Chapter 17 Living Cao Cao

After hearing Liu Xi talk about the train, Liu Tielan and Shen Liangjun were both stunned.

Mom, the oil-eating tin spirit is already scary, but there is something even more terrifying. It doesn't eat people or oil, but it eats coal instead?

What is coal?

That's black gold.

Although oil is also very expensive, and ordinary people can still eat meat occasionally, coal is absolutely out of their reach.

Liu Tielan and Shen Liangjun did not know that this oil was not the other oil and could not be eaten, but was an energy source more precious than coal. At this moment, they only had one thought in their minds: Foreigners are really a waste of money!

However, none of them expected that in less than half a year, the imperial court was humiliated due to the failure of the naval battle with the Oriental people, and actually tried to cooperate with its northern neighbor Rakshasa Kingdom, which had been fighting for many years, in order to fight against the Oriental people.

As a condition, the Rakshasa State led the construction of a railway that ran through the three provinces outside the Pass. It took six years and the railway was finally fully opened. This is a story later.

When they arrived in Vladivostok, the three masters and apprentices were still dark-eyed and unfamiliar with the place. With Liu Tielan asking around, they finally arrived at the door of the horner's house.

When I got there, I saw that the door was closed due to heavy snow.

"Master, are you sure someone lives here?"

Shen Liangjun peeled off the courtyard wall and looked in. The courtyard was covered with snow, but there was not even a single footprint.

Even when Liu Xi stood on tiptoe, he couldn't reach the height of the courtyard wall, so he had to walk to the door, hoping to lie down at the crack of the door and take a look inside.

Unexpectedly, when she stepped on it, the snow buried her waist directly, making her unable to move. It was Liu Tielan and Shen Liangjun who pulled her out together.

The three of them stood on the side of the road patting the snow off their bodies. Liu Xi frowned when he saw that the doorways of other houses were clean except for the snow piled high in front of this house.

"Master, the snow that has accumulated for so long has not been swept away. No one lives in this yard, right? Or have we found the wrong place? This is not his home at all?"

Just as a man carrying a pole passed by on the road, Liu Tielan stopped him and asked: "Fellow, is this the home of Boss Li Jinshui?"

When they heard this name, Liu Xi and Shen Liangjun's eyes almost dropped.

Because this actor's reputation is so great that even a little girl like Liu Xi knows about it.

After all, this is still a character who has become famous in Tianjin, and is nicknamed "Living Cao Cao".

Back then, I was singing "Catch and Release Cao" to the emperor in the palace. Just after the performance was over and he was waiting to receive his reward, the emperor suddenly ordered someone to take him and beat him, with a total of forty bamboo poles.

After the beating was over, the eunuch from the Shengping Department bravely asked the emperor why he was beaten.

The emperor was still very angry. He pointed at Li Jinshui who had not taken off his makeup and shouted: "Let me see if you are still an adulterer!"

The eunuch then understood that the emperor was too involved in the drama and took the acting seriously, so he hurriedly explained to Li Jinshui: "My dear emperor, this is a play, it's not him who is raping, but the character he plays.

"

The emperor then came to his senses and quickly changed his words: "That was a typo, good acting."

The eunuch said again: "Your Majesty, you have performed well and you should be rewarded."

The emperor said: "Reward!"

Then he asked Li Jinshui how much reward he wanted, but Li Jinshui was beaten in vain. After catching the emperor's mistake, he simply said: "One bamboo pole is ten taels of silver."

Even the eunuch was startled, thinking, how dare you say this? Even Tan Jinrong, the favorite of our ancestors, would only be rewarded with a maximum of ten taels of silver after one scene.

With this breath, you dare to ask for four hundred taels of silver?

Unexpectedly, the emperor agreed immediately and rewarded him with four hundred taels of silver.

After that, Li Jinshui gradually faded away from Liyuanxing, and I haven't heard from him for a long time.

But his reputation as "Living Cao Cao" has been established. Over the years, there have been people acting in "Catch and Release Cao", but no one can play him again.

Does such a famous actor actually live in this remote place?

Liu Xi and Shen Liangjun both felt incredible and looked towards the door of the house buried in the snow.

The fellow had never seen the three of them before. After looking up and down, he chuckled and said: "Boss Li? We don't have a boss Li here, there is only one old man Li. If you want to find him, this is his home."

After the fellow said this, he started to leave again, but Liu Tielan still stopped him.

"Huh? Then he's not at home? Why not just let the heavy snow seal the door?"

The fellow then looked into the courtyard wall again. He was tall and strong, half a head taller than Shen Liangjun, the tallest of the three. He could easily see the situation in the courtyard.

"Isn't Lao Niu still at home? Someone must be there."

As he spoke, he looked at the snow in front of Li Jinshui's door and said with a smile: "You three are from out of town, right? This is how it is here. When it snows and the wind gets stronger at night, the door will be closed the next morning. His house is like this.

It's probably because the old man hasn't gotten up yet."

"You haven't gotten up yet? It's already noon!" Shen Liangjun was a little surprised.

"What's so strange about this? It's not uncommon to not leave the house for several days!"

The fellow was in a hurry to fetch water for lunch, so he left the three of them and left.

Shen Liangjun was dubious, looked at Liu Tielan and asked: "Master, this old man is so lazy, how can he be Boss Li? Even if we opera singers no longer sing opera, how can we let go of the habit of getting up early to practice kung fu that we have cultivated for decades?"

Liu Tielan also hesitated, but the address that the nudge told him was here, and the family happened to be named Li. Now that everyone was here, he had no choice but to come and try his luck.

"Perhaps something happened to someone? Even if it's not Boss Li, an old man's door was sealed by heavy snow. We didn't see it, so it's fine. Since we saw it, why not help someone to clear the door."

As he spoke, he took out a broom from his bag and swept up the snow.

Along the way, they often had to set up a stage to sing and earn money. Sweeping the stage was an indispensable basic operation, so they all carried two brooms with them.

Liu Xi didn't have the broom's turn, so she had to use a dustpan to transfer the snow to the roadside bit by bit.

She had a hunch that the person living in this courtyard was her future master—Li Jinshui.

The three masters and apprentices worked hard for half an hour. It was so cold that they were covered in sweat. After finally clearing away the snow in front of Old Man Li's door, the door was opened from the inside.

An old man with a white beard stretched his waist inside the door and took a look at Liu Xi, who was standing directly in front of the door.

Liu Xi is young and not very tall. He has a braid tied with a red headband and is combed behind his head. The fur hat he wears and the leather jacket he wears are from Kuanchengzi (the old name of Changchun) singing hall.

At that time, a lady saw how pitiful she was from the cold, so she picked up someone else's old clothes and gave them to her, but they could not hide her beautiful face and the aura of her body.

"Yo!" The old man curled his lips and said happily, "Where did this little fairy girl come from and landed in front of my door early in the morning?"

Hearing the sound, Liu Tielan and Shen Liangjun also came to Liu Xi and looked inside together, wanting to say hello to Boss Li.

As a result, the three of them were shocked.

The old man with a white beard at the door is in a wheelchair...

It is said that there have been several generations of "living Cao Cao" in the history of Peking Opera. Among them, the more famous "living Cao Cao" is Mr. Yuan Shihai, the master of jingjiao.

But during the Xian Tong Guang period, there was also a living Cao Cao, Li Yongquan, who also served as a minister of the inner court. The section in the article about Li Jinshui being beaten by the emperor and receiving four hundred taels of silver was based on his deeds, but many online suggestions

Wen said it was Xianfeng who beat him, which is a fallacy.

Mr. Qi Rushan's "The Traces of the Sushu" recorded this incident and said that it was Tongzhi who beat him.

As a famous opera researcher, Mr. Qi Rushan has a lot of connections with many famous actors in Liyuanxing, so what he said should be credible.

It should be noted that in the story about Li Jinshui in this article, only the part about being beaten refers to teacher Li Yongquan, and the rest are made up by the author. It is true that Li Yongquan received forty blows at that time, but the eunuchs of the Shengping Department did not really beat him, so

He was not disabled by it.

Next, let’s talk about “sweeping the stage”.

Before the theater opens, inspectors will come up with brooms to sweep the stage, and they can only sweep inward, not under the stage. This is not out of respect for the audience, for fear of sweeping dust on the audience, nor is it a matter of how dirty the stage is.

You have to scan it.

The purpose is to convey the meaning of making a lot of money, because the audience throws the silver rewards directly onto the stage from below.

In some places, the floor is not allowed to be swept on New Year's Day. Even if it is swept, it cannot be thrown out. This is also the meaning.
Chapter completed!