Half blood

The convoy headed south all the way, and Li Xuan rode a black horse and followed it for dozens of miles. When they reached the Anqu River, General Wei Zhong ordered the convoy to stop first, take a short rest, and cross the river by boat tomorrow.

There was a shop by the river, with the flag of "Inn" hanging, but inside it was full of tables and chairs covered with dust, and there was no one in sight.Wei Zhong strode in, stood in front of the counter, and asked, "The shopkeeper? The shopkeeper?"

At this time, a hanging curtain trembled, and a middle-aged man with a blue face and sunken eyes came out from behind, stooped to the front of the counter, took out a rolled-up account book from the hidden compartment, and asked, "What is this?" Is the guest officer a tip or a hotel?"

Wei Zhong replied: "To live in the hotel, first prepare a few clean rooms, then serve a few catties of white wine, cut up some beef, and prepare a few plates of vegetarian dishes for the brothers to eat."

The shopkeeper poked his head out from Wei Zhong's huge body, and seeing dozens of strong men of the same size behind Wei Zhong, he couldn't help but gasped, "Here, this guest officer, there are so many of you!" Man, I, I can't have so many things in this small shop."

Wei Zhong frowned when he heard this, and asked, "It's just a few rooms and a few taels of beef. You can't even tell how you opened the shop."

The shopkeeper wiped his sweat with his crumpled sleeves, looked up at Wei Zhong with a dark face, and replied: "The guest officer doesn't know, the store has been out of business for a few days, and the wine tank has long been seen." At the end, the beef is also finished, there is really nothing to entertain these masters..."

Seeing the terrified look on the manager's face, Wei Zhong put away his displeasure and said in a good voice: "We brothers have been on a journey for a day, so the shopkeeper can order whatever you want. We only stay here for one night. Tomorrow, I will go to the river to find a boat to cross the river."

After hearing this, the shopkeeper had no choice but to agree to let them take the horses they brought to the stable behind the shop first.Li Xuan then led the horse to the stable. The dry haystack was piled up in the stable, and no one had been there for a long time.Li Xuan led the horse in, and when he turned around, he saw a little girl looking up at him.

This little girl should be the daughter of the shopkeeper's family. She looks a bit like the blue-faced shopkeeper, holding a half-licked licorice in her hand, with a braid on her head, and a pair of gray eyes on his face. Turning around, it finally landed on Li Xuan's brown eyes, and cried out with a wow.

A woman with low eyebrows and pleasing eyes hurriedly came by, took the girl into her arms, and asked softly: "What's the matter?" The girl twitched her nose and said, "Ma'am, what's the matter?" Monsters have monsters!"

After hearing this, the woman raised her eyes to look at Li Xuan, covered the crying girl's mouth with her hand, pulled her arm with the other hand and walked out, saying: "That's not a monster, that's a foreigner." The girl seemed to understand, and asked whimperingly: "What do people with crooked feet mean? Yes, can they eat people?" The woman walked away with the girl, and comforted her: "No, no eat human."

Li Xuan couldn't help laughing at himself. In the palace, no one dared to speak ill of him in front of him, let alone his half of Qingzhou blood.But he knows what everyone is thinking, like a semi-public secret, everyone is talking about it, but everyone thinks he doesn't know it.

His brown eyes were unconsciously filled with moisture, he blinked, and thought to himself: "A man can bend and stretch, a man rides a boat in his belly, a man doesn't care about little girls." Then he tilted his head slightly, stretched out his hand to pat He patted the head of the black horse beside him, saw that there was a tuft of yellow hair growing between the eyes of the black horse, and said: "I think you also look strange, there is such a piece of hair growing between the eyes, which is exactly the same as me. "The horse seemed to understand the master's words, shook the mane on its neck in cooperation, and barked hoarsely.

The shopkeeper of the inn came to greet them with tea, brought some hard steamed buns on a ceramic plate, and served some small dishes, put the tray under his arm, bent over and said: "These gentlemen , there are only these things left in the store, you, you can make do with it.” Wei Zhong saw that the dishes were really poor, but the shopkeeper couldn’t bring out anything decent, so he had to thank him and greeted the people on the table to eat up.

Wei Yuan and Li Xuan sat at another table, Wei Yuan reached out and handed Li Xuan a steamed bun, and said in a low voice, "It's inconvenient everywhere outside, so Your Highness will just order it." Li Xuan took the steamed bun and said: " Brother Wei, where is this, and I will trouble you along the way."

The steamed bun's shell was hard, and there was a trace of unsmelly hot air. Li Xuan flipped the steamed bun, and the white crumbs fell down. He took a bite and felt like he was eating dirt. The crumbs choked in his throat, choking him uncomfortable.He poured himself a pot of tea, but the tea was completely cold, with a few tea stalks floating in it, and there was no tea flavor, but rather sour.Li Xuan pursed his lips, moved his Adam's apple up and down, and swallowed the steamed bun.

As soon as Li Xuan looked up, he saw that everyone on the table lowered their heads, eating big mouthfuls, making a noise from time to time, and the few vegetable leaves on the plate had already been eaten.He knew that he was too hypocritical, so he also gulped down raw, eating until his mouth was full of crumbs.

Even if the meal was eaten so-so, the group of people was divided into a room for each two, and Wei Zhongnian was special in Li Xuan's status, so he allocated a separate room for him.

Li Xuan pushed the door open and entered, and saw that there was only a single hard plank bed in the room, with a musty-smelling quilt rolled up on it, and a big round wooden table missing a leg with a leg built with bricks. There was a round stool next to it, Li Xuan touched it with his hand, and brushed off a layer of dust.

He touched the clothes with his blackened fingers, put down the things he was carrying, shook off the bedding on the bed, and coughed as he was choked by the moisture.He made the bed, wiped his face with cold water from the washbasin with a towel, and lay down on the bed.The head of the bed was facing an open window, and a bright moon shone on his face. He couldn't help sighing, thinking, why would he suffer so much in the palace?

He knew that he would be laughed at if it was spread out that he was like this, and laughed at him as an idiot who couldn't lift his hands or shoulders.He's tired of being a straw bag, he doesn't want to be a straw bag anymore.But his stomach didn't know his lofty ambitions, and it growled incomprehensibly. Li Xuan pressed his empty stomach with his hands, got up from the bed, opened the teapot on the lame table, and smelled it. After smelling it, I made sure it was not broken, poured a glass, and drank it with a gurgle.The water flowed down the throat and into the empty stomach, and there was a gurgling echo, as if a person was standing on a hill and shouted: I am so hungry, and the mountain responded politely: I am also very hungry.

Li Xuan sat in front of the table a little frustrated, thinking about where to go to find something to eat at this time.At this time, in the silent night, I suddenly remembered a series of knocks on the door, "Knock, knock...", the evening wind blew the sound a bit strangely, Li Xuan got up and picked up the big knife standing by the door, he was a little puzzled, and his heart ached. Thinking, how could someone come to him so late?The nerves that were originally tense due to the journey became even more flustered. He clenched the handle of the knife and carefully released the latch.

As soon as the door latch was released, it was pushed open with a bang, and Wei Yuan strode in from outside the house.Seeing Li Xuanzheng standing by the door holding a big knife, he couldn't help laughing and said, "Are you afraid of ghosts at night, or the dark at night?"

"I, I didn't!" Li Xuan hurriedly argued, but he felt that waking up from hunger seemed to be no better than being afraid of the dark, and his voice lost all confidence.This person is Wei Yuan again, Li Xuan couldn't help but feel that his behavior was a bit ridiculous.

After hearing this, Wei Yuan laughed, and took out an oily paper bag from his bosom. The paper was wrapped around one leg, and oil was oozing out. "Brother Wei guessed that you probably didn't have enough to eat tonight. How can you be full with such a small amount of steamed buns and wild vegetables? Here, take it. This is what my brothers and I just grabbed in the woods."

Li Xuan took the greasy thing and felt his eyes sour.He has eaten a lot of delicious food. The chef in the imperial dining room cooks him delicacies from mountains and seas every day. Whenever he has free time, he sneaks out of the palace to eat the most popular roast chicken and roast duck on the street. Not as good as this unsalted roasted rabbit leg.

Li Xuan took a deep breath and looked down at the rabbit leg. Seeing his grateful expression, Brother Wei chuckled, reached out and patted his shoulder, and said, "Look at you, your saliva is about to flow out." Come on, eat quickly! I'll go back to sleep first, and you should go to bed early, there is still a long way to go tomorrow."

Li Xuan nodded and responded. He opened his mouth and tore off a small piece of meat from the rabbit's leg. The meat smelled like charcoal. He chewed it a few times before swallowing it.He touched his eye sockets with his hands, and cursed in his heart: "Li Xuan, Li Xuan, you are really worthless." He is just a worthless guy.

On the second day, a group of people set off from the inn, continued to walk south, and traveled several tens of miles to the riverside.Wei Zhong got off his horse and went to the riverside to find a ferryman. After negotiating a price, the horse took a boat, and the man took a boat, and they crossed the river together.

After the river crossed, they went to the south and arrived at their base camp.The military camp is set up on the Xingchuan Mountain in the south, next to the Anqu River across.This mountain separates Yujin Kingdom from Qingzhou Kingdom further south.There are organs in the open and dark places on this mountain. If the civilians at the foot of the mountain stray into this important place of military aircraft, they will be locked up for a while and given a lesson before letting them go.If the intruders are from the Qingzhou Kingdom, they will be imprisoned regardless of whether they are good or bad.

There are two outposts standing outside the camp, and there are soldiers with bows and arrows standing on them, and the guards change every hour.There is a row of military tents in the camp, and a row of houses behind the military tents.The houses were mainly for senior generals, and Wei Yuan specially allocated a room for Li Xuan from the inside.Li Xuan followed Wei Yuan to his room and tidied up his things. Wei Yuan said, "Tomorrow, I will show you around first to familiarize yourself with the environment in the south. The south is different from the capital, and it is inconvenient everywhere. Please forgive me, Your Highness." Before leaving, the emperor specifically told me that when we go to the south, we must not reveal His Highness’s identity unless it is absolutely necessary, so as not to cause trouble. So His Highness is called the son of a friend of the Wei family in the capital for the time being.”

Li Xuan replied: "It's all up to Brother Wei. I troubled Brother Wei to take care of you along the way. I was the one who caused trouble to Brother Wei!" My duty is also a task given to me by His Majesty, His Highness, wash your face first, it's getting late, you can have dinner later."