Brocade tears

This time when he entered the city, the handlebar-style old Li chose to go through the Tongji Gate in the south, deliberately avoiding Chaoyang, Taiping, and Shence Gates.Although it took a long detour, it was safer. Meng Kuang and others arrived early, and it was still early when they arrived at the gate of Tongji Gate.

One month later, the inner city of Nanjing was quite different from when Meng Kuang and others first arrived in Nanjing a month ago.There are vendors hawking along the street inside and outside the door, which is a bustling scene.The officers and soldiers who were searching and searching were not seen, only the city guards were left listlessly on duty, allowing the people inside and outside the city to come in and out without hindrance.

Tongji Gate is adjacent to Zhengyang Gate on the central axis of the imperial city in the east. The tall walls and the archery towers above it give people a strong sense of majesty and oppression.Tongji Street, which leads directly behind the gate, is on the west side of the imperial city, separating the imperial city from the residential areas to the west.After everyone's cars drove into the city, they headed west of Tongji Street. Gu Zhongwen planned to go to a familiar big pharmacy in Yuminfang to purchase medicines. It just so happened that Ma Chengye's home, which Meng Kuang was going to visit this time, was just a few meters away. In Qijiawan not far from Yuminfang.

Qijiawan is located in the southeast of Chaotian Palace (the Chaotian Palace in the Ming Dynasty has always been the place where the imperial court practiced etiquette before holding grand ceremonies, and where bureaucrat children learned the etiquette of meeting the emperor before they were sealed off.) It is connected to Cangxiang in the southeast. It is named after Huhui people who lived here.There are a lot of taboos in Hui folk customs, such as not eating pork, dog meat, horse meat, donkey meat and mule meat, not eating the meat of livestock and poultry slaughtered by non-Muslims or dead, and not eating the blood of animals.They mainly feed on self-slaughtered beef and mutton, so this area is also the most prestigious place to buy beef and mutton.Most of the residents living here are Muslim Muslims who make their living by slaughtering and cooking cattle and sheep.

After getting off the carriage not far from Yuminfang, Meng Kuang split up with Qiu Bai, Gu Zhongwen and Old Li with the handlebars, and went alone to find Ma Chengye in Qijiawan.It was not difficult. After walking west for a while, I came to the streets of Qijiawan in a short time.Before stepping into this realm, you can smell the tangy aroma of beef and mutton, mixed with a few traces of raw meat, weird and alluring.On a stone pier under an old locust tree on the street, an old man with a flat white round cap and a big beard sat on his head. This old man didn't have short hair like a man from the Central Plains, but only had short hair. The hair protruding from the cap is completely white, and the beard is also grizzled.He was wearing a gown with Muslim characteristics, holding a small teapot in his hand, and sat there looking at the passers-by.

Seeing Meng Kuang standing at the intersection, he shouted:

"The young man, what are you doing here?"

Meng Kuang frowned and didn't answer for a while, looking at the old man with some surprise.The old man spoke Mandarin with a Northwest accent, and because he had few teeth left in his mouth, his speech was leaking, and Meng Kuang sounded a bit strenuous.

"I don't think you are here to buy meat, what are you doing here?"

Meng Kuang thought for a while, approached the old man, and took out a piece of paper that he had written long ago from his sleeve, on which were written the five words "I'm looking for a horse to make a career".The old man frowned and stared at the note in Meng Kuang's hand with his gray and messy eyebrows, and said for a long time:

"Young man, you are embarrassing me, the old man, the old man is illiterate."

Meng Kuang was speechless for a moment, intending to ignore the old man altogether and go to Qijiawan Street to find him.But the old man stood up, waved his hand to stop Meng Kuang, and said:

"Don't go, don't go, the old man will take you to see the imam. The imam here can read and write. If you need anything, you can go to him."

The imam, Meng Kuang had heard, should be a figure similar to a Buddhist abbot in Islam, and also an elder with the highest prestige in the Muslim community.

This old man is a very enthusiastic person, Xu is really free and has nothing to do, but he has become a guide in Qijiawan. I am afraid that he does not wait and see on the street every day, and ask strangers when he sees them.Meng Kuang followed him into Qijiawan Street. The folk houses along the street had ethnic characteristics, which were completely different from the houses built by the Han people who used a lot of wood. They were all mud houses made of adobe and yellow grass mud, with arc-shaped roofs. Shaped like a kiln for firing porcelain, Hui people call it hoop kiln.However, this type of house strangely incorporates the characteristics of Han Chinese architecture with cornices and shingled tiles, and cornices and tiles are also built on the top of some buildings.

The old man introduced Meng Kuang to a small Muslim temple in Qijiawan. This Muslim temple is a fusion of Han and Hui architectural styles, with a courtyard layout and central axis symmetry.They found the imam who was studying the scriptures in the lecture room. The imam had silver hair and beard and was older.The old man saluted the imam very respectfully, and then introduced Meng Kuang to the imam.Meng Kuang bowed to the imam, still adhering to the principle of not speaking when it was not necessary, and showed the note to the imam.

The imam saw the words "I'm looking for a horse and become a career" on it, and his white eyebrows were twisted up like the old man, and his expression was a little strange. He looked at the old man, then at Meng Kuang, and said slowly:

"You take him to Ma Chengye, this guest wants to see him."

The old man was taken aback immediately, and looked at Meng Kuang.After a long while, he saluted the imam silently, then led Meng Kuang out of the mosque, turned into a narrow alley in Qijiawan, and stopped at the door of a house after a while.He said:

"Wait." He opened the door and entered the house.

Not long after, the old man led a middle-aged man with big arms, round waist, high nose and deep eyes to the gate of the courtyard.The man was wearing a leather apron with a lot of livestock blood splashed on it, and he was holding a bloody sharp knife in his hand, looking full of evil spirits.The old man said:

"This is my nephew, Ma Chengye, what can you do with him?"

Meng Kuang clearly felt the hostility emanating from the old man and the middle-aged man with big arms and round waist. She was not afraid at all, but laughed instead, and walked around. It turned out that the old man was actually Ma Chengye's uncle.The uncles and nephews seemed to be very wary of outsiders, maybe they had experienced some unpleasant things.

Still silent, she took out the silver lock Sui Er gave her from her bosom, and showed it in front of her uncle and nephew.When Ma Chengye saw Yinsuo, his complexion changed immediately, he raised his sharp knife and said in a vicious voice:

"How did you have this lock!"

Meng Kuang took his time and pointed to the yard, signaling to go in and talk.The old man was not forgiving, and said:

"Speak clearly, or you won't even think about coming in."

Meng Kuang couldn't help sighing, and finally said: "This lock was given to me by the baby girl who was in the swaddle back then, and she has grown up now. I am her relative, you can trust me, I have no malicious intentions."

"You...you are a woman?" The uncle and nephew were surprised at the same time.

Meng Kuang remained silent helplessly.

The uncle and nephew looked at each other, probably reaching a consensus to trust Meng Kuang, and finally let Meng Kuang enter the yard.

"Uncle, go and call Alan out." Ma Chengye said to the old man, and the old man entered the house immediately.Ma Chengye threw the bloody sharp knife into a bucket in the corner of the yard, washed the blood on his hands with the water in the bucket, found a dirty rag to wipe his hands, and asked Meng Kuang to wait for Maza in the yard. Up and down.

"I'm sorry, what happened back then was a taboo for us, and everyone who came to ask about it felt like we were facing an enemy. What I didn't expect was that the baby girl was still alive. I thought that a child like her, It's too easy to die young."

"Her name is Li Sui'er. Now that I'm protecting her, I won't let other people hurt her. You chose to trust me, aren't you afraid that I'm lying?"

"No...you're a woman."

"You believe me because I'm a woman?" Meng Kuang couldn't help feeling amused.

"You came to me alone in disguise like this, which means that you are also afraid of being discovered by others during this trip. You are holding the girl's silver lock in your hand. You are so careful. I don't think you came all the way to trouble us." Ma Chengye said.

"Has anyone ever troubled you?" Meng Kuang asked.

"Yes, they were sent away by us, and the imam also helped. But they were not reconciled, and they entrenched here for a long time, watching us all the time, and finally dispersed after a month or two."

"When, who is it?"

"About three years ago, it looked like people from the imperial court. There were a few thugs, and some eunuchs. They also came to find clues about that girl. I don't know where they learned about the relationship between me and that girl. Yes, we've felt uneasy over the years."

While talking, the old man in the house and a middle-aged woman came out, and the woman was still dragging a tray with tea and snacks on it for Meng Kuang to eat.

"This is my wife, Alan, who also took care of the girl and breastfed the girl, because our son was just born and was breastfeeding. This is my uncle. I put him on the table about seven years ago. I received Yingtian Mansion from my hometown Guyuan. Uncle is a widow there, and I have to take care of him when he is getting old," Ma Chengye introduced.

Alan bowed to Meng Kuang, and said with worry on his face: "Our family only wants to live a peaceful life. In the past, we killed cattle and sheep, sold some meat, and lived a poor life. We don't know what happened back then, so we should ask the government to help you." Let us go."

"She is not from the government, she is the girl's current relative." Seeing that his wife had misunderstood, Ma Chengye explained.

Alan couldn't help being surprised: "The girl is still alive? How is she doing?"

"She's fine." Meng Kuang said with a smile.

"Yeah, you're a woman." Alan was startled when he heard Meng Kuang's voice.Accepting the fact that Meng Kuang is a woman, Alan seemed to let go of his guard, and said emotionally:

"The girl back then was a little bit small, and her mother had no milk for her. She was fed rice soup every day. She was sallow and thin. I really feel sorry for this girl. I fed her more than two babies on the way from Beijing to Nanjing. Yue's milk was fed for more than a month in Nanjing City, and then her mother took her south alone. Speaking of which, I can also be regarded as the child's wet nurse."

"How old was the child at that time?" Meng Kuang couldn't help asking.

"It looks like five or six months old, but it is said that it was already eight months old at that time."

"When was that?"

"September of the sixth year of Longqing."

"So, Sui'er was born in the first month of the sixth year of Longqing." Meng Kuang pondered.

"Her mother is said to be a maid from the palace, and she doesn't look like a married woman. The girl looks like a person from the Western Regions, and she doesn't look like a person from the Central Plains. I still think about that girl. The doll may not have been the woman's own."

Hearing this, Meng Kuang's eyes fell on Ma Chengye. Ma Chengye's face was a little dignified, and he lowered his head under Meng Kuang's gaze, as if he was struggling with something.Meng Kuang didn't force him, he just waited for him to make his own decision.After a while, Ma Chengye really said:

"Alan, Uncle, I have never discussed this matter with you in detail. You only know that this child is unusual and is the child of a nobleman, but you don't know that this child was taken out of the palace. Today, through this If guests come to look for my chance, I will explain clearly.

Twenty-three years ago, when I was still a boy in my teens, I just came to Beijing from Guyuan with my parents. I started herding sheep in the suburbs of Beijing and sold mutton and goat milk for a living.Not long after, my father became seriously ill and passed away. I was the only son left in the family and had to support my mother. As a last resort, I had to go to the capital to work. the coachman.After a year of driving in the capital, it was the beginning of the fifth year of Longqing.I remember that at the beginning of that year, the capital was very lively, and an embassy delegation from the Western Regions came, with hundreds of people.It is said that it was a mission sent by the Yarkand Khanate, and there was also a fairy-like woman in the mission, who was enshrined as the "auspicious bird" by the Yarkand Khanate.At that time, the common people in Beijing made a fuss and watched the missions driving along the street, wanting to see what the saintess looked like, but the saintess was wearing a veil and head scarf, and she was still sitting in the car, so she couldn't see anything clearly.

The mission stayed in Beijing for about a month and a half. I don't know what happened. It was rumored that something happened in the palace, and the trouble was very unpleasant, so the Yarkand mission left in a hurry.Then not long after, maybe a month, the head of the car dealership I worked for came to me, saying that an employer wanted someone who could speak Thai to be a driver.The boss knew that I was from the Western Regions, so he asked me if I understood Chagatai.Our Hui people in Guyuan actually have a relatively high degree of Sinicization, and generally speak Chinese.But my mother happened to speak Chagatai, so I understand it too.So I was selected right away, and the head of the car dealership gave me an address and asked me to report there the next day.

When I arrived at the place the next day, I suddenly realized that the person who hired me was actually Zhang Juzheng and Zhang Shoufu.And on the first day I arrived in Zhang's mansion, Zhang Shoufu also met me in person and asked some short questions about my parents.I was really flattered, but I also vaguely felt that there might be deeper reasons why Zhang Shoufu valued me.I just didn't expect that since then, he has been planning to rescue the auspicious bird from the palace. "