What Xia Houlan and Zhao Yun saw was the outline of a village.
The hazy distant view of the building is reflected in the wind and snow, and the mountains behind the village gradually rise and fall.
Zhao Yun and Xia Houlan looked at each other. Xia Houlan nodded and quickly returned to the carriage with the kettle in hand.
As the team walked a little closer, they could see the village built in a long and narrow valley.
This place is obviously different from the previous deserted villages and is inhabited.
A long fence and a lookout tower were built at the entrance of the valley. However, I don't know whether it was because of the heavy wind and snow or because it was expected that no one would be outside in this kind of weather. No one was standing guard at the lookout tower, and a team of three hundred people approached.
No villages have been discovered.
Zhao Yun did not advance rashly. He ordered the team to stop at a position upwind about 300 steps in front of the village and sent his men to investigate and negotiate.
Although the land in western Liaoning is under the control of the Gongsun family, like other aristocratic families, they are not very interested in the management of remote areas.
These places can neither bring tax benefits nor produce a working population that can be driven. The old, weak, sick and disabled here grow wild and free like weeds.
Disease, banditry, barbarian plunder, and even an extreme weather change can take away many lives. The dead people will leave their houses and acres of thin fields vacant, and the refugees who have fled will naturally take over.
Until all the refugees died or were taken into slavery, the whole village was drained of blood and abandoned.
On weekdays, the only people who visit here are bandits who are too poor to own a knife and are no different from refugees, or barbarians who have gone south.
Even during the autumn harvest, the Hucao officials, who were like wolves and tigers, would not come to such a barren village.
And today, it was supposed to be a day when the villagers sat in their dark homes, hungry, waiting for night to fall.
A black-clothed cavalry arrived from outside the village, breaking the tranquility of the village and plunging the villagers into boundless panic.
Li Kui here is called Jiang Xing, a rather old man who was originally from Jizhou.
Since then, the world has been in chaos and wars have continued. The border barbarians have been raiding southward every year. There has been almost no stable territory in the entire northern land.
He went into exile, followed the refugees aimlessly, and finally settled here.
Relying on his experience in exile, he was elected as Li Kui
There were almost no locals gathered here. They drifted with the tide and cultivated some fields along the mountains, and survived like this.
Jiang Xing was quite insightful. When he saw these knights from a distance, he knew that they were definitely not ordinary people.
The team of about three hundred people were all armed with bows and swords, and were equipped with armor and horses. In such a heavy wind and snow, this group of men in black could walk normally. They must be the best of the best to be equipped with such excellent equipment.
What’s more – White Horse!
Almost everyone in the group of black knights has a strong white horse at his side.
Who lives in the Northland and hasn’t heard of the galloping white horse Yi Cong?
In the old days, news did not spread that fast. Although the news of Gongsun Zan's defeat spread through Di newspapers, it was obvious that such a remote village would not know it so quickly.
After the villagers tremblingly knocked on the door with two samurai carrying swords, Li Kui Jiang Xing immediately braved the cold and heavy snow to come to the entrance of the village to greet them.
The knight leading this cavalry is very tall, and his face is covered with a strange hat. There is a brown ice flake-like thing inlaid in his eyes. His face cannot be seen clearly, but he must be extremely warm.
Seeing Jiang Xing tremblingly approaching, the tall knight took off the hat on his head, revealing a young and resolute face.
The knight bowed his hands and inadvertently moved his steps. While on guard, he shielded the short and stooped Jiang Xing from the wind and snow.
Although the tall knight's hand was still holding the sword at his waist, his inadvertent behavior did not escape Jiang Xing's eyes.
Jiang Xing has lived and wandered for a long time. He has survived to this day by relying on his ability to observe words and emotions and gain insight into the world. The action of the tall knight made him feel relieved. The other party must not be a bandit.
As he breathed a sigh of relief, he avoided his body, not daring to accept the knight's gift. After asking more carefully, he found out that it was a member of a noble family who was passing by, hoping to go into the village to temporarily escape the wind and snow.
Jiang Xing agreed to everything, and the other party could come and go freely without asking. His opinions were of no use at all. Now that the other party was discussing with him, he should be grateful for his understanding of etiquette.
After the two parties were well connected, Jiang Xing hurriedly arranged for the two villagers who were shivering with the cold to go back and report the news, explaining the reason from house to house to prevent the villagers from panic.
I accompanied the tall knight and watched him quickly arrange his men to set up security guards at key points in the village, clear a road along the way, and welcome the two carriages into the village.
Jiang Xing lowered his head, wondering why the carriage was rough and crude, but he understood one thing, don't say what you shouldn't say, and don't ask what you shouldn't ask. Although he didn't know which team he was from, the other party was definitely of high status.
He took the initiative to give up his yard, and also persuaded the neighbors around the yard to stay with people from the same village for a while, and gave the whole place to this team to camp.
After he took his family to clear the courtyard, the leading young knight thanked him kindly, and then arranged for someone to escort the carriage and baggage cart into the courtyard, and wrapped a young man with porcelain white skin and very good looks wrapped in a black robe.
The lady welcomes the carriage.
Jiang Xing didn't dare to look any further and stared at the ground.
Gongsun Yan stepped out of the carriage and saw an old man in ragged clothes in the yard.
His back was stooped, his dark and rough skin hung on his bones, and he was so thin that it was scary. Standing shivering in the wind and snow, he looked like a picture of the crucifixion, with the word suffering engraved on his hair.
Gongsun Yan felt his heart tightening, and subconsciously looked at Zhao Yun: "Zilong, give this old man a coat."
Zhao Yun nodded, his beard, hair, and eyebrows were covered with frost and snow, and said: "Madam, go into the room first, and Yun will make arrangements."
It was really too cold outside, and the cold wind was like a knife. Gongsun Yan didn't want to be polite to others in the snow and let everyone suffer the cold together. After greeting the old man, he turned around, took Gongsun Cheng out of the carriage, and entered the house.
There was a burning brazier in the main room, there was no furniture, the ventilation was poor, and the smell was terrible.
Gongsun Yan looked around and saw that the layout of the courtyard where they lived in the deserted village was similar, except that this house was obviously more dilapidated and poorer.
This was her first contact with the common people of the late Han Dynasty, and the thin and dark old man gave her a huge shock.
She knew that the grassroots people in the late Han Dynasty were miserable, but when she really saw this old man who seemed to have stepped out of a work of art and who embodied the concept of suffering, she couldn't help but be moved.
Damn troubled times.
In her time, what would an old man of her age look like?
There may be people who are happily dancing in the square with their grandchildren, or there may be people who are bending their backs and still struggling to make a living, but there will no longer be such a tragic situation.
Gongsun Yan sighed, declined Xin Shi's help, and asked him to settle Tian Kai in the next room first. He simply tidied up the room, laid out moisture-proof mats, and settled Gongsun Cheng. Then he sat down to open the system and check the balance.