Five Immortals Gate

In the daze, Li Yan was pushed awake. When he opened his eyes, he saw the fourth sister Li Xiaozhu. The third brother beside him was no longer there. The fourth sister looked at him with red and swollen eyes and said, "Fifth brother, the village chief is here. Dad wants you to get up." past".

Li Yan didn't sleep much last night. It wasn't until the rooster crowed several times that he fell asleep. He sat up straight and said to Fourth Sister, "Fourth Sister, I'll go right away."

Li Xiaozhu did not move, but still looked at him with reluctant eyes.

Li Yan smiled and said, "Fourth sister, there is no need for this. I will come back to see you next Chinese New Year, but I don't know if you will be home by then."

Li Xiaozhu was stunned for a moment, then blushed and said, "Talk", then turned around and went out.

Li Yan looked at the back of the fourth sister and couldn't help but sigh softly. He didn't believe what he said. The next time he came back for the New Year, although it was already the end of summer and the beginning of autumn, let alone half a year later, it would be next year or the year after. I don’t even know what will happen during the New Year.

After briefly washing up, Li Yan came to the front room. At this time, there were five people sitting in the front room, father, mother, third brother, fourth sister, and a strong man in his forties. The strong man sat in a slightly taller and larger chair. On the chair, there is a Chinese character face, full of beard, wearing a short-sleeved Orion suit. In this early autumn morning in the mountain village, he does not look cold. The muscles on his body are taut, but he still has an imposing manner sitting there.

Seeing Li Yan come in, he smiled and said, "Li Yan, you got up a little late."

Li Yan came to the strong man, bowed and said, "Good morning, Uncle Guoxin!".

The strong man's name is Li Guoxin, and he is the head of this village. In addition to farming, he is also a good hunter. He often leads the young and strong men in the village to hunt outside the mountains. The locust plague in the past two years was also thanks to him. Life in the village is better than in other villages, at least no one is starving to death.

Li Guoxin looked at Li Yan, then looked at Li Yanniang, Li Wei, and Li Xiaozhu, and then said, "Originally, I was going to the county town two days later. The second boy of the Lao Shan family and the eldest son of the Li Tian family in the village were going to the county town to work as kitchen helpers. He asked me to send it to the blacksmith apprentice and give him a certificate. Last night Uncle Chang came to my house and told me about Li Yan, so I decided to leave today."

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r\u003e  Li Yan’s father’s name is Li Chang, and people in the village call him Chang Bo. Li Guoxin glanced at everyone again and continued, “Actually, I also told Chang Bo yesterday that Li Yan should go with them. You can also work in the county. This is a peaceful job, but I have to explain this. A young man like you must have no experience in working. You must start as an apprentice. First, you need to pay a fee; second, you are an apprentice. You have to do all the work and sign a contract. If anything happens during the apprenticeship, the master will not pay anything, but Chang Bo still decided to let Li Yan go to work as a soldier to feed himself."

This is actually mainly a matter of money. Li Yan's family itself has little money. Although the apprenticeship fee is only 500 yuan, for a family of five whose monthly expenses are only about 50 yuan, this is nearly a year's expenses. Expenses are definitely unavailable. The second reason is that apprentices are very hard-working, have no personal freedom, and have no dignity before they learn. Masters often hurt or kill apprentices.

Chang Bo glanced at Li Yan and said, "That's it."

Then he smiled at the village chief and said, "Now we will be in trouble for Guoxin."

When Li Yanniang, whose eyes were red and swollen, heard this, she hurriedly said to the village chief, "Are you leaving today?"

The village chief nodded and said, "Yes, although conscription is a common thing now, someone in the village came back from the county yesterday and said that Marshal Hong had already started conscription yesterday morning. The soldiers this time may be city guards. This kind of The Guards generally protect the families of officials in the city and guard the granaries and armories in the city. They generally don't encounter any battles, so they should be fully recruited in as little as two or three days."

Li Yanniang was anxious when she heard this, "Ah, are we still going to fight?" Li Xiaozhu also looked at Li Guoxin anxiously when he heard this.

After Chang Bo heard what his wife said, he saw the anxious look of his fourth daughter, and raised his hand with dissatisfaction.

He patted the table in front of him and said, "Didn't Guoxin say that this is the Guards, guarding the city and looking after the country? If they don't fight, let's see what you look like."

Li Xiaozhu and Li Yanniang glanced at Li Guoxin timidly. Li Guoxin glanced at Uncle Chang, then nodded, and then comforted them. Then they felt relieved and stopped asking questions.

Li Yan, on the other hand, had been silent since he came in and said hello. When he saw his mother and fourth sister like this, he couldn't help but feel sad, a sour breath stuck in his throat, and his eyes began to lighten up slightly. Hong thought that if he made money in the future, he would definitely go home and stay with his parents and relatives and not stay away anymore. He would see their satisfied smiling faces every day and enjoy the warmth of happiness.

In fact, although the Guards do not need to participate in wars in normal times, if a war comes and the troops are insufficient, it does not matter whether you are a Guardsman or not. At least you have to go to the city to defend the city. The opponent's siege weapons, guns, The arrows are also short-sighted. It is difficult to tell who belongs to the Guards and who belongs to the general. Just shoot them one by one. In addition, it is possible to go out of the city to meet the enemy. At that time, it is a real hand-to-hand encounter.

But generally speaking, the Guards are really much better than other troops that are usually recruited. Li Wei on the side looked at Li Yan worriedly. He vaguely knew that things were not as simple as the village chief said.

Li Guoxin looked at Li Yan and said to him, "Do you have anything to ask?"

Li Yan said, "Uncle Guoxin has already said that Marshal Hong personally recruited the Guards to guard granaries and armories, and even to look after the homes and homes of officials. So this job is already very good and hard to find. I will definitely take it." Just do your job well."

After hearing this, Li Guoxin frowned slightly, thinking that Li Yan really believed all his words, but he said in his heart, "On the way, I have to tell this kid that he really doesn't believe in this risk-free job."

Li Guoxin then said goodbye to Li Yan's family temporarily, "We will set off in half a quarter of an hour. This time, it's just me and the three young people who went together. There can't be any people in the house."

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"It's a two-hundred-mile mountain road for people to see off each other, and the carriage can't go fast even with the luggage, and it's hard to get there today."

There are only two good horses in the village. After pulling the car and adding the weight of the four of them, it is already the limit to reach the county seat before sunset.

Not long after the sun came up, the carriage drove out of the village. The mountain village slowly pulled away behind. Looking at the few households still standing at the head of the village and the crying women in the crowd, the other two people on the carriage were only ten. The three or four-year-old child started to cry and kept wiping his tears.

Li Yan looked at the crying fourth sister and mother in the crowd, as well as the third brother who was walking with a limp and supporting his father, silently.

Until Li Yan got on the carriage, the third brother and his father didn't say a word and just smiled hard. However, the fourth sister and mother kept pulling the corners of his mostly new coarse cloth clothes for him, as if they were afraid that the clothes would be uneven. While crying, she explained various things and asked him to come back and see them when he had time. There were dry food and pickles in the package, so he could eat them when he was hungry.

Li Yan didn't cry, he was just holding back his tears, feeling bursts of sadness in his heart. He forced a smile and waved to them, "Father, mother, third brother, fourth sister, take care. I will bring you a lot of things in the city when I come back next time." , Third brother, take care of the family more."

"Lao Wu, remember it, remember it, let's go, let's go"

"Fourth sister, when I calm down, I will bring you back the rouge and gouache in the city."

"Laowu, sister, wait, wuwu"

"Lao Wu" With a heartbreaking cry, Li Yanniang fell into the arms of the fourth sister.

The other two families around him were also crying, and the sobbing on the carriage was even louder. Li Yan could no longer control his tears and let them flow freely on his face.

The carriage finally slowly moved away, away from the place where I grew up, away from the foot of the Daqing Mountain, and away from the familiar plants and trees here. As the carriage turned a corner of the mountain, the mountain village gradually became smaller and smaller, and finally was no longer visible. However, the crying in the village seemed to be louder in the wind.