Gao Jun rode the charcoal fire and drove Liu Yuru to Xizhou together.

The main purpose of this trip to Xizhou was to obtain approval for the expansion of the ranch village. His Majesty Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty has always valued the people, and the states and governments below are always very cautious about matters involving the people.

More importantly, Gao Jun wanted to expand Liu Zhongmu's stables and various ministry houses on a large scale, and the cost was not small, and this money was not something that Gao Jun and his cousin Gao Yu could afford.

The governor of the Xizhou Prefecture is in charge of the management of the five major ranches in the western state, and every year the imperial court will allocate a large amount of money for the pasture of the state. Liuzhong Ranch also receives a certain amount of money from Xizhou every year. However, because Yanaka Mu's scale is not large, and its status among the five major ranches is not high, there is not much money left except for the maintenance of existing facilities.

Gao Jun went to Xizhou to get more money.

Charcoal was originally a fast horse, and it was very easy to travel thousands of miles a day, if it was Gao Jun alone, he would have beaten the horse, and it would have been an hour or two. But this time he brought Liu Yuru, so he had to slow down. The two of them rode on horses, like a couple playing in the mountains and rivers.

The official road in Xizhou is not as flat and wide as in the mainland, and it is said to be an official road, but in fact it is a winding and undulating mountain road, and some places are very steep.

However, this did not affect Liu Yuru's interest. Since coming to Xizhou, she hasn't had a day of real relaxation, and it's only been a few days since she moved to her new home, how can she not have irrepressible excitement in her heart when she traveled so far away with Gao Daren?

I saw the mountains on both sides of the road, sometimes tall, sometimes gentle, although the time is winter, but the evergreen pines and cypresses along the slope are still full of verdant. Liu Yuru was not accustomed to riding horses, and leaned on Gao Jun's body a little nervously as she went.

Gao Jun was in a good mood at this time because of his misunderstanding of Liu Yuru before departure.

He did not forget Liu Yuru's past behavior in the Guogong Mansion. Her vicious act of bullying a young bereaved child is quite fond of memories once associated with a woman with a stunningly beautiful appearance.

It's just that after the two of them arrive at the ranch village, he has to take care of the only woman who is related to him, which is a choice that any person will have. But the memory is like the wind blowing the floating sand, temporarily covering up the patterns on the bluestone ground, but the wind is a little stronger, and the patterns on the stone slabs are still there. Let him occasionally think about it, contradicting his growing affection for Liu Yuru.

If Liu Yuru expressed even the slightest intention to expel the Xie mother and daughter at home, Gao Jun would have realized her selfishness more deeply, and he had secretly made up his mind to only provide her with a carefree life from now on, instead of taking care of her and caring for her like a relative. He can do it.

But Liu Yuru meant to give favors without showing herself, so that the mother and daughter could live at home with peace of mind, which made Gao Jun's hidden bad impression of her a little lighter, and felt that the young woman sitting in front of him was very real and beautiful from the inside out.

Gao Jun also noticed Liu Yuru's nervousness when riding a horse along the way, and at first he wrapped his arms around her sides, held the reins in both hands, and hugged her. The charcoal fire also understands the meaning of the master, and it runs very smoothly. Slowly, Liu Yuru's tense body relaxed naturally.

"Husband...... Lord Gao, the last time you went to Xizhou, how long did you have to walk at this speed? ”

"Heh, if it is at this speed, I'm afraid I won't be able to reach a day," Gao Jun thought of the tall man who rushed to Xizhou after the snow, and he was taken to Xizhou by two officials, and felt that the world was sudden. himself and Liu Yuru, are the two of them still the same themselves?

"Oh? Are we not going to make a mistake? ”

"What are you afraid of, there is a way to be anxious and steady, in fact, I am so anxious, half of it is for my cousin, you don't know him, I can't wait to treat one day as two days," and the other half of Gao Jun is inconvenient to say, he wants to deliberately create opportunities and not be alone with Liu Yuru. Who would have thought that by mistake, two people rode upside down on a horse.

"Then we won't be able to get there when it's dark!" Liu Yuru was secretly a little anxious, remembering that it was probably because she was on the horse that she walked so slowly. She felt that she was also a little used to riding a horse, and it must be okay to make the charcoal fire go a little faster, so she said, "I want to try." ”

Gao Jun understood what Liu Yuru meant, handed over the reins in his hand to her, and immediately felt that his two hands had nowhere to go. Liu Yuru grabbed the reins of the horse for the first time, and also learned from others, shook it vigorously, and shouted in her mouth, "Drive-"

Charcoal Fire is a very human horse, and after listening to the command, he suddenly sped up and rushed out at once. Gao Jun didn't know where to put his hands, and suddenly his body flashed back, so that he was not thrown down by the charcoal fire, his two arms hugged Liu Yuru's waist tightly, and his mouth shouted, "Charcoal, what's the hurry!" ”

Liu Yuru was also startled, screamed in his mouth, and as he leaned back, he pulled the reins of the horse even harder, and the charcoal fire was accelerating, and suddenly the reins were strangled, and the two front hooves were raised high, and they stopped all of a sudden.

Gao Jun eagerly hugged Liu Yuru's plump waist tightly, only to feel that the crooks of his arms and palms were extremely smooth. Crossing her shoulders again, he really saw a new layer of fine sweat between Liu Yuru's cheeks and neck, smelling the breath full of confusion coming from her, Gao Jun couldn't help but feel agitated, and the hot current under the dantian was impulsive again, but fortunately, the charcoal fire had stopped, and he sat on it, and it took a while to calm down.

Gao Jun said. "You don't know yet, horseback riding is not as simple as you think, first of all, you must know the instructions of riding, shouting 'driving' for moving forward, 'driving' for stopping, shaking the reins and pinching the horse's belly to accelerate, and reining is an emergency stop. You just drove and stranded, but let it be good. ”

Liu Yuru was blushed by Gao Jun's words, and turned her face to look at Gao Jun on the horse, the two of them faced each other, her face turned even redder, and said, "How do people know, you didn't say it earlier." ”

Looking at Liu Yuru's delicate and angry posture, Gao Jun's heart was pounding, and his heart, which was easy to calm down, was rolling again, and he hurriedly continued, "For example, sitting on a horse can't be straight like a piece of wood, but you have to follow the horse's galloping ups and downs, moving with its rhythm, and the focus of the body is not on the horse's back, but on the stirrup." Otherwise, the rider will be tired, and the horse will be even more tired, and if you don't get it right, you will hurt its spine. ”

"However, I don't have ......stirrups here," she said, she looked down to look at the stirrups under her feet, but was hugged more tightly by Gao Jun and said, "You, without stirrups, are you still so casual, aren't you afraid of sliding down?" ”

Liu Yuru was a little embarrassed, watched Gao Jun shake the reins again, and drove the horse forward, so he sat honestly, and secretly according to what Gao Jun said, his body moved slightly with the rhythmic ups and downs of the charcoal fire.

And Gao Jun tried not to think about Liu Yuru leaning on and rubbing his body from time to time, just concentrating on riding the horse. Before I knew it, it was almost noon, and I was a little hungry.

He knew that there were some villages along the way, and he only walked less than half of the distance, so he thought to himself, should he take Liu Yuru to find a place to beg for food and drink before leaving.

Just as he was thinking about this, he suddenly heard the cries for help from the dense forest not far away, and the sound was very frightened, mixed with the intimidating clamor of several other people and the roar of some unknown beast. Charcoal Fire turned his ears back in shock.

On the left side of the trail is a gentle slope with dense pines and cypresses, from which the sound is heard.

Liu Yuru also heard it, nervously shrunk her body into Gao Jun's arms, and asked in a trembling voice, "Lord Gao...... There seems to be something going on over there", Gao Jun didn't answer her, turned his horse's head, left the road, and galloped up the hillside.

The charcoal fire reluctantly burrowed into the woods, and the branches inside were vertical and horizontal, and Gao Jun bent down from time to time, pressing Liu Yuru's body down, and the two of them passed through the gap in the dense forest. The shouting was becoming more and more audible. In a slightly open place in the dense forest, there were more than a dozen people dressed as officers and soldiers, armed with swords, guns, bows and arrows, and surrounded by a tiger.

The first time Liu Yuru saw the tiger, she screamed in fright, and almost couldn't sit steadily on the horse, but was held by Gao Jun. At this time, the tiger, which was eight feet long, was surrounded by several people, and its gorgeous and colorful fur was very conspicuous in the green forest. At its feet lay an officer with a wounded leg, a knife thrown on the ground not far away, and at this time he was trying to prop up his body and crawl into the distance.

His leg was dripping with blood, as he had just been bitten by a tiger. Seeing that their comrades were in danger, the officers and soldiers around them kept jumping and stomping, clanging the ordnance in their hands, and some of them forgot to shoot even though they were holding bows and arrows.

At this time, the tiger was opening its teeth and claws, baring its teeth to intimidate the people around it, while stretching out its right paw and "horning" on the shoulder of the injured person. The man flipped over and lay on his back, his clothes touching his shoulders, and blood gushing out of the new wounds.

The situation was urgent, Gao Jun didn't have time to think about it, leaving Liu Yuru alone on the horse, he flew and jumped down, and the two jumped into the crowd, stood three or four feet away from the tiger, pulled out the dagger he carried with him from his waist, and said "ho-ho-ho" twice at the tiger to attract its attention.

The tiger thought it was out foraging, and its belly was deflated, and when it suddenly saw a person rushing in so closely, it felt threatened. It temporarily put down the wounded man on the ground, raised its head and wagked its tail, and let out a long roar, and a beastly smell rushed to its face. The charcoal fire hissed not far away, "clicking" the ground. Gao Jun saw two pairs of sharp incisors in the tiger's mouth, a long blood-red tongue, and a few wisps of white whiskers on the edge of the tiger's mouth that were illuminated by the noon sun.

When I was at Zhongnan Mountain, Master once said that tigers do not want to approach people in a situation, unless they are hungry and cannot find other food.

And the method of their harm is "one pounce, two cuts, and three whips". A pounce on the momentum, destroying the withering and decaying. Generally, roe deer, deer, cattle, sheep and the like have long been caught by this pounce; A cut is a blow to the thing that swoops into the air. If the opponent dodges to the side, no matter which side he dodges, the tiger's two hind legs will kick out quickly with the help of the power of the waist, and there is a force of cutting and clamping. This style, even a huge bear is difficult to dodge; At the time of the whip, the prey was already behind him, but he never imagined that the tiger's tail was like a whip, and it would come with a whip. Those quick and cunning wolves, jackals, and the like will not escape their doom.

Although Gao Jun has martial arts and his hairs stand on end, he has never fought against a tiger of such a huge size. The sergeants around him, seeing that someone was coming, stopped shouting, ran into the circle as fast as they could, and dragged the wounded away from the dangerous place. The wounded sergeant also forgot to howl, and everyone watched the confrontation between one man and one tiger.

Seeing that his prey was rescued, the tiger turned his head and stared at Gao Jun, his hind legs bent slightly, and then brought a vicious wind and pounced towards Gao Jun!

Liu Yuru sat on the horse, so shocked that she covered her mouth with her hands, her heart beat stalled, and she wanted to shout but lost her voice. Gao Jun's originally burly body looked a little weak in front of the tiger. If he had made a mistake, his whole sky would have collapsed. You can't get hurt even a little.

At this moment, the tiger had already flown towards Gao Jun, and she only felt that her heart had stopped, and as soon as her eyes closed, tears flowed down. After a while, I heard the sergeants cheering, "That's amazing! When I opened my eyes, I saw that the tiger was shaking, as if it had lost its strength, and after a few more steps, it fell to the ground with a bang. Gao Jun stood behind it, the dagger in his hand gone.

She cried with joy, shook her hand and shouted, "Gao Jun-" wanted to get off the horse but couldn't get off, and tears hung on her smiling face.

Gao Jun was also in a trance at this time, but when the tiger pounced, he was calm, prostrated to avoid its two sharp claws, and casually inserted the dagger into its chest. It's as simple as that, and the tiger falls. Maybe it's inserted in the right place, such as the heart? However, the surrounding sergeants immediately cheered, gathered around, and thanked Gao Jun in a big way.

It turned out that these dozen or so sergeants were also soldiers of the "Dushan Guard" not far from here. The wounded sergeant cried out in pain again, his face sweating profusely. The people carried him on their backs and said to Gao Jun, "Where does Engong come from?" Please follow us back to the village, and we will definitely repay Engong for his rescue. ”

Gao Jun wanted to excuse himself, but these people couldn't help but say, and they carried the dead tiger and led Gao Jun's horse and left. Gao Jun thought that he was really hungry, so he followed these people with Liu Yuru and walked to the back of the forest.

Liu Yuru sat on the horse, leaned down to look at Gao Jun's body, and kept asking, "Gao Jun, are you okay?" If there is any injury, let me see. But because he was sitting on a horse, he couldn't reach Gao Jun, and he saw him walking as usual, so he gave up.