the guy, "Why is the lion one big and one small? - There is a big open space over there, it seems that a house has just been demolished, and what is the purpose of building such a big shed?"

"Master Hui." The man said with a smile, "this lion was left by our old master of the previous three generations. Our old master was a stonemason, and he had built the Hall of Supreme Harmony of the Long Live Lord! We are not a noble family. If the lion Generally big, so it can’t be a yamen? Just because of this big and small, people passing by find it interesting, and I don’t know how many customers have been recruited—the empty space over there is the homestead of Mrs. Shi, and it will be refurbished. August [-] Five tenants, all those who plant the old man's stone land, every one of them has to come to eat this feast." The man chattered, and let Fu Heng and the others into the inner courtyard to go to the room.Open the door and light the lamp, wash your face, wash your feet, keep busy, and keep talking: "This autumn, the crops in our place are growing badly. If you do the math, you can get three stones for an acre of land, pay thirty-seven rents, and receive two stones." [-]. One hundred hectares of land—how much should I charge? This August [-]th of this year, there will be a ring to fight!" Fu Heng saw that the man was so talkative, but couldn't understand what he said, so he rubbed his feet in the basin , smiled and said: "Just now when you received the guests, you stood aside and said nothing. I thought you were a boring gourd. I didn't expect you to be a character who asked questions and answered ten questions!" The man smiled and said: "There is knowledge in receiving customers. For example, your old man, so many people refuse to go, so you want to live in our old Ji's house, can this be fate?" He said, twisting a hot towel and handing it over, and a cup of tea.

Seeing that he was going, Fu Heng stopped and said, "Don't go in a hurry, what you said is very interesting: why are tenants and landlords fighting in a ring?" The east wants to seize the tenant, and the tenant wants to reduce the rent. The decision must be made at this banquet. If the landlord is strong, the tenant will lose; Rent—Zhengding Hu’s house surrounded the tenants on August [-]th last year, and the house was set on fire. Mr. Liu personally led the troops in the mansion, and killed three troublemakers on the spot before suppressing it—this The local poor people are anxious and can do anything that is beyond the law!" At this time, Fu Heng vaguely knew the general idea-it turns out that on August [-]th, it is not only about eating watermelon and moon cakes, but also the owner of the house. The day when the general ledger is settled with the tenant farmers and the charter for next year's lease and planting is established.When I wanted to ask again, someone outside shouted: "Luo Gui! Here is a guest—living in the West Wing!" Luo Gui replied loudly, and said to Fu Heng, "Rest in peace first, and just order anything you want!" The water Fu Heng used went out.

After dinner, it was already dark.After a while, a round of bright moon gradually rose, and through the sparse tree shadows outside the courtyard, the soft moonlight like a veil fell down.Fu Heng took off his shoes and walked out of the upper room wearing only an azurite poplin robe. He walked in the courtyard and looked up at the moon.Blind Wu walked over lightly, and said with a smile, "Does Master Liu want to compose poems again? Just now I sent someone out to buy some good Baoding moon cakes and a big watermelon. I'm wronged today, just a few of us enjoy the moon. It’s already the fifteenth day of August.”

"There is no poetry today." Fu Heng listened to the noisy voices on the street outside, sometimes accompanied by cheers, and said, "Is the Shi family's 'Ring Arena' feast open? It's so lively, let's go out and have a look." Xiao Qizi smiled and said in the corridor: "No. Just now I went out to take a look. It was a group of performers walking the rope outside, and a large group of people gathered around to watch!" Fu Heng suddenly became excited, lifted his heels and said : "Go, take a look." Blind Wu and the others had no choice but to follow.

When the six people came out, they saw the dark crowds of people on the street, and the four lamps on the opposite side just illuminated the middle of the street. A girl of about 50 years old stood in the backlight, with a small and exquisite figure, wearing a lambskin wind-fur rose-purple cloak, and there seemed to be a sword hanging from her waist, but she couldn't see her face.There are two wooden poles standing along the street, and a thin rope is tied to the two wooden poles, stretched straight.The old man arched his hands, and said to everyone, "Taoist Piao Gao once again congratulates all the judges, not for food or money, but for making good relationships in the world. "Sighing the World" says that 'this year counts to 20, practice Exactly 81 years, just because I am old and can’t see sex, I have to pay back my granddaughter! Just now, a gentleman said that the rope that the little disciple stepped on was thick, and it was not the trick of the gods. Here is a red velvet rope, which is tied by the young disciple Juanjuan It’s used for braids. Can any good believer come and inspect it?” Fu Heng’s heart sank when he heard this.He vaguely remembered which book he had seen these cut-off words.But I remember the three characters of "Sighing the World Classic" very clearly.It was said that the White Lotus Sect was prevalent in Jiangxi, and whoever would have thought that they would meet the preachers before going out of Zhili.Fu Heng secretly glanced at Blind Wu, but Blind Wu didn't look around, but only touched Fu Heng's elbow to express his understanding.Fu Heng regained his composure, and laughed beside him, "How can braided woolen rope be able to withstand it? I don't believe it!"

"It's reasonable to see if the official doesn't believe it." Taoist Piao Gao gave Fu Heng a bow and said, "Please examine it for yourself!" Fu Heng squeezed sideways to the middle, and pulled the velvet rope with his hand. Without much effort, the velvet The rope broke with a "bang", picked up the end of the rope and looked closely in the moonlight, it was a red velvet rope that was not surprising, he nodded and passed it back to Piao Gao's hand, saying: "It's velvet rope, no Fake." Piao Gao smiled, put the two ends of the rope together, and somehow, he twisted them tightly and then tied them together.Everyone just shouted "Okay!" Juanjuan threw off her cloak, flipped lightly on the spot with one foot already on the rope, pierced a door with both hands, and drew out a pair of swords.Looking at this Juanjuan under the moon, she is dressed in palace attire, with an apricot-yellow long skirt wrapped around her lower body, her upper body is trimmed with gold thread and light red bijia, her delicate face seems to have no expression, she is dancing slowly on the velvet rope with her mouth tightly pursed Taiji sword, sometimes jumping high and splitting, sometimes circling and dancing, really like the Luoshen Lingbo, soaring into the sky.The velvet rope only trembled slightly with the footsteps. The hundreds of people below looked up and were stunned. It wasn't until she flew down in the air that they breathed a sigh of relief and cheered loudly:
"it is good!"

"It's really extraordinary." Fu Heng even praised the combo festival, even forgetting that these three people are cult members, and happily said to the people around him: "I've seen so many people in Beijing, today I just opened my eyes." !” Just as they were joking, Juanjuan took out a plate from her bag.Piao Gao said with a smile to the crowd: "We are practitioners, not for show, everyone, we only want to make good fortune, collect money not to make ends meet, just to see the officials and seek blessings and avoid disasters. Donate as you like, no matter how much you don't care about." Seeing the lively collection of money, more than half of them went there immediately.On the contrary, the women are generous here, some throw copper buddies, some pull out the silver hairpins on their heads and put them in respectfully.After receiving it in front of Fu Heng, Fu Heng hurriedly touched his sleeve, but it turned out to be 20 taels of Jingke, which was too eye-catching to put in, and he felt sorry for not letting it go. After a little hesitation, Juanjuan had already moved the plate away.Fu Heng was very close to Juanjuan at this time, and when he looked closely, he had willow-leaf eyebrows, crescent moon eyes, and jet-black pupils that shone brightly, as gorgeous as peaches and plums, but his expression was as cold as ice.Fu Heng couldn't help but hastily took out the ingot of silver, put it on the plate through the people, and said softly, "Miss, put some clothes on."

(End of this chapter)