Crossing the old threshold that had long since disappeared the color of paint, behind the mud wall was faced with a flat ground that had been trampled on so much that there were not even a few grasses left. On one side of the grass was a shack made of scorn mats, in which were placed a table and a bench, and two long, thin strips of scorn were placed on the table. Next to the shack, there were three little girls kneeling with buns, the eldest was only eleven or twelve years old, and the younger looked like they were seven or eight years old at most, their little faces full of tears and sweat were red by the poisonous sun, but they didn't even dare to move, and everyone raised their hands to hold a big black pottery bowl filled with water on the top of their heads.

Shang Cheng's gaze swept over the three female babies. No need to ask, they must have been punished by teaching and kneeling because they did something wrong, or because the professor did not learn the skills given to them well. This kind of thing is common in the barracks, and he is used to seeing it for a long time. Not only was he not surprised, but when he first started training, he also punished those small soldiers who did not obey the command, and sometimes he went up to do it when he met a particularly stupid one. It wasn't until the old general Duan Xiu came up with an idea for him to ask those dull-brained soldiers to take off the shoes on their right feet, so that those guys could clearly distinguish between "left" and "right......

On the other side of the meadow were seven or eight tiled huts and three or four small courtyards, not much larger than the pigeon cages. Whether it is a small courtyard or a vasher, all the houses are low, low and dilapidated. I don't know how many years these houses have been built, and the old tiles on the houses are a lot broken, and some of the roofs have been repaired with new tiles, but more often than a few stones are just used to press the four corners of a rotten mat. From here, you can see the shrewdness and carefulness of the owner's family: the family who fills the new tile will not have to worry about it for the next few years, and the person who has made a fool of things with the mat is likely to have to find his life again before the autumn has passed. In addition, several small courtyards are very clean and tidy, everything has its own place, and the washer is both dirty and messy, except for the clothes and skirts hanging under the eaves to dry, other things are thrown everywhere, and there is even a piece of red silk hanging on the rafters of a washer. The Aya Luo had probably been hanging there for a while, much lighter in color, and a few jet-black watermarks left by the rain; It slumped under the eaves, never to regain its former glory......

Behind the tile house and the small courtyard, there are three large tiled houses and a dozen or twenty thatched houses. Shang Cheng guessed that the Nawa house was probably used to learn the pipa and practice singing and dancing, and the thatched house may be the place where the little girls who have not yet begun to officially perform are lived.

A simple pergola was built in front of the red silk tile house on the eaves, which was large enough to fit two square tables. At present, a square table has been "squeezed" outside the pergola, and the other square table is surrounded by women with high hair buns, light gauze tight sleeves, narrow shirts, and half-waisted thin trousers, all staring at the unknown objects in the middle of the crowd, holding their silence and paying full attention, not even noticing that they are approaching. There are several female babies with hanging buns who are about fifteen or sixteen years old outside the pile, carrying a few strings of money in their hands, their little faces are flushed, and they want to stick to the pile of people when they look at the emptiness, but they can't squeeze in, so they have to hold up the money string and say: "Third sister, third sister!" Help me bet on my sister for two strings! ”

Standing in the crowd was a woman of eighteen or nineteen years old who was not wearing a thin dress. She opened her high-turned collared robe like a man, revealing her red silk bandeau and bulging chest, pressing the wooden table with her left hand, and holding a yellow and shiny "Yongning Tongbao" cast during the Yongning period of the Wenzong Dynasty with her right hand facing the sky with her thumb and index finger, squinting her eyes and expressing a solemn expression, and chanting with full rhythm in her mouth:

"Pray for the treasure, pray for eternal peace, and see the peace of the four seas in the coming year;

Yongning system, Tongbao money, today's market one by one"

While reciting and slowly putting down the right hand, the left and right hands are facing each other and then slowly twisting and straightening, and finally making a ** Buddha in front of the chest, and saying the last three words sonorously and forcefully:

"—in, eye, front!"

As soon as the hand was released, the Datongbao fell into the tile basin on the table, and there were a few crisp sounds on the wall of the basin. The women shouted in unison, some called "Tongbao", some shouted "sea boat", shouted twice, with the sound of copper coins hitting the wall, suddenly a few people in the crowd screamed and cheered, and everyone else sighed and shook their heads. Some people also complained: "Real slave, your hands are really stinky today, and you have lost seven times in a row!" Phew, count me unlucky, I thought you must be blessed if you are a birthday star today, how do you know how much you can lose in 3,000 Wen! ”

Someone persuaded her: "Third sister, don't be embarrassed by the real slave." She's losing more, I'm afraid it's going to be no less than eight or nine today......"

Someone else said impatiently: "Don't be wordy, don't be wordy, third sister, are you still playing?" If you don't play, let me! ”

"How do you compare me to her?" The third sister was about to lose her head and was already dizzy, and she didn't care about her feelings at all, she tore open her purse and took the money to turn over the book, and she kept muttering. "She's not afraid to lose eight or nine times. At the banquet in the evening in the painting building, the pastoral mansion specially named her, and there must be a reward when she turns back. If you meet someone at the banquet again, the two of them will look at each other, maybe they can learn from Sang Xiu and walk towards the big house! …… Even if this ingot of one tael of official silver is two pieces of money, it is still a real slave! I don't believe your hands are so evil! She threw the silver in the money box and shouted, "Hurry up and pounce!" There was silence around her, and no one paid any attention to her. She looked up at the real slave in confusion, and the real slave who was still dancing with teeth and claws a moment ago now seemed to have been immobilized, grabbing the Yongning Tongbao and not moving; Looking around again, everyone was staring at the daytime look on her face, and she couldn't help but look back......

Sang Xiu, whom she mentioned just now, is standing not far behind her. Sang Xiu's expression was cramped and embarrassed, with a little fear and panic. There was also a tall and thin young man beside her, dressed in a wide-top half-sleeved long shirt, navy blue satin pants and soft-soled boots, all of which were very ordinary, but his face was strange, and he was wearing a dark eye patch, and he was looking at the circle of people with a smile.

Looking at this young man, the first thought that crossed the third sister's heart was that she felt that this person's age and appearance were no longer similar to the rumored Lord Admiral, and then there was only a blank in her mind: This is Lord Admiral?!

In the silence where a needle could be heard even if it fell to the ground, I don't know who screamed suddenly, and the pergola was suddenly in chaos, covering the chest and pulling the skirt, and the kabuki and dancers did not care about the money on the table, and in an instant, they were scattered.

This time, Sang Xiu, who was already very confused, became even more frightened. The reason why she invited Shang Cheng over was that the real slave mentioned him many times, how did she know that Shang Cheng saw such a scene as soon as he came, and the real slave who repeatedly thought about Shang Cheng disappeared without a trace...... She didn't know how to explain this matter to Shang Cheng at all, and she was stunned for a long time before she ate Ai Ai and said, "Big, my lord, don't be angry. I, I ......" Her voice trembled for fear that Shang Cheng would suddenly get angry.

Shang Cheng shook his head with a smile and said, "It's okay." "A bunch of women are just sitting around and playing for money, what is he angry about? To be honest, he thought it was more interesting to see them playing with money than watching them sing and dance. These are all young girls in their early sixteen or seventeen years old, and the older ones are like the third sister, who is at best twenty-one or twelve years old, just the good years of innocence, and there is no real personal freedom, so it is hard to be free, what can you do if you don't play with money and have some fun? Don't you have to improve your singing and dancing skills and your own artistic accomplishment? That's too boring. He stepped into the pergola with a smile on his face, picked a drum stool and sat down, beckoned Sang Xiu and said, "You can sit too." ”

"Great, my lord, I ......" Sang Xiu shook his head vigorously. She didn't even dare to walk into the pergola now, let alone sit with Shang Cheng.

"You sit." Shang Cheng smiled and pointed to the drum stool next to him.

This time, Sang Xiu didn't dare not sit down. But she only dared to hold her hands and cowered on the drum bench.

Shang Cheng knew that she was already extremely scared, so he comforted her and said, "Don't be afraid, it's nothing." I'm not a tiger, I don't eat people. ”

This joke is obviously not funny at all. The more he said that it was okay and not to be afraid, the more scared Sang Xiu became. She'd met this kind of person before; The more nice this kind of person says, the more terrible what happens next. She couldn't imagine what would happen next. But she can't blame others at all, it's all her own fault! Look, what a stupid thing she did, it was her wishful thinking that harmed her! What else could she do? She couldn't do anything but sit here in silence and wait for something terrible to happen......

However, terrible things never happened.

Shang Cheng couldn't persuade her, and it was not good to leave immediately, one by one, he really left, and Sang Xiu was afraid that he would be scared out of trouble. He had no choice but to pick up the Yongning Tongbao that the real slave had dropped and circle around the table to pass the time.

He also had hundreds of them in his house, and they were seized in the grassland, because he was curious about why the Tuqi people hid these things in their tents, so he asked someone to inquire about the reason. It is said that the total amount of copper coins minted during the Yongning period exceeded 140 million, but there were very few in circulation in the market, and the reason was that this kind of money was full of color and high copper content, so at the beginning of circulation, many of them were used by unscrupulous merchants to be recast into bronze for profit. Similarly, it is also because of the color of this kind of money-making and the timeless and clear strokes of the font, so it is generally regarded as a collection by the locals in the Dongwa, Goryeo, Dayue, Zhenla, Zhuhu in the Western Regions, as well as Tubo and Tuqi around Dazhao, and then purchased or smuggled in large quantities. Quanzhou's maritime merchants also saw the value of this money, and used it as a hard currency for bartering overseas, along with silk, tea, and porcelain. With the above three reasons, this kind of Yongning Tongbao can often be seen outside of Dazhao, but it is difficult to find its trace in Dazhao, at most, some large families still have some in their homes, and they will give the dolls one or two when they are New Year's money.

Thinking that Zhuhu in the Western Regions also collected and used a large number of this copper coin, he couldn't help but glance at Sang Xiu's brown-red hair. He wondered how this woman could have hair of this color. Although he is not an anthropologist, he also knows some basic common sense, whether it is the steppe peoples in the northern desert or the ethnic minorities in the Western Regions, they all belong to the Mongolian race, yellow skin and black eyes are the most prominent features, how can she have red hair? Even if he heard that the descendants of Caucasian people had been found somewhere in northern Shaanxi or Gansu, they were also Caucasian immigrants from Iran or Arabia in Central Asia, and they also had black hair. This was true not only in Central Asia, but also in Asia Minor, Greece, Rome, Gaul, and Egypt, where the Caucasian population was also black-haired......

He stared at Sang Xiu's hanging cloud bun held high, puzzled. It's a little weird. How could she have red hair?

He suddenly noticed something that he had never noticed before: Sang Xiu's eyes were not pure black, but a slightly grayish blue, because it was not obvious, and of course, because he didn't care about these things, so he never noticed.

He pondered and asked her, "Where is your hometown?" ”

"Huh?" Sang Xiu, who was almost stunned on the drum bench by him, was completely uninteresting that he would suddenly talk to himself. In her hurry, she didn't even hear clearly. She had to look at him pitifully. She didn't have the courage to ask him to repeat the question again.

"I'm asking, where is your hometown?" Shang Cheng had no choice but to say it again. In order to let the obviously frightened Hu Nu in front of him understand what he meant, he also added to the snake, "Hometown is hometown, hometown, hometown, hometown ......"

Now Sang Xiu understood. She tried to make her words sound like she didn't stutter: "Yanzhou, Zhixian, Seat Card Collection, Qingzhou Fang." "All those who get out of the Yanzhou Sect will have their household registration in the seat card set outside the city, and it will not be changed until they get married. She's certainly no exception.

Shang Cheng was stunned for a moment before he changed his words and said, "I mean, your hometown before you entered the workshop. Where is your hometown, Native-Place? In order to make the foreign girl understand his words, he even uttered two long-lost English words. Unfortunately, he forgot one thing, he spoke modern English, even if Sangxiu's hometown was really on the edge of the Atlantic, she would not be able to understand it. Moreover, according to the time calculation, the so-called English has not yet been formed in this period, and some are only the rudiments and ancestors of Old English, North Germanic and West Germanic languages; Old French, the other ancestor of Old English, has only just merged Germanic and Latin into Romance languages, and it is still too early to land on the other side of the Strait......

Sang Xiu's nervousness eased slightly. She could tell that Shang Cheng was not angry with her now. But if you don't get angry now, you won't be angry for a while, so she quickly shook her head. Really, she really doesn't remember anything that far away.

didn't get the answer he wanted, so Shang Cheng had to change the question: "At what age did you enter the workshop?" ”

“…… Seven years old. Sang Xiu said. She didn't know if she was seven years old at the time, only that the contract of the workshop said that she was "seven years old" at that time.

Shang Cheng pursed his lips. Sang Xiu was too young when she came to Yanshan, and after so many years, it seems that she really can't recall her hometown anymore. But he really couldn't understand how this woman could have brown red hair and blue eyes. What he couldn't understand was why he suddenly cared about this woman's hometown. What's the point of that?

Even though he didn't know his intentions, he tried to find out. He searched for what he was looking for in the depths of his memory, and then said very slowly:

“Deustebe

Edicat (Latin: May God bless you). ”

While awkwardly spitting out these words, which he was very unfamiliar with, he carefully examined Sang Xiu's expression. But on Sangxiu's face, which was so white that he could almost see the blood vessels under his skin, there was neither a look of surprise nor a contemplative look, just staring at him cautiously with a pair of blue eyes full of doubts, while secretly observing his expression carefully.

It seems that she is not from a Christian country around the Mediterranean.

Shang Cheng thought about it again and said:

"Волга (Russian: Volga)."

Sang Xiu still had a confused expression. She probably didn't understand what Shang Cheng was doing, and she didn't dare to ask, so she had to look at him apologetically, and then bow her head humbly.

Shang Cheng shook his head in disappointment. He speaks very limited languages other than English. The Latin "God bless you" was learned from foreign experts who had worked at the factory earlier, and the Russian "Volga" was written down at some point. Actually, he also speaks Russian; It's just a bit funny and ridiculous to say. When he was in graduate school, the person in his dormitory fell in love with a girl from the foreign language college, and he learned this sentence......

"Ятебялюблю (Russian: I love you)."

Sangxiu, who obviously didn't know Волга, suddenly raised his head at this time. Although she couldn't understand what Shang Cheng was saying, she seemed to have heard the tone, the voice, and the tone. It was a long way off, as far away as a lifetime...... But she was sure that she must have heard something like Shang Cheng speak in such a strange tone sometime and somewhere! And the person who spoke must have had a very, very close relationship with her...... She opened a pair of blank blue eyes and said completely unconsciously:

"Мама (Russian: Mom) ......"

As soon as she spoke, Shang Cheng seemed to let go of something and let out a long breath.

I see!

He said, Sang Xiu's hometown is definitely not in the Western Regions or Central Asia's small countries; How could a woman from the Western Regions be red-haired and blue-eyed? Of course, Sangxiu is not Russian either; Now there is no shadow of Russia as a country. Sangshu is supposed to be a Rus, descended from the Vikings of Northern Europe who migrated to the Volga Valley; The color of her hair and eyes also testifies to this. Now the question is, as a Rus, how did she come to Yanshan, and why did she come to Yanshan? Specifically, what made her leave her hometown at such a young age, and why she chose Yanshan as a foothold, maybe why she came to Dazhao, more precisely......