Taiping Inn

"I want to eat!" the little girl cheered.

Li Xuandu stood up and said, "Then get up. We will stay in Sanhu County for a morning today and leave for Jiangling Prefecture in the afternoon. We will arrive almost when the sun sets."

The little girl hurriedly put on her shoes and socks. Li Xuandu went out again and asked the waiter to get some hot water. After washing up, he took the little girl out of the inn.

Walking on the street, Zhou Shuning asked, "Brother, where is Uncle Tianliang?"

Li Xuandu said, "I agreed with him yesterday that he would go to the city to buy some decent clothes this morning. It's not good to come to the door like this. It happens that today is a market day. People from all over the country will come to the county town to attend the market today. Let's go and join in the fun."

The little girl said, "Oh," and no longer cared about Hu Liang, and began to look forward to the next "gluttonous journey".

As the sun rose, more people came to the street. After arriving at the market, there was even more traffic. Li Xuandu was not in a hurry to go anywhere, so he walked aimlessly on the street with the little girl. After walking for about an incense stick of time, he finally found the Yunmeng fish noodles that the little girl had been longing for at a roadside stall.

The so-called Yunmeng fish noodles are said to be produced in the ancient Yunmeng Lake, and can be said to have a long history. It uses fish from the "White Crane Dividing Flow", water from the Osmanthus Pond, new wheat flour and sesame oil as ingredients. It is as white as silver and as thin as silk, so it is also called "Silver Silk Fish Noodles". The little girl was from Jiangzhou, which is adjacent to Jingzhou, so the tastes are similar. However, Li Xuandu was not used to it. Fortunately, Sanhu County was a place where merchants came and went, and there were people from all over the world. The shopkeepers here even knew some skills of other delicacies. Li Xuandu also asked for some oil-splashed chili produced in Qinzhou in the northwest. It was just a small dish, and the color was bright red. After dipping it with chopsticks, it tasted hot and appetizing.

Although Li Xuandu was not from the northwest, he had eaten a lot of such things when he traveled to the northwest with Hu Liang. The smell made people salivate. Since ancient times, the real delicacies that can be eaten with rice have never been in the emperor's imperial kitchen. In this folk snack, Li Xuandu ate a bowl of Yunmeng fish noodles with the authentic red oil-splashed chili, but the little girl laughed at him and said that he was tyrannical and did not understand the real taste of fish noodles.

After eating noodles, Li Xuandu took out a delicate purse from his sleeve, took out copper coins to pay the bill, and then bought a string of red candied haws for the little girl.

As the two walked side by side on the road, Li Xuandu suddenly remembered many things from his childhood. At that time, the relationship between the brothers was quite harmonious. The senior brother would often take him to the back mountain to pick wild fruits, or go to the mountain stream to catch fish, just like he was taking Zhou Shuning to eat Yunmeng fish noodles now. However, he didn't know when he and his senior brother gradually became estranged. Maybe it was after he was inexplicably recognized as the master of "Human World", or maybe it was after the master said that his swordsmanship was three feet higher than that of his senior brother. In short, the two who were originally as close as brothers gradually became estranged over the years and finally became mortal enemies.

What made Li Xuandu even more disappointed was that his master never paid any attention to this matter. He was neither heartbroken nor furious. Instead, he was like an old emperor who was good at the imperial mind. He was happy to see this happen and even helped to promote it. This was one of the reasons why Li Xuandu chose to leave his master's sect and never mentioned his master's sect.

But then again, there were a total of 108 islands within a thousand miles of his master's sect. His master was undoubtedly the monarch, and it was reasonable for him to have such a mentality. But Li Xuandu didn't like this, so he envied Yan Feiqing more. It was said that he and his master were more like father and son than master and apprentice, unlike him, who were more like monarch and minister than master and apprentice.

But he was destined not to mention these words to the little girl. He just said a lot of interesting things, and as for those boring things, he naturally buried them deep in his heart.

In fact, most elders in the world are like this. They talk about their glorious past or some harmless embarrassing things in front of the younger generation. As for the suffering they have suffered, most of them keep silent or just mention it. One reason is that the younger generation has not experienced it. Even if they talk about it, they can hardly appreciate the suffering. The other reason is that the elders do not want the younger generation to experience the suffering they experienced in the past.

Li Xuandu is also in this state of mind now. He does not want Zhou Shuning to experience the various aspects of life again. It is best to be safe and sound. If she can love and care for her master and senior sisters in Xuannv Sect like a family, that would be even better.

The two came to another stall. It was a storyteller who set up a stall on the ground. He was not as well treated as the storyteller in the tavern. There were no tables and chairs, nor wine and tea provided by the tavern owner. He just wore a shabby long gown and a piece of felt cloth on the ground. The conditions were simple, but the storytelling skills were not bad. It was actually talking about the Northwest War that year. The protagonist of the story was naturally General Qin Xiang, who personally led the army to expel the Golden Horde. However, the story did not start directly from the Northwest War, but from Qin Xiang's previous life. It said that this general of the court was originally a spiritual official in heaven, but because of the disaster in the human world, he followed the order of the God of Heaven to go down to the world to experience the disaster, and then he was reincarnated into the Qin family.

Qin Xiang grew up under the strict teaching of his parents, and learned military tactics and martial arts from foreigners. He was both civil and military when he was young. Later, he went to the imperial capital to take the military examination, and was selected as a young marquis. Later, he was favored by the prime minister Xu Shisong, who summoned Qin Xiang to join the army to fight against the Golden Horde. Qin Xiang was promoted to the left governor of the Left Army Governor's Office for his merits. Later, the old Lord Xu Shisong retired, and his nephew Xu Shouzhai took over his position and became the Minister of War. At the same time, the Golden Horde launched a large-scale invasion. With the support of the young Lord Xu, Qin Xiang led his troops northward and defeated the Golden Horde cavalry in Qinzhou, causing it to be completely defeated.

Unfortunately, just when Qin Xiang was preparing to fully recover Qinzhou and Liangzhou, the emperor passed away, and the court ordered Qin Xiang to return to Beijing immediately. Later, in the second year of Tianbao, the Minister of War Xu Shouzhai was beheaded, and Qin Xiang was also imprisoned. The rebellion of the Northwest rebels was finally out of control.

Hearing this, everyone who was listening to the book was filled with righteous indignation, and they felt sorry for Lord Xu and Governor Qin. They almost said that there were treacherous people in the court, causing chaos in the government.

The little girl was naturally very angry under the influence of her father Zhou Tingchao, and she didn't even bother to eat the candied haws in her hand.

From this, we can also see that although the queen mother sat firmly in the court and held the power, with the Great Zhou in the west and the Golden Tent in the east, the power of the court was no longer as strong as before. Three of the four ministers came from Jiangnan, and the old man Sun, who also came from Jiangnan, secretly fanned the flames. Naturally, the people far away in Jiangnan had no good feelings for the queen mother who was a hen crowing at dawn, which led to the current rumors.

But what can the court do?

This is the people's hearts.

Li Xuandu said softly: "The sword is ready. When you go out, you will be in the martial arts world. Travel thousands of miles and you will still be a young man when you return."

The little girl said "ah" and looked at Li Xuandu with a puzzled look, wondering why Li Xuandu suddenly said such a sentence.

Li Xuandu was silent for a long time and muttered: "A sword came from the west, the river went east, and the spirit was overwhelming. Ask how to maintain peace, it is hard to be peaceful, cut off the chaos, can you open peace? Heroes and heroes? Righteous and evil? Leave it to the world to judge a hundred years later. Recalling the past, the light was cold in the nineteen states, and the sword was ruthless. A hundred years of martial arts. The world was full of wind and thunder. Sighing the ups and downs of this life, the storm is hard to settle; ten years of sword, the chivalrous spirit is magnificent. The sleeves hide the green snake, the waist hangs three feet, and the road of the world is uneven. Looking up to the sky, see the sword spirit crisscrossing, and then open the blue sky."

The little girl was surprised and said: "Brother, did you write it?"

Li Xuandu shook his head and sighed softly: "This is a poem that Zhang Baiyue gave me that year, called "Tuned to Qinyuanchun Taiping"."