Time was spent in the day and night, and it flowed like an eye, and ten days later, the group stepped into the boundary of Hezhou.

Hezhou is located in the north of Chongqing Prefecture, the confluence of the Jialing River, the Qujiang River and the Fujiang River in the territory, there are countless small rivers, the geography is dangerous, it is the waterway to rush from the north of Bashu to the south of Jingxiang, and the water to the east, can go all the way out of Kuimen into Jinghu Lake, threaten the Southern Song Dynasty in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and go straight to Lin'an.

However, at this time, there are Lizhou Road and the Four Great Rongsi as barriers in the north of Sichuan, and to the north of them, the Western Xia, the object of defense of the western border army of the Southern Song Dynasty, is already in danger, and the Mongol iron cavalry is brewing a final conquest against it, and the powerful empire that has threatened the northwest of the Great Song Dynasty for more than a hundred years is about to die in the hands of nomads who are more ferocious than it, and the Jin State in the Yellow River valley is trembling, watching and speculating who the next opponent of the Mongols' bloody saber will be swung towards.

The Western Xia and the Jin Kingdom, these two powerful countries on horseback supported by the Great Song Dynasty tribute, became a helpless meat cushion between the Central Plains Dynasty and the rising Mongols, because of their existence, from now on for nearly ten years, although Shu has been under the threat of war, the war has been burning on the border and has not spread to the basin.

With the movement of the footsteps of the people of Lijia Village, from the mountains into the hills, the terrain gradually flattened a lot, although it is seen by the eye, it is still a slope that cannot be seen at a glance, but compared with the terrain of many steep mountains in Fushun, the landform of Hezhou is much more relaxed. Looking at the magnificent terraced rice fields, the beautiful water towns, the hard-working farmers who work hard in the vertical and horizontal areas, the village girls who work hard to raise silkworms in the dense mulberry areas, the wisps of cooking smoke, the Qingqing River, the village full of human smell, and the rutted post road, Changsun Hong only felt that his heart was full of the breath of life, and a feeling of harvest in the fragrance of rice flowers rushed out from his heart.

He can already walk on his own, but he can't walk fast, in order to keep up with the speed of the team, many times he has to sit on the stretcher-modified sliding pole, the eldest grandson turned from the front from time to time, take a look, and see that his son is recovering better and better day by day, and is very relieved.

"Erlang, do you know? Don't look at Hezhou, which is small and poor, but a few years ago, there were big people. Li Meng lifted the back of the sliding rod, bored and gossiped to Changsun Hong: "It's really a big guy." ”

The eldest grandson Hong has been in the past few days, and knows that Li Meng is a lot older, but he is a bachelor, and he has never been able to find a daughter-in-law, poverty is a reason, this guy has no one else in the family except himself, and he lives in a thatched house with ventilation on all sides, and he doesn't even have a pot; Another reason is that people are not stable, in their thirties, but like a twenty-year-old stunned young man, with a big temperament, like to play, bold and thief, there is no door on the side of his mouth when he speaks, in the words of later generations, it is a joke.

So Changsun Hong leaned on the recliner of the sliding rod, lazily ignored it, and replied casually: "Oh? ”

For the place of Hezhou, in his memory, there seems to be no character in history, of course, the characters mentioned here refer to the famous people in history, and those who have the prefect and the governor of the state do not count.

Li Meng obviously didn't think so, speaking of this, he became excited, talked again, and said to Changsun Hong with great interest: "Hey, let me tell you, during the Jiayou period, Mr. Lianxi once made a general judgment in Hezhou, and he built the Heart Cultivation Pavilion on the mountain on the other side of the river. ”

Mr. Lianxi? The eldest grandson Hong didn't react at the beginning, but when he suddenly came back to his senses, he was shocked to realize that Mr. Lianxi of the Song Dynasty was not Zhou Dunyi, the founder of Confucianism, the author of "Ai Lian Shuo", and one of the five sons of the Northern Song Dynasty?

"He's been a judge here?" Changsun Hong sat up and asked in surprise.

"Hey, Erlang, I can't lie to you!" Li Meng got proud, jumped the slide rod several times, and said with a smile: "Mr. Lianxi started to give lectures here, and accepted thousands of disciples in five years, Derun Hezhou, so ah, this land has feng shui, Erlang, you study hard, and when you develop in the future, you can also be a person like Mr. Lianxi." ”

Zhou Dunyi, the founder of Cheng Zhu Lixue, Zhu Yuanzhang admired the great Confucian, should I be a person like him? Just kidding, right?

He pursed his lips, lay down again, and said, "More than a hundred years have passed, and Mr. Lianxi has long been an ancient, forget it." ”

"Don't!" Li Meng was anxious, he saw it in the past few days, this eldest grandson Erlang is quite anxious and wise, people say that he reads more and is knowledgeable, it seems that he is not wrong, where was Erlang so capable in the past, he was a cowardly man, and he didn't dare to speak when he went out, and now he dares to speak, isn't this by reading books? In the future, Erlang will take a fame test, and he may be able to get a way out, how can it be better than facing the loess with his back to the sky.

So he hurriedly persuaded: "Erlang, look, it's good to read, Mr. Lian Xi wasn't the same as you and me before, it's different if you read more, become a big official, you have to study hard, ...... in the future."

He chattered, chattered, and repeated and repeated, even more verbose than Changsun Hong's father.

Changsun Hao turned back a few times, and it was very strange to hear that Li Meng was actually persuading Erlang to study, but this was a good thing, and he didn't say much.

Time passed, and when they reached a col, the team stopped.

The eldest grandson Jin also came back from the front, everyone tacitly packed up their burdens, turned into the back of a hillside on the side of the road, it was very quiet, when it was near, it was more than five o'clock in the morning, the sky was not bright, it was the darkest time before dawn.

Turning the hillside, Changsun Hong found that there was something else behind, a dense pine forest could not be seen at a glance, the forest was deep and dense, and he couldn't see anything inside when he stood outside.

The group continued to walk into the forest, going deeper and deeper, and walked in for a while before suddenly it became clear that an abandoned mountain temple suddenly appeared in a clearing in the forest.

The temple is very small, there is only one shrine, and when you stand outside the gateless gate, you can see that the collapsed beams of the temple have smashed the clay statue of the mountain god into ashes, and the inside is full of broken bricks and tiles, and there is no place to stay.

The eldest grandson Hao came to the back of the temple, groped in the half-human-high weeds for a long time, and lifted a large wooden plank like a trick, and there was actually a dark and secluded cellar below.

Everyone started together, put down the salt basket one by one, and then covered it with wooden boards, covered it with soil, piled up grass, and seamlessly hid more than a dozen loads of salt.

"According to last year's rules, we hid salt here, and everyone put all the baskets here, so that no salt particles would fall in it and take it home to be noticed." Changsun Hao gathered everyone together, carefully admonished, all the people solemnly gathered in a circle, and listened to him without saying a word: "I have already told you about Jin Liang, and when this batch of salt comes out, I will divide the money, everyone can trust me, so I can go with confidence, and in the future, it will be divided according to the head, and a penny will not be short for you." ”

He looked at the crowd and asked, "Is this okay?" ”

The crowd shouted in a low voice: "We can do things rightly, we can trust us, and we will do what you say!" ”

"Good! Now that it is not dawn, everyone will go back separately, remember, you can't tell anyone where you went, this is the crime of killing the head, and if you miss it, it will affect everyone! His tone was a little harsh, revealing a thick murderous aura.

Everyone's backs were cold, their faces tightened, more serious, and they said in unison: "We can save it, rest assured!" ”

Brother Jin clapped his hands on the side and said with a smile: "Okay, okay, don't be so nervous, I've walked back so far, what are you afraid of when you get to the door?" Just be careful, let's go, let's go, let's go back and hug my wife! ”

Everyone laughed lowly, alleviating the fear of being frightened by Changsun Hao, and then they said goodbye to each other, and dispersed in batches by the moonlight outside.

When everyone was gone, Changsun Hao looked at his son who had already stood up and asked kindly, "How is it?" Can you go? ”

Changsun Hong nodded, watched his father carry the sliding rod on his shoulder, smiled and patted his shoulder with a free hand, and said, "Come on, let's go home." ”