Qingzhou trip

As the name suggests, Beixia Yanzhou is a place where all food and clothing are purchased from outside except salt.Although the discussion field with the Hua Dynasty has not yet opened, businessmen from Xiliao, Tubo, Uighur and Western Regions can go here unimpeded.Yanzhou pretended not to know about the smugglers from the south.

"Xiluya and Dongjian'an, these two kinds of tea are currently the best sellers in Beixia. There is no other way, if you want to eat, drink, wear, and have fun, you still have to buy from Huachao." The tea dealer happily counted the broken silver explain.The value of the goods from the south increased sharply when they entered Yanzhou, and the goods brought out by the caravan from Shahai were sold out in less than half a day.

Alu and Yueniang also entered Yanzhou with the female bandit leader Ye Lizhen. She carefully observed the defenses in the city, while Li Suyue was wary of the probing eyes around her.And the female bandit leader was so bold that she walked with them alone, asking people for prices in the perfect Beixia dialect.After asking all the way, Ye Lizhen sighed in the official dialect of the Central Plains, "Damn it, the price of salt here has also increased by [-]%."

The name of Ye Lizhen was the answer she had been asking for a long time. After knowing this surname, she was completely sure that this person was the daughter of Beixia Zuoxiang Shenyongjunsi.And when she heard Yun Fangjiang talk about the situation in Beixia before, she told a story that made people angry:

Northern Xia people have a system of wives, stepmothers, and widows, and it is not uncommon for them to marry their own aunts.The purpose is to make the best use of women and give birth to more people.Women from the Hua Dynasty also married into noble families in Northern Xia, but almost no one escaped such a fate.Ye Li Yurong, the military commander of the Shenyong Army Division in the left wing, married his aunt who was born in Hua Dynasty and was 15 years older than him.If you say it's a marriage, it's better to say it was snatched.He killed his uncle through a coup and secured his position as the commander of the military capital.The aunt was forced to submit to him. She had tried to escape or seek death before, but was unsuccessful, and finally gave birth to a daughter and died of weakness and illness.

This girl was good at riding and archery at the age of seven, and was able to capture the enemy at twelve, but because she was a woman, she couldn't serve in the Beixia Army, and was forced by her father to marry. Later, she went to the mountains near Yanzhou to become a bandit.

Yun Fangjiang said that the original intention of this story is to let Alu "know what is good and what is bad", "You should be satisfied if a woman in my dynasty can be an official or general. With the face of your parents and the favor of the court, I will seal you as an envoy, and look at all The country is the only one." A Lu was not forced to fall into the grass like Ye Lizhen, but was given a false title. Yun Fangjiang thought he had the confidence to keep telling his daughter to be responsible and not to be like his deceased mother. Ambitious, always feel underappreciated.

"Could it be that something happened in Yanchi?" A Lu looked at Ye Lizhen, "Or is it because this year is a year of salt shortage?"

"Salt in Yanzhou can only be produced if you want to produce it. There is no waste or waste." Ye Lizhen held a horsewhip on his back and pointed to a flag on the wall, "Do you know what is written in the Beixia Wen?" She glanced slyly Ah Lu nodded her chin and said, "It's not like that."

"What does that mean?" Alu could understand some Beixia language, but not their written language.

"Cloud." Ye Lizhen spit out a word softly, and Alu and Yueniang changed their faces almost at the same time.

"The new envoy of Nanxuanhui and the governor of Yanzhou, once he took office, he strictly guarded Yanchi to reduce exports. You said you are his own daughter, guess what your father who has defected to the enemy is planning?" Ye Li really lost his mind. Give the silver to the street vendor, and greet the two to sit down and have a warm New Year's meal.

"Northern Xia people are influenced by the Central Plains, and they also celebrate the New Year. You didn't enjoy eating in my village yesterday on New Year's Eve. Today, you have to relax when you come to the city." A few people ate simply: two roasted lamb legs, a few pieces Naan and noodle soup.

A Lu's hand reached out to the leg of lamb, and Li Suyue had already cut it into slices for her with a knife. After putting the meat into the noodle soup, she told A Lu, "Eat some soft ones for easy digestion." A pair of gentle eyebrows and eyes curved Lifting her head, she turned to Ye Lizhen and met her vaguely envious eyes, "My wife is really not like Yun Fangjiang."

"Then you son-in-law can also guess, why did he raise the price of salt?" Ye Lizhen bit the mutton with the knife in his hand, still stepped on the stool that A Lu was sitting on, and rolled his eyes from side to side, "You Hua Chao People... This is enviable. Women can marry even if they are officials and fight wars." For a woman in Beixia, she will marry and have children in her whole life. After the first husband dies, she will marry the second one, just like animals. One circle rushes to another circle.

"He knows that the Hua Dynasty is short of salt, especially in the Northwest. He raises the price in order to win the New Year's gift in the future, and also to attract more merchants to buy into the Northern Xia." After Li Suyue finished speaking, she found that A Lu was looking at her eyes and smiling. Encouraged, she continued, "Maybe, it's also to make sure about the marriage." Normally, she works hard, but it doesn't mean she doesn't think deeply about things.

"Whose marriage is it...?" Ye Lizhen bit the tip of the knife, "Your King Jin?" Then he shook his head, "Impossible, that person would rather stick to Shahai than marry into Beixia. Besides, she doesn't even have Li Jiyan. Kill, who else would not dare to kill?" Smacking her lips, she tutted, "She is a fierce woman, I would like to meet if I have the chance."

"My marriage." A Lu held up the soup bowl and "huh" and blew off the heat. The meat cut by Li Suyue was especially delicious in his mouth. The marriage is even more secure." After running around for many days, she couldn't drink a bowl of hot noodle soup. After drinking two bowls of A Lu, she realized that Li Suyue ate very little. She patted the back of Yueniang's hand and gave her some meat, " Don't worry, if the imperial court trades me for salt, I will run away with you."

A Lu pointed at Yeli and smiled again, "Didn't Miss Yeli run out of a golden road?"

But now she can't run away, Xie Penglai's entrustment to her has not been fully fulfilled.The few people went straight to the private room of the highest tea house in Yanzhou to sit down after eating. Ye Lizhen shook his head when the price of tea tripled, "It's really a way to make money."

Alu and Yueniang sat side by side towards the window, staring at the guards changing defense on the city wall of Yanzhou in silence for a while.At this time, the crying sound from below the teahouse broke the peace of the three of them. They got up and went to the window, and they saw a man from the Northern Xia downstairs beating a woman heavily with a horsewhip.The woman's hair was grabbed by the man's other hand and dragged on the ground. Her clothes were torn and her face was stained with blood. She cried and begged for the man, with a hint of hatred clearly in her eyes, but she did not ask passers-by for help.

Because passers-by, except merchants, stopped to watch the excitement, but Beixia people were used to it.

When Li Suyue couldn't take it anymore and turned to go downstairs to save someone, A Lu grabbed her sleeve, "Look—"

When passing by a wine shop, the man threw money in exchange for a jug of wine, and let go of the woman's hair.The woman stopped crying suddenly, obediently took the wine jar, held it carefully and followed the man away.

"Holding the wine jar, her man won't beat her up, for fear of overturning the wine." Ye Lizhen's dark face flashed complicated glances, she suddenly came to the window, and spoke to the woman in Beixia language. The man hissed.

The woman timidly turned her head to follow the voice and glanced at her. When hesitating, the man from Beixia stroked his beard and then stopped and turned back. After listening to the words, the people around laughed.

Li Suyue and A Lu roughly understood, but couldn't laugh.

Ye Lizhen said, "Kill him, kill him and run out!"

The man from Beixia said, "Did your man not let you sleep all night? Are you talking in your sleep now?"

Ye Lizhen's eyes gradually became indifferent, and the hand holding the knife handle at her waist suddenly tightened. She slapped the table and whispered, "I'll go out first, and see you at the Yanzhou Guesthouse in the east of the city tonight."

A Lu and Yue Niang exchanged glances and said, "Let's go together." They guessed what Ye Li really wanted to do.

A few people hurried downstairs to catch up with the Beixia couple, walked through two streets and four alleys, and finally arrived at a dilapidated house at the end.The sound of men's whipping and women's cries came from the yard again, as if this was commonplace in Beixia.

The man was beating vigorously while drinking, and the courtyard door was stomped open by Ye Lizhen. He was taken aback for a moment, and then smiled wretchedly.When he saw the two women behind him again, he smiled even more happily, and he was still muttering, and his burly body had already rushed towards Ye Lizhen.

A crisp sound of skin and flesh splitting made him stop in shock, blood gushed out profusely, and Bei Xia's hand pinched Ye Lizhen's shoulder reluctantly.Another sound came out, and his fingers were even more forceful, and then he fell straight with his eyes open.

Before the Beixia woman yelled, Ye Lizhen covered her mouth to signal her to shut up, "If he is dead, no one will beat you." She said to the woman in Beixia language, "Don't yell out!" The sound is provocative, and I am helping you."

The woman was so frightened that tears welled up in her eyes, her legs were trembling and she couldn't use any strength, she could only nod her head.Ye Lizhen let go of his hand slowly, and the woman breathed heavily, but the more she breathed, the more she couldn't catch it.

Alu squatted in front of the breathless Beixia man, checked his pupils, and looked up at Ye Lizhen after confirming that he was dead. "What are you doing here? You're making trouble for us."

Ye Lizhen wiped the knife edge aside, "Without this hand, I can't bring my men from ten to seven hundred." Her nanny couldn't bear it.

She waited for the Bei Xia woman to catch her breath, and then asked in Bei Xia dialect, "What do you do for a living?"

The woman answered intermittently that she made a living by carrying salt in Yanchi, and her husband was a guard in Yanzhou city. When he went down from the city tower, he only knew how to drink, beat people and whores, and never took his military pay home.

Seeing Alu and Li Suyue's puzzled expressions, Ye Lizhen translated the woman's words. As expected, Li Suyue frowned, "What's the point? You can carry salt to support yourself, but you still want to beat this pickled thing?"

Nori sneered, "I have a child."

The cry of the baby really came from inside the house, and the Beixia woman on the ground straightened her body, looked anxiously into the door but did not dare to move.It wasn't until Nori really agreed that she anxiously took out the baby and coaxed it in her arms.At this time, there was no longer any shock on his face and eyes, instead he became calm and loving.

Beixia people can have no mother, but they can't be without father.Otherwise, there is no place for children in the tribe, and they can only wander around or be slaves.Alu looked at the mother and child sympathetically, "If she wants to be in Shahai, she doesn't have to live so sadly."

Ye Lizhen put the knife back into its sheath and hid it in his waist, glanced coldly at the woman, and then looked straight at A Lu, "There are so many women like this in Yanzhou and Beixia. I just don't understand, when did this situation start? It’s obvious that the one who gave birth to the child is a woman, how can she give birth to such a bright future.” Looking at the barren house, she threw silver taels to the woman, “Do you dare to take the child out to live?”

The woman had slowly recovered from her shock. She didn't even look at her dead husband, but nodded firmly.This is her third husband, and she doesn't want to be driven around like an animal again.The three women in front of her had a terrifying calmness and self-reliance, and she felt that she had met someone extraordinary.

"Change into clean men's clothes, put the child to sleep, and then take the child out of Yanzhou. Fifty miles to the south, find a Jinyan inn opened by the Hua Dynasty people to stay and wait for me. From now on, I will live like a person." Ye Lizhen's eyes When she met the light in the woman's eyes, she smiled, "Look, Beixia women are also courageous." She said to A Lu and Yue Niang.