As night comes, it is not dark and the snow is shining, but the scenery outside looks even more ferocious.

Actually, I still remember Xu Xian here, but I still look at the terrain outside seriously. The most prosperous place in the capital of the Song Dynasty was mostly on the east side of Yu Street, but the west side also had the benefits of the west side. It is relatively quiet and suitable for living. Including the post houses of various countries are mostly on the west side. The Khitan is the most expensive, close to Xiangguo Temple Bridge, a friendly country in Goryeo, and is located in Anzhou Lane, not far from Caijinghua Mansion. The Xixia Post House is relatively far away, located in Wanshengmen, a remote west side of the city.

To the south is the city wall of Xincheng. A horse-faced battle shed is set up every 100 steps and jumps out of the city. If the enemy comes to the city, they will shoot arrows and stones from the horse-faced battle shed, so that the enemy cannot reach the city. There are also a battleship on the city wall. A city warehouse is set up every 200 steps, and the defense tools are stored. Behind is the capital city guarding facility, which is the capital city defense and maintenance equipment management office.

There is also the Great Buddha Temple in the east of the Xixia Inn, and outside Wansheng Gate is the beautiful Jinming Pond. At that time, the Song Dynasty wanted to capture the Southern Tang Dynasty, so it excavated and expanded the pool and trained the navy here. After the Southern Tang Dynasty recovered it, it lost its function and became a scenic belt in the capital.

Between the capital's guardhouse and the Xixia Inn, there are twenty commanding troops stationed, and more soldiers' families are living in the residential areas. In addition to the soldiers' homes, some unsuccessful small bureaucrats also live here. The environment is not too bad, but it is far away from the imperial city. Whether you go to the morning court or enter the various departments to serve, you have to go a long way.

The Cao Fu family is in the middle.

He had a low position, but he was very noble. He was a library official and lived here, which showed that this person was a clean official, and whether he was clear or not had much to do with Xu Xian. However, he also understood why this happened to his family, and his son Cao Shen only took out 100 taels of silver to ask for someone.

It is not easy to live in the capital city, and the prices are expensive. Although the officials of the Song Dynasty have high salaries, it is extremely difficult to live a better life if they are not greedy or impolite.

But it's not this, but popularity.

Although the population here is not so dense, twenty commanders are stationed, and if the amount is full, only ten thousand families of soldiers live here. The popularity is not too bad.

He had been here before. In the clear season, not only were there many soldiers and families noisy, but there were also many tourists, either going to the Great Buddha Temple to burn incense and worship Buddha, or going to Jinming Pool to visit. But what about people now?

He thought of a terrible rumor that the Song army is now eating empty wages everywhere. Could it be that the imperial guards guarding the capital have also eaten empty wages?

There is no popularity. On this snowy night, the tall new city wall not far away covers the demon shadow, and the elm and willows on the tooth path are shaded, which adds an extra gloomy atmosphere.

"What are you looking at?" Cao Fu's youngest daughter asked curiously.

Lieutenant Li brought them to the Cao family, and Cao Shen met them, including his little sister Cao Ying.

What disappointed Cao Shen was that these people were actually headed by Xu Xian. I don’t know whether they had the ability or not, but they could look at their appearance and age. Xu Xian’s appearance was originally young. It seemed that he was not even fourteen years old, only thirteen years old. Fortunately, he was more reasonable and only paid 100 taels of silver. Where did he invite a clever person? Cao Shen had to take the attitude of being a dead horse to see if they could do it.

Cao Ying didn't know the importance of it, but she just kept looking at this boy who was about the same age as hers curiously.

"Where are people nearby?" Xu Xian asked Cao Ying instead of asking Cao Shen.

"There were many soldiers stationed in the past few years. In the past few years, the court wanted to make contributions to the border. Some went to Hehuang and some went to the border of Shaanxi. In order to save money, the court had to let the soldiers farm in the border and bring many of their families there. There were fewer people here."

"It turns out that it's not just a waste of money..." This was Xu Xian's muttering in his heart.

"You say it's haunted, let's hear how to make trouble."

"It's outside," Cao Ying said with her lips trembling, pointing to the small garden behind the room.

"Not only are outside, but I have become more and more powerful these days. I have actually lie on the window..." Cao Shen said: "As soon as midnight comes, several female ghosts look very afraid of people."

It was probably because these ghosts were used to it. Cao Shen spoke very ordinary, but Li Zhong and others were shocked.

It was not midnight yet, and Li Zhong, Zhang Hai and Zhou Wan carried the treasures they brought to the small garden behind to sprinkle black blood.

At this moment, a middle-aged man with long beard came over, about forty years old, and was very thin and had a gentle and elegant look.

Looking at the seven strangers who came to catch ghosts, Li Zhong and his friends came together in Taoist uniforms. He was a little dissatisfied and asked, "Shen'er, who are they?"

"My father, they are Taoist priests invited by the child from...." Cao Fu was very disgusted with the Taoist priests of Shenxiaoguan. Cao Shen did not dare to say the three words "Shenxiaoguan".

"Who asked you to invite me!" Cao Fu suddenly shouted fiercely.

"Son, son..."

Cao Fu ignored Cao Shen, but turned his head to Li Zhong who was rushing back and shouted, "You guys go back."

Xu Xian felt puzzled and asked, "Mr. Cao, are you sitting there and watching the sneaky mansion cause trouble in your mansion?"

"Hey," Cao Fu was surprised. He didn't pay attention to Xu Xian at first, but it seemed that these people seemed to be headed by Xu Xian, and then made Xu Xian calmer, which surprised him. He sighed slightly: "You guys go back."

"We cannot go back to collect money and eliminate disasters for people to do so."

"You can take that money back to the bar."

"A gentleman promises are worth a thousand gold. No matter whether it can be achieved or not, we cannot go back."

"You!...How old are you?"

"At the age of fifteen."

"Nothing!"

"Ambition is not about age," Xu Xian said lightly. He was still welcome when he went back, but he felt that there was a secret in the middle, so he stared at it. When he said this, he showed Qin Su'er's style when fighting. How could he look at people by age?

"Okay, I ask you, this is where officials and soldiers live. The officials cultivate Confucian righteousness and soldiers have their own blood. These two are the only way to restrain sneaky things. Why is the old man's house haunted?"

"I don't know if I'm born late."

"Why did you think of yourself late?"

"Although I practiced Taoism in my later years, I have read many Confucian books since I was a child."

"Okay, I wake you up again, because I can't stand it when I see something happening, and say something that makes some people unhappy. This is a warning. But within the rules, they can't do anything to me. When you come, it will make things worse."

Not only did Xu Xian not understand, but even Cao Shen not understand. He asked, "My father, the child does not understand."

"The Song Dynasty governs the country with Confucianism and emphasizes literature and derogates military affairs, which means preventing military generals from dictatorship, disrupting national affairs, causing the Central Plains to split again, and the people are poisoned. Not only do people value literature and derogatory military affairs, but also prohibiting the people from breaking the ban with chivalrous crimes. No matter how Taoist and martial arts are, they are not allowed to do anything wrong. Since the founding of the country, no matter how disagreements between officials, have you heard of who dared to publicly murder that scholar-official? This is the rule! Moreover, this is under the feet of the emperor."

Xu Xian suddenly laughed at the side, "No, but he even formed an internal fight."

"Brother, although it is internal strife, it has nothing to do with this matter. When you come, things will be worse."

"Mr. Cao please tell me."

"Since Wang Anshi, the system has gradually been destroyed and the rules have also been destroyed."

Xu Xian disagreed and said, "Mr. Cao refers to Wang Anshi's centralization of power and ministers, and weakening the ministers, right?"

"You actually understand a little bit? It's it."

If it weren't for the destruction of the minister's system, if it weren't for the excessive concentration of power of the prime minister, how could traitors such as Cai Jing control the government?

"Mr. Cao, Wansheng thinks that you are wrong. If you want to destroy the system, it is not Wang Anshi at the beginning, but Han Qi. And if there were no Han Qi and Fubi and others, how could Wang Anshi's impatient reform come about? Lord Cao thinks twice."

The two have different perspectives on the problem and come to different conclusions.

In the past, the Song Dynasty system was supervised and constrained by layers of supervision. There were powerful ministers, such as Wang Qinruo, but even Wang Qinruo asked Yanchen to scold him all day long and did not dare to act too much. Ding Wei also quickly stepped down. Later, the powerful minister Lu Yijian even made Fan Zhong drown and fight to the death, with three ups and three downs.

It was not until Song Renzong fell seriously ill that he gradually became tired of the government. Fu Bi, Wen Yanbo, Han Qi, and Ouyang Xiu, who were praised by the Qingliu Party, came to power. In order to make his name, these people used the money and silk from the court to give officials and soldiers, and the national finance began to collapse.

But the system has not collapsed yet.

During the dispute between Emperor Yingzong of Song Dynasty and Pu Yi, the ministers opposed it. In order to curry favor with Emperor Yingzong of Song Dynasty, Han Qi joined forces with Ouyang Xiu and once cut more than 30 people from the country and more than a dozen people from the country, and reduced it to two people.

Wang Anshi's destruction of the system had nothing to do with Han Qi. He initiated the reforms because Han Qi and Fu Bi. The peak of the Song Dynasty's annual income was 120 million yuan, but its expenditure reached more than 230 million yuan. The Song Dynasty could not survive without reforms, so it was only then that the reforms made money.

Their rush was to hurt many interests of the powerful and the people, so they opposed it. Wang Anshi learned from Han Qi, weakened the ministers and strengthened the power of the prime minister. Among them, Han Qi, Ouyang Xiu and Wen Yanbo were representatives of the opponents, but they did not know that this cause was planted by them.

Xu Xian drew out the sword again and asked, "Mr. Cao, swords have good swords and bad swords. Good swords are used properly, better, and inappropriately, and more harmful!"
Chapter completed!