In a dilapidated room, there was only a weak light from a candle.
Gao Changshou heard the voice and opened his eyes.
The moment he saw Li Xia and Gao Mingyue, his eyes burst into surprise and he managed a smile.
"I thought... the person whose country was ruined and his family was destroyed, and his only sister was also lost... could die... ahem..."
Li Xia looked around and realized that Gao Changshou was injured in his heart, and he would be a tuberculosis patient for a long time, so he took warning.
"Muru, cheer up and recover from your injuries."
"good."
Li Xia turned his head, looked at Han Chengxu, and continued talking.
"what happened?"
Han Chengxu injured a leg and sat haggardly on the edge of the bed, saying: "Because the young man and the princess successively diverted the pursuers, we managed to escape all the way back to the Song Dynasty. When we approached Lin'an, we old men
The weak and disabled man couldn't walk anymore, so Lin Zi went back to the city first, asking the right minister to send someone to pick him up. But after waiting for two days, he never came back.
At that time, Mr. Gao Lang felt that something was wrong, so he asked us to leave the place quickly, secretly entered the city, and asked Liu Jinsuo to investigate. As a result, Liu Jinsuo never came back. I had to ask Qiaoer to investigate from a distance, and then I found out
The house in Qinghefang has been put under surveillance."
Li Xia asked: "Do you know who it is?"
Han Chengxu shook his head and said: "I don't know, and there are people outside the right prime minister's house who are watching."
Han Qiaoer added: "I listened to Brother Li and only told Lin Zi the Mongolian army's strategy for attacking Shu. I didn't share any other information."
"Qiao'er did a good job, do you still remember all the information?"
"Remember." Han Qiaoer was sure.
"good."
Han Chengxu sighed and said: "I thought the young man made such arrangements because he was afraid that the right prime minister would not recognize our contribution, but I didn't expect that we couldn't even enter the prime minister's house."
Li Xia asked: "Mr. Han, do you think we should go see Cheng Yuanfeng?"
"Yes. I think someone is dealing with the right prime minister and doesn't want us to see him." Han Chengxu said: "But I don't dare to make the decision without authorization. I just wait for the young man to come back and make his decision..."
Li Xia didn't answer immediately. He glanced around the room and saw that everything was dirty and dilapidated.
At that time, out of the more than thirty elites brought out by Nie Zhongyou, only the old, weak, sick and disabled were left.
And they are able to stay until now, perhaps because they are not so loyal to the Song Dynasty, they work desperately, and they are always vigilant and on guard.
Otherwise, the Gao family brothers and sisters might have died in Luzhou, and the Han family's ancestors and grandchildren would not be able to withstand the pursuit in Chenzhou.
To this day, all the warriors and brave men loyal to the Song Dynasty have been wiped out, and only Dali and the Jin Dynasty survivors have survived.
Looking at this scene, Li Xia said: "Don't be in a hurry to see Cheng Yuanfeng. Take a rest for the night and find a place to live tomorrow. The environment here is too bad."
Han Chengxu wanted to clear up the depressed atmosphere and joked: "Young man still has money?"
"You have no money?"
"Nothing." Han Chengxu pointed at Gao Changshou, who had not yet recovered from serious injuries, pointed at himself, and then pointed at Han Qiao'er, and said: "I finally made it to the time when the young man came back and was able to live a comfortable life for two days. To be honest, I
I have been hungry for many days."
Li Xia said: "I still have a few things I picked up in the north, and they will be pawned tomorrow."
Han Chengxu looked at it and said, "The styles of the objects on the north side are different from those on the south side. You should be careful."
"OK……"
The five people made do with each other in the dilapidated house for another night. The next day, Li Xia pawned the items, and with the help of the dental shop, he found a field worker to rent a house.
When he was in Zaoyuan, he picked up a lot of valuable items from the Zhang family. Unexpectedly, the rent in Lin'an was ridiculously expensive, and he almost spent all his money to rent a yard after working hard to kill people and seize property.
In order to hide his identity, he spent a lot of money.
The household registration management in the Song Dynasty was very strict and not as free as in the north.
By controlling household registration, the central government can directly control local population and land, avoid local separatism, and reduce the threat to the imperial court from armed forces.
The strict household registration system does not allow people to move around. For example, in "Water Margin", it is said that the red-haired ghost Liu Tang slept in a ruined temple for a night and was caught by Lei Heng... This may also be related to the fact that Liu Tang looks like a thief.
If it were Li Xia, he would probably call himself yameni and scold Lei Heng.
However, there are policies from above and countermeasures from below, and there are also many cases of "blackmailing households under false pretences".
This means that landlords and bureaucrats create false names, falsely report household registration, divide the land into many shares, and avoid taxes and levies. Of course, there are many more complicated ways...
If it were another fugitive who didn't know how to cooperate with a wealthy family, he would most likely be doomed. But if he wanted to cooperate with a wealthy family, he would have to look like a wealthy family.
In short, Li Xia spent money, pretended to be a member of the Narita family, and found a place to stay.
This foothold is no longer in the core area like Qinghefang, but in the second right wing in the north of the city.
"Xiang" probably means "district" in later generations. Now Lin'an City has twelve compartments and eighty-nine squares.
Li Xia and the others live in Dengxin Lane, Tongdefang, on the second right wing, on the west side of Xiangfu Temple, in a small courtyard with two entrances.
"That's great." Han Chengxu sat in the main room, watching Gao Mingyue and Han Qiaoer busy cleaning up outside, and sighed to Li Xia: "Have you ever thought about hiding yourself and living a peaceful life?"
"How can we live in peace?" Li Xia shook his head and said, "Just talking about the rent, even I think it is outrageous."
It costs him six guan to rent this yard for one day, while the monthly income of an ordinary family is only three to five guan.
"After all, we have no identity, and we rent a good yard." Han Chengxu said with a smile: "It's an interesting story. During the Jianyan period, the Jin Kingdom sent a large number of craftsmen to the south of the Yangtze River, and they advertised in the downtown area at night, calling them Jin Kingdom He Qing Haiyan.
Among them, it was particularly criticized for the high housing prices in the Song Dynasty, which left the common people with no place to stand. Therefore, the imperial court also set up shops and housekeeping services and rented some cheap houses."
"We can't rent that kind of thing." Li Xia changed into a rich outfit, handed the remaining two strings of money to Han Chengxu, and said, "You guys rest in peace, I'll go out for a while."
"Young man, please be careful."
"Well. Qiao'er, please write down the information when you have time. Don't rush, take your time."
"OK."
Li Xia nodded to Gao Mingyue again, telling her to pay attention to the door and stay vigilant.
He went out, but did not go to the Right Prime Minister's Mansion immediately.
Because he doesn't trust Cheng Yuanfeng, otherwise he wouldn't have bothered to rent a house...
Sharpening the knife and chopping firewood is the skill of chopping firewood. Li Xia first became familiar with the terrain of Lin'an City.
Because the Song Dynasty never built Lin'an Prefecture as a nominal capital, the city retained the outline of the old Hangzhou city during the "Taiping Peace Period of the Song Dynasty". However, it was also the de facto capital, and people from all over the world gathered when they crossed south.
The population has been increasing continuously for more than a hundred years. Today, there are 390,000 registered households and 1.3 million people. The actual number is probably 2 million.
As a result, an extremely complex and contradictory metropolis was formed.
On the one hand, its inner city and outer city are connected together and are constantly expanding, with numerous household registrations and a vast state capital; on the other hand, the inner city is sandwiched between the West Lake and the Qiantang River, with a population of 400,000, leaving room for the palace city and the Qiantang River.
The government offices are extremely crowded.
At first glance, it looks messy, noisy, crowded, so-called "a hive of ants, covered with corridors", and the houses and lanes are complicated; however, if you take a closer look, you will see that it is so orderly, with lanes and lanes carefully planned and adapted to local conditions.
The governance of the Song Dynasty was extremely... delicate and complicated.
It almost forms two extremes with Mongolia's stocking policy. It is so interlocking, detailed and huge, clever and complicated, and finally reaches a delicate balance.
Li Xia knew that if he was asked to be the prefect of Lin'an, he would not be able to manage Lin'an City well.
Apart from anything else, the functions of various parties were so intertwined and complex that he spent twenty years unable to figure them out.
If he were to govern Lin'an Prefecture, he would at least become prime minister and start drastic reforms in the official system and tax system...but this seems to be what many prime ministers in the Song Dynasty have done and failed to achieve.
It took Li Xia two full days to get familiar with Lin'an City, and made many circles around the Youxiang Mansion to plan an escape route.
Only then did he make a decision.
"I plan to see Cheng Yuanfeng."
"Do you still decide to meet the right minister, Mr. Xiaolang?"
"Yes, I don't think it is necessary for Cheng Yuanfeng to capture Lin Zi and Liu Jinsuo. They are his people." Li Xia said: "Their disappearance just shows that someone wants to use this matter to deal with Cheng Yuanfeng."
Gao Mingyue stood aside lighting a candle, and glanced at Li Xia worriedly after hearing this.
"But there are many people watching outside the prime minister's house in case Mr. Xiaolang is recognized."
"It doesn't matter. I have a plan and will meet Cheng Yuanfeng on his way to court."
Arrangements were made, and Li Xia went to bed early and woke up in the middle of the night.
I had an inexplicable dream...Zhang Wenjing came and said, "You are spending my money to live with other women" or something like that. After Li Xia woke up, he shook his head and left these strange things behind.
.
Don't linger in your mind, don't linger in your mind.
It was still dark, so he went to the courtyard to wash up.
It seemed that the sound of shaking the well wheel alerted Gao Mingyue. She opened the door and walked out. She silently went to the kitchen and took a few eggs and handed them to him.
"You have to be careful."
"good."
The two said nothing more, but walking together seemed to make them somewhat different.
Li Xia picked up the egg and it was still warm.
He thought for a moment and didn't finish eating them all. He kept one piece and put it in his arms and went out...