It was just dawn, and the smell of hot porridge and cakes began to fill the streets.
"Selling soup, hot soup!"
The sound of selling hot water across the street also sounded.
The so-called hot soup is actually boiled water. This is a habit passed down from the Chu Dynasty. Due to the epidemic disease in the waters south of the Yangtze River, people in the city generally do not drink raw water, nor do they get up early to cook water in the kitchen. Buy a pot of hot water for a penny.
Some are used for drinking, some are used for washing.
In the early morning, I stayed at the door, waiting for the hawkers who carried the load to come one by one, from washing my face and hot tea to cooking cakes and rice porridge, and even shaving my head and shaving.
Today is especially lively, everyone has a smile on their face, and even the babble when they meet is particularly exciting.
- After a month of anxiety, Jiang Xia finally reopened the city gate.
It is reported that the rogue rebels from Huaxian to Jiangxia have been completely eliminated, and King Ning's troops and horses have also withdrawn to the east to confront King Wu.
If there is no need to fight again, how can the people not be happy
The street vendors who do business are ready to carry their burdens before dawn, stepping on the thin morning light, and after the drum, shouting the silence of the night.
"Rice cake, fragrant rice cake!"
The front of the wonton burden was also crowded with people. A scoop of hot soup was poured into a bowl with chopped green onion, and the smell wafted far away.
"what."
"why are you laughing?"
Mo Li turned his head strangely and asked.
Meng Qi shook his head and did not answer.
King Jing died, but Jiang Xia did not announce the funeral. First, it was because Nanping County deliberately concealed it. When the news spread, Old General Nie focused all his energy on defending the city and pacifying the rebellion. Because everything was restored, I was so happy, that the collective forgot about this "big" event.
In this world, the death of emperors and vassals is a major event, as if the sky is torn apart, scholars and officials must all wear filial piety, and the same is true for the people of the capital or the prefecture, and the rest of the people do not need to do so. Land, this prohibition is also equivalent to falsehood.
Is it the poor who are lowly and are not qualified to serve filial piety? No.
The court can't control it, who can make the hunters not eat meat
"This kind of scene makes people happy." Meng Qi gestured towards the lively streets.
Mo Li followed Meng Qi's gaze, and then... saw a hawker selling chestnut cakes.
"cough."
Meng Qi casually bypassed the barber's burden, walked forward without even looking at Chestnut Cake.
The laughter of children lingered in my ears, the woman who hastily pulled her hair into a bun dragged the baby who refused to wear shoes to the house, the old woman who carried clothes to the well, and the yellow rice who had just opened the steamer. Cake, hawkers shout one after another...
Such days are not rich, but peaceful.
Mo Li and Meng Qi walked through the crowd, and almost no one noticed them, because they were keen to say hello to their neighbors and familiar hawkers.
Jiangxia is not short of food, and the city defense has not been in a hurry, but the people are still frightened by the king's army.
The successive greetings, the short chatter from the parents... It is like the ripples echoing in the river, the water waves illuminated by the warm sunlight, extending from the narrow alleys and all the way to the crowd gathered under the trees by the well, and then over the roof ridge, spreading to gradually changing. A noisy market.
Occasionally, on the road, I meet people from Fengxing Pavilion and disciples of the Hengshan faction. At the moment, they are still in the market. Some people are busy buying dry food, and some people are picking shoes that fit their feet in the shoe store. Jiangxia is no longer in danger, but they still need to Go somewhere else.
In such an atmosphere, even the most rigid person on weekdays can relax a bit.
"Cough, Mo... Doctor."
A certain Hengshan faction elder held a shoe in his hand, looked up to see Mo Li, and greeted awkwardly.
"The soles of these boots are firm, with three layers of stitching on the face. Look at it, sir."
Mo Li glanced at it and knew it didn't fit, so he continued to search the shop.
The shoe shop clerk followed closely.
"How long will it take to get the new ones?" Meng Qi picked a random look and gestured, "Compared to this, it's half an inch smaller."
What he said was serious, others thought he was wearing it, and Mo Li was not easy to refute. The elders of the Hengshan faction over there looked suspicious. After all, the Meng Qi he saw was all eighty-nine years old.
After leaving the shoe shop, before taking a few steps, I saw chaos ahead.
"Who's riding a horse in the city?"
Meng Qi's pupils shrank, but it was not up to him to take action. The Jianghu people who were in the crowd took the lead in grabbing the horse.
The people were as silent as cicadas and fled.
The man who beat the horse fell to the ground in embarrassment, jumping up in anger, but he was not alone, there were dozens of horses, and he looked very loud.
"Get out of the way, you bastards!"
The Jianghu people dodged and dodged, and their movements were extremely flexible.
The leader of these riders was furious, and immediately ordered his subordinates to drive the horses to trample over there, ignoring the objects of the surrounding vendors and the people who were screaming and avoiding.
"It's you gangster bandits again! Kill me!" The leader's eyes were red, and he shouted madly.
Mo Li just took a step forward when he saw people pouring out of the shoe shop, the wonton stand, the cloth house, and the tea shop.
From the elders of the Hengshan faction to the leaders of the Cao Gang, everyone rushed up and pulled them off their horses like a hungry tiger rushing towards a sheep.
Moaning was heard incessantly.
This is a rare sight. Jianghu people usually do not openly oppose the government. Especially in the city, they may break the tables, chairs and benches of the restaurant because of the fight, and hurt the people on the roadside, but as long as the government officials show up, they will will leave immediately.
So that the title of "Wulin people" and "Jiangyang Bandit" are equivalent, and they will only cause trouble.
Now the hawker selling sugar cakes on the roadside opened his mouth wide and couldn't recover his mind for a long time.
"General Han, what are you doing?"
A person from Fengxing Pavilion scolded and scorned, obviously ignoring this group of cavalry.
Mo Li later remembered who the leader was.
Unexpectedly, the people also whispered, as if they had heard something.
Meng Qi's ears were sharp, and he could naturally hear that the people were actually asking each other who General Han was and what was going on.
The people of Jiangxia didn't even know that King Jing was dead, nor did they know that Nanping Prefecture was almost lost, and it was even more impossible to know that General Han made a wrong choice that led to the reversal of the situation and even the collapse of the defending city. They were simply surprised, no untie.
Surprised that Jianghu people openly fought with the government, I don't understand that the two parties seem to know each other.
"That Taoist priest just bought pancakes from me!"
"And the old man, still holding the shoes in my shop... I didn't see that he was a robber of Jiang Yang, who had a beard, and he seemed to fall down when the wind blew. Who would have thought that he would jump like that? , the shadow disappears, and with one more jump, the galloping horse is pulled back! Divine power!"
He was slandered as an elder of the Hengshan faction who was blown away by the wind just because he was a little thinner: "..."
He is not a rabbit, where did he jump from left to right
Poor to see, he is also a well-respected celebrity in the rivers and lakes, and now his old face has been lost.
This burst of whispers sounded like sarcasm in the ears of General Han who was crawling up in confusion. The expressions on the faces of those who were whispering turned into knives. He didn't hear the real content at all, he just thought it was the ridicule he had heard countless times in the army these days.
On paper, they were defeated, and they fled in shame!
"Damn it, those incompetent soldiers are dragging me down..."
General Han never admitted these charges, but he couldn't scold him like this, he needed to gather more old subordinates and leave Jiangxia.
But being overturned in the street, the shame in my heart rose to the apex along with the surprise and puzzlement on the faces of the surrounding people.
During this period of time, he lived in Jiangxia for a long time. General Nie didn't see him at all. The others didn't say anything in person. Now not only the gangsters dare to humiliate him, but even the common people can point him at him
There was a buzzing sound in General Han's head, and his anger directly broke his reason.
With a swipe, he pulled out his saber and slammed it towards the crowd.
"Shut up! All shut up, you ignorant pariahs! How dare you laugh at me?!"
"… "
To those red eyes, Mo Li had nothing to say.
Maybe it's because he looks thinner? Or is it more conspicuous standing in the crowd
The answer is no, General Han did choose a direction to swing his saber at random, but the only reason he met Mo Li was because he hated the young man's eyes, fluttering lightly like fallen leaves, and turned to the distance.
This indifference is more annoying than contempt.
The people who used to be near Mo Li screamed and avoided it. Others were about to stop it. They found that General Han was pointing at Mo Li with his sword, and they were dumbfounded.
There are so many people in the street market, but they are looking for the highest martial arts. What kind of luck is this
This scene was so absurd that the elders of the Hengshan faction thought seriously that the general lost the war because he was cowardly and afraid of death, but he lost the advantage of defending the city by drinking water and choking his throat and falling his teeth.
"Say, do you look down on me? With your ants, you dare to be presumptuous!"
General Han was dazed by the anger. He didn't notice Mo Li's ease of avoiding his knife, and he felt that he had made a crooked cut. The panicked appearance of the people around him satisfied his feeling of being ignored and ridiculed for so many days. , so he vented his anger to his heart's content.
Meng Qi looked at the end of the market calmly.
Sure enough there was dust.
"What's going on?" Mo Li was tired of the reflection of the knife in front of his eyes, so he was so lucky that General Han dashed straight ahead, tripping over the stone holding the banner in a shop on the street.
"what!"
In the eyes of everyone, it seemed that General Han was unable to grasp the sword, but Mo Li was lucky and took a step back to avoid it.
In fact, there is a reason why Meng Qi didn't take General Han's "hidden danger" to heart. The old general in Jiangxia was not stupid, and Fengxingge was not stupid either. Just like the Japanese and South Korean generals who broke into the mansion and were easily kicked out, they were just jumping clowns, and it stands to reason that there should be no trouble.
But now there are dozens of people and dozens of horses rushing through the market.
How did General Han get the horses, how did he bring back all his disbanded subordinates, and why did no one stop him when he appeared to be leaving Jiangxia
"I'm afraid someone deliberately manipulated it." Meng Qi looked worried.
General Han had no conclusive charges. Even if he was ineffective in defending the city, Jiang Xia did not have the right to take him down. Moreover, this person might also have a way of being a powerful person in Jingzhou. General Nie was unwilling to tear his face directly. Then usually at this time, there will be a deliberate run to embarrass people, and after the other party is provoked and made an outrageous move, they will justifiably take people down.
Meng Qi looked at the Jiangxia soldiers who were whistling around.
"Han Fu, how dare you steal a horse and join the enemy!"
"Take it all and leave it to General Nie to deal with it!"
In an instant, the situation was reversed, and all the people who were showing off their power before were tied into zongzi and forced to leave.
From the beginning to the end, these Jiangxia soldiers did not say hello to the Jianghu people who saw the injustice on the road, and the market gradually returned to calm.
Meng Qi's expression was still ugly.
It's not because of the tactics of Jiangxia's soldiers, but because the commander obviously doesn't care about the consequences of General Han, and the death of some civilians is insignificant in their eyes.
This is a habit of the officialdom, even if it is changed to a general or a prefect, it will still be the same.
Everything about the superiors is a major event, even if it is Ai Rong after death, and everything about the inferiors is irrelevant, even if it is life.
When will the world change, and when will people's hearts be resolved
"Ali, the road to the world is still very long."