17th year of Thai Yuan, October.

It was just early winter, and Qujing City, located on the border of Youzhou, ushered in the first snow since the beginning of winter.

It was a big snowfall, since Emperor Taiyuan ascended the throne, every winter, is the most difficult day for the people of Youzhou.

This year is no exception.

He Laosan looked at the heavy snow outside the house, and his mood was a little gloomy.

He is not young, he is in his early forties, he has a son and two daughters under his knees, and the whole family points to the small inn he opened to feed.

It's just that the year is not good, and natural disasters are just that, Chen Guo, who has always been good friends with the Great Zhou, has not been at peace in recent years, and from time to time there is friction with the defenders of the Great Zhou outside the Tianshan Pass.

However, with that Zhao Chu and Zhao Wangye holding 100,000 halberds to guard the Tianshan Pass, the people of Youzhou are not worried about the day when Chen Guoliukou will take away their homes. It's just that there is constant friction between Chen Guo and Da Zhou, and there are many fewer walking traders going back and forth between Zhou and Chen, and the heavy snow is closing the road, and their lives are very difficult for those who rely on walking merchants to eat.

Thinking of this, He Laosan looked in the direction of the city gate again, but saw that the snow was like goose feathers, not to mention the city gate, there were few pedestrians on the street.

"Hey, it looks like I can't wait for today. ”

He Laosan sighed, and finally withdrew his gaze and slowly closed the wooden door of the inn.

He turned his head and walked to a wooden table in the door of the inn's hall.

There sat an old man, dressed in a cyan robe, with silver hair and snow-white, but his complexion was extremely ruddy, and his temperament was dusty, obviously a big family.

He was the only guest of He Laosan's inn, and he had been living here for a whole month, but he still had no intention of leaving.

He Laosan didn't ask the old man about the purpose of coming here, after all, it would be good to have guests in this situation, how could he care about anything else, but he vaguely knew from some conversations who this old man seemed to be waiting for here.

"The guest tea is cold, I'll give you some heat. He Laosan walked up to the old man and asked with a smile.

For the only customer, He Laosan still has to be thoughtful. This old gentleman is quite generous, and he is very content to meet such a customer in this difficult winter.

"No need. The old man shook his head and said with a smile.

He Laosan also nodded when he heard this, although this old man seems to be from an extraordinary background, he is extremely peaceful with people and has no shelves. Putting aside the relationship between customers and vendors, He Laosan likes to associate with such people in his heart.

"I see that you have been looking at the door at this hour every day for the past month, but what are you waiting for?" the old man took out a teacup that was upside down on the table, poured it full of tea, handed it to He Laosan, motioned for him to sit down, and asked like this.

Maybe it was because the old man's tone was kind enough, or maybe the incident had been in He Laosan's heart for too long, and it was really depressing, He Laosan hesitated slightly for a while, and then sat down beside the old man.

Then he took the tea on the table and drank it down, and then said with a calm face.

"To tell you the truth, I also have a little brother in my family, who has some skills and is not as useless as me. In the early years, he worked as an errand under King Zhao, and he also got the position of a centurion. Speaking of this, He Laosan paused and looked around, as if he was careful about something, but there were only two people in this big inn, he and the old man, and I didn't know why he was so nervous.

But Rao was after making sure that there was no one around, He Laosan still subconsciously lowered his voice and whispered in the old man's ear: "It's just that a few years ago, the Muwang of the Northwest rebelled, and I heard that the Mujia army under the Jianlong Pass was purged by the imperial court, and those who were involved in the Mujia family were dismissed. But after all, the Stegosaurus Pass is the gateway to the Great Xia Dynasty, and the imperial court has recruited people from all over the country for this purpose, and my little brother was transferred to the Stegosaurus Pass at that time, and now I haven't seen it for seven years..."

It has been eight years since the Muwang Mansion in Northwest Jizhou was led by Zhu Xian, the head of the Changye Division, to destroy the Manmen on the grounds of collaborating with the enemy and rebelling.

But the herdsman family is full of loyalty and martyrdom, and it is quite popular with the people.

At that time, the Mu family was wiped out overnight, and the people's resentment was boiling, and there was no shortage of people who gathered to make trouble on this ground. In order to prevent trouble, the imperial court has already issued a ban, but anyone who reports the matter in private discussion can get a reward or two of silver, and the reported person will be assigned to the remote area, and the worst will be beheaded on the spot. Under the heavy ceremony, the matter of the shepherd has long become a taboo in the hearts of the people, so it is no wonder that He Laosan was so cautious when talking about this matter.

But the old man's face did not change in the slightest when he heard this, he picked up the teacup in front of him and put it on his lips and sipped it gently, then nodded clearly, and said: "At the beginning of this summer, Daxia often offended my Dazhou border, which is different from the small fights outside the Tianshan Pass. It's worrying..."

"No, he's been sending letters every three months, but this time I don't know if it's because he's busy with official business or if the road is closed by heavy snow, and I haven't heard from him for almost five months. He Laosan echoed, perhaps because he was worried about his brother, and his voice couldn't help but be a little higher.

The reasons he listed were all possible, but the book had not been sent for a long time, and the side plug was extremely unpeaceful. These things are connected, what is the possibility? He Laosan didn't think about it, and he didn't dare to think about it.

The old man could naturally understand his thoughts, so it was not a little broken.

"I thought about waiting for the weather to clear, if I didn't receive the letter from home, I would leave to Jizhou to look for it, but the road was far away, and it would take at least three or four months to come and go, and I was not very relieved to keep orphans and widows at home. He Laosan seemed to have opened the chatterbox, and he kept chattering. "Alas, this world is compelling... Sir, do you really say that it is the karmic retribution of the Holy Lord's ascension to the throne for killing his father?"

The old man didn't answer this, but just comforted the third child.

The two chatted like this for a long time, and the night was getting thicker, and He Laosan estimated that there would be no more guests coming to the door today, so he thought about getting up and closing.

But just as he got up, there was a sudden sound of footsteps outside the house.

The footsteps were heavy and chaotic, as if there was more than one person coming.

Although he wondered why there would be guests at this point, after all, it was a good thing, and He Laosan still had some expectations in his heart.

Thinking about this, the door of the inn was pushed open from the outside at that time, and two figures, one old and one young, accompanied by the raging wind and snow outside the house, came into He Laosan's eyes.

That's a very strange pairing.

One is an old man who is close to the age of six, and the other is a young man in his twenties.

The old man looked sloppy, his hair was disheveled, and his sackcloth was stained with some unknown stains. It was a stark contrast to the guest who had stayed here before.

And the young man, who did not look strange, carried a long sword on his back, was dressed in black and washed a little white, and the most trembling thing was that the sleeve on his right arm was empty, obviously a broken arm.

"Meow!"

He Laosan looked at the two people who came suddenly, but at this time, a slightly dissatisfied cat meow suddenly sounded, and He Laosan came back to his senses, and then he found that the young man was still squatting with a black cat on his shoulder, and he was looking at him with his amber eyes wide at the moment.

He Laosan was a little numb by the black cat, and he hurriedly stepped forward to greet the two.

"How long have you been here?" but he had barely walked up to the two men, and the scruffy old man of the two asked suddenly.

He Laosan was stunned for a moment, and he didn't understand the meaning of these words. The old man in green shirt, who had been living here for a whole month, raised the teacup in his hand, smiled and said, "Soon, it's only a month." ”

"Hmm. The visitor nodded, in response, and then walked directly past He Laosan and walked straight to the old man in green shirts, sat down very unceremoniously, and then poured himself a cup of tea and drank it on his back.

He Laosan was stunned for a while before he came back to his senses, and he realized that this old gentleman who seemed to come from an extraordinary place seemed to know this bad old man who was so sloppy that he was almost indistinguishable from a beggar.

And he looked at the young man who had come here with the sloppy old man, and the young man's eyes also swirled back and forth on the two contrasting old men, and his eyes were full of doubts, as if he did not know that the two had known each other before.

"This is the kid you mentioned in your letter?" But the two old men didn't mean to explain their doubts to others, and saw that the old man in green shirt poured himself another cup of tea, raised his eyes to look at the young man, and turned his head to ask.

"Hmm. The sloppy old man nodded, in response.

Then he patted his stomach and said with some displeasure: "I came from afar, and you plan to let the old man catch up with you on an empty stomach?"

The old man in the green shirt smiled when he heard this, turned his head to look at He Laosan, who was a little stunned on the side, and said in a gentle voice: "There is a shopkeeper Lao to get some food for my friend, oh, and that little brother." Well, and the cat. ”

"Hey, let's go, a few slow sits. "He Laosan is also the master of knowledge, since these two visitors know this old man in green shirts, then he has nothing to worry about. Moreover, he saw that these people were acting strangely, probably not in the same way as him, and there was a way that more things were better than less things, so he simply took this opportunity to leave, but there was less trouble. Thinking like this, He Laosan nodded again and again, turned around and walked towards the inner kitchen.

Seeing that the third child walked into the kitchen, the old man in the green shirt turned his head again to look at the visitor opposite, and said with some envy: "This kid is very good." ”

"How can the person I fancy be wrong?" the sloppy old man grinned when he heard this, and seemed to be very useful to the old man in the green shirt.

"Tell me, what do you want me to do?" the old man in green shirt had some understanding of his temperament, and he glanced at the sloppy old man angrily and asked.

"This kid is really good, but it's a pity that he broke his arm. The sloppy old man's voice suddenly lowered, but his eyes looked straight at the old man in green shirt at that time.

"After all, it's half of my apprenticeship. ”

"So, I want to ask you to help me for him..."

"Pick up an arm. ”