step on mountains and rivers

The boat moved slowly, and after two hours, the people on board finally saw the land not far away.

The old woman said to the two people behind her:

"Both of you, that's Yingzhou over there. Our village is over there, you go back with us first."

"Okay, thank you auntie." Li Zhenwu replied.

"You're welcome." The old woman replied with a smile.

The boat docked slowly, Li Zhenwu and Tang Qingfeng followed them ashore, and walked towards their hut.

Tang Qingfeng glanced around. The houses in the small village were all made of thatch, and some gravel were pressed on the roof. It looked very simple, and it seemed that the roof would be blown away as long as the wind blows.

They followed the old woman and the old man to the residence.The room is small, seven to eight feet wide, and the surrounding area is empty, only a long mat made of thatch stands in one corner of the room, and there are some dry thatch standing beside it.There is a fire pit in the center of the room, and a round iron pot is hung on the fire pit. The iron pot is burnt black, which should be due to daily use.

The two old men brought Li Zhenwu and Tang Qingfeng into the house, and wanted to invite them to sit down, but they saw that there was no place to sit in the house.They usually sit on the ground, but these two nobles are so gorgeously dressed, but they are embarrassed to let them sit on the ground.

The old man glanced around, went to the thatch to get some hay, spread it on the ground and said:

"Two guests, please sit down."

The two sat down after nodding.

Seeing the two sitting down, the old woman said to them:

"You two, wait a moment, I'm going to cook fish soup."

The two nodded, and the old woman rummaged through the broken wooden box beside her.

The old man was about to say something when a young male voice came:

"Father, Mom, I'm back."

The four heard the sound and looked towards the source of the sound.I saw a fourteen or fifteen-year-old boy in rags walking in from the door holding a three-foot-long silver fish in his hand.

He walked into the house and saw two gorgeously dressed youths sitting in the house, looking at his father in puzzlement and saying:

"Father, who are these two?"

Hearing the boy's question, the old man suddenly remembered that he didn't know their names, so he looked at them.Li Zhenwu understood, and said to the young man:

"My name is Li Zhenwu, and this is Tang Qingfeng. We are rangers from the Great Zhou Dynasty. We came to Yingzhou for some trivial matter. We encountered storms and waves on the way, were attacked by pirates and drifted at sea. We were rescued by our parents. Thank you very much."

The boy nodded and walked over to hand the fish to his father.The old man took the fish and went out to dispose of it. The old woman dug out the dried fish from the box. She chopped the dried fish and threw it into the pot. Then she said to the boy:

"Ichiro, you stay with the nobleman and look at the fish soup, and I will help your father."

"Okay." Ichiro nodded, and the old woman went out.

Ichiro watched the old woman leave, looked at the two of them and said:

"Are you rangers from Da Zhou?"

"Yes." Li Zhenwu replied.

"Oh, what's a ranger?" Ichiro asked.

When Li Zhenwu was asked such a question, he didn't know how to answer it.Seeing him like this, Tang Qingfeng took over the topic:

"Youxia means hero. It is similar to your ronin here, but not the same. More precisely, it should be like a samurai."

"Samurai, do you have a loyal master?" Ichiro asked.

"We are loyal to ourselves." Tang Qingfeng replied.

"Myself? Are you the prince of a famous family?" Ichiro asked.

Tang Qingfeng thought for a while and said:

"more or less."

"Oh, no wonder your costumes are so gorgeous, so you are the prince. Can the prince be a ranger in your place?" Ichiro asked.

"Well, the prince can do whatever he wants." Tang Qingfeng replied.

"Oh, how about your martial arts? To be a ranger requires high martial arts." Ichiro asked.

"Our martial arts are very high." Tang Qingfeng replied with a smile.

"How tall?" Ichiro continued to ask.

"Thousands of people beheaded." Tang Qingfeng said mysteriously.

After hearing this, Ichiro was taken aback and froze in place.

Seeing that Tang Qingfeng was making fun of the child again, Li Zhenwu smiled and said:

"He was joking with you."

After hearing this, Ichiro came to his senses, nodded and said:

"Then how are your martial arts?"

Li Zhenwu thought for a while, and then replied: "It's about the same as Brother Tang said.".

Ichiro was dumbfounded after hearing his words, and thought to himself, "Are you two playing tricks on me on purpose. '

Seeing him dumbfounded, Li Zhenwu asked:

"What's the matter? Do you need our help?"

Ichiro nodded at his question.

Tang Qingfeng saw Ichiro's serious expression, so he said:

"You say, we will try our best."

Hearing his answer, Ichiro slowly opened his mouth and said:

There is a group of bandits in the deep mountains, and they often come to the nearby fish village to grab food.Our village is called Dayu Village, and it is rich in big fish, which is the target of their frequent visits.

Every time they come, they will take away all the food and come back after a few days.Repeatedly, no matter how many fish the people in the fishing village catch, they cannot save food.How can we survive the winter without food?

I discussed with some companions in the village and decided to burn down their lair.Without a place to live, they should leave. "

Tang Qingfeng listened to his narration, and after thinking for a moment, he asked:

"How many bandits are there?"

"More than 30." Ichiro replied.

"Oh, what about you?" Tang Qingfeng asked.

Ichiro glanced at him, not daring to answer.

Tang Qingfeng saw him like this, so he asked clearly: "Ichiro, you can't be the only one, right?"

"I......" Ichiro was silent, and then said: "So what if I am alone, they are timid and afraid of death, but I am not afraid, I can burn the house down by myself."

Li Zhenwu looked at him, shook his head and said:

"Ichiro, your parents are old and need your care. You are so impulsive, what will happen to them if you die unfortunately?"

"Then what should we do? If this continues, we will starve to death." Ichiro said.

After hearing his answer, Li Zhenwu looked at Tang Qingfeng, who nodded and said:

"Since that's the case, then go and destroy the bandits."

"Okay." Li Zhenwu replied.

Listening to the two people's answers, Ichiro expressed his gratitude beyond words, looked at Li Zhenwu and Tang Qingfeng excitedly and said:

"Big brother, big brother, thank you. When are we going to leave? I'll show you the way."

Tang Qingfeng glanced at Ichiro, and smiled softly: "Big brother is a good name, I like it very much, we will go tonight. Zhenwu, what do you think?"

"Okay." Li Zhenwu replied.

Ichiro saw that the two were so generous, so he thanked them and said:

"The two elder brothers have dinner first. The mountain is a bit far away and the road is not easy to walk. I will take you there after dinner."

"Okay." Tang Qingfeng nodded.

Ichiro took out the fish soup and handed it to Tang Qingfeng. Tang Qingfeng took a sip and frowned slightly.

"What's wrong?" Li Zhenwu asked.

"Slightly salty." Tang Qingfeng replied.

Li Zhenwu took the soup bowl from Tang Qingfeng's hand, took a sip, frowned slightly, it was indeed very salty.

Ichiro saw that the two of them didn't seem to like fish soup very much, so he explained:

"Big brother, big brother, for the convenience of storage, a lot of sea salt has been added to the dried fish. It doesn't taste very good. You should stuff your stomachs first. There are many delicious foods from the bandits. I'll steal some for you when the house is being burnt down."

Seeing what he said, Tang Qingfeng looked at the fish soup and drank it in one gulp.

Li Zhenwu also drank some. When the three of them finished their meal, the old woman and the old man walked in with the processed fish.

Seeing that the three of them seemed to be going out, the old woman asked:

"Ichiro, where are you taking your nobleman?"

Listening to the old woman's question, Ichiro looked at her and said with a smile:

"Mother, I heard that there is a turtle nest nearby, and I want to go and see it."

"Oh, the turtle nest is a bit far away, so go back early," the old woman said.

"Okay, then let's go first." Ichiro replied, and then the three of them bid farewell and left.

After going out, Ichiro led the two into the woods from the path behind the village. The three climbed over the top of the mountain, crossed the mountain stream, and walked out of the forest. They saw a three-story building standing in the jungle in the distance.

Ichiro pointed to the tall wooden corridor in the distance:

"That's right there. It used to be a daimyo's mansion, but after the daimyo was killed by these bandits, it became their territory."

Tang Qingfeng nodded clearly, and said to Ichiro:

"It's dangerous here, you should go back first."

Seeing Tang Qingfeng persuading him to go back, Ichiro said with a face of loyalty:

"Brother, how can that work? How can I leave you and run away?"

"......" Tang Qingfeng was speechless.

"Brother, what's the matter?" Ichiro asked puzzled seeing Tang Qingfeng's silence.

"It's nothing, you can stay if you want." Tang Qingfeng said.

"Okay." Ichiro replied.

"Well, you just wait here. Your elder brother and I will check the situation first." Tang Qingfeng said.

"Okay." Ichiro replied.

Tang Qingfeng nodded, turned around and smiled at Li Zhenwu:

"Brother, let's check the situation."

"......" Li Zhenwu was speechless.

"Zhenwu, let's go." Tang Qingfeng said and walked towards the woods.

"Well." Li Zhenwu followed closely behind and walked in.

Ichiro looked at the two people who left, feeling slightly worried, wondering if they could burn the house down.

When they arrived at the bandit den, the sky had already darkened, and the two easily eliminated the guards by the wall and hid on the roof in the dark.

Tang Qingfeng lifted the tiles and saw a group of bandits inside the house drinking and having fun.

"Zhenwu, the number of people is very small, let's deal with it directly." Tang Qingfeng said.

"Yes." Li Zhenwu nodded.

The two jumped down and landed on the corridor on the second floor.Tang Qingfeng glanced at the door and kicked it open.

The bandit leader who was drinking heard the noise, turned his head and looked towards the door, and saw a handsome young man in a fine attire, gently fanning his folding fan and looking at them with a smile.A handsome young man stood beside him holding a long sword.

"Who are you?" the bandit leader asked.

"The one who took your life." Tang Qingfeng smiled.As he said that, he jumped out, and under the horrified gaze of the bandit leader, the fan blade pierced the wine jar with one blow, and plopped through his heart.

Tang Qingfeng pulled out his fan, glanced at the fallen corpse, then turned around and swung a blade of air, killing dozens of bandits instantly.

The bandits in the courtyard hurried over when they heard the movement, Li Zhenwu swung out a sword energy, and smashed it on the stone wall in the distance, and the three-foot-wide stone wall was instantly shattered.

Seeing this, the rushing bandits retreated and fled for their lives, and fled the yard scrambling and crawling.

Li Zhenwu glanced at the fleeing bandits, slowly withdrew his light sword, turned to look at Tang Qingfeng, only to see that he was walking towards him with a few rice balls.

Tang Qingfeng walked up to Li Zhenwu, handed over the rice dumpling and said:

"Zhenwu, it's all wine, only this."

Li Zhenwu nodded, took one from his hand, and took a bite. There was a sweet and sour taste in the rice ball.He glanced at the rice ball with some doubts, it turned out to be a sour plum.

Tang Qingfeng also took one and ate it, nodded and said, "The sour plum is pretty good."

The two were about to leave the mansion, but saw Ichiro running in from the door.

"Ichiro? Why are you here?" Li Zhenwu asked.

Ichiro ran forward quickly, glanced at the rice dumpling in Tang Qingfeng's hand, and said to Li Zhenwu:

"Brother, I haven't seen you come back after waiting for a long time, I came to have a look because I was a little worried, and then I found that the gate was not guarded, so I slipped in." Ichiro said, looking around, wondering: "Where's the bandit? "

"Run away." Tang Qingfeng said.