Pan Long drove a carriage and walked along Kyushu Avenue without hurrying or slowing. The snow in the fields on both sides of the road has not yet completely melted, but you can already see the green grass seedlings below.

"With so much snow, this year's spring drought shouldn't be too severe. ”

He muttered to himself, looking around.

Soon, a village appeared in front of the road.

The villages along the Long River are in much better condition than those in other parts of Yongzhou, especially in the northern part of Yongzhou. But you can also see the corpses of people dying of cold and starvation on the side of the road - for example, there is one on the side of the road not far away, which has been eaten by wild beasts and has only white bones, and it can be seen that it is a person, but whether it is a man or a woman, old or young, Pan Long cannot tell.

He can see yin and yang, and if this person has a grievance that has not disappeared and turns into a ghost attached to the white bones, he can naturally see it. But the white bones were clean, and there was no resentment left, and the thoughts of the deceased should have long since dissipated.

I don't know if I have completely despaired of life? Or have I been dead for too long, and my soul can't bear the daily exposure?

Pan Long sighed, and with a wave of his horsewhip, the frozen solid ground next to the white bones seemed to be dug up by a shovel, and a large piece of frozen soil flew up out of thin air. Then the bones move into it, and the permafrost falls again, covering it.

"No matter how difficult you are in life, you will always be buried in the earth after death. He whispered, "That's all I can help you with." ”

The situation in Yongzhou is even worse than when he and Han Feng first entered the rivers and lakes eight years ago. Needless to say, bandits are everywhere, and even in many towns, you can see people committing murder on the streets.

Pan Long had passed through Shangluo City before, and there were officers and soldiers in the city patrolling the streets in full gear. But whenever you see a suspicious character, first draw a knife, then investigate, and if you don't agree with a word, you will go with a knife, and then you will be hacked to death.

At that time, he went to Buzhuang to buy cloth, and there was a Jianghu guest at the door who was interrogated by the officers and soldiers, and then he started to do it.

The strength of the Jianghu guest was not weak, and the six officers and soldiers were stunned and failed to take him, and they broke through by him. So the officers and soldiers chased all the way, and the chickens and dogs jumped and ran into the distance.

Pan Long frowned again and again, but the owner of the cloth village and his men were completely unmoved, still carrying the cloth without hurry, inspecting and wrapping them one by one.

"Aren't you afraid that there is a fight at the door?" Pan Long couldn't help but ask.

"Afraid it will solve the problem?" the guy asked rhetorically.

Pan Long shook his head.

"What's there to be afraid of. There was obvious resentment in the man's words, "Damn it will always die, and I can't hide from it." Of course, it is risky to go out and make money, but if you don't make money, my family will starve to death. ”

The boss also sighed: "When Prince Luonan inspected the world before, he used to pass by here. At that time, he investigated the local county ordinance and promoted officials. It is also thanks to the ability and courage of the new manifest he promoted that he can stabilize the situation. If you had passed by us three years ago, the situation would have been much worse than it is now!"

"Worse than now?"

"Yes, in the past three years, the officers and soldiers have suppressed bandits and killed thieves every day, and it can be regarded as maintaining peace within a radius of hundreds of miles. If it had been three years ago, it would have been too peaceful, and it would have been none. ”

Pan Long sighed, not knowing what to say.

"I only hope that Prince Luonan's plan will go well...... We, ordinary people, don't expect any glory and wealth, and it's best if we can all live in peace!" said the man.

Pan Long drove the carriage past the white bones that had just been buried, and when he remembered the situation at that time, he couldn't help but sigh again.

In his opinion, Tilonan's reform plan had little hope of success.

That plan was too drastic, touching the interests of too many people and moving the cake of too many forces.

But Di Luonan may also be helpless.

To govern the troubled times, we should use heavy codes. In the millennium since the founding of the People's Republic of China, all kinds of accumulated problems have reached the point where it is impossible to do without reform. If we want to carry out reforms, we will naturally touch the interests of the traditional forces, and we will inevitably have to fight.

Therefore, Di Luonan patrolled the wind with one hand and the army with the other, and made it clear that he had to rely on violent organs and directly flipped the table.

Just like Li Wu said, whether it is the patrol envoy or the military, everyone is looking forward to someone who refuses to accept Di Luonan's reform plan and jumps out to rebel.

It is absolutely impossible to rejuvenate the behemoth of the Great Xia Dynasty, without dying a large number of people, and cutting flesh, bones, and bleeding to lose weight.

"I just don't know, what the final result will be......"

Pan Long couldn't help but sigh again.

The carriage walked and walked until it reached the gate of the village. I saw that the whole village was surrounded by a high earthen wall, and at the top of the wall there were thorns and vines, and sharpened wood was stuck upside down, like spikes pointing into the air. Unless you have the ability to come and go, whether it is a human or a beast, if you climb this wall, your hands will be full of blood.

The village gate was hidden, and seven or eight strong men, wrapped in thick robes and covered with leather that used to be used as armor, carried spears and wooden shields, stood behind the gate. A little farther away, a wooden tower was erected, and there was a man in the tower looking at it, thinking it was a sentry.

It is just a village, but it has the feeling of a small fortress, which makes people have to sigh at the harsh living environment of them.

Pan Long stopped the carriage and shouted from afar: "Is this Lijia Village?"

A few seconds later, someone behind the door replied, "What about the three Lijia villages in this area, which one are you asking?"

Pan Long was stunned, he never thought that this would happen.

After thinking for a while, he asked: "I'm looking for a guy named **, he is good at using a long stick, he has been in the rivers and lakes before, and he returned home before the New Year in the fourteenth year of Renchen - does he live here?"

Someone at the door immediately asked, "What are you looking for Master 'Whistle Stick Li' for? Is it his enemy or friend?"

Pan Long smiled: "You won't believe what I say." Let's go and help me report, just say that Pan Long has come to visit an old friend. ”

Immediately, the footsteps of a man flew away, and at the same time everyone behind the door was talking. He obviously heard someone mention the name "Pan Long" more than once, and he thought that he had not mentioned himself less over the years.

After a few moments, with the sound of heavy and swift footsteps, several people came quickly. Then the door was opened, and a bearded man walked out with a few young students with a smile on his face.

When Pan Long saw this person, he was slightly stunned at first, and then reacted.

"Brother Qiang, you have this beard, you look very different from then!" he said jokingly, "I was on a boat in Jingzhou before, and the bodyguard on the ship said that I had a beard and looked like a robber - my beard is far worse than yours, if you were there at the time, that person would definitely say that you didn't talk about me." ”

The big man laughed: "Ah Long, don't you have a beard? It's just that your beard is a little shorter than mine, not as thick as me, and you look a little more like a serious person than me! In this world, it's not easy to do a good job of yourself, who cares what others think!"

This person is none other than the coachman who helped them drive the car and kill the robbers with them when Pan Long and Han Feng first entered the rivers and lakes.

At the beginning, Pan Long and Han Feng were not bad, but their experience in the rivers and lakes was seriously insufficient. ** I have also traveled the rivers and lakes, and I have much more experience than them. When walking the rivers and lakes, the two learned a lot of experience in the rivers and lakes with **, and they called each other brothers and old friends.

Later, they revealed that the county magistrate of Lushan County colluded with the mandrill to pretend to be the mountain god and deceive pedestrians to feed the mandrill in order to obtain the life-prolonging elixir produced in Lushan. Lu Shanshan held a dream in the middle of the night and gave each of the three people a bottle of longevity wine. If you drink a bottle of wine, you will get drunk for ten days, and then you can prolong your life for ten years.

** After getting this bottle of wine, I hurriedly said goodbye and rushed back to my hometown to honor my parents. And Pan Long and Han Feng continued to roam the rivers and lakes.

In a blink of an eye, the two sides have been separated for more than seven years. Today, Pan Long came to visit**, even if he didn't bring a gift, ** was very happy.

Compared with **, the people in the village were even more amazed by the cloth that Pan Long brought. These fabrics are all high-end goods, and they are also very valuable in Shangluo City, and they are even more rare in Lijia Village.

The people have always had the habit of using grain and cloth as money, and the best cloth can be used as money. For example, this kind of high-grade cloth can be worth a lot of money.

Pan Long brought twenty or thirty horses of good cloth, which was worth even a few large animals, and this gift was both heavy and practical, and the villagers liked it very much.

Seeing that everyone was staring at those cloths, ** didn't talk nonsense, and directly divided the cloth. Except for leaving two horses to take home to honor the two elders, the others are presided over by the old people in the village, and the families are divided one by one to ensure fairness.

He carried the two pieces of cloth in one hand and Pan Long's shoulder in the other, talking and laughing, and went to his house.

Before I arrived at the ** house, I could hear the sound of clanging iron in the distance. Pan Long even saw a flickering fire in the distance, but it was a blacksmith shop.

"My family's ancestral blacksmith craft. ** explained, "When I was in the rivers and lakes, I just refused to follow my father to become a blacksmith. When I returned home and relearned the craft, I found that it was also very interesting to strike iron. Probably our family was born with the blood of a blacksmith. ”

"There's nothing wrong with being a blacksmith, being able to build your own farm tools and weapons, I guess it has helped you a lot over the years, right?"

"Well, do you see the spears and spears used by the boys at the gate of the village? ** proudly said, "My craftsmanship is blue, much better than my father!"

Before he finished speaking, an angry old man's voice came from inside the blacksmith shop.

"Phew! What kind of nonsense are you stinky boy! Old man, I learned to use a small hammer at the age of eight, and I picked up a sledgehammer at the age of fourteen, and I have been playing iron for almost 60 years.

As he spoke, the sound of thrashing stopped, and an old man with a Chinese face, looking very serious, broad shoulders and a thick chest and back, looked like a burly old man, walked out of the blacksmith shop.

It's still quite cold today, and the ground is frozen. But this old man was shirtless, wearing only a pair of shorts, but he didn't look cool. On the contrary, it is the strong muscles on his body that show his strong strength, proving that his body is still very strong, and there is no sign of aging.

Pan Long even noticed that the Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi was gathering around this old man, and it could be stirred by the True Qi in his body at any time, turning into an earth-shattering blow.

He couldn't help but be stunned in his heart, he didn't expect to meet an innate master in this small village.

Moreover, this innate master turned out to be the father of his friend......

He turned his head to look at **: "Brother Qiang, Uncle is strong in martial arts, why haven't you learned?"

**'s expression suddenly fell: "How did I know that our family's 'Iron Fist Practice' exercise can only be practiced in iron! Dad refused to tell me before......"

"Phew, you kid is so ambitious, you think about practicing magic skills all day long, of course I don't dare to teach you real kung fu, old man!" his father said angrily, "When I was in the rivers and lakes, I relied on this magic skill to kill many enemies, and I also had quite enemies. If you can't practice this kung fu well and practice it at home, then it's better not to practice it - you don't know this kung fu, at least you won't be recognized by the enemy!"

After he finished training his son, he said to Pan Long: "Ah Qiang, he often boasts that he has two friends with high skills and upright character, I thought that he would be similar to him, but I didn't expect it to be such a character! Old man Li Wen, when he was in the rivers and lakes, there was a bandit called 'Iron Temperer' - with your ability, you probably have never heard of a little person like me. ”

Pan Long really hadn't heard of any "Iron Refiner Li Wen", he had mainly been active in Yizhou and Yunzhou over the years, and he didn't know much about the situation of Yongzhou martial arts.

And looking at Li Wen's appearance, the time to break through the innate realm should not be very long, and when he thinks about it, he hasn't even reached the innate realm yet.

A person who has not even reached the innate realm, to put it mildly, he really won't remember the other party's name carefully.

Of course, Pan Long would not say these words, and immediately said a few words with a smile on his face. Li Wen smiled and shook his head, but he didn't argue anything, and accompanied them into the house.

In addition to Li Wen, there were two women in the room, old and young. The old woman is naturally the mother of **, she has gray hair, looks very old, obviously has no energy, I am afraid that time is running out. The young one is naturally the wife of **, not pretty, but very strong, which is very in line with the villagers' definition of a "good woman".

In addition, there are three children, the eldest is five or six years old, and the youngest is still in his mother's arms.

"Yo, I haven't seen you for seven years, Brother Qiang, you are the father of three children!" Pan Long smiled and took out a few bottles of elixir, "I came in a hurry, and I didn't prepare any meeting gifts." Here's a bottle for washing and removing the marrow for children, so your eldest son can use it, a bottle for skin care and beauty, and a bottle for your sister-in-law, and a bottle of ......."

** Immediately shook his head: "The last bottle, I can't ask for it." ”

Of course he recognized this bottle, it was the life-extending spirit wine that the mountain god gave them in a dream!