Su Chen passed by the breakfast stall near the South City Gate and used the copper money to buy three large steamed buns with coarse grains, but he was reluctant to eat them, so he carried them in his arms and waited until he was hungry.

He walked out of the city gate of Gusu County and hurried along the official road.

The official road is quite busy, with high-rollers riding high-headed horses, rich and noble families driving all kinds of luxurious carriages, as well as peasant ox carts, and woodcutters picking firewood to catch the market.

Su Chen walked eagerly, drove three or four miles, and saw a big mountain in the distance, and the stream and large lake at the foot of the mountain surrounded the villa.

Halfway up the mountain, there is a blue brick wall stretching, isolating the villa from the outside world. On the mountain, the attic courtyards of blue bricks and gray tiles are overlapped, accounting for a small half of the mountain.

This should be the Medicine King Villa that Ugly said.

Su Chen couldn't help but marvel, this Medicine King Villa was really magnificent, almost catching up with half of Zhouzhuang, and it was worthy of being one of the five major gangs in Wu County.

The mansions of those squires and landlords in Zhouzhuang are not as good as this mountain villa. If you join this kind of big gang, you will definitely have a good future.

Su Chen was faintly visible, and at the foot of the villa, there seemed to be hundreds of noisy people around.

Wouldn't they all come to the Medicine King Gang early in the morning and want to become gang apprentices? There are so many people, and I don't know how many apprentices the Medicine King Gang is going to recruit.

Su Chen's heart became anxious, and he hurriedly hurried over.

...

Not long after Su Chen and Ah Chou left the backyard of the Sky Eagle Inn, another donkey cart also hurriedly came out of the backyard and headed for the south of the city.

"Drive, get it~!"

The donkey broke the cart and ran fast on the official road outside the south of the city.

In the driver's seat, the donkey cart was eagerly driven by Zhang Butcher, and it was his big fat son Zhang Tieniu who was sitting on the wooden cart behind.

After Butcher Zhang finished killing a pig, he asked the innkeeper Wang Da for a day off, saying that he would take his mother-in-law and son back to Niang Zhouzhuang's house to save relatives.

"Dad, why did we get out of the city, didn't we go to the Aquila Gate?"

Zhang Tieniu held a hot big meat bun in both hands, gnawed on it, and his mouth was greasy, and he finally found out that something was wrong when he got out of the city gate, and he was a little stunned and confused.

"You are stupid! The son of the great shopkeeper will definitely be able to enter the Heavenly Eagle Gate, at least he is an outer disciple. If his son sees that you have also entered the Heavenly Eagle Gate, he will not bully you to death! Do you still have a future in the Heavenly Eagle Gate? There are several big gangs in Wu County, so we don't have to enter the Heavenly Eagle Gate. ”

"That's right, it's still Daddy's thoughtfulness!"

"Dad has long thought about it, this Medicine King Gang is no worse than the Aquila Gate, the pharmacy in the county, the manor and the field outside the city, which one is less than the Aquila Gate?

If you can enter the Medicine King Gang and become an outer disciple, and stay up for decades, maybe you can also become a big shopkeeper in a medicine shop, with dozens of people under your hands! Although Lao Tzu is a butcher, Lao Tzu's son can also become an adult. ”

Butcher Zhang thought of the face of the shopkeeper Wang who yelled at him, so he was indignant and spat fiercely.

I think back then, the shopkeeper Wang was just a young man at the Eagle Inn, no taller than him Zhang Butcher, what was he proud of.

The fact that the shopkeeper Wang can have the status of the current shopkeeper of the Tianying Inn is entirely because he later became an outer disciple of the Tianying Gate, and he slowly developed, otherwise he would be the life of his buddy for the rest of his life.

He Zhang Butcher also wants his son Zhang Tieniu to become a disciple of the big gang of Wu County and become a master, so that he can raise his eyebrows in the future.

"Hey, Dad, who's who... Is that little fisherman from the countryside? Why did this kid come to the south of the city?"

After Zhang Tieniu finished eating the big meat-stuffed buns, he suddenly saw a young man wearing linen straw shoes on the road in front of him, and exclaimed.

Zhang Tieniu is a native of the county, and he often bullies Ugly in the inn on weekdays, and he also looks down on Su Chen, a small fisherman from Zhouzhuang.

Butcher Zhang also saw Su Chen, and couldn't help but slow down the reins and catch up with the thin figure.

Su Chen heard the sound of a donkey cart behind him, and hurriedly avoided it, and when he turned around, he couldn't help but be surprised to see Butcher Zhang and his big fat son driving a donkey cart.

He and Butcher Zhang actually knew each other for a long time, because Butcher Zhang's mother-in-law was from Zhouzhuang, and they were all villagers in the township, and they often met in Zhouzhuang.

"Uncle Zhang, aren't you going back to Zhouzhuang to save your family, why did you come here?!"

Su Chen was strange, seeing Butcher Zhang's embarrassed face, and then looked at the Medicine King Villa not far away, and suddenly came to his senses. Butcher Zhang said to the shopkeeper Wang that he wanted to go home to save his relatives, but in fact, he wanted to bring his son to join the Wang Gang.

It seems that the ordinary people in Gusu County have the idea of defecting to the gangs in the rivers and lakes and getting ahead, and there are many people, and he is not the only one.

"Oh, Brother Chen! Ha, what a coincidence, the weather is good today, I am about to go back to Zhouzhuang, I heard Lao Li Tou say that the Medicine King Gang is recruiting, and I came to see the excitement, hehe! Brother Chen, you also want to go to the Medicine King Gang as an apprentice, what a coincidence!"

Butcher Zhang laughed, hiding his embarrassment.

Originally, he didn't want to pay much attention to Su Chen, a little fisherman. But thinking that his son and this little fisherman, if they both joined the Medicine King Gang and became fellow brothers, they might be able to take care of each other, so he chattered a few more words.

The rest of the journey was not far, Su Chen, Butcher Zhang, and the big fat boy chatted casually, and soon arrived outside the Medicine King Villa together.

...

There is a stream around the mountain outside Yaowang Villa, and there is only a cold iron bridge with a length of more than 20 zhang to cross.

The stream under the bridge is not deep, but it is extremely cold.

On top of this chain bridge, hundreds of large wooden planks were originally paved, which was plain and easy to pass.

But now the planks have been emptied, and only a few slippery chains of iron cables connecting the two sides of the river have suddenly become steep, and the iron cables are frozen in cold ice at night, and they are extremely smooth.

This is a natural barrier for Yakuo Villa.

On the iron cable cold bridge, a husband can guard the mountain gate.

The four Tsing Yi Guardian Swordsmen of the Medicine King Gang were proudly guarding the entrance of the chain bridge, with their hands crossed over their chests, looking at the many ordinary people gathered outside the villa.

The Medicine King Gang is one of the few powerful forces in the entire thirteen counties of Wu County, naturally not comparable to idle small gangs and small forces, and even they, the gatekeepers of the mountain villa, are invisibly superior.

The high-spirited officials in the county town on weekdays have to be respectful and respectful in front of them, the swordsmen of the Medicine King Gang Nursing Hospital, and they dare not put on a shelf of officials.

Ordinary people in the rivers and lakes, small gangs and small factions, even more dare not spread wild in front of the disciples of the Medicine King Gang.

Every year, there are many newcomers who want to join the Medicine King Gang, and there are even more carp who cross the river.

But the indiscriminate people are all turned away, and not everyone who wants to take refuge can take refuge. To cultivate martial arts, you need to be young, and you need a certain amount of talent and qualifications.

The Medicine King Gang has strict rules for recruiting disciples, and only recruits a group of potential teenagers between the ages of eight and nine to thirteen during the wax moon season every year, and carefully cultivates them to become the gang's right-hand men.

Next to this chain bridge, there are gathered squires and local tyrants from nearby towns, peasant tenants with hoes, poor and sour talents with fans, and even a few eager officials, all of whom want their children to come to the Medicine King Gang, but they are stopped by this cold chain bridge and cannot pass, and they are very anxious next to the bridge.

Su Chen hurriedly squeezed into the crowd, wanting to see what the adults were talking about.

A young swordsman saw that there were some newcomers one after another, and he didn't understand how to pass the assessment, so he raised his voice to the crowd: "Fellow fathers and fellow villagers, this chain bridge is an assessment test for the Medicine King Gang to recruit outer disciples. If you want to become an outer disciple of the Medicine King Gang, you must climb this iron cable cold bridge with your bare hands before you can join the gang!

Adults are not allowed to cross the bridge, only children under the age of 13 are allowed to climb the chain bridge. As long as you climb over this chain bridge, you are an outer disciple of this gang. ”

When the crowd of people gathered heard this, their expressions were obviously excited, and they were hustle and bustle, hoping that their children could cross the chain bridge.

However, it is not so easy to cross the iron cable bridge.

These iron cables are smooth, cold, and have no strength, and they are twenty zhang long, which is very physically demanding.

This also means that children who are too young and weak will definitely not be able to get by. And the upper age limit is thirteen years old, which excludes those older and more powerful children.

"This is a cold day, and the iron cables are frozen, and I can't step on them at all. A teenager has weak strength, where can he catch it, and if he accidentally falls into the river, even if he does not freeze to death, he will get an illness. It's too dangerous, isn't there any other way to test it?"

Butcher Zhang was worried that his son would fall into the river, so he squeezed to the front of the crowd, nodded to the arrogant young swordsman, and asked flatteringly.

"That's right! Adults don't dare to go up to this iron cable cold bridge, let alone children!"

The people shouted excitedly.

"Hmph, if you don't have the courage to take risks, why talk about joining the Medicine King Gang?! My Medicine King Gang disciples are roaming the rivers and lakes, and their heads are hanging on their belts, which is a hundred times more dangerous than this iron rope cold bridge! Those who are afraid of death don't have to come to my Medicine King Gang. Besides, if you fall into the stream, there will be fishermen under the bridge who will salvage and rescue you, and at most you will freeze and die. ”

The young swordsman looked around at the crowd, clasped his hands on his chest, and sneered disdainfully: "Okay! Don't waste time here, this gang will recruit new apprentices in this month's month, and it will only be for three days." Today is the last day. If you can't advance Zhuangzi in the evening, let's wait until next year. If you don't dare to go on the bridge, go home, don't gather here to make a fuss!"

Only then did Su Chen understand that if he wanted to become an outer disciple of the Medicine King Gang, he had to climb through the Iron Cable Cold Bridge, otherwise he would not be able to enter the mountain gate.

And there's not much time left, it's the last day.

These chains, which were thicker than their arms, were bare and unsteady, and they were frozen and cold, cold and smooth. You can only use your hands and feet to climb over.

Su Chen looked at the chain bridge with ice cubes hanging and braving the cold, his heart was cold, where did he dare to go up, he wanted to see how other children passed first, so that he could learn some experience.

Many adults and children in the crowd arrived early in the morning, and they were blocked here and couldn't enter Yaowang Villa, obviously quite anxious.

The fate of many teenagers here in the second half of their lives, whether they eventually become the disciples of the Medicine King Gang that everyone in the county envies, or whether they are eliminated and return to the county seat as small civilians, everything depends on whether this chain bridge can be climbed over.

"Tie Niu, climb over! Daddy will cook you a big pig's foot to eat!"

Butcher Zhang gritted his teeth and turned around to urge his big fat son to climb the iron chain.

"Okay, Daddy!"

When Zhang Tieniu heard that there was a pig's knuckle meat to eat, he immediately drooled greedily and nodded excitedly.

Soon, at the encouragement of many parents, more than a dozen children between the ages of eight and nine and eleven or twelve came out, and with a hint of timidity, they began to muster up the courage to climb the chain bridge.

A nine-year-old child crawled halfway through, as if his hands were frozen, and suddenly he screamed and fell into the valley several feet deep.

"Oops, be careful!"

"Oh no! Fall, save him!"

The crowd of onlookers suddenly erupted in exclamation.

Seeing this, the four young swordsmen all shook their heads indifferently and didn't care.

The iron cable cold bridge of Yaowang Villa can be entered casually. You must be vigorous and flexible, have enough strength in your hands and feet, and have a strong will to withstand the cold to have a small chance of passing the test.

If you can't meet these conditions, you will fall into the stream and eat a cold meal in vain, and you will not be able to become an outer disciple of the Medicine King Gang at all.