"Tapping" the horses galloped, and the road rolled up from the smoke, wrapping a large group of people and horses in a blur.

"We have entered the territory of Tongliang! Don't let everyone quit their hard work, grit your teeth again, and maybe you will be able to catch up tonight!" Qiu Ling took the lead, sweating like rain, but he didn't forget to cheer everyone up.

"Brother Qiu, do you think they will definitely take this path?" Tang Yi asked loudly while controlling the horse.

"It should be. Go to Qingcheng Mountain, this avenue is the closest, and it is also convenient for horseback riding. Besides, they don't know that we're already chasing!" Qiu Ling said confidently

"Brother Qiu, how far do you think they might have run now?" Tang Yi pulled up his cuffs and asked.

"Hmm...... More than four hours before us, I am afraid that it is already three hundred miles ahead of us. Qiu Ling said.

"Maybe not that far, they shouldn't have been able to run fast last night. Tang Yi reached out and wiped the sweat on his cheeks, "It's so hot this day! ”

"It should rain!" Qiu Ling's tone was a little like he wished it would rain, "it's best if it rains!" ”

"Look, there's a tea stall in front, let's go drink some water!" Boss Sha said loudly with sharp eyes, pointing to the side of the road in front of him.

There is a tea stall under a large soaphorn tree, a wooden board is erected on two stone piers, on which are stacks of thick bowls, and a ceramic water tank is placed on the ground, which holds most of the half jar of tea. An old man was sitting on his back on a stone behind a tea stall, napping with his back against a tree trunk.

"Don't sleep, old man, pour us tea!" said the sand boss, who ran the fastest, turned over and dismounted, and cried out sharply as he patted the plank.

The old man opened his eyes, saw so many people in front of him, was stunned for a moment, then smiled on his face, hurriedly stood up, took a bowl and scooped tea, and said, "Wait a minute, let the little old man come and scoop it up for you one by one." ”

Everyone was already thirsty, how could they wait? They all dismounted and gathered around, and each of them took a bowl to scoop up the water, and drank it in one go. Many people drank several bowls in a row before giving up.

Tang Yi wiped the tea from the corner of his mouth and asked, "Old man, how much?"

"A penny for a bowl. I drank a total of seventy-three bowls, so let's give seventy Wen!" It seems that this old man has a very good memory, and he remembers it clearly when so many people drink water one after another.

Tang Yi took out a bunch of money and stuffed it into the old man's hand, and said, "Old man, don't look for it." ”

"This ...... How can you make it?" said the old man, but he clutched the money tightly in his hand.

"Excuse me, old man," a crisp girl's voice asked, "have you ever seen a group of people, men and women, about a dozen people, passing by here?"

The old man followed the sound and saw a seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl in purple, with bright eyes and bright teeth, looking at him with a smile.

"What a Peugeot girl!" the old man praised in his heart, and said with a smile: "Yes, I don't know if it's the group of people the girl said." The morning passed, and the little old man had just set up a stall, and they happened to pass by and came to drink tea...... Excuse me: ...... with them? Is it a friend?" the old man muttered in his heart when he saw that they were all armed with swords, their faces were not good.

"Yes. The woman in purple smiled lightly: "Is there a middle-aged woman and a little girl among them? That's my relative." ”

"It's them!" the old man saw that he was smiling like a flower, and his bones were a little crispy, "probably passed by at the beginning of the hour, and went in a northwesterly direction." ”

The girl thanked her, and everyone mounted their horses and galloped.

The girl in purple caught up with Tang Yi on her horse and said, "Team leader, they didn't run too fast, they only walked for three hours, and they should still be within two hundred miles!"

※※※

Dark clouds gusted, and the wind swept through the sand and dust, slapping Fang Yi's face from time to time, making him almost unable to open his eyes.

"It's going to rain hard!, what should I do?" Fang Yi didn't seem to have experienced walking in the wind and rain, and he looked a little flustered, crying and screaming urgently.

"Senior brother, don't worry!The front is Shuangjiang Town! The map marks that 'Shuangjiang Inn' is our secret sentinel point, let's go there to take shelter from the rain!" Yin Tianjin glanced at Fang Yi and comforted softly.

Everyone hurriedly galloped into Shuangjiang Town, Yin Tianjin asked the location of a butcher Shuangjiang Inn who was busy closing stalls on the side of the street, and the butcher was very busy, and said impatiently: "Just walk along this street!

It is really easy to find, and it is only half a mile to the end of the street, there is a two-story green tile eaves of the Yishan wooden building opposite, and the signboard of "Shuangjiang Inn" in black background and italics is impressive.

Everyone dismounted, Yin Tianjin handed over the reins of the horse to his companion next to him, and stepped into the inn. Xiao Er, who ran the hall, greeted him and said courteously: "Hello guest officer, let's stay in the hotel!" stretched out his head to see so many people outside, his face was happy, and he greeted: "Guest officers, please come in! It's going to rain, don't get wet!"

Yin Tianjin let out a "grace", ignored him, and walked straight to the counter. A middle-aged shopkeeper in a blue silk robe, with a slightly chubby white face and two beards on his lips, was looking down at the account book. Yin Tianjin coughed lightly and said in a low voice: "Wanderers from all over the world, return to people on stormy nights." ”

The shopkeeper's hand stiffened, and he immediately stopped, slowly raised his head, and looked at the other party suspiciously. I saw that standing in front of the counter was a tall man in a green robe, in his thirties, with a purple face and a slight beard, a face full of wind and frost, his right index and middle two fingers were placed on his chest, forked into a scissor shape, and he was looking at himself for a moment.

"Your Excellency is ?......," the shopkeeper asked softly.

"Yin Tianjin, the hall master of the Qiankun Hall of Chaotian Fort. Yin Tianjin said in a low voice.

The shopkeeper quickly stood up, glanced at the people who were entering the store, and shouted, "Hong Si! Go to the backyard and tie up the horses, and lead everyone upstairs!"

Hong Si led everyone to tie up their horses and led everyone upstairs. The shopkeeper told him to feed the horses, and personally led the people into the five upper rooms on the north side.

After everyone settled down, the shopkeeper went straight to Yin Tianjin's room and arched his hand: "In Xia Duxing, may I ask what happened to Chaotian Fort?"

Yin Tianjin sighed and said, "It's hard to say. Chaotian Fort was besieged by the Tang Gate, and it was in danger, and the lord of Fangbao ordered us to protect our families and return to Qingcheng first......"

Du Xing's face changed color when he heard this, he grabbed Yin Tianjin's sleeve and asked urgently, "Where is the Fang Bao Lord?"

Yin Tianjin said: "I'm still leading my brothers to stick to it!"

"Can you hold it?" asked Duchenne, looking nervous.

Yin Tianjin shook his head and said gloomily: "I don't know." However, please rest assured that the castle master's martial arts are extraordinary, and with the help of the white city lord, I believe that he will be able to turn the danger into a disaster!"

"That's good!" Duchenne seemed to be relieved, "you can live in peace first, rest well, and then make this your home." ”

"I'm sorry for your trouble!" Yin Tianjin said politely.

"Hey, Master Yin, don't say anything outside!" Du Xing waved his hand and said, "This inn was originally Brother Fang's...... By the way, please take me to meet Madame, okay?"

As he spoke, Fang Yi walked in quickly. He originally lived in a room with Yin Tianjin, but he went to his mother's room just now.

"Senior Brother Fang, come over and see Uncle Du!" Yin Tianjin beckoned.

Fang Yi hurriedly came over and saluted with the courtesy of the juniors to the elders, Du Xing hurriedly held his hands and said urgently: "Young master, I can't help it!" and looked at Fang Yi with loving eyes, "It's true!

"Uncle Du, do you know Daddy?" Fang Yi looked a little surprised.

"Of course! I am a fellow villager with your father, and I have been good friends since I was a child! I will never give up on your father, always remember me as a friend, and let me manage this inn. ...... Speaking of which, your family is my great benefactor...... Young master, I'm going to meet Madame!"

At that moment, the two led Du Xing to meet Mrs. Fang and Fang Ru, Du Xing was excited, and even said that he was sluggish, and then told him about his relationship with Fang Xiangju, and said: "Now, Chaotian Fort is in trouble, and I am really happy that you are here...... For many years, I am looking forward to having the opportunity to repay Brother Fang slightly, but I also hope that this day will never come...... You can live in peace, and I'll take care of everything...... Please rest assured, sister-in-law, even if you give up my life, you must also protect your thoughtfulness!"

Duchenne babbled for a while with red eyes before going downstairs to arrange dinner.

※※※

The emerald river zigzags from the north and disappears behind the walls of the houses on the south side of the town. On the opposite side of the river is a plain full of vegetable fields, and at the end of the plains are the green and white mountains, which are like a purple-black dragon under the bright white sun.

The thunder was faint, the light was dim, the distant mountains were gradually blurred, and the emerald river surface became dark and dreary. Suddenly, lightning burst into the air, passing a stunning white. The rain curtain gradually blurred the sky above, and the ripples on the river surface gradually swung into large swaths of crystal white blisters. The treetops along the river were crushed by the strong wind, and they "brushed" and "brushed" under the torrential rain.

The window sash shook, and the wind came with rain, Mrs. Fang exclaimed, reached out to close the window sash, and closed the storm out of the window.

"Hey, it's raining heavily!I wonder how Daddy and they're doing now?" Fang Ru put her left hand on her mother's shoulder, frowned slightly, and said quietly.

"Ru'er, don't worry, your father has come over in the past half of his life, how many winds and rains have come, what is this wind and rain?" Mrs. Fang gently hugged her daughter's slender waist and comforted. In fact, she knew in her heart that this wind and rain was different from what she had experienced before, but she had to be strong in order to give her daughter confidence.

"I hope that tomorrow morning the rain will be clear, and it will not affect the hurry!" Yin Tianjin looked at the rain outside the window and muttered to himself. He didn't know that the enemy was coming, so he planned to stay here for the night.

"With such heavy rain, the road must be muddy, how can you rush tomorrow?" Fang Yi said.

"As long as it's no longer raining heavily, no matter how bad the road is, you have to go!" Yin Tianjin said, sighing secretly in his heart: Hey, after all, it's Brother Gongzi, and he can't even make a fuss about this bit of wind and rain, let alone wind and rain...... I hope that the future journey will be beautiful, otherwise, it will be really difficult to move an inch!

"Why didn't Uncle Du bring the wine and food, starved to death!" Fang Yi paced back and forth irritably, complaining.

"Senior brother, don't worry, it should be delivered immediately! Let's have a few drinks later, and go to bad luck!" Yin Tianjin reassured.

Sure enough, it didn't take long for the two men to carry a square table into the two-person room, put together a large rectangular table, and then served a large table of dishes one after another. Fang Yijian's cold dishes include husband and wife lung slices, strange rabbit pieces, green pepper preserved eggs, and hot and sour peanuts; hot dishes include fresh pepper tender chicken, ginger duck, braised fish with shallots, braised beef brisket, spicy shrimp, dried fried shredded beef, dry fried fat sausage, spicy pork liver, mapo tofu, three fresh crispy broth, boiled pork slices, and sauerkraut vermicelli soup; in addition, there are three Qing copy vegetarian dishes, a total of 19 dishes, and they have already had a great appetite, grabbing a piece of rabbit and gnawing it.

Duchenne entered the room with a large jar of wine in his hand and a smile on his face. At that moment, Mrs. Fang was invited to sit on the top, and then arranged for everyone to sit down one by one, and sat down with the prime minister herself, and repeatedly ordered Hong Si to serve wine. Hong Si slapped open the mud seal and filled it up for everyone one by one, Fang Ru never drank alcohol, and politely declined.

Du Xing picked up the wine glass and said with a smile: "Everyone has come from afar, and they have worked hard all the way! Du is very honored, I will give you a glass first!" Everyone picked up the wine and touched each other, and they all drank it all, but they felt that the mouth was mellow, and there was a faint sweet fragrance, and they all praised it: "Good wine!"

Du Xing said with a smile: "Everyone is used to drinking, and they are very happy to be under it! This wine is the best Luzhou Daqu, there are only three jars in total, and it has been cellared for ten years, and it was originally drunk when the master of Fangbao came. Today, since the lady has come from afar with everyone, she can't wait for the Lord of Fangbao to come and drink again!

During the banquet, Yin Tianjin introduced six brothers to Du Xing: a thin man in black in his thirties named Jiang Lingxiu, a white-faced young man in his twenties and seventies with a black mole on his chin named Xuan Lingyu, both of whom were born in Qingcheng, a man in gray and a young man in blue were his junior brothers, named Zhu Yong and You Xiong respectively, and two brothers were named Yu Shangwen and Yu Shangwu, who were the tall feet of the Qingjing people of Fulongguan in Guan County.

Everyone toasted Du Xing again, and Du Xing did it one by one, got up and said, "You drink slowly, I'll call a few masters to get to know you." ”

Not long after, Du Xing came in with three men and introduced: "This is Master Yang Kaiyuan of Sanshoumen, these two are the ginger juice and ginger soup masters who broke the door." Then he introduced everyone to the three of them one by one. Everyone saw that Yang Kaiyuan was in his forties, his face was white and pure, and his spirit was vigorous, while the Jiang brothers were in their thirties, their sleeves rolled up, their arms muscles knotted, and they secretly admired in their hearts.

It turned out that these three people were martial arts figures that Du Xing met on the rivers and lakes, and they only helped to do some chores such as buying rice, grains, fruits and vegetables on weekdays, or accompanied some martial arts characters who lived in the hotel to drink, but they were free and free, and they usually went to drink tea, gamble and gamble for a small amount of money in their spare time.

Du Xing instructed Xiao Er to add three wooden stools, and copied a few more dishes, and everyone staggered and drank happily. The three of them asked about the situation of Chaotian Fort and sighed. Yang Kaiyuan said: "Actually, I heard Fat Zhu San say yesterday that it was the Sanjiang Gang that fought with Chaotian Castle and surrounded Chaotian Fort. When I asked him for details, he couldn't tell him, only that he had heard from others. I wonder how capable the Sanjiang Gang is, and where can they believe it? I didn't expect that something really happened, but it turned out to be like this!"

※※※

The rain continued so fast and long that it would not stop until late at night.

The men cleaned up the remaining seats, cleaned the tables, chairs, and floors of the inn, and yawned one after another and went back to sleep. Duchenne drank a lot of wine, and after calculating the day's income, he also felt tired and fell asleep on the counter.

"Shopkeeper! I'm sorry!" Duchenne was dazed when he heard the sound of someone calling and knocking on the counter, and opened his sleepy eyes, but he saw that at some point, a large group of ** people came to the lobby, both men and women. Standing in front of the counter was a medium-sized man in blue, in his forties, with piercing eyes, sparse hair, high bulging temples, and a black-sheathed long-handled knife in his left hand. Next to him stood a swarthy man with a pimple on his face, his eyes were deeply locked, his eyes were pitch black, and he had a cold murderous aura. These two are naturally Qiu Ling and Tang Yi.

"Hello guests, are you staying at the hotel?" said Duchenne with a smile on his face and stood up.

"Well," Qiu Ling replied, "please open ten upper rooms for us." ”

"Hmm...... I'm sorry, there are only two rooms in the upper room, and there are only four rooms with the number of places......" Du Xing counted carefully, there were twenty-four people, and said with a slight frown.

"It doesn't matter, it's going to be!" Qiu Ling clapped.

Du Xing led everyone to the courtyard to tie their horses, then took them to live in the remaining rooms, and arranged Qiu Ling and Tang Yi to the upper room upstairs.

Qiu Ling put away his baggage, didn't have time to change out of his wet clothes, walked to the door of his companions one by one, and said loudly: "Everyone change their clothes first, be careful not to catch a cold! Squeeze in, take a rest, wait for the rain to stop, and continue to hurry!"

Du Xing, who was beside him, was a little surprised and asked, "This uncle, when the rain stops, are you going to leave?"

"Well," Qiu Ling replied, "by the way, the troublesome shopkeeper, please let us know when the rain stops, okay?" I'm afraid everyone has overslept." ”

"Okay, uncle, please rest assured. Duchenne agreed, turned and walked out.

"By the way, shopkeeper!" Qiu Ling called back to Du Xing, pointed to the quiet guest rooms on the north side, and asked, "Are these rooms full of guests?"

"Yes. Du Xing replied, and added: "How can the little one hide it from the uncle?

"Are the horses in the backyard theirs?" Qiu Ling asked, staring at Du Xing.

"Hmm...... There are a few horses that are. Du Xing was a little nervous in his heart, vaguely feeling that something was wrong, and doubting in his heart.

"How many people are there in their group?" Qiu Ling saw that he was nervous, his heart moved, no longer stared at him, and asked lightly.

"There were five or six people. Duchenne replied.

"Oh," Qiu Ling frowned slightly, "five or six people?...... Staying in so many rooms?"

"There were two groups of people in the five rooms, three on horseback and two without horseback riding. Duchenne reacted quickly and hurriedly explained.

"I see...... Thank you for your hard work, shopkeeper!" Qiu Ling stopped asking, turned around and went back to the guest room to change clothes.

Du Xing breathed a sigh of relief, and was about to turn around and go downstairs, when he suddenly saw Tang Yi walking over quickly, holding two calligraphy and painting things in his hands, and raised his hand and shouted: "Shopkeeper walk slowly! Excuse me, see if you have seen this pedestrian pass by here?"

Duchenne took it, and looked at it through the light under the corridor, his eyes were stunned, and his back immediately stiffened.

These are two big-headed paintings, painted to life. One is Yin Tianjin with a serious expression, and the other is Mrs. Fang with a light smile.