"Then make arrangements according to your plan!" Yan Liangjun nodded.
"Okay, I'll make arrangements right away, and we'll start marching to the imperial city in batches tomorrow!" After Zhi Bohou finished speaking, he stood up and walked out.
"Call Shengrong, I have something to tell him!" When Zhi Bohou walked to the door of the stone palace, Yan Liangjun suddenly said.
"Okay!" After Zhi Bohou replied, the figure completely disappeared into the stone palace. After Zhi Bohou left, Yan Liangjun began to rest with his eyes closed, his right elbow propped on the stone table, and his right thumb and middle finger slowly kneading the temples on both sides.
Zhi Bohou searched outside for a long time, but could not find Man Shengrong's figure. He didn't know where this kid had gone.
After asking a few people later, I found out that Man Shengrong and Liu Xuan actually went to Shicheng for a stroll. This stone city is more like a corridor than a city.
Stone City is located inside Nanshi Mountain. The streets here are only two feet wide and two feet high. They are the result of the efforts of generations of descendants of the Yan Dynasty who fled here.
On the stone walls on both sides of the street, there are densely packed stone caves of almost the same size. The door of each stone cave is less than a foot wide, but the inside is slightly larger. They were dug into stone chambers of different sizes for residents to live in. use.
There is a distance of ten feet between the stone caves to avoid directly digging through the stone chambers of two families during the excavation process.
It is dark all year round in Stone City, so various lanterns are hung at the door of every house, which illuminates the entire Stone City in red without making it appear dark.
But if it is the first time you come here, you will feel a dull and depressing feeling when you enter here.
These people living in the city have lived in such an environment all year round. Almost no one has ever been outside. They don't know what the sun and moon look like, what rain and snow look like, what the breeze and rivers look like.
Their understanding of everything in the outside world comes from records in books and records from people who have been outside.
There is no wind, sun or rain all year round. The people who live here are all very fair. Their skin is much whiter than that of people outside. They look bloodless and a little sickly.
A ten-foot-wide space is left in the middle of the street for pedestrians to walk back and forth. On both sides are some items for sale placed by some residents on the stone road at the door. Most of them are daily necessities handmade by themselves. They can earn some crystal stones by selling them. , subsidize household expenses.
People living here are extremely short of crystal stones, so most people use barter methods, exchanging their own things with their neighbors, so that each other can use them.
Every once in a while, someone who is responsible for collecting items takes crystal stones to the nearest Bingbei City to buy some basic daily necessities, and then distributes these items according to the number of people in each household.
These include some fabrics, food, other materials, etc. Like the residents here, most of the clothes they wear are sewn by the women at home, stitch by stitch.
The ready-made clothes sold in the city outside are a bit expensive for these people. These people can receive a certain amount of crystal stones every month, which is not much. It can barely cover the expenses of a family for a month, and there is basically no surplus in the end.
These crystals were all crystals and precious things from the dynasty's treasury brought by the old emperor when the Yan Dynasty fled.
After so many thousands of years of spending, the number of people here is also increasing year by year, and the remaining wealth is actually not much.
Of course, some of these people are the descendants of those officials or wealthy businessmen. Their families are relatively well-off, and their lives are actually quite comfortable.
At least you don’t have to worry about whether you can have enough food every day. The vast majority of people living in Stone City may have never left this corridor in their entire lives, and eventually died in the city. Their bodies were transported out by special personnel, and they were buried wherever there was soil.
Most of the people in Stone City are cultivators, but there are differences in talent. Some people can cultivate to the realm of emperors and eventually become emperors.
Some people may remain in the realm of kings forever and turn into dirt after thousands of years. What's more, some people may only be able to reach the Void Realm in a lifetime, and it only takes a hundred years.
In fact, among the people in the city who are not ordinary residents, the biggest expense for every household is still the children and young people.
These children are in the critical stage of physical growth and have just begun their cultivation journey. To lay a solid foundation, they will need a lot more money.
These adults would rather live frugally than lose their children. The only ancestral motto of these people living in the city, passed down from their ancestors from generation to generation, is to assist His Highness the Yan family to revive the Yan Dynasty, walk out of here in an upright manner, return to the great rivers and mountains of the past, and appreciate the true beauty of life.
Therefore, the residents in the city are all united in their efforts to revive the Yan Dynasty, restore the glory of their ancestors, and regain everything their ancestors lost.
And those who have walked out of Nanshi Mountain for thousands of years have been accustomed to living a life of fine clothing and fine food. Now they just want to maintain such a life and are unwilling to get involved in the dispute between the Yan Dynasty and the Xiao Dynasty. The struggle between the country, the country and the country.
Like Yu Feng, the two people in the imperial city who were slaughtered by Man Shengrong and Liu Xuan, etc. The Yan family forbids these people from going out. In addition to fear of exposing this place, the bigger reason is actually because they are afraid that these people will have a comfortable life outside and will no longer consider following them to fight to the death with the Xiao Dynasty.
People are always lazy. If they stay in their comfort zone for a long time, they will lose their former ambitions and just want to live a stable life.
Man Shengrong and Liu Xuan walked side by side on the streets of Shicheng, looking at the familiar and simple faces, with mixed feelings in their hearts.
The peaceful lives of these people will be completely shattered soon. In this turmoil, it is difficult to say which side will win.
Even if their side wins, how many people will die? If our side loses, then no one among the tens of thousands of people on Nanshi Mountain will be spared.
The two of them were walking in the middle of the road, and the people setting up stalls on both sides would smile and nod at them, which was regarded as saying hello.
"Grandma, why are you still picking up the insoles yourself?" Man Shengrong squatted in front of an old woman.
"I can't wait any longer. Let's get some insoles and change things for old age. I'm about to be unable to move!" the old woman said with a smile.
This old woman is over 9,000 years old. She has cultivated in the realm of an emperor. She has no hope of becoming an emperor in this life. It may take a few hundred years or a few years before she will turn into a handful of loess.
The old woman had white hair and a wrinkled face, but she had a kind and bright smile. The old woman was the only one in her family with no children. Her husband was an ordinary person who could not practice cultivation. He died in less than a hundred years without leaving any heirs.
The old woman has been a widow for thousands of years. After her husband died, she did not remarry. She was very kind and friendly to her neighbors. She had a good reputation and popularity in this stone city.
She sat cross-legged in front of her cave door, her body hunched down so much that she had very few teeth left.
The stone path in front of him was polished to a shiny shine, and there were insoles of various patterns and sizes on it, and the workmanship was quite fine.
"Grandma, I'll buy a pair!" Man Shengrong looked at a pile of insoles and said with a smile.
"Take whichever style you like, and get a few more pairs. They're not worth much, so I'll just trade them with my neighbors. You don't have to pay me, an old woman!" the old woman said with a smile.
"How can this be done? You still have to give money!" Man Shengrong said, taking a pair of women's insoles with a pair of mandarin ducks embroidered on them, and then put a high-grade crystal stone into the old woman's hands.
"You kid, you can't do it. The insoles I have are not worth so much. Take them back quickly!" The old woman made a serious face and handed the spar in her hand to Man Shengrong.
"Grandma, just keep it. These insoles are beautiful. I like them. They are definitely worth the price!" Man Shengrong smiled and pushed the old woman's hand back.
"Hey, my old lady has taken a big advantage! Do you have a girl you like? Are you buying this insole for her? Which girl is it from?" The old woman sighed and did not shirk anymore. She looked at Man Shengrong and asked with a smile. road.
"Not yet, keep it for now and give it away when you have it!" Man Shengrong said. However, when Man Shengrong said this, there was a hint of bitterness in his eyes.
Of course he has a girl he likes, but this girl doesn't like him.
"Life is long or short! If you find the girl you like, you should be thick-skinned and chase her. If you miss it, you will miss it for the rest of your life. Don't you think so?" The old woman looked at Man Sheng. Rong smiled.
The old woman has lived for such a long time, and she can tell one, two, three, and four from Man Shengrong's eyes.
"Grandma, thank you!" Man Shengrong suddenly bent down and saluted the old woman. The old woman smiled and said nothing.
"I'll buy a pair too!" Liu Xuan said, taking a pair of men's insoles and giving the old woman a high-quality crystal stone.
"It seems that my old lady can enjoy her old age in peace!" The old woman did not shirk Liu Xuan this time. Man Shengrong and Liu Xuan stood up, each holding a pair of insoles in their hands, and continued walking slowly.
Three or five children were chasing each other on the street, laughing constantly. The two of them stopped and looked at the naughty children, as if they saw themselves when they were children.
"You kid, let me have a good meal!" After an unknown amount of time, Zhi Bohou's slightly dissatisfied voice suddenly sounded behind the two of them.
The two of them turned around and looked at Zhi Bohou walking towards them without speaking.
"His Highness has something to do with you. Go quickly. He has been looking for you for a long time!" Zhi Bohou said to Man Shengrong after he stood in front of the two of them.
Man Shengrong nodded and walked quickly towards the way he came.
"Military advisor, you say... if our ancestors saw that their descendants can live a stable life now, would they still hope that they would risk their lives to fight for the uncertain tomorrow?" Liu Xuan turned back to look at the children and whispered. asked.
