Chapter 14 Enemies meet on a narrow road

Chapter 14 Enemies meet on a narrow road

Chapter 14 Enemies meet on a narrow road
After Xiao Xia traveled through time, he had been active in the northwest corner of Jiangdu City, with an activity radius of only about one mile. Although he had left the city twice, the north gate was very close to the martial arts hall.

In fact, he had never been to the truly prosperous area of ​​Jiangdu City.

The next morning, Xiao Xia took a few taels of silver and went out shopping.

Following the route map provided by Xiao Zhurong, he soon saw the red and yellow Guanyun Restaurant.

It seems that Lao Liu works as a waiter in this restaurant in the afternoon.

There were obviously more people in this area, with densely packed shops on both sides, signs and flags of various colors and styles hanging overhead, and all kinds of goods piled up like mountains in the shops.

There were also pubs, inns, brothels, gambling houses, etc. A dozen beautifully dressed young women were leaning on the flower bridge and waving at him in a sweet voice.

It is really like "a young man in a thin green shirt, riding a horse across a sloping bridge, with red sleeves waving all over the building."

The laughter of Yingying Yanyan made Xiao Xia blush, his heart beat faster, and his blood boil. He couldn't help but touch the silver in his pocket. Since ancient times, scholars have been romantic, right?
But then I looked at my thin arms and legs and decided to give up!

A soul in its twenties is hidden in a body of fourteen or fifteen years old. This psychological and physiological gap is not pleasant!

Walking past Guanyun Restaurant, he caught sight of the county government office diagonally opposite and walked up quickly.

Although he had been to the county government office before, he was lying in a cart and did not see the real appearance of the county government office.

This was the first time he saw the Jiangdu County Yamen. It was similar to what was shown in movies and TV dramas, with several yamen runners standing at the door. Their status was relatively low, and they were temporary workers without a regular payroll.

The police officers were organized into different organizations, and the detectives, jailers, warehouse keeper, etc. were all police officers.

Above the official are the county clerks, the bailiff, the six ministries, the county doctor, the county school, the head of the police, and the county magistrate's staff also belong to the clerk level.

At the top are the officials, including the county magistrate, county magistrate, county lieutenant, and chief clerk. There are only these four officials in a county.

"Hey, big brother, I want to see County Doctor Liu. Please inform him for me."

Xiao Xia has always been grateful to County Doctor Liu who saved his life at a critical moment in prison.

The yamen runner looked him over and said, "County Doctor Liu has resigned and returned to his hometown."

"Ah! When did it happen?"

"A few days ago!"

County Doctor Liu had already left. Xiao Xia felt a little disappointed and asked again, "Where is County Doctor Liu from?"

"I think he's from Guanzhong! I'm not sure."

"Thank you very much!"

Helpless, Xiao Xia had to turn around and leave. At this time, a Taoist nun in her thirties walked past him, glanced at him with a smile, and swung the Buddhist whisk in her hand into the distance.

Following the direction of the Taoist nun's whisk, Xiao Xia discovered that there seemed to be a bookstore across the street.

This is not bad. Xiao Xia quickly bowed and said, "Thank you for your advice, Taoist nun!"

The nun smiled slightly, turned and left.

Xiao Xia cheered up and walked quickly towards the bookstore.

The name of the bookstore is quite interesting, it is called Weiming Bookstore. The store is very small, but the inside is quite long and narrow. However, it seems that there are not many books, mainly stationery.

Woodblock printing had not yet been invented in the Sui Dynasty. Printing was mainly done by hand copying and stone slabs. The rubbings of inscriptions on Wei and Jin dynasties were actually early printings. This evolved into small carved stone slabs in the Sui Dynasty, which were coated with ink and printed, mainly for printing Buddhist scriptures, etc.

Thanks to social stability, culture developed rapidly, the demand for printed materials increased, and lower-cost and more convenient woodcarving plates appeared in the Tang Dynasty.

At present, the printing volume of stone tablets is not large, and most books are still hand-copied, which is also the most important means of livelihood for low-level literati.

High-level literati naturally become officials. Middle-level literati do not have great wealth, but have some connections. Generally, they either become staff members of wealthy and powerful people, or become professors in schools, or work as clerks in government offices.

The main job of low-level literati was to copy and write. The better ones could be stewards for prominent families, taking care of accounts and the like. The less fortunate ones could copy books, scriptures, write letters, petitions, etc. Kong Yiji made a living by copying books.

The bookstore owner came up to him and said with a smile, "What would you like to buy, young master?" Xiao Xia thought for a moment and said, "Buy a set of cheap study treasures and a few books, such as Thousand Character Classic, The Analects, Mencius, and Zhuangzi. Buy these four first."

The shopkeeper smiled slightly and said, "Let me correct you, young man. The book is about volumes, not books."

"Ah! I'm used to it."

"I wonder if you want to make a copy of the book or hand-copy it?"

"I want someone who can write better, in regular script. Do you have any ready-made ones?"

"There are several copyists who wrote these, and their handwriting is very good. I'll take them out for you to choose from."

Xiao Xia paid five cents and came out carrying a large school bag made of coarse cloth, which was filled to the brim.

Five cents of silver was a lot of money. It could buy three hundred kilograms of wheat, and its purchasing power was equivalent to five hundred yuan in later generations.

From this we can see that stationery and books are very expensive. If you want to achieve academic success, you have to read at least a thousand books, if not ten thousand. There are also expensive consumables such as the four treasures of the study, not to mention the sky-high tuition fees of famous teachers.

So during the conversation just now, the bookstore owner gave Xiao Xia an estimate that if he wanted to graduate from the county school, he would have to spend at least thousands of strings of cash over ten years of hard study.

How could ordinary people afford it? Therefore, the phrase "poor in literature but rich in martial arts" is not appropriate, at least not in the Sui Dynasty when the war had just ended.

Most children from poor families can only work from sunrise to sunset, day after day, and spend their lives in a daze.

But there are also a very small number of poor children who can achieve great things. It can only be said that they have shown extraordinary talents since childhood and become child prodigies, thus gaining the favor and funding of wealthy families.

Long-term investment in talent has always been the secret for famous families to stand firm for thousands of years. Lu Buwei once summarized the rate of return on talent investment.

As Liu Bei was born in a poor family, he should have shown extraordinary talent since he was a child, thus receiving support from his clansmen. He emerged as a promising teenager and was noticed by the Lu family of Fanyang, who trained him. The head of the family, Lu Zhi, even taught him personally.

For example, we have all learned the article "The Story of Zhongyong". Zhongyong was a child prodigy, but his father took him everywhere to show off, and thus ruined him.

In fact, his father is not showing off, but trying to attract traffic and fame to attract wealthy families to invest in his son.

Perhaps Zhongyong himself was not qualified enough, or perhaps his father asked for too high a price, and in the end the deal fell through. Without the support of power and capital, no matter how talented Zhongyong was, it was useless and he would eventually be lost among the crowd.

Good wind helps me soar to the sky. Without wind, ordinary people cannot get up.

Just as he reached the door of the restaurant, Xiao Xia stopped suddenly and narrowed his eyes. He saw Liu Erhu and a group of people walking towards him. There was no way to hide. It was really a narrow road for enemies to meet.

A warrior saw Xiao Xia and immediately cried out in surprise, "This is weird, there are stray dogs on the street!"

Everyone also saw Xiao Xia and burst into laughter. Xiao Xia sneered, "That's right, there was a wild dog barking just now!"

The warrior was furious and was about to rush forward, but Liu Erhu stopped him.

"Xiao Qilang is my old friend, you are not allowed to be rude!"

Liu Erhu smiled and walked forward to hold Xiao Xia's shoulders, but pinched his shoulder blades without making a sound. He lowered his voice and said coldly, "Wu San died because of you. Just because we are of humble origins, you Xiao family can crush us to death like ants? I tell you, I, Liu Tong, don't believe this. Sooner or later, I will kill you to make Wu San pay for his life!"

Xiao Xia's shoulder was in so much pain that he almost screamed. He gritted his teeth and trembled all over. His face turned pale. Liu Erhu's eyes were filled with murderous intent. "Why don't you talk? Why don't you kill me first!"

Xiao Xia endured the intense pain in his shoulder and said in a trembling voice: "You'd better kill me now and then destroy the body, so that no one will know that it was you who killed me!"

Liu Erhu felt a sudden pain in his right shoulder, like a needle prick, and his strength rapidly drained away. He immediately knew that he had been ambushed. He glanced back out of the corner of his eye and saw a Taoist nun holding a whisk behind a big tree not far away.

He let go of Xiao Xia's shoulders and said coldly: "You are right to remind me. If I hurt you, the Xiao family will not let me go. Next time I will definitely kill you directly!"

He quickly glanced at the Taoist nun in the distance and waved his hand, "Let's go!"

Liu Erhu walked quickly into the restaurant with a group of warriors.

Xiao Xia covered his aching shoulder and stared at Liu Erhu's back with anger in his eyes as he disappeared, but he did not notice the Taoist nun standing behind the tree.

(End of this chapter)