"The Tianmen interrupts the opening of the Chu River, and the clear water flows eastward until it returns here. The green mountains on both sides of the bank face each other, and the solitary sail is coming from the sun."
On the bank of the Yangtze River, Han Chengxu recited this poem in an old voice and pointed to the distance to introduce it.
"That's the Tianmen Mountain mentioned in Li Taibai's poem."
The little girl named Han Qiaoer put her hands on her eyes, looked upstream for a while, and wondered: "Grandpa, why didn't I see it?"
She is twelve years old, her appearance has not yet matured, she is thin and small, with a dark face, wearing shabby clothes, she does not look beautiful, and she only has a pair of bright eyes.
Han Chengxu said: "Because Tianmen Mountain is to the west of Dangtu County, and the river there is too fast, we have to go to Caishiji in the east to cross the river... Have you memorized the poem just now?"
Han Qiaoer responded crisply: "I've written it down, Tianmen interrupts the opening of Chujiang River..."
After his granddaughter memorized the poem, Han Chengxu continued: "Speaking of Caishiji, Li Taibai passed away here."
"Didn't my grandfather say last time that Li Taibai drank too much and died in Xuancheng?"
"That's one way of saying it, and this is another way of saying it." Han Chengxu said: "It is said that Li Taibai was drinking on the river. After getting drunk, he jumped into the water to catch the moon and unfortunately drowned. The so-called 'drunk to catch the moon and ride a whale to heaven'
.”
"Grandpa, I prefer this statement. Dying like this is more like the Li Taibai I imagined."
"There are also a few poems about Caishiji..."
Liu Jinsuo turned around and interrupted: "Old nerd, you are already so old and you talk endlessly along the way. Aren't you tired?"
"The little old man will naturally have a dry mouth, but I think I can teach him more, so I teach him more."
"Ha, what's the use of this little girl understanding this?"
Han Chengxu smiled bitterly and said: "The world is in chaos, so what the sages have learned must be passed down from generation to generation."
"That means your Kingdom of Jin has perished." Liu Jinsuo said scornfully, "Our world in the Song Dynasty is not chaotic, and there are so many scholars everywhere."
Han Chengxu laughed a few times, but still turned his head and taught Han Qiaoer to recite poems.
Han Qiaoer has an excellent memory and can often memorize the contents after reading them once.
After completing this small learning task, she immediately turned to look at Li Xia and started talking in Mongolian.
Li Xia also answered her in Mongolian, but his speech was not fluent.
Occasionally Han Qiaoer would criticize him a word or two.
"Brother Li, you said it wrong. When you say this word, you can't breathe out. You have to hold your breath like this."
Han Chengxu said: "Qiao'er, you are stumbling when you say it yourself..."
This group of people was the team heading to Kaifeng led by Nie Zhongyou.
There were thirty-two people in the team. In addition to Li Xia and others, there was also a team of guards dressed as a caravan, with six carriages pulling the goods, each with two horses.
The goods were carried by horse-drawn carriages, but people had to walk. It took six days to walk from Lin'an Prefecture to Dangtu County.
Han Chengxu and Han Qiaoer originally walked on foot, but Li Xia saw that they were older and younger and offered to let them sit in the truck.
Nie Zhongyou originally thought that they could make it to Kaifeng, which would at least be easier than being a prisoner or working as a slave.
But he only sees achievements and is too lazy to care about ordinary trivial matters.
Li Xia obviously understood this and made arrangements for the matter smoothly, but Nie Zhongyou really didn't care.
After setting off, Li Xia heard that Han Chengxu had been a translator for the Kingdom of Jin, so Li Xia asked him for advice on Mongolian and Jurchen languages.
During these six days of traveling, I could hear their chattering conversations many times.
Li Xia's language talent is not great, but he is better because of his hard work and concentration. Just like when he used to practice fencing, he made rapid progress.
Han Qiaoer also became Li Xia's semi-foreign language teacher, but she was not proficient in speaking yet, so they happened to practice with each other.
On this day, we finally arrived at Caishiji, which belonged to Taiping Prefecture, later known as Ma'anshan City.
Caishiji is one of the Yangtze River ferries, and a pass was set up on the official road to collect taxes.
This group of people was pretending to be a caravan, so they had to pay taxes and be inspected.
The government strictly prohibited the circulation of iron tools and copper coins to the north, and there were many of these contraband items on their carriages. Every time he passed the customs, Nie Zhongyou never produced any official orders, but relied on bribes with money.
There was a middle-aged man named Wu Dexian in the team. He was originally a traveling accounting clerk. Now he seemed to be the leader of the caravan, but in fact he didn't even dare to let out a fart in front of Nie Zhongyu.
Seeing the tax soldiers coming to investigate, Wu Dexian skillfully carried his bag containing copper coins and went to deal with them.
As for the others, they were standing on the roadside waiting.
Each of them carried a sword, but the tax collectors took Wu Dexian's money and didn't care.
Li Xia, wearing shackles and a sword, was standing by the roadside when he suddenly heard someone in the team curse in a low voice.
"Principal discipline has been weakened. Just by looking at this matter, you will know how much copper and iron are flowing out on weekdays. The national affairs are also ruined by these naughty ruffians..."
Li Xia looked sideways and saw that it was Jiang Xing who was speaking again.
Jiang Xing is a man about thirty years old. Unlike Li Xia and other thieves like chickens and dogs, he is an officer and is the number two figure in the team.
This man obviously had some enthusiasm for serving the country, and it was not the first time along the way that he cursed the tax soldiers for demanding bribes.
It was obviously him who brought contraband and paid bribes.
However, Jiang Xing also knew how to behave and did not really stand up to make a fuss. He just complained in a low voice to Nie Zhongyou.
"Stop, if they hear it, it will cause a lot of trouble." Nie Zhongyou responded calmly.
Although Jiang Xing obeyed the assignment, he was not Nie Zhongyou's confidant like Lin Zi. He still grinned and snorted with disdain.
"Are we afraid of these bugs?"
"Silence..."
The previous few times they encountered interrogations, Wu Dexian's bribery went smoothly, but today there seemed to be a little trouble.
The leading tax soldier looked at the goods, rubbed the beard on his face, walked over, and looked at their group carefully.
"Is it really a caravan?" He looked at Li Xia and said, "Damn it, why is there a prisoner?"
Wu Dexian followed him and said: "Yes, the young one is really a businessman, just making a living. That kid has epilepsy, so I handcuffed him."
He started talking nonsense.
The bearded taxman didn't bother to care. He looked at Nie Zhongyou and others and asked, "Why do you bring so many guards?"
Wu Dexian said: "This is my first time to go to the north. I was scared, so I brought more people with me."
Li Xia looked sideways and saw that Nie Zhongyou was rarely humble. He would rather stay humble than show his identity.
This was still south of the Yangtze River and within the Song Dynasty, so it was too cautious.
He couldn't help but think of Han Chengxu's words, "Even if we die in the north, we are not official members of the Song Dynasty."
Over there, Wu Dexian handed over another sack full of copper coins. The bearded taxman reached out to take it, looked at them suspiciously for a long time, and finally raised his hand and gave the order to let them go.
Li Xia was walking in the team, feeling vaguely that something was not right...
When they arrived at the ferry, they found three large river boats, hired some laborers who were working on the riverside, and loaded six carriages and goods onto the boats.
Nie Zhongyou, Jiang Xing, and Lin Zi each took escorts to escort the ship. Nie Zhongyou took Han Chengxu's grandparents and others; Jiang Xing took Li Xia, Wu Dexian, Bai Mao and others; Lin Zi took Liu Jinsuo and others.
Before boarding the ship, Lin Zi took a key and waved it in front of Li Xia.
"Look at this, the key to the shackles on your hands and feet."
As he spoke, he threw the key into the Yangtze River.
Then, he spread his hand in front of Li Xia with a smile on his face. It turned out that the key was still there.
"How come you weren't scared?"
Li Xia was also very annoyed by people like Lin Zi, so he responded patiently: "I know you won't really throw it away."
"Okay." Lin Zi said, "I will unshackle you once you cross the Yangtze River, but sooner or later I will scare you."
He waved his hand and got on a river boat.
Li Xia shook his head slightly and followed Jiang Xing onto a river boat at the back.
There are ships no matter how big they are on the Yangtze River, and the big ones can carry two thousand shi, or hundreds of tons of cargo. Although the three ships they found are not that big, they can carry four horses, two carts of goods, and more than ten people.
, plus the laborers and boatmen, it is more than enough.
The boat first drifted downstream for a while, bypassed the small islet in the middle of the river, and began to paddle towards the other side.
Li Xia stood at the bow of the boat and watched for a while, but he remembered another poem by Li Bai.
"The mountains end with the plains, and the rivers flow into the wilderness."
He suddenly frowned, stared at the bottom of the boat for a while, then turned his head and looked around.
There was a sudden "clang" sound, and the scabbard fell to the ground.
Because Li Xia had shackles on his hands, he couldn't pull the sword out of its sheath directly, so he dropped the sheath like this every time he drew the sword.
And with this sound, the sword in his hand was placed on Bai Mao's neck.
Bai Mao was standing there in a drowsy state. Before he could react, he saw Li Xia draw his sword and thrust it out in one go. The sword was already in front of him.
"This...this...we are all good brothers, what are you going to do?"
"Take off my shackles."
"But...but my mother..."
"Your mother will be fine, but if you don't untie her for me, you will die now."
Bai Mao was so frightened that he said again: "You don't want to run away, do you? If you run away, I will be in trouble..."
"Stop talking nonsense and untie it."
~~
At the same time, Jiang Xing leaned on the cargo and sat in the cargo hold to take a nap.
His sword was placed aside within easy reach.
Suddenly, he heard a "click" sound, as if something fell on the boat.
Jiang Xing stood up suddenly.
The next moment, a hand stretched out from behind him, pressed his mouth, and the dagger quickly slashed across his neck.
With a "squeaking" sound, blood spurted out from Jiang Xing's neck, making a sound like a breeze, which was actually quite pleasant.
A thin man was lying on the goods piled behind Jiang Xing.
This man was only wearing short pants, but he was one of the laborers who moved the goods earlier.
He pressed Jiang Xing's mouth hard until the blood spurted out, then slowly lowered Jiang Xing's body.
He put the dagger in his mouth, raised his hand and made a gesture.
In the cabin, two more men came out from hiding and responded with a gesture.
Then they lowered their voices and started talking.
"Ten people, including a businessman, a shackled scholar, and a thin servant. There are only seven guards. We have killed three, and there are four more outside. The old snake can touch them right away and kill them all...