After dinner, Lan Ling'er called Ling Yazi, came to Zhu Yu and Lan Tian's room, and said mysteriously: "When it gets dark, we can play at the bottom of the back mountain."
"Ling'er, look at how busy you are, what exactly are you going to do today?" Zhu Yu asked strangely.
"Tonight, Xie Fei and Xie Yan took us to catch stone frogs. They said that we don't have this thing in the north. There are a lot of it in the mountains and rivers in the south. It tastes great when we catch it and cook it."
"Ling'er, you are almost a gourmet, we will enjoy following you." Zhu Yu said.
"We haven't eaten the muntjac from Zhongnan Mountain yet. Xie Yan and Xie Fei and I have agreed that in a few days, we will hunt muntjac." Lan Ling'er said with a smile.
It soon became dark. Xie Yan and Xie Fei came to the door with tools for catching stone frogs. Zhu Yu checked and found that there were seven or eight torches, hundreds of incense sticks, and three or two cloth bags.
Xie Yan said that the torch was used for lighting, the incense was lit to attract the stone frogs, and the bag was naturally used to hold the stone frogs.
The six of them went out, and Luo Lin also followed. He heard Lan Ling'er say that he was going to catch stone frogs at night, so he said he wanted to go. Lan Ling'er told him to come over if he heard any noise.
Led by Xie Fei and Xie Yan, the five people came to the backyard, walked across the martial arts training platform, and followed the flowing Qingshui down several hundred feet to the bottom of the Qing.
At the bottom of the cave, the ditch widens and the water slows down. Beside the ditch is a wide meadow, and the sounds of autumn insects come one after another from the grass.
"In the past few days, the temperature in Zhongnan Mountain has not been too low. The stone frogs come out to make the final reserve of energy before hibernation. When the temperature suddenly drops in a few days, they will hibernate in dead branches or tree holes." Xie Yan explain.
"So, this is the period when stone frogs eat the most, are most active, and are fattest. Not only are they easier to catch, but they also have more meat." Xie Fei added.
Xie Fei and Xie Yan took out incense, lit it with fire, and inserted it into the grass by the river. They inserted one stick every one foot or so, and there were about a hundred sticks of incense, from the place where they fell into the water to the mouth of the Qing.
"Can you catch stone frogs by doing this? What's the principle?" Luo Lin asked.
"When the stone frogs see bright light, they think they are fireflies and are attracted to them. We can see the stone frogs when we shine with a torch," Xie Yan explained.
After lighting the incense, everyone put out the torches and waited quietly by the river for half an hour. After hearing the rustling sounds coming from the grass by the river, Xie Fei said: "It sounds like there should be stone frogs." They are looking for insects to eat, we can go over and catch them."
Xie Yan took the torch and lit the torches one by one. Several people held the torches and swam upstream, looking for the stone frogs attracted by the incense.
After turning around, the seven people found more than a hundred frogs in total. In this way, after searching back and forth three times, a few people caught a total of three to four hundred stone frogs.
Xie Yan collected the incense, while Zhu Yu, Luo Lin and Xie Fei each carried a bag of stone frogs and climbed back to the Taoist temple along the cliff.
Early the next morning, the quiet Taoist temple suddenly heard someone speaking loudly: "I am Xie Hongyun's housekeeper. I am looking for Xie Yan and Xie Fei. Something happened in the city."
Hearing the noise, everyone came out of the house to check. They saw a man in the Taoist temple who was in his forties, with a strong body, wearing a finely sewn cotton suit, and leading a group of tall horses. He was talking to the Tianling Tao disciple guarding the door. Talk.
"Uncle Xie An, tell me slowly, what happened in the city?" Xie Fei stepped forward and asked.
"The officers and soldiers in the city are fighting with the people. Killings are happening everywhere. Master and the others are in danger at home. Young Master and Miss, please go back and take a look." Xie Fei gasped.
"Let's leave now, it's important to save people," Zhang Lingtian said.
At this time, some disciples had already brought out all the horses in the stables. Except for the younger disciples of Tianling Dao who stayed behind, all the masters quickly took their weapons and followed Xie Yan, Xie Fei and Xie An on horseback and ran down the mountain.
The road down the mountain is very wide. I have gone up and down countless times. It is very easy to run. After a while, I have reached the foot of the mountain.
Zhu Yu remembered that before going up the mountain, he met the group of people who were being chased by the officers and soldiers. They must have rebelled against the officers and soldiers and entered the city. If they did well and the officers and soldiers were defeated, they would open warehouses to release grain, loot the government buildings, and then leave. In other words, if it doesn't work well, it may rob those big households. If this happens, Xie Fei and Xie Yan's family may be in trouble.
The crowd rode wildly on horseback, and soon they arrived in front of a city. The city looked very big, with walls more than three feet high and several hundred feet high at both ends.
At this time, the city gates were wide open, and people kept dragging their families, carrying belongings, and pushing carts out of the city. They were obviously fleeing.
Looking at the city again, there was smoke coming out. It was obvious that the house had been burned. Fortunately, the smoke was not too big. Everyone rushed into the city and saw many corpses lying in the city. Some were officers and soldiers, some were people wearing red turbans and gray clothes, and even There are also a small number of men and women in civilian attire.
It was obvious that a catastrophe had just occurred in the city. Currently, not long after the killing ended, it was unclear which side had won.
Xie Fei and Xie Yan led everyone to the entrance of a courtyard with a tight door.
Xie An dismounted and slammed the door hard, but there was no response from the door.
Xie Fei simply cheered up and flew into the courtyard, shouting loudly: "Father, mother, it's me, Xie Fei."
Xie Fei called three or four times before someone pushed out the door of the main room. The first few were servants carrying steel knives. The one who came out behind was Xie Fei and Xie Yan's father, Xie Hongyun.
Xie Hongyun is in his fifties, of medium height, slightly fat, with a red face and thin hair, but he looks very energetic.
"Father, are you okay at home?" Xie Fei asked worriedly.
"It's okay, it's okay. Xie Yan and Xie An are outside, right? Let them in quickly." Xie Hongyun said and asked the servant to open the door.
When the door opened, I saw a large group of people outside the courtyard, all holding horses. The leader was Master Zhang Lingtian.
Xie Hongyun asked the servants to go out and help everyone lead the horses into the courtyard and tie them up. He welcomed everyone into the courtyard, then went to the door. He looked to both sides and saw that there was no one on the street. He closed the door and led everyone into the main room to sit down. Let the servants serve tea.
"The night before yesterday, a group of robbers came from nowhere. They cooperated inside and outside and broke into the city. The officers and soldiers guarding the city were defeated. They fled eastward with people from the government. These people not only robbed the official warehouse, but also robbed many people in the city. Big family, fortunately my Xie Jiaqiang has a strong family and no thieves broke in." Xie Hongyun said while drinking tea.
"I see there are no soldiers or thieves in the city, so everything should be fine!" Zhang Lingtian said.
"I heard that the thieves went to the northwest, and I don't know when they will come back again." Xie An said.
"Let's do this. Except for Mr. Xie, you should take your family and hide in my Tianling Dao for a year and a half. Just let your subordinates take care of the business matters." Zhang Lingtian said.
"It seems like this is the only way to go for now. However, many officers, soldiers, thieves and people have died in the city. Xie An, I will pay for you to take people to hire some people and vehicles, collect their bodies, and then we can leave. ." Xie Hongyun said.
Xie An took the order and went out, called five or six servants, and hired people and carriages to collect the bodies. By the afternoon, everything was done, and the bodies were gathered in the open space outside the government office and buried hastily, waiting for the officers and soldiers to come back to dispose of them.
Xie Hongyun left Xie An to take care of things at home, took his family and gold and silver jewelry with him, and followed Zhang Lingtian, Master Kongkong and others to Zhongnan Mountain.
Zhu Yu told Master Kongkong that he wanted to walk around the city to see if there were any people who needed help. He asked everyone to leave first, and then he returned to the mountain.
After hearing what Zhu Yu said, Lingyazi, Lan Ling'er, Lan Tian and Luo Lin all said they wanted to stay.
"Then you must pay attention to safety and return to the mountain quickly after checking." After Zhang Lingtian ordered, he led everyone away from the Xie family and rushed to Zhongnan Mountain.
Seeing everyone leaving, Zhu Yu, Lan Tian, Lan Ling'er, Ling Yazi and Luo Lin walked out of the Xie family compound and came to the street.
The five people walked several streets before seeing three or two pedestrians. After asking around, they found out that some people in the city had left the city to avoid the military disaster, while others were hiding at home and watching. The thieves had indeed abandoned the city and left. In this way, a few people could not help the people in the city, so they had to go back to Xie's house, say goodbye to Xie An, ride out of the city, and rush to Zhongnan Mountain.
