"By the way, little brother, where did you meet Uncle Yu?" the woman continued to ask.
"In a long pavilion, they had just arrived on horseback when I left. They were about sixty or seventy miles away from here. I guess they should catch up soon." He Qizhou said.
"Madam, I didn't expect that you are also from Ganzhou! You married to Chang'an a long time ago, right? You can't hear the local accent at all. Should we wait for escort leader Yu?" Another older Wu Cha Si
The officials took the opportunity to get close to him.
Mrs. Yu ignored her, put down the curtain, coughed a few times and said, "Guard Bai, you can do what you want. By the way, give this little brother two taels of silver."
Guard Bai was the kind-looking officer. As he took out the money, he said to the two officials of the Military Inspection Department: "My lords, Madam has traveled a long distance and has caught the cold. We'd better go to Shannan Town to talk about it."
"That's right, that's right. I didn't think well enough, madam. Please forgive me, madam." The official from the Military Inspection Department said hurriedly and humbly.
Guard Bai insisted on giving the money, but He Qizhou didn't want to push him back and forth, so he had to accept the matter.
A large group of people and horses appeared in the distance on the official road ahead. There were six or seven carriages, and there were thirty or forty people escorting them on horseback. Smoke and dust were raised along the way. The two groups of people and horses met quickly. The official road was not wide, and two carriages could barely pass side by side.
, two riders from the other side came closer and shouted: "The team in front of us stops for a moment, wait for us to pass before we leave!"
"Sir, I'm going to take a look." The official from the Military Inspection Division who verified He Qizhou's identity greeted his superior and then walked forward. As he walked, he shouted: "What is that blind thing calling?"
The two riders on the opposite side saw clearly that the person coming was an official from the Military Inspection Department. They restrained themselves a little, but were not frightened. They said loudly: "Prefect Lu, let's go. The one on the opposite side will stop and give way!"
"Fuck your mother! Open your eyes and take a look. Who is escorting the carriage? Hurry up and ask your master to get out of the car to excuse the crime!" If the official of the Wuchang Division did not dare to confront the Suzhou prefect a month ago,
Lu Yuan was not disrespectful at all, but now that many important officials in Suzhou Prefecture had been beheaded and demoted, Lu Yuan was already in danger. If he didn't show his loyalty to the Han family now, how could he wait?
Someone on the opposite side had already seen that some of these cavalrymen were in the uniform of the General Guards Battalion. They hurriedly jumped on their horses and said, "Sir, don't blame me. It was these two dog slaves who were ignorant of Mount Tai and rammed Master Han's car. Please forgive me."
Sin! Quickly, move the carriage aside!"
The people from the Wucha Division did not stop there and said: "What did I just say? Shouldn't the subordinate get out of the car and salute? Do you want our wife to come to punish you for the crime of disrespect in person?"
"Yes, yes, I'm going to pass the message." The man immediately turned back and passed the message to the carriage behind him, and then a richly dressed woman walked out of each of the first two cars, one was plump, the other was slender, both had high heads.
Wearing a curtain hat, he reluctantly walked towards Mrs. Han's carriage.
In the car, Mrs. Han said to another official from the Military Inspection Department: "Sir Shen, why bother? Just let them go."
The official of the Military Inspection Department named Shen kept laughing at his subordinates showing off their power. After hearing what Mrs. Han said, he said: "Madam, it is true that you are kind-hearted, but the other party is domineering and escaped from the battle. How can you not teach him a lesson! Mr. Han
Now is the time to establish authority, and it is within the rules to let them come and salute. If Madam doesn't want to pursue it, just send them away."
Mrs. Han couldn't say anything else, but just as the two women were about to pass the Wucha Division official at the front of the team, they were stopped again: "Do you understand the rules? Take off your hat, identify yourself, and then
Go say hello!"
The two had no choice but to take off their curtains and hats, revealing their fair and pure faces, which are rare in this area. One of them timidly replied: "Both of the slave family are concubines of Lu Zhifu. They are allowed to return to Shaanxi to visit relatives. Please make it convenient for me."
The man who had just come up to accompany him also dismounted and ran over. He apologized again and again, but quickly stuffed something into the saddle of the Wucha Division official, and the official quietly put the thing away secretly.
The sharp-eyed He Qizhou couldn't help feeling disgusted when he saw it was a folded banknote. What made him even more disgusted was that the official who received the banknote said to let the two women pass, but his eyes stopped at their breasts and buttocks.
He couldn't move it up, and he seemed to be mumbling something.
The person who stuffed the banknotes was probably the housekeeper, but he listened to the words of the Wucha Division official word for word: "I don't know how much money this old guy Lu Yuan spent to buy these two sluts!"
There is nothing you can do.
According to He Qizhou's eyes, these two people were really different from the ordinary women he saw on the road. Maybe it was because of the barren land. Most of them were born yellow, thin and rough, and were far less graceful than the girls in the capital and hometown.
Mrs. Han had no intention of being arrogant, so she sent the two women away and asked the white guards to get on the road quickly. Since He Qizhou was really unwilling to go with the people from the Wucha Division, he said hello to the white guards and rode off on his big yellow horse.
Take the first step.
Less than thirty miles westward, the official road began to go all the way down, and it should have entered a vast and gentle valley. Under the afterglow of the setting sun, you could vaguely see dozens of bungalows scattered at the lowest point of the valley. I think it was Shannan.
Towned.
Although the houses looked close, it was still several miles away. It turned out that the valley was quite deep. He Qizhou looked back at the way he came. The end of the official road seemed to be on the top of the mountain. Mrs. Han's cavalry had not yet appeared.
The moon has risen in the east.
He Qizhou was already used to the sight of the sun and moon shining in the sky. These days, he could always see the sun and moon shining together in the wilderness every evening these days.
There were not many people in the town. He Qizhou asked an old man who was enjoying the cool air on the street to find out. He said that the Shannan Inn was on the high ground at the western end of the town. Following the man's instructions, he found that he was standing on the only street in the town.
You can see a two-story brick house surrounded by low earth walls to the west. Compared with the adobe houses all over the street, it looks like it stands out from the crowd.
He Qizhou went straight to the inn along the small street. The big yellow horse was already very tired. He had seen several wells beside the street. He wanted to stop and drink water every time. He Qizhou thought that there were only a few steps to go anyway, so he hurried there.
Let’s talk about the inn, I thought that building a town here probably was because of the water source.
The inn is actually two to three hundred steps away from the residential houses in the town. It is built on a platform on a slightly higher ground, surrounded by open space. The roof of the second-floor platform is already the highest point in the valley.
Each side of the earthen wall is more than twenty feet long, but is only as tall as a person. A two-foot-wide gap in the south earthen wall is the gate. A flagpole is set up at the door, with a gray rag on top bearing the name "Shannan Inn".
The words disappear and appear with the breeze.
No one was soliciting business at the door, so He Qizhou led his horse directly into the courtyard and called loudly twice. Finally, a waiter ran out of the house and apologized repeatedly, saying that he didn't expect that there would be guests staying overnight so late.
He Qizhou stuffed a piece of broken silver into him and asked him to feed the withering rhubarb.
The waiter didn't expect the disgraced He Qizhou to be quite generous, so he even claimed that he was the one, greeted him even more attentively, took He Qizhou to the shopkeeper, and then went back to settle the big yellow horse.
The shopkeeper, an old man in his fifties, was drinking alone in the store. Seeing that He Qizhou was wearing simple clothes and was not very enthusiastic, he asked He Qizhou: "Sir, are you staying overnight or having a meal?"
"Have dinner and stay overnight." He Qizhou replied, putting down his heavy luggage.
"There is still an upper room upstairs, which costs two cents a night, and the room downstairs costs sixty cents a night. Just look at the price tag and tell the waiter about the meals." The shopkeeper said while drinking.
.
"Then let's live downstairs." He Qizhou was not saving money, because a large group of people was coming soon, so he might as well leave the upper room to Mrs. Han. After thinking about this, he said to the shopkeeper: "There is a group of military men coming soon.
Alright, shopkeeper, you’d better ask someone to clean it up quickly.”
When the shopkeeper heard this, his face suddenly turned ugly and he asked: "Are you sure?"
"Don't worry, the officer in charge is a good person at first sight and won't miss you any money." He Qizhou knew what the shopkeeper was worried about.
The shopkeeper no longer wanted to drink, he shouted loudly, and called the chef and waiter over. There were only four shopkeepers in the entire inn. The shopkeeper asked three people to clean up the room, prepare meals, and also asked the receptionist
He Qizhou's waiter immediately went to the door to wait.
He Qizhou looked at the menu cards on the wall and couldn't help but laugh a little. Including the only kind of wine, there were only four brands in total, so let's have one of each. It's good to be able to sit down and eat these days.
Yes, what else are you forcing?
After a hasty dinner, He Qizhou had just sat down in the simple guest room when he heard the sound of horse hooves and Mrs. Han's team had arrived!
Outside the door came the warm greeting of the shopkeeper, the scoldings of two officials from the Military Inspection Department, and the crisp orders issued by the officers... Just as the noise subsided, there was another hurried knock on the door of my room.
He Qizhou opened the door and saw that the waiter who was greeting the guests begged with a sad face: "Sir, I have something to discuss with you..."
He Qizhou roughly guessed the reason for his visit and said kindly: "Tell me, what's the matter?"
The waiter told the story. It turned out that the inn had a total of eight rooms, and there were three upper rooms upstairs. Two of them were occupied. It was said that they were waiting for business travelers from the east to arrive here before leaving the hotel together. The one in the middle was
It was given to the mother and daughter who had just been escorted by the sergeant.
There are five rooms downstairs. The shopkeeper lives in one room, the three clerks live in one room, He Qizhou lives in one room, and there are only two other rooms available.
The two officials from the Military Inspection Department asked the shopkeeper to free up an upper room, but the guests in the two upper rooms were unwilling to change rooms, let alone four people in one room. The young officer sent someone to check the upper room.
After there was no problem with the identity of the guest, we persuaded the master of Wuchasi. The man from Wuchasi reluctantly agreed to stay in a guest room downstairs.
The problem is that there are twelve soldiers, but there is only one guest room left. The shopkeeper has asked three waiters to stay in his room for one night, but it is still not enough. Because it is cold here at night, sleeping on the floor is easy to catch cold, so the waiter hopes
He Qizhou could squeeze two more sergeants into his room, and the shopkeeper was willing to charge only one-third of the rent.