blue ribbon bouquet

Fan An always dreamed of going to find his Master Li, but as a royal doctor and working in the capital, how could he have the time to go to Mutanheyang to meet his sweetheart?Heyang is too far away from the capital, more than 800 miles, and it will take a month to drive fast. How did he spare such a long time?

But nothing is difficult in the world, as long as there is a heart.The weaver girl in the sky and the cows in the earth can build a bridge. He Fan An holds the power of the Metropolitan Police and is a senior official of the second rank. Isn't he afraid that he can't find an excuse?

Daxuan has a "district inspection" once every three years, which is a system for Lantai to assess the local area. Lantai sends Beijing officials to the local area to inspect the four criteria and eight methods of local officials. The four criteria are shou, politics, talent, and age. , the eight dharmas are greed, coolness, inaction, imprudence, old age, illness, impetuosity, and weakness.It is very normal to spend two or three months after evaluating these standards.In some localities, the fiscal and taxation deficits are unstable all the year round. If necessary, the imperial historian will visit and inspect in person.

Eight hundred miles away from Ayang, there is Yugan County, where people rebel all the year round. Since Liu Xi ascended the throne, there have been four chaos. They don't pay taxes, and there are constant rebellions all the year round. If officials hear that they are sent to such places as officials, they have to pretend to be sick and write letters all night to ask to go home and farm.

Fan An has just finished tidying up his orchid at this moment, and cleaned everyone in the door to his eyes.Without resting in one breath, he asked the emperor for an order, saying that he was going to visit Yugan County in person during the October survey.Liu Xi was very moved when he saw his memorial: For so many years, no Beijing official dared to ask to go to Yugan County. He is a practical man, a rare loyal minister and good general.

With a wave of Liu Xi's vermilion pen, he quickly hit it.

There is still more than half a month before the inspection in October, and Fan An has been waiting like a year for the imperial order approved by Liu Xiyu.As long as he arrives in Yugan County, he will not be far from Heyang. Then he will go to see Li Jianbi to see how he is doing. I heard that the life of exile is very hard. I wonder if he can endure it?

In mid-September, the dispatcher and criminal soldiers who had escorted Li Jianbi back came back. It has been nearly five months since these people went back and forth from Heyang.The messenger told Fan An: This time the escort went very smoothly, no one came to kill Master Li on the way, we have handed Master Li to the Nanchang Mansion, and Master Qi Bai of the Bai Kingdom took over.

Fan An breathed a sigh of relief, as long as there was nothing wrong on the way, and Bai Guoqi was watching when he arrived at the place of exile, he thought there would be no major problems.

"It won't be a big problem." A few days after Fan An finished speaking, the Fan Mansion received a letter from Heyang. The letter was written by Nanchang Mansion Chief Bai Guoqi. One thing frightened Fan An for three days:

A mountain collapse occurred in the Pingqing quarry in Nanchang County, killing dozens of people, including Zhu Yan.

Zhu Yan was the pseudonym Fan An gave Li Jianbi when he wrote the exile document. He was afraid that someone would chase him to Heyang and kill Li Jianbi, so he drafted a fake document for him at the risk of dismissal.With a false name, it will not be easy to be traced.

Well, it won't be tracked down... What's the use, you can avoid man-made disasters, but forget about natural disasters.Dozens of people were crushed to death, and Zhu Yan was among them... After Fan An read the letter, his mind went blank for a long time: This person said that Li Jianbi was crushed to death by a stone... Li Jianbi died? !The life he had worked so hard to save was taken away by a few stones from Heyang? !

Fan An almost died. After waking up, he yelled at God for being short-sighted. Eighteen generations of Manchu officials' ancestors would die!The people in the house heard him scolding and thought he had lost his mind.Fortunately, after an afternoon, Fan An was exhausted from cursing. The people in the house just breathed a sigh of relief, but they didn't expect Fan An to be seriously ill that night.

Yuanzhu invited several well-known doctors in the city to take turns to examine him overnight. They all said that Mr. Fan was full of qi and blood, his chest was stagnant and stagnant, and he would recover after a while.

Fan An lay on the bed for two days, unable to take any medicine, his face was pale and his body was sweating coldly, which alarmed the emperor in the palace to send an imperial doctor to see him, but apart from prescribing a few similar prescriptions, there was nothing he could do.Bai Qiongyu looked at him, thinking that he was about to ascend to immortality, so she wiped her tears beside his bed day and night.

Fan An was so annoyed by him that he looked at him and said, "Don't cry, I won't be separated from you. If I die, I will confess and let you be buried with me."

Bai Qiongyu gasped, she was too frightened to cry.

Fan An lay down in ashes, really feeling that he was going to die of illness.He had been frightened and worried too much in his life, and he was already tired of the world. Li Jianbi's death was like the last straw, which took away his only remaining goodwill and nostalgia for this world.

He glanced at Bai Qiongyu, who was sitting on the bed with a dead face, and said, "Don't worry, I'm just talking, and I won't ask you to be buried with me. Don't hang around in front of me all day, and cry every now and then?" With a sound, I sat quietly for a while, and found an excuse to go out of the house.

Fan An closed his eyes and had a dream.In the dream, Li Jianbi was standing beside his bed, covered in blood, his facial features were all bloody, he looked at Fan An and said, "I have been devoted to my duty, and I have never done anything bad, why did I end up like this... The mountain is pressing down, and they are still buried with these murderers. The blood of these people is really dirty...Fan An, help me! Why are you so incompetent!"

Fan An woke up with a jump, and Yuanzhu next to him was startled by him, tremblingly said: "My lord... what's wrong with you?"

"I can't die yet." Fan An sat quietly on the bed for a while, and said, "To live is to see a person, and to die is to see a corpse! Even if he dies, I will dig him out and bury him again. A thousand pieces of gold will bury a loyal bone. He cannot be with him." Qi Shan's crimes were committed in one place."

For a while, he had a reason to live, and took the initiative to drink soup and medicine, and within a few days, he was able to get out of bed and walk again.In the golden autumn of October, when the land investigation began, Liu Xi took his health into consideration and advised him not to go to Yugan County, but Fan An was as firm as a rock, and made up his mind to go. Can allow him.

Fan An went straight to Heyang on a fast horse. He traveled for a month. When he arrived at Denan Chang's Mansion, his skin was dark, his eyes were dark circles, and his beard had grown to his chest.That Bai Guoqi didn't dare to recognize him at first, until the accompanying imperial envoy took out the imperial order, his eyes lit up and he realized it.He went forward to kowtow to Fan An in trepidation, got up and invited Fan An into the mansion for tea.

Fan An said: "Don't drink tea, I came to Yugan County to investigate, but before that, I must first restrain Mr. Li's bones."

Bai Guoqi glanced at Fan An's face, bowed his head and said: "Pingbed quarry is a hundred miles away from Nanchang Mansion, and it will take a day's journey at the fastest. Sir, you must take care of your body."

"Caring about your health?" Fan An looked at Bai Guoqi, and suddenly kicked him in the stomach, "If you really think about me, do things for me! I will entrust Li Jianbi to you! He died for no apparent reason after only five months." What are you doing! Have the guts to tell me to take good care of my body?! I really supported you for nothing! I wish I could kill you trash right now!"

Bai Guoqi was kicked to the ground by him, and he quickly knelt down and said, "Damn it! I didn't expect this matter to be so important!" He said, "Pingqing quarry is the nearest place of exile. I have taken care of Mr. Li and asked him to take care of the bookkeeping and not to do heavy work. The collapse of the quarry is a common occurrence, and it is reasonable to say that Mr. Li cannot be crushed. How did Mr. Li get to the bottom of the mountain? It was indeed a surprise.”

Bai Guoqi said: "The Pingqing quarry is more than 100 miles away. As the governor, I can't keep an eye on it every day. My lord, you... you are very careful!"

Fan An closed his eyes, the matter has come to this point, it is useless to talk about it. "Get up..." he said, "Take me to Pingqing Mountain." Bai Guoqi responded, not daring to disagree.The two rode fast horses and arrived at the Pingqing quarry, which was already early in the morning the next day.

It is now October, and the sun is still shining white and hot on the stone ground.Thousands of convicts came out early to work and carry, tired and naked bodies, desperate eyes, yelling and whipping, the scene was much crueler than ordinary corvée.

Fan An walked all the way and asked, "Is this the place where Master Li was exiled?"

"Yes. There are 3 exiles who have been allocated to Heyang from various places. Many of Heyang's civil engineering, bridge building and road repair, canal management, and grain transfer are done by these people. There is no need to quarry stones at any time. Walk around, I will let Master Li take care of the bookkeeping, it is already the best place I can think of."

Fan An asked: "How often do you come here?" Bai Guoqi said: "There are three quarries in Heyang, and the officials come here at least once a month."

Fan An asked again: "The people watching the execution in this quarry, do they know the origin of Mr. Li?" Bai Guoqi said: "Of course I don't know, they call him Zhu Yan here."

Bai Guoqi stood still in front of a pile of rocks and said, "This is where the mountain collapsed at that time. The entire layer of rocks on it slid down and flattened this area."

Fan An stood, looking at the hundred hectares of rubble, his eyes were calm, but the blood in his body was extremely cold.

"Who reported to you the news of Zhu Yan's death?" Fan An said, "Tell him to come here, I want to ask him something." Bai Guoqi responded, and after a while, a field guard with a gray felt hat came over.The man greeted Bai Guoqi with a smile, and then glanced at Fan An.

Bai Guoqi said: "This is an adult who came from the capital." He didn't say Fan An's official title and name, and the man tactfully didn't ask, he just bowed his head and greeted him with a smile.

Fan An looked at the pile of rocks and asked, "Did you see Zhu Yan die?" Then he replied: "Yes, my lord, I saw it with my own eyes. When the rocks came down, Zhu Yan ran a few times, but Did not run away, was hit."

"Where was he standing at that time? Where did he run? And where was he hit by the rocks?" Fan An said, "You can do it again for me to see."

The man was stunned for a moment, glanced at Bai Guoqi, ran a hundred meters away and said, "Zhu Yan was standing here." He ran two steps to the left, and said, "He ran here and was hit by a rock. .”

It's kind of like that.

Fan An said: "Okay, based on where you are, expand the radius of two feet and dig down to dig out his bones."

The guard said, "But this mountain collapsed two months ago, and the corpses are all rotten. At that time, many other people were buried here. Even if we dig it out, I'm afraid we won't be able to identify who is who."

Fan An said: "His body is unrecognizable to others, but I recognize it."