Poor Family

  Chapter 64 Lushan Spring Club (Part 2)

   Not far from the greenhouse, Wang Gui and Tang Huai asked Li Yanqing from left to right, "Be honest, did that little lady come to have a blind date with you?"

   "You two brats ruined my blind date, how will you compensate me?" Li Yanqing grabbed the two of them by the neck with his backhand and asked angrily.

  Wang Gui and Tang Huai were stunned for a while, and they said apologetically, "Lao Li, I'm sorry! We really don't know, we didn't mean to disturb you just now."

  Seeing that the two believed it was true, Li Yanqing burst out laughing, Wang Gui and Tang Huai came to their senses, and swung their old fists to fight, Li Yanqing broke away from them and ran towards the crowd.

   "Follow him!" The three ran into the crowd one after the other.

   At this time, it is not time to eat, and the people in the greenhouse are busy preparing the social meal. And the social drama next to the Earth Temple is almost over. Dozens of mighty-dressed heavenly soldiers and generals have arrested more than a dozen lewdly-dressed demons and ghosts wearing masks and put them on the wooden platform.

  Mutai is surrounded by thousands of villagers. Although the social operas are the same every year, it is nothing more than demons and ghosts harming the people. The Emperor of Heaven was furious and sent heavenly soldiers and generals to eliminate the demons for the people.

But what the villagers want is excitement. Whenever a monster is overthrown, everyone applauds and applauds, especially when several female fox monsters in coquettish costumes are put on the wooden platform, the social drama reaches its climax, and there is laughter and shouting all around. sound and applause. ． ． ． ． ．

  The green smoke filled the air in front of the temple, and more than a hundred old men and women were burning incense and paper money in front of the land temple. They knelt in front of the statue of the father-in-law of the land and prayed devoutly, asking the father-in-law to bless the weather and the safety of the whole family.

Although there are crowds of people in the open space in front of the temple, the small stalls and hawkers are still making use of every bit of time. They either paint a space in the open space to make money by performing arts, or wander around carrying loads of goods. Sugar sculptors, dough kneaders, and candied haws are sold. There is also Xiaohuo selling silk and flower copper jewelry, which is especially popular with young ladies.

Li Yanqing took Wang Gui and Tang Huai to wander among the crowd. The three of them each took a bunch of candied haws and gnawed them while walking. Yue Fei's father, Yue He, was the Baozheng of Tangwang Village, and he was in charge of the Spring Society of Tangwang Village today. , Yuehe was short of manpower, so he arrested his son to play drums.

   At this time, the social drama had already ended, and the dinner had not yet started. Many people went to the stalls in Lushan Town to buy things, and there were a little less people in the open space.

   "Old Tang, there is archery over there!"

  Wang Gui suddenly discovered that there was an archery stand in the mulberry forest, which immediately aroused his strong interest, and he dragged Tang Huai to run, "Old Li, follow up quickly."

   "Here it comes!"

Li Yanqing agreed, but did not move. He saw the little maid, Xi Que, and beside her was another little lady similar to her, who seemed to be Li Er's little maid, A Tao. Watching a group of girls buying jewelry.

  Li Yanqing walked forward with a smile, and coughed lightly behind them. The magpie turned around, startled, and hurriedly saluted, and A Tao, who was next to her, blushed slightly, and followed suit.

   "Did you buy anything?"

In the morning, Li Yanqing specially asked Uncle Zhong to give Magpie some pocket money. She should not be empty-handed. Magpie blushed and shook her head. Tao has nothing in his hands, Li Yanqing immediately understood that Magpie only had enough money to buy a small jewelry, and A Tao was gone, Li Yanqing couldn't help but secretly scolded Li Er for being stingy.

  He smiled and waved to the two girls, "Whatever you like, I'll buy it for you!"

Magpie and A Tao timidly stepped forward, they were eager to get a piece of jewelry, but they were too embarrassed to let Li Yanqing spend the money, the jewelry seller was very clever, and immediately took off two Phoenix hairpins and handed them to them with a smile: "This is The most popular one is suitable for little girls like you."

  Li Yanqing took the copper hairpin and handed it to them, then said to the peddler: "There are also the pearl copper hairpin and the pomegranate silk flower, two each!"

  The vendor immediately took it to him, and Li Yanqing smiled and handed it to the two young ladies.

  The eyes of the two girls were filled with joy. Li Yanqing bought them another embroidered jewelry bag and paid the bill. At this moment, someone nearby shouted, "Magpie!"

When Li Yanqing turned around, he saw a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl standing beside her, wearing a half-worn water silk skirt, her hair combed smoothly, an oval face, a pair of slender eyes under her beautiful eyebrows, skin But Bai Jing, Li Yanqing thought she looked familiar, but forgot who she was?

   "Sister!"

  The magpie shouted joyfully, and Li Yanqing remembered that this little lady was the magpie's older sister, Dayan, whom she had seen once at Li Dongdong's house.

  Magpie hurriedly took out the phoenix copper hairpin, "Sister, this little official bought it for me."

  Dayan originally pretended not to see Li Yanqing, but when her younger sister said it, she couldn't pretend anymore, so she stepped forward to give Li Yanqing a blessing, "I have met the little official, thank you for being kind to my sister."

  Li Yanqing originally wanted to buy a piece of jewelry for Dayan, but he suddenly found a young man standing not far away, who seemed to have come with Dayan, so he felt that he should not be too troublesome.

Li Yanqing greeted Dayan with a smile, and stuffed back the purse she had just taken out, Dayan was so shrewd, and immediately saw that Li Yanqing had no intention of buying a piece of jewelry for herself, she was secretly annoyed, so she lowered her head with a smile , revealing a bright white silver hairpin at the end of her hair, she smiled at her sister and said, "Is this hairpin pretty, sister?"

   "Wow! It's a silver hairpin!" Magpie and A Tao exclaimed together.

   "This is given to me by my wife, huh! I don't care for such a worthless copper hairpin!"

  Dayan glanced at Li Yanqing, turned his head and left triumphantly, "Magpie, sister will come to play with you some other day."

The wild goose walked dozens of steps before the man quietly followed. Li Yanqing saw that the young man was of medium build and dressed in ordinary clothes, but he was very muscular, with bronze skin and strong arms. He seemed to be a professional martial artist , but I have never seen it myself.

   Strange, how could there be such martial arts practitioners in Xiaohe Township? In just a moment, the two disappeared into the crowd talking and laughing.

  Li Yanqing shook his head, temporarily put the geese and the strange man aside, and looked around for Wang Gui and Tang Huai.

   "Little official, we want to go over there." Magpie pointed to a lively place ahead and said to Li Yanqing.

"OK!"

  Li Yanqing quickly took out a large amount of money and handed it to Magpie, "Go and buy something to eat."

   "Ah! That's too much."

   "Buy more things you like." After leaving a word, Li Yanqing ran towards the mulberry forest. He had already seen Wang Gui shooting arrows.

  There is an archery stall beside the woods. This is a gamble set up by two outsiders here, and this is the first time it has appeared this year.

   Bow and arrow clubs were generally organized in the northern part of the Great Song Dynasty. Young and strong men would spontaneously organize archery during the slack season. They received full support from the imperial court and gave them tax reductions and exemptions.

For example, there are 588 bow and arrow clubs in Ding and Baozhou, which are close to the border, with a total of more than 30,000 people, accounting for about 15% of the total population of the area. The number of bow and arrow clubs in Xiangzhou is slightly smaller, but each township has There are several bow and arrow clubs, and there are six or seven thousand villagers participating.

  Two outsiders set up a bet with arrows here, which immediately aroused everyone's interest, and soon hundreds of people surrounded them, and everyone was eager to try.

The two men who set up the stalls were both very majestic, and the leading man clasped his fists to the surrounding villagers and said, "Ruan Xiaoer, this is my brother Ruan Xiaowu in Xiashan Shandong. Just for fun, did you see that there is an archery target 60 steps ahead, if you hit the outer blue circle, we will pay you 500 coins, if you hit the yellow circle, you will pay two pennies, and if you can hit the red heart, you will pay ten cents. Two silver coins, of course, the lottery is high, and the bet is also more expensive, an arrow is a hundred coins."

   In order to show that there was no falsehood, Ruan Xiaoer took out an ingot of twelve taels of silver and hung it on the treetop next to the arrow target.

  The white flowers and silver made many people feel tempted. A villager shouted: "What if you mess with your bow and arrow?"

  Ruan Xiaoer chuckled, and raised his bow, "This is a Eight-Double Bow, and the arrows are spike arrows for the army. Let me shoot a few arrows for everyone to see."

  He put the quiver behind his back, drew out three arrows, and shot at the target one after another.

  Ruan Xiaoer raised his bow and shouted: "How about it, which hero will try it!"

   "Master, let me shoot a few arrows first!" Wang Gui was the first to jump up.

   "Are you sure you want to shoot an arrow?"

  Beside Ruan Xiaowu smiled and said: "Little official, this is an Eight-Double Bow, don't lose the money and blame us for not being able to buy candy."

  Wang Gui saw that he underestimated himself, so he took out a tael of silver and threw it to Ruan Xiaoer angrily, "Give me ten arrows, you can use them as pants!"

The Ruan brothers looked at each other meaningfully. Ruan Xiaoer handed the bow to Wang Gui. The army's infantry bow is a bit heavier.

  Wang Gui usually uses a five-dou bow, and he can barely draw the eight-dou bow, but the eight-dou bow is too heavy, and he feels that it is at least a stone bow.

   "Old Gui, is it okay? If not, let me do it." Tang Huai said aside.

   "Joke, did I say no?"

Wang Gui took an arrow, bravely opened the bow, the bow creaked open, but his arm was trembling slightly, Wang Gui gritted his teeth and aimed at the target, the string was loosened, and one came out straight to the arrow. target.

  Wang Gui's heart was in his throat, he was not sure whether he could hit the target, and he just shot the arrow based on his feeling. At this time, there was a round of applause from around, "Good arrow skills!"

  Wang Gui felt relieved, knowing that he had hit the shot, Tang Huai put his hands together and shouted: "Shoot the blue circle, five hundred coins!"

  Wang Gui was a little discouraged. He only got five hundred coins. He thought he got at least two pennies.

  At this moment, Ruan Xiaowu glanced at his elder brother, Wang Gui's performance surprised him a little, but Ruan Xiaoer folded his hands on his chest, watching the little official shoot arrows with a smile on his face.

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[Liangshan hero will appear a little bit in this book, but it is not the main line. Lao Gao wrote it based on the characters contained in Lang Ying's "Seven Revised Class Drafts". There may be a little shadow of romance in the character of the characters. Can’t be too serious]

  (end of this chapter)