Li Huowang slowly used a crutch and pulled Bai Lingmiao, who was blindfolded, to walk. He was not walking fast, after all, the broken leg had not grown back yet.
Fortunately, the ox cart is not very fast either. At the expense of speed, the ox cart adds more negative gravity, which is about the same speed as Li Huowang's current speed.
"Is this Women's Mountain?" Li Huowang, who squinted, covered his forehead with his hand and looked at the hills in the distance.
After seeing those mountains, Li Huowang realized why this place was called Qingqiu, because there were not a single tree on these mountains, and they were also covered with green grass.
But this may also be related to the fact that the mountains here are relatively short. There are no towering mountains here. These mountains covered by grass are just contiguous mountains.
"Senior Brother Li, when you look at it sideways like this, do those mountains look like half a woman's face lying down?" Sun Baolu pointed over there excitedly.
After Li Huowang looked at it carefully for a long time, he finally shook his head. He didn't see how much those abstract hills looked like women. These short mountains were very strange, neither more nor less. They were a group of abrupt ones just now, and the mountains were
It is not connected to the mountains.
"This year is the year of the moon. According to the ancestral teachings, our family should camp a hundred miles ahead and graze their cattle. It won't be long before I can meet them!"
Li Huowang didn't care what the excited Sun Baolu said. He cared more about supplies. It took so long to come to Qingqiu and there were so many people. If there was nothing to eat, he would have to eat the cattle pulling the cart.
"Is there really a market where you can buy food in Women's Mountain? If you can't buy food, you'll just have to drink from the northwest wind."
"Yes, it's unmistakable. People who graze within hundreds of miles nearby will go there to exchange things if they want to buy or sell things. I even came here once when I was seven years old."
After Sun Baolu's explanation, Li Huowang knew that in Qingqiu, a vast and sparsely populated area, these nomadic Qingqiu people would choose some places to conduct transactions for the purpose of material circulation.
Over time, these places will form a fixed gathering place. Officials in Qingqiu also collect taxes from these places.
When Li Huowang saw through his excellent eyesight that there were black spots the size of ants moving at the foot of the mountain, he knew that the other party was right, there were really people there.
"Let's go, let's all put on our gauze hats so as not to attract other people's attention."
After Li Huowang said that, he also put on a bamboo hat. His current appearance, with patches of red and white on his face, was no better than the others.
The oxcart gradually approached Women's Mountain, and when it followed a path to the interior surrounded by low mountains, it suddenly became clear.
A large crowded tent gathering place appeared in front of Li Huowang and others.
The sound of horse hooves, roars of people, and the braying of donkeys were heard all the time. Li Huowang even had the illusion that he was going to the market.
In this lively market, many Qingqiu people dressed in completely different styles from the people from Shu were busy shouting and busy with their own affairs.
If there are more animals, there will be more feces. The unique smell of animals penetrates into other people's noses, making everyone frown.
I don’t know if it’s because of the long hours of sunshine, but the biggest difference between the Qingqiu people and the previous Siqi people and Houshu people is that their faces are very red, and their faces, regardless of gender, are heavily stained.
Qingqiu people are generally shorter than Li Huowang and others, but they look different.
Each of them is covered in various rough-looking leather clothes, and the women's braids and the men's waists are tied with some rounded bone fragments.
Except for bones and skins, everything else that can be woven with straw is basically woven with straw. Straw shoes, straw hats and even straw baskets are sold.
Li Huowang's group obviously attracted the attention of the people in Qingqiu. Facing the outsiders, everyone looked at the convoy with wary and indifferent eyes.
"Bang!" On the chopping board above and below the grass stall next to him, a machete was raised high and then slashed down hard, cutting a hairless and ferocious dog head in half.
"Hmm..." Steamed Bun lowered his tail and drooped his ears, and quickly got under the bullock cart timidly.
"Are you really from Qingqiu? Why do you feel that you look different from them?" Li Huowang looked through the black gauze at Sun Baolu next to him.
"Because...my mother is from out of town." Sun Baolu looked a little gloomy when he said that, but soon his eyes lit up and he quickly ran through the crowd towards the front.
Running around in the crowd, he finally got so excited that he hugged an old Qingqiu man and said something.
When he got closer, Li Huowang realized that he couldn't understand what they were saying.
"We can communicate with each other in other places, but this poor place actually has its own language." Li Huowang was speechless, which will undoubtedly cause a lot of trouble for the rest of the journey in Qingqiu.
After exchanging pleasantries with the man, Sun Baolu came back to Li Huowang and said with some excitement: "Brother Li, you can't be wrong, that man is from my tribe, and my family members are not far in front."
"Okay, we have to walk there step by step even if it is not far away. You can help us buy some food first. There is not enough food on the road." Li Huowang said while looking at the busy market around him.
Now the Qingqiu people don't understand their language, so in terms of negotiation, they have to rely on Sun Baolu, who can speak Qingqiu dialect.
Sun Baolu nodded, agreed, and turned around to get into the lively crowd.
However, Li Huowang stopped him. "Wait a moment. Is there a place to eat here? Others are also hungry. Let's take a rest first."
Soon everyone came to a noodle shop. There were strips of green noodles hanging inside the thatched shed, as if they had walked into a forest.
I heard from Sun Baolu that if a group of people share a pot and want to cook their own noodles, they can get as much as they want. The noodles are cooked by the shop owner who pays according to the portion.
Although no one else has seen this very unique way of eating in Qingqiu, it does not prevent them from eating it very deliciously. The aroma of grass on the noodles is very appetizing when paired with spicy mutton dumplings.
The noodle shop was very lively, and there were many people eating noodles. Fortunately, with the noodles blocking the way, people nearby could not see Li Huowang and the others taking off their bamboo hats.
"Where are the steamed buns?" Li Huowang, who was full of wine and food, suddenly found that his dog was missing.
Just when he turned around to look for it, he saw the steamed bun passing under the noodle forest with something in his mouth.
It spit out the contents of its mouth to Li Huowang's feet and then squatted down, sticking out its tongue and wagging its tail to ask Li Huowang for a reward.
"What is this?" Li Huowang asked in surprise as he looked at a piece of white bone at his feet.
Others didn't know it, but Sun Baolu, a local, obviously knew it. He hurriedly explained: "Brother Li, these are horse bones. People in Qingqiu must also eat horse meat when raising horses. It tastes very good."