In the middle of the night, a lantern hung high on a pole in front of the inn door. The light was as weak as beans and swayed in the wind, as if it was about to go out at any moment.
This is just a small official post.
There are only four people and only five horses!
And because the person who was traveling with me was temporarily busy tonight, only Hu, the leader of the post station, was on duty at night.
The inn has existed since ancient times. It contains national decrees and urgent military reports!
Everything was conveyed through these large and small inns. For thousands of years, there were only slight changes, but not much.
The message delivery at the inn is divided into: deadline, which is calculated based on the normal speed of the horse. Of course, there is also the expedited one that Xiao Han is familiar with!
Any urgent military report is a thrilling movie in itself!
The post horses galloped along the post road at a gallop, with the sound of hooves thundering! The sound of the special neck bells was clear enough to be heard two miles away! When the post horses at the next stop heard it, they immediately mounted their horses and ran!
When the rear horse catches up to the front horse, the two postmen cross each other for a moment, and the official documents in their hands have been exchanged. This goes around and over again, sending the message to the destination every second!
A strong wind blew across the sky, causing the roof of the inn to rattle.
Lao Hu, who was huddled next to a small stove, woke up from his drowsiness, closed his eyes, got up, put on his clothes and went to get beans to feed the horse.
Stagecoach horses are different from draft horses. They need to eat four or five times a day! They have to get up even after sleeping until midnight to have a midnight snack, which is very hard!
Yima's midnight snack is fine beans and hay.
The smell of fried beans makes Lao Hu hungry! In this era, people are cheaper than horses! A horse's food is far more expensive than a person's rations!
However, this is what they sacrificed their lives for. During the war, it was common for the post horses to run to death! If the post horses were lucky enough to survive for five years, then they would be laid off with honor and sent to the court's racecourse.
If you continue to work, you will be raised until the day you die.
The weather was a bit cold, and after feeding the horses, Lao Hu’s nose was already blue from the cold!
After sniffing twice, Lao Hu hurried back to the house and sat down around the stove, breathing in the air to warm his hands.
"Bang bang bang..."
There was a sudden banging on the door! Old Hu, who was sitting by the stove and didn't know what he was thinking, suddenly woke up!
Just as he was about to jump up and open the door, he saw that the wooden door of the inn was knocked open with a bang! Then a group of guys wearing animal skins and barely looking humanoid broke in from the darkness!
"You... who are you! Do you know what it is to break into an official post without permission?!" Lao Hu pointed at the group of uninvited guests and drank in horror!
But judging from his appearance, if he hadn't still had a sense of integrity as an official of the Tang Dynasty, he would have turned around and disappeared by now!
No need to ask, it was Xiao Han and Ren Qing who broke into the inn.
After leaving the Qinling Mountains, "Returning to the Heart Like an Arrow" refers to their mood at this time!
After bidding farewell to Wang Er, they walked almost non-stop without even taking a break! They kept walking to this inn all night before Ren Qing decided to come in and get some news.
After all, Wang Er knew so little. He didn’t know anything about anything except his family’s two acres of land!
Ren Qing, who was the first to enter the inn, glanced at Lao Hu and said nothing. He took out a sign from his arms and threw it to him! Then he poured a bowl of water from the copper kettle on the stove without fear of burning it.
Lift your head and drink it all!
After drinking the water, Ren Qing breathed a long sigh of relief, handed the bowl to Xiao Han, wiped his mouth and said seriously: "I am Ren Qing, the general of Guidelang under the throne of the King of Qin! This is Xiao Han, the Marquis of Sanyuan County."
!”
At this time, Lao Hu was busy carefully identifying the authenticity of the waistband. Suddenly he heard Xiao Han's name. He was shocked and shouted: "Who! Who are you talking about?"
"Sanyuan County, Xiaohou!" Ren Qing frowned, thinking he didn't hear clearly, so he repeated it again!
But he didn't expect that after saying these words, the people at the inn suddenly felt as if they had seen a ghost! There was even a look of extreme fear in their eyes.
"What's wrong?"
Xiao Han looked a little puzzled when he looked at him. Just when he was about to ask a question, he saw that the man in front of him was shaking like chaff, and then there was a "plop" and the whole person knelt on the ground!
"Come, Lord! I...I know that Mr. Mingqiao, you are wronged! But the villain has never seen you, let alone done anything sorry to you! If you lack anything, just ask me in a dream, and the villain will definitely provide it for you.
It’s complete. You don’t have to come to me personally..."
Xiao Han was startled by the strange behavior of the man in front of him. When he heard the second half, he almost sprayed water all over his head and face!
"Ahem...Who said you're sorry for me? Besides, I'm not even eighteen yet, so I don't have any words. What kind of nonsense is Ming Qiao Gong? Who got it?" Xiao Han said in a dumbfounded way, while Li Rong on the other side looked strange.
Before Xiao Han could finish speaking, he quietly pulled Xiao Han and whispered: "Idiot! Ming Qiao Gong, this is not a word, this is a posthumous title! Do you know what the posthumous title is?"
"Hobby? What hobby? I don't have any bad habits?"
Xiao Han became more and more confused, and Li Rong rolled his eyes: "Posthumous title! Is it for the dead? In other words, you are dead!"
"Ah?" A scream!
This time it was Xiao Han's turn to be dumbfounded. After being stunned for two seconds, he suddenly turned his head, pointed at Old Hu who was kowtowing on the ground and asked quickly: "What do you mean? I'm dead? Bah! Who said I'm dead?"
"It's not me... No, you're not dead?!" Old Hu shook his head subconsciously after hearing Xiao Han's question! But after a second, an idea came to his mind and he hurriedly looked up!
The man is standing on the ground! He is still holding a bowl in his hand, and more importantly, he has a shadow, so he is not a ghost!
"Are you really the Marquis of Sanyuan County? Are you alive?" After looking back and forth several times, Lao Hu finally asked in doubt.
However, he is not anxious anymore, but Xiao Han is completely anxious now!
He stepped forward and grabbed Lao Hu, stared at him fiercely and asked, "What happened these days! Tell me clearly!"
"Okay...Okay! I said, don't get excited!" Seeing Xiao Han's fierce look! Coupled with the unkind looks from the people around him, Lao Hu immediately swallowed his saliva and hurriedly told everything he knew!
The inn's job is to deliver news! So they know a lot about the major events that happen in the court.
After some explanation, Xiao Han finally knew what happened these days!
Just two days ago, some people led by the Marquis of Xiangcheng came together at the imperial meeting to request Li Yuan to transfer the last guard horse back from Qinling on the grounds that Xiao Han was dead and any further search would be a waste of national funds.
.
It stands to reason that this is not the first time that the troops have been brought back, but this time Kong Yingda and other veterans have joined in.
It was not that they were bribed like the Marquis of Xiangcheng, but they simply felt that it was not worthwhile to spend so much effort and money to find someone who had no achievements in literature or military service.
Because of this, Li Yuan, who gradually lost confidence in Xiao Han's survival, could only agree.
From this, it was necessary to choose a posthumous title for Xiao Han, build a tomb, and announce the news to the world.
