Chapter 34: Gao Shugui, the eldest brother of Chang'an South City Ranger
Growing up in Daliang, I like to travel with young knights. The knights rarely have fine horses with silver saddles and gold coins. They ride out at dawn and listen to the music of the konghou at night.
He drank too much and did not regret himself, and threw the black mink fur away. He kept his promise in life, and did not understand the sorrow of being light. His heroic demeanor filled the population, and his name spread all over the imperial state.
At noon, Monk Jingming, wearing a gray robe, had already sneaked to Yongpingfang in Nancheng. Gao Shugui, the Jingjie tiger, lived in a house in Yongpingfang.
The area around Gao Shugui's house was a little desolate, and weeds had even grown on the walls of the two houses next to him, but no one had cleaned them. Monk Jingming knocked hard on the door for a long time before a man ran out of the house.
A knight wearing a beard and bare arms opened the door for him.
There is no way, even though Chang'an City is said to be the place where the richest man is in the world, not all places are prosperous and every inch of land is valuable.
You must know that Chang'an City has a saying that the east is rich and the west is rich, and the south is empty and the north is strong.
This means that with Zhuque Street as the center, to the east...especially the Fangshi east of the Imperial City, such as Yongchangfang, Yongxingfang, Daningfang and the like, all the powerful people live there.
For example, Pei Ji's family is here, and Fang Xuanling's family is also here.
In the Fang City to the west of the Imperial City, such as Ding'an Fang and Xiude Fang, most of the wealthy families live there.
But no matter whether it is the east or west side of the imperial city, in short, as long as it is the north side, there are many families living in it. Some of them even have tens of thousands of people living in them. But in the south city, for example, Kunlun Nu lives.
There are not many people living in Guiyifang, and many of them are foreigners like Kunlun Nu, such as Tubo people, Sri Lankan people...
Places like Yongpingfang belong to the kind of desolate city. There may be hundreds of people living in one village, so they are valued by the rangers in Nancheng and become their gathering nest.
It must be explained here that Youxiaer is a very characteristic title of the times during the Han and Tang Dynasties. It is a general term for some young people who are not doing their jobs properly.
And these rangers are also divided into several types...
The first type is the rich knight-errant, which is the knight-errant who is the son of a rich and powerful family.
These silly sons of landlords are either brave enough to do whatever they want, or generous with their wealth, or making friends with heroes, or wearing bright clothes and angry horses, galloping around the city...
But they all have their own purposes in doing these things, such as gaining fame to advance to the next level, recruiting dead soldiers, or having other purposes. Even without these purposes, the life of a ranger is still a fashion for them.
A symbol of luxury and a lifestyle that expresses individuality.
Just like those second-generation rich people showing off their wealth now!
The second type is skilled rangers, most of whom will be active in frontier areas.
They are the true inheritors of the chivalrous spirit of the Han Dynasty. They are good at bow and horse, value trust and promise, and despise life and death. They are extremely proactive when encountering battles, eager to be the first, advocating fame but taking it on their own initiative.
"When you go out with your sword, the isolated city will be surrounded. Kill people on the Liao River, and return with horses and fishermen."
For them, the life of a knight is a way to change their social status through their own strength.
The third type is the rangers who have neither money nor skills. These guys are called the bad guys in the village.
As the name suggests, they are those idle scoundrels who hang out in the streets every day, barely maintaining their lives by fighting in groups, collecting protection fees, kicking down widows' doors, and digging graves of abandoned families.
Nowadays, these gangsters can be called "a mixture of a core gang with a gangland character and low-level street gangs."
The eldest brother of the bad boys in Chang'an Nancheng, the leader of these Nancheng rangers, was Gao Shugui, who was known as the Jingjiehu of Nancheng.
Just when Monk Jingming followed the shirtless knight into the mansion and before reaching the hall, he heard a burst of shouts coming from the hall.
"Lu! Lu! Lu..."
"Pheasant! Pheasant! Pheasant..."
"..."
This voice is very familiar to Monk Jingming. These knights are currently bored and gambling on acanthus in the hall.
Aipu is a popular gambling tool in the Tang Dynasty. It is made of wood and looks like an almond. One side is white and the other side is black. A calf is painted on the black side and a pheasant is painted on the white side.
Generally speaking, Aipu is used in conjunction with Shuanglu, just like the current flying chess.
But after listening casually, Monk Jingming knew that none of the rangers inside used Shuanglu. They simply regarded the five acanthus as dice and relied on the number of points thrown to judge the size.
For example, all black calves are the highest prize, called Lu, and four black ones and one white are the second class, called pheasant, so when betting directly on points, these people will call Lu Lu Lu,
Pheasant Pheasant Pheasant…
This is what the so-called Hulu drinks pheasant means!
It's the same as when people throw dice nowadays and shout, "Six, six, give me a six!"
Sure enough, as soon as Monk Jingming walked into the hall door of the house, he immediately saw twenty or thirty street wanderers doing nothing... The knights were in groups, sitting on the mats on the ground, blushing somewhere.
Yell.
Among these gambling rangers, there was one who was particularly tall, at least a head taller than the other rangers around him.
He has a bronze complexion, is bare-chested, and wears a pair of calf-nosed trousers. He has a lot of chest hair between his strong, knotted arms. He has a jackal face and eagle eyes. He is looking forward and proud.
At this time, he was happily crowding with others and shouting loudly.
"Color! Color! Color..."
"Brother..."
The knight who brought in the monk Jingming entered the hall and shouted to the shirtless man.
"Monk Jingming from Zhuangyan Temple is looking for you."
"A monk from Zhuangyan Temple?"
The big man turned his head and glanced at Monk Jingming with contempt, then he stood up nonchalantly, squeezed out from the crowd, picked up a crew-neck shirt hanging on another shelf and draped it on himself
, sitting casually on a table at the side of the hall, nodding his chin towards Monk Jingming.
"You, Zhuangyan Temple, are very wealthy, and you have a lot of thugs of your own. You won't blame a certain family for trivial matters. Let's just say, you want a certain brother to help you do something that cannot be seen in person."
"Brother Gao is joking..."
The shrewd monk clasped his hands together, saluted the big man, and then said respectfully.
"How could our Zhuangyan Temple allow our eldest brother to do something shameful? It's just that there are some things that our temple is really inconvenient to do. Brother Gao must also know that now is the annual Buddha's birthday ceremony in our Zhuangyan Temple...
…”
"Stop it! You don't need to bring some nonsense to the family here, the family doesn't want to know either!"
This muscular man is Chang'an Nancheng Street Liuzi... Gao Shugui, the leader of the Youxia'er family, waved his hand without hesitation, interrupting Monk Jingming's words.
"You just need to tell a certain company what to do and how much it will cost, that's enough!"
"All right!"
Monk Jingming, who was choked by Gao Shugui, fully demonstrated the magnanimity of Buddhism. There was no embarrassment on his face, and he still clasped his hands and said respectfully.
"There was a Taoist priest in the Qingdu Temple in Chang'an who took advantage of the temple's Buddhist birthday ceremony to come to the door of the temple to sell divination. After all, Buddhism and Taoism have different origins, so the temple wanted to ask the Taoist priest to leave, but because it was during the ceremony, so
This temple does not want to use any other means to avoid causing uneasiness among believers, so..."
"Understood!"
Gao Shugui touched his chin with his hand, with a playful smile on his face.
"In other words, there is a Taoist priest blocking the entrance of your temple to grab business. You want to drive him away, but you don't want people to know that you drove him away..."
"Brother Gao is really a smart man."
Monk Jingming had a smile on his face and looked at Gao Shugui sincerely.
"Brother, can you do this?"
"Do it! Why not do it..."
Gao Shugui replied lazily.
"As long as the money is in place, let's not just drive that Taoist priest away from the gate of your temple, but even buy that Taoist priest's life, we will accept it. Tell me, how much is it?"
Monk Jingming raised his hand, turned his back to Gao Shugui, and stretched out five fingers.
"Five Guan..."
Gao Shugui glanced at it and snorted.
"not enough!"
Monk Jingming turned his hand in a circle again and pointed the palm of his hand at him.
"How about doubling it again?"
"Just so-so!"
Gao Shugui raised his hand and yawned.
"Okay, I have agreed to this matter. Tomorrow I will take two brothers and drive that Taoist priest away from the door of your temple."
"good!"
Monk Jingming clasped his hands together and bowed again, with a smile on his face.