Chapter 4: Who is the current emperor?

  Yang Qiuchi shook his head slightly, looked up at the village on the hillside, and originally wanted to go into the village to ask, but after walking for a long time, he was very tired. Thinking that it was only five miles away from the county town, he decided to enter the city and ask again, so he walked along the small road towards the county town.

  Not long after leaving the mountainous area, they entered the plain. After walking for a while, they saw a section of city wall rising up on the horizon in the distance. They took a big road, and there were people coming and going, bustling about. Most of these travelers wore coarse linen clothes similar to their own, or wore straw hats and carried poles, or pushed carts, or led livestock, hurrying to and fro.

  Walking to the city wall, there is a moat, and the water is very clear. A floating bridge spans the moat, and two soldiers with scabbards at their waists stand guard at the gate. They look just like the soldiers in ancient costume dramas. Above the gate are three large characters in clerical script: "Guangde County".

  Guangde County? Where is this place? Never heard of it, let's go in first.

  Yang Qiuchi entered the city gate, and the two soldiers guarding the gate did not stop him, nor did they even glance at him, but instead continued to chat and laugh with each other.

  The city was very lively, the streets were narrow, and shops lined up on both sides, with various signs such as "Rui Fu Xiang", "Miao Shou Tang" and "Lin Jia Wine House".

  Yang Qiuchi was very curious, looking around all the way, walking along the main street, not far from the intersection, saw a building that was very tall and magnificent, occupying a large area, surrounded by red walls and green tiles. A three-opening black lacquer gate, with two large gates closed on either side, only the middle one open, with a pair of stone lions at the entrance, majestic and powerful. Next to the gate stood a sign with the words "Put Notice" written on it. What does it mean? Can't understand.

  At the entrance, a man wearing a waist knife and a white robe stood there, looking like an official. Yang Qiuchuan walked up to the steps and made a fist at the knife-wearing man, imitating the tone of the ancients, saying: "May I ask, sir, what is this place?"

  That man sized up Yang Qiuchi from head to toe, snorted his nose and spat out two words: "County government office!" He turned his head away, no longer paying attention.

  County government office? This is the county government office of Guangde County? Interesting! As soon as I think of the government office, the scene from TV dramas where the officials are afraid of being surprised by the wooden clapper and the two attendants on either side shout "Wei Wu" immediately appears in my mind. Let's go take a look! Seeing people constantly entering and exiting the main gate, that man with the sword doesn't even check them, it seems like anyone can enter and exit freely. Yang Qiuchu poked his head into the main gate to take a look, only to see several people inside surrounding a mirror and pointing at it, so he took a deep breath, pretending to be nonchalant, and entered the main gate, coming to stand in front of the mirror.

  The wall opposite the gate was made of finely carved bricks, with tiles covering the top. On the wall were posted several notices, one of which read: "In the case of Tian Dazhuang and Wang Xiaoshan's purchase of a house in Tianjia Village, they did not pay contract tax or land tax, and the sale was unclear. As a result, lawsuits have been ongoing. Now Wang Xiaoshan has become cunning and deceitful, using various tricks to avoid paying taxes on the contract and trying to obscure the evidence by not collecting the registration book. If such methods are used, they should be punished according to the law of flogging...". Yang Qiuchuan looked at it for half a day, but he didn't understand much of the classical text, especially since many of the characters were complex, however, from the "one hundred lashes" at the end, it seemed like a judgment made by a county magistrate in a case, with the date written at the end as "September 2nd, Year 7 of Yongle".

  The seventh year of Yongle? Yongle? The Yongle Encyclopedia! Did I travel through time and space to the Ming Dynasty? Yang Qiuchi knew about the Yongle Encyclopedia, which was mentioned in his middle school history class. Yongle was the reign title of Zhu Di, the Chengzu Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, who oversaw the compilation of a large encyclopedia that was named after him, called the Yongle Encyclopedia, which is considered to be the first encyclopedia in Chinese history.

  Tomorrow, I returned to the Ming Dynasty? Yang Qiuchi's head buzzed, unsure whether it was joy or worry. He didn't study history well, and he tried his best to search for other related terms in his mind: Zhu Yuanzhang! That ugly eight freak who rose from a beggar to an emperor, Zheng He's voyage to the Western Ocean! Only knew that Zheng He was a Ming Dynasty person, was a eunuch, but couldn't figure out if he was from the same era as the Ming Chengzu, right, and there were also the Brocade Guard, East Factory, West Factory and other Ming Dynasty secret service agencies, nothing else came to mind.

  For Ming Chengzu, Yang Qiuchi could only think of the Yongle Encyclopedia, everything else was a blank. Finished, can't even predict the future! Yang Qiuchi sighed in his heart, if he had known earlier that he would come to the Ming Dynasty, he would have taken a good look at the history of the Ming Dynasty and been able to predict the future, change history. Alas! Can't blame the government for my fate being bitter!

  At this time, a burst of mournful cries entered the ears, breaking Yang Qiuchu's contemplation. The sound seemed to come from behind the wall. Yang Qiuchu turned around and saw a large courtyard with many people inside. On the east side, a group of people were lined up in a row. In front was a grand hall with half-person-high steps, which was a stone-paved rectangular moon stage. On the left side of the moon stage, a middle-aged man was lying on a long stone bench, his pants pulled down to his knees. A constable held this person's shoulders with both hands, while another constable was wielding a large board and fiercely hitting the man's buttocks. The man let out pig-like cries, causing the crowd in the courtyard to burst into laughter.

  Yang Qiuchi hurried over to watch the commotion. There were many onlookers, and Yang Qiuchi could only stand far away in the back, tiptoeing and stretching his neck to look inside. He saw that inside the main hall stood two rows of men wearing blue clothes, each holding a long red-lacquered board. In the center was a warm pavilion, with a desk placed in front, behind which sat an old man wearing official robes, with a white beard, but the light in the great hall was somewhat dim, and the old man's appearance was somewhat blurry and couldn't be seen clearly.

  The man was beaten with a board, his buttocks bleeding profusely, and he couldn't even stand up. After the yamen released this person, two young men in the crowd bent down to the moon platform, tied the man's pants well, supported him on a wooden board, and carried him away from the government office.

  A yamen runner walked out and pointed to the two people at the front of the queue on the left, who glared at each other, holding a white paper in their hands. They separately ascended the platform and entered the main hall, bowed down and handed the white paper to a scholar-like person standing beside them. Then they knelt down in the middle of the main hall, kowtowed to the old official with a flower-white beard, stood up, retreated several steps, turned around and exited the main hall. They came to the platform, one kneeling on a large bluestone on the left, the other kneeling on a large bluestone on the right. It seemed that these two people were the plaintiff and defendant, who had come to file a lawsuit.

  Yang Qiuchi listened to the old official with a white beard talking about something, but he was too far away and couldn't hear clearly. After listening for a while without interest, his stomach growled, so he decided not to watch the commotion anymore and went to fill his belly first.

  Yang Qiuchi turned around and walked out, only to find that on the wall behind the mirror screen there was a brick carving, which was an image of a strange beast. The shape of this strange beast was somewhat like a qilin, with its big mouth open, surrounded by many gold and silver treasures. Above the beast was a red sun. What does this mean? Can't figure it out.

  Out of the gate, I turned back to take another look and found that the walls on both sides of the gate were not straight, but in a shape resembling the Chinese character for "eight", which was used to highlight the gate. It reminded me of a saying: "The official gate is open in an eight-character shape, if you have reason but no money, don't come in." It seems that all official gates are like this, interesting.

  As soon as he came out of the yamen, he walked forward and soon saw a wine tower with a big banner on it, which read "Gao Peng Guest House". When he arrived at the gate of the guest house, a man who looked like a shopkeeper, wearing a calabaza hat and carrying a white towel over his shoulder, came up to him with a smile and asked: "Sir, are you here for a meal or to stay?"

  Yang Qiuchi has heard this sentence many times in TV dramas. "To stay sharp" means to eat and then leave, so staying at an inn means eating and living there, of course! So he said, "Of course we'll stay at the inn!"

  "Ah!" The shopkeeper turned around and shouted loudly, "One guest staying at the inn!" Then he bowed and said, "Please come in, sir."

  The attitude is really good! Yang Qiuchi lifted his foot and was about to go in, but suddenly remembered that he had no money on him, what would he use to eat and live? His face turned red, and he forced a smile: "Sorry, I forgot to bring money."