Just after a heavy snowfall, thousands of trees and mountains are like wearing a silver white snow coat, wrapped in silver, which is extremely beautiful.

On the long ancient road, five fast horses galloped forward, led by a young man with a green qiu, holding a silver spear in his right hand, dressed as a soldier, and then four people lined up, all of them were bound in black armor; the difference is that the color of the horses is different from front to back, the right side of the body of the green horse and the black horse are hung with shields, and the armor soldiers on the back of the horse are also carrying a big sword; the red horse in the middle of the horse team hangs an arrow bag on the right side, and more than a dozen arrows are inserted, but one of the arrows is different from other arrows, the tail of the arrow has no feathers, and the armor warrior on the back of the horse carries a big bow; the second place behind the horse team, the yellow horse and the armor soldier do not see any weapons on their bodies, which is very strange。

When approaching the fork in the road, the young man turned back and said, "Stop!" He grabbed the bridle with his left hand and "shouted", and the other four armorers also reined in their horses, and the five horses galloped a few feet away before they suddenly stopped. The horses seemed to be unwilling to stop, and paced left and right, as if they were about to go around, and a few crescents were added to the snow-paved ground, and the young man in Qingqiu did not look down at them, but just pulled the bridles lightly, and looked at the mountain road on the right.

Qingqiu's young name is Qinggeng, and his parents died early. His original name was not called Qinggeng, but called Sanwowzi, one is a rural baby, in order to make a good living, he didn't bother to come up with any big names, and simply took the same big name and small name; The name Qinggeng was changed by his master for him, and he also asked him what his master meant by Qinggeng, and his master said that when he met him, his master was plowing the field, and the sky was blue, as if there was a storm about to tear the sky and fall, so he called him Qinggeng, and in his memory, it was indeed as his master said.

He was eleven years old that year, and his parents had been dead for three years, and in the past three years, he had already learned to take care of himself. On this day, as soon as Qing Geng finished washing people's clothes and hung up the bamboo pole, a lightning bolt tore the sky, and the rumbling thunder also sounded, and then the sky changed, and the green was terrible. Knowing that the rainstorm was coming, he began to put his clothes back in the basin and prepare to carry them back into the house, and then hang them up to dry when the weather cleared. At this moment, there was a commotion, and he followed the sound to see a strong man chasing a little girl of six or seven years old. The two people Qing Geng also recognized, the strong man's home is not far from here, walked through a few wheat fields, and arrived at the foot of the mountain, the little girl is the daughter of the strong man, but the mother of the little girl, Qing Geng has never seen it, and heard the neighbor say that he ran away with other men, and her father vented his resentment against her mother on her. In the panic, the little girl fell unsteadily, staggered and fell to the ground, and the half-eaten steamed bun in her hand also fell to the ground, but she didn't care about the pain, nor did she care about the strong man chasing her behind, and she didn't care about the steamed bun was dirty, and picked up the steamed bun and stuffed it into her mouth, looking hungry. But the little girl only ate two bites, and the strong man caught up with her and punched and kicked her who hadn't gotten up yet, and scolded her: "You are a money-loser, you haven't done a good job, and you still eat so much!" The little girl didn't cry, she was beaten and kicked, but she was still eating steamed buns on her mouth.

Qing Geng couldn't bear it, and remembered her loneliness, so he threw down the wooden basin, rushed over and hugged the little girl, protected her on his chest, and said, "She is your daughter, how can you treat her like this?" Get out of the way for me, or I'll beat you up. Qing Geng said resolutely: "I won't go." The strong man began to beat him again, and said while beating: "Let you be nosy!" Qing Geng received a few punches and kicks, although his body was in pain, he didn't open his mouth to beg for mercy, and the little girl finished eating the steamed buns, just blinking her big eyes and looking at Qing Geng.

At this moment, an old voice sounded, "You girl, the old man bought it." The young cultivator and the strong man looked around, and saw that the person who spoke was the old man who lived on the mountain. This old man rarely comes down the mountain, but today he somehow came down the mountain. The strong man hurriedly asked, "How much can you give?" The old man said, "How about ten taels of gold?" The strong man was overjoyed and said, "It's sold." The old man gave the gold, and the strong man went away with joy. The old man smiled and said to Qing Geng, "You are very good, would you like to worship me as a teacher?" Qing Geng asked, "Can you eat enough to worship you as a teacher?" The old man smiled: "Yes." Qing Geng pointed to the little girl and said, "Then I want her to apprentice with me." The old man smiled, "Of course." In this way, he and the little girl went up the mountain with the old man, and when they arrived at the mountain, they saw the hoe in the field, and Qing Geng knew that the old man was plowing the land just now.

But later, I heard his master say that the reason why he changed his name was that the most important thing was that his master felt that the name Sanwazi was too earthy, not a name for doing big things, it might as well be called Daqing, and since then his master has called Qinggeng with the small name of Daqing. He also refuted his master, saying that a cultivator can do great things? His master told him the stories of Yi Yin, a cultivator, and Jiang Ziya, a fisherman, but although he knew that he could not achieve the same achievements as Yi Yin and Jiang Ziya, he and his junior sister Xiaoqing loved to hear such stories. His master reprimanded Xiaoqing, saying that you are a female baby, what are you doing listening to this, and I don't expect you to be a king like your senior brother in the future. Xiaoqing said, didn't the girl have the title of king and worship the prime minister, so what about Wu Meiniang still being the emperor? His master smiled and said, "Our Xiaoqing has grown up, and still knows the story of Wu Meiniang?" Xiaoqing held his head high, like a winning bird, and giggled and said: "I will be Wu Meiniang in the future and protect the master and brother." He patted Xiaoqing's head lightly and said with a smile: "You are a girl, and you still want to protect us." Xiaoqing retorted: "I'm a girl, and you're a yellow-haired boy." His master just watched them fight and laughed.

A joke is a joke, Xiaoqing didn't become a "Wu Meiniang", and he didn't pay homage to the king, but he just mixed up a seven-grade salt patrol imperial history, and was transferred to the remote Mo'er Kanfu to serve, and since then he has been separated from his master and Xiaoqing. He also wrote a few letters back to his family, but the two places were too far apart, and they were not important letters about the imperial court, and the sender did not take it to heart. In the more than three years since he served as the salt inspector, he had only received a reply letter from his master, telling him not to worry about it, because the distance was far away, so that he did not have to constantly think about coming back to see them. He was only a long way away, and his family letters were delayed on the road, so he thought that after being busy for a while, he would take a leave of absence from the imperial court and go back to visit his master and Xiaoqing.

Seeing Qing Geng's suspicious face, the green horse armor soldier drove forward, came to his left side, and asked, "Big brother, why don't you leave?"

Qing Geng didn't look back, nor did he blink, but said in a deep voice: "There is something abnormal!"

The other three armor soldiers' faces sank, and they all drove their horses to the right side or behind Qing Geng, and the black armor soldiers asked, "What's abnormal?"

Qing Geng's right hand was raised, and the silver spear pointed to the fork in the road ahead, and said, "Look there." ”

The green warrior looked ahead, and saw that everything was silver and white, and there was not even a single footprint on the ground except for the hoof prints of the horses they were riding, and asked in confusion, "There is a fork in the road, what is abnormal?"

The yellow vest soldier touched his chin and said, "Big brother said that he was guarding the defense?"

Qing Geng nodded and said: "Those two forks, the right is to Yanjing Village, in the past, we came here to patrol, there were always three or four guards there, which can be regarded as the outpost of Yanjing Village, but there is no one under the eye." ”

This Yanjing village was originally just a barren mountain, and later a group of merchants passed here, and saw that the terrain of the mountains here was excellent, and it was a place of great wealth and nobility, so they decided to settle here, and began to build a house. When digging the foundation, salt water was dug out, and the merchant immediately decided to dig deeper, and before he could think about it, he dug out more than 100 salt wells, and the merchant became a salt merchant. But the salt is profitable, if you don't improve yourself, it will inevitably be taken away by the red-eyed people, the salt merchant immediately decided to attach to the imperial court, and the house that has not yet been built into a walled city, this is the origin of the salt well village.

The red vest soldier blurted out: "Maybe it's because the snow is suddenly coming and the weather is cold, so let's go back to the village to avoid the cold." ”

Qing Geng shook his head and said: "In the past, when the cold winter was windy, I have also been here, and I can still see three or four guards standing there, today's cold is far less than then, why did he withdraw the defense?" The owner of the village has instructed that even if you use a knife, you must stay here. He said that we are the eyes of Yanjing Village. Therefore, every time Qinggeng comes here, he will pay attention to this fork in the road.

After Qing Geng said this, the four armor soldiers were silent for a while.

The black vest soldier whispered again, "Perhaps...... The guards felt too tired and lazy. ”

The green vest soldier said coldly: "This is leaving his post without permission, and the owner of the exhibition village obviously didn't take our eldest brother seriously." ”

The yellow vest soldier suddenly squinted and said, "Or maybe ...... Yanjing Village has changed hands, so ...... The armament has also changed. ”

Qing Geng cast an approving glance at the yellow vest soldier.

The black vest soldier frowned, and said, "Then what should we do now, do we still want to go to Yanjing Village?"

Qing Geng was about to answer, but the green horse armor soldier preemptively said, "I definitely have to go." Even if Yanjing Village changes hands, it is still under the jurisdiction of the imperial court, and our eldest brother is appointed by the imperial court to patrol the salt imperial history.

The yellow vest said: "The words are good, but people's hearts are unpredictable, and we can't guarantee how Yanjing Village will treat us after the change of ownership, so we should be careful." ”

Qing Geng said: "What the second brother and the third brother said is good, the emperor's grace is vast, and I am entrusted with patrolling the history of the salt palace, I should do my best, this Yanjing Village will naturally go, but we must keep an eye on it, if the situation changes, we will deal with it according to the tactics of the previous drills." ”

The four armorers nodded yes.

Qing Geng shouted, and then beat his horse and galloped up the mountain road on the right, and the four armor soldiers followed closely behind, and there was a burst of clicking sounds, and the snow flakes were carried up by the hurried horses' hooves, as if raising white dust, and it was inconspicuous to float in a piece of silver and white.

Soon, the five men and five horsemen turned into small dots, and then disappeared as if covered in snow, leaving only a string of crescent-shaped horseshoe prints to prove that they had visited.