The imperial capital of Chang'an, the weather is magnificent, and the prosperity of the era is unparalleled today.

Suzaku Street runs through the north and south of Chang'an City like a standard central axis, connecting the Chengtian Gate of the palace city, the Suzaku Gate of the imperial city and the Mingde Gate of the outer city, dividing the huge Chang'an City into two parts. Therefore, the eastern part of Chang'an City is also called Wannian County, and the western part is called Chang'an County. There is a commercial district in the east and west parts, called the East Market and the West Market. There are 11 main streets in the north and south, and 14 main streets in the east and west, which divide the residential area in the city into 110 squares neatly, and its shape is similar to a criss-crossed, square Go board.

Shengpingfang belongs to Wannian County in the east of Chang'an City, which is not famous in more than 100 squares in Chang'an, and belongs to Xiaofang. When Emperor Gaozu Li Yuan opened the national dynasty and just set the capital of Chang'an, there were often singers and dancers living in this workshop, and there were flattering officials who seized this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to pat on the back, and ran to Li Yuan and praised, Your Majesty, this is the elephant of singing and dancing! Li Yuan heard that he was naturally happy, and with a stroke of his pen, he had the name of "Shengpingfang".

……

Dong Yan inquired all the way, and finally found the entrance of Shengpingfang.

At the entrance of the fang, there were two fangding guards with water and fire sticks, and at a glance Dong Yan's ragged clothes and dusty servants, and also led a mule cart full of wine jars, especially with a thick Hokkien accent, suspected of outsiders entering Beijing and entering the fang, so he was stopped for investigation.

Follow the customs of the villagers, Rao is Dong Yangui is the Cheng of Qingyuan County, and he has to abide by the rules of Chang'an when he arrives in Chang'an. The fang ding has the responsibility of guarding the fang and checking it, and Dong Yan also has to follow the rules and regulations. If you don't know that you are a young official in Chang'an, who knows which of these two fangding is the subordinate of the minister's house?

Fortunately, Dong Yan carried the official talisman documents of Qingyuan County Cheng with him, and claimed that entering the workshop was to visit the mansion of Zhang Cambodia, who was the superintendent of the imperial history of the dynasty. After proving his identity and clarifying his intentions, the Fang Ding quickly let him go into the Fang.

As soon as he entered the workshop, he was about to ask the fang ding how to get to the mansion of his mentor Zhang Cambodia, but there was a sound of Lu Zhi galloping in his ears, which was very urgent......

Dong Yan was shocked when he heard this, and subconsciously led the mule and horse sideways to avoid it.

Woo –

Da Da Da ~~

The horse neighed, and the Lu flew away!

"Hey, the man leading the mule cart, flash quickly, don't get in the way of Master Suo's car!"

After drinking, a carriage had already galloped past Dong Yan's side, almost knocking him over, but he didn't see the carriage stop to apologize, but went straight out of Shengpingfang.

Arrogant, it's just a high-flying arrogant person!

Dong Yan turned his head and glared at the carriage that had already left with disgust, and shouted angrily: "In the land of Chang'an, at the feet of the Son of Heaven, how can there be such a person who disregards human life and gallops on horseback?" ”

Seeing this, a man in Fangkou kindly reminded: "This county lord from other places, you have to be cautious, do you know who is sitting in Mali?" That's Lord Suo Yuanlisuo, be careful to let him hear, he lost his life in vain! ”

Another Fang Ding also said: "Yes, there are still few officials who died in the iron cage in the hands of Master Suo?" You little county, don't take advantage of your tongue for a while and bring disaster to yourself! Hurry up, walk quickly, and walk along this alley to the end is the mansion of Lord Zhang, the superintendent of Yushi. ”

Suo Yuanli?

It's him!

As soon as he heard this name, the disgust on Dong Yan's face became more and more intense. He is not familiar with this Suo Yuanli, but he is thunderous about this person's name, and it is difficult to know it!

Suo Yuanli is not a Tang man, but a bearded man with deep eyes and a high nose and a full beard!

This Hu man, who came to the Tang Dynasty thousands of miles away, has a brutal temperament and is capable of framing others. Recommended by his righteous son, Xue Huaiyi, the male favorite of the current Empress Wu, to torture to frame Zhongliang and invent all kinds of torture tools and won the appreciation of the Empress Wu, and thousands of unjust souls who died at the hands of Suo Yuanli in the past few years, from hundreds of officials to the people, including many brave and loyal Tang Dynasty ministers.

The two magic weapons of torture in Suo Yuanli's hands are called the dormitory and the prison guard. When the prisoner is drowsy, he will use a blunt object to beat his body continuously, causing the prisoner to suffer severe pain and sleep, torturing the prisoner's spirit until the prisoner is tortured to death. The prison guard was even more frustrated, Suo Yuanli asked a craftsman to make an iron cage that could fit into the head, the iron cage could just expose all parts of the head, and then cast a small wooden peg with a thick head and a sharp bottom, once the prisoner did not confess, he used the small wooden peg to insert into the various parts of the prisoner's head, or ears, or eyes, or nose, or throat, until the prisoner confessed.

Therefore, whenever Suo Yuanli tortures to extract a confession, he has a mantra - "Come on, take my iron cage!" ”

This mantra, like his torture instrument, makes people frightened, and those who are beaten into tricks abound. The officials saw that they all took a detour, lest they avoid it, and those who were for the people even used the three words Suo Yuanli as a magic weapon to intimidate crying babies at night. At night, if a naughty child still doesn't sleep, some parents often threaten the child: "If you don't sleep again, Suo Yuanli will come to ask for his life!" "Even the most naughty child will go to bed obediently.

However, no matter how the court and the people said that Suo Yuanli was brutal, they could not shake Suo Yuanli's favor in front of the martial arts, so that for a while, the cool officials followed Suo Yuanli's example, and used torture to extract confessions and invent novel torture tools as the foundation of his promotion, and Lai Junchen, who was as famous as him, intensified his efforts and invented ten kinds of tragic new torture tools. The two smelled like each other, and they were embarrassed, and they even co-edited a textbook on torture to extract confessions, and handed it over to his cool officials to follow suit, which was the famous "Luo Weaving Sutra" in later generations.

Therefore, Suo Yuanli and Lai Junchen were called the two cool officials of the dynasty during the reign of Empress Wu, and there were thousands of unjust dead souls.

The two of them are unpopular in both the court and the opposition, and they are notorious, and there are countless people who want to eat their flesh, drink their blood, draw their tendons, and break their bones.

Therefore, if Dong Yan, a person in the officialdom, wants not to know who Suo Yuanli is, it is even more difficult than ascending to the sky.

……

"Suo Yuanli!"

Dong Yan silently recited the name of this cool officialdom, not only was he not frightened, but showed a little disdain, and hummed: "A fanbang Hu person who is opportunistic and capable of framing Zhongliang has actually become my Tang Dynasty official, which is really ridiculous!" This pig fang generation has entered the temple, how can I wait for ten years of hard work to be embarrassed? One day, I, Dong Yan, will replace the hundreds of officials in the DPRK and the people, and the people of the world will shovel your Banghu dog, and I will be a big Tang Lang Lang Qiankun! ”

After a while, Dong Yan led the mule cart down the alley to the bottom and came to a mansion.

The gate of the house is not large, and the two stone lions at the door are slightly thin, and they have grown a few wisps of light green moss under the wind and rain. The door of the mansion is closed, and the copper ring on the door has a little rust, if it weren't for the brand new word "Zhangfu" written on the plaque, Dong Yan would have some doubts about whether this is the mansion of his mentor Zhang Cambodia.

Looking at the scene in front of him, Dong Yan sighed slightly: "It seems that in Chang'an, even if he was promoted to the post of supervising the imperial history, the teacher is still as poor as ever." Bacheng's dilapidated mansion is the family of a criminal official who was raided, otherwise he really can't afford to buy a mansion in Chang'an with his teacher's fortune. ”

Officialdom not only has the rules of officialdom, but also the taboos of officialdom. For example, officials also have a head on buying real estate.

Usually, ancient officials would plan for themselves before moving to other places, and before leaving office, they would collect the filial piety of their subordinates and squires as a way to move to other places. Those who eat ugly will take the opportunity to make a lot of money, and they will not come back to govern in the future anyway. After moving to another place, if you become the chief official, you will naturally live in the yamen of the new place. If you are a petty official who moves into Chang'an like Zhang Cambodia, the imperial court will not allocate you a residence, either to buy a new property or to buy a piece of land to build yourself. Like Zhang Cambodia, it is unique to buy a dilapidated property, or a property that has been confiscated by a criminal official as a mansion.

The reason is very simple, whoever is promoted will be auspicious, since the previous owner of this house has been demoted, dismissed or even killed, it means that the feng shui of this house is not good enough. If you buy this kind of property cheaply, aren't you touching your own brows and asking for bad luck?

But Zhang Cambodia is such a willful little old man with no taboos, others dare not buy or live, but he buys it!

Others don't know, can Dong Yan still not know the helplessness of his teacher? Speaking of which, it's not just a money word that's at fault. The teacher was as honest as water in Qingyuan County, and he did not accept filial piety on weekdays, even if he left his post to go to Chang'an, he also took advantage of the night to leave quietly. When you arrive in Chang'an, you still need food and clothing on weekdays, where is there any spare money to buy a decent residence?

Supervising the imperial history, there is the duty of picketing hundreds of officials, but it can be said that the sky is broken through the sky is a Beijing official of the eighth grade, relying on that meager fortune, coupled with the teacher's temperament, I want to buy a tall mansion in Chang'an? It's hard to know!

Dong Yan shook his head sadly, walked to the door of the mansion, pulled up the rusty copper ring, and prepared to slam on the door.

Suddenly, the door of the house suddenly creaked open, and out came a skinny, silver-haired, coarse linen old man, with a burden on his shoulders, like an old man in the countryside.

The old man lowered his head and went out, slammed into Dong Yan fiercely, and almost fell to the ground.

Dong Yan was almost knocked over by Suo Yuanli's carriage today, and now he was almost knocked down by this little old man, so he couldn't help but be angry in his heart, and shouted: "You old man is so rude, why don't you walk without looking ahead?" “

But when he saw the true face of the old man in the countryside in front of him, he hurriedly bowed, hugged his hands and bowed, and said excitedly: "Well... Teacher? How could it be you? You're a royal historian who supervises the imperial history, an official of the imperial court, how... Why is this dressed? ”

The little old man in the countryside in front of him who seemed to be a little miserable turned out to be his mentor, and he relied on his heels in the court - supervising the imperial history Zhang Cambodia!

Looking at the teacher's dress, a trace of doubt suddenly rose in Dong Yan's heart at this time, will he be a little reckless when he patted Cui Erlang's chest before entering Chang'an this time?

This book was first published in the King of Books