The locust tree is not actually a tree, but a place name. This place is named after the fact that there used to be an old locust tree that was more than 500 years old. However, all that remained of the old tree was a dry trunk and a few twisted and knotted branches. The slightly older people in Yangcheng all said that the big locust tree did not die, but just slept and one day it would sprout.

However, generation after generation has come and gone, the elders have passed away, and the old trees just don't sprout. Gradually, people stopped caring about whether a dead tree would come back to life.

"I think this tree is probably dead..."Lan Wang lay on his back, listening to the little boy talk about the origin of the place name "Big Locust Tree" with a hammer in the east and a broom in the west, while muttering to himself in a low voice, reciting Mr. Lu Xun's famous sentence.

"What? Master, what are you talking about? The bolt was awakened from Kan Dashan's state by this cold sentence.

“...... Nothing, you continue. ”

"Okay! It is said that in those years, the northern captives went south, and the Daling Dynasty defeated Jingkang, and the capital was lost. Hundreds of thousands of remnants did not want to be slaves to the country, so they followed the Luan of the prince to the south. Walking, walking, I walked to today's Yangcheng Yangguan Town. At that time, Yangguan was not a city, but a small fishing village where the water flowed into the mouth of the Dajiang Port. The refugees were hungry and thirsty, and the roads were in sight, and everyone thought that there was no hope and that they would not be able to survive the south. But at this moment, someone shouted: Look! There's a tree there! ”

"That's right! Back then, when I traveled south from the official road in the north to Yangguan, the first thing I saw was this big locust tree. This big locust tree is lush and green, giving everyone the courage to live and the courage to fight! ”

……

"The North Captives are coming after them. In order to protect the people of Li and Luan to continue south, the forbidden army escorting must leave a palace queen. The ancestor of our Lan family, the great general Lan Tieyi, stood up and volunteered to act as a defender. The army of the Northern Captives came like a tide, but it was bleeding in this small Yangguan Town! With 3,000 to 60,000, Lan Ye withstood the Beiyu for five days and five nights, and Luan Jia and the people successfully escaped! But he and Sanqianerlang stayed here, and the last place where he died was under the big locust tree! The locust tree was burned to char by a fire, and it became what it is now..."

……

"The Northern Captives have withdrawn! They were so frightened by General Landa's bravery that they fled back to the north with their tails between their legs! In this way, Yangguan Town has become an important pass town in the north of the Great Order, and the Lan family has been blessed by the emperor, so they have to guard it here for generations! ”

……

Later, Lan Wang didn't listen at all, but observed the terrain and thought about problems. You can't run in vain when you come out in the morning, and you can't just do the one thing of "seeing Langzhong". What the eldest young master is doing now is to figure out where he is.

Just now, the bolt turned out of Guiyang Street with the little young master on his back, and went south along the main road, and he could really see an extra-wide and extra-large river on the left. Looking over the low wooden sheds, paths and fishing boats on the shore, I saw that the river was extremely wide, and even if it was a sunny day, it was impossible to see the other side in the crashing waves and mist of the water. Lan Wang judged from experience that the width of this great river here must have exceeded one kilometer.

"If I were still in my beloved motherland, this river is more than a kilometer wide... It doesn't seem like there are a few, right? ”

Look back at the eyes. The street in front of him is called Tieyi Road, which no longer belongs to the so-called rich area, and the name of the street is said to have been borrowed from Lan Tieyi. The houses on the street are small wooden buildings with a maximum of no more than three floors, the eaves are very steep, and the buildings are rarely stoned; The residents inside look like ordinary people, most of them are laborers, traders, and handicraftsmen. The material for paving the road has also been replaced with rough stone instead of flat bluestone slabs, and the road surface has many cracks and potholes, filled with silt, and sewage is unbridled. At this time of morning, except for the breakfast stalls, most of the shops and restaurants on the street have not yet opened, and the street is a little deserted and pedestrians are very scarce. The wooden doors of the houses were closed, the flags and banners of various colors were hanging listlessly in the morning breeze, and the signs of many shops were dusted and not scrubbed. A shopkeeper seemed to have just gotten off the night shift, napping on the wooden table in front of the store with a sweat towel; A few early porters bargained with the owner of the early stall for two copper coins, and they quarreled; In front of several Qinlou Chu Pavilions, two or three sisters finished their evening business, and were busy removing heavy makeup and makeup by the ditch on the side of the road, and the colorful fat powder flowed away along the sewage.

Just such a seemingly ordinary street scene, the bolt has to explain: "Young master, don't just look here." This street is not very lively, and the shops and restaurants are not on the table. When we go further south and arrive at the water's edge, that's where the real excitement is. Three or four miles are full of high-end hotels, shops next to each other, one on top of the other, Qinglou Lefang can be connected into a whole street, and the entire shore can be crowded layer by layer with the head of the flower boat next to the tail! Let's go shopping at night, the lights are on, and the bright ten miles are bright, and that is a big scene! After the water, it will be more lively when it reaches the mirror lake, and the annual lantern festival is also there, but after the water, it is not the territory of our Lan family..."Speaking of which, this little guy is also strange, regardless of whether Lan Wang understands it or not, the machine gun is generally available, and even the Qinglou flower boat is not shy about things that are not suitable for children, and he is still unaware.

Lan Wang didn't mind. He listened to the bolt as he continued to calculate.

"After looking at it all the way, I finally confirmed that it was correct, this place is written in Chinese characters and all speak Chinese, except for the somewhat strange accent. The scenery of the street is no different from the landscape of the commercial town of the Song Dynasty and Ming Dynasty. Could it be that I'm still on Earth? But where is this exactly? Which dynasty is it? History must have deviated somewhere I don't know, and disrupted the original trajectory. Northbound south? Jingkang's defeat? Could it be that this is a variant of the Southern Song Dynasty? Or is it Nanming who has successfully survived for many years? But no matter which one it is, this place name is not right, just now I listened to the little guy say such a long story for free, except for 'Jingkang', I didn't hear the name of a familiar place celebrity! ”

"Bolt, where is the big locust tree?" Lan Wang wanted to hammer out a little more information. The little servant in front of him is a living encyclopedia, and he doesn't need to be in vain.

"Back to the young master, the little one also mentioned it just now, at the mouth of the river where the water flows into the big river, we are not far from there, just a few steps away!" The plug replied as he walked.

"Hey, I said bolts, I see you know a lot, then let me ask you: Do you know where the river in front of us flows from and where it flows? Is it the direction of east, west, north and south? And the water you talked about? ”

"Back to the young master, our section of the river flows from the southwest to the northeast, and the water is from the northwest to the southeast and east. This water flows into the river, and the old people here often say that 'the branches enter the trunk'. Coincidentally, the big locust tree is sandwiched on the "branch" of this "branch", which is on the north bank of the water and the west bank of the river. People say that this place has the best feng shui, so this old tree chose this place..."

Lan Wang's brain was racing fast. If you guessed correctly, there is only one place in Chinese mainland where there is such a river intersection in the direction of direction, the width of the main stream of the river is very wide, and the terrain is relatively flat: Wuhan! The water is the Han River, and the big river is naturally the Yangtze River, so if you correspond in this way, everything in front of you will match except for the place name.

"But there's something wrong with that reasoning!" Lan Wang's eyebrows furrowed, "I heard from the little guy just now that the army of the Ling Dynasty was here to withstand the southward movement of the northern enemy. But how is this possible? Garrisoned in Wuhan, or on the north bank of the Yangtze River?! The last natural danger in the north of the Yangtze River in Wuhan should be Wusheng Pass, one of the three passes of Yiyang on the Hubei-Henan border, which is stuck in the pass between the Dabie Mountain and the Tongbai Mountain Range, and the terrain is dangerous. If Wusheng Pass is lost and lost to the enemy, then there is no danger between Wusheng Pass and Wuhan, and the enemy only needs to keep marching to get the three towns of Wuhan in his pocket! After the Wuchang Uprising, the Wuchang Revolutionary Army could not stop the Beiyang Army from moving south, because Wusheng Pass was lost too early. What's even more bizarre is that I, a cheap old ancestor, didn't go to the Yangtze River and didn't rely on the Yangtze River, but fought directly in the north of the Yangtze River, and I could win more with less under such a huge disparity in strength! The soldiers can still win if they commit three crimes in a row, is it possible that the army of this great order dynasty is all heavenly soldiers and generals? If he really had this fighting power, he wouldn't have been driven to the south by the north! ”

The above inferences are obviously contradictory to the most likely conclusion that "this is Wuhan". However, it cannot be ruled out that the legend and romance of the story in the mouth of the little guy are colorful, and the so-called Northern Prisoner retreat should have another reason.

"Well, let's think about this letter. Mediocre people disturb themselves, mediocre people disturb themselves! Lan Wang smiled bitterly and laughed at himself.

The two of them traveled all the way south, passed through several streets and alleys, and finally came to the big locust tree by the river. The so-called "big locust tree" is actually a large open space by the river, the ground is full of fine sand and gravel, and the dry of the big locust tree is in the middle of it. Lan Wang had been to Wuhan in his previous life, and according to his rough estimate, if this was really the capital of Hubei Province in the original plane, then the location of this big locust tree would roughly coincide with the location of the Longwang Pavilion in Hankou, Jiangbei, the original plane.

There were few people in the open space, and the restaurants around the square were closed, like the rest of the world. There was no breakfast stall on the side, only a tea shed, and the guy was cleaning up the teapot and empty bowl on the table next to him; From time to time on the road, a few merchants walking the streets and alleys passed by, pushing the trolley and shouting around. A flower child was dressed in tatters, dirty from top to bottom, with a broken bowl at her feet, and slept against a low wall.

"Bolt, I'm here to find someone. You carried me around the big locust tree. Looking around with sharp eyes, Lan Wang decided to investigate first, not realizing where the person he was looking for was. Maybe that Wang Langzhong is hidden behind the big tree?

"Young master, who are you looking for?"

"You don't care about this, you can take me around in a circle, and it doesn't take much effort."

"Young master, there's no one in this square...", muttering, the bolt still smothered his head and turned around the tree with Lan Wang on his back.

As soon as I turned around half a circle, I saw two people sitting on the side of the big tree facing the river. One of them was napping, a little old man, with gray hair and a gray beard, wearing a black eye patch, a gray cloth robe with colorful patches, and the cuffs were frayed. His hands were full of calluses, he held a bamboo pole in his hand, and there was a small table in front of him, which was full of fortune-telling things such as sticks, and a burden. Next to him was a small flag, on which the words "Divine Calculation" were written crookedly, and the calligraphy even Lan Wang, a poor student when he was in school, did not dare to compliment him too much. Next to him sat a teenager of twelve or thirteen years old—barely a teenager. A lean and lean man, dressed in a brown coarse cloth jacket and gray trousers, the cloth shoes on his feet were wide open and his toes were exposed, and a small hat on his head was worn crookedly to cover his eyes, and he slept soundly.

"Young master, this is an old man and a young fortune teller, there is nothing you are looking for..."

Lan Wang shook his head.

"What do you mean, young master?"

"Put me down."

"What?"

"I said put me down! Put it on the ground! ”

"Huh?! Young master, where are you singing? It's so cold on the ground, I'll go find you a mat..."

"No hassle. Looking at this baggage on the fortune teller's table? Just bring it to me, and I'll use this pad. ”

"It's someone else's stuff, it's not okay...", the bolt tilted his mouth again and made a look of embarrassment.

Lan Wang glared.

The bolt immediately grabbed the burden that the fortune teller had put on the table, put it on the ground, and then put Lan Wang off his shoulders, placed it on the cushion very properly, and helped him cross his legs and sit down well.

"Okay, these two are the people I'm looking for, there's nothing to do with you here, you go to the other side of the tree to help me control the wind, and when you're thirsty, take the two money and buy a bowl of pulp to drink." Well, it's the stall over there. Ah, go for it! Nothing, what's the big deal. Lan Wang casually threw the two copper coins that he had smuggled out of the bolt, and said casually.

"Young Master, this..."

"What nonsense, go!"

The three of them were like three big Buddhas, sitting around a small fortune-telling table, competing in Qi cultivation kung fu.

The gentle river breeze blew, and the small flags with the word "divine calculation" fluttered, and the table where the fortune teller was placed was short of one leg, and it was also blown "click" and swayed.

At some point, Lan Wang suddenly opened his eyes.

"This gentleman, this brother, let's not face each other like this, I know that the two of you have already woken up, just waiting for me to speak."

There was no answer.

Lan Wang took out the letter from his arms: "The kid came today to return the letter as agreed." ”

Still no answer.

"It's really hard to tell the difference between a person who is asleep and a person who is pretending to sleep, but I only need to look closely at the beating of their eyelids to know that they are definitely pretending to be asleep. You have deliberately closed your eyes, but you are not asleep, and you will instinctively blink much more than you normally would for a while. ”

Lan Wang said in a deep voice: "Let's not sell it." I wonder what the purpose of the two of you came to me to return this letter? What can a kid do? ”

The "blind old man" moved. He slowly got up and moved his cervical spine back and forth, and the bone joints made a series of crisp "crackling" sounds. After that, he wiped his face, then put his left hand behind his head and ripped off the black blindfold that covered his eyes. Then, he took off the fake mustache that was glued to his chin.

As soon as the blindfold and beard are taken off, even people with bad memories can remember it - this face, who else could it be if it wasn't Wang Langzhong who went to the Lan family's mansion yesterday for treatment?!

Taking off the blindfold, Wang Langzhong looked much younger than a dozen eyes, at best a middle-aged man in his forties and fifties rather than an old man. He had a thin face, a short beard, deep-set eyes, a sharp gaze, a high carved nose with a slight hook on the tip of his nose. Like many masters of profound martial arts, his eyes are like bottomless deep pools, matched with two sharp sword eyebrows, and there is majesty in calm.

He put the bamboo pole aside and showed a mysterious smile: "Lan family boy, I underestimated you." It is said that there are talented prodigies in this world, and they are born with decades of longevity, I didn't believe it at first, but today I have seen it! Tell me, my apprentice has a hat over his face, but I wear an eye patch, how do you see that we are blinking? ”

"It's easy. I can't see your eyes, but I can see the muscles around your eye sockets. When you blink, the flesh around the eye socket moves invisibly with the eyelids, which can only be seen if you look closely, but it is not impossible. ”

"Good boy, that's two hits."

"Mr. Wang is overrated. Excuse me, can we get to the point? ”

At this moment, the twelve or thirteen-year-old boy who had been holding his eyes closed next to him opened his eyes suddenly, the essence in his pupils flickered, his body suddenly burst into nothingness, a cold light flashed, and a short sword had already slashed towards Lan Wang's head. In Lan Wang's eyes, the sharp blade suddenly became very slow, first slicing a green-headed fly flying in the air in half with a "hiss", and then continued to fall, heading straight for the four-year-old child's forehead.

Lan Wang didn't move.

The short sword came in an instant, and the sound of "Zheng" stopped at the center of the Lan family's eldest young master's eyebrows, and the tip was only a thin layer of paper away from the skin. The whistling sword brought up by the blade came to an abrupt end, and a burst of energy rushed straight towards Lan Wang's door, blowing the neckline of the young man's shirt with a "whirl", making the clothes swing slightly.

Lan Wang still didn't move, and his eyes didn't blink.

The boy burst into tears, and his voice was childish but deafening: "Presumptuous! The master is here, and he still doesn't salute? How can you make a lot of nonsense?! ”

Lan Wang felt as if he had taken root under his buttocks, and he didn't move.

After a while, he raised his head slightly, let his forehead really touch the blade of the sword, and grinned playfully: "Mr. Wang, you are really too clumsy to get off the horse!" ”

Are you kidding! What battles did Young Master Lan never see in his previous life? Sensei said that someone swung a knife in front of his eyes, even if someone pulled out a gun and put it on his head, the old mercenary didn't frown!

"Haizi, Hugh is presumptuous!" The old man didn't even roll his eyes, and said in a long voice.

The boy was furious and puffed up, still frozen, refusing to take away his sword. But it was difficult to disobey the master's order, and he had to put down the sword even if he was reluctant.

"Hehe, the disciple is rude and lacks discipline, which makes the eldest young master of the Lan family laugh!" Wang Lang smiled playfully at Lan Wang's appearance, leaned forward slightly, and looked directly into Lan Wang's eyes, "Okay, play is fun, I have also seen the young master's kung fu foundation." Now, can you give me back my knife? ”

The boss next to the boy's eyes opened in disbelief.

"Sir's 'young master', the kid can't afford it! Mr. Wang, why should I believe you? I don't know your details, I just know that you are a practitioner. Although I am young, I have always been on guard against warriors who don't know the details. ”

The smile on Wang Langzhong's face disappeared, and his face tensed. But after only three or five seconds, the smile bloomed again: "Hahahaha, not bad, yes, you can teach!" He smiled like an uncle in charge of the garden, turned his head to the little boy named Haizi and said, "Haizi, look at it, what does it mean that there are people outside the world and there is heaven outside the sky?" That's it! A child who is not even ten years old lives more transparently than you! When can you learn the indispensable truth of defending people's hearts? ”

"Master, this kid is simply a demon!" The boy was still indignant.

"Hehehe, I wish you were a demon too!" Wang Langzhong is also an old man, but he laughs very poorly.

Lang Zhong turned back with a smile on his face: "Boy, you ask me, what reason do you have to believe me?" Good. Very good! Let me remind you: today you came to me when you saw the letter, and the letter was vague and did not say that you must come, but you still came. Since you have come, you must ask for something. If you ask for something, you will have faith. If you want to ask for something from me, or get some answer from me, can you not believe me? If you really don't believe me, then why do you want to come under this big locust tree? I'm afraid you have to believe if you don't believe it! ”

Should I trust him? Perhaps.

Looking at Mr. Wang's meaningful smile, Lan Wang reached into the baggage sitting under his buttocks and groped for a while, and felt two short knives in sheaths.