As mentioned earlier, Tiejian City is the largest city on the northern border of the Jin Kingdom, and behind it is the northern city wall that follows for thousands of miles. This behemoth from the East China Sea Feidu Point in the east to the Jiguan Ridge of Iron Hammer Mountain in the west was built by the Heng Dynasty in 2820 and was not completed until 3020 in China, after a full hundred years. Even in the most decaying years of the Heng Dynasty and the most chaotic years of the Eastern Pilgrimage Prefecture, this ancient city wall has never been breached. After the unification of the Three Kingdoms, Taizu Li Chongting repaired it to be more impregnable, guarding the northern border of the Jin Kingdom like a giant dragon coiled on the Clouds Mountains.

If the city wall of Feidu Cape in the East China Sea is the tail of the dragon, then the wall of the Iron Hammer Mountain in the west is the dragon's head, and the vast desert palace of the great prince is built on the rooster crown ridge, which looks down on the northern land like the eyes of a giant dragon, so that the nomads in the desert and the army of the Rohan Kingdom dare not easily step on the hooves.

To the north of the northern wall, there are no tall mountains, and the whole vast northern land is first a low hill, followed by a flatter plain, then to the north is the barren Gobi desert and desert, and finally to the endless North Sea covered by ice. In addition to fighting hunger, the nomads wandering the desert also have to resist the knife-like north wind, so they never give up and go south to find a warm and resourceful place to live.

It's just that the mountains are too high and the city is too strong, and the cold north wind can't climb the towering clouds and mountains to blow to the southern land, and the nomads can't break through the thick northern wall, but the wind will still blow as always, and the nomads will wander the grassland again and again.

In order to prevent their growth and assembly, there are three cities in the east and west north corners of the 800-mile plain, which are managed by the three major generals of the great prince, the east city is called 'Dongzi Ying' and is managed by General Bai Kuo, who represents the Bai family, the city in the north is called 'Beizi Ying' and is managed by General Jin Wanzhong, who represents the Jin family, and the city in the west is called 'Xizi Ying', which is managed by General Ouyang Hua, who represents the Ouyang family. The three cities were garrisoned only by troops and not civilians, and the military supplies in the cities were all transported from the iron threshold cities on this side of the southern mountains.

The people here call the three small cities 'Sanzi Battalion', with no less than 300,000 northern desert troops stationed in the city, like the teeth of giant beasts, watching every move of the people in the plains, maintaining the tranquility of this land, and the southern iron threshold city is their logistical support, with the iron threshold city of this big granary and material warehouse, the soldiers in front can stand guard with peace of mind.

This is the reason why these family forces in the north support the eldest prince so much, there are many people in their family who are generals and leading soldiers under the command of the eldest prince, their interests are closely related to the eldest prince, and they need to work with the eldest prince Li Jiazhen to protect the land here, so he is their king of Guangmo.

To cross the northern city wall, you need to clear the customs documents, and thanks to knowing Li Dabao under his leadership, An Ran and Fan Yuntian got the customs clearance documents in Yamen, otherwise An Ran's trip to the Northern Desert may only stop at Tiejian City, and want to go to the Mobei battlefield to find Huang Haihao's bones? If you want to go to the grasslands in the west, ride a horse and dream of it!

Of course, there is one more thing on An Ran's body, that is, the portable jade pendant that Emperor Jinhui personally gave him in Huluxia, but this kind of thing cannot be easily shown to An Ran; Second, even if it is revealed, how can ordinary people recognize it? Therefore, he can only go to the yamen like other players and NPCs to obediently go through the customs clearance papers.

When they arrived at the city wall, An Ran found that there were many people waiting in line to let them go, and the soldiers with spears in their hands and wearing iron armor had cold eyes.

Standing on the top of the mountain after passing through the city wall, raising his eyes to see the entire Caiyun Mountain Range forming a posture of high in the west and high in the east, the city wall winds and circles on the mountainsides and ridges of each mountain, like a black dragon soaring up for nine days.

"Do you see those wolf smoke and watchtowers?" Li Dabao waved his hand to the west, "If there is a war in the northern land, they will become the eyes of the Northern Desert Army, and the Guangmo King Mansion on the Cockscomb Ridge is the head of the Northern Desert Army, and the Guangmo King will sit on the high ground and command thousands of troops and horses." ”

An Ran followed his finger and found that on the remote Cockscomb Ridge to the west, a black city tower loomed in the clouds.

"If the city wall is like this, with three steps, one sentry, five steps and one post, I think there will be a lot of Northern Desert troops standing on this wall alone, right?" An Ran asked.

"The northern city wall is about a thousand miles long from east to west, and there are hundreds of garrisons near the wolf smoke and watchtower, and each barracks will have a centurion responsible for managing the soldiers, and the centurions on the entire city wall have thousands of people, so there should be 100,000 Northern Desert troops standing on this city wall."

"I'll be a good girl!" Fan Yuntian sighed, "This is not a small amount. ”

"And that's just the sentries on the city wall," said the bearded man, "and if you add the cavalry, foot soldiers, and crossbowmen of the Flying Crossing Horn and the Sanzi Battalion, the entire Northern Desert Army is about 800,000 men. ”

"Indeed, this is probably the reason why the one in the capital is so jealous, right?" An Ran thought, "Once the eldest prince has a covetous heart for the throne and leads this 800,000 Northern Desert army to the south to point at the capital, how can that fledgling young man resist?" ”

They walked down the hill along a wide road paved with stones, because the mountain was relatively steep, this avenue, which had spent a lot of manpower for marching and transporting military supplies, had to make Z-shaped turns constantly, otherwise it would be difficult for carriages and horses to pass whether they were going up or down the mountain.

Along the way, you'll encounter players hauling large piles of goods in bullock carts and horse-drawn carts, animal skins, cloth, grain, meat, and alcohol, as well as men and women wearing the word 'Xiu' on their chests as they travel up and down the avenue.

"What are these adventurers doing?" An Ran asked using a word that NPCs like to use.

"Adventurers who supply supplies for the three-character battalion," Li Dabao explained: "The materials needed for a huge Northern Desert Army are a huge number, and it is completely insufficient to rely on the military supplies regularly distributed by the imperial court every year, so the Northern Desert Army will have this kind of self-sufficiency situation, and the sergeants in the rear will usually participate in farm work and training with the people, and they will work in the fields together; hunting together in the mountains; and went to the square to practice together; Armor is hung on the wall of every house, and all the people are soldiers. Later, when you adventurers also appeared, the army issued a variety of tasks that adventurers could participate in, and all adventurers who contributed to the Northern Desert Army could get various rewards, and these adventurers could transport the materials they obtained to the quartermaster to receive coins and cultivation while cultivating. As for the kind of adventurers who wear the word 'Xiu' on their chests, we have a local saying called 'Monks in the Army' This is a group of special people with various professions, and it is not easy to obtain the iron medal on their chests, and adventurers who have made a lot of contributions to the army must be eligible to obtain it under the condition of abiding by the military discipline of the Northern Desert Army, which is a bit difficult for you adventurers? ”

"Oh? Why? An Ran asked with a smile.

"When you've worked so hard to accumulate some equipment and give it to the quartermaster, would you?" The bearded man asked rhetorically, "The people cut out part of their rations and sent them to the Northern Desert Army, that is because the soldiers in front are protecting their homeland, and they understand this truth." Adventurers, on the other hand, are passers-by, passers-by, and they see everything here as floating clouds, whether war or peace, when the enemy comes, they can migrate south, and when the enemy leaves, they come back again, what does it matter to them whether people live or die? They only care about whether their cultivation is high enough, what skills did they learn after killing a few monsters today, how can a group of people who don't have any feelings for you give you their things for no reason? ”

"That's true!" An Ran sighed, "We adventurers have too little insight into this world, and I'm afraid that only when the day is really cold will most adventurers understand that this is actually a very sad thing." ”

Li Dabao didn't understand what kind of sadness he was talking about, and the bearded man with a hat rubbed the handle of his sword. "As for regular patrols and training to obey military discipline, not to disturb the people, not to cause trouble, and to obey the NPCs—you say so—who will let people put a rope around their necks to drive freedom away? So in fact, the iron plate on their chests is not easy to come by, and it has nothing to do with the size of the cultivation. ”

"It's an egg!" They keep talking about this, Fan Yuntian can't listen to it anymore, "Can this word be eaten as a meal?" If you want to put so many rules on me - don't say adventurers - Lao Tzu is not willing, you must know that the world is the greatest freedom, you can't do anything if you tie me up, you can't go anywhere, then it is better to cut Lao Tzu with a knife. ”

Li Dabao stretched out his thumb to the NPC kid and said, "The hero sees the same thing, Fan Yuntian, it's a pity that you don't be a swordsman." He said.

"Lao Tzu is an assassin who comes and goes without a trace." Fan Yuntian smiled, hugged the back of his head with his hands, and swaggered forward.

"But do you really identify with him?" Staring at the crowd of people coming and going, An Ran thought, "Freedom is indeed precious, otherwise there would not be that 'life was precious, and love was more valuable.'" If it is free, both can be thrown. 'Poetry is up, but what is the so-called freedom? That's something that everyone must abide by within certain rules, your indulgence and chic under this sky, it may be that someone is fighting the sky for you, so when one day this person's shoulders can't carry this sky? Can you still talk about freedom? ”

I don't know why, An Ran always thinks that this prodigal man who is full of foul language, full of obscenity, and speaks and acts casually has his own code of conduct, and some people seem to be free and loose, but there is an iron chain in his heart that binds his legs; Some people seem to be chic and uninhibited, but there are many stories in their hearts that make him sad.

"Are you going to the Northern Desert with us like this?" An Ran asked, "What is the purpose of sleeping in the open air?" The brothers of Eagle's Beak Cliff don't care? ”

This question was also what Fan Yuntian wanted to ask, so the NPC kid also stared at Li Dabao, who was more than half a head taller than him, with his light blue eyes wide.

The bearded man lifted his hat with his hand and looked at them with an idiotic look.

"Lao Tzu is a moneyless swordsman," he said, "What are you eating if you don't follow you to the rivers and lakes?" Wouldn't it be nice to learn from you adventurers to kill monsters, practice leveling, and be able to mix wine and eat enough? As for the group of bastards who have lost their conscience in the eagle's beak cliff, there are Li Erbao, Li Sanbao, and Li Duobao anyway, and Lao Tzu is too lazy to care about their life or death. ”

"Then you still swear that we beat your brother and you will fight back," Fan Yuntian touched his bruised cheeks and held back his dissatisfaction: "Lao Tzu doubts that you deliberately found an excuse to beat me and Brother An Ran, and now you want to follow us to the Northern Desert with a dead face, Lao Tzu told you that if you don't work, there is no way to eat, and we won't give you anything to eat." ”

"He who works, he who works." Li Dabaotian smiled shamelessly and then whistled and shouted: "Go to the three forks to brush the wolf, high experience, good equipment, and the master leads the team to welcome in." ”

An Ran couldn't help but smack her tongue, "This is a language that only gamers shout!" Li Dabao, what are you doing blindly with an NPC? He thought.

His voice made the five players with various weapons in front of him turn back at the same time, among the five of them were three men and two women, the leader was a burly warrior with a double axe on his back, and beside him stood a cloth-clothed swordsman, a leather-armored assassin, a female mage, and a female Taoist priest.

Li Dabao strode forward and narrowed the distance between them, "Friends, are you going to kill wolves and practice together?" He asked with a grin, his eyes slanted at the plump female mage.

"It's over!" An Ran thought, "How can you look at a girl like this." ”

It's not good.

The burly man with an axe on his back first stared up and down at the three of them, and found that one was a big man in a coarse cloth shirt; One was a young man in a ragged robe; There was also a teenager covered in wounds who had killed Matt a bit. The man only squeezed out two words from between his teeth: 'garbage'

Then the woman in the white robe said rudely: "What do fools look at? Go home and see your mom! ”

The assassins and swordsmen, dressed in leather armor and cloth, drew their weapons at the same time.

"The boss blew them up, no, this stupid eye is a little dishonest."

"Don't get me wrong!" The bearded man immediately clenched his fists and smiled: "I didn't mean to, so I'll leave." ”

"A few pieces of garbage, get away from me!" The burly man shouted.

"Alright, alright, let's get out now." Li Dabao pulled An Ran with one hand and Fan Yuntian with the other, and immediately left without looking back.

And the two of them couldn't break free under the pull of his hands, so they could only follow him quickly, and only after walking dozens of steps did the bearded man let go of An Ran and Fan Yuntian.

"Where the did you get that beating gas in the square?" Fan Yuntian shouted dissatisfiedly: "I didn't dare to fight back when we were so discriminated against and insulted, and he dragged us to run away from the nest? ”

Li Dabao secretly glanced behind him and found that the five people did not chase after him, so he said: "It's Lao Tzu's fault first!" Being scolded by others for a sentence or two will not be less meat. ”

"Just those few adventurers," the NPC kid was unconvinced: "Lao Tzu can hit five with one hand, and run, run your mother!" ”

"Yo!" The bearded man squinted at Fan Yuntian and sneered, "Do you think you're good again?" Forgot to be beaten by Lao Tzu in Iron Blood Square to find teeth? ”

"I will only bully my own people, the mouse carries a gun and is in the house, and I dare not let go of a fart when I am scolded by others." Fan Yuntian's face was full of contempt.

His approach reminded An Ran of a person called Fengbo Evil in the novel "Tianlong Babu", this person and a farmer carrying a big dung met on the single-plank bridge, both sides asked each other to give way, but both sides did not let it, so the two stood on the single-plank bridge for a long time, and the evil of the storm must be more patient with this farmer who couldn't help but give way first, and in the end the farmer was angry and poured dung on the Fengbo evil, and the Fengbo evil was a good man with strong martial arts, and he could beat the farmer to death with a punch with his ability, but he didn't do it, He is not reckless, which makes An Ran admire him very much.

The bearded man in front of him is also a strong martial artist, although it is because he looked at other girls a little obscenely, but those people first scolded people and wanted to kill, but he didn't follow the mentality of the players, I am better than you Lao Tzu is going to beat you to vent his anger, this is probably not bullying the weak The measure is quite high, right? An Ran also admires such behavior.

"Being able to avoid people who are weaker than yourself is not a nest, it is the work of a big husband," An Ran said slowly: "Brother Dabao's approach is right, if you want to suppress others by relying on your own ability, then there will be no place for the weak in this world, Fan Yuntian, you learn." ”

"Look, look," the bearded man chirped, "Obviously, Brother Enron's consciousness is much higher. ”

"Humph! Two big idiots are not a fucking good thing. The NPC kid strode away from the two of them.

"It's just that some people in this world are often like this," the bearded man tightened his trouser belt and said: "I always smash my fist on people who are weaker than myself, and I often have to nod my head in the face of those who are stronger than myself. I just can't control myself. ”

"And such people are often mixed well," An Ran nodded and thought deeply, "In their opinion, it is pleasant to smash their fists against people who are weaker than themselves, and they don't need to pay any effort; It is stupid and has to pay a price for someone who is better than himself, so why not bully the soft and be afraid of the hard? ”

"Truth is right and wrong should never be based on strength and weakness," Li Dabao said, "right is right, wrong is wrong, should not look at the strength of this person and then judge right and wrong, but unfortunately many people do not think so, they are paranoid that Lao Tzu is strong, and the truth is right to stand on Lao Tzu's side." For such people, we can no longer reason with their mouths, we have to use this. He shook his fist.

"Hmmm! Use your mouth on those who can listen to the reason, and use your fist on the person who can't listen to the reason, good reason! Great minds think alike. ”

It wasn't until noon that they came down the mountain, and at this time the sun came out of the thick clouds, but don't worry, even if the sun is in the sky, it is not very hot, the weather in the north is both up and down the mountain, the summer here is actually called cool, and everyone is afraid of the cold and biting winter.

An Ran needed to go offline for lunch first, and the two of them rested in place and waited for him, and when he went online, he let his game character have lunch with the two NPCs before continuing to move north.

"It will take about two days to go to the 'Beizi Battalion' this time," the bearded man shook his hand, "This hilly area is about two hundred miles, in order not to make the journey too lonely, I suggest that we not take the avenue to go to a remote place while hunting and advancing, so as to enrich ourselves and obtain supplies, maybe go to the quartermaster of the Beizi Camp and sell some silver, why not?" ”

His suggestion was unanimously agreed by the two of them, who originally needed to level up and kill monsters. So An Ran summoned the white deer again, and Xiao Bai was quite excited to see the hillocks with green grass growing everywhere.

Li Dabao was simply stunned when he saw Bailu, and his mouth was amazed, thinking that this was the best mount he had ever seen.

"Xiaobai is not a horse," Fan Yuntian reminded.

"I know," Li Dabao wanted to touch Bailu's fur, but Xiaobai avoided it at once. "It's an elk."

"Let go of your dirty paws!" Fan Yuntian reminded again viciously, "Xiaobai is a little girl, my brother An Ran's sister, you'd better control your dog's eyes." ”

The bearded man didn't care about Fan Yuntian's knife mouth, he just shrugged his shoulders and stared at the hillock in front of him, "The wolf is coming." He said.

Sure enough, under a barkless eucalyptus tree in the hillock, a big bad wolf three meters long and covered in blood was staring at them.

A team of players were so frightened that they ran out of the hillock to the left of the gray wolf, and when they saw An Ran and them, they waved and shouted, "Run!" Come on! Wolves! There are wolves! ”

The bearded man Li Dabao did not retreat but advanced, and he had already come to their side when they finished shouting. Then arrived An Ran and Fan Yuntian, and Xiaobai was still walking slowly behind.

The team of players who shouted at them was none other than the five players who had started to speak out against them on the avenue, and of course there were several other strangers who were running in this direction but had already been injured, and the five players were obviously shocked to see the three of them at such speed.

Li Dabao couldn't care about the surprise of these people, because there were a dozen hungry wolves chasing and biting those slower adventurers in front of him. He held the hilt of the knife in one hand and the scabbard in the other, and his right hand was jerked violently, and the scabbard had already flown out when it landed, and flesh and blood flew everywhere the cold light flashed.

In the blink of an eye, more than a dozen gray wolves were all slashed to the ground by his simple knife, and the ground was covered with grass clippings' internal organs and blood, which made the few rescued female players who were dragging behind couldn't help but gag. The bearded man was not sticky with blood on his body, not only his person, but his knife was still snow-white and shiny. Li Dabao just squinted his eyes and glanced at the big bad wolf on the hillock, and the beast actually ran away directly when he saw his cold eyes.

"You're going to take the road, it's dangerous, it's not the place for you to come." He looked at the injured players and began to walk forward. "Please get me the scabbard over."

"It seems that we are not needed at all," An Ran smiled awkwardly and bent down to pick up the scabbard on the ground, "There is such a stupid big man as a coolie, Fan Yuntian, let's send it!" ”

"Cut!" The NPC kid glanced at Brother An Ran, "Otherwise? Let him eat and drink well and not work - let's go, Xiaobai. ”

The group of players stood on the ground and looked at each other, watching the three raggedly dressed strangers and an elk fade away.

"We used to curse people for rubbish," whispered a female player in a Taoist robe, "but now they have saved us." ”

"Brother Gao will take us to practice leveling!" The burly man with the double axe on his back tried to shout.

"You can't go where we went, go back! It's too dangerous here. An Ran turned his back to them and waved his hand.

Three people and a deer disappeared behind the knoll.