"It's fucking cold."

The cold winter snow lingered on the lake for several months, and the weather warmed up slightly, but the spring was as cold as the winter of previous years, and the seedlings planted in the ground withered and yellowed in disgust, and none of them survived.

When the cold subsided, the summer was only warm for a few days, and then it fell back to the bitter autumn, and the fields did not harvest for a whole year, so the farmers could only swallow their saliva and put down their hoes to forage for food in the mountains.

Old man Xu sat in front of the door, rubbing his hands in the cold wind, estimating whether the surplus food at home was enough for next year's food and clothing.

The Xu family is also one of the several big clans in the town, compared to the Tian family and the Liu family, it is much more buried, in the era of the rise of the Li family a few decades ago, it has never been in charge of a town, and naturally it has been declining year by year.

got up and walked around the courtyard, and after the old man Xu counted the grain left last year, the courtyard door was knocked on tuciously.

"Who?"

"Uncle, it's me, Komeito!"

The courtyard door creaked open, and a young man walked in, Old Man Xu twisted his beard and said in a throat:

"Komei, come in and sit."

Xu Gongming entered the courtyard and opened his mouth to say:

"Uncle, have you heard? The main family wants to fight Shanyue, and is recruiting troops in the town, gongs and drums are beating for many days, Gongming wants to join the army, and my parents only know how to farm and can't make up their minds, so they asked me to ask you. ”

As soon as Xu San died, the Xu family immediately split up and went to the town to develop, the old man Xu, as the eldest son, had studied for a few days, so he naturally made the decision in the clan, he looked at the young man in front of him, and did not speak for a while.

Xu Gongming, as the only spiritual trick in the clan, now has a second-layer cultivation of fetal breath, and he was a little anxious when he saw this, and said in a low voice:

"Uncle! There is no one in the Zhu clan who is so depressed as my family now! The Liu family has been the landlord of Jingyang since ancient times, and is the wife and concubine of the ancestors, the Tian family is capable of many people, most of the spiritual fields are under control, and the Chen family is silent, but there are already qi cultivators...... Now my family wants to have a place to go, and the only way to do it is in the army! ”

Old Man Xu picked up the big basin, squinted his eyes and counted the miles of rice grain, and said slowly:

"The army is the instrument of the townspeople, which of the thousands of commanders is not surnamed Li? Don't think too easily......"

Xu Gongming sat down on the broken wooden chair, and was a little depressed when he heard this, and the good plan he had in his heart was disrupted by Old Man Xu's words, and hurriedly said:

"Uncle has an idea...... This Xu is about to be handed over to me, but I can't do anything! ”

Old Man Xu nodded, his gray beard trembled, and when he saw a few mouse droppings turned out of the bottom of the basket, his face suddenly collapsed, and he replied:

"If you want to join the army, it is indeed a good way, the uncle has no way of military formation, and he doesn't know anything about cultivation, but he can only teach you two words."

"First, loyalty."

Old Man Xu put the basket down, and finally straightened his face, the wrinkles on his face were much soothed, and he said in a low voice:

"My Xu family used to slash the enemy for the master's family, and there are names in the ancestors and the head of the family, and when I entered the army, I carried the name of the Xu family, and I could get a good position when I came up, which was the shadow of the predecessors... You must be willing to be wounded, you will die at the critical moment, you must offend people selflessly with an iron face, and you must imprint this mark of loyalty in the mind of the master! ”

Old Man Xu's words hit Xu Gongming's heartstrings like a sledgehammer, and he finally knew why his parents bluntly asked him to come to find his uncle, wrote down these words, and said again:

"And what is the second word?"

"The second is stability."

Old Man Xu sat beside him, stretched out his chicken claws like thin fingers, and said in a low voice:

"Today, Young Master Xiu is clear about the movements of the family, you don't seek merit in the army, you only seek no fault, don't say much when you see the master's family, be silent and steady, don't make friends with people in the army, don't promote the children of the clan, you must deal with it impartially, so act like this for 20 years, the commander of the thousand can do it, if you are lucky enough to break through the practice of qi, you can be the henchman of the main family, and my Xu family also has a place in Zhuzhen!"

"Twenty years..."

Xu Gongming nodded silently, and hurriedly said thank you, and after talking for a long time, he didn't say anything, but just asked the questions that Li Yuanxiu might ask when he summoned him, and the old man picked up the basket and answered them listlessly, then he shook the rice basket in his hand and said impatiently:

", Hugh has to say more here, hurry up and prepare your things."

Xu Gongming was choked by him for a while, knowing that this elder had a strange temperament, he thanked him repeatedly, and bowed his head thoughtfully and went out.

Old Man Xu sat in the courtyard for a while, looked at the rice basket in his hand, picked out a few of the mouse droppings, shook the old rice in the basket, and then muttered:

"But it's barely working."

————

"Xu Gongming..."

Li Yuanxiu opened the small letter sent and read it, recalled the situation of the Xu family, and said in a low voice:

"This Xu family is the first fetal breath monk to join the army."

These monks finally entered the immortal road, one by one they were very sorry for their lives, the conscription order issued by the family, passed the news that they were going to attack Shanyue, and they did not go out of their way to recruit them, they all pretended not to hear the things outside the window, and they sang and danced and feasted on weekdays, and traveled around.

"Yes."

Li Pingyi, who was below, responded, and saw Li Yuanxiu thinking for a few breaths, flipped over the small letter in his hand and read it a few times, and said in a low voice:

"The Xu family has also contributed to my family, and the family has also given me opportunities in the past few decades, and my father has specially mentioned it to me, but the children and grandchildren of the Xu family are not angry, they have not been able to grasp it, and they have been living unsatisfactory."

"Xu Gongming has gone outside."

Li Pingyi reminded him, and Li Yuanxiu nodded and said:

"Call him up."

Not long after, a young man who looked like he was twenty-five or sixteen years old walked up, with a sword at his waist, and between his eyebrows and eyes, he looked quite honest.

"Xu Gongming has seen the young family master."

After respectfully saying this, Xu Gongming lowered his head and stood straight and said no more.

Li Yuanxiu asked him about the situation at home, Xu Gongming answered concisely and clearly, I don't know whether it was prepared in advance, or quick thinking, everything was answered well, Li Yuanxiu nodded slightly, and said softly:

"Let's go to the barracks tomorrow."

Xu Gongming bowed his hand, retreated with a solemn expression, and never asked what position he had gotten, so he left without saying a word, Li Yuanxiu felt a little more good in his heart, and said in a low voice:

"The Xu family has not been satisfactory over the years, but now that he has a spiritual knack, it seems that he wants to engage in the army, so he will be a centurion first, and his cultivation at the second level of fetal breath can be regarded as reused."

The current monks in the army are basically monks from the Li family's small sect and branches, the first and second layers of the fetal breath are centurions, and the third and fourth layers of the fetal breath are thousands, a total of eight, plus Xu Gongming, now there are nine monks.

Li Yuanxiu thought about it, he didn't think that a person walked quickly outside the courtyard, and entered the courtyard like the wind, the clan soldiers knelt down one by one as usual, and the sound of the blade falling to the ground clanged, Li Yuanxiu hurriedly walked down when he saw this, looked at it, and said with a happy face:

"Father!"

(End of chapter)