The Zhen family's business is doing very well, and there is already a caravan to set off in the past two days.

It happened that Liu Bei was in a hurry to go to Changshan County, and Zhen Yan also ordered the steward to set off in advance.

The steward of the caravan was surnamed Zhang, named Zhang Quan, and he was an old man of forty or fifty years old. It is Zhen Yi's surviving Zhang family, an old servant brought from Zhending's mother's house, who is kind and hospitable.

Before leaving, he also paid the money for Liu Bei's mount according to the master's instructions - Liu Bei just played "Ji Za Hanging Sword" and left his own mount, the Zhen family didn't want to owe favors, so they had to insist on giving money, and they couldn't push it off.

Liu Bei had no choice but to accept Zhang Quan's four horseshoe gold cakes as one million dollars.

When Li Su heard about the price of this horse, he was also quite surprised: "Now the horse is so expensive? ”

Liu Bei explained: "The brothers of the Zhen family are all believers, and they are paid according to the price of the horses in Luoyang. This year, there are rumors that His Majesty wants to raise a new army in the West Garden, and the Beijing division is extremely short of horses, and the price has skyrocketed several times. ”

Before the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the top good horses were only two or three hundred thousand yuan, and last year it was only six or seven hundred thousand, and the rise was too fast.

The only currency in circulation in the Han system is copper coins, that is, Han five baht. There is no official circulation price for silver, and gold is used by the imperial court to reward meritorious officials, which is extremely rare and rarely circulated among the people.

The official gold exchange rate has not changed since the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, and it is forcibly locked at 10,000 yuan per gold.

It's just that with the increasing amount of copper coins minted over the centuries and the deterioration of the quality of the coins, the black market exchange rate has now reached 17,000 to 18,000.

Therefore, the price of "one million dollars" horse is actually only 60 taels of gold.

The reward customized by the imperial court is mostly 15 taels of gold, but there are only four cakes. (It is the kind of gold cake dug up from the tomb of Marquis Haiyang and the tomb of King Jing of Zhongshan)

……

Li Su calculated the accounts in a cranky manner, and the group walked out of forty miles and arrived at Zhendingdu by the Hutuo River.

On the other side of the river is Changshan County.

The ferry was guarded by a county soldier of 500 people, and the commander of the army was a military horse. There were also several middle and low-level military attachés such as Qu Junhou and Tun General, who led teams to patrol along the river, and these troops were under the control of Zhang Chun, the prime minister of Zhongshan.

Liu Bei was slightly surprised when he saw this battle, and couldn't help but discuss with Li Su: "Last year, there were not so many troops patrolling the banks of the Hutuo River, could it be that the black mountain thieves in Changshan County have become more rampant recently?" ”

Li Shu didn't know the market in previous years, so he had to report good news and not bad news: "Maybe Zhang Chun's move is imminent, so he has a weak heart." ”

Liu Bei frowned and nodded: "I hope so." ”

Fortunately, although the guard was strengthened, there were no extraneous branches when crossing the river.

The military Sima guarding the ferry saw the flag of the Zhen family's caravan from a distance, and he didn't check it, so he talked to Zhang Quan very casually, and then let him go directly, and Liu Bei and his party also followed smoothly on the boat.

By the time we got on board, it was already dark.

Considering that they would part ways after crossing the river, Li Su suddenly remembered some questions, which only locals could answer, so he found an opportunity to chat privately with Zhang Quan:

"Uncle, I don't know how many villages with the surname Zhao are in Zhending County? Are there any brave warriors? ”

It's a pity, Zhang Quan thought for a while and said: "Zhao is the surname of Changshan, and there are many villages with the surname Zhao in the surrounding area. ”

Li Su was a little disappointed.

As a traverser, they are all passing by, and their original intention is naturally to find out Zhao Yun.

Maybe Zhao Yun is too young to stand out.

However, in history, Zhao Yun and Liu Bei were originally very compatible. The only thing Li Su has to watch out for is that Liu Bei has already moved to another country because of his promotion and rapid development, and he has not yet become famous in the land of Yan Zhao, so it is possible to miss Zhao Yun.

Therefore, as long as Zhao Yun is dug up before Liu Bei changes the map, it is not too late.

Seeing that Li Su was disappointed, Zhang Quan didn't think much about it, and politely invited him to have dinner together: "Xiao Langjun, if you want to do that, it's better to eat together." ”

As he spoke, he handed Li Su a few baked dead dough cakes and some braised meat.

Dead noodles are hard noodles that have not been fermented. But nowadays, wheat is the grain eaten by the upper class, so the hard noodles are not bad.

In contrast, the travel grain that Zhang Fei prepared last night was just sorghum and millet flour (millet flour) cakes.

As for fermented pasta such as steamed buns, they were invented when Zhuge Liang conquered Meng in the south. Dumplings will have to wait for Nanyang Zhang Ji to write "Treatise on Typhoid Fever".

Li Su took the cake and sniffed it, but he didn't smell what kind of meat it was, so he took a tentative bite, only to be surprised by the unexpected deliciousness: "This is donkey meat?" ”

Zhang Quan: "What's the matter?" Xiao Langjun is not used to eating donkey meat? ”

Li Su: "No, no, no, it's delicious, it's really extraordinary." ”

Zhang Quan: "I don't dislike it, I will bring a few buckets for a while - our master's family is mourning, and the master and the young master are afraid of discussing things, so they strictly order the whole house not to kill sheep." And the pork was so fishy that he didn't even want to eat it, so he got these donkey meats. Donkey meat is also the food of the peddlers' pawns, and there are many pack animals in the caravan at home, and killing a few lame donkeys is enough to eat for a long time. ”

It turned out to be a play for filial piety.

If a large family kills a sheep, outsiders will think that the owner wants to eat meat. I can't bear this during the mourning period, it would be too unfilial.

But there is no problem with pigs and donkeys, which are all for the next people. Although it will make the house slave bear the name of "unrighteousness", it will not affect the filial piety of the master.

After crossing, you can also eat donkey meat, which makes people feel a lot more happy.

"The donkey meat in Zhongshan County is authentic, and the braised meat is also cloves, and Hejian County probably can't make this taste."

This point was actually misunderstood by Li Su. Whether or not to put cloves in braised donkey meat has nothing to do with the region, it can only be said that the Zhen family is rich and arrogant - cloves are high-grade spices used by the upper class to prevent bad breath, and the ministers of the court are elegant to contain a piece of it.

In other words, if you are a poor person, you don't care if you are in Zhongshan or in the river, you are reluctant to do this.

……

After the group finished eating, the fleet also arrived at the south bank of the Hutuo River.

Zhang Quan generously gave Liu Bei and his entourage a few bags of roasted and braised donkey meat.

"Thank you for your kindness, don't say goodbye!"

Liu Bei arched his hand on the horse, and the group whipped west.

The county seat of Zhending was closed, so the group bypassed the county seat and walked twenty miles west, and the night was getting darker before they arrived at a village surnamed Zhao introduced by Zhang Quan before.

This village is already close to the border between Zhending County and Jingcheng County. The Jingcheng County in front is the Taihang Mountains, that is, the sphere of influence of the Black Mountain thieves.

From here, turn due south, as long as you walk along the edge of Taihang Mountain for another two days, about 300 miles, you can reach Yecheng on the edge of Zhangshui.

"Big brother, the path pointed out by Mr. Zhang is really right, let's go into the village for the night, it's better than sleeping in the wild." Guan Yu, who was in charge of pathfinding, suggested back to the horse.

It's the beginning of February, and it's still very cold at night in the north.

"It's okay, maybe I'll meet the Black Mountain thieves tomorrow, so I have enough energy to fight the enemy, and I will set off before dawn tomorrow."

Liu Bei is also a person who knows the soldiers, and his principle is to choose the edge of the thief area to camp as much as possible, and then rush over in one go, so as to reduce the number of days spent overnight in the hinterland of the thief army.

The group arrived at the entrance of the village, but they were greeted by not hospitable villagers.

Well, it's a mouthful, but it's actually hospitality, but it's just the kind of hospitality of the people of Yanan.

"Not good! The Black Mountain Thieves are coming! ”

Soon there was a rush of chickens and dogs in the village, and from afar many old and weak women could be seen hiding in several large courtyards in the village, while men were shivering and on guard among the scattered earthen walls at the entrance of the village.

The people in the mountainous areas of the Northland are fierce, and there are hunters in every village, so in addition to bamboo guns and iron hoes, there are also people who take hunting bows and bamboo arrows.

Guan Yu Danfeng's eyes narrowed: "Big brother, be careful, these villagers have bows and arrows!" It's better to wait for a certain talisman to come forward and shout. ”

Zhang Fei also volunteered: "Big brother, let's go, my voice is louder than the second brother." ”

"Yide be careful." Liu Bei passed the talisman to Zhang Fei fluently.

Zhang Fei was on guard with a gun, rode his horse closer, about a stone's throw away, just outside the enemy's range, and shouted: "We are Zhongshan County soldiers, not Black Mountain thieves, there are talismans here!" This time I came here to find out the thief's situation, don't be surprised! ”

The village was surrounded by a large wheat field, and the freshly sprouted winter wheat was still covered with a thin layer of snow that had not yet melted.

By this roar, within a radius of three hundred steps, all the winter snow fell in a row, revealing wheat seedlings.

Taking advantage of the faint firelight, you can see the colors around you, all of them turning from white to green, and it seems that spring returns to the earth in an instant.

Liu Bei Guan Yu is accustomed to it.

Li Su on the side "buzzed" in his brain, and he was dizzy for a while: "Wori!" If the army marches to the depths of Taihang Mountain tomorrow and lets Zhang Fei roar like this, it will definitely cause an avalanche! ”

Li Su was like this, and the Yanan people in the village were naturally shocked and trembled, and the bamboo guns and hoes fell to the ground.

Some of the hunters who were originally full of hunting bows were directly broken because of nervousness, and they flew on their arms to draw out blood marks, and they all fell to the ground in pain.

It doesn't matter whether you believe it or not. Even if the villagers still thought that Zhang Fei was a black mountain thief, they did not dare to resist.

The range of this sonic attack is farther than that of a bow and arrow, so it's useless to hold a bow.

Zhang Fei rode his horse to the entrance of the village very smoothly. An elder in the village trembled and came over to talk, it should be the village head.

Zhang Fei also respected the elderly, and took the initiative to pass the talisman to the other party, but the other party was suspicious, relieved, and let the group enter the village.

"It's not easy to make Jun come far away to investigate the thief's feelings, and the old man has thanked the villagers for it, please make Jun use hot soup." After settling down, the village chief cautiously boiled a pot of hot water, put some salt and vegetables, even if it was soup, and respectfully invited Liu Bei and others to drink it.

Liu Bei is only a county lieutenant, and he is called an envoy who is a little unqualified.

But the rural people don't understand officialdom, and when they see officials, they call the envoy, which is also a kind of sycophancy, so Liu Bei doesn't care about them.

Drinking the hot soup, Liu Bei also took out a few donkey meat to burn, and kindly invited the village chief to eat: "My father-in-law is surnamed Zhao?" How far is it to get to Zhao County? ”

When the village chief Zhao saw that there were meat patties to eat, he was suddenly a little frightened, and said more and more heartily: "The old man's surname is Zhao, and it is not far from Zhao County, and it will be forty or fifty miles south tomorrow." ”

Li Su took a look at the gap and interjected to ask if there was anyone named Zhao Yun in the village, but unfortunately there was not.

Liu Bei asked again: "When you just entered the village, you were so heavily guarded, but the Black Mountain thief situation has been repeated?" Is it more rampant than in previous years? ”

——

(PS: When I got up this morning, I found that it had become a contract state, so students who have not yet invested in new books have already returned 25% less than the early users before yesterday.) If you still want to vote, just click on it for free. )