A month later.

In the mountains, the sound of a clear bowstring.

With a "boom", a white feather arrow came out of the string, the force and the wind, in an instant across a hundred paces of distance, the sharp whistling alarm the hare that was leisurely grazing on the mountain, it nervously pricked up its long ears.

"Medium!" a young man sat on a horse, his eyes glittering, and he felt that his whole body was hot, and the blood had rushed to his throat.

However, it is a pity that the vigilant hare, when it sensed the arrival of the feathered arrow, almost subconsciously jumped in place, and the white feather arrow swept over its hind feet, and plunged diagonally into the earth, splashing a lot of wild grass and loess, and the hare was already in a panic and burrowed into the burrow.

A few middle-aged people who were also riding on horses with the young man laughed: "What do you say? Stone, it seems that you can't get your father's heirloom knife." ”

The young man's eyes widened, and he looked in the direction in which the hare had disappeared, and frustration welled up in his heart, and he scolded vigorously: "This bastard rabbit is really cunning. ”

"Eh, don't blame the rabbit. Beside him, there was a middle-aged man wearing a cowhide sleeveless armor, he held a simple knife, and teased: "Obviously, I am not good at shooting, and I blame the rabbit for being cunning, if the rabbit is not cunning, it will not be eaten by the wild fox in the mountains? ”

At this, he whistled loudly and shouted, intentionally or unintentionally, "Oh...... Someone is going to cry!"

"Uncle Gen, can you stop rubbing salt on my wound?" the young man named Shi looked at the middle-aged man beside him hatefully, "If you hadn't been teasing me when I was drawing my bow just now, maybe I would have been hit by this arrow!"

"Stone. Some old men beside Uncle Gen shouted: "If you can't shoot, you can't shoot, don't mess with your Uncle Gen, it's unreasonable." ”

"Daddy!" Stone shouted, but his voice faded with the sternness of his father's eyes, and he honestly lowered his head, "Okay, okay, I know." ”

The man nodded, and then showed a little smile: "It's okay if you can't shoot, and let your little rabbit cub know that you are not good at learning, wait for this trip back, and then practice bow and knife skills well, and when you make me satisfied, this knife ......"

He stroked the long knife he was carrying at his waist—it was the knife of a veteran Jing Wu, about three fingers wide and extremely sharp.

The man's name is Shen Zang, he is a retired Jingwu veteran, he also participated in the war between Jingwu and Tang State, the tragedy of the war, is an indelible memory of his life, his compatriots, brothers, and even the forward generals who respect the division commander are like messy straws in the wind and fall one after another, and he stepped on the corpse, his eyes were red, and he killed until the whole person was out of strength, only to find that he was hit by an arrow in the knee.

He lay on the ground, thinking that he was going to die, but the Tang army retreated like a tide, and after a long time, the excited shouts of countless soldiers suddenly sounded.

"We won!"

Only then did he know that General Gao Changgong actually took 8,000 Qingzhou ghost cavalry companies down the city, and almost hit the city wall of Ding'an City, the Tang Kingdom, and the Tang Army had to retreat.

After the end of that war, he received a pension, left the army, and followed his childhood good brother Tiegen to start a dart business, although the business is difficult to do, but also bumpy, but his wife and children are hot pit head of the day he still has a good time, except for the injured leg is always in the rainy day faintly throbbing, he has completely walked out of the nightmare days brought to him by blood and fire.

In the past few years, Jing Wu has developed better and better, which can be called a peaceful and prosperous era, he looked at this country that he had tried his best to protect, and his heart was full of emotion, and he admired and revered the Zhuge Prime Minister and Gao Changgong, who commanded Jing Wu's soldiers and horses.

The autumn wind blew his chest, he felt a little cold, looked at the gradually yellowing leaves in the mountains, and wondered if he was really old, and he didn't know how long he could hold this knife, perhaps, it was the right choice to hand over the stinky boy to the stone earlier.

The stone drove the horses over, and smiled: "Dad, this way, I want to be able to learn your good beaded arrows in three months, how about you give me this precious big knife?" Anyway, you are not young, and it is time for us to come out, dragging this old injured leg around all day long, my mother is also very worried, it just so happens that the neighbor Liu Ye lacks a chess partner, you are quite suitable." ”

"Go, go, go. Shen Zang waved his hand in annoyance, "Just Lao Liu's stinky chess basket, if you lose, you have to be anxious with others, if I play chess with him every day, maybe one day he will be beaten out of bed, and then he will have to lose money, this loss-making deal, don't do it!"

As he spoke, he turned his head and glanced at the caravan of dozens of people behind him, the mules, horses, and carts lined up in a row, and said with a slight smile: "Do you want me to give up the seat to you? Then ask Lao Tzu for a good daughter-in-law first, and give birth to a big fat boy as soon as possible, then I will be at ease in the dart game for you." ”

Shi said with a bitter face: "Dad, what kind of daughter-in-law to beg, then if I haven't asked for a daughter-in-law for a few years, you won't give me this knife?"

Shen Zang smiled and didn't speak.

On the side, Uncle Gen took over the conversation and said with a smile: "You still don't understand? Your father has already negotiated with the matchmaker, and when this dart makes money, he will be able to make you the groom official when he goes back! ”

Shi Shi was dumbfounded, he didn't expect that this dart would bring him out with such an intention, obviously he was still young, so he had to ask an aunt to take care of himself?

There is a way that a good man is ambitious in all directions, and now that there is one more person in the family, how can he walk the world?

He didn't raise any objections, because he knew that his father, who had been on the battlefield, was not a reasonable person at all, so he could only look at the long queue helplessly, and casually say something else to liven up his mood: "Dad, how much can you earn after this dart?"

"Not a lot. Shen Zang held the reins and smiled: "Originally, I didn't have confidence in taking this single business, but God helped, the dart head of the Huwei Dart Bureau was not popular, and I took a big order, and went to take the most sinister 'Tongguang Road', as a result, the money was earned, but people also lost a lot, even the dart head was hit by an arrow, and I am afraid that I am still lying in bed to rest at this moment, and the caravan chose us." ”

"Really?" Shi's eyes lit up slightly, the Huwei Dart Bureau has always been their opponent, the two sides have robbed each other for several years, and their own family has fallen behind, and now they can have the upper hand, although it is not really how powerful their own family is, but it is enough to make him feel gratified.

And he squinted his eyes slightly, glanced at the entire caravan, looked at one of the carts in the caravan, and pouted: "That cart man doesn't seem to be from the caravan, right?"

"Oh, you said they. Shen Zang glanced at his gaze and said, "Anyway, I want to go to the Tang Kingdom, and the caravan also happens to have spare mules, so I just brought them with me." They are all walking rivers and lakes, multiple friends and multiple roads, and it is convenient to ...... with people."

"It's just convenient for yourself!" Shi laughed, "Dad, I know, you told me this sentence a lot." ”

"Little bunny, then you have to listen to it, too. Shen Zang rolled his eyes.

It is already far away from the official road, the nearby are hills, the mountains in the distance are undulating, one after another, the road that is hard rolled out by cattle and horses is naturally not very smooth, not only shaking, but also from time to time because the stones on the ground shake violently, causing the people on the board car to want to sleep and can't sleep, they can only look around the scenery and chat.

One of the young men, wearing a windproof hood, glanced up at the skylight and knew that it was noon, so he took out a carefully protected cloth bag from his bag, and when he opened it a little, several pale green mung bean cakes were revealed.

It's just that just as the young man swallowed his saliva and stretched out his hand to pick up a piece, the other hand was one step ahead of him and suddenly appeared in front of him, the young man was stunned, but the mung bean cake in front of him was gone, he hurriedly turned his head, and the person wearing a hood on the side was desperately stuffing those pieces of mung bean cake into his mouth.

Because he stuffed several pieces at once, he seemed to be choking, his face was flushed, he covered his neck, and the old piano beside him was tossed by him and suddenly overturned, making a messy sound, causing everyone next to him to complain again and again.

Of course, these two people are Qin Ke and Gao Yishui who are heading all the way to Tang Kingdom, along the way, they pretend to be students who travel around to enter the caravan, but Tang Guo is still far away, and it is estimated that bumps on the road are still indispensable.

But for now...... Qin Ke didn't have time to think about this, he stared, and didn't care about Gao Yishui's choking appearance that he was about to roll his eyes, his hands suddenly lifted his neckline, and said angrily: "Gao Yishui! You bastard! That's the pastry my sister made for me, and you have eaten more than half of it along the way, and there is only the last bit left, you still have to grab it!"

Gao Yishui "poofed", like a fountain spewing out a stream of mung bean powder, finally didn't choke to death on the spot under the toss of Qin Ke and mung bean cake, and the rolling eyes finally refocused, he coughed a few times, and said, "Let me drink saliva first, let me drink saliva first." ”

"If you drink it, you'll choke to death. Qin Ke looked at him like that, the anger in his heart disappeared a little, and he sat down with a snort.

Of course, don't even think about handing him a water bag, this guy is so angry!

The other people on the board car also opened their sleepy eyes because of the commotion between Qin Ke and Gao Yishui, and they all frowned and looked at the two of them.