Within a few days, the Wang family quickly settled down. After the new year, Xian Yu Zhongtong came to accompany him every day, and Wang Yuan also took this opportunity to take his wife and concubine and Liu Jun and others to visit this famous city in Shuzhong.

To say that this Chengdu city is not a small city, the land of Bashu is the most prosperous city, and it can be traced back to the time of the Shu Kingdom in Cuba, which is a longer era than the pre-Qin period. The Western Zhou Dynasty had built the capital here, there is a history of planting 'one year and living in Chengju, two years into Yi, three years in Chengdu. This is the origin of the name Chengdu. Since then, under the blessing of the unique geographical location of Bashu, Chengdu has experienced few disputes, and has now developed into a large city with a population of nearly 120,000 households and nearly 800,000 people. Among the cities west of Chang'an, Chengdu is second to none.

Accompanied by Xian Yu Zhongtong, a native of Chengdu, I visited Wanli Bridge Huanhua Creek in the south city, Zhang Yi Tower, a 100-foot tall building in the west city, and a famous building in the east city. Wang Yuan, a local celebrity and scholar, came to accompany him and played, which was very grand. Wang Yuan also had to leave poems and texts in these places of interest, and there were few works of Taibai Lao Du, anyway, it was not worth the life of the dead who were amazed.

But in fact, Wang Yuan prefers shopping scenes. Chengdu City has a large population, but it is not as full of private squares as Chang'an City. Only seven or eight fang districts exist in the center of the city, and they are only important yamen and warehouses in the fang area, which are easy to protect and manage. But the dwellings of the common people were very free, scattered in the spider-web-like blocks of the city, north, south, east and west, but it seemed that the hierarchy between the rich and the poor was not so obvious.

Moreover, approaching the New Year, the people on the street are bustling, but most of them are wearing neat clothes and behaving very decently, which shows that the people of the country of Bashu Tianfu are rich and simple. The ladies of the Wang family are most excited about the brocade shops all over the street, Chengdu Shu brocade is famous all over the world, and it is a tribute to the imperial court. Although it is not the season for the new silk to be listed in spring, most of the brocades in the store are old and old, but the ladies of the Wang family still purchased a large number of them and put them in the carriage.

For men like Huang San and Liu Dehai, their favorite is the good wine brewed locally. The local turbid liquor brewed from the water of the Minjiang River has a dry and mellow taste, like the taste of the isolated mountains, and it tastes very refreshing for a long time, and of course it is also purchased and shipped home.

Although he was worried about the war on the front line, he had to say that the days before the New Year were the most relaxed and leisurely days for Wang Yuan. Every day, there are guests and friends at home, there are local officials to visit, there are celebrities in Shu come to talk about poetry and papers, take the beauty to go shopping in their spare time, and sit on the terrace of the small red building after the night to look at the scenery, and live a really moist life.

Of course, Wang Yuan did not fail to inquire about the southern war events of Zhongtong, but it was obvious that Zhongtong was a successful businessman, but he was by no means a qualified envoy of the temperance, and the inconsistencies and obscurity of the war events he described, often sighed and attributed the defeat to the lack of courage of the soldiers, the cunning of the enemy, and even the strange reasons for the unknown. Therefore, the information that Wang Yuan got from him was really limited. After asking a few times, Wang Yuan simply stopped talking about the matter, so as not to be affected by Xian Yu Zhongtong's words, and it would be much better to understand everything when he arrived at the front line in Quzhou after the year.

In this way, seven or eight days of comfortable time passed in a blink of an eye, and the New Year of Tianbao's sixth year came in a blink of an eye. As soon as the year passed, the day when Wang Yuan left for Quzhou was coming, and the day set by Wang Yuan was the third day of the first lunar month, however, on the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, Xian Yu Zhongtong hurried to the Wang family's mansion with a gloomy face, bringing a news that would completely shatter Wang Yuan's comfortable days.

Wang Yuan thought that Xian Yu Zhongtong, who came in a hurry, was here to pay New Year's greetings to himself, but Xian Yu Zhongtong was full of smiles when he came to see Wang Yuan before, his face was cloudy, and he handed Wang Yuan an urgent report.

On the night of the 28th day of the lunar month, the Nanzhao barbarians raided Ludian County, southeast of Quzhou, and led the troops to the rescue, and suffered an ambush by the barbarians in Pingba Caotan, with more than 6,000 casualties. The humble position was forced to retreat, and the barbarian troops attacked the city after dawn, breaking the wall of the southern city several times, and the situation was critical. The lowly and special urgency ordered the people to be in a hurry to the commander, and implored the commander to gather reinforcements to come to the rescue as soon as possible. ”

The letter was written in such a sloppy manner that it was evident that the writer was anxious or out of fear.

"Brother Wang, this is a distress letter from Quzhou, I didn't expect Quzhou to be about to die, how can this be good?" The six souls with a face are ownerless.

"Who can this Sun Youneng?"

"Oh, it's my Jiannan Jiedu soldiers. When I left Quzhou, he was fully responsible for guarding Quzhou, but I didn't expect it to be like this in less than half a month. This Sun Youneng is simply incompetent. I ordered him to stick to Quzhou, but he ran out to rescue Ludian, what a waste. Xian Yu Zhongtong sighed and gritted his teeth and scolded.

Wang Yuan sighed and said, "That's it, it seems that I'm leaving." ”

Xian Yuzhong hurriedly said: "I will immediately order a thousand soldiers and horses to follow you, there are only five thousand soldiers and horses in the city, and this is the only thing I can give you." ”

Wang Yuan said: "I want two more things, which Zuo Xiang promised me." ”

"What's that? But said. “

"From now on, I am in full charge of military affairs, and the marshal testifies that this city is my backup. I have something to ask for, the handsome man has to try his best to satisfy me, and if you don't have it, go and ask Zuo Xiang. ”

Xian Yu Zhongtong sighed and said, "Okay, I'll do it all, when will you leave." ”

Wang Yuan said: "In the afternoon, my family has to explain, and I always have to have a New Year's dinner with my family before leaving." ”

Xian Yu Zhongtong nodded and said, "It should be like this." ”

After sending Xian Yu Zhongtong away, Wang Yuan summoned everyone in his family to announce the news of his imminent departure, except for Liu Jun, who was elated, everyone looked solemn. Li Xin'er strongly asked to go with her, but Wang Yuan ruthlessly refused. This time, not only Li Xin'er, Qingyun'er, Ziyun'er, and Wang Yuan were not allowed to go. The reason given by Wang Yuan is very simple, this time it is a real leader to fight, and female dependents must not follow the army, and female dependents following the army is a taboo in the army.

The women were helpless, and they didn't expect that even their cousin Gongsun Lan couldn't follow this time. It stands to reason that Gongsun Lan's martial arts are strong, and it will come in handy if he goes along, but because of military regulations, Wang Yuan did not agree, and others have nothing to say.

After lunch, Wang Yuan and Liu Jun, accompanied by the women, led fifty black slaves from the Kunlun camp and dozens of guards to the school field with Liu Dehai and Zhao Qing who had already gathered a thousand soldiers and horses.

The daughters of the Wang family followed and saw them off, and they were persuaded by Wang Yuan until they were sent to the bridge.

"Let's all go back and take care of ourselves. Twelve Niang, you have to take responsibility, Chengdu life is not familiar, everything must be careful, the twenty guards left behind you have to urge them to patrol day and night, and don't take it lightly when you encounter suspicious people. If necessary, go to Xian Yu Zhongtong for help. ”

Li Xin'er wiped her tears and agreed.

Wang Yuan said to Qingyun'er and Ziyun'er again: "You two also have to help Twelve Niang take care of Hui'er, the family is all entrusted to you, if you want me to fight with peace of mind, you must protect yourself." “

Qingyun'er and Ziyun'er nodded in agreement. Wang Yuan turned the horse's head and whipped the horse, and the black horse galloped like lightning, and soon caught up with the large group of soldiers and horses, and disappeared behind the slope at the corner of the forest. The women waited until they couldn't see the dust of the soldiers and horses, and then they turned back one by one with solemn faces, and everyone's eyes were red.

Qing Yun'er said softly: "No one followed Erlang, and my heart is really unsteady." He has no one around to serve him, what if he gets sick? And Liu Jun, who will take care of them. I heard that the Nanzhao people have a lot of tricks in war, and they know witchcraft and Gu arts, what should they do if they fall into the way of others? It's really reassuring. ”

Li Xin'er frowned and said, "Don't say it, the more I talk about it, the more unstable I feel in my heart." Erlang won't let us follow, so what can we do? Military discipline is not tolerated, he is going to lead the army, how can he serve the public if he touches the military regulations? As much as I would love to help him, I will not disobey him. ”

Lan Xinhui suddenly said, "What about my cousin?" Why didn't you see her to see Jiro? Did Erlang just say that he wouldn't let his cousin follow, and his cousin was unhappy and annoyed? ”

Only then did everyone look around at each other and find that Gongsun Lan was indeed not around. Obviously, the forehead that had just gone with the same to see him off suddenly disappeared without a trace. Just when he was confused, he suddenly heard a faint horse roar in the covered bridge on the Wanli Bridge, and a red horse rushed out of the bridge and rushed over like a gallop.

The women hurriedly dodged to the side, but saw the red horse galloping past them, rolling up a puff of dust, and instantly disappeared.

"Who's that? Why is it so familiar? Qing Yun'er shouted.

Zi Yun'er shouted: "It's Cousin Gongsun, I changed into men's clothes, I am so familiar." Is she going to follow Erlang? ”

Li Xin'er muttered: "It's still the master who understands that there can't be female dependents in the army, so it's good for a woman to dress up as a man." Master, it seems that you have already thought about it, but why didn't you tell me this method, I am too late to disguise myself now. Master, it seems that you can't extricate yourself either. ”