Half a month later, we entered the boundary of Lingzhou.

Lingzhou, known as Lingyuan in ancient times, is hilly and undulating, fragrant grass, and sparsely populated; As far as the eye can see, you can see the sky and the earth.

The caravan of the Xujia was running along the official road, and at the end was a rickety carriage.

I rode around the neighborhood on a little black horse.

Suddenly, a scrawny man appeared next to the mound in front of him.

This man carried a rattan basket in his hand, covered it with a cloth, and kept shouting: "Brute, brute, good big brute." ”

A cold wind blew, and the man sneezed.

"Little cripple." The long-haired sister lifted the curtain of the carriage and said to me, "I've been eating dry food for a few days in a row, and I just want to buy a few steamed buns to taste." ”

So I turned my horse's head, ran to the man, and asked him, "How do you sell this steamed bun?" ”

"It's cheap." The man's full local accent, "Ten big coins a piece." ”

"Is this still cheap?" I pouted.

In Yuanzhou, steamed buns usually have two big coins a lot, even if the price is expensive, it doesn't exceed two big coins and one, and his opening is ten big coins, which is heavenly.

But I didn't care, and threw him a piece of broken silver directly: "Master, I want it all." ”

Rich, just so capricious!

"Pick it up." The man's eyes lit up and he handed me the rattan basket directly.

"No matter how good the steamed buns are, there is no meat." I sighed, lifted the cover, and prepared to take a steamed bun and try it.

As soon as the gab was lifted, my hand shook violently, and the basket almost flew out.

The 'steamed buns' in this basket really have meat!

What kind of steamed buns, inside are round human heads.

Fortunately, I didn't take the basket back directly, otherwise I would have suffered a meal of flesh and skin.

I squinted at the man.

The man was probably afraid that I would snatch the broken silver back, so he clasped his hands tightly and said; "Goods...... No refunds will be given for the goods that go out. ”

"Do you have a door here?" I was furious.

"Guest...... The guest ......," the man stammered, "you...... It's from out of town. ”

"Outsiders are easy to bully?" I glared at him.

"It's not." The man explained, "You are a foreigner, you don't understand the common sayings in our country, my brute head, not your steamed buns." ”

He talked for a long time before I figured out the difference between a mantou and a steamed bun.

It turns out that this barbarian head is the head of a barbarian.

"Can you sell heads for money?" I wondered, "Who wants this?" What's the use? ”

"Guest, in fact, this is ......" The man saw that I did not mean to return the silver, and his heart was much calmer, so he knew everything, said everything, and told me the ins and outs of this brute business.

It is said that Lingzhou is the westernmost state capital of the land of 99 states, where the landform is dominated by hills, Gobi and deserts, bordering the wild ancient realm, and from time to time there will be barbarian people crossing the border to burn and kill and plunder.

As long as the barbarian plague does not cross a certain boundary, the officials and the army do not want to take care of it, but there is a civil force in the desert that has been fighting with the barbarians for many years and has made a name for itself.

This force is called the 'Sand Pirates'.

In Lingzhou, there has always been a saying of 'one wolf, three camels'; One of the wolves refers to the barbarians, and the three camels are: Tang Qi, Sand Thief, and Golden City.

Tang Qi and Jincheng will not talk about him for the time being, just talk about this sand thief, although the name has the word "thief", but they pay attention to robbing the rich and helping the poor, killing barbarians, dividing gold and silver, and sheltering the people, so they won the hearts of the people, and often people went to join the gang.

But the sand thieves are not recruiting workers in the store, they can be joined casually, and they have to be tested.

This kind of test, everyone believes that they also know a little bit about it.

Vote for the name!

To put it simply, it is to kill a person as a token of joining the gang.

The biggest enemy of the sand thieves is the barbarians, and their name is naturally the head of the barbarian.

However, there are countless people who want to join the sand pirates, and how many have the ability to kill the barbarians and surrender to the name?

As a result, the business of selling brute heads came into being.

As the saying goes, if there is demand, there is business, and if there is business, there is killing, because of this business of selling barbarians, the number of barbarians entering the country has greatly decreased in recent years, and the power of sand thieves is booming, which people did not expect in advance.

After listening to the man's story, I couldn't help but secretly exclaim, the world is really strange, you don't come to this mausoleum place, how can you encounter such a strange thing as 'selling a barbarian head'?

"You killed all these barbarians?" I asked the man again.

"How can a small one do this?" The man said honestly, "These are all killed by others, and the little one is just a middleman." ”

Although I was very interested in the peculiar folk customs of Lingzhou, I was not enough to get to the bottom of it, so I returned the rattan basket full of 'barbarian heads' to the man and left directly.

When they returned to the carriage and told Sister Changfa and Xiaohua about this anecdote, they both felt incredible, and they had a little more understanding and vigilance about this fierce Lingzhou.

After another day of walking, the sand particles in the wind gradually increased, and the hills disappeared, replaced by various Gobi Deserts in the Pingchuan River.

Zhang Heng told me that a few hundred miles further on, it would be time to enter the mysterious and boundless desert.

Until then, the caravan will have to find a place to resupply.

"Go this way." The newly hired guide, Homa, ran barefoot on the gravel floor.

The caravan turned.

After a while, a lone building appeared in front of me.

Low earth walls, hay sheds, bamboo tube buildings...... Everything looks shabby and broken.

When the wind blew, the half-hanging window frames shook.

"There's no one here, right?" Zhang Heng frowned.

"Originally, there were people." He Ma also felt a little surprised, "I haven't been here for a month, and I didn't expect it to go out of business." ”

"What is this place?" I asked curiously.

"This is the Horse Stack." Zhang Heng said, "Don't look at this small place, things are broken, and the caravans that pass by every year are by no means less than the big horse inns in Yuntong Town." ”

"If it goes out of business, it goes out of business." He Ma walked around the dilapidated house and came out and said, "This is not an uncommon thing in Lingzhou, I will take you to another place." ”

Before leaving, I took a look and noticed that the sign that was broken in two read 'Dragon Gate Horse Inn'.

Maybe a lot of interesting things happened here.

Leaving the closed Longmen Horse Inn, the caravan walked along a rocky mountain, passing through ravines until the sky was covered with red glow, and smoke appeared in front of it.

"It's okay, the village is still there." "But this is only a small village, and the owner's caravan is crowded with many people and carts, and I am afraid that it will not be so easy to get supplies, so I may have to stay here for a few more days." ”

"Stay for a few days, stay for a few days." Xu Lang shook the folding fan and said, "Just experience the beautiful scenery of this desert people." ”

Looking at this small village with only a few dozen families in front of me, I suddenly felt a strange feeling in my heart.

Isn't this kind of place particularly suitable for bizarre murders?