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On the bank of Hengshui, there is a famous historical and cultural city named after "defending the capital and stabilizing the world". Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

This Baoding Mansion is known as "the three passes of the north air, the south of the nine provinces, the auxiliary land, the capital of the south Pinghan", the legend is the hometown of the tribal alliance leader Yao Emperor in ancient times, has a history of more than 3,000 years, is the ancient Yan country, Zhongshan country, the land of the Yan capital.

It is a pity that the thousand-year-old prosperous capital is inevitably the tragic fate of war and artillery damage.

Under the war, Baoding Mansion was devastated and all industries withered.

Walking through the street, you will hear the sound of guns and cannons from time to time, often encounter a group of devils passing by, there are few pedestrians, although there are street vendors, but the sound of selling is low, everyone looks weak, listless, really deserted.

Out of the south gate, stepping on the Qianmo, most of the day's journey can reach a small town with green trees, called "Zhi'an".

The town is surrounded by trees, lush and verdant, but unlike the towns filled with gunsmoke, it is quiet and full of life. The town is not large, there is only one street, which is the main street, and the rest of the streets and alleys are also crisscrossed, but it is just a road for people and horses, and there is no business or market atmosphere.

There is a hundred-year-old shop at the north end of the main street, and the five big characters "Immortal Spring Pickles" on the plaque of the store are impressive.

It was the turn of spring and summer, the shop had no pickles for sale, and no merchants visited, and a middle-aged man sat in front of the extremely deserted shop, with a small table in front of the man, and a pot of cups on the table, apparently a boring time through tea sipping, and a yawn or two from time to time.

Gradually the sky darkened, the man took out a pocket watch from his arms, and then the light of the West Mountain looked fixedly, and then looked at the north and south ends of the street, shook his head with a little disappointment, and sighed to himself: "After another day like this, why don't you see anyone, alas, physical and mental exhaustion, what can you do in this business......"

Before the words fell, he got up and took the pot in one hand and the cup in the other, and entered the store unhurriedly.

In the blink of an eye, the store was lit up, and a pale yellow light spilled through the open door onto the stone-paved road in front of the store. The man walked out of the shop again, came to the small table, looked at the north and south ends of the street again, shook his head with a little disappointment, put away the table and stool, and sighed as he returned to the house: "The willow wind is soft, the begonia moon is light, when you are alone!"

At this time, there are few pedestrians on the street, many shops are closing one after another, and the sides of the street are exposed with sporadic lights.

The "Ageless Spring Pickles" shop is still wide open, and the boss is still sitting alone at the table, staring at the flickering lights, looking particularly melancholy and worried.

"Do you sell pickles here?" I don't know how long it took, but suddenly a young man in a tunic walked into the store, he put his top hat on his chest, looked around the store, and said lightly, "I've loved this since I was a child, but now it's hard to buy a delicious pickle, and after looking for a long time to find your home, I don't think you will let me go home disappointed." ”

"This season is not old," the boss woke up like a dream, suddenly stood up, glanced outside the store, and said coldly, "Immortal spring pickles are naturally difficult to find, but don't worry, I have some here, but the pickling time is a little longer, maybe the taste is a little old, at least it is better than nothing." ”

"Yes," said the young man happily, "it's good to have, it's good to have it, you might as well take it out and taste it!"

"Taste before you buy, rightly so. As the boss spoke, he went out of the store, looked left and right, and saw that the street was empty, so he returned to the shop, and said while inserting the door panel, "I'll take you to the storeroom, but the smell of pickles there is a little choking." ”

"The boss is too worried," said the young man, "as long as there are immortal spring pickles, why not choke your nose?"

After a while, all the door panels were plugged in, and the boss took the oil lamp and led the young man into the room.

The furnishings in the room are very simple, a clay kang, a table, four chairs, a pot and four cups.

"Is there any news?" the boss beckoned the young man to sit down, and asked as he poured water, and the conversation was completely different from when he was in the front room.

"Not yet. The young man shook his head and said, "Uncle Qiang, tell me, they have all passed for so many days, but there is no news at all, will there be an accident on the road?"

"Don't talk nonsense!" the boss was called Uncle Qiang, he handed the water cup to the young man, frowned, thought for a moment, paced around the room, and said in a low voice, "It is possible to encounter trouble on the road, after all, there are many devils along the road, and if you want to talk about accidents, I don't think it is very likely, after all, they have experienced a hundred battles, are brave and strategic, and are not ordinary ordinary soldiers." ”

"After so many days," the young man sighed puzzled, "where could they be? No matter how big the detour is, it should be there!"

"How about those dogs?" Uncle Qiang sat down and looked at the young man in front of him.

"There are still devils coming in and out from time to time," the young man said, "but there are no new changes, I will continue to pay attention, and if there is any movement, I will inform you immediately, you can rest assured!"

"I hope they can come soon," Uncle Qiang said lightly, "We can hand over these dog things to them to solve, if it happens, it will be regarded as a big trouble for our henchmen, and the situation will be stabilized like a worse one." ”

"Yes!" the young man nodded, got up and left.

Uncle Qiang sent the young man away, groped in a large vat in the front hall for a long time, fished out a large bag wrapped in oilcloth, and the bag was dripping with pickled vegetable soup, and hurried back to the room.

Gently tore open the tarpaulin, opened the large bag, and several shiny spears were exposed to the light.

"Tsk," Uncle Qiang looked at the spears with admiration, picked up one of them, made an aiming gesture, and exclaimed at the faint flashing light, "What a good thing, this is something that many people dream of! It's a pity that they don't have your qualifications, but I don't know when your true master will come?"

Obviously, the real owners of these guns that Uncle Qiang said were "them" who talked to the young man just now.

And the "they" in the mouths of Uncle Qiang and the young man are not others, but Qiao Xiaojing, Ah Zi, Cuiyu, Da Er and Da Zhi who booby-trapped Xiaojing and Watanabe near Shimonoseki Station, dealt a heavy blow to the devil and successfully escaped from the window.

As everyone knows, after these five people left the train, they walked into the vast mountains and old forests, there was no other means of transportation, so they had to walk forward, the ravine is long, thousands of miles away, how can they come early?

Qiao Xiaojing and they are like abandoned children, walking in the wilderness without a village or a store, they are extremely tired, so they sit down to rest, hungry and thirsty, they bite a few mouthfuls of dry food, if they are lucky, they come across to drink water, they will drink enough at a time......

I don't know how long I walked, Dazhi finally couldn't hold on, he lay flat on the ground, and said disappointedly: "I can't walk anymore, I don't have any strength at all, you guys go, just let me stay here and die here!"

Although Dazhi's leg injury is fine, he is not completely well, and he insists on climbing mountains and mountains, so it is naturally difficult to bear this hardship.

The rest of the crowd stopped, their ragged clothes unkempt, their lips covered with scabs, like exiled fugitives, their eyes blank, looking at their self-pity and self-pity.

"There's a carriage!" Jade suddenly roared excitedly, "I see the carriage, we have saved ......"

"Ah---h

"Carriage, where?"

"Where's the carriage?"

Qiao Xiaojing, Ah Zi and the big man seemed to have forgotten their tiredness, and suddenly rushed towards Cuiyu, afraid that something was wrong with their ears, their tone was short, and their eyes were all in the direction that Cuiyu was pointing.

"There is no endless road, and sure enough, there is a carriage. What Cuiyu said was true, Qiao Xiaojing saw a carriage slowly moving not far ahead, so she said to the big man, "Help Dazhi go, let's go to that carriage, quickly!"

How shrewd Dazhi is, he wants to die when he can't see hope, and now that hope is in front of him, how can he give up on himself? He had already come behind everyone, and as soon as the big man was about to turn around, he couldn't help but laugh when he saw Dazhi close at hand, and the others laughed too, but everyone's laughter was mixed with too much sarcasm.

"Let's go like this," Qiao Xiaojing led everyone to the road, and said as she walked, "The coachman saw us like lost dogs, and thought that we were robbers, and he would definitely not agree to let us take his carriage." ”

"What then?" Dazhi felt cold again.

"Fortunately, we still have some loose silver," Qiao Xiaojing continued, "for the coachman, even if we rent his carriage temporarily." Among us, Jade can talk well, this time let Jade go alone, negotiate first, I hope it can let us take a ride, so that we can recover our strength. ”

Everyone nodded in agreement with Qiao Xiaojing's proposal, Qiao Xiaojing handed over the scattered silver to Cuiyu, who wiped her face with her sleeve, tidied up her clothes, and brushed her messy head again, and then ran to the coachman.

In less than a moment, everyone saw Jade wave her arms and signal them to go.

Qiao Xiaojing and they were excited, they didn't dare to drag it in the slightest, and came to the carriage, the coachman was an authentic good person, seeing them get on the car one by one and sit firmly, they waved the horsewhip, and the forest path sounded a crisp bell.

It was a coincidence that Qiao Xiaojing and the others could not have imagined that the coachman who met in the middle of the road was a person from Zhi'an Town, who worked as a partner in a stone carving workshop and made a living by transporting stone carvings all year round, and this time was the same.

After talking, it was learned that this place already belonged to Baoding Mansion, less than half a day's work away from the "Zhi'an" town, which made Qiao Xiaojing even more ecstatic--- because the destination of their trip was this Zhi'an town--- but she alone knew the destination, and the rest of the people still didn't know where to go.

"I don't like you speak like a local," the coachman said puzzled, "and many people are afraid to go out, but you have to go on a long trip, won't you be visiting relatives and friends?"

No one knew how to answer the coachman's question, Qiao Xiaojing just said "oh".

"I'll tell you the truth," the coachman continued, "we were also badly plagued by devils at first, but lately it has been much better, so I dare to go out to deliver goods, otherwise whoever dares to come out will not be able to go out and not go home." ”

Qiao Xiaojing said "oh" again, and then said no more.

Maybe the farmer saw Qiao Xiaojing's thoughts, so he stopped talking, and only focused on catching the cart, and the horsewhip kept whipping the horse's back, and the carriage was obviously much faster.

"All right," said the coachman after more than two hours, when the carriage suddenly stopped, and the coachman said, "I will arrive at Zhi'an Town in another hour, and I can't send you any more, and you will have to find your own way to walk the rest of the way!"

Qiao Xiaojing and the others got out of the carriage, and a team of patrolling devils came not far away.