In the west of Kaifeng City, there is the Liu House in Dawu East Lane. It is the house of a brother of Liu Taiping. It occupies a vast area and is connected by streets.
Liu Taiping, Liu Zhongzhi's uncles and nephews each built their own mansions in Chang'an City. They came to Kaifeng just to take the exam, so they stayed at Liu's house in Dawu East Lane.
That day Liu Zhong came out of the side door and walked for a while when he suddenly saw someone pulling a cart walking in the west alley, accompanied by a woman.
Although the woman was wearing coarse clothes, she was tall and twisted as she walked. The fragrance spread from far away along with the handkerchief swinging in her hand.
"A lady from a good family is going out with her hardworking husband." Liu Zhong squinted his eyes, "A little bit arrogant."
Several subordinates behind him understood and were about to step forward when the tall woman seemed to have noticed something and turned her head.
Liu Zhong frowned with a look of disgust on his face.
"Stop being troublesome and go to the Military Garden."
His tone was a little colder, and he turned around and left.
…
Jiang Fan hummed softly, waved the fragrant handkerchief hanging on the hook, and led the man pulling the cart through the alley. After walking for a while, he arrived at a small door.
He raised his eyebrows, and the man pulling the cart stepped forward and knocked on the door.
"The food is here."
Someone opened the door immediately.
"Bring the vegetables in."
"Okay, this place is so big, it will take a long time to go around it..."
The small door was closed, and the voices of several people spoke in extremely low voices.
"Is it okay?" Jiang Fan said, "I just met Liu Zhongzhi. Where does he live?"
"Don't worry, he lives in the south yard, which is far away. Old Zhong and I manage the pig pen, which is in a separate yard. We got the handle on the man in charge, and several other servants were bribed."
"Where are people hiding?"
"In the pig pen, we have dug a pit. We can put people in it and cover it with thatch. With more than 20 pigs surrounding it, no one can see it. It is easy to feed and they will not starve to death."
"Don't get trampled to death by pigs."
"Don't worry, we'll be watching."
"Remember to give him more medicine in case he wakes up and screams."
"My mouth is blocked. No matter how much I grunt, others will just think it is a pig's cry. The Liu family will not come to this dirty and smelly place."
"Don't be careless, be more careful..."
~~
Liu Zhongzhi came to the garden again to find clues about Shi Zhang's disappearance, but found nothing.
"Where was Shi Zhang tied up?" he murmured.
There was no one singing in the garden now. Liu Zhongzhi stood at the gate and pondered for a while when he suddenly saw two young scholars walking by.
He frowned and led his men to follow him. Then he walked behind the two scholars and listened to their conversation. However, Liu Zhongzhi raised his hand again and stopped his men's movements.
He recognized one of the scholars as the nephew of Song Dao, a famous scholar in Luoyang; the other scholar was short and fat, so there was no way he could be Li Xia.
"Mr. Bai has really arrived in Kaifeng?"
"I'm not going to lie to Brother Song. Yesterday, I saw him come to the Military Garden to listen to the opera. Unfortunately, there was no one singing in the Military Garden, so he went to the tavern over there to drink a pot of wine. Nowadays, there are fewer and fewer restaurants in the city, so maybe he still wants to
will come."
"You actually know Mr. Bai?"
"I listened to Mr. Yishan's lectures in Dongping the year before last. He accompanied Mr. Yishan and I was lucky enough to meet him once."
"I really admire him. Didn't he write a masterpiece from the south last year? He wrote half of "Tian Jing Sha" and "Withered Vine and Old Tree and Fainting Crow", which attracted many northern scribes to fill in their posts, but only Mr. Bai wrote another one.
A whole poem about autumn, which will never be inferior to that of the Southerners."
"The southerner can only write fragments of a sentence, but Mr. Bai can write a whole poem, so he is better."
The two scholars were talking as they walked, and soon they arrived in front of a shabby tavern.
"That's it, ah, Mr. Bai is here again, did you see it?"
Liu Zhong, who was following behind, heard this and already understood who the two scholars were talking about... Bai Pu.
Bai Pu was born into a family of officials in the Jin Dynasty. His father was named Bai Hua, who was an official in the Privy Council. He was a family friend of Yuan Haowen.
When the Jin Kingdom was destroyed, the Bai family suffered a great disaster. Yuan Haowen adopted the young Bai Pu, taught him poetry and calligraphy, and carefully trained him. Bai Pu then became a famous and talented man in the North.
Liu Zhong thought for a while and ordered his subordinates to wait outside the tavern. He went in alone and saw two scholars talking to a middle-aged man.
"Mr. Bai, I have heard of your "Tang Minghuang Autumn Night in the Wutong Rain" for a long time. 'Oh my God! A Han Ming concubine married a Shan Yu from afar, and she couldn't stop crying in the west wind and wet her beard with tears.'"
"You sang well." Bai Pu said.
Bai Pu looked sideways at the entrance of the tavern, and could only see a profile of his face, with a somewhat bitter look on his face, a frown on his face, and a long beard, but he was still very handsome and radiant.
He spoke with a Hebei accent, held a wine glass in his hand, and sang the next verse.
"How often have you seen six armies trample you and leave a corpse lying in the yellow sand?"
"Great! I can actually hear Mr. Bai with my own ears..."
Liu Zhongzhi had already stepped forward, placed a silver charm on the table, and said, "You two gentlemen, please allow me to have a few words with Mr. Bai."
When the two little scholars saw him, their expressions changed, they quickly saluted and ran away in a hurry.
"Liu Zhongzhi, from Zhengben, is an experienced official in the province, and his uncle is the governor of the province participating in politics." Liu Zhongzhi smiled, picked up the silver charm, and sat down opposite Bai Pu.
"I have heard about Mr. Bai for a long time, and today I finally have the honor to meet him."
Bai Pu said: "Liu Qingcheng has something to do with you?"
"Although I am a layman, I occasionally read some poems. I heard that Mr. Bai composed a poem called "The Sky is Clean and the Sand" last year, but it echoes the remaining lines of "Withered vines, old trees and dim crows"?"
"yes."
Liu Zhongzhi had mediocre literary talent. Although he had heard of Bai Pu's poems, he could not recite them and asked, "Mr. Bai, can you read them to me again?"
"The setting sun in the isolated village is covered with light smoke, jackdaws in the old trees, and under the shadow of a flying dragon. Green mountains and green waters, white grass, red leaves and yellow flowers."
"What a wonderful poem." Liu Zhong said, stroking his palms: "It writes about autumn, but there is not a single word for autumn in the whole text. It is better than that of Li Xia."
Bai Pu said: "If you haven't seen the whole poem of Li Xia's poem, how can you tell whether it contains the word 'Autumn'?"
"Sir, do you know Li Xia?"
"I just heard about it."
Liu Zhongzhi squinted his eyes, with a meaningful smile, and said leisurely: "Sir, I should like to say a few words to Li Xiazhi, but you have been friends with him for a long time?"
Bai Pu was also straightforward, saying: "No, I wrote lyrics last year, but I'm just not convinced. Now, I'm looking for him."
"Oh?" Liu Zhongzhi was very surprised and asked, "Sir, are you looking for Li Xia? Do you know that he has returned to Kaifeng again?"
"Erlang Shijia was robbed." Bai Pu said: "The person behind this incident must be Li Xia."
Liu Zhongzhi looked more solemn and asked: "Why do you know?"
"I heard from Shi Shuai that my father is at Shi Shuai's shogunate." Bai Pu said, "Erlang and I are also good friends. We both like the lyrics of Zaju operas."
"Mr. Gui Geng?"
"Thirty and one."
"That's a year-end friendship." Liu Zhong said straightly, "Sir, do you pay attention to health care on weekdays?"
"Practice some Wuqinxi." Bai Pu poured himself a glass of wine and said, "Liu Qiancheng interrogated me like this. Could it be that he suspected that I was secretly communicating with Zhao Song Xizuo?"
"That was never the intention."
Bai Pu said: "My father's life history, I wonder if you have ever heard of Liu's experience?"
"I've heard a little about it, but I don't know the details." Liu Zhong asked the store owner to serve him a bottle of wine, then turned to Bai Pu and said, "I'd like to hear the details."
"My father was originally an important minister of the Jin Kingdom. More than 20 years ago, the Jin Kingdom was destroyed. At that time, my father did defect to the Zhao and Song Dynasties and became the Tilu official of Junzhou in the Song Dynasty."
"I know about this." Liu Zhongzhi said: "But I don't know why your father surrendered to the Great Mongolia again?"
"At that time, Fan Yongji, the general manager of Henan in the Jin Kingdom, contacted General Meng Gong of the Zhao and Song Dynasties and wanted to surrender to the Song Dynasty. Meng Gong was overjoyed and wrote to the Song court. However, the Song court was afraid that Meng Gong's strength would increase due to this incident, and said that "rebellion is not common."
', refused Fan Yongji's surrender.
Meng Gong knew that he was under the suspicion of the imperial court and was disheartened. He sighed, "I have been cleaning up the Central Plains for thirty years, but I can't apply for my current ambition." He took the initiative to resign and died of illness soon after. Fan Yongji then led his troops to rob Junzhou of the Song Dynasty and sent money and grain to them.
Returned to Mongolia."
Hearing this, Liu Zhong grinned and looked extremely disdainful.
"Ha, Zhao Song is always like this, so cowardly that it's disgusting. Meng Gong is lucky and didn't die for an unreasonable crime."
Bai Pu sneered slightly, with a look of disdain in his eyes.
"Seeing Zhao Song's behavior, my father was extremely disappointed, so he followed Fan Yongji and the exiled ministers of the Jin Dynasty back north and joined Shi Shuai's family."
Liu Zhongzhi asked: "But I heard that Mr. Bai was raised by Mr. Yishan?"
"Yes, until after my father returned to Mongolia, Uncle Yuan sent me to Zhending to reunite our father and son. Uncle Yuan treated me with as much kindness as a mountain." Bai Pu murmured: "I'm really a lost dog, Lai
You once protected Luo Nv'er..."
Liu Zhongzhi picked up the wine bottle that was just served and poured Bai Pu a glass.
"I heard that at that time, he composed a song called "Man Ting Fang", which became a favorite in northern literary circles."
"I was only more than ten years old at that time, and my eloquence was poor, which made Liu experience laughable."
Bai Pu took the wine glass, raised his head and took a sip. He felt Liu Zhongzhi's gaze, so he started to read the little poem.
"Guanglu's platform, the general's pavilion, in the middle of a dream every ten years. Horses in short clothes see Zhenzhou Mountain again. When Neihan was drunk with ink, the sarong branches are still tall and broad. Today, children wandering in front of the lamp are happy to be alive.
"
"The good words should come to light." Liu Zhong raised his wine glass and asked: "Sir, you are so talented, why don't you become an official?"
"Shi Shuai once recommended me, but I declined."
Bai Pu always looked into Liu Zhongzhi's eyes when he spoke, and said: "Because the people brutally plundered and killed too much, I have no intention of becoming an official."
Liu Zhongzhi was stunned and the wine in his hand spilled all over the table.
Bai Pu asked: "Does Liu Qingcheng want to arrest me for this sentence?"
"Haha, it's impossible, it's impossible... The Great Mongolia never commits crimes based on words, it's just..."
Bai Pu laughed at himself and said: "Don't worry, Liu Qingcheng. Just now I also expressed my opinion on Zhao Song. I deeply despise the Zhao family who prefers to live in a corner... There is absolutely no possibility of surrendering to Zhao Song."
"It's natural." Liu Zhongzhi finally relaxed and asked, "Mr. Dan was favored by Shi Shuai and made good friends with Erlang. Do you plan to find Erlang?"
"good."
"Why are you drinking here, sir?"
Bai Pu said: "Yesterday, Zhang Shuai entered Kaifeng City."
"so what?"
Bai Pu raised his wine glass and pointed to the outside of the store.
Liu Zhong turned around and saw a middle-aged man questioning the gatekeeper at the gate of the garden in the distance.
"That person's name is 'Jingjie', and he is Zhang Shuai's wife and nephew."
"Sir, do you think this matter is related to Erlang's robbery case? However, Zhang Shuai was summoned by the Goukao Examination Bureau, so it is natural for Jingjie to investigate the matter..."
"Now Kaifeng City is only allowed in but not out." Bai Pu said: "If Li Xia wants to leave the city, someone must help him leave the city. Who does Liu Xianqing think this person will be?"
"Who sent Li Xia out of the city?" Liu Zhongzhi murmured in a low voice and fell into deep thought...