When Zhang Xuezhou entered his new house, many of his neighbors stared at him.
But no one dared to come to congratulate him.
It was probably after Zhang Xuezhou stayed for ten and a half days, or even longer, that everyone dared to come and visit.
This is exactly in line with Zhang Xuezhou's thoughts.
He and Rong Tianding went out at night to visit Di Rang, their neighbor on the left, and then went to the home of Zheng Wukong, their neighbor on the right.
Di Rang was running the guest house business. Perhaps he realized that he had reached the limit of a businessman. Di Rang did not let his children inherit the guest house business, but he wanted to gain fame as a way out.
His son Dishan studied under Confucianism and was officially included in the first batch of recruitment lists for the new emperor.
Although he is still a minor official at the moment, he has a promising future.
Zheng Wukong was proficient in medical skills and opened a pharmacy in Chang'an City. He also had great connections and financial resources. Zhang Xuezhou thought that his medical skills should be better than those of Wang Ermazi from Shujun City in order to gain a firm foothold in Chang'an City. .
However, although Zheng Wukong was nearly fifty years old, he did not marry a wife and have children, but only brought a few apprentices.
The apprentices followed their master during the day and went to their own places at night, which resulted in the Zheng family being relatively deserted most of the time.
After finding out the background of the two families, Zhang Xuezhou was also happy to associate with such a neighbor.
He warmly invited the two families to visit the Zhang family. After Di Rang and Zheng Wukong declined, he returned to his home with great satisfaction.
Dinner was a bunch of sunflower vegetables bought from the Western Market. Lu ate 90% of it in vain, while Zhang Xuezhou and Rong Tianding filled their stomachs with the remaining 10% of the sunflower vegetables.
The two were silent all night, and went out together early the next morning.
Rong Tianding went to run a restaurant in the West City, while Zhang Xuezhou went to Yangling to work.
After leaving Chang'an City and heading east, you can reach Zhang Xuezhou's post in half an hour by carriage.
The cost of the carriage is one and a half taels. If you don't like riding in a carriage, you can run there by yourself, or you can ride your own horse.
Zhang Xuezhou has many ways to travel, but the black and white horses are easy to lose money and suffer disasters, while the Yunzhong technique is not suitable for casting in broad daylight, and the Teng Yun technique is a bit ostentatious.
Zhang Xuezhou finally sat in the carriage honestly.
The cemetery was not a good place. The coachman hurriedly drove the carriage and pulled him under a city wall. Then he hurriedly rode towards Chang'an City, not even pulling the returning passengers.
"It was fine when I came here, how can I go back!"
Zhang Xuezhou muttered.
He walked a few steps and heard someone shouting from the tower.
"Stop the visitors, what are you doing?"
"The new official commander Dongfang Shuo is stationed at Dongsima Gate under the orders of the imperial court. Who do you belong to?"
Zhang Xuezhou was holding the badge of Sima Ling of the bus, which caused a flurry of footsteps on the tower.
After waiting for a few minutes, the gate of the city wall was opened to a crack large enough for one person to pass through.
"Sir, we are all your subordinates!"
Zhang Xuezhou looked at the city gate and then looked inside, only to see five soldiers wearing cloth armor muttering.
These people are all tall, short, fat and thin, and some have broken arms and lame legs.
Compared with the city gate guards who serve as ceremonial pacesetters at the Chang'an City Gate, the guards at Yangling Sima Gate are not classy at all.
Zhang Xuezhou felt a chill in his heart when he looked at the soldiers.
That was fine as long as nothing happened. If something really went wrong, he probably wouldn't be able to count on these people to help.
"The other two bus commanders?" Zhang Xuezhou asked as he entered the city gate.
"He hasn't taken office yet!"
"Not taking office?"
In Zhang Xuezhou's impression, he believed that the Yanglingdong Sima Sima Lings had two other burly Sima Lings. These two people must be good at swords and other martial arts. They also led a group of strong men under their command, and then used their fists to solve problems.
Zhang Xuezhou did not compete with these people, he was already mentally prepared for the night shift.
But no matter how much Zhang Xuezhou thought about it, he never expected that he would be the first Sima Ling of Dongsimamen.
"Where is the former Sima Ling of the bus?" Zhang Xuezhou asked: "This is the burial place of the late emperor. After all, there is no one to guard it, right?"
"There were tomb robbers in the late emperor's mausoleum. One of the two previous gentlemen was beaten to death by the tomb robber, and the other was beheaded for neglecting his duties. Since then, no one has come," said a plump soldier.
"Is an officer like me so dangerous?"
Zhang Xuezhou took a breath of air.
He thought guarding the tomb was an easy job, but he didn't expect it to be a fatal job.
This allowed him to buy a house with the help of his official license, and then he considered resigning.
But as long as he thought about his ambition, Zhang Xuezhou finally endured it.
He will not neglect his duties at all. He must work conscientiously. While others work eight hours a day, he must work twenty-four hours a day until he collapses from exhaustion due to his devotion to duty.
Of course, it was not up to him to be on duty twenty-four hours a day. Even if he was actually on duty twenty-four hours a day, his boss or other officials would still have to see it, so that they could discover his conscientiousness.
"We still have to catch a few tomb robbers who broke into the city gate and do some meritorious deeds!"
Zhang Xuezhou thought that the probability of success of the bitter plan was not high.
If he were in Simamen in the imperial city, he would definitely be seen by ministers and even the new emperor because he was tired from duty.
But in a dark and cold place like the cemetery, not many people come to hang out.
He calculated over and over again and felt that he still had to do something. If there were tomb robbers, he would catch the tomb robbers. If he performed more meritorious deeds, he would be able to get out of this trap.
"Sir, not only are you in danger, we are in danger too. If your boss has his head chopped off, your subordinates will also have a hard time," said the puffy soldier.
"My legs were broken when the tomb robbers broke into the East Sima Gate!"
"My hand was chopped off while patrolling the tower at night!"
"I was poisoned and became like this. Those tomb robbers have all kinds of gadgets and they are hard to guard against!"
"My body is weak after being beaten!"
…
For a time, all the soldiers were talking about it.
When everyone first came to Yangling Simamen, they thought they would be able to take care of themselves from now on, but they did not expect that the risks of garrisoning Simamen would be so high.
Simamen's people were so dead and wounded that they didn't even have a head, and in the end they had no choice but to close the city gate tightly.
"Isn't this tomb robber specifically coming to our east gate?" Zhang Xuezhou asked.
"The situation of the other Simamen is similar to ours," said the puffy soldier: "We are all grasshoppers on a rope. We are not living well, and the brothers from the city gate are no different!"
"I have never thought that being a city gate officer is so hard," Zhang Xuezhou said, "We are like this and there is no reaction from above? This is not normal!"
"There are still responses. Every time something happens, there are several high-ranking officials checking the situation." The puffy soldier said: "They said they would send capable officials over, so we need to wait patiently!"
"Effective officials? Just effective officials like us?"
Zhang Xuezhou later realized that he was similar to those officials from Honglu Temple.
The newly promoted novice officials also belonged to the "effective officials" and were eventually sent as envoys to the evil country.
And novices like Zhang Xuezhou were sent to Yangling to serve as "effective officials."
(End of chapter)
