After more than ten days of slow travel, Ashina's body, who was recuperating in the carriage, has also recovered, and the pain on his body has gone. On the Pingliang Ancient Road, a group www.biquge.info of more than 10 people galloped south, and Ashina's car followed. The black horses trained by Wujian Villa are far better than ordinary horses, and after only half an hour's effort, they galloped to the bank of the Pingliangjing River, only a water away from the Chang'an Chi Road.

Ye Lin came to the wooden bridge on the bank of the Jingchuan River, looking at the patchwork Pingliang Town in the distance, and the white wasteland in the four wilds. He parked his horse by the river, came to the wooden bridge by himself and took a deep breath of the cold fragrance of the wilderness, most of the fatigue in his eyes subsided, and he looked back at Liu Tianjiang on the shore and smiled, "Uncle Liu, we have finally arrived." Unexpectedly, the river has broken the ice, and the direction of the water flow is the Chang'an Yellow River. ”

The afterglow of the setting sun swept away in the reflection of the gray earth-colored tiled houses, and the town of Pingliang was already crowded with caravans from the foreign land of the West Sea. The only inn in town was already overcrowded. Even the firewood house was chartered by the caravan. Liu Tianjiang jumped off the horse and dragged the reins on foot onto the wooden bridge, looking at the scattered caravans on the galloping road from Pingliang Town to Chang'an under the sunset, and said in a low voice, "Fortunately, Jingchuan Academy is still there, I hope Mr. Zilin can still leave a house for us, otherwise we will spend the night in the wilderness tonight." ”

"Why?" Ashina got out of the carriage and walked slowly to the river, watching the turbulent Jing River burst out from under the glacier on the mountain, and flow down the steep valley to the wide plain river. Ze Jun behind him was holding a purple and heavy velvet robe draped over his back, and the rest of the people laughed and talked about various strange stories in the West Sea with white-clothed waiters such as Mo Ran and Mo Chen.

"The national teacher doesn't know that Pingliang is located in the northwest of Chang'an, and the four fields are barren mountains. Only the town on the banks of the Jingchuan River can be used by pedestrians to rest, and after coming out of Jiayuguan, if you can't get here before dark, you can only rest in the dense forest or high mountain in the wilderness. Liu Tianjiang pointed to the gallop road east of Pingliang Town, frowned, and sighed, "But how can this small Pingliang Town accommodate so many business travelers?"

"Then where are we staying tonight?" Ye Lin stood on the bridge and asked in a deep voice as he looked at Liu Tianjiang by the river.

Liu Tianjiang looked at Ye Lin looking at him with a nervous face, and said with a smile, "Don't worry, how can you let our Lin'er live in the wild? On this trip to Xihai, I specially sent a letter to Rang Xiu, hoping that he could leave us a few wings. ”

Ye Lin's tense face faded, he had grown up in the Swordless Villa at the peak of the deep mountains since he was a child, but he had never really stayed in the mountains and forests, and when he heard Liu Tianjiang's arrangement, his mood relaxed a lot.

"Fortunately, Brother Liu has already made arrangements. Ashina looked at Ye Lin's sudden expression and laughed loudly.

The crowd led their horses across the wooden bridge to the crowded town of Pingliang, where the streets were full of exotic merchants, men, women and children.

"Why don't the locals expand the town?" Ye Lin looked at the small shops on both sides of the street expectantly, and asked Liu Tianjiang, who was leading the way in front.

"Well, you stopped me. Liu Tianjiang said with a smile, "The matter of building a village is a local official of the Ming Dynasty, and it is not Uncle Liu who has the final say." ”

"Uncle Shi, do you know?" Ye Lin walked beside Ashina with his hands in his hands, and the attendants behind him led the black horse to follow closely.

Ashina lifted the red cloak, opened his eyes slightly, looked at Ye Lin with a curious expression and said with a smile, "Pingliang is a place where barren mountains are on all sides, and there is only the open land of the Jing River Valley. If you build a town here, it will easily be flooded, and if the enemy attacks from the mountains on all sides in wartime, the towns in the valley will be vulnerable.

Ye Lin listened to Ashina's explanation, and could look at the hill in the moonlight, and the rocks and trees in the distance looked extremely mysterious against the backdrop of the moonlight. Ashina continued, "More than ten years ago, it was here that the Ming army and the Yuan and Mongolian armies had a fight. The Ming army was stationed in the villages and towns, and as a result, the Yuan and Mongolian troops took advantage of the night to launch an attack from the surrounding barren mountains, causing heavy losses to the Ming troops stationed in Pingliang Town. Although Jiang Qi, the king of Fu at that time, led his troops to repel the Mengyuan army, he was always hurt by this place, and he no longer paid attention to it. ”

"So that's the case," Ye Lin said with a smile, "That Fu Wang is afraid that he will be hurt by the Mongols, so he won't care about this town anymore." ”

The sky gradually sank, and everyone came to the gate of Jingchuan Academy in the west of Pingliang Town, the low gatehouse was made of adobe bricks, and on both sides of the door were some merchants from the Western Regions who had nowhere to sleep, they set up tents, bonfires shook outside the tents, and a little cold rain drifted out of the sky.

"Bang!bang!bang!", Liu Tianjiang slapped on the main entrance of the academy and shouted inside, "Brother Zilin... Brother Zilin"

After a long time, an old man with fluffy hair opened the wooden door in a thick velvet coat, poked his head out to look at Liu Tianjiang, was stunned for a moment, and then laughed loudly, "You... Are you Brother Tianjiang?"

"Yes, it's me" Liu Tianjiang looked at the wrinkled old man and saluted, "Brother Zilin, I haven't seen you for many years, everything is fine with you." “

The old man opened the door and laughed roughly, "Teaching literacy to the children of the border town here is just the end of my life." Come in, you guys. “

"Thank you, Brother Zilin, this is Ye Lin, the young master of the villa. Liu Tianjiang walked into the academy and introduced the plain-clothed boy to the old man of the academy on the side.

Mr. Shuyuan looked back at the handsome young man and said slowly, "Everyone come in." “

Several white-clothed attendants led the horses to the backyard, Ye Lin stepped into the academy, the green tile stone road, the red attic arch blocked the view, and above the arch was a three-story study building.

The old man of the academy walked slowly in front and entered the inner courtyard with Liu Tianjiang. Ye Lin, Ashina and the other attendants followed closely behind him and entered the study building. The bookshelves in the building leaned against the walls on all sides, stacked with various ancient scrolls, and a wooden ladder spiraled up to the second floor on the left.

The old man of the academy looked at everyone, his eyes fell on Liu Tianjiang on the right, and asked, "You haven't encountered anything strange along the way, have you?"

"Strange thing?.. That's not it." Liu Tianjiang glanced at the old man in the academy, then looked back at the people on the side, and replied with a smile, "I don't know what the strange thing in Brother Zilin's mouth is..."

The old man of the academy looked at Liu Tianjiang and was drunk, but he didn't say anything, his face was slightly gloomy, and he said in a low voice, "Since... Not... Nothing."

Liu Tianjiang saw that Brother Zilin beside him didn't tell everyone what he meant, so he didn't want to ask any more, cleared his throat and coughed, and smiled respectfully, "I wonder if the room that Brother Zilin prepared for us is still there?"

"In... In the in.." The old man of the academy hurriedly answered.

The old man of Ye Linxing Academy on the side saluted and said, "Junior Ye Lin, I don't know what the old gentleman is called?"

"Hahaha" The old man stroked his white beard, his eyes narrowed slightly, and said with a smile, "It turned out to be the son of the owner of Ye Zhuang, then this must be Ashina." “

"Hey, how did you guess Uncle Shi?" Ye Lin asked eagerly with excitement on his face.

The old man of the academy sat on the wooden chair next to him, and pointed to the wooden chair on the side with his right hand to signal everyone to take a break. He pondered for a moment, and only after a long time did he say, "Twenty years, the most mysterious mysteries in the Swordless Mountain Villa have disappeared out of thin air..."

Ashina's face changed suddenly, he coughed, and said with a dumb smile, "Haha, I didn't expect that I had been away from the West Sea for so many years, and there were still people who knew me in this desolate town." He placed his staff beside the wooden chair and sat down on it with a suspicious look in his eyes.

Liu Tianjiang looked at the eyes of the two of them, his heart was anxious, he pointed to his stomach and smiled bitterly, "Brother Zilin, you see I'm still hungry."

The white-haired old man drank a cup of warm tea, shook his head and smiled, "This, my brother can't help you, the academy is only me and a scholar to take care of, if you want to have dinner, you have to go to the inn in the town." ”

"It's... It's good. Liu Tianjiang looked at Ashina, the suspicion in his eyes had not disappeared, and he pulled his shoulders and smiled, "National teacher, how about we go and solve the gurgling in our stomach first?"

"Okay," Ye Lin replied first, "I'm so hungry too, let's go." ”

The old man of the academy got up and said slowly, "After dinner, you can go to the five wings on the west side of the second floor to rest. The white-haired old man pointed to the room behind the carved wooden guardrail on the second floor.

"Okay, thank you, Brother Zilin" Liu Tianjiang pulled Ashina and walked towards the outer courtyard, Ye Lin looked back at the old man in the study building with a glimmer of light in his eyes, and slowly disappeared from sight.