The wind swept the ground, and the grass and trees withered yellow. Seeing that the New Year is approaching, the people in the village have endured the sadness of the death of half of the young and strong, but those who survived still have to continue to live.

This is the life of the people in the frontier areas, and the women have the strength to have children, because they don't know if they will grow into one after giving birth to seven or eight. The men spend their days in the company of scimitar horses, drinking and eating meat, because they can't guess what they will die at, robbers who are plundering everywhere? Or is it a wolf that lurks in the day and emerges at night? They don't care, anyway, no ancestor in the entire community has lived past fifty, there is no need to be so sparing, the Han'er in Liangzhou are regarded as barbarians by the Central Plains, and their arrogance is regarded as ignorance of etiquette. This is the sorrow of Liangzhou and the sorrow of the people of Liangzhou.

It's not that Qiang Di complains about the willows, when did Liangzhou have spring flowers?

The old people in the northwest know that this day is almost to the end of the year, and there will soon be goose feathers and heavy snow, and the temperature will drop sharply, no matter how good the man is, he can't bear it, or the people of Liangzhou are not willing to give birth to a child in the second half of the year, and if the child is born in winter, it will be difficult to survive, even if he does not die, he will fall into the root of the disease, and he will not grow strong.

At dawn, Ma Yue changed into a leather coat and stepped on his little boots, saw that Guan Yu was still in a green shirt and a robe, and dragged Guan Yu out of the village with a golden cake in his arms.

"Hey, why did you pull the beans out for me early in the morning?"

"Let's go, brother, there is a market outside the city today, go buy you a few clothes."

Guan Yu looked down at the left and right, and felt that there was nothing wrong with the clothes he was wearing.

"You kid, I wear this dress very well, and besides, you don't let me take the money to buy clothes, what can we do to buy clothes?"

Ma Yue gave Guan Yu a look of disgust, and patted himself in his arms like an upstart, "Oh, what do you and me, I have money here." ”

But Ma Yue, a small nouveau riche Guan Yu is quite useful, no way to go into the mountains a few days ago to hunt game and do exchange for some silver, but take the tiger skin to Ma Yue in exchange for a horse, Ma Yue does not know how to raise, every meal of the good horse is refined corn mixed with horse grass, he hunts in exchange for that little money to raise this horse is a little stretched, where is there still money to buy clothes, and clothes are relatively expensive in the Han Dynasty, poor people are short clothes all year round, so there are many people who freeze to death every year.

On this day, the whole city is resting, that is, the commonly known holiday, the market is opened outside the city, and the people of the surrounding villages are driving ox carts to buy some daily necessities, not to mention that every household needs to buy some New Year's goods at the end of the year, which is very lively.

From a distance, the city wall of Longxian Sanzhang is like a behemoth towering, majestic and magnificent, the market below is full of people, the yellow-haired and blue-eyed merchant of the Western Regions with felt hats is grunting to recommend his goods, and the Han buyers are bargaining and foaming.

Ma Yue has never been to Longxian County for more than ten years, everything is new along the way, and when he entered the market, he looked around for a while, passing by the horse market in the eastern suburbs, he looked at this and that, but he didn't sell anything, and followed by Guan Yu, a nine-foot man, those sellers all dared to be angry and didn't dare to speak, and they were angry with this troublesome Han boy.

"Humph!" Ma Yue snorted vigorously, and the pungent smell of feces in the livestock market choked him a little, but this did not interfere with his hunting mood, wrinkled his nose and laughed loudly at Guan Yu: "I really didn't expect it, Longxian is a prosperous county town, and what will the imperial city of Luoyang look like!" ”

Guan Yu has never been to Luoyang, and his exile life made him instinctively resist Luoyang City, the eastern capital that represents the glory of the Han Empire...... Many. ”

Ma Yue nodded and didn't know if it was okay, passing through the horse market full of the smell of livestock manure, and turning down the long street of a handicraft storefront, there was a cloth village called Zhang Ji, and the owner of the store wanted to come to the store surnamed Zhang.

Ma Yue pushed the door in, and saw that the shop in the square circle of three zhang was full of all kinds of cloth, and the shopkeeper with a rosacea was measuring the clothes of a noble son wearing a fox skin robe, Guan Yu's nine-foot figure entered the store and stood at the gate and cast a large shadow on the ground, and the house went down, causing the fox boy and the shopkeeper to turn their heads together and see the nine-foot giant man was very surprised, Guan Yu noticed that the light in the room was blocked, and hurriedly moved closer to the side.

The shopkeeper turned his head and praised in surprise: "Ho, this guest officer is a burly student, this little brother, but you want to tailor it?" ”

As soon as the businessman speaks, he can make people feel good, which is called being able to speak, Ma Yue smiled: "When it's cold, I will order two skins for my eldest brother to wear." ”

Shopkeeper: "Okay, guest officer, wait a minute, I'll give you a measure when I'm done." ”

Guan Yu nodded and didn't speak, Ma Yue smiled: "The shopkeeper, you are busy first, don't get in the way." ”

After a while, the shopkeeper measured the clothes of the young man who looked like a young man, and then took a ruler to measure Guan Yu.

"Guest officer, you have to be nine feet here, what material do you want?"

Guan Yu opened his mouth to ask for fabric, Ma Yue raised his hand and jumped down from the chair next to him and said: "There are two layers of cotton jackets, thick leather and thick leather boots. ”

The shopkeeper squinted and smiled, and the rosacea was very obvious on his face, "In this case, it will be 1,700 dollars." The guest officer asks you to pay a deposit of 700 yuan in advance. ”

Ma Yue waved his hand and took out the last piece of gold cake from his arms and put it on the table of the shopkeeper, and said: "Pay all directly, you can send someone directly to Ma Teng's house in Zhangshan Village, twenty miles away, after the clothes are ready, and the more money is to buy shoes." ”

Guan Yu knew that Ma Yue had so much money left, and he was about to refuse when he stretched out his hand, but when he saw Ma Yue tiptoeing and patting him on the back, he gave up.

When the shopkeeper heard Ma Teng's name, he asked, "Shoucheng?" Guest officer, who are you from the Ma family? ”

When Ma Yue heard this, he didn't know that it was so good to report his brother's name in Longxian County, so he was a little embarrassed, and said: "Ma Teng is my eldest brother, I am the third child of the Ma family, called Ma Yue." ”

When the shopkeeper heard this, he pushed the golden cake back, "It turns out that the little brother is from the Ma family, and a few days ago, thanks to Shou Cheng, he helped me mediate the dispute in the county, which helped me a lot." This dress is even a gift from me to my little brother.

"That's not good, you naturally have to collect money for business, otherwise I don't want clothes." The horse was about to go out, and the shopkeeper received the gold.

I measured Guan Yu's figure and paid a deposit, even if I bought this dress, the Han Dynasty was far from wanting us to be so convenient at this time, and I didn't buy clothes at all, all of them were custom-made, if you want to buy it, you can only buy a few pieces of fabric, go home and let your woman make clothes for you.

Ma Yue didn't go to his sister-in-law to make clothes for Guan Yu, it's okay for his sister-in-law to make clothes for him, the child is still his own family, if he makes clothes for Guan Yu and doesn't say if his eldest brother and second brother have any opinions, Guan Yu himself is unwilling.

Walking out of the store, Guan Yu didn't say anything to Ma Yue to thank him, he was not the kind of man who was good at expressing emotions, but his heart was getting closer and closer to Ma Yue.

Ma Yue squinted and smiled, "The so-called daughter is scattered and comes back, Brother Guan doesn't have to worry about it." ”

As he was talking, he saw the fox Qiu boy walking past the two of them, and saluted the two of them: "Looking at the mighty warriors, Wei He has a reluctant request, please go with me to the wine shop for a drink or two, okay?" ”

Ma Yue and Guan Yu were very puzzled, the first time they met this son, they didn't know what medicine was sold in the gourd called Wei He, but neither of them was afraid of trouble, Guan Yu did not refuse to trouble, Ma Yue was not afraid of anything because of Guan Yu.

The two glanced at each other, and Guan Yu said to Wei He: "Please lead the way." ”

Longxian is a small city, and there is only one wine shop in the city, and it is only a few steps to enter the city gatehouse.

Of course, the poll tax of four dollars per person is indispensable, this era is like this, the county seat is like a park to pay taxes when entering the city, the price of the Han Dynasty is actually not high, except for the slightly higher price of grain in the disaster year, other such as wine is only ten dollars a bucket, ordinary people eat a meal is only thirty yuan, clothing because of low productivity, so the price is also high. The higher ones are the knives and armor, and the hundred refining swords have caught up with the horses, and the prices are all calculated in tens of thousands of dollars.

As soon as the three of them entered the wine shop, Guan Yu's superior height attracted everyone's attention, and several sturdy men who were drinking saw the son named Wei He and shouted: "The owner is here." ”

Wei He nodded, not at all as affectionate as when he talked to Guan Yu, and his posture was very high.

The three of them went upstairs to ask for a few cases, Xiao Er put two plates of cold dishes and a pot of alcohol, Wei He poured them for the two, raised his glass and said: "Brother Guan, little brother, Wei Mou respects the two of you with a glass." ”

The two drank wine, Guan Yu put down the cup and said, "What is the matter with the son calling a certain person to come?" ”

Wei He didn't answer and asked, "Listening to Brother Guan's accent, he is also from Hedong?" ”

Guan Yu frowned, and answered this question with a slight bow.

"Since you are from Hedong, you must know the Hedong Wei family."

Guan Yu's brows relaxed, "You know, Gongzi is the Wei family?" ”

Wei He nodded, and then said: "It's not a secret, Wei wants to take the caravan to the Western Regions this time, and he is afraid that it will be dangerous on the way." Brother Guantai's posture must be strong in martial arts, Wei has a reluctant request, I want to ask Brother Guan to protect me well, Wei must be grateful. ”

Guan Yu glanced at Ma Yue, he was tempted, as the saying goes, a penny is difficult for a hero, and Guan Erye is no exception, now he is so shy that Ma Yue has to pay for all his clothes, Wei He is drowsy and sends pillows.

Therefore, Guan Yu did not refuse, but asked: "When will you start and when will you return?" ”

Wei He was happy when he saw that Guan Yu was a little moved, and said: "Set off in the second half of the year, and you can return before the year." ”

At this time, it was the middle of September, and it would take two and a half months to come back before the year, Guan Yu still had another thing in mind, calculating the time, Ma Yu should have arrived in Hedong with his family letter, and his wife should also leave if he has not remarried, he does not want to go out for too long, he has not seen his son for five years.

Ma Yue thought about something else, first of all, he was unwilling to let Guan Yu leave, even if it was a month. Even if he knew that Guan Yuzhi's loyalty would not abandon him. Secondly, I have seen seven or eight sturdy men downstairs just now, and what kind of business is this guard transporting, it needs more than ten people to escort it.

The caravan is not only guards, but also errands who can speak well, and these are all together a large caravan of more than 30 people. The chance of such a caravan encountering danger in Liangzhou is also greater than that of a small caravan. In his previous life, Ma Yuetai's grandfather had been the second pot head of the horse gang, and he knew that this was a powerful relationship.

Ma Yue asked: "Gongzi is at least a large caravan of more than 30 people, dare to ask what kind of business Gongzi does?" ”