It started to rain in the middle of the night. The grimace Taoist priest next to the window woke up in the night wind. He glanced at Luo Laoqi and He Siniang who were still sleeping, then quietly walked to the window and opened the window with his hands. Close it.
"It's really an autumn rain and a cold." The grimace Taoist secretly sighed, not knowing how cold the weather would be when we reached our destination. ap.
"It's time to enter the snow-capped mountains at this time, alas!" The Taoist priest with a grimace was worried, and his sleepiness was basically gone. He slowly leaned on the edge of the bed alone, and slowly stayed there until dawn, switching between thinking and being in a daze.
When the morning sun emerged, the team had already assembled outside the city. Jia Wusuan gave some last instructions before leaving, and then the group began to march westward.
On the route to Dangxiang, the two adjutants chose to pass through the Han River first, then pass through Brazil County, and finally cross the middle reaches of the Qiang River (Minjiang River). It can be seen that this move is to deliberately avoid the closer Yinping County route, because the bandits there are so rampant that even the royal team has to stay away, and the leader of the bandits is also an "old acquaintance" of the Ghostface Taoist Priest and the others. It was Dong Ruhai who took Luo Laoqi's position. Now in his hands, the village is even bigger than before, and it is almost becoming a separatist force at the junction of the Three Kingdoms.
For the sake of safety, the team sent out sentries to explore the road as they walked. Fortunately, nothing happened along the way, and they finally entered Dangxiang territory ten days later.
"Dangxiang" is a regional pronoun, which generally refers to the area where the Dangxiang people gather, probably in the Jinnan area, and adjacent to it is Bailan in Eling Hunan.
The Dangxiang tribe is a branch of the Qiang ethnic group, so it is also called "Dangxiang Qiang". The famous Xixia Kingdom in later generations was established by this tribe.
The Dangxiang Qiang were still a nomadic people at this time, entrenched in the vast and sparsely populated Yinan area, and were still distributed in tribal form, which added many difficulties to the team heading west. Because without a city-state, there is no way around population centers, and the tribes are constantly moving, so they might bump into them wherever they go, and the entire team is full of vehicles, horses, and goods. Walking on other people's borders is like a moving piece of fat. If we really hit it by then, it can be said that the consequences will be disastrous.
Jia Wusuan's method was still "sentinels to explore the road, and the carriages and horses to move behind." This way, the traveling speed was much slower. It took almost half a month of walking before he finally saw the intersection of Dangxiang and Baoji.
The next stop is Pibo City in Baoji Kingdom.
Pibo City is located on the south bank of Zangqu (Yarlung Zangbo River) and a hundred miles southeast of Lhasa. It is the capital of the Baoji Kingdom. Pei Shuang had agreed to meet with his adjutant here a month ago.
The Baoji Kingdom was the predecessor of Tubo. Its capital city, Pibo, was located at the heart of a river and was an important transportation hub in the southwest of the plateau. Frequent traffic from all directions passed through this place, so it was relatively friendly to outsiders.
Pei Shuang took a fancy to this point, so he decided to meet up in Pibo City to rest.
Disguising the team as a caravan in advance, the two adjutants led everyone into the city. Not long after entering the city gate, someone was waving from the window of a two-story building on the street.
The one waving was actually Pei Shuang. Judging from the situation, he had already arrived here and stayed near the city gate to wait for everyone.
Upon seeing this, Jia Wusuan hurriedly walked into the house, while another adjutant Tang Weiwu gathered his team outside and waited for Pei Shuang's order.
After a while, Jia Wusuan came out of the house, waved his hand and told everyone to find a hotel to rest. Then he turned to the grim-faced Taoist priest and said, "Master Chen, please don't leave. General Pei wants to see you for something."
The grim-faced Taoist priest was stunned for a moment, then blurted out: "Is this just a poor Taoist?"
Jia Wusuan nodded: "Let the others find a place to rest first. We still have nearly two thousand miles to go to Xiangxiong Country. General Pei decided to rest here for two days before setting off."
The grimace Taoist glanced at He Siniang and motioned for her and Luo Laoqi to go find the hotel first. After the latter nodded, he turned around and followed Jia Wusuan into the house.
Walking up the dim stairs to the second floor, there was a semi-large living room above. Pei Shuang was sitting on the right side of the table in front of the window. When he saw the Taoist priest with a grimace coming, he raised his hand and pointed to the chair opposite and said, "Sit down."
"Then your subordinates will withdraw first?" Jia Wusuan asked.
Pei Shuang nodded: "There are too many people in our team, so I'm afraid it won't be easy to find accommodation. You go and help organize the arrangements."
「
yes! The subordinate resigned. "
After Jia Wusuan left, the grim-faced Taoist priest walked into the hall. He did not dare to take a seat rashly, but first asked: "General, what are your orders to the poor Taoist?"
"Sit down first and then talk."
The Taoist priest with a grimace sat across the table as he was told. When he turned around, he glanced at the living room environment and felt very uncomfortable. This is the effect brought about by the unique architecture of Tibet. The narrow windows make the light and shadow limited, and most places in the house are dark. In addition, Pei Shuang stays in the backlight, and there is no telling what kind of medicine is sold in the gourd, which makes the atmosphere in the living room even more depressing. To the extreme.
Pei Shuangchong waved his hand behind him, signaling for his entourage to step back. He then approached the table and said, "Daozhang Chen, I heard that you have a close relationship with Qinglong Bazi?"
The grim-faced Taoist priest finally saw Pei Shuang's face clearly at this time. He couldn't help being surprised and asked quickly: "Why is the general injured?!"
A wound suddenly appeared on Pei Shuang's face, about four or five inches long, stretching from the corner of his eye, across his cheekbone, to the corner of his mouth, as if he had been stabbed from above with some sharp weapon.
"I'm going to ask you something." Pei Shuang's face was gloomy.
The Taoist priest with a grimace vaguely felt that something was wrong, and immediately replied: "We only dealt with him once, and there is no friendship at all."
"Is it?"
"Yes." The Taoist priest with a grimace replied bravely.
"Are you sure you didn't collude with them to plot against me?" Pei Shuang leaned forward again: "Then why did the girl from the Long family who reported to you appear at Qinglongmen later?"
"What? Er Niang actually went to the Qiang land?" The Taoist priest with a grimace was determined to pretend to be stupid. At the same time, he vaguely guessed some clues in his heart - did the person named Pei suffer a defeat at Qinglongmen and happened to meet Long? Er Niang, that’s why you suspect that you are colluding with the Zhao brothers, otherwise why would you come here? And even though he wanted to kill him, he couldn't get the Zhao brothers to help him.
The grimace Taoist glanced at the wound on Pei Shuang's face again, and felt more and more that it was caused by Zhao Ermu's mace. Could it be that the Zhao brothers really almost killed Pei Shuang who came to visit him, as he thought?
Pei Shuang did not speak at this time, but stared at the Taoist Ghostface, as if trying to find a flaw in the Taoist Ghostface's eyes.
The grim-faced Taoist priest had already made some calculations, and he gradually recovered from his panic. He judged that the Zhao brothers would most likely be capable of killing someone, especially since the eldest brother was still in the funeral procession. Pei Shuang, on the other hand, must have been upset, so he wanted to take the opportunity to bluff him. , in this case, in the current psychological warfare, I can no longer take a step back.
