At dawn, the rooster came from the bottom of the hill, and at first there were sporadic one or two sounds, and after a while, the roosters in the villages near and far woke up, echoing each other, and ringing into one sound. The sound was so loud that it reached the foothold of Zhao Gao and others on the mountain, and it was still heard clearly.

Zhao Gao sat up and looked at the morning glow in the east, red as blood, as if it was quite unusual to indicate the coming day, and he couldn't help but beat his heart faster. Gao Yang also got up, sat on the edge of the boulder in thick clothes, and was using a brush to draw the whole picture of Daqing Mountain on straw paper. The rays of the morning sun shone through, staining the air red, and Gao Yang's whole person was like being soaked in snow water, and the color of his face was as red as fire.

The bottom of the mountain was covered in a thick fog, and as the morning sun rose, the veil slowly lifted.

Where the sun rises is a sea, and the distance from here is only a hundred miles. Zhao Gao asked in his heart: I heard the elders in Taohu say that the east of Daqing Mountain is a vast grassland, and now it is the sea, could it be that what earthquake and tsunami have been experienced, which caused great changes in the mountains and rivers?

There is a thin white line on the west side of the sea, which is supposed to be the embankment. Inside the embankment is a plain, extending to the primeval forest in the south, and to the foot of the chaotic mountain in the north, which is more than 70 miles wide from east to west and more than 200 miles long in the south. On the west side of the plain, from north to south, there are more than 100 villages, from where smoke rises.

To the west of the village is a large river that flows from Daqingshan, and through manual management, the walls around Daqingshan flow from north to south, and many channels are diverted to irrigate the farms' fertile fields, and finally flow to the forests in the south, where endless swamps are formed.

On the west side of the river is the city wall of Daqingshan, which is built against the mountain, forming a semicircle, with a city gate in the middle, which leads down to the village under the mountain. From the city gate to the top is a wide until, at this moment the dust and fog gradually dissipated, you can see the city inside the city wall, it is a stone city, the style of the house is very different from Peach Lake, are all cyan courtyards, red high-rise buildings. In the middle of the city, there is a south-facing avenue, lined with rows of shops, and early risers shuttle through it, a busy scene.

Further up is a mountain gate, and there are dozens of wings on both sides of the south side of the door. After the wing room, in the middle is a magnificent hall, fragrant mist, melodious bells. Behind the main hall, near the cliff, there is a small courtyard, and the courtyard has a sky-high pavilion, about eighteen floors.

Zhao Deng finished looking at the whole picture of Daqing Mountain, and the other three also woke up. At this time, Gao Yang also sketched a sketch of the situation in Daqingshan on paper. The three of them came over to look at Daqingshan for a while, and then looked at Gao Yang's drawing for a while.

Li Feng opened a pocket and said to everyone, "Let's eat." ”

While eating, Zhao Sheng said, "This is definitely not the Daqing Mountain that the elders said. What do we do now? ”

Zhao Gao looked at the four of them and said firmly: "We can't just go back after a trip, we have to find out who lives in Daqing Mountain now." ”

Gao Hong asked, "How do you figure it out?" The elders told us not to come into contact with them. ”

Li Feng retorted: "If you don't contact them, how do you know what has happened in the past forty years?" ”

Gao Hong shook his head and said, "I know what you mean, I want to pretend to be a local and go into the city, but we don't know anything about this place. ”

Zhao Gao snorted and said, "I want to go and touch the situation in the village under the mountain first." You stay here and wait for me. ”

Li Feng was dissatisfied, and said: "What is this, if you want to go, you will naturally go, or if you don't go, then you won't go, how can there be a reason for you to take risks alone." ”

Gao Hong continued: "Let's come out this time, Brother Zhao is the leader, let's listen to Brother Zhao." ”

After a moment of silence, Zhao Sheng asked again: "Shall we go down or not?" ”

Li Feng sighed and said, "Of course it's going down." But we can't dress up like this, we have to steal a few clothes from the village and change them out. ”

Zhao Gao said to Gao Yang: "Why don't you stay here and guard your luggage." ”

"No!" Gao Yang shook his head and said, "I also want to go down and have a look, I can't come for nothing." ”

At about eight o'clock in the morning, the five of them went down the mountain to a village called Zhaozhuang in the east, stole a few clothes that they were drying and put them on, then found a remote place, hid their bags, and walked along the east side of the river towards the city gate.

Under the city gates, there were two rows of more than a dozen soldiers, checking the people entering and leaving the city.

On the east side of the stone bridge sat a group of black people, all dressed as farmers. In the center of them sat an old man with a white beard, smoking a dry cigarette while the crowd laughed. Zhao Gao and the five people came over and squatted on the ground to listen to them. At this time, a young man smiled and asked, "It must have been the second half of the night, right?" ”

The old man took a puff of dry smoke, nodded, and said, "That big yellow dog is also a ruthless character, lying in the nest and seeing someone sneak in, it doesn't bark, but when he gets closer, it rushes over and bites his thigh!" Frightened, he shouted into the house, 'Sister-in-law, it's me'. No one in the house agreed. The dog was human, and when he saw that his master did not agree, he became more and more bold, and bit off a piece of meat from his thigh in one bite. The living conditions of the dog are too good, every day is big fish and big meat, either braised or steamed, delicious, so I really can't look down on the two or two bloody white meat on the slippery head and legs, so after biting it down, I suddenly felt poisoned, and I spit it out, and quickly ran to the river to pout————"

The crowd laughed.

The old man's eyebrows fluttered, and he said energetically: "After rinsing his mouth, he felt that his mouth was still weak, and he went to the vegetable garden to eat two mouthfuls of coriander and brush his teeth——"

The young man just now burst into tears and asked, "Uncle Huang, did you see it with your own eyes?" ”

The old man tilted his head, glared at the young man, and said, "Little Liuzi, who do you think of me?" How is that not what I saw with my own eyes? I thought there were thieves in the village, so I shouted, so the dogs in the alley of our house ran out, formed a team, and attacked the slippery head! ”

At this time, a man on the outskirts of the crowd said to his companion, "No wonder the dog barked all night last night, and it turned out to be a thief." ”

Everyone wanted to listen to the old man's story, but the old man waved his hand, put away his cigarette pouch, and said, "Tomorrow." The manager of the Ma Wangfu is here, and I have to go over to say hello and see what business there is today. So saying, he got up and walked out of the crowd, and stood by the bridge.

I saw a rich middle-aged man walking out of the city gate hole, followed by two blue-clothed entourage, and before he crossed the bridge, the old man bowed and greeted: "Manager Cao, the old man greets you!" ”

Manager Cao snorted and said, "Old pedestrian, we need manpower in the Ma Wangfu recently, you pick me twenty young and strong, with quick hands and feet, waiting for me here." ”

The old man bowed again, nodded and said, "I'll do it immediately, you can rest assured." After the three of them walked away to the market town, they turned around and walked to the crowd and shouted, "All stand up." ”

This sentence is really good, and the people who were sitting around immediately stood in two rows, waiting for the old man to come and choose. I saw the old man walking around in front of the crowd, looking at it casually, and saying "you". And the man who had been struck went to the bridge and stood.

Five people also stood in this group. Li Feng asked Zhao Gao in a low voice: "What if I am hit?" ”

Zhao Gao said: "Act on the opportunity. Those who are not selected should find an inn in the town first, and don't forget to leave a contact sign. ”

The old man walked up to a young man and looked at him, and asked, "Look at your good face, which village are you from?" ”

The young man hesitated and did not answer.

The old man glanced at it and walked over.

Gao Hong asked Zhao Gao in a low voice: "Which village are we from?" ”

Zhao Gao was thinking about it, and the old man had already walked in front of him, and said to himself: "There are a lot of descendants today." Asked Zhao Gao: "Which village are you from?" ”

Zhao Gao replied: "Zhao Zhuang." ”

The old man asked again: "Which Zhao Zhuang?" ”

Zhao Gao replied: "That Zhao Zhuang in the south." ”

The old man nodded, stretched out his finger and pointed at Zhao Gao, Li Feng, and Gao Hong, and said, "You, you, you, you three go over!" ”

Before Zhao Gao left, he looked at Zhao Sheng and Gao Yang, and the two nodded silently at him, meaning to rest assured.

As soon as the three of them walked into the line by the bridge, they heard a burst of laughter in the crowd behind them, and when they looked back, they saw a tall and thin man walking from the East Street, with a white cloth bandaged on his left thigh.

The joker named Xiao Liuzi joked that he said: "The toad wanted to eat swan meat, but the meat was not eaten, but it was bitten by a dog, is it uncomfortable, slippery head?" ”

The slippery head immediately blushed, straightened his neck and said: "I haven't eaten swan meat, I've seen swan meat, who is like you, all of them have a thief's heart but no thief's guts!" The people laughed at him for a while. He didn't care, limped up to the old man, and said, "Old man, no matter what, you have to assign me some work today, otherwise I won't have the money to see a doctor." ”

The old man shook his head and said, "You can wait here for a while." ”

Slippery pointed to the person standing at the head of the bridge and said, "Thank you, I'll go to the line." ”

The old man grabbed his head and said, "Those people are going to King Ma's mansion, you are limping now, looking for a fight?" ”

The slippery head said, "I have a wound on my leg, but I can still use my two arms." ”

The old man pushed the slippery head back and said, "Today is the person who Mr. Cao personally came to ask for, don't make trouble for me!" ”

was pushing, Mr. Cao walked back with two entourages, one of the entourages was holding a box of snacks and the other was holding a jar of wine. Manager Cao asked the old man: "How is it, have you found all the people?" ”

The old man hurriedly laughed and said, "It's all together, you can take it away now." So saying, he took the jar of wine from the hands of his attendants.

Manager Cao took out a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to the old man, who took it with both hands respectfully. Manager Cao said: "These are all the gifts we bought in Mawangfu, I have already read them, you bring someone to transport the gifts to the city." Remember, don't bump it. ”

The old man nodded again and again, and said, "Don't dare, we must be very careful!" ”

Chief Cao snorted and went back to the city with his entourage.

The old man greeted the twenty men and said, "Let's go, boys, let's earn money!" ”