Mu San gets up very early every day. The place he rents is quite remote, and he needs to walk half an hour to get there if he wants to buy some vegetables and meat. However, since half a year ago, meat can no longer be bought in Chang'an City. As for vegetables, they can be bought, but the price of a Chinese cabbage is staggering enough.
If it was another city that had been trapped for several years, I'm afraid the city would have started cannibalism long ago. Chang'an City is big enough, with a radius of hundreds of miles, there is always a place to grow some food and vegetables. It's not funny to say it at all, scenes that would never be seen before are happening naturally in Chang'an City.
For example, a person who has a vegetable field in Chang'an City will hire more than a dozen bodyguards with good skills. And the cost of these bodyguards is not too high, as long as they are full every day. If it wasn't for the army in Chang'an City to ensure law and order, it might not have happened that the bodyguard killed the employer and took the vegetable garden for himself.
Because there is more than one granary in Chang'an City, the supply of food is not too tight. No matter who is in power in the imperial court, as long as they are not extremely stupid at this time, they will not do the stupid thing of not giving food to the people. The enemies outside are blocked by the unparalleled high walls of Chang'an City. If the people in the city are annoyed, the enemies outside will probably be happy.
The granaries in Chang'an City have always been well stocked. Even with such a large population, the two granaries in the city plus the official granary of the Ministry of Households can still feed the common people for twenty or thirty years.
However, the abundance of food only dilutes the panic of some people, and it does not allow the people to live a peaceful and steady life as before. After all, there are shouts of siege almost every day outside the city, and people who appear to be calm on the surface will occasionally be afraid of the imaginary destruction of the city in a flash of thought.
Mu San hasn't eaten out since a long time ago. To be honest, he doesn't know if he has any companions by his side now. Every day, he hopes that someone will come out of nowhere and tell him that he is here to pick him up. He thinks like this day after day, so that his spirit is a little abnormal now.
He always looked around the corner when he was walking on the street to see if someone had left a mark. What he was most afraid of before was going out at night, but now he is used to wandering the streets every night like a ghost. He has been able to accurately avoid the officers and soldiers patrolling the streets, and he is even bored enough to count every team of officers and soldiers passing by. What is the difference in quantity.
He thought that someone would appear in the dark and grab him and exchange a secret word with him.
pity
It's been two years.
Nothing at all.
He lives in such an ordinary but oppressive way, he doesn't even dare to look in the mirror, because he knows that his aging speed in the past two years must be frighteningly fast. He doesn't go out to eat because he knows that sooner or later his voice and walking posture will attract people's attention, and he dares not let people know him.
Now he can cook a bowl of noodle soup very delicious. Sometimes he even thinks, if one day when his money is about to run out, if he goes out and sets up a food stall on the street, the business will be good.
When one is alone for a long time, thoughts are the only companions.
While lying in bed, he would construct stories in his head. Sometimes when he thinks of a particularly exciting plot, he will laugh or even cry. Every boring day and night, what he dare not do is to stare at the ground, he is afraid that the ground will suddenly crack a big hole and swallow him in.
He thought more than once that it might be a relief if someone came to catch him.
He would look at the sky and giggle, at the birds on the tree, and at the bugs on the wall.
Every morning when he wakes up, he also giggles.
Then say to yourself, it's good that I haven't been driven insane yet.
The hundred noodles were almost finished, so he had to go out and buy some. He has never been to the place where the government distributes food to pick it up, so he dare not. Fortunately, Fang Jie gave him enough money back then, and the bank notes could be exchanged in Chang'an City, but he had to go to a bank with official background, and the bank notes of 1,000 taels of silver were only cashed in 400 taels of cash.
He still didn't dare to go, he only dared to take the jewelry to the pawnshop to pawn. A while ago, he took an oriental pearl worth tens of thousands of gold in peacetime, and exchanged it in a pawnshop for 1,200 taels of silver, which is already a sky-high price. At that time, the owner of the pawn shop looked at him strangely, so he must have suspected that he had stolen the item. So Mu San didn't stay for even a second, and left quickly after carrying the money on his back.
If he wasn't smart enough, he would have been killed by a pawnbroker on the way back.
He dared not go to the same shop every time he pawned, and even took a horse-drawn carriage across the city to pawn on the other side of the city. Even if he was buying noodles and oil, he would not be in a nearby shop.
When I woke up in the morning, the star in the west that was the latest to set and the brightest star in the dawn was still there. Mu San got up, cleaned himself up quickly, and punched in the yard after washing. He played indiscriminately, and he didn't seem to have much power. He figured out this boxing technique by himself, and he knew it wouldn't work, but he forced himself to practice every day and run around the yard for half an hour. He had to let himself be able to run at any time, and he had to run It's fast, so you need a good body.
When he went out, the sun had just lit up, and Mu San wanted to go out when there were no people around. In the past two years, he has felt more and more troublesome about his male and female body. If someone pays close attention to him, he will be able to see his flaws.
He is no longer the little eunuch who spoke to Master Xiao Fang for the first time when he was looking for a way out for himself in the Taiji Palace, he is almost twenty years old. At this age, he should have had a beard and an Adam's apple long ago, but he didn't have any. There are not even thicker pores on his smooth jaw, and no one will believe the lie that he just shaved.
Can only avoid people.
Try not to see people.
He doesn't need a map. Although Chang'an City is very big, he has traveled too many places in the past two extremely boring years. He has a map of Chang'an City in his mind.
The price of a horse-drawn carriage across the city has already increased by ten times, and not many people can afford it. But the drivers dare not lower the price, because the silver now is far inferior to the silver a few years ago. In the past, one tael of silver could order a table of good noodles in the best restaurants, but now one tael of silver was only enough to feed his mules a few full meals.
Men are listless, and so are mules.
Mu San paid the money and got in the car, said an address, then closed his eyes and went to sleep. The carriage moved slowly, he was not in a hurry, so he didn't rush.
After a full hour, Mu San opened his eyes. Counting the time, we have already arrived at Dong Ershisantiao Street. Sure enough, the carriage stopped, almost at the same time as Mu San opened his eyes.
He is used to going around here every day to see if there is any harvest. If it is not for buying rice noodles, he will not take a horse-drawn carriage. Because he was carrying a bag of silver, the law and order in Chang'an City was only controlled by the military so that there would be no riots. As for the hours of robbery in the street, the Chang'an Mansion, which has long been unable to pay the salary, will not take care of it, and the military people are even less lazy to take care of it.
When he got off the car, he was actually ready, and today he still got nothing.
However, he was wrong.
At the door of the shop in Dong Ersan Tiao, there is an extra stall selling snacks today. They must be two couples. The man seems to be honest and honest, and the woman is a bit profit-seeking but kind.
When Mu San saw the man smiling vaguely at him, he suddenly wanted to cry.
I really want to cry.
…
…
"I thought I was starting to stink."
Mu San sat down and ordered a basket of buns.
"Would you like a bowl of hot noodle soup?"
asked the boss.
Mu San shook his head: "Don't talk about eating noodles, I feel like throwing up just mentioning the word noodles now. In the past two years, I have eaten all the noodles that others have eaten all their lives. Sometimes I just cook them like that without oil and salt. At that time, I couldn't help but think, maybe eating shit tastes better than eating that kind of noodles."
The stall owner smiled: "You don't need to tell me, I know how you live every day. Just because you can't see it doesn't mean you don't have it. You have never lost people around you in the past two years. I can tell you this way, do you think you are so Two years of life is worse than death, so those people who have protected you in the dark for two years have had a much harder life than you."
Mu San was taken aback, he really didn't think that he had been protected by someone in the past two years.
"At least you have some noodles to eat."
The boss sighed very lightly: "But what about my brothers... Do you know what one of my brothers said about you? He said that seeing you so neurotic every day, he wanted to go down and beat you Seventeen or eighteen slaps."
"If he comes to slap me, I'll thank him..."
Mu San put a bun into his mouth, and found that there was only a piece of meat the size of a finger belly.
"Your business is getting more and more deceitful."
He said.
"Pooh."
The boss spat: "You go to another place to eat, my minced meat is twice the size of other people's house, but I get the same amount of money."
"How much is a basket of buns like this now?"
Mu San asked.
"Three taels of silver."
The boss was a little dissatisfied: "There are fewer and fewer people who can afford to eat. Even the middle-class people in the past are already poor and can't get rid of it. If it wasn't for the government's fixed food distribution, I don't know how many people would starve to death. A few days ago I saw I saw a well-known businessman in Chang'an City, who lined up with the common people to get food, and it is said that he sold his old house."
"Sometimes this fate is unimaginable. Those who do big business can't go out of the city, so they have no business to do. Instead, we do small business and live better."
Mu San sighed: "You didn't appear in front of me just to impress you, you live a good life, right?"
"There is a key in the drawer in front of you. It belongs to the shop behind me. I dug it under the second floor tile after entering the door. There are a lot of bank notes. Although it is more than half of the discount in Chang'an City to go to the bank to cash it, but get it. It’s okay to get tens of thousands of taels of silver. I’ll arrange someone to go with you and go to a few more banks to exchange. Then go to the rich family’s house to collect jewelry... "
"Business?"
Mu San couldn't help asking: "I've been waiting for this for a long time, is this the only thing I've been waiting for?"
"Why haven't you calmed down yet?"
The boss gave him a blank look: "From tomorrow onwards, you will be the envoy of the Black Banner Army in Chang'an City. You don't need to bring gifts when you go to the homes of those courtiers and adults. They hope to treat you well. But see you in the Imperial Army or other troops." Generals with real power still need to bring some gifts."
Mu San's eyes lit up: "The lord is here?"
The boss smiled and said, "Here we are, we have reached Gyeonggi-do now. Gao Kaitai's soldiers can't stop the Lord's army, and it won't take long for the Lord to come to the city. How much credit you have at that time depends on your days." performance."
The boss sat down and ate with Mu San.
"You ate it all yourself, so what else are you selling?"
Mu San asked.
"Sell a fart!"
The boss stretched his body and looked back at his wife: "Let's go to the tailor shop to buy some good clothes to wear in a while, and the two of us will be your bodyguards in the future. You don't have to hide and hide to see those people , Those big people dare not expose you. Just avoid the people of the Iron Armored Army... After all these years, I have finally survived, you feel like throwing up when you smell the noodle soup, why don’t I cook the noodles until I feel like throwing up?"