It was six days after the young man arrived in Loulan City. This was the result of changing horses several times and traveling day and night while passing through several post stations such as Yumen, Liangzhou, and Dunhuang. Based on this time, Huaitan Snow Dragon Horse should have arrived two days ago due to its foot strength.
The young man was galloping all the way, and he had never thought about the meeting scene, but at this moment he became a little timid. Suddenly, I thought of how to make a beautiful opening statement to alleviate the embarrassment of following along. Or maybe he was trying to find an excuse to explain why he came uninvited. If he said he was looking for a horse, would he look too petty?
Since he was a child, he often followed his uncles and aunts around the world, and for the first time, he felt that he was at a loss for words.
Pretentious.
This time, the young man did not forcefully break into the government office like the previous times. When he entered Loulan City, he was not as anxious as he was in the first few days. He got off his horse and communicated his name with the guard at the door, then waited quietly aside.
Yesterday, I received news from Fei Ge in Dunhuang City, saying that a young master from an unknown lord's house in Beijing came to Loulan to deal with urgent matters. He was holding the soap jade plaque given by the emperor in his hand. The prefect, the captain, and others went down to Qianhu, Baichang, and the envoys. All the officials, big and small, stayed behind in the government office. They could neither stand nor sit down. They could not sleep or eat well, and they were restless, for fear of being attacked by the superiors. A powerful figure sent to conduct private inspections and undercover visits incognito.
The young man didn't wait too long. Officials of all sizes who had been waiting all day and night filed out, and he was very energetic. The first one was a rich middle-aged man with a peacock tattooed on his official uniform. His posture was very respectful. From the moment he appeared in the young man's sight, he bent down and trotted all the way. A group of civil servants and military generals behind him had to follow closely.
"We are waiting for you, young master." The rich man looked servile, and his words were full of the slickness he had learned in the officialdom for so many years.
You can't call me Master.
Where there is a young master, there is a master. Where there is a master, it means there is someone behind the young master.
Nowadays, these officials' children are most afraid of others saying that they are incompetent, saying that they rely on me to get to the position. They don't have much ink in their stomachs and want to paint a picture of thousands of miles of mountains and rivers. Let's not talk about the quality of the painting. The first thing is He had to first hear others praise him for his personal talent instead of praising his family background for paving a good path for him. Otherwise, it would make people think that the painting was painted with the help of the family and had nothing to do with him.
You can't call me "sir".
The reason why adults are adults is because they are appointed by superiors. What does the sound of "adult" mean? Explain that it is not important whether the adults are capable or not. What is important is that the superiors are capable. If you have skills at the top, you will naturally have the skills at the bottom. Is that your own ability? That is the ability of those above and has nothing to do with those below.
Regardless of whether you are a young master or an adult, the same title can lead to deep water.
The young man had something on his mind, so he naturally wouldn't bother with the title. Instead, he let this third-grade official think that he had handled it properly.
"Has anything happened in the city recently?" The young man went straight to the point and did not think about the twists and turns in the heart of the rich man in front of him.
The rich man in the uniform of a fifth-grade civil servant kept his head bowed and bowed. Not to mention the expressions on his face, not to mention the civil servants and military generals behind him who were receiving monthly rewards, even the young man standing less than two steps in front of him. can not see.
After hearing the young man's question, he realized that this prefect, who had been immersed in the officialdom for decades and had climbed from a petty official to the position of almost a frontier official, had almost become the emperor of Loulan. At this time, he felt a little flustered.
Loulan is said to be a city, but it is actually a country. It has four counties and a siege city to protect it. Among the thirty-six vassal states under the control of the Western Region Protectorate, because it is adjacent to Dunhuang, where the governor's office of Anxi is located to the east, and further west to other vassal states, it is necessary to start from here, and it has become the lifeline of transportation in the Western Region except Dunhuang. .
The post of Loulan Governor is very lucrative.
According to what the young man heard from time to time at home, the wealthy man in front of him, who was in the third rank of the official position, had been in this position for seven or eight years. The most interesting thing is that he is neither above nor below, and his skills are really not enough for outsiders.
It was just that the other party paused for such a moment, causing the young man to frown.
At this time, the prefect lowered his waist again, as if he understood that the young man dressed as a scholar in front of him was here to investigate the horse thieves who caused trouble in the city a few days ago? But where does this so-called loneliness come from?
With electricity in his heart and his words following his thoughts, the prefect said, "Not much has happened recently."
The young man frowned and looked at the respectful prefect without saying a word.
Outside the government office, all the officials, big and small, were bowing their waists and facing the young man who did not look like a member of the imperial court. The scene was strange.
The eunuch secretly watched, and the moment he met the young man's gaze, he avoided it with fear. He was more nervous than a mouse when he saw a cat. He only said with a slight trembling: "I don't know what the young master wants to ask about. Why don't you go to the palace first and allow the official to sit down?" A report."
The young man who has seen many such official interactions is very familiar with using the overwhelming power in his hands to overwhelm people for the first time. He still remained silent. You must know that silence in this situation is the most torturous.
This frightened the prefect so much that he broke into sweat. He weighed it again and again, and said with a hint of probing in his tone: "Could it be that the young master was asking about the group of horse thieves who sneaked into the city a few days ago?"
The eunuch who finally spoke harshly when the boy said "hmm" said hurriedly: "The horse thieves have been in shape for several years. Relying on their familiarity with the terrain of our Western Regions, they are extremely cunning. I and my colleagues have tried their best and failed to find it. Seeing the clues, I really feel ashamed of my trust in the Holy One, I hope you will understand me."
Watertight.
It was precisely because of the beautiful words that he said that the young man frowned and pursed his lips again.
Let me first talk about the cunning side of the horse thief. No matter how hard it is on his own side, it is excusable even if he is not found. Finally, he sings a high note to express his attitude towards the court.
This kind of official talk was often heard by my old man and his preaching sister when I was young.
Naturally, the young man had no intention of examining this man's smooth words, so he asked again: "Are there horse thieves in the city?"
The prefect trembled visibly. This was a dereliction of duty, and in the worst case, he would be demoted. I wonder why the massacre that happened in the city some time ago spread to the capital so quickly just a few days ago?
He glanced at the young man with a frosty mask again. Although he was frightened, he reported truthfully: "A group of merchants came to the city a few days ago. The customs clearance certificate had Yanqi's seal on it. Unexpectedly, they killed him in the city that night. He killed a family of five, young and old, and escaped from Loulan overnight. After receiving the news, I sent people to investigate overnight, but to my surprise, the group of horse thieves..."
The young man had to guess whether it was about the chatty girl.
"Okay." The young man interrupted the prefect and asked for more words, "Speak less and do more."
These four words made the prefect bend even lower.
"What's that family's last name?"
"It seems... Zhuang." At this time, the prefect didn't dare to hide anything at all, and answered clearly.
The young man frowned and ordered: "Find two people to take me to that house to have a look."
The prefect hurriedly agreed and whispered to a guard behind him to arrange for two guards to serve the unknown young man from an official family.
The young man stopped riding and followed the two guards to the alley in the north of the city that the prefect informed him about.
"Shouzuo" is a name directly translated from the dialect of the Western Regions, and its original meaning is "to guard". At first, the mainland prisoners of the Zhou Dynasty were disobedient to the management after being assassinated in the border areas, and they mostly harmed the local people. Later, the local people spontaneously organized city defense teams to govern themselves and protect themselves to prevent evil, and they were called "guardians". Later, the imperial court strengthened its management and organized prisoners into it based on the original basis. In their spare time, they were assigned to farmland and served as soldiers during the war. The name was changed to "Shou Cap Camp" and the establishment was fifty people. There is a leader in the camp who is the Shouchuo envoy, and his subordinates call themselves Shouchuo Lang.
The two guardians, one big and one small, the younger one was only a few years younger than the boy, their expressions were immature and tight, and they followed behind them obediently.
The older one looked thirty years younger, behaved in a frivolous manner, held a Populus euphratica leaf that can be seen everywhere in the Western Regions in his mouth, clasped his hands behind his back, walked unsteadily, and looked like a real street gangster. The young man was attentive and inadvertently saw that there was a tattoo on the left side of the man's eyebrow. However, the brim of the man's hat was deliberately lowered, making it difficult to see clearly.
"Are you a local?" The young man looked at the young-looking Shou Zhuolang. He had no tattoos on his face and was young, so the young man would naturally think that he was a man who voluntarily joined the army in Loulan City.
Xiao Mamoru didn't answer, but just lowered his head and followed the young man, as if the question was not about him.
The young man just found it boring.
"He is from Henan Prefecture."
The one who spoke was Omori Choro holding a leaf in his mouth. When the boy turned to look at him, he found that his words did not affect the leaf in his mouth.
"He had just been weaned, and his mother found a concubine outside. After drinking some wine, his father stabbed the two bastards with a knife. When he surrendered, he had no other requirements. If he was a mistress, he would only take his baby with him. Plead guilty. Just like that, his father got a tattoo on his face and married Loulan, and the two of them traveled six thousand miles west, from the place where rice and oil flowed from the Central Plains to this barren Western Region."
The big Shou Zhulang talked a lot, and he told the details of the little Shou Zhulang thoroughly.
"Later, when he was six or seven years old, his father had the horse thieves kill him during a roundup. He had no place to go, so he stayed in the guard camp. When he grew up, he naturally became the guard guard."
The young man tilted his head and looked at the child who must be a few years younger than him. He was born in two different worlds and was completely different. He still walked cautiously along the inside of the street without saying a word.
"May I have your name?"
The young man still took the initiative to ask, but the child didn't have the Loulan Prefect's intentions and still didn't speak.
"Wu Liuqi." The one who replied was still the tattooed Dashou Zhuolang. "His father changed his name before he died. He said he asked someone to change his name. It means not to keep a wife." Lang Yinyu was very precise, and he could make the boy understand that the two sounds meant different names without any explanation.
The young man said nothing, but looked at the child a few more times. He was also wondering why the prefect, who spoke so well, sent such a boring gourd over. It was not like his behavior.
Dashou Zhulang suddenly raised his hand and pinched the leaf in his mouth, held it between his lips and blew a tune.
The music is long, desolate and sad. Like a broken silver vase, like pearls falling from a jade plate, the tone is straight and sharp, the panic of the lonely smoke in the desert, and the sunset over the long river are all consistent in this city where loess is the main color.
"He knows how to serve people." Dashou Zhulang said something irrelevant, causing the young man to glance at him sideways.
This man's insight is extraordinary.
The young man knew that the "him" that Da Shou Zhu Lang was talking about was the little Shou Zhu Lang named Wu Liuqi. Thinking about it, it was true. He had been living under someone else's roof since he was a child. If he didn't know how to observe words and emotions and didn't know how to serve, how could he live peacefully until now? ?
"What did you do to your face?" the young man suddenly said.
No names were given, and the person involved knew to ask the question himself.
"Kill someone." Dashou caught the man and put the leaf in his mouth again, "Kill the person who bullied my mother-in-law."
The young man stopped and turned around.
Wu Liuqi, who was bowing his head and just moving forward, accidentally bumped into the young man, lowering his head even more.
It was the first time for the young man to face up to this frivolous and talkative Omori Choro. He was under thirty years old, and his skin was extremely dry due to the wind and sand in the Western Regions for many years. His hair was messy on his head, probably because he had not taken care of it seriously for many years. It also happened to cover the inked patch, and with the squeeze of the tattered sheepskin corrugated hat that looked like it was picked up, others couldn't really see the mark at a glance.
The young man turned around and continued walking.
"I used to be very timid, and I would go fishing with the villagers. When the wind was strong, I would hide in the cabin and not dare to show my head. They all scolded me for being worthless. I didn't dare to kill the fish. They were all bloody and flopping around. My father said I will starve to death sooner or later on the beach where I make a living by fishing."
"Actually, my mother-in-law was in my arms when she died. She told me not to stand up for her. It doesn't matter if she dies. She doesn't want me to have to deal with it for the rest of my life. She has to live well."
"Tell me, this girl, when will it be her turn to make decisions for men?"
"You said that I am a grown-up man who can't even protect my own mother-in-law. What's the point of living? I'll just get along with you in this life. Why don't you have the next life?"
"I didn't dare to kill someone. I moved a rock and hit him while he was sleeping in the cabin. His head missed the target and he was not killed. He got up and ran. I hit him on the head and he fainted. I sat on him and smashed him until his head was smashed and I vomited all over the floor." Dashou Zhulang said easily, and then, "Hehe."
The last laugh of the big Shou Zhulang frightened the little Shou Zhulang and unconsciously moved away from him.
The young man didn't say anything. He turned the corner when he saw the sign that said Anmin Lane and asked again: "What's your name?"
"I forgot." Dashou Zhuolang said naturally, "Everyone in the camp calls me Ada, because I have great strength and a big appetite."
A horse was galloping from the far side of the street. The rider was wearing a navy blue post officer uniform, shouting "get out of the way, get out of the way".
Wu Liuqi, the little guard who was turning the corner, was too late to react. The young man reached out to grab him, but it was the big guard who forgot his name and said he was called Ah Da. He took one step to hug Wu Liuqi and took two steps back.
"Old Yin Tou has fewer and fewer brats under his command, Wu Liuqi, next time I'll make Old Yin Tou drink and urinate half the pot." Ada yelled at the postman, but he meant it to Wu Liuqi. Then, "Hahahaha."
The clouds and sunshine are irregular, and the sorrow and joy are uncertain. This person is very ordinary in the city.
