March, Luoyi, suburbs.

Lijiamen Village.

(Note: To restore history, "village" should be "li" or "estate".) However, for the convenience of readers, it is uniformly written as "village" at the end. The novelist said, and the Fang family laughed. ）

Guo coppersmith set up a fire early in the morning and began his day's work.

Three feet outside the door, there is a muddy village road, cow dung, sheep dung and chicken dung, mixed with spring snow into the mud, a mess.

In the coppersmith's shop, the fire in the furnace was blazing, reflecting the originally somewhat dark half of the thatched hut slightly red.

"Ding, bell."

"Ding, bell."

Stable, restrained and charming.

With a piece of red copper, under the quenching of a large and a small copper hammer, it gradually took shape, and with the outline of the Ding furnace, a smile appeared on the dark face of the copper craftsman.

"Dad, there are still three Ding furnaces left, and this month's task is about to be completed."

Guo Yang said while holding the big copper hammer and accurately hitting the position of the small hammer in Guo Coppersmith's hand.

"Hmm." Guo Tongjiang didn't talk much, even in the face of his son, he was concise and to the point.

Guo Yang is the only son of Guo Coppersmith's family. Before him, he had seven older brothers, all of whom died before they were infants.

Therefore, when Guo Yang was born, the Guo coppersmith who had palpitations gave him a cheap name, hoping to keep his life.

Maybe it's this cheap name that plays a role, Guo Yang has been exceptionally strong since he was born, and he has never had a major illness or a small disaster. This made the old coppersmith Guo overjoyed.

Guo Yang is well-behaved and sensible at home, and can quite understand the hardships of his parents. Therefore, he was only twelve years old, and he had already given a hand to Guo Coppersmith.

In the village, Guo Yang's reputation is not very good, although he does not have the bad habit of stealing chickens and dogs, fighting and fighting, but he is famous for being idle and idle.

As long as he doesn't make bronze tools, he wanders around the village and outside the village all day long, and is full of curiosity about those ordinary things, and can hide in the grove to observe the ants moving for a whole day.

He didn't have any friends, and everyone in Lijiamen Village thought he was a strange child.

Guo Yang is indeed a strange child, and often comes up with a lot of strange thoughts, which makes him look a little depressed.

However, most of the children in Lijiamen Village are a little sluggish. With the exception of following their parents to make bronze vessels, weaving baskets, and raising chickens, ducks, cattle and sheep, all were forbidden to agriculture and martial arts.

They have a common name: the recalcitrant people of the merchants.

As a descendant of the previous Shang Dynasty, he was originally given the title of Wu Geng, the eldest prince of Yin Shang, to worship his ancestors.

However, after experiencing the "Three Prisons Rebellion", some of the Shang relics were moved away from the old land of Yindu and assigned to the land of Shangqiu, which was divided into Song.

Part of it, placed on the spot, was supervised by the king of the new dynasty.

The other part, which was also the largest in number, was forcibly relocated to Luoyi and became recalcitrant merchants.

These people who participated in the rebellion against the new dynasty back then, with the idea of the vast majority of the people of the new dynasty, were to let them be buried en masse. But there was a man named Zhou Gongdan who stopped the action.

So, they survived.

However, the new dynasty clearly stipulated that all recalcitrant people were not allowed to engage in agriculture, practice martial arts, hide swords, and enlist in the army.

The only thing they could do was to complete the various manual tasks assigned to them by the new dynasty, such as making bronze vessels, weaving straw mats, and raising a certain number of livestock.

One of the most important tasks was to use the craftsmanship of their Shang ancestors for thousands of years to deliver a steady stream of bronzes, enamels and various jades to the new dynasty.

After completing the specified tasks, the recalcitrant people will receive some food regularly, and they will not be able to eat enough and will not die of hunger.

Of course, if someone is lazy, the consequences are very serious, and they will often be tied to a rope and hung on the head of the city, until they are dried by the wind, like a funny flag, fluttering in the wind.

As for the various vices that gradually developed among the recalcitrant people because of their idleness, they seem to have been ignored. Or, what the new dynasty would like to see.

Stealing chickens and dogs, playing dice and gambling for money, these behaviors were strictly forbidden in the new dynasty, but they became the daily entertainment activities of the recalcitrant people, and no one ever questioned this.

The main reason why Guo Yang is regarded as a strange child is that he does not have these vices.

In addition to making bronze ware, Guo Yang's only hobby is to wander around, looking east and west, or simply hiding in the grove to observe all kinds of small animals.

Of course, in his heart, there are two secrets hidden: the knife, and the distance.

Guo Yang saw the knife for the first time from a general, and was immediately fascinated.

The general, who was in charge of collecting the handicrafts of the relict merchants, seemed to be powerful.

On that day, a group of soldiers wearing animal skin armor came to Lijiamen Village, they rode tall horses, led by a general, with their heads held high, looking very majestic.

Guo Yang huddled in the middle of a group of ragged children, stepping on the mud mixed with cow dung and sheep dung, stretched his neck, and looked up at the big people.

At this time, a recalcitrant merchant who had delayed the construction period due to gambling money and had not completed the task suddenly rushed out and pounced on the general with a strange scream.

The man was black and thin, like a nimble monkey, and he still held a bronze sword in his hand.

Just when everyone was stunned, the general drew a knife, and with a slight touch, the bronze sword broke in two.

The knife shone with a snow-white light, and it slitted the throat of the relict man. A stream of blood spurted out, like a warm drizzle, and fell on the bodies and faces of a dozen children around.

Guo Yang's neck and arms were sprinkled with blood. He wiped his neck and put his hand close to his nose to sniff.

"It turns out that blood is sweet." Guo Yang thought to himself.

The general didn't even look at the merchant relict whose throat he had been cut, but instead raised the knife, waved it lightly in the strong sunlight, and put it into its sheath with satisfaction.

There was not even a trace of blood on the knife, it was as white as rotten silver, and under the sunlight, Guo Yang's eyes hurt.

From then on, every time he made bronze artifacts, looking at those red copper pieces, Guo Yang couldn't help but think of that knife.

Snow-white knives.

"That's iron." Once, Guo Yang finally couldn't help but ask his father what kind of material the knife was made of, Guo Coppersmith said lightly.

"Iron? Is it white? Guo Yang's eyes were full of surprise.

"Pure iron is white." Coppersmith Guo seemed reluctant to say more.

Guo Yang didn't ask anymore, but about iron and knives, it was deeply imprinted in his memory.

……

As for the distance, Guo Yang dreamed of reaching it.

There is a secret legend among the recalcitrant merchants: in the distance, there are some wandering descendants of merchants.

One of them, after the escape of the third prince, established a kingdom of the descendants of merchants in a place surrounded by the sea on three sides.

In addition, there was also the largest army of the Shang Dynasty, which fled from the sea and was missing, and it should have also established a kingdom for the descendants of the merchants.

In addition, during the "Three Prisons Rebellion", a large number of Shang relics and nobles fled north one after another, and their whereabouts were unknown.

One of the most bizarre legends is that there was a king who betrayed his ancestors, was cursed by his brother, fled all the way west, wandered the land forever, and never found his way back.

It is said that the former king, who fled, also took with him a group of people who were the best at divination, witchcraft, and singing and dancing at the time.