Wei Shu

The Cheng family's mother and daughter are official family members, they are different from the rough men who run the rivers and lakes, and they have paid a lot of money to hire Zhenbei Escorts as guards, and the picture is nothing more than the word "Antai".

Because of this, Ding Lei never spends the night in the wild. Every day, he sends people to explore the road ahead of time, and decides on a clean inn or a richer farmhouse. As long as he reaches the place, even if it is still early, he will stop early for the night. .

As a result, the speed of the journey became slower and slower.

Ding Lei was in no hurry.

He has already made plans to go home again during the Mid-Autumn Festival.After all, this dart trip is a rare fat dart in ten years, enough for the escort bureau to eat for two or three years, so he only wants to be safe in everything, let alone talk about other things.

Eight days later, the autumn rain continued to patter continuously, and the Cheng family finally arrived in Jingxing County.

Jingxing County is also under the jurisdiction of Zhending Prefecture, which is nearly two hundred miles away from Zhending County.

Although the distance between the two places is not far, the official road is intermittent, and some places are wild roads, which are time-consuming to walk.

The Zhenbei Escort Bureau often walks around this area, and they are familiar with everywhere, but the journey was safe and smooth. On the night of arriving in Jingxing County, they stayed at the largest auspicious inn in the city.

Jiang's mother and daughter packed up a whole yard, while Ding Lei and others stayed in the guest rooms scatteredly, and left some people to take care of the horses and vehicles, etc., and the night was safe and sound.

He slept soundly, but Ding Lei never put down his efforts.

Before dawn the next day, he got up early, first practiced the sword in the open space in the backyard of the inn, and then punched two or three sets, sweating slightly, and the sky in the east gradually appeared. He went back to the house to wash up when he was a little pale.

While cleaning his face, suddenly the door of the room was slammed, and Cao Bin's loud voice rang out:

"Boss, Boss, open the door."

Ding Lei could hear the urgency in his voice, and hurried forward to open the door, Cao Bin didn't enter the room, but stood by the door and said in a low voice, "Boss, the road ahead has collapsed."

"The road collapsed?" Ding Lei didn't understand for a moment, and asked subconsciously.

He has a mediocre appearance, moderate facial features, and usually no emotion can be seen on his face, and it is the same at this time.But Cao Bin has been under him for many years, but he can feel that he is very surprised at the moment, so he added:
"Yes, Escort, the official road has really collapsed. There were a few people in the warehouse who rushed to the early road, and now they all retreated. They said that the official road in front collapsed. Loose, some dared to go around and almost fell into the hole."

"No one died, right?" Ding Lei frowned.

Cao Bin quickly shook his head: "That's not true. Only that road is impossible to walk, and I don't know when it will be repaired."

The road collapsed, so it was necessary for the government to send servants to level the road, but now it is the autumn harvest season, and there is no way to find people for the temporary addition of corvees, unless the government is willing to spend more money, which is obviously impossible.

"Has someone gone to scout the way?" Ding Lei asked again.

Cao Bin said: "Boss Liu has already gone. He is walking fast, and he will be back in half a moment."

Boss Liu is the best in light kung fu among the bodyguards. Whenever there is a need to go and return quickly, he will volunteer to lead it.

Sure enough, not long after, Boss Liu came back sweating profusely and reported that the road had indeed collapsed, and that the cave was in the middle of the official road outside the city.He roughly measured it, and found that the pit was about five or six zhang in radius, and the ground around it was quite soft and overgrown with miscellaneous trees. It was barely passable on foot, but vehicles and horses could not.

After hearing this, Ding Lei pondered for a moment, then said in a deep voice, "I'll go and ask the master what he means."

It's not impossible to wait for a day or two, but if it takes ten days and a half a month or even longer, then it's not Ding Lei's decision.

Jiang Shi has also received the news at this time.

The inn was noisy and noisy, and the whole world would know about even a small matter, let alone such a big event as the earth?

When the manager Jiang Shun ordered someone to go to the kitchen to watch breakfast, he heard about it. He asked the shopkeeper of a shop who had returned from outside the city, and when he learned that the news was true, he reported it himself.

"Is it impossible to get through the official way?" Jiang Shi was still a little bit incredulous for a while.

Well, there is a big hole in the road, even if she has some knowledge, she still thinks it is unbelievable.

Jiang Shun used to go to and from Hebei with the tea caravan back then, and said:

"Returning to Madam, when I was on a business road, I once encountered an earth dragon turning over. It was really scary. The houses and trees were shaking endlessly. People couldn't stand up, and the road was twisted and changed. It looks like there is a hole in the ground, I'm afraid there is one."

Mrs. Jiang had heard about Dilong turning over, she lowered her eyebrows and murmured when she heard the words, hesitating whether to send a letter to her natal family first, so as to save her parents from worrying.

At this moment, the door curtain was lifted suddenly, and Mei Xiang hurried in, stooping and said:
"Ma'am, there are people from Taiyuan Mansion. They just arrived and are waiting outside. There is also Ding Biaotou outside, saying that he has something to tell Madam."

"Has someone come from Taiyuan Mansion?" Mrs. Jiang was really surprised.

There is still half a month before the date agreed upon by both parties, even if the elder brother sends out to meet them, it will arrive too soon.

"Who's here?" Mrs. Jiang didn't bother with Ding Lei, and only asked about her natal family.

Mei Xiang said quickly, "Go back to Madam, it's Fu Sheng who is in charge."

Jiang Shi nodded: "Let him come in first, and then tell Biaotou Ding to ask him to come later."

Fu Sheng is also an old servant of the Jiang family. When the Jiang family got married, his family was still the housekeeper. Later, the old lady Jiang called him back and replaced Jiang Shun.

Mei Xiang answered yes, and then she was about to go outside. Jiang Shi suddenly remembered something, and hurriedly called her again: "Wait a minute. You call someone to go first, and then talk to Jiaoer, so that she doesn't run around, it's a good life." Stay inside."

The defense of men and women in the Song Dynasty is not so strict, but it is still not suitable for girls who have not left the cabinet to meet outside men.That's all for Fu Sheng, but Ding Biaotou and those people are all Jianghu men, and Jiang himself is mostly a messenger among the servants, and it is rare to see each other, Cheng Yuejiao needs to avoid it even more.

Jiang Shi naturally guessed that Ding Lei came to discuss with her about the subsidence.It's just that her natal family sent someone over suddenly, and she faintly felt a little uneasy, so that she could focus on this matter first and postpone the matter of Biaotou Ding for later.

In the back room of the courtyard, Cheng Yuejiao's cheeks swelled into balls as soon as the woman who sent the message left, with displeasure written all over her face.

She had finished washing and grooming, and was planning to go to the front to pay respects to Mrs. Jiang, and spend some time in the small garden by the way.

Last night when she was staying overnight, she heard from a servant that there was a big ant nest under the old tree in the yard, so she asked Wei Shu to melt a few grains of brown sugar in advance, and planned to stick ants with sugar water this morning.In the end, the sugar water melted, but Mrs. Jiang didn't let her out of the house.