Chapter 9 The Sloping Valley

Early in the morning of the second day, the teams organized by several large caravans set off first and entered the mouth of the valley, and the scattered pedestrians who dropped out of the rear of the caravan also set off one after another. Knowing that the sloping valley section of the Baoxie Plank Road was very dangerous, Zhang Zhong disposed of the carriage yesterday, and the two led the horses to walk at the end of the team.

Bao inclined plank road is a communication between the north and the south of the traffic artery, divided into two sections, the first half is located in the north foot of the Qinling Mountains, called the slope valley, the terrain is relatively gentle, there are five post stations, not far from the highest peak of the Qinling Mountains, Taibai Mountain. The second half is called Baogu, the terrain is relatively steep, the water flow is turbulent, and the scenery is excellent.

The plank road has always been a battleground for soldiers, but it has also left many celebrity relics, and these eldest grandsons are not ready to go. But Taibai Mountain has to go, at this time the ice and snow on the top of Taibai Mountain should not have melted, and it should be a different taste to climb high and look far away.

The first day passed uneventfully, and I rushed to Songling Station without anything special happening. Although it was still early, no one was willing to sleep in a place full of bandits. Naturally, it was impossible for this group of people to live in the post station, but along the post station, a town similar to the town of the valley was formed, and they lived on the plank road. Although there are many inns in the town, they are all booked first, and there are no rooms, and even the private houses are full.

The eldest grandson had to ask Zhang Zhong to go to the town to buy some firewood and prepare to deal with it for one night. While the sun was still early, I made a circle around the four sides, Taibai Mountain should be nearby, but it was full of emerald green, and the other side of the mountain was a higher mountain, so I had to give up. A small river flows silently through the edge of the town, and a few ducks are frolicking in the river. Everything was so calm, no one could have noticed that such a small river had exploded with such great force over the long years, and quietly cut through the mountain.

When there was more and more cooking smoke, the eldest grandson put away his emotion and touched his stomach, feeling that it was also a high-end demand that could only be had after filling his stomach, and it was time to go back and see how Zhang Zhong was prepared.

On the way back to the town, a hunter came from the path with two pheasants in his back basket, and the eldest grandson was going to buy them, but the hunter would not sell them. The hunters who lacked salt at home were only willing to exchange pheasants for salt, so the eldest grandson had no choice but to take the hunters to the camping place to find Zhang Zhong. Watching Orion wrap the three layers of salt in the bag and the three layers of green salt in the outer three layers, his dark cheeks grinned, green salt is a treasure in the mountains, sometimes even more valuable than silver.

Zhang Zhong first boiled water in a small pot, poured it into the skin bags of the two, boiled some water to remove the feathered pheasant soup, removed the cuticle on the surface, cut the chicken into pieces with a knife, and skillfully smeared it with the seasoning mixed with chili powder that he carried with him and roasted it.

After a while, the overflowing aroma made the passers-by sleeping around look sideways.

"Boy, come on?" A one-armed man stretched out a leather bag, and the overflowing aroma of wine wafted over.

"Isn't this rice wine, brought from Chang'an?" The eldest grandson took it and took a sip.

"Boy, you're very knowledgeable, it seems that you drink a lot?"

"No, just a few drinks at a few parties." The eldest grandson drank very lightly, and he would be drunk by Ge and Zhang every time.

The eldest grandson took a chicken leg and handed it over, this one-armed man obviously came to this, he went out for the first time in the Tang Dynasty, and the eldest grandson also planned to ask the big man about the doorway.

The big man was not polite when he arrived, he took a big bite after taking it, the spicy taste of the chili pepper obviously made him a little uncomfortable, but he didn't want to spit it out, and his spicy and suffocated face was actually a little red.

"Good!" It took a long time for the big man to get used to it, and after eating the chicken thighs in two or three bites, he poured a sip of wine before he drank it.

The pheasant is actually not that big, two or three catties are even less after removing the feathers and internal organs, the three of them finished eating two pheasants, and the eldest grandson was only half full, and the three of them each took out the dry food they carried. In the era of farming, the sin of slaughtering cattle is almost the same as murder no matter how you look at it, the landlord and the old man know that they can't abuse the livestock, and they would rather hire long-term workers to let the cattle rest during the slack time, so it is impossible to say three or five catties of beef on TV, and the dry food of the three people is just ordinary cakes, so they chatted with the fire in the cold.

"Big brother, what's wrong with your hand?" Zhang Zhong of Mu Ne actually broke the silence first, and the stubble that the eldest grandson was thinking about how to bypass was simply and rudely destroyed by Zhang Zhong.

"Hey, just came down from the battlefield!" Dahan looked at his empty arm and didn't pay much attention to it.

"North?" The eldest grandson received it along the stubble.

"Yes, Hou Dashuai's subordinates. Started last year, raided the tribe of Jieli Khan at the end of the year, and at that time his left hand was gone, and he had a high fever for three days but fortunately did not suppurate, and his fate was saved. Dahan recalled, yes, his expression was very complicated.

"My name is Changsun Yu, and I haven't asked the strong man for his name." The eldest grandson shook it, but did not get up.

"I used to be called Wang Tiedan, my father and mother took it, and when I joined the army, I was told that I was full of guts, so I changed it to Wang Tiedan." Although ancient China threw off several streets in the world in terms of culture, the literacy rate of the people was also very low, and many people's names may only be written on paper once in their lives, that is, when they are registered, they may not even be used when they get married, and the etiquette of the eight sedan chairs will only appear in the dictionary of the ruling class, and there is nothing strange about this name, and even the nicknames given by Li Shimin to his children are the names of some beasts.

"I think that a meritorious person like Wang Zhuangshi should grant land near Chang'an, I don't know what to do with going to Shuzhong?"

"I gave eighty acres, twenty acres of Yongye field, and thirty acres of mouth field, a total of one hundred and fifty acres, and I gave thirty acres of mouth land to others, and others took care of the rest. General Hou is thoughtful for us, but I have been away from home for more than ten years. Before leaving home, the world was in chaos, and my parents took my younger brothers and sisters to Shuzhong to join my relatives, and I planned to look for it......"

The eldest grandson looked at Wang Tiedan, who was red-eyed, and didn't know how to persuade for a while, so he handed back the wine bag in his hand. Wang Tie Dan took the wine sac and took a big sip: "Don't talk about this, so many years have passed, and I want to open it too." But brother, are you going on a study tour? ”

"Yes." The eldest grandson did not continue, and Wang Tietang was silent. A breeze blew across the hills, whistling from far to near and from near to far, frogs began to make noise, owls echoed, one after another, everything was so noisy and yet so silent.