Song Qiu looked into the Nama Market from a distance. It was crowded with people and it did look a bit lively.
I also saw a lot of horses, of all kinds, being selected.
The person wearing a round collar, blue and black trim and a round hat looked different from them, so he was probably from Ula.
At this moment, someone came out from the horse market leading many horses.
When they arrived at the door, they patted the shoulders of the errand boy. Song Qiu watched with sharp eyes as the man stuffed a silver ingot into the errand boy.
The errand boy sent them out with a smile and asked them to have a good journey.
From what he said, this guy is a big horse dealer.
The horse market has only been open for a while today, but this horse dealer has monopolized so many horses and left. If one horse dealer is like this, there are other horse dealers.
Song Qiu shook his head. As you can imagine, he couldn't buy any good horses if he went in.
There's nothing exciting here, it's better to go to the temple fair.
"Let's go. We can still go a long way out of the city now."
Saying that, he turned around and left.
When the errand boy saw them coming, he left without going in. He spat and cursed them as "poor".
When Aling heard this, he turned around and wanted to go back.
Song Qiu grabbed her and said, "Don't cause trouble."
Aling curled his lips angrily, but finally endured it.
If she was alone, she would definitely rush over and beat up the errand, then run away without fear of the government chasing him.
But she's not the only one. Just bear with it if you can, and it's indispensable to have a piece of meat.
Ah Ling thought about it and laughed too. She took Song Qiu's arm and got into the carriage. After a while, she became cheerful again, "I knew we should go to the temple fair."
"It's a waste of time to go back to the south of the city right now. Let's hurry on. We have a long way to go, and it's inevitable to watch the excitement. This time is not the best." Song Qiu said.
Aling nodded and said nothing more.
The carriage went out from the west city gate and headed west of Yunshan County.
Song Qiu looked at the hand-drawn map and had a rough idea of the route.
After leaving Yunshan County and walking west for about twenty miles, there is a small town called Yangping.
After Yangping Town, you will reach Gongcheng.
Then there is still more than two hundred miles to go before entering Suzhou.
On this road, according to Song Qiu's understanding, there are still many deserted places along the official road.
At first, Song Qiu originally planned to go north, also in Qingping Prefecture, but he took the north road to find a suitable location.
But she was thinking about whether she could buy a horse, so she decided to take the Suzhou route first.
Maybe this is fate, right?
When we arrived at Yangping Town, it was still quite a while before noon, and it was far from lunch time. If we stopped and delayed things, we would not be able to reach Gongcheng before dark.
So Song Qiu asked Ma Liang to buy steamed buns and steamed buns, and then took a bamboo tube to buy warm water from the waiter at the tea shed.
According to what the dealer said, it was more than sixty miles from Yangping Town to Gongcheng. In between there was only a market that was spontaneously formed by a nearby village, and there was no town to settle down.
Moreover, the village closest to the official road is also a long way away, which is not convenient.
Therefore, caravans coming from Yunshan County usually stop to eat dry food after passing Yangping Town while watching the time.
Song Qiu had the experience of making inquiries clearly, and with that experience in hand, he didn’t panic when he took this path for the first time.
Buy some dry food and continue on your way.
After leaving Yangping Town, after walking for a while, there was a large horse-drawn cart on the road leading to Shangguan Road.
The horse was tall and strong, and could run slightly faster than Song Qiu's brown horse. There were only three people on the car, and they were kicking and kicking. They caught up in a short time, and they seemed to be overtaking the carriage.
The official road is wide enough, and there are no cars coming from the opposite side at the moment, so the cart is fully enough to pass over the carriage and go forward.
But it only slowed down and followed behind, not overtaking.
The fastest speed of Song Qiu's horse was just like this. There were cars kicking and kicking behind them, following step by step. The feeling was completely different.
Song Qiu couldn't help but lift the curtain and glance back. At this glance, he could see that the three people on the carriage were dressed differently and looked similar to the ones he had seen at the Yunshan County horse market.
The face is big and the eyes are narrow.
This is a Ula man.
It seemed that he had gone to the horse market and was about to return to the tribe, but he didn't expect it to happen so quickly?
The horse market is probably not over yet, these three people are actually following them.
The distance was so close that Song Qiu vaguely heard what they were talking about. It was not the Chinese they communicated with, it was in a gibberish tone, and she couldn't understand it either.
Then he lowered the car curtain and didn't want to do anything for the time being.
After driving forward for about twenty miles, the sun was almost high in the sky, and the group stopped to take a rest in a shady forest.
The weather is warm, and the steamed buns and steamed buns are still a little warm, so it’s just right to eat them as they are.
Song Qiu was not particular about it, so he sat under the tree with leaves, took a steamed bun and ate it.
Then they saw the three Ula men following behind them crossing their parked carriage and also stopped, only about ten steps away from Song Qiu and the others.
After digging through the water bag and dry food, I also started to eat lunch.
Among the three people, there is a young girl, and the other two, one middle and one young, look like they should be the little girl's father and brother.
Their dry food is brought from home, and is made of bran dumplings wrapped in grass. If they don't swallow it with water, it will get stuck in the throat and it will be difficult to swallow it.
Song Qiu couldn't understand what they were saying, but seeing the way the little girl clenched her fists and beat her chest after taking a bite of the glutinous rice dumplings, he knew that she was eating very hard.
After thinking about it, Song Qiu took Aling and walked over there.
When the middle-aged man and the young man saw them passing by, there was a hint of defensiveness on their faces. They might have seen that they were just two little girls, so it was okay as they sat there and did not do much.
Approaching, Song Qiu handed the steamed bun in one hand to the little girl.
The little girl was confused and looked at Song Qiu suspiciously.
"You Ula people? You went to Yunshan County Horse Market, right? Can you speak Chinese?" Song Qiu simply sat down opposite the little girl. If she didn't accept the steamed buns, she would hold them first.
Aling also sat down next to Song Qiu, but he didn't say much and didn't care what Song Qiu was going to do. He was busy drinking water from a bamboo tube with one hand and eating meat buns with the other. He looked harmless and silly.
But she can always keep her guard in mind. If there is danger, she will take action quickly and never carelessly!
The little girl nodded, indicating that she understood Chinese, but did not answer the conversation.
Song Qiu said: "Steamed buns, let's eat. We also came from Yunshan County. We originally planned to go to the horse market to see if there were any suitable horses, but we didn't expect that we would have to spend money to buy some kind of wristbands before going in.
So I didn’t go in.
Why do you guys return home so quickly after selling horses? Are all the horses sold?"
Her tone was soft, as if she were chatting about everyday things, which made people relax.
A Ke looked at her and seemed to feel as friendly as his own mother-in-law, so he couldn't help but reached out and took the steamed bun.
The middle-aged man called her quickly.
When she regained consciousness, she wanted to return the steamed buns to Song Qiu.
Song Qiu raised the steamed bun he was eating and said, "I have it. I'll give that to you."
A Ke looked at his father, pursed his lips, retracted his hand, and said in less fluent Chinese: "Sister, do you want to buy a horse?"