The Jagged Emperor of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 179 The Old Boatman

Liu Chan rested in the new city for three days, replenished a large amount of food and grass, and borrowed 2000 men and horses who are good at mountain warfare from Meng Da—these people were naturally used to help Liu Chan defend the supply base in Jingshan.

Then, Liu Chan's team continued to march towards the Jingshan area swaggeringly.

In fact, it has been a long time since he left Chengdu, so Liu Chan felt the need to speed up his march.After all, I heard from Deng Ai that the roads in Jingshan Mountain are very difficult to walk. If this delays the date of arriving at the front line, it will not be very beautiful.Therefore, the team immediately speeded up and quickly entered the Jingshan mountain area.

Jingshan is not a particularly tall and long mountain range. "Yugong" has a cloud: Jingzhou and Hengyang are the only ones in Jingzhou.Gai is the name of Jingshan, and the name of Zhizhou.So Chu also.The legendary Heshibi was discovered here.

The mountains generally run from northwest to southeast. In the northwest, the mountains are high and the valleys are deep, towering and steep, with vertical and horizontal gullies;

In other words, the further Jingshan goes toward Jiangling, the slower the slope becomes, and the terrain becomes easier to walk accordingly.Due to the large terrain changes here and the inconvenient transportation, it is said that some barbarians who are not familiar to the outside world still live in the mountains.

After entering the mountainous area, Liu Chan was not familiar with geography, so the person in charge of establishing the supply base was no more suitable than Deng Ai, a geography expert.Liu Chan simply let go, entrusted Deng Ai to handle all the affairs, and asked Zhuge Qiao to assist him, also intending to continue to train the two people's ability to handle affairs independently.

Deng Ai and Zhuge Qiao are indeed very capable. Under their control, the army was able to build the cottage and the pigeon station very quickly, and everything seemed to be in order.

Liu Chan was naturally happy to be free at this time, but in fact he was a bit bored, so whenever the army was stationed to build a cottage, he would take Zhao Feng, Shi Hui and his wife, and a dozen guards, to mess around in the mountains all day long. It is a rare opportunity to travel in the mountains.

However, Liu Chan's heart is actually not easy, because he knows a little bit, since the soldiers laid down the first wooden stake in Jingshan, he has already started to participate in the battle of Jingzhou.It's just that he is still in the rear, and he hasn't confronted the enemy openly.However, these things are what he has to spend to complete, because they are the Achilles heel that Guan Yu ignores.

Today, Deng Ai and Zhuge Qiao were very busy in the middle of Jingshan Mountain, while Liu Chan rode a white horse and took a group of entourages in casual clothes to travel leisurely.

Liu Chan's equestrian skills have made great progress now, but he doesn't intend to go where he wants to go.In fact, outsiders rarely come here, and there has always been a lack of clear maps. It is impossible for you to find a clear place, so Liu Chan simply let go of the rein and let the horse find its own way. It can go wherever it likes. .

Liu Chan himself followed Zhao Feng and his wife while looking at the scenery on both sides, chatting about the world, and sometimes asked Shi Hui to introduce the situation of Fusang, and everyone enjoyed it.

After everyone walked for more than an hour, the horse stopped by itself, and it turned out that a river appeared in front of it.The mountains on both sides of the bank are covered with huge trees, lush and lush, and the river water is dyed pea green.When I got closer, I found that the river was too clear, and the small fish in it were swimming leisurely, as if floating in the transparent air.

Liu Chan took a deep breath of the humid air, really refreshed!

Only then did Zhao Feng ask Liu Chan what to do next, whether to go back or cross the river?Liu Chan looked at the surface of the river. It is already June and the rainy season has arrived, so the river appears to be very wide. It may be impossible to cross the river on horseback.Liu Chan led Zhao Feng and his party down the river.

After walking a mile or two, the sky began to drizzle, and a faint cloud of smoke seemed to float on the river.However, the rain was still light, so everyone didn't pay much attention to it, and just continued to walk downstream.

Soon, Liu Chan heard a voice of conversation coming from the front, and it was still in local language, so Liu Chan naturally couldn't understand.But these days they often meet the local aborigines, and where there are people, there will naturally be a place to live, so Liu Chan wanted to find a place to shelter from the rain temporarily.

Waiting to get closer, Liu Chan saw a ferry boat floating in the river. On the boat stood an old boatman dressed in aboriginal cloth and wrinkled face, arguing with a businessman carrying leather goods.

The first thought in Liu Chan's mind was that the old boatman thought the other party gave too little money. After reading it, he realized that the old boatman didn't think the money was too little but that the other party gave too much money.But the fur dealer was also quite strange, and insisted on giving the money to the old boatman—this made the old boatman feel quite shameless, so he refused to accept the money as if he was a little angry.

The two talked like this, and the boat docked quickly. When the fur dealer jumped onto the pier, he spilled all the coins in his hand onto the ferry, smiled and spoke a few dialects, and hurried away.The face of the old boatman's hand turned red immediately, and he sat on the side of the boat angrily and muttered, watching the fur dealer leave happily.

In this chaotic world, intrigues and scrambles are happening everywhere, but the old boatman just now was angry because the other party gave too much money for the boat?People here are either too stupid or too simple.

But it can also be seen that poetry and etiquette can only be hidden in the mountains: those defenders in the court are shouting benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and faith every day, but they never relent when they kill their colleagues to protect their own interests.

While Liu Chan was meditating, the old boatman also spotted Liu Chan and others not far away, and saw that they were all riding white horses with weapons on their bodies, so they might not be natives.He shouted with some fear: "Who are you? Do you want to cross the river?"

Seeing that this person could speak official language, which is rare among barbarians, Liu Chan nodded to Zhao Feng.Zhao Feng shouted: "Old man, don't be afraid, we are just passing by, and we don't mean any harm to you."

The old boatman saw that they did not look like bad guys, so he asked, "Guys, are you going to cross the river?"

Liu Chan cupped his hands and said, "You are being polite, old man. We were going to cross the river, but it's raining now, so we want to find a place to shelter from the rain first."

Only then did the old boatman discover Liu Chan who was the youngest in the crowd. Seeing that he was the most luxuriously dressed and spoke very politely, he had a good impression.Although the old boatman is a barbarian, the people in the mountains are simple and honest, and they are much more enthusiastic than those Han people who are good at intrigue outside.

He laughed and said, "It's rare for us to have outsiders here. Look at the weather, and the rain will increase in the future. If the officials are willing, why not come to my house as guests."

Liu Chan was a little curious about what the life of the barbarians was like, and ordered everyone to dismount and follow the old boatman—the master walks, how can they, guests, ride horses swaggeringly?

Seeing Liu Chan being so polite, the old boatman was also happy, and his walking pace suddenly became more brisk.As Liu Chan walked, he told the old boatman what happened to the fur dealer just now, and said with a smile: "I thought it was because he gave less money, that you guys started arguing!"

When the old boatman saw Liu Chan mentioning this matter, he said solemnly: "He gave me too much money, how can I take it? So I told him that he didn't want the money, and he still quarreled with me. This man is unreasonable, don't do it next time." Ferry him!"

Liu Chan saw that the old boatman was still worried and looked very cute, so he said, "Old man, you don't have to be angry. You can still take him across the river next time, and just give him the boat money he gave."

The old boatman felt a little happy when he heard the words, and said with a smile: "I'm going to do this, and everyone will stop coming from me in the future. I plan to give him a bottle of rice wine brewed by myself, enough for him to go all the way. Singing folk songs, drinking all the way to the next cottage."

Liu Chan also laughed, and secretly praised the old boatman for his upright nature, so he chatted with him about the things in the mountains.Only then did he know that the old man's name was A Duozhi, and the residents here were a branch of the Wuling Man. They fled to Jingshan hundreds of years ago because they fought with the army, and settled down here. Now a local aboriginal adult in management.The old boatman asked Liu Chan about his origin and where he was going.

"We are from Chengdu, Yizhou, and we are going to Xiangyang."

The old boatman nodded and said with a smile: "Xiangyang is a good place. I went to it several times when I was young. It's a big place, delicious food, and many beautiful things."

Liu Chan nodded. Although this old man is only a ferryman, he may be regarded as a well-informed person here.

The old boatman sighed, and then said: "Young Master, you may not know that you came from outside the mountain. Although our place is not as peaceful as outside, life is also hard. An old guy like me is useless. In a few years, it might be buried in the soil to feed maggots."

Liu Chan looked at the sun-tanned face of the old boatman, and said with a smile: "Old man, you have worked diligently to ferry your people across the river all your life, and I believe that the gods will bless you with a long life. Besides, the mountains and water here are good. , People are good, there is always hope for living in a world where people outside kill people."

The old boatman also smiled: "Young master is right. We mountain people are smart, upright, brave, and hardworking. There is always something to look forward to in life."

Liu Chan felt sad when he heard that, the people around him who possessed the four qualities of intelligence, integrity, bravery, and hard work must have already died out, right?Even a young man like myself who is only 13 years old got rid of the simple life early and fell into the life-and-death struggle for power. Now I can't remember how much blood was on my hands.

Liu Chan looked at the surrounding scenery, the misty misty rain, and the old man's simple face, and he felt even more admiration.

Soon, everyone came to a bamboo forest not far away. There stood a stilted building, hidden in a piece of green bamboo leaves, but the materials used were all bamboo.

Liu Chan liked such an original ecological building very much, so he praised the stilted building, and the old boatman suddenly showed a proud look on his face, and led everyone upstairs.

Then he heard a woman speaking in the native language, and the old boatman also answered in the native language, and then told Liu Chan that he had ordered his granddaughter to cook more food for the guests.Liu Chan knew that the old boatman was struggling, so naturally he couldn't cause him trouble, so he told him that he had dry food, and asked the guards to bring the dry food to the old boatman to taste.

The old boatman was a straightforward person, he was curious when he saw this cake-like thing for the first time, so he took a mouthful unceremoniously.In fact, the taste of the army rations was not very good, but the old boatman praised: "This cake tastes really good, really salty!"

Liu Chan was very surprised. Good taste means good taste. How could it have something to do with "really salty"?After Liu Chan inquired, he learned that the road to Jingshan was difficult, and merchants were unwilling to sell salt into the mountains.Even if there are, they are all controlled by the local adults, and the price is ridiculously expensive. It is rare for ordinary people to taste a little salty taste every day.

Liu Chan secretly sighed in his heart, although this place can be regarded as a paradise, oppression is still everywhere, and the people's livelihood is so difficult!
Then, I saw a petite woman in a foreign costume walking out of the kitchen. She had dark skin and was about the same age as Liu Chan. This person was the granddaughter of the old boatman.

Her pair of watery eyes unique to mountain people looked curiously at everyone.The old boatman introduced his granddaughter Ajima, and Liu Chan and others nodded to her, and a bright smile appeared on her face.

Liu Chan remembered that Ajima was cooking, so he asked the guards to take out all the salt they had on their bodies—each of them carried a small bag of salt wrapped in oiled paper, just in case.

The guards naturally didn't dare to be negligent, so Liu Chan put away all the salt, weighed it and it should weigh nearly a catty, and wanted to give it to the old boatman.The old boatman didn't dare to take it, he declined and said: "My lord, I dare not take so much salt, it's too expensive!"

(End of this chapter)