The further we walked into the hinterland of Zheng State, the colder the weather seemed to get. Chen Xiaomu's bald head was so cold that he couldn't stand it. Originally, he wanted to go back to his carriage to hide from the cold wind howling outside, but the feeling in his head kept him from riding outside. I couldn't get rid of the idea of doing it. I really had no choice but to take out the colorful silk cloth that was originally wrapped around my head in the carriage and tie it on my bald head. The veteran Zhong Xin who was walking side by side looked at him. It looked so nondescript that I almost laughed out loud!
After walking for about two hours, the sky became dark. A huge red sun on the western horizon had almost set below the horizon. A large number of new graves suddenly appeared on the roadside. Chen Xiaomu looked at it all over. His hair stood on end, and he was about to ask Zhong Xin, who was walking beside him, what was going on. As soon as he turned his head, he saw a small black dot at the end of the road in front of him, approaching their motorcade at high speed!
The black dots gradually grew larger in his eyes, and in the blink of an eye he reached the front of the convoy. A man dressed in black, riding a maroon horse that kept spitting hot air, dismounted and walked straight to the middle of the convoy. Next to Su Xingran's carriage, Su Xingran's carriage stopped immediately. Su Xingran's personal maid Yun Shang opened the door curtain and stuck out her little head. The man in black immediately leaned towards Yun Shang's ear as if to say something hastily! Chen Xiaomu saw that the man in black's mouth was moving. In fact, he couldn't even hear the sound, let alone what the man in black was saying! Not long after, the man in black took two steps back from Su Xingran's carriage, bent down and saluted, then quickly ran to the maroon horse, got on the horse and left!
"General Zhong, could this man in black be your spy?"
Zhong Xin nodded, "Your Highness, it seems we have discovered the situation ahead!"
At this time, the door curtain of Su Xingran's carriage was opened again, and then Su Xingran's personal maid Yun Shang got out of the car. She was talking to a guard standing by the carriage while pointing to the front of the motorcade. The guard nodded. He strode forward in the direction of Yun Chang's finger.
"What happened? I'm going to take a look. Chen Xiaomu became very curious. Zhong Xin grabbed him and said, "No one is allowed to go there without an order from the princess!" "
"It's okay. I just want to ask the princess if she needs my help. Don't be polite to me!" Chen Xiaomu looked nonchalant.
"Your Highness the Sixth Prince, this is in the army. There is no joke in the army. No one can disturb the princess without her order, unless there is an emergency!" Zhong Xin pulled Chen Xiaomu and refused to let go.
Damn it, grandma, do I have to wait for her order to have sex with your princess in the future? These guys are so stupid that they don’t want to see their wives just because they want to! Chen Xiaomu muttered in his heart. However, seeing Zhong Xin's embarrassed look, he still gave up the idea of seeing Su Xingran.
After a while, Yun Shang came directly to Zhong Xin, bent down and saluted, "General Zhong, Her Royal Highness the Princess asked you to come over to discuss a matter." Zhong Xin clasped his fists, said "I obey" and got off his horse. ! "Miss Yun Shang, shall I go there with General Zhong?" Chen Xiaomu was afraid that Yun Shang would forget him!
Yun Shang glanced at him and said with a smile: "Your Highness, the princess specifically ordered the slaves not to go there!"
Chen Xiaomu was stunned when he heard this. Does this really mean that the man is in love and the concubine is unintentional?
After Zhong Xin returned to Chen Xiaomu, the princess's motorcade started to move again, but this time the speed was much faster. Chen Xiaomu pestered Zhong Xin all the way, asking Su Xingran what he wanted from him, but Zhong Xin was ignored. They were all rambling here and there, but they were blocked one by one!
After a night of rapid marching, when the princess escort arrived at the foot of a mountain called Tianmen Mountain the next morning, the entire escort seemed exhausted. Su Xingran and Ximensong had a brief discussion and decided to bury a pot and make rice at the foot of the mountain. After two hours of rest, we are still about eighty or ninety miles away from Tianquan County.
After Chen Xiaomu dismounted, both of his legs turned into authentic bow-legged shapes. He couldn't stand straight. He had no choice but to sit on the ground and let Zhong Xin help him rub and squeeze for a long time before he managed to stand up. I can’t figure out why I always have this stubborn idea of riding a horse in my head!
At the foot of the mountain not far from where the escort rested, Chen Xiaomu found a very flat weathered stone and sat down. Soon Zhong Xin came over with two pancakes rolled with minced mutton in his hand. He handed a piece of pancake to Chen Xiaomu, then pointed to a mountain road passing through the mountain behind Chen Xiaomu and introduced: "Your Highness, although this mountain road is not wide, this is the only road in Tianquan County leading to Xinjing, the capital of the Zheng Kingdom. You Doesn’t the place where we are sitting look like two gates? That’s where the name Tianmen Mountain comes from!”
"Oh," Chen Xiaomu's mind was agitated, and he suddenly had a strong desire to see the mountains, but these two legs seemed to be filled with lead and would not obey his orders!
"General Zhong, I want to go to the mountains to see if it's convenient?"
Zhong Xin glanced at Chen Xiaomu strangely and said with a smile: "Your Highness, what is there to see on this mountain? Apart from those few bare trees, they are just stones. Besides, look at there are so many weeds, brambles and hazels on the mountain. If you get scratched what to do?"
Chen Xiaomu bowed his hand to Zhong Xin, "Please help me, General Zhong!"
"If Your Highness insists on going up the mountain, I can't take charge of this! I have to report to the princess. If the princess agrees, I can make arrangements here!"
"Then shall I go with you to find Her Highness the Princess?"
Zhong Xin had no objection to Chen Xiaomu's proposal!
"What, it's already here and you still want to go mountain climbing?" Su Xingran, who was discussing with Ximensong from where to attack the Chu army after arriving at Tianquan City, looked at the sincere face standing in front of her with a look of astonishment. Chen Xiaomu almost called him a psycho!
"Your Highness Princess, I think the feng shui on this mountain is quite good, so I want to take a closer look at it!"
"Do you know how to read Feng Shui?" Su Xingran asked in surprise! Because the ancients believed in Feng Shui, especially the high-ranking officials.
"Hehe, I only know a little bit about it. Please ask the princess to send someone to help me go up the mountain to take a closer look, just in case this is the land of Longxing in our Zheng Kingdom!"
Su Xingran thought for a moment and asked Zhong Xin, who was standing next to Chen Xiaomu, to arrange the matter.
After getting Su Xingran's permission, Zhong Xin immediately found more than ten sturdy soldiers in pairs, one carrying him on his back and the other holding him behind, and they took turns carrying him to the top of Tianmen Mountain. Fortunately, Tianmen Mountain was only a small mountain. It was a small hill, but even this made more than a dozen sturdy soldiers sweat profusely.
Chen Xiaomu wandered around the mountain for a long time. Apart from a few small trees, some gravel, and some dry weeds, there was almost nothing else on the top of the mountain. However, the idea of going up the mountain became more and more intense in his mind. The stronger it became, unable to figure out the reason, and being too tired, Chen Xiaomu sat down on a pile of thick grass mats mixed with dry leaves and weeds!
As soon as he sat down, a gray-white stone appeared in front of him and caught his attention. The knowledge he learned in school told him that this was a piece of saltpeter!
When he reached out and picked up the stone, the obsession in his mind miraculously disappeared. Chen Xiaomu raised the saltpeter in his hand and shouted to the soldiers who were resting around him, "Everyone, help me find something like mine." If you find this kind of stone in your hand, you will be rewarded!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a tall soldier stood up and said, "Your Highness, there is no need to look for this kind of stone. When I was out there just now, I saw that the bare area was full of this kind of stone.
"Really! Take me to see it. Chen Xiaomu took out a silver ingot of about five taels from his fur coat and handed it to the soldier who discovered the saltpeter. He took the silver and the soldier was very happy. You must know that in the Zhengguo army As a soldier, your annual salary is only five taels of silver!
Soon Chen Xiaomu led a group of soldiers down to a sunny slope on the top of the mountain. As the soldier said, the entire slope was gray and translucent, with no grass growing around it. Chen Xiaomu bent down and picked up a piece of fist. Big and small stones said to the more than ten soldiers following him: "Everyone, take a look at this kind of stone. Let's find a way to help me carry it down the mountain. I will give you one tael of silver for every ten kilograms I bring. The more work you do, the more you will get."
"Your Highness, there is such a good thing, did we hear correctly?" A soldier named Lu Yi boldly asked!
"Of course I heard you right. Take this stone down the mountain to be weighed. No credit will be owed, it will be paid in cash. And for the sake of fairness, you don't have to carry me down the mountain anymore! I can just climb down slowly by myself. After that, Chen Xiaomu will He put the piece of saltpeter in his arms and went to the foot of the mountain to wait for the soldiers to come down the mountain with the saltpeter!
These soldiers usually have little money in the military camp, and it is not easy to support their families with the little salary they receive from the court every year. Now that they have finally got an opportunity to make extra money, everyone is thinking of various ways, and even putting all their clothes on them. They took off their clothes, packed the stones, and carried them down the mountain. Panting, everyone went to the foot of the mountain to be weighed. These more than ten soldiers actually brought down nearly a thousand kilograms of saltpeter!
However, what made Chen Xiaomu very embarrassed was that he actually had no money at this time. He had casually found a large bag of about fifty taels of silver from his fur coat pocket on the mountain, and he optimistically estimated that this was probably given by Chen Ruchang. He and Su Xingran had spent a lot of money to get married, so the money in his car was definitely not less. As a result, he turned the car upside down and never saw a tael of silver again. He looked at the longing eyes of the soldiers. , I couldn't help but secretly scold this old ghost Chen Ruchang in my heart. I'm the scapegoat for you and your son, so just give me fifty taels of silver. This is too stingy!
But for all the scolding, you still have to find a way to get the money, but you must not let these soldiers lose trust in you!
After thinking about it, it seems that the only one who can help him here is his nominal wife Su Xingran. Chen Xiaomu is thinking about how to speak to his wife! However, Su Xingran hurried over. It turned out that Su Xingran heard Zhong Xin's report that Chen Xiaomu spent a lot of money to have soldiers move a pile of useless stones from the mountain. She was shocked and hurriedly came over with Zhong Xin to take a look at Chen Xiaomu. Are you really crazy?
