The inspector of Jihu South Road borrowed more than 10 horses and more than 10 officials from the Yayin County, and drove into the Jieshan Road, and the horses' hooves knocked on the bluestone slab, swaying and spending a day and a night before stepping on the morning light and showing their heads at the entrance of Xieting East Street.

Three days ago, the inspector inadvertently found a lifelike lacquered wood carving dragon head in the old market in Jayin County, the dragon head has red scales, blue eyes, two golden horns, four silver hairs are all cut off in half, and the remaining short stubble. He hadn't seen anything like this in a long time. The inspector reached out and picked up the dragon's head, and turned the direction - sure enough, the broken part of the dragon's neck was the natural color of wood and not painted.

As if he had found a treasure, the inspector turned the faucet in his hand over and looked at it carefully. The stump incisions with two corners and four whiskers are indeed bare logs. The inspector snorted coldly, his mouth hooked up some smugness after the hunt, and asked the vendor about the origin of the dragon's head, so he scattered three copper coins and hugged the dragon's head to leave.

Of course, this money was not enough, and the vendor wanted to stop him, and with an exit, the inspector turned around. He held the dragon's head in one hand and took something out of his waist with the other.

"You can't keep this thing," he said, holding the dragon's head with five fingers, dangling from the side of his head, and with the other hand he had pulled out something - a sign of ebony.

"Either you accept the three cents, or ......" The sign was engraved with five gilded characters of "Inspection on behalf of the Son of Heaven", "You come with me." ”

......

Ancient Yan was the most prosperous period of Yidi, so the residents east of the jaw called themselves Yan people. After the first emperor swept Liuhe for another two hundred years, razed the land and returned to Shun, at that time they knew that the word Yi had been degraded to what kind of situation in the mouth of the Xia people, the people of the east of the jaw called Yan not Yi, maybe need to add this reason.

When the land was restored, it coincided with Emperor Jing's "dividing the country by astronomy and placing the county by geography", so he divided the old royal family into the three kingdoms of Xuanchen, Greedy Spirit, and Feiwei. The field of Hou Xuan and Chang Chen is called Xuan Chen, the field of greedy wolf and Lingfeng is called greed, and the field of flying arrow and Wuwei is called Feiwei. The land is divided into three, and it is called Yan but not Yi, so it is also called the land of three Yan.

Among the three swallows, Xuan Chen's women are the most beautiful, greedy men are the toughest, and Feiwei's cattle and horses are the fattest. At that time, although Sanyan was incorporated into the imperial territory, after all, there were mountains and rivers separated by mountains, and there were thousands of miles of rivers that could be self-sufficient, and they were not controlled by Jinding.

By the time of "Dragon Chan", the Guan family had replaced the country, and Sanyan rebelled. The foundation of the new emperor was unstable, and in less than a month, the Sanyan coalition army advanced the battle line to the west of the jaw for more than 100 miles. The war on the front line was tight, but the new emperor had no time to look eastward, and after weighing, he sent an envoy to communicate with Xuan Chen in the rear, and attacked back and forth, and the war ended in only October. Eventually, the empire and Xuan Chen were separated by the Junchuan line, carving up the lands of the greedy spirits and the flying guards, and in a hundred years, this line was pushed eastward to the Jun River, and perhaps in another hundred years, the three swallows would be reunited under the arms of the empire, but that was a story for another time.

Today, with Jihu Lake as the boundary, the empire divides the territory east of the jaw and west of the Jun River into two roads, north and south, and in addition to the permanent official office, two inspection divisions have been added, and six inspectors have been appointed on behalf of the Son of Heaven to supervise the affairs of razing the land.

In the past few years, the inspectors walked among the mountains and rivers, and the people they saw were no different from the Central Plains, except for their wax animals and things twice a year...... On the Fish Festival, he knew that the people of Yidi were proud of refusing to ride the Central Plains Iron Horse outside the jaw countless times, and especially proud of killing the legendary Rakshasa princess who was invincible to ten thousand, so when he saw this dragon head with broken horns and broken whiskers, a long-lost sense of mission rose in his chest.

......

"Who threw this dragon head!"

At the east street entrance of the pavilion, the dragon head carved by the lacquered wood is carried by a servant. He sat on a tall horse, and the dragon's head was in his high hands, carrying the light of heaven on his back, with broken horns and broken beards, like a sinner who has been shown to the public by the head of a hawk.

The bustling market fell silent for a moment, and the eyes of the whole street were turned to the uninvited guests at the corner of the street.

Seeing that no one answered, the ...... officer relied on the experience accumulated over the years as an errand officer, and opened his mouth to shout again.

The inspector on the side led the horse's head and whispered something in his ear.

"Ahem......" The official cleared his throat and cleared half of what he had just said.

"This is Master Zheng of Jayin County, who carved this dragon head, quickly stand up for me!"

The officer's face was smiling when he looked at the inspection, and majestic when he looked at the street, and he changed so fast that he couldn't even keep up with the words in his own mouth.

"Whose ancestor has accumulated virtue, Master Zheng is going to celebrate the birthday of the prefect, Master Zheng has taken a fancy to your craftsmanship, and the agarwood of 10,000 years is ready!"

"All kinds of carpentry chisels are complete! Master Zheng said, if you have the ability to chisel out a few finches on the welcome pine, I will reward you with dozens of taels of silver!"

After a few shouts, the officials began to gasp on horseback, but no one answered below. He withdrew his right hand, which held the head of the wooden dragon, pinched it under his left armpit, and drew his saber with a thud.

The white iron blade slammed down on the pillar of the archway at the entrance of the street, making a deafening sound.

The people who had been standing still listening to the shouts of the officials woke up with a shock, and then scattered in all directions—faster than they were scattered, slower than they were to flee.

The inspector gently tugged on the reins with his right hand, and the horse reluctantly threw two hooves to the right, side by side with the horse under the crotch of the officer.

He stretched out his hand, patted the servant on the back, motioned for him to stop, took the dragon's head, clamped the horse's belly between his legs, and continued to ride westward.

In the scattered crowd, there was a little girl who looked like eleven or twelve, holding a cabbage the size of her head in one hand, and her eyes were not as proud as a peasant girl.

I saw a long scorpion braid throbbing behind her buttocks, and she couldn't hide it, but she was happy.

......

"Second brother!" the Chen family's painted pine door was burst open by a flying shadow, slamming into the wall beside it, babbling and moaning.

Chen Qianxue was repairing a hoe next to the bed, and the place where the hoe handle and shovel were connected was loose, and he was thinking about whether to fill in a few wedges or simply change the hoe handle. was cut into the ice and shouted, and as soon as he raised his face, he was pounced on the bed by his sister.

"Don't make a fuss. He pushed his sister away, stood up on the edge of the bed, and lifted aside the hoe, which had not yet been repaired.

"I have very, very good news for you!"

The cabbage broke off several leaves and scattered them on Chen Qianxue's bed.

"Just now at the entrance of Dongjie," Cutting Bing also got up from the bed, walked past the second brother, put the two cabbages on the stove, turned half of his face, and spoke to the second brother from a distance, "There is a big man in the county, he is carrying the dragon head you carved, and he wants to hire you to carve a birthday gift for him!"

Having said this, she seemed to be full of joy again, and she came over with her fart, eager to put it in her second brother's ear.

"The old man said, how many finches you can carve on a pine, he will reward you with dozens of taels of silver!"

When she finally had nothing to say, her body that was stirring up because of excitement also quieted down, waiting with anticrative expectation for these words to stir up waves in the second brother's mind, waiting for an ecstatic smile to climb up to his face, waiting for him to bounce up from the bed excitedly, take her hand, rush out of the door as fast as possible, rush to the eldest master's horse, and present that pair of skillful hands that are rare in the world.

But the second brother didn't do that. Before he knew it, a long time had passed, and he was still sitting there, sitting on the edge of his bed with cabbage leaves, his hands over his eyes, as if thinking about something. Finally, he stood up, but instead of bounced up excitedly as Cutting Bing thought, but slowly, like a veteran who had received his fate, slowly straightened his knees, and then his back, but his neck was still bent.

"What are you thinking?" Cutting Bing frowned, not satisfied with the second brother's performance.

"What does the old man look like, did he come alone?"

Chen Qianxue's pair of eyebrows were also wrinkled, not shallower than her sister's.

Cutting Bing tilted his head and thought for a while, but still shook his head, "What else can the eldest master look like, the rich man is the rich man......'s appearance; There are about more than a dozen, like an errand boy in the county office. ”

"No......" The second child pinched his chin and shook his head gently.

"What's wrong!" Cutting Bing's small voice sneered at the second brother, "I said that your craftsmanship has caught up with the master master of the capital, and a dragon head makes him like this, if he shows him all the things you gave me, he will not have to add dozens of taels of silver to hire you." ”

"Your girl has seen the craftsmanship of the master of the capital again. The second child couldn't help but smile and poked his sister's head with his finger.

"Hurry up and take your guy to find him, it's time for him to leave." Cutting Bing brushed the second brother's hand away, and dragged out the voice like a coquette. She was really afraid of missing this windfall, this opportunity for the world to see the second brother's ability.

The second half squatted down, holding his sister's face with both hands, and staring at her eyes seriously.

"You go to Wang Lun'er's house and call him, I'll pack up my things, and we'll see you at the entrance of Dongjie, okay?"

Cutting Bing pursed his lips, and his pair of watery eyes seemed to have a lot to say, but in the end he nodded obediently.

The second brother smiled warmly, squinting his eyes, and wrinkles appeared at the corners of his eyes. He stood up on his knees, and Cutting Bing thought he was leaving, but suddenly there was a squirting above his head. The second brother's hands are delicate and moist, and through his hair, he can also feel the slightest warmth.