Chapter 395 Seeing, hearing and hearing are believing
After bypassing the adobe wall of the alley, the two came to the outside of a simple but not dilapidated courtyard. There was a locust tree standing at the entrance of the courtyard, with thick branches and pavilion-like trunks covering most of the courtyard. An old man was leaning on a wooden stick.
Sitting on the millstone under the tree, his chin rested on the wooden staff held in both hands, his eyes empty as if he was reminiscing about the past.
When Huangfu saw this situation, he couldn't bear to step forward and disturb him. Such scenes always made him feel the sadness of life. He stopped Wang Sili who was about to step forward to inquire, and just stood in the distance and waited quietly.
The old man pulled his thoughts out of his memory, returned to the world in front of him, and asked the two uninvited guests who had been waiting for a long time: "Are these two distant guests asking for a drink of water?"
Huangfu Weiming stepped forward and quickly cupped his hands: "My father-in-law, we heard that Geng Gong's Well in the Han Dynasty was located here, so we came here to pay our respects."
"Oh, I want to drink the water from Geng Gong's Well, but unfortunately I can't do it for the time being. The Governor's Mansion has already rounded it up and is repairing the ancestral hall."
Huangfu Weiming decided to attack from the side, inducing the old man to reveal the loopholes in his lies: "My father-in-law's house is not far from Geng Gong's well. Did you often carry water from this well in the past?"
"Where is it?" the old man waved his hand: "This well dried up many years ago, and our family always gets drinking water from elsewhere."
"Are you saying that the well is suddenly filled with water? This is not necessarily a good sign."
The old man raised his head suspiciously: "Why do you think this is a good or bad omen? It was obviously General Li, the envoy of Shule Town, who personally stood in front of the well to pay his respects, and the clear spring gushed out of the dry well. It was his piety that moved God.
"
"What I said is not entirely true." Huangfu Weiming stroked his beard and said with a smile.
The old man knocked the ground heavily with the wooden stick with both hands, raised his chin and said coldly: "You mean I, old man, am telling nonsense? I have lived for ninety-nine years this year. I have deceived people in the first half of my life, but I have never lied to others in the second half of my life.
Did you tell lies?"
Huangfu Weiming hurriedly bowed and said: "It turns out that my father-in-law is already a very popular person. I am disrespectful and disrespectful."
"I don't dare to take it seriously, but are the visitors from far away coming here for the well water or for something else? If it's for the well water, you can go and taste it for yourself without asking me. If it's for something else, then our village will
, the people in this alley saw with their own eyes that Ambassador Li Zhen stood outside the well to pay homage, and then the dry well came into being. If you don't believe it, ask others."
After the old man said these words, he ignored Huangfu and continued to squint in concentration with his hands on the wooden stick.
Huangfu Weiming led the horse away and looked back at the old man. He thought that as people mature with age, he might have seen through their identities. Regardless of whether the water coming out of the well is real or not, Li Siye's popularity in Shule City cannot be faked.
Since most people say good things about him, it means that he can at least maintain his appearance.
Along the way, most of the officials in Anxi were at this level. If they did not harass the people, their reputation would not be too bad. This person was slightly better at running the army, but not to the point where Huangfu Weiming admired him. In other aspects,
He's quite average. When it comes to exam grade, he should be rated as average, slightly weaker than Gao Xianzhi.
The unannounced visit was almost over, and they decided to take the camel to the inn, where they would settle down in a room and wait for the big team to arrive.
The sound of horses neighing and the hammering of hammers could be heard not far away. The two of them followed the sound and led the camels forward. In front of them was the center of Shule City, but there was a large courtyard surrounded by adobe walls and wooden fences.
, the yard is divided into three parts: left, middle and right. On the left is the stable, which contains several sick-looking ponies.
Ponies are usually used by soldiers to carry items. They are much cheaper than the Shiguo Dayuan horses and Turkic Dun horses, and private individuals can and can afford them.
In the middle is a folding-rule-shaped flat-roofed house, facing two directions. The smell of boiling Chinese medicine spreads out from the dark door. A guy in a leather apron came out carrying a bucket of water. He came to the pony.
, use a comb dipped in water to comb the horse's hair.
He knew the role of this institution at a glance. Isn't it the horse doctor in the army? But along the way, this one in Shule City was the most complete.
There is a blacksmith shop on the left side? They led the camels and watched curiously beside the railing. With the help of an apprentice, a blacksmith man lifted a horse's leg and nailed a ring-shaped iron palm to the
on the horse's feet.
Do they put iron boots on horses? Huangfu Weiming looked back at Wang Sili. Wang Sili shook his head and shrugged and said that he had never seen it before. However, Shule is located at the westernmost end of Qixi, and he learned this kind of thing from Dashi and Fulong.
normal.
From this point of view, it is not without reason that Li Siye can be the garrison envoy of the two towns. Although he is not as good at leading and running the army as the two Hu men, Fu Meng, he should be far better than the two barbarians in terms of horse administration and logistics.
Yes, this exam course can be considered to be improved to a higher level, on the same level as Gao Xianzhi, and can be considered as an average.
The two of them led the camels to the city's mansion store, and handed them over to the store to take them to the stables in the backyard for feeding. After entering the city, they cruised around for a whole morning, and their stomachs were already empty, so they simply ate some in the reception hall downstairs.
meals.
The two of them sat cross-legged in front of the counter. Dr. Jiu from the shop came up with a linen towel and wiped the counter. He asked enthusiastically: "Guests, what would you like?"
"Mutton soup, Hu cake."
"Okay, please wait a moment, the mutton soup pancakes will be here soon!"
Huangfu Weiming suddenly saw strings of dried meat hanging under the eaves, and couldn't help but asked curiously: "I heard that people in Jingchu like to make air-dried bacon, but I didn't expect that this custom would spread to Qixi?"
There were two or three local regulars sitting at the table diagonally across from them. After hearing this, they continued: "This cured meat comes from the Tang Army's military camp."
The two nodded. Wang Sili expressed surprise and said, "I didn't expect that Shule Town is so prosperous. We just walked half a circle on the street outside and saw bacon hanging outside almost every house."
"You are so rich." A man in brown clothes said, "This is the mutton saved after the disaster last winter."
Huangfu knew that the listener was interested, just like a keen hunting dog smelling the wounds of its prey, and immediately asked: "What disaster happened last winter, a heavy snowstorm? Or was it frost?"
He actually wanted to know what position the Tang army officials in Shule Town maintained in this disaster and how they behaved?
Maybe it was because of their accents. Several old customers frowned, as if they could detect a sense of schadenfreude in them, and immediately retorted in an eccentric manner: "Can heavy snowstorms and frosts be considered disasters? We in Shule must be able to have some disasters in winter.
With the heavy snowstorm, those who work on the fields will probably wake up laughing at night. Speaking of frost, it starts in October every year. Although the days are getting colder day by day, it also reminds the herdsmen to prepare for winter in advance."
The guests obviously didn't want to follow their questions and started talking about other things. Huangfu Weiming simply stopped talking and just chewed the mutton slowly, just as a listener.
When the two of them chose to shut up, they heard what they wanted to hear instead. These regular customers drank a lot of wine and casually mentioned the fire last winter.
"Has Bu Laosan, the one who set the fire, been released?"
"He was released a long time ago. He didn't do it on purpose, it was just an unintentional mistake. The governor's office slapped him and locked him up for another two months.
"Haha, this idiot."
"Hey, Bu Laosan has already admitted defeat, and the Bu family's wife is also ready to send all the sheep out to be slaughtered one by one by the Tang army. The strange thing is that the Tang army did not do that, and even distributed fodder to his family. Their family protects
The half-laid sheep. I heard that on the night when Bu Laosan was let out, he stood at the door of the sheepfold and cried loudly, and kowtowed three times in the direction of the military camp."
"Where is the military camp? I heard that it was directed at the residence of the guardian envoy."
"Ahem, no matter where it is, it's a knock."
A regular customer said with emotion: "If this were the case in previous years, not to mention the hundreds of sheep owned by Bu Laosan's family, even the herdsmen who were affected by the disaster would probably not have a few left, and they would have killed tens of thousands at a time.
I sold all the sheepskin to several local shops at a loss, but this shop is still unwilling to accept it."
"Fortunately, Ambassador Li Zhen rushed back from Khotan in time. As soon as he entered the city gate, he scolded the soldiers who were killing the sheep, stopped Governor Pei and them from killing the sheep, and forced him to write a recruitment order, so that the entire Shule Town army and civilians
They used some of their own pasture to provide relief, and ordered General Duan, who was stationed in the field, to go hundreds of miles to harvest the pasture in the north of the Tianshan Mountains. The herdsmen were able to save most of their sheep."
Several guests sighed, and the older man said with emotion: "We have never had an official like General Li in Shule. When something happens, the first thing that comes to mind is to save the losses of us herdsmen, and tens of thousands of them have been saved."
How many sheep herders have been saved? This is a huge kindness. Even God thinks he is benevolent, otherwise why would the water suddenly come out when he paid homage to Geng Gong's well?"