The Chengdu Plain in early summer was supposed to be the season for wheat and beans to bear fruit, but what Ouyang Xuan saw was a scene of lush weeds. The clumps of grass growing beside the road were as tall as a person, and he could only vaguely see what the farmland looked like in the past. Over time, the desolation even grew into a small forest. From time to time, white human and animal skeletons were exposed in the farmland and creeks beside the road. Ouyang Xuan's scalp was numb when he saw them, and he couldn't help but quicken his pace, sweating all the way. When we reached a collapsed bridge, it was already setting sun. Although it was getting late, Ouyang Xuan decided to take a rest. As a traveler who often hikes long distances, his walking speed is not slow. He estimated that it would take him about three hours and only about a few miles to go. It would not be a big problem to reach Jiezi Ancient Town before dark.
Ouyang Xuan was just sitting on the side of the road, cleaning pebbles from his shoes, when two people suddenly jumped out from the weeds behind him. They knocked him down with lightning speed and tied him up tightly. The two men had lean faces, were dressed in shabby linen clothes, and had dirty hair tied around their heads. Each of them was holding a long knife. While he was looking around in horror, dozens of men with swords, spears and shields walked out of the grass on both sides of the road and surrounded them one after another. Then he was pushed to a tall, dark-faced man who looked like a leader.
"Where are you from and where are you going?" The black-faced strong man who asked was wearing an old half-leather armor. In addition to holding a knife in his hand, he also carried a bow and arrow. He was the tallest and strongest of the group. Looking down at Ouyang Xuan with shining eyes. Ouyang Xuan is about 1.7 meters tall, and the dark man is a little taller than him, estimated to be 1.75 meters.
If you say that you are a time traveler, it is impossible to convince the group of people with swords and guns in front of you. While still lying on the wooden bed of the Wang family, Ouyang Xuan seriously thought about how to answer this question. The argument he prepared was that his parents were originally from Jinyuan County, Chongqing Prefecture. During the massacre of Shu in Kueduan, Mongolia, the family fled to Huangzhou. Because the family was poor and lacked food, his parents sent him to Longhu Mountain to become a monk since he was a child. Because his parents were homesick and he still had his heart set on the world, he invited Dudie to become a wandering monk. He returned to Jinyuan County to express his parents' homesickness, and was now preparing to go to Huacheng Temple in the northwest mountains of Yongkang County. Ouyang Xuan was able to make up such a rhetoric all because of his professional reasons - Chongzhou has been called Shuzhou since the Tang Dynasty, and the great poet Du Fu and others once served as officials here. "We know our friends across the sea, and we are close to each other as far as the end of the world." This is the great poet Wang Bo This is a famous line from "Farewell to Du Shaofu's Appointment in Shuzhou" written to see off his friend Du Fu. In the fourth year of Chunxi in the Southern Song Dynasty (1177), Shuzhou was promoted to Chongqing Mansion as a vassal of Gaozong, as a sign of Chongqing. Lu You, the famous patriotic poet of the Southern Song Dynasty, also served as the general magistrate here. As a librarian, Ouyang Xuan has done some research on this period of history in Chongzhou City, and has systematically studied the history of the Southern Song Dynasty. Therefore, his rhetoric is consistent with historical facts. It is not difficult to fool these men with swords and sticks. .
"Well, your words have a Jingxiang accent." After listening to Ouyang Xuan's words, before the black-faced strong man could speak, a muscular bald middle-aged man next to him said. "Of course, Huguang has colonized Sichuan, and my family is an immigrant from Xiaogan, Hubei," Ouyang Xuan thought to himself. "Master Escort, all his things are here!" Someone next to him had taken out all the things in Ouyang Xuan's bag and was looking at them one by one.
"What are these things for?" the black-faced strong man asked.
"This is my weapon for self-defense," Ouyang Xuan said, staring at the engineering shovel. It was normal for a wandering monk to carry weapons to guard against bandits and wild beasts.
"This is a magic weapon that my master brought back from the far west..." Ouyang Xuan explained about items such as headlamps and drink bottles.
"Untie the elders quickly," the black-faced man shouted. In fact, looking at his hair and attire, he, like Wang Da, preconceptions that Ouyang Xuan was a wandering monk. When he saw that his answers were reasonable and his manners were decent, he no longer doubted it. . He also learned that he was going to Huacheng Temple in the same direction as where he was going, so he invited him to go with him.
We walked together and talked along the way. During the conversation, Ouyang Xuan learned that this year is the year of Chun Chunyou in the Southern Song Dynasty. Ouyang Xuan used historical knowledge to convert it to 1257 AD. The black-faced brawny man leading the team was called Li Shuang, a famous patrol inspector from Chongqing Mansion. The inspector was originally an official responsible for rural security, but this time he was ordered by Pan Tongzhi of Chongqing Prefecture to collect grain from various forts in Yongkang County. The bald middle-aged man who just said Ouyang Xuan has a Jingxiang accent is called Yu Zhu, and he is from Chongqing. The escort team of Fuxiang Army. The army of the Southern Song Dynasty was divided into the Central Army Forbidden Army and the local Army Xiang Army. According to the military system, there were 10 people per fire and 50 people per team. The captain's position was called escorting team, and the deputy's position was called supporting team. According to the official system of the Southern Song Dynasty, although Li Shuang was only an eighth-rank official, he could lead a team or even more soldiers to perform his duties as authorized by his superiors. Li Shuang set out from Fucheng, Chongqing with his officers and soldiers to collect grain. He did not collect grain in the forts along the way, but he was almost discovered by Mongolian rangers who were looting the countryside.
The more information he got from Li Shuang and Yu Zhu, the more chilled Ouyang Xuan became. He knew that he had most likely traveled to another parallel time and space. When he was lying in bed thinking about this problem yesterday, although he felt that it was unlikely that the loyal old man would lie, he still felt a little lucky in his heart. He couldn't be so unlucky. He really traveled through time, right? What if Wang Da is a psychopath? What if the scenery around Wang Da’s shack is only highly similar to the scenery in Yuantong Ancient Town?
It was already dusk when we were about two miles away from Yongkang Walled City. Looking ahead, we could vaguely see the Yongkang City Wall at the foot of the mountain. At this time, the marching team stopped for some reason. Li Shuang and Yu Zhu, who were walking in the middle, saw this and walked forward. Ouyang Xuan followed closely, preparing to step forward to find out.
The three of them pushed through the crowd and walked to the front of the team, only to discover the reason for their stop. It turns out that due to the gentle terrain here, the river that passes through it has formed a low-lying swamp that is several miles long and dozens of meters wide. Only where the official road passes has a narrower calm area more than ten meters wide. But the stone bridge across it has been destroyed by floods. When the water in the wide river upstream flows through the narrow area of the stone bridge, it forms a deep and rapid turbulence, making it impossible to wade across the river.
"Can I swim across the river?" Li Shuang asked. Ouyang Xuan followed him and looked around. All the soldiers he saw were sallow and thin. According to Li Shuang and Yu Zhu, the food shortage caused by the long-term war meant that even the soldiers could barely feed themselves.
"Master Inspector, there is a bridge three miles upstream to cross the river," a soldier next to him replied.
At this moment, a strange color suddenly appeared on Yu Zhu's face. He made a silent gesture, lying down with his right ear on the ground. After a moment, he stood up and said loudly: "A Tatar cavalry is coming this way. ". Ouyang Xuan knew that the Song people called the Mongols on the grasslands Tatars, and the Tatar soldiers in Yu Zhu's mouth were Mongolian soldiers.
Yu Zhu's words caused the team to panic immediately. There are only a dozen war horses in the entire Chongqing Mansion. Those are the mounts of Pan Tongzhi and his cronies. They are usually regarded as treasures and are not used easily. Everyone believed that the cavalry that appeared at this time could only be the rangers of the Mongols plundering the countryside.
