The three of us chatted as we walked, and returned to the city of Shanhaiguan. It's still early, just in the afternoon, and it's still some distance from the evening hours. We just don't have anything to do at this time, so we might as well go shopping, and just relax the tension of the three of us looking for clues all the way in the past two days.

In the fourteenth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1381), the general Xu Da was ordered to build the Great Wall here, and build the city here, because it is located between the mountains and the sea, so it is called Shanhaiguan. The plane of Shanhaiguan is square, there are city gates on all sides, east, west, south and north are respectively called "town east gate", "Ying'en gate", "Wangyang gate" and "Weiyuan gate". The Shanhaiguan city wall is 14 meters high, 7 meters thick, and has a circumference of about 4 kilometers. The exterior is covered with green bricks, and the inside is filled with rammed earth. A moat with a depth of 8 meters and a width of 17 meters was excavated outside the wall to surround the east, south and north sides, and a suspension bridge was erected. There is a bell and drum tower in the center of the city. The Ming Dynasty city wall building of Shanhaiguan is basically intact, it is a cultural ancient city, the main streets and alleys, most of which retain the historical original. In fact, the first pass in the world does not just refer to a checkpoint, it includes Shanhaiguan City, Dongluo City and the "first pass in the world" city tower, Muying Building, Jingbian Building, Linlu Tower, etc. The first gate tower in the world, towering on the Great Wall, looks at the four fields. Ascend to the second floor of the city tower, you can overlook the whole picture of Shanhaiguan City and the wilderness outside the pass. You can see the sea in the south and the Great Wall in the north. Therefore, the ancients had the saying that "the lock and key of the two capitals are incomparable, and the first pass of the Great Wall of Ten Thousand Miles".

I, the fat man, and Shirley Yang walked all the way, and came to the bottom of the east gate, and we looked up to see that the five vigorous and powerful characters of "the first pass in the world" in the center of our heads were reflected in front of our eyes. These five words are written so brightly that the three of us can't help but applaud it.

"Lao Hu, you see that this character is so fucking beautiful, hook when it should be hooked, turn when it should be turned, it is called a beautiful writing. Although it's a little worse than the fat man's mine, it's already very good-looking, but who wrote such beautiful words? ”

"Little fatty, you don't know this, the origin of these words, and a story, you listen to me tell you. It is said that more than 500 years ago, Emperor Chenghua of the Ming Dynasty had a whim and personally issued an edict to hang a large plaque entitled "The First Pass in the World" on the tower of Shanhaiguan City. At that time, a director of the Ministry of War guarded Shanhaiguan, Xiaopang, do you know what position the director of the Ministry of War is? ”

"Lao Hu, correct your attitude, you hurry up and go straight to the point, fat man, I'll wait."

After receiving the holy decree, the head of the military department did not dare to slack off, and immediately sent someone to climb the arrow tower and measured the size, about one zhang and eight feet long and five feet wide. Then he asked the carpenter to make a huge plaque. The plaque is ready, but the most important thing is who to ask to write it? The calligraphy masters of the Ming Dynasty were piled up, and the head of the military department pondered for a day and a night, and finally remembered a person. This person's surname is Xiao Mingxian, who was born in two Jinshi, and his calligraphy is vigorous and smart, which is very in line with the idea of this principal. It just so happened that Xiao Xian resigned because of his old age and returned home to Shanhaiguan for leisure. The head of the military department personally visited Xiao's house early the next morning and explained his intentions. Xiao Xian is not a person who can use it if he wants to, he thought about it and pondered for a long time before nodding in agreement. However, Xiao Xian said that when writing this kind of words, you can't rush or rush, and you can't wait until the time is ripe to do it overnight. The head of the military department had no choice but to agree. But more than 20 days have passed in a blink of an eye, and there is still no news. The head of the military department had no choice but to prepare a few things for his subordinates to send over, which meant urging Xiao Xian to start writing. After a while, his subordinates came back and reported: "Mr. Xiao gets up early every day and practices in the side courtyard greedily, as if he is playing with a long flat pole. The head of the military department is puzzled, what does this writing have to do with playing flat shoulders, no matter what he is, he has been waiting for so many days, not so many days. In a blink of an eye, it was another ten days and half a month, and there was still no response. The head of the military department was really impatient, he was originally a horse all his life, and he was also a violent temper, but when he asked for someone's door, he couldn't help it, so he asked his subordinates to prepare some good pen, ink, paper and inkstone and send them over. Soon, the servant came back and reported: 'The old gentleman is reciting poetry, what is the bright moonlight in front of the bed, it is suspected that it is frost on the ground. The head of the military department asked, 'What did he say when he saw the gift?' - he said another month. 'Wait, there's finally a deadline, so let's wait.' The next day, the head of the military department received an urgent letter from the central government, saying that the new governor of Jiliao would come to Shanhaiguan to inspect the plaque on behalf of the emperor, and it was expected to arrive within three days. It happened suddenly, but the head of the military department was in a hurry. The head of the military department felt that there was no need to wait, and immediately asked people to rush to Xiao's house with the huge plaque and a jar of ink. I hurriedly arrived at Xiao's house, and I didn't have time to greet him, so I told him the ins and outs. Mr. Xiao is also an extraordinary person, and he did not dare to slack off, so he took action immediately. I saw him, holding a pen and walking in front of the giant plaque, walking while looking at it, laughing for a while, nodding for a while. Then, suddenly, he stopped, held his breath, and walked away. I saw him, the pen is like a swallow predator, the pen is like a mountain falling stone, steady, accurate, fast, slow, the pen is with you, less is a day, 'the first pass in the world' five big characters are written. The head of the military department was also amazed, and hurriedly thanked him. Mr. Xiao said: "I was going to read ancient poems first and cultivate my temperament for a month, but unfortunately the time was too urgent—this is already very good, already very good." The head of the military department replied. In order to express his gratitude, the head of the military department hosted a banquet for Xiao Xian at the 'Yuexinzhai' restaurant under the arrow tower the next morning. After a few rounds of drinking, the guest and the host looked up against the railing, and Mr. Xiao found that the word 'down' on the huge plaque on the city tower was a little less. At this time, it was too late to go back to the house to pick up the pen and go upstairs to make up the writing, and the next person reported that the governor of Jiliao had crossed the Shihe, what should I do? Mr. Xiao is worthy of being clever, and he was in a hurry, so he immediately ordered the scholar to study ink, and then grabbed a tablecloth in the hand of the cousin, dipped it in ink, and threw it towards the huge plaque on the arrow tower with all his life's strength. I only heard the sound of 'pop', and the ink cloth fell on the lower right corner of the word 'down', making up for the 'point'. ”

"Haha, I didn't expect a small plaque to have so many stories, this Shanhaiguan is really an ancient city in the true sense."

"Actually, there is a more interesting story about Shanhaiguan, do you want to hear it?" I said.

"Of course I want to hear it, when is Lao Hu, what are you selling with us!" The fat man said.

"Lao Hu just likes to hang people's appetites, really." Shirley Yang also said angrily.

"Okay, well, since you all want to hear that, then I'll move on." I'm done with that, and I'm done with the history of that stormy meeting. "Today, we stand in front of the ancient city of Shanhaiguan, thinking about the past, how much we should think, how much we should leave behind."

A story of Shanhaiguan made Shirley Yang and the fat man feel a little heavy. Shirley Yang may be thinking about Wu Sangui's anger at the crown, and the fat man may be thinking about how many soldiers have shed so much blood here, and how many families have died and wives have been separated, and there are always many stories in ancient cities.

As soon as I saw that they were obviously not in love, I hurriedly mentioned: "Come on, come on, since we're all here, let's go shopping, I know that there is a particularly famous market next to this city tower, called Firewood Market, everything is sold, delicious and fun, let's go over there for a walk." ”

As soon as the fat man heard me say that there was something delicious, he immediately got up, and quickly nodded in agreement, and the three of us went all the way to the firewood market to see if there was anything fun and delicious.

There are a lot of people in this market, some sell fruits, some sell local snacks in Shanhaiguan, and many sell other messy things. Of course, the fat man's first reaction when he came to this place was to think of eating, he bought a lot of snacks and held them in his hands, eating while walking, like a gluttonous child. Shirley Yang and I didn't have the same appetite as he did, so we just went to the firewood market and didn't have anything to buy.

Walking around, suddenly we saw a large number of people gathered in front of us, we also went over to join in the fun, and when we got closer, it turned out to be a middle-aged man who put a big cloth on the ground to sell antiques, and he shouted while selling: "Come on, come on, don't miss it when you pass by, take a look!" These are all old antiques that I have collected, which are very collectible, and now the family urgently needs money, all of them are sold cheaply, and all of them are sold cheaply! Come and see! ”

Maybe it was a matter of professional ethics, but as soon as the fat man and I heard the word "antique", our eyes immediately lit up, and we couldn't move half a step on our feet. We pushed through the crowd of onlookers and squeezed to the front, just as an old man was playing with a clay pot on his stall, and the old man asked, "What age is this clay pot of yours, it looks so new!" ”