The dark clouds covered the sky and the earth, and the lightning that tore the sky thundered in the ink-like sky. The thunder rolled, and then the heavy rain poured down, as if the canopy neglected its duty to spy on Chang'e and let the Tianhe open a gap... ...
On the official road in the distance, a carriage covered with linoleum came swaying in the storm. The strong horse was soaked like a buffalo, panting heavily and struggling to walk on the muddy official road.
"Sir, there are less than three miles ahead of Yingtian. The wind and rain are too strong. Let's take a short rest and wait for the wind and rain to subside before we can continue our journey." The chariot-horse man wearing a straw hat turned around and asked inside the car.
Maybe the wind and rain were too noisy and the sound was too quiet.
There was silence in the car.
Chamo Shi asked loudly again.
After a while, there was a lazy voice that seemed to have just woken up. It was a young man, "Oh, yes, of course, Brother Zhao has decided."
The man driving the horse in a straw hat laughed when he heard this and joked, "I really admire you, you can sleep well in this weather."
"The sound of wind and rain was so rhythmic that I couldn't help but fall asleep while listening to it." A naive voice in the carriage seemed to explain a little embarrassedly.
"Young Master is joking, I can save what others don't care about. In the past, Young Master always read in the car, but the weather today makes it difficult to see clearly. Young Master can just rest, but Young Master can't sleep on such a day, but... I'm impressed." The man driving the horse stopped the carriage on the side of the road, put a straw reed mat on the strong horse, and talked to the young man in the carriage with a smile.
The horse driver felt pity for his horse, but he did not dare to drive the carriage into the woods to take shelter during a thunderstorm, so he had to park the carriage on the side of the road to get out of the way.
"Brother Zhao, come to the car and take shelter from the rain."
A corner of the carriage curtain was lifted, and a slightly fat and naive young man stuck his head out, looked at the wind and rain outside, and said to the man standing outside the carriage.
Through the light of lightning, he could recognize that this slightly fat and naive boy was Zhu Ping'an who came to Yingtian to take the exam.
The man driving the horse in a raincoat shook his head, "This and that will work, but I won't go in if I'm wet."
Zhu Ping'an, who slightly leaned out of the carriage, waved his hand nonchalantly, "It's okay. Brother Zhao will only come in except for the raincoat. I have put all the luggage and books in the bag."
The man driving the horse hesitated for a moment, then at Zhu Pingan's repeated request, he took off his raincoat and got into the carriage to rest for a while.
This carriage is also a coincidence. In ancient times, there were no direct carriages to everywhere like in modern times. In the Ming Dynasty, even carriages and horses could not say that there was a carriage to wherever you wanted to go. This was also the reason why Zhu Ping'an and Zhu Ping'an both After going around for a while, I happened to meet a horse driver who was going to Yingtian to haul goods. After a little negotiation, the horse driver happily gave Zhu Pingan a ride and only charged a small fare. In ancient times, under the constraints of ethics, there seemed to be more good people.
Yichuan Tobacco fills the city. Plum yellow Shiyu.
Outside the carriage, the strong wind and heavy rain roared down. I was so energetic that it started raining sleeplessly. Zhu Pingan looked out through the car window and saw a world full of water, so he was even more impressed by Jiangnan Meiyu. In the past, it was only recorded in textbooks: In the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, there will be continuous cloudy and rainy weather in June and July every year. Since it is the maturity period of Jiangnan plums, it is called "Meiyu", and this period is called "Meiyu". It is called the rainy season. Now Zhu Ping'an feels even more about the plum rain. He has been traveling for several days without seeing any sunshine.
From the morning until mid-afternoon, the wind and moon did not stop, but became slightly smaller. Brother Zhao, who was driving the horse, put on his raincoat again and drove the carriage along the official road.
The road was muddy and watery, and the carriage swayed unsteadily. Even the ancient official roads cannot be compared with modern roads, even if they are shoddy construction projects.
After walking less than three miles for more than half an hour, which is now more than an hour, we arrived at Yingtian, which is now Nanjing.
Zhu Ping'an was shocked by the majestic city of Nanjing just once he opened the carriage door curtain.
Towering, majestic, majestic...
The Yingtian City Wall is like a giant dragon winding and guarding Yingtian. It stretches as far as the eye can see and winds for dozens of kilometers. The city wall is newly built and looks renewed under the heavy rain. The Yingtian City Wall was only completed in the last years of Hongwu. This is the largest city wall Zhu Pingan has ever seen. It is more majestic than the Xi'an City Wall and is almost the largest city in the world. Of course, Shuntian (Beijing) should be the largest at this time. , but this does not affect Zhu Pingan's emotion.
Especially at this time, rainwater poured from the city to the drainage outlet of the city wall, flowing out through several protruding stone-carved faucets on the city wall. There was abundant water, and the water flowing out of the dragon's mouth was like a real dragon spitting water. It was so spectacular that it added to Zhu Ping'an's emotion.
At this time, outside the gate of Yingtian City, there were many pedestrians and vehicles coming and going even in this weather. There were also people who looked like scholars outside, holding paper umbrellas, sighing with emotion about "dragon spitting water" outside the city. Despite the heavy rain, the poems were booming. , leaving behind excellent works, it is just a suffering for the servants of the book boy holding up the umbrella to protect the paper and ink.
Not long after entering Nanjing, the trip was delayed due to heavy rain. Brother Zhao, a horse driver, was in a hurry to buy goods, so he dropped Zhu Ping'an in front of an inn, apologized and drove off in the carriage.
Zhu Pingan stood outside the inn with his luggage on his back, waved to the departing carriage and thanked him loudly.
"Hey, this is not Zhu Ping'an, the head of the case. I haven't seen him for several months. Why...how did he become so fat..."
One of the scholars who came back from watching the dragon spit water from outside the city heard Zhu Pingan's voice and felt that it sounded familiar, so he looked up. It took him a few seconds to recognize Zhu Pingan.
Zhu Ping'an really lives up to his reputation as a rice cook. He eats after not seeing each other for several months... and gets fat...
When Zhu Ping'an heard this, he looked around and saw one person among a group of scholars looking at him in surprise. This person looked familiar, but he couldn't recognize who it was. He should be at the Jingxian Poetry Meeting or Zuijun in Yingtian Mansion. Someone upstairs.
"How dare you call me the leader of the case? It's just a fluke. Eating fat, eh, my mother's craftsmanship makes people unable to control their mouths..." Zhu Ping'an bowed his hands in the distance and said with a naive smile.
"Brother Zhu Xian is so humble." The man also bowed his hand.
After the man finished speaking, he whispered a few words to the scholar next to him. After a while, he looked at Zhu Ping'an with dissatisfaction or perhaps a bit of disdain.
"It's windy and rainy, Brother Xian, it's better to go and rest first. Brother Yu will come to visit Brother Zhu Xian another day." The man cupped his hands and left with his comrades around him. ;
