Because the two big bandits entrenched at the junction of Yanshan and Quzhou were uprooted one after another, several bandits in Shangyanshan and near Zhou County were trembling with fear, and they clamped their tails one by one and hid, so the way back to Yi County seemed to have become smooth, and they walked for half a month when they came, and it only took eight days to go back. Although the road is still rugged and difficult, God always has a gloomy face, looking like he wants to cough and not rain, but until he has seen the low loess city wall of Yi County in the distance, this unexpected rainstorm did not come after all.

In just over a month, the situation outside the south gate of the county has changed. There are still four or five miles away from the county seat, and there are countrymen who carry carts on the roadside to sell food and drink, and wheat cakes, soup, rice, and sour plum water are all available. The more you walk forward, the more stalls there are eating and drinking, and the shouting and selling are one after another. The post road was littered with pack horse droppings, and the air was filled with an antique fishy smell. The smell was completely mixed with the smell of the firewood burning and the fragrance of the food being eaten by the vendors. Packers in coarse cloth coats, short robes, and bast shoes can be seen everywhere, some snoring like thunder in the shade of the trees by the roadside with their arms and legs crossed, and some squatting on the side of the road with dusty trouser legs, eating and drinking with a large bowl in their hands. Walking further on, on both sides of the road, you can see simple houses built with wooden stakes of slats, and in front of the door are all under the guise of "rice", "wine" and "guest", which are restaurants, wine shops and inns. There were also several mud and straw houses under construction, and a few people stood on a roof with only wooden shelves, their faces strained and holding their strength, and with the call of the master craftsman, they dragged a beam and pillar upward. Passing past the crowd of people who came and went like a bazaar, we could see from a distance that along both sides of the post road, on the bare and empty fields after the wheat harvest, several barracks-like villages had now been erected, and the two high piles and rammed earth walls surrounded the stockades tightly; There are still figures shaking on the wall. Flags are hung at the gates of each village, and soldiers under the banners command groups of pack horses to enter and exit in an orderly manner.

When Kankan could read the handwriting on those banners, the two border soldiers who stood in front of the pack team came up to meet them, and with a whistle, the guys of a nearby restaurant immediately brought out the food that had been prepared long ago, a large bucket of soup and a large pot of vegetables, two large sieved noodle baskets stacked like a hill of black dead dough buns, and a dustpan of white flour cakes, which were placed on the four large square tables outside the restaurant in an instant. The two men couldn't find a place to put the two stacks of stoneware bowls, so they had to hold them in their arms and hand them out to the packer one by one. Sun Zhongshan, the officer who led the team, waved his hand: "Everyone has worked hard all the way, and today they all eat with their bellies open, one white flour cake per person, and enough soup cakes!" …… Eat and drink well, let's hurry. Before Sun Zhongshan finished speaking, the packers had already cheered and surrounded several square tables. White flour cakes are expensive things, even if they are landlords and wealthy people, it is rare to eat them once if they are not on New Year's holidays, not to mention the poor men who work hard under them? More than 20 people, you pushed me and shouted and scolded, and in the blink of an eye, the dustpan containing white flour cakes was at the bottom.

Sun Zhongshan didn't pay attention to the chaos, nodded slightly to the two stewards, and walked over with the two stewards and his own soldiers towards the two tables under the tent that had already been set up with wine and food, and asked the two soldiers standing in front of him as he walked: "Is the matter done?" The two border soldiers nodded their heads with smiles on their faces.

Shang Cheng also hugged the crowd, first grabbed a palm-sized white flour cake and put it in his mouth, then scooped half a bowl of clear vegetable soup, and then reached out in the basin with soup and water to scoop up a few handfuls of vegetable leaves and threw them into the bowl, grabbed four or five dead flour buns with his hands, and then squeezed out of the crowd with two arms held high with satisfaction, and found a shaded place to squat down by the shed.

He threw the two dead bread into the bowl, and then he freed his hand to grab the white flour cake in his mouth, just now he only cared about grabbing food, he didn't care about "appreciating" this rare thing, then looking at the hot white flour cake in his hand, smelling the fragrant aroma, his throat couldn't help rolling up and down several times, and swallowed saliva; The stomach growled twice. How long has it been since he's eaten this? Trimester? Four months? Or seven months? it! He didn't pay much attention to this, he took a big bite of the dough cake in his mouth, chewed it a few times, and suddenly his mouth was full of hot and soft white flour dregs. He was so happy that he swallowed it without even recognizing the taste. After taking a small bite carefully and chewing slowly, squinting slightly to enjoy the softness and fragrance of the white noodles, I saw the mountain baby walking over with a bowl and a bun with a mournful face, and scolding in her mouth.

Shang Cheng swallowed the food in his mouth, and then asked knowingly, "What?" Didn't grab the bread? He had already seen that the mountain baby had only three rye buns in his hand. No need to ask, someone took advantage of the chaos of the crowd scene to take the mountain baby's share.

"it!" The mountain baby spat hatefully on the ground, and stared enviously at the half-pulled white flour cake in Shang Cheng's hand.

Shang Cheng pretended not to see his eyes, ate the cake in two bites, climbed the bowl and sucked the soup, chewed the vegetable leaves and nibbled on the black bun, and looked at the flags hanging at the gate of the village in the distance while eating. There are words on the flag near it, "Yanshan Transshipment Envoy", which used to be "Yanshan Admiral's Mansion Signing Division", and then the flags in the past are rolled together, and a few words can not be distinguished; The words on the flag are not clear in the farther away...... Looking into the gate of the Yanshan Operation Division, the brand-new four-cornered cowhide tents are arranged as neatly as knives, neatly guarding the dozen or so huge warehouses in the middle. There was a large group of pack horses unloading in the open space in the gate, and the bareback men carried heavy sacks on their shoulders, lined up like ants carrying things, and sent the goods into a large warehouse with the door open in an orderly manner along the horse road separated by the military tent.

It looks like it's really going to be a war......

He smacked his lips and sighed inexplicably, gathering his mind to deal with the food in his hand in unison. Yi County is not the end of the caravan, they are just here to make a point, after a break will set off, from the county seat to Zhaojiaji, and then from there into the mountains, along the Baima River to Beizheng.

The mountain girl, who had already eaten two wheat buns, asked coldly, "Did you borrow money from the stone?" ”

"Hmm." Shang Cheng responded and buried his head and drank the soup. The night before leaving Quzhou, Zhao Shishi, who had lost money for several days, suddenly became powerful, not only recovering the capital he had lost before, but also winning more than 1,000 yuan, so Shang Cheng, who had been worried about not being able to make up the money to buy a house, borrowed three times from him.

"Is there enough money?"

"It's a little worse, not too much." Shang Cheng said vaguely. In addition to Zhao Shishi, he also borrowed some from people he knew well in the pack team, plus his own twenty yuan, and more than three guan placed in Liu Laozhu's place, which was almost the same as the official price of thirty-five guan in the house—only a little more than three thousand. And he could have borrowed the money from Liu Laozhu and Huo Shiqi first. The only thing he is worried about now is whether there will be any changes in the house in the more than one month since he left Yi County, such as the house has been bought, or what has happened in the official office......

"Why don't you tell me?"

Shang Cheng twisted his face and glanced at the mountain baby, straightened his neck and swallowed the things in his mouth before asking, "What are you talking about?" ”

Shan Wazi ignored Shang Cheng's question and said bluntly: "How much is it missing?" ”

“…… More than 3,000 and less than 4,000. ”

"I'll lend you the money." Shan Wazi said generously.

Shang Cheng asked in surprise, "Your money,...... Aren't you going to use it to repair the house? ”

"Your affairs are urgent, you use the money first......"

Shang Cheng interrupted him and said, "You can think about it, I will not be able to repay this money for a while." ”

The mountain baby instigated Yahuazi and didn't speak for a long time. Just now he patronized and hated Shang Cheng for not asking him to borrow money and ran to find Zhao Shishi, and only after hearing Shang Cheng say did he react, in fact, Shang Cheng did this for a reason, one by one, he was different from Zhao Shishi. There is a mother-in-law and two girls at home, and the three of them are waiting for them to take the money back; There are still some old debts at home that have not been paid off; Over the years, his family has relied on the eldest brother to take care of him, although he is a brother, but in the end, he has divided the family, since he has a lot of money in his hands, he has not forgotten the truth of the previous account...... But Zhao Shishi is different, this guy has no old man and no children, not even a brother or sister, he is a pure swinger, he doesn't know what his surname is when he has two dollars in his hand, he either loses in gambling or loses it on a woman's belly, and when he spends all the money, he pats his ass and earns it again......

Shang Cheng saw that he didn't speak, and he didn't speak again, just buried his head and ate the bun and drank the soup.

Shan Wazi suddenly grinned and said, "It's better to make up for the little money you lack first, and buying the house is the big deal." It doesn't matter if my house is repaired or not - it won't collapse if it is not repaired anyway, so that a few dollars will make up for the leakage of rain and wind, and my mother-in-law will not be able to beat her to death if she dares to make trouble. ”

Shan Wazi was so straightforward, Shang Cheng couldn't shirk it anymore, he nodded, and said gratefully: "That's a good ......" Before he finished speaking, he heard a long "woo" sound. Both of them were a little surprised, and couldn't help but stand up and look, only to see a Linzhai gate not far away, and several healthy horses poured out, and the officers and soldiers on the horses were holding a gong in their hands, and they were knocking on a long note. Listening to this "pure road gong", there was a rush on the post road, the packman pulled the reins to lead the pack horses to the side, the small vendors hurriedly picked up the tables and stools on the post road, but the people who were eating and resting in the restaurants and inns on both sides of the road all poured out, and stood on the side of the road one by one and looked curiously to inquire. With the sound of gongs, two more groups of soldiers came out of the village, and they gestured with guns on both sides of the post road, "Stand in!" "If you dare to take another step, I will arrest you as an official!" The scolding rang out from time to time. The two groups of soldiers did not walk quickly, and after a gap of one or twenty paces, one man was left behind, standing on the side of the road with a saber on his shoulder; The crowd was crowded, but no one dared to step into the dotted line of these soldiers' signs.

The idlers at the gate of the village were pushed away from afar, and a large group of people wearing official uniforms of various colors poured out in an orderly manner. The sudden appearance of so many officials in front of the ordinary people in normal times would definitely cause a sensational commotion, but now no one pays attention to them, and everyone's eyes are chasing the few healthy horses that are far away.

Shang Cheng and Shan Wazi chased after the few healthy horses that were gradually moving away, but someone next to them exclaimed: "Today is an eye-opener - Eight Horses Pure Dao!" Tsk, what a big battle! The Admiral didn't come out so majestic! ”

This tone of neither yin nor yang not only made the two little soldiers a few steps away turn around with cold faces, but the people around them couldn't help but turn their faces curiously to see who dared to speak so boldly.

"Shut your foul mouth!" The border soldier who didn't have a lock on his mouth was immediately kicked to the back of the crowd by his own commander, and Sun Zhongshan said to the two soldiers with a smile, "That guy just poured two bowls of yellow soup, and he was so drunk that one or two brothers are not as knowledgeable as him!" Seeing that the two little soldiers had no intention of pursuing further, he turned his face and whispered to the border soldier lying on the ground, "Go back to the stockade and get twenty whips yourself!" Damn it, if you don't speak, you'll die! ”

As he spoke, the eight horses ran back, and a knowledgeable man in the crowd immediately shouted, "Look, look! It's coming, it's coming! ”

Needless to say, people know it's coming. At the far end of the road, a hazy yellow smoke had been wrapped, and sporadic horses' hooves could be faintly heard. As the horses drew closer, the sound of the horses' hooves on the ground made a slight tremble. Most of the people watching the bustle on both sides of the road had never experienced such a scene, everyone opened their mouths wide and their eyes widened to see the rarity, but the soldiers on guard saw the two red flags, all of them straightened up without squinting, and put their right fists against their left chests in unison.

It soon became clear that it was not only the soldiers in charge of the guards who saluted the horse team, but also the officers and soldiers who were mixed in the crowd to watch the excitement, and the sighs of admiration in the crowd immediately subsided a lot, and there was no more silence. In this place, which was so lively just now that it was better than the market town, in the blink of an eye, only the monotonous sound of horses' hooves remained. Everyone stared at the two red flags with their mouths wide open, at the officers and soldiers with bright armor on horseback, and at the ......

The horse team has been welcomed into Linzhai by the officials, and seeing that the lively people are still sighing and praising the general's prestige, people with a little insight have begun to guess whose escort this cavalry is - the honor guard of the eight horses to open the way, is it the Admiral who is coming? It's not right, the admiral of the six guards in the world, the order flag is all cyan, I haven't heard of anyone using red. That's red, our Great Zhao Dynasty is King Huode, red is ...... Ah, hehe, dazzling, dazzling, didn't see clearly, didn't see anything clearly......

"That general, it seems to be the one we have seen in Quzhou." I don't know when Zhao Shishi, who squeezed to Shang Cheng's side, whispered. Shang Cheng also wanted to ask about this. He saw a familiar face in the group of people who had just passed, as if it was the female general who said she wanted to meet them and left suddenly when she was in Quzhou.

"That's her!" The mountain boy who can shoot a good bow and arrow has excellent eyes, and since he is so truthful, there will definitely be no mistake.

Zhao Shishi, who got an affirmative answer, suddenly became stammering, his tongue was curled, and he didn't say a word for a long time: "Yes...... Be...... He is...... Woman......? ”

"It's a female general!" Shan Wazi glanced at Zhao Shishi and said, "Not only her, but also the generals before and after her, all of them are women." ”

At this moment, not only Zhao Shishi and Shang Cheng were dumbfounded, but even the people around them were dumbfounded.

Female generals? "General Zhuguo" and "Deputy Chief of the Gyeonggi Camp" are embroidered with these two lines of words on the two red flags, one by one, it turned out to be a woman? Shang Cheng didn't know what kind of official position the deputy head of the Gyeonggi Xingying was, but he knew what the title of General Zhuguo was—at least Zhengsanpin, a senior official who was many levels higher than the county magistrate of Yi County...... It's a woman? And look so young? This...... That's incredible, isn't it?

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Strongly recommended: "Village Temple", Author: Short Knife

Address: http://book.********.com/book/3740.html