Cross the Sea in the Red Chamber

In the end, Liu Guanshi was caught by Chen San who "resurrected from the dead" and did not catch up with Song Chen who walked out of the hall quickly.As soon as Song Chen went out, he got into the carriage prepared in the mansion and rushed all the way to the magistrate's yamen in Yangzhou.

It stands to reason that officials should live in the back of the official government, but the court of the Jing Dynasty did not prohibit officials from spending their own money to buy houses outside.Anyway, one term lasts for three years, and it doesn't matter where you work after three years. Buying a house for three years' accommodation is tantamount to wasting money.But those who are willing to spend wronged money can spend it, and those who are unwilling can only live in the government office honestly.

If you are an official in southern Xinjiang, northern Xinjiang, or some remote place, of course the officials have no choice but to live in a government office. The first is because there is no money, and the place is really not lucrative, and the second is because of other places. Maybe it's not as good as the government office.But Yangzhou is different.

Being an official in Yangzhou is often a lot of money, and the mansions bought are far more exquisite than the government buildings built hundreds of years ago. After receiving enough filial piety from the salt merchants, Song Chen also bought a house outside the government office. Live, the big deal is to sell when the term expires.Unexpectedly, this house is a little far away from the government office. After driving for a long time, it still hasn't arrived, which made Song Chen feel anxious for a while.

The coachman hurried and hurried, and finally drove the carriage to the government office.At this time, the fire was already very large, and just from the outside of the high wall, one could see puffs of black smoke rising from the courtyard and floating into the sky.

The yamen servants inside the wall yelled "fire fighting" and "go water", and people kept coming in and out of the yamen gate to deliver containers and water.The scene fell into chaos, and all kinds of chaotic sounds filled it, which also made Song Chen standing by the carriage anxious.

At this time, Song Chen didn't care about being polite anymore, he pulled up the front of his clothes, and ran straight into the government office with big strides.Seeing that there was no fire at the main entrance, and the soaring black smoke was rising into the sky from the house behind, he hurriedly ran all the way to the main hall of the government office which was directly opposite the gate.

"My lord, my lord, why did you come here? This fire... This fire can't be extinguished by anything, and I don't know how it started. It looks evil, so go and have a look at the back!" The yamen servant rushed over with a dark face, saw Song Chen arriving, and hurried over to report the situation of the fire.Unexpectedly, his master ignored him, directly bypassed him, and rushed into the lobby.

The yamen servant spat out a mouthful of black ashes, stared blankly, and quickly shouted: "Master, it's not the main room that's on fire, or it's the kitchen that got up from the back!"

It's a pity that when these words were spoken, Song Chen had already rushed into the main hall, and closed the door, turning a deaf ear to the servant's words.The yamen servant had no choice, he thought that the master might have left important official documents in the lobby, maybe he was afraid that the fire would come over and set him on fire, after a while the official documents would be put away, he would go to the backyard to check, he didn’t care Dare not to do anything to rest here, so I can only quickly run back to the backyard to continue fighting the fire.

Song Chen turned a deaf ear to all the sounds around him from the moment he entered the government office, so what if the government office was on fire, even if it was all burned, he wouldn't feel bad.He didn't light the fire, and the money to rebuild the house in the future doesn't belong to his family. He can burn it however he likes, and it has nothing to do with him.

Song Chen trotted all the way, did not stop in the main hall, directly passed through the main hall and rushed into the second hall behind.

Jumping and jumping, Song Chen quickly walked around to the position where he usually sat in the grand teacher's chair where he corrected the copywriting with exaggerated movements that he didn't usually do at all, and looked up obliquely with his head up.Sure enough, he saw the location behind the plaque that said "Mirror hangs high" on the beam of the house, and there seemed to be a blue cloth bag faintly leaking out.

Even though he saw that the cloth bag was still in its original place, Song Chen was still not at ease. He opened the door quickly and carefully, and went around to look for a ladder outside the second hall.

Because the roof and walls are being repaired in the government office recently, there are bamboo ladders used by bricklayers everywhere. Song Chen easily found a bamboo ladder in the corner, and moved it back when no one was around. Inside the second hall.

Carefully placing the bamboo ladder on the beam, Song Chen slowly climbed up to the back of the plaque.Time was running out, he was afraid that the yamen servants would come looking for him later, so he broke into the second hall, so he didn't take down the cloth bag, so he leaned on the bamboo ladder and barely stood up, trembling, carefully moved the blue cloth bag hidden behind the plaque. opened.

Inside the cloth bag were several thick horizontal notebooks, a stack of letters, and a map made of sheepskin. After checking them one by one, Song Chen heaved a sigh of relief.There are a lot of things, and they have not been passive, so I don't have to worry about my secret being known by others.He packed the bag back to its original shape, climbed back slowly along the ladder, opened the door and carried the ladder back to its original position secretly, then pretended to be shy and stepped on the official step, step by step and three steps to the black smoke rising in the backyard direction.

The place where the fire started was in the backyard, and the fire started in the kitchen of the government office.Yangzhou government office does not have a special firewood room for stacking firewood, so people simply pile firewood in the kitchen and take it as they need it.In the end, somehow, the firewood that had been placed in the kitchen without incident suddenly burst into flames. The fire was so fast and violent that it rushed along the wooden pillars in the kitchen to the beams of the house.

Unfortunately, the roof of the kitchen is not made of tiles. In order to save money, the roof of this house is made of thatch. It is reasonable to say that it rained the day before, and the thatch should still be very wet, so it should not be easy to catch fire. But today's fire was so evil for some reason, it jumped up to the beam and immediately ignited the thatch on the roof. As a result, the whole kitchen didn't even have time to react, and it immediately burned into a sea of ​​flames.

What was even more frustrating was that the kitchen was too small to fit all the firewood, so some extra firewood was piled outside the house. Once the kitchen was set on fire, the tall firewood stacks outside would not be spared.

Recently, the north wind howled, and the turbulent wind ignited the firewood stack on the side of the thatch ring on the roof of the kitchen shed. The fire that ignited burned along the firewood stack and even ignited the horse stable not far away.

The stables are no different than other places. The animals in the stables are not dead but live. The horses in the stables are most afraid of flames. When they see a big fire, they will be frightened immediately, jump up and down, rush around, and even rush out of the stables and kick them down. A firefighter.All the horses ran out, causing the entire government office to be in a mess. There was still a fire burning on the horse's tail. The horse didn't obey the call at all, and lit the fire wherever it ran. !

Everyone was anxious to put out the fire, and managed to catch the horse, but the fire that started somehow could not be extinguished.Moreover, the flame is evil no matter how you look at it. The more water is poured on it, the more it burns, and the flame spreads farther.Looking carefully, the fire was not extinguished by the water, but floated on top of the water and flowed to the surroundings along the water. As a result, after everyone worked hard, not only the flames in the kitchen were not extinguished, but because of the flames flowing everywhere. Flames ignited several surrounding houses.

All the officers were in a hurry and didn't know what to do, so they hurriedly asked someone to invite Mr. Song Chen to come back and preside over the overall situation.In the end, Song Chen finally arrived, but he ran straight to the second hall where there was no fire, pretending he didn't see the raging fire in the backyard.

When Song Chen finally left the second hall and rushed to the backyard, the houses that were on fire had almost burned down, and the nearby houses were burning fiercely.Hearing that this strange fire could not be extinguished with water, Song Chen also lost his mind. The whole government, from Song Chen to the servants, could only watch helplessly as the fire engulfed several houses in the backyard, and smoked the brick walls next to it. It was scorched black, and it gradually extinguished when there was nothing left to burn.

The situation was so flustered and chaotic, everyone was in a hurry, so no one noticed if someone they didn't know took the opportunity to walk into the government office, and they didn't know if these strangers took advantage of the fire to do something. something special...

Yangzhou Mansion, in a remote house.

The small house is said to have two entrances, but in fact it is only about an acre of land. There is no plaque, and few people come and go. It seems to be a very inconspicuous place.

The surrounding residents all said that this small house was the property of a hard-educated scholar. Since the scholar who was poor for ten years went to Beijing to catch the exam, there were only a few old and weak servants left in the house.In a dilapidated house like this, one would know that there would be no valuables in it, so although people would come and go in and out of this house from time to time, no one cared, but it was just a slave who bullied the master. Come to live, it's just a dove to occupy the magpie's nest, are there still few such unruly families?Who cares what will happen to that poor scholar...

Although the house is small, it is a large hall inside.

The room was not big, but it was about two feet square, and the people sitting in it were not the servants of the so-called poor scholars, but Jiang Yuan, Situ Ye and Lin Jun.

The three of them sat on an armchair, surrounded by a table, and their six eyes were fixed on a gray cloth bundle on the table.The size and shape of the bag were exactly the same as the one Song Chen checked just now. If it wasn't for the different color, it would be the same cloth bag.No, although the colors are different, the contents inside are exactly the items that were just hidden behind the plaque in the second hall of the Yamen of Yangzhou!

Situ Ye widened his eyes, looked at the burden in front of him, and then at Jiangyuan where the old god was there, and finally couldn't hold back, and asked suspiciously: "Teacher, how did you know that Song Chen would send you Are these things hidden in the Yangzhou government office?"

"Fu Ya, Song Mansion and Daming Temple, these three places may be the places where he hid things, but nothing strange happened. How do you know that Song Chen hid things in Fu Ya, not other places?" What about those two places?"

Jiang Yuan smiled slightly, but did not answer clearly, but instead asked: "Ye'er, if you were asked to hide something, where would you choose to hide it?"

Situ Ye frowned, he didn't understand why the teacher suddenly asked such a question, but this "simple" question passed him.

As a grandson of the emperor and the eldest son of His Royal Highness, he usually needs to live in the imperial city.Although the imperial city looks huge, it is guarded no matter where it is. It seems that people may find it wherever it is hidden. It is not so safe to hide anywhere. Even if it is hidden in a hole in a rockery, Situ Ye is worried that he will be found. The naughty little maids and eunuchs found out, not to mention hiding by his side, there were dozens of palace people serving him, and they followed him wherever he went, so he was easily spotted by these people.

Seeing that he couldn't think of an answer, Jiang Yuan said with a smile: "Actually, if you want to hide something, the best way is to just find a place that you don't usually go to, dig a big hole deep enough to bury it deeply. "

"Why? Because except for people who hide things, no one will be idle and have nothing to do. To dig such a deep hole, and it just happens to be where you hide things. How can there be such a coincidence in the world? Others Even if you know that you have dug a hole to hide things, as long as you don’t tell where the things are buried, the people who are looking for them will feel that they are looking for a needle in a haystack. What can I do in vain."

"It's a pity that few people hide things like I said. Because people are always afraid in their lives, and worrying about things is normal. They subconsciously believe in coincidences, and they are afraid that buried things will be accidentally discovered. Therefore, the more important things are, the more worried they are to put them out of sight, wishing to be at ease every day by staring at them closely, for fear of being taken away by others secretly. Since Song Chen did not jump out of the ordinary If it is in the category of a person, then the location where he hides things will naturally be missed."

Situ Ye still didn't quite understand, "Where is the trace missing, why didn't I find it?"

Jiang Yuan smiled, "When we don't know how to choose, we can do a method of elimination. When the wrong answer is eliminated, the correct one will be easy to find."

"As I said just now, Song Chen will never rest assured that these things are out of his sight, so he needs to check whether the things are still there every once in a while. Therefore, the location where these things are hidden is definitely where he will The places I often go to, that is to say, must be among the three places of the government office, Song Mansion and Daming Temple. And among these three places, the Song Mansion is the one I rule out first!"

Lin Jun nodded and agreed with Jiang Yuan's opinion, "If you can check whether these things have been touched every day, Song Mansion is indeed a suitable place. Song Chen, as the master of Song Mansion, wants to go anywhere No one dares to stop you, and no one dares to enter the door if you want to hide alone in the room. It is indeed convenient to hide things, but Your Highness, don't forget, whether it is Chen San or that Guanshi Liu, the aristocratic family and the honorable People often go in and out of the Song Mansion, and even stay in the Song Mansion to keep an eye on Song Chen."

"If these things are really hidden in the Song Mansion, perhaps they will be discovered by these people when Song Chen secretly inspected them one time, then these things may be stolen by others. Even these things It can't be placed in Song Chen's study, bedroom, hall, etc. where Song Chen used to go often, if it is placed in such an obvious place, the things will probably be gone long ago."

"Even if this Song official is absolutely cautious, he can guarantee that Chen San and Liu Guanshi will not miss any traces every time they are in the mansion, and even if he can bear his temper, he can not check these things when they stay in the Song mansion. However, it is of little use.”

"It has been a full year since Zhen's family was ransacked and exterminated. During this year, Song Chen must often check whether these things are still in the mansion. How many times does he need to check? This process Can you completely avoid the servants? I don't think so."

"After such a long time, if he really hid things in the mansion, the servants in his mansion probably would have noticed that something was wrong. A master often sneaks in and out of a place that he rarely goes to, isn't it? Will it attract people's attention? If the aristocratic family and noble people took the opportunity to buy the servants in his mansion, wouldn't they be exposed all at once? So Song Chen never dared to hide these things in the Song Mansion."

"That's right." Jiang Yuan agreed, "Song Chen would never dare to hide these things in the Song Mansion, nor would he hide them in the Daming Temple."

"Why is that?" Situ Ye was still a child after all, and he really couldn't understand such a complicated reasoning problem.

Jiang Yuan smiled, "If you think about it seriously, it is impossible for Song Chen to go to Daming Temple to worship Buddha every day. Although he will go to Daming Temple to offer incense every ten days, he can't stay there for the rest of the day. He stared at it. Such an important thing could even affect his life and the safety of Jiangnan. How could he tolerate checking it after so long? If he didn’t look at it for so long, what if If someone let him go, he might not know it yet."

"And for the same reason, Chen San, Liu Guanshi and other servants are often present in the Song Mansion, and the places he frequents will be noticed. But isn't there someone following him in Daming Temple? There are so many spies following him He, the places he frequents will definitely be searched over and over again by the nobles and nobles of the family. Unless he really buries things deep in the soil a few feet deep, sooner or later the nobles and nobles will dig the ground three feet deep Found it. According to Song Chen's temperament, he would never dare to take this risk."

"But there are a lot of people coming and going in and out of the government office in Yangzhou Mansion. Don't you worry about being seen if you put it there?" Situ Ye was still a little puzzled.

"Indeed, people often come in and out of the government office, but Song Chen took advantage of this blind spot to make everyone wonder where he hid things." Jiang Yuan smiled and said: "The so-called most dangerous place is The safest place, although this Song official is a bit greedy, he still has a little brain, no wonder the family and Xungui searched for so long, but they couldn't find where these things were hidden."

Lin Jun followed Jiang Yuan's words and said: "Your Highness, you should know that there are three halls in the government office, including the lobby, the second hall, and the third hall. The hall is also called the public hall and the main hall. The interrogation site has the most people coming in and out."

"And the second hall is also called Yintang. Although people often come and go, but as the prefect's office and meeting place on weekdays, there are fewer people going in and out. Even if they come in, they dare not stay longer."

"These three halls are commonly known as official residences. They are places for the magistrate and his family members to stay. The officials of the Song Dynasty do not live in the official residence. The three residences exist in name only. They can be used by servants to come and go at will. It is not a safe place. "

Jiang Yuan nodded and said: "Among the three halls, the second hall is often visited by people, but as the prefect's daily office, there are many confidential documents and letters in it, so Song Chen spends most of the day alone. Anyone who sits in the second hall is not allowed to directly enter the second hall unless it is passed on. If something is hidden in the second hall by him, he can avoid people's sight and look at it at any time, and take it whenever he wants. Hide and hide, you can always avoid the sight of the crowd."

"And have you noticed? He hid these things behind the plaque on the beam. The beam of the government office is different from that of ordinary people, because it is much higher than other places to show the momentum and majesty of the government. The position of the plaque It’s so high, even if people enter the second hall during the day, they won’t even look there.”

"Even if someone wants to see it, standing on the opposite side of the desk case, they will be blocked by the plaque on the beam. Unless they are sitting in the grand teacher's chair where Song Chen usually works, there is no way he can't see the position behind the plaque. But Song Chen always Working in a room, will people sit in his place and look around?"

"It's impossible during the day, and at night, the back of the plaque becomes dark, so it's even more difficult to be discovered. The guards in the government office have always been heavily guarded. If you openly light candles, you are afraid of attracting patrol officers. If you don’t light candles, unless the thief is a cat that can see at night, you won’t be able to see what’s behind the plaque.”

"There is another advantage of hiding these things there. Song Chen only needs to look up every day to see the things hidden there, and he only needs to glance up for daily inspections. It is also very convenient and unobtrusive."

"But teacher, how do you know that he will definitely hide things behind the plaque?" Situ Ye frowned. They did send someone to follow Song Chen and sneak into the government office, but long before they set off, the teacher had It has been concluded that the thing must be hidden behind the plaque on the beam, which is simply a prophet.How can the teacher be so powerful?Is it really the reincarnation of the gods as the legend says?

"Hehe, Ye'er, you still don't understand the careful thinking of some officials." Jiang Yuan smiled, "Do you know what is meant by 'officials don't repair government offices, customers don't repair shops'?"

After hearing this, Situ Ye couldn't understand it at all, so Lin Jun had no choice but to explain from the side: "Your Highness, if a tourist stays in an inn, he can only stay there for a few days at most. Customers come to repair it for a few days, this is the reason why customers do not repair shops."

"The same is true for being an official. I have a system for officials in my dynasty. They are elected every three years. After this term, it is not certain where the official will go. The official office is to the official what the inn is to the traveler. Then the official How can it be so troublesome to repair the government office?"

"One more thing, the imperial court has strict requirements on the government offices. Not only can they not violate the rules, but unless they are burned or collapsed, they rarely grant money for repairs. Officials can't withhold taxes privately if they want to repair the government buildings. .”

"If you pay too much, you will not be able to tell where the money came from. It will inevitably give people the impression of corruption. Not only will you not leave a good name, but you may even be called to reprimand by the superiors. Therefore, the officials I have always made do with what I can, unless it is really impossible, I will definitely not repair the yamen where I am.”

"Many yamen in Dajing were built during the Chu Dynasty. They have a history of hundreds of years, and they have long since fallen into disrepair. I have never seen officials in those places pay for repairs. It has become a kind of state that officials do not repair yamen. It is an unspeakable rule, although it has not been put on paper, but few people will not follow it."

When Lin Jun said this, Situ Ye understood, "Oh, it's a rule for an official not to repair the government office. The government office in Yangzhou Prefecture seems to have been built in the past few decades, and it hasn't fallen into disrepair for a long time. Why? How about looking for someone to repair the yamen? Song Chen uncharacteristically recruited bricklayers to repair the yamen, which means there are ghosts in it!"

Jiang Yuan smiled and said, "Think about it, when did Song Chen find the bricklayer? He ordered someone to look for it in a hurry after he heard that Guanshi Liu had killed Chen San. Isn't that abnormal?"

"As soon as he heard that Chen San was killed by Guanshi Liu, he began to worry about his own life, and he was even more worried about the safety of those things. If the things were really acquired by the family or nobles, then in order to silence his little one, His life is really about to die. At this time, just looking up from the seat to check the baggage behind the plaque can no longer comfort his growing fear. No matter what you say, you won't feel at ease!"