I rely on talking to brush the copy

Le Jing soon received a reply from Zheng Yiliang, who readily agreed to his invitation and told him in the letter that he would bring a friend to the appointment on Sunday. Zheng Yiliang's friend must be a cultured person, but I don't know if this person has left a name in history. Le Jing didn't care too much about this "friend". At this time, he didn't know how much surprise this friend would bring him (scary).

Since people have been invited to the house for dinner, Zhou Da's wife's three-legged cat cooking skills are not enough. Le Jing had considered finding a cook before, but he didn't do it because he didn't like having too many people at home. Now it seems that he has to find a cook as soon as possible.

The candidate for the new cook was quickly determined. She was the daughter of a poor bannerman family living nearby. Bannermen like Le Jing's landlord Qian Duofu who still had ancestral property to pawn were already lucky. There were so many bannermen who couldn't even afford to eat in Beijing.

In the Qing Dynasty, some poor bannermen could still serve as soldiers and take exams, or work as bondservants in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Moreover, they did not have to pay taxes when farming. They were envied by many Han people and were called iron crops that could guarantee a harvest regardless of drought or flood. Unfortunately, since the end of the Qing Dynasty, these parasites have suffered.

Except for a small number of smart people among the bannermen, the rest were spoiled by the Qing government. Now there is no emperor to support them, so some poor bannermen live no better than those poor Han people who have to sell their children. As the saying goes, things change over time.

The girl that Le Jing invited to be the cook this time has a famous surname - Ulanara, which is one of the eight surnames of the Manchus and a legendary descendant. Unfortunately, the family of this Ulanara girl is so poor that she only has one surname left. Her father was a heavy smoker and a drunkard. Once, he was so drunk that he sold her and her mother to the casino. In the end, her uncle sold the ancestral antiques to redeem her and her mother from the brothel. Since then, the girl hated her father.

But the girl was smart. She didn't cry or make a fuss after she went back. She was more filial to her father than before. Then one day, her father drank too much and "accidentally" fell into the water tank and drowned. The girl cried so hard that she almost fainted. The neighbors praised her for her filial piety. So this "filial" girl became a good girl with a good reputation in the neighborhood. So Le Jing told the landlord that he wanted to find a cook, and Qian Duofu recommended this "filial" girl to Le Jing.

Le Jing met this girl specifically for this purpose. The girl was called Chunyan. She was about sixteen or seventeen years old. In modern times, she was just a high school student, but in this era, she was already an old girl. Her appearance was not outstanding, but her eyes made Le Jing particularly satisfied. She was a wolf cub who refused to accept her fate. Le Jing was always willing to help such a smart person who refused to accept his fate, so he immediately decided to hire her as a cook.

Chunyan did not disappoint Le Jing's trust in her. She cooked delicious dishes. The braised pork was really fat but not greasy, and melted in the mouth. Even Le Jing, who had a light diet, couldn't help but eat a few more bites. It is said that this recipe was her mother's dowry when she married. It can be said that it was a family tradition.

So on Sunday morning, Le Jing got up early, put on the newly bought gown, gave tomorrow's manuscript to Zhou's eldest son, and asked him to hand it over to Wang, the editor of "Peking Fiction Newspaper", and then went into the study, writing while waiting for Zheng Yiliang's visit.

…

Zheng Yiliang and his friend Zhou Dezhang got off the rickshaw, looked at the ordinary courtyard house opposite, and said to his friend: "This should be it, I'll go knock on the door."

Zhou Dezhang nodded absentmindedly, his mind still immersed in the letter he just received. In the letter, his friend told him that large tracts of fertile land in Sichuan were planted with opium...

After a few crisp knocks on the door, a middle-aged man's face appeared from inside. Judging from his clothes, he should be the doorman, "Who are you?"

Zheng Yiliang restrained his bad temper , with an elegant appearance of a scholar: "I am Zheng Yiliang, and I am invited to visit your master with my friends."

"Please come in! My master has been waiting for you gentlemen for a long time."

As soon as Zheng Yiliang and Li Shuran entered the yard, they saw a young man in a white shirt walking through the corridor, smiling and walking towards them quickly. Before he arrived, he said: "But Mr. Zheng and his friends have arrived? I am sorry for not welcoming them from afar. I am really disrespectful."

Zheng Yiliang and Li Shuran fell into a short period of speechlessness because the night watchman was unexpectedly young, and Le Jing was also amazed in his heart.

Who would have thought that Mr. Zheng Yiliang's friend was Mr. Zhou Dezhang? As the current principal of Kaiming Middle School, Mr. Zhou Dezhang's photo is still posted on the bulletin board at the school gate. Le Jing can see him every day when he goes to and from work, and he is very familiar with that face. In name, Mr. Zhou Dezhang is here with his friends, but if we look at Le Jing and Li Shuran's current identities, his visit is both a visit from his superior and a home visit from the principal.

Unlike the old photos that are widely circulated in later generations, Zhou Dezhang, who is only in his forties, is a middle-aged man with a beautiful temperament. His facial features are not outstanding, but as the saying goes, a person with knowledge and culture is naturally elegant. Whenever he stands there, his elegant demeanor makes people unable to take their eyes away.

Zheng Yiliang, who was standing side by side with him, did not give in too much. Zheng Yiliang, now thirty-two years old, is in the best golden age of his life. He comes from a well-established family, is loved by relatives and friends, has good looks and is talented. His outstanding works are like a spurt and have attracted a lot of attention from the academic world. He is a well-deserved pride of heaven. Every pore on his body is filled with pride, so he has no dust, dares to scold anything, and is not afraid of anything. Le Jing knew that his pride would end with the assassination three years later. His pride made him successful and ultimately cost him his life.

No matter how much he sighs in his heart, Le Jing's smile remains unchanged and he bows his hands to the two gentlemen who look a little dull, "I am the night watchman. I wonder what I should call Mr. Zheng's friends?"

Zheng Yiliang looked Le Jing up and down with surprised eyes, and exclaimed: "I really didn't expect that." Thinking that that day Zhou Dezhang said that he wanted to have friends for many years, and now at the age of the night watchman... he couldn't help but murmur to himself Said: "At this age, you can be our son..."

Zhou Dezhang's face darkened, and he gave his undistinguished friend a hard blow without leaving any trace. Then he raised his hand to Le Jing and said, "Zhou Dezhang, nicknamed Junyu, didn't expect the night watchman to be so young. Don't be offended by the rudeness."

Le Jing pretended not to hear Zheng Yiliang's complaints, and smiled as if he was meeting Zhou Dezhang for the first time: "It turns out to be Mr. Zhou. I have always heard that the Kaiming Middle School under Mr. Here you go, sir! It’s really better to see it than to hear it once!”

The young man has a tall and straight figure and good appearance. His white shirt makes him look like a gentleman. He is elegant and generous. His smile makes people feel like a spring breeze. It makes people forget about vulgarity. You can tell at a glance that he is a very elegant and decent scholar. Even if he is flattering himself openly, he will not give people a greasy feeling of being swayed by others, but will only feel that his words are sincere and useful.

It is always pleasant to interact with such a romantic figure. Even a serious and calm person like Zhou Dezhang could not help but have a smile on his lips at this time, and his voice softened a bit, "What, what, little friend, I am overly praised. On the contrary, I am little friend, little friend." He has such a great talent at a young age, and he is much better than we were back then. Chu Guo really agrees with the old saying, a person who is better than someone who is good at it."

Zheng Yiliang also said: "I didn't expect that a teenager could write such an article. It's really irritating. Compared with you, I'm really old as a dog!"

The three of them stood in the yard and blew rainbow farts at each other. After Zheng Yiliang and Zheng Yiliang both felt comfortable, Le Jing led the two people to sit down in the front hall and made tea for them with his own hands.

After three rounds of tea, the conversation between the three of them also started. Then for some reason, Zheng Yiliang mentioned "The Rise of Dynasties" that was recently serialized in "Beiping Novel Newspaper": "There have been natural disasters in Great China for many years, the fields across the country are not harvesting, and there are foreign invasions outside, but the rulers are stupid. Tyranny, the army is weak..." He shook his head, with a flash of sarcasm in his eyes: "If Xu Wangmu wants the people to survive, the only way to go is to rebel. "

Le Jing raised his eyebrows calmly, "Oh? Why do you say that? After all, the rebellion will involve the nine tribes." He couldn't help but be surprised by Zheng Yiliang's keenness. After all, the rebellion plot has not yet progressed, and Xu Wangmu is still there. As for infrastructure farming, while organizing the victims to hunt and dig wild vegetables in the mountains, they also mobilized workers to dig wells and repair canals.

Zheng Yiliang sneered: "People are going to starve to death, why do you care about the nine tribes and the nine tribes? For the common people, filling their stomachs is the righteousness and truth in their hearts." He pursed his lips and sneered: "The guy in front, Isn’t that why he was kicked out?”

Le Jing nodded silently in his heart, yes, what Zheng Yiliang said was also his next plot arrangement. However, there are not many calm and sober people like Zheng Yiliang in the world. Most of them are fools who have been successfully brainwashed by thousands of years of loyalty to the emperor. The emperor has been gone for more than ten years, and there are still people clamoring for restoration!

Therefore, Lejing’s subsequent rebellion plot must be in the name of righteousness. The great cause chosen by Le Jing for the protagonist is "war to protect the country." Xu Wangmu led the rebel army to resist foreign invasion and protect the country, but the enemy was too cruel, and the emperor died at the hands of his enemies. Xu Wangmu turned his grief into strength and fought hard for many days with the army to finally drive away the invaders and avenge the emperor. But the country cannot be left without a master for a day. In the end, Xu Wangmu "reluctantly" wore the yellow robe and became the founder of the new dynasty under the cry of his confidants and the people.

Xu Wangmu almost followed the path of Ming Tai and Zhu Yuanzhang. Written in this way, readers who understand will naturally understand, and those who don't understand will think that Xu Wangmu is loyal to the country, brave and resourceful, and it is okay for him to be the emperor, and it will not poke too much into some people's sensitive points.

Zhou Dezhang, who had been silent since he talked about this topic, sighed when he heard this, with a bitter look on his brows, "We can understand these things, but not many people in the authorities can understand them!"

His chest was rising and falling, these words had been held in his heart for too long, and he couldn't help but burst out in joy: "Do you know what is grown in the fertile fields of more than a dozen major grain-producing provinces such as Henan, Shaanxi, Northeast Sichuan, etc.? It’s opium! Thousands of acres of fertile land are grown in opium! Why would the people rather buy food? Not farming? Because there is no money to be made from farming, and opium can be smoked at home or sold for money! The government and warlords still encourage people to grow opium. Why don’t they encourage the empress dowager of the Qing Dynasty? He was so extravagant and lustful, didn’t he use the opium tax to finance the military and build cannons and ships?”

He stood up and smiled bitterly: "Now it's a new society. Opium has finally changed from the royal family's purse to the government and warlords' purse. I heard that some warlords use opium as military pay. This business is very profitable, right?" He held his chest with red eyes and roared in a tearing voice: "I am afraid that one day the weather will be bad, and there will be a drought for a year..." He closed his eyes, fell into the chair with a pale face, and whispered: "The hungry people will turn into a pack of wolves and tear this country to pieces."