Chapter 373: A letter from home is worth a fortune, and the water beast takes office! (4k)

Liujinhai.

Heyuan Prefecture.

As the largest border town in the entire northwest, it is a transportation hub, with numerous buildings and colorful flowers. There is no other place like it.

In the past, this city was a vast grassland and desert.

All businesses traveling from south to north must pass through this place for supplies. When the weather warms up a little, the bells of the caravans can ring from early morning to midnight.

However, today, the guards on the tower who are responsible for inspection and release walk around twice, take a quick look, and then return to the tower to warm themselves by the fire to dispel the severe cold that penetrates into their bones.

Winter is here, and the snow outside the city has accumulated for days and has already covered the horses' chests.

The sky is gray and the sun is invisible. The environment is so bad that no merchants travel at all.

Even the Yubei River and Luohe River were covered with thick ice. Standing on the gate tower, one could only see the fearless herdsmen following the fishermen, turning into black spots and moving slowly on the vast white ground, breaking the ice to catch fish. If the fish were really frozen hard, they would dig out the fish together with the ice.

The guards often saw big fish three or four feet long and weighing dozens of kilograms frozen to death in the ice nest, and the fishermen had to carry them into the city through the small gate bit by bit.

The big fish had been dead for an unknown period of time, but the gills exposed by the bent body were as red as blood.

The guard put away his waist knife, sat cross-legged, put his hands into the orange light, moved his stiff fingers, and complained about the bad weather.

"The snow is really thick this year, and it can bury most of it! The parapet on the upper floor is several feet high, and it must be swept clean to see clearly below."

As soon as this was said, it resonated with the surrounding soldiers.

"That's right. The white wind has never stopped since autumn. The Lang grass in the northern pasture has fallen in patches. There is no time to harvest the winter grass. Every day when I wake up and open the door, I have to shovel the snow at the door first."

"Damn it, I opened the door for a long time, but I couldn't even see a bird. I can't collect half a copper coin of toll!"

"There's nothing I can do. Didn't a group of horse caravans come yesterday? All the goods were lost in the desert. They relied on an old horse to find the way back. There were more than 60 people, but only 32 returned. Less than half survived."

"It's so cold, Ordinary martial artists can't stand it, let alone ordinary people. "

"In my opinion, martial artists should be on duty. Those who can endure the cold don't come. They hug soft, wet, hot women in the quilt. What's the matter with us, the second and third level people, to endure the cold?"

"Stop complaining. You have the ability to be a centurion. You are still hugging women in the quilt to keep warm."

The water in the iron pot on the campfire was boiling. A big hand passed through the gap between the soldiers, picked up the iron pot, filled the kettle for himself, screwed on the lid, and stuffed it into his arms to keep warm.

"Captain, it's because we are incompetent that we complain."

The soldier didn't feel angry, and took the iron pot to pour water for everyone.

Someone started to make a noise: "It's getting cold, when will the captain take us to hug a woman to warm up? We haven't been exposed for too long, and our big dicks are going to get bedsores!"

"Get lost." The captain kicked the person who was making a noise, "I don't have that kind of spare money, if you want to keep warm, go find a prostitute in the dark alley."

"The water is gone!" the last soldier emptied the iron pot and shouted.

The captain looked around and stared at the person who was making a noise: "You, go get some ice to boil water, and bring a bundle of dry firewood, don't fool with snow, it's full of ash and slag! It tastes like rust!"

"Okay! I'll bring you a piece of cold, watery old ice!"

The guard brought the iron pot and chisel to the laughter of the crowd, and went down the corridor of the tower. He went out of the small door and didn't walk far. He saw a black shadow in the wind and snow from a distance, and heard a faint bell in the wind.

The guard's face tightened and he shouted, "Who is coming?"

"A messenger!"

The voice penetrated the haze, and it was so powerful that the wind and snow stopped.

A messenger?

A messenger!

The guard didn't bother to break the ice, and hurried back: "The messenger is coming! The messenger is coming!"

"Don't shout, I can hear it upstairs."

The captain came out of the small door, and then all the guards came out, looking forward to it.

The wind and snow were full, and the carriage seemed far away but was actually close.

The messenger in thick cotton had a ruddy face, and several followers behind him were extraordinary, all of them were powerful martial artists.

"Master Chang!"

The captain stepped forward and bowed to greet.

In a military stronghold, even the messengers were not ordinary people, and they rarely changed people, so the guards at the gate knew them all.

The messenger nodded slightly, waved his hand, and someone behind him delivered the public verification talisman.

Confirmed, three carriages of letters passed in front of the guards.

The guards swallowed their saliva.

You can often find prostitutes, but rarely see letters from home.

The news of the arrival of the post station messenger spread quickly throughout the North Gate Tower, and then spread outward, even faster than the messenger's carriage.

When the carriage arrived at the post station, the door was already surrounded by noisy soldiers.

One after another, scholars braved the severe cold to bring desks, write with red hands, write letters in the cold wind, and earn a few hard-earned money.

In winter, the post station will reduce the number of transportation.

The soldiers' letters can only be packed and sent out by the post station when the messenger arrives.

In the middle of winter, the end of the year is approaching.

Who knows when the messenger will arrive next time if you miss this opportunity.

People who have a long way to go don't take the opportunity of the messenger to send letters in advance today, otherwise they will miss the trip.

"Make way, make way, don't block the door!"

"Write your letter somewhere else, don't block the door!"

"Wait until the letters are sorted, come back. The messenger needs two days to replenish supplies, don't rush, take your time!"

The clerks of the post station maintained order and finally made way for the carriage to enter.

The letters on the first two cars were packed in sacks, and the brown cloth was covered with white snow. When they arrived at the post station, the clerks came forward to carry them, pinched the two corners of the bags, and poured out the letters and dry snow all at once, and asked the runners to sort and distribute them.

Until the third car, the runners treated them differently. Except for the majority of the sacks, they were poured out as usual, and the rest were packed in wooden boxes.

When they opened them, stacks of letters were neatly stacked.

The letter paper inside was obviously much better than others, white and delicate, and some covers had gold-plated patterns and wax seals.

Just as the clerks were handling the letters, they heard a conversation coming from the front hall.

"Why did Yang Canling come to pick up the letters in person today? Isn't it just to find someone to run errands?"

A male voice full of energy sounded.

"I've been on duty at the North Gate these days, and I happened to go to the tower to take a look. When I saw you coming, I asked if there was any letter from me."

"Lord Yang, you came at the right time. If I'm not mistaken, there really is a letter from you, from Huaiyin Prefecture. It must have been sent by Lord Yang's relatives."

"Oh? I just received one a month ago, and there is another one today?"

"Then I don't know."

In the backyard.

The clerk who was in charge of distributing letters was startled when he heard the voice, and waved his hand to urge everyone: "Quick, quick, check, check, is there any letter from Lord Yang Xu! Lord Yang Xu!"

"Look for it quickly!"

The rest of the people put down their work immediately after receiving the order, and all ran to look at the name on the wooden box on the third carriage. They searched one by one, and soon someone found a wooden box with Yang Xu's name on it at the bottom of the carriage.

"Found it, here, here!"

"Give it to me, give it to me!"

Just at this moment, a middle-aged man in a long black robe stepped over the threshold and walked into the backyard while chatting with the messenger.

"Does it really snow so rarely in the south?"

"Young man, it's quite remarkable to have three or four light snowfalls a year in Huaiyin Prefecture. It's possible to have a heavy snowfall once every five or six years, but it's still far worse than Liujinhai.

The days when the entire Jianghuai Lake was frozen are few and far between. I've only heard of two times from the local county annals since I was a child, and the area is not very large."

"Lord Yang, your letter."

The clerk who received the letter stepped out quickly, held it in both hands, and presented it respectfully.

"Hard work!"

Yang Xu gushed out hot air while speaking. He took out a few taels of silver from his arms, rewarded the clerk, and took the wooden box, which contained only a letter.

The messenger who followed him stepped back a few steps to make room.

Yang Xu was still quite surprised to receive the letter, because he had just received one a month ago.

The journey time between Huaiyin Prefecture and Heyuan Prefecture is at least two months, and if the weather is bad, it may take three months.

Now there is less than a month between the two letters, and I am afraid that something happened at home, so they sent letters one after another.

So without too much scruples, Yang Xu opened it and read it carefully on the spot.

After a while.

"Liujin Sea, three miles east of Kumu Cliff? Half a secret book?"

Yang Xu read it carefully and was relieved after confirming that it was not a change.

It turned out that the junior brother had something to ask for.

Yang Xu had not been home for five years, and he had never seen the three disciples his father had accepted in the past five years.

But there were constant letters from home, and he knew the situation roughly.

Especially in the three letters this year, the ninth junior brother, whom he had never met, occupied a lot of space.

The first letter said that his father was happy to have a disciple, who was pure and outstanding.

The middle letter said that the ninth junior brother was born with martial bones, worshipped in the river and became a galloping horse.

The last letter said that he had made contributions to flood control and received the oral instruction of the Holy Emperor, and sent three methods with him.

The difference in content was so great that if the handwriting was not authentic, Yang Xu really wanted to send a reply full of doubts.

An extraordinary genius.

Yang Xu himself was far behind in this level, especially the three methods sent by his ninth junior brother not long ago. They were extremely useful and all of them were skills to save lives and recognize the evil in people's hearts, but they were really difficult to practice!

It was obviously just a thin booklet, but it seemed to be more difficult to practice than those superior martial arts!

There were not many important things in the past month, and the war, Yang Xu almost put down everything on hand, and used a lot of incense and precious materials to increase his understanding, and concentrated on practicing the methods in the book. He barely grasped a few tricks of the "Eye Recognition Method", which was not even an entry.

But even so, the benefits were obvious.

On the day when he practiced the tricks, Yang Xu stood on the tower and used the half-baked "Eye Recognition Method" to catch eight spies and one traitor.

After verification, except for the two spies who were misunderstandings, there was nothing wrong.

Especially the traitors, who are more hateful than spies, and Yang Xu has a lot of credit.

Once this happened, the whole North District was in an uproar, and many people nicknamed Yang Xu the Eagle Eye.

It was also this incident that made the Tianren Grandmaster guarding the North Gate think that Yang Xu was a good seedling for catching spies. He was supposed to change his shift and rest yesterday, but he had to extend his rest day for half a month and continue to catch spies and traitors.

Thinking of this, Yang Xu turned his head and looked at the messenger: "Brother Chang, when are you going to set off?"

"The weather is very cold and the heavy snow has blocked the road. I am not afraid, but it is difficult to travel by car and horse. I have wasted a lot of time. I plan to rest in the city for two days before leaving."

"Then Brother Chang might as well stay for two more days. The meteorologist in the city has calculated that the heavy snow will stop in four days, and the road will be easier to travel at that time."

Yang Xu knew where Kumu Cliff was located. It was not too far from Heyuan Prefecture, and half a day was enough.

But the heavy snow has flooded the roads and the location is unknown, so it will take one to two more days, plus searching...

Let the messenger stay for two more days, maybe he can catch up with the delivery time.

The Ninth Junior Brother is about to gather the true power and send out the precious Three Consciousness Dharma. It is rare to ask for anything. As the senior brother, naturally he cannot prepare a seat to fill up the number. It is better to arrive five or six days early.

The messenger roughly knew Yang Xu's intention, thought about it briefly, and agreed: "I can do anything."

With the pace of the martial arts master and the black iron horse, the snow problem is a minor problem.

The key lies in the heavy snow covering the sky, making it difficult to discern the direction and delaying time.

Staying an extra two days to wait for the snow to stop will indeed be more helpful for the journey.

"Thank you!"

"You're welcome, Mr. Yang."

After getting the promise, Yang Xu rushed to the government office to ask for leave, then went to the camp to summon his men.

Two quarters of an hour later.

The city gate opened, and the thirty-six riders turned into a long wind, stepped out of the city gate, and disappeared into the flying snow.

…

Huaiyin Mansion.

Raobu, Yixing Town, Pingyang County.

There are stars in the night.

The big boat next to the plank road rises and falls with the current, moored motionlessly.

Among them was a lucky boat, which raised its sails in the night, took advantage of the night wind, and staggered out of the port.

Otter Kai jumped down from the roof of the building on all fours, chirping.

Liang Qu couldn't understand, but the river otter on the deck understood it. He immediately ran to the mast, untied the rope from the bundle, pulled two long ropes, and adjusted the direction of the sail.

After more than a month of training, under the patient guidance of Lao Tridac, Ota Kai believed that he had mastered superb boating skills, and finally took a solid step today to practice!

All six river otters joined the battle, and they were in a hurry at first. However, after a series of running-in and operations, the Fuzhou boat started to turn headlessly, drifted in place, and gradually started to move smoothly.

The Beaver family stood on the deck and stared dumbfounded. Every front tooth exposed at the moment showed their dumbfounded eyes at the change in their brother.

above the river.

Long Pinghe and Long Pingjiang stuck their heads out and marveled at the river otters on the lucky boat.

"As expected of Dragon Lord, the river otters enlightened are so smart and can even drive a boat!"

"Yes, yes." Long Pinghe nodded, "The river otter I know only knows how to fight."

Jiang Otter, who had always only known how to fight, could actually drive the boat obediently, which really exceeded the two dragon men's understanding.

Half an hour later.

Nothing unexpected happened.

The entire lucky ship's sails were swollen and it moved forward slowly, sailing steadily on the water.

Liang Qu stood on the deck, feeling relaxed.

Liang Qu himself didn't know whether it would be possible to let Jiang Da serve as a crew member.

Now it seems that after Ze Ding's enlightenment, Da Da Kai's strength has not changed much, his spiritual intelligence has actually improved a lot, and he has really mastered the skills of driving a boat.

The otters jumped up and down, flapping their sails, excited to move such a huge thing by turning the disk.

Otter stood on the bow of the boat, his hair flying all over his body, and he didn't feel the cold at all.

So what if Scarface can fight? Can he sail a boat?

When Liang Qu saw that the lucky ship was far away from the port, he also had an idea, followed the body's induction, and used it to control the wind and rain.

In an instant, the clear night turned dark.

Dark clouds seemed to appear out of nowhere, covering the entire night sky.

The dragon man in the river looked startled.