Every evening, when the mountain beams in the west cover the last afterglow of the sunset, and the stretching mountains become clearer and deeper under the reflection of the last red sunset behind the mountain, the bell and drum tower in the east of Yanzhou City will send several drum orders to rush home. The sound of leather drums is more urgent than the other, and each is denser than the other, reminding the people who are still shouting and selling in the market to hurry up and close their stalls, and urging the people who are still wandering on the street to hurry home and go home one by one.

After three all-night drums, the three gates of the north, east and west of the state city were locked one after another, and the ancient city gradually fell silent. A huge state city, except for the song house wine shops in the south market that will be noisy until dawn, the rest of the place is shrouded in a large area of darkness; The sporadic firelight was scattered in the darkness. The dull sound of bangzi reverberates faintly over the silent city. The lanterns carried by the patrol officers moved slowly through the streets and alleys, like lonely fireflies......

The hustle and bustle of the day has passed, and the city is now going to sleep.

Yanzhou is an important border town, the south gate is not closed all night, but the lights are bright under the city, the two gates inside and outside can only allow horses to pass through, a card outside the city, a card in the urn city, and a card at the city gate, and the three checkpoints are extremely strict. The official road outside the urn city has been semi-martial law, and a string of lanterns on the three-zhang high wooden pole on the side of the road is shining red. On both sides of the road, a group of soldiers on duty lined up like geese, all armed with spears and iron knives hanging from their waists, all of them draped, standing upright like nails, staring at passers-by who came and went from time to time. Stopped in front of the rejected horse in the center of the official road, several soldiers meticulously checked one by one the passers-by who missed the hour and returned late, and the official guide with the road, stamped and inspected the correct before waving his hand to let them go. The people who are waiting in front of the checkpoint, whether it is an official or an ordinary person, even if it is a majestic figure on weekdays, they are all silent when they arrive here, they should get off the horse and get off the car, and the merchant travelers lead the donkey to bear the burden and wait in line silently for half a word, until they enter the city or go out of the checkpoint, so that they can get on the horse and go their separate ways......

When it was almost dark, the people waiting in front of the checkpoint gradually became scarcer, and the soldiers were a little relaxed, although they still maintained the queue and no one moved around at will, but they were not as careful as they were just now, and their faces were not so tight, they were all kicking their legs and shaking their feet and stretching their arms and bones in place. The little colonel who led the team ignored it, and sat on a stake on the side of the horse, playing upside down with a dagger in his hand.

There was a small soldier standing next to him, watching the rotten silver-handled knife turn upside down between the five fingers of the little colonel like a juggler, his eyes were a little straight, and he smacked his tongue for a long time and said: "Captain felt, you are not afraid of cutting your hands!" ”

The other two soldiers had just let the last caravan out of the city pass, and together they carried the rejected horse back to stop the road, and heard the little soldier sigh, and a soldier who had half of his face burned by the fire and left a large blood scar said: "Li Wa has not seen it." You are new, I haven't seen our felt captain play with knives, you spread out your five fingers and put them in front of the captain, he blindfolded him with a black cloth, and he won't even poke your fingers with a hundred and ten knives, that's the real skill! Another soldier smacked at him and scolded: "Pull the ball lightly! Scarface, you've only been here for a few days, who said that the captain can still do this job even if he is blindfolded? The captain played a good flying knife, and the three zhang inner fingers were where to fight, and the head of the Sun Brigade Shuai rushed into the snow like his village, and the first captain rushed into the village, and the sentry who was about to shout, the captain raised his hand, and a knife pierced into the mouth of the dog, poked out of the back of the neck, and finished the game without saying a word. As he spoke, he gestured between his mouth and the back of his neck, "If you lay down like this, the captain has the greatest credit, and Sun Lu gave the captain credit without saying a word, and was promoted to the second lieutenant on the spot!" ”

The three of them bragged about the boundless things as if they had seen them with their own eyes, and the little colonel raised his face, just grinning and not explaining. Although it was already dark, people could still see the appearance of the little officer by the cold moonlight and the light of the lanterns on the wooden poles on the other side of the road. This officer is not very old, his lips are still soft and velvety, his square face, high forehead, deep eye sockets, and extremely high cheekbones, and his appearance is very different from that of several Central Plains soldiers around him. This Captain was one of the four Hachagan people who followed Shang Cheng back alive from the grassland. Because the Central Plains dialect has not been spoken well, until now the other three Hachagen are still with Shang Cheng as a guard, only this felt baby is clever, Yanshan dialect is learned like a look, and he has learned a hundred and ten Chinese characters, Shang Cheng released him as a deputy team, which can be regarded as a means of experience.

The three soldiers were still talking, the felt baby suddenly stood up, listened for a moment, frowned, the cold light flashed between his fingers, the dagger had disappeared, stepped on the stake and looked into the distance, spun down and jumped down with a wave of his hand, and shouted in a deep voice: "The whole team!" There's a team of horses coming from the west! While the soldiers were in a state of confusion, they heard the sound of horses' hooves stomping on the ground in the deep darkness of the west, and hurriedly pressed down on the horses and lined up their ranks, and a group of horsemen had already carried torches up the path under the slope to the official road, and in a moment they came near.

The felt baby's eyes were sharp, and he had already seen the order flag in the hands of the current pioneer in the hands of the horse team through the torches of the horse team, and then saw Bao Kan and Suza in the horse team, although he didn't see Shang Cheng's figure at a glance, he also knew that this was the Admiral's general back, and he opened his mouth and was about to give the order to open the horse and let him go, but the words turned into a roar: "Who is there over there, dare to break into the guard camp outpost?" Don't know the curfew in the state city? Get off the horse and take the official to come out with the documents for inspection! ”

The team was still some way away from rejecting the horses, and they had already slowed down. Bao Kan rode his horse to the nearest place, whipped his bridle and whipped it on the leather armor of the felt baby, and scolded with a smile: "The dead goods who suffered from the sedal plague, obviously saw the order flag of the commander, and took the stinky shelf with his mother, the skin is itchy, isn't it?" Still looking for us to get official documents? As he spoke, he whipped it again, "You want paperwork, okay!" That's the paperwork! There were sixty or seventy people here, all of whom had paperwork. I'll let you test it! ”

He was on horseback, and the felt baby was on the ground, one high and the other low, and he had to stretch out his hand and reach his waist to hit the felt baby. The felt baby is a short and dundun tall person, with thick arms and thick legs, looking clumsy, in fact, it is extremely flexible, and it drills under the horse's belly, except for the first time when he does not dodge and let Bao Kan sweep a whip, and the back is not hit. While he was hiding, he shouted: "Captain Bao, this is the duty of the officer!" Even if the commander comes, he must also check the documents! ”

"Ho!" Bao Kanwei screamed, "You're still energetic!" Monkey, see I can't clean you up today! Suza had already dismounted, and said with a smile, "Count." Bao team, haven't you seen what the hell is this felt baby? As he spoke, he took his seal from his bosom and handed it to the soldier next to him, nodded to the felt baby, and said, "Please check it with the felt captain." ”

Bao Kan was just joking, even if Suza didn't speak, he wouldn't take the felt baby seriously, took out his silver seal and threw it over, but said to Suza: "This kid did it on purpose." Last time, I accompanied the commander to inspect the water conservancy project in Yanshui, and on the way back, I met him in the local military camp, and I don't know how to mention the story of Zhou Yafu and the Xiliu camp. He must have remembered. Isn't that what it takes? Suza couldn't help but smile and shook his head.

While speaking, the officials of the two people have experienced, and the felt baby returned the two seals to the two, first gave a military salute and beckoned the people below to drive the horse, and sent people to report to the two checkpoints inside, asking them to open the city gate to let the horse team enter, standing at the head of the team and shouting an order, dozens of soldiers like a person with their chests and crossed arms as a chest salute, looking straight ahead.

Shang Cheng was surrounded by a group of personal soldiers, and when he passed in front of the felt baby, he bowed slightly appreciatively to this little lieutenant, although it was a bit pretentious, but this soldier was still ......