When my father finally saw the gates of Viruga, his first action was to look around for the legendary iron nail of the Swadians. But there is nothing on the walls of Viruga, and there is no essential difference between the walls here and those of Suno, they are all stacked with solid stones little by little, and bright streamer flags flutter on the walls, and soldiers patrol them in twos and threes, looking safe. Many years earlier, it had been from this gate that the king had returned to the north with his soldiers with a gloomy face, and the Rhodoks had cheered over the walls and loudly mocked the shameful defeat of the invaders. To the south of the gate there is a wooded field, which crosses a river. Rhodok's craftsmen dug a canal to divert water around the city walls, creating a moat.

Originally a free city, two hundred years ago, as a transit point for the colony, Viruga received a visit from the king of Svadia, who for the first time lamented Viruga as a "paradise" and signed the "Edict on the Demolition of the Wall" with the locals, which affirmed that Viruga would no longer be fortified from now on, and that all the interests of the people in Viruga would be protected by the Empire.

The king generously said: "This orchard-like city is free from suffering, it is an emerald in the mountains of the empire, and the people here will be rich and happy forever." Our migrants have been through too many conflicts with the locals, they have paid a great price, and the war has caused great suffering to each other. But today, peace has arrived. Green-eyed natives will be treated the same as blue-eyed northern dwellers in the same way as the Empire. We demolished the walls of this place and welcomed its original inhabitants as if they were our own brothers. Let's gather here, let's drink until dawn. ”

Two hundred years ago, the king could not have imagined that his seventh-generation great-grandson would lead the soldiers of the Svadia Empire, known as the "Protector of Viruga", to occupy the undefended city of Viruga, and that the Demolition of the Wall Act for peace had made Viruga the most vulnerable lamb. During those years of suffering, the Viruga people experienced torture that they had never experienced before, and every young man of Viruga was terrified of the fate of being taken away by the Swadian gendarmes at any moment. Viruga's wealth was looted and used to sustain a vast wartime military system. In those years, there was no more singing, no more laughter, only disappointment and disgust for the north, and only anticipation and admiration for the heroes of the mountains.

When Duke Aaron led 15,000 mountain soldiers confidently into the Viruga Plain from Fidner and Ziza Pass, the Viruga people found that the arrogant occupying troops had become gentle, and every day, the Swadian occupation army's pro-people actions were praised by the Swadian propaganda team, but the trust of the Viruga people had been overdrawn by this group in the early years. The citizens staged a massive protest and burned the wintering food themselves, declaring to the occupying forces that if they did not go north before winter, they would all starve to death.

After a long period of negotiation, the king agreed that Duke Aaron would send a 40-man delegation into Viruga to negotiate, and the pictures of these 40 men entering the gates of Viruga are still on display in the city hall of Viruga. In the picture, except for the soldiers of the Northern Army standing guard at the city gate, everyone showed a smile, and streamers and petals flew all over the sky. Dozens of days later, the Southern Army officially took over Veruga from the hands of the Northern Army, and when the Northern Army retreated, they carried out a final raid on Veruga, taking away all the food, all the metal utensils they could take away, hundreds of thousands of volumes of historical archives and countless works of art. At the same time, the Northern Army demolished all the workshops and factories in Viruga, demolished all the bridges, destroyed the observation towers used to observe the fire, and set fire to Viruja everywhere, making a mess of Viruga.

Duke Aaron discovers that the Viruga he has received has been completely recaptured by the Northern Army to the level of 200 years ago. But the Rhodoks, who have already experienced the baptism of war, will not mind such a small difficulty. In just a few years, the walls of Viruga were erected, and on a stele in front of the walls, the Rhodoks carved a speech by a wise king 200 years earlier, but at the end, the Rhodoks added: "We respect the good wishes of our ancestors, but wishes do not bring peace." We are willing to keep peace with peace, and we have the ability and the need to defend peace by force. ”

The closer my father walked into Viruga, the more he was struck by the height of its walls, which were a lot lower than those of Suno. And the Rhodok seems to have reformed their city-building techniques, making its walls look unattainable and imposing. In a large open space in front of the city walls was a resting bazaar for those who came into the city, where people could buy dry food and forage for their animals, and special people would help wash and water the animals.

"Young man from Svadia," his father's guide said to him, "see the sinks?" Many years ago, Duke Aaron built these facilities for some of the poor blind people I told you about. I know an old man with the one-eyed dragon of the Lilan Gasloe family, who is one of the 28 lucky guides. He was here at the time, and he was paid well to help others drink livestock. ”

The father looked at this busy downtown and felt a strangeness, and he asked the guide, "Is the poor old man you mentioned still working here?" ”

"It's gone, the old man's other eye can't see clearly, and he's been completely blind all these years. You'd better not touch him, or he'll kill you. ”

The father laughed awkwardly, regretting in his heart that he had pushed himself into a society that did not welcome him, and he laughed at himself: "It's good that daddy is gone, otherwise my horse wouldn't have been able to drink water." ”

"No, no," said the guide, waving his hand, and at the same time the Rhodok smiled slyly like an old peasant teasing his own child, "the Swadians can be entertained by the one-eyed dragon." As long as you give something to do. ”

"Huh? What? ”

"Your ears, your nose, or whatever you're born with haha, preferably your eyes, of course." The guide said rudely. The guide had never had a good impression of the Swadians, and now that my father was unacquainted, he was inevitably a little deceitful.

Wright walked over to his father and gave Rhodok a cold look. The guide's smile did not diminish in the slightest, but he seemed to be full of interest.

At the city gate, my father saw a large wooden sign with the words "Welcome XXX" written on it, he searched for it, and finally found a wooden board with the words "Welcome Huo. Mr. Arcadio II, I am waiting for you at the first hotel when you enter the city gates, and you will be able to find me by contacting the innkeeper when you go. I am Lord Garcia's attendant. ”

The guide couldn't help but be shocked when he looked at the words on the sign, he didn't know that he was escorting General Garcia's guests, and at this time he regretted his faux pas just now, and thought of remedying it in his heart.

His father asked him, "Sir, are you okay tonight?" ”

"No, young gentleman," said the guide, taking off his straw hat, "I will spend the night at my friend's house, and then I will go back to Pegande to-morrow to buy some things." ”

"Thank you very much for your reception," said the father, ignoring Wright's somewhat unhappy expression on the side, "I guess you would come with me to my Uncle Garcia's house, okay?" I think he'll thank you. ”

The guide thought that he did not expect such a good thing, and thanked him repeatedly, and said that he himself would stand the last shift and send my father to his destination.

My father and his party slowly waited for all the people who had entered the city in front of them to enter before they registered and prepared to enter the city. Ten days ago, he had placed seven pears in his wooden cupboard, and only after the cupboard was filled with the fragrance of pears did he take out the ripe pears and enjoy them slowly. When he saw his father's nationality Swadia written on the registration column, he couldn't help but look at his father in some surprise, and the guide immediately rushed forward and said: This is General Garcia's guest. The gate officer pursed his lips and stamped a seal on the registration form. He waved his fat hand, which was full of pear juice, and let his father pass.

In the hotel, my father met a lean middle-aged man, and after confirming his identity, the middle-aged man summoned several servants who had been waiting in the hotel for a long time, loaded my father's luggage into a carriage parked in the courtyard, and then they made their way through the lively street market of Virugana to Yuandun Street in the center of the city, where they were to visit the general.

The butler frowned slightly as the guide climbed into the car, and then he asked my father, as if inadvertently, "Who is this man?" ”

"He's my guide, and I think there's something for the Shogun to decide."

"Okay, Huo. Mr. Arcadio II. The butler said with a smile of no more and no less. But he didn't think it was polite to introduce a countryman to a general.

In front of a modest courtyard, the carriage stopped, and some men came out to help pull the carriage, carry things, and pass the word to the housekeeper. My father saw some maids in white turbans hiding in the doorway, giggling and talking about themselves. Father and Wright walked into the courtyard under the butler's lead, and along the way, he smiled at all the maids who deliberately walked past him to look at him. The four blue-eyed eyes of Father and Wright made a deep impression on these young girls who had grown up in the mountains of the South, and it was known that they were the guests of General Garcia, the honored guests from the North.

Father walked through a low wall and through a large garden, and a gardener with snow-white hair trimmed branches stopped his scissors and nodded to him as he passed. People seemed polite to this Swadia.

On the second floor of a house in the middle of the courtyard, my father met General García Yu-Lelan Gaslo, whom he had heard of as a child, and saw the warm eyes and embraces that my grandfather had described. "Welcome! Arcadio Jr. To be honest, you're more handsome than your dad haha. ”

After a simple greeting, my father immediately fell in love with this free and easy Rhodok. Maybe it was just a joke, my father told him a curse that the guide outside the door had made to him.

This made General Garcia's childlike heart pop: "That man said that if your father becomes a lord, he will kiss a mule with a burp?" Haha, God has eyes to make your father a lord, this is what he deserves, this brave fellow. Let's go, it's so funny, let's meet this unlucky man. ”

For the next half hour, General Garcia and my father sang a wonderful double reed. Under the general's authority, the man who thought he would be rewarded received a wet kiss from a mule. Before the mule kissed the desperate man, Wright personally fed it more than a dozen catties of strong-smelling forage, and let it pour a small half tank of cold water overnight after eating the forage, and after brewing for a long time, the mule burped an amazing stench, which made General Garcia and his father happy.

The man was so drunk with a kiss from a mule that he was thrown into his mule. The mule was whipped on the buttocks, and the mule, with his master, rushed into the streets of Viruga in the night, not knowing where it went, except for the sound of horses' hooves near and far.

General Garcia hadn't laughed so relaxed in a long time, and he looked at the son of his old friend, and the more he looked at it, the more he liked it. He instructed the steward to set up a feast, "Call Adeline." ”

"Won't Miss be inconvenient, she just saw a doctor today."

"Call her and tell him that this is the Huo I told her about. Arcadio's son. ”