The warm laughter and words in his ears faded away in an instant in front of Changsun Hong's question, and Changsun Hao looked at his son, as if he was looking at a stranger he had never met, and his stunned expression lasted for a long time.

He didn't know how to answer the question.

Changsun Hong paused, squinted his eyes and stared at the happy people around the bonfire, supported the ground with both hands, lifted the upper body leaning on the trunk of the tree, sat more upright, and then turned his eyes, and his gaze fell on Changsun Hao's face.

"Dad, what are you doing here?" Seeing Changsun Hao's appearance, Changsun Hong was startled: "The child said the wrong thing? ”

The eldest grandson Hao woke up suddenly, and then came back to his senses, realizing that he was actually stupidly asked by his son, only to feel incredible, thinking about his son's question, he felt even more bizarre, so he shook his head with a wry smile: "No, Dad can only answer you, they followed Dad this trip, all of them were voluntary, and no one forced them." If you want to break the law, selling smuggled salt must have violated the king's law, everyone is worried, and now they are happy, but because they have changed back to salt, things are going well, so they are happy. ”

The eldest grandson lowered his eyes, smiled in agreement, then raised his head and responded: "That's the case, the child knows." ”

Changsun Hao looked at him, with a hint of worry in his kind eyes, he reached out and touched his son's forehead.

"Dad, I've said it, my illness is cured, don't worry about it." The eldest grandson Hongdao, by him stroked his forehead, only to feel the warmth of his palm, penetrating people's hearts.

"How can it be so fast? Typhoid fever is the most vicious disease, and its roots are difficult to break. If you don't take care of it well, you will leave the root of the disease in the future. Changsun Hao was dissatisfied, stretched his neck and drank in the direction of the bonfire: "Dog! Is the medicine boiled? ”

The dog answered from afar, and walked over with a bowl in the firelight, and the strong smell of Chinese medicine filled the entire clearing as he approached.

The traditional Chinese medicine of this era is much purer than the traditional Chinese medicine of later generations, and you can choke on one heel by drinking it, Changsun Hong frowned sadly, pinched his nose and swallowed this bowl of medicine under the supervision of Changsun Hao.

The medicine has the effect of sweating, and the groggy feeling makes Changsun Hong quickly close his eyes. The dog went to wash the dishes, and the bowls would be used to drink porridge later, and the eldest grandson Hao laid him flat and covered him with a sackcloth of his own.

In the haze, Changsun Hong felt that another person came to his side, sat with Changsun Hao, and asked in a low voice, "How is it?" Is it better? ”

Changsun Hao replied affirmatively, and then fell silent, and after a while, Changsun Hong was about to fall asleep, but he heard Changsun Hao's voice sound again, he was talking to the person who came after.

"Second brother, Erlang asked me a question just now."

"What?"

"He asked me why they were willing to do it with us, and why they were so happy to do it."

"Huh?"

"That's pretty much what he said, he said it clearer than I said, but I was so stunned that I forgot what he said."

After a pause, Changsun Hao's voice sounded again: "How do you think you should answer him?" ”

“…… How do you answer? ”

"Me? I said, I changed it back to salt, so I'm happy, it's as simple as that. ”

After saying this, Changsun Hong closed his eyes and felt that the surroundings fell silent again, and the sound of the fire in the distance came from afar, and Li Meng could be heard loudly asking Li Dafu to explain whether he had harassed the widow in the village.

The chirping of insects and the shaking of the leaves between the trees made the silence here deeper, and the echoing shouts of everyone and Li Dafu's angry scolding seemed to be far away in another world.

After a long while, Brother Jin'er's voice sounded low, his tone was hesitant and deliberately lowered, as if he was afraid that Changsun Hong would hear it: "Big brother, I think what Erlang asked doesn't seem to be so simple." ”

"Yes, I think so too, but I can't answer, breaking the law is just happy to do, and the devil knows why."

"This child, born with this disease, seems to have changed a person, these two days I always feel that it is completely different from before, in the past, he didn't even dare to say anything in front of people, but now he dares to make ideas in front of adults, it's really different."

"Is this a good thing or a bad thing?"

"Of course it's a good thing, big brother! It's right to let Erlang enter the school, if you go on like this, you may be able to study and read a famous hall in the future, if you take a fame, my eldest grandson's family will be glorious. ”

"Alas, we left our hometown and came to Shuzhong, we were fleeing, I never thought that there would be such variables, if Erlang really has great happiness, it is also a blessing in misfortune."

"Big brother, don't think about the past, you drag your family and lead your mouth, it's not as easy as being single, the hatred of the Jin people must be considered in the long run."

"That's the only way, the hope for the future falls on Erlang......"

Half-asleep and half-awake, this was the last sentence that Changsun Hong heard, under the dual effect of fatigue and medicinal effect, drowsiness was like a rolling river, weighing down his eyelids as heavy, and he fell asleep.

When I woke up, the sky was gloomy, there was a round of sun's tail shining in the sky, Changsun Hong rubbed his eyes, couldn't tell whether it was the sunset or the rising sun, looked sideways, Li Meng was carrying a stretcher on his shoulders, and was sweating profusely.

His head was right in front of his face, so he asked, Li Meng replied, he had slept for a day, and it was evening, and the eldest grandson Baozheng was taking advantage of the light before sunset to hurry up and walk a little more slowly.

The upside-down way of traveling day and night made Changsun Hong's biological clock very uncomfortable, and the life on the stretcher was not as comfortable as imagined, the upside-down shaking could spit out the juice in a person's stomach, and he was very calm along the way, and there was no danger such as patrols and bandits, so on the fourth day of the return trip, he began to sit on a stretcher and walk on his own.

Brother Jin explored the way in front as always, and immediately notified the back by learning bird calls and other ways when he found something wrong, and Changsun Hao immediately led people to turn around to avoid possible accidents and dangers, Changsun Hong saw all this in his eyes, and his heart was more certain about the career speculation of the two brothers.

Father and second uncle are scouts who go out of the army.

However, there are no tattoos on their bodies, which indicates that they are not low-ranking soldiers, but high-ranking envoy-level officers.

The border army of the Southern Song Dynasty is a type of box army other than the forbidden army. The soldiers in the forbidden army are divided into upper, middle and lower three classes, and correspondingly, the box army is also divided into three levels: envoys, utility, and soldiers, and envoys are the general name of military attachés of eight to nine grades. According to military law, only the rank of envoy and above can be exempted from tattooing.

In the Song Dynasty, following the system of the five dynasties and ten kingdoms at the end of the Tang Dynasty, the recruitment system was implemented, and in order to prevent soldiers from escaping, the soldiers in the army would be tattooed with words and tattoos as a mark to facilitate identification and pursuit. This kind of tattoo is different from tattooing gold on the face of criminals, it is a kind of facial tattoo, the pattern is different, because of the beautiful and beautiful, many prodigal children in Kaifeng Mansion have imitated it, and its name is called "flower legs", forming a solidarity society, forming a fashion, and promoting the popularity of tattoos in the society, spreading throughout the country.

In the Southern Song Dynasty, because the welfare of the forbidden army was generous, and there were no deserters, the forbidden army's tattooed arm was gradually eliminated, and the border army was stationed in a bitter place, and life was difficult, often fighting with the Jin people, Xixia people, etc., and there were many deserters, so this system persisted.

Since it is a border army, why did it come all the way to Shu to settle down? Could it be a deserter?

Changsun Hong walked all the way, thinking all the way, speculating about the reasons behind it.