The passenger ship went down the Tongtian River, and the north wind in winter puffed up the sails to the brim, and the ship went very fast, and it could sail about 130 or 40 miles in a day.

Strictly speaking, this speed is not fast, not to mention the speed of Pan Long's movement against the wind, the heroes of the rivers and lakes gallop wildly, and every time they go to a town, they change horses, and they can run seven or eight hundred miles a day, more than five times as much.

However, for ordinary people, traveling by boat is the most comfortable way to travel on the premise of taking into account speed.

If you take a carriage, it will be about thirty or forty miles a day, and at most about fifty miles, which is almost the limit. Unless you can pull the cart with a Maxima, you have to let the horse rest. Even if you rush in this way, you have to change horses every two or three hundred miles, otherwise the horses will not be able to bear it at all.

If you rely on your feet to travel, the sturdy Jianghu guests can run faster and more durable than horses, but the taste is definitely not pleasant.

As for the so-called "eight hundred miles of fast horses and whips" - in the case of no magic transmission, in this way, a group of horses will basically die at one time, and even the messenger himself, after the letter is delivered, he will often have a serious illness. In those legendary stories of "traveling thousands of miles in a day, killing enemies and returning", the protagonists are generally congenital masters, and ordinary people's physique is incomparable to them.

Pan Long was not in a hurry, so he could take the boat leisurely.

Anyway, Yangzhou is there, and it won't run away with long legs, so what's the difference between a few days faster and a few days slower?

A few people on the same boat were also compatible with him: the scholar's name was Li Ci, whose name was Minnong, who came from Yizhou Zigui, was 19 years old this year, and went to Yangzhou to study; his scholar's name was Li Shun, who had no name for the time being, and was only 14 this year.

As his name suggests, Li Ci is very generous, almost never arguing with others, except for looking at the scenery on weekdays, he is reading in the cabin; Li Shun is clever and diligent, busy in addition to taking care of Li Ci, he often helps others, and gets along well with everyone.

The swordsman was called Yan Falcon, and he only said that he was from Yizhou and had a name, called "Jiangshang Gull". He has good light skills, good eyesight, often works as a bodyguard, and is a well-known lone ranger.

The Li family's property is quite solid, so they hired him to protect Li Ci's master and servant. And he happened to be going to Yangzhou to do business, so he pushed the boat down the river and did this business that was actually not very profitable.

The ship's boss's surname is Jiang, and he is in his early fifties this year. He has been a sailor since he was a child, inherited the ship at the age of twenty, and has been doing business on the river for almost thirty years. More than forty years of sailing career left him with a pair of red rotten eyes blown by the river wind, two bright red cheeks, and deep wrinkles on his face and hands.

There were also four sailors on board, one was Xiao Jiang, the eldest son of Lao Jiang, who was exactly thirty years old after the New Year. But he has been on the water for more than 20 years and is also an old sailor. According to Lao Jiang, in two years, when he chooses a zodiac auspicious, he will officially hand over the boat to his son and go ashore to retire himself.

The other two sailors, one surnamed Zhang and the other surnamed Li, were both in their twenties and thirties, when they were young and strong. The sailor surnamed Li still has some distant relatives with Li Ci's family, and the reason why Li Ci took this ship is also an important reason.

These people are all married and have a clean family, and they are first-class good citizens.

"My dad asked me if I wanted to farm and become a farmer. I just said that farming depends on God's face to live, it's not interesting, it's better to sail. So my father had no choice, so he gave more than 20 acres of land to his younger brother. At dinner, everyone drank some wine and talked about family life, Xiao Jiang smiled and said, "Although sailing is actually very risky, I am familiar with this, and I have some bottom in my heart." ”

"Actually, there's nothing wrong with farming. Li Shun said, "If you can have more than 20 acres of land, it is enough to feed the family steadily, and there is really no need to take any more risks." ”

"But I have to learn from scratch, and my heart is always unsteady. ”

Li Shun had to say more, Yan Falcon had already poured a glass of wine for Xiao Jiang: "Okay, drink and drink." Manly man, since the matter has been decided, then it must go on no matter what. In this life, it is long to say, but in fact, it is also short, and there is not so much time for you to change your mind. That's it, there's nothing wrong with that. ”

Pan Long and Li Ci both nodded their heads in agreement.

Li Shun tilted his head, thought for a while, still didn't understand, and asked Li Ci for advice. Li Ci went back to the cabin and took out a Buddhist scripture and told him a story to the Buddhist scripture.

That story is about a celestial man who was wise since he was a child, and he was determined to pursue the supreme Dharma. He continued to study this method and that method, and every time he could gain something, he would often find a method that he felt was better, so he changed his approach.

The years have passed, and before you know it, this celestial man has become old. His limbs no longer had strength, his mind was no longer clear, and even his body, which was supposed to be clean of dirt, was filthy and stenched, and he was about to die.

And until this time, he had still not been able to find his ideal Supreme Dharma.

As legendary beings, the life span of celestial beings is extremely long, and it is said that they can live for tens of thousands of years, which is simply longer than the written history of the Kyushu world.

But even tens of thousands of years are not enough for him to keep changing his mind.

And when this celestial man passed away, more than one of the great masters of Zhengguo who held a memorial ceremony for him was duller than him, and many of the great masters cultivated the methods that he had abandoned and looked down on.

This story is quite long, and Li Ci is also a good storyteller, telling it eloquently and meaningfully.

Pan Long didn't know if Li Shun understood it, but at least he felt that he had gained a lot from listening to this story.

If a person wants to achieve something, he must first make up his mind, then find a feasible way, and finally do it firmly.

He didn't think there was anything wrong with that celestial's method, and the reason why it failed was nothing more than the storyteller's use of exaggerated rhetorical devices. But if Pan Long himself can't strengthen his beliefs, he wants to rebel today, and he wants to be an official tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow he feels that there is no point in going into seclusion...... Even if he could live for hundreds of years, he would definitely not achieve anything in the end.

Maybe he can rely on the Nine Turns Xuangong cultivation to grow up and be immortal, but is this kind of immortality that goes with the flow really what he wants?

No, he thought.

In fact, people do not necessarily have to live forever, they can live a wonderful life, glow their own brilliance, and even illuminate more people, an era, and history...... That's good, good, even better than immortality.

Neither Zhao Sheng nor Wen Chao were able to live forever, but who would think that they were worse than those immortals?

Anyway, Pan Long thinks that if a manly man can have the same achievements as Zhao Sheng and Wen Chao, even if he only lives for a hundred years, it will be worth it!

(Haha, I think these are actually very early!, whether it's immortality or immortality, or making meritorious contributions, I haven't seen a single word yet, why are you thinking so much?)

(According to the original plan, go all over Kyushu, think about how to create a rebellion against the Great Xia Dynasty, and find more like-minded people by the way.) ）

The passenger ship stayed overnight, rushed during the day, found a safe place to anchor at night, and gradually passed through Jingzhou and headed towards Yangzhou day by day.

Along the way, Pan Long noticed that wooden stakes were often inserted next to the pavilions by the river, and a withered corpse was tied to the stakes.

"What's going on?" he asked.

Yan Falcon was the most well-informed and explained to him: "That is a new custom in Jingzhou over the years. When they caught the bandits, they often killed them, tied their bodies to a pillar, and planted the pillars in the wilderness. ”

"Even if it's a bandit, you should be buried in the ground. If you want to show the public, isn't a human head enough?"

Yan Falcon shook his head: "In the past, it was also used to show the public, but in recent years, the situation in Jingzhou has become more and more corrupt, and there are more and more bandits. The methods of repression by the imperial court gradually became more and more severe, and the methods of public display also changed. ”

Pan Long furrowed his eyebrows, feeling that something was not quite right.

Is it really more deterrent to show the public with wooden stakes tied to the corpses than to show the public with human heads?

He didn't think so.

The key to the deterrent power of the public display comes from "who is dying".

This is like the poetry club in the literary world, if you go to some literati who write three or four thousand words a day, can only find some casual idlers to read their books, and their hands are numb and they are just supporting their families, then no matter how much they go, the status of this poetry club will not be high.

On the contrary, if you go to those who go in and out of the court of the Son of Heaven and are well-known inside and outside Kyushu, even if there are only ten or eight, it can be called a literary event.

...... Of course, there are not many writers, and it seems that it is not easy to gather ten or eight. If those who rely on changing the appearance of articles outside Kyushu, or even going down to the three-way description to attract attention, this kind of goods will become famous, but they are not as good as those literati who honestly support their families!

Because of some suspicions in his heart, Pan Long went ashore one day when the passenger ship was moored at a pier.

The night at the pier is still quite lively, and the restaurants and inns are open. He found a brightly lit restaurant, went in and sat in the corner, and ordered some food and drinks. A person poured himself a drink, and sat until the guests gradually dispersed, and then asked the shopkeeper about the wooden stakes by the river where the corpses were tied.

"Those wooden stakes...... shopkeeper looked left and right, revealing a little embarrassed.

Pan Long smiled and took out a small piece of broken silver and put it on the table.

The shopkeeper immediately grabbed the silver in his hand, leaned in front of him, and said in a lower voice: "The guest officer doesn't know, those wooden stakes, it is said that the public is small, and the victory is big. ”

"What do you mean by this?"

"Guest officer, you don't look very old, have you ever heard of the bloody whitewash of Baixi County back then?"

"I have heard a little, it is said that at that time, Di Luonan led the army to quell the rebellion and killed hundreds of thousands of people. ”

After that killing, the entire Baixi County became a ghost domain, and it is said that for a while, there were ghosts crying on the road in broad daylight. Whether it is a warrior or a warlock, as long as he enters Baixi County, no matter how he protects himself, he will also transform into a ghost and monster in a short period of time, and he will not be spared. The shopkeeper looked scared, thinking that he was imagining such a scene, and he scared himself.

He shook his head, sighed, and said, "But now, guest officer, have you heard that Baixi County is still haunted?"

"But no. ”

"That's because of the Nightmare Victory. Probably three or five years after the haunting of Baixi County, a warlock approached the imperial court and said that he had a way to solve the problem. According to the guidance of this warlock, the imperial court set up 3,600 magic piles around Baixi County and buried hundreds of Weisheng Town artifacts before Baixi County was completely suppressed. ”

The shopkeeper sighed: "Although no one dares to enter Baixi County now, at least it is indeed not haunted over there." ”

Pan Long nodded: "I roughly understand, could it be that these wooden stakes by the river are also related to Baixi County?"

"Not really. The shopkeeper looked left and right again, and his voice became quieter and quieter, "A few years ago, there were rumors that 'Jianglong turned over and changed the dynasty' The court was very angry about this, on the one hand, it was tracking down the origin of this rumor, and on the other hand, it wanted to suppress Jianglong. These wooden stakes were used as the town objects of the Nightmare Victory Technique to suppress Jiang Long. ”

"Jianglong, there is indeed a dragon king living in the Tongtian River, with the power of the Great Xia Imperial Court, it is not difficult to talk to this dragon king, why use the Nightmare Victory Technique?"

“...... I don't know about this, you see, I'm a hotel guy, and I can only listen to some rumors from others on weekdays. The villain really hasn't heard anyone talk about this question you asked. ”

Pan Long nodded, gave him another piece of broken silver, then bought some wine and meat, returned to the ship, and distributed it to the sailors on night duty.

Back in the cabin, he pondered the question silently.

The shopkeeper has limited knowledge, but since even he knows it, this rumor about Wei Sheng should have spread all over Jingzhou.

What was the Jingzhou Imperial Court thinking, and why should such rumors be tolerated?

Moreover, if they really believe in "Jianglong turning over and changing the dynasty", then they should also go to trouble the Tongtian Jianglong King.

Tongtianjiang Dragon King has strong skills, but no matter how strong he is, he is nothing more than a demon god. Even if the Jingzhou Imperial Court can't deal with him, can't it deal with him with the ability of the Great Xia Dynasty?

The number one demon god in Kyushu is Bi Lingkong, not the Dragon King of Tongtianjiang.

Moreover, Teacher Bi Lingkong once said that the reason why she was invincible and made the Great Xia court retreat was not only because of her strong strength, but more importantly, she came and went like the wind, never stayed in the same place for too long, and never showed concern about anything.

is unrestrained, so there are no flaws to grasp, so the Great Xia court can not do anything.

The Dragon King wants to live in the Dragon Palace, and there are dragon sons and grandsons to worry about, why does he make the Great Xia Imperial Court dare not attack him?

Pan Long thought about these questions for a long time, but he still couldn't think of an answer.

At the end of the day, he could only be sure of one thing.

The situation in Jingzhou is not good, compared to Yongzhou, I am afraid that it is even worse.

Among the Kyushu states in Great Xia, at least the four states he had seen didn't look like they had been quiet for years......