It is only 700 miles from Song to Chu, but there are few pedestrians on this road, and all you see in front of you are continuous mountains and cliffs. Yuan Daozi led a thin horse, stroked his beard and stood looking ahead, more than three days had passed since he set off to Chudi, and he was still spinning in the mountains before reaching the border of Chudi, so he couldn't help but feel a little anxious, so he asked: "How far is this from Chu?"

After a while, a man dressed in a short shirt replied: "Thirty miles after crossing this mountain is the land of Chu." The man raised his head, looked through the gaps in the layers of leaves, judged the position of the sun, and said, "If you don't stop today, you can go down the mountain at about the time of Shen, and when you get to the bottom of the mountain, you can quickly whip your horse or enter the city at dusk." After the man finished speaking, he laughed, revealing a mouthful of teeth yellowed by tobacco leaves, his dark face was red from the sun, and his fluent official dialect had a thick Chudi accent, all of which made people feel that this person was honest and amiable.

Yuan Daozi nodded after listening, and said to the little guy next to him: "Yuanbao, you go to the back to see if everyone is together, if so, tidy up, let's set off immediately, and be sure to stay in Jincheng tonight." ”

Yuan Bao is also clever, and immediately ran backwards after hearing this, and was stopped by Yuan Daozi before he took two steps: "You don't have to count the goods, you will count them when you arrive in Jincheng." After speaking, he didn't care whether the little guy responded or not, he led the horse and followed the man to continue walking.

The mountain road is slippery, and the group is walking with horses.

The land of Chu and the land of Song are the most similar, but they rarely come and go because of this strange mountain. It is no wonder that Chu is called the gourd country, the west boundary is across the river and the west of Yunnan, the east boundary is leaning on the Outuo desert, the south boundary is leaning on the mountains, there is only the north boundary is easy to pass, people and cars come and go as if pouring outward from the gourd mouth is quite interesting. As early as a hundred years ago, there was a pipeline leading directly to Chu in the mountains, but it was destroyed after the Song State destroyed the country, and Zhao Yi, the former general of the country, and later the king of Chu Zong, led his troops to retreat to Jincheng. At that time, the land of Chu was not called Chudi, and the western part of Yunnan was not the western part of the king of western Yunnan, and even the king of Wuluolan, who was guarding Jiaodong, was just an insignificant Turkic tribe. And now there is no Song State, only the Song Land that retreated to the south of the Yangtze River remains.

Mountains and mountains are full of ridges as far as the eye can see, ancient roads in the mountains are overgrown with thorns, trees are towering into the clouds, and the occasional sunlight falls through the cracks on the dirt floor, and the spring birdsong is even more desolate.

Sure enough, as the man said, Yuan Daozi and his entourage arrived under the Jincheng City Gate before dusk, entered the city gate and invested in the hotel, and Yuan Daozi took Yuan Baoma to count the goods non-stop. This time I brought a batch of tea and silk from Jiangnan to Jincheng to try, and went back to the owner to bring some Chudi specialties to sell in the shops in Jiangnan, fortunately, the goods can be put for a long time, and the outside is wrapped in a layer of cowhide, except for the tea leaves are partially broken into slag, and the loss is not big. Yuan Daozi is the first time to take this line, originally from the west of Yunnan to Hulukou, from the Hulukou into Chudi, although the road is easy to walk, it is a waste of time. Unfortunately, a while ago, the civil strife in western Yunnan, which was the land of the Southern Barbarians, was even more dangerous, and the caravans were burned and looted everywhere. If this ancient road is rebuilt, Yuan Daozi can already imagine the scene of busy traffic.

Just when Yuan Daozi was distracted by touching his beard, Yuan Bao had already given the man who led the way a few silver bills, arranged the caravan's room, and sat on the couch to pick the blisters on his feet against the jumping candle flame. The grinning appearance made the already unsightly appearance even uglier.

I didn't dream all night, and the next day I woke up with a rooster crowing and an occasional sound outside the window. On March 15, Yuan Daozi sent the goods to the shop, and after finishing his work, he took the small servant to the temple fair on West Street with the crowd.

At this time of the year in southern Yunnan, there is a March festival in southern Yunnan, where the young people love to be lively, laughing all the way and jubilant. Now in Jincheng is also a special fun, Jincheng temple fair is different from the exotic customs of the March Festival in southern Yunnan, but also different from the Song Dynasty's Wenshi Qingya, Jincheng's temple fair gongs and drums are noisy, and the social fire on the street is also Song Di has never seen, it looks vigorous and majestic, don't say that Yuanbao is a half-grown child of sixteen or seventeen, even Yuan Daozi himself is also able to see it.

It's just a mountain and a river, but the difference is not small.

Song people love elegance, always spotless, in the winter to catch the pen strokes of the four friends of the cold year, in the summer in the wide sleeves of the clogs in the mountains to enjoy the flowers and make poems. The people of Chudi seem to have a lot of soil in this comparison, they are more tall and stronger than the people of Songdi, and the outline of their thick eyebrows and big eyes is also clearer. They have a lot of short fights with cheap actions, and they look like they are capable and neat, not as delicate as the Song people, but they are a little more casual and free than the Song people.

Today seems to be much more lively than usual, Yuan Bao was tired after a while, Yuan Daozi pulled him to the teahouse and was immediately dumbfounded, Wu Yang is full of people, where is there a spare table, Yuan Bao held his mouth and peeked at Yuan Daozi, only to see that he hesitated and turned around to leave, but the guys in this store were clever, and the busy feet did not touch the ground Yu Guang saw the business and immediately greeted him, with some Chu accent The official tone is familiar: "The two guest officials want tea, if it is better to share a table with other people?"

Yuanbao's eyes lit up immediately, and Yuan Daozi was also thirsty, so he stroked his beard and nodded.

The guy led the two of them inside, and Yuan Daozi said a little curiously: "Why are there so many people in this Jincheng temple fair?

When the guy saw him asking, he kept at his feet, and replied with a smile: "The guest officer is from out of town, and the accent is not like that of Chudi, today is the triennial March meeting, and our king will personally attend the memorial today, so there are many more people who come to observe than in previous years." As he spoke, he led the two to sit by the window on the second floor, where a traveler was sitting, and when he saw Yuan Daozi and the others, he only nodded and looked out the window.

Yuan Daozi and the others asked for a pot of tea and a few kinds of noodles, and the guy filled the traveler's tea, said that the two of them sat down for a while, and then strode downstairs.

"The contemptible person's surname is Yuan, he came here from the Song Dynasty to do business, dare to ask Brother Tai, but he is from Jiaodong?" Yuan Daozi sat down and chatted with the traveler. He saw that the man's eyebrow bones were protruding, his eye sockets were deep, the bridge of his nose was straight, and he was carrying a string of agate beads from the Western Regions on his wrist, so he guessed that the other party was □□ Jiao Turk.

The man saw someone talking to him, looked up at the two, Yuan Daozi was a shriveled old man, with a pinch of white goatee on his chin, a smile on the corner of his mouth, and only some of the essence of a businessman in his eyes, Yuan Bao sat next to him and looked like a stupid ugly child, Xu was tired, his eyebrows and eyes were wrinkled together and even more ugly, with a short figure is really not beautiful enough, Song people are famous for their beautiful posture, the man looked at Yuan Bao's ugly face and thought that Jiaodong was a little awkward about the rumors of Song people and Song Di, but after a while, the man replied with a fist: " Mr. guessed right, I came from Jiaodong to enjoy the scenery of Chudi, my surname is Lan, and the clansmen call me Ahu. Lan Ahu boldly introduced himself and then asked: "Sir, have you been to Jiaodong, how did Sir, know that I am from Jiaodong?"

Yuan Daozi stroked his beard and laughed, and there was a little smug in his tone: "In the twenty years of contemptible business, there are not many places that have never been to this land of China. Yan closed his eyes at Lan Ahu on the opposite side and said: "Brother Guan's face doesn't look like a person from the Central Plains, Brother Tai is burly and tall with profound facial features, that is, he looks like a person from Jiaodong, and the person from the Central Plains looks much thinner when he stands in front of the person from Jiaodong." After speaking, he looked at the ingots beside him, and laughed first.

Lan Ahu couldn't help laughing when he saw this.

Seeing that the two of them were laughing happily at him, Yuan Bao didn't need to think much to understand that the master was joking with himself, and he didn't have any extra thoughts in his heart, but just made an angry look on his face and snorted: "Isn't the master also a thin Central Plainsman?" After finishing speaking, he pretended to be angry and tilted his head to the side.

As soon as these words fell, the two of them laughed even louder, Lan Ahu was already loud, and now he let go, and the laughter spread from the second floor to the first floor, even if the environment was noisy, his laughter could be heard.

Yuan Daozi suppressed his laughter, and said slowly: "If you say that this tall and burly, it belongs to the Jiaodong people who go all over the four countries. “

Lan Ahu listened to the compliment, and was in a good mood and continued: "Our children in Jiaodong grew up eating meat and drinking □□, and they are burly and tall. “

A few people are also familiar with each other, Lan Ahu has traveled a lot of places in his first year, but fortunately, Yuan Daozi has been to more places, and the two of them chatted about the beautiful customs and scenery of various places. Yuan Bao couldn't speak, leaning his head against the window edge and looking down at the bustling street.