The cloudy eyes of the red-haired old horse were filled with tears for the rest of his life. The long horse's face rubbed enthusiastically against the sleepless night, expressing gratitude.

It knew human nature and knew that it was Sleepless who came to his rescue. The original owner was watching from the sidelines, and he also turned a blind eye and left them to dry.

Sleepless touched its old face and said, "Don't thank me." This goes to Changsha, the mountains are far away. In the days to come, you will need to rely on your legs and feet! ”

The old horse neighed excitedly, and seemed to understand his words. Not only was he not happy, but he was also happy that he had found a new owner.

Sleepless patted its horse with satisfaction.

Regardless of age, this horse is also a good horse. The horses in the south are mostly short, and the red-haired old horses are five feet tall on horseback, and their high heads are at least eight feet above the ground, which is a rare tall horse. In addition, the performance just now is a little quick, and I know people's opinions, and I am very satisfied with sleepless nights.

A quarter of an hour later, with the help of Sleepless Night, Luo Xiangzhu rode on the red-haired old horse.

The first time she rode a horse, she was quite scared. For fear that if one is unstable, he will fall off the horse.

But thinking of his father's unavenged revenge, in the future, most of them will have to pay for themselves. If you don't even dare to ride a horse, how can you talk about revenge?

I struggled inwardly, gritted my teeth, clenched the reins, stepped on the stirrups, and forcibly suppressed the fear in my heart.

Fortunately, the red-haired old horse loved the house and Wu, and his gratitude for the sleepless night was transferred to her, and she was allowed to ride up, without any impatience and resistance, and was very cooperative. Luo Xiangzhu can learn to ride a horse very smoothly.

Sleepless led the red-haired old horse, walked in front, and looked back at Luo Xiangzhu on horseback from time to time. Seeing her nervous face, she comforted: "Miss, don't be afraid, I'm here." ”

Luo Xiangzhu clutched the reins tightly and defended: "I, I'm not afraid, I, I'm very relaxed." ”

As he spoke, he showed a comfortable look, deliberately letting Sleepless Night see. But with a jolt in the road, she lost her face, and with a soft snort, she returned to her nervous appearance. Hurriedly kept silent and rode the horse cautiously.

The three men of the horse gang carried the leopard corpse in front of them, and the leader followed the sleepless night, and said with a smile: "Woman, this old horse is blessed to follow you!" When it was working in the horse gang, it had to carry at least 200 catties of tea on its body, and it was draped left and right, carried a bamboo basket and backpack, and grinded its skin, which made it uncomfortable. Now carrying your young lady, he is much easier! ”

As soon as he finished speaking, the red-haired old horse seemed to understand, twisted the horse's head, came to him, and snorted suddenly, and the horse's saliva sprayed his face, and the yellow mucus stuck to his eyebrows, dangling, very disgusting.

"Haha." Although Luo Xiangzhu was riding a horse with his heart, when he saw this funny scene, he couldn't help but cover his mouth and laughed, and suddenly remembered that he was still in the period of filial piety, and he couldn't be so profligate, so he choked with laughter again.

I can't help but sleep at night. The leader of the horse gang did not care about the horsepower, but also took it for granted, boasting in front of the horse, and finally attracted this little newspaper.

The leader of the horse gang wiped his face indiscriminately, looked at the old horse angrily, pointed at it and said "hey", and was about to scold and scold, when he saw the expressionless appearance of Ye Wumi, he didn't dare to say more, so he had to complain a few times.

I didn't bother with sleepless nights.

After walking for a while, I saw that my vision gradually widened, and the figures in front of me were scattered. Sleepless at night was reminding his vigilance, and the leader of the caravan hurriedly said: "Woman, this is our caravan team." It was here that we were attacked by the leopard. ”

Walking into the crowd, as the leader of the caravan said, this is the caravan team.

In the team, there were four young and strong men, all of whom were gray-faced and looked extremely tired. There were also a dozen or so old and weak women and children, apparently relatives of these men's families, who were taking care of the six or seven horses in the procession.

Tea in Anhua sells well, but the mountain road is difficult to travel, so it is popular to caravan. The horses and men run out for a while, as short as a few months, as long as a year and a half, often with relatives and family members, one to facilitate mutual care, and the other to relieve the pain of loneliness and lovesickness.

Seeing that the leader of the horse gang had returned, a young man who was still in good spirits came up and said happily: "Uncle Zhong, have you driven away the leopard and rescued our horse?" ”

Uncle Zhong, the leader of the horse gang, hurriedly explained that it was a horse that was saved by sleepless nights, and now the horse has been bought by him and belongs to him.

The women and children of the horse gang didn't say much, and when they found the red-haired old horse and fled for their lives, the tea baskets, tea stalks, and packages that it threw off were packed on the backs of other horses.

The four young adults were bitter. From the three companions, replace the shoulders and carry the leopard carcass.

When the people returned safely, the people in the horse gang finally breathed a sigh of relief, packed up, and continued to walk forward.

Uncle Zhong cautiously walked closer, looked at Ye Sleepless and said: "Woman, walk more than ten miles of mountain roads ahead, and we will arrive at our hometown, Dongshi Old Street." Are you going with you? There are restaurants and inns there, which is a place where you can rest for a few days and then hurry. ”

Sleepless at night, he looked at the tea baskets and tea whirls on the back of each horse, and saw that they were all empty, but the packages were full. If you want to come to this caravan, you should have just finished a trade in the field and rushed home.

nodded and replied: "It's okay, with you with us, it will save us the trouble of finding a way." ”

It seems that a few days ago in this plum mountain, there is no map, no guide, not a long-term solution. It's better to follow the local people.

Uncle Zhong shouted and led the strongest horse. He took the lead, and the two black men behind the palace, the people of the horse gang, began to hurry.

"The Meishan man is so good, smooth skin, pick a camellia flower and give it to my sister-in-law. The sun is about to go down, and you're going to be a guest for me......"

I don't know who led the way, and a mountain song in the Anhua dialect spread among the team.

People are sleepy and tired, and the song is like a stream of water poured into it, and the weak voice sounds like it, but it also has a different flavor.

Uncle Zhong's hoarse and rough voice also roared a few words, and after a handful of singing addictions, he turned his head to look at the sleepless night behind him, and laughed in a low voice: "Woman, I have a suggestion, don't you listen to it?" ”

Sleepless at night, holding the horse in one hand and eating the cake in the other, he said casually: "What advice?" ”

Uncle Zhong glanced at Luo Xiangzhu, just looked at him, and hurriedly lowered his head and said: "Your young lady is very beautiful, especially welcome, our ugly mother-in-law can't compare with her." But walking in the rivers and lakes, good-looking, is also a disaster, easy to provoke people's worries, and invite trouble.

Heroine, you have high martial arts, and it is okay to protect yourself, and you must also prevent the villain from doing a bad hand to your young lady. It's better to let the young lady change her clothes and dress as a man before you go to the cave market, so that you can avoid the disaster of no reason. ”

I was sleepless at night, and my action of eating bread slowed down, and I looked up at Luo Xiangzhu who was sitting on a high-headed horse, and saw that her burning eyes like the moon also happened to look at herself.

From this angle, the young lady is still very beautiful, with slightly messy hair and a pale face, adding a bit of pity to my temperament.

He said in his heart: "This Uncle Zhong is right. When he was in Anhua City, in front of everyone's eyes, Luo Fanjiang was still ashamed to dedicate the young lady to the county order, not to mention that now he has fallen into this river and lake?

If it's a trash fish and shrimp, it's okay to be greedy for Miss's beauty, I can easily deal with it. But if it is a local gentry like the county order, or a good martial artist, then even if I die, I am afraid it will be difficult to ensure that the young lady is thorough. ”

He felt that Uncle Zhong's idea was good, so he asked Luo Xiangzhu's opinion.

Although Luo Xiangzhu didn't know the dangers of the rivers and lakes, since he could ask her at night, he should be very satisfied with the suggestions made by Uncle Zhong. What he approved of was what he approved, and he agreed without thinking.

The two of them temporarily left the caravan and went to a secluded place. Luo Xiangzhu hid behind a big camphor tree, and it took a while to change into the man's clothes before he walked out.

She was dressed in the clothes of a man in the caravan, the clothes were rough in workmanship, old-fashioned in style, and there were a few patches, but after all, they could not hide her beautiful face and graceful figure.

Sleepless at night asked her not to move, and smeared some mud on the camphor tree, which made her face slightly darker.

"How's it going, miss...... Hmm, let's call you Childe now, are you wearing this dress properly? Sleepless couldn't help but smile softly.

Luo Xiangzhu's face was dark, Xiao Qiong's nose snorted for a while, and said, "Not good!" It's very awkward, and there is a smell of sweat! ”

Sleepless at night comforted her: "It is normal for the Mabang man to walk outside all the year round, and he does not change his clothes frequently, and he smells of sweat. Wait a while to get to the old street of Nadong City, I'll give you a small ...... Childe went to buy a nice new dress. ”

Luo Xiangzhu couldn't help him in every way, didn't say much, nodded and agreed: "Okay, you must buy me the best looking new clothes." ”

The two walked back to the caravan, helped her turn over the horse without sleep, and continued to march towards the old street of Nadong City with the song of the caravan.

After that, the road was bumpy, but unexpectedly smooth. This road is called the "Ancient Tea Horse Road", which is a road specially opened by the caravan to sell tea to the outside world.

Due to the mountainous terrain, the road is very narrow, but as long as people and horses do not walk side by side, there is no pressure. Just follow the road and go all the way to the east, and you will arrive at Dongshi Old Street before sunset.

At dusk, the twilight soaked the mountains and forests, the breeze blew, and the chill of mid-autumn gradually crept up on the clothes, and the horses and gangs all wrapped their clothes tightly.

The lights in the distance are bright, the figures are full, and the hustle and bustle is gradual, Uncle Zhong excitedly pointed to the front and said: "It's here, it's here, it's the old street of Dongshi in front!" ”

The whole caravan quickly changed from a sluggish atmosphere to a lively one:

The men's sluggish bodies have strength again, and the leopard's flesh trembles; The women discussed how much time they would stay at home and how much they would cut their clothes. A few twilight old people sighed that time was no longer there, and the next time they went to business, they would not follow, but would go to the coffin shop in the town to buy a coffin for future affairs.

As for the children, they are clamoring to eat yellow duck (author's note: a kind of fish, also known as yellow bone fish, tender and beautiful, is abundant in Hunan today).

The Ancient Tea Horse Road has also gradually opened up, and there are more pedestrians on the road, including many people from the rivers and lakes who carry swords on their backs.

When they looked at the caravan, they saw that they were no different from ordinary caravans, so they did not pay much attention to it.

There was just one person, dressed in a blue cloth robe, wearing a scribe's crown, dressed as a scholar, and pinned a dragon scale iron sheath long sword to his waist. When I saw the beauty of sleepless nights, there was a bit of greed in my eyes.

I didn't pay attention to it at night, and I thought with a cold face, this person didn't know his details, but he didn't dare to make mistakes at will.

An eroded stone tablet appeared on the side of the road, with eight big characters written on it, and under the new lights, the handwriting was clear, "Tea Horse Ancient Road Cave City Old Street".

There are several lines of small characters on the side, which can be vaguely seen, "Emperor Ming Chenghua Xin Chou Dong Anhua County Order Xiao Pingbo question." After the Tang and Song dynasties, the barbarians gradually became connected to China. Admire the wind of China, like to eat tea and drink, so it is easy to use its horses, because there is a way to market tea and horses ......".

The text behind it, sleepless night without looking closely. He simply calculated, this is an ancient monument forty years ago, no wonder it has left so many traces of time.

Uncle Zhong led the horse to help everyone say goodbye to him: "Woman, since we have arrived at the old street of Dongshi, we will take the first step." ”

Sleepless at night, he also hugged his fists and saluted, and watched the Ma Gang and his party leave.