Dark clouds cover the whole sky, a darkness in front of us, like the Jade Emperor drunkenly knocked over the ink stone, splashed a piece of ink on earth; then pierced the dome of the sky of the lightning ripped through the black curtain, cut a line of bright light, followed by a thunderbolt, thrilling down, the earth was trembling, huolong huolong guldon rolled down, as if a few empty barrels rolled down from the heavenly ladder outside the southern heavenly gate to the earth. The rain poured down, as if the canopy had neglected its duty and spied on Chang’e, making the heavenly river break open.
Wind, rain, mixed together, connected together, up and down the left and right are grey and cold, everything is wrapped up in it, can not distinguish which is the tree, which is the ground, which is the cloud, in all directions, all chaotic, all loud, all confused.
The earth trembled timidly and was strangely silent, letting the storm and lightning rage overhead.
In the distance, on the official road, a carriage covered with linoleum staggered in the storm, and the healthy horse was drenched into a water buffalo, puffing and panting, struggling to take a step on the muddy official road.
“Sir, less than three miles ahead is Yingtian, this storm is too big, let’s take a rest and wait for the wind and rain to be smaller, and then do the rush can be made.” Wearing a straw raincoat carriage style turned back to the car and asked.
Perhaps the wind and rain is too noisy, the voice is too small.
Silence in the car.
Carriage Style asked again, loudly.
A short while later, there was a lazy seemingly just woke up voice came out, naive, is a teenager, “Oh, makes it makes, of course makes it makes, Zhao big brother decision is.”
The man wearing a straw raincoat to drive the horse laughed at his words and joked, “I can really admire you, this kind of weather can have a good night’s sleep.”
“This sound of wind and rain, the rhythm of dripping is like a lullaby, ringing non-stop, the more it rings, the faster it gets, it’s as if I’m being hypnotised, and I fell asleep following it.” The naive voice inside the carriage seemed a little embarrassed as he explained.
“Your Excellency is joking, what others don’t save, I can save. In the past, the gentleman is the car to read books, today this weather also can not see, the gentleman just can rest, just the gentleman can sleep in this kind of day, but let me admire.” The man who drove the horse parked the carriage at the roadside, and while hitching a grass reed mat to the healthy horse, he laughed and spoke to the teenager inside the carriage.
The man driving the horse pities the horse, but does not dare to drive the carriage to the woods to avoid the rain during the thunderstorm, so he can only park the carriage on the roadside to avoid the rain.
“Brother Zhao, quickly come inside the carriage to take shelter from the rain.”
A corner of the carriage curtain was lifted, and a slightly fat and naive teenager poked his head out, and after looking at the situation outside where the wind and rain were even in the sky and on the ground, he said to the han who was standing outside the carriage.
Through the bright light of the lightning, one could recognise that this slightly fat and naive boy was none other than Zhu Pingan, who had come to Yingtian to catch the examination.
The man wearing a straw raincoat to drive the horse shook his head, “This can work, I’m not going to go in with all this water.”
Zhu Pingan, who slightly poked out of the carriage, waved his hand unconcernedly, “It’s not a problem, Brother Zhao, except for the straw raincoat, the baggage and scrolls are all put in my travelling bag.”
The man driving the horse hesitated for a while, then under Zhu Ping An’s repeated requests, he removed his straw raincoat and entered the carriage for a short rest.
This carriage is also a coincidence, in ancient times not to the modern day that like to where there is a direct car, in the Ming dynasty, even if it is the car and horse line can not say that you want to go to where there are going to where the car, this is also Zhu Pingan two times after the transfer, happened to meet to go to yingtian pulling goods to catch the horse man, a little negotiation, catch the horse man will be quick to piggyback on the Zhu Pingan a trip, only charged a little fare. In ancient times, under the constraints of etiquette, there seemed to be more good people.
A river of tobacco, a city full of wind and flakes. When the plums are yellow, it rains.
Outside the carriage, the wind and heavy rain poured down, as if it had no head, raining endlessly. Zhu Pingan looked out through the carriage window and had a deeper impression of the plum rain in Jiangnan. Previously only stayed in the textbook records: the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, every year in June and July there will be persistent cloudy rainy weather phenomenon, because it is the ripening period of the plums in the south of the Yangtze River, it is called “Meiyu”, and this time period is known as the Meiyu Season. Now the description of the persistent cloudy days with rain is even more touching, a few days of carriages and horses, did not see the sunny days.
From the morning until mid-afternoon, the wind and moon did not stop, only slightly smaller. Zhao, who drove the horse, then put on his straw raincoat again and drove the carriage along the official road to continue on.
The road was muddy and watery, so the carriage did not move fast as it rattled. Even if it was an ancient official road, it couldn’t be compared to a modern highway that was even a tofu-dreg project.
Less than three miles of road walked more than half an hour, that is, now more than an hour, before arriving at Yingtian, is now the city of Nanjing.
Lifting the carriage curtains with just a glance, Zhu Pingan was shocked by this majestic Nanjing City.
Soaring, magnificent, majestic
Yingtian city wall is like a huge dragon winding around guarding Yingtian, winding dozens of kilometres, a glance can not see the edge of the city wall is very new, in the baptism of heavy rain appears to be renewed. Yingtian city wall was only completed at the end of Hongwu, this is the largest city wall Zhu Pingan saw, more majestic than the Xi’an city wall, almost the world’s first big city, of course at this time Shuntian (Beijing) should be the biggest, but this does not affect Zhu Pingan’s feelings.
Especially at this time, the city wall, several outwardly carved stone dragon head mouth spouting out large water columns, like a real dragon spitting out water, adding to Zhu Pingan’s feelings.
At this time outside the Yingtian city gates, even this kind of weather also has a lot of pedestrians and vehicles to and fro, outside there are scholars and students look like people, holding paper umbrellas, in the city outside the emotion “dragon spitting water”, despite the heavy rain splash poetry, leaving masterpieces, just bitter umbrella guarding the paper and ink of the book servant.
The bad-tempered “Mei Mushroom” brought a lot of rain to Yingtian, and the rain was so heavy that it seeped into the newly-built Ming City Wall, and spewed out through its drainage system, forming a unique “dragon spitting water” landscape.
This makes Zhu Pingan feel shocked by the wisdom of the ancient working people.
Soon after entering Nanjing city, because of the heavy rain delayed the travelling time, the horse driver, Zhao, had to rush to buy goods, so he put Zhu Pingan in front of an inn, said goodbye and drove the carriage to leave.
Zhu Pingan stood outside the inn with his travelling bag on his back, waving his hand at the departing carriage and thanking him loudly.
“Hehe, is this not the head of the case, Zhu Pingan, I haven’t seen him for months, how come he is so fat?”
One of the scholars and academics returning from watching the dragon spit out water outside the city heard Zhu Pingan’s voice, and feeling that it sounded familiar, he looked up, and was flabbergasted for a few seconds before recognising Zhu Pingan.
This Zhu Pingan really lives up to the title of “rice bucket”, he has gained weight after not seeing him for a few months.
Zhu Pingan heard the words and looked, only to see a group of scholars in the middle of a person surprised to see himself, this person is a little familiar, but can not recognise who it is, it should be the amazing immortal poetry or in the Yingtian House drunken gentleman upstairs of a certain person it.
“Which dare to call the head of the case, just a fluke. Eating fat, er, my mother’s handiwork makes people can’t control their mouths,” Zhu Pingan distantly bowed his hand and laughed nervously.
“Xian brother Zhu is modest.” The man also arched his hand.
After that person finished speaking, he whispered a few words to the scholarly scholars next to him, and in a few moments, a few unconvinced and perhaps a few disdainful gazes were directed towards Zhu Pingan.
“The wind is strong and the rain is tight, it is better for virtuous brother to go and rest in peace first, my humble brother will come back to pay respects to virtuous brother Zhu some other day.” The man arched his hand and left with the surrounding fellow travellers
