From the south of the Yangtze River to the Tianshan Mountains, it is necessary to pass through the border of Song and Mongolia along the way, but also pass through more than ten passes and fortresses guarded by heavy troops.

If Liu Xunyi rides alone, I am afraid it will be difficult to get out of the customs smoothly. In order to avoid extraneous branches, Liu Xunyi disguised himself as a coolie when he was in Xingyuan Mansion, and mixed into a caravan to Huodu in the Western Regions, and followed the caravan for more than a month before arriving at Huodu, the only town at the northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains.

Huo Du said that it was a city, but in fact, its scale in the Central Plains was only a county, and the city was not prosperous, it could only be regarded as lively. This was once a trade fortress under the jurisdiction of the Western Liao, after the fall of the Western Liao, this place belonged to the Jin State, and soon the Jin State also followed in the footsteps of the Western Liao, and this place fell into the hands of the Mongolian people.

In just a few decades, Huodu has changed hands one after another, so that the ethnic groups living here now are very complex, Khitan, Turkic, Tubo, Han, Mongolian, Jurchen and other ethnic groups all have people settled here.

However, because Huodu is a fortress of trade between the East and the West, although it has changed hands three times and twice, it has not affected the endless life of Huodu, because Huodu has a large population and good and bad, so whether it is the Western Liao, the Jin State or the Mongolian people, they all turn a blind eye to this place when they rule, as long as there is no war in the whole country, they often have a resigned attitude to Huodu, and they are free to let it go.

It was also in such a favorable environment that the Jade Dragon Palace of the Tianshan Mountains, the head of the four pagan religions, was able to be conceived, and it grew stronger and stronger with the war. Nowadays, Huodu seems to have become a private city under the command of Tianshan Jade Dragon Palace, and the official mansion in Huodu is nothing, and all the rules and regulations are dominated by Tianshan Jade Dragon Palace.

When Liu Xunyi followed the caravan into the city, he found that there were no soldiers and horses guarding the city gate. After entering the city, the people you meet are all kinds of people, 351 gangs, gangs, and factions, and you can easily distinguish from the way you dress up, these people all belong to different nationalities. Among them, the behavior of the Han people is the most restrained, and the posture of the Mongolian people is the most rampant.

In fact, it is no wonder that although Huo is a place of three things, but now it is attached to the account of the Mongolian Great Khan after all, and the surrounding passes are also Mongolian soldiers and horses, so the Mongolian people are naturally superior here.

From the beginning of entering the city gate, Liu Xunyi found that Huodu was very different from the Central Plains towns, if everything in the Great Song Dynasty town was exquisite, then everything in Huodu was undoubtedly rough.

The crooked streets are paved with bluestone slabs of different sizes and potholes, and the gaps between the stone slabs can't be inserted into each foot, which shows how careless the craftsmen who paved the road at that time were.

Perhaps because of the frequent horse-drawn goods, the streets of Huodu are very wide, but after being set up by the vendors on both sides, the road left in the middle does not look so wide.

On both sides of the street are uneven blue brick houses, some of them are inhabited, and most of them have been converted into shops, and there are horizontal and vertical alleys that are obliquely inserted around the street like random arrows, and the brick houses and tile houses in the alleys are even more dilapidated, some of the courtyard doors are only half left, some of the windows are pasted with oiled paper, and even the courtyard walls are ruined and broken, standing on the street you can see the life scene in the courtyard at a glance.

What surprised Liu Xunyi the most was that whether it was on the street or in the alley, traces of swords and iron tools could be seen everywhere, so it was not difficult to guess that there were often fights and killings in the city, which showed the fierceness of the people here.

Walking down the street, there are shouts and roars of different tones everywhere, and it seems that the people who live here do not speak calmly, but shout loudly when they open their mouths. It's customary to live here for a long time, but for newcomers like Liu Xunyi, he will always mistakenly think that almost everyone on the street is shouting at each other, and the anger is too strong, which makes his mood irritable together.

Although Huodu looks very dilapidated, the city is full of people, almost every street and alley, every shop is crowded with people, I have to admit that this place is indeed very lively.

Rough, strong, shabby, lively, and noisy, this is Liu Xunyi's personal feeling of Huo Du.

"Bang!"

Just when Liu Xunyi followed the carriage slowly, staring at a pair of curious eyes, his body was suddenly hit hard, and Liu Xunyi, who was caught off guard, only felt his shoulders sink, and subconsciously raised his eyes, but saw that there were already four fierce and vicious Western Regions men standing in front of him at this moment.

Without waiting for Liu Xunyi to apologize, the strong man who had just collided with Liu Xunyi was already yelling at Liu Xunyi. Although Liu Xunyi couldn't understand his language, through his extremely hideous facial features and aggressive momentum, it was not difficult to guess that what this person said was definitely not a good thing.

"What are you talking about?" Liu Xunyi was swept by the strange smell emanating from the strong man in the Western Regions, and subconsciously took a step back and waved his hand, "I don't understand your words." ”

"You Song dog doesn't have long eyes when he walks!" The strong man seemed to realize that he and Liu Xunyi could not understand the language, and immediately changed his tone and scolded, "Look for death!"

was pointed at his nose and scolded Song Dog, Liu Xunyi suddenly became angry, and his puzzled eyes became cold, and he said coldly: "Who are you scolding Song Dog?"

"Huh!"

At this moment, the old butler of the caravan stepped forward with a smile on his face, and walked between Liu Xunyi and the strong man, first gave Liu Xunyi a slightly calm look, and then turned to the strong man and nodded and smiled: "Misunderstanding! It's a misunderstanding! My young man is ignorant and collided with a few masters, I will make amends for you for him, this little meaning is when I invite a few people to drink a pot of tea." As he spoke, the old butler quickly stuffed the broken silver in his hand into the strong man's hand, and then kept sneering again and again.

The strong man took the broken silver and weighed it a few times, while another man behind him came forward and said a few words, and the strong man showed a relaxed expression, he glared at Liu Xunyi viciously again, and then snorted angrily and led people away.

"Lao Xu, why did you give him silver taels?" Liu Xunyi asked in surprise, "It was obviously their ...... just now."

"A place like Huodu is no longer the world of our Han people, and if you want to be safe and sound here, you have to learn to be a man with your tail between your legs. Lao Xu explained meaningfully, "We are here to do business, not to look for trouble, don't you see those people with knives in their waists?

When he first arrived in Huodu, he suffered a dumb loss, which made Liu Xunyi feel that the world was declining and the right path did not exist.

"Little Yanagiko. Lao Xu turned his words around and smiled at Liu Xunyi, "You've worked hard all the way, and you've been busy with a lot of help." Now that the caravan has entered Huodu, our fate has come to an end. Here's your salary, and you're good to go. After that, Lao Xu handed Liu Xunyi a money bag prepared in advance, and there were few copper plates scattered in the shriveled money bag.

Liu Xunyi accepted the money bag and thanked him: "Lao Xu, thank you for taking care of me along the way!"

"Actually, the first time I saw you, I knew you were no ordinary coolie. Lao Xu smiled meaningfully, "You came all the way to Huodu, it shouldn't be just to earn these copper plates, right?"

"I ......"

"No need!" Before Liu Xunyi could prevaricate with an embarrassed face, Lao Xu waved his hand again and again and smiled, "You don't have to say anything to me, and I'm not interested in knowing about you." We are the fate of this road, and now that the fate is over, it is time to disperse. But for the sake of our journey together, I would like to remind you that Huodu is no better than the Central Plains, and there are almost every day of murder and arson here, no one cares about it, and no one dares to take care of it, so you must be careful no matter what you do here. I know that you young people are strong-blooded, but I still want to advise you that more is better than less, and if you can endure it, you can let it go, so that no one will embarrass you too much. ”

In the face of Lao Xu's kindness, Liu Xunyi responded gratefully: "Thank you for mentioning it, I wrote it down." ”

"That's good. Little Yanagiko, take care!"

"Take care!"

Liu Xunyi said goodbye to Lao Xu and the other guys, and watched this caravan, which had been with each other for more than a month, gradually disappear from sight, and only then did he let out a meaningful sigh.

Standing on the streets of Huodu and looking around, his eyes were full of strangers, Liu Xunyi knew that he wanted to sneak into the Jade Dragon Palace of Tianshan Mountain, and he must not be in a hurry to find out the frightening rain map, so he planned to find a place to settle down first, and then plot something else.

There are quite a few inns in the city, but most of them are not very friendly. Liu Xunyi asked five or six houses in a row, but they were all full, I don't know if it was because he was a Song person, Liu Xunyi was treated coldly and coldly in Huodu, which really made him cry and laugh.

"The Dragon Inn?"

At the intersection of Sancha Street, there are three inns opened at the same time at the three street corners, which are Long'an Inn, Longxiang Inn and Longfu Inn.

Liu Xunyi had heard Lao Xu say on the road that the largest inn in Huodu was opened by a rich man surnamed Long. And the most interesting thing is that in this Huodu City, which despises the Song people, the famous shopkeeper of the Long family is an out-and-out Song person.

It is rumored that other ethnic groups did not reject the Song people, but later the Song people came here to do business more and more, and all of them were calculating shopping mall masters, who came and went, causing the other ethnic groups to buy and sell worse and worse, so they had to unite to boycott the Song people.

But even so, the biggest business in Huodu City is still the Song man of Longda, the shopkeeper, and his methods can be seen.

Standing at the corner of the street, Liu Xunyi couldn't help but shake his head and smile bitterly, and said secretly: "It seems that I, a Song person, can only live in this inn opened by a Song person now." ”

Choose one of the three inns, just when Liu Xunyi was about to step into the Long'an Inn, he glanced at it, but suddenly saw a familiar shadow, flashing in front of the Longxiang Inn.

"That figure just now seems a little familiar?" Liu Xunyi frowned slightly, and thought carefully to himself. Suddenly, a flash of inspiration flashed in his mind, and a thick look of surprise suddenly appeared in his gaze when he looked at the Longxiang Inn.

"Is that her?"

......