As soon as these words came out, they were more deterrent than the wooden stick in their hands. The crowd gathered around immediately retreated. Du Scar and Wang Mazi were also so frightened that they stopped crying, their eyes widened and they began to think of other crooked ideas.

"It's so majestic, it's so murderous!" Outside the crowd, Sun Jiu's voice was heard. Everyone was startled, dodged a passage, and let Sun Jiu and the others in.

"Uncle Nine!" Li Xu and Xu Dayan hurriedly saluted. This is a bit of a big problem. Sun Jiu was the leader of the caravan, and the caravan members fought and made trouble, and it was completely up to him. He only heard Xu Dayan threatening everyone just now, but he didn't see how everyone bullied Li Xu. If he wanted to deliberately favor Wang, Du and other old rivers and lakes, he could completely rely on the support of everyone to drive Xu and Li out of the caravan. In such an open grassland, one has no guide, the other has no experience, and the two teenagers can only starve to death.

Even if Sun Jiu handled the matter impartially, in order to maintain the unity of the caravan, he might obey the will of the people and drive Gan Luo away. Winter is approaching, and the more than one-month-old wolf cub has basically no hope of surviving in the wilderness.

"People bully you, won't you fight back, do you have to rely on others to protect you?" Sun Jiu glared at Li Xu fiercely, and scolded with hatred. His head was slightly tilted towards Xu Dayan, and he still glared angrily, "Are they Xiongnu or Hu people, worthy of such a heavy hand from General Xu?" ”

"Uncle Nine!" Both teenagers blushed. Xu Dayan saw that something was wrong, so he hurriedly threw down the wooden pole and apologized: "The junior is rude, please punish Uncle Nine!" ”

"Humph!" Sun Jiu snorted angrily and turned his head to the indignant group: "Two days north from here, there is a tribe of the Mist people, which is very large. Brother Hao Laodao, they went there last time, they can show us the way! Let's leave tonight overnight, and we'll be there the morning after tomorrow! ”

"Really?" The crowd on the verge of despair immediately boiled, and all the calamities and disasters were forgotten outside the clouds. The people are well-known in the steppe, where the leather goods are exquisite, the blankets are fancy and varied, and the people are kinder than the Turks. Moreover, the Kabubu also offers a good thing that cannot be bought in other tribes, no matter how much money you have! (Note 5)

"It's true!" The swordsman known as Hao Laodao blushed and assured everyone: "I will definitely arrive within two days, and I rushed back from there a month and a half ago to know their patriarch!"

"Now, this is developed!" Wang Mazi sat on the ground, patted his thigh and said. Snot and tears still hung on his face, but people were smiling happier than picking ingots.

"It's not promising!" Sun Jiu looked at the people who had fallen into a state of madness in the blink of an eye, and scolded in a low voice. turned around and pulled Li Xu and Xu Dayan out of the crowd.

"You two little things, don't you know how to respect your elders!" Sun Jiu's scolding could be heard by almost everyone. The vendors got the good news, were in a good mood, and didn't take the fight to heart for a long time. Therefore, he didn't care what kind of punishment Sun Jiu gave to the two teenagers.

"Asahiko!" Sun Jiu stretched out his hand, gently put it on Li Xu's shoulder, lowered his head, and comforted him in a voice that only three people could hear: "Don't take today's matter to heart, people will inevitably step on dog shit when they walk!" ”

"Thank you, Uncle Nine!" Li Xu was moved to give a salute. The old man is not good at words, but the words he says are full of wisdom in life.

Peeking at the reactions of the vendors, Sun Jiu whispered: "Either don't fight, if you want to fight, they will fight so that they don't dare to provoke you again." Usually two villains are mixed together, and neither dares to bully anyone. One evil, one good, is the real big trouble! ”

After speaking, Sun Jiu laughed softly, it was a sly smile, but it made people feel extra kind.

With hope, the worries in the hearts of the traders were swept away. Set off to the north overnight, and actually drove more than 60 miles in one breath, until the second half of the night, under the leadership of Hao Laodao, he found a low-lying place behind the hills and settled down, and built a fire to resist the cold wind in the early morning on the grassland.

The grasslands lack forest barriers, so the night winds are frighteningly strong. Even though he hid behind the mound, the cold still pierced his bone marrow. And for this bone-chilling autumn cold, the vendors will never dare to set up tents to keep themselves warm. I had to wrap all the clothes that I could wrap around my body, and then hugged my shoulders, curled my body, and struggled around the fire.

As for why he didn't set up a tent, Uncle Jiu's explanation to Li Xu was: The larger the place, the stronger the wind, in case the wooden stakes on the ground are not strong enough, when everyone is asleep, even people with tents may be swept away by the wind. So although he was carrying a thickened linen tent in his luggage, Li Xu had no choice but to follow the example of everyone and torment by the fire with his shoulders crossed.

In such a cold weather, how can people who go out of the jam for the first time sleep. In a moment, the night wind had already penetrated the heavy cold clothes, blowing Xiao Li Xu's back as cold as ice. He curled his body around in a half circle, and rushed his back towards the campfire, and before he could feel the slightest warmth in his back, the clothes in front of him clattered on his chest like iron.

Li Xu was so uncomfortable with the cold that he turned his face to the fire again. At the moment when he turned his face, the little wolf Ganluo jumped up gently and jumped into his arms.

Although he has been living a day of eating and sleeping in the open recently, Ganluo's body is growing at a speed that can be seen by the naked eye. At this time, it was already the size of a rooster at home, and the fluffy wolf skin ash had silver in it, and it was exceptionally warm to the touch. Perhaps in order to repay his master's kindness for his return yesterday evening, after Gan Luo jumped into Li Xu's arms, he lay down gently. The warm body just happened to stick to Li Xu's abdomen, which was the most uncomfortable by the wind, making him feel a strong warmth.

"You're not a scourge!" Li Xu patted Ganluo's head and said in his heart.

As if understanding what his master meant, the little wolf turned his head back and lifted it slightly. A pair of pale golden eyes just met Li Xu's gaze, and it looked as bright as starlight.

"Sleep! I'm still on my way tomorrow! Li Xu patted the wolf's head again and blocked its eyes with his hand. The little wolf Gan Luo slowly shrank his head into Li Xu's arms, and after a while, he snorted softly in an extremely low voice.

"Beasts are sometimes kinder than people!" Holding the little wolf, Li Xu thought silently. Raising his head, he wanted to find a chance to talk to Uncle Jiu, who had relieved him many times. Since Uncle Nine has always been very sincere to himself, he should tell the other party the true purpose of this northward trip. Deceiving such a kind and open-minded elder, Li Xu would feel uneasy in his heart no matter what. looked closely, but found that Uncle Jiu, who was sitting diagonally opposite him, was already asleep, and a shiny saliva was slowly flowing down from his mouth, shining with the beating flames.

"Can you sleep in such a cold wind?" Li Xu's eyes widened in surprise. After a closer look, I found that not only Sun Jiu, but also Hao Laodao, Wang Mazi and others had already shrunk up and fallen asleep. Not far away, next to another fire, Uncle Zhang's snoring was as loud as thunder.

Drawing on the method of observing people that Xu Dayan said that day, Li Xu's gaze swept over the faces of his companions one by one. He was surprised to find that everyone had different expressions on their faces when they slept, and no two of the people in his company had exactly the same expressions. Hao Laodao, who was sitting on his left, was a man who worked hard to eat, so the expression on his face looked very fierce when he slept, his mouth was snoring, but his right hand was holding the handle of the knife tightly, as if he might jump up and fight with others at any time. And Wang Mazi, a philistine, had a flattering look on his face, as if he was talking about a business with someone, lest the other party regret it halfway. Du Scar, who was curled up beside Wang Mazi, pouted, as if he had just had an argument with someone, and under the light of the fire, the scars on his face looked more and more hideous. Among all of them, the expression on Xu Dayan's face was the calmest, and his sleeping posture was also the most elegant. I saw him sitting cross-legged, his hands slightly hanging on his legs, and his chest rising and falling with his thin and long breathing. Obviously, even the sleeping position of him has been specially trained.

"Behind the details, it is often the life experience that is hidden." Li Xu suddenly found that Xu Dayan's words were very reasonable. Observing Sun Jiu who was sleeping, he found that Uncle Jiu's waist knife was inserted in a very special position. Except for a few swordsmen in the team, whose weapons have always been held in the palm of their hands, the knives used by others for self-defense are usually left or right, and they are hung at random. And Sun Jiu's saber is half across the left side of his waist, and the handle is always facing the right front. Even in his sleep at the moment, if someone comes to attack, he can quickly draw his sword to meet it.

"Uncle Nine may have been a swordsman, or he may have been in the army!" Li Xu came to a conclusion in his heart, and an extremely uncomfortable feeling immediately surged in his chest. He thinks he shouldn't secretly probe the secrets of someone who is good to him. However, in the past few days, the actions of Uncle Zhang, Du Scar, Wang Mazi and others have made him find enough reasons for his actions.

"Right and wrong, good and evil, are not on the surface. What you see in your eyes may not be the truth, and what you hear with your own ears may not be the truth! When parting, Old Master Yang once told him like this. But how to observe the truth behind the fog through people's false smiles and promises that will never be fulfilled, Master Yang did not have time to instruct.

Xu Dayan's observation of people just makes up for this shortcoming. After training, he may have speculated the other party's family background from the infantry captain's weapon. Li Xu thinks that if he usually pays more attention to the details, he will definitely not be deceived by the superficial enthusiasm of Uncle Zhang, Du Scarqi and others at one time.

No matter how true the lie is, the details will be revealed. And grasping these details is the key to grasping the truth. This is another life truth that Li Xu has realized in the past few days. He knew that he was no longer the ignorant boy in Yixian County, and he could feel that he was growing up slowly, slowly, like this little wolf in his arms......

With something to distract from it, the chill in the middle of the night is not so hard. After studying everyone's sleeping expressions for a while, and thinking about the interesting things that had happened in the past few days, Li Xu hugged the little wolf and fell asleep in a daze.

In his sleep, he saw a wolf, in the snow, running and running alone. For a moment, he felt like it was himself.

As soon as the sky was shining the next day, Wang Mazi and others jumped up, urging everyone to hurry up. The traders all know that the people are a people who like to migrate, from the weak Luoshui to the Taimi River, there have been people who have seen their footprints within a radius of thousands of miles. If everyone goes late, maybe the Xi people will suddenly disappear like dew on the grassland like the Xi people. If this were the case, everyone would probably lose all their money. Therefore, no one complained about Wang Mazi's frizziness, so everyone nibbled on a dry cake in the cold wind and hurriedly ran all the way north. (Note 6)

By the afternoon, the march had to slow down again. The terrain on the grassland has risen and fallen again, unlike Wanliyan Mountain, where mountain peaks are next to each other. Instead, a large gentle slope appeared, the end of which could not be seen with binocular eyes. The slopes of the mountains forced people to jump off the horses and pull the reins forward, and the animals carrying the goods also tensed their limbs and struggled to move forward step by step.

According to Hao Laodao and others, this kind of terrain is called a dam by the grassland peoples. I don't know where to start or when it's over. In addition to going to the Moya Department in northern Liaoning, as long as you go north, other regions have to go through this hurdle. Therefore, it is rare for caravans from the Central Plains to go so north, but the more sparse the caravanserais, the greater the profit of the group. (Note 7)

Listening to the guide's introduction, the vendors plucked up their spirits and worked hard to move forward. The taxes of the Great Sui Dynasty were not high, but the officials in each place had the means to collect money in each place. If the caravan can't make money on this trip north, a few people may lose the opportunity to set foot on the grassland again next year because they can't meet the miscellaneous taxes stipulated by the government. So, even if there is only a glimmer of hope, no one intends to turn back halfway.

For the fatigue of the muscles and bones, Li Xu has long been numb. After jumping off the horse, he immediately divided a small part of the burden on the back of the blue and white mule on the horse. The little wolf Ganluo was also put down from the bag by him, and slowly crawled north by his side. For this long-lost freedom, Gan Luo was obviously very excited, and rubbed Li Xu in front of and behind him, as if he couldn't feel the fatigue of climbing the hill at all.

When the traders saw that the burden on the blue and white mules had been reduced, they were obviously full of strength. also followed Li Xu's example, and evenly distributed part of the goods to the packer's mount. In this way, the speed of the caravan increased somewhat, and at least the animals carrying the goods stopped foaming at the mouth, and looked like they were going to die at any moment.

When the sun crawled out of the southeast again, Li Xu found that his steps were no longer soft. The wilderness in front of you is wider and more desolate. The distant mountains looked shorter, but the summits were all white, apparently the traces of snow. The weeds around it are no longer waist-high as they are near the Lishui River, but are withered and yellow, covering only the feet and necks of people. But suddenly there were many small animals in the grass, such as fat wild pigeons, bloated sandgrouses, and strange rats with huge eyes and short ears, which jumped up in front of people's eyes from time to time and fled into the distance. In the distance, there is even a large herd of thick-necked, short-tailed, yellow-furred sheep grazing leisurely. Seeing the caravan passing by, the male sheep in charge of the guard just raised his head with a right horn and watched curiously. It appeared that it had no intention of informing its companions to escape. (Note 8)

"Just rest here for an hour and let the animals slow down their feet. We've already got to the dam, and we'll be there in the afternoon! Sun Jiu bumped into Hao Laodao and the others and announced loudly.

"Hula!" The team immediately boiled the pot. The old vendor spread out his luggage rolls on the grass and fell asleep despite the cold. The traders, who were younger or more vigorous, unloaded the goods from their mounts as fast as they could in their lives, and then, despite the protests of the animals, got into the saddle and rushed to the yellow sheep in the distance with their bows and arrows.

It was a yellow sheep, with a gentle temperament and delicious meat. The end of autumn is the time when its flesh is the fattest, the fur is thickest, and the slowest run. Just hit one end and try to get it back to the Central Plains, and the sturdy short horns, brown and yellow fur with white hair, can be sold for a good price.

"Be careful, don't run too far!" Sun Jiu shouted at the crowd that was far away. His words were drowned out in the sound of horses' hooves. The young people in the caravan, apart from Xu Dayan, a rich kid who didn't care about money at all, and Li Xu, an ignorant boy who didn't know what a yellow sheep was, who didn't want to make a small fortune? After a while, only he, Zhang San, and a few old traders were left in the camp, and the others almost all rushed out.

"So those sheep are wild!" Li Xu thought regretfully. I want to hunt on horseback, but I am really not sure about my archery. Shaking his head, he rolled out his luggage.

"Still angry about what happened the night before yesterday?" Seeing Li Xu's hair wilting, Xu Da walked over and patted him lightly on the shoulder, "No, some people are like shit, they exist to make you feel sick." Disgusting to you, their purpose is achieved, as for how smelly they are, they don't care! ”

Li Xu was amused by this apt metaphor, and several shallow folds immediately appeared on his cheeks. The bumps along the way made his body a lot thinner, his skin darker and rougher, and a few rows of faint black hair appeared near the base of his ears. It made him look much more mature, not at all like a young man who was not yet fifteen years old.

"How do you look like you've grown up so much overnight!" Xu Dayan turned to Li Xu and looked at him with a frown. Stretched out his fist, smacked his strong shoulder, and asked jokingly.

"Really? I guess I didn't wash my face in the morning! Li Xu smiled stupidly, but there were a lot of complicated things in his eyes. He admired Xu Dayan's sharp gaze very much. But what he thought of last night, he didn't want to say.