Three days later, the caravan was back on the road.
When the floodwaters receded, the road had been trampled by the vehicles and people in front of it, and it was easy to walk.
The scorching sun hung up in the sky again, and the temperature gradually rose. This alternation of hot and cold caused many people to sneeze.
Therefore, before going on the road today, they all bought a bowl of ginger soup, and those who were seriously ill had already taken medicine. Although the caravan steward disliked the coachman’s illness, it was still a day’s journey from the nearest county town. There were a lot of coolies in the mountains and villages, but they didn’t need to use the carts and horses as security.
The driver Lao Qi lay in the weeds for an hour that day, and when he got up, his neck was aching.
When others saw it, they exclaimed that he was touched by a "ghost hand", and there were blue finger prints on both sides of his neck.
Lao Qi suspected that the person who attacked him was in the village, but there were too many outsiders. Every day, people bought medicine, and they rowed away immediately after they bought it. He also stared at Mo Li and Meng Qi, but he never saw them again.
Lao Qi didn't dare to say that he was attacked, so he could only pretend to be stupid.
With 20 copper coins, he bought the Lao Shizi "exorcism knot" made by the villagers of Lingyao Village.
That thing is similar to the five-colored knots of children during the Dragon Boat Festival, and it is very awkward to put on the wrist.
These days, the knots in the village are selling very well. The original price of ten copper plates has doubled. The villagers wanted to call for a higher price, but no one would buy it no matter how expensive it was. Because of this, the people of Lingyao Village felt uncomfortable, and they always wanted to take the ointment and knots outside to make a fortune.
No, taking the opportunity of this flood, a few people made the excuse that they were going to visit relatives in the neighboring village to see the situation, quietly stuffed jars of ointment in their luggage, followed behind the caravan, making up their minds that if they encountered bandits, they would kill them. run.
Lao Qi laughed in his heart.
Sure enough, when they arrived at the county seat, the people of Lingyao Village were carrying their burdens and peddling them around, but no one paid any attention to them.
The disgraced peasant man, who can't speak Mandarin, carries a bunch of bottles and cans and says it is the ointment of the Spirit Medicine Village. Who can guarantee that it is true
The medicine hall and the shop sell porcelain jars (the reselling caravan disassembles the ointment into smaller containers), and at first glance, it is a good thing that Peng Xianren took out. Besides, the people who open shops in the city can be trusted by the people. The shop can't run away, who dares to buy it on the street
The people from the Spirit Medicine Village had no choice but to lower the price. Anyway, it was much more expensive than them in the city!
Some people did hear that the cheap was coming, but when they saw cheap things, everyone wanted to be cheaper, and they kept bargaining, killing the villagers in cold sweats. The lively neighborhood neighbors swore that as long as it was cheaper, they would definitely make it all.
After they gritted their teeth and nodded, they went home with a smile and took the scale, opened the jar, scraped a layer, and left a copper plate to go.
The people in Lingyao Village were stunned and stretched out their hands to stop them.
Before the one who sold a whole jar of ointment had time to be happy, a few strong men carried a wailing old woman and dragged the people from the Spirit Medicine Village to say that he was selling fake medicine, and he died after applying it. The old woman howled loudly, and the strong man who came with him beat the ointment seller, robbed the money and the ointment, turned around and ran away.
By the time someone got up, the old woman was long gone.
- If the business is so good, what do the ruffians on the street eat
There are not enough staff in the government to keep an eye on them. Only during the festivals and festivals will there be people patrolling. Not to mention the reckless carrying of luggage into the city to sell goods, even the merchants who deal with the shops have to find the right way to recognize the right door.
The driver Lao Qi watched as the caravan unloaded the goods, found a space and said that he would go to the Temple of the City God to worship, and then quickly walked through the streets, carefully paying attention to whether there were people following him, and halfway through, he encountered a person from Lingyao Village with a downcast face and a bruised face. Go, almost laughed.
He twisted the knot on his wrist and threw it into the dirty water.
The flooding situation in the county town is very serious. The water in some alleys has not receded. There are water marks half a wall outside all the houses. People are busy shoveling away the mud and moss on the walls, and then transporting the things damaged by the strong wind. , every street has people repairing roofs and tiling.
Very uncomfortable for someone who wants to hide their whereabouts.
Lao Qi simply found a tea stall to hang out in the evening, and when the people on the roof were gone, he went to find Fengxing Pavilion's sub-rudder in this county.
This is a rice shop. The coolies who transport the goods come and go at the door of the warehouse behind the shop. Lao Qi feels the wall and turns into the dark alley to see that there is no one in front of him. Then he walks on specific blue bricks according to a certain pattern. After crossing the road, he reached out and pushed hard against the wall, opening a closed door.
Lao Qi hunched in and got in, and the door quickly closed again.
Before entering, Lao Qi tightened his back.
Sure enough, a sharp blade came head-on, and Lao Qi closed his eyes tightly, not daring to act rashly.
The cold air hit his face and stopped in front of the tip of his nose.
"Bao... Shopkeeper Bao, who are you?" Lao Qi stammered, looking extremely frightened.
The man holding the knife was an old man in his seventies with bright eyes. The knife was wide and thick, not like those used by ordinary Jianghu people.
"Yesterday, a malefic star came to make trouble, and I wanted to see the 'Out of the Mountain Tiger' and ask Peng Ze about the water bandits." Bao Bao's old voice was still strong, and he asked sharply, "Tell me, did you make a fool of yourself? The trouble you caused? "
The driver Lao Qi knelt down on the ground and begged for mercy: "How about I can't hide everything from your old eyes? It's impossible for a young man, to save his life! Besides, this was originally suffered by King Daining, who is an official. I don't want to kill the water bandits, so I'll leave the job to us, it's a hassle... Hey, don't give them a hand."
The old man patted the driver Lao Qi's cheek with the back of his knife, and hummed: "Don't be too clever, the old man knows who you are doing things for."
The old seven smiled and said cautiously: "Hey, the little one gets some oil and water to work for the two families. If I really think about what I shouldn't do, would you have chopped me up a long time ago? I said, King Wu's side is taking advantage of it, it's better for us to come here at Fengxing Pavilion..."
"Enough!" Shopkeeper Bao said impatiently, "I don't want to talk to you, who else did you tell me about the water bandits?"
"This, is there any need to say it?" The driver Lao Qi hesitantly defended, "As long as there are dozens of people running errands here in Fengxing Pavilion, as long as they are not stupid, they can guess it. It is not as simple as suppressing the water bandits, Guancang. There is a lot of grain in the store, and they even sent people to go to the countryside to buy from Wudi... Although they pretend to be the people of King Jing, can they hide it from our Fengxing Pavilion?"
Shopkeeper Bao drooped down the corner of his mouth and kicked the driver Lao Qi's butt.
"Go away."
"Right now, now!"
Old Qi rolled his eyes, slipped to the low table next to him with a smile, and asked his friend to dictate the news of "meeting two scribes in Lingyao Village", and described Meng Qi Mo Li's appearance in great detail. Man, he randomly ticked two pictures and called it Old Seven Recognize.
"No, the eyes...and the nose...the bearing..."
Speaking of which, Lao Qi simply patted his thigh and said, "It's not bad compared to the number one talent in Suzhou and a few celebrities from Qin Huai. It is said that he came from Qiantang County."
The guy worked hard to draw a similar shape, but finally stopped drawing, and simply marked a few words next to it.
"The painting is one hundred copper coins, and there are two in total." The man kept the account for Lao Qi.
Lao Qi didn't care, and grinned: "Someone must buy their news, Hugh said two hundred dollars, maybe twenty taels of silver can be earned back."
Shopkeeper Bao didn't say a word, watching the driver, Lao Qi, humming a song and leaving.
He rubbed his forehead, made an excuse to send the guys out of the house, and locked the door.
A figure fell silently from the beam, walked to the table, picked up the picture and looked at it with interest.
"General Meng."
Shopkeeper Bao respectfully clasped his fists, and almost half-kneeled to salute.
Meng Qi raised his hand to support him in the air, and Bao Bao's waist couldn't bend down.
In fact, Meng Qi did not expect to meet his old friend here yesterday.
Treasurer Bao has no reputation in the arena. He used to be the coach of the border army of the Chu Dynasty. This is nothing, mainly because he fought in the battlefield at the age of fourteen, and he was a half-hearted pioneer officer under Meng Qi.
At that time, Jingyuan Hou Aicai did not want the teenager to take risks, and "threw" him to Meng Qi, who was carrying and guarding the grain in the rear.
In a flash, many years passed, and Meng Qi didn't recognize him at first when they met.
But yesterday, when shopkeeper Bao looked at Meng Qi, who was "in his forties", who came looking for trouble, he almost rubbed his eyes.
Bao's shopkeeper's name is Guanyong. When he was young, he longed to win the championship. Unfortunately, he has not yet reached adulthood, and the world will be unified.
Fortunately, he caught up with the extermination of Xiliang, and since then he has been serving in the frontier army and is unwilling to return to Taijing. There were too many generals in the Chu Dynasty, and in a turbulent world, Bao Guanyong was still a general, but he was born too late. When he fully matured into a powerful general, the Chu Dynasty would have nothing to fight except for the conflict between the frontier army and the barbarians. beat.
Bao Guanyong is now seventy-two years old.
Lian Po was old, and Bao Guanyong, the shopkeeper of the rice shop, was not as lucky as Lian Po.
When Emperor Qi Lu Zhang was a general, the civil and military were in conflict, and the court and the opposition were in chaos. Bao Guanyong was unlucky at that time. He was arbitrarily charged with "stealing and selling military assets and collaborating with barbarians". The natives fought.
Not long after that, Qi Daichu stood up.
"... I fled to Luling County back then and wanted to find one of the three vassal kings who could be loyal to him, and crossed the Yangtze River to recover the northern territories and re-establish the Chu Dynasty. I didn't expect... They were all short-sighted and self-righteous idiots!"
Treasurer Bao has endured all these years, and no one can complain. Seeing Meng Qi is like seeing his relatives, he almost rushed over and hugged his head and cried.
Meng Qi had a terrible headache: "You are in your seventies, how do you behave like a child?"
Meng Qi regretted not bringing Mo Li with him. In such a situation, Bao Guanyong would have been shocked and stunned as long as he stretched out his hand to wrap his arms around the doctor's waist.
Yesterday, Meng Qi and Mo Li came wearing masks.
——The Zhong Kui mask of the "epidemic ghost" sent out from the Chenghuang Temple hangs for a long time and leads the sheep.
The two pretended to fight, then turned around and slipped back to catch the real person in charge of Fengxing Pavilion here.
It is not the "Out of the Mountain Tiger" as the driver Lao Qi said, but the master of the "Out of the Mountain Tiger", the old shopkeeper of the rice shop in his 70s.
When the mask was taken off, Meng Qi was surprised, and the treasurer Bao was shocked to "recognize his relatives".
It's really luck, I can't stop it.
Bao Guanyong not only knew all the secrets of Fengxing Pavilion, but even more, he was the elder of Fengxing Pavilion, and Mr. Qiu, the advisor of King Ning, "invited" him to come out.
Bao Guanyong still has "Chu" in his heart.
But his actions were very interesting in Meng Qi's view.
Instead of leading troops or going to the barracks, he squatted in Fengxing Pavilion instead.
I taught several apprentices, and all the apprentices went to the arena again.