Chapter 64: Two Fat Quails
"Hey, among our rebels, you are the one who hates rape and robbery the most. Why did you become so irritable when you got here?"
Li Dingguo looked at the crowds on the road and whispered: "I hate this feeling of being restricted by others. I don't know why, ever since I entered Lantian County, I feel like I have fallen into a fishing net, and I can't help myself everywhere." Jin, everything is wrong."
Zhang Guofeng said with a smile: "That's because you have never been treated in a normal way. The rich people you have seen before are all bastards. Landlords are all thieves, and all the officials you've seen are man-eating tigers and wolves.
When you come here, you find that the landlords work for themselves. If you work for them, you will be paid and you will be rich. Everyone has a reason to be rich. The government does not eat people, but only takes away the share of taxes that must be taken away.
If you don't have a meal, you will be taken away by Mongolian medicine, and if you don't live in a shop, you will be used to make buns. , you won’t see many people with evil intentions here, so you are not used to it.
Poor baby, he has never had a good day.”
Li Dingguo was arrested. The old friend couldn't hold back what he said, so he raised his leg and kicked Zhang Guofeng. Zhang Guofeng ran forward happily, while Li Dingguo chased behind him, attracting passers-by's attention. He only saw two strong young people playing there, with faces on each of them. With a smile on his face, the older man yelled and cursed twice, disgusted with the two of them for blocking the road.
Li Dingguo was indeed uncomfortable.
There are no thieves who block the road, no villains with black hearts, and no villains like Pili Yangqiu. He has accumulated many years of life experience and lost his goal.
In the end, he discovered that he could dominate the world in troubled times and be invincible, but he could not do anything in the fairyland on earth.
This is something that the proud Li Dingguo cannot tolerate.
I harvested wheat for others and took care of the food. I gave them 600 copper coins. The food was not bad and the hospitality was considerate. I didn’t treat them as wheat customers as human beings. I also gave them solid copper coins. Every copper coin was given to them. They were all golden, not mixed with any iron money or broken money. Now, they were all heavy in the backpack, making a clatter with every step, always reminding him that he was a rich man.
Li Dingguo had more money before, especially after conquering Fengyang Mansion. He saw mountains of silver, gold, and huge amounts of gold and jewelery shells. After getting it, he didn't have any money. All rewards were given to subordinates who fought bravely.
The jingling copper coins behind his back actually made him feel that he was a rich man for the first time.
"Four coppers can buy a bowl of noodles?"
When Li Dingguo and Zhang Guofeng walked for a long time and were exhausted, they walked into a noodle shop and saw customers coming to the door. Yes, the shopkeeper smiled like Maitreya Buddha and entertained us attentively.
“If you are still hungry after eating the noodles, you can add soup. Take out the pot helmet from your bag and let it be grilled on the stove for you, then dip it into the soup and you will have a full meal!”
Li Dingguo watched as the diligent boy took away their dry food, and soon brought a large bowl of sour soup with two grains of fat floating on it.
Zhang Guofeng and other waiters brought the baked pancakes, and then followed the example of other chefs, breaking up the browned pancakes and throwing them into the sour soup. After taking a bite, he gave Li Dingguo a thumbs up.
"It's really delicious."
Before Li Dingguo could answer, the old shopkeeper next to him said with a smile: "When you finish harvesting the wheat, go to Xi'an City to play, where You must have a bowl of mutton steamed buns, and then go to Fanren Street under the Drum Tower to broaden your horizons. Don’t dare to go to Mingyue Tower. If you go there, all the money you made this year will be thrown into a bottomless pit. ”
"Mingyuelou?" Zhang Guozhu, who was eating steamed pancakes, immediately raised his head.
The old shopkeeper who was serving him soup slapped him on the head angrily and said: "Study well and make money, then go home, honor your parents, and save money to marry a wife." Buying land to build up your family fortune is the right thing to do, don't think about those vixens." Zhang Guofeng grinned and said, "When I get rich, I will definitely go and see the shopkeeper. He raised his thumb and said, "That's right. If you have money, do what rich people do. If you don't have money, make money. If you make more money, it's not bad to broaden your horizons."
In Amid the laughter of the crowd, Li Dingguo and Zhang Guozhu finished their meals, and the other Mai Kes asked the old shopkeeper where there was someone who needed labor.
Without much effort, the old shopkeeper made perfect arrangements for these Mai customers.
Seeing that Li Dingguo and Zhang Guofeng were still waiting for him, he abandoned everyone and walked over and said, "Are you full?"
Li Dingguo patted his belly and said, "Very full."
p>"It just so happens that the Liansheng Inn in Xi'an city ordered a cart of apricots from an old man. The clerk in the store can't leave. How about you two go with the old man? It takes a day and a half and two hundred coins. !"
Zhang Guofeng jumped three feet high happily, but there was a hint of gloom in Li Dingguo's eyes.
"Okay, okay, Xingzi is there, let's leave now."
The old shopkeeper pointed to the bamboo basket under the eaves with a smile, and Zhang Guofeng immediately ran over to move it Picking up a basket of apricots, he asked, "Where's the carriage?"
The old shopkeeper brought the mule cart. Zhang Guofeng happily loaded the apricots on the mule cart and ate an apricot in the middle. The old shopkeeper just Laughing and scolding, I don’t care.
After loading the last basket of apricots, Li Dingguo glanced at the open field and found nothing unusual, so he invited the old shopkeeper to sit on the shaft of the cart. He and Zhang Guofeng followed the mule cart to the three directions. Walk to the city of Xi'an, which is ten miles away.
"Old man, this is not the border of Lantian County. Why does everyone call themselves Lantian County?" Until now, the expected danger has not come, and Li Dingguo couldn't help but ask.
The old shopkeeper smiled and said: "We used to say that we are from Xi'an, that is, four years ago, we started to call ourselves Lantian people."
"Why is this?" ”
"Why else, just to live a stable life. In the past, this place was called Chang'an County. People found that they had no enough food to eat when they became Chang'an County residents, and thieves came to plunder from time to time. Then, we put Lantian County The boundary monument was moved this way.
After that, officials from Lantian County came here to measure the land and began to ask the people here to repair canals, dig ponds, build reservoirs, and load water trucks. Jue Jie, the well digger wants us to plant new crops on the wasteland.
After these things were done, the county magistrate summoned the wealthy families to discuss rent reduction. I don’t know why. After talking about it, those wealthy families were willing to reduce the rent to less than 30%, and then more people were willing to farm.
A few years later, Chang'an County became what it is now. /p>
Since taxes have to be paid to Lantian County, everyone thinks they are from Lantian County."
"There is no force?" Li Dingguo's eyes were still looking around. I asked seemingly unintentionally.
"Maybe, probably, probably not. I haven't heard of any forced incident..."
Li Dingguo chatted happily with the old shopkeeper along the way, while Zhang Guozhu walked along. Eating rhubarb and apricots from the mule cart.
After walking for three hours and seeing the Xi'an City Wall approaching, what Li Dingguo expected still didn't happen.
When entering the city gate, Zhang Guofeng looked around carelessly, while Li Dingguo's muscles tensed up and he followed the old shopkeeper every step of the way.
Seeing that the old shopkeeper paid the city tax and said hello to the sleepy-eyed and sinister-looking bald tax collector, the three of them drove the mule cart into Xi'an.
As soon as he entered the city, Zhang Guofeng felt that his eyesight was not enough. He had never seen so many rich people... At this moment, he felt that the world was not real. He wanted to ask, Where were all the ragged people he was used to seeing.
The old shopkeeper slapped Zhang Guofeng on the back of the head affectionately and said, "Stop looking and hurry up to Fanzi Street. If you wait any longer, you will eat up all the apricots in the old man's car."
Li Dingguo said with a smile: "Where is Fanzi Street?"
The old shopkeeper pointed to the tall Drum Tower in the distance and said: "It's over there, this is the city gate. We can't stay here, we will be fined for obstructing people's passage."
After that, he led the way and motioned for Li Dingguo and Zhang Guofeng to follow.
The further they walked, the denser the crowds of pedestrians became. When they finally reached Fanzi Street, the old shopkeeper wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "Look, if it weren't for you two strong "Young man, this old man can't deliver the goods alone."
Li Dingguo smiled and said nothing, but kept his hand on the long bundle.
Zhang Guofeng was stunned for a moment when he saw Li Dingguo's appearance. Then, the smile on his face disappeared. He hung the baggage on his back on his shoulders and naturally kept a close relationship with Li Dingguo. feet distance, such asIf you look carefully, they both have the same stride length.
The carriage arrived at a lively inn. Li Dingguo looked at the name of the inn carefully and found that it was indeed an inn called Liansheng.
As soon as the old shopkeeper came to the door of the inn, a waiter with a towel on his shoulders said loudly: "My dear shopkeeper Hong, the apricots were just delivered at this time. Your business is not doing well. Ah."
The old shopkeeper said with a smile: "Brother Xiao Qi, I didn't expect that there would be so many people in the city today. Is there something happening?"
The clerk said with a smile: "The eleven courtesans of Mingyue Tower came out today. I heard that all of them are stunningly beautiful. No, all the people from all over the country who have some money are out, even if they can't get the beauty. Son, you might as well take a look."
The old shopkeeper pointed at the serious-looking Li Dingguo and said to Zhang Guofeng, "Don't dare go there, it's the goblin's nest!"
Li Dingguo said with a smile. : "We brothers are two miserable people, how can we get the money to see beauties!"
The clerk said to Li Dingguo rudely: "Quickly move the goods and send them to the backyard. After moving the goods, we will Go pay the money at the counter, and you will continue to make money without delay."
As he spoke, the waiter carried a basket of apricots and led the way. Li Dingguo and Zhang Guofeng looked at each other, and then looked at the people sitting in the inn lobby. The old shopkeeper asked for tea, gritted his teeth, packed his bag again, picked up a basket of apricots, and followed the waiter to the backyard.
The backyard was very clean, except for the waiter muttering something about the apricots sent by the old shopkeeper missing half the basket, nothing happened.
After unloading the goods smoothly and paying four hundred cash on the counter, the old shopkeeper waved goodbye to them with a smile.
Li Dingguo and Zhang Guofeng stood on the crowded street, as wary as two fat quails about to be preyed upon by an eagle.
Unfortunately, except for the passers-by who looked at the two coolies who were blocking the way, no one paid any attention to them. This made Li Dingguo so frustrated that he just wanted to yell at the top of his voice.