Li Bochen fed the horse while thinking about it, but his heart could not calm down. Simply leaning on the horse's back, the Yin spirit left the body. I went down the road in the direction where the old man and the child left, and passed through a forest. I saw them squatting on the ground digging shepherd's purse. He also secretly observed the expressions of the two, but didn't notice anything wrong, so he could only return to his physical body.
Maybe I'm just too worried. With this thought in mind, he mounted his horse again and headed towards Sanguan City ahead.
As we approached the outside of the city, we saw the houses circling the city, and there were more and more pedestrians on the road. Some are carrying burdens to go to the city to sell perfumes and flowers, some are selling rouge and gouache, and some are selling various kinds of food. Some other laborers, each carrying a pole, gathered on the roadside to talk and laugh. When they saw Li Bochen coming on horseback, they all asked, "Can the officials need help?"
In his memory, he rarely heard people speaking Li Guohua. Nowadays, the noisy surroundings are full of "local accents", and a strange feeling suddenly arises in my heart, and I don't feel so dull anymore.
He dismounted and walked through the crowd to the city gate. It was discovered that an ox cart carrying alum overturned and blocked the city gate. A group of people were busy cleaning up. Someone behind them wanted to step over from the bullock cart, but was pulled by the owner of the cart, causing a quarrel. The soldiers guarding the city gate came over with a Sui accent to persuade them, but it was obvious that there were too many people to keep them away, so they left it alone.
Li Boxen didn't pass for a while, so he stood in the crowd and looked around. He saw a wooden notice beside the city gate, with many announcements posted on it. After taking a closer look, sure enough, there was also a reward notice of its own.
He pushed down the bamboo hat and thought to himself, I, Li Bochen, am really famous all over the world now.
Just as he was thinking this, he heard a person watching around Mu Gaoxian say: "In these days, pigs and dogs are in power, and great heroes have to be jailed."
He was stunned when he heard this and thought to himself, are you talking about me?
As soon as this thought came to mind, several people around the man echoed: "Exactly. Well done! They have been given good food and clothing for generations, and now they also have a taste of having their heads cut off."
Another person said: "These Sui people are really getting stupider than the last. This notice was posted here to ask us to help the hero escape? Haha!"
Sure enough, he was talking about himself. Li Ding usually calls himself a hero, but he knows it's a polite comment and doesn't take it seriously. But one of the three people talking was Lifu, another was dressed as a scholar, and the third seemed to be a hawker. Hearing them praise themselves as heroes, I felt very comfortable.
He also said that these three people should not have any contact with each other, and they did not seem to be familiar with each other, but these words made a group of people around them laugh and applaud, which shows that the Sui people are not popular here. It has been more than ten years since the Li Kingdom was destroyed, and it seems that the five kingdoms have still not conquered the people. No wonder Linxi Lord can become a climate.
At this time, a soldier at the city gate heard a burst of laughter, pressed the hilt of his knife and came over and shouted: "What are you laughing at?!"
Na Lifu immediately said loudly: "Master Jun, let's have a peaceful and prosperous country and a prosperous future for the people!"
When he said this, the people around him burst into laughter again.
The soldier was from the Sui Dynasty, maybe he had just been transferred to Li State for duty. For a while, he couldn't quite understand what Lifu was talking about. But when he saw people laughing, he felt that it was not a good thing to say, so he frowned and took a step forward.
Unexpectedly, when he took this step, a group of people behind Lifu immediately shouted: "Master Jun, if you show your power here, be careful and you will be beaten to death with sticks!"
Li Bochen had always heard that the people in Li Jing were tough, but he didn't expect them to be so tough. The soldier must also know what the customs are like here. His face turned blue and white for a while, and he was in a dilemma. Fortunately, another companion came over and pulled him back, saying, "Be as knowledgeable as them!"
Then he borrowed the donkey from the slope and returned to the cave in the city.
The people in front of the door burst into laughter again, but the man just pretended not to listen this time.
When Li Bochen saw this scene, somehow the gloom in his heart was swept away. Although I have never lived here, I feel like I am home. The folk customs here are like this, and there should be many like-minded people like me. Unfortunately, I am in trouble now. Otherwise, if I lived here, I would have made many close friends.
After a while, the cart of alum was finally loaded, and the owner led the cow into the city. He also mixed in with the crowd and passed through the city gate.
After entering the city, I discovered that the cityscape of Li State was also different from that of Sui State. The Sui territory was mountainous and flat land was scarce, so the roads in the city were not very wide. But most of Li's country is plain, the land seems not precious, and the roads are very wide.
The main road leading into the city is large enough for four oxcarts to travel in parallel, and the buildings on both sides of the road are taller. Although Sanguan City is not as prosperous as Zhang City, it is no longer a small town. But as a result, it will be more difficult to find the places where Chang Tingwei has been.
Li Bochen led his horse around the city gate cave for a while and decided to eat first. When he first came here, he didn't know what good food there was, so he randomly picked up a restaurant called "Li Zhu'er Food Shop", tied his horse in front of the door, and walked in.
Looking at the menu board on the wall, I ordered white pork with pickled cabbage, hot liver tip, lotus tofu, soybean bone, and a bowl of heyi pancake. When the waiter served the first dish, he asked: "Brother, do you have Su Ye Cake in your store?"
The waiter was a young man. He frowned and thought for a while, then said: "No. But if the officials want to eat dessert, they have sweet dumplings - Suye cake is filled with red beans and glutinous rice as the skin. In fact, it is the same as sweet dumplings. It’s almost the same. But the sweet dumplings are filled with red bean paste cake and are thinner, so no one eats that these years.”
Li Boxen said: "Then let's have some sweet dumplings."
The waiter was stunned for a moment and said, "Guardian, you can't eat these."
Li Bochen smiled secretly in his heart and thought, I'm afraid you haven't experienced my appetite. But he only said: "If you can't eat it, pack it up and take it away - also, do you have polygonum fermented rice here?"
The waiter smiled: "Guanren, you really know how to eat and drink. We don't have that kind of thing here, and it should be gone in Sanguan City now - I heard the old man at home said that there was a special brewer of that wine in the city in the early years, but The shop has collapsed a long time ago."
Hearing the word "specialized", Li Boxen's heart skipped a beat and asked, "Is that the only one in the city that sells this wine? What about other cities?"
The waiter smiled and said: "Polygonum fermentation is only available in our Sanguan."
Li Bochen took a breath and said, "Okay, thank you very much."
When the guy left, he immediately recited Beichen Blessing in his heart - Chang Tingwei said that she drank polygonum fermented rice when eating suye cake. Unexpectedly, he found the right place as soon as he entered Li Kingdom!
But when I think about it again, it makes sense. She was going to flee to the Sui Kingdom at that time. She must have reached Sanguan and knew that it would be safe to leave the country, so she had the intention to drink.
After a while, food and drink will be ready. Only then did Li Bochen know what the waiter meant when he said "can't eat". Although Li Jing's food is not as exquisite as Sui Jing's, the portions are huge, and the heyi cakes and sweet dumplings are piled as high as a mountain.
But these days, he only eats dry biscuits. There is no oil or water in the Five Zang Temple, so he is not afraid. He simply opened his cheeks and ate and drank a lot. In two quarters of an hour, all the dishes on the table were bottomless. When paying the bill, the shopkeeper and the waiter were quite surprised and even praised him as a warrior. Li Bochen secretly teased in his heart that you were the one who came up with the name of the store well.
After he had finished drinking, he went to fetch his horse outside the shop, intending to go along the street to inquire more. But at a glance, I saw a few idle people gathering together across the street, leaning against the wall to bask in the sun. Look at the lively eyes of those people, their hands are not rough, and they don't look like they are laborers, they should be helpers in the city.
This kind of people make a living by looking at people's glances. The information must be very well-informed, so he leads the horse over.
Seeing him approaching, several idle men stood up. A man with a mustache glanced at him and said with a smile: "Official, do you have any work to do?"
Li Boxen said: "I have a question."
The man immediately smiled and said: "Then you have found the right person. I don't know about any young lady inside or outside Sanguan City who has had an affair or an old man has taken a concubine - just call me Hun San'er. If you have any questions, please Just ask."
Li Bochen then said: "Okay, there used to be a shop selling Polygonum fermented rice in this city, do you know?"
Hun San'er rolled his eyes and thought for a while, then said: "I know! I know!"
He frowned again: "But I can't remember it at the moment - it was a cold spring last night, I was frozen all night, and now I have a headache and a fever..."
Li Bochen stretched out his hand, took out five big coins and threw them to him, saying, "Can I buy some hot soup and drink it to help my brain become clearer?"
Hun San also smiled: "Yes, of course I can."
But he just stood and stopped talking. Li Bochen sighed secretly, and simply took out some money. Hun San'er's eyes immediately lit up.
He then said: "It doesn't matter if you don't know. You guys go and ask me. I will wait here. If you want to be convinced, these are all yours."
Hun San'er immediately turned around and shouted: "Brothers, please get active?"
The people behind him immediately dispersed with smiles on their faces. Hun San'er turned around and said with a smile: "Master, wait a moment. I'll be back in less than half an hour to pay my order!"
After that, he walked away.
Li Bochen took his horse to the side of the road and stood against the wall. While waiting, he looked at the people on the street, and gradually discovered the differences from Sui Jing. Although many cities in the Sui Dynasty were prosperous, there were also many idle men, beggars, and laborers in the cities. But most of the people walking on the road in Sanguan City were neatly dressed, and it was extremely rare to see anyone who was in poverty. Even those people like Hun San'er just now, although some of their cotton-padded clothes were torn, they were still able to keep warm.
It had only been more than ten years since the Li Kingdom suffered a great calamity, and the vast fields outside the city were deserted. It could not be more prosperous than the Sui Kingdom. Such a phenomenon should mean that the poor people are no longer in the city - it is difficult for them to make a living, so they should have fled.
After leaving Fenghua Valley and arriving at Sanguan City, I didn’t see any inns or checkpoints for 40 to 50 miles, and just now I saw Sui soldiers being publicly humiliated at the city gate... Maybe it’s because the government here can only maintain peace in the city. , and was unable to rule outside the city.
Looking at it this way, Linxi Jun's situation is better than he thought, and the people in Li Jing seem to be living a more miserable life.
Although the princes of the five kingdoms once all worshiped the same Emperor Gao, for the people of Li, they were indeed slaves to the subjugation of their country.
