The second day, the red is rising, the glow of the sun breaks through the shackles of the clouds, and pours on the land of China without reservation, and the Bairen City, which has been quiet all night, is gradually becoming noisy at this moment.

Under the bluestone rammed earth wall, a group of seven people, two ox carts, and five horses were standing on the road leading to the outside of the city.

Zhao Fan was standing next to a tall black horse at this time, this horse he liked very much, the black brown hair was shiny, like a supple and noble black satin, at this moment it was proudly holding its head high, constantly snorting, looking very impatient.

"I guess Wang Rui will definitely come later."

Zhao Fan said with a smile while stroking the black horse's head.

Hearing him say this, Xu Jia also nodded and said, "Hehe, that's natural, the hope of promotion is on us, how can there be no reason not to send each other?" ”

As soon as he finished saying this, a sound of horses' hooves suddenly came out in the city of Bairen, and when he heard this sound, Zhao Fan and Xu Jia both looked at each other and smiled.

"Xi Yu ......"

A group of several horsemen rushed to Zhao Fan and the others not far away, and then, the long neighing of the horses sounded, and several people on the horse turned over, and the person at the head was Wang Rui.

"The two virtuous nephews are going to Cloud City, why don't you call anyone to pass through the official, I can also come to see each other off." Wang Rui walked up to Zhao Fan and Li Mu and complained slightly.

"Haha, Lord Wang is too polite, Lord Fan is busy with affairs, how dare you have Lord Lao to send him off?" Zhao Fan explained while calming the irritable dark horse.

"What's the trouble? Well, as soon as the sun comes out, the weather will soon become hot and dry, so let's get off to a cool morning. Since Wang Rui is here, after doing enough work on the surface, he doesn't plan to nag about anything, so he immediately urged.

Zhao Fan nodded, walked to the ox cart, lifted the curtain on the car, and beckoned Zhao Ya'er and Li Bingbing to get into an ox cart, and the other ox cart was full of their luggage to Cloudsdale.

Two ox carts, pulled by two large buffaloes, in the Warring States period, it was not without carriages, but the best roads at that time were only smoother dirt roads, more roads were inevitably potholes, the wheels were all wood, there were no pneumatic tires of later generations, and the wheels and the ground were hard to hit.

As a result, the faster the car goes, the more bumpy it gets, and the more dust it kicks up, making it less pleasant for the riders. At that time, most of the body was exposed, and there were very strict requirements for the appearance of the passengers, and it was necessary to maintain a correct posture in the car, not to stagger, and to maintain the posture of riding in the bumps, which was also a kind of exercise for the passengers. So, out of the instinct for comfort, some people set their sights on ox carts. The ox cart walked more slowly, the bump was much less than that of the horse-drawn cart, and the dust raised was much less. In addition, the ox cart carriage is larger, and the ox cart has both a canopy and a fence for the carriage, so that people can sit in it, others cannot see it, and they can sit and lie down freely.

As a result, most people, especially civilians, choose ox carts to travel, and carriages are mostly used as chariots, and only some nobles will choose to use carriages in order to highlight their identity.

Li Bingbing and Zhao Yaer are girls, so naturally they can't stand the bumps of the carriage, so Zhao Fan chose to travel in an ox cart.

Zhao Fan, Li Mu and the other five turned over on their horses, hugged their fists at Wang Rui and said, "Since this is the case, then we will set off, Lord Wang, take care." ”

"Take care."

After seeing Zhao Fan and his party turn around and drive towards the road in the distance, Wang Rui retracted his gaze, he glanced thoughtfully at the northwest, turned the horse's head, clamped the horse's belly, and turned around and walked towards the Bairen City.

Bairen City and Yunzhong County are thousands of miles apart, even if they drive a carriage, at the speed of more than 400 miles a day, it will take ten days and eight days, not to mention the slower ox cart, so Zhao Fan and the others are not in a hurry, and they are ready for a long journey.

During the Warring States period, the natural environment has not been destroyed by humans, so the scenery is also very good, and to the north of Kashiwa Castle, there are Mang Mountains, where the vegetation is luxuriant, the forest is lush, and there is only one path leading to the direction of Unzhong County.

The path is not small, just enough to pass an ox cart, Zhao Fan and others rode horses to lead the way, and the two ox carts behind creaked slowly to follow.

"After this valley, there is a village in front of me, when I was young, I passed by there with my father, and I know that the villagers there are quite simple and kind, so it is better to go there tonight to find a family and spend the night."

The group had been on the road for most of the day, and they were already quite tired, and at this moment, the color was gradually falling, so Xu Jia raised his eyebrows and pointed to a semicircular valley road in front of him.

"Well, it's okay, let's rest in place for a while, eat some dry food to fill our stomachs, and then we will go to the front village for a night according to Xu Jia's words." Zhao Fan rode his black horse and walked in the front, listened to Xu Jia's words, and nodded.

Hearing this, everyone dismounted one after another, Zhao Yaer and Li Bingbing also walked out of the ox cart elegantly, a group of seven people, sitting on a big bluestone on the side of the road, chatting and eating dry food.

According to Xu Jia, the name of the valley in front is Dihukou, but this name is only passed down by the local hunters and farmers, and most people in other places do not know its name. The reason why this valley is called Dihukou is because the local hunters have seen a big insect this time.

The big insect refers to the tiger, the ancients used "worm" to refer to all animals, and divided the worm into five categories: birds for feather insects, beasts for caterpillars, turtles for beetles, fish for scale insects, and human insects. "Big" has the meaning of being long and headed, such as calling the first brother among the brothers "big brother"; "Big" is also an honorific word, such as "adult", "doctor", "king" and so on. The tiger is a caterpillar and is the king of beasts. The ancients matched the leader of the "five insects" with the direction of the five elements, and the god of the West was the white tiger. "Big worm" means the leader of the caterpillars and the king of beasts. This is the same meaning as the dragon of the east is the length of the scale worm, and the god phoenix of the south is the king of the feather insects and is called the "dragon king" and "phoenix" (the "phoenix" was produced by the northern and southern dynasties).

Looking at the mountain topography of this valley mouth, the valley mouth is extremely narrow, the mountains on both sides are steep, and there are mountain springs pouring down from the valley.

However, in the belly of the valley, it is a very wide plain, surrounded by mountains on three sides, and all of them are dense forests formed over thousands of years, which is difficult to pass through. There is a lake in the valley, the lake is not big, looking down from a high place, it is like a mirror resting on the grass, clear and transparent, not tainted with vulgarity.

"Big bugs? Xu Jia, is there really a big worm here? ”

Zhang Zhi, who was surnamed Zhang on the side, was the most anxious, and extremely belligerent, hearing that there was a big insect known as the king of beasts here, he couldn't help but feel a little excited in his heart, and asked a little strangely.

"I don't know about this, but I heard it when I was younger. However, in recent years, local hunters have often come here to hunt, but they have never heard of seeing large insects. Xu Jia smiled slightly, and didn't seem to be nervous because of the rumors that there were big insects here.

"In this way, it seems that the person who said before that he saw the big worm was either dazzled or deliberately deceived people, otherwise, if he really saw the big worm, where would there be a reason to get it back, he would have been eaten by the big worm a long time ago."

Although Lin Hu's surname is a little imaginary with Zhang Zhi, his brain is quite clever, and he will not say whatever comes to mind like the former, without thinking through his brain at all.

"Okay, whether there are big insects or not, everyone should be vigilant, and when they finish eating, they will set off, it will be almost dark soon, and more is better than less." Zhao Fan raised his head and saw that he was about to say Bo Xishan, so he immediately ordered.

Big worm or something, Zhao Fan didn't want to delve into it, as long as he could get to Cloud City all the way, but, no matter what, it was always good to be vigilant.

"Brother-in-law, the water we prepared is almost finished, I'll go to the mountain spring in front of me to get some water." Li Mu stood up from the bluestone block, holding a few kettles made of animal skins with hairy surfaces in his hands.

The mountain spring stream is about half a mile to the right of the path ahead, and because there are many trees, shrubs, and branches all over the place, you can only faintly hear the sound of running water when you see the situation there.

Zhao Fan pondered for a while, and said, "It's better for me to go, you guys wait for me here, don't walk around, in addition, be alert to the surrounding situation." ”

Maybe it's because he just heard Xu Jia say that there may be big insects here, so Zhao Fan has also become extremely vigilant at the moment, after all, no one can joke with their own lives.

And Li Mu is still young after all, and his kung fu is not as good as him, so Zhao Fan is ready to fetch water himself, so that he can feel more at ease.

After speaking, Zhao Fan took the kettle in Li Mu's hand and walked in the direction of the mountain spring stream.

During the Warring States Period, people's excavation of the land and the transformation of nature were still unusually shallow, although it was only half a mile away, but Zhao Fan walked quite hard, along the way, from time to time there were thorns cutting his clothes, barbs cutting his arms.

After walking for half a cup of tea, the road in front of me gradually widened, and the sound of running water became louder and louder, obviously almost to the mountain spring.

Seeing this, Zhao Fan couldn't help but speed up his pace. At this time, it is summer, the night is long and the night is short, although the head has been submerged behind the West Mountain, but the sky is still a little dim.

Just when Zhao Fan could already vaguely see the mountain spring stream in front of him, not far away, a gust of wind suddenly blew, and the gust of wind was not directed towards Zhao Fan, but suddenly rushed to the direction of the mountain spring stream.

Zhao Fan felt a "pop" in his heart when the wind suddenly blew, and his hunting life since he was a child exercised that he had an unusually strong sense of danger, and he didn't have to wait for the danger to happen, his keen nerves would transmit a signal, and his body would be able to react immediately.

And the gust of wind just now gave him an extremely dangerous feeling, if the former was headed towards Zhao Fan, I was afraid that he would have to jump away immediately and avoid the gust of wind.

"The clouds are from the dragon and the wind from the tiger, oh no, there are really big insects here!" ……