The other two teenagers in the carriage, one named Li Yu and the other named Li Shan, were only eleven or twelve years old, and they were naturally richer than Li Yan's family when they could go to be apprentices. There are twelve or three families in their village, and the three teenagers are quite familiar, with the continuous change of the roadside scenery, the teenager's heart will be revealed, and the slowly depressed mood will be replaced by the freshness brought by the roadside flashing scenery, the two began to talk, with the changing scene on the roadside, Li Yu and Li Shan gradually became excited, and the mood began to heat up like the warmer and warmer sunshine in the sky, and began to look forward to the future, constantly talking loudly.

And Li Yan basically remained silent, only occasionally answering or echoing some of their topics. He was in turmoil in his heart, and all kinds of thoughts came to his mind, one would think about the future, and the other would consider his relatives at home, and finally secretly made up his mind: "This time I will do things well, earn more silver taels, and build two large courtyards after returning to the village in the future, one for the third brother, so that the third brother can marry a daughter-in-law; the other place will live with his father and mother, so that the second elder can live a good life; and during the New Year's holiday, he will also bring the three sisters back, and the family will be reunited, and the family will never be separated again."

This is a manifestation of the young man's heart, he only thinks about the third brother marrying a daughter-in-law, but he accompanies the second elder alone, and does not consider that if he is in that case, he must also start a family independently. His thoughts were still in turmoil for a while.

On the way, Li Guoxin found an opportunity to explain to Li Yan in a low voice, telling him to behave well after enlisting in the army, and strive to win the favor of the commander in the army, so that he may be assigned to a better barracks, and the guards may also have to participate in the task of defending the city, of course, he just said that there is a possibility, basically not. These are considerations at the same time as reminding, for fear that Li Yan will be frightened by saying something serious.

Li Yan was interrupted by Li Guoxin, and he also sobered up a lot from the chaos, and nodded in a low voice to say yes, which made Li Guoxin's heart settle down a little.

After explaining Li Yan's precautions, Li Guoxin's voice became louder, and he continued, "Li Yan, if you join the Guards, there should be no opportunity to visit your home a few years ago, unless you have made meritorious contributions, but it is estimated that there is a small chance of meritorious service when you have just joined the army, and if there are things or letters that need to be brought back, you can put these in Li Yu or Li Shan, there are often people in the village who come over, and every time they come, they will go on a trip, and if there is a letter or something, let the villagers take it and bring it back to the village to your father." In addition, although there are other people in the village who work or do apprenticeships in the city, there should be no time to take you to recognize the road today, but Li Yu and Li Shan can go to the place where they can go first, and the matter of the two of them will be paid to the master's family at the place and signed the contract. ”

Li Yan said when he heard this, "Uncle Guoxin, people from the village, let them also get off me, the barracks should be easy to find."

"You kid, how can you think so simply, but you can't be blamed for this, those garrison barracks are not places where ordinary people can go, it is inevitable that Leng will be interrogated in the past, and it will not be good if he is taken into prison as an enemy country. ”

"Oh, I don't know," Li Yan scratched his head and said embarrassedly after hearing this.

"However, it has been a few years since you joined the army, or you have become a senior officer. We'll go to Daming to find you, but at that time, you have to know your new uncle," Li Guoxin quipped.

Without waiting for Li Yan to answer, Li Yu hurriedly said, "Uncle Guoxin, when I learn to cook well, every time you come, I will make you the best food for free, which is the most fragrant." ”

Li Shan also hurriedly said, "Uncle Guoxin, when the time comes, I will give you your house, well, and every family in the whole village, and make the best sickles, hoes, knives, and guns for hunting." ”

"Haha, okay, okay, in the future, our Lijia Village will rely on your generation, with you, we can scald a pot of wine every day when we are old, eat game, watch the sunrise and sunset in Daqing Mountain, and be happy" Li Guoxin laughed loudly.

After the topic opened, the carriage suddenly became lively, and Li Yan also said a few words from time to time, and participated in it longingly.

The county seat is in the south of Lijia Village, turning out from the foot of Daqing Mountain, and the carriage goes all the way to the south. In fact, Lijia Village is located near the main peak of Daqing Mountain, but the mountain range stretches to the south and north, and there is no end in sight.

At noon, I found a shady place on the side of the road, stopped the carriage, Li Guoxin took out the food, beckoned a few of them to rest and eat some food, Li Yan They also took out dry food from their packages, spread them on the ground and ate together, although it was the coarse grain pickles and a little pickled beast meat brought out by the family, they chatted while eating, but they were also happy.

Finally, around mid-afternoon, they came to the outside of the county seat, and from a distance, a city was located in a large open field, but the east and west sides of the city wall were built against the mountains. The carriage is getting closer and closer, look closer, the city gate and the city wall are more than 30 zhang high, look at the city wall, there is a shadow of the shadow walking on it, think it is the patrol of the city soldiers, a golden banner writes the word "emperor", the wind rolls, the city gate has three big characters "Qingshan Pass".

Li Yan and the three of them in the car also stopped talking at this time, opened their mouths wide, and looked at the towering city gate blankly, they have never been here like the adults in the village, they grew up in the village since they were children, and the farthest place is just around the village, how have they ever seen such a majestic and magnificent building, and they are amazed when they see this scene for the first time.

At this time, there were not many people entering and leaving the city gate, probably because it was already in the afternoon, Li Guoxin gently pulled the reins of the horse, slowed down the carriage, and turned back to Li Yan and the three of them. The east and west of the county are connected to the mountains and built, there are only two city gates in the north and south, the north gate inspection is much looser, but the south gate is connected to the Meng country, the inspection is extremely strict, and the south gate is generally only open for about three hours during the day, although there is about a dozen miles of buffer land to the border of the Meng country when it goes out of the south gate and then marches south, but these are almost a momentary thing for the cavalry, fortunately, the east and west of this green mountain pass are connected to the high mountains, so that the enemy's attack direction is only feasible in the south, which makes the county more easy to defend and difficult to attack. The mountains on both sides of this east and west are steep, the ridges are narrow, and there is no room for several people and horses to go up at the same time, even if someone can go up, it is a problem to attack down the mountain, and it is estimated that if you don't stay down, you have been discovered, and you have already been shot by the crossbow of the city. ”

Li Yan and the others looked at the towering city wall according to their words, but the city wall was too high, and they were in the north of the city, from this angle, they could only vaguely see a row of black things looking up to the sky on the east and west sides, pointing to the peaks on the two sides.

Li Yan secretly thought to himself: "Uncle Guoxin said that the inspection of the north city gate is relaxed, it should be because the people who come here are basically from their own country." The rows of black things on the city wall should be crossbow arrows, looking at this ridge so erected and steep, it really can't tolerate several people on it at the same time, but I can't go up this kind of mountain, it is estimated that there are two or three people in the village like Uncle Guoxin who can go up, and it is very difficult to think about it. If you step on that mountain, you will probably only have to roll down and become a piece of meat puree. Even if someone can climb this mountain, if he goes down from the top of the mountain and attacks the city walls on both sides, as long as he makes a slight big move, he must have stepped on the sound of the rubble and falling, and the soldiers on the city wall below must know in advance, and only a row of crossbow arrows will shoot at the top of the city, and the people above will shoot into hedgehogs, which is really a dangerous place."

Li Yu and Li Shan also recovered from the shock at this time, and heard Li Guoxin's words. Li Yu asked, "Uncle Guoxin, the city wall is so strong, and there are soldiers guarding it, I think the people of the Meng Kingdom will definitely not be able to attack it, right?"

Li Guoxin's expression was condensed but said, "This is difficult to say, I heard that in recent years, the thieves of Meng have come to attack several times, one of them, the enemy soldiers have attacked the city wall, fortunately, there is a bloody battle in the city in person, and the enemy soldiers are killed, and then I heard that the people in the city said that the blood flowed all over the city along the city wall, and the streets were full of blood, water and flesh, and the corpses on the city wall and outside the county were piled up, although most of them were the enemy soldiers who attacked the city, but there were also a small number of people from our dynasty. ”

When Li Yu and Li Shan heard this, they couldn't help but turn pale, and said in their hearts that when they became apprentices here in the future, they didn't want to be scared, but they looked at Li Yan worriedly, and thought in their hearts, isn't Brother Yan going to go up to fight too, wouldn't it be even more dangerous.

When Li Guoxin said this, he also felt that something was wrong, so he immediately stopped the topic and said, "These are just some rumors, they shouldn't be true, otherwise this county will not be so prosperous now." ”

In fact, he knew very well that due to the many wars in the border areas, the imperial dynasty had already issued a decree that the local people were not allowed to migrate in the border areas, so as to show the patriotism of the people, and take every inch of land as their home, and no matter how strong the enemy was in the outside world, they could live and work in peace and contentment. Li Guoxin didn't know the situation in other border places, but at least Qingshan Pass was really blocking the enemy soldiers and protecting the current peace of their villages and towns behind the county seat.