C2

Winter nights always came suddenly, and it was incomparably long. The snow quietly came under the cover of darkness. The snow came in full force, but it covered the land and froze the river. As the saying goes, three feet of ice is not a day's worth of cold. However, this was a once in a hundred year event, and in a single day's time, the torrential river had frozen. Of course, this snow was not completely useless. The heavy snow had frozen the Yellow River, making it more convenient for the people to travel on both sides of the Yellow River.

However, the travelling merchants were not happy for long because the heavy snow had frozen the Yellow River and had no intention of stopping. Thus, they continued to travel on their own. Most of them were blocked by the snow on the road to business and government. Not only were their business difficult, they even wanted to return home to spend the next few years in the snow. This was wishful thinking, and everyone was complaining endlessly for the past few days.

Since the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period, Qi Bo and other places have been famous cities in the country. Moreover, the people of Qi Lu have benefited from the fish and salt, trade and trade have spread throughout the world, and the merchants often passed down the way of doing business from generation to generation. Before the Zhejiang, Jinshan and Ningbo Sect in ancient China, Lu has the most business people, and the most business travel is the busiest. In this golden age, the Tang Dynasty gave the Lu merchants a chance to fight.

On this day, in a valley in the Land of Lu, the Ma Gang had fallen. The weather was cold and the snow had been falling for some time. The mountain road was already dangerous, and now that there was a layer of ice, one had to be extremely careful when walking on it, not to mention the horses used by the Ma Gang. The Horse Gang was a unique product of Qi Lu. Although it had a unique name, it wasn't much different from the escort agencies outside of the city. The Ma Gang's labor force was mainly horses. Under normal circumstances, it was common for the Ma Gang to walk for over a hundred miles a day. It was a piece of cake. With the endless snow blocking their way, if the horses were unable to carry the goods, there was only one conclusion: if the goods could not arrive in time, not only would the Ma Clan lose the reward for the trip, they would also lose their reputation. If the reputation of a gang of horses was ruined, it would be difficult to find a buyer in the future who would allow the gang to carry the goods.

In the evening, the gang stopped at a teahouse in the valley to sharpen their skills. Everyone in the Ma Gang gang could hear the owner of the teahouse shouting at the door, "Master Zhuang, please come in. The brothers have to work harder to stop the goods and quickly enter the house." The owner of the teahouse shouted at the door, and then he heard the chorus of people outside. The owner of the teahouse chuckled dryly. He turned around, lifted the heavy curtain and walked into the teahouse. The Ma Clan's brothers quickly unloaded the goods and tied the ropes. During this period of time, someone had scolded them about the terrible weather. However, the experienced elders were all overjoyed because they knew about this. As long as he rested in this tea house today, it would never stop snowing. He definitely wouldn't be able to leave tomorrow, and he might even have to wait for the snow to stop.

Before long, a group of brethren from the Ma Clan came in from outside. Their leader was the last one to come, with a smoke pot in his mouth. His brows were locked together as he walked with a heavy gait. As the leader of the horse gang, the Luddites knew that it was hard for the horse gang to walk, so they treated their brethren with great courtesy, especially towards the leader.

After the owner of the teahouse told the Ma Gang brothers to come in and take a seat, he hurriedly brought the hot water to dry the fruit. All the brothers had walked for days in the snow and ice. It was hard to avoid the cold. At this point, the old saying used to walk on the battlements was: That bowl of hot water can save a person's life, a dried fruit can pull back half a living person. The owner of this teahouse must be a veteran, knowing what the Ma Gang people need the most at this time.

The owner of the teahouse busied himself with driving the Ma Gang brothers out of the cold, and the rest of the brethren hurried to drink and eat, except for the horse gang's leader, who sat cross-legged on a bench, his eyes deep, his brow furrowed, and smoking a dry tobacco pot in his mouth. After the teahouse owner had finished with all the brothers, he boiled the wine and instructed the rest of them to do as they pleased. He then moved to the front of the building and slowly said, "Master Zhang Zhuang, why are you still bringing your brothers to chat on such a cold day? I'm afraid the snow won't stop today, but I'm afraid we'll have to delay this trip." As if he hadn't heard the owner of the tea house, the old monk did not move at all. It was unknown what he was thinking, but he looked like a statue sitting in a cross-legged position. The dim flame of the lamp on the table flickered in his eyes, and in the flickering light his face looked troubled.

After a while, Master Zhang Zhan finished smoking a whole pot of dry smoke and blew out the ashes. He then lightly said, "Those who run to the battlements don't have a noble character. Even the coldest days have to listen to their employer's instructions. Tomorrow, we will walk to the battlements as usual. We can't delay this day." Although Master Zhang Zhan looked somewhat old, his words were filled with confidence and faintly exuded a sense of might. These words were spoken in a loud voice and were clearly heard by the brethren from the horse gang in the tea house. When the brothers heard Master Zhang's words, the teahouse that was originally noisy became quiet for a moment. Everyone was looking at each other; they looked at each other in dismay, and the teahouse was momentarily at a loss for words.

The owner of the tea house sighed, he helped Zhang Zhuang Ming fill up a pot of dry smoke, then placed it on the table and leisurely said, "We all know what kind of goods these guys have to deal with, the employer is actually in such a hurry to let them go. What if something bad happens?" Master Zhang Zhuang curled his lips, not saying a word. He looked at the lamp, and when he heard the wind blowing outside the house, he could not help but wrinkle his brow. This night's blizzard had passed, but tomorrow morning was still uncertain if he could continue on his journey. Even if they could just barely make it up the mountain, it was still a matter of whether these brothers were willing to go down or not.

Master Zhang Zhuang slowly took out another pot of dry smoke, slowly burnt the ash on his cigarette, and said slowly, "Old Song, I thought about it and decided to continue driving tomorrow. Although this trip is not a good one, my employer gave me the goods. I told you it was freezing cold, and to tell you the truth, they gave me three times as much money to walk down the stairs. I thought about how few people had walked on the battlements this year, and how it would soon be the end of the year, so I let my brothers walk on the battlements and get more, so I could go home and celebrate the new year. I had to think about it for a day before I agreed. " Although his words were said for Old Song, the owner of the tea house, everyone present heard it. The tea house became even quieter, leaving behind only the sounds of the smokepot and the wind blowing outside.

A voice broke the silence, and everyone looked towards the speaker. It was the Ma Clan Brother who was sitting at the very back. He had a grave expression on his face, with a square face that seemed to have some sort of power to it, a head wrapped in a green cloth, a pair of thick eyebrows, big and bright eyes, a broad brow, and a pure and honest face. However, this person's appearance and faintly noble aura did not match with the crowd present. His figure and clothes were no different from those of the crowd present. He saw that everyone was looking at him, but he did not change his expression, nor did he do anything. He only quietly looked at Master Zhang Zhuang, his eyes shining, reflecting the flickering flames.

"What's wrong?" Master Zhang Zhan only glanced at that person before lowering his head to think about his own matters. He didn't seem to see this matter as something worth the trouble he had gone through. As soon as his voice fell, he heard the man continue, "Master Zhan, if the snow continued like this, then I'm afraid the ice on the road tomorrow will become thicker, and the horses will become more difficult to walk on. My brothers originally wanted to rest for a day tomorrow, and wait until the next day before deciding based on the actual situation. "Why do I have to listen to your meaning? I want to continue my journey tomorrow."

Hearing his words, Zhang Zhuang raised his head, only then did he raise his head, his brows were still tightly knitted, his eyes were sharp, staring straight at that person, he indifferently said: "What, Little Zhu, do you have any objections?" Zhang Zhuang Master said these words in a low voice, his speech very slow, but each word was sonorous, like a small drum beating in the hearts of everyone present. The expression of the young man called Xiao Zhu couldn't help but change, and he thought to himself: So it turns out that this grandpa Zhan also knew some martial arts, no wonder he had a faint trace of Qi. He was, after all, the lord of the field, someone who had long been in the martial arts world. He was much more knowledgeable than these Ma Clan brothers. Little Zhu chuckled and then slowly said: "Old Battlefield, I don't have any objections, I'm just thinking for the brothers' sake. It's been snowing non-stop for a few days, and the snow has already blocked our way to the capital. I think we should wait until the snow stops, even if it is just a little bit of snow, and then we can go on the road again. "Just now, all the brothers heard my words and were extremely grateful. I think we should stop for now and wait for Snowy to show up so we can catch up day and night. This way, we might not miss our schedule."

When everyone heard this, they could not help but secretly nod, their gazes focused on Master Zhang Zhuang. After Zhang Zhuang heard these words, his face did not change, but his heart was filled with an indescribable panic. He also saw everyone looking at him with eyes full of expectation, clearly, they were all affected by these words. He had walked all his life and had experienced many storms. He knew that the thing he feared the most was that his brothers' hearts were in a mess. Right now, the brothers' minds were clearly in turmoil, and they didn't want to go any further, but this was exactly what he was most afraid of. Originally, he was worried that these goods would not arrive in the capital in time, but now, this Xiao Zhu was saying these words, further aggravating his anger. Zhang Zhan slapped the table, suddenly stood up, and said in a stern voice: "If you continue speaking like this, I will not cripple you."

Xiao Zhu is also a young man, upon hearing these words, he immediately stood up, stared at Zhang Zhuang and said coldly: "Master Zhan, you have helped us brothers out. We are very grateful, but just as you said, we are all going to war for the sake of the word 'money', this time we are going to fight for three times the amount of money, but did our employees really take three times the amount? You are clearly lying to everyone. "

Master Zhang Zhuang was so angry that he actually laughed, and laughed dryly twice, and said, "Oh, you said that you can't take three times as much, right? That's because I'm afraid that if you guys had money, you wouldn't need to worry so much about the rest of your journey. It's not easy for you to earn money, it's better to send the money home early so that you don't get eaten by the black holes on the way. "

Hearing that, Xiao Zhu sneered, then paused, and asked: "Also, we have all kinds of goods, but this time we are going to use ginger, could it be that the employer will pay us three times the price to transport the ginger to Luo Yang? Is that reasonable? "

When the crowd heard this, they could not help but secretly nod their heads, feeling that what Xiao Zhu said was indeed true. If one said that the price of ginger could be raised in winter, then it was understandable, but it would not increase the freight rate to three times or even more. These words woke everyone up. Originally, they were still very grateful for their master's consideration. However, Xiao Zhu's words caused everyone to be worried. "That's right, how could we get so much reward money?" It can't be that grandpa Zhan is lying to us.

He slapped the table and said angrily: "Zhu Tinyan Yan, you followed me for the first time and already there are so many complaints. How am I going to take you with me in the future? Scram, tomorrow, no, you scram now.

Zhu Tinyan was also burning with anger. He could only feel a surge of rage springing up from the bottom of his feet, an uncontrollable rage. Clenching his fists, he lifted the chopsticks on the table and forcefully threw them out. The speed of the two chopsticks was extremely fast. With the sound of the wind, they flew towards Master Zhang Zhuang. Everyone present was shocked, who would have thought that this little Zhu would actually have such a unique skill.

While everyone was still in a daze, Zhang Zhuang Ye threw out an item, blocking the two bamboo chopsticks that were flying over. With two muffled "Peng Peng" sounds, the two bamboo chopsticks that were flying over were broken into two pieces and dropped to the ground. Looking back, it was indeed Master Zhang's big smoke pot.